Wow, so much has happened. We've celebrated birthdays, a wedding, went to the beach for a week, Monroe a few times, Asheboro zoo, etc.
July is full of birthdays. My brother, my sister, my dad, and my niece. My cousin got married at the end of July at Topsail Island, so we took advantage of that and took a week long family vacation there. Unfortunately, Shane wasn't able to be there the majority of the week, but it was great to get time with my siblings, niece, nephews, and parents.
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| Congratulations Lauren and Tim! |
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| The whole family |
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The guys, minus Grayson and Will
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| the girls, minus mom |
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| Grandparents and grandchildren |
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| The girls in their dresses made by Becca, so cute! |
I'll give a quick update on Elsa for all family and other mommy's out there. Soon after her birthday she started learning body parts and pointing to them when we asked; mouth, nose, hair, ear, belly button. In July she started say some words like up, fish, cat, apple, hat, cup, ouch, dress, truck, duck. Today she said Elsa! That was so sweet. We were sitting at the table eating lunch and she looked up at an 8x10 picture I have hanging up of her and she pointed and said, "Elsa." She will also give you a nice wet kiss if you ask for it, or she will blow you a kiss if you prefer that. :) She dropped her second nap at 13 1/2 months old, so now she sleeps for 3-4 hours after lunch every day and then sleeps 13 hours most nights. It blows me away how much she understands. She responds to just about anything I ask her. I am learning so much. She is more fun every day.
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| Favorite food...peaches! She will eat a whole peach in less than 5 minutes. |
In the beginning of July we went to Monroe for the weekend. My sister's-in-law sister and son came over to play. He and Elsa rode around in the wagon and took turns riding on the tractor with Pops. Shane also took Elsa out on the riding mower with him. She seems to love being outside, which we love.
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| Tractor ride with Pops |
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| Mower ride with Daddy |
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| Wagon Ride |
Our friends, John and Jess, drove in from Charlotte to spend a couple days with us in the middle of July. It's always fun to see them. Thanks for coming you guys!
At the end of July my mom, Elsa and I met some friends of mine from UNCW at the zoo in Asheboro. The girls we met up with were a part of the small group I was in during my 4 years at UNCW. It's fun that we are still able to keep up and meet up with each other every so often. There were 12 girls in the small group, but 7 of us live within an hour and 1/2 from each other, so we've started to make more of an effort to see each other. 4 of us met up in Mebane last week to do some end of summer shopping as well. It's been great seeing these girls more often.
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| Checking out the monkeys. |
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| All the girls and kiddos |
We got to see Noah, my nephew, at the end of August as well. It was only the second time we have seen him. He's 3 months old today!
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| Pops and Noah. Grannie and Elsa behind. |
Shane and I are doing great. He finished his most recent certificate schooling a month or so ago, so we have really been enjoying our evenings and free weekends, especially recently with the olympics going on. We love going on bike rides, trying out different parks in the area, going to the pool, and hanging out with friends; things we've been missing out on because of all of Shane's studying. He may start another certificate in the fall, but will most likely hold of until the Spring. We will see.
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Dustin, myself, Elsa and Shane at Dustin's. Sad that Ashley is taking the picture and not IN the picture.
Dustin made awesome stir fry for dinner and snow cones for dessert! |
I still see my friend Brittany and her daughter once a week, and Shane hangs out with a couple of his guy friends on Wednesday nights. It's nice to have a few close friends in the area. We feel very blessed.
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| E and E |
One blessing about Shane' job is that he can listen to music while he works. Something him and I started to do recently is pick out a sermon and listen to it together at the same time during the day. It's helped us grow together and grow in our relationship with Christ. I love that we are able to do that together. Our pastor was on a sabbatical all summer and returns this coming Sunday. He is such a neat guy, and we learn so much through his teaching. We are looking forward to him being back, but are blessed that he was wise and took some time for himself and his family. So many great things are happening within the church and within the community of Raleigh. God is so good.
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| Cute little outfit from Grannie |
That about wraps up the past couple months. Love to you all!
