Halloween Through the Eyes of Anna & Elsa =)

This was definitely the first year that the twins were totally aware of Halloween and what it meant to go trick-or-treating. They probably would have been able to enjoy it last year if Mommy hadn't just given birth to Ashton Kate the day before. Needless to say, no costumes were purchased and we just skipped right on over Halloween last year. So we made up for it this year and had enough fun to count for two years. Because we were celebrating Ashton Kate's birthday on Saturday, Mimi, Grandpa, & Aunt Sarah came up on Friday to enjoy the night with us and help us get ready for the party! And of course Maddie Grace & Makenzie were overjoyed to have some extra "oo-ing"and "ah-ing " over their Frozen costumes, even if that meant they had to explain to Mimi who Anna and Elsa even were. =) Numbers were picked to determine who would wear them to which event and thankfully no big meltdowns occurred (which is shocking to be honest!=) and each twin was able to proudly wear their Anna & Elsa costumes to one event each decked out in earrings, crowns, necklaces and high heels! They were mighty cute if I get to throw in a biased opinion.

We met for a quick and early dinner at Momma G's and then we got these three angels ready to make their way through the neighborhood. Just like any new thing, it took them holding onto our legs and barely speaking for quite a few houses before they got the hang of it. Once we were able to convince them that this was actually really fun, then and only then did they begin to warm up to the idea of walking up and ringing doorbells. It was at this point that our twins personalities really come out...Makenzie would now sprint to the next house with Mimi in tow while Maddie Grace preferred curbside service in the wagon to each house. I know we say it often, but these two seriously could not have more opposite personalities!

And Ashton Kate even managed to get toted around to select her favorite candy pieces too!

We made it around the neighborhood and then came home to show the girls the best part about the night: sorting it! And boy did they have a hard time accepting the fact that NO they could not have just one more piece. =) They had an absolute ball and then turned into the candy police monitoring their buckets!

Happy Halloween from our princesses and baby cow! =)

Fall Festival Fun + AK's 1st Cupcake!

Not sure the girls could have had any more fun than they did tonight. And it just so happened to be Ashton Kate's birthday so it was an enjoyable way to get out of the house as a family and do a little celebrating. Lakeview Baptist put on an incredibly fun fall festival geared towards little ones. From the petting zoo, train rides, and carriage rides to carnival games, hot dog supper, and candy galore, these two princesses thought it was Christmas morning! =) Truly, their sheer delight put a smile on my face in no time! The best part was watching them go from complete hesitation in participating to wanting to run to the next game once they realized candy was involved. Let's just say one twin has more of the Williams gene and one definitely got the Currie gene...no doubt about that! Of course, Ashton Kate's favorite part of the evening were all the animals. She would kick her legs as fast as they would go with excitement! Daddy was able to leave work in time to meet us there so the girls were thrilled! (and Mommy too!) When we tucked them in that night, they said their favorite game was the "one where you grab a big handful of candy..." =) Of course it was...not the bean  bag toss, ring toss, duck pond, horseshoe, or apple toss, but the grab a lot of candy one. Looks like they've inherited their parents love for all things sugar at an early age. And it kept two adorable princesses quite a while to wind down enough to actually fall asleep. But sweet memories stored away again!

And to give our sweet ONE year old a little something special on her actual birthday, we picked up some cupcakes and let her dive right into one! She was a pretty big fan of it! Had no problem polishing off a mini one! =)

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY ASHTON KATE! We simply adore you!

It's Official: We have a ONE year old!

ONE YEAR OLD STATS:

Height: 28.5in (according to appt) but we're going with 29in =)

Weight: 21 lbs 13oz.

Clothes: 12 months

Diapers: Size 4

Teeth: 2!(still working their way on in!)

To my third little world,

Happy Birthday dear one! What a reminder of God’s faithfulness and goodness to His children you are! A testimony to that each and every day of our lives. We are forever grateful for you sweet one! How is it seriously possible that it’s been a year, 365 days to be exact, since you entered our world?!? Boy has it sure flown by. And we knew it would having been there before. You are BY FAR the biggest blessing of our year. What a joy you bring to our family and we would be so incomplete without you in it. Your sisters can’t even stand when it’s time for you to take naps. They LOVE and ADORE you greatly! And it seriously won’t be long before you are doing everything they are doing. You sure are trying! I knew I would miss you nestling up in a little ball in my arms and watching you fall asleep sitting up like a little rag doll even while we were in that stage, but boy is it oh so true. Savoring each day, each stage, each milestone is what I work tirelessly to do daily so I don’t feel like the days went by without being cherished greatly. We know just what a gift they are. What a gift you are. You are ours for now, but we know you ultimately are His and we rest in that truth. Goodness, you’re adorable and just because you are our third and our third daughter doesn’t mean we haven’t gone crazy over each of your new skills or developments as well! We are indeed full of praise for your life. We pray for what’s ahead with great anticipation. We long for you to know Jesus in a real and tangible way. To know your righteousness is solely in Christ. Your hope lies only in Him. Shepherding your heart towards those things is our heart’s desire. By grace, we’ll lead you there as best we can Ashton Kate. We love you immensely and treasure the gift that you are to our family so much! Happy FIRST birthday BIG GIRL!!!!

