Turkey Day at School

My little Indian

Look who came? Daddy! Straight off the practice field with the whistle around his neck and all!

Jake and his friends were being super silly at lunch. :)

Walker got to participate in the Turkey Day festivities, too!

Pin the feather on the turkey!

Walker wanted to pin the feather on the turkey, too.

Daddy and the boys.

And Mommy and the boys. I'm not quite sure why we didn't get a family photo; I guess that would have made too much sense! Ha! Happy Thanksgiving!

To the Zoo with the Madden Crew

Taking pictures of 4 children is almost impossible!

Last week, I took Ryan and Kaitlyn with us to the Zoo to give Ashley a little bit of break. Everyone thought I had lost my mind for attempting the Zoo with all four of the kids, but it actually wasn't bad at all. Well, it wasn't bad...except for the fact that I hit a fire hydrant (twice)on the way to the zoo. ;) Apparently, 4 kids under 4 squeezed into my Honda Pilot plus a Radio Flyer wagon wedged in the passenger seat can be a wee bit distracting. Ha! Seriously, we were fine, the fire hydrant was fine, and my car will be fine once it gets fixed.

After our minor little accident, the zoo was a cinch. I just made sure that Walker and Kaitlyn were buckled in the wagon at all times and had plenty of snacks and that Jake and Ryan were in reach. I even managed to work in lunch, too, which I hadn't planned on. Lunch definitely gave me a run for my money- Jake and Ryan wouldn't sit down and kept running around the people in line and Kaitlyn and Walker kept trying to escape from the highchairs. It definitely tested my patience, but we survived.

So other than the whole fire hydrant thing, it was a pretty successful day, if I do say so myself!

Cousins!

Jake was so serious about taking just "one more picture" that he was not about to let the younger ones get away. :)
Pre-burp

Post burp.

Jake: Was that you, Jace?

Jace: Yep, that was all me...wasn't that awesome?

Jace: Want to see me do it again?

Jake: Whatever, cuz...my lil' brother lets out better burps than that!

Jace: Are we done yet, Aunt Beth?

Somehow I managed to take a trip to Thomaston and Tifton and not take a single picture of either set of grandparents and the boys. :( Sorry y'all! I did get some pretty funny ones, though, of Jake and Walker and their first cousins.

I can't tell you how many pictures I took trying to get a decent picture of the 3 boys with Gracie. The boys were miserable having to be taken away from some hard-core train playing to be photographed over and over again. And then finally, Jace let out a huge burp and, in typical guy-fashion, the boys thought it was hilarious. They kept trying to out-do each other in the burp contest and other bodily-function-noises contest. So yes, the cute pictures above are all thanks to my gaseous nephew. :)

My New Niece!

My beautiful sister and her baby girl!

Jake kept wanting to "pet" her. :) He really wanted to hold Gracie, but she's having lots of reflux issues, so we just kept her still as much as we could.

My sister, Amy, and her husband, Courtney, welcomed Gracie Elizabeth Howell into this world Nov. 7. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and has a head full of black hair. She is absolutely precious!!

Since Tyson had an away game this past weekend, the boys and I loaded up and made a quick trip to Tifton to meet Gracie and see the Howells. We actually got to see my parents and Tyson's mom, too, so it was a very successful trip. I wish we could have spent more time in Tifton, though. The boys had so much fun with Jace (pictures from that later) and getting to see our families; sure makes me wish we lived closer. :(

I have some more pictures from our trip that I'll post later. I just figured Miss Gracie deserved her own post. :) I can't believe I have a niece!! She is going to be spoiled rotten with all these boys in our family! Congrats, Amy, Courtney, and Jace! We love y'all!

I Can't Hear You!

Silly silly boys!

A couple of weeks ago, Walker started doing this thing where he puts his fingers in his ears like "I can't hear you!" I don't know where he picked it up from, but I think it's hilarious. And he always seems to do it at the appropriate times, like when his brother is fussing at him or giving him a hard time. It drives Jake nuts! Love it!

18 Month Check-up and The Newest Madden!

Ashley and Colin


The Maddens (minus Ryan and Kaitlyn)


Wednesday was a big day for Walker and me. After dropping Jake off at school, we went to the hospital to meet Colin Madden. Colin was born Nov. 1st weighing in at 8 lbs. 4 oz and was 21.5 inches long. He is so sweet and looks a lot like his big sister, Kaitlyn. Ashley looks amazing and is doing very well, too.


Walker was so intrigued with the "baby" and kept wanting to see Colin and pat his head. I let him for the most part, until he snatched the pacifier out of Colin's mouth and put it into his own. Ha! Other than that, I was so proud of how sweet he was to Colin. And I thought he'd be more jealous of me holding Colin, but he was perfectly fine with it. I think this is a sign that he might be a good big brother one day. ;)




After we left the hospital, we stopped by Tyson's office for a minute and then headed to Walker's 18 month appointment. Everything checked out well, praise the Lord! He weighs 26 lbs 10 oz (50-60%) and is 35 inches tall (off the charts!). Dr. D said if Walker keeps growing at this pace he will be 6 ft 3! I'll believe it when I see it. ;)


(Just for comparison, here are Jake's 18 month stats: 27 lbs 15.5 oz and 33.5 inches tall).


Dr. D and I also discussed Walker's allergies. Ugh, Walker's allergies. We went to the allergist last week for yet another follow-up, and Walker just doesn't seem to be responding well to all the medicines, steroid creams, and diet. Long story short, the allergist seems to think Walker may have more food allergies, but they can't be detected by conventional skin/blood tests. We are going to try a lactose-free diet (in addition to no eggs and peanuts) for a few months and see if that works, and if not, we might end up with a trip to a GI specialist and have to have further testing (endoscopy) done. Poor baby. I am so ready to figure all this out. It just kills me knowing that he may be hurting or uncomfortable and not able to tell me. :(



Anyways, that is our Wednesday in a nut-shell. I wish Jake could have been there to meet Colin, but I didn't want him to miss school. Besides, he gave Colin a super sweet welcome once Colin got home from the hospital. Happy birthday, Colin!

Halloween!!

Robin and Batman
Jake wanted me to be the "Joker," but I went as Super Mom instead. ;)

"Don't worry, Robin...I've got it under control!"

Poor Walker's little mask kept squishing his face so he couldn't see...or breathe for that matter. The mask obviously didn't last that long.

My crew plus the Madden crew. Our last Halloween together. :(

The first house- Mr. Dan's house!

Daddy!!!!

Batman and "the Knight that's right"

Macy, Jake's future prom date

Walker and Landon Ghea sharing pretzels

I think Walker has a new BFF.

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! We sure did! This was definitely the best Halloween yet!

We met up with with our neighbors, the Maddens and the Gheas (our new neighbors 3 doors down who have fit right in to our afternoon playgroup), and some friends from Jake's school and made our trip around the neighborhood. Jake, Ryan Madden (lil Ryan), and Ryan Ghea (big Ryan) acted like trick or treating pros and ran from house to house....we could barely keep up with them!

Walker was just precious- he walked up to the houses, stuck out his basket, said something that sounded like "trick or treat," and then he'd try to take candy out of the people's basket when they leaned over to put candy into his. :) And then he'd run to me saying "candy!!!" like it was the first time he'd ever seen candy in his life. He actually made it about half way around our neighborhood before just plopping down on the cement and trying to dig into his candy. I tried to take the pumpkin away from him a few times as his Daddy held him, but he kept a tight grip on it. No one was getting his candy! Ha!

It was such a fun night! Tyson got to join us about 1/4 of the way, so it was just that much better with him there.