Fun Fall Day

Saturday was a fun family day. It started out with me getting a keratin treatment and haircut. I have really liked the girl who has cut my hair lately, but this time I guess I wasn't clear that I only wanted a trim and my hair cleaned up...she chopped it off! It's sooooo short. Brett says I look like Dora. Way to make a girl feel good about a bad haircut. Oh well, hopefully my hair will grow quick.
Maddi babysat Emma while Brett and I went to Cade's baseball game. Emma loves to have Sissy babysit and Maddi wanted to stay home rather than go to the game, so it worked for everyone. Cade had a great game, including two home runs!
Then we came home and watched the Aggies win their first SEC football game against Arkansas. When Brett was sure we were going to win the game, we loaded up to go to a pumpkin patch. It's funny because I took just Emma to a pumpkin patch last year with her little friends. Cade and Maddi both told me a few days ago that they were jealous they didn't get to go. I honestly thought they had kind of outgrown the pumpkin patch, but I was wrong. I bought a living social deal for a pumpkin farm close by and it was great. All 3 of the kids loved climbing up on the tractors.

Emalyn loved the pumpkin and apple cider donuts, her mouth is stuffed with a donut here! We bought a dozen but ended up getting 2 extra because we had to wait a while for our apple cider donuts. The 5 of us ate all but 3 of them so each of the kids will get one for breakfast. Apple cider donuts are my favorite thing about fall :)

More fun in the tractors.

Maddi and Daddy enjoying taking a break from eating donuts.

Emalyn crying because Bubba took a bite of her donut.

This little girl loved the pumpkins.

My little pumpkin heads :)

Em kept saying she wanted a little tiny baby pumpkin.

She said "please can I take them baby pumpkin home to my house."

Em spent most of her time in the wagon but she decided to get out and tried to pull the wagon. It was a little too heavy for her with the big pumpkin in it.

One of Emma's favorite things to do it play with seat belts. She was thrilled to play on the tractor and buckle and buckle the seat belt over and over. Em spends a lot of time at home playing in the car with her babies buckling them in and out.

We spent some time in the big corn maze as a family and then Maddi and Cade had fun exploring the kids corn maze. Then they played in the tee pee area and tried out the trikes. The bigger ones were broken but Cade found if he pulled it up the little hill then he could ride it down the hill.

The tractors were a big hit with Emma. She would point out the ones she didnt' get to sit on yet and Daddy would take her over to sit on them.

It was a fun family day at the pumpkin farm! I get to go back to a pumpkin farm with Emma for a school field trip in a few weeks. Hopefully Maddi and Cade won't be jealous since they got to visit a pumpkin farm already!

A few random pictures of Cade at a baseball game the other night. It's getting dark so early that they got to play under the lights so they could finish the whole game.

Six on Sunday

1. Emalyn is really funny, or this age is funny anyway. The other day the two of us were home and she came up behind me and said "1, 2, 3 BOO!" I laughed and acted surprised. Then she came up a few minutes later and said, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Surprise!" She is always saying things that make us laugh. Some of the words she uses seem so grown up, like probably, usually and that's all I can think of right now but trust me she has some big words. I guess she doesn't learn them from me :)
2. Maddi had her first school dance last Friday. She was so excited and she had a great time. She didn't dance with any boys. Whew! I was worried her daddy might ground her for life if she did. Lol! However, there is a boy that she likes and that likes her and in class the other day he took her paper from her. Her teacher said "Jacob, are you flirting with Maddi?" I wish I remembered exactly how Maddi told the story, but it's just so weird that Maddi is this grown up to be having these conversations.
3. All 3 kids are doing great with school! Cade has a 100 in his 6th grade honors math, even though he is in 5th grade. Maddi has all A's and B's and has been doing so good. Emalyn has learned how to cut (I never realized she had never used scissors before) and has learned to wipe her bottom herself after peeing and really seems to love school. She gets excited when she finds out it's a school day.
4. It got really cold here Friday and I even had to turn the heater on! I was not ok mentally with the fact that the heat was going on on September 21st. We froze our tails off at Cade's baseball game Saturday morning, but Sunday afternoon it was not as windy and although a little chilly, it was a beautiful day. Emalyn and Emily enjoyed some time outside playing hop scotch. It is so nice for Emma to have Emily who is 18 month older to play with. Emma learns a lot from her and even tries things she would never do on her own. In fact, last week, Emily had Emma climbing on the coffee table and jumping onto the couch in the formal living room. Weird as it sounds, I was thrilled to see Emma doing something like that! She reminds me of Maddi in the way of being much more cautious than curious.

