chat time

Okay, this is ridiculous but I wrote most of this post over a month ago.  I don't really feel like changing it to sound like I just wrote it so I'm going with how it is.  So here's a little bit about life a month ago (stuff in the different font) and most likely it is still the same now:

Man, I hate this....two weeks have gone by and I haven't posted anything.  Partly because our computer has been really dumb and shutting off and not working.  But Steve figured out it was the monitor and I just bought a new one today so now we are good.  It is huge and bright and nice.  I like it a lot.  We realized that our old monitor we bought when Steve started at Purdue.  That's like 8 years ago!!  So now I can be on the computer and work on a post.  The other reason I haven't posted is I just don't have time.  The older kids won't go to bed until 9 and it is driving me crazy.  I'm ready for bed at 9....I don't have the energy or time to get anything done in the evening when the kids are up so late.  I've been trying to keep a list of all the things I wanted to blog about but I still can't remember everything.  I hate that I'm missing all these little daily things that I like to keep track of.  So I think I'll just do a little blurb about each kid.

Chandler
*He told me last week that school was only invented to make kids miserable- as he threw a fit on the walk to school because the neighbors ran ahead and wouldn't wait for him and he was yelling after them and they wouldn't listen and he said, "it's like I'm not even here!".  Breaks my heart because he has said that more than once to me but at the same time he freaks out and throws these huge fits and of course no one is going to listen to him.
*On his Friday journal the past two weeks he has written, "I wish writing would disappear!!!!!!!!".  Poor kid has the hardest time with writing.  He struggles so much with it and it is starting to be a problem at school.  His teacher said we can get an IEP for it so hopefully that will help.
*He started soccer and Steve is his coach.  I hope it goes well for them.  I had to exchange his standard size age group uniform for the age group above him.  How is our kid so huge?!? (yeah, this is the last week of soccer- so I guess I really did write this a long time ago.  Steve had fun coaching but Chandler is just so painful to watch, he's not doing soccer in the spring.)
*This week there have been a few issues but before that, Chandler has been being pretty good lately and pleasant to be around.  It's a nice breath of fresh air to have him like that.


Emery
*I miss Emery during the day.  She cheers Beckett up and makes him cooperate.  She is like his cheerleader when he won't get ready or do what I need him to do.  She has a way of convincing him to cooperate and I love it.
*She is amazing me with school.  I am so proud of her for being so brave about it all.  I think she likes it and she is so good about getting ready in the morning and will help me pack lunches and is just an awesome child. (Not so much the good child getting ready for school anymore.  She has been horrible everyday throwing fits about clothes and not wanting to go to school.  It has been miserable and heartbreaking and so so so hard.)
*Emery started soccer too.  She is adorable in her way too big uniform.  Though not surprising she has issues with the socks and cleats and won't wear them.  She is one picky girl when it comes to clothes.  It kills me because I see so many cute girl clothes and I just want her to wear skinny jeans and flats and cute tops and leggings and boots and all that cute stylish stuff and she will have none of it.
*Emery is awesome at soccer and totally gets the game and averages 3 goals a game usually.  One week she had 5 I think!  I'm sad it's her last game but she will play again in the spring if she wants to.  That girl is a hustler and gives it her all.  


Beckett
*The kid is obsessed with money right now.  He carries around change everywhere and has a little money pouch full of it.  One morning he was begging me for more by telling me his money monster was so hungry and needed more money.  Good one buddy.
*He told Steve one night that he didn't have those things that leak milk- haha!
*Thankfully the past few nights he hasn't done this but he was coming into our room every night and climbing into our bed.  I would let him stay for awhile until I went crazy from it and then get up and move him back to his bed.  I got so sick of it I made him a little bed on our floor.  It kind of worked but he still annoyed me because I could hear him sucking his thumb.  I am a light sleeper and hear everything- just ask Steve how often he gets kicked in the night because of him breathing to loud.
*I brought Beckett to My Gym this week for a trial class.  I used to bring Chandler there when he was Beckett's age.  Beckett was so so so adorable and so good.  He loved it.  I was planning on signing him up but I figured I would take advantage of the free trial class first:)

Atticus
*At church, as soon as the organ starts playing, Atticus's hand is in the air conducting.  It is adorable.
*Atticus shows his love by the "smack down".  He loves just smacking his hands down on you- especially if you are laying on the floor.
*He is obsessed with balls and loves kicking and picking up and throwing them all the time.
*He is pretty independent and hangs with the big kids in the backyard a lot.  He climbs the swing set and then turns himself around and goes down the slid and then repeats.  It's pretty cute to watch.
*Loves loves loves dogs and animals in general.  Our neighbors have a big lab and little tiny dog.  He loves them both and shrieks and shrieks when they come out.
*He says dada and mama and I'm pretty sure he says drink (ink).  That's about all.  He gets his point across with lots of grunting and eehhing and reaching.
*I only nurse Atticus at night now.  I cut him off during the day but he nurses before bed- usually in the middle of the night (grrr) and in the morning.  I really need to stop because he basically just likes using me as a pacifier and it's getting annoying.  Plus we just booked a 3 night getaway in December so I have to stop by then.


