Jack Turns 2!

Jack turned 2 today and had his birthday party at his house.  Sarah for some reason, was very excited about a party for this particular party.  She lucked out...there were party hats!  Jack also used our Sesame Street party decorations.  So glad everyone is getting good use out of them...as you know by now, they are super cute!

This has become Sarah's new "smile".  To me it looks painful and very forced.  I asked her to please smile and she insisted she was...hmmmm.  Okay then, guess I'll go with it.

Sarah knew exactly what to do with the cut outs.  And while we were standing around, she said "Hey, mommy! Wanna take a picture?" Ummm YES! I am your picture obsessed mommy after all.


No really, she is happy...see the smile.



Birthday boy sporting two party hats!



Sarah and Jack had a moment in the dining room alone when Sarah was able to get Jack his presents.  She wanted him to open it right away.  It was really cute.

 

Happy Birthday sweet boy!!!



LSU 38 v Towson St. 22

WET! WET! WET! That was the story of this tailgate.  Hey, but it wasn't hot, so we made the best of it.



Jocelyn and I sporting our wet weather gear.  Got to wear my new LSU rain boots!

Rain or Shine! GEAUX TIGERS!



Rain wasn't going to stop me from taking pics...and boy did I take a ton of pics!




Break in the rain, means booty shakin' time!



Jeff sporting his new b-day hat we gave him.

The O'Neals.



How cool is this pic!  Brooklyn took it with my camera.  Lots of snails out due to all of the rain. And apparently they like hanging out on ice chests.  Who knew?? The kids kept saying "They really do move slow!" Ha!



Got him!



Ice cream break at the Dairy Store.  Best ice cream ever!!



Ben and Jocelyn cooking up some burgers.



Cajun engineering at its best!



The kiddos had a blast playing football in the rain. 



LOL!!



We tried....gotta love little brothers!



HEEEEYYYYYYY!!!!



Gabrielle and Madelyn...the two-headed rain coat monster.



The Carlton's



"Indy" is that you???



Andy stayed back at the tailgate and Ashlyn and Brooklyn sat with Jeff and I for the game.  We had so much fun with them. 



Only a quick light rain while we were in the game.  Just enough to put on our gear.  How cute are these sisters??  Brooklyn later turned her poncho into a dress for homecoming...think Lady GaGa...it was a one of a kind! They were a hoot!

As for the game...well, lets just admit it, that we are all ready for some SEC play.  This non-conference stuff is getting old.  The Tigers held it together just enough to come out with a win and hopefully move on to more exciting game play.  October could be a long month for us football wise if they don't get it together soon!

Grandma QT

Sarah was super exited to have Grandma come over to our house to see her new big girl bed and eat some gumbo with us Sunday evening. She was very tickled at the fact that they both had "yellow" Mike the Tiger shirts on too! ;)

Grandma reading books to Sarah on her new bed.

It's been a looooong time since Grandma had a ponytail!

Poor Fritzy...he gets so jealous.

 Today was also Uncle Mike and Uncle Jeff's 30th birthday!! We were able to FaceTime them (since neither was home) and Sarah was able to sing them each their own "Happy Birthday" song.  Happy Birthday "little" brothers! We love you!!

LSU 12 at Auburn 10

We headed over to the Huffstetler's house to watch the game tonight.  The recently added a new baby boy to the family, Davis, and we were thrilled to meet him!  I think we really did more playing than watching the game, but still had a great time.

The giggles and laughs from Sarah and Jack were much more entertaining than the poor performance by my Tigers!

 

"What cha' got here Jack???"

 

"Ohhhh, now this is FUN!"



Scott and Olivia adoring their little man.  And who wouldn't, he's just precious!

Sarah of course, was in love with baby Davis!! She was so excited to hold him!! She enjoyed him so much, that when we got home, she named one of her babies "baby Davis" and instructed me that if he cried, he was hungry.


Not exactly the score or outcome we expected from our highly ranked Tigers, but I guess a win is a win!

Transitions

Why am I always so afraid of transitions!  I feel like just about the time I get the hang of things with this mommy stuff...BAM! Somethings gotta change.  I remember when Sarah was an infant and we had a great feeding schedule going, then BAM! Gotta give her food.  Then BAM ...real food. This is where the ole "it all goes by so fast" rings true for me.  It's always changing!  And I love each new stage, just wish I wasn't such a wimp when it came to changing things up!

