Thirty...

In honor of my amazing husband who turns 30 today, here are 30 shots, in no particular order that made me love him, make me love him, and make me keep on loving him every day.  Proud of you, Terry for all 30 years of your life...but not proud enough to let you have a motorcycle.  Or maybe, too proud to let you have one!

I love you because:

1. You are a great camper

2. Your sense of adventure...and your rockin' bod

3. You love to be surprised (and what a chore for me to have to come to Hawaii to surprise you!)

4. You take so much pride in the 'firsts' in our life

5. Your excitement for life

6. Your amazing sense of style.

7. Yep, your amazing sense of style

8. You asked me to marry you.

9. You are the farthest thing from a 'deadbeat dad' anyone could imagine

10. Your genes, which are the strongest ever, sure have given us cute children that look just like you (yes, children, there's no chance this boy will look anything like me, we know it!)

11. Your athletic genes are more than enough to compensate for mine.

12. There is nothing to not love about you - seriously, look at this.

13. You are as cute on your 30th birthday as you were on your 1st

14. You are a great date and always make sure I know how much you love time alone with me

15. You have great moves - don't be mad at me for putting this on here.

16. Your heart is sensitive and precious to me

17. You lead our family closer to the Lord every day deliberately and with great gentleness.

18. You are a California boy at heart

19. You love a pregnant belly - I particularly love this right now as I feel my body growing and you love it more with each day

20. You are HILARIOUS.  I love your pregnant belly as much as you love mine.   Again, don't be mad that I put this one on here either, I think it's one of your best talents and looks!

21. You are safe, cozy, and love to snuggle. Now if only I could convince you to sleep this snuggled up every night...

22. You make me more fun every day

23. You watch over and take care of our family

24. You immediately became the best dad I could imagine

25. Did I already say you're a hot date?

26. You remind me to slow down and take it all in, spend time with friends, and go on vacation

27. You love time in the mountains like I do (we're in Asheville here, I know you can't tell)

28. You make our daughter the happiest little girl in the world

29. Well, just look at you, this makes me love you!

30. You love me more today than you did 5 years ago

Happy birthday Terry, you are the best man that I know.

Camping over Memorial Day

Terry and I had been talking about wanting to go camping recently when we realized we had to go...now or (a) it would be too hot (b) I would be too pregnant or (c) we would have a newborn.  We threw the idea out to my brother and sister and they were all on board.  Hopefully this can be an annual tradition now - we had a blast!

We camped at Jordan Lake in Durham so the kids got to swim in the lake Sunday night and again Monday morning. Emerson is a fish and loves the water so I hope we can keep her around the water more this summer. It makes it extra fun when you have a dad like Terry who can endlessly and tirelessly twirl you around in the water.

One of the highlights of the trip for Emerson came in the lake when she was swimming with Terry and told him she needed to go to the bathroom. He told her she could pee in the water - because let's be honest, that is actually completely disgusting...but we all do it.  She couldn't believe she was allowed to do this and you could tell as she finally started to go because she started smiling then giggling and then ended up in the deepest belly laugh. She says it was one of her favorite parts of the trip 'when (she) pee-peed on the fish,' and later told me, "I hope that fish took a shower!"
It was so fun to watch Em and Caleb run around the campsite together, eating packet meals, roasting s'mores and shining their little flashlights around the woods. Neither one of them batted an eyelash at the darkness, sleeping in a tent, or being outside. 

Caleb and I were the first ones up out of our tents Monday morning and I took him to 'water the plants' as he said. Here was another highlight of the trip for the kids - yes, again about peeing. As Caleb started to pee a cricket hopped out from under him and he almost fell over laughing that he had peed on a cricket.  He and Em laughed about it all morning and Emerson is still talking about it!  Here are the bedheads counting out their morning breakfast loot -

Here's to next year's trip with a new family member for us, and though we had an airbed in our tent, we might try to make it even fancier next year - think along these lines.  But I am still sticking with packet meals for dinner - how can meat and potatoes taste so good when you camp anyway??

