meeting baby Phillip for the first time

On our way home from Atlanta the other weekend, we stopped by our friend's Phil & Stephanie's house to meet thier baby boy, "Phillip". Phillip is now 8 weeks old and is just precious. And ofcourse Stephanie looks amazing for just having a baby 8 weeks ago.... we were also able to see Colin & Anne-Ross who live around the corner from Phi & Stephanie.

Another great weekend in Atlanta

Two weekends ago we were in Atlanta (sorry to post this so late). I was helping host a baby shower for one of my best high school friends who is expecting her first baby in September. Aunt Kelly was also a host for the shower so we got to spend a lot of time with her, which is always nice. Saturday morning was the shower for Cryise and Saturday night we went out to dinner with Jenifer and Angie. It was nice to get away and just catch up. My parents watched Ansley saturday night since I was at dinner and Rob went to the REM concert with Matt and some other friends....

We had a great weekend in Atlanta, even though it was a bit exhausting. Unfortunately, it seems like whenever we are in town we have so much going on. But it is nice to still be able to spend time with my parents.

Here are some pics from the weekend.

being silly in my pool float

pics from Crysie's baby shower, baby Parker got some great stuff!

The Hostesses

Mommy-to-be, Crysie

Ansley helping Crysie with the gifts

the painting I did for baby Parker's room

Suzy with baby Luke (Lisa's new addition)

The high school girls & the moms

(Lisa, Mrs. Luckey (Luke), Crysie, My mom, Kel, Mrs. Yawn (Crysie's mom),

Mrs. Opitz, Suzy, Ansley, Me)
Me, Crysie, Lisa (Luke), & Kel
Ansley & Ella playing (trying to share the toys)

Crysie got this great Auburn quilt made by Suzy's mother-in-law

18 month checkup

Today Ansley turned 18 months. We can't believe she is already a year and a half. In the past 3 months she has changed so much. She is communicating a lot more, she can say about 15 words (which the doctor was pleased with) & and a lot of gibberish. She loves to answer "yes" to everything. She has gotten really good at using a spoon and trying to use a fork to eat with. Of course, she is still a very picky eater (I guess she got that from me)! She now likes to run everywhere instead of walking, and loves to play chase with her daddy:)

As for physical development, Ansley is now 24.6 pounds (50-75 percentile, was in the 45 percentile), and is 34 inches tall (jumped from the 60 percentile to now 95 percentile). I am sure they just measured her wrong at last checkup, I doubt she grew that much in 3 months. The doctor said she is going to be tall and skinny....I guess we will see :)

Ansley luckily only had to get the MMR shot today (she still hated every minute of it) and we now do not have to go back to the doctor's until her 2 year check-up. I can't wait to see how much Ansley develops in her communication by then. I am always nervous that she isn't saying as much as she should, but she is also shy around unfamiliar people. So she communicates with us more then she does with others.

(Sorry about all the pictures of her looking down, it is so hard for her to look at me these days)

Ansley loves her doodle pro

Another favorite, reading books

Charlotte History Museum

Today Jenna & I took Treyton and Ansley to the Charlotte Museum of History. They have a really neat exhibit "Toy Time". It is an interactive exhibit of giant-size folk toys. Ansley and Treyton were able to play with large-scale handcrafted wood versions of popular kinetic Folk Toys throughout history... It was really neat, and they had a great time! Plus it was free for them, so you can't get better then that :)

old version of the bopper (I would prefer this one over the annoying ball popper)

Hello Kitty

The above picture was from last week, we were in Target and I found these "Hello Kitty" sunglasses for Ansley. I thought it was hysterical how you had to try them on, you couldn't get the glasses off of the "Hello Kitty face", so your only option was to put the whole thing on. I couldn't believe she actually enjoyed wearing it :)

sporting our new shades

Happy Father's Day!

We want to wish Pop-Pop & Pop's a Happy Father's Day! We are sorry we can't be with you today to show you how much you mean to us, but please know we love you and are thinking about you.

And for Rob "daddy or dada",

Ansley and I hope you had a wonderful father's day. We love you very much and couldn't imagine our life without you. You are great father to Ansley, and I just love watching you play with her, teach her new things, read to her, and just being a GREAT dad. Ansley just adores you!Her eyes light up when you get home from work each day... Thank you for being the man/father that you are. We love you! For Father's Day, we just had a nice relaxing day. Rob just wanted to spend it with us... we went to church, Ansley took a nap afterwards, and then we headed to the park. Ansley had a great time at the park. Ansley has been in the best mood most lately, which has been great. She has such a silly personality and this afternoon she was the same way! Here are some pictures from this afternoon (the above picture is from today after church).

what a fun pool ...

Our friends, Jenna & Richard & Treyton, invited us to meet them out at the Pointe (a nice club a couple of towns over) to swim and have dinner. The Pointe has the best pool setup. They have 3 pools: one pool which was a zero-entry pool with waterslides, the baby pool which had lots of spray fountains, and then the third pool was a lap pool. We ofcourse enjoyed the zero-entry pool and the baby pool. Ansley had a BLAST! She loved being able to walk in and out of the pool without worrying about falling in. Unfortunately, our neighborhood pool doesn't have a baby pool so it is hard to just sit in the water with Ansley....

Thanks Jenna, Richard, and Treyton, we had a great time!

Here are some pictures Jenna took of Ansley & Treyton

Where's Ansley?

Oh, there she is, in her closet riding her rocking horse!!! This is where I found her the other day, I just died laughing :)

Goodbye Highchair

Well for now, we can say goodbye to the highchair, and hello booster seat. Ansley has become a not-so-good eater lately. She really has never been a good eater, she has her favorites, but is very hesitant on trying new foods (I wonder where she gets that from?) ... One day I wondered if she would eat better in a chair with the booster seat instead at the highchair. This didn't solve her eating problems but she definitely loves to be sitting at the table with us like a big girl! Needless to say, she doesn't want to have anything to do with her highchair anymore.... I guess we will see how long this lasts.

I had to use phone books to put under the booster seat so Ansley would be high enough to reach the table.... I knew they were good for something!

saying cheese with a mouth full of food

Trying to stay cool

Since it has been so hot here, in the high 90's, we have either been at the pool or have been playing in the sprinkler or with our water table. We are definitely ready for it to cool down some.

helping me water my flowers :)

chalk time!