Gone Fishin'

Two times now Matt and the kids have gone to visit some friends from church at their place and I have not been able to go!  Whether it be sickness or busy with other things, I was not able to go and enjoy a day with them, but finally I got my chance!  This is what I missed out on the first time when they went 'shed hunting'...

Rolling down giant hills... 

Climbing rocks... 

Beautiful waterfalls on the Kentucky River. 

So I was pretty excited when I finally had a weekend that I was able to go out and visit.  Not only was it beautiful and peaceful, but we had some fun too! 

We caught lots of fish, did some shooting, and went hiking down by the river.  Thanks Mellissa and William for such a great time!  Can't wait to come back and visit soon!

Marie did NOT want to get any closer to her fish!  Matt tried to talk her into giving it a kiss, she wouldn't hear of it! 

Onah claimed every fish William brought in! :) 

 Colten waited so patiently!  He was the last one to catch a fish, but once they started biting his line, there was no stopping!

 Colten with one of his catches.  He loves fishing!

 Hunter waiting for a bite, she's such a sweetie! :)

I can't post without mentioning that I out-shot Matt!  Sorry, I had to Matt.  It's rare that I get such an opportunity!!

Spring Babies

A few weeks ago I opened the grill thinking we might grill out for dinner, and found a giant bird's nest...with eggs.  Since we have been keeping an eye on it, and have gotten some good lessons in science.  The kids have enjoyed checking on the eggs every day, and FINALLY Saturday they hatched!
The kids were so excited, and so was Brody.  We have to keep him off the back deck to make sure he doesn't get to them.  Izzy wasn't quite sure what to think.  She wanted to love them because they were babies, and babies are ADORABLE, but you could see the confusion on her face when her smile turned down and she said, "ewww!  They're gross!" haha  They aren't the cutest babies in nature! :)

Matt has named them Squidward 1, 2, and 3.  He says they have a shocking resemblance to the character on SpongeBob.

This Calls For Strawberry Pie

Izzy and I found a deal!  Strawberries for 99 cents!!!  I knew immediately what had to happen,...strawberry pie!  When Colten was home with me all day it was one of our favorite things to bake together.

Here's Colten when he was 4 and his masterpiece...

We gathered a few more supplies and headed home to bake.  Izzy was so helpful and loved stirring the ingredients for the crust, washing the strawberries, and stirring the strawberry filling!  Of course her favorite thing was the taste testing! ;)

 Caught ya!!!!

She was so proud of herself!  Yum Yum!  We need to make another one soon Izzy!!!

COWABUNGA DUDE!

It's inevitable, my kids will get another year older every year, but that doesn't mean I have to like it! :(  I'm just thankful every year that I get to celebrate it with them.  There was a time when we celebrated birthdays with Onah and Marie a world apart and now, I get to soak in their giggles and smiles as they celebrate a day all about them!

Onah's turn to turn 5!  He has talked and talked about turning 5 since he turned 4! He looks up to his older brother so much and thinks that one day he'll catch up with him!  Try and explain that math to very persistent 5 year old!

There was no question when asked what kind of celebration he wanted to have for his birthday.  Maybe 2 seconds past and he answered..."NINJA TURTLES!".

So we partied Turtle Style!!!.....

 One happy boy that this day has finally come! 

HIS BIRTHDAY!

 Colten was "Master Cheetah" who had planned all the activities during the party.  He had a plan to train up the kids to be Ninja Turtles.

He was so excited to help plan his little brother's birthday party!

 The Yummies mmmm

 Cowabunga!

 Colten and his 'students'

 We had some fun making the masks :)

 Onah and his friends in 'ninja training'

 Breaking sticks with his BARE hands! (OOOHHHH!)

 PINATA!!!

They had no clue there was candy in it, funny some of the things that are still new to them!  There was shock when it opened and spilled out.  Then I believe I heard Ale shout...GET THE CANDY! That's all it took!  The kids came charging and there was a blob of kids trying to collect every last piece!  So fun!

 The 'bad guy' showed up!  Onah took one look at him and said, "You aren't a bad guy!  You are Bible Man!" haha, the kid knows his super heros! :)

 Circling up and teaming up to defeat the bad guy!

 He was defeated!  So glad we had those tough swords!

 Opening presents!  

Getting presents is still a 'new thing' for Onah.  When he was opening his presents it was hard for him to believe that it was all his!  He wanted to give his legos to Colten because "Colten has legos, not me"  I had to explain to him, "well, now YOU have legos!!!" Every time he'd open a present and hand it to one of his friends to play with!  This kid is the best!  I hope he never changes!!!

Onah, you are turning into quite the handsome boy!  I know your smile melts mommy's heart!  Not only do you show your joy for life on the outside, but you find joy inside by always being generous to others and helping others!  I'm so glad that God chose me to be your mommy!  I love you!!! 

A New Hobby

For Christmas I purchased a groupon for Matt to go rock climbing with Colten at Red River Gorge.  They were able to use it at the end of Colten's spring break.
Matt's ready to go back tomorrow!  He loved it...
Colten said maybe when he's 25 or 30 :) HAHA!  Bless his heart.  He tried it, and wanted to like it, but the repelling part scared him too much!  Matt said he would run to the rock and climb like a pro, get half way, stop, look down, and freeze in panic!  The guide would have to climb up after him and repel down with him.
Matt was able to snap some pictures of the good times :)

 Two handsome boys!!

 Learning how to climb...

 The first thing the guide made them do was repel down a very big cliff...Colten was not about to fall down the side of a cliff!

 Like I said, he loved to climb, just hated the getting down part!

 This was his favorite one to climb.  He called it the chimney chute.

 Matt beasting it!

 The only time he repelled!

 Matt, Colten, and their guide.  Matt said all the guys in their group that they climbed with were named Matt!  (I think there were 4 Matt's!)

 So we're climbing like a pro...

Wait, I'm almost to the top?  (Look down...) And then we freeze/panic...

 And we are rescued...haha

So glad that Matt and Colten got to spend some time together just the two of them.  Not only did they have a good time rock climbing but they had good conversation! Something that needs to happen more often!