SIX MONTHS- can you believe it?

 
My little sweet pumpkin 'Punk' as we call her is six months old today!  Halfway to one and enjoying your day at Kitty Hawk, NC!

 Some new things for her:
-She is really trying to crawl. She gets up on her knees and tries so hard to go forward!
-She has her bottom two teeth but her 2 top teeth have been coming in for the last week or so and she has not been very happy.
-No longer sleeping through the night due to teeth but I hope this changes soon! (yawn)
-Sits up steadily on her own surrounded by toys and loves it!
-I can hold her up and say 'kick kick' and she kicks away!

Happy half birthday to sweet Evelyn!
 (I JUST REALIZED THAT TODAY IS THE 28TH NOT THE 29TH- CAN YOU TELL IM ON VACATION? SOOOO EVELYN IS TECHNICALLY 6 MONTHS OLD TOMORROW MORNING! OOPS!)

Look at me!

    I think since Evelyn was born, she was yearning to sit up!  The acid reflux thing produced major crying fits when lying on her back or reclining in any type of bouncy seat, swing, car seat, etc.  In the past week or so, she has really 'perfected' the art of sitting up all alone.  Every now and then we yell 'timberrrr' as she topples over but for the most part, she is so happy sitting and being surrounded by some toys......She began to sleep through the night about 3 weeks ago (hallelujah- MUCH later than her older sisters- yawn) but then the teething process began and the two top teeth are giving her a major fit. She is up every night and then bright and early in the AM. I hope these teeth come on in and let her sleep longer! (and me too;-)

Go Gators!

   
     This weekend concluded our swim team's 2012 season.....We had our finals on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn!  Once the clouds disappeared, it was a hot morning!  I expected Lucy to swim in finals in her regular five events but I did not guess at all that Alice would be needed.  Now, to be clear, she was there by default.  They take the fastest times and ask those swimmers to participate in finals.  Our top 3 swimmers (6 and under girls) were in town and ready to swim but they needed a 4th for the relay team.  All the other girls were out of town or unavailable to swim so that left lil' Alice to fill the spot! I was so worried b/c despite her big smile she is not the fastest fish in the pond!  Their relay team had a real good chance of winning and I knew with her in it, they would not come in 1st but would have one excited 5 yr old ready to swim. She was SO proud of herself when I told her that she was swimming in finals.  Low and behold, she swam that length of the pool as fast as I have ever seen her.  They CAME IN 3rd!!!!! woohoo!!!! (later we learned that they were disqualified after another teammate jumped too early by a millisecond) but we didn't care, we were SO proud of them!!!!  Lucy had her two fastest times in backstroke (9th overall) and freestyle (14th overall) so you can see that there were some spectacular swimmers in the finals.  (there are 10 teams competing).  I was so proud of both of them for their team spirit and 'can do' attitudes!!
     We had our swim banquet last night.  Alice got her 1st trophy- she has been looking forward to this all season!  She was also award 'Most Improved Swimmer' in the 6 and under girls.  This was much deserved as 6 weeks ago, she couldn't swim the whole length of the pool without making several stops.  She now does it multiple times each meet!  Lucy got her trophy, finals ribbons, and was awarded the 'Golden Gator' award. These 'gators' were always looking out for the team as a whole by swimming up when asked, tried their hardest, and cheered on their teammates.  I could not be prouder of my lil' gators.  We had a great season and look forward to next year.  We will miss our Head Coach Elizabeth as she moves to Durham! 
                                                     LUCY STARTING HER RELAY

THIS IS BECOMING A PROBLEM.....

she said she was working on her eyebrows............

my little minnow

What better activity on this hot afternoon than a little skinny dipping in the baby pool!

SPLISH SPLASH VIDEO

WHO DOESN'T LOVE A SQUISHY BABY TOOSHIE!??

but 

when I came back inside, someone had gotten into the lipstick.........

jumping bean

Good (Early) morning from Evelyn the jumping bean!  She is ready to go this morning!  I even just noticed her top tooth is already starting to come in- wow! 

Below are some recent phone pics of Miss E

                                         BBQ 'playdate' with her new pals: (left to right)
               Vivi Sessions, Olivia Tennille, Ayers Rich, Eli Johnson, and Evelyn (trying to eat Eli)

Slowly but surely

Last Tuesday's swim meet, I remembered to tape Alice as she did her backstroke.  While this is definitely not her strong suit, she loves it!  Now, I'm not saying she is Natalie Coughlin, but she is a darn cute swimmer! It takes a while for her to get to the other end of the pool but no one gets out with a bigger smile than her!  Enjoy!

Cherry Grove 2012

     Hello again! We are back from our vacation with Josh's parents at their place in Cherry Grove, SC aka North Myrtle Beach.  We stayed in their rental cottage across from the beach while Evelyn stayed with them in their house back on the inlet.  We had a wonderful vacation! Evelyn began sleeping through the night before we left and kept it up while we were away.  Many thanks to my mother-in-law for keeping her so much so we could sleep in a little, go out in the heat and have fun!

     Evelyn loved the beach as well as her sisters.  Lucy likes the beach, but Alice is a mermaid! She would not get out of the ocean unless we made her!  A few afternoons, we had some great tidal pools and they were perfect for Evelyn...she loves the water and sand! She would even nap out there which was great!

   We actually came back on Tuesday for the night for the girls swim meet- it was a quick trip but glad we came. Lucy's sweet Kindergarten and 1st grade teacher came to the meet so she was so excited about that!
  We came back on Wednesday to enjoy some more sun and fun. Now that the kids are older we have started doing some of the many 'touristy' things that Myrtle Beach has to offer!  Thursday night, we went to the Pirates Voyage dinner theater show! It was a great time with wonderful sights and pretty good food!

The next day, we finally went to the water park Myrtle Waves! The girls had a great time and enjoyed their first 'big' water slides!

Josh and Alice on the 'monster' slide according to her!

On our last night, good friends Cindy and Phyllis came over to eat dinner with us! They even took some family photos for us!

We are back home now and I have piles of laundry staring at me!  Night!