More Family Photography

These are a few more of my favorite photos from our family shoot photographed by the wonderful Brittany from For His Glory Photography. There are so many pictures that I just love and it has been such a hard decision of which to frame! But hey, it is a great "problem" to have when you had so many great photos :))

Class of 2024

It is truly amazing that another year has started up and Charli Beth is now a first grader. What has ever happened to the time when she was itty bitty and walking into preschool for her first day? It seems like yesterday that I held back the tears until she walked hand in hand with her best friend through her pre-k door. Ah.

Now little miss sassy pants is all grown up and way to beautiful for me to even express. Her personality is so much like my own at times that it is scary yet she is a lot like my older sister Ashley. She is really shy and awkward (yes, bless her heart, she is awkward at first) until she gets to know someone very well, then she turns into Chatty Cathy. I was really worried about how her first day would go because a lot of her friends from Kindergarten were moved to a brand new school that was opened in our county. But she did wonderful and I can mainly thank her sweet, cheerful, pretty teacher for that!

The night before school started I quickly made this simple mason jar bouquet for Mrs. Graves because she told Charli that she was so excited when she saw her name because she is a "bow head." The card stated " I hope you have a bow-itful year! Love, Charli Beth"

I know cheesy, but what better way to help break in the first day than pretty flowers and the alphabet!

Charli is still obsessed with horses, and I am pretty sure that it will never change. She has saved her money since April and has $117 for her to buy her own horse with. Yikes! We better get to finding a house with more land!

Mrs. Graves and Charli for a quick photo before they started their day. I can already tell that she is such a fun and caring teacher. At open house she gave each child a package with an envelope that stated for them to open the night before school. I am pretty sure that Curtis was more anxious to open it than CB! Enclosed we found this sweet little poem and confetti "dust" that she placed by her pillow. How sweet is that!

I am so excited to see how this year goes for her and pray that it is nothing but wonderful memories and LOTS of learning!

Featured as BOTW !

This week the wonderful designer of my blog is featuring our blog! I am so excited that Jenn was nice enough to share our simple yet very beautiful blog with her readers!

Want to know more about me? Go check it out here.

Jenn is by far the most wonderful designer that I have had the pleasure to work with. She was a huge help in the transition from Mommy & Charli to our now very different Boots, Bows & the 5-oh! I am the most indecisive person in the world (no joke!) and she was patient and helped me go through tons of designs until I finally just let her go with her gut, and boy am I glad that she did :)

Muchkin Land Designs is offering 5% off to my readers!

Please use the code of BOTWPaige on the order form!

Final Florida

It seems to have taken me forever and a day (no lie) to get caught up on the Florida posts. We had so much time there and with two little ones, there are a TON of photos to pick from!

When we went to see Winter (from Dolphin Tale.) This is actually the second time CB and I have "met" her. But this time since the movie was released, there were SO many people there that we left quickly. Thankfully, the bulding with all of the movie scenes was a great adventure for us.

Our plane ride home was a bit leary with sleepy childern and a rough flight from storms. I was so thankful to land back in Nashville and return to Kentucky!

Daddy and Bryar are one of a kind for sure!

Love this.

& Yes I did go stand out in the middle of a lightening storm to capture it.

I cannot wait until we can take another family vacation together! I have a feeling that we will end up in the good ole smokey mountains this Fall :)

Tampa Zoo

While we were in Clearwater last month we made a day trip to the Tampa Zoo before flying back home to good ole' Kentucky that night. We luckily went on $5 admission day; along with everyone else and their great grandmothers. No lie. But hey, you cannot beat that price!

This zoo is honestly the best! The kiddos loved it and having the rides to occupy some down time with Charli Beth was so great!

Charli really loved being able to ride a camel, feed a giraffe, and see all of the cool animals. Baby Bryar is not much on heat so a lot of his time was spent snoozing away in the stroller or in the sling as I was trying to show him animals.

As we were getting to the end, it thundered and a strike of lightening came over head, which sent people running and screaming everywhere. We did end up missing several of the animals that CB wanted to see due to the storm but she thought running to the car was the most fun "eva!"

