It's heeerrreee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mother-in-law just called and said that the dress has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it made it here from California in 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!! The ebay seller is getting an awesome review from me for sure!!!!!

I can't wait until I get off of work so I can see what it looks like on my baby. My mother-in-law says that it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! She did say that it looked a little bit long, but we still have enough time to get it altered if we need to.

All I can say now is WHEW....what a relief to have it here!!!!! :)

Thanks for the prayers! :)

Photo problems

I don't know what the deal is with the pictures, but if you just click on them then you can see them in normal size. I even edited the post and re-posted the pictures as small and they are still huge. Anyway, sorry!

2 year photo shoot & an update

The Saturday before last was Courtlyn's 2 year photo shoot at Carlisle Photography in Georgetown. The photos were just posted online last Sunday, and as usual Michele did an awesome job. Of course she always makes it hard for me to choose so I end up buying all of the proof pictures and make an album out of them. But I do need some help from you out there. Could you help me pick some of your favorite poses? I could spend hours just going through each one that I actually end up making myself a crazy lady. :) So I think an objective second eye wouldn't hurt. ;) Here's a link to the proof page and the password to enter is hoover.

http://carlislephotography.smugmug.com/gallery/6370543_pBpsV

This past weekend we went to a Halloween Party. It was actually Courtlyn's first and she had a blast. If I remember correctly last year she had a cold so we decided just to keep her in. She had so much fun playing with the other kids and dressing up. Here are a couple pics...

I can't wait to see how much fun she will have Friday night when we take her Trick-or-Treating!

Then I couldn't resist posting this picture of Courtlyn.

I took it right before we left for church Sunday morning. She's posing with the pumpkins she picked (which she named mommy, daddy & baby) in her new Halloween outfit. She looks so grown up in this picture it kind of makes me sad.

We found out Saturday that Courtlyn is going to be in a wedding THIS WEEKEND!!!!! It is David's cousin's wedding. There is going to be 7 children in the wedding. So this will either be really cute or a disaster. I'm hoping for really cute! :) Saturday morning as soon as I was asked I got on ebay and started hunting like a mad lady for a white dress with a black sash in a size 2. Do you know how hard this was???? About 45 minutes later I finally found one....in California. I'm in Kentucky!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's what it looks like...

She will be walking with a set of twin boys--her 3 year old cousins--who will be decked out in black tuxes so I think it's going to be so cute. Then her other 4 cousins will be the ring bearers and flowers girls. I'm just praying that the dress will make it here from California in time. The seller assures me it will and I hope he's right. So if you don't mind say and extra prayer for me that this dress will get here. I will be sure and take lots of pictures and post on here as soon as I can.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Pickles, Lemons & Rock-a-bye Baby

Crazy title, huh? Well, there is a story...

Saturday I took Courtlyn to Georgetown for her 2 year pictures. She did great. So well that she earned herself 2 balloons. Nothing like a good ol' bribe! ;) So we head to Hamburg in Lexington to get the 2 promised balloons and lunch at Calistoga's (which by the way is my new favorite restaurant!). We get in Calistoga's and ordered and this is where Courtlyn turned on.

I ordered her a grilled cheese sandwich, chips and a pickle. Now this was the first time she had ever had a dill pickle and it was definitely a Kodak moment. It was, you could say, a love/hate relationship she had with the pickle. She loved the taste of it because she would say ummmm...good, but when the sour part would kick in she would throw it down like she didn't want it. It was hilarious!

Trying out the pickle...

Taking a big bite...

Cheeeeeeese!!!!!

After the pickle fiasco Courtlyn finished up her food and we thought we were ready to go. She saw there were lemons and she is a lemon lover (especially Cracker Barrel lemons). I'm not sure what it is about Cracker Barrel's lemons, but my mother-in-law says that she can eat them left and right when they take her. Anyway, I go and get her a couple of lemons. She sticks the whole thing in her mouth and she doesn't really flinch like you would expect her to. My mouth is totally watering right now just thinking about it. But apparently the lemons at Calistoga aren't as good as the lemons at Cracker Barrel because she wouldn't have anything to do with the second lemon I tried to give her.

Devouring the lemon...

Here's just a couple pictures of Courtlyn posing right before we left. She was totally hamming it up with the people who were waiting in line. She would wave at them and say hello. It must have been the pickle/lemon mixture working on her because the rest of the day she was a firecracker. :) Gotta love it!

Now on to the Rock-a-bye Baby part...Courtlyn has just recently developed a deep interest into her baby dolls. She has started to rock them, pat them, feed them and really started to "mother" them which I totally LOVE. But you really have to be careful because she doesn't want you to know that she is doing this so I have to sneak to get pictures. Here's what I got this past Sunday when we were at Nana & Papaw Joe's after church...

Rocking baby Bailey to sleep in the rocking chair

Burping baby Bailey (notice the burp cloth on her shoulder) too cute!

Now if I could just get her on video singing Rock-a-Bye Baby without her noticing you all would crack up. That's my new mission! :)

Cookout, hayride & bonfire

This past Saturday we headed out to Bebe & Brian's for a cookout, hayride and bonfire on their farm. Courtlyn had been looking forward to this because we had been talking it up all day. Of course, she had no idea what a hayride or bonfire was, but she was so excited to go see Bebe & Brian and ride on the tractor!

When we got there Courtlyn had her first hot dog and she liked it pretty well. She ate half of it and I was pretty much a nervous wreck the entire time. :) Even though I cut it in half and then quartered it and fed it to her, I was still scared to death of her choking on it. I guess it's that first time parent, overprotective thing kicking in, but I can't help it. Hot dogs and kids scare the daylights out of me. They always have! When I see a child eating a hot dog I intently watch them to make sure they are not choking no matter where we are. I guess I'm just weird like that. Anyway, I digress!

