3 months later...

Wow, my last posting was 3 months ago. And boy have our lives changed since then. First of all, I am about to pop with our 2nd child. Only 3 more weeks until my due date. The last few days have been full of washing and organizing newborn clothing, bedding and blankets. Earlier this week we moved Claire to the other bedroom and put her on a twin mattress (that rests on the floor). It made my heart sad to see my baby girl in such a big room in a big bed...but soon enough I know I'll be looking at an adult and wondering where my baby went. It seems all too far away now...but I know my mom and Bradley's mom and probably all moms out there that have adult children, wonder the same thing..."Wasn't it just yesterday that I was holding that little baby infant in my arms?".

Okay, okay, enough of the preggo woman's emotions...:). One of the biggest things to report is that Bradley and I purchased a small business 2 weeks ago. For years, Bradley has wanted to own his own business and for years I've protested (I am NOT a risk-taker)...but when the opportunity presented itself for this particular business...we both realized that this was right for us...no matter how frightful I was of the risk. All of you, I'm sure, are familiar with Sears. But, have you ever heard of Sears Hometown Stores? They are smaller versions of the mega-stores you see in malls. We are NOT scratch and dent stores though! We can order any item into our store that the mega-stores have. The general idea to the Sears Hometown Stores is that we provide all of the Sears merchandise to the local, rural communities. They are all locally owned and operated (the mega-stores are all still owned by Sears Holding Corporation). Our particular store is in Clayton, NC...a suburb of Raleigh. If you are on Facebook, check out our page 'Sears of Clayton' for great coupons and deals of the week. We are super excited about this opportunity. It's been a lot of work and a lot of "new" things for us...but we have really enjoyed working there, and we especially enjoy that we are "working" together. Given that I'm about to have a baby and that we have small children, our goal is for me to continue to stay at home...but I'm doing my part at home...accounting, marketing and keeping Bradley up-to-date on things that may need to be addressed at the store. It's also nice to think about the future....if Bradley has a long couple of days or weeks at the store...I'll be able to step in (once the children are a little older) and go to work for him while he stays at home with the kids. What an amazing opportunity for him and the children to spend more time together.

Below are a few pictures of the store.

Catching Up...

There came a point in time that so much time had passed since I'd updated the blog, that I kept on getting more and more overwhelmed with the task. Finally, today, I just decided to put some recent pics up (of the last 3 months) and pick up from there.


Our little cutie's hair is now long enough for a pony tail!.


We went camping over Memorial Day weekend and were able to "test drive" our new to us bike trailer that we purchased at a recent garage sale. Claire loved it!


She wasn't quite sure what we were doing, but after riding around for a while in the campground, she warmed up to it.

That same weekend that we went camping, we also went to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. The zoo is so big and it was so hot that day that we only made it through half of the zoo! But, we had a blast. We also cracked up at Claire...she called every animal that she saw a dog!

This gorilla was so funny. If you look closely you can see his grey hair on his chin. He was just sitting by the glass watching all of the people like we were the exhibit...not him. Hilarious!

Claire totally called the elephant a "dog". No honey, that's an elephant...not a dog. :)

We often find Claire sitting in the floor "reading" a book. She just loved to look through books!

Claire and her best buddy, Papa.

Claire and Papa spending a little time together.

Around the 1st of July we got some corn from some local farmers. We decided this year that we wanted to freeze corn for use all winter long. Farm fresh corn...yum! Claire was helping Grandma.

What a cute little helper!

All of a sudden our little girl has become a little girl! She loves to walk on her tip-toes and she is constantly putting these teething rings around her wrists like they're her bracelets. A day doesn't go by that she doesn't have those "bracelets" on. And the funny thing is, that no one taught her that...she just did it all on her own!

Over the 4th, we went to the beach with the Tomlinson family. It was Claire's first time to really "play" at the beach. She's not much of a fan, but after a few days, she warmed up to it.

Bradley went fishing every day that we were there. Our set up was perfect, because we had a house right on the water, so all he had to do was carry a chair, rod and reel down to the water, just feet from our back door! He went fishing morning, noon and night!

Several mornings, Claire and I met Bradley down at the water to hang out. The sunrise over the ocean was beautiful!

My dad and bro-in-law also went fishing a ton while we were there. This is a pic of their set up one morning.

One day we went to the NC Aquarium. It was a nice break from the beach and a fun family outing. The boys especially had a good time!

Bradley and I planted a few tomato plants this year and these are a few of the tomatoes that we got. There were so many at one time that I decided to make a spaghetti sauce out of them...

Here's my spaghetti sauce that went into my...

Homemade lasagna! It was delish!

Claire loved it too!

My sister and I hanging out on the deck overlooking the beach one night.

A little evening fishing...it was so relaxing to just hang out with Bradley while he fished.

