Piper playing 'dress up' w/ribbon and fabric scraps.
She always is walking around with something in both hands!
Her new favorite hangout is the first step and she must have her snack cup in hand!
Walking up the driveway with a paper in her hand. Michael said he has taught her how to fetch! Now, I need to teach her how to mop!! ;-)
Today, we tried coloring w/crayons for the very first time. I drew some things and she made a couple of scribbles but it was more me telling her "no, do not put that in your mouth," than it was actually coloring! We will try again later! 
Me & Kat!
The night before I left for Nashville, Michael & I drove to Dallas to see Coldplay in concert. We didn't get home until 2:30 am but it was worth it b/c it was awesome! 
My eyes were a little buggy!!
Piper and me today. Before church, Michael's good buddy, Sam, stopped by to see us. He was on his way to Iowa to begin a new job tomorrow and his family will be joining him in a couple of weeks.
Our good friends from Tyler (who we miss a lot!!) Jon & Brittany were driving through on Friday to go to Midwest City. So we met them in Marietta to eat catfish at Magehees! It is seriously the best catfish and hush puppies I have ever eaten! Piper loved Jon as you can see above! These two are going to be great parents when the time comes!
The 4 of us...kind of dark!
Then, on Saturday I got together w/3 other girls to have a garage sale. This is Piper helping me get ready for the garage sale after she woke up Thursday morning!
The garage sale was pretty successful for the 4 of us. Once all the hard work of setting up was over, I enjoyed sitting around and chatting w/girls while trying to make some money! Saturday night, I was able to get together with a group of women from bible study. We ate, bowled, and chatted at Starbucks until 11:30 pm! I really needed that girl time and Michael was great about helping me w/Piper while I was able to do all that stuff! This coming week is going to be great! On Tuesday, Michael and I will be dropping Piper off at her cousins house, going to a Coldplay concert in Dallas, and then on Wednesday I leave to go to Nashville w/my besties from college for our annual girls trip! I'll probably have a few pics to post after that!
Lilly and Piper playing together at our house. The Roush's came to our house for the 4th of July weekend. It was fun to hang out! Piper got to stay up and watch fireworks for the 1st time in her life. She started clapping when she saw them! (I didn't get any pics of the girls in their festive dresses but Chandra did w/her cool, new camera! I'm hoping to get those emailed to me someday!! :-)
Best friends in the making?!?!? (Lilly just woke up from a long nap!)
Lilly looking cute!
After helping host a baby shower for my friend Sonya (in OKC), Piper and I headed out to visit my parents and grandparents. We had not been in a while. This is Piper w/her Great Grandpa Allen. She snuggled up to him as soon as she saw him!
And Piper, snuggling w/her Great Grandma Allen. We stayed at there house for about 1 1/2 hrs. and she tried to get into everything they had! Whew!
Piper, right after she woke up, sitting in her travel high chair at my parents house. She was in a bit of a fog! 
Piper is still walking along the furniture and w/her walker toys. She is also pushing off her hands to the standing pushing without holding onto anything. She is getting very close to walking. There have been two times when she has taken 1 step without holding on but she falls down as soon as she does it! I'm going on a trip next week w/my girlfriends and I'm praying she doesn't walk while I'm away! I will be so sad! This is her holding onto two walkers instead of one. She thinks needs two things to support her as she goes along!!
Get out of my way people! 
One day last week, she crawled into the TV cabinet and I would shut the door on her and play peek-a-boo! We had a lot of fun being silly!
She knows she's cute!
July has been fun and quite hot! I feel like we have been stuck inside more b/c of the 110 degree heat! Which can present a challenge in entertaining a 1 yr. old! Piper did get to enjoy her first VBS! I don't know if she really enjoyed it or not b/c she was crying 3 out of the 5 days I picked her up! I helped in the 3 yr. old class and by the end felt like a crazy, tired person! Piper is liking the water finally! When she gets into the pool she just wants to swim off all by herself and gets frustrated that we hold onto her! That is much different from the beginning of the summer when she clung to my neck as soon as we got in the water! She even crawled up next to the spraying water at the splash pad in the park without fussing! That, my friends, has never happened! One week she started eating fruit so well...the best she has ever eaten it and quite a variety for her! But now, this week, she hates all fruits! She will not eat one thing; plus, she won't eat any meat or veggie I give her! She is only eating carbs and dairy! Hopefully, this is a short phase! 
Smile big! She's been going 'nakey' around here a lot lately! We are THAT family who lets their child play in the driveway w/a diaper on!
Pretty cute, little ham!
Piper has been going through a really long phase of fussing, clinging, crying...a general unhappy demeanor (unless she's at someone else's house!). But this week she's been much happier. I know she is cutting all four of her 1st yr. molars right now and from our past teething experiences, she doesn't handle it well! One broke through at the end of last week so I'm attributing her happier self to that! She's still crawling all over the place but she has been using her push walker much more! We stood outside on the driveway for about 45 minutes the other night while she pushed her baby stroller around pretty much the entire time! Piper really likes going to the pool and splashing! She gets mad after a while and wants us to let go of her so she can swim on her own! We, obviously, don't let go! I decided to start bathing her in the kitchen sink this week since she hates the tub still. It's quicker and easy to stand up instead of leaning down. Well, I should have tried this sooner b/c she LOVES it! So we are going to continue sink baths for a while b/c it makes for a happier baby and happier mommy! She played for at least 30 min. tonight in the sink while I loaded dishes and cleaned the kitchen! She also has not been crying when I leave her at the church nursery and she cries for maybe 30 seconds when I leave her at the YMCA nursery. That's a major, major praise!! I hope it continues! 
Here's a portion of the people lined up to watch...
We stayed downtown and walked everywhere. Our feet were tired! We went to the TX state capitol since neither one of us had been there. Here we are there. (the only pic we took of ourselves! Bummer!) And, what is up w/my leg posing?? Oh well, we were being tourists!
This was strange I thought. This girl was wearing a pretty dress w/these hose and shoes???? I took a picture of course! 
Look how beautiful the sky was! It was a HOT day! 
We had fun and ate at some yummy restaurants thanks to my friend Danielle for her recommendations! I'd like to go back and take advantage of their recreational stuff but maybe when it's cooler! 
