Cousins Dancing and The Cage

Today Auntie Mich and Hunter stopped by to visit. Charlotte was napping when they got here so when we heard her wake up, Hunter came with me to get her. Charlotte was barely awake yet but got so excited to Hunter. I said "Charlotte, who came to see you?" While still rubbing her eyes and all groggy she said "Huntah!" with a huge smile.

We were hanging around with nothing to do so we decided to hit the band concert in town. The minute we got there these two hams went right for the dance floor (before we even got the blanket laid out). Charlotte was doing her favorite 2 moves, the head sway back and forth and bending her knees straight up and down. I looked up the hill at all the old people and they were swaying their heads back and forth right back at her all with smiling faces. Mich and I joked that starting tomorrow, it'll be the new craze in all the senior centers. Hunter had some pretty fancy moves of her own. She managed to hit every spot on that dance floor. Mich and I named Hunter's dance "The ant stomp". It looked like she was dancing around but we really think she was just killing the ants! LOL! Here's a little sampling. :)


The dog cage is a favorite place to play for EVERY kid that steps into our house. I have pictures of so many kids in there at one point or another. Here are a bunch of them, Hunter & Charlotte, Caleb, Owen & Ryan and Daniel & Owen. It's actually pretty funny. They all want me to latch the door... honest! :)

Thunderstorms

We've been having a some really impressive thunderstorms lately. Stephe and I both really like watching storms and I think we passed that along to both Charlotte and Lainey. It's something I never really thought about before until I got caught in a storm at my parents' house the other day. I had taken Charlotte and Lainey for a walk and figured I'd stop in to see Grammy & Pop. I didn't think to check the weather before we left because it was beautiful out. Well, within 2 minutes of getting to their house, the sky turned dark and a thunderstorm moved in. We JUST made it. It was sheets of rain with strong winds, loud crackling thunder and bright lightening. I was laughing at Charlotte because every time a thunderbolt would happen, she would look at us and say "Ba-boom!" with a smile. But it wasn't until my dad made the comment on how he couldn't believe how calm Lainey was that I started thinking how cool it was. Storms have never bothered our dog and I guess it's something I've always taken for granted. It's like she doesn't even hear it. I know her hearing is fine... just mention walk or treat or ride and she jumps right up. We actually have to talk in code around her if we're planning a "W" but we aren't ready to leave yet. And forget it if we mention Maggie, her best dog buddy... she'll go crazy! Anyway, I guess I just wanted to write this down so years down the road, I can remember that neither of our kids were chickens. :)

18 Months

I can't believe it but Charlotte will be 18 months old on July 24th. We had her 18 month milestone pictures taken today. Here's our pretty little girl today and 6 months ago. It's unbelievable how much she changes every day!! :)

Little Town Band Concert

Tonight Charlotte and I went to a little band concert. Since I work from home on Wednesdays, we never left the house today other than a walk with the dog. It was something to do and I knew she'd like it. Here she is rocking out to the music. She kills me. The old ladies sitting behind us came over to say how cute she was and asked if I had rhythm too. YEAH RIGHT!



Here's a random picture I took today too. It's definitely one of my new favorites. Do you know how hard it is to get a decent picture of both Charlotte and Lainey together? This just kind of happened. Lainey was taking a nap in her crate and Charlotte decided to join her. We all love our patient dog. :)

Slip & Slide

One might think an almost 18 month little girl is too young to enjoy a slip & slide. That person obviously hasn't met our Charlotte! We went to a family cookout at Grammy & Grampy Larocque's house today. The weather was perfect for all the activities Grammy had planned for the kids. A "kiddie" pool for the younger ones (Charlotte & Ryan) and a slip & slide racer for the BIG kids. We got Charlotte all suited up for the pool but she went right over to where the big kids were playing on the slip & slide. I didn't know they included little rafts now when you buy slip & slides... what a simple but genius idea! (They certainly didn't have that when I was a kid. We had to run and jump on our stomachs onto the hard ground.) To make a long story short, we laid Charlotte on her tummy on the raft then pushed her fast all by herself down the hill. She LOVED it. Laughed all the way down then would get up screaming with excitement to go again. The water hit her in the face all the way down too with a pretty big splash at the end. I wish I had a video clip because it was the cutest thing but here's a picture of our big girl.

Friday night we got together with my old high school buddies. It was so awesome to see Leane and Mo and all the kids. Here are Charlotte, Jamison, Connor and Caroline. Liam, only one month old, is obviously too small to sit at the table for pizza. It's cool to see these kids grow. Since we only get together once a year, the changes are amazing.

One last note, for the past couple months, Charlotte has very much been into watching the Wiggles. Don't think too poorly on our parenting skills that she watches TV. It's only a 20 minute show and allows us to actually get something done, like a shower or clean up a little. (hehehe) Anyway, here's a clip of her watching her favorite part, the "Hot Potato, Cold Spaghetti, Mashed Banana" song. she really likes this one particular episode but when this specific song comes on, she wants us to rewind it again and again. She usually does the entire dance but this was probably the third time in a row so she's not 100% into it but it gives you the idea. By the third time I thought, I really should get a video of this. :)

The 12 hour bug and more swimming

Seems Charlotte and I caught a bug at my cousin's wedding shower Sunday. Luckily it didn't hit us too hard. I basically was feeling queasy all day at work Tuesday. I called Stephe on my way home to see if he was feeling ok figuring we had some bad chicken or something the night before. He felt fine so I didn't think much else of until I heard my 2 sisters had something as well as Daniel and Owen. Then when I got to Stephe's mom's house to pick up Charlotte she told me she had thrown up! She'd never thrown up before, not even spit up as a little baby. Looks like her good run is over. :) Thank God that was it for her, one time then back to normal. Then today poor Stephe woke up with it. So hopefully that is it, I gave the house a good scrub and we'll be healthy going forward.

While Daddy went to work sick today, Charlotte and I went to visit with Aunt Sue and Stacy at the lake. I'm not sure why Charlotte was so afraid of the ocean and the pool. She certainly was not afraid of the lake. I brought my bathing suit with me but figured I didn't really need it since she's not that crazy about the water anyway. Boy did she fool me. She walked straight into the lake all the way up to her shoulders!! I'm pretty sure she would have kept going if I would have let her. Needless to say my shorts got soaked going in after her. I ended up putting on my suit and having fun swirling her around in the water and bouncing her up and down. It didn't phase her to get her face wet either. She thought it was hilarious when Daniel would splash too. Even Hunter went all the way in. She was having a great time swimming around with Owen and of course Daniel, aka The Fish. It was all so cute!! So much fun to watch all the kids just having a good time... :)