Happy fall y'all!

It's the most wonderful time of the year - you know you're singing the song now! Wait, that's for Christmas? Oops, my favorite time of year is the fall. And there is nothing better than a beautiful North Carolina fall. I wish I had a nickel for every time I said, "I could hug that tree!". It's just beautiful here!

We are enjoying our little courtyard these days after school. Bella insisted on wearing this sweet dress while coloring outside. Looks like the secret garden, right?

She is working on her addition outside. She doesn't have homework yet but her Granddad the teacher gave her this workbook. And, what else would you want to do outside after school. =)

We also collected acorns - and believe me - there are a lot of them!

Y'all, they were proud of this! And let me know when they found every single one of them. Loudly!

Bella wanted to take this picture to show the acorns to Granddad.

Notice the different outfits? This was another day - told y'all we come our here alot!

We painted pumpkins one night with some friends and Bella wanted to show hers off.

Now, y'all go take a walk and enjoy your neighborhood in the fall!

October update

Y'all, I only blogged 1 time in October. Oh my goodness! Sorry about that! We sure have had a fun, busy time. Let me walk through the random parts of the last month - seen through the iphone camera.

1. JT is hilarious. Most times he does something like this and will say, "Look at me mommmyyy!" or "Watch me mommmyyyy!".

2. Y'all, he does this face all the time - usually when he gets excited. He made this face after he noticed himself in the picture.

3. I LOVE this picture. The quality is not very good. But, it was taken with memories. When Mike has meetings at night, I read to the kiddos at the same time (usually we divide and conquer). So this is my view while we read 3 or 58 books at night time - imagine this scene with their little voices telling the story along with you - and, if we're being honest, you also have to imagine intermittent fights and screams for apple juice. But, the cuddling is so precious!

5. The little ones are now staying in church for the first part of the service. So, sometimes we have to take pictures on the phone to keep him from jumping on the stage or throwing Daddy's bible (yeppers, he totally did that - during children's church - at the front of the church - in front of everyone). That was a keeper!

6. I just love this one!

7. Sweet naptime after church.

8. Maybe he'll be an engineer? Look at that perfect line.

9. This was before his haircut. I just can't take the curls off. So, he didn't get much of a haircut - sorry y'all!

10. This little gal dances all the time. And sings. And dances while singing. She is such a treasure!

10. I'm not sure what she was dressing up as but she got so tickled when she showed me her costume.

11. I never get tired of seeing this scene.

Bella - nearly, gulp, 5 years old

Our sweet Bella will turn 5 next month. I cannot believe it. I'm excited for her to grow and mature and become more of who she is made to be. But, I'm also a little sad that she is growing up. That's normal as a parent though, right!

She is in kindergarten and thriving in it! She is an early admit but her teachers were confident she was ready. And, she certainly is! I asked her the other day if she learned anything at school. She responded with, "A little bit. I'm still a 4 year old though. I'll learn more when I turn 5. 4 year olds still play. I'll be ready to learn when I turn 5." ha! Love it! I'm going to remind her of this in a few weeks.

Here's a little of what's going on with Bella:
1. She is TALL and keeps growing. Poor thing has high-water pants like her parents did.

2. She came out of her room dressed like this one day and said, "Hello, welcome to Christmas!". She was very animated when she said it too.

3. She gets photobombed by her brother. Or tackled. Or hugged. Or jumped on. Or snuck up on. Or chased.  The little miss can totally hang with that though. I keep telling her "but you are strong and brave!". She'll repeat to us too while flexing her muscles. At'a girl! On another note, check out her adorable uniform. I can't get enough of the cuteness!

4. She falls asleep reading nearly every night. But, most of the time she at least lays down. Not this night though. Must have been a good book.

5. She likes to sing or dance at all times. Including singing while I'm running. Note to the neighbors: When you hear two children singing or yelling at everything that moves (regardless if it's an animal or not), those are my kiddos. Sorry in advance.

6. She likes to pretend like she's a music director or a teacher or a palentologist or a doctor or a mommy. We're raising an ambitious kiddo. Bella, we love you and are so proud of you!

JT - 2 and 1/2 years!

JT brings so much joy and noise and dirt and bugs and laughter and tackles into our home. He is all boy, fo' sho'! But that makes him fun. Here's a little of what he's been up to lately.


1. He is counting to 30. But he skips 6, 7 and some of the 'teens. "1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 13 13 13 13 13 16 17 13 19 20..." then he gets the rest right.

2. It's fun to have a conversation with him at the dinner table (when he's not screaming or throwing his food...just sayin'). When asked if he had a good day at school, he'll answer with "Had a dood day with fwiends Wevi (Levi), Mason (Mason), and Uke (Luke)."

3. He likes to sing, like the rest of his family. He can now sing "Jesus loves me" and "Twinkle Twinkle" and "ABCs". He doesn't get all the words right but we can tell what he's singing. So sweet!

4. He is in 4T clothing and can tackle his sister. Poor thing can't get up if he gets on top of her.

5. He runs to give Mike a hug when he comes in from work. "Wuv you daddy". He gives Mike a hug when he leaves to go to work. "Wait daddy. Give hug. Wuv you."

6. He goes straight into school, gives us a hug and kiss, says "Wuv you", and sits in his chair. He had a hard time going into school at the beginning so we're thrilled at this independence!

7. If he can't find me in the house, he'll say "Oooohhh MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMYYYYY". Then Bella will chime in and say the same thing. This is hilarious and cute!

8. He likes to help set the table most of the time. He'll grab 48 forks and 39 spoons. He usually comes to me with each one and say "Sesster?". I'll respond with "Yes" and he'll respond with "OTAY". This continues until everyone has their utensils.

9. He wants to play with Bella alot and asks "Whered Seester go?". But, then he destroys whatever she's been working on. Boys...

Here's some fun pictures of the little man!

This is his 4T shirt.

He likes to pretend like he's going "night night" on the steps instead of his room.

Y'all, look at that hair. It gets really curly with the humidity. Adorable!

LL Cool J hard at work...

I was gone for 0.00394 seconds and this is what I came back to at breakfast time. Yes, that is yogurt. He did it the day before with oatmeal. The entire bowl on his head like a hat. "Look at me, Mommy!", is what greeted me that morning.

Oh, just some early morning reading. This is the book he picked out - the dictionary.

JT, we love you and look forward to seeing who you become and love who you are now!

The many joys of Bella

This little gal is full of love and joy and spunk and hilarious sayings! I wanted to post an entire blog of her sweet personality caught through the lens of my Mom's camera. Enjoy! And, Mom didn't tell her to do any of these poses either. They were on command!

Bella, you are a beautiful delight to us!