Our Sweet Girl

I took these photos when Charlotte was 10 weeks. She's rather stoic in all of them but still sweet nonetheless...

William's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated William turning 3 at the beginning of May with a low key party starting at the fire station and ending at the park. The weather was perfect and William had THE best time. He's still talking about his "dire station" party.

Rare pic of me with my babes.

 Wish we had a pic with Daddy!!

 Sister slept in her car seat most of the party. Next year she'll probably be toddling around :) 

 William with 2 of his best buddies, Raughley and Liam. It's impossible to get 3 boys to cooperate for a picture :)

 Climbing around the fire truck. He was so happy!

 William and Charlie, his BFF from school. He talks about Charlie all.the.time. and is begging for Charlie to come spend the night. I think he'll have to wait 2 more years for that!

 Listening intently to the firemen give a lesson on fire safety. 

 So thankful that so many of his friends were able to come! 

 I've realized that children's b'day parties are always complete chaos. 

 Lookin' WAY to grown up for Momma!

He got a jeep from us for his birthday and LOVES riding around the neighborhood picking up the ladies. 

Charlotte's Newborn Pictures

Taken by yours truly...

Her birth annoucement

2 Months Old

Baby Charlotte is 2 months old. She has us all wrapped around her tiny little fingers. She has finally started to wake up more over the past week and she's much more interactive. I do not remember William being this sleepy! She is definitely a lap baby and wants to be held 24/7 which can be challenging at times but I love every second of it too! We saw her precious smile for the first time on the day before she turned 2 months and it happened to be at Mommy :) Grant has yet to get her to smile at him but he's working reallly hard on that.

She's eating 4 ounces of breast milk every 2.5-3 hrs during the day and every 4-5 hours at night. We usually put her to bed around 8 and she wakes up at midnight and then once again around 3 or 4am but it still varies. She's still sleeping in the rock n' play in our room. We probably should move her to the crib soon but we don't want to rock the boat since she's doing pretty well with sleep. She still spits us a LOT but doesn't seem to be too bothered by it so she's not on any medication for reflux.

She loves her car seat, loud noises (hair dryer, vacuum cleaner, sound machine blaring), being outside, "talking" to Mommy, and looking at ceiling fans and lights :)

We went to the pediatrician today for her 2 month check up and she had to get 4 shots. I still remembered the trauma all to well from William's 4 month shots and was dreading this appointment. Thankfully, it wasn't too terrible and she's been sleeping most of the afternoon. She got an excellent report from the pediatrician and she is a growing, healthy baby girl. She's almost 3 pounds smaller than William at 2 months :)

2 month stats:

Weight: 11 lbs, 15 oz. (75th percentile)

Height: 24 inches (97th percentile)

Head circumference: (50th percentile)

She kept toppling over in her chair during our photo session. Oh well, I tried!

Douglas and Katie's Wedding

Last weekend we travelled to Reynold's Plantation in Georgia for Uncle Doug and Aunt Katie's dreamy wedding. Everything about the weekend was elegant, classy, and beautiful just like Katie. We all had the best time! I still can't believe my little brother is old enough to be married!!! Ragan and Kyle came with us to babysit William and Charlotte, and they got in lots of good practice time before their precious one arrives in November!! We could NOT have made it through the weekend without them.

Juju and Steve rented a beautiful home on the lake for the big weekend. William, Charlotte and I rode with Birdie and Ahdah and arrived Thursday afternoon. Grant met us there because he had been on a work trip in South Carolina. Uncle Ahdah was a major trooper to agree to drive us there. Thankfully both kids did great. The most traumatic part of the trip for Ahdah was probably me having to pump in the back seat :)

We loved being in the same house with Jan Jan and Sam. 

 Beautiful view...you can see the reception tent in the distance. 

The boys did a little fishing Thursday afternoon. 

Uncle Ahdah is going to be an amazing daddy to his baby girl, Ann Torrence. 

Please take note of the swimming pool above. Also, notice the distance from the top of the deck down to the pool. William swam WITH his swimmies on all afternoon on Thursday. Well, we finally got him out of the pool around 5pm. Around 5:30, I noticed William went outside alone and started lurking around the deck glaring at the pool. Sam was out there with him so I didn't think too much of it. Well, mommy instinct told me to go stand out there because NO toddler should be left unattended around water. Before I knew it William was walking down the steps to the pool taking off his shirt and he dove in without his swimmies. Mommy adrenaline kicked in big time. I ran down the flight of stairs from the deck to the pool and dove in fully clothed (jeans, long sleeve shirt, scarf) and rescued him. He was completely under water when I got to him. The first thing he said when I pulled him up was, "Mommy, why are you in here? You don't have on your swimsuit!!" Needless to say, it was extremely traumatic for me and he wasn't the least big phased. He got a big spanking and Grant had a very serious convo with him. I still feel sick thinking about it. Moving on...

 On Friday, we went to a beautiful bridesmaids luncheon at the Ritz Carlton. 

 The brunette Shaw sisters and blonde Deighton sisters.

 Katie's Auburn KD pledge sisters

 Friday night, my parents hosted an amazing rehearsal dinner! The evening started with cocktails on the lawn.

I loved getting to hang out with all my cousins and their significant others all weekend. We don't get to see each other enough and we are all very close. It's hard to believe 6 out of the 8 of us will be married at the end of May! 

 I loved the linens and flowers! Way to go Mom! The toasts were all very special. Julie and I both got choked up during ours. We love our little brother and new sister-in-law!

 I honestly don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful, happy bride than Katie! William was mesmerized with her and even acted a little shy around her which he's never done. I think he was in awe of her beauty :) He did an AMAZING job as the ring bearer. The plan was for him to go down the aisle and make a quick exit with Kyle, but he decided to stay for the entire ceremony! He did surprisingly great and never made a peep. He did toss around his pillow throughout the ceremony but I think Grant and I were the only ones that really noticed it. All eyes were on the gorgeous bride and handsome groom!

 I'll say it again...we couldn't have done this weekend OR had as much fun as we did without the help of Ragan and Kyle. They were lifesavers! 

 My forever wedding date. 

 Parenting at a reception is fun ;)

 Man I hope I look that good when I'm 80+ years old. 

 The wedding party had pictures taken at the lake house where Katie and her family stayed. It was breathtakingly beautiful. 

The famous James Farmer did the flowers. 

William loved the flower girl, Helena. He chased her around the entire reception begging her to dance with him. They were precious on the dance floor. 

Baby Charlotte was such a trooper! I wish I would've gotten some better pictures of her in her pretty wedding gown!

It won't be long before they're holding Ann Torrence!!!

Father/daughter dance

Mother/son dance. 

The highlight of William's weekend was dancing with Aunt Katie. He's one lucky little boy to have an aunt like her!

That's one good lookin' couple right there.

William's buddy for the weekend. Kyle played hard with this little one from swimming in the frigid pool, blowing bubbles for hours, feeding him whatever he asked for, answering one million questions, and the list could go on and on and on...It was a magical weekend for the most humble, genuine, down to earth couple I know. Congratulations to Katie and Douglas!