5. I took Maddi and Cade to the gym today to train for the triathalon. I was a few hours too late signing them up for the triathalon. Ugh! I waited until I took Maddi to gymnastics Friday night only to find out the deadline was at 4:30 that day. They are both the first ones on the waiting list for their age group. They both are really excited about it and my fingers are crossed that they call this week to say they are in. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with Maddi's swimming. They have to swim 100 yards and I wasn't sure how she would do. She feels most confident at the back stroke, so she swam her 100 that way. Brett thinks she'll look weird doing back stroke while everyone else is doing free, but hey, whatever works! After swimming, they ran on the track. Later this evening, they rode bikes, jumped on the trampoline and finished the night off with roller blades!

6. This is a big week for Brett. He is taking tests for his current job to see his potential down the road. He is also testing for a new opportunity. Fingers crossed that good news will come from this. Cade offered to take the tests for Brett if he doesn't feel like he will do well on them. Ha! Cade is a smart boy, but I'm not sure he's ready for this level of testing!

Round 2

Round 1 with a guinea pig ended abruptly with a lot of heart ache. We started Round 2 with a new guinea pig on Tuesday. Meet Cinnamon AKA Cinna-pig and Spider-Pig. There was only 2 guinea's at the pet store to choose from. One was white with red eyes and was creepy looking. Cinnamon is cute, but has a really long body, like a weiner dog. Freaks me out a little, to be honest. Anyway, so far so good. Let's hope Cinnamon is healthy and sticks around a little longer!

Cinnamon has learned to crawl between the boxes of toys we had set around the blanket to let her run around on. After she escaped and hid under the dresser a few times, Brett decided something needed to be done. He took Maddi and Cade with him to Home Depot and they built a little area for Cinnamon to run around in.

So far it works much better than the boxes of toys but Cinnamon is learning how to climb over the wooden walls. Ugh! Life with a rodent in the house :)

Baby Ballerina

I posted these same pictures on facebook and a friend made this comment, "This little girl was born to wear leotards and tutus". It's so true! Emalyn has been wearing leotards and tutus and ballet shoes for about a year. It all started when she took her first gymnastics class. She loves gymnastics too, but the times it was offered for her age group were during the time she is at preschool. That's ok though because Emalyn is finally old enough for ballet class! She could have done a mommy and me class before, but she does much better when Mommy isn't around. She clings to me when I'm in the room but is a perfect little angel when I'm not there. I was able to sign her up for pre-ballet for 3 year olds since she will turn 3 during the fall session. I think you can see her excitment in her face!

Emalyn loves to know the schedule for each day and when I told her she was going to ballet class, she over the moon excited. She wanted to get dressed right after Maddi and Cade left for school, at around 8:00. Ballet wasn't until 10:55! Since she was dressed early, we got some pictures of the Baby Ballerina.

Emalyn picked out her whole outfit and told me she had to have her hair back like sissy when she does ballet. I know Emalyn has been watching her sisters every move and has been longing for the day she could be a big girl like Maddi and go to ballet class.

I snapped a few pictures at the start and end of class on my phone. Not great, but a little memory of her first ballet class. The teacher said there will be parent observation days when we can go in and watch, so I look forward to getting some pictures on those days.

Emma had a big smile each time I saw her in class. All of the girls seemed to really be having a great time.

This part of class, they got to dance around with a wand and when the music stopped, they had to stop on a dot. Emma was walking around with robot legs walking from spot to spot. Hilarious! I'm not sure that she's going to be a great dancer or not, but I do know she is adorable in her ballet clothes and it brings joy to my heart to see her having so much fun!

Hi, Low, and Old

This is a phone dump of the pictures on my phone the last week. Cade's pedal broke off his bike. I bought new pedals but the screw is stripped or something and Brett can't put the new pedals on. So, Cade has taken over Brett's bike. I usually ride Brett's bike, because Brett never really has a chance to ride it anyway. Brett and I were laughing at the thought of Cade's bike on the bike rack at the elementary school. We figured he was the only kid there with a bike that big/tall. I walked up before school got out and took a picture of it. Cade's is the yellow one. There actually was a few other taller bikes, but still, next to the little kinder and first grader bikes, Cade's looks manly. lol

Miss Emalyn still loves her swing. She is so into her baby dolls and often takes them with her to do whatever she's doing.

Brett was in College Station this past weekend for a guys weekend celebrating his 40th Birthday! He asked me to send a picture of the kids with Cocoa to show Mrs. Thelen because they have a shih tzu that looks like Cocoa.

Miss Maddi girl with her puppy dog.

Brett flew home today and we had his birthday gifts and a cookie cake waiting for him. I'm not sure why the top of the picture is so foggy, but it's the only one I have my 40 year old Brettley! The fact that he's 40 now, really puts it in perspective for me just how young my daddy was when he passed away. To think that Brett would only have 9 more years with us, makes it hit really close to home. I pray that we have many, many more years together. Happy 40th Old Man, I mean Brett!

