Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The Beaufort Bonnet Company

I have adored the bonnets by The Beaufort Bonnet Company since before H.G. was even a thought.  Since they were founded a couple a couple years after Lolly was born, Lolly never had the chance to wear a Beaufort Bonnet but as soon as I found out I was having a second daughter, my eyes were on a pink one for little H.G. 
  

 And today, H.G.'s first bonnet arrived.  I couldn't wait for her to try it on and get some photos. 
At first she didn't know what to think about it.  After all, she's at the age when everything you put on her head from bows to bonnets, immediately gets removed and promptly eaten and drooled upon. 


After a few minutes, H.G. realized this thing wasn't coming off and so we started paying attention to the other things around us, like the grass.   We've never really played in the grass before so this was a new experience for H.G.  Florida grass is sadly, not soft and comforting like Kentucky grass.  It's hard and itchy,  so I've always had a blanket for H.G. to sit on.   Now that she's crawling, she clearly won't stay on a blanket.


Oh my, it's prickly!

I think she enjoyed the new experience of sitting in grass.

Look at those rolls!  Our sweet little rolls.  Love each and every one of them.  
The little bubble is from Smocked Auctions (love that place, slightly addicted).

Happy Tuesday Y'all!

Friday, July 25, 2014

9 Months and some OOTDs

First some OOTDs.  It's Summer In Lilly!  I LOVE this print from the Jubilee collection.  I will never get rid of this dress or the pants.  So fun and cheerful.

 And I love this skirt.  Just a simple print and great for any season really.  Paired with some Angela Moore jewelry and my new favorite Essie color, Madison Ave-Hue.

Way number 4,387 to get Lolly to eat her dinner.  Eat half a marshmallow, stick the other half to Lolly's forehead and tell her she can eat it after she finishes her dinner.

9 Months on July 8th.  Time is flying.  Two nights ago....she started walking.....at 9.5 months.  Goodness she's growing up too early and fast!  AND she's FINALLY sleeping through the night!  Our master is on the first floor on one side of the house and H.G.'s room is up the stairs on the other side.  So I've been sleeping in the guest bedroom since we moved her to her own room at around 8 weeks.  I finally moved back into the master on July 4th weekend and she's been sleeping until between 6:00 and 6:30.  KNOCK ON WOOD!!!

Sad to say that I was not great at getting pics of H.G. in her cute outfits this month.  I'll do better.  They say the second child has less pictures taken of them.  Sadly, this is very true.

First word.  "Dada."  We weren't entirely sure it was her first word as she was just saying it and not referencing Husband.  Until this day, where she stood at the glass door, pounding on it to get his attention, yelling "Dada".  So, Dada goes down as her official first word!  Yay!


At a friend's 40th birthday party with two of my besties.  LOVE these girls.  
(Wearing a Gretchen Scott dress.  I love this dress but goodness it's short so I make a point to NOT wear it if I have the kids and have to bend down.)



Lolly went to Apalachicola for a week to visit my mom and dad.  A WHOLE week.  Lolly has never been gone from us for more than 18 hours.  We took one overnight trip when she was about 3.5 years old for a football game, but was gone no more than 18 hours.  
Lolly LOVED the visit and didn't really want to come home except she missed H.G.  Husband and I were chopped liver as we actually had to ask her for a hug after not seeing her for a week.  

You saw the picture of how Lolly NEVER eats.  Well, this one I don't have to worry about.  She just shovels it all in!  She's pretty much eating only real food now and not that pureed junk as she has so many teeth.  And I'm SO ready to not be making her homemade food anymore.  I've transferred over to the organic pouches for more variety and get her used to foods I don't have the time or patience to prep.  I'm pretty proud that I made all her food from 4 months until about 9 months.  Go me!

My sweet little fourth of July babies getting ready to go into the pool.  Sadly, I completely forgot to take a picture of them in their adorable outfits.  I think I might redress them just to take a picture!  This was a great weekend with my parents as THEY BOUGHT A HOUSE in the town where we live!! Yay!  Now they will be spending three or four months a year down here.  We're very excited to have them so nearby.  Funny....15 years ago I couldn't WAIT to get them out of my hair and now I couldn't be more thrilled to have them nearby. I reminded Husband of this last night.  That Lolly is just a few years away from wanting nothing to do with us and then she'll be off at college and starting her own life.  So, we really shouldn't complain so much at the constant need for attention from her as pretty soon, it'll be reversed and we, the parents, will be the ones starved for HER attention.  

