Thankful Thursday

Haven't done this type of post in awhile, but feel like its appropriate. As I do thank God for all my blessings, I find it good to be publicly accountable for them. And it's been awhile, so why not say thank you aloud for all the world to hear.

Thank you Lord for all the blessings both big and small that you've placed in my life. Thank you for my health and the health of my family. Thank you for the people you've placed in my life, for letting them be positive, Godly influences in my daily walk. And thank you for the loving environment you've given me to raise my little girl in.

Thank you for answering a long-Standing prayer request involving some friends. Thank you for an attentive and loving husband who has allowed me extra time to sleep these past two days! (You know how much I need that.) Also thank you for his servant spirit and work ethic...it motivates me to be better and keeps me going.

Thank you for my job and the move that it's going to involve next year. Thank you for the summer break that goes along with it and the time that I'm getting to spend with sweet Augusta.

Thank you for parents and in laws who willingly pitch in to help with and care for Augusta. Thank you for my sister who goes out of her way to help me with Augusta and keep my house in order.

And finally, as always, thank you for loving me, as flawed as I am. Thank you for never losing faith in me, even when my faith in you, and your plan, may not be at its strongest. Thank you for your forgiveness. And for being our saving grace. And always placing the words/message our hearts need to hear in our paths. I love you.

Girl Time

Who would wanna leave this little sweetie??

So this week makes the fourth time in a little over a month that Chase has left us to go out of town. Most of the leaving has been work related, aside from going deep sea fishing for AJ's bachelor trip. But we really miss Daddy while he's gone. Especially Augusta who I think gets tired of looking at me all the live-long-day! Ha!

At least this time while he's away Aunt Lys is staying with us. Great for me because I get some help with Augusta, and Alyssa is also like OCD about cleaning so she's always wanting to do something, which is totally fine with me since I'm usually holding a baby or wanting to be lazy! She even tackled the mountain of clothes that had overtaken my guest bed and bathed Rowan. Love my sissy!!

Swimming on Wednesday with Mommy & Aunt Lys

Wednesday I cooked a roast for my mom and sister and we watched Dallas...the new Dallas that is. Love it, quickly becoming one of my favorite shows with all it's twists! Check it out if you haven't!

Playing at Whitney's house

Thursday Augusta and I went to eat at Whitney's house. She made a tatertot casserole that was really yummy. Then we just visited with the girls. This see to be turning into a weekly dinner tradition, which is fine with me. It makes sure that I get my girl time, which is not always so easy to come by in the mommyhood!

Also Chase's team won their game today which guaranteed they wouldn't be home till late Saturday at the earliest...but they could still hold out till Sunday. Selfishly I want him home, but I know how much the winning means to him. Especially since he's coaching the team alone...We hope he comes home with a trophy! And if they don't give trophies at the state games, we hope he wins the tourney anyway!! We miss him, but still want him to do his best! We love Daddy!

Hanging out at my Gammie and Pappy's House

Friday we came out to Gammie and Pappy's...she's trying to clean up her house and not be such a hoarder anymore (I use that term lovingly) so we gladly volunteered to help! After some organizing and rearranging we ordered BBQ for dinner. And mom and Aunt Lys made a chocolate pound cake that they were very proud of! Side note--Chase's team also won their game today so they are undefeated and staying till Sunday. Go district 2! (PS everytime I say their team name I think about the Hunger Games)

Waiting for Mims to pick us up for the shower...Augusta's new favorite pose!

Saturday, Aunt Lys went in to work, so Augusta and I had a day to ourselves.
We went to Belk to get a gift for one of Chase's cousins that is getting married. They had a shower today, so Augusta and I went with Mrs. Shelia to that. It was great to see all the family, but the shower was a cookout and it was super hot! On another note, Chase's team won their game and are going into the championship undefeated! Yay!

Sunday brought church and then lunch with the family. After visiting with Chase's parents for awhile we went and visited mine. Unfortunately, Chase's team lost in the championship, but we're still so proud they made it as far as they did. We are also so glad that Chase is home! Hopefully he won't be gone for that long any time soon!! Asmuch as we enjoy our girl time, we need our Daddy here to make our family feel complete! Love him!

Happy Father's Day!

My Fave Daddy-Daughter Pic

We have a lot to celebrate today, with so many amazing fathers in our lives! Our families are blessed with some very different types of fathers, but they are all outstanding and all share a complete love and devotion to both the Lord and their families. Augusta could not have better examples of how a Godly man acts and I am so thankful for that.

