First Grade and Walking

We had our first day of FIRST grade last Thursday! It's so weird that school is starting at the beginning of August, and I keep thinking it's already September! 

Thankfully, Noelle was super excited about getting back to school, and for the last two weeks of summer was asking me daily how many days were left until the first day. She woke up excited on Thursday morning, and put on her uniform (which she had picked out at least a week before school started!)

And Jonah was awake also and jumped right in to her first day pictures. :)

She loves her teacher, and I've heard nothing but good about the teacher. Parents who have had other kids go through her class talk about how genuine her love is for the kids. Her class is 15 students this year, which is the biggest size class in the school, but Noelle will still get a lot of attention, I'm sure!

Luke stayed home with the little two since Clara was still asleep at 7:30 (which was a complete miracle, by the way) and I took Noelle in for her first day. We walked to her classroom, hung up her backpack and lunch box, and found her desk. She squealed over all the books in her desk, and was already laughing at the class clown who was sitting next to her.

We are so proud of this girl, and are excited to see all the things she learns this year. Her first day was a half day, and when I brought her home, she sat down with one of the Magic Tree House books and started sounding out words on the first page.

Girlfriend is loving seeing her old friends, and meeting a few new ones!

After school, I showed the kids how to use the self timer on the camera on my phone.

And we snapped a few "fun" ones!

And a side note to all of this- Clara WALKED last night!! In the last two weeks, she's taken like 3 steps if Luke and I are sitting a few feet away from each other, and she's been holding on to one of our fingers and walking for awhile. But it was like all of a sudden she got her confidence, and took well over a dozen steps. And then of course today she was right back to holding on to my finger to walk around. But we're getting there! And growing up so fast!

Last Weekend of Summer Break

This past weekend was the perfect last weekend of summer! It was a mix of busy with some relaxation, seeing old friends and making new ones, and finding a new fun place near home!

On Friday evening, we joined some friends from church at a local vineyard for a picnic and music. The vineyard itself was out in the country, lots of open space with just enough trees for shade, and the weather was warm with lower humidity. We grabbed a pizza from Little Cesar's for the kids, and packed some food for ourselves. The kids had a blast running around, and us adults shared a giant slice of strawberry shortcake from one of the food trucks. As we left, we saw the beginnings of a beautiful sunset! Definitely a place we want to come back to!

Saturday morning, I took the three kids to Leiper's Fork to visit with some MD friends who were down in TN for a family member's graduation. Noelle and Jonah jumped right in to playing with their three little girls, and my friend and I had a little bit of time to catch up on life. It was SO good to see them, and makes me long for our first trip back to MD (most likely not until Christmas!) I miss those friends and seeing their little ones grow up!

The rest of Saturday afternoon was pretty quiet, and Luke and I were able to prep for that evening. We invited over a bunch of neighbors for a little ice cream party! We really want to be proactive about getting to know people, and building community. It stretches us way out of our comfort zones, but we firmly believe that God has us here for a reason, and who lives around us is part of that! In total we had 12 adults and 17 kids. There were three babies 13 months and younger, and the other 14 kids ranged in age from 3 years to 12 (maybe 13 years) old, and at one point, ALL of them were just running around playing with each other. It was so sweet (and loud), especially seeing the two oldest boys running around with the little kids and letting the smaller ones tackle them. Now we just need to continue to push ourselves to continue those friendships!

Sunday was a special day for our church. It is a church plant, and they were celebrating two years! They had four baptisms, and a lunch afterwards for some great fellowship and celebration time. We chatted with friends, and made new friends with people who were visiting. Even though we've only been there for a short while, we feel right at home with our church family. We're so thankful for our pastor, Luke and I are each being mentored in small groups, and there is a strong (though small) group of moms that have regularly scheduled get-togethers. Bible study will be starting up again next Friday, and I can't wait!

Noelle started school today, and Jonah will start at the beginning of September. Back to early mornings, packed lunches, and waiting in car-line! (Also, it feels SO weird that it's the beginning of August! My entire life school has started the last week of August, or later, and so it feels like September is so much closer than it is!)

All the Food!

One of the reasons we moved down to the Nashville area was for the food (kidding! kind of) :) and when Luke's sister's came to visit two weeks, we hit up some of our favorites!

