Roll Tide

Baby Laura has started sleeping! This is pretty much the best thing that has ever happened to me. For about the last two weeks she'll go to sleep at 8, I'll wake her up to eat one more time at 10 and she'll sleep until 6. It's like she knew I had to go back to work. She has become the most laid back baby. It's great!

Cheese! The weekend before last we went to Midtown Cafe for brunch. Delicious! Ms. Joan kept Rebecca for us and Matt, Laura and I went to Mooresville to visit the Bentons. We grilled out for the Alabama/LSU game and it was so much fun!

Baby Laura was not that impressed.

Roll Tide! This past weekend Matt went to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama/Texas A&M game. They took reality show super star Jarrett Joyce's short bus down. Matt says his new slogan should be the bus is short and the shipments are slow- haha! Alabama lost but everyone had a great time.

I was not super excited about having both girls all by myself for the weekend so Matt surprised me by getting a ticket for Mary Martha to come visit. We had so much fun!

The big event on Saturday was our friend Caroline's birthday party. Rebecca's favorite parts were the cake, ice cream, capri suns and candy.

Rebecca and Elexa posing for a picture- wild!

Me and my girl!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Roll Tide! Rebecca was an Alabama cheerleader for her party at school on Friday and Trunk or Treat with the Browns on Sunday.

We had a good weekend. We had everyone (Ms. Joan, Mandy, Ryan, Camden, Alison, Ms. Jane, Maria and Riley) over for dinner on Friday and it was a bit chaotic but very fun.

This is the best picture I got of Rebecca with her cousins over the entire time they were here. Chaotic.

Mandy and her family left for Texas on Sunday and we're definitely sad to see them go. We were riding home from school the other day and Rebecca said, "I like purple. I like purple ice cream. I LIKE and Aunt Mandy!" Not sure about that train of thought but Rebecca does love some Aunt Mandy.

Here's Laura getting ready to snooze on the way to school. I go back to work tomorrow and I'm kind of excited about it but I will really miss this little cutie!!

Laura had her two month check up a few weeks ago and is doing great! She's in the 65th percentile for weight and 85th percentile for height. She is really staring to smile and coo and it is adorable.

Rebecca is doing great, too. She is so verbal. She will repeat anything we ask her to and her latest trick is singing all the days of the week. Here she is a her favorite place- the park!

Papa

Matt's Dad passed away unexpectedly on Friday. We are all so sad. We don't know for sure what happened, just that he died of natural causes.

We've spent the last six days in Elkin. Mandy and her family drove in from Texas. Ira got to meet Laura.

The outpouring of support was incredible. Al was the pharmacist people called instead of calling their doctors, a deacon in the church, boy scout leader for 14 years. He was a loving husband, devoted father, caring son and the best papa ever.

Matt, Ira and Mandy spoke at the funeral service on Tuesday. Matt talked about the wonderful friends he has to get him through this time, the spouse that he loves with all of his heart, all of the best things he has in his life he has thanks to who his dad was. He also talked about how everything happens for a reason. When he was eight years old he spent the week at boy scout camp and got hazed. When he came back he joined as different troupe with his dad as scout master where he stayed on as scout master for the next 14 years. 14 years of scouting because of those kids who stole Matt's pocketknife. Ira is a punk rocker and really is an artist. He went from talking about small things like getting a hole in one in mini-golf last week because his dad taught him how to putt to big things like being adopted and how he couldn't have chosen a better family. Mandy did a great job. She talked about Al's legacy. About how the most important thing to him was making sure his children loved the Lord and how today this is the most important thing to her. Camden, her four year old, stood up with her and sang Psalm 23 for us. It was moving.

We love you, Papa. You will be in our hearts always.

Dixie Classic Fair

Laura! Such a doll baby. I'm so excited she's getting Rebecca's eyelashes.

This little cutie has become a pretty good sleeper. I decided sleeping in her swing at night is not a good habit to get into (at least for now- haha) so she's been sleeping in her crib. Most nights she'll go 10-4 for me (once she went 10-6, on my birthday, thanks Laura!!) but will sometimes wake up one more time, like 10-1-5.

