The Cutest Little Lady Bugs in the land!

This Halloween, we had a great time celebrating as a family! We kicked off the season with a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick the two most perfect pumpkins! Meredith had a great time running from pumpkin to pumpkin deciding which one was the "perfect" one. Nora just enjoyed running, patting a pumpkin, running again, and patting another. It was a beautiful day and we so enjoyed it!

John was able to take the girls to a Fall Festival at a local church while I was out of town one weekend spending the day with my mother. The girls had a blast! In addition, when John and I were out of town, Elaine, Aunt Anna Ruth, and Baylee took the girls to another church that was having a Fall Festival which the girls thoroughly enjoyed.

The days leading up to Halloween, we carved pumpkins for the first time as a family. We kind of skipped it up until now because we felt like Meredith really wouldn't enjoy it--this year, Meredith LOVED it. She especially liked holding the carving knife along with John and I to cut out the jack-o-lantern's face. She refused to take out the insides at first but finally warmed up to taking out ONE seed. (I have some great photos from this, but the photo card is malfunctioning, thus, you will have to enjoy a picture of the finished product.) We also made some Halloween-themed, chocolate covered pretzel rods in which Meredith is still enjoying for dessert!

On Halloween night, the girls suited up in their lady bug costumes provided by their Nana and we enjoyed our friends and new church family at Poplar Ridge Friends Meeting for a fun-filled night. We ate hot dogs, decorated cookies with icing, sprinkles, and the ever-important candy corn. Meredith was given a paper that she had to fill with stickers by playing games at each station. She especially loved the "bobbing for ducks" pond and the sailboat race. She refused to get her face painted or get fake tatoos--what does this mean, exactly? Nora really had a great time at the "animal match-up" carpet and just taking everything in. At the end of the festival, the kids lined up, went down a row of wooden houses with very little doors, and knocked on each door to go "trick-or-treating". We had a great holiday and look forward to Thanksgiving soon! As our family grows, our holidays seem to get more and more special!

Has it seriously been that long?

Well, life with two little ones sure is busier than life with one. Sometimes I have to remind myself to slow down and stop running the race that is life. So, some updates:

Meredith: She is so sharp and intelligent. It amazes me to hear what she is thinking--she is always thinking! She absolutely loves being a big sister and is really good at it! She keeps Nora out of trouble and is a big helper when I need her to be. Her favorite things these days are swinging, singing to "her songs", watching Dora, Diego, Princess and the Frog, or Veggie Tales, and playing with her little sister. She is on the verge of being ready to start the whole reading process--she knows all of her letters and most of the sounds each makes! Again, what she has learned and is learning amazes me. She is a beautiful little girl with a strong will. My prayer is always that I will bring her up knowing that she is smart, beautiful on the inside, special, and kind.

Nora: She is 16 months!!!!! Our sweet girl started walking in August and quickly started running thereafter. She follows Meredith in all that she does and while Meredith appreciates it now, I imagine that will change at some point. Her favorite and most used words are Dada, Mama, Outside, Lucy, Sissy, Kitty, Bye-Bye, NO!, Ball, All Done, More, and Eat! She is starting to find her nose and eyes when asked and definitely understands what we tell her to do. I have realized that I do much more for her than I did for Meredith at her age. She is still carried around (way more than we should) and we probably give in more than we ever did with Meredith. This came to me as an epiphany one day...I realized and stated the following, "I get it now! Parents don't truly mean to spoil the younger kids, it just happens!" However, we are trying to be more mindful in keeping all things fair while meeting the individual needs of each of our children. With respect to Nora's personality, she has the sweetest demeanor! She has a smile that just melts our hearts and she has quickly become a Daddy's girl. If Daddy is in the room, no one else matters--I am pretty sure I can deal with that the rest of my life! :)

Baby #3: WHAT?! Baby #3, you ask? Why yes! We are almost 19 weeks pregnant with baby Partin #3 with a due date of February 25th. We visited the doctor today and found out that all is well and looking healthy. We also found out that it is a BOY!!! We couldn't be more thrilled! During the ultrasound, I teared up upon seeing John's face light up! The pure joy that John had in knowing that he would pass on whatever men pass along to sons made my heart happy! It should be noted that Meredith has been insisting that there was a baby brother in Mommy's tummy since I was 6 weeks pregnant--amazing, isn't it!

