We DID it!!

Well, we did it!! We bought a house, or are buying one anyway... We probably won't close until Dec. 15th which is perfect for me because my last day of finals is the 14th!! The kids are very excited. Mackenzie is already picking out colors for her room. She wants to paint unicorns on the wall????? I told her no, I don't know how to paint unicorns and her response was "I do!!" I'm going to have to let her down gently!! We are going to be doing lots of painting, putting up trim, and other small projects like that so it will keep me busy through the winter. The house is small but it has a HUGE yard so we are hoping to add on in a few years. Living here, there aren't too many options as far as real estate goes and we can't build because we don't have the 20% down they require for buying land so we are just happy that we finally found something that we can agree on..

Halloween!!!

Every year for halloween the kids decorate sugar cookies and carve pumpkins. I take them to the store and they pick whatever they want to decorate the cookies with.

Here's the finished product. That's a LOT of sugar!! They ate a couple, then the rest got thrown away!

Carving their pumpkins!This year, we were planning on taking the kids to Lagoon for Halloween but it has been so cold and when I last checked the weather it had said is was supposed to be cold and rainy so we didn't go. We should have because it ended up being such a nice day!! Oh well! we had a fun day regardless...

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating!

Mackenzie gave Avery a sour skittle. I don't think she liked it!The cutest little Butterfly I've ever seen!My little Soldier...AND... The wicked Witch!We got our trick-or-treating done early, then we went to a friend's house for dinner. It was a great Halloween!Gavin's lootMackenie said "This is the best day ever! We are spoiled rotten!"

Avery is quite the candy junkie! She only got about 1/3 of what the other kids got but she was so excited! She had fun dumping out her bucket, then picking the candy up and putting it back in. She ate a couple pieces then I had to take it away because she would have kept eating as long as it was sitting in front of her.

It's walking!!

Avery is walking all over the place and is so proud of herself! She gets into everything and is just as stubborn as her brother and sister. Why do they have to grow up so fast??

This is discusting!! The other day I bought some boneless ribs and I cooked them for dinner last night. Mackenzie bit into hers and this came out. It's a blood vessel or something. It was so gross! We didn't eat anymore after that. I wish I had put something next to it so you could see how big it was but it was over 3 inches long-I have never seen anything like it!!

Catching UP!!

Hello everyone!
I know I have been terrible with keeping up on my blog. I need to do better because I have it printed every year and it serves as my journal/scrapbook so I really need to keep it up, but I have been crazy busy with school and kids and everything else, so the blog, as well as other things have been moved to the bottom of my priority list. The good news though, is that this semester is 1/3 of the way over already!! 9 weeks to go, then I will get a break and will hopefully be able to catch up on a few things. Mackenzie is loving first grade and is reading up a storm. Right now she is reading Charlottes Webb. She wanted to get it when we sent in the book order. I thought it would be one that I would have to read to her and I really didn't think she would be too interested in it yet because there are no pictures in it. She has surprised me though. She sits in bed every night and reads a couple pages. She needs help with a few words every now and then but she is doing great! She has taken it to school a couple times so she can read it while on the bus. I am so proud of her for all she is doing. Gavin, on the other hand, is her complete opposite. He is definately a boy's boy. He will be five in April and he still won't even write his name. He has NO interest in reading and writing. He would rather be outside digging in the dirt. He is going to a different pre-school this year and he loves it! He loves doing crafts: cutting, glueing, painting, drawing, ect... but, we are going to have to really work with him to get him to learn to read and write. It is going to be very hard for me to send him to kindergarten next year. I am not ready for that. I still think of him as my little baby boy and I don't want him to be that grown up. He is my little buddy, so I won't know what to do without him at home. Avery is the funnest baby. She is starting to walk a little bit but she will only do it of she has her tennis shoes on, and she doesn't walk forward in a stright line, she walks sideways. It is so funny-she gets so proud of herself and smiles and claps. She is almost always happy and just has a great disposition. She still only has 2 teeth. There is one on the top that looks like it's going to break through at any second, but it has looked that way for three weeks and it's just not coming in. I wish she would slow down and stay a baby for just a little while longer but she has other plans! They are already getting excited for christmas and Mackenzie changes her mind about what she wants every day. I'm afraid it's going to be a long wait for them! I am in charge of Mackenzie's class party for halloween and Mackenzie is having so much fun helping me plan it. Gavin wears his costume almost every day. I think it will be completely worn-out before halloween even gets here. That's all for now!

Hunting with Dad!!

Dallas took Gavin hunting with him for a couple days. Gavin had so much fun and can't wait to go again.This is what it looks like when you wake Gavin up at 4:00 in the morning.

sOcCeR!!

Mackenzie and Gavin have been playing soccer for the past few weeks. They LOVE it! Mackenzie has improved so much this year. I've even seen a little bit of a competative edge from her which I have never seen before. This is Gavin's first year and he's just happy to be there! It is so much fun to watch!

This was Gavin after his game. His face was bright red!

One year old!!

I took some pictures of Avery today. She did not want to cooperate so I didn't think I got any good ones. I thought I would have to do them again but there were actually quite a few cute pictures! I couldn't decide which ones to post!

I think she'd had enough!!