Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

Every year since we have lived in the Carolinas we take the kids to the local amusement park Carowinds for their fall festival. The kids love picking a pumpkin and riding rides, but their favorite part has to be the bubbles. When else in you life will you be able to play in a big thing of bubbles and just be a kid. They love it, and we love watching them! Fun, Fun, Fun!

Fall Fun

I have always loved the fall, but now that I have kids it is definitley one of my favorite times of year. Especially here in the Carolinas where the air gets a little bit of a chill and the leaves begin to change on the trees. The kids loved decorating their little pumpkins and helping us carve the larger ones. The only sadness came when Jeremy rubbed some of the pumpkin "guts" on Ethans face,but Ethan was quick to get back at him with some of his own yucky hands. The kids got to go to 3 trunk or treats throughout the month and even did a little bit of trick or treating on Halloween. We now have enough candy to last us quite a while.

Swine Flu

A couple of weeks ago my Ethan came home from school sick, and we decided to take him to the doctor just in case, the diagnosis "Swine Flu". Just the words alone freaked me out, then they proceeded to prescribe medication for the two littler boys and myself since we are high risk, and already had coughs. I of course went to the internet to try and find out all that I needed to know, but quickly decided that it was better just to discover as I go than to read all of the info on the internet, because everything said something different. Jeremy was great through the entire weekend and needless to say my house was more sanatized than it has been in a long time. Lysol became our quick friend. As illness goes this one was pretty mild, I guess it can be bad, but in our case it was mild and way better than the stomach flu, strep throat, or any of the other yuck things my kids seem to bring home. The words "Swine Flu" still stress me out, but we are now vacinated so I feel a little more at ease, unless what some of the groups say about getting sick from the vacination is true, then we are all in for it. Oh well!!

Brice is 2

My baby boy recently turned 2.It is hard to believe that much time has passed since he has been in our lives. We celebrated with a family party with monkey cupcakes, since we call Brice our little monkey. All the kids loved the geo trax trains that the grandparents got for him, and play with them everyday. It was nice to keep it small and simple with just us, but I guess there are enough of us to make it quite the party. Brice is such a fun baby, and is all personality. He loves making people laugh and he knows just what to do to make his brothers and sister sqirm. You would think being the baby he would let them do whatever they want, but he is the one who runs the show and he knows it. He is such a sweet boy and loves to cuddle. It is amazing how you live life without each child, but then as soon as they are here you can't imagine life without them. I definitley could not imagine my life without my Brice, he makes me smile.

Butterfly Garden

A couple of weeks ago the two younger boys and I went on a bit of a fieldtrip with some friends of ours to a local Botanical Garden. The kids love running and playing and they really liked the butterfly garden. Brice wasn't too sure of the butterflies getting too close, but he enjoyed seeing them and Hayden loved getting as close to them as he could.

Diapers, Diapers, Diapers and more Diapers

I just wanted to express my apperciation to the inventor of the disposable diaper. I have been changing diapers for 8 years straight now, with I am sure another 2-3 years to go and I can not imagine if I had to use cloth diapers that I myself I had to clean out and take care of. Changing some about kill me when I am able to get rid of it right away into the trash can. So again a huge THANK YOU goes out to the disposable diaper man or woman, you are right up there with the chocolate man.

And it Begins!

I thought that with the end of summer I would be getting a little bit of a break with the 2 kids in school all day and 1 in preschool two days out of the week. I don't know who I was kidding because now is when the real fun begins of homework, and all of their extra activities. We put Ashley in Cheerleading, Ethan in Flag Football, and Hayden in a Beginner Soccer. Ashley and Ethan both started piano this year also. Although seperatly it doesn't seem like too much, when you put it all together I can not even keep my own name straight let alone the schedule of their games and practices. They all love what they are doing, and I love watching them!!! It is tons of fun to watch them grow and develop even if I feel like I have run miles by the time I am done getting them there and entertaining the others while we support the one who at the time is developing a talent. We only have a about a month of the sports season left, so I was telling Jeremy that it really isn't a big deal and we can make it work, when it dawned on me that this is just the begining. Imagine what is will be like when all 5 of the kids are involved in different things. I guess this is where divine intervention will come into play and it will all work out, so for now I will just take it day by day and enjoy watching them grow!

Wonderful time of the year

We had a great summer with the kids this year, but as school approached I found myself, like the commercial on tv, singing "its the most wonderful time of the year". Don't get me wrong I love having my babies at home with me, but by the end of the summer they need school!!! They need someone else to entertain them because I just plain start running out of ideas and energy. They were so excited getting all of there new school cloths and supplies. We did our annual fashion show for daddy, and I was busting at the seams at how cute they are. This morning they were ready to go and it did make my heart ache to realize that my little girl is already in second grade and that my little boy is no longer in kindergarten. They each had no reluctance as we walked into their classrooms, Ashley didn't even need me to help her unload all of her supplies. Each one was still eager for a hug goodbye, which I cherish because I know that too will most likely pass with time, where they don't want to love on me in public. Hayden made me feel better by telling me "mommy your my teacher and my school is at home with you." I am anxious to see them when they each get home to see how their first day at school went.

Camping Again!!

Each year a bunch of members from our ward go on a camping trip. This year even though our previous camp out of the summer was crazy we decided to go. We had a bunch of fun and not even one trip to the doctor or even bandaide was needed this time. We spent some time our first day driving trough the beautiful mountains and doing a little hiking, we decided to stay away from one trail because of the wording on the sign, we knew it wasn't for us or should I say for our kids we like them a little too much. You can read it below. We finished with a trip to some local waterfalls, the kids loved playing in the water at the base, and Jeremy loved sliding down. Click on the link below to get the full effect of my big kid and to see how big the falls actually were. Lets just say that my heart was pounding as I watched him climb up and "slide" down. All in all we had a great time!!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZrAJniniAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeEfqStNk_o

My 6 year old stud!!!

My Ethan turned 6 this past week and had a wonderful birthday. It was the first time that his actual party was on his birthday and he loved it! He is such a fun and loving kid, I am so proud to call myself his mom and to see a little bit of me shining through him as he grows. Doesn't he look like such a little stud muffin sporting his new suit? He decided that he like the star wars shirt with it best and was very sad when I told him he could not wear it like this to church.