fall family time

 Saturday we had our fall family get together.

I love getting together before the craziness of the holidays start

where we can just go and hang out, just relax.

We all helped out with the lunch, more than enough food like usual

lamb & beans (for grandpa & grandma, something they loved)

chili & corn bread and chicken noodle soup & bread bowls

sugar cookies, crock pot apple crisp, pumpkin cream cheese muffins

brownies and Halloween candy.

We ate the whole day.

It was also time to draw Christmas names.

Kimberly got to draw for the first time, she got her big cousin Tucker.

All the boys wanted to get Kimberly so bad 

they always see so many toys that would be so perfect for her,

but Cody was the lucky one that drew her.

With Brooke now engaged we added Ricky to the mix but are keeping them as a couple,

so Ryan picked  "Bricky or Brocky", there new together name. 

My dad surprised all the grand kids with pumpkins to carve.

We all got in the action to help out.

It was so much easier and faster when Matt brought out the saw,

we all took turns using it.

Cody wanted help from no one until the very end he was so focused.

Between help from Heath and Matt, Luke was able to get his pumpkin done

and finally had a smile on his face.

Ryan's favorite part was the spray painting.

Brooke is not only the slowest eater in the family but also the slowest pumpkin carver, 

Grammy had to help out at the end and it still didn't even get finished.

Matt made sure Kimber had an awesome first pumpkin.

Heath and Ryan worked together to come up with a scary face.

Even though it was dad's idea he didn't really participate

he was too busy supervising, holding Kimber, eating dessert and catching the score of the football game.

Brooke, Luke, Tucker, Ryan, Kimber, Cody and Hailey's masterpieces.

We all got out to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and took a long walk along the ditch bank.

Of course we stopped for a few family pictures along the way, which thrilled no one.

Oops, you can see that dad is missing again from the family picture, 

he opted to stay back at the house and eat dessert again and watch more football.

Can someone say party pooper?

I can.

PARTY POOPER DAD.

It was a great day to spend with the family.

It feels good when we are all together.

 Love ya family.

the weeks wrap up

our week looked a little something like this

Heath at union meetings

waiting to see if they will be going on strike

it's a day to day thing right now

I read these two books

both really good

I only wish they wouldn't of ended so quickly

there is always more to the story that I want to know 

setting out fall and halloween decorations

the kids aren't sure on costumes yet

right now it's looking like a soldier and zombies

 the leaves are starting to change colors now

everything is looking so beautiful

I sent a letter to my surrogate grandma Elva,  a friend to my grandparents

I call her my surrogate since all of my grandparents have passed

since my grandma died we've been writing back and forth

Saturday was my grandpa's 96th birthday

maybe there was a little celebration for him up in heaven

the weather was so beautiful at the beginning of the week

and then it cooled off a little

but that didn't stop these two from spending time outside

swinging, playing basketball, and tossing a football around

they've been playing together a lot

it's nice

the kids were out of school on thursday and friday 

so we had a long weekend together

we went to some thrift stores trying to look for costume parts and pieces

but didn't find any 

I couldn't believe it though when I found this

a toy/calculator I had as a kid

I love the memories it brings back

once I saw these treats I had to make them for Ryan

since a PB & J sandwich is part of his diet

morning, noon or night  

 the kids were not looking forward to flu shots 

so I sent a note in their lunch saying

"ice cream with mom and dad after school"

little did they know flu shots would be happening first

we let the kids pick the order of how they wanted to do it

Ryan said he would go first because he just wanted to get it over with (smart kid),

Cody didn't care when he went so he went second

Luke insisted that he went third even though I told him the waiting was the worst part (he had himself completely freaked out by the time it was his turn, it was a little bit funny)

the really funny thing was that you had to be seven years old there for a flu shot so we had to take Ryan (my brave boy) to the doctors where he was just given the flu mist 

of course Luke was not happy about that and didn't think it was fair at all

 this kid has been talking non stop (even more so than usual)

about his up and coming birthday

he already is trying to figure out what to spend

his birthday money and gift cards on

and he hasn't even gotten them yet

this could turn out to be a very long month

for us all 

happy october!

just another corny post

it was our schools night at the farmstead

so that meant lots of friends and people we knew
running around everywhere

including the girls

i think this was the first time for all of the kids to be at a corn maze together

so now they are probably thinking it's a new tradition started

they love doing everything with the girls

the kids loved the freedom of running wild through the corn maze

luke and abigail always took the lead

leaving the rest of us to follow and try to keep up

sadly we failed our two attempts at the maze

and walked back out the entrances instead of the exits

but that didn't stop us from having a night of fun

snapshots

Finally the day arrived for Luke to get his hair colored.

He decided on blue.

He thought the process took forever.

