Well, I usually share something on Mondays about our weekend and I forgot to this past Monday.  Uncle Ryan has been down here and we've been having so much fun with him that I just didn't take the time to do it.  Anyway, here's what we did last weekend with him.

We had so much fun bowling!  It was really Westen's first time wearing the shoes and all.  Ryan loved it, of course.  And if you ask Ryan who won, he'll say he did.  If you ask Westen who won, he'll say he did.  The truth is Austin killed us all;)

And if you've been wondering what we've been doing the rest of this precious time with Uncle Ryan - well, here's a glimpse...

Yeah, Westen thinks Ryan is here solely to entertain him.  They've been having so much fun, but I'll share more about that later because we get one more week to enjoy him being here and we don't want to miss a second of it:)

This month has been so much fun with Baron!  I think he just gets cuter and cuter:)  In addition to high fives and sugars, which he started last month, he started clapping, dancing, and waving hi and bye this month.  I think we can also officially say that his first word was "Mama" - yay!  He can also say Dada and Doe although none of which he really knows the meaning:)

As challenging as Baron seemed to be those first few months (which in retrospect was probably just normal baby behavior - we had just been spoiled by the ever easy Westen), Baron is now such a happy and content baby.  He laughs and smiles all the time.  He thinks Westen is hilarious and I think his favorite thing to do is get on our king sized bed, throw his body down, and bury his face in the pillows.  He thinks this is the greatest game ever.  He's also been immediately reaching for his Daddy when Daddy gets home from work everyday.  Such a far cry from those days when he screamed with Daddy more than not:)  Oh, and he loves to climb.

Did you notice the towhead going on???  So blonde.  Another update is that we're straight table food now, which has been so great! He's eaten better this month than he probably did his first 8 months!  I don't think gaining weight is going to be something I fret about any longer.  Sweet!  Below is him saying Mama:)

And last is a big toothy grin.  Love it!  Click here for the rest of Baron's updates.  I can't believe my baby is nearing a year old.  Awesome, but a little heart breaking too...

Have a great weekend!  And click here to read about the barn beam ledge I recently finished.

Guess who started preschool today??

That's right... Mr. Cool, a.k.a. Woody, a.k.a. Westen:)  And, yes, we are blessed to live so close to the school that we can bike the trip:)  Westen was so excited to start prescool today.  Monday was his open house where he got to meet his teacher and that day he had asked me if I was going to drop him off.  When I told him no that Mommy and Daddy were going to meet his teacher too, he seemed a little disappointed.  On our way there today, he said "Mom, I go by myself today?"  Carrying his little school bag, he was just so big...

So, Baron and I walked him to his class.  He gave me sugars, then waved good-bye with a big wide grin on his face.

He had a good day and seemed to like Miss Amy and Miss Sandra.  He said he played, drew a picture, read a story, and ate strawberries and goldfish for a snack which, he added, is his new favorite:)  He's so looking forward to his return on Friday:)

A sheriff came knockin' on our door...

Yeah, that's Woody.  My Westen has been asking for some cowboy boots like Woody's for about a month now.  

Well, Mamaw came to town and that wish came true.

She came in only for a few days to, basically, drop Uncle Ryan off.

That was one of the highlights of the short trip.  Westen was sooooo excited to get new cowboy boots and a new cowboy hat.  He was Woody for the rest of the week. He's been wearing his boots about everyday since.  And the day he got them he had to go outside and test them out running and jumping.  He even rode Bullseye a few times.

Mr. Baron (aka Buzz - since Westen took up role of Woody) also got plenty of lovin' from Mamaw.

Another fun part of Mamaw's visit was our trip to, what Westen calls, the K R park.  I don't know why he calls it that, but we all do now.  We love this park.  There's almost never anybody else there so we get it to ourselves.  Westen and Ryan had lots of fun together playing on the slides and swinging.  Baron had fun crawling around and trying to climb.

