8 months old!

Warning! This is another LONG post that will probably bore most of you...but it helps me remember everything :)

Caroline is 8 months old today. As usual, time is going by so fast! I love this stage, though. She is truly HILARIOUS.

Bundled up for a run with Daddy (this was obviously a while back...before the 90 degree weather set in)

She must be the center of attention at all times. If she's in a room full of people she will look at each person and squawk until they pay attention to her. I think the ability to "work the room" is something she definitely got from her daddy.

Here she is running the show at Daddy's office. What a good helper!

She is just beginning to figure out the whole waving thing. My mom really worked hard on it over the weekend...They sat outside and practiced waving at cars as they drove by. Too funny!

She has 4 teeth. All in the front on the bottom. Still no action up top, but I think she is working on a few more, as she is putting anything and everything in her mouth, and really gnawing on her fingers a lot.

She still loves to play with cell phones and remotes, but empty water bottles and keys are quickly becoming the new faves.

She has a fancy new big girl car seat and big girl stroller! This makes life much easier on Mommy ;) She is getting so big and heavy!

She is crawling like a champ, and has gotten much faster. She usually crawls on her hands and knees, but sometimes tries the bear crawl instead.

She has started pulling up on everything...her crib, any and all furniture, boxes, her activity table, cabinets, walls, the fridge, the dog (which Luci loves...not), our legs, you name it! Today, she finally found the stairs. GREEEEEEEAT!

Using Luci to stand up. (and eyeing the bone so intently)

Look what I can do! (her eyes are closed, because she is squealing with delight. She was trying really hard to figure out a way to climb up them)

I'm a BIG girl!

She can also get herself into the sitting position now. I often find her sitting up (or standing) in her crib, which is so funny to me :) She just looks like such a big girl!

Hi Mom!!! I've been waiting for you!!!!
(yes, her room is still blue...hope to get it painted SOON!)

Here is some video of Caroline playing today. It's really long, but she demonstrates some of her new tricks...crawling, pulling up, sitting herself up, etc. I promise that I usually talk to her while we're playing, but in order to spare you from listening to my annoying voice, I tried to stay quiet :)

By the way, we did NOT catch the Swine Flu while we were in Mexico. We are all feeling just fine...thank goodness!

Babymoon in Mexico!

We just returned for our much anticipated Babymoon to Mexico :) It was awesome!!! We left Austin on Thursday morning with Caroline in tow. First stop, Dallas. We had a 2 hour layover, which was plenty of time to do the airport hand off to my mom and Alan. This was Caroline's first time to fly! She was a rockstar. Even though it was her naptime, she was happy and made lots of friends on our flight :) I will say, however, that flying with a little one is A LOT of work...whew!

Anyway, the hand off was successful (no tears from Caroline or Mommy) and we were happy to be on our way to Mexico!!

When we arrived at the Cancun airport, there was a guy standing there with a sign that said "Erickson." Jon and I thought this was pretty cool. We felt very important :) Off we went to Play del Carmen!

At the hotel, we were greeted with a "Welcome Cocktail" which I loved. What a better way to start vacation???

Here I am enjoying my welcome cocktail while enjoying the view from our room.

We had a view of the beach on one side of the room, and view of the pool on the other. Fantastic!

The first night was "Fiesta Night" Jon enjoyed the tequila bar...They had all these weird, random flavors of tequila...We read on the beach, played in the pool, and RELAXED a lot. Oh and did I mention that we had a blast? We LAUGHED a lot, too :)

We never left the resort, except for when Jon had to go to Walmart to buy pants. The restaurant dress code requires pants for men...Jon insisted on packing nothing more than swimsuits and t-shirts of course ;) He did return with these awesome Play del Carmen hats from Walmart, though...

There I am swimming in the ocean....see me waving? There were lots of Europeans at our resort...which meant lots of topless ladies and LOTS of speedo-clad men. Of course, that made for lots of great people-watching for Jon and I :)

Jon played sand volleyball (and scraped his knee), pool volleyball (and hurt his foot), and participated in the "Ideal Man" Contest in the pool (and hurt his other knee). Here is waiting with the other Ideal Men...

The contest entailed blowing up a balloon with a snorkel, swimming to the end of the pool, chugging a beer, swimming back, "rescuing" a girl with the lifesaver, doing 10 squats, running the length of the pool with a volleyball between his legs, and then screaming like Tarzan. Seriously. The one with the fastest time wins. Jon finished in 2nd place with a time of 1 min. 8 sec. Quite impressive, I was so proud :)

Enjoying dinner the last night.

Thank you to my sweet hubby for making it such a wonderful vacation! Thank you for fetching me food and drinks, for making me laugh, for charming your way into getting us VIP status, for being such a kick-butt bocce ball partner, for hauling all our luggage around, for making friends with random and entertaining foreigners, for constantly slathering me with SPF 50 sunscreen, and most of all for being the only person I can imagine spending my life with! You da' bomb!!!

Last night, despite delays, extensive security searches, and literally RUNNING to the gate for our connecting flight, we swooped up Caroline and made it safe and sound back to Austin with all of our belongings...As fun as vacation is, it also feels great to be home :)

And of course, many thanks to Mimi, Papa Al, GGma, GGpa, and Uncle Paul for watching Caroline for us :)
More to come on "Camp Caroline" soon ;)

Easter (finallly!)

So I am finally getting around to posting some Easter pics. We had a great weekend. It was busy with the move, but Papa, Minnie, and Uncle Brian were here to celebrate Sunday with us.

