Trip to Tennessee

 Ty & Rori

 Captain Luke!

 Lily & Luke

 Wilson jumping in the lake!

 Luke's jump!

 Working on my tan. Don't worry- I jumped in several times too!

 Wilson at the pool.

 Ty watching from the sidelines but NOT missing out on the action!

 Wilson & Sarah Beth. He loves his baby cousins!

The SCARY tree house. Craziness! I made it half way up and came down to wait for the others. Yikes!

Family Party

The birthday kiddos- Wilson, Caroline, and Luke. They all have a birthday in 1 week's time...Jan 7th, 10th, and 13th! We had a family party Saturday night to celebrate at our house. We had pizza, salad, and birthday cake.

Cara made a cake that had a W, C and L on it. We sang to all of them and they each blew out a candle. They also opened a few gifts and had fun playing! We ran out of time to play the Wii so the women and kids all came back over Sunday night for a Wii party. We had fun!

Nine kiddos in 1 picture!

Cousins on Andy's side of the family!

A Fun 4th!

Fun in the Leaves!

On Saturday the boys and I headed to a neighboring county and met up with Stephanie, Meghan, Lily and Trey to play in the ginkgo leaves. We had so much fun! Luke was a little unsure at first but quickly warmed up to the idea. Wilson and Luke had fun throwing leaves up in the air. Wilson made piles of leaves and a campfire- we roasted ginkgo leaves on sticks! He is getting such a great imagination. Luke had fun thowing leaves at daddy and throwing some up in the air. Meghan and Lily got buried in the leaves and stuffed their clothes with leaves like they were scarecrows! It was a lot of fun! Thanks for inviting us, Steph! You can see her post here.

Cobin Lag (aka Log Cabin)

So, our family traveled to Gatlinburg for Fall break! We stayed in a Log Cabin. Wilson called it a Cobin Lag for about 2 weeks before we went and the whole time we were there (even though we always refered to it as the Cabin or the Log Cabin!). It was so much fun. We drove a caravan there with Erin, Stephanie, and Danny. Of course all 7 kids were with us too! We met up with Andy's parents and sister in Gatlinburg. We had an awesome cabin that had 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a hot tub, pool table, 7 TVs, a game table and many other nice amenities. A lot of fun was had by all! The caravan left early on Thursday and arrived in Gatlinburg around 2pm. We stopped to shop at the outlet malls and then checked in for our cabin around 5pm. When we got there I made a big pot of chili and we hung out and had fun. On Friday we just enjoyed seeing Mimi, Poppy and Aunt Katie. We went out to dinner and to ride Go-Carts! Wilson rode the go-carts twice with his daddy. Boy, did he love that! The kids rode some other rides as well. Luke really did not want to ride anything. He kept saying "no" in the cutest voice. I did get him on the Merry Go Round and after crying for a couple minutes, he had fun.
On Saturday the girls went shopping some more and out for pizza while the guys and big kids went hiking. We met back up at the cabin for the UK game and more hanging out! Each family carved a pumpkin with the kids (Wilson's idea was a Pirate!) and then got the kids in their halloween costumes so they could trick or treat with Mimi. We lit the pumpkins and roasted the pumpkin seeds. Fun! That night we played Texas Hold 'Em which was lots of fun. It was a perfect hot tub night too! The next morning Dan and Carol had to leave pretty early so we all got up and went for a pancake breakfast before the rest of us packed up the cabin to head home. It was a great time. :) A slide show is coming soon!

To the Pumpkin Patch we go!

(Make sure to hover your mouse over the pics to read the captions!) We had a great time at the orchard on Saturday! Stephanie, Meghan, Lily and Trey all went too. We found a perfect pumpkin to carve and Wilson and Luke each got a smaller pumpkin of their own too. Then we played! Luke and Trey rode a train. Wilson played in the sand and climbed hay mountains. It was a blast! After a snack and listening to the live music we were ready to leave. It took a little convincing on Will's part. He realized there were lots of fun things to do other than the sand!! We were really worn out by the time we got home. We bought some fresh apple donuts to take home- boy were they good on Sunday morning!

Girls Night!

