Family Pictures

These were taken last month in the woods across the street from our house.

Hilton Head

Garett's Aunt and Uncle rented a beach house for the Thanksgiving Weekend and invited us to join them. What can I say....It was AWESOME. The weather was perfect. The water was nice enough to play in. The house was HUGE and we got our own suite. The only down fall was I left our skillet there, bummer. Thank you Tom and Vicki for having us.

Garett wasn't able to leave school to join us. He really missed out.

This is my favorite picture. Penny, Lucy and Mallory are all taking turns eating table scraps. Mallory thought it was the most fun she has ever had!

During low tide the beach is perfect for riding bikes. We didn't have a bike that had training wheels so Preston decided that he would try riding without, however, he kept getting distracted by all the people, shell, sand, water, etc.

This is the boys favorite part of any vacation. CABLE!

Because I had so many babysitter I got to do a lot of stuff. One of my favorite things was just hanging out with my boys. My second favorite thing was crashing while roller-blading.

Mallory loved the beach and she loved all the attention she got from everybody.

Aunt Vicki, Preston, Spencer, and Lucy

After a few days at the beach we headed back up to Ft. Bragg to have one of the best Thanksgiving Feast I have ever had. Plus, Julie made 7 pies. Then I went Black Friday Shopping, it was the craziest year ever. I can't believe how many people were up at 3 am.

On Saturday we got down all of the Christmas stuff. Love it!

Surprise

I love my friend Julie. She is swell. This month she turned 30 and knowing that she wanted nothing more then to have a party, her hubby and I planned an 80's themed surprise party. The planning and organizing was not the easiest. First off it was just strange to be calling somebody else's husband and second she lives 2 hours from me. But everything turned out great and she didn't have a clue, as you can see in the first picture.Julie lived behind me when we where at Ft. Bragg. She is my favorite running partner, even though she is much better then me. My kids are best friends with her kids. She is so funny and cracks me up as shown in the picture as she proudly models the 80's outfit I bought her.

Happy Birthday Juls!

I also want to just say Thank you to my hubby who took care of the kiddos while I prepared for this totally awesome event. Thanks Garett.

Pilgrims and Indians

November has been a crazy month. First the trip to Minnesota (see below post), then to Ft. Bragg/Beach/Ft. Bragg (post to come soon). We have done so many great things but the greatest of all was the boys Thanksgiving day feast! The kids sang a few songs and then we ate a nice lunch including a dessert table which was double the length of the food table. Wait, the biggest surprise of all is that they boys actually sang. Preston has had 2 primary programs and never sung a note. Spencer sings all "Day and Night" but never in front of people. I was of course crying and busting with pride which was strange because all of the song where about chopping the turkey up. Preston being a Pilgrim and Spencer being an Indiana is rather perfect for their personalities. Loved it all!

PS- I would like to thank my friend Jenny who attended this event with me since Grandmas and pa couldn't make it, something that Spencer had a hard time understanding.

PSS- just to explain the "Day and Night". Garett has an bad habit of listen to songs to death. Seriously, he is like a teenage girl drooling of Justin Beiber. The song Day and Night was his latest crush. Spencer fell in love with the song too and can sing most of it. So literally he sings "Day and Night".

Spencer peeking out from the mass of kids. So cute!

Minnesota, Ya betcha!

My first airplane trip was when I was in 8th grade. Preston has flown about 12(give or take a few) times in his almost 5 years. They are PROFESSIONAL travelers. Seriously, they remind me that I can't have more the 4oz in my carry on (little exaggeration). Love this picture below. This is on our way to Minnesota. I haven't seen my sister or her 7 girls (not a typo) in over 3 years and the tickets were super cheap, so ya betcha.When we got there the weather was wonderful. You would never have thought that it could be so warm in Minn. in the winter time. The boys helped raked leaves with Audry and Aliene.With 7 girls ranging from 17 to 5 and all involved in sports and piano, my sisters life is crazy. She and I did our best fitting in fun things to do, but most of the time the boys were in her car running the girls around, but her car has DVD and a sunroof so it was the preferred activity anyway. All of the girls loved Mallory, not sure if it was because she is a girl and they feel more comfortable with that or because she is the worlds cutest baby! Cousin Kelly given some loves to Mali.

All 7 girls and my kiddos at the apple orchard.

