The Watts Spot

Emily at 22 months

2012-02-10T07:26:00.000-08:00

Emily turned 22 months on Wednesday. Crazy! I know!! I cannot believe she's almost 2! Here are a few things that I don't want to forget about this precious stage....

-When Emily wants you to pick her up she'll raise her arms/hands and say "I hold you, Mama! I hold you!"

-For some reason she calls any book that's over 200 pages or so a "Bible."

-When someone coughs or sneezes she says "you okay???" and waits for a response.

-She loves giving high fives, but if she gives one person in the room a high five she must give everyone a high five. And, sometimes, if one of us is not at home, she'll hold up her hand as if to give a high five towards the door.

-She loves drinking out of straws.

-As soon as Bert walks in the door from work she says "coat off, Daddy, coat off" and starts helping him take it off.

-When she wants you to turn the light on she'll say "light, off, off."

-She loves loves loves for us to pick her up and dance with her. She'll say "dance, Mama!" soooo many times a day.

-When Bert starts to tickle her she'll start laughing and say "I get you, Daddy!"

-When we start to lay her down for a nap/bedtime she must have bunny (nothing new there) AND the quilt her Aunt Carrie made for her. She wants us to cover her with it before we leave the room. If we forget the quilt she definitely won't and will cry for her "banket, banket" until we get it.

-She calls music, "moo-sic" and she loves any kind of moo-sic!!

-Any time Em hears a train she's says "Train! Papa! Train! Papa!" Her Papa Stan has a train track that goes right beside his work. Every time we visit him at work he'll take her to see the train, so now if she hears a train she only thinks about him.

-She loves to give kisses, but her kisses definitely aren't wet or slobbery. She doesn't even pucker up. She just puts her check beside your cheek and calls it a kiss. Sweet girl.

-She starts saying "eat lunch" anytime we're about to eat....doesn't matter if it's breakfast, dinner, or snack time.

-She's a picky eater....no doubt about it. This is going to give me more gray hair.:)

-She loves to play outside.

-She's soooo friendly! She gives an excited "HEY!" to everyone we pass when we're at the store.

-She is an absolute joy to be around!!

We're so thankful for you, sweet Emily!! You're so much fun to be around and you're going to be the BEST big sister! We love you!!

Our First Blog Book

2012-02-09T05:20:00.000-08:00

I started blogging when Emily was 4 months old because I LOVED the idea of being able to print out the blog into a book for our family to keep. I also loved the idea of our family and friends being able to keep up with what's going on with our family in Wake Forest. I decided it was a win-win and I couldn't be more thankful that I started!

For Christmas I asked my parents for money to buy our first blog book. I realized it wasn't going to be the most exciting gift to give b/c I was just asking for money (I didn't want to order the book until after the new year), but they were happy to do it.

Well our first family blog book has arrived and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! I ordered it from blog2print.com and had a great experience! It was so easy to order. I made a few simple decisions (what pictures would be on the front and back cover, etc.) and blog2print did the rest. They really try to make it as simple as possible.

Front cover...

Back cover (you can click on any of these pictures to make them bigger)...

207 pages of our stories...

Table of contents....

Example of what the inside looks like....

I'm planning on printing out a blog book either every year or every other year...I haven't decided yet, but I do know I will treasure these books forever!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

Working on a WELL house....

2012-02-07T18:50:00.000-08:00

Emily and I just took our second trip to the doctor in 4 days. She started with congestion last Tuesday (8 days ago) and on Friday she started running a high fever (103's) along with her congestion, so I decided to take her in. The doctor on Friday felt sure that it was viral. So we went home hoping she would start getting better over the weekend. Her fever did get better....it was completely gone by Monday morning, but everything else got worse! Her congestion has been the worst yet over the past 2 days and she started with a deep, wet cough on Friday night (which has also gotten worse/more frequent). So this morning I decided it was time to head back to the ped's office. The cough was what really bothered me.

Up to this point I don't believe I have ever caught any of Emily's sicknesses, but I can't say that any more. Thursday morning I woke up with my throat hurting soooo bad. It hurt really bad for 2 or 3 days, and now it's just sore (not a sharp pain every time I swallow now). The congestion started for me on Saturday, and continues. Today my voice is just so deep I sound like a man!

Thankfully Bert has managed to stay well through it all. We're praying that continues b/c in case you forgot I'm due with little Hannah in 1 week and 3 days. I mean she could come tonight, or tomorrow, or next week, but I promise it will be soon.:) Emily and I are working hard to get well and no one else is allowed to get sick.

The past two days Emily has felt the worst yet. She has been literally pitiful. The doctor this morning believes this cold that she had is turning into a sinus infection b/c of how long it's lasting, that she's getting worse instead of better, etc, etc. He's prescribed her an antibiotic that we will begin tonight.

So, if you'd like to know how to pray for us over at the Watts house....pray that Emily and I would get well and Bert would stay well, pray for energy for me (this cold/taking care of Emily/39 weeks pregnant has left me with zero energy), pray that we would rest in Him and trust his timing for the arrival of little Hannah. I'm so excited about meeting her that part of me wants her to come right now, but then there's another part that would like for us to get well before she comes. I'm thankful it's not up to me to decide.:)

A weekend with Mamaw and Pawpaw

2012-01-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

Mamaw and PawPaw (Bert's grandparents) live in FL and they came up to visit us last weekend! We are SO glad they got to come!!! We had such a great time!

Bert gave them a tour of Southeastern's campus while Emily enjoyed running around for a bit!

They absolutely spoiled us rotten by paying for every meal for us (and Alison and Stephen) the entire weekend. They took us out to dinner at the Olive Garden on Friday night....definitely one of my favorites! Emily was slightly obsessed with drinking my water. She probably asked for a "sip" about 100 times during the meal. As soon as I would set the cup down she would ask for another sip. Ha!

At the end of dinner Bert started playing with her and taught her how to blow bubbles with the straw.:)

On Saturday afternoon we went down to Raleigh to visit the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. When we arrived there were soooo many people standing outside. Then we saw firemen standing just outside the doors with axes in their hands. Bert went to investigate and found out that the fire alarm had gone off in the cafe. It didn't look like we were going to get to go in, but just a few minutes later they opened the museum back up!

It turns out Emily is SO scared of escalators. I have no idea why. About 6 months ago I had taken her on the escalator at the mall and she cried and screamed the entire way up and back down. I had her in the umbrella stroller (which I'm not even supposed to have on the escalator)....talk about drawing attention to us! Well I had forgotten about her fear of escalators until Saturday at the museum. She FREAKED OUT as we got on the escalator, and then every time we passed by one for the rest of the time we were there (not even getting on) she would started whimpering as if to say "I'll scream if you put me back on that thing." Poor girl.:)

She may not have liked the escalators, but she LOVED the fish!

Group shot!

As we were walking back to the car she was holding Bert's hand and turned around to see Mamaw and Pawpaw walking behind us, so she ran to grab their hands. So sweet.

We had such a fun weekend! If you haven't ever met our Mamaw and Pawpaw you are missing out. They are so good at making each of us feel so loved and they are hilarious....they definitely kept us laughing the entire weekend! They really are just so fun to be around!:)

Some of my favorite times of the entire weekend were in the evenings...the six of us would just sit around and talk for hours. Lots of laughing went on!

Mamaw and Pawpaw, we enjoyed having y'all come up SO much! Thank you so much for making the long drive up from FL! We're very thankful for y'all and love y'all very much!

Growing Up

2012-01-30T10:42:00.000-08:00

Emily loves to play with our phones. She'll walk around the apartment for quite a while just "talking" on the phone.
Sunday afternoon, after Em woke up from her nap, she picked up Bert's phone off the table, put it to her ear, and started walking around the living room talking on it.

I was in the kitchen talking to Bert and we didn't think much about it, but then I heard who she was talking to.:) She was saying "Hey Gavin, yeah, no Gavin, Gavin", etc!

Gavin is a sweet little boy in her Sunday school class at church. Her teachers told me one Sunday that Emily and Gavin were good friends. I guess they were right.:)

When I filled Bert in on who Gavin was his mouth just fell open. Haha! I don't think he's quite ready for his 22 month old baby girl to be talking to boys on the phone.:)

Full Term

2012-01-27T07:14:00.000-08:00

As of today I am officially considered full term! 37 weeks....3 weeks until my due date. Woohoo!! Can't wait to meet my little Hannah! I am so thankful for such an easy pregnancy. It's actually been much easier than my first pregnancy. I haven't had trouble with carpel tunnel (I had trouble with this for the last 3 months of my pregnancy with Em), haven't had trouble with pain in my knees, or had as much swelling as last time. I think a lot of this is due to not working 40+ hours a week at a desk job until close to delivery, but either way I'm thankful that it's been a little easier.

I had a check-up yesterday and we (Hannah and I) both got great reports. Her heart rate was 146bpm, my blood pressure was 100/62, she is head down, and I'm 1 cm dilated. I'm not sleeping very well these days. The past few nights I have literally had to get up 6 times a night to go to the bathroom. I know....it's hard to believe, but believe it. I'm not sure that this will get better before I deliver, but we'll see.:)

For some weird reason I've never really liked the term "nesting." I'm not sure exactly why, but something about the word gives me a weird mental image and I just haven't ever wanted to "nest.":) I really didn't feel like I did much "nesting" with Emily, but this pregnancy has definitely been different. As much as I hate to admit it I have definitely been "nesting." I have been cleaning and organizing things that I haven't given a second thought to in weeks, months or even years. Every day I've been telling Bert my next project and he just laughs. I've become slightly obsessive over these projects. I want to get them done and I want to get them done now. Bert's been sweet and I actually think he's enjoying some of the organization that's taking place around the apartment.:)

Hannah's bag is packed and ready to go. I've started packing my bag, but I can only do so much when I have to wear my clothes that I need to pack. Bert is taking a class next weekend (Feb 3rd and 4th). It would be so helpful if Hannah could wait to arrive until after that weekend class, but we definitely trust in God's timing. We're so so excited about meeting our baby girl! Emily still doesn't totally understand, but she's going to be really excited once she figures everything out.:)

Please pray for a safe delivery and a healthy baby Hannah! Thanks!:)

A baby shower for Hannah!

2012-01-20T06:47:00.000-08:00

A few girls from my church offered to have a baby shower for me. It really was such a blessing as we were showered with diapers, wipes, cute new clothes, a diaper champ, etc. for Hannah. So thankful! Here are a few pictures...

Look at this cute wreath Claire made. I was certainly impressed!

Doesn't all the food look amazing? It was! They out-did themselves!

My Mom and sister were able to come to the shower. Mom was in town b/c they had brought Emily back up to us on Friday night. Katherine just lives 20 minutes away, but I was still glad she could make it!:)

They had us play this fun game. We split up into pairs and we were each given a bag with a spoon and a jar of baby food. We had to decide who would eat the baby food and who would feed the other person. We both had to wear blindfolds. Ha!

Here are Katherine and Alison getting ready to go.

Katherine was feeding Alison squash and kept missing her mouth. Poor Alison.:)

My mom and I were partners and we couldn't decide who would do the feeding and who would do the eating....so we played rock, paper, scissors. I lost.

Whoever finished their jar first, won. Sunni and Elizabeth were the winners!

It really was a fun game. There was sooo much laughing going on the entire game.:)

Jen and Kelly....two girls in our small group. Love them.

Group shot. SO thankful for each of these ladies!

My sweet hostesses.....Claire, Sunni and Whitney.

I can't thank y'all enough for such a fun, sweet shower. It was SUCH a blessing and now I'm am even more excited about Hannah's arrival (if that's even possible). Love you girls!

A Week with Mimi and Papa Stan

2012-01-19T07:45:00.000-08:00

This semester is Bert's last semester of seminary...whoohoo!! As he was trying to figure out his class schedule back in December he was having a little trouble since he works full time (limited availability) and has already had many of the classes that were being offered. One day as I was meeting with one of the girls in our small group she asked me if we had checked into J-term classes. I responded saying that wasn't really an option b/c we couldn't afford for him to take off an entire week of work (especially with baby #2 just weeks away), but in the back of my mind I started trying to figure out if it could possibly work....if I could work for Bert that week, who would keep Emily, etc., etc. Ummm??

Side note....Bert and I share a job. We are the office managers at Archwood Building Company in Raleigh. I started working at Archwood as the office manager in June of 2008 shortly after we moved to Wake Forest. When I was pregnant with Emily we decided that if it was possible we would really like for me to only have to work part time, and for Bert to have a more full time position. So, after talking this through with my boss he agreed to let me start working one day a week and Bert would work the other four. The one day that Bert wasn't working he would go to class in the morning and we would have a girl from our small group keep Emily for us and during the afternoon he would keep her. We started this schedule in March 2010 (before I had Em the first week of April) and it has been amazing. We are so thankful for the flexibility that it provides.

