keeping up with the cavni'

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-23T13:59:00.003-05:00

I'm so excited to be celebrating the incarnation of our Lord this weekend!! Jesus Christ, the answer to the problem of sin and separation of man from God came in a human baby. All for the purpose of dying and bearing the eternal punishment of sin so that any who believed could have a renewed and right relationship with our Creator! There is nothing more joyous! Oh how I wish every person I have ever known had the assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ!! Believe and you WILL be saved! Celebrate the Savior who is the "reason for the season" and have a joyously blessed and wonderfully merry Christmas!!

Halloween

2011-11-03T08:44:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures from before we went trick-or-treating Monday night. We had a great time! As soon as Stephen walked in the door from work, Piper went running to him and said, "Daddy, I ready to go to Halloween...and get tons and tons of candy!!"

The kids did great, although Charlie started saying he was tired of walking right after we entered the neighborhood across the street. (It's where we go every year...very busy and full of people!) We told him that he wouldn't get so tired if he'd just walk with us in a straight line! He IS the kid from the Family Circus cartoon. You know, the one who has the little black dots behind him to show the crazy paths he takes to get wherever he's going? That's Charlie 100%...around a tree here, in a ditch there, on the street, in the grass, etc. Kind of frustrating in the moment, but pretty funny when you think about it! That's just our boy!

Piper was so excited, she walked almost the entire way. I know we had to have walked a mile! We only carried her between a couple of houses and then the final stretch home. Bless her heart, the sweet girl didn't really understand that Halloween is a day, not a place. She kept asking when we were going to go to Halloween and she got really upset when we told her we were done and were going home. I told her that this WAS Halloween and her little lip started to tremble and she got big tears in her eyes. She said, "No, it not! I want to go to Halloween!" I felt so awful that I couldn't make her understand! We asked her if she wanted to go back to the church (we had a little thing for the community going on - hot dogs, get your pic taken, etc), we wondered if that was what she considered Halloween, and she said yes. So we went back over there and she got to see some friends and eat some of her candy and that seemed to satisfy her!

All-in-all, it was a great time! We had lots of traffic through the church and maybe we made some good contacts! I love how we can use everything for God's glory...even a night full of costumes and candy!

"The black Spiderman"

"Spidergirl"...btw - she left that mask on all night! I was shocked! I actually had to take it off of her because it was digging into her face and leaving imprints!

Shooting webs!

My little superheros!

Stephen decided to dress up too...he was a world champion!!! Go Cardinals!

I had to post this after picture too...sporting the new pj's Ms. Gwen got them as Halloween treats!! Night-night!

Chaney's Dairy Barn

2011-10-28T09:10:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday, I got to go with Charlie on his 1st field trip! We went to a dairy farm called Chaney's Dairy Barn. We had a very full morning and Charlie got to do so much fun stuff! I loved being there to see it all!

First, we met Ginger (whose milk they sell at a local grocery store - isn't that cool!) and the kids got to pet her.

They also had a calf that the kids LOVED!! (They were a lot less intimidated by the baby!) Isn't it cute?!

Charlie was also quite taken by the little bunny that they had in a cage.

We got to go into the pumpkin patch (sorry I didn't get a picture of that) and Charlie picked his own pumpkin. Then we came back and the kids got to paint them.

They also had a playground with some really cool equipment that the kids got to play on. This was by far their favorite part!! Charlie did not want to leave!

Charlie's really not mad about his friend cutting in on his photo op. He is just really not into having his picture taken lately! (Notice that he's not really posing for any of the pictures in this blog!)

We got to go through a huge corn maze. Charlie wanted to touch EVERYTHING! I had to keep getting on him to keep up because I was sure we'd get separated from the group and lost in the corn! We made it out safe and sound though!

They make and sell their own ice cream at the farm restaurant. We each got a big ol' scoop, my favorite part of the day! Charlie, and many of the other kids, of course chose the blue!!

And, not to leave Piper totally out of the post, here's a picture of her at the harvest party Charlie's preschool had on Thursday. The kids were moving too fast for me to get many pictures but I did manage to snap this one of the Pipester. She had a blast!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a safe and fun Halloween! Costume pictures coming soon!

catching up on pictures

2011-10-19T13:22:00.009-04:00

Okay, since there is so much that goes through my head everyday and so much I could write about, I just don't. I know that sounds silly, but sometimes actually sitting down and trying to get out my thoughts is just too daunting of a task. All this being said, and because I'm so behind on posting, I'm going to again skip my thoughts and just give you some pictures...which is what most of you are after anyway!! Here goes...

These two pictures are on the trip to Dyersburg we took this summer to visit Stephen's family. This is what I saw when I looked in the back seat! (Charlie was very proud of his tattoos by the way!)

Here's my 2 with their cousins, Cameron and Alex. They had such a fun time playing!
Stephen and I got to take another trip to St. Louis for a night to see the Cardinals play. We had a blast and this time we had a super nice hotel room, so I just had to take pictures! The bathroom...
The main room...
This was the view of the city from our room. I love St. Louis!!
We went to eat lunch at Albert Pujols's restaurant. It was in a very cool area (no that's not a pool, it's a fountain), it had some fun Pujols memorabilia, and the food was pretty good too!

Here was our view at the game. Not nearly as up close and awesome as our fluke seats last time, but we had an amazing time!!
And, I don't go to a ball game without getting nachos! You'd better believe I ate every bite!! Mmmmmmmmmmmm!
Here's my big boy on his first day of the last year of preschool! I absolutely cannot believe that next year he'll be going to Kindergarten...so grown up!

Charlie's becoming quite the artist too...
Not to leave anyone out, here's my sweet little girl in her new gown. Daddy brought it home for her the other night!
Little Piper's not been feeling so hot lately, so we're finding creative ways to entertain her and keep her content inside and at home! (Playing with noodles this morning.)
I took this picture one day when all of our shoes happened to be out in the "big room". It got me thinking about how these days of 2 little ones won't be here forever and just thought it was a good way to capture the now of our family. The way these kids are growing, it is quite possible that one day mine will be the smallest shoes in the bunch!!
Later, from the Cavni!!

Just thinking back...

2011-09-04T17:20:00.006-04:00

My sisters, brothers-in-law, and sweet nephew Owen were in this weekend. We had so much fun! Owen is 3 months old now and I LOVED playing with him, seeing his precious smile and hearing his baby noises! It got me thinking about my little ones. Time goes so fast, it seems like just last week one of mine was 3 months old!!

(FYI - This is no longing for a new little one of my own! I'm loving being an aunt of a baby and I LOVE that my little ones are growing and learning every day!)

I just thought I'd take a little walk down memory lane and check out Charlie and Piper at 3 months and then compare to where they are now. Hope you guys enjoy the look back too!!

(I do kind of wish I could take my babies out of these pictures to squeeze them and kiss those little cheeks, just for a minute or two!) :)

Ahhh...time flies!!

2011-07-09T18:16:00.009-04:00

I cannot believe how quickly this summer has flown by! We have so much catching up to do! Again, I have lots of pictures to share, so I'll just start adding captions to let you know what's going on in the pics!! So...starting way back in May when Charlie was promoted from the 3-year-old class at preschool...

The last day of school was field day.

They had someone making balloon creations for the kids. Charlie chose a sword. Stephen and I found his "sword" a little bit disturbing...you may be able to see why.

"Unfortunately" the sword popped and Charlie was more broken up about it than we were!

At the end of field day, they had a picnic for all the kids and their families. It was all very nice and Charlie had a great day of playing with his friends.

At night, they had a promotion ceremony for the kids...Charlie made it to the 4-year-old class!! :)
(I think he put on his cap by himself.)

I just tried to put these pictures of Piper down farther on the post, but it wouldn't let me. So, a little break from Charlie to see a couple pics of Piper playing dress-up...

(Piper also wanted to wear Charlie's clothes today, so she was in the mood for role play I guess!)

Ok, and back to field day. They had a fun parachute for the kids to play with. (I used to love those days in gym class!!)

Ok, so to heck with correct order...this one is a picture from the family birthday party we had in Louisville for Charlie and Piper. They had lots of fun and got tons of cool stuff! (I promise I wasn't mad...just my default frown!)

This one is back in Cave City...I just thought it was funny to see the way Charlie was enjoying his lunch!

This is the Father's Day card Charlie made for his Daddy. I told him how to spell the words, but he did all the writing himself...didn't he do an awesome job!! (Just in case, it says "happy father's day"!)

("love Charlie") I was very proud of him!

Okay, back to the birthday party...a Costco cake!!! YUMMY!

Now just some pictures from playing in the backyard...these moments have been kind of rare here lately with the heat advisories and all. Soooo hot, yuck!

I hope everyone has been having a great summer. I love summer and the long days. I just can't believe how quickly it has gone by! Oh well, we've got lots more fun things to look forward to. In August, we've got a trip to see Gran and Pawpaw in Dyersburg, Stephen and I are taking another short trip to see the Cardinals (yippee!!), there's a back-to-school bash at church, some get-togethers with fun friends and lots of other stuff like that! Whew! Y'all keep cool!

Grown-up trip!!

2011-06-03T14:19:00.001-04:00

I just realized that I had worked on this but never posted it!! So, here it is! Stephen scored some tickets to a home game of the St. Louis Cardinals (whoo-hoo) so back in mid-April, mom and dad took the kiddos and the hubby and I headed west!! We made the trip early on Monday and stayed 2 nights in a hotel. We splurged and got a MUCH nicer hotel room than we usually do. It was worth it! We walked everywhere and had a great view of the arch - I'm talking it was literally a football field from our window!

The game was scheduled for Tuesday night but unfortunately (we thought) this was back during hurricane season in St. Louis (I know there aren't hurricanes in St. Louis, but that's what it looked like). Remember when the St. Louis airport was beat up on by some serious storms...we had the pre-show. Anyway, the game got rained out and we were bummed - just for a minute. We were told that they would play the game Wednesday afternoon and anyone with tickets for the rained out game would be given a seat the next day. So, we made a quick call to my mom to ask if it was ok that we return at a later time on Wednesday (she said it was fine, of course) and we made plans to come back to the stadium the next afternoon after we checked out of the hotel.

OK, here's the super sweet part...when we returned the next day and tried to get to our seats (way up high) there was an usher standing there blocking the way. He told us that that section was closed and that we could sit ANYWHERE WE WANTED!!! Needless to say, we were giddy! We marched ourselves WAAAAAY down to the row right above the season ticket section (the $14,000 per year section)!! It was incredible! Unless we happen upon another situation like this, I don't think I'll ever get to sit in seats like that at a ball game again! I loved it so much and we had a blast!! Sadly, the Cards lost, but I think that would've been the only thing that would've made the day better. (Well, unless I would've fought the guy behind us for the foul ball that he literally dove to snag after it landed under the seat next to me...I was totally bummed, but I got over it!)

Well, I've rambled on enough. We did so much other cool stuff in the city too, but I'll just let the pics with some short captions speak for themselves! (Mind you, the pictures are in no particular order, definitely not the right order chronologically because blogspot always beats me!)

A couple of shots of us at the game; it was a beautiful day!

We went to the Science Center in St. Louis and got a picture of the T-Rex for Charlie!

We were this close (ok I zoomed a little, but just a little) to one of our faves, Albert Pujols! AND...he hit a home run this time, the first time I've seen a Pujols homerun in person!!

This building was amazing. It is the courthouse where ex-slave Dred Scott's freedom was bought by his former owner. Also, some of the famous Dred Scott trials were held in this building. It was so interesting and also, very beautiful!

