The Tolbert Family

My latest project

2012-02-13T14:31:00.002-05:00

So I mentioned in my playroom post a few weeks ago that I had been using my sewing machine a little bit. I found some super cute fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby when we were in Greenwood after Christmas and I really wanted to try my hand at making clothes for the girls. All I had done before was pillowcase dresses, which are cute, but I wanted to try something a little different. Well, one of the ladies in our church offered to come over a couple days last week and show me a few tricks of the trade. With her assistance, I made my first little A-line outfit with ruffled pants for Anna Kate! I had some scraps leftover, as well as some scraps of a white with pink polka dot fabric that I just could not let go to waste, so I put together a little coordinating dress for Caroline too! Unfortunately, my little models refused to take good pictures after church yesterday, so these might possibly be the blurriest pictures I have ever put up on my blog, but oh well.

I tried to get a couple of shots of them together...

Then we tried one at a time...

And then I figured I'd just wait until they went to bed and take pictures of the outfits themselves...at least they don't wiggle and run away...

So, it may just be beginner's enthusiasm, but I had so much fun making these outfits that I just might have a new hobby! Luke's not sure if I'm going to save money by making them clothes, or if I'm going to spend more money buying fabric all the time, haha! Now if I could only get my children to sleep more, I could have more time to sew...

Happy 2nd Birthday, Anna Kate!

2012-02-08T14:28:00.006-05:00

Happy birthday, Anna Kate! How on earth can you be TWO years old? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was 9 months pregnant with you and thinking you would NEVER come? And here you are two whole years later! To say that we love life with you would be an understatement. You are such a special little girl and you always keep us on our toes! You are so much fun right now that sometimes we wish we could just make time stand still and keep you at this age forever (and then you throw a tantrum and we change our minds...haha!). But since we can't freeze time, I am going to attempt to take a snapshot (using words!) of what you look like right now. We never ever want to forget these sweet days of your little life.

~ You are such a sweet and loving little girl. You love to give hugs and big fat slobbery kisses to your Mommy, Daddy, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. We have to remind you to be careful when you hug your sister and your friends though or you will just plow right through them!
~ You talk constantly! Whether you are singing, telling stories, or just narrating life, you are very rarely quiet! You have quite the vocabulary for a two-year-old, and are very good at putting long sentences together. Now, if we're honest, sometimes Mommy and Daddy have to translate for you to other people, but most often you make yourself pretty well understood.
~ You have just started to develop a little sense of humor. You love to tell "jokes"! The other day you heard your daddy mention in passing that the brand name of our coffeemaker was "Mr. Coffee" and you thought it was hilarious. Now you have a little game you like to play multiple times a day where you say, "Mr. ________" and then crack up! Usually it's food, but it can be anything! Another "joke" that you think is funny is rhyming words. Your daddy and I go back and forth rhyming words like "cat", "sat", "hat", etc. and you just laugh and laugh. Sometimes you even come up with a rhyming word yourself!

~ You are almost completely potty trained except for naps and nighttime. And even naps sometimes you wake up dry. You never wear diapers during the day anymore even when we go out (and you only occasionally have accidents!).
~ You can count to 12! I actually didn't know this until yesterday. You had been getting pretty good at counting to 10 and then yesterday you just decided to keep going to 12...I don't even think I taught you that!
~ You can recognize 16 out of 26 uppercase letters consistently and the other 10 are hit or miss. You love working on singing your ABC's, but can't quite do it by yourself yet.
~ A few songs that you do know all the words to by yourself are: "Jesus Loves Me", "Twinkle Twinkle", and "You are my Sunshine"
~ You are now sleeping in a big girl bed! It's a twin bed with a railing and you are doing pretty well in it (at least no worse than you were doing sleeping in the crib...haha!).
~ You LOVE to read books. You would sit and let us read to you for hours I think. You love regular books, but you also love to read books on your favorite electronic devices (Grandma and Grandpa's HP Touchpads and Daddy's Kindle Fire)! Your favorite book of the week is "Wacky Wednesday" by Dr. Seuss.

~ You know your first 6 catechism questions and answers as well as your first official memory verse, Genesis 1:1.
~ You love going to Sunday School, library storytime, and anywhere else that you know you are going to see your friends!
~ Speaking of Sunday School, your teachers (Ms. Tammy, Ms. Mandy, and Ms. Tonya) are always so complimentary of your behavior and your attentiveness in class. You listen so well to the Bible story time and can always tell us all about your story at lunch on Sundays. Sometimes you get a little confused about what the main point was (focusing instead on little details!), but you still are doing really well!
~ You are still a very good eater! You usually eat two helpings of whatever we are having at supper. Your favorite breakfast/lunch foods are yogurt, cheese, grapes, blueberries, and smoothies!
~ You are wearing all 2T-3T clothes. I can't believe you are getting so big! Every time I look at you, you just seem to be more and more grown up.
~ Your hair is finally starting to grow a little bit longer, but still not all the same length. Oh well...it's still really cute with two little pigtails and a hairbow on top!
~ We are still working on your jumping skills. About two weeks ago you jumped up into the air and it shocked you. We know you know how to do it, you just won't do it again.

~ You have quite a full bed when you go to sleep. You have to have your pink pillow, sock monkey (Molly the Monkey), lovey, lamb, blanket, paci, and unga (your extra paci)
~ Yes, you still have your pacis, but only when you sleep. We keep talking about you giving them away and let's just say you are less than enthusiastic.
~ Personal pronouns are pretty confusing to you. You think that the word "you" is another word for Anna Kate. In other words, when you want Mommy to hold you, you say, "Hold you, Mommy!" Or, if you want to do something yourself, you say, "You do it self, you do it self!"
~ Your favorite thing to play is baby dolls. You love to snuggle your baby, rock your baby, nurse your baby, sing to your baby, bathe your baby, put your baby night night in her cradle, and the list goes on. You also love the new baby sling that Mommy made for you to carry your baby.
~ Other playtime activities of choice are serving tea from your kitchen, drawing on your Magnadoodle etch-a-sketch, playing dress-up, playing with all your furniture and people in your dollhouse, playing in the sandbox, and driving your John Deere Gator "tractor".
~ You are so funny and finicky about certain things. For example, you are adamant that whoever is driving keeps both hands on the wheel. You say, "Daddy, TWO HANDS!" from the backseat.
~ Your best friends right now are (in no particular order): Nora, Friend Alice (not to be confused with Aunt Alice aka Allison), Aubrey, Stormy, Izzy, Gemma, Peyton, and baby Annie
~ You have a couple of favorite Bible stories that you always turn to in your Big Picture Story Bible. The first is the "marching" one (Jericho and the walls coming tumbling down), and the second is the one where "God came down in a cloud" and filled the temple. Not sure why those are your favorites, but they definitely are.
~ You amaze us every day by the things you say. For example, just a couple days ago we were outside and you looked at us and said, "It's a beautiful day!"

Anna Kate, we love watching you grow and learn and develop your sweet little personality. You keep us going and going and going and we collapse when we fall into bed at night, but you are so much fun and so worth it! We are so thankful for these two precious years since you joined our family and look forward by God's grace to many many more. You are loved.

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, (and baby Caroline!)

Two under Two

2012-02-07T20:44:00.004-05:00

Well, tomorrow is the big day. I will no longer have two children under the age of two. So, in honor of this occasion, I thought I would share a little about what life has been like these past 4 months of having two under two (not that anything is going to magically change tomorrow, haha!). While in some ways it has been very difficult to have two very young babies, it has also brought more joy than I ever thought possible! So...I'll start with the hard parts =)

1. Sleeping. Should I even go here? Now ideally our almost two-year-old would sleep through the night every night. Unfortunately she does not. Whether it's a bad dream, or some noise she hears, she does wake up on average once a night. And never does this coincide with the two or more times that Caroline wakes up to eat! if they could at least coordinate these, it would make our lives a lot easier!
2. Diapers. Lots and lots of diaper changing. Until the past two weeks in which AK has been nearly potty-trained, she went through 4-5 diapers a day and Caroline still uses 8-10. That's a LOT of diaper changing! At least they are cute little cloth-covered bottoms =)
3. Leaving the house. It takes FOREVER to get both of these children ready to go anywhere. There's just so much that you have to pack along for two babies. And once you finally get it all ready to go and both kids dressed, one spits up. And by the time you get that cleaned up, the other one needs a diaper change. And once you change that, by that time the other one needs to nurse again. And once you finish that, the other one needs a snack. I could go on, but you get the point. I am finally starting to figure out what time we need to get up and moving in order to be where we need to be on time (which thankfully for us is only a couple days a week)!

Ok, now the wonderful parts!

1. Sisterly love. I love seeing my first baby love on my second baby. There is nothing sweeter than hearing her say, "I love you, baby Tarry-yine," or listening to her sing "Rockabye Baby" or "You are My Sunshine" to her baby sister. I love that Anna Kate is so little that she won't really remember being an only child and therefore I never really felt like she had any jealousy issues.
2. Matching outfits. I absolutely LOVE dressing these two baby girls alike. And I love that right now one of them absolutely loves it too and the other one is too little to notice!
3. Naptime. They are both so little that a couple hour naptime in the middle of the day happens at the same time. And hopefully we won't have to get rid of that for quite some time!
4. Snuggles. I think I get more snuggles in a day than I ever thought possible. I love rocking and loving on these two sweet little babies.

I'm sure there is a lot more that I can say, but I'll just finish by saying that even though it's a lot of work to have two baby girls under the age of two, the joys that they bring make it all worth it!

Caroline's Baby Dedication

2012-02-05T15:21:00.005-05:00

While yesterday was a special day for Anna Kate, today was Caroline's day! It was baby dedication at Malvern Hill and we dedicated our sweet Caroline Hope to the Lord and pledged to raise her in a family that knows and loves God, with the hope that one day she too will respond in faith to Christ's gift of salvation.

Listening to our pastor as he spoke about the blessing and responsibility of parenting these precious children.

Each child received a certificate and a special book from the children's ministry.

Our little family

And we couldn't be more grateful that both sets of grandparents were able to be here for this special day.

And just for fun, here we are a year and a half ago with Anna Kate in the very same little dress!

Anna Kate's 2nd Birthday Party!

2012-02-05T14:01:00.013-05:00

We had a FANTASTIC time yesterday morning celebrating Anna Kate's 2nd birthday with all four of her grandparents and seven of her best little friends! I decided I was not going to get teary or sentimental in this post about my little girl growing up and turning two (I'll save that for a post on her actual birthday on Wednesday!), so I will just jump right into the party!

It was pretty easy to decide what the theme of this party would be. Ever since Caroline was born, Anna Kate has been very into baby dolls! She loves to take care of her baby, "nurse" her baby, burp her baby, change her baby's diaper, bathe her baby, make sure her baby gets "tummy time", and the list goes on. So of course we decided to have a baby doll party! First off, here is the picture we used on the invitation.

I really didn't do a whole lot of decorations...just the Anna Kate birthday banner I made last year and a couple of Martha Stewart Pom Poms...love those!

The spread!

And the party planning committee! I really don't think I could have done this party without my mom...or I at least would have had to stay up all night on Friday!

Anna Kate's friends were all instructed to bring their own baby dolls with them to the party. Here is Anna Kate greeting her first guests. The party favors were little baby doll slings that I made for each little girl. They put them on when they arrived so they could carry their babies!

Oh, and thanks, Dad for catching this on camera...Caroline decided to spit up on me, right at the moment that the guests were arriving. She just wanted to make sure I paid her some attention too!

Enjoying the snacks!

After we ate we began our baby doll activities. We had four stations set up around the house for them to take their babies to: the doctor, the spa/salon, the photography studio, and library storytime!

Baby doll spa and salon (Mom was the hairdresser!)

Photography studio (thanks Dad for the great pictures of the little girls and their babies!)

Note: A couple of the girls were more interested in the doctor's office and the spa and they didn't make it to the photo studio!

The doctor's office was quite a hit! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Dr. Luke attending to his patients, but he did a great job weighing the baby dolls, checking their heartbeats, and giving them bandaids! (He also made this sign all by himself!)

And library storytime! We read a few of AK's favorite stories: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Jamberry, and One Little Hippo.

Then it was time for cupcakes. Anna Kate requested strawberry, so that's what we had!

After all her friends left, we opened a couple special presents from family. Grandma and Grandpa gave her a sweet (locally made in Camden!) pink sock monkey that she has already named "Molly the Monkey"!

Mimi and Papa gave her a beautiful little white wooden cradle that she can use to rock her baby dolls. She loves to rock it and sing "Rockabye Baby"!

Aunt Allison and Uncle Jonathan know how much Anna Kate loves to drive her tractor in the backyard so they gave her a John Deere t-shirt and rain boots!

And here are a few family pictures we took after Anna Kate woke up from her nap...that party wore her out!

Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped us celebrate our special little girl!

A Tale of Two Seats...

2012-01-21T18:09:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time there was a 3 month old baby girl named Caroline. She was getting so strong that her Mommy thought she was ready to try out a new seat!

This was perfect timing because she had been needing her own place to sit while her big sister Anna Kate was sitting on a special seat of her own!

Anna Kate has been working so hard at learning to use her big girl potty! She is doing a great job and we are very proud of our big girl!

3 months old today!

