Backtracking: Asheville, NC

This blog post is WAY overdue (as in, we went to Asheville in May!), so without further ado....

Robby, Caroline and I travelled to Asheville at the end of May for my dear friend, Emily's wedding.  I was honored to be one of her bridesmaids, and we had a wonderful time celebrating Emily and her handsome groom, Dave!  We also loved seeing all of my college girls and their men!

Baby Caroline was three months old at the time, and this was her very first road trip!  For all of you who are worrying about Kate...she stayed in Charlottesville with her Gigi and had an absolute blast (thank you, Mom!!).

In addition to the wedding weekend festivities, Robby and I got to spend some time with my sister, Merideth, who lives in Asheville, and Robby's brother, Skip, who was spending the weekend about an hour away with one of our other favorite people, Anne Collier!  Skip, Anne Collier and Merideth joined us for a tour of the Biltmore Estate.   It was so wonderful to see them, and I had never been to the Biltmore, so that was a treat too!

We stayed with a family friend for our first few days in Asheville...check out the view from their breakfast table!
What a beautiful place!  

Baby Caroline meeting the Bride-to-be!

Getting ready for the wedding!

The happy couple

Baby Caroline and a few of my favorite Tar Heels at the reception!

THE BILTMORE!

Uncle Skip, Anne Collier and Baby Caroline
We loved seeing y'all!!

Aunt Merideth and Baby Caroline
LOVE those girls!

What a great weekend!  We are already planning our next trip back! :)

Caroline: Three and Four Month Updates

Whew!  We have had a crazy two months.  It has been filled with a lot of joy (we LOVE watching this little one grow and change and we are so thankful for her and her big sister) and a lot of worrying and fretting on my part (nothing new there...but over the last few months even I have set a personal record)!  

About two months ago, Caroline had a bloody stool and they continued daily for a few weeks....and it scared me half to death (picture lots of tears (mine not hers!), studying each and every single diaper this poor child had and showing them to anyone who would let me, frantically calling, emailing, texting everyone I know in the medical profession, and three trips to the doctor too...Okay, so I never claimed to be sane!;)  

Anyway, the consensus is that Caroline has allergic colitis, and that something in my diet (she is still nursing) is causing her to have an allergic reaction and have green, mucousy and sometimes bloody stools.   Since I couldn't pinpoint what is causing the reaction, I have had to cut out all potential allergens (dairy, eggs, fish, wheat, soy and nuts) from my diet.  It has certainly seemed to help Caroline (who is still having the problem some, but not nearly as frequently).  Once Caroline's little system settles down, I am hoping to add some things back in to my diet and figure out what is causing her issues.  Thankfully, Caroline's stomach does not seem to hurt her, and she is gaining weight (95th percentile) and growing well (THANK HEAVENS!).  The best news is that Caroline should grow out of the allergic colitis as she gets older!

Please pray for our little girl and her digestive system, and for her mama (who is eating a very strange diet and really misses bread and butter), and her dada (who is cooking for her mama...not an easy task when you have such limited ingredients), and her big sister (who is now obsessed with playing doctor and checking all of her doll babies for "bloody stoo"....poor sweet, Kate!)

More posts to come, but for now our baby girl at three and four months old!  We love you to the moon and back, Caroline!

A Ride On The Wild Side

Last weekend, we went to the Safari Park in Lexington, Virginia.  For those of y'all who have never been, you drive your car through about three miles of park and feed all sorts of animals along the way.

Kate is obsessed with animals (of the plastic and stuffed variety), so we thought she would love seeing the real thing at the Safari Park.  Let's just say, it was a huge hit!!

While I was a tiny bit scared of the animals throwing their heads in the car to eat, Robby and Kate LOVED it!!

We will definitely be going back there again soon!!

Apparently, llamas really like grain!

She was loving it!!

Kate feeding a llama!

I fed a camel...it stole my food bucket, and I promptly closed my window.
He was NOT the smallest thing I have ever seen!!

The most exciting part of our venture...this watusi was hungry...YIKES!

Neither we, nor our car, was able to escape him!
Luckily, no one  (including the car) was injured in the making of this photo!

