Adios

The Patridge household had to say goodbye this week... We sold our very first family table. This little guy saw us through our first two and a half years of marriage. We have had fun hosting parties of four (including us) with its help. It originally was all that would fit in our little one bedroom apartment, but since then, we have been waiting for the right moment to get a table that will hopefully see us through as our family grows bigger...God willing.




Well, thanks to my sister and an overturned truck headed to an upscale Atlanta furniture gallery, we are now the proud owners of a rather expensive table that seats 6 normally, and 8 with its leaf. The kicker..... it is in excellent condition after falling off the truck, and IT IS FREE! The one downside...it needs refinishing. Fortunately, my hubs is always up to the challenge!

Until then, this is what dinner has become:



I do hope this is very temporary. I do not want to turn into Matilda's family!

I can't wait to decorate my new dining area. I am planning on doing mix-matched chairs. So far, I purchased two white chairs, and two parson chairs that are chocolate brown with fall colored designs. I need two more. Any suggestions?

I am also excited about trying out the doily diy table runner I saw on www.ashleyannphotography.com/blog.

Can't wait to show you the table!!

In other decorating news, I heart mix matched frames with fun wall art. Will and I hope to collect unique finds through thrift stores and travels to decorate our stairway with one day. I decided to practice in our guest bedroom with random stuff we have obtained. I am not completely finished, but this is how it looks so far:



Finally, to appease our sweet family, here is some pics from our family outing to the park on Saturday:











Thank you Lord for these sweet moments with my family.

He did it!

Someone has finally mastered the art of crawling! After weeks of frustration, Hudson finally decided to make his way across the room--while we weren't watching of course. On Monday, he decided to crawl to his dresser knob. It is funny to see what interests him...which usually isn't toys. It may or may not be important to note he first crawled while in the nude. Our son loves to be naked!!

Crawling keeps me busy! Here he is making a mess in our loft:






I mentioned last week I would give you a sneak peak at what we do while we are out...

We buy groceries:



We go to story time at the library:



We see all our friends at playgroup:





We sometimes go visit our family in Alex City:





We can't wait for the weather to get warmer, so we can go see Daddy coach soccer!

Hudson's Baptism

I think blogging is a great way for me to journal family memories. I plan on printing out our blog and making a big book to keep adding to through the years. On that note, I felt I needed to post a little about Hudson's baptism.

First, I grew up Southern Baptist, so infant baptism is a fairly new concept to me. Why do Will and I choose to baptize our children? We do not believe that Hudson is saved through his baptism. He must come to faith in Christ in order to be saved. The reason why we baptize would require a very lengthy discussion in which I don't feel confident to lead. In short, while Will and I don't feel it is wrong to not baptize your infants, we felt led to do it. It is Hudson's seal that he belongs to a covenant family. We do not believe that baptism is a sign of our faith in God. Rather, we believe baptism is a sign of God's faithfulness in His covenant. We are believing God's word that He will be a God to us and our children--as we remain faithful to raise our children in the knowledge of the Lord.

Hudson was baptized in November at Briarwood Presbyterian Church. It was a sweet time for our family. We acknowledged that Hudson was in need of Christ, and we made a promise to God to teach our child the Word of God. The church also promised to aide us in this.

Will got to give Hudson his blessing. He read Luke 9:23-25-"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake shall save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself." After reading the verse, he said, "Hudson, you are the Lord's, and we pray this verse for you- that it would resonate in your heart and in your life, and that not a day would pass that you do not know the glorious riches that are in Christ our Lord. We pray that wherever you go and whatever you do, you would live your life for the sake of Christ." He also mentioned Hudson's namesake in his blessing--which is missionary Hudson Taylor. He winged that part, so I am not sure exactly what he said.

His sweet Ge spent countless hours making his little gown.




Ge, Nana, Pops, Bubba, Uncle Reed, Uncle Wes, Maw Maw, and Granny all came to watch. Ok well to be truthful, Uncle Wes accidentally slept through the early service, but we saw him later.:) Some of our uncles, aunts, and cousins couldn't be there, but they were celebrating with us in spirit!

Afterwards, we had a little brunch at our house. It was a very sweet day. God has truly blessed us by giving us Hudson.














Just so you know what we were working with, here was a picture of Hudson a few days before his baptism:




Look at that sweet face afterwards:




Although baptism doesn't save, you can see he has changed some of his wild ways already!

Just another Tuesday....

