Fall Fun

It sure has been a beautiful fall this year in the Chattanooga area!!  I have really enjoyed driving around this year, seeing the beautiful colors - especially those drives with mountain views.  Since our subdivision is at the top of a hill with a view of the mountains, I have been daily reminded of the beauty of God's creation.  I've enjoyed getting to go out in the back yard and play in the leaves with Cora, and we also found some really cute baby acorns that had fallen off one of the trees.  We collected some nice leaves that weren't too crispy and some of the acorns and made some adorable fall artwork for the grandparents and for our refrigerator.  The girl loves a glue stick!

We also got to take a family outing to a pumpkin patch that was nearby - Old McDonald's Farm.  It was SO much fun!  They had a play area set up for kids, and Cora loved playing in the corn crib.  She also loved going down the bumpy slide with Daddy!  They had a pretty impressive petting zoo - Cora got to pet a toy pot-bellied pig, several baby goats, a rabbit, some sheep, a cow, a donkey, and a horse.  We also got to take a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and pick out our pumpkins.  Admission was $10 per person (Cora was free), and it included a pumpkin with each paid admission.  Not a bad deal!  We got a couple of really nice sized pumpkins.

Jeremy carved a pumpkin for Halloween.  We tried to get Cora to participate, but she was having no part of it!  She did love the "silly face" on Daddy's pumpkin.  We recently had to throw it out, and she didn't understand why she could no longer find Daddy's pumpkin outside.  Cora and I both painted pumpkins.  She was very good about using her paintbrush!  She had such a look of determination as she painted.  She is very proud to show her pumpkin to anyone who comes over to the house, as it is proudly displayed on our mantle.

Cora and I also hosted a Halloween party this year!  Daddy was gone to a football game, so he missed out on all the fun.  We had yummy, spooky treats to eat and played some fun Halloween themed games.  However, the highlight of the night was without a doubt bobbing for apples.  After the adults finished, which was amusing, Cora and her cousin, Hayden, decided to get in on the action!  They, of course, had no idea what the point of the game was, but they loved dipping their heads in the water!  At one point, Cora did start to step into the bucket, but we drew the line there.  Those girls were soaked by the time they finished....as was the floor around them.  :)  They did pick up the apples with their hands and then would drop them into the bucket and listen to them clang on the bottom.  Eventually, Hayden decided that it was snack time and started eating one of the apples.  :)  Here is a video of the fun.

For Halloween this year, Cora dressed up as an ice cream cone, and Hayden was a cupcake.  They were adorable!  We went over to see Aunt Amye, Uncle Bryan, Hayden, and Aunt Mandy for a little while that afternoon.  The girls had a blast playing outside in their costumes, and we got some really cute pics.  Later that afternoon, after Daddy got off from work, we decided to take Cora trick-or-treating in Birchwood where she could see Jeremy's aunts and uncles and also his parents.  We knew she wouldn't enjoy trick-or-treating much this year since she is terrified of strangers.  Little did we know, she wouldn't do much better with Jeremy's aunts and uncles.  We went to see Aunt Reba and Uncle Billy, and Cora had a total meltdown.  She eventually warmed up to them and ate a Reese's cup that they gave her (her first one - she LOVED it!).  They had also bought her a Dora ball that she enjoyed playing with.  We moved on to Uncle Dennis and Aunt Anita, and Cora was being so bashful, she would not even look at them.  She kept her head buried in my chest the entire time we were there.  At one point, Dennis was talking in fairly close proximity to Cora, and thus began meltdown 2!  We had thought about going to see some of Jeremy's family friends, but we knew at that point that it would not go well.  So, we went on to Nana and Papaw's house, and finally she was happy!  :)  It certainly was not the ideal first trick-or-treating experience. 

