Around the house

 Life is back full swing into school mode over here at our house.  I forgot to post a picture of Weston on his first day of seminary!  Here he is getting ready to head out the door to that.  Seminary is held at the seminary teacher's house.  It takes 10 to 15 minutes to get there.  For right now, Weston has been getting a ride with a boy in the ward who is a senior at his same high school.  He then gets a ride to school from seminary with that same boy.  He is liking it so far.  This year they are studying the Doctrine and Covenants.  :)  We have been studying the same thing in our family scriptures, but we are almost done.  We only have about 10 more sections to go as a family!  :)

 I have been enjoying the last few days of having both Evan and Katelynn home.  We have been reading lots of books, doing puzzles, playing outside and going for walks to the park early (before the heat hits- it has been in the 90's here the last few weeks and super humid).  Katelynn has been on a bead kick lately.  She almost always has necklaces on these days!  :)  She loves all things girly!!  I am glad that I have 2 girly girls in the midst of all these boys at my house!

Evan has been playing Angry Birds most mornings too.  He loves to sit and do puzzles and can even do the 48 piece ones now!!!  But he loves to build different things with the few Angry Birds sets that we have.  This day he was doing the car launch one.  :)

 This week he will start pre-school.  We went this past week and saw the school and met his teacher.  She seems very nice.  His class is small and they have a new playground this year to play on.  While he was there he got to make a tiger craft, have some cookies, and see the library and centers room.  He thought that it was all pretty neat.  He will go Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9-12.  I know he will have a good time.  This year is a busy one for me with lots of running around.  I have children at 4 different schools this year with 4 different pick up times as well as having one at home!  :)  These are the busy days for sure.  Katelynn is really going to miss having Evan at home to play with.  It will be strange to have just her at home.  The last time I had just only a baby at home was when Weston was little.  And even then I baby sat a few days a week.  Everyone is growing up!

 Around here there are LOTS of fossils!!  Evan has been on a fossil kick lately.  He found a big fossil rock in the yard and went to work "excavating" it with a little tool and paintbrush.  He was hoping that he might discover a dinosaur in it!  :)  I told him that there probably weren't any dinosaurs, but that he could find some cool shells and sea creatures.  And he did!  :)  So, now every time he goes outside, he finds all the fossil rocks he can.  These were the ones that he found this last week.  He wanted to line them all up to look at.  I just had to take a picture of his collection.

Katelynn thought that they were pretty cool too!  Evan told me that he named all of these fossils "Evan" except the last one.  That fossil's name is "Simon James Alexander Ragesdale III."  That is just like a song on one of our favorite cd's.  There is a song on the cd named "Bob" and in the song, the person has 15 animals and he names them all Bob except the turtle and he names that one Simon James Alexander Ragesdale III.  :)  Evan does love music!!!  I am thankful that I get to be at home to spend lots of time with my little (and not so little) ones!! 

Annual Uncle Aaron Fish-out

 Tonight for Family Home Evening, we had our annual Uncle Aaron fish-out!  :)  We like to fish around his birthday to remember him.  We were going to do it last Monday night, but it was stormy.  We have been having hot, humid weather lately with quite a bit of rain and storms.  Anyway, I thought that we were going to get quite a few fish because as soon as I baited Evan's hook and he got it in the water, he caught the fish above.  I then re-baited his hook and he caught another that got off once he got it all the way up to the dock!  Silly fish!!  But, those were the only 2 fish that were caught!

 The fault was mine.  We didn't have any hot dogs.  And I was too tired today to go and get some.  So we used bologna (because I figured it was kinda like hot dogs, but trust me, it's not the same) and bread.  The evening started out sunny enough.  There were clouds and darker clouds scattered here and there.  But it was mostly sunny and very, very humid.  The kids didn't care though.  They were having a great time baiting their hooks and fishing.  For the most part, the kids are pretty self sufficient these days when it comes to fishing.  I just have to help Evan and Amber and keep track of Katelynn.  But Barth was there to help too! :)

 All of the rain that we have had lately has certainly made everything quite green!  :)  Weston was fishing with his cool bait that he got at scout camp.

