Home away from Home

Ok - by now we sort of feel like we are in a psuedo home away from home. Every year my family loads up and heads South to the Gulf. We rent a beach house and all 11 of us settle in for some old fashioned family fun. It's rooted in our early childhood memories of good ole family vacations.

We want the girls to have that same value of togetherness with family - and at the same time enjoy a fabulous beach trip.

Last year Nicole wasn't able to enjoy it to it's fullest..... I was 36 weeks pregnant. This year - it's full of firsts for her!

We actually made a pit-stop on the way down and she had her first hotel stay (this is the girls watching tv while Tom and I got ready). Megan is having fun on the beach....

And in the water....

Nicole is loving spending lots of quality time with her cousins. Here she is loving up on Daniel - the oldest cousin.

She's not quite so sure about the beach. It's loud and scary and she hasn't enjoyed being near the water at all. And the sand... oh my, that's a meltdown waiting to happen.

But she's a cutie and is growing by leaps and bounds everyday! She wants to crawl so badly - and her cousins may be the catalyst to get her going.... we'll see.

I'll try to post some more this week - as we lounge around and simply soak up life together!

Shots from the Weekend

It was a bit of an exhausting weekend in our household. During all the big storms we realized Megan is scared of thunder.... wouldn't that have been nice to know before the storms hit from 8-11pm. Ugh. So to say we were all tired, is an understatement. Then little Ms. Nicole decided it wasn't right for her big sister to get all the attention - so she decided to start waking up in the middle of the night.

After a trip to the Dr. today, we are thankful (sort of) that it's not her ears - they look great! It is however a flare up of her reflux. That also may explain why she's not eating very well. So we have some ideas from the pediatrian, and from my friend Amy (thanks) and we'll see if we can get this little one to eat a bit more. Nicole is trying to pull up on furniture - but so far they are still attempts. She has gotton her first face bruise from one of her attempts.

Nicole is definitely teething again. That's probably one of the reasons for her reflux flare-up. I'm not seeing anything starting to poke through yet though.... But if she grabs your finger - just say NO! The 4 teeth she does have are very sharp.And if she can get her hands on it - she's going to chew on it.Megan spent some time working on her princess wave!Note the high heels.... That's her new love in the world of dress up. It's cute to hear her "clicking" though the house.

But Megan didn't want to be the only princess in the house- all things are better with a little sister to join in on the fun!

Daddy's little princesses....At some point this weekend, Megan decided she wanted to have a spend the night party with her baby doll and Snowball (her not so white polar bear).... yeah, she was tired!And the weekend ended with Megan trying on her new ballet slippers. She was making sure she was prepared to dance her little legs off at Dance Camp this week! The first day was a huge success - she loved it. It's made me so excited for her to take dance classes (tap and ballet) this fall.

Don't you know, there will be dance camp pictures to come!

Cutie

I had to put a little something on here about our littlest cutie.... She's trying hard to figure out how to pull herself up.
But for now - we have to give her a helping hand...

But once she's standing, she's so happy and proud of herself. And she holds on well...

Most of the time...

Thankfully mom or dad are ususally nearby (and usually without a camera in hand) to help cushion any falls. :^)

And when she does land, she usually enjoys a little time rolling around, or just trying to eat her toes!

I just love that baby hairdo! It's growing in, fast.

Hero Day

Have I mentioned how much I love our local Chick-fil-a?!?! Today was "Hero Day!" So this evening the invited some of our wonderful paramedics, fire fighters, and police to come on by to show off their awesome hearts and vehicles.I was pretty worried it was going to be a rain out - we drove over in a severe thundershower, but thankfully we got there just as a the rain cloud passed on by. So no one was there so we got some extra special one on one attention.

I am hoping this is the ONLY view that my sweet girls will get of the back seat of a cruiser.

And the back of an ambulance.

Megan has had enough friends who've had to go to the hospital recently that she was nervous they would take off while she was in the back of the vehicle. But in the drivers seat - she was in her element.

Thank you to Chick-fil-a and to our local hero's!

I think I need an underwater Camera

With the temperatures soaring - we've been spending a lot of time loading up and heading to the pool. But once this little girl hits the water....

This is all I see....

It's a little easier to handle when it's adult swim and she's in the baby pool...

Or in the evenings when I have some help...

Swim lessons are going great - she's fearless in the water. The baby pool makes it easier since she can swim underwater and still touch. In the big pool... it makes it a bit more difficult when Nicole doesn't want to be in her baby boat - but somehow we make it work and still have fun. By the time we get home, we are all ready for naps!

