Monthly Family Recap: September 2019
Here are all the fun things from September and updates on each of the big kids (Spear still gets his own monthly updates for now!)
This month we had a great balance of going and doing and also staying home.
I try on our weekends at home to be SUPER low-key. Let the kids just play and relax while Zach and I get things accomplished around the house.
It’s a nice balance to our out-of-town busy, busy weekends and good for me to keep in mind that I don’t need to be entertaining my children all the time too!
This month Mrs Charlotte had pretty major surgery on her right foot. Basically they completely rebuilt the front portion of her foot (all of her toes).
She has rheumatoid arthritis and her feet have really progressed to the point where this surgery was necessary.
She is doing one foot at a time and it takes roughly 6 weeks to be able to drive and 12 weeks for complete healing.
She wanted to have everyone over for a big dinner before her surgery and it worked out to also be Casey’s birthday so we all went to Mrs Charlotte’s for dinner and wore our crazy hats for Casey’s birthday tradition.
How ADORABLE are Big Daddy and Little Mama?
Notes the girls wrote for G-Mama after her surgery! She’s doing GREAT with recovery!
Our church hosts a girl’s sleepover every year and usually our girls can’t go because we are out of town but this time it worked out where we were home.
Britt was THRILLED to FINALLY be able to attend the event.
Tess was at the lowest age group invited and if it’d been Britt in kindergarten…no way would I have had her go. But that’s the perk of being a third kid 😉
Tess cried when we dropped her off but when we called to check in she said she didn’t want to leave and she made it the entire night!
While the girls were at the sleepover Zach and I had a date night and our sweet sitter was okay with Kye having a neighborhood friend over to hang out.
They had a blast swimming and playing Minecraft!
Zach has been working super hard on our kitchen remodel (he’s making concrete countertops!) and Kye has been a huge help too!
We are also slowly working on making a 6th bedroom for our home. We will be moving Tess up to that new room at some point.
Currently that bedroom is used for attic storage and Zach has built new attic space and we’ve been transferring things over and trying to go through and get rid of things as well.
I’ve found SO MANY of my childhood treasures and it’s been so fun to give the girls my old Barbies and see how thrilled and excited they are about plaything with them!
It was especially neat for me to find the still in the box Yellow Bug my dad got for me at the same time he gave me my first car 🙂 Of course I opened it so we could play with it together!
Zach’s favorite thing of our chill weekends is watching football with all three big kids 🙂
School is going GREAT and it took Tess about a solid month to get fully adjusted to life as a kindergartner.
One day after school she told me “Mommy, I did NOT miss you today!” And that’s when I knew she was good to go!
This year is a rare year in that all three big kids are in school together. It also works out SO great that their lunch times overlap.
I’m really hoping to eat lunch with them frequently but wanted to wait to make sure Tess wouldn’t have any tears when I left.
Spear and I packed his lunch and ate with all three big kids.
It was so fun and so sweet that the biggest, happiest reaction actually came from KYE!
It was also sweet to see Tess loving school so much. I think she might even be more social than Britt as she was saying hey to EVERYONE and told me that everyone was her friend. She took me to her class table and introduced me to her whole class which was so fun too!
The kids had MORE dress up days this month with it being Winnersville Week. I think we’re done for AWHILE though?
The kids have also adjusted to running errands with us! We try to be mindful of who we take when and kinda cycle it through.
Running errands can be fun time together too!
I talk a bit about this decision on Instagram but long story short…I switched the kids dentist over to a new dentist.
Our first experience with the new dentist went GREAT!
No cavities and all the teeth and future teeth look good – we are def anticipating braces for Kye but hoping to skate by without them for Britt. Fingers crossed!
It made me so proud that when the kids got to choose their tv shows that Kye picked Veggie Tales 🙂
I don’t know about you but I cannot shake this sinus crud!
I went BACK to the dr and had a sinus infection and took all the meds and did all the things and I’m honestly still feeling like I have it! SO. ANNOYING.
The kids didn’t mind sick Mommy because sick Mommy buys comfort food treats!
As a kid I remember my mom making strawberry shortcake using angel food cake and ice cream and I made it for the kids for the first time this month and, duh, they loved it 😉
This month Zach went on a guy’s trip which was SO great for him! Yall know I do lots of girls trips and such and that friendships are just super, super important to me.
I think friendship is something valuable for everyone and I am so happy that Zach is finding friendships in this season of life and that he FINALLY did a FUN trip!
