January 15, 2010

Well we survived the MARATHON!  Lance and I ran our first half marathon last Sunday in Sugar Land and it went pretty well despite the 20 degree weather!  It was extremely cold, but we have been training since September, so there was not stopping us.  Both of us ran really well, especially for our first.  I finished at about 2 hours and 25 minutes and Lance at about 2 hours and 54 minutes.  Our friend Marisa, who also made our training schedule helped me out tremendously by meeting me at mile 7 and running to the end with me.  She then went back to mile 12 to meet Lance and ran the last mile with him.  I was about to keep a consistent pace throughout the race and only stop for a quick drink every 2-3 miles.  Lance had a little cramping and had to walk a portion toward the end but he ran through it to finish.  We are both happy that it's over and proud of our accomplishment.  We have a few pictures we took after the race and then we will probably buy a few that the photographers snapped while we were running.  Karly stayed warm with Kma, Gpa, and Aunt Kelsee while we were running.  She had a good time playing with Aunt Kelsee and took a really long nap for us Sunday afternoon which we both needed. 

Karly is as busy as ever!  She has so much personality and gets everyones attention everywhere we go (sounds like someone else I know)!  Some words that she has picked up recently are cat, keys which sounds like "geys," "come on," and NO (which she says ALL the time) even if she means yes.  So we are working on saying yes instead of no, but then it becomes a game of back and forth....no, yes, no, yes.  I am hoping with consistency the yes will kick in! 

We've been going back to strollerfit consistently this week too and Karly has enjoyed seeing her friends, although she gets pretty antsy in her stroller after about 45 minutes.  We finished our first semester of Little Gym on Monday and we have signed up Karly for another semester that starts next week and goes to June.  She absolutely loves it and has really caught on recently to all the things we've been working on in class.  She did several forward rolls by herself and did a pullover on the bars with the teacher's help.  She knows when to play with certain things and when it's time to put them away.  If only I could get her to do that at home as well as she does in class! 

Karly is also been an eating machine these days!  She is getting a lot better with her milk and we have discovered that she LOVES strawberry milk.  We are down to about a half and half ratio of drinkable yogurt and milk now.  There aren't many things we give her that she won't eat, so hopefully this continues!  It definitely makes going out to eat easy, especially because Karly loves chicken and french fries which is served almost everywhere!

I am working on a new blog, hopefully I can get it up and going soon and I'll be shutting this one down eventually.  This is going to be a family blog, but of course will be mostly about Karly!  More details to come and I have taken a few pictures here and there that I will post also. 

January 5, 2010

Well we are all back to normal around here.  Lance went back to work yesterday and we went back to our normal schedule.  Monday mornings are Little Gym, which Karly is having so much fun in that we decided to enroll her another semester which will take us up to June and will finish the "birds" class.  Each age group is an animal and her age is 10-19 months.  All the babies are close to the same age in her class so it's really fun b/c they all interact with each other well after being in class together since September.  Today we went back to Stroller Fit which was good for both of us, a good workout for me and Karly to play with her friends.  My current project is getting her into a good Mother's Day Out Program for the school year 2010 which will start in August or September.  It's turning out to be a bigger process than I thought!  We've been on the waiting list at St. John's Lutheran school since I was about 6 months pregnant, but they still can't guarantee me a spot so I might have to transfer my membership to move up on the list.  It's definitely my first choice, but we have two other places are we looking at for back up and they seem to be almost as hard to get into!  There is a program at the methodist church in our neighborhood and we have a slight chance of getting her in there and then there is another methodist church near our old neighborhood that has a good program and we are on the list there as well.  So I should know something in early Feb. hopefully!

Karly seems to be growing and changing a lot these days.  She is on a new schedule during the day with only 1 nap.  It actually works out pretty nicely b/c we typically go to Strollerfit and then I can run a couple errands afterward before we get home for lunch and naptime.  She has been sleeping from 2 1/2 - 3 hours so I can get quite a bit done where before she would take 2 smaller naps and I didn't have as much time.  She wakes up from her nap and usually wants a snack and we go for a walk outside, then I attempt to cook dinner, and daddy usually gets home between 6-7 pm and sometimes we get to all have dinner together.  Daddy takes over after dinner and does bath and playtime before she goes to bed at 8 pm.  Our other big accomplishment is that we are DONE with bottles!!  It was a little bit of a task b/c she really wanted that nightly bottle that we let her have the last couple months even when we took the daytime bottles away.  She is doing fine and is starting to drink more milk for us.  I have become creative in ways to get her to drink milk from the cup.  Our savior has been the drinkable yogurts, she LOVES them!  So she will drink that in the morning and I sneak extra milk in her cup.  She will also drink milk from a straw!  She loves anything with a straw so we bought non-spill cups with a straw and regular plastic ones which is a fun treat to her.  We tried chocolate milk and she actually doesn't really care for it, so we may have a future non-milk drinker on our hands.  For now we do whatever we can to get it down! 

