in honor of TG

I have a few posts I need to post but in honor of Thanksgiving, I am going to skip around. Here are the pictures from this past weekend at my aunt's. Porter and Sloan had their first Thanksgiving and were the center of the show for sure. It was a great time & the food was amazing, as usual.
Poppy & Porter

Daddy & Porter

the kids table (there are three two-year-olds right now & they all sat together. they were the ones super interested in taking care of the babies all day)

Aunt Gloria & Sloan

Sloan

Cousin Ashley has Porter, Cousin Marcy has Sloan & Ashley's daughter Selena in the middle

Poppy & Sloan

Paw Paw & Piper (the dog)

Me & Randy

Uncle Gary & Porter having good conversation about faith & politics

Part of our crew at Poppy's after

BIG NEWS!

I am sorry for those of you that this feels inappropriate for but AVA IS POOPING IN THE POTTY! I wasn't sure it was going to happen and she has some doozies! We never officially tried potty training with her because of our experience with Bella. Bella was well on her way and then I got pregnant with Ava and we had to re-train her two or three times! Ugh. We decided that with Ava we would let her take the lead since Porter was due to arrive shortly after her second birthday. She tried and could take or leave it and then she went through the "want-to-see-ever-potty-in-Charlotte-and-surrounding-areas" stage and so peeing in the potty began. She got lazy for a while and then it became the norm. Pooping in the potty became an issue and she was not having it. Again, we didn't press it but let her know that if she did it, we would reward her greatly. Then one day at school she accidentally went a little bit while peeing the potty so we made a big deal out of it and two weeks later she did it for real. All on her own. I was in shock. Now it has been two days and a lot of treats and I am putting it in the books!

Sorry and not sorry for the lack of pictures related to this post. Ha!!

"yardwork"

The kiddos were working hard to help Daddy in the yard this past weekend...



In actuality, they do help out a lot with their mini-rakes and wheelbarrow. It has become a little family hobby to work in the yard.

Six Months. Seis. Half Of a Year

Porter turned six months old this past Sunday. I can hardly stand it. His first tooth is popping through (and it is sharp!) and he started practicing with a sippy cup. He tries to wave and is just a bundle of joy. He had his check up Monday and was in the 75th percentile for weight, height and head width so he is a proportionate little guy but not in the 90th % as before. He weighed in a t 18 pounds and 11.5 ounces. He is still enjoying vegetables and a little bit of fruit with his rice cereal. We got him a walker with some of his money from Pop Pop and GaYa. He just likes to be busy and we have a bunch of activity type toys from the girls but he just seemed to need a little more action and this way he can find his way to me and the girls. So far he has just been entertained by the toys on the tray and has not actually started moving around in it. He is enjoying jumping in the jumparoo more and more each day so that is nice. He is still a very smiley boy!

Baby's 1st Halloween

The kids were all pumpkins this year so I had my own little pumpkin patch going on. We did a little trick or treating on Halloween night and my Grandma and Mom came over to see the kids and hang out. The next morning we went to the Trunk or Treat at Sun City where Randy's parents live. The kids always love that- they fill their buckets to the tippy top and decorate cupcakes plus do a few other crafts.

Randy's Birthday

The day before Randy's birthday he had to work late so the girls and I had the perfect opportunity to get his birthday surprises ready! We spent the day cleaning and baking. We typically make him apple pies for his special days but this time we put a spin on things. He has been into salted caramel flavored treats lately so this time we made him a salted caramel apple pie! We make the crust (my favorite part) from scratch and the girls can help with the apples using our apple peeler-corer-slicer. My kitchen was covered in flour and juice from the apples- not a great combination. We, well I, got it all cleaned up by the time he got home that night and the girls got to surprise him with the pie along with their homemade cards the next morning.

Later we headed to Lowe's (someone is getting old!) and then to our favorite pizza place with family.