The "Not-so-Terrible" Two's

So, I may be eating my words, but I am thinking Abby turning TWO is going to be my favorite age so far for her! Today, our Miss Priss is two years old and I can hardly believe it! (I won’t bore you by retelling my labor story, but if you’re interested, check out this link.)

It’s weird...I wasn’t super sentimental when Nate turned two. I’m sure it’s because I was pregnant with Abby at the time, and knew we’d be going through these stages again. But now that my BABY GIRL is turning two, I am sad!!! She is for sure our last child, and so I really think I’m treasuring each stage that much more.

With that being said, I think the move to Alabama has been the best thing for mine & Abby’s relationship. I know that might sound strange, but we’ve really bonded since moving here...since Nate is in school every morning, we’ve gotten the chance to be alone, do fun things one-on-one, explore our new surroundings, and make new friends together. It was such a blessing in disguise that I was not able to get her into a Mother’s Day Out program when we moved here. I’ve just really treasured my time with her (well, most days)!!


This past month with Abby has been filled with more laughter than usual. I’ve said it before, but I just LOVE her personality!! She is so feisty and funny and sweet, all rolled into one little munchkin.

Tidbits from our past month:
-Every stick she finds outside turns into a magic wand. Greg has begun teaching her Harry Potter spells and they are hilarious! Her favorites are “Redacto” and “Repairo”

-She is already getting pretty good at her colors (not sure how that happened, ha!) She gets yellow right 100% of the time, and blue & green a lot as well.
-Abby has moved on from dressing up in costumes, to dressing up in her brother's clothes. She loves it!

-She has begun “whispering” in our ears to tell us secrets. Love this.
-Another adorable thing: if she wants to give you a kiss, she grabs your face with both of her hands and lays a big smackeroo on you. Sound effects and all. This is probably the cutest thing I’ve ever experienced.
-Abby has a few rituals she does most mornings with her Daddy: watching Fraggle Rock in bed, “helping” him make coffee (and getting a small lick of sugar), and sitting on his lap while watching the stock market and stealing his raisin bran. I wouldn’t say Abby’s a Daddy’s girl, but she is p.r.e.t.t.y d.a.r.n c.l.o.s.e!!

-Who knew, but she has an obsession with candy corn.
-I’ve noticed she’s using her left hand a lot more….to draw and sometimes when she eats. Maybe she’ll be a leftie/smartie like her Aunt Lora!
-The highlight of Abby’s past month has been her learning to say “I love you.” Melts me every time. (Though it takes a bit of translation b/c it sounds like “I yuh you.”)
-Abby got her first pair of Toms! No, I don't have any...but my 2 yr old does. Makes perfect sense. Thanks Aunt Bebe for the early bday present! Oh, and did I mention that they are pink corduroy!? So stinkin' cute.


A few other pics from our past month with Miss Priss:



We are having her birthday party this weekend, and I am looking forward to celebrating with family coming into town, as well as some new friends. It is going to be a “puppy party,” so stay tuned for a TON of adorable pictures :)

Happy 2nd birthday Miss Priss!! You are the light of our lives!!

The "Real" Halloween

Nate woke up yesterday and asked "Is today the REAL Halloween?" I think I confused him with all the prior week's Halloween activities...oops!

He decided to wear his Spiderman costume to school, and Abby & I tagged along during the costume parade. The kids were soooo cute....paraded up and down the halls of both the elementary school next door and middle/high school as well.

Please note that N is sandwiched between 4 girls. From what Miss Thompson tells me, this is a daily occurence :)

Then, as one of my "Room Mom" duties, I planned the Halloween Party for Nate's class. So after dropping Abby off at the sitter's, I headed back to school to set up for the party. The kids had a great time and I love seeing them so excited to see "Nate's Mom!"

Then last night, we walked around the neighborhood loop to trick-or-treat with some of the neighborhood kiddos. The kids got WAY more candy than I expected, being as how we only went to about 10 houses. Everyone is so nice here!! It was nice meeting a few new neighbors as well.

Cute BFF's Kennedy (aka Dorothy) and Preston (aka Pirate)

Momma Bird (Paige) and Baby Bird (Loa - 10 weeks old)! Paige is super talented and made every bit of their costumes, even Loa's "nest!!"

Kennedy, Abby, and Nate starting the rounds. They all did a great job of saying "Trick or Treat" and "thank you!"

My cuties

Can you tell Nate is excited from all his loot!?

When Greg got home from teaching, the kids (and me!) were all on a sugar high!! It was a great first Halloween in Tuscaloosa. (Though I dearly miss "Americana" and my Foundry Circle gang!)

Happy Halloween!

Wishing everyonen a Happy Halloween!!! I am taking the kids trick-or-treating tonight with a few neighbors; more on that later.

In the meantime, just wanted to share a few pics of our pumpkins this year. My immensely talented husband has - once again - outdone himself. He drew all of this by hand, and painstakingly carved it all day Saturday!

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?! SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!

I am not a fan of carving (hate scooping out the guts, etc) but I did help the kids put together their Mr. Potato Head pumpkins. Nate did a pirate this year and Abby did a witch.

Hope everyone has a safe & happy Halloween!

Old Friends are the Best Friends

We had some visitors from TN this weekend, Hallie & Grant! Though I've only known Hallie for 3 years, it seems as though she's been my "forever" friend...we just GET each other. I was so happy to see her and her adorable son when they arrived on Friday afternoon!!

We woke Nate up from his nap and BOY was he surprised to see Miss Hallie & Grant! (I kept it a surprise, b/c if I had told them they were coming, he would have asked me every 2.5 seconds when they were arriving.) Abby took a few minutes to warm up, but after that, couldn't stop smiling at Miss Hallie. She loved getting chased around the house by Hallie and hugged by Grant. She even got early bday presents! A cute cute cute TURTLENECK dress (not pictured) and a new baby doll!

