Pinkerton with the Fam

October is getting away from me!!! I went to Nashville a couple of weeks ago just for the weekend and had a great time with family. On Friday night we all got together at Pinkerton Park in Franklin for a dinner picnic and to have all the kiddos get together and play which rarely happens. It was a great night, we did miss Brian and Levi but they were at another church event they couldn't miss. Below are some pics from our fun at the park!

The Collins Family - Dave, Brad, Elena, Wes and D'Arcy, then Caroline in Wade's lap, Peyton (or Benjamin), Christian, Jackie, and then Benjamin (or Peyton)...I swear I can't tell them apart in pictures!

All the kiddos - Caroline helping Brooklyn, then Peyt (or Benj), then Jesse (missing Levi - boo), Avery is in front of Brooklyn, then Christian and Benj (or Peyt).

Ray parents and most of their kiddos - Em and Avie, Rochelle and Jesse, and me and B

Whole fam - not going to name everyone! :) What a blessing that the Lord has given us - we have had fun times together our entire lives and they only get better!

Very similar looking twins of Wes and D'Arcy! :) Peyton and Benjamin will be 3 in April

Avie boo heard that UT football tryouts were happening in the park...I think she made the team! Aves just turned 1 in August.

Jesse and Levi will be 4 in November!!! Crazy how time flies!

Brookie has been more and more sweet lately, loving on mommy and daddy - I'm soaking it up!

Thanks Collins and Ray fam for a fun Friday night in the park!

Park - Aholic

Brookie and I have had a lot of fun over the past two weeks playing outside! Since the weather is cooler (most days) and a lot less humid we are exploring parks and playgrounds in Birmingham again. She is LOVING the playground and asks to go every day. We try to go close to every day for at least a little bit and she gets so much energy out, its awesome! She loves the slide, the swing, the tire swing, the tunnels, the climbing walls, whatever she can explore. Its so fun to see her balance and try to do things that are a little beyond her abilities. She can usually accomplish a lot with a little help from mom. Below are some pictures of us one day at Wald Park in Vestavia - highly recommend it - its in the shade and has a "tots" area that is great for little ones.

A couple of weekends ago Matt was totally off of work and had no moonlighting shifts AND it was beautiful weather, so we had a family play day on Saturday and took a lot of B's toys outside to enjoy the weather. We had so much fun enjoying Matt being home that Saturday and we loved him grilling again (its been too long!)! Brooklyn thought it was hilarious that her toys were outside and she played with them pretty good.

It actually got really chilly when the sun went down so B had to sport her new winter coat that Matt got her. I think she'll get lots of use out of it (for the 4 weeks of winter we get!).

We are so thankful for daddy weekends off!

19 Months and Dothan Visit

Brooklyn was 19 months old about 10 days ago! She just keeps getting more and more fun - we are amazed by her every day. She is learning so much and keeping us laughing a lot. She started school after Labor Day and goes two days a week and really enjoys it! She is happy when I leave her and happy when I pick her up which of course makes a mom happy. She says "skoo" when we get there and walk down the hall and she says "Wenda" b/c she thinks her teacher's name is Miss Linda...that may have been my fault...I thought her teacher was Miss Linda but its not, its Miss Gail! Oops! We are working on Gail and hopefully soon she'll say Gail instead of Linda! :) I'm hoping they will think she's really smart and talking about the window. :)

At 19 months here's what B is doing...mostly!

- loves milk and juice and downs her sippy cup anytime I give it

- loves veggie straws and says "veggie staw peese" very well especially in the car

- B loves signing time videos - hasn't learned too many signs but it has really helped with vocabulary.

- B loves talking about families - she will say "Jesse, Levi, Uncle Brian, Tia Shell" or "Em, Avie, Jonas", or "Nanny, Papa", or "Bebe, Mister, Toby"...she also is putting together families at our church, she will say "Kate, Ethan, Donnie" and "Meredith, Jared, Aubie" (we are working on adding Mary Pryor!)

- B takes a great nap usually at least an hour and a half and sometimes up to a three hour nap

- B loves a playground, slide, and swing, we do this a lot!

- B loves going to the zoo and talking about animals and what noises they make

- she isn't too picky with foods - she obviously prefers pizza and chicfila sauce (great reflection of our family) but she will still eat lots of green beans, peas, broccoli, corn, potatoes, roast, chicken...we are truly blessed here!

- B is able to say her baby sister's name and its so cute!

- she points to the infant car seat and says "baby sissa"

- she is still in her crib but we are going to try to transition to big girl bed soon!

A few weeks ago we went to Dothan to visit Matt's family. We had a great time with Nanny and PaPa. B got very spoiled with new toys and lots of love and attention. We had a great time and look fwd to going again!

learning how to use a vacuum with Pa Pa

"swinging" in a blanket with Nanny and Pa Pa

playing ball with Nanny

getting hugs from her new "Pola Beah"

Hugs from Nanny!

