Apple picking and pumpkins

A trip to Treworgy farms has become a family fall tradition for us and we look forward to it every year. The apples and pumpkins waiting to be picked. The animals to feed and the hay rides to be taken all of it is so much fun we can't decide which is our favorite. This year we felt we were old enough to handle the corn maze. It was fun but too long and they were tired by the end. The highlight was a free ice-cream at the end. The weather was absolutely perfect. We had temps in the 80's which is rare for Maine this time of year. Another great memory for us to cherish always.

Chase makes his first Mac n Cheese dinner

Chase wanted to make dinner for us one night so I said sure. He wanted Mac N Cheese

which is an all time favorite around here so I grabbed the camera and took some priceless photos.

It was nice not to make dinner although I helped a lot.

He loved stirring in the yumminess.

Mmmmmm doesn't that look good.

What did the other two do while they were waiting for dinner?

Well I am not sure what Stinky is doing here but it was cute.

I was distracting him from helping Chase with dinner

He is being a monster I believe. What a goof!!!!!

Tristan decided to put his creative skills to good use and made

da  da da da da........ ROBOT BOY!!!!

He cut the mouth and eyes out all by himself

He did not want to take it off for dinner!!!!

After several attempts to eat with it on his hunger got the

better of him and he took it off to eat.

Lazy Sunday with a spiritual feast.

We had a wonderfully lazy Sunday, John was home the boys were good and we stayed in our jammies all day long. We watched Conference and were spiritually fed by the General Authorities. What powerful messages about family and standing up for what we beleive. I loved the talk about the Name of the Church. I loved Pres. Monson's wonderful talk about the state of the world today and how we shouldn't fear it. What comfort and power he shared. I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I love my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. I am grateful that I have a wonderful husband who supports our family by not only hard work but loving spiritual guidance. I love my boys and being able to help them grow and develop their testimonies. They did their best to pay attention to our Prophet speak. I hope that they learned something today and that they will continue to enjoy learning about the Gospel. I am never sure how much sinks in when we talk about the scriptures and read together. I often feel too much pressure on myself to create the perfect FHE lesson and miss the little teaching moments. I love getting the reassurance that I need  that I am a daughter of God and he loves me and he knows I am trying my best.

They are so dang cute

this is an older picture but I love it so I shared it. 

Rainy Days and Wild Boys

So Today was a wash out figuratively and literally!! We were supposed to go apple picking and run through a corn maze, take a hay ride, and drink apple cider. The boys got up early and cleaned their room so they could go. They were up cleaning at 6 a.m. I almost had a heart attack! Still can't beleive it. I got up at around 8 a.m. after they jumped on me to tell me they had cleaned their room and were dressed and ready to go to Treworgy Farm. Dad rolled over and said the worst thing a kid could hear.
 " It is raining really hard..... and it is not going to let up any time soon."   They boys were very sad.

Not as sad as I was,  My plan was falling apart, see I was going to run their energy out this morning so we could be ready to relax and watch conference when we got home. They will settle down and watch t.v for a while but even that gets old after a while.......like an hour and they are jumping off my furniture acting out some movie scene.

What do you do when you have three energetic boys and it is raining really hard outside?? First you try the all important rule.....Work out their energy on house chores...... I put them straight to work on dishes and cleaning their toy room.  Then feed them.... lunch was frozen pizza's yeah!!!! This is always a favorite. While eating I started Conference, on the computer, because my dishnetwork is out, this guarantees at least a half hour of silence while their mouths are busy, though not always, this is the first time we turned the computer into a t.v. so that kept their attention a bit longer. My boys make plenty of noise while eating, Spencer spent most of lunch in the time out chair because he just could not settle down. While he was out of the room I did get to hear some of conference. I feel it is important for the boys to sit through at least one session a day of conference. After an hour of shhing and hearing "he is hitting me"  "he took that from me" " he did blah blah blah etc", Poor Stinky Pete was a monster today so he spent most of the hour on the time out chair. I gave up and decided to pull out the one thing that I dread the most, because it means a lot more work later on, I said "look there  is 30 mins left. If you can sit still for that long and listen to the prophet speak, I will let you put on your rain boots and rain coats and go outside and run and jump in the rain and get your energy out. "
Chase says with huge eyes and a gaping mouth "This means we can ...... jump on the trampoline....which is wet.................that means (and his eyes got bigger and his face lit up) we are going to get really really wet?!?!" he is hopeful as he looks at me with those beautiful blue eyes.

I say "hmmmmmmm YEP"

Peace at last, it  was the quietest half hour ever!!!!

And that is My Life With Boys

I love my boys so much and even on the rainy wild days they always manage to make me laugh. After this picture they all stripped down to their birthday suits and ran upstairs screaming in delight all the way. After they were warmed up in their jammies we snuggled down and read our favorite book, The Chronicles of Narnia, we are reading all 7 books and are currently on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Afterwards they went upstairs and watched Prince Caspien, while I watched the last session of Conference.  We ended the day with warm brownie sundaes mmmm!

