Ava's first concert

Well, we did it. Ava went to her very first "rock" concert last weekend. Although I regret the content of the show, Ava was oblivious to any questionable material and loved it. Miley Cyrus is definitely NOT Hannah Montana during the concert! Anyway, she had a great time with her friend, Victoria. Here are some photos:

World Vision

I have been thinking alot lately about how blessed we are to live in the house we have, drive the cars we drive, and send our kids to the school of our choice. I wonder about the children who would benefit from our leftovers after dinner and would give anything to wear that outfit that Ava rejects as being "baby-ish".

The Lord has really been prompting me to give until it hurts to someone else. As I was driving to work last week, I listened to Rick and Bubba talk about World Vision and how to sponser a child so they may have food, clothes, medicine and a chance at a decent education. A light went off in my head! This is just the charity for our family! So I came home, logged on and signed up :)

I chose two children from Honduras, William and Yesy. William is a boy and was born on December 27, 2006- the same day as Griffin! Yesy is a girl and was born on March 7, 2003- the same day as Ava! What a providential God we serve that our family will be able to assist two children the same age and developmental stage as our biological children.

Ava and Griffin have really enjoyed talking about what we are doing to help William and Yesy and have remembered them in their prayers every night. Griffin says that William is his best friend! He also pronounces Yesy as "Wesy". Ava is very curious about where they live and what they do during the day. It has been a great teaching opportunity for her.

I want to encourage you to open your hearts and your wallets to charitable organizations. If you have the time to get out there and volunteer, do! It will feed your soul in ways you could never imagine...

New Camera :)

So those of you who know me well know that I love to take pictures! I have loved cameras since my very first experience with a 30 pound Polaroid. I feel like I have kept up with the trends in cameras going from 'roid to film to digital until recently when I began noticing that friends with no camera skill what-so-ever had awesome photos. I nosed around and found the missing ingredient to my photo perfection: SLR!

After many months of research and ratting away money, I have purchased a Nikon D5000! I am so excited but I have no idea how to work it. My lighting is not great and I don't know what all the knobs are for but I guess I can watch a you-tube about it!

Here are some of my first shots:

Pumpkin Patch 2009

This year we had a full day of activity with the Tinneys and Joneses as our annual Pumpkin Patch Day! Everyone was kind enough to come down to Birmingham to see our little cheerleader-in-residence, Ava, cheer for her Upward football game. She loved seeing all of her cousins watching her cheer!

After the game, we headed for a quick lunch at Chick-fil-A and then off to the farmers market here in Birmingham on Finley Avenue. Dad wanted to sell pumpkins at Lakeside this year so he found a place to get them wholesale at the farmers market.

After he got loaded up, we headed to Hayden Corner, Alabama, to the Grand Old Pumpkin Patch. It was a little smaller than we are used to and the drive was not great but I liked not having an admission charge. You just pay for the activities you want to do. Of course, our kiddos wanted to do EVERYTHING!

We did the bouncy jumps, the wagon ride with pumpkins and sunflowers, the pony rides (Griffin's 1st!), the petting zoo and sampled some little "treats" along the way. Since Poppa had just purchased wholesale pumpkins, we just looted his truck to get our pumkin fix.

The best part for me and Chris was that Grammy and Poppa took our two little ones home to Roanoke so we could go to the Alan Jackson concert that night!