Today is Aaron's birthday and we've had a busy morning trying to get stuff together to celebrate with him. First, after breakfast, Vivian helped me make a cake. Then she spent some time making a card for him:"Hmm...should I use this color next?"

She doesn't color really, just makes lines and scribbles. She also used some stickers that Aunt Jo sent her to decorate the card."Don't interrupt me to take pictures, Mom. I'm trying to create a masterpiece."
Last night and this morning we worked on a small gift for Dad. It's hard to see in this picture (I'll try to get a better one soon), but on one side of the frame is a mold of the girls' footprints and the other side is of course a picture of them with the caption, "we'll follow in your footsteps, Dad". Thanks to Brett, Jody, and Ansley for giving us this clay mold kit for Vivian's birthday!

And we just got back from having lunch with him. It will be so fun in the future when she is actually able to sing the happy birthday song along with me...

Tonight we have plans at home to grill steaks and watch the season premiere of House online. Happy birthday, Aaron!

Unbelievable...we have a contract on our house! Aaron is going to get the papers from the realtor right now for us to sign. God used your prayers to show favor on us by selling our house in 8 days! Thank you so much for praying. The first person to come see the house was the one who made an offer. The offer came in on Friday night and we came to an agreement last night before we went to bed. Amazing. We are so shocked and thankful. They want to close on Oct. 29, which means that we will not be responsible for two mortgages at the same time at all. We were prepared to take on two mortgages for several months until this house sold, but now we don't have to! The Lord is faithful and good. He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

My brother Stephen is taking the LSATs tomorrow and the girls have a special message for him:

Vivian is going to preschool one day a week for a few hours at a church down the street. We are glad for her to have a chance to play with other kids. Looks like she has a lot to learn about sharing... :)
These are her new friends Avery and Linda Gail. There is another little boy in the class but I can't remember his name. I think she has a great time with her teachers! I'm sure we'll have more posts this year about things happening with preschool.

Today Granddaddy, Grandma Carolyn, and Aunt Nancy drove up from NC to visit and meet Kate for the first time. We were very thankful they were willing to make the trip because otherwise they probably wouldn't have been able to meet her until Thanksgiving! They got here mid-morning and caught Kate when she was awake and ready to play.They brought gifts for Vivian! It's always great to get new toys to make things interesting. She was still in her pjs...oops :)Then we met up with the rest of the family (we missed Sierra...she was working) for lunch in town. Kate slept well through lunch. They went to Mom and Dad's to see the barn which is almost finished, drove past our new house, and stopped by to see Joey's new truck. It was a busy couple of hours. After Vivian's nap she had a good time playing with her new elephant shape sorter while Kate slept during her tummy time (which turned into a 2 hour nap hehe).

We are all sick with colds. :( Well, everyone except Aaron. Today is the worst. I feel miserable and the lack of sleep during the night hasn't helped. Vivian is really snotty and has a little bit of a cough. So I made today DVD day. Gramme brought over some new DVDs yesterday and Vivian has already watched them both. I plan to put another one on when she wakes up from her nap this afternoon. Normally she doesn't watch more than one 20 minute video each day, but today is special. I even tried to make a special fort...pathetic, I know...any boy moms have advice for building fun forts?We also stayed in our pjs. None of us have changed into regular clothes. We are a sorry bunch. Kate snoozes during tummy time. I can't tell if she feels bad or not...she's definitely snotty and I've heard her cough some, but she isn't fussy.

Vivian entertains herself in the funniest ways. I'm sure other toddlers do this kind of stuff, but it's new to me so I think it's amusing. She has the best time taking things from one place to another. Here's an example:

I'm on a mission, Mom! Yesterday she did this for about 30 minutes...she took off down the sidewalk, picked some flowers,headed back towards the house, and placed the petals on the front steps. And repeat. Many times. She thought it was the most awesome game.

We had some pictures taken of Kate when she was about 2 weeks old. Here's a sample!

This picture is professionally taken...Liz, who took pictures of Vivian when she was about 3 months old, came back to do the same for Kate when she was 2 weeks old. Aaron had just bought the motorcycle the night before. Check her out... www.thebirthandbabyphotographer.com

We also took some the other day when Aaron got home from work.

She feels the same way as Mom does about Dad's motorcycle.

On Friday last week Macy came over to have a tea party with Vivian. They played well together!

Vivian got this tea set for her birthday and loves it.

Our Internet is down! Actually, our whole computer is not functioning. Aaron will have someone look at it soon, but in the meantime I am not able to update the blog. Sorry sorry! I have lots of new pictures to add of our little girls so I'll try to find a computer to use for more than 5 minutes (I'm at Aaron's work right now using his computer until a customer comes in).

On Monday we enjoyed the day together as a family of four. We stayed around the house all morning and then went to the park in the afternoon. We love having Dad around to play with!

On Sunday evening we met some of our family at The Homeplace for dinner. Michael joined us from Charlottesville. Stephen was in town from DC because he had a vacation day for Labor Day. I had every intention of getting a picture of Kate with Michael because I forgot to get one the first time he met her. I forgot again :( But here is a good one of him with Vivi girl! She wouldn't smile because she was concentrating on a game of volleyball that was going on behind the camera.

After Kate was born, friends from church brought meals for us for two weeks! Every night we had hot, yummy meals and I didn't have to lift a finger. It was awesome :) Thanks to everyone who served us at a time when we really needed it! Praise God for your reflection of Christ's servanthood. We love you.Kristin brought EVERYTHING we needed for a delicious italian meal...the pasta, chicken parmesan, extra sauce, parmesan cheese to top, dessert, even two cans of Coke! She brought both Vivian and Kate a gift, too. So perfect. And last Friday Chris, Crystal, and Chandler brought us dinner and stayed to enjoy it with us. We loved their company. Chandler is several months older than Vivian and she's so animated! We had fun and were very thankful to have a meal provided.

We put an offer on this house last week and it was accepted. The closing is scheduled for mid-October so we'll be moving very soon! It's about 15 minutes from our current house...still in Salem but much closer to Aaron's work. We are very thankful!

Last week Judie had Vivian over to play with Nicholas and Macy. I am trying to arrange these playdates so that Vivian has a chance to learn how to play with other kids. She spends so much time with me! But thankfully we have lots of friends at church with children around the same age (Macy and Vivian are about 3 weeks apart in age).