Finn - 12 months

On June 16th Finn turned one, or as they say here in Uganda he "made one year." I want to take a moment and write a bit about our precious baby boy. 

Finn is an excellent sleeper. He takes two naps a day and sleeps 11-12 hours each night. 

He's also a great eater. He's basically eating everything we're eating plus nursing a few times a day.

At his 12 month appointment, Finn weighed 21 pounds. Graham and Molly each weighed 21 pounds at 6 months! He wears size 18 month clothes. 

Finn is crawling, pulling up and cruising. He can stand for a few seconds. 

He loves to be outside, swing, explore, go up and down steps, and giggle at his brother and sister. 

Finn flew from Entebbe to Doha to Dallas at 11 months old, and back again at 12 months. I'd say he's a pretty excellent traveler. 

Here are some of my favorite recent Finn pics. There's no doubt about it: he has the cutest dimples around!

Summer in America

Wow, I haven't written on my blog in a long time! But I think this is the best way to share some of the special moments from this summer that my heart has been pondering, now that I've finally had time to process it all.

• Lunch at my grandparents' house in Azle. The shady picnic table in their front yard is a little piece of heaven. I love being with my grandparents, aunts, and just everyone on that side, and I never have as much time with them as I wish I could. But this last minute Chicken Express lunch was really wonderful. 
• Swimming at my parents' house. My parents put in a pool this past winter, and we had a blast swimming in it every day while we were there! I was amazed at how Graham's swimming skills improved while we were there. They had a giant swan floaty which we all called "the giant goose" that for some reason scared Molly. Unfortunately, my parents will be at a different house by the time we're back, but our time together swimming in their pool was just the best. 
• Girls night. I have such amazing friends. Seriously, I've been gone for 3 years and they are still so dear. We had a girls night at my friend Jessica's house. This was a really great way for me to spend time with everybody. And an added bonus was that two of my college buddies were there! I really love my friends a lot. And miss them all the time. 
• Lunch/presentation hosted by Kelly Vaughn and Becky Brooks. Becky was the facilitator at my very first ladies bible class when Graham was 3 months old. I invited her to speak at the East Africa Women's Retreat this past year, and she came bringing her mom and sister. God has really blessed me with these relationships! When I invited them for the retreat, I never dreamed that I was gaining lifelong friends and advocates. This lunch was so special! We were given the perfect opportunity to share about what God has been doing in our lives and at LIU. My heart just overflows when I think about it. I'm going to carry this with me for a long time. 
• Beach vacation with family (both sides!). The first part of our trip, in Texas, was fun...but it was very very busy. We were so happy at the beach to have some real vacation time. We spent hours at the beach and at the pool. We road bikes. We went out to eat. We played games. Oh my goodness, we had the best time. 
• Going to the movies. My kids had never been to the movies before. My dad and I took them to see Finding Dory. This was the perfect movie for their first time. I love being with my dad!
• Shopping. One of my favorite things in the world is to go to the mall with my mom and kids. We shop, we try things on, we play with the kids, and we eat lunch. My mom is so much fun to shop with. We got to do this several times and it's just my favorite. 
• Finn's birthday lunch. You guys, I still have all 4 of my grandparents, and they all came to Finn's first birthday party! It was all very low-key, fitting for a 3rd child. But it was special. Our families have missed a lot of birthdays, and we were so happy that they could be there for this one. 
• My birthday lunch at Capital Grill. Chad's mom graciously babysat for Chad and I to go out for a nice lunch. It was so fancy! And afterwards, I got to spend about 3 hours shopping by myself. And then I got my hair done (this was all the day before we left to come home). I was spoiled rotten and it was amazing. 

These are just the highlights, but I think you can see that we had a special trip! However, there's no place like home, and after 6 weeks away we were all happy to get home and sleep in our own beds.