Christopher discovers Kleenex
Hiking to Laurel Falls
Look who's 13 months! Christopher is a busy busy boy, constantly on the move. Last weekend, he took five steps by himself as he walked from Mommy to Daddy in pursuit of Cheerios. He'll stand by himself, and sometimes take a few steps by himself if I slyly let go of his hands, but as soon as he realizes what he's doing, he quickly sits down. I don't think he's quite made the connection that standing and walking alone is going to get him places when Daddy and Mommy are tired of walking with him in circles around the house. Christopher is never still for more than about 0.5 seconds. Everything is a toy, and the faster he can move between each new thing he sees, the happier he is.
He enjoys feeding himself, whenever Mommy is willing to sacrifice the next half hour after he's done for a bath. He's getting better at actually getting some of the food into his mouth, though you would never be able to tell that from the following pictures.
"Mmm, mmm, delicious!"
"Two spoons are way better than one!" 
Last Saturday, Andy, Christopher and I decided to spend the afternoon hiking. We drove about 20 minutes away and hiked to a place called Laurel Falls. It was a gorgeous day - the weather was perfect and the colors on the trees were amazing. 
We stopped often along the way to just look around and enjoy the beauty, and Andy took lots of pictures. 
Christopher enjoyed playing on the wooden bridge we found that crossed the creek.
"I'm a big boy!"
Looking over the rail with Mommy.
Family picture: Andy, Christopher and Rachel.
While Andy played with the camera and took lots of pictures, Christopher and I crossed the bridge and went down to play with the rocks by the creek. First, Christopher chose his rocks.
Then Mommy taught him how to throw them in the water and make a splash. At first he just wanted to eat them, but after Mommy threw two or three of them in the water, he caught on and had fun doing it himself.
Beautiful creek!
We followed the trail along the creek and up one side of the mountain. As we reached the crest and then hiked along the ridge, we were once again reminded of how much we love the mountains. The colors God created in all the trees were spectacular. The photo doesn't even begin to do them justice.
We finally reached Laurel Falls, another beautiful site for the day.
Christopher was quite mezmorized by the waterfalls. It was actually hard to get him to look at the camera - which is usually never a problem! =) 
Since we took so long getting to the falls, we needed to pick up the pace to get out of the woods before dark. Andy wanted to take a few more pictures, and since I hiked up the steeper parts a little slower than he did, I started up the trail and was going to wait for him at the top where it flattened out. Well, I got so focused on making it to the top, that I missed where our trail split off. So I reached the top of the mountain, and realized I was on the wrong path. I decided to wait a few minutes and see if Andy ended up coming up this way too, since I hadn't seen another trail. Every few minutes I yelled out Andy's name, hoping he was headed our way. Long story short, he had run ahead on the RIGHT trail, trying to catch up with us. After awhile, he realized there was no way we could be that far ahead, so he ran back and started yelling for us as he went. We finally heard each other and he raced up the side of the hill to where Christopher and I were waiting to be found! Fortunately, we still made it out before dark, nobody got hurt, and nothing bad that could have happened did. So we both knew better than to split up in the woods - it seemed so harmless. Lesson learned. Anyway, we had a wonderful time together and you must come visit us and see the falls.
Dear Lord,
Please sell Andy and Rachel's house within the next week. Amen.
Well, just in case you forget by the time you finish reading this blog to say a prayer that our house will sell, you already did. So thank you, and please feel free to say many more. =)
This last week has been crazy. Andy, Christopher and I drove up to Lexington last Friday to hang out with friends. Andy, Justus and Dave had planned to hike Jessamine Creek all the way to the Kentucky River, which they did and had a great time.
Jessamine Creek.
The waterfalls without water - they need rain!
Dave, Justus, and Andy at the entrance to Jessamine Creek off of the Kentucky River.
Rachel, Ellen, Lizbeth and Christopher relaxed at Hunters' house and spent a little time walking around Wilmore. Sunday we went to our old church, and then hung out at Whipples for some delicious Indian food.
Christopher watching football with the boys.
And that was the end of the relaxing.
On Monday, Andy and I met with several realtors and house rental management companies, trying to decide whether to put our house back on the market (the previous listing had expired at the end of September) or rent it for a year and then try to sell it again. As you may know, the housing market has been a little slow, so "unfortunately" we still own a home in KY. (Imagine what many people in the world would think of us being frustrated that we can't sell a house that we own and are able to make payments on...as Daddy said "Ah, the trials of modern America.")
