in a nutshell.

well, september is nearly gone and i've only posted 3 times this month.  that is a sign of too much busyness!  it's a shame because sarah kate is at the peak of cuteness - could she get funnier, sweeter, cuter???  and i have been too "busy" to write any of it down.  and now i'm too tired to remember it all - we have had a bout of sickness with hayes who is all better now but boy was she sick this past weekend. she had a rough go with a high fever and a strep diagnosis. 

 and then there is beau....i'm praying for some good news tomorrow and will update after his appointment but as of now things aren't going well with him.  if his body can benefit from the addition of a new medication then we'll be good to go for a while, but if not - well, if not then our only hope would be a pacemaker and that's just not a common procedure in the vet world and is not the route we will take.  i'll know more tomorrow afternoon.

so anyway, here are the past couple of weeks in a nutshell....(or in pictures with captions)....

a couple of weekends ago we went to the zoo in columbia - mainly to see the elephants (sk's favorite animal) and giraffes (dumbo's favorite animal)

pic in front of the elephants (or the elephant's hiney rather)

feeding the giraffe some lettuce

better shot of the giraffe

this was actually before the carousel started so of course someone had a hard time sitting still and decided to use sister's shoulder as a step to try to climb to who knows where.  

"milking" the cow

miss independent - she loves to try to escape!  i run miles and miles each day chasing after this one.

a little instragram love.  sk was embarrassed by her clashing plaid family.

striking a pose!

so anyway, that was a fun day!

as for the non-zoo days.....

took the devil to the vet.....checked out just fine.

our paci obsession is in overdrive - between the teething and the sickness and starting school - she LOVES them.  here she is with one in her mouth, 2 in her hand, and she's headed up to bed where she has a million more stashed in little secret places around her crib bumper.  houston, we have a problem.

progress.  we aren't really riding the bike yet, but we're pushing it!  gotta start somewhere!!

let's face it - some people are just way cooler than others.  hayes is one of those people. and she's also a trouble maker, she's loud, she's snuggly, she's got more energy than i've ever had in my whole life, she's clumsy, she's brave, she's incredibly smart and coy, she's exhausting, she's friendly & outgoing, and she's so much fun.  she'll be 15 months on sunday and i WILL do a monthly post after that.  it's time.

sweet school girl - loves her after school snack

reading her favorite book

late summer swim with the cousins this past weekend at mimi and papa's

mimi rocking very sick baby hayes in the wee hours of the morning this past saturday.  poor baby's temp climbed to 104.6.  she was burning up.

so papa drove us to urgent care.  hayes is smitten with her papa and we were glad he was able to go with us while mimi stayed with sk.

sk and i went to see branda and josh's new house on saturday night.  sk and benton had a good time in a dirt pile before we left - she was so proud of her dirty little self!  

this baby girl is all better!  we took a wagon ride to our neighborhood playground late this afternoon and she had the best time (as did her big sis!)  AND it actually felt fall-ish in the shade!  we are some big time summer loving lucy girls but fall is inevitable and we are ready!!!  bring on the pumpkins then bring on the christmas fun and then bring on the snowy blowing rock trip.  we are ready for all of it.

more to come (hopefully sooner than later).