August 2020

August was a craaazy month between school starting back and Melissa and Alex’s wedding among birthdays and many other things. I’m going to use this post to summarize everything from August that WASN’T school or wedding related, and then I’ll make separate posts for school and wedding stuff next…

Abigail decided to set up a little pallet on the floor in our room. I doubt that hard floor was very comfortable though!! ;)

We ate lunch outside on August 1st. It gave Travis some peace and quiet for a few minutes (since he was still working from home), and we enjoyed the nice view of our new backyard!

“Can we paint?” is a frequently asked question around here. All of the paint I bought for Brooklyn’s art party back in February has really come in handy.

“The Shepherds Visit Jesus” – Savannah’s drawing for her virtual bible class. I thought her sheep were super cute!! :)

I took the girls to Walmart on August 3rd to try to finish our school supply shopping for the new school year. This was their first time to go in a store (grocery store or Walmart or anything) since March!! Isn’t that insane?? They all wore their masks the whole time and didn’t complain. Savannah’s kept falling down under her nose…whoops. They did good overall, and we were able to find most of the stuff on their lists. Savannah had already gotten a lot of stuff at the “starting school” party at Cici’s, but we still needed to buy most of Brooklyn’s stuff that day.

After a quick lunch, I took the girls to get their hair cut (they all needed a trim before the wedding), and this was Abigail’s FIRST ever hair cut! She did so good!

Doesn’t she look so proud of herself? :)

She sat pretty still the whole time (we had to remind her to keep looking straight ahead at the mirror because she kept wanting to turn her head and watch what her sisters were doing), but otherwise she did great. She talked to Sydney the whole time and wasn’t scared at all. She was very excited to get a sucker at the end! She just got a little trim…but it looked good!

Enjoying those suckers on the way out to the car!

Her hair color blends in with the brick in this picture, but it looked cute :)

I guess it was such an exciting day that she couldn’t stay awake on the way home…

On August 4th, we went to the pool for a little swimming fun. I think this was our last swim before school started back…

Danielle and Hannah joined us for a little while, and we enjoyed the morning! Brooklyn and Savannah were pretending to pour tea on Danielle’s head, and the kids all thought that was hilarious ;)

Brooklyn is so thoughtful with making cards for others!

Ice cream bars melt fast during the month of August…

Abigail had another ENT appointment on August 5th to check on her ear tubes. It had been 6 months since the last checkup. Dr. Castillo said the tubes are still in her ears but have worked their way out of the hole in her eardrums, so they aren’t in place/helping anything at the moment. She has fluid behind her right ear AGAIN…argh. So now we are back to another round of amoxicillin and Flonase and another checkup in 4 weeks. (I was afraid we would have to do another round of tubes after we left this appointment, but everything looked great when we went back 4 weeks later, so she was officially released! Yay!) Hopefully we won’t have more ear issues in the future…

“The Wise Men Visit Jesus” – I loved how Savannah drew the big star over the house :)

Brooklyn really enjoys directed drawing videos on a YouTube channel called Art For Kids Hub.

She did these two drawings on August 5th. She was especially proud of the cherry blossom tree!

Paw and Rae Rae hosted “summer camp” for the girls at the lake from August 6th-8th. This was the first time that they ever had all 3 girls spend the night at the same time! First activity on day 1 was making cookies, of course :)

Abigail was a cute little taste tester!

I’m sure they couldn’t wait to get in the lake!

Brooklyn drew this dog based on a new drawing book Rae Rae gave her…

Paw read a Pete the Cat book to them before bed :)

On Day 2, they took a boat ride down to Rock Creek Marina to feed the fish. Always a fun activity!

Lots of fish…and even a turtle!

Picnic lunch in the living room :)

Brooklyn and Savannah helped Paw wash our van while Abigail took a nap that afternoon…

After Abigail got up, she helped wash the floor mats. What a cute helper!

There was time for a little more swimming and jet ski riding before it was time for baths and supper. Apparently, Abigail kept saying “Go faster, Rae Rae!” on the jet ski…haha.

On Day 3, the girls made another batch of cookies…this time with M&Ms added to the cookie dough.

They also played a game of dominos…

and went swimming all before lunchtime!

Brooklyn always loves the slide :)

After lunch and some more swimming, they got packed up and ready to come back home to Mommy and Daddy.

They were all worn out…and Paw and Rae Rae probably were too!

Travis and I had a very nice and quiet couple of days at home. One of our crape myrtles started blooming! We went on a walk each night after dinner, and I got some time to go shopping and get pedicures with Melissa. We appreciated Paw and Rae Rae and their summer camp offer so much!

I snapped this picture after our “parking lot singing” on August 9th. For several months, we had indoor church services but came outside to sing a couple of songs at the end. Strange times compared to normal, but we got used to it after a while.

That Sunday was our day to eat with Baugay, and we had her and Alex and Melissa over to eat with us. (The Lovelesses were quarantining because of a COVID exposure and couldn’t come).

We always enjoy seeing Baugay and catching up with her!

