a year and a half already...

I thought today would be a good day to update the blog since Elsa moved up to the Bumble Bee room at the YMCA. That is the room where the 18 month-3 year olds go. She looked so little next to all of those kids, but found a dump truck when we walked in and was content after that. The workers told me she loved music time and was off and on happy after that. I cannot get over how sweet all of the childcare is at the Y. They are all so patient and loving. They give each parent an update when they come to pick up their child (or maybe it's just me, who knows). I have been very thankful for this time. I am finally getting out of the house a little bit in the mornings now that I have a gym to workout in. Running around the lake everyday was starting to get a little boring, and chilly with the season change.

A couple months ago I started to watch a little girl at our house. Her family goes to our church. She is a few months older than Elsa and very sweet, so Elsa and I have enjoyed having her. They are slowly learning to share toys, be gentle towards one another, and communicate with each other in their own language. We've had a couple rough weeks here and there, but for the most part it has been good. Elsa asks for her most mornings when she wakes up. It's sweet.

Elsa comforting Ainsley after her mommy left for work. 

In October, my dad, brother and Shane went to a YL men's retreat together. While they were gone my mom and I took Elsa to a couple different parks in the area to try them out. Some great, some alright. It's good to have more options now though. She loves swinging, sliding, and sand boxes.

Grandma and Elsa

One of my close friends got married in September and I had the honor of being in her wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a fun weekend. We haven't been able to get together with her and her husband as much as we would like, but it will happen more often soon.

the beautiful bride!

Griff and Scotty with us at Ash's wedding

at the wedding

high school buddies. 3 multiplied to 6!

Shane put in a paver patio at a friend's house a month or so ago as well. It looked like a lot of hard work. I helped him for a few hours one day, but not enough to get an idea of how exhausting it must have been.

big project...

halfway finished. 

Elsa's vocabulary continues to multiply. It is unbelievable how much she can understand and/or say. And the way she says some things is, of course, very cute.

blue eyes

We are still very thankful to be able to get together with my friend and her daughter weekly despite both of us recently changing jobs. It is good for the soul and good for the girls. We love that time together.

sharing a water bottle and a chair like champs

I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch to get some pictures this year since we never made it to one last year...last year may have been better. It's hard to get a 16 month old to sit still.

Our strong Saints cheerleader!

Elsa bit into an apple before we could grab her, so we bought it and moved away from the apples...good apple though!

Mommy and Elsa at the pumpkin patch

Elsa loves sharing smoothies with daddy. It's an afternoon snack a couple times a week as long as daddy is home before she wakes up, because he makes them the best.

Snack time with daddy.

We didn't do much for halloween this year. We went over to my mom's for dinner and intended on handing out candy, but there were not that many trick or treaters. Thankfully Elsa was able to fit into her 6-9 month cow costume from last year....even cuter this year than last!

Our little cow with pink hooves

We spent Thanksgiving in Monroe this year with Shane's parents, his sister, and our nephew.  It was a nice, quiet relaxing Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for and it was great to spend it and celebrate with family. Friday afternoon we left and came back to Apex and ate our second thanksgiving feast with my family. It was a week of good eats for sure.

Elsa and "Nono"

I hope everyone is enjoying this weather as much as I am! I was so ready for it to get a little chilly, though it is in the 60's today, which isn't really cold. If every day could be in the 60's, it would be a perfect world, but we don't live in a perfect world, so we have days in the 100's and 30's.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Best friends!

15 months

I have to admit, I have become a little lazy writing Elsa's new tricks down since she turned one. And I have taken maybe 5 pictures in the past month...so bad. I guess my excuse is that she moves a mile a minute. She does something cute, I pull out the camera, and she won't do it again. I guess that's the story of a any new parent. Who knows.

A visit with Mrs. Mary

Elsa had her 15 month appointment today. I think I forgot to blog her 1 year stats, so I will get them both in now.

1 Year:
19 lbs 1/4 oz.
30.25 in

15 Months:
21 lbs 2 oz. (23%)
31 in. (65%)

She's pretty much stayed in the same percentages the whole first year. The doctor is very pleased, and I'm a happy mama. She had to get 3 shots in her arms today, which was new. All the previous shots were in her chubby legs, so the skinny arm shots didn't go so well. BUT, she ate a good lunch and went right down soon after we got home. We still love her doctor and are very thankful we found her so early on.

She loves her duck. She gives him a kiss every night in the bath.

She loves hats, even daddy's old, stinky, duck taped hat. 

And she loves horsey rides

Elsa continues to expand her vocabulary. This week I started watching a little girl 4 months older than Elsa. She says quite a few more words than Elsa, but Elsa has already caught on to a few. It's very cute. They follow each other around the house, share their lunch (as long as it hasn't already gone into one mouth) and their toys. I bought a double stroller so that I could take them outside easier, and they hold hands. Yesterday the little girl was upset when her mom dropped her off and Elsa kept bringing her different stuffed animals and toys, and even gave her one of her snacks, until she stopped crying. It's sweet to see that she has such a tender heart.

She always goes into our closet and puts Shane's shoes on. 

My friend and her daughter still come over on Tuesdays to play and walk. It makes Tuesdays my favorite day of the week. I enjoy them so much, and it's fun to see the girls interact more and more each week.

What one does, the other does. 

Shane, Elsa, and I got memberships to a gym a couple weeks ago, so Elsa and I have been going most mornings of the week. She still cries when I drop her off in the nursery, but the ladies say she is getting better. I love that she has that time with other children while I can work up a good sweat. It has been a huge blessing to us. I still take Elsa for a walk since she loves being outside so much, or Shane takes her on his run with him. She loves seeing the dogs and ducks around the lake, so it seems.

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GO SAINTS! 

She continues to be a great sleeper and great eater. It's interesting how my "go-to"foods change. If she's eating a little of this and a little of that, I used to be able to finish her meal off with greek yogurt and she'd be good, or give her a banana every morning, but she's wanting more variety, which I love. She definitely knows what she wants and what she doesn't want. I love watching her develop and change.

When I tell her it's nap time, she goes in her room and climbs up into her rocking chair.  

That's it for now. We have a big weekend coming up! Busy, busy, busy. Lucky for Elsa, 2 of her cousins are in town, so she will be spending a lot of time with them while Daddy and Mommy are busy celebrating a big wedding! Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed!

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.