A busy July

I know we're already almost a week into August, but July was a very busy month around here! I thought I would do a quick catch-up post to document what we were up to.

Actually, I'll start with the end of June. We went to a wedding of a sweet young couple in our church family. Luke took a picture of me with each of my girls!

 

Then there was the Fourth of July, of course!

After we took a few pictures of our patriotic girls, we headed over to Buster and Charlotte's house. They called and asked if we wanted to "pick a few blueberries." This is what we came home with! Tomatoes and potatoes galore, a few cucumbers, tons of blueberries, and even a quart of maple syrup!

 

They were so generous in sharing all of the fruits of their hard labor with us.

And Caroline REALLY enjoyed the picking blueberries part.

The second week of July Luke headed to NGU with the youth group for a week for Mission Fuge camp. While he was there, the girls and I went up to the mountains to visit his parents and brother. We enjoyed a fun evening in Hendersonville one night and even got some frozen yogurt (sherbet for Caroline!).

 

Eleanor and I also were able to spend one afternoon and evening at camp with Luke and the youth group! Here we are at the bell tower of Luke's alma mater.

When we got home I took the girls to Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A. Anything for a free dinner...especially while Luke was still away at camp!

This is where Caroline spent a couple of the nights Luke was away. Summertime thunderstorms can be pretty scary when you're two.

Also last month we did a bit of Waldo hunting in our little downtown. We have a bookstore in town that sponsors a Where's Waldo hunt all over our main street. A little 6 inch cardboard Waldo is hidden in 25 different stores/restaurants. The girls had a great time finding him and receiving some fun prizes (Caroline was just a little shy about getting her picture taken)!

We've had a few Poolside Bible Studies with the youth which have been lots of fun! The girls have really enjoyed swimming this summer!

(This picture was borrowed from my friend Renee's blog. Thanks for the sweet picture, Renee!)

And then this happened three weeks ago.

We decided to go on a fun family outing to a splash pad and playground about 45 minutes away. We had a great time...until Anna Kate fell off the rock climbing wall. Turns out it's probably not a great idea to have a playground right next to the splash pad. Rock climbing while wet is not a good combination. She fell on her right arm and had a buckle fracture in two places.

She has been so brave though and has hardly complained at all. She kept the big cast for two weeks, and then we just went back Monday to get a smaller cast that just covers her forearm. She will be so glad to get it off in a couple weeks so she can get back to eating, coloring, writing, etc. with her right hand!

Just two days after she broke her arm, we headed up on the church bus with 20 other people in our church family to Morganton, Georgia, for a family mission trip. The girls did a pretty good job of taking naps on the bus!

 (Side note here: The stuffed animal in the picture above is Caroline's beloved frog which she named "Lblblblblb". She is very consistent that this is it's name and she even came up with the spelling!)

We slept on air mattresses and cots in some empty classrooms in a church building. We spent the week doing various community ministry (food distribution, clothes closet organization, yardwork/construction, and Vacation Bible School). The girls had an absolute blast helping with many of these ministries.
 

 Anna Kate and Caroline helped deliver sacks of food to families in need

They also really enjoyed the time spent with our church family!

 

My main job for the week was leading the music for the VBS. Caroline helped each night lead the motions on stage!

Our last full day there, we did a little sightseeing. Aunt Allison also joined us for the day since she lives only an hour and a half away! We went to an apple orchard with a fun general store/restaurant first.

Then we explored the town of Blue Ridge, Georgia

After that we took a scenic train ride up to a town on the border of Georgia and Tennessee.

Here we are in both states at one time!

 

After a long, but fun, week of missions activities, we were all exhausted. Even Daddy fell asleep on the 7-hour bus ride home!

The only other news from the summer is that Caroline's hair is getting quite long and very curly, especially when it's hot and humid outside!

I'll just leave you with that face. What else is there to say?

Happy half-birthday, Eleanor!

  

Happy Half-Birthday, Eleanor Grace! I can hardly believe you are six months old today! It's absolutely true when they say that time flies when you're having fun. We continue to become more and more taken with your sweet personality as we see it develop.