Avie-Boo's B'day

Well boo - I have again slacked on blogging...I'm going to attempt to catch up so here's a post about Avery's 1st b'day party! She turned 1 on August 9th - we of course can't believe how quickly this year went by! She is such a sweet little girl - loves to hug and snuggle - her aunty Ash loves this!!! Em did such an amazing job on her b'day party (shocker) and I was a tad jealous! She may have to plan all of Brooklyn and baby girl's parties from now on!! Here are some pictures to document all the hard work Em went to in making this party so special for Avery and our family. She's an amazing mom, sister, wife, aunt...and FRIEND!!!

She and Rochelle made this awesome banner!Seriously? Dad went off a picture to make this shark watermelon - it was awesome!

Pictures around a tree...seriously? So cute!

Me and Brookie had a great time! She really wanted to get in the pool but this preggo momma didn't want to be in a bathing suit so we avoided it for about three hours! (not easy)

Avie's adorable bumble bee swim suit!

Presents in a pool - why not?!?!

Adorable cake from Edgar's...and home made cake pops - yum!!

Avie took full advantage of the smash cake - it was all over her!

Sweetness

No matter what time of day or night it is (ok, honestly I would prefer daytime)...I LOVE hearing, "mommy" whispered from my little girl's room...she is so much fun right now!!!! Off to go get her...

18 Months

Two days ago this little pumpkin turned 1!!!!! We can't believe Avie-boo is already a whole year old! We had a blast celebrating her first year of life last weekend...she'll have her own b'day par-tay post after this one so stay tuned! Happy Birthday Avery!!! We couldn't love you more!

On the same day, this little pumpkin turned 18 months old...I can't believe she is half way to two...that just doesn't seem right. She is so much fun...most of the time! :) We have definitely learned the words "tantrum" and "temper" in the past week. People say, "just ignore it"...but that is NOT easy! We are working on it...probably will be for a LONG time! Brooklyn has definitely entered into an independent phase (if she's like her dad it won't ever come to an end). She LOVES attention and LOVES to be in a crowd. She takes about 30-45 seconds to take it all in, then she's in the mix - playing, laughing, fighting, etc...she is very social.

She is talking really well and learning new words every day. We really worked on "Mister" while we were in Nashville last week because dad was the only grandparent whose name hadn't been mastered. For some reason "Mister" is really hard for Brooklyn. She finally tried one morning and it was really slow and clear...after that one time it became "minnow" - I guess that is easier for her to get off her tongue than "Mister" so for now its Bebe and Minnow! Love it!

Here are some things you do at 18 months...

- you eat pretty well, sometimes you'd rather play but for the most part you are still a great eater. Only thing you hate is peaches (Bebe's ashamed).

- you weigh 29 pounds and are 35 1/2 inches tall

- you wear 24 month clothes, some 2T but mostly 24 months

- you sleep about 11 hours at night and 2-3 hour nap mid-day

- you LOVE milk and juice - you are a sippy cup-aholic

- your favorite fruit is blueberries and your favorite veggie is green beans

- your favorite food overall is pizza and you ask for it almost every day

- you counted to 10 (almost) last week! I almost wrecked the car - I guess you have been paying attention to all of your toys that count to 10...we work on it every day and you are learning it pretty quickly!

- you love to play on our bed or the guest bed

- you love Elle - especially chasing her tail

- you have a northern accent when you say a word with the letter "r" in it...it is stinkin' hilarious! Examples include: door "do-ah"; chair "cha-aaah"; bear "be-ah"

- you like dancing and try to turn on the ipod every day, somedays you get it on and then find the volume button!

- you know that baby "sista" is in mommy's tummy but sometimes you think she's in your tummy

- you LOVE Jesse; Levi; and Avie - we hear thier names all day long

- your favorite toys are the Leap-Frog choo choo train; any book; your Elmo kitchen, and your princess sing-along book

We love you Brooklyn and can't wait to see what the next month holds!!!

Baby Spann #2

Well, I have been motivated to blog more b/c I finally broke down and ordered a blog book of Brooklyn's first year of life. I think this is going to be my motivation to blog on a regular basis, I LOVE the book we got! We ordered it from blog to print and it really turned out well. It was kinda pricey but it will be worth it to do this once a year and keep up with what we did each year.

I also am convicted b/c I haven't blogged about baby GIRL #2!!!! We found out a few weeks ago that Brooklyn is going to GET a sister!!! I personally was shocked, I was thinking boy totally but Matt was thinking girl...so I guess he's a better guesser.

We had family and small group friends come and eat some cake with us to find out what the baby is going to be. It was really a fun way to find out, we'll probably do it if we have more kids after this one. Here are some pictures of our little "party"!

Edgar's of course didn't disappoint with taste or decor!

Brooklyn woke up from her nap ready to eat cake and party!

B and mommy about to find out what baby is!

What's inside????

BABY GIRL! The cake was white and the icing was pink!!!

Sweet Corrie playing around and waiting for her cake.

Nanny and Pa-Pa giving Brooklyn too much cake I'm sure! :)

Kerry's #2 boy - Samuel meeting Bebe.

Kate and Parker (a.k.a. Parker-man)

Lots of kids running around and playing...we need to get use to a house full of kids!