Friday Funday

Friday, I took the girls out to my parent's house to pick some gourds.  I plan on letting them paint them for the holidays.  We have plenty to have fun with!  The girls got to ride around on the 4 wheeler too, so they were happy.  That evening, I met my girl friends for a night out.  We had a blast. I was really impressed that all of the daddies took their daughters out to dinner that night too.  Drew took the girls to eat Mexican and then they went to petsmart.  We are getting a new puppy in just a few weeks, so he was looking for some items for our little Lucy.  The girls had so much fun.  Amelia woke up in the morning talking all about her night out with daddy. 

Checking out the pets at petsmart

Looking to the future

This morning, we met our friend Brandy to take some family photos.  Anna Claire isn't as much of a natural model as Amelia.  Amelia loved having her picture taken at 1, Anna Claire just wants to run.  It was a little difficult, but I think she may have taken a few good photos of the girls.  We got home and as I was changing out of my photo wear, Anna Claire was playing in our room with me.  She was looking in my mirror and it just made me think of one day when she gets married, many years from now, I can see us taking the same photo. 

 

Hopefully she will look a lot happier then!

football and carnivals

The fall is truly my favorite time of year.  I think everyone is just trying to soak up that last bit of nice weather before the misery of winter hits.  This weekend we were crazy busy enjoying some of our favorite fall activities.  I finally was able to see Brady play football.  We missed his first 2 games due to travel.  There is a donut shop here in Arlington that has the best donuts I have ever had in my life, and I am not exaggerating.  We decided to pick some up on the way to the game.  We were nice and picked up a few extra to share.  It is a good thing I have some will power or we would be there every weekend!  We all really enjoyed watching Brady play.  After the game, we headed to New Johnsonville to see Drew's parents and go to his mom's work picnic/carnival.  It was a like a mini fair which was perfect for us since the girls are still too small to ride many rides.  Anna Claire had her first carousel ride (she loved it!), the girls played a few games, we had some yummy food, and even better funnel cake.  It was a busy day, and we were all exhausted, but it was a lot of fun!

Amelia driving her pink Cadillac

Anna Claire on her first carousel ride.  She doesn't look too happy here, but she really did love it!

 



Sunday, we tried out a new church.  We didn't have high expectations, but so far we love it!  Everyone was very nice, friendly, and we met several people in our age range.  It finally felt like the place we belong.  Hopefully it will continue to stay that way!  That afternoon, our friend John Mark, from Greenville, was traveling through town.  He stopped to visit and go to dinner.  We went to Olive Garden and it was probably the best meal I have had a Garden in a long time.  We were very pleasantly surprised.  We definitely started our week out good!

having fun with ABCs

I bought some abc cookie cutters to cut the fondant for ACs birthday cake.  So, today, I decided we would have a little fun learning our letters with play dough.  Amelia had a lot fun cutting out the letters, and she looked pretty cute too!  She actually did really well with the letters we worked on.  She's a smart girl!

 

sisterly love

Today, we had our appointment with Anna Claire's surgeon.  I feel like we waste so much time waiting to see doctors.  But, we go prepared.  So, as we were waiting Amelia read a book to her sister to help keep her entertained.  It was the sweetest thing ever!

VACATION!!!

It has been long overdue, but our family finally took our first family vacation!  We spent a wonderful week in Destin.  We started our trip on Saturday the 7th.  Drew and I decided that we would be smart and leave at 4 AM and that way the girls would possibly sleep the first 4 hours at least and we would be half way there.  Well, they had different plans.  It turned out to be a long day, but they really were a lot better than we had expected.  We were so excited to get to the beach though, but we all went to bed really early that night!  It didn't take long for us to get in a nice routine.  The girls woke up crazy early, but it turned out to be good.  AC would take an early nap and then be good to go until lunch, so there wasn't a lot of back and forth from the beach to the condo.  We spent our mornings on the beach and after nap time we would spend a short time at the beach then head to the pool.  Amelia loved the beach!  She would have spent every minute she could there if we would let her.  Anna Claire was just happy to sit in her chair.  The last day we were there, the tide had come in higher and the sand was much more backed down, and she loved the beach that day.  I think because she could walk better.  But, we had a lot of fun hunting for crabs, trying to catch fish, feeding the seagulls, building sand castles, flying our kite, and just spending time with each other.  We also were able to visit with some friends while we there.  My "oldest" friend (known her the longest), Tish, hung out with us a few days, and my cousin Lauren met us for lunch.  I wish we could have seen her boys and my aunt and uncle!  We also ate some very yummy food!  I can't wait to go back!

