A Glimpse into our week

One of Josh's favorite toys at the Robinson's house...Darth Tater...who knew Mr. Potato Head was a fan of Star Wars?!

Kate is into crafts right now.  Here she is intent on creating yet another masterpiece.  She's using an abundance of sequins and glitter, and of course, A LOT of glue.  She just loves squeezing the glue out.  I think she gets so caught up in watching it come out that she forgets to let go :)

The weather up here has been absolutely gorgeous this week.  It's that crispness in the air of the first days of fall and the bright blue skies...wish it would be like that everyday!  Fortunately, so far no one has had any fall allergies so we've been enjoying having our windows open.  It's funny living here in W. Oak because there is a lot of activity throughout the day, much more than when we were in our house in Buford.  Here are Kate and Carter on neighborhood watch.  They were entertained for hours, commentating on what was happening outside their window on the world.  The downside of having the windows open is that Bailey feels the need to 'converse' with our neighbor dogs...lots of extra barking...Bet our neighbors are glad we're here!!

Our friends the Lyons are moving back towards Wake Forest this week...Yay!  Anna Kate came over to play with us on Monday so Stephanie could pack...Here's a shot of the kids...I had to be fast to catch them :)

Here's Hudson giving a smile to his daddy.  He has changed so much even just in this last week.  It's amazing to watch!  He looks so much like Kate...  

I was so excited to hear that they have CBS (Community Bible Study) up here.  We started the beginning of September and are studying the book of Matthew this year.  Kate and I were both sad that she couldn't do it this year because their children's program is so great, but she's in preschool on Thursdays.  Oh well.  Carter has been enjoying it though.  Here is my big boy in his class.  Check out the cool table they have!

I talked with my blog coach (Stephanie) and she told me how to add video!  Here are Kate and Carter 'reading' the other day...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Buddies, Bikes and Baseball

The Jones Family

Well, we are quickly learning how special it is when loved ones from home can come visit!  We had a treat last week when we got to see Stan and Shannon Jones (good friends of ours from Hebron.)  They are from Virginia, and we were so excited this week to be able to visit with them!  They were traveling up to Virginia and made a detour to Wake Forest and spent the night with the Robinsons.  It was so nice to sit down and catch up, plus it's always good to see a familiar face :)  Here I am with Shannon and Catherine.

Catherine, shirtless Caleb holding Hudson, and George

One of Carter's favorite things to do at the Robinson's house...Peek!  And he is getting really good on the stairs, much to our relief!  Living in a ranch home for most of his life has meant we have had to work with him on how to do stairs.  It has helped that we have six steps leading up to our apt. here in W. Oak.  

Stan and Shannon Jones

Stan actually made the trip up with Josh last year when he came to visit Southeastern the first time.  We are still hopeful that someday soon the Jones family will wind up here too :)

Boys

When I was growing up, Mom would always let us ride the little rides outside of Richway.  The other day Catherine and I took the boys to Wal-Mart and Carter had a pretend ride on the horse (it was out of order).  Doesn't appear to be bothering him though, he's having a great time on the 'hee-haw'!

It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone by...Hudson is so alert now and interacting much more...He's fascinated with the mirror that hangs from his little playmat.  He will just stare at his own reflection and kick his legs around and coo.  Precious time.

Big boy!  First time in the exersaucer...Hudson thought this was really cool too!  He's not quite steady, but was able to play in it for a few minutes.  And Josh and I were so happy to be taking something out of the storage unit, instead of trying to cram more stuff in!

New Friends

We've had the opportunity to meet many new people so far since we've been here, and everyone has been very friendly.  I guess when you are all in a new place, away from your family and friends, you have no choice!  It's been funny to find out how many connections we've had with different people...some have been so random!

George and Catherine had been telling us about Jordan and Michael Lewis before we moved so we were excited to meet them once we got here.  Turns out they lived in Suwanee for 5 years before Michael started at SEBTS and used to go to Shadowbrook.  And Jordan went to college with, and is good friends with one of my good friends, Chasidy Kenerly.  And we're both in CBS together this year in the new mom's class.  And Josh and Michael have a class together this semester.  Needless to say, we were glad to finally meet them!  They came over for dinner on Friday (they brought pizza, knew we liked them!!).  They have a little girl, Lily, who is about 6 weeks old.  Kate was very excited to hear that Lily was born on her birthday this year.  And of course, she wanted to hold her, and of course, I had to take their picture :)  Here they are, two little sweet girls!

Have helmets, will travel

So I guess it's becoming a weekly thing to take the kids up to campus to ride bikes on Saturday mornings.  This was a particularly exciting day because it was Carter's first chance to ride with his beloved helmet.  He cracks us up.

Bailey came with us this time too, which was a treat for her!  Here's the whole crew taking off.

