A day out

We have a tradition of going to the air show each year and it was yesterday. Of course, Jason is gone this time too, but we still had plenty of fun. My friend, Cammy, has a husband who is deployed with Jason so we decided to take the kids and go. She is getting ready to move so it was nice to spend some time with her. We were wrestling with 6 kids so we didn't get many pictures.

(Jason's plane)

I have to apologize about Kaiden in this picture but I didn't realize that he was doing what he was until I pulled up the pictures at home and it is the only picture I got of him. Please tell me that little boys eventually grow out of that! :0)
This is how Maddie insisted on riding. She got a bit of a start when the F-15 flew over and I could not get her back in the stroller. She thought she was pretty cool.

Off to the rescue again...

What rescue, you might ask. Well, let's just say that all of these tools came in handy and were a necessity to assure that I could keep a good distance away from...

THESE!!!!
And trust me, they were a lot bigger in person than they look in the picture! The kids came running upstairs very excited about something. I managed to make out "frogs" and didn't really want to hear the rest of the story. Once I got them calmed down enough to get them to speak English, I got the whole story. We had frogs in our window well. Boy was I thrilled! They begged me to let them live in there because "it is just like a fish tank". Um, nope. Now, I just had to figure out how to get them out without me having to jump on in. Because me getting in with them was NEVER an option.

I called my mom who offered a few ideas, laughed with me at my predicament and told me to let her know how it turned out. I tried Jenn to see if I could con Dave into rescuing them, but they didn't answer. I figured I had two choices, either I feed the frogs and keep them alive for the next 2 months until Jason gets home or I had to get them out myself. So, I decided I had to get creative. I lowered the bucked with baby yarn and used the broom to force them into the bucket. It wasn't very deep so there were several valiant and successful attempts on the frogs' part to escape. Once I managed to stifle the squeals and screams from my "supporting crowd", I got both frogs in the big bucket and ran like the dickens to get them across the street. The big one escaped before I got very far with it so I just chased it into the neighbors yard. :0)

First day of school

I cannot believe that school started today. Where did the summer go? The girls were so excited this morning and love their teachers. Mackenzie has the teacher that Kaitlyn had last year so she was double excited. I do feel a bit for Kaitlyn's teacher because Kaitlyn and Hayden are not only in the same class this year, they sit right next to each other in class. Their poor teacher.

Our new puppy

We seem to have a little puppy around our house. At least she doesn't bark too much or pee on my floor. :0) She is my kind of puppy, she is cute and doesn't get hair on my couches.

Maddie has crawled around on all fours for days pretending to be a puppy. Her tongue is out and she is panting away. If I do not pet her when she wants she says, "Mommy petted Maddie puppy". I even caught her taking a bite out of my capris yesterday while pulling back and growling. Maybe my parents' puppy spent too much time pulling at her pants a few weeks ago. Either way, we are happy with our new "pet", crazy hair and all.

Playing catch up

It's not very often that I post a whole week's happening in one post but because I am behind, it will have to do. We are busy getting ready for school but tried to do some fun things between the many trips to the store.

Why this picture? I got Maddie ready for church and as we were going out the door, I noticed that both pockets on the front of her dress were bulging. Something like that has to be investigated and she took off. I finally managed to wrestle her to the ground, once I kicked off the high heels and quit worrying about flashing anyone, and found that he pockets were full of rocks. And I mean FULL. My parents bought her these colored rocks while we were at Jackson and she takes them everywhere with her. It looks like I might have to have my kids turn out their pockets on their way to church so I can see what they are trying smuggle in.

After church we decided to go on an alphabet walk. The kids love trying to find things that start with the letter we are on. Mackenzie was getting frustrated because she wasn't finding things. The second time we are going through the alphabet and come to the letter "B", she exclaims, "Booger!" After being mildly embarrassed that the people standing in their driveway were laughing, I reminded her that it needed to be something we could see. NEVER say that to a child who just said "Booger". She quickly put her finger in her nose and proudly announced, "See Mom, booger." Then she kept on walking like nothing had happened. Lesson learned.
We went to the zoo with Jenn and her kids. I couldn't believe how busy it was for a Monday and poor Jenn walked around in the hot sun even though she is very pregnant right now.

We had a family movie night last night. You know it has been an exhausting week when you can sit down to watch a movie in a basement that is covered in toys and not care one bit.

Happy Birthday, Mackenzie

I have been horrible about updating the blog lately. I guess that getting out of the habit while going home was a bad idea. Mackenzie had her 6th birthday two weeks ago. She is so happy to be a big girl and has decided that she is now able to do all the big girl things. One several occasions she has announced that she can do things because she is 6. Mac is such a sweet little one. She always has a smile on her face and a little giggle to go along with it. She cracks me up several times a day. She loves to make up songs and sing them over and over and over and (you get the point). It is hard to watch her grow up but it is so fun to see the big girl she is becoming.

