Winter Wonderland

We waited for a nice, warm night to see the lights on the square. Thomas and I enjoyed watching her reactions to the beautiful lights.
That just reminded me of one of my favorite movie quotes "The little lights aren't twinkling, Clark..." Google it if you don't recognize it! :-)

Caroline took peek-a-boo to a whole new level last week.

I was putting away clothes in her closet and I saw her "toddle" away and into the living room. I knew I had a few seconds before I needed to check on her. When I finished, I realized with a slight blood pressure increase that it had been extremely quiet in the other room. I ran in calling her name, after not seeing her immediately, I checked all of the usual "hiding" spots, behind the couch, behind the big chair, in the kitchen...no Caroline. Purposely deciding not to panic yet, I call her name and I hear in response, "Huh." So at least I know she's able to make noise. I hear it coming from the kitchen, so I look again. No Caroline. I say it again, "Caroline!" "Huh." Is her response again. This time I think maybe she's found a spot beside our sideboard in the dining room. No Caroline! One last time, "CAROLINE!" "Huh." again. I hear it directly behind me, but I don't see her.
We have the accordion style doors to hide our washer and dryer in the kitchen. The left side is open, but the right side is closed, flat. I peek behind the closed door and in between the washing machine and the closed door, in about a foot gap, is Caroline standing there very still, smiling broadly! She managed to squeeze in while it was open and then pushed on it to close it.
Our first Hide and Seek game...I may re-name it to Hide and Give Mommy a Stroke game.

Some other things that I don't want to forget!

• Caroline can climb onto anything that she can reach while hiking up her little leg. It started with the door to the dishwasher.
  
• She has amazing balance. She climbs on Thomas while he's on the floor and stands on his back.
• She waves goodbye squeezing and opening both hands simultaneously. One hand is not enough.
• Every time I put her in her "baby" bathtub she opens the plug to drain the water without me seeing her do it. Stealthy.
• When we ask her any question she vehemently shakes her head, "no" from side to side. It started when I asked her if she was ready to get out of the bathtub, now she does it when asked if she likes Houston Nutt or if she wants to go to Disney World.
• She smiles after every sneeze.
• She grabs both ears while she drinks her bottle.k
• We say, "ahhh" when we hug on a baby doll and now Caroline will hug on blankets and babies and say, "ahhh."
  
• Last night I was rocking her to sleep and I kept my eyes closed to try and make her think that hers should be closed as well, (I'm sure everyone tries this at some point with their baby) when I felt her sit up and look at me. I squinted at her to see what she was doing and she was waving right in my face trying to get my attention. It was so cute I couldn't help but laugh and then she started laughing. She's so much fun.
  

Rewind to Fall

Now that it feels like winter, I am posting these pictures from early November of our family field trip to Hobbs State Park (specifically the Van Winkle Trail.) It was a beautiful day. Thomas and Caroline had fun throwing rocks into the stream.
As you can see Thomas is answering Caroline's questions about why leaves change color. It's a little more complicated than you might think!
Caroline and I enjoy afternoon walks when I get home from school. On this particular afternoon, she did not find my commentary very stimulating.

Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for everything that God has given us. We have such wonderful family and friends. What a fantastic year with so many new babies and marriages! God is so good!

On the 7+ hour drive home from a Texas Thanksgiving, I had lots of time to just watch Caroline sleep. I love looking at her tiny hands, fingers and even fingernails. I watched her tiny eyelids twitching during a dream and wondered what she was dreaming about. Maybe she was dreaming about this boat... Caroline loved playing with William and riding in his boat!

Thank you Grandma Tracy for her homemade sock monkey!

She is truly changing every day. Her new fun thing to do is to use a laundry basket as a walker and push it around the house. I love watching her get it stuck some where and then making baby aggravated noises until she problem solves how to get it where she wants it to go. She now walks a lot more than she crawls. Grammy, Thomas and I have even see her run and hop! She is loving Christmas music and she is always in the mood to dance!

She loves taking clothes out of her drawers (or bowls or tupperware or anything in a non-babyproofed cabinet!) I watched her finally start to realize she can put things back in the drawer/cabinet! Hallelujah! Are we well on our way with having her clean her own room? I doubt it, too.

Video of Caroline Laughing

When I hear my sweet baby laugh it takes my breath away. I think it is an overwhelming feeling of being blessed.
We love her so much! Enjoy the new video!

Caroline Walking!

