Granny Cato comes to town.

Catching up over here. . .
     Early October Melody took Granny Cato on a grand adventure, an ambitious road trip to meet the great-grand-babies and also visit old places and friends. She's done this before and it has so inspired me. Melody is so good at prioritizing special relationships and in this instance, making sure the new generation meets the old. I believe it truly was a blessing to all those involved.
     We love spunky Granny Cato and wish we could see her more often. We are so thankful her health allowed her to make the trip! I know I benefitted from her lighthearted joking and especially from her wisdom. My kids don't quite understand how special it is to know her, but I do, and for now, that's what's important.

(Granny Cato and Baby Wells (2mo), Phoebe (1mo) and Tobias (2yr))

A jaunt downtown

one evening in October. 

     We were still enjoying the light evenings that, in a good way (mostly), made it feel like bedtime would never come. For that reason, and to ensure Gray and I didn't lose our sanity, a stroll around Falls Park on the Reedy was the perfect family activity.

 We have been experiencing a drought this year. The Fall was not as spectacular as it usually is.

     We thoroughly enjoyed watching the ducks swim and eat. Tobias liked to get as close as was physically possible before falling in, aka. he loved to give me a fright. He would point and observe and point some more while repeating "Mommy! The Ducks!" more times than I could count.

 This poor goose was so ugly, we came to find out he/she is an actual specie that looks like this ... 

I felt slightly bad for mocking him.

 Little toes dangling too close to the water!

We made a loop around the park stopping at our favorite tea bar, Ocha. The cherry, almond, vanilla milk tea is my favorite thing on the menu right now! On our way back we gazed into the high end art shops and stopped again to admire the ducks. It was perfect, so much so that we had a meltdown in the car about leaving ...

Grate gazing. I'm pretty sure he spent some time dropping stones down there before I noticed.

Sexy butt dad wearing that Ergo like a model, hehe.

Enjoying the porch

on a cool fall day. 

     On Thursdays we wake up a little early. It is a mad dash trying to get out the door by 8:15am which is the latest we can leave. An 8:15am departure ensures we arrive at Mommy's Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) class on time. 

Ty showing Well's his "baby truck" ... Well's got a little scared hehe.

     If we are successful, everyone ends up having a great time. Ty goes to his class and mommy enjoys some grown up Christ-centered discussion while Well's sleeps. This year we are studying John and I am loving the in-depth view. I learn and grow so much through BSF.

 Snot nose. This has been our life this fall!

     Ty loves his class and has picked up quite a few habits from there. Some are cute, some are not so cute. We enjoy the hand in the fist "Amen!" after prayers but the obnoxious "Roar!" could definitely go. He learns a story, sings hymns, and recites a Bible verse that mirrors what the adults are studying. Even though he is too young to tell me what happens in class I had the opportunity to witness it one week. That week was such a blessing! It warms my heart thinking about the intention of his class leaders and what he is being taught. 

     BSF usually ends around 10:40am and we make it home by 11am. On this particular morning they were being so pleasant. We sat on the porch for awhile. Ty drove around his "baby truck" and I snapped pictures while Well's chilled. I like capturing those rare moments of calm.

The monster truck phase is a thing. We have a lot of trucks around here ... I secretly love it.

Watching football with daddy.

     If I didn't have so much laundry to do, so many projects left unfinished, a baby to feed or who knows what else, football season would be my favorite. I know that a lot of those are horrible excuses, but sometimes I'm guilty of letting the To Do List take priority over sitting down and watching a game with my hubby.

     Thankfully I had boys and among other things, football games are included in our "raising them right" theology. So when a games on and it's not nap time or bed time, we encourage Ty to join in. Right now he's engaged for maybe five minutes before getting out his toys, but that (and the fact that he's dressed in head to toe team gear) warms his daddies heart and mine too.

He's learned the art of being distracting, but not too distracting. 

Or maybe Gray is just that concentrated ... the juries still out. 

     Gray can't wait till he's watching the whole game and talking terms and stats and I am just excited to witness it all unfold. There will be many hours of watching football together in their futures.

"Tobias, show mama your game face!" ... Man oh man do I love these two!

A morning outside with Tobias.

If I could bottle up all your zeal for life and apply it like perfume at the start of every day, I would.

     What the world must look like to one as little as you, gigantic, foreign, wonderful? Sometimes when I look at pictures like these I can imagine your awe. The world through your eyes, a beautifully scary creation rendered exciting within carefully constructed boundaries.

(Could you be any cuter sporting Auntie KK's beanie she left behind?)

     You love the outdoors, if I left it up to you you would spend all your time outside. I both love and dislike this about you. Rain or shine, heat or cold, no bugs or millions your enthusiasm never wavers (unless I mention Paw Patrol, but even then you are swayed only 50% of the time). I love this because if there is one place I can go to get refreshed it's outside. It's in Gods creation where I am reminded how small I am and how great God is. There is something very comforting in that truth. I dislike this because the heat annoys me and mosquito's are very literally the bane of my existence!

