She had a blast!

Well, the last time we went to the beach, it took a couple of days for her to even touch the sand...not so this time! She wanted to get down right away and just never stopped. She ran up and down the beach, waving at everyone she saw and chatting at them and chasing them down if they didn't wave back. It was pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen. She was so excited about all the people, especially the children. There was one stoic lifeguard that was determined not to acknowledge her (one of those guys that are just "too cool" :), but she just kept on waving and smiling at him til he couldn't help but crack a smile. She just can't imagine why someone won't wave back :)

She of course loved the sand and the shells and was Papa DeLong's greatest appreciater of the beautiful shells he worked so hard to find.

We started out saying "Ooooooh" in delight every time a little wave washed over us so that she wouldn't be scared of it. So she continued saying that all week long every time she got wet. So funny. She surprised us by actually loving trudge upstream a current that had cut through the beach, which was hard work and she fell a lot. She only fussed if the salt water got in her eyes and then would get right back to it!

Needless to say we had so much fun and can't wait to go back next year! Thanks Cousin Wes for letting us use your beach condo!!!

Fun at the beach!

Sorry its been a while since I posted any Karis pics -- we've been having such a great time at the beach and I haven't even turned on my computer til now! Here are some pics that we took on the beach last night:

The chair is from Cracker Barrel -- we went there after taking the pics and just couldn't resist :)

13 months!

I debated whether to keep doing the monthly chair shots since she passed her first birthday. But I decided to keep on with them for a while because she is still changing so much every day. I think I might make a little scrapbook of the monthly pics and updates. But the blue dress is undoubtedly too small since she has used it from 1 month til now, so I thought this pretty pink one from great Grandma Connie would do nicely :)

This has been quite a month. Once I found out that I was pregnant, I had to work on weaning Karis and my plan was to do it by 13 months. And we did it! The first week was tough...she cried to nurse often so I just ended up spacing out the feedings rather than really dropping one in particular. And I gave her a sippy cup of milk in between. It kinda worked naturally, because the pregnancy and spacing out the feedings caused my milk supply to diminish so Karis pretty quickly figured out that she could get milk more quickly from the sippy cup than from me, so we pretty much dropped all feedings except the morning feeding by the end of the second week. We kept up the morning feeding til this week because, well, we just love the cuddle time :) It was sad to stop nursing but also freeing because Karis had gotten so that she was so distractable that she could only nurse in her room. So its been so nice to be able to take a sippy cup out on errands and when traveling. And my sweet baby really is super affectionate and loves to cuddle, so I'm not really missing out on that too much. She LOVES to read books, so now we pretty much sit and read books together for about 30 minutes every time she gets up from sleeping. Its really her only down time because once she gets up from that chair, she is a nonstop bundle of energy til I put her in the crib again. She is still taking two good naps, which I am so thankful for! Right now this pregnancy has made me so tired that I am napping every time she is!

Books have been so much fun recently because Karis is really getting into pointing at things, wanting me to tell her what they are. And a lot of times she will try to say it, which is so cute! One book in particular is her favorite because it if full of animals and she loves hearing the sounds. On several pages, she will make the sound or hand motion even before I do! Our favorite is the fish, because she will make a kissing sound and then we both just laugh :)

Karis's absolute favorite thing to eat is a grilled cheese sandwich. Its something that I make a lot because I can usually tolerate it, so she has started getting really excited when she sees it. We use coconut oil instead of butter because I currently can't handle the smell of butter frying, and it makes the sandwich slightly sweet and better for us, too :) Raisins and bananas are definitely her favorite snacks. She has gotten a little more picky lately and will refuse to try new foods and fuss for something she knows she likes. I usually get around it because she always wants what I am eating so if I give her a bite directly in her mouth, then she will usually try her own when she realizes she has the same thing :)

The last pic shows you one of the things that will make Karis squeal and laugh the most: Her Daddy will say "One, two, three," and take off running with her around the house. She thinks is it the best thing ever. Especially if he says "bananas" instead of three and she has to wait for him to count all over again-- anticipation is really the most fun part :)

Lovin' Papa's pool!

We had a lot of fun this week getting Karis used to playing in the big pool. She wanted to be with us in the water, but was still a little hesitant. The first day, she was doing great, letting me swirl her around in the water and splashing and kicking, but then Papa and Daddy decided to go off the diving board and she totally freaked out. Every time they came near she would start screaming! So the next day everyone kept their heads above water and she was fine. She swam in her crab float, which has holes for the legs for her to kick in the water. But most of all, she loved getting on the big float with Mama and floating around the pool. We might have pics of that still on my camera to post later in the week. Her other favorite thing to do was make everyone nervous by running all around the edge of the pool, playing with all the pool toys and throwing them around. We were afraid she was just going to jump in the pool, but she always stopped right before she got to the edge (and we were always right there with a hand to grab her :) Anyways, it was a great vacation and we hope to have many more fun days at Papa's pool!

Trip to the zoo and the star!

While visiting Mark's parents in Roanoke, they decided it would be fun to take Karis to Mill Mountain Zoo. It is not the biggest zoo in the world, but Karis definitely had a lot of fun talking to all the animals! I think she liked the "big kitties" (snow tigers) the best :) We only took a couple of pics of her with the animals, but she really had a great time! Thanks Nina and Papa, for taking us! And you just can't go up to Mill Mountain without visiting the star, so we walked up there through some mighty wind and sprinkles that Karis absolutely loved!

