Abnormal August

August was a bit unusual for our family.  For starters, the weather was more atypical of the usual hot, southern August we are accustomed to.  We have enjoyed quite a few cooler days and evenings with several storms and rain showers.  August was also unusual for us because Evan was in school the entire month.  Usually, our August involves enjoying the last days of summer and heading to the beach for a week.  With Evan's new school schedule, we knew that wasn't going to happen this year.  In the future, we are sure we will enjoy taking our family vacations during the less busy months of the year.  For this year, we do have a little more traveling in our future for Daddy's work.  I think we made the best of this unusual month in our family's history.

I found this "Believe" banner in the dollar bins at Target and loved it.  I think it will be our theme for the year.  In Brody's "classroom," we added this little flag so that we can do the Pledge of Allegiance with our lessons.  

These boys love spending time together.  Daddy worked from home one day so he and Brody were business partners.  Brody got his little laptop and his writing pad and went to work.  He practiced his letter I and writing his name.  

I love dressing the boys alike.  It just makes me so happy.  Evan is such a loving big brother although Brody is finally coming around and will sneakily give Mattox a quick kiss on his head when he thinks no one is watching.  

I loved this timehop comparison.  Brody and Mattox are wearing the same outfit.  Brody is wearing the same outfit as Evan wore four years ago.  

I still think Brody looks lovely sleeping in his carseat.  This month marks Cocoa's 1 year birthday of joining the family.  Mattox is loving playing and having tummy time a lot more now and will roll himself onto his stomach.  

I think Brody still looks so sweet sleeping and love the comparison of him sleeping in his car seat 3 years ago when he was about 15 months.  Yep, he is still using the same car seat.  Those all-in-one seats are well worth the money! 

Love this picture Daddy took of Evan and Mattox playing.  

Do any other mamas love the look of a whole freezer shelf dedicated to frozen breast milk and baby food?  

I had a lovely late morning breakfast meeting with this lovely fellow blogger that I have wanted to meet for years.  Joye from Signs of Life is just lovely and so inspiring.  She is doing amazing things for the Lord as she is parenting her amazing son, Ethan, (seriously, check out all that this boy has overcome in his short life) and two more adorable little foster children.  We did get to meet her precious foster children who were about Brody's age, but I couldn't take any pictures for the blog.  Joye could really use prayers as she attempts to follow God's will in these children's lives.   

Our bedroom sees a lot of action these days but likely not the kind you would expect.  Haha!  Brody starts his day very early by coming into our room and cuddling up in the chair.  We often find him sleeping there in the morning.  He also likes to snuggle up in our comforter on the bench at the foot of our bed.  Evan and Mattox enjoy cuddling before bedtime.  Brody has been "copying" me a lot lately and tries to feed his teddy bear "from his tummy" when I am nursing Mattox.  Sigh.  Mattox enjoys some computer time on the bed.  Future blogger perhaps?  That little laptop is set up for Brody and has e-mails personalized to him and also some blog entries.  Haha!  Evan also practices football in our room.  This is the real life of a mom of boys, ya'll! 

We discovered a fun place, Zaxby's, that has a weekly kids' night on Wednesdays.  They have 99 cent kids' meals, balloons, face painting and games.  Brody loved his little teddy bear balloon, and Evan loved his soccer ball face painting that unfortunately had to be washed away when he got home because I was not letting him go to bed with it on his face and ruin his sheets.  

We made another trip to Chapel Hill for Mattox's follow up with the neurosurgeon.  They just want to monitor him a little longer for his head shape and size.  He has his mama's unusual head shape, and it really jumped up in size the last few months.  Mostly, it is just wide on the sides like mine and Brody's.  The neurosurgeon isn't very concerned because it feels normal and is still on the growth charts although it did measure in the 90th percentile.  We just have to have room for all these brains, you know.  Apparently, UNC's campus has these painted cow sculptures (not sure why cows when UNC's mascot is a ram but whatever), and this one in front of the Children's Hospital looked like a sock monkey.  

I don't really go to Smash Burger for the burgers.  I just really love their Smash Fries which are drizzled in olive oil and fresh rosemary and garlic. I did have a nice truffle mushroom swiss burger.  

We all enjoyed visiting N.C. State for some yummy ice cream at Howling Cow.  It was fun to be on campus when all the students were moving in for the year.  It brought back so many memories of living in the dorm.  

