Our Week in Instagrams

We went swimming at Aunt Terri's and Grace got to play with Tripp and Drew!  Since school has started, they have not seen each other much.  Grace was SO excited and had SO much fun with the boys!

John was a good daddy and got in the cold water and let Carter SpLaSh!

Now that Grace is at school ALL day, she is missing her Carter Man.  So...there is a LOT of LoViN' going on in the afternoons!

Carter must be going through a growth spurt because he is doing so much eating and SLEEPING!

This is where Grace slept the other night...on the FLooR.  (not sure what that is about)

Lily came over after school the other day and these two girls had fun, FUN, fun!

Carter is getting ready to start crawling!  He is getting up and rocking back and forth!  YAY!  and UH-OH!

This is what a teacher's bedroom looks like in AUgUst!  Ugh!

Carter is growing up so much!  Here he is sporting a MoHaWK and eating PiZZa!  Where did my baby go?

The First Day of School

Well...the day finally arrived.  A day that I knew was inevitable.  A day that I was hoping wouldn't come quite so soon.  A day that I have been dreading.  Grace's first day of school.  Yesterday, she started preschool.  I was NOT ready for my sweet, little girl to go school everyday, all day!  I know she will enjoy school and at this point in our lives, she has to go to school.  So, I loaded up on Mountain Dew and tissues and got her ready for her first day of 3-K!  She went to bed the night before all clean with her backpack full of crayons and glue sticks and her uniform laid out.  She was super excited!

I threw together a "Back to School" breakfast at the last minute!

And because she is my child, she LOVED it!

She was so ready to go to school!  I finally let her get dressed about 30 minutes before it was time to leave and she was quite full of herself!  She thinks this uniform is awesome!

After, I took a couple of pictures she was ready to get in the car.  I told her she had to wait a little longer and this was the look I got!

Once we got in the car, that brought a HUGE smile back on her face.  All the way to school, Grace questioned every turn I made.  She even accused me of being lost.  I said, "Grace, we are not lost.  I know where I'm going!"  Grace replied, "Oh!  I porgot!  We're not in da porest!" (as if you can only be lost in a forest-too cute!)  

She is such a BIG girl!

When Grace realized that people were at school, she definitely got nervous!  But, she was brave.  She took a picture with her teacher, Miss Graham.

She sat at her seat and began her puzzle.  She told me bye and there were no tears!  I was so proud of my sweet girl on her first day of school!

Big Sisters & Little Brothers

sometimes BIG sisters are

good little mommas

sometimes little brothers are as BIG as their BIG sisters

sometimes BIG sisters will share their princess castles

(even with little brothers)

sometimes BIG sisters have

better things to do

than to play with little brothers

all the time BIG sisters

and little brothers are blessed to have each other

Seven Months Old

Carter, at seven months, you...

• still like to be held, but you don't have to be
• like your play mat and exersaucer
• love to be talked and sung to
• love to play in Grace's room with her and her toys
• say "da-da" and lots of other sounds
• love to growl
• play with toys (balls, rattles, Kenya) 
• can hold your bottle
• are learning how to drink juice from a sippy cup
• are very ticklish
• laugh out loud a lot
• can sit up 
• always want to stand up
• are very grabby
• can pick up your paci and put it in your mouth correctly
• love your puppy "lovie"
• absolutely love your sister
• want your Daddy all the time
• like being outside and going on walks
• sleep at night in your bed and take naps in the swing or the bed
• sleep through the night
• eat 6 ounces every 3-4 hours
• eat cereal for breakfast, and baby food for lunch and dinner
• snack on puffs and crackers
• can feed yourself crackers and are still working on puffs
• wear 6-9 month clothes
• wear size 2 diapers...you should probably move up a size

The End

Well, we have finally made it to Friday!  We decided to take a little nature walk before heading to the beach on Friday morning.  Mimi, Poppa, Beth, and Lily joined us on the walk. 

Grace and Lily brought a bag to hold all of the treasures they were going to find and they were EXCITED!

Here is Grace with her "pretty" smile and a heart shaped leaf.  Poor thing...she was still not feeling well, but she was determined to have fun!

John, Carter, and Mimi taking it all in.

We found an eagle's nest that somehow didn't make it in the pic.

We saw lots of these guys!

Then...the rain came.  As our walk quickly became a run and then a sprint, the rain fell down!  We were wetter than we had been all week!  We headed over to the beach and found everyone else waiting the rain out in a pavilion.  So, we hung out there for a while hoping that the rain would pass soon!  We really wanted to play on the beach one last time!

But...it continued to pour!  We went back to the beach house, ate lunch, put the kids down for naps, and had a three hour Big Brother viewing party...we had to get caught up!

After naps, the rain had finally stopped!

Before dinner, we had a few minutes to take some pics out on the dock.

LOVE these two so MUCH!

This is my favorite picture out of all 1,125 taken...drool and all!

We went to Cotton's for dinner and I would not recommend it.  Maybe, because we had to sit at the "kids' table."  But, we did have fun waiting for our table.  Poppa and Carter got to play and Grace and Jenna got to dance on the wooden step stage.

After dinner, we packed up and put the kids in bed.  Then, we talked and laughed and laughed and stayed up way too late and laughed.  I may or may not have wet my pants a little.  Saturday morning, we loaded up and said good-bye to our wonderful beach home! 

Bye-Bye, Perdido House!  We had a ton of fun!  Hopefully, we will see you again soon!

Thanks, Mom and Dad!  We are so thankful that you provided such a fun week for us!  We love you!

Guest Post By John Jacobs: Day 6

Hello, I have taken over the blog for a day because my beautiful wife is slaving over school work. Day 6 started just like every other day for me (John) at 5:45 with Carter. At about 8:00 everyone else started the stir, and we could start our day.

The boys all decided to go to Gulf Shores to play some golf while the girls chilled by the pool.

Grace was acting unusual, but still enjoyed a cold treat.

Drew decided to go airborne and give us that million dollar smile.

Grace decided to try and jump, but as long as there was a float to catch her. She was terrified of getting her face wet. Honestly I don't know where she gets here style, probably from her mother. Cool goggles girl!

My girl is a trend setter. Tripp Davis and Lily decided to don some goggles and take a dip too.

This was one of the few times all week Carter did not want to be held by me. He decided since  I wasn't around, he would just chill.

Now he is working on his tan. Carter got used to the beach lifestyle.

After a day at the pool and on the links, the whole fam headed for a delightful evening at Lulu's. We also found out that Grace had a fever. That did not stop her from grabbing a shovel and hitting the sand. She did tell us that she was not hurting anymore.

I was informed that this outfit is not girlie because my wife says this is not a sailor outfit. Well I guess she is right even though there are sailboats on it. Anyway, he is an awesome boy when he wants to be.

Mimi and Poppa enjoying some seafood and good company. I think Poppa missed his calling as a model. Look at the way he works that camera. 

The Taylor boys enjoying some sun (maybe a little too much, it was hot) and some good food.

Look at this cute family. Hey John smile at the camera (oh wait that is me).

Grace even tried a crab claw.

After Lulu's, we decided to take a Jacobs' trip to the outlet malls in Foley. Carter and I posed at the Nike store.

I took some pictures of Jenn, Carter, and Grace but since I am not that great at working the camera, they turned out horrible. Jenn did catch Grace playing in this Snoopy ride. She was pretending to make us cookies and sell them to us. Life is always interesting with her.

Blogging was a lot harder than it looked. We had a great trip, and I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family. Jenn will be back tomorrow with Day 7 of our adventure.