The day we were supposed to leave we woke up to this. Just in case you can't tell Preston is throwing a snowball at me and he got me too! The plane was delayed and we got in super late but they got to play in the snow all day long and that was worth the delays.that is not one of the girls, that is my very manly Spencer. Aunt Cindy has plenty of snow gear to go around. The only problem is that it only comes in 2 colors. Pink or Purple. The boys didn't mind a bit.

This is what we came home to. What a difference!

This picture has nothing to do with Minnesota. I just think that Mallory and I look really good, so I thought I would share.

Miss Mallory

Mallory is now 8 months old and we still like her lots! Here is Mallory's head to toe update.

Head- She still has no hair, but she is really good about wearing bows. Her eyes have ended up being a sort of greenish with a ring of blue around them, interesting but pretty. She has two teeth and is working on number 3 and 4 right now. She love to eat. She has had all of her vegetables and we are now starting on fruits. She LOVES peas and HATES Banana. Weird. She puts everything in her mouth which is a huge problem since the boys leave everything on the ground, I have become a professional finger sweeper.

Body- She is still pretty chunky but interestingly she hasn't gained weight for over a month and has dropped down to the 50%. If she doesn't gain this month she has to go on reflux meds, she throws up a ton. I love all of her hand me down cloths for this size, every day is like a fashion show for the boys.

Legs- She moves! She stated crawling last week and love it, but now finds even more stuff to put in her mouth. She has also learned to pull herself up on things and loves this more then crawling. However, she can't figure out how to get down from things. Nice thing is that when I need to go to the restroom or something, I can stand her up on something and know that she will still be there when I get back. This won't last long because she is starting to cruise along things.

Feet- Mallory is not a huge fan of shoes. Not because she doesn't have so many cute pairs of shoes but because she likes to put her feet in her mouth. She love being naked and pulling her legs up over her head. Clothes and shoes prevent all of that fun.

She is just so much fun!

I will post picture of her standing up just as soon as I get one!

Super Busy October

It has been a super busy October. We have had field trips, road trips, bike trips and so much more. Below are just some of the pictures from the month. They are in no order. Halloween night! Passing out candy to our neighbors.
I am usually such a strict food person when it comes to my babies. Having said that I have given every single one of my kids a lollipop on their firs Halloween. Spencer was the youngest at only 5 months. I just think they are so cute!!! Mallory loved it and now whenever she see one she screams. No I haven't given her another one.
We were the Justice League for Halloween. I was Hawk girl. Check out my awesome wings. Salta was BatDog.
Garett is super man. He is wearing blue tights and a kids PJ cape. So funny. Mallory is Wonder Women and is super cute. Spencer was The Green Latern, Preston is Flash and Salta Bat Dog. Don't worry we will protect you!!
The boys had a Pumpkin Carnival at their school.
This is one of Spencer's classmates. I've been told that they are a very mischievous pair.

Cuteness!
We went with our friends the Kimsey's to the Virgina Creeper Trail. Ok I have to tell the whole story.Don't read if you have a weak stomach. On Wednesday Mallory started throwing up, but we hoped she would be better by Friday which is when we planned on going camping up in Virgina. Thursday night Preston started throwing up but Mallory was better. So we figured that we wouldn't go camping but still meet our friends on the trail. However, once Preston's friends showed up he had an amazing recovery (or so we thought) and our friends were seriously peer pressuring us, so we decided that we would go ahead and camp. We make it to the mountains without incident but once we hit those crazy windy road......We brought a bucket just in case and it is a good thing. Preston started throwing up but then all of a sudden Spencer started. We couldn't pass the bucket between them fast enough. I felt like such a bad parent, stupid for taking them anywhere when they were sick. However, once we got to the campground and they saw their friends they were fine. They even ate a smore! So next time they get sick I am not going to give them medicine I am just going to take them to a friends house. Oh and so far the friends haven't gotten sick.
This was the babies on the bike ride. They did really good except for a while Mallory just kept crying and crying. I couldn't figure out what was wrong until we got to the bottom and noticed that she had been rubbed raw on her head. Oh and and I have to also tell you about Garett. About half way down he lost his pedal. We all thought that it just came unscrewed, so me and friends kept riding figuring that he would catch up at the rest area. His pedal was actually broke. He started pedaling with one leg and he didn't stop at the rest area and we didn't see him. After some time I started to worry. Our friend rode back up the trail, then down the trail and didn't see him. I am totally freaking out by now. We all jumped on our bikes and rode fast down the trail (well fast for me). There he was at the bottom waiting for us. Some guy gave him a ride down to the bottom. It ended up being a very long day but we stilled had a blast and can't wait to do it again.