Daddy-Daughter Weekend

So a couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure of having a daddy-daughter weekend while Ellen was away for some continuing education classes in Nashville. It was a blast and exhausting at the same time. This would be the longest I had ever had her by myself (3 nights) so I wanted to make sure we stayed busy and I documented it with pictures (sorry for the poor phone quality). We tackled a lot...

It was a special time for us and I relished the opportunity to get to spend some great one-on-one time. I will keep this short because I know my favorite thing about blogs are the pictures. Just like a man huh? - with Ellen you get great insight, incredible wisdom and sweet little stories. Me, you get pictures!

Thursday we had dinner at Chipotle, probably the worst self portrait ever.

A great one of her through the front door of her doll house.

We went to the park for World Day, where they had vendors and booths from all over the world (she dressed herself by the way, so cute).

Enjoying a massive fried cheese stick…from Mexico.

Then we when to Ikea after her nap to get another bookshelf for her growing collection of books and I thought it would be fun for her to play in the kids area. Of course we had to partake in a cinnamon roll! We shared it and she was eating it so fast so I started eating fast also because I didn’t want her to eat too much so she took a bunch at the end and stuffed her face. I thought it was hilarious.

Sunday after church went up to my brother’s house and to hang out with the cousins and Grandma and Poppy (they came it town just to see everybody). Em and Joseph - they could be brother and sister.

Doing a puzzle with Sam.

Jen made some popcorn with coconut oil, which I was really skeptical of by the way.  I have to admit it was pretty amazing. My mom, Jen and I killed a huge bowl of it standing right at the kitchen island.   

Finally Sunday night before heading home we went to eat at a Taco place in Birkdale. It was fun  & they had these games the kids could play right there on the table. 

Overall the weekend was pretty exhausting but it was really great and the highlight was some point at Ikea Emerson said to me "Dad I really like hanging out with you!" That's when I realized - wow I am hooked... 

Terry Michael Jerome Bruce

Introductions

Emerson wanted to introduce you all to the newest addition to our family (don't worry - still in-utero, it hasn't been that long since I blogged)!

Here is her baby brother!

We are so excited, and let's be honest, I'm a little nervous, about this baby boy!  I know what I need to know about raising little girls and feel a bit intimidated about raising a boy...but then again, I guess I didn't know anything about raising a little girl before I had one!  This guy is already turning out to be a true Bruce baby, when we went for our ultrasound, his weight was 'supposed' to be 3.5 ounces, and he is already measuring in at 9 ounces.  And no, that is not a typo.  And no, they did not change my due date.  Just a BIG baby.  What a nice way to ease me into motherhood little 6 lb 5 ounce Emerson was...now here's the real deal!

That little girl has got some big personality and the biggest heart.  Below this picture of my hipster daughter wearing her daddy's sunglasses and Saturday post-nap play clothes (we think a baby brother will fit in just fine at our house!) are some quotes I sent to family this week in an email from some adorable things she said this past weekend that have melted our hearts.  Enjoy!

Sunday morning while eating breakfast Emerson told me out of the blue, "I want to play with my cousins today."  That morning,  Chris and Jen were running late for church and decided at the last minute to come to Elevation instead - we got to have lunch with everyone and had such a fun time!  At lunch, in the bathroom, little Em was sitting on the potty and said, "Mom, I told God thank you for letting me play with my cousins."

While we were setting up breakfast for the band, she asked me, "Mom, what does God say to me?"  I asked her what she meant, and she said, "What does God say to me when I am in heaven?"  I told her He said He loves her and is so glad that she loves Him too!

Later, walking through the basement of the church, you could hear Pastor Steven through the intercom preaching, she stopped and said excitedly: "Who is that?  Is that God talking to me?!"  

Sometimes at night, she asks me to 'sing shh' to her like when she was a baby - she asked for this last night and while I was doing it, she said "God tells me 'shhh' sometimes too."  I said, "He does?  When does He say that?"  She told me, "He tells me 'shh' when my heart is feeling worried."

This morning eating breakfast together, she said, "Mom, tell me I am amazing."  I had no problem telling her how amazing she is :)