I Can't Believe It is Fall Already

Wow, so much has happened since the last blog. I'm just not really good at sitting still long enough to put a glimpse of our life on the blog! Anyway here it goes . . .

Jack celebrated his 4th Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's and had a great time. He is so funny and constantly keeps us amused with his antics (and laziness). He is the official family couch potato!!

We have been busy with all of the usual Fall activities. We went to several farms and pumpkin patches. We even took a train ride out to a pumpkin patch with some friends of ours. We did a lot of landscaping and put down about 7 yards of mulch. Unfortunately we still need to put down about 7 more yards but it is just going to have to wait until Spring. I never even thought about this until we moved up North, but you have to have your sprinkler lines blown out so that there is no water in the pipes that could freeze and burst. It has already reached the 20s here in the evenings so we cannot run our sprinklers again until Spring. We are enjoying the colorful leaves but they should be completely blown off in the next week or so. We bought a heated mattress pad for our bed and I am really enjoying it in the cold evenings! I just think I will always be Southern at heart.

Spencer has been busy raking leaves. He loves to rake leaves in the yard down by the creek. We were at a fun bounce house place the other day (with about 12 bounce things) and he wanted to leave so he could go home and rake leaves. He is always in motion doing something. He is such a big help around the house.

We went hiking one beautiful Fall Day at Turkey Run State Park with our friends. The State Park has beautiful gorges and ravines and it was so nice to hike the trails. The kids really enjoyed it and were worn out - especially Jack.

We had so much fun for Halloween this year. We had a blast carving pumpkins. We even got Madison to eat a little pumpkin seed (we told her we would pay her a dollar) and she gagged for about 30 seconds after she swallowed it whole. The laugh was definitely worth the buck we spent! Rachel even decided that she needed to get in on the carving action and redid Madison's pumpkin the day after Halloween. Madison was not very happy with her. Madison dressed up as Hannah Montana, Spencer a fireman and Jack a cowboy. We went to a Halloween party and then joined our neighbors to go trick or treating while Nannie stayed on the front porch and handed out candy. It was a lot of fun. The kids did the candy negotiating the next day - the big "I'll give you this, if you give me that" type trading. They were so funny bargaining and then they don't even really eat the candy. They forgot about it in a couple of days.

Nannie came to visit for a couple of weeks and as usual we enjoyed having her. We went to Chicago last weekend and really loved it. We went up in the Hancock Observatory, visited Millennium Park (a very cool park), ate Chicago Pizza, bought Madison an American Girl doll, visited Navy Pier and walked all over Chicago. It was a cool day but it was beautiful and we really enjoyed ourselves. It is pretty neat that we are only 3 hours from such a great city.

We have some fun activities coming up, so I will try to do better updating this Blog!!

Up, Up & Away

I finally got to take my hot air balloon ride tonight. It was an incredible experience. I couldn't believe how quickly I was 400ft in the air looking down and waving to the kids. The weather was PERFECT - clear with an 18 mile visibility and about 68 degrees. We flew with another balloon and once we got into the air there were 2 other balloons as well that weren't with us. We saw deer in a field, lots of barking dogs (the fire noise really gets to them) and a monarch butterfly at 700 ft. The butterfly was migrating and that is a sure sign that FALL is on the way. I'm not ready for summer to end!! I really loved the balloon experience because it was just so peaceful and breathtaking. What an awesome Mother's Day Gift!! Thanks Honey.

The boys have started preschool again and love it. They are happy to be back in a routine and to hang out with their friends everyday. The kids' sports are going well and keeping our family extremely busy!! It is amusing to watch them every week in their athletic pursuits.

School Started and Our Life is So Hectic Right Now!!!

Hi Everybody. Sorry it has taken so long to post. We have just been so busy. We have been having a great time lately but we have just been crazy busy.

A lot has happened since our last post so here it goes:

1) Nannie came and stayed with us for a couple of weeks. It was great seeing her and as always the kids didn't want her to go. She became quite skilled at playing Wii and she really enjoyed playing against Spencer. I think bowling was her favorite game but it was really funny just to watch her play against the boys. Sometimes, she would even play by herself without the boys. I'm telling you, that game is really addicting.

2) We went to the zoo. Indianapolis has a great zoo and we really had a lot of fun. We went with Nannie while she was here and then went again last weekend with Ray because it was such a beautiful day.

3) Madison had a High School Musical 2 Party. The girls had a blast (and Jack & Spencer too) watching the movie together and loading up on lots of popcorn and sweets. It was so funny to watch those little girls get so into the movie. It was like Greece was during our time.

4) We went to our neighbor Melissa's 40th Birthday Lobster Bake. It was such a blast. The event was catered under a tent in her backyard and she had the DJ that does the voice for the Indiana Pacers. We had SOOOOO much fun and we danced until 1:00 am. I couldn't tell you the last time we stayed up until 1:00 a.m. We just laughed all night and it was really fun hanging out with our friends. I haven't seen Ray dance in years.

5) We went ice skating. We figured when in Rome . . . do as the Romans (or Hoosiers do). I think I'm just trying to mentally start preparing myself for the winter that will be forthcoming. Ugg! The kids loved it and the even had these walker-like supports to help the kids learn to skate.

6) Madison started 2nd Grade. She got a male teacher this year and absolutely loves him. She got off the bus the first day and said that her teacher ROCKS! She really loves the guinea pigs named Jenny & Lucy in her class and she likes to take snacks to feed them.