Here's another video of one of Cora's new favorite songs to sing: "Oh, How I Love Jesus".  It is the sweetest thing.  :) 

She is also enjoying some Christmas music since her mama is listening to it.  She loves Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, particularly Harry Connick Jr.'s version of those last two.  She also requests the Chipmunks fairly often now.  We have also talked about how many of the Christmas songs we listen to are about the birth of Jesus.  For whatever reason, Sara Groves version of "Angels We Have Heard on High" has stuck with her, and as soon as the song starts, Cora will say "Jesus was born" or sometimes "Jesus was a' born."  She sings along with the Gloria's which is just precious.  I love that she shares mine and Jeremy's love of music!  I also love that she sings on pitch now.  :)

Baby brother is still doing well.  He's moving around a lot these days, and certainly has enjoyed punching and kicking my bladder!  I'm essentially carrying around a 15 pound bowling ball on my abdomen these days which is starting to wear on me a bit.  Carrying laundry up and down the stairs is not as easy as it once was!  I am 25 weeks along today, so only 15 weeks left to go!  Or possible as few as 13 weeks if he's early like Cora.  We have decided on a theme for the nursery - we're selecting items from a Carter's collection that is a Monkey playing a guitar.  It is really cute.  However, that is as far as we've gotten, so we have lots to do in the next 3 months!

If you would like to see some of the pics from all of our recent fun, you can view my facebook album at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100367056941870.2590074.12924167&type=1&l=601dfc59b9

Baby 2, big girl bed, and a new kitty

For anyone who has not already seen this on Facebook, we found out at our 15 week appointment that baby 2 is a boy!!  It was confirmed at my 19 week appointment, so it looks like we're going to be buying blue.  :)  Everything Dr. Barker checked out at the 19 week appointment looked great.  Everything on the ultrasound pointed to a healthy baby boy!  I can't believe that I am going to be 21 weeks along in this pregnancy tomorrow - more than halfway there!  We're starting to get some ideas for the nursery, and I am hoping that we'll be able to commit to a name soon.

We decided to go ahead and switch Cora to her big girl bed around her birthday - took advantage of some of the Labor Day sales!  I am SO thankful that a couple of weeks prior to her birthday, Cora started going to sleep on her own in her crib.  One night, this pregnant Mommy was just too tired to keep rocking her.  I was actually going to get her daddy who was.....busy...for a while......and so I ended up just sitting by myself and listening to her cry.  I had no real expectations since crying it out had never worked before, but after about 10 minutes, she got quiet and went to sleep.  I decided to try again the next night and she only cried for about 30 seconds.  She got quiet when I shut the door.  The next night, she just whimpered a little bit.  Ever since then, our big girl has been going to sleep on her own!  We were really worried about how she would do with her big girl bed, but the transition was seamless.  Unfortunately, she did manage to roll off the end of her bed one night and fall in the floor.  She was a little less enthusiastic the night after, but she has really done great.  Thankfully, we haven't had any other issues with her falling.  My mom and sister were kind enough to come over last Saturday and paint Cora's big girl room.  The beige walls were really bothering me.  :)  Below are some pics of Cora's new room.

We have also had another addition to our family!  Meet Moe, our new kitten.  We were glad to get a buddy for our cat, Lucas, since he lost his brother over a year ago.  It's been nice to see him running around, playing again, even if he isn't always happy about it.  :)  Moe (short for Elmo...Cora's choice) has really come in and fit in perfectly with our little family.  He's also Cora's little buddy.  Here are some pics of our sweet kitty.

Cora and Moe hanging out

Aww, snuggled with Hazel

Haha! Lucas figured out that Moe was too scared to jump in the big tub.  He would lay in the tub and Moe would just pace.  It was quite funny.  Moe has grown some since then and is in and out of the tub, so Lucas' safe haven is no longer.

Cora loves to carry Moe...poor guy.  He does great with her!

Love this pic!!  Moe looks terrified.  :)

Busy, busy, busy

Two months without a blog post I believe is a new record for me!  Something about being pregnant, moving, going on vacation, taking care of a toddler, trying to finish a dissertation, and just keeping up with everyday life has kept me pretty busy.  But for now, Cora and Jeremy are napping, bills are paid, the house is in decent order, so here goes my attempt at sending out an update.

