Girls' Weekend

This weekend 4 of my best friends from college came to my house for our annual reunion--it was so fantastic that everyone was able to attend! We spent Friday having lunch at Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta and visiting the World of Coke--what a fun picture we took with the Coca-Cola bear! Saturday we hung out at the park playing frisbee and having a fabulous picnic. Saturday night we chatted the evening away like girls love to do :-) Sarah did well on our adventure in Atlanta on Friday, then she got to spend the night with Nana and came back home on Saturday afternoon. She is walking more and more--now she loves to walk all over the house by herself--I still wouldn't call her independent, but she is doing super! It's really funny to watch sometimes because she tries to run but is still all wobbly. The other new thing with Sarah is her budding language development--she is finally signing "more" consistently--funny thing is, she says the word, too--so much for sign language before verbal language :-) She has almost 10 words (ok, maybe some are approximations) now! More, Mama, Daddy, Bye, Hey, Yay, Mmmm, Hello, Nana, Whee, Meow, Woof. Wow Sarah! We're getting ready for the big "1" this Friday and the party on Saturday!

Summer Fun!

Family picnic in our driveway


Sarah swimming at Nana's right before she pooped and spit up in the pool


Sarah swimming in her new pool at our house


Daddy with his brand new girlfriend--the things dads do... :-)


Sarah practicing gymnastics at home in the ball pool she is borrowing for the summer


Helping mommy fold laundry--what a good little helper!

We have been busy bees so far this summer! Sarah has been going to a Kindermusik summer camp for babies, and she is going to "baby gymnastics" at The Little Gym once a week. After this week, Kindermusik camp will be over and our schedule will be much more relaxed. It sure is great to be able to spend lots and lots of time with Sarah everyday--she is such a big girl now! She takes a few steps alone every day and is going to be walking for real anytime. She is so proud of herself after she does any kind of task and claps for herself often :-) She also knows how to throw quite the tamtrum if she doesn't get her way, complete with crawling off to the corner in a huff, throwing herself down on the floor, biting anything nearby, etc...

Woollen Family Reunion

We went to Old Fort, NC over the weekend for a family reunion with Jeremy's mom's side of the family. We stayed in this really NEAT OLD house called Round Knob Lodge. It was built sometime around 1900 and was used as a place for railroad men to stay (often with "lady friends" but wives were not typically invited if you catch my drift). Now it is just a place people can rent out. Anway, the house was about the neatest house I have ever seen with all of its old nooks and crannies. It even had its own old-timey elevator, not suitable for those who are claustrophobic. There was a pool there, so Sarah got to go swimming for the first time. I think she had a good time, although she really wasn't too sure about the whole situation. We all had fun throwing Jeremy a birthday fiesta on Saturday night, and my pinata was a hilarious hit with everyone--we laughed so hard we almost cried! Sarah did a GREAT job sharing a room with Jeremy and me, and she even slept all night all three nights we were there. One night she had some small drama---I left her in the room to fall asleep while I went upstairs to eat dinner with everyone else. We were all listening to her babble to herself FOREVER on the baby monitor, and finally I decided to go check on her and see why she was in such a great mood despite being all by herself in the crib for so long without falling asleep. As it turned out, she had gotten ahold of one of Jeremy's birthday cards and had spent the better part of an hour tearing it up and eating it! What fun! That girl is always looking for some mischief! On Sunday I went with some of the family to the Biltmore House and left Sarah at the lodge to play with daddy and Paw-Paw. Enjoy the slideshows--now that summer is here maybe I will have more time to be creative on the blog.

First Steps!

Sarah standing in the middle of the kitchen (with her silly little paci in her mouth and a spare one in her hand that she tried to share with me, silly girl)


Sarah playing in the hamburger she spilled all over the floor...

Sarah took her first FOUR steps today--in a row! Soon she will be unstoppable--uh oh! She was standing in the kitchen balancing like she likes to do and all of the sudden she very tentatively walked FOUR steps over to the chair to hold on. Way to go Sarah! Luckily Jeremy and I were both there to see her. It's too bad my mom had just left our house about 1 minute before....

...before Sarah "walked," she also got into some trouble knocking a cup of her hamburger meat onto the floor. I had no idea she was tall enough to reach the kitchen table, but sure enough, when we tested it again she can reach things on at the edge of the table if she stands on her very tippy toes....hmmmmm....

First Mother's Day

Sarah and Jeremy did a great job making sure that I have a wonderful first Mother's Day. When I got up Sunday morning, there were two cards on the table, each with a rose on top, a rose in the middle in a vase, some of my favorite candy, and a bottle of wine waiting for me. The card from Jeremy said he was going to do the laundry for the rest of the school year (only two weeks, but that is still super!). Sarah also put a half-gallon of my favorite chocolate peanut butter ice cream in the freezer! After church, we went out to lunch with my parents, brother, and sister. We ate at Red Lobster on their patio, and Sarah was SO good. It was really windy and I think she was quite entertained by being able to eat outside and almost get blown away :-) Maybe we will try the patio next time, too!

Relay for Life and Fun Outside

Last weekend we went to the annual Gwinnett County Relay for Life cancer walk. Sarah had a great time watching all of the people, snacking, playing games, and getting her face painted like a clown (I thought the person doing the face-painting was going to just do something small on her cheek, and once she got started, I realized she was going to try to paint Sarah's WHOLE face like a clown---at that point it was too funny so I just watched...she finally gave up and left Sarah with just clown eyebrows and rosy cheeks).

Sarah has been having so much fun playing outside. She now has a new swing and a grocery cart to push around the driveway---summer is going to be so much fun because we will be able to go out and play whenever we want!

Partee Family Picnic

Sarah attended the Partee Staff Family Picnic on Saturday--the weather held out and everyone had a great time. She even met a new boyfriend, Spencer--aren't they cute together? :-)

Aside from that, Sarah has been as busy as ever---this morning she pulled Mrs. Heather's laptop onto the floor and made her internet stop working! What a troublemaker! (Poor Mrs. Heather--after her computer crashed then just a little while later her washing machine died.....)