Apple Pickin'

I love fall! I love the weather, the leaves, the smells, the pumpkins and the APPLES! The Doellman's came in town for the weekend and we went to an apple orchard! We went on a hayride, played in the corn maze, played on the playground, checked out the pumpkin patch and picked our own apples! I wish grocery stores were like apple orchards... you can sample the goods, as many as you want, before you bag them and pay. The kids took FULL advantage of this! I love the closeup picture of Bailey's face with Dylan in the background going to TOWN on a juicy Fuji! I almost deleted that pic till I saw D! McKenzie only picked one apple because she was terrified of the honey bees everywhere. She is NOT my child! Girly girl wussy kitten. Bailey was a PICKY bugger (BIG shocker). She would pick one and THEN fully inspect it. If it had a tiny bit of brown or wasn't the perfect color or had dirt on it she chucked it on the ground in disgust and moved on to the next tree. We had a blast and ate and brought home the best apples I have ever eaten!

My little children of the corn : )

Y - E - L - L !!!

McKenzie got to go to a Cheer Leading clinic at our local high school. The HS cheer leaders taught them a bunch of cheers and chants and the girls got cute shirts that said "Keep Calm & Cheer On". A few weeks later they got to cheer under the Friday Night Lights before the HS football game! Kenz was in HEAVEN! She had such a blast and absolutely LOVED it! In between the clinic and the game she practiced her cheers around the house constantly... joy LOL. Even Rich learned one because he heard it so much. It made Kenz so furious which, of course, made Rich do it even more. He would walk around the house doing spastic arm movements and chanting in his girliest, obnoxious bimbo voice... "Y- E - L - L". Bailey learned this cheer a little different... she walked around the house flailing her arms and yelling "E - E - R" ... not quite, baby girl... good try though. HILARIOUS! We are so proud of McKenzie. I have a feeling this will not be our last cheer experience.

A good friend of ours took this picture in the stands while we were watching the game. I just love it! Of course Bailey couldn't have a normal smile. Good thing even her crazy faces are cute : )

M'randa & Mud

My sister and I have awesome husbands! They convinced us to stop being cheap and boring and splurge on tickets to go see Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert! So we DID!!! We are both huge Miranda & Dierks fans! It was so much fun! We felt like silly teenagers again screaming at a concert and singing all the words at the top of our lungs! It was an incredible show, as expected : ) We failed miserably at picture taking. Amanda failed by bringing a dead phone to the show and I failed by forgetting my camera and having a sucky camera on my phone. The bottom pic, believe it or not, is the best selfie I could manage and it is NOT cropped at all. SO BAD! Oh well, still had a rockin time rockin out with my little sis!

 

The next day we packed up the mini vans with our picnic gear and headed to the creek for some sun and MUD! We caught guppies and splashed around in the cold water. The girls decided to collect muddy clay instead of guppies though, of course. Amanda took some great pictures! I love the serious guppy-hunting look on B's face, and Chris wearing my sun glasses : )

I am so grateful to live close enough to my sister and her awesome family to have some great weekend fun!!!

From the depths of my old cell phone...

I got a new phone! YAY! I found some great photos in my old phone that just had to be shared before throwing that old crappy phone in a box and forgetting it ever existed...

Walking a 5K around the lake by our house sounded like a great idea one HOT Saturday morning. I was wrong, t was not a great idea. The first hour was fun. We fed the ducks (I love the close up of Bailey's face!) Bailey kept saying "MOM those ducks are CWEEPIN ME OUT!" The second half of that walk was miserable after  Kenz & B refused to walk any farther. They literally sat on a bench and refused! Wussies!

Cards game with the whole fam! SO MUCH FUN!!!

Our favorite summer spot... catching guppies at the creek : )

Bailey riding a triceratops... no big deal.

I can't even describe how grateful I am to be able to be a stay-at-home mom and make special memories with my kids. Things like school field trips would be so hard to do if I had to work.  I got to go with McKenzie and her 2nd grade class to the Symphony! It was wonderful! She was ridiculously excited to get all dressed up in her "poofiest" dress and she was in awe at how fancy the concert hall was. I love my girly girl : )

Last, but not least, goofball Bailey! Her new way to annoy and entertain me at the same time... when I try to take her picture and I say smile that means "Make your weirdest, craziest face!" Here are a few of her most recent "smiles"...

The wheels on the bus...

WHERE did SUMMER GO??? The first couple weeks I thought, "It will be a MIRACLE if i can get through this summer with these crazy kids!" But, we stayed so busy and had SO much fun the rest of the summer flew by! Now it's time for McKenzie to go to 2nd grade and it's time for Braxton to go to KINDERGARTEN?!?!?! *sniff sniff* My little baby boy is not a little baby boy anymore. Always a rough day for mom but he has been ready and excited for Kindergarten for YEARS it seems. I planned on taking them to school and walking them to their classes. Braxton had a different plan... "Mom, you don't need to take us to school. I just wanna ride the bus!" *deep breaths, deep breaths, don't cry* So I held in the tears and said "Ok buddy, if you're sure." He gave me a duh-mom look and said, confidently, "I'M SURE MOM!" We headed to the bus stop. They played with their friends while they waited for big yellow to arrive. The doors opened and my 5, going on 15, year old son walked right on up and DIDN'T EVEN LOOK BACK! NO WAVE, NO "LOVE YOU MOM", NOT EVEN A SIDEWAYS GLANCE! and again... *deep breaths, deep breaths, don't cry* I texted Rich and told him his son broke my heart. He is great at saying the perfect things though... "It's OK. You raised a confident kid who is ready to take on the world!" Yes, WE did! He absolutely LOVES school. After his first day we asked him what his favorite part of the day was. His oh so bowman response... "hmmmmmm... Lunch & Rest Time!" Sooooo eating and sleeping? THAT is our kid! He has since changed his answer to P.E. & "Centers" (he gets to play with dinos and build buildings). McKenzie loves school too! Her favorite things to do at school are music and art! She has yet to master the elusive skill of eating lunch instead of gabbing with her friends the entire time and being starving afterwards! Big shocker! Bailey was totally fine with the kids going to school. I think summer school got her used to it, thank goodness! She does miss them though and asks every hour or so, "Are the kids coming home yet?" Here are some pics of the big day (and the day after because B thought his outfit looked so cool he wanted me to take a picture lol) on the second day Bailey stole Kenzie's backpack hoping they would let her on the bus : ) Nice try, little one! Happy New School Year everyone!!!