2012-01-18T13:01:00.005-05:00

Caroline Hope, you are three months old today! How can it be that a quarter of your first year of life has already flown by?! You are getting so fun to be around and bring so much joy to our home. Here are the ways you are changing this month:

~You now are sleeping in the nursery with Anna Kate all night long! Well, Mommy still has to come feed you around 4 or so, but you go right back to sleep. You and Anna Kate do very well going to bed in the same room at the same time (and if you don't, it's usually her fault, not yours!). She really likes having you in there with her, though!
~You love to talk and smile and laugh and giggle! You really like it when we call you "Caresy Hope!" Especially when Anna Kate says it!
~You have also become a little bit ticklish this month. Especially right under your little chin.
~You are doing so well playing with your toys on your playmat. You like it so much that sometimes you will fuss in our arms to be put down for playtime! Your favorite toy is still your lamb that lights up and sings. In fact, I took a video of you yesterday just smiling away at it. You even like to look at it when it's not playing the music!
~You are still such an easy baby to take places. You sleep right through just about anything - grocery shopping, dinner out, church, whatever!
~While you are mostly a very easy baby, you will let us know very LOUDLY when you are hungry. You don't work yourself up to this loud cry though, it's just one minute you are perfectly happy and the next moment you are HUNGRY! I've been trying to anticipate it before it happens, but sometimes you still surprise me!
~Your daily schedule is looking something like this: Wake up around 8:30, nap from 10-11, nap again from 1-3, nap again from 5:30-6:30 or so, and then down for bed around 8. You are nursing about 7-8 times a day still, but I love that sweet cuddle time with you!
~You rolled over a couple of times from tummy to back this month, but you haven't been doing it extremely consistently yet. And it's probably because you might not get quite as much tummy time as you should, since Anna Kate's always bounding around the house and it makes me nervous to have you on the floor!
~You are such a PRETTY baby. You have a beautiful complexion, such pretty hair and eyes, and sometimes I just catch myself staring at you thinking about how precious you are!
~Your little face has started to remind me a little bit more of Anna Kate now that you have some pudginess on those cheeks! At first I thought you looked very different, but I can definitely see some more similarities now.
~You are getting to be quite a big girl! You weighed 12 lbs. 1 oz. at the doctor a couple weeks ago and you are 24 inches long. You have outgrown all of your 3 month clothes and are wearing all 6 month things now!

Caroline Hope, you are so precious to your daddy and me (and to your big sister!), and we love having you as part of our family. You truly are a blessing.

And here are your pictures!

One month

Two months

Three months
(wearing a dress that used to be your mommy's many years ago!)

And just for fun, here is Anna Kate at 3 months old

Playroom Makeover!

2012-01-15T14:47:00.005-05:00

Luke left on Wednesday to take our youth group on a 3-day ski trip. I joined Pinterest on Wednesday evening after the girls went to bed since I was lonely and bored and everyone said I needed to just bite the bullet and join. As soon as I did, I started to feel the creative juices flowing and decided to take on a project while Luke was away.

We have this awesome little sunroom right off the kitchen that we are using as a playroom. It is perfect because Anna Kate can play in there while I work in the kitchen and I can see her and she can't get into any trouble. Problem is, it's also the room with the back door where we always come in the house (as do our good friends and family) and it was always very disorganized and had nothing as far as decor. Not exactly the most pleasant entry into our house! So I spent Thursday thinking through ideas in my head for what I wanted to do it, but didn't get to actually start on it until Friday afternoon. Luke was coming back Saturday, so I needed to work fast, but with the help of my mom and dad, we got it all done! Here are some before and after pics!

Before...

After!

And some close-ups of all the new features:

Cafe curtain

Yes, I made it myself! Luke got me a book for Christmas called "One-Yard Wonders" that has over a hundred different projects you can do with a sewing machine and one yard of fabric! Thanks mom for helping me learn to make a ruffle!

Toy shelf with canvas baskets

Special thanks goes to Dad for putting together the shelf...and for going back to Walmart at 9pm to get a new one when we opened up the first one and saw that it was broken! Oh, and the picture doesn't show it very well, but the back of the shelf is a cute white with pink polka dot fabric.

Wall plaques handpainted by my mom and me

I love these...what a great reminder to me of how even playtime can be a time where I train up my girls in the way that they should go!

Dress-up area

The picture is just a framed piece of fabric and then we wrote on the glass with a dry-erase marker! If you can't read it, it is Psalm 45:11: "The King is enthralled with your beauty."

So, we did, in fact, finish our little project before Luke got home, and he was definitely surprised! Anna Kate was so excited to see her daddy and show him her new playroom (she keeps saying "Oh Wow!" every time she walks in). This is how she sat for 15 minutes waiting for him to drive up.

We sure missed Luke, but at least we had a project to keep us busy while he was away!

Rainy days and Mondays...

2012-01-11T13:17:00.004-05:00

That's what these past couple days have been...but they haven't been getting us down! We've been having a lot of fun doing this...

And this...

And this...

(These are our new favorite books. "On the Night You Were Born," "Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You," and "It's Time to Sleep, My Love," by Nancy Tillman. Each has a stuffed animal that goes along with it that AK insists on holding while reading the story! She got the first one from Mimi and Papa the day she was born, and then she and Caroline each got one from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa for Christmas this year.)

And last, but not least, this...

(Since it was raining and cold yesterday, we decided we would take our new tricycle up to the church and ride up and down the hallways, around the gym, through the fellowship hall, and around the offices. Such fun!)

And now I'm getting off the computer to go read my Bible while BOTH girls are sleeping! This has been a consistent routine lately where they are both asleep from about 1 to 3pm! Yay!

2-month doctor visit

2012-01-08T21:23:00.002-05:00

I just took Caroline to her 2-month check-up on Thursday this week and she did great! I know it's a little late, since she's really 2 1/2 months old, but her original appointment fell during our trip to Texas, so we had to reschedule. In any case, we have a happy healthy little girl who did great for the doctor. She even smiled a few times for the doctor while she was checking her heartbeat and breathing =) She didn't really appreciate the two shots, but she calmed down right away. It was actually Anna Kate and I that had a harder time with that...we're both a little protective of "Baby Tarry-yine" I guess.

As for her stats, Caroline is growing just perfectly! She now weighs 12 lbs 1 oz (75th %) and is 24 inches long (90th %). She's also doing just what a two month old is supposed to do - hold her head up a little bit, smile real smiles, coo, and she even just started rolling over from tummy to back!

Well, that's about all the news from the doctor...stay tuned for a longer 3-month post about our sweet baby coming up in a couple weeks!

Christmas in DC

2011-12-28T08:10:00.008-05:00

After a whirlwind trip to Texas for Grannie's service, we headed straight to Washington, DC, to spend Christmas with my entire family! We are so glad that we have ALL been able to be together not once, but twice, during these few months that my parents have been living in the US. Although having 9 adults and 5 children age 3 and under can be a little crazy at times, I wouldn't trade it for the world!

We arrived late Thursday evening and hit the ground running Friday morning with a visit to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Anna Kate loved seeing all of the animal exhibits. All of the kids really enjoyed the hands-on discovery center too!

Friday afternoon we were able to all go on a tour of the Capitol Building. What a beautiful place! It was so neat to learn more about the heartbeat of our nation and all that has taken place inside those walls. Here are all 5 grandkids ready for the tour!

Sisters outside the Library of Congress
(me, sister Sarah, sister-in-law Rachael)

Mom and Dad in front of the Capitol building...they don't look old enough to have 5 grandkids, do they?!?

Saturday morning (Christmas Eve) my brother-in-law Dustin took all of the guys (Dad, Andrew, Stephen, and Luke) on a hike in the Shenandoah mountains. Although the hike turned out to be a little more than what they had bargained for (a 2000 foot change in elevation over 9 miles!), they had a fantastic time enjoying God's creation!

While all the guys were out hiking, the girls stayed back at home and made Grandma Burgin's famous Christmas cookies with all 5 of the kids. I'm not sure if more cookie dough and icing made it into cookies or into their tummies (they are really sneaky, let me tell you!), but they had a great time! And we had fun passing down traditions to the next little generation of Burgins.

Saturday night we went to Sarah and Dustin's church's Christmas Eve service. They have been a part of National Community Church ever since they first moved to DC in 2003 and it has been so neat to see all that God has done in their church since their time there. The Christmas Eve service was actually held in their new location, an old 1920's theater on Barrack's Row. We had a great time singing Christmas carols, being reminded of the miracle of the birth of our Savior, and of course, trying to keep all the kids quiet for an hour!

All dressed up for the Christmas Eve service.

Sweet Caroline

Pretty Anna Kate

My girls

(Ok, confession...these pictures weren't actually taken on Christmas Eve. They were our Christmas card pictures. But we were all wearing the same things!)

After the service we headed home for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Corn Chowder after which we all opened one present...new jammies! This picture was taken right when we got home from the Christmas Eve service. It's the only picture of (almost) all of us that we got...Luke's behind the camera, but he was there too!

There is nothing cuter than a baby in brand new footie pajamas...except maybe FIVE babies in new footie pajamas!

Best one of AK...not the best one of Caroline!

At least they're both smiling in this one...not looking at the camera, but smiling!

Caroline's not so sure about Anna Kate giving her kisses...

"Ok, Mom, she's definitely too close now!"

After we put the kids to bed, my very smart sister-in-law Rachael had the idea to open all the adult presents that night so that we could just focus on the kids Christmas morning. With 9 adults all exchanging gifts, it took quite a while, so we are very glad we did...the kids never would have put up with that! Some of the highlights were a new game (Qwirkle) for everyone, and a beautiful framed collage of family pictures for each one of us from my parents.

Christmas morning we all opened our stocking presents on our own as each family woke up. Here is Anna Kate digging into her stocking and then helping Mommy with hers!

After that, we did all of the kids presents together. Anna Kate's big present was a tricycle that she has been talking about for months (ever since she used one at the beach house we rented in August)! The coolest part about it is that it has a push handle on the back for mommy or daddy to push/steer until she is ready to pedal the bike for herself!

Caroline wasn't quite as excited about opening her Christmas presents...she slept through most of it and Anna Kate opened them for her. But she got some really cute little toys too!

We had a great Christmas afternoon cooking up a wonderful dinner of ham, green bean casserole, rolls, scalloped potatoes, salad, and of course, pumpkin and apple pies! We are so grateful for all this time we have been able to spend with my side of the family while my parents have been in the USA this fall. We had such a special time celebrating the birth of our Savior!

One last note...I just have to add that one of the highlights of this Christmas season has been Anna Kate's singing of her new favorite Christmas carol: Deck the Halls. For some reason she absolutely LOVES this song, and has ALL the words memorized. Although I am sure she has no idea what "Troll the ancient yuletide carol" means, she has been singing/chanting it with gusto ALL THE TIME! She sure does keep us laughing!

Remembering Grannie

2011-12-28T07:24:00.011-05:00

As most of you know, Luke's Grannie went home to be with Jesus on Thursday, December 15. Although we were not exactly prepared for how quickly it happened, we know that she was so ready to meet her Savior face to face and we are so happy that she was truly home for Christmas. There is so much that I could say about Grannie and all that she meant to Luke and all that she meant to me over the last 8 years that I have been her granddaughter as well. Yes, she let me start calling her Grannie long before Luke and I were ever married! She was so joyful, and giving, and full of life, and never ever passed up an opportunity to make someone feel loved. She was also such a fighter. Many thought that she wouldn't live after the tragic accident that claimed her husband's life 5 years ago and left her in the ICU and then a rehab center for months following, but fight she did. She was determined to walk down the aisle at our wedding just 9 months after that and she succeeded! And not only that, but she also was able to meet not only her first great-granddaughter, but also her second just a month ago. In fact, the last pictures that we have of Grannie are these of her spending time with Anna Kate and Caroline when we came to Greenwood for Thanksgiving. Have you ever seen a bigger smile?

Although it is always very difficult to lose a loved one, we truly had a wonderful service out in her little hometown of Claude, Texas. We remembered all of the different roles she played in so many people's lives, but mostly we remembered that the was a child of God and because of this she was able to hear the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Luke officiated the service and I could not have been more proud of him. He reminded us that it is okay to grieve because sickness and death is not the way that things should be. He reminded us that one day God will create a new heaves and a new earth and wipe away ever tear from our eyes and once and for all do away with all sickness and death and crying and pain and we will be able to enjoy Him forever.

After the service we took some pictures at a few different places that meant so much to Grannie during her long and full life. Here is our little family in front of the Claude United Methodist Church where Grannie served faithfully for so many decades. She was a true example of loving and serving the body of Christ.

We also had to take a picture in front of Grannie's house. The house that she lived in from the time she was a baby until the day that she moved to South Carolina just a couple years ago. Can you imagine living in the same house your entire life? She grew up in that house, spent her married days in that house, raised her daughter in that house, offered hospitality to so many in that house, welcomed her grandchildren for many visits in that house, and lived there until the day came that she couldn't live on her own anymore. Amazing!

Finally, we took Anna Kate and Caroline out to see the Palo Duro canyon just a couple miles outside of Claude. What a beautiful example of God's creation that Grannie loved so much. If there are places on earth this incredible, it makes me all the more eager to see what the new heavens and new earth will look like one day!

There is so much more that could be said, but I will close by saying that I was blessed to have Grannie in my life, and I will always have stories for my children about the legacy that she left for them.

2 months old today!

2011-12-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy 2-month birthday, Sweet Caroline Hope! I don't like that these days and weeks are passing so quickly, but we have so enjoyed this past month with you, watching your little personality develop. Here is how you are growing and changing this month.

~You are really starting to be more interactive. You have the sweetest little cooing voice and have started "talking" back when Mommy and Daddy talk to you.
~ You now smile a lot during your awake times and have even been known to let out a few giggles! One of the sweetest things you do is give Mommy a big contented smile when you finish nursing. Melts my heart.
~ You are really enjoying your toys on your playmat. You like to bat at the little rattles and things, but you really like the light-up lamb that plays music that your Uncle Stephen and Aunt Rachael and Leah gave you. You don't like it when the music stops and you let us know!
~ You still look like your big sister in some ways, but you definitely have a darker complexion. Your hair has stayed darker and your eyes, though they still have a slight bluish tint around the edge, are turning even darker. I think you might look a little bit more like your Mommy.
~ You are SUCH a good sleeper! I have started to put you down to bed around 9pm and we don't hear from you until 4 or 5. That's 7-8 hours at a time! I feed you around 4 or 5 and then you're back to bed until 7 or 8. You also take some great naps during the day. Oh, and did I mention that you're doing all this sleeping in your own bassinet? We love to snuggle you, but we appreciate the fact that you'll sleep on your own now! I think we're almost ready to put you in the nursery with Anna Kate...
~ One of the things I have really enjoyed this month is watching the way you and Anna Kate have started to interact. She absolutely adores you and you love to watch all of her crazy antics. Her favorite names for you are "Caresy Bearsy" and "Baby Tarry-yine". She has also been known to get quite upset if your outfit doesn't match hers.
~ You really are such a good baby and usually come with me wherever I go. I have mostly been keeping you with me at church because you pretty much just sleep in the sling, but the last couple of weeks the nursery workers have begged me to leave you with them so that they can snuggle and rock you! Last week I left you just for the Sunday School hour for the first time and you did great!
~ As far as your two-month stats go, we are having to postpone your appointment until after Christmas, so I don't really know how much you weigh or how long you are. But when I weigh myself holding you and then subtract my own weight, you're about 12 pounds. We'll see when we go to the doctor what it is exactly, but we can definitely tell that you are growing!

