Just like that, the first half of September has passed by. I’m starting to understand why people say that one day you blink, and your kids are grown. Time seemed to go so slowly as a kid, but ever since having my own kids, it just goes faster and faster. Here’s what we’ve been up to this month so far:
Snuggles in the recliner!
*Savannah is scared to death of the vacuum cleaner, but if she is sitting next to Brooklyn on the couch or in the recliner, she usually does okay. Otherwise, she cries and cries the whole time I vacuum. (Which may or may not explain why I never vacuum…hehe).
I got my hair cut on the Saturday before Labor Day! Sydney Boyd cut it (and cut Brooklyn’s hair as well), and I love it. I was getting really tired of it being so long, so this is a good bit shorter than it was. It’s so much easier to blow dry and fix!
Nothing says “Roll Tide” like these super cute elephant bloomers :)
To celebrate the first Alabama game of the season, we grilled steaks and had chocolate cake for dessert. It was a yummy meal!
Brooklyn is always a fan of cake!
These cuties both wore Alabama outfits to church on Sunday after the game, so of course, Caitlyn and I had to take pictures.
On Labor Day, we played outside in the morning, ate lunch at Cici’s, and hung out at home the rest of the day. It was nice to have Daddy home for an extra day that week!
The next day, Tuesday, Carter came over for a bit while Alisha went to get some lab work done. He was very interested in this toy camera and kept taking pictures the whole time he was here. “Cheese!!”
Moments like this (seeing them play together nicely) make me so happy!
We have gone on a few evening walks over the past couple of weeks, and Brooklyn thinks it’s fun to run ahead of us on the sidewalk. She is supposed to stop at each mailbox and wait until I say she can run further. It’s a good way to burn off some of that energy!
Painting continues to be an activity that Brooklyn enjoys. She has painted several pictures for Paw and Rae Rae, Cici, and even Buzz Lightyear and Woody. Mommy and Daddy haven’t gotten any paintings yet, so I guess we’re pretty low on the totem pole ;)
Storytime at the library is one of Brooklyn’s favorite things to do each week. We usually try to go at least once/week if possible. They’ve started doing storytime 3 mornings a week instead of 2, so it isn’t quite as crowded as it used to be. Ms. Mandee does such a good job with the stories, songs, and crafts!
It won’t be long before this gal is big enough to sit on the rug during storytime too. Right now, she usually sits in my lap or in a chair beside me. She still doesn’t have a long enough attention span to make it through some of the books they read, but she definitely enjoys the songs!
This is what the floors in our house typically look like by mid-morning. Who could be responsible for that?
I’ll give you one guess! :)
It doesn’t get much cuter than a romper-and-Keds-wearing little toddler!
Savannah can be so silly sometimes—she loves to hang back with her head upside while she’s swinging!
Brooklyn has figured out how to climb up the slide on her feet—for some reason, that’s even more fun than sliding down it.
Savannah isn’t a big fan of the yellow slide yet, but thankfully we have the blue one that’s more her size!
Her happy place is definitely outside!
Last Saturday (the 10th) was Emily’s baby shower at Cheryl’s house! This was a fun shower to plan! It’s a lot less stressful to be a part of when it’s not at your own house.
Excuse my poor quality pictures—I was too lazy to take our good camera over there, so cell phone pictures had to do!
The shower was from 10 AM to 12 PM, so we served brunch foods—an assortment of doughnuts, muffins, apples with toffee dip, sausage balls, cheese grits, bacon and cream cheese pinwheels, and coffee cake. Everything was delicious!
We served coffee and juices in the kitchen to go along with the brunch foods…
Here’s the diaper cake I made for the shower. It was my first time to make one, and it wasn’t too hard at all. I actually enjoyed the process :) Sitting on top is the infamous bear that Brooklyn didn’t want to let me borrow :) Shhhh…I had to hide it for 2 weeks before the shower, so she’d forget about it. Yes, I did return it to her after the shower, and she didn’t even miss him. Go figure!
We invited everyone to bring a book instead of a card to help add to Harper’s “library “. She got several cute books!
And, in lieu of a guest book, we had everyone sign a board book that Alisha picked out.
