Isn't Our View Great?

We have a great view of all the balloons from our bedroom window. There is nothing to block our view so we can see the balloons each morning and the fireworks every night they have them. One of the days, the balloons were practically in our backyard. There were about 5-8 balloons that landed in this field right behind us. The boys loved it and even wanted the window open to say hello. Even though the "balloon guys" couldn't hear us, the people on the street could.

Pigtails or Antennas?

I finally bought some little hair bands and me and John pinned Carly down and put pigtails in her hair for church on Sunday. It's the first time I've thought of her as more of a toddler than a baby! It makes her look ... older somehow? I know only 1 picture would be good enough for the majority of people so I posted 5! I expect to hear audible oohs and awwws as these pictures are viewed.

Aren't They Cute?

I love that my kids get along so well for the most part! I see the boys always trying to entertain, play, or cuddle with their sister. It's so sweet.

I thought it was so cute that Landon was holding his sister and I made a comment to Landon along those same lines. He told me he was holding her so she'd quite turning off the TV. And here I thought he was being sweet! At least he was being nice to her instead of pushing her aside.

And just some random pictures. Landon will get in the car and say, "Oh no! Mom! We need to turn back! I forgot my sunglasses!" And Cody has been falling asleep in our room a lot some evenings. I can't believe how big he's getting!

Soccer May Not Be "The One"

I had the greatest idea ever and decided to sign Landon up for soccer because he'd love it! Right? All kids love to run around! Well, we were a bit surprised by his first practice. He is by far the slowest kid on the field which is sorta weird since he can run away from us pretty quickly! He has endured his practices well. He also let me know that running was his favorite thing! Shocking since the other kids will finish far ahead of him and he's only like half way done with his run. It wasn't too bad though until they actually played a real "game", and by real, I mean mom's against the boys. And we went easy on them too! But Landon was not fast enough to get the ball. It was very sad. He started crying because there were too many people trying to get 1 little ball! His coach pulled him aside to talk with him and help him out. Then he told him to go get him the ball. So Landon goes out and keeps telling the other kids, "I need the ball! I need the ball!" crying all the while. It was a proud moment for me. So, like any good mom, I bribed him with Chick-Fila. I told him that if he didn't cry during the next practice, we'd go out afterwards to Chick-Fila. It worked! Now, he just runs at the back of the pack going every which way. I'm not even sure if he's trying to get the ball anymore but if he's running himself tired, I'm all for that!

Running all by his lonesome and looking really confused at practice!

First Game: Their team "won" and I put it in quotation marks because his league doesn't keep score. All I know is that the other team only scored once which I was pretty happy for them. Our team has some very competitive kids on it. I know you're wondering if Landon's one of them ... he's not. It was hilarious watching some kids. There were the ones who were smiling the whole time and just having a ball not knowing what they were doing, the real serious ones, the ones who ducked when the ball got thrown to them, the ones that went the wrong direction and almost scored on their own team, and the one who just wandered around (that would be mine). It was really funny and Landon's enjoying it even if he can't get the ball.

Spreading out. This was Landon's favorite thing today.

Done with his water break and running back to coach.

Best picture of the team. This is the closest Landon gets unless the ball accidentally gets kicked towards him. He touched it once. Woohoo!

Running ... somewhere. Not sure exactly where.

Done!! Look at that smile! Unfortunately, he's out of focus.

Second Dress for Carly

After that first dress I made for Carly for the 4th of July, I was a little intimidated to try it again. I'd bought more fabric and patterns before I'd known what I was getting into. I decided to try something that was hopefully a little more easy. So I tried this jumper (New Look 6576). It was super easy and could be finished in no time at all. Of course, it took me forever to finally finish it off. I had to just put the button holes in it and the buttons on. That took me about a month with the help of a friend. And now it's getting cold here and it's a little short on Carly so I'll have to do another dress in the medium size. Things I like about this dress: took so little time, the buttons I found for it are flowers, the fabric is freakin' adorable, I found pink "bloomers" to go under the dress. Okay, so that last one is not really about the dress but I couldn't believe they matched so well!

9 and 10 months

I didn't post anything for her 9th month but in my defense, she didn't do too much that month anyways! Well, she did start eating table food, started climbing stairs (oh joy), clapped her hands for the first time, got her first tooth brush, and getting in to EVERYTHING!!! See? Nothing happened in her 9th month! So her stats for her 9th month weren't actually done until she was 9 1/2 months old. It takes a really long time sometimes to get an appointment with her pediatrician. See, my kids' doctor is really cool. He's got an accent, need I say more??? I mean, the first time I met him with Landon, he said "why hello Landon" in this sweet English (maybe Australian?) accent! I knew he was the doctor for us. It was just too cute! So, I will wait an extra couple weeks before I see him because he's the coolest! And he listens to me when I'm panicking about strange things. What strange things you ask? Hmmm, a little too personal for the blog! So anyways, after I asked my strange questions to him, I asked him her stats. I know, long story just to see what her stats are. Now I've built it all up! Anyways ... she's in the 95% for height and 25% for weight. So she's finally back in the same "bracket" for height again from her 6 month checkup. Or, they just measured her wrong at her 6 month checkup. She's tall and skinny just like Landon.

So that was her 9th month. I know you're all squealing "Tiffany, Tiffany, oh my gosh we want to know more about Carly!!!" Don't stress. There's a whole other month still left! Although the story about my pediatrician probably won't be beat.

So this month, she got her first top tooth. I know, exciting, right??? I was running around the house with her super excited. She was really excited for it too. That meant that she could now feed herself table food even if I had already put it in her mouth! It's this fun game she likes to play. I put something in her mouth, she takes it out, looks at it, then if she decides it's good enough, she'll stick it back in her mouth. Things that this doesn't work well with: rice cereal, baby fruit, baby vegetable, baby food in general! She now climbs up the stairs regularly. Many times, we have to catch her before she tries to go down the stairs face front. Completely normal of course. She learned to clap just yesterday "on command". She's really proud of it too. She's walking along furniture and has gotten more gutsy to go from the couch to the ottoman or a chair. She loves it when her brothers "yell" her name. I hate it but she just laughs her head off. I love seeing her play with toys. It is the cutest thing to me to see her with something in her hands and she's just turning it around and around with great curiosity. Daisy is one of her good friends (the dog, not a little girl. That'd be super weird especially with the next sentence). Daisy will "let" Carly pet her and Carly lets Daisy lick her (again, Daisy is the dog). There must be some yummy food that's stuck in her hair or on her legs, or face. It makes me very happy that my daughter is getting her bath from a dog. Nice.

And now, pictures of her last couple months. I'll let you guess which ones are the 9 month ones and which ones are the 10 months ones. I mean, there's a huge difference between the 2! It'll be soooo easy to tell!

And in case you had any doubts (because I totally would)

First Time Bowling

We took the boys bowling yesterday and they LOVED it! They were super excited but mostly about the ball coming back through that ball return thing. They would throw the ball and then hurry over to it to see the ball come back even though the ball hadn't even reached the pins.

Here they are ready to go with their adorable little bowling shoes!

Cody patiently waiting for his turn. He's up!

Pushing it down. He's saying "there it goooes!" It's too funny when he says it too. In a little sing-song voice.

Yeah! He did it! And doing the funnest thing in bowling, watching for the ball to come back up.