Hamming it up!

STOP

 BEING

SO CUTE!!!

You don't realize, Caroline, how difficult you make it for mommy to be consistent with our rules!  

Four Little Pumpkins!

Because we were in town we decided to hit our favorite pumpkin patch spot.  

A beautiful fall day in Kansas with all of our favorite people!

Mimi & Papa

Nana & GranStan!

Ben, Kari, Sarge, and GranStan

With our bellies full of kettle corn and our trunk filled with pumpkins I would say we are just about ready for some Halloween Fun!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk with a little rain!

 We weren't coming to Kansas without some KU football!  Of course the only weekend we could come back as a family for a game and it pretty much rains the entire time!  Well, we didn't let that stop us!  We put on our KU gear, our rain boots, our ponchos and we stood in it until they made us leave the stadium for lightening.  My kids loved it!  It was distracting enough that they forgot to whine:)

 Cowgirl Jayhawk!

 Giggles with GranStan!

 Hugs with Nana!

 The, "are you kidding me" look. 

 Not sure if it was from the score or letting him sit in the rain so long!

Our game got cut short but we still had a blast.  A family tradition that we can't give up no matter how busy we get or how far away we live, we gotta come home for at least one game a year!

Meeting our new cousin!

Welcome to the World 

Samuel Sargent!!!

Kyle's sister and her husband welcomed their first child into the world October 8th!  He is beautiful and  loved by so many!  We were so lucky to get the chance to meet him when he was only five days old!  Walter is smitten with him and is so excited to have another boy in the family!

Meeting Uncle Kyle for the first time!

My baby looks like a GIANT next to him.  

Watch out Kari and Ben, this has only taken 2.5 years to happen!

Don't blink too long because they grow so quickly!

Here she is just thinking of all of the ornery things that she is going to teach you Sarge.  

We love you and can't wait to watch you grow!

What's Up?

As you can see we have a cheerleader in the house!!!

This pic was taken right before we headed out to her first Homecoming Parade!  That's right folks, the people in this town are hardcore about their school pride.  If you are willing and able they slap those colors on you and march you around no matter what age you are!  I think it is great!  Much different than how it was when I was growing up, but still pretty awesome.  I was very naive about what this parade would entail as I headed out with my four kids, no stroller, no snacks, no drinks, no wallet,  no husband, about five minutes before I needed to be there.  Little did I know that streets would be blocked off, parking would be impossible, and that my son's shoe would break three steps into our 1.5 mile walk without a stroller:)  Are you kidding me here! 

 It was so fun to see my girl marching through town concentrating and nailing her routine.  Even though it started out nuts, we made it home in one piece and loved every minute of it.  The hometown feeling and school pride was so nice to see and feel.  I haven't quite experienced anything like it, but I am excited for my kids because this will be their normal.  This will be what they remember!

Besides cheering this girl has been busy with tumbling and swim team.  She loves being a 2nd grader and is working hard towards her First Communion.  

Miss Margaret is loving Kindergarten!

  Her only complaint, "Mom, it is just too long!  I get too tired!!!"  Seriously, are you five?  If you know Margaret, you know this girl needs her sleep!  She went from two hour naps a day to nothing!  Her favorite part of the school day is centers and she blows me five kisses everyday as I drop her off at school, I love this girl!

Between ballet and swimming she tries to sneak in as much down time as she can.  

Walter has made some great friends already in PreK!  

It is much different picking him up each day and hearing the "boy" version of what he did at school today.  I basically get, "I worked, I went outside to play, then I came home".  Where do they learn this stuff?  My girls always give me the details, gonna have to be creative to get the goods out of this boy!  I did get out of him that he and his friends run from the "kissing girls" at recess.  Hmmmm, claims he hasn't been caught by these girls yet, more and more like his daddy each day:)

Soccer and swimming are keeping him busy this fall!

Cuteness written all over her!  

She lives the life! 

 After we drop the munchkins off at school she gets me all to herself!  This little chick makes me laugh constantly!  She is loving her ballet class with her new friends and she loves to go to story time!

She has also been saving me some money in the diaper department.  After buying diapers for my children for eight consecutive years we are officially potty trained!  Hopefully I haven't bragged too soon, as this is always a sure fire way to backfire on me, but with several months under our belt I am proud of my baby girl!  We have traveled the last two weekends on long four hour trips and have been in-and-out of other people's houses without an accident.  I am crossing my fingers here, but I think this might be for real!  I feel very bittersweet about this, just knowing she is my last.  Call me crazy, but I just might miss that diaper butt squeezed into her tights!  All-in-all, she is officially BIG, which makes my heart fall a little!  I love her, but please make her stop growing:)

Sucking in as much of him as we can!  Park time with daddy is always one of our favorites things to do.  He has been busy at his new job so any chance we can take him away and be silly we do!  God has definitely given him a gift and if it weren't for all of his hard work we wouldn't be where we are today!

Nana came for a post-celebration for Isabella's birthday.  She got to sneak some time in to watch some ballet and a soccer game too!  It was so nice having her here, the time went too quickly!

Isabella Lynn is EIGHT!!!

Another year has passed and her candle keeps getting shorter!  

About a month ago my Izzy B turned EIGHT!  Even though it has taken me forever to post these pics this was a very special birthday!  Not only was it the first birthday for us to celebrate in our new house but it was also another year to celebrate my first born baby girl!  

Because her big day fell in the middle of the week we had our first celebration the weekend before.  Thank goodness Mimi and Papa made it to town to help us kick things off!  Being new to town, we decided to keep things low key this birthday as far as  throwing a big party with friends. It just didn't feel right to invite 22 kids we really didn't know and have my daughter think it normal to receive 22 gifts from kids we really didn't know!  We kept it family style, and I must admit...it was kind of nice!  We did all of the things we would have done at a big party, swimming/pinata/tacos/candy/ice cream sundaes/running around screaming like crazy people on a sugar high/goody bags/special pop/happy birthday song/candles/steamers and so on!  When you have four kids you kind of always have a party going on:)

What I enjoyed is actually getting to take the time to be with my little girl without running around crazy hosting a party.   Don't get me wrong here, I love to throw a good party but usually at the end of one of these I am so exhausted I can hardly remember if the birthday child enjoyed their day.  She is not going to be a little girl much longer and this is probably the last and only year I will get away with this, but it was great and I think that she thought so too!  

Mimi Love!

Maybe I had a little bit of mommy guilt!  

Kyle and I swore that our child would be a teenager before she got an i touch...well folks we caved!  But look at that smile on her beautiful face!  She, in fact still, smiles like this everytime she plays it!  We set it up to be internet free and can really only be controlled by her daddy (until she figures out how to outsmart us, which is soon).  

Happy Birthday my Beautiful Isabella!

I remember the day you were born, the first time I laid eyes on you and held you in my arms.  I loved you before I met you, but each day I fall in love with you even more.  You work so hard at each and every thing that you do.  I am impressed by how quick you learn and how dedicated you are to doing your best at all times.  You are a great daughter, sister, and friend to everyone you meet!

You Rock!

love mom