And of course, the St. Louis arch.

I took a picture of this building as we were walking through the city, just because I thought it was so cool. Later, we found out it used to be a post office. Fancy!

We ate dinner one night at Ozzie Smith's restaurant. Here's Stephen with all 13 of Ozzie's Gold Gloves. He was lovin' it!

On our first day in St. Louis, we took a tour of the Stadium. It was so great...very interesting to see behind the scenes. Stephen was proud that he could answer all of the guide's trivia questions, but upset that there wasn't a prize! Here we are in the Cardinals dugout!

Right on the field!

Here's a shot of the arch and our hotel (the round building) from the field...nice digs, huh?!?!

A great city!

We had so much fun on our trip, but of course were thrilled to get home to the little ones once again! Hopefully, this won't be a once in a lifetime experience. We treasure the times we get to be away together, no matter how few or far between they are. Also, we're looking forward to the day when Charlie and then Charlie and Piper can come with us and last through a whole game and maybe one day appreciate it as much as we do!

There are moments...

2011-05-24T13:07:00.005-04:00

...that make it all worthwhile.

Smile for the camera!

2011-05-14T19:35:00.006-04:00

We got Charlie's 4 year and Piper's 2 year pictures made this week in Louisville and I couldn't wait to get back here and post them! I think they turned out so well! The pictures I've posted are a little rough because they put the unedited versions on the cd that came with our package...but you still get the idea. I put some of the "outtakes" on here too because I thought they were funny. Enjoy!

You MUST read this...

2011-05-10T15:19:00.002-04:00

Ok, parents, I just read this article (thanks to my husband posting it on facebook), and I just had to pass it on! I don't know about you, but I put A LOT of pressure on myself as a parent; especially in the area of my children's growth toward salvation and relationship with Jesus Christ. I've been convinced that there has to be a "right" way and that I have the potential to ruin any chance that they will grow up to be good people. This article was a godsend in the way that it reminds me that I don't have that much power!! Really, you've got to read it! It didn't give me freedom to make excuses, but it has given me the freedom to be the parent God made me to be! Whew!

Parenting 001 – Kevin DeYoung: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Oops!

2011-05-06T15:09:00.003-04:00

Here's a few pictures that I forgot in that last post. The first is just a cute one of Piper in a new dress she got for her birthday and the rest are from Easter...You can tell how well it went trying to get a good picture of both of the kids!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...blog

2011-05-05T17:33:00.010-04:00

So again, I hang my head in shame over the length of time that has passed since my last blog. Even worse, I will admit that I've gotten a new camera, so I have pictures to post. The truth is, I've just been too lazy to pick through all the cords in our drawer and find the right one to put the pictures on the computer! BUT...ta da! Today I have done it! I finally put our pictures on the computer so that I can post them here! I'll stick to the kids on this post, but soon, I will post my fun "vacation" to St. Louis with my husband...fun fun!! There's gonna be a bunch of pictures, and goodness knows I don't know how to get them in any logical order, so I'll just "narrate" as they show up! Here goes...

Daddy and Piper on Easter. We eat at a local mexican restaurant after church every Sunday and Easter was no different! (It's not that I'm THAT horrible of a mom and didn't cook Easter Sunday lunch, it's just that we had planned to go to Louisville, but changed our plans last minute and it was too late for me to plan/shop/cook!)

Charlie eagerly awaiting his "burrito" (It's actually an enchilada)...

Piper always just sticks to her snacks...this child won't eat ANYTHING!!!

Our church had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday before Easter. Piper LOVED it! I don't have any shots of Charlie because he was with the bigger kids on the other side of the property. But don't worry, he loved it too!

Here's Charlie with some friends before the hunt started.

Piper before church one Sunday morning recently...I just thought she looked so cute! (Something about our new camera makes her close her eyes almost every time I take a picture!)

Breakfast for dinner...this is how Piper eats a cinnamon roll!

Charlie loves his eggs...or should we say "see food"!!! (Wah wah wah)

Piper is TWO years old now! We just had a little family party with our fab 4 at home. Piper got a new little people doll house and she loves it! (This made Momma very happy!)

And...she loved the cake!

McDonald's happy meals for supper!

My sweet girl with her little cake. I can't believe she's two!

Piper wearing a tiger mask someone gave her.

Piper got a Tinkerbell balloon and we have a birthday hat, but it's too big for her little head, so Charlie spent the most time with it on! (Notice the closed eyes again!)

Piper loves my grandma's house...Grannie made a little "playhouse" for Piper and Charlie in her front closet. They think it's so cool and they really do spend a lot of time in there, just playing away. So cute!

Well, that gets us about caught up. Like I said, I'll post pictures later of our trip to St. Louis. And, now that I've finally got our new camera squared away, I'll post more often. I hope everyone is staying safe and dry and that you're loving the days of sunshine the Lord graciously slips in every now and then for us to enjoy! Can't wait for some more regular dry days so we can get out of the house more...my kids need to play!!! Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to all you momma's out there...get some extra squeezes and kisses from your little ones, and not-so-little ones, this weekend!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2011-02-14T12:43:00.003-05:00

I was downloading videos today and realized that I have sooooo many...back from before Christmas...that I haven't shared any of! (We're still working on the camera...may have to buy a new one, but we will have still pictures again one day!) So, I'll get to some of those videos later, but I thought I'd share a happy valentines day with you today. Charlie had a party at preschool today and Piper and I went too. His teacher, Mrs. Moose was kind enough to have treats for Piper too and she loved it as much as her brother! They both got frog balloons and have had a blast running around the house with them since we've been home!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all - Love the Cavni!!

No Worries...

2011-02-09T20:19:00.002-05:00

We are still here. I am just SOOOOO not as good at this blogging thing as many of my friends are! I'm hereby pledging to get my rear in gear sometime within the next week and post some more recent videos that we've taken. I'll also try to be a little more regular in my posting...which was one of my New Year's resolutions that has been an epic failure thus far!! Hope everyone is doing well and finding the blessings even in the midst of all of this winter weather many of us are experiencing!!

Christmas Photo Shoot

2010-12-10T12:16:00.004-05:00

Here's a look at our Christmas pictures this year. It worked out great because the kids and I were in Louisville last week while Stephen visited a friend and his church in NYC. (Freddy T and the Gallery Church, for those of you who know him.) That means I was able to take the kids to my FAVORITE picture place (Portrait Innovations) while we were there. This first one I love...I couldn't believe they got them both to smile so big at the same time!!

I think I love this next one even more! Again, amazed the the photographer caught such precious looks...even in the same direction! The funny thing about this is that we don't even "do" Santa at our house. The kids (at least Charlie) obviously know about Santa, but we just say he's pretend like Mickey Mouse or Elmo and that's about how far it goes. (We don't have a problem with people who go along with it with their kids or anything, it's just something we decided not to make a big deal of around here.) Anyway, this picture was just so fun and precious that I couldn't pass it up!!

This last one is one I got made to give to Stephen. I had a picture made 2 Christmases ago of me and Charlie (and Piper in my belly). Stephen has it on his desk. This Christmas, I decided I needed to give him a "complete" picture of all 3 of us for his desk. He loved it and I love knowing he looks at it during the day and loves us all so much!! :)

Have a merry Christmas everybody!!

Hey Pastor's Wife...

2010-11-30T12:20:00.005-05:00

You've got it all together, right? No way! I'll tell you what, nothing could feel farther from the truth right now. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas...both beautiful reminders of my Savior and all He has given me. It's not the holidays that go wrong, it's me that goes wrong in the midst of the holidays.

I've been busy. We've got tons of stuff going on at church with no signs of slowing down, we've been traveling, I've been decorating, there are parties coming up, more traveling, friends are having babies, the house is a mess, oh yeah, and there are those two little people running around my house "re"-decorating and making a mess, needing to be fed, clothed, bathed, entertained, loved on, etc. Y'all, I'm overwhelmed! This doesn't come naturally to me.

I always assumed I would be a wife and a mom and as I have matured (and am still maturing) in my faith in Jesus and have learned more about God's plan for His creation, being a Godly wife and mom is what I've wanted to be more than anything else in life. But, like I said, the stuff in the job description doesn't come naturally. I'm not an organizer, not a cleaner, not a great multi-tasker, or money-handler, or meal-planner, I'm not super creative...the list could go on.

To the praise and glory of God, I'm getting better at some of these things, but it's still hard. And when I get busy, I seem to lose the things that matter most and just function. For example, my Bible intake has declined big time over the last few weeks. I've read books about God and how to better live for Him. I've attended church and been fed through the preaching of the Word. But, when I'm not spending time in the Bible and in prayer regularly, I loosen my hold on Jesus...and I feel it! I NEED HIM!

He is life for me and not only life everlasting. As my husband and pastor so committed to the Gospel and God's word, so lovingly reminded us this last Sunday, Our living Savior gives us life NOW, not just for eternity. As a follower of Christ, I have the power of the Living God at work in my life. When I dwell in Him, He will dwell in me and help me be the wife and mom I need and want to be for Him. He doesn't , "poof", make me perfect at all those things I listed before, but He gives me the strength to grow in them and thrive in spite of them. Praise God that I am not on my own!

I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:1-2)

So...today, first thing during nap time is the Bible! The bathrooms can wait, the floors can wait, the dishes can wait. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope (Psalm 130:5)!

The Next Video Installment of The Cavni Kids

2010-11-22T10:42:00.003-05:00

Here's a couple more videos for your viewing enjoyment! This first one is funny. It's of Piper running "laps" around our living room. She does this ALL THE TIME...especially at night time. It's like this is how she winds herself down for the day! And, this usually lasts a while! Hilarious!

This next one is of Charlie. I went to his room one day and this is what I found. It's just, well, it's Charlie! :)

More to come!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week, everybody!

Giving videos a try

2010-11-16T12:06:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I finally decided to take the time to figure out how to get videos from our relatively new Flick camera onto the computer. We've got some videos dating back from this summer so I thought I'd post a couple every day or two so that you all can catch up but I don't overload you with videos to watch! So anyway, here's a couple of videos of Charlie and Piper from late summer that I thought were cute. Enjoy!

This one is just me and my sweet little girl gabbing and playing. (Please disregard the mess in the background!)

Now a video of Charlie - Piper was with us too, but she was in the stroller. This one is from our trip to Dinosaur World on a "dollar day". (Otherwise it's crazy expensive to walk around on a sidewalk and look at a bunch of surely-less-than-accurate dinosaur statues!) Note: Charlie had just recently received an "accidental" buzz...thanks to his daddy!

Great Deal for Bloggers!!

2010-11-15T10:07:00.002-05:00

Hey everybody! My cousin let me in on a great deal for bloggers: Snapfish is offering 50 free holiday cards if you'll make a post (such as this one) endorsing their holiday products. I don't mind doing this at all because I LOVE Snapfish. They offer great deals all the time and I love having a place to upload our photos and being able to share or print them and have them sent right to our home.
Snapfish has some super cute products for the holidays this year. I love their holiday card designs. They have so many collage designs and also some with cute holiday decor like poinsettias, Christmas trees, etc! We've got to get a picture taken so that I can start picking out our cards! We like to send cards so that, since we've moved, we can still show how we're doing and how our kids are growing to those friends and family we don't get to see much anymore. (And, 50 free cards is going to be a HUGE help!!)
You can check out Snapfish holiday products like:
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holiday invitations to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations
Christmas ornaments to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/pewter-ornament
So go see what they've got and get your holidays underway!!

