Auburn's Fall Festival

Last night Chip and I took Karlee to the City of Auburn Fall Festival. It was so crowded and the lines for each game were super long. It's a good thing Karlee had no idea what was going on so she didn't notice that we skipped the long lines and opted for the shorter ones.

The petting zoo was the highlight of Karlee's night. We had to walk through it twice. She saw goats, sheep, chickens, and a cow (which happens to be a cow she sees every day since it's one that stays in Chip's parents pasture!). She tried her hardest to climb over each of the fences and would have if I had not stopped her.

The look I got when I told her not to climb any further!

Her other favorite thing which we also had to do twice was the Go Fish game. She was showing off her skills she learned from fishing on Sunday with her daddy!



We were heading back to the car when Karlee spotted the fire truck. She was so excited when we first walked up to it. That changed when we put her in the truck. She instantly started calling for her daddy so he joined her in the photo op. She gave the fireman that was dressed from head to toe in his fire gear a high five when she hopped down. I thought she would be scared of him dressed like that but she wasn't.



I just had to get this picture of these two. The past few days have been "daddy, daddy, daddy" and nothing else. Karlee asks for her daddy when she wakes up every morning and constantly asks for him during the day. Sometimes I have to call Chip on the phone to let Karlee talk to him just to get her to stop saying his name! I think it is so sweet though because Chip is a great daddy and very hands on when it comes to taking care of her. We are truly blessed.

First trip on the fishing boat

(Excuse the blurry pictures. I was trying to hold Karlee with one hand and snap pictures with the other.)
Chip has wanted to see what Karlee would act like on his fishing boat for a while now. Well, Sunday evening, we all ventured to Lee County Lake to try it out. Keep in mind I have a large boot on my foot for a stress fracture. It was not easy to be fast and agile as I needed to be to keep Karlee from jumping (or falling) off the side of the boat.

She started out keeping herself entertained with the depth finder. I told her to help daddy look for fish and she took it literally by moving to the front of the boat and squatting down to look for fish!!





Then she had to have a fishing pole too like daddy. She just didn't understand that the entire pole was not supposed to go in the water. It was also my job to keep the pole in the boat and not let her drop it in the water. I politely told Chip that if he didn't want her using his pole then he didn't need three lying on the floor. We were not in a fishing tournament!



As I was trying to keep the pole from going in the water, Karlee swung it away from me and the lure hit me in the side of the head. I kept my cool but was internally saying, "This was a terrible idea!"

It took one step on the trolling motor for Karlee to decide she had to help daddy do that too.


Chip finally came to the conclusion that he wasn't going to catch any fish with Karlee shaking her pole in the water. He started "teaching" Karlee how to hold the pole and turn the reel. The horn blew for all boats to come in for lake closing time. I was thrilled! And, Karlee of course had to help troll the boat back to the dock.





Let me just say it will be a while before I do this again. Karlee will have to be at least 15!!!

Baking Brownies!!

Saturday night before the game, I decided to bake brownies. As I was stirring, Karlee started walking circles around my feet and saying "Me Me Mommy". This meant she wanted me to hold her. I knew I couldn't hold her without her wanting to help me so I stripped her down to her diaper and sat her on the counter. The pictures show exactly how Karlee helped!!











Karlee doesn't eat a lot of sweets at our house and she's never had candy. Needless to say, she was wound up for the start of the ballgame and came down off the sugar high like a crashing airplane!

"Baby! Baby! Baby!" at 20 months

The "B" word is all we hear around this house lately. No! I'm not pregnant. Karlee has found a love for baby dolls. She sees a doll in the store and goes crazy to have it. If I bought every doll she points at, we would have to add on to our house just to have room for all of them.
I think staying with my parents a few weeks ago got her into this faze. My mom has a doll stroller and baby doll that drinks from a bottle. When you take the bottle out of her mouth she cries. This is when we noticed the motherly instinct kick in with Karlee. When the baby cried, she picked it up and rocked it in her arms. It was absolutely the sweetest thing ever! So, of course, we had to have the same thing at our house.





