Watch Out World!

We are entering a whole new phase around here! Huck is on the verge of crawling! He rolls all over the place, is doing the inchworm scoot on his tummy and pushes himself backwards with his feet while on his back. He is pushing up onto his knees and pushes up on his hands, but has not coordinated doing them both at the same time. The plan is to place a gate across the entrance to the playroom to keep him away from the big kids toys. He can also sit up like a champ!





So far we have given him bananas, sweet potatoes and cereal. Sweet potatoes is by far his favorite.





When we sit down to eat a meal he starts hollering to join us. He loves things that make crinkly noises, especially paper. Which is challenging since Duch goes through approximately 75,000 pieces of paper a day writing "cards" and "books" and leaves them all over the house. AH! As I type this he has found a piece of paper and will scream when I take it away from him... Yup, can you hear the screams from where you are now?
A sweet, not screaming baby...





We are about to turn our whole house upside down to add an addition. Probably not the best timing to tear apart our house just as Huck is about to start adventuring, but is there ever really a good time to tear apart your house? We will be deciding soon just exactly what we are going to do but mostly likely it will be adding a master suite to the back of the house. I'm excited but not looking forward to being without a bedroom and the playroom for 3 months. The Hubby and I are going to move our bed into the living/dining room area. But having a nice big closet and brand new bathroom will make it all worth it!
We took a tree down from in front of our house. It makes our house look so different! I was sad to see the tree go, but the drought this summer was just too much for it to take. It was a Bradford Pear tree that had grown much bigger than they are supposed to. It was losing limbs left and right. The final straw was when a limb fell into our neighbors driveway and almost made her late for an appointment before we could get it out of the way. We are hoping to redo all the landscaping next Spring anyway...





I saw a baby squirrel the other day. I'm pretty sure I have seen thousands of squirrels in my life, but don't ever remember seeing a baby squirrel. I was walking home from dropping Bubba off at school and heard a rustling in the grass. A baby squirrel jumped onto the tree trunk, trembling so badly it could hardly crawl up the tree. It climbed around the back and let out a big squeak. His mom heard him and popped out of a hallow in the tree, jumped over to him, picked him up in her mouth, carried him back and dropped him in the hallow. Then she popped her head back out and gave me the evil eye. I almost started crying. It was so beautiful.

6 months!

Huck is 6 months-old tomorrow! He is so fun these days and is settling into more of a routine. He has learned a lot lately. He rolls all over the place and does not stay where you put him anymore. While I was putting away laundry this morning he rolled himself under the bed! He reaches and grabs for toys, transfers them from hand to hand, and puts everything straight into his mouth. He is starting to sit unsupported but still falls over pretty quickly. He is growing great- he is probably 18 pounds by now. He had some mashed bananas for the first time last week. He didn't hate them but didn't love them either. We'll try some cereal or sweet potatoes this week and see what he thinks about that. He is enjoying his "only child" time while the big kids are both in school...

Duchess is enjoying school. She is loving writing letters, meaning both letters like A,B,C and actual letters like "Dear Mom" type letters. I think it is mostly because big brother is doing it, but they also have a handwriting program at school. One of the teachers spends about 30 minutes a day doing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. I went to a meeting about it today and it sounds interesting. She is always asking us how to spell things. We've had to talk about where she can practice her letters, like NOT in library books and NOT on the furniture...

Bubba is thinking about joining Cub Scouts. There is a meeting tomorrow to learn more about it. He is doing great at school. He has his first test, a math one, tomorrow. He is reading so well. He seems to really enjoy school.

We are thinking about putting an addition on to our house. Most likely we will add a master suite but it is possible that instead we will enlarge our current bathroom and closet instead. The idea is exciting and scary all at the same time. We have found a contractor that we feel like we can trust. He lives in the neighborhood and his kids go to the same school. We are meeting with him today to get the low down on what to really expect with the process.

Football season has begun so that means our time with the Hubby is greatly reduced. It's tough on Bubba, especially, because Daddy is not home much on the weekends. I'm going to the Lamaze conference next weekend. It is just in Fort Worth so I'll be driving back and forth each day.

End of Summer

We recently got back from our trip to Gulf Shores with my side of the family. My mom, brothers, sister-in-law, 2 nephews and our family shared a beach front house. We had`a really good time. The first exciting thing happened before we even left the house- the Hubby shaved- clean!





We left early Friday morning and stopped at a gator farm in Louisiana. Fun, but HOT, HOT, HOT.






Then we drove on to Gulfport, Mississippi and stopped for the night. After a very disappointing breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we made it to the Mobile Bay Ferry by lunch. And then we were there! This year we stayed in the same house as last year but on the other side of the duplex. It was nice and had everything we needed.





Bubba loved swimming in the ocean. He and Uncle Scott had a great time looking at all the underwater creatures through goggles. He got to drive his own go-cart and ride along on a big go-cart with Uncle Scott. He did awesome in the pool, too. He was a big help with all the younger kiddos.











Duchess also loved swimming, although her preference was for the pool. She did enjoy the beach and building sand castles with Aunt Sara and was not bothered by the sand like last year. I put sunblock on her every time we went outside, but she still got more tan every time. She definitely has her daddy's skin! We also celebrated her 4th birthday!