Karly is also saying a lot of new words like "nana"  which is banana and her favorite thing to eat.  She also says "book" and brings the books to us to read to her all the time.  We recently taught her the sign for "dog" another one of her favorite words and she thinks the sign for it is funny.  She also said "bubble" in Little Gym on Monday b/c we have ball and bubble time every class, but I guess it finally connected to say it out loud for her.  She can point to all of her facial body parts by name.  I am trying to work on colors which I think she understands what they mean sometimes, but she doesn't necessarily say them yet. 

We had a fun week off last week with daddy and did some shopping for the new house, projects around the house, lunches out, and took Karly to the zoo.  I will upload the pictures we got from the zoo soon, she had so much fun and I know we will be using our membership more often now that she is getting more out of the zoo trips.  Lance and I are running our first half marathon on Sunday and it's going to be extremely cold but hopefully we will survive!  We've been training since September and I know we are both ready to actually do the race.  More updates coming soon, I hope to get on here more now that things are more normal around here! 

December 27, 2009

Karly's second Christmas was a lot of fun this year!  We had a lot of different family get togethers and Karly had so much fun opening her gifts.  We started on Christmas Eve with church in our neighborhood that we've been trying out.  We took Karly to the kids service although she didn't get much out of it other than singing and watching all the candles being lit at the end.  We may try again next year or even attend one of the later services and take her to the nursery.  After church we headed to my sister, Jenn's house to enjoy her Christmas eve specialty of a yummy southern meal.  We had fried chicken, homemade macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, and collard greens.  Karly LOVED the macaroni and mashed potatoes and even ate about half of a piece of chicken.  She always loves to play with her cousins, especially Janelle, who has formed a special bond with Karly.  Janelle was even sweet enough to save up her own money to buy Karly some Christmas pj's.  We made it home in time to put Karly to bed and finish making some dishes for our Christmas celebration.  We got our Santa gifts ready for Karly, so that she could see them when she woke up.  She of course woke up early (somehow she knew) something was waiting for her.  Santa brought her a climber/slide playhouse that we put in the media room since we don't have media equipment at the moment.  She LOVED it and it's a little big for her now but I know she will use it for many years to come.  Santa also brought Karly a kitchen which is in our new game room and a few other smaller toys.  Lance and I got Karly a dvd player for the tahoe, clothes, and some new movies.  She didn't know what any of it was but enjoyed ripping into the paper.  We had a yummy breakfast before Nonnie, Poppy, and Gigi came over.

Christmas afternoon we celebrated with Lance's family and Karly got a bunch of new fun toys to play with including a rocking horse, picnic table, and barbie car!  Christmas night we invited our families over for drinks, Lance made his famous sparkling mistletoes and lots of yummy food.  It was fun and Karly loved all the attention.  Needless to say she slept really well that night and even slept in a little longer than usual.  I hit the after Christmas specials early on Saturday morning at 7 am.  It was pretty fun because I love to get good deals!  We stayed in our pj's the rest of the weekend and watched all of our new movies including Angels & Demons, The Proposal, and Four Christmas's.  It was a fun weekend with family, but we're really excited to have a quiet week at home since it's been the busiest, most hectic month we've ever had with our move, Christmas parties, and everything else that comes along with Christmas. 

A quick update on Karly....she has 3 new teeth, which explains the terrible week we had before Christmas with her.  She is also talking a lot more and is able to point to her body parts by name.  She has a new sign that means pick me up and the best part is that she made it up!  She seems to be learning new things all the time and it's quite amazing to witness.  My January project is going to be finding her a mother's day out program for next year!  I can't believe she will already be old enough to start, but it will be really good for her to have regular social interaction and for me to get errands and things done around the house!  We have a lot of Christmas pictures and I hope to get them up soon. 

Happy New Year!

December 17, 2009

Wow we've been busy!  We are finally feeling settled in our new house and have been trying to catch up with all the things this time of year brings!  We finally got all the Christmas cards mailed, most of our presents bought and wrapped, and some baking done.  Last week we went to a secret santa party with some of our stroller fit friends.  All the babies traded names and got to buy a gift for another baby.  Of course they had a blast playing together and having yummy snacks.  I have some cute pictures, although it was impossible to get them all together.  We also celebrated Christmas early with my family last weekend.  We had a yummy meal, opened gifts, and went to a concert at my parent's church.  Karly had fun opening gifts and had her share of turkey and sweet potatoes for sure! 

