A Visit to Harrisonburg

After a fun time in Asheville, we stopped in Harrisonburg for a visit with Laura and Myers Carpenter (our very very VERY gracious hosts) Lisi and Jeremiah Forshey, and everyone's respective children! Here are some pictures:

Learning about sharing...


And giving up...


Many Mommies:

Matt said it was harder to get the mommies to smile than the kids!



Joey meets a pretty younger woman!


Lisi in the ultra-important role of happy-child-maintainer-in-charge-of-handing-out-Cheeze-It's.


An all-important trip to Kline's.





We had a great time and did so much more than I have pictures to prove, with 3 babies and 1 older child (Sofi is so grown up now!) we had our hands full juggling meals, naps and outings, but managed to make it, in a day and a half, to the pool, the Green Valley Book Fair :-), have a BBQ and stay up talking until the wee hours of the morning, play some Wii, and go to Kline's. I also visited the dayschool that I taught at until Matt and I were married. Laura and Myers were such great hosts and I can't wait to go back!! This trip was a great encouragement to me, full of lots of laughter and some great female bonding. I miss you guys!!

Just a Little Bit of Happy

He's still available ladies...

"Boating"

While visiting at the Towe house, Matt and Aaron decided to take a spin on the pond....and I do mean "spin".

Friends in North Carolina

Here are some pictures of our visits with friends in Asheville:

Aaron and Sarah and John with Joey. We spent an afternoon walking around downtown Asheville. Aside from a sudden downpour... we had a great time!


Joey never quite knows what to do with Aaron's hair...


We were able to visit with the Springers, at least, Olivia, Jessica and Momma Springer. We saw Mr. Springer at church and missed Savannah all together :-( Next time babe! :-)



Joey asked Aaron to feed him dinner...

And we had a nice visit with the Towe's (Aaron's parents):


We had dinner with our/the Beardsley's friends, Summer and Sherri. Joey really enjoyed all the extra attention!


One day we visited Lake Toxaway and lots of Matt's extended family, cousins, 2nd cousins and we went on a little hike with the kids... This is Matt and his cousin John and some of his second cousins.

More Cousins...

Joey in his borrowed backpack. This thing was great! Matt really loved using it!


And of course we had a great time with Matt's parents! Joey loves spending time with his grandparents!




This is one of my favorite pictures:

Moving

Unfortunately this morning on the news, we saw we had woken up to this:

Suspect killed by police in Oakland after traffic stop

and this: Two men die in separate East Oakland street shootings

The Newscaster said it made the murder toll for the week, 5. whew.

Today we were thrilled (with much much help and support!! :-) to make an offer on a house we really like in Oakland. Please help us keep this city and it's residents in your prayers. It is a battlefield in every sense of the word.

Remembering When...

Since our friends Ryan and Sarah are having their baby now (exciting exciting!!) we've been getting news throughout the day of how things are progressing. It's made me think alot about the end of my pregnancy with Josiah and the excitement and nervousness of labor and delivery.

It's truly amazing that at the end of the whole process you come out with this beautiful baby that the Lord created to be in His image and for you and your spouse to love and cherish and raise. I know our friends will be terrific parents and I can't wait to meet their little boy. I can't wait to hug them and congratulate them on the birth and the heroic process of coming through it all.


Here are a few pictures that I was looking at in my nostalgia ;-)


Joey in the oven.




It's hard to even believe that he was this small!


This was Matt's favorite wee baby gown (above). We just passed it on to Ryan and Sarah a few days ago! Hopefully it will bring them lots of happy memories/pictures too ;-)



I know I say it all the time...but in a blink, it was just a blink, and we were here:

I know this time next year, I won't even be able to believe how much he will have grown.

My Goal

So I am awfully, terribly, blogging-backed up. :-(

I have so many pictures and things to talk about, that I have fallen completely behind.

Right now, Matt is off taking pictures of a wedding in San Luis Obispo. This is an exciting and (a wee bit) sad weekend for us. Exciting because we have lots and lots of weddings in the next few months, and he is getting more requests for fall, winter and spring weddings, everyday. Yesterday he had 2 client meetings in 1 day! That's great! And sad because in (almost) 2 years of marriage, we haven't ever spent a night apart. I'm so glad that the business is successful and so, SO proud of my hard-working husband.... BUT I miss him! I know some of you will have to "pooh pooh" a couple nights apart, but I love having him around and Joey and I can't wait until Sunday afternoon when we can see him again.

And all that leads me to...some serious blogging catching up. Joey and I did have some plans. We were going to hang out with our friend (and fellow new-mommy) Sarah. But alas, Sarah and her husband Ryan are bringing little baby Notch into the world tonight or tomorrow so they are now at the hospital. Very exciting also!

I'm hoping to catch up on:
Our trip back to the East Coast
Our CA visitors
What Joey is doing now
Lots of Fun old/new pictures
And maybe introduce....our new friend BBNotch (whose name we might know soon :-)

So stay tuned.....