Gainesville Days

We have already had 2 sets of visitors in our little apartment! Walt and Kim Alexander were able to come and spend the night with us on their way to vacation. They were our first FL guests and we had a wonderful time together talking, laughing, and eating Belgian Waffles! It was a short trip, but we packed it with a lot of fun times. Our next visitors were Dad and Mom. We had such a wonderful time all together as always! Dad and Mom are so generous to us. Here are some pictures from their trip:

Laurel getting tickled by Pop! (yes, those are Laurel's pants on Dad's head...)

Laurel really loved Dad and Mom! As you can see, she finally has enough hair to clip a bow straight up...at 13 months :-)
Laurel LOVES reading books! She has recently started getting books and then coming over to sit in my lap and read them. I love it!

This past Saturday we had a wonderful family day at a beach near Tampa called Honeymoon Island. Will found it the night before we left and it was perfect! It is a state park, so it doesn't have any houses or businesses on it. Even on a busy weekend like labor day, you could look down the beach in either direction and see no one! We had such a wonderful time together. I am grateful to Will for wanting to make such special memories on his day off!

Here is Laurel learning birdwatching from her Dad. She loved all the birds.

Once you walked for about 1/2 mile past the parking area this was our view in either direction! It was so beautiful! I can't wait to go back.

We took a walk on the beach and Laurel fell asleep on Will and slept for a long time. Those are such special times and I'm glad Will got to experience it!

Here is Laurel talking to Grandfather on the phone. She has started holding the cell phone to her ear on her own. It is really cute!

Laurel and I before enjoying our picnic lunch (in the shade!).

This is for all the Vols fans...Laurel is remaining faithful to the home team!

We took a little after diner run to chick-fil-a for some ice cream...I think I might have enjoyed it even more than Laurel :-) I don't think it is supposed to work that way!

I recently made some bread that turned into a HUGE loaf. Here is a picture for comparison. I like how Laurel is fingering the cutting board.

Laurel had a really sleepy day recently where every time I turned around she was lying on the ground sucking her thumb. It was really cute! Here she is in the dining room by the trash can.

Here she is in the kitchen.

Laurel has become very fond of waving!

This is what Will has been doing! He wanted a picture of the ridiculous amount of books for his first semester.

The youngest LLM student!

Trepidation!

My wonderful Aunt Allie gave Laurel a lot of adorable clothes for her birthday. I promised to post pictures so she could see how cute Laurel looks, but both times I tried to put her in all the outfits something happened, so here is the first in a series....I will post the rest when I take the pictures.

That is what we have been up to the last few weeks! God has really blessed us in a lot of unexpected ways so far and we know he will continue to be faithful to us while we are here. But we sure are excited about coming home. May can't come soon enough!!!

I had written a nice updated about our life in Gainesville and how well we are settling in, but somehow it is deleted and I can't easily get it back. Suffice it to say that we are doing great, although I am already eager to be coming home. I am thinking of this trip as an extended adventure/vacation and in that light we are really enjoying it. The best news from the last few weeks is that we are going to be able to come home in early May rather than mid July as we were originally planning. I am extremely excited about this! I have caught myself already counting down the days, as in, "one week down...only so many more to go!"

I am so far behind that I am doubtless going to leave a lot of pictures and events out, but I thought I could begin updating on our recent Kittrell Family Vacation to Anna Maria Island. On the way home from this vacation the Kittrell's dropped us off in Gainesville so except for the last few weeks this is as updated as possible.

The Happy Little Kittrell Family The Happy Little Almost-Kittrell Family
The Happy Big Kittrell Family

Adorable Laurel with her first tan!

This was a BEAUTIFUL sunset!

The bird-watcher in action!

Yum! Will and I at our farewell lunch with Bill and Cheri. A few tears were shed, but I think we managed to keep it together fairly well :) All you can eat fish and chips certainly was helping our cause!

Breakfast on the beach!

My favorites! Lucky girl :-)

Here we all are in the new apartment before anything has been moved in.

Off to Gainesville!

Here is the trailer all packed up with our worldly goods. Will worked VERY hard to fit everything I packed inside.

This isn't from vacation, but I thought it was too cute not to include! Laurel is waiting for will to come home from the Bar exam.

This is where Laurel got her baths on vacation.

Enjoying some ballpit time in the backyard.

Annual Smuggler's Cove mini-golf trip! If you are interested I came in dead last :)

Cheri and Laurel enjoying the waves!

Will and Laurel. I love her little hand holding on to his shirt.

Grandfather and Laurel reading one of her favorite books.

Laurel LOVED the shopping cart we got her for her birthday. Here she is playing with it for the first time.

A new ball.

I just think this is funny!

Devotions with Grandfather...you know you are getting up early when you have to wear a headlamp to read! This was also useful for grilling at night (I do have that picture, but it isn't posted :O)

This is my new favorite picture of our little one year old! I forgot to mention that she has started walking!!!! She took her first few steps a couple days after we arrived at our apartment. She is getting better and better every day. We are loving it!

Will and Laurel enjoying some pool time. You can vaguely see that Laurel has a little more hair. It is growing by the day.

Summer Days with my 11 Month Old

I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted Laurel pictures! She is doing great and Will and I just continue to grow in our love and enjoyment of her. She turned 11 months last week and is seeming so much more like a little girl to me and less like a baby. She is eating different kinds of table food now which has been lots of fun. She has turned into a really good eater after getting off to a rather slow start! She doesn't seem to care about learning to walk yet, being very content to crawl around very fast and cruise around on the furniture. Will and I try to lure her into standing by offering her favorite toys just out of reach! Dada is still her favorite word and is used for most people and situations. Even so, when she says it to Will we get excited and think she is figuring it out :-) We have recently discovered that her favorite music is classic rock with her favorite song being "Sweet Home Alabama"...very interesting. When it comes on she will get very excited, wave her arms wildly, and "dance"! She is such a joy to take care of and spend time with!

Here are some pictures from the last month:

Our sweet Laurel Anne

Looking SHOCKINGLY like Will when he was little!

"Pick me up, Mama!" I still love it when Laurel holds out her arms even though she has been doing it for months and months.

A couple weeks ago, I was in the bathroom getting ready for church when I came out to discover Laurel "getting ready" as well! The eye shadow container was actually IN her mouth when I found her!

She looked like the Tin Man!

A recently family outing to Dunkin Doughnuts. My kind of outing! We let Laurel get a doughnut hole which she loves.

Poor "Uncle B" after getting his wisdom teeth out a couple weeks ago.

Gainesville

Will and I had a wonderful getaway/trip to Gainesville this past weekend! We got to visit the church, find an apartment, see the campus, and get acquainted with the area. God was so kind and we are extremely encouraged about living there starting in August.

Here we are in a National Park area called Payne's Prairie. We saw an alligator (as well as tons of lizards, birds, some wild horses, and a turtle)!

I cut bangs! I am enjoying having a new style. I get bored with the same one if I keep it to long.

We are very pleased with the apartment complex we choose! We looked at 3 different places that got consecutively better. You gotta love being able to sunbathe in winter!

Kitchen and Dining Room (the front door is to the left). They won't be furnished like that...I was taking pictures of the model.

View from the front door

Our room on the left and Laurel's on the right.

I really like how small the buildings are. Only 4 apartments per unit.