Baby Steps...

At 14 months & 1 day {11 months 3 weeks adjusted age} Garren took his first steps!!!

We signed the lease to our new apartent yeaterday afternoon. My mom, Donna, the boys & I went to the unit with the leasing agent to do a walk through inspection, we put the boys down to crawl around & the agent asked if any of them were walking? I told het no but that Garren had been working hard at standing on his own. As I'm telling her this Garren pulls himself up on my leg, I turned him around to show her & he took 2 steps!!! This happened right after Donna & my mom walked outside to get some boxes :( Thankfully he did it again & again the rest of the evening & is now up to 6-8 steps.

Standing Tall

Mr Garren has been really hard at work learning to stand on his own. He will only practice though on Donna or I. Whenever possible one of us lays on the floor & Garren will use us to push himself up & stand without holding on. I'm not sure why he wouldn't just let go of a toy or the furniture, maybe he just felt more secure with one of us right there.

Well his hard work & persistence has paid off & our last baby to crawl & pull up is our fist baby boy to stand!!!

14 Months...

It has been a busy, exciting & finally a long month.

The boys are still growing like crazy!!! Garren is up to 23 pounds, his growth isn't super obvious, he just seems a little taller. Kellan is up to 26 pounds. He seems bigger all around, his face & body have filled out & he is taller. Caden is up to 25 pounds, he seems so much longer & is starting to look more like a little boy & less like a baby. 

{G, K, C} the boys first shopping trip in buggies :o)

All three boys are little chatter boxes just chattering away at or to anyone or anything. They definitely have their own language & communicate with each other, even from another room. 

They love to play chase & to tickle each other. Garren & Kellan are big huggers, they crawl to each other & wrap their arms around whatever part of the other one they can get. 

Caden & Garren are big lovers of the moms. Caden wraps his arms around our necks & lays his head on our chests every time we pick him up. Garren has been very clingy & lovable lately, he just comes over, sticks his thunb in his mouth & lays his head on me wherever I'm at. 

Kellan

{C, K/G} a fun day at the park swinging...

Kellan

Garren

Caden

It is so funny how the boys personalities have changed in their short little lives. 

Garren was our quiet, content, barely knew he was there baby & now he is the biggest clown, shaking his head all over, dancing, making faces & babbling & the more his brothers laugh the crazier he acts. He's such a happy little guy, I never get tired of hearing him.

Kellan was our fussy, attention seeking baby & now he is the most independent one. He also loves to make his brothers laugh by playing peek a boo, chasing or tickling them.

Caden started out as the most outgoing baby, always flashing a smile, letting out a big coo & flirting with everyone. He is now Mr Bashful. He is the quietest, but coming along with his voice. He still flirts but it is from afar & only a half smile peering from behind something.

Crazy Garren!!!

Garren

fitting perfectly in their race track :o)

All 3 boys are also still teething... Kellan has been in a lot of pain the last couple days with swollen canines, he is still currently at 7 teeth, 4 top & 3 bottom. Caen currently has a 3rd bottom tooth cutting & isn't to aggravated by it. Garren only has 2 top & 2 bottom teeth but is a drooling machine. His biggest teething side effect is sucking his thumb, holding a "lovie" & laying his head on me. He previously only sucked his thumb while falling asleep & none of the boys have ever taken to a "lovie" (stuffed animal head with a miniature blanket body) It is so sweet to see him, but sad knowing he is hurting. While we were in Orlando, we hit up every Walgrrens we saw & bought all the Camilia they had. The stuff works wonders for restless teething babies & is holistic so we aren't doping them up all the time. It also has no belladonna which our pediatrician didn't seem to fond of in teething tablets.

swimming @ Grandma & Grandpa's

Garren resting after showing off his dance moves in the pool

front to back G, C, K

sharing a cup of Cheerios

The boys are cruising all around using walls, furniture, toys & our hands. They walk really well even if just holding on to one finger. 

TRIPLE TROUBLE!!!

 K, G, C

 loving playing in the balls!!!

Caden

Garren has been trying to stand on his own for quite a while now. Today I put him down after lunch & he stood there for a couple minutes. He even squats down & stands back up without falling. I predict he will be our first independent walker...

Caden is also standing for a few seconds at a time on his own. It is not as much of a conscious effort on his part, he just does it sometimes :)

Garren standing!!! :o)

We are looking forward to getting moved into our own place & getting settled over the next month & also many more adventures as we explore the new area we'll call home :o)

Jekyll Island

We ventured out today on our first Georgia family adventure. I read about several of the islands near us online & Donna & I decided to start with Jekyll Island. It has a lot of history which Donna loves & of course its beaches are what I was interested in. 

There is a $5 fee to get on the island, once we were on we discovered there was a lot more to the island than we had realized. We decided to start with the historic Beach Club. The homes that now make up the Beach Club were originally the summer homes of wealthy families like the Vanderbilt's, Goodyear's, Morgan's & Rockefeller's, just to name a few. 

These are the biggest Oak trees I have ever seen!!!

The boys enjoyed the scenery,

Kellan chatted away the entire time

& stared back at anyone that stared at them, lol

Within the historic area was The Georgia Sea Turtle Center. This was such a treat for me, I LOVE Sea Turtles!!! They had and educational center to learn all about the life of Sea Turtles & the hazards they face. They also had a Sea Turtle Hospital where they nursed Sea Turtles back to health & re-release them back into the ocean.