Man, that was way off topic...back to the point!  Sarah is now sleeping in a big girl bed!! We purchased her a twin sized bed with trundle online a month or so ago.  Problem was that the trundle came in, but the bed was on back order.  So we kept telling her we were waiting on the mailman to bring the rest of it.  Well he did, but then we had three home LSU games which meant we weren't going to be here to put her in bed.  We put off the transition until this weekend.  I convinced Andy that we put the bed together Friday night to give us one extra night in her bed before we had to go back to work.  He obliged.



Last night in her baby bed.  I'd say she's grown out of it a bit.



Helping Daddy put the bed together.  Sarah was SO excited about her bed!!



And here it is!  She helped pick out the sheets and bed spread.  She was very worried that her "friends" also make it into her bed.  I think they all have plenty of room now.

 

Happy girl on her bed!  She also picked out her new butterfly pillow.

 Remarkably she went to bed the first night without a hitch!  I kept her same night time routine and all was good.  I walked out of her room and Andy said "Seriously?!" I said "Yep!"  We brought the monitor out in the living room to listen for about and hour just to make sure...we never heard a peep!

First night in her new bed!

 

She did it! Made it all night and let us sleep until 9!

So crazy proud of you Sarah! You've mastered the potty. You've mastered the new big girl bed! Now, to work on mommy's greatest fear...the pacifier aka "My Moo-Moo".  You are so much better at these transitions than mommy!

NYM-nastics!!

We had our first attempt at organized activity today...or should I say organized chaos?!?! We are jumping into "NYM-nastics" as Sarah likes to call it.  It was....well, lets just say interesting.  The gym looked so big from the outside, but once inside with 50 or so people- not so much.  I am not really sure what I expected, but this wasn't it.  And I think Sarah just thought we were going to "play" the whole time.  Why would she think otherwise, that's all she's ever done.  So we took to our group of 5, 1-2 yr olds and gave it a whirl.  Sarah's friend Addalyn, who used to go to school with her was in the class and that's how we found out about it.  Sarah was super excited to see Addalyn and Mrs. Robyn...after that everything else was lagniappe.



Starting class with a few stretches.



Working in our stations. The beam was our first.  She had to go to the circle and then turn around. The thing was, you had to wait until the teacher told us to "move" to go on to the next.  Sarah did it once and was over it.

 

And so began breakdown number one.  Notice Addalyn to the left also having a moment.  They just wanted to play with each other!



Ok, moving on...working on the bar.  Her teacher Ms. Ashley helping her with some kicks.



I am guessing this thingy wasn't intended for this exact purpose, but Sarah and Addalyn enjoyed it!



Potty break!



Now this is what Sarah asked to do all night! JUMP!  She kept seeing the older girls on the trampoline, and that's allllllll she wanted to to do.  I can't blame her, I wanted a turn too!



A few months is a long time to go without one of your best buds. 

When it was time to leave Sarah pitched an all out fit!! Like broke out in the ugly cry.  Ever been in a gym with a raging 2 1/2 yr old.  OH yes, all eyes were on us.  I can only hope they were saying "been there done that" instead of "What did they do to her?!" Whatever the case Sarah cried the whole way home and then some.  Andy was able to go with us tonight and take all of the pics.  When we got in the car, I was a defeated mommy.  I looked at him and said "Well???" His reply "I thought it went well!" Really!?!?! He must have had his expectations set real low. 
I later asked Sarah if she had fun and if she would want to go back.  She looked at me all puzzled "Yes, Mommy!  I love NYM-nastics!"

Hmmphhh...guess I was the only one that attended at different nym-nastics class! Go figure!

We will give it another try, now that we all know what to expect.  And now I know to expect very little!

Kyleigh turns 3!

Kyleigh had her birthday party today at Pretend Play Party here in town. Sarah just loves her Kyleigh and was super excited about her party. This was the first time that she actually picked out the birthday present for a party. It was very random: An Ariel Barbi to play in the bathtub with, a Dora and Diego toothbrush, and lastly an owl dinner plate. She just kept saying "Kyleigh would like this mommy!" "Kyleigh likes this!" It was so sweet and she was thrilled to be able to give it to her friend!

As mentioned previously, my camera is a little kooky right now, so I took pics with my old camera.  Really glad that I was able to find it and have a back up!!



Kyleigh, Sarah, and Abby



This is right before Sarah told me "We are not smiling mommy, we are playing!!"



Sarah working on her Hello Kitty mask in the arts and crafts area.



Getting some help from "Aunt" Linda.



What a cute "Hello Kitty Cat"

 

Time for pizza and cake!!

 

Happy Birthday sweet girl!! We love you!!!