adios, north carolina...

... i've greatly enjoyed stepping on you for the majority of my past 9 years.

i'll miss you greatly.

do you support local businesses?

because you should.

and just in case you live in the raleigh area and aren't aware of some really good local businesses to support, i have a couple for you.

first, the camera of angey price. great is her focus and lense. her finger is strong that pushes the button. (just look to your right.)

second, the scissors of kathleen weathers. skilled are her hands. her products are fragrant. comfort is found in the wake of her iron of straightening steam. (just look at my head.)

go. and give them your money.

i'm only thinking of you, my dear readers

the next few weeks are going to be indecently busy, what with the moving from raleigh to virginia, a trip to atlanta, and various visits to friends and family. the end of next month we'll begin our 8 week training. so our amount of busy-ness will then surpass "indecent" and advance to "scandalous."

but, you are all so near and dear to my heart. i don't want to forsake you during this crazy time. i won't be able to post as much, but i'll do my best to share fun stories when they occur. and for those super scandalously busy times when i just can't even think straight enough to type, i'll put up some of my favorite pictures from time to time from our photo shoot with the fabulous angey price.

the next 3 weeks will be off-the-wall for us, but if you keep up your part of the deal of visiting my family's page, i'll do my very best to keep up mine with pictures of the cutest kids you've ever seen. deal?

deal.

by the way...

bubbs had a birthday party last month and i'm super slow to get any pictures up about it.

all naked and ready for some cupcake!

the candle was about the same size as the actual cupcake. ah well. you only turn 1 once!

"what's that?"

"what do i do with it...? hey, i have an idea!"

*doh*

he was a big help with the decorating.

serious spaghetti for dinner.

my little girl's all grown up

rachel pamela has quite the crush.

on logan voigt. a little boy in her sunday school class.

this is nothing new. she's been telling me for a few months now (months is a lot of time for a 3 year old) that she's going to marry him.

i've gotten reports from her sunday school teachers that rachel often sits by him and whenever they line up, she'll wait to see where logan stands and squeeze in next to him.

last sunday night, she took special care to tell me about how she sat next to logan during snack in cubbies. they "were telling silly jokes" together.

the following pictures are of my grown up girl picking some wild daffodils. after she picked a really nice looking bouquet, she informed me she was holding them so she'll be ready to marry logan.

so, it's very serious. logan's a very sweet little boy, so if my 3 year old daughter must have a crush, i approve of her choice. her daddy is a very different story.

the circle of life

rachel pamela, march 2006

rachel pamela, march 2009

vacation #4

we arrived at a resort in the mountains in young harris, georgia. chuck's cousin was getting married. we got to relax in the hotel for the whole weekend after 2 days in the car with 2 little ones.

rachel was super excited about her queen bed she had all to herself. she's such a princess.

this was where lucas slept. he is our second child.

the wedding was outside with an amazing few of the mountains in november. however, it was freeeeeeakin' freezing.

this is little kayley. she's chuck's cousin's daughter... so i think she's rachel's second cousin (distant cousins are so confusing). looking at her is like looking at rachel in 3 years with dark hair. their faces are very similar. it's very bizarre to me to look in another child's face (a child that i don't know) and see my daughter's dna staring back at me. and since rachel has never been a flower girl, i can officially say kayley was the most beautiful flower girl i've ever seen. she almost made me cry with her cuteness.

lucas was deeply moved by the ceremony.

there's more where that came from...

http://angeypricephotography.smugmug.com/

go there to see enough of my family to last you... well, a while.

feel free to tell me how beautiful my family is, although i'm very aware of it. i still like hearing it.

if i weren't a girl and already married...

...i would marry angey price. and her camera.

sneak peak

well, my mini-public spoke and i listened. except for my daring-to-be-different ex-roomie, it was a unanimous vote for this background. i have to admit, when i first put this one up it was my least favorite, but it's certainly grown on me. now we're inseparable. thanks for helping me decide! (still working on making the banner look right...)

in other news, the fabulously talented angey price took our family pictures this past friday. it was the perfect day for it. we strolled around downtown wake forest while she clicked away, safely locking our faces away in her camera. our faces look very nice in there. she sent me a few teaser pictures today and i wanted to give you all a sneak peak of my beautiful family and her amazing photography. (her blog is on my list to the right called "impressions." i could figure out how to be cool and make a link to her, but i'm hungry and my microwave just beeped. so you're on your own.)

help me decide!

now i realize i sound like i think i'm one of those huge blogs that gets thousands of hits a day when i ask you to help me VOTE on my new blog look. next thing you know, i'll be hosting some kind of giveaway. but i seriously can't decide. which one do you think is the most "me?" i need your help! which one drips with andie?

need a car?

cuz we're selling one.

silver 2004 dodge intrepid for $4000

automatic transmission

heat/ac works fabulously

am/fm/cd player

air bags

power windows

power locks/remote locks

power drive side seat

cruise control

ginormous trunk

basically, a really good car that we're only selling because we can't fit this thing in any of our 8 suitcases. i hear there are "weight limits." and in case you were wondering, the bluebook value is $4200, so we're just trying to look out for ya.

oooooooooo

ahhhhhhhhhh

i've never tried, but i have it on good authority that i could fit my entire family of 4 into this trunk. it's ridiculous. i might just try it and let you watch if you buy this car... if you want... if it makes you more inclined to buy... which would be weird... but if it helps you make your decision, i'll do it... seriously...

(but seriously, if you know anyone that's looking for a car, please think of me and send them my way!)

*sigh*

i was busy having all kinds of super fun with my kids this morning when i was hit with a brief and brilliant blog post i should do today.

now that i'm at my computer, i can't remember anything about it.

mommy brain: 87,946. andie: 36.

it's really a shame because it would have been soaking wet with wit and riotous humor.

blast you, mommy brain, bane of my riotous humor!

raleigh snow day #1

i know what you're thinking. you're thinking "andie, honey, this post should be labeled 'raleigh snow day #2' because this is the second good snow we've had here this season."

and you would be correct.

however, since i'm trying to creatively post past pictures, i thought today was an appropriate day to post pics from raleigh snow day #1.

rachel has seen and played in snow before, but this was the first time she had a genuine, fluffy, good snow in which to romp. first item on the to-do list, snow angels.

it was this little guy's first snow ever. it was a good introduction.

snow is a rare delicacy in these parts. tasty stuff.

snowy church

table for two?

antique-looking snow

as for the stories of raleigh snow day #2, rachel was even more excited. as soon as i told her there was snow outside (as soon as i saw her this morning), she rushed to the window, got dressed in record time, and put her big coat on. she kept that coat on for at least an hour until the rest of us got our act together to venture out.

lucas was a little more interested this time. i thought he'd like to touch some snow so i put some within his reach. he touched it. today i learned my son doesn't like to touch things that are wet and freezing cold. what a weirdo.

we enjoyed a family trip to walmart (the roads weren't bad and the walmart was almost completely empty. i've never been more at peace in a walmart before... since it's usually not the most peaceful place. normally, it makes me want to die.). we got in some dry, comfy pj clothes for the afternoon, and i put the kids down for a nap. rachel was way too excited to sleep, but the rule is that if she doesn't sleep she still has to stay in her room for the normal length of naptime... for my sake. she spent that entire time wearing her coat so she'd be "all ready to go outside to the snow right after naps."

now, we're warm and dry, and the kids are in bed. i can hear rachel telling her brother the story of jonah (her version, of course). she's all snuggled cozily with a tummy full of raleigh snow day #2. it was a good day.