Dear Mama, Babies Don't Keep

I am in the middle of creating my annual photo calendar for my grandmother.  While looking through photos to select I found these and realized I never posted any.  Here are some, just to document that these blessed children of ours are, in fact, growing up entirely too quickly.  

Yowzers! 

This creek turns into a waterfall a little down the way and has a very special place in my heart.  I played here as a little girl during church picnics and later splashed through it as I ran a cross country course.  And now my babies are here, with their long legs and good balance, ready to take on the top of the waterfall.  

Swoon. 

 This girl is getting so big!  I have another picture to illustrate her lanky legs but she always takes the cutest pictures with her Grandma Peg.  They are just adorable together and I love watching their relationship grow.  Plus, Emma is sillier with her Grandma than with most others :)

Cal looks like he's sneezing but really he's just goofing off. And this is Emma's "I'm tolerating my brother because he's my brother and I have to" look.  But look at her.  Why does her face look like she's 17?  Excuse me as I go cry...

Okay I'm back.  I'm okay.  But seriously, she is gorgeous.   

Look at this big girl.  She is so grown up!  I just can't deal.  She does the foot pop thing on her own.  It's like she screams "my cousin's Miss South Carolina y'all". Geesh, ya try the crown on and you turn into a model :)  Thanks Caro for apparently giving this girl staging advice or something!  :)  

Our babies aren't babies anymore.  But I love them.  I think I'll keep them :)  

I'm just trying to savor each and every day a little more.  They will be out the door before we blink.  

Thankful For My Babies

What a rollercoaster of a year this has been!  

As we roll into the week of thanks, I find myself particulary thankful for these precious children of mine.  

So blessed God chose me to be their Momma!

As we go through life doing this super, crazy busy life, I am thankful for the opportunities God has afforded us...that I can stay home, that I have such an amazing husband, and such a great family network surrounding us.  It's just amazing.

Not sure how much I will be on here this week with Thanksgiving preparations under way.  So in case you don't see much of me I hope you have an amazing holiday with your family and stay safe!

Count your blessings, name them one, by one, count your blessings...

Sounding like Audrey

Sunday night on our way home from Awana's Nick was driving and talking to Emma.  No big deal until he turned to me and quietly asked "when did Emma start sounding like Audrey from Christmas Vacation?" 

And I could not stop laughing. Because yes, she does sound like that sometimes.  

So funny. 

Family Fall Festival

 Happy Fall, Y'all!  Yesterday being the first day of Autumn around here, we decided to pack up and have our traditional trek around to welcome the season!  Every year we visit a local mill for a tour, have a picnic, then go to a nearby Orchard to pick apples.

 These are the kinds of faces I get from Cal these days :)  Silly goose.  This was before they sang their fall songs for Daddy and I.  We've been working on songs about leaves and Autumn all week.  Seeing as we homeschool this was a family day/fall party/fieldtrip all rolled into one cute little package of a day!

 By picnic I mean we got take out from Panera.  I know, how planned of me.  But seriously we love their soups, it was a crisp, good day day for soup, Sunday.  And Daddy treated them to these cookies from there...yum!

 I had to document this as this is the most stubborn little boy I've ever met.  Seriously...ever!  Anyway, the boy won't even try to tie his shoes because he doesn't know how, or so he claims...Here he is tying his shoes.  He got most of it on his own and then Emma helped him finish.  But seeing him actually try to tie his shoes is a very rare photo indeed.

 Here are Emma and Daddy exploring the Dahlia garden...gorgeous, right?  By the way, this girl is looking too tall next to her 6 foot 4 inch Daddy...I'm just saying :(

 Hi Baby!  I love you!  This is the picture we always take, with the Mill behind us.  I'm pretty sure Nick thinks I'm insane that I always make him take the same pic of us every year :)

 These two...sigh.

 And these two together.  I called them my Puffy Vest Fellas.  These two go at it like cats and dogs with each other.  But here's how they really feel :)

 Then it was inside for a tour of the mill.  It wasn't on when we got there, the kids were bummed so this kind man who worked there turned it on and actually took us through the steps of how the grain is made.  That's right folks, it's a gristmill that still works!  We buy our year's supply of cornmeal there everytime we go and this time I picked up some bread flour too.  Excited to try to make wheat bread with the kiddos.

 The kids really enjoyed watching the stones grind the cornmeal we were able to take home!  Nothing like learning where your food comes from!

 Then it was onto picking apples!  Seriously, how cute are these kids?

 It's all about the outtakes, right?  How silly!!!

 Emma picked the biggest apple of the day and then proceeded to bite it before we could slip her a smaller one.  Not kidding, the four of us split that apple and it took us about 45 minutes between the 4 of us to eat it.  GINORMOUS!!!

 I think we ended up with two more bushels on top of this and then we were ready to go.  Momma's got lots of apples to make goodies with!

