Crazy Hair Day!

Casey came home from school last night and told us that it was crazy hair day today. He said he wanted a mohawk for the day. Seeing how he really did need a haircut anyway, Ryan cut his hair into a mohawk for the day. I'm just hoping he doesn't like it and want to keep it! If so our Christmas cards may include Casey with a new hairdo!

Green Day

Just thought this was a cute picture of Audrey and Chelsea. Of course it would have been better if Audrey's eyes were open but I take what I can get! We were all in green this day for no apparent reason. I was in the picture too but it was a less than beautiful shot so I thought I'd just post the girls.

I've Lost Something!

A couple of weeks ago as I was getting ready to go to the grocery store, Casey was wiggling his tooth telling me it was really loose. Teeth kind of gross me out so I didn't really want to feel it. Ryan was all about getting that thing out. I asked if I should take a picture of him with all his teeth before I left and he said I should. Here is what he looked like before I left and what he looked like when I came home. He was very excited to lose his first tooth and write his name on the tooth chart at school. He even came home with a tooth necklace to store his tooth in. I told him since it was his first one that the tooth fairy would give his tooth back so he could keep it for a little bit. Don't worry the fairy will come back and take it to tooth heaven so as not to have 20 gross old teeth in that necklace!

Kingsway Pumpkin Patch

Last month, a group of moms from church met at Kingsway for a morning of fall fun. For the last couple years, Kingsway has kind of become a fall tradition. It is such a nice place for the kids to play. This is the first year that Casey did not come with us, much to his disappointment. He found out before he left for school that we were going to Kingsway and he was not pleased. Shortly after hearing, he was in tears saying that it's not fair he has to go to school. I think that has been one of the most difficult things for him. He doesn't like the feeling that he is missing fun things that the girls get to do. I guess he is beginning to learn some hard lessons in life. Sure is hard to sit back and watch him learn those tough lessons though! Anyway the girls had a blast at Kingsway riding the train, petting animals, playing in the hay tunnel, and eating pizza at Pizza Hut.

My Little Cuties!

Cierra and Casey


Taelor, Chelsea, and Audrey


Casey as a dalmation, Chelsea as a strawberry, and Audrey as a ladybug


Every year I kind of go back and forth about the kids going trick or treating. I really wish that Halloween didn't have the have the scary, evil side to it. The kids love to dress up, pretend, and of course get candy! So here we are in our very non-scary trick-or-treat costumes! Chelsea loved marching up to the houses saying trick-or-treat. She was all about the candy and became very possessive of the candy the next several days.

Safari Trip

One weekend in October we took the kids to the Port Clinton Drive thru Safari. We met mom and dad and Brad, Steph and kids there. It was a beautiful weekend and the kids were so excited to see grandma, grandpa and cousins. We got up early and had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then were on to the excitement for the day. We were able to see a variety of animals from ocelots to buffalos. This drive-thru we were just able to drive our own vehicles through. The animals would come right up to the van and stick their heads in. The alpacas got to be a little annoying but most of the animals were pretty calm. If we didn't feel like feeding them we would just roll up the window. The buffalo was a little too much for Chelsea as she pretty adamantly told him, "Get out of here!" I think the favorite for everyone was the giraffe. They were so gentle and leaned they heads right down into the van and curled their big black tongues around the carrots we were offering. After touring through the safari, we had booked a hotel where the kids could swim and there was a little water park with some slides. Without spending a lot of time going into detail, we were very disappointed in our hotel. It was very dirty and dumpy looking. In the end we checked back out and headed elsewhere. We found another hotel and swam, ate pizza, and got a good nights rest. The next day was beautiful as well so we located a nice state park in the area. We played on the playground, visited a nature center and went on a walk in the woods. With the exception of our first hotel, it was a great weekend with family!

Pumpkin Time!

One nice sunny afternoon Casey and Audrey selected pumpkins and it was time to carve. I do have to say that this is the first year they have actually carved by themselves. I thought they did a pretty nice job. In my stupidity, I did not take a picture of the finished product and I'm also sorry to say that the pumpkins didn't last long because Belle thought that they were fabulous toys to roll down the hill and chew on. I didn't really have a good place to put them because she would find then anywhere I put them. But at least the kids had fun carving!

My New Job

He really is not this messy of an eater. I believe Audrey was feeding him and she also took this picture. I have never had a child that really will eat anything you feed him....even peas for breakfast!


