"Feels like I'm falling for Fall..."

OH!  I fell like I'm falling for fall
I'm not prevaricating
Nor am I exaggerating
Fall has got me in its grasp, it must be said.

Autumn's such a plasin' season 
You must see all the trees in
Their blazing colors: orange, gold and red.

Should I write fall a love letter
Telling how I feel better
Every time the season comes around each year?

Or  maybe I'll just go on 
'bout how nature puts a show on
As a prelude to all kinds of holiday cheer!

I feel like I'm falling for fall
There are feelings of elation
Mixed with some anticipation
When I think of all the fun there is in store!

And my heart just gets to thumpin' 
Thinkin' bout piles of leaves I'll jump in
It's no wonder that it's autumn I adore!

I love it!!  I think Moose & Zee could have included a verse about how my Auburn Tigers play in the fall, and we'd have one of the best songs ever! 
Thank you, God, for fall!!! 
We've been celebrating the harvest season around here with a few fall activities! 
I bought the boys Spiderman costumes the end of September, and they've had them on almost everyday since.  I can't believe they lasted until Halloween, but somehow...it happened! 


I like how when a child puts on a costume, they really think they are SPIDER-MAN!



This was day #1 in their costumes.  They think they're pretty hot stuff!

Sawyer went with Walker to help Papa Pitt pick cotton several weeks ago.  To say Sawyer loved it is an understatement! 

Walker let him "drive" the cotton picker.  (He pushed the lever from slow to faster), so Sawyer likes to say he "drove" it!

I didn't like the tennis shoes look with the costumes, so we bought women's red socks at Wal-Mart and wore those over our tennis shoes on Halloween night.  Eli called them his boots. 

These are some HAPPY kids about to ride the hayride around our neighborhood.  I L-O-V-E that we did this again!  Did you notice Aubie in the picture??  ;)  Too cute!





Trick-or-Teating at the Home of the Toy Story folks

We went to the Peanut Festival opening night and these 2 characters had fun!  All 3 boys had  a blast seeing the cows, eating corndogs and riding rides. 



This is Eli, Sawyer, and Caleb all on the train. 

 Happy Fall Y'all!!   I'm looking forward to my little nephew's arrival any day!!

October 26th

Well, my baby is officially two years old.  In some ways it's hard to believe he's really two, but mainly, it feels like Eli has been a part of our family forever!  He makes me laugh a whole lot and he's such a sweet mess! 

Just an example of our conversations:

E: "Where's Daddy?" 

Me:  "Daddy's at work."
E:  Oh.


He's kind of a to-the-point kind of fella.  This morning taking Sawyer to school, we all walked through one door, but Eli just stopped and said, "Uhhhhhhhh!"  as he tried to push the other door open and refused to walk through the open door.  He definitely has a mind of his own and how things should operate.  I still think he's about the cutest thing I've ever seen, and he sure does make me smile!  We moved him up to a toddler bed last Sunday.  He was crawling out of his crib, so he just kept appearing when I thought he was suppose to be in his bed. 

So far, so good in the big bed. 

Walker took off from work so he could spend his actual birthday with us.  We decided to go fishing at Beck-Beck and Papa Pitt's pond.  Granny Beck prepared a feast (of course) for lunch to celebrate!

Eli took a little nap for about half of our fishing trip.

Sawyer helped Daddy catch a fish.

It was a fun day!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sweet Eli!  We couldn't love you any more!! 



Good times...

Have you been "Boo'd"?  I've been meaning to post about being "Boo'd," just in case some of you are like me and never heard of this before.  It totally brightened my day the other day!  This is year three for me of neighborhood life, but "Being Boo'd" was new to me this year, and we had fun with it!  You can read all about what it is here.   I thought I better share in case some of y'all might want to pass this along at a home near you. 


Sawyer being very sneaky paying forward our "boo"!

In other news...Today has been a GREAT day around here!  Guess what this sweet man did for me today? 



I like Him a whole lot!!  (even in a red shirt on a Saturday)

He bought me an early Christmas present...A (much needed) new CAMERA!  I am beyond thrilled about this gift!  I take a whole lot of pictures of my boys, and I have been making do with my old camera that has been dropped and mistreated for a long time.  I know I have a lot to learn about what this baby can do, but I'm excited I already captured pictures like this....

and this....

and these...

I was in desperate need of an "action" mode on my camera!  If you knew how crazy the delay on my old camera made me (plus all the tape that was holding it together), you'd understand my excitement!  These are pictures that I have been trying to capture since Sawyer's birth forever!  I never thought the pictures I took lived up to reality, but this looks a lot more like real life.  I'm thrilled!!  Thank you, Sweet Husband!!!

AND...Thank you, Cam Newton, for capping off my good day with a big V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!  War Eagle! 

Eli's Party

Eli's birthday isn't until October 26th, but we had a Spiderman birthday party at the park on Saturday with family and a few friends to celebrate.  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!  I think October may be my new favorite month!   We're thankful Gmama and Granddaddy could come and bring the Braddock girls.  I love that they have so many cousins so close in age! 

The park + friends= a fun, easy party!!   I loved it!  I think Eli did too! :)  It was honestly a little much for the little guy!  He didn't wake up in the best mood and does not love to be the center of attention, so I was hard-pressed to get a smile from E all day long....BUT...if I ask him NOW if he had fun at his party, he'll smile BIG and say, "Uh-Huh!!"  So, we'll go with that answer!! :)



Sweet Eli!  I'm so crazy thankful for this precious boy! 

Eli was happy Granny Beck was there to help shield him from some of the madness! :) 

Swingin' With Mama-he's in his comfort zone here! :) '

Cousins-minus Caleb, Grace and Caroline (and the 2 who are in utero)

He is REALLY excited about ALL the new toys! 

