October already?!

Nap time begins!

No matter how hard  I try, I can never keep up with everything :) Right now on the "to-do list"  (the one in the back of my mind) are the following things: clean room, do the dishes, clean van, update blog, do laundry, organize kitchen, finish the many craft-type projects I have started, finish the music schedule, figure out rides for church, clean fish tank, etc. Obviously some are more important than others, but all need done..sometime. I can't tell you how excited I am to have a day off!!! Like totally off! Im not watching any of the kids, not running a single one here or there, not picking up any from school, not making any bowls of mac n cheese or changing any diapers or saying "no" or "that's not for you" or "stop screaming" or "be nice" or "DAISY!!!" lol  I DO love my job, don't get me wrong, I really really do. I love each of "my" kids dearly and could never walk away from them, but I am sooo ready for this day off. Yes, I get weekends off usually, but they are always packed full of things to do. Of course, I already have my agenda for my day off on Monday, but its things that I want to do, things that I need to get done, and I can do it when I want, how I want and don't have to work around anyone elses schedule! That being said...today is a work day and its going pretty well. Both boys are sleeping and Miss Ashlee decided she wanted to stay at home with mom today. Wednesdays are always the rough days because Ashlee doesn't have school so our normal schedule is totally messed up, nap times are like almost impossible, and Ty is  usually here longer which makes him a bit crabby. For instance, usually the boys fall asleep in the van on the way to take Ashlee to school and they sleep for about 2 hours all because of the magic of the van. I usually take that time to sit and read or work on  simple projects that I can do in the van while its parked in the shade at a park or sometimes at Faith where I can talk with my friends or whatever. But Wednesdays, we don't really go anywhere in the van until 2 and by then the boys are sooooooo tired, but they fight sleep so bad and it just makes the day very very loooong. Today, they were both ready for a nap by noon and it took another hour and a half before they actually gave in. Of course, both boys are used to being rocked to sleep so that also makes things a bit harder with two of them, but, like I said before, I wouldn't trade my job for any other one.  I mean how could I?! These kids are just the best!

Apparently holding just the bottle is not as cool as stuffing it in big brother's shoe first!

My other helper! He loves throwing away the diapers for me :)

This week (and part of last) Dylan decided he was ready to ride a 2 wheel bike. He is loving it and that's pretty much all he wants to do any more :) Ashlee is my big helper and loves school. She is learning more and more every day. She is constantly asking me how to spell words like "shirt, car, bike, dog, xylophone (yes, she really did ask me to spell that for her)." She can write most of her letters and I've been working with her on sounding out words which is way too much fun for her :) Ty is very vocal and he and Ashlee actually had a great argument over whether or not Ashlee could have a piece of candy. Keagyn is starting to say more and more and loves to scream! That part is kinda annoying and Dylan one day was really upset and told him "Keagyn! stop interrupting my sentences!"  Maddie is growing up so fast. She loves having her friend Morgan come over and I try to let her as much as is possible (which is usually only on Thursday or Friday). She still loves doing crafts and cooking and taking care of the babies. Payton is still very quiet for the most part, but occasionally he has some fun stories for me :) Keagyn laughs and laughs whenever he is with Payton and the love written on Payton's face is what I wish for my own kids someday.

Now for a little catching up...
This past weekend, JJ and I were able to go to the Christensens and be a part of harvest! It was soo much fun! I love being on their farm and I never want to leave at the end of the weekend :) JJ and I were actually crazy enough to ride the bike to their place (we left Ankeny around 10pm after JJ got off work) and it was 56 degrees out :)  Of course we bundled up and I was hardly cold at all. JJ, on the other hand, got quite cold, but I guess he didn't mind too much. Like I said, I hate leaving (and so does JJ) so we opted to stay Saturday night too and just get up early enough on Sunday to make it to church on time (which we did). Unfortunately, most of my pictures are really blurry due to a bad camera and all the dust and such from the fields.

JJ loved driving the tractors and semis...
I was content to just ride and watch and soak in the beauty 

Notice how big it is? I couldn't even fit the whole
thing in the picture!

Working on the combine

Last week while Ashlee was in school, the boys didn't sleep very long so JJ and I took them to the park for a bit. Ty absolutely loves JJ and was thrilled to pieces to get to spend some time at the park with him! Keagyn still thinks he doesn't like JJ, but occasionally he will be ok with JJ holding him. Of course, the boys naturally spent more time playing with leaves, sticks, and the drinking fountain than we did on the actual playground. :)

JJ showed him how the sand digger thingy worked and so Ty
tried his hardest to copy JJ. To his dismay, he isn't quite as strong
as JJ yet and was quite frustrated that he couldn't move the sand.

He was sure surprised to wake up to see JJ
(one of his favorite people)
and then to see that we were at the park!

JJ showed Keagyn how much fun it was to play with sticks
 in the sand and  he caught on fast

Ty, of course, liked walking around and stepping on everything JJ and Keagyn made =)

Like I said, they are best friends...
They even matched that day!

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As many of you know, Keagyn thinks he doesn't like JJ very much...but I think he secretly does like him a lot. Here, Keagyn wanted a drink from the drinking fountain soooo bad! And mean ol' Berta wouldn't pick him up and help him. So...he turned to JJ who was very very excited that Keagyn wanted him!

Keagyn just couldn't keep back his excitement
and tried to climb the fountain lol

And finally, he got his drink =)

"Peek-a-boo!"

The boys played hide-and-seek..which Ty thought was hilarioius

Looking for JJ..

Ty's turn to hide..

can you say copy cat?!

Leaves!!

Slowly, Keagyn warmed up to JJ...his curiosity just got the best of him.  Love the progression in these pictures- he slowly gets closer and closer to figure out whats so exciting (a stick and some string). =)

Prob my favorite picture the whole day...I can't even explain why lol

Also last week, I saw this experiment online that a mom did with her kids using water, paper towels, and food coloring. It looked interesting so I thought I would try it with the kids and they loved it!

For this one, we put food coloring and
water in two separate jars with a paper towel in
each  jar that lead to a third, empty jar.

The next morning, the kids found this..  The paper towels had soaked
up the water and color and started putting it in the third jar to make blue water =)

For this experiment we took a paper towel and put one drop of food
coloring on it about half way up. Then we draped the paper towel
over the edge of a tub containing a small amount of water.
The paper towel was barely in the water.  

The next morning, the paper towel had absorbed the water and it
pushed all the color into a straight line up the edge of the
paper towel. I personally thought this one was pretty fascinating. 

I can't even remember when I posted last or anything. I have a bunch of random pictures that I will post..I can't guarantee that they are in chronological order or anything. Its crazy how I have like no pictures of the older kids (esp of Payton. I don't think I have a single one of him!). I guess that's the way life works with busy kids!

Quick Walmart run...wonder if it was before or after the ceremony?! lol

The little guy in the shopping cart was soooo cute!

my shadow these days lol

Boy does Keagyn LOVE to swing!

First he tired to open it...

Then he decided it would make a nice drum. 

Blowing  bubbles!!

Crazy hair!

Ranch mustache. 

Recognize the sunglasses, mom? =)

The following pictures were taken on "wacky wednesday" during school-spirit week. 

The family monkey
 (although, I think Keagyn isnt too far behind!)

Classic Dylan look :)

And there you have it. My updated blog. (And in the few days between when I started it and today when I published it, I managed to get three things off my to-do list done!