Fresh from a bath...what a pretty little smile!

Claire loved to "stomp" on the hard, packed sand.

The boys got some pirate gear while we were down there and guess who always wanted to play with it. What a cute little pirate!

Doesn't everyone wear "bracelets" and a beach hat while eating their morning waffles?

Silly girl, making silly faces.

Charlie, Claire and Jake stopped goofing off long enough for us to get a picture.

Not only have we started putting Claire's hair in a pony tail lately, but just in the last week or so, we have been able to do pig tails too. She looks like such a big girl!

This is what the hair looks like when we take the pig tails out. Crazy hair!!

Ready for the pool!

Playing in the pool that Nana and Grandpa gave her for her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

This past weekend we celebrated Bradley's birthday by going camping at a local state park. And when I say "camping" I mean, the camper/air conditioned/bathroom type camping. Bradley's parents have a 23' camper that they graciously allow us to use. And we quickly found out when I was pregnant with Claire that when I am pregnant...we do NOT want to go tent camping! :)

Anyway, we had a wonderful time. Since the state park is under an hour from our home...Bradley towed the camper with the truck and I towed his boat with my SUV. Nothing relaxes Bradley more than fishing on a lake in his boat. Unfortunately, his boat quit working the 2nd day that we were there...but he had got in a lot of time fishing the first day. Claire is now walking really, really well and one of her favorite things to do now is to pick up rocks. Since our campsite was filled with little rocks (sort of like a driveway would be) she had a blast. She literally spent hours walking around our campsite, babbling, and picking up rocks and carrying them around.

The state park also has a swim area that we decided to go to one afternoon. After about 30 mins of prep (sun screen, swim diaper, swimsuits etc) we finally headed over to the "beach" area. Turns out Claire wanted NO part of the sand or the water. (See pics below). I know that it's terrible of us...but because she cries like that so few times...Bradley and I always think that it's so adorable when she cries. We couldn't help but chuckle at her. Poor thing. Looks like we've got a little work ahead of us when we go to the beach this summer.

All in all...we had a great weekend. It was wonderful to just relax with our small little family for 3 days. Bradley was able to fish. Claire was able to roam around outside. And my heart was happy just being with the 2 of them.


Bradley fishing on his boat. There was a little cove just across from our campsite that Bradley was able to tie his boat up in and come and have lunch with us.


Relaxing time on his boat.


The one and only smile we got when we were at the beach.


All she wanted was to cling to us. She didn't want to sit on our knees. She didn't want to stand up on the sand. She just wanted to be held.

Love that cute little pout that she has. We're on our way to the water....

Once we got to the water she clung to Bradley like a baby animal clings to its mama. It cracked us up!

She was NOT a happy camper! (look at those chunky legs...so precious!)

Hating that Bradley put her down.

Even after we picked her back up, she continued to let us know that she was not happy...:)

She didn't even want Bradley to hold her on his knee. She was only happy when he was standing. :)

What is 3 will soon be 4!

Bradley and I are thrilled to be adding another child to our family this Fall! Sometime around Thanksgiving our little family of 3 will become a family of 4. We are so, so happy. Yes, we will again be waiting to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl until he or she is born. I know, I know, most of you think we're crazy...but we absolutely loved finding out that way with Claire and are fully on board to do that again. Please join us in rejoicing in this new life and praising God for giving us another child! We fully believe that we would have nothing, including our children, without Him.

The Wilkie's are in Virginia!!

Last week, Steven, Tara and Elliot flew to Virginia from Texas for a little bit of training for their job. (Big sis Adaya stayed in TX with her Mimi and Papa). Fortunately, Bradley, Claire and I were able to drive up and visit. Claire finally got to meet them and we finally got our hands on our newest nephew, Elliot! We had a blast and were so, so thankful for the time we spent up there! We haven't seen Steven in Tara in almost 2 years, but it was like they'd never left. Tara and I were instantly comparing our "mom" notes and Steven and Bradley were joking with each other from the start. Ashley came up one night too and we were all together (minus Christine and Adaya) for a few short hours. Our hearts were just full of joy and it gave us just a taste of what our summer is going to look like when they are all here in NC. Steven and Tara, we LOVE you guys! Thanks for letting us come and visit you during your busy, busy week. We absolutely cannot wait until June!

All of the Wilkie Men...plus one.

Bradley couldn't wait to squeeze this munchkin. Elliot and Claire were fast friends and they're gonna have a blast hanging out this summer!

Claire and I with Tara and Elliot. Claire and Elliot are only 4 1/2 months apart.

Claire quickly bonded with her Uncle Steven...is it because he's a big kid at heart? :) And of course, Uncle Ashley is always fun to play with!

Bradley and I getting some last minute sugar in from Elliot before we had to head back to NC.