Look at what we can do!

It's amazing to see what kids will do when you step away for a minute or two. The boys LOVE to stand in their highchairs. Don't ask me why I didn't belt them in- I just didn't- but this is what the boys were doing when I came back from loading the washing machine downstairs. Are they too cute to discipline?

Christian smiling so sweetly-
Caleb doesn't know what to think-

Madison being her cute and sweet self. She was dying for me to come up and see what she did. She was so proud of herself for accomplishing the whole alphabet AND the numbers too! My little girl is growing up! Madison is LOVING kindergarten and is learning SO much. Tonight when I was putting her to bed, she asked me how my day of teaching was. I told her about how my students and I started a new story and how we discussed it during class. She then asked me if we made any connections today while we read- I told her that we actually did and that I can't believe how smart she was becoming. What a fun little gift to get tonight -not from a daughter to a mother- but from a student to a reading teacher. For those of you that don't know- making connections is a reading strategy that we teach to help students understand and relate to what they are reading- very encouraging!

Archie got the flu last night and has been in bed all day. He had a fever of 101.5 degrees and it finally broke tonight. Hopefully he will be feeling better tomorrow. It's almost the weekend! Yes! We will be helping my mom get some things organized in her house on Saturday, but after that- we have no plans all weekend! Yes! I love these kinds of weekends!

Last night, before Archie got sick, we went to Awana for a Parent's Night with Madison. Here is a picture thatAwana took of Archie and Madison. For those of you that are thinking "what is awana?"- Awana is a VERY fun place where Madison learns about God, plays games, and sings songs on a weekly basis- kind of like Vacation Bible School. When I say it's VERY fun- it's only because the first 2 times that she went to Awana- she told me that she wanted to go over a HUNDRED more times! That means that she had a VERY fun time. She was SO excited that we were BOTH able to come and be a part of her evening. It was good to spend some time away from the boys just focusing our attention on her. It was so rewarding as a parent to hear Madison recite 2 verses to her group leader. If anybody looked at us they would seen a nutty group of 3 with beaming smiles - it was fun to be together! Thanks Aunt Julie for making this possible- she watched the boys!

Hello- we are still here!

These pictures are not in order from when the events occurred.

We went to a pumpkin patch and had a ton of fun seeing the animals, riding tractors and hayrides, and jumping in the bouncy things. There were even pony rides. The boys loved their first pony ride. We waited in line 3 times to ride the ponies since it was part of the whole price for the pumpkin patch. I got stung by a bee during our first wait, but I decided that it was important to ride the ponies so I sucked it up. Christian and Caleb loved it so much that they cried when they had to get off. Madison was a good sport the whole time.The boys loved trying to feed the goats hay- they were adorable to watch!

We tried to take pictures of the kids by some pumpkins but it's so hard to get them to stay still!

The kids were exhausted after going to Madison's soccer game at 8:00 a.m. and then the pumpkin patch from 9- 12. What a busy day we had! We had so much fun!

Dad and Marsha came over to spend some time with us. Dad put the swing up in the tree that we desperately wanted hung and Madison attempted to climb the tree. There are no pictures of Dad and Marsha from their visit, but we all had a lot of fun playing outside and eating Brown's Chicken! Yummy!

During dinner, Aunt Lori and Aunt Julie encouraged Christian to play with his food. Creative?

My mom volunteers her time to give tours of a historical building, so my sisters and I went to visit her and hear her tour. She did a remarkable job! Way to go Mom!

Before Halloween, the kids liked playing in their costumes and we attended some Halloween events in them too. Here is a pic of Christian as a pumpkin- his costume last year. My, has he grown!

Madison was a cowgirl- again! Her school had a Halloween parade where they walked around the school and took part in many camera moments. She said that the parade was a lot of fun, but that the class party was the best! I was very surprised to hear that Madison's school district participated in Halloween activities- we were fine with it- just surprised. Before we had children, Archie and I discussed whether or not we would allow our children to participate in Halloween events since I did as a kid and Archie did not. That may sound funny to some of you, but we wanted to make sure that we were on the same page with one another and we also wanted to discuss why some Christians choose not to celebrate Halloween-and others do. Discussion for another time . . .

Caleb was a frog and Christian was a monkey. We had a blast trick or treating and eating candy!

On the Saturday after Halloween, Madison wanted to take a walk so she got her brothers ready and helped them into the wagon. She even helped them put their jackets on and gave them a blanket. She is so independent and so helpful!

Here is a picture of Madison and my mom on my Mom's b-day at Papa's Pizza- my Mom's favorite type of pizza. We had a lot of fun spending time with Grammy on her birthday!

Grandma and Grandpa Coleman came to watch Madison in one of her soccer games so they also got to see the boys and play with them. They chased them all over the place!

ORCHARD-

We had a wonderful time going to the same apple orchard that we went to last year- and Daddy was able to come with us this time! From picking pumpkins, to picking apples, to riding on a hayride- we all had a wonderful time being together.

Here is a picture of the kids last year- I can't believe how much all 3 of them have grown! Crazy!