Happy Halloween!

It looks like it's going to rain out trick-or-treating tonight, so I'm really glad I took the girls up to Weekday on Thursday for the fall festival parade. Is there anything cuter than kids in costume? (Be sure and watch the short video to get the full effect of Amelia's costume since I didn't get a shot of the back with the camera.)




















(This last one is just to point out that Lily's growing some pretty eyelashes like her big sister. They're lighter, but just as long as Amelia's were at this point. )

Happy Halloween!

It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do...

Before:


After:

(And check out Mike's handiwork on the garage doors - niiiice.)

Wordless Wednesday

Erin's wedding, part 2

I'm somewhat embarrassed to post these since they show off what a nerd I am. The first one is Amelia walking down the aisle holding my hand. Between bending over to hold her hand and wearing high heels, I ended up looking like an old lady hobbling down the aisle. I was mortified when I saw the video. Then in the last one you can see how I give Erin the flowers BEFORE the kiss. Maid of Honor FAIL. These are the things you never practice in the rehearsal and then realize during the wedding you don't know when you're supposed to do them!

But then again, this wasn't really about me. Just focus on the cute flower girl and the pretty bride.

(By the way, all the videos are really short, so don't run away!)

Erin's wedding, part 1

My sister Erin got married on Saturday. We have ONE photo from the wedding. One. That's how insane the day was! We didn't even get one of our family. Mike said before we left, "We've got to get someone to take a photo of the four of us." And we got as far as having our camera in someone's hands to do so. Then they announced Erin was going to throw the bouquet, we ran over to see, and never resumed our photo attempt. Sigh.

We do have video footage, and of course, the wedding photographer's photos, which we'll eventually get... For now, you'll just have to trust me that it was beautiful.

But we do have a few from the rehearsal night at least!

All gussied up for the big night.






Amelia was an exact twin with one of the bridesmaids. (Check out that ridiculous grin.)


Here we are on the way to the wedding!


The one photo we have!


We did stage a photo at the end of the night. Lily was screaming her head off, and Amelia was just barely awake. We were all beyond exhausted.

Stay tuned for more, hopefully!

Another sister photo shoot

Sometimes I think she knows she's cute

But what is UP with that cheeseball smile?!

Amelia - The Remix

Two months, one thumb

Lily receives the news.


"What's that again?"

"You say I'm two months old?"

"I give that a tentative thumbs up."

Now for more pictures of her cuteness.





Hanging with Mandi at Weekday.

I just love these girls

The love of two sisters

Lily is already looking up to her big sister.

And while Amelia is very loving to her little sister, that doesn't mean she's always gentle. ;)

But as you can see from some of the photos we took at the pumpkin patch over a week ago, our independent little Amelia has already fallen in love with her sister. When we're holding Lily, she often comes up and wants to hug her. It's also made her more loving to her mommy and daddy - Amelia is finally more of a cuddler. Yay!

Lily's big week out

Amelia may have had a big day the other day at the pumpkin patch, but her sister's had a big week! On Sunday night we gave her the eviction notice - out of our room and into her nursery! We finally got it all put together:




(BTW, the pillows are made from the bumper that came with the bedding - my friend Stacee made them!)


Here she is, stunned by the news of her move.

"What do you mean I'm getting the boot?"

Thankfully she's adjusted just fine. We've been down to one middle of the night feeding (3 or 4 a.m.) for a while,so I'm hoping that one will get later and later in the morning soon!

Not only that, but Monday was the big day - me going back to work (part-time) and Lily heading off to Weekday with her big sister!

"Wait, I have to go to school with HER?"

"Are you sure about this? I see crazy in her eyes..."


"She is kind of funny though..."

Thankfully Lily warmed up to the idea after all, and after a quick stretch, it was time to go.

Notice the pacifiers. The key to Mike's sanity on an average 45 minute commute!

Lily has her own (stroller) parking space next to her big sister.

You know you've had two kids reallyclose in age when they're actually in the same room at daycare!


Lots of little friends gathered around to greet Lily.

And Amelia tried to get in the bouncy seat with her. We're working on that...

Our little girl all growed up and at school! Sniff sniff.

A girl and her grandfather

Grandfather and Grandma Ann

We were just blessed with a great visit by Mike's parents. They met Lily for the first time and caught up on all of Amelia's antics. We mostly spent time around the house, just hanging out. They entertained Amelia with many walks and outside adventures, we went to the pumpkin patch, and they also changed many diapers and soothed both girls often.

It took Amelia no time at all to warm up to her grandparents. She definitely ate up every bit of the extra attention, and I imagine we may have quite a time of it with her this week as she adjusts to not having so many loving hands available. She picked up a couple more words while her grandparents were here - she attempts "thank you," she mimics a lot more like "night night," and she seems to be closer to "mama" and "dada" in context.

Here are some photos of the girls and their grandparents.



Amelia loves sitting with Grandfather on "her sofa."










All the g-rents. I'm glad you can't see behind the camera on this one to know whey they were all laughing. Let's just say I'll resort to just about anything ridiculous to get Amelia to smile for a photo.


