9 Months Old

3/4 of the way to a year! I can't believe Mary Lee will be one in just 3 short months. What a great 9 months with our baby girl! Mary Lee is still her happy, cute self. She has loved being home with mommy this summer. She has been on a beach trip with all of her cousins from Mississippi, and she had so much fun! One tragic (well, tragic to mommy) thing that happened last week is that sweet Mary Lee got stung by a wasp not once, but TWICE on her HEAD...OUCH! I was holding her, and we were checking the mail. All of a sudden, she let out a horrifying scream. Unfortunately, I didn't realize what was happening until the wasp had already stung her twice. Thankfully, she did not have an allergic reaction to the stings...praise Jesus! Another family event this month was that we put our house on the market. Griffin finds out in March where he matches for residency. We pray we are staying in Birmingham, but we could be matched somewhere else. We are trusting that the Lord will lead us to the right place. We went ahead and put our house up for sale so we are not waiting until the last minute to try to sale it. Mary Lee is along for the ride, and she is such a good "passenger". She just goes with the flow and is happy doing whatever!

Stats from 9 month check up:
Weight - 21 lbs, 12 oz
Height - 28 1/4 inches

Things to remember about Mary Lee at 9 months old:

• One major accomplishment...You can now use a sippy cup!
• How cute your little teeth are (You now have 2 on the bottom and a new one on the top.
• How for the longest time, when attempting to crawl, you would get in full out push up position
• The way you almost crawl by getting on your knees and rocking away...I just know you will take off any day now
• How cute you are when you shake your head from side to side (I am pretty sure it means yes and no to you.)
• The way you still don't have much hair and what little hair you do have sticks up everywhere
• How much you love to walk around the house with someone holding your hands (Unfortunately, mommy and daddy might have back problems from this activity.)The way you completely spin your self around on the floor and in your crib
• How much you LOVE Praise Baby...when it is on you go into what daddy calls a "Praise Baby Coma"
• How at nap time and bed time, you love for mommy and daddy to sing to you when we lay you down
  

Enjoy some pictures of Mary Lee!

Beautiful Girl!

Daddy's Saint's Girl

Having fun eating out at the beach

With my Nena eating out at the beach

With my Nena in the lazy river at the beach. My Nena played with me LOTS in the lazy river, and I LOVED it!

Another Trip to the Zoo

With it being summer, I am actually getting to enjoy the life of a stay at home mommy! Now, I am not saying it is all easy...there are days where I am definitely more exhausted than when I was working. However, I am LOVING spending lots of quality time with my baby girl every single day! Being home this summer is also allowing Mary Lee and me to spend some much missed time with Amy and Olivia! We enjoy every second we get to spend with them, and every time we are with them the mommies talk a lot! I ask Amy lots of mommy questions since Olivia is 3 months older than Mary Lee, and I always enjoy watching and learning from Amy. She is such a natural mommy, and I admire the kind of mommy she is to Olivia...Olivia is one blessed little girl, but then again, Amy is one blessed mommy! On to the zoo...We had so much fun! Both girls missed their morning naps, so we weren't sure how the day would go or if we would have 2 fussy girls, but we headed out anyway. And let me say...the girls were AMAZING! We never heard a fuss or whine from either one of them! They were so much fun, and the day was beautiful. Oh yeah, we were there for 4 1/2 hours...that's a long time to occupy two girls less than a year old, but it seemed easy! What a great day!

About to start our zoo adventure

Watching the flamingos. They loved these because they moved around a lot and made lots of funny noises!

Riding the carousel

Mary Lee was exhausted...

...And so was Olivia!

But, it was a great day at the zoo!

Memorial Day - Atlanta Zoo

Mary Lee was down for a nap yesterday morning. Griff and I were discussing what we wanted to do for Memorial Day since he was off, and I am of course off for summer! Well, the next thing we knew, we had a hotel booked in Atlanta. We headed to Atlanta Sunday afternoon. We got a great deal on the Hilton through Hotwire and were very happy with the hotel. Sunday night, we checked in and headed out to eat at Copeland's. Copeland's is one of my favorite restaurants, but since it left Birmingham, I don't remember the last time I ate there, and the spinach and artichoke dip with bowtie pasta is amazing! After eating, Griff and Mary Lee took a quick swim in the pool, and we went to bed. Monday morning, we headed to the Atlanta Zoo! We all had a great time!

About to start our zoo adventure

My cute little elephant

Enjoying the petting zoo

Riding the train

Looking at the giraffe

8 Months Old

Another month old...I can't believe it! Mary Lee is doing great! She is just the sweetest baby, and we are in awe of her every single day! Here are some things we want to remember about

our sweet girl at 8 months old:

• How much you love your puffs
• The way you sleep on your tummy with your cute butt sticking up in the air
• The way you have started to take steps with help from Mommy and Daddy
• How your feelings get hurt when other babies cry at daycare
• The way you say "Da Da Da Da" ALL the time
• The way you laugh when Mommy tries to get you to say "Ma Ma", but you won't say it
• How unbelievably sweet you are
• The way you immediately try to eat your books when we read to you
• The way you LOVE to splash in the bathtub or pool

Here is a video of Mary Lee "riding" in the car with Daddy...she LOVES to do this!

Say Cheese!

Mary Lee's 6 month pictures got posted! I know I am biased, but they are ADORABLE! Ashley Warren is our AMAZING photographer...we love her!! Here are some of the pictures. To see them all, follow these steps:

1. Go to http://www.ashleywarrenstudios.com/RedCart/.

2. Find Mary Lee 5.12.10 and click on the picture.

3. The email address is chan0459@aol.com and the password is guice2.

Beach Baby

Mary Lee went on her first beach trip this past weekend! We went with the Guice crew (G Pop, Lolly, Uncle Tay, and Uncle Ty). We were blessed to be able to stay at the Phoenix West...It was sooooooo nice! We had an amazing condo, lazy river, slide, and pool. Mary Lee was an ANGEL and was so very happy on the trip. She LOVED, LOVED being in her float and going around the lazy river...she would go for an hour or so at a time! I even fed her bottles in the float on the lazy river! We did take some time to get some cute pictures so enjoy...

All Smiles...

Just a few pictures to make you smile...