Virginia Beach

David's dad just moved to Virginia Beach for a new job so in October we went up to visit him. He and his wife, Dianne, were kind enough to open their home to us even though they had literally moved in to their new house the morning we arrived! Wow! They are truly amazing!

 

We didn't do too many things but did get to enjoy some family time which is always the best.  Here's Savannah hanging with her cousin Bracey and Dugan the dog!

 

                                          

 

                                                                                                         

Here's a picture of all the grandkids and great-grandkids on David's dad's side of the family...not a horrible picture considering most of the kids were unhappy to be there!

       

 

One night we went to Olive Garden to eat. Savannah's favorite part was the take-out box.

 We also stopped by the Neptune festival they were having on the beach that weekend. Look at that cool statue of Neptune!

Zoo Trip

Over Labor Day weekend we took Savannah to the zoo for the first time. I had been looking forward to doing this for so long but we wanted to wait until Savannah would actually understand what we were doing and recognize the animals. Although she seemed to enjoy herself she was still a little too young to fully comprehend what was going on all the time.

 

She did enjoy the tram ride though!

 

In front of the giraffes

Definitely her favorite part was the carousel. We were very lucky to be able to each ride it once with her. Originally we had just bought one ticket so David could ride with her but then ended up getting a free ticket when a random guy ran into our stroller with his own stroller. He felt so bad about it he gave us one of their tickets that they weren't going to use so both David and I got to ride with her once. Savannah was very happy as you can tell from the pictures.

Catching Up

In going through our pictures I found a lot of fun and random shots I thought I'd post. Enjoy!

 

At the ward pool party

Eating sting cheese. Yum!

Picnic at the park

First time brushing her teeth. It was a success!

Trying out curlers for the first time...not very successful.

 Playing video games with daddy

 

Being naughty. I came into her room one morning and she had pulled a basket into her crib and was playing with everything inside of it. She was very proud of herself if you couldn't tell.

 So tired after church

 

 

 

Things I want to remember:

 

• Savannah started walking in August when she was around thirteen months old. David and I missed her first steps because she took them while I was cleaning something and daddy was on the computer. She walked from the coffee table to the TV where I was at and only then did David point out that she had walked over. I know, we're awesome parents ;)
• Savannah's favorite thing to do right now is to lay down anywhere she's at and just relax.
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• The last few months Savannah has been getting her molars. It's been a rough process and included her having her first cold during the same time. At fourteen months she now has ten teeth, five on the bottom and five on the top.
• She has started folding her arms at prayer time. Her doing this has amazed me and made me realize how much children really do pick up just by watching us because we never taught her to do this she just saw us do it and started doing it too.
• She will hug and kiss and blow kisses if asked and she will dance to music as well.

Savannah's First Birthday



A few Saturdays ago we had Savannah's first birthday party. We did a duckie theme because Savannah loves ducks. We were very blessed to have so many family and friends attend her party. My parents were even able to skype from Brazil and see Savannah with her smash cake! We're so grateful to have such a wonderful support system for our beautiful little girl.

 

Here's her adorable party invite.

 

We originally were planning on having everything outside but two hours before the party was supposed to start it began raining like crazy. We had to move everything back inside which was a little stressful but it all worked out. 

 

Here's a picture of the food table. We had fried chicken, pasta salad, fruit salad, and lemonade. The centerpieces were rubber duckies floating in blue tinted bubble solution.

 

The adorable cakes Aunt Courtney made. The yellow one was Savannah's smash cake.

 

Playing with friends! Whit was born a day before Savannah so it was fun to have him at her party and watch them play together!

 

Opening presents with daddy.

 

 

Smash cake success! David had to smoosh her hands into the cake to get her started but once she realized what she was doing she really enjoyed herself!



After the smash cake Savannah got a bath and changed into some pj's. I then realized I'd forgotten to put her party hat on so after-the-fact we took a picture in her "first birthday" hat.

Happy birthday to our dear, sweet, happy, perfect baby girl! We love you so much! Also, happy birthday to my amazing mother who's birthday it is today. I love you, mom! This post was for you!

2013 Beach Trip with the Lakefield Boys

This year for our family vacation we took an amazing trip with David's group of best friends from his ward when he was growing up. This trip was about a year in the making and we were so glad to have been able to see David's friends and to have such a great time. It was especially fun because we all have new babies (Savannah is the oldest) and they are all girls. Watching them interact was really special.

 

We rented a beach house on the Holden Beach island. This little island was perfect because it isn't touristy and the beach wasn't crowded at all. Now if only the weather could have been better....

 

Here's our little cutie playing in the front seat of the car during one of the bathroom breaks along the road.

 

The first day there we packed up everything and walked down to the beach. People kept staring at us because of how many strollers and children we had! It was pretty hilarious! I'm so glad I took this picture because during the first night there one of our friends little girls got sick and they had to leave. This is the only picture we got of the whole group so I'm grateful I took it!

At Holden Beach with daddy!

David hung Savannah upside down and stuck the top of her head in the water. She thought it was great!

I think this is my favorite picture from the whole trip. Savannah looks so, so happy...and look at those chunky legs!

The boys digging for crabs.

The next day it was raining so we decided to drive to Wilmington for the day. We ate a yummy dinner and then got some amazingly good ice cream from Kilwins.

We were trying to teach Savannah to lick the ice cream. She was...okay at it.

Jake and Chris decided to do handstands in the water. Jake was definitely better than Chris was. (shhh, don't tell Chris I said that!)

The cute mommies with their girls, Hadley and Kenedee.

Little Kenedee makes the silliest faces!

One day we came home to find a very long and very "fresh" snake skin hanging out of the dryer vent into the car port below. It kind of freaked us out. We were grateful when we found the (very large but thankfully not poisonous) snake outside on the pipe. He would sit there whenever we had the dryer on because he didn't like it and then he would slither back into the vent when the dryer was off. Needless to say we kept the dryer on a lot while there!

Here's the house we stayed in. It was perfect for us!

The next day we went to a family friend's house for dinner. Matt Case and his family who had left the first night at the beach house because of sickness came too so we were able to see them one last time before they headed back to Tennessee. Here's the three oldest girls, Pippa, Savannah, and Hadley. Obviously Savannah was stuffed from Anne's yummy dinner and just wanted to lounge a little.