 Evan and Aaron were trying so hard to catch more fish!

 Katelynn was really good and sat in the stroller just watching things all around us.  

 And then all of the sudden, it started to pour!!  Just my two little die hard fishermen kept fishing.  Evan was having a grand old time.  He didn't even have bait on his hook at this point, but that didn't stop him!

 And Amber was bound and determined to catch a fish too!  I think she was the most wet by the time we headed home!  :)

 And then Weston decided that he would go ahead and fish too once the rain got a little bit lighter.  There was no lightening or thunder, just showers.  The ducks thought that the weather was nice.  I brought an entire loaf of bread so we decided to feed them since we weren't catching any fish.

 Thankfully the dock has a covered gazebo part so we were able to stay dry for the most part.  Aaron was trying to throw the bread really far out to the ducks so he didn't have to get wet!  :)

 I asked Amber if she was having fun and this is what she did!  :)  Crazy girl!  She had a great time!

 Katelynn giving me the "cheese" face!

 And then the white ducks decided to come up by where we were at.  And oh boy, did Katelynn love that!!!!!

She kept reaching for them and growling at them.  Katelynn is so funny!  She growls for every single animal!  We try to get her to say quack, or moo, or neigh, but all she does is growl!  It is soooo funny!  Even though we got rained out and didn't catch that many fish, it was fun to go fishing in remembrance of Aaron.  Afterwards we came back and talked about Aaron and about eternal families.  I really am thankful for our fun family tradition!!!

Last few days harvest

Finally our garden is producing!!!! I put up a fence this year to keep out the rabbits, but they kept coming in. I spent the better part of 2 weeks chasing the rabbits out at dawn and dusk. But finally they left the beans alone! :) The tomato plants have been growing like crazy and producing lots if tomatoes, but it hasn't been warm enough until this past week for them to start turning red. The cucumbers must like the hot and humid weather too because they are growing like crazy! We picked two days ago and then today and this was what we got! It looks like I need to find a good pickle recipe! :) I can't wait to eat all of our yummy goodies from the garden!!!!

Tallest slides EVER!

The other day I had to take Weston to a park close by our house that I had never even heard of before so that he could do tennis for YM. Barth had to take Brian and Aaron to the stake center for their scouts, so I took Evan, Amber, and Katelynn with me. The kids had the best time playing on this playground while I sat on the bench while the baby slept in the stroller! :) The slides were honestly the biggest slides I have EVER seen at a playground. If you look closely, you can see that there is a full grown man at the bottom of the slide on the left to catch his child.

Amber and Evan had so much fun. They had cross bars, slides, spinning things. They had more equipment next to it for little ones. And then a third set of slides and climbing equipment as well as teeter totters and swings! So fun! This place was about 15 minutes south of our house. Once the weather gets nice again (it has been pretty warm and muggy with a lot of rain) I think I will have to take the kids back for more fun! :)

Big feet!!

When it came time to get new school shoes, Weston thought that perhaps he would wear a 9.5, a half size bigger than what he wore at the end of the year. Well, he was wrong!!! When he went to try on shoes, he just kept going on up in sizes! He actually wore a 10.5!!!! That is the same size as Barth! I sent Barth a text telling him that his child's foot was now the same size as his! :) He didn't really believe me. So, I decided to get Barth's flip flops and have Weston put them on. Then I snapped a picture with my phone and sent it to Barth! Weston may just be slightly taller than I am now, but my guess is that he will be having a growth spurt sometime in the near future!! :) Holy cow my kiddos are getting big!!!!

