Y’all, how is it even possible that we are a month away from Hannah Jane turning one?!?! This sweet girl is so loved and so rotten! She brings us so much joy and so little sleep, and we are so very thankful for her! Hannah Jane is crawling everywhere, into everything, and is beginning to pull up too! Her favorite places to be are outside, in the bathtub, and on my hip. She loves to dance, wave, give kisses, and rock her baby dolls! She makes noises and talks all day long! She can also sign all done, more, and please. She still loves her passy and does great drinking out of her cup. Some of her current favorite foods are rice, beans, chicken, turkey, pepperoni, french fries, pizza, toast, watermelon, grapes, yogurt melts, peaches, bacon, goldfish, and veggie straws. She has six teeth and a couple more getting ready to pop through! Oh, sweet girl, we sure do love you, but could you please stop growing up now?!
This sweet girl is ten months old and constantly on the move, which made today’s pictures quite the event! Hannah Jane loves to crawl, clap, wave, and dance! Some of her favorite activities include: playing outside, splashing in the bathtub, taking walks around the neighborhood, pulling all of her hair bows out of her basket, getting into her siblings’ school drawers, and being held. A few of her favorite foods are pizza, yogurt, apples, pickles, pepperonis, goldfish, black beans, and french fries! She can be quite the talker, but she also loves to have her passy in her mouth too! Hannah Jane does not like sleeping, being left in a room alone even for a second, and getting her face cleaned off after she eats. Oh, Hannah Jane, you are completely go with the flow, but you also make your presence known, and we can’t imagine life without you in it! We love you, and we are so thankful that God gave us you!
On November 2nd Hannah Jane also turned nine months old, and she’s simply the sweetest and snuggliest baby! She’s currently cutting 4 top teeth, so we’ve been spending lots of extra time together in the middle of the night! Hannah Jane loves to be outside, take walks around the neighborhood, play in the grass, and ride the golf cart! Bath time is another favorite, and she sure can splash! She loves her passy, sleeping on her side or tummy, eating everything she can get her hands on, and playing with her big siblings! She can’t wait to get into Daddy’s arms when he gets home from work, but she’s my little sidekick all day long! I love her little laugh and her sweet voice! She babbles all day long, and we’ve recently heard a few “mamamamas!” Hannah Jane, you are a true joy, and we are so very thankful for you!
Happy, happy thirteenth birthday, Sarah Ann! I will never forget the first time I held you in my arms and saw your precious face, and it has been so sweet watching you grow into the beautiful young lady you are today! You are full of joy, grace, hope, and fun! You love Jesus, your family, your friends, and especially your baby sister! You love all things dance, art, theatre, American Girl, Disney, and rainbows! You are kind, sincere, loyal, helpful, and gentle. You like to stay up late, watch all the movies, eat all the sweets, and be comfortable and cozy! You have major fear of missing out, and you are always ready to do something fun! You are a true life enjoyer, and you know how to make the most of each day! Sarah Ann, I am so thankful that God chose me to be your Mommy! You are a true gem, and I love you more than you will ever know!
It was the absolute best day celebrating our teenager! After a slow morning and just a little bit of school work, we met Daddy for lunch at Lizard’s Thicket, one of Sarah Ann’s favorite places to eat, and then came home to open presents! The boys created a scavenger hunt for her and completely wrapped her present in Reese’s peanut butter cups! They sure do love their sister! This evening, Daddy and the boys picked up another one of Sarah Ann’s favorites, Chick-fil-A, for them to have after karate and dance! We ended the day with a visit and gifts from Nanny and Pops, singing “happy birthday,” and eating brownies before bed! It was definitely a sweet day for our super sweet teenager, and we can’t wait to celebrate more this weekend!
This year Sarah Ann and Reece are participating in a new co-op with some other middle school friends. This opportunity was certainly an answer to prayer, and they are having the absolute best time! It is the sweetest group of kids, and they are really enjoying the new Wednesday routine and learning so much too! Each week they have fine arts, novel studies, forestry, and either PE or STEM! They also have lunch and a recess break too. We are so grateful for this new adventure!
Their first novel study has been “Holes,” and one week they even had to do some actually hole digging to find some treasure! They of course love their fine arts class and getting to do some theatre and drama exercises! They have been doing a great job staying organized, getting all of their homework done, and getting up early to pack their lunches and be ready on time!
And while Sarah Ann and Reece are at co-op, I get to spend the day with my two littlest babies! The first week we went to the zoo, and I think Carson thoroughly enjoyed being the oldest for a while. He talked non-stop and loved getting to choose what we did and which animals we saw. I’m also pretty sure he loves the extra time with just Hannah Jane too! We’ve had a few Chick-fil-A breakfast dates, ran errands, played at the park, and had a lunch play date at our house too!
For his school work on Wednesdays, we will be focusing on social studies and reading. We are learning about maps, geography, and the continents this fall, and in the spring we are planning to do South Carolina history!
We have several field trips planned this year, and we took our first one to the state museum! The kids had a great time exploring together, sharing interesting facts they learned, seeing the Dracula 4D movie, and the enjoying lunch outside at Freddie’s! We are looking forward to lots more field trip fun with this crew this year!