You can’t tell it from this picture, but the fabric garland on the mantle has light pink, mint, and gray strips of fabric in it. Alisha and I picked out the fabrics at Joann’s to match Harper’s crib bedding, so hopefully it will look good in her nursery!
I didn’t get any pictures of the guests at the shower, but we had a pretty good turnout! And Emily/Harper got a lot of cute stuff, including lots of clothes! It’s so fun to buy baby girl clothes.
She also got a diaper bag, bath stuff, and several bigger items too…
It was a fun morning, but I’m definitely relieved that it’s over. I’ve hosted/helped with a bunch of parties/showers since February, and I’m ready for a break!
Aren’t they cute?? The twins will be here so soon too! Emily and Alisha are due 2 days apart :)
Brooklyn’s Bible class teacher, Mrs. Leslie, comes up with the neatest crafts! Here, Brooklyn is modeling her coat of many colors like Joseph wore…
And, here is a picture of all the kids in the preschool class wearing their coats :)
L to R: Nathan, Natalie, Mason, Ellie, Miles, Alexander, and Brooklyn
This past Monday, Carter came over to spend the day with us. I wanted to do a trial run of him staying with us for a whole day…just to see how it would go before the twins come. I’m hoping Carter can come over regularly after Luke and Barrett are born just to give Alisha a little break. Monday, Alisha dropped him off around 9:30 or 10 AM I think. and we had a great day! We spent the first part of the morning outside, of course!
The kids played with the water table (and got soaked, as usual), played on the swingset, and just ran around. It was hot but not unbearable…
Brooklyn tried to convince Carter to climb the rock wall with her, but he never made it past the first or second rock. Maybe next time!
He was brave enough to go down the big slide a bunch of times though! He zipped down it pretty fast since he’s so little, but never seemed scared. He would get to the bottom and say “Again!” and go around to climb the ladder back to the top :)
I have a feeling these two are going to be good friends!
After they’d played outside for a while, we came inside, and everyone got on some dry clothes. Then, it was time for an episode of Daniel Tiger, which kept Brooklyn entertained while I made lunches. The other two mainly played in the living room…
I was pretty proud of these lunches all lined up in a row :) Nothing special, but relatively healthy I thought—sandwiches, fruit, and raw carrots with ranch dressing.
It was pretty quiet while they were all eating! Brooklyn enjoyed sitting in a big girl chair too. After lunch, they all played for a few more minutes, and then I put Savannah down for a nap in her bed. I tried to get Carter to sleep right after that in Brooklyn’s bed, but it took a few attempts for him to actually stay in the bed and go to sleep :) I kept hearing him get out of bed and play. I’m sure it was pretty tempting since it was a room full of new toys ;) They both slept for almost 2 hours though, which gave Brooklyn and I some time to read and play, and I even got to take a shower!
Then, when Carter woke up, Brooklyn took a late nap in her own bed (she refused to nap in my bed or on the couch, which was okay), and Savannah and Carter played and watched a Baby Einstein movie.
Oh, and they also ate a snack. We are big on snacks around our house ;) I learned that Carter doesn’t like raisins. He kept picking out the Cheerios and putting the raisins back in the cup…haha. He was also very sweet and helped pick up the Cheerios that Savannah would accidentally drop on the floor. These two get along really well! Alisha came to pick Carter up around 5 PM, and overall, our day couldn’t have gone much better! Everyone got along pretty well, took naps, ate good for lunch, and we had no major accidents or injuries :) Can’t ask for much more! I’m sure next time we try it, things won’t go quite as smoothly, but this was a great start, for sure!
Tuesday was our typical Early Intervention and Music Together morning. Tuesday mornings are busy but fun! I tried to get a picture at music class, but they all turned out blurry. Too many kids and instruments in motion!
Brooklyn noticed this tree in the parking lot outside of Merrimack Hall (where we do music class) and wanted to climb it. So, we took a few minutes to do that before getting in the car to leave. She was so proud of herself for climbing “so high”! :)
Brooklyn still loves coloring on boxes. This has been a hit since before Savannah was born. There’s just something fun about pretending a box is a house, car, or rocket ship :) 
More fun at the library—I’m always so proud of how well Brooklyn does during story time these days! She definitely knows the “rules” for how to behave at the library, and most of the time I don’t even have to remind her. Makes me happy!