Steph and I met at Starbucks Saturday night after the kids were in bed. Between the two of us that is 5 kids, so that's pretty good! We left our husbands at home with the sleeping children watching the UK football game (though Meg might have still been awake!). We had great conversation and a much needed chance to just talk, without chidren interrupting! We had lots to talk about because the time flew and suddenly over an hour and a half had passed and we knew it was time to head home. We both made it home to see the last 30 min. or so of the UK game which was a great ending! Go CATS! (I'm not a big football fan, but, was interested in a game such as that!) Anyway, while we were hanging out we made a plan to baby-sit each other's kids once a month (they are cousins and all!) so we can each have a monthly date with our hubby. Sounds like a great plan. Andy and Danny were both glad to hear that plan!
Do you like Starbucks? I'm one of the few in my family that does. But you gotta love Starbucks coffee. No, I am NOT one of those that don't drink Starbucks just because they are taking over every corner in our country. Order yourself a Tall-Nonfat-No Whip-White Chocolate Mocha. Go to Starbucks. Now. Get yourself one and see if you don't like it! (BTW, I'm also a fan of locally owned coffee shops too! (mmm...Mocha Josie, anyone?!)

The Joys of a 3 Day Weekend!

Ahhh...a 3 day weekend. Just alleviates so much stress! I feel like I have all the time in the world this weekend! We've been busy though. Friday I went to Culver's for an after school ice-cream social. We went to just hang out for a while, great turn-out and the Twix Swirl icecream was soo good!

Wilson and I went to my school for a little while on Saturday to pick up something I'd forgotten. He had such a good time we ended up staying for over an hour. I didn't mind because I got some stuff done while he played and worked! I did lots of birthday shopping for September birthdays as well. I went to the Half Price Bookstore & Joseph Beth and got my niece, Meghan several of my old favorites (BabySitters Club, Harriet the Spy, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Hatchet, Anne of Green Gables & Little House in the Big Woods). She is an avid reader and found out today that she has read most of them already! Anyway this made me reminisce of all the books I read as a child and went to my mom's house today to get all of my old books. Wilson and I went during Luke's nap so we stayed to visit and left with maybe around 200-300 books. I have a bag full for my classroom, 4 bags for Meghan to go through, and 2 bags to take to the Half Price Bookstore to sell. It was fun to see all the old books Cara and I read! (over 50 were The Baby-Sitter's Club!)

Luke's room is slowly turning into more of his room rather than his room/our old office. Andy and I moved out our big bookcase last weekend. Today I bought him his own little bookcase and we're moving all the board books off Will's bookcase into Luke's room. I'd love to buy him a small dresser for his clothes and get rid of the changing table. I have a cedar chest I wish we could move out of his room but there is no where to put it in our current house. We're bursting at the seams! The only possibility would be moving it into the living room under the windows (which I really don't want to do). I did read on John Rosemond's website that if you want your children to get along, have them share a room! I suggested to Andy that when Luke moves out of the crib maybe we should try that idea!!

Today we went to church and out to eat to celebrate Meghan's 10th birthday, which is tomorrow! It was fun. Speaking of birthdays, last night I dreamed that I totally forgot Will's birthday and went through the entire day and Andy reminded me in the evening that it was Will's birthday. I remember being sooo upset that I hadn't remembered or made a cake. When I woke up from the dream in the middle of the night I was really upset and thought to myself "you have never forgotten his birthday and you never will..." I've been having a really hard time remembering things lately, my mind is just in a fog or something. AHHH, now I'm even dreaming about it!

Tomorrow we might go swimming and then we're having a Labor Day cookout at my maw-ma's. Really looking forward to that! I have a couple miscellaneous pictures I want to post!

This first one is a flashback to Madelyn's 4th birthday party! Jason and Cara rented a jumpy thing and my family had sooo much fun jumping in it after the party ended!



The next picture is in CELEBRATION of Caroline's new food: EGGS!!! Yippeee, she passed the food challenge on eggs this year! Caroline, you spunky thing, you just keep right on outgrowing those awful allergies, girl!! We love you!!

Oh. My. Gosh.

