Eden Valley

Bryan and I took the kids hiking today after Dylan's soccer game. It took us about 30 minutes to the place we were hiking at and the kids kept asking if we knew where we were going-so funny!! Most of Iowa is pretty flat or has gently rolling hills of corn but tucked away is this little valley with what the kids called "mountains"!! kinda sad! But sooo beautiful!

We hiked for about an hour and a half. There were little signs along the trail with things to read and see. Abby kept an eye out so she could read them to us.

There was a face profile in some rock.

A cellar in some rock.

A tower to climb.

A crack where if you are brave enough you can climb up to the top of the rocks-the kids were not that brave!

It was pretty fun and worth my sore back from carting around Colby!

Cheering!!

Abby got the chance to attend Cheer Camp put on by the middle school Cheerleaders. It was 2 Saturdays for 3 hours and then they got to cheer for the whole 1st quarter of one of the High School football games. She was so excited and now wants to be a cheerleader! But we will see about that one!! She had a great time. They got a t-shirt and had to wear a Saber paw tattoo to wear on their cheek for the game. And yes you can totally tell that we live in a small town out in the country-check out the view from the Home bleachers!! Nice huh??!!

And I have to say a huge thank you to Jenny for going with me so I didnt have to look like a nerd and sit by myself!! Bryan who was not feeling good was home with the other 3 kids who were not feeling good! It was a great couple of weeks at our house!!--Abby had bronchitis, Dylan had a double ear infection and pneumonia, Lacey was on meds cuz she couldnt kick her nasty cough, Colby had a tooth come in which means prednizone and breathing treatments and Bryan ended up with a really nasty ear infection-super fun times!!! But anyway, here she is in all her cheerleading glory! (and I have to say my camera was not loving the lighting at the stadium! either the pic was dark or it was light and blurry!!)

And he's off!!

Colby has been sortof walking for a while-just a few steps here and there. But the last couple of days he has refused to walk at all! We would stand him up and he would sit down, so we would stand him up again and he would just cry! I was pretty funny. Well yesterday afternoon he just decided to take off! He was walking all over the living room, even stopping to pick something up and then keep going! H can even stand up and walk all by himself-pretty exciting!!

silliness!

Look at this sweet boy! See that mischivious look in his eye?!-

He decided to terrorize the neighbor's dog while we were outside the other day! Poor dog!

Lacey will just randomly yell "Hey Mom, take a picture of this!" and then she does something wierd or stikes a pose! So this time she was talking on her "phone" and then she was jumping!

It is a rare thing in the afternoon for Colby to get to swing-he loves it! But because of where the swing set is and where the sun is, it usually ends up in his face which he of course does not like! It is so cute to watch all the kids take turns pushing him in the swing. Whenever he starts to slow down whoever is running past will stop and give him a little push-such sweet helpers! And Abby wanted some "good pictures" of her riding her bike! And my Colbsters-he has discovered Cheerios-and he is addicted! He loves those and yogurt bites. I love that I can sit him at the table with a pile of food and he is one happy little guy for a while and I get to get some things done!

Juliet!

Juliet by Ann Fortier is my total new fav book!! I was so sad when I was done reading it I just wanted to read it again! It give you a whole new view of Romeo and Juliet. I love Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet so I knew that this would be right up my alley, so I bought it and it was! So here is the trailer for the book. I am not going to talk to much about it because I dont want to get into it but it totally made me want to go hop on a plane to Siena Italy!

Dance, Soccer and Bikes!

I have to say that it is getting pretty fun having the kids all starting activities outside of the house! Lacey started dance class. She is in Tiny Tot Combo-it is ballet and tap and in the middle they get to listen to a story. She totally loved it! We had a talk about the rules of how to act in class and she did pretty good till the last 10 minutes when that room was just calling to ran around in! But she did good for her first time-she came out saying "I love my class mom! I love my teacher and I love my classroom!"

