Playing Catch up!

Seriously? I haven't blogged since Avery's birthday?  Well, here is tricker treating!  My beautiful pricess Avery and Mermaid, Kylie!

The crew!  We had fun with the Dekams and the Vis's!

 Kylie was super thrilled to pull her own first tooth out!  A little gagging from the blood taste, but mostly flying high with excitement!!

Watching a thanksgiving movie during their thanksgiving (taco) feast!

Then the boys had a 3rd grade thanksgiving feast in a huge t-pee (sp?) in their room!  3rd grade rocks!!

 Kylie's class had a big pilgrim unit that ended by dressing up as a pilgrim and presenting info to parents/grandparents.  Here she is with the doll they made like the pilgrims would have!

 Kylie and her friend Molly feeling the oats!

 Showing off her pilgrim's house she made.

 next was Dan's big 34th birthday:)  We made his favorite--strombolli and of course we gave him egg nog!  (Good thing he didn't ask for filet mignon!) and Maddie was able to celebrate with us!

Avery had too much target shopping so she decided to nap:)

Dan and the boys finished their basketball season.

 

Wow a lot has happened in the last 2 months!  Hopefully over break, I will do our Christmas update and let you see all the cute pictures of our Christmas programs!:)





No More Toddlers; Avery turned 4!

Breakfast in Bed for birthdays!

 Her Gumball cake!

The star for the day!  She wouldn't stop long enough to pose for me.

 The day her friends came.

 The extent of the gumballs theme--gumball guessing jar (winner took it home); we had guesses ranging from 3 to 300:)  Correct answer was 136--closest winner 128! (with a little help from the father:) )  gumball flowers were sent home with each guest--thanks pinterest for the idea.

 My excited girl!

Present from the family on her birthday morning.

 Our last gymnastics class was on her birthday. 

This past weekend, we celebrated Avery's 4 years of life with us!  She is a dynamic, smart girl who daily adds excitement to our life.  She loves to make jokes and is the only one of our kids that laughs when we tease her.  She LOVES puzzles and games and plays them nearly every day.  She misses her sister for playing Barbies since Kylie is gone to school all day and will cry if Kylie doesn't want to play them with her when she gets home.  Avery is inquisitive about God, loves to read Bible stories and likes to remind me that Satan will be locked up one day and we only die 1 time and then never again (her little mind really is working!).  She also tells me that she does NOT want to grow up to be a mommy because she does NOT want to have babies!  At this point she does not want to adopt either:)  She is determined and gets frustrated when she can't do things "perfect" the first time (with writing her name, or other coloring activities) and she is continues to be extremely determined!  She talks big about only sucking her fingers when she is in bed, but unfortunately, if we don't continually remind her, her fingers are in their a LOT during the day...I am seeing a big big bill at the dentist office in our future:) Avery is tall for her age and has grown 3 inches since last year--she is about 1.5to 2 inches tall than Kylie was at age 4. We love you Avery!!!

Apple orchard

 It was such a gorgeous day that after the SW event, we decided to head to an apple orchard.  Many people thought it was a good day to pick apples, so we waited in line a lot:) 

   The kids got 2 tickets when we entered the orchard for face painting and balloon things--this is a puppy on a lease.

  Their tough apple picking faces. 

Riding the hay ride to the orchards.

 Picking some Harrelsons.

 My baby seems to be growing taller every day!

  Right after taking this picture on the hay pile, a nice dog climbed the pile and "marked his territory" on it...we got the kids to come down the other side.

  Waiting for the tractor to come pick us up!  We were really hot and thirsty!  80 plus degrees on Sept. 29--wow!

Southwest Ribbon cutting

 On Saturday SWCHS celebrated God's faithfulness in opening the door of their new building!  The day began with a 5K run or a 3K walk and it was a gorgeous day for it!

 At 10:30 many people gathered out front for a time of praise and worship.  There was an official ribbon cutting ceremony and Dan had a short speech.  I wasn't able to be there for the speech/ceremony because Kylie had a soccer game, but this was just before that.  It was a great morning and they estimated that over 600 people came through the building for tours! 

Lowry Nature Center

Kylie's class took a trip to the Lowry Nature Center and I was able to go along as a chaperone!

We looked for insects in 3 places, the water, the forest and the fields. 

It was a gorgeous day to be outdoors and it was fun to be with Kylie and her classmates.  Kylie was hungry from the moment we got there until 2 hours later when we had lunch, so that was a bit distracting for her:)  We found lots of insects and 1 huge spider in the field!  Tricia graciously had Avery that morning and when I got there to pick her up, Avery said, "I am totally not coming home with you."  She LOVES playing with her cousins!

Fall activities

   Avery signed up for gymnastics this fall and she is LOVING it.  It is hard to wait 1 week for it to come and then from the time we drop off the kids at school until class begins (1 hour) is torture for her (and me:)  )

  Kick the cones over! 

Caleb playing right field on his baseball team this fall.  He was excited to get home several times this game and be able to catch a ball from a teammate to get someone out on first base! 

 Bennet playing out in left field.  He too got several good hits and made it home!  He got someone out on first base also, but he wants to continue to work on catching as he is a little nervous about it.

   This afternoon fun...we got old clothes on, watered the dusty, dusty ground and made mud.  Several hours of fun were had, but the hose rinse off was not so fun!!!

 Our neighbor Grace joined in the fun. 

Our soccer girl

  Kylie is playing on her first soccer team this fall.  She couldn't be happier that their team jersey color is pink, and she helped to name their team "Pink-a-lot".  There are 4 girls on their team and 3 play at one time, so they get lots of playing time.  Kylie says she wishes she had soccer everyday (they have a practice one day and a game another day).  She was so excited that she scored 2 goals in her first soccer game ever!  She is quick out there:)