Our sweet girl turned ONE year old! Crazy times over here! Me and the older three went into her room and sang her Happy Birthday when she woke up!! I love that they love Mae so much, it melts my heart.
Before she woke up, I was able to make whole wheat pancakes for the birthday girl and she sure did enjoy them.
Our little Finn has not been feeling all that great the last day or two, so we headed out for a doctor appointment for him. I'm so glad we did. The doctor said that his ear looked really bad, on the verge of rupturing. She said that it was a 10 on a scale from 1-10, with 10 being the worst. She said that she does say that very often. Poor little guy. They were all troopers at the doctor's office.
When we got home, the two older ones went inside, but I hung out front with Finn and Mae for a bit. Mae loved digging in the mulch and walking around.
Finn grabbed his glove, ball and a glove for me and we threw catch for a bit. He sure does love baseball. And he's pretty good for a 3 year old!
And our monthly picture on the couch. I'm so glad that I kept up with taking her picture each month. She has progressed so much over the past year.
Here is some video of her walking around the house. She is busy busy these days!
We loved getting phone calls from our loved ones to wish Mae a happy birthday. Here is one of them: Grandma and Grandpa!
And here is Mae doing what she does best!! She absolutely loves rearranging this cabinet for me! I know, I know we should put locks on them! Nah, she enjoys it too much!
Present time! She had a few things to open from us and from a couple of friends. It was perfect.
All of the kids played so well with Mae's new toys. I think I have some Christmas ideas for the older kids: Little People and Leap Frog! LOL!
Shawn picked up some cupcakes on his way home from work. We sang her happy birthday {for the 10th time today...we all loved it!} and she dug into the cupcake. She really didn't get past the icing and wasn't quite sure what to do at first. It was sweet.
Happy birthday, Maebry. We love you and thank God for you!
Last night Maebry was walking in our room and she fell by our bed and hit her head on our bed rail. I picked her up right and held her. I immediately saw a line in between her eyes where she got hit. Well, when she woke up this morning, she had a black eye! Poor baby girl! She slept the entire night in her bed, so I guess it did not bother her too much. I am hoping for another good nights rest, for her and me!
We had a busy, but great day as we finished October out with a bang!
While the big boys were hunting, I took the other 3 kiddos to the zoo with Ally's AHG troop for a field trip. We had fun and I'm so glad the weather cleared up.
In the afternoon we finished carving the pumpkins. Jase designed and carved the traditional pumpkin all on his own! He is getting so big!
Finn was super excited for Halloween. "It is Halloween today?" he would ask. It was the sweetest thing. We got all of the kids dressed in their costumes and headed out for a little trick-or-treating.
It was a great evening. We walked outside to go trick-or-treating at the same time as our next door neighbor. They have a little girl a year younger than Ally and a boy a year younger than Finn. It was great to go door to door with them and visit.
We came home and passed out candy to the rest of the neighbors still trick-or-treating. While we enjoyed the fall festival at church for many years with the kids; trick-or-treating has been super fun. The kids really enjoy going door to door and it brings back memories from when I was a kid.
Right before we went bed tonight, Jase told me "I had fun today" out of the blue. So good to hear that and makes all the craziness worth it. {For the record, we have 4 kids, it is crazy a lot! Ha!}
For many years we visited a local church that had a pumpkin patch set-up. We would take pictures of the kids there, it was fun, it was tradition. That all changed when we moved last year and no longer had the church around the corner. There are plenty of similar things like that up here, we just have been so busy with extracurricular activities, that we haven't had time.
Yesterday before dance, me and the kids ran into Walmart for some fruit {for the AHG badge ceremony last night} and a pumpkin and they were completely sold out of pumpkins. Fail big time on my part. I would go to Walmart and sometimes they legitimately would not have any good ones and a couple of times I forgot to get one since they were outside. Needless to say the kids were a little bummed that Walmart was sold out and we were just days away from Halloween. I promised them we would get one.