So, back to this semester. If I were going to possibly work for Bert that week we would need to first check with our boss to see if it is a possibility and then find someone to keep Emily for us all day on Mon - Fri. Our boss, Michael, thought it sounded like a good plan, as I have lots of tax documents to prepare during the month of January. I was needing to prepare all the W-2's, 1099's, etc. sooner rather than later as we're not sure when Hannah's going to make her arrival. So, now on to my child care conundrum. I had the idea to check with my parents to see if they might like to keep Emily for us that week. Emily was already going to be down in GA b/c we were down there for Kristi's wedding (see previous post). My parents were excited about the idea and said they would LOVE to. Although I could hardly stand the thought of being away from her for an entire week I completely trusted my parents and I was very thankful for the opportunity for Bert to knock out a class and for me to work all week.

So, that's what we did. On Sunday afternoon Bert and I loaded up the car and headed back to Wake Forest without our little Emily. Many, many tears were shed by me as we were leaving (up to this point the most I had ever been away from her was for 2 days), but thankfully (for Bert) I did calm down. I knew she was going to have a great week!

She did have a great week. She is quite the picky eater, but she really put on a show for them by eating great, sleeping great, and being a joy to be around. I was thankful. We got to skype with her every day but one. They did such a good job taking care of her! Mama was patient with my list of notes (written and verbal) that I left her, and was really sweet to e-mail us updates through out the day telling us how she was doing.

We could not have been more excited to see Emily when my parents pulled into Wake Forest with her on Friday night. I literally jumped up and down.:)

I don't have many pictures from that week (b/c I wasn't there), but here are a few that my mom took.

My dad (aka Papa Stan) is the official hair dryer. My sister and I remember him drying our hair every night when we were still too little to dry our own. Now he loves drying Emily's hair for us. I'm thankful for memories like this!

Playing in Mimi's Tupperware cabinet. She looks like she's been caught.:)

Mom and Dad, thank you so so much for keeping Emily for us last week! She loves her Mimi and Papa Stan so much and I know it was so sweet for her to be able to spend this time with y'all.

Kristi's Wedding

2012-01-18T19:26:00.000-08:00

My cousin, Kristi, got married on January 7, 2012. We were excited that we were able to be there for all the festivities. Kristi and Jay got married in Atlanta, so we decided it would be best for Emily and I to stay in Toccoa for the week between New Years and the wedding so that this pregnant Mama didn't have to do so much traveling up and down 85.

We started out the weekend with the bridesmaids' lunch on Friday morning. It was a beautiful restaurant with great food. Pictured below....me, Kristi, Jackie, Angela, and Allison holding Emily.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. Emily had plenty of room to run around...almost too much room. She was a bit of a wild woman at first, but settled down as the night went on.:)

Bert had to work in Raleigh all day on Friday, so he made it to the rehearsal dinner just as it was ending. Emily and I could not have been more excited to see him!!

The day of the wedding flew by. The wedding was at 2 and we were supposed to be at the church at 12:45 for pictures. Emily usually naps from about 1 to 3 so I wasn't totally sure how the afternoon/evening was going to go. Mom, Bert and I ran out to do a little last minute shoe shopping during the morning. We left Emily with Daddy and Stanley. I didn't even think to mention that it would be really helpful if she would take a morning nap b/c she never takes morning naps. She gave those up quite awhile ago. Well we got back to the hotel this is where we found Papa Stan and Emily. Emily was out. She ended up sleeping for almost 2 hours. A-mazing!! I don't know when I've been so excited about her taking a good nap. We didn't get her back to the hotel until after 10 the night before so I guess we had just worn the poor girl out.:)

Kristi and Jay at the wedding...

Our table during the reception....minus Bert and Emily. Emily fell asleep about 30 seconds before we pulled into the reception site. Bert sat in the car with her to let her finish out her nap.

Emily and her Daddy doing a little dancing on the dance floor.

Kristi and Emily.:) Kristi was so sweet to let Emily be included in everything during the entire weekend.

Family picture...

Emily had SO much fun at this reception! She was out on the dance floor for 90% of the time. She loves music and dancing and running around, so this was the pefect place for her. She made several friends out there and they really were too cute!!

My Uncle Bud (pictured below) is a retired two star general. He started the tradition of buck dancing at each of the cousin's weddings back in 2007. He has danced to the Rocky Top at every wedding except one and everyone loves it!! The one wedding that he didn't dance to Rocky Top just happened to be mine. My die-hard-UGA-fan-husband just couldn't stand the thought of having Rocky Top played at our wedding (even though I graduated from UT with my Masters). Uncle Bud agreed to buck dance to Cotton Eyed Joe at our wedding and all was well. It's not so surprising to the family to see our fun, loving, uncle buck dance, but all our friends are always surprised saying "I've never seen a general buck dance." Haha.:)

We had such a great time during the entire wedding weekend. Congrats to Jay and Kristi!!

Outside

2012-01-16T05:59:00.000-08:00

Emily loves loves loves to play outside. She's not so sure about getting her hands dirty, but she doesn't usually let it slow her down too much. Here are a few pictures that Linda took of her during their fun afternoon outside.

I love this sweet girl so much! I can't wait until we have a yard for her to run around in any time she wants!!

New Years Day

2012-01-16T05:58:00.000-08:00

We had a great New Years Day in Jackson. We started the day off by going to church at FBC. It was a great service and we always enjoy seeing everyone since we're not able to go very often.
During the afternoon we took naps, played outside (another blog post with lots of pictures to come), and Linda started cooking us a wonderful New Years Day meal!

Uncle Michael came over to eat dinner with us and Emily didn't want to let him out of her sight. She probably said "Michael" or "Uncle Michael" about one hundred times in just an hour. I don't think Michael minded one bit.

Emily with her Grandmama and Pawpaw.

Linda cooked an amazing meal of pork chops, black eyed peas, collard greens, corn, and cornbread. Bert grew up eating a traditional New Years Day meal on January 1st, and he was so excited about getting a yummy New Years Day meal this year. Collard greens just happen to be one of his favorite foods. I actually like them a lot too (although I didn't know this until I tried them after we were married). One of these days I need to cook some collards for my sweet husband....it's on my list of things to do.:)

We had a great time with the Watts for New Years! And we're looking forward to a GREAT 2012!!!

New Years Eve

2011-12-31T20:27:00.000-08:00

We got back down to Jackson to spend a little more time with Bert's family late Thursday (29th) night. We've had a great visit so far. Bert's sister, Carrie, flew back to CA early this morning We were sad to see her go, but we're looking forward to seeing her in a few months when she comes to visit us in Wake Forest after Hannah's born.

This morning we started out the day with a trip to Macon to visit my brother, Stanley. Stanley's been living in Macon since August, and since Macon is just about 40 minutes from Bert's parents house we decided we'd hop in the car to go see where he lives and what he's been up to.:) It was great to see him. He's participating in the year long Fellows Program through First Presbyterian for recent college graduates. He's staying really busy, but I think he's really enjoying it. It was fun to be able to meet his host family...they're so sweet to him!

On the way back, Grandmama (Bert's mom, Linda) had the important job of keeping Emily awake until we could make it back to her house. It had been a busy morning so Emily really just wanted to go to sleep...she was fighting it the whole way back to Jackson. Linda did an amazing job keeping her entertained. She kept pulling fun things out of her purse for Emily to play with, she sang to her, read her books, etc. It really was impressive!

Just as we were turning back onto the interstate to head back to Jackson we heard something bounce across the top of the car. We first thought we accidentally left Emily's sippy cup up there, but then we found it. We still were not quite sure what had fallen off but nothing seemed to be missing. About a minute after we'd been driving down the interstate Bert all the sudden remembered he'd set his phone on top of the car when he was putting Em in her car seat. Sad, sad day. Bert and I both felt sick to think it was gone. His phone is just a few weeks old, we don't have a land line, we're about to have a baby (so I need to be able to get in touch with him), my phone died about a month ago and I'm not up for renewal for another year.....you get the idea....all these things were going through our minds. Bert got off at the next exit and we headed back to look for the phone. Thankfully, the phone had fallen off while we were still on the ramp getting onto the interstate. Bert and I got out to start looking for the phone and Grandmama stayed in the car with Emily (still working hard to keep her awake). Well, we found the phone in the grass on the side of the ramp. SO thankful!! The battery and back of the phone had broken off and were separated from the phone itself...we were able to find all three pieces. Bert had to work on the phone a little after we got back to Jackson, but he was finally able to get the back on the phone, and it seems to be working well. Woohoo! The phone definitely looks like it's taken a beating, but Bert doesn't seem to mind. I think he might even like that phone a little better now.:)

Later on, Jeff and Linda treated all of us to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. Bert's Grandma came with us...it was fun to see her as we haven't seen her in awhile! Here are a few pictures from our night out.

We finished off New Years Eve by watching a fireworks show put on by Bert and Jeff. The fireworks were beautiful and very impressive!

2011 has been a wonderful year, and we're looking forward to 2012 and the arrival of our Hannah!

Happy New Year!

A Trip to Target

2011-12-30T06:38:00.000-08:00

Misty has been one of my best friends since kindergarten. I just love her. She lives in Gainesville, GA with her husband and daughter (also named Emily). Bert and I had to make a quick trip to Target so I called Mist to see if she wanted to meet us there.

The girls are about 3 months apart and both named Emily. They've met several times, but they were much more interested in each other this time. They both kept calling one another "baby." My Emily thinks every child under the age of 4 is a baby so that was no surprise! :)

Hugging for the first time. SO sweet!

Emily Jean (my Em) took something away from Emily Ann (Misty's Emily) and I had to get on to her. I think Emily Ann thought I was getting on to her and was a little confused about why she had just gotten in trouble for having something taken away from her. :)

It was so fun to see Misty and Emily. I wish we were able to see them more often, but I'm thankful for the time we get!

Working

2011-12-30T06:36:00.000-08:00

Papa Stan loves for us to stop by and see him while he's working. Emily loves it too!! Here she is "helping" him work.

She was fascinated with all the keys on his desk. I was worried she was going to set off the alarm for one of the cars, but Papa Stan wasn't about to take the keys away from her.:) I feel sure she could have stayed in there for hours.

Just as we were leaving the dealership we heard a train coming down the track. Papa Stan ran Emily across the street so that she could see the train better. All the noise didn't bother her one bit....she loved it.:)

Christmas in Toccoa

2011-12-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

We made it to Toccoa at about 11:30pm on Christmas Eve. Christmas day fell on a Sunday this year so we changed our "normal" Christmas routine a little so that we would be able to go to church Christmas morning. It was definitely a little different, but we were thankful to be able to all worship together and celebrate Christ's birth with other believers.

It was fun to all be in church together. Emily and Jacob did SO well. Emily only wanted Uncle Brett to hold her during the sermon and she actually stayed really quiet. Bert and I were quite impressed!

Family picture. Emily 20 months and Hannah 32 weeks in-utero.

A few pictures we got of our sweet girl. She was so excited!

Emily did pretty good with the presents. She was really excited at first and would open a couple, but then she was done....she was ready to run around.:) She was still really excited about everything and just enjoyed all the people being in one room.

We decided to watch the Lion King together one afternoon. Emily was so entertained by these candy canes. She would take them one at a time to each person in the room (taking breaks to dance to the music in the Lion King of course).

Emily loved helping Jacob play in his exersaucer.

Enjoying our Christmas meal together.

Papa Stan and Mimi ended up holding Jacob and Emily for the end of the meal. Don't feel bad for them. They enjoyed every minute of it.

Emily hanging out with the Sanders...

A few pictures of Jacob and Emily...Jacob is 4 1/2 months here.

Uncle Stan with his niece and nephew. They love their "Uncle 'Tan."

We had a great Christmas! We were actually able to have 3 full days with everyone there. It was definitely wild with a 20 and 4 month old, but we so enjoyed being together! We're looking forward to having our Hannah with us next Christmas!

Second Cousins

2011-12-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

We got together with Bert's cousins and their kids on Christmas Eve. Emily truly thought she was as big as them. They were so sweet to play with her!

Bailey (5), Jordan (9), Kathryn (10), and Emily (20 months).

The day after Christmas we got together with my dad's brother and his family. RJ (my cousin Jamie's son) is 6 and he really is too cute!! When Emily first saw RJ she ran over to him with her arms open wide to give him a hug (I think she also thought he was her size/age:) ). RJ started running away and Emily proceeded to chase him around the room. Haha! He was really shy around Emily at first, but then he slowly warmed up to her throughout the night. Jamie caught him giving her a hug when no one was looking.:) By the end of the night he didn't even complain when I asked him if Em could sit in his lap for a picture. So sweet....love these two!

Christmas in Jackson

2011-12-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

We started out our Christmas travels in Jackson this year. Linda had a few more sewing orders to finish up the first morning we were there and Emily wanted to be right beside her. If Linda tried to leave the room Emily would grab her hand and drag her back to the sewing room saying "sewing, sewing." Emily was standing on a bin right beside her and couldn't have been happier!