First of all, we are now settled into our new home and are loving it!  While there are still some less important boxes in the garage to unpack, the main areas of the house are fully functional.  Following is the link to my facebook photo album of the house if you would like to see it: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100302965361910.2575219.12924167&l=7fa17c4a4b&type=1

Shortly after we moved, we also took a vacation with my family - my parents, my sister, and my brother, sister-in-law, and niece - to Isle of Palms, SC.  We had such a wonderful time, and I will have to say that after everything that had been going on, I needed a vacation.  I was so thankful that I started feeling better that week and was able to enjoy some yummy food.  Cora absolutely LOVED the beach!  She loved playing in the sand and the water.  For whatever reason, she thought it was great fun to grab handfuls of sand from the beach and take it to the water and drop it.  She also loved the swimming pool, especially when her daddy would throw her up out of the water.  We had beautiful weather that week, though it did cool off the last 2 days we were there.  We opted to enjoy the beach for the first 5 days, and the last two we visited Charleston.  On Friday, it was Cora's 2nd birthday!  We did not do anything elaborate for her birthday, though I think it turned out to be a fun day for her.  We took she and Hayden to the Children's Museum in Charleston, and they had a ball.  Cora especially enjoyed playing with the balls, playing in the water, shopping in the kid's supermarket, and art time.  The next day we went to the Aquarium in Charleston.  Cora liked looking at the fish for a while, but kind of got bored with it.  Luckily, this aquarium was set up fantastically for toddlers!  They had several play areas spread throughout the aquarium, so there was really more playing going on than looking at fish.  :)  Here is the link to my vacation facebook album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100319844500980.2578768.12924167&l=4479e647c5&type=1

 After we returned to Tennessee, it was time to prepare for Cora's birthday party!  This year, Cora was able to give some input regarding what she wanted, so we had a Sesame Street theme, and she decided on hot dogs and french fries for the menu.  I added the baked beans and veggies.  :)  We had a wonderful time!

Cora eating her birthday dinner

A fun tablecloth and centerpiece and Hayden eating her dinner

Cora loved the cookie monster balloon

And, of course, Elmo!  Lots of fun gifts.

Sesame Street bus and characters

Books about a new baby and sharing - both much needed :)

The Sesame Street chair/napper that Jeremy and I bought her - the girls loved it!

They both wanted to take a nap.  :)

Chocolate cake - Cora's favorite

And a little cake for Cora

She very neatly decided to eat the "2" off the cake

Once the "2" was gone, Cora requested a fork.  :)

I still have lots more to update, but it's time to get ready for church tonight.  Stay tuned for updates on baby 2, Cora's big girl bed, and another addition to our family...the four-legged, furry kind.  :)

More on our house and other exciting news!

Our new house in Hixson is coming right along.  In fact, they are supposed to be moving in the appliances this week!  We went to see the progress last weekend, and we now have carpet and a tile backsplash in the kitchen.  All of our lights are in now too, and we have garage doors!  They have seeded the yard, so hopefully we will have some grass soon.  Here are some more pictures!

Tile backsplash - we LOVE it!!

Light in the entry

Shot of the carpet in front of the fireplace

Breakfast nook

Formal Dining

Garage door and straw in the yard - starting to look like home!

We met with the bank this week regarding our financing and locked in an awesome rate!  We are still waiting to hear that the financing for the guy buying our house in Lexington has officially been approved...hoping to hear by the end of the week.  In the meantime, we have a tentative closing date on our new home - August 30th.  We may be able to close sooner, it just depends on how everything goes.  We are SO excited to move into our own home again!!

Our new house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with an unfinished basement plumbed for a 3rd bath.  We are going to finish the basement ourselves, which will eventually be Jeremy's man cave.  He'll finally have a place for all of his UT memorabilia, and I will also be happy that all the UT stuff will be confined to the basement.  :)  Jeremy and I are very excited about our bedroom as we will have his and her closets and his and her vanities in the bathroom.  We won't know what to do with all that space!  Cora has already claimed her bedroom.  The third bedroom will soon be filled with Cora's baby brother or sister, due February 29th.  :)  I am 10 weeks pregnant today and so ready for this first trimester to be over!  I was nauseated all day when I was pregnant with Cora, but the nausea has been much more intense this time around with occasional vomiting.  I can't help but wonder if that means we're having a boy this time...that or maybe I'm just older and not handling the rush of hormones as well.  We would be thrilled either way, boy or girl.  We're just thankful to have a healthy baby, even if mama feels not so healthy.  So, for those of you who did not know we were pregnant and just thought I was gaining weight in my midsection, indeed there is a reason for my little belly bulge!  It seems to have come sooner this time around, despite all the nausea and some weight loss. 