This was a popsicle break we took. Notice who the craziest kids are!


Yummy frosing!!

This fall I have taken on some babysitting jobs to make a little extra cash. At times it can get a little stressful but for the most part seems to be going pretty well. I have an 8 month old, and 2 two year olds that I watch 2-4 days a week. Adding Chelsea and Audrey into that, on most days I have 5 kids. Audrey is my big helper. She reads books to the 2 year olds, plays school with them and makes sure they are behaving. She also feeds Owen, bottles or baby food, gets him toys, tells me when he stinks, and most anything else I ask her to do with him. The other day when I found out I wouldn't be watching any children the next day Audrey was truly disappointed. Most of our days run pretty smoothly but the lunch/nap time can get a little crazy. We fill our days with a varitey of things including cooking, playing outside, painting, trips to the park, and of course a big, long afternoon nap!

On the Big Yellow BUS!

He just looks way too excited! Shouldn't he be sad and at least a little afraid to leave his mommy?

Not the best picture of all of us but it's not always pretty this early in the morning right?!

After many months of counting down the days until school starts, the day finally came. It was a chilly morning but the girls wanted to walk out too. Grandma Syl came to watch as well. We waited awhile for the bus as we went out plenty early as to not miss the bus on the first day of school! Casey boarded the big yellow bus without so much as a backward glance and was off to kindergarten. Still seems like it is not quite possible. The day seemed kind of long for me as I kept thinking about what he might be doing. There were just so many new things for him to learn but I guess it's all a part of him learning independence. His biggest concern was that he would get on the wrong bus to come home. I drilled in him his bus number and was pretty confident that he would make it home and at about 3:30 he came bounding off the bus. His favorite part of the day as with all kids...recess. I wasn't surprised that he said he mostly just played by himself. It will take him awhile to get to know and actually play with other kids. He wasn't full of as many details as I felt like I needed but overall it seemed like he had a good day.

Cutest Kittens Ever!

I just thought I had to post a couple of these pictures because these kittens (and of course the kids holding them) are so adorable! I tried to get Ryan to let the kids take one home but must not have been as blinded by their cuteness as I was. So much to the dismay of Audrey, we still do not have a kitten.

Audrey is off to Preschool

For the time being I'm going to ignore the fact that I haven't blogged for 2 months and just continue on with what has been happening over the last couple weeks. Audrey started preschool last week. She was so excited to follow in the footsteps of her big brother. The preschool moved over the summer and is now located in Uniontown so we have a little more of a drive but it gives me a chance to hear all about her day. She is pretty detailed in her descriptions of what happened right down to when they went to the bathroom. Also included in her days wrap up is who misbehaved and what the consequence was. For me it was easier to let her go than Casey, maybe because she's the second one and is a little more outgoing, or it could be that I've been watching/babysitting 3 other kids so I don't have time to think about it as much this year as last. In any event, she is loving school and wakes up beaming on the days she gets to go!

Newest Member of the Family

We have been talking for some time about getting a puppy for the kids. After lots of checking around on lots of different websites, checking papers, and family discussions we finally found what we wanted close to Dayton Ohio. Ryan was pretty set on getting a German Shorthaired pointer for several reasons. 1. They look cool. 2. They can be trained to track deer. 3. They are good with kids. 4. They won't get really large. We left the kids with Sylvia and set off to get the new puppy on July 4th. The puppies were 5 weeks old and smaller than I thought they would be.....but oh so cute! We picked our favorite from the females they had left. Seemed like this one wanted to go with us as all the others headed for the cage and this one hung by us. We were a little nervous for the drive as we had about 3.5 hours home and were warned that she may throw up or poop due to stress. We made it home without mishap and she travelled beautifully. The kids were so excited to play with her. It took her a little bit to warm up but after a half hour or so she was following them around. Hopefully we have many happy puppy days ahead! She has yet to be officially named. Sadie, Ruby, Little Ann, and Lucy are all in the running right now. Now the question....who should get to make the executive decision?

Haircut, Curls, and Ear Pierced Please!

Audrey feeding baby Owen. She didn't last long though claming he was too heavy!

