Mother Tot

We decided to let Emily take her first swimming lessons while she was hanging out with Mimi and Papa Stan and the rest of us were on the mission trip!  She L.O.V.E.D. them (no surprise there)!!  She was in a "Mother Tot" class where someone has to be in the water with the kid.  Most of the kids in her class were about her age.  Mimi got in the water with her for the first two days.  After I got to Toccoa on Wednesday I got in the water with her each afternoon.  It was so much fun to see all that she was learning.  We took lots of pictures and video for her Daddy to see.  He was really proud of her!   

She learned how to blow bubbles, put her face in the water, jump, stay on the side when asked to, "walk the wall" to get to the ladder, float, and many more things that I can't think of right now.  I think it was good for her and she definitely had fun!!  

Papa Stan stopped by the pool one day to hold Hannah and see Emily in action.  

They had Emily "reeeeaching" to get these "treasures."  Oh she got them alright and didn't want to do anything else except play with her treasures.:)  

After swimming lessons were over you were supposed to get out of the pool, but they were pretty laid back and let me stay in a little longer so that Hannah could have some pool time too.  She enjoyed it for sure!  

Sweet summertime!!  

T-Town & Painting Toes

Here are a few pictures from our time in Toccoa...

Hannah sucks her thumb to go to sleep.  She doesn't it usually suck it during the day unless she's tired.  I tried hard to discourage the thumb sucking, but she won.  I have to admit she's pretty cute!  

Emily found this bear and named it "Shampoo!"  I guess she heard one of us tell her it was Pooh and she thought we meant "shampoo."  Anyway, Emily and Shampoo are good friends these days!:)  

My cuties reading with their Mimi!  

Mimi was playing on the floor with Hannah and Emily wanted in on the action!  

One night I decided it would be fun to paint Emily's toes.  She was sooo excited.  She stayed perfectly still for the first foot, but got a little restless for the second.  

They're not perfect, but she's proud.  

Good times with my girls!

Cute.

Ahhh....I can hardly stand it she is so cute!! 

Hannah's already 5 months old...slow down baby girl!:)  

Warm Welcome!

Hannah and I left Kannapolis on Wednesday and drove to Toccoa to stay with Mimi, Papa and Emily.  Emily was SO excited to see Hannah!!  I just love this picture below...Em is giving Hannah a serious hug and Hannah looks like she's asking for help.:)  

Love my girl...

We had such a great few days in Kannapolis...very thankful I was able to go, but it was SO good to see my Emma Lou!  I missed her.:)  

Mission 217

We have such an amazing youth group at MCBC!  Seriously...they're the best!  Bert and I are really enjoying getting to know them!  Last week we took a mission trip to Kannapolis, NC to serve Mission 217 (a church plant) by helping them with their first VBS.  It really was a great week!  Out students worked so hard and did such a good job!  

We dropped Emily off on Saturday, before we left for our trip on Sunday, with Mimi and Papa Stan.  She had a GREAT week!  She enjoyed getting her toes painted, taking her first swimming lessons class, lots of attention, playing with Tiger (their dog), swinging, swimming every day, etc.  More blog posts about some of these things to come.:)  

Hannah also had a great week!  Hannah and I went up to Kannapolis for half of the week.  She got lots and lots of attention from the sweet girls in our group.  She definitely loves her sister, but I think she enjoyed getting some one on one attention from her Mama and Daddy.:)  

Group picture:  

We're very thankful for this group!  

Morning at the Lake

Bert had the day off for July 4th so we drove over to Lake Hartwell to spend the morning at the lake with Mimi and Papa.  

Emily getting ready to go...I love her hair in a pony tail.  Doesn't she look so grown up?!:)  

Daddy getting some Hannah holding time before we headed down to the dock.  Papa Stan was jealous.:)  

Emily was ready to go!!  

Hannah usually takes her best nap in the mornings, so she actually napped a good bit of the time we were there.  I just love to see a sleeping baby...melts my heart.  

Bert wanted to get in the water so Papa Stan got a turn holding Hannah.  

We decided to take a boat ride on Mimi and Papa's boat.  This was Hannah's FIRST boat ride.  She wasn't a huge fan at first.:)

Finally just gave up!  

Papa let Em drive the boat!  She was REALLY proud of herself!:)  

Here is H about to get off the boat....(looking slightly traumatized)...sweet girl.:)  

We dropped Mimi and Hannah off on the dock and went back out so that I could take a quick slalom run.  I haven't been able to ski much the last few years because I have either been pregnant or not near a lake/boat.  I used to ski ALL THE TIME.  When I lived in Toccoa, after I finished grad school, I would recruit whoever to come out to the lake after work and pull me skiing.  I honestly just love the lake...it's so peaceful.  