And as much fun as celebrating Daddies is, we also got to celebrate sweet Augusta. It was baby dedication at church today. We invited our families and pledged to raise Augusta in Christ's love and following his example. They had a slide show of the babies being celebrated, which was adorable.

After church we had lunch at Chase's parents' house and both his grandmothers came to eat. Then it was off to the grocery and home so we could cookout for our dads that night. We made steaks, cheesy bacon potatoes (on the grill), asparagus, and salad. Our dads both loved the meal. And I think they especially loved spending time with their kids! Hope all the dads out there had a great day!

Father's Day gifts I crafted from ideas on Pinterest! (Love that site!!)

Daddy and Augusta enjoing each other on Father's Day

Busy Birmingham Weekend

This past weekend we traveled to Birmingham, Alabama for the wedding of some friends. Not only did we want to celebrate with them, but Chase was part of the wedding party, so we just had to be there! It took us around 3 hours to get there, and again, Augusta was a trooper. (I think she's getting used to the traveling thing) We only had to stop once for a diaper change and let her out of her seat for a minute...I think she'll be so much happy when she's able to sit upright in a seat instead of reclining, but I guess we have a little longer to wait before we test that theory.

Once there, we checked into the Tutwiler Hotel. It's downtown and supposed to be a restored building. And it was really beautiful. It was also valet parking only, like most places downtown, which is both a blessing and a curse. Love it because it's so easy on you the traveler, but hate it because sometimes you just want to be quick and it's not always quick for you. Guess that's a lesson in patience for me!

Anyway, Friday was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner...the dinner was at the Garden's Cafe in the botanical gardens. It was super pretty and I wished we would of had more time to look around the gardens. Augusta did so well, I have to brag on her. She stayed up waaaay past her bedtime and hardly fussed. (Just wanted one of us to stand with her) Such a sweet girl!

Augusta and me back in the room after the rehersal dinner

Saturday was AJ and Lydia's wedding day! First off we went to find me some shoes to go with the dress my sis let me borrow because I have lost one of my black shoes and have no clue what happened to it...shoe fairy anyone? But that's another story. After finding shoes and getting lunch, Chase left me and Augusta at the hotel to get ready while he took wedding photos. Chase's parents (Mims and Paul-Paul to Augusta) came and picked us up in their way through bc the actual wedding was 30 miles outside of Birmingham in a town called Springville. The venue was Matthew's Manor, it specializes in weddings and has many different sites. AJ and Lydia had their wedding and reception in Grace Hall.

Mr. and Mrs. AJ Freeman eating their wedding cake

The wedding was beautiful. And the reception was as well. The food was good, dancing was fun, the DJ was on top of his game, decorations were tasteful...it was just gorgeous. I also loved all the personalized goodies they had, including matchbooks, Hershey's kisses, and cups. Again Augusta held it together...she was a big girl up until we got in the car to head back to the hotel. But there were only a few tears before she gave it up to sleep...in her defense it was past her bedtime again...

Goodies from the wedding

Chase and me at the wedding

Sunday we woke up and had a family shopping day! Yay!! I love shopping, for anything and everything, but especially for clothes. And I think Augusta is going to follow in Mommy's footsteps...she loves looking around at everything. She was so excited, babbling, laughing, and giggling the whole time we looked around. And even though it ended up being a rainy day, we still hit plenty of stores at the outlet mall (including my favorite--Gap) and Target! (My other favorite!) Needless to say, I was a happy girl!

After shopping we headed out. We only had to stop once for Augusta to eat and stretch, and she slept the majority of the trip which was great. It's so nice when their naps line up like that! :) Only downside of the trip was how exhausted we were afterward. The tired feeling rolled over into Monday where we were all super lazy! (All that tiredness could have had something to do with the rainy/stormy weather Sunday and Monday as well, but who knows.) We are just now getting back into the swing of things, but it was still a great little getaway!

Augusta and Daddy at the Outlet Mall

See how excited she was to shop!!

Six Months!!!

"I'm six months, y'all!"

Okay, so I know I say this every time she reaches the milestone of another month, but I cannot believe my baby girl is another month older! Six months! That's halfway to a year....don't even get me started on that one! :(

But seriously, this month has flown by! And if these month posts seem kind of repetitive all over to you, then just ignore...if not, settle in and get ready to read about Augusta's month (in a nutshell that is!).

