Early Morning Ritual

On the days I work, I have to get the girls out of bed and dressed to leave the house with Chip by 6:30. With gas prices so high, he takes the girls with him to his mom's house for the day since his office is next door to their house. It beats me having to drive almost to Loachapoka and back to my office in Opelika before 8:00.

I wake Madelyn up around 6:10 and give her a bottle. We then go in Karlee's room and wake her up together. This is one of the top moments of my day (and the reason I am posting it). Our mornings always involve lots of kisses, hugs, and smiles from all three of us (after Karlee rolls around and groans several times!). I then rush to get them dressed and out the door they go. Linda feeds them breakfast! I am very fortunate to have a mother in law that wants to keep them. I know they are both very well loved and taken care of (and spoiled completely rotten!).





Sadly, this ritual will end in a few weeks when Karlee starts back to school. Madelyn will leave with Chip and Karlee will stay home (and get to sleep an hour longer) with me so I can take her to school at 8:30.

Finally...A Family Vacation

Karlee has been asking all summer when she was going to the beach. She was ready to play in the sand, jump waves, and find seashells. I feel like summer flew by at the speed of lightning. Between summer school, swim lessons, Chip's fishing tournaments, and various other things going on, we finally found a weekend to get away with the girls (and my parents, Adam, and Erin).

Here are a few of the 482 pictures I took over 4 days. Madelyn had a love/hate relationship with the sand. She was fine sitting in it (and eating it) for a bit but then was over it and let you know.


















These blue crabs were everywhere in the water. Most of them were full of eggs so we guessed they had come to shore for bedding.




Madelyn took lots of naps in her cabana in front of the fan. Karlee couldn't resist getting in there either. So much for keeping it sand-free!





Adam brought some beach (tailgate) games. The boys played these all day long. Karlee got to join in too!





Karlee was tall enough this time to ride the go carts and bumper boats. Karlee wanted Chip to ride with her on the go carts and me to ride with her on the bumper boats. I think Chip got the better deal!!







Madelyn got to ride a carousel for the first time. This is the same carousel Karlee rode for the first time too!



And, we couldn't leave the beach without getting some white dress pictures! I have come to realize that it's very hard to get 2 kids to look at the camera at the same time.

9 month stats

A healthy report from Dr. Greer yesterday!

weight: 17 lb 12 oz (25th%)
length: 26 1/2 inches (10th%)

Short and round!

Madelyn only had to get one shot. She did pretty well with it considering Karlee snatched the Gerber Yogurt Melts out of the diaper bag and started shoveling them in Madelyn's mouth as soon as the shot was over! It definitely got Madelyn's attention off the pain. I am blessed to have two healthy girls that are totally smitten with each other. Makes my life a little easier!

And, I forgot to mention in the last post that Madelyn is still an occasional thumb sucker. It only happens when she's getting sleepy or cranky. She doesn't suck it while she sleeps though so she's not dependent on it at all (thank goodness!!!).