Gulf Shores 2009

Can I just begin by saying that Gulf Shores is my absolute favorite vacation spot in the entire world and I would totally live there if I could? I even designed my perfect beach home (in my head) while walking on the beach one morning last week. So whenever I become a multi-millionaire, you all will know where to find me! Our family has been going to GS for vacation as long as I can remember and I'm so thankful that my husband loves it now as much as I do so we can bring our kids back now too and make even more happy memories!

We left last Friday morning and drove halfway to Brandon's parent's house and spent Friday afternoon and evening there visiting with Brandon's sister and his grandparents and then we got up early Saturday morning and headed out with Brandon's parents for what turned into a longer drive than we had anticipated. Apparently, lots of people from TX to MS enjoy vacationing on the Gulf coast and getting through Mobile, AL and down highway 59 in AL too a lot longer than we had planned. But, we made it in time to get there and get dinner ready. We had a total of 14 adults and kids in a 5 bedroom beach house, it was so much fun! Our house was nice and it even had a small pool on the deck which Timothy learned how to swim in on the first day there! That boy is scared to death of water, especially when he can't touch, but as long as he had his life jacket and floatie on, he was fine.

Sunday morning, the girls all cooked a Father's Day breakfast and then we headed out to play on the beach and in the pool. Monday, the guys went golfing and the girls hit some little shops in town, Tuesday, we all relaxed and did the same on Wednesday, on Thursday, Brandon and Trey (and grandparents and Aunt Rena) were kind enough to watch our kids so Christi and I could go out shopping at the outlets in Foley, Friday we spent enjoying the last day at the beach, eating at Lamberts and packing, and Saturday we hung around town playing putt putt and we took Charlotte and Timothy to see the movie "Up" in 3-D. We left for home that afternoon and got in early Sunday morning. It was a great week, tiring and fun, the kids had a blast and the adults had fun too!!

So the highlights of the week - we had family pictures made on Tuesday night, email me if you want to the link to see them, they turned out really nice, I can't wait to pick out which ones I want to order and get them up on the walls at home. Timothy learned how to swim, that was a HUGE accomplishment for him, his other favorite parts of the week were fishing, and hitting golf balls into the ocean, and playing putt putt for the first time! Charlotte LOVED to crawl in the sand and she liked to swim as well. She liked the ocean more than her brother though. Brandon got to play at two really nice golf courses and he got in a little fishing in the ocean. I thoroughly enjoyed shopping without children and laying out on the beach. The kids did WONDERFUL in the car going there and coming back, no fussing or crying, and no complaining, it was a great trip. Hopefully this will mean many more road trips to come for us, I love getting out and going places.

It was a little bittersweet to be there without my family, since they're the ones that I have all the good childhood memories with - playing rook, renting movies, singing in the volcano at the putt putt course, all the good restaurants we ate at growing up...I teared up a little watching Timothy play putt putt on Saturday, thinking that I wasn't too much older than him when we came down here for the first time. I hope this is a tradition we can afford to keep up every year. I have 113 pictures from the week...so obviously I can't post them all on here. They are up on facebook and for all the non-facebook readers (ahem - mom!!), I'll get them out on shutterfly and send them to you.

Ten Months Old

I'm sure I'll leave something out in here that I wanted to remember, but I'm so stressed about packing and leaving for vacation tomorrow that it's hard to focus on anything else! So, Charlotte is 10 months old now, only 2 more months and we're at the 1 year mark, hard to believe. She has changed a lot this month, but I'll let her tell you all about that. I did (finally) get her to the doctor and she checked in at 19 pounds, 12 ounces, 29.75 inches which put her in the 97th percentile for height and 85th for weight. The doctor said she looked great and now that all her teeth have come in (for now at least), she's been a happier girl! So here's what she's been up to!

I am on the move so much now, I can crawl fast, especially when I know I'm going somewhere I shouldn't go (like the bathroom) and mommy is trying to catch me! I can pull up and stand on pretty much anything and I like to stand all by myself now!

I am so over baby food now that I have all these big girl teeth. I like to eat big girl food, like waffles, pizza, mac and cheese, carrots, green beans, and chicken nuggets. I also learned how to drink from a straw and I LOVE my new sippy cup! I can hold it all by myself and I like to throw it on the floor.

I've been told that I'm going through separation anxiety, I don't know why it's such a bad thing though! If mommy puts me down and has to leave the room, I scream as loud as I can so that she knows where I am...and sometimes I like to scream at night in my crib too, I just want mommy there with me all the time, is that such a bad thing?

I can say lots of words now - dada, baba, nana, gaga, and mama! I can almost say uh oh, but it usually just comes out oh oh. I still love to laugh, especially at my brother.

I like to play with stuffed animals a lot now, I like to chew on them. I also like toys that play music, and I love my brother's cars. I like to play outside, I especially like to swing. I LOVE to be in the water and found out how much fun it is to play in the sand (it tasted great!).

I'm happy as can be and I'm so excited to go to the beach (tomorrow!!!). Mommy says that she will take lots and lots of pictures at the beach to share when we get back, until then, hugs and kisses!

Silly Boy

I had to share a couple of funny Timothy stories from this week. Brandon has been singing the "I'm a Big Bull Frog and God Loves Me" song to him at night before he goes to bed and Timothy was singing it to Charlotte in the car the other day and when it got to the "teensy weensy frog" line he said he "tinky winky", made me laugh. And last night he said our prayer before dinner and prayed, "Thank you, God, for our food, but I don't want these chips, amen". He always knows how to keep us laughing!

