Blessed.: Rest of August and early September updates! Whew!

Mid-August brought all the "kick offs" for all our new fun fall activities. That includes Awana for Parker! Awana is a program held at thousands of churches across the US, but it's geared towards kids starting at age 3 and goes up til the end of elementary school. It focuses on scripture memorization and bible knowledge. He already has about 20 bible verses memorized which just amazes me! It's great for mommy, too because as we practice them every night, I'm learning them, too. Anyway -here he is at the Awana Kick Off event at our church! They had water slides which he, of course, loved!

C-line hung out in her stroller the entire time, but she had a blast, too!

More sliding!

The set up in the church parking lot.

He liked to slide backwards more than facing front... I think he got a little scared on this one - it was tall!

They had Menchies ice cream for all the kiddos! This kid was in heaven!

More sliding backwards!

I made Nutella bite cookies for the first time and you would have thought Parker had won a million dollars! He was so excited about these things - I have to admit - they WERE amazing!

Just call me Doctor Hull :) Has a nice ring to it! Doc McStuffins is one of his favorite shows these days! Ugh - I already have the theme song in my head by the mention of her name... great.

As we neared the end of August, we still had not been accepted from the waiting list into the 3 year old class at First Baptist! We were bummed, but we knew it just wasn't meant to be. SO - when we realized that Midway UMC We Wonder program had 2 openings left in the 3 year old class, we decided to jump in. It's the same school that Park's best friend, Sisi goes to, and even though they aren't in the same class (Park is in the 3 year old class, Sisi is in the 2 year old class), they still see each other every day and get to play after school on the playground most days, too! I absolutely love the program, his teachers... the only downfall is that it's a 3 hour program which is just not long enough for me to get anything done. I literally get home, feed Caroline, put her down, maybe get a shower in (usually not), do a quick load of laundry or clean up the kitchen from breakfast and it's time to get Caroline up and leave again. I hate to take him out of We Wonder for preschool next year, but the 3 hour school just isn't cutting it for us. I need 4 hours - desperately. I can't manage to get any "work" work done during that time either... it's tough. Anyway - here he is the day we signed him up at school - he's excited!

And his first day! Sooooo handsome!

Being goofy with my goof ball :)

Chris has been LOVING his green egg that his boss gave him as a porch warming present... here is our first boston butt we cooked when family was in town for Garrett's birthday! Yum!

Garrett's first birthday party was at their pool and was so fun! Bubba came up for it and loved holding his sweet great granddaughter. It brings tears to my eyes that his wife, Nano, was never able to meet Caroline... she passed away only a week or two after Caroline was born and I was unable to travel to see her before she passed away because - well you can imagine why. But I love that Caroline loves her Bubba and I know that Nano loves seeing her husband enjoy his great grand babies. :)

The birthday boy!

Our cousins from Chicago recently moved to Kennesaw, about 45 minutes from us and our other cousins who still live in Chicago were visiting them in Kennesaw the weekend of Garrett's party so we were so excited to have all our Chicago family in town! We never would have thought that our Chicago family would be able to make it to any of our birthday parties! We love having more family close by. Here is Amber and Hayley.

My cousin from Chicago, Karen, with Caroline. I love this pic!

Dylan with Parker

My cousin, Kenny, with his kids, Dylan and Amber and his niece Hayley playing with Caroline.

Bubba's birthday is right around the same time as Garrett's so we celebrated his birthday with our family at our house the night of Garrett's party! We like to have parties if you can't tell!

Bubba with all his great grandkids! My dad is an only child, so we were always very spoiled by Nano and Bubba! :) It's no exception with these kiddies. Miller - 3, Parker - 3, Garrett - 1, Caroline 9 mo, Kayley - 3 and Jac - 5.

Caroline has mastered her evil grin and gives it to us every chance she gets! She loved playing on the floor with her Hoppy.

Caroline and her Nana, Caroline!

The weekend of Garrett's party was also the weekend we joined the church so all the family came to see us join! It was really special for us to have them there. In a Baptist church, it's a pretty big deal to "join" the church where you walk down the aisle of the church as a family during the Invitation (end of the service). You profess your faith in Jesus Christ, the pastor introduces you to the church and then the entire church files by and shakes your hand and welcomes you to the church! This is my favorite part of church - I love greeting new families as they join their walk with the Lord at our church! Here is the Appenfelder family outside our church after we joined.

And our family! The newest members of FBC Cumming

After church, we went out to eat at Outback for Garrett's birthday (Sunday was actually his birthday) and then we went to the A's house to watch Garrett open his gifts! Parker and KK played outside afterwards... KK loves to pretend she's getting married! I'm not sure if I should be worried that she loves to pretend she's marrying her cousin or not....

