Fun with Family & Friends!!

Stacey & Sarah Kathryn Picardy came to meet Rhys and visit us over the weekend. Sarah Kathryn's gotten to be such a big girl!! She's beautiful, just like Mommy, although she does have Daddy's looks, too! :) A good combination of both of you, Stacey!! :) Saturday morning, we got to celebrate Georgia Kate's 2-year-old birthday!!! Georgia was having fun on one of her new gifts!! :) Mommy was snapping pictures, of course!! :) (Larry & Kathryn did our wedding photography, too!)
Russell & Ryan have good taste, huh? :) They dress alike so often! I thought it was so cute that I had to sneak a picture!
Saturday afternoon, we went for a visit with my family. Baba immediately snatched up the little man!! :)
Aunt Soraya scooped him right up, too! Look at the contentment in this sweet face...Aunt Soraya's arms and lap are comfy, huh? :)
Of course, Mama Nili had to have her turn!! She patiently waited while everyone else got their 'fill' of Rhys. :)
Everyone says that Rhys looks JUST LIKE DADDY!! :)

Saturday evening, we got to hang out with some of our favorite couple friends...the deVilleneuve's and the Erwin's. Jamie & Jenn, above.

Charlie, Jamie's husband, holding Rhys, below.

Dinner was amazing...we grilled out steaks, sausage and brats, while snacking on yummy appetizers from the deVilleneuve's and Erwin's!
Jenn was SO sweet to make this yummy dessert!

We had a full Saturday, which probably explains why we were all pooped on Sunday! Good thing we rested!

Rhys' 2-Month Shots

Rhys had his 2-month Dr's appointment this morning, and he's progressing well!!! YAY!! Praise the Lord, O, my soul!!

One-Month-Old Stats -----> Two-Month-Old Stats
8lbs 9.5oz ------> 11lbs 6oz (56th percentile)
21.1 inches ------> 22 inches in height (49th percentile)
13.6 inches -----> 15 inches in head circumference

Rhys did GREAT today!!! The nurse came in and gave him an oral immunization, followed by four BIG shots, two on each thigh. He screamed one LOOOOOONG time, his face turned blood red, then I nursed him immediately! It all happened SO fast, and then he was just fine! He was such a big boy, and Mommy and Daddy were and are SO proud of our little man!! He's slept most of the day away and was mostly fussy while awake. Poor little guy...I know he isn't feeling great, but we're keeping him on a safe dose of Tylenol. I pray he sleeps well and LOOOONG :) tonight! We're still working toward getting to a full night's sleep. So far, the longest he has gone is almost 7 hours, but he's averaging 5 to 6 hours. I'm praying that his biological clock continues to stretch out so that he sleeps until 7:00am SOON!!! :)

Geocaching 101

Today, we were treated to another fun day with good friends in the beauty of the great outdoors!! Ashley, was given a hand-held GPS for her birthday last weekend, so they invited us to explore an afternoon of geocaching not too far from our houses!!

Geocaching is a world renown sport, where you plot the coordinates of hidden caches (ie, treasure boxes) into a GPS, then you have to try to find the cache!! It's pretty technical, and you have to be pretty patient, but it's so much fun with friends (and more eyes to look for the hidden box!! :))!!!

Here we all are...we just found the first cache!!! Yay!!! Ashley will be a pro-geocacher soon!!Below, example of a hidden cache...can you see it buried in there? :)
Tada!!! There it is! Ooh, let's see what fun toys are in there...a Hawaiin lay, a flexible frisbee, and more fun trinkets. The fun part of geocaching is that once you find the cache, you open it and choose from multiple toys/trinkets and replace what you take with something. We left with the lay and a couple of other toys...we found three caches total today!! Also, there's a log (ie, a small note pad) and a writing pen in each cache, so you can read who all has been there and the dates, and then you write a fun message, your 'nickname' and the date you found it. We found one that dated back to 2001!!It was a fun time, and it really is a great family activity!!

WARNING:
GEOCACHING CAN BE VERY ADDICTIVE, SO YOU MUST TRY THIS AT HOME!! ;)

A Picnic to Remember!!

We've had the most splendid weather all weekend!! Fun friends came in to town this weekend, and we were hoping for picnic weather, and we sure got it!! So, we bundled up all our kiddos and headed to our other good friends' neighborhood park and had a grand ole time together!

Above, Ryan & Sarah Amato with their little girl, Audrey (aka "Audie" :)), Ryan & Jenn deVilleneuve and their boys, Rollins & Christian, then Russell and myself...Oh, and Rhys would be in Sarah's arms! :) She couldn't get enough of him!! That makes me happy. :)

Rollins wanted to get as close as possible to the river's edge, or was that Russell's idea??? :) Boys will be boys!!
Rhys LOVES being in Miss Sarah's arms!!!

Below, Audie & Rhys meet for the first time!! Yay!!!

Below, how gorgeous is this face? Audie has her mommy's beautiful eyes (and this picture does not do the coloring justice)!

