Happy 8 months to Charlotte!

I know I have not been the best at posting pictures of sweet Charlotte every month but here she is at 8 months!  Here is a little update on how Miss Charlotte is doing:

Month 7 was a huge month for development! You went from just laying there, making very little noise, not interested in toys to being able to sit up (not on your own yet), having full out baby conversations, and enjoying playing with certain toys. Right now, you really like this penguin toy and also your baby wipe package (I think you like the crinkly noise).  You are a GREAT eater.  You have enjoyed apples, sweet potato's, carrots, green beans, peaches, mango's, pears, spinach, blueberries, and broccoli (Most of these were mixed together in some sort of baby food fashion). You are an absolute joy and delight to be around.  Many people have commented what a happy, easy, good baby you are.  You do not fuss when I drop you off at the nursery at church.  You LOVE to jump, most times you'll jump even if you are not in your jumper but just being held.  You are rolling over, finally, and I think you would like to crawl but just aren't there yet. You have the sweetest laugh and you enjoy watching your big sister.  You are a good sleeper! You take 2 naps a day (one around 9 and then another around 12:30 or so, for about 2 hours) and you go to bed at 6 pm. You sleep through the night, mostly, waking up again at 6 am. Sometimes you wake up around 4:30 or 5 am but not usually.  I love your smiles and the way your eyes shine when you look at us!

Our week (so far) without Daddy

Sweet Hubby left on Friday for a mission trip to Haiti!  So it's just been me and the girls this week. I have felt SO blessed by my sweet friends and family who have called to check on us, come to visit, invited us over for meals, brought food, and told us about fun things to do.  We've really had a great week so far. I know it's not a coincidence either - I have many people praying for us and William as he is away telling those in Haiti about the love of Jesus!


Hugging daddy good-bye on Friday!


"Take me with you!"

It helps that the girls and I have stayed pretty busy! Here are some photos of our activities!


picking blueberries



playing with toys

Having fun at our church cook out! Cora was standing in line for the "slip and slide" (more like walk and fall down!)






Sweet Charlotte did so well being up past her bedtime so big sister could have fun!  (Ignore the left over carrots under her nose!!)


Sweet play date with Meredith and Berkley!  Love how the girls are looking at each other, like they are sharing a joke!


Cora picking out a sticker after obeying her sleep rules!



Trying to start crawling!

Yesterday, we even got a surprise card from daddy in the mail!  It brought tears to my eyes to read my man's message to each of us!  We haven't talked since he left, just a text message, so reading his words just reminded me how lucky I am to be his wife and also best friend.








Sweet sisters in matching strawberry shirts! (Thanks Casey Kiker for sending those!)




So we are hanging in there.  The girls are behaving so well and sleeping at night so that is a praise!  It helps that a friend mentioned to us about a vacation Bible school going on this week and I signed Cora up to go! She LOVES it!  Today they learned about "Noah's Ark" complete with a petting zoo.  I was told that Cora said she saw a goat! 

Dance Class

At the beginning of March, Cora started taking ballet lessons! She went on Mondays, for 45 minutes.  Her teacher, Mrs. Allison, is a sweet friend from Community Bible Study.  She studied dance in college and was interested in starting a 2-3 year old class.


On her first day of class.  She was SO excited to put on her outfit - black leotard, pink tights, pink skirt, and slippers. Her class started at 4:15 so as soon as she got up from nap that day, she immediately found her outfit and was starting to get dressed.



Her sweet class.  Can you imagine trying to get all these 2-3 year olds to dance? 


Fast forward to today, her dance recital!!


Stretching, getting ready to dance!





Cora's fan club!  Mema Bell, Charlotte, Aunt Kat Kat and Daddy!

They did a less than 2 minute little dance to "You are my sunshine".  I wasn't sure what Cora would do as when I watched her in class, she just stood there. We practiced a little at home, but she never seemed to excited about it and would only do small parts of the dance.


Look at her go!


This little girl stole the show! 

Cora did a good job!  She danced what she could and spent the rest of the time watching the above little girl run around :)! 



Cora getting her flowers and balloon from daddy.



Oh and a big pink cupcake!!

I love my family....

This is what I love...





Story time before we say good-night...





Sweet sisters in matching shirts....



Silly moments after bath...


Watching Cora with Charlotte...

