Cousins and Homemade Outfits

Caroline visited with her cousins, Ellie and Luke today...
Would you believe that Caroline is three months older than Luke?? Don't they look like they are about the same size? (I'm not so sure Caroline was happy to be squished in the middle.)

On the way home, we stopped to buy the supplies to make this for her to wear next time she visits Oconee County...

(front)

(back--for some reason blogger won't let me rotate this one so you'll have to rotate your head...sorry!)

Fun in the Sun

Well, Caroline wasn't really in the sun most of the time, but she still had fun. We took our first trip to the pool over the weekend. Our neighbors, the Branfords, invited us to be their guests at their swim and racquet club, and we couldn't get our towels and swimsuits out fast enough! Here's Caroline all dressed and ready waiting for us...

While she spent most of her time napping and giggling at her bugs (the toys that hang from her the handle of her carrier) under the umbrella...

we did manage a couple of quick dips in the pool, even if it was only her toes that we dipped. She is too little for sunscreen so we didn't want to expose her to the sun for more than a few minutes.

As you can see, she wasn't so sure about it as first, but as Daddy reassured her, she calmed down and felt the water with her feet.
She actually seemed to enjoy splashing with her feet on the stairs...She loves splashing in the bath now so, hopefully, when she gets a little older, she'll enjoy the pool. We're planning to start baby "swimming" lessons in late summer or the fall--they don't actually learn to swim, but they get acclimated to the water. She's come a long way from the hysterical little worm that we struggled to bathe a few months ago!

Caroline Hits the Campaign Trail

Look out, Oconee County, Papa Jim has chosen his running mate for the upcoming Board of Commisioners election, and she's pretty charming! Caroline and I stopped by a senate candidate's bbq fundraiser to eat lunch as we drove through town the other day, and Caroline joined Papa Jim on the campaign trail.

Caroline wearing the official BOC candidate nametag.

Shaking hands and asking for votes.

Dad and Ray Goff comparing grandbaby stories.

Campaigning is hard work for babies--Caroline needed a little rest after that!

Caroline says to all her OC friends, "Vote Papa Jim!"

My Day at the Farm and Other Interesting Stories by Caroline

If you haven't noticed, my mom has really dropped the ball on my blog updates because she's been so busy lately...so, for anyone that is interested, I thought I'd let you know myself some of the things we did last month...

Early in May, I went with Mom and Dad to a big festival on a farm near our house. As you can see, I thought it was pretty boring...

You see that yellow bow in my hair? Well, it fell out during my nap, and since Mom had dressed my kind of like a boy that day, it was crucial to my outfit. So here's a picture of the man who told my dad what a fine looking young man he had...
And, even though they usually do, Mom and Dad didn't correct him. They just said, "thank you!"

"Uhhhh...WHAT?"

but I didn't say anything. I just pretended to be asleep. I think Mom and Dad thought that would be it and they could keep walking, but the man continued talking about how lucky Dad was to have a son to raise and how blessed he was that his wife had provided him with a son...he even quoted scripture saying as much! I think Mom and Dad were trying not to laugh as they nodded and agreed. Mom reached down and hid my bow that had fallen in my lap so the man wouldn't realize I was a girl after he said all of that.

You'd think that was enough, but our trip wasn't over yet. Mom saw some yellow daisies on hay bales and thought it would be the perfect spot to get some good pictures of me.

That would have been fine if they had paid a little more attention to me and less attention to the camera!

Finally, I told them I had had ENOUGH...

and we left that yucky old farm for good!

The next day was Mother's Day. Here is a picture of me and Mom. I am wearing her dress that she wore when she was little like me. You may remember from this post that we both wore that dress when we came home from the hospital after we were born. It was way too big for me then, though--it's fitting much better now!

But the best part of that day was meeting my cousins, Prentiss and Marin. They were visiting from Alaska. Here I am with Prentiss...

I'm not big enough to play catch with Dad and Marin,

but I got to watch from my nap spot on the kitchen table...

and later Marin came inside to play with me too! Well, that's about it...I'll let Mom take it from here!

