The Simmons: August 2015

Sunday, August 30, 2015

5 Months

Oh, Bethie girl, at 5 months you are such a happy baby! You smile quickly. Someone stopped me at church today to tell me that you wait until someone looks you in the eye and then you give a big grin! It is so true! You laugh but we still have to work at it. If you laugh easily, it probably means one of your siblings is nearby doing something that caught your eye!

At 5 months, you still eat 6, sometimes 7 times a day. It looks like you may be giving up the middle of the night feeding. But, you have done this to me before and then started it up again. So, we will see if all night stretches are real this time!

What your little belly tolerates is still a mystery. Because of your bm's, we head to the allergist this week. Then, if needed, we will go to the GI doctor the following week. We are hoping this will finally answer the question of what foods are upsetting your belly.

We started the month with you playing on your play mat. You perfected rolling over. As soon as you are laid down, you roll to your belly and then start looking around.

Now, you play more often on the blanket on the floor. You are seldom where I leave you. But, if I watch you, you don't show me anything other than the roll over. Your movements in the crib and on the blanket while my back is turned are getting bigger. I am excited to see if you end up being our quickest baby to be on the move.

This is the truth around that cute picture above. Maybe the craziness that surrounds you is why Gladys remains nearby to watch over you!

We also started letting you play in the exersaucer this past week. You love it!

Here are a couple of my other favorites from this past week:

Anna-Kate and her morning request, "can Bethie come sit with me?" Gladys is sure to come along!

The grins on these girls.

This grin. If only it wasn't blurry.

Because, this grin.

Friday, August 28, 2015

1st Grade

Anna-Kate

1st grade at Leesville Elementary with Mrs. Pyper

I pray for a fun year

with lots of learning, kind friends, new adventures

and the courage to shine brightly!

Anna-Kate, you were quite missed by your little siblings as you started back to school full time!

Anna-Kate (6), Benjamin (3), Bethany (4 months)

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Our Summer Break

School started for Anna-Kate yesterday. She had her first writing assignment, "tell me something about your summer break." Since I have really only documented the milestone events around here, I thought I would do my back to school "summer break" assignment as well!

The summer started with the hospital stay. The summer pretty much ended with the beach. And, then there were a lot of normal moments in between.

I had to take a picture of the kids one Sunday before church

This dress was given to Bethany by two sweet women in my world. Kathryn Ayers and Cathy Horner, two of the Lambs Bible study leaders (Cathy is also the pastor's wife), surprised me with this at the end of the Lambs year.

We went swimming as often as we could. What was most impressive was Anna-Kate. Her desire to swim exploded! She took lessons for awhile and improved so much! She spent much of her time in the pool practicing her swimming. I took about 3 pictures total this year at the pool, so this one from early in the summer will have to encapsulate all pool time!

In July we went to Shelby to visit Grandma and Gramps! We had a low key visit with them. On Sunday, Grandma wanted a few pictures of the kids, so I insisted on this one of the 3 generations of Miller/Simmons women.

Mom wanted to try some in front of her black eyed susans.

Benjamin and Bethany

I love the grin on Bethany and Anna-Kate's matching "Cheese!" grin!

This past year Anna-Kate enjoyed watching a couple cooking shows (favorites are Pioneer Woman and Chopped). This spring there was also a kids baking competition and then an adult Spring Baking Championship. Watching those shows with this girl was such a fun way to bond!

I told Anna-Kate we would make a cake of her design to see how we could do.

See her original design and what it turned into.

This was such a fun project with her!

(Baked the cake one day, decorated the next)

I think taking a mommy and me decorating class would be so fun!

Benjamin loves hanging out with me in the kitchen! As I have had to eliminate things from my diet, I have had to start cooking even more. This particular picture is when Benjamin helped me with my homemade bread.

Anna-Kate and Mary-Knowles!

Love their hearts for one another!

Benjamin LOVES looking for bugs!

This summer the play set has barely been touched because if he is outside, he is searching for a bug! Trying to catch a butterfly, examining a June bug, holding a bee, ...

I am sad I didn't get a better picture, but these two, and these two plus Benjamin, are always in motion! Cailey from across the street comes over often. This summer about once a week I gave her some mommy-helper hours. The kids thought Cailey in charge was awesome, and I thought running on the treadmill, cleaning without interruption, or a couple times feeding the baby in my room while watching a show was awesome!

As the summer began, I painted this deacon's bench. Mom and Dad brought it from my aunt's house. A bright happy color is perfect to remember the spunky, eccentric aunt from whom's house this came! (Right now I am working on the collage of frames to go above the bench. Then off to convince Will it's time to paint that little hallway.)

I loved looking back and finding this picture of us sitting with my Aunt Dot on that bench.

The kids love when I let Bethany sit on the couch to watch TV with them. Most of the time Gladys joins them. I am convinced she is watching out for Bethany when she does that!

Last week we celebrated one year with Gladys! We didn't throw a big party, but Gladys-girl, we love you! What a fun addition you have been to our home!