Kate and Scooby

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We're Back!

We're back from Naples - hallelujah.  I'm glad we go so we can visit with the grandparents, but it's always so much work.  Thursday we left at 4:30pm, stopped in Gainesville for a quick dinner at Chickfila, and got to the hotel at 11:30pm.  Kate woke up when we pulled off the interstate, but she quickly went back down for the night as soon as we set up her pack and play. Friday morning we picked up Papa (Justin's dad) and the four of us went shopping at the outlet mall and Bass Pro.  We had lunch at Red Robin (Papa had never eaten there before) and we headed to Gaga's house for a visit.  At Gaga's, Kate saw Scooby for the second time and loved him.

Saturday, Justin and I took Kate to the pool which lasted about 30 minutes before Kate decided she was ready for her nap.  I wish we could have gone to the pool a second time, but there's always somewhere we have to go.  After her nap, we met Gaga, Mimi (Justin's mom) and Aunt Linda for lunch and then we went to go visit Nene and Papa (Justin's dad's parents) for the rest of the day.  Sunday we joined the family for church, ate lunch at Gaga's and then headed back to Tallahassee.  Kate did great in the car the entire time, Justin and I kept commenting how content she was.  I didn't end up taking a lot of pictures but here were some from the weekend:

First time behind the wheel.

Gaga has her arms full.

I think they both have the same expression...

Another Great Weekend

It's already Sunday night, where did the weekend go? We have had another great weekend and it started Friday night - we met Raymond, Tracy and Audrey at the Mellow Mushroom for dinner. The girls were very well behaved and I was so aggervated at myself because I brought my camera, but forgot the memory card. Ugh! Saturday, Kate and I headed over to my parents for some pool time.  Kate's bathing suit matched the little pool perfectly!  She seemed to enjoy splashing in the pool, but I'm going to have to be on the look out for some pool toys.

Today, we went to church and afterwards, we went over to my grandmother's house for a wonderful chicken pot pie lunch.  I tried to take Kate's picture outside in her blue dress, but none of the pictures turned out like I had hoped.   She was constantly doing the "old man" face today - I wonder if something about that feels good on her gums.

To complete our day, we met Erik, Mary and Madelyn at Winthrop park for a play date and then headed over to Red Elephant for a quick dinner (luckily I came prepared with Kate's dinner and pjs).  The girls enjoyed swinging at the park and playing with their spoons at dinner.  It's so much fun watching them interact and "talk" to each other.

Weeeeee!

Sitting Up All By Herself

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Kate sat up on her own Thursday night! We were able to record performance #3. I think she's going to be crawling soon...

8 Months Old

My little angel is 8 months old - and her daddy had to remind me this morning.  I didn't even realize it was the 17th until Justin pointed it out.  These months are flying by - as soon as I get used to saying "she's 7 months" it's already time for me to say "she's 8 months". 

Kate loves to be outside and would stroll around all afternoon.  She continues to like to sit up and does not care to be on her tummy.  She has learned to reach for toys but usually flops over onto her tummy when she stretches too far and then fusses and kicks her arms and legs as hard as she can until someone sits her back up.  Justin says it reminds him of an upside bug, except Kate is stuck on her tummy.  She is eating three meals a day and still has a fantastic sleep schedule - 7pm to 6am and takes two (short) naps a day. 

One of her favorite places is bible class and her teacher, Mrs. Gail, says she's a wonderful student.  Kate also loves to go upstairs to our room; whenever we start up the stairs she starts squealing with excitement.  Mommy and Daddy are starting to see her adorable personality coming through and we couldn't ask for a better baby - we love her!

Saturday - Mommy's Day Out

Justin has given me a belated Mother's Day gift today - a welcomed break!  I felt beat down from the week - work was exhausting, Kate was irritable almost every afternoon, and to top it all off, Justin had worked late everyday so I didn't have any help.  But the week started turning around last night.  We ate at Red Elephant for dinner with great company, the Sapps - Matt, Amanda, Emeline who is 3 and little Nolan who is 6 weeks.   I'm so glad I have found more friends that love Red Elephant as much as I do and we had been promising to bring them dinner since Nolan was born, so we treated them to dinner instead. 