OK, so no pictures from Trey's party last night. I was about and hour and a half late. Yep, that's right. We were loading the car to head to the party. I had taken out my small group book that had an ink pen tucked inside. The pen didn't have a cap on it. One of those blue papermate pens. So anyway, we got both boys in and I was going to carry a couple things inside and grab the camera. Well the ink pen slipped out of the workbook and landed by my foot. I was wearing flip flops and didn't realize it had fallen out. Who cares anyway, it's just an ink pen, right? WRONG. It was an evil pen, one that caused a puncture wound in my foot (yeah, you read that right, an ink pen stabbed my FOOT). Apparently the pen landed just so that when I took a step it was jabbed into my foot. It hurt so bad, I thought it was a stick. I looked down to find the blue pen sticking out of my foot. I freaked out and had to pull the pen out of my skin. It was in fairly deep for a pen/foot combination. After I pulled out the pen there was a hole in my foot. I called it a big, deep hole. Andy might have described it differently. Anyway, it hurt bad and began to bleed. I really didn't know if I would need stitches or not. Now, remember we were on the way to Trey's 1st b-day party so Wilson is saying he's ready to go to the party NOW and Andy is wanting to get there too (his parents are in town). He tried to convince me that it wasn't that bad, that he could clean it and put a band-aid on it. But my worrisome self insisted on going to the Urgent Treatment Center. I was quite freaked out. So Andy dropped me off at the UTC and took the boys to the party. His parents are in town so Mimi watched them. Then he came back to pick me up. Basically, I got a tetanus shot and a band-aid. The Dr. said it would heal up fine on it's own. Of course I was feeling a little silly but I did need the tetanus shot. I had carried the pen in to show the dr but she didn't want to see it! Well everything was fine and good after that. I made it to the rest of Trey's party and the foot wasn't hurting too bad. But then, this morning when Lukie woke me up bright and early I couldn't hardly walk to get him. My foot is SO sore. Dr. didn't tell me I might not be able to walk. I just took 800mg ibuprofen and that has taken the pain away a little bit. If I tried to reenact this incident for you I think it would be impossible. Probably a once in a lifetime fluke. Leave it to me!

To Mimi and Poppy's we go!

At the end of June we loaded up the car again, left around 10pm on a Monday night and Andy drove us to Florida! The boys did pretty well sleeping in the car. We crossed the Florida state line just before 7am. Made it to Mimi and Poppy's house around 10:45am!

We had lots of fun while we were in Florida. We were able to go see a Tampa Bay Devil Ray's baseball game. Here is Wilson talking to Poppy during the game. After the 2nd batter Wilson began saying he was ready to go home! He enjoyed his cracker jacks and finally like cotton candy (any other time he hasn't liked it!). Luke stayed home with Mimi and Finley for some fun and sleep. The great thing about visiting Mimi and Poppy is you also get to visit Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Erin, Ethan and Finley too!!

On Thursday we headed to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. It was Wilson and Luke's first trip to a zoo! When we got there Andy asked Wilson what animal he wanted to see first after reading him the different types from the map. What do you think Wilson picked? ... Skunks!!! Here is Wilson, Ethan and Mimi riding Hank, the camel. Wilson was a little nervous about riding Hank but Mimi made him brave!

Here are the boys feeding a giraffe with mommy and Poppy. The giraffe's were one of my favorite exhibits. That and the manatees!

It was super hot at the zoo so no one felt like eating. We got the kids popsicles for lunch. Here is Luke enjoying his cool treat.

The next day we loaded up the van to drive to the beach. It was about an hour away. We packed a picnic, brought some rafts and enjoyed the sun and waves. Wilson was pretty excited to get back to the beach. He was much braver at the beach this year!

Luke, Wilson, Ethan and Mimi built a sand castle together. They had fun building it and then destroying it! Here is Luke behind the castle. Poor baby was covered in sand from head to toe!

Another picture of Luke wearing his big cousin Ethan's hat! Just look at the cute grin!

Ethan has a mustang! Wilson got to drive it around Ethan's house two different times. He thought it was pretty cool. Luke rode with Ethan driving and had fun too. These two will be a dangerous pair in about 10 years!

We had a great time visiting Mimi, Poppy, and Aunt Katie in Florida. Katie celebrated a birthday and we all ate at her favorite Italian restaurant. It was yummy. We also got to go to Katie's College Campus and look around at her school. Andy found 3 new root beer bottles at a cool little shop to add to his collection. One of my favorite outings was when the girls hopped in the car (without any children!) and went shopping together. It was a great trip and we look forward to visiting Mimi and Poppy again soon!