Spring Visit to Mimi and Papa's House

For Spring Break this year (2017) we decided to head down to Alabama to see Mimi and Papa (and Gigi and Uncle Trey!).  The week just seemed to flew by!

Montgomery Zoo
Went to see Beauty and the Beast
Meeting Trey's girlfriend, Ashley

We met up with Heather, Justin, Sean, and Robin in Auburn.  The kids had a great time playing on campus and eating pizza!

Our flight out of Atlanta was early in the afternoon, so we had time to meet up with some friends.  Uncle Trey and Ashley picked us up at the house early that morning and drove us up to Atlanta.  We were able to meet up with our friends Patrick, Akila, Amara, and their new baby Kareena and grabbed breakfast with them.  All in all, a great end to a great visit!

Link to pictures

Visit to Mimi and Papa's and other November Happenings

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed down to Alabama to spend the holiday with Mom's family: Mimi, Papa, GiGi, and Uncle Trey.  We also got to meet Uncle Trey's new girlfriend, Jacie.  It was a whirlwind visit.  We flew down on Sunday and flew out on Friday.  In between, we went out to a hibachi restaurant to celebrate Kara's birthday, visited the Montgomery Zoo, visited Great Grandpa H. (who recently moved to a retirement home in Montgomery), and enjoyed some excellent home-cooking from Mimi.  We were able to meet up with the McDonough family, while they we in town to visit their family.

We kept things pretty low key for November other than Kara's birthday and our visit to Alabama.  We got a decent snowstorm in the middle of the month, which the girls enjoyed playing in.

As soon as we got home (and got mostly unpacked), Kara had us take out all the Christmas decorations.  Kara had a great time putting up the tree and all the ornaments.  Emily had fun setting stuff up, but was much more interested in playing with some of the decorations.

Recent quotes:
11/15: "I like Kara. Her my best friend." -Emily

11/15: "I love spending time with you, Dad." -Emily

Kara to Mom: "Do you know who the real Santa is? Because I do, and I'm looking at her and him (gesturing towards Dad)"

Link to November happenings pictures

Link to Shorter visit pictures

Visit to Shorter - Fall 2014

Early this month, we packed up the girls and went to visit the family down in Alabama. This was Emily's first flight since she was just a tiny baby, so we were a little nervous about her. For the most part, she did very well. She even passed out for about an hour, which made the time go by much faster. Kara, of course, handled the flight like a champ... as long as she had a screen (Mommy's iPad or her LeapPad) to look at.

While we were down there, Justin, Heather, Sean, and Robin McD came down to visit us at Mimi and Papa's house.  We hadn't seen them in almost two years, and we'd never met Robin!  To paraphrase Heather, "Robin and Emily are best friends, they just may not know it yet!"  Emily and Robin got along pretty well.  For the most part they just played next to each other, though Emily was not too happy when Robin took a ride on her Mickey airplane (her favorite toy at Mimi and Papa's house).  The girls even held hands walking around outside, which was pretty sweet.  Kara and Sean got along really well, mostly because Kara led Sean around the whole time they were there and Sean seemed okay with that.  Sean was such a good sport doing crafts and even reading to Kara.  We also had a little birthday party for Kara.  Overall, it was great to see our friends.  Hope to see you guys again soon!

On the last full day of our visit, we headed into Montgomery to check out the Montgomery Zoo.  It's a really great zoo for kids.  It's not too big, so we could check out almost the whole zoo.  Plus, it has a pretty awesome playground and petting zoo.  We even got to feed giraffes!  The girls both had a really great time.

The trip home was just plain no fun at all.  An arctic front moved into Denver while we were down in Alabama, which caused delayed flights leaving Denver.  We checked our flight status before heading to the airport.  At that time it said our flight was still on schedule; however, about 15 minutes after getting dropped off at the Atlanta airport, we got notification that our flight had been delayed.  In the end, the flight was 2.5 hours late taking off, so we spent almost 4.5 hours at the Atlanta airport.  The flight went pretty smooth except Emily was pretty irritable.  We realized about halfway through the flight that she felt quite warm.  We hoped that if she could just get a good night's sleep, maybe she'd feel better.  We landed in Denver about 8:30 (almost 2.5 hours late) to single digit temperatures.  While Dad was waiting on the jetway in the freezing weather, Emily was throwing up in the terminal.  Fortunately, after that, Emily started acting much better.  Then, Dad forgot one of our bags on the shuttle while we were trying to get everyone and everything to the car.  He had to chase down the shuttle through the icy parking lot in 0 degree weather.  Whew, that was brisk!  Fortunately, the drive home went off without any hitches, and our travel day concluded safely.

All in all, it was a good trip, and it was great to see everyone!

Link to pictures

The Beach!!!

At the end of April, our little family went to visit the family in Shorter, Alabama and take a road trip to Destin, Flordia.  Kara's first trip to the beach!

We flew into Atlanta and stayed with our friends Heather, Justin, and little Sean the first night.  Kara loved visiting them all and sharing Sean's toys.  After getting back home, Kara got a scrape on her knee and said she needed to show it to Sean.  I guess Sean's fascination with showing off boo-boos wore off on her. :)

As always, Kara enjoyed seeing Mimi, Papa, Uncle Trey, and GiGi in Shorter.  She gets a lot of attention (and usually a few new books and toys) when we visit.

