Catherine, Louie, Kinsley, Aubrey and Cade: Summer in Charlotte (Catch-Up Post!)

The past few months have sped by in a blur. Between the end of school, summer camps, preparing for the move, finishing fellowship, and making the move, things have been pretty busy in the Stryker household. I'm just going to post pictures from the last few months and let the pictures do the talking. :)

Here is Kinsley on her first day of preschool back in Sept. She wanted to be a pumpkin when she grows up.

Here she is on her last day of preschool in May. She wanted to wear the exact same outfit. She has changed her mind and now wants to be a daddy.

Sweet girl. I think she was missing her daddy. :)

Last day of school pizza party to celebrate summer birthdays.

Kinsley's crush. We heard about John ALL year long. :)

Mrs. Scott

Mrs. Monroe

A little last day of school ice cream celebration with Mom.

Kinsley took her first real swimming lessons. She did a great job learning to pull herself out of the pool and jump fearlessly into the water.

She practiced a lot of kicking too.

Muffins with Mom right before the end of school.

Kinlsey had been begging Louie for a "camp out." So they made it happen one weekend once it finally warmed up a little. The neighbors came over to check things out. Don't mind Aubrey's Christmas onesie. :)

Daddy and his girls in the tent.

Making s'mores. :)

They made it until 9:30 pm. Ha!

We hit up the Charlotte Science Museum one last time before we left. We really enjoyed our year membership thanks to the Flournoys!!

Finally brave enough to ride the hydraulic chair.

Crossing the bridge.

Graduation announcements from both John and Victoria. Way to go siblings!!

I watched John graduate via the internet. :)

We made a trip to San Antonio at the end of May to find a rental home and to help the girls with this transition. (I read somewhere to go and visit the home you will be moving in to if possible.) Here is Kinsley posing on the front porch.

Trying out the new swing and back yard. (Notice the fence! Yahoo!!)

Checking out her new preschool, Coker Early Learning Center.

Her new classroom.

Had to visit Bass Pro while we were in SA.

A little cousin love at Bass Pro.

Baked a cake with Nena. You think she liked the chocolate?

We also hit up the SA Zoo.

Family pic at the zoo.

Riding the train before we left.

Another train pic.

We also got in a little swimming at Nena and Papa's pool.

Aubrey showing off her cute swimsuit that she has since grown out of.

Once back in Charlotte, it was time to start Vacation Bible School. Kinsley made friends with some "big girls."

She is STILL talking about these girls and how much she misses them.

It was FINALLY official and Louie signed his contract with UTHSCSA.

We promptly celebrated with swim diaper hats! Ha!

The fireflies were everywhere in Charlotte so one night we went out and caught some.

Can you tell she liked it??

As I began to prepare for our move, the girls spent quite a bit of time with our sitter, Brittany (and some other great ladies when Brittany wasn't available). This pic is one Brittany took while on a walk with the girls.

The ladies sold lemonade after their walk. :)

We were so sad to say goodbye to our awesome sitter, Brittany. She was amazing and we miss her tons. We have been so blessed with awesome sitters in both Rochester and Charlotte.

This is from Kinsley's performance at the end of Ballerina camp at the YMCA. Let's just say she was lacking a little rhythm, but she made up for it with energy and pizazz.

One of the doctor's Louie worked with was kind enough to let us and another fellow's family use their mountain home for a weekend. It was amazing!! Here is Kinsley listening to Kate read. She got to have her first sleepover with Kate and Greta while we were there. She had a blast. Aubrey got the master... closet. Lucky duck! :)

Jeremy, Andreas and Coreen cooking dinner in the beautiful kitchen!

The grown-ups playing a little Mexican Train Dominoes after the kiddies went to bed.

The family at the top of Grandfather Mountain. The house we stayed at was down near the small lake you see behind us.

4th of July baby! :)

Big girl Kins sportin' her red, white and blue at the celebration.

She wanted to be a puppy.

Waiting for the fireworks to start. Unfortunately there was quite a weather delay due to a passing storm so despite our best efforts we left about 10 til 10pm and gave up. The girls really did well even though it was so late.

Watching the little fireworks go off around town before calling it a night.

Last dinner out with all the fellows and their spouses.

Our trip out to Lazy 5 Ranch. It was a huge success! We took the wagon ride and had so much fun!

Tons of animals to feed.

Here come the water buffalo.

Yumm!

Sweet, sweaty girls. :)

Kins and I feeding one of the giraffes.

Then the male giraffe came over. He was huge!

Some more water table fun before our move. We will miss our Charlotte back yard.

Kayden's 4th Birthday Party at Monkey Joes. We will miss Kayden and his family.

Me and my silly girls goofing off.

Last day of music class/choir practice at church.

Kinsley posing for the choir picture at church. She is wearing the blue and green dress. We didn't get the wear red memo. Ooops.

After 7 weeks of not sleeping through the night, I finally was able to get Kinsley to take a nap by rubbing her back for 45 min. It was a long 7 weeks.

Caught this picture of Kinsley in our back yard smelling the flowers. Love it.

One of the girls from Kinsley's school had a bday party before we left Charlotte. Kinsley was pampered. :)

She chose green! Nice.

Time for a pedicure.

Then make-up... green eyeshadow.

This was a random pic after nap one day (she wasn't napping... again) and she came out wearing this. I think she has a nice sense of fashion.

Out to eat at Cowfish (sushi and burgers fusion) and eating with chopsticks. :)

One of our attempts to get Kins to sleep through the night after giving up her paci. She earned the privilege of Hope sleeping in her room at night.

At the grocery store one day with Aubrey. She was waving to everyone up and down each aisle. It was too cute!

We had a good string of pretty bad storms. In fact we were without power for 24 hours at one point. Hope does not like thunder and would figure out a way to get into our room in the middle of the night no matter what room she was sleeping in. This was taken about midnight one night.

Let the packing begin. We were fortunate enough to have Louie's new job pay for our move so we had people come and pack for us. I had these signs all over the house to help with the process. :)

Our gigantic moving van. What we did not know was that it was already 2/3 full with someone else's stuff.... hence the reason they ran out of room for our stuff. Sigh... we finally got our second load on Tuesday. It was only about 3 weeks after it left our house. Ugh!

Kins keeping herself busy in our empty house in Charlotte.

The packers got everything packed in about 6 hours.

Louie's bedroom set-up for 2 weeks. A blow-up mattress and 3 dogs. This is a picture of Kinsley and Aubrey opening their "moving day" presents. Kins got a photo memory book of our time in Charlotte and Aubrey got a Backyardigans DVD for the plane ride to SA.

Kins eating pancakes that Papa made once we arrived in SA. Louie stayed back to finish his fellowship.

Celebrating my dad's birthday... in person! :)

My car made it!

Mom watched the girls quite a bit while the rest of the family helped me unpack.

Cooper and Clayton came over for a play date!

Our bedroom. We can actually fit our headboard and footboard in this room. Yippee!

Kinsley and Aubrey at birthday party #1 since we arrived in SA. Kinsley was in heaven at Cooper and Clayton's Super Hero Party. She got a cape!!

It was move-in day for us so my mom took the girls to the party. Aubrey giving the piñata a try.

My cuties in the wagon at the party.

The second bday party was a Fireman Party. Here is Kinsley putting out the fire. Notice the fire extinguisher backpack. :)

Rescuing a kitty from the tree!

Mommy/daughter lunch date with my fire chief.

Watching for daddy after he drove 20 hours straight! No bueno! I was not a fan, but glad he made it safely. Notice she is still wearing the fireman's hat.