Two's Aren't so Terrible!

I was looking on my blog today and I noticed something pretty cool.  I have this little graphic that updates how old Cora is and today she is 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days old!  Isn't that wild??  We had to give a little update to commemorate this occasion!

Cora - You are so much fun!  Your Daddy and I love you so much.  Every day, I'm so thankful that I get to be your mommy and watch you grow up.  And you are growing up fast!  You have been learning a lot of new words.  I enjoy listening to you as we take rides in the car as you point out everything you see - birds in the sky, tractors in the fields, trucks and boats on the road, and the heavy rocks in front of Krispy Kreme (that one makes me laugh because you haven't learned what is inside that building with the heavy rocks though I'm sure when you do, you will stop talking about the rocks!)  Your attention span is growing so that we can sit together and read books with more words than pictures!  I love this as I've been looking forward to reading to you from your "Storybook Bible" and we have enjoyed doing that together.  You are starting to count though you say you have "two" of everything and when you try counting you usually say "one, two, four".  I sometimes worry that you might be color blind as every time I ask you what color something is, you say "BLUE".  Maybe that is just your favorite color.  We are working on discipline - which has been hard for us as your parents but we know it is for your good to teach you obedience.  So we talk about that a lot!  You love music and dancing.  Still a big fan of the "Black Eyed Peas" and you enjoy doing "Itsy, Bitsy Spider". You have been sleeping in a toddler bed and you are doing better though now you have learned to open your door so we've caught you walking around the house early in the morning! When we catch you, you even say "It's early!" Please learn to stay in your room and go back to sleep! 

We wouldn't change anything about you and are so happy you are our precious little girl.  Can't wait to see how much you change when you hit the Three's!!

Belly Shot - 26 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:





How far along: 26 weeks. The number of days is now less than 100!  It all of a sudden has started to become very real that very soon we will be a family of 4!





Best moment: I've been feeling pretty huge here lately but I had a random stranger tell me I looked really small to be as far a long as I was.  So that made me feel nice, ha ha.  Also I've definitely felt hiccups!  She is starting to be a rather active little bug.


Food Cravings: Ice Cream - preferably the homemade Reese's peanut butter cup ice cream that we made for Father's Day! 



Weight: 141.3, Charlotte is growing!



Exercise: Still trying to walk when it's not to hot or smoky outside. 




Sleep: I've only had 1 more leg cramp so far!  Whew.. Hope there aren't too many more of those!  Also, William has been sick with a cold so my sleep has been a little off. 




Things I miss: My belly button NOT sticking out.  The button has popped! 

Water Play Day!

Our church had a "Water Play Day" and we had a great time! Playing in the water was the perfect activity for today as it was super hot and humid. I only wish I could have sat in one of the baby pools. Well I guess I could have but I may have gotten a few funny looks.




Cora enjoyed watching everyone more than she enjoyed sitting in the pools. I was able to get a few of her playing in the water.




Like this one - looking really cute playing with Alina!




I'm just glad she didn't want to go play in the mud pit!  They had a great time but it looked so gross!

Playing "Drip, Drip, Drop!"  (similar to Duck, Duck, Goose!)  I was so surprised. Cora actually sat in the circle with all the kids but she looked mighty confused every time someone dripped water on her head!

 

 

Strike a Pose!

Since we are going out of town this weekend, we decided to dress Cora patriotic to celebrate July 4th. We thought she looked pretty cute, especially with those pigtails! Obviously she did too as she struck some pretty sassy poses for the camera. No, we did not ask her to sit like that in the chair. She did that all on her own!

A Quick Swim Lesson

We travelled to visit Williams family this weekend to celebrate Father's Day! They have a wonderful pool in their neighborhood so we took Cora for a quick swim. It's great as they have a separate, fenced in, baby pool, so it makes us feel a lot more comfortable having her play in the water. William enjoyed getting in with her and helping her learn how to put her face in the water. She did pretty good! We are looking forward to our "Mommy and Me" swim class, which will happen in a few weeks.



Gotta wear the sunscreen!




The water is not deep at all!  It's so great!




Her first dunk.  She handled it really well.

Laughing at daddy blowing bubbles!

