It's Football Time!!!

The most wonderful time of the year is beginning!  Fall combined with football season - it doesn't get much better.  So looking forward to cooler days and lots and lots of football.  The great thing about football is that we all enjoy it so much.  We started getting ready Friday by getting the schedule up on the chalkboard.  

 The kids were decked out in their Auburn gear for school on Friday!

 Saturdays mean football on the TV all day.  We rewatched the last second of the Iron Bowl over and over and over again to get pumped up (really I think we may have watched it 100 times).  Ben laughed everytime.  I still cry everytime.  It was a good way to get excited for the 2014 season.

 We had the Cabras and Wrights over to watch the game.  So cute to get all the kids lined up on the couch in their Auburn gear.

 One of the best parts of football season is all the great food!  We enjoyed some BBQ in honor of us beating up on the Hogs!  Combine that with all the good dips and the fun desserts and it is just perfect!

 The game was great!  Auburn really pulled through in the second half.  So happy to be at a stage where the kids can go play and we can actually watch the game.  It's nice.

Excited for a great season for the Auburn Tigers!  It is going to be fun no matter what!

Throwback Thursday - Ben's First Auburn Game

Since it is the first day of football season, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at Ben's first trip down to Auburn for a football game.  It was the first game of the 2007 season.  We were so excited to take him!  We took him to the pharmacy school of course.  

 I just love that sweet little baby smile!

 There had to be the obligatory pictures in front of Samford Hall.

 We met up with Kelly and Andrew who were still just dating at the time (that makes me feel old).

 Then we headed over to Tiger Walk.

 We quickly learned that it is not easy to have a baby on Auburn's campus.  It is not set up for strollers and drunk kids and babies don't mix.  We didn't stay for the game but it was fun to get to expose Ben to the fun of game day on the plains!

Ben's First Science Project

Ben just finished up his very first science project (on week 4 of school if you are keeping count - it is going to be a long year if we are already doing projects on week 4).  He was super excited to do it because science is his favorite subject.  After much debate (and narrowing down the project options due to time constraints), he decided to to test what liquid makes cut flowers last the longest.  He did a great job researching options and coming up with the experiment design.  In case you are wondering plain water seems to be the best!  So proud of our little guy and all his hard work on the project!

Keeping it Real

I know my posts are usually pretty "idealistic."  I usually only put good stuff on the blog.  This is for my kids one day so I want them to remember the good stuff.  That doesn't mean that there aren't tough days.  Lately we have been having a tough time with Kate.  She is really struggling with listening and structure.  It has been challenging.  Her little personality is so fun loving and creative but she also has to learn how to channel that at times to obey.  We will get through this time and I know she is going to be a wonderful little girl (hopefully)!

I thought these pictures from a day out we had recently show her personality perfectly.  Here she is dipping her ice cream in honey mustard.  Only Kate...

 I looked over in TJ Maxx and found her on the shelf with the rugs!

Love her to pieces but sometimes I just don't get her!

Closer to 40

Saturday was Matt's big day!!  He turned the big 3-5.  I am enjoying joking around with him that he is now closer to 40 than 30.  It was such a busy weekend but we did manage to celebrate our favorite husband and dad.

We went and got donuts at Dunkin Donuts before the swim.  Yummy way to start the day.  

 We got him a few little things including a tie, brown socks and boxers.  I know we give some awesome gifts!  Really his big birthday gift was a new swing for our porch.  It is so great and we are all enjoying it already.

 After the swim we went and got a little ice cream with my family to celebrate.

 Then we had some yummy cookie cake.  (It sounds like our whole day was about eating and I guess it was).

 Matt and I had talked earlier in the week about taking a little road trip in the afternoon.  We decided to head up to Swanee, TN.  We had heard it was a beautiful little town and college.  We drove on up and enjoyed the town.  The college was really neat.  We loved the chapel.

 Kate was really fascinated with the inside of the chapel.  She loved looking around.  I was so impressed with how much she liked it.

 We walked around the campus some.  It was move in day so we didn't get to see everything.  We also enjoyed checking out the tiny town.  There wasn't much to it but it was still great.

 On the way up we passed a small town called Cowan that was really neat looking so we went back.  We introduced the kids to an old fashion soda fountain which they loved!

 There was also an old timey gas station.

 And they took a walk down the railroad tracks.  I just love this picture!

 We then slowly made our way back home by driving through a bunch of little towns in Tennessee.  The celebrating continued on Sunday with lunch at Matt's parent's house.

