exploring

Last Sunday we went out to our land to explore. We have never really walked around the whole property (3 acres), so we thought it was time and not too hot or too cold. We all put on our jeans and boots and headed out there (although a few of us still got chiggars...)

The kids loved exploring around all the trees and flowers and weeds. 

I love this picture of Joe and Norah.

There is a nice slope so we can have a walk-out basement, but towards the back of the land it flattens out really well. It will be a perfect area for the kids to play and to build a fort. They were back here dreaming of where their fort was going to go. We may need Uncle Josh to come back for a while to help them build one!

It is so fun to dream, and the time is getting closer to when we'll start building!

around the house

I love how creative my kids are in their play. I love listening to them pretend and play when I'm in the other room. (especially when they're not fighting!!) 

They will often play "school." They may be at school all day long, but they still love to play it. And of course Norah loves to be included with the big kids. They had a behavior chart and everything!

Another recent thing they have done was to make this "road" for their cars. They had a whole city laid out on the paper and would drive their cars around to each store or restaurant and pretend. They played with this for 3 hours straight one day!

They make such big messes, but it's hard to get mad when they are playing together and using their imaginations!

I watched Meredith's littlest boys for a day a few weeks ago while she was out of town. These have become the little three amigos. Luckily, Norah and Matthew have started including Andrew in on their play which he loves. So cute!

You may be wondering how the new school is going for our oldest two. Joey is loving it. He is being challenged and seems to love being challenged. He has at least 3-4 quizzes/tests a week, which has taken some getting used to for me! 

Kylah has had a little harder time adjusting. Thankfully the last week has been so much better. There were a few days where there were tears in the morning before school and tears during school. But she always was happy after school and said she had a good day at school. She just kept saying "I just miss you so much, mommy, and the days seem so long." I think they seem longer there to her because she is doing a lot more actual work at school. But, she is a smart little thing and will do great. She loves her teacher, and her teacher has been helpful in working on the change with us.

Norah and I have had lunch with the kids a few times, which we all love!

baseball

Joey is on a new baseball team, and Joe is the coach. It is a travelling team (that doesn't really travel out of our area...) that Joe and some other coaches put together. There is a good group of boys and families, and we are excited about the team. They played in one fall tournament, and then they are done until the spring. 

Before their tournament, Joey's team scrimmaged Connor's team. Connor plays on a 9U travelling team that has been together a few years (they definitely beat our team, but they were great sports about it!)

These boys are so cute together!

Acting tough 

(I love this age where they are in between being big boys but still little boys.)

Our Arkansas Yellow Jackets. 

(and yes, as always, Joey is the tallest one on the team...)

Camping

I keep getting so behind on blogging!! I'm going to blame it on our computer at home, which is dying a slow and painful death... (and makes things take a million times longer than they should!) 

I'll get caught up again! :)

Back over Labor Day, we went camping with the Matchell's. Camping isn't necessarily Joe's favorite thing to do, but he was a good sport and had a good attitude. :)

These three "big" kids did great. They loved the outdoors and the fishing and campfires and swimming. When we left Joey asked why we couldn't just live there forever (because your dad would go crazy, that's why!!)

Christine picked a beautiful campsite that looked out over the lake. We were able to walk down and swim all we wanted. The kids swam an average of 5 hours a day. It was great!

Our camping buddies.

I love this picture of Joey and Jakin fishing while the sun was setting.

I love this picture of Joey. His face is so dirty from camping...he has a bruise on his nose from getting hit from a baseball...his big blue eyes are sparkling...and I can see the freckle on his forehead that I love to kiss! :)

After two nights of sleeping in the tent, and barely getting any sleep, we decided that maybe our family should be cabin-camping people... :)