Lots of exciting changes ahead!

Good news!!!

I am happy to report that Jeremy and I have accepted an offer on our house in Lexington!  Even if we weren't able to sell for anywhere close to the amount we wanted to sell for, at this point, we are just glad to be getting rid of it.  I told Jeremy that we could just look at it as charity.  :)  We are scheduled to close on August 15th.  We'll be going up this weekend to pack up our stuff.  Our house in Hixson that we have a contingent offer on is coming right along.  We expect that it should be finished about the time we close on our house.  We are so excited to finally be getting close to settling into a home of our own here in Tennessee.  Here are a couple of pics of our new house.

Kitchen - we're waiting on the tile backsplash to be added

Pic of fireplace in the living room, Cora checking out her new house, and dining room in the background

Master bedroom

Outside view

Cora is still doing well.  We had a lot of fun celebrating the 4th of July with my family at my brother and sister-in-law's new house, followed by a Chattanooga Lookouts game and fireworks.  Cora had a blast.  We also had gone to another fireworks show in Collegedale on July 3rd and heard the Eastern Tennessee Symphonic Orchestra.  We had a really great time, and Cora LOVED the fireworks!  She still talks about how she watched, and they went "boom, boom!"  She also likes to tell us what colors they were.  She has really got her colors down now - all the basics plus black, brown, white, and gray.  She's starting to figure out shapes a little bit.  She's almost learned all of her ABC's too - it gets a little muddy in the LMNOP section.  She doesn't just know the song, she can also pick out the letters if you ask her or she can tell you what they are. Cora has loved the warm weather and getting to play outside, particularly if there is water involved.  Below are a few cute pics from the past month or so.

Cheesing with Daddy at the fireworks show in Collegedale...it was hot

4th of July fun with cousin Hayden!

Watching the ballgame

Oooh, water slide!

If you look closely, you can see where Cora gave herself a marker mustache during craft time.

Just this evening, Cora decided to go to bed with Hazel.  She got in her crate, shut the door, and said "Night, night!"

Things are looking up

So, once again, it has been a long time since I have updated the blog, so this may be a long one.  I'll start with what most people want to read about - Cora.  We continued to struggle with sleep time and tried the semi-Ferber method.  We always ended up soothing her to sleep after so many hours of crying.  BUT, even if that's not how it is supposed to work, one day she started sleeping again.  It was wonderful - a full night's sleep.  She probably slept through the night for a solid week, and now we're back to occasional waking.  I do know that it helped when all of her canine teeth came in...I can't help but wonder if the two year molars are trying to work their way up.  Or, maybe she's just waking up.  I don't know, but I hope and pray each night that she's going to sleep all night.  It's better for everyone.

Cora has accomplished so much since I last blogged.  She has added songs to her repertoire, including the following: "C is for Cookie", "I Love Trash", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Winnie the Pooh", and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".  She mostly sings bits and pieces.  She has gotten a lot better at the "ABC" song.  She skips around the first part of the song, but she always gets "O" through the end.  Sometimes "W" has a couple of extra syllables, but overall, she does really well!  She also spelled her name for the first time the Friday before Mother's Day.  I wasn't really paying attention - I was repeating each letter after she said it enthusiastically, and Jeremy pointed out that she spelled her name.  Since then, she will spell it over and over and over again.  She is always very excited when she gets to "A"!  Cora has learned some other things too.  She's counting from 1 to 10 now, though sometimes she misses a number or two.  She is also starting to learn her colors.  She does really well with yellow, purple, blue, pink, and brown (thanks to "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?").  The rest are still a work in progress.

Though this may not be as interesting to many of you, our little family has had some positive changes too.  To make a long story shorter, it was a somewhat difficult transition for us moving to Tennessee.  Our house did not sell like we thought it would, Jeremy ended up in a job that he was not happy with, and we did not have many friends.  Because our house didn't sell, we are living with Jeremy's parents.  It has gone pretty well, but let's just be honest, it's embarrassing when you're 30 years old with a child and living with your parents.  To make things more difficult, it's at 35-45 minute commute to Chattanooga which makes life hard when your job (for Jeremy) and your church is in Chattanooga.  Cora's not a huge fan of the car either, so that can be difficult.  When you make a major life change like that, and things don't go the way you expected them to, you cannot help but wonder if you made a mistake.  I kept thinking of all the doors that had been opened for Jeremy to get that job, and I really felt that we had made the right decision, but it was hard to understand why things weren't working out better.  It was a struggle.  Of course it is during those time that your faith is refined.  I kept thinking of how the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt because it seemed better than they journey they were on, but God obviously had a plan for them.  If you have time, I would encourage you to look up the lyrics of the Sara Groves song, "From This One Place."  I have and continue to cling to the words of this song to remind me that God can see the big picture when I can't.

