My Garden

I realize that I might be the only person interested in this post about my garden, but I am LOVING having a veggie garden. Since this is the first summer in our new house we started small, unsure of what spot might be the best for the garden or what would grow well here. I'm going big next year. Lily Kate has really enjoyed growing food. She especially loves the "minty" and pops leaves in her mouth every time she's out there. She learned the hard way that basil isn't as fun to chew. Above, some of our most recent cucs. Below, Cayanne peppers. Don't you look at those and think, "that might be a little dangerous in a yard with little ones, the baby might pick one and eat it...." Yep, she did. There was a lot of face scrunching and tongue wiping. Some of our cherry tomatoes, and the first almost bloom from the sunflowers that Kate planted all on her own (a gift from her Soni).

tomatoes, just in time for skewers tonight

Our friend, Samuel, turned one a few weeks ago and we had a great time at his birthday party. I didn't bring my camera so I didn't get any pictures of him, but the Laniers helped us attempt to take some family pictures. I included that last one just so you can see how funny it is to try to get 4 people to look in the same direction at the same time. Look at LK with her eyes deliberately closed and Charlotte crying to be held. We'll try not to over-analyze their personalities from this behavior :)

18 Months Old

I'm not very good at "reporting" on the growth of our kiddos but I thought it would be fun to say a bit about our Charlotte on her 18 month birthday. Charlotte loves to talk. Often when I walk in her room in the morning she is holding on to the railing in her crib, bouncing with all her might and laughing at herself. I say "good morning, Charlotte" and she says "need new diaper". While I change her she loves to list the people she sees in the pictures tacked above on her bulletin board: The first is always "Ahh Ber" (Oliver), then "Sissy", "Wuul" (Uncle Will), "Becca" (Aunt Becca), &"Baby" (herself when she was younger). Sometimes I get a shout out. When we're done she says, "okay, cer-rul, cer-rul pease" It goes on and on all day, while we drive down the road she stares out the window and says, "fower" & "car" over and over. She and Lily Kate are both really into listening to Girls Just Want to Have Fun right now, so she asks for "dancin song pease". Lately she has been able to recognize the color purple and will point it out when she sees it. Lily Kate taught her that. Charlotte loves to be held. She is rather persistent and will stand at my leg and beg, "hold you pease". I like to look at her and say "hold who?" and she'll say, "hold ME pease" and smile. Like every 18month old we've really gotten to see her personality blossom in the last few months. She is very silly, much more so than Lily Kate, who can be serious more often. She is very opinionated, she eats more than I do and is still pretty small, she says "tank you" almost every time you hand her something, she often follows that with "welcome", she is finally getting over her fear of the water and has been begging for "simming" the last few times we've been to the beach, she adores being with Lily Kate and watching "Monkey Gorge". We can't get enough of her around here. Kate has been asking about the two of them sharing a room soon, but we're going to wait a little longer. Between the two of them I don't think that room would ever be quiet. Thank you Lord, for our sweet, sweet Charlotte. We love her.

Relaxed...

Ballet Camp!

It's no exaggeration when I say that we've been looking forward to ballet camp for a year. Last year Lily Kate and I went to the recital and she was enamored by the dancing and maybe even more excited about the flowers that some of the girls got afterward. When I told her she was enrolled she asked for purple flowers at the recital and she has reminded me at least 10 times since then not to forge the purple flowers. A girl from our church lead the camp and she is a "real ballerina". It really was the most fun week.

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

"There are too many Carpenters in Heaven"

I overheard Parks saying this sentence to himself last week after he talked with Lily Kate about loosing some of our family. I know he was thinking also of his dad. Even as I'm typing I know that "loosing" isn' the right word and Heaven is a far better place for us Carpenters to be than here. I know those things are true. Still, there is so much pain. Last week our sweet niece, Gwenyth, and Parks' wonderful sister Marie went to Heaven on the same day. Most of you have known about and have prayed for Gwen through me or through her blog link here on our blog. Marie was at Falling Water, a lookout that she loved, when she fell Friday. Marie & Gwen were both daughters, both sisters, both cousins, both nieces. So many people love these two and feel such an emptiness at their absence. I have waited to write, hoping that eloquent words would show up sometime. I have concluded that they aren't coming. We feel heavy, broken, & sad. We also feel God's nearness and comfort. I have enjoyed looking through old pictures of Marie. She was really beautiful, she was really silly, she is really special. We love her so.

Patrick, please know that any sadness I had while looking at this picture was interrupted when I saw your huge affro! Thanks, man. Above, here's the fam. From bottom to top, left to right: Will & Henry. Parks, me, Lily Kate, Lane, Myers, Winship. Marie, Becca, Laura, & Sarah. Affro= Patrick :)

Above, Marie with Lily Kate 3 yrs ago & below, with Kate & Lillian last Thanksgiving

Above, Marie with my girls and below with Parks being "awesome", both last summer at Tate.

Beach Day

Yesterday I told the girls we were going to go to the beach today. So, of course when I went in to Kate's room this morning she had her sun hat on and her hands in the air yelling "BEACH DAY". We had fun. :)

Why do all babies eat sand? I mean, I understand trying everything once, but why do they eat the sand, act really offended by sand, and then eat it again? Who knows..... Okay, I really hope you can tell what's in the picture below. Kate and I went on a walk to collect shells and we found this guy. Kate said, "oh, a sting ray, Maddie and I saw a sting ray at the aquarium" I was more disturbed than she was.

...And off to get some ice cream

We grabbed some lunch after the beach and headed to the strawberry farm for ice cream. What a perfect day. I love Saturdays and I love this season. The girls were so sweet to each other today, they built sand castles and shared snacks. Precious.

Sweet & Sassy

Lily Kate's first haircut (by someone other than me) was long overdue. Above is her "before" shot. Don't worry, the "after" isn't too different. We went to Sweet & Sassy and it was a memorable experience. I recommend this to every mother of a little girl. Tuesdays are toddler days and cuts are only $10. It comes complete with glitter spray, a glitter flower painted on her cheek, and a lolly pop. It was precious.

There's the "after", see, just a 2in trim. We ran into my friend with her daughter, Lila Jane Below is the runway that the girls played on after they finished. This place has "mini-manis and mini-pedis", makeovers, up-do's, etc. It's only a matter of time......

Talkin

I just have to say a bit about how much Charlotte is talking. There are new surprises every day. I pointed to my mouth today hoping she would give me a kiss and she said "mou". (She can also point out and say "eyes".) This week she has used correctly the words: park, sak (snack), out si (outside), moomie (movie), baa (bath), shoe, daaper, (diaper), Sissie, Sar Sar (Char Char), sing (swing), daace (dance), and - clearly taught by Parks - neken... I'm sure you know - naked