2 more days of my beloved month left. Goodness, is all I can say! October was full full full. As I told you I photographed BellaRose's Morning School class portraits. It was a lot of fun, and not as much of a challenge as I thought. I hope that the parents like them and that they are well received. Her schools fall festival was last night and I had them all ready for viewing and purchasing. I am still not sure how I did. I believe I am my harshest critic though. These are a few of BellaRose's. The one on the left I did in wallets. She is so precious.

The pictures below were the playground pictures I did. Those were my favorite ones to take. The kids were having fun in their natural element. It is a unique spin on class pictures for sure!























Of course here is sweet Hollings. For the fall festival we also had some things set up for Worth to show off his craftsmanship. We went over to his sister's house one rainy day and took a lot of pictures of the projects he had done there. Hollings got some daddy shoulder time. You can see in the background of the lower images the playhouse Worth built. I think we might move in there it is so nice!

We're here!

We are still here!!!
Uncle Ben got married to Julie on Saturday and it has been a full wedding weekend. I don't have any pictures to show for it just yet, but those are being edited and forthcoming.
Here are just some pictures of our adventures.

We did manage to go to the Pumpkin Patch with Margaret and Beckett. I just love doing that so much!! We had a good time celebrating fall in the crisp air, petting animals, and eating apples. Our mountains are the best place in the whole world to be in the fall.
We still have two weeks left of my favorite month. Boy am I excited about that!

It is just a little hard getting self portraits of me and the girls with my big ole lens, but we managed a couple..... sort of.

My loves

cell phone pictures

Runny noses and thumb sucking don't go together, lesson learned. Although it is pretty hard to explain to a three old, in the middle of the night, that if she stops sucking her thumb then she will be able to breath and SLEEP!!! She has also been giving up her nap and experiencing night terrors, those are particularly sad and really nothing you can do, well get more sleep but since she is ditching the nap that is not working out for us. Good thing they only last several (long) minutes. Hollings is being sweet as ever (not that BellaRose is not) and sleeping like a champ even through the screaming crying BellaRose does most nights.
Goodness, we are 8 days into Rocktober! Have I embraced them like I said I would? I don't think so, I will now though! Exciting weekends ahead with Worth's brother's upcoming nuptials and of course birthday week, then Halloween! Let the good times roll.

Busy Busy Busy

Roctober is upon us!
I will embrace every single day of this month down to its ghoulish end!

I hate the excuse of busyness. I think it is lame, in spite of that, I have been using that excuse a lot lately which now makes me lame! I apologize.

With the excuse of busyness comes the very joyous report that my photography business is really starting to thrive. I will be taking the school portraits for BellaRose's school, which means not your typical posed, faux background, school pictures. Que Angels singing on high!

Also these little people below are keeping me on my toes. One thing you don't want to do is mess with Hollings and her food, especially if it looks like a teething biscuit or a graham cracker. Hollings is a crawling machine. I don't remember Rosey crawling this well so young. I fear that Hollings will be walking sooner then we think. She already gets up into pyramid position mid crawl.
Hollings, in these pictures, was sporting Flock of Seagulls hair, and a nice gash on her nose. She daily hits her head and currently has a little unicorn forehead right now. I promise we are good parents.
She is also clapping up a storm. The saddest thing you have ever seen is little bean Hollings crying on the floor clapping. Might as well have your heart broken right then!

Now on to my sweet BellaRosey. I actually don't have too much to report on her. She is in gymnastics which seems to be perfect for her. How could you not love spending more time with Ms. Jaci and of course Will who is now the Big Brother to the sweetest little Baby Jack!
The other day BellaRose was walking around saying "uurrr, frustrasted, uuurrr frustrated, uuuurrr frustrated" in a deep growling voice. I seem to recall myself saying that very thing the day before. Out of the mouth of babes! Also if she does something that she thinks is particularly neat she will ask me "Momma is that amazing?". Do you think I tell her she is amazing too much?

Hollings doing what she does.

Sweetness!
Her chocolate brown eyes are so rich I could drink them!

This move is called the mid pyramid pull up.

2nd 1st day of school

As promised here are BellaRose's pictures from her 2nd 1st day of school. She LOVES school and could not wait. Of course we started off the day with pancakes, a staple around here!

The dog is still an important part of BellaRose's life, ever since her 1st day of school last year. Doggy made his appearance again this year, but has not been back and she put him away right when she got there!

You all remember BellaRose in that outfit that Hollings is wearing?
One of my favorites.

On the way to school and on the front steps of school!

I love everything about this picture. In particular,the face Will is making, I am pretty sure Annie makes that face quite often! Annie will be having baby boy #2 any day now.
I am ready and waiting for the call!

Next up another update on that Hollings. Girl is just motoring around here and clapping away.
Just so sweet!

Oak Island

We just got back from a lovely week long trip to Oak Island. We could not have asked for better weather. We typically go to the Outer Banks but we are SO thankful that we did not as Hurricane Earl was blasting those barrier islands when we would have been arriving. If you remember from last years trip, our road flooded and it was not even a hurricane.
The girls had a blast. Hollings loved the ocean and thought the waves were pretty hysterical. She also started to crawl on the trip, 9.9.10 to be exact. It is not fast but she definitely moves in a forward motion on all fours for a couple of steps. The drive down and back went very smoothly since we moved Hollings out of the infant seat and into BellaRose's britax rear facing. She is so much happier now that she can see better!
Now sleeping is a whole other story. I am not a fan of the pak n play! She would roll over and hit the sides and wake up and the only thing that would get her to sleep was nursing. I certainly did not want to go down that road since she is sleeping through the night at home, but on vacation you just have to make exceptions.
Trent joined us this year and provided a lot of entertainment for BellaRose!
Thank you!
So now here are a whole lot of pictures. It is just too hard for me to narrow them down, but this is not nearly all of them.

BellaRose learning to skip.

She was also a very dedicated kite flyer. She played in the sand holding the string and just sat in her chair with a scowl holding it, sort of seems more like a job, but I think she enjoyed flying.

Kayak sessions with Daddy in the ocean.

A hole is to dig.
Anyone read that book?

Riding the ferry to Fort Fisher and then on to Wrightsville beach.
Riding the car onto the boat and riding the ferry was certainly a highlight of the trip.

Hollings was not sure about her dad who just turned into a head.

Loving those waves!

Hollings adores BellaRose.
I asked Rosey who her most favorite person in the world was sort of hoping it was me, but she said Hollings and that was an even better answer!

Next post

BellaRose's 1st day of school for the second time (since it is her 2nd year in preschool)

Sweet Hollings

A update

Hollings turned 6 months over two weeks ago and we had her check up on Monday. She weighs 14 pounds 11 ounces and is 26.5 inches long. She is almost exactly has BellaRose was at her 6 month check up. Hollings is sitting up on her own (a little wobbly of course), sleeping through the night (officially), still working on a day nap schedule (the plight of the second child I guess) she is eating puffs, cheerios, graham crackers, and is on a variety of baby food. She continues to not be a lover of the car which is such a bummer! Makes for a long car ride for us all. She just can't calm herself down once she gets worked up. Her smile is the most amazing smile I have ever seen on a baby. It honestly lights up her face and every one around her smiles. Her pout is just as big as her smile.
Her eye color is still undetermined. They are obviously not blue, but I am not sure what color brown or even green they are. Both T-love and OG have green eyes so it is not out of the question and they are not near as chocolate brown as Rosey's. We just have to continue to wait and see.
She brings us great joy and at the same time has made us realize we are pretty good with just two kids. Our family of 4! Our girls! We are good!