Second half of August

We didn't do a whole lot during the second half of August... Just hanging around the house enjoying the last of summer before Ivy started back to school...

Emily had her first taste of lasagna...and LOVED IT!!

Ivy after playing outside...

Hurricane Isabel knocked down one tree...

Emily became much more confident when pulling up on things...

Emily helping with the laundry...

First half of August...

Ivy out playing in the yard...

Ivy in her curlers

(no pictures of her curly hair - maybe next time)...

Emily has learned to drink from a straw - I pulled out the old

straw sippy cups from when Ivy was a baby. So of course

Ivy wanted to try them out again...

Richard's Aunts Sandy and Judy were so kind and let us stay at

their house in Sunset Beach while they were away on vacation.

We left late Wednesday night (that ended up being hard on Emily - she didn't

sleep well that night at all!) so we wouldn't spend part of Thursday traveling.

Thursday morning, we got up and caught the 10:00 ferry from Southport

to Ft. Fisher.

(oddly enough, Richard, Emily and Ivy all had on their 4th of July clothes)

While in Ft. Fisher we visited the aquarium...

Ivy spotted a praying mantis...

After the ferry ride back to Southport, we drove around a bit and

went to see the Oak Island light house.

We got up one morning and went to play miniature golf.

One afternoon we went to the beach - it stormed pretty badly so we

headed to the little Coastal museum at Ocean Isle Beach.

Back to beach for an evening walk and some pictures...

Sunday morning before we left for the day we hit the beach one more time...

A quick picture of Emily - she kept messing with my camera.

I love those big brown eyes!! And she doesn't usually have her paci

(only at bedtime and nap time) but she found it in the diaper bag! :)

Phone photos

I finally plugged my phone into my computer so I could get some pictures off of it. Here are some of the many I took...

There is this app where you can take a picture of someone and turn them into a princess. Ivy did these...

Ivy with her crimped pony tails...

Ivy and Emily in the grocery cart - this might have been the first time they both sat in the grocery cart together...

On my phone you can turn on the front camera so you can see yourself - Emily loves that!

Emily at Ivy's swim lesson...

Emily chewing on a corn cob...

Ivy trying on hats...

Emily playing in the kitchen

Emily relaxing on the floor

Emily at her 9 month doctor appointment

Ivy eating lunch after she had just gotten her ears pierced

Ivy playing in the sand at the beach

We made a homemade peach pie at my mom's house

Emily swinging at Grandmama's house

Ivy trying on another hat (we do that a lot!)

Emily playing with her feet

Richard and the girls

Emily pulled up for the first time!

These are my shoes from when I was little. We took them and had them polished so Ivy can wear them for the rest of this season...

July Trip to Paw-paw's house...

We spent the week of July 4th in the mountains visiting Paw-paw (my Dad). The weather was great - about 20 degrees cooler than at home. It rained quite a bit, but it was usually scattered showers, so no big deal.

We went to a 4th of July parade in Banner Elk.

Emily sat in the stroller for part of the time - she had a great view!

Ivy wore her fairy wings to the parade...

After the parade, Paw-paw went off with is friend Margaret. It started to rain so we grabbed some lunch and then after the rain stopped, we went exploring.

Ivy found some puddles to jump in.

That night, we went to another little mountain town to see some fireworks. Paw-paw's friend, Margaret, clogs. She got up and danced with Ivy and she had a great time!

Ready for fireworks!!

We visited Grandfather mountain...

Another day we went to an alpaca farm...

A family picture at the Land of Oz...

Ivy and Emily by the gates at Land of Oz...

A BEAUTIFUL view...

Back to Banner Elk to play at their awesome park...

On our way home we stopped in Foscoe to do some gem mining...

When we got home, Ivy got her ears pierced. She had been asking to have them pierced for a long time and I kept putting it off to see if she'd keep asking. We talked about how it would hurt, but not for long. She knew all about how she'd have to keep the same earrings in for a long time and let me clean them and turn them several times a day... We talked all about it and she still wanted to do it.

Oh, we had it done at the pediatric urgent care. They put a numbing cream on her ears and we let it sit on her ears for about 45 minutes before having them pierced.

Doing silly things while we waited...

Here it goes!!

She was so excited afterwards - and so proud of her new earrings.

She felt like such a big girl!

We went to the beach soon after this trip so I have more pictures to post soon...