Before & After

All I could say was "WOW" when Parks finished installing the built-in he's been building the garage for the past two months. 2 months ago we rearranged the room to see if we would like the TV on this wall in a built-in and we thought we would. Our TV has been sitting on this little TV stand on the big empty wall waiting. You all know that our family has had an unimaginable past month. I think the garage has been a place of refuge for Parks. He likes to loose himself in measurements and old Gusters songs on his IPOD. Well, I sure am pleased with the result. What a guy, that Parks! :)

Okay, some of you have asked (some repeatedly) for some pics of our new house. Can I still call it new since we've been in for a year? Here is a link to a google album of pics for those who are interested. There are no people in the shots, so these aren't for those who get bored easily. Oh, and look for more pieces that Parks built in the house (our bed, dining room table, & coffee table) http://picasaweb.google.com/parksscarpenter/HousePics#

Sweet Kate

Some sweet pictures of Lily Kate from the past week. Every day LK has "big girl time" in her room by herself. About 30% of the time she falls asleep (which is better than the 0% that was happening the last few months). 100% of the time she ends the time in some crazy outfit. This was the one from Thursday. I had to wake her because it was getting late and I pulled back the covers in her bead to this: blue dance recital outfit from aunt Kathy, flower headband, Christmas hair scrunchies as bracelets, rhinestore headband as a necklace, and leg warmers.

Later that evening we watched our friends' the Thomases, twin girls. They are about 3 1/2 months old now and they are just precious. The top one is Caroline and the bottom one is June. Lily Kate fed them both. I mean really fed them, not just "helped". She was awesome. I kept waiting for her to get bored and run off but she was smitten by them. I can't blame her :)

We've been spending a lot of time outside lately. Check out this new pool. You can really get some speed on that slide if you get a running start. I'm really tempted to get in there myself. The bottom picture is our sweet friend, Cohen. Isn't he adorable? In the background you can catch a glimpse of the masterpiece that is the fence that Parks built with his hands. It's wonderful. When I asked Lily Kate if she liked the fence she said, "no, now I can't run in the road" Well... mission accomplished.

Our Get-away!!

Thanks to our wonderful friends, Graham & Emily who watched our kiddos, Parks and I had an in-town getaway for a night at Shell Island Resort here at Wrightsville Beach. I can't believe this is our home, it looks like a tropical vacation spot. We went out to a nice long dinner (forgot to get a picture there) and slept in (rather, made ourselves go back to sleep when we woke up at 7am), took a walk on the beach, & layed by the pool. So many simple pleasures that I used to take for granted. It was just long enough to miss our kids and feel a little anxious to get back to them. The only picture of both of us we took ourselves. Below is the view from our balcony. Can you believe this place is a 12 min drive from our house?

Our after dinner, sunset walk around the marsh. Didn't take any pictures on the beach walk, too busy hunting for shells. Thanks G & E, we had a blast!

All Dressed Up

I don't get dressed up often enough not to post about it :) Our friends, Toni & Mark got married last weekend. This is Stephanie, better known on this blog as Oliver's mom! She said that she felt like the Queen in those pearls, I think she looks like a princess. Gotta love great friends!

Fun with Crawford

I had to post these pictures back to back to show how Lily Kate and Crawford have grown up together. The top pic was from Oct 08 and the bottom one from today. They have been buddies for a long time. Today we met Lisa and Crawford at the Childrens' Museum. We went to a Storybook Cooking class. The instructors narrated some kids acting out Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and then we all made porridge. How creative are these people?! Now, I myself have never had porridge before and I have to say it was quite good. Guess who promptly volunteered to be Goldilocks. I was actually a little surprised because, although Lily Kate is extremely talkative, she is a little shy around new people. Below she is trying out the porridge that is "too hot". And then there's Charly cheesing it up.... We had a fun day.
PS. Mom we're reading Pinkalicious and icing pink cupcakes in 2 weeks!

Pretty Girl with a Mean Mullet