Higgins World

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Pumpkin Picking

This morning we headed up to the nearby pumpkin patch and gathered some up for some Saturday morning fun. The kids had a really fun time running around and finding the perfect pumpkin for each of us. Naylor was really good at picking the Daddy pumpkin and Mommy pumpkin and Lalon spotted the Naylor pumpkin and Lalon pumpkin and Mommy spotted the perfect Whitley Ann pumpkin. Afterwards we had a McDonald's lunch and home for some naps that no one really seemed to take!

A fun morning out and a fun tradition we've started for our family - our 3rd year doing this!

More pictures, click here: Pumpkin Patch 10.15.11

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Naylor Family Fun Day!

Robin, Robert, Christie, Pa Pa, Ma Ma, Meredith and Leslie

Aunt Neta Gayle, Pa Pa and Ma Ma

Pa Pa and Ma Ma

First Cousins!
Janet, David, Glenda, Michele, Becky, Robert

Christie holding Ella, Robert, Robin

Tate and Euva Naylor Family

What a fun, fun day we had together this past Saturday to just hang out, eat a ton of great food and celebrate Pa Pa's 79th birthday! It was all of the Rhotate (Tate) and Euva Naylor family together for the afternoon and Daddy had cooked a pig upon special request (or demand he may say - ha!). The pig was delicious!! I hadn't been to an actual pig 'picking' in several years - I've had tons of barbecue, but always chopped ahead of time, which is still good, but just not the same as pulling your own off!

We have certainly grown over the past couple of years and I believe the count was 9 kids that were under the age of 3 and then about another 8 or 9 kids in addition to that! Good thing the weather was nice and we were all able to play outside.

Our cousins, Larry and Christopher, had baled hay earlier that week and so we had some fun playing around and taking some pictures with those... I'm not sure they would have enjoyed us playing around on them so much, but we really had a great time.

Everyone has emailed and talked about what a fun time they had and we all agreed we need to maybe scale back the food just a bit and do this annually. It was a perfect day spent in good company! The link to a ton of fun pictures is just below - enjoy!

Naylor Family Fun Day - 10.8.11

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Whitley Ann's 7 months old!

Whitley Ann - 7 months old - 10.5.11

Boy oh boy, we're over half way to completing her first year and I really can't remember where the time has gone! I joked that I needed to find my remote control on time and put it on pause for a second... they'll all be in school before I even know it.

Today, Whitley Ann is 7 months old and (I'm going to have to stop so I can pat my own back real quick) I'm blogging about it on her actual birthday and not a week later - woo hoo Mommy!

Happiest girl I know; I think each of our babies is happier than the previous one, but she's really just that - happy and content. Unless she's left alone / can't see anyone *or* it gets really quiet. If it gets quiet and it isn't a sleeping time of day it freaks her out... freaks me out a bit too, like "wait, where did everyone go?!".

She's moving around like it's her job, with pulling herself on her arms like an army crawl and this week she got her feet and toes into it to help push herself off. If she wants something, it's nothing but a thing for her to scoot on over to it. I'll try to video and post it later if I can remember.

She's loving her food too and it's about time I bump her up a bit. She's eating a container of vegetables each evening, but I think next week I'll start some fruit for breakfast and then some veggies for dinner. As we increase those, we'll start decreasing her bottles a few ounces on each. Oh, and Friday night she had puffs for the first time - picked them up and ate, I mean gummed them like a champ.

Today I tried giving her some of her bottle in an actual sippy cup. She spilled a bit out, but once she realized she was controlling the 'pour' she got it going at her own speed.

Loving every minute of her and trying to enjoy this baby stage before it's completely gone, which I know all too well is not far off...

First go at a sippy cup - she nailed it!

She was so tickled with herself and rightly so!

Monday, October 3, 2011

NCSU vs GA Tech

Well, the game wasn't much to write home about if you're an NCSU fan, but luckily for us, we like both teams so it was a win either way! The biggest win was that some of our Tech friends were able to make it to Raleigh for the weekend. It was so much fun to see the kids play with Reagan Shorter and fun to catch up with our friends that we haven't seen in so long.