There is so much more day to day stuff I would love to jot down but I just can't seem to get around to blogging.  I feel so busy all the time but half the time I'm so overwhelmed that I just don't do anything because I don't know what to do first.

I'm feeling sad because we never went to a pumpkin patch this year and I haven't taken pictures of the kids in their costumes yet and I have no clue when it will happen.  Emery won't even wear hers- surprise!- not really surprised at all.  whine whine whine

Okay, at least I have costumes for my kids and I can stay home and don't have to work and I have the talent and ability to make costumes for them and I'm blessed with 4 lovely children and a wonderful husband and 2 cars and big enough house and everything I need plus some.  I need to remember the talk I just read.

"There is something that would take away the bitterness that may come into our lives.  There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious.  We can be grateful." ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf

St. Augustine

So I mentioned when we went to Florida last week, we stopped at the beach.  On Saturday I really wanted to stop at the beach since we didn't make it there but one time at the beginning of summer this year.  We always try to go in the Fall because it is beautiful and not crowded yet still warm and so lovely.  It is seriously my favorite favorite favorite time of year to go to the beach.  All our Saturdays are full of soccer games and we just didn't have a time to go.  So my great idea was to just take a 2 hour break from driving and hit up the beach and then finish our drive home.  It was so so so perfect.  Most beautiful day and blue sky and warm water and perfect temperature.  Not hot and not cold at all.  It couldn't have been any better.  

We stopped in the St. Augustine area and just found a place that had beach access.  Later we found out that you could drive onto the beach- that would have been fun!  I also found out later that my dad came to this same area when he was 16  to visit his grandparents and it was his first time swimming in a warm ocean and first southern beach he went to.  He had been once or twice to the beach in Maine but that is all.  

 There isn't much cuter than a squatting baby:)

 Beckett is all about the digging.

 Lifeguard Chandler saving Atticus from the waves.  He sure loved them and would just keep walking deeper and deeper until he got knocked over.

 It was weird that there were big puffy clouds over the land but not over the ocean.  I couldn't figure out why.  It was like the beach was the dividing line.

 I got some good boogie boarding in which is my favorite thing to do.  We only brought one board with us otherwise I would have loved going to Chandler.

 I hated saying it was time to go but I knew we still had to drive 6.5 hours or so to get home.  So we packed up and had quite the long time trying to get everyone changed and cleaned off at the van.  Unfortunately we didn't find a beach access that had bathrooms or showers or any kind of spray off at all.  We managed though and got on the road back home- but not before taking a little driving detour through St. Augustine.  It looks pretty neat but very touristy.  I would love to go visit the fort and see it all sometime though.

So that was our quick Florida trip.  Super fun and super fast but we sure packed a lot in for 3 days- especially when 2 of the days were mostly spent driving!

(grrr....my picture colors are off again when I load them on blogger.  They're darker and have a tint to them.  I don't like it!)

Quick trip to Florida

So this past week we took a quick 3 day trip to Florida.  We drove all day on Thursday (about an 8 hour drive but a little longer because of stops) to make it in time for Steve and Chandler to go to the BYU v. UCF football game.  We basically got to the hotel and got some dinner and they left for the game.  I then brought the kids swimming in the hotel pool.  It was fun because it got dark and they thought it was cool to be swimming in the dark.  It was an outdoor pool and there was just one other family there.  I think I had all 3 kids asleep by 9 which is amazing for being in a hotel room.  Steve and Chandler didn't get back until midnight!  We stayed really close to the stadium so they actually walked home from the game.  The next morning we got up and on the road for an hour drive over to Legoland. 

 We planned to spend the entire day there to make the super expensive tickets worth it.  Even with two kids free coupons it was still well over $200.  They open at 10 and we got there about 10:30 and stayed until about 6 even though they really close at 5.

 I made the kids shirts as a last minute idea and I am so glad I did.  They came out awesome and adorable and I'm pretty proud of my design skills:)

 First up was the double-decker merry-go-round.

 The ONLY ride that Atticus was able to go on.  Legoland was super lame in that way and poor Atticus spent a lot of time walking around and sitting in the stroller waiting for siblings to go on rides.

 All of the huge Lego creations were really cool.  This huge elephant squirted water out of it's trunk and his head moved up and down.

 I love Chandler's face as he is warning Steve (who snapped the picture) and Emery about the elephant.

 Waiting for Chandler to go on the roller coaster.  Emery was actually tall enough for most rides but she wouldn't go on any roller coasters.

 Chandler did this once with Steve and then once with me.  I'm not a huge roller coaster fan but I'll do them.  It took a lot of convincing Chandler to go on it and this was a super short little one too.  He did one other later on but that is all he could be convinced to do.