The pinata was a hit! Glad we did it! 

Sawyer...

Sawyer Williams....Where to start? It gets harder to condense his accomplishments and personality into a few paragraphs as he gets older!
I mean...where to start?

Paying with Caleb

• He's my buddy for sure! I think he has the sweetest personality! He's still eager to help if I give him a job. He'll sprint to grab something for me.
• If Sawyer wants to watch Nemo, but Eli wants to watch Little Einsteins, Sawyer will choose Little Einsteins too to make his little brother happy.
• We're working on using our manners. The other night our neighbors came over to visit for a little while outside. When Walker finished grilling, and brought the chicken inside, Sawyer told the neighbors, "Excuse me. My supper's ready now." He definitely has priorities!
• He still likes tractors and dumptrucks, but it's less of an obsession these days.
• He pretends he's Spiderman, a firefighter, and "Walker" a lot lately.

• He's intense working on things.  See how he's working in the picture?  This is a regular occurence around here?

• He'll ask me three times a week to go to the carwash. He loves it! He equates Walker going to work and making money with us being able to do things like go to the carwash. It's okay if Daddy has to go to work as long as we can go to that carwash! :)
• He LOVES to play Candyland and our new ABC board game.
• He always says running is his exercise. He LOVES to race!
• He's still really enjoying school!
• A bandaid fixes every boo-boo!
• His first real prayer was sporatic one night a couple of months ago.

"Dear God. Thank you for my warm bed. Please help Eli not to hit me and help Eli not to push me. Thank you, God. Amen."

I am SERIOUS when I say I think God heard his prayers, because Eli has been MUCH better!!!
-His prayer now is,

"Dear God. Thank you for this food. Thank you for Mama, Daddy and Eli. And thank you for letting Jesus die on the cross. Amen."

• When he throws a penny into a fountain to make a wish, he wishes for a big excavator! :)

I couldn't love him anymore!  SO thankful for Sawyer and his sweet heart!  Thank you, God! 

Back to the Beach

I got out my blog book that I ordered after Eli turned one last year and read it the other day. I love that book!! I'm so glad I take the time to give little updates (even if it's just for me), because I realize my memory is less that desirable and they're growing and changing so quickly.

Eli Williams is a character and a half. I adore his sweet smile and dimples!

Yesterday, I was asking him about what kind of birthday party he wants. He'll be two next month!! He likes Elmo A LOT and Spiderman A LOT! (Spiderman is also Sawyer's favorite thing right now.) So, I pulled up Elmo plates on the computer to see if he'd tell me which he'd rather have. Eli said, "Hey Mel-mo. Whatcha doing Mel-mo?" about 10 times, because I was laughing so hard at him! That's by far the most words he's ever put together. He can talk, and it just depends on the day what he'll say.

He's full-blown potty trained! Praise the Lord! I can not take credit for too much of it. Eli just wanted to do what Sawyer was doing, so he did it. I'm proud!! I went from two in diapers a year and a half ago to none in diapers...feels good!

Eli L-O-V-E-S cheese! He will eat as many pieces as you'll give him. String cheese, cheese slices, whatever...he likes it! Here he is with his cheese toast.

He was also on a major stubborn streak for a while...VERY independent, but he is getting sweeter by the day! He's really pretty obedient these days! THANK YOU, LORD!

He can sing his ABC's and says the blessing (in his own way). I should get this on video, because he definitely knows what he's saying, but it's in his own language.

He still loves to jump. He jumped off the diving board all summer without anyone being at the end of the board. He'd just wear his little swimmies and jump in. Fearless!

His favorite song was "I'm in the Lord's Army" while he marched. Now it's "Hide it Under a Bushel...No!" It doesn't sound exactly like that, but it's close.

He adores his big brother! They keep each other entertained! I couldn't love this little boy any more. So glad he's mine!

I'll be back soon with an update on Sawyer Williams! :)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Back to the Beach

We've been at the beach all week. We took our family trip in August last year, and we really liked it because it wasn't too crowded or crazy hot. September may be an even better time to go-IF you can wait that long! The weather was perfect, and the water was beautiful! Thank you, God!

I just like the whole part about getting away. Plus, I think there's few things better in life than the feeling of the sunshine beating down on me (Vitamin D is good for you, right!?)! Sawyer and Eli loved the pool. I'd classify Sawyer as an "official" swimmer now, so that's fun! They like the sand, but they also like the "hotel" room. So, we'd spend the early morning at the pool. Then, Walker would take them up to the room, and I'd lay out on the beach without them in the afternoon. Pretty nice! Allyson and Caleb came to join me one day. We all enjoyed ourselves, but I hope next year, Sawyer and E will want to play in the ocean a little more. The water was BEAUTIFUL. It was so calm and crystal clear. Plus, Auburn won Thursday night, so that was good too! If anybody is doing something other that football these days, I don't know about it. We're in full-fledged football mode around here. We did sneak away the first quarter of the Auburn game though, because Pete and Repete decided then would be a good time to go back down to the beach. Glad we did, because I'm proud of my sunset shots.



See Sawyer's tongue stuck out? He does that when he's really concentrating. You can definitely bet there is some major construction going on in his mind!



About the best we can do! Eli will sit still for about 1/2 a second when there's other things to do. I think he really does like me! :)

Apparently, Eli does the tongue thing too!
This last picture may look like a kid's paradise, but for little kids, it's scary and LOUD when that big bucket fills up with water. Mine got a little braver each day, but it's still a little too much for them. They prefered the "quiet pool" and splash pad! :)