Today was a day of many highs and lows. Brett had an interview for a job in Texas today and it went really well. He got an email from the recruiter as he was flying home that he will move on to the next and final phase of the interview process. We were all very happy to hear that news.
The low part was Reecey, the guinea pig, died today. Maddi was playing with Jane and Emma in the basement. They were playing house and Emma asked to go to the store to buy a guinea pig. Maddi went over to get Reecey and found her nearly dead. Maddi was soooo upset! She screamed and I ran down there. I felt so bad for little Reecey. She was on her last leg. She had diareaha last week but then was fine. This morning she had diareaha again, but I thought maybe she was getting it every time we gave her people food. They say to give them food with vitamin c, so we have given her oranges, carrots and celery a few times. I was shocked that she went down hill so fast.
I took her to Petsmart and they gave us our money back and said they would have the vet look at her. If she could be saved, we could buy her back when she was better. They called a little later and said the vet had to euthanize her. I had a feeling that would be the case. They said it wasn't anything we did. She was such a young little guinea pig, and they said the whole batch of little ones they just had have come back ill. Needless to say, there were many tears from Maddi and Cade. Poor Cade man just lost his fish a few weeks ago and now his guinea pig. Maddi has never lost a pet before, and she didn't take it so well.
They say they want to buy another one tomorrow, so we'll see how this next adventure goes!
.JPG" />

Emalyn's First Day at Preschool

Today was a very exciting day in our house. Emalyn started preschool!!! She was very excited about it and did great. Maddi and Cade were so excited for her. Cade even told me "I'm so excited for Emma to go to preschool today. I can't wait until I get home and hear if she liked it." How sweet is that? Maddi was worried she might cry. I told her if she did, I had a lot of experience with a little girl crying when her mommy left :)

Maddi helped pick out her outfit. We decided it would be good to wear something with her name so they would know who she was. Emalyn picked out her shoes...flip flops. Better than her high heels, I guess.

Miss Em is not the most photogenic thing. She doesn't usually look at the camera or smile and when she does smile, it's pretty crazy. Oh well, we love that silly girl.

We got to school early because Emma had been asking for a while if it was time to go bye bye to school. We had to wait to go inside and then we saw Alaina and her mommy, Lynn. Alaina was adopted from China almost a year ago. She is adorable! Emma was so great at home, but at school didn't want any pictures. Apparently Alaina wasn't so great at home, but was all about the pictures at school. Cuties!

Here she is in her classroom. She did awesome! No tears, for her or from me. I'm getting to be so big in my old age. When I went to pick her up, she had her change of clothes on. They said she pooped her pants, which has never happened. Emma told me she forget to take her panties off to go potty. I've been working with her to get her to use the bathroom alone, but I guess we still need some more work :) She said she really liked school and asked when she can go back. She will go M, W, and F from 9:15-11:45. I spent my time at my yearly doctor visit and then ran to the store real quick. I think the 2 1/2 hours will go quick, but it will be good to get things done quickly without Emma having to be drug around.

We met Alaina and Lynn for lunch at Chick Fil A after school. Now she's napping, and hopefully it's a long one because school wore her out :)

A New Pet and a New Room

As mentioned previously, I have had some weak moments lately, and agreed to let the kids buy a hamster. After hearing horror stories of hamsters, we decided a guinea pig might be better and more pet like. So, Tuesday night we went to Petsmart and got the 401 on rodents. This is the little guinea pig that the kids decided to get.

Thankfully, the girl at the pet store told us it's better to buy the cage, get it set up, etc. before bringing the pet home. That bought us a few more days before sharing our house with a rodent.

Everyone had their part in getting the cage ready. Maddi and Cade have bought the cage, supplies, and guinea pig. They are signing a contract stating that they will change out the bedding every week without argueing whose turn it is, or guinea will be put up for adoption!

Thursday was the big day. The kids have named her Reecey. You can barely tell, but Cade is holding her here.

Emma petting the rodent. It is a little less creepy since it doesn't have a long tail like a hamster, rat, mouse, etc.

Reecey lives in the basement. I had no idea a guinea pig was so much work. They have to eat fruits and vegetables along with their pellet food and they also have to eat Timothy hay and have something to chew on to keep their teeth from growing too long. Not to mention their cage has to be cleaned weekly. Have fun kids!

Em's first time to hold little Reecey.

Maddi's turn. Reecey tried to climb in her hair! Yuck!

Maddi's friend, Maddie came over to see Reecey too. She had a guinea pig last year for about 3 months before it died. Guinea's acutally live 5-8 years. Is that bad that I hope ours doens't live that long?!?

Before agreeing to the rodent, I had offered to redo Maddi's room. Maddi found the bedding she wanted it, so went ahead and painted and redid her room.

I think it turned out super cute. She says she doesn't like it, she LOVES it! She was very thankful for all of our work with her room. It's an early birthday present for her.

Maddi calls this her teenage room. It does look more grown up, but do I really have to admit she's almost a teen?