Dylan started soccer. He has practice on Monday and then games on Saturday. I have been anxious to see how he does with this because he tends to be a little standoffish when he isnt too sure about a situation. Bryan is the assistant coach on his team so I think that helps. He isnt a very aggressive player but that is just his nature. After hanging around the outside of the group for a while checking things out he got in the middle of things and got some good kicks in even with his lazy run. We kept telling him that he needed to run faster! But he has this lazy enjoying myself kind of run! All in all pretty good for his first game ever!

And Abby is taking Ballet and Jazz this year and for the next 2 weeks she is going to Cheer Camp put on by the local Cheerleaders and they get to cheer at 1 of the football games-she loves it! She also finally figured out how to ride her bike! wooohooo!!! She didnt want to ride her bike because she didnt want to pedal. I was like "Abby that is kind of the whole point of riding a bike!". She said she didnt like pedaling and she couldnt keep her balance-all while crying and whining. I tried to help her but she would pedal twice and then stop and be mad because she fell over! So finally I told her that she knew how to balance and that wasnt the problem, her problem was she was lazy and didnt want to pedal so she needed to stop being lazy and just ride her bike!! She glared at me and then went into the backyard with her bike and rode it all by herself!! I know I am probably mean but sometimes she just needs to be pulled out of her little pity party and be told to just do it!! Anyway she is a very happy girl!

Not Happy!!!

Lacey was mad at me the other day-I dont really remember why probably because I wouldnt let her have some candy or a soda or something silly. So she grabbed a book and went into the playroom. She looked so cute so I thought I would snap a pic but she saw me and gave me the evil eye!! I am lucky I am still alive!

Dylan had his 1st soccer practice tonight and he was soo excited!! So off he goes. He was having a really good time untill he got kicked in the head!! Bryan is assisting coaching but was on the other side of the field so he didnt see what happend but apparently one of the boys was watching some of the 1st graders on the team mess around doing cartwheels and decided that standing there in line was a good place to try one and smacked Dylan in the head with cleat. So not happy about that! I mean seriously the other coach was on Dylan's side of the field with half the team-thats 5 kids-she cant keep them from knocking each other out?!! I just hope it doesnt look too bad in the morning-He will be a sight going to school tomorrow! Other than his 1st sports injury he had a great time. He was a little hessitant at first and hid behind Bryan till he saw a kid from his class showed up and then he was running around and loving it! So that is awesome!

Sunday Afternoon

Today has been gorgeous! It is sunny, in the 70's with a light breeze-just about a perfect September day! So instead of sitting inside after we got home from church we put Cobly down for a nap and headed outside. The kids, who arent normally allowed outside to play on Sunday were super excited! And since they have an attention span of about 5 seconds when it comes to outside games not called tag or hide and seek, we played alot of games!! We played croquet, ladder ball, the kids had a somersalt contest, guessed things that Abby drew in chalk, and of course played tag and hide and seek. Cant really get away from those games.

And of course I had to snap some pics-cant have to many of those!

This first one obviously isnt from outside but I had to show Colby's new trick! Look No Hands!!

You cant really see it all that well in this picture but Colby has alot of red in his hair! It will be interesting to see what color it will be when ever his hair decides to grow in thicker!

And I had to throw in a close up of this mop-anyone feel sorry for me for having to tackle that every morning?!

Outside-again!

So back at the beginning of June when my parents came out for Abby's recital Bryan and my Dad made a couple sets of Ladder Ball. This kids love to play and while they haven't quite gotten it down they have fun with it.

If you know Bryan you know that he likes to push people's buttons because he thinks it is funny and he knows exactly which ones to push to get Abby going!!

So after a game between the two of them Abby came over to tell me that Bryan was cheating! She is so funny!

One thing I have really love it that Abby and Dylan and Lacey all play really together. They always are making up some kind of game to play! They are awesome!

I had to put these next pictures in because they are just too funny!

Don't worry she wasn't upset-she smiled, laughed and got back on! But man its a good thing she is young and flexible because that would be hurting if it were me!