A year ago I would have never been able to tell you what smocking is. But because I have two little girls, I have been introduced to this particular type of dress (doesn't have to be a dress, though). Even if I had known what it was, I probably would have never chosen for them to wear such a dress given the opportunity because it just doesn't seem to be my style. That is, until I heard mothers talking about how special and classic and priceless they are, and until I found one for sale as a hand-me-down for $4. So now Vivian has a smocked dress and she wore it a couple of Sundays ago.

That evening we met Papa and Gramme for dinner at The Homeplace, so we tried some picture-taking. It didn't go that well because they wouldn't sit still. This is how most of the pictures turned out: The ones that follow are the only ones that didn't come out so blurry.

Yes, Kate is a walker now. She hardly crawls anymore. It's precious to watch her waddle.

It's raining shoes! We are thankful for grace shown to us by Jody and Kelly, who have given us the shoes that their girls have outgrown. Look at this huge pile!! Vivian and I had a "shoe party" this afternoon, when she tried them all on to see if they fit. We chose a modest amount from among this group and now we'll pass the ones that don't fit to another little girl. But we definitely have our "brown and black" needs covered for this winter. Thanks, ladies!
And remember, of course, that whatever Vivian wears this winter, Kate should be able to wear the next. Hooray for having two of the same gender!

This past weekend was a real treat for us. On Thursday afternoon we drove to NC in time to have dinner with Mike, Peggy, and Brooke in Raleigh and head to their house in Spring Hope to set up house. It was great to see them again! Aaron hadn't seen his dad since last January! We hung out all day Friday and played with the girls, and then Friday evening Aaron and I left and went back to Raleigh (without the babies) (and we didn't go back until Sunday afternoon). !! I will do a separate post on the time that V and K spent with their Papi and Grandma and Aunt Brooke, but for now, here are the exciting things that Aaron and I did on our weekend getaway:We met Charles and Brittany at Triangle Town Center for dinner. We met at 6:30 and sat at the table for another 3 hours! It was a great time of general catch-up, but we were also able to discuss important things about God and His church...encouraging for all of us.
Aaron took a picture of this car's picture tag, and if you know Aaron really well then you're not surprised that he would do that. Maybe you can enlarge the picture to see what it is.


On Saturday we slept in, which was my first time sleeping past 7 a.m. since May and it was wonderful. We went for a slow jog together, which didn't end well because I was hungry and thirsty and hot (otherwise stated as wimpy and out of shape). We went to Champs for lunch to watch the State game, and they won! After that we went to a matinee movie, back to the hotel to be lazy, and then grabbed a quick dinner at CookOut around 10:30 before bed.Picture of us at lunch on Saturday. Yes, I'm a nerd...reading a book while somewhat-watching the game with Aaron.


It was great to not have a schedule and to be together :)

I can't make any promises, but hopefully I am going to start putting posts on the blog again. I took a little break...not on purpose, but because I got so behind on keeping it up-to-date, I got stressed thinking about getting caught up and just decided not to do any at all. And, things have been really busy around here for the last month. It seems like for the last couple weeks, we've hit the ground running (literally on some days) at 6 am, and haven't stopped or had a free moment until 10 or even 11 pm. !!
So much has happened lately, and our girls have changed so drastically, that I can't wait to share with you. My plan is to do a couple of posts each day until I get all the good pictures from my camera onto the blog. Thanks for being so patient!!
I'll start with what we did today, and backtrack from there. We love you all!

Today we went on a fun adventure to help Carissa choose her wedding dress! She is getting married in April and we were very excited to see her in a wedding gown for the first time. Vivian and Kate came to see the top 4 dresses that we picked (out of 10 that she liked).
Note: don't get excited...I made sure that none of the dresses were in the pictures. If you see any dresses, they are ones that were hanging up for the other brides who were there trying them on!

This is a sweet picture of Vivian admiring Miss Carissa.
Vivian loved modeling in front of all the mirrors. Daddy, these girls are going to be the ones trying on wedding gowns sooner than you can imagine!

And so did Kate! I felt bad about all the fingerprints she left on the mirrors.

They were happy for the time we were there, even though Vivian wasn't feeling great.

They had a great game of hide and seek under all the expensive dresses.

Today as part of our wedding planning fun, Carissa took Sarah and I to the place where she and Keegan will tie the knot. It's called Sundara...it's an outside venue behind a gorgeous old farm house in Boones Mill. Very impressive. It's going to be beautiful!

April will be here soon! We are thrilled about it!

Hooray! Preschool has started! Vivian loves Bethel Baptist Church Preschool. Her first day was last Wednesday and she had a blast. She was excited to play with Avery. There are lots of 2 year olds in her class this year. They have moved to a bigger room and have added a third teacher (Ms. Sandy and Ms. Donna from last year, and now we have Ms. Iris).

This morning when I dropped V off, K was not happy about going with me. She wanted to stay and play. I think I will let her go on Wednesdays, starting in October.

Last Saturday, the weekend of Labor Day, we got to hang out with the couples in our small group in a social setting. We went out to eat and met back at the Bolling's house for board games. It was hilarious...we definitely got to know each other better (especially our silly sides and drawing, acting, and humming abilities). Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the fun, just the desserts that Kristin served! You can tell where my attention lies...

Kate is hard to read about dropping the morning nap. Several weeks ago, when she went 5 or 6 days straight with just playing and talking during that 9-10 hour, I started putting toys in her crib so that she'd actually have something to play with to entertain herself. One morning I noticed she was being very quiet, so I went in to check and found her like this:

So sweet!

This video is more than a month old...when we started to notice how much she loved head banging to music. And she can keep pretty good rhythm! Make sure you let the video load all the way before you try to watch it so it's not so choppy.
We love our fun girls.

Our Internet is not working at home! Hopefully we can get it going agai so that I can get some posts up before the babies and I head to the beach on Wednesday...sorry for the long wait!

Background: Vivian uses a pacifier for naps and bedtime. Aaron is interested in breaking this habit (I'm not in a hurry to get rid of it, though...she's already growing up enough as it is!). The other night he was putting her to bed and told her "No paci" and got her to repeat it a lot to psych her up. He left her there with no pacifier and she went to sleep without it (but looked for it around 4 a.m. and I graciously gave it to her).

Anyway, we are also teaching her about Jesus whenever possible. We are teaching her that he said, "No sin! Repent and believe!" (a toddler summary of the NT), which she will say to you if you ask her what Jesus says.

The other day she got confused with these two separate things...when we asked her what Jesus says, she said,

"No paci! Repent and believe!"