Old Mac Donald had a farm...

In honor of Caroline's newly acquired "Mooing" skills, Mimi wanted to take her to a farm. Luckily, Uncle Paul joined in on the fun, and off we went!

For all the Dallas folks, this place is great! It's located off Renner and Avenue K in Richardson.

First, we got to feed the goats. Uncle Paul thought this was gross.

Mimi was a bit of a "goat whisperer."

Caroline was just amazed by everything!

Look Uncle Paul!!! I see the cows!!!

They are called Zebra Cows because of their stripes. They don't so much look like cows to me...

Next up, our sweet tour guide, Mr. Clifford, took us on a hay ride!Caroline was busy watching the tractor.

We saw ponies, ducks, and geese!

Then we got to see the barn. Caroline's favorite were the potbellied pigs. She practically lunged out of my arms into the pigpen. Gross...they weren't even cute pigs!!!
She also loved the horse, of course.

Our last stop was out back to see the turkeys, chickens, and roosters!
Gobble, Gobble!

Our sweet girl posing one last time before we headed home :)

It was a VERY hot day, but we had so much fun! We'll definitely be back to visit soon!!!!

Little Fishy

We went swimming at the club with Grammy! Bent Tree has a fabulous little baby pool that Caroline absolutely loved. Mimi came along, and Aunt Elizabeth and Cousin Benjamin met up with us, too. Grammy treated all of us to a yummy lunch and we had so much fun playing and splashing in the water!

Mommy appreciated all of Grammy's hard work...chasing Caroline EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!

Caroline loves to swim, take baths, or do anything that involves splashing in the water!!!!

It ain't easy being cheesy...

What to do on a rainy day? Go to Chuck E Cheese with your BFF of course!!!!!! Mimi suggested a Chuck E Cheese playdate, and we were so excited that Ginny and Mattie could come!!!!

The girls are cruisin' together...visions of them at 16, I'm afraid!

Caroline loves to slide!

and explore!

and she loved to ride all the rides. Apparently she and Barney are pretty tight.
Here she is minding her own business, driving along with her pal, Bob the Builder...

All of a sudden, Chuck E Cheese himself appeared. This was her expression when she saw him (in the giant mouse costume). She was literally frozen like this....ha ha ha...so funny!

we posed for the obligatory pic with Chuck E, but as you can see Caroline is still not thrilled about the idea. I have to give her credit, though. She never screamed or cried. Just stared. Mattie was much more excited about him! She even touched him...such a brave girl! ;)

Uncle Paul couldn't resist the idea of pizza and games, so he joined us for all the fun! Too bad I schooled him in skee ball.

Caroline LOVES her Uncle Paul. He always makes her smile and laugh!!! She just loves to watch him :)

And play fun games with him, too of course. She was totally fascinated by this one!

Ginny's 30th!

We celebrated Ginny's 30th BDay with a fun-filled Luau at her house. It was so much fun to see old friends and make new ones!

We kicked off the weekend with a little ladies lunch!
Caroline and Mattie, reunited!
The SIX of us..
Me and Caroline, Kristin and Baby Libby (due in December!!!!), Ginny and Mattie.
Can you believe all these GIRLS?!?!? Love it!
Then it was off to the party!

Me, Cami, Ginny, Kristin, and Halston ready to Luau!

The Birthday Girl and Her sweet hubby, Matt

Sad, Kristin...Pregnant girls can't drink :(
Enjoying the festivities!
Me and Kristin...such a cute Mommy-to-be!!

Happy 30th, Ginny!!!!!!!!

Another Lake House to play at!

Minnie and Papa have a house up at Lake Kiowa and we FINALLY got to go and visit! Caroline loved all the fun toys that Minnie has up there, but most of she loved following her Papa EVERYWHERE!

The house...It's on the golf course and surrounded by trees....SO peaceful!!!! My step mom, Sherri, is so creative. She is working on all kids of redecorating projects, and the house looks AWESOME!!
Hanging with her buddy, Papa.
Snuggling with Minnie
One of the highlights of our quick trip was eating breakfast on the HUGE porch. My dad makes a very yummy breakfast for sure!!!!
You guys are so silly!
I love the lake!!!

Thanks for a great visit! We can't wait to come back soon!!!!!!

11 months!

Yesterday marked Caroline's 11 month birthday. We are spending the week in Dallas with my mom so we have been having all kinds of fun! I promise to post more on that later.

For now, I'll update you on all the fun things Caroline is doing now at the ripe old age of 11 months...

-She LOVES to sing and dance. If there is any music plying she shakes and sways and throws her hands in the air. She also loves for us to sing to her. She will do some of the motions to Patty Cake, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. And if we ask her is she wants to sing Patty Cake, she starts clapping. Love that!

-Daddy says she has "ninja skills" because she loves to climb on everything. She can climb out of our laps or off of the couch by herself. The other day she climbed on top of our cable box (which is stacked on top of the DVD player on the floor) and just sat there. So strange.

This rocking chair was my dad's when he was a kiddo, and it was in mine and my brothers rooms when we were little. My mom had it recovered to match Caroline's room, and she loves it! She can climb in and out of it and make it rock all by herself!

-Caroline now consistently says, uh-oh ("uh-uh"), daddy ("dah-hee"), moo ("boo"), woof ("mmf"), and sometimes will say up ("uh") and down ("duh"). I have heard "mama" a few times, but she usually calls me daddy, too :) I don't know if it's just the SLP in me or what, but I don't count it as a "word" unless she is saying it very consistently and appropriately. Maybe I am not giving her credit for some of the other "words" she has :)

-She points at everything and says "dat"...Maybe she is asking "What is that?" or Saying "I want that." When she sees a phone, she points to it, then puts her hand to her ear, cocks her head to the side, and says "daddy." Pretty cute. We obviously call (or pretend to call) daddy a lot!

Here she is making calls and doing deals...so important!
-Another really fun thing she loves to do is bang her head on the floor. SWEET! I have read this is completely normal, and everyone I know with kids her age seems to be experiencing the same thing, BUT really...head banging? So dramatic! She typically does it when she is tired and she doesn't get her way. It's kind of disturbing and funny all at the same time. We are doing our best to ignore it :)

I am sure I am forgetting lots of stuff, but we are to visit a farm this morning, so I will have to post more later!!!!

Growing up too fast

Now that Caroline is walking, we bought her first pair of "real" shoes. It was pretty exciting! This afternoon, we headed to the mall (even Daddy came along) and went straight to Stride Rite. They measured her feet and we picked out some cutie patootie white sandals. She was such a big girl! She tried them on and tested them out...success! We bought them and she got to wear them home. Didn't you love that as a kid? Buying new shoes and wearing them out of the store...so fun. Can't believe my baby is walking around in SHOES. So grown up. It's ridiculous.

When we got home, she wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get many good pics, but here's my best attempt at showing off her new kicks...

Check out this action shot...She's so fast, her feet are blurry ;)

These new shoes are awesome!

I'm such a big girl!

We had another milestone event this weekend, too. At C's 9 month check up, the dr. recommended we start brushing her teeth. Of course, I promptly went and bought a cute little baby toothbrush and baby toothpaste. But, sweet Daddy said no. He said I was trying to "grow her up too fast." He just wasn't quite ready to accept that our baby girl was ready to brush her teeth. So we waited...until tonight :)

I think I'm ready, Daddy.

Mommy's helping me.

No worries, I got this.

Jon and I can't get over it. It's like she's turned into a real little person, not just a baby. Sniff, sniff.