Mountain Fun

A couple of weeks ago, we got away for the weekend with the Ainslie's. It was anything but relaxing, but we still had a great time. We did a lot of nothing, but with 5 kids things are never dull. The place we stayed was really nice because there was a huge playground, putt-putt, an arcade, and an indoor swimming pool in the community and it was all free. I lost count of how many times Tripp played putt-putt. On Friday, we took the kids to sliding rock where they could slide down into the water. Things were fun until they hit the water. It was COLD. Insanely so. When the kids hit, the tears started. Bless their hearts. But it was so funny! It was a great weekend with even greater friends.

Addie Grey was really entertained by the singers at dinner one night. Don't you love their hairstyles?

 Oh, they were FREEZING!!!!

 Arcade fun!

 I love these five!!!

Kindergarten field trip

Makinley has had a swollen lymph node in her neck for awhile now, so today we went to see an ENT. Luckily he isn't worried and just put her on an antibiotic for it. We will follow up in a month. Since I took the day off to go to the appt (and hopefully take a nap), I was able to go with her class to the pumpkin patch. She loved having me with her, and I'm glad the timing worked out. They played games, heard a story, had a snack and picked out a pumpkin. It was a perfect fall morning.

 Look how much taller Makinley is than her friend Mya!

 Little Miss Competition in the races.

 I love my girl.

Washington Farms

Joey and I took the kids to Washington Farms recently, and we had the best time together as a family. There were pumpkins, a jumping pillow, cow train, a maze, a petting zoo, a playground, and pig races. The kids played and played, and Addie Grey had as much fun as the big kids. She is so funny because right now every animal is a dog. She says (or actually growls) the word 'dog' and says 'woof woof'. She is a mess. It was a great Saturday!

Addie Grey-13 months

This baby girl of ours.... Don't even know what to say. We love her to pieces, and she continues to be easy-going and laid back. But that personality is starting to come through, and she can let you know in a heartbeat if she doesn't like something. Her 'tantrums' make me giggle. She is growing like a weed and weighs 22 pounds. She is becoming a very picky eater and I hate trying to figure out something to feed her. She will love something for a week and then despise it. She can sign 'more', 'please' and 'eat', but 'more' is her favorite and she does it all the time. Her daddy loves it. And I love that I feel like she can communicate with us. She can say dog, dada, hey, woof woof, bubba, ball, and momma. She is still nursing in the mornings and (all) night long, but she is on milk during the day. She is cutting all 4 molars right now and our nights have been hell lately. So, I'll be glad when they come through. When you tell her it's bath time, she hurries to our bathroom, and when you say it's time to go night, night, she goes to her room and tries to get in her rocking chair. It's so fun watching things start to 'click'. As much as I LOVE the baby stage, this stage is so much fun. We don't know where we'd be without her.

 Look at those BLUE eyes!!!

More Football Fun

For a season that started out as rough as ours did, it turned out awesome. Our team is 5-2 right now and we are in the play-offs. We have one more game before the final play-off game, so we will see how that goes, but I am so proud of our boys. Still not sure Tripp will play again, but he stuck through this season and didn't shed as many tears as we thought he would!
We won our first playoff game!

 He ran over to check on baby sister one afternoon during a game.

 Tripp and his best friends.

 Team picture with their cute cheerleaders!

 I love that they pray together at games and practices!

falling behind

It's killing me that this blog is falling by the wayside. I'm determined to keep it up as best as I can. But, it's getting tough. The main reason is because I very rarely use my actual camera anymore. All pictures are taken with my phone, and Instagram and Facebook are where my pictures all go. However, this is what I print each year, so the pictures need to go here as well. So, this will be nothing but a picture dump with a few captions, but at least I'll have them preserved!

First up, Tripp's team has now had two wins for football!! Yay team!

Addie Grey absolutely LOVES to be outside. We've spent a lot of time out there lately as she has been extremely irritable while trying to cut her one year molars. I hate molars! I can just barely feel the tip of the top two, but they still have a long ways to go to fully break through. And the bottom two are just bulging. I hate that they bother her so bad. But, I still think her necklace is helping with the pain. She hasn't run a fever either, so that's a good thing. So are popsicles when we're cutting teeth.

Also, in the above picture of her standing in her car, you can see that she's beginning to test her boundaries. I was telling her to 'sit' over and over again. She would stand up, smile, and say, "hey". Right when I would stand up to go pop her, she would plop down real quick! Oh...and here we go with Ms. Independence. Along with being independent, she is also JEALOUS! She can't stand for anyone else to be near me. This isn't the best quality picture, but you can see that she wasn't too happy that Joey came to lay in my lap!

We had family pictures made this week and I can't wait to see how they turn out. Having our pictures taken is one of my most favorite things to do, but Joey only lets me do it every so often because of the financial obligation. I can't wait to see what Emily captured. In the meantime, I discovered that while Joey and I were doing pictures of just the two of us, Makinley got ahold of my phone and took about 60 pictures.

And last but not least, the fair came to town last week and we took the kids. We always have a great time at the fair, even if they workers are scary and don't really have many teeth. The kids love riding the rides, playing games, and getting funnel cakes. I love making memories.

We are heading to the mountains this weekend with Leah and Andrew and I'm determined to take pictures with my actual camera and blog about it when we get back. We'll see how that goes!