Huck did very well. He handled the long car ride pretty well- he was fussier on the way home but overall did well considering. He went to the beach, played in sand (ate some, of course), went in the ocean, went in the pool, played with Cousin Dillon, and got held by uncles, an aunt and Mom Mom. It sure was nice for Mommy to have all those extra hands around to help out - I went through withdrawal for the first few days home!













Last week was the first day of school for Bubba. Nothing but excitement from Bubba! Can't wait to hear about 1st grade!









And Duchess started today! What a quiet house I have!

Belated Birthday Wishes to a Firstgrader!

First Grade! How time flies! It seems like not that long ago that I was waiting for you to be born. The past year has been a great one. You started Kindergarten and did so well. You made friends with many of your classmates and learned so many new things... how to read!, how to use a computer, how to do addition and other math concepts, your handwriting improved dramatically... too many things to name them all! You started Tai KwonDo last Spring and it was great for you. Over the year you earned both your yellow and green belts. It helped your self-confidence improve and you learned to be a little bit more brave! You lost two teeth! This summer you learned to swim so much better and could spend all day in the pool. At the beach you swam in the ocean without fear- riding waves on the boogy board, looking at fish underwater with Uncle Scott, and jumping waves in the surf. You welcomed your new baby brother and are so great with him. You are gentle, sweet, and loving to him. He loves to smile at you and you can make him laugh! You and your sister can play so nicely together... when you want to :-) You love to play with Legos and can spend hours on end building ships, vehicles, and inventions. Your favorite TV show is Phineas and Ferb and you also like Scooby Do, Star Wars and Looney Toons. You still play great imagination games- adventurer, spy, farmer, dog, and inventor are some of the characters that you have played in the past few days. You are so excited for First Grade to start next week! I know it will be a fun year full of new and exciting things. Daddy and I love you, Buddy! Thanks for being a great son!

Happy Birthday, Madison! (a little bit late...)

Happy Birthday, my Sweet Girl! I can't believe that you are 4! You are a joy to us, Little Girl. You make me laugh daily and keep me on my toes. Nothing gets past you anymore. You feel things strongly and have a flair for drama! One of your catch phrases these days is "oh,come on!" I hear it uttered quietly, moaned loudly and screamed very loudly many times a day, usually when you are frustrated by something. You want to do everything yourself, but still need your mommy's "chen-chen" (attention) and snuggles several times a day. You love to play outside and the 30 days in a row of 100+ degree weather this summer has frustrated you to no end. Your love of Dora the Explorer has taken a back seat to Disney princesses, Tinkerbell, Barbie and Strawberry Shortcake. You can play wonderfully with your big brother and the two of you come up with very elaborate imagination games. Of course, you can also hold your own in a fight with him as well! You love your baby brother even if you don't always love the attention he gets. I was thinking back to when you were just a baby and remembering that even then you made sure to get your share of my attention :-) When nursing, every once in awhile, if I was talking to someone or looking the other way I'd feel a little fist pop me in the face as if to say "Hey! This is my time! Focus on me!" You declared your independence at a young age- you wanted your own bed much earlier than your big brother, were walking steadily by your first birthday and you weaned yourself by 14 months. This year you did many independent things- made friends at school, took ballet classes, decided to stop sucking your thumb cold turkey and potty trained yourself in a day. All these things were done on your own schedule, of course. I have a feeling this is going to be quite a year! Thanks for loving us, Madison! Happy 4th Birthday!


Jackson's very late birthday post to come...

You know you are a third child when...

You know you are the third child when...

You are sleeping in a pink sleepsack... and you are a boy.

Your mommy forgot to take you to your 4 month well-child check up.

At the tender age of 4 months, your mommy leaves you at home not just one, but 2 nights in a row so she can hang out at the posh Hotel Zaza for girls weekend.





We had the third annual Girls of North Russell Hall getaway weekend! This year the girls all came to Dallas because I couldn't really leave Huck for the whole weekend. I'd miss him too much, so I came home to sleep. The Hubby's friend Tyler hooked us up with some great deals at the Hotel Zaza, one of Dallas's trendiest boutique hotels. We had a fancy dinner on Friday, went to the spa and had a baby shower on Saturday and ate a yummy brunch on Sunday. It was so good to catch up with the girls! Even though we only get together once a year, it is so easy being together it feels like we do it all the time.

Not So Outdoorsy...

We are clearly not a hunting/camping/fishing type family as evidenced by our trip to Bass Pro Shops yesterday. What started as a trip to go blueberry picking near Greenville was aborted when we sat in traffic on I-30 for almost 2 hours. Instead, we exited the Interstate and went to Bass Pro in Garland on Lake Ray Hubbard. This was a first for the kiddos- they kept referring to the lake as the ocean, the guns as shooters, and camouflage as the tree clothes. There was quite a bit to do there for the kids. We ate at the restaurant that has a huge salt water fish tank, did a craft activity, sat through a kids archery workshop (a power point presentation by Don from the archery department), played in the sand "beach" and walked by the lake. Maybe we'll have to go on the fishing vacation with the Grandparents next year...