Tough Love.

"I don't want my children to be what I want them to be. I want them to be everything God created them to be."

Some days being a Mommy is the hardest work. It seems that I am the last to go to bed most nights and obviously the first one up. I have watched both babies grow and develop right before my eyes. Sometimes these things are harder than others. Although, I think my hardest thing thus far in parenting in being patient even though I know they can do better.

Lately it seems that I struggle with knowing when to stay calm and let things pass by or when to go out of my way to either encourage or discipline. I feel at times that I may push (Charli) them to hard. It is not because I just want them to succeed in whatever it may be, it is because I KNOW they can and will do better once the push is given. This goes for anything from homework to softball.

I struggle with thinking that I am going to be a parent that makes a sport zero fun. For an example, Charli's softball coach continued telling the girls not to look at the ball when they run. What did my girl do when she hit? She looked. So I yelled out on the field and told the coach, so she could be reminded once again. I was picked on by parents for getting her in "trouble" but in my eyes that wasn't it. It is part of the game, you put your head down and dig those feet to the next base. I know she gets it, because I have watched her. I know that she gets writing her name neat but I also get that she is 6 and gets in a hurry.

I was really praying over this issue the other day while we practiced homework. Char got frustrated at me so I sent her to her room, she came back in wearing a batgirl mask and a super Charli cape saying "I'm ready now Mom" and I could not help but to laugh. Thank you God for reminding me just how cute and innocent she is (because Momma was loosing it.) it was such the grand reminder that kids are kids and even when we tough love them, it works. It may not be the best parenting style but it works for me.

Family Photographs

There is nothing in the world that can brighten a soul better than a family photograph full of love and joy.

Each time that I spare a few moments and look through the new photos that For His Glory Photography took of our family, I simply become baffled at the fact that just a few short years ago my life was SO different. God is so good, and he answered so many prayers just by bringing Curtis into my life.

These photographs caught our moments of joy that we share as a family. We are goofy, simple and quiet boring at times as we live our simple life on the beautiful family farm. I have more to photos to share that capture just as much beauty. Thank you Brittany for taking the time to work with our family!

Bryar Wayne is 10 months!

Baby Bryar turned 10 months on August 5th, and it is making my Mommy heart go crazy to think that in just 2 short months we will be celebrating him turning one! It has been such an wonderful blessing being his Mommy already! Just as with Charli, seeing Bryar go from 4 lbs down to 3 to where they are now is amazing. God is SO good!

Bryar has grown so much in the past month and has became such the little stinker. By stinker I mean that the boy is into everything and is everywhere. Just days are he started crawling, he started trying to stand up on his own. Although, he is doing just fine at pulling up onto things so far. We recently purchased a baby gate to keep him from going towards the bathroom, because that seems to be his most favorite room of our home.

He has two teeth and in the last few days he has been working on me. It has been such a joy! NOT. Teething plainly sucks.

Bryar Wayne still hates baby food but has become a huge fan of yo baby and yogurt blends. Recently I have started blending canned green beans from the garden along with a baby food and he really enjoys that! It is not unusual for Bryar to sound like the exorcist growling if I do not feed him quick enough. He is still taking Neosure formula, and has bottles of 6 - 8 ounces.

Sleeping through the night? Ha, no way. Little man is still hungry at least one time a night between 3 and 5. Which is a whole lot better than getting up 3 times like we were.

He is still wearing pamper swaddlers size 2 and his clothing can be anywhere from 6 - 12 months. Our buddy is a long and skinny fella!

His talking is very minimal still, which is very expected. I believe he says "hi" & "dada" the most and only "maaamaaa" when he is fussing. Just my luck huh?
He has started to wave but only at other babies or small children. Clapping and dancing were just picked up in the last week and a half. But the best of all is his new excited/silly face where he scrunches up his nose and squints his eyes while smiling. It is seriously hilarious.

We have started to plan his first birthday party and the theme is going to be farm animals because he loves the cows so much. I have such big plans for his birthday :) But seriously I do not want to fathom the thought of the day he turns one!