Wordless Wednesday

Fall fun looks a lot like summer fun just with a jacket.

We've been busy lil buggers

Wow.  July is totally slipping right past me!  It feels like it should still be the middle of June.  Did I miss a month somehow?  The summer goes by way to quickly!

Well, let's try to play a little catch up!  We've been traveling.  To Des Moines, Galesburg and home again and then I took a girl's trip to the Dells.  And next week Charlie and I will be heading back down to Des Moines.  Seems like we are gone more than we are home lately and that's okay b/c it means we are busy out having fun and making the most of the summer!

So what else have we been up to?  Well, in our free time we've been:

Coloring

Playing in our tunnel, popping out the end and saying "ta-da"!

Practicing our couch gymnastics

Snuggling up on Brayden

Napping

Enjoying the lake and boating

Perfecting our "tans"

Dancing

Celebrating

Playing in our new sandbox (thanks Dada!)

Making sidewalk art

And hanging w/ the neighbors

What could be better?  We've got it pretty damn good.

Cheers!
Kel

(I'll try to get back to more regular posting, but no promises.)

Fun Summertime Outings!

Charlie and I had a very busy weekend!  While Wade was off riding in the MS150 she and I kept ourselves entertained!  Luckily we had great, but hot weather! 

We started out the weekend Friday morning at the zoo with the Muellers.  Charlie really seemed to enjoy it a lot this time around.  Although she still hates goats for some reason and wouldn't even let me attempt to bring her into the cow barn.  She screamed bloody murder!  But she LOVED the aquarium and all the monkeys.  And Greyson and her are just too cute together!

Turtles!

Saturday we packed up a picnic lunch and headed to Lake Calhoun beach to hang out in the gorgeous weather w/ the Mohs and Muellers (minus Travis who was riding w/ Wade).  It was perfect weather for the beach!  Charlie only got into the water twice and that was because I picked her up and made her try it out.  Each time she'd say "no, no, no" over and over and walk right back out of the water.  Oh well, maybe next time.  She still enjoyed herself digging in the sand and playing w/ sticks (what is it w/ sticks? Those and rocks are the worlds coolest things according to Charlie!).

Beach babe

Charlie & Greyson

After the beach Charlie was beat and so we headed home for a nap and then went to a nearby park once she woke up.  It was a busy and fun day!

What a ham!

Sunday we kept things around home.  It was SUPER hot and windy out and the wind did not cool you down.  It just made it feel like you were getting blasted by a heater.  So we went to Old Navy and had some lunch and then played out back waiting for Wade to get home from the ride.  We started out w/ bubbles which she loves but they didn't last long.  Charlie has been enthralled by this dirt patch we have in our back yard for quite some time now and once again she ventured towards it to play.  So I coated her in sunscreen and a hat and diaper and nothing else.  It was so hot and I knew she was going to get super dirty so why cause myself the extra laundry?  She dug right into the dirt and next thing you know she is COATED.  Wade came home and after laughing at her appearance we set up a sprinkler that she walked through a bit before finally bringing her in and cleaning her up for dinner.  She had a blast in that dirt.  Who'd have thought?  It's basically like a small sandbox so it seems Wade will have to look into building her one soon b/c we're eventually going to seed the dirt patch.

BUBBLES!!!!

WOW!!!  Cool!!!

My little dirt ball!

Her new favorite activity: diving over the side of the couch. We have to be ready to catch her!

Then we went to dinner at Roat Osha w/ Bob, Amy and Steve (some other friends who completed the 150 mile bike ride with Wade).  A great way to end the weekend: superb Thai food and tasty drinks.  No room for complaints here!

Anyone else do anything fun over the weekend?  Gotta love summer time!

Cheers~
Kel

Fun in the outdoors

I love that our weather is warm enough now to enjoy time outside. Charlie loves it too! There is so much more to explore! I'm looking forward to this summer and hot weather and getting out our zebra pool. I think she'll really love it this summer! Here are a few pics of Charlie enjoying herself outside. I hope we can get outside some more today!

Happy Friday love bugs!
Kellie

Wordless Wednesday

Taking Kobe fore a cruise

I'm Thankful!

Phone pic dump of a few things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving:

My future neice or nephew!

Happy Thanksgiving!