So once we finished eating we went on our first of two hayrides for the night. Courtlyn was so excited when she saw everyone climbing on the wagon even though she still didn't know what to expect. Here she is right before the tractor took off holding on pretty tight to Daddy's leg.

Here she is about halfway through the ride and she is liking it!

After the hayride she just had to "drive" the tractor. So of course, we let her. ;)

Here she is checking back making sure everything is ok.

"Driving" again

Is this our cousin?

I'm not so sure about him????

Getting ready to throw in her first fish with help from Phil

First time fishing with Aunt Rene & Nana

Fishing off the dock with Aunt Rene

Daddy, Courtlyn & Mommy going on our second hayride

Screaming with the other kids on the hayride

Admiring her first bonfire

Courtlyn & Papaw Joe all snuggled up by the fire

Mommy, Courtlyn & Daddy enjoying the fire

There were smores to enjoy, but Courtlyn just devoured the graham crackers instead. Somehow she managed to get a package home with her. :) Thanks to Bebe & Brian we were also able to take home 3 pumpkins to remember the night by. Fun was had by all, and we can't wait for next year!

Swimming Lessons...

We enrolled Courtlyn in swimming lessons at EKU and they started a couple weeks ago. This is her new favorite thing to do twice a week. As soon as she wakes up on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and she finds out what day it is she says, I go swimming!!! I couldn't resist in sharing these cute pictures from class last Thursday.



















The amazing part of it all is in just 4 lessons she is starting to hold her breath under water and is starting to get enough confidence to jump into the pool standing up from the side of the pool into Daddy's arms which according to the teacher is a really big deal. We are still working on learning how to blow bubbles in the water. She would rather drink the pool water which totally grosses me out, but the teacher says one day it will just click so I am hoping sooner rather than later she learns the blowing bubble thing. :)

One thing that I am learning while in the swimming class is what a total girly girl Courtlyn is becoming. While doing the underwater pass from Daddy to Mommy she is worried about her hair and is fixing it underwater by pushing it back before she comes up out of the water. It totally cracks us up to watch her do this in the short amount of time she is actually under the water. :)

A day at Evan's Orchard & Cider Mill

On Saturday the 4th Courtlyn, David & I spent the afternoon at Evan's Orchard and Cider Mill in Georgetown (http://www.evansorchard.com/Index.html). If you've never been there we highly recommend it. We had a great time!

It was our first time visiting the orchard and there was so much to do. We picked a perfect day weather wise. It was in the mid-70s and we weren't the only people who decided to head up to Georgetown to check it out. It was a little crowded, but we just got right in there with everyone else and had a great time.

When we first got there we were starving so we decided to try the food. We got a cheeseburger meal & a pork barbecue meal. I got the cheeseburger meal thinking Courtlyn would rather have that than BBQ, but what did she choose to eat.....BBQ. She is always surprising us with her choices in food. :) Oh, then there were the fried apple pies which were to DIE for!!! I wished I had one right now with some vanilla ice cream....YUMMY!!!!

After we ate when went on a tractor ride of the farm which Courtlyn loved! We kept trying to encourage her that the tractor we were on was just like the tractor she had at home, but there was no convincing her of that. She still won't go near it. We think it is the noise the motor makes. Oh well, maybe in time she will take her stuffed cow and pig for a ride in the front yard.

Once the tractor ride was over it parked directly in front of the kids play land so guess where we headed off to next? Yep, you guess right....Kiddie Land! She was in kiddie heaven with all of the swings, slides, mazes, tricycle tractors, hay castles and dirt. When it was time to leave Kiddie Land we had to basically bribe her with a pony ride because she was crying. (Something I said I would never do before I had children...oh, how I am eating those words now!)

Courtlyn & Daddy in the Rope Maze

Courtlyn & Daddy coming down the Apple Cider Slider

Courtlyn & Daddy at the bottom of the Apple Cider Slider

Courtlyn doing her favorite pasttime...swinging.

Courtlyn said she was in her words "flynin".

So off to the pony rides we went. She loved that as well. Oh and the smell was WONDERFUL!!!! The ponies were SO excited to take 2, 3 & 4 year olds for 5 minute rides in continuous circles you could tell.

Once the ride was over we thought the tears from Kiddie Land were bad, but they were nothing compared to the tears when the pony ride was over. So what could we come up with now? Where had we not been that she had been dying to go to? The pumpkin patch!!!!!!!!!! Off we go....

By this time we had been at the Orchard for about 3 hours I guess and it was really starting to get warm and I was totally rethinking the sweatshirt I put on as I was pushing the sleeves up constantly. Courtlyn had not had a nap other than the 45 minute ride in the car to the Orchard. So needless to say patience was wearing a little thin you might say. We make the hike down to the pumpkin patch hoping that some kind soul would be down there to take a family snapshot of us and we could quickly leave. Well, that wasn't the case. As soon as we get down there everyone disappears like the plague. I was like you have to be kidding me! Not 1 single person! So we let Courtlyn attempt to walk in the pumpkin patch as best she could. She tumbled around more than she walked since she was so excited to see all of the pumpkins and would not watch where she was walking. :) Silly girl!

Finally we decided that we had enough and made the hike back up the hill towards the car. We finally spotted a family who we asked if they would take a picture of us and they so kindly obliged. We gathered up everything and loaded up the car and headed home.

We had a great time and made some great memories. I definetly want to make this an annual fall trip because it is such a nice place, and to eat another fried apple pie of course!!! :)