Yesterday afternoon Uncle Stephen and I took the girls to the Salem Fair. Gramme decided to come along too and we were very grateful because the trip was a pretty big job! They had a great time doing something unique. It is such a privilege to be around when kids do something for the first time.
The biggest issue was that it was so HOT...maybe even close to 100 degrees?! They drank a lot of water but the heat didn't seem to bother them. Kate rode a few things but was very patient to hang out in the stoller and watch everything. Vivian had her classic "I'm thinking, observing, confused" look on her face most of the time, but it was obvious that she was excited. She asked to do everything one more time.
I'm so glad we made the effort!

On Thursday, July 1st, Mason James Carroll was born to our friends Nathan and Erin. We are very excited for them! He was 8 lbs, 13.5 oz and 21" long at birth. Their little girl Julia is friends with Vivian and Kate. We were sad to be at the beach when he arrived, but we stopped by to meet him today. He is so cute and healthy!

I can't remember posting the following pictures that I took from Erin's baby shower back in May. We had a great time celebrating her little boy and God's goodness...she got lots of diapers and cute clothes! Crystal, Jill, Piper, Abriana, Mary Lynn

Erin made her own shower cake...crazy, I know! It was beautiful, though. It went with the theme of Mason's nursery.

The mommy with her mom and mother-in-law.

It was a rainy day, but we made the best of it and had fun anyway! Shannon Maggi threw the shower and did a great job. And now we are so glad that Mason is actually here!

Kate is growing fast! Yesterday she was 11 months old, and so of course next month she will be a year! She is changing, but a lot of things are the same as last month, so this update might be shorter. She has the same schedule pretty much, except she's down to two bottles: when she first wakes up, and before bed. I've been giving her cow's milk for a couple of weeks but she hasn't fallen in love yet. She's doing better with it than her sister, though, so there's hope for a milk drinker in our family.
She's extending her afternoon nap until 3:30 or 4. She is going to bed between 7 and 7:30. I cannot get this girl to sleep any later than 6:30 am, though! Ahh! Usually it's about 6 or 6:15. Sometimes she plays patiently until I get her at 7, and other times she's starving and cries until I give in and go get her. I think this early waketime is going to mean that she'll keep her morning nap longer than Vivian did (V gave it up around 13 months old).
She is a good eater except when it comes to vegetables.
She loves to climb stairs and will use all her strength to get out of your arms when she sees them so she can climb.
She is making a little progress towards taking steps on her own, but it still seems like it will be a while. My only interest in having her walk is silly: I want her to be able to start wearing dresses to church :)

Aaron, Vivian, and I call her "Kate Kate" because that's what Vivian used to call her when she was trying to get her attention.
Her feet are much smaller than Vivian's were at this age...she is not even close to being able to fit into V's shoes from last summer.
She smiles A LOT (my mom's nicknames for Kate include "sunshine" and "grinbox"), but she can also be pretty fussy. She will fuss until she gets what she wants (which sometimes could just be attention or to be held).
Peekaboo is a favorite game for her. She laughs easily when we play it.
She hates to have her diaper or clothes changed.
She is a stubborn little girl...doesn't listen very well to "no" but I know for sure that she understands what it means.
She loves to go into Vivian's room to help me wake her up in the morning. Her face lights up when she sees her sister.

Happy 11 months, Kate Kate! You look so grown up!

I know I've been missing in action from the blogging world for a LONG time! We took a break for a trip to NC. We had no internet access while gone :( I've made three posts below that document our travels. Enjoy!
I have many other posts to do to catch up with what's going on in the Fernandez family and I'll try to get to those this week! Hope everyone is doing well and had a fun July 4th.

Our first stop in NC was at Papi and Grandma's house (Aaron's parents). They had not seen the girls since they came up to our house back in January! It was a joy to see them and spend time with them. Vivian attached herself very quickly to Peggy, following her all over the house saying, "Grandma! Grandma! Hold you!" She was comfortable with everyone. We arrived late on Friday night (we didn't leave home until after VBS that night!), then relaxed and played at their house all day Saturday. Peggy waited on us hand and foot...it was a wonderful start to our vacation :) On Sunday we went to church with them, out to eat at Pizza Inn, and after their naps we headed to the beach to begin another adventure.

