Saturday, September 27, 2014

Child of God

On Sunday, September 21st, 2014 Piper was baptized at Downtown Church by Amos Disasa. Piper had about 40 friends and family there specifically for her (in addition to the normal congregation). It was an absolutely beautiful day. As Grant and I took the commitment to raise Piper as a child of God, I was overwhelmed with emotion. The magnitude and importance of that commitment. It will truly take a village and a great village we have and they were all there to make that commitment with us. What an amazing feeling.





We hosted a brunch at our house for the 40ish people that came to help us make this large commitment. Piper had a lot of attention and LOVED every minute of it. 






She also loved opening her presents. She had a lot of help from Brady and Avery. It was also Nanny's 79th birthday so we celebrated with her as well!! That hat is amazing! 

We provided mini cupcakes for the Holy Interruption at church and I ordered these amazing cookies for the brunch at our house. My friend, Kat Watson Thompson, makes them and aren't they just perfect?








                                    I couldn't love these girls more!! (both above and below)


Piper had such a great day and missed a nap, obviously. Being so cute is exhausting! 

 Bravery spent the night with Birdie and Bogey and they came over the next morning to play with Piper. My heart is so full when these 3 are together. I'm so thankful that they love Piper so much and they ;play so well with her.

Piper's Baptism day was absolutely perfect. I'm so thankful for our village and our little Child of God. We love you, Pi! 



Friday, September 26, 2014

7 months changes things

Seven months has clearly been the most crazy month. And by crazy, I mean monumental. Piper has started doing new things literally every day. Grant and I look at each other almost every single day and say 'Was she doing that yesterday? I don't think she was'. It has been so much fun! I'm loving every minute of it and what people say is true....every day it gets better than the one before (even when you thought that's not possible).
 We walked to Za's for wine night and Piper did so good. While we have established a set schedule, we still like to make sure Miss Priss can go-with-the-flow too. She does and she is good at it!

Selfie with Aunt Julie! 


Piper gets up each morning around 7:00am. When I happened to look at the monitor on September 11th (2 days shy of 7 months), she was sitting up. This was the first time that she had sat up by herself. Since this day, she will pop right up if you lay her down. 
Piper continues to sleep so good (thank you, thank you!). When she does wake up she plays in her crib until we come get her. She never cries for us anymore which is very nice. One of my favorite things is going to get her from her crib each morning. That smile when she sees me is simply THE BEST!! 

On Sept 13, USC football played Georgia so Ashley and Ben came down to Columbia and Birdie and Bogey kept Piper and Bravery. She cheered hard and pulled them through! Great job, Piper!! And thank you, Birdie and Bogey, for letting us enjoy an adult day and that Gamecock victory. 


On Sunday, Sept 14th, we went to Rimini for a Dove hunt. None of the girls went hunting and neither did Grant. We enjoyed some quality time with our baby girl. Avery, if old enough, would have clearly gone hunting. She wears camo pretty well.


I took this picture one morning because she was looking too cute not to. I received a lot of comments that she looks just like Avery now and especially in this picture. I love hearing that almost as much as I love hearing how much she looks like me....which is rare. 

She is now eating stage 2 foods, some fruit cut small, baby yogurt, 4 bottles, puffs, yogurt bites, rice sticks...and just about anything she can put in her mouth. We are starting the baby-ifying our house. Piper has pulled up once (in her crib again) to standing. She hasn't cut her second tooth yet, but that should be any day now. And she is officially crawling. THAT changes things. She now rolls over and crawls away when I try to change her. She is fast and goes where she wants to go. She has become very chatty and loves saying her 'Bs'....'ba ba ba'. Still no 'ma ma' but I'm working on it! 

And just tonight she started waiving backwards at Birdie. 

 Piper Grace- You are getting too big too fast.  You are absolutely gorgeous and still the smiliest baby I have ever seen. Your momma and daddy love you from the moon and back. You have made my life simply the best! I love you!!


Piper's unicorn LaRouque mini!! 

Monday, September 8, 2014

#BirdiesBeachWeek

For the past several years, Mom has rented a house at the beach for the first week of September. Her birthday is September 1st so it's always a great way to celebrate with her. I can honestly say that each year seems to be getting better as the family continues to get bigger. This year, Birdie requested that we take an 'organized' family picture. We were instructed to bring the cliche white outfits for pictures on the beach on Monday night. I am so thankful that she asked us to do that and I'm so happy to have some family pictures of me, G, and P as well as our entire family.

It was so nice to have a full week away from work and really get to spend some quality time with Piper. I spent a lot of time in prayer thanking God for all of my blessings including our health.

Piper enjoyed playing with her cousins. They entertain her and she laughs as soon as Brady walks in the room. Avery was great around her and helps get her paci back in her mouth when it falls out as well as teaching her what her 'monk-monk' says. We They cheered on the Clemson Tigers on Saturday night. Since G is a tiger fan, I 'let' Piper wear a tiger dress. Makes for a cute picture (well kind of)


Can this get any cuter? Both Brady and Avery showed Piper all of the fun stuff to play with on the beach including Periwinkles ('Fairy winkles'). 

 Piper was teething pretty bad which apparently caused her to have frequent poopy diapers and eventually horrible diaper rash. This was her first time having diaper rash and it was bad. We were up multiple times per night changing diapers, giving medicine, giving baths, etc. She ended up sleeping in the bed with us for 3 nights. It was our first experience with a 'bad night' and I can now say that I don't know how parents do it when they have a child that doesn't sleep. Bless her heart!
 Birdie loved getting spoiled by her grandkids. Although she was the one really spoiling them!

So thankful for some pictures with my family:




 Piper ate fists full of sand. She had so much fun doing it that I just had to let it go!



 G went home on Wednesday morning to do some work and came back on Thursday. Ashley decided to take her kids to ride rides so Birdie and Bogey took Piper so I could have some Becca-time. It was nice to get some sewing done and especially  nice to get these pictures. Piper rode her first rides too!




 My mom's sister, Aunt Anne, flew from Austin, TX to be with us and she was amazing with our sweet kids. Piper loved playing with her (and dressing like her).


  Love these two!!!
 I was sad to see the last day come, but we sure lived it up. Between the outfit changes and the naked naps on the beach, Piper had a great day and so did her parents. We stayed on the beach until we were kindly told to get off by a small rain storm around 7pm.


 



 It was fun to get to spend some quality time with Nanny. She spoiled Piper with attention and I enjoyed watching their interactions.

Thank you, Birdie and Bogey, for another AMAZING beach weeks! We love you so much and are thankful for the fun memories we get to make with you! (The crabs may be one of my favorites from this year :)