not sure why i try!

Matt has been working a lot of Sunday mornings and we haven't had a family picture in a LONG time. I figured I would try to get one of just the kids this morning. Not sure why. I guess I just wanted to stress myself out... The first picture wasn't too bad. They all were looking at the camera....somehow I missed that Blake messed up his hair!

Since they cooperated so well, I figured I'd try it outside since the background would look a little better.Claire would NOT sit down!
Maybe her tights were too tight! ha!

The other pics Andrew wasn't looking, Blake was all hunched over and Claire was off doing her own thing. Not sure why I try!!

Well, I don't have many pics, but I'm gonna update on things...

The boys are still playing soccer. It's for 2 months and every Saturday they have a game. They have done really well. Blake says his favorite thing about soccer is getting the snack. :) And to think his nickname was snackers when he was little. ha! His last game he was VERY agressive! I'm really surprised at how far he has come. He also scored his first goal!!! Andrew has done really well too. He's pretty agressive too, but he says he doesn't like to get into the "pile" with all the kids. He likes to wait for the ball to come out of the "pile" and then get it. lol

Blake is still doing swim lessons. He'll go until the end of November. He's come a long way and I think he really enjoys it.

Everyone is doing well in school and really enjoying it. I still work with Blake at home too. We do a letter a week and mainly just work on writing the letter properly and some other skills like patterns and such. We usually only do it 3-4 times a week. There are days that he asks me if we can work on the letter. :) I think he just gets bored. I've been worried that Kindergarten will wear him out being such a long day, but I really think he'll enjoy it!

Last but not least...Claire. That girl is SUCH a mess!! I don't even know where to start with her! She has started tattling on her brothers an I love it!! If one of them hurt her she'll come crying to me...I'll ask who did it and she fesses up with either Andrew or Blake. :) She definitely keeps those boys in line!! She is a funny little girl with such a personality!! She definitely keeps me on my toes and wants things HER way!! She's going to miss Blake when he's not around to play with her during the day!!

Well, not sure what else has been going on. I'm watching tv and trying to update...so clearly I'm not paying this too much attention!! Go figure!! Off to fold a mound of clothes!!

big girl!

I know this is a little late, but I HAVE to add this picture of Claire on her first day of school. I've already said this...I think, but she only goes one day a week to a Kid's Day Out. She was SO excited to go to "Blake's school!"

Matt had off that day and we had big plans...that fell through! We were so excited to have some alone time tho. We thought about going to breakfast and then decided that we really needed to do some shopping for the kids. The weather turned a little chilly and Andrew was in need of some warmer clothes. So, we went shopping and hooked the kids up with some clothes!

When we went to pick Claire up I went to her door to get her. Her teacher called for her, she came running out, passed me up and yelled "DADDY!!!!!!!!" I'd like to think that she didn't see me, but when I walked up to her she could have cared less. I so felt the love!! Her teacher said she had a great first day tho and that's all that really mattered to me!!

corn girl

I love this picture!! She is such a mess!!

big blakers starts preK!!!

Blake started Pre-K on the 7th of September. He's been READY! I'm sure he gets a little bored now that Andrew is back in school. This year he is going to a new school. Last year he went to a preschool at our church. He enjoyed it and had a lot of friends, but I wanted him to go somewhere different from church. I wanted him to think he was actually in "school."

Claire will be going to his school one day a week. I AM SO EXCITED!! :) She didn't go this day because she had been pretty snotty. Her first actual day will be tomorrow!!

So far Blake has really enjoyed it. He is so excited to tell me about his day when I pick him up. It's funny (well, kind of annoying) but Claire HAS to wear her backpack or "packpack" as she says when we take him and pick him up. You know, it's just ONE more thing I have to deal with in the mornings. *sigh* That girl wears me out!!

big b's

What does Blakers do now that his big bro is back in school all day?...

He plays with Perler Beads!

The boy spent HOURS playing with those beads the other day! He made a lizard, turtle and a dog that day. If you have ever made one of these you know it takes a lot of concentration to work on them and a lot of time! I tried hard to pull him away from it, but he was DETERMINED to get them all done before Andrew got home from school.

He was very proud of his work!

poor blog

Well, I haven't blogged in a while....mainly because we've been sick. Andrew started it and passed it to Claire and Claire passed it on to Blake. Not fun times for this mommy! After 3 weeks it was finally gone! Then Matt's brother and his family came in! We had a fun week with them. His parents came in the end of that week and we had a full house! It was fun tho and I know my kids had a blast playing with their cousins.

They left and three days later Andrew started school!!! I can't believe he's a 1st grader!!

I can't take credit for the sign. Thanks, Megan!! And thanks Matthew for teaching my child this dumb pose!!

Daddy and his boys.

Walking to school. I LOVE being able to walk to school!!

Andrew and his new teacher!

He's very excited because he had a few friends from his class last year.

He's been in school a week and has enjoyed it so far. He was telling Blake today how being a 1st grader is HARD work. :)

This picture reminds me of being a kid. When I was little I used to play under our kitchen table ALL the time. It had a ledge that went from one side of the table to the other and I used to line up my Little People under there and play for hours.

With school right around the corner I figure it's time I start working with Blake ....and Claire. Andrew was sick all last week so I figured why not start since we were couped up in the house!

Dot letter A.
Claire was proud of her work!
Making the A with marshmallows.
Claire worked on stacking them. She was concentrating hard and would get mad when it would fall over!! (temper like her Daddy! ha!)

