Before we welcome 2010...

Before we welcome 2010, I thought I should probably get my final photos of 2009 up on the blog. This Holiday season beginning with Halloween and ending with New Year's has been quite a whirlwind, but it has definitely been a lot of fun. Randy and I are so blessed to have two such wonderful and sweet little girls. Lily Catherine absolutely loves being a big sister, and Charlotte just loves her Lily Catherine.

Here are some photos from this fall and the Holidays.

At the Pumpkin Patch



Charlotte (2.5 months old)


Pumpkin Carving


Charlotte's Baptism


Thanksgiving 2009




Christmas!

Play School Christmas Party


Cookie with Santa at the Lewis' House


Children's Christmas Eve Service at our Church
(Charlotte got to play Baby Jesus which meant Randy and I were Joseph and Mary)

Charlotte -- 2 month update

5 days old.

With Grandaddy and Lily Catherine

Reading in Bed with Lily Catherine

Our Crazy Sports-Filled weekend including a first Preds game and a first Titans Game.

Swinging with Lily Catherine's babydoll.

Randy the "Superdad" at the zoo.
First Lake Trip

Birth Announcement Photo (3 Weeks Old)

Two Months Old

Lily Catherine's First Ballet Class

This morning Lily Catherine had her very first ballet class. She is taking lessons at Ann Carroll School of Dance in Franklin which is where I took dance for 15 years. I even used to be the demonstrator with her teacher Miss Jeanne when I was in high school.

The two-year-old class is the Belle class (named for the Disney Princess), so all the girls wear yellow leotards, since Belle's princess dress is yellow. When I got Lily Catherine all dressed and ready to go this morning with her tights, leotard, and ballet shoes, I must admit that I got a little misty-eyed. But that soon passed as we raced to get everyone in the car and out the door to head to "dancin' school" as Lily Catherine calls it. We actually got there a little early and had time to meet some new dance friends before class began.

Outside the building, sitting on one of the benches.

Running down the hall to the studio after Miss Jeanne invited the class in.

Waiting for Class to begin.

Standing next to her dot on the floor.

Watching Miss Jeanne hand out "Belle" coloring pages at the end of the class.

Checking out her "Belle" coloring page after class.

While the class was going on, I sat with Charlotte in the lobby and got to know the other moms. The best thing was they have televisions in the lobby, and we could see the whole class. Lily Catherine was the first one start following Miss Jeanne as she danced around the room. She wasn't shy at all, but she also did a very good job of following all of the directions and doing exactly what Miss Jeanne was asking her to do.

Tonight when Lily Catherine said her prayers, she said thank you for Miss Jeanne 5 times, Ballet 1 time, and new friends 1 time, so I am pretty sure she loved it.

Greek Festival 2009

This past Saturday, we attended the Greek festival at the Greek Orthodox church in Nashville. Lily Catherine had a BLAST playing and dancing with her cousin Andrew while Charlotte slept soundly in the Ergo for almost the entire time we were there.

Lily Catherine had more fun dancing on the dance floor between the performances of the Greek Dancers. She also loved watching all of the dancers while we were eating dinner.

For dinner we got to have all of our favorite traditional Greek dishes including Pisticcio, Mousaka, Gyros, Loukoumades, and Baklava Sundays.

After dinner, Lily Catherine caught sight of all of the inflatable fun and we spent the rest of the evening playing on those.

Just before heading home, we went back inside the church to say good-bye to Great-Papou who was working at the Greek Grocery stand. Let's just say that Lily Catherine made out pretty well since just before we left Papou bought her a sweet "Love My Papou" shirt (which she put on immediately after we got home), and she convinced Randy to buy her a hotpink "jingle skirt" that is now her favorite thing to wear around the house.

Welcome Baby Charlotte!

On August 7, 2009 at 3:28AM

Charlotte Elizabeth Bury

joined our family weighing in a 8 lbs, 6 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches.

I just had to share these!

The weekend before Charlotte was born, we took Lily Catherine to the park to do a quick two-year-old photo shoot. At 39 weeks pregnant (and in early August in Nashville!) it wasn't easy to chase her around, but I was determined to get some photos of her before the new one came along. I didn't want to miss out on those last days before she started to look more and more like a "big kid" than a baby. Let's just say that braving the heat was so worth it. I love the photos that I got!

The New Nursery

The new nursery has been a work in progress now for months,
but I think we have finally completed all of the finishing touches!

We decided to leave the walls the original blue that they were when we moved into the house regardless of whether or not we were having a boy or a girl. For the first half of the pregnancy I really thought we were having a boy, and I had picked out a green, blue and white plaid fabric to be use in the nursery.