For the middle part of our trip down South, Mimi, Uncle Trey, Mommy, Daddy, and Kara headed for the beach in Destin.  Kara was beside herself with the sand and the ocean.  It was really windy and chilly the first night, but she insisted on getting out on the sand.  After that, the days were much warmer.  We stayed right on the beach, so Kara basically dragged an adult or two with her every morning to the water.  Some highlights included "fishing" with her Mickey mouse fishing rod, feeding real fish on the docks, and collecting sea shells.  Enjoy the pictures!

Link to pictures

Look Who's Two!

Our little family has had a very busy November. On November 10th, we headed down to Alabama to visit Mimi and Papa. Uncle Trey, GiGi B., and Great Grandpa H. were also there.  Great Grandpa had never met Kara and GiGi B. hadn't seen Kara for several months, so it was great to see them.  Unfortunately, Mommy and Daddy got really sick while we were there, so that wasn't too much fun. Kara, however, had a great time.  We went to the Montgomery Zoo one day, the Cracker Barrel, and had a great time running around Mimi and Papa's estate.  While we were there, we celebrated Kara's birthday.  Mimi baked and Uncle Trey decorated a great Elmo cake.  Kara enjoyed blowing out the candle ("I no touch" as Kara would say) and opening her presents.

When we got home, we had another birthday party with Grandma S., Grandpa S., GG K, and Aunt Amy.  Kara really enjoyed it when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her.  She also enjoyed the cupcakes Mommy made and spent the rest of the day running around to burn off her sugar rush.  All in all, Kara had two great parties for her second birthday.  It's going to hard to top it for her third birthday!

Kara's latest sayings:
- Whenever we asked her how old she was, Kara would say, "Two years old.  Put birthday hat on top of head."

- Mommy took Kara to the doctor's office for her 2-year check-up.  While they were in the waiting room, Mommy told Kara that Dr. Miller was a good doctor and she'd be fine.  After the appointment (and much crying), Daddy asked her how the doctor's office was.  Kara replied, "Dr. Miller, he's good man.  Listened to Ta-ta heart."

- While we were at Mimi and Papa's, Daddy was drinking some orange juice during Kara's snack.  Once Kara figured that out, she said, "I want some."  To which Daddy replied, after you finish your snack.  Kara came back with "I really want some," and Daddy caved.

Pictures from our visit to Alabama:

Pictures from Kara's party in Colorado:

Easter 2011

When we woke up on Easter morning, we found that the Easter Bunny had left several eggs for Kara in our front yard.  We still haven't figured out who left the eggs, but we have a prime suspect.  Kara had fun finding all the eggs and was really excited when she figured out there was stuff in the eggs.

We went to Aunt Amy's house for Easter dinner.  Grandma and Grandpa S. met us there as well as GG K and Great Grandma S.  Kara enjoyed playing in the backyard and all the attention.  Every holiday with Kara gets more and more fun.

Kara has figured out how to say no, and she is not afraid to use it! We think it might have become her favorite word. Here's how a typical request from Mommy or Daddy will go these days:
     - Kara, it's time to eat. - No.
     - Kara, it's time to go home. - No.
     - Kara, do you want more water? - No.
Mommy and Daddy are not looking forward to the terrible two's!

Kara is learning new words every day.  She recently learned "walk" and is always very excited to walk to the park (Mommy and Daddy have to be very careful with that word).  She's becoming very vocal and is pretty good at making her thoughts known.

Link to pictures




And here are some pictures that Heather and Justin took during our outing in Montgomery.

Flying down to Alabama

This past week we flew down to Alabama to visit Grandma and Grandpa H. and GiGi B.  Kara had a great time chasing the dogs around (they have 4!), going for rides in her wagon, checking out the cows and horses, and just generally running around!

The week before we went down to visit, Grandpa H. got into a collision with a bicycle. Fortunately, he didn't break anything, but he did have a nice black eye while we were there. It didn't seem to bother Kara, though.

On Saturday, we took Kara into Montgomery to meet up with Justin, Heather, and Sean at the Shakespeare Festival.  There were ducks (and little ducklings), geese, turtles, and fish.  Kara had a great time chasing around the ducks and running around with Sean.  However, the best part was the fountain.  Kara got herself soaking wet splashing around in there.  Good thing Mommy brought a change of clothes.

Overall, Kara had a fantastic time in Alabama with Grandma and Grandpa H. and GiGi!

Kara has become a regular chatterbox these days. She just talks and talks all the time and every once in a while actually says a real word :). She's even starting to say two words in a row, like "Dad hat" and "doggie ruff".



And here are some pictures of our trip to the Blount Cultural Park (aka Shakespeare Festival)

Road Trip!

We took Kara to visit the grandparents (and Uncle Trey and Great Grandma B.) down in Alabama this past weekend, which was her first trip outside the Greenville area. She had some rough spots on the drive down there and the drive back (5 hours in a car is a long time in baby world), but overall, the trip was a success.  She slept through night like a champ and enjoyed playing with all the people (and dogs) during the days.

On Saturday, Heather, Justin, and Sean came down from Auburn to meet Kara.  Sean thought Kara was very interesting.  Kara worked the crowd by talking the whole time and impressing everyone with her rolling over skills.

Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma had a great time playing with Kara, feeding Kara, and reading with Kara during the weekend.  Thanks again for having us!