Today has been doll day at our house. We have strolled, fed, and rocked all morning long. Baby and bottle even had to take a car ride with us today to run errands. When Karlee had a diaper change, Baby had a diaper change. Baby even ate at Chick-Fil-A for lunch today in the highchair beside Karlee! The people at the table next to us had great entertainment as Karlee was also trying to feed Baby her chicken and fruit.
Nap time was a struggle today too because of Baby. Karlee had to have Baby in the bed with her and Baby had to have her own bunny to sleep with like Karlee.



I finally had to take Baby away for Karlee to go to sleep. She kept talking to her and feeding her the bottle. I admit I loved watching Karlee in the video monitor. It was so sweet listening to her talk to the baby. I let the talking go on for about an hour before I politely told Karlee that Baby had to sleep in the other room in her own bed. Karlee gave Baby a kiss, said "Night Night", and rolled over and went right on to sleep.
I absolutely love this stage in Karlee's life. I think she picks up a new word or phrase every day. She talks in sentences to a point where I know exactly what she's saying (most of the time). Sometimes only she knows what she's saying! I thank the Lord every day for this sweet child.

Another War Eagle Weekend!

Another full weekend of block parties, birthday parties, and tailgating. Karlee was the life of the block party Friday night. She ran and talked to everyone, She even kept going up to this woman named Joyce that she had never seen before and sat in her lap. That lady loved it because she doesn't have any grandchildren of her own. Karlee danced like a maniac to the band once it got started and we had to drag her away when it was time to go home. Needless, to say, she slept hard Friday night.

Taking a break from all the running around

Practicing her band march

Dancing and snapping her fingers like her mama

The pitiful face made when told that the pep rally portion had been cancelled and Aubie would not be there.

We went to the Monkey Park in Opelika for a birthday party for the daughter of one of Chip's employees Saturday at lunch. Karlee had a ball playing and riding the train. I can't get the pictures to download from the little camera. I'll try later.

We then dropped her off at my parent's house for the night and headed to tailgate. What an amazing game Auburn played this weekend. WAR EAGLE!!!

Tailgating + Lake = Busy Weekend

I think I need a vacation from this past weekend. We all started the Auburn football celebrations with the block party at Toomer's on Friday night. We did a little swimming on Saturday morning (we had the entire pool to ourselves - there wasn't a sole there until lunch time). Then we headed for a little tailgating after a good nap.



Karlee kept saying "Aubie" but we never saw him. She did enjoy her first Tiger Walk though. She only saw it from afar last season. At first she was a little wide-eyed at all the people but quickly figured out what she was supposed to be doing - shaking her pom-pom like crazy! We headed home to watch the game in the A/C and Chip enjoyed some Bama football. Karlee stayed awake during the entire Auburn game and yelled "Touchdown" and held her arms in the air for each one. It was hilarious!





We headed to the lake when Karlee finally woke up Sunday morning to spend time with my family. She played so hard with her cousin Clete. They're a year apart and seem to really enjoy playing with each other.




I think all the playing and tailgating finally caught up with Karlee because this is how she was on the boat for most of the riding part.



Sunday night and Monday we played with Chip's parents at their lake house. Karlee did some fishing with her Grandaddy and we headed home around lunch time so she could get a good nap at home. I think we are all exhausted from the busy weekend.

I found a naked hinee!

When I went in Karlee's room to get her from a nap today, this is what I found.

Heavenly days! It seems like every day brings something new. I finally got her to stop climbing out of the crib and now she's taking off her diaper. I'm so thankful there wasn't a poopy in that diaper!! She has never paid attention to her diaper before until today. I didn't put her diaper cover back on after changing her before her nap. I guess I just learned my lesson.

I just had to laugh when she bent down and looked between her knees and said "hinee" (sp?). I said, "yes ma'am that is your hinee."

A little serenade

Okay. This video is extremely poor quality. I was driving home with Karlee Wednesday night (in the rain) and Karlee started singing to the instrumental music. She had been doing this for about 10 minutes before I realized I had a video camera on my phone. So, I was driving with one hand and just holding the phone pointed backwards to get the singing part recorded. I didn't care what the actual picture looked like. I just wanted this moment recorded for memory sake. So, close your eyes and listen to the beautiful serenade by Karlee. She does this all the time to any kind of music now and it just puts a smile on my face every time. No one taught her how to do this. She just started saying "La La La La" one day at lunch when music was playing on the TV. Maybe she will have the singing talents of her Granna and my Uncle Byron because I sure didn't get it!