10 Months...

Just like every month, I can't believe Macey
is already 10 months old.  I am sooo sad.  Only
two short months until she is one. She still is the most
easy going happy little thing.  She only cries if she is sick or
really tired.  Macey Mae still goes by her many nicknames
which include Mae Mae, Macey Mae, and Macey Moo Moo.
The kids absolutely adore her and really love that she is
starting to sit and play with them.  She loves to crawl in
both of their rooms and play with all of their stuff.
She also continues to be like a little tornado and destroys
everything in her path.  She dumps the trashcans all of the time
and really like to pull everything off Riley's bookshelf.  She
now pulls up on almost everything she can but really like to
pull up on the spindles overlooking the stairs.  She just stands
there and looks downstairs until she gets bored or tired.
She is starting to eat more "big" people food and less baby
food, but really isn't picky at all.  She continues to sleep really
well and never wakes up at night unless she is sick.  She is in
a size 4 diaper and in 12-18 month clothes.  One major
difference with Macey is that she will not keep a bow in her
hair to save my life.  It is driving me nuts.  Riley never pulled
them out.  Sometimes she will even pull her hair just to make
sure there is nothing on top of her head.  I keep trying though.
Sometimes I put a rubberband in first, but she usually pulls that
out too.  We love our little monkey to pieces!!!

Good picture of her teeth
and the eczema that  she
has around her mouth.

Soooo Big...

Macey is starting to pull up to standing.
She did it a couple of times yesterday and today
she has pulled up on EVERYTHING!!!  I can't
believe how big she is getting.  I bet she will be
walking in no time.  She stood up extra fast when
she saw Blake had a snack.

Here are some more I took yesterday.  Thank goodness
we are getting some fall weather here now.

Heritage Festival...

We went to the Heritage Festival on Saturday.  We
only lasted about 45 minutes before Macey decided she
was too hot and decided to get really cranky.  I don't blame
her.  We hit several of our favorite booths, but passed on the
face painting this year.  You may remember Blake got the tiger
2 years in a row and Gavin got the scariest creatures he could
find for them to paint.

The boys before we left

The girls before we left

Once we
were there

Stats...

Today was Macey's 9 month well child
check up and Riley's 5 year well child check up.
Macey is doing perfectly and even a small little thing
compared to what Riley was.  She weighed 20 lbs. 9 oz.
and was 28 1/4 inches tall.  That is 75-90% for both
height and weight.  She is right on track developmentally and
getting really close to pulling up.  She has done it a few times.
She has to start taking Zyrtec like the 3 older kids, which I
hate, but if it makes her feel better and stop coughing while
she sleeps, than I guess I am all for it.  The doctor also seems
to think that she will probably have asthma like Blake.  All of her
symptoms are pointing toward it (night time cough, eczema, and
drainage down her throat.)  The good news is that she didn't get
any shots.

Miss Riley also had her 5 year well child check up.  She
has been saying for a year now that she doesn't want to go to
kindergarten because she didn't want to get her kindergarten
shots.  I didn't tell her for sure that she was getting them today
because I knew she would freak out.  I told her we could ask when
we got there.  She asked if her dad could give them to her when we
got there, haha.  She ended up getting 2 shots and it took two nurses
and her dad to hold her.  She wasn't that upset, she just didn't want
to lay down for them and the nurses made her lay down.  After
a few tears, she was all better but ripped the bandaids off her legs.
For some reason this child doesn't like bandaids.  I was very proud of
her, but am a little worried because I've heard that the shots can
cause a lot of different side effects.  Riley ended up weighing in at
39 lbs. 2 oz. and was 42 inches tall.  She is 25-50% for both.
She seems really short to me, but average weight.  I guess she is
just perfect too!

Go Cowboys...

Today was Gavin's first flag football game.
Let me tell you, I was hooping and hollering
with the best of them.  At one point I asked Keith
if I was too loud and he told me maybe just a tad, lol.
It was so exciting and our boys clearly won the game
even though they don't keep score.  One little boy on
our team made 5 touchdowns.  Gavin didn't make any,
but he sure did pull his share of flags off the other team.
My boy is such a fast runner.  We have to play double
headers all season since there are so many boys, so 2
hours of running for our little guys each Sunday.  They
were all good little troopers.

They don't wear pads or
helmuts for flag football,
but do wear mouthpieces.

Coach telling Gavin
the play

Anyone that knows me,
knows I am a stickler for
naptime, but neither Keith
or I wanted to miss the game
today.  So we went and tried it, and Macey did fantastic.  She fell asleep as soon
as we were in the car and slept for 2 hours after we got home.

Tiger Fans...