The Shorters arrived middle of the night (early morning) on Friday, so I was able to spend all day with Chris and Reagan while Kim and Brian were at work. Friday night we had a pizza party and soon Dimitris was here and Lee Cox flew in around midnight. Saturday was the game and we packed up the world and headed out to tailgate with our friends. This was the kids' first game of the season and Whitley Ann's first ever - it was perfect tailgating weather and we all had a great time. The kids didn't nap, but found the strength to power through the day. I think having their buddies there to run around with helped keep them going. We took the bounce house to help entertain the kids and that was the envy of all the other tailgaters! So many people would stop by and marvel at how smart we were or ask if their kids could have a turn.

It was a great weekend all around and we were pretty lazy on Sunday, just lying around and watching some movies after a big breakfast. Most folks had to head out just after we ate, so we were super lazy all day. I did get us motivated enough to get out and take a quick walk before bedtime though.

Thanks to everyone for making the trip - fun was had by all!

NCSU vs GA Tech Weekend Fun!

Upgrade!

Testing it out - looks like a good fit!

Monkeying around in Lalon's bed

Lalon giving hers a go

Helping Daddy screw the bed together - they were both great helpers.

Helping Daddy fix Lalon's bed

Woody and Lalon agree it's a great bed for Naylor!

Helping make the bed - hope they are always this excited to do this chore!

Naylor and Lalon got some bed time upgrades on Thursday. Naylor has graduated from the toddler bed to a full size big boy bed and Lalon moved from her crib to the toddler bed. Naylor was super excited, I had been telling him this was happening and he could help get his bed ready. I had not planned on moving Lalon and so hadn't talked to her about it to prepare her. After Brian got Naylor's bed together he went and changed Lalon's over... she was a little apprehensive at first, telling Brian, "No Daddy, don't break it!", but she seemed to do okay once it was done. Although Lalon's bed is made to transition into a toddler and then a full size, we don't have the pieces to do it, so Brian put the toddler side from Naylor's bed on Lalon's - note: Naylor's bed is black, Lalon's is white, we are aware that these colors don't match.

The kids had so much fun 'helping' Daddy work on their beds and helping Mommy make them up and so were excited to try them out for the first time. I had intended to get some side rails for Naylor's bed to keep him from falling out, but forgot so we're going to give it a go without the rails - so far, so good! The main reason we moved Naylor over was that he has slats in his bed sides and at least once a week, usually more, he'd somehow get his legs stuck and not able to get them out, sometimes even challenging me to get him unstuck - so big bed it is!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Family trip to the NC Zoo

We've been wanting to take the kids to the zoo forever and it just seemed like Sunday morning was the perfect time to go. We were up early and out the door, as a neighbor had mentioned to be there when the gates opened and the zoo's about 1 hr 15 mins from us... So we loaded up, (SO glad I had pre-packed all the essentials the night before!) and we were on our way.

We headed in through Africa first and we were able to make it across the entire zoo and saw all of the animals with the exception of the giraffes and that was because the ground was wet and they are prone to incidents. The kids had a really great time and the entire way there Naylor kept saying he wanted to see the Lion King!

We had a 'picnic' of sorts and got to ride the carousel - the kids loved it, even Whitley Ann got to ride. I'm so happy we took the kids - it was fun for the entire family and definitely a trip we'll make again. Once we were loaded up, we were in the car about 2 minutes before everyone was asleep in the back of the car.

It was funny to me the looks we'd get as we were walking through the zoo... folks were always asking, "are they twins?" "are they all yours?" and sometimes the questionable looks on their faces was enough and I'd just say, "yeah, we're our own little zoo"!

Here's a link to the pictures - what a fun day! For the pictures in the link, I put all the ones of us in them at the front of the album, so once you reach animals, that's what's left is just animals.

NC Zoo Trip 9.25.11

Old School Playgroup

When Naylor was around 7-8 months, we started hanging out with a few other new moms / boys on our street. It all started with our closest neighbor Stacy and her son Luke who is just 2 weeks younger than Naylor. Both Naylor and Luke were premature, so there was a commonality, along with being first time mothers and having no idea what we were doing! So it was comforting to bounce ideas off of each other and learn from one another's trial and error. Shortly after, Meghan and Hayden and Rikki and Noah joined us and we had lots of fun watching the boys all grow together.

A little over a year ago, Stacy and her family moved to Washington, DC, but were here over the weekend for a quick visit. It was fun to see the boys play together - although they really don't remember each other the way we moms remember it all! So fun to catch up with Stacy and see her newest little guy Max who just started walking! Stacy and her family are slated for one more move next summer back to their home in Indiana.