(Judah's parents are Gray and Pam Bailey...lifelong friends of Aaron's)

We got to the beach on Sunday evening, in time for dinner and bed. We were there all week...our longest vacation yet! I had so much fun watching Vivian and Kate play in the sand, be mesmerized by the waves, squeal with excitement at all the new things we did, and love on their Gramme. Aaron came down on Thursday and we spent a lot of time at the water with the girls. We stayed busy the whole week! I took a lot of pictures but here are some favorites.

On Saturday morning, we left the beach and headed to Hope Mills, which is near Fayetteville. We were invited to Aunt Julie's house for the Fernandez annual 4th of July party. There was food, catching up in conversations (we hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving), boating, swimming, running around, and fireworks. We got there just in time for the girls to take really long naps, which gave me a good chance to eat and catch up with everyone. They played hard for several hours and loved every second. Fun party!

This week we are going to Vacation Bible School at church every night! I am helping with the Kindergarten group and Vivian is in the Firecracker class with her friends (Kate is left at home to go to bed). There is lots of singing, dancing, stories, crafts, and running around playtime. We are having a lot of fun and Vivian has slept in until 8 a.m. for the past two mornings :)

Vivian's birthday was last Friday and I want to share what we did to celebrate. We sang the happy birthday song to her a lot that day, starting when we first went to get her out of bed. Aaron took her to breakfast with the guys at his work (they go every Friday anyway, but this time they let her join them). She had chocolate chip pancakes and my Dad brought her a cupcake so that she could blow out the candles and hear everyone sing to her again. She wore a birthday hat that Aaron made for her.



When she got back to the house, she talked to Mama Dot on the phone while I got Kate ready. We headed back out the door to go to Gramme's ribbon-cutting for Girl Scouts (a post about that is coming soon). We let K go home with Uncle Stephen and Gramme so that I could take V to the ZOO to meet Aaron.
We had fun at the zoo...it was a little disappointing because there weren't many animal species, but she didn't know any different so it was all very fascinating and fun for her. We made everything a big deal and overdramatized everything!


She napped at Gramme's while Uncle Stephen and I put together her birthday present...a play kitchen. She didn't actually get to play with it until Saturday, because as soon as she came home we had to get in the car and go to our small group meeting. She played with friends and had a great time there, staying out really late to make a fantastic finale to her 2nd birthday!
Whew! Long post, but it's worth it so that we will remember such a significant day in the life of our firstborn!

Uncle Stephen helped us put a lot of things together last week...picnic tables, the play house, etc. Thanks Stephen, aka handyman!
So far she loves playing with this. She's asked about it as soon as I wake her up from naps for the past two days. :)
We had a great day...and I will post pictures from her party on Saturday as soon as I get them from Carissa!
I would love to post about what Vivian is doing at age 2, but I'll wait until after her check-up tomorrow.

On Friday, the Girl Scouts held a ribbon-cutting for a traverse climbing wall that my mom donated to their adventure camp. We have a long history in Girl Scouting. My mom has been a leader even before I was able to participate, and I started as soon as I could and stayed in it until graduating from high school. We had the best troop...it was all of my closest friends! My mom asked that the climbing wall be in honor of Troop 79, where she (our leader) and all of us made the best memories. It's very cool.
We had several from our troop there on Friday: me, Kari, Ciji, Amanda, and Carissa. We were all introduced, she gave a little history about our troop, we shared a few memories, she cut the ribbon, and then everyone was able to climb for few minutes before cake and refreshments.
They named the wall "Snoozy's Scramble". Snoozy was my mom's camp name.



There are a lot of pictures here...many are repeats, but I haven't had time to go through them to pick the best ones. I didn't want to wait to share them, though!

