What's Happening with Annie?

Okay so the blogs have been short this week because we're in the middle of
POTTY TRAINING WEEK 1. It's going well. We're staying consistent. She's not resisting so we're ecstatic!

Annie's Quote of the Day

Annie likes having me sit down so she can brush my hair. Today she said to grandmama, "Sit down. Want me to do your hair?" After a few minutes, my mom said, "Do I look pretty?" to which Annie replied, "NOT TOO BAD!"
We both started cracking up... the things she comes with!

What's New with Charlie?

Charlie's first tooth broke through today!

Mommy's Big Helper

Andrea loves helping her mommy feed Charlie right now so this has been our morning routine the past few days.

Swimming

We went swimming at the Abernathy's pool! You can here Michael Abernathy in the background.

Swimming

We went swimming with Philip and Heidi before they moved.

Cousins

Addie came over and played with Andrea yesterday while Uncle A.J. helped Daddy fix the leaky toilet. Andrea got in the booster seat so of course Addie wanted to sit and eat too so I put her in the high chair. I was feeding each of them soup. After Andrea was done eating she decided to feed Addie with the spoon. It was so sweet. I don't have any pictures of this but I do have pictures of Andrea with her other cousin Sean that I never posted. They are so cute so I think I will....

Sean and Annie dancing at Kaitlyn's baptism (We dance at weddings, why not baptisms?)

Mascara

Apparently our little girl is already into makeup. When I came in the bathroom after hearing shuffling in the drawers, this was what I found.

WALL-E

Andrea's Top 5 Phrases of July

5. "Come ere. Come with me."
4. "Look at me. You understand me." (We try so hard not to laugh when she says this.)
3. "Pweese?" (while tilting her head and batting her eyes)
2. "That's du vunny!"
1. "Wanna watch cars? Okay? Okay." She asks politely with the first okay and then gives herslf permission with the second as she walks over and tries to put the movie into the DVD player.

Trip to Savannah

My mom loves road trips so she convinced us to go to Savannah for the weekend. Angela was the hero in Savannah. Angela rescued Lightening Mc Queen from getting run over as we were crossing the street to get to the restaurant. We went to the pizzeria and I left Charlie's baby food in the car so she and Joe hiked to the parking lot to get it. I found it two minutes later in the side pocket of the diaper bag. Thankfully my sister still loves me. When Andrea was having a melt down from two days of no napping she found comfort in the horsies. The carriage people were so nice. Whenever we saw a carriage parked on the side of the road for the horses to eat or drink the driver would invite Andrea to come and pet them. She loved it saying, "The horsies eat gas. That's du vunny! That's du vunny!" As you saw in the picture above, John tapped the ball on Charles' tummy and within seconds he was fast asleep. So for other moms, there's a new trick we had never tried before. Hey whatever works, right?

4th of July

We saw fireworks Thursday night at Fort Gordon with Aunt Amy, Andrew, Uncle Nate, the Abernathys and the Ciamellos.

Thanks to Patricia Johnson for this photo. To see more got to: saturatedsimplicity@gmail.com

Then we saw fireworks at the Green Jackets game Friday night. Saturday Joe and Angela arrived! We played in the water, dove on the slip and slides, went down the water slides and conquered the "Wrecking Ball" (We totally need to get one of these for our next middle school lock-in.). That night we set off some fountains in the driveway and then our neighbors continued the show and then for the the grand finale we saw the downtown fireworks from the parking deck. The next night when we went to lie Andrea down at 9:00 she was really confused why she was going to bed when it was no where near midnight. We got our fill of fireworks for the year! It was a blast! No pun intended.

Startin to Scoot

Charles has been pushing himself up by straigtening his arms. He loves turning his head and even spinning his body to eat all his toys.Today I was on the ground next to him so he could push off my legs. He saw Andrea's road map and cars and he was excited for something new to try to chew. It's amazing how intriguing a sibling's toy can be. He pushed off with his legs and pulled at the blanket and rug to inch himself forward little by little. Andrea was thrilled that her brother had the map in hand ready to insert into his mouth.

Vacation = Relaxation

We had an enjoyable time at the mountains.
We arrived on Friday and went down by the covered bridge. We walked down by rocks in the creek. We thought that Charles might jump at the coldness of the water but he just splashed away. We came home from the grocery store and made a Digiorno (Easy peasy).





Saturday we slept in...really, we did till like 9:15 a.m. It was lovely! We lounged around the house until noon and then since it was afternoon we drove over to the Habersham wine tasting. We got a case and we were set for the week. When Andrea woke up from her nap we hiked the Ana Ruby trail to see the most majestic waterfalls. That night we made some "ummy" pasta with sausage and nice bread. That night we watched Garfield and listened to Andrea commentate. "That kitty is tuw vunny!"





Sunday we went to Mass where the priest gave a powerful serman on the gift of life, contraception, and being pro-life. It was inspiring to see such a heart-felt, passionate priest. Then we ate at a buffet at a family restaurant. After their nap, we went swimming at the beach. A little girl swam around and found cool rocks for Andrea. Charles splashed around in the water while all the little kids adored him. Once the sun went down we put Charles in his seat and the three of us tossed the frisbee. Andrea's form is impressive. She's almost ready for disc golf. Daddy is so proud. That night we ate brats and beans. We watched this old Disney movie called "No Deposit! No Return!" It was cute.





Monday we got up and went on our big hike to the highest point in Georgia: BrassTown Bald. On the hike straight up the mountain with the double stroller we got lots of encouraging remarks from the down-hill travellers and we made it to the top. Andrea was in her glory just running around the circle of the observation deck on top of the mountain. It was so amazing to see God's majesty as we could see the mountains all the way to North Carolina. There was also a locomotive inside. Andrea did not know what to do. She lifted her eyebrows in amazement as she always does to show that she cannot believe what she's seeing for the first time. I think that is one of my favorite parts about being a parent is seeing a child so impressed by something that we take for granted on a daily basis. When she awoke from her nap we went to the park and got ice cream from the Old Sautee Store and played with bubbles and bubble wands outside.





We came home Tuesday feeling relaxed. That evening we ended our vacation with the jazz concert at the park at the Appleby Library. That's our 2009 summer vacation JRfamily's style.