Wednesday, October 29, 2014

September 2014

September was a lot of fun!  We spent what warm weather days we had left at the pool with friends!  Dawson and Carter have really taken off swimming this year--Carter with his puddle jumper(but still putting his face under water), and now Dawson can swim like never before-in deep or shallow- with no floats or noodles!  He finally doesn't mind to go underwater!  Nora Kate loves being held in the water and floating around in it too.  We are SO grateful to our friends, the Myers, for letting us swim all.the.time this summer!  SO FUN!  Here are some pictures from swimming on Labor Day weekend with friends!
 


left to right: Carson, Carter, Colt, Nora Kate, Dawson, Harper, and Olivia
(Charlie, Charlie, and Nora were there too, but somehow didn't make it in the picture!)


These two sweet kids have been champs about sitting on the sidelines 2 hours a week for soccer this fall.  1 hour on Wednesday evenings for practice and another hour on Saturdays for games.  As you can see from the top picture, they don't always love it-but they usually do well!

Dawson kicking!

Dawson was thrilled to make his name out of jello at school one day!

More soccer

Dawson is number 7.

Dawson has always loved helping me cook...and he still does!

For grandparents day in early September, we made these for Lolly and Pop and Nana and Grandad.  We tapped of the word family, then the boys (and Nora Kate for a brief minute) finger painted the canvas.  After it dried we peeled the tape off to reveal the word "family" and I added the quote.

Our Sunday School had a big breakfast picnic at the Greenbelt Park one morning! I love seeing all these sweet kids represented by our Sunday School!

Harper, William, and Nora Kate had fun playing together at the Sunday School picnic.

Happy Grandparents Day, Nana and Grandad!

Happy Grandparents Day, Lolly and Pop!

Dawson and Bentley.

This is our Sunday School class at the breakfast picnic!

We finally ran out of our last batch of homemade laundry detergent, so one morning I had Carter help me on the "special project" of making more! He loved it and took his job very serious!


One morning when Dawson was at school, I took just Carter and Nora Kate to the park.  Nora Kate was proudly showing me a piece of a wood chip in this picture.
(On a side note, look at her legs!!!! LOVE them!)

Carter at the park.

We have a climber.
When this picture was taken Nora Kate wasn't even walking yet, but still she found a way to step on a wooden truck and get her leg just high enough to get on the train table. ugh!
 

Carter begs to ride Dawson's bike now!

I downloaded a bunch of new educational apps for Dawson on the iPad.  We don't play on it a lot, but when we do it's a special treat he loves!

In September John met up with a bunch of Alabama friends for the annual Guys Golf Weekend in Atlanta!  They had a great time hanging out, playing golf, and watching the PGA Tour of Champions.  John brought this hat home for Dawson from his trip!

Remember that type writer Dawson wanted for Christmas so badly last year...well, he still loves it!

Every week or so they have a color day at Dawson's school.  The first color day was back in September and was yellow.  We all decided to participate!

A fun morning at Tumble Bears with Carter and Nora Kate while Dawson was at school!


John is so great with the kids!  One night he decided to camp in the backyard with the boys.  I was skeptical how it would go, but it went GREAT!  They slept until about 7:15 the next morning in the tent and have continued to ask when they can do it again.  They loved backyard camping!

Zoo trip! Feeding the budgies!

Zoo trip!

Zoo trip!

Zoo trip!

Zoo trip!

Zoo trip!  "Look at that animal!"

For the past year the Knoxville Zoo has had a giraffe feeding area, BUT the giraffes were never cooperative and willing to eat UNTIL this time!  The kids loved it...except Carter was  little grossed out by the giraffe's long tongue!



Love our evening walks.

Soccer game Saturday!


Dawson was thrilled when his cousin, Hailey, got to come watch a soccer game!!

My friend, Kristin, is pregnant with her first child-A GIRL!  Here we are at her baby shower in Septmber!


On September 21 it was the 13 year anniversary of our first date.  Here's a picture from the first week were were dating!