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Do-Over

2010-10-26T20:01:00.006-04:00

Ok, so I lost my momentum on that last post. I had somewhere I was going, but I just can't find it anymore! Sometimes my mind works (or doesn't work depending on how you look at it) that way! I also finally remembered some pictures I have on my phone that I could put on here while our camera is still out of commission. So for those of you that have missed these 2 little faces...

Mom and I took the kids to Costco one of the times we were in Louisville, and Piper liked the stuffed animals!

Just a sweet picture of my precious girl!

Charlie likes to get comfy while watching TV!

I realized that it was really quiet one day so I went to check on Charlie and Piper. I found them in Piper's room and they had pulled everything out of her drawers (including tons of tiny little hair rubber bands that you can't see in this picture)!

Again with the TV watching...I promise we do other things!

I'm lovin' the pigtails! It's one of the reasons I always wanted a little girl!

Showin' off a new outfit at church.

I think Charlie was a little freaked out by the pumpkin man we found "downtown".

My little duo at Red Robin one day with Mom-O and Pawpaw (my parents).

Here's my kiddos outside beside their pumpkins that someone at church made for them last year. Charlie and Stephen put them outside one day and I told Charlie that they did a good job. He said, "Yeah, I couldn't have done it without daddy!"

Happy Halloween everyone! (Or, happy Reformation Day!) :)

Growing in Love

2010-10-04T16:49:00.004-04:00

Sorry, no pictures again! My camera is totally dead for some reason. I just tried plugging it in and...nothing! So, you'll just have to read my ramblings again. I realize the lack of pictures may result in less people reading this, but that's a chance I'll just have to take! (Most times, what I have to say probably isn't worth reading anyway but this time, I think it might be!)

Life is crazy! I don't agree with using busyness as a badge of honor or a boast of how hard we've been working or anything like that. There's just been a lot going on in the Cavness household lately. And, true to His character, God has packed this craziness with instruction and wisdom for me to pick up on and treasure. Instead of starting at the beginning, I think I'll go ahead and give you what I think the culmination of these lessons is from His word in Philippians 1:20-21 - "as is is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Like I said, there's been a lot going on here lately, probably the most prominent being that the church decided to replace all the carpet in the parsonage (our house) with wood laminate flooring and to re-tile both bathrooms. In other words, every floor in the house! This was, of course, very exciting for us and unfortunately was also a little inconvenient. The kids and I went to Louisville for almost 2 weeks and then for another 2 weeks after our return, there were men working on various areas of our house at different times throughout the day. (Most often, it was nap time!) During this time, I really had to work on keeping my attitude in check. I have a problem with letting my frustration show on my face and in my attitude too often. Thankfully, Stephen was there to gently remind me of my Savior. Jesus was not about personal justice or insistence on fair treatment for Himself. So...I'm learning to grow in love for others.

I've added something to my schedule lately that I've been struggling with and trying to do for some time now. Adding anything to my schedule is a potential for nervous breakdown on my part, but this actually helps work against that I think. I've begun to work-out faithfully either early in the morning - which is my preferred time, although I'm so NOT a morning person that this hasn't become habit yet - or during the kids' nap time. I know that exercise is good for my mind and my body, and I've come to the conclusion, through some good reading and study, that it is good for my spirit as well. I read in Jerry Bridges' The Pursuit of Holiness,
"Modern Christians, especially those in the Western world, have generally been found wanting in the area of holiness of body. Gluttony and laziness, for example, were regarded by earlier Christians as sin. Today we may look on these as weakness of will but certainly not sin. We even joke about our overeating and other indulgences instead of crying out to God in confession and repentance."
Thinking on this made me realize that I was caught in that trap myself. I am far too often guilty of failing to treat my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. Instead, I find myself a slave to my cravings for food, sleep, and inactivity. I decided that needed to change. So...I am learning to grow in love for holiness.

More to come...

Random thoughts

2010-08-18T20:16:00.003-04:00

Ugh...it's been a month since I posted on here! It seems like it's so hard to find the time to write sometimes. And lately, I've had so many things going through my head that every time I decide I'm going to write, I just can't get out anything coherent enough to let others read! And as far as pictures go, it takes so stinkin' long to get them on here that I honestly just don't feel like going through the trouble sometimes. Then I think about how much I enjoy the blogs of my friends and family and being able to see into their lives a little bit more that I begin to feel guilty for neglecting my own blog!

So, this is what you get tonight...random thoughts from my crazy brain! Piper's had a little cold/allergies for the last couple of days, so she's in bed a little early. Charlie's been at my parents' house since Saturday, so he's just entertaining himself being back in his own house with his own stuff. Stephen's at church (we didn't do church tonight because I didn't want to make anyone else sick). All that said, I had a few minutes so I thought I'd write. Obviously I still can't come up with a clear topic to write about, but hopefully this will get things flowing for some more posts this week!

All in all, we are definitely feeling God's sweet blessing and are slowly, but surely seeing His work here in Cave City. We are witnessing some (small, but still) growth in our church and BIG time in some individual lives which is AWESOME!! We're seeing the younger adults (meaning under 60 :) become more and more active. People are reading good books...and you know me and my husband, we're thrilled about that! Stephen is faithfully preaching the Gospel each week and staying true to God's word in a way that is effecting people (me included). It's just good!

Anyway, we love and miss all of our family and friends and hope that anytime you want to visit, you feel free to call and come on!!

As Promised...a must see!

2010-07-16T15:30:00.002-04:00

Here is the video I promised of Charlie during our commencement program for VBS. Don't worry, Charlie was fine and there were no tears, but I wasn't sure that his father would ever recover (from laughing) and be able to address the congregation again that night! Priceless!

Long time, no see!

2010-07-10T10:55:00.015-04:00

Hey! Finally I'm gonna let ya'll in on what's been going on in the lives of the Cavni this summer! I just haven't felt like taking the time to post all of these pictures lately, but someday I'll learn that it's easier to do a few at a time than to wait until I have an epic post to make! Anyway, here's a few from Charlie's 3rd birthday (in May) to get us started:

As you can see, he was a happy boy!

He loaded up on plenty of new toys and clothes - thank goodness, because this boy is growing fast!!

This year was fun, because he had lots of little friends to come to his party and not just adults!
So cute!!
But we had plenty of adults that love Charlie there too!!

Momma's big boy!!

How sweet is this? I love it when I can capture a moment of love between these two because sometimes it seems that they spend more time picking at each other than they do loving on each other!

Here's another one. Piper just came up and plopped her little self in Charlie's lap all on her own!

We love to read around here! We discovered the public library this summer and we love it! Charlie and Piper have so much fun and we always bring MANY fun books home!! (And read them MANY times!)

Even Piper loves to read on her own
!

Also, check out the pig-tails Piper's been rockin'! I've just been waiting and waiting for this...I love it!!

Charlie and Piper loved vacation Bible school this summer! Here's a shot of Charlie and his class leaving refreshment time. I've got an absolutely hilarious video on my phone that I'll try to find some way to post later, but I'll just let you wait and see that to find out what happened (for those of you who don't already know)!

At the end of VBS, Charlie's teacher sent them home with a bag of goodies - the theme was Sonquest rainforest!

I love this picture of Charlie taking a flying leap onto our couch cushions! (This is a favorite activity of my kids - to stack up pillows and jump on them.)

My smiling kiddos!

We're never lacking in wrestling matches in the Cavness household...and to tell you the truth, it's usually Piper who starts them! She's a tough little cookie!

Charlie has been getting into some arts and crafts lately, we've painted, glued cereal and noodles, all kinds of stuff! Including...

a surprise craft for me...my cutting boards ended up being "decorated" one day when I wasn't looking! Oh well, just makes meal prep more colorful!

Charlie got a workbench and tools for his birthday and now he "fixes" everything! This day, he was fixing my closet door. (The picture is blurry because I was trying to catch him in action without him seeing me!)

This is just a cute shot of my sweet girl in the adorable outfit she got from her Aunt Kimmie!

Some nights, Charlie and his daddy go do "boy stuff", which usually includes going to "W&X" (Charlie's interpretation of "A&W") to get root beer!

Charlie got invited to his first birthday party this summer! It was for his friend, Kennedy, from church who is just a few days older than Charlie. She had a princess-themed party and Charlie got to dress up like a prince!

This was just a ride in the car, but I had to post that cute face!

Whew! That was a long one! Thanks for all of you who stuck it out for the whole post :) There's more, but I'll leave it for now and post more later! Hope everyone is having a great summer and living the blessing like we are!!

Piper's 1 year pictures

2010-05-14T14:53:00.004-04:00

These are the 1 year pictures we had made of Piper.
Sorry they are so little, but I'm not savvy enough with this blogger thing to make them bigger! At least you can see how cute she is!

Piper's a little spit-fire of a one-year-old and keeps me on my toes! She is walking/running/climbing everywhere like she's been doing it all of her life. She loves attention (lots of it) and if you don't give it to her freely, she definitely demands it! We sometimes shorten her name to "Pipes" and it fits her perfectly! The girl could shatter glass!

Piper says a few words - Momma, Dadda, baby, hi, bye-bye, and uh-oh, and she signs "more", "please", "all done" and "up". It's not many words, but she understands everything and can communicate very clearly what she wants and needs.

What a joy she is to us and the perfect little girl in our eyes!!

PS - I haven't forgotten about Charlie! I know I've been posting a lot of Piper lately, but in a couple of weeks it will be Charlie's birthday and you'll see much more of him too!

Piper is one...and what a year it's been!

2010-04-26T20:37:00.011-04:00

Here's a look at our little girl's 1st birthday party and a few pics since she's been one year old.

This is the cake I bought for us to eat at Piper's party...yummy! (You can tell I bought it because it's solid chocolate!)

This is the cake I made for Piper to destroy. I wasn't too concerned about perfection because I had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen to it!

We had the party in the "Sonshine House" at our church - it's the little building where the children and youth meet and have activities. Perfect for a party!

Here's me and my sweet girl...she was hammin' it up all day long!

Don't worry, even though this was Piper's day, Charlie definitely wasn't left out and he got plenty of attention (and presents) too!

She was loaded down with presents and her Aunts Katie and Kimmy made the cute sign behind her!

Piper got plenty of new toys and LOTS of new clothes that she really needed for summer! Yay!

We had to sing happy birthday, but she was ready to dig in!

This is not even the end result...it actually got much worse! She required a bath immediately afterwards!

And now, a little fashion show in some of Piper's precious new clothes...

Some QT with big brother...nothing like a snack (Cheerios from the floor) while watching TV!

All smiles!

This one's after a bath...check out those curls!

Small Town Life

2010-03-31T15:55:00.005-04:00

It's rare to get both smiling and looking at me for a picture so, I got Charlie smiling in one and Piper smiling in the other (check out those teeth)!

How 'bout these curls?!

Charlie enjoys his cereal with milk like a big boy these days...and in big boy pants!

We live in a small town now. Not Georgetown small, not LaGrange small...I'm talking a real small town! Before, I never really imagined what it could be like not to live very near a city like I always have. I knew I would most likely be moving someday when I married a man on the road to career ministry, but I never thought about it being in such a different environment from where I was used to.

I miss Louisville sometimes. Things were so convenient there. There was much more to do. The zoo is there for heaven's sake and we LOVE the zoo! My family is there too, and many times I miss them dearly. But I'm finding that I'm gaining something here that I found myself lacking more often before...contentment.