Tuesday, Andy left for a business trip to Chicago, and Christopher and I "moved-in" to our house and slept on an air mattress on the floor for two nights while we spent the next three days working on cleaning and landscaping. I met with several more real estate agents, and we finally decided to re-list our house and try to sell it. So...PLEASE PRAY HARD AND LOTS that is will sell ASAP. We figure, the more prayers the better, so thought we'd make a post about it and start our prayer chain! =) Thanks!
Though tiring and somewhat stressful, it was actually fun to do all the landscaping and make the house look inviting and pretty. Take a look:
Christopher was an angel. He spent a lot of time in his stroller, watching Mommy work. The empty cupboards in the kitchen kept him busy for quite awhile. At one point, Anna hid him inside a cupboard and played peek-a-boo with him.
Anna Leigh also helped entertain him on Thursday while I finished up everything before we headed back to Johnson City.
Andy comes home from Chicago tomorrow, so pray for his safety in traveling. We miss him a lot and are excited to see him soon. Christopher is not quite the same happy-go-lucky baby when his Daddy isn't around. He's been fairly inconsolable today...definitely a Daddy's boy. He threw a fit and cried a lot when Andy said goodbye to him in the parking lot in Lexington - it was sad and cute. I guess that's a good thing, because it means he knows and loves his Daddy - thanks to all the time Andy spends with him. He's one lucky little dude!
Well, I'm exhausted and off to bed, but thought I'd write a little update. Again:
Dear Lord, please sell Andy and Rachel's house within the next week. Amen.
Thanks!
Love,
Rachel
Our Weekend
We had a fun, relaxing weekend. We were supposed to pick apples this weekend and make apple sauce, apple butter, apple pies, apple crisp and dried apples. However, when we arrived at the apple orchard, we discovered that the late frost in April killed most of the apples around here. The owner of the orchard said that it normally takes them 3-4 weeks to pick all their apples, and this year it only took 2 days. Yikes - bad for them. Anyway, they had apples to sell that had already been picked, but they weren't that tasty, so we only bought 1 peck and decided to figure something else out.
Christopher did enjoy eating an apple that the owner gave him.
Our lonely peck of apples. We called an orchard in KY and plan on picking some apples up there when we are visiting next weekend. Then we'll work on canning them.
Since we struck out on the apples and were already half-way to Asheville, NC, we decided to take a little family road trip for the day. We drove to Asheville and hiked around downtown for about 3 hours. It was fun to go in a lot of the stores and museums. For lunch, we ate delicious food at a little Mediterranean restaurant. Christopher's favorite part was the metal tabletop. Hopefully he didn't bother too many of the other customers!
"Listen to what I can do, Daddy and Mommy. This is fun and it makes a really loud noise."
"Uh-oh. I dropped it. Can I please have the bottle lid back so I can keep playing?"
Banging on the tabletop wore Christopher out, so he slept after lunch while we walked around town a little more before heading home.
After a quick supper, we went to church. Christopher loves the music, and also enjoys trying to escape from Daddy and Mommy by crawling under the chairs. He's quite a funny handful.
On Sunday, Gigi came to visit for the day. She and Christopher had lots of fun together. They began their adventure outside, where Christopher took Gigi for a walk.
Then they played the game of "who can find the acorns faster?" Gigi to take them away, or Christopher to shove them in his mouth. Fortunately, I think Gigi won.
While Gigi and Christopher played, and Andy cleaned windows in the sun-room, I made baby food. We love our food processor - it makes it nice and easy to prepare food for Christopher. I make big batches of fruit, veggies and meat at a time and freeze it all in ice cube trays. Then we defrost a little each day as we need it. MUCH cheaper than buying baby food at the store. 
After playing outside, Gigi and Christopher read some books together. 
Then Daddy and Christopher watched football and ate a snack together. Christopher's little eyes were glued to the screen as he mechanically opened and shut his mouth while Andy fed him. 
When football got boring, Christopher played the piano for us. He loves to make noise/music on anything he can. 
Finally, Gigi took Christopher back outside to swing in the swing she bought him for his birthday. He sure enjoyed that a lot. 
For supper, we joined my family and all went out to eat at "Smokey Bones," the BBQ pit where SaraBeth just started working as a waitress. It was fun to have her serve us.
We hope you had a fun weekend as well. Enjoy your week!
