Friday night fun

We are in party season around here. Seriously, between the holidays, TCU football, Emerson's birthday and all of her friend’s birthday parties, we have been doing some serious celebrating lately. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice change from the summer when we had nothing to do every single weekend but it is getting a little exhausting. And Halloween has not even come yet. Oh well, we are enjoying it while we can.

On Friday, one of Emerson's friends had a birthday party and then we went straight to the TCU homecoming parade. It seemed ambitious for us to attempt to attend both but the schedule actually turned out to be quite perfect. From 4:30 to 6pm we celebrated a birthday and ate dinner and cake. Then we did a quick wardrobe change (Emy HAD to be in her TCU cheerleader outfit for the parade) and booked it over to campus. The parade ended and not 30 seconds later it started pouring rain. We all got a little wet on the way to the car but had a good time...that is, except Ashton. Poor guy had a meltdown all the way home. It was sad. Really sad. Friday night festivities are just too much for him.

The birthday party was for one of Emerson’s classmates this year. His name is Luke and I swear Emy has a crush on him. She sits with him at lunch and when she talks about him she has a little grin about her. It is sweet. Anyways, Luke’s grandparents have a house in Fort Worth that is on a huge, tree covered lot. They played that up and did a construction themed party. It was super cute. The entire time I was telling myself to take mental notes since I will be planning boy birthday parties in the future. They had cardboard houses to paint, sandboxes for digging, a bounce house and an actual construction digger for climbing on and exploring. Luke’s mom gave all the “workers” plastic hard hats, Lowe’s tool aprons and inflatable hammers. Seriously, it was a cute party.

Emerson and Izzy hammering golf tees into a pumpkin

Painting a house

Sitting in the digger (or whatever it is called)

Looking totally tiny in this enormous piece of equipment

The birthday boy. Cute, huh?

Ashton just hung out and got a lot of attention from Izzy and Mari

After the party we drove less than 2 miles to the TCU campus and got situated for the parade. We ran into several families that we knew since it was homecoming weekend. The kids ran around while we waited for the parade to start. When it started, the girls were all lined up on the curb waiting to see what was going to happen. When the candy and purple beads started flying, the girls got so excited. Now, let me pause here to tell you that I actually teared up at the parade. I know that I am postpartum and the hormones are still messed up but there is something about sitting and cheering for your alma mater with your child who is genuinely as excited as you are. It was a really sweet moment that I hope I never forget.

Here is a cute story: When the cheerleaders passed us, you should have seen Emerson’s face. Awe is the only appropriate word to describe it. Her eyes were huge and completely focused on them. She didn’t move a muscle. I asked her, “Emerson, do you like the cheerleaders?” and her response (without taking her eyes off them) was a quiet and simple, “Yea”. It was like her little brain was already trying to figure out how to get to be one someday. It was so cute.

Trying to get the girls to look at the camera. This is the closest I got. I promised they loved it although they all look miserable.

Being coy for the camera

Ashton got to hang out with daddy

By the time we got home it was time for baths and bed. We had to make sure Emerson got her rest for the big birthday party the next morning. More on that later…

Happy 3rd Birthday Emerson!

Birthday party recap post coming soon!

Pumpkin carving

Emy and Steve carved our pumpkin today. Emerson was enthusiastic about picking out the pumpkin and the design of the carving. She was not, however, interested in helping pick out the pumpkin seeds. "Daddy, it's yucky!" were her exact words.

And for fun, here is a glimpse into the many faces of Emerson:

Here is what Ashton was doing while Emy and Steve carved the pumpkin

Ashton- 4 weeks

Just some pictures I took the other day.

And, we're done:)

Happy 1 month birthday, Ashton

Ashton's 1 month birthday was actually 2 days ago. I did not forget, it was just hard finding a time to take these pictures. I guess that is how it goes with the second child. Oh well, close enough:)

Here is a little about Ashton at 1 month:

-He loves to eat. He is still a great nurser and getting even better and faster every day. He is eating every 2-4 hours. The longest he has gone is 4.5 hours and that has only been twice.

-He is wearing 0-3 month clothing. They are big on him but the newborn stuff is too short, so we are just making due.

-Ashton loves to sleep but is not very good at it. His sister had the same problem but she was always content being held or sleeping in the swing. Ashton is more high maintenance than that. He will rarely sleep on you or in the swing. He likes to be swaddled and walked around the house in order to fall asleep. That and being nursed to sleep of course. Oh, and he will fall asleep if you carry him in the Moby wrap.

-When he is not crying, he has started to coo and be a little more social. It is precious.

-Despite all the crying, Emerson still adores him. We are so lucky that she has not acted out at all. She loves to help with him and is very understanding when we can't play with her because the baby needs to be fed/is crying/wants to be held, etc.

-He is quite fussy right now. I am hoping that this will slow down (or stop!) around the 6-week mark when the textbooks say that the peak of fusiness is over.

-He is pretty smiley already, which is fun to see.

-There are so many faces that he makes that remind me so much of Emerson when she was a baby.

Despite him being high-maintenance, we do love this little guy to pieces. It is hard to believe that a month has gone by already. Here is to less tears and more sleep in the next month!

Gymnastics Birthday Party

Emerson's friend, Hayden, turned 3 over the weekend and he had a gymnastics party to celebrate. Basically, all the kids got to run around the gym and play on the equipment the entire time. Since Emerson was involved in the Little Gym over the summer, she was familiar with how everything worked and had a blast.

Playing in the foam pit
Swinging on the bars

Doing some random "dance move" that she came up with.

Balance beam

Jumping on the trampoline with Jaylee and Hayden

Sitting with Rylie and Jaylee for the group photo

Tackling Jaylee during the group photo

Group photo chaos

Happy Birthday Hayden!

BFF's at the Park

My friend, Jennifer, and I took everyone to the park last week. Since we both have toddlers and newborns, we thought it was a "safe" outing for us to attempt with 2 adults and 4 kids. Emerson and Jaylee are the best of friends and can seriously have a blast wherever they are, but they thoroughly enjoyed running around the park together.

It proved to be a "success"...meaning there were no injuries, no one was lost, babies were content and mommies stayed relatively sane.