Weekend in Greenville (Part I)

Last week I found out that some of my friends from high school were going to be getting together in Seneca, SC, so I recruited Lorren and Savannah to join us for a spur-of-the moment road trip! (One of the perks of being a stay-home mom!) We had a great time traveling and the girls did a great job in the car.  We were able to stop at the Pottery Barn Outlet on the way in and I found a great deal on the bedding for our baby boy's room (not that he actually HAS one of those...)! I'll post pictures whenever I get around to taking them. Lorren's parents were so sweet to let us stay with them and to top it all off we got to spend the afternoon with my brother!! We ate lunch together in downtown Greenville and then walked through this gorgeous little park and had some fun with the camera:

Kate loved looking at all the flowers - another girly moment! 


I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture (and the one below)!!!

Hangin' out with Uncle Ryan (or Ry-Ry as she learned to say).

More flowers! She is saying "OOooo!" Such a cute little thing she's started. 

Impromptu Modeling Session

Funny pictures of Kate taken after her bath one night last week:

Happy 27th Birthday, Kev!!

Although Kevin isn't too happy about his age getting closer and closer to 30, we had an awesome time celebrating his big day with his family in Spartanburg and Atlanta at the beginning of the month. We met up at my grandparents' farm in Inman, SC and had a fun night on Friday having cake and opening presents:

Jenn, Kevin, Kate, Michelle, Gracie, and Dustin

Kev after opening his BIG gift Friday night - a trip to dive with the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium on Saturday!!

Scuba diving at the aquarium - saying hi to Kate!! The moment she figured out that it was actually her Daddy was just precious!

An extra-special birthday snuggle from Kate on Kevin's actual birthday! She actually fell asleep in his arms that night - we treasure all of these moments as they are becoming few and far between!

Happy Birthday, Baby!!!

Labor Day Weekend

Kevin, Kate, and I had a great Labor Day Weekend...

We took Kate for her first wagon ride to the park on Saturday morning. She LOVED her wagon and was absolutely adorable in it! She actually sat still the whole time, too!

This is our best attempt and capturing Kate and Mommy in their Clemson gear for Uncle Ryan! Go Tigers!

We had fun playing at home Saturday afternoon and this is Kate being "girly-girl!" She loved her princess wand from Aunt Chelle (while it lasted) and discovered wearing bracelets is a lot of fun!! :)

Later that afternoon Kevin turned Kate's carseat around to face the front of the car - what a big girl!! 
On Monday Kevin, Kate and I went to the Life and Science Museum in Durham with the Varners. It is starting to be so much fun taking Kate to these places because she is able to enjoy the animals and most of the activities. I just can't believe how fast she's growing up!

Kev and Kate playing with the sailboats at the museum.

Random Summer 2008

This is what I get for waiting so long to catch up on my blogging! These are just a random sampling of some of the fun we've had with Kate this summer...

Kate and I got to go to Lexington to visit some friends while Kevin took his summer school exams in July. Here we are with Laurin and Saywer and meeting Claire and Laurie for the first time!! (Everyone was sleepy and a little picture-uncooperative by this point in the evening...)

Having fun playing with Sawyer! Once again, it's so hard to get 2 or more kids to look at the camera at the same time! :) This was the visit with Sawyer where he taught Kate how to growl like a "real lion" and we haven't stopped since!

This picture was taken one day when we had the Bumbo out for Eden. Kate has decided it's good for all kinds of climbing fun!

I think this picture is crooked and I can't figure out how to rotate it, but it's one of my favorites! One day I was packing all of Kate's old clothes away and she was having fun playing in the tupperware boxes...I turned around and she was laying down in it! Silly girl!

This was actually not that long ago at the drive-in movie theater with Tim, Rachel, and Ella. We had so much fun being outside and enjoying 2 movies! Kate and Ella played on the picnic blankets through the first one and both fell asleep to give their parents a nice, relaxing 2nd movie!

More 1st Birthday...

Here are a few more pictures from Kate's birthday. Most of them are of her opening presents w/family on Saturday. We were so excited that Courtney Navey took pictures at her party, but we won't be able to post them for a couple more weeks until he has them ready for us, so until then, here you go: 

Kate's "Birthday Princess" hat from her Aunt Chelle! She didn't love wearing the hat, but it came w/a wand that she has been carrying around the house constantly since then! I finally had to take it away b/c there were only 2 streamers left on it and she finally bent it in half...but she definitely had a good time doing it! 

Kate climbing on the tower of presents from Aunt Chelle! We opened her presents Saturday afternoon before the party since she had to leave right after. I think she single handedly supplied us with Kate's whole fall wardrobe - thanks, Aunt Chelle!! : )

This is Kate's favorite! She carried it around the whole rest of the time she opened presents! Can't wait 'til it gets cool enough to wear it!