That's all for now!
Happy Friday Y'all!

Thursday, July 24, 2014

June Part 2

H.G. turned 8 months on June 8th.  She is really taking us by storm.  She's doing everything BUT being a baby.  She has very little interest in toys, she's already trying to walk (took her first five steps last night) and is starting to talk (i.e. momma, dadda, bug).  She's watching her big sister and desperately trying to follow in her footsteps.


Lolly's final dance recital....ever.  For now at least.  Lolly is on a gymnastics team and with several hours of practice a week, plus school (2nd grade....ACK!) and extended day afternoons while I work, dance just had to go.  And frankly, Lolly just didn't LOVE it like she does gymnastics.  Lolly still wants to be a cheerleader and has actually been cheering at one of her camps this summer.  She'll be in a talent show tomorrow.  At least with gymnastics, she'll learn the flips properly.  This kid is really becoming an amazing gymnast.  Maybe this is her talent?  Too soon to tell.

Goodness, does this child LOVE food.  There hasn't been a thing she's tried that she doesn't like (well, other than pureed meats.  I mean, who likes pureed meat...Bleh!)  So, I've been giving her the real thing and she loves it.  Plus, she has four teeth nearly through and four more on the way, plus two  molars (yes, molars, as confirmed by her doctor).  Like I said....she's not wanting to be a baby!

 These two have such an AMAZING bond.  Lolly just LOVES her little sister.  Never complains about her, is so patient with her and tolerates so much, including the wait time (most of the time).  I try to keep H.G. out of Lolly's room as much as possible as I don't want to set a precedent that she's allowed in there (you know...thinking of the future when Lolly and H.G. do have their moments).  But when H.G. is in Lolly's room, Lolly watches her like a hawk to make sure she doesn't eat a miniature Barbie shoe and gives her whatever stuffed animal she wants, including Lolly's precious nay-nay (blanket).  We couldn't be more blessed to have these two girls in our lives.  So blessed that we have been chosen to be their parents, spit ups, crying, fights and all!

 Lolly is not a phone talker, but her friend A calls every once in a while.  Most of the time, Lolly puts the phone on speaker and just listens while A talks away.  It's pretty funny.

On our way home from North Captiva, we stopped by the Edison/Ford plantation. We were going to take a tour and we were quite literally, one minute late and the person behind the counter wouldn't let us on the tour.  Now, if it were me, looking at a young family with a 9 month old, I'd probably use my nifty little noggin and add my family to the tour.  But not this guy, he told us we have to wait for 1.5 hours for the next tour.  So we didn't stay.  We would have walked around ourselves but apparently you have to go on the tour.  Oh well, next time.  


And that's all folks!  Now that we're nearly caught up, we can start talking about other fun things too.

Happy Thursday Y'All!

Friday, July 18, 2014

North Captiva Island - Summer Vacation

In June, we took an eight day family vacation with some good friends of ours to North Captiva Island. One can only access this island by ferry or small plane and once on the island, you travel from place to place via golf carts.  


We rented an amazing four story home that was right on the beach and very close to the north point of the island, so we were surrounded by beach on two sides of the home.  Thus, the name of the house....the North Pointe Beach House.  The owners use this home as their personal beach house when on the island, so it was decorated impeccably with no expense spared.  You really should go check out all the pictures of the home HERE.



The home also had a pool, so when we needed a break from the snorkeling and sand, we would hop in the pool.  There is also an island club and we would frequent there during the day for lunch, drinks and a little change of scenery.  It was also a great place for the girls to play with other kids staying on the island.  With several small restaurants, we were also able to eat out a few times.  

We really had a fabulous vacation and plan to return for years to come!  Here are some pictures from our great vacation.  
(And since it was a beach vacation, we washed and wore the same outfits multiple times.  After all, when you're on the beach, you live in bathing suits and cover-ups and the clothes and makeup don't matter.  :-)

Here's the view from the main living area and kitchen, the third floor.  Yes, we were worn out the first two days (especially with a 22 pound non-walker!)  By the eighth day, we were flying up those stairs!  