Today we went to Amegy to see some of my old co-workers and Karly had a great time getting so much attention.  Karly is saying more and more words and amazes us with little things she figures out all the time.  This weekend is the start to many Christmas parties and other social events and then Lance will be home with us for about a week and a half.  It will be nice for all those house projects we still have to do!  I will be posting new pictures soon and hopefully updating Karly's site more often.

December 5, 2009

We have so many updates, I'm not sure where to start!  I apologize for not adding any new pictures or updates but it's been a bit crazy to say the least.  We are now officially in our new house.  We absolutely LOVE the house and our new neighbors have been very friendly.  It's been quite a whirlwind week with closings on Monday, moving on Tuesday and Wednesday, and unpacking as quickly as possible.  We were hoping to be completely finished by the weekend, but I'm not sure we'll make that deadline.  We are also dying to get our Christmas stuff up b/c we typically have it all done by Thanksgiving.  We love all the space we have now and the newness of our house has been really fun too.  Karly has adjusted well, loves the stairs, and tries to get into all the things she shouldn't.  We haven't had time to baby proof yet either, so it's been a lot of work following her around everywhere she goes! 

Karly is doing really well.  She loves her "babies" and likes to hold them and push them in their stroller.  She is talking a lot more and saying new words all the time.  She is also really good at her signs and can pretty much tell us what she needs most of the time through signs.  Her favorite one is "more" which she uses a lot when she really just wants something.  It's very cute.  I have taken a handful of pictures here and there which I will be uploading.  We took her to Aggieland for Thanksgiving and she had a lot of fun at the tailgate.  We went to the game and she left early with Nonnie & Gigi.  Despite the loss, it was a great Thanksgiving all around. 

November 14, 2009

Sorry for the lack of posts these days!  We have been extremely busy and I just haven't had time to sit down and write anything.  Our big news is that we sold our house and will be moving to a new house Dec. 1st.  We are SUPER excited about the new house.  We will have a lot more space, plus it's brand new and has everything we were looking for.  So, we have been busy bees packing and getting things finalized for the big move.  It all happened rather quickly, but we can't complain about that! 

I haven't taken many pictures lately, I think after the big birthday I just needed a little break.  I am ready to get my new camera back out, especially since Karly is went from walking to running everywhere in just a few short weeks.  It happened so quickly, it feels like almost overnight!  We took Karly to her 1 year check up last week and she is doing great with everything.  She had to have 5 shots so that was not a fun experience for any of us!  Karly is 75% in weight and 90% for height, we're still not sure where the height comes from but we'll take it! 

Updates will come slower but I will do my best to keep the site updated through this busy time.

November 3, 2009

Karly is now 1 year old!  We had a very busy and exciting weekend with Halloween and birthday fun.  We realized that Halloween might be a little stressful each year with Karly's birthday the day after we worked very hard all day to get things ready for the party that by the time Halloween night came we were completely exhausted!  There is so much to tell with these two big events but I'll do my best to recap...

Karly's 1st Halloween went very well.  We dressed her as a bumblebee and took her out to the party on our street.  Karly was the youngest one, most of the other kids are between 5-12 years old around us.  She got all the attention of course and loved every minute of it.  It was nice that she was walking so well so we didn't have to hold her much.  She danced with the older girls and we got a group shot of all the kids dressed up.  We didn't stay down there too long because we wanted to make sure she got to do a little trick or treating.  We walked down to Auntie Jenn's (my sister) street.  They were also having a street party and she went to a few houses there to get candy.  The most we could get her to say was "bye-bye" but she started to get the hang of it after a few houses.  Then we took her back to our street and went to the neighbors house where we ended up going in and staying awhile.  Karly played with their dogs and went up and down their stairs.  We have great neighbors who are all very friendly and love to watch Karly grow.  We let Karly have a little chocolate and she LOVED it.  We'll be in trouble next year when she knows what she's going around asking for from houses!  After the bumblebee headed to bed we got back to work cooking and baking the last of the food for the party.  Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night, but we were able to get everything ready for the party by early morning!

Sunday was Karly's 1st birthday and party.  She played in the morning while we finished some last minute things and then we headed up to the community center to decorate and get the party ready.  We had help from our families, which was very much appreciated b/c we never could have gotten it all done.  The place looked great with all of our decorations.  We had a pink and brown cupcake theme party.  I made all the cupcakes and the birthday "cake" which was a giant cupcake!  I also got a recipe from a friend for some marshmellow "cupcakes" and I decorated the baskets they went in.  I also make all the cupcake toppers and the cupcake themed favors.  We set up a play room for all of Karly's friends with a tent and tunnel system and slide.  These were our gifts to Karly...along with a bunch of new winter clothes!  The kids had a great time playing together and we had the big open room set up with tables and chairs for everyone to eat and talk.  The highlight was of course letting Karly eat her big cake.  She was a little timid at first but started digging into the icing.  She was covered in chocolate cake and pink icing so we washed her off in the kitchen sink afterward.  She took a long nap after the party while we cleaned up.  When she woke up we let her open her presents and she got a lot of great toys and gifts!  She has had a great time playing with everything. 

