March Madness

We have so enjoyed being back in a house and having a yard again!  We had our friend Rachael Davis and her daughter Lana over one afternoon.  The kids had a blast playing outside!  After they wore themselves out, Josh entertained with an impromptu concert :)

Kate is such a helper around the house!  Here she is taking a turn feeding Hudson.  He certainly loves his food so it makes it pretty easy.

We're hoping that this cold weather we've had much of March is coming to an end soon!  But while we're waiting, we're enjoying wearing our cold weather clothes a little while longer.  And Kate has become a big fan of hot chocolate, which just tastes better when it's cold outside!

We were so excited to have Mimi up for a couple days!  Kate loves to share her room with Mimi, and we had a really fun visit!

We had several days in a row where it was just cold and rainy, basically miserable weather.  The kids were getting a little stir-crazy and decided to take a quick spin around the yard...

We were so blessed to meet Brian and Kristi Parker last weekend.  They are great friends with Jon and Inga Reed, and Jon had put Brian in contact with Josh to lead worship for one of the revival services at the church that Brian pastors out in Sanford, NC.  The Parkers had us back to their house for lunch after church and we so enjoyed getting to know them, and got a glimpse of what life looks like with six children (ages 4-9!!!)

Playing Memory with the kids...Josh and I were amazed at how well they did, especially Carter!

Kate and Carter in their St. Patrick's Day green :)

Stephanie organized a surprise birthday lunch for Andi Knight this week.  It was so fun to get together with all our lady friends and enjoy a yummy lunch at the Village Deli!

Here's Josh with his intramural basketball team 'Meat and Potatoes' the night they won the championship.  They went 17-0!  The kids and I had a great time cheering them on!

Lazy Saturday morning...

And our big news...we have a final decision on where Kate will go to Kindergarten next year!  It's been a little confusing for us to sort through all the choices we have for her schooling up here in NC, with choices running the gamut from traditional calendar, to year-round calendar, to charter schools, to private, to a half-day program through a local church.  After much prayer and several phone calls and visits, we applied for a spot in the traditional calendar school option.  We got our letter today that Kate was accepted to attend Wake Forest Elementary School!!  Can't believe we're about to have a kindergartener!

Spring Break 2009

This week was Spring Break for the seminary.  It was definitely an eventful week for us!  We decided to stick around Wake Forest instead of traveling so Josh could prepare for his midterms that are coming up next week.  Usually we associate Spring Break with a beach trip, so waking up to 4 in. of snow early in the week was a big surprise!  

Carter getting geared up to go play in the snow...

Turned out to be a 'dude day' (as Josh calls it).  Josh took Carter over to campus to sled down the big hill by Patterson Hall.  They were riding down together and apparently Bailey thought it looked like fun and jumped on to ride too!  Wish someone would've had a camera!!

Poor Kate was housebound with a stomach virus and couldn't go out in the snow.  We had a movie marathon and she barely moved off the couch all day.  She was a trooper though, and we were so proud of her great attitude!

Thankfully Kate was all better by Thursday because it was her class field trip to Marbles Children's Museum and we certainly didn't want to miss out on that!  It was extra special because Josh got to come too on account of being out for Spring Break.

The kids had a blast playing there!

Cowgirl Kate at the dress-up station

Fishing over the side of the boat

Dr. Carter Reed

Thought this would make Uncle Kenny proud :)

Carter said he was like Bob the mailman (that's our mailman here in Wake Forest)

This was a huge pirate ship with three levels.  Kate's up on the very top checking out the view!

Checking out the workbench

All in all, Marbles was a hit!  We will definitely go back there again soon!!

We were so thrilled to finally meet little Sayde Craft this week!  She made her debut and is absolutely precious!  Page and Joey are doing great and we are so thankful that everything went well with the delivery and she is healthy and strong.  God definitely answers prayers!!

We thought Kate was the only one that was sick but turns out Carter got a touch of the stomach bug too.  Here he is having his turn with the bowl.  Thankfully his was only a mild case!  He didn't have to use his bowl, and was much more interested in wearing it on his head!

Kate was invited to go to Tori Beth's birthday party on Friday.  She had the best time being with the 'big girls' and they were all so sweet to include her!  It was a pajama party so everyone dressed in their jammies.  George made everyone pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream and sausage.  They got to make a craft, have a fashion show, whack a pinata, play Hide and Seek and of course, enjoy cake, ice cream and open presents!  All in all, a very fun party :)

We started Spring Break with snow, and ended with the most gorgeous weather...bright sunny 80 degree days with blue skies and just the right amount of breeze.  Yard work was the main event on Saturday...so thankful to have a yard again!

Hudson was so entertained to play with the grass, and dirt, and leaves, and rocks, and sticks, and pinestraw...such a boy!

