Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Baby Ella and Grannie's Visit!

On May 7th, we welcomed a new addition to our extended family- our baby niece and cousin, Ella Kathleen! Kenna could hardly contain her excitement that there's a new girl in the family, so Kenna, Finn, and I went to the hospital to meet baby Ella! Of course, the first thing Kenna wanted to do was hold baby Ella. Between Finn being cranky and me trying to help Kenna hold her, I was thankful Aunt Alisa was able to take a picture for us:
We three girls, squished into a very deep-seated hospital chair! Kenna was so excited! It feels like not that long ago we came to see Ella's big sister Emmie in the hospital just after being born, and now there's a new little tiny girl in the bassinet:
 Of course, when there's a new baby in the family, we all get extra excited because that is sure to mean that a visit from Grannie is coming! She came to town to help Jason and Alisa adjust to their new addition and she also usually comes in May to celebrate Jason's birthday. We had lots to celebrate as a family this month!
We stopped by Jason and Alisa's house to see baby Ella and to go to a birthday dinner for Jason.
 Grannie never forgets special treats for the older great grandkids. She and the girls had a great time playing bubbles!


 Finn was not quite walking at this point (he was so, so close!) but could not stand to see Evan, Uncle Jason, and Daddy playing basketball without him. We kept trying to keep him happy with his own ball there in the soft grass, but he insisted on crawling out across the driveway to get to the big ball. He did is so much that his poor little knees and tips of his toes were scraped and bleeding a little! He is all boy and apparently feels no pain when it comes to keeping up with the big guys.
While the big kids were riding bikes, Finn got a helping hand from Grannie to try a scooter for the first time! He is so determined to keep up with his sister and big cousins. We're all impressed at how well Grannie keeps up with all of them too!
After playing, we met up with Papa for Jason's birthday dinner at Outback Steakhouse. It was a little wild with four tired kiddos (mostly mine were the tired ones since we skipped naps that day!) but we had a fun time together.

 
We also all shared in Uncle Jason's dessert- happy birthday!

 We obviously take ice cream very seriously in this family.
 Here is one more photo of Ella a little bit older now, that I also had to borrow from Aunt Alisa. We just don't see these cousins of ours often enough! With that beautiful dark hair, I think she looks just like Uncle Jason! Welcome to the family, baby Ella!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Got To Be NC Festival

Now that Finn is big enough to interact, we’re always on the lookout for fun things to do together as a family. Matt heard about the Got to Be NC Festival on Friday night and immediately emailed me to see if I’d be up for going the next day. Of course! It was like a mini version of the N.C. State fair, specifically for smaller children and it was so much fun! It was not nearly as crowded and overwhelming as the fair, and much more child-friendly. Kenna went almost completely silent when we first walked into the fairgrounds and she saw all the fun rides!
(I had to laugh when we pulled up and Finn had managed to completely conk out in the 2 minutes between when we parked the car and when we got the stroller out. He’s just so darn cute!)

 We started off gently with a little strawberry ride, which of course, she was thrilled about because of her current love of Strawberry Shortcake (the tv show). Waiting in line to ride in a giant spinning strawberry:

Finn was all smiles when we got him set up in the stroller. There was just so much fun stuff to look at!

We lucked out that Papa and Mimi were in town meeting our new niece, Ella. They came with us to enjoy our day at the festival!
Mimi could not resist the smell of the giant turkey legs cooking… just one ended up being enough to feed her, Papa, Matt and Kenna! Finn definitely got a few bites too.


Kenna’s second choice of rides was a mini version of the fairground swings that go wider, higher and faster as the ride progresses. I was not sure how she’d handle it (and was silently saying prayers that she didn’t somehow slide out of the bottom and get flung out of it!) but she held on tight and absolutely LOVED it. She ended up riding it twice more before we left! It was totally worth it for the super big grin she had the entire time.
Matt and I were so impressed at how brave she was on the rides, especially a really fast one she rode with Papa. She seems so little to me still, but I have to admit sometimes that she is really growing up so fast and I’m constantly amazed at how much she can handle. We were so proud!


 Our favorite part of the day was the petting zoo where you could pet the animals up close and feed them by hand! That two dollar cup of animal feed might have been the best two dollars we’ve ever spent! I think I loved feeding and petting all the baby cows, sheep, goats, alpacas, and deer as much as Kenna did! They were all super sweet and gentle and seemed to love being fed snacks and loved on so much.
These little baby cows were SO soft! Much softer than the sheep, which was surprising to me! Petting their little ears was like pettting a puppy.
 This little goat very nearly needed to come home with us. He was SO sweet!

 The highlight of the trip for Matt was where we stopped for lunch- the Pig Jig was a section of tents/booths where local Masonic lodges had each made their best barbecue and were competing against each other… for ten bucks you got an all-you-can-eat plate to try them all out! We stuffed ourselves trying to find the best NC barbecue, and had hush puppies, coleslaw, lemonade, and even a piece of homemade pound cake to round it out.

Surprisingly for a three year old, Kenna absolutely loves barbecue- this was her second plate! The silly face was because she had just dumped a water bottle down her shirt. We lost count of how many hush puppies Finn ate!

 After walking through more of the festival and seeing more of the vendors and booths, we stopped by the Jim Graham building to see the Fiber Arts part of  the festival (mostly a craft show of sorts with local yarns and wool for sale). It was mostly a pit stop for bathrooms, air conditioning, and a chance to get out of the sun, but Kenna did get the chance to learn how to spin wool roving into yarn with a really cool homemade spinning wheel. She seems to have caught an interest in handmade/crafty things from somewhere...

 We had promised Kenna some ice cream, so on the way out we found the homemade NC ice cream booth… unfortunately the NC State ice cream wasn’t there like it normally is at the fair. Somehow Daddy got stuck holding everybody’s cones while Kenna took one last ride on the “big swings.”
 
 Waiting to give the man her tickets because she's apparently grown now. Where did my little girl go?

 What a fun, fun day! We'll definitely be on the lookout for this festival again next year!



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The best email I've ever received

Lind emailed me at work last night to tell me the following conversation took place. My heart swelled with thankfulness for my wife's patience and constant teaching and for God's grace to all of us to be able to know him. Here's what transpired:


kenna reading her bible to her piggy: (as verbatim as i could get it, scribbling fast)

"Jesus has to fix our hearts
not be bad
but be good
sometimes we be sad or angry
that's why we have to learn about Jesus
it fixes our hearts happy, not sad.
we don't say oh my god.
we never say shut up.
oh, you not heard Jesus alive?
Jesus alive!
i think everybody love to herrr. (hear)"



I love her precious heart!