Pumpkin Patch

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

What a Wonderful Weekend

The weather this past weekend was absolutely perfect! As someone who despises hot weather, I was super excited to get up Saturday morning to temperatures in the 50's. Love it! Clay went to the deer woods for the day, so the boys and I decided to take advantage of the cooler weather. First we went to ArtsFest downtown. They had several booths set up promoting different "arts." They had rock sculpting, painting, crocheting, pottery, and some others. The only thing Ty wanted to do was pottery. He had to have his try at the pottery wheel. He did a really good job! Hunter was going to go next, but after he saw how dirty Ty was, he opted out of that one!

They even got to make something with some dry clay. It was a lot like play-dough. They could make whatever they wanted and take it home. Ty made a cup and two pumpkins and Hunter made a jack-o-lantern. They couldn't wait to get them home so they could dry and then paint them!




After ArtsFest, we headed to V-Town for an open house at the volunteer fire department. We enjoyed lunch, the boys got lots of goodies, went through all of the firetrucks, looked at the Air Evac helicopter, and of course....

The bounce house! Doesn't this look like brotherly love to you?

When we got home, this is what we found in the yard beside our house. These cows have been getting out almost everyday. They belong to the boys' friends that are always over at the house. Usually, their friends will chase the cows back into the fence. Well, the friends weren't there, so Ty took it upon himself to do it. I so wish I would have had my video camera charged at that time. It was the funniest thing you've ever seen, watching Ty running after the cows, "mooing" at them. Then Hunter decides to join in, and one charges toward him and he thought he was about to die. I was luaghing so hard, this was the only picture I ended up getting.

After corraling all of the cows, we headed to this sweet little girl's birthday party. The boy's had a blast! (even if it was at a cheer academy!) After the party, we headed to my grandparent's house for dinner.

We rounded out the day by watching the Hogs game we had recorded from earlier in the day. Do you know how hard it is to go through an entire day trying to avoid hearing the game or hearing anyone talking about it??? Well, we managed and good thing because it was a great game.

Wooo....Pig Soooie.....Razorbacks!

Just as some proof...occasionally I do let my children participate in messy activities inside the house! (Notice this is only Ty. I had to wait until Hunter left. There is no way I could have let both of them try to paint at the same time. It would have been everywhere!) Hunter's jack-o-lantern is still unpainted and will have to wait until Ty goes somewhere! =)

It's Finally Here...

Fall that is!!! I am l.o.v.i.n.g. this weather! Fall has always been my most favorite time of year...I love the colors, the smells, the weather, and of course the decorations. I couldn't hardly wait until September 22 to break out my pumpkins, fall leaves, and mums!

Of course September 22 wasn't only the first day of fall, it was also the first day of the fair and the parade. This year was a different experience for us. I have taken the boys every single year to the parade, but this year, they were supposed to walk in the parade with their boy scout groups. Clay ended up having to work and I had class, so the boys couldn't walk with their groups since we couldn't be with them. Clay is a member of the volunteer fire department where we live, so some of his friends offered to let the boys ride on the firetruck in the parade with them. Well of course they loved that idea! My boys would much rather "ride" in the parade than "walk" in it! (smart kids, if I do say so myself!) I was in such a hurry that day that I forgot my camera and when I was dropping them off, I had left my phone in the car, so I couldn't even get a picutre with that. Am I a horrible mother or what!?!? My kids' first time in the parade and I don't even have a picture to commemerate it!

Later that week, the first grade at Ty's school had their annual "Birthday Party." Since the kids can't bring cupcakes or goodies anymore to celebrate their individual birthdays, the first grade has one huge birthday party so they can celebrate everyone's birthday for the entire year. It's just like a regular birthday party...balloons, streamers, banners, cupcakes, ice-cream, goodie bags and games. I'm the head room mother in Ty's class, so I got to do all of the decorating and planning. Clay was off that afternoon, so I made him come help me decorate (you know he loved that). Who else was going to help me hang the streamers from the ceiling though? You know I'm too short (even standing on the desks, thank you very much!) The kids had a blast. We lit a candle on everyone's cupcake, sang happy birthday and then they got to dig in! When they finished with their snacks, I had set up a pin the tail on the donkey game and birthday bingo. Again, I was so busy that I hardly got any pictures. Just a few while the kids were eating. I wish I could've got the pictures of them playing pin the tail on the donkey...it was so funny!

In other news, I took my Praxis I test this past Saturday and........I PASSED!!!! Yay! Just one more thing I can mark off my list! I have an interview next month to get into the College of Education and then I can focus on getting d.o.n.e. !!! Midterms are next week and I couldn't be happier. It's hard to believe that this semester is halfway over! Just four more semesters to go. Woo-Hoo!!!

Also, went to the doctor for my two month check up yesterday...only lost 5 1/2 lbs. this month. Not too extremely happy about that. He assured me that this was just a "plateau" month and I should make up for it next month.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Get out there and enjoy that beautiful weather like we're going to!

GO EAGLES!!!!

Nesting???

Ok folks...I don't know what has gotten into me lately. If I was pregnant, I would call it nesting, but I'm not...so I'm not sure what it is. When I got home from school Friday afternoon I had an urge to clean out my closet. I've cleaned out my closet many times before, but nothing like this.

