10 Months

Happy 10 Month Birthday Charlotte Marie!

Charlotte has mastered crawling and is pulling up to everything. She has the bumps and bruises to prove it! She says Dada, Mama, and Uh-oh and mimics other words like dog, hello, and ball. She waves with both hands, at the same time, and will lift her little arms up while opening and closing her hands, indicating that she wants to be picked up. Who can resist that?? She continues to be a great eater and has the thighs to show for it! She eats avocado, black beans, zucchini, and many other things that her older sister won't touch! She sleeps very little at daycare which means she is often awake for one hour in the morning and then is ready for a nap by 8 a.m. on days that she is home. She loves her sister and is starting to love her sisters things--sippy cups, toys, books and this is presenting a challenge to all involved! Only a glimpse into the chaos that will be the teenage years in this house, I'm sure! 

The Big One

Scott thought I made him look like a rookie with the picture I chose for the previous post. Here's one with a bigger catch--always trying to make my husband look good!

Gone Fishing

Scott has been going on fishing trips to Canada for 20 years with his family. He just returned from another trip where they had great fishing, great food, and great fun. We were catching up after his six day trip and he asked me if it had rained at home. I told him I had no clue. He laughed at me. I laughed at myself, but it's true. I have no clue if it rained. After caring for the girls, going to work, doing laundry, taking out the trash and various other responsibilities I left no room on my "hard drive" for information like rain. Guess we better invest in a rain gauge!

Little Helper

Evy is all girl with her love of dresses, princesses, and everything pink. But, she also likes to help Papa Jake "work" in his shop, make mud pies, catch frogs in the creek (using a fishing pole, not bare hands!), and collect walnuts in the woods. Her most prized possession from this weekend's adventure was a four foot snake skin!

Dirty Laundry

A few weeks ago when both my brother and I were visiting my parents I put Charlotte in the laundry room to sleep. We were out of bedrooms and the the laundry room is in the basement away from most of the noise. She slept like a log and it has become her permanent "bedroom" while visiting Grandma and Papa. Now, if we could just teach her to wash a couple of loads of laundry while she's down there we would be set!

Tiny Tot Soccer

Go Blue Lions!

Following all of her coach's instructions

Soccer Star

"I really love doing soccer!" Tonight was Evy's first soccer lesson/game and she LOVED it! I wasn't going to sign her up, but a friend suggested it and Evy was on a team with two of her friends. She listened carefully and followed all of the instructions from her coach. She ran with the ball, kicked the ball, and even scored a goal! At the end of the lesson she asked the coach if she got to keep her shirt and then said "Yes! We get to wear our soccer shirt every minute!" Her team name happens to be the Lions which is pretty lucky since that's her all time favorite animal. She said she would have prefered an orange or pink shirt but she was ok with blue. She keeps asking if she can do more soccer--I think she liked it!

Evy Says

While driving past a large jail Evy asked if that is where Grandma and Grandpa went for vacation. No clue where that came from, but I thought I should correct her before she makes a similar statement in public. I explained that it's a jail and people go there for making bad decisions. Bad decisions like stealing things or hurting other people. She got really quite and said "Mommy, will I have to go to jail for stealing Charlie's toys?"

This weekend Evy awoke ridiculously early both mornings. She wouldn't go back to sleep and proceeded to throw a fit when we told her it was not time to wake up--she is supposed to stay in bed until her nightlight turns into a sun. On Sunday morning I told her that she could not watch TV since she didn't stay in bed. She replied, "I not want to watch TV. It rots my brain."

Boating

Saturday we tried a second attempt at boating with these two wild kids! It went a little bit better, but Charlie still likes to cry and "wrestle" me anytime the boat is moving which doesn't make the experience much fun for me. Oh well, mom's aren't supposed to have fun, right :-)!

Country Music Festival

Howdy y'all! We just returned from the Country Music Festival in Nashville. In four nights we saw Kellie Pickler, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley, Brantley Gilbert, Jake Owen, The Band Perry, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Rogers, Little Big Town, Eric Church, Faith Hill, Kip Moore, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Rascal Flatts, Alan Jackson, and Martina McBride. Whew--yes we are exhausted! We drove down with two other couples and had a blast. It was my first time in Music City and won't be my last. If you are a fan of country music you must put the Country Music Festival on your to-do list.

 The evening shows were held at LP Field--home of the Tennessee Titans.

 Group shot, with downtown Nashville in the background.

 Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN

 The boys at LP Field

 Waiting for the gates to open at LP Field

Broadway, home of Honky Tonk Row

Gone Fishin'

Great Grandma Elouise's and Great Grandpa Rex's 80 acre farm translates into a lot of fun!

One Sponge Bob pole, one Barbie pole, two real poles and only one fish.

This might have been the highlight of their trip--you don't get to ride like this in the city!

Planting pumpkins and making mud pies.