Christopher's First Trip to "God's Country"

Great-Grandma Steury lovingly refers to the mountains of North Carolina as "God's Country." I suppose less than an hour west in the mountains of Tennessee is pretty similar. Christopher made his first trip to Johnson City, his soon-to-be new home, this past weekend. He was a great traveler - stopping once on the way down and not at all on the way back to KY. What an amazing little guy.

The first night in a new bed, he tossed and turned most of the night...but only until it was time for Daddy and Mommy to get up. Then he fell into a very deep sleep for another hour or so before waking up for breatkfast. At least he got an hour of sleep, right? =)















Christopher had fun at Babu and Nana's house. Uncle Silas and Babu were amazed at how much he had grown since Christmas.

On Saturday, it was finally warm enough again to take him outside again for a walk. Bundled up in his little snow suit for warmth (easier than a blanket), he walked around the neighborhood with Mommy and the girls. He must not have been all that impressed since he slept through the whole thing. Afterward, he sat for awhile in the little sled Babu built for Nana a few years ago.















Christopher also got to meet Mommy's cousins, Aaron and Faith Tolan. He loved staring at Cousin Aaron. When Mommy explained later that they were going to have a little boy soon that could play with Christopher in a few months, he was excited.
















Here's our little man enjoying some tummy time, playing with his bus from Auntie Meg. He rolled over both ways for the first time last night. It was funny to see the startled look of surprise when he ended up on his back.
















And another favorite thing to do...STAND! "If only I had some good balance to go with these strong legs," says Christopher. "Then I could go anywhere I wanted to go."
















And here is our munchkin showing off his gut. He's now 11lbs. 4 oz.






















And showing off his drool...another new, messy thing.















Last night, Daddy got out his guitar and played Christopher some songs before bed. It was the first time he's seen/heard that, and he loved it. He never stopped staring at Andy's hand as he strummed the guitar strings - he just sat in Mommy's lap with a little smirk on his face. It was precious.

Well, that's it for now. Please continue to pray that our house will sell quickly. We've finally got all the signs/flyers together and plan on putting them out this evening. It took a little more prep work than we anticipated, but at least we're ready now. Thanks.

~Rachel

A Weekend of Firsts

What a whirlwind! We've sure had a busy weekend. Andy recently received a job offer from a company called N-tara in Johnson City, TN. Last weekend, he accepted the position and we began to make plans to move at the end of March. Part way through the week, we found out we would be moving March 10 instead...leading us to realize...WE NEED TO GET OUR HOUSE ON THE MARKET YESTERDAY! So my mama came up this weekend to help pack and take care of the baby. In 2 days, we packed and loaded about half the stuff in our house and Mama drove it to a storage unit in TN. Talk about crazy. Though I've moved a lot in my life, this was definitely a first...finding out your moving and packing/moving some stuff in about 4 days. Hopefully, it's also a last. And it was definitely a first for Andy, since he's moved between cities/states only once before in his life...Fort Wayne - to KY - and soon to TN. Thank the Lord for the help of family and friends this last weekend in trying to get a jump start on things...with that much stuff out of the house, hopefully it will be a little easier to keep clean for showings. We hope to have it on the market in the next couple days - so please add that to your prayer list. And if you know anyone wanting to buy a house in Nicholasville...send them our way! =)

At first, Christopher didn't take the news that we were moving very well. In fact, he screamed for a little while as seen below...

















...until we placed him in his favorite place in the world right now (unless he's being held) and promised that he could take this animal mobile with him when we moved. He then gave us another first, as Mommy was changing his diaper and telling him what a stinky little boy he currently was...he laughed! It was precious and melted our hearts even more.
















After he had calmed down about the move, Christopher decided to help Daddy and Mommy take some pictures of the house before it got "torn apart" and packed. Here he is showing off some of his animal pictures in his room.
















And finally, he decided to put on his best behavior and sleep peacefully almost the entire weekend whenever he wasn't eating. A tremendous help to us as we packed.

Christopher's First Rotisserie Chicken

Hello Friends and Family. We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend - we did. A few months ago we inherited a rotisserie from Andy's grandmother. It has been sitting on a shelf since then - until this weekend. Andy decided we should plug it in and see if it worked. So I bought the chicken, and Andy dressed it up with garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper and lemon juice; and we stuck it in the rotisserie. About 1 1/2 hours later, after we all had a headache and felt like we were going crazy from the loud noises the rostisserie made, we had a delicious chicken. It was a lot of fun. So, next time you come visit, ask us to pull out the rotisserie for an unforgetable experience.

Here's Christopher, obviously very amused by the loud machine that supposedly was cooking Daddy and Mommy's supper. He decided he'll stick to nursing for now...a little quieter.
















Mmmm.....yum!
















And here is our little munchkin sitting on the couch and talking to Mommy. He is such a delight. In the mornings after he wakes up, he loves to play - talking and smiling for 1/2 - 1 hour before going back down for a nap.























"Smile for the camera? Hmm...I don't know, Mommy. Let me think about it."

My First Road Trip

On Friday, I got to take my first road trip. Daddy and Mommy took me to Grandpa Didyk's house in Fort Wayne, IN. He bought a new house - it was nice. I had fun with Grandpa. He made me smile a lot.
















Can you tell that I wasn't the center of attention? Ok, maybe I was. Daddy's family all came to see me Saturday afternoon. I must be my Daddy's son, because I handled all the attention just fine.
















I met my Aunt Allison (red hair tie) and Uncle Zach (Aunt Nichola's husband) for the first time. Uncle Zach made funny faces.















Aunt Nichola held me for the first time too.
















I also got to watch TV with Aunt Megan.
















Everybody lauged at how intently I was staring at it.















It was cold up there. Daddy said it was -4* outside with a high of 2*. There was snow on the ground too, but I had to just look at it through the window because it was too cold to play in. Mommy did give me a little taste of the snow - it was really cold in my mouth. I can't wait until I can play in it with Daddy.

~Christopher

I'm a Big Boy Now

Here's me eating my rice cereal. I like it, but Daddy and Mommy just read it might give me allergies if I eat it too soon, so they're going to ask the doctor again before I get anymore. I'm not too happy about having to wait to eat it.


















Here's me in my crib - I take up a lot of room now when I'm all streteched out.