Talking and Spitting

Caroline has become (OK, always has been) a very vocal little creature. She loves to sit and chat with you or with her toys. She has recently perfected the art of blowing raspberries, which is baby talk for spitting all over you. For those of you who know Philip well, you can imagine how pleased he is with this new trick of hers. I sure think it's cute, though! Gotta love it!

Sitting up

Our little girl thinks that she is just getting so big now! She started sitting up by herself while we were in KY for New Year's. It's opened up a whole new world during playtime! :) Now if only she would just learn to roll over... Oh, well. She'll get there soon enough! We don't want her growing up too fast (and definitely don't want her walking at 8 months like her Daddy...yikes!).

New Year's

We traveled to Cecilia, Kentucky to my brother's house for New Year's. They moved back to Kentucky right before Caroline was born, and we had yet to visit them at their new home. It is always such a beautiful drive! And we only go through one large city (Nashville), so traffic isn't bad. We had a good time visiting with his family and my parents. We ate a lot of yummy food (Rob is an EXCELLENT cook) and played a lot of Blokus, a great strategy board game. There was also a Wii bowling tournament, which Rob won, just barely beating Joshua. It was a great trip, even though we had been hoping for snow while we were there! Maybe next year!

Philip holding a swaddled, sleeping Caroline

Joshua tickling his baby cousin

Laura Beth making us some yummy chocolate covered pretzels

Our sweet niece Anna

Christmas

In five years of marriage, this was our FIRST Christmas to celebrate in our own home. It was wonderful! Philip's parents and grandparents came up for a few days, and my parents joined us as well for Christmas dinner. Caroline loved having all of the extra people around to spoil, I mean, hold her! And Philip was able to accomplish his biggest goal, getting his Mom, Dad, Grandmama, AND Grandaddy to play Wii Fit. We have photographic evidence! :)

Caroline's photos

We recently had a photographer friend, David Shirk, take Caroline's pictures. They turned out so great! You can check them out here. Just enter your e-mail address, and then the password "unplug" (all lower case). Enjoy!

Cookies and Dancing...

Debbie Cox invited the Sunday School gals over to her house to teach us how to decorate some fabulous Christmas cookies. Stephanie and I had a blast learning from the baking master! These were some very labor-intensive cookies. No break and bake here! None of that gel-like icing in a tube with some sprinkles on top! We are talking homemade icing in icing bags. They turned out so great, I didn't want to eat them! Philip, however, had no problem doing so. I am looking forward to more baking lessons from Debbie! If you've ever had her cooking, then you understand.

We recently purchased Dance Dance Revolutions for the Wii, and the Allums came over to play this week. Sadly, both Casey and Philip were better than Stephanie and me. :( Who knew I was married to a man who can dance? OK, really he can't dance; we've discovered that DDR isn't anything like the real thing. It is a bit of a workout, though! We are just starting to leave behind the beginner level and move onto basic. (OK, Philip is... I am stuck on beginner.) I can't even imagine the difficult and expert levels! We have accidentally started a round or two in the expert level, and we can't even begin to do it. I don't know how the twelve year olds in the mall play this game! It's fun to try, though!

How is it that Casey looks so normal in all of these photos. and Philip looks like a dancing maniac? :)

Four months

My baby girl was four months old yesterday. We had her pediatrician appointment today, which went well. She got her vaccinations, screamed for a second, and then zonked out in the car. She was sleeping so soundly that I was able to go to Michael's and Publix without her waking up! She now weighs 11 lbs 13.5 oz, which is about the 20th percentile. She is 24.25" long, which is about the 50th percentile. She is pretty much sticking to her growth curves! She is still such a petite little thing. She started wearing 3-6 month clothes at Thanksgiving, and is still in size 1 diapers. I'm glad we're in the 3-6 month sizes, because we have a ton of them! :)