I went to visit in Louisville last week and while we passed some time on those (rainy) days in the mall, Target, etc., I kinda felt yucky inside. I kept finding myself thinking, "Oh, I wish I could have this or that" or, "Ugh, I don't have any money and I want that!"
What is that about?!?! I have all that I need and even more! That was the world luring out the evil in my heart and pulling it to the forefront. I did NOT like it!

So, even though I still miss my family terribly, I'll praise God that the drive is only an hour and a half. I'll cherish my new life here in this small town, at home with my little ones, with not too many places to go, because I'm learning that God is using this place at this time to mold me little by little into the image of His Son. I DO like that!

Things that I love

2010-03-11T10:11:00.012-05:00

I love that my children dance whenever they hear music.
I love that my husband has a sense of humor that sometimes only I can appreciate.
I love that God gave me a little boy and a little girl to raise in my home.
I love that my children have great namesakes to learn from and be inspired by.
I love ice cream.
I love that my son has an imagination that lets him be Buzz Lightyear or an Imagination Mover who is friends with Curious George and Mickey Mouse and have a hundred and one pet dogs that sleep with him and chase him around the house.
I love baths.
I love wedding rings.
I love that Piper has learned to say "hi" and waves her little hand at anyone who'll look.
I love that I get to listen to my husband preach God's word with confidence and conviction every Sunday morning.
I love that we have a great big yard, front and back.
I love that we have a "big room" that is scattered with toys and books and pillows when the kids are up, and is straight and comfy for me and Stephen when the kids go to bed at night.
I love Mexican food.
I love the sky.
I love reading in bed before I fall asleep.
I love coffee in the morning...or anytime.
I love that when I look out the window these days, I see birds.
I love that spring is coming and that we have birthdays and celebrations on the way.
I love that I'm in my 30's.
I love that my husband never mentions the bit of baby weight that's still hanging around.
I love that Charlie sometimes puts his arms around me and says, "wuv you momma" without being told to.
I love friends...old, new, my age, younger, older...they bless my life.
I love that God hears my prayers no matter how I feel about them.
I love that there are 2 Cracker Barrel rocking chairs on our back porch.
I love that my children feel so loved and at home when we're at church.
I love when my kitchen is clean.
I love that Piper is almost walking, almost eating all table food, and almost ready to drink milk.
I love that Stephen chose me.
I love that my parents/sisters/grandparents come to visit and lend a hand...and love it.
I love that my family loves me even though I'm not the greatest homemaker in the world.
I love that sometimes there are dinosaurs in our living room.
I love Tulips.
I love that I can pray that God will save the souls of my children.
I love that Jesus saves anyone who will sincerely ask Him.
I love that God is real.

Day by Day

2010-02-25T11:00:00.002-05:00

This picture with all the bowls on Charlie's appendages? That's him imitating Curious George...in one episode, George makes himself a robot outfit! So, this is Charlie's interpretation of a robot! Pretty creative if you ask me!

I thought this was so cute! Charlie was reading in his chair and Piper joined him on her own! Of course, when I got out the camera, I took her attention!

Piper's getting around everywhere. She crawls like a speed demon and climbs like a monkey! I know she'll be walking before we know it because she's getting more and more brave about letting go of things.
Piper also has associated her babbling sounds with at least one word now. I'd like to say that word is "momma", but I"d be lying. Of course, the other day when Stephen walked through the door after work, Piper crawled to the gate, looked up at him and said, "da-da"! Now she does it all the time and trust me...I'm working really hard on "ma" sounds with her!!!
I looked around for Charlie the other afternoon and didn't see him anywhere. Well, I looked on the other side of the chair and this is what I found:
It is so hard for me to get a good picture of Piper because anytime she sees me with a camera, she comes flying toward me trying to get at it! So, they almost all turn out to be candid shots, on the run!

Sometimes a guy just has to relax and watch a little TV (as long as it's Curious George, Playhouse Disney, or a Pixar movie)!
So, these are the kinds of things that go on in our house day by day. I get overwhelmed, tired, frustrated, entertained, inspired, and uplifted in any number of ways on any given day of the week. I am not one to EVER claim to be fabulous at what I do, but it's what I do. I could never have imagined motherhood the way it is. Before becoming a mother, I had all these ideas of how it would be and what kind of mother I would make. After becoming a mother, all those ideas flew out the window! It is a daily challenge to serve, train, guide, teach, love, and care for my children. All I can claim is the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ as my strength and life...you have no idea how many times a day I feel like falling on my face and crying out to him! My consolation is that He is there and He never changes - no matter how many times my out of whack emotions do. I can always go to the cross of Jesus. Thank you Lord! And just when I feel like giving up, I look at those two precious little people and am reminded of the God in whose image they are created and I realize that He's using me right here, right now, and I can keep going.

What I am Reading

2010-02-11T14:42:00.003-05:00

I LOVE to read! It is often how I end my nights, before I go to sleep. A friend asked me earlier what I am reading right now and I told her I would post it on the blog, so here it is for anyone who is interested!

I'm actually in the middle of 4 different books right now. Sometimes I do that - get into several at the same time. I don't know why, but anyway...

1. The non-fiction book I'm reading is called Loved By God, by RC Sproul. I usually try to alternate (or in this case, read at the same time) fiction/non-fiction to make sure that I'm not just tuning out or retreating into my imagination all of the time - tempting as that may be! I know that I need to use God's gift of reading not just for entertainment, but also to better myself and to grow into more of the person He wants me to be! I do think this is a very good and beneficial book, but it is taking me a long time to read it. It's not very long, I think I'm just having a hard time getting into it - you know how it is sometimes. I have learned some great things though and I'm making myself finish it because I know it's good for me! Discipline!

2. I've realized as I'm typing this that 3 out of the 4 books I'm reading are non-fiction, but totally different kinds. The second one I'm into is one I'm reading with a group of moms in my area. It's called The Bathtub is Overflowing but I Feel Drained! written by Lysa Terkurst. I'm enjoying this one a lot and so far, I would recommend it to any momma out there who ever feels overwhelmed , under-encouraged, or inept for the job (aka all of you)!

3. The last non-fiction I'm reading is a true crime story called Power to Hurt by Darcy O'Brian. It's an awful story involving a very corrupt, small-town justice system. I'm reading this because it happened in Stephen's hometown of Dyersburg, Tennessee and his dad was on the police force at the time and was involved in the take-down of the corrupt politicians! Crazy!

4. The fiction book I'm reading is Gone With the Wind. No, I have never read it before and I haven't even seen the movie believe it or not! I am absolutely in love with this book though! It is fabulous and I'm so glad I finally decided to dive into this classic, no matter how long it is!! I LOVE IT!

So, there you have it. I'll try to keep a running log (or blog, ha ha) of what I'm reading so you can see if anything strikes your fancy!! Ta ta, for now!! :)

Who's in control?

2010-02-10T11:49:00.006-05:00

I think I will dare to say that Charlie is potty trained! He still sleeps in a pull-up for naps and night time, but during the day, it's big boy pants all the way! He loves wearing them and will just jump up and run to the potty whenever he needs to go. But...he wants to empty his potty chair himself and that is kinda gross! I have to run in there as soon as I hear that he's done (the "reward music" that his potty plays is helpful in this) and catch him before he starts to empty it himself!

Therein lies the problem. Charlie is such an independent little guy, and he has always been capable beyond his age. For example, he knows exactly how to get out a DVD, put it in the player, and play the movie; he knows how to go to the pictures on Stephen's phone and scan through them; he knows how to work the CD player on his dresser; he can open the refrigerator and find anything he wants (and is strong enough to get out even a full gallon of milk)...you get the picture. He's very capable. However, Charlie is not an adult. We are working on teaching him that he needs to ask permission before he does certain things...and respect the answer he gets. Just because he's able to do something, doesn't mean that he gets to, or even that it is the best thing for him. Let me just say that he hasn't caught on yet.

I find in this another mommy-lesson from God. Even as an adult, I am not God. Even when I think things should be a certain way, and even when I have the control to make them that way, He still knows better. And I might not like the answer He gives. My job is to learn the same lesson that I am trying to teach Charlie...trust my Father and obey Him!

Wow! Humbled again!

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8)

Momma thoughts...1

2010-02-08T12:02:00.004-05:00

Being a wife to Stephen and a mother to Charlie and Piper is my calling in life. God has placed this on my heart as a full-time job and I love it! I don't want to be doing anything else. I am finding that no other job I've ever had has been more demanding or more rewarding. I am being taught, disciplined, blessed, spent, and renewed like never before. I learn more about God's precious grace and mercy every day.

God paints the Gospel in the everyday life of this momma so clearly! The evidence of our sin nature is there every day in my children, who are not yet saved, and then again in myself, who as a believer in Christ still struggle daily with walking in freedom from sin. I see so clearly my need for Jesus to do for me (and for my children) what we could never do for ourselves. And, in my discipline and forgiveness toward my children, I am reminded of how God lovingly disciplines us and forgives us when we disobey.

When Charlie acts against something he's been taught, I have to correct him, but I don't say "Great, now you've ruined it and I can never love you again." No, I just correct him, forgive him, and we move on with all the love I can give still available to him. That is such a beautiful picture of what God does for us. We disobey, our sin is punished (or has been in Christ), God forgives us (because of what Christ has done), and every bit of God's love is still offered and available to us! We just move on! Praise the Lord! I love that God's Truth is everywhere. He is so good to give us reminder after reminder of His grace and His love. Thank you Lord!

I'll have to practice at this, but expressing my thoughts and what God is teaching me is something that I've been wanting to do for a while now...the lessons are too good to keep to myself! I don't have any unrealistic expectations of being the best thing you've ever read or anything like that, but if even one person is encouraged or helped in any way from reading this, my transparency will be worth it. I'll leave you this time with a summary from God's word of what He's been showing me lately:

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (psalm 73:26)

What words of encouragement for a momma! Many more thoughts to come...

Why do I let this blog get so behind?!?

2010-02-03T22:30:00.007-05:00

This could very easily be my longest post to date, since I am so behind in posting! I've been meaning to catch up on here for so long, but haven't been very disciplined to get it done! I've decided I want to begin a discipline for myself of writing on here more, but I won't start that with this post since it's already a mile long with pictures! I'll post a little blurb about the pictures and write more later!
Here are my little darlings with their "blankies" (Charlie's is named Simon and Piper's is named Simone). They each got these at birth and Simon in particular has become a bedtime must for Charlie and Simone is becoming one for Piper as well.
Here's a closer view of Simon and Simone, you can see they have the kids' names on them.

My sweet girl...she's had that tongue sticking out since she was born!
This was a morning she got her hand in the cereal bowl...and you see the results!

Here is Charlie dressed up for church in his Christmas outfit. He was so excited to get to wear a tie like daddy! (But he was not interested in letting me take his picture!)

My baby girl around Christmas time...how can you not smile with that sweet face coming toward you?!?

Charlie put the Christmas hat on himself! He's enjoyed playing basketball in his room with his Mickey goal!

We're working on the brushing the teeth thing. I usually have to wrestle my way in there to get them good, but he does try (most of the time!).

Piper still eats some baby food, but she's learning to feed herself pretty well. How did I forget how to do all of this stuff in just under 2 years! I feel like I'm learning again for the first time! (Not that she's any different than Charlie was or anything!)

This is one of my new favorite pictures...our first really good one together! It takes me a while to feel "presentable" again after having a baby. It takes a lot out of a person you know!

Bathtime is SO much easier when you can economize and throw 'em both in at the same time! They love it too...although Piper is quite the splasher!

I put just about everything Charlie owns on him for his first romp out in the snow...can anybody say, "A Christmas Story"!

