Randoms

I'll start off with this picture of Emmett that my sister had on her phone.  Oh, my goodness... that precious baby.  It's good for me to look at pictures like this because he has been giving us such a difficult time lately.  I know this all will pass soon enough but sometimes it is very rough.  He is very passionate about everything and for as mad and frustrated as he can get about things he is just as passionately happy and loving in other situations.  He is a blessing to us no matter what.  :)

Reid (who is just into E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G all the time) brought me this swim diaper from the bathroom cabinet the other morning so I put it on his head as a hat.  He walked around like that for about 15 minutes (also wearing two different crocs that are actually Emmett's).  He cracks us up!

Ummm... is it a bad thing that I didn't know my children could write?  Probably.  They aren't huge fans of coloring and writing and doing art projects so we don't really pull out the crayons that often anymore.  The other morning we were finishing up our Christmas box to send to a child overseas and I asked J to try to write a little note to put in there.  I told him I would help him make the letters that he didn't know how to write.  And he said, "No, Mom... I can do it."  So I let him try and this is what he popped out... I was shocked!  His teacher said they had only practiced up to letter K or something at that point so I have no idea where he learned how to write the other letters (other than the ones that are in his name).  Oh, and he always insists on adding a G after his name now because there is a Jackson E in his class this year and I guess he always writes Jackson G at school!  This writing may not be a big deal to some of you amazing homeschooling moms out there but it was a big deal to me!  :)

Then Emmett wanted to show how he could write his name.  I was surprised at this, too!  Guess I should be paying more attention to their schooling.  Maybe I should ask them to try to read a book to me just to make sure they can't already read or something!  Haha!

The other morning Reid and I went to work out and by the time I finished he had had a diaper accident and leaked through his pants.  And I had made the rookie mistake of not having a change of clothes for him with me.  I still had to run to Walmart before picking up J and E and didn't want to spend money on a pair of cheap shorts (since my kind sister just gave me a TON of her son's hand-me-downs for Reid, and plus we are trying to save money to build a house) so I did the super trashy thing and just let him ride in the cart in a diaper!!  If we had been in Target I probably would have bought the shorts, but since it was just Wally World I figured we fit right in.  :)  He was happy as a clam.
**disclaimer:  I did sanitize the seat and he got an extra-good bath that night**

Phil has been out of town for two weeks and the evenings are usually pretty tough for the boys and I... between after-nap grumpiness, fixing dinner, and stir-craziness (and Mommy's tiredness).  I somehow managed to pull it together enough the other evening to take everyone down to the beach to play.  It was a beautiful night and they had a good time digging in the sand, even though we only had a few minutes after Reid woke up and before the sun went down.

Sand angels...

We were the only ones out there... kinda neat.

Jackson got to play Angry Birds as a reward the other night for a few minutes and both boys climbed up next to him and were watching him play.  Of course, when I walked over to take a picture Reid looked up with a loud "CHEEEEESE!"

This morning Reid and I went to a park to play for a few minutes and he got to swing in a big-boy swing.  They didn't have any baby swings there and he really wanted this one, so we gave it a shot.  He hung on and did great!  I tried to take a good picture, but the best I got was this "concentrated scowl" shot.  :)  Oh, I could eat that precious face.  He is so yummy.

Pumpkins and Parties and Angry Birds

I cannot believe that Halloween has come and gone already and we are almost at Thanksgiving!  The time is seriously just flying by!  Which is good and bad, I guess... bad because I hate to see the boys growing up so fast and good because I am SO READY not to be pregnant anymore!  I would push this baby out right here underneath the computer desk right this second if I could.  And I kind of want to punch people in the face when they say,  "Oh, you'll look back and miss these days... don't wish them away!"  Yes, I agree that I will miss the days when the boys were little but I can GUARANTEE that I will not miss being so uncomfortably pregnant and exhausted with three very active little boys to look after.  So there!  Anyway, enough venting... I know that we chose this and I am very thankful for another beautiful baby boy. 

Halloween was much different for us this year with warmer weather and lots of fun school activities (but no neighborhood or good friends to enjoy it with).  I just love the boys' school so much... they do such fun things for the kiddos and everyone is so super nice.  Here are J and E right before their class trips to the "pumpkin patch" (aka a bunch of pumpkins dropped off in a little strip of grass next to the road... gotta love a Florida pumpkin patch!) with his class.  E stamped that pumpkin shirt himself in class.     

I wasn't able to meet the classes at the pumpkin patch but Phil was working nights that week so he was able to help us pick out pumpkins one morning before work.  Happy Fall, Y'all!  :)  

It was hot and bright that day... hence all the squinting!  

The "patch" was right in front of the boys' school, which was convenient.  

Then a few nights later the boys carved their pumpkin.  They requested an Angry Bird face, which Daddy kindly made happen for them.

Jackson got brave and scooped out the insides this year!  :)

The glowing bird face...

On Halloween day J and E had their parties at school.  They got to wear costumes and the school had a little indoor carnival set up for each class to enjoy.  The boys had a lot of fun, even though it doesn't really look like it in these pictures.  :)

I had Reid with me (as always) and he was so excited to see Jackson!  He ran up and hugged him while yelling his version of "Jackson," which sounds something like "Dack-don."

