Monday, July 2, 2012

Watts Family Update

I thought it was time to give an update on how we're doing down here in Greenville.....so here ya go!:)  

We're doing GREAT!  We have been SO welcomed here at Mountain Creek (MCBC)!  The church is allowing us to stay in a double-wide that is on some property that they just purchased until we find a house to buy in Greenville.  Several church members came over to clean our new place from top to bottom before we moved in, the church also stocked our pantry, blessed us with gift cards, and just generally made us feel so welcome!  We are SO thankful for the love that has been shown to us!!  

We are loving it here!  We love our church and we are really enjoying building relationships with so many people there.  Bert loves his job!  Right now we live about a tenth of a mile from the church, so that has been great to be so close!  We love our new city...it's absolutely beautiful, there is so much to do, and there are just so many wonderful people here.  

We live about an hour and twenty minutes from my parents and about three hours from Bert's parents.  We are so much closer to family than when we were in Wake Forest.  We don't take this for granted for one second....we are so thankful!!  We're thankful that our girls will be able to spend more time with their grandparents, we won't miss as many family gatherings, and we have free babysitters ready and willing to come anytime.:)  

Emily and Hannah are doing great!!  Hannah has been oblivious and has been just as happy and content as ever...as long as she's being fed and able to take naps, she's good to go!  Emily has been great too!  She LOVES going to church and says "I go see friends?!" all day long.  (She means she wants to go to church.)  She's already made several friends there, so this makes us happy!  Emily developed a stutter about a week after we got here.  It was hard to hear as it would sometimes take her 5 tries to get a word out.  I asked the doctor about it and she wasn't worried at all.  She said it's totally normal for them to go through periods of stuttering for several years to come.  We just tried to ignored it and waited patiently for her to get her words out...we also made a point to not talk about her stuttering in front of her.  After about 3 weeks it was completely gone.  Woohoo!  I'm so thankful for this!  I'm not sure if the move caused her some stress and that's why she started stuttering for a time, or if it was just a developmental thing, but either way we're thankful it's passed.  Emily has also transitioned to a toddler bed (post about that coming soon) and is doing great.  Hannah is enjoying all the space in her new crib.:)  

Big news:  We're under contract to buy a house!  We're set to close July 24th.  We are SO excited!!  The house is in a great neighborhood, in a great location!  It's about 6 minutes from the church.  Neither of us have ever owned our own home, so this is new territory for us, but we really are so excited.  We're looking forward to being in a neighborhood so that we can start getting to know our neighbors and build relationships with them, we're excited about having a place to take walks, for Emily to ride her bike, etc., etc!!  We do have some work to do on the house before we move in.  There are 5 rooms with wallpaper and we'll be taking down all of that.  We're also painting every room in the house except one.  We're planning on staying where we are now until we get finished with all the work (hopefully about a month), and then we'll move in.  For now I'll leave you with a picture of the front of the house, with a promise of more to come.  



Please pray for us as we enter a busy month for the church calendar, pack up and get ready to move again, prepare to close on the house, and start getting the house move-in ready!!  It sounds a little wild, even to me as I type it, but we really are so excited and thankful to be exactly where we are!!  

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Greenville

Papa Stan, Mimi and Uncle Stan came over to Greenville for Father's Day!  We decided to walk around downtown Greenville and go see a park downtown that everyone has been talking about.  We also stopped by Marble Slab while we were out.:)  

Emily riding on Uncle Stan's shoulders....she loves this right now.  


She also loves this....I feel sure she could do this all day!  


Look at this waterfall in the park downtown!  Isn't it beautiful!?  I love that this beautiful spot is only 15 minutes from us!  I just LOVE downtown Greenville!  


Emily was ready to jump in and not look back, but Mimi had a tight grip on her.:)  



We're thankful for this new city that we live in...it's beautiful!!  

Friday, June 29, 2012

Herdklotz Park

We have this great park just a couple miles from where we're living!  Emily L.O.V.E.S. it!  They have a playground for Emily's age that is just great....it has like 5 slides, 2 swings, and all kinds of other fun stuff.  We spend most of our time there.  

Here Emily talked her Daddy into sliding with her:  


Look at that concentration!  


I just thought this picture was cute.  Love seeing her sweet little personality!  



Hannah knew that she couldn't slide, so she just slept instead.  She slept the whole time we were there!  


There's also a soccer field, a walking track, 2 shelters, a playground for big kids, etc....you can see why we'll be spending lots of time at this park.  

The playground for big kids is huge...the picture below is only showing half of it!  Bert has been wanting to go down these slides since the first time we came to the park!!  He decided that if he brought Emily with him it would be okay.  I suggested he just go by himself and leave her on the ground with me and Hannah.:)  Noooo, he insisted on bringing her.:)  They both survived, and she had a great time!  



I love family nights at the park!  

Monday, June 25, 2012

"I go get her."

When Hannah is waking up from a nap and starts to cry, Emily says "I go get her" and takes off running for her room.  She runs to her pack-n-play and holds Hannah's hand until I get there.  I almost always hear Emily telling her "It's okay Hannah....Mommy's coming."  It melts my heart.  Hannah stops crying as soon as she hears/sees Emily.  I love how much they love each other.   

The other day I decided to grab my camera as I was walking into the room so I could share with y'all what I see everyday.  


Sweet sisters!  

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Hannah - 4 months

My sweet Hannah is already 4 months old. Crazy!  I love this age. They're still so sweet and cuddly, but they're also interacting a lot more and you're starting to see some of their personality!  Hannah is such a GREAT baby.  She is a great sleeper, great eater, so content, laid back, smiles all the time....she's just fun to be around!  I'm just so thankful that God chose us to be her parents.  We are truly blessed!  

Here's the update on Hannah at 4 months:
Weight - 17.1 lbs and in the 97+ percentile.  
Height - 24 inches long and in the 37th percentile for her height.  
She smiles if you just look in her direction.
She laughs and laughs when you play peek-a-boo with her.  
Her hair is starting to come in a little, but still not long enough for bows.  
She keeps a close eye on her big sister. 
She's eating 5 times a day.
She naps about 3 times a day, with the first nap being about 2 hours and the other two being shorter and sometimes on the go.  
She sleeps 9-10 hours at night w/o waking up.  
She doesn't love her car seat, but will tolerate it as long as the car is moving.
She sucks her thumb sometimes, but not often.  Maybe 3 or 4 times a day.  
She refuses the pacifier.  
She sleeps in a sleep sack, in her pack-n-play, in her room. 
She still puts up a huge fight when she has to drink a bottle.  
She doesn't mind tummy time and will stay there for awhile before getting fussy. 
She's as cute as a button and I could just snuggle with her all day.  


I love you, Hannah Elizabeth Watts, with all my heart!  

Friday, June 15, 2012

Planting Flowers

Bert got his green thumb from his mom and grandmother.  He has been SO excited about having a yard.  One of the first orders of business when we moved into our new place was to buy a tomato plant and plant some flowers.  He asked Emily if she wanted to help him, and she was beyond excited!   


They did a great job!  Em is smelling the flowers in this picture.  She's very into smelling things these days.  She'll walk into the kitchen and say "I smwell it.....smwell's good!!!"  


Emily was grabbing a flower and Bert was telling her to "be gentle."  Ha, she's heard that a lot over the last 4 months.:)  



Emily needed something to drink after all that hard work!