Clayton is 4.5

A few pictures from the past six months of our sweet, funny, outgoing, opinionated, independent, hilarious, baseball-loving, bike-riding (with no training wheels), baby brother of the family CLAYTON!

Go Clayton and Giants!

He loves the beach!

Picking grapes. He was the perfect height to get under the vines and see the grapes for us!

Always the life of the party.

He definitely has favorite shirts for every season and really wants to just wear those on repeat. This has been one from summer.

Loves twinning with his siblings.

With his buddy Ruby

Picking peaches

On a boat with Daddy fishing in the ocean. His favorite part was playing with the shrimp bait—yuck!!!

 Our sweet baby is FOUR AND A HALF as of September 21! This half has been a big deal this time around.  Now that Clayton is 4 AND A HALF, he loves to say, “I think so-and-so is just four, not four AND A HALF like me.” He’s feeling big....and he’s acting big too.  There have been lots of changes over the last six months for Clayton. The biggest one being that he started preschool.  His teacher is Ms. Cindy and the most frequently talked about friends from school are Everett, Asher, Vivian (he always has a sweet little smile when he talks about Vivian), and Beck.  We’ve had a few funny stories from his preschool this year.  For weeks and weeks he told me about two kids in the other 4 year old class.  He told me one was named Fork.  The next day he told me there was another kid named Pan.  I questioned him and he smiled slyly.  I couldn’t figure this out, despite lots and lots of trying....Fork and Pan?!  Really?!  He said yes.  Finally he confessed there was no kid named Pan that he had made that one up to be friends with Fork. (Hah). But he promised there was a kid named Fork.  I couldn’t figure it out...FINALLY I got a look at the class list for the other 4’s...his name is Ford!  One other funny from his first school experience is that for weeks he told us they were getting to play in the cornfield, and while there are tons of farms around us here in Alabama his school is in downtown...not near a field.  I asked him if there was corn in the field-no. I asked him if there was grass, other plants, if it was  big-no.  I couldn’t figure it out.  Finally Dawson said that he thought maybe Clayton meant courtyard.  OH! YES! Clayton said he did mean courtyard.  I’m not sure if he had never heard the term court yard before or if that was just what he thought his teacher was saying through her mask when she was telling them they were headed to the courtyard, but we all got a good laugh out of this one.  Clayton has done pretty well about preschool despite getting a little sad when we returned from the beach about having to get back in the school routine. He goes to school two mornings a week from 8-12, so he’s basically there the same time that the big three are at their school each week.  He feels big getting to have school time that overlaps with theirs.  He asks every day if it’s a “building day or a homeschool day.” On our homeschool day he has a journal that he works in, Bob book curriculum, math seeds, reading eggs, and lots of other little projects I find for him on Pinterest.  He says homeschool days are his favorite, but he always has lots of great things to tell me about preschool when I pick him up too.

Look at that sweet face.  This was one morning at preschool before I dropped him off. He requested a selfie with me. Sweet smile.

In addition to school being a big change, another big change for Clayton in the last six months has been getting to play his first sport! I honestly cannot remember how long Clayton has been telling us he wants to be a “base baller” but it seems like forever. It is especially interesting because no one else in our family plays baseball, so it’s not like he sees them and wants to copy.  He has also always had surprisingly good hand eye coordination with a bat and ball for his age. So when baseball sign ups for t-ball/wee ball rolled around I signed him up. John was one of the assistant coaches for his team. Clayton was placed on the Giants and so was his buddy Cooper. This made it extra fun for him. I think Clayton looks like a little baseball player.  He loved playing his first sport and can’t wait to play again. 

Baseballer Clayton with his Gatorade

Coloring Easter Eggs

Go Clayton!

Clayton with his siblings and buddy Cooper eating homemade ice cream they made by shaking ingredients in a bag!

Clayton loves travel more than I knew any kid could.  He always requests to go to the beach or a hotel anywhere.  I think it started when we went to D.C., but he loves traveling, packing, hotels, condos, different places. I joke that he will be our world traveler one day...hopefully he invites me to tag along.

When we adopted Duke back in June, I was hopeful that Duke would love all the kids equally though some might be rougher with him than others...and Duke does.  It has been really sweet to see Clayton love a puppy and take care of him.  Duke really does LOVE Clayton...and the feeling is mutual. Duke loves to go in Claytons room each night as we are tucking him in and put his two front legs on the bed as if he’s telling him goodnight. Each morning when Clayton gets up, Duke practically gallops across the room to greet him.

Clayton loves the beach as much as his Mommy.

