Walsh/Thaler Annual Pumpkin Patch Trip

Three years ago, when we first moved to Georgia, we were thrilled when we realized that we would only be moving about 45 minutes away from my best friend. Turns out, with kids, jobs, and busy lives, it's A LOT harder to get together than one would think! We always manage to make it to our kids' birthday parties, baby showers, etc. etc...probably because we call each other, in advance, to see if we are available for the tentative date we are planning...because what's a celebration without your best friend and her family there? (Especially when we are in constant planning mode for Griffin and Ella's future wedding.)

But 3 years ago, the Thaler's invited us up to Cagle's Family Farm for a fun day at the pumpkin patch.

Remember that??

Well, THAT...is now this...

And so we said that every year, for as long as we were living close, we would get the kids together for the annual pumpkin patch trip. I literally get misty-eyed at how much these two have grown.

Cagle's Family Farm is F-U-N! It is everything a pumpkin patch should be!

They have a haystack jump (TWO actually! One for the littles...which make this Mama and her overly protective husband VERY happy!)

The socks were hindering the climbing and jumping. I had to swoop in and give him a boost.

We can't forget the hundreds of pumpkins to choose from...

Or just to use as the perfect photo backdrop!

Jeez Griff...bored?

Longingly looking at the ponies...

Which, of course, we let them take rides! Michalina trying to walk Baby Noah out!

He's like a professional now.

Brady, obviously could care less about anything going on around him. Just happy with his cheerios and cheese.

The B.E.S.T. part about Cagle's is the hayride out to the bonfires! You take a 5 minute hayride out to this big open field and they have huge bonfires set up all over the place. You get s'mores kits and hot dogs with the longest roasting sticks I've ever seen. They also have hot drinks! The perfect recipe to curl up and enjoy an extremely cool evening with our friends and the kiddos!

Umm...I die over these 3!

Walking back to the hayride!

Making sure the little bro is safe <3

All in all, it was another successful trip to the pumpkin patch! I can't believe there will be FOUR babies next year :-) I'd like to say the anticipation is killing me...but since I am SO behind on blogging, Baby Noah arrived yesterday afternoon! I get to snuggle that sweet baby boy in less than 24 hours! Hopefully it'll ward off the itty-bitty amounts of baby fever I'm ALREADY having!! (Seriously...what is wrong with me??)

Token BFF picture. Love, love, love.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game!

A couple of months ago, Brian walks in the door from work and the first thing Griffin says to him is, "Daddy, will you play baseball with me?"

I'm 150% sure of it that those are the exact words he has been waiting to hear since he heard the Ultrasound Tech tell us we were having a boy back in 2010.

I grew up a total band nerd and while I tried my hand at softball and soccer, the closest I ever came to doing anything athletic was cheerleading...and my toe touch was more of a "I barely made it off the ground and came NOWHERE near touching my toes." My handsome hubby, on the other hand, was ALSO a total band nerd, but also rocked at soccer, baseball, and now, golf!

Needless to say, when I heard we were having a boy, I threw up a prayer to the man upstairs and begged that he would get Brian's athletic skills...and NOT my "non-existent" athletic abilities.

Then we had Griffin, and so far, my prayer has been answered. Golf, soccer, baseball, basketball. You name it, he's into it and he's actually pretty good at them! He can run and kick a soccer ball at the same time, he has a killer left handed golf swing, and he can hit a baseball, on average, about 4 out of 10 times...with out a tee!

Naturally, I couldn't wait to get him into some sort of "sports related" activity and it's looking like this Spring is going to be our chance! We are going to enroll him in Spring tee-ball and we have absolutely ZERO expectations of how this is going to go :-)

We took him to the baseball field the other day and had a ton of fun playing with both of our boys.

9 months old!

B-rad turned 9 months old on October 23rd! I probably should've squeezed a blog post in before the Halloween madness began, but ain't nobody got time for that...Especially since I've been working on re-vamping my desk that I've had for the better part of 10 years. So I'm updating from the floor of my office.

Here is our 9 month old!!

Remember last month when I said that Brady wasn't standing yet and that we'd save that heart attack for another month?? Yea...about 2.5 minutes after I said that, he start standing. He will hold onto anything. The table legs while looking up at Griffin eating. The TV stand, already blinding himself at the ripe age of 9 months. The recliner while Griffin "not-so gently" rocks it back and forth. He's also damn near pants-ed (sp??) me a few times by pulling on my yoga pants while I've been doing the dishes. 

He doesn't even sit for pictures anymore.

Brady now has 4 top and 4 bottom teeth with a couple more rearing their ugly little heads. He's been tolerating the teeth popping thru much easier than he was a few months ago. He would prefer to have a few sips of formula and a whole BUNCH of people food. He eats EVERYTHING! Which I am loving and hope his appetite sticks. Because the other tiny human living in my house only likes hot dogs and fruit loops.

His personality is so cute. He's starting to really engage in all of us around him, besides just the adorable smile he's been using against us for months now. 

How big is Brady??

SO BIG!

It never gets old.

He's officially mastered saying Mama and Dada. He even points to me when I ask him where I am!! I mean, he has to be laying down, on his changing table, looking up at me, in order to do so...but I'm pretty sure he knows just what he's doing.

He also is really enjoying "Peek-A-Boo!" I use a burp cloth and put it over his face and he pulls it down over his eyes with a big 'ol smile! The only thing he loves more than Peek-A-Boo is sucking his 2 fingers. I'll try to play the game with him, take the burp cloth, throw it over his face, and it just sits there...b/c he's sucking those dang fingers. He's like, "Nah...I'm good, Ma."

There is still all kinds of brotherly love going on in the Walsh house. 

Despite the occasional dirty diaper that Griff shoves in Brady's face.

Griffin has been doing this "tackling" thing with Brady lately that makes me pretty uneasy. All I see are visions of my littlest smashing his head on the floor, getting choked out, breaking a bone under the weight of his brother, etc, etc... So, every time I see Griffin go to bear hug Brady and take him down, wrestler style, I stop him with a loud, "GRIFFIN!! KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF!" Well, the other day I finally got the chance to see, first hand, how this rough play plays out. Brady stands up on something, Griffin comes up from behind him, hugs Brady from around the waist, and pulls him on top of him and they fall back onto the ground. Ok...not so bad. Especially when I saw the biggest smile of smiles on Brady's face. I was like, Oh...he actually LOVES this! As a Mom of boys, I need to remember that rough-housing is going to happen and it's going to get much more intense as they get older and stronger. (Deep breaths, their just boys, takes checkbook out to pay broken bone bills, deep breaths, little girls are all drama, deep breaths, you don't even like pink, deep breaths) :-)

I have never seen my kids look so gangster.