A day in Nauvoo!

I was SO excited when we got invited to spend the day in historic Nauvoo, Illinois. My Aunt Diane went on vacation there with her son, Brig, and his sweet wife, Kim, and their awesome kids, Zack, Maddi, Natalie & Ben. We were thrilled that they asked us to come along! The kids and I left early in the morning and picked up Amanda, Ri & D and headed out for Nauvoo! It had been a long time since I had seen Diane and WAAAAY longer since I had seen Brig & his family. When we were kids it seemed like all of the cousins saw each other at least once a year - life happens though. It was awesome to catch up and goof off, not to mention all of the amazing sites we saw in Nauvoo. We went to a lot of the little shops, like the bakery, blacksmith & gunsmith. We made rope, learned how they baked bread, made pottery and barrels. McKenzie's favorite parts of the day were making rope and playing with her new best friend, Natalie : ) Braxton's favorite was the blacksmith because he got to take home the little horseshoe we watched the guide make. He tells EVERYONE about it and shows them his prize horseshoe. He was also in awe at all the "SWEET GUNS!" at the gunsmith (see picture below for his "in awe" face haha) Bailey's favorite part was hanging out with "Aunt Dianey". She didn't want me... she only wanted to sit on Diane's lap or hold her hand while we were walking. It was so cute! Melted my mommy heart! She just loved her Great Aunt! She really is a great aunt!!!

The spirit is so strong in Nauvoo. Even the kids could feel it! We watched a movie at the Visitor's Center and Kenz said, "Mom I felt the Holy Ghost in the movie!" We had a super fun picnic after site seeing and then we went to the Nauvoo Pageant! The girls and I loved it... Braxton, not so much. Ten minutes in he "whispered", in the loudest quiet voice possible, "MOM, IS IT ALMOST OVER?" Pageants are NOT his thing we discovered. Every 5 minutes or so he would moan... "uuuuuuuugh I am SOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOORED!" and then he rolled his eyes at me tearing up at the beautiful music. He was a trooper though. All good things must come to an end, unfortunately. We had a long, late drive home... totally worth it! Saying goodbye to everyone was no fun, especially since we have no idea when we will get to see the Asays again : ( Hopefully sooner than later!

Thank you so much Diane, Brig & Kim for sharing your vacation with us! We will always remember our incredible day in Nauvoo!

The 4th with Grandma & Papa BOWMAN!!!

We have been anticipating this holiday all summer but when we found out Grandma & Papa Bowman were coming... WE COULD HARDLY CONTAIN OURSELVES!!! We had such an awesome week with them! Grandma & Papa spoiled us rotten , as always! We saw Despicable Me 2 (LOVED IT), went geocaching (Rich got a tick - ew), went walking and exploring, had a picnic in Forest Park, saw fireworks and, of course, ate ourselves stupid! The highlight for the kids of course was... the "f" word... FIREWORKS! They were driving us NUTS all week (just like Rich, Stef & Andy used to back in the day) asking when we were going to get fireworks. We finally created a rule... if you say the "f" word YOU WONT GET ANY! Finally the day came to drive across the river and buy some "f" words! Papa gave each of the kids a crisp $5 bill to spend on their very own fireworks. Braxton said "welllll I think I will save my money for something else and I can watch everyone else's fireworks." Smart little stinker! A finance man already. We came home with MORE than enough fireworks. I think we even have a bag leftover for New Years Eve! : D We had a blast shooting them off (while we looked over our shoulders for cops hahaha.) All laughs aside, I am very grateful on this special day for those who have gone before us to ensure our freedom. I am proud to be an American!

Cooking with grandma and getting their legs tied together and told to run by Grandpa LOL

Another big event was the debut of toothless McKenzie! She was so excited to lose her top front teeth. Here is her 24 hour evolution (with thanks to Grandpa B for ripping the 2nd one out of her skull haha). The tooth fairy was a BUSY lady at our house : )

Our picnic in the park!

Braxton is TICKED after hunting for a geocache at the park for a good thirty minutes in the very hot sun. He was hard core though and wouldn't let us give up! We finally fonud it! His face is priceless though!

 It was stinking hot... solution? TED DREWES!!!

It was a wonderful week that ended in buckets of tears from everyone. It is so hard being so far away but we are so very grateful that they got to come and visit. THANK YOU TWO!!! WE LOVE YOU!!! COME BACK SOON!!!