Family Pictures!

We had family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. I bought the cd so I have all of the pictures that were taken.

Rilla's 3rd Birthday!

Rilla turned three years old last month. She has been such a delight to our family. She has to put up with three brothers and does a very good job of it. She has always been a very good big sister to Shirley. She was almost never jealous of him (and she was only 13months old when he was born). She is very easy going, can play well with others as well as by herself. I love her personality. She loves learning. She can count to 12, knows most of her shapes and colors, and loves to sing. She carries a pretty good tune as well. I feel so blessed to have her as my daughter.

For her birthday we all went to the Jump Zone (my Grandma's treat). Then had cake and ice cream after dinner. She loved her birthday.

Here are a few pictures of her when she was younger:

Jem's Field trip!

Jem had his first field trip last week to a pumpkin farm. I was able to go with him and really enjoyed it. It was nice to spend time with him. I am amazed how much he has grown up in the last 6 months. We learned about the importance of bees in fertilizing pumpkins, went on a tractor ride, saw farm animals, and went through a corn maze. The kids also got to milk a fake cow and each pick out a pumpkin. The even had a nice play area for the kids to play after they ate lunch. It was also nice to have good weather. The whole week before it rained and was cold. But we had high 60 degree weather and lots of sunshine.

Decorating for Halloween!

Last weekend we bought Halloween decorations and decorated the front of our house. It was a lot of fun, especially doing it together as a family. We also had great weather to do it in. My favorite Halloween decoration is fake spiderwebs. I like how it looks on the window shutters.




Last week we also had fun raking up leaves and playing in them. I haven't done that since I was a little kid.

Fall 2009!

We had a great Fall. My mom came and visited for a couple of weeks. She helped me make a sand box and flower area in front to plant flowers. We were also able to do some sightseeing in Nashville together. I was glad she came. The kids loved seeing her. She is a very cool Grandma in their eyes.








We sure had a lot of leaves to rake by the time all of our trees lost their leaves. We did have some fun, though.

School!

Walter and Jem started school August 8th. Walter started 3rd grade and Jem started kindergarten. I love that they take a bus and that it is so close, about half a block. I can see it from my front yard. The first two weeks the kindergartners had testing so they only went to school one day each week. Jem was not happy on the other days that Walter got to get on the bus and go to school and he didn't. I really like their teachers. I will be volunteering once a week in their classrooms (swtiching weeks). I started last Tuesday in Walter's class. I really enjoyed it. Jem is doing great. I was a little worried that he would have a hard time sitting still and stuff, but he is doing so well. We had an open house a couple of weeks ago and his teacher told me he waits for the appropriate time to chatter away (like lunch and recess). Anyone who knows Jem, knows that he can talk you ear off. I am enjoying spending more one on one time with Rilla and Shirley, especially Rilla who has had so little of my time compared to the other three.