Bert's grandparents (Mamaw and Pawpaw) drove up from Florida on the 23rd. Emily had a great time playing with them. She's dancing for them in the picture below.

Aunt Carrie (Bert's sister) flew in from Los Angeles the same night we were getting into town. We literally arrived at Jeff and Linda's house within a minute of each other. Crazy when you think about the fact that we were driving from NC and Carrie was flying from CA, and she left after us! Emily LOVES her Aunt Carrie. Carrie and Emily played outside for quite awhile.....running around the yard, picking up leaves and sticks, etc.

Some of the girls....we're missing Alison in this picture.

Emily and her Pawpaw.

The Watts have the fun tradition of filling each others stockings. Every adult has a stocking and we all get something to fill up each stocking. It really is so much fun. The stocking stuffers don't have to be expensive, but it's just fun to see what is in there. There's always such a variety of things since everything is coming from different people. :)

Here are the stockings after they've been filled up. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the stockings are about to bust. Such a fun tradition!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

32 weeks and counting

2011-12-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

I had my 32-week check up today. Hannah and I both got great reports...I'm so thankful! Hannah's heartbeat was 150bpm, and I was measuring right on track for 32 weeks. Because of Christmas travel plans it will be about 3 weeks before I'm able to go to another doctor's appointment (I'm going for check-ups every two weeks now). The doctor was TOTALLY fine with all of our travel plans and said to just make my appointment when I get back into town. He even went on to say I'm still early in my pregnancy so he's not worried at all about me pushing my appointment back. Ha! I totally understand what he means, but I certainly don't feel like I'm "early in my pregnancy."

I try to make my appointments at a time when Bert will be able to meet us there, or have someone keep Emily for me, but this time it couldn't be avoided: I had to bring her to my appointment and Bert couldn't make it. I was slightly nervous about how she would do, but she did AMAZING!! She actually stayed in her stroller during the entire appointment. She definitely wined and squirmed a little, but she never cried. I'm calling it a success!

I'm actually sleeping a little better than I was about a month ago, but I have many more aches and pains. When I'm riding in the car it takes about 45 minutes for my back to start hurting and my feet to start swelling. (Please pray for our 8 hour drive tomorrow.) I have started swelling a little. I had to take my wedding rings off about a week ago because of the swelling in my fingers. They don't look swollen, but the marks left by the rings told the truth. Bert was beginning to get worried we were going to have to cut them off one of these days. I finally gave in and put them away for a few months. Sad day.

I'm not really having any cravings that I can think of. Hannah is constantly on the move. I feel like she might be more active than Emily was, but then I don't really have that good of a memory, so I may have just forgotten what it was like at 32 weeks with Em.

I really do think Hannah already likes to be read to. I was talking to Bert late yesterday morning and told him that I hadn't really felt her that morning (that I could remember). I was sure she was fine, but I was paying pretty close attention to her movements just to put my mind at ease. I sat Emily in my lap to read a book to her, and about 2 seconds after I started reading, Hannah started moving. It made me smile.:)

I'm thankful for the sweet little girl in my womb. Thankful she seems to be doing so well, and so excited about meeting her soon (although hopefully not too soon)!

A look back....

2011-12-20T08:03:00.000-08:00

4 years ago: Christmas 2007

3 years ago: Christmas 2008

2 years ago: Christmas 2009

1 year ago: Christmas 2010

Watts Family Christmas

2011-12-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to celebrate Christmas as a family before heading down to GA. The idea of packing up our gifts to each other just to bring them back up after they were opened didn't make much sense to us. Plus, we just love family time and we thought it would be fun to make some traditions of our own.:)

Emily working hard to open a gift from Mama and Daddy...

Emily had lots of jobs. She would bring us our gifts and then help us open them too. She loved it....so did we!:)

I decided since we were celebrating our family Christmas that we needed a family picture. Emily was still REALLY busy and was not in the mood to sit down. This is what we got....

I love our little family and we are SO excited about welcoming Hannah into our family in just a few short weeks!!

Christmas Lights

2011-12-19T17:59:00.000-08:00

It's become a yearly Wake Forest tradition to go out and look at Chritmas lights with our friends Claire and Kyle Ramage. Last night we loaded up in the van and headed out see all the lights. Here we are just before we left.

Emily thought it was great fun. She kept saying "Yites, yites." She was acutally a little sleepy, but she never got fussy and she never fell asleep. There was too much going on for that sweet baby to fall asleep. She's her Mama's daughter....doesn't want to miss anything.:)

We stopped by McDonalds for some hot drinks before we got too far. My drink of choice these days is a peppermint hot chocolate. It is ridiculously good. Last night I had my second of the season, but I feel sure I could have one a day if Bert would let me.:)

There is one particular street that goes ALL OUT with the Christmas lights. I'm talking about basically the entire street....every house is impressive. We look foward to driving down this street every year. Here are pictures of two of the houses on that street.

We had such a great time looking at Christmas lights and hanging out with Claire and Kyle last night!

Merry Christmas!:)

Reading

2011-12-19T17:56:00.000-08:00

Emily LOVES books! Truly, if you're wanting to calm her down, distract her, get her to drink her milk, or just love on her....one of the best ways to do that is to let her crawl up in your lap and read a book to her.

A few mornings ago I came around the corner from the kitchen and she had pulled out all of these books and was "reading" to herself. She didn't even look up when I took a picture of her. :)

This pregnant Mama couldn't even be annoyed when I had to bend down to pick up all the books she had pulled out. She's just too cute!:)

4 Years

2011-12-19T17:49:00.000-08:00

This past Thursday (Dec 15th) was our 4 year anniversary. It feels like we've been married for much longer than 4 years, but 4 years it has been....and it's been great!

I could not be more thankful for my husband. I didn't know at the time that it was going to be possible, but I love him more today that I did on that amazing day in 2007 when I became his wife.

Bert took me out to a Japanese restaurant in Raleigh (one of our favorites, but definitely only for special occasions). The place was packed on a Thursday night. We were there for hours, but we didn't care....we just enjoyed being together.:)

He gave me the sweetest card I've ever received. He actually made it, which I do believe is a first for him. The fact that he made it only made it more special. It's definitely a keeper.

I love you, Bert. I love being married to you. I love our family. I love the story we're writing together. Thank you for four amazing years....looking forward to the years to come.:)

Small Group Christmas Party 2011

2011-12-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

Last night we had our small group Christmas party at our apartment. We had such a great time!! We shared an amazing meal (pot-luck style), had a white elephant gift exchange (bring something you have laying around your house-style), and we just enjoyed being together.

Emily is helping Bert pull out all of the presents from under the tree.:)

Group shot...

We're so thankful for these men and women and the way they daily challenge and encourage us!

Big Girl Bed

2011-12-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago Bert put together Emily's toddler bed. One of our clients from work passed it along to us after it had been in her attic for 15 years and she wasn't planning on using it anymore. We were so grateful and excited to get it.

We're planning on moving Emily to the toddler bed after we get back from our Christmas travels. She's not climbing out of her crib, and seems to still be happy in it, but we're needing to make room for our Hannah who will be here in a few short weeks. We think she'll do totally fine, but you're welcome to pray that the transition would be a smooth one.:) I'll be sure and give you an update after we've moved her.

Here are a few pictures we took the first time she climbed up in her bed. She was SO excited!!:) We kept telling her that it was a "big girl bed." So, that's what she calls it now....big girl bed.:)

Right now the girls room is a work in progress, but I'll be sure and take more pictures once we get it decorated and organized!:)

Christmas Decorations

2011-12-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

We decorated for Christmas as soon as we got back from our Thanksgiving travels. I get so excited about getting all the decorations up! We only brought up (from GA) about 1/3 to 1/2 of our Christmas decorations this year, but we're so enjoying what we do have.

Here is our cute little tree.:) It's been the perfect size for us these past 4 Christmas' while we've been in seminary housing. We're both looking forward to getting a real tree one day, but this one has definitely served us well!:)

Emily loves the "Chrimas tree" and "yites" (lights). We weren't totally sure how our busy, sweet little 20 month old was going to do with the tree, but we have been pleasantly surprised. She'll walk up and touch it, she'll lay under it, but other that than she just leaves it alone. I'm actually not sure if she realizes she can take the ornaments off.:) Shhh.....nobody tell her.:)

Every other year we've hung our stockings under our pass through between the kitchen and living room. This year we decided that hanging the stockings that low would be too tempting for Em,and we were afraid she would pull off the stocking and the nail along with it. SO.....we needed a plan B....

Not exactly the most traditional place to hang stockings, but it works.:)

Last night we had our small group Christmas party at our apartment. One of the girls made a comment about how she like how personalized our tree was. I guess I haven't really ever thought about it, but I LOVE that most of the ornaments mean something to our family. Sooo many times during the Christmas season I'll walk by our tree and one of the ornaments will catch my eye and I'll smile just thinking about the memories it brings back.

Here are a few of my favorites...

We get a family ornament each year...here is the one from last year.:)

Our anniversary is Dec. 15th (which just happens to be tomorrow). We went on our honeymoon to Jamaica and picked up this ornament on our last day there. I remember standing in the little gift shop trying to decide if it was worth the money (we are both savers). We finally decided to get it, and I'm so glad we did!

We got this this ornament last year to celebrate Emily's first Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!!:)

7 down, 1 to go!

2011-12-14T06:32:00.000-08:00

Last night at about 1am Bert finished his last final of the semester. Woohoo! 7 semesters down, 1 to go before he graduates from SEBTS with his MDiv! I really am so proud of him!! I can't tell you how hard he has worked these last 3 1/2 years. He works full time, goes to school full time, grades for a professor, leads a small group, and still makes sure that Emily and I know that we are his priority.

When we had Emily his office got converted into a nursery, and I never heard one compliant. This picture was taken about a year ago, but it's a common scene around our apartment.:)

We're so proud of you, Bert! Thank you for providing for, loving and serving our family so well! Emily, Hannah and I are your biggest cheerleaders!:) We love you!!

Nativity Set

2011-12-01T05:45:00.000-08:00

Bert's Granddaddy was an amazing wood-worker. He had a shop behind his house and made so many beautiful pieces of furniture. We have a couple of his pieces and we're thankful to have them. Granddaddy passed away when Bert was 14, so I never got to meet him, but I hear he was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather.

He used to make these wooden nativity sets and then he would give them to Linda (Bert's mom) to paint. All of the nativity sets were sold or given away and Linda hasn't seen any of them in years. Last fall Linda was at a yard sale and she found a nativity set that her dad had made and she had painted and decided it would be fun gift to give Emily. The nativity set is probably 25 years old and still in GREAT condition! It's absolutely beautiful! It's so special for us to have something that Emily's great-grandfather made. There is also a stable that he built with it, but it's not shown in the picture.

We put up this nativity set on Sunday and it has been her absolute favorite thing to play with ever since. She takes all the pieces with her every where she goes.

Here she is loading them into her push toy.:)

We've been trying to teach her which piece is Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. She definitely knows who Mary is and never gets her confused with Joseph. Joseph is hard for her to say so she doesn't really have that one down yet.

About 50% of the time she calls this one (pictured below) "Jesus" and the other 50% of the time she calls it "Jacob" ("Baycup"). This is actually an improvement...the first couple days she was positive that this baby was Jacob (as all babies are)! :)

Thanks so much for this nativity set, Linda! It's absolutely perfect for her. She loves carrying them around. We don't worry about her breaking the different pieces and we love being able to talk to her about the real meaning of Christmas even at such an early age!!

Happy 29th Birthday, Bert!

2011-11-29T08:14:00.000-08:00

Monday was Bert's 29th birthday! We were leaving Toccoa a few days before his birthday so we decided to celebrate early while there. We all went out for Mexican and then back to my parents house for cake and ice cream!

Stanley is living in Macon and had to work all day on Wednesday, so we didn't think he was going to make it for dinner. He had talked to Bert and some point that evening and told him that he would meet us at the restaurant, but told him not to tell any of us (he wanted to surprise us). Bert had to stall. First, he offered to run back into the house and get my jacket, and he literally took FOREVER to find it. Haha! Then when we were at the restaurant he couldn't decide what he wanted to order. This is very unlike him...especially at a Mexican restaurant b/c he always gets the same thing! He kept sending the waiter away asking for "a little more time." I finally told him that we were all going to starve, but it was his birthday dinner so whatever.:) About two minutes after we ordered Stanley walked in the door. We were all really excited to see him, and I must say Bert did a great job stalling!:)

After dinner we came home for cake and ice cream. Mama made Nanie's chocolate mud cake. My mom always asks us what kind of cake we want each year for our birthday (even still....now that we're getting closer and closer to 30:))...she'll either bake it or buy it, but she wants us to have our favorite kind of cake. Anyway, this has been Bert's request for the last few years. It's soooo good!!

I L.O.V.E. this picture!

