I fell behind...

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.

Congratulations Lauren and Tim!

The whole family

The guys, minus Grayson and Will

the girls, minus mom

Grandparents and grandchildren

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.

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.

Tractor ride with Pops

Mower ride with Daddy

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.

Checking out the monkeys.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Cute little outfit from Grannie

 That about wraps up the past couple months. Love to you all!

K Love

This is probably one of the most powerful songs I've heard in a while and I wanted to share it. It's not out to buy yet, but it is playing on the radio. Listen for it. It spoke to me and I hope it speaks to all of y'all.

It's the hardest thing to give away
And the last thing on your mind today
It always goes to those that don't deserve

It's the opposite of how you feel
When the pain they caused is just to real
It takes everything you have just to say the word...

Forgiveness
Forgiveness

It flies in the face of all your pride
It moves away the mad inside
It's always anger's own worst enemy
Even when the jury and the judge 
Say you gotta right to hold a grudge
It's the whisper in your ear saying 'Set It Free'

Forgiveness, Forgiveness
Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Show me how to love the unlovable
Show me how to reach the unreachable
Help me now to do the impossible

Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness

It'll clear the bitterness away
It can even set a prisoner free
There is no end to what it's power can do
So, let it go and be amazed
By what you see through eyes of grace
The prisoner that it really frees is you

Forgiveness, Forgiveness
Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Show me how to love the unlovable
Show me how to reach the unreachable
Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness

I want to finally set it free
So show me how to see what Your mercy sees
Help me now to give what You gave to me
Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Meeting Noah

Last week Shane, Elsa, and I drove out to Asheboro to meet up with Shane's parents, his sister, and her baby, Noah, so that we could meet Noah. Asheboro is almost halfway between us, so it's a nice meeting place. We had dinner at a little Mexican restaurant and then took some pictures outside before heading back home. 

Uncle Shane

Elsa's new birthday outfit from Grannie and Pawpaw

Elsa's newest cousin

Grandparents and grandchildren

Moms and babies

running around outside with Grannie

And Daddy

Happy boy!

Loved seeing you all and meeting the munchkin! Love you guys. 

Birthday Party

We celebrated Elsa's first birthday at my parent's house on June 2nd. It was mostly family, but a few friends stopped by as well. We made it very simple and low key. We had chicken sausage, hamburgers, some fruit and an Angel Food cake. I think Elsa's favorite part of the whole day was her ballon. She hasn't taken her eye off of that thing since I bought it. The first thing she looks for when she wakes up in the morning is her "Ba." Haha, it's so cute. 

Here are a few pictures from the afternoon. 

Grandpa

Uncle David

Matt...not sure what's going on here. 

The family. 

Blowing out her candle. 

Bubbles!

trying to get the bubbles out of the bag...

more bubbles with Aunt Sarah!

Grant and Stacie

cousin Alison

Opening some gifts

Happy birthday to Elsa! What an awesome year it has been!

Reflection

Elsa turned 1 today. It's a little surreal. My dad came to get me this morning for me to take him to work and said, "Good morning birthday girl!" And I almost cried. We have a 1-year old! That is so crazy.

I went through pictures and quickly picked out one from every month so that I could go to bed at a decent hour. Each one brought back so many memories. As fast as the year went by, I really do feel like I have special memories from every month and I'm thankful that we were able to capture so many of them on camera. 

I tell people daily how easy she is. We have been blessed with a sweet, healthy baby girl. No one deserves a little blessing like this, but God chose to bless us in this way. I try to not let a day go by without thinking about this and thanking God.  I want our family to live in a way that serve the Lord whole heartedly daily whether we have a sweet healthy little girl, or if we are going through a trial. I have a ways to go...BUT, He loves us so much and showers us in His grace and mercy. I hope you all see how much He loves you too. 

And the reflecting begins...Thank you, Elsa, for giving us a special 2011-2012 and for the memories to come. 

1 Months

2 Months-
Met cousin Kate

3 Months-
mommy's sanity--> the jogging stroller

4 Months-
Trip to Cap Cod to meet Aunt L and see Uncle G, Grannie, and Papaw again

5 Months-
Thanksgiving- wrestling with Kate, Elsa won

6 Months-
photo shoot

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months-
"Sun" Bathing

10 Months-
Daddy Love

11 Months-
Love my books

11-12 Months

Well, I figured I needed to get this up before FRIDAY when Elsa turns ONE! I cannot believe it.

Before I get too far into what she's been up to, I want to welcome my newest nephew, Noah, into the world! He was born on May 9th. Look how cute he is! I'm so happy he is finally here, and I am so anxious to meet him!

