Father's Day and July 4th

I'm trying to get as many pictures in as possible before Cora's birthday on Sunday.

We had a great Father's Day except that my dad was hospitalized the night before with heart trouble. Fortunately, he is feeling much better now. We missed having him at our house for brunch but we were glad that he was in the capable hands at Moses Cone. Cora is such a lucky girl to have a wonderful Daddy, Papa and Irv. She loves them all so much!

Homemade blackberry dumplins. Cora and I picked the berries ourselves, in our backyard.

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We enjoyed Independence Day at my mom's house. Cora actually spent the night before with Ge (and without us)!!!! I can't believe there were no tears! I don't think Cora cried either! :) Coy and I enjoyed a well-deserved, if I do say so myself, night out. I even got to sleep in... no wait, I was still up at 6:30am. We went over to mom's to celebrate with a cookout and fun cousin time.

Watermelon in the sunset. Does it get any better?

So cute!!!

Notice the suitcase in the picture. It is complete with family pictures (in case she forgot us) and baby dolls.

Good Times

Here are a few pictures of our lazy summer days. They go so fast...

Beach Trip

Cora is hiding her shiner

Mom, Cora and I went down to the beach last week. It was so HOT! We still had a good time and even got to watch some of the "Big Rock" boats come in. Two other things that we will remember from this trip:

1.) Seagulls like chicken- but not as much as Cora. She was feeding the sea gulls hushpuppies and bread (and well, chicken. yes, we thought it was wrong but they loved it.). Well, we looked over to find that Cora thought chicken was for little girls and most certainly NOT for sea gulls. She cleaned that chicken bone like it was her job. THEN... She threw the bone to them. I just shook my head.
2.) At 5:00 Saturday morning, Cora woke up and tried to find her pacifier and fell face-first into the shelf on the bunk bed. She was pitiful and so was I. She had, still has, an ugly black eye. We are thankful that it didn't hit her actual eye, nose or teeth. We put a big purple bandaid on it and headed out to the beach. I did learn that daybreak on the beach is a beautiful setting for pictures of my beautiful baby. I am going to include those pictures on another post.
!!!!! Why is this showing up as a link???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bloggers- help!Say Cheeks!!
love this girl

Cora and Ge

Mom's Retirement Party

My mom retired from RJ Reynolds in May. She has worked for American Tobacco, Brown & Williamson Tobacco and RJR. It was time for her to take a permanent vacation. We decided to surprise her with a few family and friends, at her house! The plan was to have her babysit Cora all day at my house while I cooked, decorated, etc. at her house. It worked! We had a great time and I know everyone is so excited for her. Congratulations, Ge!!!

Pretzel "Margarettes"

I think she is surprised.

The Queen of RJR

New House

Hello, new house!

We are in our new house. We've been here for almost a month now. Which explains the long absence from the blog. I don't have many pictures of the house. The ones I have were mostly from the moving day and the couple of days that followed. We were so lucky to have Coy's parents come for a day to play with Cora and my mom came the next day. It allowed us to get a lot more accomplished.

Overall, we are loving our new place. We have almost double the square footage which is nicer than I could have imagined (most of the time). There have been a couple of times when I have missed our cozy little house. It will always hold a special place in our hearts as the first house that we bought and the home that we brought our beautiful newborn daughter to. But we are already making memories in the "Nuuuu House"- this is what Cora calls it. :)

I may try to post more pictures later. I am purposely not posting pictures of the front or address for safety reasons. If you want to see the outside, come on over!!!

Goodbye, old house.
Cora's new playground
Put that box over there. 1st Supper at the new house. Fancy?!

Burlington Park

Misty and I decided on a last minute trip to Burlington Park on Sunday. My mom was already coming to babysit when we changed the plans. (The park is so much more fun than furniture shopping!) She joined us for a picnic lunch and a fun day at the park instead. Cora had a fantastic time! She loves her cousins, Will and Laurel Ann. Will became her best buddy when he gave her her first band aid. She had to do everything that Will did. Another first- cotton candy! I can't believe I allowed it! Oh, how far I've come...

"This is how you ring the bell, Cora."

1st cotton candy

Cora and her best buddy

Where is your band aid? "Will- band aid"

neglected blog...

Look at those teeth!

Since my last post we've almost sold our house and bought a new one! This should all happen on May 27th. To say that it is bittersweet does not begin to describe it. Because of all of the "house business" I have had little time to devote to the blog. But our little Cora has not stopped growing, changing or amazing us!

Her vocabulary is increasing every day. We can tell her something once and she remembers it when we least expect it. For example, I taught her that green means go and red means stop. We were in the car a couple of days later and Cora kept saying "Gringo". I thought it was a little odd but I agreed- as she also appeared to be pointing to me... It only took a few more traffic lights to realize that she was saying, "Green. Go!" Smart girl.

Our biggest achievement by far has been the potty training. Can it be this easy?! She tells when she needs to potty and she waits patiently for us to undress her and she goes. That's it. Pees, poops, no problem. She just requires inspection by all adults in the house and 3 m&ms. Unfortunately, it is not as easy for her teachers to get her to a bathroom in time. I am glad that my summer break will be here soon and we can spend more time on this new skill.

Cora still loves her babies. She has started singing "Rock Byyyyye Baaayybe, on see sop. Baby FALL DOWN!" Hilarious! She is also still very attached to her blankets and pacifiers. She also enjoys dressing up. I've included one of her latest outfits. My cousin, Erin sent this silk dress to her from China. She loved wearing it... with her purple cowgirl hat. Sorry, Erin and Wendy.

I have so many things that I could write. I can't possibly keep up with all of the wonderful things our sweetie is doing these days! I'll try to be better I promise!