On Saturday morning we had a big breakfast with Bert's family (before our Thanksgiving meal that night). Bert's parents were going to be heading back down to GA before his birthday on Monday, and we couldn't let him get away without have some birthday festivities while they were here, so we stuck a candle in a stack of pancakes and sang happy birthday at 9:30 in the morning.

On his actual birthday Emily and I wanted to make sure he had a GREAT day! We both made him a card. Emily worked hard on the one she made for him, and he loved it! I also made him one and listed out 29 reasons why I am thankful for him. I could have listed so many more, but I decided 29 was a good stopping point.:)

Emily was a big help in opening his presents. Please excuse the pink paper....it was all we had, so it was either that or a wal-mart bag.:)

All day long Emily kept saying "birthday, birthday." She was excited about his birthday too! After opening presents and cards, Emily and I took him to dinner at Milton's (Italian restaurant in Wake Forest). We had a great time!

So, so thankful to be married to this man. He is such an amazing husband and father...he loves us so well! Happy Birthday, Bert! We love you too!!:)

Thanksgiving in Wake Forest

2011-11-29T06:45:00.000-08:00

On Friday we headed back up to Wake Forest to celebrate Thanksgiving with Alison, Stephen, Jeff and Linda. (Jeff and Linda had driven up to Wake Forest on Thursday.)

It's a fact: Emily's a dog lover. Thankfully, Alison and Stephen have 3 dogs so Em was easily entertained the entire day.:)

We all got together for breakfast. Let's just say it's a good thing we had our big Thanksgiving meal for dinner instead of lunch b/c I definitely wasn't hungry for awhile after such a good breakfast. Emily usually picks one person to "mooch" off of during meals like this (when she's not in her highchair). Linda (Grandmama) was the chosen person this time. It didn't matter that I had a plate just for her.....she'd rather get her food from her Grandmama.:) Grandmama didn't really mind!

After breakfast Jeff, Linda and Bert took Emily outside to play. The weather was absolutely beautiful and she loved just walking around picking up leaves. Alison and I were in the kitchen finishing up the dishes and chatting. Emily kept asking for us. She really likes for everyone to be all together.:) I wonder where she got that from?:)

Em kept picking things up in the yard, but she didn't want to put even one leaf down. She just kept adding things to her tiny hands.:) You can imagine how hard it was for her to walk up the stairs while holding her juice and an assortment of leaves, flowers, and grass...PawPaw had to come to her rescue.

Here we are watching a Christmas movie and getting ready for the feast.

Katherine, Brett and Jacob also came over to enjoy the Thanksgiving meal. We definitely had plenty of food! Thanks so much to Alison and Stephen for hosting....we had such a great time!:)

Emily in the dress her Grandmama made for her. She is one talented lady!

Jeff and Linda, thanks so much for coming up to Wake Forest to celebrate Thanksgiving! We're so thankful for y'all and we can't wait to see y'all in a few weeks!

Thanksgiving in Toccoa

2011-11-29T06:42:00.000-08:00

This year we started out our Thanksgiving travels in Toccoa, and no trip to Toccoa (or day in Toccoa) is complete with out visiting Papa Stan at work. Emily was really excited to see him!

Just after Emily woke up from her nap my mom let the dogs outside. Emily was still sleepy and did not handle this very well. She completely fell apart...she wanted them with her.:) We decided that it would be a good time to rider her around in the wagon my mom had picked up for the grandbabies at a yard sale. She really liked it, although she does look a little sleepy in these pictures.

And....time to swing! This girl still loves to swing!

I decided we needed to get a picture of Hannah on this 2011 Thanksgiving holiday! We're very thankful for her!

Emily playing with Papa Stan.

The guys had a great time playing Foosball! Emily kept wanting one of them to pick her up when they were mid-game. She didn't understand why they wouldn't.:)

We actually had the entire family there for Thanksgiving dinner...21 people in all! Huge accomplishment....a lot of years we're missing at least one or two people! The food was amazing and it was great to spend time catching up with everyone! We also played a fun game together after Jacob and Emily went to bed. Here are a couple group pictures...

Please notice the name tags at each person's place. We've been using the same ones for over 12 years now. They're nothing special....they have a picture of a turkey drawn on them and the person's name...but they're full of memories. Nanie drew some of them, Papa drew some of them, and the grandkids have all done some too. I love little traditions like this!:)

I'm thankful for so many things, but looking at this picture makes me especially thankful for family.:)

Elizabeth's Wedding

2011-11-22T05:11:00.000-08:00

I met Elizabeth a little over a year ago, when she moved to Wake Forest. She joined our small group and I'm so thankful that she did. She has a huge heart, and she is so quick to help anyone in need. Love her. We were excited to be able to be there for her special day. The wedding and reception were absolutely beautiful! It was 73 degrees outside (on Nov 20th!), and felt a-mazing! They were able to have part of the reception outside b/c the weather could not have been more perfect...so fun!!:)

Nathan and Elizabeth Price....being announced at the reception.:)

One of Emily's favorite parts of the night was when they announced the wedding party. She loved all the clapping and cheering!

Elizabeth was letting Emily smell her flowers! Elizabeth and Whitney (also in the picture below) took turns keeping Emily for us last year for a few hours every Monday. They took such good care of our girl...thanks ladies!:)

Family picture. Emily - 19 1/2 months; Hannah - 28 weeks in utero.:)

Congratulations, Nathan and Elizabeth!! We're praying for you as you begin your life as husband and wife!!

Washing Bunny

2011-11-16T12:11:00.000-08:00

This morning I decided it was time to wash Emily's Bunny. She has become even more attached to Bunny over the last few weeks. You will find her holding Bunny most of the day! SO....I knew I had to be sneaky to get Bunny into the washer without Emily seeing. I got Emily distracted, grabbed Bunny, threw her in the washer, and I thought all was well.

WRONG.

It took Emily about 2 minutes to start looking for Bunny. When she couldn't find her she started getting more and more upset. I tried to calm her down by distracting her, giving her a baby doll, and finally telling her Bunny was taking a bath. For future reference, telling your 19 month old that her Bunny is taking a bath does not go over well. Just stick with trying to distract the poor child.:)

She had several meltdowns throughout the washing/drying process...

Thankfully, now Bunny is clean and dry and back in Emily's arms. All is well!

I do believe when it's time to "bathe" Bunny again, I'll try to grab her out of Em's crib after she falls asleep at night. Ummm....I see major problems with that plan too. I'm not sure what we'll do. Wish me luck.:)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T05:25:00.000-08:00

Two for the Day

2011-11-13T15:16:00.000-08:00

This past Thursday was Katherine's first day back to work and I got to keep sweet little Jacob for the day. He is SUCH a good baby....so so laid back. Emily was so excited to have her cousin Jacob ("Baycup") hanging out for the day. She did not want to let him out of her sight for lunch or nap time. Jacob was down for a morning nap and started crying in his pack-n-play. Emily started running down the hall saying "crying...Baycup....crying....Baycup." She was on a mission to rescue him!

It was definitely good practice for having two. I would say the most interesting part of the day was when I was trying to feed Jacob and Emily wanted attention. She would try to climb up in my lap or go into the other room and climb up on the kitchen chairs. I wanted her to play quietly at my feet, but that didn't sound like as much fun to her. Thankfully Jacob is laid back and a great eater, but we'll have to see how the feeding time goes once Hannah arrives.:)

I was excited when I realized they were both going to be napping at the same time. I got Jacob to sleep and then it was Emily's turn. She finally fell asleep and 5 minutes later Jacob woke up. I picked him up to calm him down and rock him back to sleep and literally 3 minutes after I got him back to sleep Emily woke up crying. I couldn't help but smile. I truly seemed like they had coordinated who was going to cry when before they went to sleep!! Finally, Emily fell back to sleep to finish up her nap and Jacob stayed asleep in my arms. I so enjoyed just rocking him. He was just so peaceful and content....I loved every minute of it!

All in all it was a GREAT day!! Emily and I loved having Jacob to play with, and it really did give me a few good things to think about before Hannah arrives. We're going to get to keep him a few days next week too and we're already looking forward to that.

Here are a few pictures I took of Jacob on Thursday (3 months).

I thought this picture was so cute! He's giving me a smirk!:)

This one's my favorite...I can't help but smile when I look at this one.:)

Bay Leaf Toy Chest

2011-11-12T17:41:00.000-08:00

Today was the 18th annual Bay Leaf Toy Chest. This was the second year we've been able to participate. It has been such an amazing blessing! Here's some info on it that I got from Bay Leaf's website....http://www.bayleaf.org/toychest/

What Is The Toy Chest?

Bay Leaf Baptist Church collects donations which are used to create a huge “toy store” open one day only for Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary(SEBTS) students. The toys are sold for a minimum price, allowing these students to provide Christmas gifts to their children during their years of sacrifice and study.

Who Is Eligible?

The following students with children are eligible -
The College at Southeastern students: enrolled a minimum of 9 credit hours
SEBTS Graduate/Masters: enrolled a minimum of 6 credit hours
SEBTS Doctoral/Ph.D./Ed.D/Th.M, etc : Full-time status

What Types Of Toys Are Available?
We buy a variety of gifts for preschool, elementary, and youth. All toys are brand new. (There is an aisle upstairs of lightly-loved items for 25 cents.)

How Much Does It Cost?

All toys are priced at about 10% of our cost (i.e. A $50 toy would be priced at $5).
Families can spend $7 or get 3 items (whichever first) per child
Bicycles purchased separately for $10 - limit of 1 per family (first come first serve, ~40 available).
There is a quarter aisle upstairs of lightly-loved items for 25 cents and these do not count towards the $7 limit.

We were able to buy Emily three gifts for Christmas for $6! It's going to be so fun to be able to give her these gifts. We definitely wouldn't have been able to afford them without this ministry....we're SO thankful! All money raised by the Toy Chest goes to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, an offering the Southern Baptist Convention takes up every year to support world missions, which we also love. It's so encouraging to see all the volunteers there.....they are ALL smiling from ear to ear. They are so excited to be able to bless us with these gifts. You definitely can't help but feel loved!

Thank you, Bay Leaf, for blessing us yet again. Your heart for giving is an example to all of us!

26 weeks

2011-11-11T05:08:00.000-08:00

26 weeks down....14 to go, and I'm feeling great! I took these pictures last weekend (closer to 25 weeks). So far, this second trimester has been amazing! I have so much energy back (though not as much as I did before I was pregnant). Probably my only "complaint" would be having to try and sleep on my side. I'm so much more comfortable on my back. I feel like the fact that I'm not supposed to sleep on my back has been bothering me more with this pregnancy than it did with the last. Who knows why? My sister is letting me borrow her monstrosity of a pregnancy pillow. It seriously takes up so much room, but I'm really hoping it will make sleeping on my side more comfortable. Bert's definitely not jumping up and down about this huge pillow, but he's being sweet about it.:) As far as cravings go....for the last few weeks I've started craving pizza. This is funny b/c during the first trimester of my pregnancy I couldn't even think about, much less look at or smell, marinara sauce. Oh, how things change daily when you're pregnant.:) Anyway, poor Bert's been having to eat pizza about once a week. I really don't think he minds, but if this continues for the rest of the pregnancy I'm sure he'll be ready for a break.

I'm beginning to get ready to start cleaning out, organizing and making room in our apartment for little Hannah. The girls are going to share a room so I have lots to do to make room for Hannah's things (right now Emily has definitely taken over the entire closet and all the drawers). I wouldn't call this nesting, but I just know the holidays will fly by and once we get back in January we'll be very close to D-Day. Too close for me to wait and organize everything then. The only problem is that I'm not sure where to begin. Ummmm... Hopefully I'll figure it out soon.:)

We had a check-up for Hannah and me on Wednesday afternoon and we got a great report. Hannah's heart was beating 152 bpm. When the doctor put the heart beat monitor on my stomach Hannah started kicking the monitor HARD. She made the monitor bounce back up. Emily was sitting quietly in Bert's lap (for that moment) and the doctor started laughing and said she didn't think Hannah was going to be as calm as Emily...she thinks Hannah is going to be our feisty child! Haha...we'll see!:)

Nea's Visit

2011-11-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

Renea flew from NM to NC a few weeks after Emily was born to spend several days with us. She was such a huge help!! She just came back (a few weeks after Jacob was born) to spend several days with Katherine. Thankfully, Katherine and I only live about 17 minutes apart so we were able to spend lots of time with Renea on this trip too!:) Mama, Daddy, and Stanley decided to drive up to Wake Forest from GA to hang out with Renea while she was visiting the east coast.:) This past Friday was Katherine's birthday so we were also able to throw a birthday celebration into the mix.....so much to celebrate and be thankful for!

Here's Renea reading a book to Jacob and Emily...

