Future Singer?

Sweet Pea

I can't get enough of this girl these days. She is so fun. She could roll and scoot around the floor with Lily Kate all over her and be content all day. Charlotte has finally started eating baby food, which makes life a little easier for me because she can survive without me for a meal now!! Speaking of food - we learned tonight that Charlotte is allergic to strawberries. Parks gave her some really yummy pound cake (thank you, Grace!) that had been soaked in strawberry juice and shortly after her skin was "polka dotted" (according to Lily Kate). The nurse had us watch her for the next 2 hours to make sure she didn't stop breathing because that is common in strawberry allergies (how's that to make a mama a little nervous). She's was just fine and happy the whole time. What a sweetie.

Play date with Oliver

Here's our buddy, Oliver. He's our sweet friend who is 16 days older than Char. This picture makes them look serious but they were all smiles all night but, of course, I couldn't get a picture of them both smiling and still enough not to blur the picture.

Both of the babies are on the verge of crawling. We find Charlotte rocking on her hands and knees all the time. She can sort of launch herself forward but so far no legitimate crawling.

Baking & Bath Time

Lily Kate and I made brownies the other night. "Cooking" together has become really fun. Baking is especially great because she can dump in ingredients and mix things. She and I ate about 1/3 of the batter before we made them. Notice there are sunglasses in her hand because she wore them the during the whole process :) After baking we headed to the bath to join Charlotte. I don't know if you can tell by clicking on the picture (to enlarge it) but Charlotte's eyes are almost completely green now, like mine.

Babbling at 6 months

Big girl is growing up

Rice Cereal

Who doesn't love a good picture of a baby with food all over her? What a cutie! Charlotte had a whole week as an only child while Lily Kate stayed with her Soni in TN. It was really hard to be away from LK but it was really nice to give Charlotte some much-needed attention. She's such a second child, we hadn't started feeding her baby food until just last week because meal time is chaotic enough as it is :) She's a sweetie.

Playtime with Charlotte

I love this picture. This picture makes me proud of my little point and click camera. This is not me, it's Sarah going off the rope swing during our week at Tate, Park's family's lake house in GA. We got back last night from a wonderfully relaxing week. Myers and Laura's daughter, Lillian, is adorable. She's 1 (Her age is exactly between LK & Charlotte's - so much fun for years to come!). She's sitting in the sand in one of the pics below. The girls had a blast, swimming and playing in the sand all day long and getting loved on by their aunts and uncles and their Soni. We had been telling Lily Kate about Tate for about a week before we left (to build excitement and also to distract from our stressful move) and one day mid week LK and I were sitting on the porch and she said, "Mom, this is Tate?" and I said "yep, this is it" and she said "I like this". From the pictures below you can see.... what's not to like.

Lily Kate and Aunt Sarah, I see a bond forming :)

Adorable Lillian

This is my big girl who swing on a "big kid swing" and asks to "swing up to the sky". She thought it was funny to let her hands go at the top of the swing and watch me have a mini heart attack.

The dock

Charlotte had a great week. That child would be happy to be held all day long and she got her wish most of the day. All smiles, all week.

exploring

Camera batteries are packed....

We're still alive! We are moving. We've had a couple of paperwork setbacks and our closing was delayed to this week sometime. I packed the camera battery charger back when we thought we'd be in the house in a couple days and now I have no idea where it is. I'll unearth it soon and we'll be back in business. Today Lily Kate and Charlotte were sitting side by side (Char was supported in her boppy pillow - she can't sit yet) watching TV and LK's arm was around Charlotte. I was poised behind them to sneak a picture when my camera reminded me that the batteries were dead. Too bad. We'll show you the new house later this week.

Pool Party

I love these pictures (also stolen from Ashley!) These kids are precious. Jack calls LK "Lil' Katie" and he is very sweet to her. She was on his heels the entire visit, she LOVES him. It was so fun to see the kiddos play laugh, I only wish they saw each other more often.

Stolen

I stole these pics from my sister-in-law, Ashley. She has a new camera and some skills to go with it. My mom got the cousins some superhero PJs and they were a hit.

Breathe

I rarely post little stories but this one was too good not to share.

Yesterday was a full day, complete with my Charlotte sleeping for 30 min in place of her usual 3 hr mid-day nap. I had a Young Life meeting last night that I was scrambling to finish preparing for. Lily Kate is standing at my right hip (as usual) chattering away, "I would like-a have a diff-rint snack please, not have a 'nola bar...... I have a marsmallows?" I opened an email that I had been waiting for all day and the screen told me that it would not open because I needed to "enable macros". Maybe that makes sense to some of you, but that is Chinese to me. I sat back and said to God, "I am just so frustrated". Then I hear miss Kate, "Oh, mommy, you just have a breathe. Like this, mommy (big breathe in and out modeled by Lily Kate). She looked right at me and said "see, it's okay." It was too much for me, I was laughing and feeling tears in my eyes at the same time. Lily Kate is a child full of feelings and opinions and often struggles (as do I!) with frustration and we have been working on this slow down and breathe idea that I thought would be a better alternative than throwing her sandwich accross the room. It's hard to be 2 and have feelings and, frustrations and yet, no good words to express them. It's even hard when you do have words for the feelings! I was encouraged by my Lily Kate and I was just plain shocked that she had been listening to me all this time.

Lily Kate is stil pretty "rough & tumble". (She and her friend, Maddie were wrestling in the dirt at Parks' last softball game & laughing about it the whole time.) But, God is shaping her and developing her nurturing side. I have loved watching her with Charlotte - the way she calls her "seet baby girl" and tries to "suggle" her all the time. I am praying for her to be an encourager. Lord, thank you for that girl!

Lily Kate was begging me to let Charlotte sleep with her tonight so we settled on a 15 min cuddle time before they both went to sleep. The video below is of Charlotte's little laugh. Still, the only person she has ever laughed at is Lily Kate. Charlotte likes her best :)

My Cousin, David's Wedding in TX

David, the groom & Kathy, the mother of the groom

Charlotte with her great-grandmother (my Nana) & below cousin Scotty eating a meatball

We had a great weekend in TX. David and Heather had a beautiful & fun wedding. All of the kiddos stayed up until midnight two nights in a row and did remarkably well. Lily Kate was on Jack's heels the whole time, she thinks he hung the moon and he was incredibly patient with her. Ashley took some great pictures with her new camera so I'll need to steal some of those to document the 4 cousins playing together. Charlotte did pretty well on her first plane ride. She still doesn't sleep very well anywhere but her bed. She's a home body - too bad I'm not :) Lily Kate stuck a peanut in her nose on the plane ride home and after a couple minutes of unsuccessfully trying to remove it I was having visions of the stewardess having to ask if any one of the passengers was a doctor to remove it. No need, it came out with a few more strong blows. We made it home :)

Babies in Grass Skirts

Last night we went to the YL end of the Yr party and the theme was - you guessed it - a Luau! Charlotte wasn't too thrilled with the itchy skirt but hey, there's a price you pay for fashion. One of our leaders' mother brought her brand new puppy and Lily Kate fell in LOVE and I mean that with full emphasis. She held that puppy so many times. It was the perfect size and weight, like a little stuffed animal that licked and nuzzled - she was enamored.