Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Ft. Morgan beach trip - Memorial Day weekend

We took a road trip with Chris's family to his grandparents beach house in Fort Morgan, AL over the Memorial Day weekend. We both took the Tuesday as an extra day, so we got to spend lots of time playing in the sand with Riley, and this kid LOVES the ocean. We returned, and I immediately signed her up for swimming lessons.

Luckily, on our trip, the oil hadn't reached the beach yet, so we were free to play.

Family picture, with an ever growing belly.
Yes, she does this same activity in the bathtub and pool, always with the same expression: pure joy!

Perhaps I'm slightly partial, but she's just cute, even from behind!
Working on a serious project. One shovel in each hand.
One half of the happiest and proudest grandparents of our sweet little girl.
Yes, Chris took a belly shot, and I'm possibly regretting posting this. I would be somewhere around 21 weeks along.
Pops playing with me in the ocean.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Memphis Botanical Gardens - May 1


My parents came to visit the first weekend of May, and we took a trip to the Botanical Gardens. We had never been, but it was a great place for Riley to get out and run, and the scenery was very nice.

I think Nana B is pointing out some of the fish in the pond.

Grandaddy pointing out nature.
A nice way to wrap up the afternoon visit by cooling down in the fountain!

Some very proud great-grandparents

Spring pictures at mommy's work

After returning from our cruise, many of the azaleas were blooming in our area, so we took Riley up to my office, which has a beautiful area between our towers full of flowers.
Someone is being silly!
Look, I found some flowers!

Southern Caribbean Cruise - April 2010

I'm back to trying to catch up on blogging again. Back in April, we took a cruise with the Garner's and White's to see the southern portion of the Caribbean. Both sets of grandparents were graciously willing to keep Riley and Millie, so we jetted off and never looked back! The 6 of us flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and we boarded the Celebrity Summit. Our port of calls were on the islands of St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Croix, Antigua, St. Lucia. We had a very busy schedule, which didn't leave much time to play on the boat, but it was so much fun.

Here is the break down of our excursions or activities we did on each island:

St. Thomas - we took a private sailboat with just the 6 of us and 6 crew people and sailed and snorkled at Honeymoon Bay. Captain Mike and Josh will continue to be a memorable experience for us.



St. Kitts - We all took a train ride on the old railway used for their sugar plantations. It poured on us, but the island scenery was wonderful.

St. Croix - The Garner's took a day of rest on-board, but we agreed on a 13 mile bike ride with the White's, and although the scenery was good, we decided our rear-ends aren't meant for 13 miles on a bicycle seat!


Antigua - Our favorite location by far. We just grabbed a cab, and went to beautiful beach spot for the day. Enjoyed some fruity drinks and food with a great ocean view, and we also rented some jet ski's and rode around to check out some coast line. We've found our retirement location!





St. Lucia - We took an all day tour around the island with probably 15 stops along the way to see different parts of the island, including the famous Piton mountains.






Sunday, May 2, 2010

Uh-oh!

Wake up neighbors, I'm coming and making noise.




Riley tripped and got her first scraped knee; the first of many.




Thursday, April 29, 2010

Developments as of late

With all the pictures I’ve loaded of our cute little girl, I figured I’d take some time to blog, in text, some of her development and discoveries over the past few months. She’s currently 20 months old and growing everyday. Luckily, she’s finally growing hair, and we no longer are concerned she’ll be bald going into kindergarten. But hair bows and clips are a different story. I’ve tried a few clips in her hair, which she promptly removes. She’s a child of order, and since she isn’t used to a clip in her hair, it doesn’t belong there. Same goes if she finds a crumb on the floor, or a leaf or stick on the sidewalk, they must be removed, and she’ll let you know it.

Playtime – She LOVES her jumbo blocks, aka oversized legos. We got them for her at Christmas, and she will daily pour them all out, yet build a tower at the same time. Please don’t try and pick out a specific block for her to use, she’ll find the exact on that needs to be used, and put it in its proper place. She is also very aware of which toys go together, such as her tea set, or train set with blocks, or mailbox with letters to put in it, she knows what is paired with what, and will pull
it out when asked. Back to her “methodical” ways, if she opens her toy box, the lid can’t be just propped open; it must be at a 90 degree angle before she’ll get anything out. A little OCD!

Shoes – these are becoming my worst nightmare. She recently got a couple of new pair of summer sandals, which are adorably cute, and she can put them on herself, and get the correct feet about 90% of the time. Our issue is, we continually take them off, just to be able to put them back on again, or if we spot another pair we would prefer, whoa be it if she can’t reach them and put them on, at that very minute. We have a shoe-aholic on our hands!

Love – Although she’s been blowing us and everyone else kisses for a while, she’s recently taken on “loving” us. My favorite part of the day is when we go “night-night”, she runs to give Chris a hug, and will start on one side of the room with her arms stretched out as wide as possible, running towards him. She gives hugs and kisses (some slobbery), and is getting better at petting Millie gently. She’ll also gently pat your back as you hold her, just to let you know she’s there.
She’s never been a child that wants to be held or rocked, but is starting to take a little more time with us, which we are both enjoying.

Talking – I think we learn a new word every day, but we know our grandparents, mama, dada, a version of Millie and other family dogs, body parts (nose, eyes, toes, ears, arms, etc), clothes, night night, steps, and a host of others. We are working on our animals, but mostly she has her own version of chatter, and it’s all day long! She knows the oven and grill are “hot”, and who knows what she’s already learned today.

Doors – I spoke about her need for order above. Doors must be closed, always. She’s obsessed with going through the house and opening cabinets and closing them. Good luck getting into the house before she closes the door, and when she leaves a room, she must shut the door. When Millie needs to be let out, she's the first one at the door "helping" to take Millie out, and will shut the door when everyone is back inside.

I’m sure I’ve missed something, but this should give you an idea, and it provides a record for me, during this crazy time we call life!