So...

I know I have been really slack about blogging....sorry but I do have lots of pictures to post so stay tuned! We have been so busy lately that I really haven't had time. A couple of weeks ago Taylor was really sick with a high fever, then a teacher at daycare was diagnosed with the swine flu so that week was crazy and I didn't have much time to do anything but be with the girls. The following week I got sick and then we left for a long awaited vacation on July 4th. We were supposed to leave on Friday but just my luck I got in a little fender bender that afternoon. With all that chaos and then trying to pack we decided around 5 pm to just wait until the morning to leave for our beach vacation. We had a fabulous time with the whole family. It is an annual trip we make to Ocean Isle Beach. I can't wait for next year's trip!

Lots of pictures to come; just a sampling...

Ellie and Taylor had a blast together!

Sweet Caroline! Yeah Mommy got a pony tail in this week.

Caroline LOVES the water!

Guess who...

just turned 10 months old?! CAROLINE AVERY!!
I can not believe that Caroline just turned 10 months old on Saturday. In only two short months we will be celebrating her first birthday; goodness how is it that time already?!
She is a crawling machine these days and now just can't wait to walk.
She recently moved classrooms at daycare and they are now in the "1-year old room." Basically for Caroline that means they have a slightly new eating schedule and only have one nap. Yes I can't believe she only gets one nap. (we still give her two at home!)
She is plain exhausted when I pick her up every day. We try our best to keep her up until 7 pm but that is pushing it sometimes.


See below...this is what usually happens when we give Caroline her evening bottle

Here are some pictures from this weekend where Grammy introduced her to ice cream for the first time. I am pretty sure she just LOVED it and wanted more!!

Caroline is LOVING this ice cream treat!!

Play time with Grammy

She stopped eating the stage two baby foods about 2 weeks ago and is on all table food. I can't get over it; again growing up way too fast! She is just like Taylor was at this age with eating...she loves it and just can't seem to get enough. She is feeding herself now with pick up foods and I think she usually drops more in her lap or on the floor than what really gets in her mouth. Lately Caroline says "DaDa" all the time. I swear she used to say "MaMa" but I haven't heard that in a while! She loves to laugh. Rob even said the other day he could watch or listen to her laugh all day if he could. It is the sweetest laugh! She is still mesmerized by the TV, loves our dogs (Duke and Rusty) and follows them around, enjoys watching Taylor and sometimes tries to climb all over her too. Caroline is a happy, healthy 10 month old little girl.

She is such a "girl!" as she adores shoes!

Myniah, Caroline's teacher at daycare (who was also Taylor's teacher) told me last week that she sees more and more of Taylor in Caroline every day. Oh goodness what I am going to do with these high energy girls?!! Well I guess just love on them even more and enjoy them as that is all I really want to do! These two girls bring a smile to my face and a fullness in my heart! Rob and I are so blessed.

Happy Birthday Granny

Rob's Granny turned 88 this Saturday and we were so lucky to celebrate with her! Rob's Aunt Liz and Uncle Stephen drove from Spartanburg with Granny to visit for the weekend. We enjoyed our visit with everyone and can't wait to see them again very soon!

If you can't tell by the resemblance in the pictures, this is Mimi's (Rob's Mom) mom and sister.

Granny with the girls...

Taylor was more than happy to help Granny blow out the candles!
Caroline is entertained by the measuring cups; always a great back-up toy.
I just discovered that Caroline LOVES graham crackers

Taylor, Granny, Aunt Liz, Mimi and Caroline

We tried to get everyone smiling at the camera at the SAME time...but it's just not an easy task!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day out there to every Dad! Hope you all enjoyed your special day. I had the pleasure of spending the day with the two men I love the most, my Dad and my husband. You are two special men in my life. Thank you for all that you do and for being you; great husbands and wonderful Daddy's!!

I have lots of pictures to post and news of our busy weekend. I will try to post tomorrow but need to catch up on some sleep since our youngest has decided it is FUN to wake up real early!!

I had to post a sweet picture of Rob and his sweet girls...lots to comment on for this one photo though :-)

We just got home from the pool so don't mind Taylor's crazy hair; Caroline was about to go to bed so she was in her jammies, and sorry to Rob as this was the best picture I was able to capture and YES I do know that the top of your head is cut off in this picture...sorry!

Taylor started her first extracurricular activity last night; dance class for 3-5 year olds at Nan’s School of Dance! (Since she will be three in August we were able to slide her in the class.) She has been talking about this dance class for a couple of months and was super excited about it!
At the studio, all the girls go into the room with just the instructor, Mrs. Angela and then the parents can watch from the lobby. There is a small window to peek in on them and then there are TV’s to watch them as well. From what I could see she did so well and looked adorable. She did everything the teacher was doing and even seemed to listen too! All the girls were just precious in their leotards and tutu’s moving all around the room.
As Taylor was getting ready for bed last night she showed me some of her “new moves” that she learned at dance. I REALLY wish I had the video camera on. She is so funny and just loves to dance. She was twisting, shaking and moving her little booty…however I don’t recall Mrs. Angela at Nan’s teaching these dance moves. :-)

I was able to get one shot before Mrs. Angela closed the door to start class.

Since I didn't get many pictures at the studio, Rob took some once we got home...

I can't leave Caroline out of the picture taking, so Rob caught one of us too.

Eating table food?!

I can hardly believe that Caroline is already ready for table food!
The week she turned 9 months old we started by giving her a banana but I am not sure she really enjoyed it. I think it is a texture thing that she is just not used to as she would continuously gag on the banana. Next we tried peas and carrots and she loved them! We are starting to expand her menu options. She has done well with carrots, green beans, peas, peaches, Gerber ravioli, and the Gerber dried fruit is one of her favorites.
A little update on her new moves too…She is definitely busy! She crawls all over the place (although she does still enjoy for Mommy to pick her up all the time!) and is pulling up a lot too. Her favorite thing to do is stand and walk with someone holding her hands. She gets so excited and really just wants to walk to get into everything. Soon enough we will be chasing Taylor AND Caroline!

Dinner time on Tuesday night...From this facial expression I think Caroline would prefer that I give her more food rather than just take her picture.

Almost got it...

Score!

Now she is a happy girl.

Saturday night fun

On Saturday night we had Chris and Brooke over for a cookout with their two year old son Quinn. Quinn is one of the cutest little boys I know and is super sweet! It only took a few minutes for Quinn and Taylor to warm up to one another and by the end of the night it wasn’t an easy task to separate them and stop all the fun. They were on the go the whole night! After dinner they played hide and seek, chased each around the house and then ended the night outside running up and down the driveway with a shopping cart and a dump truck. They had a blast and it was so funny and cute to watch them. We all can’t wait to see the Kelly’s again!

Check out Taylor and her high heels and short shorts! She is going to be trouble. I am impressed how well she walks in her "dress up" heels; well she actually runs really well in them too!!

Watch out, here they come!

We got them to sit still for a minute.

Sing it Taylor!Not sure if Quinn is too impressed with her vocals.