“Jesus Visits the Temple” – 8/9/20

We went on a walk/scooter ride around the neighborhood after supper on August 14th. It was the first time that Abigail figured out how to steer her scooter! Something apparently clicked tonight and she scootered around the entire neighborhood. She even figured out how to coast downhill to give her leg a rest. We got several comments from neighbors about how she was the cutest thing ever. Of course, she didn’t want any help once she figured things out!

There is a small lending library in our neighborhood a few streets over, and the girls each wanted to pick out a book to take home and read. Brooklyn started hers on the walk back ;)

Abigail turned THREE on August 16th!! Hard to believe. Brooklyn made her this card out of different colored beads and left it at her place at the table :)

Abigail’s birthday was on a Sunday this year, so I didn’t think there would be time to do something special like pancakes for breakfast. Instead, I put some sprinkles in the girls’ cereal bowls, and they all thought it was great…haha.

Before church, I took a few pictures of the birthday girl out in front of our house. This was her favorite dress of the summer–she wanted to wear it every Sunday–so I thought it was fitting for her to wear it in some pictures. This picture was my absolute favorite, and it’s now framed and hanging in our dining room.

Abigail loved celebrating her birthday at Cici’s for lunch :)

She was so excited when Cici brought out her little ice cream sandwich with a candle on top. She even started blowing as fast as she could before the plate made it to her tray. It was so cute!

Brooklyn was sweet and helped her blow the candle out because Abigail doesn’t know how to blow (she was pretty much just spitting at it!).

So yummy!

Abigail was so excited about each and every gift (this is such a fun age because their reactions are just pure excitement and thrill over even little things), but the stuffed animal puppy was her favorite. She named him Spot even though he has no spots…haha ;) She also loved the dress up shoes and sticker books she got.

Showing off her new puppy to Michael :)

It was so much fun that she couldn’t stay awake on the ride home :)

That evening, Abigail opened a few more gifts with just our little family at home…

Brooklyn and Savannah each picked out some of their own toys and wrapped them up for Abigail to open. It was sweet! :)

She also got some Frozen panties from Mommy and Daddy to hopefully help motivate her to potty train soon…

She was so excited about them! Frozen is her favorite movie right now.

She had to show her new panties to Paw and Rae Rae who were watching on FaceTime to make sure they saw them too…haha

Loved this card that Brooklyn made for Abigail. She had a very special day!

She was excited to try out her new dress up shoes the next day :)

“Jesus is Tempted” – interesting to see how she thinks of Satan as having wings!

Once Savannah started school, she started pretending to have school with her stuffed animals too :)

The girls asked to have a picnic lunch on the driveway on August 19th. It was so sunny that we all needed our sunglasses on!

We moved our picnic to the back patio after a few minutes because the glare was so bright on the driveway…

This was an interesting sight from our dining room window on August 20th! There were a couple of people from the water department fixing a leak in our neighbor’s water meter, and I guess they opened the fire hydrant to relieve the water pressure. I’ve never seen water shoot like that out of a fire hydrant before, but it was insane. I felt sure that the shrubs in the yard across the street would be completely destroyed…they were getting pummeled like a hurricane for a good 10 minutes. When you’re living life during a pandemic, this is about as exciting as it gets! ;)

“Jesus Turns Water into Wine”

Abigail brought her pretend phone out of her room and asked if she could take my picture…haha. Wonder where she learned that from? :)

The girls spent the night with Cici on August 21st and had a tea party the next morning. It sounded like a fun time!

Abigail didn’t want to dress up at first, but I guess she changed her mind later…

Pretty girl!

We always leave Cici’s house with more than we came with :) This time, she sent us home with a caterpillar habitat…haha. There were 2 caterpillars inside, and Brooklyn and Savannah were so excited and decided to name them Squirmy and Slimey :)

We didn’t know much about caterpillars at that point, so the next day when they weren’t showing any signs of life, Travis decided we should just let them go in the backyard. (Spoiler alert…we weren’t done with caterpillars. Stay tuned!).

Meanwhile, Gabby was getting more attention that she probably ever wanted…haha

Savannah and Abigail gave Daddy a “foot rub” on August 23rd. At one point, Abigail was playing with his toes and saying “Look! I’m making Daddy’s toes dance!” :)

Savannah decided she wanted to try soccer for the first time, but her feet were too small for Brooklyn’s smallest pair of cleats. So I took Savannah to Dick’s Sporting Goods to let her pick out some new cleats on August 24th. She picked out a pair of black cleats with blue stripes (blue is her favorite color). She was excited!

I don’t get to go on too many outings with Savannah by herself, so this was a special time. She is getting so big, and I was proud of her for deciding to try something new like soccer even though Brooklyn had decided not to play.

That night was my first night ever getting my hair colored! I’ve started getting more and more grays lately, and Sydney did a demi-permanent glaze that matched my normal hair color. I didn’t want my hair to look obviously different, and it blended in very nicely. Yay!

Savannah has turned into a little artist lately…always drawing!

Brooklyn and Savannah started the school year virtually, so our laptops were in high demand for most of the month of August. The girls also had bible class lessons/videos each week as well, so we were spending a lot of time in front of the computer.

