Sand and Sun

Okay, we're back! I realize I didn't say we were going to be gone, but that is b/c I read that you should never announce your vacation on the Internet...for safety purposes. Anyway... :) we went with T to the resort again for another conference.

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It was, hands down, the best time we've had so far! Which was directly related to the fact that one of my friends came with her husband to the same conference. It was so much more enjoyable to do the kiddie things when I had a friend to talk to! And so much more relaxing b/c I didn't have to pack up our stuff every time K had to go to the bathroom...which was insanely frequently. :)

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We left here on Sunday afternoon right during naptime in the hopes that both girls would sleep the whole way. Well, one out of two ain't bad. :) K slept for about half an hour and then woke up, but she knew she was supposed to be sleeping so she stayed quiet and we didn't have to answer 2,456 questions on the way down. :)

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We arrived with NO stops and NO pukeage. A definite first for our little family! And much appreciated by Mommy and Daddy. :)

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Sunday was also Boo's 5 month-day and I thought it would be cute to get a picture in a chair like the one we took her 3 month picture in.

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To celebrate her 5 month-day we decided to take her for her first swimming trip. She was pretty excited. :)

Or maybe she was just happy not to be in the car. :)

It was such a nice warm day...I think it feels hotter than it actually is since we've been so cold and rainy lately. Boo was fascinated with the water! It was hard to hold her up b/c she was trying to get it in her mouth and wanted to do a face plant into it. Her little expression was so cute as she discovered the swimming pool.

K hasn't been swimming all that much since we haven't had much opportunity. We decided to keep a life jacket on her so she could have a little freedom. This picture made me laugh b/c her hair reminds me of Farrah Fawcet. :)

Daddy and a contemplative 5 month old. Pondering the complexities of life or just "too cool" to take a picture? :)

K wasn't all that comfortable in the water so Daddy was trying to get her to loosen up. She finally started playing and even being brave enough to jump from the side.

I love their matching expressions. :)

"I could get used to this, Mom."

Boo was a little small for the floaty, so we had to have a hand under her so she wouldn't slip out, which kind of defeats the purpose but she enjoyed floating by herself and it was easier not to hold her.

She stayed in for a full hour, although she got sleepy towards the end. :)

We went out to dinner and then it was already time for bed. We started the next morning bright and early and headed down to the lake. Or as K said, "The big pool".

I don't know what the temperature was but it was hot! But it was so nice to be hot instead of cold! If I closed my eyes it felt like we were somewhere tropical. The sun was so warm and the boats going by made waves come in to the shoreline. It was wonderful!

We met our friends down at the beach and the kids got right to work building and playing in the sand.

I brought out Boo's PeaPod and she took a nap on the beach. I LOVE this thing! It is so much more handy than a pack-n-play. It folds up to about half the size of my diaper bag and all you do is release the strap and it pops out like this! No assembly. It was one of our best 2nd baby gifts...I would definitely recommend it!

The girls' friend, Rowen, really loved Boo. He was so sweet and would get up close to her and smile into her face. She loved it!

Monday and Tuesday morning we played on the beach until the kiddos got tired of that and then we went to the pool. This lake is apparentely really deep...there is even a mountain in it!..and is, consequently, cold all the time.

On Monday the Daddies got done with their meetings and came and met us and we all walked over to a hamburger stand near the hotel. Then we took the kids to the park for a bit before heading back to the hotel for naps. After naps it was another trip to the pool and then we got dressed up and went to a really nice restaurant in a winery nearby. It was a dinner for the Commissioners of the hospital board. There was one other little boy there. The girls did pretty good, but we did skip out a little early when they started getting antsy.

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From there we went to the ice cream social put on by the conference and met up with Rowen and his mommy and daddy. The kids enjoyed the ice cream...and so did the adults...and then it was back to the hotel to fall into bed.
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Tuesday found us at the beach again for most of the morning. Then we went over to the pool and got lunch from the beach bar since the Daddies were having a working lunch. Ro and his mommy had to leave after that and K kept asking about him.

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Tuesday night we went to a Beach BBQ put on by the conference. The food was delicious and it was fun to catch up with some people we hadn't seen in a while, but the wind had come up and it was crazy! The wind coming up off the water was fierce and was blowing the salad off our plates. You had to make sure your drink stayed at least half full or your cup would blow off the table. Some people next to us lost their bowl of strawberry shortcake but thankfully it just landed on the ground and not us! The girls were cold and tired so I headed back to our room with them as soon as we finished eating, and Daddy stayed to mingle.

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Wednesday was our last morning and we spent one last morning at the beach. K didn't have quite as much fun without Rowen but she still played happily while Boo took her last beach nap.

This Mama brought her baby ducks up close. I couldn't believe how brave all the ducks were there! They would come up to within inches of us, and not just the babies, the older ducks too. They must get fed a lot.

Cleaning off her feet. :)

What a wonderful four days at the lake!!!

Tuckered out from all the fun. :)

I'm already looking forward to next year!

First Tooth!