What a fun day!

Fun Times!

here are two clips of some of the fun Karis has been having on our trip. She loves dancing around clapping her hands and Papa found a stuffed tiger that had her squealing in laughter :)

Yay for grandparents!

Friday we left for a fabulous week of visiting grandparents! We spent the weekend with Mark's folks and now we are hanging out with my folks for a couple of days. It has been such fun and we have taken tons of pics that I will share once I get them all uploaded. For now, you can see Karis having fun playing outside with Mark's Dad and swimming in the pool with my Mom.

Good news: Karis has been a super duper sleeper even though in different cribs! She's been sleeping at least 12 hours, which is what she usually does at home. Thats pretty relieving because up until this trip, it always took her a couple of days to get used to a new crib. Also, I have been so excited to eat yummy home-cooked meals that I didn't have to fool with. It has been amazing how much more I have been able to eat and how much better I have felt! I'm hoping it will continue even when I go home....

Beefaroni is a winner!

One day when I was too sick to cook, I just defrosted some meatballs I had frozen and added it to some spaghetti sauce and macaroni and cheese I had made for her the day before. (Since my picky baby didn't want plain old mac and cheese two days in a row :) As you can tell from the pic, she was pretty pleased with it!

We are off to visit the grandparents for a week and I am so relieved! These past few weeks have been such a challenge for me as I have not wanted to even look or smell any food. Which isn't possible when my poor baby is hungry for some food every three hours or so! So I'm definitely looking forward to letting the Grandmas take over for a while and spoil her rotten :) And hopefully, if I don't have to cook it, I might even feel like eating it!

Enjoying her sundress

Aunt Mel and Uncle Rich gave Karis this cute purple sundress for her birthday so of course I had to take some pics to show how much she enjoyed wearing it :)

We missed our church family yesterday...

Yesterday, Mark went to help set up chairs for church and after setting off the alarm (ha :) was surprised to find that the owners of the building our church rents were in the process of getting the roof fixed...very loud, with debris falling through, and the smell of the adhesive was overwhelming. So our church had to be canceled at the last minute and we were encouraged to meet with other believers at their homes or visit another local church.
We decided to visit a church that we had wanted to check out when we first moved here but never got the chance. My husband has some tennis buddies that attend there and he had heard good things about it. All in all, it was a great church, very theologically sound and we appreciated the way they did a lot of things. In fact, we would probably return there for some solid teaching if ever our church misses a service again...
However, there was one thing thing that stood out to us both: The sanctuary completely emptied as soon as the service was over. We saw very few people standing around chatting and no one tried to strike up a conversation with us. Granted, they do have nursery and Sunday School, so many parents had to go and pick up their kids. But it was sad to see how many people seem to see church as something to check off their to-do list and then get on with their day off. Now, our home church is not perfect and definitely has its issues, but today I really appreciated how much our home church acts like a family and really desires to fellowship with one another. Even though this church started 30 minutes later, was about 15 minutes farther away, and we stopped and ate lunch before coming home, we still got home at about the same time we usually do simply because we usually stay and fellowship with our church family for so long. I also couldn't help but contrast this first visit with our first visit to our home church, Messiah Baptist Church. The first Sunday we visited, one of the Pastors invited us to join his family and another family for lunch. Then he took the time to really get to know us and tell us everything that we might want to know about the church. We left feeling like part of the Messiah Baptist family even though it was our first Sunday! Nowadays, many families in our church bring their lunch and stay fellowshipping and encouraging each other for several hours after church, sometimes just chatting and other times playing games together. What a great way to actually get to know everyone, find out about needs in the body, and welcome new members! Unfortunately, Mark has to go to work right after church, so we are currently unable to join them, but I hope to be able to someday.

So Messiah Baptist, I just wanted to say thanks for being a family! This picture from Karis is for you. She's grinning from ear to ear, ready to give you a great big hug :)



And for those of you who know how very busy and loud my sweet baby is and were wondering how in the world she made it through a church service where the folks are not used to my busy and loud baby, I did give in and take her to the nursery to play. She made it through the worship just fine, but just as soon as it got quiet for the preaching, she just thought it was too quiet and had to liven things up a bit :) So off we went, but I stayed with her the whole time since she had never been in a nursery before. Not that she cared that I was there :) She had quite the time playing with all the new toys and running around. My biggest job was to make sure she didn't step on any of the babies who weren't quite as mobile as she, especially since her Daddy was determined she wear her tennis shoes to church so she could run around well in the nursery. (At least that was his excuse, I know that he just likes them better than dress shoes :) So just imagine her pink and silver shocks with her pretty little dress, ha :) But I'm kicking myself now, because she woke up last night because her nose was all stopped up and I just know she got something from one of the four babies who had snot dripping out of their noses all morning! Another reason I appreciate my Messiah Baptist family -- they love the babies and want them in the service even if they are distracting!

No bows for me!

I knew the day would come when Karis would start pulling out her bows. This sad time is now upon us, and Karis just thinks its hilarious! And she is so cute as she does it and gets so tickled about it that I just can't be frustrated with her :) I got the whole sequence in this set of pictures, and the last one just cracks me up. Its as if she is saying, "Ha, I don't need a bow; I'm cute enough on my own!" And as much as I like bows and will continue to put them on her, I have to say I do agree with her :)