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!!  

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!  

Playing in the crib...

"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!  

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!  

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!  

Harmons and Hearns

We got together with our good friends the Harmon's and the Hearn's on Memorial Day.  The Harmon's live about an hour from us in one direction and the Hearn's live about an hour from us in the other direction.....so they met in the middle and we stayed put.:)  We all lived in the same apartment complex at SEBTS for 2 years...I pretty much saw them as much as I saw Bert.  Ha...that's an exaggeration, but we were all together A LOT!!  Patrick and Ryan graduated in May of 2010 and both families moved away to serve at different churches.  We've stayed close over the last couple years and we were so excited about all being able to get together again!  

Jan 2009 - Pre-kids

May 2010 - 3 kids

May 2012 - 6 kids

We decided to take a picture of the kiddo's in age order.

Blair Hearn - Aug '09; Kayley Harmon - Aug '09; Emily Watts - April '10;

Samantha Hearn Nov '10; Jackson Harmon - May '11; Hannah Watts - Feb '12

Reading some books!  Jackson was definitely out-numbered, but he was a good sport about it and didn't seem to mind.:)  

We all went to Fuddrucker's that night for dinner.  Here are a few picture of the kids playing.

When we got to the restaurant the back room was empty so we all piled in.  It was great because we had plenty of room for all the kids (minus Hannah) to run around!  They had such a great time and we had fun watching them!:)  

Hannah didn't get to run around with the big kids, but she had lots of fun too!:)  

The girls....

The guys...

We are very thankful for these friendships!  

Wordless Wednesday

Where are we going?

'Where are we going?" is what we used to ask Emily as we were pulling into our apartment complex.  She would respond with "Going HOME!!"  This is the only home both of our girls have ever known.  We have so many wonderful memories in that apartment!  

The other day (we'd been in G'ville for aobut 2 weeks) Emily was looking at a picture of our family where you could barely see our apartment in the background.  All the sudden Emily started saying "Go home?  going home??"  At first I wasn't even sure what she was talking about, but then I saw the apartment.  It just melted my heart....she still thinks of our old apartment as home.  Sweet girl.  

Bert and I were certainly ready for a little more space, but we'll always look back at our time in that 2 bed room, 2 bath apartment on Thornrose Way and smile.:)  

My Sister

Katherine and Brett stopped by the night before we moved to tell us bye.  It was sad.  I cried.  I have lived in the same town as my sister for 25 out of my 29 years (we've lived in the same house for the majority of those).  We've lived in 5 different cities (Athens, Toccoa, Clemson, Dahlonega, and Wake Forest), and three different states.  I have LOVED being so close to my sister!  She understands me, she encourages me, she forgives me, she knows me, and she loves me.  

Bert and Brett are great friends too, and I can't begin to imagine how many dinners the four of us have had together.  Lots of nights we would invite the other couple over just an hour before it was time to eat.  Spur of the moment.  I'm not a spur of the moment kind of person.  I prefer to plan things out days, weeks or even months in advance, but hanging out with Kate and Brett is different. I love that we are all so comfortable together that it just doesn't matter if the house isn't clean, there are dirty dishes in the sink, or we're experimenting with a new recipe....we just love hanging out.  

We had the kiddo's pose for us in front of all the boxes.  Emily loves Jacob like you wouldn't believe.  She gets so excited about seeing him!!  As we were pulling out of Wake Forest, Emily started saying "I go see Jacob, I go see Jacob."  I was already emotional and her insisting that we go see him only made me cry more.  We'll certainly miss them, but I know that not living in the same town any more will just make our time together from now on more special.  

Me and Kate at Bert's graduation party.  

I love you, Kate!  You are what I'll miss most about Wake Forest!  

SEBTS Graduation

Bert graduated from SEBTS (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) with his Masters of Divinity in Christian Ministry on May 18th.  We've lived in Wake Forest for four years.  He's completed 90 hours of course work, worked full time, led a small group at our church, and made me and the girls feel like we were number one.  He's worked so hard.  I've seen it.  I've seen him stay up until 2am many, many nights to finish a paper or study for a test.  His alarm was almost always set for 5:30 so that he could spend time in the Word before heading off to work for the day.  He's done an amazing job, and it's not just me that thinks so. He recently received the Joe B. Brown Preaching Award from Southeastern, which was nominated by the faculty.  

Bert and I have been looking forward to May 18th for quite awhile.  Here are some pictures from the day...

Bert and Dr. Akin (President of SEBTS)

So proud of my hubby!  

Bert with his parents.  They were so proud too!!  I think his mom was smiling the entire time!:)  

Bert's grandparents (Mamaw and PawPaw) drove up from Florida.  We were so glad they were able to come!  

Bert and his sisters...so sweet!  

My parents wouldn't have missed it either.  Even with a flat tire on the way, they were there with bells on.:)  

Us with our good friends, Corey and Sunni!  Corey and Sunni are taking over leading our small group after we leave WF.  They are going to do such a GREAT job!  

Our friend, Whitney Gordon, kept the girls for us during the ceremony and then brought them to us when it was over so that we could take a few pictures with them.  Unfortunately, Emily wasn't in the picture-taking-mood.:)  We did manage to get a few cute family pictures though.  

Hannah is not a big fan of the bottle these days.  She will just hold her mouth open, gag, or cry to let you know that she's not planning on taking that bottle.  She'll eventually take it from her Daddy.  He has learned some tricks on how to get her to drink it.  So, as soon as we finished pictures we headed over to the nearest bench and Bert started feeding Hannah.  I had to get a picture of him feeding her in his cap and gown....he's such a good Daddy.:)  

This is what Emily wanted to do while we were wanting to taking pictures...run around!  

Group shot of Bert's fan club.  

We're all so proud of you, Bert!  You are such an amazing husband, father, son, grandson, son-in-law, and brother!  We love you!