Caroline Hope, we feel so blessed that you joined our family two months ago. You bring us so much joy with your sweet smiles and snuggles. We love you more than words can say and are so excited to see what God has in store for your precious life.

And here are your pictures!

One month old!

Two months old!

Look at that smirk!

Hold you, baby Caroline?

2011-12-13T14:31:00.004-05:00

I hear this question from Anna Kate at least 10 times a day. She is always wanting to "Hold you, baby Caroline!" Usually she is really good about asking, thanks to the book "I'm a Big Sister" that taught her to always ask Mommy before holding the baby. However, this morning Anna Kate was reading her books and Caroline was laying on her playmat and I ran to the laundry room just for a second to put the clothes in the dryer. While in there I heard, "Mommy, baby Caroline's HEAVY!" Yes, clothes were dropped and I did run into the living room, only to find that Caroline was in fact too heavy for Anna Kate to even get up off the playmat. Crisis averted. But next time one of them is coming with me whenever I go to the laundry room. It kind of reminds me of that brainteaser...you know, the one about the sheep, the wolf, and the hay and you have to get them all across a river, but the boat only holds you and one other item? You can't leave the sheep and the wolf because the wolf will eat the sheep, you can't leave the sheep and the hay because the sheep will eat the hay...anyway. Not sure where I'm going with this post, but how about a couple pictures of Anna Kate holding Caroline? Don't worry, this time it was authorized and I was right there make sure that no babies were harmed!

She's so proud of her big sister skills!

"Love you, baby Caroline"

Sleeping Beauties

2011-12-12T13:02:00.002-05:00

This is what's happening downstairs...

And this is what's happening upstairs...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, at the SAME TIME! I know the fact that my children are taking a nap at the same time is probably not a cause for celebration for you like it is for me, so you can just enjoy the pictures, but I'm excited! Now I'm off to do some serious tidying around the house and then maybe a 20-minute power nap myself!

Happy girl

2011-12-09T13:37:00.003-05:00

So, there's really no reason for this post other than that I just happen to think that I have the cutest baby in the world (it's ok, I know you all think your own children/nieces/nephews/grandkids/whatever are the cutest, and I'm ok with that!). But I just wanted to post a few pictures of my sweet Caroline. She's really started to smile more over the past couple days and I haven't gotten it on camera yet, but these come pretty close!

And this one, just because she's so cute when she's sleeping!

O Christmas Tree!

2011-12-02T20:49:00.003-05:00

Is there anything better than the fragrance of a freshly cut Christmas tree filling your house as you sit and enjoy the twinkle of the lights and the memories represented by each ornament? I just love it!

Yesterday Luke and I and the girls, along with my parents, headed out to Pa Pa John's Christmas tree farm to choose and cut down our tree. They had hundreds of beautiful trees to choose from, and I must say, we picked a winner! Here is Anna Kate checking out the Frasier Firs when we first arrived.

Grandma and Grandpa chose a Carolina Sapphire tree. I love the bluish tint to it!

We went with a 10 foot (yes, you read that right!) Leyland Cypress Tree. And this picture may just be appearing on a Christmas card sometime soon!

We decided to do something a little bit different this year and invite our youth group kids over to help us decorate our tree. We had a great time decorating, drinking hot chocolate, listening to Christmas carols, doing our Advent calendar devotional with them, and playing Apples to Apples! Here they are hard at work putting up all our ornaments!

Anna Kate was a big help!

And, I know this isn't the best picture ever, but I wanted to get a shot of her cute outfit...thanks Mimi! (She was too busy decorating to pose...)

The hardest part was getting the star on the top. Matt and Luke had quite a time of it, but eventually succeeded! (fyi...Matt is using our broom to tip the star over to where Luke could reach it. Pretty creative!)

All that hard work finally paid off. Isn't it pretty?

And now I'm going to go sit in the living room and enjoy it for a little while. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Thanksgiving with the Tolberts!

2011-11-29T19:50:00.007-05:00

We had such a wonderful time last week celebrating Thanksgiving with Luke's family. It was a much needed few days off work for Luke, and a much appreciated few days of help with the babies for me! This post is going to be FULL of pictures since I took quite a few myself, but also since Luke's brother Jonathan is working on his photography skills and took hundreds that he shared with us!

The first day we were there we took Caroline to meet Luke's Grannie for the first time. I love how this picture captures her excitement to meet her second great-grandchild!

And here she is again in great-grandmother heaven! (And is it just me or does Anna Kate look way too grown up in the picture?)

Anna Kate loved getting out all the toys that her daddy played with when he was little. The two biggest hits were the Duplo Lego blocks and the wooden train pull-toy!

On Wednesday Luke's parents and brother and sister offered to let Luke and I go out on a date for lunch while they watched the babies. Looks like Mimi had it all under control!

We so enjoyed sitting by the fire that Jonathan kept going almost the whole time we were there! Anna Kate had never seen such a phenomenon before and she was quite intrigued.

And here's my little Caroline on her first Thanksgiving!

Getting a picture of these two little turkeys together is not very easy, but here are my best two!

And no surprise here...Anna Kate is ready for the Thanksgiving feast!

And the whole family at the table!

And then we decided we needed a more formal family picture...this was the best shot of everyone!

Back Row: Anna Kate, Luke, Patty, Caroline, Papa (Sam), Jonathan, Allison
Front Row: Grannie, and Mimi (Margo)

After a great Thanksgiving feast we decided to head to the park to get a little fresh air and exercise!

Anna Kate loves her Aunt Allison!

On Friday we headed to a Christmas Tree farm to pick out a tree for Luke's family. Anna Kate had a blast "driving" this tractor!

Then we found one more her size!

Time for a hayride!

And finally, here are a couple of Thanksgiving crafts that I did with Anna Kate the week of Thanksgiving. First, we made a Thankful Tree. Anna Kate collected the sticks with her daddy and we all made leaves that said what we were thankful for.

And a coloring page that Anna Kate did. I helped her write down all the things she was thankful for. She came up with these by completing the sentence when I said, "Thank you God for...."

In order, she is thankful for oatmeal, yogurt, Mommy, Caroliney, Daddy, Nora (church friend), and craft time!

We truly have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. And all of our thanksgiving is to the One from whom all blessings flow.

Rockabye Baby

2011-11-20T09:39:00.003-05:00

One of Anna Kate's favorite things to do lately is to rock Caroline and sing her "Rockabye Baby". It's hard to catch Anna Kate doing anything on video because she moves from one activity to the next before you can even grab the camera, but I finally caught it this morning. We are all in jammies because we are staying home from church with stuffy noses and a little cough. We didn't want to share it with the rest of the 1- and 2-year-olds at church. Anyway, enjoy the video and please excuse the 20 seconds of obstinate behavior at the beginning...haha! I promise it gets cute.

Who's who?

2011-11-19T06:00:00.002-05:00

I have been able to see similarities between Anna Kate and Caroline all along, but it didn't really hit me until I took some pictures of Caroline wearing a nightgown that Anna Kate had worn as a newborn. See if you can guess who's who!

1 month old today!

2011-11-18T14:04:00.003-05:00

Happy one-month birthday, Caroline Hope! It's amazing how much joy you have brought us in such a short time! One month ago today we were just meeting you for the first time and now we can't imagine life without you. Here is what we have learned about you in your first month of life:

~You would much rather sleep with someone rather than in your own bassinet! In fact, you are snuggling on the couch with your daddy at this very moment! You spent every night for the first couple weeks snuggling with Mommy or Daddy. However, you are doing MUCH better and now spend almost the whole night in your own bed!
~You LOVE to eat! I think you would probably be just fine with nursing every hour. Usually you nurse every two hours during the day and every three or four at night. Although sometimes you need just a little "comfort" snack in between each real feeding...
~You haven't really established a regular routine yet, but that could be more my own doing than yours. With your big sister, I was more concerned about establishing that routine so that it would work with my schedule when I went back to work. Since I am staying at home with you now, I am just able to enjoy every moment and not worry about a schedule. However, I think you are starting to have a little bit more of a regular routine which will be nice.
~You are really a very easygoing baby. You do very well if I have to lay you down in your Moses basket or your swing during the day while I chase after Anna Kate!
~You love for me to wear you in my sling. You love the rocking motion of my walking as I go about my day. You also do really well in it at church all cuddled up next to Mommy.
~You already have quite a few nicknames, as any true member of our family would! You are frequently referred to as Sweet Caroline, Care Bear, Caresy Bearsy, Caroliney (which sounds more like Taro-yiney when your sister says it!), Line Line, Liney Bear, and Caresy Hope!
~We just started to see glimmers of your first little smiles the other day, and it's quite a beautiful one! You have also started to coo just a little bit in the last week or so.
~We had your doctor's appointment yesterday and you are growing well! You were almost back to your birth weight at your one week appointment and now you weigh 10 lbs. 9 oz! You have also gotten taller and are now 23 1/2 inches long.

Sweet Caroline, you are such a precious little girl. You are a treasured daughter, sister, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, niece, and cousin to so many! You truly are a blessing from God to our family!

And here is your first month picture! (Actually two because I couldn't decide)

Anna Kate these days...

2011-11-17T10:32:00.003-05:00

I know I'm not doing the official "monthly" updates about Anna Kate that I did throughout her first year, but she has changed so much over the past couple months that I thought I would just type up a little list of what she's been up to lately! And of course, it's a good opportunity to share some of these sweet shots of her that I took at the park the other day!

~ Anna Kate's vocabulary is expanding rapidly! She amazes us every day with the words that she knows that we didn't know she knew. Really there are too many to list, but a few of her favorites that we hear all the time are: again, hold you (which really means hold me), Unner one (other one - we hear this any time she wants something other than what she has!), I love you too, Big Helper, and "Anna Tate Too!"
~ She has quite the little memory. She currently has all the words to "Jesus Loves Me", "Pat-a-Cake", and "Rock-a-bye baby" completely memorized. She also has two Bible verses memorized: "Help one another" and "A friend loves at all times".
~ She absolutely LOVES to read, and finishes the last few words on each page of most of her books. Her favorites these days are: I'm a Big Sister Now, Ellie in the Fall, Hippos Go Berserk, and My Big Girl Potty (not that it's doing any good yet...).
~ She is still quite attached to her paci. I think I mentioned this a while back, but not only does she have to have one paci when she goes to bed, but she has to have two. She calls the first one her paci and the second one her "unga" which was how she used to say "extra". She can now say the word "extra", but "unga" has stuck!
~ She absolutely loves her baby sister, affectionately known as "Caroliney" or "Caresy Bearsy"...except when she's nursing. Every time I feed Caroline, Anna Kate comes up and says, "Hold you!" In fact the other day she brought Caroline one of her beloved pacis (Caroline doesn't really use one) and said "All Done!"
~ If given the option, she would much rather walk around with bare feet than with shoes or socks on. She calls this "Free Toes!"
~She has learned to throw quite a temper tantrum lately (which we've learned is called "pitching a fit" in South Carolina). It usually happens whenever we have to stop doing something that she really likes. It's not all the time, but when it happens, let me tell you, it's a good one. Time-outs seem to work the best, and hearing her say, "Sorry, Mommy," is the cutest thing ever. She also has to tell us how she is supposed to obey (all the way, right away, and with a happy heart). And I must say, it is nearly impossible not to laugh when she says "happy heart" while sobbing!
~ She is quite attached to her bedtime routine and you better not mess with it! It doesn't take very long (10 min), but it has to be just this way: Brush teeth (while singing the toothbrush song that Mommy and Daddy came up with), wrap up in blankie and start rocking, read Goodnight Moon, pray, sing a song of her choice (one of the following: Jesus Paid it All, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Gentle Hands, or Cherries are Ripe), lay her in the bed (with the following items: paci, unga, blankie, lovey, lamby, and sippy cup of water) and keep singing as you walk out the door. Occasionally you have to lay your hand on her chest for a few seconds once she's in the bed. And this, friends, is why we rarely ask anyone else to put her to bed...
~ And last, but not least, we finally (knock on wood) have a child who sleeps ALL the way through the night consistently. She never did this at all until somewhere around 11 months. Then she was pretty good until 17 months. But then we moved. And she spent the next two or three months waking up for at least an hour in the middle of every night. Our doctor said this was pretty normal for a child that age when they are in a new environment. But I was really really worried about how we would manage with her AND a newborn. But, God is gracious! I kid you not, the very day we brought Caroline home from the hospital, Anna Kate started sleeping through the night. As in, 7:30pm to 7:30am - without waking up! I think she's only woken up in the middle of the night maybe twice in the last month. Way to go, Anna Kate!

Well, although I am sure I could go on, that's Anna Kate's major developments lately. Stay tuned tomorrow for Caroline's 1-month post! I can't believe she's one month old already!

Daddy's latest project

2011-11-16T13:33:00.004-05:00

Luke has spent many hours over the past month working on quite a project for Anna Kate (and Caroline in a year or so) - a sandbox! Now, this is no small, ordinary sandbox. This is a 6 foot by 6 foot sandbox that contains (literally) a ton of sand - 2000 pounds! Now that we have a big backyard of our own, Luke has had a lot of fun getting out some of his power tools and doing all kinds of things for the house. And we are definitely enjoying the fruits of his labor! Here are some pictures of the final project.

It has a retractable cover to keep leaves, squirrels, and the neighborhood cat out!

Anna Kate LOVES it!

And so did her cousins this past weekend!

Thank you so much, Daddy, for building me such a great sandbox! And Mommy says to thank you for providing me with hours of entertainment each day!

Burgin family (early) Thanksgiving!

2011-11-15T19:59:00.002-05:00

We just spent a wonderful weekend with my ENTIRE family all together here in Camden! They all drove many hours to come and meet baby Caroline and we are so glad they did. We haven't all been together since Christmas of 2008, and at that time there was only one grandchild (Wesley) and one on the way (Leah). Now there are five grandchildren! It was quite a busy weekend with five kids age three and under, but we had such a great time. Here are some pictures that my dad took...I was too busy running after kids to take pictures!

Grandpa reading to all of his grandkids!

Thanksgiving dinner

Let the Christmas carols begin!

