Cooler Temps & a Little Rain

This past week we had some unseasonably cooler temps and a few days of much needed rain. One evening I was getting dinner ready and the kids were getting restless so Jeff took them outside to "play in the rain".  Twenty minutes later they returned after their walk around the neighborhood in the rain. I'm sure that the neighbors thought he was crazy with the stroller and big umbrella.


Best buddies

The cooler temps urged Harper to get out her winter gear and they wore it around the house all morning.

Already?

After dinner Sonic Milkshakes

Ipads are the best babysitters when I'm stuck sitting on the couch feeding Walker for 30 minutes at a time - 8 times per day.

Mimi to the Rescue

Jeff is "off" from school for the summer but he definitely stays busy.  He put on several weeks of baseball camp at Marcus. His goal was to have 250 kids attend his three weeks of camp but he surpassed his goal and had a record setting attendance of 350!  Besides Marcus baseball camp he travels down to College Station several times to work the Aggie baseball camp.  With a newborn around, my mom has been a lifesaver this summer.  She has sacrificially given many days and nights to help here with my crew.  Last week she spent several days with us while Jeff was out of town.  She spent lots of time holding this little guy.

First "smile" caught on camera in the arms of his Mimi.


We gave Walker his first real bath in the bath tub.  Up until now he has just taken showers with Jeff.

As you can see I always have lots of "help" with Walker.

This third child has already learned to sleep through the chaos that is normally around him.

Harper sure does love her Mimi!

So thankful for a Mimi who will give of her time, energy, and love for my family.


*I finally stepped into the world of iphones and I've had fun taking photos as we do daily life without having to get out my "fancy" camera. 

Cutrell Family Get Together

A few weekends ago, we headed out to Holly Lake in East Texas for a fun get together with all of the Cutrell clan.  I left my camera at home so I stole these pics from Crystal.  The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins Levi & Isaiah.


Walker and Mama Cutrell.

Front porch swinging

Walker - One Month

One month already. Whew - it's flying by.  We are all adjusting to our new norm - life as a family of 5.  This little guy is such a blessing and is already fitting right into our crazy circus

He was less than thrilled to take part in my photo shoot.

My helper.

Walker is a fairly chill baby so far.  He eats every 2.5 - 3 hours around the clock.  Occasionally at night, I'll get a 4 hours stretch.  Every little bit of extra sleep for this tired mamma is a bonus! We have had a little trouble with spitting up after eating but nothing consistent or too bad.  He is a very gassy baby and sometimes just grunts and grunts trying to make his tummy happy again.

In his first month of life, he has already been on three road trips to Paris.  He is an easy traveler so far and just goes along for the ride.

We love you Walker Lee!

Walker Newborn Photos

I didn't have newborn pics taken of my first two but I have a new friend from church who is an awesome photographer.  I let her do Walker's pics and I think they turned out great.
Check out Dimples & Dumplins online.

My favorites.  Love his pouty lips.


Thanks Melaine for helping us capture these memories. 

See You Later Hall Family

 Our dear friends, the Hall family, packed up and moved out West.  Dave took a football coaching job at Odessa Permian High School. I met Ashley when our girls were very little.  We became fast friends. We were so thankful to get to be neighbors. Ashley was my neighbor, running buddy, fellow mommy in the trenches, coaches wife, sounding board, etc. I could go on and on about this precious woman of God and her family.  It was so hard to say goodbye to them so we didn't.  We just said see you soon...
We had a fun going away party for them so all of the kids could play one last time.
Brody and Boone


These 3 have been friends since they were little bitty.

Graham & Brody

Goodbye hugs for everyone

The kids enjoyed playing on the slip n slide, bounce house, and kiddie pool.


Such great guy friends for my Jeff

Besties - We have 9 kids between us now!

Harper will dearly miss her friend Anna Lou! She talks about her all the time and about all the fun times that they have had in their short little lives already.

Ashley and our babies.

See you later Hall Family!  We love you and will miss you so.

Not yet...

The only reason that I'm including this post is because I want to remember this later. Brody has to be potty trained by the start of preschool in the Fall. He will be moved up to the Three year old class this year and this is one of the requirements. I've been dreading this with him. We used the three day method with Harper and it worked like a charm.  She had a few accidents the first two days and then she "got it" and was trained. Easy. So this time we geared up like the same way we did with her.  Bought a package of underwear, loaded up on liquids and some m&m's for prizes.  I waited until a weekend when Jeff was going to be around to help.  We talked it up to Brody and thought that he might be ready.

He woke up and we had him collect all of his diapers and "throw them away." Actually they were put in the garage for safe keeping just in case it didn't work.  We then put him in big boy undies and started giving him capri sun to drink.  I think he had 3 of them before 9 a.m. He quickly proceeded to have six accidents in the next 2 hours.  He wasn't quite catching on to what the urge to go felt like yet.  Unfortunately, I had only bought one package of undies and they were now all dirty.  It was going to take at least an hour to do laundry and have clean ones for him to wear again.  So.....I gave up. I was exhausted because Walker was only 3 weeks old.



I'll try again in a few weeks...our September 2nd deadline is quickly approaching...