Splish splash

I was so glad we left the house for carpool a few minutes early on a rainy day a couple of weeks ago. Helen was thrilled to get to splash around in our driveway puddle. Seeing her delight made me smile.

Dance cam

Caroline has been trying so hard to make the dance cam at the Grizzlies games. She hasn't made it yet, but we're hopeful.

Pinkle, Pinkle

It's so cute that I kind of hope she never learns the real words.

Hula hoop

Caroline is a hula hoop champ. She comes by it honestly - I won a few contests in my younger days. You didn't know that about me, did you? It's true.

And Helen is hilarious. I love that she's hula hooping in her own unique way. She's just so fun.

Birthday celebrations

View all

Get your own

We have had a fantastic month, full of birthday celebrations!  We're so proud of our big four-year-old and our little one-year-old.

We took the girls to the Children's Museum and to an Imax film right before Caroline's birthday. Both of the girls really enjoyed that. Caroline got a special date with Mommy - manicures. I got to go to Caroline's school and deliver cupcakes and read a story to her class. The girls each got special birthday meals and cupcakes. And presents, of course! Caroline was so sweet. She said, "Oh my goodness!" with every present she opened. She was genuinely thankful of each one. My sweet big girl helped to make her little sister's birthday very special.

And finally, a couple of birthday videos:

I do this every year for my girls. Caroline got sung to probably six or seven times all day.


Helen didn't quite know what to think of her cupcake at first. But she got into it after a little experimenting.

Two talented little girls

I caught Helen doing two of her latest tricks today on video. She spots the dog and does the baby sign. Then I convince her to wave at Tigger. Her wave makes me laugh every time: she uses her wrist and rotates her whole hand. Adorable.



And now for our sweet Caroline. I've always heard that children's minds are like sponges. Now I know it's true. We started having her repeat small phrases of the Lord's Prayer about a month ago. Within a couple of weeks, she was saying it all by herself! She amazes me. Kevin and I get so cracked up at her inflection and tone. 4-H speech competition winner perhaps?

Marshmallow World

Preschool songs

Caroline's been learning several songs at school. It's so fun when she comes home and just breaks out in a new, cute little ditty. For Halloween, they did a little song about 5 Pumpkins.


And this one is about 5 frogs. You'll probably get the gist of this one after one verse!

7 months

Please stop growing so quickly, Sweet Pea!

Diaper change

Caroline loves to help with Helen. Last night she wanted to change Helen's diaper all by herself. She does really well diapering a babydoll, but quickly found out the real thing is a lot more wiggly! I was so tickled (as you can tell from the video). Caroline got a little intense and frustrated toward the end of the video, so I stepped in and gave her a little help.

Diaper change from Emilee Garrett on Vimeo.

Park

Merry sunshines

Caroline entertained Helen while I made breakfast this morning. She is the best big sister. I didn't realize how sweet these pictures were until I uploaded them. I see the beginnings of a beautiful relationship between these two. I'm feeling very humbled today. God has blessed me more than I ever deserved and I'm thankful beyond words.

Is that a hint of a smile I see?

This is Caroline singing a little good morning song to Helen that Erin and I heard every morning from our mom. And I'm sure she heard it every morning from her mom. Now I'm passing it on to my girls...

Snow videos

Here are a couple of videos I took in the snow. It might be hard to understand her, but Caroline tells me she thinks the snow tastes like lemons in the first video.


And the second one shouldn't be this long, but I couldn't remember how to stop the camera from taking video. Ah, one of the many perks of pregnancy...

Itsy bitsy

Are you sick of the singing yet? I might find an agent and see if we can cut an album.

More singing

I never tire of hearing her sing. Good thing she does it a lot these days!

Creativity

Caroline woke up one morning and her first order of business was building a nest. She kept talking about eggs and baby birds and nests. So we helped her fashion a nest out of blankies and gave her an Easter egg. She was so happy with her little nest. She played in it all day. I'm amazed at the workings of her little brain. We've never really talked about baby birds being in eggs. I'm guessing it's something she got from Word World. Regardless, I hope I am doing my best to foster her young, creative spirit. (And she had said egg started with "E" 2 seconds before I took the video - stage fright!)


Remember when Caroline liked a nest of a different variety?

Her two favorite songs

It's not what you think, Mimi and Papa

No, we haven't suddenly become Longhorn fans. We're still saying, "Boomer Sooner!" around here--I promise! This is Caroline's new sign. She came up to me yesterday and said, "Look, Mommy! I did it! I love you so much!" (My family has always waved goodbye using the "I love you" sign and now I do it to her and Kevin.) I didn't even realize it was something she had been trying to do, which makes it even more endearing. Talk about tugging at my heartstrings... I got a silly video of her, too. It's hard to get video these days because she always wants to "see the movie."

Why we love wire-haireds

I had no idea Tigger liked balloons so much. I guess I should have known. About 5 minutes after I promised Caroline he wasn't going to pop it, he did. Good thing balloons are everywhere we go these days.

Memorable Memorial Day

We had a fun-filled weekend! We went to a Redbirds game Sunday night. This is the first time since Caroline was a baby that we've been. She had the best time. She loved the music, the clapping, the wave, the people, the ballgame, the food... Her enjoyment made it that much more special for us. The game was long - 3 extra innings and we still lost by 1 run. The fireworks didn't start until almost 11pm - thank goodness for a good afternoon nap! The fireworks were the one thing about the game that she didn't really enjoy. But she still talked about them all the way home.

Here's a video of Caroline dancing to "Sweet Caroline". She danced and clapped anytime there was music. She had the best time.


Monday we went out to our friends' parents' house for a cookout. They live out in the country. It was great to get out of the city and enjoy some fellowship with friends. The favorite activity for the little girls was the swimming pool! The big boys got to shoot some skeet. So everyone got to relax a little bit.

Hope your weekend was just as good!