Happy Halloween!!

Last year, Carli was a screaming little kitten...

Can you guess what she is this year?

Story Time with Carli

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Baskets are for Sitting

Despite all our toys, Carli has found it most entertaining to empty out the living room basket of books and climb in. She then proceeds to "read" the books that are still in the basket that she is sitting on. Have I mentioned that she doesn't have much patience? She gets pretty frustrated pretty fast when she can't get the book she is sitting on out so she can read it...all in day with Carli...

There's a New Angel In Heaven

There's a new angel in heaven today, her name is Hannah Collie. I never had the privilege of meeting Hannah, but I knew her Momma, Amanda, back in high school. Hannah was a strong, courageous little girl. She overcame so much in her little life and her family is in need of your prayers for strength and comfort today and in the weeks to come. This touches me now more than ever, because I have a little girl and I cannot even fathom life without her. I shed tears today, for an angel I never met, a mother I once knew 10 years ago, a father whose heart is breaking and a little boy who lost his big sister. Please also send up a prayer for Shirlonda Taylor, the mother of the little boy whose heart Hannah received, she lost a piece of her heart too. Please, please, pray for this family and their friends - they are in need of God's comfort now more than ever and the comfort of eachother.

Thank you.

Hannah's Story

Fall is Here!

Lately Carli has been begging - rather, voicing extremely loudly that she wants to go outside. When she heads to the doggie door and attempts to go head first out - I get the picture. Last week it was rainy and cold, but we found a few spare moments when the rain stopped and it wasn't too terribly cold to go out with nothing more than a long sleeved shirt...

Carl is not too fond of hats, I think this one is fun. She was distracted enough by getting to go outside that she kept the hat on the whole time. As soon as we were inside, off it came!

Pappy's Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday, we made our first journey out to the pumpkin patch. We had tried to find one the previous weekend, but the ones we stumbled across cost money just to see the pumpkins! With the help of friends, we found Pappy's Pumpkin Patch at Barry Family Farms in Tyler. It was so nice and free! Carli had an absolute blast. We had quite a time trying to get a picture of Carli smiling. She was so intent on all the pumpkins, which were balls, that she had no time to smile. The video is kind of long, but if you listen close you can hear her saying ball, ball, ball...

Day Dreaming

Where have we been - I wish we had just been day dreaming! :) We've stayed busy, working and living - just life! Carli has had a good week.

Our biggest news this week is that we finally, finally have a tooth. It actually started to poke through a couple of weeks ago - but we have had many of those instances where the tooth almost pokes through but never actually makes an appearance. But this one has finally pushed through - we have a one toothed 12 mth old! Woohoo! God took care of me, as Carli officially weaned herself last week too and I never had to deal with teeth and nursing, and I was thankful for that! ha!

More from our week to come - I'm working on it all. Carli and Whitey Tighty daydreamed to play outside today.

One Year Stats

It dawned on me that I never posted Carli's one year stats. She went for her 12 mth check up on Oct 5th. She did great, until she saw a nurse or a doctor and then she screamed until they left. Poor doc, all she had to do was come in the room and Carli screamed bloody murder until she left. I guess this will be the norm for us until she gets over her fear of doctors after her visit to the ER earlier. I felt bad b/c I got it in my head she would get no shots, so I was not prepared, and neither was Carli (I try to give her some Tylenol beforehand). She did get shots and she was definitely mad about it! I was surprised that she only weighed 18lbs. When we were there a couple of weeks earlier, she was 19 lbs 6 oz or something with all her clothes on...who knew a diaper, cast and clothes weighs so much! The doc wasn't too concerned with her being so light. She said she was just a long lean baby - no idea where that comes from, definitely not from her Momma! Carli also prefers to graze all day instead of eating a whole lot at once. We got through stages of eating meat and vegi's and then she will boycott them and only eat cheese and bread. Something about reaping what I sowed...not sure why ppl say that.

