Brothers Gotta Hug

During our last afternoon at the beach, Andy & I ran out on the porch to watch a crazy thunderstorm that was rolling in. When we returned inside, this is what we found!

Josiah loves Cooper and especially loves giving him hugs. He is usually sweet with him, although we constantly find ourselves saying "give short hugs" and "be gentle". Just recently, Cooper has become very interested in watching his older brother and giving him great smiles. It's so fun!

We were both trying to take pictures and of course Andy got the best one on his iPhone, which isn't the greatest quality, but you get the idea :)

Soon I'm sure we'll be saying "quit wrestling" and "don't hit your brother with that baseball bat", so for now we'll enjoy the hugs.

Beach in October

YAY for last-minute trips, friends with time shares at the beach, and awesome weather in October!

Some friends from our church have a time share at the beach that they were only able to use for part of the week. So...we had the great fortune to use it for a few days! It was an oceanfront "villa" in a resort and was fantastic - plenty of room, a fabulous view of the ocean, lots of sand to dig in, pools to splash in, and even a Starbucks downstairs. The weather was fabulous - sunny and in the upper 80's!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Josiah LOVES the beach. When I told him we were going he started jumping up and down and spinning in circles. Personally, I think that in order to make him truly happy, someone in the family needs to purchase a beach house (hint, hint grandparents) or offer us a job at the beach. I mean, is there ever too much to ask for the sake of a child? I digress.

I was able to eat breakfast both mornings on the porch overlooking the ocean as the sun came up. Here is my wonderful breakfast date, and the reason we were eating so early. He just couldn't sleep past 6:30 am when there was digging to do and waves to jump.

Our View

One of the pools had a slide that Andy was able to ride with Josiah. I think they must have slid down at least 1,000 times. You can see the pure joy on their faces.

And here is what sweet Cooper did while we hung out at the pool. Who doesn't love a good nap poolside in a shady lounge chair?!?

Our time there was sweet and of course too short. I did get an hour by myself on the sand, thanks to my wonderful husband. Just dozing in the sun and staring at the ocean. Perhaps it will sustain me until next summer!

Blessings

Cooper is blessed to have 4 great-grandparents around to love on him. This past weekend, we were able to take him to meet 2 of his great-grandmothers.

Here he is laughing with Great-Grandma Jean Wood

He also got some cuddle time with Great-Grandmommie Rickman

We love y'all!

And some exciting news...Trader Joe's is coming to our area on October 30th!!!

24 days and counting...

Fresh Air

As most of y'all know, we love to be outside. And we believe that fresh air and exercise cures most anything. So, after being cooped up inside for a couple weeks, we finally got out last week to enjoy the fall weather! The boys LOVE the double-jogging stroller. It's a Chariot stroller and is pretty awesome - it can be a regular stroller, jogging stroller, bike attachment, and more. We highly recommend them! Here are the boys, excited for their ride.

So this is funny...

We recently switched our pest control services to a local company. They came yesterday and I realized this...the company is Cooper Pest Control. We have a son named Cooper and we decorated his nursery in a bug theme. Whoa.

Here are some pictures of the little guy, laughing with his daddy.

If you think about it, please pray for us. We all have some wicked virus that is lasting forever. Josiah has been sick for about 2 weeks - first a double ear infection and chest infection, then the virus on top of that. I've had the virus for about a week and Andy came down with it over the weekend. It's not the flu, but something similar - very sore throat, cough, congestion, etc. There's not much we can do for it, so we're a pretty sad family right now!

" It's completely usual for me to get up in the morning,
take a look around, and laugh out loud."
-Barbara Kingsolver


I was thinking today how grateful I am that we live close to both of our parents and that our boys get to see their grandparents fairly often. We've gotten visits from each of them in the past few weeks and somehow inadvertently managed to get pictures in the same pose.


With Gram & Pop



With Mimi & Papa


We love y'all and are thankful for you!

Growing Up

Well, it's here...Josiah's first day of "school"! He's going to a Mother's Morning Out program one day a week. He's really excited and I'm sure this will be a great thing for our little social guy (and his mommy). Here he is with his lunchbox, ready to go!

Motherhood has done me in...I never used to be a crier, but I got a little teary-eyed while packing his lunch, getting him dressed, and taking this picture. I'm going to blame it on the lack of sleep or hormones or something like that. I'm sure in a few short weeks I'll be jumping for joy at the idea of dropping him off for the morning :)