Uncle Aaron fishing

 Last week we had our annual Uncle Aaron fishout for FHE.  I had meant for us to have it a few weeks ago, closer to his birthday, but that week was a bad one for us!  Barth ended up getting pneumonia and was off of work the entire week.  I have never, ever seen him so sick in our entire 17 years of marriage!!  So, I put it off a week and we went then!  And it was the perfect night.  We had the most gorgeous 70 degree weather, so it was cool and lovely in the evening!

 We had a picnic dinner there next to the pond and then we fished afterwards.  We usually fish at the gazebo, but there was a man fishing there with several lines in the water, so we just fished at the edge of the water.  It was still nice.

 We fished for at least an hour!  We brought several hot dogs to fish with and stayed until they were all gone.

 All of the kids are getting bigger- most of them baited their own hooks this time.  I decided that I was the picture taker and Barth was the fish-taker-offer this time!!  :)

 Weston decided that he wanted to use a lure this year.  That meant that he didn't catch any fish, but he didn't mind.  He still had a good time!

 Evan caught the first fish of the night!  A real "whopper"!  Barth told him that he should just leave it on the line and use it for bait because it was so small!

 Aaron caught the next one!  Evan caught 5 I think, Aaron caught like 7.

 Here was Brian's first fish of the night!  He caught the most by far!  Like 11 or 12 or something like that!  I decided that it must have been because he was using the original pole that Uncle Aaron gave Weston when he was little.  It was the Taz fishing pole that Aaron gave Weston when he was like 4, I think!

 Even Evan got the hang of baiting his own hook.  I really enjoyed just keeping an eye on Katelynn and watching the kids have a good time fishing!

The boys fishing!  It really was the perfect night to be out!

We brought some bread and Katelynn fed the ducks for a bit.  She ate a donut the other day when I was off doing something else and never had a reaction.  After a call to the allergist, they said that it was okay if she started to eat wheat things!!  Yay!!  For the most part, she is still eating her wheat-free bagels for lunch and things like that, but if she wants to have something for dinner that has wheat in it, we give it to her.  So far she has been fine, just like the doctor said she would be!!  :)  When she was feeding the ducks, she actually ate most of the bread herself and then would feed the ducks a few crumbs.  Silly girl!!

Casting out his line.  The cool weather was so nice for Evan.  The heat still bothers him since there isn't really any change yet as far as an increase in blood flow to his brain, so he has a hard time when its hot, but in the cool weather, he has more energy.

Amber finally caught a few at the end!!

Even Katelynn "fished."  We didn't unhook the hook, but she stuck that pole in the water just like her brothers and sister and had a grand old time!  I am so thankful for this tradition and for a time that we can remember and talk about Uncle Aaron!!

He lost a tooth!!!

 Evan has had some loose bottom teeth for a little while now!!  Last night I asked him if I could look at them to see how wiggly they were, and one came right out!!!  Yay!  Now that top tooth will not be the only missing one!  :)  Look closely and you can see it there on the bottom.

 You can't really see it (the new missing tooth) in this picture, but it was a good picture, so I decided to include it.  As a side note, yesterday was the first day since his surgery that he had worn a shirt that didn't button up.  His head is still sore, but I guess he wanted a little variety in what he was wearing.  :)

 This afternoon after everyone was home, he looked so sweet sitting there organizing his Yu-Gi-Oh cards.  I had to get a few pictures.  You can see that his head is healing pretty nicely.  (At least on the outside.)  He does actually have one bald spot that has no hair at all growing on it.  Not sure why that is exactly, but oh well.  He plans on growing his hair back out and you won't even be able to tell.

 Then Brian decided to come and photobomb the picture!  Brian is such a silly guy!

 Evan got quite the chuckle out of that.  And from Brian pretending to be dead behind him.

 The main reason that he likes these cards is because Weston likes these cards.  He wants to be just like his big brother.  The shirt he is wearing came from Aunt Heather some years ago for like Weston or Brian's birthday when they were young.  Since it is baseball and since it has red on it, Evan calls it his "Cincinnati Reds" shirt.  I think that it's cute!

So far he has enjoyed his first few days of school!  :)  As a side note, Barth has been sick since Saturday.  He has had a fever close to 104 since then.  When he finally went in today, they told him he has pneumonia!!  Oh my!  I'm glad that he is finally on an antibiotic and hopefully he will be feeling better by the end of the week!!!

Happy 10th Birthday Aaron!

 The Sunday after Evan came home from the hospital was Aaron's 10th birthday!!!  He had a nice day at church and then we celebrated at home afterwards.  For his birthday dinner he chose for us to have chicken nuggets, home made macaroni and cheese, rolls, grapes, and I think there was something else too, but I have no idea what it was.  (This is why I have to blog right away because I can't remember a thing!!)

 I took the kiddos to Dollar Tree to get things for Aaron.  It was a busy few days between getting released from the hospital and then trying to get things ready for a birthday!  All the children made nice cards for Aaron.  Amber went first to give Aaron his present.