Summer is Here

Well, I guess it's not officially Summer yet, but we're supposed to hit triple digit temperatures next week so it definitely feels like Summer!

So, what's been going on over here lately...Charlotte still loves to pull up and stand on everything in sight, but in the past couple days, she's been letting go and just standing there, I guess that means we're well on our way to walking, but it's still scary and a little sad...she's not even 10 months old yet! She still has one tooth that hasn't cut through yet, but she has a total of 7 teeth now...and she LOVES to bite my shoulder, it's great. Last Sunday, in class, there was another little baby girl in there that was a little older than Charlotte, and at the end of class, I give them Cheerios until we're done and that little girl was trying to be nice and share, and she reached over to put one in Charlotte's mouth and I'm pretty sure she bit her finger...I felt horrible.

Timothy is still being Timothy as usual, he's becoming a little more interested in using the potty, and he definitely knows what to do...I make him change his own wet diapers now, which he doesn't really like, so he would rather wear underwear. He went for three hours keeping himself dry the other day, my goal is to be diaper-free by Christmas! After that, we're going to tackle the thumb sucking. He says the funniest things and I always think, oh I'll have to blog about that, but then I forget them...he's definitely becoming quite perceptive though, last night we were getting them ready for bed and he heard our neighbor start mowing his grass and he turned and said, "Mommy, our neighbor is mowing his lawn now?" It was like having a little adult! We're starting to work on recognizing and writing letters, he's doing really well so far! He discovered the reptile house at the zoo this week and loved it, so now we have to talk about the snakes...I really hate snakes...oh well!

And, not like anyone cares that much, but Brandon and I are doing fine as well. Brandon's job is keeping him really busy and he found out he will have to start working over time from July through September, I'm not really looking forward to that because I love his Friday's off as much as he does, but the kids and I have some trips planned to keep us busy. We all leave in two weeks for Gulf Shores for our summer vacation. I can't wait, I've already started packing.

That's pretty much it for now...I don't have many new pictures to post, but here's what I could find! These are from a few weeks ago when we were out one night washing the car.

Stay-cation in San Antonio!

So my family wanted to do a family vacation this year, but we couldn't think of where to go...so finally it was suggested that everyone else just come here and we could do some fun tourist-type San Antonio stuff. Lats Wednesday my parents and sisters and brother-in-law and nephew all flew in and we began our vacation! We hung out on Thursday and did the traditional grocery shopping trip, the guys played golf, we took some family pictures...Friday we headed out to Schlitterbahn and had a blast, it's the first time I've been there that I remember and it was so much fun. Timothy was a little scared of the slides and the water, but my dad finally got him to calm down and go down a slide and then that's all he wanted to do! Charlotte LOVED the water and just wanted to crawl in it and stick her face in it...she eventually fell asleep sitting on Brandon's lap in a float while he floated around the river. On Saturday we went to my nephews t-ball game and then headed out to a park where we had planned to have the first annual Grammy/Grumpy Games, but God had other plans and a big storm headed in and we got rained out. It was pretty funny for a while when we were all huddled under the canopy tent trying to eat our hot dogs and wearing our matching shirts. So we headed back to my brother's house to dry off and eventually gave up on the weather. Sunday, we did church and lunch and then my dad had to leave for a business trip, my sister and her family went to see the Alamo, and my mom and sister and I tried to go to La Cantera, but again, we got rained out (we were in a Jeep with no top) so we had to go back home and wait it out. We all went to Incredible Pizza for dinner that night and had fun playing games and riding the race cars. Monday, everyone had to leave to go home, which is always sad...but we had so much fun, it was a great trip and hopefully we'll plan another vacation for next year...maybe some place new? Anyway, here are the pictures I got, not too many, but enough for the memories!

Nine Months Old

Whew, I can't believe it's already been a month since her last monthly post, but here we are! Crazy to think that she has been outside as a baby now as long as she was inside me while I was pregnant, so much change in such a short amount of time. She is still as happy as ever, still cutting teeth though, so we have several fussy moments and long nights, but those teeth are pretty cute. Here's what she has been up to this month...

I am nine months old now and mommy can't take me to the doctor till next month (because she made my appointment late) so I don't know how big I am, but mommy says I get heavier and heavier every day.

I am growing out of my nine month pajamas, but the twelve months clothes are still a little big on me. I still wear a size three shoe, but they're getting a little tighter. Mommy and Aunt Brittany and Grammy painted my toenails pink today though, so I must be a pretty big girl!!

I love to stand up and hold onto anything I can reach. I especially love if whatever I'm holding onto is big enough for me to chew on, I like to chew on my crib rail and the entertainment center. I like to stand up and hold onto my music table and the bookshelf.

I like my baby toys, but I especially like my brother's big boy toys, they're much noisier and much more fun! And it's ok, because he likes to play with my baby toys, so we just switch!

I am an eating machine, I eat five jars of baby food a day! I am eating some table foods now though, and hopefully once all eight of my teeth are in, I can eat more big girl food. I haven't quite figured out how to feed myself yet though, but I'm practicing! I really like goldfish crackers and teething biscuits.

Other than that, I'm the same little girl, I love to sing, especially in the car...I love my Bible class...I love my big brother and my daddy, but I love mommy best of all. I'm a sweet, happy little girl and I'm growing so big!