I'd rather be reading

My friend Tina, recently reminded me of Avery reading on the sidelines DURING she and Emma's soccer game this last spring. I was looking through pictures today and found it.

As she get's older, i don't think her coaches will really go for the "catching a chapter while i'm not in the game".

I do love seeing her with a book in her hand though, she usually has one with her all of the time. You won't hear me complaining. Although we may need to tell her their is a time not to get engrossed in a book, but for now i love seeing her kicking back, not another care in the world engrossed in a chapter of "the boxcar children"! I only wish i had or made the time myself to do this!

Fun finds

I love finding great deals on the clearance shelves at Target...so much so that when i get home and have passed them up, i then decide it is way to great of a deal to pass so i go trapsing back to Target after dropping the kids off at school with little ones in pjs (glad it's jacket weather)and rain boots (nope not raining today) and hoping no one got away with my 80% off rug that i decided i couldn't live without. It was going to go in our bedroom but i didn't end up liking it in there so it has found a new home in our "room without a name".

The extent of my vacuuming that i now do is 4 area rugs that take a few swipes...love it, love it, love it!!

Your going to hollywood!

you will need to pause my music play list to listen to this...unless of course you enjoy mumbo jumbo mixed music.

Whole lotta hairspray day

Also known as "crazy hair day. Let me tell ya, Trey's hair is not easy to make a mohawk especially when you have no hair gel in the house...cause we just don't plan ahead very well around here.
With lot's of layers of mousse and hairspray and blowdrying, i'm crossing my fingers that his mohawk will stay most of the day!

Avery on the other hand needed no mousse, no hairspray....just 10-12 hair ties which isn't hard to find around here!

As for Raegan, she has quite the mind of her own...she went and got this skirt on and i think she thought she might be headed for school for the day herself! And yes, she is munching on part of Avery's lunch!

Revisiting a favorite

This little guy is just about as sweet as they come lately! He tells me almost daily that i am beautiful and that i am invited to his birthday party because he loves me! He gives me hug after hug which i just eat up and is a napping champion, jumping right back into his 3 hr nap schedule after having a whole summer off without napping!

He loves spongebob, Dora, Diego, Spiderman, and his blanket.

I did have to get after him the other day when i caught him carrying one of the kittens upside down by it's tail...silly boy!

Occasionally i hear him singing "in the hands of God", his "favorite" song...don't you dare turn the radio down when that song comes on!

This and that

Another crazy Monday has come and almost gone. Since i work on the weekends my Mondays are usually spent playing catch up. Today was no different. I know i'm tired when i sit down after the kids are down for their naps and try to watch one 30 minute show and fall asleep and wake up an hr and half later! It felt great though!

Avery has been having trouble with her face breaking out (blotchy and irritated) so i talked to the nurse when i was at work tonight and they think she may need to go back to weekly shots for awhile. Not exactly what i want to do, but if it will help her it will be worth it.

Trying to put 4 kids to bed sometimes feels like you are trying to get a zoo put to bed! Not that i've ever put zoo animals to bed...just guessing.

Johnny has been working lot's of extra hours. We consider it a blessing and an answer to prayer. I try to keep a good attitude when having to do things on my own, though i find myself antsy sometimes wishing he would hurry up and get home.

Raegan told me "ear hoot" and then when i ask which one she points to one ear and then the other...we may be taking another trip to the doctor.

I am looking forward to running a half-marathon with my Mom and my 3 sisters next month! I am so proud of my Mom, she has been doing awesome with her training...can't wait to cross the line all together!

Do you know how many hangers are in your children's closet? I've been switching to adult hangers for my two oldest and MY WORD...i keep having to go back to get more and more...Johnny asked last night "good grief, how many hangers do we need?"...we now have a bazillion or pretty close baby hangers in the garage.

This is a very miscellaneous post!

Goodnight, i'm going to go kiss each one of my zoo animals sweet little cheeks and hit the hay...or wait i forgot, i'm not in a zoo...i will hit the pillow! Lame, i know

All back in place

We decided against putting another coat for the time being so when the kids and i got home from jog a thon yesterday i went to town getting things back in the girls' room! Johnny called and told me he would be working late so i even tackled (with trey and avery's help) putting Avery's bed together. They were all moved in before we went to Trey's football game last night and my house is back in order...i can breathe again :)

Next step for the room is- border is coming down and new paint going up and a much anticipated (avery) fuzzy pink area rug! I think we will take a week or two off though!

Throwin out the carpet

i started pulling the edges of the carpet up and pulling staples and by afternoon i had found a tool to rip the carpet out and by the time johnny got home from work had all the carpet out except for under the dresser and almost all staples pulled. my hands were so sore and had blisters (i know, whine whine) so i made him finish the staples that were left.

he had a few areas that needed to be touched up with the sander, but we had sanded this room before we decided to put carpet down when we moved in, so it wasn't too bad.

all sanded and cleaned and ready to polish!

putting the polish on

this is what my room looks like and the rest of the house is a mess too. i don't do well with my house in disaray! i want it done and everything put back in place but that won't happen till we get one more coat on and it can dry. awww, that can't happen fast enough!