Then today my wonderful husband had some quality father/daughter time and even helped out with the laundry (maybe it's because he was running out of clothes).  One weekend I want to go and sit on a beach somewhere, but this was the next best thing.  I left early this morning (with a 8 month old, I'm lucky to "sleep in" until 7) and did some errands, went shopping, and went to a 11:30 movie (Letters to Juliet - loved it and can't beat the $4.75 am price).  One of my favorite things to do is go to a movie and it's even better when it's not crowded.  Of course my day wouldn't be complete without seeing Kate, so I went home about mid afternoon so we could play and stroll around the neighborhood.

I thought she looked so funny sitting there with the elephant foot in her mouth. 

I think she enjoyed her day with daddy.

My First Mother's Day

I had a great first Mother's Day - although I think I'm going to give Justin some guidance next year.  I didn't have high expectations and still I was a little disappointed - no flowers or breakfast - but I did get two cards, one from him and one from Kate.  And, to make up for the lack of breakfast, he disappeared during church and came back with a homemade blueberry muffin, which was sweet until I heard the story on how he got it.  I shouldn't have asked but long story short, the youth group is selling baked goods for their mission trip this summer, and since Justin didn't have any change on him, he stole it- of coarse we going to give a double donation tomorrow to make up for this - I'm so embarrassed.

Thankfully the rest of the day went great - we went over to my parents house for lunch along with Justin's parents and my grandmother.  I gave all the grandmothers some pictures of Kate that we took when she was 6 months which can be seen here until June 30th (enter Rebecca Evers under Customer Name).

I am some blessed to be able to celebrate Mother's Day as a Mom this year.  Of coarse I have a wonderful mom, grandmother, mother-in-law, and grandmothers-in-law but this year is extra special to me.  I couldn't ask for a better baby!  This afternoon I came in with an arm full of bags and when I walked past Kate, she burst into tears.  I guess she was afraid I wasn't going to say hi or pick her up.  I couldn't help but smile because it was the sweetest thing - I love being loved that much!

Here are some of the pictures from my first Mother's Day:

Four Generations

Kate's favorite "toy" - she loves to watch Samantha and squeals everytime she sees her.

Reading with Nanny (Mimi gave me the book for Mother's Day for Kate and I to read together).

We Own Them!

I just wrote the last check to pay off my car - thank goodness!  Justin and I took the Financial Peace University class (lessons by Dave Ramsey) at our church a couple years ago and have been working ever since to apply what we learned to our finances.  For anybody that has not taken the class, I HIGHLY recommend it!  We started with paying off our student loans (in 4 months), Justin's truck (in 13 months) and now my car (in 10 months) - which makes us "debt free" (according to Dave, of coarse we still have the mortgage to tackle).  Now we've got to concentrate on our retirement accounts and Kate's college savings account!  As much as I wish we had a bigger, fancier house like several of our friends, I have to remind myself what a blessing it is to live BELOW are means and not worry about money.  God is good!   

Now if we can just keep the cars from needing major repairs!

Kate's New Bath Trick

Kate now loves to drink her bath water.  It drives Justin crazy, but I don't really mind.  She puts her face in the water and then comes up grinning, unless she takes a big gulp of water and then she pops up coughing. 

Silly Girl!

Tooth #2

Kate's other tooth has broken through, finally!  So far, the teething phase has gone better than I expected.  A couple nights Kate would wake up several times crying, but as soon as we gave her the pacifier she went right back to sleep.

She has started to get the hang of rolling over (it's about time!).  This morning she was rolling from back to tummy several times, but she hasn't figured out she can get places, it's more to change her position.  She has also moved her bedtime up to 7 pm - and mommy and daddy are not complaining - especially since she will sleep until 6am.  This morning I got her to "sleep in" until 7.  I thought the pacifier would buy us another half hour of sleep but we got an hour plus!

Chewing on everything!

Two Teeth at 7 months old.

If you look close, you can see her teeth (really it's her first tooth that came through).

She loves to see herself in the mirror.