Summer recap and Fall happenings!

*Be prepared for lots of rambling and lots of pictures!

I cannot believe its been so long since I've posted! Looks like I took the summer (& then some!) off, so I really wanted to update my little blog and do a quick recap!

Life with four kiddos is BUSY. We are constantly going, going, going.

We had a really great summer...Grant has therapy 3 mornings a week (2 speech sessions and 1 hour of OT), so as you can imagine, the driving back and forth as well as the therapy time itself takes up a lot of time. Almost every Monday of summer break I took the kids to the library and they picked out a few books to read while we were in the waiting room. And of course we have our weekly Target trip and a grocery store/errands morning too.We usually spent most of our afternoons swimming at my parents pool and trying to beat the heat!

4th of July!

In July we had our family vacation at Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte. We wanted to stay somewhere closeish to home (aka little travel with a baby!) & we wanted something that would work for our WHOLE family, and Great Wolf Lodge was PERFECT. Its an indoor water park resort that has areas for the whole family. I spent most of my time in the kiddie area with Grant and Clara while Kane and the boys hit up all the water slides. It was surprisingly relaxing for me-Grant had a blast playing in the baby/toddler area and since it only goes to 1.5 foot deep, he could navigate the whole area without me having to follow him around. Clara and I sat in the zero depth area and she splashed away! Kane and the boys would always swing by & come check on us every 45min-hour and I would go on a few rides with the boys then too. The best part was that our hotel room was just down the hallway from the entrance to the water park so I could go back to the room with the babies whenever I needed! That was great for when Clara would get cranky and needed a nap & Grant needed a snack or something. We would leave and go out to dinner every night, & then return for late night fun at the resort arcade and bowling area. The last day there, we left that afternoon and stayed at a different hotel in Charlotte so that we could take the boys to visit a few landmarks. We went to the Carolina Panthers Stadium & we toured the Billy Graham library (which was so cool!! so much history there!). We had SUCH a good week & made so many wonderful memories with the kids...we are already planning to go back again when we can!!

After being home for ONE day from our vacation, me and Kane turned around and went back to Charlotte for Kane's annual meeting with corporate. He spent the morning and early afternoon in a meeting, and I had a glorious day shopping and eating lunch BY MYSELF, which never ever EVER happens. I missed the kids like crazy (esp Clara since it was the first time I had ever left her), but it was so needed. I really needed that little break. Once Kane got out of his meeting, we went back to the hotel for a few hours and then headed to a cookout at the president of the company's home on Lake Norman.

The first week of August brought the start of football for Carson! Harp decided not to play this year (he would rather play on the playground with the other kids), & that has taken up a huge chunk of time. He has improved SO much since the start of the season, so its nice to see the hard work pay off!

The end of August means back to school time! Our summer felt like it went by SO fast, but even so, the boys were ready to go back and to see their friends. They both love school SO much, and we all enjoy the routine school brings! Carson started 3rd grade this year and Harp's in 2nd! They both have amazing teachers this year and I am SO excited about that!

Our Clara girl is growing so fast! She is just two months away from her first birthday and my heart can hardly stand it. Her (big) personality is really starting to show! She is such a friendly baby with a streak of sassy with a little drama thrown in. ;) I'm told it a girl thing, ha! She started crawling right after our trip to Great Wolf (I could tell she wanted to while we were vacationing...she almost took off a few times in the hotel room), and shortly after that she started pulling to a stand & now shes cruising around the furniture! She loves to clap and her favorite song is "If you're happy and you know it." She can wave (at herself, ha!) and can say "hi" and "dada." She loves to dance and follow her brothers around (mainly Grant), and her newest favorite thing to do as of late is pull all the books off the bookshelf in her room. I can't even express how much joy she has brought to our family!

