Fall Pictures

Every year I ask the kids if they want me to take their pictures or just go with the school ones and every year they tell me that they want me to do it.  I know that it is stressful for all of us, but they try hard to cooperate and I try hard to not get frustrated and every time we end up with beautiful pictures.  

Here are my favorites this year. 

Myles 3

Abbie 7

Ashton 10

Lexie 15

All the kids together 

This one is my favorite

The boys

The girls 

Just because we could

Another Home Improvement Project

 We tackled another home improvement project at the end of September.  The carpet in the family room had definitely seen better days.  It was really worn out and it smelled awful.  Pets are so hard on houses.  Well we decided that we couldn't stand it any longer.  But what to replace it with was the question.  If we did carpet again we could just do that part.  But we really didn't want to do carpet.  After we looked at our options we decided to go with a vinyl laminate that looks like a wood laminate.  I LOVE it.  It took Jake tons of hard work but it looks beautiful!  We ended up replacing all of the floors on the main level except for the hardwoods in two rooms.  It was 700 square feet of flooring.  The family room, entry, kitchen, bathroom and laundry room. Jake worked so hard to make it happen.  He was amazing.

Before:

The old carpet

The kids wanted to be in on the action.  Oh how gross that carpet was.  When we pulled it up, you could tell why it stunk so bad.  I didn't take any pictures but it was awful. 

Here it is a work in progress

And this one is more of Myles in his Halloween costume but you can see that the floor is almost finished.  

And here it is all put back to gather.  I am so happy with it.  I love it some much.

Here it is in the kitchen.  I'm thankful that my husband can fix anything and do all of these home improvement projects.  He is always willing to make things the way we would have them in this new house.  We are slowly making it "ours!"

Cheer Camp

Abbie got to be part of a mini cheer camp this fall. She had practice twice a week for a couple weeks then the girls got to cheer at halftime of the last home high school football game this season.  She had so much fun.

Abbie and Izzy waiting to go out.

Getting ready to start

Cheering!

She did a great job and had so much fun!  The night was warm and that was a huge plus for us too. 

Somebody's Potty Trained!

(September 21, 2015) Myles has been working hard all summer on getting potty trained.  He would do good for a few days and then want nothing to do with it.  But we kept at it. Added a fun sticker chart that rewarded him with suckers and an ice cream if he filled up the whole thing and then it clicked!

All filled up and ready for the ice cream reward!

The big payoff!  He was so excited to earn that ice cream!

And mom is super excited to be finished with diapers!

One last baseball game

He headed to one last baseball game for the season in the middle of September.  The Twins played the  Angels.  It was an important game for both teams to be able to make the playoffs.

The view from our seats.  

Waiting in line to get into the field.  

Myles was ready to catch a homer!

Unfortunately we didn't catch any, although two were hit near us.  It is exciting to see a ball coming your way! You could see us in the stands on the TV broadcast.

The kids loved these statues.  

Watching the game and enjoying some food!

The Twins ended up losing, but that didn't ruin our night.  We had a great time.  Can't wait to go to a few games next year.

GO TWINS!

Lexie's Busy Life

Lexie is sooooo busy!  She has all those hard classes, which she works so hard at and gets great grades!  She is also involved in a bunch of extra curricular activities.  She was in the fall play.  It was the Hilarious History of the Trojan War.  She played Helen of Troy.  It was great and she was awesome.

Lexie with Jesse, she introduced Lexie to theatre.  

Lexie's best friends with Tori the stage manager.

Lexie with Scott the night he came to support her.

Lexie with her "other man".  This was Paris her love interest in the play.  The reason for the Trojan War.  If you don't know the story you should look it up.  The play was a parody, it was hilarious. Lexie was a "dumb blonde" and she played the part well.  

Lexie is also in the pep band. They play at most of the sports events of the high school.  Football, basketball, hockey. 

Lexie playing her french horn.

She is also part of student council.  That keeps her super busy with meetings and planning of things.  

This was the homecoming parade. Some friends of ours took these pictures and I "borrowed" them from Facebook! 

Student council float.

I don't know when she finds time to sleep and eat, but somehow she manages.  She is such a great daughter, I love her so much! 

I love our new neighborhood

One of the best things about our new house is the neighborhood.  We live on a dead end street so there isn't a ton of traffic.  There is some because it is long and we live near the beginning of it, but it isn't a busy through street.  And there are so many kids!  Well I guess I should say boys.  There aren't many girls around.  On any given day our front yard looks like this.  

Baseball one day,

Or this....

Football the next.

Or this.....

There are 6 boys Ashton's age who live within walking distance of our house and a few more who were biking down when it was warm enough to.  Our house seems to be the hang out house.  They are either in the front yards (which is flat) playing a sport (you name it, baseball, football, basketball), the backyard playing some crazy game on the hill, or inside playing the wii.  They are becoming the best of friends and it makes this mom so happy to see her kids having such a good time with friends.  I may or may not encourage them hanging out at our house by supplying a steady supply of cookies.  ;) 

It can be wild and crazy at times but I love it.  

The front door often looks like this, or has even more.  This is just the younger gang's shoes.  Abbie also had a group of kids her age to play with.  The only problem I see for the future is that they are all boys.  Right now it doesn't matter a bit, but I think one day it will.  

These four are quite the group.  

And both groups are really good about letting Myles tag along in the fun.