End of Summer Randoms

 I know these are a little out of order...but here they are anyway.  This was a beautiful, harvest summer night.  The picture does not do this brilliant sun justice.

 I can't remember what these guys were working on, but I thought it was sweet or nostalgic or something seeing them there laying in the sun on their lunch break, just outside our window.

 We took a day to hit Silverwood before school started.  Teagan was great and so responsible.  So fun to watch this growing kiddo.

 Liam was so brave and did every ride that he could.  Brody gave his mama a scare on the very first ride we took...Timber Terror, which is an old wood and rail roller coaster.  He met the height restriction, but apparently he was just too skinny for the seat belt to hold him in securely because a couple seconds into the ride the belt was up by his armpits and he was falling out!!!  He screamed with that terrible, frightened cry and I just grabbed his arm as fast as I could and told him that I wouldn't let go.  I about lost it when we finally stopped.  It may have been the scariest moment in mine and Brody's life.  Hate those heartsick scared out of your pants moments, especially when it involves your child.

 Brody and Kamryn also ended up not feeling well this day at Silverwood, but with a little tylenol, they were able to enjoy a little time here and there.

 Right before school started we were able to watch the Threshing Bee at the fairgrounds.  My mom did the food for the Plowing Bee and the Threshing Bee and I helped her.  Since we were out there, John brought the kids out to watch the action.  They had a whole bunch of old tractors and combines on display and the kids loved them.

 We were also able to take a hay ride out into the field to observe the harvest a little more up close.  Nancy, Ryan, Avery, and Sophie joined us.  It was pretty cool.

 We really do have the sweetest kiddos.  I'm glad we're able to do these fun things together as a family.

This was some hard work.  Our farmers work hard these days as well....but holy cow, the hours and physical labor put into farming way back when.....tough job.

2012 School Pics

Teagan - 8 yrs - 3rd grade

Brody - 5 yrs - Kindergarten

Kamryn - 3 yrs - Preschool

Teagan's class pic - 2nd & 3rd grade

Brody's class pic - Kindergarten & 1st grade  (Brody's smile makes me laugh!)

Kamryn's class pic - Preschool  ("Say Cheese!"  Sheesh....where are all the smiles?!?!)

Do we have the cutest kids or what?!?!  I might just have to send Brody's class pic in to some network or something.....that little tiny kid with the hugest smile-----more people need to see it!  Ha!

Beds, Beads, Big Boy, and Baseball

John built Teagan a new bed, so we had a bit of musical beds going on.  Kamryn is the only one who stayed in her original bed.  Teagan loves his new loft bed over Kamryn's bed.

Liam is now in a big boy bed and couldn't be happier.

And Brody is now a top bunk kid!!!

Liam came and told me he had a "ball" in his nose.  Luckily I was able to get it out without too much trouble.  It was a bit scary for him....but obviously not scary enough, because 2 days later he stuck another bead up his nose.

This big boy can tie his own tie!  I was amazed when he came out of his room the 2nd week of wearing his new tie.  Pretty smart kiddo.

I can't believe I forgot to post pictures of Teagan's baseball team!  This photo is missing a couple players, but whatcha gonna do.  And for some reason I don't have a picture of Brody's t-ball team.  Dangit!

Summer Randoms

How Brody does summer lunch.

This just makes me giggle.

Liam 'steamrolling' his brothers and cousins.

Teagan was sweet to think about me and made me a Lego flower.  Such a good boy.

Mom and Larry's birthdays are only a day apart, so we celebrated them together.  I made a German chocolate cake with a chocolatey twist.  The layers were made with chocolate cake and brownies.  Mmmmm.  I also made a yummy chocolate butter cream frosting and my first attempt at making the coconut pecan frosting.  I thought it turned out yummy.  I also added some toasted coconuts and pecans and mini chocolate chips to the top....my favorite part of the cake. 

This girl used to pose for every picture taken.

It's getting harder to capture a still picture of her.

She thinks she's so funny.

I guess that'll work.

This week we had a couple bad crashes.  Teagan accidentally dropped Liam on his face on a tree trunk.  He bit through the front of his lip, had a bloody nose, tore the fleshy part above his top two teeth, and  scraped up his chin.  We even had to pick pieces of bark out of his lip.  The next day, we were at the city pool and Kamryn was going to go down the slide, but changed her mind and started heading down the stairs.  She ended up falling down the stairs and face planted on the concrete.  I thought her neck/back would have been hurt from the way she landed...but apparently she is very flexible.  She had a big red goose egg on her forehead, scraped upper lip and nose, bloody nose, swollen nose, and scraped up fingers.  Teagan also crashed on his bike this week.  No cuts, but several bruises.  Hopefully Brody can steer clear of injuries.  Although, a couple days ago, Kamryn pushed him into the city pool without his floaties on and the lifeguard had to jump in after him.  He was ok, but Kamryn was in big trouble. *sigh*  Just a couple weeks of summer left.

We've been doing an outdoor movie night every Friday evening in town.  It's been really fun and the kids look forward to it each week.

This was the crowd last night.  It's hard to see, but I bet we had 50 or so people.

Liam...ready for the show to begin.

8 is Great!

Teagan, and two cousins, Ian and Ryan, were baptized on July 6th.  This was a very special day.  We're so proud of Teagan and the good boy that he is and in the grown up decision he made to be baptized.

Teagan and his daddy.

Our family.

Teagan with Grandma and Papa Langston.  We were blessed that they drove all the way up from Arizona to be here for Teagan's special day.

Teagan loves his Aunt Kati and was happy that she was also here.

July 4, 2012

4th of July in Endicott is always fun.  We were also lucky to have all 3 sets of grandparents joining us this year.

The kids always get nice and dirty...

...and have lots of fun things to do with cousins and friends.

I started saving water bottles a couple months before so that we could try glow-in-the-dark-lawn-bowling.  We had lots of cousins and also other kids from the community join in.  It was a big hit! 

Since we had a bunch of glow-in-the-dark necklaces, etc....our bowling game also transformed into a glow-in-the-dark-ring-toss.  Also fun!

Aunt Kati, Teagan, Liam, Kamryn, Brody, and McKay...getting all snuggled in to watch the fireworks.

Tony and John did a great job with the fireworks, as always.  John even did a bunch of work to be able to build a few.

And the kids loved them!

It was a long day...full of many new memories.

Princess Cake

I think I'm getting the hang of this whole cake decorating thing.  This was my first barbie/princess cake...made for my niece, Sophie.  A friend that attended the party thought it was just a doll or something.  I thought he was going to freak out when he learned it was a cake and frosting.  :o)  It was pretty funny.

Hair Cut---finally!

Teagan had decided that he wanted to grow his hair out...and since he has hair like his mother, it grows quickly and is thick.  I wasn't loving it, but Teagan seemed to.  When it finally started getting warm, we told him that he needed to have it cut for the summer.  He wasn't thrilled, but we told him that he could grow it out again after school starts again, if he wants.  So, of course, before we cut it, I had to see if it would hold some little piggy tails....and it certainly did.

Do I have to?

No more bad attitude here. 

Well, maybe this is bad attitude, but looks more like Gollum, from Lord of the Rings, to me.

I don't have an after picture....but I've posted some recent pictures since the hair cut.  Such a happy, strange child.