This week! (end of August-First Week of September 2013)

One thing we love about living where we do is seeing these all the time!  They guy that owns the company actually lives in our neighborhood.  It is so fun to see them a couple of times a week when we're out driving around!  The boys get so excited!  

Bates has started loving to color!  He tries so hard to stay in the lines.  It usually looks like a little scribble but it is great for a 2 1/2 year old and he LOVES it!

Our car had to be towed on Thursday and Mimi picked Caden up from school.  The next day, she helped us by picking up our van and took us to Moe's for lunch!  The boys had fun watching them make their burritos and loved choosing what went on them!

Mimi, Bates and Caden at Moe's (Which Bates calls Welcome to Moe's :) ).

Calder

Briggs just watched us eat.  I took an applesauce for him and he LOVED it!

Then Mimi went to Target with us and introduced the Bates to Starbucks at Target!  She got the boys drinks and he was all about drinking his!

She got the big two one of these to take to the beach on our mission trip in a few weeks!

Cass had to speak at the Atlanta Mission Thursday night so it was a LONG day at the house!  The boys did a GREAT job going to bed early (I put them down before 7 because it was a long day with no naps) so I set the table with a fun breakfast to say THANKS!  They were so surprised the next morning!  They played candy land while we made pancakes before they went to school!  Sometimes it's the little things in life that bring so much happiness!  Our family is all about the little things!

LOVE seeing them sleep.  No matter how big they get!  Calder was OUT!  And he is always in a strange position...and this night didn't make it to his pajamas!

Bates is notorious for taking his clothes and diaper off and sleeping naked.  Caught him sound asleep with NOTHING on!  Bless him.  He is a silly, silly kid.

Calder's last request before school started back for him was to go to work with Cass.  Cass took him on Thursday and Caden was at school.  Bates and Briggs were out with me so we checked out a new thrift store in town.  Bates saw this truck and fell in love!  It was half off the thrift store price so of course I let him buy it!  A HUGE treat because we don't buy stuff just to buy it at our house!  He is still so proud that it is his!

Carpool line at Caden's school.  They meet in an office park.  Seems a little strange sitting back by loading docks waiting on your kid to come out but we LOVE his school and are SOOOOOOO thankful that he is able to go there!  We couldn't think of a better place for him to be!

Caden's Self-Portrait from his first art class at school!  They used multi-media to do it and he did a great job!  Love the hair behind his ear!

Calder was still with Cass when we picked Caden up and they requested to go to Sam's to see if they had any samples.  SO...we went...and they had some GREAT samples!  We had a great time!

When we got home, Bates came in and asked where he could go to the bathroom (he is not potty trained yet).  We told him on the toilet and he said , "No, outside.".  SO, we let him go in the back yard and try.  Cracked me up that he was trying to go while wearing a john john.  He is a precious and silly little boy!

On Friday, Calder had a Meet the Teacher day!  His class is all about Dr. Seuss!  We  LOVED his teachers and he made a craft for his door while we were there!  We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about his preschool and all that he will learn this year!  God has truly blessed us with all that we are involved in here in GA!  We LOVE it!

Having his picture made on Meet the Teacher Day!

Making his craft!

Mommy and Calder! (Briggs was attached to me!)

Daddy and Calder

We have been working, for a long time, on getting our house the way we want it.  Now that we are doing a homeschool type of school for Caden, we decided to make our formal living room a school room!  I used curtains from Bates nursery in there and we painted two school desks for the boys.  We had an old china cabinet of my parents for our book in there and found a dresser on  Cumming Garage Sale for 35.00!  We were SOOOO excited!  We pictured it painted and knew it would be perfect!  Cass loves using his tools so I had him do a little project making a frame for our white board in the school room!  He is SUPER!  It turned out GREAT!!!  I LOVE IT!!!  Here he is getting started on it!

Holding it up for me to see!  LOVE!

Showing me what it will look like!  

Adding all of the detail with his router!

We are big budgeters and healthy eaters.  I took this picture the other night to show one way we save money AND eat less!  This is one chicken breast cut up.  Both breasts were the same size.  Most would eat a whole piece of chicken.  I cut it up and put it on five salads and it feeds us all and we have one for a salad the next night!  Incredible how much more it looks like when you cut it up!

Our salads the other night.  The big two would choose salad over almost anything for dinner!

We let Bates stay up a little late and hang out.  He wanted to water the flowers with his Mickey watering can.  So cute!

Bates and Calder get into EVERYTHING!  They do it super fast and are very sneaky and quiet about it.  I must admit, I actually laugh a little when it happens.  This was Bates with me and Cass right around the corner!  Flour and Hershey's Cocoa!  Silly kid!  We even have a pantry lock but his partner in crime (Calder) unlocked it for him!

All three of the big boys LOVE to play dress up with their costumes (which I buy every year after Halloween at 90% off!  Makes them super cheap!  Caden's was a little short that time :)

Bates Buzz!

Hamburger Bates!

LOVE Caden's feet coming out of the bucket in the background...and how messy the costumes are everywhere in there!