We are so thankful for our wonderful husband and father!  What a blessing he is in our lives and we love getting to celebrate him!

Helping the Little Babies

Ever since Kate was born and spent time in the NICU we have been supporters of the Melissa George Neonatal Fund for Huntsville Hospital.  It was started by some friends of ours whose twin daughters were born at 26 weeks.  Their family has turned what was a very hard situation into a way to bring glory to God and make a difference.  We enjoy supporting them and their fund.  This was the big weekend for that!  Friday night was the annual Miracle Bash.  It was a fun night up on Monte Sano with yummy food and a silent auction.  We had joked that it was going to be burning up but our friend Amy had assured us it was cool up on the mountain.  We didn't believe her but she was so right.  The temperature was just perfect!  So enjoyable.  A fun night out for the adults.  

 Saturday morning it was all about the kids!  It was the 9th annual Swim for Melissa.  This year we had a team of just our friends which was great.  They decided on the name their team the Crazy Clownfish.  Such a cute group!  They raised over $1,300.  Totally awesome!!!

We are so proud of our little swimmers!  They worked hard raising money for the babies.  They did 2 lemonade stands and got donations from family and friends.

 We spent a lot of time talking about the NICU and how it helps with sick babies.  They were so excited to swim!

 They did awesome!  Ben swam 5 laps and Kate swam 3.  They both had big smiles on their faces the whole time.  Kate gave us a big thumbs up after each lap.  It was so cute!  

 Ben was the top fundraiser for the team.  He donated his own money that he made pet sitting this summer.  He was saving up for Lego sets but decided the babies needed the money more than he needed the Legos.

 It was such a fun couple of days raising money for such a wonderful cause!

Dog Days of Summer

I blame the lack of posts on the fact that it is so hot.  I mean HOT!!  I know it normally gets really hot in Alabama in the summer but for some reason this year it seems worse (maybe it means I am just getting old).  Or maybe it is because I am doing so much running around these days so it seems really hot!  Anyway I don't have anything real exciting to say other than these cuties are just awesome!!  We celebrated my dad getting some great news on his scans today with some Sonic.  We are so thankful Grandaddy keeps doing awesome and God continues to blow us away!  

Kate's Big Day

Today was a day Kate has been looking forward to for weeks!!  She had her very first dance class of the year.  After much debate she decided to do dance again this year.  We love her little dance studio and her class is so sweet with 4 little girls in it.  It is going to be a fun year dancing!

 She is so excited to have Paige in her class and Emery from school as well.  She did awesome today.  She jumped right in and was doing so much better than she ever did last year!

 Then tonight she had her very first soccer practice.  She has been so excited to start playing soccer.  She got all dressed up in her pink from head to toe!

 Addy is on her team and they are going to have a blast!  Kate had so much fun at practice running around chasing the ball.  And they got snacks and drinks.  What more could you ask for?

Blurry Photo Weekend

So it serves me right that after my last post about taking good pictures that I would have a weekend where all the pictures I took are blurry.  We had a nice weekend.  Friday night we celebrated one of the nurses that works at the hospital.  Inja is retiring after 40 years of service.  We had a great time partying at Early Works with Matt's co workers.  

 And party Ben did!!!  We had no idea what a dancing machine he is!  He danced all night long.  At one point he was dancing with 2 girls.

 And then line dancing with all the ladies!  It was hilarious to watch.

 Our Saturday was fairly low key which was great.  We did go to pick up my parents from the airport.  They have been in cruising the British Isles for about 3 weeks.  We sure have missed them and 2 kiddos were very glad to see them when they got in!

I am going to try to do better with my picture taking the rest of the week.

A Fun Hobby

If you have read the blog for any length of time you could probably tell I love to take pictures (as evidenced by the tons of photos I put on here).  I have enjoyed taking a photography class and researching how to take better photos of the kids.  Recently a couple of friends have asked me to take some pictures which I have really enjoyed.  

A couple of weeks ago I did a little photo shoot with our neighbor Anna.  She is a very talented dancer so we did some fun shots of her dancing.  It was so much fun to get to show off her amazing talents!

 This week I got to take pictures of my friend Hollie as she gave birth to her sweet little boy!  I was so honored she asked me to be a part of her big day.  I got to hang out with her and Keith all day as we waited for Ryan to make his debut.  It was tons of fun!  I was able to get some really amazing pictures of the special time!

I won't be going into business anytime soon but I do enjoy playing around with the camera and having fun!