Trick or Treating Recap

(Yes, I know that I am so behind)

I love Halloween and this has been my favorite year in a long time. I am so excited that Miller is finally getting into these things. I am really looking forward to Christmas. Miller is already asking to watch Christmas movies and telling me all about how Santa brings presents down the chimney. I hope everyone else has had a great Halloween season like we have.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Eleventh

We are majorly behind. With a few unexpected trips to TN, things got a little off track but here is Scarlett's 11th month update. The last one before her birthday. 

Weight: Yeah I did not get this for the month. It just did not work out this month.

Height: Same for this.

Head: And this.

Sleep: So this happened, she started sleeping through the night. Right around Halloween, she slept 10 hours one night, and the next she slept 12, so we just kind of rolled with it. Normally when she would wake up, our default was for me to nurse her and get her back to sleep, so with this we decided to just try out Ben comforting her instead. We have had maybe nights 10 where she has woken up and needed to be comforted, and maybe 4 nights when that has not worked so I have fed her again, but for the most part she is sleeping all through the night. It seems so spontaneous compared to the way that happened with Miller so I am still hesitant to celebrate.

Eating:  This girl has had the best appetite at dinner lately. She eats all sorts of foods and loves almost all of it. Have I ever mentioned that she has sound effects that go along with her eating? It is a constant nomming sound (constant!!!) that happens when any food is in her mouth. It is a good dinner when that has been the background noise the whole time. 

Best Moment: I love how she gets excited to see people that she knows. 

Milestones: I think sleeping through the night is pretty amazing. She also got another tooth and we are still waiting on its match on the other side.

Monthly Wisdom: I look at her and know that I should feel sad that she is getting ready to be a year old but I can not help but be ecstatic for where we are now. Newborns are sweet and innocent and sooo cuddly but after almost a year together, we know her so much better. We have fun and play and interact, plus there is still cuddles. Plus, there are so many hurdles that we have tackled to get to this point. Now with that being said, I still tell Ben I need another baby ASAP about everyday.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: I am mainly just working on maintaining sanity and enjoying the holidays with the kids while I get massive amounts of things done to get ready for them. Since Miller is at the age where he is now getting into things, I am excited to make the holidays magical. I also have Scarlett's birthday thrown in there to just make things a little more busy. 

Things Scarlett is doing

- She says "ninny" (my mom), and I heard say "no" to Miller once. 
- She dances to anything. It might just be her bobbing her head side to side or a whole body shake but it is adorable.

When we were at my Mammaw's funeral, people kept saying that these two look alike. At least people know they are siblings. 

My Mammaw

In the beginning of October we found out that my Mammaw had a tumor that was assumed to be cancer and due to its size, we were told that it had spread. They removed it and discovered that miraculously, it was not cancer. She came home but 5 days later she had a stroke. We went up to TN to visit her in the hospital. She was not able to speak (which was Mammaws favorite activity) and was still pretty out of it. Over  the next two weeks, her body just started shutting down and my Pappaw decided to grant her wishes of being put on comfort care. She passed away on two weeks ago.

Honestly, the letting her pass away part was the hardest and I was so relieved to hear that she was no longer suffering. We went to TN for her funeral and to spend some time with my Pappaw. They were married for 66 years (66!!!!). and although they bickered, my Pappaw has lost his other half. I can  not tell you have hard it was to watch him sobbing over her body and see my dad cry. We had lots of family come to visit, including some cousins that have never made it in. My Pappaw loved seeing them but I could see that he was so sad not to be sharing that reunion with my Mammaw.

Grieving is strange. I really am at peace with her passing because I know that her mental state was declining rapidly in the last few years and it was better for her to go in a quicker way and suffer less. I am not overly depressed but when I think about all my memories with my grandparents (and there are millions), they have all of a sudden quadrupled in worth to me and I keep getting choked up. They are priceless and just solidifies how important making memories with my children is to me.

