September Phone Pics

September phone pics comin' atcha before October is even halfway over.  Boom!  

The most important and exciting thing that happened during September was that Katie Wynn turned THREE!!!  I cannot believe I have a baby that old.  She will always be my little baby girl.  Anyway, I don't have her birthday pictures ready yet so I'm going to completely skip over it in this post.  It will get a full blown post (or two) of its own!  

At the end of my last post, I wrote that Thomas returned home from Florida with a fever.  We came home on a Wednesday and I had planned to use Thursday and Friday as major work days for our embroidery business.  We had a big fall trunk show right before we went on vacation so we had tons of orders to work on!  But, even after two doses of Tylenol the night before, T-Man still had a high fever Thursday morning so no daycare for him.  He was glad to get to go over to Mimi's with me so that he could lay around and nap with Charlie!  

His fever still wouldn't go down so I ended up taking him to the doctor Thursday afternoon.  No ear infections, just an unexplained fever.  (After three and half days of fever, it finally went away and he got a small rash so we're thinking it was roseola.)  Less than thirty minutes after returning to Mimi's house from the doctor's office, I was running to the bathroom with a horrible stomach virus that seemed to come out of nowhere.  It beat me up for about 6 hours straight.  Thank goodness my Mom was around to take care of both of us!  What would I do without her?   I was so sick that night that I never even made it home.  Matt picked Thomas up and kept the kids at our house and I crawled upstairs to my childhood bedroom for the night.  The virus was gone the next day but it took me a good 24 hours to get my energy back!  Thomas and I laid on Mimi's futon and watched her sew the following day.  So much for knocking out orders that Thursday and Friday!

Everyone was back in good health by Saturday so we were able to go to church to see Miss Lilli Greer get baptized!  Such a special day!  I'm so glad we were able to be there for her big moment, even if we were late because of a low tire and then spent half of the service in the lobby with our loud children...  We did at least see her actually get baptized!  My mom made her gown and sadly, I didn't get a full shot of it.  Isn't she such a pretty girl?!

Another round of uncooperative kids in cute matching church clothes...Katie Wynn is getting so much better about letting me take her picture!

I'll take her sweet kisses any day I can get them!

We got a new gas pump for the coupe cars that gets drug out everyday along with the cars.  "Hey, hey Mama, I gotta put grass in the cars."

Matt lost a bet to a coworker during the month of September.  Therefore, he also lost the sleeves to his shirt...

We love when Addi Clare comes over for dinner.  These two girls play so well together!  

And then little brother always comes along and ruins everything! :)

It wouldn't be a monthly phone pics post without pictures of Katie Wynn trying on clothes!  This dress is her first Matilda Jane outfit.  I have really been trying to hold off on buying her these clothes until she is a little bit bigger (I want to dress her like a little girl as long as I can!) but I had some credit from the trunk show we hosted so I picked out this dress for her.  And I think she's so stinkin' cute in it I may have to start buying her more MJ stuff!

These were samples from our trunk show.  They don't have her name on them so I was going to sell them if they didn't fit.  It's a good thing they fit ok because I don't think I could get them away from her now.  She loves getting new clothes!

Our church has a new logo so they've had several new merchandise items with it printed on it available for sale.  Matt brought home this new cup and Katie-bug claimed it for herself immediately.  She thinks it's amazing and loves sliding the top open and closed.

Katie Wynn's best buddy, Addi Clare, has a birthday just 5 days before KW's so her birthday party is usually the weekend before ours.  This year, Katie Wynn was so excited to go to AC's house to play in the new playhouse that her daddy had built her for her birthday.  Then we got there and she saw that there were other people there and totally clammed up, like she does at every other party.  I had to carry her up the stairs and into the playhouse so she'd go play.  Eventually I was able to sneak down but she stuck her head out often to make sure I was still close by.  You can see in the group picture below how shy and reserved she gets in crowds.  She was not happy about being up there for that picture!

Too busy eating her cupcake to smile with the birthday girl!

Every now and then she begs me to take her picture for school.  And I'm always happy to do it.  (Thomas doesn't always agree.)

On Katie Wynn's actual birthday, I had my hair painted!  It's been a long time since I've had any color on my hair so I was slightly nervous.  These aren't really good before and after shots at all but you can kinda see the lighter color in the picture on the right.  This [new?] technique that my hairstylist is now doing is very subtle and naturally sun-kissed looking.  I love the way it turned out!