First Hair Cut

After almost 3 years, we had our first hair cut today!  Cora received the royal treatment as she got her hair trimmed.  I was a little nervous as to how she would react but she did really well.  We talked about it a lot. At one point, I was a little nervous that she might try to cut her own hair. Luckily she did not (at least not yet) and she was excited to go for her hair cut.  She wore one of her fancy dresses for the occasion.  She enjoyed sitting in the chair, holding her little snack, and seeing herself in the mirror.  She was not scared at all when Mrs. Laura started trimming her hair.  After it was all finished, she asked if she could do it again!  Maybe in a few months! 


The "before" shot!





The first cut!  I got a little teary eyed!







Getting a new hair clip from Mrs. Laura!



The "after" shot.  (yeah.. I can't tell a difference either!  But I have the locks in the bag to prove it!)

Disney World!!

I've kind of fallen off the blogging train these past few months. I blame having a baby! I also blame William as he has kept this family busy with different work trips. Near the end of February, he went to Italy for a week to work on a project. As soon as he returned to work, they mentioned sending him to Orlando for a few days for a conference. He already had his mind made up that his family was going with him this time. He just had to talk me into it! So he threw out the idea of taking the girls to Disney World, which I immediately got on board with and starting researching on the Internet about the best way to meet all the Disney princesses!

 Our trip started out so well. The girls travelled great! We made it to Orlando in about 12 hours and we had just gotten off the exit for the hotel when all of a sudden Cora got sick. Like vomit all of herself and her car seat sick. It was horrible. There was nothing we could do until we found the hotel and could get her out and cleaned up so we floored it to the hotel and got checked in and immediately parked, stripped Cora naked and walked her through the parking lot and put her in the bath tub. Thankfully the hotel had an area with washers and dryers, because we spent quite a few quarters getting the car seat and clothes cleaned! I would love to tell you that it was just a one time deal but no. It was a stomach bug. Which I caught right after Cora and then William soon followed about 12 hours later. What a way to start our magical trip! Thankfully it went very fast, and Charlotte was not affected by it. If there was any positive of having a stomach bug, it was that we didn't have much of an appetite and therefore didn't spend a lot of money on food!

Our first taste of Disney was having a character dinner at "The Grand Floridian" resort near Magic Kingdom. We got to eat at "1900 Park Fare" with Prince Charming and Cinderella and the stepmother and sisters. As soon as we walked up to the hotel, the magic started. We had Cora dressed up and all of the hotel employees started saying hello to Cora and calling her "Princess" and "Your majesty". I do not think she knew what to make of it, but she enjoyed it!















































After a good nights rest, we spent the next day at Magic Kingdom.  We had great weather and great crowds of people!  It took us almost 2 hours just to get into the park.  We had to park so far away, we had to take a tram to get to the ticket center.  From there, normally, you would take either the ferry boat or the monorail to Magic Kingdom.  But there were so many people trying to get in, it was swarmed. So they had buses running to the park as well.  We opted for the bus.  Once we went through all of that, we knew we weren't leaving until we were done for the day.  Not the best strategy for little ones but we made it through!

The funniest memory I have from this day is that as soon as we got into the park, it was time for me to feed Charlotte.  So I sit on a bench to nurse Charlotte as William and Cora go explore a little bit.  I feed Charlotte and then I go to burp her and I realized that she has had a very dirty diaper and it has leaked all her pants and then all over my pants.  Of course, I brought extra clothes for her but I was out of luck.  Did you know that baby wipes can pretty much clean up anything?  Thankfully, it didn't look too bad.  We weren't leaving, that was for sure!



















































The next 2 days we spent relaxing around the hotel!  They had a really nice pool area which Cora really enjoyed!  In fact, I really think her two favorite things were riding the "alligator" (elevator) and swimming at the pool.  So I guess we really did not need Disney!

After William finished with his conference, we headed back to Magic Kingdom to spend our last day!  I know.. Didn't we get enough after the first day?  No way!  We had more princesses to meet! 

We started out our day super early as we had a breakfast reservation at "Cinderella's Royal Table", which is at Cinderella's castle.  Since we had a reservation, we were allowed to get into the park before anyone else!  This was a huge bonus as we got to enjoy the park without a million people and we also got a jump start on the ride lines!  We had a great breakfast and a great last day at Disney!
















































Whew!  We survived!  It was work having all that fun with Mickey Mouse and his friends but it was worth it!