 She gave him silly string.  It was gone by that evening I think!  :)

 Next came Evan's present.  I should remember what it was, since I was the one that picked it out since Evan couldn't go to the store, but alas, my memory fails me.  Whatever it was, I am sure that Aaron liked it!

 Aaron really missed Evan while he was gone to the hospital.  I am so glad that my kids can share rooms with each other.  I think that the late night talking (when they are supposed to be asleep- but I know better!) helps them to become good friends.

 Next was Weston's turn.  He had gotten in from his scout trip just a few hours before we left to get the presents.

 Weston got him some sour candy for his birthday!

 Katelynn wanted a turn to "give" Aaron a present, so she got one that we had gotten for him and then proceeded to open it for him!!  :)  I kind of forgot to get him a present from her.  Oh well.  I was just doing good to have anything for the birthday!  :P

 Brian was next.  I thought that this was a sweet picture of these two boys.

 Brian gave Aaron a slingshot that he could use at the pool.  He's been able to use it a few times, but since Evan couldn't swim, we haven't gone to the pool terribly much the last month of the summer vacation.

 It was so fun to have Grandma and Grandpa Yorke here for Aaron's birthday!!!  That was a special treat!!  I was so very thankful that they could come and help out when Evan had his surgery.  It was nice not to have to worry about things at home, but to know that the kids were being well taken care of by Grandma and Grandpa!

 They got Aaron a cool new game!  Grandma is a game person and my kids LOVE to play games with her when they visit!  This was a fun one!

 Aaron then opened his card from Grandma and Grandpa Whitley!  He got money from them!!  He thought that was pretty cool.  He got some Pokemon cards with some of his money, and I think that he still has some of his money left!

 He got a Minecraft torch from us!  He thought that it was pretty cool!  He keeps it in his bed at night and sometimes reads by its light.

 He also got this really cool bow and arrow set!!  The kids have all had a LOT of fun with it!  They love to stand on the driveway and shoot it.  If they stand by the basketball hoop, some of them can even shoot the arrows so far that they fall in the neighbor's yard across the street!

 He also got a fun Lego minecraft set.  He had it all put together by the next afternoon!  :)

 Aaron requested a Red Velvet bundt cake!  I made one last year for Barth's birthday and I guess that he liked it so much that he wanted it for his birthday!

Blow out the candles and make a wish!!!  Happy Birthday to my sweet Aaron boy!!  I can't believe you are now double digits!  I am so thankful for you in our family!!  I love you soooo much!

1st Day of School!!!

I'm going to take a break in my catching up to blog the first day of school!  It came and I was really not ready for it this year!  Today was the day!  Barth worked from home so that he could hear about each day of school as they came home.  :)

 Weston is a sophomore this year!  I can't believe it!  They started seminary today too.  I took a few pictures, but the other ones were blurry.  Must have been the early hour!  

 Brian was the next out the door.  He is in 7th grade this year!  I can hardly believe that here in a month I will have 2 teenagers in my house!!

 Both Weston and Brian had great days today.  They had lots of friends in their classes which they were happy about!

 Last off were the elementary kiddos!!  Katelynn wanted to be in the picture too!  :)

 Wow!  5th grade already?!?  He was so excited for this year!  He is the big dog on campus this year!!

 He has a great teacher this year.  He enjoyed his day and all of the classes and teachers that he has for science, math, and social studies.  His homeroom teacher teaches him language arts and then he changes for the other subjects.

 Amber was sooooo excited to go to second grade today!  She loves everything about school.  Her teacher this year was a teacher that Brian had in 3rd grade.

 One thing that Amber does that I love, is that she always tries to be kind to the new kids.  She said that there was a new girl today that didn't know anyone because she had just moved to our school, so Amber decided to be her friend and sit by her at lunch.  Makes me a happy momma!

 All set for kindergarten!!!  He was a little anxious, (and admittedly, so was I) about this first day.  I met with the teacher, nurse, and counselor yesterday about Evan's health and then felt much better about it.  We got the teacher that I had asked for, which I am so thankful for.

 He came home tired but happy.  He had a great day.  He said that they got 2 recesses today.  He got to go to the little playground in the back and then they also got to have an inside recess.  An added bonus was that he got to be the line leader on his very first day of school!!  :)  Tomorrow morning he has another MRI since he hasn't been feeling right this week.  Hopefully it goes smoothly.

 And my little KatieLynn said, "Take a picture of me!"  She was sad when the kids left this morning, but we had a great time playing outside this morning while they were gone.

She got her backpack and drove all around in her car this morning.  It was soooo cute!  We blew bubbles and did chalk and played chase.  The hardest time for her was when we went to pick up Evan, because she wanted to pick up Amber and Aaron too and was so mad at me when we left without those 2.  Oh my!  Overall it was a good first day back!