Sunday, June 19, 2011

Here we are in the Tarheel state again!!!

10 months old, my little Lia-Bo-Bo
Lia is army crawling, creeping along the furniture, thinking about crawling- getting up on her hands and knees and rocking, taking a crawl and a half and then collapsing down to army crawl. She loves all finger foods. Don't let her see a strawberry unless you're planning to share with her!! We're working on a sippy cup, little girl is growing up!! She is babbling up a storm and does beebers herself with her lips. She loves to clap and smiles so big when you sing to her. Bathtimes are a blast as well and pooltime. Lia hates to be still; its almost impossibly to complete a diaper change before her semi-stillness limit is up.
Funny girl!
Baxter will let Lia pick at his paws and his nose if she'll let him slime her in the face; they've worked out this agreement wordlessly.
watermellon crawler
Yeah for pool time!!!
I'm not exactly sure what's with that face; its really cute yet kind of looks like she is sad.
Durham Life and Science Museum (Sumeum according to Grace)
Keeping a safe distance, Grace and Tyler. When they first got together at the museum, they were in eachother's faces speaking their own language, so excited- it was so cute!
Train ride!!!
The look of determination. Whenever Lia sees something she wants, she get this look on her face and shimmies as fast as she can with quite possibly the ugliest army crawl you've ever seen. Ugly but effective!
Downtown Wilminton, NC
Just finished dining at the Oceanic, life is good
The little water baby. Lia absolutely loves being in the water, splashing, kicking, a little sampling of sand.... I guess that's not so awful when you don't have teeth to experience that gritty crunch of a few granules of sand
Grace had a blast at the beach. Building castles in the sand, floating out in the water, searching for shells.
So many of my favorite things! I took the girls to Duke Gardens one morning. All of this catching up being done while waiting to get in to our new house, a few days at the beach as well, why not?!

We are getting settled in slowly (slower than I'd prefer with the girls) but surely. It feels great to be back in North Carolina! When we crossed over the state line from TN to NC, all of the thoughts and memories that had been sort of bottled up the last 3 years came rushing out. It felt like we were returning home from a vacation; not having moved away for 3 years. Working on making this house a home for however long we are here. It was 'move-in ready' but that was a bit of a lie. There has been a lot of elbow grease required to bring this house up to tolerable. I'd say its about 5 clicks above the foreclosure house that we bought and fixed up in Apex. Kind of a diamond in the rough. If I could paint, it would be so much better, but I do like the kitchen and the master bedroom/bathroom.
I had my interview with my former manager to return to 4 Anderson South at UNC as per diem status. Dan had an interview on Friday that went well. Things are piecing together. Dan got to see a bunch of his former swimmers at one of their summer league meets this weekend; he's life a celebrity to them- its awesome to see the impact he had on those kids come full circle.
Probably the best thing for me has been getting to hang out with my best friend, Windy, again. And without a plane flight involved. There is just something about getting to talk in person that cannot be replaced!
Also, on the note of great things we are returning to, we are back to going to Hope Chapel again. That church is amazing. It just fits us so well and feeds us. Its great to take the girls there and get to show them off to our friends. Run away to Texas for 3 years and come back with 2 girls :)
Hiking in Cherokee National Forest in TN with Mimi and Papa before leaving to head on to North Carolina.
Grace made it the majority of the 3 mile hike- pretty impressive!