E's Favorite Toys

chacos...cords...

water bottles...

and electrical sockets. judge me if you want. i don't let him chew on my chacos, or electrical cords, and i only let him put his finger in sockets every once and a while for a nice quick jolt of energy...just kidding, jus kiddin, jus kiddin, jus kiddin, jus kiddin. actually, i have started popping his hand if he goes near one but he only laughs and goes right back for it. bless me, eli is going to be just like his daddy...stubborn! :) just kidding again. his mommy is just as stubborn as his daddy...so we are in for it!

Lake Burton Fun

Over Memorial Day weekend, we shared time with some close family friends at Lake Burton. I think I have spent every major summer holiday there since I was in middle school, at least. The Barrys' always open their home to us and we are forever grateful! We spent the weekend eating, laughing, watching the rain, and got in a little sun bathing. Here is the overview of our weekend...

eat. sleep. eat. nap. eat. sit in sun. read. nap. laugh. get burned (on accident). eat. laugh. sit on porch. rain. sleep. eat. rain. take walk in rain with baby (chris). nap. eat. watch more rain. star wars. eat. baseball. sleep. boat church. sing i'll fly away. eat. nap. rain some more. sit on porch. world domination. sleep. eat. rain even more. pack up. leave.

i think i showered in there a couple of times...maybe. we had lots of fun with the Barrys' and Kafskys'. thanks for letting us tag along with you guys.

a passing of the omlette torch.
thanks dad for teaching chris his way around the kitchen.

chris took over the world.

eli and laurel blake(a.k.a. lbk, warwel bwake, baby girl, etc)

we pooped him out.

When God Writes Your Story

In November of 1999 the Lord took my four year old cousin, Ben Harden, from our family in a tragic accident. It was during the Thanksgiving holidays so I was able to travel with my mom to Macon to help take care of Ben's two older siblings while he was fighting to make it in the hospital. He died 4 days after his accident. This horrible moment took our family by surprise, but not the Lord. He knew this was Ben's time to go home.

Psalm 139:16
"All the days ordained for me were written
in your book before one of them came to be."

I never would have written that heartbreaking Thanksgiving morning into anyone's life story but the Lord allowed it to happen in our family for many reasons. For one thing, it played a huge part in my coming to salvation in the Lord.

Baseball was Ben's favorite sport. One of my most favorite memories of the two of us was playing baseball out in front of his house. He loved to steals bases and we played until we were pooped, just the two of us and lots of "ghost men". :)

Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Lord gave us our family a sweet moment in Ben's memory. Taylor, Ben's older brother, played for a baseball state championship on his high school field which just happens to be named "Ben Harden Memorial Field". I was there the day the field was dedicated in Ben's memory. Ben would have been a freshman this past year and might have even played on this same varsity baseball team. This championship game just happened to be the last game a Harden child would play on this field, three years too early. I know the Lord could feel the sorrow in Ben's mom's heart as she watched Taylor play his last games of his senior year. But she couldn't be sad for long because Taylor's team ended up winning the GISA state championship right there on Ben Harden Memorial Field. I don't think it was a coincident that Taylor's team won this championship on Memorial Day weekend and I don't think it was by chance that they won during Taylor's senior year. I think the Lord knew what he was doing when He wrote this into my family's story. I know beyond a shadow of doubt. I think this was His way of easing the pain and bringing joy to this moment in time.

Taylor Harden with his family. What a sweet memory.

*To read a sweet article from macon.com, click here.

oh how i love the summer!

have i mentioned yet that i LOVE the summer? i have to say that my mindset completely changes when the days get longer and the weather gets warmer. i'm not sure if its because summertime is so laid back or that chris is home more often or because we get to go on trips to the beach and the lake or maybe even because we get to eat freash veggies and make homemade blackberry jam. maybe its because of all of these reasons combined! who really knows. all i know is i adore summer.

chris makes fun of me when fall rolls around because i get so depressed that winter is almost here. i HATE being cold. hate, hate, hate it.

on friday will be chris's last day of school with students. i can't wait to see him more often. i know, i know, honey, you have summer baseball games, football workouts, and are taking 3 classes, but at least you don't have to go to school at 7 am! (can you tell i've been warned over and over that my hubby isn't going to be able to just hang out all summer?)

welcome summer! you can hang around as long as you like.

one confused kid...

Football season is just around the corner and I have a feeling Eli is going to grow up one confused kid! His dad cheers for Alabama and I, his mom, cheer for Georgia. I do have to admit that Alabama is probably the only other team in the SEC that I respect and care for. I don't know if its because we rarely play them (Chris thanks God for this) or because their colors aren't orange and blue. I think it might be fate that he cheers for Bama since they won the National Championship while he was a baby but we'll see. He might choose Georgia just because they only have one mascot and Uga is just so darn cute. As long as he doesn't cheer for Florida, TN, Auburn, LSU, or SC, I think we'll keep him. :)

Eli watching his first football game with Boo. He was looking for Daddy on the field.

Roll Tide

Go Dawgs! Doesn't he look so cute in red and black? :)

growing up too fast

The past two weeks have been quite monumental in the Akridge house. I feel like Eli has decided that he is ready to grow up. Everyday he has conquered a new trick and many times it has surprised those of us watching. I caught a couple of these moments on camera. It is funny to watch him discover how to do something new. The other day Mom and I were watching him scoot around on his belly and then he flipped up to a sitting position. He immediately looked at us and smiled. He is becoming less and less frustrated, the more mobile he gets. Now I have to keep my eyes open and watch him a whole lot more closely. He loves rolling under beds and climbing onto shelves to pull things down. His favorite "toys" are water bottles, clothes hangers, shoes, and tags...to name a few.

I sat up all by myself.

Crawling to get a shoe. I have to admit that Chris worked extremely hard with Eli to get him to crawl. I think he made Eli practice everyday in order to accomplish this task. I'm just glad Chris will be home starting next week to help me keep up with the little guy.

I laid him down for a nap and he got real quiet. I walked to his door to see if he had conked out and caught him doing this! Needless to say, the crib went down to its lowest level that night.

I always give him a sippy cup to play with while I'm getting his food ready. I usually just chews on it. On this day, he figured out how it works and enjoyed getting the water out. At the same sitting, I gave him some little puffs, which he usually just throws on the floor and spits out if I put them in his mouth, but on this occasion he picked them up one by one and ate them!

six years later!

Congrats Mere! We love you and are so proud of you. We can't wait to see what God's plan is for your future. Come sing to Eli soon.