small update:)

So the third child took away any free time that I used to have! Since he was a newborn, all of the pictures of him are blurry b/c hes always on the move. Life is hectic and beautiful in every way. Here are a few pictures of our little dancers and hopefully one day Lucas will sit still so I can get a picture of him:) Summer is in full swing and we are busy with softball, dance, swimming, two bible studies, reading, playing, staying in Pjs as long as we can, and enjoying every second together. God is good all the time, ALL the time GOD IS GOOD.

Baby boy is here

Lucas is six weeks old and I could not ask for a better baby. God has blessed us with three precious children and Tony and I know they are a gift from above! Lucas is so sweet and so cute and loves to sleep. We are all so in love with this little guy! It is very busy around here these days...sorry for the delay...here are a few pics of our littlest angel Lucas! The gorgeous pics were taken by my dear friend Alisha Schwanke. She is such a talented photogrpaher and a blessing to our family! Lucas Matthew, Born November 16, 2012 at 12:22 pm, 8 lbs, 1 oz. 19 inches long

Lucas Matthew Perez

In 37 more days we get to meet our son Lucas. We are all so excited about him that we can barely stand the wait. Or should I say that I can barely stand the WEIGHT! I'm a little uncomfortable to put it mildly but am thrilled to have a healthy baby boy baking in there. We have had a few issues but we put all of our love, trust, and faith in God and He has taken good care of our Baby Lucas! So now I am just counting the days until I get to hold him. Of course I'd love to meet him any day now but I surely can wait until our scheduled c-section on Novemeber 16th if he decides to hang in there:) I have completed the nursery and wanted to share a few pictures. Hopefully my next post will include pictures of a sweet little angel named Lucas Matthew Perez. We appreciate all prayers for the safe delivery and a healthy baby boy.

All my love, Mollie

My 1st baby is 6 years old!!!

On October 2nd Miss Caroline turned 6 years old! I can not believe my first little angel is 6 years old but even more unbelievable is the fact that she is in Kindergarten, CAN READ, and is about to be a big sister again:) She had not only a special birthDAY but a very special birth WEEK. We started off with a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend as a family and then she had several celebrations all week long. We went to build a bear, her uncles came into town to see her on her birthday, Grandma made her a big ole cupcake birthday cake and special birthday dinner, her Papa and Mimi took her on a special shopping trip and to dinner, and we also met her favorite cousins for ice cream and presents! Her birthday wore this preggo momma out:) Here are a few pics from my cell phone from her birthday. Special times for a very special little girl!

Caroline's First Day Of Kindergarten

I can't believe the day is finally here. Our whole family has the first day jitters, well everyone except CAROLINE! She was so excited that she could hardly wipe the smile off of her face all weekend after meeting her teacher and seeing her classroom! I pray that today and this whole year is a wonderful start to her school career! Here are some precious pictures from Sweet Caroline's very first day at school! I can't wait to pick her up and hear all about it!!! Book bag (and most of the lunchbox)was packed the night before!

Caroline's Favorite: Pancake Breakfast

SURPRISE: A little gift to start the day off right: A pink back pack for her American Girl Doll that matches hers:)

All dressed and ready to go! Such a beautiful little girl!

Sparkley back pack, lunch box, and shoes! That's my girl:)

Walking in to BIG KID school!

So READY to go in! Such a big girl! She wasn't scared or nervous at all!

The Classroom! Such a bright, big, fun place!

Disney World

So much has happened in the last six months, I hardly know where to begin! Obviously the pregnancy has been the highlight of the Spring/Summer but we have also been busy while awaiting the birth of our son! I still can't believe I'm saying our SON!! I can't wait to hold him b/c I really am going to have to see him to believe it!! Since I don't know where to pick up, Ill start with our first family trip to Disney World. It was truly a magical experience. We ate with the princesses, rode every ride we could, and the girls developed a facination for Indiana Jones (of all things) while we were at Hollywood Studios. Tony is such a wonderful Dad and a big kid at heart that he really planned a special trip for us. We stayed at the polynesian and even took a limo to and from the hotel! That was a first for the girls as well! I was about 11 weeks pregnant for this trip so adding the new pregnancy exhaustion on top of the 5+ miles of daily walking made for one pooped Momma Bear. But man it is was great! Here are a few pictures from our first trip to the most magical place on earth!! We can't wait to go back!

It's a BOY!!

We are so excited because We have a sweet little Boy on the way! Due on thanksgiving day!!

Everything looks good so far!!

All we pray for is a healthy baby!! We had a wonderful ultrasound yesterday that showed a healthy little baby that is progressing nicely! What a blessing! It is so beautiful to see your little baby for the first time!

BABY PEREZ NUMBER 3

Tony and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting again! I am about ten weeks along right now and am getting to experience morning sickness and all of that fun for the first time ever. My sweet little girls never gave me one day of nausea so I'm wondering if we have a little boy growing in there this time?! I did read somewhere though that if you already have two girls (or two boys for that matter) then the stats are around a 75% chance that you will have a girl again. We have gotten pretty good at little girls so we sure would love another one:) Baby #3 is due ON Thanksgiving Day! Now that's something to be THANKFUL for:) However, if all goes as planned he or she will be delivered via scheduled C-section a week before that(around mid November). I ask for your prayers for this pregnancy as my last one ended with pre-eclampsia and a near death, emergency C-section. All we want is a healthy baby! Tony and I have prayed about having another child and handed it all over to God...and well we are very happy that He decided to give our family another blessing! More pictures and updates coming soon:)

AAHHHH...My e-mail has been hacked

Please do not open any weird e-mails from me. My e-mail was hacked yesterday and I changed the password and then it was hacked again. I have changed my password three times now in the last 12 hours so hopefully it is resolved now. How violating! YUCK. Just know that I will never send anyone just a link to some unnamed website. Stupid HACKERS! Sorry if you recieved anything weird from my AOL acct. I've had that e-mail address since 1998 and every single contact I have ever written or recieved an e-mail from was probably sent something yesterday...yikes. I guess that's why they say you need to change your password often...and 14 years is NOT OFTEN. ha!

