September 23, 2006

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So I'm posting this very late the night before, but today, Wednesday, September 23 (when most of you will probably be reading this post anyways) our sweet, sweet boy turns 3 years old! I had fun sorting through so many old pictures on our computer to put this slideshow together (and of course got very teary along the way as every mother does when they look back at how their babies have grown). I could have added so many more great pictures, but I figured when I hit 100, it was getting slightly long. So if you want to watch all almost 8 minutes of this view into our last 3 years of life, please do and enjoy! Our boy is so full of spunk and zeal for life, and I feel these glimpses of pictures capture that as best a photo can. I feel like it was just yesterday I was holding that sweet boy in my arms for the first time, and yet I barely remember what it was like before he was apart of our lives either. Reed we are so proud of you and so thankful for you! We love you so, so, so much!

Celebrating Reed!

This week our boy turns the big 3! I can't believe it's already been 3 years since he entered into our lives! This weekend one of Casey's best friends got married in Chattanooga, so we left the "big" kids at my mom's while we were gone. Then on Sunday we were able to go over to my Dad and stepmom's new house that they have finally completed and are in now, for a family celebration for Reed. He loved being there with all the family and just seemed to have a blast! He cried when it was time to leave. As you can see we had a Lightening McQueen cake, thanks to a friend of my mom's who made it for us.....didn't really quite have the time to replica the cake as last year's Elmo cake. And he got lots of fun new things to play with.....his favorite seems to be more "Cars" characters to add to his "Cars" collection.
There will be a little more family celebration of our own this week as well, so our boy has been loving all this "birthday time!"

2 Months Old Today!

Guess who is 2 months old today?!!

I always find it so hard to believe how fast a month goes by with babies. It always seems like you are saying they are one month and then you blink and they are yet another month older! So now our sweet Mary Etta is 2 months old......she is a sweet, sweet girl and we are so thankful for her as a part of our family. Though it is amazing to see how each one of my children have been so different. You think you have the baby thing down by #3, but yet she manages to surprise us in choosing to be different from her siblings. As still getting to sleep in our room....this is the first for us. Poor girl has no room, and I'm not sure I'm quite up for the training process of older brother and sister room sharing yet. But on a positive note, she did sleep through the night faster than the other....around 6-7 weeks she was sleeping 7-8 hour stretches (they two were closer to 3 months). But she is a little harder to get settled than they were at times, and seems to prefer the swaddling longer than then other two as well......I am one of those mom's who secretly puts her babies on their bellies to sleep. I know, I know it's such a no, no....but they just slept so much better!) But not Mary Etta....she really doesn't seem to want to sleep on her belly---she likes it briefly, but apparently not for sleeping. But even though she is her own little person and we still have to figure her out like we did the others, we still love her more and more everyday! We are thankful that the Lord has blessed us with this sweet little person, and pray He will continue to enable us to raise her in the way she should go!

Yeah for babies!

We've officially entered into the phase of baby dolls! Emery-Claire has 3 little soft baby dolls that she has been sleeping with, though typically they rarely stay in the crib with her, I am constantly collecting them from behind her bed (which by the way she thinks is hilarious since she laughs and giggles as I fetch them for her). She very distinctly says "baby" (very dramatically). So today while Reed was gone to play with his buddy, Deacon, I pulled out the doll stroller she had received from my sister at her birthday. Since she is walking really good and fast now, I knew she'd be more stable to actually play with it and enjoy pushing it. So round and round she went through the house this afternoon with the babies, so cute!

First day of school!

Am I actually titling this, "First day of school"???? Well, not exactly school, but as close as it gets for now. We decided with the craziness of 3 under 3 in the house, that our often shy guy needed a little socialization and fun structure in his day. So this Thursday marked his first day experiencing the ever famous "Mother's Day Out" at our church. As we don't really have the added luxury of having done this sooner, we are very thankful to our all grandparents helping us out so Reed can have some fun times away from home during the week (which is only 1 day a week). He was a little timid as we talked about it earlier in the week saying "I don't want to go to school". But since it was just at our church, and his class meets in the same room as his Sunday school class, well I think that definitely eased the transition since he just thought he was going to church. And on Wednesdays we are also at church for a bible study I'm doing, so he had just been in that room the day before as well. He had a great first day, and his teachers reported he listened well, followed directions, and had fun with friends. Wouldn't you know too that, as original as I have thought his name was, there was a little girl there named "Reid". So in the whole 6/7 kids in the class, how funny two have this same name!
He was very cute saying bye to Casey and Emery-Claire (he even kissed her on the cheek as he walked out the door). He sat with Casey so sweetly before we left too as his Daddy prayed for his big first day! I was proud of the little guy for going and leaving so well. And he wore the big boy underwear there, and did great going potty for the teachers! Which by the way he does great at home as well, and has since probably June. But I haven't always been too eager to take him out in public in them, afraid of having to deal with the dreaded "accident". But in the past month or so we have been trying it more often and he is doing well! Yeah!

It's football time!!!

Playing outside Friday afternoon....sporting Daddy's team colors.

Sisters watching the DAWGS on the couch with Daddy.

Mary Etta sat with her Daddy (who didn't want to be pictured due to his team's not great first game performance), but she tried to root with him by sporting the Georgia paraphernalia.

We love the start of football season at our house. It's definitely something we look very forward to at the end of the summer! Since we moved in January though, we thought we would try to cut out the cable.....which for this time of the year is a big stretch for our family! We have considered getting it for this season, but still hadn't for the first big football season opener weekend. So we were excited to see all of our most watched SEC teams had games on the major networks. Of course I was very excited to cheer on the VOLS and see them win their first home game, but Casey was not so happy at the DAWGS performance Saturday. We will see how our teams continue throughout this season. Though as much as I love watching Tennessee football, I know with a new coach and all I know I can't expect too much this year. Casey I know will hope to see the DAWGS do much better than Saturday's game. And of course we always have a "house divided" when Georgia and Tennessee play!
And gotta love my new added picture of all 3 at the top (also taken on football Saturday)! It totally depicts all 3 of them....love Reed picking at his nose, Mary Etta not too sure of what she is sitting between, and our happy and playful 1-year-0ld!

Happy Birthday!

Today we have 2 birthdays in our family! Dad and my sister, Jessica, both share the same birthday! We miss you guys and hope you all are having wonderful birthdays! And enjoy your dinner out together! We love you and look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks!