Happy Birthday Kotabug!

This is hardly new news but Dakota turned 2 on August 5. We had a nice celebration at the spray park in Collierville with all of her little buddies that are her age. It turned out to be a lot of fun (I always stress about what to do with the August heat!!). The kids had a lot of fun and I hope the parents did too. And just because my cupcakes melted and the wind blew my birthday banner...I think it was still a success.

Thank you Dakota for an amazing 2 years. We are so proud and happy to be your parents. Thank you for teaching us how to love in a new way and capacity that we never knew existed! I hope you had fun at your party!

Grammy and Poppy

Carie, Chris & Sutton

Steve, Annah Mary, Amelia and baby (she's due in less than a month!!)

Frank, Leigh Ann and Noelle

Gigi and Papa

Uncle Chad, Aunt Lauren, Oliver and Baby Stetson (due in December)

Joe, Meredith and Anna Beth

Tracy, Ryan, Emerson, Palmer and Hudson

Melody, Clay and Lilliana

Melted Cupcakes

She still liked them though :)

Thirsty little kids!

Sutton aka "Shades" and his girl

Food...fruit, cupcakes, sandwiches, chips, goldfish, pasta salad, veggies, etc.

Dakota opening her presents.

Dakota's presents and the party favors. All the kids got a betta fish and a little bowl for them to go in. So far, Dakota's is still alive and I haven't heard otherwise on the other kids'.

Where the Buffalo (or American Bison) Roam

July 15-19 provided a long weekend to enjoy more of America's beautiful parks. Jacob, Dakota, Dad, Martha, Brad and I ventured to South and North Dakota to snag the high points and the National Parks. We had an amazing time with amazing weather, amazing wildlife (including a buffalo traffic jam!!), and amazing sites. Some of the parks we were able to enjoy (in no particular order)...Black Hills National Forest, Wind Cave National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, Devils Tower National Monument, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial (sort of...we were too cheap to enter but we saw it from a distance). Whew. We had lots of driving and 2 good hikes. 3 miles round trip at ND's highest point and 7 miles round trip at SD's highest point. Not bad for a pregnant girl huh??...and Dakota did amazing too. Enjoy the photos and if you ever get a chance to venture that way, I'd highly recommend it! And because it's too much work to organize...these pictures are not in order (at all!).

Grammy, Poppy & Dakota at the Badlands
Hiking is hard work!!
Dakota getting her stamp for her National Park Passport.
Poppy and Dakota racing back to the van after bagging the highest point in North Dakota.

Our little family of 4 at the Badlands.

Mommy and Dakota at the Badlands.

We kept complaining about not seeing many buffalo after all of the brochures raved about the herds. We found them! We were stuck for about 45 minutes while 400+ buffalo walked by our car. Some of which were as tall as our van!!

I wouldn't mess with this dude!

Koko tromping through the grass.

Grammy and Dakota at the end of Harney Peak (highest point in SD).

Yay for 43 highpoints!!! 7 more to go!

Grammy and Poppy at Harney Peak.

Dakota and Jacob at Harney Peak.

Baby mountain goat. Momma was right behind him.

She copies everything she sees us do!

Our little family at Mt. Rushmore. Been there done that. Don't get me wrong, it's really fascinating and I certainly couldn't sculpt something like that but God's natural creation speaks to me a lot more.

Devil's Tower. America's first National Monument. There were rock climbers all over the face. Very cool!

Prairie dogs...galore!

Finishing up White Butte, the highest point in ND.

Yay for #42! You should have heard Jacob groaning as he lifted us both up. Ha.

Uncle Brad at White Butte.

White Butte. It's actually on private property. We had the privilege of meeting the owners as they helped us get our van unstuck from the mud.

Daddy and Dakota at White Butte.

Uncle Brad at the Badlands. Brad...isn't that shirt like 15 years old???

Old fire tower atop Harney Peak.

Little Baker

Dakota and I made some banana bread this weekend. She's such a great helper (even if it requires more work for me in the end). Please excuse the wild hair. I believe this was post-nap.

Most of the flour made it into the bowl. My floors/chairs needed vacuumed anyway :).Stirring everything up and saying "Cheeeeese."

Litchfield Beach 2009

I need to hurry up and blog about our beach trip because we are going out of town again tonight. I don't want to get too far behind. Jacob, Dakota and I had a great 4th of July trip to Litchfield Beach to hang out with Gigi, Papa, Uncle Chad, Aunt Lauren & Holiver (Dakota adds an "H" to all words that start with a vowel). Unfortunately, Jacob and I didn't get the camera out too much but these pictures are a little sampling of the fun we had. Papa took a bunch more that we hope to get from him one day. Dakota's favorite things were "Water!!!", "Gigi's Beach House", "Papa's Boat" and "Bicycle." It was really nice to have almost a full week of no responsibilities other than my child. No work. No cleaning. No studying.

Cookies & Milk Cousins
Dakota bootlegged this sandcastle from somebody else.

She loves to run on the beach!

Oliver learned to walk just in time for our trip!