Here's Kate coming straight at me, full-speed!  Lucky for me, she loves to slam on her brakes at the very last minute so her tires will make noise.  It's funny to see our kids do the same things we did as kids :)  Isn't that a joy of parenting!

Taking a break from pedaling, Kate decided to run Bailey around.  They both took big naps that afternoon!

Kate and Carter were checking out the fountain on campus.  She had asked me for pennies to throw in, and then decided to fish them out to throw them in again, and again, and again.  And then Carter wanted in on the action, as all little brothers do :)

Take me out to the Ballgame

We took Caleb Robinson to his little league baseball game yesterday, and enjoyed spending the morning watching the Rivercats play.  Being up there at the ball fields was making me think about our nephews Cullen and Campbell, and that old familiar homesickness was in full effect!  They are great baseball players and we used to go see them play sometimes.  Here is Carter checking it all out when we first got there.  We hadn't been to a game since the boys played last spring, and I'm not sure if Carter remembered that or not.  Anyway, he was very interested in what was going on out in the field.

Team Reed

Every little kids favorite past-time...playing on the bleachers!

Taking a break with Daddy to watch the game

Kate found herself a friend to play with at the ballpark.  This is Jaden (she's 5) and her mom Alexia (Jaden's brother plays on Caleb's team.)  Kate was very interested in watching Jaden get her hair braided during the game, and then they had fun playing on the bleachers, too.  We've loved watching Kate reach out and meet new people!

Carter had enough fun for one day.

The many faces of Hudson

Hudson can be very dramatic when he cries.  Feels like we're always trying to get him to smile for pictures, so we thought for a change we'd try to capture some of his other faces.

Party time

Slip Slidin' Away

Yesterday we went to Caleb Robinson's birthday party over at George and Catherine's house.  He's turning 7 on Tuesday, and had a 26 foot slip and slide complete with 'bonzai board' for his party.  Here is the birthday boy, all ready to go!

Here are most of the kids.  It was impressive how well everyone waited for their turn...I think Josh and I counted 17 kids there between 4 families...definitely organized chaos, if there is such a thing :)

Here's Kate taking her turn...Josh got a little workout in too!  At least George was getting to take a break from pulling the kids!

Carter had to size up the situation for a little while...

Then he decided to take a turn with the 'big' kids...

Getting a word of encouragement from big sister...so sweet!

There goes little man!  Surprised he didn't fall off...he was barely holding on and way back on the edge of the board!

Kate wanted to do something different for a minute so she and Josh went to jump on the trampoline...Jumping is one of her favorite things to do...She's always bouncing around so this was extra fun for her!

Taking a break to enjoy a cupcake

Post-cupcake...she sure enjoyed the green icing!

Carter was worn out...no nap.  Here he is chilling out with Catherine.

Daddy's girl

Mama's boy (my other boy slept through the WHOLE party...we had to wake him up when it was time to go home!)

Carter did muster up enough energy to take a few swings at the pinata.  What boy would pass up the opportunity to whack something with a stick as hard as he could?  And get candy too!!

Parenting

It seems that everytime I find myself thinking that I might have finally gotten the hang of this whole parenting thing, the Lord will send something my way to let me know there is still much to be learned.  Like the fact that when you take the kids to a flag football game in 80 degree weather, it's a good idea to use sunscreen.  I didn't, and felt like such a bad mommy when my 2 month old came home with lobster face.  Won't make that mistake again!!

Naptime has been one of my biggest challenges since we've moved into our apt. in W. Oak.  With only two bedrooms and 3 children that need to be napping, we've had to get creative.  Kate and Carter have done great sharing their room, and at bedtime, they usually go right to sleep without many problems.  I think it helps that it's dark outside, because naptime is the complete opposite.  Carter cannot seem to get it that it's not time to play, and poor Kate will try so hard to sleep but he's in his crib calling out to her and screaming her name.  Not much sleeping going on, as I'm sure you can imagine!  So we've been letting her nap in our bed.  In order for that to work, Hudson has to be out in the living room with me during naptime, which presents its own challenge when it's time for him to nap since his pack and play is next to our bed.  It's been so interesting to see the ways that each child is different and likes different things, even as babies.  We had gotten all the baby gear when Kate was a baby, and she was definitely a 'bouncy seat' baby.  We used to joke and call it the 'magic' seat because it always did the trick and she loved being in it.  Carter liked the bouncy seat ok and so we sold our swing because it was just taking up space by that point and had been rarely used.  So now we're on baby #3 and guess what...Hudson does not care for the bouncy seat at all!  Go figure.  He just wants to be held all the time!  So just the other day we thought, hmm...wonder if he'd like a swing?  Bingo!  Napping problem solved...

Mimi!!!

Mimi's Here!