Whole family after church Sunday

From L to R: Anna Kate with Luke and me holding Caroline, big brother Stephen and his wife Rachael with Leah, little brother Andrew, big sister Sarah holding Cooper and Sarah's husband Dustin holding Wesley. Mom and Dad are sitting up front!

Thank you all so much for driving such a long way to come and meet baby Caroline! We love you and are excited to see you again at Christmas!

Who is that cute little fairy and sweet little butterfly?

2011-11-02T16:49:00.003-04:00

It's Anna Kate and Caroline!

We had a GREAT time on Monday evening going to our church's huge Fall Festival. And when I say huge, I really mean huge! We had nearly 2000 people come for games, trunk-or-treat, bouncy houses, hot dogs, a petting zoo, and much more! The coolest part about it is that each family who came is going to receive a personal phone call from a member of our church inviting them to come back to service Sunday and hopefully share the good news of Jesus with them too!

Last year, I was one of the many volunteers for the event, but this year Anna Kate and Caroline were my full-time job! We had so much fun doing all the activities and getting treats! Anna Kate was so excited that she refused to stand still for pictures, but here are a few blurry ones to document our night!

Playing ring the bottle
(AK was extremely meticulous about placing the rings on the bottles - not tossing them!)

Running through the bouncy jungle!

Checking out the pony!

So far I've been successful at keeping her to one or two treats a day from her bucket...we'll see if I can keep it up!

Pumpkin Time!

2011-10-30T13:47:00.007-04:00

I love pumpkins. I love pumpkin patches, pumpkin decorations, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattes, carved pumpkins, pretty much everything pumpkin. In fact, I even have a loaf pan mold shaped like a pumpkin patch to make pumpkin bread (which I made yesterday)! All that to say, we could not let October pass us by without taking a trip to the McLeod Farms pumpkin patch. We had never been, but it may just be a new annual tradition! We loaded up the babies and drove 30 miles or so out to the farm! We had a great time on the tractor-pulled hayride out to the pumpkin patch, choosing pumpkins, walking around the little store and museum, and letting Anna Kate "drive" a few tractors herself! Here are some pictures of our morning (which, by the way, was a very cold one)!

AK and Mommy

AK and Grandpa

Silly faces!

Waiting for the hayride

So fun!

Yep, this one's mine!

My two little pumpkins!

Driving an old wagon

Sweet sisters

Mommy and her girls

Our pretty pumpkins!
(Mine is on the left with all our initials, AK's is in the middle with the cute face, and Luke's is on the right with the autumn leaves. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see that his actually has two leaves, one carved all the way through and one carved halfway through so it just glows...very cool!)

And, one more note...I thought Anna Kate would have a lot of fun helping us carve the pumpkins, especially digging the insides out. I was wrong...apparently our girly girl thinks that pumpkin insides are "Nasty Yucky!" She had fun watching us do it though!

Making cookies!

2011-10-27T16:27:00.002-04:00

My mom has been such a big help over the past 10 days since Caroline was born! One of the biggest jobs she has is entertaining Anna Kate while I nurse the baby. Last week she came up with the idea to make cookies...an activity that kept AK occupied and having fun for well over an hour! And here's the video to document the occasion:

Sweet Caroline

2011-10-27T13:35:00.003-04:00

There's really no rhyme nor reason to this blog post other than to just share a few pictures I've taken of our sweet Caroline over the past few days. She really is so fun to dress up and take pictures of! So, enjoy!

Her "coming home" outfit
(purple hat and blankie from Great-Grandma and Grandpa Burgin!)

Sweet sleeping baby

With Grandma in my pink and brown plaid (Grandpa said I look like a schoolgirl!)

On my way to my 1-week doctor visit

With Daddy at the doctor

By the way, she did great at the doctor on Tuesday and everything looks great! She weighed 9 lbs. 7 oz., so almost back up to her birth weight which is not supposed to be until 2 weeks. There's no questioning whether this one likes to eat!

A post for my sister...

2011-10-24T07:30:00.004-04:00

Sarah made a request for a picture with Caroline's eyes open...it doesn't happen extremely often, but I did get this shot yesterday, so I thought I would share!

Now for a little story about Caroline's eyes...

I was telling Anna Kate yesterday what a pretty girl she is. Then I asked her if Caroline was pretty too. She looked at me with a questioning face and said, "Blue eyes?" As in, does Caroline have blue eyes? Apparently she thinks one can only be pretty if they have blue eyes! We'll have to help her understand that even if Caroline might have brown eyes, she will be beautiful!

Sisters, sisters

2011-10-23T09:53:00.006-04:00

"Never were there such devoted sisters!"

One of the best parts about bringing Caroline home has been to watch our two baby girls interact with one another. Anna Kate truly loves her sister and we really haven't seen a whole lot of jealousy (yet)! When she wakes up in the morning or from her nap, the first thing she asks is "Carry-yine?" She always wants to hold her, which we do allow, but we have to be extremely vigilant that Caroline's eyes don't get poked, or that she doesn't get squeezed too tight, or that any other number of hazardous things don't happen! We are so looking forward to watching these two little girls grow up together and grow to love one another and hopefully become best friends!

"Big Sister, Little Sister" shirts at the hospital

First day home

Watching the Clemson game together

"I could never love anyone as much as I love my sisters!"
~Jo March, Little Women

Caroline Hope Tolbert!

2011-10-19T15:53:00.003-04:00

Caroline Hope Tolbert has arrived! At two days past her due date, she was a long-awaited baby, but let me tell you, she is worth every moment of those 40 weeks and 2 days of pregnancy! I have so many pictures to share, but I thought I would start with her birth story.

All throughout this pregnancy, my ultrasounds have been measuring a little bit big, indicating that this baby may come a little bit early. In fact, when I started going to weekly appointments about 5 weeks ago, I was starting to progress toward labor a little earlier than expected. So with those two pieces of information, combined with the fact that second babies often come earlier than first babies (Anna Kate came on her own at 39 weeks and 1 day), we started to really prepare for a baby 3 weeks ago. Well, obviously that didn't happen! Our doctor suggested inducing if we would like to, since I have a history of big babies, and we actually had two induction dates scheduled (both of which I decided at the last minute not to go through with)! I just didn't feel like she was ready yet. Well, Monday night things started to change.

I taught my late afternoon violin lessons, we ate dinner as a family, and then went to a softball game of one of our youth group girls. All through that time, I started to feel a little bit more pressure than usual, but no real pain yet. But we decided to put Anna Kate to bed over at my parents' house just in case. While getting her ready to go over there, my contractions started to come about 5 minutes apart, but still not painful at all, just very tight. Since I was already pretty far progressed at my doctors' appt. that morning, however, we decided to head on to the hospital. I was admitted around 9 pm and they monitored my contractions for a little while (5 min. apart, but not painful), and then we walked the entire hospital a couple times. Around midnight we decided to get some sleep and see what happened in the morning. I woke up around 4:30 or 5 to some much stronger contractions. We got up, did some more walking, I took a shower around 6:45 and waited for the doctor to come in around 8. By the time he got here it was obvious this baby would be here very soon! He broke my water at 8 and she arrived at 8:46! Praise the Lord for a healthy delivery and a healthy baby!

Although childbirth is obviously very painful (and this one was!), I am so thankful that it went as quickly as it did. I feel like I was able to really take it all in more than I could with Anna Kate since it was all so new. I wasn't quite so worried or nervous or scared this time and could actually experience the birth as the awesome miracle that it is.

So Caroline Hope Tolbert arrived at 8:46am on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. She weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces, and is 22 inches long!! Another big healthy baby! She has been an absolutely wonderful baby her first 36 hours of life, eating well, sleeping well, and snuggling perfectly!

And here are the pictures you have all been waiting for!

Just arrived at the hospital

After all that work, she is here!

First picture as a family of four!

Our precious little miracle

Anna Kate loved meeting Caroline right after she was born, but she was a little more excited about spending time with her today. Maybe it was the matching big sister/little sister outfits!

Joy inexpressible...

We love you, Caroline - you are our joyous song of hope, just like your name means!

Caroline's Due Date!

2011-10-16T13:43:00.002-04:00

Well, we've made it to the due date...40 weeks today! I have officially never been this pregnant before, since Anna Kate made her appearance at 39 weeks and 1 day. You know, they say second babies are supposed to come earlier than first babies...well, apparently not for me. But truthfully, I cannot complain about anything because I really do feel great, I'm not even that uncomfortable, we have beautiful and cool fall weather outside, and I have a sweet baby girl who is content to keep growing inside me for a little while longer. Now, would I welcome signs of labor? Absolutely! But she'll come when she's ready. Here is a little video of Anna Kate getting ready for her new baby sister. She just started saying this out of the blue a couple days ago and has now been saying it constantly!

If you didn't catch it, she said, "Happy Birthday to you!"

So, Caroline...is today going to be your birthday, or are you going to keep us waiting a little longer?

A trip to the zoo!

2011-10-07T22:48:00.004-04:00

We woke up yesterday to an absolutely beautiful cool October morning, so we decided to spend it at the zoo. We hadn't been all summer since it's been so hot, so it was fun to see how much Anna Kate has changed and how much more she enjoyed it this time! She loved making all the animal sounds at each exhibit and she loved how close we were able to get to all of the animals. Here are some pictures from our morning.

Nothing like a Mommy and her little girl

Watching the elephants

Up on Daddy's shoulders

What does the elephant say?

(that's her trunk if you can't tell)

Checking out the lions with Grandma

Feeding the Lory birds with Grandpa

She wasn't too sure about those birds at first, but once she got used to them, she thought they were pretty funny!

Such a tiring day at the zoo!

So I thought that maybe all that walking would encourage baby Caroline to come...still nothing yet, but we will keep you posted!

The girls' room!

2011-10-05T17:26:00.006-04:00

We finally finished all of the updating/decorating that needed to happen in the nursery before Caroline's arrival, and I absolutely love it! Probably my favorite room in the house! It's still the same pink/brown flowers and butterflies theme that we had with Anna Kate, but with some new additions, so here are the pics! The room is actually really big, so I couldn't get a shot of the whole thing...just a little bit at a time!

View as you walk in

(the dollhouse was made for me and my sister by our grandfather and decorated to look just like the house in Oregon that we grew up in)

Sweet baby girl dresses...the one on the right was actually my dress!

Close-up of Anna Kate's bed
(which is not really her bed yet, but will be as soon as we get the courage to move her out of the crib!)

I mean, this should work, right?

And since we took a couple of Anna Kate with her bed, here is Caroline and her bed!
I'm planning on making another canvas picture for her like we have for AK with her footprints, birth stats, etc. But we need to have a baby first!

In between the girls' beds is the rocking chair in front of the window

And Anna Kate wanted to ham it up for the camera...

The fireplace. Yes, we have a fireplace in the nursery! Actually we have four fireplaces in the house, but they are coal-burning fireplaces used to heat the house when it was first built in the early 1900's. So, now they're just for decoration until we figure out how to burn wood in them without burning the house down!

(and those are some of my porcelain doll collection from when I was growing up)

Changing table area

And, last but not least, here are a couple close-ups of the canvas art that you saw above AK's bed and above the changing table. I did all the painting and my mom did the calligraphy. Thanks, Mom!

(And yes, Christy, I got the idea to use this verse from your nursery...hope you don't mind!)

So there it is! Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Family Pictures

2011-10-03T13:17:00.002-04:00

So I realized yesterday that we really haven't taken many pictures of all three of us this pregnancy. We have some good ones of Anna Kate with me and my big tummy, but Luke is usually the photographer, so he hasn't gotten in on any of them. So yesterday after church, we finally had the chance to take some. It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day (as is today!), and Luke's parents and my mom were all in town, so we headed out to the front porch and took some pictures. Here are my favorites:

Loving on baby Line Line

And yes, I know it's trendy right now, but we had to do a heart picture!

And since both Grandma and Mimi were in town, we took one of all the girls!

And now we're just playing the waiting game! We have an appointment tomorrow, so there might be news after that. At my appointment last week the ultrasound estimated an 8 lb. baby, so I have no doubt she is pushing 9 lbs by now. Come soon, Caroline!

37.5 Weeks

2011-09-28T13:38:00.003-04:00

Well, I really don't have much more to report this week, but I hadn't done an updated profile shot in a couple weeks, so I figured I could at least do that! I have another Dr. appt. tomorrow morning, so we will get to check on baby girl then and see how she is doing! Our doctor's office is adjacent to the hospital, so we are going to go prepared to stay just in case, but since I'm not feeling any strong contractions yet, I think we'll be waiting a little while longer (aren't you happy, Mom?!). We have our bags all packed and ready to go though! It's been a little trickier preparing for this one since we have a toddler to think about too. But we have a few friends who have graciously offered to take Anna Kate if baby Caroline comes before my parents get back, so she's got her bag packed too and is ready to go! And don't worry, it's packed with two "Big Sister" shirts! In fact, one of them is the girls' first matching outfit! I almost want to just post a picture of the outfits, but I know that they will be that much cuter ON the girls, so I will wait!

Well, I guess that's about all to update for now. We'll keep you all posted if anything changes after our appointment tomorrow!

Catechism...Anna Kate style!

2011-09-28T12:53:00.003-04:00

Sometime around Anna Kate's first birthday, we thought it was time to start introducing her to what we know and believe about God, so we started with the first question of the Westminster shorter catechism for young children (which you can find here, if you are interested). The first question is quite simple: "Who made you?" The answer is simply, "God". She was able to pretty quickly get that one down, but only in the last week or so have we made much progress on the next two questions...and now she is a pro! Here's a little video of what she has learned so far.

What a huge blessing, and such a great responsibility, it is to teach and train our children in the way that they should go. Even though she is still very young and doesn't fully understand the implications of those three questions, it is our prayer that what she learns by repetition will one day resonate in her heart and she will desire to become a child of God!

Isn't he sweet?

2011-09-27T07:14:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure how he's going to feel about me posting this, but I just have to brag on my wonderful husband and risk embarrassing him this one time =)

So, I really wanted my toenails painted before baby Caroline comes, but any of you mommies out there know how hard that is to do yourself when you are 37 weeks pregnant. So last night Luke said he would do them for me! Now, to be honest, I thought he would just give it one quick coat and call it good, but no...he took this project very seriously. He was very meticulous with two pink coats AND a top clear coat and I have to say it looks pretty darn good! Not that anyone is going to see my toes in my hospital pictures, or that little Caroline is going to care what her mommy's toes look like, but I will feel prettier and sometimes that can go a long way! So thank you, Luke!

