Weekend Getaway and Halloween Fun!

A few weeks ago Josh and I had the opportunity to get away for the weekend. We went up to Berry College with some friends of ours (Zac and Dawn Caudell). They both graduated from Berry and so they knew some things fun to do. We stayed in some on-campus cabins that can be rented out. We had a good time. We went on a nice hike and Josh and Zac got to play some disc golf as well as some raquetball. I got a chance to relax a little and read. We went out to a nice dinner and had some expensive food. Overall it was a nice opportunity to a break from life and relax a little. There are some pictures of our trip below.

Yesterday Lily and I got to celebrate some Halloween festivities by going to a Halloween party play date with Lily in costume as well as dress her up for Halloween that night as well to hand out candy. She was a little chick and she won an award at the playdate we went to for "funniest costume."

Here are some pictures of our trip to Berry and Lily's 1st "costume" Halloween.









Josh and I also went to a halloween party a week ago and this was our costume:




If you can't guess, we were a "pair of blue Jeans"

Picture Update

Lily had her 1 year portraits done back in September and here are a some of those....












Lily and Papa

Lily and Mommy

Lily giving Daddy kisses

Bath time

Hair combed out after bath time

Mommy and Lily rode a dinosaur ride at the Gwinnett County fair, since Lily is SO tall she was actually able to ride some of the rides when she probably really wasn't quite "old" enough. We had a good time she didn't cry she just held on tight.




We bought Lily a big girl chair of her own because I was tired of her climbing on the couches so as soon as we bought this she was a sitting machine....she loves it. I only wish I had bought one sooner.

Getting in her chair

Mommy, Daddy, Lily and The Caudell's went to Col. Cobb's Corn Maze, Hayride and Pumpkin Patch. Here are some silly pictures from the day at the farm.


The Caudell's




Lily and Parker (Parker is 7 1/2 months old)

There was a bouncy thing there too so Lily and daddy bounced together.

Mike Mannschreck, Josh and Lily after dinner together.

Carrie Anne and Kristin Mannschreck (The Mannschreck's just had their 2nd baby a few weeks ago and are going to be moving back to Oklahoma soon.....too soon!!)

Hope you enjoyed some new pictures.

Posting Lapse

This past month or so has been a long month for me. I have been pretty sick with morning sickness since the end of August. I should be coming out of the morning sickness stage very very soon and I hope that I get a new found energy at the same time.

Lily is a firecracker. She is all over the place and into everything. We have found even more things to childproof than I thought was possible. Some of her conundrums lately have been, eating grease from the grill's grease trap, putting our TV controller in Timber's water dish, eating charcoal, spilling red Kool-aid all over the floor and dining room chair and pouring water in one of her stand-up electronic toys. You would think that I was not even watching her.....but I was and somehow all that stuff still happened. AHHHHH (said with a smile on my face).

Lily is very close to being able to run now, which I am not excited about. It is going to be harder for me to keep up with her as my belly gets bigger and bigger. Lily just learned how to drink from a straw yesterday. We have been trying to get her to do that for a little while now and something clicked with her yesterday, all it took was for her to get it one time and now she knows exactly what to do. Lily can also whistle. I know that you might find that hard to believe but I promise you it is the truth. I whistle a lot around the house and I guess she mimicked my mouth and she was able to whistle (while sucking in). She can replicate it so I know it was not a one time thing. I have not caught it on video yet, but that is coming soon.

Last month Lily had her 12 month appointment with the pediatrician and did really well (minus the shots that she was much more aware of this time around....not happy). She is SUPER tall and just an overall big girl. She is off the charts again for weight, height, and head circumference. The pediatrician said that she was not at all concerned and that Lily's big daddy might have something to do with her large stature. They did say that Lily should be saying about 1-3 words by now and I told them that I really wasn't sure that Lily was doing that yet. I have been working like mad to get her to say things (coherently). She babbles all day long in Lily language but not too many "real" words have come out yet. We will keep working on it.

Josh is doing some leadership training to hopefully become an administrator soon. He is enjoying some of his new opportunities and connections. Maybe next year he will be an Assistant principal which I think would be so fun! Everything else with us is going well. We are looking forward to the Thanksgiving and Christmas season right around the corner. We will probably be finding out the sex of Baby Rowan #2 at the end of November/beginning of December.

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather and the beautiful days of fall. Keep in touch!

Lily's 1st Birthday

Lily is 1 year old now and we had a fantastic birthday celebration for her on Sept 6th at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder. It was a beautiful day and lots of people came to celebrate with us. Unfortunately, that whole week before her party Lily and I were both sick with a cold and then the morning of her party Lily wakes up at 4 am with horrible diaper rash and diarrhea. The poor little thing was in pain and couldn't sleep well.......we barely got enough sleep for her party and by the end of the day she was EXHAUSTED. The party itself was great. Lily had lots of little friends come and celebrate with her and we had lots of our adult friends to celebrate with us. Lots of fun.

I don't have a ton of pictures yet because I was not taking any while this was all going on. Lily's first birthday cake experience was incredible........I will post a progression of pictures below for you to get the best understanding you can of what happened.

Lily is walking great now and she barely ever crawls anymore (no more dirty knees, yea!!). We have her 1 year doctor's appointment on Sept 15th next week. I also have my first ultrasound appointment next week to make sure baby #2 is growing healthy and strong like Lily did.

On Lily's birthday I took a moment to pause and think about the whole year that had gone by so quickly and remember the moment we first met our beautiful little girl. I know Josh agrees when I say it was the best moment of our lives. All the itching and pain was worth it for such a precious little girl who makes so many people smile when she looks at them. She is really a blessing from God that we feel so privileged to be able to raise. I can't believe that I will be doing it all over again in less than a year but the rewards are infinite and I know that I will be thinking all the same things after a year of his/her life.

Thanks to all the friends and family that were able to share in Lily's special day. We feel so blessed to have some many loving people in our lives!