Warning...

The following posts are very picture heavy. I was able to go home for about a month and we had so much fun. It was a nice little vacation. I was a bit worried about the 13 hours of drive time with 4 kids all by myself, but we got along great. Although the drive home was better than the drive there, I didn't get sick on the way home, leaving was really hard and lots of tears were shed. Both Kaitlyn and I had swollen eyes by the time we stopped that night. We miss everyone so much and I am trying to figure out if there is anyway I could go back out at Christmas time. The kids are begging to go but we will see what happens. Thanks everyone for the great time!

24th of July parade

Here are some pictures from the 24th of July parade. They threw so much candy that we came home with bags full. I don't think I will ever get it all eaten.

Family get-together

The last weekend I was home, we had a family get-together with my immediate family and their kids. It was so fun and wonderful to see my kids get a chance to play with their cousins. We camped out on the farm that I grew up on and my brother now owns. The kids said that I grew up in the coolest place ever and I have to agree. They climbed in the trees, played in the creek and loved the animals. One night we even hung a sheet on the side of my parents' camper and watched a movie, "The Snowball Express", with Chad's projector. There were kids in sleeping bags everywhere and lots of giggles. I miss my family so much already.

Todd coming to the rescue by cutting down a dying branch so we could pull more campers in.
Maddie helping clean up said branch.

Kaiden and his "coconut". No matter how many times we tried to tell him it was a pine cone, he insisted it was a coconut.

Under the old willow tree.

Maddie and my niece were the best of friends. They are just a few month apart from each other and it was a blast to watch them play. Where one was, you could always find the other.

Yes, I have major hair envy!

All the girls minus one niece, Braquel.

All the boys. And yes, they are as mischievous as they look.

Chad and Kristi brought kittens and the girls were in heaven. I almost came home with a couple.

Kaiden riding the 4-wheeler with Grandpa and Tyson. Kaiden was Grandpa's little buddy the whole visit. He followed Grandpa everywhere he could.

The girls saw the pool and went right for it. Rather than searching for their swimsuits, we just let them splash in their diapers.

One day we went up the mountains for a picnic and to check to see if the huckleberries were ripe. Some of us rode 4-wheelers and some rode in the back of the truck. Ashlee and I were covered in dirt from the 4-wheeler in front of us but we had a blast. Kaiden loved getting to ride up with Cristyl and back with me. He actually fell asleep on it before we got back. How you fall asleep on the back of a 4-wheeler is something I don't understand. I must be a good driver for him to be so relaxed.

Kaiden adored my sister, Cristyl. He thought she was the coolest. He even tried to follow her into the woods to, um, take care of business.

Random pictures

Here are some random pictures of our time at my parents' house. I figured that if I made a post for everything we did that I would never get it all done.

The kids loved helping in the yard. Maddie thought she needed to have gloves on, just like grandma.The kids decided to help my mom water the plants outside and got right to work. The problem was that they were using their glasses from inside to carry the water. What can you do but laugh? They had quite the assembly line going on.

If you click on this one, you can actually see Mac pouring out water on the petals of the plant. She said that it needed to be poured on the petals because that is where it's mouth is and we all eat through our mouths.

"Helping" grandma water plants.

Grandpa letting Kaitlyn drive the tractor.

Kaiden brought me this "flower" and told me that he was giving me flowers "just like Daddy does". Very sweet even if it was a weed. It's the thought that counts, right?

This is what Kaiden planned to use to wipe his bottom after going to the potty. Umm... not a good idea. Good thing I caught him before he wiped.

Kaitlyn loved the puppy and is determined to talk Jason into getting one. I joke with Jason that he might come home to a 4-wheeler in his garage, a dog and cat for the kids and a horse in the back yard. Little does he know, I'm half serious!

More random pictures

Maddie had a love-hate relationship with my parents' puppy. She adored the puppy but didn't like it so much when the dog would hang on to the back of her pants and pull them down. All she could do was tell the dog no and all I could do was laugh.

My parents took us out to eat one night and the happy meal prize was a hat. They practically lived in them the rest of the time we were there. Now that is what I call a happy meal toy.

Kaitlyn would pull Maddison up the hill in this cart and then let her roll down. They were both all giggles.

If all else fails, just ride the dog.

They decided to make the puppy pretty. What a patient puppy!

Grandma gave the kids their first worm experience. Kaiden thought it was so cool and kept saying, "It likes me, it really likes me!". The girls wanted to look but didn't want to touch. I can't blame them. Worms are just not my thing.

We are resourceful in my family and when the kids want to roast marshmallows, they get to roast marshmallows. It doesn't matter that we didn't have any big marshmallows in the house, Lisa got creative.

This is the "magic" tree, as the kids called it. My parents have the neatest yard and the kids loved getting lost in the trees.

They even climbed them a time or two.