Working hard and playing harder

Colby has been studying day and night lately. He has had a pretty rough test schedule. I took these pictures to document that he even studies through meals. (And those of you who know how much Colby likes food know that this is a big deal!) In twenty years when Colb is successful, no one can say that he didn't work hard to get there.






The boys have been playing even harder than Colby has been studying. They have so many friends that live close by, we constantly have other kids over. Every day Carter asks me who is coming to play.



We try to take advantage of the nice weather as much as possible and play outside.

Apple Forchards and Marker Mustaches

On Monday, Carter and I went on a fieldtrip with Ammon's preschool class to the "apple forchard." The kids had a great time going on a hayride and picking their own apples. Ammon took very good care of his little brother and included him in all the activities.


Looking at the apple trees on the hayride.


Ammon was so excited to run into Nathan and Louie, two of his friends from his preschool class last year.

Carter, who is a very picky eater, was so excited about picking his own apples that he ate one before we even made it back to the car!


While Ammon was creating this masterpiece for Grandma, he accidentally gave himself a marker mustache. I showed it to him in the mirror and he thought it was about the funniest thing he had ever seen. He proceeded to give Carter a marker mustache and they stood in front of the mirror and laughed and laughed.

This is a picture of ironhide, the transformer. If you are really creative, you can see that Ammon has written ironhide next to the picture- he just kept running out of room so his letters are a little jumbled up.


The marker mustaches.

On Saturdays

Saturdays used to be a day to relax, hang out and play. Lately, it has been just like any other day- only busier. Between my long runs in the mornings, working at night and Colby studying for most of the time in between, we don't find much time to relax or spend time together. The one thing we do do together is go to Ammon's soccer games. These games have become the highlight of my weekends. They are so fun to watch! I love going to see my little boy play and watch the funny things he does. I love that Colby makes time in his busy schedule to go cheer Ammon on. I even love it when Ammon starts to daydream during the game and runs in circles with airplane arms and when he karate chops the kids on the other team if they score a goal. Soccer has definitely become the "fun" part of our Saturdays.



Carter watches from the sidelines, he can't wait until he's four and he's old enough to play!

Ammon, Carter and Ashlyn have snacks after the big game.


Ammon and Ashlyn are best buddies. Ammon says that Ashlyn is his girlfriend, but he's going to let his buddy Cannon marry her and he'll marry Makayla.


Ammon, Ashlyn and Carter.

Preschool

Carter started preschool yesterday, he was so excited! He kept saying, "I'm big enough to go to school." When I picked him up he was grinning from ear to ear!


Ammon and Carter with their backpacks and new school shoes.


Carter showing me how big he is, or feeling the rain, I'm not sure which.

The backpack gang getting ready to run out in the rain.

When the cat's away...the mouse will play.

Carter quickly recovered from the trauma of Ammon starting preschool when he discovered that he has free reign of the house while Ammon is gone. He now enjoys riding in Ammon's car seat, taking naps in Ammon's bed and playing with Ammon's toys from 12:30 to 3:00 Monday through Thursday. He does all of these things with a mischevious little look on his face that says, "I am doing something that I shouldn't be doing and getting away with it." Just don't tell Ammon!



Sometimes, we go shopping while Ammon is at school. Usually it is for groceries, ocasionally we will go the the craft store (which makes Carter say, "I hate Hobby Lobbies"). This day we went shoe shopping for Carter. He was so excited to get new shoes (especially blue ones- his favorite color). He threw a fit that night when I made him take his shoes off to get in the bath tub.

Carter started out in his bed for quiet time, when I went in to check on him he had moved to Ammon's bed and was playing with all the special toys that Ammon hides up there.

This is a big no-no. Carter is in Ammon's bed, with Ammon's favorite blanket, and Ammon's favorite stuffed animal, cook the book.

My Little Man

This is totally unrelated to this post, but I had to post these cute pictures. I found these new church clothes for Ammon on clearance at Walmart, I think he looks just like a little man!

Here are my boys all ready for church!

First day of School

Ammon started year 2 of preschool yesterday. He was sooo excited to go back to school! I worried that he might have a hard time changing teachers, but he didn't miss a beat. Carter, on the other hand, was very upset and cried for 20 minutes after we dropped Ammon off. It's not easy being two and thinking that you're four.


Ammon all ready for school!

Here is Ammon in front of his preschool classroom.

Ammon's buddy, Ashlyn is in his preschool class. When I asked what he did at school all he said was, "I just played with Ashlyn."


This year Ammon's teacher is Mrs. Shoemaker. He thinks she is very nice and is excited to be in her class.

First Soccer Game

Yesterday was Ammon's first soccer game. He had a great time! We discovered that Ammon is very competitive (he got really frustrated whenever the other team scored). Ammon got a little confused about which goal was his team's, but he still managed to score a goal. We were so proud of him and we are excited for the rest of the season.

Ammon and his teammates practicing before the game.


Ammon's team and his coach cheering, "go bugs!" Note: Ammon's coach took suggestions from the kids on what to name their team. Some of the suggestions were: the flowers, the babies, the sharks and the bugs. You can see this is obviously a co-ed 4 year old soccer team!