I love my dad's face in this one. You can see yet another source of Amelia's cheeseball-ness. :)

Amelia's big day out

We had such a good time with Mike's parents and the girls today. Mike took the day off work and we went up to Burt's Pumpkin Patch for the day. The drive up was just lovely - just the hint of fall colors - and then we spent the morning exploring the patch with Amelia. She is so curious and such a little explorer these days. She wants to touch everything, and she points and babbles away. It's so fun to experience something like this with a child - it truly becomes a sensory experience as you explain every smell, every object, how things work, what color they are...


Hanging with "Grandfather" who let her wear his hat.




Sharing a leaf with Grandfather.




Such a gangsta'.




Lily had brunch with a view.


Attempt #1 at a partial family photo. All attempts of full family photos: FAIL. :)


Leaves are Amelia's new favorite object. She can't resist them.






Just her size.


Lately she has taken to pointing to everything and babbling - can't wait till we know what those babbles mean!




Looking a little sleepy... but don't be fooled (keep reading).


Far more interested in the corn than in the photo op.


A Lily among pumpkins.


Love this girl!!




Her eyes mesmerize me.


We even got to go on a hayride!

It was such a big day for Amelia, and she missed her morning nap and then refused to sleep in the afternoon too! She nearly fell asleep at dinner, got a second (or fifth or sixth) wind afterward and went strong until bedtime. She even went on a walk with her grandparents when we got back from the pumpkin patch. Her stroller got wet, but she didn't want to be held, so she walked home from the park BAREFOOT, PUSHING HER OWN STROLLER!! (Note: her grandparents didn't force her to do this. ;) ) Girlfriend is stinkin' strong!!!

So THAT'S what they do all day...

As a former full-time working mom, I often wondered what stay-at-home moms did all day. Don't get me wrong, I knew that taking care of a child by yourself was very time consuming and very hard work, but I just couldn't picture the day-to-day. Well, I went from not being at home with my one child to now being at home with two, and now I know what it looks like.

Diaper, feed, diaper, diaper, diaper, feed, feed, diaper, diaper, NAP!, diaper, feed, feed, diaper, diaper, diaper, NAP!, diaper, diaper, diaper, feed, diaper, feed...

You get the point.

These next few months are going to be interesting, and when I say interesting, I really mean boring - ha! I know that when Lily's not eating so often (and creating messy diapers so often!), it will get a lot more fun for all of us. But in the meantime I'm really trying to enjoy the sweetness (and there is a lot of that) of this time.

Funny story of the week. I was changing Lily's diaper, which was not an easy task this week due to the four ointments plus corn starch I had to use every change because of her horrible rash. Amelia was playing with her toys, which we keep in a bench/ottoman thing that opens up. She started fussing, but I didn't think much of it until it got louder and I look over and her legs are sticking up out of the bench. Yep, in her quest to get the toy at the back she had fallen head first into the chest. So I drop Lily's legs and run over to rescue Amelia. She was, of course, traumatized by the event and needed soothing, which I quickly did and then had to resort to the pacifier. Back to Lily, where of course she had managed to get her feet all covered in the contents of the diaper. Lovely. I had to laugh out loud, because as a friend once told me, if you're going to laugh later, you might as well laugh now. :)

P.S. A couple of updates:
1) Praise GOD, our insurance is going to cover the Nutramigen (the super-expensive hypo-allergenic formula we've had to put Lily on)!! There's nothing like paying $50 and seeing "Your plan saved you $295!
2) Amelia has added another "b" word to her vocabulary this week - she now says "bye bye" every time someone leaves, when she's going to bed, etc. She says "ball" and "baby" much more often as well. Now if we could just get "mama"...

Make new friends, but keep the old...

When Mike and I first started looking to buy our first house a few years ago, we figured it made a lot of sense to live north of Atlanta. His job was that direction, and the biggest reason was that our church was up here. The only thing closer in to the city was my job. Well...... things changed. After about a year of moving here, Mike had switched jobs to work at our new church, which is, you guessed it, in the city. So, in many ways it has seemed pointless to live where we do. Except that we do really like our area - great schools, parks, closer to the mountains, etc. And also one other really big reason:

The Wyatts.



Christy and I have been friends since high school. She's the reason I got the job at the Children's Home when we first moved back to Atlanta - she was a social worker there at the time. When we were house hunting, Christy and Justin were engaged, and Justin had just bought a house in this neighborhood. Long story short, we ended up here too! We have thoroughly enjoyed the last few years living as neighbors with the Wyatts. Since that time, they married and Christy moved in, we've both had two kids, Justin completed seminary, Christy became a SAHM, Mike switched jobs... lots of change. But one thing that was always constant is what wonderful friends Christy and Justin were to us! We have been truly blessed by their kindness, generosity and wisdom.

Well, this weekend the Wyatts moved to Florida. We are heartbroken to see them go, but we trust that just as God is calling them to a new adventure, so He must have something new planned for us here in Crabapple Walk. We are excited to go visit the "Wyatt Inn" often, especially since the silver lining is that they moved near Destin - our favorite place to vacation!

We've joked for a long time that we were going to arrange a marriage between our two girls and their two boys. Well, on the day we said goodbye, Amelia showed us what she thought about that when Josiah tried to kiss her goodbye!



We will miss you guys so much, Christy, Justin, Josiah and Sam David! God bless you guys in your new home and community!