{growing moments}

Tiny you are changing, growing and learning so fast these days. 

You are now standing up in your crib. 

You hate taking naps {this makes me want to cry also} this is how I usually find you in your crib. Sometimes you are even asleep with your face smashed up against the bars. Its pretty cute. 

 You love playing with Ella. She loves to have you ride in the car with her. 

 I hope reading books will always make you smile like this.

I finally remembered to take a video of you scooting. You have now started to half scoot half crawl. So I am grateful we got this before you stop doing it.

Last night was the first time you have done this. You walked all over the house pushing this walker. You think you are all grown up and super fly.

Thanks for making me smile!

{Tiny}

Dear Tiny,
You are almost 14 months and have learned a lot of new tricks in the past 2 weeks. You are finally sitting up on your own. It took you a long time to figure this out but we are so thrilled you worked it out. Today you pulled yourself up on your car for the first time and you also learned how to climb into your car all by your self. Daddy says that you also pulled your self up on the couch for the first time too.

 You are quite the daredevil. When you are sitting on the couch you think you are big enough to get off on your own. Sometimes you can do it safely and sometimes you tumble and go bonk. This scares me and your dad.

You have started giving me and daddy the best snuggles ever! I love it when you come up to me when I am lying on the floor and snuggle on my leg or tummy. It is super sweet and reminds me of our snuggle naps we had when you really were a tiny guy. I miss them.

You are talking up a storm these days. I love hearing you repeat new words after me. I am still standing by my theory that you will be speaking sentences before you are walking. You have become quite the scooter and you are super fast at it now. I love watching your body bobble down the hallway while you laugh. It makes me smile.

You have a new best friend Abby who you get to play with 2 days a week. You were unsure about her at first and had many melt downs when she would touch your toys - it was hard for me not to laugh at you pancaking over and crying. But now you love to play, share, and chase Abby around the house.

I love going on our weekly adventures. Weather it be to the aquarium, the zoo,  the children's museum, a new park, or something totally new to both of us. You are so adventures at the park these days. You like to go down the slide all by yourself - because you are a BIG boy now. You still love to swing and swing.

I love your love of books. Your Nana would be proud. It is so cute to see you sitting on the floor reading your books by yourself. You have grown to love music class and playing with puppets and instruments. It is fun to see you changing daily.

You are working on 2 molars this week and they are making you sad. It is hard for me to see you be in pain. Your 5-6am wake up calls and lack of good naps might kill me. Sorry friend this mama is not very good early in the mornings. You now have 10 teeth.

You are quite the picky eater already. You make me work hard to come up with new ways to get you to try new foods or even to get you to eat a veggie. You are for sure wining this food battle. You love yogurt, cheese, grapes, and hot dogs, and spaghetti. That is most days, sometimes they throw a curve ball and wont even eat any of those foods. Silly boy.

You are such a blessing in our lives. Your daddy and I have loved you from the moment we knew you were coming. Thank you for being apart of our family. We love you so much. Thank you for making me one proud mama.

Love,
Mama

{fabric topiary}

I got this idea from a boutique I was in to make a fabric topiary. I love how it turned out. It is just what I needed for the top of our bookcase. 

I just had these vases {the plants that once lived in them died} and I think they are a bit too big. I think I need to get some smaller ones and I will like the proportion more. 

They were simple to make. 

Supplies Needed: 1/4 yard of 4 different  fabrics (you could do all one if you choose), a mason jar lid, scissors, 2 foam balls, straight pins, a marker, 2 dowels 7/16"x12", craft paint, and 2 vases/jars full of rocks.

Step 1. Trace circles onto the fabric with the mason jar lid.

Step 2. Cut circles out.

Step 3. Fold one circle in half and half again and pin bottom point to foam ball. Keep doing this until ball is full    

           of fabric flowers.