8 months: 

9 months:

I wanted to jot this down for future purposes, but Grant is doing SO wonderful lately. He is really developing and his hard work in both speech and OT is finally starting to pay off. He still has a way to go, of course, but I just wanted to mention how excited I am for him. We spent the summer working on preschool stuff & he mastered identifying all of the alphabet, & identifying shapes (he already knew colors & numbers for a long time now ;). In OT he is working on pre-writing skills & using scissors, which has been trickier for him-he has fine motor delays (VERY likely due to his poor eyesight). It has been a long, long road with lots of tears and prayers. My personal goal for him and my main hope and prayer is that we can get him caught up to where he needs to be by the start of kindergarten. We have so much ground to cover, but I really think it can be done!

Well thats all for now! Hope to start blogging again more regularly! :) Check back in a few days for pictures of my girl at 10 months!

2nd Grade and 1st Grade!

After what seemed like the worlds quickest summer, the boys are back in school! It's so hard to believe these guys are in 2nd grade and 1st grade this year! Since they started preschool, and especially elementary, life seems to just whiz by...I think knowing how fast it seems to go makes me appreciate Grant's toddlerhood that much more...and of course we are just dying to meet this little one inside of me in just another 11 or so short weeks! 

Obligatory 1st day of school pics: (Harp had toothpaste issues that morning, hence the water spots ;)

I snapped a few other pics with my phone on two other random mornings that week too:

Heres to a new school year!

Kindergarten and 1st Grade!!!

Whew. 

That pretty much sums up life right now, haha! I just realized today that I haven't sat down to blog about the boys first day (err....week..) of school! 

Last Monday, I sent my oldest babies off to Kindergarten and 1st Grade! They had a pretty good week, overall! Harp is having the time of his life! Preschool (and now Kindergarten) has really allowed him to blossom and branch off from big brother's shadow. He is such a friendly, easy-going kid, and has already made several "best friends," and is apparently in love with a girl in his class named Sophia (I'm only half joking...). Carson has had an overall good week, but he has had one hiccup with his first grade teacher substitute...His real teacher is on maternity leave until the end of the month, so hopefully things will go more smoothly when she gets back. 

We've also been busy with football practice every Tuesday & Thursday nights, and church on Wednesdays.

Here are a few first day of school pics!  

Adios, Cinnamon Toast!

School is OUT for the summer!

Last Friday was Carson's last day of Kindergarten and Harp's last day of preschool! It was a scheduled half day anyways, and there was a 1 hr delay due to a tropical storm that passed through, which meant Friday was a 2.5 hour day. I didn't bother sending Harp because it would have been pointless, but I did send Carson just because he has missed SO much school this year from being sick-I figured he could "tough it out" (aka spend time with his friends) for a few hours.

First & Last day of Kindergarten!

First and Last day of Preschool!

Thursday was a busy day of awards ceremonies. Carson's Kindergarten graduation was very sweet-the kids marched in with their teachers singing and dancing and then each class sang a song-except for Carson's class who went last and put on a short play to a popular book Pete the Cat. Carson's part was to read a passage from the book-he did SOO good! Here's a short snippet:

**Grant was a MESS during the ceremony :/ So Kane was busy wrangling him while I filmed with one hand and tried to take pictures with the other. The filming is a little wobbly-and you'll probably hear Grant scream out a few times and hear him wave car keys, too.

Afterwards, we went to his class where he received his awards-his teacher had such kind words to say about him-we have a video of it all, but I'll spare the blog world the brag-fest ;)

Next we were off to Harp's school. Thankfully, my parents met me at my house and watched Grant for me so I could hear Harp's awards in peace-I have no idea what his deal was, but he was a horrible mess.

I am SO proud of Harper and how much he has matured this year is preschool. He did so well and made so many of his own friends. His teacher was a little emotional handing out awards, but here is a short snippet what she had to say about Harp:

*he won the Nerds Award for his "Intelligence and Hard Work in All Areas" :)

**blogger's being dumb right now...I'll try and upload it later.

I'm so proud of my boys, and we are SO excited for summertime! It's going to start off kinda stinky-Monday we have Grant's 15 month check-up and Tuesday Harp will have surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids...but once we get over that hump, we'll be enjoying our lazy days at the beach and pool!

