February 2017

I usually start out our monthly updates very similiar "we had a fun month" or "another fun, busy month is in the books" but not this time.  GOOD BYE, FEBRUARY!  To be a short month it sure drug on with endless trips to the pediatricians office, perscpritions, doctors excuses, medicines, lysol, and on.  We have never had a month like this...or illnesses/germs like this, and I hope we never do again.  It started with Dawson bringing the flu home from school.  In the end he, Carter, and Nora Kate all got Influenza Strand B and this was the sickest I had ever seen them.  It was pitiful.  They got the Tamiflu but it was still horrible.  By some miracle John, Clayton, and I did not catch it.  Then before they had really recovered from the flu fully they got strep.  Rough times....I'm thankfully that we usually have very healthy children but this month has taken its' toll on us.  Whew! Goodbye, February!
The month started out great though...my role for PTO (actually called FTO) at Dawson's school was Chairperson for Winter Blast, which is a Winter Carnival they do indoors.  I had a lot of fun helping to organize this event, and it was busy but went really really well.  It was the first Friday of the month!  The kids had a lot of fun there too!  The next morning Dawson had a basketball game early.  John and grandad are coaching his team this year and they're all loving it! I enjoy watching Dawson play because he enjoys it and he's pretty good.  It's wild to think how much he has improved since the first year he played.  This is his third year.  
After the basketball game, John said he wanted to take us to Gatlinburg to stay the rest of the weekend.  It was such a fun, wonderful surprise!  We stayed at the Park Vista Hotel which was so fun! Our room was actually two rooms-one of which had two sets of bunk beds-the kids were in heaven!  The hotel had an amazing view...and, best part-several pools and water slides!  It was perfect for this cold dreary month to get to play inside in the pool!  It was such a wonderful weekend.  The only bad part was that I didn't get many pictures because we were in/near the water most of the time.  We swam and swam and went down the water slides more times than we could count.  Our favorite "trick" was a "quadruple" as the kids called it where me, then Dawson, then Carter, then Nora Kate would all four go down the curvy waterslide together.  So fun, such great memories made.  Clayton LOVES water, so of course he had a great time too! Here are the very few pictures I did get...

This is the beautiful view off our balcony.  I just couldn't get enough of this view. So so pretty.

Something about hotels gets kids excited, and something about being excited makes you dance and make strange faces. haha

Another view from our room.

Walking through Gatlinburg to lunch on Sunday.

As a side note-This was our first time up to Gatlinburg since the wildfires back in November, and it was crazy and sad to see all the destruction.

We really had such an amazing weekend and we were sad to see it come to an end.  The Park Vista was AWESOME!  We plan to go back!

Another Saturday morning, another basketball game.

Our countdown to Valentines Day Chain.

Carter loves counting down and he loves making these chains.

Clayton is always standing in his crib when I go in these days.

Sweet boy!

Carter got these Super Mario magnets back in December and he makes new video game levels on the fridge every day with them.  Love his creativity...and his love for pajamas. :)

Carter LOVES math worksheets...he's begs to do them and is always so proud when he's finished.

swWe had lots of at home time this month due to the illness, so I really tried to take advantage of the time and work with the kids on some things.  Nora Kate has been able to make her bed for a while now, but she needed some lessons on getting all the covers straight, etc.  This day she was really excited to have gotten her bed smoother than usual and asked me to take a picture.

Valentine's Day ended up being yucky because half the people in our house were sick...but not me and Clayton!!  SO, we had NK take a couple Valentine's Day pics of us haha!

Clayton's first Valentines!

You have to watch when he kisses you-it turns in to a bite on your cheek about 50 percent of the time!

We got out the musical table for Mr. Baby this month too and he LOVES it!

When everyone was finally well and we could leave the house, this guy was super excited to be in his carseat-cabin fever anyone?!

Looking so big

Dawson was out of school on a Monday and we headed to the park because it was  pretty mild day.  Carter had fun riding his scooter along the trail.

A few milder days meant we got to eat on the patio-always a hit!

Our president's day project was starting to grow this Donald Trump Chia...it's hilarious!

Loving the milder temps

Team Thunder!

One Saturday after basketball we headed up to Cades Cove-one of our favorite places!  It's easy to forget how beautiful it is where we live!

That's John, Dawson, and Carter racing to the car.