After the zoo on Saturday, we went to Oscar's Tacos. You usually can't go wrong with mexican, and their tacos and chips and guacamole are delicious! (I've been twice more since then...)

We all went to church on Sunday morning, and then met my brother-in-law and sister-in-law in Franklin afterwards to meet for lunch. Luke figured Bishop's would be a good choice because it has Nashiville's Hattie B's hot chicken. Bishop's is a meat and three place, where you choose your meat and your three sides. I got the turkey, but tried some of the hot chicken, and it is HOT!

Afterwards we wandered around downtown historical Franklin. It was a surprisingly not hot day, and I always enjoy hanging out down there!

Aunt Hannah got roped into giving piggy back rides

On Monday we made reservations to eat at Loveless Cafe. It was an early lunch, and with the reservations, we didn't have to wait at all! The biscuits were of course perfect soft, melt-in-your-mouth buttery taste, and if I remember correctly, a lot of people got either country fried steak or chicken fried chicken (southern staples!)

We spent a lot of time just hanging out at our house so that the kids could have some downtime, and had to of course get Bluebell ice cream. We got the groom's cake flavor, which was FULL of chocolatey goodness!

And we of course had to take them to The Factory in Franklin for Five Daughter's Bakery. Donuts that cost $5.50 each just have to be the best, right?

And funny story- while we were at Five Daughters, I saw a woman waiting in line who looked familiar. When I looked around, I saw her husband walking towards us and realized it was indeed Jenna of Chris and Jenna the singing duo, now Wild Harbors. Chris was our favorite librarian in MD, and Jenna was best friends with a girl I worked with after college. And together, Chris and Jenna, besides singing of course, are also known in our house as Elephant and Piggie (as in the characters by Mo Willems.) I chatted with them for a little, and then we headed home!

We had some sparklers floating around that needed to get used so Noelle and Jonah flew through those one night. Other adventures with the aunts included a coffee shop trip with Aunt Debbie, and then to lunch at Chick Fil A. We also made a trip to McKays for books, played baseball with Aunt Lyd's boyfriend, sat around the table coloring pictures, and some grown-up games after the baby went to bed. It was a lot of fun having more family visitors!

Clara Irene: 12 Months

Let's completely disregard the fact that my baby is now over 13 months old. Because I know I am- she's still a baby. Not a toddler yet.

I know for a fact that this past year was one of the busiest, craziest times in our lives. When Clara was born, a move to a new state was not even on our radar. I was getting nice and settled into the idea of living in our tiny, imperfect townhouse until our kids were grown and out of the house. We were dedicated to the Christian school Noelle was registered for, and knew we'd eventually be paying tuition for all three kids, therefore, a move to a bigger house was just not as doable. But I was good- contemplating ways to store things better, decorating and painting to make it more of what I wanted, figuring out how to arrange the barrage of toys we own. And then boom, God provided the opportunity for us to move to a new state, and it was go, go, go to clean, pack, move, downsize, move, unpack, settle, find a church, make new friends, figure out all our new places. All that on not getting to completely sleep through the night until Clara was 8 months old, dealing with a never-ending injury that halted my much appreciated form of stress relief, and a steady stream of family and friends coming to stay at our house. (I counted 17 different people and three dogs who slept in our home over the course of multiple visits!)

It's been busy, but I'm thankful to be able to look back and see God's hand in it all. And I'm thankful for the moments I had of nursing Clara to sleep in her room, and just sitting and holding her, and remembering God's faithfulness in bringing us our third little blessing!

Now onto some updates (hopefully mostly accurate since she's 13 months old now.) :)

Height and Weight: We had her 1 year well-check on June 27th, and she was 28 inches and 16 pounds, 14 ounces. A growing girl!

Diapers and Clothing: As soon as we ran out of size two diapers, we opened up our size 3 diapers, which is especially helpful for nighttime when she goes a lot longer without a diaper change. Right around her birthday, I pulled out our bin of 12 month clothes and that's what she's been wearing. For a little while, she was still wearing some size 6 month onsies to bed, but those have been put away now.

Sleep: Overall, we're in a good place with sleep. She sleeps through the night (though decided to wail for awhile at the end of last week and eventually wound of falling asleep in our bed), and she usually naps once a day. I try to keep her awake and active until 12 or 1, and then put her down. She usually sleeps for about two hours, but can also sleep much longer if the house is quiet and she's super worn out. She took a FOUR hour nap last week when we were in the midst of a busy time running around with visiting family!