I think with all of my family, our primary concern is our Pappaw. I know he has to grieve for himself and figure out his new normal but I absolutely hate this for him. If I could take his pain away and grieve for him, I would do it in a heartbeat.  They were married when he was 20 so he has not been without my Mammaw in almost all of his adult life and this is going to be a huge adjustment.

We gave Scarlett her middle name so I am very grateful that her and Mammaw got to meet and have a short visit here on earth. I am glad she is at peace and pray everyday for my Pappaw to find joy again in life. 

I can not believe my grandparents were ever this young but this was  them right around the time the got married.

Mammaw's glamour shot. It has sat on Pappaw's dresser for as long as I can remember. 

I spent a lot of happy times with my Mammaw and Pappaw.

Corn Maze 2014

I am playing catch up from the last month so I am just now getting to our trip to the corn maze.

This was just two days after we got back from Disney and my kids and the Campbell girls already missed each other. These three girls are so cute together. I just mention Ruby and Isla and Scarlett lights up and as soon as they see her, the girls squeal, "Baby Scarlett".

All 5 kids on the hay couch. This seriously took 5 minutes of wrangling to make this happen.

Miller's favorite part- the corn box.

That day was just perfect fall weather, so we decided to break out our fire pit and the smores. The kids loved them! It was the perfect day.

Miller pulled up his chair and sat by the fire. My favorite part of this are the crossed ankles.

I seriously loved this whole day!

Miller's 3rd Birthday Party - People

More pictures from Miller's birthday. 

 

  

Miller's birthday cake pancakes. 

 

 

Is this not the cutest tinkerbell ever?!?!

 

And another cute Tinkerbell. 

 

He was so excited to open presents. 

 

Thanking his Bebe for his train block set.

 

My parents, sister Lindsey and her boyfriend came down for the day. They were huge helps before the party.

 

Even though mom had only been away for 6 days after our trip to Disney, she came down for a long weekend. She helped us clean the house, get the house ready for the party and watch the kids while I got my house back in order. 

 

I love the similar looks between Scarlett and her Poppy. She went from being timid with him in the morning, to pretty much spending most of the days in his arms. That made me happy.

 

Miller needed some help blowing out his candles. 

Scarlett got a turn with the pinata and she was the only one to hold  the bat correctly. This softball playing mama is proud.

It was a great party! I had so much planning it and Miller loved everything. We are on to planning Scarlett's party and Miller is already ready for a party next year. Mommy needs time to slow down and a few months after the first of the year to recuperate from the birthday bonanza and holiday season.

Halloween 2014

Happy Halloween from Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf!!!

You know I love comparison pictures so I could not resist looking at our Halloweens of the past. I get a little sentimental with this holiday since it was the first one we had Miller for and he was only 3 weeks old.

We have been in full force Halloween mode this month. We have done lots of activities that are themed for Halloween and I think Miller has really enjoyed it. Here we made a spider web out of crepe paper for Miller to climb through. It lasted about a day until Scarlett destroyed it.

We also used crepe paper to make Miller a mummy. He loved this one but it fell apart with every step he took.

He said that this bat was a broom so he practiced flying around the room.

She was wearing one of the props from Miller's party.

The weekend before Halloween, we planned on going to Boo at the Zoo. We had to run to Knoxville last minute so we decided to go there. We had heard it was packed but we were shocked when we found that traffic was backed up on the shoulder a mile before the exit to the zoo. We decided to skip it and go find something else to go to since by the time we would get there, it would be over. We got off at the next exit and decided to just go by the main entrance to see how busy it was. We had to take some side roads because of construction and ended up just arriving in the parking lot and bypassing all the traffic. It was awesome!

Earlier this week we carved our pumpkins. I LOVE this part of the holiday but I can not wait until the kids are old enough to help. It was mostly me doing everything while the kids ran around the deck. This is the extent of Scarlett's participation.

Here is how our pumpkins turned out. Miller has a book that goes through the typical Halloween monsters (witches, vampires, frankenstein, etc.) in a cute way but his favorite has been the "musty dusty mummy" and the "boo boo boo oogity ghost". We decided to do our white pumpkin as a mummy and he insisted on doing a cat for the other one.

Happy Halloween!