Daddy-sitting

Yesterday, Sean had the day off to spend with us! I took advantage and left to run some errands on my own around lunch time. I prepared Caroline's food, wrote some quick instructions, and even set out a pretty purple bib on her high chair for her to wear.

When I came home Sean had rolled the high chair into the living room so he could watch Fox News while he fed her, and she was wearing a camo bib!! Such the typical guy!! I had to take a picture!!

Sean always does a great job taking care of Caroline and she just loves him! She always smiles so big when he walks in the room!! Daddy's girl!!

"Can you see me??"

The Penrod family are all big hunters and on our last visit Caroline's grandfather bought her first hunting outfit!! He even gave her a little turkey to play with! Here she is all camoed out!!

"Can you see me?"

Playing with the turkey

Gig 'Em Aggies!!!

This weekend we watched the Aggies beat the Army (very few games are shown here in SC so we were excited that it was on!!). Caroline cheered along with us, and even got a few kisses on the cheek from Daddy when the Aggies scored!!! Here she is in her Aggie T-shirt and socks, thanks Pawpaw!!!

A girl and her dog

Caroline is always so tickled when she sees our dogs playing and running around. They are great entertainment, especially when she is fussy!! We sometimes go outside to "visit the puppies" and she giggles and reaches out to pet them.

Today we were playing with Lucky, and I was really impressed with how she interacted with Caroline. She just sat there while Caroline grabbed her paw, squeezed her nose and pulled her whiskers. Lucky was so sweet the whole time. Labs really do make great family pets!! We made sure to give her lots of treats afterward. Here are some cute pictures of them together.

Sleeping

At night I always check on Caroline before I go to bed, and she always looks so sweet. Here she was last night...so precious!

Bath time giggles

Caroline was giggling during her bath at my ducky bath mit. She is very stingy with her smiles and giggles; she makes you really work for them!! I was lucky to catch this on camera! (I know she looks scared, but she's really not!)

Peek-a-boo!

Sometimes I catch Caroline looking at herself in this mirror on her exersaucer. It's really cute to watch her trying to figure out what she's looking at!

Blog facelift and goodbyes

As you can see, I have made some changes to our blog. I am feeling very patriotic this week as we say goodbye to some close friends who are deploying to the Middle East. Sometimes I forget that I am married to a military man; this is just normal life for me!! But this week I am reminded of what his primary mission is, what he swore to protect, and what he trains for everyday. No, he is NOT leaving with the rest of them (not this time anyway), but it is almost just as hard to watch your friends and their children cry as they say goodbye to their husbands and daddys.

Good luck to our friends, stay safe and may God be with you!! You are in our thoughts and prayers every single day!!

6 months

On September 13th, Caroline turned 6 months old!! She is getting so big and is learning more and more each day! She is babbling, sitting up, and grabbing at everything. She is still very long and skinny. All of her pants are too big around her waist and too short for her legs!! I imagine we will have a very difficult time finding clothes that fit!!

We celebrated her half birthday with half of a cake. Caroline really wanted a bite (you can barely see her hand grabbing the cake plate) so we let her taste the icing. She liked it!!!



"All for me??"

If you look really close at the picture above, you can see her 2 bottom teeth!! I think she is trying to cut her top ones now!!

Tasting...

Yum!

Hurricane Ike

Many of you know that I grew up in Friendswood TX (between Houston and Galveston) and that my parents moved even closer to the coast after I got married. When they were sure that Hurricane Ike was coming toward them, they were able to evacuate to my grandparents house north of Houston. I was of course very nervous when it hit, afraid of what my parents would come home to. My dad went back today and everything is ok!!! What a blessing that their current residence, and a house they just bought and were planning on moving to THIS WEEK, survived the wind, rain and flooding. Everyone in my family is safe!! They are however a little hot because the electricity is out and will be for sometime, but that's minor. Please keep everyone in the Galveston and Houston areas in your thoughts and prayers. Not everyone was as lucky as my parents.

Date Night

Saturday night was our first official "Date Night"!! I know, I know, 6 months is WAY too long to go with out having a little time to ourselves. But the past 6 months have been very busy!! Sean was either out of town, or we were working on the house, or I was just too darn tired!! We finally took the plunge last night!