We attempted to make "spider cookies" out of oreos...

Abby preferred to just lick icing instead of participate

Not sure how these two squeezed themselves into LAST YEAR's Halloween costumes!! Long live Woody & Buzz!

One of the highlights of the afternoon was jumping on G's bed (aka the air mattress) and making funny faces into the video monitor. Hours of entertainment.


After dinner, we introduced Grant to our family ritual of "naked dance parties"....he caught on quickly and had a ball!

Baby Girl can W.O.R.K. I.T!!!

Triple bubble bath!

The last time the boys had a sleepover (in Sept, in Murfreesboro), bedtime was a bit of a disaster. This one, I'm happy to report, went much more smoothly. Hallie & I watched the boys on the video monitor and they were sooo good! Nate settled down pretty fast (and buried himself under his covers), while G was a bit wiggly but was as quiet as a mouse. I think the key was having them in seperate beds (last time they shared an air mattress). My boy likes having his own space!

Saturday morning, we headed to a park to play even though it was a bit chilly! Here is Miss Hallie with Abby - I swear Abby likes her, despite what it looks like here. I think Abby was just ready to play!!





H&G, we had so much fun!! Come back soon!!

Run Forrest, Run!

Following in the Gibbs' footsteps, Nate ran in his first race on Friday!! His school was a having a fundraiser called the Boosterthon, which involves having people pledge any amount of $ they want, based on how many laps they think Nate can run in the fun run. We had no idea he'd be able to complete all 35 laps (this was a small track people!), so he ended up raising $280!!! This is the school's one and only fundraiser, and both of our families very generously pledged money to support Nate. (THANK YOU FAMILY!) The only bummer was that it had to be held inside the gym due to the rain. Needless to say, that made it a bit chaotic.

Since Nate turned in his pledges a day early, he got to bring home all his prizes on Thursday - a HUGE beach ball, sunglasses, braclet, glow-in-the-dark water bottle, and super duper bouncy ball. He could barely sleep Thursday night, in anticipation of "the big race."






I assured him Abby and I would be there to cheer him on, but little did he know that Daddy showed up to surprise him! He was ecstatic. We are proud of our little runner and all his determination.
As the kids finished a "lap," a teacher would mark off the corresponding # on their back. So, 35 laps was the max they could do and Nate did them all!



Myrtle Beach Marathon Relay 2017, here we come!!

Trick-or-Treating, Take 1

Last night, I went with some friends to have the kids trick-or-treat on "Sorority Row" on campus. Picture this: 20+ sorority houses (aka: mansions) with tons of cute girls handing out free candy. It was great!!

Abby got to ride in style in the wagon with her boyfriend, Xavier, but it was a little crowded in there. She was the "Queen Bee" for sure!(And it's hard to see, but Xavier was Alfalfa and was oh-so-cute!)

Captain America was mesmerized by all the candy around him! (And there were lots of super heroes too, which of course he pointed out every.single.one!)

Queen Bee needed a break

Greg was able to join us - it was a miracle he found us - once he finished teaching his class.

We came back to our house to play for a little bit afterwards. From L to R: Xavier, Abby, Nate, and Sadie the Ladybug

We're not sure if we're going to be able to trick-or-treat around here on Halloween (long story, but they "cancelled" Halloween in our neighborhood due to all the construction, etc), so this might be the kids only chance to trick-or-treat. I'm still trying to come up with something for Monday. Maybe we'll just drive to a random neighborhood to trick-or-treat! Nate told me Spiderman wants to make an appearance, so we'll see.

The Barnyard

Abby & I met some friends yesterday at the Tuscaloosa Barnyard, for a playdate. Though a little pricey, this place was really cool! A petting zoo, hayride, pumpkin patch, and playground all rolled into one. (Though I will say, I am REALLY missing our old pumpkin patches in TN - Walden Farms & Lucky Ladds! There is nothing nearby that compares to those. Maybe next year we'll drive the hour to Birmingham, b/c I hear there are good ones there!)

I wasn't sure how Abby would do with the animals, b/c last weekend in NC with my parents she was terrified of the horses. (Granted, they were pretty big!) Well, it took her about 10 minutes but she warmed up to the animals and had sooo much fun feeding them!! I'm sure it helped that they were all tiny (and so cute)! Goats, ducks, chickens, bunnies, and ponies, she loved them all.




I had a "proud mommy" moment when she decided she wanted to RIDE the pony! Not many of the older kids there even did that! We did two laps around the little pen, and though she was holding onto my arm for dear life, she was smiling & loved it!


After her pony experience, she got even more brave and decided to 1) feed the "big" goats herself and 2) get INTO THE PEN with the bunnies. At first, she was just feeding them out of her bucket. Then that turned into chasing them in circles & giggling! At one point, all of the bunnies were crowded together in the corner...I think they were trying to hide from her!!




Next up was the hayride to the pumpkin patch. This was old hat to Abby, since she'd been on a hayride last week with N&P. But, she did have fun at the pumpkin patch and had a hard time deciding which 2 we should take home.

The only downside to the day happened on the hayride back....Abby was super fussy and squirmy and I couldn't figure out why until I found/killed an ant coming out of her shirt. I lifted up her shirt and found about 20 bites on her back & neck :( Apparently she got attacked by ants at the pumpkin patch. And one minute later I realized they were on me too...only about 5 though. She is one tough cookie!!! I was afraid we'd have to go home but as soon as we got back to the Barnyard, she saw the playground and was a happy girl!