Charlie and daddy had a good 'ol time together!

Of course the Tennessee jersey was a purchase made by Stephen, but doesn't he look so cute anyway?!?

Charlie finally officially graduated to a big boy bed! He loves it and he sleeps in it really well. He was super excited about the Mickey sheets too!

I just thought this was darling and I snapped a picture real quick. My babies love to look out the windows and I love it when it turns out this sweet looking!

That's my little Pip!

She has a very contagious smile...I love it so much!

And finally, even Elmo gets a little thirsty sometimes!

Well, there you have it folks! As I said, more later from this momma's viewpoint (and of course I'll keep the pictures coming!).

in honor of my sweet wife...

2010-01-05T10:22:00.005-05:00

i found this today and wanted to post it here in honor of my beautiful, sweet, strong, and precious wife...

"If You Give a Mom a Muffin"
If you give a mom a muffin,
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She'll pour herself some.
Her two-year-old will spill the coffee.
She'll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook ("101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger").
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The check book is in her purse that is being dumped out by her 9 month-old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the 9 month old's diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her two-year-old will answer and hang up.
She'll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are...
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

(author unknown)

christmas 2009

2009-12-28T12:04:00.005-05:00

cousins: cameron (5), alex (20 months), piper (8 months), & charlie(2 & a half)
gran bought them all matching outfits

sweet siblings!

this one was almost too cute to post....

piper snuck away with one of charlie's "toys"!

getting so big!

charlie opened this present and didn't know why he needed a helmet...
(he ended up wearing it all day!)

ahhh.. a motorcycle! now it makes sense...
now if daddy can figure out how to put it together!

finally! he rode it all over the house until he drained the battery!

we hope everyone had a merry christmas!

'tis the season

2009-12-07T20:52:00.006-05:00

I had to grab the camera today...they positioned themselves like this. (Check out Charlie's bed-head!)

This is how Piper shows affection these days.

Something on the TV was very engaging! (I think it was Mickey Mouse)

Charlie got tired of sitting still for pictures so I had to snap a couple of my sweet girl.

I am crazy about this little girl!

Now for how we've decked our halls:
We finally have space for a Christmas tree bigger than 4 ft, so Stephen took Charlie to Walmart to go buy one. I like the one they came back with, but Stephen told me that Charlie was very disappointed that it wasn't white! So, Stephen went out the next day and found a little one just for Charlie that is white. Who knows, but he was happy!
Merry Christmas to you all and may you be blessed through the remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior!

6 month pictures...just a little late

2009-11-30T22:48:00.003-05:00

Ok, so Piper is 7 & 1/2 months old, but these pictures were taken soon after she hit the 6 month mark. I'm just a little slow at the old blog (as you all know). Much thanks to our friend, Julie who took these pictures for us. I think they turned out so well! I can't believe our little girl is so big and so much closer to the one year mark than she is to a newborn...where does it all go?!?!

5 yrs!

2009-11-20T15:52:00.003-05:00

5 yrs. ago today...

fall 2009

we have been greatly blessed by the lord these 5 yrs. may he choose to bless us with many more...

Halloweeen/Fall time

2009-11-02T12:36:00.005-05:00

Fall in Cave City is beautiful this year! We have several big trees in our yard that have leaves of all colors...and Charlie enjoys them!
Piper had her first sink bath last week at Grannie's house (my grandma). She didn't seem to know what to think at first, but I think she liked it!

Meanwhile, Charlie entertained himself by making his own "piggy bank"...ha ha ha!

Piper is growing so fast! She sits up and plays really well now (until she wants me to hold her!). She loves all the new toys she gets to play with now that she doesn't have to lay down all the time!

What a face!

This was our first halloween with two little ones and Charlie's first to do some actual trick-or-treating. We just went around to a few church members' homes, but Charlie got LOTS of fun treats (me and Stephen have been enjoying them too)! Charlie dressed up as Buzz Lightyear.

When he put on his costume, he ran around the house shouting, "To infinity and beyond!" over and over!

Piper was a chicken...she got lots of laughs!

I love my little chick-a-dee!

We had a great time!!

I hope everyone else had a fun Halloween! Enjoy the fall and keep in touch!!

6 months!!!

2009-10-17T11:51:00.002-04:00

Just one picture, but I had to show our sweet baby girl at 6 months!!! I can't believe she is that old already! She's growing like a weed and gets sweeter by the day! At her 6 month check-up (yesterday), we found out that she weighs 19lbs 2oz and she is 27&1/2in tall! I looked up Charlie's info at that age just for fun - he weighed 3lbs more and was only 1/4in taller (butterball)!

Our girl can almost sit up on her own, she rolls around the room like a champ and she smiles a smile that couldn't be any bigger! She's eating baby food 3 times a day and seems to enjoy it more than her bottle! No teeth yet, but by the way the poor child chews her fingers and slobbers, surely some are on the way. She loves her exersaucer and her rings to chew on...and she loves attention!!! (We don't mind giving it to her!) She sleeps great...goes down awake...naps usually twice a day and sleeps through the night (with a wake up now and then - we're working on that!). Basically, she is a joy to our family and we are so thankful for out little Piper!!!

My babies

2009-10-02T16:00:00.003-04:00

I had to post one more today. Look at these babies!! See any resemblance?

Piper...

Charlie...

Summer's past...

2009-10-02T15:16:00.008-04:00

I can't believe that summer's actually over! I love the fall, but I just don't think I'm ready for cold weather yet! I enjoy being able to walk my kids to church and not worry about them being bundled up enough when we go out. Warm weather is so much more convenient!

We've had a great summer here for our first summer in Cave City! We've had lots of visitors and made lots of visits ourselves. We've done lots of fun things and have had times when we were super busy and times when we just relaxed. I hadn't posted in a while (Christi) so I thought I'd take a minute and let you see some of what we did this summer (in no particular order because I can never get this thing to cooperate)...

My sister, Kimberlee and I took Charlie to the zoo in Louisville not too long ago. He loved it as always!

My grandparents came down to visit (more than once) and we always enjoy seeing them! Gramps loves to get his hands on these little ones!

Charlie LOVES his little sister! The thing is, I don't think he understands what it means when I tell him to be gentle because she's just little. I think he thinks she should be able to take whatever he can give! Don't worry...I have a feeling that one day soon, she will be!!

My sweet baby girl is growing so fast! I wish I had a picture of every precious little outfit she got to wear to church this summer...I guess I could have, but I'm not that good!!

These smiles warm my heart everyday! Piper loves her exersaucer and has grown into it very nicely! (This is an older picture, we definitely don't have to have the blanket in there anymore!)

Before Piper lost all of her red hair (it's a much lighter red now) I thought she blended in just great with Charlie's george dolls!!

Charlie has had a couple of friends over this summer. He loves to entertain! Here he is with his friend, Carson, who is about a month younger than Charlie. They had great fun taking the water OUT of the pool!

Some days I get random "craft" ideas for me and Charlie. This day, I made paper hats for his george's (I tried for him too, but we didn't have any paper that's quite big enough for his melon!) and Charlie wanted them all to have sherriff's badges like Woody from Toy Story. It's amazing what fun can be had with a little construction paper!

Charlie had his first experience in Vacation Bible School...he loved it! The theme was Son Rock Kids Camp.

We watched a lot of baseball this summer too...can you guess who we were rooting for?

There were several fun cookout/fellowship times with our church family. One of our church members (Mr. Tom) has an ice cream truck that he brought out for one of the cookouts. It was definitely a hit!

The Lord gave us a wonderful summer and we have been, as always, blessed by your prayers, calls, e-mails, and visits...keep 'em coming! (And I'll try to keep up with the posts...)

a family portrait

2009-09-26T09:47:00.003-04:00

preacher's kids...

2009-09-22T11:39:00.003-04:00

what a difference 9 months make!

charlie at church in january 2009 when he was an only child...

charlie and piper, at church september 2009.

baseball and the great commission

2009-09-10T16:10:00.012-04:00

i have been writing a bi-weekly column for a couple of local newspapers for the past few months. writing is something i never really aspired to do- i just sort of stumbled into it thanks to a particularly relentless case of insomnia that lasted for weeks several years ago. i started a blog with the hope that clearing out my head would help me sleep. i don't know that it did, but over the years i have kept writing at the lowercase and have had a few bible studies and articles on christianity and culture published by a couple of different magazines. the following is an article that will be in a future issue (2010) of stand firm magazine. (the "charlie chasing birds" article that i wrote about here will be in an upcoming issue of homelife magazine ).

even if you don't like baseball, i hope you will find it helpful/encouraging. (and yes, it is capitalized.... they make me do it or they won't publish it...)________________________________________

I am a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan. I was raised to be one and have embraced the team that I was taught to love as a child. I have seen the Cardinals play in person dozens of times and I have watched them on TV or listened in on the radio hundreds more. My father and uncle groomed me to be a Cardinals fan. They bought me t-shirts and caps (not “hats”!), took me to games, and watched games with me on TV.

I remember my uncle showing me how to read box scores in the newspaper and how to fill out a scorecard. I vividly remember my first game that my dad and uncle took me to when I was in elementary school. The Cards played the Mets- and lost. But I remember the smell, the largest crowd I had ever seen in my life, and seeing my heroes in person for the first time.

Now, as a grown man with children of my own living far away from my family, I still watch whenever a game is on (which is rare where I live) and listen in my office on the internet. I have memorabilia and souvenirs at the house and in my office. I cried literal tears of joy when they won their 10th world series in 2006. I am and always will be a Cardinal Fan.

But the thing is- I can make my own decisions now. There are several things my family enjoys that I do not- I have different tastes and opinions. but I am still a Cardinals fan- because I want to be one. I don’t just love them because my family taught me to have them as my favorite team- they *are* my favorite team because I willingly give them a place in my attention and affections- and that brings me joy.

A lot of us grew up in “Christian Homes” where we were taken to church and taught the songs and stories about Jesus. We were given Bibles, told to consider church as important and enjoyed things that took place there. We remember VBS and Sunday School and all of the sights, smells, and sounds of church meals, pageants, and other activities. These are good things and things we should be grateful for. However, the danger is that we might grow up and try to live life with our parents faith-only valuing Christ because they do/did, attending church because it is what they think we should do, and only knowing about the Bible what we were told by someone else. The danger is that in doing this we will find that we have no passion for our faith because it isn’t ours!

That is why Scripture exhorts us to not only know “about” God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Church, etc., but to grow in that knowledge and embrace the faith as our own! [1 Cor. 14:20; Heb. 5:12; 6:1; 1 Peter 2:2] We do not achieve salvation on borrowed faith. Salvation is based on individual repentance and faith.[1] Our faith must be our own.

When you embrace your relationship with Jesus as your own and are fueled by your own passion for who He is and what He has done (i.e. the Gospel), then you will find that you can’t help but share and spread your joy and its object to others. As C.S. Lewis noted, our joy is at its fullest and most complete when it is expressed or shared[2].

That is why my dad and uncle wanted me to love St. Louis Cardinal baseball-because it brought them joy and they wanted me to have joy in it as well. That is why my children already have St. Louis t-shirts, onesies, baseballs, cups, caps, etc. I hope they will have a lifelong joy of being a fan of their favorite team. But the proof of *their* fanhood will be the joy they get out of following the team that is not out of duty or loyalty to me.