Well, I guess I should have checked Boo's mouth before posting yesterday b/c a couple hours later I found a tooth! We should have known b/c she had woken up at 5:00a.m. and kind of fussed off and on for about an hour and a half. That is very unusual for her.

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Normally we put her down around 9 or 9:30 and we don't hear a peep until 7:30 or 8. I went in at 5 to make sure she didn't have a fever and she was cool, so I figured she was just a little fussy from getting her shots. She was probably cutting the tooth right then!

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I tried to get a good picture of it, but it was really hard to get her to be still and smile enough to see the tooth.

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Open mouth, but can't see the tooth.

We had to wait until Daddy came home and then we ganged up on her and got a good shot on the first try!

Here's a close up.

She's technically still only 4 months old (at least until tomorrow) which seems so early to get a tooth! T got his first one at 2 months. My mom doesn't remember when I got my first one but she did stop nursing me at 8 months b/c I had two top and two bottoms, so I guess it's only natural that our girls would be early teethers. If I remember right, Bug usually got them in pairs so we'll probably be seeing the match pop up here soon!

P.S. Thanks for the tip Elizabeth! If she starts biting I'll have to try that.

Unmet Expectations

The girls had check-ups yesterday. I thought that Bug was going to have to get a booster shot so we had been talking about it all week, hyping it up, discussing how brave she was going to be, and how if she just cried a little and didn't scream she would get to pick out a treat afterwards. So when we got there and the nurse said she didn't have to get a shot after all she was SO disappointed! I was relieved, but she was sad.

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Our regular doctor also had a family emergency so we had to see a male doctor and that wasn't too high up on her list of priorities. She has always had a big "bubble" and even as a baby she didn't want strangers touching her or coming into her space, so she was not too happy to have him poking on her and looking in her eyes, ears, and mouth.

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She was out of sorts for the rest of the morning...stubborn, willful, pouty, etc. A real joy to be around. Haha :) All my mom and I could figure was that her unmet expectations threw her off.

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Daddy couldn't join us at the doctor so we took Noni along for moral and physical support. I thought they were both going to be having shots and knew I would need the extra hands.

Future opera star.

Boo is excited about something! :)

I talked to the doctor about vaccinations and, as expected, he was against delaying them. He gave me all the facts about how there is really no scientific evidence to support delaying them, which I had also read on Dr.Sears' website, and talked about the dangers of leaving their immune systems vulnerable in the interim. There have been a lot of cases of whooping cough going around so I know that specific vaccine is necessary.
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Anyway, when all was said and done I went ahead and stayed with the recommend schedule. I'm still not happy with it, but until they come up with a better way I feel like we are kind of stuck...no pun intended. :P

The doctor said both girls look great!

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Bug's stats:

Height: 38 3/4 inches - 85%

Weight: 31.4lbs. - 50%

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Boo's stats:

Height 26 1/4 inches - 95%

Weight: 15lbs. - 50%

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I looked back at Bug's stats at six months (Boo will be 5 months on Sunday) and she was 26 3/8 inches and 15lbs. 14oz. so Boo is actually a little bigger than her sister was at this age.

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All tuckered out after her big day.

P.S. Boo is getting a tooth already! We can feel it coming and it should break through any day. Bug didn't get her first one until she was 6 months so it seems really early to me. Thankfully, Boo is not a biter...yet. I'm hoping the new teeth don't give her cause to start biting. I'll try to get a picture of the tooth when it comes in.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Father's Day

Our weekend definitely ended on a positive note! Grandma and Grandpa helped us out so much. We are SO thankful for them! They are such a big help to us, and they're wonderful grandparents to our girls.

We ended up going to town and doing a little shopping and getting some Noodle Express since it was still raining. Yum!

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T is such a wonderful father. We are so blessed to have him in our lives. He has always been so good with Bug, and now we get to add Boo to the mix. He is always working hard to be intentional about spending time with both girls, and Bug just loves when he gets down on the floor to play with her. He has been so helpful with both girls, especially when I am busy with one or the other. He just steps in and helps me out wherever I need it.

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I think Bug looks a lot like her Daddy in this picture!

I tried SO hard to think of a good Father's Day present. Two of my ideas fell through so I went shopping last week and was just kind of looking around hoping something would strike me. Thankfully it did! T had just gone shopping for a birthday party and was talking about all the Legos he had looked through. He has always loved Legos and now Bug is starting to enjoy them too, so what better Father's Day present than something they can have fun with together??

Yes, I bought my husband Legos for Father's Day. And he was thrilled, just like I hoped he'd be, and Bug was just as happy that she and Daddy could build together. :)

Thank you, honey, for being such an amazing father and husband. We love you more than we can say, and we can't imagine life without you!

And Happy Father's Day to all the other wonderful Father's in our lives...Grandpa, Papa, Pawpaw, Grandpa Jerry, and Uncle Bo-Bo and Uncle Wade too! We love you all and are so very thankful for you!

No Boom

Oh what a weekend! We had planned on working in the yard this weekend, but then when we found out T's parents were going to be coming through we decided to kick it up a notch. We rented an excavator so we could get rid of the big rock wall that partially spans our backyard. T called the gas company, but they didn't have enough notice to come stake out the gas line (they need 48 hours notice). So T and his Dad found where it was and marked it out in the yard...but apparently it looped back into the alley.