 Poor kid waiting around.  At least there were other "people" his size.

 Little kid driving school.

 Big kid driving school (they had to watch a video about stop signs, red lights, yielding, what side of the road to drive on, etc...)

 Riding the boats, Chandler and Beckett actually went first but (somehow) ended up getting behind Emery and Steve.

 Waiting for the fireman show.  It was pretty funny.

While Chandler and Steve went to a mindstorm class, I took the little ones to go find something else to do.  Unfortunately, Beckett decided to throw a huge fit and was screaming and crying and making a big scene.  We saw Wild Style and neither kid would go for a picture so Atticus did:)  Then we found the pirate water skiing show and it was awesome and super entertaining.  Beckett stopped his fit and the kids were happy.  

 Beckett really wanted to go on this ride because "it is the right size for me".  He also really wanted to go on a roller coaster but wasn't big enough.  There was a little train ride on a track that went around pretty fast with slight ups and downs and we told him that was his roller coaster.  He was happy with it.

 So I still feel bad about this- this ride had a height and age requirement.  It said you had to be 4 and I don't know how tall but Beckett was tall enough.  So Steve told Beckett that he was 4 and got him on the ride.  The lady asked the kids how old they were before they got on and Beckett proudly said he was 4 and Emery was like, "no you're not!" and Steve was like, "yeah, he just had his birthday" and I guess Emery gave him a very confused look.

 After going on some Chima boat ride that got the kids soaked, they saw the croc dude from Chima.  I don't really know anything about Chima but I've learned a little from a few books from the library.  We really ran out of time to do everything we wanted to.  We totally would have been happy to spend another day there but it wasn't in the plans so oh well- one day was good enough.

 (Not that I really want this picture of me on here but it's the only one we have that shows part of the Lego city.) When it was just about 5 and rides were closing we decided to spend a little more time checking out the little Lego village.  It wasn't so little actually, there were so many impressive buildings and cool things.  The kids could have looked and looked forever here.  I was done and ready to go though.

After we left, we drove back to Orlando and got some dinner and then drove just a tad further to a hotel.  So the next day we were only about 2.5 hours from the beach- which was our next destination!

Apple Picking

(all the coloring seems to be different on my pictures.  it's like blogger changed it when I uploaded them...grrr!)

So last week I took the kids out of school and took them apple picking.  We don't have any free Saturday's and the season is coming to an end to pick apples so I was feeling pressure that I needed to go or it wasn't going to happen.  I couldn't possible not go two years in a row!  Last year I had a baby so we never made it.  We picked up KayAnna and then went to Sky Top Orchards.  This is the third time we have been there and I think I won't go again.  It just seems to be getting worse.  It is more and more popular so there are way too many people- but thankfully it wasn't bad since we went on a weekday.  It is over priced and they only take cash and I don't know, I just wasn't totally satisfied with it all.  

 Thank goodness I had KayAnna to help- I would have never been able to do this by myself.  It is so hilly and you have to walk a ton to get to the different varieties.  I was super bummed because we went to my favorite kind last and found tons of huge ones but the kids had already picked way too many apples and we couldn't fit very many more.

 This kid is pretty much a full time walker now.  I love watching him toddle around.

 Beckett liked climbing the trees.

 The kids liked the goats- KayAnna is a HUGE animal lover.  I don't know how we can be so opposite since I am a HUGE animal hater.  We always had animals growing up but I never liked them.  KayAnna always loved them.

 Atticus really really liked the goat and really wanted to touch him.

 This was a huge apple!  A yummy Cortland too.  I love Cortland apples.  The flesh is really really bright white and I love the flavor of them.  Reminds me of Maine and going apple picking as a kid.

 These 2 are looking so much a like.  They really could be twins.  They are only about 3 inches apart in height and I just think their faces look so similar and they have the same hair.  It is not uncommon to get asked if they are twins...people are always surprised when I say they are actually 2 years apart!  I'm interested to see if Atticus will look more like Chandler or more like Beckett and Emery?  Chandler has a totally different look and his hair is totally different too and his body type.  He is one or a kind:)

 Hand holding wasn't about to work.....

 This was adorable.  Atticus walked a long way just pushing the wagon.  So cute.  And can you believe KayAnna is 18 weeks pregnant?!  I think she looks so cute and stylish in this picture.  It's like a magazine picture or something:)

Anyway, since the kids wouldn't stop picking apples, I ended up having to pay $50 for all those apples.  I wouldn't have minded if they were all good apples but at the beginning I wasn't really paying attention and they picked tons of small not ripe ones.  I'm still irked by it but I will just make apple sauce with them and it will all be fine.  And the kids worked hard and had fun so that's what matters right??  At least they were willing to help out.  I actually think I only picked a couple apples since they did all the picking. I would have loved to pick them myself but they were enjoying it so much I let them.  Thanks for coming with us Aunt KayAnna- the kids sure do love you!!