Goodbye Aunt Karen Hello Rice Cereal

Aunt Karen and Noni are currently on a plane. We took them to the airport this morning. :( We were SO sad to see Aunt Karen go after having had a wonderful three weeks with her. I wished I could have just tied her up and made her stay here. :) The girls enjoyed her so much.

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We took middle name pictures yesterday. Four generations with the same middle name!

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Noni and Bug are a little behind in the naming. Although if we went to Texas we could get a bigger group of family together with their middle name. :)

Boo and Aunt Karen really hit it off. Maybe Boo knew she was a namesake. :) They are sure going miss each other!

I wanted Aunt Karen to be here for one of Boo's big "firsts" so we bumped up the "first food" by a week. I know most people give their babies food early on, but I've been waiting till the last minute since Bug's weight-gain problems all started when we introduced solids. I'm hoping that Boo's will transition will be easier. Here's a little video of the first bite. :)

Daddy got her started and then big sister wanted to give it a try. I think I'm going to have to train Bug to feed Boo! It will save me lots of time to let her do it. :)

Not exactly thrilled with the first tastes. :)

I love her expression here. She looks like she's thinking, "What the crud are they putting in my mouth??"

"Okay, maybe it's not so bad."

"Then again..."

"Aww, I'm just teasin'. It was pretty good."

The next morning she was a little more interested in it.

Or maybe it was just b/c Auntie Karen was feeding her. :)

Have fun in Texas Noni! We'll see you soon!

We'll miss you SO very much Aunt Karen! Come back to us soon!

P.S. Can anyone tell me why all my outdoor photos have a bluish tint to them? These have even been edited with the "warmify" button and the rice cereal ones turned out very blue. I'm not sure if it's a setting or what. Any ideas?

Slippin' and Slidin'

Noni and Papa surprised Bug with a slip and slide at their house! She, of course, was thrilled! She wanted to change into her swimsuit and try it out right away. You can see the excitement on her face. :)

The water was freezing since it was coming straight out of the hose which comes straight out of their well. She didn't want to go down until Papa kinked the hose so it wouldn't squirt her.

Ready, set, go!

Here's a little video of Daddy giving her a little help.

For a kid, it just doesn't get much better than a sprinkler on a hot summer day!

Wordless Wednesday

Class of 2000

So I have a TON of pictures in this post. My good friend printed out a whole bunch of her pictures from high school and then scanned them into the computer and I had SO much fun looking at them that I couldn't just choose a few. :) Here is our whole class on our Senior retreat.
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As I mentioned yesterday, we had a graduating class of only 20 so we were all really close. We were also known as the "bad class" so I think we were even closer than we would have been since we felt like we had to stick together. :)

Here's T and I in math class! I'm not sure sure what year this was...I'm guessing Junior year? He'd been going to this school since 2nd grade. I came in 8th grade and by the end of the year we unofficially dating. I say unofficially b/c even though we were labeled a couple he didn't actually ask me to "go out" until the spring of our Freshman year. :)

This is on a choir tour. I think it was Senior year.

I've always liked this picture. I'm at the top left.

And this has always been one of my favorites. This was such an awesome bunch of people to grow up with.

I don't even remember this picture. We look like we are studying in the hall?

There's T, second from the left. He looks so young!

This was at a birthday party that two of the girls had. Their parents rented out a grange hall and we learned how to swing dance! These three girls and I were the Senior cheerleaders. Blue and White! Fight, fight, fight! :)

And another one of my favorites...taken at a fall retreat...I always thought T looked so cute in it. :)

Totally don't remember this one. I think it's from our Senior trip.

And a group photo from that trip. We had such a great time. My mom and T's mom chaperoned this trip along with some of the other parents and one teacher. My mom planned the whole thing. We went to a professional baseball game, a play, and a bunch of other fun things. Great memories!

And here we are ten years later!

Me and one of my best friends.

We had over half of our class come, which I thought was pretty good considering about half now live in different states. The couple on the left is getting married on Saturday and the other couple sitting down are due with their first baby on Saturday!

My other best friends...it's so fun that I still see these girls on a regular basis and now we are watching our own kiddos grow up together!

Some of the guys and T. He's holding one of our friends' little girls. She thought that the bandanna meant this guy was a pirate so she was a little unsure about him. Haha :)

Laughing about old times. :)

Catching up.

We rented a pavillion in park by the lake. It was such a gorgeous day and we didn't know it was going to be there, but there was a concert in the park not more than 100 yards away from us! It was Big Band and quite the production! Tons of people came and were sitting on blankets and chairs. It was a great atmosphere.
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T manning the BBQ.

I brought my yearbooks and it was so funny to look back at all those pictures.

It was also really fun to hear about what everyone has been up to since we graduated.

And especially great to see all our little ones playing together. The next generation!

Here we are...ten years older...growing families...different lives. I can't wait to see what we look like in another ten years! :)

Busy Weekend!

We had another crazy, busy weekend! On Thursday night my parents and my aunt came over and we went to a play put on by the local theater troupe. It was a really good production! And it was shorter than a typical play which was perfect for sleepy little girls. :)

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On Friday we went to a baseball game with our church group. It was so fun to go with so many people! I confess I did more talking than watching the game. :)

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Aunt Karen held Boo the entire time. Poor thing needed a nap, but it was so loud she wasn't able to sleep for too long. She did really well though.

Bug had a great time enjoying the all-American tastes of a baseball game: hot dog, ice cream sandwich, frozen lemonade. She was in hog heaven. And due to the sugar high she didn't fall asleep on the way home even though we didn't get home until nearly eleven!

On Saturday we went to another local parade/community days. K just loves parades! It's so fun to watch her watching all the things go by. She even knew some people that were riding in this parade so that was a lot of fun!

Then on Saturday night we took the girls to Noni and Papa's and headed off for a night on the town. It was our 10 year high school reunion!!! I cannot believe it has already been ten years. Everyone seemed so different, and yet so much the same. It was SO fun to see everyone and hang out, reminiscing about the good ole' days. :)

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I know a lot of people have bad high school memories, but for me those were some of the best times of my life. I had an awesome high school experience. My mom made a lot of sacrifices for me to be able to go to a private school for five years and I'm so very thankful that she did. Going to a small Christian school with a graduating class of 20 gave me many life-long friendships, and too many fun memories to count...not to mention my wonderful husband! :)

Saturday night was "adults only" so Sunday we had a picnic with all the families. I'll have to blog about that later b/c we're off and running again this week! I need to stop typing b/c I have about 18 minutes to get ready. Haha :)

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Thanks to all those who came to the reunion! It was so fun to see everyone!!!

Teeth

We officially have "teeth"! We no longer say "we need to go brush Boo's tooth". We're not exactly sure when the tooth came in. I think it might have been on my birthday or maybe when we were on our trip, but there were no reports of excessive fussiness. I noticed the new tooth when we got home on Sunday night, but it was already up quite a bit...not like when they first come in.

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Boo was much more cooperative in my attempts to get a picture this time. Maybe she remembered daddy and I ganging up on her so she just decided to open wide and save herself, and us, the hassle. :)

Here's a close up. I love this phase when they give that big, drooly smile with only those two little bottom teeth. :)

Happy girl.



Could I BE more in love with that face???

Sittin'

Here's a little video of our Boo bear practicing her sittin' skills! She's getting pretty good. She does better on a hard surface, but I like to put her on the bed so she can take a spill without repercussions. :)