I am writing this from San Antonio, so I apologize for the delay in getting this post up.  I have a ton of pictures to post and hope to get them up very soon! 

October 25, 2009

Karly is WALKING!  She took her first series of steps last Wednesday and is now walking all over the place!  She has also mastered the sign for "more" and signs it a lot while eating requesting more of something.  We're really excited about her birthday weekend coming up and will be very busy getting things ready this week.  I have lots of odds and ends to finish up! 

October 21, 2009

We took Karly out to a pumpkin patch near our home last week and a friend of ours took pictures of all of us (mostly Karly of course).  If you would like to view them, click on the link below and enter in the following.

Karly is starting to take more steps but still afraid to walk on her own.  We have gotten her to take several steps at a time and encouraging her much more than we did in the past.  It could be any day now!  Karly had fun with Kma & Gpa last weekend while we attended a wedding downtown.  She is going back to Sugar Land on Saturday while we go to another wedding!  It's definitely wedding season around here   My birthday is also this weekend and Lance gave me an early birthday gift on Monday.  He bought me the camera I've been wanting for awhile so I can get all those great shots of Karly!  I took her to the park yesterday to try it for the first time and it was difficult trying to keep her out of the dirt and take pictures but we had fun.  The camera takes great pictures and I am really excited to learn more about using it.  The ones I took were just with a basic lens and using auto!  Enjoy all the new pictures and stay tuned for birthday excitement!!

We took Karly to her first wedding this past weekend.  I was a little nervous about how long she would last but she did amazing and we stayed almost until the end!  Karly had a blast getting so much attention from everyone, eating mexican food, and dancing with us.  She's been quite a trooper for us lately because we've had her out and about a lot.  We have decided to put our house on the market to see if we get any bites on it and if we do then we'll be moving to a larger house in our area.  What sounded like a simple task is definitely not!  We had to get our house "ready" to sell which meant moving furniture around and making it look perfect daily.  Not only that but we've been looking at other houses in a lot of our spare time, so that has meant a lot of carseat time for Karly.  We are hopeful that it will workout in our favor, but if not then we're OK with staying in our house a little longer too. 

Karly has also been taking 1-2 steps at a time and clearly could walk if she wanted to, but doesn't have the confidence to do it yet.  She's been in this stage for awhile and I thought she would be walking by now, but we're not trying to push her either.  She'll do it when she's ready!  Daddy was able to take a long weekend with us with the bank holiday on Monday, so we took Karly to Little Gym together.  Lance took some pictures of us in class and I also have some pictures from Karie & Peter's wedding to post.  We got some of her fall clothes out as the weather changed, so I snapped some of her in her new jeans.  Stay tuned for updates!

October 7, 2009

Well we've had a really busy couple of days around here!  We were scheduled to do Karly's 1 year pictures on Monday morning.  I know it's a few weeks early, but we are going to use some for her invitations and to have at the party.  Monday didn't turn out so well because Karly woke up at 6 am and did not want to go back to sleep, so by the time we were at the photographer at 9 am she was exhausted!  She actually cooperated for us for about 30 minutes and we got a few shots, but we had planned to have a longer session with 2 outfits and then letting her eat her birthday cupcakes.  It was obvious that wasn't going to happen Monday, so our photographer let us come back on Tuesday morning to do a few extra shots and then let her have the cupcakes.  It was so much fun to watch her "dig in" and basically go crazy with icing and cake.  She was absolutely adorable and you'll be able to see it in the pictures.  After the excitement of the pictures we headed to Rockdale for a quick day trip to attend a funeral of a friend of Lance's that was killed in a car accident over the weekend.  It was a really long day for all of us and I think Karly had a bit too much sugar for her to be able to sleep.

We're really excited about her big birthday coming up and of course her first official Halloween!  I haven't decided what she's going to be, I have a couple costumes I borrowed from a friend and we're going to see how the weather is also. 

The pictures should be online soon and I promise to post the link.  These are the best yet!  I am so excited how they turned out (especially given her mood).  I forgot to mention she hates being still OR having ANYTHING on her head (bow, hat etc).  It took quite a teamwork effort from Lance, myself, and Teri (the photographer) to even get the shots we have with her hat or bow on.  I have a few pictures myself to post which include my cupcakes I made for her birthday shots and her new collage hanging in her room that Teri made.  It is the cutest thing I've ever seen and just adds the finishing touch to her room!  Stay tuned for pics..

