Sunday Watermelon Dress

We had to post a picture of Cora looking "Oh so adorable" in her new watermelon dress!  Thanks Aunt Jennifer for the new outfit!  She loved wearing it!

Happy Birthday Parker!

There are a lot of special birthdays in July! As you saw from the previous post, we celebrated my brothers birthday recently. This weekend, we got to celebrate our nephew Parker's 5th birthday! I can not believe this little one is now 5! I still remember when he was born and now he is in kindergarten. Wow! We had a great time helping him celebrate!


Cora has been so excited for "Parker's happy day"! (This is how she says "Happy Birthday".) She even has slept with her shoes on so she will be ready to go as soon as we get up! (Note: I did NOT put her shoes on her. She gets up out of bed, finds her shoes, puts them on, and goes back to bed. Kind of weird.) She had a great time swimming and playing with Parker and his cousins. Too bad she needed a nap and missed the cake and presents. Not to worry, when she woke up - we sang "Happy Birthday" to Parker again and she enjoyed a delicious cupcake!




Parker's Birthday Cake!  Ice Cream cake with dinosaurs - ROAR!


Swimming in the pool - She had a great time!


Parker getting some help blowing out his candles!


Loving some present time!

Belly Shot - 30 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:








How far along: 30 weeks. Only 10 weeks left!






Best moment: I got to hear Charlotte's heart beat today! I had my usual check up appointment and Lisa, one of my midwives, said she was sounding happy and healthy! Lisa also felt around and tried to determine her position and she thinks she felt her head on my right side and said she seemed to be positioned like she was laying in a hammock across my belly! She also commented on how low she was.








Food Cravings: Desserts! I have such a sweet tooth, which I had this before I got pregnant so this is not a new thing! (nor can I blame this on being pregnant!)






Weight: 146.6, from my last doctor appointment, which was today.








How I'm feeling: Still a little uncomfortable! I only expect this to get worse as Charlotte continues to grow. My back is pretty sore and I have some trouble finding a comfortable position to sit in or lay down in. I have to use the restroom a lot! She is really low!








Things I miss: Cooler weather, feeling cute. I do not feel cute at all! I feel like a shape and that shape is ROUND!

Happy Birthday Uncle Eric!

Today, we celebrated my big bro's 33rd birthday! I still can not believe that is how old he is! Are we sure this is right? I mean, where did year 32 go? Anyway, he said he was 33 so I guess he would know. Eric - Hope you had a great birthday celebrating! You have been a wonderful brother to me and uncle to Cora. Thanks for all your help and support! We love you!



William and Cora waiting for everyone to arrive. They had a little fish tank for Cora to enjoy.


Family shot as we were waiting for our food!


We went to a Japanese steak house where they cook the food in front of you.  Cora was mesmerized. She enjoyed watching everything!

Cora with the birthday boy!

Our First (and maybe last) Yard Sale!

We did a yard sale! Shocking, I know. We are not the type of family that is organized or motivated enough to put together a yard sale. Plus, I'm far too impatient to store items we do not want. I will drive it straight to Goodwill just to get it out of my house! Since we are finishing our upstairs bonus room, we have lost all of our storage space. We had many items that we stored that we did not need. Luckily a group of neighbors suggested doing a "multi-family" yard sale so we went along with the group. All we had to do was sort our items and price them. That was hard enough for us, I can't imagine if we had to do the advertising as well! So I'm very thankful to our neighbors that made the signs and put the ad in the newspapers and online.


It ended up being a good experience for us! We had a great turn out and we sold many of our items. At the end of the day, we only had 2 small boxes of junk to donate. I'm not sure if we will do this again but if we have many extra items in the future, I wouldn't disregard the idea!



We got up at 5 am to get set up - This was taken around 6:30 in the morning!


Good-bye futon! 


I thought out set up looked pretty good! 

I think Cora found some "treasures" in the junk pile!

Just Keep Swimming...

Cora started swim lessons today!  She was VERY excited about going to the pool.  When we mentioned it to her last Friday, she was already pulling out her swimsuits.  She is in a class with kids ranging from 6 months to 3 years old.  Luckily, some friends of ours are participating as well so we are getting to spend time with them too! 

