VBS Picnic

On the Friday after VBS, we had a picnic for all of the children & volunteers on the church playground. The UMM & UMW take care of everything, so we just get to come and have fun. Well, everyone was having a great time....and then the bottom fell out! We didn't even know it was supposed to rain! We ended up wet, but the boys had an amazing time playing the newly formed muddy puddles. However, we're not sure they had as much fun as some of the older men had watching them! They just kept laughing and saying how awesome it was that the boys were filled with so much joy. One friend asked us why we weren't panicking over how dirty they'd become, but we just laughed. By now, we've discovered several laundry tricks that help us remove almost all trace of filth, just leaving us with fun memories!

 

Back To School Beach Bash

Last week, Gulf Shores held their annual Back To School Bash down on the main beach. It's a fun party to celebrate the end of summer, filled with s'mores, sno cones, a DJ, and a balloon artist. The weather was amazing, and the boys were excited to see several of their friends there. We had a great time, and we played until it was too dark to play anymore! 

Still Life

Now that baby girl is a busybody, we'll just have to look back at the photos of her while she would sit still! If you ever wondered why we show more baby pics than anything, it's because babies stay put. Now we're gonna need a GoPro cam to keep up with these 3 wild ones! 

On The Move

Well the day has arrived....Hayden Kate is crawling! And let us tell you, there's no stopping her now. She thinks she's mastered this skill (she hasn't quite), and now she's way more interested in trying to pull up on everything. We are not feeding her new interest, as we keep sitting her back down & distracting her. What a difference three kids makes! Ha!

We'll encourage that soon, but hit now we're trying to baby proof & figure out how to trap her in safe areas. And having a girl brings another challenge we quickly realized....you can't crawl in a dress! After watching her get all tangled up in one the other day, we've decided that they've got to go until she's standing. 

Here are some pics of her trying to overcome the step into the playroom. Notice her tongue hanging out....that's her concentration face! She's really working hard here, while we're just watching and laughing...and taking pics! 

Park Fun

Friday night, we met Bo's parents at the Robertsdale park. The boys played in the splash pad area until it got a little too crowded, then we headed over to the playground. We pretty much had the run of the place, and had fun pretending that the "lava" was going to get us. It didn't hurt a thing that the weather was gorgeous!

Trying So Hard

This girl wants to crawl SO badly! She gets up, rocks, tries to move her legs, and then gets frustrated & goes back down on her belly. Soon enough, though, she'll be off & there'll be no stopping her. Is it wrong that we kind of want to discourage her from moving?

 

Beach Babies

Oh, Yesterday

Well, yesterday was an adventure. 

Monday night, Tanner got sick and was sick most of the night. So we decided that the boys would go stay with Grandpa & Tanner would go to urgent care with HK in tow. Grandi was going to meet them at Urgent Care, but she beat us there. She told them Tanner's symptoms, and they said we needed to go to the ER. Great.

After a 10+ hour stay that included way more tests & needles than we want to think about, we finally got to go home last night with a prescription. Today, Tanner is feeling very weak but better. Here's to hoping we don't experience that again!! 

And Tanner had to snap a pic at the hospital...what else was there to do while laying around? 

The World According To Harrison

Harrison:  God made you, Mommy.

Tanner:  That's right, Harrison.

Harrison:  And God made Daddy.

Bo:  That's right.

Harrison:  And Bass Pro.

 

We guess Bass Pro must be like Heaven to little boys! Ha!

 

Hayden Kate is 8 (months)!

With all the busyness around here, you'd think we'd forgotten that Hayden Kate is now a whopping 8 months old! Not so! Miss Priss is getting so big! She's trying her hardest to crawl, and we think she'll have that mastered sooner than we'd like. She's liking fruits a lot, but veggies not so much. She loves her brothers and being right in the center of the action. If you get in between her and whatever she's looking at, you better move quickly! Ha! She's hit a growing spurt everywhere from her feet to her hair. We've had to get rid of all of the 6-9 month pajamas, and we've graduated to a bigger hair bow (her Aunt Amy is thrilled by this news!). She's fairly quiet during the day while her brothers are doing all the talking, but as soon as they're asleep, she babbles non-stop. And she LOVES pulling hair, especially Hampton's and Mommy's. She's the sweetest girl and mostly just goes with the flow. We can't imagine not having that blue-eyed beauty here with us!

 

Ugh

We like to keep it light around here, but honestly, this week has just been not fun. 

Way too much thinking about Tanner's very unwell Grandparents, Hamp being sick, and Bo having multiple Doctor appointments. We are trying to get stuff ready for school & dragging outgrown clothes & toys out to price for the consignment sale...which are really adding to the mess in our house. Add in the chest pains that landed Tanner's dad in the ER & eventually the hospital, and we're a bit frazzled. 

So, we'll be back later with more fun, but today we will leave you with a Happy (yet very congested) Hampton.

Wardrobe Woes

Our kids have hit a growth spurt. Now, this happens to every child at different points, but it's hit all 3 of ours at the same time! So we've been busy weeding things out, making lists of needs, and trying things on (much to the disappointment of our children). 

Luckily, this past weekend was tax-free weekend, and we are all about saving as much money as possible! And since we needed shoes that they had to try on, we picked the kids up from Paul & Jan's for a marathon shopping day on Saturday. Even though we had a couple of trying moments (including a diaper blowout in an overcrowded store), it went fairly well. That may have something to do with the fact that we bribed them with a treat before we left! Hey, whatever works, right?

Here's a pic of the happy crew before we headed out and photos of the boys trying on some new duds. Please excuse the destroyed room...the boys prefer to play in toy piles!

Lately