Baby Shower for Charlotte!

Today we got to celebrate Charlotte's soon arrival with Williams co-workers!  They were very sweet and offered to take us to lunch and have a little shower for us.  I was so touched by this as you really don't see too many showers happen for baby #2, especially if you are having the same gender and such.  It was sweet to see that they wanted to celebrate our family on becoming a family of four!


Too bad William is not in it - here we are at Olive Garden in Wilson.


They were very sweet and had a gift for Cora also - a book about a "new baby".


Opening some super cute clothes for baby Charlotte!




She will be ready for the fall with her cute pumpkin shirt!

Just another day...

Cora trying out the rollers - she enjoyed having them in her hair.

Let's go fly a kite!

It was a little windy this afternoon when William got home from work! Perfect time to fly a kite! Cora wore herself out pretty good running around the yard. She seemed to get the hang of it! I just wish I had been there - I actually had a date with my sister to go and paint pottery so I missed seeing this. Good thing William enjoys taking pictures of everything!

Cora picking the last blueberries from the bush.  Bye Bye blueberries!  You will be missed!

Belly Shot - 32 and 34 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:




Yep.  I did it.  I combined my last 2 belly shots into 1 post!  I think with our room project and also just being a little tired, I've gotten behind on my blogging. But never fear!  We did not forget to take a week 32 photo.




How far along: 34 weeks. 6 more weeks remaining!  OH MY!!






Best moment: At my last Dr. appt (8/15) I saw Freida, who we really like.  She is super sweet and nice.  She tried to figure out how Charlotte was positioned and she seemed to think she was head down with her back on my left side and her feet positioned over to my right side.  Makes a lot of sense since I've been feeling feet and such.  I was so excited to hear this as I was fearful she was not head down.  I know she can move and she probably has with the type of movements I've felt lately but we'll see at my next Dr. appt, which is 8/30.






Weight: 150.8, from my last doctor appointment, which was 8/15/11.








How I'm feeling: Pretty sore.  Thankfully, we've moved our TV into the living room recently so I no longer have to sit on the floor at night to watch TV with William!  That was getting pretty uncomfortable.  I definitely feel like she is getting a lot bigger, and the pictures really show it!  I think I'm starting to feel some anxiety about having a newborn again. I'm hoping I can balance it all.  I worry about neglecting Cora or being impatient with her as I know I'll be tired and preoccupied with taking care of Charlotte.  I worry that Cora will be upset that we have another "baby".  I know these are silly and that Charlotte will only add to the joy so my hope is that with writing these down, I can look back and see how God answered these prayers and be relieved. 






Things I miss: Not having stretch marks.  :(






Week 32



Week 34

Sweet Cora

She is growing up so fast!!

Kiker Visit

Our sweet friends, The Kikers, came into Greenville for a visit with family! I was lucky enough to get to host a play date for Casey, Noah and baby Lydia! Lydia is Noah's new little sister. And crazy enough, her and Cora share a birthday (2 years apart). Cora and Noah loved running around the house, especially since we have the upstairs finished and it's a big room with lots of space. I wish I had gotten a picture of them but honestly I was too busy to remember! It wasn't until they were about to leave that I managed to get a quick shot of Cora with Lydia! Cora was very curious about baby Lydia. She seemed to like her which encouraged me greatly with her new baby sister coming along in a few weeks! Of course, it's hard NOT to like such a sweet baby!!

Cora and Lydia - love Cora's big grin!

Charlotte Lunch Date

We were really lucky to visit with some great friends during our time at the lake! For some reason, people like to move away from Greenville. Not sure why. Anyway, most of our friends have moved around the Charlotte area and the lake happens to be about an hour away - Perfect for a road trip lunch date visit! So excited that we got to spend time with these folks and hear about their lives!



Brandon and Amy



Erica, Chris and Jonah




Tracie and Lily Kate


Stephen and Aubrey


After lunch, we went to our friends, The Renfrows, for a nap date!  Well the girls napped and we sat around and talked and played on Stephen's Ipad.  We love our sweet friends who so graciously opened their home and time to us.  Cora LOVED playing with all of Lily Kate's toys - she is a big "Toy Story" fan also!  I think Cora could have stayed longer but we were off to visit The Larters!



