Spring Pictures

HI!

Beautiful baby with a beautiful Carolina blue sky

Sunday was so beautiful that we had to enjoy the day outside! We (Gram, Cora and I) packed up and headed over to Sarah P. Duke Gardens. *Can't say much for their basketball team but they sure got pretty flowers!* I packed my camera and snapped away. We even took several changes of clothes. I had originally planned to take Cora for professional spring portraits but changed my mind. No, these are not professionally done but I like them just the same. I prefer outside pictures to studio ones, especially in the spring. She was awesome! People kept stopping and telling us how beautiful she looked. We had to agree. :) I am sure she is never going to let me forget that I made her wear a bonnet for her first Easter, but what are Mamas for?

I posted a few of my favorites although I took over 100 pictures!

The Stair Master!

Just when we thought that Cora had run out of tricks for a while, she amazes us! Today she was pulling up on the bottom stair. She surprised me when she pulled herself all the way onto the the step. I stood behind her just to see what she would do. She just kept going! I called for Coy to get the camera and of course, the memory was almost full- but he got a little video of her first climb. She went from climbing no stairs to all of them! I wish the video were a little longer but you get the idea. She went from bottom to top with no help except for me standing behind her, "just in case" *Side note: we recently got new carpet and there are little carpet fuzz pieces everywhere- especially on the stairs because I only get a chance to vacuum them 2 or 3 times a week :) Yeah, right.

Cora's other trick: today she tried to eat a mouthful of dog food. Luckily, I saw it happen and got it out quickly. "Mother of the Year"- I'm clearing a spot on the mantle for my trophy.

Stacie and Regan came over with Carson to watch the game on Saturday. We had such an awesome time. We used to hang out A LOT but we can't seem to make the time anymore. It was great to get together-- twice in one month!

We tried to get some pictures of Carson and Cora but they have gotten too busy! It's impossible to get them to stand still anymore. I got a couple of good ones. (Stacie- you sure look happy... sorry, it was the best picture of the children. I had to do it.)

Cora loves to try to get to the dogs' bowls. So, on Saturday I gave her her own bowl of clean water. I took her clothes off and let her have a field day. First she put her hands in and sucked on her fingers, then she thought it would be fun to put water on my legs, and finally she dumped it all out and crawled all through it. It's the little things, really. It was fun until she realized that she was cold and wet.

8 Months Old

Cora in her beautiful brown jacket that Aunt Emmie gave her. She paired it with a lovely "skinny jean" and was a ready to hit the town! The town of Reidsville, that is.

8 month rocking chair picture. Lesson learned: take the picture BEFORE we have all day to drool on our shirt. Oh well.

AAARRRGGG! We enjoyed the pirate theme of Will's party. We had to model the party favors for Daddy when we got home. Doesn't she look like a pirate? The shirt was a complete coincidence.

Cora turned 8 months old on Wednesday. I feel like she as changed the most this month - as you can tell from my last post.

Milestones!

Our 3 girls looking at the beautiful snow and waiting for Coy to come home.Look who's standing and cruising the hearth!

We started last week with a snow day- yippee! Tuesday, we were at the pediatrician's office with another ear infection. Coy and I stayed at home all week (except Friday) with our little sick munchkin. Her temperature went as high as 102.9. Talk about nervous first time parents!

We all survived though and between the snow on Monday and the 80 degrees on Sunday, we learned some new tricks!
1.) Cora is now very accomplished at crawling. She will take off and be gone in a flash. I am amazed that a month ago she was not crawling at all!
2.)She has also started pulling up a lot. She pulls up on one end of the hearth and walks (holding on of course) to the other end. Today she even walked about 5 steps behind her little wagon. I got video of it but she wiped out at the end so I decided not to post it...
3.)Cora's next trick is clapping. Cora will now clap her hands together! The problem is taking them apart and repeating it over and over. We'll get to that later I guess. It's also possible that she is showing the sign for "more"- see #4.
4.)Trick number 4 is signing "more". I'm pretty sure that's what it is since she does it when the Cheerios come out and she stops when she gets more. We're not 100% sure it is signing or clapping- see #3.
5.)Finally, Cora has started dancing. Well, if you can call it that. When you say the word dance and move your head up and down, she goes up and down, up and down. It's so cute! Unfortunately, I don't think she got the McKinney rhythm(I certainly didn't!) :) We'll have work on that.

Wow! This month has been a busy one for our little sweetie. I can't believe she is growing and changing so fast!

NO WONDER SHE IS EXHAUSTED!!!

Below are some pictures of Cora sleeping. She was so tired that she fell asleep sitting up. We took some pictures and just let her stay there. We figured that she would eventually lay over. So when I went to check on her she had adjusted... to another sitting position. Of course I had to take pictures. And yes, I did eventually move her so that she could get a good night of rest.

Sound asleep sitting up, take 1.

Sound asleep sitting up, take 2.

In Like a Lion

We woke to a winter wonderland today. Everything was covered in white. We were so excited that we could hardly sleep! We went out two times to play before 10:00am. Cora tasted her first snow cream (well, it was just snow but she didn't know the difference). She even made a snow angel. Luckily, I don't think the neighbors saw my baby flat on her back in the snow... We LOVE snow days!