Elena Baptism

Elena was baptized in April of this year. We had beautiful weather, and all of our friends and family (except those that live out of town) were able to join us and celebrate!

Getting ready

 

Godparents

Avah Kisses

And Brenna hugs

Been a While

I've been told, a couple of times in fact, that I'm a little behind in blogging...this person does have a point though, going on two years. I might have missed a few key things...

I would catch up, but let's face it, that would take entirely too long, and quite honestly, those of you that follow this blog are well aware of the biggest events/changes in our lives over the past two years.

We became a family of five, and welcomed Elena in November. Elena has completed our family so wonderfully and perfectly it was like we were all just waiting for her. The girls LOVE her, and she is totally enamored with them. She's a very happy little girl and is most content as long as she's witht he family.

Nathan and I are now an aunt and uncle! Jessie and Nick welcomed Sage last September (pictures of the cutest nephew in the world coming soon!).

Nathan graduated with honors last May!

And he and I both lost our minds (apparently with not enough to do) and decided to both pursue our masters. We are about halfway through now, and cannot wait to be done! And last, but certainly not least, our village welcomed a TON of new wonderful babies to the mix. We are most definitely outnumbered in our gatherings now, but wouldn't change if for the world!

Park Time

Had a beautiful random September Sunday here and decided to take the girls to the park to enjoy the nice weather!

Nathan, The Camera Man

My Grandpa Hershberger took virtually all the pictures between him and my Grandma.  He was good at it too, had a great eye for good shots, and liked the cameras that he got to use manually instead of point and shoot.  Somehow though, whenever at the beach or pool, he would end up with these random shots of good looking women in bikinis.  My grandma would pick up the developed photos and while looking through come across these shots, shake her head and smile and laugh as Grandpa explained that he was really taking a picture of a seagull or a boat in the background...honest!  Sure enough, there always was something else in the photo, but it was a long-standing joke in our family.

With Nathan and I, I pretty much always have the camera.  Which is why there are virtually no pictures of me and the girls together, but we are working on it.  One day at the beach on vacation, Nathan took out the camera and spent the day getting lots of really great shots of the girls.  I still had to shake my head and smile as I came across these while sorting through though...my grandpa would be so proud...

In the first shot he covers his bases with Sammie, the second he apparently forgot to do so altogether, and then by the third he's just plain sucking up ;-)  But I'll take it...

Vacation - 2011 - Destin, FL

After our visit to Mamaw and Scotty's, we traveled across Florida to Destin.  We'd never been, but heard it was a fabulous family vacation with the most beautiful beaches.  We were not disappointed.  Brenna was a little timid of all things water at first, but warmed up as the week went on.  Sammie on the other hand, loved everything about both the beach and the pool.

Vacation - 2011 - Destin (Fudpuckers)

The last night that we were in Destin, and on vacation, we decided to go to Fudpuckers.  A local rustic restaurant that offered great food, good drinks, a play area for the kids, and live entertainment in the form of live alligators.  We thought the girls would love, turned out we were right, which was very beneficial considering the hour and a half wait we encountered.

One of my favorite pictures of my girls :)

And finally, after being on vacation for 10 days, we were able to get ONE family photo.  *SIGH*