On Friday (Kate's birthday) Katherine and I went to get our hair cut by a lady in her church. Judy was so sweet to do it and work around our crazy feeding/napping schedules. Judy had a couple dogs and Emily thought the whole trip was great fun! She kept telling the dogs "sit down" or "come here" or "no, no." No surprise there...she gets so excited when she gets around a dog of any kind that she just starts spouting off all the "commands" that she knows. Thankfully, the dogs completely ignored her.:)

Renea was in charge of holding Jacob. I'd say she was doing a pretty good job of keeping him happy. He was loving hanging out with his Aunt Renea.

Katherine let Emily "help" with bathing Jacob. She thought it was soooo much fun!

Renea, once again, spoiled us rotten. She cooked for us all weekend long and she left us (BOTH) with several meals to just pull out of our freezer. She had fun while she did it if you can't tell from the picture below.:)

Mimi and Papa Stan loved being able to see Renea AND their grandbabies!:)

Katherine and Brett haven't had to child-proof their cabinets yet and Emily has definitely figured that out. One of the first places she goes when we get to their house is to their tuperware cabinet. It's a full time job to try to keep her from pulling everything out of the cabinet. Here she is playing with some of her finds and "telling" Mimi about it.:)

We decided it was time for another cousin's picture (Emily 19 mo and Jacob 3 months). Renea gave Jacob the cute little green frog that you see in the picture. We handed Emily a book to hopefully keep her happy while we took their picture.

Emily reached over Jacob to get the frog that he had. Thankfully, Jacob is laid back and didn't mind.

Jacob's facial expression looks like he's saying "WHAT are you doing, Emily.":) Haha!

And finally....they're both looking in the same direction. We'll take it! Love these cuties!;)

After Emily and Jacob finished their photo shoot I had the bright idea to get a picture of Emily and me. She had other plans. She wanted down and was not in the mood for another picture. I decided to include this picture b/c it just shows the stage we're in. My sweet girl will have a melt down in the blink of an eye.:) I love this stage, by the way...it definitely keeps me on my toes!

Here we are celebrating Katherine's birthday! Happy birthday Kate!! Love you!

This picture shows trouble with a capital T. They are all four laughing at something. Who knows what?!

These next two pictures are two of my favorite from the weekend. Mimi with her grandbabies.

If you know anything about my dad you know one of his favorite things to do is to let a sleeping baby sleep on his chest. He got to rock Jacob to sleep several times this weekend and Emily once....I have no doubt he loved every second. Dad had gotten Jacob to sleep and Emily decided she wanted up too. He loves them so much!:)

Group shot....

We had such a fun weekend with everyone! Thankful for family!

Renea

2011-11-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

Renea is my dad's baby sister. She moved in with our family when I was about one, and she is most definitely a part of it. I could not be more thankful for her. She is so sweet and thoughtful and fun!! Nea was a teenager when I was in my toddler years and I'm sure I made her life "difficult" at times.:) There are many stories of me picking up the phone to try to "talk" to Renea while she was on the phone with one of her friends in the other room. We have video evidence of me getting mad at Renea when I was about 2 1/2 b/c I kept picking up the phone to tell her something and she kept telling me to "hang up the phone, Stephanie." Haha....:)

Renea went to Florida State for her undergrad and I remember sitting on her bed one morning while she taught me how to do a Florida State cheer where you spelled out F-L-O-R-I-D-A-S-T-A-T-E. I've always said that I feel sure "Florida" and "State" were some of the first words that I learned how to spell.:)

I also remember Nea's graduation from college. We all drove down to see her graduate and help to pack up her apartment. I got to ride back to GA with Renea while my parents and siblings were in the other car. Renea was crying as she was leaving Tallahassee and I didn't quite understand why. I remember deciding to read her a book to make her feel better. I'm not sure what I read and I doubt it made her feel better, but that was all I knew to do.:) Just for the record I now totally understand why she was crying when leaving behind her friends and an amazing 4 years....I definitely cried when I left Clemson.:)

Renea lived in Atlanta for several years after she graduated college and Katherine and I got to go and spend the weekend with her every once in awhile. I can't tell you how "cool" we thought we were. Renea would spoil us rotten. She always made the weekend so fun and we always felt so loved while we were there.

Renea and I share a birthday (Apr. 7th), which has always just been fun. April 7th was also Emily's due date, but she decided to come one day later (April 8th) and have her own day.

After moving from Atlanta, Nea moved out west and she's been there ever since. It's sad b/c I don't get to see her as often, but she loves it, so that makes me happy.:) It definitely makes for exciting trips when we do get to go and see her. We've been able to take a couple trips and she is always the best tour guide. She and her husband, Mat, live in New Mexico. It's absolutely beautiful out there.

So, if you haven't already gotten the picture....Nea's the best. She is so much fun to be around. She's always up for whatever. She's the best listener. If' you're having a conversation with her then then she's really listening....you can tell by the questions she asks.

I love, love, love you Nea Nea!:)

Halloween

2011-11-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

This year Emily was a butterfly. I know I'm biased but she was the cutest butterfly I've ever seen.:)

I was having a bit of trouble coming up with a Halloween costume for myself (surprise, surprise). Alison suggested I go as a butterfly catcher since Emily was going as a butterfly. Sounded easy enough to me so here's me and my little butterfly. She was very interested in getting my hat and holding my net. She wasn't to sure why I was carrying around "toys."

Kyle and Claire, a couple in our small group, hosted a Halloween party last night and we had a great time!! Every one dressed up and Claire made amazing food for everyone to enjoy.

Please just look at the pumpkin cake Claire made. I was SO impressed and it wasn't only cute, it was also soooo yummy!

Claire and Kyle have stairs in their apartment and Emily enjoyed spending a lot of the night playing on them. She was in the middle of telling me something when I snapped this picture.

We also had a costume contest and the winners won a gold pumpkin.:) Corey and Sunni won the gold pumpkin with their great costumes....Sunni was the "winner" of a Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes, she was dressed as a surprised lady that opened the door in her bathrobe and Corey was the presenter of the prize. They also had a balloon tied to their "check" but Emily really wanted it, so Corey took it off to let her play with it.

Em was the collector of all props last night.:)

Family shot! Bert went as an "Occupy Protester." The other side of his sign it said "OCUPPY 309" (their apartment number).

We had such a great time!! Thanks so much to Kyle and Claire for having everyone over and hosting such a fun party!!!

A Day of Football

2011-10-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

Two or three weeks ago Bert told me that GA was going to be playing Florida on Oct. 29th and we were going to need to watch it. He never turns down the opportunity to watch a GA game (and he doesn't miss many), but I could tell this game was different. He HAD to watch this one. He reminded me a couple times over the last few weeks about the game...which is also unusual....I'm usually the one reminding him about things.:)

Game day finally arrived and Alison and Stephen came over to watch with us! Here we are in all of our GA apparel.

Emily didn't pay much attention to the game, but anytime Bert yelled, jumped up, or clapped loudly she just froze and had a very serious look on her face. She didn't start crying, but she would just stare at him. It was almost like she was making sure everything was okay before she continued with what she was doing.

Em got really good at saying "Go Dawgs" during this game. She said it several times just out of the blue and I think it made her Daddy happy.:)

Just watching the game with Daddy....

Bert did not stay in this position for long. I believe he jumped up 2.5 seconds later. "Laid back" would not be the way to describe him when he's watching a GA football game.:) I love watching games with my hubby...I can't help but smile over how excited he gets!!

GA beat Florida 24 to 20. Woohoo! It was definitely past time for GA to pull out a win in Jacksonville. We were all very excited!!

Clemson also played last night. They played GA Tech and were 8-0 going into this game. BIG game. Bert promised that IF Georgia beat Florida that he would put on an orange shirt for the Clemson game. He said that if GA lost that he just wouldn't be able to do it. Thankfully, the Dawgs won so once 8pm rolled around it was time to put on the orange and cheer on my Tigers.

Putting on an orange shirt at all is a huge step for Bert. When we got married he didn't own one piece of orange clothing. I'm slowly but surely working on that.:)

Sadly, the game didn't start until 8 and Emily couldn't stay up, so we'll have to work on her "Go Tigers" another day.

Clemson ended up losing to Tech. Sad, but it was still a GREAT day! I'm thankful for my family.

Emily - 18 1/2 months

2011-10-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

Emily had her 18 month check up yesterday. She got a great report! She weighed 23lbs, 13oz and was in the 35th percentile for her weight. She's 32.75 inches tall and is in the 75 percentile for her height. Her doctor was happy with her weight gain as she's gained a couple pounds since her 15 month check up and moved from the 25th percentile to the 35th. He said that we could give her a little less milk (he had asked us to up the amount of whole milk we give her at her 15 month check up b/c she hadn't gained much between her 12 and 15 month check ups). I'm thankful that we're able to decrease her milk intake b/c I am hoping it will help her to eat a little better. My girl is already a bit of a picky eater and when she was filling up on whole milk through out the day it made for some stressful meal times.:) She had a major growth spurt, growing almost 3 inches in 3 1/2 months. No wonder I feel like she's been out-growing her clothes a little fast these days.

Emily's Favorites at 18 1/2 months:
Food: Oranges, Pineapples (she calls these "apples"), broccoli, crackers, bananas
Movies: Baby Signing Time
Books:  But No Elephants!, The Very Hungry Caterpillar; There's a Wocket in my Pocket
Activities: Playing outside, swinging, dancing, "changing baby's diaper", reading books, taking baths, coloring
Phrases she can say: Good Morning, Night night, Hey Daddy, Hey Mommy, come here, stop it, come in, love you, up please, thank you, bless you (she says this when anyone coughs or sneezes), excuse me ("'scuse me!")

Sleeping Habits at 18 1/2 months:
-Takes 1 nap a day. She usually naps for about 2 hours in the afternoon.
-It usually takes her about 10-15 minutes to fall asleep for naps and about 1 or 2 minutes to fall asleep at bed time.
-She sleeps 11-12 hours at night, and she almost never wakes up in the middle of the night.
-She sleeps with her bunny (she MUST have the bunny!)

Things I treasure about my 18 1/2 month old:
-She loves to take care of her baby. Today she "fed" her part of her banana.
-She LOVES to be outside. It doesn't matter what she's doing, but she just loves the fresh air.
-She's so friendly. She's quick to say "HEY" to anyone she meets in the cutest little voice.
-She loves music and she loves to dance.
-Tonight she was having a hard time falling asleep and I got to hold her while she fell asleep. This almost never happens and I loved every single minute of it.
-When she has a temp it runs high. Her temps usually run in the upper 103's (she made it to 104.9 one time. No.Thank.You....literally almost gave her Mama a heart attack). The doctors are always afraid it's an ear infection, strep or a UTI, but so far it always turns out to be just a virus of some sort.
-She changes her L's to Y's. "Yites" (lights), "Yap" (lap), etc.
-She's in the middle of a phase where she doesn't like staying in the nursery for both services at church. She's totally fine during the first service, but during the transition between teachers she has a complete meltdown and they usually have to come get us.
-She loves dogs.
-She tells dogs and babies that she sees on TV to "Come Here" while doing the hand motion to go along with it.
-I haven't found the perfect distraction for her while I'm cooking dinner. She usually gets fussy during this time.
-She's basically a vegetarian at this point. We're trying to give her meat, but she's very selective about what and when she'll eat it.
-She can tell you what sounds the following animals make: Ducks, dogs, cats, cows, frog, sheep and elephants (with a hand motion for the trunk!)
-When she hears a car coming she says "car, beep, beep."
-When we're asking her to do something she doesn't want to do she'll say "No, 'Top it (stop it)"
-She often says "no" in the wrong context. The other day I asked her to come give me a hug and she said "no" while running to me.
-Seeing her run is one of my favorite things. Too cute!
-She's learned to climb on furniture in the last couple weeks. She can climb on the couch, kitchen chair and our bed all without help.
-She loves phones and she will walk around "talking" on the phone.
-She talks all the time...all the time, people. The doctor asked me if she could say 15 words and I just said "Oh yeah and SO many more!"
-She loves her play time with Daddy when he gets home from work! As soon as he walks in the door she's wanting him to get on the floor to play with her.
-Any time my phone rings during the day she immediately starts saying "Daddy, Daddy."
-She's associating people. Ex.: If we're talking to Mimi on the phone she'll start saying "Papa.", etc.
-She tells herself to be careful when she is getting off the bed, couch...She just repeats "careful, careful"....I guess we've drilled it into her head.
-I love hearing her say "Hannah."

We love you, Emily Jean Watts. You are an absolute joy and a precious gift from the Lord!!

Friends and Babies

2011-10-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Our friends Rhett and Shannon came to Wake Forest for a short visit a few weeks ago. It was SO great to see them! They moved from WF a little over a year ago and we miss them dearly.:) Thankfully we're able to stay in touch via e-mail and skype!

Us with Rhett and Shannon.

A picture of part of the old small group...good times, good times!:)

The picture below is of Sue, Shannon and me...we were all in the same small group and got very close as we just loved and challenged each other week in and week out. We all three found out at right around the same time that we were all expecting!! I'm so excited for these ladies as they are going to be such AMAZING mom's! We couldn't pass up the opportunity for a preggo picture while Shannon was in town.

