always my baby.

In all the excitement of adding another limb to our family tree, I sometimes take a step back and look at my son, my first born, and wonder where the time went. It feels like ages ago since he was born – probably because of all the things we have gone through since then including the traumatic birth, having to leave a job, moving twice, and everything else that comes with our crazy, never-dull life. And yet, it also seems like just yesterday that I was kissing my sweet newborn, falling instantly in love with his precious button nose and his tiny fingers and toes.

There’s a book I’m sure you’ve all heard of or read, that has the phrase in it, “As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.” Sometimes it takes experiencing motherhood to understand certain things, and that is one of them. No matter how old Benjamin gets, he is still my baby.

Sweet Benjamin, with his tender heart and his goofy personality… I know a lot of the memories we have made in the past won’t be remembered by him in the future, but I’ll remember them, and I’ll cherish every single one of them. How amazing is it that our hearts can love so fully, over and over again? I have had my fair share of headaches brought on by his craziness, but at the end of the day, I kiss him goodnight and he is as precious as can be, no matter the kind of day we’ve had.

It’s so fun to watch him learn new things, and so fun to see how excited he is when he learns something new that makes him more of a big boy. One of these days, he won’t need us to help him get going on his bike, or he won’t need us to hold his hand while he roller skates. He won’t need us to pour him drinks or help him brush his teeth {he’s already doing that on his own a lot of nights}. He won’t care to have two stories read to him, and he won’t want the extra hug and kiss as he snuggles in for bed.

But I’ll still remember all the goofy smiles and the warm hugs and sweet kisses. I’ll remember his sweet little voice and the way he laces his fingers with mine to hold his hand when we’re sitting together. I’ll remember him bursting into our room at 7AM to come snuggle in bed, wrapping his arms around my neck, or him asking if we can go cuddle in mommy’s bed {I can never, ever say no to that}. He may not remember it all, but I will. And I’m so glad. What would I do without these precious memories?

God has blessed me so richly… I am so thankful.

Photo Challenge: Story

So, getting back into the groove of blogging again, I decided I’d join in on the Paper Mama’s photo challenge this week {I haven’t joined in the challenge in a while!}. The challenge is to post a picture with the theme ‘story’. I immediately thought about this picture which I took when we were in Georgia visiting my parents…

The story? Benjamin’s first fishing trip with his papaw. {As I’m writing this, Benjamin is behind me going, “That’s me and Papaw! We were going fishing in the pond!” – so there’s your story!} I used to go fishing with my dad a lot and it was really special for Benjamin to go fishing with his papaw!

I hope you all join up as well, over at the Paper Mama!

Summer Memories

 

So, Carl has been in Jamaica for nearly three whole days now, and we are very much missing him! We have been keeping busy with Nana and Papaw but it still isn’t the same to be making all these memories without him. But I guess what we really can do is remember the really fun memories that we made with him before we left!

One of my favorites happens to be the evening that we all went outside and had a water squirter fight!

We miss you, daddy!

can you guess what we did today?

we made memories.

cherishing memories

So life has been rather full and busy lately. Full of many things. Joys, sorrows, family, friends… many, many other things. I mentioned that my Great-Grandfather passed away last weekend. Tuesday was his funeral and we traveled down to South Georgia to be there with family. It was sad, for our sakes, but joyful for his gain. My life has been blessed as I have been his Great-Granddaughter and I will always cherish him.

Benjamin and his Great-Great-Granddaddy in August of ‘09

We were able to meet my cousins’ babies for the first time, and Benjamin especially enjoyed spending time at Hayden’s house because that is where we slept. We love Hayden so much and Benjamin is now obsessed with looking at this picture on my phone:

Aren’t they sweet? Benjamin was looking at this while we were in Costco and when the screen would go dark he would say, “Oh no! Hay-nen!” He just loves his little cousin. Oh, he also met and played with his third cousin Allie… who enjoyed slinging him around the living room, and he loved it too! Oh he just loved Allie!!

sweet little cousins

I am so thankful to have been able to make such sweet memories even when Benjamin likely won’t  remember them. Thanks to my cousin Tori I have these pictures of Benjamin and Allie playing. I have a ton more and maybe later on I’ll share some more. They had a roaring good time and had everyone else in the room rolling with laughter too! What sweet memories!

Me, My aunt, and my mom (who would kill me if she knew this was up… but I love this anyway. please ignore the gut, HA!)

Granddaddy Bob holding two of three Great Grandsons… Benjamin loved to give “Hay-nen” kisses!

My Beautiful Mimi!

Crawling out of Maggie’s cage with a cup full of peanuts…

Playing with future  wife Alethia (don’t worry, she’s not related… ha!)

Sweet Baby Stella (Alethia’s baby sister) – I got to meet her for the first time! She is three weeks old!

My kindred spirit Autumn and myself. I love her so much! She is Alethia and Stella’s momma. She and her family drove up for the funeral and we are so appreciative of how thoughtful they are and how they show love and support for our family!

Don’t you just love creating memories like that? While it was all because of something that to us is sad because we miss Granddaddy, being with family and friends always brings about something to cherish and hold close. We celebrated Granddaddy’s long, full life and said goodbye to a man who means more to us than we are able to express. But at the same time, we live on, touched by his life and by his devotion to God and the church and his family and friends.

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
His mercies never come to an end:
They are new every morning!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul;
Therefore I will hope in Him!”
Lamentations 3:22-24

They really are new every morning! Tomorrow morning comes new blessings when we embark on a new journey in our life, making new memories to cherish! We leave to Middle Georgia to pack our U-Haul and then head out to Alabama on Saturday! We are very excited (and I am very anxious!) and can’t wait to be with the good people out there in Alabama! Keep us in your prayers, please!

If I’m not around to post much, now you know why! Many blessings, friends!