Nashville, 11-month birthday, and big news!

We have had a very busy last couple of weeks.  Last weekend, we made a trip down to Smyrna, TN, to attend my friend, Jessica Pitt's, wedding.  It was good to see her again and see how happy she and Jonathan are together.  I also got to catch up with a good friend from high school, Amanda Johnston Sims.  It was really great to get to see she and her husband, Tristin, and catch up on all of their family news.  Here's a picture of Cora before the wedding and one of the happy couple walking down the aisle together.

That weekend, my mom happened to have a conference that she was attending in Murfreesboro.  My brother and his family were also in Murfreesboro for his sister-in-law's college graduation.  So, Dad and my sister decided to come on up too, and we all got together.  We met up with Dad, Mom, and Mandy on Saturday and did some shopping and hung out.  Sunday, all the boys got together and went to play disc golf.  While they were gone, the ladies went to hang out at my sister-in-law's parents' house.  They have a swimming pool, so we took advantage of that and spent some time in the water.  It was Cora's first time in a big pool, but she seemed to enjoy it.

Here are Amye and Hayden, having fun playing with the beach ball

Cora isn't sure what to think at first...

The beach ball was fun!

Here Hayden is trying to steal Cora's swim suit.  She doesn't understand why her momma just put her in a diaper and a hat!  :)

Cute baby!

Cora also had her 11-month birthday on the 16th!  I cannot believe that she is so close to being a year old.  I took her picture, as always, and she looks so grown up to me.... :(

Miss Traci was over to watch Cora while I did some dissertation work.  She helped keep Cora in one place while I took her picture and got her to smile for me.  :)

We recently purchased a couple of bigger towels that are really cute, so we had to take Cora's picture in those.  Also, we went swimming again last Thursday with our friends Laura and Anna.  Laura's mom, Barbara, and sister, Jennifer, also joined in the fun!  The pool water was quite cold, so I wasn't sure how Cora was going to do, but she LOVED it!!  She had so much fun watching Anna and also was very entertained by Jennifer.  She also got to eat snacks in the pool, so you can't beat that! 

We had a Sunday School cookout last night, which was a lot of fun!  We brought our outdoor blanket and sat Cora on it.  We discovered that she does not mind the texture of grass at all.  That child was crawling all over the place!!!  Grass, sticks, it didn't matter, she was on her way.  Her little legs and feet were pretty dirty by the time we left.  We forgot to bring our camera, but here are some pictures that I stole from Dana's facebook.  :)

We also have some exciting news from this week!  Jeremy has accepted a position with University Surgical Associates in Chattanooga.  It is going to be really hard for us to leave our friends and our church, but we are so looking forward to being back home!  It is going to be nice to be less than an hour from our families.  We don't have a moving date yet, but it looks like we will probably be heading south in early October.  We should have a date nailed down early this week.  We would appreciate everyone's prayers as we try to sell our house and figure out where we're going to live.  We know that God has a plan and that everything will work out, but it's still easy for us to become overwhelmed.  Dad is coming up this week to help us tidy up the house a bit.  It's going to be a busy month or two!

Cora's First Haircut and Family Trip to Tennessee

Last Tuesday, poor Cora's hair was just staying in her eyes.  I mentioned something to Jeremy about how we needed to cut her bangs and it fell on deaf ears.  Daddy just wasn't ready to take that step.  :)  After spending a second day watching Cora have hair in her eyes, I decided that it was just going to have to be done.  So, I cut Cora's hair last Wednesday night.  I was really nervous, but Cora did really well!  I only cut her bangs and just a little on the side where she had one strand of hair that was a lot longer than the rest.  Daddy did okay with it too.  We immediately missed her long locks, but she looks so cute now with her little bangs - she looks like a little girl! 

The after shot!