Thursday, we rented bikes and road around 30A down to grayton state park.  Drew pulled the girls most of the way, but I did take over at the end and gave him a break.  It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  We did stop and enjoy some beach time too!

Our last day.  AC finally decided she loved the beach.  She was all over the place!

Amelia enjoying a snack.

 

Trying to catch some fish to feed the seagulls.

Building sand castles

Our attempt at a family photo.

AC's favorite place on the beach.  As long as she had that chair and a cup of milk, she was good to go!

Jumping the waves!

 

It really was a perfect week.  The weather couldn't have been better.  The water was beautiful!  And, there were very few people down on vacation.  It was wonderful!  I have never been so excited to grow old in my life.  There were so many old people down there just having a blast!  That is how I want to be when I grow old!  

Happy Birthday, Anna Claire!

Today is Anna Claire's 1st birthday!  Daddy is out of town so I planned on making it a great day with just us girls!  I don't know what I was thinking scheduling her 12 month check up at 10:20 this morning, but we worked with it.  I would have rescheduled, but I really wanted to see him and ask a few questions.  So, we had a yummy breakfast of blueberry pancakes.  The doctor said everything looks great to him.  She is 30.5 inches tall (90th %), 23.5 #'s (85%) and don't remember head but it went from 66% at 10 months to 77% at 12 months.  She is definitely growing well!  Imagine what she would be had it not been for the first 10 weeks of her life!  I'm just thankful she is doing so well!  We then headed to the zoo.  I decided we would pick up some food along the way.  I have avoided chick fil a for a while because I got burned out on it in college, but I thought why not.  I was so excited to see they have grilled chicken nuggets on the kids menu!  I really don't like AC eating a lot of fried food.  So, off we went to the zoo.  It was so nice the middle of the week when school is in.  We almost had it to ourselves!  That evening after dinner, we went outside and played in the bubbles and played on the swings for a little while.  I think she had a great birthday!

watching the gorillas watch us.  Amelia was so excited about her cow watch!

best shot I got of her with her 1 year sticker on

she's saying, I wish you would stop saying Anna Claire and just let me pull these flowers off!  Enough pictures already!

Amelia wanted her picture taken too.

Does she love bubbles or what!  The gazillion bubble maker machine was definitely worth whatever I paid for it!

On a mission to get every bubble!

This was our last activity of the evening.  I'm not sure what it is about dead leaves, but Anna Claire loves them.  She is thoroughly entertained by just having a few dead leaves to pick up and tear apart.

She has definitely stolen a lot of hearts.  She is such a sweet girl, and a lot of fun to be around.  She is naturally funny and gives the best hugs!  She is a little spit fire and I can see that she will not let anything get in her way of what she wants.  She is my little fighter!  She truly amazes me.  We all love her so much and look forward to many more birthdays with her!

Labor Day fun

We celebrated the holiday with friends at their pool.  Amelia is becoming such a little fish.  I think Anna Claire will follow in her footsteps when she can.  She wanted to jump in so bad, but all we have for her is her ladybug float.  Next year she will get to try the puddle jumper. 

Amelia jumping off the diving board.  Daddy was close!

She would go under and knew exactly what to do!  She loved it!  She is such a little daredevil!

 

The girls were out before we even shut the doors.  They were exhausted from all the fun.