Annual Family Pictures

The pictures speak for themselves. We were going to pay a professional, but decided to save the money and use our own camera to take family pictures for ourselves. And we ended up with so many good ones I had a hard time choosing my favorites!! I'll try to upload them all to the Shutterfly site soon, but there were over 100, so it will take awhile! My kids are just too cute! :)

I got their matching outfits at Dillards, like I did at Christmas. I still have money on that same gift card so I didn't really spend anything except to get Leah new sandals (oh, and Brett got a new shirt too).

It was a hot day and Leah was way more excited about going out to dinner after the pictures were over so she wasn't exactly the most cooperative 2-year-old. We had to keep convincing her that she just had to stand still for one minute. But she kept saying "Don't take my picture!" Andrew, on the other hand, was a ham, and looked like he was having a blast! We managed to get some of the same pictures of him that we got of Leah at the Seminary when she was almost the same age as he.

While we did get some good shots and I'm glad we saved the money, it's tricky getting both kids to look at the camera at the same time, especially when no one's behind it, so next year we may just spring for the professional.

Memorial Day

Sunday we decided to have a little impromptu Memorial Day cookout, just our family at home. We had some yummy Cheddarwurst, veggies & corn on the cob, then we enjoyed some WATERMELON! At first I just gave Andrew a slice of it (it was seedless), and all he did was just squish it in his hands-- he didn't try to eat it. So then I just cut it up for him and he did seem to like it.

I had just bought both kids a new bathing suit so I wanted to try them on before I lost the receipt, etc.-- that's why they're wearing them. Leah did not want to take hers' off (she kept calling it her underwear, and she asked to wear it again the next morning!). She kept pouting because she wanted to go to the beach or swimming pool.

We got out our hammock too! This was a tricky shot to pose. :)

5 Years!

I created a little slide show highlighting 5 years of marriage to my Prince. :) (I can no longer find a program that will let me upload music for free, so it will have to be silent-- I don't blame you if you don't want to watch the whole thing!

See the progression of our "gazebo photos" here. We've taken one every year since we started dating. (We're going to take our five-year ones Monday on Memorial Day. Might be the last year for awhile!)

Leah's Year in Puggles

This year on Wed. nights I've been taking Leah to our former church for their AWANA program. When we attended, Brett & I both worked with the older kids in AWANAs, and it is a great program, where the kids memorize tons of Scripture and learn a lot from the Bible! This church is one of the few in the area that offers a 2-year-old program called Puggles. They didn't do much Scripture memory, but focused more on concepts, like "God loves me," "God made the world," etc. She loved going every week (and I know she will miss it even though she really doesn't yet understand it's over), could name several of her friends in her class, and could even sing the Puggles song they learned.

The end-of-the-year Awards Ceremony was this past Sunday. Unfortunately, Leah was standing/ sitting behind a teacher the whole time and I could not get a good shot of her, but here's what all the Puggles looked like on stage (as you can see, it's a BIG program-- she was on a waiting list the first few weeks and finally got in around November).

They each got a cute little Certificate of Participation after they sang their song, and then they left to come sit with us. Leah was sooo upset that it was not a "usual" Puggles night, that she didn't get to go be with her friends anymore, so we had to take her out of the service and didn't really get to see any of the rest. She paused long enough for me to get one good shot of her.



And then, to make everything all better, we let her play on the playground a few minutes before we left. It was the only thing that could make her happy.




I will really miss the AWANA program at this church next year, but we will probably be doing our own at Newton Grove-- it won't be nearly as big, but I know we can do it well, and either way, Leah will have the opportunity to learn Scripture and be taught the truth from a very young age!

Andrew @ 10 months

- Andrew seems so much bigger every day-- I can hardly believe we're 2 months away from his one-year-old birthday! He is all boy now-- he loves making messes and getting dirty, getting into things he shouldn't, climbing all over things, and generally just being mischeivous. (I'm thinking his sister was like this at his age, too, though!) He prefers to stand up rather than sit. He is starting to cruise along furniture a lot more. He is starting to crawl some on his knees rather than just his belly. His favorite is to climb up on me when I'm sitting on the floor. He's rarely content to sit still. I can barely even rock him anymore at bedtime. He seems to be fussier lately and requires much more attention, but it could be because he's teething, or just requires more maintenance than I'm used to!






- The Little Monster has somehow become a horrible sleeper lately. He usually has to cry (scream) himself to sleep for about 20 minutes when I lay him down-- naptime & bedtime. Then he'll wake up 1 or 2 times a night and cry, and 45 minutes into naptime. We now have no other choice than to just let him cry it out, because even if we rock him back to sleep, as soon as we lay him down, he wakes back up and cries. So he is learning-- slowly, but surely-- how to put himself back to sleep. And it is getting better. At first, I think he was doing this because he would stand up in his crib and couldn't figure out how to get back down. Now, he knows how, but I'm pretty sure he's teething and in some pain (although I still have yet to see a single tooth pop in!!), which wakes him up, and he wants someone to hold him until he goes back to sleep. It's been tough, and Brett & I have both lost sleep, but we are determined to make him better at sleeping on his own!