Today is Vivian's 2nd birthday! I haven't been posting this week because every free moment has been spent putting toys together :) And I have no pictures this morning, but we have a fun day planned and we'll make sure to share with everyone tonight. Thank you to everyone for loving her and being a part of her life!

We are taking the plunge! Vivian is going to be 2 on Friday, so we thought it might be time to let her grow up a little and ditch the crib. Tonight is our first night. So far so good...I left her in there a few minutes before 8:00 and she's been very quiet. Aaron just went in to check on her (around 9) and she was still awake, but just laying there in the same place I left her. I'm sure she's entirely confused about what's going on...but then again, maybe I am underestimating how much she understands? I think it will be a while before we have any discipline issues associated with being in the bed (getting out when she's not supposed to) because I don't think she realizes that it's a possibility :)

Next up...take away that pacifier!!! AHH!! We'll give ourselves a couple months before we try to mess with that.

The next several posts are all about our big wedding weekend (starting on Thursday morning for me!). Our friends Ben and Molly got married on Saturday! Picture all of our dearest friends (our church family) celebrating and partying together with the same thankful hearts, mindful of God's great favor in ordaining this marriage before the creation of the world, and preparing Ben and Molly to use their union as an opportunity to reflect Christ's love for his Bride, the Church. It was an encouraging, fun weekend!
There are lots of pictures, so these posts are mostly for our church family who might want to see them. If you have any pictures that you can share with me, please email me!

Friday night we met everyone at the church for the rehearsal, which was just as worshipful as the wedding ceremony itself! It went smoothly and we were soon over at the Carroll's for the rehearsal dinner.

handsome men, really focused on practicing for the next day ;)

again my husband is distracted. we're seeing a pattern...
all the beautiful ladies

The Carroll's hosted us at their home. Three Little Pigs restaurant catered with BBQ and slaw...yummy.

I loved the setting for the dinner. They set up a huge tent and decorated so classy.

Nick and Gretchen

Gretchen took our picture and made a joke of it the first time around by getting mostly Scott instead of us...

and then she took a real one. We had a great night, celebrating Ben and Molly!

Ben and Molly's wedding...the event of the year! We've been looking forward to this weekend for many months. It was such a beautiful celebration of God's grace in joining these two for marriage. We were able to see God knitting their hearts together from the very beginning when Ben started to pursue Molly at church, so it was a special blessing for us to be a part of their big day.

On Saturday Vivian went to her first real birthday party. It was for her preschool friend, Avery, and it was a Dora theme. We had a great time! It just made her seem so grown up to me...

This is the most fun baby stage for me! Kate is so sweet and happy and easy (of course she has her moments, though). God has given us an immeasurable gift. -Kate is crawling fast, cruising well, and walking while we hold her hands. She is making no progress towards standing well or taking steps because she sits down as soon as she's put in a standing position.
-She eats almost any kind of table food now...we're not holding anything back. It's so much easier now that both girls are eating pretty much the same things. Sometimes I'm afraid she's going to get sick from eating so much. She's feeding herself well but I'm usually embarrassed in restaurants by the mess she leaves under the highchair.

-She is starting to sit still for me to read books. I can usually get through half of a book before she tries to eat it or squirms to get down.

-She kisses us when we ask her to.

-She can sort of wave...she just moves her whole arm up and down in response to someone waving at her.

-She's starting to point at things.

-She definitely recognizes Papa, Gramme, and Tillie.

-She loves to swing doors open and closed.

-Her noises and babbling are more purposeful and strong. "d", "n", "m", "b", "p", "g" are some of the sounds I've heard her make. Vivian loves it when Kate talks to her, which mostly happens when they're eating a meal.

-Besides climbing on mommy, another favorite activity for her is climbing stairs.

-I'm going to start working on weaning her from formula, starting maybe this week. The plan is to try and drop the 3pm feeding first, offering whole milk instead. ?? This is unknown territory for me because Vivian was so different when it came to bottle feedings.