Branson, MO

The second week of October we traveled to Branson, MO and met my parents there for a week long vacation. The weather was perfect and we had a great time!!

The first full day we were there we rented a pontoon boat on Table Rock Lake. It was such a beautiful day for the lake!! We all really enjoyed the nice relaxing ride! I couldn't believe Brady never really cared about the life jacket. I thought for sure he would have refused to put it on, but he didn't!

Brady watching the Branson Belle on it's lunch cruise.

Brady got really tired and took a nap.

Willa Kate also really enjoyed the ride!! She had a really long nap!

We went to a drive through safari park just east of Springfield. I went to this exact same one when I was a kid and loved it, so I wanted to take Brady! Here he is pacing with the snow tiger (A very rare tiger that has a few very faint stripes). It was the cutest thing ever! Brady would stop and he would stop and when Brady started walking again the tiger would start walking again and every time Brady would turn he would turn!! My camera died shortly after we entered the drive safari so I didn't get many pics.

Brady loves dinosaurs, so when I saw that Branson had a dinosaur museum, I knew we had to go!! We took about 100 pics of all of the dinosaurs and Brady loves looking at all of the pics!

An eagle we saw outside of our window at the condo one morning.

We went to silver dollar city one day and really enjoyed it! They had a lot of kiddie rides! I wasn't sure how Brady would do on them because most of them you had to be over 38 inches tall and most 2 year olds aren't 38 inches tall. There were a few that you had to be 40 inches tall and Brady rode those too! He loved every ride he went on! He even went on the little roller coaster 4 times!!

Pumpkin carving

Riding the frogs that hopped!

Brady's fourth time on the roller coaster!

Wilse got so tickled riding the pirate ships because they went soooo fast and Brady was mashed up against him saying "wee" and "yay"!! LOL

He doesn't look to thrilled riding the swings, but when he got off he had the biggest smile on his face!! He said that he loved it!!

Huge sand sculpture

Lots of pretty pumpkins.

We also went to a dinner show at the Dixie Stampede that was a lot of fun! Wilse and I went to the Titanic museum one afternoon while the kids napped! It was so neat! I am so glad we went and saw all of the artifacts! We had such a great time and I can't wait until our family vacation next year!!

Playing catch up

We have been really really busy the last 2 months!! We went to Branson, MO for a week, Brady has school once a week and we have Kindermusik once a week too! We also have a play date once a week with our neighbors and between the fall festivals and all of the Halloween festivities it has been CRAZY! Oh, and we just got back from a cruise too!

So, I plan on posting once a day if not more until I get caught up!

I will leave you with some pics of my precious little ones :)

7 months old

I can't believe Willa Kate is 7 months old already!! It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with her!! She is such a happy little girl!!! Brady just adores her and can just look at her and she will start laughing!! It is the cutest thing!! Brady LOVES to make her laugh and he loves to play with her!! She is sitting pretty well, but her legs are always flexed and straight out when she sits so I think that is why it has taken her longer to sit all by herself! Willa Kate still doesn't have any teeth!! At this age Brady had 3 teeth!! So far she has eaten green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots and peaches and she loves them all!! She has started to get on her knees a lot, so she will crawling before we know it!! We have been trying to baby proof the house, like installing a hard plastic cover over the banisters in the playroom and putting up a baby gate at the top of the stairs! She has started trying to clap, clicking her tongue and she is babbling a lot! She is such a sweet girl and she is so cute I could just eat her up!!

Mississippi

We went to Mississippi for a week over the Labor Day holiday and had a fantastic time!! Some of the highlights are that we attended Prairie Arts, a arts and crafts festival in our hometown, visited with both of our families, and shopping (YES, I shop in Mississippi because they have the absolute cutest boutiques EVER!!!!). I always get asked where I get my children's clothing, decorations and gifts and almost 98% of the time I tell them Mississippi!! People always look at me like I am crazy!! But Mississippi seriously has some of the best shopping EVER! I think it's more of a southern thing! Alabama has some really good shopping too!! I made a trip to Birmingham to do a little when I was in town!

Brady always has the BEST time when we are Mississippi!! He always gets spoiled by both sets of grandparents and loves to play with his cousins!!

Here are pics from our trip!! I stole a lot of them off of my sister in law's blog!! LOL I didn't take a whole lot of pics!! I really need to get better about taking pics!!! Thanks for the pics Kasey!!

We had a little photo shoot for my niece's 1st birthday!! Isn't she a little doll?!?!?! Here are a few of my favorites!

Cael and Brady

Mary Clayton checking Willa Kate out!

The boys!

The girls!! Willa Kate, Mary Clayton and Lilah Claire (my sister in law's niece).

The best pic I could get of Willa Kate and Mary Clayton!!

Brady, Willa Kate and their first cousins!! (Brady, Cael, Willa Kate, Connor, Mary Clayton and Collins)

Collins and Brady taking a bath!! The tub was covered in dirt after they got finished!!

We went to Connor's football game and he did great!!!

Here are some pics from that night!

MC loving on Willa Kate!!

Brady, Collins and Cael playing!



Willa Kate enjoying the nice weather!!

First day of MDO

Brady had his first day at MDO 2 weeks ago!! I wasn't really sure how it would go since he has never stayed with anyone but my parents or Wilse's parents, and even then it hadn't been for long!! But he did GREAT!! We walked to his classroom and he just went right in and started playing!! I got all of his school things put away and just stood there for a minute watching him, then I walked over and told him bye and gave him a hug and he said "bye bye Momma"!! I had to hold back my tears!! With his personality, I knew he needed something like this!! He LOVES LOVES LOVES his "schools" as he calls it!! I am so happy and relieved that he enjoys it soooo much and we just love his teachers!!! He has not napped or even laid down during nap time, but I just think he is so excited that he can't!! LOL So his teachers have been reading to him during nap time while all the other children are napping! Maybe eventually he will nap during nap time! His Teaches asked me if he takes naps at home and I said yeah, and they said well what's your secret and I said, I don't know? LOL They said he is a very strong willed child and I just laughed!! He really is!!

Also, we are going to Kindermusik once a week and he just LOVES it too!!! It's music and dancing and pretend playing, so it is right up his alley!!

first day of "schools" pic

6 months old

Willa Kate is 6 months old!! She is getting so big! We had her 6 month check up today and she weighed 16 lbs. (56%) and is 27 inches long (89%). She is just precious!! I could just eat her up!

She is starting to sit up by herself and she looks like such a big girl!! She doesn't have any teeth yet, but I don't think it will be long until she gets her first one!

Willa Kate is one messy girl!! She LOVES to suck on her fingers, that is how she soothes herself to sleep. But she also LOVES to suck on her fingers when she eats her oatmeal and rice cereal!! As soon as I start to her mouth with a spoon, she starts moving her hands toward her mouth!! It drives me NUTS, but she is just too cute sucking on her fingers!!

This is how Willa Kate puts herself to sleep!! It is too cute!! Every time she takes a nap or goes to sleep she covers one eye with one hand and then puts her other hand backyards in her mouth and sucks her three fingers!!!

Wordless Wednesday

ANTS!!

About a month ago we were outside playing and Brady came running to me and said he stepped on a sticker. Well, I looked at his foot and didn't see anything, so I told him I got it off! Brady goes back to playing with his lawn mower and just stops in this one place and just stands there for a while and then starts screaming "ants, ants, ants!" So I immediately run over and grab him up and start getting the ants off of his legs. We went inside and about an hour later, I took this pic of his foot and emailed it to my mom and Kasey! He had over 50 ant bites and they looked horrible!! Our pest control service really sucks!! Too bad we signed a year contract :(