Nana and Granddad came for a visit a few weeks ago and brought some cool new toys for the kiddos. One of the highlights was Candyland!! We were all impressed with how quickly Nathan caught on to the rules of the game and how excited he was to play! He would play multiple games a day with either Nana or Granddad. They quickly realized that mainly using the double cards was important so each individual game wouldn't last too long. And somehow Nathan managed to win every single time!

After dinner is one of my favorite times of the day. Daddy is usually home and the kids are both in a great mood with their little bellies full. Some nights the four of us go to Nathan's room to play, and building with Duplos is always a favorite activity. Sarah loves to "help" by pulling duplos apart which is why by the end of the night, Nathan's creation had to be moved to the top of the bookcase.



I love that Nathan asks to hold Sarah, especially in pictures but even when the camera isn't there!

Most of this tower was Nathan's design and execution, but Daddy had to help with the very top portion (attaching the large red square to the top of the two supporting towers.)

Gran and I took the kids out one morning to get some new sibling pictures.  Nathan still likes to turn away from the camera and is working on a cheesy fake smile, but I was able to get this cute one before his patience wore thin.



We went back out later with the whole family to get some group shots.  Here's the whole clan:

Gran and Sarah on the swing

The cousins

Uncle James!!  (Love this one!)

Three generations

And a rare "Mommy with kids".

Maybe one more post to come with some candid shots from the beach...

We made it home from the beach just in time for Sarah's nine month check up. She's still doing great:
  Height: 28 1/4 inches (75%)
  Weight: 19lb 12.2 oz (67%)
  Head: 17 3/4 inches (81%)

One cloudy afternoon at the beach, I noticed how beautiful the light was coming through the big windows, and got these great shots of our nine month little girl!

The Friday before we left for the beach (a week an a half ago now), I noticed that she had popped through her left bottom front tooth.  Then at the beach, I saw that the bottom right had come in as well.  Sunday after we got home, we realized that BOTH top teeth were in!  These darn teeth maybe explain why Sarah wouldn't sleep like I hoped to and from the beach.  I am thankful though that the amount of drooling has reduced SIGNIFICANTLY from a few weeks ago. Here she is showing off some of her pearly whites!

Here's a typical pursed-lipped smile from Sarah!  She loves to give her Mommy big open-mouth tongue kisses on the cheek, which sometimes turn into zerberts.  Her mommy, of course, loves giving Sarah kisses too and loves how she giggles and laugh when I give her zerberts!  Sarah has been pulling up for a few weeks now and is tentatively starting to cruise.  She's not quite up to standing by herself yet.
Sarah waved for the first time when we were standing in line at Walmart at Myrtle beach.  Then she got lots of practice during the week waving with Aunt Karen, so now she's a pro!  That hopefully means that she'll start signing within the next few weeks - hooray!! 

Sarah is a pretty good eater, usually preferring to feed herself finger foods rather then eating purees.  But Mommy is still using them to make sure she gets her protein and veggies.  Cheerios are still her favorite food, but she also loves grapes, cherries, pears, cinnamon toast, graham crackers and "green" pasta. 

The elevator ranked highly on Nathan's list of favorite things about the beach.  Here is what he did every time we got to ride the elevator last week.