 Kellan, Garren & Caden getting ready to go in...

 A turtle almost ready to be released :o)

 This big guy is doing well but is still recovering from some injuries to his shell, hence the turtle band-aids :)

Finally we headed off to find the beach. The beach I found mentioned online the most was Driftwood Beach, so I found it on the map & we headed in that direction. There were no signs for the beach & so we missed it, we ended up halfway around the island when we decided to turn around. We came to an area where a bunch of cars were just pulled off on the side of the road & we saw some people head down a trail through the trees. So we decided to pull over & check it out, Donna went to take a look before we unloaded the boys. She came back & said "I don't know why they call it Driftwood Beach, there are just some twigs over there" We unloaded the boys anyways & went to take a look.

This is what she calls "twigs..."

They were full grown trees!!!

Unfortunately, Driftwood Beach was not triplet or baby friendly :( If was very rocky & obviously had a lot of wood everywhere. We couldn't get the boys even to the driftwood area let alone near the water, there was a huge barrier of large rocks. It was however beautiful & I enjoyed photographing it while Donna & the boys had a snack in the shade.

I must say it was a bit weird to see Oak trees on the island, let alone on the beach. It was overall a beautiful island, but nothing like the beaches/islands of Florida's west coast where I grew up. We are looking forward to exploring the other end of the island next time.

Not Quite Florida...

***

I have been referring to this move lately as the

"Never Ending Move"

as we have been in transition for

2 1/2 months already & we won't be settled

back into our own place until August.

***

If you don't recall or you missed our original "We Are Moving" post, click the link to catch up :o)
You can also read about "Part 1 Of Our Move," & "Part 2 Of Our Move if you missed them.
Then read on...

Since being in South Georgia at my parents for the past couple months we have made some changes to our original plans. Donna has been commuting 45 minutes to work everyday, she has to get up at 4:30am & doesn't get home until after 6:30 most days. We have realized that neither of us really want for her to have to commute. We also came to this realization after looking unsuccessfully in North Florida for a place to live. We checked out a few places close to Donna's station & found that Georgia is a lot less expensive to live in!!! 

After taking everything into consideration we have decided to take another apartment, on the first floor this time. We debated on a house or an apartment but the amenities of an apartment won us over. I think it will be so nice & so much easier to be able to just walk to the pool or playground as opposed to loading up all 3 boys & driving someplace. This will also give us the opportunity to get to know the area better, learn the school districts & make sure we buy a house exactly where we want to stay for the boys school years.

We won't be near the beaches we originally thought, but we'll be less than 15 minutes from St Simon's Island & close to Jekyll Island & Sea Island. We will also be less than an hour from Jacksonville & less than an hour from Donna's favorite city, Savannah. There's a lot of new places, beaches & parks for us to explore with the boys & enjoy with our families. We are pretty excited!!!

Our apartment won't be ready until August 1st so we're sitting tight at my parents until then & waiting anxiously to have all of our belongings in one place again.

3 Weekends = A Charm!!!

We stopped at my sister's in Jacksonville for lunch on our way home from Orlando on Sunday. This made 3 weekends in a row of seeing them & on this visit, my nephew Chandler finally warmed up & played with the boys. Chandler even went around unsolicited & hugged each of them <3

Chandler going in for a hug with Garren

Going in to Hug Kellan

I wish I could say these 2 (K&C) were hugging 

but they were actually fighting over a toy, lol...

Chandler watching Mickey Mouse on TV

 Caden loves a riding toy!!!

 Caden also won that fight with his brother

(with a little help from mom distracting K with another toy)

 Steven & Autumn

P.S. Happy Fathers Day to my Dads, My Uncles & My Brother-In-Laws!!! I hope you all had a terrific day :o)

A Week in Orlando... {updated}

We just got home today from my Dads house. Donna had meetings for 3 days at the district office on Orlando so the boys & I tagged along to spend some time with my Dad & Marie & a few friends. It just so happened that my Dad was on vacation all week, so we all got some quality Grandpa time :)

 One last photo of the boys drinking bottles

G

C, K

 Playing on Grandpa

K, G, C

 A little fun in the sun

C, G, K

 C, K, G

We got in a few Choo Choo rides,

Kellan looks like he thinks he has to

pull the wagon back up that hill, lol...

K, G, C

A couple friends came by my Dads to see us. It's always good to see Karin & it is so nice to be able to see our dear friend Sandy now that she is Florida resident!!! 

We also spent a little time with Donna's best friend Cheryl who is moving back to St Louis at the end of this month :'( 

 Cheryl & Donna

The boys got to try lots of new foods this week too. My Dad & Marie have the perfect pantry for the ALL the grandkids & good leftovers in the fridge too which make perfect meals for 1 year olds :o) The boys had rotisserie chicken, meatloaf, spaghetti & meatballs, black beans & rice with grilled chicken from Pollo Tropical & the had their first ever Cheddar Bay Biscuits at Red Lobster along with grilled shrimp & broccoli. They also had graham crackers for the first time & LOVED them!!! We now take Teddy Grahams along everywhere we go :o)

We all had a lot of fun & luckily get to go back in July, Donna has another meeting which is being held near Disney. We are loving all the friend & family time we are getting being closer to home!!!