11 Months!

Karis turned 11 months this past week! I can't believe in less than a month our baby girl will be one! She is growing so fast and in the past month or so has earned the nickname " trouble". Ever since she started crawling she started looking for trouble! She used to sit and play with toys that I put in front of her and be content for at least 10 minutes at a time. Now, she could care less about toys. This girl heads straight for everything she shouldn't have, electrical cords, floor lamps, air conditioning registers, dog bowls ( especially ones filled with water), cabinets. Occasionally I can get her to stay still by playing with a pair of shoes or socks or sometimes blocks or big sister's dinosaurs but most of the time she is on the go. One of her favorite things to do now is play chase with her big sister. They crawl after each other through the house. They also like to play hide and seek with each other behind the curtains. It is fun seeing them start to interact with each other. Karis is really close to walking. Right now she is cruising around but it won't be long before she is fully mobile! Karis definitely keeps me busy and on my toes but I wouldn't have it any other way!

We are still in the process of selling our house and buying a new one so that is keeping us very busy as well. We are trying to continue to make the most of our time here before we move and we are looking forward to the picnic we are hosting on Karis' birthday to celebrate her as well as to say goodbye to all of our wonderful friends down here!

Free Food and a Trip to the Zoo!

Our little calf!

Raegan with the Chick Fil a cow

Karis looking at the tortouises

Raegan face to face with the ape!

Karis getting a better view of the animals!

This weekend our theme was "animals". Not intentionally but that is how it worked out! On Friday night Chick Fil A was having their annual free meal day. So we dressed the family in cow outfits and went out for our free dinner ( we are frugal so we will do almost anything for free food!). Raegan really enjoyed dressing like a cow and meeting the Chick Fil A cow who came out while we were eating dinner. Raegan and Karis were the cutest little calves I have ever seen, if I do say so myself! On Saturday we decided to take the girls to the National Zoo. If everything goes as planned we will be moving in about 3 weeks so we thought it would be fun to do something in D.C. We got out of the house early and arrived at the zoo early enough to get good parking. Raegan was so excited when we got there! It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be for a Saturday so we got to see pretty much every exhibit. Both of the girls had a really good time. Karis took a little nap while we were walking around and when we got her out of her stroller she enjoyed seeing the animals too. We had lunch there and then headed home. It was a fun day. Luckily even when we move we won't be too far from the zoo and other things in D.C. It was a nice break from what has been a very busy couple of months!

4th of July

Lollipop Hunt

Jelly bean on a spoon race

Patriotic girl!

Watching the parade

We took the girls up to Catonsville ( my hometown and home of the world famous 4th of July parade) for the 4th of July. Josh has been working up there 2 days a week as he transitions to a new full time position up there sometime in the near future. Raegan has been asking to go to a parade and fireworks so it worked out well that we could go up there. Unfortunately on the way up on monday morning Josh got an urgent work call on his cell phone and he had to go into work. He ended up working for an hour in the morning and then had to go back in the afternoon and stayed until 9 at night! We were all really bummed that he had to miss out on all of the 4th of July festivities but we made the best of it. We are thankful he has a good job ( and now has a job that will be moving us back up to Baltimore!). When we arrived up there after Josh went into work I took Raegan to the games at the high school. I remember going to them as a child ( and winning a trophy on at least one occasion) so it was fun to take her. She cleaned up in the lollipop "hunt" and she also played in the "jellybean on a spoon" race. She had a lot of fun and Karis took a nap as I strolled her around the high school as we were waiting for Josh to come pick us up. After lunch we walked up to the parade. Both of the girls really seemed to enjoy the parade. I thought Karis might get scared with all of the loud sirens but she didn't. Raegan especially enjoyed it this year. After the parade we walked to a picnic at the house of some of my parents long time friends. Raegan really enjoyed playing with all of their grandchildren. She is getting very social as of late. Every child she meets is her new friend. She didn't want to leave all of her "new friends" but we finally got her to leave once Karis was ready for bed. I was hoping Josh would get off of work in time so we could take Raegan to the fireworks but he didn't. Luckily my parents neighbors next door always set off fireworks and this year was no different so Raegan got her own little fireworks show and was happy with that. I don't think she had any idea of what a real fireworks show is like so she didn't know what she was missing. All in all it was a fun day even though we really missed Josh being with us! ( and my camera ran out of battery charge when we got to the parade so I didn't get very many good pictures this year, oh well, next year will be better!)