Our Memphis friends, Chris & Lesley were in SC that same week so we met up for a boat ride. Lesley is doing a month long rotation at MUSC.

I didn't get Dakota a 4th of July outfit but luckily Gigi had some decorations from last year's parade. I think a bandanna makes a fine tube top for a little girl.

She is so sweet and fun. I love her so much!

There's my belly for you. I think I was about 25 weeks then. I'm now 26.5 weeks! 13.5 to go. I'm getting soooo excited.

Thanks Sally & Clarence for opening your house up for another fun, family vacation! We look forward to next year!

I Could Use Some Caffeine

I feel like rambling but I should be working...just need a little break from drawring.

-I woke up a little early this morning because I had to have a mole removed at 7. I got a wart frozen off at the same time. Figured I would kill 2 birds with one copay.

-I think I'll get a diet coke when I'm done with this. I'm trying to be better about drinking lots of water because I've been having "issues". I've also added an Activia to my afternoon. That's some gooood yogrit...and I've taken the challenge. It really does work.

-I noticed on my poll that I only have 100 days left until Cricket arrives. That's kind of exciting. I also noticed that the girl votes are catching up with the boy votes. I would love to hear your comments as to why you think I'm having what I am having. Just a hunch? I look different? Just picked one at random? I haven't voted cause I'm still not sure...leaning towards a girl. Jacob says boy. Guess one of us is wrong.

-We had a great visit to the beach with Jacob's family this past week. Kotabug LOVES the water and Papa's boat and Gigi's beach house and the bicycles. I needed a week of relaxation and I feel like I got it.

-Dakota is so cute. Her vocabulary is growing exponentially and she talks a lot. We can have little conversations now.

-We're going to North & South Dakota next week for the highpoints. I hope this pregnant girl can still climb a mountain. Dad, Martha and Brad are coming too and I am looking forward to it.

-I'm not looking forward to flying next week. Flying isn't fun any more and you're pretty much guaranteed to be delayed when you fly now. That's no fun when you have a 2 year old with you. Speaking of...I think we got our money's worth out of the "free under 2" rule. Dakota has probably been on 15 flights in her 2 years of life. She's a real trooper.

-I need to start reading more books. Jacob and Brad are the most well-read people I know. Maybe I'll start a list of books I read in the margin. I saw that on a blog when I was blog-stalking (you know you blog-stalk too!). Got any good suggestions? I just started Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges while I was waiting at the derm this morning. Jacob just finished it and told me I needed to read it.

-They announced at church last night the candidate for our new pastor. After almost 3 years this is quite exciting. Too bad he's coming to meet us and preach while we are out of town. He's young and he's a SC native (went to North Greenville). Seems to have lots of great qualities that fit our church or our church needs. I hope the church votes him in. Does any church ever not? Just curious.

-I had to go measure a building this morning and it was really hot. Really, really hot in the sun. It's for a renovation I am working on at work. My friend/project manager/coworker felt bad she mad a preggo girl tramp around in the hot sun so she treated me to lunch at Holiday Deli. It's one of my faves. I told her I didn't mind being out in the sun but she insisted. I had a strawberry mandarin chicken salad....yum!

-We got another bid back from a builder. He's our favorite but his price was higher than the others so far. His is probably more accurate though...I think the others might have missed some things. We are a little disappointed but maybe we'll just cut some things out so we can afford him.

-I wish our house would sell so we could start building. We had one girl come look twice but haven't heard back from her or her realtor. Maybe she's still thinking about why she should buy our home but I know she really liked it. You could tell.

-I have lots more that I could write about because I always have random stuff running through my head but I better go get my yogurt and get back to work. I think the diet coke craving is gone now, so I'll pass on it.

Faith Like a Child

Dakota gets sweeter each day and I am amazed at how she is such an intricate work of art by our Creator. I just wanted to share a cute story with you...a little bit of our new daily routine.

Now that Dakota is in a big girl bed I can lay with her while we read her bedtime story. After her story I sing to her. Recently she asked for "Jesus". I assumed that meant she wanted me to sing "Jesus Loves Me" to her so I did. When I finished singing she said with so much enthusiasm..."More Jesus." So I sang it again. "More Jesus" And again. "More Jesus" And again. I think you get the point. This has now been a daily routine for over a week. I know that at this stage in her life she doesn't comprehend who Jesus is but I do think she understands there is something special about that name. Last night I pulled out her Bible and skipped the classics of Noah and Jonah and Adam and Eve and jumped right to The New Testament so she can begin to know more about who this Jesus guy is. My prayer is that I will reach a point in my life where I am begging for "More Jesus!" and that Dakota never loses her enthusiasm for Him and that one day He will be her Savior.

Date Night...Again. So soon!

Last Thursday, Jacob and I along with my friends Helen and Mike went to the Flying Fish for dinner and then to see Wicked at the Orpheum. I saw it a few years ago on a date with my daddy in Atlanta and I remember liking it so much that I thought we should go see it when it came here. I'm so glad we did because it was just as good as I remember. Such a fun musical with a great story, humor and great music. If it comes to a theater near you...I'd highly recommed that you go see it!