Jackson's favorite game was this mini-golf one.  When the ball went into the hole the volunteer in charge of the game pushed a button and shot the ball back out.  The kids loved it.

Jackson asked to be the black Angry Bird for Halloween this year.  He looooooves to play that game on my phone (which we only let him do once in a blue moon because he will get obsessed with it) and really just loves anything to do with Angry Birds.  The black bird is his favorite because it is actually a bomb that blows up on command.  :) Emmett originally wanted to be Thomas or Percy (trains) but then decided he wanted to be the red bird when he heard that Jackson was going to be the black one.  At first I tried to talk them into being other things that I could just buy costumes of, but they wanted so badly to be these birds.  So I decided to just google a bird costume tutorial and was actually able to throw these together pretty easily and cheaply with some thread and hot glue.  Once I got the black and red done I felt sorry for Reid and didn't want him to be left out, so I decided to make him a blue bird costume.  Oh my gosh he looked so adorable!  They all looked adorable, really... if I do say so myself!  And I know Emmett's red one is actually smaller than Reid's blue one... that was my mistake but I didn't feel like doing it over!  It worked out fine.

Here they are all dolled up right before trick-or-treating.  We had the absolute perfect trick-or-treating weather that night... cool but not cold with a nice breeze.  Wonderful!

Here's hoping they'll want to be Angry Birds again next year and we can actually use these costumes again!  :)

School and Our Days

I realized I never posted about the boys' school this year.... so I'll fix that by sharing some two-months-overdue first day of school photos.  Before the boys could start school we had to cut through all of the crazy red tape to get them seen by a doctor for a physical.  Seems like it took weeks to get that scheduled, but we finally did.  I was nervous for how they would do (especially J), but they did great!

Jackson went first and then when it was Emmett's turn he stood close by and was very concerned for E.  He kept telling the nurse that E was his brother and was very brave.  :)

We decided not to have J start kindergarten this year, and instead put him in 5-day (half day) preschool.  Here he is on his actual first day of school.  :)

And then when it was Emmett's first day (he goes three half-days a week at the same school as J... thanks to the kindness of a stranger who put her child at another school at the last second to open a spot for E so that both boys could be at the same place... that was such a blessing) I completely forgot to take a picture.  And then I forgot for about two weeks after that.  Our condo is about 30 minutes from their preschool, so we are pretty busy every morning trying to get out the door on time.  Everyone asks why I didn't put them in a school that was closer, but by the time we found out we were moving to FL almost all of the spots at good preschools in town were taken and I had a hard time finding a place that could fit both of them. It was truly a blessing that they were able to attend the same school at the last minute.  AND I knew that the school they attend is a good one since many friends have taken their kids there before.  So it's worth the drive (for the most part... sometimes I just want to scream while I'm driving!).  We really love their teachers and everyone that works at the school.  And the curbside drop-off and pickup is just priceless.  :)

So anyway, I finally remembered to take a picture one day about three weeks after the start of school, but here is our little "fake first day" photo shoot.  :)

Can you believe the water in the Gulf that day?  Totally calm and gorgeous... like a crystal clear lake!

So every day I drop either Jackson or J and E off at 9:00 and then I have three hours to kill before I have to pick them up.  I hated to drive all the way back to the beach just to have to turn around again and come back, so for the first week or so I tried to find things to do around town to kill time.  But that got old really quickly.  Then I remembered about a Mommy workout class that I was a part of for a little while right after J was born.  I looked it up on facebook and found out that it was from 9-10 in the morning at a park about halfway between the school and the beach.  Yay!  So I joined that group and am now actually being active during this pregnancy, whereas with Emmett and Reid I basically did nothing exercise-related.  It's such a great class for a lot of reasons... we are outside at a beautiful park by the water and most mornings are super gorgeous, I am meeting a bunch of other moms, I'm staying active and feel better, and I get to keep Reid with me in the jogging stroller and he gets to enjoy the outside and new friends, too!  Although on Tuesday and Thursday I have both Emmett and Reid with me and I have to admit that some of those mornings are spent wishing I had put E in school everyday.  :)

The kiddos stay in strollers for most of the class but can get out at the end to run around and play.  There is this amazing four-headed palm tree in the park that is really old... I think it's so cool!

Reid was walking around with his hat sideways the other morning... so funny!

After class we still have about an hour and a half before picking up the older boys, so we've done a variety of things to pass the time.  Once Reid and I went to the mall to walk around, but that turned out to actually just be Reid climbing on those coin-operated toys the whole time and getting super mad if we left the area, so we never did that again.  (Plus... lots of germs.  Blech!)

Sometimes we drive the next fifteen minutes back to the beach and hang out at home for an hour...

On Wednesdays we get to stay in one place the whole time because I go to a Bible study at the church where the boys go to school.  Reid goes into the nursery child care for a little bit that day and he does not like it!  But we are making progress and every week he gets a little bit better about it.  Here we are one day after class snuggling for a few minutes before picking up the older boys... he was a little upset, but that always makes for good snuggling.

And then one rainy day we went for an extra-special treat at Krispy Kreme.  :)

Reid loves to clean.  :)

So our days during the week are pretty busy and I am usually totally beat by the time naptime rolls around.  We are always thankful for the weekends when we get to slow down and enjoy just being together at the beach... and not drive anywhere!