Entermissions

February always seems to be a busy month for us.  I'm not sure why exactly, maybe because it's a few days shorter than other months?  Or maybe the little teases of spring that we usually get makes us more inclined to fill our schedules?  Regardless, here's a glimpse of what we've been up to these past couple weeks.

We've had the opportunity to meet so many great people up here.  One of our new favorite families is the Davis family.  We met Rachael and Dan the first weekend we were up here because they were Carter's teachers at N. Wake.  Now we are in the same small group and we have so enjoyed getting to know them!  We were over at their house for dinner one night and I thought this little picnic table for the kids was adorable!  Kate, Carter and Lana enjoying some food and fellowship :)  

Later on, Josh and Dan had some fun with the Wii.  Lana was cheering them on...

Catherine gave the kids a special Mr. Potato Head for Christmas this year.  It's called 'Santa Spud' and they've loved playing with it.  Lately, Carter is more interested in wearing the beard himself and just carrying around Santa Spud...

Our church does a missions conference every year called Entermissions.  N. Wake sponsors several international missionary families (I think they said 14).  Some of them were able to be here for the conference and it was so neat to get the chance to meet them and to hear their experiences from the field.  The conference was an entire weekend with several different events.  Saturday evening was the international bazaar and auction.  The sanctuary was set up with tables and tents with foods from all over the world!  

Here's Carter during the auction with his buddy "Mr. Justin White" as the kids call him :)  Carter's highlight of the evening was the blue cookie...he's easy to please!

Daddy's girl :)

Here is Kate bidding on benches for schools in Kenya so children don't have to sit on the ground while they learn and risk getting worms.  There were several initiatives like that and it was awesome to see the outpouring of generosity from the body of Christ even in the midst of these uncertain economical times!  I love Kate's enthusiasm in this picture...it reminds me of a term Ron Riley used to use in his teaching sometimes...'earnest stretched-outedly'.  Not really sure if that's even a proper word, but it perfectly describes Kate at the auction.  She was so excited to be giving, as were we!!  I'm not sure of the final tallies, but I know over $12,000 was raised for the Lottie Moon offering and N. Wake's church plants Saturday night alone.  Praise God!

Hudson's new favorite past-time is getting into stuff.  He's not exactly crawling yet, but he's on the move.  He manuevers all over the place and can get to mostly anything he wants.  It may take him a minute, but we're glad to see his persistence :)

Here's my little man, fresh from the tub!

We love any chance we get to spend time with the Lyon family!  We stopped by to hang out for a couple hours one morning while Kate and AK were at school.  Here are my boys with Abby.

Andi Knight was over there too and Carter and Judah had a big time playing together!

Had to snap this shot of Kate reading to Carter before bed one night.  It's a Spot book about counting and she was reading him every word.  Precious.

Hudson has gotten really good at drinking from a cup.  Can't believe he's such a big boy now!

Valentine's Visitors

The boys had their first tub together this week.  Much fun was had, and LOTS of splashing and laughing!

The library here in Wake Forest does a storytime for toddlers every week.  We took Carter up there this week for the first time and he loved it!  Look at my sweet boy, front and center, listening to the story...

There is a park right next to the library and we walked over there after storytime to let Carter play for a few minutes.  Here I am with the boys (Kate was in school that morning)

We had special visitors in town this week for Valentine's Day...Mimi and Auntie Daria!!  It's always such a joy to have family come visit!  We got to do lots of fun things around Wake Forest this time.  Quite a difference from the last time my sister was able to come visit (helping us move into W. Oak last August!)  Here they are with Carter on a rocket at the little park outside the library.

Hudson is getting so strong.  Look at him standing up like such a big boy!  He's barely holding on to Mimi!

Anna Kate had her 4th birthday this week and we all got to go to her birthday party over at Jumpin' Beans!  Here's everyone singing to the birthday girl...

Kate and AK having a great time in the jumpy thing

Josh had just as much fun jumping as the kids did :)

Maybe he had a little too much fun?!

There is a super cute little Tea Room in downtown and we went there for a ladies lunch later in the week.

They served Kate her pink lemonade in her very own pink teapot.  She LOVED that!!

My little lady

Kate is riding her bike so well now.  She rode with Josh all the way down to the seminary and back (that's one mile roundtrip!)

Carter wanted to get out and ride a little bit too.  He can't go nearly as far yet since he still won't put his feet on the pedals.  He prefers to Fred Flintstone around, which we don't mind because it makes us laugh :)

1, 2, 3, Auntie Daria!!!

We are waiting for Hudson to crawl!  I can't believe my baby is old enough for this.  It will be anyday...as soon as he can figure out how to get that left foot out from under him.

Kate loves playing in my shoes and also loves to change her clothes, several times a day!  Here she is in what she calls her 'ladybug' outfit with a pair of my boots on.  I should have videoed her walking down the hall in this get-up.  Hilarious!

Carter and Hudson playing ball

Me and the kiddos.  Love them!