My Family

A big part of what I am most thankful for today...

My Family.

Can I just tell you, that getting 7 people to all smile in a photograph is a little tricky? Not sure if you all knew that. But it is. We headed out Halloween afternoon amongst a busy weekend already to about an hour west of us for a little photo shoot. First things first, Ben and Becca are SO awesome and did an amazing job capturing our little ones personalities. When I checked their site I saw our Christmas card photo and seriously had tears in my eyes. There is just something about it that screams my family. They captured in that picture, what I have always wanted in a family. I did not think I could have captured that in a hard copy only in my mind. I will not include that photo, you will get to see it in a couple of weeks for your self. Anyway, it was a fun day and all in all we did pretty darn good I have to say. We got some amazing AMAZING shots! Enjoy!

The Boys
The girls

Jadeyn

Miss Jadeyn. Oh how I love her. Seriously, I hit the jackpot with her. I may only have one girl, but if it means she is the one and only, I'll take it! She is so fun and so helpful. In fact the babysitter last week even mentioned how she did not know why she was there because Jadeyn could run the show herself. Truly she could. She told me today, I want a new baby so I can give her food, and change her diaper with wet wipes, and comb her hair, and give her a bath and give her naps and do a bedtime routine. She kept going, but I will stop here, but she seriously is such a little nurturer. She is also my child that if she has nothing to do she gets bored and by bored I mean she will paint on the walls or find makeup to put on herself, or...well you get my point. She is also a cleaner which is helpful when she gets into the aforementioned items. We love her and are thrilled to have her in our family. I love these shots of her. Such a beautiful little lady!

Cortland

This picture is SO my little Cortland. Just cute and fun. He is so funny and get SO very excited about life. Funny lines on a movie, or something Paxton did or whatever. He just enjoys the little things in life. He is SO laid, back to almost the point of passed out. I could or can take him anywhere with out any problems. He is so good and such a pleasure to be around. Unlike his twin sister, he never gets into things and is always obedient. He has a little lisp when he says S words and I am not gonna like I love it! He loves sports and is super coordinated. I feel so lucky to have him as one of my sons. Each of them are such a blessing and have such different things to offer to this world. I love Cortland with all I got!

Maddox

Oh this little tennie tiny is so adorable. I love his little tiny self. He is so cute and those eyes just sparkle. He is by far my most out going child. He is quiet and pretty reserved at time, my others are painfully shy, but he will actually talk to people in public. Which none of the others have done before. He has some energy when he wants to. He is a pretty mellow two year old. He hasn't hit the terrible twos yet and with only 3 months to go, maybe he won't. Here's to hoping he won't hit the terrible threes! Maddox love Paxton. He loves to hug him and hang on him. There is something about this boy, something that people notice. I cannot put into words what it is, but I like it!

Paxton Paxton is so fun. I am noticing every day more and more that he is developing into a fun little toddler, he is not a baby anymore. In some ways it makes me sad, his life seems to be going too fast, but in other ways, it is so much fun. He just walks around the house all day. He just walks and walks. He will sometimes sit to play with a toy, but for the most part he is just walking around. He loves walking and being mobile. He is starting to say some more words too other than mama and dada. He says, go and one, two and his most favorite word is Sugar, only is kind of sounds like Dugar. It is SO cute. The dog, Sugar, is his best friend apparently. Paxton is gentle and sweet and I just love to squeeze him and kiss him. He loves it back too!

Bennett
Oh Bennett, Bennett. I love this boy. There is not really more to say than that, right? He is just so great. I love him so much and am so happy he is my son and my oldest. He is a great helper and just loves helping and being their big brother. His teacher says all the time that he will pick things out of the treasure box for his brothers and sister or save special coloring pages for them. What a sweetie he is. I am so lucky to have him.

The ONE

This picture was a very candid shot and I have to say it is one of my favorites if not my favorite. I just love what this says. I love that I am helping Paxton and Andy is right by me and the four other children are together. It is just so cute and says so much to me. It brings tears to my eyes, really. Love it!


I have to say a special thank you to Ben and Becca. These photos mean more to me than I am sure they could ever know. And to think this are just a few of the 145 awesome shots they got. We love Ben and Becca for many reasons, but today especially for creating these shots that will forever be close to our hearts!

Getting ready!

We are all getting excited about Thanksgiving coming up. REally excited! This week has been kind of crazy already and it is only Tuesday. Yesterday we spent the whole day and I mean the WHOLE day at the hospital with my dad while he was having some heart related work done. We are very happy to report that everything looked great. Very good news. We got home around 8:30 and I had to make some turkey cookies for Bennetts class and a pumpkin pie for Andys work party today. I also decided to thow in three loaves of pumpkin bread too! I am not sure what I was thinkign there, but it was kind of fun and I had it all done by 10 so not too bad.