We had a fun get-together, while the Amato's were in town from Louisiana. We're already looking forward to the next time we get to see them!!

Happy Two Months, Rhys!!!

Rhys,

You are two months today!! Daddy and Mommy adore you more each day of your sweet life! We look forward to coming days, months and years with you!! Mommy especially looks forward to more interaction from you...more of your handsome smiles and sweet coo's!! I can't get enough of those!!

We had fun this weekend doing a lot of outdoor activities, including playing in your pack 'n play outside on our patio. You love the outdoors, the sunshine, the warm weather, and you come by it naturally! ;) You have your mommy and daddy in you for sure!!

Unfortunately, you have to get your two-month shots this Wednesday. Mommy is not looking forward to that because she knows it'll be hard for you (and for me!!). I do, however, look forward to knowing how long you've gotten and how much weight you've gained!! So, this post shall be continued soon...

Happy two months, Son!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

You can't pinch any of us! We wore our green today!! :) A sweet close-up! I could just eat him up!!! We're waving..."Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!!!" Rhys is really into this, huh?!?! :)

And a sweet kiss from one loving and admiring mommy to her super-duper cute & cuddly son! MUAH!!!

Remember your green...it's not too late! ;)

Daddy-Son Time

Daddy & Rhys hangin' out on the sofa, sharing in some good bonding time...Rhys...stretching, stretching, stretching!!!"Daddy's Little Tough Guy" :)Daddy's little outdoorsman!! :)

We all went hiking at Oak Mountain. Russell carried Rhys, who should weigh at least 10lbs by now (plus another 20lbs on his back!) for 3.5 miles!! "Way to go, Hun!" He's actually training for an upcoming military school...Air Assault school. So, he's having to get in shape. :) I can't complain...it encourages me!!Rhys enjoys the activity mat for a good 10 minutes or so, then he gets frustrated, ready for personal interaction with anyone!! I can't blame him...I'd get frustrated at dangling, non-interacting objects, too!! :)

Birthdays & Blessings

This passed Saturday, I got to celebrate happy birthdays with three very special people! To start out the day, Rhys and I got to sing "Happy Birthday" to my best girlfriend, Ashley! She ran in the Perseverance 5K that morning to ring in the new birth year :) and say "Adios!" to the old! She's definitely one who perseveres! I admire Ashley and celebrate the coming year with her!!

What a sweetheart...she baked cupcakes for us, served up a yummy millionaire (fruit) salad, and the chicken minis from Chick-fil-A are always a hit! ;) "Thank you, Dan & Ashley!! What a fun celebration!!"See some of Ashley's racemates below? Just look for the shiney reflector material on the hat and jacket!! :)Later that evening, Russell, Rhys and I got to celebrate Poppa & Yaya's (Pete & Virginia Wright's) birthdays!! They had a combined party with all of their kids and grandkids in town!! Three children, EIGHT grandchildren. I failed to take pictures at their cocktail (GORGEOUS & FUN!!!) birthday party, so I'll have to find a picture of them with all their grandchildren and post that soon!!

Yesterday afternoon, we all got to go visit my Great Aunts Annie Ree & Gloria so that they could meet Rhys!Below, Aunt Annie Ree is in awe of how much Rhys looks like Daddy! Aunt Gloria was a sweetheart. She kept telling us how happy we look! :) We genuinely are, and we praise the Lord. He has blessed us with this new gift!And this is my morning...

I get to cuddle with and love on this sweet little man!!!

A Winter Wonderland Wedding

Our sweet friend Missy is officially married! Way to go, Andrew!! You have a special woman on your hands! ;)

Missy was in our wedding, not quite two years ago. She's been like a little sister to both me and Russell, and we miss her now that she's living in the big "D," BUT when we found out she was engaged to be married, we were super excited and there was NO way we would miss the big day!!

Russell, Rhys and I had a sweet date weekend, as we drove up to Nashville for the beautiful occasion. The ceremony absolutely glorified the Lord...I told Russell that if I didn't know Christ personally going into their ceremony, I would want to know Him today! What a beautiful presentation of our Lord and His purpose for our lives. Then, we headed to the most ritzy country club I've ever been to for the most elegant reception I've ever attended! Amazing party, wonderful people, delicious appetizers and foods...the night could not have been more perfect!

"We celebrate with Andrew and Missy, and we thank you for inviting us to join in this sweet day with you guys and your many family and friends!! What a fun wedding, guys!" :) Isn't Missy looking 'most ravishing'!?!?! (Andrew, sorry no picture of you!)
Another sweet friend (also in our wedding!!), Natalie, was there, which also made our night extra special as we got to visit and eat dinner with her! "Thanks for treating us to your sweet company, Natalica!" ;) Isn't she absolutely beautiful!!!!

Did I mention that this was Rhys' first road trip??? :) Yep, he did great! At 5 weeks!! Russell and I were thankful!

The winter wonderland part....

It snowed in Nashville the night of the wedding!!! It was a pretty (COLD) treat to get to see this when we woke up the next morning!