We went to our church's annual fall Hullabaloo.  I had my hands full carrying kids most of the time so I only have a couple pictures from it!  Katie Wynn wouldn't sit up on the hay bales with her brother for anything.  Boo!  

But we got a semi-decent one with their grandparents!  Lala made Katie Wynn sit up there with her.  

Lala and Poppa gave Katie Wynn some new puppy dog jammies for her birthday.  But they didn't leave Thomas out - he got a pair too!  I just love it when they're nice and clean and in cute pajamas at the end of the day.  They always smell so good and are usually pretty sweet!

One day after work I got some good hugs and lovin' from my little guy.  And then right after this picture was taken, he bit me.

Even though I try hard not to dress my kids too "grown," I'm a sucker for little vests.  They are so cute!  When I took this picture, Katie Wynn told me, "Hey Mama, we're vest frands."  

I hope they are always each other's best buddy!  Birthday pictures to come soon!

August Phone Pics

Let's just pretend that it's not already October 6th while I'm doing these August phone pics, mkay? To say that I'm behind on posts is an understatement.  I'm not even going to waste my time apologizing about it.  When I finally get all these backlog posts done, you'll see why I haven't had time to sit down and type...we've been busy!

Just like every other month, we did some swinging in August.  :)

Just in case you think it's always rainbows and unicorns around our house, here are some real life pictures of Thomas.  Sometimes he leaks a little.

But sometimes he's silly and does things like walk around with "gobbles" on his head.  The little stinker has also learned to wake up every single morning in the 5 o'clock hour so that he can get in bed with us.  And somehow he always ends up with the bed all to himself while he enjoys his bottle.  Kid has the life!

His sister keeps us laughing everyday.  She put her shirt on like that by herself.  And that picture on the right?  I walked into the bedroom to see her watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with those glasses on.  First it scared me, then I couldn't stop laughing, then naturally I had to take a picture.  I'm not even sure she was aware I was in the room.

In August I finally got to road trip to see my bestie, Emily, that moved away from me.  I picked up my other bestie, Sarah, on the way and we got to spend the weekend scoping out Em's new home and neighborhood.  We also hit up the farmer's market, did some window shopping, had a cajun lunch, and looked at antiques.  It was a super fun weekend and the only picture I have to show for it is the one below.  Anyone know whose house that is?!?  

If you guessed the Duggars, you are correct!  We saw a couple of people outside but couldn't tell who they were.  Did you know they have a security guard that sits outside their house?!  I guess it's to keep crazy stalkers like us from just pulling into the driveway.  :)  Wouldn't you love to be invited over to their house after a fresh snow so you could sled down that hill in their front yard?!

Moving on...one night we had friends over for dinner and some fun in the sprinklers!

I love this one of Katie Wynn and her best buddy, Addi Clare.  They take turns pulling each other around in the Cozy Coupe car.  

And then there's this one of Thomas.  Gah!  Can't you just imagine him as a teenager trying to pick up chicks in his truck?!  (Hopefully he'll have lost the paci by then...)  (On second thought, if it keeps the girls away, maybe this Mama will let him keep it! Ha!)

We had a day where it was slightly cooler than the typical 100+ degrees outside so I had my Dad drive me (and our wagon) up to daycare to pick up the kiddos and walk them back to his house (they live about a mile from daycare).  They were so excited to ride in the wagon!  But shortly into our walk I realized it was a lot hotter when walking and pulling a wagon than it was just standing still outside.  And the kids finished their snacks and drinks before we'd ever even turned off the first street!  So it was a bit of a longer adventure than I had planned but we survived!

August means birthdays for the "twin cousins!"  Bren and Parker were born just 8 days apart and this year they both turned 7!  Can you believe how big they're getting?!  We celebrated at Mimi's and Poppy's with dinner and cupcakes.

I already wrote about our visit to Indiana, but here are just a couple more pictures I had on my phone.  Katie Wynn "drove" the boys in the tractor trailer.  

We had an after-dinner dessert of chocolate ice cream.  It's amazing to me how messy they can make one tiny scoop of chocolate goodness!  Just like their Mama and Daddy, the LOVE the "brown kind!"

