Grandparent's Day

Today was Grandparent's Day at school, and Ellie and Greer had some very special visitors. Meme came up to se Ellie... and so did Lollie...
She was so proud to show them her classroom and introduce them to some of her friends.

Meme also visited Greer's classroom... as did Lollie. Poor baby was already tired by the time they arrived.

After school we all headed to lunch together. We are so thankful for our grandparents, and I know Ellie and Greer truly appreciated sharing their day with Lollie and Meme!

Two weeks ago Ellie started gymnastics and is absolutely loving it!

She takes at a really nice facility on campus, and it is so neat! All of the parents get to sit and watch through the glass windows. You can barely see E through the blurriness, but she's walking with her little hands up in the air. She bounces off the wall with excitement the entire time she's there!

So far this has been her favorite activity.

She also started dance back in August and is really enjoying that as well.

I thought we would try both this year and let her decide which one is her favorite. Our weeks are super busy running all over town, but I will say this one thrives on activity so it is worth it. Poor G gets dragged around a lot, but he is a trooper!

Every Thursday at school all of the kids get to sport their Auburn colors which is a lot of fun. What makes it all the more fun is that everyone is wearing orange and blue! Literally everyone! I can't get over how big Greer looks in this picture...

Our little cheerleader on Saturday...

And this past week this little guy got his first trim. I actually trimmed the back of his hair myself. I was sad to see the curls go, but things were starting to get a little out of control in the back. He also is mistaken for a girl a LOT which doesn't bother me one bit, but again, it was just time. I love how people just assume he's a girl because he isn't wearing kakhi pants and a polo!

Still amazes me the things I allow my 2nd child to eat well before I even thought about it with Ellie.

I mean, I'm not going to let E have something while G stands there staring, upset! Plus look how happy a simple popscicle makes him!

Labor Day Weekend

We spent the holiday weekend at Lake Martin with my side of the family. On Saturday, Thomas and two of his friends went to the Auburn game while the rest of us stayed back at the lake. Poppy brought his boat up, and we had to get some lake time in on our only day of sunshine! Ellie and Greer got lots of time in with Lollie, Poppy, Josh, She She, Thomas and his friends. Ellie thought she was so big and followed Thomas and his buddies around the entire weekend. Bless them! They were so sweet to her though, and she loved every second of it. I wish I had gotten a pic of them together!

Ellie must have told us 1,000 times, "I wanna ride the tube."

And she did! She and her Daddy having a good time...

We had some inside time due to the weather which meant lots of snack time...

and snuggle time...

this boy loves his Lollie & his Poppy!

Sleepy time on the boat...

and some climbing time in the bunk room...see this ladder...

Yep, he climbed all the way up that ladder and to the top of the bunkbed! He snuck out of the living room and into the bunkroom to do this ALL by himself! Thank goodness he didn't fall.

And, while at the lake, we had to make a stop by Lollie & Poppy's lakehouse they just bought! The house needs some work, and the yard needs a little TLC, but as long as we have somewhere to lie our heads at night while being at the lake, it's perfect to me! They close in a few weeks and plan to get a few projects started right away.

They sold their condo in Orange Beach and decided to replace it with a place at Lake Martin! We are ecstatic to say the least since we are now 40 minutes from here...the view from the yard...

Standing in front of the house...

We can't wait to spend a lot of time together here. I told my mom over the weekend that our kids are going to grow up being "lake babies" which is so different from the way we grew up being "beach babies." We grew up living only 1.5 hours from the beach, and our kids will grow up being so close to the lake. In my opinion, you can't really go wrong either way! Lots of memories to be made here for sure though! We can't wait Lollie & Poppy!

Fun-Filled Weekend

This may have been only the 2nd time since we moved to Auburn that we have been in town the entire weekend, and we loved every minute of it. This little guy stays this happy just about all of the time now. Life is good for him!Speaking of this little man...he is starting to say several words. He actually understands just about everything you tell him but doesn't have much interest in communicating with actual words. Every now and then, he'll point to something and say what it is which reassures me that he is getting it! I ask him all along, "Greer, where is your nose, foot, etc," and he always points to the correct thing so we're good! He seems to be maturing by the minute, and it makes me sad!

