Fall Favorites

One of these days.... Maybe... I hope to be better at blogging. It means so much to me to preserve these memories and share them with our loved ones but 3 small children and a consistently messy house and 2 dogs require a LOT of time!!!
I know its Spring but here are a few of my favorite memories from this Fall. First up? Halloween!! My two precious tigers and my peacock princess! Hannah loved her costume and the boys tolerated theirs pretty well. No more fluffy fleece costumes for these kids anymore. Those will simply not work in a Florida October! I had to make the most of them this year!

Here is Hannah loading up to go to school on Halloween
The biggest tiger at Hannah's school
Hannah with 2 of her best friends from school, Madison and Ellie.
She misses them terribly but will get to see them on our Spring Break visit! :)
Hannah in her "sassy" pose
Her favorite part, the feathers!!

The 3 before trick-or-treating
(Note that is not the correct peacock crown. It was accidentally left behind at our house. Hannah told me Halloween was "RUINED" so we borrowed a princess crown from Aunt Maddie. I guess Halloween was saved. The drama....)
His little tail is to die for...or is it his little tush thats so cute? ;)

Ok, enough Halloween. Some other fun times in the Simmons household? How about this?

Look familliar? Oh! Probably because Hannah did the same thing!! Click here for the original! Feels a little like deja vu, right?

Here is Hannah with another of her best friends, AK. She is also very very missed by my sweet girl. They were pilgrims in the 4k Thanksgiving Program! :)

Hannah before the big feast!
Hannah's old teacher, Ms. Morgan. This one is framed in her room. She loves Ms. Morgan and misses her immensely. She likes her new teacher but not like Ms. Morgan.
I miss Ms. Morgan too! :(

Where to start...

Wow! Its been a long time and there has been so much going on! I definitely have never been this far behind. I still want to go back in time to Halloween, etc and share our experiences but first I will give you an overall update from The Simmons.

First and foremost, we have moved! Not down the street, but to Tampa, FL. Jason had a really great job oppurtunity down here and as much as we love his former employer and appreciate everything he has done for our family, we felt this was the best decision for us. Adding to that, we also left our families in the state of Ga to venture down here by ourselves. This was, by far, the hardest part of the decision. It has not been easy to leave Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, but we are committed to staying in touch and visiting often! :) We are equipped with webcams...we just have to figure out how to use them! :)
So, how is life in the sunshine state?? So far, so good! We are renting a house for a year so we can decide what part of town we want to be in permenantly. The rental is pretty good. Lots and lots and lots of white tile. I mean, LOTS! It has a heated pool and hot tub which we should be able to start using in March, which we are super excited about! Bentley already has an ongoing feud with the squirrels. They sit up in the palm trees and chirp at him while he stands below barking his sweet little head off. I don't think its sweet when hes barking though... (For all of you Simmons reading, picture Bent barking at Genna in the river....All. Day. Long!)
I definitely have emotionally good and bad days... Its hard to start over in a new place. Its hard to find people similar to yourself. I'm definitely missing friends but these things take time...
Hannah has started a new school that she seems to like. I miss her old school and old teacher... She does as well but she is adjusting amazingly well! The teachers and the director at her new school all told me she just jumped right in and it seems like shes been there forever. This makes me so proud of her! I wish I could be as brave as her sometimes.
William is loving the mild winter temperatures. He is constantly wanting to go outside. For those of you who worry about our little wanderer, he is completely safe from the pool! We have the child safety gate up around the pool and he definitely knows not to even try and get to the other side. We talk about it alot but even if he wanted to, he couldn't! I think Fla living is really going to agree with this kid! He loves the water and boats and fish... hes a perfect fit!
Tucker is getting way too big, way too fast! He turned 6months old a couple of days before Christmas. Just like his brother, he could sit up unsupported a little bit before he turned 6m but the day he turned 6m, he could sit for a long time and not fall down! Similarities like that are amazing to me! I was a little bit concerned that he was not adjusting to the move... We "moved" Dec 17th-19th. We stayed in Tampa 2 days and then we went back to GA to celebrate the Holidays with our families. Over christmas, we were pretty much sleeping in a different house every night and there was so much going on. He was fussier than usual and he was waking up at night which was very unusual for him. At his 6 month appt (a few days after Christmas) I found out that he had an ear infection. :( Poor kiddo! But at least that was the cause of his new behaviors and it wasn't because of our move!
Tucker checked in in the 1st percentile for weight, (just like big bro) but we started solids once we were semi-settled after Christmas and its amazing how much he has already grown! He has a healthy appetite and even some little fat rolls so I am not worried about him in the slightest.
He is also no longer immobile! He scoots all over the place! He gets up on his hands and knees, rocks and then lays back down. Sounds exhausting but it gets him from point A to point B. He is still so happy, so smiley and so laid back.
Jason is enjoying his new job! The company has a LOT going on right now so things are super crazy but hopefully it will settle down soon and we can get used to a new routine. Jason actually just left this morning on his first business trip. He won't have to travel an awful lot but he will attend conferences every now and then. SO, He's off to vegas... Rough life, huh? ;) He keeps saying hes going to sleep during his down-time. Maybe I can convince him to play a slot machine, or 2! Neither one of us have ever been to Vegas so I'm trying to live vicariously. :)
I guess that about sums it up! A special thanks to my Mom for journeying down here with me and the kiddos after Christmas to help unpack some boxes! We're ready for another visit! ;) Thanks to Rusty for everything you have done to help get our old house ready to be listed! I don't know what we would have done without you... And thanks to Alissa for helping us feel more at home here and for helping me learn the lay of the land!
To all of our family, we love you and miss you all!!! :)

50s day!