Step 4. Paint dowel 

Step 5. Put dowel into bottom center of foam ball 

Step 6. Put in vase filled with rocks to keep dowel centered 

Tada you did it! 

{onesies}

I have been working on a lot of projects as of late. 

{baby boy onesie} 

 {girl onesie back and matching headband}

 {girl onesie front}

{girl onesie} 

I loved how these turned out. They are my new favorite baby gifts to make from our loved ones. 

{Mosquito Bites - Ouch}

Mosquito bites.

Tiny my look just like his daddy but he has his mama's blood. The sweet kind that mosquito's LOVE. Can you tell? This is what happened after being outside for 5 minuets without bug spray on. Don't worry I had just as many just not all over my face. Poor kid they were the size of nickles and started to ooze. YUCK! Good thing they didn't bother him. 

{Charleston}

Dear Charleston,

 We LOVE you and would really like to move to you when we are done with school. 

Our good friend Bethany told us all of the key places to go while in Charleston {she is a local}. Thanks Bethany. On our way down we stopped at Bee City {a petting/feeding zoo in the middle of no where}. It was SOOO fun. We all had a blast here and it was a good way to break up the drive. 

We thought this was interesting. 

We thought this crazy fella was going to bite off our hands as we were trying to put feed in his bowl. I was scared. I mean really look at that face. 

Feeding Spanky the monkey.

Old Exchange/ Provost Dungeon

Ryker wanted to be a free man and scoot around in the dungeon rather than have me carry him.  I love going on history tours and learning more about the early days of our country. The brick barrel vaulted ceiling is pretty cool also. 

I grew up climbing on oak trees and seeing a park full of them made me wish I was a kid again so I could go for a climb. Oh the good o'l days. 

This little boy has eyes for his daddy. 

We thought this was funny. It made us think of Harry Potter {platform 9 3/4). A lot of houses are a half address here. 

We loved just wondering the streets checking out the architecture and beautiful gardens. We were trying to guess how much these 10 - 15 thousand sq. foot homes cost. When we got back to our hotel we looked up a real estate agent that we saw all over and WOWZA is all I can say. If you want to be living downtown Charleston in a historic home you will need to be ready to pay top dollar 6-23 million for your dream home. One can dream right?! 

Ryker and I sure had a nice time cooling off in the fountain. He was VERY unsure about it at first but he warmed up to it quickly. I tried taking him out and he threw a HUGE fit {yes my little man has already learned how to throw fits - he can be QUITE dramatic}. It took him face-planting it in the water to be done.

He was a man on a mission at this fountain. He headed straight for the center {which is deep for a tiny guy} with rushing/splashing water he got about a foot from it and decided he better turn around before he was gobbled up.

This was a charming alley way we found. We loved walking through here but man oh man were we dinner for a family of mosquitoes.

Since we don't have a tripod I have learned how to become resourceful with finding things to set the camera on to get the shot I want. I was dragging one of the trash cans {in the background} over to where I wanted it {Brady was SUPER embarrassed} and a man came strolling along. Brady felt better about asking him to take it instead {funny part is you could tell this guy totally didn't want to do it for us. he was checking his watch as if it was going to take more than 5 seconds}.

Our big boy.

Magnolia Plantation.
This was Brady's first time in the swamp. He enjoyed it to say the least. He has become enthralled with the show swamp people and now is obsessed with gator hunting.  As we were strolling along looking for wild life a man came up to us and asked us "how we are with snakes?" I said ummmm..... terrified!!! {he mumbled well you are in the swamp} and then continued to tell us that just up the path there were 2 water moccasins hanging out on the path {he also taught us they are aggressive snakes and would not just slither off the path with our arrival - they would likely attack!  Did I mention they are HIGHLY poisonous?}He and his wife and dog lead us through a different path that took us around the snakes and along the way they were our tour guides pointing out all of the birds by name and flowers {they were locals and go walking here daily}. Good thing they were just in front of us and SAVED us from a snake encounter.