Reasonable RESOLUTIONS

So I have outgrown the old "lose weight/work out more" New Year's Resolution routine. I am happy with the body that God has given me and this year I am going to go easy on myself. While I am going to try to be more healthy, I am not going to try to be more thin. On that note, I have made one resolution that would fit into this category: DRINK MORE WATER. I have a list of health complaints that would probably all go away if I would simply stick to this one resolution. My goal is not a lofty one but a reasonable one: Drink 70 oz. of water a day. I have to drink at least 8-12 oz. right when I wake up to take my thyroid medication so this should be a good way to get my water drinking habit started. My other resolution is to read more books to my children. I used to have to put a limit to the number of books we would read to Caroline every night because if she had it her way, we would read and read and read...all night. Somehow we have gotten into a bad habit of watching T.V. before bed and the reading has nearly been forgotten. As a former teacher, I should be ashamed. But more than ashamed, I am usually pretty darn tired. HA. So, more reading, less T.V. I know these are not too terribly exciting but I have to document them so I will have a little accountability for whoever reads this. If you see me, ask about these two areas if you remember! Happy 2012.

Growing Up

As I write this blog post I am listening to the sound of the shower running in the next room. My baby Caroline (5 years old but always my baby) can now start the shower for herself and get clean with no help from her mother at all. This growing up thing sure is bittersweet. While I am glad she can do things on her own, I am also sad because she really doesn't need me for everything anymore. I realize that one day she won't need me to start her bath, to help her out, to put on her jammies, to take her to school, to make her lunch...Hopefully she will always need me as much as I need my mother now...which is A LOT! Just in different ways. I'm giggling right now reading this because it seems like just yesterday that she was a fussy baby never wanting to be put down. I honestly dreamed of the day when she would become more independent. My, how things change. In just one week, Tony and I will go to tour and register her for KINDERGARTEN at Wesleyan. I am excited and anxious about this big step for our little girl. I'm anxious as any parent of a Kindergartener would be and probably overly concerned from the good and bad things that I have seen/experienced as a former elementary school teacher. However, after much prayer, I know that everything will fall into place just as God has planned. He will guide, protect, and nurture her while she is at school and also while she is at home with us. This is one of those seasons in life where I just want everything to freeze. Life as a mother and a wife brings me a joyful sense of peace that I have never felt before. I have always had a pressing forward kind of feeling in life and have always wanted to rush on to the next exciting phase. But right now I just want to put it all on hold. I thank God for this time in life and I know that He will be right there with me for all of the transitions that are to come. Even if they are coming a little sooner than I would like:)

New Pictures to end 2011...What a BLESSED YEAR!

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Our good friend Alisha Schwanke was kind enough to share her time and talents with us. These are some of the beautiful photographs that she took of our family that we will treasure for a lifetime. God has certainly blessed her with an artistic gift and we are so thankful that she has shared that gift with us. www.alishaschwanke.com

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

And Duke goes on to play Stanford tomorrow at 1pm for the NCAA National Championship! I'm so incredibly proud of my Uncle, Robbie Church!!! He deserves this and has worked so hard to recruit and built this championship team! He is such a wonderful person in every way! GO DUKE!!!

GO DUKE!!!

My wonderful Uncle Robbie is the head women's soccer coach at Duke University and they just made it to the NCAA Final 4!!!! I'm so proud of him and the awesome team that he has built at Duke!!! GO DUKE!!!

A DREAM COME TRUE

My older brother Jason has always dreamed of owning his own business and today that dream opened it's doors and came true! For months and months both of my brothers and my Dad have been pouring their hearts into this new business. Today Once Upon A Child - Raleigh opened it's doors! The store is beautiful and in a great location (with a super target, Old Navy, and others)and did I mention it is run by a solid crew:) I'm so proud of Jason for chasing a dream and putting in the hard work to make this all happen! Today was their grand opening and they broke company records for grand opening numbers!!! If you are ever in the North Raleigh area (Poyner Place shopping center) please visit them! The store is FULL of anything (new and gently used) that you would ever need for a child! I'm so proud of my guys and thankful for a hard working, wonderful, patient, beautiful young lady named Cindy:)...behind every great man is an even better woman, right?!!! YES!

Here are a few pics of the store from a few months ago when they first got in.

Happy Fall Yall

Our FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR!!!

Does anyone else notice how big my babies are getting???

Of all places, we have the best time...

AT THE GROCERY STORE! ha... Mommy goes to the grocery store several times a week and we always enjoy our time there! Today we went to another store (other than our usual Harris Teeter) and they had little customer shopping carts! Too FUN! Mommy didn't even have to push a "real" cart b/c the cute little helpers filled their carts with groceries!

Fun pushing the cart OR

We even have fun UNDER the cart!