We did

another year at Burts pumpking patch. Of course! The kids love it, so we couldn't change things even if we wanted to. It's funny though, because after 5 years straight of going there, it starts to look smaller and smaller, although it's not changing a bit. It's our kids that are getting bigger! So although these are the same pictures as every year, and every other family this time of year... here we are. :)

we had a picnic before heading into the crowds of people. And yes, this is what every group pictures I try to take ends up like. Nice guys.

Usually we have the rule that you can pick a pumpkin costing as much as you are old. For some reason this year, dad totally forgot. He told them as long as they could pick it up. That didn't fare so well for us. Luckily Ase was nice. She still liked the little cute ones.

Here is Bugs. Can I tell you how happy he was to have to hold that multiple times because I couldn't get the camera on the right settings. Heehee. Maybe next time he'll get a smaller one.

And oh yes. Really? She can lift that?

The selected victims, soon to be gutted. :)

Last year I picked one of these out to carve. Can I just say they are as hard as a rock. We COULD NOT get the knife to even cut it. And just ask my fingers, we have sharp knives. So this year I opted for a picture instead.

ever felt like this?

that's where I've been lately! I've had way too much of this (next year, I will not be booking as many shoots this time of year... that's for sure!)



and not near enough of this.



But in the mean time, two of ours are officially 2 wheelers now. I will tell you however, I can't watch my daughter on the bike yet. I mean.. really. I don't know how she's staying up. Let's just say it's a very good thing we have another 10 years before she can drive although we will need something closer to 20 I fear! I feel bad, but I don't really have any pictures of her learning to ride because when I tried, I was too paranoid to actually capture anything in the camera. Instead I was busy trying not to show how absolutely sure I was it was all going to end up with extremely skinned knees and elbows. I finally had to go back inside and study my homework. Let dad do the dirty work while I tried desperately to think of anything BUT what I had just seen outside.





Well, I've missed my bedtime goal, but even this snippet was therapeutic. I needed something for me. For us. My family. My sanity. Here's to another day. Another chance to snuggle these cute things called kids, dance to the music with them, run in the leaves, and to give my husband a much needed hug (well, when he's in town again). Night.

And that makes 26

The whole reason Matt's parents came in was because Bug was getting baptized (although we'll just say it's because they missed us so much!) into our church. Instead of baptizing when they are infants, our church waits until they reach the age of 8 because at that point, they are old enough to make the decision if they want to or not. And they are also old enough to be held accountable for their actions. And another thing we do a little differently is that we baptize by full submersion under water. It's really neat.

So Saturday Sept, 4th was going to be the big day. After we had a few days of calm with Matt's parents, in came everyone else. My Parents, my Grandparents, my Aunt and uncle, and my bff from Alabama (well, from way before then really) all came in from out of town. Then we had those in town as well. It was awesomely insane! At the church we had so many wonderful friends and family who were there to support Dylan and share their love. Then afterward we had a smaller crowd of 26 at the house to continue the fun. Sadly, we missed my Aunt and Uncle in the picture (they slipped out to change clothes) and if we didn't take a group picture when we did... we wouldn't have gotten one. So I'm sorry you two!!! The party most naturally wrapped up with all the guys taking a trip to watch Nascar. Yup. They loved it. But most importantly BUG loved it! It was such a wonderful day. Thank you everyone for making it the special day that it was!

So here it is. Bug and his dad all ready for the big event!

What? Rain, here?

So the last couple of weeks have been crazy, busy, fun, exhausting, and wonderful all at the same time. It all started with Matt's parents coming in for a week. We had to share them for a bit with Matt's brother down south (I know, really.. how rude!) but we got them here for a bit too. We LOVE having them come and visit, and they are really very easy going. Besides, they helped fix our kitchen table crisis! :) But there was a funny moment, where I just had to laugh. We had all planned on going to see a laser show at stone mountain. Us, Matt's parents, Matt's brother and his family, and Matt's cousin and her family were all going to watch the show. We stopped by KFC on the way, planning to have a great picnic on the grass, watching the kids play, and enjoying the family time until the show started. The minute we parked the car, a torrential down-pour hit, like only it does here. But we were all really hungry. So 10 of us piled into our mini-van to eat the KFC. Grandma Dotti did a lot of dishing up for everyone, and the rest of us did a lot of eating. :) Luckily the rain stopped. So we piled out like a clown car, and started getting all the blankets ready for the blanket. Then the rain came again. Good thing we hadn't made it but a few parking stalls aways. We all piled back in. One of the nice things about the rain here, other than the awesome amount of buckets that drop, is also the fact that usually it lasts for a short time. And it did. So once again we piled out of the car and headed out to meet the rest of the party already out on the grass waiting. We had just walked far enough that there was no turning back, and the downpour hit. Again. To the rescue was a pavilion area that was covered! So in we ran. I think everyone had about had it, and the clouds looked like it was only going to get worse. But once the rain stopped... we kept in going. While 90% of the people were heading out, there we were heading in. But guess what. It didn't rain again. So other than walking through mud instead of grass, and a few of us going home with very wet clothes (turns out he waterproof backing on the blanket, wasn't so waterproof after all!), it worked out great. And with the crowds a lot smaller than usual, it was actually really nice. Yay! So here are the two picture I have of the entire crazy night. My flash is not working right on the camera, so I gave up on pictures. But these two were while we were waiting under the pavilion, waiting out yet the third storm. I love nights like these. Much better memories!

riding on two

So Bug finally decided he was ready to learn to ride a big boy bike! And in the same fashion as he does anything else... he waited until he knew he could do it, and then just did it. Matt went out there on two different occasions, holding the back bike seat trying to keep the kid balanced. Then next you know Dylan asked the next day to go and ride his bike. He did, by himself, and has never looked back! Not even a week on the bike and he's been going off the curbs and through everything he can. It's pretty amazing, fun, and scary. I'm just waiting for that first big crash. But it's amazing. I'm proud of that kid!! I was beginning to think this day would never come. :)

My last's first...

