This was Sunday before church. Sunday is Mommy's Day off (actually it takes me a long time to get ready for church and be ON TIME), so Daddy feeds and dresses us kids. They both seem to like their SS classes and we are grateful for such a wonderful church that teaches the kids God's Word.

This is Brady on his 8 month birthday. We can't believe he is so old already! He is definitely a mover and shaker!! He is never still and already crawling, pulling up and cruising around furniture. I don't know if it's his personality or if he is just trying to keep up with sister. He has 5 teeth and loves to eat! He is liking those bottles less and less, so we'll see when we can start table foods. He still wants Mommy in his sights at all times and preferrably holding him, but we are hoping that gets better as he learns to walk and become more independent. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

This is Grace's usual attire. She is really into "princess" and has to wear a dress every day. Good thing I bought all those shorts for summer! My mom's friend made her this princess skirt and she wears it all day, every day over her outfit. We have started chores or "jobs" as she calls them. She has to feed the dog, put her dishes in the sink at each meal, brush her teeth, clean her toys up before bed, etc. She is putting a sticker on her chart in this picture, which is how we see what "jobs" she did that day. On Saturday she gets 10 cents and we have a great piggy bank from Granna. She has 3 slots to put her money in (tithing, saving, and spending). We are so proud that she knows how much goes in each area.

Mommy wanted a playdate with her friend Meaghan, so she came over and brought her little boy, Jackson. The kids were a 3 man band, playing the drums, guitar, and whatever else they could find. Of course Grace was bossing everyone around! She even dressed Brady up--He is ready for the beach! We all had a good time visiting.

I am finally getting caught up with the pictures after our 2 week trip to TN. Daddy textured and painted our kitchen while we were all gone and it looks great! Brady is watching his sister learn to bat. He loves outside!

After Grace had seen so much baseball, she wanted to bat like Uncle Zachary. So we got her a tee and balls and she did really well on the first try. She can already hit the ball without knocking the tee over! Thank goodness, since our family is so into baseball! She would hit the ball and yell, "I am running to first base like Zachary", but she would run straight across to 2nd base without going to first. Oh well, we still have some lessons to teach.

Yikes! Brady was scared of Grace screaming and dancing (see below!)

Granna got out all of Mommy's old dance costumes for Grace to play dress up. There were tons of them, but this was her favorite, because in her words, "it had a princess skirt." She wore them the rest of our trip in TN. I think I need to sign her up for dance!

Here is Matt, Elaine, and Anna Claire. They were so kind to come to Memphis while I was there and it was nice to see them. Elaine and her family lived next door to my family in Germantown. She came over to meet me the night we moved to TN from TX when I was 15. Thank the Lord for her introducing me to people and being a great next door neighbor! Thanks to her, my transition wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, and we had tons of fun times with all of our church buddies!

Speaking of church buddies, here are some! Our friend Kelly set up a dinner and playdate while I was in town. Thank you Kelly! It was so great to catch up with these girls who I went to church with in high school. I am the old lady of the group. From top is Christy, Colleen, and me, Elaine, Kelly, Molly, and Regan. We chatted for hours and then met a couple of days later so all of our kids could play. Everyone has such sweet, precious children.

Uncle Micah got back in town and went with us to the Ole Miss/Memphis game. He is very intense about the game, but we love him anyway. Especially Grace!

We all got to eat out with Zachary after one of his games, so it was nice to actually talk with him. He hasn't been able to see Brady much since his birth, so he was glad to see what new tricks Brady could do.

After 16 innings had passed, we took Brady to the car to feed him dinner. You can tell he enjoyed eating. As many of you know, he has been a harder baby and just wanting mommy to hold him at all his waking hours. Well, since he has been crawling and moving around, he is getting much happier. I think he wants to do what Big Sister is doing. So needless to say, we are enjoying life much more and Mommy is much, much happier!

Granna really helped with Brady. We only took him to 2 games, and he wasn't fussy at all! Yippee! He is just very wiggly and wants to jump up and down on your legs. Here was a few moments when Granna got him to sleep! This game was never ending- 17 innings! And after all that, the Rebels lost!

Here is all the family at the baseball games! Grace went to all of them and did really well. She would yell, "Go Zachary" and ask when it was his turn to bat. We also brought a bag of goodies for her to play with. Papaw likes to listen to the radio commentary while sitting at the game-go figure! The weekend we were there Ole Miss was playing Mississippi State, their biggest rivals!

This is Zachary, the hero of our family! He plays second base for the Ole Miss Rebels. There's not a good picture of his face, but he is high action! We got to see him play 4 games while we were visiting and he started every time. He also has the 2nd highest batting average on his team! We are very proud of his ability but even more so his character. The funniest thing about the whole thing is all the little kids that want his autograph after the games. Who knew he would be a celebrity. He is signing autographs in the middle picture.

This was our first day of visiting in Tennessee! We got to play with Jacob and Hope and it was a lot of fun! We walked to the park and played well together. Mrs. Denise is such a good friend to mommy and also really funny!