Now that Sophie has passed the 6 month mark you can really tell a difference in her. She is babbling all the time, and not quietly. Sometimes we think she's crying and we'll go check on her and she's practically yelling at whatever toy she's trying to chew on at the moment. I had to help out in the nursery at church yesterday and ended up in her room, which I thought was funny. I was kind of curious to see how she did when left with others, so I didn't mind. She sat in her teacher's lap playing with her necklace before getting down on the floor. We thought she was going to be the only baby and then a little boy showed up. She got really excited and starting flapping her arms and scrunching her face making her sniffing noise. We set him down on the floor and she immediately started to go for him. Then a little while later another baby came and she got even more excited and started flapping and sniffing again. It was really cute. She's definitely going to be our social child. She could have cared less if I was there, but I didn't mind. I find comfort in knowing my child isn't screaming their head off when we leave them. (That's what Christopher was for. But yesterday he was dragging me into church b/c he couldn't wait to go, success!!)

Now, when we are at home she does not like to be put down on the floor, she wants to be up where everyone else is. (I think she gets bored with me b/c she's much happier when we leave the house to go somewhere.) Which is kind of a problem since she won't sit still and you aren't supposed to put babies on tables or counters. So, instead she is carried around most of the day on my hip. It only took 2 weeks for me to realize that was probably why my hips were hurting so bad at night and keeping me from sleeping. The last time they did that was when I was about 4 months pregnant and I know I'm not pregnant so that wasn't the answer. So I guess carrying over 20 pounds on your hip for several hours a day is a problem. Needless to say I can't wait for her to start crawling, which is another thing that she is trying to figure out right now. She spins around on her belly like a top and somehow gets to places without crawling so I'm sure that it's just a matter of time. This weekend she would briefly push herself up onto her toes and hands or try to pull her chubby little knees under her. I think it's just around the corner, let's hope!

She has been teething for a while, but they are finally starting to appear. A few days ago I felt the first tooth and when I checked today I saw the second one starting to peek out as well. Yeah!!!!! Maybe they will break through in the next few days and we'll finally start sleeping through the night again. Between my hips aching so much and getting up every 2-3 hours to put a pacifier back in her mouth, which she usually doesn't even care about, I wake up a little tired every morning. Nothing a nice cold Coke can't fix though. But surprisingly I'm really not that tired during the day. I think it's b/c the kids play together so well and she is changing all the time, life it pretty fun right now!

Yesterday was a good day. The kids and I haven't seen my friend Kara in a while because she started a new job from home. We decided that we were going to kidnap her and go to lunch because she's been working so hard and needed a fun little break. She lives near Destin so we picked her up and went to Destin Commons to grab lunch at Panera and let Christopher run around in the play area. The weather couldn't have been more perfect! It started to rain when we left her house, but knowing how it tends to rain off and on at the beach we didn't let it stop us. It cooled everything off and stayed overcast the whole time, sprinkling every now and then. When we got back in the van to leave I looked at the temp and it was an amazing 76 degrees outside!!!! The kids didn't nap very long, but we had fun. Since I never take photos of the kids I thought that I would make an effort to, so here are photos from the last two days. There isn't much to say about what happened and I didn't feel like carrying the camera with me to lunch, so I just thought I'd talk about it and show the rest. Enjoy!


Sophie is learning to hold her own bottle. Sometimes we have to prop it up to help her out.

I bought a curtain rod and Christopher grabbed the insert and started using it as a track for his cars. Pretty smart, huh?

The kids making each other laugh at lunch. This is one of their favorite times together.

Sophie always wants what Christopher is having.

She settles for chewing on the table. Gotta get those teeth in somehow!

My attempt at getting a shot of the two kids together. Sophie didn't care much, but Christopher gets into it.



Sophie chewing on her bib and thumb. When she gets really happy she wrinkles her nose and starts sniffing really hard. It's really funny to watch!

The kids at bath time. Doesn't Christopher look evil? He wasn't, he was just trying to rinse everyone off. It just looks like he's about to hurt her.

Now he loves to rinse his own hair, which is great. I don't have to!

Sophie sits up without any assistance now. But we still use backup just in case sometimes.

Just siting around in the morning watching Go, Diego, Go!

Brandon had to work nights for two weeks and I knew there was no way I could keep the kids quiet or be gone long enough every day for him to sleep during the day so we loaded up the van and headed to my parents' house for a week. Christopher was so excited about going on a trip that as soon as Brandon walked through the door Tuesday morning he ran up to him shouting, "Grammie's house!!!!!!" in the little man voice me uses when he's very excited about something. He basically ran past Brandon, straight out the door and into the backseat of the van refusing to get out because he was ready to go now! I hurriedly go everything into the van and we took off. I was really hoping to make it to Montgomery without them waking up and then we could grab lunch, hit a store or two so Christopher could run around, but like it goes with kids, didn't happen. But that was fine. Except for the part where he was almost in tears that we hadn't arrived to our destination yet, so we had to start counting down the turns we had left to make to keep him happy. It worked. So here are photos of all the fun that was had while we were at the lake. We didn't get to go visit anyone else because our schedules never matched up and Sophie was getting over a virus so I hated to spread anything to anyone else. (Nothing serious but you never like to be the one to start something.) The kids always love to see their family and I do too! More photos to come, just can't get them to attach right now.

