Boo to You!

We hope everyone has a safe & fun Halloween today, filled with many more treats than tricks!

Hampton's Birthday Eve

We just cannot believe that our first baby boy will be 4 tomorrow! He's growing up into such a sweet little boy who brings us so much joy. He absolutely loves his family & friends, and is so tenderhearted. We just love it when he tells us that he loves people "very much". He's still so innocent, and he has a wonderful imagination. The storylines that he comes up with for his trains & cars amaze us. He loves to learn about anything and everything, and adores books. He wants to be right in the middle of whatever is going on, and he's never met a stranger. His laughter is so contagious! We are so, so very proud of the little boy that he is becoming. We also think he's an amazing choice for a big brother to Harrison and baby Taco Bell (which he is still telling everyone)!

 

Happy Almost Birthday, dearest Hampton! Mommy & Daddy love you to the moon & back!

 

 

Boo at the Zoo

One of our favorite fall activities is Boo at the Zoo. This was our 4th year going, and every year it seems to get bigger & bigger. This year it was completely packed with people & stuff to do. The boys got to trick or treat, dance along with the DJ, and pet alligators, goats, bunnies, snakes, and more. Grandi & Granddaddy came along for the fun, and we definitely needed the help wrangling the fearless Harrison! Another year of holiday memories and lots of photos to go along with them!

 

Change of Plans

We had big plans for this weekend, but as sometimes happens, things went quickly off course. We had intended to get tons of stuff done, as well as head out to the pumpkin patch & work at the church's Family Fun Day, which Tanner has been working on for weeks. Instead, we spent Saturday with Tanner resting & the majority of Sunday in the ER after the on-call doctor and the urgent care staff had concerns of a blood clot in Tanner's leg. Thankfully, it wasn't a clot, but just major swelling. She's been put on modified bed rest this week, until we head back to the Doctor on Friday (which we got pushed up to visiting weekly 2 weeks ago).

 

This was probably the busiest week we had planned all year, so that means lots of changing plans, roping in help and trying to go with the new flow. We cancelled the Halloween party that was supposed to be at our house, we've got help for the Halloween party we're in charge of at MDO, and Grandi & Granddaddy are keeping the boys several days this week while Tanner sits around bored with her leg up. We're still hoping to have a little fun on Hampton's birthday, as well as do a few of our fun things on the list. It will just all have to involve a chair!

 

We're mostly just trying to take it all in stride and be thankful that it's nothing majorly serious, as well as be thankful for all of our friends who have reached out to offer meals, help, and comedic relief. We're also glad that we've gotten to do a few fun things already, including Boo at the Zoo that we'll share tomorrow. There's a sneak peek pic below.

 

 

Words to Live By

School Fun

Have we mentioned how much we LOVE Hampton's teacher & moms day out? We just love getting pics of him having fun with his buddies! 

Cowboy Up!

Both boys love putting on their daddy's shoes & wearing play hats, so it was just a matter of time before Harrison got all decked out. It was quite a hoot watching him try to walk in those huge boots!

Playing In the Leaves

One of the best things about fall is that the leaves start changing & then fall. Which means it's time to play in them! The boys got their first chance to do just that this weekend, and they took full advantage of it. Luckily, they'll have many more chances to play before it gets too cold!

Jack Johnson

A couple of weeks ago, we headed to Atlanta without the boys to see Jack Johnson. He was doing a limited tour, and we lucked out & got into the lottery for tickets. It was our first time seeing him, so we jumped on the chance to get away for a few days & see a bucket-list artist.

We met up for a pre-show dinner with some friends from home who also had tickets, then headed to the show. It was absolutely awesome, and JJ was actually better than we thought he'd be, which is saying a lot! We're hoping to catch him again next year when he goes on a nationwide tour, but if we don't make it, this one was good enough to make up for it! 

Mr. Scarecrow

Hampton's teacher took pics of her students with scarecrows, and then gave the children a copy. Here's Hamp the Scarecrow, putting on the cheese!

Random Stuff

Besides baby news, we've had tons of other things going on recently. Here's a quick recap of some of the things we've been up to in the past few weeks:

• Tanner pitched in for a friend as a substitute at Hampton's MDO in a 2-year-old class. It was very fun, but very exhausting...and it wasn't even for the whole day! Those preschool teachers have quite the job!
• We had to buy a new car. The Acura fell victim to a known transmission flaw, and it was going to cost thousands to fix. Although it broke our hearts (and wallet), we decided it made more sense to buy another car for Bo, especially since he logs 50,000 miles a year in work driving. We had 3 days from finding out to him needing the new car, so we worked fast, but in the end, we got an amazing deal on a great car for us. It's really hard finding big SUVs that will hold 3 car seats with room left over for storage. So, now we are a 2 tank-size car family. Luckily, Tanner doesn't drive far & Bo's company pays for his gas! What we REALLY hope is that we don't have to buy another car next year. Two cars in less than 1 year has really hurt the ol' savings account!
• Bo headed out of town to New Orleans for a couple of days for the big International Work Boat Show. He found out that he's going to be given some of his company's key accounts, so that was big news around here. We're very proud of the hard work he's put in, and we love that Pierce is acknowledging it!
• Tanner's summer Bible study has started up again, and she's really enjoyed the fellowship & learning that comes along with the weekly meeting.
• We were so thrilled for our favorite fall TV shows to return, but we've been to busy & exhausted to watch them! Thankfully, we have a dvr, so we're planning to catch up on everything during those midnight feedings that are headed our way.
• We're still working on transitioning both boys to the same bedroom. Harrison is in love with being in the same room as Hampton, but he also likes to talk A LOT once he's in bed. Hampton just wants to sleep, so it's been a little harder adjustment than we planned. Hopefully, that will work itself out sooner rather than later.
• The weather is starting to get a little cooler outside, and we're thrilled with it! We are less than thrilled with the sinus infections that Tanner & the boys have, however.
• The boys are really into playing outside with their chalk & cars lately. It makes a big mess of the driveway & their outfits, but luckily both wash up easily!

