My new house

Raise your hand if you had a crazy summer!

We didn't think the challenge of adding a second child to the family was quite enough to handle, so we decided to throw in a couple of other life-changing events while we were at it.

I am officially no longer working in college admissions. After much thought and prayer, Brack and I made the decision for me to stay home with the kiddos for right now. I am both excited and terrified. Brack went back to work at the beginning of August and somehow I've managed to keep both kids alive since then. It's a learning curve for sure but I am beyond blessed to have this opportunity. The pay isn't great but the benefits are amazing. (Wow, that was cheesy. I'm embarrassed).

On top of that, we also made a geographic change. We moved to LaGrange to be close to Brack's school (less than two miles!). He now rides his bike to work and couldn't be happier. We are really loving the community we moved into. Looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us here!

Our cute little two-bedroom home in LaGrange is lovingly referred to as "my new house" by Benton. It's definitely smaller than our last house so we've been getting cozy. Lots of character though along with an awesome backyard and a very kid-friendly neighborhood. Throw in a swingset and our neighbor's chickens that come to visit every now and then and Benton is in heaven.

Parker is sleeping in our room for now but eventually the babies will share a room. We really don't mind having just two bedrooms. We have had to be creative with storage space though. We all four share one closet! I told you we're cozy.

I'm very thankful for "my new house", our new community, my new "job" and the new experiences to come. And when I feel like I might lose my sanity, I pray that I'll remember how incredibly blessed we are. Just look.

A new fan

There's a lot of new things happening with our family lately. More on most of that later. But I have been meaning to post about Parker's first Braves game for awhile and am finally getting around to it.

A couple of weeks ago, my brother Jesse and his band Among had the amazing opportunity to play at Turner Field. Since we certainly didn't want to miss out on this memorable experience, we loaded up Benton and a 3-week-old Parker and headed to the game. 

Among sounded awesome and thousands of Braves fans got to hear them as they entered the park. They even had some help from the Braves girls and Homer the Brave. We loved listening to Uncle Jesse and his friends! Their band has really great original music that is worth checking out. Find them on Facebook. 

After the show we miraculously made it through the entire nine innings. Benton was in heaven, as usual, and Parker slept most of time (surprise, surprise). But even in her sleep she is quickly becoming a Braves fan for life just like her big brother. The Braves played a great game in a come-from-behind victory against the Mets and although it was a very long and hot day, the memory was worth every second.  

Classes and cows

A few weeks ago, Benton and I started going to a Laptime class at our local library. It's a room full of two-year-olds and their parents singing songs, listening to a story, and doing a craft. We love it. This week was the last Laptime of the summer and I finally managed to take some pictures. Since this was "graduation" day, during craft time we got to celebrate by playing outside.

Story time with Mrs. Michelle 

(The two kids on the left are older siblings. Benton isn't that much of a shrimp.)

Blowing bubbles

Playing with boats in the baby pool

Today was Cow Appreciation Day. Chick-fil-A is Benton's favorite place in the world so we had been talking for a couple of weeks about taking him to this festivity all dressed up. Somehow, it escaped our minds until about 12:30 this afternoon. Amazingly, Brack whipped up a cow costume for Benton (and himself!) and 30 minutes later we were in the car headed for some free chicken.

Sweetest baby cow ever

 The tail was my only contribution 

Like father like son

Parker slept through the whole thing