Apple Orchard field trip with Tristan

I love being able to go on field trips with my boys!!! I get to spend half a day alone with them and meet their classmates and see their daily routine etc. I just love it. Every first grade class goes to the apple orchard, I went with Chase as well and I loved going back with Tristan.

 This is Tristan's first grade class all lined up in front of the pumkins, we were waiting for the tour to begin.

 The Hay ride has begun and this was Tristan's favorite part of the trip. Can you tell???

He had the outfit going on now all he needed to complete the cowboy/farmer look was the hay.

 He picked his own baby pumpkin!! He wanted to get back on the hay ride so he picked the first one he found.

He got to learn how cider is made. He is dropping an apple into the apple press and then watched as she ground it up. VERY COOL. He said as he watched it squish. "oooh that is yucky looking, blah "
When all the apples were smashed, she took out a huge press and screwed it down on top of the green bucket and squeezed all the juice out of the apples. No seeds or peels were allowed into the pail. Tristan looks on with wonder.

 Finally he got to pick an apple off the tree. He was so excited that he actually picked his before I could get the camera out. So I made him pick mine and here it is. He loves apples. This was almost the last thing we did and he was looking forward to it all day. He kept saying "When are we gonna pick an apple, I love apples.!!!"

 He loved feeding just this little goat. He was given three handfuls of oats and he always went back to this little guy. He laughed as the little goat licked his fingers.

He is helping milk a goat. WOW

A happy bunch of first graders enjoying a juicy delicious apple. A great trip

Tough Week: lots of ups and downs

This week started out bad and didn't get much better. I am glad it is over.  Monday Chase had to deal with the unthinkable at school. One of his friends died tragically over the weekend. The experience made me grateful for the Plan of Salvation and the opportunity Chase had to share a little bit with his friends of what he believes. I am sad for the news and we prayed for the family every day. I am grateful everyday for being Chase Tristan and Spencer's mom and that I can hug them and kiss them as much as I want. Life is too precious to waste. I hope and pray that my children will live long happy lives.

On Wed. I went with Tristan's class to the apple orchard and soon I will blog about it. I remembered the camera. Then I came home to Sassy having puppies. 6 healthy little puppies are doing great after some initial supplemental feedings and extra vitamins.

I got sick on Wed. and had to skip Young Women's which made me sad because I love going to Young Womens. I hate being sick. I had to cancel my visiting teacher on Thursday, BUT she called me later that day and told me she was bringing dinner for us so I wouldn't have to worry about what  to cook my family. I am grateful for good friends who take care of me. It was almost as good as a hug from my mom. I have never had someone bring me dinner like that before and you know I found myself hesitating to say yes and allow her to serve me. I felt silly to have dinner brought to me. Is that normal??

Thursday night was a special Cub Scout field trip to a star show. Despite being sick I sucked it up and went anyways for the boys. They had been looking forward to it all week and after everything Chase had to deal with how could I say no. So I took some dayquil and headed out. It was a lot of fun but I forgot to bring a camera, oh well.

That brings us to Friday. Well today I made a HUGE step forward in getting Chase the educational help he needs. I am not going to give specifics yet because I don't want to jinx myself. I have to wait and see if all the ducks line up. So prayers and hold your breath for me please.

I am ready for a relaxing weekend watching conference. I am grateful for my testimony of The Savior and I know he died for me, and that he suffered for me so that he can give me comfort when I need it and he knows what I am going through.

It is Monday and the sun is shining.

I had a very busy but wonderful weekend with good friends and spiritual experiances. My only regret is that I do not have any picures to show for it.

Friday night was spent with my Young Women for a mock sleepover, noone ended up able to spend the night but we had fun anyways until late into the night. We ate pizza played games and watched a movie. It was night to have a girls night.

Sat. Morning I took the boys to the church for their practice and pizza party. Sunday is the program. I was able to talk with and hang with some great people while we waited for the kids to finish. The boys had a great time and were super good so we bought icecream cones on the way home.

Sat. night I invited some friends over to watch The General Women's Conference from Salt Lake. It was good but the conversation and bonding was much better. We had a great time and ate yummy treats.

Sunday the primary program was jsut beautiful. The children were put into groups of mixed ages instead of by classes. Each group had an older child who helped the younger children in the group to read their parts. It was so neat to watch those big kids shine and the younger ones look up to them. My boys were so great at sitting still and singing loud. I couldn't be more proud of them. Chase read not only his part but another girls part who was not there. He doesn't like to read out loud. So this was  a huge challenge for him!!! He did so great and sounded so good reading aloud at the pulpit, that is brought tears to my eyes. I am so proud of him.  All the older boys and the two male teachers sang Praise to the Man, I bawled the entire song they sounded so great. Tristan spoke his part and then looked to me for the thumbsup. He loves being up in front of everyone, he did a great job. Spencer was calm and read in a good voice. He was a little nervous and would not look up but he said all his parts clearly and sang his little heart out. It was the best program ever. I am beaming with pride and the spirit.