In all these months of living in the Raleigh area, we had not made a trip to the mall yet.  I was going through withdrawal so we decided to head to the mall for some shopping therapy.  There are a few malls in the area, but we have always enjoyed Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh which has the added benefit of having one of our few Janie & Jack stores in the state.  I did get Mattox and Brody new matching shirts, but unfortunately, this store doesn't carry Evan's size.  I also picked up a few things at H&M, and the kids enjoyed playing in the mall play area.  No, we don't put money in these rides.

Of course, the month wouldn't be complete without a doughnut date so Brody and I enjoyed some Krispy Kreme.  Mattox just enjoyed wearing the hat. 

Brody, Mattox and I had lunch with Daddy at this fun little barbecue restaurant called Red, Hot & Blue.  It has a fun blue's theme, and I enjoyed my yummy pork sandwich along with a large mug of their famous chili and some homestyle potato salad.  We just happened to sit in a booth with a picture of Della Reese so I made Brody pose for a picture with her.  I mean we could be related, right? 

Lucky for me, I discovered a nice little children's boutique across from the restaurant and found a couple of smocked outfits for Mattox at 70% off.  These will be great next summer although I won't promise not to put them on him this year even if they are a little big.  

Mattox has really been enjoying his exersaucer entertainer.  It is fun watching him play and interact with the toys.  He loves eating the giraffe, playing with the panda see-saw, and loves interacting with the lion puppet.  

A little comparison of Brody playing with the exersaucer toys at the same age. 

My very own King Julien.  If you haven't seen the Madagascar movies, we highly recommend them.  My boys love quoting this movie, and Brody particularly wants to be King Julien.  He sings, "It's getting hot in here" like King Julien a lot.  They especially like Madagascar 3:  Europe's Most Wanted best.  They have also watched all the King Julien episodes on Netflix as well as The Penguins of Madagascar show.  

Brody and I went to breakfast one morning at Chick-fil-a in hopes there would be kids to play with in the play place.  Unfortunately, there were no other kids there so he preferred coloring at the table.  I love his drawing of hearts.  He has really gotten so good at drawing pictures.  Since there were no kids at Chick-fil-a, we went to the park to ride his bike and play.  He found a little boy who wanted to push him around on his bike.  He doesn't need to be pushed, but he didn't mind the help.  I took this picture of Mattox to text to Eddie because it was so funny.  I was dressing him and had his and Mattox's clothes for the day.  Without thinking, I put Brody's Mickey shirt on Mattox.  Ugh, mommy brain!  

I wanted to share these pictures of my big brother and I for his birthday.  

Fun at the Park 

Mattox does like the park and being outside.  He likes the swings and "pretending" to slide.  

We like this park because it has lots of shade and lots of other kids.  It is beside the soccer fields where the boys play. 

I thought I would let Brody take his bike and ride around the track while I walked to get some exercise. 

Brody wanted to push Mattox on the swings.  Hey, when he actually asks to play with Mattox, I cannot deny him.  I am just overjoyed when he pays attention to his little brother. The friendship is building, and I know it will be amazing! 

Brody shows off his physical fitness abilities on the playground.  He is very strong on the monkey bars and loves to climb. 

I just love spending my days with these boys!

Pool Time

These boys are fun to watch in the pool.  Their new favorite game is blowing water through a pool noodle to squirt each other.  They each take turns. 

Evan is a mess and loves "tormenting" his younger brother.  Here, he is throwing a ring float at Brody.  Brody is trying to hit it with his pool noodle.  Brody also demonstrated his big muscles before jumping in the pool.  Mattox just thinks they are all crazy. 

Mattox enjoying the water with Daddy. 

Me and my littlest man. 

I love watching Evan and Brody jumping in together.  

Soccer Time

Another season of soccer has started.  Evan has played a couple of games already, but Brody is just doing a skills clinic although they will have scrimmage games in a couple of weeks. Brody took pictures of Grandma at Evan's last game on my phone.  

Mattox likes soccer too, but he says it tires him out. 

A little comparison of Brody the soccer player four years ago and today. 

Evan the soccer player four years ago. 

More Preschool Lessons

Brody learned the letter I and had a tasty ice cream treat.  He made ice cream in a bag. 

We learned the letter J and read about Jesus. 

We learned the letter K and made a kite.  If it had been a windy day, we might have tried to fly a kite.  

Brody made a cute little handprint lion at VBS and a cute picture frame for his picture.  We painted this little mug from a kit we found at Target.  Despite the fact the paint was a very poor quality, I think it turned out pretty cute.  He came up with the design for the rainbow and colored in the rainbow, sun, and heart. 

We haven't had storytime at the library this month, but Brody did enjoy finding the little fox at the library.