Yesterday was the first Mizzou home game.
Although we didn't have tickets for the game, we
still all dressed the part.  We went downtown with
friends to eat at Shakespeare's and man oh man
was it crazy down there. 

Sweetheart...

First off, let me just say that Riley is such a
sweetheart and really has a heart of gold.  She
has always been the mothering type and tries to
make anyone happy that might be sad.  Last year Riley
had a little girl in dance class that noticeably started losing
more and more hair.  Every week it looked like more was gone.
We found out from her mom that she was suffering from alopecia,
which is a condition that all or most of your hair falls out.  There
is no cure and most times be permanent.  This little girl has since
also lost her eyebrows and eyelashes.  We see her almost every day
when we go to pick the boys up from school.  She always has the biggest
smile on her face and waves so big to Riley and I.  You can tell she is
just a normal little girl who is not selfconcious at all.  This little girl
has led Riley and I into several discussions lately about how she could
help someone like Lilly with something as simple as cutting her hair.
I looked into Locks of Love and got everything ready so we could
send the hair off whenever it was cut.  They require atleast 10 inches to
donate to them.  Another place we can donate is Pantene Beautiful Hair
and they require 8 inches.  So, we went, they cut, and the hair is ready to be
donated.  I am so proud of Riley and am excited that we could share this
little life lesson with her.

Before the big cut.  It
is all the way to her behind
when it is wet.

She used a flat iron to get
it as straight as she could.

Holding both pigtails

The first thing that everyone
said was "look how much
older she looks."  I totally
agree.  But she looks beautiful
too and is helping someone in
the process.

Unbelievable...

Last night when we got home from dance, football,
and Cub Scouts, our neighbor came over to show us
pictures of a baby deer that had been in their yard.  They
said the deer ate out of their hands and stayed for awhile.
Low and behold, the boys saw it go into the neighbor's garage
tonight.  We all high-tailed it over there (quietly of course)
after I grabbed my camera.  It came right up to us and the
neighbor started feeding it a cracker.  It also ate some dogfood
but was just as tame as could be.  Gavin just kept petting it and
smiling.  Blake started asking about shooting it (for deer season).
The neighbor's dog didn't even seem to mind it.

So Beautiful...

Riley just looked so pretty today before school.
Mamaw was tired of the "sassy" pose so we
mixed it up a little!

My favorite!

Are You Ready For Some Football...

Gavin is playing flag football for the first year
for the Dallas Cowboys.  Last night were team pictures.
This kiddo is so photogenic.  The other boys acted like
crazy lunatics most of the time.  You can tell Gav has
a camera in his face quite a bit.  His first games are on
Sunday starting at 1.  He has double headers for the
whole season so he will play for 2 straight hours.

9 Months...

Macey Mae turned 9 months old yesterday.  It has been
the greatest 9 months with this little princess.  She is the easiest
baby ever!

She is wearing 9-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers still.
She says dada,  baba, hi, yeah, and other jibber jabber.
The only thing missing:  momma.  All of my other kids
said momma by 8 months.  I think she is just teasing me.

She finally has enough hair for a little ponytail.  I could get
pigtails in Riley's hair by now.  Her hair is the exact same as Riley's
though.  It is white-blonde and fuzzy.

She continues to LOOOve her sister and brothers.  She was
smiling at Riley in this picture.  They think she is the best thing ever.
On the first day of school, Blake came out and took her right out of
my arms and started hugging and kissing her cheek.  All of the moms
ooohed and awwwed about how sweet he was with her.

This is what most of our day consists of, Macey moving all
over the place.  She is a speed crawler now and into
EVERYTHING!!!  She even likes to crawl into the other
kid's rooms in the dark and just sit there.  She has started
pulling up to her knees this week too, but can't quite make
it to her feet.  She is turning out to be a little monkey just
like Gavin.

All done with pictures, Mom!














This past 9 months has flown by, I wish time could stand still
and Macey could stay this age forever.  We sure do love this
little stinker!!!

1st Day of Pre-K...

Today was Riley's first day of Pre-K at Countryside
Nursery School.  I am so glad I made the decision to hold
her out of kindergarten one more year.  She really learns
a lot at CNS.  She was more than excited to go.  She wanted
to wear a dress and a bracelet, her requests for the day.  Oh,
and for me to bring her candy when I picked her up!  Last year,
her class was 2/3 boys.  This year it is more even.  She has a lot
of good friends this year that she loves playing with.  Our dentist's
daughter, Delaney, is going there now too.  Delaney's mom said that
she has been saying Riley is her new best friend and she couldn't wait
to play with her.  Riley ran right off from me and didn't look back.
I'm glad because there were several criers in the bunch.  Ok, enough
blabbing, here are the pictures:

Riley with her favorite
teacher Mrs. Henley