I hope my children will say of me that I loved the Gospel and my Savior more than anything else. My wife and I pray for and with them, take them to church, and teach them about Jesus. We want them to know He is the most important thing in our lives. We want them to have memories of Sunday School and VBS and Children’s Choir musicals. We want them to remember fondly all of the activities and people they grow up with and encounter at church. We want to pass on to our children a passion for the glory of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But our hope is not that they will carry on our “religious traditions”, believing what we believe out of nostalgia or blind obedience to us. But rather we hope and pray that one day their passion for him will exceed our own- that they will lay claim to it for themselves! And that is how the Great Commission will be accomplished- God’s people spreading the Gospel that they themselves have embraced and grown to love, and spreading it out of their joy.

[1] This is not to say that we *make* our own faith. Obviously there are things within historic and orthodox Christianity that true believers can disagree on yet remain in the faith. However, there is but one Gospel and we are not free to pick and choose and make our own faith a’la carte. The point is, it is not enough to have been told to believe the gospel, and to know the lingo and all that comes with it. It is not enough to have been “brought up in church”. We must repent of our sin (sin as defined by christ and the bible, not ourselves or the culture) and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sin and have His righteousness applied to us for salvation. This is what is meant by “making our faith our own”.

[2]“ I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.” C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, p. 94

piper piper everywhere...

2009-08-28T12:23:00.003-04:00

piper piper has no hair...(but she's still cute as can be)

3 month (and some days) pictures from july...

a day in the life...

2009-08-24T11:18:00.007-04:00

actually, more than one day... but you get the point...

the cavni at church...

the kids loving life (and each other)

ms. piper and her bright eyes...

brother and sister...

a true fan

daddy and his girl...

Bust a Move

2009-08-09T15:01:00.004-04:00

our boy loves to dance! these two are moments that christi caught on her phone 1.) cousin jennifer's wedding 2.) in tennessee @ papaw and gran's house.(sorry for the sideways video on the 1st one and low vol. on the 2nd)

getting away...

2009-08-01T11:33:00.006-04:00

its been a busy summmer. had my first father's day as a father of 2...

our extended family has had 3 weddings...(christi, piper, and charlie got to go to 2, i made it to one)

mix in with that one week of vacation bible school, and a lot of other "goings on" at church, we were ready for a break... so we took one this past week.

christi and my sister stephanie took charlie and his cousins cameron and alex to the memphis zoo...

fun was had by all..

alex enjoying the view

charlie and cameron enjoying the seals.. christi has a funny video of this im sure she'll put up later...

these three (and their moms!) were plenty tuckered out by the end of the day...

while those boys were having fun, 2 more boys headed up to st. louis for some fun of their own...

dad and i made it up to catch a ballgame - cardinals vs. dodgers...

which included an hr. long rain delay then scattered showers throughout the game...

but it was a good trip, with a 10 - 0 st. louis victory (and a cubs loss the same day!) we made it home close to 4 a.m. there is no photo of the two of us passed out in the car... but trust me.. we were tired.

there were more shananigans during the week, but we forgot our camera so all we have is what we got w/ our phones. the break was nice but we are glad to be home. bring on august!

Sorry it's been so long!!

2009-07-20T14:47:00.008-04:00

Piper is already over 3 months old (14 weeks)!!! She is growing so quickly and is becoming so sweet! We just can't get enough of her!

She has discovered her fist and loves to stare at it (sounds exciting, doesn't it?).

She has such a sweet little face! We haven't gotten a really good picture of her precious smile yet, but I'll keep trying!

She's also a great sleeper...and look how cute she is while she does it!

The fist again! (I love this one because you can see her little foot too!)

There's that face again...you'd better believe she's already got her daddy in her hip pocket (and she doesn't even wear pockets!). I'm pretty smitten myself (Christi)!

Never fear...we can't forget about this guy! Sweet as ever and funny as you could imagine!! Here Charlie is wearing his Mom-o's (my mom...Stephen's mom is Gran) favorite sweatshirt.

He still hasn't outgrown his sweet face either!!

Charlie LOVES Wrigley!! (Uncle Eric and Aunt Kimmy's puppy with the unfortunate name!)

Stephen and I are doing great as well...we'll try to keep everybody up to date more often, as one of my goals is to try to update the blog more regularly. I've got lots of pictures backing up that I need to share!!

catching up...

2009-06-04T22:31:00.007-04:00

as promised, a post to catch up on the past couple of months..

charlie and daddy's evening ritual... after dinner cookies...

being a helper and bringing back the garbage can...(i usually let him ride on top but i couldnt dare post a picture of such a thing...)

pajamas and cowboy boots... perfect morning chores outfit...(for those of youwho knew "daddy" from 1996-2004, notice the white t-shirt and blue jeans w/ boots have been replaced w/ "grown up clothes")

i graduated from southern seminary with my master of divinity degree on may 15.
it was a long hard road, but with the support of this beautiful lady i made it!

glad mom and dad could make the trip...

getting his "hair did"

all done!

sweet piper

ride 'em cowboy! charlie on "bullseye" (he named it himself...though he stole it from toy story 2)

happy 2nd birthday charles!

opening presents...

aunt katie takeing charlie for a ride in his new wagon...

sleeping beauty

pretty momma and unhappy baby

the cavness kids...

2009-06-01T15:37:00.003-04:00

no.. not those two... (stephanie and stephen circa summer 1986)

these two! charlie (2 yrs.) and piper (6 weeks) may 2009

learning from a 2 yr. old

2009-05-26T12:25:00.006-04:00

in march i was asked to contribute a bi-weekly column for a couple of local newspapers here. they are usually pretty short (column space requires 400 words or less) and it is often a struggle to fit in what i want to say.

but the column i have submitted this week came pretty easy to me. that moppy headed birthday boy did most (all) of the work...
___________________________________________

Chasing after birds…

My two yr. old son, Charlie, loves birds. His favorite activity is chasing them. He has spent up to an hour at a time running after birds, trying to catch them. Each time the result is the same. As he gets about ten feet away, laughing and screaming “TWEET TWEETS! TWEET TWEETS!” the birds fly away. Then he simply turns to me, smiles a huge smile and says “tweet tweets fly away!” And undeterred, he finds another bird, and is off.

Recently while observing him in his favorite activity, I had the urge to try to explain to him that he could never catch a bird by chasing it. But as I continued to watch him with my adult eyes seeing only failure after failure, what began to capture my attention was the utter joy my son was experiencing. Through the panting, sweating, and dirty hands and feet, my little boy, in his joy, demonstrated to his thirty-one year old father that there can be joy in pursuing the unattainable.

Over and over again, the Lord calls His people to holiness. (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:22-24; 1 Thessalonians 4:7; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:15-16) As Christians, those who have repented of their sins and placed their faith and hope in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and His righteousness applied to them, we are still very aware of our own failure to be holy. Though we know we should pursue holiness, we may often feel that our efforts are in vain- after all, no one is or ever will be perfect, right? Why bother trying so hard?

To know why we should keep pursuing holiness, we need look no further than the “author and perfecter of our faith”, who scripture tells us endured the wrath of God poured out on Him on the cross, “for the JOY set before Him” (Hebrews 12:1-2). The pleasure of pleasing our Father in heaven, of living a life of obedience that comes from the overflow of our love for Him, should bring us so much pleasure, that even when we fail to be perfectly holy each day, our joy is in pursuing it as hard as we can.

So you keep chasing those birds, son. And may God use me to teach you about Him, as much as He is using you to teach me.

charlie chasing birds with his bubble mower, may, 2009

happy birthday charlie!

2009-05-25T16:47:00.003-04:00

our little boy turned 2 yrs. old today. we are having his big party this coming saturday, but here are some pictures to show how much he has grown since his birthday last year.

in a pool of presents at 1st b-day party.

in his new swing may 25, 2008

same swing, same boy may 25, 2009

the birthday boy rocking in daddy's rocking chair

a lot has been going on lately so we'll do a "catch up" post later this week.

piper is here!!

2009-04-16T22:12:00.004-04:00

we arrived at the hospital a little before 8 a.m. monday morning, april 13.

then, we found out our little girl had flipped and was heads up - leading to an unexpected c-section. christi was a trooper and did great. piper arrived at 2:41 p.m. monday, april 13th.
7lbs. 15 oz. and 20.5 inches long. plenty of hair with a distinct reddish tint...

charlie really likes his new sisiter- they should be close, as they will be less than 2 yrs. apart. charlie doesn't turn 2 until the end of may!
he always greets her with a very bright "h-i-i-i-i, pipe-urrrr!!!"
then he usually follows it with "luv ooo, pipe - urrrr"

strawberry blonde...

a proud big brother...

sleeping sweetly (we'll see how long that lasts...)

The grand tour!

2009-04-08T16:07:00.008-04:00

So, I finally took pictures of our house so I could post for those of you who haven't been able to visit. (Yet!) I had company last weekend, so it was very clean and it seemed like a good time! The pics are on here in no particular order and since I can never get them to show up the way I want them, you get a random tour of the house!

First off...this is Charlie's room:

The other side of Charlie's room:

Piper's room:

Surprise...the other side of Piper's room:

Guest bathroom:

You got it, the other side:

Master bathroom (too small for an "other side" picture!):

Master bedroom (Nothing too exciting on the other side!):

Guest Bedroom (For those of you who WILL come visit us!):

"Office" area of the "big room" (as named by Charlie):

Shot from the end of the living/ "big" room down the hallway/into the guestroom:

Living room/"Big room":

Dining area:

And finally...my very green kitchen!:

We love our house! It has been such a blessing to us and fits our little (but growing) family very well! Come visit anytime! (Just call first!!) :)

Wow...I'm so behind...this could be long!

2009-03-24T14:28:00.010-04:00

Here's our little man just being himself...the life of the party! This was an old lampshade that I was going to throw away, but why do that before you can get the best use out of it?!?

Charlie's really been into the movie Toy Story lately, so I guess he's got cowboys on the mind. Doesn't he make a cute one? (Hat, Boots, and Horse courtesy of Pawpaw and Gran)

Oh, and if you didn't know, cowboys also make very good gymnasts. My cowboy can stand on his head!! (Yeah, just check out that belly in the background!! Huge!)

Who needs pants out on the open range?

Charlie and I discovered a new game to play in his room...

Which one's Charlie?!?

This is how I happened upon my little guy the other day...doing the itsy bitsy spider in momma's laundry basket!

Charlie loves to take his socks off and check between each of his toes for a "piece" (of toe jam or sock fuzz)!! The only thing is, his toes are so ticklish, he can hardly stand to do it!

Here, he decided to try on Daddy's shoes and socks. He's got a way to go before he can fill those shoes!

Charlie has also become a little apple lover lately. Here, I'd given him a red one that he decided he didn't like (I tried it because it was smaller) so I gave him a "pink" one. Then he decided that he wanted them both! I really wouldn't mind this at all except that after a couple of bites, he usually decides he just wants to chew a bite up for a while and then spit it out in momma's hand...gross!

Charlie's grandparents got him a computer. He loves it! He can identify most of his letters in one game, tell which item is the biggest in another, and then another favorite is one where he gets the monkey on the screen to play some music! He works really hard and then just dances and smiles!!

Charlie is getting to be such a big boy! He is getting really good with a fork. Here, he's using one of his own, but most of the time, he asks for momma's, meaning he wants to use a big metal fork like I do. He still does pretty well with that too.

This has been classic Charlie for a while now. Every now and then, he decides he's tired of using his hands or a utensil to eat with and he will just go for it with his face. We call him our little puppy! Here, he dropped a raisin on the ground and decided to eat it up instead of picking it up! Who knows?!?