The kids love getting out to check out all the old buildings.  They were really excited in this cabin to go upstairs because it was called "Carter's Cabin"

And more basketball!

sDawson has been doing really well on defense and offense this year!  Proud of my boy!

Clayton is 11 Months

As of February 21st Clayton is 11 months.  ELEVEN MONTHS!  I'm not sure how he's already 11 months!  Only one month until we have a one year old.  

This past month Clayton's love for water has grown!  He has always loved a bath and continues to.  We also stayed in Gatlinburg for a weekend this past month at the Park Vista which has a few swimming pools, pop jets, and water slides.  Clayton LOVED being in the water-loved it!

Clayton continues to be a great baby!!  I'm so thankful because there are lots and lots of times he has to be happy just being along for the ride-like this past month we have spent every Saturday morning at Dawson's basketball games and he has done really well considering they've almost all been during his morning naptime.  

We celebrated Clayton's first Valentine's Day this past month too-unfortunately we didn't do anything exciting at all since his brothers and sisters were sick!  Thankfully even though they were really sick with the flu, we managed to keep Clayton well--I'm not sure how!

Clayton has continued to be a good eater.  He is trying more and more foods every day.    He tried egg this month even, but didn't really like it-I think it was more of a texture issue than taste.  We will continue to try it though.  He's still nursing A LOT and not taking any bottles and not really doing great with drinking from a sippy cup either.  It is making me wonder how we will ever wean him, but we will figure it out eventually I assume!

His very favorite and most common word to say is Dada!  When the kids finish drinking one of their "YETI" cups full of water they say "yeti, yeti, yeti" (we started this to try to encourage them to drink more water and they thought it was funny), well now Clayton imitates this and says "Yeti, Yeti, Yeti"--so funny!  He has also been saying "Yogurt" which sounds like "oo-gurt."  He loves yogurt.  He also tried mac and cheese this month and LOVES it too.  Another word he has started saying is "eat"-this boy likes his food!  Additionally he ate some creamy potato soup this month and devoured it.  He's been signing "more" on a lot more regular basis this month too.  And clapping A LOT.  He associates me saying "good job" with clapping.  The other evening I told Carter "Good job!" and I look over and Clayton is clapping.  This has happened a few times since then too.  

Clayton is cruising like crazy these days...he pulls up and cruises along anything and everything.  Lolly treated him to his first pair of shoes this month from Stride Rite.  I knew his feet were wide but he wears a 5 EXTRA WIDE.  I think we will be destined to shop at Stride Rite for a while for Mr. Baby.

Nora Kate started calling Clayton Mr. Baby a long time ago, as I'm sure I have recorded here before-well this has stuck and we STILL all call him Mr. Baby.  Our sweet Mr. Baby.  

Clayton is a super fast crawler these days.  He loves to play this little crawl away chase game with Carter and Nora Kate.  They all just laugh and laugh.  Clayton absolutely thrilled when they play with him.  He also loves to crawl UNDER everything.  He gets stuck under chairs and the train table on a regular basis because he crawls under and tries to sit up or stand up and then can't figure out how to back out! Haha!

Clayton's very very favorite book is Little Blue Truck.  Any time I get this book out he speed crawls from wherever he is to my lap to listen to it.  He points and claps at every page.  I LOVE IT!

He really likes all books and he gets so excited to play with balls too.  He likes to pick them up and try to throw them.  He also likes to try throwing other things too-like shoes.

Clayton has added LOTS of his own teeth marks to the crib.  I remember being upset when Dawson put scratches in the crib with his teeth.  Now there are teeth marks from all four kids and it's definitely something only a parent could love-but I love it!  Clayton has added far more marks to the crib than anyone else, but he has more teeth too!

I could go on and on about our sweet Mr. Baby.  We love our sweet Clayton so very much!

Just when I think getting pictures of Clayton is hard enough, he gets even busier.  He really wanted to stand in the chair this month for his pictures and check out the lamp on his table.  

Just for fun...so I will always remember when I look back at these...getting these monthly pictures wasn't always easy.

But it's so worth it!

sThis month was a struggle to get our monthly pictures.  Now that he's such a fast crawler, he just kept crawling off.  So this is as good as it got with him laying on his quilt.  Nora Kate (always wanting to help) tried to hold him down...that went well as you can see! Hah!

Saying "cheese"

This was all he wanted to do in the chair this month for his pics! Oh, Mr. Baby!