October 3, 2009

Karly is 11 months old now!  We are on the countdown to her big birthday celebration.  She is walking, but still doesn't have the confidence to let go.  She really can do it, so at this point it's making up her mind that she can.  I keep thinking any day now, but I've thought that for awhile so who knows!  I can't remember if I've mentioned Karly's latest eating habits or not, but she is definitely over baby food and pretty much anything we would feed her.  She wants to feed herself only and her favorite things to eat right now are fruit (mostly strawberries, bananas, and grapes), green beans, and graham crackers!  These are in her diet almost daily, among other things but it's actually made life a lot easier b/c we can feed her either what we eat or a kids meal when we are out.  The days of taking jars and spoons are over!  Karly is also doing much better with her sippy cups and seems to like juice a little more than she used to.  I've also introduced regular milk and I found that she will drink it as long as it's not cold!  I guess she is so used to having her formula room temp that she prefers her milk that way too.  I couldn't figure out why the first couple of times I gave it to her that she refused to drink it and then I warmed it slightly and bingo, she drank it all!  So we're one step closer to no more formula, now we just have to start weening the bottles!

We had a quieter week than they've been lately which was nice for all of us.  This weekend has been low key too and we were able to do some big cleaning out of our closet and Karly's.  We're going to tackle some of the other rooms next, so soon the house will be much more organized.  I snapped a few pictures of her playing with a box of her birthday party items that came in and also playing outside on her new slide!  She was in her jammies, but we let her go down a few times and she loved it.  Then today we took Karly to one of her friends birthday parties and got some pictures of her playing in the ball pit.  She had a blast! 

We are taking Karly's 1 year pictures on Monday which is about a month early, but we are going to be using them for her invitations.  I'll post a link when they are ready to view!

September 28, 2009

Karly went to her very first Aggie game this weekend!  She had so much fun and was absolutely adorable in her Aggie dress and shoes!  The entire section around us was interested in her and thought she was precious.  We let her walk into the stadium and then once we actually got to our seats her eyes lit up and she immediately smiled and started clapping.  She loved the loud crowd, clapping, and of course sawing Varsity's horns off.  She did really well especially since she was tired when we got there!  We wanted to make it through the band playing, which she loved and we even stayed about halfway through the third quarter.  She fell asleep as soon as she got into her carseat and slept the whole way home.  It was so much fun, but we were all exhausted and slept in the next day! 

Karly is still not walking on her own, although she can do it but just can't let go yet.  She's enjoying Little Gym and loves to crawl all over the place there.  Today we did backward rolls on the mat and also walked backwards on the balance beam. 

We got some great pictures from the Aggie game this weekend and I can't wait to scrapbook those! 

September 23, 2009

Lately the days just seem to fly by!  We had a fun weekend with friends.  Friday night we had a couple over that lives near us for some homemade pizza and wine!  I have finally figured out how to make my own whole wheat pizza dough, so we will now be enjoying a lot more pizza at home!  Saturday we took Karly to Sugar Land, while we headed to the Aggie game and tailgate.  It was fun, but long day!  I am so glad we arranged for Karly to stay overnight with Kma, Gpa, and Aunt Kelsee because we were exhausted Saturday night when we finally made it home.  The aggies pulled off a win and it was fun to go back and visit Aggieland for the day.  Karly had a good time at her grandparents house and slept all the way home back to Cypress.

Karly is getting in her 8th tooth right now, which explains some of her recent fussiness!  She's been chewing even more than normal on her toys or anything she can find for that matter.  We're still close to walking but not quite there.  She is so fast at crawling that she seems to prefer to get around the house that way.  We're going to see Lukas today, but he will be leaving soon to go back to California.  It looks like Karly will have to find a new boyfriend!   We're all sad that they are leaving, but hoping we may get to visit them in Lake Tahoe...one of my favorite places to ski! 

New pictures coming soon!! 

September 17, 2009

Karly's cold has passed and we've been busy bees this week!  Karly was a trooper and came to Walmart with me for a long trip.  I don't like to go there, so when we do go it's a big trip and takes me awhile to get everything we need.  So her treat was some McDonalds french fries while we shopped.  It was really cute to see her attack the fries and I got a few pictures along the way.  We also had our normal activities like Little Gym, Strollerfit, and I managed to get almost all of August scrapbooked during naptimes.  Today we went to a tots and tunes class at Second Baptist and Karly liked all the music and singing.  She was a little more interested in crawling all over the place, but she had a good time and met some new friends.  Then we went over to Meganne's for a girls playdate.  They had a great time, although without a morning nap Karly had enough by 2 pm.  I got some cute pictures from the playdate today I'll post.

I am also super excited about the package I got today because it has Karly's first birthday outfit and some of her party decorations in it!!  It turned out soooo cute and I can't wait to get her pictures made in a couple weeks.  I hope that she doesn't mess with the tutu too much.  In case you are wondering why you haven't seen any bows on Karly lately....well she's decided she does not like them!  She rips them out the second I put one in and can't stand the headbands either.  I can't even get a picture anymore!  I am praying that she will wear her special birthday bow for at least a picture or two, we'll see! 