Roller skating

The week before school started I took Evan and Amber over to the roller rink by our house to go rollerskating.  On Wednesday night it is $8 for a family for 2 hours.  A few weeks ago Barth had gotten some practically new roller skates for Amber at a garage sale and she had been doing them non stop since then.  She had gotten pretty good so we decided to go to the rink.  Barth was taking the big kids somewhere else the day after, so I thought that Evan would also like to do something fun. He has never really wanted to skate even though we have lots of skates for outside skating.  :)  He had a good time though.  Here we are getting ready to go.

Evan is a boy with a lot of determination!  When he decides that he wants to do something, he does it full force and nothing is going to stop him.  We got his wheels tightened so that he wouldn't fall quite so much.  It did help a little bit.

Once we got there, Amber pretty much waved goodbye and went off like a lightening streak!!  She had sooooooo much fun!  She would usually call hello to us as she went around, but loved skating on her own out there!!  :)

Evan did a lot of wall holding.  Like I said, he didn't really want help.  Anytime I offered my hand, he would look at me and shake his head no.  By the end he was doing pretty good for a 4 yr old 1st timer I thought!  He could make it most of the way around the rink without falling.

Stopping in to say hi!

Amber wanted to do the hokey pokey and chicken dance, but Evan wanted none of that.  He was still falling way to much to even want to try.  So I told him we could go sit and watch Amber.  He was happy with that!  :)

Amber had a great time doing the hokey pokey and the chicken dance!!!  We had such a fun time skating together!  What a fun night!

My Sweet Girls

 My two sweet girls looked so cute on Sunday!  I wanted to snap a few pictures right after church because they both looked so pretty!  They are both getting so big!  Katelynn looked like a little doll in her dress I thought!  

Katelynn gets so excited when Amber gets home from school.  It really is sweet!  My blog has been lacking lately and hopefully I will get back in the groove!  Things have just been so busy with all of the back to school events, getting supplies and clothes, and then I have not been well the last few days.  I think I am finally on the mend and so hopefully I will soon have the energy to get all the other blogs up that I want to from the past week or so!  Until then, enjoy these sweet pictures of my beautiful girls!!!

First Day of School 2014!

 I wasn't ready for school to start this year!!  Our summer was so busy and it just FLEW by this year!  But, ready or not, today was the first day of school!  There is no seminary this week- that starts up on Monday!  Middle school and high school start at the same time, so just before 7, the boys headed outside to snap a few pictures for me!  :)

 It is so hard for me to believe that Weston is now in high school!  He is mostly grown up now!!  So hard to believe!!!!!  He is a fine young man!  He has a full schedule this year with Wind Symphony band (the top band), honors Algebra II, honors Spanish II, AP Human Geography, and Biology.  Thankfully they have study hall!!  But I bet he is busy this year.  He also signed up to be on the speech and debate team and student council.  

 What a handsome 6th grader if I do say so myself!!!!  Brian is excited to be starting middle school!!  He will be playing trumpet in band this year and is so excited about that!  He has several teachers that Weston had and he is sooo happy about that.  :)  Brian is my child who loves to be involved.  I know he wants to do Odyssey of the Mind this year, but I bet once he gets into school and they start talking about other teams and groups, he will want to join!!  

 Just two in elementary school this year!!  Aaron is excited to be in 4th grade and getting to change classes for math and science!!  His homeroom teacher seems nice, but none of his brothers have had her before.  :)  The teacher that he has for math had both Weston and Brian.  She told him that he "had big shoes to fill" and that she expected great things from him.  He will not disappoint!  Amber's teacher seems nice as well.  She has another teacher we didn't know.  I bet by the time we are done with all our children going to this school, we will have had every teacher there is to have!!  :)  Amber was a little sad that there was only 1 person from her kindergarten class that was also in her 1st grade class.  She is so friendly and outgoing though that I am sure she will have made 10 new best friends by the end of the week.  All of the 1st grade classes have recess together, and she is excited about that!