We went to church and then to brunch after. It was great!

Warning...there are a lot of pictures of Caroline in her Easter dress :) Her Minnie (my stepmom Sherri) gave it to her the day she was born. We have been so excited to finally wear it!! It's so beautiful!!!

Hmmm...Hey guys, I wonder what's in this basket???

Oh!!! It's an egg!!!!

I'm gonna get you!

Yeah, I got a bunny AND some eggs...What are you gonna do about it?

Ok, I'll share...

It's hard to keep her still long enough to get pictures now...she wants to move!!!

Thanks to Mimi and Minnie for the bunny ears, eggs, and baskets!!!

Love me some Pat Green

Last weekend, Sarah and Peter invited us to go to the Pat Green concert at the Nutty Brown Cafe. SO FUN! I had never been to the Nutty Brown before, and it is so awesome. The weather was a bit chilly, but we had blast! Happy Birthday, Peter!!! (and thanks Minnie, Papa, and Uncle Brian for baby sitting :))

Jon and I rockin out to "Southbound 35"

The ladies

It had been a while since we'd seen Pat Green live. I was so hoping he'd play "George's Bar" but he didn't :( He did play a great mix of both old and new, which was great!

Thanks, S and P, we always have so much fun with yall!!!

Home Sweet Home

Whew!!! We are finally in our new house :) It's so great!!! Thanks to the wonderful help of our friend Peter, Jon's brother Clark, and my dad, step mom Sherri, and step brother Brian...we are actually feeling pretty settled!

I promised pics, so here you go...

Unpacking has been a little bit like Christmas...it's been so long since we've seen most of our stuff, so it was exciting to open all the boxes :) Of course there is still lots to do...like paint Caroline's room, which is currently blue...but we absolutely love it and couldn't be happier! Our neighbors are fun and there are kids EVERYWHERE!!!

There is so much to blog about...I am so behind!!!! Stay tuned...

Update

Wanted to give you a quick update on our crawling...
As you might have guessed, the laundry basket solution was short-lived. She quickly figured out how to pull up on the side and crawl out. Oh well, it was good while it lasted :)

She is getting in to EVERYTHING!!! I think I totally underestimated the true impact of this whole mobility thing...OMG!

My little helper...

Now that Caroline is crawling, I need creative ways to keep her contained...

Thank you laundry basket!

It's light and easy to move from room to room with me, so it's been great as I have been packing this week. She seems to enjoy her basket time, although I am sure she is wondering why in the world I stuck her in there...You gotta do what you gotta do...right?

Moving in more ways than one...

Caroline is officially crawling now. She has gone from the scooting/half-crawling/inching/head-plowing to full-fledged crawling. She has already discovered the electrical cords in our living room...sweet. Guess it's finally time to do some serious baby-proofing!
Here's a video of our little lady in action...I tried to entice her with several different toys, but of course, she was only motivated by the ever-exciting Gatorade bottle. I guess she needed to replenish her electrolytes, I mean, after all crawling is HARD WORK!

In other moving news...the time has finally come to move to our new house!!!! WOOOHOOOOOO! We have everything pretty much packed up, and we are moving this weekend!!! I don't think there are words to describe how excited we are. Not sure yet how/when the transfer of internet service is going to happen, but hopefully we'll be back up and running pretty quickly. I'll try to post pics of the new place soon...

Chillin'

Laid back, with my mind on my money....

and my money on my mind...

Honeymoon Flashback

3 years ago today, we were headed off to our honeymoon! We spent a week in the Bahamas at the Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort.
We LOVED it. All-Inclusive is definitely the way to travel!!!

The view from our room. We could just walk right out to a little pool and the beach.

Hanging out on the beach.

Rum tasting at the Bacardi Factory. We got to taste rum straight form the barrel...yum!

At the piano bar.

Relaxing after dinner.

We went parasailing, snorkeling, sailing, shopping, and of course did lots of relaxing by the pool and on the beach. Thanks to a tip from Steve and Diane, we order lots or "Miami Vices" which is half pina colada and half strawberry daquiri...SOOOOOO yummy :)
It was AWESOME!

So many great memories...can't believe it's been 3 years!?!?!

3 years ago today...

We were married!!!!

April 1, 2006

After just under 6 months of fast and furious planning, we tied the knot. I figured after 3 years of dating, we may as well get the show on the road! April Fool's Day was not my first choice, but as it goes in teh world of wedding planning, it was the only day that worked for everyone. In the end, it totally fits our personalities :)
We were married at the church I grew up in, Custer Road United Methodist, in Plano, TX.
First Kiss

Mr. and Mrs. Jon Andrew Erickson :)The Wedding Party
1 Maid of honor, 1 Best Man, 6 Bridesmaids, 6 Groomsmen, 7 Ushers, 3 House Party...and a partridge in a pear tree ;)

The Reception was at The Richardson Hotel.
First Dance...Nat King Cole "L-O-V-E" (L is for the way you look at me...etc)
Jon was cracking me up the whole time. He was singing along and making the funniest faces.
(In case you don't know, Jon is a REALLY good dancer...like I've said before, I am a lucky girl!)

Yum! I loved our cake...

I was sad when the night was over...it was so much fun!

To my sweet husband on our anniversary...
I love you more today than I did the day I married you. You are an amazing husband, father, and most of all my best friend. I can't imagine spending my life with anyone but you and I look forward to many more anniversaries to come!

Don't worry...I am not through boring you with the story of our lives...next up, the honeymoon :)