{sand}box of love

My kids have been loving these nice, sunny days. It pretty much rained all fall so it's been a long time since they've had nice weather to play outside in. There's not much I love more than to be in the kitchen and look out the window and see them playing together. They seem to play so much nicer together outside. I don't know if it's the fresh air or that there are less toys to fight over but they have the best time coming up with fun games to play. 

Today JP and I went out and joined them for some sandbox time. They had such a good time!

7 months

I am 7 months old!

• I wear size 6-9mo or 9mo clothes and a size 3 diaper (or I will when the 2s run out...I already wear a 3 at night because I tend to soak through the 2s).
• I sleep from 8pm-715am (or close to 8am on non-school days). I sometimes wake up once at night for a bottle. I take 2-3 naps a day.
• I take four 6oz bottles and one 8oz bottle each day. If I wake up in the middle of the night I take 4-6oz then.
• I still don't have any teeth and there really aren't any signs that I'll be getting them anytime soon.
• I LOVE to eat. I always get food at dinnertime and often at lunchtime as well. I'm not big on the green veggies or avocado. I like bananas, sweet potatoes, yogurt melts, salmon and cheerios. I LOVE chicken and my absolute favorite is strawberries.

• Overall, I'm a very happy baby. As long as Mommy or Daddy has me. I have SERIOUS separation anxiety right now.
• I have been trying to crawl for most of the month. I will get on my hands and knees and rock back and forth but just can't figure out how to go anywhere!

• I can sit up on my own very well.

• My favorite thing to play with is a bucket that Mommy fills up with different toys. I also really love my little piano.
• I LOVE music.
• I love Franklin. He is the cutest, funniest puppy ever. I really love it when he's running around crazy!
• This month I celebrated my first Easter. We went to church in the morning and then went to North Carolina to spend the day with family.

• This month I had my first trip to Gran and Grandaddy's in Greenville. Overall, I slept pretty well for which Mommy was very glad! We had lots of fun while in Greenville and went to the zoo, Gran and Grandaddy's church, and went and saw some airplanes.

• This month I went strawberry picking for the first time. I was able to try my first strawberry and it was amazing. I love strawberries so much!

• I really like being outside. I love my swing and the sandbox. I do pretty well with not putting too much sand in my mouth...pinestraw is a whole other story!
• When I'm well rested and full I will talk and talk and talk!

Emmie at 7 months

Ellie at 7 months.

Ruthie at 7 months

Happy Birthday!

I'm  
Today we celebrate Paul. I am so blessed to have this guy to walk through life with. When we celebrated his birthday last year life was really crazy. Ruthie had just been diagnosed with a peanut allergy and we were still in the terrified phase. Emmie was most likely getting tubes and her adenoids out and we were hoping that would fix her hearing loss. AND we were expecting our FOURTH baby. Things were stressful and scary and there were lots of unknowns but I wouldn't have wanted anyone else at my side. We weathered the storms and the scary together. This year as we celebrate his birthday life is still crazy, but a more predictable crazy.

I have loved watching him as a parent and its been so fun watch him adapt to life with a little BOY. He's such a good girl dad and he is just as good at being a boy dad. I love to watch the little faces at the table light up when Daddy gets home. I can't wait to see what fun adventures this next year brings us. Happy Birthday Paul!

(Ruthie was hilarious...she told Paul "happy birthday" about every 5 minutes today.)

And I would be remiss if I left out the other birthday we celebrate today! We are so thankful for Uncle "Bake". These kiddos (and the Frankling) love him...and his willingness to be a human trampoline! He's always willing to listen to their stories, play dolls, or push someone in a swing. So Happy Birthday Blake!

Father-Daughter dance and a Sleepover

Last Friday was the father-daughter dance at Emmie's school. She was soooo excited. I had found 2 dresses at Kohl's that were cute and so she got to try them on and we both really liked the same one. She obviously felt so pretty in it. She asked me to fix her hair the same way that I fix mine when I'm going somewhere nice (she's obviously trying to win daughter of the year award!) so we curled her hair and she was thrilled with the result. 

