11 Months!

Hmmmm, what to say about Jane at 11 months old.... this chick is CRAZY!! She gets into everything, doesn't take no for an answer, and laughs all of the time. She is really fun to be around and really exhausting to be around all at the same time. It's so interesting to have three kids who all have completely different personalities... it makes life more interesting :)

Janie is a major mover and shaker. For example, what you don't see in the two pictures above is my foot on her belly holding her down. Trust me, it's 100% necessary because the second I removed it, this happened...

And this....

And this....

Can't you just see the mischief in her eyes? She has a twinkle. I love it.... it wears me out, but I love it :) Happy 11 months old big girl! I can't believe you'll be 1 yr old in 30 short days!

Thanksgiving Part 2

After the kiddie park, we headed to the playground across the street and had a Taco Cabana picnic. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time...

Micah made the funniest expressions on the swings that day....

"They say you don't grow up, you just grow old. It's safe to say I haven't done both".... The lyrics that popped in my head looking at this picture of my bro...

Cool Evan shot....

Lizzie wasn't in much of a posing mood at this point :)

Asher is a seriously funny kid who took this slide with fun abandon while screaming "WHEEEE!!"

This little booger has developed quite the independent streak...

The next day we headed to another playground (free entertainment anyone? With six kids, the price tag adds up quickly at places that charge admission :P) and Elena showed off her frisbee skills which are actually pretty good... her Pa would be proud :)

These two have a great time together (except when they are fighting over McQueen ;-)

Ben sent Elena flying on this thing...

Fearless!

Thanksgiving Part 1

Due to my parents ditching us for Thanksgiving.... again...... we packed up and headed over to San Antonio this year to hang out with my brother and his family. Including CJ the cat.....

My kids are big fans of CJ. I'm a big fan of CJ too, he's a really cool cat and my kids can get their pet fix with him and we don't have to get a pet ourselves ;-) We had a great time hanging out, eating, watching football and taking the kids to the Kiddie Park...

Look carefully at their facial expressions.. they're priceless. From the school buss, we moved on to the airplanes and then the boat ride...

The kids had an absolute blast and managed not to dump themselves into the water.. Bonus!

Pretty Elena :)  And on to the next ride...

It's tough to wait sometimes....

Waiting is over!

Poor Janie wanted to ride too....

Our sweet girl...

A Farewell to Soccer.... for now

I really had no idea what to expect when Micah declared that he wanted to play soccer this year. My suspicion was that it might be difficult to get him to play and he might be easily discouraged. I couldn't be more happy to be wrong!

In our last game of the season on Saturday, we played a really physical team with two boys who routinely pushed, pulled and knocked other kids over (on our team and their own team). Micah got shoved down and skinned up his knee a bit. He was upset for about 20 seconds but then he got this determined look on his face and he was ready to rumble...

Here is his 2nd of 4 or 5 goals (I can't remember precisely)...

Getting his props from Coach Jan after his next goal...

Haha, ok... so this freeze frame looks bad, but here is the deal... Micah got surrounded by two boys from the other team (who weren't even their big pushers) who were elbowing and grabbing him, and he pushed through and got back to the ball. The freeze frame sure does look interesting though :)

You mess with Micah, you get the horns!!

Our post season party at Chick-fil-a.... Micah was so proud of his trophy...which he has already broken. Luckily the coach has extras, so we're going to pick up a replacement and put it on a high shelf :)

First picture = fairly cooperative kiddos

Final picture =

I love that pic :)

Dewberry Field Trip

Last week, Micah recovered from being sick just in time to go on his class field trip to Dewberry Farm... I'm so glad he got to go!! As you can see, he decided a trip to the farm required him to wear his toy cowboy hat :) Micah surprised me by letting the goats eat right out of his hand without getting nervous at all.

My sweet boy was a big fan of the little chicks in the barn-

Micah and Weston started the sitting-on-the-metal-pig trend of 2012, and all of their classmates were happy to join in on it....

Ms. Jackie and Ms. Megan's class!

Micah and the girl he's been sweet on since early last year...

Picking out a pumpkin...

Now that's adorable ;-)

Micah enjoyed swinging on "Hay Mountain"...

Great teachers and great kids :)

Micah LOVED the giant slide..

It was a great day with beautiful weather and I'm so thankful to the Lord for healing Micah in time to go!