Fall is here!

Y'all, fall is here in North Carolina. And that can only mean one thing (or a few). I get annoyingly giddy about all things outside - leaves changing, clouds moving, beautiful garden mums, leaves changing. My poor family. If they had a nickel for every time I made them go outside and look at the sky or breathe the fresh air. Now my kids sound like me when we go outside. "Oh, mommy! It's just wonderful out here". ha! Coming from a five year old with a dramatic flair is adorable! Needless to say, we are out a lot. My sweet husband humors me when I make him open the front door and just look at, uhm, nothing actually. Just the sky and clouds at sunset. He does every time too without complaint. That guy, so sweet you guys.

Anywho, I love fall. Did I mention that? I felt like I wanted to break out in a Disney song (or some other really cheery song) when I walked into Lowes. I guess it's because I grew up where we didn't experience leaves changing. Or because I have a bit of dramatic flair myself. Either way, we are happy campers with pumpkins and mums and scented candles and windows open.

Here's my 12 year old, I mean 3 year old, Jonathan. His daddy took him for a haircut and I think it's adorable. But it makes him look so much older so I am partially sad about it.

This little guy loves his cars and had to have them all lined up perfectly on the courtyard steps.

Then we went hunting for leaves.

After Mike got home from work, I went inside to make supper. This is the scene I saw when I went to check on everyone. Bella is probably singing "Let it go" and dancing in the courtyard while these two guys play with cars. Notice the door is open. Told ya I keep everything open in the fall!

Our courtyard and front yard are in full bloom with mums, pansies, hostas, roses, spiria, begonias, and daisies. It's so pretty right now out there.

Bella is on intercession from her school so I've enjoyed having her home for the whole day. She is becoming a great tree climber!

And they both like to hunt for spiders.

I hope everyone has some time to run and play and enjoy the beautiful weather! We sure are!

Fall is nearly here!

The weather has been beautiful lately and today it is raining! And, I love it. That means fall is coming, leaves will be changing, pumpkin candles are lit - awww, it feels good just thinking about it. In lieu of the approaching fall weather, I wanted to do one more post of the summer happenings in the Smith household.

JT is a ham, y'all! A sweet friend at church let us borrow this cute suit. Can you say John Travolta?

Bella likes to ride her bike really fast on our driveway.

And, JT likes to chase her or run around pushing his truck.

This is one of my favorite views while cooking dinner. Unless I nearly trip over one of them or a car - which may or may not happened already.

One morning I was watering the vegetable garden when they started running around the water hose. I couldn't help myself and had to get the soaked! We then pretended like it was raining and got even more soaked. They are acting like scary pirates we had a mud fight. We were dirty!!! But it was so much fun.

After cleaning up from the mud we headed outside again to play in the chalk.

Bella drew a huge train and a hop-scotch game. We made the hop-scotch game go from one end of the driveway to the other - 53 jumps in all! Needless to say, they had a great nap and playing that for a while.

First tooth!

Our sweet little girl lost not just one but TWO teeth! This was the week where Jonathan graduated to another class at school and Bella started school. So this event through me into denial and tears on how fast they are growing up. Don't get me wrong, I love watching them coming into their own little personalities and watching them grow up. But sometimes I just want to make time stand still and my momma's heart can only handle so much.

Nonetheless, you can't stop time so I'm learning to just embrace each moment! Our Bella had a lose tooth that she was working on getting out. And with Daddy's help, it came out! Then the next week, Daddy helped the other one come out. Now our 5 year old lost her front two teeth and looks adorable when she smiles.

A sweet friend at church gave Bella a tooth fairy book for her to read and contains a pouch to put the tooth in. You'll notice the turtle in one of the pictures below. That was Mike's tooth fairy pillow his Nanny made him. We've had this for a while and it was such a joy to use it with our own children. The best part of this experience was getting to sneak in her room and give her money! That little gal was so excited about 4 quarters. (By the way, the tooth fairy is expensive in some families. Some of her friends get $5-20 per tooth! Say what? Oh no, we do a $1). Ahem, I digress. Anywho, that sweet little gal woke full of excitement and put her money in her bank.