I also let her put on a little bit of makeup (pale pink eyeshadow, a little blush, and some clear lip gloss). She loved getting all dolled up and being the center of everyone's attention as the sisters were so excited to watch. We told Emmie she could pick where she and Paul ate dinner and she picked Moes. When they got to the dance poor Paul was sent to the sidelines with the other dads but Emmie apparently had a wonderful time and every now and then Paul was allowed to dance too!

While Emmie was off having a great time, Ellie had her friend little Emerson over for a "sleepover". (By the way, we always refer to her as "little" Emerson. This was started when she was 2 poor thing. I'm pretty sure when she gets married she'll still be "little" Emerson to our family!) This is by far the best kind of sleepover. Emerson came over a little before 5 and her mom picked her up around 8. The girls wore their pajamas, laid around in their sleeping bags, watched movies, played outside, painted fingernails, ate pizza, and decorated cookies. All the sleepover things and everyone still got a good nights sleep! Some of Emmie's friends did this last year and Ellie has been BEGGING to have a sleepover with Emerson for most of the school year so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for Ellie to get to have a playdate that was super special. Emerson and Ellie spent many days in the carpool line planning their activities and somewhere along the way Ellie determined that you HAD to have cookies at sleepover. So funny! Ruthie was allowed to join in on the fun and all three girls had a GREAT time (the best sleepover EVER according to Ellie). 

Greenville Trip

After Easter the kiddos and I went to Greenville for a few days for a visit with my parents. We hadn't seen my dad since Christmas (hello tax season) so it was nice to get to see him.

Monday we headed to the Runway Cafe. I had heard about this in passing from a few people but didn't know much about it but decided we'd go check it out. It was so great!!!
We met the Sanders family there and it was so good to see them and catch up. The kids always play so well together and we're so looking forward to meeting baby Sanders #4 in the fall!

They have a very nice playground that's right on the runway of the downtown airport. There's also a track that kids can ride their bikes on. 

They have a covered picnic area so you can bring your own lunch. Beside he playground is a little restaurant (the Runway Cafe) and that's where we ate. It was really good!  

While we were eating a small plane pulled up right by the gate and pilots came in to eat. Emmie managed to corner the pilots and ask them lots of questions! She was thrilled!

Tuesday we went to the Greenville Zoo. There is a new baby giraffe and Ellie was really, really hoping to see it. Unfortunately it wasn't warm enough for the baby to be out but we still had a great time! There was a baby gibbon that was ADORABALE! He was definitely my favorite!








Wednesday morning we took the girls to get their haircut at Jellybeans. They LOVE to do this when we got to Gran's...you get a balloon and a bag of jelly beans after your haircut!

They also style your hair and Ruthie and Ellie don't seem to care too much about the hair styling but Emmie LOVES to get an Elsa braid. The lady this time did an awesome job!


Wednesday night we went to my parent's church. The big girls LOVE their Wednesday night program and they always find lots of friends to play with.

In between our activities the girls played outside A LOT. They had the best time and Franklin always loves getting to play outside too!

Thursday we headed back to Columbia. We had such a wonderful time on our trip!


Franklin's favorite spot to hang out...in the sun on Gran's shoulders! He loves his Gran.


Story time with Gran and Grandaddy.


Emmie had JP laughing so hard...they were adorable.


Going to Gran and Grandaddy's is exhausting...

Strawberry Picking

Monday I picked the girls up from school and we headed to Cottle farm to pick strawberries. They were SO excited! We had great weather and the strawberry bushes were loaded!

Everyone had a great time and I'm pretty sure Ellie and Ruthie ate their weight in strawberries. It took me forever to fill up Ellie's bucket because she was eating them as soon as I put them in the bucket. Emmie are quite a few as well but she also was motivated to fill up a bucket. (I had told her she could carry Ruthie's bucket once it was too heavy for  Ruthie...Emmie was piling those strawberries in as fast as she could!)

When we got home I laid the strawberries out on the counter. Tuesday morning I walked in the kitchen to find this: 

Strawberries are so much better with that "fresh from the field" taste!