Love, Mommy & Daddy

Milestone and Memories from 11-12 months:

-Not much has changed in your typical schedule, although we’re thankful you’re still predictable and flexible! You still sleep so well at night and take pretty great naps! The only thing that might delay you from falling asleep is if you throw your lovey bear and paci over the side-you have to have that to fall asleep so we think you’ve already figured out that gets us back in there one more time. And then of course you love to pull your socks off so we find those scattered around too! Still nursing in the morning but we will begin the weaning process before long (if I can handle the fact that my baby girl is ONE now!) Mommy has failed you terribly on teaching you to drink from a sippy cup! (forgive me for having two other littles who demand quite a bit!) so that is our next goal!!

-Food? Well you LOVE it and you will scream until it gets put on your tray! And honestly it’s gone before I can get the next round on it. SO needless to say, we’re not worried about your eating skills. You pretty much will still eat anything-minus a few things you apparently detest. Eggs and tomato being at the top of that list. Other than that, you pretty much devour it at rapid speed. Fruits are definitely your favorite but adding to your list this month, you have now had the privilege of tasting peanut butter (you loved it!), PBJ sandwiches, your first and only hotdog at the  Fall Festival, mac n cheese, and of course your first cupcake. You were a fan of them all. But that didn’t surprise us a bit! AND…if you’re not a fan you will clinch your mouth shut and just make a nice pile on the counter of the rejected foods or shovel them off the tray onto the floor. Smart girl. No one ever teaches babies these things!

-Mobility for you has just taken off! You are crawling at rapid speed, pulling up still on everything and cruising around furniture, over toys, and through anything and everything in your way to get where you wanna go. Nothing will stop you, including a baby gate that’s intended to. =) All cabinets and drawers are fair game in your mind and you can pull out massive amounts of stuff way faster than I can get them cleaned up. AND you have officially mastered the art of pushing the walker all over the house and boy do you love it. Makenzie is usually right by your side to help you get it back on course when you hit a roadblock! And lastly, you stand up in the middle of the floor all the time and then will dive towards us (good thing we’re right there!) so I’m sure it won’t be long before we see a few first steps!

-You are a MOMMA’S girl! I don’t know the rhyme or reason for how I breed clingy babies but you have officially entered that world too. Or maybe you learned from the best (your twin sisters are pros!) You can be happily playing in the nursery at church or bible study but the minute you see mommy, you make a beeline crawling as fast and frantically as you can to me, all while crying! It is quite a sight and makes everyone laugh! Even at home, you cam be contentedly playing and then look up at me and move to my lap as quickly as possible for some “mommy love!” As sweet and cute as it is, I do hope it’s just a phase! =)

-Speaking of mama, that’s the word you love to use most. Ma-ma-ma as you come towards me. I won’t try to say differently-it’s simply the cutest! You are learning to communicate more and more and it’s so fun to see that developing. You can sign more and all done, especially when you want another yogurt melt (not sure if there is anything you love more to be honest!) and you wave your right hand frantically to let us know meal time is DONE! There’s no question about it when you’re done. =)  We’re working on signing please with you right now-still a learning process! BY FAR one of the cutest things you do is wave bye bye or night night. You look like you are in a beauty pageant as you methodically move it up and down and side to side. It’s hilarious! Glad we finally captured it on camera! And even though they’re not true words yet, you use two syllables to make sounds that sound similar to bye bye and night night. At 12 months though, I’d say your only real words are hi/hey and mama.

-What an affectionate little girl you have become this month. You will come in close with us or your sisters for hugs and kisses and really is there anything better than wet, open mouthed kisses from a baby? I think not. =) Your sisters love to SMOTHER you with love so hope that’s one of your love languages, ha!

-At the beginning of this month, you started despising bath time. Not really sure why other than maybe you were tired of the baby tub. But you were slipping and sliding all over the place. You would scream and try to climb out! Now that we’ve started letting you bathe with the twins (close to 12mo) in the real tub, you LOVE it! Social little bug you!

