Lake Michigan

Sunday night we took the kids to see Lake Michigan. We had shown them the water as we flew over, so the boys were pretty excited to go and see what we were talking about. We ended up having a great time. We played a little in the water, checked out the big boats, walked around the path and played at the playground. This was a great way for the boys to expand some energy!


Tanyon checking out the view when we first arrived.

The boys with Aunt Heide and Uncle Jim!

Oma and Addie trying to climb down the rocks to get to the beach.

Addie did not like the sand in her shoes!

Although Addie was a little uncertain of the sand and water, she followed her brother as usual.

Addie became braver with the water than.

Then there's Tanyon. What can I say- this boy makes me smile!

The boys down by the pier. They were very impressed with the big boats!

To bad Bryson has his tongue sticking out in this picture. Tanyon's smile is priceless in this pic.

The boys thought this bench was great for playing tag!

The flowers were so pretty I thought it would be a nice picture for Addie. She's actually saying cheese in the picture, but she leaned down while saying it. Silly girl!

The kids thought this cannon was quite impressive. Bryson kept yelling "Fire in the hole!"

Addie trying to make a friend. Addie was quite impressed by her shoes. Each time the girl would stop walking, Addie would try to grab at her shoes. My girl LOVES shoes.

Lake Michigan was our first adventure, more pictures of our other adventures to come as I find the time. :)

1st Day Back

Our first day back trying to get into our routine can be summarized by one word- BAD! The day just seemed to get more trying as the day went on. We've got tired kids, a tired mom, a ton of stuff that needs to be put back, a lot of laundry, and some cleanup from a bathroom project that went bad on Adam this weekend. We had our worst trip to the store in quite a long time. It was so bad that I almost had to take the kids to the car to discipline them. As afternoon arrived so did a mega headache for me. (I've taken Tylenol and Alieve and neither have helped at all!) Bryson is developing a terrible habit of crying every time something doesn't go his way, Tanyon just seemed to be looking for a fight from me all day long and Addie just seemed to be looking to make a mess. I can't wait to climb into bed and hope for a better day tomorrow.

Exhausted, but we're home!

We made it home late last night. Well, I guess technically we made it home this morning- 12:30am. This was much later than we were anticipating. Midway was much easier leaving from than Baltimore. We had an attendant push Craig's wheelchair, which made things much easier! We got to our gate and I was so impressed how smoothly we had made it to only find out that our flight was delayed. :( It was pushed back 55 minutes, which isn't bad, but long enough when you dealing with 3 kids. I believe that we made at least 20 Laps on the skywalk while waiting. The kids thought it was great, Mommy's head didn't like it quite as much as the kids. I thought about taking a picture but was much to tired to try and locate my camera. When we arrived in Baltimore, Adam was late picking us up due to the bad weather and having to drive slower. We waited for about 45 minutes and during that time I would have thought that someone had injected the kids with crack. They (all 3) were running around like maniacs. I was very glad when we had everyone in the car!

Overall we had a super trip! It was so nice to spend time with our family that we never get to see very often. We did so many fun things with the kids. I will post pictures later, there are tons of them!

We Arrived!

It was a long day, but we arrived in Chicago. It was awfully difficult to manage 3 kids, my brother in a wheelchair, 5 suitcases and several carry-on bags. Getting through security is quite the workout since you have to unload everything, take off everyone shoes and coats and collapse the stroller. But I don't mind if it means we are safer, just difficult! The kids were pretty good. We were to have a nonstop flight, but our flight was changed with a stop in Pittsburgh. This is were Addie had some difficulty. It took about an hour until the unloaded the plane, cleaned and reloaded the plane. Addie thought she should be getting off the plane and became quite fussy because I wasn't going along with what she wanted. When we got off the plane in Chicago we found out that our stroller didn't make it with us on the trip. This complicated things quite a bit! At this point, I was quite exhausted and I'm sure that I probably wasn't as nice to the airline person as I should have been. Her solution was to put Addie in a wheelchair. Well she wouldn't sit so Mommy got creative and strapped her car seat into the wheelchair. All and all, I was very proud of how the kids handled the day. They each had some moments, but it wasn't as bad as I was anticipating. Good news, we received our stroller already. Bad news, my good sunglasses were not in the compartment I stuck them in on the stroller. Life goes on I guess.


This is a picture of the boys and Craig waiting as we tried to unload the car at the airport.


