Father Daughter Retreat 2011- at Callaway Gardens!

Last weekend daddy and I (Lexi) went to the Father Daughter Retreat hosted by Vision Forum at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mt. Georgia! (whew! That was a run-on sentence! :)  We left at 1:00 AM on Friday the 25th and arrived around 10:30 AM the same day.  I had been looking forward to this special time with daddy for a long time! :D  We had lots of fun together and I can't wait to share some of the wonderful pictures that daddy and I took!  Kimber surprised me by packing her camera and accessories in the truck the night before we left, and we also got yummy food from various members of the family that we usually only receive on special occasions and the like!  Thank you family for all of your blessings~ We love y'all!  Anyway- I was going to try and edit all the pictures before posting but I had a request to post right away!  So here goes!  

~ The First Day ~ Friday March 25, 2011 ~

Time- approx. 7:00 pm (Thursday)~  Daddy goes to bed and I check over all the "last minute things" before also retiring to bed.

Time- approx. 1:00 am (Friday)~  Daddy is up!  I wake up to mommy's gentle rubbies and she tells me it's time to go!  Daddy makes a coffee and Mommy makes me a Coco-Pure which really is good by-the-way :). Daddy and I pray with mommy before heading outside to leave (everything was packed when I woke up).  We got on the road and I had mixed emotions of "YEA!! We are finally ~after months of waiting~ on our way!!" And, "I'm going to miss everyone.."  Once we were "on the road" we called a friend of ours who was also going to the Father Daughter Retreat with his twin daughters!  No, we didn't just randomly call him, he had left us a text-message that told us to call them when we got on the road..and so we did!  When we called they told us they were stopping at a hotel for the night in Spartanburg, SC!

While taking a picture of the passing cars, the slow shutter speed on the camera (because of little light) made the various lights on the road show up in this interesting formation!

  After that I looked at the food everyone packed and found a note from Hannah and Kimber!  Hannah told me to enjoy my time and the yummy food and Kimber told me that she packed her camera and bag!!  Of course I was shocked, then I was thankful deep down though on the outside I was nervous that I would lose something ;) ! I fell asleep after awhile and then woke up and talked with daddy and then fell asleep and woke up and talked and.....you get the point!  I told daddy to tell me when we neared the "Welcome to Georgia" sign so that I could get a picture of it.  We (well Daddy) saw the "Georgia sign" at 7:11 approx.  I was taking pictures of the water underneath the bridge that the sign was on and daddy was like, "There it is, there it is!" and was pointing ahead so I thought I had a couple seconds to take a picture of the water...and well I missed it!  So.. I took a picture of the "Visitors Center" sign instead!

 :D

There you have it!  The "Georgia Visitor Information Center" sign...just pretend it's the real deal, ok :) ??

 

 A beautiful Georgian Sunrise!

 

 Another Picture of the Sunrise!

Now before I show you the next 2 pictures I'll tell you what happened. (no peeking. ;)  While daddy and I neared Atlanta, GA the traffic got worse and worse.   There was a single HOV lane that had a sign stating 2+ only.  So we were contemplating whether that meant "More than 2 people" or "Two or more".  We decided upon the "Two or more" option ;)! It was SO amazing to see how many people were driving single!  There were very little cars on the HOV lane and SO MANY on the normal high-way!  Well, I won't make you wait any longer...here are the pictures!

 

 In front of our "Noble Chariot"....

 

And behind our "Noble Chariot".

 By-the-way the "Noble Chariot" was dad's name for his truck once we got it all polished up inside and out!  He likes to have everything nice and spotless (pretty much ;) when he takes his daughters out! :) Such a caring daddy ~ I love him!  

 

 Atlanta Skyline

 

I loved the shapes of some of these buildings! They were so unique!

 

Perhaps when they built this they were trying to go for the "peach" shape? I know it is a blurry photo but I liked the structure! :)

 

 A Fathers Hand of Protection and Guidance  is necessary in a girls life...I would never choose to try and figure it out on my own!  I am so glad that my daddy is willing and caring enough to be involved in my life; it is such a blessing from my heavenly father!  I'm glad HE (the Heavenly He) is in my life too!  I'd never go without either one!

I don't want to make this post too long so I'll leave you on this note- 

We DID get there...see the flag?

We SAW the sign....

...And got lost...

All coming up on my next post about the Father Daughter Retreat 2011 in Pine Mt,GA!

Hope you enjoyed!

His Princess,

Alexis ♥

Everyday Life: Mama's Love

Everyday Life: Lydia and Judah

Lydia loves getting to hold "Judah-man"!  She passively sits as still as possible while Judah squirms in her lap!   It's so cute!  Lydia will be a great Mama someday! :)

:)

Lydia's Birthday!!

"Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God."

Acts 16:14

Lydia's 3rd birthday was celebrated last Saturday (March 19th)!

For about a month or two before her birthday, Lydia would say to me (at least once a day) "My birthday's coming up in March."  Then she'd add "and I'll get chewies."  (Chewies meaning anything sweet! :)  The first place she headed Saturday morning (after we woke her up with our obnoxious singing) was to her special plate whereupon she found...chewies!  She was excited to say the least! :)

Rocking with Mama before breakfast.

