Bella's 11th Birthday!!!

Today, our chocolate lab, Bella, turned 11 years old. Lane, Dutch and I all played hookie today and in doing so, we made Bella a peanut butter carrot cake. When DJ came home from work, we sang to Bella, blew out her candles and gave her the cake to eat. She devoured it in less than 2 minutes!

And don't forget to notice the hat that DJ and Dutch made for her to wear!

Happy Birthday sweet Bella!

Niven's Farm

This past weekend we took the kids to Niven's Farm. It is a cute, little place that has farm animals, apple picking, a pumpkin patch, corn maze and water mining, for a lack of a better term.

Dutch had a fun time and as for Lane, she and I did a lot of people watching!

New skills and teeth!

I have also been meaning to post about a new development with Lane! The day of the infamous win against Alabama, Lane began crawling! In the same week, her two bottom teeth popped through also! Now that she is on the move, Dutch is beginning to realize his toys are no longer safe. Sometimes you will see him being really nice and sharing, but for the most part, he takes things away from her and replaces it with some boring baby toy that even Lane doesn't want to play with. She has just started pulling up on things this week and likes "crawlking" (the act of crawling, but with legs straightened and feet flat on the ground). It looks like she wants to walk with her bottom half in a walking position, but top half on the ground, butt in the air. She also has started eating a few table foods - she loves most things, which is GREAT!

Meghan and Jed's visit

I would have posted this sooner, but we have been unable to locate our camera cord to transfer any pictures, but at long last, it is found! DJ's sister, Meghan, and her boyfriend, Jed, came to visit for about two weeks. It was so nice to see them, as always! We spent time watching some football (going out to celebrate the big win against Alabama, then sulking about the loss to Kentucky), going to the park, playing soccer, etc. I am not sure when we will see them again, but hopefully it will not be too long.

Here are some pictures of their visit.

Correction to website

Sorry guys for the additional post/email, but I needed to correct the website I gave in my last post. I have received emails from a friend in St. Pete, FL about this family and they really need everyone's prayers right now. Coming from a mother with two children, both the same ages of the children this couple now have, it is important for me to support this family - if that means only by getting the word out about their fragile situation.

http://thematthewsstory.com

Thanks!

Happy Fall Y'all!

We have been battling a few colds in our house, probably due to the weather changing and daycare, but we are hopefully getting better after finishing our antibiotics. We have also been dealing with some pretty awful diaper rash. Lane is a pooping machine and we just can't seem to get a handle on this out-of-control rash she has going on. It is really is pitiful and if you could see it, it would just make you hurt too!

Aside from the colds, we've had a great start to October. It's been filled with birthdays and football, visiting with family, going to the park (A LOT) and getting readyfor Halloween. This upcoming weekend it will be more football, supper club with our neighborhood friends and hopefully, the pumpkin patch AND Boo in the Zoo. Busy, I know!

On a more serious note, please, please, please pray for this family: http://thematthewsstory.com - it is very heartbreaking to read, especially if you have kids, but they need all the support right now. Thanks!

Back to a lighter subject, here are some pictures that Olivia took of the kids in theHalloween costumes (for free I might add). Enjoy!

Update on the kids!

Dutch:

Dutch is loving preschool! He has made lots of friends that I hear about from him - although, I hear about a specific few more than others. We also have new neighbors, who are great by the way, and Dutch loves playing with their kids, Harper and Kaylee. It's so neat to see him interact with others more this year since last year most of the kids his age played independently.

Dutch also sings all kinds of songs to me (The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle, Twinkle and thanks to Sarah for clarifying - the Caterpillar song) and loves bringing home his beautiful artwork!

He is getting better about eating different foods and is now a whopping 28 lbs!!! Completely joking about the whopping part - he is only in the 35th percentile. Some of his favorite foods are pizza, tacos, french fries, rice, cereal, cheez its, chicken, goldfish, applesauce, any fruits, pancakes - some really healthy options, wouldn't you agree?

He loves going to the park, riding his bike and just being outside in general. He is very much into everything these days and can be quite rambunctious, but that's the life of any two year old, right?!

The only complaint we have is getting Dutch to go to bed on his own and at a decent hour and then staying in his room through the night. Right now, we read to him and then have to stay in there and lay with him until he falls asleep (which could be 9-9:30pm). At 3:30-4am, we hear the pitter patter of little feet making their way back to our room to get into bed with us. Some nights, depending on how tired we are, we take him back and end up sleeping in his room with him. Other nights, we are three deep in our bed!

Lane:

Lane is now seven months old. At her 6th month visit, she was 27 inches (79th percentile) and 16 lbs. 3 oz. (47th percentile). She now eats stage 2 foods and loves applesauce and squash. She also loves her oatmeal that she has been eating for about three months now.

We have now got her to where she will go down at 7:30pm, but we do wake her at 11pm for her last bottle. She then sleeps until about 7:30am. I have tried not waking her, but she still will wake up around midnight and fuss until she gets her bottle, so it works for us to just wake her as we are getting in the bed. She is still sleeping in a crib in our room for now. We could move her, but as I mentioned before, with Dutch getting up EVERY night, it's just easier that neither of them wake the other in the middle of the night and their rooms back up to one another.

She is sitting up like a champ and will rock on all fours. She will be taking off any day now, but until then she scoots around the room. Mostly backwards.

A new development this week, Lane has two teeth! One is completely through, the other I can see and feel on her gums, but I'm not quite sure it's popped through yet. She hasn't been fussy with them coming in so I can't complain.

She is such a happy baby - loves to laugh (at her brother especially) and loves to smile!

Both kids are feeling much better after having horrible sinus infections (I am now getting it - great!) and we will be hitting the weekend hard watching the Bama/USC game, Meghan will be coming home, Fall for Greenville, Halloween pictures and my grandfather's 80th birthday and my sister's 34th birthday!