 

Baby Update

With all that we've had going on lately, you'd think we forgot we're having a baby. Not so! So here's a recap of what's happening on the baby front:

We're now going to the Doctor every other week. It's crazy how fast time is going...soon we'll be going every week!

Tanner was having some irregular heartbeats, so our OB sent her to the cardiologist. She had to wear a heart monitor, which found out that there's something a little wacky with her heart. The good news is that it's not life-threatening, and it can be controlled with medication. 

Tanner also failed her glucose screening, so she had to do the dreaded 3-hour test. That makes all 3 pregnancies that got to have that un-fun experience! At least she passed, so no diabetes here!

We set our induction date, so unless she gets here early, her birthday will be December 5th. 52 days from now (not like we're counting or anything!)

Her room is coming along VERY slowly. We do have her curtain up, which is gorgeous, but that's it. We still have to paint, hang artwork, and girly it up a bit. Hopefully, we'll get to it before she arrives. If not, we'll do it at some point! 

Wild Child

Harrison is our into everything baby. You can't turn your back on him for one second! 

Just this morning, he has thrown a race car into the garbage disposal, pulled all the books out of the bookshelf, climbed onto the dining table, knocked over the drum set multiple times, and opened the toilet lid & dropped his sippy cup inside. All before noon! No wonder his Mommy needs a nap worse than he does by naptime! 

Well, Shiver Me Timbers!

On "Talk Like A Pirate Day", Krispy Kreme ran a promotion where you could get a dozen free doughnuts if you came into the store dressed up like a pirate. Not one to miss a challenge (especially one that involved free doughnuts), Grandi got all dolled up in her best pirate attire & headed in. We were especially thrilled to reap the spoils of this adventure, because she showed up at our house with hot ones! Free, yummy, and hilarious....that is our kind of way to start the day, me hearties!

Navarre Beach Sand Sculpting Festival

Last Saturday, we headed over to Navarre Beach with Bob & Randi for the annual Sand Sculpting Festival. Apparently, it's the soft-pack sand national championships, and the creators were hard at work building their masterpieces for the judges. We watched them work on their creations, played in the fenced off kids area, and wandered around the various booths at the festival.

 

Afterward, we headed to the local playground for the boys to run off some energy. The playground is on some of the most prime real estate in Navarre Beach, and we really enjoyed the waterfront views while watching the boys have fun. It didn't hurt that the weather was beautiful, either. You can tell how much we enjoyed it by all the photos we took that day! Here are several of our favorites....enjoy!

 

Blessing Of The Pets

Last Sunday, our church held their 11th annual Blessing of the Pets. It's held on the front lawn of our church, and tons & tons of pet owners show up to have their animals blessed, given treats, taken photos of, and even be handed a certificate commemorating the event. We both helped out with the event, and the boys had a great time running around with their friends...both human and furry. We may have actually opened a can of worms, though, as Hampton kept coming & telling Tanner that "we need a dog!". Right now isn't the best time for that at our house, but we all know that it's just a matter of time before a 4-legged member joins our family again!

 

Fizzled Out

Well, Tropical Storm Karen ended up being a complete non-event, which is just how we like it. We ended up with 2 small rainstorms, which is less than we got most every day this summer! We stayed with P&J to make sure they were healing well from the eye surgerys, and then we headed home. Of course, a cold front blew in & now all but Bo have the sniffies (as H1 calls them). Oh, well. We'll take them if we can keep the amazing weather that came along with it!

Storm Prep

Well, we made it all the way to October before having to deal with a tropical weather system, but it looks like our luck may have run out. We're in the center of the path for Karen, and although we aren't expecting major problems, they're projecting lots of wind & rain. All from a storm that Tanner didn't really know about until Wednesday! So we've been busy picking up groceries, running to the bank, and packing up a few things to take to Paul & Jan's. We probably wouldn't even be headed there, except that they both had cataract surgery today. We don't think they need to be worried about storm prep when they can barely see!

Of course, as we're preparing for it to rain buckets, Harrison shows us that the cutest buckets are filled with little boys!

Hampton at School

Hampton absolutely loves MDO, and his teacher does a great job taking photos to send all the moms. Here's a recent one of him on the playground with one of his best buddies. These boys were in the same class last year, but not this year, so they catch up & play hard during their shared playtime. Fun times!