Rolling!

Jillian has been so close to rolling for a week or so now and even accomplished it twice on Saturday - the first time in her swaddle in her bed (which freaked Mommy out just a bit!) and then in the midst of crying because we had put her down. But today, she finally did it where I say that it 'counts' - she wasn't mad or asleep, so it feels more like she did it on purpose!

I had just put her down on a blanket on her back and then turned around to see -


I was talking to Neal on the phone and broke into loud cheers (great thing to do right after putting Meredith to sleep right?) But she didn't want to stop there - just a few minutes later, I looked back to see -

Yep, I let her roll herself right off of the blanket onto our tile floor, luckily she did it gracefully and it didn't seem to bother her!

Chuck E Cheese

I had been waiting for it. Our grocery store is right next door to Chuck E Cheese. Meredith sees ads for Chuck E Cheese (which Meredith pronounces Chuck E Cheesus) before Sesame Street and Mickey, so I figured she would know that it was someplace she should check out. The other day, it finally happened. On the way into the store, Meredith said "Mommy, what is that?" I told her and she replied "I want to go there!" So I told her we would plan a trip. Later that week, Meredith was with my mom when she saw another ad for Chuck E Cheese. She told Gigi that she was going to go and said "Do you want to come too? It is right by my grocery store if you look to the left." What? Really?

So the next week, we met up with Katie and her mom for a fun morning! The girls loved playing together - Meredith's favorite were all the rides, especially the huge rocking horse that you had to climb a ton of stairs to get to and we all had fun playing for lots and lots of tickets (that only bought about ten cents worth of stuff, but the girls were so excited anyway!) She was pretty apprehensive about sitting near the characters as they sung, but she warmed up to them. Chuck E. Cheese made a trip through the store, too - Katie couldn't wait to give him a hug. Meredith, however, clung to me for dear life. Even with appearanced by Chuck himself and the singing characters, she can't wait to go back.

The girls love getting together and were so excited to get to play!
On one of the many rides that Meredith loved!
This fun game let you call Chuck E. Cheese - which she did, but she told us she also made a call or two to her friends Sarah and Rachel!
That is some serious ski-balling!
She got so excited when she one SO many tickets all from one game!

Sassy Hair

After lots of soul-searching and poll-taking, I decided it was time for a real haircut for Meredith. She was super excited to go back to where we got her hair trimmed a few months ago, because you get to sit in a car and watch movies. Neal was luckily there for moral support otherwise the tears that I fought back as the long chunks of hair fell to the floor might have been rolling down my face. She looks so cute with short hair but it is still hard to think about because she looks so much more like a big girl than she did before!

Mesmerized by Dora. This happened to be the Dora where she has twins with her, which led Meredith to say, "I only have one baby. I want two." Daddy was a little freaked out.

Look at all that long hair on the floor - this is where I almost lost it!!

The finished do!

Look at that very professional hair fling from Meredith!

Los Coltos Locos

In High School, Neal and his friends Micah and Aaron would dress up for all the girls basketball games and called themselves Los Coltos Locos. These three guys are still friends and we are blessed to be in the same Sunday School class with them and their wives. We are also so blessed that as the three of them each got married, we all just meshed. Joyce and Aaron found out that they were expecting their first, Austin just a month after we learned that Jillian was on her way. Then just a few months later, Micah and Krista learned they were expecting baby Noah (who will be born this fall). How fun that we were all pregnant at the same time and these three beautiful babies will grow up together too. The other night we all got together for dinner and had a blast on a beautiful evening outside.

Neal and Jillian hanging out with Aaron and Austin. It kind of looks like Jillian is already embarrassed by her Daddy's silliness.

Micah manned the amazing grill - the food was fabulous!


We brought Meredith's bike and lots of other fun toys - she loved the patio!

I just loved this picture of the sweet Pierce family