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I was feeding Boo in the nursery when my mother-in-law came in yelling for me to get out of the house. We all ran out front and it sounded like some gigantic inner tube had just got punctured! It was SO loud! Everyone was pretty shook up, but I was fine once I realized that no one was hurt.

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We had to call the Fire Department and the police came and evacuated everyone in a three block radius...which wouldn't have been quite so bad except that our neighbor is 101 years old and bed bound so they had to bring in an ambulance to get her out of her house. Ugh. Quite the ordeal!

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Grandma and I took the girls down to the park and we hadn't grabbed our purses so we didn't have anything...I was thankful I had been wearing shoes and not slippers. :) Poor Boo had to wear a wet diaper for about four hours since I couldn't change it. I thought it would leak through since it was a cloth one but it held up to the task. :)

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Thankfully my parents were coming through town so they bought us lunch since we were evacuated right before lunch and didn't have any money on us. The gas company didn't get the line pinched for a full hour and half. Our whole house smelled like propane really bad, but I was just thankful that it didn't explode!

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So after about two hours we were able to come back home and they shut off our gas until they can come back on Monday.

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We did make some good progress on the yard! :) Grandpa got the whole rock wall torn down and loaded (well three loads actually) so T could take it away to my parents, who want to make a wall at their house. Here's Grandpa tearing down the fireplace. It was a cool fireplace and I wish we could have saved it, but it was just a crumbling mess. It would have been near to impossible to fix it.

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The cones and plywood are covering up the burst gas line.

There were some pretty nice pieces of granite back there so they should make a nice wall.

I can't believe how smooth he was able to make it! Not 24 hours ago this was a lumpy, rocky mess and now it's nice and smooth and ready for a new fence!

So we all survived the weekend and things turned out pretty well. Grandma and Grandpa took the last load of rock this morning so that T could go to church with us...so nice! They gave out snickers bars to all the dads and Boo confiscated one. :)

Hungry? Why wait?

Daddy and his girls!

It's pouring down rain right now and the guys are still out working in it, so hopefully they'll be able to finish up soon and we can take them out to a nice dinner for Father's Day. Unfortunately they are cold and wet and we have no hot water or heat. At least, in the words of Bug, there was "no boom". :)

Sherbert

Boo is discovering the sherbert! Her little toungue is almost constantly in motion now. She thinks it's pretty funny. :) We think it's pretty funny too...except when she does it while she supposed to be eating. :) I also managed to get a laugh on here! Her "laugh" is a squeaky intake of breath. She hasn't figured out how to push her breath out to laugh yet. :)

P.S. I tried a different category on YouTube. It said "Unlisted" and that anyone with the link can view the video. Can someone let me know if it's not working? Thanks!

VBS

We've been at VBS all week! Today was our last day and we had a BBQ send off after it was done. Bug got to be in the preschool room all week and I was a "snack lady". :) I started the week out as just a snack helper, but due to a family emergency I was promoted to head chef mid-week. It was actually a lot of fun. I didn't get very many pictures, but here are a couple from today.

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Bug during song time.

Bird's Nests! You have no idea how long these took me to make! A big pain, but they turned out pretty cute. The other days we had Jungle cat eyes - ritz, cream cheese, banana slice, and raisin; Fishies swimmin' - half a bagel with blue colored cream cheese w/goldfish stuck in the top; Swamp Mud - chocolate pudding with gummy worms and raisins on top; and Butterflies - a celery stick with pretzel wings and a grape head. :)

Noni was one of the teachers. She had a different group of kids every day and taught them the story of Elisha and the army.

It was a fun week but I'm definitely exhausted! I can tell that Buggy is not ready for preschool. She has been so tired and kind of crabby all week. Yesterday she said, "Mommy, can I just stay home and play with my toys? I want to stay at my home." When we got home every day she would run to her toys as if we'd been gone for years.

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She did a good job, but I think it was a little much for her. I think it definitely reinforced our decision not to send her to preschool next year. She gets plenty of social at church and she is nearly reading already so she doesn't need the academic.

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Well, hopefully after this weekend is over we'll be a few steps closer to a yard. Grandma and Grandpa are going to be here to help us get the fence torn down and ready to be replaced. I'm looking forward to a lawn!

Wordless Wednesday

Getting Dressed

One thing I am very grateful for is that although Bug is very strong willed and intense she has never put up a fight about getting dressed. She very rarely has a preference over what she is going to wear and if she chooses something inappropriate (ie-a sundress when it's -2 outside) she has no problem with me telling her no and picking out something else. However, when we are at home she has started to take charge of her own wardrobe. She came down from roomtime the other day in this ensemble.

I put her in the pink pants and light pink shirt. She added the rest. Extra shirt, butterfly hat, pajama shorts, six pairs of bloomers, and some pink polka dot bikini bottoms.

Oh, and the snowboots. We can't forget the snowboots.

Thank heaven she lets me dress her when we are going out of the house!