Karie, Karie quite contrarey

Earlier this year the kids and I did a "kitchen" experiment. We placed a sweet potato in a large canning jar filled with water. Soon it sprouted, and after time began to grow leaves. Well it was all very fun and exciting, and Raymond kept asking us "what are you going to do with that?"! It soon became too big for the jar. I couldn't bare to throw it out, so I took a chance and planted the potato half way in the soil, so the exposed leaves were on top and the roots in the dirt. It went through a week or so of some major shock, but the potato pulled through!!!!!!! We now have our very own potato ivy growing in the back yard.

This is our first attempt at a raised garden bed in the back yard. You can see that the plants have grown out of control. We planted tomatoes, zuccini, peppers, cantalope, watermelon, carrots, and CUCUMBERS!!!!! The only thing we seem to be producing fruit with is the CUCUMBERS! We have soooooo many of them! The only thing is they are the craziest lookin cucumbers we have ever seen!!! They are white, and grow more like a squash! Oh well, the kids still love them and can't wait to harvest a new batch each morning!

The Fabulous 5.......age 1!!!

Carson was the begining of the "Fabulous 5", then came Jayson, then Brick, then Rusty, then Davis! All 5 boys born from August to March, all 5 boys will be the same age in school! We are going to attempt to take their pictures every year over the next 8 years to document their growth! We decided to put them in white shirts, (or rather oneseis this year) and ties, so we can watch them grow into them!

It was a crazy, insane morning! Babies crawling, walking, rolling, crying, laughing, falling! All in all not too bad for a bunch of stressed out busy mothers with no professional photo experience! I will repost the edited versions later, but for now here are the cutie patooties in the raw!

This is when we first started out

and all the boys are HAPPY!

These were all pictures of the boys "Crying"! These make me laugh!

Here are individual shoots of all the boys:

Rusty

Jayson

Brick



Davis



Carson

MYS update

Madison made MYS again this year!!! We are soooo proud of you! Madi gets to play in division 3 with Aimee Wallace, one of her best friends, so it is going to be a fun year! Way to go Madi!

MYS auditions

Madison off to her audition!

"The Boy Pagnini" her audition piece. She worked all summer on it, and now she finally no longer has to look at it ever again!

Don't "Tie" me down!

Westin was so excited for his very first Sunday wearing a tie! He couldn't wait to "look like Daddy"! Unfortunetally it was short lived........when we got to chuch the kid sitting in front of us said "your tie looks like a baby tie"! That was it, the tie came off never to be seen again! We will have to wait and see what happens next Sunday when he gets to wear the tie I purchased that hangs a little longer!

A few of my favorite things!

During a mundane day of housework, grocery shopping, taking care of a baby, cooking, errand running, getting kids to and from school, homework, and all other extra curricular activities otherwise not noted,.....Here are a few of my most favorite accomplishments(my happy, feel good moments!)

Clothes in my closet: washed and organized

Refrigerator: clean and freshly stocked with yummy fruits and vegetables from Costco!

All the bottles in the house: clean and ready to go for a "quick" hastle free feeding

New school year resolutions

It has been one week sice school started..........I am quickly finding that I have more QUIET time than I ever imagined! After a summer of chaos the quiet is not only wecome but also a little confusing! I am working on Rusty's stocking, but that will be done and then what? I am going to be looking high and low, something will turn up! Maybe it will just be a nap!
I have also enjoyed starting getting up again for scripture reading and prayer. It always makes my day so much more complete when I start it with us all together.
Trying to keep my body in shape and healthy has been another of my challenges this year. Knowing that I am no longer going to be reproducing has given me added focus on taking control over my body! I am loving the fact that whatever I do now will stick with me forever! So the goal for the year is....Mon., Wed. run 5:15 AM, Thurs. night Ballet, Sat. 6:30 run. Raymond has been joining me in the process which I really enjoy..... that is the running, not the ballet of course (although the thought of him in a tutu is even more humorous than me in a tutu!) We are shooting for a 10K in Nov., so I will have to keep posted on how that is going!
All in all I think this new school year is going to be a good one! I never know what type of curve balls life is going to throw at me, and it always does, but I am going to try to be in the right place in my life spiritually, physically, and emotionally so that I will be ready to throw one right back at ya! Thank goodness for prayer!