Shannon is due January 31st with Hudson James
I'm due February 17th with Hannah Elizabeth
Susan's due February 18th with Evelyn Ann AND Abigail Elizabeth

It's so fun to be able to walk through pregnancy with these ladies. I can't wait to hold all of these sweet babies!:)

Women's Day

2011-10-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

Every October the women's ministry at our church hosts a "Women's Day." This past Saturday was my third Women's Day and I just can't tell you how much it blesses me to be able to go and be surrounded by so many godly women that are seeking to grow in their relationship with Christ and serve their families well.

They absolutely spoil us rotten while we're there. We have an amazing breakfast, lunch and dessert time. We have one joint session where someone speaks, and then we're able to go to up to 4 of the break-out sessions (they probably offer 15ish). Stephanie Lyon did an amazing job speaking on Social Networking in the big session this year. She definitely gave us some good things to think about! The break out sessions touch on a wide range of topics from adoption, to cooking, to sewing, to marriage, to parenting, to fashion....you get the idea. Every single speaker for the different break out session does such a great job of pointing out how the Gospel applies to what they're speaking about. We're reminded again and again through out the day that it is only by His grace that we are saved. It's nothing we've done or deserve. Praise Him!

There are so many things that I got out of each session, but we'd be here all day if I tried to re-cap everything. The parenting session that I went to kept reminding me of the importance of helping our our children to cultivate a love for spending time with God. This will look different as our children grow, but when they're young its so important for us to have some kind of family Bible time. We want it to be fun and short, but we want them to start to see the importance of spending time with Him. Through the years hopefully they'll start to notice Bert and I spending personal time with the Lord and they'll see the high priority that we place on that time. That time is SO important. God has blessed us with this amazing opportunity to raise these girls, but we need and want his guidance and wisdom that we can only get through spending time with Him and in his word.

The marriage talk that I went to was also really good! I took SO many notes and she had so many great things to say, but if I had to pick out the one thing that sticks out to me the most it would be the importance to pray for my husband. This is an area where I have good intentions, but I often fall short. Who better to pray for Bert through out the day....for his relationship with the Lord, for his leadership of our family, for his fight against sin, and for different things that are going on through out his day....than me?? I love this man more than anything! I want to see him continue to grow in his love for the Lord. I'm thankful for the reminder to pray for the amazing husband that God has blessed me with, I'm so thankful for our marriage, I'm thankful for the ways that Bert encourages me and challenges me, and I'm thankful for the way that he leads and serves our family.

I love you, Bert, and I'm praying for you!:)

Hannah's Day

2011-10-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was all about Hannah. We started out the morning with an ultrasound at Pregnancy Support Services. Pregnancy Support Services (PSS) is a wonderful ministry in Wake Forest to women who are experiencing unplanned pregnancies. They offer free pregnancy testing, free ultrasounds, and support/counseling for women who are walking through what can be a difficult time. A few weeks ago PSS asked for "Ultrasound Models." They wanted women in their 1st or 2nd trimester to come in and have an ultrasound as they're in the process of training a few new ultrasound techs. Let me just say that with this growing belly I don't think I could feel less like a model, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to help them out AND get to check on my little Hannah. Bert had to work so my friend Jen volunteered to go with us. Emily loves Jen! When she says her name it sounds more like "Den," but she's trying.:) Thanks so much for coming with us, Jen! We love you!:)

That same afternoon Emily and I headed down to Raleigh for my 22 week check-up at my doctors office. Bert met us there and we were both excited to see him! This appointment was just a heartbeat check, so nothing too exciting, but I always look forward to my appointments. I love getting to hear or see my baby! Her heart beat was 150bpm....the doctor said it was perfect.:)

We're thankful for the good report for Hannah and me...praying that it continues!:)

Getting Ready

2011-10-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Emily is already getting ready for Hannah's arrival. She is so sweet with her baby doll....changes her diaper, rocks her, pats her, tells her to "shh shh." I got a few pictures of her taking care of her baby.

Changing baby's "biaper."

Patting baby's back to calm her down.:)

Rocking baby...

She's going to be ready for little Hannah in no time. The only thing is that she can still be a little rough at times too...she'll also throw her baby down, step on her, etc.

Don't worry, sweet Hannah, we're going to keep a close eye on your big sister.:)

I just really liked these next two pictures. Isn't she beautiful?!

Cousins

2011-10-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

Emily and Jacob are cousins and already best buds.:) In the picture below Emily's 17 months and Jacob is 1 month. We decided to take a picture of them together, but Jacob was not overly happy being set down on the chair to have his picture taken and Emily just isn't sure what's going on.

Jacob is actually still screaming in this picture, but it looks like he's sleeping. He must have been in between screams.:)

We got to keep Jacob one night while Brett and Katherine went on a date night. I decided it was time for another photo op.

In the photos below Jacob is 8 weeks and Emily's almost 18 months. He was very interested in watching Emily and trying to figure out what she was doing. Please just look at how much Jacob has grown from 4 to 8 weeks. Crazy! Emily better watch out b/c her cousin Jacob will catch up with her in no time!

When I was growing up our family took sooooo many "cousins" pictures. We have a certain order that we all had to be in...oldest to youngest. I love looking back at all the pictures and seeing how each of us has changed.

The picture below was taken at my cousin Jackie's wedding...it's all the cousins from youngest to oldest. I'm not sure why we lined up that way...it really never happens....but we'll just blame it on the fact that it was hot outside and the photographer had lots of pictures to take so people were running in and out of pictures trying to get Jackie inside to the AC as quickly as possible.:)

Emily and Jacob better brace themselves b/c there are many more "cousins" pictures to come! I can't wait until little Hannah is in the picture with them!:)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Labor Day at the Park

2011-10-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

This past labor day (which I realize was almost a month ago now) we so enjoyed having a family day with just our family of four (Emily 17 months and Hannah 17 weeks in utero). Because we live so far from our families it seems that most every holiday we're traveling somewhere, so we don't often get a whole day to just spend together as a family.

To enjoy our day together, we decided to get outside and go to the park. Emily L.O.V.E.D it! I took so many pictures that it was honestly a little overwhelming for me to decide what pictures to edit, so this post is a little picture heavy.:)

Here's Emily swinging with her Daddy...

This girl loves to swing. I don't think she quit smiling the entire time.

I love this picture!

She also enjoyed sliding, but her shoes kept messing her up and she kept getting stuck. She ended up getting turned around in the slide and she was coming down head first by the time she reached the bottom. Thankfully, the slide was short. We'll have to try sliding again later...when we can explain to her that she needs to hold her feet up a little.

Sliding with Mama...

I love this girl!

For the past month or so she has started getting so excited about picking up leaves. She will pick one up and hold it until she finds a better one, then she'll drop it and pick up the new leaf. Last week we were at the park and I had to take her leaf away when I was ready to put her in the car seat. (I didn't want her eating the leaf on the way home.) Let's just say that she was not very happy about the leaf being taken away and she cried "leaf, leaf" for most of the 5 minute drive home.

She is actually calling anything that she picks up on the ground a "leaf." She was absolutely positive that this pine cone in the picture below was a leaf, and she kept telling us about it. She also calls bark and pine needles "leaf."

We've tried to correct her, but she insists that everything is a leaf........so......we just smile. Love this age.:)

Kayley and Emily

2011-10-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

Keri and I were roommates in college. She and Patrick (her husband) moved up to Wake Forest a year before we did so that Patrick could go to seminary, and when we moved up we lived in the building next to them for 2 years, and loved every minute of it!:)

Keri and me at our friend Sandy's wedding....

Keri and Patrick moved when Kayley was 10 months and Emily was 2 months. A couple weekends ago we were able to go visit them (they live 3 1/2 hours away now). We had such a great time!!

I think this trip was the first time Kayley and Emily were really able to "play" together. They had a great time! Here are a few pictures of them before we left for church on Sunday morning.

Emily kept saying "come here" to Kayley and taking her hand to drag her around the house. Kayley was a good sport about it and I think just enjoyed having a playmate (her little brother, Jackson, is four months and not quite ready to play), even if Emily was a bossy one.:)

I think Kayley's wanting to know where Emily was taking her. I don't think Emily knew either.

Little cutie pies!:)

And her name will be......

2011-09-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

This is great. My first post on The Watts Spot is one where I (Bert) get to tell you, loyal reader, the name of our second daughter.

Picking out a name is tricky business. It can't be just anything, and so you go through this whole process and a whole host of names, in what looks on the surface to be a simple process, until you have the One.

Stephanie's middle name is Jean. Jean was her grandmother's name and her mom's middle name and is now, also, Emily's middle name. It was on Nanie's birthday (Stephanie's grandmother, Jean Thompson), near the end of her grace-filled battle with cancer, that we were able to tell her that her first great-granddaughter would be named Emily Jean. My name is Albert Sanvidge Watts, a name I could not be more honored to carry, which was given to me for my uncle, Albert Lewis Sanvidge, who passed away a month before my birth.

In the same way, for our second daughter we wanted a name that was beautiful for our little girl and holds significance for what we value: our faith and our family.

The Scriptures tell the story of a young lady, barren and heartbroken, who goes before the Lord in the Temple to pray. Month after month, year after year she has waited and yet, still without child, she prays to God for a son whom she will then raise to serve the Lord all the days of his life. Encouraged by the priest to "go in peace," she leaves the Temple, trusting in God to answer her prayer, despite all the years' worth of reason she has to doubt it. Hannah's prayer was answered, as we know, and the Lord gave her a son named Samuel, who would go on to be the prophet to lead Israel and ultimately anoint David as King over God's people. The grace that God showed Hannah in answering her prayers helped to set the stage for the greatest act of grace, the one in which God sent his Son to live, die and rise again for his people.

In the line of biblical heroines, Hannah shines brightly. Her name means grace, and that trait clearly describes what God gave to her and through her to his people. Marked by this grace and faith, by perseverance and strength, by love and hope, Hannah shows us today the qualities of a godly lady.

Beth (Elizabeth), Stephanie's mom, is not unlike Hannah and is characterized by the same traits. With the grace and faith given to her in Christ and with all the beauty, strength and hope of a godly woman, she has given her daughters an outstanding example to follow as they follow Christ.

With these two godly women in mind, we could not be more honored and pleased to name our daughter

Hannah Elizabeth Watts

Hannah, may God give you grace through his Spirit to live by faith, and may his kindness to you be evidence to the world around you of the reality of Christ Jesus. We love you and wait for your arrival with great anticipation!

19 Weeks

2011-09-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

I finished my 19th week last Friday! Woohoo...almost halfway there.:) I'm feeling great!

This sweet little girl is kicking all the time and I LOVE it. Bert was able to feel her kick several times on Saturday night (9/24) for the first time. I also love it when he's able to feel her. He gets so excited and usually starts talking to his baby girl. It makes me smile.

I didn't really start feeling Emily kick until closer to 25 weeks. I felt her kick before then, but it wasn't often and she definitely didn't go on any kicking spree's.:) The doctor kept telling me that I wasn't feeling Emily kick b/c of where my placenta was. She was actually having to kick through my placenta for me to feel her so it took a little longer. That's not the case with this little one. It's so fun to be able to feel her so much earlier. Especially since this is definitely one of my favorite things about being pregnant!

We love you sweet girl, and we're so excited about meeting you in just a few months!:)

Wordless Wednesday: Daddy's Shirt

2011-09-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Changing Bunny's Biaper

2011-09-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

"Bunny" is definitely Emily's most prized possession. She doesn't get out of her crib without it. I really do feel like she's becoming more and more attached to it every day. She usually has Bunny close by, but if she accidentally leaves Bunny somewhere she'll start walking around the house and calling "Bun-ny"....."Bun-ny." It's like she's waiting on Bunny to say "I'm right here, Emily.":)

This afternoon Emily started taking things out of her diaper bag. She pulled out her changing pad and wipes. Next, she carefully laid her beloved Bunny on the changing pad. We realized what she was doing and she was having a little trouble getting the wipes case open so Bert opened it and gave her a wipe. She started wiping Bunny while saying "Biaper, Biaper" (this is her version of Diaper....see previous post). After she finished wiping Bunny she picked Bunny up held her tight and said "Come here, come here."

This little girl melts our hearts Every.Single.Day!

Our Talker

2011-09-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

It's official....Emily is a TALKER! She's 17 1/2 months, but has been talking for months, but now this child never stops! I love it! I would say about half the time I can understand what she's saying and the other half she's just "jabbering" (only she knows what she's saying). She is literally learning new words every hour it seems. She'll say most anything we ask her to say. I started a list of some of her "favorite" words a few weeks ago. I haven't posted it b/c I kept adding new words and thinking of words that she's been saying that I didn't have written down. Oh well. This is probably only half the list, but my perfectionist self is just going to have to be okay with it. Anything in parentheses is my best attempt to spell how Emily pronounces it!:) If there is no parentheses beside the word then her version is pretty close to the actual word....even the "untrained" ear should be able to understand what she's saying.:)

Thanks (Kanks)

Please (Peese)

Outside (Oww-side)

Water (Waters)

Jacob (Baycup)

Brush (Buhsh)

Stop (Top)

Baby (Bay -Bee)

Cream (Ceam)

Blueberries (Bueberries)

Bow (Bowww)

Up Please (up pease)

Quack (Kak)

Hurt (Hurrrrt)

Sorry (Sowee!)

