We have been having the hardest time with Colbie taking a bottle. She doesn't want to have anything at all to do with bottles. This means it's 24/7 mommy time, which I love but at the same time it'd be nice to get a little more freedom and allow Daddy to have some quality time feeding her as well.

Grandmom and Papa Bullock came down to North Carolina to check out some houses in the area. In case you didn't know they've been thinking of moving so they can be closer to the grandchildren and we're pretty excited about the prospect of having family close by. While they were in town we had a little bit of time to spend with them, it's never enough.

Here are a few pictures of my silly girls together:

Now that Joel and I have found a "home church" and are members of Christ Community Church, we decided that we wanted both of the girls to be dedicated. A few people we've come across aren't exactly sure what being "dedicated" means.

Our church says this about dedication and the difference from baptism:

"At Christ Community, we wait until children are old enough to believe and understand the true meaning of salvation and baptism before we baptize them.

Some churches practice a "baptism of confirmation" for children. This ceremony is intended to be a covenant between the parents and God on behalf of the child. The parents promise to raise their child in the faith until the child is old enough to make his own personal confession of Christ. This custom began about 300 years after the Bible was completed and is not found in the Bible.

This custom is different from baptism as mentioned in the Bible because scriptural baptism is only for those old enough to believe. The purpose is to publicly confess your personal commitment to Christ.

At Christ Community, we have a dedication service for infants and children that emphasize the parent's role in raising a child to follow Christ."

Basically, we decided we would like the world to know (and help us) that we want to raise our daughters in a Christian home and try to be the best Christian examples that we can be to them. We are giving them to God and pray that they will in their own time decide they want to follow Jesus, but we believe that that will be their choice to make and should they choose Christianity then we would love for them to be baptized.

Unfortunately the service was during the week and at night so many of our family and friends were unable to make it being out of state but we had two amazing families, that we're very close to and we hold dear in our hearts who showed up to support our decision and be there for us and the girls. Thanks so much McKinley's and Woerner's!! (That's your shout out ;) )

Here are some pictures of us and our Pastor Jack, we love him!! And some of us and our children.

Enjoy some photos of this amazing event! 9-29-2010





(Coincidentally all of our children are very close in age, Avery is the oldest, Abigail is the middle, Abbey and Bryce are the youngest of the "Big Kids," then Colbie is the oldest of the babies, Noele's son (who was at home) William is the middle baby and Chayse is the youngest baby and yes we were all pregnant at the same time, with all of our children!)

Everyone knows it doesn't have to be the month of November or even Thanksgiving Day to be Thankful in their lives, I am truly blessed that God has chosen me to be the mommy to these two beautiful, amazing, delightful little girls.

There are some things in life that just can't be captured with a camera or words and for those memories God gave us minds. Unforuntately even those, with time I'm afraid will not preserve my exact memories. And no matter how hard I try to grasp those memories I know they too will slip away.

So, I'm enjoying every moment. From the smell of Colbie's hair after bath, to going into their rooms each night to make sure they're safe and sound, watching them laugh and smile at each other because they love their sister, the feel of Avery's crazy wonderful hair and deciding each day what new fun thing to do with it, the delight in Avery's eyes when I ask her to help me in the kitchen, and the giggles from baby Colbie as I tickle her tummy.

Nothing can compare, I'm so thankful for those moments, so thankful that I am able to stay at home with my little ones, I get those moments, to hold onto, to cherish, to smile and cry about, at least for a little while. So here's to my girls, my beautiful little girls, they're so different and unique and I love you both with all of my heart!

Colbie turned 6 months on the 26th of this month. 6 MONTHS!!! Personally, I am going crazy, I can't believe my little baby is already half a year old, someone please make time freeze. It's hard imagining that this is our last baby, our last of the firsts. So I really want her to slow down with growing up, but she just won't.

Colbie has been begrudgingly trying solid foods, but she really doesn't like them. She'd rather just babble and play, see:

Avery (not unlike her mother) is a very silly, animated girl who loves to tell us stories. Here she's telling me about the sculpture garden she checked out with daddy. Enjoy!!!

