The Rollman Empire

So before time totally slips away from me I have to share pictures from Marie's first beach trip! We had no plans to go to the beach this summer but our lovely friends, the Adams, invited us to join them at Brooke's parent's condo just north of Charleston. It was fabulous! We were there for Father's Day and Marie started sitting up by herself during the trip too! As Marie is with anything new, she was very pensive when it came to the ocean and the pool. She didn't like or dislike it - she was just taking it all in. I have about 400 "sand shots" of my little girl all of which are great but I will spare you all 400. If, however, you would like to see them, they are here . And below are my favorites - the best of which is last.

Yesterday to celebrate the 4 th of July, we went to our friend's house for a BBQ. Marie did great and was doted on the entire time. We heard comments like, "what a good baby", "she's so happy", "look at those eyes". "I haven't heard her fuss at all" - we are proud parents aren't we? Being the only couple at the party with kids, we were the first to leave to put the little one to bed. However, she had no interest in sleeping and after an hour of babbling to herself in her crib, I decided to take her out to see our neighbor's fireworks. She was mesmerized . The popping and whistling didn't bother her a bit and the best part was when a firecracker, kind of like a self-standing roman candle, shot 7 or 8 red or green balls of light into air. She giggled every time it "exploded". It was precious - the only problem, we didn't have a camera to get it on video. However, my neighbor did grab her camera later on when w...

A couple of weeks ago we had our house painted and here are the before and after pictures. I knew I wanted a bright red door (I even asked a neighbor what color she used and compared my paint samples with her door) and I also wanted navy shutters. Dan wanted white trim because it looks so crisp and clean and it matches our new windows. So in essence I chose "red, white and blue" without really intending too. I am just afraid my neighbors are going to call us the "P atriotic House" but so far no one has made any American Flag references (except for our painter) and by and large, we like how it turned out. I am just thrilled to get rid of the colonial blue and the horrible blue and white door. (Good thing the previous owners won't ever see this post huh?)