Desk!

Some friends have been simplifying their home and offered us a desk their children no longer needed. We are very excited for Caroline to have a space like this for her coloring and books. We're in the process of planning out her "big girl room", and I think it will be a perfect addition! Thanks T & J!





T had not been gone five minutes and she was ready to use her table! She's still in there, coloring away, loving it!

Hodge Podge

Hello, hello! I've been mulling for a few days over my blog. I have two different sets of pictures, one with several, and one with only a few, that I want to share and I've been trying to decide if I should blog once or twice. After much deliberation, I decided to only blog once--I know myself and I may or may not get back to blogging later this week to do more than one. We have a lot of fun stuff coming up too that I know I'll want to blog about, so I hope you'll all humor me and endure this long post!

As I mentioned in my last blog, we spent almost a week with Aaron's family because of the death of his grandfather. The occasion that brought us all together was sad, but we still loved being together and got a few good pics of Caroline with her family. (All except Oma...we'll make sure to get one next time!)




Caroline really loves her Uncle Jud. He has, for the moment at least, taken the spot of her favorite relative. He never has to bribe her with a cell phone or computer or cracker like some other members of the family. :) We'll have to keep an eye on him though, since he's a AL fan...we can't have him corrupting our daughter! (He's already given her a plastic elephant!)



Caroline really enjoyed sitting with her Aunt KK and kicking her foot up to be tickled by Opa's beard. She loved this game and we all loved her smile and giggles!



She loves her Oma's oatmeal! Apparently the kitchen was too bright for her eyes...



Opa discovered on this trip that he could pull up some of her favorite Sesame Street songs on YouTube. They enjoyed watching them together...well, Caroline enjoyed the songs, I think Opa only tolerated them because it got her sitting with him!(Remember those bribes I referred to earlier?) It was nice to all be together, even for a sad occasion. We are looking forward to seeing them again soon! (Two weeks!)



We are not fair-weather fans around here. We're sticking with the Tigers and supporting them, even though they're not having the best season. War Eagle!



This is George, the bouncing horse that lives at Poppy and Granny's. She loves him!

I had a Mary Kay party last weekend. A friend from church recently started selling Mary Kay, so the party was a great chance to support her and have a good time with the girls! Caroline went out with her Daddy that morning, but before they left, she discovered the makeup mirrors and brushes set up on the dining room table.









She's girly, that's for sure!

WHEW! That's all for now!

(Told you it was going to be long!)

Grandaddy

Aaron's grandfather passed away last week. We returned home on Sunday night from spending most of the week with his family. Grandaddy was very sick and it was expected, but a death in the family is emotionally draining in so many ways.

Caroline is so blessed to have met 3 of her great-grandparents. I never knew any of mine, and Aaron only knew one of his. We are so thankful we have pictures and memories of Caroline with of her great-grandparents.





The first picture was Grandaddy holding Caroline for the first time, her first Christmas. She was so teeny! The second picture was taken in August, the last time we saw him. I am so glad that one day Caroline can look back at pictures like these and realize that even if she doesn't remember her great-grandfather, she met him and made him smile.

Birthday Buddies

Two weeks ago we had a visit from Aaron's cousin, Stephanie and her daughter, Annalise. Caroline and Annalise are about 12 hours apart and share a birthday. I knew Stephanie before I knew Aaron, and I was excited when I found out they were cousins. She's great and I love chatting with her. Since our girls are exactly the same age, it's fun to talk about what they're doing and how we're handling the new situations that arise. I hope we're always close, even if miles separate us!




Look at those girls after their bath! They had fun in the tub and we got some great video of them splashing around.



It was fun to watch them play together during this visit. They actually played together, not just next to each other this time.



Daddy/Uncle Aaron was playing a tickling game with them. They loved it! I loved hearing the Grotto (our den) ringing with their laughter. A child's laugh is such a happy sound!





They're worn out from laughing!

Coloring

Caroline is growing up and it's so bittersweet. I'm so happy she's growing and changing and becoming a little girl, but there are moments when I just want to freeze time and have her stay little forever. I miss the baby cuddles and the toothless grins. She is such a blessing to us! She's growing up. Her new favorite activity is sitting at the kitchen table and coloring. She will climb up in the chair (always the same one) and say, "Colors?" It's adorable and heartbreaking at the same time. When did my little baby become big enough to sit at the kitchen table without a booster seat?





I might get in trouble for posting this next pic...but, Uncle Jud doesn't scare me too much.



Yep folks...he's wearing an Auburn hat! I believe his BIL threatened bodily harm if he didn't wear it to the game...

Hold your little ones close tonight--they won't be little for long! Hope you're all well!

Tiny Treasures

Last week Caroline discovered a plastic drawer in her closet that had a bunch of stuffed animals in it. How we wound up with so many stuffed animals, I don't know, but we did, and until now she hasn't shown any interest in them. She unloaded that drawer and played with them for a long time. Her little face was alight with excitement and she would make this little gasp, then laugh, then tell me what each animal was as she pulled them out. They were like tiny little treasures to her! It was adorable!





Oh yeah, and she's been wearing her Elmo backpack around for days. Her friend, Blair gave it to her when we were up in BG. She loves it! It's so cute how much she loves to wear it. I think it's partly because she just likes the backpack, and partly because she LOVES Elmo. She's just started liking Elmo within the last severeal months. Since we canceled our cable, she's been wathcing Sesame Street on PBS. She can sing the theme song to "Elmo's World" and everything. She doesn't get all the words right all the time, but she's got the tune down pat.

Last week I made a super trip to the grocery. I even left Caroline with my parents because I knew I was going to take a few hours going to more than one store. It was one of those trips where we were basically out of everything. I'm usually pretty good at keeping our fridge, pantry, and freezer pretty stocked, but because of some sickness, traveling, and a few other things that have gotten in the way, I hadn't done a good shopping trip in a while. We had been living off my stocks and the occasionally run for milk or eggs for about a month. Anyway, we were down to nothing but ketchup and mayo, so I had to go. When Caroline got home from the grandparents, she noticed I had gone shopping! It was the funniest thing...I was getting her a drink from the fridge and she started jumping, laughing, and pointing at the fresh blueberries. She politely asked for some, so I let her have a snack. About ten minutes after she ate those, she began doing the exact same thing, jumping and laughing, only this time she was pointing to the fruit bowl, excited to see the bananas. I let her have one of those too, when she smiled up at me and said "Pese?" :) I LOVE that she was so excited to see fruit!

Long Weekend

We had a nice long weekend! Friday morning I wasn't feeling great so I was a little concerned about our plans for the weekend, but luckily it didn't seem to carry into the weekend.

On Saturday we drove up North about 2 hours to help Aaron's sister and her husband move into their first house!



Here are the newlyweds in their new home.

Caroline was such a help to her Uncle...ok, maybe more of a hindrance. :)




Their house is really cute and I can't wait to see what all Karen does with it. I'm looking forward to them being closer now. 8 hours was TOO FAR...2 is much better! :)

Monday we had some friends over for a cookout, which turned into a cookin, because it started raining. We had a really good time. I only managed to get one picture, but it's of most of the kiddos eating around our kitchen table. We've got a great group of kids, if I do say so myself! :) Lots of great examples for Caroline!



All in all, a great weekend. Today it's back to our normal routine...but, there is something so peaceful about "normal."