Oh what a week it was~

After Mercer's 2nd day of school, we packed up the car and headed to North Carolina. We went to my cousin, Lyssa's wedding. We realized that this was Mercer's first wedding.  (Isabella's too, of course.)  The wedding was in a beautiful stone Catholic church built in the 20's.  The kids did pretty well.  Charlie held Isabella through almost the entire service.  She was entertained by playing with a shiny bracelet.  Hmmmm...

We got to spend a bit of time with dad and Charlie afterwards at the reception as well as some Hinshaw relatives. Mercer was a fan of the fruit on the buffet. 

Isabella was a fan of the clear plates that were on the buffet too.  It was a nice event -- but we don't really have any photos of the wedding.  We have a few from the reception including a couple of family pics.

The next day, we visited my grandmother who's in a rehabilitation center recovering from a recent fall.  We didn't get pictures there either, but did get to spend some nice time with her.  (We tried to get a picture of grandma holding Isabella, but she's been doing this "attachment" thing lately... when someone wants to hold her, she hesitates and reaches for either Todd or myself.)  Mercer jumped and ran around to entertain.  Isabella just cooed and laughed to entertain.

Some of the Nunn family came over to my mom's house to visit later in the day.  We were able to see grandpa, aunt Sandra, uncle Eddie, Rhonda, and Michael.  We really did miss having grandma there, though, we enjoyed seeing as much of the family as we could.

 

 

 

The weekend was rounded out by a stop in Greenville to visit my good friend Cindy and her two boys.  It has been waaay too long since we've seen her.  Also - she's never met baby Isabella until now~  

So glad that she finally got a chance (although short) to see her!!  We were GRATEFUL to have lunch with her and let Mercer run around / blow off a lot of energy.  Look at these boys having a fantastic time!!  Mercer loves playing with her kids.  I wish we could see them more often!









A few days before we went out of town, we found out that our house was going to be used in a movie!


(Kill the Messenger - due out in 2014 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216491/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 ) A location scout had been out a few weeks before to snap some photos.  Our neighbor's houses had been used in a commercial a couple of years ago, but this was a different location scout that approached us... just randomly drove by and found us.  

The thing is, however, that the movie scene was being shot on the Monday we were driving back.  We wouldn't be home for part of it / would have strangers in our house... so we had neighbors house-sit for us in our absence.  


We came home (in the pouring rain) and got as close to the house as we could... unloaded the kids & a few things out of the car and sequestered ourselves to our back bedroom - as the movie people had taken over the living room, dining room, kitchen, and Isabella's room.  

There wasn't really any action while it was raining - just a bunch of people milling about our house.  The kids were getting restless and we needed to get out of there.  So - I took the kids to a neighbor's house while Todd stayed to "guard" the house.  


Once the rain let up, the filming began.  Todd watched it and said it really wasn't very exciting.  The actor & actress said their lines over and over and over again.  Then the crew moved the camera a little and they said their lines again and again.  Then they moved the camera inside and did the same shoot over and over again.  
  
That was it.  Various people started setting up Christmas decorations and running electrical service on Friday before we left & security guards stationed on our street and the neighboring street.  

There were at least 100 people that worked this event on Monday for most of the day.  They began packing up & leaving around 8, but there were groups of people who came back the next day to pick stuff up / get our house back to normal (on the outside).  All for ONE one minute scene.  They told us it was a critical scene, but wow.  60 seconds +/-.  Crazy!  

We got paid, of course, for our trouble.  Mercer also got to see his first rainbow as we were "escaping" our house during the shoot and riding over to the neighbor's house. 

The next day, Tuesday, Isabella turned 9 months old!  As seen here, she's sitting up on her own pretty well!  This is the doll that Mercer presented to her when he first met her.  Every 3 months, we compare her against this doll to see how much she's grown.  

She's such a happy baby.  She has a little fire in her, but she's always very sweet and lights up anytime someone makes a fuss over her.   

The week was rounded out Mercer complaining of his mouth hurting one night at dinner.  We looked to see what was wrong... he has his first loose tooth!

The race is on.  Will Mercer lose his tooth first or will Isabella finally get some teeth?

Oh what a week it was!!!