We also went to Tennessee last weekend for a visit.  Jeremy's cousin, Becky, and her husband, Jeff, were also in town visiting from Tampa.  It was the first time they had met Cora Leigh!  Here are some pics:

Another highlight of the trip was getting to see Jeremy's parents' baby cows.  Cora and I were brave enough to ride up in the pasture with Jeremy and his dad.  The babies were really cute, though Cora didn't really seem too interested.  :)

Cora also had fun playing a really old toy piano at Papaw and Nana's house.  I think it was close to 40 years old.  I had just gotten out of the shower when I heard it...I'm just going to say that I'm glad it's not at our house!  :)  Cora did have a good time with it though.  Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to play only one note at a time, so we had all kinds of harmonies - or I guess I should say dissonances - going on.  :)  Cora did love it!

We also got to spend some time with my family and my little niece, Hayden.  It had been 2 months since we had gotten to see her!  Here are some of the pictures of the adorable babies.  Also included is a rare shot of my sister, Mandy, and I without our makeup on with Cora Leigh, all with our hair rollers in.  :)

One really fun thing that we got to do was give both girls a bath at the same time.  The guys had gone to play frisbee golf, Amye (Hayden's mommy) was working, so Grandma and I were the bathers, and Mandy took pictures for us - thanks Mandy!  Cora and Hayden had the best time!  They were instantly splashing in the water.  Cora, in true Cora form, decided that she did not want to sit for the majority of the bath, so I tried to bathe her while she was standing.  She got so excited, she couldn't hardly contain herself...and she didn't.  She was standing up talking, hollering, and acting silly, when suddenly a little poop escaped.  So that was the end of bath time!  :)  Grandma didn't lose any time getting Hayden out of that bath tub!  It was absolutely hysterical.

Unfortunately, Grandpa had to work all weekend, but here is a shot of he and Cora Monday before we left.  All in all, we had a wonderful visit.  

Fun with Cora Leigh

Cora is continuing to grow and learn and is just so much fun.  She has progressed from mostly army crawling to a combination army crawling and crawling on her knees.  Her first top tooth came in last Saturday, so we've been battling a sore mouth and some not so restful nights...I guess that probably shouldn't be included in a blog entry titled "Fun with Cora Leigh" because, well, it's really not that fun.  :)  Anyway, we also decided to move Cora up to the creepers class at church.  I was really worried about it because they don't get naps in that room, and she always takes a morning nap.  But, much to my surprise, she did great!!  When I went to pick her up, she was just hanging out in the floor, and they told me what a sweet baby she was.  We even managed to grab a quick lunch at Qdoba without a meltdown.  We noticed after she had been in the nursery that morning that suddenly she was feeding herself puffs.  It was funny, she would feed herself on occasion before but a lot of times wouldn't let go of it once she got it to her mouth.  Now she's eating those things like a pro!  We think one of two things probably happened: either she learned from watching the other kids, or the other kids were trying to take her puffs, so she made herself learn.  Either way, it's been really fun to watch.  She is also doing better with her table foods.  She's enjoying her cheese now, loves banana, and gets the occasion cooked veggie off our plates.  She had broccoli and cauliflower tonight; she made a face with both but kept taking more, so it couldn't have been too bad.  We have also noticed the last day or so that when she claps, she's saying "yay!"  Oh, and she's pulling up like crazy.  Here are some pictures!

Here she is having playtime.  I don't know why I even put a blanket in the floor for her to sit on anymore.  She certainly doesn't stay there!  But, as you can see, she did have fun playing with it.  :)

Here's Cora in the shirt that Mommy bought for her - Daddy's new favorite!

Cora is too mobile now for me to leave her unattended during my shower.  She's not a big fan of the pack-n-play.  She mostly whine/cries the entire time, but does seem to enjoy the challenge of standing up.  She's gotten really good at it!

Happy that Mommy's come to get her.

Last Friday we took Cora to the park to feed the ducks.  It was a beautiful evening and we had some great family time together.

Another fun thing we've discovered recently is the keyboard.  Cora LOVES to play and hear Mommy play.  She also really likes the preset songs which are much more impressive than anything Mommy plays.  :)  Here are a couple of videos of our musical prodigy.