Madalyn at 3 months

Madalyn is growing up fast! This past week she has filled out more and really has started cooing all the time now. She has developed such expressions and reactions that have the perfect timing. She was the entertainment on our family vacation. Here are some highlights of the photo session that Brantley did.

Our Lake Vacation

This past week we were on our family vacation at Lake Hartwell. We had a pretty busy week; I have already blogged about some of our week so here's the rest. Thursday, we had some more family come down, Papa, my great aunt Ann and my great uncle Bobby. Papa spent the night and Friday, my uncle Keith, Felicia, and Emily came down. Then Saturday, my best friend from college, Noelle, came down with her little girl, Elizabeth and they stayed the night Saturday. We had a wonderful week full of family, fun, water, sun, a mini day trip, a decade birthday to celebrate, and precious memories of our first family vacation with Madalyn. Madalyn did so well for her first vacation. She slept well at night and did well during the day. She stayed at the house all the time; my mom kept her in the house;because Madalyn was way too little to go to the lake and get in the water and be out in the sun. It was a nice week; it was hard to come back home; but Abby was so glad to see us!

Papa and Madalyn; love how she is looking at him!

Madalyn and Grand Dad; looks like she's ready to ski!

Madalyn and Elizabeth (4 yrs.) watching a Barbie Fairy movie

Happy 30th Birthday to Me!

Today was my 30th birthday. Kevin had asked me what I wanted for my birthday and my answer was to go to the lake and eat at The Galley Restaurant in Anderson at Port Shoals Marina; and that's what he gave me. I had a nice day and got to spend it just like I wanted to. I am very blessed to have a loving husband, a sweet and healthy baby girl, and a wonderful family and great friends. I couldn't ask for anything more!

An Afternoon in Helen,GA

This morning it was overcast and cool; so we decided to go do something instead of being around the lake for the day. We decided to go to Helen, Georgia. My parents and I had been before, but Kevin had not. It is about an hour ride to Helen from our place. On our way, we took a detour through Toccoa and followed the signs to the Toccoa Falls. The falls actually sit in the middle of Toccoa Falls College. It's a Christian college and back in 1977, the college was flooded during the night and many people were killed. They have rebuilt it; it seemed to be a nice place. It reminded me of North Greenville, but the campus was more spread out. The falls are 186 feet tall.

Then we continued our our journey to Helen. Helen has a section of the town that is set up like a small German village; similar to Gatlinburg, TN but on a little bit smaller scale. It's a very pretty mountain town.


Kevin and I were going to ride a tube down the river, but a storm came up just about 5 minutes after we got there; so that got postponed to another day. We waited the storm out in the car. Madalyn was happy to be out of her car seat.

The storm did finally pass and we were able to get out and walk around. The rain continued to drizzle on for about another hour, but then the sun came out. However, due to the storm it was a very pleasant afternoon, not hot at all.

We got an afternoon treat of an ice cream and in this ice cream place, all the chairs had different pairs of kids shoes on the bottom. I guess like using tennis balls to not scratch the floors.

There is a park that sits up on a hill and over looks the town. Madalyn was very interested in the kids that were playing in the park.

Madalyn's first ride on a horse.

We left at 12:30 and returned home at 9:00 that night. Madalyn was so good. The only time she wasn't happy was when it was time for her to eat and we couldn't get the bottle to her fast enough, but other than that, she rode in her stroller and took some naps and just looked around. She was very amazed with all the sights and sounds that surrounded her today. This was her first big outing and she did great!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July, from the lake. Saturday at 5:00pm, Kevin, Madalyn, and I left for our family vacation for a week at Lake Hartwell. It was 9:00 pm when we finally pulled into the driveway. Its about a 3 hour drive normally, but we had to stop to fed Madalyn and ourselves on the way; and one dirty diaper stop. We are staying at my parent's lake house. My aunt Susan and uncle Dan came down Sunday and stayed the night. It's a family tradition that we spend the 4th at the lake, but normally we don't get to stay a week. Kevin is so excited to get to spend a week at the lake. We will have some more family come down this week, on Wednesday I will celebrate my 30th birthday! Then next weekend, my best friend from college, Noelle, is coming down with her little girl Elizabeth who is 4. I will have more posts to come as our week at the lake continues. Happy 4th America!


Who are all these smiles for? Her daddy of course!

Watching Sesame Street

Madalyn has started watching TV some. She started watching it with Kevin during the college world series for baseball. She will watch Sesame Street, and Barney. She will watch for about 30 minutes. She doesn't watch TV every day, but as you can see she is really into it.

Sunset

One night last week when we were on one of our stroller walks, we had this gorgeous sunset to enjoy. The colors were so vivid!