Nora Kate is 3.5 Years Old

On February 14th (Valentine's Day), Nora Kate turned 3 AND A HALF!

The "half"s are a big deal when you're this age, and there has been a lot of talk leading up to this about how soon she would be not three but three and a half.  Honestly, they change SO much so quickly when they're little that half a year does make a big difference.

Nora Kate is a wonderful helper.  She says she wants to be a "Mama" when she grows up, and I can totally see it!  She takes care of Clayton so well for a 3 year old!  She cracks us up though because she will say, "When I grow up I wanna be a Mama and I'm going to have ten babies.  They're all going to be pink babies.  They will all be named "Baby Girl Clayton."  Translation-she's going to have all names, and to make things easier just name them all the same! I love that she's enjoyed Clayton as a baby so much though that she wants babies like him.  So sweet.  I also LOVE more than I can describe that she wants to be a Mama.  Speaking of "Mama's"-Dawson and Carter have always called me Mommy, well Nora Kate, being Nora Kate, couldn't just stick with that and has always called me "Mama."  I love it....Mama goes perfect with her deep Southern Accent (more on that in a minute) and it's SO her personality that she would change my "name."  

As for the accent, people always comment that Nora Kate talks like she's from way further south than Tennessee...many times we hear that she talks like "a little Southern lady"- we have heard people say "from Southern Georgia" or "from Mobile."  Probably the most "Southern" sounding word she says is "Carter"-She manages to say this with no R's, usually with her hand on her hip or arms crossed, and drawing it out into multiple syllables!

Nora Kate loves all the boys in her life-Daddy is, of course, her favorite and she loves to climb on his lap, back, shoulders, whatever.  She loves dates with Daddy and riding in the Jeep with Daddy (which is a big deal since we never drive the Jeep as a family since we don't all fit).  

She also loves her brothers.  Nora Kate and Carter are two peas in a pod-they play so, so well together when Dawson's at school.  They are both awesome at using their imagination to play and come up with the wildest, funniest, silliest games together.  There's always lots of laughter with these two together.  John and I also say that these two are "thick as thieves."  I'm pretty sure that whatever these two could plot together could get them both into lots of trouble...haha!  Even though they're so close in age, Carter frequently likes to remind Nora Kate that he's older.  This has helped Nora Kate perfect the arms crossed/brow furrowed look.  

Nora Kate and Dawson have a sweet relationship too.  Dawson is much more likely to help NK, and she knows this so she frequently asks him for help (whether she needs it or not).  She looks up to him and listens to him pretty well too.  She likes to ask him (VERY SPECIFIC) questions about school ("Dawson, did you eat lunch with Samir today?" "Dawson did you do a math worksheet today with take away probelms?")  I think it's sweet she wants to ask about his day though.

Nora Kate loves Clayton as I've already described, and she asks all the time if they can share a room.  We have promised her that eventually they can-when she learns to go to sleep without verbally recounting her whole day to herself and when Clayton learns to sleep through the night...haha!  She says she can't wait to let Clayton live in her room! hah!

Nora Kate is great at capital letter recognition, numbers, shapes, and we are really working on a few lower case letters that we still don't always remember right now.  We are also working on perfecting writing our name.

About her name...Nora Kate only likes to be called Nora Kate.  (I'm so glad, we have purposefully always called her both names).  She's been (politely) correcting people lately if they just call her Nora.  We do occasionally say "NK" and she doesn't mind that.

Nora Kate's hair continues to be blonde and curly.  We still haven't had it cut-ever! It's actually a lot longer than it looks...when it's wet it is past her shoulder blades and then it springs back up into curls.  People everywhere we go comment on her curly hair and she smiles, loving the attention.  We really do nothing to her hair other than try to pick through it with a little leave in conditioner.  It really does just dry in these curls.  The winter is a little tougher like right now, because it's hard to make her hair air dry when it's so chilly, but the hair dryer is not a friend of curls! Haha!

Our sweet Nora Kate loves laughing, being silly, helping, giving hugs, holding hands, coloring, reading, singing in the car, and is just so sweet.  We just love this 3.5 year old!

When I get the February blog up, you will read about how all the kids were sick in February when she turned 3.5 years old, and when I took these pictures they were all on the mend.  Now, looking back at these pictures though-I can see in her eyes that she still wasn't feeling 100 percent.  Sweet girl!

Mama, I am done taking pictures!