Happy Birthday Hayes!

Today, we went to a birthday party for a very special boy. Hayes is exactly to the day 3 months younger than Caroline. Blake and I met his parents through small group and we have been great friends since! Kim is AWESOME at decorating and did such a great job decorating for Hayes' party. We all had a blast and Caroline came home worn out! She was a little shy at first at the party...which is nothing unusal but quickly warmed up after eating yummy pizza and chocolate cake!

Here's Hayes, his mommy Kim, Caroline and daddy!

Hayes waiting for his yummy cake!


Caroline and daddy!

Here's two other friends from our old small group..Jenn and Tiffany with their babies Sarah and Madison! So cute!

The next few pictures are Caroline and Sarah playing together. They were so cute together!





Not sure what Caroline and Sarah were looking at on the ground...but it must have been something good!

And then Caroline got to go for a ride outside with the birthday boy...aka her boyfriend!




Hayes also let Caroline ride in his new car.


Here's our attempt at a group shot. Hayes is totally outnumbered!

And we took some pics of our little Caroline with mommy and daddy!



Thanks again Kim & Chris for inviting us! We had a blast.

Exhausted...

...is the only way I can describe our family right now. Caroline has been up each night since Tuesday with a horrible cough. She was running a fever of 100 to 101...nothing that Motrin couldn't handle. So, we would get up with her 5 to 6 times each night with the cough and restlessness. Blake stayed home with her yesterday (our normal routine) and he called me yesterday morning at work saying that Caroline was running a fever of 101 and was really lethargic. So, I called the dr who then transferred me to a triage nurse. Honestly, I wasn't sure if we needed to come in or not and we are scheduled to come in on Monday for her 15 month check-up so I didn't want to have to make two trips if it wasn't necessary. I wasn't sure if she needed to go b/c she only had the cough, a little fever, slighty runny nose but no other huge symptoms at the time. Oh, and she was still eating good too. So, I talked to the triage nurse and we determined over the phone that it could very well be teething (she has at least 4 teeth coming in right now) or maybe a cold. We decided not to make an appt and just to give it time to see if it clears up. When I got home, I noticed Caroline just wasn't herself and her eyes were so swollen and pitiful. I took her temp and it was 104. What??? You know I freaked out. We quickly packed everything up and went to the choa immediate care center.

The dr came in, we gave him her symptoms, he looked her over and couldn't find anything wrong. He thought it would be necessary to do a catheter to make sure it wasn't a UTI infection. Of course, it wasn't. Caroline's symptoms are congestion, cough, fever, teething. Nothing to do with a UTI. I was a little ticked that he wanted to do that but none the less, that was one thing ruled out. So, since he felt like she didn't have an infection he thought it was just something viral and should last a couple more days. He said it's going around right now...I'm hoping he is right and that it's nothing more than that.

Last night was rough. We were up and down all night. At 2am Caroline woke up screaming so we both went in to check on her and her nose was bleeding and her sheets were bloody. Not sure if she picked her nose so bad that it bled since she can't breathe or if it started on it's own. Her temp at 2am was 103 so we gave her more motrin. Today, she is home with daddy getting some cuddle time. I'm praying that she will be over what ever this is soon...b/c none of us are getting much sleep these days!

Caroline's Boo Boo

Last Sunday after church, I had to go to the outlet mall to exchange some shorts that I had bought for Caroline. Apparently, I loved the shorts because I had accidently bought two pairs of them (not on the same shopping trip)! When we got home, Caroline saw her new outfit that I had bought her in exchange for the shorts. She must have loved it because she carried it around the house for a good 30 minutes...even through me trying to change her clothes.
I just love this picture...nothing better than big bows and diaper covers (and that is her new outfit that she is holding)!


The following pictures are of Caroline's first girl fight. She lost (not that I would want to know that the other girl got hurt but I hate when my baby gets the bad end of the deal!) When I walked in the daycare on Tuesday, I immediately had to sign a paper saying that Caroline had been scratched on the face. I didn't think much of it. Then, I walk in her room and her teacher tells me that it all started with all of the kiddos looking out the window at the plumber trying to fix a water thing that they play with in the summer. Well, apparently Caroline was hogging the window and this little girl came up behind Caroline and was trying to push her back. In the process of trying to get a window spot, she scratched Caroline on the face. It looked a little rough. Here's what it looked like while that night. I cleaned it good and put some ointment on it. I'm sure by the end of the week it will be gone. I know that this kind of stuff is going to happen since she goes to daycare...but it still breaks my heart.



