10 Months Old.

Holy Moly girlfriend, you are now 10 months old. You are so funny and clearly don't even know it. You have your daddy and I cracking up constantly. You're talking now! I can't believe it. Other than Da-Da you are saying HEY, TADA, Bye Bye, and UH-OH! You say hey to your granna each morning over FaceTime it's so cute. You're the sweetest baby and the happiest too! You really only cry when you're tired or frustrated. You're getting into everything these days we don't ever slow down. I leave you to play in the floor full of toys and I look over and you've dumped the dog's food on the floor. True story, happens on pretty regularly around here. Speaking of, you LOVE Kendall, you've been giving her so many hugs lately and it's the sweetest thing. You also gave her a big open mouth kiss and got a mouth full of dog hair, yuck we're working on that. As we snuggled last night I just laid there with you in my arms praising the Lord for your sweet soul. I've said to your daddy too many times how did we get so lucky? You are our biggest blessing and greatest joy little one. Our prayer is that you'll never go a day not knowing how loved and special you are. We couldn't be more grateful that the Lord chose us to be your parents! We love you but Jesus loves you more!

Month 10 Highlights

--Saying hey, bye bye, uh-oh, and TADA. 
--Eating 4 6 oz bottles of Earth's Best Organic formula
--Lots of table food and puree's still
--Feeding yourself cheerios, bananas, and puffs. Mommy needs to put on her brave face and let you do more. 
--Standing by yourself for a few brief seconds at a time
--Found the stairs, hello baby gates.
--You celebrated your first 4th of July!
--You're becoming quite the local celebrity at our Friday morning breakfast spot!
--You weigh 17lbs--I'm guessing, maybe a little more. 
--You're claiming favorite books and toys. 

Newborn size pjs vs 9 month size pjs! 

Mommy started planning your first birthday party this month, twinkle twinkle little star--we sing it every night so it couldn't be more fitting! 

We love you precious wonderful girl!

Thoughts on a Tuesday

Sunday morning our pastor spoke on Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.--I don't know about y'all but sometimes my thoughts aren't exactly excellent or praiseworthy. I really should have been wearing steel toe boots Sunday morning because my toes were getting stepped on a lot. 

As a new mom, I worry about everything. Absolutely everything. About myself not measuring up as a mom, something happening to Caroline, neglecting my relationship with Derik. I can easily think myself into a nervous breakdown. It's happened a few times. So Sunday morning I felt like the pastor was speaking right to me, no one else was in the sanctuary it was just me and the Holy Spirit. It was a one of those moments where I didn't feel that God was SHOUTING at me, but He was speaking to me in His quiet still voice. Your won't ever find peace if your mind and heart isn't with the Lord. I don't believe in coincidence, I believe in purpose. I know I was exactly where I was supposed to be Sunday morning. In the counseling world we have a technique called thought stopping. Thought stopping is labeling your thoughts, giving them a name, and replacing it. I decided Sunday morning that each time I have a negative, stressful thought, I'm going to replace it with Philippians 4:8. 

Since I'm no longer nursing, I'm getting back into a better eating routine and a different work out routine as well---breastfeeding worked it's magic in keeping the baby weight off--. So not only am I going to try to be physically healthy but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy as well. I want Caroline to grow up having the best version of her momma she can. I know some days are going to be harder than others, but here's to making anew and really challenging myself to be the best version of me I can be! 

Summer so far.

Dear Sarah,
The purpose behind this blog is so you will actually write about the events taking place in your doesn't slow down not even for a minute life. You really need to be better about updating!

-Now that the mental note is out of the way, how about a summer recap? We've been pretty busy the past couple of months! Since Memorial Day is the "official" kickoff to summer I'll start there! Memorial day was spent in Hickory with Derik's family! We hung out by the pool, ate a lot of yummy food, got to sleep in---thank you Nana---I even got to take a nap. That was absolutely glorious.

We also celebrated the wedding of Ben "The Real Deal" King and sweet Kayla. Friends are the family you choose and I'm thankful we've chose the group of people! We were missing a few but college would have not been the same without them!

The next weekend we spent at my parents house. Usually Caroline and I just day trip it there--it's only a 40 minute drive from our house--but often times we're so rushed so we decided just to spend the weekend there. Family time is always good for the soul!

We took Caroline to one of our favorite local spots Blue Ribbon. She enjoyed purreed peas. ;) 

Caroline learned how to take selfies. 

We then journeyed to West Virginia to see Derik's family that lives up there. His parents were the only ones to move away to North Carolina. We don't get up there as much as we'd like to. We really enjoyed our time. We ate a lot of food, spent the day on the river, and spent time with the people we don't get to see nearly enough! 

Then we hit the road again for Hickory to celebrate Kinley's 2nd birthday, Minnie Mouse style!

She is proof of God's grace and His faithfulness to those that love and wait on Him and His timing. My sweet sister in law had quite the time getting pregnant and Kinley is such a blessing!

We packed our bags again and headed to Charlotte for a few days! Derik had a conference so Caroline and I got to hang out with Auntie Bina, Jack, and Sam. We loved spending time with them! They are both so sweet to Caroline and dote all over her. It's the cutest thing. 

From Charlotte we went to my favorite place in the world: Ocean Isle! We got to spend a few days with my family. We ate way too much, I actually got to read (for fun), laid out on the beach, and again got to sleep in. Thanks Gammy! We played on the beach and Caroline was way more interested in eating the sand then anything else. At one point I looked up and she had a shovel of sand straight to the mouth. Holy Momma child. 

Here are the tricks Caroline has developed over the summer so far: 

Pulling up on everything. If it's not moving (sometimes it is moving) you pull up on it. You're going to give me a stroke. 

Kendall is such a patient dog with her. She just lets C do whatever, it's the cutest thing. 

9 Months Old.

Caroline,

I know I say it every month but I cannot believe that yet another month has gone by. This month you became even more mobile than last. YOU ARE SO FAST. Daddy and I can hardly keep up with you. You're doing this crazy crawl and no longer scooting. Still no teethies, I swear you've been working on them since January and nothing yet. Your mood doesn't seem to be affected by them but your gums have been swollen for a while now and you gnaw on everything. You're doing this crazy thing and boycotting your crib lately. You sleep much better in the pack n play. I'm not fighting it, so your pack n play is set up in your room in front of your crib now. Your sleeping which means mommy and daddy are both sleeping. I call that a win, we'll tackle the crib again after summer vacation! I started planning your first birthday party. I've been in denial but it's going to be here before we know it. We also scheduled your one year old photo shoot. I just can't. You're our greatest joy and biggest blessing! You are one of a kind my love, we love you to the moon!

Mommy and Daddy

9 Month Stats--Just left your well check!

You are 15lbs 12.5oz--moved right on up to the 12%! Woo hoo!
You're 26 inches long-7% you're our perfectly petite little lady

--You take a 6 ounce bottle 4 times a day---you're still our spit up queen.
Eating--You are currently eating 3 meals a day. Oatmeal and fruit in the morning, veggie/fruit for lunch, veggie for dinner. You eat blueberries, pears, bananas, apples, peaches, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, peas, and love gumming puffs!
Tricks--You love to wave, clap, talk, yell DA DA DA DA DA which you did so lovely at the doctor's office this afternoon!
You're finally getting the hang of self feeding. You enjoy playing and feeling the different textures of your food.
No teeth yet but I'm pretty sure that won't be the case soon.
Waving BYE BYE and saying HEY! :)
You love being in the pool with pap and daddy
You also love our FaceTime dates every morning with Gammy!

Nicknames-TC, Monster, Muffing, Punky Brewster, Punks, Baby Care.