     Thankfully on this morning the air was crisp (my favorite kind) and the mosquito's were few. I had put Well's down for his morning nap and the three of us headed to the backyard to play.

     When Riggs wasn't standing at the back door wanting to be let in he ran around chasing squirrels. He made sure to give Tobias and his lawn mower a wide berth. He seems to be terrified of that blue and green bubble machine when it's at the hands of Ty. I can't imagine why? I don't know a person or animal who minds getting rammed and chased by a little squirt and his plastic mower ...

(I don't think my mom could have known how much he would love this toy.)

(The leaves tend to turn brown instead of all those vibrant colors like up north, boo.) 

(The sunlight that morning was just gorgeous.)

      He stood at the gate glued to whatever truck or bus happened to pass by. He would beckon to me frantically, desperately wanting me to share in his excitement.

(His little face! Those huge blue eyes, that sweet mouth and those soft cheeks, 

it's hard to express how much I love this boy.)

     He mowed the lawn five times over stopping every once in awhile to make sure I was watching or to investigate the nearest ant hill. He ended up transferring his hat to his mower, it was "coldy" and needed some warmth.

     He also drove to the store multiple times for various items mom forgot to grab. And he drove to work. He made sure to wave goodbye to me just like daddy does every time he leaves.

Oh to be little again. Don't grow up too fast baby.

I'm not really a planner.

     My dear family, we are not planners. It just isn't one of our strong suits. For the most part it worked for my parents. Big things like vacations were usually put on the calendar (or not), but all the details waited until the last minute. Stress and arguing would ensue, but for the most part we were flexible and what happened happened.

(FaceTiming Poppa.)

(Patiently waiting on his birthday cake.)

     Well, I grew up and moved out. I got married and started my family only to realize that that characteristic seems to have followed me. I think more than that I've realized just what goes into planning a big event or vacation. It's not easy. My mom only did "big" birthdays when we turned 5, 13, and 16 and I can see why. It's a lot of work and truly quite time consuming.

     Unfortunately for me, I love parties. More so I just love celebrating people and having an excuse to get together. I also love the creativeness involved. I enjoy making everything look cute and put together. Giving a concept life really makes my heart sing.

(He blew it out on the first try a big difference from last year, ha!)

(The candle was his favorite part, he spend 10 min trying to make it stand in his little piece of cake.)

     It becomes complicated because I still waffle between planner extraordinaire and planner terrible (read that word in Spanish, it flows better)/awful procrastinator. I am definitely more so that latter than the former. When it gets down to the wire the struggle is real folks and so I'm trying to get better at having my stuff to together. I've come to understand it's going to take time. I'm learning you can't overcome lifelong habits all at once.

(I loved the way his cake turned out, pretty simple and super tasty!)

     It all started two weeks before Tobias turned two. I finally decide to throw a party! But of course, the day before his birthday I think "we must celebrate on his actual day too!" I was a mess trying to get things together last minute. Multiple trips to the store, an extremely late night, you name it. It was all unnecessary and I totally did it to myself. Auntie Cesca was able to enjoy this celebration with us and it truly was the cutest thing to watch him blow out his candle and revel in all the attention.

(Books and CD's and other fun things from Nanny.)

(His first lego set, an airplane.)

(We FaceTimed Nanny so she could watch him open her gift!)

(My parents bought him a CD player to go along with what Nanny got him, 

he loves it, especially the volume button ... my little rock star.)

(Gray and I got him a play do set, a huge hit.)

(A few pictures of the cute chunker just because.)

     So again, the crazy started two weeks before his birthday when I finally decided to throw a party. At that point I was kicking myself for not planning something sooner. I find that once something makes it on the calendar all of a sudden every day leading up to it becomes filled with other random important activities! Does this happen to anyone else?

   (I did the same cake for his party just added a splash!)

     In the end I kept it small and low key. I invited my two closest friends and their kiddos. The theme was a Splashin' Birthday Bash. We had fried chicken and biscuits, mac n' cheese, baked beans and green beans. It was very yummy. I opted for cake pops instead of cutting the cake and they were a huge hit. The kids ran between the sprinkler and the kitty pool. They squirted water guns and then broke all the water balloons in two seconds flat. Tobias had so much fun. It was a win and I'm glad I did it.

 (All of his closest friends; it will be fun to see if anything will change and if they grow up together.)

(Lauren and I had a pretty good game of water balloon toss going 

before we got upstaged by Gray and John.)

      All that to say, I may not have come from a family of planners and most days it shows. I am determined to get better. I don't have to follow in their footsteps, I can be on top of things ... maybe (ha). We should probably wait to see how next year goes.

 (These two photos just make me laugh, cake pops apparently make kids go a little crazy!)

(These two; the best of buds. Westley and Tobias.)

(Such a fun evening hanging out with friends!)