Vacation

This year for our family vacation we decided to meet up with Grant's Brother Da, and his family in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We stayed in a condo on the beach, and had a great relaxing vacation.

Hallie was a trooper, and did much better than we thought she would on the 14 hour drive. She normally hates the car, and still did, but we were able to keep her pacified by singing "itsy bitsy spider" and "popcorn" the whole time-Yes it was a loooooooong drive. We also broke the trip up staying in Atlanta, and were able to spend a little time with my brother Todd and his sweet wife Cathy.

We finally made it to our destination, and 10 minutes later we were headed down to the beach.

Hallie experienced sand for the first time, and Daddy helped her write her name in the sand.

Grant also had a lot of fun enjoying the beach. His only ocean experience before was to a beach on the Pacific Ocean in Washington-Brrrrrr. He is now converted, and understands why I have gone on and on our whole marriage about how much I love beach vacations. I think we'll be going to the beach every summer now :)

Grant had fun looking for shells with the kids.

Hallie"s first "dip" in the ocean.

The girls got right to business playing in the waves.

It was a little windy that first night.

The next day was Sunday, and we woke up to the biggest rain storm I've ever seen. We went to church, and watched some movies, but by about 3pm Grant was itching to get outside and play in that rain. He convinced Maddie and Sadie to go play in the rain with him.

Sadie was a little more cautious and put on her swimsuit to go play in the rain...

But Maddie didn't really get a chance to put hers on, Uncle Grant was too fast at kidnapping her and throwing her out in the rain.

Captured!!!

Soaking wet, but totally worth it :)

Sunday night the rain stopped so we all headed out for a nice walk on the beach.

I made the mistake of pointing out little holes in the sand to Sadie, and she became verrrry interested in finding out what was in them and how deep each hole was. After about 30 minutes we had only made it about 10 ft, so we decided to only check the "really big holes" while we tried to catch up to the family. Sadie cracked me up, as every couple seconds I would hear, "oh! Aunt Liz, here's a REALLY big one!" And then of course we'd have to check it out, because we did agree to stop for the REALLY big ones:)

I just stole the computer from Liz so now it is the vacation according to Grant. Below we have the best looking family on the beach. We were so impressed with their beauty we had to get a picture.

Hallie did have so much fun at the beach and pool, she was so cute in her little bathing suits. Everyone had to comment on how adorable our little girl is.

The Kids woke up on Wednesday morning to some surprise floaties and it was like Christmas morning for them. So of course we headed out to the pool to test them out. They passed with flying colors.

Hallie was not about to let her cousins have all the fun so when one finally opened up she jumped on and would not get off. Here she is ordering another milk so she could continue relaxing.

And of course the fun could not be limited to the pool. Apparently floaties are also fun to use while watching TV or taking a nap.

There was an old army fort just down the road from the condo so we went to check it out one evening. Fort Morgan was pretty cool. Even the kids liked running around the old structures.

Hallie was so interested in the history of the fort that protected the Bay of Mobile.

Look at those beautiful people again.

Apparently people were shorter and skinnier back in the civil war times. Either that or I really enjoyed the food on this vacation and grew to be able to fill a normal doorway.

The girls showing off their big guns.

Us walking up some ridiculously steep stairs at Fort Morgan.

The whole group just before heading home.

This was our view from the condo. I really miss eating my pancakes in the morning and then looking up and seeing this.

Guess we will have to go back!!!!!!!

6 Months... a little late

Hallie has been growing and growing. As of late she has been working on her escape artist skill, and has figured out how to wiggle out of her swaddle blanket. This is how I found her 10 minutes after I put her down for a nap. We normally put her to bed swaddled up - burrito baby style. We've been thinking it's time to start putting her to bed unswaddled, but have put it off. Now that baby Houdini has learned how to escape her Velcro-swaddle, we have no other choice- Hallie has to learn how to sleep without being swaddled. I cannot fully express how much I am dreading this. Hallie will fall asleep in about 5 minutes when she is swaddled, but when I tried to let her go to sleep without the swaddle she cried for 45 minutes. Ughh, guess we have to go through crying-it-out again:( Hallie tried out the sippy-cup this month, and so far she seems to like it.

"Umm Mom, are you sure there's only water in here?"

And finally, Daddy decided Hallie was old enough to mow the lawn. To protect her ears from the noise, he fashioned these ear-muffs out of socks and a headband. Looks pretty snappy to me;)

Dad said she loved it out there!

That's about it for this month. She rolled back-to-front, and is working on sitting up. My guess is that 7 months will bring tales of this little lady wreaking all sorts of havoc with her newly mastered mobility :)

My First Mother's Day

This year was my first real Mother's Day. Last year we knew we were pregnant, and I spent the day trying not to throw-up, but there was no real celebrating. This year, I was still sick (not the 9 month flu thank goodness), and spent the day trying to get some rest. Grant was super sweet and took care of Hallie all weekend, and I got to nap whenever I wanted. It was pure heaven, aside from the whole "feeling like death warmed over" aspect of the weekend. Probably the best part of the Mother's Day festivities was a visit from my mom earlier in the week. We played and played and played, and then half way through her visit I woke up with a temperature of 103*. What a blessing it was to have her with us when I got sick! She took great care of Hallie, and I was able to get some much needed rest knowing that Grandma had Hallie. I think that my body knew it could finally breakdown with my mom here , and while it was a definite bummer, if I had to get sick there was no better time for it to happen.Grant made me a yummy BBQ chicken dinner. I didn't want to post these pictures of me, getting the plague always makes for very flattering pictures, but they are part of the memories.Hallie was sweet, and for Mother's Day she decided that it was about time for her to own some "I love Mom" clothes. Dad and Hallie cleared out the store and bought every outfit that had a saying about mom.
Presents- check. Napping and relaxing- check. Breakfast and dinner made by Dad-check. Lots of loves and snuggles from my favorite husband and baby- check. Yep, it was a great Mother's Day!