Charlotte by camera

As Thomas astutely pointed out, the highlights of last weekend were Nella's birth and Cason's dedication--naturally, no pictures exist of either. With our camera, at least. We are awesome like that.

However

We do have many pictures from Tiger World and Fuel Pizza, so be prepared to be bombarded with images of big cats, cute children, and doting grandparents.
Thanks for a fun weekend, Dierkers, Grooms and Dyksterhouses!

Lillian breaking in the bear that lives in Kate and Jimmy's room for Nella.

White tigers are pretty!

Hanging out with Grandma (T's mom)

Oh you know, just a peacock at the picnic table. L wanted to befriend it of course.

This one is for Thomas. He loved the bears' sweet faces.

"Look Lillian, a tiger!" "Thanks, Mom, but this ordinary leaf is much more interesting."

As expected, there was much cat snoozing going on.

Self portrait by my handsome man in the hospital. If you can stare through that wall behind him, you can see Nella  sleeping in the NICU.

With my #1 girl

Colton and Lillian are 20 months apart and are just starting to have fun together!

L especially enjoyed intentionally trying to fall off the horse. She is a daredevil for sure.

T is growing out his hair and I love it!

If you're ever in Charlotte, eat at a FUEL pizza. So delicious!

Sunflare! Just a fun shot.

Cason and Grandma. Cason is 8 months old tomorrow and is such a sweet baby.

The gift that keeps on giving

If you're friends with Thomas or me on facebook, then you've already seen this little montage that T put together. But you can look at it again because it's cute.


My sister thoughtfully sent Lillian a Four Seasons bathrobe with the caveat of "Oh, it won't fit her until she's three or four."

I'm thinking she meant three or four years into college.

Until then, I will keep it safe by wearing it myself.

ps) L's other aunt, Pamela, gave her the adorable Dr. Seuss onesie. Given her Seussian hair, we're going to squeeze her into that onesie as long as possible!

For Nella Lenore

I'm pretty stinkin' proud/honored that I was the first person to meet Nella other than her parents and that I got to drink wine in her honor with her newly-minted grandmother on the same evening. So this post is partially for Nella Lenore Dyksterhouse, born on 9/22/12, and partially for her awesome parents Kate and Jimmy. We love you guys and are excited to be sharing the parenting journey with you!

[disclaimer: this post will definitely be cheesy and is probably totally lame, but I can't shake this idea!]


Dear Nella on your 13th birthday,
As I write this, you are just beginning your fifth day of life. You have perfectly shaped rosebud lips and like to hang out with your hands near your face.You are tall like both of your parents, and I have no doubt that you will tower over Lillian within a year. Hopefully she won't hold it against you so you can still be friends. You are so sweet and so, so loved. You have been longed for, prayed over, and cried over. I have no doubt that these things are all still happening.

Turning 13 can be tricky. You might be doubting that God loves you or that your parents love you, and you might be thinking about some boy--hey I just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number so call me maybe. (This was an important piece of pop culture at the time of your birth. You might be able to hear it on the oldies station now.) I want to deal with the second of these doubts today. Your parents can handle #1 and I'm sure your daddy has some thoughts on #3. Like locking you up until you're 30.

Your parents love you so much! They have basically lived in the hospital for the last month due to some complications during your mom's pregnancy. Your very tall father squeezed himself onto strange hospital bedcouches for weeks. Your mom has been poked and prodded and put through an emotional ringer, hanging out in that hospital bed in an effort to keep you as safe and healthy as possible. And she did it with a smiling, brave face because she loved you.

Now, seeing as you are 13 while you are reading this, you might be rolling your eyes because your parents could not possibly have had a life before you. It's just their job to love you, right? They just popped into existence when you were born, right? That's certainly how I imagined my own parents for a long time. But here's the thing. Your parents are cool. I see that this word might not mean anything anymore. It might be the equivalent of using "nifty" or "rad." That's okay, though. You catch my drift. Your parents have many, many friends and awesome families, and I hope you know and love lots of these people. Remember that most of these people were around before you were because, like I said before, your parents are cool.

So, do yourself a favor. Sit down and drink tea with your mom out of her favorite Starbucks mugs. Ask her about her semester in Italy, or her time volunteering for a campaign she really believed in (sidebar: I have no doubt that you will be at the polls in six weeks or so, snuggled against your mom's chest), or why she fell in love with your dad (if it's not too embarrassing). Then, go to a Wake Forest game with your dad. Order two of the biggest hot dogs you can find and cheer loudly yet unobnoxiously with him. Then you can roll the Quad when Wake wins.

