Cason is at such a great age...so wanting to interact and he is full of smiles! And I know I am biased but seriously he has the BEST smiles! He loves to play with his sissy and with mom and dad and mimic our sounds! He is BUSY, BUSY...very different than his sister, always into something and so fast. Chris thinks he has some serious Schields in him and will be a good wrestler...just this morning he said, "man that kid can get out of any hold!"

Finley's 1st Movie & One Really Great Daddy!

We took Finley to her first movie in a theater on Father's Day...Toy Story 3! We loved it and so did she, just delighted, it was SO much fun! She did cry during the loud intense previews before though and said she wanted to go home but had to explain that that wasn't the movie and it would be over soon. She did great, sat SOO still and was just enthralled with every moment. Funny thing is a few days later I overheard her playing pretend with an imaginary someone, (probably Connor) and she said, "Ok, we are gonna go to a movie! The first part will be scary but you just sit still and then you get to watch the real movie!" :)

My kids are so lucky! They have such a great daddy! This was, "ummm, daddy will you put ALL of my hairclips in my hair." Of course it was while they were watching soccer together too! He is so good with them and I love watching him delight in our chidren and teach them! I am just so thankful for such a great husband and father to my kids! Don't want to ever take that for granted... what a huge gift Chris is to my life!

Mobile CD!

Ok, so this video was taken when we were on our beach vacation, been meaning to post it...however, this video is NOTHING like what he is doing now. In the past week Cason has gone into lightning speed...he is crawling fast and PULLING UP ON EVERYTHING...he loves to climb and now suddenly my whole house feels dangerous. OH BOY...these male versions of babies are a whole different deal, aren't they?!?!
Anyway, here is the beginning stage of Cason crawling. It is so cute, kinda like his own version of the worm. He really uses his little toes to push off...I can't believe how fast he is already at 7.5 months old REALLY FAST!

Ahh, the beach!

Finley was so fun to play with, she LOVED the pool and did great on the beach, still has to warm up to the ocean but as the week went on she did get braver. And she made sure to tell everyone she saw all about it. She is certainly not too shy to talk to others...does it all the time! HA!

We just got back from a lovely beach vacation with Grammy & G-Daddy. We were in Seaside, Florida area and had so much fun at the beach with the kids. It was great to just be away and have days filled with swimming, relaxing, playing and eating great food! We LOVED it, what a blessing. Thanks Doug and Pam!!

NEW CAR!!

Hooray...so excited about my new car...to be completely honest this is the EXACT car I have been secretly building online for the last 2 years!!! I LOOOVE IT! I am so thankful for this amazing gift...I had been very patient driving around that dang jeep forever...thanks honey!

This is our good friend, Kirk, the night we got it! I love this picture...he is giving us his best, "What?!? Umm, hell yea!" face! It is fun to have such great friends to share stuff like this with, friends that get as excited as you are for great things in life! BLESSING!!

Woops!

Ok, wow, it has been too long. So, I am realizing that when you go too long without blogging, you don't know where to start, so you just keep putting it off. Kinda like the thing I do with my ironing or my filing...til my mom comes and kicks my butt in gear! So I have a million things to share but gotta start somewhere. So here we go! Here are a few fun new things and happenings in our life:

Happenings!!

My Son is gorgeous...I mean look at those blue eyes!! Oh and he is so fun! Smiling at us all the time, making lots of funny noises, laughing at his "silly sissy" and LOVING him some MOMMA!!

Dad and Finley cooking breakfast on the porch during all the crazy rains. We were without power and water for almost a full day! So glad I have such a resourceful husband!

We lived through the worst flood ever recorded in Tennessee!! This is a picture of the river, I mean street in front of our house! We did not have any water damage thankfully but it was pretty crazy in our town for awhile!

Family Movie Night!!
I love this picture and yes, I know we aren't normal, our snack that night was sardines on top of an avocado spread on baguette! Yes it was delicious and yes, Finley ate it too!

Franklin Main Street Festival Fun!

Finley being brave, riding the pony! (Probably mostly because Samantha, her BFF, was doing it with her!) Oh and we all did a little advertising for Little Star with our new matching shirts!!
My favorite street vendor treat! Krazy Kut Taters!!!!!!! We also had kettle corn, roasted ears of corn, corndogs, and polish sausage, ugh! We had so much fun with our good friends the Lees and we all left with stomach aches, so, I'd say, mission accomplished!

MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN!

Well, this has been a major parenting breakthru week for us! Finley went from Zero to Full speed on potty training. I have been floored by it all, FLOORED! Potty training used to be my nemesis, people would say when she is ready, she will just do it...it will be easy! I DID NOT believe them for one second! We had tried, oh we had tried, but when she decided to do it on her terms...it was sudden and immediate. It has been so fun getting to praise her all week and see her be so proud of herself. It is crazy how much more grown up it makes her seem! Wow, where did the time go!
Secondly, Cason FINALLY decided to start taking a bottle! This has been a major issue too, he would get so mad and no matter what we tried we could not get him to take a bottle (which has made for some serious challenges as a working mom!) It all feels rather magical and like a HUGE GIFT! Thank you Jesus! You heard my desperate mommy cries and amazingly you even care about potty training and bottles!

DeTrays in Mexico!

We had a really nice vacation in Mexico...definitely not long enough and very different vacationing with kids but so fun! The kids did great and Finley loved every minute of it! She is such a delight right now...so thrilled with everything, so full of wonder so full of WORDS! She is hilarious and getting SO into fairytales and pretend play lately! She has taken to referring to herself as Ariel and dad is King Triton. So obviously I couldn't just stay mom and she decided I would be Sleeping Beauty and Cason is Desperaux! It is really funny she does it all the time and won't allow us to call each other by any other names. This was an especially big game at pool time where she would where her Ariel swimsuit that she just HAD to have. So much fun!


Cutie Beach Babies!

SOO our life right now...Cason is crazy fast at grabbing sister's hair! And our hands are full pretty much most of the time!!

Amazing View from our Private pool deck!

My "Pool Boys!"