Introducing the Littlest Trice

Caroline got to meet her Florida family in West Palm Beach over the Memorial Day weekend. We had lots of fun showing of the littlest Trice! We left home at bedtime hoping that Caroline would sleep through much of the 10 hour car ride. And she did!! She literally cried for less than five minutes during the entire 10 hour trip! We were thrilled! Coming home took a little longer because it was during the day, and we had to stop to feed her every few hours, but she still only cried about 30 minutes total. Of course, she did get tired of sitting in the back by herself and insisted on trading seats with me for a while...


Our first stop was Aunt Vickie's house. She and her family were a midway point so we stopped for a quick nap and visit. And Caroline got a new bunny out of the deal. Thanks, Aunt Vickie!
After settling in at Go Go's house, we visited for a little while...

and started making the rounds over the next few days. Caroline got to meet so many important people...here she is with just a few:Grandma Daisy was very impressed with Caroline's strength. She commented over and over on "how strong she is". Here, Caroline is showing off that strength as she tries buck out of Grandma's arms!

She was a little grumpy for Grampy and Grammy, but they didn't seem to mind! Thanks for the fun new outfit, Grammy and Grampy!

We spent Memorial Day at a cookout at Aunt Martha's ranch house. Caroline got to spend some quality time with Go Go, Aunt Martha, and Cousin Tarrah while Mike and I "played" with the rest of the family on the 1200 acre ranch...

Making faces with Aunt Martha.

Hanging out with Hailey.

Haiden tries to sush a very loud Caroline!

Mike's cousin, Harry, explaining to us the difference between a turtle and a tortoise. (Do you know?) This picture was taken immediately after the tortoise relieved himself while Harry held him out for us to examine...and he must have been male. Mike and Harry were significantly showered!

Before we left, we were even able to squeeze in a few visits with some good friends.

Mrs. Senes, the mother of Mike's, "best friend, Dave". (Dave's wife, Natalia, and I always laugh at how both of them usually include the title, "best friend" before the name when referring to one another.) Thank you for the pretty dress, Mrs. Senes!

Out to lunch after church with our good friend, Brian, who we actually met at church here, but now lives in West Palm. Fun fact: The first date Mike and I went on together was a double date with Brian...only Brian was my date and Mike was with someone else!

Oh, and, if you were wondering, a turtle lives in water part of the time and a tortoise lives only on land.

We're Baaack!

If you check our blog very often, you may have noticed that Caroline and I took a short hiatus from blogging. I had to finish up my last two weeks at work (and the day of work usually spilled into the evening) while driving back and forth to Athens as often as possible to visit with our cousins that were here from Alaska. This left very little extra time for posting about everything we've been doing. It's been a fun couple of weeks, and we are very grateful to all the people who helped take care of Caroline...

Grandmother
(As you can see, Caroline still hasn't found enough storage space inside her mouth for her super long tounge. She pokes it out a lot!)

"Aunt" Jill (pictured here with soon-to-be "Uncle" Joe)

Aunt Sandy, Ellie, and Luke (Ellie and Luke's moms helped too)

"Aunt" Heather

(Despite what it looks like in the picture, Heather was not pinching Caroline, and Caroline did enjoy her day with Aunt Heather! You can read about their day together here.)

More to come soon on what we've been up to, but now we've got to get ready to head south so that Caroline can meet all of Mike's family and friends in Florida. Can't wait to see everyone there!

Tiny Answers to BIG Prayers

Caroline has two very special friends. Colter and Riley Landon are twins that were born just ten days after she was. Colter and Riley's parents, Leslie and Jeff, are good friends of ours who waited and prayed for very long time before they found out they were expecting these sweet babies. And, as you may know, my pregnancy didn't come easy either. It was a little over a year ago that Mike and I were having dinner at a nearby pizza place with Leslie and Jeff, feeling discouraged as we discussed the difficulty of fertility issues. Tonight, a little over a year later, at the same restaurant, our table looked like this...

We are so grateful for these tiny answers to our prayers!

We are also excited about raising Caroline alongside Jeff, Leslie, Colter, and Riley!