Takeaway points: your parents are cool, and you are very, very loved. And if you and Lillian could go easy on us during your teen years, that'd be great. Thanks in advance.

Love always,
almost-aunt Ashley

Giveaway!

Nope, not on this blog, but on my friend Laura's blog, Storybook Reality. She is a friend from Charleston who moved to the Pacific NW a year ago with her Air Force husband and two little boys. She blogs about family, food and funny stories. She also does great giveaways like this one!

Her giveaway is for a set of prayer cards from a company called Better Life Bags. So head on over to Laura's blog and check it out!!

Of photo shoots and shoes and books

[linking up HERE]
1. Last Friday we had a super fun photo shoot with Carissa (who, coincidentally, hosts this blog link-up!). Thomas and I were both a little nervous about it, but Lillian did pretty well and we had a blast walking around with Carissa, her husband Kelly (terrific schlepper of stuff) and my mom. Mom definitely wins the award for getting Lillian to smile during some of her crazy moments. You can see a few pictures from this session on Facebook or on Carissa's blog, here. Yep, we're pretty much famous in the blog world today. :)

Seriously, though, if you're looking for a photographer in Charleston, Carissa was awesome to work with. She had lots of pose ideas, was flexible with Lillian's crazy moments, and generally made the whole session feel just like an hour of walking around with friends with occasional stops for pictures. WIN. It's also fun seeing the pictures on FB and on her blog. And, most importantly, she hasn't made me feel like an idiot for the TWO TIMES I have failed to pay her now, the highlight being yesterday at church when I gave her an empty envelope that I thought I had put a check into. Bless my heart. The money's coming, girl, I promise!

2. Last week was my first week back in the classroom! I am teaching physical science (stop the madness!) at a hybrid school called Veritas. Basically it means that every Thursday, I teach seven 8th graders about the very big and the very small of God's creation (seriously, I am a science teacher now). So far I love it! The kids are awesome and it's fun to teach a subject matter that is so radically different from English/writing/reading. I even ran a successful lab last week. My mom watches Lillian, which is a win for both of them. Last week Lillian came home from Mimi time with three new pairs of shoes. Turns out her old shoes were too small. Whoops! Which brings me to my next point...

The first wearing of her first shoes. She wasn't convinced of the magic yet.

 3. SHOES! Baby girl loves her some shoes, which she did not learn from me or my husband. I think Aunt Hillary is sending shoe love vibes all the way from Hawaii...Also, she outgrew her first pair of shoes last week which I was surprisingly sentimental about. Maybe because the last few months have been such a sweet time of watching her move around and explore her world? The great thing is that I don't have to get rid of them, since I can play the "well we're going to have more kids so we might as well keep them card." And I'm 150% convinced we're going to have at least one more girl. :)


4.  I am really late to the Alexander McCall Smith party, or at least the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency part of his oeuvre, but I am absolutely loving this series! I want to go live in Botswana now. I also love his Isabel Dalhousie books (Sunday Philosophy Club series), and would similarly love to visit Scotland. They're on the list. Our incredibly long travel list. (book cover via here)

Photo by talented Thomas

4.  Lillian on East Bay Street last weekend. She is wearing (still squeezing into!) her dress from Kenya, still rocking the fluffet (fluffy mullet), and generally having a grand old time being a 1 year old. She is a hilarious, non-stop ball of energy and sound. She  loves Sullivan, walking, playing with random household items such as plungers (true story but I only let her touch the handle), tupperware and tiny travel tolietries. We are planning to invest in some books about the strong-willed child. She especially loves her daddy and get incredibly jealous when he holds other babies. Heaven help baby #2 someday.



6. I am enjoying one of my favorite parts of the day. Almost every morning, Thomas takes Lillian and Sullivan for a walk before he goes to work. I have 20 glorious minutes to myself to do WHATEVER I WANT. It's like nap time but better, though shorter. Here are some of the ways I have used this time before.
-sleep
-clean like crazy (you can get an amazing amount done in 20 minutes)
-fold several loads of laundry
-prepare dinner
-shower
-waste time on the Internets
-blog (or is this actually #4?)

7. I have really been missing Colorado this week.It happens when you're from the best state ever.

8. I serve a beautifully gracious and glorious God.  Here's some lovely truth for Monday morning.
1 Peter 2: 9-10 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

9. We had a dear friend and his girlfriend over on Saturday night. It was a wonderful time of catching up with an old friend and seeing who he is going to be doing life with from now on. My favorite part, though, was how proud he was of her. He never directly said any of these things, but I could tell this is what he was thinking: "See, look how great she is! Isn't she awesome? Aren't we great together?" love it. 

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!