Mom flew in last Sunday after visiting Uncle Joe for his 95th birthday.  We were so excited that she was here to see us, and were really hoping the 4 days she was here would pass slowly!  We were looking forward to enjoying a much more relaxed visit than the last time she was here, helping us move in. :)  Bailey was beside herself when Mom came in our apartment...running around like crazy and wagging her tail.  As soon as Mom sat down, Bailey was trying to get in her lap...doesn't work too well with an 85 lb. dog!

Baptism at Falls Lake

Sunday night North Wake Church was having their baptism service at Falls Lake.  It was so different than anything we've been to before.  I can't remember exactly but I think they had about 8 people getting baptized that night.  The church had reserved one of the pavilions for the service.  We sang a few worship songs and then each of the people that were getting baptized got up and shared their testimony about how they came to know Christ.  Here are me, Mom and Carter hanging in the shade, trying to stay (somewhat) cool :)

After everyone had a chance to share, they all went down into the water to be baptized.  It was a beautiful picture of the new life we have as believers in Christ.  Going under the water symbolizes the dying to self and cleansing we receive through Jesus' death on the cross and his burial, and coming up out of the water symbolizes the hope we have because of Jesus' resurrection.  There was a crowd of people from the church there to witness and support these new believers.  Here's Josh, Kate and Hudson.

My Cousin Amy

Everyone had brought a dish to share after the baptism service but we had made plans to meet my cousin Amy for dinner.  She lives in Durham which is about 30 minutes from Wake Forest.  It's so cool to me that Josh and I each have a cousin up here.  We met at Longhorn (salmon...YUM!) and enjoyed visiting with her!

Here's the whole crew after a great meal :)

Good times with Mimi

We enjoyed a great visit with Mom!  Kate was super excited to spend Sunday night with Mimi at the hotel.  Ever since she was here last time, Kate's been wanting to 'sleep at the Sleep Inn'.  One of Mom's friends from high school, Irene, lives in N. Raleigh and we met her for lunch on Monday.  How fun that two girls from NJ would meet back up in Wake Forest NC!  It was my first time meeting Irene and it was fun to hear some stories about Mom from back in the day. 

 We enjoyed showing Mimi all around Wake Forest.  On Tuesday, she got to meet Kate's teachers and tour her school.  And we drove around to see all the houses we've looked at either renting or buying over this past year.  And of course, there were a few trips to Target :)  

Whenever Mimi is around, the kids love to read with her.  Here are Mom and Carter reading one of his favorites, Monkey Tumbles.  Mom's friend Mrs. McDaniel gave the kids this book when Hudson was born and it's been a hit! It reminds me of Plinko because it has two little monkey 'chips' and each page has a different slot to slide them down.  Carter tries to make his best monkey noises and loves to read it over and over!

Happy (Belated) Birthday!!

We were so disappointed that we couldn't come home for Mom's birthday which was Aug. 22.  We were able to chat with Mom, Jim and Daria on a webcam using software called Oovoo as they celebrated her actual birthday.  We recreated it during her visit up here and had our own belated celebration, complete with homemade chocolate cake!!  And Kate was so sweet to let Mimi borrow her special birthday crown!

We 'oovooed' with Jim and Daria so they wouldn't miss out on the party!  Here's everyone crowded around the kitchen table so everybody could see on the computer.  Love technology!!

Mimi and the kids...look closely at Carter's face...he went straight to the tub after we finished with the cake!

Heh-Metttt!

Ever since Kate got her bike for her birthday, Carter has had helmet envy.  We made his day this week when we got him his very own!  No way it was going in the cart though, he wanted it on right away!  He calls it a 'heh-mettt'.  And we actually have gotten Carter's first 3 word sentence out of this purchase..."Look, Mommy, heh-metttt!!!"

Here's Mimi with Carter.  Guess we know where Kate's dimples came from :)

And here is a close-up of Carter with his new big-boy haircut.  I was only going to give him a little trim since his hair was looking more like a mullet again.  But, my first cut was too short and then I was committed.  So he wound up getting a big-boy haircut.  Not too bad for my first time, if I do say so myself!

Wednesday night Fellowship

We've been visiting the Lyon-Carson small group the past few weeks.  This week was the fellowship and we all brought a breakfast food to share.  'Breakfast for Supper' is one of our family faves so we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We did burn the bacon we brought which made for an interesting smell in the house for a day or so, but it was worth it!

Here's a precious shot of Kate, Carter and Laney Carson.  Look at my boy playing hard to get!

But, he couldn't resist!

Team Reed kiddos

Kate and Carter are big buddies these days...I just love to sit and watch them interact.  My cup runneth over...

Kate is always trying to lift Carter.  She is a very strong little girl, but he is also a solid little boy and way too heavy for her.  She keeps trying though!  Here she's got him up off the floor and leaning back on the ottoman.  Love those sweet faces!

And here's another sweet face!  We are loving the gummy grins Hudson's been sharing with us :)

Our girl