halfway gone :(

My sweet baby boy, the firstborn who changed my world forever, turned 9 this May without my permission.  He officially started into the "back nine" of childhood despite the fact that I can still hold and rock him (when he lets me :)).  I shudder to think how fast this second half will fly by and pray that it is as sweet and special as the first.

So, how do I describe you now, Gehr?  In many ways, you are so similar to how you've always been. You're super laid back and easy-going, getting along with everyone and having fun in any situation. You've been blessed with great friends and so many fun opportunites and outings.  You are smart and careful and conscientious and compliant.  I'm constantly grateful to watch you love and care for your sisters and how sweet you are to any younger kids we're around.  You are gifted at math and have an incredible memory, but still favor history, geography and art in school.  You continue to follow in your daddy's footsteps with natural athletic ability and a great love for anything and everything to do with sports.  You still love animals and any kind of picture encyclopedia...and you continually bless my heart with how you know and love the Word more than I knew was possible at your age.

You've also grown a lot this year.  I almost feel like I have another adult in the house sometimes with the ways that you help with chores and the girls and talk with me about life like you're big.  You have moments of teenager-y laziness trying to peek through, but listen and heed mama and daddy's warnings about letting it take hold.  You are sensitive and don't share too many details unless it's something important...and I can already see that you have your daddy's gift of seeing the best in people and situations.  Your love of reading has grown and it makes my heart sing...and you have continued to grow into a great little artist.  This year, you went through the Bible Skills program for the first time and blew us all away with how much you memorized with hardly any practice.  You enjoyed football, tennis, baseball, swim team, Latin and art classes.  And you've started weekly Saturday morning guy times with Daddy to talk about all-things-life to help lay the foundation for your transition to manhood.

I feel so blessed to be your mama and just really love being around you.  It makes me look forward to the coming years, even if I do want them to come slowly.  Thank you for letting me over-protect and ask a million questions and take endless pictures of you...you are so patient with me :).  I love you so much, buddy.

Old enough now to know that we always take birthday-eve pics...we did one earlier in the afternoon and then right before bed like normal.  Last pics of him as an 8-year-old...

His version of selfies with Mama ;)

Waking up 9!  It was a super fun treat to have live-in friends that week to celebrate with us first thing :)

We didn't have a ton of birthday plans for that day, but were so thankful for sweet Rucker boys who brought balloons and an awesome football book to Gehr at tennis...

We finished they day like we started it, around the table with the Links...just at their kitchen table instead of ours while we unpacked boxes :)

And then, sweetness fell asleep with his Rucker-gift.  It was a good day :))

A couple of days later, Gehr went putt-putting to celebrate in a low-key way with Luke and the Rucker boys.  They are such cuties...

And afterward met up with us girls for dinner.

All in all, fun and laid back and sweet.  Just like you :)  Happy 9th birthday, Gehrig Owen!  Every year with you is a gift that we cherish.  We love you!!

greer's baptism

There's not a more special day as a parent than when our children accept Christ as Savior and choose to give their lives to Him.  Greer did so last fall and this May, we celebrated her decision as she identified with Jesus publicly through baptism.  Although we missed Bebe and others, we were so incredibly blessed by family and friends who took time to be there with her.  We love that it is a specific service that is planned just for that and are grateful that so many confirmed its importance for our girl with their sweet presence.  It will be a cherished memory for her always!

All the Sellers siblings headed over from Atlanta and we were thankful for some quick visiting time before heading to church...

She was pretty excited :)))

This mama's heart overflowed to see such sweetness there in support of Greer.  Love them all so much! One friend from Sunday School even had his mom bring him after he saw it in the worship guide that morning.  So precious...

A little bit of her sweet testimony...my heart bursts.

Couldn't be more proud of you, my sweet girl!  We pray that you will live a life worthy of this calling (Eph 4:1) and know that God is always, always with you (Zeph 3:17 :)).  We love you more than we can say and are so excited for you!

they're here :)

Such a long-awaited and happy sight to see this truck bringing our buddies back here...hard to put it into words really.

The kids had lots of fun and the grownups unloaded (and had lots of fun too :))...

Back here for dinner after a full day.  We loved having them stay with us for a few days while getting their house settled in...

And a super fun box fort by Matt...complete with multiple rooms and entry points.  The big and little kids enjoyed it for several days :))

We don't even know where to start in trying to express how awesome it is for our family to have them back.  Loved and missed y'all in the day-to-day and already loving getting back to that.  So blessed :))

co-op family night & field day

On the last day of co-op, we had a family cookout and awards night to wrap it all up.  Garner and Brooklyn spent the time hiding and playing under the tables :)

The rest of the time was full of playing and visiting until it was time to go in for awards night.  So amazing to see this group altogether!

That Friday, we met up for Field Day and had a blast.  It was greatly organized this year and lots of fun.  B even took the day off to go with us...that made it even better :)

Mamas getting ready to race :)

Joanna bombed the winning team's photo :))

Lots of fun races and color-coordinated teams even!

And sweet Banks and Garner playing on the side :)

Love these guys! 

Such a great way to finish the co-op school year... water-balloon fighting between the students and teachers.  I got creamed but also did some creaming...it was great!

Now to summer and a good break...much to do for planning, but nice to rest from projects and weekly classes for a little bit :)

atlanta travel

After our spring break trip to Atlanta was cancelled due to sickness, we rescheduled a visit for the first of May.  We are so excited that almost all of the mama's side of our fam lives close now so that we can see them all easier.  We stayed at Slade & Jessica's this time and the Gs loved meeting baby Stone :)

That evening, the rest of the fam came over for playing, visiting and dinner.  At some point during all of that, Garner lost her clothes and came out with her paci and lovey ;).

Bebe and her grands!

So love time with them all...and just so grateful.  Looking forward to more of these visits :))

It worked out nicely that Daddy's playoff game was in the Atlanta area the next day, so we met up with him that afternoon.  Gehrig joins the guys in the dugout, but the girls keep themselves busy in other ways.  This time it was coloring and bracelet-making (for Mads...love Greer's heart :)) and visiting with a sweet grandpa of one of our players :)

After the games, we went to dinner with the team and the Gs ended up sitting with the players (some gone to wash up at this pic).  They always love on them so sweetly and even Garner feels right at home...what a gift :)

We stayed with Daddy back at the hotel since they split and had to play game 3 the following day.  The girls started off together, but ended up apart since Greer does better solo because she is such a nightowl :))

Though we knew that it was a possibility, we didn't know for sure then that this would be our last trip with EHS.  More on that later, but so thankful that we could be there with B one more time...thankful for the family time and memories there.  And yay for the easier travel these days...the Gs seem so big. Love them and this sweet time :))