First Day of School!!

This morning I dropped Cora off at a local church here in town for a week of learning about "Farm Animals"! A friend told me about this day camp and I thought it was something we would BOTH enjoy! Since I'm a "stay at home" mom, I get to be with her ALL the time. I wish I could say I was one of those creative moms, with fun crafts and games planned everyday, but that is not the way God made me! When I heard about all the fun activities she would get to do here, I knew it was worth it for her to have a special outing, just for her! I will admit it... It was hard dropping her off this morning. But I thoroughly enjoyed my free time and I couldn't wait to pick her up!

Cora did great with drop off!  Today they learned about horses!

 

She was so cute when I came to pick her up!  She came running out to me, with a beet red face and hair all messed up, saying "Mommy, Mommy"!  She had a great day and was very excited to hear she would be returning the rest of the week.  I'm looking forward to it too!

Father's Day 2011

Today we celebrate those men who have played an important part in our lives!  I am lucky enough to have three men in my life - My dad, my sweet husband, and my dad-in-law.  I have certainly been blessed by their love, support, guidance, prayers, encouragement, humor and presence!  I especially have to write about how wonderful my husband is as a dad.  It has been so great seeing him step into this role given to him by God.  He is a wonderful dad for his little girl.  I love seeing him excited to come home from work and see her.  He actually wants to sit with her and talk to her.  He looks forward to spending time with her!  He is a great example for her and challenges himself to show her Christ in each and everything he does. Thank you William for all that you do!  We love you!!



French toast and bacon is what's for breakfast! 



Opening the card we made for him!  I got really lucky and was able to get a FREE photo card off a website!  He loved it!




I found this other idea on a blog I read - A "pop top for a top pop"!  William wasn't sure what it was.




I filled it with "kisses" from Cora!




and since I'm a "pampered chef", I had to get him this fun apron and grill stuff!




Cora looking real cute for church!



That afternoon, we ended up having my family come over for some BBQ and homemade ice cream!  I was really excited that everyone was able to make it to celebrate our dad! 



Papa Phillips with Cora




Uncle Eric and Cora



Uncle Chad making Cora laugh.  He made all of us laugh!




Cora checking out what Holden is in to!




Helping Papa eat his cheesecake and ice cream.




"I love ice cream!"




My dad and I!  He enjoyed his fun new apron.  I can see him wearing this a lot!

Daddy/Daughter Date Night

William took Cora on their first "Daddy/Daughter Date"! The local Chick-fil-A hosted this fun night and I am so glad they went! I'm actually kind of jealous that I did not get to join in on this as the pictures look like it was so much fun! Now, if there isn't a lot of details about this night, you can blame William. I can only type what he tells me and sometimes it's just hard to get the full story from guys! Thankfully, he took plenty of pictures so I was able to figure out what happened from those!



We dressed Cora in her fanciest dress for the night!  (I was later told they were the most well dressed couple!)


Leaving to hit the town!



They had special tables set up, with a menu and you had waiter that came and took your order from the table!  Also, they put white paper, with crayons, on the tables so the girls had something to entertain them! 
For ambiance, they had a woman playing the flute for some live music.



They even came around with flowers for all the girls!  Cora was really excited to show me hers when she got home!




Cora enjoyed her chicken nuggets!




William loves his little girl!



They had this "pirate ship" playset in the parking lot so Cora LOVED playing on that!




Going down the slide in her fancy dress!




Check this out!  They even had a limo where you could take a short ride around the block in! 




I think Cora got used to the good life.  When they were getting ready to leave, she did NOT want to ride in her mini-van.




Playing on the playset a little more!




One last slide down the slide!


Oh I hope they do these events again!  I think this is something every dad should do for their daughter! 

Belly shot - 24 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:








How far along: 24 weeks.








Best moment: I've been noticing a lot more kicks and movements lately! Maybe even hiccups? I remember missing this after I had Cora so I'm really trying hard to live in the moment and enjoy this and not just wish the next 16 weeks away.








Food Cravings: From previous posts, we've been into baking lately so I've really been enjoying the "Chocolate Chip Banana Bread" and also making Pizza!