And, I had to post this next picture. Look at those beautiful eyes!

Growth Spurt?!?

Yesterday, I had four people stop me to tell me how much Caroline looks like me. I can see a lot of me in her such as her hair and facial features/expressions but I feel like she has a lot of her daddy's features too. One thing that she does have of her daddy's is his appetite. She can eat and eat and not gain an ounce...just like daddy! Last night for dinner, she ate an entire piece of pizza, fruit cup, animal crackers, graham crackers, and applesauce. I thought it was funny when I picked her up from daycare today and her teacher told me that she has never seen a child eat so much and be so little. I think she might be going through a growth spurt right now. She's also teething like crazy...her one year molars have finally cut through the gums. I'll be glad when our teething days are over!

Here's some pics I took the other night of her and Blake playing.

This next pic is funny. Caroline was having a blast grabbing her daddy's glasses!

You can tell she's still determined to grab those glasses off of daddy's face!

And here are some pictures we took on our walk the other night. Caroline LOVES going on walks after dinner. We usually go for walks in her pink car but on this particular night we decided to use the umbrella stroller. I love our walks together. It's such a fun time to be together and soak in the beauty around us!

In control!

Last night Blake's parents came over for a little visit. Blake's dad was watching the Braves game and Caroline walked over to the sofa, grabbed the remote control, walked back to her chair and pointed the controller to the tv like she was going to watch her shows! She's such a little ham!


I love this next pic because her look is like she's saying, "Don't mess with me and my controller!"

She talked her grammy into riding her around in her car. Have I told you lately how much she LOVES this car. She thought she needed some cool shades to wear while riding it! Unfortunately, we didn't take the pic in time to catch her actually wearing them.

New Things

I wanted to share some of the new things Caroline is doing and saying these days...mainly so that I can look back and remember!!!


As far as words she can say: Mama, Dada, Grand-ma, Nana, Hi, Bye-Bye, Bubbles, and Uh-oh. I'm sure there are a couple more but that's all I can remember right now. The "bubbles" word is a new one for us. I got out some bubbles on Sunday and she immediately said "Bubbles!". So I'm assuming she learned that one at daycare since I had never taught her that! That's one advantage to daycare! I saw them doing flash cards with her the other day and it made me feel so good knowing that she is learning new things and new words everyday and that she has teachers dedicated to making sure she is hitting her milestones.

If you ask her where her nose, mouth, eyes, and ears are she can point to the correct body part. She loves for Blake and I to sing her the "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" song to her.

She waves hi and bye to everyone and will also blow you a big kiss. She's recently started giving Blake and I big kisses on the cheeks. It's the sweetest thing and just melts our hearts.

She has been able to shake her head from side-to-side to indicate "no" but she just stared shaking her head up and down to indicate "yes".

She loves riding toys and would let you push her in them all day long. She also likes getting on/off the riding toy but doesn't like for us to help her. She is miss independence for sure!!! She also loves being outside. She would live out there if I would let her!

She is in love with her cousins and will play as hard as she can to keep up with them when she sees them on Sunday's.

I have photo albums on our coffee table of all of the pictures of her first year. She loves pulling them down and sitting on the floor and looking at all of the pictures. I guess she gets that from me b/c I love looking at pictures.

We are really enjoying this age and watching Caroline learn the world around her. Blake and I are amazed at how quickly she learns things these days and we act like it's Christmas morning everytime she does something new! We get way too excited!!!

It's official...

...we finally have a full time walker in our house!!! I tried for 2 hours tonight to post a video of her walking but it just isn't working for me. If anyone has any tips, please let me know. I'm not sure if it's just our horrible computer or if it's a user error.

Caroline sure did enjoy being outside this past weekend. We spent majority of Saturday and Sunday letting her play outside. She loved swinging, sliding, playing with bubbles, and riding her toys...oh and helping her grandma and grandaddy do yard work! She worked so hard that she had to come in and have a gatorade break... This is what happens when you play hard all day!!! We also found out this weekend that Caroline is possibly allergic to peanut butter. I say possibly b/c we haven't had her officially tested but she had peanut butter twice and broke out in hives both times. So my "unofficial" guess is that she is indeed allergic to peanuts. But she has eaten things made out of peanut oil and didn't have the allergic reaction so I don't think she has a serious case of it but none the less, she can't have peanut butter right now. It scared me to death to see her face broke out like it did. We go in 2 weeks for her 15 month check up so we'll mention to the dr then and see if there's anything we need to do about it.