Play Date!

2011-09-26T14:25:00.004-04:00

Friday afternoon Anna Kate's friend Nora came over to play while her mommy worked and her daddy had to take an exam. Nora is 4 months younger than Anna Kate, but they are now to the age where they can really play together. And play they did! They had a great time playing with Anna Kate's kitchen set and puzzles, and had hardly any toy squabbles (which may be due to the fact that Nora's really nice...just kidding, so is Anna Kate most of the time)! But the highlight of our afternoon was when Luke pulled out our never used (by us!) double jogging stroller! We actually got this for free (such a blessing!) from a friend of a friend whose kids have outgrown it, and we were excited to try it out. Here are a couple of pics of the girls on their ride:

All strapped in and ready to go!

I'm pretty sure Anna Kate thinks she's driving the stroller here, and is pulling Nora along for the wild ride. Nora, on the other hand, is looking up through the skylight at Luke wondering, "What have you gotten me into?!"

We had a great afternoon and it made us all the more excited to become a family of four...come on baby Caroline! We hope you and your big sister will be best friends, too!

Go Tigers!

2011-09-24T17:05:00.003-04:00

This is how we have spent the last 4 Saturdays...cheering for the Clemson Tigers! Anna Kate loves to wear her cheerleading outfit and hairbow and she says "YAY!" every time they get a touchdown!

Now, to be honest, she doesn't just sit still to watch the whole game...most of the time she is running around the house being crazy, or sitting and doing another activity. Today it was coloring. I think we have quite the artist on our hands, what do you think?

Well, halftime is almost over, so we better get back to watching the game. Hopefully the Tigers will keep their undefeated record this season! Although I do have a certain sister and brother-in-law who would rather they lose today...

37 Weeks!

2011-09-24T07:14:00.003-04:00

We are getting closer! In fact, I had my weekly appointment on Thursday, and we think this baby girl is going to be here much sooner than expected! The ultrasound estimation was 7 lbs right now, so she is gaining about a pound a week. I definitely felt her "drop" this week, and my Dr. said that it could be any day, or as many as 10 days, but probably not past that. So...maybe a September baby? We're still kind of hoping that she'll hold out another week so that my mom can be back from a conference, but sometimes you just can't plan these things, so we are making sure we are ready!

I am still feeling really well, although I think I have definitely started walking like a pregnant lady...still no swelling in my legs and feet (or very minimal compared to last time), but I am afraid I do waddle a bit to get around! Other than that, we are just getting very excited for baby Caroline to make her appearance! In fact, here's a little video interview we did with Anna Kate yesterday talking about the baby. Enjoy!

And now I'm off to do a whole day of super housecleaning and watching football. I went to bed last night making crazy lists of everything I want to do around the house today...nesting? We'll see!

Grandma and Grandpa are here!

2011-09-23T20:38:00.003-04:00

We are so glad to have my parents here in Camden with us for 4 months while they are in transition between their 8 years in Bolivia and their new missions assignment in Costa Rica. A church in our area has offered them their missionary house to live in while they are here which is PERFECT because it is less than 1.5 miles from our house! We have been having so much fun being able to spend this special time with them and are so thankful that they will be here for little Caroline's first few months. The other day Anna Kate and I met Grandma up at the park which is right between our houses for a little playtime!

And just to show what a big girl she's getting to be, here are a couple of pictures of how Anna Kate can now climb to the top of the playground...makes me nervous, but she sure has fun!

36 weeks and we have a name!!!

2011-09-16T17:23:00.004-04:00

I will be at 36 weeks on Sunday and it's hard to believe our sweet girl is going to be here so soon! We are starting to get so excited to meet her! I had a doctor appointment yesterday and everything looks great. No signs of labor yet, so that's good but means we will have to be patient another few weeks! The ultrasound estimated that she weighs about 6 pounds right now, and our doctor said she will probably gain 3/4 of a pound a week from here on out. So...another 10 pound baby? We'll see!

One special note: my mom got to come with me to this appointment to see the ultrasound! With them living overseas, this isn't something that she would normally get to do, so it was fun to have her there! We are also really enjoying having them here in SC for 4 months (more on that in another post!).

As far as this pregnancy goes, I am feeling really well and honestly enjoying these last few weeks. I don't feel nearly as puffy and swollen as I did with Anna Kate, so I am a lot more comfortable. Still the occasional heartburn, but other than that, no real complaints! I am feeling the baby move and kick around ALL the time and Luke even said today that it looked like she was trying to break out! Here are a couple of pictures we took today.

And finally, for some bigger news...we have decided on a name! I don't know why it was so much harder this time than last time, but it definitely took us longer. Maybe it's because we were overthinking the whole sibling thing...wanting the names to sound good together, but not be too matchy matchy, etc. So, without further ado, we have settled on....Caroline Hope Tolbert. Obviously, a carol is a song, and actually means "joyous song," so this little one will be our joyous song of hope! We are so excited to meet our little Caroline (whom Anna Kate has already nicknamed "Line Line")! We'll keep you all updated as we get closer to her arrival!

18 month check-up!

2011-08-24T13:23:00.005-04:00

Sweet Anna Kate had her 18 month doctor's appointment this morning and she did great! I can hardly believe that my little girl is a year and a half old! Since we now live literally 2 blocks from her pediatrician's office, we had some extra time this morning and thought we would take some pictures out in the yard before we left. Maybe it's just the mommy in me, but I just can't stand her cuteness sometimes!

So you want me to just stand here and look cute?

How about a cheese face?

Are we done yet?

Ha ha ha, you can't catch me!

So back to the doctor's appointment...Anna Kate seems to be growing strong and healthy and we are so grateful for what a blessing that is! Here are her stats and percentiles:

Weight: 26 lbs. 4 oz. (75th percentile)
Height: approximately 32 inches...she didn't cooperate extremely well for this one. So technically that's the 55th percentile, but our doctor said she didn't think that was very accurate!

Other than the height check, Anna Kate was actually much more cooperative than I thought she was going to be! She really didn't fuss too much when the Doctor wanted to look in her eyes and ears and mouth and listen to her heartbeat. She even wanted to give the doctor a hug after it was all over!

She only had to get one shot and one finger prick today, so that part went pretty quickly and she calmed right back down. Here she is being a little dramatic about it though, and showing off her wounds:

Can you believe they did this to me?

And this here too...the nerve...

The only not-so-good part of the check-up was that the Dr. confirmed what I had suspected about some dry patches on the back of Anna Kate's legs...our blonde-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned baby girl has eczema that will probably come and go especially when it is very hot or very cold out. So we now have some special soap to use for her, but if any of you all have any home remedies that have worked well for you or any of your kids, please let me know! We would love to try to go that route and avoid ongoing prescription ointments if we can. My first project is going to be making my own laundry detergent, so we'll see how it goes!

A story in pictures

2011-08-22T07:23:00.003-04:00

Anna Kate cracks me up...she has quite the little personality and knows exactly how she wants things to be. The other day I was cooking dinner and she was in her playroom right off the kitchen. I could hear that she was playing with her blocks and then all went quiet. So of course I went to check on her. I asked her what she was doing and this is what she pointed to:

Her shape sorter box that is normally filled with different-shaped blocks. Since it was empty, I asked her where all of her blocks were. She pointed here - to her kitchen set.

I then proceeded to look in all of the different cabinets for her blocks and found nothing. So I asked her to be more specific...where exactly did she put all of her blocks? She then went over to the side of the kitchen set, bent down and pointed underneath...

She had stashed every one of her blocks underneath her kitchen set. Why? I have no idea, but she sure thought that's where they needed to be! What a funny girl!

End of Summer happenings

2011-08-21T13:45:00.005-04:00

What a crazy last couple of weeks it has been! We have been super busy doing a bunch of end of summer events with our youth group at church! Since Luke is a youth pastor, his (and therefore, our) schedule still revolves around a school calendar even though I'm not teaching in a school anymore. Just in the past week we have had a big Lake day, an Ultimate frisbee night, and a high school weekend retreat...not to mention regularly scheduled youth group meetings and Bible studies! Even though it's not always super convenient, Anna Kate and I try to participate in as much of the youth events as possible...I like to be there to spend time with and get to know the students, and Anna Kate loves to hang out with all of the big kids! So here are some pictures of our week:

MHBC Youth Lake Day 2011

Anna Kate loves the water and one of her favorite high school girls offered to take her out so I could relax with the other moms...thanks, Susanmarie!

Here's Anna Kate again out with the big kids

Luke and Matt were our master chefs!

Ultimate Frisbee

(Isn't that sun beautiful?)

Luke reliving his college days...

This is what Anna Kate did during ultimate frisbee...well, this and rearrange the boundary cones a little bit!

Unfortunately, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures on our high school retreat this weekend, but let's just say that it consisted of some great times of discipleship, but also a lot of silliness! Here's Luke filling a balloon with shaving cream...I'm still not sure why the wig was necessary, but he thought it was!

Our winning team for the "High School Olympics"

We have one more big pool party tomorrow night, then a back to school bash on Wednesday night, and then I think things will start to slow down a little bit as the kids start school...and as we get ready for our little girl who will be here in just a few weeks!!!

Burgin siblings beach trip!

2011-08-14T15:20:00.006-04:00

As many of you know, I am the third out of four siblings. Due to marriages and babies being born, the four of us have now multiplied into eleven! So that you can keep us all straight, here's a little rundown of who you are about to see in all these pictures:

My brother Stephen (5.5 years older than me) and his wife Rachael live in FL with their 2 year old girl, Leah.

My sister Sarah (4 years older) and her husband Dustin live in DC with 3 year old Wesley and 20-month-old Cooper.

Then comes us of course.

And finally we have (not-so-baby) brother Andrew (8 years younger) who is just starting his freshman year at the University of Florida. I say "not-so-baby" because he's almost a head taller than any of the rest of us!

Anyway, we have all been talking for quite some time about how fun it would be to all get together at a beach house somewhere between DC and FL. It's not always easy to coordinate all of our schedules, but we finally made it happen last week in Oak Island, North Carolina. None of us had ever heard of Oak Island before, but we found a great house on Craigslist and decided we would just go for it! Turns out it was a PERFECT location! Just a little ways south of Wilmington, Oak Island is one of those beach towns that doesn't have much going on except the wind and the waves. Exactly how we wanted it! So we all spent a fantastic week on the beach enjoying the beautiful weather, watching the kids play in the sand and the water, kayaking in the ocean, riding bikes, playing board games, and just spending time together. So, without further ado, here are some pictures of our week.

We sure missed having Mom and Dad with us, so we made sure to Skype with them a few times while we were there. This picture was taken on skype while we were doing just that. All four Burgin kids together doesn't happen much!

We found an old cabana-style tent in the garage of the place we were staying. Unfortunately, it was in pretty rough shape and missing some pieces...we made it work though!

The guys did some rigging after the first day though, and made it look like this!

Here is what the babies did all day, every day!

Anna Kate liked to pretend that this bucket was her purse...what can I say, she's a little girly!

My pretty girl

Daddy is a great sandcastle builder!

Playing in the ocean with Anna Kate and my niece, Leah.

Leah liked the water, but when it came to the sand, she would rather be under the tent with the mommies! Here she is singing "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes!"

We spent every day from about 9am until noon on the beach and then headed back to the house for lunch and naps. Or in Anna Kate's case, both at the same time! She was so tired out one day that she fell asleep while eating lunch! Here's a picture, but the video says it better!

I think these babies got more baths this week than they ever have! We had to bathe them all at lunchtime after being on the beach all morning, and then again before bed after playing outside again all afternoon/evening! Here are the two sweet girl cousins getting their hair shampooed!

The house we were staying at was very kid-friendly and we found plenty of ride-on equipment for the babies! They LOVED going for walks in the evenings on their various modes of transportation: Anna Kate on the tricycle she thought she was riding herself, but actually has a push handle; Cooper and Leah in the wagon; and Wesley on a little bike with training wheels!

Anna Kate absolutely LOVED this thing and cried so pitifully each time she had to get off. One of her favorite parts was the little bell on the handlebars. I think we know what to get her for Christmas...if we can wait that long!

Another one of the babies' activities of choice was reading stories - stories first thing in the morning, stories in the afternoons, stories before bed, you name it!

Leah, for those of you who don't know, is blind and she had so much fun showing her cousins how to read all of her braille books. Here they all are taking turns touching the pages of "Goodnight Moon" before bed one night.

Because he's a bit older than the rest of the babies, Wesley was the only one who really understood (or cared!) that he will soon be having another baby girl cousin. He loved to feel her kick around and every time he would walk into a room where I was, he would come up to me and say, "Aunt Patty, the baby is getting bigger and bigger! She's about to outgrow her little house in there!" Yes, Wesley, I know...haha!

I do have to put up a couple of funny pictures of my little brother, Andrew. He sure kept us laughing this week with his crazy antics! As a joke one evening, Sarah and Dustin bought him a package of Bacon and Cheese flavored crickets. That's right, real dried crickets. He was not about to back down from a challenge, so of course, he had to try them!

And so you'll believe it, here's the video!

He has no fear. This was also demonstrated when he saw a fisherman catch a baby shark just off the coast (I know, scary!). Andrew decided he would just have to go over there and hold said shark. Alive and flopping. I had nothing to do with this except to send Luke over there to take the picture!

What a crazy kid...who knows what kind of trouble he's going to get himself into now that he's off to college! UF better be prepared!

Finally, on our last night we decided we would go out for a special dinner all together. We went to a cute little town called Southport (about a 20 min drive from where we were) and walked around all the little shops. Anna Kate loved snuggling her daddy in the Ergo!

Here we all are enjoying a wonderful seafood dinner right on the water.

And one of just our little family out on the dock. It's also a good 30 week tummy shot!

What an absolutely wonderful week! We are so thankful for the blessing of family to share life with, even though we live far apart. Check back for pictures next year when we can hopefully make our 2nd annual trip!

29.5 weeks!

2011-08-05T08:35:00.002-04:00

It is hard to believe that Sunday will mark 30 weeks in this pregnancy! I feel like I get more and more excited every day to meet this sweet little girl. I also have moments of nervousness (aka sheer panic) when I think about having not one but TWO babies to take care of! Especially when for some reason Anna Kate has decided to start sleeping like a newborn the past few nights...but I know that I am not the first mother in the world to make the transition from one to two children, and I certainly will not be the last. And while there might be some difficult moments ahead, we feel so blessed to have two precious daughters to love and to care for and to raise to know and love Jesus.