There is so much I want to catch everyone up on but I am SO behind with the blog posts!!! Here are the pictures from Hannah's 50's day at school! She loved dressing up! I heard she was too "nervous" to participate in the limbo competition but in my mind, she won best dressed! :)

3 monkeys in the morning...
The boys were feeling a little left out after Hannah's photo shoot.

Playdate for Tucker!

While I was pregnant with Tucker, I signed up to take some prenatal water aerobics classes. (If you are pregnant or have a newborn, check them out!!! Such fun classes and a great opportunity to meet other moms, just like you! http://www.ohbabyfitness.com/)I ended up taking them for about 15 weeks, the last class actually being the night before my due date! The class was so much fun and I met some really fun girls through it! Of the 5 of us, 4 of us kept the gender a surprise! Believe it or not...Tucker was the ONLY boy!!! Not that hes complaining... He gets to be the stud muffin in a group of precious little girls! ;) We are trying to get together every once in a while. Here are the pictures from our meeting a few weeks ago. For our next meeting, we may leave babies behind and hold margaritas instead! :)

All of our babies!!!

All of the mommies with their cameras...hysterical!
Ghianna macking on T!

T showing some interest himself!

All of the careseats... Hard to imagine having quintuplets!!!

Fun times in Charleston!

We recently took a trip to Charleston to visit some family. Although I (regretfully) did not take many pictures, here are a few from the kids crabbing adventure! Thanks Grandy and Jason for showing them the ropes! :)
Thank you also to Peggy Anne and Linda for your hospitality! We had such a fun trip!!

Jason and Grandy setting the traps
The two newest crabbers!

Hannah got tired of the crabbing and decided to practice her curtsy! :)

Two little explorers!

William the Fireman!

Hannah loves to dress-up. William tries to participate sometimes but his Daddy will not let me take pictures seeing as how they show our son wearing a princess dress, a crown and high heels... This day, William gave dressing up a shot and thankfully, it was appropriately for his gender! Meet William, the Fi-Fiyar (Fire fighter)!

Tucker's Torticollis

My sweet Baby Boy...

This is really just a general update on Tucker but several people have inquired about his torticollis so that is the reason I titled it as such.
Tucker continues to be the easiest baby on the planet. He rarely ever fusses these days and he still sleeps 10-12+ hours every night and I never have to work to get him to sleep, just stick him in his bed. He likes to watch his mobile for a minute and then he rolls over and settles in for a nap. He doesn't even require a pacifier anymore! He prefers his fist... Want proof?

And a close up...

I've discovered he has a really BIG mouth! Sometimes he double fists it!
So that's pretty much all he requires...a bed and his fist. I try to rock him to sleep sometimes. He'll let me every once a while but he prefers to snuggle when hes awake, and lay down and put himself to sleep when hes tired.


He is learning about toys and LOVES them!!! He constantly grabs at anything in sight and has now figured out how to get it to his mouth. He started rolling from his back to his tummy about a week and a half ago (3.5 months). He loves to be on his tummy!! He has even started scooting with his legs while he is on his tummy. His physical therapist thinks he will be mobile very soon. This thought scares me... Hannah and William were pretty average with their mobility. Both sat up at 6m, crawled at 8m, Hannah walked at 14m and William at 12.5. I'm not set up for an "early crawler" or "early walker". I need my little one to stay put for a few more months...like 5 or 6!!

What do ya say, Tuck?!

Speaking of his physical therapist, Tucker has been doing PT for about a month now and is such a CHAMP at it! (If you missed the post about Tucker's Torticollis, click HERE) He loves Ms. Monica (his therapist) and consistently shows off for her. We have been going (and will continue to go) once a week. Each visit we work on different stretches and strength building exercises. She also measures his progress by mapping the difference in his rotation and head tilt. In his initial measurements there was a 5 degree difference in his rotation and a 19 degree difference in his tilt. This past Monday his measurements showed a 1 degree difference in rotation and a 2 degree difference in tilt!!!! For one months effort, that is awesome! He didn't like the stretches at first but we figured out how to make them more fun for him and now he doesn't mind them too much.
Tucker goes for his 4 month appointment on Monday so I'll update on that appointment next week. We have a jam-packed, fun-filled weekend coming up so I'm sure I'll have lots to share!
Here is one last picture of Tuck. He loves his sister and brother so much. With Hannah learning to read, Tucker often becomes her audience. I don't think he minds it too much though, do you? :)

Have a GREAT Friday!!!