Thank God, some of our prayers have been answered.  Jeremy just started a new job with Marathon Health.  They were contracted to take over the health care of Chattanooga city employees and their families.  It was a really quick hiring process as they had to get their health care team together quickly.  If we still lived in Lexington, I don't think there would have been any way that Jeremy could have made it down for an interview.  He's only 3 weeks into the new job, but so far he really likes it!  To make it even better, it came with a pay raise!  :)

We still haven't had any significant action on our house.  We decided to change realtors after 9 months with the same one.  After speaking with several realtors, we chose one who we had met in a Financial Peace class.  She is actually one who had gone through Dave Ramsey's special realtor class.  Our house has been off the market for a week and will be relisted tomorrow as a new listing with a new significantly lower price.  We're really hoping this will help us get some new interest.  The downside is that we're going to be losing money....lots of money.  We are just fortunate that we had a 20% down-payment when we bought the house, so we'll still get money back, we just will lose a lot of our down-payment.  We're optimistic that if we attack this with "gazelle intensity" we will be able to sell soon.

Another positive - I've been making a lot of progress on my dissertation!  I should still be on pace to defend my dissertation the beginning of the Fall semester.

I'll end with some cute pics of Cora.  :)

Cora meeting Huckleberry, the miniature pony

First Ponytail!

Cheese!

What!?!

Car ride to church - she kept taking off her hat and putting it back on

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Our daughter is a sponge.  All you have to do is say something one time, and it sticks.  It's good that we're not in the habit of saying anything really bad, because I guarantee she would be repeating it.  It is truly amazing how quickly she is learning things!  Her vocabulary continues to grow in leaps and bounds - I cannot keep up with what's new.  However, there have been some fun things.  For one, Cora has heard me say and likes to repeat when I say "Oh, bull!"  For whatever reason, I tend to say "bull" in an odd manner making it sound more like "bool".  Cora thinks it's funny.  I don't even think about it and she says it right after me.  Much to my surprise, as I was trying to teach her that it was not acceptable to throw her milk cup in the floor, she responded, "Oh, bull!"  Needless to say, that teachable moment was pretty much gone at that point.  Another funny thing - we were on our way to the mall the other day, and when I turned the car to drive into the mall, Cora exclaimed, "Whoa, Momma!"  She totally came up with this one on her own.  She said it over and over and I was laughing hysterically - unfortunately no one was there to witness it with me.  However, since then she has begun saying "whoa (insert name)!" whenever someone coughs or sneezes or just because.  It is adorable.  So, she continues to just be a joy!

On the other hand.....  We've had our share of struggles in the last couple of weeks.  Our precious daughter at one time was this wonderful baby who we could just lay in her crib and she would go to sleep.  It was wonderful.  Then one day, separation anxiety came.  I started rocking her until she was almost asleep and then would lay her down; then it got to where I had to rock her until she was asleep.  We've tried periodically to get her to go to sleep on her own, but we never had much luck.  She generally screams until she's losing her breath and sounds like she's going to vomit.  We decided to try again a couple of weeks ago.  She had been getting up at 4am thinking it was time to play and was impossible to get back to sleep, so we let her "cry it out". (This was after I had rocked her for an hour...)  She was asleep within 20 minutes.  We decided to roll with that and tried it the next day, and again, she did great!  Then something changed...  The next day she cried when I laid her down for her nap for 1 hour and 45 minutes until I finally decided to just rock her to sleep.  That night, I tried to rock her to sleep.  She was asleep and then when I tried to lay her down, she woke up and started screaming again.  That night she cried off and on until almost 11:00 when she finally went to sleep.  Suddenly, it was as if she was terrified of her crib.  She wouldn't nap, she continued to wake up when I would try to lay her down.  We took major steps backwards.  I just decided to start rocking her again in hopes that we could get back to peaceful sleep times.  We've finally gotten to the point where she no longer seems to be terrified of her crib.  I can rock her to sleep and lay her down.  However, she still seems to be scared every time she wakes.  She used to babble, but now she always cries, and every time she wakes up during the night (which is on average 2-3 times per night), she no longer seems to be able to go back to sleep on her own.  So, it has been exhausting.  Hopefully she'll get back to sleeping through the night this week.  It's been a tough couple of weeks to say the least.

