Picture Day

(Right before we started pictures with the kids, they were all sitting together on the grass laughing together- it still makes me smile to think of that cute moment)

I don't know about anyone else, but when kids bring home the order forms for school pictures I cringe when I look at those prices! $32 is the cheapest price for a package with an 8x10! Not to mention the fact that your child pretty much has one chance for a good smile- one photograph, taken by a photographer that is taking pictures of 400 other kids and pretty much just trying to move them through the line. I felt a little bad not ordering the pictures- I didn't order them last year either; but I did feel redeemed when Jacob brought home the proof sheet- he looked cute as he always does, but frankly- when pictures happen right after recess- you can tell.

I would prefer to do my own- that way I can get as many shots as I want- or as many as the kids will let me take. I can get a natural smile out of them, I can fix up the lighting or smudges of dirt on their faces (common prob around here :), and most importantly- I can order a beautiful 8x10 from Costco for $1.49 and 5x7's for Grandma's are only .49cents. (Sorry to some of you grandma's- your pictures are on their way)

So even though we don't have a ton to work with in our backyard- I was pleased with how the pictures turned out, and it didn't cost me a fortune!

Jacob- 1st Grade

Caleb- Age 5

Matthew- Age 3 (almost)

And of course it wouldn't be pictures without a few of the funny outtakes. The two older boys are pretty good, they know if they do their job, I'll do mine and they'll be done fast. But Matthew is the hardest little thing to take pictures of! He can't stand it, and I'm lucky to get him looking at the camera, not making a funny face, and least of all smile.

I wanted to get some of Emily- but she had just barely woken up from her nap and was still a bit groggy. It was chilly outside anyway, and I didn't want to keep her out too long. Good thing we take plenty of pictures of this little princess anyway. :)

And I just had to throw this one in there... it was taken a couple weeks after the other pictures, but this to me is one of those 'classic' family pictures. Notice the 3-year old trying to make a break for it and Mom with an iron-grip on his collar pulling him back. Nice try Matthew- at least we're all smiling!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch Trip

First of all..WOW...This is post #500!

In October, Caleb's preschool had a field trip to the local pumpkin patch. We had two great things happen. 1- Whereas the weather had been cold and rainy during the previous week, we had a fabulous, warm, sunny day near 70 degrees to enjoy the field trip. 2- Jeff ended up not having any patients in the morning and was able to come with us before his afternoon appointments. It's always nice to have an extra parent with three kids at a pumpkin patch- especially when Matthew ends up needing to take a potty break right in the middle of finding the perfect pumpkin in the huge field. That could have been interesting... instead, he just went for a little walk with daddy. :)



It was a beautiful day and a fun trip with the preschool class. They loved the hayride to the pumpkin field, picking out their favorite pumpkins, going through the straw bale maze, climbing the huge straw bale tower- Matthew did get a little nervous at the top, but I don't blame him- that tower was tall! They also had fun seeing the animals at the petting zoo and having cookies and juice afterwards.


The day was nice enough that when we got home, it was fun to just play outside. Emily may be young, but she definitely knows what she likes- and she loves to be outside!

Moving...Again

Before we moved to the area, we knew we weren't ready to jump in and buy anything, but we were having a hard time finding a place to rent. We really wanted to find a home, but home rentals were actually hard to come by and pricey as well. We eventually just decided that our only real option was to rent an apartment again. We were a little disappointed, but we found a great place that actually had 3 bedrooms, a garage, and 1200 square feet -much bigger than anything we'd had before. Even though we didn't have our own yard, we did have a little grassy area out front and some other fun perks like the swimming pool. We did a 6-month lease hoping we'd find something or be ready to buy by the end of the lease.

Well one day in September, Jeff found an ad on Craigslist for a home for rent for just a little more than our apartment. That's another thing, rental prices are crazy high here! They were having an open house, so we went to see the place, along with about 20 other applicants (I meant it when I said home rentals were in short supply! I've never seen anything quite like it.) We loved the house- a beautiful 5-bedroom, 2.5 bath with a big fenced yard. We turned in our application and after they called every.single.reference. (Thanks Heather! :) they called us and said they'd like to rent the house to us. We were so excited! It was everything we'd dreamed of finding. It's in a beautiful area and only about 7 min from our last place.

(Our Cute Condo-Style Apartment- ours is on the right)

(Side view- with the garage- loved that!)

(View from the front door- living room, kitchen, dining.

The kids' 2 bedrooms & one bath were off to the left, the master bedroom & bath were on the right)

View from the front door. This porch & grassy area provided many hours of fun.

We had some tasks that had to be taken care of quickly- luckily the apartment complex found someone to take over our lease and it was back to packing up everything we'd just unpacked a couple months before. I'm definitely getting tired of the moving. :) Call us crazy, but we did all the moving by ourselves using only our mini van on conference weekend, Oct 3-4th. :) It wasn't too bad, we really don't have that much stuff so we just took loads over. Jeff can take the blame for doing it ourselves though- he always hates to ask for help, especially being conference weekend.

Our Beautiful New Rental Home!

Closer view- can't wait to get started on some of the yard work!

