This Girl!

We have recently taken the bed rail off Anna's bed (mainly because it broke, but also because we want to fix it and give it to Sam). She's always been a wild sleeper and this is how I found her tonight when I went in to check on the kids. I have no idea how she ended up like this and how she didn't just slide right off!

And just for fun, this girl definitely has her own sense of style! This is what she chose to wear a few days ago. Thankfully we were not leaving the house on this day. Not sure why but she loves this hat. It's a baby hat that got put in their dress up clothes and she rediscovers it every now and then.

I can't believe my sassy girl will be three years old in just a few days!

16 Months (and one week)

So my boy is now 16 months old. This is a pretty typical picture of him . . . one shoe on, one shoe off, brought the chair into the kitchen to stand on in order to reach the buttons on the stove better - and getting busted for it! Sam is such a wild man these days. He's still not really saying much as far as real words go, but boy can he tell you what he wants! He's doing great adjusting to his new big boy bed. Sometimes he wakes up once during the night (I just hold him for about 30 seconds and put him back in the bed and he's fine) and sometimes he doesn't wake at all. He is getting up earlier now (before 7:00!), but we're trying to work that out. He wants to do everything Jack and Anna do and if they are willing to let him join in, he's pretty successful (sometimes he gets the bedroom door shut in his face because they don't want him messing up their stuff). He loves music and LOVES to play outside. He will go to the back door and whine to go out. When I say no, he brings me his shoes and whines even louder. He claps for the "more" sign and uses the same one for "please" as well. Guess I haven't been as consistent in teaching those correctly. He surely is a mess and makes us laugh every day. We love our little guy!

Hiding and Snacking

Anna asked for a snack today and I told her to get two packs of gummies (fruit snacks), one for her and one for Sam. I ran upstairs for a few minutes and when I came back down the kids were not at their small table where we eat snacks. I called out, asking Anna where they were and she answered, "Hiding!" I found them under the kitchen table hiding and snacking. She opened the bag of Teddy Grahams and they were having the best time eating tons of those little cookies. They are such stinkers!

Let's Play Catch Up

What we've been up to over the past couple weeks . . .

Pop and Grammy came to town one weekend and helped out with lots of odd jobs around the house. Here's a picture of Jack "helping" Pop fix the leaking dishwasher.

Anna has started dance. She's in a movement class for 3-5 year olds (even though she's not going to be 3 for two more weeks) and she LOVES it!! This is what she does while she waits for her class to start . . .

Such a lady - wallowing all over the floor!

A good friend, who moved away back in March, came to town to visit. We had tons of fun hanging out with her family and with our "local" friends, as well!

Jack started soccer skills. This is a six week program that teaches kids the basics on a non-competitive level. He will be old enough for "real" soccer in the spring. He really seems to love it so far. Oh, and he does have soccer socks, but they mysteriously disappeared minutes before we left the house. It seems like Sam came along, picked them up, and put them in the baby stroller to push around the house. Not sure why we didn't think to look there while we were rushing to get out the door in time!

Marshall and I attended "Fall Coffee" for parents at the kids' school. All the preschool classes made snacks for the parents and we heard non-stop talk about the pumpkin bread the day before, so I had to snap a special picture of the famous bread. It was yummy!

Saturday morning we had some time to kill before heading to a friend's birthday party so we went downtown for a parade. It was a transportation parade (in honor of the new train museum opening this weekend) and there were lots of interesting things to see: horse & buggies, model T Fords, bicycles, motorcycles, police cars, fire engines, segways, and lots of things in between. As far as parades go, this one was pretty tame, but it was just perfect for us!

Anna enjoyed it, but didn't like the loud engines or horns blowing, so she sat like this the entire time!

And here's our latest house project. Marshall and Jack are rebuilding/refinishing our small deck. Jack is super thrilled to be outside helping his Daddy and he's so proud of his work!

Sanding

This was yesterday.

And here are my boys showing off the progress made today.

That about sums up our recent happenings.

Sometimes, this is how we roll . . .

Our Cozy Coupe is getting just a little too cozy these days, but the kids still manage to make it work.

