Sally the Salamander

Saturday Callie and I took a trip down to the State House with Amy and Emory to check out Sally the Salamander! Sally is the class project for Leadership Columbia this year and it's an interactive walking tour of the downtown area. You visit 10 local buildings dowtown and try to find Sally on the building and then you get to learn a cool fact about the building/city! Saturday was Sally's Friends and Family Day. They had lots of games for the little ones and a couple of tours. When we got there, we got the chance to meet Sally (Vaughn)! Callie wasn't so sure about Sally and immediately wanted to be picked up.



So after we played a little bit in the sand to find Sally, coloring Sally's logo, etc. We decided to go for a bite to eat at Z Pizza- if you haven't had it yet, you really should! It's awesome! Callie was worn out from all the excitement and heat- yes Columbia, SC is hot even in April.

Emory was patient while the Mommy's ate lunch- she enjoyed some pizza too :)

After lunch we decided to walk around and find some of the Salamanders. Here's the first one at the Convention Center. To find the complete list of sites visit: ColumbiaSalamander.com!

We had a blast and can't wait when Callie is a little bit older and can really understand and find the Salamanders!

FINALLY!

I did it! I finally finished WICKED! I've been ready that book for almost a year now, yes I typed year. I would stop every now and then to read something else to give myself a break, but lately I've been determined to finish it. I'm a pretty slow reader in general, but add to the fact that I didn't really care for the way it was written or story line, it took forever. I've heard great reviews about the play so I would really like to go see it to redeem the author. So if you are in the mood to read a weird book that takes forever, Wicked is the one for you!

Callie's Baptisim

Callie was baptized this past weekend on Easter Sunday. The day was absolutely perfect, we couldn't have asked for anything more. We started the day with opening Callie's Easter basket from the Easter Bunny. Then I got ready and then Callie ready- I was actually on time!! We decided to have her baptized at early service and then have our family and close friends over for brunch at our house. The church service was amazing. Callie didn't cry or fuss, just a complete angel. She even talked to the pastor and was looking at her like she understood everything that she was saying. The baptism was extra special too because the water that we used was from the River Jordan. My grandparents visited there right after I was born and brought back water for all the grandchildren to be baptized with it. Vaughn was a little worried about using the water since it came from another country 20+ years ago, all he could think about was an episode of House! oh well... After she was sprinkled with the Holy Water our Pastor walked her down the aisle to show her to the congregation. Vaughn and I cried, Callie smiled at everyone. It was one of those moments where you know your are truly blessed and God knows exactly what he is doing for your life. After church we went to our house to celebrate Callie being baptized with everyone. We hated that some couldn't be there, but appreciated everyone that came and helped us with the day! Below are some pictures taken that day. Callie was great the whole day, never once cried!

Vaughn, Callie and me in Callie's nursery before church

After church in the front yard, a little bright for munchkin Granger shot, still too bright
DaDa stealling some sugar!

Uncle DR

The Rowland's and us

Four generations

Grandma with Callie

Hop Hop Hop

The Easter Bunny hopped on over to our house and delivered some CUTE goodies to Callie!

Waiting patiently for us to show her what she got

We tried sitting up next to it, but when you are trying to reach ALL of your toys at once, you fall over a lot. So our chair that Santa brought us helped out! Looking at her "DaDaDa" We were very excited to get a new car seat for Callie, some new toys, outfits and especially the cross necklace to start the special day off!

Six Months!

The more I think about it, the harder it is for me to believe that my sweet little girl is already 6 months old. My mother always said, time will fly when you have kids, and she couldn't be more right. Some days I want to slow it down a little just to enjoy her at that age for a moment longer. I keep telling myself "this is my favorite stage" when she starts something new. At 6 months she's: starting to sit up on her own, cutting teeth, saying "dadadadada" and laughing out loud. Callie is absolutely amazing.

Since she is now 6 months old, we had her 6 month check up. I was a little surprised, but shouldn't have been, when the doctor said she was off the charts in height!! She's 85% in weight- 18lbs- which she isn't concerned about since she is so tall. Callie had a couple of shots and cried with mommy, but other than that she acted perfectly! We were also told that she needed a new carseat since she has out grown her other one- not becuase of weight, but height! So the Easter Bunny was kind enough to bring her one (post to follow). Her next check up isn't until she's 9 months, can't wait to see her stats then!

Callie's first trip to the Beach!

This past weekend we went down to Hilton Head Island for a wedding. We made a nice weekend out of it and stayed with the Dupree's. On Saturday before we had to get ready for the wedding we decided to take the girls down to the beach for a quick visit. It would be Callie's first time so of course, I was SUPER excited about it. Note my face in this picture :)

Here's Callie checking out the sand with her Daddy

Family Pic! Please note that Callie is going for Vaughn's beer, uh oh

Here's Emory, the cutest 20 month old! She had a blast being able to run around, throw sand/shells and not hearing the word "No."

Getting our feet wet

The girls!

Enjoying some sun and the wind
Callie and Me

Thanks to Boo, Amy's sister, for keeping the little one's so we could enjoy the wedding- she made a great Au Pair for the weekend! It was great to catch up and spend time with everyone, we can't wait to do it again!

Playing with Mommy and Doc

One of my favorite things to do each day is to rush home to play with Callie. We've been working on her sitting up which she can do for about a second by herself now! She still hates tummy time, so we might bypass the crawling thing.

Callie's Bottle

When Callie was 3 months old, her daycare started making her hold her own bottle. While I thought this was not ever going to be possible in the near future, they proved me wrong! For a month now, Callie has been holding her own bottle and recently able to sit up and do it. She'll even reach out for it and grab it off the table. It seriously is her favorite thing to do.

Consentrating

Take my picture, I'm super cute!!

Getting a little tired of holding this thing up, time to lean over and lay down for a bit

It's hard work....

When you feed yourself...