First Easter Egg Hunt

Here are pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt that Ellie did with her playgroup. She loved it and so did the other children. Both Ellie and Anna are kind of sick. Elle has a stomach virus that is not very fun. Anna has only thrown up once, but she seems to be okay. I am very thankful that they don't have fever. We are kind of stuck at home now, but it is kind of nice. Have a great weekend!

Spring is here!

The more I live in North Carolina I remember why I love it. We have awesome weather. We are 2 hours from the beach and 3 hours from the Mountains. We recently took our middle school students to the beach for a retereat. It actually was cold during the time we were there, but it was still alot of fun. Mike got in the ocean with the boys. I think he forgets that he's 27 most of the time! Anna went with us and Ellie went to Georgia to stay with her Nana and Papa. She had a great time and didn't seem to miss us much. I went to pick her up and spent a few days there. The way home was crazy. I don't recommend traveling with two kids under two years old by yourself on a long trip. It ended up taking us 9 hours with all the stops to feed Anna, change diapers, eat lunch, etc......! Since, we've been back in Raleigh the weather has been awesome. Ellie now loves to play outside. She loves to go on walks and see all of the kids outside. It is fun to live in a neighborhood where people are outside all the time. The children here are always on their bikes or playing outside. Ellie loves to say "Hiiiiii" to them. I am also in a playgroup on Wednesday mornings. Most of the kids are around Ellie's age. We normally meet at someone's house. This week we decided to meet at a park and attempt an Easter Egg Hunt. Well, when Ellie stayed with my parents they taught her how to hunt the eggs. She loves doing it now. We always hide them in our family room and she loves to find them. She was a "pro" at the hunt! It really was quite amusing cause they all didn't really understand it. It didn't last to long so we ended up just playing at the park! Anna is doing great! She slept through the night this week for the first time. She slept almost 8 hours! It is nice to begin to have somewhat normal sleep again. She is smiling alot and enjoys her sister so much. Anyways, may you all have a blessed day!

Cute Girls!

Here are some recent pictures of Anna. You can see her sweet smile. The other one is at a track meet. Ellie loved saying "GO" to all the kids as they ran. She also loved playing on the high jump mat! We're off to the beach till Sunday. It is raining today so that kind of stinks, but I am sure middle school students won't mind. Have a great weekend!

Just the three of us!

Ellie is with my parents in Georgia for the week. We have a youth beach retreat this weekend and I knew it would be to difficult if we had both kids with us. She is having a good time being spoiled by Nana and Papa. She is a little sick so it is probably good that she is not near Anna. We are amazed at how easy it is just having one child who's only 6 weeks old. We miss Ellie like crazy, but it has been nice to get some rest. We've gotten some much needed rest etc.... It has also been fun to stay out past 8:00 p.m. or go to a restaurant and eat in peace! Anna is changing everyday. It has been good for us this week to be able to spend some one on one time with her. She's now smiling often. Her first smile happened about 2 weeks ago. She is also getting to wear something besides a sleeper. I've enjoyed getting to put Ellie's jeans etc... on her. She is also sleeping longer each night! I didn't think this was ever going to happen as she was on a 3 hour schedule that she really liked! Then a couple of nights ago we started putting her to bed at 9:30 and now she is sleeping till 3:30 A.M.. It is so nice to get 6 straight hours of sleep rather than 3 or 4.
March Madness started today. Mike is extremely excited. It is one of our most favorite times of year. Mike is really happy that KU and UNC are both number one seeds. He picked KU over UNC in the finals. We are having our friends the Gurney's over tonight to watch the games. They are our friends from seminary that still live here. We have watched many games with them over the past 4 years. We always look forward to hanging out with them. Jenn is due with her second baby in 6 days. Maybe, tonights excitement will lead her to labor! Anyways, hope everyone is doing well.

Ellie Moments!

Well, I went back through our photos and found these from before Anna was born. Ellie's world has really changed in the last couple of months. She has a new home, new sister, new church etc... She was the center of attention in Georgia. She had so much attention from us and her grandparents. I often feel so bad for not being able to read to her as much as I used to or play silly games with her. However, she loves her new sister. I can see it in her smiles and how she helps me with diaper changes etc.... She's still got us smiling everyday. One moment occurred last night at youth group. I take Ellie until we are done with the games and music. She begins to be a distraction once her dad's message begins. Our friend Jeff was leading worship and Ellie absolutely is in awe by the loud guitar, drums, and singing. She bobs her head and claps during the songs. It was such a reminder to me that even little 19 month old Ellie is praising God. It was a great moment for us. Anyways, these pictures are some of my favorites from this winter. One is at her first basketball game! She loved it so much... it might have been the "Cameron Crazies" at Duke more than the game. The other is her standing in a chair. She learned to climb up onto the chair. She loves to do this now all the time.. We are now working on "sitting" in the chair. Have a great day!

Pictures!

Here are some recent pictures of Ellie and Anna! Have a great Saturday!

Facing the Giants

On this past Friday, we had family night. We try to do this every other Friday. Then on the other Friday's we get a sitter so we can go without the kids! So this past Friday night we went to dinner and then rented a movie. The movie was called "Facing the Giants". It is a really cool movie made by a church actually in Georgia. We've heard alot about it and it was really good. It was a football movie about a Christian school team that goes on to win the state championship. They had to overcome many obstacles to win and they all began to rely on God for strength etc.... So that night we put Ellie to bed, but could not find her "paci".... we looked for awhile and still could not find it. So we decided it was a good time to break her of it.... We were nervous of course because she has always slept with it since she was a baby.... As she fussed for awhile I began to think back to the movie and how those students had to rely on God for many things. I began to pray that Ellie would calm down and be able to fall asleep without the pacifier. She did fall asleep about 30 minutes later. We were so proud of her. It's funny that we were so proud of her for not sleeping with a paci. I cannot imagine as she gets older how proud we will be of our girls when they accomplish things! I can see them now running around the track! HA!
Anyways, she has done great since then and is now "paci-free"! Anna has never wanted one and I am glad so I don't have to keep up with it etc.....! We are doing well this week. The weather has been beautiful. Today we went to North Hills and met Mike for lunch. It was a great day to be out. I had the joy of feeding Anna in the REI dressing room as Ellie is trying to escape the dressing room. It's always interesting with two kids under 18 months. I'm sure I'll never forget these days.

New Blog!

Well, I decided that I need a new project in my life. Mike is very technological and I've never been able to figure out how to do our website. I've seen many blogs and love keeping up with friends through them. So I thought this would be a good way for our family and friends to see our sweet girls and what's going on in our lives! I hope to do it somewhat frequently, but with two children to keep up with my internet time seems to be limited to when they are both asleep at the same time which is not to often except for at night!
We are loving being back in Raleigh. It feels like home since we spent three great years here during seminary. We are slowly getting to know people at church, but everyone has been great! Mike loves the guys he works with which is so nice. You can check out our church at www.takeajourney.org!
Ellie is now almost 19 months old and is so fun. She is enjoying being a big sister and is slowly learning about being "gentle" with sissy. The first week or so was pretty rough, but she's now just doing her own thing. Anna is now 3 weeks old. Wow! I can't imagine our lives without her. She is so sweet and cuddly. We are looking forward to getting regular sleep sometime soon! I think Anna looks like Ellie did as a baby. They have about the same hair color and their size is similar. Who knows though maybe Anna will outgrow her big sister! Ellie is still very tiny.....18 lbs. She's yet to make the growth chart. She's so cute though as she walks around. She holds her own though atleast that's what they say when she's in the nursery. Well, I hope to have more posts up soon and I'll try and take some pics of what we're up to these days in baby world!