So, back to this pregnancy...I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything looks great! Baby was hiccuping and moving around like crazy on the ultrasound which was pretty fun to watch. She also kicked our doctor's hand a couple of times! The most noteworthy finding was that she is probably going to be a big baby (surprise surprise)...according to the ultrasound estimation, she currently weighs 3.8 lbs. Which is a whole pound heavier than most babies at 29.5 weeks. So by the measurements, it looks like we better be prepared for a baby around the first week of October instead of October 16th! Hard to believe that is just 8 weeks away!!!

And I have one little anecdote to share with you before I close out this post...

I got Anna Kate a "big sister" book at the library yesterday...unfortunately, when we look at the pictures of a mommy, a daddy, a big sister and a baby, and I ask her which one is Anna Kate, she points to the baby...we may have a rough ride ahead of us! Haha...Luke read her the book a few times last night though and I think she might be starting to understand!

Sorry there's no picture today...maybe I'll upload one in the next couple days!

EdVenture Children's Museum!

2011-07-29T21:18:00.002-04:00

We have been going a little stir crazy around here with summer temperatures hovering right around 100 degrees! We have had heat advisories saying don't spend any time outside if at all possible. So, we can't go for walks, we can't go to the park, we can't play in the backyard...we really have to just do indoor activities all day long. So when one of our friends invited us to go to the children's museum in downtown Columbia (about 45 min away) with her and her little girl who is exactly Anna Kate's age, we jumped at the opportunity!

We had never been to this children's museum before, but we had a GREAT time! We spent about two hours there (about all an 18-month old can handle!) and we didn't even cover it all. There were lots of different exhibits ranging from a full-size fire truck, to milking a (fake) cow, to a whole room full of blocks, to a child-sized grocery store, and the list goes on! Anna Kate was a little overwhelmed at first with a little sensory overload, but she got the hang of it pretty quickly and got so excited about all the different things to do. Unfortunately, Daddy has had our camera with him at youth camp all week, so all I could take pictures with was my phone. So, I only got a few and they're not great quality, but at least I documented our day!

One of AK's new favorite things to do is sit in the driver's seat of a car...any car...not sure why she has this fascination, but she does. So when there was a little red VW bug she could climb in, she was super excited! Here she is with her camera cheese face:

And again, hamming it up for the camera while driving the John Deere tractor

One of Anna Kate's favorite exhibits was the child-sized grocery store. Kids can grab a cart and walk through all the sections you would find in a real grocery store. And then they go to check out and the scanners actually beep! Anna Kate thought that was pretty cool. Here she is doing some shopping.

Well, that's all the pictures I got, but I have one more story...on the way to the museum my friend and I noticed that the girls were being really quiet in the backseat. Now mind you, they are both still in rear-facing carseats, so we can't really tell what's going on all the time, but I turned around and they were reaching across the middle seat holding hands...so precious!

What a fun day!

P.S. Kelly, I saw you took your boys to EdVenture a few weeks back...we'll have to go together sometime!

The Big Picture Story Bible

2011-07-27T20:36:00.002-04:00

I don't normally do book/product reviews on this blog, but I just couldn't help but throw this one out there for any parents of young children. Our church gives this Bible to any new children in our children's ministry (as well as all babies born in our county hospital!) and we have absolutely loved it. I think we've already read through it once or twice with Anna Kate, but today we got to the last story in the book and I have to admit that it had me in tears. Just the simple way it explains God's final redemption and restoration in childlike terms is absolutely beautiful. Now granted, I am pregnant right now and therefore might possibly be brought to tears a little more easily than usual, but it really is a great children's Bible. We love the way that it tells the "Big Picture" story of scripture and not just a bunch of disjointed passages. From the very beginning you read that God will one day restore His creation by sending a Messiah who will come first as a baby and then again as our Warrior-King. So moms and dads, go out and get this Bible for your kids...you will be blessed when you read it as well!

I've also heard that the Jesus Storybook Bible is another great one, but we haven't read it yet...any of you out there recommend it? If so, why?

A crazy couple of weeks!

2011-07-24T14:44:00.001-04:00

So much has gone on around here in the two weeks since I last posted that I hardly know where to begin! So I am sorry if this post is a little rambling, but oh well!

Last Monday we closed on our first home! We (well, along with our bank!) now own a 1940's mill house in the historic mill village district of our little town. We absolutely love it and are so grateful for God's blessings in providing a more permanent place for us to live (as this is our fifth home in four years!). As it turned out though, we didn't get to move in right away because we literally headed straight to Charleston from closing on the house! Each year our church takes a family mission trip to another city for a week. This year we had about 35 of us head to Charleston to help a couple of new church plants get their presence known in their communities. We spent our days fixing up a YMCA where the people from the church are doing a lot of mentoring of kids. Another day we went and helped with various projects at the neighborhood schools. On our last night we helped to throw a "Movies in the Park" night complete with cotton candy, popcorn, and inflatables! Anna Kate was pretty much in charge of the smallest bouncy house for kids two and under. This was her first experience in anything like that and she had a BLAST...even staying up past her bedtime! She really was quite a trooper all week long and while I tried to make sure she got her usual naps and went to bed and a decent hour, she did have to be flexible and she did great. She even tried to help with some of our service projects (e.g. sweeping the hallway at the YMCA!). Unfortunately I was a TERRIBLE photographer and didn't even take out my camera until the last day...so all we have are pictures of the Movies in the Park...but I got some cute ones!

Setting up for the big event

Helping Miss Courtney at the popcorn station!

Anna Kate doing what she does best...eating!

Testing out the bouncy house with two of her best church buddies before the event...
they had to make sure it was safe for all the kids in the neighborhood!

Our first family mission picture! All four of us!

We came back from Charleston on Sunday which just so happened to mark the beginning of my third trimester! Sometimes it seems like this pregnancy is taking forever since we are so anxious to meet our sweet girl, but at other times it seems like she will be here before we know it and we better start getting ready! I really am feeling great these days except for fairly frequent heartburn and some stiff joints. This little one moves around a lot and I can tell she is getting bigger because sometimes I'll feel her stretch out all the way across from one side of me to the other! For those of you who are wondering, she still does not have a name. We have a couple that we are strongly considering, but nothing set in stone yet. We keep saying we need to decide already, but with everything going on we just haven't yet! Well, that and Luke knows/knew someone with every name that I suggest and rules them all out! We promise that by the time she is born she will have a name! Here I am at 28 weeks today:

So we got back from Charleston on Sunday and hit the ground running with packing and moving! Here is a picture of our new house. If you look closely (or click on it to make it bigger), you can see a cute little girl on the porch swing!

We are so grateful for all the help from Luke's family as well as our church family to get us moved in. We have a couple of really heavy pieces of furniture (e.g. a 700 lb piano) so we so appreciate everyone who came to help! We could not have done it without you all (especially since I'm not supposed to do much lifting right now!). While everything is moved in, we still have a bit of organizing to do, as well as a lot of babyproofing. We have some extremely steep hardwood stairs going up to the bedrooms, so Luke spent the afternoon installing a nice handrail for the wall opposite the banister and some very secure baby gates at the top and the bottom. I feel much better now that AK can't get to them!

Speaking of Anna Kate, I thought you all might enjoy a little list of what she has been up to these days:

~She LOVES to do her animal sounds. Her new favorite is the gorilla where she balls up her hands into fists and beats her chest while she makes a Tarzan noise!
~Speaking of animal sounds, my wonderful husband taught her to respond with a "ROAR" when asked "What does Mommy say?" Isn't that sweet?
~She is convinced that there is a baby in not only mommy's tummy, but her tummy as well as the tummies of everyone else that she knows/meets. So I truly apologize if she comes up to you and points to your midsection and says "baby!" She really doesn't think you need to lose a few pounds, she's just confused!
~She is getting very good at letting us know exactly what she wants when she wants it. Oftentimes she will point to it, or try to say the word and then say please, but at other times she is not so polite and will throw quite a little hissy fit. We are working on it, but suggestions would be appreciated!
~She has become extremely loving lately offering hugs regularly to everyone she knows as well as to any child she meets!
~Her hair is FINALLY long enough for me to put it in two little pigtails in the back! I still have to pull her bangs back with a bow since they won't fit in the pigtails, but this mommy thinks it's absolutely precious!

Well, I think that's about all there is to update on our little family for now!

Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A!

2011-07-08T20:17:00.003-04:00

One of my friends mentioned to me yesterday that today was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A and that anyone dressed like a cow would get a free meal! I will admit, my first reaction was, "I'm not sure I have enough energy or creativity right now to get cow costumes together," but then it started to sound like fun and we made it a whole family activity! Now before I share the pictures, I guess I have to do a little bit of explanation for all of my Oregon family since there is no Chick-fil-A in the Pacific Northwest...yet...

Chick-fil-A is the most wonderful fast food restaurant you will ever encounter. As its name suggests, its specialty is chicken - chicken sandwiches, chicken nuggets, chicken salads, chicken wraps, chicken biscuits, you name it. Their mascot, however, is a cow who tries to convince the general public to stop eating beef (himself) and start eating more chicken.

Ok, now to today. So I first had to convince Luke that getting a free meal would indeed be worth the public humiliation of dressing like a cow, and worth the 25 minute drive into Columbia to the nearest Chick-fil-A. But he loves Chick-fil-A as much if not more than I do, so this wasn't too difficult. Anna Kate was actually quite excited about helping me make the costumes (which just included black and white clothing and the printable cow ears/nose/spots that you can download from their website). She LOVED her hat with cow ears and actually kept it on the whole evening! She also practiced mooing like a cow the whole way there in the car. Well, actually she got confused at one point and thought she was a sheep and started saying "baaa" but we corrected that! In any case, we got there and we were NOT the only ones dressed like cows (much to Luke's relief) and we got $15 worth of free food! 2 adult value meals and a kids meal! Totally worth it! Alright, now to the pictures:

P.S. I have to admit that dressing up like a cow hit a little too close to home for this pregnant mama...but it was fun!

Independence Day 2011

2011-07-04T20:36:00.004-04:00

Well, today wasn't exactly the 4th of July we had planned, but we still had a great day just our little family! We had planned to get together with some friends in the early afternoon, and then some other friends in the late afternoon/evening for a cookout and fireworks over the lake...but then Anna Kate got sick. She has still had a low-grade fever all day today and both of our friends have baby girls that we didn't want to get sick. So alas, it was just us.

We decided we would still do a cookout though, so Luke grilled some great hamburgers and corn on the cob and I made homemade buns for the burgers and salsa all from produce I bought at the farmers market on Saturday. It was quite a feast! After Anna Kate's nap, we did get out for a little while to go to a Fourth of July Festival at a nearby outdoor mall. There was live music and an artisan/craft fair, and a big fireworks show...which we didn't stay for. Anna Kate had had about enough and was about to fall asleep in her stroller. So here we are at home, listening to our neighbors shoot off fireworks and waiting to watch the Macy's fireworks show on NBC at 9pm. I guess that's what happens when you're parents and you have a sick baby! But we wouldn't trade it for the world. Here are some pictures from our day:

Sweet American Girl

These boots were made for walking!

Listening to the live band at the festival with Mommy

Giving Daddy kisses!

And Luke's favorite part of the festival...the police tank!

We hope you all have had a wonderful Independence Day celebrating the freedom that we enjoy as Americans!

Sunday School at Home!

2011-07-03T12:08:00.004-04:00

Yesterday evening Anna Kate was starting to act a little bit fussy and was in fact asking to go night-night by 5:30. Very odd since this was before we had even eaten dinner and she is normally quite concerned about when she will be getting her next meal (some might say she is like her mother in that respect)! In any case, we thought it was strange, but weren't really concerned until bedtime and she was feeling pretty warm. I took her temperature and it was 101.8! So we quickly sent our company home so that their children would not get sick (sorry Wyatt and Aubrey!) and gave Anna Kate tylenol and put her to bed. She slept great (except for wanting to be snuggled for a few minutes at 5am) and actually slept until 8:30...which is unheard of for her. She was fever free all morning long, but I just took her temp again before she went down for a nap and it was back up to 100.1 =( In any case, she and I definitely stayed home from church.

Although we were not going to be able to go worship with our church family this morning, I thought Anna Kate and I could do a little "Sunday School" on our own! Since Anna Kate needed a bath anyway, I thought that we could do something water-related for our lesson, so I decided on the story of Jesus walking on the water from Matthew 14. Here were the activities we did:

~Made blue finger paint (by cooking flour, water, and salt)
~Painted a picture of "water"
~Cut out a picture of Jesus and another of the disciples in a boat; colored them, and glued them to foam board to be played with on the water painting background
~Read the story from the Bible, and then paraphrased it in baby language
~Sang "My God is So Big" and "Peter, James and John in the Sailboat"
~Filled a pan with water and let Anna Kate walk in it to show her how her feet sink to the bottom, but Jesus' feet didn't!
~Took a bath and retold the story; she also got to bring her boat from her beach toys set into the bath with her!

She really seemed to enjoy all these activities despite a little bit of irritability because of her fever. And it gave us something to do to pass the time we normally spend at church! I should have taken pictures of her throughout the morning, but I didn't think about it, so these pictures of the finished project will have to suffice!

And some close-ups of her coloring job

Our sweet girl

2011-07-02T09:16:00.003-04:00

This picture was taken by one of our college students at church during VBS and then the colors were edited by another one of our church members. I LOVE how it turned out and may have to frame it!

24.5 week baby update!

2011-07-01T14:49:00.004-04:00

We had our 24 week doctor appointment yesterday and all is well with baby girl #2! (Side note: we are close to finalizing a name, but aren't quite ready to publicize it yet.) According to the ultrasound measurements, she weighs approximately 2 lbs. and could come anytime after October 2, but we're keeping the due date at October 16. She lifted up one of her little hands on the ultrasound almost like she was waving at us, and Anna Kate promptly waved back...too cute!

As far as I'm concerned (although I know you're all more interested in the baby!), I passed my blood sugar test and my iron test. No extra iron supplements or special diets for me! I was a little nervous about the blood sugar since the day before the test Luke came home with a half dozen Krispy Kreme donuts (they just opened a store about 20 min. from us). But all was well!