For Father's Day, I bought Chris a week whacker! I don't think I ever documented it, so I saw him using it one day and thought I'd take a picture. :) Our hill in our yard is always a mess - I'm praying this whacker keeps it tamed until we can save up enough money to do something about it!

Caroline really started becoming personable this month. She really reacts to us when she sees us, her face lights up when we walk into a room. I was sitting at my desk working one afternoon and she and daddy started playing peek-a-boo with me... her face was too precious not to capture!

August brought more tennis for Chris and Reid! I tried to watch as many as I could! I love watching my hubs play... and I think when I watch he is a little more tame and keeps his actions in check a bit more than when I'm not around. :)

I dragged the kids to his last match which went til almost 10 pm. They were troopers and did great so I could watch!

Reid and Chris playing...

Oh dear - I NEVER know what I'm going to find when I get this girl up from her crib every morning. This was a true candid shot... not extra messing up was required. I know I'm in for it one day with all this craziness! I'm already getting knots out of her hair most days!

One nice thing about school starting for the big kids in our neighborhood every day was that on the days Parker was home from school in August, we had a private pool! It got a little lonely, but we enjoyed it the same.

Miss Priss's first flip flops! Worn for approximately 3 seconds for this photo them immediately kicked off.

My Life Group girls and I have been having a girls night every month ever since July for my birthday! We either meet up at a restaurant or at one of our houses but I love this catch up with my besties! Here is Kristin, me and Christa on Cinco's rooftop bar.

We were celebrating Robin's 31st birthday this time.

I forgot the candles! So she pretended to blow them out.

Caroline was 9 months in August! Here is her latest progression shot!

I was crazy one night and actually went bowling with a group from my office for a charity bowling tournament. We lost miserably but I had a great time seeing my co-workers and showing off my awesome bowling skills - not!

Caleb turned 1 in early September! Again - we tried to get a group shot of the babies (baby Tanner couldn't make it - boo!) and the picture did not turn out well. I think we are doomed to taking group shots with mommies holding babies from now on. These kiddos are ON THE MOVE!

Mimi and Papa visited us over Labor Day weekend and we LOVED spending a long weekend with them! Papa helped us finish screening our porch in and he was a huge help to Chris! Here they are playing with Parker one night that weekend... Parker loves for Papa to pretend that he's made when Parker cuddles with Mimi... it's his favorite game therefore they play it over and over and over again. I'm not sure if Mimi or Parker loves it more. :)

Here they are finishing up the porch with the screens!

Before the screens....

Before the screens - we were all set up for some football watching outside!

Before the screens...

Chris made a feast for us that day and I made some typical game day food for us to chow down on! We had a great day eating and watching football with family!

Scott and Lauren came up for the weekend - SO great to see them - and I made a birthday cake for Lauren... I wrote our Happy Birthday with some chocolate icing. Then the cake sat near the hot stove all afternoon - not the best idea. Oh well! The cake was still yummy!

Scott and Lauren, Mimi and Papa with our kids and Chris' sister's kids, Campbell and Catherine

Scott and Lauren with Amy and Jeffrey's girls - Catherine and Campbell

I snapped this early on Labor Day morning... Parker woke up earlier than normal so we let him crawl into bed with us... this kid has no sense of personal space at all!

Chris' dad does not like to be away from his house for too long, so they woke up on Labor Day morning and left bright and early! So when we got ready, we headed to WaHo - Waffle House!

Caroline loved it too! Yummy eggs and grits - some of her fave foods!

Later that day, Chris had to go into the office for a bit (yeah on his day off - but I am not complaining because we love his job!) and I started sorting through all of Parker's baby clothes to give to Chris' sister who is expecting baby #3 with is a boy! I got a little teary eyed when I found some of the preemie clothes Parker fit into as an infant... he was soooo teeny! Here he is next to one of his onesies that used to be big on him!

I came across this picture in my phone one day and Parker was looking over my shoulder and he said, "Oh look there's Caroline!" This is, in fact, Chris as a baby. But I agree - I think it's a spittin' image of Miss. C-line!

I never have to clean up any crumbs in this house! No matter if Caroline is eating in her booster seat or her high chair - Jack always takes care of any leftovers! I complain about having a dog a lot these days - but I must say - this aspect is pretty nice!

OK - so this is the best! Angela randomly group texted out a picture of some brownies she made one night while she was home alone (Zach was working a night shift) and literally in about 10 minutes, ALL of us girls (except for Kristin) were at her house chowing down on brownies and milk! So funny! I love these girls!

Amy and I bought bookbags for Park and Sisi at separate times - having on idea what the other bought - so you can imagine our surprise when our kids showed up to school with the same bookbag! Only Park's is blue and Sisi's is pink! So funny!

Even though summer is over and the kids are in school, Amy and I still try to have play dates for Park and Sisi - I don't know if these two could go very long without seeing each other! They are two peas in a pod! Here they are putting on a show for Amy and I... they are very entertaining!