{this moment} first haircut

{this moment} –  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Visit Soulemama to share your "moment."

{this moment} walking

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo (or photos in my case!) – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you’re inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your "moment" in the comments for all to find and see.

14 Months

Philip is 14 months old!  I think the best way to describe Philip's month is "much ado about nothing."  Yes, he is in the toddler tantrum stage.  I told Andy that I really need to work on my reaction to his tantrums because I find it so hard not to smile or laugh when I see this sweet little face...

...especially when I know that he is throwing an all-out crying/scream-fest because I did something as small as closing the dishwasher door. 

He loves playing in the refrigerator and dishwasher.

We've had lots of happy times too, starting with our first family vacation to the beach.

Philip was taking a few steps at a time at that point, but still preferred crawling as his major mode of transportation.  In the weeks following, he has grown by leaps and bounds and now walks most of the time.

He is learning a lot of new "hand tricks."  He can clap and wave.  He also folds his hands when we say grace before meals - so sweet!

He loves his play tent and aquarium, his newest toys from his great aunt and uncle. 

Herbie is having fun with them too!

He is experimenting with talking more and has developed what I call a "robot voice" that he likes to use sometimes.  I haven't heard any distinguishable words, although it really did seem like he was trying to imitate me saying banana the other day.  Perhaps that will be his first word after Mama and Dada.

A typical boy, he loves having his feet smelled and being told how stinky they are. Of course, they aren't really, but this usually cracks him up and can diffuse a temper tantrum pretty quickly. 

Lots of cute pics this month:

Both Herbie and Philip got scared by a big thunderstorm that came out of nowhere one day.  Luckily we were all safe together!

Watermelon eating:

Daddy shared his sno cone with Philip at the Labor Day Festival:

All gone?

Taking out all the wipes from the package...

 

...and trying to put them all back in again.

Losing his britches this weekend:

Go Dawgs!

Like What We've Done with the Place?

The current state of our basement:

We had our first adventure in homeownership last week.  Our area had massive storms for one week straight.  I just heard that the Weather Channel is calling what hit our area a once-in-a-millenium storm.  Great. 

We found out after Hurricane Irene  that we had a leak in the sliding glass door of our basement family room.  We were in the midst of getting recommendations for contractors when the next tropical storm came through.  Around 11:00 pm last Wednesday night, it all came to a head as our basement got flooded.  A huge thundestorm came through and Andy went to check out the sliding glass door area.  We definitely had issues and he had set up an intricate contraption to catch the leaking rain.  Then he went into our laundry room and found that one of our window wells was filling up like a fish tank.  He went out in the midst of thunder and lightening to bail it out.  It started filling up quickly again and he headed back out to bail water.  By that time, this was happening: 

As if that weren't bad enough, the window soon broke and water rushed in.  Our laundry room had about an inch of water in some places and it quickly leaked into the bathroom hallway, and edges of the family room.  We also found that the window in the family room was leaking.  A water bubble got trapped under the paint and made its way from the ceiling all the way to the floor. 

We called a flood damage company, but since it was still raining hard and water was getting in, they said it would do no good for them to come out yet.  We were up most of the night moving all of our valuables upstairs.  The next day, the flood company came out to rip up the carpets and set up dryers and a dehumdifier.  Last weekend they came to cut out the bottom 12 inches of drywall and all the molding.  They also dropped off Big Bertha, a huge dehumidifier. 

Andy thinks this linoleum in the hallway is awesome. I disagree - it is going!

When they told us all the walls had to come out, we were literally expecting to go downstairs to see no walls in the basement, so it was almost a pleasant surprise to find that they only cut out the bottom foot of drywall.

Oh and while they were checking out the damage, they found some pre-existing mold which is not covered by insurance.  Right now, we are still waiting on an insurance agent to come out for an inspection before we can move forward with repairing the damages.  We are praying that they will be covering most of this!  Today the flood company is supposed to come out for an inspection and hopefully they will find that we are sufficiently dried out so they can remove the dehumidifiers. 

What an adventure, and there is much more ahead!

Beach Trip, Baby!

Happiness is...

Each year, we take a family trip to a beach in South Carolina.  This year there was a smaller group because most of our nieces and nephews were already back to school.  Nonetheless, we had a great time with my parents, Andy's parents, and other family. 

It's island time!

On the first day, Philip started crawling right for the ocean, but after we let him get his feet wet, he steered clear of it.  He spent hours playing in the sand though. 

Philip kept his "staff" busy making sand castles and bringing him endless buckets of water to play in.

He loved getting his hands washed with his watering can.

The timing of our vacation was perfect.  We missed both the earthquake and Hurricane Irene!  We did have one rainy day and some pretty big waves as the hurricane passed us. 

My very talented Mom made him this outfit.

It's all good with Grandma. 

It's even better to have both Grandma's in the same house!

Andy and Philip with Andy's Aunt, Dad, and brother

Same people, plus Andy's Mom, Aunt and Uncle

Andy's aunt is from Boise, and UGA played Boise State this past weekend. There was lots of talk about the game all week, so I had to put Philip in his jersey on Aunt Mim's last day. 

No comment on the results of the game...

Philip got a play tent from his great aunt for his birthday. 

He had a great time playing in it all week. 

Herbie is now enjoying it as well!

First taste of ice cream

A few more cute ones:

 Last time out on the sand (there used to be stairs here)

Let's get a move on, Dad!

On our way home, we stopped at Andy's brother's house. 

Philip had fun playing the piano with his Uncle Danny.

We had a wonderful trip and are so thankful to have the opportunity to go on vacation with our family each year.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!