So this was a big day. MY BABY went to her first day of school. It was a little hard for me, but I was so excited for her at the same time. And she really wanted to go. So here she is, in all her glory. She couldn't wait to get there, although once there.. she didn't quite want me to go. Her teacher got her busy working on a puzzle... and she was concentrating very hard on it to make herself not cry. And she did it. Not a tear, from either of us!! And I wish I had a video of her when I picked her up. She was SO proud of herself, and was so excited to tell us about everything. She felt like such a big girl. Which, as much as I am not ready to admit,

She is. She really is a big girl now.

School, it's a love hate thing

That's more for me though than them. I hate being tied down to the schedule. What if I want to, say run off to another country for 2 months? Or just go visit my sister for a week. I can't. And it's back to driving the kids to a million and one activities. But wait, I can go to the store without ALL the kids in tow. I can keep the house clean for a little longer at a time. So I don't know where I stand with it all. But the kids were very excited!! So for that, I guess I'll have to say I love school. :) Happy first day kids!

Home Run!

Next morning we woke up and dropped some goodies off for my brother. He's on a church mission there, but sadly we couldn't meet up with him... so we dropped off some of his favorite treats, hoping the neighbors wouldn't steal them off his door knob, and headed on home. This drive was 6 hours I think. But that was it. We were home!!! It was so good, but weird to walk in the house. Funny the things that for a short time you forget all about, but the walk in and it all starts coming back. 5 days isn't too bad. Right? I could have thrown a few more things in there, but for some reason Matt thought he had to worked. Dang jobs anyway! And lets just say, since then, it's been mayhem. We had a week to get ready for school. Yikes! And know what... this is a post without a picture. WOW. Don't know how I feel about that! If I had the motivation I'd scrounge up some random picture, but I don't. So you'll have to just close you eyes and come up with your own. :)

Day four and counting

First thing in the morning, we woke up and went to the museums. Of course we hit the Air and Space. The kids enjoyed it, but I think we took a little too long in there. We tried to see it all, and shouldn't have just hit the best parts (assuming we knew what that was). We completely exhausted them, and it had been a long night before that traipsing around. Way too much walking for them! So really, there aren't any good pictures. It was just get through it mode (for us at least. Bug was eating it all up. I think he could have spent days there. Such a guy!) for the girls. After that we headed to the Natural History (you know.. from Night at the Museum). Just knowing we were going to where the movie was, the kids perked right up. And yes, the girls did much better. Animals and bones are much more exciting then planes and war stuff! Here, I think we discovered what Nutmeg is going to be when she grows up besides and Olympic swimmer. She's going to be a forensic scientist. She is fascinated with death, bones, and how and why. The museum was closing and I couldn't drag her through that area fast enough. We missed half the museum because she was finally in HER element. Who's child is this!?!? lol

So sadly, here are our two pathetic pictures, one from each stop. Have to remember to much better next time. :(






And then we were off. Again. This time heading to Chapel Hill NC. This also was (everyone in unison now) 4 hours away. We got in late at night and crashed.

Here is the view outside on our drive



And the view from the inside. And no, I won't make you pick which is better looking! But notice the smiles on them? They are good travelers, but I think these smiles were there mostly because we were ALMOST HOME!! (relatively speaking)

Day three on the road

So why Penn Sate? Matt was born there. It's where his dad was going to school when he was born, and he's always been a huge Penn Sate fan because of this. It's literally in his blood. But the poor guy has never been there. Never. So of course, I decided we needed to head over. It wasn't too hard to convince him, so we made it fit in the plans. We got up in the morning and were able to walk around the campus, trying to convert the kids to Penn Sate fans. They liked it enough to want pictures and souvenirs. Guess we'll see come football season how well it worked! And of course we had to go to the ever famous Creamery. The ice creams were HUGE! If we had any idea they were that big we would have gotten one for all of us to share. The kiddos totally lucked out in our lack of knowledge. Won't be the last time I'm sure!















>



But don't think we stopped there. No way! On to DC. It's only another (yup, you guessed it) 4 hours. Bug has always wanted to go here since he was little. He wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial more than anything else. So we HAD to do it on the way too! We got it about 7 that night (we didn't plan for traffic too well from Penn) and dragged the kids out walking that night until about 10. It was nice and cool, so I wanted to get as much of the walking stuff done as possible. And all things considered, they did amazing.

The wall. I do wish they had this better lit at night. It was so hard for the kids to actually grasp anything. But, they kind of got it.

We were sitting atop the Lincoln Memorial (well okay, just on the stairs) and we couldn't figure out what was going on with all these search helicopters that kept scoping out the area. Next thing we know.. one of them is dropping the President off at the White House. Very cool indeed!




Matt snagged these at the new World War II monument. It was absolutely beautifully done and a great addition to the area.

And of course, the white house. We actually stayed in a hotel that night 2 blocks from the here. It was perfect for walking around that night. :)