2 years ago, Dawson was in the paper and-surprise-they reran his picture this month!

In late September, I had to go to Vanderbilt for a doctor's appointment, so John and I made the best of having to leave the kids and drive there for the day.  We ate breakfast at the neat place called The Pfunky Griddle...You cook your own breakfast on the griddle on your table.  Really neat!

Nana gave Dawson these slippers, and he loves them!  One Saturday after soccer this was what he decided to wear the rest of the morning! Hah!

John turned 30 on September 27!


Dawson made him this big banner!

Happy Birthday!

Our church had a family fun Sunday afternoon with inflatables, outdoor fun, and hayrides.  Our kids ALWAYS LOVE inflatables!


Dawson had class pictures at school this month.  Here's his sweet class.

One evening John took the boys somewhere, and I bathed Nora Kate by herself.  She was so funny in the tub alone!  She kept smiling and splashing around!  I don't think she knew what to do without her brothers in there.  Look at her sweet smile!

Carter was a little jealous of Dawson's iPad time, so we downloaded a couple learning apps for him too.  He loves it!

Dawson was SO proud of this project he made in art at school!  He said he loved it because he got to "work with wood! AND use a hammer!"

Dawson's class did an owl unit at school, and they dissected an owl pellet!!!  (I remember doing this for the first time in middle school, so I was impressed!)  He brought these bones home and told me all about them! 
In September John and Grandad took the boys to the Tennessee Valley Fair!  This was Carter's first time.  They all had a blast!




 
Well that wraps up September!  Watch for a post coming soon on Carter being TWO AND A HALF, Nora Kate being 14 months, and October!!!

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Nora Kate is 13 Months

Our sweet Nora Kate is 13 months!  (On a side note, I typed this post on September 14, but I had problems getting it posted to the blog until now!) 
Although Nora Kate still has a lot of little rolls to love, John and I really think she is beginning to thin out-I love her rolly-polly-ness and am NOT ready for her to grow up so quickly that she's already thinning out like a toddler.  Slow down, NK! 
Nora Kate's personality is showing more and more every day!  She LOVES to be silly!  She wrinkles her little nose up and smiles when she's being silly or laughing.
The biggest change this month....NK can walk!!  She still crawls 99% of the time, but she has taken a few unassisted steps!  She's great at cruising and does this a lot too! 
Nora Kate wants to do everything her brothers do and play with everything they have-she's very interested in everything they say too and is always craning around to see them if I'm blocking her view. 
She's an easy going little girl as far as entertaining herself when I'm trying to get us ready to take Dawson to school in the mornings or I'm preparing lunch or dinner-this is nice-especially since there are a couple of other little ones around here who are not as great at self-entertainment! 
She's generally very happy and content.
Nora Kate sleeps through the night about 65-70% of the time now-YAY!!!!  It's tough now when she does wake up since she's not nursing, all I can do is give her the pacifier and hope she settles back down--thankfully though, she usually settles pretty quickly when she does wake up these days!
No one can maker her sillier, rowdier, or happier than Dawson, Carter, or Daddy!  She loves these three sweet guys in her life! 
It has become *almost* impossible to get a picture of her with her brothers (as you will see below in the monthly sibling photo) because she gets so excited to be sitting so close to the boys that they all three get rowdy! I love to see all three of them interacting more and more each day.  I'm so glad that they will always have siblings so close in age as they grow up, and I really do hope and pray that they are always great friends.  They're so very sweet to each other (most of the time!) now! 
Nora Kate did not have a 13 month check up, but we can tell she's grown!  Specifically we can tell that our baby girl has gotten taller/longer this month since her birthday as well!
A couple new words Nora Kate has added to her vocabulary this month include cat, daws (some variation of the letters in Dawson's name that sounds enough like Dawson we know who she means-hah), and right back.
I could go on and on about our precious baby girl, but I'll let these pictures wrap it up...
 
 
(Sorry for the blurry pictures--she doesn't stop moving!)

13 months