If you read my MommyB Knows Best blog (and you should if you're not!!), you'll know that this past weekend we visited Asheville, NC for a blog conference. Joel was an amazing husband and brought the girls and me so that I could attend the conference (since Colbie's still not taking the bottle.)

The conference was on Friday, so we decided that Saturday we'd enjoy Asheville as we ventured home. We got to see a lot of great places including a very Biltmore-esque Grove Park Inn. We got a peek inside the resort and it was beautiful. Maybe someday we'll save enough to actually stay there!! While we were there we also visited some of the cool museums and art studios, it was so eclectic and fun, I kind of wished we lived there, but I know the nutty-crunchy inhabitants would probably scoff at my disposable diapers and mini-van *LOL*

Here are some pictures of fun, art, and cars in Grove Park:

 After our adventures in the Grove Park area we drove around and found some local joints for lunch and dessert :) We enjoyed the New York Deli Style feel of Circle in the Square where we ate some yummy sandwiches and Avery enjoyed a Boar's Head hot dog. Then, we HAD to try out this fun ice cream shop, I'd heard all about it on Twitter so we went a couple of doors down to The Hop. The Hop is a very hip ice cream shop, they make their own ice cream, serve non-dairy ice cream and other tasty treats including organic ginger ale! Such a super friendly place and great stop for kiddos if you're visiting or passing by. Check out Joel's homemade Banana Pudding:

I love my girls and they love each other. They are both each other's favorite people in the world and my heart melts because of that! I couldn't have asked for anything more. Avery calls Colbie aka Sissy her best friend and is constantly giving her kisses and telling her that she loves her and Colbie lights up, wiggles and laughs at her big sister.

Here are a few pictures of our two gorgeous girls, Smiley and the Hair Monster, we'll leave it up to you to figure out who's who ;)

Yeah yeah yeah, I know it's been forever since I've written on the blog. I have to say it's much harder to get family bloggy time with the two girls now, and the fact that my mom blog http://www.mommybknowsbest.com has blown up, (in a good way.)

So needless to say the blog here has suffered for a few months, but we're going to start from current day and work our way back to where we left off. (Don't ask why I'm saying we since, well everyone knows I blog on here 99.9% of the time.) Guess that's because I have so much to say. Anyway we hope you enjoy lots of fun posts and we promise to be at least a little better!!

Love,
 Jenn, Joel, Avery, and Colbie

This is the first and only time the girls will both be 3, Avery 3 years and Colbie 3 months. How fun! It is also the only time they'll be in the same number since by the time Avery's 4 Colbie's 4th month will be long gone, actually she'll be a year old! Whoa, slow down!! Seriously though I'm so proud of my big girls.

We'll start with the oldest girl, Avery had her doctor's appointment and was a little shaken up because there was an intern with the nurse and it was a male so she was a little upset especially since she was already apprehensive about going to the doctor anyway. She was in the 95th percentile for both weight at 38.5 lbs and height at 40 inches. My big girl!! The pediatrician was amazed at her verbal skills, as usual. Which I'd love to take credit for but she's just smart on her own :) PS Everyone has told me about three being worse than the 2's and they were right....be scared, be very scared!!



She's been taking dance classes and gymnastics and is totally loving it, and it gives her an opportunity to listen to someone other than mom and have more structure in groups, I love our play dates and meetup.com events but Little Gym just gives her a nice format for getting ready for school in a couple of years.

We weighed Colbie a couple of different times on a friend's scale throughout the month and she was about 14.5 ish pounds, my growing girl! She's becoming quite the socialite, talking so much, and is still sleeping pretty good, we're between 2 and 3 hours feeding times except at night when on most nights she sleeps from 7:30pm to 3:00am and then wakes up at 7:00am (because Avery's so loud that she doesn't have a choice.) Still taking usually 3 solid naps and some days a couple extra sprinkled in, depending on if she's growing.



I've been noticing that the drool spout has been turned on so I think teething is coming very very soon. Not one of my favorite parts of babyhood. She's been practicing tummy time and getting great with her neck control too, just look:


Here are a few more pictures of our 3 year old and our 3 month old, enjoy!!