Weekend of Babies

We celebrated two special babies this weekend. I went to my sweet friend Jamie's sprinkle shower for her baby girl due in December on Saturday afternoon. She already has two boys, so it was fun to buy pink girlie things! I found the cutest ruffle sleeved baby gowns and used the monogram to personalize them. :)

Jamie's sister, Kara, hosted the shower at her beautiful home. She had every nook and cranny decorated with pink and grey. Jamie's friend, Tachi, also hosted and created the most amazing diaper cake with beautiful bows and diapers.

I love celebrating new babies with my Ashford Park friends. We have really grown since we met. There are now 14 babies between 7 friends. :)

On a side note, Jay kept Tuttle and Maggie while I was at the shower. They BOTH slept for three hours while I was gone. That NEVER happens for me and ALWAYS happens when Jay is alone with them! I think it is some sort of conspiracy! HAHA

After the shower, I came home to prepare a meal for the Horton family to welcome Baby Whit into our group. We visited for a while at their house, and Jay took Justin out for a beer to celebrate the newest arrival.

All The Boys

We already love you so much, Whit! :)

After a busy Sunday at church and birthday shopping with Grandmommy, I took the babies to a Trunk-or-Treat event at the church where Tuttle attends preschool. Tuttle was THRILLED to be able to wear his costume. Maggie did not feel the same enthusiasm, and I had to bribe and trick her to keep on her Raggedy Ann hat the entire time.

The Trunk-or-Treat gave the babies good practice for Halloween on Thursday.

There were a lot of friends from Tuttle's class at the event, including Kelsey. She made this adorable costume with her mommy.

Maggie was devouring candy as quickly as she could get me to open it.

Happy Halloween!

Happy 15 Months, Maggie Ruth!

Margaret Ruth Thorne has been part of our family for 15 months now.

I do not have any more monthly stickers, but I wanted to give a brief update on Maggie's development and preference as a true toddler.

• I weighed Maggie tonight, and Miss Independent had to stand on the scale herself. She came in at exactly 18 pounds. 
• Maggie is wearing 18m clothing, mostly for length. She really needs 12m tops and 18 month pants.
• I still cannot say that Maggie sleeps through the night every night (Ahhhh!!!), but she averages about 5 nights a week. She does consistently take an afternoon nap for 1.5-2 hours.
• Maggie's favorite foods include bananas, eggs, cereal bars, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cheese, pancakes, grapes, popcorn, and pizza. She has begun to reject meats.
• She still takes a bottle of whole milk at nap and nightime but drinks water out of a sippy cup during the day. She is not interested in juice very often.
• Her vocabulary includes Ah-Me (Mommy), Ah-De (Daddy), thank you, bye, hi, uh-oh, and a violent shake of her head for anything she does not like! :)
• She MUST copy everything Tuttle and Gigi are doing. Her favorite "big girl" things to do are brush her teeth and use a fork.
• She happily goes to the nursery workers for Wednesday Bible Study and Sunday church. This is such a relief because I can now return to church and not be worried the entire time! :)
• Maggie is such a spitfire. She is a bossy little girl that is determined to get what she wants. I know this will serve her well later in life, but it is a challenge right now!
• Gymnastics is the perfect activity for Maggie. She is definitely learning to follow directions and enjoys climbing, jumping, and swinging.
• Maggie has started to play with her baby dolls. She will take them on a walk in her baby stroller, feed them with a bottle, and snuggle them if I tell her that they are crying. :)
• She gets excited if she sees Elmo, Mickey Mouse, or Barney although she has no interest to sit and watch a show for more than 30 seconds.
• Maggie will now sit still for a board book.
• She can count to three (She's a genius!) whenever she wants her daddy to throw her from the coffee table to the couch. 

We really feel our family is so complete with our Maggie Moo Bear! We love you!!

Scarecrows and Soccer

We had a fun-filled day today. The babies and I started the morning with a trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens with Gigi's grandma. The gardens are currently home to more than 150 scarecrows. We enjoyed checking out all the creative scarecrows and the beautiful flowers.

One of Tuttle's favorite scarecrows was the Lego creation, of course!

Gigi was drawn to all the girlie ones, especially the ballerina. :)

Best Buddies

Maggie got a lot of attention at the Botanical Gardens with her new squeaky boots. Everyone stopped to check out where the noise was coming from.

Another current attraction is the living sculptures throughout the gardens. We were most impressed with the cobras, the unicorn, and the dancing fish.

Maggie used her skills from gymnastics to perform a bar routine. She independently pulled herself up to swing on the bar. She did not want to move on to another activity after she discovered this new game. Maggie is such a mess!

After a little rest time Tuttle and Gigi geared up for soccer. It was the last practice of the season, so I organized a little pizza party for the players.

Jay was able to come watch Tuttle in action. Tuttle dominated the field and scored four goals. He was so proud of himself. :)

Coach Bobby handed out medals after the kids devoured pizza and fruit.