Precious (Pre-shus)

Yogurt (Gogurt)

Night, Night (nigh, nigh)

Hello (Hewo)

Spoon (Poon)

Bless You (Bess You)

Amen (A-Mennnnn!)

Diaper (Biper)

Cereal (Cerel)

Cheerios (Cher-ros)

Remote (Mote)

Camera (Cama)

Pajamas (Jamies)

Brush Teeth (Buush Teeth)
Diaper Bag (Bi-Bag)
Book

No, no

No ma'am

Hey

Pen

Hat

Dog

Cat

Juice

Hair

Head

Nose

Toes

Eyes

Socks

Shoes

Potty

Away

Carrots

Milk

Bath

Yay!

Duck

Bye

Chicken

Come On

Come Here

Bunny

Shirt

Pants

Hot

Bubbles
Kiss
Keys
Hug

Two days ago the three of us were sitting at the dinner table and someone knocked at the door. I started to get up and Emily said "Come In!"....as clear as day! What?? When did she pick up on that??? Bert and I both started laughing! We love our little "talker!" Can't wait to see what new words she'll say tomorrow!:)

Kisses

2011-09-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Any time we ask Emily for a kiss she just smiles and leans her head forward for us to give her a kiss. She doesn't give us one and I've never heard her ask for one.

This morning as Bert was wiping off Emily's hands after breakfast she looked up at him and said "kiss?" He leaned down and kissed her hand. She said "thank you" (signed it and spoke it). Then, she looked up and said "kiss" again. Bert leaned down and kissed her on her forehead this time. She said "thank you" again.:)

Emily loves her Daddy....And he loves his girl!

Our girls have the most AMAZING Daddy!:)

Slidng with Mimi

2011-09-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

At the medical fundraiser that we all went to on Saturday night they had a huge slide. Mom and Emily decided to try it out. It looked like so much fun and I really wanted to do it, but I wasn't sure if I should or not being pregnant....so I decided to sit this one out.:) Alison and I had a GREAT time just watching them!

Emily and Mimi heading up...

You can click on the picture to make it bigger, but doesn't it look like Emily is having so much fun?:)

Mimi was definitely having fun too!

As soon as they landed Emily was ready to do it again. She would start crawling towards the stairs to head on up.:) Mimi kept saying "Okay, just one more time." I told my mom that Emily wasn't going to believe her when she said "one more time" and mom replied with "that's what Mimi's are for!":)

It was so much fun watching my mom and my sweet Emily have so much fun together! Thanks for playing with my girl, Mama! Love you!:)

Saturday Morning Walk

2011-09-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad came up for a visit this past weekend. They didn't get to Katherine's house until really late Friday night, so Emily and I headed over on Saturday morning to hang out for a few hours. We decided to go for a walk. Katherine and Brett live on a busy road and also right next to their church, so we usually walk laps in their church parking lot. We had a great time!

Emily thinks "no, noooo" is the answer for most everything right now. Sometimes she uses it correctly and sometimes she doesn't. Em loves Kate's dog, Chloe! Saturday morning Chloe kept walking away and Emily would say "Chloe, no, nooooo" over and over again. I think she wanted her to stay with us.:)

Papa Stan and Emily decided they might have more fun on the play ground, so off they went. I really like this picture.:)

Swinging...

Sliding...

She loved being inside this little play house and closing the door.

Playing with Mimi!

It was a great Saturday morning!:)

Weekend Fun

2011-09-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

We've had a great weekend. Linda (Bert's mom) flew up on Thursday morning and my parents drove up late Friday night for a quick trip. It's been a busy, fun weekend.

Emily is very talkative these days. I'm going to be posting a list of all her favorite words soon, so look for that. She loves telling people "HEY!" She's so excited when she says it, it almost comes out as a yell. I can't tell you how many times she told her Grandmama "hey" over the last few days. Every time she would walk into a room she would say "HEY" like she was SO excited Grandmama was still there to play!:)

We all went to a medical fundraiser for a girl in Katherine and Brett's youth group on Saturday night. They had a silent auction, live auction, great food, play things for the kids, and the weather could not have been more perfect. We had a great time! Here Emily is jumping with her Daddy. She definitely needed a little help. We caught it at a time when no one else was in there, but as soon as some big kids came to jump Emmy had to get out.

Linda was so sweet to bid on a couple items for her kids at the silent auction...and she WON both items!:) She gave me a manicure and Alison and Stephen an oil change. Thanks Linda!:)

Taking a walk with Uncle Stephen and Daddy. Emily's still not very good at saying Stephen. She has said it for us once or twice, but most of the time she won't try. Stephen's a good sport about it, and she'll get it soon enough.:)

Drinking some milk with Grandmama. Emily loves looking at pictures. She likes to tell us who is in the picture. Grandmama even let her walk around with her camera some this weekend. That's definitely a privilege that she only gets while Gradmama is here. We don't let her near ours right now.:)

We went over to Katherine and Brett's to watch the GA game after we got back from the fundraiser. The game started at 4:30, but they Tivo'd it so we just watched it a little later than everyone else. I love watching my husband watch Georgia football games. He'll be so excited and then so frustrated all within what seems like 2 minutes.:) Love him!!! I asked Linda to take a picture for us and just as she was snapping the picture Bert looked away b/c something happened in the game that he "needed" to see.:)

Take two...I love this man!:)

Emily and Grandmama reading books and looking at pictures.

Emily probably says "Up, please!" about a million times a day. If you are sitting on the floor with her she'll still say "up, please!" She means that she just wants you to hold her. She'll usually let you hold her for about 2.5 seconds and then she's off to the next activity. Silly girl.:)

We had a birthday celebration for Linda and Stephen last night. Linda's birthday was Sept 6th and Stephen's is Sept 15th. Alison made them an A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. cake!! I must get the recipe!

Happy Birthday Linda and Stephen! We're so thankful for y'all!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

It's a GIRL!!

2011-09-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

We're SO excited to announce that we'll be welcoming another sweet little girl into our family in mid-February! She got a great check-up today! Everything on the ultrasound checked out perfectly. We're so thankful to our Father for blessing us with her. She really is just so sweet. She kept rubbing her eyes during the ultrasound and it just about melted my heart. I love her.

Her Daddy is really excited too. He's already asked me several times this afternoon "How's my baby girl?" He loves his girls so much!

We've taught Emily to say "sister." She's going to be such a great big sister! I'm so excited for her that she's going to have a sister and that they're going to be so close in age. They'll be about 22 months apart.

My sister, Katherine, and I are 19 months apart. We shared pretty much everything.....clothes, toys, rooms, bathrooms, stories, shoes, a wedding dress, etc. Sometimes it was hard. We can still get in an argument about clothes if you really want us to:), but I love her so much and I couldn't be more thankful for her!

On the way home from the doctor today I was thanking God for our baby's sweet life and praying that she would see her need for Him at an early age. I pray that she would trust in Him and walk with Him! I was also praying that Bert and I would be faithful to point our girls to Jesus. We're thankful for the opportunity to raise these precious girls, but He must be our guide.

Bert and I are SO SO excited about meeting our baby girl in just a few months. We haven't picked out a name yet, but we're working on it....so stay tuned.:)

Pregnancy update - 18 weeks

2011-09-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

I'm finishing my 18th week this week! This pregnancy is flying by and so far has been wonderful! I'm so thankful for the sweet little life growing inside of me. I feel him/her kick every once in awhile, but not often yet. This is one of my favorite things about being pregnant....so sweet to be able to feel the baby move. One of my least favorite things is having to sleep on my side at night. Hopefully my body will adjust to this new sleeping position quickly.:)

I was nauseous for about 16 weeks with this pregnancy (15 with Emily). I was nauseous most of the day, but it was definitely worse around meal times. I couldn't stand to look at (much less eat) cheese, marinara sauce, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, popcorn, and many other things that I can't think of right now. I was so exhausted during the first trimester, but I started getting my energy back around 13 weeks. Woohoo! I'm enjoying being able stay up later at night and get things done during Emily's nap time (instead of napping at the same time).

We've told Emily many times that there's a baby in Mommy's tummy. We have to keep reminding her to be careful and not jump on Mommy's stomach. Sometimes when I ask her where the baby is she'll come and point to my stomach and sometimes she'll lift up her shirt and pat her stomach. Haha. She's still a little confused, but she'll get it.:)

We find out if Baby Watts is a boy or a girl TOMORROW!! We'll be SO excited about either!! We honestly don't care which one....we're just praying for a healthy baby!

Babies Everywhere

2011-09-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we had 4 babies under 17 months at our apartment. It was busy and lots of fun!:) My sister-in-law, Alison, is a nanny for 3 month old twins (Colt and Brady) and they came over for a visit. My sister and her 1 month old little boy, Jacob, also came over to hang out.

Emily LOVED all the action. When everyone first got here she kept looking around the room and saying "baby! baby! baby!" Too cute! I snapped this picture when Emily was still taking her nap, so she's MIA.

Colt and Brady....aren't the soooo cute?!:)

Books

2011-09-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Emily LOVES books! She brings me about a million books throughout the day to read to her. She just holds the book up and says "book, book." I love that she loves books....makes this Mama happy!!:)

Yesterday I had groceries to bring in and I was going to need to make a couple trips to the car. I decided to set her in her crib so that she would be "contained" while I was running in and out of the apartment. I actually thought that she would be screaming by the time I was finished, but this is what she was doing when I walked in her room. So Sweet.:)

Showing me the book she's been reading...

This morning as I was drying my hair (in the same room with her) she managed to pull down all of the books off my book shelf in about 2 seconds flat. She was quite proud of herself.

Visitors

2011-08-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

Emily loves visitors!! She likes for everyone to be in the same room, preferably watching her. If someone leaves the room she follows them to find out where they are going and tries to bring them back. She's enjoyed lots of extra attention from Mimi, Papa Stan and Uncle Stan while they were here visiting her cousin Jacob....she loved every minute of it!!

Emily LOVES for my mom to read to her. The book they were reading was acutally pretty long, and Emily usually gets up about 1/2 way through it and moves on to something else. She actually stayed for the entire thing!

Is that not the sweetest little smile? She calls him "Tan". The "S" is hard to say. Stan used to call me "Tet" so I don't think he can say anything.:)

My dad (Emily calls him "Papa"...we're working on getting her to call him "Papa Stan", but she's still leaving off the Stan:))hanging out with his two grandbabies.:)

Earthquake!!!

2011-08-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday afternoon I laid Emily down for her nap and sat down to have my quiet time. I almost always have my quiet time as soon as I lay her down for her nap b/c I'm never sure exactly how long she will sleep. I've decided house chores can wait....e-mails can wait...phone calls can wait....my relationship with the Lord really is the most important thing to me. Anyway, I could hear Emily through the monitor talking to herself, but she sounded like she was getting closer to going to sleep.

All of the sudden the chair I was sitting in started vibrating. I looked around and JUMPED up! I ran to the kitchen to see what was making a noise in there and realized the tea kettle was shaking back and forth. Then I ran back into the living room and realized then that EVERYTHING was shaking. I ran back to Emily's room and grabbed her out of the crib. (She was a little confused I think, but quite pleased that she was getting up!) We ran outside our apartment and found LOTS of our neighbors already outside talking about the tremors from the earthquake we were feeling. It actually made me feel a lot better that other people were feeling the same thing I was. I've definitely never experienced any kind of earthquake, and I wasn't quite sure what was going on.

After realizing that all was well we came back inside to call Bert. He had felt the earthquake down in Raleigh too. To Emily's dismay she had to go back to her crib and I started my quiet time again. As I was sitting there (trying to settle down from all the excitement) I was struck with just how BIG and POWERFUL and WORTHY our God is. There was an earthquake in VA that people felt from NY to Atlanta. Crazy! It just made me realize how small I am and how big he is. I need a daily reminder of that truth!

Jacob - The First Few Days

2011-08-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

We spent lots of time visiting the Sanders while they were staying in the hospital. Here are a few pictures from our visits.

Jacob and Papa Stan

Jacob and Mimi

Jacob and Uncle Stan

Jacob and Uncle Bert

Jacob and Aunt Stephanie

Emily looooves Jacob! She calls him "Baycup" and talks about him all the time. She has the biggest grin on her face every.single.time. she says "Baycup".....it's SO sweet!

Our cousin, Kristi, came over from Durham to meet Jacob! She even brought Emily a sweet gift...thanks Kristi!:)

A few family pictures...

The handsome little guy....

