So Long, farewell, something, something, goodbye...

so, no, I don't know all the words to the song. Today is my last day as a Summit Kids staff member. This is pretty huge. I have been on staff since 2005 and have served in kidzone/Kidslife/Summit Kids since 2003. As much as I will miss being a part of the staff (and believe me, I will miss you and you will miss me), I am really going to miss working with some amazing people in the children's ministry. It has been a joy and honor to walk beside you as I have gone from being a single girl to now married with 1 and 1 on the way. I have been challenged and learned more about who I am in my walk with Christ as well as just some things about my personality as a woman, wife, and mother. I look forward to returning after things settle down a little in our world to serving alongside many of you.

Bedtime Routine

We have been reading Zeke Bible stories since he was born. We also pray over him every night. We had gotten a bit slack about it not being something we did as a family as a whole, so we have now established more of a disciplined routine since his birthday. We change into pjs, brush teeth, read the a section from his Big Picture Bible (Zeke likes to turn the pages), sing Jesus Loves Me, pray, then we get kisses and down he goes. Zeke has started leaning in or even opening his mouth for kisses. It is so sweet for him to lean to me and to Spence. I love these sweet moments and was able to catch a few pictures.

Snuggly with dada

Giving a kiss

Reading his Bible

Turning the pages

Ready for sweet dreams

Happy Birthday Dada!!

Our first picture together

I like talking to you

You let me come with you to work

I get my expressions from you

You make me laugh and smile

You play with me

You contemplate life with me

You read me Bible stories, snuggle, and pray with me

Happy birthday to the daddy at our house! Spence, Zeke and I love that God blessed us with you as my husband and Zeke and Benjamin's daddy. We couldn't be more blessed. We hope you have a great day and we can't wait to see you when you get home!!! As always Zeke will be waiting by the window to begin cheering when you pull up :-)

Family cook out

On Saturday, we made the trek to Reidsville to see Pop. We had a cookout with Spence's aunts and uncles and their kids. Here are some pictures from our time.

Shelton men

Our family

4 generations

I found my thrill

on Blueberry Hill. I doubt that Zeke and Fats are talking about the same thrill, but my boy LOVES blueberries. I think he would eat them all day if I let him. We have had to learn how to get blueberry out of clothing because it doesn't seem to matter if we use a bib or not. But when I see how much he loves them, I don't care at all about the stains.

YAY! Blueberries!

He looks like he thinks he is getting away with something...

YUM!

Extreme Home Makeover

So, not really... We are finally starting the process of getting Zeke's new room ready. The original plan was to move him in at his first birthday, but was you can see, it hasn't happened yet. Spence, Matt, and Tori worked hard and got the room taped and a coat of primer up. Spence will be working all week to get paint on the walls and then add stripes to one wall. We have to get the carpet cleaned and get the crib from the Atwoods, and the window treatment and crib skirt from Jen Heidorn. Then we can move him in. I am in the process of looking for a dresser and then Spence is going to stain it and a bookshelf to match the crib. Here are some pictures of the horrible purple and pink room going to green.

Matt is a perfectionist (I like having him around)

Goodbye Purple People Eater room!

Tori, the taping wizard!

Spence hard at work.

Oh and I sat just outside the door so that I didn't inhale the fumes, but could still be a part of the fun! It reminded me of last year when my diva's painted the nursery.

Copycat

We have found a copycat of Zeke's model pose. Please compare the following photos, which began basically from the time he came home...

August

July

June

May

March

And the culprit:

Our beloved Chick-fil-A!!!

Some of our sweet nursery workers love Zeke and love his model pose. When they saw this cow striking the pose, they had to bring us a toy. How awesome is this? Thanks Maggie and Sammy for thinking of Zeke!

Happy feet

Zeke is getting closer and closer to walking. He has been taking up to 5-6 steps at a time for a few weeks now. On Sunday he began getting braver and braver. This video shows a little of what he is doing. After this video was taken he walked the width of our dining room. Since then he has walked the length of the living room. He is really enjoying his new found independence and is incredibly proud of himself. He still prefers to hold our hands or cruise, but I am sure that is short lived.

Lil Deuce Coup

Zeke's Yaya and Pawpaw may be the coolest people ever. They took on those cute little cars and painted it for Zeke. Of course, they had to paint it perfect for a little Tarheel! He is still trying to figure out how to go forward. He has perfected zooming backwards, and also loves standing up inside it.

pulling up to stand inside his car

Check out that grin

Flashes of a 16 year old are running through my head

He totally posed for this one

PMC & Summit En Espanol

WARNING: This is not a post about something cute that Zeke has done. It also does not include any pictures, for those of you who venture here for only those, sorry.

