9 months

Another month has come and gone, and yet again, I'm sitting here tonight wondering how in the world my little baby is growing up so fast. 9 months seems so close to a year, and I just can't believe that she's almost a year old. She's so funny these days - she makes hilarious facial expressions, and she certainly knows what she wants. She crawling ALL over the place, which has certainly taken parenting to a whole new level - I found her today laying in Georgia's bed...gross, I know. We gave her table food for the first time this week, and she was a big fan of spaghetti, turkey tetrazzini, and watermelon....my kind of girl! She has her 9 month appt next week at the pediatrician, and I'm really curious to see what percentiles she's in - people tell me often that she looks little, but she looks nice and chunky to me, so we will see!

I'm totally changing gears here, but, as most of you know by now I'm sure, Michael Jackson died today. For some reason, it just strikes me to think that the king of pop will be to Anna Wells what Elvis is to me in a way - a pop culture icon who wasn't around in my lifetime. Elvis died two years before I was born. To be honest, I think I'm struck by it because it makes me feel old. I can so vividly remember doing the thriller dance over and over and over again with my childhood friend Brandon in his playroom. To Anna Wells, he will just be some guy who made a lot of hit records and died "a long time ago." Just crazy to me! As odd and troubled as MJ was, we certainly can't argue that he left a ton of really great music.

Fathers Day

We had a great 1st Fathers Day here - it was laid back and pretty low key, but that's how Ben wanted it. AW had a big day, though - she graduated from the crib room in the nursery to the crawlers room! Anna Wells gave Ben a card letting him know that she wanted to get him a new pair of shoes, but since she can't drive, he will have to go pick them out himself. :) Thank you Ben for being a wonderful father and husband to us!

The graduate

a girl and her daddy

Pool Date with Piper and Haynes

Claire, Rebecca, and I realized not long ago that we had all bought our girls the same bathing suit. So, much to the girls' horror, I'm sure, we took them to the pool the other day for some sun and a great photo op. They looked adorable, but it was definitely much harder to get a good shot than I expected!

Piper's on the go...

Anna Wells, Haynes, Piper

Rookie Parents

Rookie Parent Lesson #1: Don't decide that you need to move the crib mattress down right at bedtime.

8 Months!

I know I say this every month, but I really just can't believe that Anna Wells has been here for 8 months now! She is a ton of fun right now and is at a pretty easy age - she's not crawling yet (she's very close I think), so she really just sits there and plays with her toys. (Well, she does roll from one side of the room to the other, but she can't get too far away too quickly). I can't wait to see those little chubby legs crawling around, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy her non-mobility, because from what I've heard, crawling will take this parenting thing to a whole new level. She is saying "dada" a lot, though I'm not sure she knows that dada is Ben. She still loves to squeal REALLY loudly, and we always seem to be in a public place. I took her outside to a take a few pictures (well, maybe more like 100 pictures) yesterday, and we ended up getting a few good ones - enjoy!

8 months with the sleepy bunny - these are getting harder and harder!

"OK mom. I'm bigger than the bunny. People get it."

"Hey Georgia! Over here!"

This one cracks me up

there there Taylor

We saw our friends the Marshalls in Mississippi last week, and we had a funny little photo shoot with the kiddos....


Taylor was a little sad at first....
but it was nothing a little hand holding wouldn't fix....getting better....
ah, this is nice....
I'm just gonna relax here for a bit, ok, Anna Wells?

Jackson Trip

We all headed to Jackson last week for Memorial Day to meet our new niece/cousin, Lily. It was a great trip and Lily was just as sweet and wonderful as we expected her to be. It was so fun to think that these two girls have the fun blessing of a cousin who's the same age - I can't wait until they're old enough to interact a little more! We also got to see our good friends the Marshalls, along with their son, Taylor. It was a fun trip, and we took a ton of pictures, so enjoy!