John and I: We are doing good! My pregnancy this time is completely different than the first two. I had been incredibly nauseous among dealing with other biological difficulties for the first 14 weeks--thankfully, I am feeling so much better these days. We have been overwhelmingly busy with the girls and work, but if things ever slowed down, I wonder what we would do with our time?

Enjoy the pictures and I hope I will do better in the future in posting! Oh, and I do plan to go private soon, I wasn't bluffing :).

It's time to get private!!!

Hi friends and family! Being that I am a high school teacher and all, I think it is high time that I make this blog private! So, if you would like to continue to follow The Partin Family through this blog, send me a quick email with your desired email address for login and I will add you to our list of people who can access the blog! You can just comment to this post with your email address and I will add you! I hope you can understand our desire to create a little more privacy now that we have two little ones to think about! :) Send me those email addresses soon!

Happy 10 Year Dating Anniversary, Darling!

Today marks the first date that John and I went on. I was a freshman at NCSU and John a sophomore. It was exam week and we were stressed! He asked me out, picked me up around 9PM and as we walked through the campus, he asked me what I would like to do. I replied as I still do, "I don't know--what do you want to do?" He responded that we needed to go to Wilmington with which I replied, "What?!" So, we got in his Chevy S-10 that smelled of Vanilla, he turned on some Michael W. Smith and we talked all the way to Carolina Beach. We found a public access and walked a very long walk under the full moon in the sand. I prayed that night that whatever woman ended up with this man would be incredibly lucky and little did I know at the time that God intended for that woman to be me. We have been through a lot in 10 years, 99% good and I am thankful. I arrived back to my dorm at about 5AM, after stopping for breakfast at Waffle House, to a very confused roommate asking if I was "just getting in?" I remember replying "yes" with a smile on my face and an even bigger smile in my heart. Thank you, Jesus for such a special first date and for an incredible man. I love you, John!

Spring Festivities!

I started to type this blog and almost began it with "What a busy couple weeks we have had!" and realized that this has been a common theme for a long time for us. So rather than sounding redundant, I will just fill you in with what we have been up to the last couple weeks! Nora is almost one and we have been busy planning her first birthday party. We are doing things a little differently this year and differently than what we did for Meredith's first birthday party. It is interesting how things change from the first child to the next--we are just having a small family party (rather than the HUGE shin-dig that Meredith had) at my mother's home with Nora's dear aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents surrounding her with her parents and sister. It will also be my brother's birthday on June 1st so we will be spending the day at U.S. National White Water Rafting Center in Charlotte having good sister-brother time. Her birthday will be a lady-bug theme because we call our sweet Nora "Nora-Bug". We thought the theme was fitting but this has caused me to get a little creative with finding some decorations and planning!

While on the subject of how things are different for Nora when compared to how we did things for Meredith, she has already had sugar (we waited until after Meredith was 1 to give her sugar), John decided to go ahead and try out peanut butter (not with my knowing but informed me after the fact), we allow Nora to just hit her mile stones at her pace rather than freaking out if she isn't, we are having to get creative with finger foods because Nora is boycotting baby food and wants to feed herself YET she still prefers for us to hold her bottle (I know, it drives us bonkers!), and we don't flinch at every possible risk that Nora takes in moving around. It is funny when I think how uptight we were with Meredith and how the first child really breaks a parent in! We can't wait to see what happens when we add to the family in the future! Ha ha!