Saturday August 15 was a HUGE day in the life of our church. We launched two campuses. It was amazing! I didn't get to go into either of the worship services but I did get to meet some cute kids and cool families. There were over 60 kiddos in Summit Kids. It was so awesome! I can't wait to see what God is going to do through this campus. Please be in prayer for Charlie Dunn PM campus pastor and Raudel Hernandez Summit En Espanol campus pastor. Also, you should totally check out these campuses. Especially if you are looking for somewhere to serve, contact Keva Atwood for working with our amazing kids ministry.

Family of 3 through the year

I thought it would be fun to recap Zeke's first year with pictures of our family of 3 since we will be a family of 4 soon.

In the hospital

First Portrait Innovations photo shoot- October

Halloween

November

Christmas pic at Portrait Innovations

Christmas Day (look how chubby his face is!!)

Valentine's day (First pic with Benjamin included although we didn't know yet)

After Spence preached in May

Beach in June

June

August 8, 2009

He didn't care about the camera, he was into the cake

Trying to get a good picture

You can kinda see that I have a big belly, but not really (sorry Amber, I'll take another soon)

Zeke's 1 year stats

We went to the dr. for his one year check up. Leslie came with us because Spence couldn't and I had a dr appt afterwards. Normally I wouldn't have needed someone, but with him getting shots and my appointment I knew I needed reinforcements. So here are his stats and then I thought I would share the fun things he is doing now.

Length: 25% (29 inches)
Weight: 50% (22 lbs and 13 oz)
Head: 75%

Yeah, we gotta short, bigheaded kid :-)

Here are some of the things he is doing now:
*says dada all the time! (very seldom does he say mama any more, tear)
*says go, ba (ball), hey, hey where you going (yeah I know it probably isn't that, but it totally sounds like it)
*climbs everything!!
*signs more and all done (sporadically, but uses all done frequently)
*throws food if he doesn't want it (lovely, huh)
*lays his head on our shoulder and snuggles to get out of being put down for naps or bed
*has begun acting shy/has a little seperation anxiety
*can walk holding onto one hand
*loves to climb into his green chair and hold a ball or read a book
*throws and kicks balls
*talks to himself in his crib before going to sleep
*has begun pouting/whining to try to get his way
*knows the word "no" (as in no biting, and will stop and grin at me when I say it)
*follows some commands such as come here
*can point to lots of objects- light, fan, ball, balloon, book, mama, dada, etc
*loves turning off and on the lights
*totally on cow's milk
*7 teeth and cutting more if his drool is any indication
*no bottles
*very little baby food
*blueberries are probably his favorite food, but he pretty much eats anything we give him
*he likes when we give him drink from our straws
*I think he may recognize Chick-fil-a (he gets excited when he sees my cup from there)
*still sleeps 12 hours most nights (except for waking up once a night crying for some reason...) and take 2 naps a day
*LOVES being outside (which means we have to get out early in this heat)

Happy Birthday Nana!

Bday videos

Singing Happy Birthday

Zeke digging around for sprinkles

Zeke enjoying the cake

Bday Recap

Here is a recap of our day through pictures. I will be posting videos in posts in the next couple days...

Zeke napped just before the party. He actually fell asleep sitting up, but had fallen over by the time I got the camera. We had to wake him up from his nap for the party.

Waking him up to a house full of people didn't go too smoothly...

He didn't rip into any of his gifts, I guess his dad will have to teach him that another time...

His favorite gift was a book of course...

He loved the ribbons and bows on the gifts

Finally a smile!

The birthday cake

Some of the decorations

Yes, we made him wear this hat, no he didn't hate it.

Zeke very carefully touched the icing to begin with...

It was love at first taste though

If you look closely, you can see that he is eating the big sprinkles

He searched the cake over for the sprinkles, and cleared the entire side of the cake of all of them.

He then tried to pick the cake up for a bite. His dad helped him with that

He learned that he didn't need to pick the cake up to get a bite.

He has a beard out of cake and icing

Pondering if this is what heaven must be like...

He ate it all!

HA! Just kidding, but he did eat a lot...

This is the damage he did to the cake. He let us know when he was finished by signing his version of all done. We were able to clean him up fairly quickly.

We returned to opening gifts and he became more interested in the toys he was recieving. We opened a couple and he really liked testing the toys out. All in all, I think he had a pretty great day. I know that I have spent the day thinking back about where I was and what I was doing. It's been a difficult, but wonderful year. I am really looking forward to the next and all that is in store.