My Punkins... Or Maybe They're Monsters!

And here they are...

A Tale of Two Boys' Birthdays

September 19th...

It's a special day...

Because on that day we celebrate the lives of two special boys! The first, born in 2013 and the second just one year later in 2014. And if this wasn't special enough, an important lady preceded them both and one of them wouldn't be here without her. 

As of now, we have three birthdays we celebrate on September 19th... with our track record I'm not going to be surprised if we add more to this list! 

But for now...

We celebrate...

Nana

Whit

and

Bennett

On September 19th!

Here is Bennett... sweet little man, just minutes after he sped into this world with grace and ease! He was "easy-ish" on his Mama and arrived safely and for that we were all very grateful and humbled at the Lord's mercy.

My first nephew and my third nephew... from the same crew and both equally handsome, although one looking the spitting image of his dad and the other of his mommy! 

And then there's this other guy... nephew #2 and the one who shares my literal blood and my heart with the other two! :)

Whit...

He turned 1 this year... 1! That is so very hard to believe!

And Kaki took it upon herself to be the event photog, even through a professional was also in attendance. 

She started with a selfie... obvi!

And then turned the camera on the birthday boy... in one of his many birthday outfits! :)

Whit's mama did a fabulous job celebrating her boy and we had fun joining in! It ended up being the perfect weekend and perfect timing with Bennett's arrival!

Whit was too busy eating cake to do much of anything with his presents at the party, but we got to see him in action after his nap!!

The musical card was a hit... this isn't my first nephew (or kid) rodeo! Hours of endless entertainment!

I was so grateful to be there on that couch celebrating with Whit and fam! Kaki's class had a stomach bug circulating her class that week... there were 4 kids and her teacher in her class and everyone up and down her hallway... I just knew we were going to miss out on the fun! But, the Lord was so so so gracious to us and let us skip that round of ick and gave us the free pass to celebrate with everyone!! So grateful!

Me snapping a selfie while mom is snapping a pic of her own... kind of funny! :) And Justin is chewing ice and Josh is thrilled!

Matching dudes in turtle jams... and then the solo girlie girl! Sweet Kaki... holding down the girl cousin fort! :)

She doesn't seem to mind one bit!! Especially with a HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY boy like Whit to play (boss around) with! :) :) Love that boy! Happy Birthday Whitters!!

On our way home from Nac on Sunday we swung through Houston to meet Baby B, who of course we have already affectionately nicknamed Little B. G-Dawg and Little B, a regular rap duo coming off the mean streets of H-town! Love it! :)

So I haven't met many babies I don't like, but Bennett I LOVE!! :) He's the sweetest, cutest little dark-headed bundle of joy ever!

My pics of the cousins and Aunt Ree Ree are dark... boo!! But Caden and Kaki were excited to meet Baby Bennett but probably even more excited to play with G! They love each other so much!!

And the g-rents... four grandkids strong and growing!!! :)

And there is the other birthday girl... Happy Birthday Nana!! What a day! And what a crew you share it with!

All of that celebrating with her boy cousins can make a girl sleepy...

A tale of two boys' birthdays... 

Grateful to have the opportunity to watch them grow!

I love you two boys!!

Happy Birthday!!

Early Fall Photo Dump

Back in the blog saddle.

We are in the full swing of school days with both kids. Both are loving school and it's been fun to watch them grow and learn so much already and its only early October! And speaking of... October. It came so fast! We are already talking about Thanksgiving plans... wow.

I've got lots of day in the life pics to share... 

My Kaki girl and I love our Fridays... no school... no packing lunches (for her, Caden still buys his lunch EVERY day... except for two). We try to do fun things... go to the park... chalk the porch... play in the backyard. I know none of these seem all that exciting but when you've been a busy school girl all week it's nice to have the break. And Mondays just don't seem to lend themselves to relaxing... laundry... MOPS (twice a month)... grocery shopping.

I enjoy my time with my girl!!

She love to chalk!

And she loves a good porch swing with her Mama... especially if we make silly faces in our pictures!!