When we found out we were having another girl, I knew that I wanted to use the nursery rhyme toile fabric called "Over the Moon" that I had found at the fabric store when Lily Catherine was about 6 months old. However, the fabric has a white background and our crib is white, so I needed to find some coordinating fabrics to match. I set out to find just the right blue and pink striped fabric, but I couldn't find anything that worked. I spent countless hours driving from one fabric store to the next to find things that would coordinate with one another just the way I wanted. It took three stores to find gather all the fabric I used.

Then came the really long part... SEWING all of the room decor. I must say that this took A LOT longer than I expected it to take, and I will definitely think twice before ever embarking on something this ambitious again, but I am really happy with how it all turned out.

The Crib

The Bumper

The Window Seat

The Valance

The Pillows on the Bench

Close-up of the Bench that Randy built

The Diaper Stacker

Summer 2009

We have been so busy preparing for the arrival of baby girl #2 that I have been very bad about updating our blog with what has been going on this summer. YIKES! I can't believe that our last post was after our trip to Texas. (Courtney, I really expect you to keep me more on top of this thing ;) ). I also have a tendency to get photos up on Facebook and forget about the blog. Hopefully I'll get better at sitting down and doing both at the same time.

Summer Water Fun!

We have spent nearly every weekend this summer on the boat on Center Hill Lake. Lily Catherine is really starting to love going just as much as we do. It's also a great way for the entire family (both dogs included) to spend time together. Lily Catherine has actually started jumping into the water off of the front of the boat and swimming a little with her life jacket on.

On the days that we're not on the lake, we have been at the pool. Again, Lily Catherine is jumping in and even learning to swim with the aid of a floaty swimsuit.

Our Little Artist!

Not a day goes by that Lily Catherine has not engaged in some kind of artistic endeavor. She LOVES LOVES LOVES to paint, draw, and color. She has at least a box of 64 crayons in nearly every room in the house. She also will draw on just about anything (including herself) if given the chance, so I am constantly monitoring her to make sure that her little creations are making it on to paper and not the walls or the floor. For her birthday, she got a week of Art Camp at Cheekwood. She still asks to go to art camp almost every day. I am just waiting until Tuesdays for Tots starts back up so we can at least have Tuesday Art Camp at Cheekwood (on the weeks we actually make it there). Otherwise, we'll continue having At-Home Art Camp.

The Big 2!

On June 17, Lily Catherine celebrated her 2nd birthday and the following Saturday we had a wonderful birthday party at the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue. I am pretty sure that it turned out to be the hottest day in June that day, but everyone seemed to have a great time despite the heat. We were also SO thankful to all of our friends and family who brought dog food and dog treats to donate to the Humane Society instead of gifts. Lily Catherine has plenty already, and one thing we know is that she LOVES dogs. We can't go near pet stores on adoption days because she wants to bring all the puppies and dogs home with us.

Looking Ahead!

We have so much in store for our family in the next few weeks. Baby Sister (no name yet!) should be here any day now, and I have been sewing like crazy making the crib set and nursery decor (photos to come SOON!) I have also made several new outfits for the new baby, and I am now working on clothes Fall clothes for Lily Catherine. So far I have 2 of about 8 outfits finished for her, but several of them are works in progress right now, and a few are nearing completion. Lily Catherine begins Ballet classes in September at the same dance school that I attended for 15 years. I am so excited about this, and I think she is too since all she kept saying when we went to register her was "I want to dance!"

New updates should be coming sooner rather than later. I've already packed the camera cord so that we can upload photos of the new one right in the hospital.

Stay Tuned...

The Texas Trip (Part 2)

Dallas
March 29-April 1

The morning after the wedding we headed straight for the airport to take a quick flight to Dallas to visit the Patnode family (Todd, Molly, Brendan, and Abaigeal).

It had been about 6 months since the last time we got to see them, and Lily Catherine had so much fun with her older cousins. The week was full with lacrosse games, baseball games, and taking the big kids to school. Lily Catherine even learned to say "MOO" when she saw the cows on the ranches going to and from school.

Lily Catherine and Abaigeal had SO much fun together. We still here her ask for "Abba" or "Abby" almost every day.

On Wednesday, after the kids went to school, we headed towards downtown Dallas to go and visit SMU and McCartneys (the store where I worked during college). Lily Catherine got an SMU pom pom, a hoodie sweatshirt, and a Peruna stuffed animal (Peruna is the SMU mascot). She also rean around around campus going up and down the steps of Dallas Hall with Randy about 20 times and trying to get as close as we would let her get to the fountain.

After a fun trip around campus, we jumped back into the car to go to the airport and head home. Lily Catherine actually walked all the way onto the plane all by herself for the very first time. When we found our seats she looked out the window and kept saying "Bye Bye" to Texas.

We're looking forward to another chance to get back to Dallas soon (but probably not before baby number 2 makes her debut), so that we will have more time to also catch-up with all of our Texas friends.