-When I think of things you love to do right now as you turn a year old, here’s what comes to mind: first off, independence (sort of=) You want to be down and free, but then you come running back to hold onto mommy, You want to feed yourself squeeze packs but then of course you still need help, so you THINK you can do it all by yourself already! You love to pull out all the cups/plates/bowls from the bottom kid drawer and make a huge mess all over the floor. You really are into climbing things-your favorite being the stairs. Behind that would be the little table and chairs set in the kitchen, your toys, and your new PB kids chair. You love to think you’re so big already! You love crawling around the backyard and playing on the little slide. You love the park but we certainly can’t take our eyes off of you. You have NO fear! You will climb anything and everything and then most of all, you love eating the wood chips scattered everywhere. At home, being chased is a super fun game for you and thankfully you’ve got quite a few participants willing to play. You will belly laugh when we come around the corner and “get you”…simply the best! You love playing peek-a-boo and crawling/climbing all over the little play house in the den. Lots of entertainment with a mommy and two sisters for sure! Trying to keep up with Maddie Grace and Makenzie has made me realize you seem to be growing up faster than they did because you are seeing more modeled for you! You hold phones up to your ear to “talk,” try as hard as you can to put high heels and shoes on your feet, tote purses around, use the hairbrush on your hair, and put sunglasses up on your head. You also are already a mini-mommy. You will hold your babies and pat them lovingly! Can you please stay small for just a tad longer!?

You’re a MOVER. I make the effort to read to you and your sisters everyday but two books is about your limit, if that. We’ll keep working on instilling a love for them! Unfortunately, we’ve also seen your first couple temper tantrums already when you haven’t gotten what you want. We’re not ready for that sweet girl! And lastly, you get so EXCITED when you see animals, but especially dogs. You go nuts shaking your legs as fast as you can! You love seeing them in person but you love animal books as well. You enjoy going to the pet store now that you can see everything! So fun!

-Important dates this month: 10/11-You rode the carousel at the mall in Birmingham for the first time! 10/22-You stood up from the floor without help three times in a row and mastered that from then on; cruising around furniture (right around 12mo); 10/30-Enjoyed your first cupcake the night of your birthday and LOVED it! 11/3-Used the push walker to stroll around the house and could do it without falling!

October Football Games

Can hardly believe October is already come and gone! This season is flying by and we are already a little sad to think of how fast it went. We have looked forward to it all summer and having friends and family here that it's hard to fathom that it's quickly coming to an end. We'll enjoy it to the fullest while it lasts though!

The first game in October just so happened to be Auburn vs. LSU. And my parents JUST so happened to have an out of town wedding for a nephew they had to attend. That meant there were six tickets to the game for their four children and two children-in-law (my new word for the day) to enjoy. And thanks to Nana and G-Dad for keeping our three girls, we had an absolute blast! Not only were we kid-free but we were able to enjoy the entire day as siblings, engage in conversation without being interrupted, not drag along multiple diaper bags and other paraphernalia for the kiddos and simply walk into campus carrying our jackets and a phone. Wow, I had almost forgotten what that was like.

We soaked up every minute of the day and filled up our "refreshed" tanks as we say. And walked away with another win for Auburn and a trip to roll Toomer's!

Fast forward two weeks and now we have South Carolina upon us...Let's see how our team rallies after our first loss last week to Mississippi State. This crew is a little worn out from celebrating Grandpa's 60th birthday last night in Atlanta with a surprise party! So fun but lots of work traveling there and back in less than 24 hours! We dragged the girls out to the "white tents" again for a fun day together with family. They wanted a plate full of food and a place to sit...I think this did the trick. And Ashton Kate enjoyed a wee bit of freedom today too!

Could eat this sweet thing up in a heartbeat! We love you Ashton Kate-so, so much!

Adding to our collection of family photos...we've just about doubled our total just from adding in football season ones! Needless to say, we were in need of some!

And how could I ever pick just one with these fun giggles!

And one more with all the girls in the fam! 

And let's wrap up the photo shoot with an adults only one of the Williams Girls (or used to be Williams!) Love being with them so much! Will have withdrawals come December!

Not to mention withdrawals from extra helping hands!

Filled with a zest for life on the right and an appreciation for all the details of all God has created on the left...sure are thankful for how the Lord uniquely designed each one of them!

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to eat in peace...=) Every now and then would be nice...but I won't wish away the years with lots of little ones needing their mommy all.the.time. =)

Round TWO at the Pumpkin Patch!

When the first visit to the pumpkin patch goes as well as it did and you have a chance to go with friends on a Friday with no plans, you don't say no. You do it again... because here in Auburn, the choices for outings and fun activities is rather limited! Gotta take advantage of the almost free fun for the kiddos! We love spending time with the Lashlee family and swapping fun twin stories that would make plenty of other moms roll their eyes. I'm here to tell you, I have yet to find another momma with as good of stories as this sweet friend! They usually have me laughing hysterically or shaking my head. Thankful for her sweet friendship and the fun our children have together! And as always, we added a few more twin mishaps to add to our collection of stories we're storing up for our first book together. =) And despite this documentation of the day, sweet Ashton Kate did make an appearance as well, just not any in front of the camera!