More

Instead of 'Wordless Wednesday' today, I thought I'd do a 'Video Wednesday.' Yes, I know it doesn't have that cute little alliteration thing, but whatever. It's my blog, ha! :-) Actually, I just couldn't get the video to load last night so here we are tonight. So here's the background on the video. When Sara Kate first started eating solids, we had this grand plan of teaching her sign language. Well, she's what you would call a DEMANDING child at the dinner table (or any time there is food around) and she never really caught onto us trying to teach her to sign 'more' when she wanted another bite. She would just fuss and yell and was well, demanding. And very impatient. We've continued off and on to try to teach her 'more,' but all of a sudden on Sunday she just got it!!! It happened when she and Poppa were sharing a donut at church Sunday morning. And she's been doing it ever since! She doesn't do it exactly the correct way, but she's 1 and we know what she means and she knows what she means. And come to find out, they work on sign language in her class at school (for words like more, please, thank you...basic stuff like that). Needless to say, we are so proud of her and she seems proud of herself too when she signs 'more' and gets another bite. The video is 2 minutes long, but stick with it until the end. She gets silly. :-) Oh, and she's eating spaghetti, her FAVORITE!!!

Happy Birthday Jason!

Today we traveled to Berryville to celebrate our brother-in-law, Jason's, 30th birthday!!

Jenny planned a lovely party with all of our family there, as well as all of Jason's family. Here's his other niece, Tinley. She and the giant man baby (also known as Hayden) are a week apart and there is a HUGE difference in size!! She has some serious hair, too!

Speaking of the giant man baby, here he is in his party best, that is until he spit up all over himself and had to get into some new party clothes. :-)
Sara Kate was super excited to go hang out with her cousins and aunt and uncle today. She took a little 30 minute power nap in the car so she was raring and ready to go when we got there!
We ate some wonderful hamburgers prepared by Chris' dad and the birthday boy. Yes, he had to cook his own birthday lunch but he's a good griller. Sara Kate didn't want anything to do with a hamburger or a hot dog (even though she ate a hot dog for lunch at school last week...weird kid) so she ate fruit from a fruit salad I made (but only the banana's, strawberries, and blueberries) and goldfish crackers. Lovely. After lunch and some play time, where Sara Kate and Hannah were like 2 little monkeys jumping on the bed...
It was CAKE TIME!!! How cute is the cake that Jenny had made? Jason is a big baseball fan so it was perfect.
Hannah sat at the table and ate her cake and ice cream...
While Sara Kate went and pawned cake and ice cream off everyone. Seriously. First she got a bite from Poppa, then went to her mama, then her Meme, and finally her daddy. That girl knows how to work the crowd!!
After a little more play time, where the girls played iPad with Meme...
And chased each other around because they were on a sugar high (it was hilarious...they were having the best time!!), we had to head home so Chris could get back for something he had planned tonight. Sara Kate and I have had a good evening together. She has been in such a good mood all day today and has just been so funny. I wish I could have had a video camera rolling all day. We went on a walk this evening, and followed that up with bath time and bed time for her.
Time for me to hit the sack, too. Hope everyone had a good Saturday, and Jason, we hope you had a great birthday!!

Wordless Wednesday

Rough Day

Today was a rough day, not for us but for some members of our family. In the same day, my sister-in-law lost her grandmother and my mom lost her cat. Yes, I know that grandmothers and cats are in different realms of 'family,' but those of us who are animal lovers know the meaning of a pet being a member of the family. We all love our grandmothers (and grandfathers and parents, of course), but we love our pets, too. This little girl and her parents send their love and their prayers. Love you guys.

"No eye has seen no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."
-1 Corinthians 2:9b

Cousin Fun

Yesterday was the anniversary of my dear sister in law Jenny and her hubby, Jason (Happy 5th, ya'll!). They came to town to go to dinner so Meme and Poppa had the joy of taking care of all 3 of their grandchildren for a while. I had a hair cut appointment after work and Chris had to be at the high school late so Meme picked up Sara Kate after school and kept her until we got over there for dinner. I picked up pizza on the way to their house and we had a fun time just hanging out. I just have to say that we have the absolute cutest niece and nephew!