Chalk butt... it's the worst! :)

We've enjoyed rooting for our Bears from home... especially when my view includes these three...

And we had one little cold snap which made for a VERY cold soccer day! :)

But we were back to sweating by the next week, so the jackets went back in our drawers... for now! :)

One day after school I surprised the kids with a trip to a new snow cone place in town... it was SUPER yummy and they enjoyed it even more than ice cream... or so they said. I didn't think there would ever be such a thing they enjoyed more!

Caden scarfed his down!! Kindergarten makes this boy VERY hungry!!

Kaki has put aside her "egg shows" for a while and gotten into cake decorating... her Daddy especially enjoys watching him with her... and then they get some fancy ideas about what I need to be making them... Ha!

But we have a sweet Aunt Emily that is quite the baker... so we'll leave things like rainbow cakes to her!

One Thursday night we had the sweet treat of watching my cousin Kyle play on ESPN2... it was awesome! And they won!! Go Kyle!!

And who knows when this was... it could happen any day... 

Bless his heart... this guy works REALLY hard for our family... he's got to get his zzzz's when he can!

My Princess Kaki...twirling... 

The picture of grace, that girl!

I went to eat lunch with my boy one day... it was SUPER fun and made me feel like quite the celebrity. I have never been prouder to be Caden's Mom... It was so fun seeing him and his sweet friends and getting to hear all sorts of things that I never would from Caden. This age is so precious because they are all such friends and really root each other on. I brought Caden Chick-fil-a and not one kid said, "I wish I had that." Instead they were SUPER excited for Caden and were as equally excited to show me what they had in their lunches. I was so impressed by that... just made me want to give them all one big giant hug and say, stay sweet...stay humble and stay you! Right??! Sweet moments, for sure!

Kaki and I sometimes walk to pick up Caden... one day we took a stroller full of friends with us!

It took us much longer, but we had fun along the way! 

I made myself a little office area one week... new desk... actually old, old desk, but a fresh space... I am loving it!

A picture of my boy on the one month mark!! 

And before his first soccer game this season. Go Orange! 

More silliness!

Fall outfits before church...

Daddy sportin' Mommy's sunglasses! The kids think it is hilarious and just a tad embarrassing, but their Daddy knows he rocks them!!

Kaki is learning so much at school and not the things you think she'll learn... like A, B, C... she's learning that stuff too, I'm sure, but she LOVES to pretend to be her teacher and likes lining her friends up in "a boy/girl pattern." So funny! They were lining up to go to some place... she said... just some place. 

And Kaki took a turn with Mommy's glasses... Daddy can't have all the fun!

Silly selfie, AGAIN!

Last Friday we did some Fall Cook Out FUN with Caden at school! Sister even got to buy her lunch!! We paid $3.25 for her to eat a cookie, but oh well... maybe next year! :)

Kaki had a great time playing on the play ground after it was over! Two of Caden's friends offered to push her on the swing and she thought she was too cool for school! She was loving every minute of the school life. I'm thinking she'll be a Kinder pro by the time its her turn! :) She has a good example in her big bro, that is for sure! 

Oh shocker... another selfie... but not a silly one... just a smilely one! 

First school picture... sweet, sweet boy! He has the biggest head, doesn't he?? Bless his heart! And he is soooo tan! So I'm ashamed to admit that on meet the teacher night Justin and I rolled our eyes (on the inside) at this mother who was lecturing our teacher on how to apply sunscreen to her daughter before both recess times. We were like on come on... it's barely 30 minutes... WELL, I retract my eye roll, because her red-headed daughter is definitely at risk for some burns because my guy is as TAN as he's ever been and as some rock solid tan lines... it's hilarious! He looks like he's been in the Bahamas for a month! 

Kaki's hair is cray-cray... like I have no clue what to do with it... so we tried something new this week... it's working so far... a little half up, half down piggie action! 

And last but never least... my citizen of the month! Keep up the good work Cade-man, your Daddy and I are so very proud of you! And encouraged to keep after you... discipline is a good thing... :) :) :) Promise! I am saying that to you as much as to me... :) Let's do this!