Margaret on the Move!

Even though we've been home for almost a week now, I'm still being lazy about sorting through the rest of the pictures I took at Big Canoe. Hopefully I'll have them up soon.
 In the meantime, here is a video of Margaret walking. Interestingly, Julia has regressed on the walking front. She no longer seems interested in the developmental milestone and seems instead to be focusing all her energies on biting her siblings and tantrum throwing. Maybe she's just jealous of Margaret ;-)

Big Canoe, Part I

We are at Big Canoe, in the North Georgia mountains, visiting with Marmee, Grampy, Uncle Michael, Aunt Allison, and cousins Sophia and Landon.
Don't ask how the road trip here was; I'll spare the details, but it was not pretty. Let's just say I don't think I will willingly take a car trip (or any trip for that matter) any time soon...unless it's by myself of course. Without further adieu, here are a bunch of pictures from our trip thus far. I will post again once we get home and settled.

Caroline and Sophia off on a trip to the grocery store.



Blurry, but still cute.

Julia is our water baby...this girl cannot get enough of the water.

Happy girl Julia

Margaret is much happier poolside...





...where she can practice her walking.

Caroline and Sophia: two (silly) peas in a pod.

 

Sophia and Caroline



Ready for a double dip: Margaret and Julia

Sophia, Caroline, and Grampy

Uncle Paul helps Landon test out his new gold clubs before golf camp.

Couch potatoes: Daddy and Julia

This view never gets old

Cousins Sophia and Caroline

Sweet girls

Caroline and Mommy

Picture Post

I've been lazy about blogging lately, but I do have a few pictures of the girls to share. I was also hoping to share a video of Margaret walking, but the sneaky little girl won't let me record her in action. I'll keep trying!

Margaret's latest obsession: books.

Margaret attempting a forward roll with lovies in hand.

There are so many things I could say here....

I'm pretty sure Julia's smirk says it all here: "Thought you could leave me alone for a few minutes, didn't you, Mom??"

Margaret so excited to be pushed around by Julia that she doesn't realize she's about to run into the table.

Julia so proud of herself for giving little sister Margaret a ride on the push car.

A First Time for Everything

It may have taken me over 3 years, but I finally mustered the courage to leave my children overnight! That's right folks, June 6, 2009 was the last day I felt free to move about the country sans children...until now.
Last weekend, Paul and I took a little getaway to the (not so glamorous) city of Philadelphia to attend a college friend's wedding.
This was not really the dream vacation we had in mind when we started planning our first trip without the kids, but the wedding looked like it was going to be a lot of fun and the option to drive there made it even more attractive. Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa Hepper were happy to come into town to take care of our 3 girls (Thank you, thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!!!), so we set off Friday afternoon on a weekend full of sleep, delicious food, fun, and great friends with little anxiety over whether our girls would be "okay" without us. Although I will admit that I cried like a baby for the first 20 minutes of our road trip (and then again about 3 hours in and again about 5 hours in). :)
Of course the weekend went by too fast, but I sure did enjoy my Four Seasons deluxe room with it's plush king size bed (I literally felt like I was sleeping in a cloud for 2 days), all the great food that I didn't have to lift a finger to prepare, and partying like it was 2003 again. 
As we said goodbye to the newlywed couple on Sunday morning as they departed for their sure to be amazing honeymoon on the island of Mauritius (that's off the coast of South Africa in case you're wondering), I had to stop myself from shouting, "Enjoy it while you can! Before you know it, seven years will have gone by, you'll have three kids, and the most exotic trip you'll be taking will be to your friend's wedding in Philly!!"

Paul and his best college pals.

At the reception, which was held at a historic estate north of Philadelphia.

Wedding party on the lawn in front of the estate in Bryn Athyn.

Happy 4th of July!

We had such a nice 4th of July holiday! Daddy didn't have to work at all, so we got to enjoy an entire day together as a family. We didn't do much during the day time, just hung out around the house and played, and then Mommy and Caroline went out for lunch with a friend before nap time. Then we left the babies at home and headed out to celebrate the holiday with the some friends. Check out our day...

Attempt at a group picture = fail (for the millionth time)

Margaret so proud to be riding Rody.

Happy girls Julia and Margaret

Daddy and his Mini Me Julia

Caroline all decked out and ready for the 4th of July party.

Group picture success!!

Caroline

SOMEBODY made a break for the greens and made it all the way to the first hole!!!

On the way home and still going strong!

Happy 4th of July, y'all!!!

Musical Talents and New Moves

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We've been enjoying the lazy days of summer and have been spending lots of low key days visiting with friends and enjoying the pool.
We have a video post for you today. Included in this batch of recent videos is Caroline singing "Happy Birthday" to herself, Julia showing off some impressive musical talents and some serious "no, no, nos" to bedtime, and Margaret on the move, being her happy-go-lucky self. Check it out...

Julia dancing to Raffi...

Caroline singing "Happy Birthday" to herself for Claire....

                                                 Margaret catching a ride from Caroline...

Margaret on the move...

Julia says "No!"...

Happy Father's Day!

We had a wonderful Father's Day weekend! We enjoyed a really fun birthday party on Saturday that blew our Birthday-Palooza party out of the water. Think pool party with a bounce house and a Mr. Softee ice cream truck and you have an idea of just some of the fun that happened at Miss Sylvia's party!
On Sunday we had brunch at Westwood and then sent Daddy packing for a round of golf with friends. Mommy and the girls stayed home and enjoyed some down time and then some play time with our neighborhood friends. We finished the day with early bed times for the girls and a tasty dinner for the adults. It was a great weekend!
I only have a few pictures to share from my phone...Mommy was lazy and didn't feel like toting her camera around this weekend!

Julia looking cool at the birthday party.

Wingrove and Caroline enjoying Mr. Softee ice cream. Yum!

Caroline sporting her floaties and a princess ring in the pool.

Daddy hanging poolside with Miss Margaret.

Loving some chocolate cake at Westwood.

Margaret face jamming a cookie.