Yesterday our baby girl turned eight months old! She is the sweetest and snuggliest, and she’s pretty rotten too! She certainly knows how to get her way with her three big siblings! Hannah Jane loves being outside, splashing in the bathtub, jumping in her bouncy chair, grabbing everything she can reach, pulling out all of her toys, and getting sips of Mommy’s sweet tea! She does not love being in the nursery at church (we’re working on it), having her nose wiped (boo to a cold and ear infection), or being left alone (like even momentarily). She spends most of her day on my hip, in my lap, or next to me! She laughs and cackles at her siblings all the time, and she loves to play with Daddy! She learned to clap a couple of weeks ago, and she always claps along when we sing her favorite songs! Oh, Hannah Jane, you bring so much joy and fun to our family, and we are forever grateful for you! We love you, sweet girl! Now, please stop growing up…
Today our Reecey Piecey is eleven and a half, and scoring four goals in his soccer game this morning was certainly a wonderful way to start the day!
Reece is dedicated, strong-willed, loyal, determined, focused, and sincere. He is his Daddy’s mini-me, but he sure does love his Momma! He loves his big sister and little brother fiercely, and he drives them crazy too. Watching him love and care for Hannah Jane is the sweetest. He is so calm and gentle with her. Reece loves building with Legos, reading all the things, social studies, science, soccer, karate, documentaries, playing outside, and playing in the worship band at church. Reece is always learning and exploring something new, and he can certainly accomplish anything he sets his mind too!
Reece-Man, we love you and are so very thankful for you!
In July, Sarah Ann got to attend her first student camp! She was so ready and so excited, which made it much easier for this Momma to drop off her first baby for the first time! She had an absolutely incredible week playing games, jumping off the blob, being with friends, worshipping Jesus, and growing in her relationship with him! She was absolutely exhausted come Friday, but she also talked the rest of the day! There was so much that she wanted to share with us! I’m so thankful she had such a great week, and I’m also thankful for the sweet friends that sent me pictures throughout the week!
At the end of July, the kids spent a week at soccer camp and dance intensive! It was a super hot week, but the boys had an awesome time at the CIU camp and learning some new soccer skills! Sarah Ann, of course, was so happy to be back at the dance studio for the week, even if she was pretty sore! We also got to watch her perform on Friday, and she was so happy to be back on the stage!
Carson decided to play basketball this summer instead of baseball. He really enjoyed getting to play with his friends, Graham and Jackson! He scored a ton of points, played great defense, and grew a lot in some of his basketball skills! Way to go, Car-Man!
Karate never ends, ha! But Reece always enjoys going to karate and continuing to work on his katas, with his weapons, and fighting too! There were several nights when he had to eat dinner in the car between karate and theatre, but he always did great and handled it all wonderfully!
And last but not least, the big three were so happy to back at Village Square this summer to perform in Cinderella! Reece was Antione, the prince’s best friend. Sarah Ann was Emilie, one of girls in town who gets to attend the ball, and Carson was Pierre, the cutest little mouse! The play was wonderful, and everyone did an incredible job! We are so thankful for all of our friends and family that came to watch!
How can this sweet little chunk possibly be seven months old?!?! These days Hannah Jane likes to sleep on her stomach, ride in the stroller on our morning walks, get all the toys out of her basket, talk to us quite loudly, roll over as soon as you put her down, and be on Mommy’s hip all the time! Her two bottom teeth have come through, and she still puts everything in her mouth! She loves to splash in the bathtub, make lots of noise with her toys, and eat all the things! She especially loves fruits and is doing a great job using her pincer grasp to get her puffs and crackers. The only thing she hasn’t liked is green beans. Hannah Jane gives the best smiles and the best snuggles. She doesn’t love the car seat, but she’s also super flexible and go with the flow! She doesn’t mind following her big sister and brothers around. Her bedtime routine is her favorite, and she gets so excited when we put her lotion on her before pajamas and a book! Oh, Hannah Jane, we can’t imagine life without you! We love you and are so very thankful for you!
After twelve fun, full, and fabulous weeks of summer break (which I still need to blog about), Broadwell Academy is back for the 8th year! I can’t even believe it! And I really can’t believe that we know have a 7th grader, 6th grader, and 3rd grader!
We spent the first day of school cleaning up and organizing the school room, shopping for some new school supplies, having lunch at Moe’s, and completing our first grammar and math assignments! It was a great first day, and we are excited about a year full of new adventures and lots of learning and growing together!
Here are a few more pictures from our first couple weeks of school….
It’s always fun to start the year with a little treat! And we spent the first three weeks of school settling into our new routine and slowly adding subjects. We focused on math and all of our language arts work (grammar, writing, spelling, handwriting, typing, and reading comprehension). Reece is doing a great job typing, and Carson’s reading confidence is blooming! Sarah Ann is also really enjoying writing with her new junior high writing curriculum! We also read “Aliens for Lunch” together as our read aloud and began reading “How Great is Our God” as our devotion book to start our school days! We enjoyed our first poetry tea time of the year, and we also really enjoyed slowly easing back into our school year!
We have also been learning how to keep baby girl occupied during school time! She has a rocker, boppy, bumbo, and lots of toys to play with while we are doing our school work! She also gets some time with each big sibling when we need to rotate through certain assignments. She definitely keeps us busy, but it sure is fun having her around. She keeps us laughing and smiling!
I sure am thankful to be their teacher and their Mommy! It is my greatest joy to love them, teach them, serve them, lead them, encourage them, and hold them all day long!
broadwell babies 