These are the rest of the family presents which we opened on Saturday night after her party. Kate didn't want to wear her birthday hat, so her Daddy decided to wear it for her. She thought this was pretty cool. This is her looking at him after he first put it on. She definitely did a double-take!

Kate's Nana helping her open gifts! 

Kate LOVES this little xylophone/piano toy from her Mema and Gaga - we had a hard time getting her to move on to the next present!

Digging in!! We have so many more pictures of her opening presents, but I thought this one was the best! I think by this point she realized there was good stuff coming out of these bags and boxes we kept giving her!! It was sooo much fun watching her enjoy the day, even without her afternoon nap (which her Mommy was worried about...)! Thanks to everybody who came to celebrate and sent or brought gifts for her! We are having fun slowly wearing all her new clothes and spending hours playing with our new toys!! And mostly we just appreciate everyone helping us make an incredible 1st Birthday weekend!!!

Kate's 1st Birthday! 8.22.08

We absolutely cannot believe that our daughter is ONE. There is no way that it has been a year since we were in the hospital looking into those beautiful brown eyes for the first time and realizing a kind of love that is unlike any other. Absolutely no way. Yet, the calendar tells us our little baby girl is not a baby any more and we dive into celebrating so we don't think about how fast time flies...

This is on Kate's actual birthday. Melissa made this adorable birthday hat and I just HAD to use it! :) Kevin came home from work for lunch and Lorren, Cole, and Savannah joined us to help celebrate. Here she is opening one of many bath goodies from her little buddy Savannah. We have had a great time in the bath lately - thanks Savannah!! 

Here she is playing with her new car from Mommy and Daddy. Yes, our daughter's favorite things lately are animals and cars. We'll get girly one day.  :)

With her Daddy on her birthday!

The girls. This was as close as we could get to getting both girls looking at the camera at the same time! 

We definitely had a fun day and it was such a treat to celebrate with Daddy and the Varners during the middle of the day! Kate got to try a little bit of ice cream - which she loved! And thanks to Cole, Kate's name letters finally got hung on the wall! And later that night all of Kate's grandparents and aunts and uncles and a few friends came in town for a great birthday weekend! 

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, KATE!!!!

IT'S A BOY!!

Well,  not that it's much of a surprise at this point, but I did want to finally post the pictures of our precious little baby boy! We are SO thrilled to be welcoming the next addition to our family and it's just so special to get to have both an amazing little girl and soon a little BOY! (Who is already just as special!) It's definitely so different the second time around, but just as fun, and just when I'm thinking nothing can surprise me, it always does - I'm sure this is an indication of things to come! :) We are so anxious and excited to see Kate as a big sister and know this will be an adventure in an of itself. (It already is, actually, because my expanding waistline is changing things already, but Kate doesn't seem to notice!) Anyway, here are a few pictures of our new little one:

This is baby boy at 10 weeks. We obviously didn't know he was a boy at this point, but we were still excited to see our little "gummy bear" moving around in there and hear that beautiful sound - his heartbeat!

18 weeks. Such a sweet little profile. He was moving those little hands around like crazy - it looked like he was trying to get them in his mouth. Or maybe Kate was inspiring him to try to get them up his nose! :)

It's a boy! He wanted us to be absolutely SURE. :)

Another sweet little profile. We were sad not to get any good 4D pictures, but the way he was laying in there and the amount he was moving just wasn't working for the camera! Maybe next time! It's hard to believe we'll actually be MEETING him in 17 weeks!

Visiting Family 8.09.08

Alright, here is the end of our vacation to TN...after an incredible week in with just the 3 of us, we headed down to Birmingham to visit my dad's side of the family and to go to my cousin Whitney's graduation from Alabama. Kate was such a trooper being dragged all around the southeast all week and although she had a great time, she ended up with a bad cold by the time we got to Birmingham. You can tell in these pictures she's not her usual perky little self, but she still did great sitting through graduation and seeing tons and tons of family in one very short weekend!

Kate and I with my cousins Anna (L) and Whitney - the graduate! Congratulations, Whit!! 

Kate with my cousin John Robert who was the only one who held out for us having a boy next! Thanks, John Robert! :) 

Sweet little tired girl.

We were SO excited, also, to get to see my dad's side of the family for the first time in forever! Kevin was sweet enough to even suggest extending our visit an extra night after we had such a great time catching up with everyone on Friday! 

Kate with her great-grandmother (Mammie) for only the second time! 

She was definitely eating up all the attention from her "Great" Aunt Beth and Uncle Steve who she met for the first time this weekend! They were so sweet with her and you can tell they are ready to welcome their first grandson in January!

Also meeting my cousins Mary Beth and Matt for the first time! They are expecting their baby boy a week before our little boy is due! We are so excited that we get to share this fun time with them!