Anyway - here are her stats as of Oct 5th:

Weight: 18 lbs - 6%
(Gained a whooping 10.5 oz in three months)

Height: 29.25 inches - 56%
(Grew an inch and a half)

Head 98.5 cm - 69%
(This is the first time they gave me this measurement on her paper, but at least her head is big, that means she has a big brain, right?)

A Gift from Momma & Daddy

I just realized that I never posted pictures of our gift to Carli for her birthday. Carli spends most of her time in the living room with me during the day. She plays, and I work, or attempt to work. So, in an attempt to organize toys and have a place for things, we came up with this idea.

Keith built her two toy boxes with awesome hinges that won't slam down. And then in the middle she has three cubbies. On the top of the middle cubbie, he built a snack tray so that she could put her sippy cup and snack bowls on top of the cubbie.

We had the grand idea of using magnetic paint on the front of the toy chest. It kind of works. It recommended doing 3 light coats, I think we did like 6! Grammy made her some magnets that stick really well and then she found some BIG letters that have extra magnets on them that work as well.
Carli loves them - and I do too! It makes clean up easy and all her toys have a place now. Please, no new toys for Christmas! :)
A great big, huge thank you to Aunt Carolyn who helped us out by making the cushions that went on top of the toy storage. They turned out great!
Next we need to find new curtains with tie backs and recover our couches...but that's another story for another day!

Buds

Just three weeks apart in age - little buddies, watching the rain.

Sitting Pretty

Carli found a rocking chair just her size at Grammy's house last week. She was pretty cute sitting in it, until she decided it would be more fun to stand in it!

Also, this is the first time she wore tennis shoes. She's always just worn crocs to Alto when we go there to work. But Ms. Jamie gave her these little shoes and she likes them! Thank goodness since the recent change in weather would have made wearing crocs a little difficult!

Ball?

Have I mentioned Carli's obsession with balls? One of her favorite new toys, is the ball popper. I'm not sure if she enjoys the music or the balls more. Her current fascination with it is to add her little magnetic letters into the ball popper and get really mad when it won't pop those out. Her favorite letters are the "i" and the "l" - maybe they fit in the hole the easiest?

Where did it go?

If you look really close, you can see the air blowing her hair.

Hats off to You!

Carli found one of her daddy's baseball hats on the floor this morning - apparently she's been watching her daddy a little!

May I Have This Seat?

Carli's latest thing is to sit. Just sit. She tries to sit on everything. If you are laying the floor, she will sit on you. Her new toys, are all seats and if they don't comply they get a good frustrated hollar prior to Carli moving on to the next sitting victim. The dogs have even been subjected to this new fascination, although I have no pictures to prove it as they are not very willing participants. Her most favorite "sitting" victim, is her new little vacuum cleaner. Despite my best efforts to teach her to "vacuum," the little thing was clearly designed to be Carli's new seat!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Simple Things

All Carli's gifts, are getting lots and lots of use. But until we got things out of boxes, and in place Carli's favorite gift for the day was Ms. Jamie's plastic tub!

Worn Out

This past weekend would not have been possible without the help of Naggy, Pappy, Grammy & Pa. We are so appreciative of their support and help throughout the last year.

Naggy especially worked non stop while she was here this past wkd. I cooked and she cleaned up my mess! Bless both she and Pappy for helping me clean the house! And did I mention they loaned us their ice cream maker so we could enjoy some nice fattening homemade ice cream?! Carli's first birthday was truly a team effort.

And believe it or not - we flat wore both Naggy and Carli out!

P.S. Naggy - Pappy gave us permission to post this picture! Love you!

Party Pictures!

Carli's party went really well. Many thanks to all our family and friends who came out to help us celebrate our wonderful little girl. Here are some pictures from the party - there are many, many more on Carli's picture website, just click on the link to the right.

The Most Awesome Cake ever!

One of our Caterpillar balloons - they were way cute.
All of Carli's gifts!
Our birthday girl
She wasn't so distructive on her cake, such a little lady!
College buddies!

Amber, Erica and Resa
Party Goers
More Party goers
Carli and her Daddy
After our mini cake non distruction...
Carli fell in love with Ms. Jamie's necklace and wore it half the party.
Carli and her Momma