 You know us and our love for jumping pictures.

 Brady's are WAY cooler than mine.

 This is what you do if a gator is going to get you.... you scare him away!

 We wondered around the gardens for hours. At this plantation the owner was so wealthy he didn't need the income anymore so he turned his rice fields into gardens for his wife and this became her plantation {they only had something like 36 other plantations}. We also got to go on a slave tour here and learn more about how slave trading began in the south. It was very sad.

Now do you understand why we love it here?

Oh and I forgot to mention the real reason we like it here. When you are in the suburbs {only 20-30 mins from down town} it still feels like a small town and you aren't too far from the city. That is JUST the place we would like to raise our family.

We love the south and we especially love our location here in Atlanta. We are so close to so many neat cities and we are so blessed to have been able to travel to so many already. 

{Birthday Week}

Last week we celebrated me! Yes in our family you get your birthday celebrated for a week straight. You get presents everyday and if that doesn't sound good enough Brady was off of school on break. That also meant I got to sleep in most mornings and Brady got up with Tiny. A week of heaven for me!

 We had visitors from Mississippi. Ryker and Ayla were so cute together. I think they are going to be best friends just like their daddies are. I love how she chills on him hip like this. It makes me laugh every time. We love living close to Blake and Annie and love seeing them every few months. 

 I know you are jealous that he is MINE and you can't have him. 

This is what Brady wears when he goes disk golfing with his classmates. YES he is cool. 

 We finally went to the Fernbank. It was fun and FREE.  

 We are officially Braves fans and have the apparel to prove it. 

 Brady is a sly dog and scored us wicket seats on the first base line 11 rows up. We were totally stoked about that. 

I never thought I would EVER be caught sporting team apparel and love going to the games but I have surprised myself and Brady with this one. I have decided it is really fun to care about a team and cheer with Brady and Ryker. Ryker LOVES baseball. He had so much fun at the game. 

 Of course we got some good swimming in. 

Ryker loves to crawl into our bed and look out the window in the morning. He is just too cute and we can't get enough of him. I love that he babbles like crazy now. He looks at you like he is telling you something VERY important but you can not understand a single word of it all will a HUGE smile on his face. 

We took a quick trip down to Charleston {that will be my next post} and fell in LOVE. 

 I have been wanting to go out to Lake Lanier for quite some time now. We finally made it!

 Ryker loved playing on the beach in the sand and in the water {of course}. He is getting much braver with scooting deeper and deeper into the water.

 There was a pirates poker tournament going on and the beach was NUTS to say the least. I guess it is cool to dock your boat and just listen to music and drink all day instead of actually boating. There were at least 100 boats at the beach while we were there and still more coming in. Maybe not so family friendly of an event. The lake was so beautiful and all of the trees around it. It made us really wish we had a boat to go wake boarding on. {someday - we hope}

 Introducing Bruce JR.
 {have you ever seen Swamp People?}
AKA Bubba
Brady could not believe that I actually let Tiny wear his overalls without a shirt {only to and from the lake} he thought he looked a little too red neck. I happen to think it was cute.

We decided not to have a big party and just keep it to the three of us on Sunday for my actual birthday. Brady made me the most delicious dinner and cake. We just chilled all day and played games just the two of us. Yes that is how we roll here in the Wood house. Brady and I could play cards all day and night with each other and be as happy as can be.  Best present of the week - Brady is taking me on a hot date to see Wicked at the end of September and I could not be happier. I have wanted to see Wicked for years!!!!

I am officially old.
25 ='s a quarter of a century
But I guess it is time to start feeling grown up. I do have a 1 year old and have been married for nearly 3 years and have had to make MANY grown up decisions {I hate making these}.

My boys are the best and I love hanging out with them all the time. Now we are back to reality and Brady is back in school and I am babysitting 2 days a week and hosting a mommy and me music class. We are busy busy but loving every minute.