Pulling Up

And here she is pulling up (with cameo appearances of Heidi):


Walking before long??? :-)

Crawling

Here she is crawling (hope this works):


And along with crawling, we have completed the cycle of each of our daughters eating cat food. :-) Yep -the cats' food bowl sits on the kitchen floor and Rachel got a piece this weekend. It must not be too bad since they don't spit it out - but I wouldn't know - haven't tried it, and don't plan to.

Braves Game

Last Thursday night we had the opportunity to attend a Braves game. Emma had earned two tickets from school this last Spring and we purchased two additional tickets for all of us to go. It was a very pleasant evening and we enjoyed the game. The girls all did well and we were able to stay through the end of the 8th inning. Rachel konked out sometime around the 6th inning.

We enjoyed park fair of a frozen pink lemonade and cotton candy. Emma and Heidi both got in to doing the "tomahawk chop" along with the music. And Emma got particularly good at yelling "Charge!" and throwing her arms up in the air at the appropriate time. :-) We even participated in "the wave" as it went around the stadium.During one of the between inning times, Home Depot sponsors a tool race around the outfield. Heidi enjoyed watching that and will let you know that the hammer won. ;-)
It was a fun evening. It was a good game (yes, we did actually get to watch most of it). And the Braves won!

An Adventure Day

Two Fridays ago (6/11) we had a fun adventure day! We needed to have our Cr-V serviced, so we took it to the dealership (about an hour away from our house) and then went on to Buford Dam Park on Lake Lanier. We were planning to do a hiking trail. So we went for our hike - a little over a mile round trip.
And we found a fun bench swing along the path.
When we arrived, we saw there was a beach area along the lake too. After the hike, the girls changed in to their bathing suits and enjoyed the beach and water for an hour or so. (Camera stayed in the car as not to get dropped in the water - so no pictures.)

We left the park to go eat lunch. After lunch we called to check on the status of the car and there were a couple more things they recommended doing; translation: "2 or 3 more hours." So we headed just down the street to The Mall of Georgia (really large mall, for those who don't know). They have a small indoor kiddie playground,a carousel (which Emma didn't want to ride for some reason),
some kiddie cars that you pay $0.50 or something to ride (we didn't ride any of them, but they made for some cute pictures),and bungee trampolines. Heidi REALLY wanted to do the bungee trampoline. We have video, no pictures. But I think the video is a super huge file, so we'll have to figure out how to post it.

So after dropping our car off at 9AM, we picked it up at 6PM and drove back home. And all 3 girls fell asleep on the way home. :-) It was a fun, tiring, adventurous day! But hopefully some memories were made.

Summer Trips

Jason kicked off the Summer with a trip to Rome, Italy for the World Boomerang Championships. He competed as part of the US team (he was on team 3). He may do a post at some point about his trip, but he was there for a week and was able to do about a day and a half of sight-seeing, and the US #1 team won the tournament (way to go Rad Revolution!!) - which was very exciting.

While he was gone, the girls and I spent a day up at my parents' house in Dahlonega. We had a fun time and it was nice to have a little getaway. My mom had previously done stepping stones with all the grandchildren, but Heidi and Rachel had not had a chance yet. So, we did that while we were there. Heidi enjoyed leaving her footprints in the concrete and then pushing stones in to the concrete to decorate them. Here is Rachel leaving her little footprints.Then we also spent some time playing in the Chestatee River. My niece Kelsey was also there. All the girls had fun throwing rocks and making big splashes in the water. It was a little chilly, but fairly easy to get used to. However I did put Rachel's foot in the water and she immediately jerked it up out of the water - that was it for her. :-)And Heidi initially had no interest in getting in the creek. But it didn't take long at all for her to get in and really start enjoying herself.
And Emma got the wettest - as usual. :-)
Then for Memorial Day weekend the girls and I drove up to NC for our niece's 1st birthday party. It's about a 4 hour drive and of course it took us longer than that, but all the girls traveled REALLY well. I was very thankful. We really enjoyed our visit at Kirsten & David's house and had a fun time at Becca's party. Kirsten did a great job making ladybug cakes.And Becca thoroughly enjoyed hers. Happy 1st Birthday Becca!!!All our girls in the ball pit.

Rachel is 9 months!

Rachel was 9 months old Friday, June 4! And as of this week, she is officially crawling! She's not too speedy yet, but definitely getting around - just ask Heidi. She is having to learn that her toys she leaves on the floor are fair game for Rachel. I'm sure there will be some mini riots over the next several weeks as Rachel gets in to Heidi's stuff. (We'll try to get a good video to post to show off her new trick!)Really it means we ALL have to be more careful about what we leave where; and that we can't leave Rachel alone too long. And that I need to vacuum much more frequently! She has also become very proficient at going from her tummy to sitting up. It's fun to see her rolling around or crawling and then sitting up playing with something, then back to rolling or crawling some more and then sitting up somewhere else. She is also starting to pull up on things - when she can get a good grasp. She LOVES to stand. In fact in the last couple days, she's pulled herself up in her crib - so I guess it's time to lower the mattress.At her 9 month check up, she weighed in at 16 lbs. 3 oz. and was 25 3/4 inches long. She has had her two bottom front teeth, and we discovered at the doctor's office that one of her top teeth has pushed through. And apparently the other 3 on top are working their way in too. Thus - we have had a cranky Rachel at times. Hopefully we can get those in soon and the rest will be easier.

The jury is still out on hair color - at times it looks light brown (kind of like Emma's) and other times it looks blond (like Heidi). But there are some cute little curls showing up behind her ears. :-) Time will tell.

She never got interested in baby cereal or baby food, so we've gone straight to finger foods. She enjoys various Gerber finger foods, Cheerios, shredded cheese, and chicken. She has exhibited that she likes Chick-fil-A nuggets - which is a good thing since we are there WAY too much. She's tried other things that we've been eating, but nothing in any significant quantity. She really seems to enjoy feeding herself (maybe that was the problem with the baby food). It's hard to believe she'll be 1 in less than 3 short months! I'll try to post things a little more currently as she continues to progress in her mobility and everything else. :-)

Until then, here are some more cute pictures.