August 2022 Family Update
Kicked off the month celebrating TWO birthdays…Zach’s and LILY’S! We found Lily on Zach’s birthday in 2021 so we made sure to make her first bday special 🙂
Zach’s birthday fell on a Sunday and Little Mama and Aunt Karen surprised him at church! It was so, so thoughtful and we enjoyed getting to go out to lunch together with them in honor of the birthday boy!
After lunch we got home and surprised Zach with a birthday celebration in Lily’s honor 😉 It was so fun pulling this joke on him and he was a great sport about it!
Naturally we had cat themed evvvvverything 😉
For his birthday Zach went on a father-son golf trip! Mr. Rusty, Uncle Steven and Cole all joined him and they stayed at our house at Disney and enjoyed several days of golf together!
When he got home I hit the road and took a little solo overnight trip to a hotel in Jacksonville (Margaritaville was amazing!). I read by the water with my toes in the sand, enjoyed dinner in the room while finishing This is Us, chatted with the kids, and slept in before getting a little more time laying out and driving home!
It was a wonderful chance to fill my cup!
When Kye entered 6th grade we started a tradition where I take him back to school clothes shopping – entering 8th grade AND the mens section of the store!
The girls and I also had a date together! We dropped off donations at our local Called to Care and then did our annual before-school nail outing along with dinner!
Love visiting the dentist with good reports! The dentist asked Spear when he’ll stop sucking his tumb and he said “when I’m a big kid.” We told him he’s a big kid now bc he’s going to big kid school and he said “I will stop sucking my thumb when I’m taller”
Tess had her well check for turning 8!
At 8 years old Tess is 49.75 inches (50th percentile) and 50lbs (25th percentile).
We ended summer with our annual Ice Cream in a Bag and plenty of game time, chill time, and swim time!
Cole and Gabi invited us to a fancy night out at a benefit dinner! We enjoyed the chance to dress up and spend time with two of our favs!
I love when blog friends turn real-life friends and Allison moved to Valdosta after having followed me for years! We got lunch together and it was so fun to meet in real life 🙂
I also had Book Club this month and had a little back to school brunch with Lindsay and Summer 🙂
More moments from our month…the kids all were huge helpers with Zach at our new property getting it cleared and ready to start building our home!
In effort to make our mornings smoother I printed off a sheet for lunch ideas for the kids and it’s made it much easier for them to pack their own lunches.
Tess is officially tall enough to say goodbye to the 5 point harness car seat! Booster seat time!!!!
Spear did great with starting big kid school and having all day preschool. It helps so much having both of his sisters there alongside him. It was an adjustment for him to be completely dropping his daily naptime and the day at school is LONG. It just meant early bedtimes!
Tess has a harder time with back to school and holds back tears for awhile until we get in the groove.
School def exhausts Spear so I do afternoons outside as much as possible as he LOVES the outdoors and it helps to really get his energy out. But I also found that sometimes he needs more rest after school – not a true nap but some reading time in his bed tends to help.
He also is exhausted and struggles to wake up in the mornings!
As if the mom emotions weren’t enough Kye presented me with his favorite pjs to pack away for him as they no longer fit!
Britt’s teacher asked her if I’m a doctor bc of my signature haha! We introduced the kids to Scategories and when Tess saw the timer she said “I get stressed out with timer games” I FEEL YOU GIRL.
Thankful the kids get home on the 1st load of buses this year – a whole hour earlier! It’s been great for outdoor time, chill time, together time and playtime too.
I volunteered as ROOM MOM for Britt’s class. With Spear in all day school for the first time I thought it’d be a good opportunity for me to step it up a bit…spoiler alert…I did next to nothing all year bc building a house took ALL OF MY ENERGY.
We’ve always highly valued our family but with Colt entering high school and Kye not far behind him it’s even MORE important to foster the bond these two share. So incredibly thankful they have each other!
Knowing that we are moving out of the neighborhood I also tried to prioritize Tess’s time with her bestie from down the street so she can have as many of those memories as possible too!
This month the big house focus was on clearing the land and finalizing the house plans!
We walked off the property to decide the exact location of the house and spend a night in our driveway sketching out the laundry room design.
In MS related news Zach had his infusion and it went really well. His MRI shows no further progression which is always the goal and his blood work looked really great too.
For now they are keeping him at 5 months instead of 6 for his infusions but if the blood work continues to look this good they may push him back to every 6 months.
We never take the positive reports for granted – MS is no joke and we are beyond blessed for the treatment plan Zach has and the health he enjoys!