I took the kids to a neighborhood park one day after school to run off some energy.  Katie Wynn usually gets caught up in the people-watching when there are other kids running around, so after running down the sidewalk, she didn't even climb up on the playground equipment!  She just watched everyone else.  Thomas, on the other hand, got into going down the little slide on his belly and did it over and over and over again.

This picture of Thomas cracks me up!  I found these hand-me-down polo khaki shorts in his drawer during August and, seeing that they were size 12m, thought I had missed my window for him to wear them.  I put them on him for school thinking we could at least get one wear in only to realize they looked huge on him!  Matt and I laughed about it but I said I wasn't bothering with changing him.  Direct quote from Katie Wynn she saw him: "Hey Mama, why him wearing them big pants?"

Katie Wynn did some Mint Tulip modeling for me.  These were just too cute not to share.

And finally, I'll leave you with these solemn faces.  These are the looks I get when I ask to take a picture of them in their Sunday clothes!

I plan on posting September's phone pics before this month ends.  Fingers crossed!  :)

July Phone Pics

It's July phone pics time!  Woot!  

My first week of July was spent in Jamaica.  You can see those pics a few posts back. When we returned home, we were greeted by a couple of tiny nude swimmers.  Can you believe we'd just spent a week at an all-inclusive couples' resort and it wasn't until we got home that we ran into skinny dippers?

Thomas was there too, but his pictures are too private...if you know what I mean. And posting these pictures of Katie Wynn will more than likely get my site blocked at my work for pornography.  (And if not, typing the word "pornography" should do the trick.)

I'm going in chronological order this month so I'll be jumping around all over the place.  Thomas was helping me upstairs in the Mint Tulip sewing room one afternoon when he spotted his Daddy outside.  He stayed at that window and watched him for a while!

The first weekend we were home from our vacation, we were called in to perform Super Aunt and Super Uncle duties.  My niece, Bren, and my nephew, Jett, were staying with a babysitter while their parents were out to dinner.  They had been out fishing at our neighborhood lake when Jett hooked Bren in the forehead!  Their babysitter called my brother who directed her to our house so we could assess the situation.  Just a couple inches lower and she could've totally rocked it as an eyebrow ring!

The first thing Matt did was cut of the extra dangles.  Then we both took turns tugging at it to see if we could pull it out, all to no avail.  That thing was not coming out the same way it went in!  Perk of small town living: one of our favorite nurse practitioners lives in our neighborhood so we went to see him.  He took one look and said, "Hop in the car, we're going to have to go to the clinic so I can deaden it."  And off we went.

Bren was pretty nervous on our way there.  She kept asking me if we would have to go to the hospital and what would happen if no one could get it out.  She did great though!  The APRN sprayed some numbing spray on it before giving her four or so shots - she didn't even know she got shots!  The shots made her bleed a bit and then when he wiped the blood away, the gauze got caught on the hook.  It was quite a mess!  I'm leaving those pics off for anyone who's squeamish at the sight of blood.  :)

After a couple tries, he was able to poke it through a new hole and pull it right out.  Bren left with a tiny bandaid and two popsicles in hand.  It made for quite a Saturday night adventure!

One night while Matt was out of town for work, I was at home with both kids when our power went out.  It didn't show signs of coming back on quickly so I told Katie Wynn we were going to have to go to Mimi and Poppy's house for dinner and baths.  She ran to her room while I loaded Thomas up and came back with her bag packed.  She's never packed a bag before so I took a peek to see what she'd packed...inside I found about 6 pairs of shoes and that's it!  I added diapers and pj's so at least there was something useful in it.  :)

Speaking of Katie Wynn and shoes, this is what happens when she goes shopping with me.  "Deez my size, Mama?"  "No honey, not only are they not your size, but they don't match and you have them on the wrong feet."

This guy never naps as long as his big sister so he gets all the attention in the late afternoon until she wakes up.  We played on the porch while Dad watered the plants out front.

Posing in a new outfit made by Mimi!

We are very deep into the "Hey Mama! Wook!  Watch dis!" phase.  I got to watch her swing on the monkey bars about a hundred times one night.

This is what happened after Poppy fed my one-year-old boy a dozen brownies after dinner one night...Matt got stuck giving an early morning sink bath to clean up from a majorly explosive diaper!

Oh no.  Think I embarrassed him?

