September Part 2

September also meant lots of travel fun for us!  It was great to extend the summer one more month.  We got to celebrate our FAVORITE one year old boy....

Cooper

 He had a super cute wagon themed birthday!  

And apparently Michael and I were very squinty that day.  :)

 It cracks me up to try to get cousin pictures when they are all so little.  

 How could this cutie not be our favorite one year old boy???

After the birthday party we headed to Hyatt's Wild Oak Ranch for a late summer vacay with our favorite travel buddies.  

I have to say we truly loved it!!  I know Hill Country is supposed to be the only way to go, but this was perfect for our stage in life.  It was low key, not crowded and we went to Hill Country when wanted to! 

I could go on and on but a good old instagram pic frame pretty much summed it up, we swam, we played and had a blast. 

 Sadie Jo was the baby of the world.  

The kids played and played!  

I love our no apologizing for your kids policy.  It allowed us to laugh when Hank had an epic meltdown and showed his true commitment to his cause by flatly refusing to say sorry, say I'll be nice or just stop screaming for 20 minutes while we made lunch one day.  

It was so cute to watch the 4 big kids chat it up at their own table each night for dinner.  

We discovered a new board game that I really love, Bezzerwizzer.  

These are the memories I hope our kids will cherish, I know I do.  

I Know We Disappeared

Can you say welcome back to yourself?  I am going to give it a whirl.  I totally fell off the blog bandwagon last fall, but I am hoping to get back at it.

My last blog before a few days ago was August 31st.  We have some catching up to do....

So here's the first two weeks of September in a nutshell!

We made a snap decision to put our house on the market, as in we decided Sunday afternoon and it was listed Wednesday morning.  However, in some ways it was a long time coming.  We have been discussing moving closer to Michael's work for 2 years.

I decided to potty train Hank.  He was talking about it like crazy and I felt like I would regret it if I missed my chance.

We had meet the teachers.  Hi Ms Dee!

 Hi Ms Laurie!

 Hi Ms Amy & Ms Lauren!

 We had our first day of preschool for the 2012-2013 school year.

I never want to forget these sweet brothers walking into Hank's first ever day of preschool hand in hand.

It was an INSANE two weeks.  But has lead to great things for our family.  Hank finally mastered both aspects of potty training mid-December.  We sold our house.  And we have been blessed with 4 preschool teachers that seem perfect for our two favorite boys!  I would do it all over again in a heart beat.
Sadie Jo was punkin, too.  She just let her brothers have the spotlight for back to school!

Hanky's Big Day

I think it is safe to say my favorite 3 year old boy had a great Birthday!!

 He started out his day with a request for macaroni and cheese, Spiderman mac n cheese to be exact.  

He loved it and had two huge helpings.  

Then we got to go play at open gym and do that giant swing!  

It was so fun and a great way to spend a rainy day! 

Hanky picked Chick Fil-A for lunch! 

Mr. 3 year old had a blast sitting at the boys only table with Daddy and his best buddy Cade.  

After lunch we headed to sprinkles to select our birthday dessert.  Hanky made his daddy proud and carefully selected red velvet.  

For dinner Hanky requested tortilla crusted tilapia, black beans and rice and red corn muffins.  I was more than happy to oblige the easiest birthday dinner request.  

Daddy also made Hanky's night bringing him home a BIG drink from Sonic, powered!  

We love that Aunt Linde, Uncle Jeff and Mack live in town and could come celebrate our favorite 3 year old boy with us.  They sure were sweet to give up their Friday night for us.  

I think it is safe to say our little friend had a great day!  He managed to fall fast asleep with no paci and no complaining.  Let's hope it lasts!  

We love our sweet boy so much and I loved his answers to his 3 year old questionnaire.  

Q:What is your name?

A:Hanky

Q:What animal do you like? 

A:Lions

Q:What is your favorite color?

A:Red

Q:Where do you like to go? 

A:Honey's house

Q:What do you like to play?

A: Candy Land

Q:What do you like to do outside?

A:Play armies and doggies

Q:What do you like to do inside? 

A:Play with Cade

Q:What do you like to wear?

A:Spiderman shirt

Q:What's your favorite book?

A:The lions (Daniel in the Lions Den)

Q:What is your favorite show?

A:Hercules

Q:What is your favorite song?

A:I am not crying (a Hank original)

Q:What do you like to do with Daddy?

A:Play Candy Land

Q:What do you like to do with Mamma?

A:Play Candy Land

Q:What do you want to do when you grow up?

A:Put the door locks on (can you tell we just remodeled)

Q:What do you like to do with Avery?

A:Play outside

Q:What do you like to do with Sadie Jo?

A:Play

Q:What do you know about the Bible?

A:Jesus loves me 

Q:Where do you sleep?

A:My room

Q:What do you like to drink?