Sunday evening we had a youth fireside at Anna's house. The topic was agency and accountablility. The couple who spoke are great people who have overcome some pretty hard lives of bad choices, Jason lives with the consequences of his choices every day of his life and I admire his faith and endurance.  It was just a great spritual uplift to an already great weekend.

This weekend left my heart full of love and gratitude for my Savior Jesus Christ and all that he sacrificed for me. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I am grateful for good friends in the Gospel who lift me up as well. 

A visit with the cousins.

John and I had the privelage of witnessing our dear friends sealed for time and eternity in the Boston Temple. Jenn and Mike graciously agreed to watch the boys for us and let us stay with them for the weekend. While we were haveing a wonderful day ourselves, the boys seemed to have an even better day and weekend with the cousins. Sorry Jenn I borrowed these from your blog, but they were just too cute not to post on my blog.

They had a great time with the cousins. They were treated to the biggest slurpies ever and ate bologna for the first time. They made some light sabers and then had starwars in the woods behind Jenn's house. They took a nature walk and went to the park. It was a busy and fun filled day. Thank you so much Jenn for doing this for us. I love my family and the support they lend me when I need it the most.

This is why life with boys is sometimes hard, I can't remember which

weekend he found this but EWWWW

All the boys spent their days and nights looking for snakes and

bugs and any creepy crawly they could find. And with

each new critter they came running to show us

what they had found. It takes alot of courage for me to say,

"Oh wow that is so cool look at that"

I admit this find I freaked out and could not muster anything

but shear horror. I hate snakes of any kind.

The more i dislike it the more they want to show it to me  uggghhhh,

Oh Well That is My Life With Boys!

Emma's Baptism and birthday weekend.

We had the privelage of spending a wonderful weekend with

Jenn's family for Emma's baptism. We love Emma and we are very proud of her

for deciding to be baptized. Meema made this beautiful dress for her.

The kids all looked so handsome walking down the driveway to the cars

I just had to take a picture of them. This makes me think ahead to proms and other

teenage events where they are off to do big important things.

They are growing up too fast.

She is so adorable and glowing with the spirit of our Heavenly Father.

I try and try but no matter what I can't get a serious face from my little cheese balls

Look at everyone of the boys is looking cheesy. Emma and I are the

best looking people in this shot.

I love every one of them though. They never stop making me laugh

I am proud to be a mother and and aunt right now.

Emma's siblings are just as bad as mine when it comes

to pictures. Notice though it is not just my boys who are

silly on camera.

Sorry about the sideways don't know how to fix that yet.

She is a sweetheart.

Chase's birthday cupcakes.

Chase's  class singing Happy Birthday to him

They are chanting are you 1 are you 2 etc.until they reach his

age and then he yells stop and he can hardly wait.

It takes a while to get to nine. but phew they finally got there!

Finally we can eat the cupcakes yeah

4th grade cupcake parties are not as fun as kindergarten parties. These kids have done this a lot and they just aren't as excited about it. I felt a little silly being there. This may be the last time I can send cupcakes to school on his birthday. By next year it may be way uncool to have mom come in with a camera and cupcakes. I want to cry. He is growing up to fast. Way too fast. I can't stand it. 9 years old and it all went by in the blink of an eye it seems.

Sugaring up the kindergarten.

Spencer was the first kid in his class to have a birthday this year. We are talking about only the second week of school here folks so yeah this was a great way to make new friends.  His Teacher was so eager to get it over with so they could learn the routine right off. She was Tristan's teacher last year so we love her, she is great.  Spencer got to wear a crown all day and she has all the kids make him a birthday picture which she then puts together in a book to send home with him, it is so cute.

 His class has 10 boys and 7 girls. I love kindergarteners they are so cute at that age. The cupcakes were a huge hit.  One little boy came up to me after and said "those were so good can I get your recipe? " I even got a full fist pump from another little guy, when his teacher asked him what he thought of the cupcakes he said they were awesome as he did a fist pump.  several kids asked for the recipe after the first little guy did.  Oh I know how to make a first impression. My son is going to be the  most popular boy in his class now oh yeah!!!!!

CUPCAKES!!!!!

He is ready to eat them not take a picture with them!!

Singing Happy Birthday to Spencer.

He loved being the center of attention!

She had him pass out the cupcakes first and then sing

They did so good waiting to eat them.

After they sing the birthday song they chant

are you one are you two etc, until they reach his age, then he

yells stop, she was moving his arms as they counted. He wasn't so sure about that.

Finally we get to eat the cupcakes!!!!

"These are so good can I get the recipe?"

One Happy Birthday Boy!!!!

YUMMY