Beck's First Thanksgiving!

Poor Beck-o was under the weather this Thanksgiving!  He slept through the Gobble Jog and the entire Thanksgiving dinner - poor little thing!  Our happy, easy going baby was so fussy, we decided on Black Friday to take him to the doctor (closed) and ended up at Urgent Care with a 3 hour wait (Thanks to Ryan who took him and waited 2.5 hours until I finally got there and traded off!)  He had a 103 temperature when we got there - yikes!  After lots of motrin/tylenol and a few doses of Amoxycillin, our baby boy is finally getting back to his old self and we are so happy to see his little smiling face again! :) Ryan just took a few pictures of him in his Thanksgiving hat that Ali made for him. I thought it was cute b/c she wrote a word on each of the feathers and it said "It My First". :)  Happy First Thanksgiving Beckeroo - we are thankful you are feeling better!

So much to be thankful for!

I am feeling incredibly grateful this Thanksgiving! I feel like there is so much that I take for granted on a daily basis, that sometimes God has a way of showing me how blessed we are!

We kicked off our Thanksgiving celebrating last week with Rhodes' Thanksgiving Feast at school!  Love our sweet Wooga and her precious class and wonderful teachers!

 Precious friends for life! :) Lauren, Jack, Rhodes, James, Webb, Lee, Andrew, Lottie and Kamryn

 Rhodes and our buddy, Lee-bo

 Three amigos - Lottie, Lauren and Rhodesy

 Later last week, we had Ali's Thanksgiving play at West Side - it was precious!  Can you spot our little Pilgrim Woman?

 Ryan and I took the girls to our first family game (missing Beck!!) this Saturday...thankful for fun family time!

 We are loving the lazy life of Thanksgiving week - wearing pajamas as long as we want and lots of good, quality time together!
Watching sisters play from the window (another one of Beck's favorite spots!)

 Playing in our backyard full of fall leaves

 Where are Ali and Rhodes?

 Raking Beck into a leaf pile

Beck is into pulling up to his knees (but, loves to pull all the way up on the fireplace - yikes!) and we all love seeing his smiling face looking out of his crib when we go in his room in the morning.  If only it didn't also make me a nervous wreck all night that he is somehow going to jump out of his bed!  :)  The girls wanted to get in with him the other morning for a photo op!

 We spent our ENTIRE Thanksgiving Eve cooking for Thanksgiving, cleaning, and doing crafts!! Busy day!  The girls worked hard on Pilgrim and Indian hats for all of our Thanksgiving guests! 

We kicked off our Thanksgiving morning with our Thanksgiving tradition of the Gobble Jog!  Ryan did the 10K first - we were proud of our daddy!

 Then, Ryan joined me (and Beck) for the 5K and the girls got to ride in the lead car with my parents to start the race!

 My sweet little 5K buddy - he wasn't feeling so hot! :(

 Ali and Rhodes were excited to do the Tot Trot too!

 They were so fast, I almost missed them pass by! (I actually did miss Ali! We think she was the 1st girl to cross the finish line - they both were fast!)

We switch off years with our families for Thanksgiving and this year was with the Tumlin crew.  I was excited to get to host everyone at our house and had fun cooking Thanksgiving sides while Ryan fried us a yummy turkey!  It was a fun, exhausting day and we all crashed hard last night!! I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!!

9 months old!

The littlest man in our lives turned 9 months old on Sunday!  Always hard to believe....but this year has FLOWN!!  He is an army crawling mess that starts to crawl on all 4, but can get around so fast on his belly that he prefers the army crawl!  He has two top teeth coming in and pulled up for the first time last week!  I forget how all of a sudden so many changes can take place to make a little baby seem so big so fast!  I already feel like the "boy" in him is shining through as he is obsessed with doors, wall outlets, cords and  fireplaces and this house is in need of some major baby proofing! He is still such a laid back and happy baby, but a very busy baby too, when given the chance! :)  He loves to eat and prefers to feed himself, but still will eat baby food, so I am thankful for that!  We love him tons and could eat him up!  Happy 9 months, Beck!

SIX!

Hard to believe, but my first sweet little love turned 6 on November 8th!  She is so sassy, sweet, smiley and smart and we love her so!   

She kicked off her birthday week by heading up to Athens with my dad and brothers! She had a BLAST and got lots of attention (and popcorn, cotton candy, and frozen lemonade, etc!).  She even made it through the entire game!!

Ali is like her Mama and takes birthdays very seriously!  Phew!  Now I feel bad for all of the expectations my family (and husband!!) have had to endure for all of my birthdays!  We kicked off her birthday with 6 year old birthday pancakes, then Ryan and I both met her at school for a special birthday lunch!

We ended the night with Chuck E Cheese (we let her choose dinner and expected La Parilla or Hibachi - but, we were wrong!) with all 4 of her grandparents and our friends, the Holles!  She was so hyper and excited, we did not know if she would ever go to bed that night - it was the perfect end to a fun birthday!

And, finally, on Sunday afternoon, we had a little painting birthday party with a few friends to celebrate our big girl!

I thank God every day for changing our lives forever 6 years ago!  Our bright, artistic, fun Ali B fills our lives with so much joy and makes us proud every day!  Love you, sweet pea!

Catching up - October! Iphone edition

To catch us back up to speed, I downloaded pictures from my iphone to sum up the last few weeks/month(s).  Right after I downloaded them, my iphone crashed and won't turn on anymore - so if you need to reach me, send me an email! :)

My girl is getting big and independent and LOVING school....about a month ago, I walked in and she showed me she had figured out how to tie her own shoes!

 Our lives have definitely changed.  We get in carpool line around 3:00 to sit in line and get home around 3:30 and my big girl sits down to knock out her (quick) homework.  3:00 and after have become a whirlwind with activities most days after school and homework and then nighttime routines...it's a whole new world for us!  I was thrilled to win "Carpool queen" at the Fall Festival last week - I get to pull up to carpool line at 3:15 for three months and go straight to the front....it's the little things...but this made my week! :)

She loved having all FOUR of her grandparents come eat lunch with her for Grandparent's Day at school!

 

We had a big birthday around here recently....we had fun celebrating 4 years of Rhodes with a horse party in our backyard.  Rhodes had been talking about it for about a year and she was in Heaven!

We have been enjoying this beautiful Fall weather with dinner and play time outside before bed!

My little man is getting bigger by the minute!  He took his first stroll through Publix in the big boy seat!

We had fun at the Fair!

I thought this was a cute picture Brittany sent of the police visiting Rhodes' school!

Rhodes officially turned 4 (10 days after her party!)

(and had a little case of bedhead!)

I can't believe this love of mine is FOUR!  I love her so and she makes every day an adventure! What a fun four years they have been!

Ali needed to show how old she is too!

I went to school on her birthday and we celebrated with donuts with friends!

And then, of course, La Parilla for dinner!

We did some more celebrating that week as Ali was picked to be Superhero (student) of the month for her class! So proud of her!

And we celebrated with a birthday cake milkshake! Yum!

And made her poster to go outside her classroom door!

We had check-ups! (stop growing!)

And a fun trip to Highlands with friends - where we went to the Smoky Mountains one day and rode The Great Pumpkin train...so much fun!

Our weekends have been filled with birthday parties...

(There has definitely been a horse theme this year with parties!)

And our little man continues to be along for the ride with our busy schedules and just keeps growing!! (and keeps getting cuter and cuter, if you ask me....he's quite the little charmer!) :)

And in a blink of an eye...he turned 8 months!