Pictures from October... Where Did November Go?

Seriously... is it almost December already??  I realized the other day that I haven't blogged in almost a month, so I'm going to make up for it now by posting a ton of old pictures.  And by "old" I mean from about a month ago. 

First... WrestleMedium.  Phil started what he called "WrestleMania" with the boys a while ago (basically just jumping on each other and Phil on our bed), and it has become one of the boys' absolute favorite things.  Until someone bonks their head or some other body part, which happens every time.  But they still love it.  And they thought Phil was saying "medium" instead of "mania," so now it's known as WrestleMedium.  Lol.  

And lately it has involved chucking bean bags at each other, too.  I stay clear of all of this.  Haha!

We went on a walk from our new house one evening to the neighborhood that connects to ours where "the other half" lives to check out the dock there and got to see some amazing homes and lots of jumping fish.

This house is being built and we were laughing because just this garage portion is probably bigger than our whole new house.  Haha!

We went to the beach again on a day that the Gulf was as calm as could be.  So pretty... although I think the boys (well, Phil, J, and E) prefer some waves.

Reid and Davis chilling in the shade...

A rare moment caught on film... E usually doesn't pay much attention to D.

Reid learned how to pedal and now rides a big boy bike like his brothers.  He's so happy about that.

A few random shots...

 

We found an amazing gymnastics place that's right down the street from our new house.  It is seriously so great.  We went to an open gym play date one morning and the boys had a blast.  We've also started going to a homeschool group that the coach offers on Wednesday mornings.  That group is only for J and E but they love it and it's so good for them.

More brotherly love...

Shopping for antler decor at Hobby Lobby.... just kidding.  This was so bad that I had to take a picture of it to send to a friend.  Antlers are "in" for home decor right now, but a sign made out of fake antlers that says "REDNECK"... not so much.  Haha!

Reid fell asleep on our way to Destin one day and had crazy spiky hair when he woke up.  This is him telling me "DON'T take my picture, Mom!"  He has had quite the little attitude lately... really exerting his 2-year-old independence.  It is exhausting and frustrating.

Playing at our neighborhood park one evening (before the time change made it dark at 4:30... I really hate the fall time change).

Matching Halloween shirts at Target one day before Halloween...

Here's J and E in those same shirts... (I got them at Target long ago... they glow in the dark and have candy corn in the belly... so cute!).

And now... best buds hanging out in Davis's room.  How did they get so big?  

And I know some people may be wanting a house update... basically it's taking longer than we thought and costing more than we thought and we've found that we've made several mistakes that can't be fixed now.  I guess maybe that's standard for building, but I have perfectionistic tendencies and it's sometimes hard to just let things go.  I know we will love it once we're actually in there (I'm praying the "mistakes" kind of melt away once our stuff is moved in and I don't notice them and dwell on them all the time) and I am very thankful for the blessing of a new house.  Trying to stay focused on that.  We are just REALLY REALLY REALLY ready to be settled for real after a year and a half of temporary living.  Oh, and Phil and I are putting together a list of all of the things that have gone wrong or that we should have done differently in case we ever build again... this is cheap therapy for me as it makes me feel better about the mistakes for some reason.  :)

Eight Months

Well, technically he's almost nine months now, but at least I managed to fit these in during his eighth month, right?  :)  He is such a joy.  He had a bunch of ear infections a few months ago that made him a little unhappy, but now that he's feeling better (and able to explore all over the house), he's a truly happy camper.  :)

Love those dimples...

Crawling off the couch again... :)

He does this funny thing whenever he gets really happy/excited... He smiles really big and makes a sound like he's sucking in air.  I need to get it on video so we can remember it.  It's so random and cute!

He's pulling up on everything, standing and holding on with one hand, crawling everywhere, and loves to "walk" while holding onto someone's hands.  He's also still consistently sleeping through the night.  Although I'm having a little trouble giving up the snuggly-time "dream feed" at 11:00 P.M.  :)

Aaaannnd... he's finally eating everything in sight.  As long as it's not pureed.  And just in these last few days he's getting really particular about feeding himself.  If we try to feed him something off of a spoon he shakes his head no until we put it down on the tray for him to pick up himself.   Haha!  And he drinks water like crazy out of the bottle! Hooray!

You know I have a thing for baby feet... I love Davis's, of course, but Reid's still take first prize.  :)

Loves, loves, loves the bath... and pulling up on the side of the tub.  :)

I think in this picture he's making the air-sucking happy noise.  :)

Each month life gets a little bit easier!  Although right now we're potty training Reid, which is not making things easier at the moment, but hopefully in a week or so things will be much better!  :)

Halloween

As you can see, we did a repeat of last year with our Angry Birds.  J and E both said they wanted to be Angry Birds again this year, and by a stroke of luck as soon as I pulled out the old costumes... Emmett was super excited to be the black bird.  I was very thankful.  :)  Reid didn't really have an opinion, and Davis didn't know what was going on, so I only had to make one new costume for J.  Hooray! 

Emmett was watching me go crazy with the glue gun and he said, "Wow!  It's like a machine that makes costumes!"  And I thought, "Why, yes, I am!"  Haha!!  This is Terrence, the monster bird, from Angry Birds Space (J's choice)...

Poor Davis... it was warm and muggy that evening and close to his bedtime, so he was a little grumpy.  He managed to hold it together for a little bit, though, so we could all go trick-or-treating together.

One super-excited boy, one not-so-much!

Better now.  :)

Waiting to start trick-or-treating...

Aaaaaand... we're off!

Trooper...

Happy boys...

We just went down the street in our rental neighborhood and then came home.  We had planned on going to our new neighborhood because we've heard there's quite the Halloween celebration there, but it was too far away and too close to bedtime. The boys didn't really care where we went... they were just so excited to trick-or-treat.  Especially Reid...

He was running, skipping, hopping everywhere and yelling, "Happy Hawoween!  Have a good night!  Have fun!" to everyone he saw.  :)  You could tell he was so excited to be a big boy and trick-or-treat like his brothers.