Some days are just harder than others and I woke up this morning sad. The lack of sleep seems to catch up with me about once a week and I am too tired to NOT be sad. And I think subconsciously the change of the weather and turning of the leaves, although beautiful and welcomed, reminds me of our enormous loss and the fact that the 2 year anniversary is just a month away. But I went about the day and started to perk up, enjoying time with my family. Then as we were riding to lunch I just got a feeling that I needed to read my Jesus Calling devotion today and within the body of that devotion was this sentence..."Instead of regretting or resenting the way things are, thank me in all circumstances. Trust me and don't be fearful; thank Me and rest in My sovereignty." I needed to read that today and I thought one of you might, too.
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
And let's be honest, even on our rough days, it's pretty easy for us to be thankful when we look into Knox's precious face.
He is such a sweet baby. His disposition so similar to Livy. Content and happy most of the time, laughing and grinning, discovering his hands, tongue, and voice. Sometimes it's so apparent that he is trying to talk back to you with his little noises and coos.
It's hard to believe that on the 8th he'll be 2 months old already! He has changed so much. My favorite addition being those fat rolls on his thighs I love to squeeze. It seems like overnight he grew these long, beautiful eyelashes. (As a side note, why does it always seem like the boys get these gorgeous eyelashes they care nothing about while most of us girls do without?)
Here Knox is relaxing at one of Parrish's flag football games with CC. I told you he was easy going. The touchdown pose says it all.
Parrish is playing on the cardinals Upward team with some neighborhood and church friends and to my surprise he absolutely LOVES it. I really thought it would be a little too "close for comfort" for him because he didn't seem to like getting in the fray playing soccer last year, but he has come out strong going after those flags with more gusto with each passing game.
Today we were so proud of him pulling his first flag. He was pretty excited too, although the most fun of flag football to him may be the fact that he gets to wear eye black. :)
On October 1st we busted out the boys glow in the dark skeleton pj's. My sister Caroline mailed Knox his so he could match his big brother. Parrish had a lot of fun that night watching himself glow under the covers.
I pinned a cute Martha Stewart idea for decorating your front porch with hanging bats on Pinterest a while ago and we decided to do ours this weekend. You can find the template
here. We just traced and cut ours from black poster board.
You can't see it in this picture but Parrish was particularly creative and decided to add red electrical tape to a few of their wings so it would look like they (in his word) "blooded." So funny.
Inside we added some crows and moss to our dining table candelabra.
Outside we decorated the handle of our broom with alternating orange and black duct tape and added another crow. Our cats have been very interested in these fake birds. Thankfully after checking them out thoroughly they must have decided they were not real and as of yet, have not attacked them.
The rustic pumpkin is the latest in our Olivia Charles Antiques line and can be purchased at our booth at the Mt Laurel Fall Festival THIS Saturday, October 13th! We'll have some on stakes for your planters and some to hang on your front doors or fences. These are so precious and will take you all the way through Thanksgiving! The festival is going to be a lot of fun...complete with a petting zoo for the kids!
And since we've been on a decorating role this week, Parrish decorated this milk jug with a frankenstein face and we lit it with orange "spooky" lights to put on our front step. With Parrish in Kindergarten now I've been missing our art projects at home together. Halloween has given us a good excuse to get creative together again!
It's been a pretty eventful few weeks at our house and one of the main events was finding this little baby squirrel on our front walk. He had fallen out of his nest and I literally tripped over him one morning. It was too sad to just leave him there so I called my sweet and eternally patient husband and asked him to come home and help me try to save him. After a few calls to a wildlife expert Cannon fixed him up a box with an old t-shirt and heated rice sock for warmth and placed it off the ground in the tree where the nest was hoping the mom would come and get him. When that didn't happen and it started getting dark we took him to a volunteer at a local animal clinic who took him home to feed him and care for him until he could be released. Can you believe we went to all that trouble for a squirrel? But just look at that sweet face with his eyes not even open! We didn't have the heart to just leave him there and of course Parrish thought it was all super cool. He even took his picture into class for show and tell the next day and named him "Spiney." Never mind that we were busy trying to open a new restaurant that week.
Despite the squirrel drama Cannon and partners still opened a new Hoover location of La Paz last Thursday and it couldn't have gone better. I helped with the remodel and redesign of the building and am so pleased with how it turned out. It's like it was meant to be a Mexican restaurant all along. We installed a giant chalkboard wall for the kids to play, hung custom iron chili pepper chandeliers, replaced a Bham city scene with a La Paz, Mexico scene on the light board, framed gorgeous antique indian prints in Olivia Charles frames, changed all the lighting and added a fun, new deck onto the front of the building with happy red umbrellas, galvanized trough planters, and cafe lights. It is a happy place with delicious food, so check it out the next time you're near the Galleria. It's located in the old Michael's Steaks and Seafood building next to J.Alexander's on Galleria Circle. Congrats to my sweet Cannon on a job well done!
Also last week I chaperoned Parrish's class on their 1st field trip. We went to the Birmingham Zoo and he was very excited to ride the school bus with his friends.
After lunch that day it was so cute to see them all gather around in a circle for an impromptu game of "rock, paper, scissors, shoot." (We never said "shoot" after "rock, paper, scissors" when I was growing up, but apparently things have changed.)
While we were there Parrish fed the birds and I had a few actually land on my head. I was just praying they didn't use the bathroom while they were there!
This is Parrish's whole class. Little frogs from Mrs. Henke's pad. So precious.
Parrish loves to play with these sweet friends, Mia and Jill.
And with his best little buddy Cole. I hear all about these sweet new friends when he gets home from school each day and it warms my heart to hear how much he loves them and is enjoying school. It took a little while, but he is really getting into the groove now.
Another shot with his feathered friend...
And every other Sunday it seems we can count on a call from the Great-grands Glorio and E saying they are on their way to see the boys.
They can't go very long without having Knox in their arms, and I can't say I blame them. They'll drive up and stay for 2 or 3 hours all the way from Andalusia and then turn around and go right back home. If that's not love I don't know what is! :)
And speaking of my new little love...he is waking up from his nap and needing his mama...