Carson's Party & this week.

This year we decided to have a really low-key birthday party for Carson.  Last year's party was a lot of fun (and work!), but I kind of just ran out of time this year. So we decided to have a super small party for just immediate family & then take him out to do whatever he wanted to do that weekend. I also took cupcakes & juice to his class on his birthday (Monday).  

 Carson chose to do Glow in the Dark Mini Golf. It was really fun watching Kane & the boys play! Grant and I watched from the side :) Harp lost interest halfway through, so I took him to go ride a few rides. They also had a laser room that Carson did and I hate that I missed it! After golf, we went out to eat.

Carson had an Angry Birds Party. He really wanted a Power Ranger party but I waited too long to order online. It was fun & simple to put together! Here are a few pictures from the party:

Kane & me :)

The birthday boy!

Some of the presents:

The boys being silly

Food: 

Cake:

Presents

These two had their own dance party!

Family:

 Blowing out the candles!

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I am SO thankful that I have always been able to be a stay-at-home Mom-God has always provided for us in every season. All of the material things that we don't have is such a small sacrifice for us to make for me to be able to stay home. And even though Carson & Harper are at school now during the day, I have been able to be active/semi-active (hey, now-I still have another little at home :) in the boys' classrooms. I love being able to get in their classrooms, interact with their friends & teachers, and get a glimpse into their school life. 

Last Friday, I went with Harper's class to the skating rink! They have been learning about Winter, and went to the skating rink to go practice "ice-skating" :) My mom graciously watched Grant (which she normally does while I do class things with the boys-another HUGE blessing to me). I had so much fun with Harp-he did a little bit better then Carson did last year :) That, or maybe he seemed to have done better since I was 35 weeks pregnant last time I went. After a bit of skating, he got on a scooter and had SO much fun on it. We ended up leaving early because "he didn't feel good," and needed me to carry him. I did. That baby has grown up too fast and if my almost 5 year old wants me to carry him, then I will happily oblige...those moments are quickly fleeting. 

My phone is SO messed up and has a mind of it's own-my camera will not work most of the time and if does happen to work, it will self-delete all new pictures. Anyways, if I do not immediately text/email/instagram them, they are lost forever. Unfortunately, I only saved one picture from Carson's class party :( oh well. 

They were singing to him here:

Tuesday, Harp's class had a snack-time parent activity. I kind of forgot about it until the last minute, so Grant and I ran up there quickly after breakfast. Grant was such a little terror there. He screamed & fussed. He yelled and arched his back get down out of my arms. He tried and screamed in anger when he couldn't grab Harp's snack. And he threw things and hit me. So basically, I had a toddler for the day. I REALLY hope that wasn't a glimpse into our near future :/ 

Anyways, when I wasn't wrangling Grant, I watched Harp build a snowman out of snack foods. All of the other kids laid their snowmen out in 2D fashion, but Harper [being the rockstar that he is] made his 3D ;)

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The boys have a 4 day weekend this weekend & Kane has a 3 day weekend (yay!), so we'll be enjoying a restful weekend of family fun!

All for now!

Red Ribbon Week

This week was Red Ribbon Week at Carson's school! There was a theme to dress up to everyday, and Carson had SO much fun with it all!

On Monday, they had to wear red:

Tuesday was sock day! I was worried that he would get cold with his jeans rolled up, so he wore Grant's black leg warmers under the socks :)

Wednesday (Halloween) was they had to dress as a Book Character:

Thursday was mismatched day! This was surprisingly hard to do just because most of his clothes are blue/gray/green so they didn't really clash that much. Oh well.

And I'm going to throw this one on here just because it's funny. Harp was in the middle of getting dressed (or rather, undressed) and jumped in Carson's picture. He's totally rockin the red underwear and elmo socks.

I have no idea what he's looking at.

and Friday was hat day-out of all of the hats in the house, he chose Kane's work hat:

I love that Carson had so much fun this week, and can't wait for Harp to be able to participate next year!