I am getting excited about all the cooking and baking I will be doing over the next two days. Michelle is coming tomorrow so we can cook and bake all day to get ready for Thursday. Shoudl be fun! I am not looking forward to the dirty kitchen and things getting crazy, but that is ok, it is all a part of it right? Then this weekend our dear friend Ben and Jamie are coming to visit! We could not be more excited about that. We love them so much!

Making our napkin rings for the big day!

{apparently only two people were on board for this photo!}

The Pledge

We have been doing preschool in our home since the beginning of the school year. It is so cute, because if you ask Jadeyn if she goes to school she says, yes, but I do not ride the bus there. So cute. Anyway, we have always said the pledge every morning to start off with and one day I realized they have it completely memorized. Pretty awesome. Even little Maddox has it down pat. I got this cute video of Cort, although he needed to be prompted a little, I am not sure why, stage fright perhaps? So without further ado, enjoy a cute little clip of our cute little Cort!

Ooh, oh

I cannot even get over how cute this is, but please pay no attention to the annoying mother bribing her son with candy in the background! Tonight's gonna be a good good night!

Our love for the Little Gym

I have felt very fortunate to be able to take our kiddos to the Little Gym occasionally. Up until this past week, only Maddox was going. The twins were involved in soccer at the start of fall, so for Maddox we did the Little Gym, plus until January when he turns three he will be on his own, no more mom and me class, so I had to jump on this while I still could. Well earlier in the month the owner was telling me they have a opening in Paxton's age. Well I did not think I would be interested because he is a baby. He roams around our house and gets a kick out of that, so did I really need to pay for him to come to the Little Gym? Well the more I thought about it and talked with Andy we thought maybe we should do it. The one think I LOVE most about that place is it is just my one on one time with my kids. I love that. The whole time I am there I think about how blessed I am to be able to do that with my kids. We have such a great time running around and playing with all the different things there is to do. So anyway, we decided to sign Paxton up. The bonus was since he is my second child enrolled we get a discount and since the term is 3/4 ths over it was prorated a great deal. So it ended up working out really well.

This past Saturday was our first week and he loved it. He is the youngest in the class it seems, but he still had a ball. He rolled around on the mats and even had Mr. John help him do a tummy exercise and a bar exercise. It was pretty fun seeing my baby have so much fun. The only problem is, he doesn't seem like such a baby anymore!!!

{just a side note. this little gym class is at 8:30 AM! grandma of the year even manages to get there for this early classs!}

CLICK below if you would like to see a darling little clip of Paxton at the gym. If anyone could tell me how to get it pasted into my blog so you could see it, I would appreciate it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNgW7fmAdq8

Bros...

have i ever mentioned that THIS is what i have always wanted.

First REAL haircut

BEFORE...

I trimmed Paxton's hair a few times since around 6 weeks old, but we have never really had a REAL haircut. We went to this fun place just down the street from our house that is just really fun for the kids to get their haircut. I normally cut the kids hair, so for their first cut I try to make it fun so we went to Kiddos Kuts for Paxton's first time.

DURING

My kids are so funny when they get their haircut. A lot of kids scream and cry and throw fits when they are getting their hair cut, my kids are the exact opposite. They literally almost, Maddox actually has, fall asleep in the chair. They get drowsy and just close their eyes and pretty much fall asleep. It is so cute. The ladies always talk about how they would prefer them to fall asleep over screaming, but I think it is still funny.

{getting a little drowsy}

Paxton wanted to stand up in the fun car at first and did really well like his brothers and sister. He as well started to get a little "heavy" as if he was going to fall asleep. It is so funny. He did such a great job. I didn't want it to be a short cut, because in all honesty, I need him to stay a baby a lot longer than he is, so we went with a little baby cut, but now he does not need a clip to keep it out of his darling little face.
{getting a little long, ya think?}

Enjoy the pics!

AFTER
What a big boy!

Honored

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Bennett's school for parent/teacher conferences. I was looking forward to talking with his teacher and getting a better feel for his new school. I am really liking his new school. Yes his last school was brand new and so nice and lots of fun activities and so on, but this school is smaller, a lot smaller instead of 6 third grades there are only 2. When I returned a book to Bennett today the secretary knew I was Bennett' s mom and knew who Bennett was personally. I like that!