I hope that is a good update! I'll try not to wait as long between posts from now on...although with Piper so close, you may have to cut me some slack! We'll be sure to post quickly when she arrives though so you can share in our joy! I'll see if I can't get at least one or two more in before she gets here so you can see her nursery and maybe some pics of a shower the ladies at church gave me.

****Update****

Please Pray for "Pawpaw" (Stephen's Dad)- he was just diagnosed with inoperable lymphoma. He will begin treatment soon. So far he and Gran (Stephen's Mom) are positive (as are the doctors) that the tumor will respond favorably to chemo.

Keep a countin' down!!

2009-03-16T14:56:00.002-04:00

Oh my goodness...do you see that countdown to Piper on the side?!?! 37 days! I am sooooo ready to be able to bend over, and sit normally, and sleep on my stomach, and just not be huge again!!!

Sorry, no pictures or really anything of much importance this time. I just am really ready to not be pregnant anymore and to have our little girl here with us! I'll do better next time and try to get some new pictures up here.

blast from the past...

2009-03-03T22:41:00.004-05:00

spring 2004

before piper was on the way...
before charlie was making us laugh...
before she knew he was going to be a preacher...
before *he* knew he was going to be a preacher...
before the wedding...
before "the ring"...
(right after "the haircut")

has it really only been 5 yrs ?

Okay...here's the belly! (And some Charlie!)

2009-02-16T23:44:00.005-05:00

Charlie first! Somehow, Tom & Jerry remains an enthralling program for Charlie! Probably because we let him watch it much less than he used to (we've become very good at diverting his attention when he asks for it)! It's not cruel, it's just saving the sanity of his parents!

Charlie loves a good after-dinner Nilla Wafer!

Now this is a style he came up with on his own...who knows?!?

He enjoys our local newspaper these days.

Okay, so here it is. People have been asking for recent preggy pics and these are at 30 weeks. And yes...it is getting heavy!

catching up...

2009-02-04T13:58:00.002-05:00

catching up a bit...here are some pictures from the holidays. christi will post some from the move and the new house/church soon i'm sure...but here are some charlie pics so the hate mail can stop...

charlie giving daddy a god luck kiss before his orange belt test...

helping pack for the move..

one of his favorite christmas presents, a curious george, or "doooo" as charlie calls him. they are inseparable.

charlie and "dooo" watching tom and jerry, another favorite.

he likes to hide in brenda's pantry, and who can get mad when you open the door and see this?

receiving a pounding...

2009-01-19T22:07:00.002-05:00

we must have looked hungry, b/c the people at cave city baptist church made sure that they couldn't be held responsible for any weight loss at our house... what a blessing...

checking in...

2009-01-14T12:44:00.004-05:00

hello from cave city! this will be short, but a lot of people have been asking for details so here are a few...

we moved on new years eve and because of some tremendous help by some tremendous people in louisville and in cave city, the actual moving day from there to here went more smoothly than i ever could have imagined. (thank you eric, justin, john, jason, ryan, taylor,(louisville) bob, kevin, tom, and dennis (cave city) as well as chad and holly from bowling green. also a very special thank you to budget rental trucks for letting me drive the largest truck possible that didnt require a special license. that was awesome.

christi's parents and grandparents came the next day and brought charlie. he explored his new house while harry did a lot of curtain hanging, grandma rose ironed, and brenda and christi did various other things that needed doing.

christi and charlie have spent the last week and a half in louisville so she can finish up the semester there. they came back over last weekend (friday afternoon through sunday after church) and headed back for one more week. charlie seems to like his new home and new room, but i know it will be good for him to not be going back and forth and swapping time zones. i am ready to have my 2 favorite people back with me. only 2 more days and all of the cavni' will be cave city residents for good.

things at the church have been going well so far. i spent most of the first week just getting settled in and unpacking in my office. the first 2 weeks of services have gone well as far as i can tell. i am having to get used to 3 services a week instead of just one, so that is a challenge in the area of time mgmt /sermon preparation in addition to all that comes with being at a larger church.

the people at cave city baptist church have been amazing. they have kept the fridge full of home cooked meals for me while christi has been gone, they made christi a birthday cake and bought her a gift (on jan. 11 christi turned three decades old...) and this sunday night after church are having a "pounding". i have also been invited over to several homes for dinner/ ball game watching. they all seem excited to have us here and we feel very welcomed.

thats about it... when christi gets back and we get the house finished (almost everything is unpacked... just needs a woman's touch) we'll post some pictures.

hope everyone is well...

-stephen

2008 - the year in review

2008-12-23T17:27:00.009-05:00

consider this our christmas card...

in 2008, no one had any major medical issues or operations... we consider this a success.

charlie turned 1 yr. old in may - despite his already having been wearing clothes made for 2 yr. olds. he has already had 3 haircuts, and is developing into quite the comedian. he also has a vocabulary that is pretty extensive, as long as the word starts with "b".

he started day care 3 days a week in august and after adjusting, really came to enjoy it. he has made several friends, and even has one little gal who cries if any one but charlie sits next to her. while waiting to pick him up one day, christi and i also spied him following two girls around hugging them over and over again.
that's right, i have discovered that my boy is a hit with the ladies. and why wouldn't he be? he is built like a super hero, yet has a senstive side, is very handsome, and is a bit mysterious (why does he like to play with my deodorant and stick his head in the garbage can?).

we have also discovered through the daycare process that he must taste pretty good, as on three separate occasions he has had disturbing fang shaped flesh wounds. our little gentleman has yet to retaliate, only to look quizzically at the pint sized cannibal as if to say "why would you do that?" then he cries. he is after all, a lover, not a fighter. (see above).

christi got to take a mini vacation in october and went to a conference with her mom and other ladies from our former church. she did quite well in her first extended leave from charlie.
she will finish up the semester teaching and then move into being a stay at home mom, which she has been looking forward to for a long time. we are both excited, but not as much as charlie will be. probably because she has never bitten him.

i am one class away from graduating from seminary. one final class stands in the way of my masters degree. and of course that class is a class in hebrew exegesis and syntax.

on the other hand, this fall i started taking tae kwon do again (i took it awhile when i was young) and made my way through three belt tests, currently being an orange belt. as a tennessean, that is better than a black belt. i also broke three boards- two with my hand and one with my feet. so if hebrew doesnt quite work out, i could have a career waiting for me as either a lumberjack or an infomercial star selling my own home exercise/defense videos.

christi and i have been married for four years now (nov. 20) , and by year 5 will have two children. our daughter is due to join us in april. her room is already painted in our new house and christi and her mom and sisters have already picked out the assorted things that a little girl needs. i have begun the process of looking into girls only k-college schools. i will also practice cleaning my guns on friday and saturday nights. i may also practice making various hors d'œuvres so that in about 15 years when her "friends" come over, i can serve them on platters i broke with my bare hands...right in front of them.

the last day of november, the cave city baptist church voted to call me as their pastor, and so we have been in the process of moving and packing. [see previous post if this is news to you]
charlie has had his moments where he looks around wondering where all of his stuff is going, but he seems to deal with it pretty well. or he is suppressing it to blame us for his problems in adolescence. either way, packing is going well.

our new address is:

stephen christi and charlie cavness
601 e. broadway st.
cave city, ky. 42127

our cell phone numbers will remain the same.

we are moving on new years eve, so we will literally start the new year in a new town in a new house, with a new job, and other things that are new, or at least residing in a new place. we are looking forward to what the lord has in store for us in 2009. we will keep you updated, so check back here periodically...

to you and yours,
merry christmas and a very blessed and christ -centered new year.

from the cavni'

stephen, christi, and charlie (and coming, spring, 2009, piper) [read that in the movie announcer voice and it is even more exciting!)

pulling up stakes...

2008-12-09T19:38:00.008-05:00

after about 6 weeks of meetings, phone conferences, traveling for further discussions, and preaching for the congregation, i have accepted the full time position of pastor at cave city baptist church in cave city, ky. we will be moving on dec. 31st and our first sunday with our new church family will be jan. 4th.

we are very excited and are looking forward to the transition. the church is much larger than where we have been, bringing with it much more responsibility- which is both exciting and terrifying.

we ask for prayer regarding the following:

1) resigning and leaving our current church.- i have been part time/bi-vocational there for nearly 2 years. as is typical in a small church, we have grown very close to them and they to us. they knew that i would eventually move on to something full time, but it is still hard when the time actually comes. pray for them as they seek their next pastor.

2) the move - my bad back (2 surgeries) will not allow me to do much in the way of physically moving, which puts us at the mercy of people in louisville who are willing to show up to help us load and un-load the truck. also christi being 6 months pregnant and charlie being the first (and currently only) grandchild on the "allen" side of the family makes for competing emotions to say the least. pray for charlie as well, that he would adjust to his new home and surroundings well.

3) trust and faith in the face of changing lifestyles - christi will not be working and our daughter (piper) is due in april. we prayed about this a lot before moving forward with the process. we feel like this is what the lord wants from us, so we know he will provide. we just ask that you pray that we would trust him in every way.

4) the most obvious, that the lord would be glorified, that the gospel would be promoted effectively, and that i will be an obedient follower and minister of christ as i lead his church at cave city.

here are a couple of pictures of where we will be. we will have an extra bedroom in the parsonage, so visitors are welcome!

front corner of the church as seen from the intersection

from the back corner of the parking lot

the parsonage/church owned pastor's home. it is roughly 100 yards from the church with a gigantic fenced in backyard for the kids. between the house and the church is a large playground that i am sure will take charlie .5 seconds to fall in love with.

we will give more info and updates as they come....

we're having a girl!

2008-12-03T14:50:00.007-05:00

that's right! the 2nd cavni' baby is a girl.

we are certain that charlie will be a good big brother to his little sister, piper...

because he was crazy about his little cousin alex!

the ultrasound technician said everything looked great and all seems to be well...praise the lord for his mercy and grace. we look forward to welcoming
piper elisabeth cavness
in april!

happy thanksgiving!!

2008-11-27T19:10:00.004-05:00

the cavni - thanksgiving 2008

the cavni' and the kings (tracy, cameron, stephanie and alex)

the cousins (charlie, ally, alex, and cameron) (charlie is a year and a half and almost the same size as his 5 yr. old cousin ally and 4 yr. old cousin cameron!)

alex going to town on a block (the third "grandson" to slobber on this thing)

"duck hunting" w/ cousin cameron

all smiles...

2008-11-21T10:53:00.005-05:00

charlie was all smiles when i took him to chick-fil-a for breakfast yesterday morning...

(charlie at 18 months)

i guess he gets it honest...

(stephen approx. 18 months)

i wonder how big charlie would smile if *he* had hee-haw overalls?

Ok...Just because I like Haley Littleton so much!

2008-11-18T20:21:00.004-05:00

Here's a fun tag game for ya...
Pick the 4th picture folder on your computer.
Pick the 4th picture in that folder.
Explain what the picture is about.
Tag 4 blogging friends to do the same.

So, this was Stephen having fun with a website he found. This would be me in the year 1964. Cute, huh?

I tag Elizabeth Nuss, Megan Fitzgerald, Freddy T Wyatt, and Shelley Sapp

Have fun!!

halloween...

2008-11-02T18:07:00.004-05:00

our halloween turtle...

wardrobe malfunctions

2008-10-20T22:36:00.007-04:00

we promise we dress our son... and he looks like such a "little boy" in all of his outfits

sometimes, he will even stay dressed for awhile... (how he knows that the longhaired skinny guy in that picture is me i do not know, but he points right at it and says "da-da!!!)
but sometimes you just have to get comfortable, and nothing says comfortable like a diaper and boots your gran bought you.

or... a diaper, light up tennis shoes, and a lawn mower w/ grandpa harry...(who, before you call child/family services, wants everyone to know that "the blade was not on")

and well... frankly, sometimes we just dont want that new diaper...(at least his feet aren't cold)

like his parents...

