Friday night we (or I should said I, since Drew kindly stayed home to take care of Brayden) kicked started the weekend by attending Razorback Relief: Operation Haiti. The University of Arkansas teamed up with Numana, a humanitarian organization to pack meal packs for the earthquake victims in Haiti. It was a 24 hour effort, and they were trying to break a world record in the process. I am proud to say that we broke the world record. What was even neater though was knowing that the rice, the packs and the boxes we touched will be touched by the victims. Haiti has a special place in my heart since I visited there in 10th grade. I wish sometimes that I could live with half the joy that they live with, and they live with far less than anything we have here... and that was before the devastation of the earthquake. If you have a way to help out in any capacity for Haiti, or any other organization that helps 3rd world countries, I highly recommend you do it. It's so humbling to pack small ziplock baggies of beans and rice and see that the food will feed 6 people... makes it hard to complain when you are eating something you don't really like and puts things into perspective. I loved seeing families there with their kids, and can't wait for Brayden to be old enough to participate in things like that. I don't want Brayden to grow up in a bubble and think that everyone lives like we do... and things like Razorback Relief make that very real for young people! Here's some pics of our group in action:
(PS, thanks to my friend Susan for taking these pics with her Iphone. I totally forgot my camera in the car!)
Saturday we decided that we'd check out one of the local summer festivals in the area. I wasn't really excpecting much, and to be honest, there really wasn't a TON to do (atleast for a 14 month old anyway), but there was a local farm club there with some animals.... BINGO for Brayden! He LOVED it. He kept saying "ha ha ha" (which is basically a dog bark, monkey call or a sheep baaing, depending on the animal he is around... in this case, sheep).
I think I finally found something that is more miserable than a pregnant lady in the summer... poor sheep had a good 4 inches of wool on him/her :(
Petting the lambs with daddy
Getting a glimpse of bunnies. The one on the far left was named Elvis. Poor elvis got a little bit of some love taps from Brayden. B even tried to kiss Elvis... haha!
Talking to the sheep... he kept saying "ah, ah, ah"... trying to baaaa at them I guess :)
He also got to milk a fake cow. We didn't think he'd really know what to do, but once Drew showed him he really wanted to do it himself. So funny! And yes, for those of you reading this, in Arkansas we have fake cows to learn how to milk. I promise you we're not as redneck as we sound or look... haha!
learning to milk the cow from Daddy.
doing it all by himself. we might have ourselves a dairy farmer on our hands (dear lord please no! haha!)
After the festival we headed up to the splash park. Brayden LOVED it as always!
nothing like a good enima on a warm summer's day. LOL.
He kept clapping and saying "yay!"
Saturday night Drew was working out in the yard so Brayden went out to play along. He was playing with the hose and it was close to bath time, so I went ahead and turned it on-- he had a BLAST. It was so funny because he would put his whole mouth over the hose and then water would squirt everywhere and he'd start laughing. He's a hoot!
I love his facial expression here... it's like he's saying, "hey, quit squirting me in the face!"
"whew, that is coming out a little harder than I thought!"
Toby even got in on some of the water action! I love this dog!
Today was pretty low key-- church, naps, and then we had some out of town family over for dinner. Sadly I didn't get a picture, but I assure you that Allison, Emily, Lucinda and George all had fun playing with Brayden and Toby!
I have an OB appointment on Tuesday-- can you believe I am almost 18 weeks? We have our big ultrasound on July 13th. I honestly am more nervous this pregnancy than I ever was with Brayden. I think it's because over the past two years I have had more friends lose babies or have terrible things go wrong with their children that I am so much more aware of the blessing that is a healthy child. I know a lot of people call the big ultrasound the one where they find out what they're having. And while we plan to find out, I also realize that the main purpose of that ultrasound is to make sure that everything is developing as it should. Please pray for peace as we near that date and that God would bless us with a healthy baby!
I hope everyone has a great week!
