Ellington is 2!

We have so much excitement at the beginning of August. School is starting back, and we can't forget our sweet E! On August 7 our girl turned 2! Wow has that happened fast or what?! Ellington is so special to each of us and has just completed our family so well. I don't know what we would do without her. She just goes right along with all of our busyness and entertains us as she goes. She is such a sweetie and is so funny. She loves to repeat everything you say and really is so smart. I hope she stays that way. She has so many people to learn from in our house! She absolutely loves to watch Bubble Guppies and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She also likes Backyardigans and Elmo. She is a T.V. junkie! We have to monitor that. She loves to sit with me when I put on makeup and applies her own...mostly lipstick all over her face. She loves to go on stroller rides with me and Dawn, and joins in on my coffee drinking. They are sweeter but it is so funny that she always wants my "dink". She is still very attached to her paci and being #4 we just aren't all about taking it away just yet. We don't have a check up until later September but she is around 30 pounds and is just growing growing! We love this girl so and had so much fun celebrating her with a Twotti Frutti party. Since this mama was so late throwing this together, big sis Cohen and I had to be in charge of the cupcakes. They tasted pretty darn good if I do say so myself but now appearance wise they may not be quite the best. Again, fourth child just has to settle for whatever. Throw being number 4 on top of being born at the time school starts and poor girl just gets the shaft. I'll have to do better when she gets older and gets it! Happy Birthday Sweet Ellington!

Back to School 2021-22

As soon as we were back from Texas it was time to head back to school! I think Cohen & I maybe got 5 hours of sleep and then we were up and going again. At least the first day of school is usually easy to get them up for. I was so glad to be able to walk in the elementary school this year and go to the kids' classrooms. It was a first to do for Bryce because last year we were never able to go to school for anything. I never saw his classroom at all so I'm so glad that this year things were going back to normal. All 3 kids have the best teachers this year and were all excited which is always a plus. For the first time ever we have a repeat teacher! Its hard to believe that out of 3 kids this is a first but it is. Bryce is in first grade and has Mrs. Raines and that was also Kate's teacher. We love Mrs. Raines so its so fun that Bryce has her again. She is still to this day Kate's favorite teacher and I know Bryce will love her. Its hard to believe that when Kate was in first grade Bryce would come to the school with me but he was only 3. Time has just flown by. Here are our first day pics, of course Ellington had to be in there too! Cohen-8th grade (wow that middle school has flown by) Kate-4th grade with Mrs. Gaines Bryce-1st grade with Mrs. Raines Ellington-almost 2 and loving some alone time with Mama

AAU Junior Olympic Games, Houston, Texas-Day 4

Wednesday was another early morning for us. It was the day for individual competition! We also were checking out on Wednesday which added a little more stress to our day. The competition this year was even bigger and we had seen how long the days were going in the days prior to Wednesday. I was a little worried that Cohen might not even get finished with all of her events! The girls got to start with another parade of athletes by state, only this day Cohen & Sadie represented the state of Georgia!! The day moved smoothly for the most part and I thought we would be great on time. I did see pretty quickly that Cohen would finish competing but would probably have to miss awards. We needed to be gone by 5 to get to the airport for our flight. Cohen did great in all of her events and with her individual open solo and strut events they would end up choosing a top 5 and then those 5 would compete again in the finals. This is where it got interesting because at about 4:30 solo and strut finalists were announced and Cohen had become a finalist in strut. We were so excited for her but that really was going to push us on time. It was extremely stressful deciding what to do. I had to talk to the competition director, we switched order with our own teammate so that Cohen could perform first. Since the finalists were listed in order of placement we saw Cohen had been 4th. If she didn't compete in the finals she would end up 5th place. I really wanted her to have her chance at competing so we got her ready to go. The director worked with us and agreed to let Cohen go first as soon as they started finals. In order to keep our timing I had to leave her waiting on the floor while I went and got our Uber to the airport. It was so stressful because one minute they were about to start then they would be waiting. I had Jennifer on the phone and finally just told her to send Cohen down to the car that we would have to scratch due to time and as Cohen was leaving they literally called her to the floor to perform. I had the best Uber driver who was patient enough to wait. Cohen went from performing on the floor to running down to jump in the car and speeding off to the airport. I was googling how close we could cut it getting to the airport and still being able to check our bags. Luckily we made it in time! Cohen was in full costume checking in at the airport but we found a family restroom and got her changed just in time to board our plane. I have never been so worn out! Our plane flew out at 7:05 and we landed in Atlanta after 10:00 pm. Once we landed and could use our phones we got so many text messages at once because remember Cohen had to leave and miss awards. We had to count on everyone else to fill us in and if Cohen placed get her medals for her. We so excited when we landed and were told Cohen had placed second (silver) in her strut! The one she performed right before running to the car. And not only that but she ended up being 2nd (silver) in the all around title! We were so excited! I know she had been adamant to get back for the first day of school but I know she was sad that she had missed awards after doing so well! Naturally who would have known and we were still so happy even finding out on the airport tram in Atlanta! What a trip! And now summer vacation was officially over and it was a school night!!

AAU Junior Olympic Games, Houston, Texas-Day 3

Tuesday was a free day for us and the girls had been planning this day out! We started our morning walking to Shipley's Do-Nuts in downtown. Yum!

From downtown the girls decided they wanted to go to the big mall (of course) and do a little shopping. We ended up buying tickets to the Color Factory for later in the afternoon. We would meet up with several of the girls. This is what they were most excited about! The COlor Factory was very neat and really is a teenager's paradise. There are so many rooms to go through and they have picture stations set up in each one so there are a ton of pictures from this! They all had a ball! I think Cohen was sold the minute she knew they had a ball pit. That was all she wanted! It was a fun place and one I would highly recommend especially for older girls!

That night we headed back to the hotel and the girls had to get some practice time in. Wednesday was going to be a very long day. I took some pictures from inside the convention center while they practiced. It was really a huge place. That night Cohen & I had a pizza party with Kenzie and Jennifer. It was nice to put on comfies and chill! Then it was off to bed!