Weekend in Wilmington

This weeked marked a lot of firsts for Clare and our family and also a birthday celebration for LD! We leftThursday evening around 7pm and drove 3 1/2 hours to Wilmington. Our hope was that Clare would sleep in the car, but that didn't happen til about 10pm! We arrived at our hotel (a first for Clare...sleeping in the same hotel room as us), settled in and went to sleep. We knew the first night would go well arriving so late, but we felt really good about it all sleeping peacefully :)

Friday was LD's birthday and after Clare decided it was time to wake up extra early we gave LD all his birthday presents. I had saved any cards or presents that came in the mail so he had a bunch of fun things to open!! Then we decided to head to Wrightsville Beach...another first for Clare. I had very high expectations for Clare at the beach because she loves water so much, but she was extremely apprehensive. In her defense the waves were really huge and could knock her down at just knee deep. We spent most of the morning there and it was a beautiful perfect day to be on the water. The great thing about Wrightsville Beach is there are not many tourists, especially at 9am!! Of everything we did on the beach, Clare loved chasing the seagulls the most..go figure :) We headed back for showers and lunch and Clare desperately needed a nap from our late night getting in. So we put her down and figured we would just take advantage of an early afternoon nap as well. Well...Clare and LD slept for 3 hours, seriously. You know how dark hotel rooms are, so at about 3pm I decided I was going to have to just wake them up. I had been sitting by the window attempting to read and it was kind of ridiculous the whole day was flying by!!!

So Friday evening we headed to downtown Wilmington to walk around, or so we thought. It was 97 degrees and as soon as we parked and walked one block we were all done and miserable. We ended up not doing much sighseeing in Wilmington and instead headed for an early birthday dinner for LD at Wrightsville Beach and ended the day with ice cream! Night two went really well and after we put Clare down we had brought headphones and a portable dvd player and just watched movies in bed...success!!

Saturday we left Wilmington and were headed to Greensboro for a cookout with some great friends. We stopped in Raleigh to visit some friends and then stopped downtown at the Science Museum. It is free (always a bonus) and huge. It's four floors and has dinosaurs, a butterfly house, fish and turtles, and tons of room for Clare to roam around on our travel day! It was a perfect stop for us. We left there and went to our cookout, which was so much fun. LD's best friend, Derek, and his wife Katie grew up with LD and moved down to NC the same time we did. They are like family and we are so thankful for them and thankful they let us crash at their house often :) They had friends over and Clare ended up having 2 little girls the same age as her to play with. It was a fun evening!

We headed back home this morning, after a stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast and have been doing laundry and relaxing!! It is so fun to have these short weekend getaways and we are so grateful for family time.

Happy Fathers Day Daddy!

Clare singing Happy and you know it and "your face will surely show it"

LD's dads day gift

Clare and daddy

Pic from Charlotte Observer

I am so incredibly thankful for my husband for so many reasons. But above all he does and provides he is an amazing father to our sweet little girl. It is so fun to watch the two of them interact and share little moments together. We had a great celebration of Fathers Day all weekend long!!

On Friday I surprised LD with some Michigan cornhole boards. He was really excited and had been talking about wanting some for a while. I had someone in Charlotte make them and Clare and I picked them up Friday morning. After dinner LD and I played a few games and Clare would sit on the boards and sing songs or look through the little hole. The only incident we had was when I went to swing my arm, hit her in the back, causing her to fall forward and land on the board....right on her eye. It was awful. She got up screaming, looked at me and yelled "DADDY!!!!" It was an awful mommy moment. I quickly recovered as her number 1 mom when LD held ice on her face and I offered her some ice cream (I know the way to her heart!). She went to bed with a purple eye and I thought it would be huge in the morning, but by the grace of God she woke up with a small little mark and thats all!!

Saturday we swam, went to mall and had dinner together. Sunday was a huge day at our church celebrating fathers called "Ultimate Man Day." It was a really exciting day! We went out to dinner Sunday night and called it the end of the celebration weekend. Monday morning we woke up to realize LD and Clare's picture was on the front page of the Charlotte Observer! It was a picture taken Sunday at church!! It is such a sweet memory of the two of them celebrating Fathers Day together! I've included the pic that was in the paper!

Happy Fathers Day love! Thanks for being the best daddy around!!!

Pool time!!!

We are so excited to be spending ridiculous amounts of time at the pool this year. We joined the Y and the pool there is extremely fun with lots to do. We also have been doing a lot of swimming with friends! Clare is a little fish. She has no fear of water whatsoever and though that is a blessing I am always on my toes watching her!! She loves to go down the slides at the Y, and she sits on the bottom when it is shallow enough, even if the water comes up to her chin! On Friday we were at a friends pool and it was a gradual decline and Clare walked right under water numerous times. I tried to let her experience it, hoping it would help her understand the consequences, but she would just come up coughing, laughing, and saying "again!" So, as we are headed to the beach next weekend some sort of floaties or flotation device is in the works!! Here are some fun pool pictures!

Surprise Visitor!!!!

I love surprises and LD does a great job of surprising me often. But I have to say a great surprise came my way last Thursday evening and I had a horrible response even though I was incredibly excited. Clare and I had a very normal day, finished dinner and were just hanging out playing. LD came home from work and I expected to see him a total of 10 min. before he rushed out the door for his softball game. There was a knock on the door and I went to answer it and my younger sister Vanessa was standing on my doorstep!!!!! I was shocked. No, I didn't scream, I didn't cry....I simply said "what are you doing here?" and then said "Did I know you were coming?" (Pregnancy brain can be rough!). Needless to say she was not impressed with my response after flying all day from Vegas to spend 3 1/2 days with us in Charlotte!!

It was such a fun treat. After not seeing her for 5 full months, it was a much needed visit of both sister and auntie time! We spent Friday at the pool, had dinners out, rented movies, shopped, saw "Letters to Juliet" and just had time to catch up!! Vanessa was so excited when Clare saw her and she said "Hi V!" without any prompting. The rest of the weekend was spent with Clare at the bottom of the stairs yelling "V!!!!" whenever Auntie V was not in sight.

It's incredibly sad that we will not see her again til we are all in Michigan for Thanksgiving but I am so thankful for her dedication to me and my family to spend time with us.

We love you Auntie V and are so proud of all that you are!!!

It's a girl!!!!!!

LD and I are so excited to be adding another sweet little girl to our family. From the beginning I have been very confident it was a girl, which last time around it was LD who was so confident. There are so many reasons (mostly selfish) that we wanted another girl this time around.

One, we don't have anything to do to prepare. The only thing we will be needing is a double stroller. Clare is changing rooms this summer, so the nursery will stay the exact same! And we have TONS of clothes and toys for girls!!

Two, I have 2 amazing sisters and love how close I am to them. I am so excited for Clare to have a sister. yes, I know there will be lots of arguing and drams because that comes with girl territory, but I'm excited about them becoming friends as adults!

Three, this means we can have more children!!! LD has always said he wants 3, but I know it would have been tempting to call it quits if we had a boy and a girl. LD does say he is a little worried that when the time comes we will have 3 girls!

Clare and I have been practicing saying "baby sister" all morning, even though she has not a clue how her life will change in 4 1/2 short months! Yay for sisters!!!!