I wanna walk!

Charlie wants to walk so bad! Her balance, although better than it was, is still a little off though. And she's lacking the confidence to let go of our hands as we walk along side her too. She gets scared and gets a death grip on our fingers. She still hasn't officially "crawled" although she does her own version of an army crawl or she butt scoots across the floor. She's silly to watch. :)

Her first top tooth finally poked through this morning and there is another one next to it that is super close as well so we've been using Baby Orajel like it's going out of style. Luckily it works fast and she stops fussing almost immediately! So she now officially has 3 teeth!

Other than that nothing new around our house. We are getting ready for Charlie's 1st birthday party next weekend. We're having a small get together for her. BBQ, beer, wine and cupcakes of course! I can't believe her 1st birthday is only 2 weeks away. Where has this year gone!?!?

Until next time~

Kellie

Tejas

We took our first plane trip with Charlie over the weekend down to Texas. Wade's step-dad's family was having a reunion down in Seguin and we decided to crash the party. We left 99 degree temps to head down to 101 degree temps. Luckily for us, there was no humidity down in Texas and it felt incredible! Who knew that 101 degrees could feel cool? I hate MN humidity!

Charlie did really well on the flights. She fussed a little on the one coming home b/c she was so exhausted but we kept her from crying for the most part thankfully!

We had a dance competition Friday night. As you can see all the moves were pulled out. The robot, Roger Rabbit and the running man were the moves of the evening. We are totally awesome dancers. :)

Saturday's heat called for swim suits and sunscreen. We got out Charlie's ruffle butt suit and hat and she loved being in the water, plumber crack and all! The river water was warm and felt so good to lounge around in but Z-pa also rented us a speedboat for a few hours during the day. The kids had a blast tubing and some of us attempted to wake board. I just sat my ass on the front of the boat and went for a fast ride. Water sports and I do not mix. I always end up swallowing my weight in water and almost throwing up so I pass on it 99% of the time. :)

Cousin Kennedy is a huge baby lover and helped us take care of Charlie all weekend! She and Charlie had a lot of fun playing and if you saw Charlie you could guarantee Kennedy wasn't far behind. Aren't they just the cutest things ever?

You could say that Charlie got a little spoiled with all the family around. She ate it up and licked the attention plate clean. Can you tell she likes to have all eyes on her? What a ham!

Sunday the three of us ate at the Hula Hut in Austin before heading to the airport to catch our flight home. Awesome food and a great atmosphere. Also, delicious pina coladas. :) Charlie loved to look out over the rail at the boats and turtles in the river below. I think she had a great time in Texas and I know Wade and I did. Can't wait to go back!

When we landed in MN we were greeted by 99 degree heat combined w/ a dew point of 80. The meterologists are comparing our temps and dew point to the freaking Amazon. WTF??? I can barely breathe. It is pretty damn unbearable. So I wonder when we can go back to Texas???

Wordless Wednesday

Coming to you from all the way back in April 2004. Old school. I think we've improved w/ age. Thank goodness. :)

Bubble Monster

Bubbles are so very immensely terrifying. Obviously.

Like duh. What was I thinking?!?

Only 1 more month before she's a YEAR!

Happy 11 months Charlize Ann!

You become more beautiful and I love you even more each and every day.

In these last 11 months you have changed so much and it has been so much fun to watch you learn and grow and I can only imagine what else you will do in just the next month. I bet you are walking soon. You want to so badly! You have turned into a total goofball and I love to watch you have fun. Your smile melts my heart.

I can't believe in only 1 more month you will be a whole year old. This year has flown by! You make my life so much sweeter.

I love you peanut.

xoxo~

Mommy

Bittersweet

This last weekend we took a long drive down south to Arkansas. In the drive down I saw more mullets than I had in the past year of my life. We also referenced the movie "Deliverance" on more than a dozen occasions. Basically we were in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by inbreds. Could be quite scary at times. But we were down there for a good reason. (And I apologize in advance for anyone who lives down there but you've got to admit, about 75% of the people down there are quite the sight.)

As some of you may recall, my grandpa passed away a year ago in April. We had him cremated and per his request we were going to scatter his ashes over my grandma and uncle's graves down in Arkansas. However, last April I was very pregnant so we decided to wait until later this summer when Charlie was bigger to head down there and scatter his ashes.

We headed down to Des Moines last Thursday night to cut our long drive up a bit. From Des Moines to our destination it was about 9 hours, add on the 3 1/2 from Minneapolis to Des Moines and we've got one hell of a haul. We were nervous as to how well Charlie would handle being in the car for so long but luckily our nerves were unfounded. She did GREAT. We rented a 12 passenger van and all easily fit in there along w/ lots of toys and a portable DVD player so Charlie was always entertained.

Once we reached our destination we hit the pool for a bit, met up w/ my dad's cousin, Mike and his wife, Debbie and got some dinner before crashing early. What is it about long drives that totally wipe you out? I don't get it.

The next morning we headed to the cemetery w/ Pap's cremains. It was bittersweet. He was finally home with his wife and son. It felt good to do but also re-opened the feelings of loss. He was so close to getting to meet his 1st great grandchild. I know he would have loved Charlie.

Not all was sad though. We took a drive through Fairfield Bay which is where he lived for several decades and we talked about memories we had of him and being down there. We'd been driving down there to see him my whole life. That's a lot of memories! We finally ended up at Greer's Ferry Lake which is not only absolutely gorgeous but huge! We rented a pontoon boat, like we had so many other times w/ Paps and took it out on the lake for 3 hours. Charlie loved the boat and the weather was perfect for an afternoon out on the water.

It was a fun afternoon to celebrate Paps and our love for him.

We finally made it home last night and we are wiped. Charlie slept for 11 1/2 hours straight and Kobe was so tired I picked him up and he sagged like a rag doll, so no fireworks for us unfortunately. Besides the illegal ones we picked up in Hillbilly, Missouri on our drive home. :)

Charlie was not impressed w/ the gigantic sparkler. She was however impressed w/ Kara's sunglasses. Maybe next year... :)

Later~

Kellie