Anyway, it was good to talk with his teacher and get to know how he was doing in class. He is doing well in his classes and she said that he is a sweet kid. When I mentioned that he is always worried about pulling a card and reminds me to sign his notebook everyday so he does not have to pull one, she said, like he would ever have to pull a card! At the beginning of the school year she told the class that she has never had a year where a kid did not pull a card and Bennett came right home and told me that this year would be her first year, he was not going to have to pull a card. So cute.

Well anyway, after saying he was so sweet she followed it by saying "not only is he sweet, but he is most definitely the sweetest kid I have ever gotten to work with in my history of teaching." Then she said, "I am sure it is an honor to be his mother." You know what? It truly is. I am the lucky one. He is so great. Yes there are things that he needs to work on, but don't we all. I was so happy to be reminded of how wonderful he truly is.

I left there feeling very great about my children and the paths that they are all on. I feel fortunate for their little desires to be good kids and want to be good examples. I hope this will continue forever. I didn't say this to his teacher, but I must admit I am a little jealous she gets to spend most days with Bennett.

Where has the time gone?

I truly cannot believe it is ALREADY November! I mean we are in NOVEMBER folks! I know people say it all the time, but seriously life is just moving at such a fast pace. I wish it would slow down a little here.

I am having a hard time adapting to the fact that is is already November. I try to kind of get in the spirit of it all, but no luck yet. They have Christmas music on already! I LOVE Christmas music with a passion, but it is just a little too early for me. I have not started Christmas shopping yet at all. I have decided that I am going to do it all in one day or so. Every year I find a deal here, get a deal there, because lets face it I never buy ANYTHING unless it is on clearance or a HUGE sale, but I feel like when I space it out I maybe tend to get more. So this year I am going to try and do it in one day more or less. We will see how that goes.

I am getting excited about Thanksgiving though. I love that day of the year. I love when the house smells of turkey and yummy food. I love the hustle and bustle of the weekend and all the people over just lounging around and playing games. Love it! Love, love, love it! I do think I am going to try and make some different things this year. We tend to do the same things, same recipes every year and not that there is anything wrong with them, but I want to change it up a bit this year. We will have to see. I may just want to stick to tried and true. Who knows!

I am getting really excited about seeing Brandon and his family and Cherise and Karl and Nicole. We are all very excited about seeing them. Can't wait! It is always a party when family is in town!

Anyway, another fun thing we have to look forward to is going to this place

for Andy's company party. A night of fun away from it all! That is coming up. Anyway, so here is to getting in the spirit of it all! Maybe some snow would do the job?

Yes, they are all mine

I am sure you guys are bored to tears hearing stories about what kind of comments people make to us about "ALL" of our kids. I literally have people count my children when I am walking into somewhere. Like today walking out of the gym a lady counted with her finger and then said, as if I have never heard it before, "Are they all yours?" I have got to come up with something funny to say back, but I always just nod and say yes, they are. I mean come on people we are not the Duggars here! Andy always talks about getting me a shirt that reads, yes they are all ours and no we are not done! That would answer two of their questions without even having to ask them, right? I am pretty sure they would come up with more questions to ask then.

Truth is, there is nothing I would change about my little family including the spacing in between each child. Yes we would have loved to have had one in between the 4 years of Bennett and the twins and wish we did, but we didn't and I know now it was ALL about the timing. More than perfect little Bennett in Dental school would have been Rough with a capital R! I am just thankful they are mine and they are all mine and love that we have each one of these little ones with their very own special spirit that they bring to our family.

Andy came home from work the other day and said you know what I realized today? I said what? He said when we had Paxton our fifth child, my second to oldest was only TWO! I replied with, where have you been hon? We have talked about this before I am sure of it. I guess it just hit him though. To be honest, when we are at home doing our thing, like preschool, music time, art time, story time, and running around playing and even when we go to the gym everyday it doesn't seem like our little family is odd at all. It seems very normal to me. Even when people point out that we sure "HAVE our hands full", {I am not kidding four people said that to me TODAY just walking out of the gym} I still think, what are they talking about!

I do have to say though which is weird, when I see a family with several little ones I think how do they do that, I mean to me our family is my normal, but to them it has got to be crazy which yes I know does not make sense, but that is what I think. Like a lady at the gym has twins who just turned three and a baby who is 10 months and I always look at her walking in and think how does she do it! Then at the Little Gym the other day Mr. John was talking about the expense of diapers and one time he knew a family that had three kids in diapers, GASP, and he could not believe it. And a lady chimed in about how she had two in diapers and it was crazy. I tried to leave the conversation because I don't want it to seem like I am trying to one up anyone, but as I was walking away he says, well you probably had two in diapers right? I said yep we sure did. Actually we had four in diapers. The whole room went silent and it was if they were going to start a fund raiser up for me right then and there. He wondered how because he said he thought there was more space in between there and I said well when Paxton was born the twins were two and Maddox was one. When I was saying this yes it did seem a little crazy, yet somehow in my mind, again, it seems normal. Good thing, right?

