saturday morning

breakfast and a concert {of sorts}

watching dada and cj practice for worship on sunday...always fun for the kiddos:)

mat-me

lilly jo and jack's cousin mat-me (matthew) is such a stud. can't get enough...

cheeeeeeeeeeese!

i think i've already used this title recently, but it's definitely a theme in lilly's life lately. she's all about taking some pictures. mostly with phones, but this particular day i was in the kitchen when i heard her saying, "cheeeeeeeese". i came in the living room to find her having put all her zoo animals on an end table, and was taking their picture with her camera.
so cute.
i love watching her learn.
and not using my camera for once:)

movin' right along...

you know your daughter is living in the age of technology when...

...she picks up the cordless house phone (yes, we do still have a house phone) and puts it out in front of her and says, "CHEEEEEEEEESE".

every kiss begins with "K"

tonight we had dinner at crabtree mall and as we're walking around after dinner we pass KAY jewlers. we didn't realize it until we hear lilly jo saying, "kay, kay" (the letter "k"). we look up and sure enough, she had seen the very large lettering on the outside of the store, K-A-Y. she then proceeded to tell us she saw the letters "die, die" (letter "y") and the letter "a" as well.

we're daily amazed at how quickly she's learning to recognize letters. right now she knows about 95% of the alphabet. not in order, but she can tell you what the letter is if you show it to her, as well as retrieve a specified letter from the fridge magnets.

God's design is truly amazing.

waving

hi and bye. it's jack's new thing.

ten-ten

i'm so grateful for photography.

i love that i can look at this picture and remember exactly the conversation seth and i were having as we were walking down the isle toward the altar (seth came and got me from the end of the isle and walked me up to the altar since my dad was with Jesus and couldn't give me away). seth was looking at me saying, "don't look at natalie (my sister and matron of honor) because she's already bawling. and i was saying, "i know, i already did..."

i love that God has, for now, given me a short and long term memory, so i can look back and remember little details of the day we were married.
i loved every detail of the day we were married.
wouldn't change a thing.
i love that it was pouring in raleigh but we got married in benson and it only slightly sprinkled the hour before we got married. outside.

i love that God brought that man walking me down the isle into my life.
i love every day we've had since the day we were married (even the not-so-fun-ones) because they've shaped who we are as a couple and have hopefully been pleasing to the Lord.

i love you seth!

happy 3rd anniversary!

practicing yoga

making cookies with au-nee

last week au-nee (aunt natalie) made chocolate chip cookies with the girls...so domestic:)

they helped with every part...measuring/pouring dry ingredients....

mixing ingredients (lj was scared of the blender at first, but soon warmed up)...

cracking eggs...

and somewhere in there adding the chocolate chips...

before and after...classic!

thanks au-nee for helping lj learn to cook one of life's finest desserts!
we love you:)

a visit to danville!

this past sunday we headed up to danville to visit the apple family! we had a great time hanging out together and enjoying some spaghetti for lunch. it was so much fun watching all the cousins play together, now that they're getting a little bit older!

aubree lyn and cody playing with trucks
aubree lyn and lilly jo loved playing with the magnetic alphabet on the fridge

dylan, looking more and more like a man everytime i see him, hanging out with great-grandma heffinger

miss aubree giving granny apple some lovin'

lilly jo showing great grandma how she knows some of the letters already!

apple cousins (minus christopher) from the left: dylan, cody, brayden, aubree lyn, lilly jo, jack

feeding time for jackman

uncle seth playing with the newest addition to the apple family - brayden noah - aka mr. smiley

you can't tell but we both have pigtails in. i can't help it. she's so cute i needed to match her.

playing baseball outside in the gorgeous fall weather

she's got a great coach:)

letting granny apple have a turn

no comment.

{ok one comment - the plastic wheels almost deflated when he sat on it, and there's not even any air in them.}

just waiting till he's old enough to hit that ball!
good grief he's so cute.

you can see, it was quite a full and fun few hours in danville:)

night-night

this may be an all-time favorite picture of mine:)

10 years ago...

kristen, jane and i graduated from cary high school...shewy. we must be adults now, or something, right?

here we are with matthew, kristen and luke bradham at the CHS 10 yr reunion picnic in cary today...my how time flies!