Here he is holding a pin fish we caught in the cast net.  Clayton loves holding fish and throwing them back in the water. When we fish in our neighborhood, he says wearing the glove and throwing the fish back in is his favorite part. Haha

Looking so big on the first day of pre-school.

We cannot believe that 4.5 years have passed so quickly, but what excitement, joy, energy, laughter, snuggles, and FUN our sweet Mr. Baby has brought to our family.  We love our Clayton so very much!

Happy half birthday!

September 2020

 September was a fun month! We had loads and loads of time at the soccer field, boy scouts started up for Dawson, Clayton was doing great in preschool, similarly the big 3 had gotten into a pretty good routine with homeschool/building days, we were still getting in plenty of sunshine and swim time at the pool, we made a very last minute trip to Tennessee Labor Day weekend, John and I squeezed in a night away, Dawson got to join middle school band as a 5th grader, John went on his annual guys golf weekend, Lolly visited, lots of time at gymnastics for Nora Kate, we celebrated John's birthday, and went to the beach! 

Clayton has gotten into doing perler beads.  This is great for his fine motor skills, and he thinks it's fun!

Carter is playing for the White Ninjas this year.  He is number 4, and is doing AWESOME!

He loves every minute.  Soccer is definitely the sport he is passionate about.

Nora Kate is playing for the Blue Birds this year.  She has really surprised me with her competitive spirit about soccer this season, and she is playing so hard! She is aggressive and loves to dribble, pass, and has scored several goals already this season!

As I mentioned, we took a VERY last minute trip to Tennessee for Labor Day weekend.  One Friday John called and the kids and I were at the pool.  He suggested we drive up to Tennessee in a couple hours after he got off.  I scrambled and got our stuff together, and it was a fun weekend.

We wanted to do a hike while we were there.  One that had been on our list for a couple of years was Alum Cave Trail in the Smokies.  It was just over 5 miles, and was absolutely beautiful.

These are pictures from the hike.

This was at the top.  This hike was unlike any other we have done in the Smokies before.  It almost felt disorienting to stand in this "cave" so high up.

We made it!

Looking up at the final climb.

trail head

there was a handy little rope to hold as you went through this little cave on the trail.

it had lots of neat bridges which the kids love.

one more picture from the top

The next evening the kids spent the night with Nana and Grandad and John and I got away for the night to Gatlinburg.  It was nice and relaxing.  We stayed at our favorite-the park vista.  This is the view from our room.

balcony selfie

The kids had a blast without us.  They went to the Knoxville Zoo.

We got to visit with Lolly while we were in town too.

Clayton always snuggles Duke so sweetly...especially when he first gets home from school.  Duke loves it.

Clayton has loved his soccer field buddies this season. Here he his with Harper.

One time it was 99 degrees for our evening soccer game, but Clayton insisted on wearing his full Mandolorian suit

My two soccer players.  I wanted a picture of them, but in true middle child form these two were being super silly...Carter was trying to pick NK up.

There's a good one.  Can you tell this was after NK's game (red cheeks) and before Carter's?

Go white ninjas! Go blue birds!

Our favorite orchard right down the road, Isom's has delicious Apple Cider Slushies in the fall.  Here are the kids enjoying theirs!

John's golf weekend.

While John was on his guys weekend, the kids and I had fun at the Space and Rocket Center.

astronaut Clayton

Nora Kate has discovered hair chalk and LOVES it!  She wants to wear it all.the.time.

Her favorite excuse to wear it is for soccer games.  She likes blue stripes in her hair for the blue birds when they have games.

Lolly came to visit and we had a great time.  She got to see Nora Kate and Carter both play in soccer games, go to get apple cider slushies, tag along for school drop off/pick up, and enjoy all the wild fun the kids always have at home.

Here's Lolly at their soccer games.

Sometimes when we don't have anything to do, the only thing to do is drag the inflatable out.  Every time I think the kids have outgrown this they end up having more fun than ever in it.  Duke doesn't understand why he can't play in it, but he's happy to watch his people.  Check out that beautiful sunset sky!

Clayton loves to lay on his puppy.

Dawson's had some neat science experiments.  Here he had to grow mold on three different foods in three different conditions.

Dawson's also loving the drawing club he is a part of.  This was his first drawing of the year.

We had one cool evening in September and decided to break out the firepit.  Duke's first fire.  The kids like to do charades when we have fires in the pit, so I think that's what Carter is doing here.

The end of the month was our trip to the beach and John's birthday which is in a separate post.  September was a great month!