I have been feeling really well lately except for the occasional heartburn in the evenings and sudden leg cramps in the middle of the night. But that sure beats the 1st trimester all-day sickness! I feel like I'm really starting to get bigger now and definitely have to wear maternity pants/shorts. Baby is moving all the time and maybe I'm making it up, but it seems to me that she responds most quickly to Anna Kate's voice. Sometimes Anna Kate will come and put her hand on my stomach and say "baby" and as soon as I try to tell her that the baby is sleeping and not moving right now, she'll give AK a big kick!

Speaking of getting bigger, I'll leave you with a 24.5 week picture taken today.

The cool thing about being a youth pastor's kid...

2011-06-29T15:23:00.003-04:00

is that you get to be a part of the youth group LONG before you're in 6th grade!

Anna Kate has learned that lesson firsthand this past year in her daddy's first year of being a youth pastor. Just this year she has participated in numerous poolside Bible studies, experienced the SC state fair, gone on a ski trip, helped with fundraisers, gone to cookouts, hung out with the big kids for "open youth room", come to youth group (when she doesn't want to stay in nursery), and most recently, helped with the youth yard sale and gone bowling! In fact, those last two events are just a couple of reasons why it's been a week since I last blogged! We have been so busy already this summer with youth events, but it has been fun!

Last week we spent the entire week setting up and preparing for our yard sale on Saturday. All of the items for sale were donated by church members, and the youth (and some wonderful parents!) did all of the sorting, organizing, displaying, pricing, selling, and cleaning up! All in all they made over $1400 to be used primarily for their mission camp next month. Here is a picture of the kids hard at work!

Anna Kate kept herself busy by "testing" all of the toys that came in. She took her job quite seriously, making sure they were safe and fun for the next kid that might get to enjoy them!

Monday night we rented out the local bowling alley with two other youth groups in our area. The kids had a blast, as did Anna Kate! I wasn't quite sure how she would handle the noisy atmosphere of a bowling alley, but she did great...especially when they brought out the cheese pizza! Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few to document the occasion.

All of our youth group girls LOVE Anna Kate and she of course is perfectly happy being one of the big kids!

We are loving this season of our lives right now where we get to participate wholeheartedly in the ministry to which God has called our family. I know it might be a little more difficult in a couple months when our second little girl arrives, but hopefully she will jump right in and be a part of the youth group too!

And as a side note...bowling while 24 weeks pregnant is not the best idea...I think I pulled a couple muscles that I didn't even know I had! But we sure had fun!

Birthday Party!

2011-06-20T08:04:00.005-04:00

This past Saturday Anna Kate was invited to a 1st birthday party for her best church buddy, Nora. It was hot, but nice and sunny and the perfect day for a summer birthday party. Here's a picture of the adorable birthday girl!

Anna Kate is in quite a loving phase lately and wanted to give Nora lots of hugs and kisses. Nora took it extremely well!

Because it was so hot out, they had a little splash pool set up for the babies. As soon as the camera came out, Anna Kate got her cheese face ready! Here she is with Nora the birthday girl and another one of the guests.

And just so you can see how much these little girls have grown up in the last 4 months, here's a picture of Anna Kate and Nora at AK's party back in February! Sweet friends!

Happy Birthday, Nora! We hope we can celebrate many more with you!

P.S. Thank you to Renee (Nora's grandma) for these great pictures since I forgot my camera!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T15:56:00.003-04:00

Anna Kate has worked hard to make this a very special day for her very special daddy! She made him a handprint painting, a card, and a book of pictures. She learned how to say "Happy Daddy's Day" (well, actually she repeats each word one by one and it sounds more like "Hapa...Da Da...Day"). And she is currently going on a three-hour nap...which meant Daddy got a good nap too! Here are a few pictures of Anna Kate and her daddy taken at church this morning.

Daddy and his little girl

Giving "noseys"

Stopping to smell the flowers

I do just have to say that Luke is the best Daddy in the world to Anna Kate and I know he will be to our new baby girl as well. Day in and day out, if he's not at work, he can be found giving baths, changing diapers, reading stories, having tea parties, playing at the park, singing songs, making peanut butter sandwiches, and so much more. I am also so grateful for the way that he reads the Bible and prays with and for Anna Kate. I hope our girls grow up to know how blessed they are to have such a wonderful daddy, but also that they would grow to know their Heavenly Father better because of how their daddy loves them.

Happy Father's Day, Luke!

And Happy Father's Day to a few other extremely important dads in our lives: My Dad (Anna Kate's Grandpa), Luke's Dad (Anna Kate's Papa), and my grandpa. Thank you all for being such wonderful fathers and for the legacy that you are giving to our children. We love you!

A girl and her shoes

2011-06-18T07:08:00.003-04:00

We have a couple of friends from church who keep Anna Kate wonderfully supplied with hand-me-down clothes! This past weekend we were given a big bag full of the next-size-up shoes for Anna Kate. Perfect because she's quickly outgrowing her size fives, and because the bag of shoes has provided hours of entertainment this week! It is so funny to see how in to all things girly Anna Kate is. Shoes, purses, hairbows, you name it. Here she is digging through and trying on all of her new shoes!

Sweet giggles!

2011-06-17T06:46:00.002-04:00

Anna Kate has the best laugh EVER, so I just had to video it and share it here with you. She got the giggles this time when Mommy flung her hair forward to put it in a ponytail. Didn't know I could be so funny!

Kinda reminds me of the flyswatter video from back in September...

One thing I love about Anna Kate is that even if she gets a little fussy, it doesn't take much to get her giggling again!

A week of celebrations!

2011-06-15T14:21:00.004-04:00

June is always going to be a busy month of celebrations in our family! Luke's birthday is June 12, our anniversary is June 15, and Father's Day is always shortly thereafter! We celebrated Luke's birthday this past weekend with his family who came into town for a couple of days. We went out to eat at a Japanese steakhouse because we thought Anna Kate might enjoy the entertainment of watching the food be cooked right at our table. She thought most of it was pretty fun, but she wasn't too sure about the big fire! Here's a picture of all of us after dinner.

When we got home we enjoyed a wonderful key lime cake made by a sweet lady in our church, and then Luke opened his presents. Here's a picture of the birthday boy!

(If you can't tell, there are 2 candles on the left, and 7 candles on the right...)

And, unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it, but Anna Kate made her Daddy a birthday poster and we bought him some balloons to decorate his office EARLY Sunday morning before he got to church!

Today is our 4th anniversary, but since it's a Wednesday and we have lots of church activities tonight, we decided we would do something special this weekend. Here's a picture of us on our wedding day 4 years ago.

These first four years of marriage have been wonderful and full of lots of changes for us! We sat down this morning and talked about all that we have done in the last four years...here's a brief little list:

~ We have lived in 2 different states
~ We have lived in 1 apartment, 1 townhouse, 2 rental houses, and we are about to close on our first home in a month (Lord-willing!)
~ We have, between the two of us, had 6 different jobs
~ We (well, mostly Luke!) have earned a 96-hour masters degree
~ And we now have (almost) 2 children!

How crazy is that?!? We are so grateful for all that God has done in these early formative years of our marriage and are excited to see what the coming years will bring!

Vacation Bible School

2011-06-14T15:12:00.004-04:00

We had a fantastic week of VBS at our church last week for over 250 children in our community! A large percentage of these children do not regularly attend a church, so we were excited to get to serve families that we normally don't come into contact with. When family night rolled around on Friday night, we had over 500 people! To put that in perspective, on a regular Sunday at our church we normally have somewhere around 225 people.

I had the privilege of teaching the 5-year-old class, along with a couple of other great ladies in our church. We had a lot of fun, but I have to admit, the teacher in me did come out a few times when I tried to get them to walk in a straight line or to be quiet when someone was talking! It may have been a year since I've taught school (and 4 years since I've taught elementary school), but old habits die hard!

Luke's job was to be on crisis/drama/discipline patrol the whole week and thankfully there really were no major situations to be dealt with! So he got to go around and help all of the classes as needed and just be an encouragement to all of the workers...well that, and patrol outside the bathrooms to make sure all the boys washed their hands!

While we don't officially do a VBS class for children under 2, we did have a class for babies of workers, so Anna Kate got to go each night with us. Even though she had to stay up past her bedtime 5 nights in a row, she had a blast! Her teachers truly treated her class of 3 little one-year-old girls as a real VBS class! She did a Bible story each night, complete with songs, activities, and crafts. Each day we would talk about what she learned the night before and then I would ask her if she wanted to go to VBS again and she would smile and nod and say "BBS!" Thank you so much Mrs. Summer, Mrs. Chris, and Susanmarie for loving on Anna Kate and teaching her about Jesus!

Here are a couple pictures I took at the end of the week of Anna Kate showing off all of her Bible verses and crafts. Our theme was The Big Apple Adventure so everything was decorated like New York City.

Anna Kate made this New York City skyline hat one night and kept asking to wear it constantly... She kept asking for her "Ha-ta". She enunciates the "t" so much that it's really like another syllable. Here she is first thing in the morning when she asked to wear it.

And again that night getting ready to go back!

Summertime!

2011-06-08T22:38:00.003-04:00

We had our first pool party of the summer on Saturday and had a blast! Some of our good friends have parents with a house out in the country that just so happens to have a great pool! So they invited us and another family to spend the day out there, grill out, and beat the heat (mid-90's every day for the past 2 weeks). Anna Kate hadn't been in a pool since last summer when she was only 6 months old, so I wasn't sure how she would do. She was a little nervous at first, but then got used to it and had so much fun! Honestly, I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but here are a couple:

Getting ready to hit the pool with her best church buddy, Nora

Anna Kate was a little clingy at first...but not really scared

And she always has kisses for Mommy!

Nora decided to take her nap in the pool that afternoon...isn't that the life!

Oh, and I think I should get a Mom Award because my fair-skinned baby girl didn't even get a hint of a sunburn while out for the entire day. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about her daddy...apparently he missed a few spots with the sunscreen, but he won't let me take a picture! Sorry!

Our trip to Bolivia

2011-06-03T10:00:00.011-04:00

Anna Kate and I just got back on Wednesday from an 8 day trip to Bolivia for my little brother's high school graduation. My parents and brother moved to Bolivia eight years ago (the summer after I graduated from high school) and I spent every summer and Christmas there throughout college and then a couple times since then as well. This trip was bittersweet not only because my baby brother is not a baby anymore, but also because my parents are in the process of a big move to Costa Rica. So this may have been our last trip to Bolivia for a while. With that said, we had a fantastic time seeing friends, spending time with family, and celebrating Andrew's accomplishments. This post is going to be chock full of pictures, so enjoy!

I was pretty nervous about our flight down, I'm not going to lie. I wasn't quite sure how it would go being 20 weeks pregnant and taking my 15 month old on a 2-hour flight, then a 7-hour flight, then a 1-hour flight, without my husband. Did I mention it's an overnight flight?!? I went prepared with baby Benadryl, but didn't even have to open the box! Anna Kate was a champ and except for dumping over the airplane dinner that they serve at 1 in the morning, she caused no trouble and slept almost the whole way there! It helped that we met up with my Aunt Patty in Miami to do the long flight with us. Here's a picture of the three of us right before take-off...a little blurry, but it was a phone camera picture!

One of the first things many people notice about Bolivia is the very congested and slightly unnerving traffic! I tried to get a good picture of it looking out the car window so you can see for yourself. Not the best shot, but you can see how close the cars come to each other as they try to turn corners!

Another interesting thing about the traffic is that the police are very selective about what they will give tickets for. For example, you can run red lights or turn 2-lane roads into 4-lane roads all you want, but heaven forbid you park in a no parking zone. You might just get a citation like this glued to your windshield!

For the past few years that they have been in Bolivia, my parents have lived pretty far outside the city, but they recently sold their house and are living in an apartment downtown for a few months before moving to Costa Rica. It was pretty fun to be right downtown because we could just walk to the main plaza for all the festivities that go on every weekend.

Anna Kate really liked the pigeons in the plaza. She thought they were ducks though!

One day when we were down there we got to listen to a mariachi band...Anna Kate was captivated.

The focal point of the city is the huge cathedral right downtown on the plaza. Most Bolivians say they are Roman Catholic, but they mix their religion with the indigenous religions of Bolivia so that it is very different from the Roman Catholicism in the US.

One interesting shrine in the cathedral is that of Jesus in a coffin. There seems to be such a focus on the death of Christ and no emphasis on the hope of the resurrection. It is this hope that my parents have worked so hard to bring to the people of Bolivia over the past eight years.

On a side note, everyone we met had to look twice at Anna Kate because of her white-blonde hair and bright blue eyes! She was kind of a novelty. These girls not only had to take a second look, but they wanted to meet her!

One evening in the plaza, they had all kinds of clowns, mimes, comedians, vendors, and artisans all set up for a big festival for the Bolivian Mother's Day. Anna Kate had never seen anything like it!

Uncle Andy showing her around

Anna Kate really wanted one of these balls

So Grandma bought her one!

Anna Kate thought this mime on stilts was pretty neat until we got too close and he wanted to shake her hand!

The highlight was definitely the bubble-blowing payaso (clown)!

Ok, now for pictures of the real reason we went to Bolivia. To see this guy graduate! Did I mention he was the valedictorian and gave a fantastic speech?!?

AK and I with the graduate. Excuse the look on Anna Kate's face. She was not pleased that it was past suppertime and she had not yet gotten to eat!

All of the family members who were able to make the trip! On either side of Andrew are my parents and then next to my dad is his sister, my Aunt Patty.

On Sunday morning we went to church with my family and I was able to play violin in the praise band that my brother helps to lead. He has become quite an accomplished worship leader over the past few years and it was an honor to get to play with him.

This is what Anna Kate was doing all throughout the service...

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Since I have been to Bolivia so many times, I didn't really feel like I needed to buy any more souvenirs or trinkets, but I was sent with instructions from Luke to make one big purchase: a Bolivian hammock! We have purchased these before, but always as gifts for other people...so now we have one for us!

The hammock store

So many choices!

Here's a picture of how much Anna Kate likes the hammocks. She spent a lot of time swinging in Grandma and Grandpa's while we were there!

