Just another Saturday night

Helping with the laundry.

Practicing her walking skills

Too busy for pants

Before I could get pants on Charlotte this morning, she was off and playing. Babies in diapers are so cute!

Those old people

Today after church Mark, Charlotte, and I met some friends at Tin Star for lunch. After we got the tables pulled together, the highchairs all situated, and all of Charlotte's food out, I realized we were sitting next to a table of teenagers. It made me think of a How I Met Your Mother episode where one of the characters is dating an older man. He is probably only about 40, but all the other characters saw him as an 80-year-old. I can only imagine how old we must have appeared to those teenagers. With all of our kids and "accessories" in tow, through their eyes we probably looked about 40-years-old. I tried to imagine what I would have thought when I was that age, and I'm sure I thought married people with babies were light years older than me. I wanted to tell them, I'm only 29! I can claim that for at least a few more months!

P.S. The above pictures is not from today, but is pretty close to what Charlotte looks like after every meal!

Good way to start a day!

9 months old

As her Daddy told her yesterday morning, Charlotte has now been outside her Mama as long as she was in her tummy. I don't know why 9 months seems like such a huge milestone to me. Maybe because it is in the last set of baby clothes sizes (9-12 months) before she is a year old. Needless to say, time is zooming by and we are enjoying Charlotte more and more each day. She is so full of personality and makes us laugh on a daily basis. She loves to hear us laugh and I love it when I can really get her giggling. Such a wonderful sound to a Mama's ears!

When we were at the doctor about 2 weeks ago, she was weighing in right at 19 pounds. She is wearing 6-9, 9 month, and 6-12 month clothing right now. She is wearing size 2-3 shoes. We have been very blessed to have so many people let us borrow some wonderful clothes. She has more clothes than I do!
Charlotte is always learning new things and practicing new tricks.

Favorite things to do:

- say "da da" and "ba ba". These are just random syllables right now.

- scream loudly in delight

- smack her lips together

- make raspberry noises

- use her hand on her mouth to do "ah, ah, ah"

- dance to music (this involves swaying forwards and backwards or bouncing up and down)

New tricks:

- smiles when she sees the red light on our camera

- stand up and squat down repeatedly while holding onto something

- side step along furniture while holding on

- chasing the cat very persistently

- has let go of the furniture and stood a few times, but now very often

- she has started to feed herself some baby snacks

Favorite toys:

- music table

- any ball because she likes to throw them

- pulling the shapes out of her plastic shape sorter box

- pulling the plastic coins out of her piggy bank and chewing on them

Round 2 - Epperson Christmas

On Christmas Eve we packed up and headed down to Buda to be with my family. We stayed Friday - Tuesday. We haven't spent that much time all together as a family in a long time and it was a wonderful Christmas! We had a lot of play time, game time, and just hanging out. My kind of holiday! We also pulled out old home videos from when I was in elementary school, so my brother and sister were in junior high and high school. We had a lot of laughs!

Charlotte was so happy to be out of the car!

I love this picture of the two cousins. Skylyn and Charlotte are only 1 1/2 years apart, so I know they will have a lot of fun growing up together!

Christmas Eve - ready for Santa's visit

My sister found these fun matching pajamas. Grown-ups can have fun, too!

Charlotte enjoying her fun music table from Santa with her Papaw.

Aaris loving on her big bear from Santa. The bear is literally bigger than her!

Charlotte enjoying her new phone with her Uncle Jeremy.

I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did. Because of the blessing of our little girl and our wonderful families, this is one of the best Christmases I have ever had! Can't wait for next year!

A new trick for a new year!

We have been trying to teach Charlotte how to feed herself puffs treats. They are small and she can't quite seem to get them from her hand to her mouth. Yesterday I bought "baby mum-mums" which are a larger wafer, much easier to hold and control. She got the hang of it right away!

Christmas Round 1 - Fowler Christmas

The week leading up to Christmas we visited with Mark's parents, brother and his family, and Mark's grandparents. Charlotte was so excited to see and play with her cousins! I will let the pictures tell the story, because, well, there are a lot of them!

Aunt Emily getting in on the playtime fun!

On Tuesday the weather was so gorgeous that I took the kids to the park.

Charlotte spent her time picking up leaves and sticks and I spent my time taking them out of her mouth!

Opening presents - photo op with Grammy

We love sharing our passion for all things Texas!

Charlotte's first time in a high chair at a restaurant. She loved it! We were eating at El Fenix - a "must" when the Memphis Fowlers are in town.

Granddad, Nana, and the great grandkids.

Jolly St. Nick

Charlotte got to meet Santa Claus for the very first time! Our church has an annual HoHoHo Breakfast for the kids and Charlotte and I attended.

The professional picture

My quick snapshot

It probably helped that she was tired from a very short morning nap. Charlotte sat right down and would stare at the camera, but wouldn't smile. When she finally turned around and realized she didn't know the person holding her, she started to get upset. Luckily we had already gotten the picture!

A quick one of Mommy and Char on Santa's sleigh

There wasn't much to do because the party was really geared towards toddlers and up. However, we were able to make one jingle bell ornament that Charlotte is really enjoying playing with!