The Last Baby

Dakota Kate is it. She's our last baby. And I suppose that sad fact, in addition to the busy-ness of caring for two small children has left me about 5 months behind on this family blog.

I can't believe she's already halfway through her infancy. She's "over the hill" in baby terms... Every single stage I try to cherish. And it really puts things into perspective. For example, around her 4-month mark, I was exhausted from the fact that she refuses to take a bottle or sippy cup and I almost decided to wean her early. I even told our Pediatrician this and he graciously hooked us up with 4 canisters of formula. At that point I was ready to stop.

Well almost.

If you were to ask me today how it's going- well, at 6.5 mos she's still not taking a bottle nor a sippy cup, but since she's the last baby I decided to keep going and we're still going strong. She's the last one. It's the last time to experience all the mothering parts of caring for such a little one and it really has me treasuring this time, even if there are challenges.

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I'll be going back and post-posting with pre-dates {does that make sense?} just so our journal isn't empty for the past 5 months! We've been very busy anyhow and I want to document life during that time.

To start this off, last week we had family photos taken by Alisha Baker Photography {HERE} and our complete gallery is available for viewing {HERE} password DKmason.

Enjoy!

Halloween Festivities

Happy Fall Y'all!
I'll be the first to admit we overdid it on celebrating for Halloween this year.

It started with Boo at the Zoo...
We met up with Leah and Carson for a fun trick-or-treating playdate at the zoo.
The boys were able to go to different stations around the zoo and even had a trick-or-treating table line for garnering sweet treats.
I had to get a photo of these Nutcracker ballerinas manning the Birmingham Ballet booth.
I know it's silly, but I was almost giddy when Dakota Kate was so happy being held by this sweet dancer. I'm so excited for when she's old enough to take ballet classes, even if it's years down the road!

And then while the boys and Mrs Leah rode the Choo-Choo around the zoo, Dakota Kate and I chilled for a bit with the strollers and gear.
And then we all were able to do the hayride together.

We even ended the evening with a very late night dinner...at Davenport's.

But we had to have our entire family celebrate the Fall, so we made a trip out to the Old Baker Farm.Mason loved the Cotton Jump!
Sorry Scott, I uploaded the pic of him mid-wink.
We were able to go out into the fields to pick out our very own pumpkins. Mason absolutely adores the word PUMPKIN now.
We had a fun ride and it was nice to be able to go with our whole family.
What a beautiful day!
And then we've also been "BOO"ed for the first time. I have a hunch it was our sweet neighbors down the street-what a nice surprise we had!
Then we went to the Hoover Fall Festival and this was the first time for the kids to dress in their costumes.

Dakota Kate was Princess Leia
And Mason was Luke Skywalker...or really a Jedi Knight {since we didn't have a blonde hair piece for him}
And then Halloween weekend we had our Church's Fall Festival!
photo courtesy of Kim Brantley {HERE for the album} and {HERE for her FB page}photo courtesy of Kim Brantley {HERE for the album} and {HERE for her FB page}photo courtesy of Kim Brantley {HERE for the album} and {HERE for her FB page}photo courtesy of Kim Brantley {HERE for the album} and {HERE for her FB page}photo courtesy of Kim Brantley {HERE for the album} and {HERE for her FB page}

Mason was ecstatic to hang with his best bud Carson {seriously, look at the look of excitement in his face! I think Carson was excited about his candy!}

On Halloween Day, Laura & Blair met us at the Mall for a lunch at Chick-fil-A and then a carousel ride...in costume.

Mason was scared to death of the Chick-fil-A cow. Frightening!

But he loved the carousel and Dakota Kate enjoyed trying to pull Mason's hood during the ride, so all was well.

Halloween Night this was just before Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood. Mason had a blast going up to the door and knocking or ringing the doorbells. I think he liked that part more than receiving the candy. I'm still not sure he understood that the candy was an edible treat. I'm not teaching him anything he doesn't have to know!

Phewww! Is that it? I think so. It was a whirlwind of Halloween-ing, but it sure was fun!

Our First Family Vacation

We took our first family vacation to Gatlinburg, TN. This post is all photos and I may go back and add text, but the pictures are worth a thousand words anyway: