Too short of a visit...

We went to Nashville the weekend before Halloween and had such a great time! It's always so great just to visit with our family and friends. We got to sleep late, go out to eat with friends, and just spend time with my family!
Our friends, Jeff and Julie, have an incredible pumpkin patch/farm, Honeysuckle Hill, that we try to go to every year. They always let us come out when no-one else is there and take pictures and just play without having to fight with all of the crowds. We always have so much fun and we appreciate them so much!
We got to Nashville on Thursday and we were planning on going to the farm on Friday morning. Unfortunately, when we got up it was raining, so the kids were very disappointed thinking that we weren't going to be able to go. Here's a little video of Sawyer trying to coax some better weather...


I guess it worked! When we got there, the weather was beautiful!!

Sawyer and Addie Grace weren't really in the mood for pictures (big surprise), but I was able to get a few pretty good ones. More importantly, we just had a great time!!

This was one of the only few pictures that I got of my mom (and none of my dad!) over the weekend. I have two babies who think that their Nana is grand!!

Can't wait til we get to go again, soon!

aaah, fall...

Well, I wasn't going to do this post, just because I'm lazy like that. However, I'm feeling the need to stay a little more current with my blog, JUST IN CASE my sweet husband wants to surprise me with getting my blog bound into a book (hint, hint). Our friend, Chris just did it for his wife Debbie for her birthday and even though I read her blog regularly, I loved looking through her book. Such a great idea! So, hang on blog readers! You are about to get lots and lots of posts from me! (Probably. Well, maybe).
Anyway, fall. I love it! We have had such a great fall. We've done so many fun things. One day, we celebrated fall all day long. We got up and made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, then we made pumpkin pie playdough, then we went on a walk through the woods and picked leaves and came home and pressed them in wax paper, we made caramel apples, carved jack-o-lanterns, and then finished our night watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It was such a fun day, a l-o-n-g day, but still, so much fun.
Here are some of our pictures from our day...

a leaf fight...

look how pretty the leaves were!

on our walk through the woods, Addie Grace asked me to take their picture on this stump. I didn't WANT to, but I obliged her.

As we were walking along, Addie Grace had stopped. I turned around and when she finished, I asked her what she was doing. She said she wanted to stop and thank God for all of the beautiful leaves that He painted for her! So sweet! She makes my heart swell!


making the playdough...
and Sawyer "helping" to make the pumpkin, chocolate chip muffins...

Happy Fall!!!

Proverbs 15:1

This was Addie Grace's memory verse last week. One day we were sitting at the table and she started it, and as Sawyer was walking through, he finished it for her...after a couple of days, he would say it by himself.
Hopefully, this is a verse that Addie Grace and Sawyer will refer to should they ever happen to have a disagreement with one another...of course, I'm sure they NEVER will...

our little reader...

Addie Grace has always LOVED to read... And she has loved "reading" to Sawyer over the last two years...

She has been a real reader for a while now and she (and we) couldn't be prouder! She is loving reading to Sawyer even more now that she's not pretending anymore! This picture was taken in the summer, I don't have any recent ones since I DON'T HAVE A CAMERA!! (Have I mentioned that it is KILLING me?!??)

Our only gripe is that we have to be careful spelling now! We were talking about one of her Christmas presents a few weeks ago, and I spelled d-o-l-l...bad move! Oh well...

HOORAY, Addie Grace!!

my boy...(spoken through gritted teeth)

This was the day that I broke my friend Debbie's camera...
(I was changing Sawyer's swimmy and I didn't want to put my bag on the floor, so I put it up on the changing table with Sawyer...HE knocked it off (accidentally), and Debbie's camera fell out of the bag onto the concrete floor.

This was the day that I broke my camera...less than one week after breaking Debbie's camera. We were at our friend Anisse's pool party and HE liked to sit here...

I sat where that lady is behind him pretty much the whole time. When he decided that he wanted to venture onto that first step, I put floaties on him just in case...
He was thrilled that they were pink...and Sydney was thrilled to have him cramping her style in his pink floaties.

Well, just in case happened. I was watching him and saw him slip and just as quickly, his head went under. I jumped in...shoes on and camera around my neck. He still looked like this afterwards...

My camera and my nerves were a little worse for the wear.

This blurry picture was taken the day that I THOUGHT I broke my friend, Jill's camera...can't remember exactly how long it was after the incident with my camera, but not long! This was at Sawyer's dentist appointment. I kept snapping and snapping and they were all coming out blurry. I started panicking because I knew that I was about to have to call my husband and tell him that I had broken camera #3!! I knew Jill would forgive me and besides...she let me borrow it knowing my recent track record. Anyway, after fighting with it all during the appointment, I figured out that the lens was off a little bit, so I was able to get clear pictures at the end of the visit, AND I didn't have to pack my bags while enduring being forced out of my home by my husband!! So, all in all, a good day!
I refuse to take the blame for any of these situations...the common factor in each incident was Mr. Sawyer McDonald...and he's pretty good at taking blame. Besides, he's too cute for me to stay mad at for long!

And they call her Addie...

Well, I'm happy to say that we survived our first day of Kindergarten!!! Barely...but we survived! Besides them losing Addie Grace at dismissal time and eating all of her snacks that I sent for the days that she couldn't have the class snack (because of her nut allergy), it went great!
The whole losing her at dismissal about sent me over the edge!! I don't guess they technically lost her, but when I got there, it was a HUGE mix-up. I was in the lobby with the rest of the car rider parents, and her teacher's aide came and told me that Addie Grace was in the gym, to go and get her there...so I went to the gym to get her. I got to the gym, asked for Addie Grace and the man said that they didn't have her. Assuming that he was confused, I told him that the aide said she was there and he said, "sorry, but no, she's in the library". Okay, sounded like he knew what he was talking about. People were leaving the school at this point, and kids were getting on buses, and I didn't want Addie Grace to be sitting in there by herself thinking I had forgotten to come get her on the first day of kindergarten, so I hoofed it to the library. The aide sees me while she's coming out of the library..."did you get Addie Grace?", ARGH...I told her that NO, they said she was not in the gym! Her response was, "Well, she's not in here, she HAS to be in there"...can I tell you that I am having a heart attack at this point?? I ran back to the other end of the school to the gym and the man told me again...we DON'T have her! I decided at this point I wasn't listening to either of them...I was going to find her. I went into the gym and saw her in a line to go and get on a bus!! Thankfully, I didn't cry, scream, or punch anyone in their head, but I sure wanted to! Addie Grace said that she kept telling them that she wasn't supposed to ride the bus and they just kept saying, "okay, we'll double-check"...but apparently, they never double checked. That was almost enough to make me not want to send her back today! IF they would have gotten her on that bus, it doesn't even stop at my house!!! The stop is somewhere else in the neighborhood!! It truly makes me sick to think about all of the what ifs!
Anyway, we made it, but this morning, I sent a note to the teacher, talked to the office, and to two car rider assistants. I told Addie Grace NOT to let them put her on the bus NO MATTER WHAT, so hopefully, I will be able to find my child today when I go to pick her up. If not, I'm going to start chewing some people out!
Yesterday morning went fine...I was able to hold it together until I got back to the car. There were a couple of times in the classroom that I could feel myself about to lose it, but I would just hide behind my camera until I could pull it together! Clever, huh?? She loves her teachers and seems to be pretty excited, so I'm looking forward to her hopefully enjoying going EVERY DAY...FOR 7 HOURS!!!
After school, we went to Baskin Robbins to celebrate...here are pictures from our day!

This one was taken the night before...(I'm sure you figured that out, but for some of my less intelligent friends, I just wanted to clarify!)...








Addie Grace arranged Brian and herself in this picture...




Addie Grace insisted on taking her teacher an apple EVERY day (HOW DOES SHE EVEN KNOW THAT???), I told her she could only on the first day! I felt kind of goofy, but she was so proud!! I love that girl!!














oh yeah, and they call her Addie...
: (

Oh, baby Sawyer, please don't go! I could eat you up, I love you so!!

Every day my little baby boy is slipping through my fingers. It makes me sick. I think he looks so old in these pictures, and every one on this post were taken a month ago! Ugh. There have been lots of changes going on...mostly good, one notably bad. The bad one is that I think he's done with naps. Done. Zippo. Yuck.
Yesterday, I forced him to take one, and he was awake (in bed) until 10:00. No fun. So, for the most part, I don't guess we'll be doing naps anymore.

Here he is helping Daddy put his big boy bed together...


And here he is loving the finished product...


dancing in his big boy underwear...so sad!!

And at the playground...
There's this baby (a cute, giant baby), that comes to our playground. For whatever reason, Sawyer is terrified of him. Whenever cute, giant baby shows up, Sawyer high-tails it to me and clings to my neck...making me feel once again like I have my baby back (unlike Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights when I just have possessed toddler-boy clinging to my neck!).

Maybe I'll volunteer to babysit cute, giant baby so I can hold onto mine just a little bit longer.