Alexis and Thomas Outside

Alexis and Thomas were enjoying a leisurely Saturday afternoon outside in between a busy Saturday of activites. The older 3 kids were playing too before they got summoned to play at a friend's house down the street. So I went outside to watch the little ones and enjoyed watching their blissful splashing and playing. It looks so fun to be a toddler. :)

Starring Alexis in the Big Bad Wolf

Very randomly Alexis started reciting "The Three Little Pigs" while I had the camera rolling, so I decided to post it. I might expect her to break out in song at any moment, but not recite the 3 Little Pigs, since we don't even have that book, so I thought it was funny.

Pumpkin Patch

I love living right down the street from a real pumpkin patch! A older farmer and his wife grow the pumpkins and sell them cheap. The pumpkins are only $1-3 depending on their size. We got 2 huge ones for the porch steps, 6 regular-sized ones so that we can all carve our own, and 4 gourds that the kids really wanted to play with, all for $19. Since our house is on a corner, we put some on the front steps and some on the side steps and our house looks decked out for Halloween. Speaking of decks, we put all the tiny ones we've been growing in our garden all along the deck railing and also on the porch railing. It looks great! The big ones we grew with the kids' names on them are all about rotten, so that's too bad. But we're still growing lots of mini ones, which is fun.

Garbage Kids

Well, some people may think this is gross, but after the garbage man came and got our garbage, the kids couldn't resist playing in it. Actually, it all started when we were pulling weeds and throwing our dying tomato plants (which were 6' tall) into a full garbage can and Spencer suggested getting in and stomping it down. Then they all wanted to and that's when the first picture was taken. (Yes, they smashed the garbage way down:)) Then the next day when the can was empty, they had the brilliant idea of playing in it and somehow amused themselves for quite awhile. When Nathan came home they closed the lid, hiding in there and wanted him to search the yard looking for them. Somehow he guessed right away; I guess because it wasn't in its usual place. Don't worry, our garbage can is actually really clean.

Spencer's 5th Birthday

October 7, 2008

Spencer is now 5 years old! In the morning we went to the library and the grocery store,where he wanted to get the fixins to have BLT's for dinner. We did a half day of school after that and then during naptime the 3 older kids played while I worked on drawing a map of Winterville and Greenville on a 4' x 6' piece of canvas. I drew roads, houses, stores, and other places we frequent like the dentist, church, etc. This was to drive his Matchbox cars on. Nathan got home at 4 and helped me work on it, although we didn't get it quite finished. We ate dinner, opened presents (which included the mat and a lot of new cars), then let the kids play on the mat while Kylie went to Activity Days. When she got home we ate funfetti brownies and ice cream. Spencer was really happy with his presents and his whole day. I'll have to get a picture of he mat on here soon.

Kylie's Baptism Day

Kylie got baptized the day after her birthday, September 18th, 2008 at 6:30pm. She was so grateful that Mama and Papa and Aunt Lori got to be there for her special day. She was all smiles the whole evening. I love attending youth baptisms and I couldn't believe it was actually our turn! I was touched by all the people who came despite it being a Thursday night. Everything went great and it was truly a special night.

Kylie Turns Eight!

The long awaited birthday is finally here! Kylie was so excited that my parents and little sister got to come for her birthday and baptism. She turned 8 on Sept. 17 and spent the day playing with family. That night we had her favorite dinner, spaghetti and homemade rolls. Then we opened presents and ate cake and ice cream.

Thomas in the Cupboard

Thomas loves the kitchen! He's either foraging in the pantry, then walking around the house with his hand in a box of crackers, or plowing through the cupboards. His favorites are the tupperware cupboard, or the pots and pans cupboard. He also likes to get the hand mixer without the beaters hooked on and drag it around the house by the cord. He's pretty funny.

Soap Sculptures

When we studied Michelangelo in our art history class we tried our hand at sculpting by making these carvings out of soap. We had so much fun! Kylie made the states of Tennessee and Idaho, Madalyn made a flower, Alexis made a butterfly (with a little bit of help from me. :)), and Spencer made a piece of pizza. We are learning so much in our art class and are making wonderful memories working on projects together in trying to become better artists. It's a blast!

News the weekend of Sept. 6-7, 2008

After the tropical storm blew through and Nathan got home, we took a family picnic dinner of Taco Bell (the only thing that sounded good to me) to the park to celebrate the surprising news of another baby on the way. The next day I was even more surprised to be called as the 2nd counselor in primary. Since I was having trouble handling my Valiant 9 class, I was overwhelmed at the thought of having to handle the whole primary. It's the first time I felt hesitant about accepting a calling. But so far it's been fun.

Tropical Storm Hannah 9-6-08

We were so excited for our first real tropical storm (instead of just remnants of one). It wasn't as strong as predicted, but it was still fun to go out and play in it. Nathan worked all day of course, but since it was a Saturday, we sat around and read, watching it pour. It was so much fun.

Dress-up Day 9-2-08

Someone gave us a Peter Pan costume, so Spencer finally has boy dress up clothes! The girls were so excited that they all ran upstairs and started playing dress up right away.

Maddie and Lexi's pumpkins

Madalyn and Alexis also wanted the grand moment of picking their pumpkin on video, so here it is. I don't see anymore large pumpkins growing, but we have at least 25 little ones.

Who's That Up in the Tree?

The new thing this week was climbing the tree in our front yard. They couldn't get enough of climbing up and hanging out up there. After school one would say, "Does anyone want to play 'climbing in the tree?' " We've gotten rain almost everyday this week, so they'll stay up there until the thunder and lightning come. Then they'll climb down and play on the porch swing while watching the downpour. Then off they go to splash in the puddles. It's been a wonderful, relaxing week.

Scary Teeth

We went to the Watermelon festival here in Winterville last weekend and enjoyed a very small parade. The kids didn't seem to notice how much it lacked compared to Irving, and loved it anyway. They got a little bit of candy and these teeth which were handed out by the Halloween Store. They wore them after church on Sunday and when Nathan got home from work, they ran up to him and showed him their teeth, laughing uproariously. They were having so much fun with them, that I had to snap a picture.

Playing Outside

We love Thomas!

Thomas is so fun! He's walking really well and loves to carry things around the house like empty milk jugs, books, the little ice chest, or anything that has a handle. He also likes to walk around with the phone on his ear, saying, "allo?" I love the way he looks me in the eye, says, "Mom!" and then proceeds to jabber really seriously and point to stuff. It's hard to keep a straight face when he's being so cute. I also love the long hugs he gives me periodically throughtout the day. He's a very cuddly baby. He loves to get into the paper towels and unroll them all from under the cabinet. He also enjoys climbing up on the table and getting into whatever's there--leftover cups, food, the kids' paints, etc. Needless to say, we try to keep the table cleaned off now! We love our little toddler and it's so much fun seeing him learn and grow. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!

Thomas' First Birthday!

Sunday, August 10th was Thomas' first birthday. Our friends, the Robinsons, invited us over after church to see their new house, so we celebrated with them and had a great time. (That's Carmen's arm in one of the pictures, not Alexis.) Earlier I tried to get some shots of Thomas wearing the little suit Spencer wore, but he wouldn't stand still for the picture. :) He either sat down or walked away really fast.

Hammer two, three four!

I think that's what they're saying. :) This was taken after Thomas in the puddle, so watch that clip first. We enjoyed a nice cool evening after a rain shower while our home teacher helped Nathan fix his brakes on the Geo. I love North Carolina storms!

Puddle splashing

This was taken back in July when Thomas was just learning to walk. He was really enjoying splashing in the puddles, but I couldn't get a great video of it.