Clayton is THREE MONTHS

As of June 21st Clayton is three months old!  He is still the happiest baby! He is growing and changing so quickly, but his smiley, easy-going personality remains the same. 
Clayton smiles all the time, and he is just starting to laugh! SO sweet!  If he hears your voice he will scan the room with his eyes until he locks eyes with you, and the he gives the sweetest open mouth grin.  His wonderful personality continues to make him more and more loved by his siblings!  We still have not seen any jealousy toward Clayton.  Dawson, Carter, and Nora Kate are still in love with Clayton, and sing to him, talk to him, and make silly faces at him all day long.  Carter and Nora Kate constantly think Clayton needs something....a blanket, a burp cloth, a toy, etc.  They're always wanting to bring something to him or do something for him.  I love listening to the voices Nora Kate uses when she is talking to Clayton...so sweet!  Daily Nora Kate refers to him as "our baby" and she talks about when she's a momma.  "One day when I'm a Momma, I'm going to have a girl baby and name her Pink." (Oh my!) But I love that Clayton is such a good boy that he makes her want to be a Momma.  Clayton most definitely is loved by his older siblings, there is no question there.
I cannot believe after 4 kids I finally get to type this in a 3 month update, but CLAYTON HAS SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!  He does not do this every night by any means, but he's still a great sleeper.  Usually 1 night a week he will sleep through the night (meaning 10pm-5am) and this is AMAZING! The rest of the nights he sleeps from about 8-10, then 10:30-3:30ish, then 4-7:30....which is still wonderful!  That just means getting up once a night!  During the day he's a great napper too.  He takes about an hour long morning nap 9:30-10:30ish-lots of time he has to do this nap on the go-in his carseat, stroller, or ergo carrier that I wear.  He doesn't seem to mind though.  It's the life of the 4th child, I guess.  But his afternoon nap, I do not mess with...I make sure we are home for this one!  He naps from about 1-3:30.  This is awesome because it overlaps Carter and Nora Kate's naps too. 
In a 24 hour period of time Clayton nurses about 7 times.  He's still a great eater, but is just now starting to get a little bit distracted if he hears his siblings laughing or being silly.  But he's still eating really well!
Clayton still loves a bath...and water in general.  This month he "went swimming" for the first time.  Our friends, the Johnson's invited us over to swim in their pool, and I held Clayton in the water for about an hour and he was so relaxed and happy being held in the water. 
Clayton loves his back time gym more than ever this month. He has also gotten a lot better hand eye coordination, and he can grab the toys that hang from it now too! Lots of times he will grab them and pull so hard that he pulls the whole thing down.  (The kids think this is hilarious!)  He still does well at tummy time too.  Several times I've thought he was going to roll over from tummy to back, but after getting about half way there he's returned to his tummy.  He's so strong that he doesn't mind tummy time.  He can hold his chest off the ground well and look around.  He still likes his swings and bouncy seats too...especially because he can watch the kids playing and talking to him from these seats. 
Clayton has become quiet the little chatter box this month.  I love how he "talks" to us.  He has the sweetest little voice that just melts your heart.  He says lots of vowel sounds "ooooo" "aaaaaah" etc.  Nora Kate always things she knows what he's saying.  ("Momma did you hear that? Clayton just said he likes my dollhouse") 
Clayton naps in his crib for his two naps during the day that way I can hear him on the baby monitor (yes, we have three baby monitors going in our house!).  At night Clayton is still sleeping in the bassinet in our bedroom. 
Our big boy is definitely growing longer and gaining weight, but I don't have his exact stats since there was no 3 month check up.  He will soon be into his 3-6month clothes and 6month clothes.  Speaking of clothes, I still like to dress him in a gown at night (rather than pajamas) because it's easier not to have to do snaps or zippers at night when I'm changing diapers, but Nora Kate gets so excited when I dress him in footed pajamas.  After seeing him sleep in gowns so much she always say, "LOOK! Clayton has on pajamas with legs tonight!" So funny!  Nora Kate acts like Clayton is her own doll, she wants to pick out his clothes, pajamas, even down to which color cloth diaper he wears each time I change his diaper.  (This is funny because I have several pink cloth diapers that were her's and she frequently wants him to wear these pink diapers because they are her favorites.) 
Clayton is such a wonderful baby, and we feel beyond blessed by him and his sweet personality.  I could go on and on, but these are just a few things I want to remember from this stage of him turning 3 months. 