Tanyon loved watching the airplanes take off. Our gate was at the far end of the terminal, surprise surprise, but it was a great spot to watch the planes take off!

When we left Addie out of the stroller, she just ran and climbed on everything. She kept trying to climb over this bar.


At Baltimore we turned a lot of heads with 2 adults with 3 kids and my brother in a wheelchair. In Chicago we then had 2 wheelchairs with Addie sitting in her seat. At this point, EVERYONE stared! Addie thought she was super hot stuff riding this way. I just wanted to be done!!


We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's that was located on a bridge that overlooked the highway. The boys thought this was so neat!

Chicago Bound

The kids and I are heading along with my Mom and brother at the crack of dawn (6:30) to BWI. We are going to spend the week with my grandparents and Aunt. My plan of getting to bed early definitely hasn't held up. The kids did go down early tonight though. If you think of us in the morning please be praying for safey traveling. I have 2 major concerns. 1) That Bryson and Tanyon would be able to stay relatively calm and be able to walk with us without trying to run ahead. 2)That there might be an open seat for Addie and she won't have to sit on my lap. Her sitting still for 2 hours really concerns me. My mom and I will be relieved tomorrow when we reach my aunt's house I believe. Thanks for thinking about us. Our flight leaves at 10:15.

Cousin Morgan

We were able to spend Monday evening with Aunt Shannon, Aunt Michelle and Cousin Morgan. The kids were excited to see their Aunts but especially excited to see Baby Morgan! Aunt Shannon made a very yummy supper for us and we had lots of fun playing games and spending time with our family! Thanks Aunt Michelle for your great idea of coming to visit.


Addie was really into baby Morgan. She kept waving at her and saying her version of hi.

We had to keep a close eye on Addie that she didn't catapult Morgan from the bouncy seat or try to poke her eye.




The boys were so excited that they were allowed to hold Morgan. This is only the second time the boys have seen their sweet little cousin!


I love the boy's facial expression as they are holding their cousin!


Addie seemed so surprised when Aunt Michelle asked her if she wanted to hold Morgan. She climbed up on the chair so fast. I love the big hug that she is giving to Morgan.





I hope that our kids can have a special relationship with their cousin. Growing up I always wished that I had cousins that I was close to and someone to play with on holidays. I hope that could come true for our kids, especially for the girls since their close in age.

Dr's Visit

Have you ever wondered what it might look like to have 3 kids under the age of 4 and my brother all together in a small room at the Dr's office? You've got it- crazy!




It's actually getting easier, until the Dr. comes in and then everyone (I'm not exaggerating) thinks they should talk to him. I guess I should be thankful that the kids aren't afraid of the Dr. It takes all of my listening abilities to catch what he says. :)



Of course, part of the progress of things getting better is because Mommy always uses an incentive. Today it was McDonald's and the boys had a ton of fun playing together on the slide.

Bobcat Proud

Two weeks ago we watched a friend from church, Dave Carter, play football against Ohio State on ESPN. We really talked it up with the boys that this was Mrs. Carter's son and that he was from Waynesboro. Bryson got on the computer with me and we found out his number. Bryson then sat focused on the TV looking for #84! We fortunately have DVR so Adam and I were able to stop the game, rewind and pause to show the boys where he was at in the game. It was lots of fun to talk a little bit to the boys about the game of football and even that if they worked hard some day maybe they could even get to play on TV. Well Bryson has football fever now. He's trying to get Dad out in the yard with him to throw the football every chance he can. The boys are even diving on top of each other and wrestling for the ball. Well on Sunday the Carter's had a surprise for the boys. They got each of the boys Ohio Bobcat shirts. Bryson thinks he's Mr. Hot Stuff now! He put it on immediately after church yesterday and was brought to tears tonight when I insisted that he take it off before bed. I know, I know 24 hours in one shirt is gross, but it was brand new and he was so proud.

The boys proudly displaying their Ohio Bobcats shirt.

Wrestling for the loose football.

Bryson pretending to be Dave Carter. Those were his words before he started running. "Mom take a picture of me running like Dave Carter."

Tanyon was really more into baseball while I was trying to take these pictures. But that's Tanyon for ya. He seems to like to move to the beat of a different drum a lot of times.

And of course Miss Addie girl had to get a picture too! She was quite insulted that the boys wouldn't let her in their picture!