 Aaron said to me yesterday as he was thinking about school, "Mommy, do you think that maybe I could do Odyssey this year?"  I told him yes, he probably could.  I tried to get him to do it last year since I was coaching, but he wasn't interested.  I think when we started having it and he saw how fun it was, he changed his mind!  :)

 When Amber got to school this morning, one of her good friends was having a hard time.  I suggested that Amber sit by her.  By the time they were called to line up for class, the other girl had no more tears!! I am thankful that Amber is such a good and kind girl.  I know Katelynn will really miss her when she is gone.  I think that the things that Amber is most excited about when it comes to school are that: she gets to go all day long, she no longer has to take a nap, and she gets to eat lunch in the cafeteria!!  :)

 Evan jumped into the middle of the picture and said, "Me too!  Me too!"  After we got home, Katelynn went down for a nap and we made pumpkin muffins!  He starts pre-school the day after Labor Day!

And, of course, we had to get one with our little KatieLynn in there too!!  Happy 1st day of school!!!

Day at the Museum

Our Cincinnati Museum membership was going to expire at the end of July, so last Wednesday I took the kids and we made a whole day of the museum!!  I let Katelynn have her morning nap, and we got to the museum about a quarter till 11.  Our first stop was the children's museum.  The kids always have so much fun down there.  It gets more and more crowded as the day goes on so we try to do it first thing.  Here are Brian and Evan in the grocery store.  They put in a real actual scanner that reads the bar codes on the empty boxes and cans.  All the kids thought that it was really cool!

Amber, Evan and Katelynn headed over to the play restaurant after a little bit!  Katelynn was so determined to climb up on the stools. 

Thankfully it wasn't very crowded the day we went.  The weather has been nice and we figured that on this day that most people would rather go to the zoo making this place less busy. 

Katelynn and Evan waiting to be served their "food."  Mostly Evan just wanted to make Katelynn and I the food, but he was a good sport and sat up at the counter for a picture for me.

Look at those happy kiddos!  That is just the way I like it!!

Weston and Brian mostly went off by themselves in the children's museum and I took the other kiddos and went to the tree climbing place and then the water place.  This was by far the favorite place of the day!

They dumped and built and played and got all wet!

Katelynn LOVED it here!  The only trouble was that she kept trying to climb in or drink the water.  We played here for a long time!

Aaron had a lot of fun here too!!

See?  You can see Katelynn trying to drink the water here!  As soon as I saw that when I was taking the picture, I got the cup away from her.  Yuck!!!  There is a ton of chlorine in the water (kind of smells like the pool) but still.....yuck!  No drinking of the water is allowed says this momma!

We finished up at the children's museum and then washed up and headed upstairs (the children's museum is in the basement) for lunch.  We had yummy sandwiches packed from home as well as chips and fruit!  :)  Then, once everyone was done, we headed over to the museum of science and history.  This is one of my kids' favorite museums!  They have an area that is just for kids with this replica of a T-Rex head that they can touch and look at.  Aaron was giving me his fiercest pose!! 

Evan loves all things dinosaur, so he wanted a picture with the T-Rex too!

One cute shot of all of the children together in this museum.  Everyone stayed together as we went through this one.  

Amber is a beautiful butterfly!!

Katelynn looked away just as I was taking the picture!  She was really good.  It was nap time and she was confined to the stroller, but she didn't seem to mind.  She was pretty happy!

This huge slice of a tree never ceases to amaze me!  It is so big!  It said that it was purchased for $45 back a long time ago!!  Wow!

And here are some of my favorite dinosaur children in front of the actual dino head!!  :)

We also went to the history museum after the science and history one.  The kids had fun looking at the trains and boat and seeing the printing press.  I forgot to take pictures there though!  By the time all was said and done, it was about 3 pm.  What a fun day!  Afterwards we headed out to take a picture by the fountain and overlooking Cincinnati!  I am sad that school starts a week from today, but we have had a fun and full summer!!  Like it or not, school time is almost here!