Here's to growing up and not being able to eat apples anymore!

Update on JT

Our sweet boy is really coming into his own! Y'all, he is so much fun at this age and so full of personality.
Here's a few fun facts:
 1. His very word is "actually" and is used in conversation as follows: Me-"JT, did you go potty?" Jonathan-"Yes, I did"...(wait a few seconds), "ACTUALLY (Yes, he says it loudly!) I didn't go!!".
He uses 'actually' many times a day like this. Hilarious!

2. He likes to sleep with all his animals. And, my parents gave the kids HUGE animals - think elephant, giraffe, baby giraffe, tiger, baby tiger. He likes to pile them all in bed with him. Try tucking him in without waking him up!

3. He likes anything trucks, cars, trains, and mud.

4. He likes to show his favorite shirts to his friends at school.

5. Speaking of school, he loves going! He'll ask to go even on days when he is home.

6. He likes to "read" at night. It's fun to watch him through the crack in the door and hear him read to himself. He'll flip the pages of the book and make up his own stories, complete with voice inflections and hand waving.

7. He likes to sing Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves the little children, and This little light of mine. He also will ask us to sing Holy, Holy, Holy and Marvelous Grace at night time. When you sing Jesus loves the little children, you have to insert "Mommy, Daddy, Bella and Jonathan" instead of "children" and sing it really fast! He loves that!

8. He is a big helper in clearing the table after meals and is getting better at no throwing his oatmeal if it's not covered in honey. The boy likes some honey!

9. I LOVE this age. JT, you are precious to us!

Bella's first day of school

Let's go back a few weeks. We had returned from Texas and were settling back into a summer routine. I was so looking forward to long days of summer with the kids. Going on a run, scavenger hunts, gardening, playing in water, taking a bath before lunch before we're covered in mud, lunch, nap, movie, and dinner...aww, un-busyness of summer time!

But I digress, let's go back to a few weeks. I was in church getting ready to go home when a friend nonchalantly asked Bella if she was ready to start school. I laughed because we had more than a month left of summer. The said friend looked at me and then I knew and remembered. Uh oh, I forgot her new school was year round! So, that meant Bella did start in a week. Cue the tears and freak out moment right.in.the.foyer.at.church. Cue another freak out when I told Mike about it when we got home. And cue many tears that week.

We lived it up that week with "girl dates", as Bella likes to call them. One week passed, school supplies were bought, and out sweet Bella started school at her new school! She was still too young to enter first grade, even though she completed Kindergarten last year, and was enrolled in Kindergarten again. She would stay there while the school completed testing on her to gain insight on her readiness level for first grade. Turns out, she's more than ready academically and socially based on her high scores. But Mike and I decided, after many conversations and research, to keep her in Kindergarten again. We thought more long term, you know - the middle/high school years - and wanted to give her the biggest advantage for maturity. Plus, that means she's at home for longer with us before college. =)

Without further adieu, here is our sweet little gal on her first day of school.

We celebrate the first and last day of school with ice cream.

Then we came home and gardened and cooked and did a craft! I was happy to have her back home.

This momma cried all week long when I dropped her off. Hence, lots of cuddle times!

Bella update

Our sweet Bella is just growing up! Here's a little of what she's been up to.

1. She's super smart and figured out to write her name with an etch-a-sketch. Y'all, I have trouble drawing a square with this thing.

2. She likes to make an "I'm not smiling" face when she's excited or happy but doesn't want you to know. ha!

3. Grammy made a flower headband!

4. She is reading one of her Daddy's theology-really-hard-to-understand books with my glasses on in her pjs. It's 7isham. She's just like her parents!

5. We made a "Fruit of the Spirit" tree. We are going through the fruits one at a time each month. She's learned a verse on love, joy, peace, and we're now on patience. She did a great job!

Outside in North Carolina

Y'all, North Carolina has been beautiful and cooler-than-normal this summer! So we've enjoyed lots of days outside on bikes, pushing trucks, playing in the sandbox, or going to the Eno River State Park. These pictures are from earlier in the summer but they are still fun to look at!