Summer activities

Summer is suppose to be full of relaxing and taking it easy, but ours has been quite and adventure. I can't believe its almost September and I haven't blogged about our summer yet.

But I have a good excuse... and no I'm not pregnant! Kyle and I have been hard at work behind the scenes to open our own optometry practice this fall. We are getting so close to our GO date and its getting real.

In between meals, naps and playing with Lydia I've been helping with the LONG list of to do items to get our business opened up. So now that the cat's out of the bag, I'm going to blame my lack of blogging on this. It's sort of like having a job, but without the nice paycheck to go with it.... maybe one day!

But enough about work... here's a few summer highlights from our vacations and summer fun...

 Lydia's Baby Dedication in May

Father's Day

Swimming!

Beach trip to Perdido Key

 Loving cousin time at the beach

Annual family pictures at the beach

 Little golfing with Daddy

Falling off the blogging train

Wow! I've really fallen behind on blogging. I never even did a 15 month stats update for Lydia.

Poor Lydia has had 2 ear infections between Memorial Day and July 4th, but has bounced back.

She also has taken the plunge and let go to walk on her own in the past few weeks. She's so cautious and would prefer to hold on to a hand, furniture or crawl and not risk falling. She's getting braver every day. For some reason this mainly applies to walking. She's quite the daredevil when it comes to climbing - up stairs, the fireplace hearth, ottomans, etc...

She also is becoming my girly girl. She loves her baby dolls and is so entertaining watching her carry around anything she views as a purse and most recently her sunglasses. She likes to put them on her head like mommy - so cute!!

Here's our little mommy in action.

Lately...

Feel like I haven't had enough time for a full post lately, so I'll just list off the latest happenings:

1. My social butterfly says "hey" or "hi" to everyone we come in contact with and sort of comes out with a little southern accent already. She combines this with her little toothy grin and she can't be ignored. I end up talking to almost everyone we pass at the store - it's sort of hilarious! Tell me this happens to everyone!

2. Its official - I have a little mommy in the making. She has really taken interest in her dolls lately and squishes loves on them, shrieks talks to them and gives them an enthusiastic greeting when she sees them. Think we have a girly girl on our hands already.

3. I always kidded that my metabolism would stop working when I turned 30, but now the joke is on me! Can I blame the baby over a year later?

4. Confession - Because of #3 above, I did a 10 minute glutes workout on my On Demand and couldn't walk for DAYS!

5. Counting down to some much needed beach time!! Thinking it won't quite be as relaxing as last year when Lydia would just lay under the tent all day, but that's what grandparents are for, right? :)

"Say-Say"

Should I be offended that my child says our dog's name more often than mine? The only name she might say more frequently is "da-da", but really I don't mind. She sounds so darn cute, I just get a kick out of listening to her.

It actually took me a while to realize "Say-Say" was Sadie. I finally got it one day when I was outside watering and had Lydia in her wagon. The dog was running around all crazy and every time she would run by the wagon, Lydia would point and yell, "Say-Say".

I think Sadie gets a kick out of it too and loves all the attention. She also is very patient with Lydia when she wants to pat her and doesn't run away like she usually does with the cousins. But she also has her own form of revenge -- licking!

Should have known one of her favorite words would be that of her beloved "Say-Say"! Best Friends for life!!

A Year Ago Today...

We were finally able to bring our daughter home!!

It was Easter Sunday and nearly every day that week we were hopeful that THAT would be the day, but something always prevented us from getting the OK from the doctors... usually having to do with Lydia eating her bottle fast enough and without any breathing issues.

We went to an outdoor Easter service at the church we attended before moving south and that was extremely close to the hospital. From there we raced over to the hospital in hopes of hearing the magic words. The nurse thought she was ready and had us watch the required car seat video - which is boring anyways, but we could hardly stand it as we waited for the Doctor. to do his rounds.

That afternoon we finally got clearance to go home with our darling baby girl! Can't you just see the excitement on my face??!!

I remember when we got home, we gave her a bottle for the first time without all the fancy machines - with only an apnea monitor to tell us if something was REALLY  wrong. We were both so scared something would go wrong, but we made it through the first day and the round the clock feeds somehow.

My little 5 lb cutie is now almost 19 lbs, on the verge of walking, climbs on anything and everything (if given the chance), pats the dog sweetly, talks non-stop -- sometimes real words, but mostly just babble, has the cutest little toothy grin and has a touch of sass!

Happy Homecoming Little Girl! We love you very much!!!

Easter 2012

I love celebrating Easter every year, but its even more dear to my heart since getting to bring our precious Lydia home on Easter 2011. Althought not the same day each year, it will always be a special memory for us.

We celebrated Easter this year with my family at First Baptist Woodstock and then afterwards with a cookout and egg hunt at my sister's house.

What a difference a year can make! Here is Lydia on the day we brought her home - Easter Sunday, April 24th, 2011 at 9 weeks and then her at 13 months this year on Easter Sunday, April 8th 2012.

14lbs and 4 teeth later, the only thing that has stayed the same is the amount of hair on her head! Maybe by next Easter we'll have some longer locks.

We had a blast hanging out with family and cousins. Lydia seemed excited to hunt eggs - even though she's not walking independently quite yet.

All Dressed Up:

Egg Hunt Time:



Cousin Photo shoot

While we were in FL for Kyle's birthday, we took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot in the cute matching outfits Bella got for Lydia and Noah. I took about 100 shots and tried to narrow down to some of my favorites.

PS - I'm loving the collage feature on Picasa so I can do a photo bomb without all the scrolling and looks pretty cute too, if I do say so myself.