BaBiEs!

Here are some recent BaBy pictures. While in DFW we went to see itty bitty baby Ethan Pham. (Was Rory really ever that small?!) He is ADORABLE & so handsome. It was so good to see his sweet momma, Hang too. (We missed daddy Ryan!)

Rory also did her first finger painting recently. I don't know who had more fun - me or her. Haha. She had paint ALL over her & was mostly interested in chewing the paper. Chad was so concerned about the paint since her thumb would end up in her mouth but it did say "nontoxic"!

(Rory -Blue dress) - 1st time to daycare at our fantastic Green Acres Baptist Church (GABC). She just went for a few hours while I ran errands. She did pretty well.

(Rory -Green outfit) - 1st full day at daycare & mommy's 1st day of work. She did great! Ate all her food (of course she did! Ha) & took over 1.5hr nap in the afternoon. Apparently the trick is to let her sleep in a swing (which so doesn't work at home...silly baby!) My first day of work went well too. I'm working 2 days/week at local hospital's diabetes center. I'm excited to get back to seeing my sweetie pie patients. God was totally in control of this situation from me applying to getting the job & hours I wanted to going quickly from wait list at GABC for Rory to her having a spot! God is good!

Also today is her 8 month birthday. Time is flying sooooooooo fast! It's bittersweet but I'm so thankful to have a happy healthy precious baby girl! She has 4 more incoming teeth! (But seems to be tolerating it well.) She is cRAwLIng!!!!!!! She went from very wobbly crawling to going all the way across the living room in just a few days! We are so excited & cheering her on! She's also trying to snap or wave or something with her right hand.... not sure what that's about but just another "new silly girl" thing. Now if she will only hold her own bottle. Haha. I bet the daycare workers think it's nuts that she wont. Maybe they'll teacher her how to. But she's just being smart - why hold it when someone else will. Ha! She does love to hold, play, & sorta drink from her sippy cup too.

Chad & I took ANOTHER trip to Vegas this year. Yep 4 months after just going. I guess you could say we like that city. There's tons to do & we still haven't seen all of the city after 2 visits. Chad had some time off in September so we were trying to figure out where to go...New Orleans? Houston? DFW? But we decided on Vegas after getting an amazing deal via Vegas.com (really they have THE best deals)! So off we went for a second time as crazy as it may sound. We had a blast again. This time we didn't have a detailed itinerary to follow & just did as we pleased. Our sweet FW friends, Kristina & TJ let us stay the night with them before our early flight the next morn. Then JBo (bro-n-law) took us to DFW Airport in a really terrible rain storm which took us over an hour to get to there. (Bless that boy for being so kind for taking us at 5-something- am.!) Needless to say we made it just fine to our destination - Bally's Hotel. Last minute we decided to go see Blue Man group our 1st night there. They were AWESOME. VERY very very entertaining, weird, & exciting at the same time. The audience got "wrapped"...as in toilet paper was falling from the ceiling. And the music was amazing too (Of course Chad totally appreciate all the percussion & the difficulty of playing pipes - as in water/plumbing pipes!) We enjoyed the pool one afternoon. We also spend a lot of time at the Venetian since they had penny "Jacks are Better" slots. Yea for stretching a dollar. Haha. Chad played some Black Jack. I even joined him once after just learning Black Jack a few hours before. Needless to say we made no moo-la in Vegas. (Chad swears the machines are rigged for you to lose.) Of course we hit a breakfast buffet at the Flamingo. It was yummy! I did a little shopping at the BIGGEST biggest biggest Forever21 store. I could spent the whole day in there assuming I had 1000 bucks! We also went to the "Old Strip". It had a fun downtown feel & was a lot of fun. We got to see the Golden Nugget, Stratosphere, & 4 Queens casinos. There was also a light show on top of the roof which was pretty cool. (Chad did have to point out they were not HD light bulbs tho. Ha) All in all we had a funnnnnnnn time! Can't wait to do it again! And just gotta say - what happens in Vegas - stays in Vegas! ;)

Visiting the Yaklins (FinallY!)

