Our mishap with the wash

So one late afternoon I was finishing up a load of laundry and I walked past the washing machine and glanced at it, and low and behold it was full to the brim with suds. Now, this machine is a low suds machine so I was quite alarmed when I saw this. I was wondering how in the world did that happen. Thankfully Dave came home a few minutes later and after much thought we decided to just open up the door and see what would happen. The suds just started falling out. WOW! I've never seen so many before. Dave scooped more and more out. He was looking around in the basin and I saw this yellow bar sticking to the side of the tub. He pulled it out and behold it was my bar of Fels Naptha soap that I use to get stains out. I normally put it up in the cupboard where it belongs but that day I had put it on some rags/dish towels that were needing to get washed. Well, rags kept getting piled on top of the bar so soap and in my quick haste to load the washer with the towels I forgot that the bar of soap was in there. Word of caution. Don't leave a bar of soap on top of the washer. It took a total of 2 full wash cycles to get the soap suds out. And we had to stop it twice to pull out more suds. Of course the kids thought it was great fun. I was j

ust thankful that my washer wasn't broken.

Morning cuteness

So Lily does not like to sleep in. It is very rare that she sleeps in past 6:15. So we usually get about 30-45 minutes to ourselves and we get lots of cuddle time and reading time in during then. One of her favorites places to sit in the morning is one her pick chair with her blanket and pulls out her books and starts reading. I love these moments and I try to remind myself that she won't always wake up before the sun comes up so I

treasure these special times with her now.

Settlers of Catan

So while we were with my family at our annual trip to Eagle Crest in August, we taught the boys how to play Settlers of Catan. They were so eager to learn and they picked up on it so quickly. We teamed up while we where there but since then we have played it with just the boys, Dave and I and they played by themselves and they did great. It is amazing at how fast kids can pick up on games that seem so complicated to us. I remember it took me forever to figure this game out. One more thing that we get to enjoy sharing with the kids.

One Month Whole Foods Challenge

So the past few months Dave and I have been wanting to do a whole foods challenge with the family.We felt like the month of Oct would be the best time to do it. Right after vacations and right before major holidays. Here is the website with the rules that we are following. This family did it for 100 days but we are just starting with 30 days. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/real-food-defined-a-k-a-the-rules/ We thought if we posted about it we would be held more accountable to follow it. So if you see us ask us how it is going. Thanks.

Little Red's Caboose

Just incase you were not aware, our little riding lawn mower is Little Red, while the larger tractor is Big Red. After some searching on Craigslist I ended up finding a used trailer for Little Red. We thought this would helpful around the yard as the kids could do cleanup etc. during the day when I am at work. Little Red's caboose needed some TLC before being put into service. We started by sanding down areas where the paint had been scraped off and the metal was showing some rust.

It is always good to use proper hearing protection when the boys are being loud!

Little Red's Caboose is finished and ready for test rides. So I loaded it up with some weight and zipped up and down the driveway to make sure it would hold up.

County Fair

This is always a fun and fairly inexpensive outing for our family and this year was a blast. We met both sides of our families there and spent quite a bit of time looking at animals and even got to watch the 4H kids try and catch soaped up weaner pigs.

Uncle Mark and Aunt Christie learning to square dance. It looked like a lot of fun.

Mia pumping water as Larkin waits for her turn.

We found out that if the kids read a couple of books and filled out the form they got two free ride tickets. So they all did it and went on their two rides, this being the second one. The carnival area at the fair is always a little sketchy or scary, and I am not sure we will do that again.

Waiting for ice cream!

Happy boy!

Happy girl!!

Can you guess? Happy boy!!!

Lily loved sharing a shake with Momma.

Overall it was a lot of fun and the kids got to stay up late. Next time we need to make sure we can see some of the shows, and possibly learn some four square dancing.

First Day of School

Well, we officially started our school year today. The kids were excited. Ethan's words were, "I'm so glad to be back to schooling," while he was surrounded by his books for the year. We didn't take off the whole summer. The kids worked on math and reading and a whole lot of nature and science while outside. Learned some swimming while swimming in our pool, how to snap green beans and can them, and so much more. It was a busy summer and HOT at the end but we are so excited to get back to a normal routine once again and start getting into our books more. We started out with a yummy pancake breakfast. Did the kids weight and height check and took pictures. Then started school work. This week and I'm sure for the next few we are taking it half speed. Just getting a feel for our new curriculum and what to expect. Also it gives me the time to figure out how long it will take for things to get done. So much fun. Just a glimpse of what this year will be like. it should be really interesting with Lily Mae in the middle of everything. YIKES!