All dressed up in his soccer uniform! Ammon looks like he is wearing tights, but it's really just long shorts and long socks.

Here is a video clip from the game. Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries before Ammon scored his goal. But this is a great shot of the soccer prodigy on the other team scoring a goal. Sorry about my loud cheering, I'll have to work on being quiet while I'm video taping!

Raccoon River Park

Today we took the kids to Raccoon River Park to try to take advantage of the last few days of Summer. They had a blast swimming, playing in the sand, running through the fountains and playing on the playground.


Oakley, Austin, Carter, Ashlyn, Carson, Caden and Ammon in front of the river. Note: it was a small miracle that I could stop them from running around long enough to get this picture.


The kids playing in the water fountains. It looks overcast and yucky outside, but it was actually really HOT and HUMID. It was a great way for them to cool off.


Cannon, Ammon and Carter swimming in the river. The water was nice and warm.


Ashlyn, Ammon and Cannon playing in the sand box.


The whole crew on the playground. Cohen, Carter, Oakley, Ashlyn, Ammon, Carson, Austin, Caden, Cannon and Karlee. We are so lucky to have so many friends here!

More Visitors!

We had some fun visitors the last couple of days. Grandma Stewart, Uncle Scotty and Uncle Daniel stopped by on their way to Maryland (they were driving Scotty out to medical school). We had a fun packed day with them and we were very sad to see them go. We took them to the Science Center, Colby's school, Walmart and of course CiCi's pizza. I made them promise to drive out and see us again sometime soon. Besides, once you've seen Wyoming, why wouldn't you want to drive through it again?


Scott and Carter in front of the giant caterpillar at the Science Center.


Ammon eating his "berries and cream" for breakfast.

Grandma, Daniel, Carter, Scott, Ammon and Colby by the snakes!

The Uncles had more fun than the kids did playing at the weather station at the science center.


Daniel and Ammon giving us a weather report.


The gang in front of the giant spider that you can't see in this picture.


Grandma and Scott trying out some career options.

Thanks for the visit guys! It was great to see you. Hopefully we will see you again soon.

Our First Visitors

I am still trying to get caught up posting all the pictures I took this Summer. I saved the best for last! The first week of July we had our first visitors. Mike and Kim drove up from Texas and spent the fourth of July with us. We were so excited to have visitors and we had a great time with Mike, Kim and Megan.


On the fourth we went up to the beach at Saylorville lake. The kids had fun playing in the sand and swimming. There was no way Carter was going to sink!!


Megan had a great time playing in the sand. (It was actually more like mud, but we didn't tell her that!)


Colby, Mike, Megan and Kim playing on the beach.


One afternoon, we went to the Science center. The highlight was the rattle snake that was rattling at us- if he wasn't behind glass I'm sure he would have charged us.


I brought home Macaroni Grill to go for Mike and Kim. We offer the amenity to all our visitors!


Megan, Ammon and Carter were such cute little friends. They had a great time playing together.


And riding in the van together.

We drove up to Hickory Park for dinner.


And Mike ordered the biggest Pork Fritter sandwich we had ever seen.


Kim, Megan, Colby, Carter, Mike, and Ammon walking on the Neil Smith trail.

Thanks Mike and Kim for driving up to see us, we had a great time.

Eight Shauni Things...

I was tagged by Karin to post eight things about myself. I will try to think of some things that you don't already know. For those of you who I tag here are the rules:
Here are the rules:
* Each player lists 8 facts or habits about themselves.
* The rules of the game are posted before the list begins.
*At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 more players by posting their name. In addition, go to their blog and leave a comment telling them they have been tagged with your blog address so they can read your blog.


1. I have horrible hand-eye coordination. For this reason, I am not good at sports or video games. A couple weeks ago, when we were playing racquetball, Colby asked me if I had ever had my eyes checked.

2. I am a sucker for clearance sales. I buy almost all of my kid's clothes a year in advance and find excellent deals on end of season stuff. The only problem with this is if you underestimate or overestimate how much they will grow in a year- other than that it's great.

3. I love to drink water. It is usually the only thing I drink, but when I get a headache I take two Excedrin and chase them with a Diet Coke.

4. I'm addicted to lip gloss. I always carry some type of lip gloss or chapstick with me.

5. I won't wear jeans with tennis shoes. I don't have any problem with people who do it- I just don't like to. I wear jeans around town and tennis shoes when I'm exercising.

6. I like to sing along (and occasionally dance along) to the music on the radio. I am one of those people who you laugh at when you see them stopped at a stoplight and they are belting it out.

7. I love the way the house looks when it is freshly vacuumed. I don't believe you can vacuum too often.

8. I have very, horribly ugly feet. Consider yourself lucky if you have never seen them. They have been the brunt of many jokes but I'm kind of attached to them (Ha Ha, I know you laughed!) This is one of the many reasons I am helping put my husband through podiatry school. I tell Colby I am first in line for foot surgery and I would like it to be partially cosmetic.

I am tagging Mike, Kim, Crystal, Taylor, Marcie, Carolee, Stephanie and Angel