Happy Birthday Nuggie!!

Our little girl turned 1 last weekend! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. She is growing up so fast - she says several words, points at things she wants, constantly wants to be walking while holding my hands (she doesn't quite have her balancing skills mastered), and is eating table food. She is still as sweet as can be - rarely fusses, likes to rock and cuddle, and giggles all the time. She has earned the nickname "Nuggie" - that's a name that has morphed over time - Chris started calling her his little nugget (like a chicken nugget, which strangely fits her, since she's such a brown little thing) to the more suitable nickname of Little Nuggie. :)

We had her annual visit to the pediatrician this past week. She is healthy as can be. The only potential concern we have had about her is her voice - it's a little bit hoarse, which is actually really adorable, but we just wanted to make sure it was okay. He said it is absolutely fine. It will be interesting to see if she grows out of it. We finally got a new video camera (our last one gave out on us several months ago) - when I get the time to figure out how to download the videos I'll make sure and post one of her talking so you can hear her cute little voice. Anyway, here are her stats - still tall and skinny!

Weight: 20 lbs, 12 oz (40-50th percentile)

Height: 31 inches (90 - 97th percentile)

Head: 18 1/2 centimeters (90 - 97th percentile)

Little Daddy

Lately Cass has taken an interest in Celena's dolls. Of course Chris is not crazy about this, but I think it's sweet. The other day I caught him strapping one of her dolls in the high chair. When he noticed I was taking a picture of him doing this not-so-manly activity, he must have decided to try to compensate by taking on a risque "Michael Jackson" pose - ha!!

Latest Pastime

Celena has discovered drawers. And cabinets. And pretty much anywhere else she kind find to explore (i.e. make a complete mess). Cass seems to be regressing and following suit - right after I took this picture, I found him running out of my closet with many of my clothes off the hangers. Never a dull moment!

Grocery Shopping

It's amazing how the most routine errands can be completely entertaining for the kids. Back in the day (when I was new mom), I avoided these little "car" shopping carts like the plague . . . imagine all of the germs in these! Well, the benefit of having 2 kids that already have had hand, foot and mouth disease is that I don't mind quite as much about them being exposed to something like that from these carts. (Not sure if I posted about the hand, foot and mouth a while back - I think I did. Anyway, it's not as disgusting as it sounds, but it is a pain. The good thing is once kids have it they shouldn't get it very bad, if at all, again.) I know they can still get exposed to all kinds of nasty things, but I'm more brave now, so I just give the cart a swipe with the Clorox wipes and we're ready to roll!

Yes, we are still around

Hello! I was inclined to start this blog post by apologizing for neglecting the blog for the past couple months, but you have heard that before so I'll stop. However, life has been crazy - since my previous blog post, I quit my job at Ernst & Young, we took a family trip to the beach, we put our house in Charlotte on the market, moved into a corporate apartment in Winston-Salem, and I started a new job at BB&T. That explains why you may have thought we dropped off the face of the earth.

So here's a glimpse of our journey along the way . . .

The week before Memorial Weekend, we joined Chris's brother David and his wife Lorraine (who live in New Jersey) and some friends/relatives of theirs at Carolina Beach near Wilmington. While we were there we took a sight-seeing trip to the Battleship North Carolina. I'd never been on a battleship before - it was very interesting. After the tour, we stopped in the gift shop and the kids tried on some hats.

Lorraine was the coordinator of the trip, and found a great beach house in a really good location that we stayed at. It was just down the street from a little park, so Cass got a chance to play on the playground equipment. It's taken him a while to warm up to swings, but he is finally comfortable on them (as most of you know, he is a timid little guy). It looks like Daddy was having as much fun on the swing as Cass. :)

We also went to an aquarium in Wilmington. As I type this, I'm realizing I hadn't been to an aquarium before either (growing up in Kansas, you don't see many of those!!). I guess this trip was just as educational for me as it was for Cass - ha! Here are a couple pictures of Cass with Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Dave checking out some fish.

Cass loves the beach. He spent most of the time at the beach pushing his school bus around in the sand.

Although Celena went to Hilton Head with us when she was a few months old, this was her first real beach trip where she actually spent any time on the beach. I just couldn't resist buying a few different swimsuits for her for the trip. This little ballerina swimsuit is absolutely adorable!!!

Last year when we took Cass to the beach, we took a picture of he and Chris's footprints together. I think this will be an annual tradition.

I realized after the first day at the beach that there is way too much blowing sand to have my camera out there. So, here's a picture of Celena in her bikini (ha!!!) while she was getting smothered in sunscreen before we left the house.

After the week at the beach, we spent a week in Charlotte getting our things packed up for our move to Winston-Salem. Fortunately, my new employer put us up in a furnished apartment, so we just had to bring clothes and any personal things we wanted to have. However, it was still a busy week considering we also had to make sure the house was clean and ready to show since we had put it on the market.

We did have a bit of downtime among all the craziness. Charlotte is pretty much the "mecca" of NASCAR, since most of the race teams are located there. We usually watch several of the races during the year, but I think this year I've only seen one race with all that has been going on. However, I did manage to dress Celena in an outfit supporting her favorite driver for the race. I wonder how Dale Jr feels knowing that 9 month old babies wear his name on their bottoms? :)

In addition to the craziness that Chris and I have gone through the past several weeks, Celena has been busy as well. Crawling, pulling up, walking along furniture, and playing feverishly. Look at her concentration here. Those of you that know my husband will find this entertaining - Chris does the same exact thing with his tongue when he is really concentrating on something. hee hee

In early June, we got settled into the corporate apartment in Winston-Salem. It has been surprising how much we are enjoying apartment life. From my standpoint, the space is much smaller so there is not much to clean. And from Chris's standpoint, he is enjoying not having a yard to mow or things to fix.

As we get settled in Winston-Salem, we are looking to find a church to attend. We got ready for church one Sunday, actually got everyone loaded in the car and drove to the church, just to realize we were 10 minutes late for the service. Since it was our first time attending that church, we didn't want to walk in late, so we were literally "all dressed up with nowhere to go". So I decided to at least get a picture of the kids while they were playing when we got back home.

In addition to all of this, we made a very brief unexpected trip back to Kansas for my Grandmother's funeral last week. She lived a good life of 93 years, but it is still sad to say goodbye to a family member. Although we wished it was under different terms, it was nice to see the family on the trip back. Unfortunately, since I have a new job and it is a busy time at work for Chris, we weren't able to spend enough time to see friends back home that we miss so much - hopefully we can make another trip back soon under better circumstances!