Cow Appreciation Day

All the mommy naptime creations were put to good use today.... FREE FOOD!
Tom thought I'd lost my mind when I told him he had to wear spots on his shirt, an Eat Mor Chikin sign, and some cow ears. But then he slowly came to the realization that we were the cheapest dates he'd ever had! 4 for the price of 0!

Nicole did feel a bit cheated as we devoured her kids meal. Especially when we ate her ice cream (complete with sprinkles).
Megan thought the whole deal was SWEET!

We Cow Girls had so much fun!!!!!!

So much fun that we went out for "chikin" twice today.... hey, we love Chik-fil-a so much that a free lunch and free dinner wasn't torture or anything. Especially when it's free!

Thanks Chick-fil-a cows! We appreciate you!

Getting Ready to Moo!

2nd post tonight so keep reading...

We were getting ready for Cow Appreciation Day at Chik-fil-a. So today mommy broke out the sewing machine for an easy naptime creation. I have to say - it was my first one and it was easy and fast!



First - grab some cow like material....

Sew a few stitches
Add some pretty ribbon - a girls got to get some pink in!

And Ta Da! A cute cow inspired pillowcase style dress....

And, I pulled out the first "cow dress" I had made for Megan when she was little and got it all ready for Nicole...

I think I'll have 2 cute "cowgirls" on my hands!

So - grab some spots (or print out a headband on the Chik-fil-a site) and go get some free food! Maybe we'll see you there at lunch... and dinner. :^)

Fireman Night at CFA

Tonight one of our local Chik-fil-a's had a Fireman night. They had a firetruck on hand for the kids to check out. At first Megan was a little leary at the thought of driving such a big rig - but she warmed up to it. But the best part was the Chik-fil-a cow!

We met up with a couple of families who live nearby - Megan loved having dinner with Will

And Nicole was thrilled to have a boy her age (Ben) to flirt with..

It was fun, great food, and nice to spend time with friends. Next week is "Police Week" with a police car and ambulance... I think we'll be back!

Happy 8 Month Birthday

How can it be that this little girl is already 8 months old? Has time really pased that quickly? She's growing into a little girl so quickly. I did a few "mommy measurements" this morning to see how much she's grown...

By our little scale, Nicole weighed in at 22.5 lbs. And my little tape measure had her at about 30 inches (that could be off do to some seriously wiggling of my test subject).

Ok, Nicole here are some things about you.... You love books - especially books with baby pictures in them. You are very vocal and chatter to toys, strangers, books, walls... you are your daddy's little girl! You also love your big sister - it is so sweet to see how excited you get when she walks in the room. I pray you'll both adore each other your whole life, like you do now.

You love being outside, especially in swings (just like your big sister). Whenever you are a little fussy, we just go outside and it totally resets your "happy button". Whenever music comes on, you start your little baby dance - feet a kickin! If you are in someone lap, hopefully they are holding on or you'd just hop out of their laps. You love trying to pull yourself up and are good at pivoting yourself around when you sit. You reach and get on your knees, but that is not a stance you like much. You've started using a few sign language motions - "more" and sometimes you'll show "all done"

You seem to be allergic to milk and we've yet to find a formula that you'll take and keep down. Either you say NO WAY, or it makes you sick. So, for now we are just dealing with that the old fashioned way. And you seem to like it that way because you aren't into baby food very much. You love eating puffs... but beyond that, it's a chore to get "food" into you. You'll eat most fruits that are mixed with grains, but veggies are tough! You just discovered that you do like watermelon in the little feeder bag. But if I give you a little piece you pretty much choke on it. Your reflux seems to be getting better and that's a huge relief.

You already have 4 teeth (the 4th is in) and seem to have 4 more right under the surface. You head to bed around 8pm and you wake up around 6am but will talk to yourself and play in your crib until about 7am. You love taking baths and love the water. "Mama" and "uh oh" are your favorite words. Everyday you seem to learn something new or make some fun new discovery.

You are such a sweet baby - a little challenging at times because you love your mommy soooo much! But, make no mistake sweetheart - I love you more than words could say. It's all worth it to have you in our lives!

And like your sister --- you love baby dolls. Especially if they'll share their bottles with you!

Here's a reminder of big sister Megan when she was 8 months old...

Update: Tonight Tom got his first "Da Da". What a sweet treat!