We were definitely thankful to have the virtual options, but it absolutely wasn’t the same as being in bible class in person!

We went to Trussville on August 28th to celebrate Paw and Abigail’s birthdays. (They share a birthday (Abigail was born on Paw’s 70th birthday), but we decided to wait a couple of weeks after the wedding before seeing Paw and Rae Rae to hopefully avoid sharing germs with them).

Abigail was so funny again trying to blow out the candles. She was mostly spitting and not really blowing, but she tried ;)

Happy to finally get that candle blown out!

Abigail got so excited about all of her gifts (stuffed animals, an Elsa doll, Frozen book, etc.).

Anything Frozen is always a hit :)

Brooklyn and Savannah were all about helping Abigail open her gifts. It was fast and furious, opening as fast as they could…

Even Charlie got in on the action!

She named her new cat stuffed animal “Lizzie” :)

Elsa!!

Brooklyn made Paw a special birthday gift and was so excited for him to open it :)

The next morning, Brooklyn and Savannah begged Paw to let them help organize the garage…haha. So he let them work on getting his nails and screws all organized….he’s a very brave and patient Paw!

…and Abigail enjoyed riding the Cozy Coupe around in the garage while the other girls were working. It was a short but fun trip to Trussville!

I was invited to a bridal tea for Travis’s cousin April who was getting married in September, but I wasn’t able to attend. I sent a gift though, and Brooklyn wanted to draw a card for April to include with the gift. This is what she wrote :) So cute! April texted me afterward how much she loved it!

Cici’s lap is always full on Sundays…just the way she likes it :)

Another drawing for bible class – “The Call of the Fishermen”

Abigail had her 3 year old well visit on August 31st. It was actually scheduled for the week before, and in the chaos of virtual school, I COMPLETELY FORGOT the appointment. I knew it was that morning and never even remembered it until lunchtime when Mom asked me how it went. Whoops. That goes to show how insane things were at our house that month. The appointment went well, and Daddy oversaw the school WebEx meetings at home (while he worked!) while Abigail and I were gone.

To cap off our busy month, Brooklyn had her first art class that afternoon at Artis Studio on Hwy 72 next to Kroger. She had been asking to do art classes for a while and decided that she would rather try that than soccer for the fall season. Our friends in the neighborhood had taken art classes at Artis before, so we decided to give it a try. Brooklyn really enjoyed her first class, especially because her friend Avery joined her (along with her 2 sisters). They painted pottery, which was right up Brooklyn’s alley. She was so happy and excited when I picked her up afterward. I’m glad she found something she enjoys doing so much.

Notes and Quotes from August:

• 8/1/20 – Abigail is really fighting naptime bad lately…basically ever since we had to take the front rail off her crib and make it a toddler bed. She repeatedly gets out of bed (despite being warned/punished) and SO many times will eventually fall asleep right behind the door (like she’s peeking under the door to see when someone will come let her out, but then she just can’t fight it anymore and falls asleep right there). We often accidentally hit her with the door when we open it and then realize she’s behind the door sound asleep!
• 8/2/20 – I put on some lip gloss before church this morning, and Abigail told me, “You look so cute on your chin!”
• 8/2/20 – I’ve noticed that lately Gabby will come into Savannah’s room every night when I am tucking her in and jump up on her bed. It’s like Gabby is wanting to help tuck Savannah in too. Many nights, she will make the rounds and go in Abigail’s room also when I am tucking her in. She doesn’t always sleep on Brooklyn’s bed anymore, but she at least comes in for a little while. Gabby gets aggravated by the girls sometimes, but she really does love them.
• 8/5/20 – On the night before Paw and Rae Rae camp, Savannah said: “I’m sort of mad that Brooklyn picked out the lake” (instead of the girls going to Trussville for “camp”).
  • Me: “Why?”
  • Savannah: “Because there’s too much bugs.”
  • Me: “Oh, you don’t want to go?”
  • Savannah: “Yes, there’s just too much bugs.”
• 8/23/20 – Abigail: “Why does Daddy motor and blower and we-weedering?” (Why does Daddy mow, blow, and weed-eat the grass?)
• 8/23/20 – The girls have been wrestling with Daddy lately, and Daddy said they needed to all come up with some good wrestling names. They decided on:
  • Brooklyn: Backscratcher
  • Savannah: Flying Squirrel
  • Abigail: Hoot-tastic
  • Daddy: Toot the Magnificent
• 8/26/20 – I had to wake Savannah up this morning so she could have time to eat breakfast before Kindergarten LIVE (her 8:30 AM WebEx meeting), and she said “For a second I thought it was a robber or a thieve!”
• 8/26/20 – Two things Abigail says: “breakbiss” (breakfast) and “I actually did something” (I accidentally did something).
• 8/26/20 – Abigail to me: “I imp-terrupted you!”
• 8/28/20 – Savannah still calls potatoes “tomatoes” – and I love it ;) She calls potato chips “tomato chips”. It’s one of those cute phrases that I’m in no hurry to correct because it reminds me she’s not quite all grown just yet.
• 8/30/20 – Savannah: “I’m never marrying someone. It sounds stinky!”

Thanks for reading!