A:Powerade

Q:Who are your teachers?

A:Ms Dee and Ms Waurie (Laurie)

Q:Can you count?

A:One, two 

Q:Who are your friends?

A:Wiwa (Lila) Ewwie (Ellie) Cooper

Q:Who is in your family?

A:Mamma, Daddy, Avery and Sadie Jo

special thanks to Annalee, I stole her questions, and to Hollie and Cade for spending their whole day with us

Hanky Panky

I can't believe my baby boy is THREE!!! How can it be!
In honor of his third birthday I thought I would tell you my 3 favorite things about Hank.

1-Hank ALWAYS has a song in his heart.  He will make up songs when he feels like it, he leads his daddy and brother in a rousing rendition of The Lord's Army every night on the way to the bathtub, and busts a move any time any place when he hears a song he likes.  I can't wait to see how this musicality plays out in his life!

2-Hank is PASSIONATE.  When Hank is happy he beams at you tells you thank you with such sincerity and gives you a huge hug!  When Hank is not happy he will stink eye you, yell at you and swing with all his might.  While it is much more pleasant to be on the happy side of things I love that no matter what you know where he stands and why.  I think this will help him have the courage to do great things in his life!

3-Hank is a sweet, sweet boy.  Yesterday morning Hanky climbed up in my bed gave me a huge hug and then sweetly rubbed my cheek with his lovey just like he likes it.  Hanky is so happy for his brother and sister when great things happen to them.  Hanky almost never forgets to say thank you and he always means it when he says it.  Hanky loves a good cuddle.

We sure have been blessed by 3 great years with our FAVORITE THREE YEAR OLD BOY!!!!!!!!

We LOVE Summer

We have loved this summer I can't believe it is coming to an end!  

We have loved play dates

Especially ones that involve 9 children (5 of them under 3) at Chick Fil-A with 9 million of our closest friends.  :)

We have loved the Rangers

cheering for them in t-ball, on TV and finally in person has made many of our summer nights a blast!

We have loved family fun nights

the zoo, walks in the neighborhood and backyard fun have kept us entertained! 

We have loved the beach

Sadie was the cutest baby in Galveston, Ave had a blast in Wilmington, poor Hanky missed out but he made up for it at Grandma Camp!

We have loved the Olympics

from our themed opening ceremony party to a late night party for 5 watching the closing ceremonies we LOVED every single minute! 

We have loved this summer, I am hoping we will love this school year, too! 

Fabulous Four Month Old Girl

We sure have a sweet baby girl!  She was pronounced perfect today at her 4 month old check up!  She did produce a few tears and a big pout for her shots, but really tolerated them quite well. 

Sadie Baby Jo loves her big brothers.  She always has a smile for both.  She knows she can count on Hanky for sweet kisses and a silly face.  She also knows Ave might be little rough with his games, but that he will talk to her and play with her for a very long time. 

Sadie also loves to cuddle with her Daddy and will turn on her smile whenever she can see or hear him. 

Sadie has decided she doesn't love when Daddy and the boys roar like lions, but if Daddy helps cover her ears, she can take it. 

Sadie girl is a great sleeper, a good pusher uper, but struggles a bit with the whole rolling over thing.  She would probably better at rolling over if she liked her tummy time, but she takes after her mamma and thinks napping is a much better use of tummy time than actual exercise.  

We sure love our Sadie Jo!

3 Months Old

No way is my baby girl 3 months old!!!  

It has been a wonderful 3 months! 

She is such a good baby.  People talk about it all the time.  I am so thankful for our parents help.  I think the fact that they stay with us for the first two weeks makes all the difference.  Having them help the boys transition and work their collective baby whisperer magic makes for babies that sleep 10-12 hours a night by the time they are 2 months old!  So, so great!  

Here is our sweet baby girl at one whole month old.  

Her first month was a great one!  She attended her first t-ball game, received millions of cuddles and kisses from her brothers and was starting to sleep 6-7 hours a night.  She sweetly wore every bow I put on her head and only complained when they fell in her eyes and mouth in the car.  

Month 2 was more of the same 

Baby girl did scare us half to death with our first trip to the ER.  I never thought that would be from my daughter, but luckily she just had a virus that was no biggie.  

She was the cutest patient that day for sure!  Don't worry she had a bow, we just took it off for her tests!  

She also had lots of fun to balance out her pokes and prodding.  

Sadie Baby Jo as Ave likes to call her lounged a lot... 

poolside at Daddy's work party. 

lakeside at the family reunion with Papa

and even at swim camp!  

(how do babies sleep with their head like that?) 

Month 3 is off to a great start as well! 

We love these sweet smiles, and the giggles and coos that accompany them, too! 

Miss Sadie Jo says she likes the beach and having mamma and daddy all to herself!  

We can't wait to see what else we learn about our Sadie girl this month!