fun times at the fair

so we took the little one to the state fair (2 times) and i think it's safe to say that...SHE LOVED IT!! rides...not so much. petting zoo..could have stayed for hours. she also loved watching people ride the scary rides and imitating their screams. hilarious! picking up ducks was a big hit as well and she even got to pick out her own prize (like we need another stuffed animal at our house, but oh well it was fun for her)! in addition to the petting zoo, she got to pet a few snakes (ssss) and a baby alligator (opening and closing her mouth really big). anyway, scroll down for lots of fair footage!

3 month blog vacation

after a long span of blogging procrastination, i have decided to sit down and try to remember enough about the past 3 months to give a few updates. it was such a fun summer with the little one, and we are looking foward to halloween and the holiday season, as these will be her true "firsts" since she is now mobile and more aware of her surroundings than last year. well, here goes (scroll down for a recap of the past few months).

september

how to even begin to describe september...crazy, busy, fun! i went on a fabulous trip to chicago with 3 of my best friends to run in the chicago half marathon (clarification: they ran. i cheered.) they all 3 finished in record time in record rainfall for chigago! we got to tour the city a little and it is amazing...can't wait to go back! we got back on monday night and kyle and i took off tuesday morning for our anniversary trip to the beach. on the way down, we dropped lucy neal off with her ami (kyle's mom) in daphne and she spent the week with her. i didn't want to leave her after being in chigago, but we managed to have fun and so did she. we came back through daphne on friday, planning to spend the night and drive home saturday, but brandon was there and we had so much fun we spent saturday night too. during the trip lucy neal named dennis "poppy". so sweet!

after all of our travels, we were ready to be still for awhile. but as soon as we got back, lucy neal got tubes. everything went great, no fussiness, and had a quick recovery. we went for our first trip to the park with friends amy and byron and their little one, louisa who is 1 month older than lucy neal. she loved the park and was covered in dirt when we left. her favorite: the slide, of course!

august

let's see...august was a big month for us. lucy neal moved to a new room at school where she started to go outside to play, read books and sing songs. we were so excited for so much new stimulation! mollie moved up with her so at least she had a familiar face. we tried to let her feed herself with a spoon..not quite ready for that task yet! (see pics below) she was also a huge help cleaning out the garage. it was hilarious, she was black from head to toe! we went to philadelphia to visit kyle's fam and she said "ami" (kyle's mom's grandmother name) for the first time...it was precious!

july

a very eventful month for us...Lucy Neal loved the fireworks on the 4th (wasn't scared at all, just loved watching them). then, as i had hoped (and hoped and hoped) almost 2 months after her first step, she (finally) started officially walking on July 27th! just in time for the Neshoba County Fair, which if you've never been, is nice to have a walking child vs. a non-walking child. she was a huge trooper for the whole week of the fair, slept pretty good (despite having a cabin full of 30-60 people depending on the night) and got to spend lots of quality time with family. we put plenty of miles on her red wagon and met her cousin mary logan (no doubt her fair buddy for years to come). she went to her first concert (she loved it), saw some horse races, and did a whole lot of playing...fun times!