My hilarious kids...

After a long, exhausting day- out of pure delirium, my kids got silly. REALLY silly.
First, Lulu asked me to come outside and take a picture of her doing this...



I have NO idea why. Then Bree said- "mama, pitcher me! paying soccer!" But Layla told her to guard the goal so she went and sat in it.

Then Cale went and sat in it.

So Layla went and sat in it.

For some reason, they found that hysterical.



It just went from bad to worse...




Crazy little boogers. Cute as all get out... but crazy nonetheless :P

Uncle Ben and GG's "hosses"

What a great Sunday afternoon!!!!
Uncle Ben got a new horse, Dixie :)
In honor of her homecoming, we all went out to see her and GG let everyone have a ride on her "hoss" as Cale would say.

Sooooo glad Ginny remembered to bring her camera!!

Olivia and Ellie rode first and did VERY well.


Apparently, Layla wanted nothing to do with Festus until we got there. Which really surprised me. She's has only done pony rides so far, but has been begging to go horseback riding and spent lots of time with Peacekeeper when Nathan was on mounted patrol.

Isaac took a turn too and did a great job!


Somehow after we got there, LP found the courage to give it a try :)

She rode with GG first and then with Mommy. After that, none of them could get enough! Her, Ellie, and Isaac all took turns riding with either me or Ginny. It was soooo fun. I haven't ridden in sooo long and it felt SO good to be back in the saddle! Oh I love it.



Next, it was C Man's turn!! I missed it (had taken both girls to the potty) but apparently he loved it!! Even enjoyed a little trot!


What happened next nearly shocked us all.... Nonie got on the horse. For the first time since she was 16. She had not had a good experience and we can ALL tell the story, lol. But she did it and she did it well!!



And if that weren't enough... Meme (NATHAN'S grandmother!) climbed on next!



Finish a day like that off with dinner at Cracker Barrel with Ben and Ginny and it is a good day, folks. Good times, GOOD. TIMES.

We met Dora!!!

Just as we were loading up to leave Beech Bend Park, Uncle B called and wanted to know how quickly we could get home. Dora was at Chik-Fil-A and he was taking Evan and wanted us to go too. We were worn out, an hour from home, sticky, sweaty.... and we HAD to be there.

So we flew home, showered as fast as we could, threw the kids back in the car and drove 25 mins to get to Gallatin 10 mins before Dora was scheduled to leave.

Evan walked right and in and immediately demanded to know where Boots was, lol.



Layla was thrilled, maybe just slightly bashful, but started right in with the hugs when her turn came.


Brynn was very content to wave and say hello to Dora from between Nathan's legs. Cale preferred to stay behind the condiment stand with no one even glancing in his direction.

Beech Bend/Splash Lagoon- Part II

After tackling just about every ride we could and Layla taking a sheep to the gut at the petting zoo, we decided it was time to make our way over to the wet side of the park and cool off. The kiddie pool/slides/playground bonanza is dead center and we found a perfect spot right near the water. We never left.

The kids and I have spent tons of time at the pool, wave pool, etc doing all these fun things but Nathan hasn't been able to go with us so they were hanging allll over him and incessant with the "Daddy, watch me" tricks. =) I pretty much just followed with my camera, doing head counts every so often, and giving him a break when he needed it!





We stopped to cover ourselves in dippin' dots and then again in shaved ice. We're food-people.










After letting our snacks settle, we decided to give the BIG water slides a go. Nathan and Layla tried them out first and had a BLAST. Once again, the twins were tall enough to ride (by themselves- crazy!), we took each of them down with us. These slides were MUCH bigger than the ones at the wave pool and they were completely enclosed so it's pitch dark on the inside! We weren't sure how they were going to handle that... Actually, we weren't sure how L would handle that first time down either, but she loved it! Apparently, the "babies" did too bc they wanted to do it over and over!

We had an abolutely fantastic day at the park. But the day wasn't over yet... (we just didn't know it). See next blog :)

Beech Bend/Splash Lagoon- Part I

On Nathan's day off (after returning from TX), we drove up to Beech Bend Park and Splash Lagoon. Layla really wants to go to Holiday World, but Nathan had been sick, and we just really didn't have the time/money to pull it off. Plus, Nonie gave us some buy one pass/get one free coupons! And the twins get in free, so you can't beat that! Layla just wanted to ride some darn roller coasters so bad she couldn't stand it, so she really wasn't that hard to please... and man! was she pleased! It was SO fun just to watch her squeal and scream with THE biggest grin you've ever seen!


Brynn and Cale are so tall that they actually met the requirements to ride some of the rides on their own (although we would never do that!), but they were definitely tall enough to ride EVERY ride with an adult! The log ride was the first one we put them on, they loved it!!

Layla, Cale, and Mommy first...


Then Layla, Brynn, and Daddy (I promise Brynn is down in there somewhere!).


The next ride wasn't quite as successful, lol. We strapped Brynnie into her own seat... poor thing didn't have a clue what was coming!! Look at her little face!



After that, Cale wanted to ride this cute little kiddie train. Doesn't it look like it's going to be fun?



Sttttrrriikkkee TWO! The little thing just went around in a circle but when it made the turns it whipped them around like it was the dang Indy 500! I thought their little necks were going to snap off! (However, it was really hard to tell since I was laughing hysterically 'cause NONE of us saw that coming!!)




They took a nice slow car ride with Daddy after that, before heading to the petting zoo.
Layla needed one more super-duper roller coaster before heading to Splash Lagoon, and it was DEFINITELY her favorite!!



I LOVE LOVE LOVED watching Layla enjoy all these rides! I could have watched her all day (except that I'm not much of a sit back and watch kind of Momma! I hated waiting my turn to ride lol). No, seriously, watching her have so much fun really was just as much fun as enjoying it yourself. :)

After this one, we went to the other side of the park to Splash Lagoon.... (see next post)!!

Catching up!

As most of you probably didn't notice (but Paige did, so hey... this is for you ;)...

I/We have been MIA from blogging for a while now for no other reason that the sheer insanity that is our life right now. But I have a little bit of time right now to catch up so I'm going to overload you with blogs and expect you to go back and read every single one of them in all your spare time.

Things should be winding down soon. Cala's wedding is Saturday (where did the last year go?!!?), Nathan is leaving Tuesday (boooo), Layla starts school on the 10th!, and we should get back into regular chaos instead of almost uncontrollable chaos within the next couple of weeks.

Read the upcoming blogs to see what kind of trouble (mostly the fun kind) we've been into lately :)

Mike's 50th Surprise Party!

I *think* we pulled it off... or he played along really well at the very least! Things got a little hairy there in the last few mins. It's hard to say really.

He knew there was some kind of birthday surprise on behalf of mom, my brothers, and I and he swore if it was a party, he was walking out! But he didn't, so I guess we were able to make him just happy enough. We had a great mix of old friends and new (most of whom knew each other anyway), just the right food, and some awesome cheesecakes a la' me. =)

Everyone had a fabulous time, I'm pretty sure (I missed a large chunk of the festivities thanks to a migraine), but when I woke up everyone that was left was in the hot tub- fully clothed- and laughing hysterically.... (sober, mind you ;) Well, most of them! lol).


Surprising the birthday boy...






Party pics







Serving my awesome desserts...yesss.


Just the five of us:
Me, Mom, Casey, Dad, & Brandon