He couldn't believe all of the steps.

the bleaching-the washing-the cutting-the coloring-the washing

and then finally the styling.

Luke loves it though, so he thinks it was all worth it.

I stopped by for a surprise visit when my mom was babysitting Kimber last week.

She really didn't want anything to do with me, just Grammy but she is sure is a lot of fun.

Ryan got an 89 percent on his first two spelling tests because he forgot the period in his sentence

but spelled everything correctly, such a bummer.

We were so excited to see the 100 percent he brought home today when he remembered his period.

At dinner tonight he kept saying, "I got my period, I got my period!" 

Not only did Cody receive a postcard in the mail today from his teacher telling him how good he was doing in class but he also found out that he got the narrator/Merlin character part in the play "Joust" that he tried out for.

The last picture is just funny because this kind of thing is so common at our house.  Heath is horrible at setting things down and not remembering where he puts them but is always so quick to blame me or the kids for missing things.  Just the other morning he asked me where his deodorant was to which I replied dunno. The next morning when I was in the closet getting dressed  I looked up and happened to see this on the top shelf and just had to laugh, the missing deodorant had been found.

 Another exciting ceremony for Ryan tonight.

He received his second stripe for his white belt.

He is super happy about it and does really well in class,

he even learned a whole blocking set this session and had to memorize 

all of the blocks in order.

 This is really funny.

Last Friday night I put in one of our old family videos to watch with the family,

which the kids thoroughly enjoyed and so did I... mostly.

I snapped this picture from the video with my phone so you could see for yourself.

During this part of the video I say to Ryan,

"Ryan, look at mommy's big belly, you are inside of my tummy there

and I'm pregnant with you."

Heath then says to me, 

"Ummm,  Melissa he's already been born."

(you can see that Ryan is in the lower left part of the picture and since we are celebrating Luke's birthday that would make Ryan 9 months old)

and I'm like "What???"

Oh goodness that was embarrassing!

just stuff

The big news that happened over the weekend was that Brooke & Ricky got engaged.

No idea yet on when they plan on getting married but it's something we will look forward too.

So happy for them both!

We have been doing lots of cleaning and fixing up on the house lately, 

it seems like everything is breaking or falling apart on us.

I wanted to clean out the garage windows that were full of spider webs

so Heath took them down for me, well easier said that done on putting them

back up because we broke three of them, oops.

The easy fix was replacing them with plexiglass, now no more worries.

 I write a note in the boys lunches everyday,

Ryan told me today that he wanted to write me one 

and that he would leave it in a place that I go to everyday.

So adorable, made me smile all day long.

We have been having fun watching WipeOut every night with the kids.

Not only do we laugh constantly but all choose a person we want to see win,

and we are very competitive on wanting to see our person win! 

Here's Luke's hair products that he uses each morning to get the perfect hairdo.

He loves his hair and so do I.

I love that it's his thing and he takes pride in it.

It's getting a little wild so we have a hair appointment scheduled

he's trying something new this time

and adding a little color to it

a funky bright color he's thinking about

So fun, can't wait to see what he picks and how it turns out.

I love "To Do" lists and have one almost everyday for myself 

but I laugh every time I see Cody's "to do list when bored"

think about allowance, ha ha

 I've been running again and it feels good

I'm getting ready for my first 5K

"The Color Run"

The mornings have been a perfect time for running. 

Along with all the cleaning I'm also going through the whole house

and getting rid of stuff that is just cluttering up everything

I love the feeling of everything being organized,

absolutely love it.

Anyway since Heath no longer collects or displays his Nascar die cast

we have these two empty shelf things that we just plan on turning into firewood 

if somebody has a use or a crafty creation they could use them for just let me know

and they will be yours.

that's all the stuff I know for now...

bighearted

Cody is such a sweet boy

he has such a big heart

He's been saving up all of his allowance money

to buy something special

he just doesn't know what yet because

the list of things he wants is constantly changing

and he talks about it all of the time

Heath and I were doing our laundry and found some money

left in some of Heath's shorts pockets

It was three dollars

We thought it would be fun to hide it somewhere on Cody's desk

so when he found it 

he would be so surprised and excited 

Who doesn't want to find money they didn't even know they had?

Well a day and a half later he did find it

it was right before bed

and he said

"Hey, what is this money?"

"Where did it come from?"

"I don't remember having three dollars, it must not be mine."

"Luke is this your money?"

"Well I don't think it's mine so I'm going to share it with my brothers
and give them each a dollar too."

Heath and I just looked at each other and smiled

our plan totally backfired 

Cody didn't even think twice about keeping it all for himself

which he so easily could have but

his first thought was to share with his brothers

The boys are all really sweet like this

doing this kind of thing and

watching out for each other

I love that

It makes us proud

long story short

We started out the school year a little rough.