These are the three requests of Audrey. Two of her wishes were granted but the third I haven't quite decided if that's such a good idea. She wanted her hair cut for her birthday and we didn't get around to it so finally the other day we went over to Alexa's house (one of her favorite babysitters who happens to do hair as well). She cut about 5 inches off and it looked really cute. I thought about having her do bangs yet but for right now we'll just change one thing at a time. Then that evening we borrowed some curlers and made some curly hair. She loved it but couldn't manage to get comfortable enough to sleep on them all night. I didn't take an after picture with the curls since I was ready for bed when she told me to take them out. We did leave a few in overnight but then she was mad the next morning that the ones we took out the night before didn't stay curly. So she wanted all the curls out. I guess we'll just have to leave then in for a couple hours and not try for overnight.

Picture Time!

I have been made aware and have been thinking anyway that I don't have a very recent picture of my three little darlings. On a recent trip through the grocery store a studio was doing a promotion and were setting up shop at Giant Eagle. Thinking this would be nice and close and it was cheap, I signed up. Oh for 20/20 hindsight! Our appointment was at 11:00 on a Friday morning. I had the kids up and ready, dressed cute, in kind of matching clothes. We were a few minutes late but never fear....they were completely disorganized and not ready for us anyway. There was only one person there to take the pictures, sign people in, and collect money on the way out. When I mentioned to him that he needed a helper, he claimed he could do it all on his own. Well, he could do it but not well or on time! On top of that he was one of the strangest people I have met in a long time. He was telling the kids to hit him then he would fall over as if to be dead on the floor. The kids would laugh but it was all a little too strange for me. I thought maybe we could get out of there with one decent picture and never return again but Chelsea had other plans. She had no intention of sitting on the platform and in every picture that he did try to take she was screaming and both arms were pointed straight for me. I couldn't blame her really though it wasn't the most comfortable place for me either. So after all of that we left with no pictures, and the option of going to a different Giant Eagle at another time to try again. I haven't called yet and I don't know if I'm dumb enough to try again. Maybe I could push my luck and hope to get a different photogragher??? We came home and since the kids were all picture ready I tried to snap a few with my camera. The older two cooperated but Chelsea was still traumatized I think. She refused. Here they are all dressed up cute pretending the love each other!

Boat Ride at Walborn Reservoir

Casey has been begging Ryan to take him fishing on the boat now that it is up and running. So one morning bright and early Ryan and Henry set out to go fishing. I met them several hours later with an excited little boy and two jealous sisters. Casey had fun but I think he was expecting a little more excitement. It's a lot of sitting for a five year old I guess. Ryan hooked several and let Casey reel them in and he said he had fun but I think he prefers fishing on land as he can fish, then go run around, fish a little more, throw rocks, fish again, and you get the idea!

Lake Mohawk

One day last month we headed to Lake Mohawk by Steve and Holly's lakehouse to enjoy a day of splashing in the water relaxing in the sun. The kids love to play play in the sand, jump off the docks and go for rides on the tube. Audrey is probably the most adventurous as far as the water goes. She doesn't seem to care about the seaweed tickling her feet or the muck squishing between her toes. Casey is a little more reserved but still has fun splashing in the water. Chelsea doesn't have much fear but unfortunately she always wants mommy to get in the water with her. I'm not quite so fond of the seaweed and muck But once in a while I guess it's good to pretend you are a kid and not be so concerned with gross things like that! We have been to the Lakehouse 3 times this summer, the last time for fireworks over July 4th. That was a hot weekend with lots of kids as Charla was there too with her crew. Of course I forgot my camera so no cute 4th of July pictures. The ones posted are from the previous time to the Lakehouse sometime in the middle of June.

Got the Theif!

Early in the summer we planted what we thought would be a nice garden. We didn't put quite as many different things in this year as in previous years but we planted peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and zuchinni. Shortly after our peas came up I noticed that the one end of peas had all of the tops stripped off. The next week the middle of the row was beginning to look a little sad. Numerous times we had seen bunnies in the garden and Casey would run out like a wild maniac and scare them away. Obviously they are sneaky little creatures that we don't see all the time so Ryan went out and bought a live trap to catch the family of bunnies that seems to be living in our neighbors shed. After checking first thing every morning for a couple of days Casey was very disappointed to find the cage empty. But lo and behold less than a week later we had caught our first theif! He was taken to a nearby woods to make a new home. We also had another trap set up to catch some annoying little chipmunks. But about a week after catching the rabbit I went outside to see a big, fat racoon caught in the trap. Ryan was afraid of getting too close to the coon and wasn't quite sure how he was going to dispose of this critter without getting bitten. Never fear though...he was a crafty fellow and by the time Ryan got to him he had chewed his way right through the wire cage! Sad to say we have not caught the rest of the bunny family and my peas are now tilled under as they were mostly destroyed. At least they don't seem to like the rest of the stuff we have planted in the garden. Next year maybe we will have to invest in some fence to go around the garden to keep our unwanted guests out!

