Frame Wall

One of my friends has this awesome frame wall that she's made (because she is the craftiest person ever...who else would know how to create one of these awesome props??). She suggested we use it for a fun thing to do/have at Garrett and Lauren's rehearsal dinner. It was so fun!!

Ring Bearers with a side of wedding

August 18, one of my very dear cousins (who's like a brother) got married here. William and Hudson were privileged enough to be the ring bearers, and they were so excited! I will admit that as excited as I was to witness the union between Garrett and Lauren, my camera just couldn't stay away from my 2 little cuties!

My mother in law came to town to help with the boys, particularly Crew, which was SUCH a blessing. Dave and I were able to attend all the festivities, sometime with, sometimes without the kids...and we knew whoever we left behind was in good hands! Crew went to the wedding, as we wanted him in family pics, and my mother in law wanted to see the boys walk down the aisle as well as see Garrett's wedding! 

I took her and Crew home after the wedding, as there is NO way he could have lasted the whole night. Hudson and William, on the other hand, had NO problems keeping up with the adults. We found out that Hudson has moves we've never seen! William busted out a few swing dancing moves also.

It was SUCH a fun wedding. It was so fun to get to witness and be a part of Garrett and Lauren's nuptials, as well as party all night with family and friends! 

Double, Double vision!

I have had 2 friends give birth to twins in the last 2 weeks! On Sunday, I was privileged to get to make both of these sweet families dinner. Of course, I wanted to serve them and make life easier for them by bringing them food, but mostly I wanted to get to see these 4 babies!!!

My first stop was to see Adeline and Olivia. They are not identical, and while I did think they look similar, it's obvious who's who. So sweet, and so tiny! When I saw them they were 2.5 weeks old, and had just gotten back to their birth weight...roughly 6.5 and 6.12lbs. I was amazed at how relaxed their parents were, considering they were probably exhausted...and their house was even clean! 

My next stop was to visit Luke and Libby, 10 days old. These sweet babies are super adorable, and by far the smallest babies I've ever seen or held. Luke now weighs almost 6lbs, and Libby is around 4.5lbs. I was so excited because I even got to feed Libby a bottle while I was there. SO CUTE! 

Luke is on the left, and Libby on the right.

 These sweet little things are doing so well! Luke had to spend some time in the NICU, but they were able to all go home together, which was such a blessing. 

Luke on the left, and Libby on the right.

I can't wait to spend more time with these 4 blessings!!!

10

he's ready to get out of his crib! ha!!

As usual with a 10 month old, we are busy busy busy...trying to keep him from killing himself.

Crew took a step a few days ago, but he's yet to repeat it. He'll stand there for about 10 seconds, look like he's about to walk, and then squat down to his comfy little crawling. I thought for sure he'd be walking by now since he was standing on his own and cruising around furniture at 9 months. We'll see!

He has 4 teeth now. I was a little sad with the addition of the top 2 teeth because now when he smiles, I don't get to see that big toothless mouth. He looks like a kid now. :-(

He's beens saying "dada" for awhile now, and finally he's added "mama" to his vocabulary. William and Hudson are his cheerleaders. It's so sweet because they know how much I want Crew to say "mama", so they're always trying to get him to say it. He just laughs and laughs at them when they're making fools of themselves.

He still has a very happy, content disposition. He is into EVERYTHING though. Dave thinks he is more than the other 2 were at this age. I think it's just because we haven't "baby-proofed" as much as we did with the other. Since William wasn't even 2 when Hudson was born, we never really left the baby-proofing stage. Since Hudson was nearly 4 when Crew was born, we pretty much could live "normally"... So, that's presenting it's challenges, but William and Hudson are good security guards!!

William, at 10 months:

Hudson, at 10 months:

I still think Crew favors William, but I think as he's getting older, I can see Hudson in him as well.

One thing leads to another....

Crew learned a trick that I'm not too excited about

First grade

(sniff sniff)...my baby started first grade today!

We are sending William to Covenant Christian Academy this year, and we can't be more excited about it. We have heard nothing but good things about this school!!

We went last night to "Meet the Teacher", and William was very excited to meet her (Mrs. Baker...which, coincidentally, that was the name of my 3rd grade teacher...but William wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought he should be), see his desk and locker:

Hudson and Crew spent the night with my mom last night, so Dave and I could both walk William into his class this morning without the chaos of all 3 kids. This was the only day we are allowed to walk him to his class, so we wanted to take advantage of it!

Wednesday all the kids go to chapel, and they have a special "chapel day" uniform.
This is what William will wear every Wednesday.

walking up to the building!

putting his backpack/lunchbox in his locker

Each kid had a "first day of school" worksheet to start on as they arrived. 

He settled in nicely to his desk, and kissed us goodbye with no problems. And that's that. Another first day of school! I can't wait to hear about how it went today!

1 more trip!

William starts school tomorrow (I know, super early), and we wanted to do something fun before we get nailed down to the school schedule.... We decided on a trip to Houston: it's close, family/friends live there, NASA (which Dave has been wanting to take the boys to for a long time), golf, shopping, and a side trip to BlueBell. 

It was a great trip, as it always is when we go down there. It was fun this time especially because it was just us. Normally we head down there with a whole herd of people, so the weekend ends up being crazy. 

Dave took the boys to NASA on Saturday, ALL day. They spent 7 hours there, and they loved every minute of it.

While they were NASAing, Crew and I hung out with the Talkington clan....

 and Crew was busy pushing around stools and tormenting their little puppy...

On Sunday William, Hudson and I went with Haley to check out her horse, Heaven. The boys had a BLAST riding her, and Haley was gracious enough to show them how to feed/saddle up/bathe/etc her beautiful horse. They even got a chance to ride her bareback!

On Monday we decided to go to my Mecca. We figured out that Brenham (home of Blue Bell ice cream) was only about 1 hour from their house, and not too far out of the way to go home. It was SO worth it!! We got to take a tour of the plant, watch them make ice cream, see how the whole operation works, and of course, EAT ice cream at the end. SO FUN!!!!!

We also got to watch lots of Olympics, swim in the pool, Dave played golf, I shopped with Julie and Haley, had Indian food with everyone plus our good friends DJ and Kami, stayed up super late (always a must when I'm visiting Julie!), and had lots and lots of fun.
It was a perfect little trip before William starts 1st grade tomorrow.

Beating the heat...

We have spent countless hours at the pool this summer. It's really our favorite pastime during the 90/100 degree heat. As the summer is winding down (William starts school in 1 week!!!), we are spending less time there since we're trying to get things ready for school, 1 more mini-vacation, play dates with friends, etc.

Things can get a little wild when you keep 3 boys cooped up in a house all day. The crazies start coming out...

watching Cars 2 at Mimi and Papa's house...