Happy Memorial Day!

We are thoroughly enjoying our last holiday before these final two weeks of school and all the craziness that it will bring! We had a Memorial Day lunch today with our friends the Kayles and their little girl, Logan. Both Logan and Anna Kate were very patriotic in their red, white, and blue, so we had to take some pictures! Christy actually made Anna Kate's onesie and she made both of the girls' hairbows!

Sweet girls...

Check out these blue eyes...

Logan wanted to hold Anna Kate, so we thought we'd give it a try!

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!
And thank you to all who have served our country to gain and protect our freedom!

A chatterbox and a thumb-sucker!

These past two weeks have been absolutely crazy with my orchestra/chorus Carowinds trip, my school Spring concert, Luke's brother's graduation, and Luke's graduation, so I haven't had much time to blog about what Anna Kate has been up to these days. So...in the last two weeks she has discovered her toes and loves to play with them, carries on very extensive conversations with her mommy and daddy, and has officially begun sucking her thumb. I don't have a picture yet of her playing with her toes, but I have proof of the other two. The first is a video that is pretty long, but hilarious at the end when she discovers that she is on camera...I'm afraid she's a little camera shy!



And here are a couple of picture of her sucking her thumb. She's been just chewing on her thumb for a few weeks, but now is actually sucking it for comfort...I haven't decided how I feel about this long-term, but it's pretty cute right now!

The end of an era...

From the time Luke and I were engaged in 2006, we always knew that we would be spending our newlywed years up at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, and that we may even start our family here if God were to bless us in that way. It's hard to believe that these years are drawing to a close. We have had an absolutely wonderful experience here, studying, learning, and preparing for the ministries to which God has called us and will call us in the future. We have also made and deepened many friendships which will last a lifetime...we have been newlyweds together, had babies together, laughed together, cried together, played games together, prayed together, served together, ministered together, and dreamed about the future together. Luke graduated yesterday with his Masters of Divinity and Anna Kate and I could not have been more proud of him. It was a wonderful ceremony which honored the graduates, but was truly Christ-exalting.

We are so proud of Luke and his hard work over these past three years and know that God is going to do great things in and through him in the future. Here are some pictures of his big day!

The faculty is up on stage and the graduates are down on the right. Luke is actually on the end of his row in the second row from the back (you can see him if you look closely!)

He made it!

Happy family!

And with the diploma!

Luke was pretty proud of how his tie matched his hood and tassel...

Luke's whole family (except JD) came up to see him graduate. JD has already started classes for his masters program at Clemson University. We went to see him graduate from Wofford last weekend!



Some of our closest friends are Scott and Kelly Parkison. Scott was our college pastor (and Luke was his intern!) back in Greenville and then they moved up to Wake Forest at the same time we did to pastor our church up here! Scott came to see Luke receive his diploma...Kelly was taking care of their two little boys!

Last night we had 15 adults and 6 children under 3 over to our little townhouse for a graduation party! Here are some pictures of our evening.

Just a couple pics of the group

Levi being silly!

Enjoying the food!

The cake that I baked and decorated...the SEBTS seal is in the center =)

Carowinds!

Well, it sure has been a crazy week! On Friday I took 88 7th and 8th grade orchestra and chorus students to the Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte for their annual music festival competition. Needless to say, my week was consumed with permission slips, after school rehearsals, t-shirts, charter buses, etc. But, the trip went great, everyone had a wonderful time, no one got left in Charlotte, and my chorus received an excellent rating and my orchestra received a superior (the highest that they give)! I really didn't want to leave Anna Kate for 18 hours, so she and Luke both came along for the day and we had a wonderful time! Luke's parents met us at the park so that they could help out with Anna Kate so Luke and I could focus on the performances (and ride a couple of roller coasters!). Here are some pictures of our day:

Anna Kate's first amusement park ride was the carousel!

She wasn't allowed to ride the horse because she's too little, but she got to sit on it after the ride was over!

Our next ride was Snoopy's train!

But the most exciting ride was the whirlybird helicopter ride!

As you can see, Anna Kate loved it (or she just likes smiling at Mommy!)

After all of that excitement, this is how Anna Kate spent the rest of the day!

And here's a picture of my orchestra performing for the judges before we left for home. Unfortunately, my photographer (Luke) didn't get any picture of the chorus because he actually had to conduct while I accompanied them on the piano.

And if you want to hear a little bit, here is an excerpt of a piece called "Songs of the South". Enjoy!

Mother's Day!

I have had an absolutely wonderful first Mother's Day! Here is what I woke up to this morning:


The gifts are two gift certificates to a day spa in downtown Wake Forest =)

And a close-up of the cake...Anna Kate is getting really good at her letters, don't you think?!?


Here is what Luke made for dinner after church! The steaks were amazing!


And here are a couple of pictures of me with the sweet girl who made me a mommy...I love you, Anna Kate!

3 months old today!

Happy 3-month birthday, Anna Kate! What a blessing you are to us and what joy you have brought us over these past three months. Here are some ways you have changed this month:

~ You are so smiley and giggly now! You have always been a happy baby, but this month you have really started to smile, laugh, and interact with us!
~ You are doing a great job holding up your head, and can sit up really well when you're being propped up either by pillows, or your bumbo seat.
~ You are getting so tall! People always comment on how tall you are and how long your little legs are! You are also wearing a lot of 6-month clothes!
~ You have begun to discover your hands and are trying to figure out how they work. You have just started to really grab onto your toys when we place them within arms reach. Your favorite toys are your flower rattle and your whale that plays music!
~ You now have a great bedtime/nighttime routine that makes life a lot easier for Mommy and Daddy. You eat and go right to bed at 8:30 after we read to you and then we don't hear much from you until about 3:30 or 4. Then you eat just a little bit and go right back to sleep until we have to wake you up to eat at 6:15 before Mommy goes to work.

Well, Anna Kate, we love you so much and can't wait to see how you change this month! Oh, and here are some comparison pics:

One Month Old

Two Months Old

Three Months Old

P.S. Thanks, Aunt Sarah, for my pretty yellow dress I wore today! It was perfect for Caitlin's bridal shower!

Tummy Time

One of the things that Anna Kate and I (Luke) do almost every day is tummy time. Since Anna Kate spends most of her time lying down on her back, she is supposed to spend some time on her tummy every day to work on her neck muscles. She is getting really good at supporting her head and lifting it up. Here is a little video that I took the other day when she was doing her tummy time:

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures from our photography session with Anna Kate. We absolutely loved our photographer, so if you live in the Wake Forest area, you should definitely check out Melissa at Tesoro Photography. Personally, one of my (Luke's) favorite part of the pictures is Anna Kate's blue eyes...we are hoping that they stay that color. Enjoy!