~ You truly are the most easygoing baby ever. You of course love Mommy and Daddy the best, but you are almost always willing to be held by just about anyone. We went on a week-long family mission trip with our church last week and I don't think you were put down once except to sleep. You rarely fuss (even fireworks didn't faze you!), and just seem to roll with the punches.
~ You are now going all over the place with your rolling and scooting. You are also getting up very high on hands as if you're ready to push off and crawl any moment.

~ You continue to grab at everything at the table when we are eating. I don't think it's going to be hard at all to interest you in some big girl foods here pretty soon.
~ You are a great sleeper. You take two really good naps during the day and sleep 11-12 hours at night. Sometimes you don't wake up at all, sometimes just once. Most often I nurse and rock you all the way to sleep, but if you finish nursing without falling asleep, I just put you down in your crib awake. You then roll around and talk for a couple minutes before falling right to sleep.
~ You love to snuggle. You are very content being carried around in the ergo, or just laying on our chests.

~ You are still a very loving little baby. You love to give big open mouth kisses (which sometimes involve licking too)!
~ Your thumb can still be found frequently in your mouth. You like to use it to put yourself to sleep, but you also just like to suck your thumb and watch the world go by.
~You love your exersaucer. We usually keep it in the kitchen so that you can play in it while Mommy cooks. We hook some of your most favorite toys to it (your taggies, especially), and you are quite content to just play and bounce around.

~ Speaking of the exersaucer, I think it has helped you develop quite a bit of core strength as you are now sitting up for long stretches of time on your own. We still stay pretty close though, in case you topple over. You're not very good at catching yourself yet!
~ Your big sisters absolutely love you and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. AK loves to entertain you, bringing you toys or making you laugh, and Caroline thinks you belong to her. If she could just figure out how to feed you, I'm pretty sure she would think that she could take care of you all by herself, no mommy necessary.

Smiling at Caroline

Laughing at Anna Kate

 

~ One of your new favorite toys this month is your soft crinkle book. I hope that means you'll become an avid reader like your sisters!
~ This month we have started to put you in the baby swings at the park and you love them! I just have to make sure your sisters don't push you too high!
~ You really love listening to Mommy play violin. I always bring you with me to praise band practice and you just lay right next to me and look up and smile the whole time. If we're at home, you just sit in your exersaucer and watch and listen.
~ You have very precious soft blonde hair starting to come in. It looks a lot like Anna Kate's did at this age. We'll see if it stays blonde and straight like hers did!
~ We still use all of the nicknames that I listed for you last month, but our favorite two are "Bellsy" (Caroline), and "The Nor" (all the rest of us).
~ You are growing so fast and getting very chubby! We have your six-month check-up tomorrow, so we'll get an official weight check then, but I know you're growing very well (and you should be for how much you like to nurse!).

Eleanor Grace, our hearts are so full of love for you. Words can't describe just how special you are and how grateful we are that God blessed us with you. You know you must be a sweet baby when I sometimes go into your room before you wake up in the morning, or after naps, trying to make a little noise to wake you up because you've slept too long and we miss you! Sweet Ellie Grace, you are the greatest!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy (and your big sisters!)

 One month

 

Two months

 Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

 

And for comparison...

AKT at 6 months

CHT at 6 months

June celebrations

Our little family had many, many reasons to celebrate last month. First, Luke turned the big 3-0 on June 12th! The renovations on our house were completed (or completed enough) just in time to have a little birthday/housewarming party in his honor with some of our close friends, as well as his parents who came into town for the weekend. It's hard to believe that the first birthday I celebrated with Luke was his 20th birthday, and now here we are 10 years later! His actual birthday was during VBS, so some of our youth decorated his car!

Sunday, June 15th was also a very special day. In addition to being Father's Day, it was also our 7th wedding anniversary. And to add more to the celebration, we participated in Parent/Child dedication with our church family, where we committed to raise Eleanor in the ways of the Lord. On Father's Day last year, we had just learned that God would be blessing our family with another baby. After much uncertainty about her little life last summer, it was such a joy to be able to dedicate our precious four-month-old little girl. She behaved so well up in front as we made commitments with our church family, and just sucked her little thumb the whole time!

We came home and had a wonderful dinner with Luke's mom and dad to celebrate Father's Day. And if that weren't enough, a few of our youth girls offered to babysit ALL THREE so that we could go out for our anniversary!

God has richly blessed our family and we are so grateful.