Weight: 140.8, so about 17-18 lbs. I've been trying to eat right and stay active but it has been hard. I find myself thinking "I deserve this!" or "The baby wants this!". So it is definitely tempting to eat to satisfy all cravings when probably most is due to stress, boredom, or dehydration. But all in all, I think I'm doing pretty good!










Exercise: Still walking but it has been hard to do it outside as it has been so hot here lately! Hoping to keep up the goal of 2-3 times a week.










Sleep: Still going okay. Though I did wake up with my first leg cramp, this morning actually. They are so painful! I remember I had them alot during my pregnancy with Cora. Ouch!!










Things I miss: Not having to pee every 5 minutes! Also I'm noticing it's starting to get hard in my bending, squatting movements and picking up Cora is getting difficult! I can still do it, thankfully but I've been making noises and noticing it hurts!!








Doctor appointment notes:
Haven't been since my last update. Next appointment is July 7th and I'll be doing the glucose screening! Yummy orange drink, here I come!

Picnic at River Park North

We have been blessed with some cooler temps this week so this morning we took a little outing to a local park! We went with some friends from the neighborhood, their daughter is Cora's age also! I must say I think I've only been here maybe one time so I wasn't too familiar with all there was to do but we ended up having a great time! This park had a little inside exhibit to check out live turtles, fish, and snakes and then there were the outside trails which you could see various parts of the river. We ended the morning by having a little picnic. I think we will be visiting this park again!!



The beginning of the exhibit - Cora strikes a pose!




They had live turtles that you could pet!  Maybe in another year I'll let Cora pet them! 





The girls trying to see more fish and turtles!

Haven, Cora and Camden

Sunday Best

Just a little snap snot of Cora before we headed out for church.  William does the best job with Cora's hair! 

Family Movie Night

Last night, we initiated a "Family Movie Night" into our house! I kind of knew Cora would enjoy the movie we picked out as she has been asking us to read a little book that she has about this same movie for the past few days. So we all got into our pj's and grabbed some snacks and settled in to watch "Finding Nemo"! Cora loved it - I was a little nervous because it does have a few scary scenes (hello barracuda, sharks, and strange fish with light bulb) but she laughed her way right through those. Guess she doesn't have her mom's sense of fear. I see many more nights like these in our future! But I will be trying to think of other ideas that doesn't involve us parked in front of a TV!



This blog has really helped us take photos of everything we do, even sitting on a couch watching TV!



Cora with her snack bowl.

We made a little snack mix of m&m's, peanuts, marshmallows, fruit snacks, pretzels, and goldfish crackers. Our bowl's emptied pretty quickly!

If You've Got Ears, Say Cheers!!

I was finally able to get Cora to wear her "Minnie Mouse" outfit that she got for her birthday this year!  Actually, she pulled it out of the closet herself so I foresee some dress up parties in our near future!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Today we just had a relaxing day at home! This was prompted because it has been really hot, I'm 23 weeks pregnant, and yesterday I had to go to 3 different grocery stores to get everything we needed for the week. (do not ask.) So yes, I'm feeling a little tired today!


Luckily, I had a fun activity planned - Making Chocolate Chip Banana Bread! Oh my goodness, this was SOO yummy. We had it after lunch today and I had to use a LOT of self control not to eat the whole loaf. I kept thinking, "William will want some.. William WILL want some!". So you are welcome, hubby.



My happy helper!  (ignore trash can in background!)
Tracie - she finally wore the apron!!!



She really enjoyed the "stir in chocolate chips" step!


"I'm so CUTE in my apron!  Thanks LK!"

"Oh my goodness, I LOVE chocolate mommy! What, nap time is next?"

The finished result.. Yes, it does look as good as it tastes!


If you like chocolate and bananas, I highly recommend this recipe! Maybe it is somewhat healthy as it is made from whole wheat and bananas!


Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (from "money saving mom" website)
Makes 1 loaf


2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
1 cup raw sugar (I just used normal sugar)
2 eggs, beaten
3-4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons milk
1/2 cup to 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks


Stir together dry ingredients. Beat together remaining ingredients.


Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and blend until just combined. Sprinkle chocolate chips in and stir.


Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for one hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean.


Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.