Jacob, you are one very loved little boy!! We're so thankful for you and glad you're here!!

Meet Jacob Isaiah

2011-08-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

Meet Jacob Isaiah Sanders, our sweet nephew. He was born August 9th at 3:17pm and weighed 8lbs 14oz. Katherine and Brett are amazing parents! Jacob really is the sweetest, most precious little guy you have ever seen! I'm one proud aunt!:)

We had a long day of waiting for his arrival, but we could not have been happier to wait. We were all SO excited about meeting him! Here are a few pictures from when the family was patiently (ahemmmm....) waiting.:)

Papa Stan and Mimi hit the road from GA at 2:30am to come and meet their first grandson. I feel sure my dad drove too fast and he said my mom talked 90 miles a minute the entire trip....they were both pretty excited!:)

Emily just reading a magazine...upside down of course.

Stan definitely won the award for being the most laid back. He just relaxed a read his book most of the day.

The waiting game. We had our own corner which turned out to be very helpful for keeping Emily contained.

Finally!! They called us up to get our first peek at baby Jacob. Could he be any more precious???

Watts Visit

2011-08-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

Bert's parents, Jeff and Linda, came up for a visit last week and we had such a great time! They spoiled us rotten by taking all of us out to eat to all of these amazing restaurants!! The first night they were we went to the Japanese steakhouse in Raleigh. Definitely one of my favorites and it's quickly becoming one of Emily's favorite's too.

She loved watching the chef cook right in front of us. She was very serious, but definitely enjoying it! I don't think she could quite figure out what he was doing.

Meet Emily's new favorite toy. She LOVES her horse. Linda found it at a yard sale and thought Emily might like it....and she was right!! It's the perfect size for her and so far we haven't had any injuries.:) Emily can make me a little nervous sometimes with how hard she is rocking, but Bert assures me she can't flip it over backwards.

Emily and her Grandmama. I love this picture.:)

Emily, Grandmama and Aunt Alison

Linda and Jeff also brought Emily another surprise. They bought her a big pad of paper and her first crayons. So fun!! The doctor asked me at her 15 month check up if she liked to color (scribble), and I told him I hadn't really given her the chance. We didn't even own any crayons. Poor kid.:) Anyway, she quickly figured out what to do and this is where she spends a lot of her time now. She also really likes to walk/dance on the paper. I think it feels funny to her.:)

Emily's first piece of art work. 15 1/2 months old. A few of the circles in the bottom left are from us to help get her started, but I would say this is 90% her work. So proud of my little artist.:)

We also watched movies, played games, walked around downtown WF and just enjoyed being together. One night Linda, Jeff, Bert and I decided to play a game of Phase 10. For me, it was one of those games where all you can do is just sit in shock that you still haven't been able to get past phase 6. I was stuck and it was maddening. Linda won, with Jeff and Bert right behind her....me, not so much. If you know me at all you know that I can get pretty competitive during games (especially with Bert). It was a huge relief to me that Bert ended up coming in 3rd place.:)

Thanks for coming to visit, Linda and Jeff! We had such a great time with y'all...please come back soon!:)

Huge Help

2011-08-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

My mom decided to make a last minute trip up to visit a couple weeks ago and boy are we glad that she did! We had such a great time with her and she could not have been more helpful. She started out the weekend by letting Bert and me go out on a date night Thursday night. Then, she spent most of Friday at Katherine's helping her get their house ready for baby Jacob. She cleaned floors, washed rugs, cleaned out the pantry, cleaned out the fridge, helped organize Jacob's room, swept the garage, etc. We had a pretty relaxing Saturday morning and then on Saturday afternoon she went to the grocery store and bought food to make us (Sanders and Watts) each 4 meals to freeze!! How exciting is that?! I've been sooooo nauseous lately and my absolute worst time of the day is evening. This means Bert has taken on more of the cooking for a couple weeks, and he's done such a great job. He's such a great cook and he's always happy to help out. However, I'm so thankful to have a couple meals in the freezer that we'll just be able to pull out and give my sweet husband a break.

Here we are having a cooking party on Saturday afternoon...:)

Thanks SO much for loving on us and serving us so well, Mama. We love you!

Emily - 15 months

2011-07-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

Emily had her 15 month check up last week. She got a great report! She weighs 21.6lbs and is in the 25th percentile for her weight. She's 30 inches long and is in the 45th percentile for her height. She only gained a little over a pound from her 12 month check up. The doctor had me increase her whole milk from 18 ounces to 24ish ounces per day and we changed her yogurt to a more fatty (whole milk) kind. Hopefully these things will help. You wouldn't know it by looking at her, but my girl is a bit of a picky eater. :)

Emily's Favorites at 15 months:
Food: Cheese, bread, crackers, blueberries, strawberries, bananas
Movies: Baby Signing Time
Books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar; There's a Wocket in my Pocket
Activities: Dancing, brushing her teeth, reading books, taking baths, helping Mama with the laundry, clapping for herself, feeding herself,
Words she can say: Mama, Dada, Mimi, Papa, Grandmama, Pawpaw, Alison, Carrie, Katherine, Brett, Jacob, Stan ("Tan"), Okay ("O-Tay"), let's see, dog, please, thank you, up, baby, car, shoes, socks, teeth, bath, Emily, nose, ear, mouth, eyes, toes, no no, outside, precious
*she's saying so many more words than these, but I just can't remember everything right now. She's loves to copy what we're saying. It's too cute!

Sleeping Habits at 15 months:
-Takes 1 or 2 naps a day. Depends on how tired she is and if we are home for her to fit in 2 naps.
-It usually takes her about 10-15 minutes to fall asleep for naps and about 1 or 2 minutes to fall asleep at bed time.
-She sleeps 11-12 hours at night....almost never wakes up in the middle of the night.
-She sleeps with her bunny (she MUST have the bunny!)

Things I treasure about my 15 month old:
-She is such a happy, easy-going, baby
-She is "talking" all the time now even though we can't understand a lot of what she's saying
-She loves to be outside. If I ask her if she wants to go outside she walks to the door and starts knocking on it.
-She easily goes to other people...very friendly
-She can point to her nose, ears, toes, belly button, hair, and head.
-She gets her eyes confused with her ears.
-She loves music
-She's learning to run. She gets places REALLY fast these days.
-She loves babies. If she see's a child 3 or under she points and gets very excited. She says "baby, baby" over and over.
-She loves it when Daddy comes home. If she hears someone at the door she'll stop what she's doing and say "dada, dada" until he appears.
-She loves hats - especially her Daddy's.
-She's started telling us "no no" for things she doesn't want to do. It's something we're working on, but for now it takes everything in me not to smile when she says it b/c she says it in the cutest possible voice.

Daddy and I love you, Emily! We're so thankful for you!

Panama City Beach 2011

2011-07-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

We took our annual trip to PCB over the week of July 4th this year! We had SUCH a great time! Lots of good food, pool time, beach time, plenty of time to relax, read, talk, and just be together.

We went to Capt. Anderson's for one of our eating out nights. Soooo good. We've talked for years about the fact that we should try to get to the restaurant early and beat the crowd. Ha...it's never happened. We usually have to wait an hour or more. This year we actually did it!! We made it to Capt. Anderson's by about 5:30 and we didn't have a wait at all AND we had a great view!!

Our family has lots of tradaditons. We like them. One of our traditions is to drive race cars once a year, while we're at the beach. We all really get into it.

This year Kate and I couldn't drive the race cars b/c we were both pregnant with our sweet babies. We love driving race cars, but we didn't mind sitting out one bit. Katherine was 33 weeks along with baby Jacob and I'm 8 weeks along with our 2nd.

We decided to stop by the beach on our way home to watch the sunset. Beautiful!

This is the dress Emily's Grandmama (Bert's mom) made for her.:)

Stan is spending the summer in Panama City Beach with Campus Outreach on Summer Leadership Project. He's had a great summer. He still had lots of responsibilities (work, meetings to go to, etc.) the week we were there, but we were thankful for the time he was able to spend with us. We all got SO excited when Stan popped in to see us at the condo between work and meetings.

Emily with her builders. Daddy, Papa Stan, and Uncle Brett were in charge of building sandcastles and Emily was in charge of knocking them down. She thought it was so much fun!

Katherine is supervising all the action. We can hardly WAIT to meet sweet Jacob in just a few weeks!

Emily loved playing the sand, in the ocean, in the pool....she loved it all!

Brett thought it would be fun to bury Bert in the sand. Emily wasn't too sure about it.

Emily giving Daddy a kiss.

Emily all wrapped up and ready to walk back to the condo. Bert made fun of me after I took this picture. He said that from this picture it's going to look like it's the dead of winter. Ha! There was a breeze and Em was wet...I didn't want my baby getting cold.:)

The main pool had lots of waterfalls and Emily LOVED us holding her under the waterfall and feeling the water on her back. She would hold her arms back and just laugh and laugh.

I wasn't sure if Emily would keep her sunglasses on long enough to even take a picture, but I was wrong. She didn't want to take them off. Little cutie!:)

Our last night in Panama City we went to Pier Park. They have a good number of rides for little kids, but Emily was still too small for most of them. She was able to ride the carousel with Papa Stan holding on tight.

We also took a train ride with her. She loved it!

Relaxed, waiting on the train to get back....

We had such a great week! Thanks, Mama and Daddy, for making this happen every year! We have so many wonderful memories!!

Watts Baby #2

2011-07-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

We're excited to announce that Watts baby #2 is on the way and due February 17th!!:) We are so incredibly thankful to our Father for blessing us with this sweet little one. Emily's pretty excited about her role as a big sister.:) Here are a couple pictures of her showing off her new shirt.

A Package from Grandmama

2011-07-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Wednesday afternoon Emily got a fun package from her Grandmama! Here she is checking everything out....

My mother-in-law is soooo amazingly talented!!! She's always making new things. A couple weeks ago she made this cute dress and hat for Emily. They both fit perfectly!

Thank you, Linda! We love y'all and can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks!

Charleston, SC

2011-06-29T19:48:00.001-07:00

My cousin, Jackie, got married in Charleston, SC last weekend. We've been excited about this wedding for a long time as they've been planning it for almost a year and a half. We arrived late Thursday night and the festivities began Friday morning with a Bridesmaids lunch at a cute restaurant in downtown Charleston. My mom, sister and I managed to get lost going to and from the lunch. I will admit that I was in charge of directions as I was the only one who had been to Charleston before. However, in my defense, there are way too many one way streets and every time I've been before I've been with someone who knows where they're going.:) Anyway, we made it, and I wasn't in charge of directions the rest of the weekend!

Rehearsal Dinner

My great-grandmother, Grandma Presley, made these flower pieces that we think she was intending to make into a blanket. The blanket never got made and my aunt and mom found the flowers as they were cleaning out my grandmother's house. Aunt Ann surprised all of the cousins (there are 8 of us) with a baby blanket for each of us that was made using the flowers that Grandma Presley had made herself. They're absolutely beautiful and SO special! (You can click on the picture to make it bigger.)

Game night after the rehearsal....so much fun. It made me miss game nights at the lake.

Thompson Cousins in age order from right to left: Angela, Kristi, Jackie, me, Mike, Katherine, David and Stan (holding Emily). The 8 of us have taken countless pictures together over the years. We almost always take the picture while in age order. It's tradition.:)

I just liked this picture. She looks like such a big girl.

We didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing this weekend, but we did get a few hours to walk around downtown Charleston before it was time to get ready for the wedding on Saturday afternoon.

My good friend Sara was in Charleston the same weekend we were. Sara lives in Columbia, SC and I feel like I NEVER get to see this girl who I love dearly. She stopped by Sunday morning on her way out of town to say hey. It was so good to see her....even if it was only for 10 minutes.

It was such a great weekend! Congratulations to Jackie and Andrew....we're so excited for y'all!!

Williams' Wedding

2011-06-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

A couple in our small group, Corey and Sunni, got married a couple weeks ago (I'm a little behind on the blog :) ) Their wedding was absolutely beautiful and we had such a great time celebrating with them!

Corey's sister, Karrington, loved Emily. I think Karrington is about 11 or 12 and she made a point to check on Emily all through out the weekend. During the reception Emily was sooooo busy. She did not want Bert or me to hold her. She wanted to be on her feet and running around the room. Every time Karrington stopped to pick her up, Emily would immediately lay her head down on Karrington's shoulder (as I stood there with my mouth wide open). This literally happened 3 times throughout the night. Emily loved Karrington. I feel sure if she was talking a little more she would be asking for her right now.:)

Emily's new friend.:)

The happy couple! We love y'all!:)

Small Group Picnic

2011-06-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

Our small group got together for a picnic at Joyner Park on Tuesday night. It was a great night of food and fellowship!

Emily decided that it was her job to collect all the frisbee's. Every time someone dropped one or put one down she toddled over to pick it up.:)

Emily played H.A.R.D. We had one tired and dirty little girl by the end of the picnic. Thankful.