Pigtails and Picnic

Saturday we went to a picnic with a bunch of our friends (of all ages!) from church. We all chipped in and rented a covered pavilion and brought food and just enjoyed being together. I decided this would be a good day for Caroline to try pigtails in her hair for the first time. Aaron and I both LOVED them, although they did make her look older, which was bittersweet. Our little baby isn't so much a baby anymore, and it's sad! Yesterday when she got up from her nap she was in a cuddly mood so I sat in the rocking chair and we cuddled and rocked for a while. It is so rare that she will just sit and cuddle anymore in the middle of the day. I tried to savor those "baby" moments again. Anyway, back to the pigtails and picnic!

This was before the picnic, but I loved this pic because it's Caroline "reading" To Kill A Mockingbird. She loves our books and is surprisingly careful with them. Generally, I don't let her play with this one b/c it's signed by Harper Lee, but I had to snap a pic before I took it from her! :)



She was so busy playing all over the playground I couldn't get her to look around long enough for my slow-snapping camera to catch her face. But, here are a few I thought were cute anyway!







I did manage to get this shot of her face. I think you can tell she's been playing hard and is tired!



Here is Caroline loving on baby Olivia. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Olivia! It's super sweet. I hope they grow up to be great friends. Caroline is a little over a year older than Olivia.



Jaxson was chillin' in his stroller, but Caroline needed to share her love with him too. :)



It was a really fun afternoon!

A Great Visit!

We had a lovely family day yesterday! Dad and Mom were still here and it was so nice to spend Easter with them! We had a wonderful visit and I was sad to see them drive away after lunch. We are already looking forward to their next visit!

Caroline made beeline for her Easter basket...you'd think she actually had a clue it was a holiday! :) She seemed to really like all the things the "Easter Bunny" brought her.




A few weeks ago Aaron had run an errand for me to Target and he came home with a bunny ear headband he found in the dollar section. He was excited about them so we planned to put them in her basket. She thought they were hilarious and loved them! Although, once she had them on her head she wouldn't leave them alone!




We've never really given Caroline candy...maybe a bite or two here or there, but not much at all. We decided she was old enough now for her own chocolate bunny. We bought her the smallest one from Target. It was so funny because she was looking in her basket and taking everything out and she took it out, looked at it for about a second, and tossed it aside! I laughed and told her, "That's the best thing in there!" But she had no clue what it was! Once I opened it and gave her a bite she agreed with me! It's now resting in the fridge for later consumption. I think it's missing an ear and that's it! :) She'll enjoy it for a while!

I loved her dress. I bought it at Kids Market and got a great deal, which made me love it even more!




We wanted some pictures of her by herself, but she was too interested in her shadow to look up!




All in all, we had a great day!

While Dad and Mom were here Dad and Aaron got a lot of stuff done around the house. The major thing was they finished the storage building! I am so excited! We don't have much storage space in the house so our closets are jam packed, but now we'll be able to store things in the building and I am SO HAPPY ABOUT IT! Caroline's swing and bouncy chair are still just sitting out in the bedrooms (one in hers, one in ours) because we haven't had a place to store them. It will be wonderful to get them put away! Dad and Aaron also: shaved the legs of our bar stools so they're not so tall now, hung curtains, did some re-weather stripping on the back door, fixed a broken dining chair, and worked on a small leak in the roof. Dad will probably need a week to rest up from all the work we had him doing! I'm so thankful he was here to help and I know he enjoyed helping us.

Mom and I did a lot of chatting, playing, and cooking while they were here, which was wonderful! I loved spending time with her.

I want to write about my adventures in couponing, but I think I'll save that for another blog! :)

Egg Hunt

We went to an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning. Caroline had a good time---especially because Granny and Poppy are here and got to go with us!

Poppy and Granny with Caroline...





While the big kids were off eating Caroline and I got in the bouncy thing and she loved it!



It was also one of the little girl's birthdays and Caroline, Granny, and Mommy had fun playing with one of the Birthday balloons.