September 14, 2009

I can't believe another week has already passed!  I don't have many new pictures to post.  I guess it's been pretty quiet and also Karly has been a little under the weather.  There was a cold going around Stroller Fit last week and I thought we managed to get around it but then Karly started with a runny nose this weekend and unfortunately has a terrible diaper rash now too.  She seems to be feeling better today, but we're still dealing with the rash.  So we didn't do a whole lot this weekend with her not feeling great.  I have been hard at work on my scrapbook because my goal is to finish by her 1st birthday!  I went to a scrapbook night on Friday and Lance played mr. mom by taking Karly out to dinner with a couple friends.  Everyone got a kick out of "3 Men and a Baby" at the restaurant! 

Karly made a trip last week to Lance's office and had a blast.  Lance and I had a meeting with an investment rep, so she got to explore in the bank lobby with Lance's assistant, JoAnn.  She had such a good time and even played after the meeting while daddy finished a couple things up.  Then we treated ourselves to a fish taco at Berryhill, which is one of our favorite places. 

I am busy at home with some house projects, planning Karly's party, and finishing up the scrapbook.  We're also into our running schedule now as we're both training to run our first half marathon in January!  Stay tuned for more updates and pictures..

September 8, 2009

Lots of updates and pictures!  I wanted to put a post before I left for Vegas but didn't get a chance.  I had a quick 48 hour trip with some girls to celebrate Karie's last days as a single lady!  It was a lot of fun, but I missed Karly & Lance a lot.  Karly started waving recently and has quickly mastered it to real bye-bye times.  She even said bye, although I missed that over the weekend.  Karly is also really close to walking, she can actually do it but just doesn't quite have the confidence.  It could be a matter of days or another month, we'll just have to see. 

We had a really fun week last week....one day was one of Karly's friends birthdays (Lukas), also known as her main squeeze   We spent the day at the Children's Museum and then took the babies to Chuy's for some mexican food and cupcakes.  Karly LOVED the museum and completely wore herself out.  She slept almost 3 hours when we got home!  Then later that night we met Kma, Gpa, and Aunt Kelsee for some dinner at Lopez.  Needless to say Karly got her mexican fill in that day.  She's started to eat about half to three quarters of a kids meal, although half of it ends up in her chair or on the floor.  We also spent an entire day last week at Lukas's house.  I was helping Lukas's mom out with some things and volunteered to watch the babies for her.  They had a blast and I got the cutest picture of Karly playing with his hair.  She loves to play with other babies and had a ton of fun because all the toys there were "new" to her.  Friday afternoon Karly & Lance headed to Rockdale where she went to her first Rockdale football game and then Saturday went to her first Aggie tailgate!  She had a pretty exciting weekend.  Monday when I got home, she was so happy to see me.  Then after I was home, she would not leave my side...it was really cute. 

We're back in our routine today and went to Little Gym this morning.  We just recently signed up for the fall session and Karly loves it.  For those that don't know what Little Gym is, it's like gymnastics for babies.  They have activities that they do every week and then they also introduce new things, as well as free play where they can go anywhere in the gym they want.  Of course Karly loves that because she is such a monkey crawling over and under things.  It's perfect for her and gets a bunch of energy out too.  I have pictures from last week and the weekend to post, so check them out!!

August 30, 2009

We're all back to our routines again after vacation.  Since we've been back Karly has gone to 2 birthday parties (Sam & Chase).  Both boys are strollerfit friends and we've also gotten back to strollerfit this week.  Karly started waving this week and now does it all the time!  She loves her new found skill and adds it in frequently with her hand/mouth noises and clapping.  Karly is also getting better with walking while holding onto us or by holding onto something else.  She just needs to build her confidence and figure out that she can do it on her own.  We're just a couple days away from 10 months too!

Karly is also starting to say good-bye to baby food and eating more and more table food.  Tonight we ordered her a kids meal, we usually just feed her from our plates but it was kids eat free night.  She ate almost the entire meal of corndogs and applesauce!  I couldn't believe it, but it made me realize that more and more kids meals are in our future!  She's also been eating a lot more table food at home.  I usually feed her some of what I've made for us to get her used to our diet.  She seems to love pasta and rice, so I usually give her that with a meat and vegetable.  I am also having to sweep the floor under her highchair twice a day because she makes such a huge mess! 

I have several pictures from both birthday parties, plus some in the shopping cart at Heb (I never remember to take the camera there), and playing around at home. 