Besides waking up, he will usually sleep from 7:30 or 8pm until about 6 am. He'll take a morning nap and an afternoon nap, but I never know how long they'll last-- anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

- He isn't too fond of baby food as much anymore, although he'll still eat a jar per meal. He loves to be able to feed himself. He's had meatloaf, macaroni & cheese (which he loved!), bread, mixed veggies, cheese, and scrambled eggs. Sometimes he'll just play with the food, picking it up and throwing it down (that is his favorite game lately-- with anything!), but generally he does get some in his mouth. He's still nursing about 4 or 5 times a day, but he's very efficient & usually done in less than 10 minutes. He just today figured out how to drink from his sippy cup (the same cheap ones Leah used at his age) so we're on our way to weaning!

- He loves to be sung to, especially the more "upbeat" rhymes we learn at Library Story Time. He always claps along. He also waves all the time, with his whole arm rather than just his hand.

(This is as good as you're gonna get for a 10 month picture-- he's too wiggly!)

30th Birthday Weekend

I can't believe I am no longer in my 20's. While 30 has always seemed "old" to me, now that I am there, it doesn't seem so old at all! I've had an incredible decade-- so much has changed in just the past few years and God has blessed me beyond measure. I am so grateful that I have been granted another year to enjoy life. Among the things with which I've been blessed is my amazing husband who always loves to shower me with gifts and surprises. He took my 30th birthday as just such a special occasion.













He managed to surprise me good this time. When we got in the car Thursday afternoon, I had no idea where we were going. Our friends Sarah & Ben were staying at our house for the weekend. They were in town anyway for a class, and needed somewhere to stay, so in return, we had live-in babysitters-- and I'm sooo glad Leah & Andrew got to stay at home and I knew they were well-taken-care of. And little did I know we were headed to stay at Ben & Sarah's house for the night. They live only an hour from the Biltmore Estate-- a place I've been wanting to visit for years! This time of year they're holding the Festival of Flowers, and it was absolutely beautiful!













Biltmore Estate is America's Largest Home (I read online it has 250 rooms, including 43 bathrooms, 37 bedrooms, a bowling alley, swimming pool, 3 kitchen), built in the late 1800's by the Vanderbilt family. You can't take pictures inside the house, but just take my word for it, it was breathtaking! There was so much attention to detail, in the wallpaper, the furnishings, the fixtures... It was on over 8,000 acres of land. Needless to say, we did A LOT of walking! We started in the gardens (and there wasn't many people there when we were going through, so we were so glad we did that first and the house 2nd), then did the house, then went out to another tourist village on the property, where they had a winery, farmyard, and some other museums. We were able to see everything all in one day, but we were definately exhausted by the end of the day!









This was just a small portion of the gardens we got to see-- the Walled Garden. This whole portion was just roses!
















This was the Italian Garden, right next to the house. We were fascinated with how a worker was mowing the grass in a "V" shape.

Here it is, our future home!


And as if that wasn't enough of a surprise, today there was a party, too!! Sarah had made (and beautifully decorated, I might add) 2 cakes, and there was a huge spread of fruits, vegetables, cookies, etc. I was forced to wear a princess crown & wand (although it allowed me to get whatever I wished for all day). Even though not many people showed up, we still had fun-- and ate a lot of good food! It was such a great day!

Even Andrew had a blast at the party!!

Strawberry Picking

This morning I took Leah & Andrew to pick strawberries on a farm. I was really going more for the experience than the strawberries, but, boy, did we get some really delicious strawberries, and I am looking forward to all the things I can make with them!

I told Leah she could eat some if she wanted, and that was all she needed to hear! She must have eaten her weight in strawberries by the time we were done! Andrew really wanted to eat one, but I had to keep taking them out of his hand (you know, the whole lack of teeth thing).

Leah seemed to have so much fun just walking around with her basket. I had to keep pulling out the ugly green ones she'd pick and replace them with good ones, but she didn't notice, and she even got upset when we had to go put her filled basket in the car so we could just walk around more.

A perfectly untainted red barn on the property seemed like a great place for an impromptu mini photo shoot with my boy.

We came home and made strawberry muffins. It was the first time Leah ever really helped me bake anything-- I never quite knew how it would work out. I just put the bowl on the ground, let her pour & stir, and she loved it!! She didn't even want me to help. Of course, she didn't want to wait for the muffins to bake, but once she tasted them, I reminded her she helped make them and she was so proud!!

On another note, look who figured out how to pull himself up on things this past Sunday. (Now if he could only figure out how to get himself down without falling on his head!) This one's already giving us a run for our money!!