September update

I am trying to update the family blog to let everyone know what has been going on with some pictures to enjoy along the way. Since the computer crashed we have been busily looking for a new home in Huntersville. Our wonderful realtor Wendy worked so well with us and we were able to finally find the perfect home.
The kids continued to be their sweet selves always keeping mommy smiling. Pierce is wearing some googly eyes and Nikki is not but her eyes are so big you would think she was....lol!
As a family we went to Steven and Jessica's wedding. It was one of those events that brought tears to my eyes. It was beautiful and I loved seeing my old kids growing up and being so happy. We was great to be a part of their special day together as a family.
Pop-pop's birthday was on the 21st of the month so to celebrate we went to the fire mountain grill in K-vegas (aka Kernersville). We had so much food and enjoyed many kinds of desserts. The kids loved helping pop-pop open his presents. We were so blessed to enjoy each other for the afternoon. Whether it was for a birthday or just to hang out...family time is precious.
It started getting colder in September. Nikki doesn't like wearing hats much but she sure is cute all bundled up and snuggly.

Sorry it has been a while

Just wanted to keep everyone posted. As you can tell it has been a while since our last blog. Things have been really busy. With just the kids and all the growing they are doing, I am running around and back into my prepreg jeans. And on top of all that, for the past several weeks we have been doing some serious house hunting and we have finally found our new home. We should be closing by the end of October and are very excited about finally getting to Huntersville. I know Shane is looking forward to the extra time he will have with us instead of being on the road. And I am looking forward to getting settled in, setting up house, and getting involved in life as we will know it.
Our home in High Point is still on the market and we are praying that it will sell soon. If it does not by November we are going to put it with an agency that finds buyers who will lease to own.
As you can tell, this blog is missing the pictures I usually so generously post. That is due to the fact that our computer decided to crash. We have ordered a new one so as soon as it is up and running I promise I will post lots of great pictures of the kids.
Thanks for your love and prayers during the past several months that have been so transitional for us.

Pierce on the work equipment

So as Pierce and I were walking Nikki the other day, I asked Pierce what he wanted to do when he was older. He said that he wanted to do 3 things. He wanted to be a worker, a fixer and a daddy. He said that as a worker he wanted to drive the big equipment like you see at construction sites. So on our visit to Huntersville, Shane gave Pierce a ride on several pieces of work equipment. The moved dirt and did what boys do. Pierce loved it and grinned from ear to ear. He waved to mommy and sis as we watched the big working men.
Here are some new pics of the kids.

Staying busy

We are on the hunt for a house in Huntersville. We have not sold the house in High Point yet but are working on some options to allow us to move on and get where we need to be. We spent all day Saturday checking out houses and have made an offer on one. We will see what happens with that. We are just trusting God for all things to work out for good. We are very excited to get moved, get settled and get involved. Both of the babies went on our house hunt and did extremely well. Any house with cool features like a playset or an secret doors was the house we should get according to Pierce. Nikki came along for the ride and didn't get fussy until the end of the day.
Nikki is sleeping at least 9 hours through the night and doing really well during the day. We still have a fussy period but all in all she is just a sweet baby. She is more vocal and loves to talk to us. Daddy can always get her smiling and Pierce can get her to talk. Mommy can get her to calm down when she is upset. So we all have pretty important roles. Pierce still amazes me at how loving and protective he is over her. He has the sweetest heart. Nikki had her two month old shots and Pierce held her hands through it. He told her to be brave and kissed her tears away.
We are so blessed to have each other

Summer vacation

This was the first year we took a real vacation together. We were fortunate that both of our families had planned vacations back to back weeks. In order to spend time with both families we vacationed at Ocean Isle from Wednesday to Friday night with Uncle Eric, Aunt Tonya, Cousins Luke and Zach, Nannie and Papa Jack. We stayed at Uncle Eric’s parent’s beach cottage which was on the Intercoastal waterway. The pier was right outside. The view was beautiful and the atmosphere was so peaceful. And then we went to the Mountains of Virginia with Pop-pop, grandma, Uncle Jim, CiCi, and Cate. The weather was warm but not humid, the mountains were beautiful and the air was so fresh. It was restful.

