Charlotte looking cute (above) & Myers jumping off the top tower, I predict Lily Kate will be brave enough to do this before I ever will (below)

Making Dresses

I have been wanting to make some of these T-shirt dresses for a while. Charlotte has one I bought and I kept eying it up thinking, "I know I can do that". I made three while were at our family's lake house. I didn't get a clear shot of the third one (my fave) but I'll post a picture of Kate wearing in one of our Tate shots. This might be my new favorite hobby.

Family Visit!

The Texas family came to visit last week. We had a great week. I posted way too many pictures, but it was hard to cut down and still show our whole week. Our nephews, Jack (5) and Scott (2) are too cute. Lily Kate was smitten with Jack. Charlotte and Scott yelled at each other a lot, we were speculating that each of their status as "youngest" was being threatened :) We packed a lot into the week. There was a cooking class for the kiddos at the museum (above LK & Jack with their pumpkin pies), bird watching walk for Nona and Pop Pop, tons of beach time, & homemade ice cream sandwiches (below).

Ashley and the kids made this sand guy. Charlotte was really helpful.

We went to Carolina Beach for kids night. There was face painting, a bouncy slide, Dora the Explorer (it was priceless to see Charlotte clapping and yelling "Doo Wa", she was enamored), night swimming, glowing bracelets, & famous Britt's donuts.

Sweet Scott checking out a crab claw. Over the week my family became obsessed with finishing this thousand piece puzzle. I was going strong until about 1:30am when I fell asleep. I woke up to this picture being taken. I guess I'm not as hard core and they are.

Friendships being formed, so sweet & Nona with Sweet Charlotte.

Here we are, the Knight family :)

Poser

I was clearing off the memory card in my camera, dumping the pics that I had taken over the last few weeks and I noticed a trend in the pictures of Lily Kate. Hmmm she's always posing, and I do mean ALWAYS. These are just a few of the lot. I thought this was really funny... I am laughing b/c even as I'm typing Lily Kate just said, from across the room, "take a picture of me, I'm ready" According to my parents, I did the same thing. The ham doesn't fall far from the tree :)

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!