Can't believe our summer is almost over! It has really gone by too fast! I have to remind myself this is my last year with Blake home. :( CRAZY!!

porch fun

It was a pretty nice day today, so I had the kids eat lunch on the porch. I love when the kids can eat outside. I don't have to sweep under the table!!

Afterwards I took some pics for fun.

Andrew didn't want his picture taken. He was too busy playing his iPod.

Claire was stalking our neighbor who was out playing with his dog.

Claire-bearplaying peek-a-boo!

Not sure what is so funny!!

Blakersplaying hard I'm definitely enjoying these nice summer days. Next week we can see mid 90's so we are soaking up the low 80's while we can!

the big 6!

I can't believe it's been 6 years!!

Oh how my life has changed in those 6 years. I remember when I thought having one child was a lot of work. HA!

I can't believe how much Andrew has grown and matured over these 6 years! It's gone by fast. He's always been a tender hearted little boy who definitely wears his heart on his sleeve. I'm so glad God has blessed us with this spunky little boy and I can't wait to see how he will grow into a young man.

We love you, Andrew!! HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!!

blake's camp

This summer I signed Blake up for some special day camps at a preschool. It wasn't at the preschool he went to so I was a little worried he wouldn't enjoy it or would be scared, but he did fine. Here's some pics from each day.

Pirate Day

Dinosaur Day

Toy Story Day
Thomas and Friends Day

He had a lot of fun going on treasure hunts, tracking dinosaur tracks, riding Bullseye, and crashing like trains. I asked him which day was his favorite and he said all of them!! I will definitely be signing him up again next summer!!!

almost 6!!

Tuesday night we celebrated Andrew's birthday with some friends. For years now he's been wanting to have a party somewhere besides the house. :) We told him when he was in Kindergarten we would grant that wish. So, he invited 20 friends and we all went to P.E. 101.

We had a few more kids show up than I expected. I was only thinking we'd have 14 kids and brought 17 cupcakes that I made thinking some of the adults would have some too. I was wrong. We had a total of 19 kids so Matt ran during the party and got some cupcakes from Target. They weren't nearly as awesome as mine were, but they did the job!

I tried to take a group picture, but some of the kids wouldn't get in.

My neighbor came and kept Claire out of harms (all those boys) way. She had so much fun jumping on the trampoline!

Andrew picked a sports theme for his party. I was thinking he was going to want something like Super Mario or fish, but he chose sports. Once we got home and Claire to bed, we opened up all the gifts. He was SOOO excited. I'm pretty sure he just wanted a big party to get lots of gifts. ;)
I will say the kids had fun and were wild! I was glad that I didn't have it at my house!!!

Anyway, Andrew had fun and is so excited for his actual birthday!

Can't believe he's almost 6!

t-ball boy

Andrew just finished up his first season of t-ball. We got rained out a lot this season, but he learned a lot and definitely came a long way! I was a little worried he was going to get hurt! I'm pretty sure I'll never let him play football! I was so proud of him because he was not one of those kids diggin in the dirt or talking to his friends. He tried his best to pay attention to what was going on. I probably scared him when I said if he didn't always keep his eye on the ball he was going to get hit! I know, I'm mean, but it could happen!! He was so funny because ANYtime he would make a good play he would look at us and give us a big thumbs up!! He was so proud of himself...and we were proud him!

Here he is playing first base.

His favorite part was getting a medal at the end of the season!! It will be interesting to see what sport he sticks with as he gets older!!

While the boys were at VBS last week I took Claire outside to try and get some pics of our flowerbed out front for my dad. When we moved in, there was a pond there and we immediately pulled it out. I didn't like it with little ones. We decided not to plant anything because winter was right around the corner. My dad came down in May and I figured that was the perfect job for his ADD self. :) He did a great job and the flowers are blooming!

Claire wouldn't get out of the way. Papa let her walk around in there while he was planting and she still thinks she can romp around in there!! Thanks, Dad!

I decided to try and get some decent pictures of Claire.She only sat for a second....
and was constantly on the go.

The pink flip flops are a must have with EVERY outfit these days....even if they don't match...but I don't fight it.

randomness

Here's some random pictures from my phone and camera. I could probably do a post for each one, but I don't have the time or energy!! Hence the random post!!

I sent Matt to the store to buy two pools. A rectangle one for the slide and one for Claire to play in. This is what he came home with. The kids love it. It's actually been too chilly some days to use it! Crazy!

Claire came out of her room all frustrated the other day. She was trying HARD to get this diaper on her baby! She loves her babies....loves to feed them, hug them, tuck them in their bed, push them in their stroller and now I guess she's into changing their diapers. Last week we painted her toes. Well, I was painting mine and she wanted hers done. Then when I was painting my fingernails she wanted me to paint hers too. I wasn't about to go there.

I loves those chubby feet!

The other night we went to check on the boys after they went to bed and this is how we found Blakers. Crazy kid. The last couple of days he's been running around with his mask and cape on saying he's an Incredible.
Movie night is always fun with popcorn and M&M's!! Andrew's the only one who eats the popcorn! I think this movie was Super Mario.Matt's been taking the boys fishing quite a bit lately. They caught a lot of fish the last time they went and were finally okay with bringing them home to eat. Of course, the only person who ate them was Matt. :)

And this pic of the clouds is from a storm that blew through the other night. The sirens went off and everything, but after I woke Claire up I realized the sirens went off because the wind was more than 75 mph. Oh well, we just call it our little practice run!!