Our Week

The boys have been in school Three Weeks already. Can you believe it? We have all adjusted wonderfully, and all three of the boys are enjoying school. I used last week and this week to clean the carpets in my house. (I did one room a day or every other day) And boy do they look good. Now I can check that off my list and move on to one of the other million things I want to do to get organized or to clean. Ahh the life of a mother/homemaker. I do love it!

So, I failed to mention a very exciting event here in our great town of Brooklet. Every year they have a peanut festival which is a very exciting event for such a small town. Apparently Georgia is a huge producer of peanuts, which I must admit I did not know until we moved to Brooklet. So, we went last Saturday morning (the 15th) and enjoyed the parade and then went to the festival for a little bit. We were lucky because that week had been quite hot and Terribly humid so we were happy that it was overcast with no rain during the parade. A nice treat.

{There is a family in our ward who lives on the main street in Brooklet, so some families from the ward meet at their house for the parade.}


{Army guys from Ft. Stewart}




{Take note of what this tractor driver is doing while he is supposed to be posing in a parade. By the way, most of the parade is of people driving tractors. Some of them were very old school too.}






I also mentioned in Brandon's birthday post some of his two year old habits, so I took some pictures of some of them.

{Since he kept climbing out of his bed, we got him a new one. This lady was selling matching beds that were this toddler bed and a twin bed. Now Jacob and Brandon have a whole new bedroom.}


{Setting the table, with all the silverware in the drawer}


{I wasn't sure where Brandon was the other day, and when I went to find him, this is where he was. He had taken off his pants, and diaper and climbed up, but forgot to get rid of the binky. He is NOT potty trained by the way. }



{A couple weeks ago, I went to check on him at night, and I thought his blanket was completely wrapped around his head. Luckily when I came to get it off, it was just lightly placed over his face.}



One thing that we have just started to do this past week is going on a nightly walk. Steve is making a great effort to lose weight, and he has asked us all to walk/jog with him each night to get some excercise. We are all very much enjoying it, and the boys are loving being able to ride their bikes off of our driveway. Right behind our house is a brand new subdivision that is coming along very slowly. As we all know, people just aren't buying houses right now, so it only has three houses in it right now, and it is quite a big circle. We are able to walk around that with no traffic to bother us. It is like having a high school track right in our own back yard.

{Note the outfit. haha, I didn't feel like putting pants on him, and he does have some crazy colored socks.}




{During one of our walks this week Steve decided to roller blade. It just about killed him, but he never fell down, and he roller bladed the whole time. Way to go dear.}




And here is a picture of Steven with his newest hobby to pass the time.

Brandon is TWO

Well, Brandon has turned two even though he has been a bit of a terror for a couple of months now. Of course he is still a joy to have in our family, but the boy gets in to everything, sneaks out of the house, crys whenever we are in the car because he is asking me for something and I have no idea what, thinks he is potty trained(which is so not the case) and has learned how to get out of his crib before I was ready for him to.

But I am happy to report, he had a GREAT birthday today. He started it off all wrong by getting out of bed at 4:15am. He came in to my room asking for a binky and after I found one for him, I thought he would just cuddle up and go to sleep with me. That wasn't the case, after telling him to go to sleep 15 times I finally took him back to his bed where he waited another half hour, and then went back to sleep. We did get a nice nap today though.

So, the birthday festivities started this evening after dinner. We had our wonderful neighbors over for cake and ice cream. They have one son who is Nathan's age and he loves to come to our house. They are also members of the church, so we have become great friends.



We sang to Brandon, and then had some chocolate cake with butter cream frosting.
Here is that wonderful smile of his.

Brandon was so embarrased from all the attention. It was so funny.


After cake we went in to the family room to open presents, and Brandon was loving it.

The Nielsens (neighbors) gave Brandon a book and a cool little car


He got a sesame street toy from Grandma and Grandpa Allred that he loves!


And from Mom and Dad he got a hammering toy and a two year old race track.




He also got cards from Grandma Great and the Seraydarians. Thank you all so much for remembering the littlest Hughes boy.

Brandon is such a wonderful boy and I am so happy he is in our family. He is talking more and more and I love to hear how he pronounces his new words. He is having a hard time with all of his brothers in school, and has decided that we need to read books together all day. Which has been kind of hard, since I have decided that I want to clean the carpets in the whole house. :) We will be starting a fun preschool group at the church in a couple of weeks, and we will both really enjoy that.

We are so happy Brandon is part of our family!

Back To School!!

The boys went back to school on Monday, and I am thrilled. The school year here is a little different than most of the country, but I love it. They have the full months of June and July for summer, and then during the year they have about 6 week-long breaks. I have really enjoyed it, and it lets you travel when the rest of the country is still at school.
Some of these pictures came out blurry dang it!

(Jacob started kindergarten with a nice juicy cold sore on his lip. Poor kid)


(Nathan started 1st grade without his chipped tooth. We pulled it out the night before. Remember the one he chipped in Germany like 4 years ago? Ya, that is finally gone)


(Steven in 3rd grade, and loving his backpack)

Our summer vacation was tons of fun, and we stayed very busy, so it felt like we got a good break.

Jacob started Kindergarten this year, so now I have three in school and one home!! Can you believe. It is so exciting for me, and I can't wait to see what I can accomplish. Although Monday Brandon and I went to Walmart for school supplies, and Brandon cried the whole hour we were in the store!


The boys all loved their first day of school, and were excited to go back again today. They seem to have wonderful teachers, and we once again want to say, we LOVE Brooklet Elementary.

Other exciting news for me is that I was called as the first counselor in the Young Women's at church. I can't believe I am out of primary and going to be tested in a different area. I am very, very excited, but also pretty nervous. I talked to the YW president yesterday, and she was telling me all of my responsibilities. WOW There is a lot that I am in charge of. And right off the bat I am suppose to be going to an activity Wednesday night, but Steve is working a 3-11pm shift for the next two weeks. So, I asked our college age neighbor if she would sit with the boys for me for a couple hours. She agreed, so it looks like I will be able to go. I am thrilled.