First day of school! I don't go back to work until November but I've started taking Laura to school for one or two feedings during the day to kind of ease her in. At first she was not interested in taking a bottle but seems to be doing just fine now. I really like her class- her teachers are so sweet.

Here is Rebecca before school on Friday. Sunglasses and Baby Two for show and tell! She has moved up to the two year old class and loves it. She gets to play on the big play ground, goes to Chapel on Wednesday and the Library on Thursday. And she loves her teacher! She asks for Ms. Sheril every morning.

Such a cutie!

Here she is "sharing" with Baby Laura. I'm sure Laura really appreciated it.

Last weekend we went to the Dixie Classic Fair with Matt's family. It was so much fun!

Rebecca wasn't as impressed with the animals as I thought she'd be but she loved the tractor pull. So funny to me! I think it was the loud noise and everyone cheering for each tractor. Rebecca spent the night with Matt's parents that night and we called to check in the next morning. Matt asked what they were doing and Ms. Joan said laying in the bed watching Princess Ponies and eating cotton candy. This is also so funny to me! So fun!! While Rebecca was in Elkin Matt and I took Laura to First Street to meet some friends to watch the State game. And the next day was my birthday and Ms. Joan brought Rebecca back to Winston and watched both girls for us so Matt and I could go out for coffee. It was so nice! I wish I'd gotten some pictures.

Happy Fall!

Fun Weekend

Rebecca!

We had the best weekend! We just hung around here, played, watched college football, went out to dinner on Saturday and went to visit friends in Greensboro on Sunday.

The boys had their laptops up so they could watch multiple games at once so Rebecca had to set up her laptop, too.

Finnigan's Wake.

Charlie! Will and Robin's new baby boy. He is precious!!

Will and Robin have the most awesome swing in their neighborhood. Rebecca could not get enough!

Sweet Laura. This little chunky baby is now wearing 3 mo onesies, she's too big for anything else.

I have started waking her up to eat at 9 or 10 and she's slept 7 hours the last two nights. I hate even writing that because I feel like I'm going to jinx it. I would be super excited except that these two marathon sleeping session have happened in her swing, not in her crib. What to do, what to do...

And...Hopscotch!

Happy Birthday Rebecca

Happy Birthday Rebecca!! I can hardly believe this little cutie is 2!

We celebrated Thursday night with cake and presents. Rebecca loved her birthday cake!

We had everyone over on Saturday for a football birthday party. It was so much fun! It was great to have all of our family over to celebrate. Rebecca loved all the attention and all of her birthday presents.

Her she is with her great granny and baby doll. Rebecca is so excited to have her own baby and named her Baby Two.

Laura definitely had the best seat at the party.

My mom came for a visit the week of Rebecca's birthday. We loved having her!! She watched Laura so I could nap all day, basically threw Rebecca's party for me and filled my freezer up with food. She is the best!

My dad came out Thursday. We had the best time! He and Rebecca had so much fun!! I love how she can make him do whatever she wants. :)

My parents watched the girls so Matt and I could go out on a real date. It was luscious.

Baby Laura is doing great! She is such a sweet baby and really doesn't fuss much at all anymore. She is starting to go for one 5 hour stretch between feedings at night. My philosophy so far has been to not wake her up once it's dark outside so typically she eats at 7, 12, 3 and 6. I'm considering waking her up at 10 in hopes that her five hours of sleep would be later so I could get more rest. I've tried it a few times and it just seems like if I wake her up before she's ready she will not sleep 5 hours and if I feed her before she is ready she will spit up everywhere. We'll see, we'll see.

In other news, our basement flooded. Not really flooded, it just rained so much water came in through the back door and around the french drain. We replaced and wet carpet padding and had the carpets cleaned and now it's fine. We finally got a dehumidifier down there and it makes such a difference.

We also had a neighborhood cook out on Sunday and you can now take panoramic pictures with your iphone.

Supermodel Rebecca!