We bribed the team with soccer cookies to snap a few pictures. I ordered the cookies from Publix, and they were a hit! Tuttle ate his so quickly that I only got a picture of the end result. :)

We are already looking forward to next season! Soccer was definitely a success!!

Our Weekend in iPhone Pics

We had such a fun and busy weekend. Jay and I had really looked forward to this weekend because we had TWO dates planned! :)

Friday we got dressed up and headed to my girlfriend Elena's house to celebrate her husband's birthday. They live in a beautiful home, and Elena did such a fantastic job planning the party. The food was delicious, especially the creme brulee spoons. We met some really sweet new friends, too.

This is not a good picture, but I wanted to have at least one picture from our night.

Saturday morning Jay and Tuttle had a chance to watch Maggie in her gymnastics class. Jay has been working LONG hours recently and did not have a chance to play with Maggie much last week, so he jumped at the opportunity to see Maggie in action!

Saturday night Gram came over to watch the babies while Jay and I went on our second date. We tried a new restaurant called Shucks with oysters and gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.

Afterward we watched a movie which is something we NEVER get a chance to do. Although our selection was sold out at the first two theaters we tried, we finally found a theater that would work for us. We saw Captain Phillips and both loved it! :)

Today we started the morning at church. I thought Maggie looked especially adorable in her new dress. I cannot get enough of this little girl!

We enjoyed lunch at Flying Biscuit- my favorite breakfast place!

We ended the weekend with riding bikes at the park. Tuttle has been practicing a lot recently and was thrilled to show off for his daddy. :)

Great weekend in the books!!

This Is How We Roll

Quick Weekend Recap

We had a really good weekend minus the Bulldawg loss on Saturday.

Friday Jay and I dropped the kids off with Grandmommy and Grandaddy and headed to Athens for a couples' baby shower. Jay's college friend, Carrie, and her husband, Jason, are expecting a baby girl in January! Carrie was a "groomswomen" in our wedding and is such a special friend to Jay. We were thrilled to celebrate such an exciting time in Carrie and Jason's lives.

Jay and His DZ Girls

(Jay was a DZ house boy in college.)

Saturday we slept in until 9:30 (Hallelujah!) and then headed to Madison to cheer on the Dawgs. Despite ending our winning streak, we really enjoyed some family time. Jay even brought out the go-cart and zoomed Tuttle and Maggie around the yard. :)

We drove back to Atlanta around the kids' bedtime. I decided to try going to the late church service Sunday, so we did not have to wake up early and rush out the door. It was so nice to have a lazy breakfast and slowly get ready. The early service always worked better when Maggie needed to nap, but now she stretch it until 1:00 or 1:30. Aunt Peach met up with us, so that was a big treat! I may start going to the late service every week now.

I had to snap a sweet picture of the babies before church. :)

Have a great week!

Second Annual Apple Picking Adventure

Kristen and I were determined to return to B.J. Reece Orchards in Ellijay, Georgia this fall. We had the best time last year and knew we wanted to make it an annual adventure for the kids. We successfully made the trek this past Thursday with five kids in the minivan. :)

It was the perfect fall day to explore the orchards. We started at the petting zoo area. It is only open on the weekends, but the animals were still in the fenced in area on Thursday and came right up to the kids. The baby cow was the star of the show. It would stick its nose right up to the kids and lick their little hands.

After a quick picnic, we started picking apples. Luckily the trees were still full of apples that hung low enough for the kids to pull them off themselves. 

First Crunch of the Trip

We walked around the orchard trying different varieties of apples and soaking up the beautiful North Georgia landscape.

I am always so impressed how authentic the apple picking experience is at B.J. Reece Orchards. No one is there micro-managing our fun. We are completely on our own to fill our bags.

Jack and Lily are such sweet friends for Tuttle, Maggie, and Gigi. 

Maggie perfected eating apples. She was so pleased with herself that she had an apple in her hand until bedtime Thursday night.

We will definitely keep this trip a tradition. Even though it is a drive to make it to Ellijay (almost two hours!), the kids have such a great time that it is worth the effort. We ended the trip with a visit to the orchard store where we tasted apple cider and ate a treat (apple doughnuts for the kids and fried apple pie for the grownups). Yum!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Gymnastics

Maggie has been taking gymnastics for three weeks, and she LOVES it! It is the perfect combination of girlie for me and adventurous for her.

Coach Todd is so sweet and patient with the babies. The classes include some songs and play on the floor with balls, musical instrument, and the parachute to warm up. Next the babies complete a few rounds on the obstacle courses with balance beams, climbing across barriers, hanging/swinging on the bars, and some tumbling with parent support.

Maggie's favorite parts are the balance beams and the exercise ball that she jumps on while holding my hands.

I am amazed how quickly Maggie catches onto the different activities. She will follow me around the obstacle courses and really listens to direction. But if Coach Todd give her praise or direction, she suddenly becomes shy and tucks her head down. :)

The class ends with jumping and songs on the trampoline and bubbles. I cannot wait to see how Maggie develops in her gymnastics class. Next stop, the Olympics!!

Burt's Pumpkin Farm 2013