A little of this, a little of that

Here's just random pictures. No special event. Just lovin' the thunderstorm we had last night. The weather is cold, I've got a sweater on. I thought I'd curl up and post something.

I LOVE this cute face Jacksen has. I love to see him giggle. He tries to keep it in, but sometimes he just lets it loose!

If you click on the picture, you can see the color of Jacksen's eyes. I've finally decided that they are the color of an olive. Dark grey on the outside, browner on the middle. Definitely different.

This guy is always full of expression. I've been struggling with Colton, so I'm trying to focus on the positive and give him lots of love and praise. Seriously, I think this kid is bi-polar.

Mr. Jacksen is scootin' around, not quite crawling, but he can get around. I bought these little leggings that I totally love, to protect his little knees from getting rug burns. Carl makes fun of me, "How did our other boys ever survive?" Whatever. They're so cute on his little chubilious thighs.

It's not fall until you've had a good caramel apple. Feeling inspired by my favorite place, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, I made some yummy apples. I MADE my caramel(like boiled my cream, sugar, and butter. ya, it was sooooo good!), then rolled them in different candies. YUMMMMM.....

Random me, I bought this little knitted flower headband at a boutique. LOVE it! Happy fall to you all!!

Goooooooal!!

My sweet soccer player! We signed Ethan up for soccer this fall. This is his first time, and he's quite a natural. He's not afraid to go after the ball. He's just like his mama. Yes, I played soccer in high school- and was pretty good if I don't say so myself. I love the set up that there's no goalie, they split the teams in half and play 5x5, so the kids get a lot of playing time. Ethan has made a few goals already. I just love to see him excited to play! Go Black Knights!





My little soccer playa!

Avast ye mateys!

On Thursday of our Maryland trip, we went on a grand pirate adventure!! (Thank you Mom-mom!) The boys picked out some costumes, and got all painted up, took some lessons on how to be a pirate and off we went onto a little pirate ship into the Annapolis harbor looking for treasure.

Here we have Lookout Logan, Eastwinds Ethan, and Crabclaws Colton. You'll never find a fiercer group of pirates!



Getting into character. Our guide Rusty, was totally awesome, he really made the trip for the boys!

Jolly Jacksen wasn't so jolly when they blew the big horn. He pretty much cried the whole trip.



Every pirate ships needs to hoist the jolly roger (skull and crossbones). Ethan got to do the honors. There's a shot you can see where he almost gave up, but he stuck with it. Good job matey!

Searching the map for clues.


There was a pirate that stole our keys for the treasure box. We had to use our water cannons to knock him (her) out of the boat to get our keys.





Ethan literally jumping for joy when we found the treasure box!!


Hoisting the treasure out of the water.


Treasure!!!
Hoarding, in true pirate form.

Colton, counting his loot.

Annapolis harbor

Harassing the locals

The pirate flag.

The pirate crew. The boys loved this so much, they still talk about it all the time.

Pop Pop on TV!

So this is Carl writing the post today. Now normally I don't intervene on the family blog here, so please accept my apology in advance if my post isn't as witty or as cute as the ones Kristi writes. None the less... So my dad is a HUGE tennis fan. And he just came back last week from the first 2 days of the US Open. Now if your not a tennis fan, the US Open is one of the 4 majors, or in other words, one of the 4 Super Bowls of tennis championships. So its a big deal! Any way my dad was interviewed for his reaction to the first nights ceremonies. Any way here is the link below. If you care to see Pop Pop, once you click on the link, at the bottom you options as to what video you want to watch, click on the tab that says "Around the Grounds", (its near the bottom of the screen), then click on September 1 for the date, then click on the video that says "Night 1 Reactions", my dad is the 4th one being interviewed. It's a small clip, but hey cool none the less!!

Click here for Dad's US Open Interview

Tossing your Cookies

Upchuck, barf, loosing your lunch, throwing up, whatever- I hate it!! As a mother, I deal with a lot of bodily fluids. Blood, not a problem. Poop-I can handle, but when it comes to my kids throwing up, it seriously makes me ill. WARNING! If you can not handle the fore-mentioned item, do not continue reading! Now to the story. Last night Colton said his tummy hurt. I gave him a pepto and sent him off to bed. Around 11:30, I'm still up and watching TV downstairs. I have the baby monitor on and hear Colton coughing. Later I hear him in the bathroom. He's still struggling with staying dry all night and is still in a diaper. I go to see if he needs any help. When I turn on the light, I am completely shocked to see him covered in throw up. He has it right under his eyes, in his ears, hair, and down his neck. Then the smell hits me, I seriously almost threw up too. I get a rag to wipe it out of his eyes and get him undressed to take a bath. Thinking that what was on him was the most of it, I think it won't be to hard to clean up his room. Wrong! His bed is covered. There was even a bunch on the floor. Luckily, it landed on a blanket. Bedding is easier to clean then the carpet. I sprayed the bathroom and his room with Fabreeze, trying to sweeten the air. After I spend 30 minutes cleaning Colton's remnents of dinner, I was beat. I hate throw up!! (fyi, he's feeling fine today.)

Maryland

This is way overdue, we went to Maryland in mid-July. We left on a Monday night and stayed until Saturday. The trip home is a post by it's self, which I'll get to later. Tuesday we went swimming at a neighbor's pool and took naps- well I took a nap! The second day we were there we went to the National Zoo. I forgot my camera ( which is almost as bad as forgetting a child- just kidding, but I was very distraught!), so I bought a little one time camera (hence the crummy quality of the photos). It took me forever to remember to print these, then scan them, and finally post them.

We took the metro in and met Mom-mom's friend and her family. We didn't get to see everything, but the boys had fun.

A panda sleeping.


Logan getting cooled off by the mister things. If you click on the pic, you can see the water in his hair.There's a baby gorilla hanging on the wall in the back. -look hard-blasted camera!

Boys goofing off.
We a super fun time at the zoo, even though it was hot and humid. Stay tuned for our pirate adventure!