More modeling!  The kids had a water day at school so they had to arrive in their swimsuits.  Katie Wynn was one of the cutest ones there in her monogrammed PFG cover up, if I say so myself.  :)

I love these pictures so much.  Like I said on Instagram when I posted one of them, I'm not sure if I'm cool enough to be their mom.  They are too, too cool in their shades.

My kiddos aren't quite used to not being the youngest ones at Mimi's house anymore.  They were very into my niece, Lilli Greer, one Saturday morning when my mom was keeping her.  They showed her all kinds of stuff from around the house and Thomas wouldn't stop touching her head.

We brought a sprinkler!  It's a little wonky and I have to weight it down so it doesn't fall over but it's been fun to have.  KW enjoys running through it some but they both love it most when I pick them up and swing them over and around it and through the water sprays.  Did I mention I get soaked every time too?

A full morning of sprinkler fun resulted in two kids sitting still on the couch for, like, 5 minutes.

My mom's birthday present (a wrought iron glider) came in a big ol' box that we turned into a house!  I cut a door and windows and two chimney holes to make the perfect tiny home.

If you can't tell from their sweaty heads, it was super hot outside and even hotter inside the box, but they kept climbing in and out of it anyway!

Thomas thinks he's big enough to sit up at Mimi's bar by himself.

My mom bought the kids some chocolate pudding (pronounced "pooh-ding" by Katie Wynn) to have as dessert at her house, which means they were nice and wound up after dinner when it was time to go home!

And finally...the last weekend of the month, Matt played in a big golf tournament.  We only had a sitter for Saturday night's dinner so for Friday night we picked up our meal to go.  The kids loved running outside on the putting green while we waited for Matt to come back out.  I really don't understand why he doesn't want to take them with him for his Saturday morning golf games?!

June Phone Pics

Well, after posting pictures from Lala and Poppa's visit, our trip to the zoo, and tidbits about Thomas, there aren't TOO many pictures left from the month of June.  Don't worry, there's still enough for a post!

After quickly scrolling through the selection of photos, it seems most of June was spent playing outside, "mowing" the yard (both with and without clothes), and posing for pictures in cute clothes.  :)

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Playing outside...

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"Mowing" the yard (and driveway)...

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Posing for pictures in cute clothes...

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Of course, there are still a few pictures that don't fit in those three categories.  Like, for instance, this fun picnic we had in our front yard the same day that we went to the zoo.  Katie Wynn thought it was so fun that we were eating outside on the ground.

One morning I got to take two of my nephews to a splash pad for a little while.  I think they had fun running around in the water.

I didn't leave my own kids out of the fun, though.  They got a trip or two to the kiddie pool at the golf course.  

Katie Wynn did her own bedtime reading one night.  Sometimes she surprises me with how much of her books she can somewhat recite.

A little fun standing in front of the fan like a supermodel...

No month would be complete without chocolate.  Both fudge pops and cupcakes were in the house during June.  My kids come by their love for sweets honestly.

There ya have it.  Nothing like squeezing the June round-up pics in during the last few hours of July 31st.  I would say that I should jump right into July's phone pics post, but I still have other pictures to post first.  Like, for instance, our trip to Jamaica!  Hopefully I'll be back soon, but these days I'm learning not to promise that...

May Phone Pics

Y'all.  I am SO sorry.  Life has been barreling past at full speed and I can hardly seem to keep up!  If you think this little space here has been neglected, you should see my laundry and list of started-but-not-finished home projects!  But, I have two happy kiddos and [I hope] a happy husband and we have been making such sweet summertime memories.

However, I've said it once and I'll say it again, this is the only "scrapbook" my kids will be getting so I'm determined to keep it up.  Matt and I leave on a much-anticipated adults-only vacation in a little over a week and I'd really like to leave with this blog completely caught up.  Off the top of my head I know there's at least 7 posts I need to write, so about one a day until we leave.  Please hold me accountable to I'll get them done!

I realize it's already the 22nd of June (how in the world did that happen?!) but I've got to back up and post our May phone pics.  I hope I can remember what the pictures are of because some of them seem like they were taken a life time ago!  Like these pictures of Thomas.  I put him in a collared shirt and instantly he looked like a grown up little boy.  But he looks even older now!  I knew his hair was thickening up but I didn't realize how much until looking back on these.  He has so much more now, and has even had his first tiny trim above his ears.  (I saved the clippings in a ziploc bag and then left them at our beach house.  D'oh!)