Speaking of the nephew, Hayden is a giant man baby. Seriously. Jenny and Sharon weighed Hayden and then Sara Kate to compare. Hayden, who is almost 5 months old, weighed in at 17 pounds!! Sara Kate, at 16 months, weighed in around 23 pounds. I think she's going through a growth spurt lately...she seems to be eating and wanting snacks very often and she just seems a little heavier to me. Anyway, they are a year apart in age and 5 pounds apart in weight. Wow! We didn't get a picture of Hannah and Sara Kate together, but Sara Kate looked a little taller to me last night when she was standing next to Hannah. I'll be anxious to see her stats at her 18 month appointment in a couple months. We ate dinner and Hannah and Sara Kate were waving at each other across the table. So cute. I asked Hannah who her best friend was and she said Sara Kate. Once again, so cute!! I just love that Sara Kate has cousins that live nearby, that they are relatively close in age, and that she will just be around regularly. I didn't have that when I was a kid so I hope that she and Hannah are always 'best friends' and that the girls don't give that poor little boy too much grief...ha! She did get a little jealous of Meme holding Hayden, but once Meme held them both all was right with the world. After dinner and more play time, Hannah insisted it was bath time. She LOVES to take a bath at Meme's house with Sara Kate. Even Hayden got into the bath time fun with the girls.
We didn't have any jammies for Sara Kate so she wore a white t-shirt of Meme's. Hannah then decided she didn't want to wear her jammies and wanted a t-shirt of Meme's too. So she got a pink one. She then said that she was the pink princess and Sara Kate was the white princess. I wish we had a picture of the girls in their 'princess t-shirts' because it was just too cute, but Chris had already put is camera in the car. We stayed a played a while longer and then headed home. Sara Kate was exhausted and fell right asleep!! I'd say she had a fun night!

Today we've done a whole of nothing! We've played blocks, read books, played ball, and played outside.
Sara Kate looks like such a big girl to me in this picture!Check out these cool clouds that I took a picture of when we were outside earlier. So pretty! I thought maybe some storms would roll in since they seem to be in counties all around us. So far, just a few rumbles of thunder. Come on rain!
Sunday will bring church, grocery shopping, laundry, and just trying to get ready for a new week. But I'm going to have a little fun and go to the movies with a few girlfriends to see 'The Help.' We tried to go this afternoon but they were sold out!! Boo! But since we're going tomorrow my friend Brandy gets to go too. Yay! Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

Sara Kate really notices her shadow for the first time (she was waving at herself)...well, it's ALMOST Wordless Wednesday... :-)

Fun with Food!

In the middle of the summer, I decided to make soup for dinner tonight. Why would I do that, you may be thinking. Well, Chris had a late school meeting today and has another on Thursday and I have a church meeting Thursday night. We needed something quick and easy that wouldn't allow much prep since Sara Kate would be running around and smacking her lips wanting whatever I would be cooking, and I thought the crock pot would be perfect. Except that when we were at the store Sunday I couldn't remember any crock pot recipes except for vegetable beef stew. So vegetable beef stew in the middle of the hottest summer on record it was! Plus I thought SURELY Sara Kate would like it...she likes green beans, corn, beef, and potatoes. I had a little dish for her in the freezer cooling off so I gave her a Cheeto to pacify her but then she wanted what was on our plates. So I got her dish out and what do ya know, she was NOT having it. 6:30 pm after only an hour nap during the day equals one cranky child (this was one of those times where the smallest thing made her so upset)!!!!! Chris' mom was eating with us and had a great idea...just put it on her tray, mix it with bread (which she loves), and let her go to town. So that's what we did. Was it extremely messy? Absolutely! But did she eat it? Yep!! Thankfully we have dogs to help clean up her messes! :-)

In other Sara Kate news from today, I had to show off these adorable art projects that were in her take home stack at school when I picked her up this afternoon. It's some things they've been working on over the last 2 weeks. Our fridge is going to be covered. How does a parent decide what to keep and what to throw away?!? :-)
Hope everyone is having a good week!

Friends at the Park

Last night we had dinner with Chris' parents at Red Lobster (funny story there...Sara Kate didn't want to eat the chicken strips I got her, she wanted to eat her mommy's crab linguini alfredo!!), and on the way home we decided to stop at a local park and let Sara Kate play. She had a GREAT time, and we pretty much just let her go where ever she wanted to go...from parking lot, over a bridge, through a field, to the play ground, through a field, over a bridge, and back to the car. What was her favorite thing about last night? Well, she made some new friends.
It's obvious that Sara Kate just loves dogs. She thought it was her job to go to every doggy that came near us while we were at the park. Don't worry, I didn't let her get to every dog, and I was very cautious with her around these particular dogs. Fortunately, these 2 dogs and their owners were very sweet and let her love on them. She made a few human friends as well.
She just babbled to the little boy who was walking this sweet dog.
And she just followed this little girl around. She was very sweet to Sara Kate.
Besides making friends, she climbed the slide (of course)...
She went down the slide (a couple times all by her self)...check out her hair post-slide, haha...
She was serious...
And she was silly...
And she played on the bridge and looked like such a big girl.
Overall, we had a great and fun night with our favorite little girl!