Pumpkin Patch!

After a long day at the soccer fields in the 100 degree heat, what better way to end the day than with a trip to the pumpkin patch, lol! Luckily, by 5:30 when we arrived, it was only about 95 degrees and we were ready for some fun! We invited the Simpson's along because would could be better than time with the cousins in a corn maze?

Before heading over to the corn maze, we took a ride in the barrel train, woohoo!!

Each of the kids then took a turn ringing the bell with the big sledge hammer...

... and they milked the pretend cow, it was super cool!

It was getting dark so we figured we better take a stab at the corn maze before it really got dark!

Zac with his favorite, Caroline!

The dads and the kids!

Mia was loving the corn maze...

Lovin my babies!

After the corn maze we went to the huge Air Pillow, where the kids bounced and bounced forever! Poor Kate was being tossed about like crazy, but the rest of the kids had a fantastic time!

California here we come!!!

Last month I got to go to California with two of my best girlfriends {Wendy and Toni} for a quick trip! We headed out on a Thursday morning to see The Ellen Degeneres Show and The Tonight Show the next day!

This is the only shot I have from the day of Ellen - this was right as we were leaving the hotel room. We ended up having to wait in line for Ellen for 2-3 hours. It was sooo worth it though because it gave us plenty of time to flirt it up with the security guards and to dance and look AWESOME so that we could get good seats. And good seats are what we got - we sat on the aisle of the row that Ellen dances down - we almost touched her! {But we didn't because we didn't want to get kicked out, lol!} It was such a fun experience!

The next day we woke up and ate at Denny's - um have you tried the strawberry pancake balls??? Oh my goodness - those are GOOD! Then it was off to wait for Jay Leno! We were told that people line up as early as 9am (for a 3pm check in) so we decided to be there by noon to get a decent spot in line. We were officially numbers 9, 10, and 11 in line! Again, we pretty much spent the whole time talking to people - pretty much made the day of the Intern we talked for hours to. He loved us {too bad I forgot his name, sorry intern!}... He also told us he had no say in where we would sit, dang.

All was ok, as we were led into the studio around 4pm, we were seated in the 2nd row on the floor!!!!! Yeah, we rock! The front row was saved we were told for guests of the band, etc... Too bad regular people ended up sitting in front of us and we were way cuter than them, grr. Oh well.


Jay Leno is SO nice! He comes out to talk to the audience before every show. He asked if anyone had questions, so I raised my hand super high and he called on me, ack!!! I told him we were there for Wendy's birthday and we had her son's Flat Stanley and asked if he would take a picture with us. He said of course and so we ran down freaking out! We weren't allowed to use our own camera so a stage hand used a tiny little polaroid - this is a scan of that! He has his arm around me!!!

After the show we hung around the exit of the studio to catch a glimpse Hugh Jackman - in hopes of him taking us to dinner or something... Anyway...


Rickey Minor was happy to let us snap a pic of him with Flat Stanley!

Wendy flirted with the Paparazzi guy to get a pic!

I was trying to get the info from Security on when Hugh Jackman would actually be leaving {he apparently had no idea}.

Jay Leno leaving

The three of us after the show


Hugh Jackman's driver signaling to us that he had no idea when they would be leaving...


Hugh finally leaves {we might have waited around too long for this moment, lol!} Stupid people who crowded his car made it impossible for him to even ask us to go out with him, dang!!!

Sweet Baby Girl...

(This should have posted about two weeks ago!)

Currently I am sitting in a hotel room in Minnesota, it's 3am and I just finished working for the night. The break from normal life is a bit exciting but I sure am missing my kids! I happen to especially be craving some loves from my little companion who normally never leaves my side... To feed that craving I opened a folder of photos on my desktop and found these beauties!

Mia is obsessed with this doll and poking it's eyeballs. Zac thinks the doll is scary and every time we put Mia down for her nap, Zac takes baby and highchair out of her room!

Oh my goodness, isn't she a doll???

For those who haven't seen yet, we painted Mia's room - finally! It used to have partially painted blue and orange walls {from when it belonged to Hayden and I never got it finished!} I am in love with her room now!

Mia is in a super fun stage - a bit clingy but fun none the less! She LOVES playing outside - luckily we had a day last week when it was only about 105 degrees so she got a little bit of play time outside!

Doggie

{Check out the picture of him licking his nose!}

We have a pet, two actually... Twitch and Rosie our super cute Leopard Geckos. Hayden got Twitch for Christmas last year {well he got hermit crabs but we returned those for the gecko} Twitch had a near death experience when Andy squished his shoulder/leg with the edge of the ottoman. We nursed "him" back to life, it took a few weeks but "he" eventually grew strong enough to hunt "his" crickets...

A few months later, the Simpsons gave Brynley her own Leopard Gecko for her birthday - they took her to go pick it out, she chose one and named it Rosie. {We were hoping it was a boy as we thought Twitch was a boy and therefore, no baby making!!} Recently we discovered the Rosie is infact a boy - but Twitch is a girl, uh oh... We believe twitch is pregnant...



We love these little guys - the other night Zac and Brynley took turns letting Twitch crawl around on their heads.
Why the post title of Doggie you may ask? Because sweet Mia is OBSESSED with the geckos. She wanders into the office at least 15 to 20 times a day to stand on her tippy toes and watch the "doggies" she just squeals, "doggies!!!!" as she walks up to them and just watches them. She absolutely LOVES them! not sure why she calls them doggies...

Family Night Bowling

Last week we went bowling with the kids. We always love bowling together - it's fun to see the kids actually improve each time we go {sine we go one or two times a year!} We had a blast together, even Mia didn't mind just hanging out!

