Animal Kingdom

Kids at the start of the day


When you get up close to the tree, you can see animals carved all over it. It is quite incredible!


Daddy helping Charlotte get a better view


Where Naomi enjoyed the safari ride


Chilling with Mickey. Charlotte LOVES seeing him!


Showing off the binoculars that Anson let her borrow


Naomi was mostly interested in getting his ear


The girls trying to see the river


Obligatory showing off pose. Just look at those chunky legs!


Dusty & Arin & Co. riding the dinosaurs



Sporting Daddy's shades


Going for a ride in DinosaurLand


Charlotte wiped out mid-day


That's a lot of bull


Can you find the hidden Mickey? (You'll probably need to enlarge the photo)


The best we could get of all the kids with the glasses on for the "Bug's Life" show. I didn't heed the advice of a friend that this show isn't appropriate for little ones. Charlotte was crawling into Jared's lap and hiding her face in his shoulder :/


Charlotte & Ella hugging goodbye

The Goings-On

I can't believe I haven't blogged for a month. Sheesh! Here's a quick update:

I got a new vacuum!
All of this is just from our living room! And I had vacuumed with our old vacuum right before this just to see how much more the new one would get. Gross, isn't it?!

Naomi has been adorable. She's cruising along holding onto furniture and has even taken a step or two here and there by herself. Her first step was two weeks ago at 10.5 months old.

We spent a day at Animal Kingdom! I'll try to post more pictures from this day soon. We had a blast!

The girls are so cute together! They have the occasional squabble, but for the most part Naomi thinks Charlotte is the greatest thing since sliced bread and Charlotte loves her baby sister to pieces. Melts my heart!



We went camping and fishing! I use the term "camping" loosely since we were in a cabin with a kitchen, bathroom and shower, but it only had one bedroom so we were roughing it :) Hopefully this will get its own post so I can show you all the cute pictures from this trip as well.

Jared had surgery on his eye. See that white tissue stuff (called a pterygium) encroaching on the cornea? He had that removed. It was only on the surface of the eye and was a quick, routine procedure, but there were two stitches and a graft involved. The surgery went very well and his eye is healing as it should. As the stitches are dissolving, he said it doesn't feel like there's something in his eye as much anymore, so hopefully it's just a matter of time as the redness from the surgery fades away, though this will likely take a couple months.

Charlotte has showed her natural inclination for style. Snow White head band, Minnie Mouse shirt, purple and green tutu, and mommy's boots. She cracks me up.

The girls went Trick-or-Treating! I made their costumes and, if I do say so myself, these girls are the cutest little punkins I've ever seen. Naomi's bow was made by a friend of mine who has an etsy shop. She makes some of the cutest bows! Naomi was just along for the ride, but Charlotte has been excited about trick-or-treating for a while and she had a blast. After a couple houses she said that we could go home because her bag was full. We went to a few more and she picked up on the pattern of getting candy from each house we went to. Then when I asked her if she was ready to go home she replied, "I think we need to go to twelve more." Random number, but she wanted more candy!
I can't get over how much Charlotte looks like I did growing up. Compare the picture above with the one below. Mini Me!

Disney With Grammy

Last week my mom went down to the Magic Kingdom with me and the girls. We had an absolute blast! Charlotte adores her Grammy and asked about going to Disney World with her for days before we left. Here are some pictures from our day.

The sky-writing we saw from the parking lot





Mom and the girls seeing Mickey & Minnie. This is becoming my favorite part of the parks. Charlotte loves seeing them!


Reason #128 why Grammy is cooler than Mommy: She crawls into tiny spaces to play


Meeting the princesses




Naomi sharing her cantaloupe with Grammy


Charlotte having a blast with her Grammy on Dumbo


Some of the construction going on at the back of the park. This will eventually have an area for some more of the princesses. I believe it will include a "Be Our Guest" restaurant from Beauty & the Beast (which comes out again next week, by the way!), a ride from The Little Mermaid, and something for Princess Aurora, but I can't remember what exactly.


Carousel!


Pirate Goofy


Reason #376 why Grammy is cooler than Mommy: Grammy plays in the water


Cooling off


Charlotte seeing Mickey & Minnie in the parade


At the end of the day, finishing off her cantaloupe

Rollins Weddings

Many moons ago we went to some fantastic weddings to celebrate new additions to the Rollins family. Because I slack and don't blog often, I'm just now getting around to uploading the pictures. Better late than never... And the quality of the pictures are horrible because I was holding a squirming baby while taking most of them.

Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel and Vanessa Rollins

We traveled up to Nashville to see Nathaniel and Vanessa get married. It was such a beautiful ceremony! We enjoyed seeing several aunts and uncles and lots of cousins.

Uncle Tim and Aunt Cindy


Andrew

James (This is the best shot I could get of him? Seriously need to work on my photog skills!)

Alex. He's a handsome little guy and by that smile, I'm going to guess he knows it :)

Chris

Nick & Hannah

Benjamin

Emily

All of them are members of the Tim & Cindy Rollins clan. (Their oldest, Tim and his family, could not be there because of his service in the military.) "Be fruitful and multiply!"

Naomi showing off in the parking lot of the church

Alex dancing with Charlotte. She hardly left the dance floor all night!

Naomi and Kristina (another Rollins cousin)



At the end of August we traveled up to Chicago to see the wedding of Jamie and Nate in her parent's back yard. It was a beautiful and very special ceremony. They were actually married a week before at Nate's parent's home so that his mom could be there to see them get married. She was battling pancreatic cancer and couldn't make the trip from her home in Indiana to Chicago. Thanks to Skype, though, she was able to see the second ceremony as well. She wasn't able to be there to celebrate the wedding with the rest of the family, but she is now part of the eternal celebration in Heaven. Praise the Lord!

The only picture I got of the bride and groom. I'm going to use the squirmy baby excuse again.


Naomi enjoying a snuggle with Uncle Bennie


Naomi flirting with Uncle John, who I'm pretty sure she thought was her Pop.


After the ceremony and a nap back at the hotel, we headed into downtown Chicago for a couple hours.


Orange and blue sunset. God is definitely a Gator fan.


How we set up the hotel room so the TV wouldn't bother Naomi while she slept


Naomi, on her first flight, doing a little light reading. She got a little fussy on one of the legs of the trip, but overall was a great traveler. (Because we'd have to pay for a ticket for Charlotte, she stayed back home with her Grammy and Grampy and had an absolute blast! This trip was the longest I had been away from her so I was more than anxious to have my big girl in my arms again!)