3 YEARS!!

Ben and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on June 17!  I have spent 3 wonderful years with the love of my life and wouldn't trade a minute of it.  It is hard to believe how much has happened in 3 years.  God blessed me beyond measure when he introduced me to Ben, and I am looking forward to making many more wonderful memories!  He is the love of my life, best friend and partner in anything I love to do!  I have learned so much from him over the years I have known him, and hope that his best qualities continue to rub off on me!  We spent our anniversary night at Applebees, probably our favorite restaurant, and even took little Caroline along.  Babysitters are few and far between during the week, and thought it would be a blessing to have her there with us.  She hardly said a word the whole time...just sat in her car seat minding her own business while mommy and daddy talked about the past, present and future.  We used the self-timer to take a picture of us to remember the special day. Happy Anniversary, Ben!  I you more than I could ever say!

What I was afraid of...

What I was afraid of has happened...I have neglected my blog for about 2 weeks. So...I have a lot to catch up on, but should make it quick while Caroline is in my arms being good and playing with this yellow highlighter for a few minutes. Yes, the top is on for now...she's not that sly yet...or so I think. We've been busy the past two weeks with work and our usual routine during the week and going out of town on the weekends. I have included another snapper picture, comparing Caroline for size, from a couple of weekends ago, one of Caroline with mom from the same weekend, and have included a picture from our weekend in Dothan this past weekend of Caroline with dad and Spence in the pool. Happy Father's Day to my Ben on his first Father's Day, my dad on his 31st Fathers Day, and to all the other dads out there, as well! I helped give a baby shower for a long-time friend of mine this past weekend, Elizabeth Jackson Kanter, and it was such a memorable time. She has a baby girl due August 7 and is looking so adorable at 7 1/2 months pregnant. We spent Friday night with Mom and Saturday night with Dad, since Father's day was Sunday. We spent our Saturday afternoon at Ben's mother's pool letting Caroline soak up some sun (with plenty of sunblock on, of course). She has really progressed quickly over the past couple of weeks. Spence was home this weekend, too, so we got to visit with a lot of people. Caroline has mastered pulling up on anything and everything, is crawling faster and faster, saying dada more. After she learns to walk and hold on to things, I guess the next step will be walking. Daycare is going great. She seems to get along with the others in her class well and I hear she is getting into everything. Well, that's about it for now. Enjoy the pics...more updates later...

First real word...

Well, it looks like Caroline's first real word is going to be Ma Ma.  Although she said it a week ago from the past Sunday for the first time, she seems to actually know what it means now.  She seems to young to me to be able to do that, but from what people tell me, she is not.  And she definitely does it at the right times.  I put her down...she says mama.  She starts crying, she says mama.  She sees me walk in the room, she says mama.  It's awfully precious and we believe she would say dada if she could just get her mouth to make the sound more often.   She loves her mama and dada.  More pics later...

Snapper Season!

It's "snappa season" again and the red snapper were hot this weekend!  We had a great weekend at the beach with a great fishing trip Saturday morning and thanks to a great captain (BEN), a great dinner Saturday night!  Our fishing crew consisted of Ben, Kevin, Chappel, Lisa and myself, with Lisa landing the biggest fish.  We caught our limit of red snapper, a few black snapper, and 3 kings.  We spend the rest of our weekend hanging out with MiMi (Amelia) and spent a lot of time over at Lisa's house swimming, cooking and visiting.  Many thanks to Ben and Kevin for a lot of hard work with the fishing trip, to Amelia for keeping Caroline while Mommy and Daddy had fun on the boat (you are going next time!) and to Lisa for the great hospitality! 

Pictures as promised...

Ma Ma and Steve did send pictures earlier last week, but I have not gotten to post them yet.  Here they are as promised.

What has Caroline been doing?

She has been crawling, pulling up, saying mama and da da, playing in the baby pool, meeting horses for the first time, visiting with her Great Aunt Ma Ma and Great Uncle Steve, and her Great Grandmother.  Yes, we had a busy weekend.  We went for a visit to Dawson this weekend and had a great time.  My Aunt Ma Ma and Uncle Steve took us to a Albany Wildcats arena football game and what a great game it was!  The game went back and forth until the very end, with the Wildcats coming out on top.  Thanks for such a fun time, Ma Ma and Steve, and thanks you Grandmother, for keeping Caroline.   While we weren't at the game, we were busy watching Caroline do all of these "firsts".  Once she started scooting, she started progressing along very quickly. Her belly crawl has turned into an actual crawl, and while she can't pull up on anything higher than a low chair yet, I believe it will only be a few short days before she can.  Still no teeth, but I think they'll be here in the next month. We also went to the hospital this past week to visit Caroline's friend, Anna Claire Williams, who was born Wednesday.  We are very excited for you Keith, Suzanne, and Ella!  We'll post some pictures from the weekend in the next couple of days.  My camera was dead so they are coming from Ma Ma and Steve.  In the meantime, here is a random pic of Caroline.