August 22, 2009

We are home and trying to get back to regular schedules.  Karly seems pretty happy to be back at home with her toys, space, and of course in her bed!  We all had a blast on our various trips.  Lance and I absolutely fell in LOVE with Grand Cayman.  It was gorgeous, relaxing, and a perfect trip.  We think we might go back next year and take Karly with us!  There were a bunch of other babies and kids there and now we at least know a little bit about the island.  We had a lot of great beach time with some amazing snorkeling and Lance's favorite activity was swimming with the stingrays.  I wasn't quite as fond of it, but was proud of myself for getting in the water and not only letting them touch me, but even kissing one for a picture!  The Parkers had a great time as well and none of us wanted to leave.....except that I was dying to see Karly!  We got in from the airport and drove straight to get her, even though it was pretty late.  She was confused at first and then when she figured out what was happening she did not want to leave my arms.  We spent most of Tuesday hugging and snuggling with her in between our laundry, unpacking, and repacking.  It was quite a task to get us all ready to go on another trip in less than 24 hours.  We headed out for San Antonio early Wednesday morning.  Karly did really well in the car and took a few naps on the way.  She was very happy to get to the resort where we went straight to the pool and lazy river area.  We loved the pool area at the Hyatt Hill Country and took advantage of it every day we were there.  Karly was a big hit in her baby tube floating in the river, everyone thought she was so cute just floating along with us.  We all had a great time at the pool every day and enjoyed some great mexican food both nights.  Karly had her first trip to the riverwalk and Casa Rio.  It was pretty hot, but she was a trooper and ended up falling asleep in the stroller while we walked outside.  We ended our trip with a quick visit to Kerrville to see Nana & Jim.  Karly had fun playing with Nana and refused to take a nap while we were there.  It was actually a blessing in disguise because she slept almost the entire 4 1/2 hour drive Friday night!  We had a good time on the way home listening to music and talking while Karly slept only waking for a quick diaper change and bottle.  We have quite a few pictures from Cayman and SA and will post some from each trip. 

August 12, 2009

I posted a few pictures last night of our little "monkey."  This has become her new nickname because she is so funny how she gets everywhere and into everything.  She also likes the monkey dance that we sing in storytime and of course the monkeys were her favorite animal at the zoo!  This will be my last post for awhile because we will be spending the next 10 days on vacation!!  We are really excited and looking forward to the break.  The first part of our trip will be in Grand Cayman, while Karly goes to stay with Nonnie & Poppy.  We are meeting another couple down there too, so it will be our adult trip.  Then when we get back we are taking Karly to San Antonio for a few days and staying at the Hyatt Hill Country.  I'm super excited to take Karly on her first vacation and I've heard great things about the resort.  We plan to spend a lot of time at the resort and take advantage of the great pool and lazy river they have!  We'll have pictures to post when we get back and updates to share on the trips. 

August 8, 2009

This was a week of first for Karly as she went to her first Astros baseball game and her first trip to the zoo!  She had so much fun at the Astros game and looked so cute in her pink Astros outfit.  She did pretty well considering it was during her normal naptime!  She loved the loud crowd and of course clapped along with everyone.  She had so much fun that she completely passed out on Lance's lap about the 7th inning, but continued to sleep through all the noise.  We took some pictures of her having fun at the game that I'll be posting.

Today Karly went on her first trip to the zoo and had a great time even though it was SO HOT!  We started off there for Larkin's 2nd birthday and then stayed to see some of the animals.  I think Karly's favorite part was riding the carousel!  She absolutely loved getting all the attention as she went around and around.  We got a few pictures at the zoo, but it was really hard to get her attention with so much to look at! 

August 4, 2009

We had an eventful day with Karly's 9 month doctor's appointment and 9 month pictures this morning!  She had a little bit of a rough time at the pictures because she wanted to play with toys and move around, not sit still.  She also will not keep a boy or headband or anything in her hair, she immediately pulls it out so most of the pictures will be bowless this time.  We kept it pretty simple and did 3 outfits with a couple different props.  We get to view them in the morning, so hopefully we got some good ones!  I'll post the link as soon as they are online. 

Karly also had her 9 month check up and she is doing great!  She is well ahead both physically and with her motor development etc.  She is growing really well too and is in the 75% for both height and weight.  Her weight was actually a little below 75%, so he thinks next time she may drop down in weight and stay up in height.  The main thing we have to work on is the sippy cup and the transition she will have at 12 months from formula to milk and bottle to cup.  It was also a great visit because we didn't have to do any shots.  I think the 12 month visit will be pretty rough for her, so they told Lance not to be late to that one! 