Eating: We are officially switched over to milk, though still using bottles. The one sippy cup I have leaks, and I hate to use the ones with straws because they're harder to clean. But she does know how to use a sippy cup, just usually drinks water from it. She usually drinks 20ish ounces of milk over the course of 3 bottles, and eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner with snacks of course. She eats black beans with salsa, berries of all sorts, grapes, sweet potato, pureed baby foods like carrots, apples, pears, and prunes. I need to get more veggies in her, which I can get her to eat bell peppers, onion, tomato if I'm feeding her off of my plate. She'll eat chickpeas, chicken, pizza, peanut butter, yogurt, applesauce, and more! I always try to give her a little bit of whatever I'm eating if it's soft/small enough, and most times she'll at least try it!

Social/Milestones: I feel like 11 months to 12 months old was the biggest leap for her physically. She consistently pulls up, can go from laying down to sitting to pulling up, sitting to laying down, pulling up to sitting, and she can hold one of our fingers and walk around. We bought her a push toy two weeks ago, and she can walk around pushing that. She's our latest walker, but she's close! She has her two bottom teeth, and got one of her top teeth. Definitely my baby with the least amount of teeth by age one! She says lots of "dada!" If we're playing in the toy room and someone comes up the stairs, she goes "Dada!" And Luke is so totally her favorite! Breaks my heart a little since ya know, I'm the one who carried her for 9 months, pushed her out, nursed her, and hangs with her all day. But I get it, dad is cool. :)

Likes: Clara loves being with Noelle and Jonah. If they're playing in the toy room, she's a lot happier playing up there as well. They've been having fun with her push toy, and helping her push it around. She loves water- bath time and the pool. And her favorite right now is holding one of our fingers and walking around. Everywhere, all the time. I even started putting shoes on her so it's not quite as gross when we're out and about and she wants to "walk" around.

Dislikes: She isn't happy when someone can't get to her right away when she wants something. And when she's tired, and we're out and about, she can get unhappy. She did NOT like getting left in nursery this past week, and Luke got called to pick her up (I was in Sunday school with the other two.)

Fun things: The end of May through her first birthday involved family visiting, trips to the zoo, pool time, library visits,  hanging out with friends, the Moon Pie festival, Father's Day, and lots of time as a family!

Pictures from the month:

visiting daddy at work and stealing an RX Bar

hanging out on mama's hip

the Factory

doesn't look like the most comfortable sleeping position

hanging with cousin Holden

a cupcake all to herself when we celebrated her birthday with family

hanging out with GG and Grandpa

Celebrating Noelle's birthday at the American Girl Cafe

angel wings in Nashville

Moon Pie Festival

cheesing with mama

splash pad fun

mom and dad's 10th anniversary

more splash pad!

falling asleep the night before her birthday

birthday morning with mama!

Catching Up On July

These pictures are all out of order, but July fun must be documented! Or I'll forget what we did. I already get to the end of a week and forget what we did that week. Mom brain? Or maybe I'm just getting old?

The kids and I were part of the insane Build-A-Bear pay your age day. When my friend sent me the info on it, I thought sure, why not? We have no plans that day. She and I chatted and decided to get to the mall a half hour before the store opened. I had also let my mom know about it to take my nephew, and I got a call from her about 45 minutes before I planned on leaving (she's an hour ahead of us) to let me know that there were hundreds of people waiting in line at the mall she went to, and that the store has opened earlier than usual. What?? So I stuffed my bag with snacks, texted my friend and sister-in-law and let them know we were heading out sooner than planned.

We ended up waiting in line for over 4 hours. We questioned it multiple times if it was even worth it, but eventually we reached a point where we'd waited long enough that there was no turning back. Between the three of us there were six kids, ages 6, 4, 2, and 1. Between snacks and Netflix on my phone they kept themselves pretty happy. Once we got to the front of the line, we were told it was another hour long wait to stuff the animals, so we opted to buy our animals and come back another time to stuff them. (Which is what these two pictures are from. And which we did the very next day.) Noelle got Skye, Jonah got a storm trooper bear, and Clara got a cute little teddy bear.