This was his proud moment when Daddy finally let him have his turn with the fruit picker.  He carried the apple in the basket all the way to the scales to pay.

So that was our day, hope you all are enjoying your fall!  Our house is all decorated for the season and we are loving the crisp weather!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Cotswold Tea at Greenfield Village

On September 1st we began our family vacation.  We are trying to get the kiddos to see all 50 states and this year our trip was to Michigan.  We started the trip out at Greenfield Village in Dearborn.  If you have never been I highly, HIGHLY recommend it.  My grandma took me there when I was in college and I loved it so much that I was giddy to bring the family!

To try to describe it, it is basically a village made of homes that Henry Ford collected.  He had homes brought from all over the place of famous people.  It's amazing!

One of my favorite memories of this trip was our lunch.  The boys sought out some barbeque while Emma and I made our way to the Cotswold Garden for tea. The tea is located next to a stone cottage from England.  Here are Emma and I in the gardens.  She's growing up way too fast!

Waiting...

And Waiting...

These were the gorgeous flowers right next to our table.  As beautiful as it was there were bees everywhere!  The availability of the restaurant being open was "weather and bee" permitting, so they must have some serious bee problems at times.

Tea is served!

How cute is this tea cozy?

Here were my tea sandwiches.  They were scrumptious!  Emma's were peanut butter and jelly...how adorable is that?

The angel drinking tea!  She kept putting gobs of honey in her tea, along with lumps of sugar.  She would then stir, taste and declare "I think that's just about sweet enough!"  Cutie :)  We had Earl grey Lavender tea which was the most scrumptious tea I've ever had!!!  Must find!

Here's Emma exploring the inside of the cottage.  And as romantic as cottages seem, I don't think I have any desire to actually live in one after going through this one.

Here's the outside of the cottage...isn't it lovely?  Clara Ford loved teas and gardens so this was created for her.  I loved this whole experience and afternoon with my little girl.  I hope she remembers it all.  I know I will.

Emma suggested we start having tea at home which I think I would love to do but haven't figured out how to do it yet.  I want to research and do it right, ya know?  So if you know anything about it, let me know :)

First Day of School Photos

Our first day of school was Monday.  It was...interesting.  While Cal's been around the whole homeschool thing for sometime now, he was in a formal preschool setting so I never pushed him to participate too much as I didn't want to make him go through countless hours of schooling.  This summer he did school with Emma but I had him on a Kindergarten program.  The kid can read and knows numbers and can add and subtract.  Colors, sizes, community helpers, the definition of a noun, the Gettysburg Address, he's got it down.  So I decided he was ready for first grade.  Or some version of that.  We shall see...

Our Kazoo is in third grade!  Age wise she should be in second but she's always been so advanced.  Love her and her passion for learning.  

 How cute is this???

 Emma lost her top tooth last night and when I told her to smile, this is what I got...um, that's not smiling... She is too funny! And speaking of funny....I simply had to show you the progression of Cal's pictures I got...

 Last but not least, finally a smile was in there!  I think we are going to have a super fun school year and I can't wait to see what is ahead for us :)

This past week...

This past week we didn't have anything really planned but somehow all of our days were suddenly taken up with being busy.  Busy, busy, busy to be exact!  

We are in the thick of things with T-ball and I will not be shy telling you that I CANNOT wait until it is over.  Thankfully we have one more week and then we are done!  Praise the Lord we have made it! Both of the children are on the same team with my hottie of a husband as their coach.  So when I say we are doing t-ball, we are DOING t-ball.  Something fierce :) 

 Here's Emma in her infamous dress jersey!  I promise the girlie is wearing shorts :)

  I don't know what it is and it's fine if  you think I'm nuts, but there is something really sexy about watching your husband as a coach.  It's that fathering thing but with other people's kids.  Very handsome :)

 Poor Nick.  One of the only kids he has trouble with is his own.  It's hard for him I know but I'm also glad he's there to give him direction.  This is how the two of them look most of the time on the field...

 Emma is really starting to enjoy the game and has been busy practicing her skills.

And in other news we started painting the house.  By we I mean Nick.  Do you think he planned to wear underpants that match the new paint?  Ooh,lalala!

I love the paint color and we've had neighbors tell us they like it too, which we are so glad about!  Last year the neighbors behind us painted their house a color that can only be compared to the color of dried vomit.  And while I've somewhat gotten used to it, still It's just gross.  We didn't want our color to be to the likeness of that for people :)

You'll have to forgive me for not writing often.  It's summer and a lot of time we are away from the computer trying to get ourselves into trouble!  We are still doing school (supposedly) which is really hard when all you want to do is be on summer break.  Still, we are persevering and trying to finish up.

Hope you all had a great week this past week!  Can't wait to see what fun things this week has in store for us!