Our 1st "School Time" Craft

We're trying to keep things simple with school time so the craft was nothing fancy. Just stringing fruit loops for a necklace. The boys were very excited that they could eat them for a snack, but motivation quickly ran out. So we set the timer for 5 minutes and went with what they had. The boys still seem to be very excited about "school time". We were definitely more easily frustrated on Friday when everyone one was tired! Saturday right before naps Bryson looked at me with panic and said "Mom, we didn't do school time!". I quickly reassured him that it was Saturday and it was okay, but deep down inside I hoped that he would keep this excitement for learning!

Some days the only way I can get the boys to take pictures is to promise I'll take a silly picture. You can see the difference in the boys attention and motor skills by their length in chains.

Our Pet Spider

We have a very large spider that has decided to make it's home on our garage wall. The spider is so large that when the kids spotted it, they weren't sure if it was a spider or not. Daddy told us it was a corn spider and said we couldn't kill it. After a couple of days when Daddy wasn't so sure it was a corn spider and Mommy had a nightmare about him, Mommy decided to do a little research on it. It is called a black and yellow Argiope. I was relieved to know that it's not poisonous but it's egg sack has between 300 to 1400 eggs! Upon that information I told Adam to kill the nest right away, which he did reluctantly. However a couple days later, she produced another sac. This time we will wait until she dies and then kill her nest. According to the computer, the baby spiders won't come out until spring so we have plenty of time to kill them. As gross as the spider looks, it actually has been interesting to watch. Her web has an amazing zigzag through it and she has caught so many insects on her web. Oh the science lessons you receive when you live in the country.

You can see the zig zag pattern on the web.

The brown spot on the wall is the smooshed egg sack. If you look closely you can see how large her web is. There were rain drops on the web the morning I took these pictures.

Her second egg nest, on a different wall. She sat on top of the nest for several days guarding it. But she is now back to her web.

Behind on the Times

I have been trying to limit how much time I spend on the computer and as a result I'm not getting everything up on the blog. We went a while back to the county fair. You think county fair, it should be decent. Wrong, I think that I have been to carnivals bigger than it! I can't complain too much though because the rides were free the afternoon we went. We had a nice afternoon, after we got past the fussing. I think the kids were even expecting something bigger, which led to the disappointment and fussing while we waited for the rides to start.


The boys enjoyed looking at the cows. These were the only animals though.


Climbing on the tractors and 4-wheelers brought the boys as much if not more enjoyment than the rides.


Bryson was very proud to take care of his sister on the rides. He took the job very seriously.


The boys thought this car was the Mach 5 car from Speed Racer. I liked the look Addie has in this picture- it's kind of like look at me people. :)


Trouble 1 and Trouble 2- What one starts the other finishes!!

A Sweet Moment

Bryson called me back to his room this afternoon to hear a song. Well, he climbed up on his bed and started singing a long. As he was singing, I realized I've got to get this on video. He agreed to sing again (he's starting to like watching himself on the computer). Well, Addie decided to join in the second time also. She sort of provides the comic relief I guess. Enjoy!

Uncle Craig's Bday X3

Well Uncle Craig's much anticipated bday has come and gone. But unfortunately I'm afraid we will still be talking about his bday until we go to my grandparents house in 2 weeks, because he knows that they are having a party for him out there. Craig's bday has to be one of the most celebrated bday's in America. This year he had 3 parties. Friday was for our family, Sunday ended up being a surprise party (which Craig asks for each year, but still knows about except this time they got him) with their church,and Monday night (which was his actual bday) was an assortment of people- his old aide from school, the waitress from the pizza shop he works at and our family doctor and his wife came too!

On Friday, Craig went into my mom's room after lunch and never came out until it was party time. He was waiting for everyone to come because we were to say "Welcome home!" as per his orders. This is Craig coming into the party.

Craig went around and greet everyone at the party upon his arrival.

Pat & Carla (Craig's bosses) gave him a whole pan of wings for his party on Friday night. Craig loves chicken wings.

Craig with his cake. Mom did a 50's theme since Craig loves his oldies music, especially the Beach Boys.

Blowing his cake out by himself.

Blowing his cake out with the boys. For the past 2 months Craig has told me multiple times a day that he would hold Addie while blowing out his candles. Can you believe he forgot to hold Addie?!

Party number 3. The ladies in the back row are his old aide from school and the waitress from Craig's work. Both ladies are super amazing with Craig!

Craig snagged Addie for the candle bit last night!