The hunt...




Daddy snagged a few eggs and put them on the ground for Caroline to find. She did find some under a small bush too---she really liked it!

Just for fun, here is Caroline at the Egg Hunt last year.



Time sure is flying by!

Higgly Piggly

Thank you for all the kind words about our week of injuries! We're all fine--my back is doing better! I think I might have resurrected an old injury...capture the flag (in the rain w/ flour bombs) ring any bells?? :)

I don't have anything really interesting to blog about, but I thought I needed a cheery post so I thought I would just share some pics!

Daddy and Caroline playing....Daddy was home for lunch and took her out!


The ball is as big as she is!



This is a different day, but I love these shots of her with her shades on!



I absolutely love this shot of Daddy and his little girl!


Caroline picked these (with Daddy's help) for me and being the sappy Mommy I am, I had to take a picture!


Here's our dainty little girl after a dinner of Baked Spaghetti (with cauliflower puree!)...do you think she enjoyed it???


This is an old picture of our Family...it was back in September, the night before Caroline's surgery. Helena, the church Aaron's parents are members of, was having a Gospel Meeting that week and we went since we were in Birmingham for the surgery. Our good friend Magan took it---I'm so glad she did too! It's one of the last pics of Caroline with her paci---she couldn't have it for 2 weeks after her surgery so we decided that was it for the paci. I'm glad we have this shot!


I wish I had thought to take a picture of all the rain this weekend! We had 11 inches and as I'm typing right now I can hear rain starting again. There was a lot of flooding. Our neighborhood was one of the worst for flooding, but we live up on a hill so we were fine. Our good friends had to be "saved" from their home by the Fire Department. Thankfully their house didn't suffer damage, but their neighbor's (who is also his mother!) house did flood. She's not able to stay there right now. So, we had a wet weekend here and now looks like we'll be getting more rain this week! Rain likes this makes me think of God's promise in the rainbow. We serve a great God!

Painful Adventures

Well, we've had quite a week around here.

Monday was fairly normal, nothing out of the ordinary, just a Monday.

Tuesday began normally, but after Caroline's nap quickly turned into anything but normal. I was doing laundry and Caroline was playing in the hall. (We have a long hallway that connects to all the bedrooms and the kitchen. There is a door from the kitchen to the hallway, and obviously doors lead into all the bedrooms. I close off those doors and while I'm working in the laundry closet, Caroline likes to play in the hall.) I was using OxiClean to work on some set in stains and out of the corner of my eye I notice her bending down to pick up something from the floor. My mind worked quickly (thankfully) and I realized there was NOTHING on the floor when I started on the laundry...I grabbed her and sure enough, she had a small clump of OxiClean in her mouth, chewing away like it was candy. I don't know when I dropped it, but I did. The first thing I did was try and get it out of her mouth, and I did get some, but not all of it. The next thing I did was read the back of the container (I was practically hyperventilating) to see what the warning for ingestion was. It said to drink a full glass of water and seek medical attention immediately. I called Aaron and he decided to come home immediately. I didn't have poison control's number handy (it is now posted inside one of our kitchen cabinets) so I grabbed a bottle of water, plopped her on the counter, began giving her water to drink (she thought this was great, BTW) and then pulled the phone book out and called the ER. The lady there said to call poison control and gave me that number. I got poison control on the line and a really nice lady talked me through everything. Apparently, I was doing everything right. Aaron arrived home. (We're so lucky to live close to his office!) Until this he came in and hugged "his girls" as he calls us, I hadn't shed a tear, but now I was crying openly and breathing heavily. She was fine. She had no reaction at all and seemed to think all Mommy's excitement was fun and something to laugh about. She's a mess! Anyway, we made it through that...my constant prayers during the ordeal were answered right away and I am so thankful for that.

