The Weekend

The boys were loving every minute with Daddy this weekend. Wyatt now cries when Brad leaves and Braylon still wants to do everything Daddy does. He helped Daddy make a fire in the fire pit and rake leaves. When Braylon wasn't raking leaves and building fires, he was playing with Grandma Dar. She came to visit Sunday and spent the day reading books, playing baseball, checking out the fish and orchard, and watching Braylon and Wyatt play, play, PLAY!

Then after all that playing with Grandma Dar, I took the boys to Crosby's birthday party while Daddy enjoyed a few peaceful hours in the deer stand! It was a fun party.

Wyatt got to see the moon at night, and kept pointing to it and saying "moon."  

Braylon and Crosby had a blast racing cars.

Wyatt and Kannon sitting in a car that wasn't going anywhere. They hopped in there together all by themselves.

Wyatt was not prompted to paint the matchbox car here. He climbed up, grabbed a brush and went to painting all on his own. I thought it was cute!

Halloween

Halloween was a little uneventful this year. I was excited to see the boys trick or treat together for the first time, but was bummed when Daddy wasn't able to join us. He was working until 9:30, but he at least saw the boys in their costume when we took dinner to his office. We did about 30 minutes worth of trick-or-treating, then went to Suzy's like we do every year. Braylon was set on being a ghost this year, even though I tried to convince him to be a minion. Sooo, his costume wasn't too exciting to make, but Wyatt's was fun! He was Frankenstein, and it turned out pretty cute!

Braylon's Wall Mural

I finally finished the Skipper mural and even added some clouds. I'm glad that project is off my list now, and Braylon seems to really like it. He has to show everyone when we have someone over.

A Week in the Life of Braylon + Wyatt

They snuggle....sometimes....

 They ride bikes together....

 They play baseball together, each with their own tee to avoid fights....

 They celebrate Grampa Rollie's birthday with cake and ice cream...

 They feed the fish with Daddy...

Check out all those minnows!

Leaf Fight!

We played in the leaves yesterday and it inspired me to take some photos...

Reading the Alphabet

Braylon is over three and a half years old now, and has begun to show interest in reading. He knows most of his letter sounds, and is always saying things like "I is for ice cream" or "D makes the sound..." So I thought "Why not start teaching him how to read?" That's the great thing about being a stay-at-home-mom, right....teaching them at their pace, and seeing them learn each day! What a blessing!

I found a curriculum online I really love called "Reading the Alphabet," so we started it this week. It includes things like counting, handwriting, reading, and we also add in a Bible Story. This week, he is working on reading T words, the sight word 'a', and all about David and Goliath. He LOVES working on things with me and is having fun so far! I only plan to do about 30 minutes with him, but he usually asks for MORE!

Here's a few snapshots of Braylon working on counting syllables, cutting pieces for a beginning sounds game we played, and a sight word maze. Wyatt wants to be involved to, so he colors with our color of the week, reads, and has a shape of the week we talk about too.

Great Helper

My sweet Braylon can be a test of my patience sometimes, but he also can be so helpful and kind. Saturday morning, he willingly went back to help me hand out food again to the less fortunate families in Huntsville. He patiently waited for almost two hours as we signed in each person and waited for the food truck to arrive. When it finally did arrive, he helped me man the broccoli station. He was told to give two heads of broccoli to each family, so he grabbed his two, put them in peoples' bags, and kept going back for more for an hour and a half. I think it brought smiles to some of the their faces to be receiving their food from a little one.

We probably handed out food to twice as many families as we did last time! Onions, apples, broccoli, potatoes, squash, grapefruit, and cabbage were given away this time.