I already wrote about month 11, so I am going to go ahead and write about month 12 and leave the one-year post for the birthday pictures.

As for 11 month stats, Elsa weighted 19 lbs 3 oz. And I never measured her length. Whoops.

 Well, we are excited to share that Elsa took her first steps April 29th. That is probably the biggest milestone for the month. Since then she has gotten pretty steady on her feet. It is so neat to watch her confidence develop and take more risks like walking on different surfaces. Now she is trying to climb up on the couch, and climb in and out of toys.

We continue to meet up with my friend and her daughter on Tuesdays, and we started meeting up with another friend of mine and her son. It's been a blessing to have other mom friends to talk to and relate with. Both of their kids are a couple months older than Elsa, close enough in age but old enough to give me an idea of what is to come. :) Perfect!

I was able to celebrate my first Mother's day this month. Shane was so sweet to me. I felt very loved. I feel so blessed to be in the place that I am.

 Elsa has started to say a few words...so we think. Shane and I have heard "dog" and "yogurt" (or "gurt"), my mom and David have heard "water," and Grannie and Pawpaw have heard "apple." She always waves hello and goodbye now, she's close to blowing a kiss, she signs "more," and she responds to the words duck, ball, walker, button, her name of course, book, cheese, and "want to go for a run?" (she goes and stands by the jogger <--my sanity, thank you G and L)...I think that's all. It's hard to think of everything while sitting here...I'm a proud momma, can you tell? Oh, and she tries to put her socks and shoes on...sooo sweet. And she has 6 teeth. Ok, I'm finished.

She continues to sleep 11-12 hours a night and nap 4 1/2-5 1/2 hours during the day. She put herself on a pretty impressive schedule. I told her that I get kind of lonely during the day with her sleeping so much, but she didn't seem to care enough to wake up sooner (and it leaves me with no excuse for a dirty house, dirty dishes, dirty laundry, or clean laundry not folded, thanks, Elsa). She's a great eater and tries everything. I had no doubt she would be between Shane and myself, but it is nice to see that she is eating well. Last week my parents neighbors brought over a tone of Lebanese food. I didn't want to share it because it was amazing, but I did end up giving Elsa quite a bit of it. She loved it! How could she not though? It was the best food I've had in a while.

Speaking of clean clothes still sitting in the laundry basket...

We bought her a couple early birthday presents. A pair of shoes and a seat for the bike. We've been on bike rides every weekend since we bought the seat. She seems to like it. And considering she fell asleep on the last ride, I think it's safe to say that she isn't nervous.

This past weekend we went to Monroe for the weekend. A couple weeks before that we had our first tear-free swinging at the park. I was excited to share that with Grannie and get her excited about swinging Elsa on the swing at their place...of course all of us forgot to bring the camera down to the gazebo, but here is one from the park from the week before. 

Grannie and Pawpaw were eager to teach Elsa new things. They were teaching her "up" and "down" and "off" and "on." Elsa got the hang of this little game (where you put the rings on the stand in order from biggest to smallest...not sure what the toy is called) and then decided she wanted Grannie to put all of the rings on her arms. She is a hoot. They also walked her out to the orchard to teach her about the apples, blueberries, pears, and peaches. 

When Shane gets home from work she follows him into our closet and then puts her hands up for the pull up bar. Does anyone else know of a 10 month old that could do a pull up? How cute is that? 

Then we take her for a run around the lake, and when we get home she plays on Daddy while he does crunches and I make dinner.

This month she's started to ask for piggy back rides. She comes up behind me when I'm sitting down and grabs the back of my shirt, and then tilts her head as if she's asking, "Do you see me mom? I want to go for a ride!" How can I resist the cuteness? I don't. I trot all around the apartment as she giggles on my back. Over and over and over and over again...it's a workout! 

Piggy back rides with mommy, and follow the leader with daddy. 

And here are a couple pictures from today to end on

She figured out how to climb in...

And her first attempt getting out. It looks like it would end ugly, but don't worry, she didn't hurt herself. And she's improved on her exit. 

It's looking like laundry is becoming a theme. 

Thank you to all of you that love her so much and so well. We are excited to celebrate her first year despite most of our families are not able to make it. We are so blessed to be apart of two amazing families and wish we were all together more often. We couldn't have asked for more love for this child. We pray daily that she will accept the ultimate Lover into her heart soon. We are so thankful the Lord gave her to us, and we will be so thankful when she gives Him her whole heart.

Big Girl E

Elizabeth pushing Elsa. Best buds. :)