Philip's Birthday

Philip had a two wonderful  birthday parties last weekend.  My family was able to come on Saturday, while Philip's family came on Sunday.  We had a great time visiting with everyone and want to thank everyone that was able to come.  Here are some pictures from both days!

Philip's Birthday Cake on Saturday from Homestyle Bakery...YUMMY!

Courtney smiling for the camera

Can you believe he's 33!!!!!!

Philip's Birthday Cake on Sunday also from Homestyle Bakery...YUMMY!

Courtney "helping" with the candles

Aunt Regina trying to decide if she even needs to use a fork to eat the cake or just shovel it in.

Courtney started out using a spoon...

...but realized diving right in was much faster!

Courtney tried to put her hair band around her ankle just like cousin Lindsey did.

Courtney and Daphne

Courtney has a blast climbing in Daphne's crate and locking herself in.  We're not sure why Courtney does this, but Daphne doesn't seem to mind.

Hats

For some odd reason Courtney has decided that she wants to wear her hat EVERYWHERE.  You can see by the pictures she literally wants to wear it to bed, in the bath, at dinner, on the potty, at nap, and any other place you can think of.  In the pictures below, she had it on at nap time and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures.  I thought she looked so precious and wanted to share the photos.

Miss Hollywood

We couldn't resist putting these photos up on the blog. Courtney found Angie's sunglasses when they were visiting this weekend and wouldn't put them down. Enjoy!

Courtney and Uncle Chris (AKA Guncle Kiss)

It's Finished

We have finished staining the deck and glad to have that project behind us. The project took a total of six weeks since we were battling the heat and rain. Hopefully the next time our deck needs to be stained it won't be done by us, as we hope to be in another home by then. By completing this time consuming project we have learned that our next home WILL NOT have a deck, but hopefully a patio. Anyway, the stain we used is said to be good for eight years, so we will see.  Now we will be working on putting up lattice around the deck, then putting in some much needed landscaping.

Doctor Report

Courtney had her 30 month (2 1/2 year) checkup today and boy has she grown!  She is 38 inches tall (95th percentile) and weighs 30.5 pounds (70th percentile).  I couldn't believe she'd grown two inches from her 2 year appointment back in January!  She only put on half a pound from her last appointment, but Dr. Thompson wasn't concerned at all.  Courtney is a little behind in her speech, so the pediatrician has recommended that we go for a consultation at Vanderbilt for speech therapy.  Courtney understands what we're saying very well, but sometimes has a hard time getting across what she's wanting to tell us.  The pediatrician also recommended Courtney return back to preschool once or twice a week because this would also help her speech being around other children her age.  After my classes ended in May we'd pulled Courtney out of preschool for the summer and were in the process of trying to decide if we needed to send her back for the fall since the only two classes I need are offered online and at night.  Looks like Courtney will be going back to preschool sometime at the end of August after my mom, Courtney and myself return from Gatlinburg.  That's the latest news and I should have pictures posted of our finished deck in the next couple of days.

Room Renovations

We're finally starting to make some progress on Courtney's new room.  Other than hanging up her bulletin board that Mimi and Pops bought her and hanging her new chandelier, it will be finished until we move her into a full size bed.  We have already purchased her full size bedding from Pottery Barn Kids, and it will coordinate with the colors that are already in her room. Probably in another year we will be looking to move Courtney into her full size bed.  We'll post more pictures after we "officially" finish the room.

Courtney's "new" room

Courtney's room should  look like this when she moves into her full size "Annie Cat" bedding from Pottery Barn Kids.

Phoebe and Daphne Update

Here are some recent pictures of Daphne and Phoebe.  Daphne still has a lot of puppy in her and has a lot of energy.  She will be 1 year old in October.  Phoebe will be 4 years old in September, and the two of them get along well and enjoy playing with each other.  As you can see in the bottom picture, they both get a good workout when they play, especially Phoebe, LOL.

Daphne

New Deck Color

The last three weeks we've been painting/staining the deck and so far we have completed the rails.  We are moving very S...L...O...W...L...Y, but we've been battling the rain and heat.  I also might mention that the rails have taken three coats of paint/stain which has also contributed to the delay.  The first two pictures posted on this blog are the some we found on the internet that have given us the idea to paint the deck and the rails two different colors.  We love the white rails, cedar floor look and haven't really seen many decks stained/painted this way. Hopefully when we finish our deck it will look something like the first two photos.  We will post pictures when we have our deck officially completed!

This is our deck.  I had just finished the third and final coat, so Philip and Courtney came outside to inspect my work.

Hopefully next week our deck floor will be painted cedar.

Family Get Togethers

We always have a fun time at my cousin Denise's house and we ALWAYS enjoy their fabulous pool.  Courtney really loves the water and getting more and more comfortable with it everyday. She now will jump in as long as someone is standing there to catch her.  Enjoy the pics!

Courtney and Uncle Chris chillin out after a fun day of swimming.

Courtney likes to make sure everyone is watching before she jumps in... she's such a ham!!!!

Jumping In!!!!!

Swimming with Daddy