it's all so familiar.

we've been loving our time here in North Carolina. 

It is easy to pass a whole day in the backyard looking for critters (as L likes to say). I mowed the lawn last week for the second time and was drenched in sweat. The humidity is out of this world. It is a good feeling watching little L pick as many blueberries as she likes (she calls them blue bears) and pop them in her mouth like little Sal (I so love Robert McCloskey  books and illustrations. . . and Marla Frazee while we're on the subject). And Hannah loves finding big sticks and leaves and scratching them with her fingers and putting them in her mouth. 

The turtles in the pond are aggressive eaters. It's almost impossible not to catch one when you're trying to fish!

 Fishing with grandpa.

Our first of three. We actually caught a huge carp (gross.)-- like 16 in' -- but it broke the line as we were trying to get it on the shore. 

We went to Charleston for a week to visit my sister Emily. The girls loved it! I'm still hearing about Allyson, Spencer and Meggie every day. No joke. Luckily she'll see them again in a few weeks at the reunion! I had SO much fun visiting Emily. We did so many fun things. I'll have to devote a post to our good times when I return home. Unfortunately I looked bad in every photo we took, so my vanity won't let me post them. We'll have to rectify that at the beach. 

Allyson got more smiles out of Hannah than anyone. And that's saying something for my tight-lipped 8 month old!

Liesel was baptized in the beauty of choose-your-own-yoggie-and-toppings. She converted. 

It's been fun wandering around my old digs with the gals and my mom. I have repeatedly thanked heaven that I'm no longer a teenager. Nothing like wandering around those old digs to drum up all those great adolescent memories. 

 Snake. What won't this girl touch? She brought me a daddy-long leg yesterday at the ward party. I cringe when I see her pick up spiders, slugs and snakes but try to smile and be tough when she puts them on my lap. When did they start giving me the eebie-jeebies? I do draw the line with cock-roaches.

Safe to say she was not a fan of the flower wreath photo shoot. Can't say I blame her. . . so dorky mom! Speaking of miss Hannah, she has reached some serious milestones lately. Rolling over every time I change her diaper, crawling (still gaining coordination and confidence), Going from belly to sitting position, sleeping on her stomach, getting a front tooth and mastering the pincer grasp. We made blueberry pancakes this morning and she ate 1.5 all on her own. 

We are missing Brian so much! He sounds like he's stay super busy and managing okay without us. Thank goodness for face time and our CD of him singing Tom Petty. :)