You would think that would be enough excitement for a mundane Tuesday, huh? Nah...when we have excitement, we like to go all out at our house. Later that afternoon Caroline and I were playing in the Grotto (aka..the den) and I went to the kitchen to grab something and lost my balance going up the stairs and tripped over her baby gate. I stumbled for a few seconds, trying to regain my balance, but I didn't. Instead I landed quite hard on the tile floor. I'm still shocked I didn't break my left elbow. Caroline came as quick as her little legs could make it up the stairs (that she's supposed to stay off of, BTW) and her eyes were huge and scared when she entered the kitchen. She cried out "Mama!" and ran over to me. I cuddled her and only afterward realized she said "Mama" and not "Ma" like she usually does. :) Anyway, the fall pulled something in my back and I'm still having trouble with it.

So, after that, I wish I could say that was all. But, no. Wednesday was a good day, I was limping around with my sore back, but all in all, a good day. Aaron even came home early so Caroline was excited to get to play with her daddy. As they were playing, I was in the kitchen getting supper ready, and I hear a big thud, followed by crying. Aaron is talking to her and then they're in the kitchen, and Caroline is screaming by this point. I look up and see the blood...she's fallen and busted her lip against the side of the couch. It looked like her tooth might be loose too, so I took her and headed to her room while Aaron got some ice in a wash cloth. After I examined her, I saw the blood was just from a cut lip, and her tooth was ok. She calmed down with some cuddling and her "Greenby" (her bear/blanket) and was fine. She enjoyed chewing on the ice through the wash cloth too. After a few minutes, she was fine. It did look like someone had punched her in the mouth though. Poor girl! Aaron was really torn up about it since they had been playing when she fell, but I assured him it wasn't his fault and this wouldn't be the last bloody injury she acquires.
The injured...


Aaron was more upset than she was...although, being silly here!


We're glad it's Friday and we're looking forward to a (hopefully!) less exciting weekend!

Beach Trip

We just got home last night from a long weekend in Destin. Aaron's company had a board meeting there on Friday and Saturday and families were invited so Caroline and I tagged along. It was a really wonderful weekend! We took Caroline out on the beach and she LOVED it! She would have run straight into the ocean if we would have let her. She loved the water (which was FRIGID by the way) and she also loved playing in the sand.





We had a beautiful view from our balcony.



Caroline loved the ocean and beach so much that she did go running full force at the CLOSED balcony window trying to get outside and she slammed right into the glass. She's a tough little cookie though..she whined for a minute and then took off running again. She's so funny!

While we were there I was able to get some shopping in--which I always love! The Carter's Outlet was having a big 50% off sale and I got a lot of great play clothes for this spring and summer for cheap. Awesome!

Well, I've got a ton of laundry and unpacking to do!

Weekend Fun

We had a good weekend. We just did chores around the house (Aaron is NOT happy that it's mowing season again!) and spent time as a family on Saturday. Saturday mornings I fix breakfast. It's actually more like a brunch, because we eat it late in the morning, but I love doing it and it's great to sit down and plan out the rest of our day and enjoy breakfast together. This past Saturday our menu was: sweet potato pancakes, eggs, and bacon with coffee and orange juice. Caroline ate 4 pancakes and several spoonfuls of scrambled eggs! She has developed a gargantuan appetite lately! Must be a growth spurt. I don't think you can really see it well in these pics, but she had egg all over her face for most of the meal.




On Saturday afternoon after Caroline got up from her nap we walked to the park. Please ignore my gross, super white legs...



We discovered that Caroline loves to play in the dirt.



She also really loves to play with the football---her daddy loves this orange and blue one.

I got the red outfit she had on Saturday at Kids Market for $1. Score!

On Sunday afternoon we had company over for Sunday lunch and had a good time. I love having Sunday lunch at home and wish we did it more often. It just makes the afternoon seem so much calmer. We enjoyed our weekend.

I've got a few things on eBay right now. We're gearing up for a yard sale in May and when we're cleaning out for that I always find things that I think will sell better on eBay. Most of the time, I'm right. Hopefully I'll get a few things sold and then I can list more as I find them!

I feel like this was a really boring post---sorry! Maybe I'll have something more interesting to post about later this week! Until then...have a good one!