For Mother's Day weekend, Nora gave me a double ear infection! Yes yes, we spent the day in the doctor's office because Nora was sick. Although, I thought it was pretty fitting that I spend Mother's Day doing what I am being celebrated for doing--taking care of my babies! So, I cuddled and loved on Nora for the day--I know, poor me! :) Meredith made me a beautiful picture at school that she painted--it was her hand prints as flowers with painted stems and leaves! I am a sucker for hand prints. John bought me flowers and hanging ferns--I so love planting flowers every Mother's Day! Speaking of Mother's Day....here is my favorite picture of my mom and I. She is so special to me!

John and I also got to go to the Wheatmore High Prom and chaperone for a while. I really love being a part of prom and getting to see the kids all dressed up. I also love to get out on the dance floor and let loose with them. There is something to be said about getting out with the kids and doing the Cupid Shuffle WITH them...it creates a bond. It was a good way to blow off steam in light of the end of the year when things hit a big crunch and get stressful.

We have had other things going on but if I were to hit on all of them, this post would be longer than you would want to read. So, enjoy our pictures and until next time...

An Update!

So, it has been a while, friends! We don't mean to neglect you, we have just been so busy as a family of four! But, here is an update on each of us:

Nora: She is now 11 months and growing fast! She is now saying Momma, Dadda, Ball, Uh-oh, Whooooa!, and (we think) Hi there! She absolutely loves animals and squeals in excitement when she sees a dog or a cat! She has been crawling for a couple months and started pulling up regularly a few days ago. She is a big fan of her daddy--in fact, if she had a choice between Mommy and Daddy, it is Daddy most of the time. She is eating solids and finger foods. Her favorite finger foods are Mum-Mums, Gerber puffs, sour dough bread, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, and macaroni. She does not care for bananas or banana flavored anything or apple sauce. She absolutely loves her big sister and watches everything she does. They play so well together and I am anxious to watch them grow up to be close friends (I hope). She is still holding strong with 2 bottom teeth but about 6 more are coming in at the same time. She is a trooper and handling it well, though! Our little bug will be 1 soon and it is just so hard to believe!

Meredith: She is 3 now and a little smarty pants. We get told often that she is leaps and bounds ahead where she should be by her teachers. She can count to at least 30, knows how to count to 20 in Spanish, knows her colors in English and Spanish, and is our little mirror in the fact that she does what we do--sometimes it isn't pretty! She is a wonderfully caring and kind big sister. She has no problem playing with her little sister and entertaining her for hours. She has been potty trained for months and has not had an accident at night. She seems to be turning into our little athlete and loves all things sports. Our little toots would spend the whole day outside if she were allowed to. Her favorite things to do are swing, ride her tricycle, dress up, write her family member's names, and read books.

Our prayer every day with the girls is that we will be the parents that God has called us to be and grow them up in Christ.

John: John has been incredibly busy with his 311 bypass project and is wrapping up his round-a-bout projects--he does such an incredible job. He and I are training for a 5K at Wheatmore High School in two weekends--John smokes me and runs like the wind! He has been busy loving on his little girls and it just warms my heart to watch what a great, loving, and supportive father he is. He speaks kindly to the them, disciplines them with gentleness and love, and teaches them all kinds of fun things! I sure do love that man!

Me: We are wrapping up the school year and it is always an incredibly busy one at the high school. We have testing coming up amongst all of the graduation events (Bacceleaurate, Capping, Graduation, etc). We also have Prom and our Warrior Festival (outdoor spring festival during school on a Friday). This class that is graduating is a special one--they are my first class since I started teaching. I had alot of them as freshmen and many of the 3 times for different classes at this point. The thought of them being finished and leaving me makes me quite sad. My kids are experiencing Spring fever as I am...thank goodness we just had a 4 day weekend! I have the best three classes this semester and I try to tell them every day! I am taking my Physical Science class to Carowinds this week and my Astronomy class to Morehead Planetarium the first weekend of May. Busy Busy Busy. Oh, and I am still trying to be a mom and wife. John tells me that I do a good job balancing everything, but I often feel like I could do better. I sure count my blessings every night for the gifts that God has given me in my girls and John!

Perhaps it won't be so long for the next update! See you later, friends!