Enjoying the Fall

Well, we have missed a ton on here. We went to Canada this summer and had a wonderful time up there and made several trips to the lake and went to ball games and had all sorts of fun. I'm going to skip all of that though since the thought of even highlighting all that we neglected to post is a bit overwhelming. I'm just going to live in the now--and enjoy it.

Sol and Thad (and most of St. Louis) are totally obsessing over the Cardinals right now. They might just get into the playoffs after all--who knew?! I am enjoying being pulled into baseball by my nutty boys. It has always been a yawn of a sport to me. I was thankful that if I had to have a sport loving husband that his sport was basketball--at least they MOVE when they play that sport. So, now my boys are really, really into baseball this year and I'm even getting into it--more than just tolerating it. I was surprised by it and then just thinking about how that is one of the really fun parts of being a mom--to get to see life through your kids eyes sometimes. That is one thing that I'm really enjoying about this fall. Their baseball obsession, their school life, everything. Don't get me wrong, they are obnoxiously loud and sometimes fight over the most ridiculous things but for the most part I am just LOVING being their mom. What a fun age they're at right now! SO, here is a picture of enjoying the beautiful weather in our wonderful woods today. I try not to think of all of the snakes that they are cuddling with when they are burrowing down under their forts but so far so good!

More Birthday Fun!

Since the last post we've done a lot of celebrating. We celebrated our last day of school where the boys tried to stump Daddy with their electric game that they made about the Constitutional Convention. I've got to say, my Canadian husband did pretty well--the bulb lit up with nearly every answer that he gave! That night we also celebrated Ezra's graduation from "preschool". OK, he dropped out and we finished it at home but the preschool our other three went to made a HUGE deal out of graduation so for the sake of pictures I had to do SOMETHING, right?

We had birthdays for Thad and Eli as well. We've had a lot of fun celebrating how big all our boys are getting. Sol started out the birthday season and now I'm the only one left. The boys are now 5, 7, 9, and 11 and it is super fun. I love holding my friends' babies but I don't miss it, this age is lots of fun. I hope that you enjoy checking out the pics. Rhonda :-)

They're all big boys now!

So today was special for two reasons in our house, it was of course Mother's Day, and we celebrated Rhonda and how special she makes our life! It was also Ezra's birthday, and with him turning 5 we're realizing that we don't have any little boys anymore, just big boys! He still likes to be little, likes to be the smallest in the family and takes full advantage of the rights and privileges that come with that rank, but there is no debating the fact that we're all getting older. Life with four boys can be challenging, but we try to have as much fun together as we possibly can too! Enjoy the pics of our fun day!

More pics

Since I left the memory card from our camera in my computer I figured I'd post a few more random pictures that I've been remiss in posting lately, so enjoy!




Celebrating Dad's birthday with Apple Crisp!

Sol's birthday celebration!! The big 11!

Building the house for Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan, our new cats!




Playing with Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan

Sol's new airsoft gun - very exciting!


Sol's special card

Building a snowman in late spring

Getting started early!

Playing Star Wars in the tub:)

Practicing together!

A little twister...

homeschool bowling field trip

Spring Break Trip

So we headed off to Branson for spring break this year thanks to the gift of free lodging from Rhonda's aunt and uncle. It was a really fun trip, staying in our own little cabin, playing in the little stream behind our place, shopping around town, seeing the war museum, visiting a great hands on science exploration type museum in Springfield, and watching a lot of March Madness basketball games! Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!







Ezzie's cheesy grin after a great creation!

Eli's masterpiece!

Thad helps Ezra pull the heavy weight

Sol's wild hair on the static electricity machine

A picture could never do justice to how much fun we had playing with this thing. The stainless steel disc in the middle spins, and you can make all kinds of things roll on it. REALLY cool toy that we wasted probably an hour on!

Cuddled up watching cartoons!

learning about making stained glass creations from a very nice and patient craftsman!

At the war museum

An old chain saw at College of the Ozarks

My darling and I by a working mill

Oh, the fish! The fish hatchery was really cool!

We have a hot tub in our cabin? Best surprise ever!

Riding his bike!

So for my birthday today, my 3rd son decided it was time to learn to ride his bike with NO Training Wheels! It was quite exciting for all of us, at least until he had a couple good crashes and we decided to leave on the knee pads for next time, but it was definitely very fun! And a bit tiring for dad, who was trying to keep up in case of an emergency! Enjoy the pictures!

some rain!

It's raining here tonight, and I had to get some video of the massive amount of rain coming into our creek! It's almost overflowed my little bridge, but the big one is still doing well! It hasn't gone outside its' banks, so I guess we're in luck and shouldn't get flooded here in our house! Enjoy the video, hopefully it comes out clearly enough!

More snow day fun

Wanted to share another video of the most recent snow day fun! All we had gotten at this point was a bunch of ice, so it was 4 wheeler time! We're now getting a ton of snow, and it's looking like I won't go in to work today (of course in honor of my sister in law Carrie's birthday), or tomorrow, or perhaps even Thursday! We'll have more pics and videos for you I'm sure as we enjoy this very snowy (for StL) winter!

Fun in the snow and other stuff

We've been having some fun in the snow that we've gotten recently, and wanted to share some of the videos and pictures with you! When we got our backyard graded last year it amounted to a better sledding hill in the backyard, and we've been taking full advantage! The days off of work have been fun as well, and while I don't have any pictures for you, Sol and Thad have been working really hard shoveling driveways for neighbors and making some good cash at the same time!

MMA Sparring

So Sol and Thad have been doing some martial arts classes for about a year now, and have really wanted to begin sparring. What they needed was some protective gear, and for Christmas they used their Christmas money from Grandpa Bailey and Uncles Garrett and Jesse, and Auntie Jenna to get gloves and headgear. Here are some pictures from their first attempt at sparring outside of our basement! They did pretty well sparring the other kid their size, but when it got down to sparring each other they kinda ended up wrestling and Sol just overpowered Thad the first time. The second time they sparred Thad did better, getting Sol into a headlock and making him tap. All in all it's a really fun thing and they have really enjoyed doing it. Sometime soon we'll probably get Eli and Ezra into it as well!