Summer flashback

I was looking through my picture files last night for a little project and ran across this one. It cracked me up! It was at Silver Dollar City... we had such an awesome time! We spent two fun-filled days there and i think i enjoyed it just as much as the kids! I love vacations, i love summer, i love sun and warm weather...fall is good, it's pretty and the cooler weather feels nice...the looming season after that...i'm not such a fan of that...i'm going to stick with my summer memories and pretend it's summer all year round!

Labor day

We went swimming at my brother's on Labor Day. The last swim of the season! I put arm wings and a life jacket on Raegan and let her roam free. She floated around the pool happy as could be most of the day.

I used the same reusable swim diaper all summer with no poop accidents but she decided to go out on a bang and do a doozy for me the last time we used it...maybe next year we won't be using swim diapers anymore...hmmm, that is a possibility! All of that to say, i didn't realize what was lurking in the swim diaper when i was sitting back and watching her wear Ethan's underpants that he had brought to wear after swimming... i about gagged when i went to put them on him later...oh the stench!

As for the slide picture, she meandered over to the slide and i saw her climbing the ladder, we all acted like we didn't see her but when she got to the top and i realized that she was going to go Daddy jumped in the water to make the save at the bottom, knowing that she had no clue what she was in for. My sister was quick and grabbed a picture with her phone. She didn't want to go down again ever!

Friday night football

Trey is playing flag football this fall with his soccer buddies. So far he is loving it! He had his first game this past Friday night. They ended up losing at the last second with the other team making a touchdown.

It makes for a fun family night and we are also looking forward to hanging out with friends watching the boys play!

The day Raegan wouldn't look at me

there was just way to much to look out than to focus on mommy taking the picture!

You know you want to take me home

Our babies are 4 weeks old now and bouncing around our garage. I have to be very careful while out doing laundry because one is almost always under foot. They don't like being confined to their basket so we let them roam freely now.

They also are starting to try to eat their momma's food out of the bowl. Momma kind of get's pushed out of the way. They are long haired and adorable, playful little things that are looking for some new homes....if anyone knows anyone that's in the market for a kitten! There are two grey ones, one grey and white, and one black and white.

One room at a time

We are ripping out the carpet in our house one room at a time. Ours was the first to go and then on Saturday we tackled the boys room. Five plus hours of pulling staples, scrubbing, and organizing and the boys had a "new" room. They love it! I was happy to get rid of the stained carpet and am thankful that we have hardwoods underneath! We have only one room in the house left that has carpet, and that would be the girls room. We are going to be tackling that in a couple of weeks. We left it for last because it is going to be a bit of a bigger project as we had sanded their floor when we moved in and then decided to carpet...so we will be having to sand and polish the floor so it will more than likely be a several day project. Avery is ready for us to get busy though...she wants hardwoods!

Let's go to the tracks

I have been passing this location for a couple of months because of a detour we take to get to church and just about every time i pass i think...i have got to get the kids out there to take pictures! So last night while we were waiting on daddy to get off work, i loaded them up and headed out to snap some pictures. Ok, 88 pictures to be exact! So, even though there are a lot of pictures on this post...i think i narrowed it down nicely :) And if it makes you feel better, the railroad tracks are not still used! I had to go look at the dead end for myself before i was brave enough to take my kids onto them and even then kind of freaked when i heard a train whistle coming from a completely different track!

Seriously?!

Last Friday i had everything caught up. My house was clean, the laundry was caught up (that's an amazing feat around here) and i wished i could just freeze it all and it would stay that way just for 2 full days....this was my laundry on Monday morning...seriously, it's not like were just ripping outfits off and changing all weekend long, well i should say not all of us are.
the kiddos had some free entertainment yesterday. When we got home from getting groceries, our neighbors across the street were having their large tree taken down...branch by branch. They sat there and watched for about 15 minutes and then they couldn't care less anymore and we were off to nap time of which Ethan went right to sleep and Raegan played for 2 and half hrs in her bed.

Tiblow Days

finishing touches

the group that walked the parade route

Ethan and Grace right after they told me "she's gonna be a cowgirl and i'm gonna be a cowboy when we grow up"

Trey's ready to toss some candy!

Avery was cold so was warming up in a big shirt

"crocodile dock"

after the parade we went and checked out the "fancy cars"

Ethan loved this one so much the guy let him get in and sit in it

better start saving your money Trey!!!

Avery's pick for fanciness

Johnny has been in charge of the Tiblow Days float for several years now and decided to do Crocodile Dock this year (this was this year's Bible school theme). After getting home 1am, we were up again bright and early Saturday for getting the float ready and parade time. A big thank you to those that stayed out late Friday night helping!

We handed out popsicles this year which was a huge hit...we ran out before we were done with the parade route. It was absolutely beautiful weather for the parade this year! The kids always have a great time tossing candy!

Oh yea, and the float got the 2nd place trophy!