Zac may have beat the other kid's scores but he had a little help ;)

Is it bad that the only picture I got of Brynley included her sckirt being tucked up inside of her undershorts? I couldn't help but post it!

Hayden had some SWEET moves, his form is priceless!
She had this little chip stuck to her lip for a about 15 minutes! It was so funny I didn't take it off!

This girl melts my heart...

I cannot even explain the joy I feel every morning when I get Mia out of her bed. She lays in bed {for who knows how long as she is totally silent!} until I come in to get her - usually around 8:15 or 8:30 {oh yah!}... She greets me with the World's biggest grin and just cuddles into my shoulder as I pick her up. Wow... I feel so lucky to be her mama! She has been such a trooper lately as I drag her all over the place, often skipping a nap here and there - and yet she mostly doesn't mind one bit. I love the one on one time I get to spend with her, since she is my last baby I have to soak in every second of it!

Mia has a favorite blanket, she ADORES this thing. She loves to hold the corner and stroke her nose with it, and sometimes she even gives me the joy of the nose stroke as she reaches it out and strokes my nose for me! {Honestly, I'm not sure of the appeal for her as it does nothing for me, lol!} I have been stressed trying to find another similar blanket because I cannot even imagine what would ensue if said blanket were to get lost. Unfortunately, I got this blanket 6 years ago when I was pregnant with Brynley. Andy went on a hunt and finally found an almost new one on Ebay. We snatched it up and now we have two, phew! We pretty much bring the blanket everywhere as we know it will always make her happy! Even now, in the 114 degree weather, she is cuddled up with it in the car/stroller all day!

Her nose stroking reminds me of my cute Cousin Eric as a baby who loved to stroke his ear with the corner of a pillow - it's totally the same!

Mia had crashed in the car the other day and I wanted her awake as I really needed her to nap later. I figured if I laid her on the couch she would for sure wake up, but no. She was out!

Playing Peek a boo with her blanket!

Isn't she beautiful???? She is so happy {except when I'm trying to make dinner and all she wants to do is play with me!!!!}. Other than that, she might be the perfect baby. I can say that right? And I get to cuddle her all day long if that's what I want to do - if only I had the time to do just that!

Our First Pack Meeting!

Hayden had his first pack meeting last week, it was so much fun! The whole family went and I am so glad we did.... I am new to the whole scout world and had no idea what went on at a pack meeting - there were different chants and flag ceremonies and awards. Zac and Brynley got a kick out of it and Mia just toddled around charming those around her.

I will say that Hayden was extremely lucky to enter scouts right before day camp. They passed off a lot of awards at day camp and were given those awards at Pack Mtg. In addtion Hayden earned a few things on our sabbatical and he earned his Bobcat! There was a little ceremony for the boys earning their bobcat, Brother Breinholdt told them they would have to drink Bobcat blood... Hayden's face was Priceless! {The first photo somewhat shows his face - click on it to see it larger!} Everyone was dying watching him shake and his mouth was perced in such a funny way. I sooo wished I had brought my camera, grrr... Luckily, my friend Joy took a few photos of Hayden and her son, but they do not do it justice. Hayden actually jugged the "V8", which really surprised me, but he thought it was pretty good!

Hayden is super excited to be involved in Cub Scouts and he has FABULOUS leaders {I hope they are never released!} I on the other hand, have no idea what I am doing and am kind of flying by the seat of my pants with this whole thing!

Zac Starts Preschool

My handsome man all ready to go!

Zac has been super excited to start preschool and he finally started this week! He's attending at one of my friend's houses {Kim Keith}. We LOVE Kim! She was his nursery leader at church for the last year and half and I knew he would just love going to preschool with her. He is at school Tuesday and Thursday from 9 - Noon... The first day he did great, went right in and had a blast... Day 2 was not so good. He got super nervous as I took him in and by the time we got to teh classroom, he was hysterically crying. Poor little dude. Kim took him right on her lap and I left as he was crying out for me. I texted Kim to see if I needed to come back and get him and within about 5 or 6 minutes he calmed down and had a great time!

Zac does this every time he gets nervous or shy - he puts his hands on his face, it's so funny!

I have been a bit nervous for school to start, only because Zac had to be potty trained. With our sabbatical this summer and being on the road, we didn't really do much potty training. So, when we got back in town I knew I had about 10 days to get er done! It wasn't going as well as I had hoped until the day before school started and I think it finally "clicked", yippy!!! It has been 5 days now of no accidents and no diapers, woohoo!!!! *knock on wood* I think that means he's done, right?

First Day of School!!!

Kindergarten - 2011


We have been anticipating this day for a long time! Hayden and Brynley were super excited to start school today. Hayden is in 3rd Grade with Ms. Turley {the teacher he didn't want but is now excited about!} and Brynley is in Kindergarten with Mrs. Silveira. They were both anxious to get up and get dressed after picking out their outfits last night - I wish I would have coordinated them for photos but I let them choose!


Neither of them were scared at all and just went right to their lines when the bell rang - they then headed inside. Well I assume Hayden did, Andy took him to the 3rd grade play ground and left. I guess Hayden was fine and said he didn't need him to stick around!

And this is the sum total of the photos Andy got of Hayden playing before school, what?



Mia just hung out waiting for school to start

Andy, Zac, Mia and I headed to the Farmhouse for breakfast but of course the line was way too long and Liberty Market was crowded as well so we went to The Good Egg. We had a fun time, just the four of us - there was no fighting at the table and we had a great breakfast! We then ran some errands and did some grocery shopping. By the time we got home, it was time for Zac and Mia to take a nap... Now the house is quiet for the first time in what seems like forever!!! I can't wait to hear all about how today went!