We were so busy with different events the whole time we were there, but on our last day, there were two important things I had to do. The first was to visit my good friend Graciela, the director of the Talita Cumi Children's Home that I have volunteered at every time I have been to Bolivia.
The second thing we had to do was to have a chocolate chip muffin and a fruit smoothie at our favorite coffee shop, Alexanders! I have spent a lot of time there over the past 8 years...with my mom, with Bolivian friends, with my Furman friends who came with me one summer, and with Luke. So I had to take Anna Kate. And she LOVED her chocolate chip muffin!

From L to R:
Mom, baby #2, me, and Anna Kate!

I don't have any pictures to document it since she was in my arms the whole time, but Anna Kate also did fantastic on the trip home! On the way home it was an all day flight, but she took two good naps and the rest of the time she just sat in my lap and read stories, or played with her little toy cell phone! I really couldn't believe how well she did. It was still pretty exhausting and I don't think I'll do another international trip without Luke for at least a little while, but we had a fantastic time! Mom, Dad, and Andy, we miss you all so much already, but we are excited to see you here in SC in the fall!

Sugar and spice and everything nice...

2011-06-02T13:23:00.004-04:00

That's what little girls are made of!

And the Tolbert family is about to be blessed with another one!

I can't even begin to say how thrilled we are that we are expecting another sweet little girl! Of course, we would be so excited for a boy, too, but there are so many fun things I am looking forward to about having two little girls:

~Making matching dresses for them!
~Keeping the nursery super girly since the babies will be sharing a room!
~Getting to use those adorable outfits again that Anna Kate only wore a time or two because she grew too fast and had too many!
~Watching these girls grow up not only as sisters, but hopefully also as best friends.
~Not having to buy hardly anything since we are totally set for a little girl (actually, this is what Luke is most excited about...)!

Our appointment this morning went great and baby girl is growing well! In fact, our due date may be a week earlier than the October 16th that we were expecting. Or, I suppose she could just be big. Wouldn't surprise me since I've already had one baby over 10 lbs! Here is a picture from our ultrasound. It's actually a picture of her yawning! Her face is on the right side looking right at the camera =)
And for those of you who are interested, here is a picture of me taken today at 20.5 weeks...over halfway there!

Now to work on girl names...we'll keep you all updated!

A little particular

2011-05-17T09:14:00.004-04:00

Anna Kate has been showing us a lot more of her little personality lately, which has been lots of fun, but a bit more work, too! She has been making it quite clear that she knows exactly how things are supposed to be and if they are not that way, she will let you know! Here are a few of her little quirks lately:

~She has to hold a toy in the car, and it's always either her shovel (which she calls a "shhhhh") or her purse which she just points to and says "uh-huh uh-huh".
~Whenever she goes to sleep for naps or nighttime, she has to have not one, but two pacifiers. She keeps one in her mouth and one in her hand and switches them every 10 seconds or so until she falls asleep. Not sure why...maybe she likes them cold, I don't know.
~Also to go to sleep, she likes to be wrapped up in one of her two favorite blankets (either the pink one from Great Grandma Burgin, or the green/yellow one from Great Grannie that used to be Luke's). But she wants to be wrapped up with both feet sticking out. Why you ask? So that she can stick her feet out of the crib. And heaven forbid you put her to bed with socks on.
~Daddy has to read Goodnight Moon to her before she goes to bed at night or she will not get in the bed. Sometimes if we get home late from church or something we try to skip this step. Oh no. She will say "Moon Moon" adamantly until it happens.
~She has started to want to do everything herself, especially when it comes to eating. We have started letting her use her own fork and spoon to feed herself, so now if we ever try to feed her, she will have nothing of it. She's about 75% accurate on her own now though!
~She has to have cheese every day. Cheddar cheese. At least once. And she knows...if she didn't get it for lunch, she better have her "Ch Ch Ch" for snack.
~All toys and large numbers of household items get placed in the oven in her kitchen set. You can't find the remote? Check the oven. Mommy's hairbrush? Yep, oven.

I'm sure there are more that I'm not thinking of right now, but I hope you enjoyed that little glimpse into our little girl's personality!

Animal Sounds

2011-05-13T13:38:00.000-04:00

Anna Kate has been working really hard on learning her animal sounds and is really doing a great job! With the help of "The Very Busy Spider" and the "Farm Song" (which we read and sing multiple times a day!), she can now do 6 or 7 sounds pretty well. Here is a video so you can see for yourself.

Swan Lake

2011-05-11T09:23:00.004-04:00

Yesterday a group of us who all met at our library's baby storytime went to a beautiful park about 30 minutes away called Swan Lake and Iris Gardens. What a neat place! As the name suggests, there is a beautiful lake complete with lots of swans, geese, ducks and turtles, as well as lovely purple irises everywhere. They also have a couple great playgrounds and picnic areas. The lake has a walking path all the way around which we didn't attempt since none of us brought our strollers (and between all of us there were 2 two-year-olds, 5 one-year-olds, and two babies on the way!), but we would love to take Luke back there to do it! Here are some pictures to show you how much the babies LOVED the wildlife in the lake!

Look what I found, Mom!

Most of the kids...couldn't get them all in one place at one time!

They must have all heard Alice's mom tell her not to climb over the fence (see above!) because they all started to turn to look back at their mommies!

Anna Kate loves flowers...especially smelling them. Although I'm not sure if she's breathing in or out through her nose when she "smells"...

She also likes to "sneak up" on things. Here she is sneaking up on some unsuspecting ducks.

I sure love these special times with my sweet little girl!

Our musical prodigy!

2011-05-10T15:16:00.002-04:00

Ok, well, maybe not quite, but Anna Kate sure does love to listen to, dance to, and create music! A few weeks ago she found my old recorder from when I taught elementary music and I showed her how it worked. It took her a few days to figure out the right way to blow into it (if you just blow the way you might blow out birthday candles, nothing happens), but she has it down pat now! Here's a video...we're going to work on the fingers next!

A special Mother's Day

2011-05-09T14:09:00.005-04:00

What a wonderful Mother's Day we had yesterday! The only thing that would have made it better would have been to actually be with our own mothers and grandmothers! Anna Kate and I of course had such a special time with my grandma out in Oregon just a few weeks ago, and we are headed to Bolivia in 2 weeks and will get to spend time with my mom then. And we just spent Thursday and Friday with Luke's Mom and Grannie. So while we didn't get to see them all yesterday, I guess we are just celebrating Mother's Month!

Back to yesterday, Luke and Anna Kate surprised me with breakfast in bed (a yummy cinnamon roll and orange juice!), a sweet card, a bouquet of flowers, and my big gift...an Ergo baby carrier! Pictures to come...but let's just say that Anna Kate and I (and Daddy too!) LOVE it!

We had a great morning at church, where Anna Kate made me two more gifts, one in Sunday School and one in Children's Church. She was also in the video that the children's ministry did for Mother's Day...she didn't say much, but she sure smiled and looked cute!

After church we came home and Luke made a wonderful meal, and then after naps (for all of us!) we headed to the park to take some Mother's Day pictures.

Anna Kate is quite a loving little girl.

Kissing mommy

Kissing mommy's cheek

Kissing the baby

Words can't describe how much I love this little girl who made me a mama and how grateful I am that God is blessing our family with another precious baby in just five short months!

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T13:50:00.004-04:00

Happy Mother's Day 2011!

Well, we just had a nice Mother's Day dinner with some fillets, homemade bread, corn on the cob, salad and sparkling grape juice...and now Patty is asleep on the couch so I thought it would be a good time to hijack her blog to post for Mother's Day.

Patty is a fantastic mother to Anna Kate is so many ways. It has been evident this past year that while Patty doesn't have a full-time paid job outside our home, she does have a full-time job. Off the top of my head, here are just some of the things she does in a typical week:

Take Anna Kate to library story time
Read probably six dozen stories to Anna Kate
Try to sooth an irritable baby girl whose molars are starting to poke through
Get up in the middle of the night once or twice to sooth the teeth pain away
Clean the house several times
Do 15 loads of laundry (they add up with cloth diapers!)
Fold and put away all 15 loads of a laundry
Practice and play in our church's praise band
Go shopping for all our groceries
Cook dinner almost every night
Teach Sunday school for our middle school students
Help with music for our student ministry on Wednesday nights
Teach Anna Kate songs about the Christian faith
Bring my lunch to me when I forget it! (which happens more often than I would like to admit)
Help with our youth activities
Take Anna Kate to the park on an almost daily basis
Try to teach and discipline Anna Kate in the way that she should act and behave

And all of this, while 17 weeks pregnant! I know there are a ton more that I will think about after I finish this post, but the list is truly overwhelming. Needless to say, Anna Kate and I are very grateful to have such a wonderful woman in our life. Thank you, Patty, and Happy Mother's Day!

Our little princess!

2011-04-29T10:12:00.004-04:00

Well, to be quite honest, I didn't really have any intentions of waking up early to watch all of the royal wedding festivities. Not that I am really a cynic, I just appreciate every moment of sleep these days! However, since Anna Kate decided that 5:45 would be a good hour to wake up, I figured we could have some good princess time and watch the ceremony (which I thought turned out to be very beautiful, actually!). Anna Kate couldn't just watch the royal wedding in her jammies though, so we played a little princess dress-up! Girls are too much fun!

She was really excited to see horses in this picture!

She also thought her wand was pretty cool...

Practicing her princess wave...

Just like Kate!

And just to keep it real...princesses don't have to be prim and proper ALL the time...sometimes it's ok to get yogurt and strawberries all over your face!

15 weeks!

2011-04-26T13:50:00.004-04:00

15 weeks already! First trimester down, 2 to go!

We had a great doctor's appointment yesterday and everything looks great. Baby moved around a lot for us on the ultrasound, we got to see a great heartbeat, and we even got a good idea as to whether we're having a boy or a girl...but we're going wait until we get some definite news at our 20 week ultrasound in a month to share it on the blog! Here is a picture of baby at 15 weeks.

I am feeling a lot better than I was from week 6 to week 14, but I still have an occasional bout of sickness (in the middle of the terminal in the Dallas airport, e.g.). Overall, though, I think things are looking up!

The most exciting thing here lately is that I can feel the baby move! I was pretty sure I could feel something last week, but yesterday it was definite! In fact, it was so pronounced that even Luke could feel it with his hand on my belly. I think maybe it was all the Easter candy I ate...haha!

Anyway, here's a picture of me taken today at 15 weeks and 2 days.

Here's what I looked like at 16 weeks with Anna Kate. I think it's true that you show earlier with your second, what do you think??

P.S. Make sure you scroll down to see my previous two posts done late last night and this morning. I've been doing a lot of blog catch-up!

He is Risen!

2011-04-26T13:10:00.004-04:00

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday celebrating our Savior's resurrection with our church family! Anna Kate and I arrived back in South Carolina on Saturday night, so getting up for our 7:30am sunrise service was a little difficult (being 4:30am Pacific Time!), but we made it and were so glad we did! It was a beautiful service followed by a fantastic breakfast on the grounds at church, and then our regular Bible study and worship hours. Here is a picture of our little family at church on Sunday morning.

And then of course a few shots of just our sweet girl. I didn't get any one picture that I just loved, so here are a bunch!

He is risen, indeed!

Trip to Oregon!

2011-04-25T13:24:00.010-04:00

It's hard to even know where to begin! Anna Kate and I just spent an absolutely wonderful week out in Oregon with all of my extended family. I grew up in Oregon and have quite a large (and ever-growing!) extended family who still lives out there. None of them had met Anna Kate (or Cooper, my sister's youngest), so Sarah and I packed up all three kids and headed west...on separate flights...sorry Sarah. Check her blog for her airplane story...I'm sure it will be told! Anna Kate's first airplane trip was much easier than I expected. She did a lot of sleeping, a lot of reading stories, and a lot of looking out the window. And she LOVED the bump for each touchdown! Once we landed in Oregon it was go go go for an entire week and we had a blast!

There is so much that could be said about our amazing time, but I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

One of the first things Anna Kate's great-grandpa wanted to do when we got there was to read her "Goldie"-my favorite book growing up!

Cooper and Anna Kate (and Wesley!) spent every morning lounging in their jammies and crawling around the little rocking chairs and the hearth at Grandma and Grandpa's

On Sunday we had all of the cousins over for a family reunion/birthday party for my cousin April. We had 9 out of my grandparents' 10 great-grandchildren all together at the same time...amazing! We sure missed Leah though!

From left to right we have Emery (5 months), Lane (3), Gabriel (2), Blake (11 months), Sarah (4 months), Mayson (6), Wesley (3), Anna Kate (1), and Cooper (1).

For some reason Uncle Gary thought it would be ok to tell the kids they could dig into April's birthday cake before it was time! They didn't have to be told twice!

Anna Kate had to get in on the fun too!

Happy birthday, April!

We let the big kids go outside, but told the little ones they had to wait for their mommies. They were so pathetic looking out the window!

Wesley and Lane were two peas in a pod! Here they are climbing the little tree in Grandma and Grandpa's front yard.

And a sweet shot of just Lane

Cousins playing together

Here's a picture of Anna Kate on the tractor my dad received for his 5th birthday from his own grandpa. Three generations of Burgin children have LOVED this tractor!

Cooper and Anna Kate ready to go to the park!

After a wonderful 5 days in Portland, we headed to the Burgin family beach house in Ocean Park, Washington, on the Long Beach Peninsula. Here are all three kids loaded up in the backseat of Grandpa's Lincoln!

We made it...to the most beautiful place on earth!

Here's a picture I shot one morning of a rainbow out over the ocean after a storm

One of the highlights of our time at the beach was digging clams. Even Wesley helped! It was a great clam tide and we all got the limit (15 each) both days!

Here's Grandpa teaching Wesley how to clean and prepare the clams for dinner. For the record, Anna Kate even ate some!

One afternoon Grandma and Grandpa said they would watch all three kids (mind you, they were sleeping!) so Sarah, Aunt Patty and I could go out for a little bit. We had to go over to Oysterville to get some smoked oysters for my brother. Here's a picture of us overlooking the Willapa Bay on the other side of the peninsula.

Aunt Patty brought her dog Lucy-doodle to the beach to meet the kids. They loved her!

Anna Kate really liked her bed, too!

Out for a walk

And our last morning at the beach. Always sad to say goodbye.

Great-Grandma with Anna Kate

Sweet girl and mommy (can you see the baby bump?)

We'll come back, I promise!