Kate thought it was hilarious!

Even the ostriches came right up to the car!  They are huge!

We ran out of grain, but this hopeful llama would not give up!

A rare moment when Caroline was awake....she slept almost the entire trip!

After the park, we went to the petting zoo to see the baby animals!

That was awesome!  We will be back!

Caroline is Two Months Old!

I can't believe that our precious baby girl is already two months old!  She weighed in at 13 pounds and 24 inches long at her two month check (75th percentile for both weight and height).  She is a little taller than Kate was at this age, but otherwise their stats are identical.

Forgive my lack of blog updates lately...I can't seem to get anything done because I just want to snuggle this baby.  Who could blame me...after all, if she keeps growing at this rate, she will be taller than I am by the time she is in preschool!;)  I mean, two inches in a month is some serious growing!!

Caroline has stolen our hearts with her toothless smiles and sweet personality.

Smiles for her Dada!

And a look back--I can't believe how much she has grown already!

One Month

Newborn

As Kate would say, "We yub you, Sister!"

Easter 2012

We had a wonderful Easter celebration with all of our Charlottesville family! Kate LOVED every minute of the day (except for nap time, of course), and it was such a treat to watch her take it all in!

We started the day with brunch and an Easter egg hunt at Lisee and Poppy's house, then we went to Church, next we took a break for some much needed naps, and then we had another egg hunt and dinner with Gigi, Terry and Great Granddaddy Jack! Whew! What a day!

Kate especially LOVED the Easter hunts (Oh, and the bunnies and candy filled eggs!!) All day yesterday and today, Kate has been saying, "Thank you, God, for the Easter hunts." She also said her favorite part of Easter was "Jesus." So even though she doesn't really understand why we celebrate Easter (which is very hard to explain to a two year old!), she certainly has the right idea!

Caroline's first Easter...6 weeks old and such a joy!

Thank you, Lisee and Poppy, for my precious basket!!

Snuggling with Aunt Ashley

Poppy and his girls! Kate was so excited to see her cousin, Addie!!

Poppy and Lisee with all of their grandkids!

A quick picture of the four of us before Church

Gigi and all of her girls!

Opening presents and playing with Great Granddaddy Jack!

Master of the hunt!

Success!

"Yook, Candy!"

LOVE this sweet face!:)

What a wonderful day!

Bye Bye and Happy Easter!

Big Sister Kate and Look Alikes!

Robby and I are so proud of Kate. She is taking her role as a new big sister very seriously, and she is willing to do almost anything for baby Caroline--including share her Mama and Dada (which is not an easy thing to do when you are two and a half years old!).

Kate loves to point out that, "sister is tiny, and Kate is yittle." Kate is against the whole idea of being a "big girl." I can't say I really blame her--after all you are only "yittle" once! :)

Kate sings Caroline lots of songs, and wants us to drop everything and soothe baby sister if she starts to cry (even if we were playing with Kate at the time!). Kate also makes sure that Caroline only wears Cookie Monster diapers, because those are obviously far superior to the diapers with Big Bird and Elmo on them. We have to save those diapers for when Kate is sleeping!;)

We love our little helper, and we are so proud of how well she is loving her baby sister.

Oh, and in addition to sharing her Mama and Dada...Kate has also shared her good looks with her baby sister. I am not sure how I am going to tell their baby pictures apart!!

Kate and Gigi waiting for Mama, Dada and baby Caroline to come home from the hospital

Looking in at Caroline when we first brought her home

Caroline planned a "big sister party" for Kate...complete with plastic animals, of course!;)

Gigi and Lisee helped us celebrate Caroline coming home from the hospital and enjoyed Kate's big sister party!

A kiss for Caroline!

Kate has been practicing on her big sister skills on her own baby Caroline

She is also willing to keep Caroline company on her play mat...I think Caroline was actually sleeping in this picture, but Kate was enjoying it!

A post bath snuggle in their matching pajamas

And now for our little look a likes...

Here is Kate at two weeks...

And Caroline at two weeks...

Thank you, Kate, for loving your baby sister so well!