If it was too big, too small, or hadn't been worn in the past year or so, it got tossed. I have such a hard time getting rid of nice clothes that I think I may wear again one day, but it had to be done. We have a very small closet where we are living now, and my clothes were jam packed together and the rod was sagging in the middle and about to break.

These are all of the empty hangers when I was finished. There are Seventy...yep, I counted them. And there were only four there when I started.

You would think I would have stopped there. But, to the contrary. I woke up Saturday morning with an overwhelming urge to rearrange my living room. Which led to a massive cleaning of the enitre house. You know when you move furniture that hasn't been moved in awhile and you see all the dirt and dust under it??? Well, that just pushed me over the edge. I moved every piece of furniture in our house to sweep and mop under it (we have stained concrete floors throughout our house), cleaned baseboards, took down blinds and curtains and cleaned them. And did I mention that while I was doing all of this I had anywhere from 8-10 kids running in and out of my house? Oh yes, that has become an every Saturday occurence now. My two boys, four brother and sisters from next door, another brother and sister from down the street, and occassionally, their two older sisters.

Anywho...that's beside the point.
You think I would have been worn out from all the cleaning, but I started in again Sunday. Sunday afternoon after church I decided to clean out our desk and reorganize. Now that was a chore. Trying to decide what could be thrown away and what needed to stay. I feel so much better now though. Don't you just love the way you feel when everything is organized???

Just Like Daddy

As if I wasn't having a hard enough time with my boys being so "grown-up", I walk into the bathroom the other morning and find this...

He was so proud of himself! This has become a part of our every morning routine now!

This is totally unrelated, but I just had to share my new purchase with you...

How cute are these??? Everyone knows I can't pass up a cute pair of shoes...no matter how much I really don't need them. But they're rainboots that look like cowboy boots!!! Everyone needs a pair of those, right???
And just so you know, I've been doing my rain dance this morning so I can wear them today!

Whew....slow down!!!

This week has seemed like a whirlwind. We're finally back in the groove of school. Along with that, comes lots of busy afternoons! I feel like we're hardly ever at home!

The boys have played just about every organized sport that they could have by now, football, t-ball, baseball, soccer....so this year they're looking for something different. They both joined boyscouts this week, and they are super excited to jump right into that, but they also want to try bowling!!! Yep, we found out that there is a youth bowling league. Both the boys love to bowl and thought this would be perfect for them....that was until Hunter found out that they meet every Saturday morning at 9:00am for thirteen weeks!!! That boy likes to sleep in...I'm not sure if he's gonna give that up or not! The league starts next Saturday, so I told him that he had until then to decide if he wanted to play or not.

One night this week (not sure which one...they all have sorta run together this week!) we finally got Ty to ride his bike without the training wheels! Woo-Hoo!!! The boys play with the kids down the street just about everyday, and they all ride their bikes, except Ty. He usually rides on the handlebars of one of his friends' bikes. All I could think about was him falling off, so I told him he HAD to learn to ride his bike. So off the training wheels went, and there he went down the road (with a little help)! I can't believe I don't have a baby anymore!

Last night we took the boys and my brother to the football game in V-Town. There's nothing like the first highschool football game of the season...it's so much fun! The boys are finally at an age where they love going and hanging out with their friends and watching the game. So now we can finally watch the game too and not worry about the boys!

Right before we left to go to the game, Ty discovered that he had a loose tooth! I don't think I have ever seen that kid so excited! He's been asking for the past year when he was going to loose a tooth..all of his friends have lost at least one tooth by now. Well, he wiggled and wiggled that tooth all night, and while we were at the game, he had his friend, Natalie, pull it. That's just one more thing to remind me that I don't have any babies anymore!

The boys had their friends stay the night with us last night after the game. So needless to say, I'm exhausted!!! I have swept my floor 4 times already today!!! They just keep going in and out and it's about to drive me crazy. I think the rain has finally stopped for the day, so they're going to have to keep it outside for now! :)

Just a little update....I went back to the weight management clinic this week for my four week check-up, and I've lost 17 lbs!!! Woo-Hoo!!! I guess this really is working...but after all, I haven't had a diet coke, cheese, or chocolate in 33 days as of today. It should be working!

I Wish I Was a Girl...

We're now going on our second week of school. The first week (3 days) went great. The boys got up early, took showers, and were ready to go early every morning. They came home everyday and told me all of the exciting things they did that day. That all changed last Monday. When I dropped the boys off, Ty started crying. He said he missed me when he was at school and he just wanted to stay with me. I explained to him that I had to go to school too, and that he would be fine until I picked him up that afternoon.

This has gone on everyday since then. Actually, somedays, he starts in at night. He won't even play with Hunter after school, he comes and snuggles up beside me and cries about missing me and not wanting to go to school the next day. This absolutely breaks my heart.

I'm hoping this is just a short phase. I've been home with him since he was a little over a year old, and even last year when he started Kindergarten, I worked at his school, so he got to see me anytime he wanted to. Maybe it will just take him some time to get adjusted.

Just a funny little side note, Hunter was talking this weekend about joing the boy scouts. Ty heard everything Hunter was saying about it, and decided he wanted to join too. He was asking me all about it. I told him they would have meetings every Tuesday while I was in class and Daddy would take him and Hunter. Then, with tears in his eyes, Ty said, "I wish I was a girl so I could be a girlscout then you would have to go with me to my meetings!"

Gotta love that kid!