Watching TV in the den after dress-up time!

He LOVES to be outside!

Saturday, we had a little water balloon fight.  I filled up the balloons and then gave them each a bowl to throw!

Daddy got in on the fun, too!

The second frame he made for the den!  Needs paint and I need to order the canvas!

Happy 7 Months to Briggs!  The past 7 months have FLOWN by! He is the sweetest best baby EVER!  I LOVE watching him grow up and am thankful to be able to spend every day with him.  He has a precious smile and is the happiest most laid back baby. Love all of his snuggles and how many smiles and laughs he adds to our family!

He is all over his crib and is always snuggled up to something different every time we go in his room!

He fell asleep while we were in church on Mrs. Danielle!  SO thankful he is loved when we drop him off!  He was in the coaches room when we got down there just snoozing away :)

We added this chalk board to the school room, too.  We painted an old picture frame I had in my apartment in college!  Cass cut a board and we painted it with chalkboard paint.  The chair was ready to be recovered!

White board and frame over the dresser we painted!

Writing the verse and big idea for September on the board for the boys!

Glad Cass is artistic :)  I can't make it look near as fun as he can!

We bought a chair at Goodwill in Northport when we lived there.  It has moved our SIX moves over the past year with us and we finally decided to go for it and recover it ourselves!  We didn't want to spend what it would cost to have it done so we took it apart and put it back together in the same order.  It was QUITE THE PROJECT!  There were HUNDREDS of staples in the chair to pull out BUT we are so happy with the end result!  It's so fun to learn how to do new things!

The boys had fun watching...and helping :)

 

Cass worked super hard on it!

Getting there!

Calder cleaned the playroom while we were working on the chair and was proud of it! (he isn't the quickest or best cleaner in the house but did a fantastic job!)  He took a picture when he was finished! 

The finished chair!  I didn't sew the bottom piece straight (at least it doesn't look like I got the dots straight) but you always learn for next time AND we still love it!  Crooked dots and all!

Daddy and the boys snuggling in it when we finished!

Love that they have a Dad that is SOOOOOOOOOO involved in their lives!

We took them to the pool that night for one last summer swim before the pool closes.  Caden looked silly walking home so I snapped a picture :)

Then, on Tuesday, Calder started Jr. Kindergarten!  We are in love with his preschool!  It's at First Baptist where we live and we couldn't ask for a better program!  It doesn't even come close to comparing to any of the preschools available where we lived in Alabama!  We LOVE his teachers this year and are looking forward to all of the fun projects they do and things they learn!  He will even have homework every night!  We held him back because he has a summer birthday and we love that they have a class for kids his age!

He wanted me to drop him off on the first day instead of going in :(  SO SAD!  He is getting so big!  He also didn't want to wear an appliqued shirt :(  I've always made their first day of preschool shirts but he wanted to wear a shirt like "Daddy" on his first day!

Love the carpool line!  I'm probably strange because I really do love the carpool line!

Then Briggs, Caden and I rushed to Cagle Dairy Farm to meet the 1st-5th grade families from Caden's school for his first field trip!  Bates spent the night with Mimi and Poppy the night before so that we could get everyone where they needed to be!

We started in the barn with the animals they could feed.  Right up Caden's alley!  He LOVES animals and was in heaven petting and feeding the cows and goats!  They had chicken's and turkeys, too, but we weren't allowed to give them food!

Then we went to watch them milk a cow and learn all about that process!  It was neat to watch!  They let the kids go touch the cow and feel the vaccum they put on them to get the milk out!

This was in the field :)

Our group (there were four groups so a lot of young kids!)

Then we went to watch some pig races and headed to the hayride!  

We watched a dog herd sheep and cows!  It was neat to watch and for Caden to learn and see how it happens!

After the hayride, they were handed food to go feed some goats!

This one kept licking his hand :)

Then each child picked a little pumpkin, washed hands and headed to eat lunch with all of the other families!

After lunch they had a jumping pillow for the kids to play on!  It was a FUN day and a great field trip!  I'm SO grateful to be able to be a part of a school that partners with families and allows me so much time to be with and teach my children.  We are SO happy we found Legacy!

And, on the way home we found a bread store :)  This is our favorite bread and it was only 50 cents a loaf!  You know you have a lot of kids when you buy three loaves of bread at a time and go through it in a week!  Our boys love some sandwiches!

Cutie pie Bates hanging out in the school room!

Love seeing the boys play...even if it does make a mess :)  We have the rest of our lives to have a clean house...right???

Caught this precious pic of Briggs eating applesauce!  He is still new to trying a lot of foods but is LOVING sweet potatoes (real ones, not baby food ones), peas, carrots, bananas and applesauce!  These are a treat because I want him to learn to eat with a spoon but he sure does love them!

The boys were loving playing outside when Cass got home from work!  SO thankful God blessed me with little boys!  I never imagined having them and now I can't imagine life any other way!  They add so much joy to our family!

It doesn't get much more precious than this!!