Birthday B!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY BRAXTON!!!

I can't believe my baby boy is so stinking BIG! 

Bailey and I brought him his favorite lunch in the entire world... McDonalds (big gross shocker) and we brought Angry Birds cupcakes to share with his class. 

This year we weren't going to do a friend party but Rich suggested he just have a few friends over and have some pizza and hang out. I thought that was a great idea. Here is what REALLY went down. We invited a few kids and then the list kept growing. He didn't want to leave anyone out or hurt anyones feelings. In the end 12 boys were invited. It was a weeknight, school night AND it was Parent Teacher Conferences for every single boy that was invited. I figured no more than half would RSVP. Right? WRONG! Our "have a few friends over" party turned into a dozen 6-year-olds! They had an absolute blast though and Braxton could not have bene happier! He was spoiled ROTTEN by all his buddies. We had pizza and cake and played life-size Angry Birds. Then they spent the rest of the time chasing eachother around and wrestling... boys will be boys! 

Happy Birthday B! We love you so much and we are so grateful you are ours! You are such a sweet brother and a caring friend. We are so proud of you!

School Pictures

I HATED school pictures when I was a kid... I had a bad experience in elementary school when my mom made me sleep in sponge rollers for picture day and I had a legit white afro! I looked like a blonde Little Orphan Annie after she had been eletrocuted! Thank goodness my kids like picture day more than I did. School pictures always crack me up... you only get one shot which leads to some goofy, deer-in-headlights looks lol. Here are this year's gems : )

Baby you a song...

DATE NIGHT!!!
It had been WAY too long since Rich and I went to a concert together. We love live music but it's so hard now that we have kids to get away for that long. Rich took the bull by the horns and bought us tickets to Florida Georgia Line! We had such a blast! It reminded us of our younger days. They put on a great show and we abolutely loved our date night! Thanks baby for reminding me how cool we used to be : ) You make me wanna role my windows down and cruise!

TRICK OR TREAT!

We had a blast this Halloween! This year Kenzie wanted to be something super scary. I guuess the days of princesses are long gone : ( She wanted to be a vampire but whenever people asked what she wanted to be she said, "I want to be a lady of the night!" Uuuuuum... no sweetheart, lets not tell people that ok? How about a vampire princess? Hilarious! Braxton was Rafael the teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and he was bumblebee on a different night. Bailey was Princess Sofia and a lady bug (again).

I got to go with Braxton on his field trip to the Pumpkin Patch! It wsas such a great day! I am so grateful that I can do things like that with my kiddos!

This year we had been sick and super busy so I attempted to bribe my kids to avoid carving pumpkins. Yes, I am that mom. B took the $5 bait. Not surprising since the smell of pumpkin guts makes him gag lol. The girls pumpkins were a pretty quick attempt to appease them. I take no pride in my pumpkins this year haha. Oh well, there is always next year...

Bailey and I went to the kid's Halloween party and parade. It was so much fun seeing all the kiddos all dressed up. Bailey just loves going to "school" with the kids!

Rich got to go with us to the local High School's Trunk or Treat! He always has to work late on Halloween so we were really excited he got to do some tricking and treating with us this year! On Halloween the kids and I hit the jack pot at the mall trick or treat event, then we went to the library and did crafts and played games. The weather was terrible, freezing cold rain, but the kids were dying to go door to door in our neighboorhood so they braved the cold, wet night and did some hard core TorT! I was glad they were done after 6 or 8 houses. It was SO COLD! We had a fun night and got more candy than we have EVER gotten!

Aaaaaand some random pics from October... Life-Size spider web, squishy kisses and leaf pics. 

And Bailey being Bumblebee because she is goofy : )

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!!!