May is the month that we launched the website for Mint Tulip (that could be another post itself...) so I spent lots of time trying to get pictures of the kids in the outfits we were selling.  They were my unwilling and not-always-cooperative models.

Have you heard of the biggest Bass Pro Shop ever?  It's in a pyramid and if you live anywhere around here, you surely know about it.  I swore that I would not go there for several weeks after it opened so that the crazy crowds would die down.  We went out to dinner with good friends one night and go figure, we ended up there on Saturday night of their Opening Weekend.  The crowds weren't nearly as bad as I expected and it was definitely neat to see.  We did not go all the way to the top to see the views of the city, but I'm sure we'll go back to take the kids to see the fish and maybe we'll go up then.  (Side note:  Our good friends Emily and Andrew are moving away this Wednesday!  We are incredibly sad.  I know good things await but I don't like that I won't be able to see them all the time anymore!)

We bought this little hot pink chair a couple summers ago and Katie Wynn has always loved sitting in it.  When we found out baby number two was a boy, I ran to Walmart to snatch up a blue chair before they stopped selling them so that he'd have one too.  Katie Wynn NEVER lets him sit in the blue chair.  Bless his heart, he's always stuck with the so bright neon pink one.  They are one of the best $5 investments ever though because they (Katie Wynn) drag them out every time we're outside so they can sit in them.  On this particular night, she had carried them both around to the front yard from our side garage so that they could have a seat.  She's showing him a blade of grass that she picked.  :)

Katie Wynn has finally learned to "float" in the bathtub.  It takes forever for her to ease herself back all the way, but once she's laying down you can't get her back up!

For Mother's Day I had the kids dressed in the cutest little matching bubbles.  We had brunch out after church and all I wanted was a sweet picture of them in front of some pretty blooming flowers.  They did not really deliver...

Thomas has a new love...chocolate ice cream.  It is so funny to watch him eat it!  He gets so mad between bites if you don't give it to him fast enough!

Katie Wynn has a new love...wearing her Daddy's t-shirts.  She says she's a Princess when she has them on.  :)

Lolli has a new...kennel.  I wouldn't say she loves it, but she does like it more than her tiny old one.

Do you ever fall asleep while reading?  Happens to me every night.  And it looks like it's starting to happen to Katie Wynn too!  (Can you see her foot propped up on her bumper with the other one crossed?  Too funny.  I did move them after taking this picture so they wouldn't fall asleep up there!)

This is one of the reasons Thomas got his own Coupe Car for his birthday (pics coming soon) - they both try to cram into Katie Wynn's at the same time and someone always ends up in tears!

This picture was taken at a birthday party in May and it is probably my favorite picture of all four of us!  Look closely...someone has a choke hold on her little brother.  :)

Blowing bubbles after school one day.  I just couldn't handle how cute she was in her little dress.  

Katie Wynn often gets caught pouring the bubbles out and rubbing her hands in them, and Thomas gets busted eating mulch.  They keep us on our toes!

I got in some sweet snuggle time with my niece, Lilli Greer, one night.  Katie Wynn gave her a full head inspection.

While I painted in the shop one day, we made a makeshift desk for Katie Wynn to color.  She loved it!

These are too cute not to share!

I'll wrap up this post with pictures from an afternoon adventure the last weekend of the month.  Mom and I borrowed my brother's truck, loaded the kids in it, and drove into the city for one quick errand.  We were just gonna buy a church pew from a renovation sale.  Well, we didn't get the pew (it was WAY too long!) but we did run more errands and even got to stop and get ice cream!  The kids were really good on our outing and gave me a renewed hope that I could take them out shopping with me.  

We spent a lot of time at an At Home store and they loved riding in the double cart.  This first picture KILLS me.  Could they look any more alike?

Sweet hugs in the furniture section.

She thought it was so fun to stand on this cart and ride.  Cool mom points.

Since nap time was already busted, we HAD to stop at YOLO and get ice cream.  

When Mimi's ice cream ran out, Katie Wynn was sweet enough to share hers with Thomas.  (Mama doesn't share when it comes to ice cream.)  Have I mentioned that she's the best big sister ever?  She really is.  

And those are our adventures from May!  (Plus our trip to the beach and our curb appeal projects.)  One post down, at least six more to go.  Be back soon!