This morning we got out for a couple of the kids' annual check-ups and after lunch I told them we would find a pumpkin! The first Kroger we stopped at in Frisco had a ton! So much so that I gathered the kids together for their annual pumpkin patch photo...at Kroger! Ha!
In the picture above you can see a man's reflection in the glass. As I was rounding up the kids for a picture he was trying to walk by. I stopped and told him he could pass by since I was about to take a picture and we might be a few minutes. He stopped and said "no I want to see this!" Then he said "they can't be all yours." I told him they sure were. He made a comment about doing the Texas thing {?} and good for me. He was super sweet and enjoyed seeing the kids. Don't worry, he did not have the creeper factor going on!!
We ended up getting two pumpkins. Jase picked out one and the other was one Mae was hanging onto. We are excited about carving the pumpkins in the next day or two.
This morning I went into my closet to get dressed for the day and I saw a Mickey Mouse shirt at the top of my closet. I decided to put it on. I walked out of my room {the kids were all sitting at the kitchen table} and declared it Homeschool Disney Day! I told them they needed to all put on a Mickey Mouse shirt. No arguments from the crowd, as they hopped up to get dressed.
I grabbed some Mickey Mouse party hats from Finn's party this summer.
The kids actually already had the Disney Day underway this morning before I officially announced it. They were looking through their autograph books during breakfast, which they often do. Such sweet memories on the two trips we've taken there.
What you see in the pictures is about the extent to what we did in celebration of Disney Day. It was a spur of the moment decision, so not much planning on my part. The kids did enjoy the theme. I used some Disney washi tape on their work, Finn and I colored a Mickey puzzle together and Finn watched a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show while the kids finished up school. Jase also wrote about his favorite 3 things at Disney World in his journal: 1) Expedition Everest, 2) Space Mountain, and 3) Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And he drew a roller coaster as well. So fun reminiscing about Disney World today. It did make the day a little more *magical*. Looking forward to going back one day.
We've had the privilege to get outside of our 4 walls and go on a few field trips lately. It has been fun meeting up with friends and doing things together.
The recycling field was more interesting than I thought it would be. We started off the morning with our tour guide explaining how the landfill works. He told us there are pipes ran throughout the landfill that capture the methane gas that is created by the trash. It is then transferred to another part of their facility in the pipes and the methane is used to create electricity. He said this is not a process that every city has and it makes the city of Denton unique.
Before heading over to the recycling center, we stepped onto the truck scale to see how much our group weighed together. I was thinking around 1,800 pounds, but it was 2,620 pounds.
In the recycling center we learned about the process and how the materials are separated. Styrofoam is very similar to a glad plastic container, but it has air puffed into it, which makes it very light and airy. Since the recycling center is paid by the weight, it is not very cost effective to recycle the styrofoam since it is so light, so this is the main reason it is not recycled. He did tell us that at Chick-Fil-A they pull all of their styrofoam cups out of the trash and send them to a recycling center in Tennessee. They do not have to do this, but since they use so many of them, they are trying to be good stewards. Another reason to eat there!
We have been out of town for the past week on vacation in Branson, Missouri. It was such a great time and I will be posting about it hopefully later this week. We arrived back home Friday night, just in time for Jase's baseball game on Saturday. We played a tough team with some good pitchers and in the end we fell to them 6-1, but the boys got 3 outs on them each time and played a respectable game. We are proud of them!
Jase had a great game. He made contact with the ball all 3 at bats and got on base twice. He played shortstop most of the game, except the last inning he moved to first base. While at shortstop he had 2 double plays! Both times he caught pop-ups and threw the ball to the occupied base to get the base runner out. He was playing heads up ball and he was awarded the game ball. Way to go, Jase!
Shawn and I are high school sweethearts. Married for 12 years with 4 beautiful children and reside in the great state of Texas. We are sinners who have been saved by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus. In our home we enjoy: laughing, praising and learning about God, watching sports, and homeschooling.