A couple of Saturdays ago, Luke and I each took one of the big kids on a date for some one-on-one time. Noelle and I went to Starbucks and colored pictures while I drank coffee and she ate her cookie. It was such a sweet time to connect with my big girl without interruptions, and when I asked her what her favorite part of summer break had been, she said right now having alone time with me (most likely because it was fresh in her brain!) Later that evening, Luke took Jonah to "Old McDonalds" for dinner and they talked about Jonah's friends and Super Mario.

Noelle and Jonah had Vacation Bible School at the church where Jonah will attend pre-K in the fall, and they both loved it! Last year they did VBS at my in-law's church, and so they kind of knew what to expect. This church is much larger, so there were a LOT of kids, but they both jumped right in to the fun. For Jonah's age group they did a Shipwrecked theme, and for the older kids it was Star Wars: The Force Within. They both loved it, and the parents were spoiled as well! Every day during drop-off they had treats for the parents: Chick-Fil-A chicken minis, McDonald's sausage biscuit, Peach Truck peaches, juiced veggies/fruits from a local juicery, and donuts from a local donut place. It was really sweet, and they did a great job with everything! Clara and I got some good one-on-one time, where we hung with friends, went to the park, explored Aldi's, got a flat tire on one of our brand NEW tires, and met with Luke and our pastor to interview for membership. My little tag-along is not always the easiest, but I love our little bug!

 
Earlier in July, we did cow appreciation day at Chick Fil A. Jonah stuffed himself into the dalmatian costume for the third year in a row (which Noelle wore for Halloween when she was two), and the rest of us donned our spots. We met my friend and her kids, and got there just in time to avoid a crazy line. Always so much fun getting free food, especially when it's one of our favorites!

On Mondays, our church's moms group gets together, and one of the Mondays we went to a local chocolate factory for a tour. The kids got to dip things in a giant vat of chocolate, and we all walked away with delicious chocolate to share. It will be sad not having Noelle join us for our Monday get-togethers when she goes back to school (which is SO soon!!)

Water, Water, Water!

Two weekends ago we used our season pass to visit a nearby farm for their watermelon festival! When we went to the farm for their Easter egg hunt, it was packed, so we were fully expecting the same thing. BUT thankfully there weren't nearly as many people, and our kids were able to enjoy the special water things that were set up, as well as the usual things (slides, swings, pony rides, the little rubber ducky pump races.)

Noelle and Jonah both loved the bubble station. Jonah would run in and get himself all covered, and then run over to the splash pad and get it all washed off. Back and forth, back and forth.

Clara did pretty well, and thankfully it wasn't too hot in the shade. It's a hard stage with her getting more mobile but not able to move around on her own yet. Plus she gets tired and fussy, so then we have to cut it short when the big two are ready to keep going.

That evening I didn't have anything planned for dinner, so we decided to use some gift cards from Christmas and go to Cracker Barrel. I don't think I've been there since sometime in high school, but the biscuits were delicious, the kids were able to get chicken tenders and fries and play the little peg games, and Clara kept it together for most of dinner.

On Thursday last week, we had no plans, so I told the kids we were going to the pool! Jonah was immediately excited, but it took some convincing for Noelle. I talked her into bringing and using her puddle-jumper, and as soon as she got into the water with it, she LOVED it! We stayed for two hours, and only left because Clara was done. They stayed in the water almost the whole time, with a small break for a snack. Noelle was making new friends with another little girl, and I felt bad taking her away right when they were getting into it! We went back on Friday, but a storm came through, so we were only there for about 45 minutes.

 
This past Saturday we went to the zoo for their Splash Day! There were water slides, bubble stations, and baby pools set up on the lawn, as well as free Icee and Bluebell ice cream samples.

The big hit though was the giant playground! The kids played on this in 2016 when we came to visit my brother-in-law, but I haven't taken them yet since we moved because I wouldn't be able to keep up with the two of them while holding Clara. It's probably the coolest playground I've ever seen, and it kept them busy for well over an hour. They probably would have played longer but we (aka I) needed to stop for a snack break. We convinced them to go see a few animals, and then headed to a cookout with Luke's boss. (Where they provided canvases and paint for the kids, which my art-obsessed kids loved!)

It was a busy day, and Clara was cranky and ended up with only a 10 minute car nap. Noelle and Jonah got lots of down time once we got home, and Luke and I tried to keep Clara happy till she went down for an early bedtime!