,I read a quote by David Platt that is worth sharing:

"See a world where, over the last few years, more than half a million people have died instantly-in tsunamis in southeast Asia, cyclones in Myanmar, earthquakes in China and Pakistan, or floods in Nepal and Bangladesh--and where most of those half-million people have never once heard the gospel. They are joined today by a billion others who at this moment still have not heard that Christ came to save them from their sins. See a world where half the population is living on less than two dollars a day while you and I, by contrast, are extremely rich. See the nation of India, where there are more people living below the poverty line than there are total people in the United States. See a world where today alone twenty-six thousand children will die either of starvation or a preventable disease. See our dogs and cats eating better than our brothers and sisters in central Africa. See a world where last fall, in one week alone, fifty thousand people died of AIDS, more than a hundred thousand children died of hunger-related diseases, thousands of other children were trafficked around the world for sexual exploitation, and hundreds were killed in an earthquake in Pakistan. All in one week. And yet, during the same week, the greatest concerns for many of us were how our football teams played and how our 401(k) accounts fared."

Wow. I long to view the riches of this world as rubbish. I want to truly say-"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you."-Psalm 73:25

In other news... My mom often asks me, "What did you and Hudson do today?" So, I snapped a few pictures of last night and today to fill you in if you too are wondering..as I am sure you are! This is some insight in what we do at home. I'll fill you in on our daily outings next time.


We take baths:



We let Daddy sing us a bedtime song:



We get into mayhem in our crib:



We do our chores:



And of course, we play:

Resolutions

The Patridge Family has finally decided on our goals for the year 2011.

Family Goals:

As a Family, our main goal is to pray together each day. We have a prayer list we are going to go by so that we can make sure we pray for everything each week. We are actually making a prayer closet in our bedroom (for personal prayer time). I will post pictures as soon as it is finished. We also are going to memorize scripture together. Ok, well Huds isn't going to participate in this one. We have almost finished memorizing Romans 12. I picked this one. Will gets to pick the next one. So, how are we going about this? I have posted our scripture memory on our bathroom mirror and in the shower.






We also both have note cards we carry around with us!

Other family goals include taking turns planning family time and romantic dates.

Heather's Goals:

I am going to try to tackle the Bible in a year once again. I made it to May 5th last year, which happened to be the day Hudson was born. Note to self, reading the Bible in a year should probably not be a goal when you are expecting. I am reading a chronological Bible this year. It has been great so far!



Also, by the year 2012 I hope to be able to sew a little. I do not want to overwhelm myself here, so I am starting very small. My goals also include gardening and having people in my home more often.

Will's Goals:




My sweet Hubs plans to read two books with me this year! It is very hard for Will to commit to an entire book. He gets distracted by something else. I want to get him into loving novels. Any suggestions?

Will also plans to limit how many times he says he is tired. He only wants to use the word for true times of exhaustion.


Hudson's goals:




I talked to Hudson about how hard it is to keep resolutions. I encouraged him to think small. He insisted on having the most. So here goes....

1) He wants to completely wean himself from the bottle by 2012.
2) He plans to have accomplished crawling, walking, and RUNNING!
3) He envisions being able to use some of his words.
4) He is planning a huge Cinco De Mayo party.
5) He is excited about learning to dance.


Hope we keep these resolutions!!!

My New Favorite Things...

I thought I would share some of my fave Christmas items! I just love adding fun new things to our home.

1) My owl spoon rest:



2) My banana hand towel:



3) A peacock painting:



4) This cool little night light that makes our house smell AMAZING:



5) A sewing machine! So nervous and EXCITED about this one:



I also got a food processor! Exciting.

On another note, since of course most of my blogs never have the same theme, I have been learning so much about our sweet Lord from my baby boy. This week, I was loading the car with groceries and Hudson was playing with my keys. Of course, I had to take them away or else we would stand all day in the cold. I had to pry them out of his sweet little hands, and he, as most babies do, threw a huge tantrum. His tiny mind did not understand why his loving mommy had to take the best thing in the world-- at that moment-- away from him. While it saddens me to upset him, I didn't for a second think about giving them back---ever for that matter! I knew they were absolutely necessary to drive home. I see how God, our loving father, truly knows what we need! We are spiritual babies often not seeing past our most recent desire. Thanks Jesus for reminding me of your unfailing love that surpasses my understanding.

2011.....Wow!

I remember thinking the year 2000 was forever away, and here I am in the year 2011. We don't live like the Jetson family yet, but we have come along way since I have been around.


Will and I ended the year 2010 wonderfully. We celebrated on the 30th. Dinner at 26---sushi, grouper, and steak....slap me! We then spent a little time downtown and headed to the Hotel Highland. It was great time together. Thank you sweet Hubs!

We celebrated NYE with a few friends. We had tasty chili, yummy dessert, and good bubbly. We played Catch Phrase, and rang in 2011 Eastern Time. Will and I were home and in pajamas just in time to watch the Moon Pie in Mobile drop. We were asleep by 12:05.

Today, we are enjoying bowl games and eating black eyed peas, pork chops, and turnip greens. Please don't think I believe those superstitions, but it reminds me of childhood.

The year 2010 brought us our sweet baby boy. We love you so much Hudson. You have greatly enriched our lives. Happy New Year to everyone!