Halloween 2012

This year we had a cute Cowgirl and an adorable Cow!:)  We went trick-or-treating to a couple of houses and then went to the fall festival at our church.  We had such a fun night!

Happy Halloween!:)  

Carving a Pumpkin

Bert grew up carving pumpkins with his family for Halloween and said at the beginning of October that we needed to carve a pumpkin this year.  (Last year Emily was a little young and wouldn't have even noticed.) My family carved a few while we were growing up, but I don't remember doing it every year. So I was excited about starting a new family tradition and I knew the girls would be.  

Emily was by her Daddy's side during the entire process!  She had so much fun, although she wasn't totally sure about the mess.  At one point she told me "Mommy, Daddy's hands are weally (really) weally dirty....he needs a paper towel."  Ha!

Hannah didn't miss any of the action either....she took it all in from her high chair!  

The finished product with two happy girls.  

 

It was a fun family night and definitely a tradition that we'll keep up!

Clemson Weekend

A while ago we planned a trip to Clemson to visit with my college friends and see the Tigers play.  The plan was for my parents to keep the girls and we would have a date weekend.  We were super excited about it!  After we lost the baby Bert and I were not exactly feeling up to the trip, but we decided to go ahead and do it.  We thought a change of scenery and some one-on-one time with each other would be good, we already had tickets, and we were looking forward to seeing old friends....it was a good decision.:)  

On Friday we drove to Toccoa to drop the girls off, and the date weekend/night began.  We started it off with lunch at my favorite restaurant in Toccoa, Brother John's.  It's just a sub place, but they're good, and just being there makes me very happy.  Then we headed to Anderson, SC for a matinee movie.  We watched "Trouble with the Curve" with Clint Eastwood.  It was good and we both enjoyed it!  After the movie we headed to Clemson.  We walked around the Clemson campus for 2 1/2 hours, and then had dinner together before going to meet up with my friends. The weather could not have been more PERFECT!  I showed him where my old classes were and we just enjoyed talking and being together.  (You'll notice in the picture that Bert just HAD to represent UGA while on the Clemson campus!)

Friday night we met up with everybody at my friend Jennifer's in-law's lake place in Seneca.  Their house on Lake Keowee is absolutely beautiful and they are so sweet to let us stay there for free any time we want to get together.  

We had such a great time hanging out with everyone on Friday night.  We stayed up way too late talking, but that's just what we do.:)  

We took a group picture of all the girls just before leaving for the game. 

Us with our good friends Keri and Patrick.  We told Bert and Patrick to come get in the picture with us and they thought it would be funny to take the picture on the "wrong" side.:)  

Keri, Kristin and I just before we went in to find our seats.  

This was the first Clemson game Bert had ever been to.  The weather was absolutely perfect, Clemson won, and he just likes watching football....I'd say he'll come back.:)  

I also want to give Bert credit for wearing an orange shirt to the game.  He didn't own anything orange when we got married and he had no plans of changing that, but eventually he got an orange shirt that he wears occasionally. And at this game he really did cheer on the Tigers.  He would jump up and clap faster than I would (that's probably b/c he was paying better attention to the game).  At one point he looked over and asked me if I knew why I was clapping...I started laughing b/c I definitely had no idea!  Ha...oh well!:)  

As soon as the game was over we headed back to Toccoa to pick up our girls.  We were so excited to see them.:)  A big thank you to Mimi and Papa Stan for keeping them!  

We had a great weekend!  We're thankful for good friends and family and quality time together.

Almost Crawling

Hannah is SO close to crawling!  I mean some would probably argue that she already is crawling, but I'm going to hold off a little longer before I make the official announcement.:)    

She'll take 2 or 3 knee steps and then decide she'll just lunge and reach and roll until she gets to whatever she wants.  And she CAN get to whatever she wants....fast!    

Emily has taken it upon herself to teach Hannah how to crawl.  She'll crawl to Hannah and say "Wook (look)  Hannah, Wook!"  

In the last couple weeks Hannah has also learned to go from laying down on her stomach to sitting up.  She's gotten quite good at it.  

A few days ago she started also sitting up in her crib.  Up to this point I think she thought she had to lay down in her crib.  Ha.:)  Well, the secret's out and it's made for some interesting nap times.  She'd rather show me how she can sit up/stand up in her crib rather than sleep.  She plays, talks to herself and says "Mama" over and over.  Little cutie!  

This is how I found her just after I looked in the monitor and saw her sitting up in her crib...grinning from ear to ear....she was quite proud of herself.:)  Her crib wasn't even lowered yet, but thankfully her Daddy was home that day and he took care of that just minutes later.:)  

She's also started talking more.  She's started saying "Dada" and "Hey".  I'm pretty sure it makes her Daddy's day when she says "Dada" with a big smile plastered across her face.    

She's growing up on us for sure!  The days are gone when I can set her down and she'll stay in one place.  From this point on she'll just be getting faster and faster with getting where she wants to go.  I know this crawling stage is going to keep me busy (more sweeping, more vacuuming, more picking up the little bitty toys that I don't want her to eat), but this is such a fun stage! I can't wait to see her crawling all over the house, following me around.  It's such a short little stage.  It will just be a few months and she'll be toddling around, trying to keep up with her big sister.  I'm so thankful for our happy, healthy, 8 month old, almost-crawler, and I'm planning on soaking up these days!  

Sesame Street Live

Playing catch up with this post....At the end of September, Bert and I took Emily to Sesame Street Live at the BiLo Center. Mimi and Papa bought the tickets for us back in May "just because".  Emily had such a great time!  She thought it was so much fun to go on a date with Mommy and Daddy!:)  Mimi drove over to keep Hannah for us, and they had a fun evening too!

We were able to take a few pictures before we found our seats.  Look at our big girl.:)  

Emily was showing me her Elmo doll that she wanted to bring.  

This was her reaction the second everything started.  Haha...sweet girl!  Slightly overwhelmed....

But she warmed up quickly!

Bert was a great sport about going to see Sesame Street.  He had fun with his girl and only checked his phone for score updates a couple times.:)  

We had such a great time at Sesame Street Live!  It was such a great show!  Emily especially loved Elmo and Zoe!  

I'm thankful that we live in Greenville and that we're able to take advantage of fun things like this.  It's still hard for me to believe that it takes us 10-15 minutes to get to somewhere like the BiLo Center!  Looking forward to being able to make many more memories like this with both our girls!  

"Let me show you, Daddy!"

Tonight Bert walked in the door and Emily ran to give him a hug.  The first thing she told him is that she had hit her head.  (She had bumped it on the coffee table earlier in the evening.)  She then said "wet (let) me show you, Daddy" and ran for the coffee table. At this point we thought she was about to show him where on the coffee table she had hit her head.  Instead she grabbed the coffee table with both hands and RAMMED her forehead on the coffee table!  It was a 10 times harder hit than her accidental hit earlier!  

She was quiet for a few seconds, but then just started bawling.  She immediately started getting a goose egg on her forehead.  Sweet girl!  Bert and I were trying not to laugh, but failing.  We couldn't believe what had just happened!  We got her some ice and that seemed to make things better.  

We gave her lots of hugs (through the chuckles) and had a talk with her about how we just TELL Daddy about accidents that happen...we don't have to show him.:)  

Hannah - 8 Months

Our sweet Hannah is 8 months old!  She's too cute for words!!:)  

Hannah- Oh, I didn't know that was behind me!

H - Huh, look at that!

H - Mommy, look what I found!!:)  

H - I think I'll take a bite.

We love you so much, Hannah, and we are so thankful for you!!