Comparisons

A lot of people have asked me lately if I think that Lauren looks like Claire. I really, really think that my girls resemble each other. Although, it's difficult to tell because they DO have some differences. Lauren is MUCH bigger than Claire was at the same age and the amount and color of their hair is different (Claire's was strawberry and Lauren's is brown with some strawberry tones). Those two things alone can make it seem as though they look different. Today, I pulled out some pictures for comparisons:


Lauren's first day at church. Claire's first day at church.

*BOTH girls were just over 2 months old when they went to church for the first time. For the life of us, we could NOT get Lauren to smile. And, if I remember correctly, this picture of Claire was the first time that we got a smile on camera.


Lauren at 11 weeks. Claire at 23 weeks, wearing the SAME onesie.

*That's right! Lauren is just 2 1/2 months old and I'm already pulling out the 6 month clothes. The picture of Claire was when we took her camping for the first time. She was about 5 1/2 months old.

Our Beautiful Girls

Here are some photos of our lives lately:


One day this week, I went to get Claire up from her nap and this is what I found...sitting up, feet under the bed rail, socks off and hair in disarray. Love this girl!


Apparently my 25 pound 22 month old can sit in the Bumbo. She is so crazy!

So excited about our 'new to us' double jogger. Before I even got pregnant with Lauren, Bradley's parents spotted this at a yard sale for $20 and I told them to get it! (I just KNEW we were gonna have another kiddo someday). We finally have a reason to use it. Claire and I took it out for a test drive earlier this week.

Her hair is getting so long now and it's just gorgeous! I couldn't help taking this snapshot of her beautiful hair.

Lauren had lunch one day with Claire and I (she just sat in her Bumbo on the table while we ate), although she doesn't look too happy about it. She was ready for a nap!

Claire loves to go 'see the horses' with Granddaddy! If you walk through the woods behind our house there is a horse farm not too far from us. There is a huge pond and horses that they love to walk to if the weather permits.

Claire wants to hold Lauren as much as possible now. She will even walk up to us when I'm feeding Lauren and put her hands on her and say, "I hold you?". Sweet girl.

Several weeks ago, a sweet family from church gave us a bundle of hand-me-downs. In it was this cute little headband. Claire calls it her 'necklace' and wears it around her neck all the time. The night this photo was taken, her Daddy put it on her like this and called her Jane Fonda. We laughed and laughed and she had a great time.

My girls L.O.V.E their Daddy! And he just ADORES them. I love this picture of the 3 loves of my life.

Little Chatterbox

This morning I was feeding Lauren when Bradley went to get Claire out of bed. I heard about 10 minutes of random comments to him from her. I couldn't help but laugh at all of her randomness. She gets so excited when she wakes up from her nap that she just starts talking to talk. Hmmm...I wonder who she takes after? Uh, certainly not my "chooses his words wisely" husband. :) Here are some things that I overheard this morning:

*"Daddy!"...with excitement that he came and woke her
*"I sit"...sometimes she sits up in bed when we come and get her
*"A nap"...she thinks that when she wakes up in the morning she's just woken from a nap
*"Book!"...she must've seen a book
*"Dora Seat"...she has a little couch in her room that has Dora the Explorer on it
*"Bear"...she was playing with a little bear last night before going to bed...she must've seen it
*"Neckie"...i.e. necklace...she was playing with it last night before going to bed...same as above
*"Diaper"...she gets her diaper changed
*"Mama, Lauren"...Bradley just told her that Mama was in with Lauren
*"Eat?"...even if she's not hungry...she asks to eat after waking up in the morning.
*"Dog goes 'ruff ruff'"...who knows why this was said!! :)

And of course...I overheard Bradley cracking up at our sweet little girl. She is so funny to us. Now that she's learning so many new words each day...she wants to "practice" saying them constantly. We love it and we love her!

Jesus Book

Claire loves to read. Just this morning, during her roomtime she was sitting in the floor surrounded by all of her books, reading. I have a pile of books in Lauren's room for Claire to look at while I'm feeding Lauren. One of those books is the Bible that Bradley and I purchased her when I was still pregnant with her. She calls it her "Jesus Book". It is so sweet and everytime I hear her refer to her Bible as the Jesus Book, I just melt. (I know, I melt at a lot of things that she says & does).

Claire is also learning more and more words each day. She is repeating just about everything that we say in hopes to learn how to say the words. It is precious! Some words that are in her daily vocabulary are:

~"hibbits"...i.e. hiccups. Both Claire & Lauren had the "hibbits" yesterday.


~dog, cat, monkey, hippo, lion, frog, sheep, duck, bird, walrus, bear, bunny...etc. All animals that you can think of. She loves animals and the sounds they make.


~All family member's names: Nannie (Nana), Gampa (Grandpa), Gamma (Grandma), Gee (Granddaddy), Ashee (Ashley), Titeen (Christine), Tia (Tara), Teton (Steven), Angy (easy to say, I guess), Don (John), Char-Jake (refers to both Charlie AND Jake together), Adeeya (Adaya), Ellio (Elliot). She even knows the family dogs names: Cletus, Duke, Sam, Laddie, Rosie, Baxter.



It is a JOY to be the mom of this precious girl. I love teaching her new things. I love the look on her face when she learns something new. I love the look on her face when she knows that she has obeyed me and I'm happy about that. That precious smile. I love the excitement that she gets when she hears her daddy's truck pulling into the driveway after a day at work. I love that she enjoys going to wake up Lauren from her naps with me. I love that she enjoys the outdoors like her daddy does. I love that she calls her Bible her "Jesus Book". I just love this precious girl.

