one big happy hello.

A big 'ol thank you to Gymboree for sponsoring this post! Loving these clothes? You can enter for a chance to win their baby bundle sweepstakes and get your own clothes and more!

Parenthood. It's one of those things where you can prepare as much as you want, but never actually be fully prepared. And y'all, you would think with four kids we'd be experts at the whole parenting thing. Truth? It's different every time. And just when you think you have it figured out, things change again. It's a crazy little thing...

But! Preparing is key. And since we were welcoming baby number four AND a girl (which was completely new for all of us), we knew there were some changes coming. We encouraged the boys to love on my belly as much as they wanted, hoping that love would transfer to Tatum once she actually arrived. I don't know that it completely worked, but I will tell you that our boys love Tatum fiercely and are always asking to hold her. (Well, except for that one time in the hospital when Graham didn't want "him" at all. But you know, two.)

We also knew that we'd want the baby in her own room so that she wouldn't be waking anyone else up in the middle of the night. Because we only have three bedrooms in our home, that meant the three boys would need to share a room. We moved them all in together about four months before Tatum actually arrived. Since Cayden and Sawyer were already sharing, we slowly started moving Graham's clothes and toys in their room. Once they were used to that, we moved another mattress in and Graham started sleeping in there at night. Thankfully it was an easy transition from the crib to his new room. But it was one we were a little worried about. Making sure everyone was comfortable with the new arrangement was key for us. Start early, and take it slow.

Adding another carseat to our car was another adjustment for everyone. Kids had to change seats and we went from everyone on the middle row to two kids in the back and two in the middle. We even put Tatum's car seat in the car early just so everyone could get used to there being another carseat in the car. And we let the kids know that once Tatum arrived, we might need their help remembering to get her out of the car. Letting them be a part of helping us? They loved that.

I know a lot of second/third/fourth-time moms don't feel like they should get a lot of things for the new baby. I say if you're feeling like you want to do that, then do it! Buy all new things for your itty bitty. Go all out on that fourth nursery design (totally did that!). Have fun stockpiling newborn diapers – they are super-cute after all!

But y'all, nothing could prepare us for them meeting their sister for the first time. It was (mostly) magical...

Speaking of, these clothes! The boys had a blast opening all the orange boxes that Gymboree sent over. I think Cayden told me five times while getting dressed "how comfy" everything was. Which is awesome. And everything is really soft and feels durable. Like, we'll be able to pass down the clothes through the boys – which is hard to do with boys... because they destroy everything. I can't get over how cute everything is. Tatum's little outfit just gives me the warm fuzzies – so cute and cozy! I'm ready for it to cool off so we can put these clothes into full rotation. As it was, I couldn't get the boys to take their jeans off when we got done taking photos. So they ran around the house with jeans and no shirts, ha!

And did you know September is one of the most popular birth months? To celebrate, Gymboree teamed up with 5 popular brands to bring parents the ultimate bundle for baby. They're giving away over $2,000 in prizes from Gymboree, Land of Nod, Seventh Generation, 4moms, Baby Bjorn, and munchkin. If you want a chance to win, go enter this amazing baby bundle sweepstakes now! I mean, look at everything you can win.

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good sleepers.

With each subsequent kiddo, Jeremy and I have been convinced that we'll have the worst sleeper ever only because the current kiddo is the best sleeper ever. And y'all, I don't know what it is... Maybe Jeremy and I just have really good sleepy genes or something... But we got another good one. (Please don't hate us!)

With the exception of Cayden (who slept in his crib the very first night home), our children have all slept in our room for the first 6-8 weeks in the pack and play. When we brought Tatum home, she would not sleep in that thing. At all. I don't know if it was because it was so roomy or what, but we settled on sleeping in the rock and play and that went well. Except that it rocked and vibrated and was at an angle and how in the world were we going to transfer her to a flat boring crib ever?!?!?

We were worried about it. Honestly. Thought we had ruined the kid. (Although as fourth time parents we should have absolutely known better!) We decided over the past week to stop having her sleep in the rocker and try out the flat surface. We DID start swaddling again just so she would feel cozy, and it seems to have done the trick. We're averaging somewhere between 9 and 10 o'clock at night to having to wake her up at 7 most mornings to take the older boys to school.

Yes, we're lucky. Yes, we know. And yes, we feel very, very blessed to have had four great sleepers.

Now, wish us luck and we transfer to her crib tonight? In her own room!

those summer nights.

Yes, I realize that summer is quickly coming to a close (not until next week, officially), but it's just now cooling off enough in the evenings for us to enjoy our back yard again. I really meant to be outside more this summer, but being extremely pregnant and it being one of the hottest summers that I can remember just didn't make for a good combination. I'm not sure how many times I apologized to the boys for being lame over summer break and promised them that next summer? Next summer would be way more awesome.

Anyway, enjoying our back yard means enjoying our awesome patio too. We grilled up some chicken one night last week and were able to eat outside. Short of the mosquito bites that we all got, it was a really lovely evening. And even then, we didn't realize how many mosquitos were feasting on us until the next day. I'm really looking forward to fall sweeping in and keeping the temperatures low enough for us to enjoy this space again.

Dinner outside beats sweeping under a dining room table inside any day. Amiright?

white.

There's just something about white linens on a bed. They're fresh. They're light. They're breezy.
Add a cute baby... and y'all? I just can't even.

roll tide, 2016.

Since Cayden was a baby, I've tried to capture a photo of the kiddos in their college football gear. I try to do it the first weekend that Alabama plays since it's easy to remember to do it then, but sometimes I fail at that. This year was an exception though! We took photos of our cuties and I love how these turned out. Tatum even looks like she's smiling in some of them. Truth? She was probably in mid-cry and we just happened to catch the perfect moment.

Trying to get all of the boys to look at the camera was a challenge, but you know, you take what you can get. And sometimes what you get is even better than what you were wanting.

Care to take a walk down memory lane? 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 (in which I failed to get a photo at all so this will have to do).