Now, back to our weekend. It did get off to somewhat of a rocky start when on Friday afternoon during Ellie's "supposed" nap, I heard some rumbling around in her bathroom. I walked in to find her standing in the sink, completely naked, with a huge smile on her face along with this all over the place and her body!

That would be paint! I just stood there, completely frozen, and speechless. She then proceeds to say, "Mom, go look in my room at the mess." And this is what I found...
Isn't it beautiful? A true masterpiece. Notice her little footprints all over her rug. Oh, and you can't tell from the picture, but there are nice little splatters of paint all over her SILK bedskirt and some of her bedding. The rug is now in the trash, and I am attempting to blot out the other. Thank goodness it is Crayola and washable! Honestly I wouldn't buy anything else for this wild child. She was honestly so proud of her work! For some reason a sense of calmness came over me, and I didn't freak out. I simply threw Ellie into the bathtub, got her all cleaned up, and then proceeded to clean this mess up along with her bathroom. The entire time I was cleaning it up, she sitting there saying, "Mom, isn't it so cool? Don't you love my art?" Ellie, baby, you definitely keep us on our toes around here. Needless to say the paint has been hidden far, far away from any place she might go!

These just give you a glimpse of what our house looks like. Just a tidbit of what G does to my bathroom during the 30 minutes of me getting ready to go somewhere. On this particular day I also threw away 2 entire rolls of toilet paper that he had proceeded to chunk in the toilet. Makes you a little sick to throw something like that away, but I also threw away a Pottery Barn rug on this same day so when comparing the two I guess the toilet paper isn't so bad.

After all of the cleaning up, we headed to the pool with Daddy for an early evening swim and dinner. Then on Saturday morning, we all headed out together to run some errands. Running errands in Auburn is just so fun for some reason! We hit literally every bookstore in town looking for e's new cheerleading uniform and some other fun Auburn treats were thrown in as well. After that we all got lunch together downtown. This is just such an amazing place to live, and there is always something going on. Saturday afternoon we headed to a customer appreciation event that a local real estate company was hosting. EVERYthing was free, and I mean everything! They had bouncey houses galore, huge blow-up slides, put put golf games, baseball-hitting games, a mini train, popcorn, cotton candy, adult food, and the ice-cream truck was there giving away unlimited amounts of ice cream!

The kids loved every minute!

I think she slid down this thing about 50 times.

G was enjoying himself too!

This was at the end, her 2nd ice cream treat!

And some baseball fun...

We ended our fun weekend with a trip to church on Sunday morning...

And another evening swim at the pool. We are soaking up this last bit of summer before fall officially kicks into full swing. We cannot wait to see what fall is going to bring!

First Day of School!

These 2 both started school yesterday and had a GREAT day!

Ellie has been more than ready for school to start (and I must say so has her Mama). Greer, on the other hand, I just wasn't so sure how he would do. He has spent every single day for the last 16 months at home, but I think it is time for some socialization! He has shown signs of major separation anxiety, much more than Ellie ever had, so that made me worry more about this school thing. But, other than being extremely tired when I picked him up, his teachers said he had a great day! And today was even better they said so we are thrilled! A lot has been thrown their way with a new town, new house, new school, new friends, and these 2 are adjusting very well which makes me so happy.


I mean she was SO excited and ready yesterday!
And was so cooperative for the pictures unlike her silly brother.

Sometimes you just take what you can get...

Ellie with her teachers, Mrs. Gina and Mrs. Anne, who are great by the way!

No pics of Greer with his teachers since I had to make a mad-dash out of there to avoid a meltdown! It is so nice to be back in our little routine around here. Ellie and I thrive on a routine so we're doing great!