Augusta is now full-on sitting up without assistance!! She can sit for minutes on end (haven't let her try longer than that) and only really loses her balance when she wants to grab something that is a little out of her reach. She is also scooting...she does great at scooting backwards, and turning directions. She has just started to scoot forward so hopefully there will be more to report there next month. She also can move forward in her walker now!! She can actually go pretty much any way she wants, but like the scooting, the other directions came first. She's also gotten really good at lifting herself up. She can even get into the crawl pose, but can't move in it. Usually she's lifting her front half or her back half, very rarely in unison. ;) She's also babbling! It's adorable! I love to hear her talk, squeal, and especially laugh!

She has now successfully eaten green beans, bananas, carrots, apples, and rice cereal. We're taking it slowly, per pediatrician's recs, to monitor for allergies. She's loves her veggies so much...not a big apple fan. But I'm sure the apples are made from red apples, and she's prob like her mom-either doesn't like that mealy texture or only likes green apples! (Not uh red!)

Dislikes for this month are being put down...Augusta, you are turning into a little diva. ;) Also, getting her hair washed. And apples (she may be coming around though). Also waking up from naps before she's ready.

This past month Augusta has been loving: Her swimming pool! She loves to splash around in it! Drinking water, especially from a straw. (It makes her feel like a big girl!) She's also loving Rowan...it's like she's actually discovered he's a living creature. She watches him and tries to touch him constantly. Lucky for Row she's not moving too quickly just yet! She also loves grabbing onto people's faces...especially cheeks and noses. She's also realized both the remote and the iPhone are important things and loves when she gets them in her grasp. (Can you tell what we do at our house?) She also loved the coke can, if I haven't mentioned that in a previous post.

I am just in awe of this little miracle God has placed in my care. I thank him every day for this tremendous blessing and I'll never stop doing so. Augusta Kate, we love you more than you'll ever know...and hope one day you'll love reading back on all the memorable times in your life on this blog. (And hopefully think your parents weren't too gooby!)

Sitting up like a big girl

Getting love from Aunt Lys

I'm gonna get you Mommy!!

First Family Vacay!

Well Augusta went on her first vacation this Memorial Day weekend...we took a trip to my family's house in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. It's a tiny town, we're talking less than 800 peeps, that the Spring River runs through.

Trout fishing is a big thing to do there. As well as canoeing and rafting. Chase loves going to fish there. Personally I'd rather have a pond where the water is still, fishing in moving water is too hard! But he really enjoys it! So does my baby sister, Tori.

Chase and Tori fishing

We had fun days of fishing, Augusta and myself hung out on the bank. And we shopped, what little shopping they have! We also strolled around the park and checked out the dam and aquarium.

At the State Park

The only downer was both mine and Augusta's allergies went crazy! Poor baby has her Mommy's sinuses, I'm sorry sweet girl! We went both snotty and my eyes itched while hers watered like crazy. We think it was the dust in the house since it does stay closed off so much. But putting that aside, it was just what I needed. I wanted to get away and nothing is better than a (mostly) free trip! And Augusta did great on both the ride up and back! (My little trooper!)

Had fun, but I'm ready to go home, Mommy!

Vacation season is here! Can't wait for more travels with my loves!

Photots from the rest of the trip--Fun on the bank while the others fished!

Sweet Summertime!

I cannot believe it is finally here...summer vacation! It seems so unreal. I woke up yesterday, my last day of work, and I could not believe the day had finally come! I was almost like a kid on Christmas morning! ( I said almost people, I did actually still have to get up and go to work after all!)

But it was a great day. Super exciting because it was my last day before vacation officially started, but bittersweet because it was also my last day at the middle school--the place where I've been the past two years. In glad to be moving down, I'll now be at a school serving third and fourth graders, but I'll miss all the relationships I've made at the middle, junior high, and high school over these past 2 years. Making the transition easier though is the fact that one of the SpEd teachers is moving down with me. And the school's new principal is going to be the old junior high assistant principal, so at least I'll have some familiar faces.

But I'll get back to job stuff later, for now I'll put all that behind me and enjoy this time with my family! I'm excited for the time I'll get to spend with them and all the firsts we'll get to experience with Augusta this year! Do bring on the lazy days, afternoon naps, and fun in the sun...summer, the Goolsby's have been waiting for you!

I got my foot!

First Time in the baby pool