He and Stephen get along great and had a great time golfing and doing whatever guys do when they travel together, I’m pretty sure eating a lot and talking sports haha
Kye This Month:
Kye was asked to help lead the Bible Reading Marathon at our church which is a big honor and something he takes VERY seriously.
The Bible Reading Marathon has three reading sections for people to choose from and as a leader Kye always reads ALL THREE sections.
He makes us proud!
Kye decided to start up yet another business this month – selling paper airplanes at school.
Yes, his teacher approved it 🙂 And yes, it fizzled pretty fast but I always want my kids to know I support and encourage their ideas!
He also had his first big science project this month. You know the totally cliche create a volcano one?
I love that he was given options and didn’t HAVE to do a volcano and I love that Kye chose a super uncommon choice…earthquake demonstration.
Zach and Kye build the demonstration and his teacher was impressed with the creativity and that he chose something different than the 10 billion volcanos haha! She said she’d never seen anything like it!
I love spending time with all of my kids but time with the girls is a little easier because they are girls and we enjoy the same things.
I always want to be intentional in setting aside quality time with my boys too!
Kye was given a gift card for some ice cream so we had a little date night together and I loved it!
He is always my helper anywhere we go and I try to reward that frequently. I know it’s hard at times to have to always step up and always be responsible so I want him to always also feel appreciated!
Speaking of growing up, I know that many kids Kye’s age no longer play with toys and I love, love, LOVE that Kye frequently asks if he can keep toys out in his room because he loves to still play with them.
Yes, his room is a disaster but it’s a disaster of the best kind – the play kind!
Kye is such a special kid and I am SO thankful that he’s found a friend so much like him in Davis. While the girls and I were out of town on our weekend together Davis came over and he and Kye had THE best time.
He stayed literally all day and Zach said he could hear them laughing all day long. They swam, played Minecraft and played laser tag and just had epic guy time!
Britt This Month:
Britt was invited to a birthday party at our new local skating rink and she was SO excited.
Downside of having chill weekends…we didn’t really have a reason for her not to go haha! Zach took her since he’s the parent with the ability to roller-skate but it turned out he didn’t even have to get on the rink because they provided these great little walker things to help kids out.
Britt had a BLAST!
Britt is loving 2nd grade and has a little admirer who keeps drawing her pictures. So cute.
She is NOT into having any sort of boyfriend or liking boys this year which I’m glad for…last year I found out two little boys were legit fighting over her and it damaged their friendship.
I don’t even think she was aware of it but we def need friends at this stage! I’m sure the boy crazy stage is coming soon enough.
Britt has entered the age where she’s starting to not wear the clothes I lay out for her.
I lay out a cute outfit, she comes down wearing something else.
Sigh. She just LOVES leggings over any other sort of pants or shorts. I guess I need to just invest in long tunics for her and let her do her thing!
She also continues to love wearing her glasses so I went ahead this month and got her new ones (still no prescription) that fit her face better!
Tess This Month:
Tess finally got fully adjusted to school this month!
We still have our moments, but typically they happen in the evening time. She will get a little sad and say she’s nervous about school the next day or will miss Mommy. Usually it’s on a Sunday night when this happens and I just think having a block of time together makes leaving me tougher.
Which is sad but also ridiculously sweet 😉
We did also have a bump in the school road when Tess spiked a 102 temp at school this month and had to come home. She then missed the following day which made going back tough.
It was a weird little sickness, just a fever and then over it!
When I took her
Tess does great getting into the after school routine of putting away her book bag and lunch box and she’s just SUCH a big kid now!
As I mentioned earlier, Tess attended her first spend the night party at church (it was Britt’s first one too!) and she stayed all night.
When she got home she said she just LOVED the whole thing but especially playing Bingo and she made her own Bingo boards to be able to play Bingo with Kye and Britt. So cute!
Tess is my kid that is THE most interested in my blog books. She loves looking through them and I’ve had so much guilt over being so far behind where she didn’t always have ones to look through that SHE was actually in!
I finally found an AWESOME company to work
I love being a mama to all my babies and it’s been tough on my heart to see them all growing up so much this year already!!!
So proud that Tessie is loving school but still also glad that she misses her mama from time to time too 🙂
A video should auto play on this post showcasing all of the kids fun moments this month!
Sweet to see all the fun things yall do and hear about all the accomplishments of the 3 big kids. Britt and Tess are adorable and of course Kye is handsome…I loooooove love love baby Spear though. The Zach Parker family is mighty high on my admiration list…you all could and should be pictured as the ALL AMERICAN family. Thanks for sharing your life through your blog. An avid reader and friend,GiGi