Finally finally finally got to go see my sweet Haley - my bestest friend of about 13 years. She, her hubby, & puppy Missy now live in Houston. I miss 'em! In fact she's just been living in her LOVELY house for oh....about 2 years now. And I've never visited. I'm such a bad bad friend. We've seen each other in Fort Worth or back in Orange but never Houston. FINALLY just us girls made the (4hr ack!) treck down there. I only got a few photos darn it & here they are. Rory loved the puppy. She pulled Missy's cheeks & wanted to bite her ears. And the very sweet -attention-loving doggie didn't mind. Now Rory will not stop talking about wanting a puppy. Ha! On second thought maybe we should keep waiting 'till we get our 15 acres of land before living with pets. Anyways.... we just spent the weekend eating good food, talking... A LOT, watching movies, & playing with Rory. She loves her Auntie H...and she gave 'ol Jody a few smiles too. It was so wonderful to see my bestie. I love how we can just pick things up like we see each other on a daily basis. Oh and once again, her home was lovely lovely lovely! She did so well decorating too! Love my bestie! :)

Rory & Grandpa playing. My parents thought this was such a hoot...until she started eating the flour. Rory did quite enjoy sitting on the counter.

Savannah's Birthday Bash

Sweet Savannah girl turned 3 at the beginning of August! Time is flying! (I can't believe Rory & Abby are already 7months old too! sniff sniff!) Rory & I made the treck down to celebrate. 4hrs of driving is about the max us girls can handle. Chad was working. But non-the-less we made it from Tyler to Orange in one piece! Savannah's birthday was FLIP FLOP themed. And Emily made the cutest cake! Savannah & her friends also swam & slip-n-slide'ed. The slip-n-slide looks so small these days. Have they shrunk? Also, when Sav was opening gifts she'd take the tissue paper & blow it out of the way. Ha! I made her a little purse & lots of bows. It was fun to sew again as it's probably been since college since I've really sewed. Abby & Rory had a good time catching up on baby talk. And I would like to point out that Rory is not eating a sucker...it still has wrapping on it, tho' she totally would eat one. :) Also, Gerry....here's a picture just for you! See you did make the page!!! We also got to hang out with JBo (Rory's favorite FW uncle.) & Kristen. They are such a stinkin' cute couple! I know they're both excited be getting closer to graduating (Baylor/seminary) too! And boy 'howdy does JBo loooooove babies! May the Lord bless him with 15! (Kristen maybe thinking...wait a sec! Haha!) It was great to see everyone...including Emily's family (who's always so so so sweet!)

- Rory & Daddy watching baseball (and no she doesn't normally watch TV but interestingly she does pay attention to baseball!) So cute!!!! Daddy are you still awake?

-Uncle E at Grandpa's party.

-Nat & Rory. Good job Nat! :)

- Playing ball with daddy. She gets very giggly & excited when he comes home!

-Doing push-ups on her changing table. She's a very strong baby! And she's got two teethies now which if you look closely you may see them

- Peek-a-boo! Caught her post-nap.

- Mom came to visit for a few days before she starts back to school. We had a bunch of fun visiting & shopping. So we didn't shop that much due to 'lil bit. She'll learn to be a good shopper one day (which her daddy will so love...hhaha). Plus mom kept Rory for us so we could go on dates. We went to Oliveto's - yummy Italian! Then to see Inception. I'm still deciding if I liked the movie. At least it had Leo in it as he's an amazing actor. Another night we went to get custard (ice cream). I had to BEG Chad to take me! I really wanted Orange Leaf self-serv frozen yogurt but Chad insisted it was too far away. So we ended up at the close-by, yummy, gazillion calorie (thanks for informing me, Amy (; !) custard place.

-Again, Rory & Chad playing. She loves sitting on his shoulders, biting him, & laughing! The other night they played a mean trick on me. Chad walked thru a door & acted like he 'conked her on the head. :p~~~~

-Grandpa's 80th birthday was July 27 & we all met at Aunt Glenda's in Lufkin. We had a wonderful time getting to see everyone! The BBQ was delish thanks to the Aunt Glenda & Uncle Ernest's cooking! Mom came up with a great game for us to play with Grandpa. We drew a question out of the kettle (which was his mom's kettle... I think) to ask Grandpa but we had to guess the answer first before he told us the actual answer. It was so fun getting to learn more about him! I think my favorite was his first job being bedding sweet potatoes at the age of 8 or so! He's always been such a hard working man & I'm grateful to know him! Chad always excited to see Grandpa too...he always says, I really like him & his stories. :) Caroline & Peter are growing up so fast! Peter LOVED LOVED LOVED playing with Rory. I never knew he was as much of a baby hog as his momma. (Heheeh...seriously Nat is THE baby hog!)

-Lastly, there's Rory's first tooth brushing. She didn't mind it too much. I guess we should be looking for a dentist for her. Yeeshh! Babies need dentists too!

(So sorry about the jumbled-ness of the photos & wording. Apparently I'm no good at formatting these posts. Ugh!)