visit from Great-Grandma and Uncle Dave!

We had a special, quick visit the other weekend by Shawn's Grandma and Uncle Dave, as they were traveling back to Indy after having been in Hilton Head for 2 weeks. It was so great to see them, as we haven't seen Dave in several years and the kids haven't seen Grandma since February of this year. Of course, being a butcher and one who LOVES to grill some meat, Dave insisted we do a cookout for dinner :) And that we did!! Nana, Aunt Kelly, and Shaun came over to hang out as well.

our annual Blowing Rock trip....

We headed up to Blowing Rock a couple weeks ago, just as we've done every October for the past almost 10 years!! This year we tried to nail the "peak" in the leaves as best we could and after checking the forecast, decided to go a bit earlier than normal, on October 14th. We were way surprised when we got up there and found that although we were a week or so early for when normal peak is, we had actually already MISSED it! Apparently, peak was really the weekend before and then there were some storms and wind that came through during the week, leaving about half of the trees completely empty! But, it was still beautiful and we still had an awesome time being there. We got up there right at noon and headed straight to Bass Lake where do our picnic lunch. When we got to the lake, the winds were so strong, that we literally decided to sit in the car and have our picnic!! First time for everything! After we ate, we got out and did our usual walk around the lake, exploring the fallen leaves, enjoying the COOL mountain air, and trying not to be blown away! The kids were so cute as they ran around the path having the best time stomping leaves and finding new treasures. It was a gorgeous sunny day even though the winds were about 25-30 mph! After we spent some time at the lake, we packed back into the car and took a short drive along the Parkway to try to see more leaves. Then we headed back to Main street, stopped in a convenient store for some fabulous hot chocolate, and strolled around to the playground. The kids played for a while and then we ventured into some of our favorite stores. After we were done visiting our usual places, we packed back in the car and headed for a carb-filled, comfort food dinner at Cracker Barrell!! YUM. It was a great day and we love sharing our favorite place with the kids!

last year when we were there the trees on the left of this path were covered in gold leaves....it was so sad to see them all bare already!

3 months old....

Our sweet boy is already 3 months old! (well really, at this point, he's 3 1/2 months old, but who's keeping track!)

Layton definitely took a bit longer to settle into a good nap schedule than his brother and sister did, but finally, around week 12, he got it down! He's always been a fabulous night time sleeper, but the naps took a bit of work! It wasn't until a few weeks ago that he started taking solid 2 hour naps, 2 times a day, with a 1-1.5 hour nap in the evening. What a relief!! And even though we kinda tried to prevent with baby #3, it looks like he's going to be a thumb-sucker just like his big brother and big sister! He's super content and happy when he's awake and really only fusses to tell you he's ready to go to sleep! He's staying awake for about 1.5-2 hours in between naps now and he is smiling all the time! Last week, for the first time, he laughed out loud for me! I was tickling him on the changing table and he started belly laughing for the first time. Oh. my. goodness. So so sweet. He's still bald as ever, which makes his "cradle cap" stand out even more. Ugh, I'm so ready for that to clear up! There has been a couple times when I've gone in to his room when he's been crying and found him lying on his back! (we put him to sleep on his tummy) So, somehow or another, I guess he's has turned himself over a couple times! He's getting to the stage in the past week where he is putting EVERYthing in his mouth. Anything that his hands touch, he pulls up to his mouth. He's also drooling a ton and constantly sucking on his hands/fists. He is just starting to hold a toy in his hand (after I put it there!) and bring it to his mouth as well.

Here are my absolute favorite expressions from the little guy!

Soccer!

Reilly has been playing in the Under 5 soccer program called "Mini Kickers". She's been having so much fun with it! The first 30 minutes is more of a clinic, where they learn different things about playing soccer, then they split up and play mini games of 3 on 3. I'm not so sure we have "natural born soccer player" on our hands, but she's having fun nonetheless. :)

Braxton, Layton and I went yesterday for the first time to watch. And, just as I suspected, we couldn't keep Braxton off the field!!! "DADDY!!" "REILLY!!" "SOCCER BALLS!!!!!" Poor guy....all he wanted to do was play too!!

OIB- October 2011

Last weekend we headed back to Ocean Isle Beach. My mom and dad rented a house so that we (mom ,dad, Brandon, Angel and us 5) could all stay together. We had a great time and the weather was so awesome!! It was around 65 for the high and into the 40s each night! The house we stayed at was on a canal and had a great back porch with huge lounge chairs. Saturday night we just laid out on the chairs, staring up at the stars and talked, told stories, and cracked up laughing for hours. It was awesome. I even had my first cup of warm apple cider!!

I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a couple of Layton....

the annual 4 generation picture

one of only two "family of 5" pictures we have?? sad.

DeeDee, Poppi, Uncle Brandon, Aunt Angel and US!

looking more and more like Braxton these days!!