In my mind I'm gone to Carolina...

BEWARE: This post contains LOADS of pictures!
Thursday a week ago, we packed our bags to take Cora for her first visit to her Daddy's favorite state! It was also Cora's first trip longer than about an hour...all in all it went pretty well. The trip down was a little rough and we stopped three times in the last 90 miles. Coming home, though, went much smoother - Cora woke up once to eat and otherwise slept for most of the 5 hour drive!
While we were in NC, we got to see our friends and family and introduce them all to little Miss Cora. When we rolled in the first night we went straight to Grandmommy and Granddaddy's for her to meet her great-grandparents. Cora gave Grandmommy love then had a serious discussion with Granddaddy.


Neither of them would tell us what they talked about!

The next day, Dustin's friend Jason came over with his two little ones and Cora met her Sweet friends! We can't wait til the next time we see them because Cora will be hanging right with them!

That night Nana's side of the family came over for amazingly delicious brownies. Unfortunately we don't have photographic evidence - mostly because Cora cried for most of it. I wouldn't give her any brownies. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and Cora was glad to meet her cousins Luke, Savannah, Jake, Alex and Gracie!

On Saturday Cora met her great-grandmother Martin and on Sunday she met some of the rest of the Martin clan! She showed them her scooting tricks, babbled up a storm, and gave a little love to everyone.

Cora asked, "Who is that precious baby on your refrigerator??"


Cora smiled for Beth...

...and already looks up to her cousin Jaxon!

She showed Aunt Kathy her sweet moves...

and gave her Grandpa some coos.

MeeMaw and Jaxon serenaded her!

Cora said, "I'm very comfortable right here with Aunt Judy, thank you very much!"


And when Cora got sleepy, she drifted off in Aunt Paula's arms.

We also got to see cousin Gracie again and steal some sweet kisses from her. And Cora couldn't pass up an opportunity to cuddle with Grandmommy.


"What - we have to leave already??"

Don't worry, sweet girl, we'll go back soon!

Busy Bees

For Father's Day, Cora and I gave Dustin tickets to see Zac Brown Band and Dave Matthews at the Nationals Stadium. Our first long date away! And driving into D.C.! I was a little nervous and may have cried some, but Dustin and I had a great time. It was hotter than you can imagine, we sweated through every song, and each drank 3 $4 bottles of water a piece. Whew!

What did Cora do during all of this you ask? Well, Nana, Grandpa and Aunt Kelli came all the way from North Carolina to babysit while we were gone! For my sanity, they took lots of pictures and even sent us a few texts throughout the night to update us on what our baby girl was doing. As you can see, she didn't have any fun at all. :)
She got lots of love....


She got to eat...

She took naps...

She played with her toys...

And she even did some swinging.

"What? I didn't do it!"

Then she was just tuckered out!

We also got to celebrate Nana's birthday while they were visiting. We celebrated with a beautiful AND delicious shadow cake from Ketchie Creek!

Sunday was Homecoming at Cobham Park and we got dressed up and looked so cute we couldn't help but take some pictures!

Cora's personal fashion designer smocked her dress. When asked in the nursery who she was wearing, she smiled and answered, "Grammie."

What a great weekend!

Twins!

Kind of...Mom comes over just about daily after Dustin leaves for work to give me a little time to shower, clean a little, and do any other odds and ends. Actually, I think her motivation is really just to spend time with Cora, but she always couches it as giving me time. One day she came over and she and Cora were wearing matching outfits. We love Grammie!

Photo Shoot

I apologize for not posting these pictures sooner. They are some of my favorites! I had gotten a bunch of emails advertising for professional baby pictures and they were soooo adorable. I really wanted pictures of Cora like the ones I was seeing. So I showed Mom some and she did some digging then came over with her awesome camera and we had our own Cora photo shoot.

Cora did really well during the shoot because she was asleep...until she woke up, made a little mess on the white blanket, then made it very clear that the shoot was over. Still, we got some great pictures that are even more adorable than the ones in the ads. And Mom did some work on them with special software so they really do look professional. Work it, Cora!





















Just precious!