~ Kel

Charlie Updates!

She loves Kobe.  Unfortunately the feeling is not mutual.

So just a quick little update on our current phase of life around here. 

Charlie is doing great.  She's learning more and more words all the time it seems.   Her current words are mama, dada, doggie, up (or uppy), no and baby.  And she's tried to say bye bye a couple times as well but it sounds like buh-buh.  Which is close enough in my book!

She's still not walking although she can.  I make her do it everyday and she will walk from me to whatever is closest to grab onto (about 6-7 steps) but the second she wants to come back to me she plops down on her butt and scoots over to me.  Either she's just a scaredy cat or she's really freaking lazy.  I'm going to go with scared.  :)  The thing that mystifies me is that when she does walk she is very steady on her feet.  She goes slow so she doesn't fall and doesn't waver at all.  So she can do it perfectly, she just chooses not to.  I guess probably b/c butt scooting is so much faster and efficient!  She is very good at climbing stairs though.  Unfortunately she has not mastered how to get down from the stairs yet so she'll climb all the way to the top and then I try to show her how to scoot down them on her butt and she screams.  Baby steps, baby steps.

She loves to give kisses.  I ask for a kiss and she'll give me one or I'll tell her to give her baby a kiss and she smacks one on her.  Her kisses are great although I'm sure most people probably wouldn't think so considering she comes at you with her mouth wide open and just plants her mouth on you and drools all over.  Very hygienic.  Probably the reason that whenever she seems to get a runny/stuffy nose I come down w/ one as well!

Daddy love. <3

She's been fighting her naps a little bit lately which is kind of annoying b/c then I've got a sleepy, crabby baby until she finally decides to go to sleep.  She must not understand it all.  In order to not be a total crab ass she needs to take a nap but she cries when I lay her down.  Luckily it's not EVERY nap time and it seems that it is worse for her at daycare than at home but still.  And if she doesn't have her little lovey (blankie) forget about it.  She will not sleep at home without it.  It's satin on one side and a really soft fuzzy fabric on the other and she rubs it all over her face as she sucks her thumb.  It's really pretty adorable if you ask me.

Her current favorite toys are cars.  She has a little pink one that she LOVES and pushes it around everywhere.  There is also a horse on wheels that she pushes around too.  Basically anything with wheels she loves.  She scoots around on her butt pushing them in front of her and I'll say "vroom, vroom" and she grins ear to ear.  She carries them around with her all the time.  She also likes her princess mobile too.  She'll walk behind it and ride on it and pushes the horn over and over and over again.  Honka-honka!

Everyone look out! Minor on the road!

She loves Word World and the Cat In The Hat on TV.  She dances to their theme songs and gets totally entranced by them.  I let her watch them b/c they are educational.  Haha, and mama needs some down time too who am I kidding!  Anyway, she's quite the good dancer.  Her key moves are head banging, raising the roof and spirit fingers.  She even threw some fist pumps the other day.  I was impressed.  She must have been paying attention when mommy was watching Jersey Shore the other day.  Ha!  Speaking of mimicking things, she loves it when we stick out our tongues at her and she promptly flings hers out and then pushes it in and out over and over.  Teaching her nothing but good manners in our house!

Totally not copying what I'm doing. Ha!

She's moved on up to a big girl booster chair.  We were sick of the huge high chair taking up so much space in our small kitchen so we decided to make the switch and she loves it.  We can all actually sit down and eat dinner together now!  It's great!  She's still a picky eater and doesn't eat much it seems.  I'm sure when I bring her in for her 15 month appointment she'll still be in the 2nd or 3rd percentile for weight.  I'm not sure what to do about it but I suppose she's healthy, just skinny.

Other than that not too much is new around here.  Wade is currently in Europe for the whole week.  He left Saturday afternoon and doesn't get back until Friday afternoon.  Luckily for me we have awesome neighbors who invited us over for a delicious dinner last night and my mom is coming up Wed afternoon and then Kara, Todd and my dad are coming up Thurs night.  Thank goodness b/c it gets to be a little much w/ just Charlie to hang out with!  (I love her and all but I need some adult conversation too as I can only handle so much mama, dada, uppy, doggie, baby speak.)

Okay, I guess that wasn't that quick but whatever.  I've got time to kill now.

Kel