To my surprise, she did really well today.  It was all about seeing how comfortable they are in the water, can they blow bubbles and do they like to get their face wet.  She was a bit of a wild woman, and she kept kicking me in the stomach, but she enjoyed splashing and she really liked it when I dunked her in the water.  It was quite the work out for me so I'm glad for the exercise!  She is already asking when are we going again and I'm thankful I can tell her tomorrow. 

School's Out!

Today was Cora's last day of her "school" at St. James! I am so sad because we both have enjoyed it so much. She participated in 2 sessions, the first was about "Farm Animals" and lasted a week, and this one was about "Bible Hero's" and lasted Monday - Thursday. Sure, I enjoyed the free time but I loved seeing her little face when I came to pick her up and seeing how much fun she had. She learned so much!


I really can't say exactly what they did everyday but I can take a guess. I would drop her off at her room in the morning and they would already have a craft out (either coloring or painting a page or playing with play doh) and also snack. Cora talked about "snack" a lot the first week! So the rest of the time, I'm not sure but on her little progress sheet that they gave me, they would mark what she enjoyed and Cora usually enjoyed "playing with dolls, playing outside, painting, looking at books". When I would come to pick her up, she always had a very cute craft that they made that day, usually with her hand print or foot print or photo so those have now become priceless memento's that I will keep forever!


My favorite memory is actually from today, her last day. When I asked her about school this week, she would mention the word "pop". I did not know what she meant by this but I found out today! At pick up, she came running out to me, wearing her craft (a paper crown from their lesson on King David and Queen Ester), and holding a very sticky lollipop in her hand. AHA! Pop = Lollipop! We've never given her one so she definitely enjoyed that treat!



Exhausted from her busy day at school! Very sticky from her lollipop!

Showing off her craft and coloring page!


I hope we get to participate in more programs like this!  It was awesome!  Next week, we start swim lessons!  More to come on that later!

Belly Shot - 28 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:






How far along: 28 weeks. 12 weeks left!  We have finally started to prepare for Charlotte's arrival.  We've pulled down all the baby stuff and gone through it and we are working on getting our bonus room upstairs finished so we can make our 3rd bedroom into Cora's room and have Cora's room stay a baby nursery.  It's starting to become real in my mind that we are growing our family! 




Best moment: Feeling her movements!  Since I'm sure she is running out of room, I've definitely noticed lots of movements.  Sometimes I can just push in on my stomach and I can just feel her random body parts.  I wish I knew how she was positioned to know what I was feeling.  She moves mostly in the evenings.  Hope this doesn't mean she will be a night owl! 


Food Cravings: Fruit, Blueberry Cobbler (we've been eating a lot of that lately!)




Weight: 143.8, from my doctor appointment on the 7th.




How I'm feeling:  I'm starting to get uncomfortable.  I'm carrying Charlotte really low.  Well, it feels low to me and when I compare pictures of this pregnancy and last time, it looks lower to.  I've started noticing my belly getting in the way as I try to bend down or if I'm trying to squeeze behind stuff.  Cora has a hard time climbing in my lap!  It has been hard seeing how big my belly is getting but mostly because I know I have 12 weeks left and I really do not want a bigger baby than Cora!  Hopefully she will weigh at the most the same or a little less would be really nice!




Things I miss: Wearing my comfy T-shirts!  They are starting to pull and be tight around the middle!  Being able to cuddle with Cora with her in my lap.  She pushes and shoves against the belly, probably uncomfortable to her.

Blueberry Pickin'

We've been in our home for about 5 years. It was a brand new structure when we bought it so we did all of the landscaping ourselves (with lots of help). One thing that William really wanted in our yard was blueberry bushes. His family has a couple of huge bushes at their house so he has always enjoyed picking fresh berries. So William and his green thumb took some sprigs from his parents bushes to plant in our new yard. They grew really well but due to hot, dry weather we never had any berries grow. This year has been totally different! God has blessed our bushes in abundance and we are picking berries all the time! They are so yummy and we've enjoyed them so much. We just eat them raw mostly but we have made a few cobblers! We've even had enough to share with the neighbors, who have been sharing their garden's with us. Fresh produce is the best!!