Sweet Savannah after a nap :)
I’m still loving those monogram letters over her crib!
This is somewhat embarrassing, but I found this in my purse this week (yes, it obviously needed to be cleaned out!). It’s my appointment card for my last prenatal visit before Savannah was born. This was that last appointment where we went straight to L&D. Pretty crazy to look at this and think we had no idea at that appointment that she’d be born just a couple of hours later!
A rare nap at home when Savannah didn’t sleep in her crib. I tried multiple times to get her to sleep in her crib, and she just wouldn’t go to sleep. Then, when I sat with her on the couch, she fell asleep almost right away. She must have needed some Mommy cuddles, and I really didn’t mind too much ;)
Thursday was a big day for Felix! The vet has been telling us for several years that Felix needed to have his teeth cleaned, but we’ve kept putting it off. We finally did it this year and it was an all day thing. Travis dropped him off Thursday morning and picked him up after work. Felix had to be put under anesthesia for them to do it, and he apparently had “severe” gingivitis and even had to have a tooth pulled. Poor buddy! He is supposed to be on antibiotics twice a day for a week or two, so we’re having to crush the pills up and put them in wet cat food…haha. The things we do for our pets! He didn’t seem too worse for the wear when he got home that night, but ever since then Gabby has been growling and hissing at him and not wanting to let him eat. Apparently it’s a pretty common thing called “feline non-recognition aggression” because Felix doesn’t smell like himself I guess after being at the vet all day. Hopefully, he will get back to his old scent soon, and Gabby will “recognize” him again ;) It’s been weird seeing them not get along!
We had a fun morning earlier today! We went to a special event outside the library called Big Truck Day. It was FREE (my favorite kind of event), and they had all sorts of trucks, tractors, a police car, ambulance, fire truck, 18-wheeler cab, and even an RV for the kids to climb in and explore. It was a such a neat idea!
We didn’t get there until close to the end (it was from 9-11 AM), but we still had a chance to check out several things. Brooklyn loved sitting up in the seats and honking the horns, of course!
She wanted to sit in the “scooper” :)
They had stickers for the kids outside of each “vehicle” too :)
Savannah was a little too small to really check things out, so she hung out in the stroller the whole time we were there. She seemed to enjoy just watching and checking out the sights :)
Each vehicle had a line of kids waiting, so we didn’t get to see everything. This is just a small sample of what was there. We missed getting the climb into the dump truck, but I think Brooklyn would have really loved that one!
She thought it was pretty cool that the 18-wheeler cab had a bed in it for someone to sleep on!
I’ve never been up so close to a combine before…it was huge!! It was definitely the most popular thing there, so we had to wait in line a while to see it :)
They were pretty high up there once they got to climb up!
So cool!
It was such a fun morning! I hope the library puts on this event again in the future because we would definitely go back!
Brooklyn Says:
- One morning this week, Travis told Brooklyn he was going to go on a helicopter that day at work. Brooklyn started insisting, “You can’t go on a helicopter! You’re part of our family. You’re too young!” I guess she must have thought he was never coming back…haha.
- Brooklyn is pretty well potty trained at this point and doesn’t always need our help in the bathroom. But every once in a while, things don’t go according to plan. Like tonight: Brooklyn exclaimed after supper while standing in the kitchen: “I’m about to poopy!!!!” We told her to hurry to the bathroom, and a few minutes later, she came out muttering something about how we needed to go look under the towel in the bathroom. Somehow I knew where this was going. Travis ran in there and lifted the towel from the bathroom floor, only to find Brooklyn’s poop on the floor. She had partially wiped it up with the bath towel. Travis came out of the bathroom angry, and Brooklyn was hiding behind the recliner. He demanded, “How did poop get on the bathroom floor???” Her response? “It came from my booty!” Oh, kid. Sometimes I just have to laugh so that I don’t go insane :)
If you haven’t cleaned up poop off the bathroom floor, I guess you haven’t really lived! We must be really living!! Hope you are having a good week and all the poop at your house makes it into the toilet where it belongs!! ;)