And baby makes 4

It seems as though the last 6 months, I just can't keep this blog updated! Well, a lot has happened with our family. On November 23, we welcomed our second daughter, Lauren Kathryn Wilkie. Even though it was 3 days past my due date, we were still taken a little by surprise. I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions for several weeks and had even sat at home timing contractions a few times the week that she was born. The week before Lauren was born I saw my doctor and she strongly recommended that I not go past 41 weeks. I was very anxious about when Lauren's arrival was going to be because of the Sears store...Bradley HAD to work Black Friday, which was 6 days after my due date. (Claire was 8 days past her due date). My doctor had me schedule an ultrasound for 2 days after my due date for us to make sure the baby was still healthy and thriving. I was familiar with this because I went through it when I was pregnant with Claire too. However, with Lauren, unlike Claire, the ultrasound did not show that Lauren was "thriving". They measure several different movements as well as the level of fluid and on one of the tests, Lauren measured 1 out of 4...which didn't make the doctors happy. They recommended that I go in THAT NIGHT for an induction. I was SUPER sad...I even started crying at the appointment. I did NOT want to be induced again...I wanted this baby to come on his/her own time. (We did not find out the gender of Lauren before she was born...we did the same with Claire). Well I, of course, trusted my doctors and followed their recommendations and proceeded to make the round of phone calls and run a few errands before checking myself into the hospital. First to be called...Bradley...who was SHOCKED that I was heading to the hospital (as was I). Why were we so surprised? I mean, I was 2 days late!! Once we both made it to the hospital and I got settled into my room, I met with the doctor. She told me that they were going to induce me a different way than I was induced with Claire. In most women, it jump starts labor within 6 hours. In a small percentage of women, labor starts within 1 hour and in another small percentage of women, they have to start pitocin (which is what I had with Claire) after the 6 hour mark. Because it took several hours for labor to start when I was induced with Claire, Bradley and I settled in for a long night. His brother even stopped by to see us after he got off of work. Well, during that visit, I started to feel bad...could I have contractions already?? It had been less than 30 mins since I was induced! Well, in less than an hour I was having some serious contractions...the kind that you have to concentrate on....the kind that you cannot talk through. Bradley walked his brother to the car and while he was out there got my overnight bag and a few other things. And while he was gone, labor progressed fast! My labor and delivery nurse was right there with me through it all and said that she thought we would have a baby before midnight! WHAT? My labor with Claire was 15 hours! And didn't the doc say that most women took hours for this kind of induction to start? It had only been 45 mins to an hour!! I was in so much pain, though, that I went ahead and asked for my epidural...before Bradley even returned from the car! He was SHOCKED that I asked for it in that short amount of time. Finally, I got my epidural...and we both thought that we could get some sleep or at least some rest before this baby came. Well...Lauren had a different plan. As soon as I laid down, I started feeling bad. There was no sleep and no rest for me! At 12:48 am on November 23, we welcomed our second baby girl into this world. I was CONVINCED that she was going to be a boy! And THRILLED that she was a girl! I couldn't believe it! We had TWO girls!! We were both so overcome with joy...and surprised...that Lauren was here. My labor was a total of just 5 hours and 15 mins! Start to finish. As I'm typing this, I still can't believe it!

Well, the next few days for us weren't as smooth as the first. We found out that Lauren's bilirubin level was high and she needed to stay in the hospital longer than we expected. She was put on a bili-bed on Wednesday and HATED it. She cried literally all day. We could not hold her, unless I was feeding her. And because she was awake and crying all day, everytime I'd feed her she'd fall right to sleep. By that night her glucose level dropped dangerously low and we were persuaded to supplement with some formula (which devestated me). After quite the ordeal on
Wednesday and Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) we finally got the go-ahead to come home on Thursday evening. We got home at 6 pm on Thanksgiving night. Bradley's parents brought Claire home to us and I finally got to spend some quality time with my firstborn. I missed her so much when I was at the hospital. My heart hurt I missed her so much. The next few weeks with her would be tough. It was a bit of a transition for her, going from only child to older sister. But, after a few weeks, she grew to love Lauren and now asks me where she is and asks to kiss her head when I go to put Lauren down for naps. She is so sweet with her and it fills this Mom's heart with joy that she loves her so much. It's been 2 months since we brought Lauren home from the hospital. The first 2 weeks were tough...Bradley worked A LOT, I slept very little, Claire had some emotional days when I didn't know what to do with her. But, the Lord was good to me...He showed me grace and love and answered my many prayers for my family. Lauren is such a sweet baby. From the beginning, she's really been a great nighttime sleeper. What a blessing! She is now starting to organize her daytime sleep. Here are some other 2 month stats:

~12 1/2 lbs...over 1 lb heavier than her big sister was at the same age!
~smiles a lot...the person she smiles at the most? Big Sister, of course!
~she is a social child. she is calm as can be as long as someone else is in the room with her.
~much to her mama's dismay...she is not sleeping longer than 5 hours at a time at night...however, she will go right back to sleep. I have not had to walk around the house bouncing her to soothe her. So even though I may not be getting a lot of sleep yet, at least I'm not up for hours at a time!

I love this little girl more than I ever imagined. She is a true joy in our lives and often makes us laugh. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but never imagined being a mom would be SO rewarding! Thank you, Lord, for giving me these children. They are a true blessing and I can't imagine my life with out them.

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.