I know everyone has been checking Caroline's blog every hour just waiting for the video of Caroline walking! The wait is over! Here it is! Our sweet, just turned nine month old daughter-WALKING! She's growing up so fast! (Click on the little triangle)
Disclaimer: Don't worry. I usually insist on Caroline wearing pants, but it was almost bath time.
Disclaimer #2: I know that she probably should not be drinking while walking because of the chance of choking, but--Wow! She can drink and walk at the same time! :-)

My First Halloween

Caroline had her nine month checkup yesterday! Where has time gone? She's 20 lbs, 27 inches. She now tucks her chin down and smiles shyly when we clap for her! She can take around 7 steps now! Hopefully video will be posted tomorrow.
Caroline, Lakyn and Canaan dressed up for bible study/Halloween! We had an animal theme (bee, bat and frog!) More pictures to come!

Caroline two-steps!

Caroline took two steps today completely unassisted!! We have three witnesses! She'll be 9 months on the 2nd of November! I had to document the momentous occasion with a post today. I could not post without a picture. This is Caroline last week after church. She likes to talk to her reflection in the fireplace glass.

Sweet baby girl!

Here is Caroline in her busy bee costume with Aunt Becky. She doesn't seem to sure about Aunt Becky's hat! Thanks to Baldwin Church of Christ for a fun night.
(I had my first s'mores of the Fall season!!!)
I will post more Halloween pictures next week!

Our friends, Adam and Julie, invited everyone over for a cookout at their new house. We had so much fun! Caroline is really into dancing to music and she can even keep a pretty good beat! She really gets going bending her knees, I've even watched her jump in the air!
I only have these pictures of Aunt Becky and Uncle Travis' nieces and nephew! The babies were not being very cooperative during the picture taking time. I think Caroline caused trouble by taking Lakyn's fun toy (in the top picture we have evidence that Caroline waited until Lakyn looked away and then moved in on the toy!) We're working on sharing.

Caroline still enjoys standing on her own. I can hardly believe she will be 9 months old next week! Here she is in her sailor outfit Grandma Tracy got her. Her feet are on the bigger side and I can't find shoes that will not leave marks on her poor feet. My friend Amy let me borrow these neat socks that look like shoes! So clever!

Caroline is also making the funniest smile lately! She squints her eyes, wrinkles her nose and smiles the biggest smile ever! She knows that it gets Grammy, Mommy and Daddy to laugh every time. It's really hard to catch on camera. Here's the closest I have so far!

Our little pumpkin

Am I small or is this pumpkin big?!




My friend, Aly, told me all about her adventure to the pumpkin patch, so I made mama and dada take me! We had fun posing for our family picture and I found a little pumpkin just my size. We finished off our trip with a hay ride around the patch. Next year I will be running through the patch!

Big girl...

So many mini-milestones (say that three times fast!) Last weekend we put in her big girl carseat which is huge, but more importantly very safe, comfy, and has a girly pattern. We also finally purchased a forward facing stroller which Caroline loves. (Thanks, Tara and Bailey, for your advice!) We put sunglasses on her for our first trip in the new stroller and after a few minutes Thomas noticed she somehow pushed them up on top of her head and was snoozing. She continues to be a super fast crawler and says "ma ma," "da da," and "bye bye." Aly Claire is giving her lessons on how to put the words together to make a sentence, but right now Caroline is just enjoying screeching at the top of her lungs to get her message across...to neighboring counties. It's funny and cute at home, not so much in church or any other public place. It literally makes my ears ring. I am cherishing each second I spend with her (even when she dramatically falls to the floor crying! Is it mean to want to get that on videotape? :-) ) We love squeezing her and kissing those chubby cheeks!!!!

Rewind to Labor Day!

Caroline, William and John Thomas

Caroline, Thomas and I were able to take a trip down to Texas to visit family. Thomas and I are honored to be John's godparents! We all had so much fun catching up and eating Aunt Laura's yummy food. Caroline had such a great time playing with her cousins. John Thomas and Caroline laughed and "talked" to each other (they were born only three months apart!) She can't wait until she is old enough to play with William's Lego crane! Uncle Skip took great pictures of the adventure.

Splish splash I was takin' a bath...

I remember my dad singing that song when I was little! I've been singing it to Caroline ever since her second bath (I don't think anything could have been heard over her screaming during her first bath!)
We spent a night at Grammy and Poppy's a few weeks ago and Caroline loved having a bath in Grammy's nice, deep sink! Here's video of the event!

Crawlin' Caroline

Grammy is so sweet to capture these videos on her camera! The top video is of Caroline crawling (and crying at the end.) The video on the bottom (if it looks black, click on the small sideways triangle and it should play just fine) is of Caroline pulling herself and standing without holding on while her BFF Aly Claire cheers her on. As you can see, Caroline is not lacking in the toy department! Sweet girls!