2008-10-03T12:21:00.004-04:00

charlie is showing signs of sharing two of his parents' great loves- reading and the outdoors...
he has a laundry basket full of books that he loves to "read" and have read to him, and we can hardly keep him indoors... he begs to go outside regularly.

our boy

2008-09-21T19:49:00.002-04:00

christi and her little man with a fresh new haircut... and a cut from an encounter w/ a bookshelf (top middle/left of his forehead)
advertising for his dad... who *used* to rock... now its more of a shuffle...

a ride of his own...

2008-09-16T20:51:00.002-04:00

*loves* it.

hog wild...

2008-09-06T09:53:00.004-04:00

now that school has started back, my working nights during the week, and charlie going to daycare (which he *loves*) 3 days a week, i don't get to see him as much as i'd like, but we make up for it when we can. i get him up and we play on tuesday and thursday mornings, and we have a big time.

charlie and i had our first annual labor day men's breakfast this past week (at chick-fil-a of course)

charlie had **3** mini chicken biscuits, a fruit cup, part of my chicken biscuit, and 2 milks.
it cost us $9 to eat a fast food breakfast.... and all i had was a chicken biscuit and drink.

he really loves trucks and motorcycles... here he is at our church ...

then on labor day he got to "ride" a harley ("hog") with grandma brenda.

a waltz for my home....

2008-09-05T15:16:00.002-04:00

because today, i find myself really missing tennessee...

and because its "...football time in tennessee!!!"

christi's turn

2008-09-02T19:41:00.006-04:00

here are some historical/hysterical photos of my bride...

the miracle worker??

a teacher in any era...

*guffaw*

maybe a missed career as a librarian..

helmet hair has never been so gorgeous

*simply stunning*

so many jokes... not enough words...

the object of obsession for many a yuppie...

when boredom strikes...

2008-08-30T14:46:00.008-04:00

i found this neat website while bored at work...

i present to you... stephen cavness... through the decades

the 1950's

the 60's

ohhh.. the terrible 70's

thats just....hilarious

(eat your heart out david cassidy)

and... the wretched 80's...
(wow)

the 90's offered little hope of a brighter future...

its is such a blessing that charlie looks like christi...maybe baby #2 will too...
(if you didnt see the announcement in the post below.. i apologize for wasting your time before finding out we are having another baby)

who's going to be a big brother???

2008-08-29T11:16:00.004-04:00

answer: this guy is going to be a big brother!

cavni' baby #2 coming april of 2009!

(charlie with "post-nap" hair)

all boy...

2008-08-22T19:15:00.006-04:00

i mean... really... this gets to be *our* kid!!

breakfast w/ daddy...

watching the olympics with friends robert (from china!) and randy

there's a new sherriff in town...and he doesnt wear pants

dinner w/ momma..

always an adventure in abstract art

swingin' at grandpa harry and grandma brenda's house

learning about 80's hair fashion

but still rockin the curls....

the family..

2008-08-18T10:31:00.002-04:00

here is a picture taken yesterday....

fun at chuck e. cheese...

2008-08-05T15:59:00.006-04:00

christi and i along with "grandma" and "grandpa", took charlie to chuck e. cheese a few weeks ago.

he seemed to like it ok, especially the slide. his favortie part was all of the food on the ground, which i had to keep him from eating.

even after all of that excitement, i still dont think he had as much fun as his mom and grandma did playing skee ball.

"no matter how fast i go..."

"and how hard i try...."

" i cannot get away from these scary teletubbies!"

"my cousin cameron likes barney..."

"so i'll take his word for it"

" its stairs!!" (said like the beggin/bacon strips dog)

makin his way through

oh look... its a little kid zoo..

down we go

and just so you know, we made it home safe. he went back to wearing his cowboy hat and diaper just fine

stephen's rants...

2008-07-28T18:30:00.009-04:00

i wrote a column for my college's newspaper one time that got a lot of feedback. it basically was a half page article on things that got on my nerves, intrigued me, or that i had an unhealthy obsession with.

that was years ago, and my brain deems it time to vent... so i hope you grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. will forgive the lack of charlie pictures. i promise to tell him *you* are his favorite...

this week's list of things that give me a nosebleed if i think about them long enough

#1 - tip jars at every business

every coffee shop, diner, and lemonade stand these days has a jar that says something like "tips appreciated". i imagine that they are appreciated... who doesn't like getting money for doing what you are supposed to be doing and are already getting paid for??

i used to wait tables.. at 2 different periods in my life. both times my primary means of income was what i made waiting tables. i made $2.13 an hr. plus tips. it was understood that i would make tips to round out my pay. if i got stiffed (a highly technical term, but one that can be used on television) more than a few times a week it could seriously affect my ability to pay bills, buy groceries, etc.

i have had friends at starbucks that make more than i do now, who have better insurance than i do, and who also get A FREE POUND OF COFFEE EACH WEEK . guess who also has a "tips appreciated" jar? yeah.. every starbucks you've ever been to... and there are at least 20 million in north america alone.

i went in to pay $30 for less than half a tank of gas last week and there was a "tips appreciated" cup on the counter. i resisted the urge to tell the guy behind the counter all of the things that i would appreciate, including his telling me what he was going to do with the $0.39 , a toothpick, and some chewed fingernails in his cup. you cant even mail a letter with that (which is another rant for another day) .

#2 - people at the movies
christi and i went to see the new batman movie last week. if ever you need a reason to lose hope in humanity, go to the county fair. if there isn't one, go to the movies.

aside from the crowd's inability to form a line and maintain that line as a single unit while waiting to be let in to the theatre, the real fun came after getting seated.

christi and i have a seating arrangement at the movies. she sits to my left, and i protect her from any dangers that may come from the right. no danger comes from the left in a movie theatre. there is scientific evidence to support this, which unfortunately is too complicated to explain here.

anyway, to christi's left staggers in a preppy "i only tuck my shirt in at the front because that way you can still see my overpriced boxers" fellow carrying his own 40 oz. beer ("fo-dee" for short.) to his credit he was extremely polite (see.. no danger... he came from the left).

however, about 90 minutes in to this 2 and a half hr. long movie he passes out and drops his bottle, and begins snoring like a yeti with a sinus infection. i even put my arm around the top of christi's chair and smacked the back of his, after which he began to choke, then snore louder.

his social faux paus was only mildly irritating compared to the neighbors on my right. the gentlemen seated immediately next to me was more determined than mary kate olsen at a twinkie factory to not relinquish even one inch of the arm rest we shared. (shared...HA!)

his wife ( i assume) sat next to him, being under the impression that she had been given the title of "narrator". had i been struck blind by the "plumbers vertical smile" of the annoying teenage stick girls in front of us (something that i halfway prayed for), i still could have known everything that happened in the movie, thanks to chatty patty's uncanny ability to do audible english subtitles of everything that happened on the screen.

if you have seen the movie, i bet you didn't even notice that the batman was very upset while driving the "batpod" on the way to save rachel dawes from an untimely demise. i did know that he was upset, but i was also informed that he was probably crying, we just couldn't see it from under his mask. "holy oscar moment, batman!"

thank you, leonard maltin.

#3 - drivers

did the dmv stop requiring a test of basic automobile and traffic rules? did they just do away with them all together?

the most frequent "i have never been behind the wheel before and what on earth is this turn signal you speak of?" violations i have observed lately are of the right on red (unless otherwise posted), merging onto/off of an exit into/out of traffic, and four way stop varieties.

there should be at the very least a bi-annual, mandatory review that every licensed driver has to take to refresh these rules-complete with written test. failure to accurately answer correctly on the above situations results in that person having to wear an orange jump suit and hold the "stop/slow" signs at construction sites so the state stops paying people $20 an hr to look angry while they do it wrong.

i cant even begin to speak of the idiocy of people who nearly run you off of the road or into a bridge because, even while driving they still talk with their hands while on the phone-that, or completely forget that other people would even exist while they are trying to talk on the phone.

if you are under 25 yrs. old, it should be illegal to talk on the phone while driving w/out an ear piece. if you are caught texting while driving, you are taken out of your car, tortured like a kfc chicken at guantanamo bay and forced to trade in your cell phone for a pager from 1991 for the rest of your life.

*whew* i feel better.

to the land of his father...

2008-07-24T19:45:00.004-04:00

the week after charlie's haircut, we made our way down to tennessee to visit w/ papaw, gran, uncle tracy, aunt stephanie, cousins cameron and alex, and his two grannies.

first haircut

2008-07-21T11:59:00.005-04:00

continuing from last friday's post.... here are some pictures from charlie's first haircut back in june given to him by our friend amber nelson.

catching up...

2008-07-18T23:37:00.003-04:00

sorry we're behind. over the next several days we will try to catch you up on our happenings from the summer so far.

we'll start out with some pool pics and charlie's growing mop...

watching daddy swim while eating a snack...

scrunchin....

as you can see by the 1 yr. old's 1950's revival preacher hairstyle...

and farrah hair...

and mohawk...

it was time for a haircut...

a boy and his lunch

2008-06-23T19:56:00.002-04:00

there's nothing too special about this picture (besides the cute mop head in it)... i just like it a lot...

bam bam

2008-06-12T20:03:00.005-04:00

this is a brief example of why we call charlie our little "bam bam".

his "weapon" is a thin metal tray that his birthday cake was on. we left in in the back of the car because he likes to bang on it with his hands... now he has a different game.
i was only able to catch the last few "head slams" before he stopped b/c i was driving.

keeping up with the cavni'

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Halloween

Chaney's Dairy Barn

catching up on pictures

Just thinking back...

Ahhh...time flies!!

Grown-up trip!!

There are moments...

Smile for the camera!

You MUST read this...

Oops!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...blog

Happy Valentine's Day!!

No Worries...

Christmas Photo Shoot

Hey Pastor's Wife...

More Videos

The Next Video Installment of The Cavni Kids

Giving videos a try

Great Deal for Bloggers!!

Do-Over

Growing in Love

Random thoughts

As Promised...a must see!

Long time, no see!

Piper's 1 year pictures

Piper is one...and what a year it's been!

Small Town Life

Things that I love

Day by Day

What I am Reading

Who's in control?

Momma thoughts...1

Why do I let this blog get so behind?!?

in honor of my sweet wife...

christmas 2009

'tis the season

6 month pictures...just a little late

5 yrs!

Halloweeen/Fall time

6 months!!!

My babies

Summer's past...

a family portrait

preacher's kids...

baseball and the great commission

piper piper everywhere...

a day in the life...

Bust a Move

getting away...

Sorry it's been so long!!

catching up...

the cavness kids...

learning from a 2 yr. old

happy birthday charlie!

piper is here!!

The grand tour!

Wow...I'm so behind...this could be long!

Keep a countin' down!!

blast from the past...

Okay...here's the belly! (And some Charlie!)

catching up...

receiving a pounding...

checking in...

2008 - the year in review

pulling up stakes...

we're having a girl!

happy thanksgiving!!

all smiles...

Ok...Just because I like Haley Littleton so much!

halloween...

wardrobe malfunctions

like his parents...

our boy

a ride of his own...

hog wild...

a waltz for my home....

christi's turn

when boredom strikes...