7) The kids are involved in activities 5 days a week and their games are on Saturday. I never wanted to be one of those parents that over commited their kids and I'm not quite sure how this happened but . . . . Ray is coaching Madison's softball team. Madison and Spencer are playing soccer and taking tumbling. Madison is still taking piano lessons. Jack is taking swimming lessons because he can swim - he just won't get out of the baby pool because he says he will sink. Given Jack's size, that seems like a reasonable fear, but he can swim and I have seen him do it. Ray and I are teaching Spencer's Sunday School Class.

8) We took the kids bowling for the first time. They LOVED it. Jack bowled 104 and beat the older kids. He was happy to have bragging rights for once.

9) We had a Sunday School party at our pool last weekend. It was a lot of fun and we had about 50 people attend. The weather was horrible that day so we were really fortunate that it cleared up in time for our party because otherwise I would have had about 20 kids running around the house - ugg and I would have needed to be heavily sedated I'm sure.

10) Our baby snapping turtles hatched. Back in May a snapping turtle climbed up our hill about 25 feet to lay its eggs right by our driveway. Well, a couple of weeks ago they hatched. I saw a tunnel in the ground and dug where the eggs had been and they all had hatched. A couple of days later Rachel was barking her "there is something in the garage" bark and I went out to see what it was and sure enough it was a baby snapping turtle. Needless to say, we rescued the turtle and set it free in the creek behind our house.

11) We have rescued several stupid birds. Ray had to free a hummingbird that got its beak stuck in our screened porch. What was it thinking? I had to rescue a bird that got stuck inside our bird feeder. I have no idea how it got stuck inside our bird feeder that has a roof on it.

The kids are just growing up so fast. They are finally getting old enough where it is more enjoyable (and not so much work) to go places with them and do fun things together. We went out to dinner tonight, got ice cream, went shopping and then listened to a jazz band play. The kids loved listening to the music and dancing. It was just nice to hang out as a family and enjoy the beautiful surroundings, weather and music.

The weather is perfect now - 50's at night and lower 70's during the day. I'm hoping it will stay that way for a long, long time. I hope everybody enjoys their Labor Day Weekend.

Just Kidding - Ray is only 37 / Jack & Spencer's first sleepover

Okay, I had some fun having people wish Ray a Happy 40th but he is only 37. After a few people wished him a Happy 40th he finally caught on. We unfortunately did not do much for his birthday because he was out of town until 8:00 pm that day. I had planned to take him out to eat for his birthday, but hopefully we we be able to do that next weekend.

We had a great dinner with our Sunday School teacher and his family on Saturday. They have 3 kids the exact same ages and sexes as our kids. The kids get along splendidly and always have a good time together. After dinner, Spencer & Jack stayed the night at their friends' house and we had the girls come to our house. Spencer & his friend fell right asleep and Jack and his buddy giggled until about 10:00 and then fell asleep. It is such a weird feeling when one of the kids stays the night somewhere else and are not at home. I miss them terribly when they are away.

My hot air balloon ride got postponed due to weather. It will be a couple of weeks until I will do it now. I'm really looking forward to it.

Ray is turning 40!

Ray is turning the big 40 on Friday, August 3rd. We decided to give him his birthday present early because we couldn't wait to play with it! We got him a Nintendo Wii and have had a blast playing with it all week. The kids have had so much fun with it and it is so funny to watch Spencer and Jack play baseball. Things were going pretty good with it until Ray accidentally punched Spencer in the head during their boxing match. It was okay though because after he was done crying, Spencer came back and took Ray down with a KO (knock-out). It has been great for the boys because they now box through the TV instead of wrestling each other on the floor all of the time.

The kids enjoyed seeing some animals at the library this week but Spencer was more interested in the oreos on the side table. The animal expert asked if there where any questions, and Spencer raised his hand and asked what the oreos and snacks were for? The boy is constantly thinking about food!

Jack told us this week that he has two noses (meaning his nostrils) and it was okay to have his finger in only one of them at a time since he has two.

Hot air balloons are very popular where we live and it is so nice to watch them in the early evenings. Tonight we saw five of them and decided to follow one in order to watch it land. It was so beautiful and the kids loved watching it land. Spencer was too afraid to get out of the truck because he thought it was going to land on him. Ray got me a balloon ride for Mother's Day and I'll hopefully be able to take a flight next week.

I hope everybody is having a great week. Make sure to wish Ray a Happy 40th!!

Our First Indiana Summer

Welcome to our site. We've had a great summer so far and have really enjoyed the beautiful weather lately. It has been so nice to sleep with the windows open and enjoy all of the outdoor sounds.

So what have we done so far this summer?
1) The kids have had a blast catching fireflies
2) Lots of swimming
3) Hanging out with friends
4) Ladies Friday night golf outings - hip hip hooray no kids
5) Camping at Indiana Beach
6) Vacation Bible School
7) Madison played softball
8) Spencer played T-Ball
9) Both Madison and Spencer are now taking tumbling
10) Ray just returned from Sitka, Alaska
11) Our friends Luke & Kara came to visit
12) Sleeping in (I'm going to miss that when school starts again)
13) Spencer turned 5 on July 17th - Happy Birthday Spencer!

Thanks Tammy for encouraging me to venture out and start our family blog. It should be a great way to stay in touch with our family and friends. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures we have taken this summer. Please leave me a message to let me know you visited our site.