David - 13 months old! AND Fall Photo Shoot!

We were staying with Bro. and Mrs. Raymond in Beaumont, CA for a few days in the middle of October.  It was the middle of Fall and boy, did it look fall-ish at their house!!!  All their fall decor (inside the house and outside) got me inspired to do a fall photo shoot with our little family!  Of course, that means setting the camera on timer and *hoping* David looks in the right direction at the right time - and if you're lucky, you MAY get a smile....it's always nerve-racking, but we do it anyway!  Here are a few of my favorite shots!  Enjoy :)

For fun, let's look at our family photo from LAST October!!!

Here's our photo from this October! :)

I love David's cheesy grin!

It's so hard to get him to sit still nowadays!  He wanted to crawl off and explore not take pictures!

The ultimate "happy face"!

David turned 13 months a couple days later on Oct. 20!  Can't believe he is already

one month into his 2nd year of life already!  

Happy Birthday, David!!! ~September 20, 2013~

As I look back over this past year with our son, I am overwhelmed with gratitude at the gift God has given us and the blessing it has been to be David's parents!  So many memories flood through my mind: the exhausting sleepless nights at first, the diaper blow-outs :), the first smiles, the first giggles, rolling over, starting solids, cutting teeth, sitting up, scooting, talking, crawling...each little milestone has been so special and I look forward to all the new ones David will reach this coming year!  

He is now cutting 3 molars (with a 4th one following pretty close behind), he's cruising all over the place (walking while holding on to something) and even lets go sometimes and stands by himself!  He is a little communicator already, jibber jabbering away (complete with hand motions and facial expressions - as if he's fully communicating and we are crazy for not understanding him!).  He LOVES to give Mommy and Daddy kisses, even when they're not asked for ;)  He enjoys just as much reading alone as he does reading with Mommy or Daddy!  He'll crawl off and be real quiet for a while, which of course, will make me really nervous!  I go run to find him and most of the time, he's in a corner with a bunch of books, sitting there flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures!  It melts my heart!  We are enjoying each day and each week and each month with David, each stage he enters and the new things he learns.  As was expected, the time is flying by way too fast...but I guess that's just how life goes.  All we can do is savor and enjoy each moment - and take lots of pictures and videos! :)  If you'd like to see a slideshow of photos from David's first year of life that Caleb put together for his birthday party in Iowa, click here. 

Enjoy these photos from David's birthday "eve" as well as his birthday on September 20!  

I was SO sentimental the night before David's birthday!  

I had to get one last picture with my 11-month old!

"Good night, 11-month-old!"

"Good morning, 1-year-old!"

Yummy special birthday breakfast: pancakes with syrup!

Ready to head off on a birthday adventure!

We took David to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA!

He LOVED the fish!!!

Me and my big boy...where has the time gone?!?

David and Daddy!  He's a daddy's boy for sure! :)

Learning about scuba diving

In front of the HUGE fish tank!

We had so much fun there!  PERFECT birthday activity :)

The following are David's 12-month photos that we took outside of the Aquarium!

 "Hey, look guys!  My hand fits in here!"

David's 12-month photo with stats

We stopped at a cupcake shop on the way home

So many choices!

Lemon with Cream Cheese frosting for Caleb

Vanilla with Nutella frosting for me

Vanilla with Chocolate frosting and sprinkles for David :)

That night, after dinner, we got the cupcake and camera ready and looked at the clock...

it was 8:17pm where we were in CA (10:17pm in Iowa, 

a year exactly from the moment David entered the world!).  That was cool!

"I've had enough mom! Get this glop off my hand!"

September Travels in Review

Well, the break at home was wonderful, just what we needed!  But, as the first week of September came to a close, it was time to pack up and head out for our Fall Western Tour!  We went East first, to Illinois for about a week, then returned home for one night before heading West officially!  Here are some photos and captions to catch you up on what we've been up to so far on our Western Tour!

We took out the second captain's chair this time to give us more room for book table supplies!  

Sardines much?!

Our first stop was Grace Baptist Church in Raleigh, IL for special youth meetings over the weekend and church on Sunday.

We went to this "hole-in-the-wall" mexican restaurant a lot that weekend!  We loved it!

David got to bring his magnets with him!  We enjoy finding new places they will stick to!

Later that week, we were able to sing/play/preach at a pastor's conference in the Chicago area.

We went home for one night and got a couple birthday packages in the mail!

Lots of fun stuff in this box from Auntie Bev!  David had more of a birthday MONTH rather than just one day of celebration! :)

Our first "Western" meeting was in Nebraska at Liberty Baptist Church on Weds. Sept. 11.

Further west we drove...

We drove for 7 days straight (from our trip to Illinois back to Iowa, and then west to Nebraksa, Wyoming and then Utah).  David was SUCH a trooper!  8 hours in the van, you take him out, and this is what he looks like :)

We had wonderful meetings all day Sunday at Heritage Baptist Church in Salt Lake City.

Love these mountains out here!

A mexican family in the church owns this restaurant...wow, amazing food!!!

A couple in the church, the Spillmans, hosted us that weekend. David LOVED their dog, Max!  We are noticing more and more how much David has a love for animals :)

Western Utah is pretty breathtaking!

Looks like someone's awake from their nap and pretty happy to peek out and see mommy!

David loves sipping water from straws at restaurants!

 We stopped halfway between Utah and California for a night in Las Vegas.  

There are, surprisingly, quite a few family-friendly things to see and do there!

M&M World

A small aquarium (David seems to really love watching the fish!  This gave us 

the idea of going to an aquarium for his birthday!)

 On Sept. 18, we had a great Weds. night service at our first 

church in California: Highland Baptist Temple.

Olive Garden dinner with Pastor Polk and his family!

LA County Fair!!!

On Friday, Sept. 20, our little baby turned 1!  

I will be posting a separate post about his birthday, so this is all I'll post here!

From Sunday, Sept. 22-Weds., Sept. 25, we enjoyed getting to be a part of the Fall Revival at Temple Baptist Church in Perris, CA.  Caleb preached in Sunday night's service and we sang throughout the conference.

Caleb with two fellow Oklahoma Baptist College friends, Pastor Ray Grignon (pastor of TBC) and Daniel Hopkins (phenomenal pianist and music teacher at West Coast).

Caleb with fellow guest Revival speaker, Dr. John Goetch and his son, Eric 

from West Coast Baptist College.

David LOVES his Bible ABC's book!  Hiding God's Word in his heart :)

On Thurs., Sept. 26, we were with Parkway Baptist Church in Hemet, CA.

With Pastor Beard and his family

We really enjoyed Coco's bakery and restaurant the week we stayed near Perris and Hemet, CA!  We ate there 3 days in a row, I think! :)

Friday-Sunday, we held a Revival at Lighthouse Bible Baptist Church near LA.  This is a primarily Filipino congregation, and they enjoyed hearing stories of Caleb's missions trip to the Philippines earlier this year!  Caleb even wore a "barong" to preach on Saturday night!  He fit right in, as you can see!

David will crawl off and be so quiet that I get nervous and run to find him, hoping he's not getting into trouble!  This is usually what I find!  He LOVES reading books by himself (or with daddy or mommy!)

Monday-Tuesday (Sept. 30-Oct.1) we preached/sang for Pacific Coast Baptist College's "college days".  There were many college students and many visiting high school students in attendance.  

The Lord worked in a mighty way.

David has been a champ in nurseries almost every night of the past month!  I had to take this 

picture of him playing a guitar for the first time! haha!  Maybe one day he'll play a real guitar :)

On the beautiful campus of PBC!