Family Life

I stink! The blog has definitely taken a back seat! Life has been. . . well busy. I honestly have no idea how this happened but the Little Miss is TEN WEEKS OLD! Holy moly! It sure does go faster with your second!

And my boy. My baby boy. I seriously can't get over him. He is the most amazing everything. Most amazing son, brother, friend, child of God. He has so much love for life. And he turned FIVE. AHHH. I can't even stand it. Five. That's like for real. He's a little boy. 

So follow our life the last few weeks in pictures. Filled with family love and family visits.

2 Months Old

Welcome to the world . . .

. . .LILAH HOPE!!!!!

We are so happy that little miss Lilah entered the world on May 16th! I have a bajillion pictures to share so I will just get to it!

                                              The birth and first moments earth-side. 

Luke finding out he has a baby sister:

Photo shoot at 2 days old by Ashley Kirnan:

Lilah's first few days:

First sponge bath and real bath:

Meanwhile - Luke graduated from preschool!

Maternity Shoot

I know I promised these a while ago but better late than never! And since my baby is still sitting contently inside of me I have time!

Celebrations, Visits, and Blessings

We have had such a great few weeks filled with lots of visitors and celebrations. We are so grateful and blessed to be where we are right now, figuratively and literally. 

We love living close to our siblings and although we don't get to see them as much as we want, we cherish the time we do spend together! I could post pictures of my sweet nephews all day long. Here are some of my newest nephew - Fritz and a sweet one of Mr. Benjamin.

We also had the most amazingly special Easter. Not only is that day such a powerful celebration, but Fritz was also baptized! I was just a mess the whole service. I started crying when the Brenner family walked in during the processional and couldn't keep it together for the rest of the service. It was beautiful! There's also a picture mixed in here of Luke finding his Easter basket at the end of his super awesome scavenger hunt.

We also got to enjoy a visit from Rob's parents over Easter!!! We had a great time playing! Especially with Luke's new basketball hoop (early birthday present from my parents)! Conner liked it too!

One of my favorite moments from this month was a short visit from my best friend Ashley and her beautiful family. They traveled so many extra miles and hours after their family vacation to spend a day with us. It was short, but so fulfilling. I am so blessed by Ashley's friendship. Our kids all had a great time and played so well together! Ashley's two oldest and Luke all slept in the same room! {Well for part of the night.} And Luke was super obsessed with 6-month-old Evyn! He could NOT get enough of her!!!

And one little baby update -- things are going great!!! Baby is so healthy and active. We had an appointment on Monday and Luke got to find Newbie's heartbeat all by himself! He was so overjoyed. The look on his face was just priceless.

We also had a chance to get some great family pictures this past weekend so my next post will be about those! {hopefully}

Family Baby-Moon

We were able to get away for the weekend a few weeks ago. It was Luke's Christmas present and also our last hurrah before Newbie joins our family! We went to this great transportation museum in Spencer, NC. It was perfect for Luke!

We got to take a little train ride. {Apparently we were on the car that George Clooney rode on in "Leatherheads" - incase it looked familiar to you.}

There were mostly trains there but lots of other 'equipment' too. Luke loved the old tractors, etc. - a few of which are the same ones that he plays with in Grandpa's attic (that were Grandpa's when he was Luke's age).  Luke and Rob also enjoyed standing on the trestle while the steam engine went under them. We also really enjoyed the roundhouse. IT.WAS.GIGANTIC!!!

After we left that museum we headed to a hotel in Charlotte. We got there, swam in the pool, went to get Chick-Fil-A (which we HAD to bring back and eat on the bed since we did that on our trip last year), then went swimming again. Then the boys got all snugly and ate at their evening snack in the bed. And the next morning... we ate breakfast then went swimming again. 

Sunday afternoon was spent at the Children's Museum in Charlotte. It was a blast! The boys built a lean-to, tried various experiments, the big boy got to lay on a bed of nails, and Luke got to play a drum set made from pans and buckets. We were there for over 4 hours!

We headed home - exhausted - but had time to stop at Papa John's and Coldstone before we wrapped it up. It was such a perfect weekend!

Baby Newbie

Here is the first post dedicated {mostly} to Newbie! :)

 I've been working on getting things ready....

And my Mom threw me an amazing baby shower! So thankful for all of her hard work and all of the love and support that we have! We are so blessed!
{My Mom made that candy with a paintbrush!!!!}

I even got to have my best friend there! Well .... virtually. We Skyped and she got to see me open gifts and I got to show her all of my Mom's hard work.

Here is me and my Mom - and me with my sis-in-law, Emily, and my new nephew, Fritz.

So the non-Newbie update is that we got to celebrate my other nephew's first birthday! Sweet boy Conner is 1!!! We enjoyed a few hours with Rob's family while they were here for a quick visit.

We have an exciting few months ahead of us!!! I'm enjoying this time of being pregnant so much! And Luke is doing so amazing. He loves the baby so much (so far).

Babies Everywhere!

There's a nice healthy baby growing in here!

'Newbie' - as we call him or her - is very active and already loves his or her big brother! We are so excited to welcome another little one into the world in a few months. It still seems surreal to me!

It seems like everyone I know (or hear about) is pregnant right now or just had a baby! We are super excited that my brother and sister-in-law brought another Brenner into the world! Emily and Kevin had their baby boy, John Frederick 'Fritz' Brenner on Monday evening! He is PRECIOUS people... precious! Can't get enough of him. And big brother Benjamin is doing awesome! Love spending time with this sweet family!

Watching Luke's reaction to him was one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed. This is when he first saw Fritz:

He waited patiently for his turn to hold the baby. When he got Fritz in his arms, he just instantly started smiling {SO PROUD!}, singing, rocking, and kissing him. It was adorable. I can only imagine what he is going to be like with his baby brother or sister.

And Grandma and Grandpa are just a tiny bit proud of their THREE grandsons!!!! 

And the little buddies today (sorry they are from my phone) ...