Ellie Bean

Ellie is such a fun and happy baby, we can't help taking pictures of her! Here she is cheering at the soccer game--go, girls! And we tried to get a good shot of her Frankenstein hair after her bath, but she was reaching and not cooperating much so it's not as good as "in person". :) She is SO MUCH FUN!!

Fall Athletes

So as promised, here are some pics of the kids before each of their first games...Joseph's football team is the Fightin' Raccoons...:) They won their first game and Joe did a GREAT tackle, he loves taking kids down! Don't be fooled by his little size, he's fast and strong! Aubrey is on her 4th soccer team, this year she is in all all-girls' league! She was the first pick of her coach, she has had him before and he is WONDERFUL, it's going to be a really fun season! Gracie is the only girl on her team...just the way she would want it!! She is the princess with 9 little boys, they are a hoot to watch. We are busy but loving it!

Mom in Time Out!

September 12-13 I got to go to St. Louis with my BFF Sunny Martin!! And our good friend DeAnna (love ya!)...we went to "Time Out for Women" and it was AWESOME! Our hotel was great, we did lots of chilling out and hot tubbing, and hit some good shopping and EATING!!!!! Here is Sunny and DeAnna at P. F. Chang's...we also filled our bellies at Cheesecake Factory, but it was so late and we were not quite to our second wind (ha!) so we didn't do pictures. Thanks a million bajillion to our FANTASTIC husbands who held down the fort and were super-dads all weekend, we love ya!

ABC Tag

So I got tagged by Lissa...thanks, sis! We'll see what kinda stuff you find out about me that you either didn't know before or don't really care about. :) This will be fun!

A...Age: 30
B...Birthday: March 6
C...Candy or Cake: oh, candy for sure!
D...Dessert you love: ice cream
E...Easiest person to talk to: Sunny and Lissa
F...Favorite Song: gee, there's so many!
G...Gold or Silver: silver
H...Habit: interrupting (so bad!)
I...Instruments you play: viola and piano (sort of)
J...Job title: oh, good one! I'm totally the boss...
K...Kids: 5 Amazing ones! Joseph, Aubrey, Gracie, Spencer, Ellie
L...Love or Lust: well, love...but sometimes lust is fun...can I say that? :)
M...Married?: yep, to my Dave!
N...Named after: I don't think I'm named after anyone, my parents just liked the name
O...One wish: to have my mom and Amanda back...but realistically, I just want to sleep in! I know, not so realistic, ha ha!
P...Person you called last: Marianne
Q...Quote: again, lots of these! But we've been doing the "duties" quote a lot from "Nacho Libre", adding our own twists.
R...Reasons to smile: about a million and 39!
S...Something Unknown: well, how badly do I want it to stay unknown?! :) I memorize license plates. Weird.
T...Turns you on: Dave rocking a baby or doing the dishes!
U...Unique Talent: gosh, I'm not sure that I do anything "unique"...sorta like the license plate thing, I can remember phone numbers from years ago.
V...Vegetable: Broccoli
W...Woke up at what time: 5:45am...darnit! :)
X...X-rays you've had: just dental ones
Y...Your Favorite Color: I've really been into red and brown lately, but I'm always a lover of deep purple.
Z...Zodiac Sign: Pisces Power!!

Okay, I guess I'm supposed to "tag" 3 people...Karman, Coco, and anyone else who reads my blog!! :) I'll be checking up on ya...

Another School Year Begins...

This is all the camera time the kiddos would allow on the first day of school! I guess they are "too big" now...no pics in their classrooms, I barely got a hug and a "bye, mom!"! Sniff, sniff...but I have to say that I love that they love school and their teachers, it makes it so much easier to send them away all day!

So Joseph is in 3rd grade with Miss Plumley--she has the reputation as the FUNNEST teacher at Century Elementary! Wow, is she ever! Aubrey has Miss Tinsley for the 1st grade and absolutely loves her...she tells me that every day is the best day of her life because she gets to spend all day with Miss Tinsley and eat breakfast and dinner with me because I'm the best cook...aw, thanks, Aubrey! And Gracie is in pre-school with Mrs. Newberry...she was Joseph's kindergarten teacher and we just adore her. Kindergarten out here is an all-day event, so pre-school is a great adjustment time. She goes half-day, Monday thru Friday...and loves every minute of it! So far we are off to a great start...and so busy! I'll have to post pics of the kids in their sport uniforms soon, they are SO CUTE!

St. Louis Mini-Vacation!

We took a 2 day trip to St. Louis before school started...yippee for Family Fun Time! We had a blast at Grant's Farm (sans the complimentary Budweiser beverages)...the Clydesdales were amazing and all the other exotic animals were so fun! We could definitely have spent another day or two there, it was the kids' favorite thing--it even beat out the hotel swimming pool!!!! The next day we did a couple of hours at the St. Louis Science Center...more fun times! It was a good little breather for us before the insanity (and schedule!) of the school year began.