Cora and Lily Kate

I'm sad to say I took NO pictures of our time with Erica and Chad.  What as I thinking??  Erica - Thanks for having us for dinner and for entertaining us with your new home and dog fights :)  We miss you guys and loved every second with you! 

Thanks everyone for spending your Saturday with us!  We love you all and appreciate your friendship!!

Fun times on the lake

We had really great weather during our time on the lake! It was actually pretty cool - so cool that I really did not want to play in the water! So we managed to enjoy riding on the lake via jet ski and canoe. William and his dad took Cora and I on a nice ride around the lake on the canoe. I'm impressed with how fast they paddled. I'm also impressed the Cora did not try to climb out. She enjoyed sitting with her daddy, looking at everything.



First canoe trip! Off we go!



William and Cora, she sat like that pretty much the whole time.


I could really devote a whole blog post to talk about the picture below but I figured I would add it into our "fun times on the lake" post. While visiting the lake, our brother in law, Cory, introduced us to some amazing ice cream. It is called "Blue Bell" and it is amazing. They only sale it in certain areas and Cory found it at the local Wal-mart last time we were there. So, of course, we stopped and got some on this trip too. And we ate it in like 2 days. It is the BEST ice cream. Even better than homemade, in my opinion, and we make a lot of homemade ice cream. I wish, oh I wish, they sold it in Greenville. Probably a good thing they do not. So a picture to remember it by. Sigh...

Zoo Trip 2011

We travelled back to the lake for some time with family, sweet friends, fun on the lake and most importantly - TRIP TO THE ZOO!!  We took Cora last year, about this same time, and I was really excited to bring her again since she is a little older now.  Williams mom and dad joined us at the zoo and they spoiled all of us completely.  Cora loved it!  I've posted way too many pictures but we just had such a blast I couldn't bring myself to leave any of them out! 


Cora walking with her Papa Bell.



They enjoyed showing Cora everything!



Cora jumping like a frog.



"Hey William!" and Cora pushing her stroller which was a nice break for me!



Enjoying the seals!




The weather was actually cool enough for the Polar Bear to say hello!




Seeing the bears!  Check out his claws on his feet!  CRAZY!


The special exhibit was the albino alligators.  Legends says it brings good luck to look into their eyes.. hmmm...




I'm always amazed by how big the elephants are!





The next few pictures show my favorite moments of our time at the zoo with Cora!  I have a feeling we'll be visiting these attractions again on our next adventure at the zoo.  Cora enjoyed them very much!



Checking out the "Dora the Explorer" movie!  It was 4D meaning you got to wear special glasses and they sprayed you with water or poofs of air at certain points.  It was a nice rest break!


Cora even wore the glasses!




Yep - Crying after the movie was done.  It was at this point she started having a tiny breakdown.  I will add that it was close to lunch and nap time so she was feeling pretty hungry/tired.



Next, we got to feed the Giraffe's!!  My favorite part!  They had this deck you could stand on where the giraffes could reach out and take the leaves you offered them.  It was really neat.




Cora feeding the giraffe's!



She seemed to like it!



We attracted quite the crowd!



No trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the carousel.  Or in our case 5 rides.











William was very sweet in riding with her!  I got a little motion sick after the first 2 times so I had to sit the other rides out.  He is such a trooper!

Cora and the elephant statue.  She sat on top of this last year and she has grown a lot!

Family photo in front of the zoo - again we did this same photo last year.  It'll be very different next year!

Splash Park

Our church organized a really awesome play date today! It was in Kinston at the "Splash Park". For $1, you can enjoy hours of sprinkler and water dumping fun! Cora loved it. I loved it as well because it was fenced in and all the water activities were in a small area so you really could find a seat in the shade and watch your child get crazy wet. Plus it is only a buck. Cora was a little hesitant at first and would run out and then run right back to me but she warmed up to all the water fun pretty quickly and had a great time. I think we will definitely be enjoying this great find again!


Not a huge attraction but perfect for the little ones!




Cora warming up to the water fun.




This was her favorite!  She loved running through the misters!




I saw her stand under this a couple of times!  She is so brave!