My sweet 3 month old baby boy!

A special day this month was when Clayton finally got to meet his Great Mamaw.  She has had lots of health ups and downs over the past 9 months and was even in the hospital (a different hospital) when Clayton was born.  She was finally well enough for us to go down one morning and visit wit her, and she got to hold Clayton for a few minutes.  (She's back in the hospital now, so I'm thankful we got to go visit her when we did.)

I will post more about this in our family's June blog post, but Clayton went on his first trip out of Tennessee this month.  We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary by taking the kids to Atlanta for the weekend.  We did Lego Land, the Georgia Aquarium, Top Golf, and some shopping which made for a fun weekend.  The above picture is Clayton's first time at an aquarium.  He's in front of the beluga whales...and as you can see Carter and Nora Kate thought he needed a blanket!

The trip to Atlanta also meant Clayton's first time staying in a hotel.

We weren't sure how he would do in the hotel sleeping in his pack and play.  We were a little worried he would wake up the kids, but he picked this night to sleep through the night and he didn't disturb anyone!

And now, on to what the kids refer to as "the white shirt pictures"...

Carter looks smaller than Nora Kate in these pictures even though he's actually taller!

This picture makes me so happy! They were all tickled about something, I can't remember what, but they were so happy and laughing!

And this is the "I'm up to no good look" I think!

Our happy 3 month old

May 2016

May is a month of celebrating for us!  We start the month celebrating Pop's birthday, then Dawson, then mother's day, then Lolly's birthday, then celebrating school being out, and then Drew's birthday at the end of the month! In between all the celebrations we managed to squeeze in a few other fun activities too.

(WHY, oh why is the blog doing this...my pictures are way out of order, but at least they're here!)

The kids have a LONG LONG list of things they want to do on Summer Break...on the first Sunday of Summer Break they woke up asking if after church we could go golfing AND fishing!  Well, we went to church, the driving range, and then Pop and John took the boys fishing.  They had a great time and are ALREADY asking to go back!  Dawson caught TEN fish and everyone else caught zero.  (Carter was okay with this because last time he caught 4 and Dawson none.)

Also on the first weekend of Summer Break we had two birthday parties to go to...first was Bailey's skating party.  I wasn't sure how Carter and Nora Kate would do skating since they had never been, but they did AWESOME!  Dawson did too...but he's skated before so I wasn't as worried about him.  I wouldn't tell the kids this, but I actually think Nora Kate may have been the best skater!  Maybe just because she's fearless!  Her tiny roller skates were cute..taller than they were long!  They were all so good, and John and I were impressed with their skating skills.  They had so much fun helping Bailey celebrate her birthday!!

Last day of school pictures for Dawson.  I cannot believe how much he has grown, changed, and learned this year.  I'm definitely proud of this big boy, and even happier to have him home all summer!!!!

At the beginning of the school year, I told Dawson I would try to come eat lunch with him at least once a month.  Many months I was there more than 1 time, but I managed to get there at least once every month. Here we are with Dawson's friends at lunch!

Nora Kate says she is big enough to eat an apple "not cutted up" now, and I think it's pretty adorable so this is how we do it now! :)

No month is complete without at least one visit to Dollywood...

Nora Kate decided she was big enough and brave enough to ride the kiddie coaster this time!  SHE LOVED IT! 

Ending our day at Dollywood with a special treat of ice cream!

After a hot day at Dollywood we home and did the slip and slide!

Dawson loves having an audience at his baseball games!

Dawson loves having an audience at his baseball games!

Dawson loves having an audience at his baseball games!

Nora Kate and her sweet friend Jackson at his birthday party!

Celebrating Mother's Day with these FOUR!

Time for a walk in the park...Carter and Nora Kate always want to run ahead along the path! 

After the park, we headed to Dawson's school for field day...

Field day selfie...notice Clayton's head in the carrier!

These two stopped by Lolly's classroom to make their mark on the dry erase boards.

More field day fun!  This boy climbed to the top of the rock wall!

Picking strawberries!

The inflatable we rented for Dawson's birthday party we got to keep all weekend, so we spent lots of hours jumping!

And then were exhausted and laid down in the inflatable together!

Nora Kate, Clayton, Lolly, and I went shopping while the boys were fishing.  Check out this fancy girl's new sun glasses!