Happy 4th Birthday Audrey!

BIRTHDAY GIRL!!
Kaydri, Sophia, Taelor, Audrey and Ava tired out after jumping on the inflatables

On Wednesday Audrey turned 4. We had decided to have her party a little early due to the fact that one of her friends was leaving for Nicaragua. So Monday night the 14th was the big party day. We began with supper at McDonalds. Braidon (her cousin) is only 3 days younger than her also decided to join us with his "boy" party that night. So we (Holly and I) had about 12 very excited kids eating supper. After we were done eating we headed over to the Y to run off some energy on the inflatables. They all enjoyed playing but the boys probably had more fun because they could throw each other around and wrestle and not get hurt. I guess boys will be boys! We had some very hot and sweaty kids when we left about an hour later. It turned out to be a beautiful night after kind of an overcast day so we headed to the park to open presents and have cake and ice cream. I have decided that next year maybe I'll just decorate a cardboard box since I don't think any of the kids even ate cake. They all just wanted to see what was on the cake and help blow out candles. A box is much cheaper than a cake! We ended up bringing most of the cake home and freezing it. After ice cream, opening presents, and playing at the park, we had some very tired and dirty, kids. Taelor spent the night at our house because it seems it has become a tradition that someone will spend the night when one of the kids has a birthday. The girls took a bath and watched Princess Gigi and then it was time for bed. I'm not sure why I tried to let them sleep in the same bed but I gave them one chance. Of course they blew it and ended up in separate beds. You would have thought after such an eventful night they would have slept in but I woke up to hear Audrey in her most motherly voice telling Taelor it was time to get up. So they played a while on Thursday, fought a little bit, made several messes, and then the birthday party was officially over!

Dana's Farm

At church on Sunday Dana told Ryan that he had stopped along side the road and picked up a family of skunks that had lost their mama to a car accident. He said to bring the kids over to see them. Supposedly skunks can be good pets if you get them when they are little and remove the scent gland. The kids were so excited to see these little skunks. We actually ended up spending several hour over at his house because Dana also had a pig which Audrey "rode", seveal playful cats, and some very tasty strawberries. I do have to admit that the skunks were cute. I don't however think that I could manage having one for a pet. It is after all, still a skunk.

Casey's Last Day of School

Lake Erie Walleye fishing. What fun but now we have clean them all! UGH!!

Casey Taelor and Miss Marcy on the last day of school

Casey, Taelor and Miss Kelly

I can't believe that Casey is officially done with preschool. It seems like that year really flew by and the more shocking thing is that in a month or so we will be getting ready for kindergarten! His last day of school they had a class picnic which I was really disappointed but I was not able to go. Ryan had scheduled a fishing charter to go walleye fishing up on Lake Erie and I was planning to go. He didn't consult my calendar (otherwise known as my schedule for life) before booking. So needless to say the two events conflicted. Since the party was only like an hour long I decided to skip it but he went with Holly. Our Lake Erie trip was fun too. We were a little afraid of the weather as we were driving up but we ended up only having to come in for an hour or so while the storm went through. The first fish I caught I thought would go down in the record books as the largest fish ever caught on Lake Erie. I reeled and reeled and thought I would end up with bruised on my ribs from pulling so hard. After all that work I got the fish in and it was a huge sheephead. Little did I know that these fish are not apprecited on Lake Erie. The captain gave it a good whack over the head and threw it back in. So all that work for nothing! I did catch some nice walleyes then after that but there was always the chance that a big tug on the line could be a sheephead. We probably caught twice as many of those as walleye. The most comical part of the trip was when Chris (a friend of Ryan's) almost went for a swim. After a big thud I looked over to see feet straight in the air. Chris threw his line out and his feet slipped out from under him and some how he had miraculously caught himself on something under the boat. It was good for a laugh though. All in all, it was good trip and I think we caught something like 32 walleye...each of us getting to keep 6.

Slacking once Again!

This was the way home from the cabin. Notice how tired Audrey is. She is such a little stinker when it comes to sleeping. Guess you have to have one that doesn't need to sleep right?

