Ben & Emery

At the beginning of last week, Joe had a conference in Charlotte so Sara and her boys tagged along to play with Emery and I!  Emery was still on the mend from her tummy bug and I was just starting to catch it but we still had a blast showing them all of our normal play places: Discovery Place Kids, playgrounds, nature walks, lakes to feed the ducks and more.  Emery and Ben are less than 2 months apart, and they really had so much fun playing together.  Emery has been saying almost every day "Go see Ben" since they left... adorable!

This is what we got when we said "Say Cheese" haha:

Sweet hugs:

Feeding the ducks & geese:

Playtime up in our bonus room:

Ethan & Kyle chilling on the floor poufs:

We loved seeing how well Ethan is doing these days and Ben is the most expressive little boy we've ever met-- so hilarious.  Come visit us again soon, Turners! 

Sick days

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Kyle saved the day and allowed me to go to Nick's white coat ceremony.  Emery came down with a stomach bug on Thursday night (the day her and I drove into Raleigh) so our original plan of allowing her to stay with a babysitter Friday during the ceremony was no longer an option.  Kyle made the decision to drive all the way to Raleigh from Atlanta (he was working there for the week) to come take care of Emery and bring her back home to CLT -- a total of 9 hours driving that day for him.  What a dedicated Daddy! (Also a huge thank you to my parents for running out super late Thursday night to pick up some medicine for her fever!)

Thursday night I think she and I got a total of 3 hours of sleep... ahh!  She fell fast asleep mid-diaper change after a bath:

So pitiful, but loved all the cuddles:

 When I got home Friday night after the ceremony here is the view I saw on our couch:

 She sure does love her daddy, and so do I!

Nick's White Coat Ceremony

Nick had his White Coat Ceremony last weekend and with a huge thanks to Kyle I was able to go and support Nick with the rest of my family!  This is a ceremony that takes place after your first year of Dental School, where you are presented your monogrammed white coat marking the transition from preclinical to clinical health studies.

Walking across the stage to get his coat:

His entire class (81 people) reading the Hippocratic Oath:

Afterwards we took a bunch of pictures to document... surprise surprise!

And of course we had to get our traditional, cheek kissing picture that Tara & I have done for Nick for every school ceremony in his life!

High school Graduation:

 College Graduation:

Now, White Coat Ceremony:

Then everyone wanted in on the action! haha

We also got the chance to tour the new Dental School building where Nick spends all his time!

So proud of you Nick!  Excited to hear all your real patient stories starting soon!

Loving this weather

We are loving this spring weather lately and have been having so much fun trying out different playgrounds everyday. I couldn't believe how much Emery loved the sand box-- with her shoes off, throwing it everywhere!

Thrift Store Treasures!

I have been having the best luck lately finding some steals at our local thrift shops.  The library is located on the same exit as a Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity Restore, so we frequent those a lot!  First up are these coral, professionally made curtains that I scored for $15 total!!  They are super long so I'll even have extra fabric to make pillows to match after I hem the curtains to the right height.  (We are decorating our guest bedroom in navy, white & coral!).

Our local target also donates a lot of items to Goodwill-- brand new, still in original packaging!  I found this full/queen duvet cover for $14 (normally $40), which I'm going to convert and hang as our shower curtain for the guest bedroom!  I like that the duvet cover is longer than most shower curtains so we'll be able to hang our rod higher which will help the room look taller! (BTW we painted this bathroom last weekend same Misty gray/blue color to match the room).

The next item was from Craigslist and I'm so pumped about it... deal of the year for sure!  I had been scouring the internet on tutorials of how to make your own upholstered headboard (since you can't buy them any less than $400+), when this one popped up on my search on Craigslist.  I called the lady immediately, and picked up the headboard the next day for $100.  So happy with it and it really is such a treat that we didn't have to make it ourselves!

While we are on the subject of the guest bedroom, I have a few more projects on my list to make!  Emery and I went to IKEA last week-- the only store we can both spend hours in and still leave in a great mood!  I found a navy/blue flowered duvet cover for $5, which I'm in the process of converting into a bed skirt for the guest bedroom bed!

We also picked up the IKEA RAST dresser, to use as the nightstand near the bed.  It's solid wood for $30.  Have you seen the hacks people do on these?  So pumped.  Here's the before...

And here is one possibility of what you can turn it into!  WOW.  Hopefully I can get painting mine this week!

And lastly, here is my $1.99 7 ft Frasier Fur Pre-lit Christmas Tree that I bought from Goodwill last month.  I put it up in our living room just to make sure all the lights work, but didn't bother bending all the branches out since I was putting it back in the box.  Either way you can't beat that for $1.99!

It truly is so fun to look for "diamonds in the rough"!

2013 Easter - Leah's Family

Saturday afternoon, we headed over to my parents house for Nick's birthday dinner!  He turned 27 last week, so we had fun wearing party hats and celebrating all together.

The guys also worked on my parents back deck replacing some of the old boards in the railing.  They are trying to get their house up on the market here pretty soon!

Mom and I made chocolate covered strawberries... which of course you've already seen with our "nailed it" post yesterday :)

Emery loving her time playing with Grandpa:

Sunday morning, we all went to church together.  It was so nice to visit the church I grew up in, and worship with my family!  We drove back home to meet up with the Dews and have lunch together.

Our traditional cross cake came out pretty good this year, with a new addition of cupcakes!

Grandma, Dad and Mom:

4 generations:

Grandma & Grandpa with all their grandchildren!

Gigi with 5 of her great-grandchildren:

Nick's friend from Dental School, Anne, joined our family for church & lunch, too.  She would have had too long of a drive home to celebrate with her family, and we all really enjoyed getting to know her.  Here's all the kiddos:

A wonderful way to celebrate Easter!