The house actually is in a different school, and apparently the new school had the same problem- a surplus of 1st graders. So the plan was that I would just continue to drive Jacob back to his old school so he wouldn't be bussed from one school to another. After one week, I received a call from the new school. Even though I thought it would never happen, they had an opening come up. We're in love with Jacob's new school and his absolutely wonderful new teacher. It's been such an easy transition. We feel so grateful. I did feel pretty dumb going back to Jacob's school- that we'd had such an ordeal getting him into in the first place- but they were very kind and understanding, and everyone was sad to see Jacob go, but he's already made some great friends and we absolutely love the new house and the new area- Caleb asked me if we could stay forever!

(My Favorite Part- the Backyard!)

I'm not sure how long we'll be here, but we're sure enjoying it. For the first time, our kids have a big beautiful yard to play in that even has a small garden area and an apricot tree. It has made such a difference for the kids to have more space to play and to have a yard. I feel like life as a mother is just a whole lot less crazy when everyone has a little more space- our last place was the biggest we've had, but 1200 is still small for a family of 6. Now with a house with 2400 sq feet, there's a place for everything and a lot of space that isn't being used- our home looks pretty bare with what we have, but we love it and are so grateful to be here!

Apple Picking

While at the grocery store one evening, I was immediately drawn to the bags of beautiful apples for sale- they even had a $3 off coupon attached to them. Well, that would have been great, except that the coupon brought the price of the bag down to $10 from $13.

When I got home I sadly told Jeff that we couldn't even afford to buy apples- not at that price. Leave it to Jeff, he immediately set off to find a solution- one of the many reasons I love him.

He found a nearby farm, about 20 min away, where we could go and pick apples for .25 cents a pound. So one evening, we went as a family to go pick apples. The kids were so excited! They love fruits & vegetables, and what could be better than picking your own?

I was amazed how quickly we were able to pick our apples, we had lots of eager helpers and the trees were loaded. The kids' favorite part was being able to eat apples while they picked. I think Matthew must have eaten- well partially eaten- probably 5 apples during our time there. The farmer was great and a lot of fun to visit with while we picked a yummy assortment of fuji, cameo, and braeburn apples. My favorites were the cameos, Jeff liked the fujis and the kids just liked the apples. You really can't beat fresh picked apples, they're the best!

We ended up with 130 pounds of apples! It only took us about 30 minutes to pick them. Good thing about these apples is that they'll store for months in a cool garage- we originally planned on having this pick last us for a few months, but it's been so fun to share them with friends and family that I think we might have to go back for more. I certainly don't feel bad- especially getting amazing fresh picked apples at .25 cents a pound versus the $1.50/lb supermarket price. It was sure a fun evening. I would highly recommend family apple picking to anyone!

(The boys- excited about the apples- I especially love Matthew's face.. :)

And even though I didn't get any pictures with Emily in them, she had fun being outside too!

Student Wanna-Be

The person who had the hardest time with school starting for everyone was Matthew. It's mainly because he feels left out that he doesn't get to go too! In the mornings, he'll pull out backpacks, put them on and tell me he's ready for school. Even in the early hours of the morning, he likes to get up with the other kids. It's not uncommon to have a minor meltdown when we drop off Jacob in the morning, or when he gets on the bus. The hardest though, is taking Caleb to preschool because I have to take Matthew and Emily in with me. Then Matthew sees all the fun toys and kids, the worst is the fish, and wants to stay and play. I just keep telling him he has to be older, but that doesn't stop him from asking to go to preschool. :)

Sleepy boy still in pj's all ready to go to school. I love the bed hair! :)

Backpacks are also great for Matthew for another reason. Matthew can literally be classified pack-rat. He loves to tote all his little toys, belongings, and cool things around with him all day. He'll fit as many toys and things into his bag as he can. The backpack comes in handy for this. Sometimes I have to check through his items, because he'll take things that might have been left out- even if they're mommy or daddy's important things. This is a good example of a typical day for Matthew. It drives Jeff and I a little crazy because he takes toys all over, but he'll probably grow out of it at some point and then I'll probably miss it, so for now we just try to keep it under control.
I'm sure glad he's not old enough yet though, because of his late birthday, he'll have three more years before he starts kindergarten. I do think he enjoys getting more attention with the other boys are away at school. It's nice to be able to spend some one-on-one time with him. He keeps pretty busy doing his own little things

Reading stories is a favorite (notice his pack & collection of toys...)

Following me around and being my little

buddy.

Playing outside, and finding bugs. "Rodie-Podie's" are his favorites.

And taking good care of Emily...most of the time. :)

I'm glad I get to keep this little guy home with me for a while.

Track Star

I think this picture is so funny- she has a perfect start position.

We're sure this means she'll be a track star someday ;)

Look out, Emily is ready to take on the world! I was really hoping she would be slow to crawl, slow to walk, pretty much just slow to grow up.... but as we're really starting to see, that isn't going to be the case with this one. At 6.5 months Emily is crawling all over the house, crawling up the stairs, pulling things out of cupboards, getting into everything-especially things she shouldn't, and can pull herself up to standing. I know it's only going to be a matter of time before she starts to take those first steps.

Into Mommy's purse AND speaker cords at the same time

Having fun with her brothers during our move...forget her toys- box hideouts are much more fun!

It's still funny and a little crazy to watch because she's still just so tiny. She doesn't seem big enough to be doing all these things. We've had some early walkers, Jacob was 8 months, Caleb was 9 months, and Matthew was 10. I was hoping Emily would follow the pattern and not walk until at least 11 months. That probably won't be the case unless I just carry her around everywhere and not let her try to walk. Why does the baby have to grow up so fast? The boys love to watch her and encourage it, but I just want my baby to stay little for a while!