Anyway, I truly love being the mom to these little ones and what an extra blessing it is to have Bennett, my little friend, confidant and helper. Each child we have had has just added more blessings to our family than can even be imagined. So yes, to all those that ask are they all mine, YES they are all mine and each one of them brings me more smiles, more laughter and more love than I ever thought was possible!

Jadeyn age 3, Cortland age 3, Paxton age 1, Maddox age 2

One great big huge Halloween post!

Halloween
We had a busy day on Halloween, but sure had fun that night. The kids were so excited and could not believe that the day had finally come to actually go trick or treating! It was so fun. That night while going to bed I just kept telling Andy how much fun I am having being their mom and how fun it was that night. Just watching Jadeyn every time she would get candy she would look at Andy and I and say "they gave me candy that is so nice" like she hadn't just done it 20 times before. It was so cute. Maddox was so cute walking around with those Buzz wings. He would hit everyone and everything in his way without even knowing it. They way he walked around that night was like he owned the town. Everyone would say hi Buzz and he would just say "hey" like it was normal to be called Buzz. He owned it that is for sure. Cortland was the cutest Woody. I loved watching him walk around in those boots and tell me everything he got every time. He would also give me a piece about every five minutes. So cute. Bennett had a great time. His costume turned out pretty cute. In the pics his makeup does not look like the same color but it really was the same color as the tarp I made his costume out of. Poor kid, I figured out how I wanted to do "sarge" from toy story and kept sending Andy up to try it on the poor kid because I was kind of just sewing what I thought would work. It turned out pretty good. I did not paint his hands yet for the pic, but all in all it was pretty good. He was a good Sarge. Love that boy! Jadeyn was so excited about being Jesse. She loved it. She was a darling Jesse! Paxton was the little alien form Toy Story. When we saw a hat in Disney World we knew we should go with that theme. Funny enough we didn't use that hat. I found this alien costume at The Children's Place for 2 dollars so we went with that. What a cute alien he was. Andy was Andy and I was the mom. I just love themed Halloweens. I better enjoy it while it lasts before I have no say in it anymore. I have to say though the kids were SO excited about being The Toy Story Crew. Love it!

Bennett's Party

I am so sad I did not take my camera to his party. It was so fun. I will at least list the things we did! We made a witches stew with all kinds of things, like banana chips, m &m's raisins, cereal, cheetos, pretzels, sunflower seeds, and so on. There were tons of things and they all represented something from a witch. It was fun and the kids got a kick out of it. We also made Witches Brew

with rootbeer and dry ice. Then we did a few rounds of bingo which is always a hit. After that they all got three Halloween pages. A find the difference page, a Halloween maze and a word search. While some were doing that we played the ooey gooey game. I took four pumpkins and put 21 prizes at the bottom of each pumpkin. They were small little prizes. Then with the one I put cooked spaghetti noodles for witches brains, then peeled grapes for monster eyeballs, carrots for witches fingers, and then corn kernels for witches teeth. They all loved it and it was so cute. We had cupcakes and cake pops and the witches brew and stew. I had so many moms want to send something in it was so nice. They ended up going home with four goodie bags too. Such a fun time. I love it. I am in my element when I am in those classrooms. Plus I love to plan parties and make the food, so this is right up my alley. Plus it is kids. Easy to impress! I am seriously thinking about recreating some of it just to get some photos! The only photo I do have is this one I took before we left out the door for the party. I made these little treats for all the moms who helped me.

Treats

Ghosts

Halloween decorationsI wish I would have gotten pictures of our outside. We put up a few things. So fun. Our neighborhood goes ALL OUT for Halloween. Every house is decorated, there are haunted houses, and all kinds of things for Halloween. It is for sure the neighborhood to be at!

A really cute decoration I think!

Something I made our first Halloween when we got married. Martha Stewart tip. Still using it!

Our Pumpkins

Bennett did the first one all by himself.

Pumpkin Picking
We went pumpkin picking on Saturday and it was fun. Unfortunately the pumpkin farm was under two inches of water, but they still took us for a wagon ride and then back to the store to find some pumpkins. It was fun and the kids loved it.

Trunk or Treating