We went to our favorite restaurant in town, a Japanese steakhouse named "Kobe". We had great drinks, food and conversation. It was like we were a normal couple again!! I don't have any pictures because my tiny (but super cute) purse didn't have any room for my camera. We had a great time!!! Thanks to Ashley for taking great care of Caroline for us!!!

Weapons School

Congrats to Sean!!! He was accepted to Weapons School and will start in January!! Great Job!!

She'll be embarrassed one day...

I couldn't help myself, she was just so darn cute!!!

Talking

Caroline has been very vocal lately. She loves to hear herself making all sorts of noises. She babbles a little, but mostly she just says "ahhhhhhhhhh"; and she tends to get louder and louder!! This morning she was drinking some juice from her sippy cup and making a lot of noise. I was able to catch it on camera. It's kinda dark, sorry!

Aqua Tots

Today was Caroline's first swim lesson in a class called "Aqua tots". She did a great job!! She is still a little young, but it's a great way to get her used to the water! Sean had the morning off so he came and took some great pictures of us. We had a lot of fun and can't wait for our next class!



Caroline likes the water!

Practicing her kicking!

Mommy blowing bubbles. Caroline watched me and just put her mouth in the water!!

Taking a quick break

Swim, swim, swim!!

Splashing!

Our friends, Kelly, Tyson and Brian

Caroline is doing a great job reaching for the ducky. She loved this part!

Cuddling with Daddy after class

Daddy's hat

Here's Caroline trying on her Daddy's hat. A little big, but so cute!!

Sean's plane

On Friday evening our squadron had a cookout on base. We ate bratwurst and watched a few planes practice for the airshow that was the next day. All the F-16s were lined up on the runway, so we walk around and found the plane that has Sean's name on it!!! So cool!!!

It was very windy (you can see my crazy hair) thanks to Tropical Storm Hanna. Luckily, only the outer edge came through our area, so we experienced some wind and rain. By Saturday it had blown through and the airshow was a success!!!



Capt Sean Penrod

Caroline was more interested in the little flag that was hanging off the front.

Sitting pretty

Caroline is sitting up now! She is still very wobbly, but she actually sat up straight today for about a minute, until she fell face forward onto the blanket. Sean was helping her practice, so he witnessed it first!! We've been working with her everyday and it is finally paying off. How exciting!!

These pictures were taken a few days ago. I sat her on our bed up against the pillows to practice. Then we were just playing around. I thought they were cute!!

Hurricane Watch

We have really been watching out for Tropical Storm (currently) Hanna and preparing just in case. On Tuesday night they were predicting it to hit the Carolinas. Even though we are about 100 miles inland, I was really worried about power and water outages. Especially with a baby. I grew up in Houston, and even though I don't remember weathering any hurricanes (I was only three when Hurricane Alicia came through in 1983), I am aware how important being prepared is. I made my hurricane list and hit Walmart at 7:30am on Wed morning. The water and batteries were almost gone!! I also stocked up on lots of food so we could be ready if need be.
Yesterday afternoon I waited to see if my husband would have to evacuate with the F-16s and leave me and Caroline to fend for ourselves. This is a requirement of his job as a pilot, to make sure the planes are out of the hurricane's path, but unfortunately this means leaving your family. Don't worry, we have a plan in case this happens, and our squadron commander's wife has been AWESOME to make sure we have updates and even invited us to her house if the guys had to leave.
Thank goodness, we found out they don't have to leave which means the winds won't be very strong at all. Hanna should hit more north than predicted earlier, so we should have lots of rain and wind, but nothing too serious. And if the electricity goes out, I'm ready!!! Now we are also watching Ike and Josephine. Lots of excitment here!!

Update

We've been spending ALL of our time at the house on a major project. Sean has been spending every waking moment (when he's not at work) tiling our house. It has taken a while (I'm not allowed to say how long) but it is almost finished. We are doing 2 bathrooms, the entry way, and our kitchen. I will post pictures when it is finished. Here are some random pictures of Caroline, when we're not hard at work.



Sean reading to Caroline out of his tiling book. She's eating his bag of cookies.

We just can't take enough pictures of our little one all wrapped up in her bath towel! She is soooo cute!!!

Today we finally put together the high chair (we've been using the Bumbo seat to feed Caroline up until now). She looks so small in it!! But she seemed to like it just fine!!