Busy Baby (and Mommy)

School is back in session! My free time is spent playing and kissing on this precious little baby, but right now Daddy is holding the sleeping angel so I can update my blog. I am sure everyone is anxiously awaiting a new post. :-) I'm posting two today, because I never know when my next chance will be!
We have been hearing "dadadadada" over the last few days and she is crawling all over the place! She pulls to a stand from anything she gets her hands on: her exersaucer (which she is strong enough to pull on top of her,) the couch, daddy's leg hair, her changing table and her new piano!Caroline loves music! Daddy bought this piano for her and she absolutely loves it! She lets Grammy and Aly Claire have fun with it when they take care of her during the day. Caroline loves to turn the plastic music sheets (it makes a paper turning sound when she turns them and plays the corresponding song.) We sing along to the tunes and she loves the slide that changes the pitch of the song from high to low.

Aunt Becky came to watch Caroline while I had a meeting. This is how I found them when I came home...I think she loves her niece quite a little bit!

Football season is here!

We had a great time at Tara and Canaan's house at their football season kickoff party. Until I get our video uploaded, you'll have to see Caroline crawl from this succession of pictures showing her getting into the spirit of the season by trying to tackle Canaan. Lakyn is cheering her on!

Tara and Canaan are cheering about his great defensive strategy!
Adam is helping Caroline hydrate after a tough game.

She crawls!

Caroline is crawling (Yes, since my last post!) Thomas also went in to get her a few mornings ago to find her standing in her crib not very patiently waiting on him. We had to take down her mobile and lower her bed! She's growing so fast!
I do not have time to post pictures of her crawling today (check back soon,) but here is a picture of her first time in a high chair at Olive Garden for our friend Kimberly's (Hannah's mom) birthday party. I'm sure she could have been in a high chair sooner (the restaurant type, she's been in one at home), but part of me wants to move slowly into these new "big girl" areas!

Caroline is on the Move

Caroline is beginning to pull herself from sitting on the floor up to a standing position! She is also somehow moving all around without technically crawling. Here are some pictures showing you her way of crawling.
In the top pictures she is assuming the crawl "position."
Then she does a push up (second picture.)
In the third picture she begins to move her feet forward.
In the bottom picture she is sticking her bottom up as far as she can in the air.
Finally, she lunges forward with her hands.
She is very happy about moving around on her own. Our little girl is growing up so fast!

Crying, smiling, swimming!

Tara's post of Canaan's mood swings reminded me of theses pictures we took eating peas a few weeks ago. How do you think she feels about peas? It's hard to tell...


Our friend Jill let us enjoy her family's pool a few weekends ago. Her adorable niece, Peyton, loaned her floating lobster to Caroline. She had such a fun time!

Happy 3rd Anniversary!

Thomas and I spent our 2nd and 3rd wedding anniversaries at the Lodge at Mt. Magazine. The views are absolutely beautiful! We had a great time...other than Thomas having a hurt back and me burning my arm. You can't tell in the picture, but I am in quite a bit of pain and ready to grab my ice pack that is out of view.
Thomas strained his back playing with Caroline. Here's Thomas over exaggerating his pain while standing on the official stamp from the state of Arkansas declaring the highest point.
I am only retelling my injury story here so that it won't happen to you. Thomas and I were in line at the breakfast buffet behind a couple who told us that they had honeymooned at the lodge 45(!) years ago (that lodge burned down in 1971,) while I hungrily surveyed the pancakes. I realized that directly behind the pancakes there was another serving tray covered with a lid. I was sure there was some delicious treasures to be found inside so I innocently lifted the lid and what did I find?? A steam "pocket" from boiling water that had been waiting for me to come along and let it escape onto my arm! There wasn't a tray under the lid so the water being held to heat the entire buffet was released at that moment. It makes my arm hurt again just recounting this story. The moral to the story: When lifting lids at a buffet, tilt them away from you or to be really safe...just order off the menu!
I tried to take a picture by myself of my arm. You can see why Thomas is the photographer in the family. This was from four days after the incident.

Class of '97!

We went to our high school reunion on July 14th and had a great time reminiscing. Here are some pictures from the picnic we had at Ben Geren Park.
Our friend Kyle and Leslie's little boy, Jaxon. Too cute!
Jenny and her sweetie, Gracie.Justin and his son, Stephen.
Kyle, Meagan, Me, Caroline, Claire and Kelly.
Lacey and her daughter, Ashlynn.