Charlotte Anne's One Year Appointment (well, 13 months)

Due to mommy and daddy's crazy schedule and two reschedulings by the doctor, we finally got little Charlotte Anne in for her one year appointment at about 13 months.  This time daddy got the privilege of taking her and seeing her pitiful face when the mean lady gave her the bad shots.  As expected, CA is pretty small but she is starting to catch up.

Weight: 21 lbs (25%)
Height: 30" (50%)
Head: 18 1/4" (75%)

Mother's Day 2013

This year as a combo birthday / Mother's Day / we need time away we packed up and headed to Ellijay, Georgia to stay in a cabin and enjoy the BEAUTIFUL north Georgia mountains.  First exciting part - the cabin was super reasonable!  Second exciting part - the cabin was amazingly nice!  It had 2 master suites with full bathrooms, a giant bunk bed room with 3 sets of bunk beds, a theater room with a Wii and surround sound, hot tub, sauna, gorgeous decks complete with lots of great seating (including a swing the size of a twin size bed with tons of pillows - my favorite!), and a fabulous view.  I would have been happy to just not leave the cabin all weekend, but we did venture out Saturday to an orchard that allows you to pick your own fruit. Strawberries are in season, so we loaded up on strawberries (literally the best strawberries I have ever eaten) and then cruised out to a waterfall nearby.  After those excursions we headed back to our home away from home and cooked steaks and ate out on the porch.  What a perfect weekend and perfect time with my family, especially nice to hit the pause button for a bit and enjoy this time when our girls are little and have time as a family without running here or there.  This spot is definitely on my "must go back" list.  I'm thinking it is ON sometime this fall! :)

Picking strawberries with daddy - they did GOOD!

Top of the falls, a bit windy. :)

The cabin had a path down to a fire pit that overlooked this amazing view!  Oh yes, big plans for when it gets cooler.

 We stopped in Chattanooga on the way home for lunch and to let the kids run around some.  Here is me and SK in front of the aquarium.

Preschool Choir's Spring Performance

The day after Sarah Katherine's 4K graduation was performance night at church, so girlfriend had a BIG weekend!  The ages 3-5 choir sang 3 songs for choir and did a wonderful job!  Like last time I have a video and am totally unable to get it to load. I am going to need some video lessons for dummies soon.  

After the choir sang, they also did some songs they sing at "Wiggling Worship" which is our church's preschool worship service.  I was super impressed b/c one song was all the books of the Old Testament and the second song was all the books of the New Testament!   Yes, these 3, 4, and 5 year old know ALL the books of the Bible.  We are so blessed to have amazing people working with our children and teaching them at such a young age.  Little children truly do worship perfectly - it is a thrill to watch!!!

Sarah Katherine's first "gradunation"

Sarah Katherine's first (of hopefully several) graduations (or as she says it - gradunation) was May 4.  My baby girl put on a cap and gown, showed off all she had learned over the year including her alphabet - forward and backward, numbers, presidents (yes, all of them!), states (again - all of them!), letter sounds, and several precious songs.  After all the graduates had their certificates they also showed a slide show of all the kiddos dressed up in snazzy outfits (SK in a dress, jewelry, gloves, and makeup!) posing and he song "Putting on the Ritz" playing.  Then there was a portion of the slide show of the kiddos baby picture and then flash to their cap and gown picture.  I started crying before I even saw my own kid!  The ceremony was amazing and I am so thankful of the wonderful school where my girls attend - they are loved, nurtured, and taught not only great basic information to prepare them for "big school" but also that God loves them and He sent His son Jesus to die for them.  God bless Chase Learning Center and their staff!  Because of SK's birthday being in September, she will go to advanced 4K next year which is basically an accredited Kindergarten but we can't take full credit b/c of her age.  So, when SK goes to "big school" she will have already gone through the curriculum once and will be super ready.  I am so proud of my smart, talented, beautiful girl!!!

 Hilarious song!  Title is "Tooty Ta"!  The kids were singing with their eyes shut and tongues out - they loved it!!!

 SK's 4K teacher - Miss Robin.

"Baby" Charlotte Anne Turns 1

Our baby girl turned one on April 20 - I cannot believe how quickly time has passed and that our precious one is now a year old.  We are so blessed to have her here safe and sound, especially after the scare of how she came in this world.  After such a dramatic entrance you would be surprised how non-dramatic she is!  I'm thinking CA is going to be the level headed on.  Charlotte Anne is also quieter than Sarah Katherine, but you can tell she is observing and taking notes.  She wants to do stuff on her own but she still lets us have snuggle time.  She is going to be loving and opinionated (where does that last one come from?!).  Charlotte Anne is generally a daddy's girl but there are some times when only mommy will do.  She and her sister already have an amazing bond and I am in awe just watching them interact.  She hums when she gets tired and bless her - when you lay her down she just rolls right over and goes to sleep.

Happy birthday to my baby girl, I love you so much and am so proud to be your mommy!!!  You truly are my sunshine! :)    

 One of the guys that was on duty the night we call the ambulance came out with the rest of the guys on shift that day and even brought the truck!  They had to head out before we cut the cake, but we took them a big slab for dessert.  Such great guys!

Cutest Flower Girls Around!

Sarah Katherine and Charlotte Anne were very blessed to be a part of our friend "Miss Morgan" and "Mr. David" wedding.  Morgan keeps the girls at church nursery and she asked about them being in the wedding about the time I found out I was pregnant with another girl!  SK has been counting down to when she got to be a little princess and so she of course just ate up the big day!  She got her hair all done, got to wear a crown just like the bride, got to wear a puffy dress, and even had "high" heels.  Baby Charlotte Anne looked gorgeous also and was able to wear her dedication dress again (LOVE that dress!) and chilled in a wagon during the ceremony.  

Rehearsal was a bit scary because the ring bearer pulled CA down the aisle and we had a bit of a collision and CA almost fell out of the wagon.  Thankfully prayer works!  The actual ceremony went off without a hitch and everything was perfect.  There was a DJ at the reception and of course SK got the party started with anyone that would look her way.  Girly is the life of a party.

Lots of love and blessings to Morgan and David, thanks for including our girls in your big day!

Easter 2013

We had a wonderful and busy Easter weekend.  We started off on Friday night hosting Secret Church at our house for the college class we help teach.  This is a full night of teaching on a particular topic for 6 hours that would be similar to what people have to do that are Christians in persecuted areas - they have to meet in secret, usually at night, and digest as much of the Word as they can at one time.  The pastor of a large church in town leads it a few times a year and you can simulcast it in your house, so this allows people with little kiddo's to actually attend.  We set the kids up upstairs with a few movies and we all piled in downstairs, David smoked two GIANT boston butts, and everyone brought goodies.  Wonderful way to spend Good Friday.

Everyone cleared out of the house Friday night around 1am, we cleaned up and got to bed around 2am, then kiddos started stirring around 7:30.  So since we were up we may as well go to the city egg hunt that was withing walking distance from our house!  Several friends in our Sunday School class came over and we all headed over together.  The kids were so cute and this egg hunt was wonderful!  Not too crowded and plenty of goodies for everyone.  

Easter Morning the girls woke up to some surprises from the Easter bunny!  Both girls got a vege tales movie and some candy.  CA got some new sippy cups (since she's now drinking milk like a big girl!) and SK got a book and some stickers for the window.  

 After several pieces of candy for breakfast, it was time to get ready for church.  Our church hosted a community service at the local civic complex (that houses ~3,000 people) so we got dressed and went over there.  It was a great time of worship and was especially great to see our whole church and members of the community together in one place for Easter (our church has 3 services, so just us all being together was so neat!).