9 months

My little monkey is 9 months old!

-crawling like a pro

-pulls up on everthing

-has stood up by himself for a good 15 seconds

-LOVES to play with his basket of toys

-thinks his big brothers and sisters are hilarious

-gives the best open mouth, drooly kisses

-eats and eats and eats and eats and eats everything!!!

-growls at me if I don't get him food fast enough

-weighs in at 21 pounds and wears size 3 diapers and 12 month clothes

-is a chunky monkey

-has the most beautiful big brown puppy dog eyes

-has hit the stage where he clings to me and wants "mommy snuggles" all the time

-had his first "daddy wrestle" time tonight

-has 2 bottom teeth that he gives the cutest little grins with

-will be walking before I know it....moms of multiple children know the more you have the more you want them to stay where you put them, not beating all his siblings records for walking!

-Such a blessing to our family

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March Happenings

Clay and I ran in the Gate River Run (9.3 miles) last Saturday. It was my first race and I was SUPER nervous. It turned out that I ran it by myself (Clay is a lot faster than I am), which ended up being kind of nice because I cranked my music and ran. I ran it in just under 1 hour and 37 minutes and Clay ran in in 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was so windy that day so it made running over the bridge quite an adventure! It was so fun to get my medal and know that we did it!

My family was up for about a week. We got to go to the beach one day. It was really windy, but tons of fun. It was Jude's first "mobile" trip to the beach, he was very busy crawling around and eating lots of sand. I LOVE living so close to the beach! I can't wait for many more beach days this spring and summer.

Jude loves Uncle Trey

Snuggles with "Uncie"

"Date Night"

Wednesday Cole decided he didn't want to go to Kid's Praise (a little choir class at Nina's church) so Nina took Bailey Kate and Cooper and I took Jude and Cole. I needed to go to Jacksonville to do a big grocery run at BJ's (yes, we are now a family that consumes so much food we buy in bulk) and I also wanted to go to Once Upon a Child to get Jude some new clothes. He is so chunky in the waist I had to get him some new pants that didn't give him a terrible muffin top. As we were sitting at dinner and Cole and I were chatting he told me, "Mom, we're on a date, you are my date." It melted my heart and made me so grateful for these sweet moments I get with my kids. I also realized that night that Cole NEVER stops talking, moving, yelling, etc. I decided that he easily contributes to 85% of the chaos in our house.
We have been working a lot on keeping a routine and implementing chores with the kids. In the evenings one of Cooper's chores is to "babysit" Jude while I make dinner. He does such a good job and is so sweet and gentle with Jude. I'm so proud of my little people!

Strawberry picking

Today Nina (Diane), the kids and I all went to our local hydroponic strawberry farm. It was SO fun! We got a quick lesson on only picking the strawberries that are bright red and how to cut them with scissors. I was a little nervous when they each got their own set of scissors, but they did awesome! I was so proud of them, they picked a huge basket full of bright red, yummy strawberries (While Jude napped in his carseat). The kids had loads of fun and we made some sweet memories with our Nina! Strawberry picking pros!

YUM!