The girls had a room on the fourth floor with their own little loft area complete with a large couch and TV.  Much down-time was spent up there (and at one point, they had a flash store sale.  I purchased the couch for $1.  Husband had to spend much more, buying a toothbrush for $500).
 
Best friends.  LOVE these two.  

Beach and sun kissed.  Fresh off the beach for some margaritas.  

Like I said, golf carts were our mode of transportation.  


Have you ever heard of a game called Settlers of Catan?  We are addicted and HUGE lovers of this game. Every day, we played no less than three or four games.  We'd spend the mornings at the beach and pool and then come in for lunch, H.G.'s nap and downtime.  The kids would watch TV or complete art projects (shells, glue and glitter paint make for hours of fun) and the adults would enjoy game.....after game.....after game.....after game.....of Catan.  Husband and Man K won pretty much every game.  
Lady K won a few and I think I won only one.  I used to dominate but not on this vacay!


Man K received a new camera right before we left for the island, so he was our in-house photographer.  He really did a great job at capturing shots.  They were hard to choose from for this post!

After many attempts, this is the best we could do at getting the kids together.  Nearly every picture has either Little K, Little E or Lolly making silly faces.  These girls kept us on our toes (including each child's breakdown on one day of the week.  H.G. had Friday, Lolly had Saturday, Little E (grey dress) did pretty well the whole time and Little K had Monday.  The life of drama with girls!

Sunset watching from the fourth floor.  It didn't rain at all the entire time we were there!  It was sunny and gorgeous but I'm afraid the sunsets were mostly overcast.
It did rain the day we arrived so a lot of our things go wet from the drop off point to the house (the delivery of our luggage and food for some reason took over an hour).

 Last day.  Man K and Lady K found this amazing tree on the beach.  They took Lolly and the girls there to take pictures while Husband and I prepared for departure.  What a great spot!

I should mention that wild dolphins were EVERYWHERE!  So numerous that by the end of the week, the girls quit looking for them as they were always there.  Man K got a chance to snorkel around them.  He got within fifteen feet of them or so.  Amazing.

Here we are heading out to dinner on the first night (I think it was the first night....maybe the second).

Like I said.....shells, glue and glitter paint make for happy kids and relaxing mommies.

More sunset watching.

 Group photo on the front porch before we left.

Bye-bye North Captiva.  Until next time!

Happy Friday Y'all!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

May Part 2 - Summer Fun!

Lots and lots of fun in May.  Gymnastics meet, end of the school year, Memorial Day fun, pool and family time.  As I was going through the pictures, I was amazed at how much we did!

H.G. LOVES the pool!  I can set her in her float and she just loves to sit and watch Lolly.  She gets a little upset if I hold onto her, so I just let her float around a bit (in very close proximity of course!)


Lolly is on a gymnastics team and just moved up to Level 2.  I'm amazed at how much she has learned and how well she is doing!  When I was first asked if she wanted to be on team, I responded with a very perplexed look saying "You mean, Lolly?  The one who does a sideways frog hop for a cartwheel?"  Little did I know that the technique was there, it just needed honing.  And wow, how she has improved!  Take a look at these pictures.  Due to her practice time, this was the first time Husband was able to see her on the floor (and not just in our living room).  He really was amazed as well as the coaches are really great at teaching.




And just a quick little flashback.  This is one of my favorite pictures of Lolly when she was three.  Notice her outfit.....

As this is H.G. in the exact same outfit at 7 months.  Yes, there is only a 13 pound difference between the two NOW.  So this shows how big H.G. is compared to Lolly.  Couldn't be more different, but they're also quite a bit the same.  

Memorial Day weekend, we went for a little family miniature golfing.  Sadly, I ended up in the air conditioned car as H.G. was heavy and it was hot, hot, hot!  



 So we immediately went home and got into the pool!



 And last but not least, I took a four day trip to Vegas for a conference.  It was me all by my lonesome and with H.G. still not sleeping through the night, I spent all my time in the room resting when not at the conference.  I wasn't feeling well either.  And the ENTIRE family back home ended getting horribly sick....including my poor in-laws and I was so helpless!  They were all better by the time I returned home and H.G. never became ill, but it was apparently pretty bad. Poor family!  
Anyways, I went out for an early dinner at (of all places in Vegas as we have one back home), Benihana.  Cheers to myself! 


Happy Thursday Y'all!