It was a nice day.  We were glad to have Mamaw here for a couple days and that she'll be coming back soon.  In the mean time, Westen thinks Uncle Ryan is his personal playmate.  We're so glad he's here with us for a couple weeks.  He's such a great uncle:)

Every once in awhile, my M-I-L gets a friend's condo on the beach for a weekend or so and all of us get to enjoy it (Thanks, Mauveen!).  This weekend was one of those weekends.  We kind of forgot to use our camera this weekend so we didnt' get many pics, but that one above is my favorite:)  Our niece, Lauren, dug a little hole for him and it was like the perfect little seat:) Thanks for all your help, Lauren.  Your cousins love you, Girl!  Look at him just sitting there.  And, yes, on the other side, he was smiling!

I can't stand it!  Those little feet!  For some reason the lens of the camera was fogged up, so the pictures didn't turn out great, but here's what Westen was doing...

Thanks Nana and thanks Aunt Rissa for the great time!  Westen talked about it all the way home (well, half way until he fell asleep).  He kept saying, "I want to go back to Miss Rissa's house and dit in the lotion."  So funny!  We also got a couple good videos this weekend too of the same things.  I'm going to try to upload those soon.  And yesterday, we just worked around the house in preparation for Mamaw and Uncle Ryan's arrival which is today!  Yay!!  And last night, bless my sweet husband's heart, we put up an 8 ft. long shelf that I've been working on for like a month.  Let's just say it took us longer to put it up than it took me to build it;)  Thank you, Honey!  I'm sure I'll share something about that soon.  Happy Monday!

Since we got our bikes, we've been taking a couple rides a week (almost every Sunday night) to go feed the ducks.  Westen thinks the ducks are funny and it's just kind of fun to watch the excitement that comes from a 2 yr. old.  This duck in particular has become completely, what's the word here...humanized?  Suburbanized?  Citified?  You get the point.  He, as you can see below, will eat right out of your hand.  Usually Austin does this, but Westen got brave the other night...

Isn't that funny??

And while, the ducks were eating our leftover buns, Baron just watched in awe...

Speaking of Baron, he learned to clap this week which, right now, he thinks is the end all be all of everything.  He claps when he's laughing.  He claps when he's crying.  He claps like he thinks it will get him what he wants, a laugh, to be picked up, food, whatever:)  And also, speaking of Baron, I think we can officially say his first word is Mama!  Appropriate, I think;)  Have a good weekend!

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  We did.  Our weekend was spent outdoors soaking up this FL sun.  We headed out on the boat Saturday and tried a new little restaurant called Hurricane Patty's.  It was a super cute little place with that had yummy boating comfort food - you know the sort...everything fried!  Just how I like it!  After that, we stopped at a little beach and pretty much just lounged in the water.

And waved to the other boaters passing by...

I'm sad we didn't get Cousey in these pics too or we'd have one of our few true family photos with all 5 included.  I thought these pictures of the 4 of us shot using the self-timer on our camera turned out pretty good though.  I love the close up above, but Austin likes this one that shows the background more...

Anyway, it was a fun day.  The boys were tired on our trip back...

Yep...they both fell asleep pretty much as soon as we got on the boat:)  Precious!  I didn't take any more pictures this weekend, but after our boat trip, we came home and put the boys down for a nap (although only one of them took one) and then Austin had tickets for the local minor league baseball team's game that night.  And since Westen has been Mr. Baseball lately, we went.  It was fun, but let's just say I'm not really dying to get back again very soon, with these 2 little boys:)  Sunday, we headed to church, got in the pool, and then last night headed up to our neighborhood baseball field so Westen could hit off the tee and run the bases.  This adventure was hilarious and I will be taking our video camera the next time.  Picture our little 2 yr. old with no shirt, gym shorts (because, "Mom, I can run fast in these shorts", as well as his Nikes (because again..."I run faster in my Nikes, Mom") "crushing" (yes, his words again) the ball and then rounding the bases EVERY TIME!  Yep, like 20 times he hit the ball and ran the bases.  Austin and I were exhausted watching him.  It was hilarious!  Have a great week!