The first day of school the boys were supposed to meet up in the cafeteria (with all of the school's walkers) to walk home with the girls but the school changed the procedure and let the kids leave the school from their class rooms which caused confusion for the kids with no planned meeting spot.  As I was waiting anxiously on the corner to see all the kids I became a little concerned when Luke was walking alone and had no idea where his brothers were, then I find Cody walking alone having no idea where Ryan was even though he looked all over for him and then lastly I found Ryan back at the school almost in tears because he couldn't find any of his brothers, not a good ending to the first day of school.

Luke stayed home from school on the third day which was Friday because he was sick with a bad cough and cold, with three days home away from school and the new routine he freaked out going back to school on Monday.  It was a horrible morning and him and I both ended up in tears.
That same morning Ryan was staying home from school because over the weekend he wasn't able to walk on one of his legs.  We took him to an urgent care on Sunday but that Dr. wasn't for sure why that was so she wanted him off his leg completely and using crutches.  When Ryan heard that news thinking it was for the rest of his life he sadly said to me, "I barely even got to use my legs."  We never bought him crutches and took him to his pediatrician on Monday who said he had a pulled groin muscle and wanted him using it as much as he could handle, within a few hours he was almost back to normal.

Thankfully school since then has been smooth sailing, the boys are all enjoying their teachers and classes.

Ryan and Ash had been begging for a sleepover all last week, the only day we could make it work was on Friday because we were leaving first thing Saturday morning for camping.  We told the kids Friday after school and they were so excited. We took the kids swimming at the pool and had the place to ourselves.  We let the kids have their dessert first and then ordered pizza. When the weather got a little cool all the kids got out of the pool and started giving each other massages, the things that they come up with.  They used all of my sunscreens and lotions mixed with pool water and leaves to massage each other with and then used the diving sticks as a massaging tool, this kept them busy until the sun came out again and they were all back in the pool.  After showers, jammies and packing I walked Ryan over to Amanda's for the sleep over to begin.
I came home to finish the cleaning and packing for camping and then headed to bed,  I wake up to a phone call at two am from Amanda saying Ryan's been awake since midnight and isn't going back to sleep.  We think that he was so excited for the morning to come (Amanda was making waffles for breakfast) that he just couldn't fall back asleep, it's not that he was crying and missing me, sadly.  So I walk over to pick up Ryan and bring him home at two am but he was in one of his moods so he wasn't really talking to me or Amanda, he just laid wrapped up in his blanket with his face covered not speaking to us.  He shook his head no when I asked him if he wanted me to carry him back home so Amanda picked him up to carry him back to our house at two am while I carried all of his things.  Once home I put him to bed and laid down with him but he still wasn't going to sleep, he was mad that I wouldn't let him play on the ipad, mad that I wouldn't let him read Junie B. Jones, asked me about how babies can drink milk out of nipples, cried that it was Amanda that carried him home because he thought that it was me and cried some more that he never gets to eat waffles at our house (even though we had them for breakfast the two days before), finally at three thirty am he fell back asleep. That wasn't quite the way I was expecting our camping to start out,  with lovely bags under my eyes and a grumpy attitude but we recovered and the good news is that Ryan's good with having another sleep over but wants this next one at our house.

We made it up camping and almost the whole family was there, everyone but Hailey was able to make it up there for a fun family get together.  It was an easy laid back trip with everyone pitching in to cook and clean so that made for lots of time just hanging out around the camp fire visiting.  The boys loved a very fun scavenger hunt that Uncle Matt planned for them that included lowering bags of pine cones out of trees, finding hidden walkie talkies, following clues and digging up treasures.  The kids also built a fort and spent most of their time in it, they loved it even more when Uncle Matt and Heath helped them build an even  bigger and better fort.  They had plans of sleeping in it one night but since I wouldn't let them bring out their pillows and blankets to get all dirty and the temperature dropped to forty at night they slowly changed their minds once it got dark and stayed in the camper with us, like we knew they would.  The long weekend was also filled with lots of fishing, a little boating, playing on the beach building sand castles and catching dragon flies, celebrating Ricky's twentieth birthday and lots of good eating something my family loves to do.

 A lot of the family was off work for the long holiday (Heath took the whole week off) so that made it easier for us all to be there for Tucker today when he was sworn into the Air Force.  There were eleven of us there in total to support him, they weren't expecting such a crowd and said we were the biggest group that they have seen in there, Unlce Matt even showed up in style bringing his work with him.  The whole process takes just a couple of minutes but I was happy that we were all there supporting Tucker, we are all very proud of him.  As of now it looks like he will be going into basic training sometime in January but is still working full time right now and just started taking a few college classes until then.

I think that should catch you back up to what our first few weeks of this school year have been.