Casey and his crayfish. They did end up cooking and eating those gross things!

Casey and Ryan on Friday night with the first blue gills of the weekend.

I have been thinking that it's been awhile since I've posted anything here and come to find out it has...over a month! So once again I will try to do some catch up work with my blog here and bring it back up to date. I have kept myself busy that's for sure. Seems there is always something to catch up on. That's why this blog gets pushed to the back since no one really notices if it gets behind. Anyway enough excuses...the month of May we had a garage sale which was mainly to clean out the basement. We were being taken over by boxes and boxes and more boxes of clothes. So I hauled them all over to Holly's house for a sale. In hindsight, I'm not sure the hassle was worth the money we made but at least the goal was accomplished and the basement is much cleaner. The kids thought the garage sale was great because what could be better than going over to play at their cousins house for 4 days straight! (We didn't have the sale for 4 days but it took us seveal to set up stuff). We also went to the cabin twice in the month of May. Once at the beginning of the month with Ryan's mom and dad and then again at the end with my mom and dad. My mom and dad went with us over Memorial Day weekend. It was a beautiful weekend. I don't think it rained at all except for just a few drops as we were leaving. The fishing was great. We went several different times, well at least Ryan did. He just took different people each time. Casey, Dad and I went at different times. We caught some awesome blue gills. The rest of the weekend was filled with other mind relaxing activities such as our ABC scavenger hunt, playing frisbee, and catching turtles and crayfish. I just love going down there and being outside playing in the woods. I'm even more excited for our next visit as the black raspberries should be ready. The only bad part was that Sunday night at about 3 a.m. we lost power. Made it a little hard to cook and clean in the morning. We ended up making scrambled eggs over the fire and bringing lots of laundry home to finish washing. Oh well..could have been much worse.

Princess Audrey

My little Audrey really is a princess and she is quite certain she must behave like one as well. She was so excited a couple weeks ago when I told her that she could pick out a couple bottles of nail polish at CVS. After purchasing her nail polish she has proceeded to paint her doll's fingernails, and toenails, her own fingernails and toenails, and Chelsea's toenails and fingernails. It was all quite cute except for the fact that she was not supposed to be getting into the nail polish without permission. I had been gone for an evening and was greeted at the door by Audrey who looked like she had a black eye. Come to find out, she had decided it was also time for her to start wearing make-up. As I walked in to find Chelsea, I noticed her toenails (and a lot of her toes!), and fingernails were painted pink. Audrey was very proud of her accomplishments and I'm sure had a blast but she was firmly infomed that she is only allowed to get nail polish out with permission and as of this date at age 3 she is not allowed in mommy's make-up. She also decided Sunday morning that she wanted her hair curled. Since I happened to be up pretty early sunday morning I told her I'm curl it for church. She was thrilled with her curls. Only sad part is that her hair has really no curl and about 2 hours left after church she was in church because "all the curls are gone mommy!" We did however capture a picture that we refer to as "Curly Sue" that she likes to look at to remind her of her curly morning.

Kindergarten Registration

This morning is Casey's official kindergarten registration. He will be able to go in and see his school and also be "tested" on several things. I guess what they do is rotate through some stations while teachers ask them some questions. While the kids are doing that the parents are in another room going over procedures. I think he is excited but one of his first questions when he found out we were going was if he would get to ride the bus there. I'm not sure what the attraction is with the bus because I remember hating riding the bus! He doesn't know yet to hate bus rides so I'll let him find out on his own that bus rides take forever and you have to stop at least 50 times! To him it just looks like a more exciting way to travel than getting in a car. I'm kind of interested to find out more information about his school day as I feel like I know very little about Marlington school district and that's where he will be attending. I'm not sure I feel like he is totally ready for kindergarten. Some of his letters still look a little more like Chinese characters than they do actual letters. Yesterday we were working on letters and making them sit on the line. Many of them were still floating. Maybe I'm just too picky or he's just extra stubborn for me because I'm him mom! Oh well....we'll see how things go today!

Motorcycle Rides with Grandpa

Audrey didn't get a ride because it got too late but she wanted to pose for a picture anyway.

The other night Casey called grandpa to see when he could get his first motorcycle ride. Later that night grandpa drove in the driveway ready to take Casey. My camera was acting up so I didn't get any pictures with the helmet on but never fear...he did wear one for the ride!