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Trey came by to pick up their dogs and Christopher got to build something with his architect uncle, which made him very excited. This is us later that night building our own tower. Not nearly as interesting, but he is only two.

Christopher found a little boys room decorated with diggers and he would sit out on the patio staring at it throughout the week. It was hilarious! He kept calling it, "MY room."

He does love to help clean. But we've mentioned this before. Vacuuming is one of his favorites.

Ok, so I tried to get a new template for our blog because I was bored with the one we have. I have seen some really cute ones out there and thought I'd try it myself. Well, I didn't realize it until I switched it that it won't let you have a list of links to other blogs and now I no longer have our friends blogs!!! That's what I get for doing it while watching tv and after a long exhausting day! If you have a blog that has been on our blog before or want yours to be added to it, please email me your link and I'll get it fixed. I check everyone's often and I don't know what I'll do if i can't see what your up to! Thanks!

This morning we had our 6 month checkup for little Miss Sophie. Brandon had made it for 8:00 in the morning, which I thought we'd be late for, but we were actually a little early. I couldn't wait to see what the doctor had to say about how big she was and I was curious myself. We go back and she is stripped down to her birthday suit and put on the scale. Here it comes.... a whopping 21 pounds and 1 ounce!!! (Remember, that is first thing in the morning and with only one bottle in her belly.) Then she's measured, 27 inches. I knew she was big, but come on! I know she's not the biggest baby in the world, but for a girl, she has some nice size to her. I am told that she falls into 90% for height, over 95% for weight and her head is still at 50%. I go home and look up to see what Christopher was at 6 months because I remember him being bigger too, but I just have a feeling Sophie has him beat. She does! By almost 2 whole pounds!!! She's 1/4 of an inch longer too. But I'm not worried. Christopher has really slimmed up and actually wears the same shorts he wore last summer and they fit him better now than they did then. So there you have it, my babies are big. But I love it! I think they are adorable!

Today Sophie is 6 months old. And it's funny because it's one of those times where you thought they'd never get here and you can't believe they are already here at the same time. She has learned a lot in her 6 months and yet has so much left to learn. But I don't mean that in a negative way, I love watching my kids learn things. It's the highlight of my life, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what she will learn next. We have been sleeping through the night for a while, roll over both ways, we can sit up on our own, we love eating vegetables and sometimes fruit, we have outgrown a ton of clothes, we are scooting backwards all over the floor now, so I'm guessing that crawling is just around the corner. On Wednesday, we go for our 6 month checkup with our new doctor and I'm very curious to see what he says about our "healthy" little girl. I love hearing people comment on how "she looks like she never eats" or that "she's a healthy looking baby" and then how surprised they are when they hear how old she is. I'd much rather have a chubby baby then have worry about making them eat because they aren't getting enough. We love our blonde haired, blue eyed little girl so much and can't wait to see what she will be interested in playing with and wearing and doing when she is her brother's age. Happy 1/2 Birthday, Sophie!!!

We have been working on and off with Christopher on potty training and we've had some ups and downs with it. As anyone who has been through this before knows, if the child isn't interested, it's a battle. You just have to decide whether you feel like fighting it. Well, I'm not a fighter, so I'm not forcing it on him, just suggesting we try it at least once a day. Most of the time I get a "no" out of him. The good thing is, he has become more aware of when he goes #2 and so he has started coming up to me and telling me that he has gone. Last night I was sitting on the couch eating dinner and Christopher comes running out of his room, jumps up on the couch, turns around backwards with is bottom in my face and tells me, "Poo poo!" Thanks little guy. Just ruined my dinner. Gotta love being a mom.

This morning I was trying to hang Christopher's new curtains in his room and, as usual, he wanted to help. He is in a phase where he doesn't really want to wear clothes all that much and so some days he's either in just a diaper or changing his clothes all day long. Well, he was going through his closet and found his old tennis shoes from last fall and had to wear them. We tried telling him they were too small, even put them on Sophie to show him they fit her better (they didn't, but we were dumb enough to think we could fool him), but we had to put them on his feet to prove it. Then we had to put on his Home Depot apron so he could get to work.


Later this afternoon Christopher found a bin filled with his baby clothes and on top happened to be an orange outfit with Tigger's face on it. He loves Tigger and wanted to put it on. I tried to tell him that it was too small for Sophie and there was no way it would fit him (it's a 6/9 month outfit!), but he insisted on putting it on. Surprisingly we got it on, enough to make him happy. I was laughing so hard I could barely get a photo. But I did the best I could.

Then later tonight I took Sophie's bib off and he tried to put it around his neck by himself. Once I helped him get it on he wandered around the house with it on. Again I had to get photos and he was sitting in his room on the floor working on a puzzle. He looks like either the largest baby in the world or just a 2-year old who is a little confused. I know when he's older he'll probably kill me for doing this, but I just couldn't help myself!