My pictures are not in chronological order, but back to the beginning of May...

We celebrated Pop's birthday!

He got a new chainsaw!

Time to blow out the candles!

When you have 4 grandkids, you don't get to blow out your candles anymore, Pop!

Baseball continued through May and into June.  Dawson progressively got better and better with the season.  Here he is before one of his games!

The last full week of school, Dawson's class did an adorable presentation.  It was so sweet!

At the end of the program, his teacher said something special about each student in the class and gave them a corresponding award.  Here he is receiving the "helping hands" award for always being willing to help with anything any time!  His teacher was SO great this year! Dawson, John, and I have all discussed how much we will miss Mrs. Johnson when he's in another class next year.

John, Lolly, and I all got to go watch him program!

(Clayton went too in the carrier and slept the entire time.)

Dawson's kindergarten class.

Dawson and Mommy after the program.

(you can barely see the top of Clayton's little head)

John wanted to start a fun little tradition with the kids for the last day of school.  He came up with the idea of getting a cookie cake (which they love).  So here's the first year of the Last Day of School Happy Summer cookie cake!

The kids were so excited and dug right in!

Here's Dawson with his wonderful kindergarten teacher on the last day of school!

Dawson got lots of great birthday gifts and we saved several do to this summer in our free time. One gift he asked for from Lolly and Pop was from the "STEM" area in Toys R Us. It is a carnivorous plant greenhouse.  Planting the seeds and getting it set up was a little involved, so we saved it for one of his first days out of school.  Here he is working on in (in pajamas)!

To kick off the first day of summer break, we had breakfast on the patio in our pajamas.

The first week that school was out Dawson did golf camp.  It was just two mornings.  Doing this in May was perfect because it wasn't too hot.  He was SO excited.  Above and below is the first day of golf camp.

They split into groups of 4 with an instructor. He already says he wants to do this camp at Concord Park again.

Since Dawson's camp was in Knoxville and it didn't make sense for us to drive home between dropping him off and picking him up, Carter, Nora Kate, and I spent several hours at Carl Cowan park.  We walked near the water and played on the playground.  They had a blast!

Clayton had fun too.  Here he is on a walk in his stroller at the park.

After we would pick Dawson up from camp, we would go back to the park for a picnic lunch and so that Dawson could enjoy the playground too!

Here's Dawson the last day of golf camp!

Dawson asked if he could play in the kid pool while I was making pizza dough and the others were napping.  I made him set it up on the patio so I could watch him in the water. Next thing I know, I look out to see this!  He was keeping cool with his chair in the water!

I had no idea Nora Kate was sick until she woke up crying in the night, but at the very end of May Nora Kate came down with strep.  Poor girl.  She ended up having to take two different antibiotics before it got better, but she perked up Memorial Day weekend to play with the boys in the water!

Clayton continued to be a sweet and happy baby though May.  He's so, so easy and happy! I just love him!

The boys had been asking about bunk beds for a while.  We decided Memorial Day weekend was the perfect time to get them!  These pictures are the weekend we assembled them.  There is now a hidden mattress under the bottom bunk for sleepovers and a bedskirt on the bottom bunk making it look much better.  We thought this was the kids would have the summer to adjust to the bunk beds before school started back.  They were SO excited.  They love the beds and all the extra space they have.  Now we were able to set up a little reading area in the corner with their bean bags!  They've been doing great with the new beds!

Again, more out of order pictures, but back before school was out I took C, NK, and C to Gym Bugs to play and meet our friend Olivia once more before summer break! They had a blast as usual!

Such a good baby, this guy hangs out in the kitchen happily while I make everyone's breakfast each day.  He is so easy going, and I appreciate this SO very much!

These three love to help in the kitchen! They help frequently! I can't remember what we were making here...I think it was amish cinnamon bread!

"Can we eat outside?!" The most common question I get right before meal time.  We have tried to eat outside as much as possible this summer when it's not too hot!

Celebrating Lolly's birthday.

Nora Kate colored this Shopkins coloring sheet for her.

The kids wanted lots of sprinkles so I convinced them to just make the numbers out of sprinkles instead of covering the whole cake in them!

And again, lots of helpers to blow out candles!

May was a great month, and I am so excited to have all four kids home all the time this summer! I couldn't be happier that the end of May means summer break begins! YAY!