 

Lydia chose chocolate chip drop biscuits for her breakfast!  We also added some eggs and hashbrowns to the menu!

Yummy!!

Eating Daddy's awesome eggs!

 As we were finishing up breakfast, Aunt Mae-Mae (and family!) called to sing "Happy Birthday" to Lydia.  Lydia really enjoyed the call! :)

After breakfast Daddy, Caleb, and Seth went to work and the rest of stayed home and gardened. :)  In the process I managed to get a horrendous sunburn which is, thankfully, abating. (The sunburn was my fault too... :)

Later that night we continued Lydia's festivities!

 Lexi face-painted Lydia before dinner and Lydia face-painted Lexi! :)  Lydia will be one interesting artist! ;)

For dinner we had our out-of-this-world Longhorn burgers.

  (We also had macaroni and peas...but those don't get a picture!  Ha! :)

 Ready for dinner!

 Yummy!

After dinner came the presents...

...and more "chewies!" :)

Shoes!  A girl's favorite, right?

Some presents took a little concentration to get open! :)

Other than "chewies" Lydia also received some cute little outfits, some play toys and more shoes!

When all the presents were opened, we cuddled up on the couches to watch How to Train Your Dragon.  When we were about half-way through the movie, we paused it and went to light Lydia's candles on her cupcake!

Lydia had funfetti cupcakes with buttercream frosting for her birthday dessert!  Grandma had bought us a cake decorating basket for Christmas and I used one of the bags and icing tips to make some neat designs with the icing.  I love baking desserts! :)

Anyways here a few quick photos of the cupcakes...I can't resist! :)

Lexi and Lydia topped the icing with some sprinkles before dinner!

But back to Lydia...

 "Happy birthday to you..."

 

Lydia is an expert candle-blower! 

Once the flames were extinguished, we ate our yummy cupcakes and then finished the movie!

Happy birthday, Lydia!  We love you and couldn't ask for a more sweeter, adorable little sister! :)

---

One announcement before I take my leave:  Caleb and Seth have started their own blog, with Lexi as editor-in-chief.  Since they are the primary caretakers of the 99 chicks they will be updating their blog every-so-often with pics of the growing chicks and some info on chickens.  They're calling their business Solid Rock Ranch Egg Factory and I think you'd enjoy checking out their blog and leaving them a comment.  They'd really appreciate it!  

And, look out!  Healthy, pasture-raised chicken eggs from the Wassenberg Ranch will be ready in about 6 months!

Kimber :)

Everyday Life: Eden and Judah

I've made myself a goal.  Every day, for at least 15-30 minutes, I'm going to get my camera out and take pictures, focusing manually the whole time.  That probably doesn't seem like a big deal to you guys but focusing manually is hard!  So, over the next few weeks I'll probably be posting pictures of my family doing our everyday stuff.  The posts won't be long, just little snippets (some may just be one picture with a sentence or two to explain).  I think it'll be neat to look back at our blog, years from now, and get to reminisce over the little things in life that made living in this family all the more special!  

Anyways, the other day Eden and Judah were my main subjects for the morning!  Eden does such a great job with Judah!  Getting to hold him is her absolute favorite thing!

Kissing Judah is probably her 2nd most favorite thing to do! :)

(Seriously, who couldn't kiss those soft, chubby cheeks??!!)

Baby fingers!!!

So, there you have the first installment of my "Everyday Life" posts!  Hopefully more will follow soon!

Kimber :)

Two Firsts

Well two things have happened recently that haven't happened in our family before!  I'll start with the latest one:

HANNAH GOT HER LICENSE! :)  

Yesterday morning she headed off to the DMV in Tappahanock ,with her fantastic teacher Dad, to take her on-road test!  She did great!

A hug from Mama after returning home!

We're all really excited for Hannah!  She's been waiting and working to get her license for quite some time.  All the hard work has paid off!

"And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."

Hebrews 6:15

Now for announcement #2:

Judah had his first bites of cereal last Friday!

Here are some pictures of his reactions:

Get ready...get set...it is coming to get meeeee!!!!!

...go!

Hmmm...maybe it wasn't as good as he thought. :)

Here comes another bite!

 He may not look like he enjoyed it but he actually would lean forward to the bowl in Daddy's hands, and reach out for more!

Give me more!  Give me more!

Now I have a few more things to say before I end...

#1.  Hannah started a blog for young ladies (principally those around her age or younger) to encourage daughters to Delight in Jesus.  She's written a few posts up already and her blog is really neat!  Go here to view it!

#2.  We're getting around 100 chicks this weekend!  The boys (Caleb and Seth) will be responsible for half...raising the chicks to be prolific egg producers!!  Look out in the future for the announcement of fresh eggs from the Wassenberg's farm! :)

#3.  My wonderful Uncle Kevin (and a friend Darryl) are starting a car washing/detailing business on the side.  They are willing to come to you to get your car looking nice and clean...and I can testify that Uncle Kevin is a great person, so you couldn't go wrong with contacting him and letting him clean up your car!  To reach Uncle Kevin and his friend, email them at Rimnantdetail@gmail.com  They look forward to hearing from you!

Okay, that's all (I think!).
Kimber :)