Toes in the Sand

It's been almost 4 years exactly since we've had our feet in the Gulf.  Of course at that point there were only 4 feet!  I've taken a few photos, but lugging two kiddos to the beach and back doesn't make for great photo opportunities.  Here's a link to a few more photos here.  I'll try to keep updating as the week progresses.

Sophie's Turn

Alrighty, Miss Sophie has turned into such a sweetie pie.  

When people talk to her or smile at her, she does this little thing where she turns to bury her face.  This is a blurry picture of it but still too cute.
And she's our little chunk.  When they weighed her at her 4 month check-up, I made them weigh her again.  No joke.  It said 13.2 lbs.  I didn't believe it.  I thought she'd be 15lbs already.  She drinks 6 oz 5 times a day and cries at the end of every bottle.  The doctor said no more formula but to start feeding her solids and maybe she'll slow down on the bottles.  So we came home, requested daddy get the high chair out of the attic and tried feeding her cereal.

 No go:

 I thought maybe she didn't like the high chair and tried the bumbo:

Wrong.  Daddy had to come to her rescue.  I would have kept trying (and photographing).

A week later we tried again:

And she loves it.  Cries if you take too long between bites.  I gave her a few bites of green beans, and she smiled while she gobbled them up.  I also thought we'd try some water in a cup over the weekend, and she took it right out of my hands and took a few sips.
Kinley thought she wanted a taste of this stuff we were so excited to be feeding Sophie.  So I gave her a taste, while it's just rice cereal and tastes like cardboard to head off the pleading each and every time I feed Sophie in the future, totally did the trick.  She gagged and ran for paper towels to spit it out.
Other exciting things in Sophie land, she's been rolling over for a while now in both directions.  Apparently she has discovered the last week that rolling can get you places, like away from your sister:

She started out on the top right corner of the blanket.  Kind of near where Kinley's feet are.  She kept going till she got caught up in the chair.  My new trick to keeping her in place on a blanket: put her on this blanket:

 Then she just tries to get the pictures.

 Seriously good entertainment.

Her sister isn't too thrilled about sharing her blanket Kat made.  Can you tell?

I think that's about it for now.  Record number of posts in one day.  Enjoy!  More photos here.

Gardening 101

Kinley and Andy have a garden this year.  I bought a kit from Sams that is a raised bed and two seed kits, one vegetable and one salsa.  That was about all my input for the project.  And cooking the vegetables that come out of it.  Kinley really got excited about planting seeds for a flower that I then let die.  See a theme here?  I'm no good with growing things.  So, we thought we'd try the garden we've talked about doing for the past several summers.

What does our garden grow?

 Quality time with dad:

 Good excuse to aim the water hose at your mom, baby sister and camera:

 A dirty little face.

 A cricket

 Overcoming a fear of bugs

An excuse to play with the sprinkler

And to eat your veggies:

Trouble Maker

The things my child can come up with when bored or left alone for 5 minutes:

 Even Bailey looks concerned.

 This one requires some explanation.  The big plastic tub holds toys in her playroom.  They are all dumped out.  The pink and white basket and ziploc bags were in her bathroom closet on the next to top shelf.  She climbed the shelves, got the basket down, opened up every single bag, filled it with water, dumped the water in the tub, and proceeded to bathe her bowling set and cars.

 Another bending not breaking of the rules again.  Naptime and Kinley wasn't allowed to get out of bed.  Well, she can reach her top drawer while still sitting in bed.  OCD lined each item up perfectly along the bed.

Seriously, mom, help me!

MIA

Sorry!  Finally plugging in the camera today.  We've been trying to stay busy to beat bored Kinley syndrome.  It's not pretty.  

We've picked blackberries,

 worked on our garden,

visited High Falls Water Park(where I sun-burned Sophie),

 gone to summer movies (Marmaduke was my favorite so far),

painted,

A braves game,

had picnics in the backyard

 played with neighbors, friends and cousins in the pool.

Sadly the pool doesn't offer much entertainment for Kinley without friends to share it with.  This is an open invitation to come on down and jump in.  I did realize this weekend, if I give her play-do or  in this case moon sand to play with on her little table outside, I can read my kindle while floating peacefully by myself.  How has it taken me all summer to realize this?  

Okay Sophie is calling.  Be back in a bit with more.

Early Bloomer

This one, right here.

She's going to keep us on our toes that much is for sure.  She rolled over at 11 weeks.  She can now roll the other way too.  She pulls her knees up under her and pushes off...We are in no way ready for such a mobile little one.  This photo was on Saturday:

Not the greatest photo, but I had to share because those ham-hocks are just too cute.  That's what we call them over here.  ;)  And I swear (I know I sound like one of those crazy mommies) she has a tooth coming in on the bottom right.
Alright, gotta go shower while everyone is quiet and content.  Sorry for the cell phone photos.  I've got tons on the camera, but no time to get them off.

Birth Announcement

So several weeks ago Erin kindly offered to photograph Sophie and make her birth announcements.  I love how they turned out, but it has been a nightmare getting them printed.  Including a lady at the printing place insisting repeatedly how much cuter Sophie looked in person.  Yep I'm serious folks.  So rather than keep you waiting any longer here are my favorite photos from that day:

Sweet Sophie

 Sisters

Silly Sophie

Sophie has an obsession with her tongue, and in this photo she's sticking it out.  I'm sure one day we'll look back at this one and laugh.  Or I will, Andy will still be complaining about the peacock looking tutu.  ;)

Kinley looks so dang grown up in all the photos from this day.  It's a little bit sad.

Pouting because she wanted to lay on the table like Sophie:

And again with my procrastination.  You can see the seam in the middle of the skirt of her dress.  She is wearing the dress safety pinned on backwards.  I still hadn't added the straps from last year.

Thanks, Aunt Erin!!