Baby News

We had our big ultrasound today to check up on baby #4. Everything looks absolutely perfect and baby was an active little thing! Here's a profile shot, with the head on the right and the big ole' belly on the left.

Once we got home and picked up the kids from school, Marshall sat down
and showed them all the pictures. That's when we told them
that they are having a . . .

SISTER!!!!

We are all thrilled with the upcoming addition of a baby girl to our family! We will keep you posted with any other updates. Right now we are feeling blessed to have another healthy baby in the McCravy family.

Bed Update

I can hardly believe it but Sam has done fabulous with his transition out of the crib and into a big boy bed! His first night in it, after two tiny fusses, I never heard another peep out of him - until 7:35 the next morning! I checked on him before I went to bed and apparently the thud I heard earlier in the night was him getting/falling out of bed because he was sound asleep on the floor, snuggled up with his blanket. I picked him up and put him in the bed.

Last night he cried around 3:00am and I went to check on him. He was just flopping around on the bed crying. I rocked him for a few minutes and put him back in the bed and didn't hear another sound until I woke him up at 8:20 this morning so we could get ready for church.

We've ditched the morning nap, and so far he's had two days of 3 hour afternoon naps with absolutely no problems. He only cries when he's ready to get out of his room when he wakes up. Before he would play in his crib awhile, so I think once he adjusts, he will go back to playing.

Vacation - Chuck E Cheese

A couple weeks ago, Marshall had a week off and we went on a whirlwind trip - 5 states in 5 days. We headed out to the Upstate Friday evening, spent the night there, and rolled out toward Atlanta the next morning, leaving Hank behind with Ninny and Grandy (thank you!!). Our first stop was lunch and play time at Chuck E Cheese near Atlanta. The pizza was tolerable, but the kids had so much fun.

I love the look on Sam's face!

After lunch, we buckled up and headed to Cullman, Alabama to visit with Marshall's Granny Mac and lots of other relatives. I took absolutely zero pictures there, because I completely forgot about the camera while I was chasing a 15 month old around and trying to keep him out of EVERYTHING! It was a great visit, though!

Big Boy Bed

My baby is sleeping in a big boy bed for the first time tonight! I've been ready to ditch the crib for awhile, but due to our recent travels and other plans, I've held off. I absolutely despise putting clean sheets on crib mattresses once they are lowered, not to mention I have a belly that's getting larger every day, so we decided it was time. Compared to his siblings, Sam is right on schedule - all of our kids have moved out of the crib at 15 months.

We will eventually put him in a toddler bed (when he moves into the room with Jack and Anna), but for now, he has a full sized mattress and frame on the floor. All the kids had a great time jumping around on the new bed after bath time tonight, and I think both the big kids wanted to sleep with their little brother.

We stuck with our usual bed time routine tonight and I put him in his bed, snapped one last picture, turned out the light, and closed the door. By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs I heard a thud and a cry which lasted less than a minute. A couple minutes later, he cried again for less than a minute, and I haven't heard anything since, now an hour later. Sam hasn't made anything easier for me than his brother and sister did, so I have a hard time believing this is the last I will hear from him tonight, but only time will tell. I'm so proud of my big boy!

This is what he was doing right before I turned out the light.

Laundry Day

For some reason, laundry day is a little more exciting when it looks like this:

Gamecock Kickoff

Last night our Gamecocks kicked-off another season of college football and we were able to take Jack to his very first Carolina game. He was so excited that he talked nonstop on the the way to Columbia to meet up with our friends, Lottie, Chris, and Mrs. Charlotte! We had fun tailgating, watching the players warm-up, and then seeing the Gamecocks bring home a victory. Jack's highlights were the Skittles, popcorn, snow cone, and fireworks! I'm also a big fan of the fireworks, because that means we were scoring! It was a lot of fun and a special time with our firstborn.

On our way to see the Gamecocks play!

Showing off his Cocky hat.

The players warming up.
(I cropped out the guy's sweaty back in the foreground - you're welcome!)

Jack took this one.

After the game, Chris helped Jack climb around on the tanks and he loved it!