Waving and Crawling

8 Months Old

This little man is 8 months old today!!!

8 month stats:

(He hasn't been to the doctor this month, so I'm not sure of these stats, they are just my guesses.)

Height: 29 inches

Weight: 23 lbs.

Diaper size: 4

Clothing size: 12m or 18m (mostly 18m)

New Milestones This Month:

Waving "bye-bye"

Perfecting the "army crawl"

Still working on the "traditional crawl"

Going from laying down to sitting up with ease

Still fighting sleep

Still has separation anxiety

The "nasty" face (I need to get that on video.)

Cut teeth #s 7 & 8

Eats mostly table food

Experimenting with feeding himself

Can almost clap his hands

Says "no no", "da da", "um ma" (Mama), and "ba ba" (bottle)

New House--Before Pics

Please keep in mind that we didn't buy a foreclosure house that was move-in ready. Not even close. We bought one like you see on Flip This House. It needs a lot of work and it's not fancy by any means! But, we are not fancy people. With 3 kids, fancy is just not practical. Here is a glimpse of the house before.

**Please just click on the pictures to see the full view. Joshua is screaming because it's bedtime and I don't have time to go back and fix all of the pictures from photobucket**

This is the front of the house, looking from the street. We are planning on doing some landscaping, but that will happen after we move in. This will include flowers and boxwoods.

The Garage that will hopefully be enclosed soon.

A little closet off of the garage.

Living Room

This will be painted burgundy and trimmed in white. The stone wall will stay (too hard/expensive to remove) but the stone slab will be removed and a fireplace and mantle installed. Opposite of this stone wall is a plain wall that will be home to my beloved portrait of Scarlett O'Hara. :)

Kitchen

This will have stainless and black appliances, new hardware, new lighting, painted a goldish yellow, new glazed porcelain tile floors, and most likely new granite counter tops.

Dining Area

This will also be painted golish yellow because it flows into the kitchen.

Kids' Bathroom

This will be painted blue and have the same tile as the kitchen. We also removed the flower stickers, much to Olivia's dismay.

Olivia's Room

This will be painted pale pink with a chair rail. The bottome half will be pale and dark pink stripes. Her choice. It will also have new carpet.

Jacob's Room

This will be painted blue and decorated in a sports theme. We will include the Armuchee "Rockin' A" in white on one wall. (I can't find a picture of the "Rockin' A at the moment.) It will also have new carpet.

Master Bedroom

This will be painted blueish gray and will also have new carpet.

Master Bath

This will have the same tile as the kitchen, dining, and other bathroom. It will be painted khaki.

Back of the house

We hope to add on 2 more bedrooms, 1 bath, and a den/movie room. This will likely come off the right of the back door.

Another view of the back

Back yard

The back yard is completely fenced in. See that hill? That will be sooo much fun to sled down next winter!!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

We love Dr. Seuss! We have so many Dr. Seuss books and I read them so often that I almost have them memorized!

Jacob's favorite is "The Cat in the Hat"

Olivia's favorite is "Horton Hears a Who"

Joshua's favorite is "The Foot Book"

Their school celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with Who Hair Day today. Both kids, but especially Olivia, had fun with this!!

This was my best attempt at Cindy Lou Who hair.

It was a hot mess when she got home!

Jacob just wanted his in little pony tails.
...which were all out by the end of the day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS!!

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

-Dr. Seuss

Moving on Up...

Well, not to a deluxe apartment in the sky-iy-iy.

But, we are moving! It's been a great 4 years living in a small singlewide mobile home in my mother-in-law's backyard (no, really, it has) but sometimes good things must come to an end. She's better, healthwise, than she has been in many years and that was our purpose for being here. So, we found a foreclosure deal that we just couldn't pass up. And, it's in the same area we live in now so the kids won't have to switch schools. That was my biggest concern when we started house hunting. Our new house needs work but it's mostly cosmetic fixes. (new floors, paint, good cleaning, landscaping, etc.) It's still only 3 bedrooms (you do the math...we have 3 kids). Joshua will remain in our bedroom for now. We kinda like it like that though. He's our last baby, so we're holding on for dear life. :)

Mark had the cutest idea when we closed on the house. We told Jacob and Olivia that we didn't quite have enough money to pay for the house, so we would need to borrow $5 each from their piggy banks. But, since they paid for some of the house that meant they owned a part of it. We explained that owning a house was a big responsibility and that meant they needed to take care of it. They signed contracts at the bank and handed over their $5. It made them feel so grown up and really a part of buying our new house. Kudos to Daddy for coming up with that great idea!! Here is a little video of the mortgage banker reading their contracts to make sure they understand. We are a happy, but extremely busy family right now. And, I wouldn't have it any other way...

7 months!!

Joshua is 7 months old today!!!

Here are Joshua's

7 month stats:

Height: 28 inches

Weight: 21 lbs. 10 ozs.

Diaper size: 4

Clothing size: 12 months

New milestones this month:

rocking on his hands and knees

sitting up independently for long periods of time

rolling and scooting to get anywhere he wants to go

fighting sleep (ugh.)

seperation anxiety

trying to clap his hands

playing peek-a-boo with blankets

sitting up in the bathtub

eating "table food"

drinking from a straw

Joshua has been sick for over a week now. He has a really nasty cold and cough, so we've stayed in as much as possible. (This is why there wasn't a Thrifty Thursday last week or today.) And, since his last name is Layne,

cold/cough = breathing treatments

So, this is what my sweet baby was doing on his 7 month birthday. :(

He's been very happy during this sickness though. He still plays and plays all day long. Most who know him say he's the happiest baby they've ever met. Here is a short video of Joshua learning to clap his hands. So stinkin' cute!! I could just eat him up!!

Please excuse the voice in the background. I never knew how crazy I sound

when I'm playing with him!!

Joshua's 6 month Photo Shoot

I took Joshua to Berry College today for a photo shoot. I'm just now getting around to taking his 6 month pictures and he's almost 7 months old. :) We went to Swan Lake and it was such a beautiful day!! He isn't smiling in one.single.picture, but I think they are still good!

**Tooth #5 just popped through yesterday and he's cutting 5 more!

I wouldn't want to smile either...

He wanted to eat the leaves.

While I was taking pictures of him in front of Swan Lake, a beautiful swan came and sat down right behind him, perfectly in frame of the pictures I was taking!! How lucky is that?!?! We take pictures out there a lot and this has never happened.

He looks so big in these pictures! Why do they have to grow up? :(