This was Nikki’s first big trip away from home and it was a bit of an adjustment. You could see her wake up from naps wondering where she was. One night brother fell asleep touching the side of Nikki's crib just so she would feel comforted that he was there. Overall, she did well. She had a good time getting spoiled and held by everyone. It was pretty funny because amongst all the boys, she was the center of attention. They would be running around playing rough as boys do and when Nikki would come out, they would all stop and oohh and aahhh over our little princess. It will be interesting to see over the next few years if she becomes just as rough and tumble as the boys or if she will have the boys playing dolls and tea party with her. The boys enjoyed fishing and casting nets on the pier. They caught a bunch of shrimp and a couple of small crabs. It was a lot of fun to take the boat out. Pierce and mommy liked to sit at the front and ride the waves while Uncle Eric drove the boat. Mommy wasn’t sure at first if Pierce would like the waves since it was kind of bumpy but we just laughed and laughed and Pierce would scream, “Faster, Faster.” He would look at mommy and said, “We better hold on, this is going to be a bumpy ride!” It was so much fun. Daddy was able to go fishing and we even took the boat out to a private spot to play on the beach and swim. Mommy, Pierce and Zach built a sand castle and a sand sea turtle. We looked around the beach and found seashells to make the turtle’s shell. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed every minute we got to spend with our family. We left the beach on Friday night, so we could let the kids sleep on the drive home. When we got home, we put Pierce in his bed and fed Nikki. When we put her down, you could see a sense of relief on her face that she was back in her crib.

Saturday morning we got up and got packed back up and headed out to Massnutten Resort in the Virginia mountains The drive was long but Nikki slept most of the way (catching up on her beauty rest) and Pierce stay occupied with DVD’s, mazes, leapster games, checking out the mountains and of course, playing cloud shapes with mommy. We got to Harrisburg, VA and had dinner with the family in town. We then headed for the resort. The place we stayed at was on top of a hill and forced us to exercise by either taking steps to the door or a hike the round about way. It was good because it gave us all an excuse to indulge a little more than normal…that ice cream sure was yummy. Pierce enjoyed playing with Cate..they are two peas in a pod. We were able to take walks (hikes), rest at the pool, play Putt-Putt, hang out and watch Olympics or movies. On Monday night, we went to the indoor waterpark. It was awesome. Pierce loved the slides and all the watershooters. Nikki went swimming for the first time and loved it. It was so much fun. All in all, we had a relaxing time. We left Tuesday afternoon to head home.
Vacation was fun and it was wonderful.

The best part of vacation for us was being able to spend time with both of our families but even more so being able to spend a lot of quality time together as our little family- Shane, Angie, Pierce and Nikki. No matter where we are as long as we have each other, we are home.

Smiles, smiles and more smiles

Little Smile

Half Smile

Full smile

Bright eyes and belly laughs

We love having family over

Things are going fairly smoothly with schedules, feedings and sleep time. But as with life, we ran into a little trouble this week. Friday morning mommy woke up and felt like she had been hit by a truck. Apparently mommy got mastitis so she had to be taken care of for the evening by daddy and Pierce. Shane thankfully got home earlier than normal since he had just come home from a business trip.
He picked up an antibiotic for mommy, and took care of the kids. Pierce would come and lay with mommy. He even got a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol on it and rubbed my forehead. He told me that on the bottle it said, “For bumps and to make you feel better”. (He said it was for bumps because we use it for the bumps on his arms) Nikki helped too by continuing her breastfeeding schedule and emptying all mommy’s milk. By the end of the night, mommy felt so much better and was ready for the weekend by Saturday morning. And it was a good thing. Nannie, Mr. William, Aunt Tonya, Luke and Zach came for the weekend and we had so much fun.
Nikki loves her family and loves to have visits from them all. After all, it is nice to be the center of attention. Pierce always enjoys visits from family because it means there are more people to play with…and boy is it so much fun. Whether we have family visit from out of town or from right around the corner, it is a blessing to be surrounded with the love of family.