I definitely enjoyed my ski run (thanks Mimi for the encouragement:) ), but I was S.O.R.E the next day.:)  Maybe if I skied more than once every 2 years that would help.:)  

Emily waved to me almost the entire time I was skiing....Bert finally joined in.:)  

Bert was going to ski after I finished, but after I dropped, the boat stopped and wouldn't start back.  Bert and I had to swim the boat back in to the dock (thankfully we were fairly near it).  By "Bert and I" I mean Bert swam it back and I helped.  We have a love/hate relationship with this boat.  We have so many great memories on this boat, but more often than not over the last couple years "ole bessy" just won't start.  We've had 12+ great years with this boat though and we're thankful for it.

Papa finished out the morning snuggling with both girls.  

We had a great time with family on the 4th!!  Thankful for the free country where we live and and thankful  for our freedom in Christ!  

Being Spontaneous

Well folks, I'm a planner.  Being spontaneous doesn't really come naturally to me.  My hubby isn't as much of a planner as me, but he's certainly likes to have a plan.  The other day we went down to Falls Park in downtown Greenville to have a Chick-Fil-A picnic and we walked by this fun splash pad area where all these kids were running around in the fountains.  Emily was facing the other direction in the stroller and hadn't even seen it yet, but we knew she would love it....and it was hot, hot, hot outside.  I hadn't brought her a bathing suit, towel, swim diaper, etc, but being the "go-with-the-flow" people (HA!) that we are, we decided to let her go play!!  

It took her a minute to warm up, but she loved it!!  

She was drenched from head to toe.  We let her ride around the park in her diaper.  At least she was cool!  

I'm slowly but surely learning that sometimes it's best to not worry about the details....if we hadn't the other night we would have missed out on lots of fun!! 

Big Girl Bed, Round 2

We set up Emily's toddler bed back in January. We were wanting to get her settled in the toddler bed before Hannah arrived.  We tried it for a couple of days, but Emily just wasn't ready.  She was SO scared and cried and cried when we laid her down in the bed. After day two of this we decided she wasn't ready and started putting her back in the crib for night time and naps.  We decided to wait a few months and then try again.  Well, a few months turned into 5 1/2 months.  We didn't want to move her to the toddler bed right before we moved to Greenville, and then once we got to Greenville we wanted to give her a little time to adjust before moving her to the toddler bed!  

Emily's not a climber. She had never even tried to climb out of her crib, but we wanted Hannah (4 1/2 months) to have it, so after we had been here about a month we decided it was time to try again.  We had been talking to her about giving her crib to Hannah for weeks.  She was starting to get used to the idea, but I still wasn't sure how she would do.  One afternoon, as soon as she woke up from her nap, Bert took her crib apart and moved it into Hannah's room.  Emily watched him do it and told us all afternoon that she was going to sleep in the "big girl bed."  Here she is posing for me just after Bert had taken her crib apart. Doesn't she look like such a big girl!  

Emily has done GREAT!!!  She hasn't cried one time when we laid her down for nap or bed time.  She doesn't ever get out of her bed. We haven't told her once to stay in her bed, but she never gets out.  When she's ready to get up from nap or in the morning she just starts fussing or talking to us through the monitor so that we know to come get her.  I'm not sure that she knows she can get up, and I'm certainly not going to tell her that she can get up (you don't either:) )!!  She gets in and out of the bed all day long to play, but when we lay her down for a nap time or bed time she doesn't even try to get out....woohoo!!  

She likes all the blankets.  When we are getting ready to go lay her down she'll say "I go get snuggled up!" 

Hannah is enjoying the upgrade from the pack-n-play and Emily's loving her new bed....all is well here.  Next project....potty training!  I wonder if it will be this easy??:)  

First Swim of the Summer

A sweet couple in our church has invited us to swim in their pool anytime we want.  One day last week we decided to take them up on it and take the girls for our first family swim of the summer (Emily had already been one time with Mimi and Papa Stan, but the rest of us hadn't).  It was Hannah's first time in any kind of water other than bath water.:)  

They both loved it!  Hannah was pretty serious.  I think she was just taking it all in...she didn't cry or fuss one time, and she even gave us a few smiles at the end of the swim .  Emily has become a little fish and you have to hold onto that child with TWO hands.  She thinks she's a little more advanced than she really is. 

Me and my serious swimmer...little cutie!:)  

I am pretty sure Emily didn't quit smiling the entire time we were out there.  Here are a few sweet pictures of her and her Daddy!

I had been telling Emily all day that we were going to go swimming when Daddy got off work.  She was SO excited and kept asking if she could bring her bucket.  Every time I said something about swimming she would say "Bring my bucket?" and run to get it.  So, when it was time to load up the car we sure didn't forget that bucket....

She loves to wear the bucket on her head....she does this all the time around the house!:)  

Here they are just soaking in some rays.  Ha....they're actually in the shade, but don't they look cute?!:)  

We're looking forward to many more family swims this summer!