catching up...

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...

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

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!

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!!

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!

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!

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.