Cow Appreciation Day 2011

I hate to admit it but yes. We are "those people". Those people that do silly stuff for something free. At least it was Chic Fil A food! Every year they have "Cow Appreciation Day" where if you dress like a cow, they will give you a meal for free. William was all about this so my day was spent coming up with costumes for the 3 of us. After a trip to Wal-mart to get some black felt, paper plates, and yarn, I was able to come up with a pretty cute outfit that can be reused next year! We had a fun family evening and Cora LOVED being a cow.



To keep from having to put stuff on our face and head, I made a "Cow Plate Face".




This is probably one of our best family photos!  Why do we have to be dressed as cows??

Cora twirling around with her cow tail!

We made lots of fun memories!  Best of all, I put all the spots, tails, and cow face in a box so come next year, we will be ready!

Heart Beats and Glucose Tests!

This week marks the beginning of my third trimester! There are only 3 trimesters so I'm at the end - it is very hard to believe! 27 weeks, and only 13 more to go. Charlotte will be here soon so to help Cora become more aware of the reason for my growing belly I wanted to bring her to one of my doctor appointments so she could hear the baby's heart beat. It ended up being a longer appointment because of the glucose test. She did pretty well considering! I think she understood that the "thump thump" she was hearing was Charlotte's heart beat. I'm sure she was just relieved to know that she didn't have to get any shots or be examined by the doctor.


Everything is looking good! Baby looked and sounded great and doctor thought I was doing fine. So I'll go back in 3 weeks for another check up.

4th of July Lake Getaway

We spent the holiday weekend with William's family on Lake Tillery! I'm sure you are like me and wondering, "Where is Lake Tillery?" It is located in Troy, near Albemarle, about an hour outside of Charlotte. His family spent many of their vacations relaxing on this lake and they absolutely love it. After William and I started to date, I got to come a few times on family trips and then of course after we married we came every time they visited. I can see why they love it. It is very relaxing with beautiful scenery from the Uwharrie Mountains. You can swim, jet ski, go out in the boat or canoe, relax on the porch, hike, go for long walks, watch TV, and most importantly eat. The term they use is "graze". It means to put all the insanely bad for you food on the counter and you stand there and eat it 24/7.


The lake house as a really cool story, I think. Basically Williams grandfather, Paw Paw Bell, and his brother married sisters. They bought this land on the lake in the '70s and built two lake houses that faced each other for their families to enjoy. So there are many memories surrounding this little house! It's nice that we get to share in it and help Cora create her own memories of family time!


Below are some pictures to summarize our time at the lake!




Picture of the two houses from the lake - Ours is the one on the left. The other was recently sold to a new family and they have made many improvements to their side!



William made pancakes one morning for us to enjoy!  Here are Parker and Cora eating a healthy breakfast to get the day started!



Jennifer and Cory brought their lab, Sampson, and here is Cora hanging on in his cage!



Cora got spoiled by her aunts!  Here is Aunt Kat Kat doing her nails.



Cora dragging Parker to the lake!



Jennifer and Cora have a boat and it was really nice getting to go out on rides!  Cora loved it!



She even fell asleep one day on it.  I could have too!



Cora and her Great Grandma Bell!



Me reading and the kids watching "Finding Nemo"!



Playing in the baby pool - poor Sampson couldn't wait to jump in!



No tubs inside so we had to bathe out on the porch!  I think she liked the view!







Aunt Jennifer fixed Cora's hair in these cute braids!  And we are enjoying our ice cream cones!



Out on the boat getting ready to watch the fireworks!







Group photo!



This was a first for me!  We took the boat out, rode about 10 minutes away and they had this pretty amazing firework display!  It was so cool seeing all the boats out there.  Cora loved it.



They lit off a few more firecrackers when we got back to the house.



Sparklers too!  Happy July 4th!



Going out for a ride on the jet ski! 



Cora liked this too!  I think she will definitely be a lake girl.







Cool William wake boarding!







Out at the drive in movie theatre!  We saw "Cars 2"!



Playing out at the beach area!







Cora loved swimming with everyone.