On a lighter note, I have some really cute videos to share.  :)  Also, there is a link to my facebook photo albums if you're interested.










 Facebook albums:

https://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=940253851710&id=12924167&aid=2522846&l=7f4b1d6d30

https://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10100154611808620&id=12924167&aid=2531073&l=ee94941ebe

18 Months Old and Visit with the Willmarth's

Cora turned 18 months old on March 16th.  At her appointment, she weighed 22 lbs, 5 ounces, and was 32 inches tall.  Her weight was in the 25th-50th percentile while her height was right around average.  Her head circumference was in the 75th to 90th percentile.  Still our top-heavy baby!  I knew she had hit a growth spurt recently because overnight her 12 month pants seemed to get shorter.  She can actually wear some of her 18 month pants now, though many of them are still too big.  I'm hoping she may be able to wear those next fall...  She is continuing to grow and learn every day.  She counted from 3 to 10 the other day, but I've only heard her do that once.  She comes up with new words all the time - purse, Pooh, beans, spaghetti, hat, good girl, thank you, flower, and she even said bra today - haha!

Last week, we were so delighted to get to meet our good friends, the Willmarth's, in Nashville.  We only got to spend one evening and morning with them, but it was so great to see them!  For those who don't know, they were our best friends in Lexington and they moved near Dallas, TX last summer.  A visit was long overdue!  It was great to get to catch up and see how much their little boy, Jonah, had grown.  He and Cora had such a fun time playing together!  They played with Cora's little soccer ball for the longest time on Thursday night.  Jonah was good to share with her most of the time, but we could definitely see the gender difference in roughness!  It is so neat to see how differently God created us, even from early on.  One of my favorite moments was Friday morning after I got Cora dressed in her cute little outfit (thanks Auntie Amy!) when Jonah told his daddy to look at Cora.  John said something about how pretty Cora looked, and Jonah said so sweetly, "She looks like a princess!"  It was just precious.  We're thinking of an arranged marriage for them...  :)  I didn't take enough pictures, but we really had a wonderful time.

We went to my parents' house yesterday to celebrate my grandfather's birthday.  Cora and her little cousin, Hayden, got to play together for a while before Hayden headed north to see Amye's parents.  They had the best time playing with an animated duck that my grandmother had bought them last Easter!  It flaps its wings and nods its head while quacking "Here Comes Peter Cottontail."  Hayden was busting a move like nobody's business.  I honestly thought she was going to come up off the floor!  I so wish I would have gotten a video of it.  Cora enjoyed moving a bit, but she decided that it was more fun to sing along.  She also was singing along with a little bunny who sings "Jesus Loves Me" and she has been singing a lot of the "ABC" song.  She gets random letter in there, but is especially good at S, T, and U.  I just love to hear her sing!

We went out to eat with Jeremy's parents this evening, and we got to see a first.  There was a little boy across the way (15 months old) who started crying.  Cora has definitely cried before when another baby was crying just because it seemed like the thing to do, but this was different.  She kept looking over at the little boy and her bottom lip would come out.  She kept looking at me with big tears in her eyes, chin quivering, and I really think she was worried about this little boy.  My big girl is learning empathy!  It was so precious and pitiful, I nearly cried myself.  We had to take a walk to keep her from getting upset.  It was quite a neat moment.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Jonah and Cora checking out the dog

Puffs please!

She loves to play with air conditioning units

Playing

John and Jonah at breakfast

Jonah and his mommy - not sure what that face is!

Couldn't get him to smile for the camera, but I got lots of smiles when he was watching a video of himself!  :)

Sharon and I with our "babies", getting ready to head south

Cora playing Playstation football with Daddy and Grandpa (or "Papaw" according to Cora :))