September

September has flown by and fall and just hit us all of a sudden!  We are enjoying the cool mornings and evenings and the warm afternoons.  Right off the bat, September took off running!  We got home from Lake Lanier and a few days later our friends from Arizona came to town.  They have a 3 year old daughter and a baby boy just a month older than Ethan.  They came in on a Friday and we all left Sunday to hit the beach in Charleston!  We had a great time seeing the sites and playing at the beach.  Mackenzie and Hannah played so well together, and it was a great time to catch up with old friends!  We had not had the opportunity to see them since Hannah was about 10 weeks old when we flew to AZ for a visit.

Then, they left on Friday, and my parents arrived late afternoon the same day!  And then the next day my sister and nieces came to town!!!  We had Ethan baptized on Sunday and it was so special to have some family able to be there.  We are so thankful that the Lord gave us sweet Ethan Matthew and we pray that He helps us to raise him to be a Godly man.

Since then Hannah, Ethan, and I have started to go to Community Bible Study and we are just having a great time with that!  I'm so thankful for the opportunity to study God's Word and have some time with other women.  The kids are doing great in their classes and I think it's also very good for them to have some time away from me!  Hannah also had a kidney ultrasound to see whether or not she has outgrown her kidney reflux. Which we are thrilled to say that it looks as if she has!!!  In other Hannah news, she is officially potty trained!!  We are so proud of her!  She has done awesome and really it just took her deciding that she was ready.  We've had minimal accidents!

A little Hannah update

Hannah is such a big girl and such a joy!!!  She is the best big sister and loves her "baby" very much.  She calls him her "siser", and has not quite figured out that she is the sister and he is the brother.  When we were in St. Louis, Hannah slept in a BIG bed!!!  She did awesome in Uncle Michael's old twin bed, so we decided that it was time to make the transition at home.  After our trip to St. Augustine, we put together her big girl bed, and got her new big girl furniture!  She loves it and has not missed her crib at all!!!  I was watching a video from her 2nd birthday, and it is amazing how much her vocabulary and enunciation has already changed and grown!!  She is so smart, and amazes us everyday with all she knows.  She can definitely speak in sentences and can express anything she wants to express.  She LOVES people and has a list about a mile long of people she wants to pray for every night.  She has the memory of a steel trap.....promise her ice cream in the morning, and you can guarantee, she won't forget!!  She loves music and can sing along and recognize an unbelievable amount of songs/artists.  This past week Hannah has become fully potty trained!  She still wears diapers for naptime and at night, but she has been waking up pretty dry!  Of course there are still accidents, but she loves wearing her big girl panties and after a week is getting so much better at anticipating her potty needs.  Some of my favorite things she has said lately are....

Daddy: Hannah can I snuggle
H: No daddy, I aseep, it's night night time.

H: Mommy, what are your doin?

Daddy singing Rocky Top to annoy Grandaddy :)
D: Rocky Top
H: Tennessee (in tune)

H: I wub you Mommy

H to Daddy: scracka back here (points to leg), scracka arm.....that makes me happy

H: Mmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmm, Deeewicious!

After night time prayers.....H: I fogot pway (everyone on the list for whom we didn't actually forget to pray)

H: I need to test Gramma (starts pressing "buttons" on her play phone)

H: I need some ______ Pwease!

Ethan is 3 months old!

Ethan continues to be a big boy above the 95 % in height and weight, although his growth has slowed down a bit.  At 3 months, he weighs 18lbs 10oz and is 26 3/4 inches tall.  He is still fitting just fine into his 6-9 month clothes.  Ethan's napping and nighttime sleeping have definitely improved, and we just discovered that he will take a pacifier if he's having difficulty settling down to sleep.  He wakes most nights only once, but still has an occasional night waking twice.  He is typically waking at either 2 or 4, then not again til 7 or so.  We have yet to make it a whole night, but that's okay!  I will take what I can get!!!  About a week shy of his 3 month "birthday", Ethan rolled over!!!!  He rolls from back to front going in only one direction.  It is so cute and he is SOOO proud of himself!  He loves looking at toys and grabbing for things while on his tummy.  He is also starting to play with the hanging things on his bouncy seat.  He seems to really like music too!  He still gets extremely excited when Hannah pays him attention.  He gives super big smiles and has a great laugh!!  He is still a good eater, and has definitely gotten a bit faster at eating.  He continues to be very happy and can entertain himself for periods of time, but still is very social!

August

August has just flown by!!  I really can't figure out where the time goes!  We have had lots of fun this summer with playdates and trips and visitors!  In August our friends from St. Louis, The Olivastros, came to town for a night.  We had so much fun playing with them and Hannah loved Luca and Nico so much!  We had dinner and ice cream, and then a fun lunch the next day in Charlotte!

The third week of August, we went to St. Augustine, FL.  This has become an annual trip with my family as my mom grew up there.  It's a very fun week full of family (my cousins and aunts and uncle live there).  Hannah absolutely loves the beach, but I think she loves her cousins more!!!  We had such a blast with everyone!!! We spent time on the beach, ate lots of seafood, and just enjoyed the ocean breezes.

We ended out the month by a fun Labor Day weekend in Georgia at my parents lake house!  Ethan slept most of the time on the boat, and while Hannah at first thought the boat was cool....she spent most of the time asking to get out an swim.  We have a little fish on our hands for sure!!!  We had a great time....Hannah rode the tube for the first time, and had a blast swimming around in the lake!

Dancing with Daddy in Uptown

Fun in St. Augustine

Labor Day weekend at Lake Lanier