8 Months!

What an exciting past couple of weeks it has been!

Bailey is now crawling in both directions! While this milestone is certainly cause to celebrate, it has also presented us with some challenges. We can no longer put her down in the floor to play in one room and trust that she will remain there. Also, all of the many things around our house that she has been eyeing over the past several months have now become her "play things". Along with the crawling has come attempts to pull herself up on the coffee table, kitchen cabinets, sofa, and any other spot in the house that looks interesting. Needless to say we've had to do just a little bit of baby-proofing.

When she's not crawling, Bailey simply loves to cruise around the house in the walker that Maelen let her borrow! It really didn't take her long to get the hang of it. We now refer to her as "hell on wheels" as her new favorite thing to do is chase poor Sydney around the house. She, of course loves to do this... Sydney on the other hand is a little underwhelmed about the whole thing!

I guess this is where the whole parenting thing can get exciting!

Heading to Murfreesboro...

...for the next 3 1/2 days for the Habitat State Conference.

Boy am I going to miss her!

But then again... who wouldn't miss this sweet girl?!?

Please say a little prayer for Craig!

7 Months... Or So!

Okay... so I realize that this post is more than 2 weeks overdue, but we've been pretty darned busy lately! We've gone on 2 big trips (each a 10-12 hour car ride)... thankfully Bailey was terrific on them both!

Anyway, Bailey is now 7 1/2 months old! She's had another big month full of new things! She's started saying "bye-bye" and "Da Da"... Craig was quite pleased to say the least! She's now crawling... at least in reverse that is. The little monkey hasn't quite figured out how to go forward... it's so funny to watch! Bailey tries to go forward. Bless her heart she really does try... but she just never quite makes it. Another first is that she can now toddle around the house in the walker that Maelen so kindly let her borrow... however, 90% of the time she's going in reverse in the walker too. What a goober! Bailey now has 3 (and 1/4) teeth on the bottom... still none on the top. She's still a really good eater! She's started feeding herself some beginner finger foods. Sure half of them end up on the floor where Sydney is eagerly waiting, but her aim is gradually improving! We're still working on perfecting the sippy cup. Her schedule has changed a lot in the last month. She's now taking one less nap than she used to and spends a lot more time playing... sometimes she plays so hard that she completely wears herself out. Some of you know that once she started teething around 4 months she began having a lot of trouble sleeping through the night. Well, in the last week she's started sleeping the whole night through again! I can't tell you how happy this makes craig and I!!! Hopefully she won't change it up on us too soon.

Here are a few pictures from over the last few weeks... enjoy!

Her sassy pose!

Outer Banks Family Vacation

Craig, Bailey, and I spent last week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with my parents and Erin. We rented a house in Southern Shores. None of us had ever visited the Outer Banks, so we were excited to see what all of the fuss was about!

We decided to take Craig's truck on this trip so that we could bring our kayaks. We spent time on a few different occasions paddling through the canals that feed into the sound. The kayaks turned out to be fun for the whole family with my sister and parents trying them out also.

Another benefit of bringing Craig's truck on the trip was that we were able to explore the off road beaches in Corolla! This was a really cool way to see parts of the island that are normally cut off to most visitors! It was amazing how many houses were on this stretch of "road". Although, I must admit it was a little dicey at times trying to figure out which "lane" to drive in, but still a ton of fun!

No trip to the Outer Banks would be complete without a visit to the historic light houses. We were only able to make it to two of them--Currituck and Hatteras. The Bodie Island light house was under construction and we never quite made it as far down as Ocracoke.

My sister Erin is a HUGE Nicholas Sparks fan. I think she has read every one of his books. So, naturally we had to make a pit stop in Rodanthe for a quick Nights in Rodanthe tour. We stopped off at the village's visitor center to get the scoop on where to go. Erin was very excited to meet the lady who played Jill, the woman who Richard Gere killed on the operating table in the movie (she was played by the woman who works at the visitor center). Anyway, Erin got some insider information about how the movie was shot, how things were edited, etc. I think this may have been the most exciting part of the whole trip for her... even though we didn't manage to bump into Richard.

As usual, my family felt up for a little adventure. So, we dediced to try out hang gliding. My mom and Bailey decided to sit this adventure out! They watched from the ground as the rest of us glided (we were towed up behind a small plane and then dropped free once we reached 2000 feet). Depending on each of our comfort levels, the instructors would spin, twist, flip, and drop the gliders. I LOVE roller coasters, so I was all for that! All I can say is that this was TOTALLY AWESOME!!! Well worth the money!

We, of course, spent some time on the beach! The beaches for absolutely gorgeous! The water was unusually cold for this time of year according to the locals we talked to, but I think we all still managed to enjoy ourselves!

By far the best part of our trip was the time spent with family!

Can't wait to do it again next year... hopefully the Wojo and Beckwith branches of the family tree will be able to join us next time!

Play Dates...

...are so much fun!

Yesterday Bailey had her friends Maelen and Connor over to play at the house. While the babies played we mommies got to partake in a little lunch and conversation. I believe everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

Later in the afternoon we went to the park for some more play time at the park. Unfortunately Connor was so tired from the play time at our house that he fell asleep and didn't get to enjoy the park with the rest of us.

Bailey had a super fantastic time swinging in the big swing all by herself for the first time! She was absolutely mesmerized by Maelen swinging next to her!

Remind me again why I work instead of playing like this every day?!?