August 3, 2009

Wow we've been BUSY!  Karly is now officially 9 months old!  She has her 9 month pictures and check up with Dr. Knapick tomorrow.  It will definitely be a busy day for her.  We were in Rockdale this weekend for Lance's 10 year class reunion.  It was a lot of work b/c Lance was class president and was in charge of organizing and putting everything together.  It was full day for all of us on Saturday with that, but it turned out really well.  They had a great attendence with about half of the class there.  Everyone had a good time and Karly even got to come for a bit and meet some of Lance's old classmates. 

We have been on the go and it won't stop because this month is probably our busiest yet!  We have our big trip to Grand Cayman coming up next week and Karly will be visiting her Nonnie & Poppy while we are gone.  Then as soon as we get back we are heading to the Hyatt Hill Country to take Karly on her first "vacation."  We decided to keep it low key with her since she is only 9 months old and won't remember any of it.  We are hoping to take her on a bigger trip next year with us when she is a little older to enjoy more of it. 

Karly is growing and changing so much!  She has thinned out a lot and her only chubby part left is in her thighs.  She is getting really good at standing and just wants to be on the move constantly.  She's figured out how to open all the cabinets in the kitchen so we have locks on all of them except the tuperware cabinet which she discovered last week and pulled everything out of it.  I took a few pictures of that that I will post.  I don't have a lot of new pictures because we were so busy with the reunion this weekend we didn't get many of her.  As soon as we get her 9 month pictures picked out and posted to the photographer's website I will put up the link.  Karly also seems to be talking more than ever.  She has almost a whisper talk that I think she does when she is trying to talk to herself, it's really cute.  She also says ma-ma and da-da all the time.  I think she even knows who she is talking about now.  The other words are hard to make out, but today I said night-night and it sounded like she tried to repeat it back to me. 

I will post another update after pictures and doctor's appt this week and try to snap some new 9 month photos of my own!

July 28, 2009

We had a great, short trip to the big D this Sunday and Monday.  Karly did AWESOME!  We are so glad she did so well away from home overnight because we are taking our first family trip in a couple weeks to San Antonio.  It was Karly's first time in a hotel and we took our pack n play with us.  She was exhausted from all the activities that day and she did stay up a little later than usual but still got her 11 hours in and did not wake up once!  She had fun playing in a different space and getting all kinds of attention.  The other thing I was worried about was the car ride, but she did great in the car especially on the way to Dallas.  We left at 8 am Sunday morning and she slept about half of the way which I was surprised about.  Coming back I think she was just ready to be out of the seat, but she slept the first part of the trip.  Overall she did really well and we all had a good time.

We got to stop and see the Hiller bunch (LeAnn & Scott have baby Emily who is only 3 weeks older than Karly!).  Stacy (Scott's sister) and her husband Chris also came over to visit.  It was good to catch up with everyone and see the girls play together.  Karly had a blast playing with all of Emily's toys.  The girls also enjoyed lunch together and love the same "snacks."  They both love the gerber cheetos, pinwheels, and yogurt melts.  After we checked into our hotel, we met up with Aunt Donna, "Snookie" and Cousin Erin, "Honey" and had dinner.  It also happened to be Aunt Donna's bday so we celebrated with her.  Karly LOVES mexican food so she had fun trying all kinds of things.  She even had her first sip of diet coke, although I don't think she really got any out of the straw.  It was funny to watch her face.  She has a love of cheese, like her mommy and loves to eat queso and cheese enchiladas!  On Monday we went with daddy to look at his site, the weather was not so great but he got done what he needed to and we headed back.  Of course we had to stop in West on the way home to have a kolache and Karly had her first taste of kolache too! 

I will be posting the pictures today from our trip and Karly's first overnight stay in a hotel.

July 25, 2009

We had a fun and busy week with a lot of our normal activities.  We went to stroller fit 3 days which was great for mommy because I needed the workouts desperately.  We also went to storytime at Barnes & Noble, ran our usual errands, and went on a lunch and shopping trip with Aunt Jenn.  I've been working on my scrapbooks a lot in my spare time and even went to a scrapbooking event Friday night which was a lot of fun.  I am up to May in Karly's album now and have gone back to my travel book and currently working on our trips from 2005! 

Kma, Gpa, and Kelsee all came over Saturday for dinner and played with Karly.  Then tonight we are packing up for a quick trip to Dallas tomorrow.  Daddy has to go do some work so we are tagging along for fun.  Karly will get to meet Emily, another baby who is just a couple weeks older than Karly so I think that will be fun for her.  August is going to be quite a busy month for us, but we're excited about our trips and other activities we have planned. 

I snapped a few pictures this week of Karly playing and holding her bottle which she's gotten much better at lately although she still prefers us to hold it so she can rub her hair.  She LOVES playing with her hair or anyone else's for that matter.  It's hilarious and apparently Lance did the exact same thing as a baby.  She has such a fun personality and just goes and goes until she can't go anymore.  Check out the pics and I will be posting a few more after our Dallas trip!