Dirty Dog

After a month of rain, Murphy finally got a beautiful day to run around the yard. The result....one disgusting dog!!

Rolling around in the dirt and leaves...so gross!

Cate helped me give him a good, long bath...look how dirty that water is!

Took me a very long time to scrub and bleach the tub clean.

Brady and Murphy

Halloween Party

Today was Brady's classroom Halloween party. Bennett's too, but teachers run those, so parents are off the hook :) Brady had a fun time and brought home a huge bag of goodies! Making a bracelet

Bowling over ghosts

Beach ball volleyball in the gym

Showing Justin (or Austin-they're identical twins) how to chisel the ice block to find bugs!

Painting a wooden pumpkin

Mrs. B put me in charge of making the punch...ice cream and 7-up...delish?!

"Crawling through a cave" during storytime

This is a poster in Brady's classroom. Last year for Mother's Day, the kids planted sunflowers in painted pots. We transplanted Brady's into our backyard and they grew to over 6-ft tall!! We sent the bottom-left picture in to show how successful they were!

Playtime

Tonight, a record was set in our house. All four kids played together for 10+minutes without fighting. Miracle on Westmoreland. Granted, they took all the shoe strings out of a zillion shoes and tied them together to string throughout Cate's room, but no blood was shed, not even a single tear.

The boys hate when Cate wears this red shirt. They say she looks like a boy and make comments about it the entire time she has it on. I think that's why she insists on wearing it over her pj's everynight.

This picture makes me think that a Christmas card photo is going to be hard to capture....

GO SLSG!

This weekend, Carter had five soccer games. Three of them before 2:00 on Saturday. Needless to say, he was worn out, but his team won 4 games and tied one...and....they WON THE TOURNAMENT!!! This is the second tournament in a row they've won and I'm hoping their success continues when we head to Memphis in two weeks!

Some Braggin' On My Boys

This week marked the end of the first quarter of school (only 3 more til summer!) Thursday and Friday were parent/teacher conferences. I dread this for two reasons....1-I have to meet with the boys teachers and it makes me nervous! 2-Scott has his own conferences, so I am left home with all four kids for two straight days. And it rained. Hard. Terrible, horrible, stupid 48 hours. I nearly did not survive. But, the silver lining was that the boys grades were awesome! Bennett had straight A's. In fact, his lowest average was a 97.4%. Out of 11,000 total points, he missed 173. Amazing. His teacher said he is a great student, no behavior problems, top reader, blah blah blah. She was laughing when I walked into her classroom because she couldn't get over how many of the girls parents had asked about Bennett during their conferences. She said "the ladies love him". Carter's conferences went just as well. He has a 'B' in math, but he's in Algebra this year and it's getting pretty tough. I always say a little prayer that he finishes his work in class so I don't have to help with it :) His teachers reported the same thing we've heard since he started school....very social, likes to talk to the girls, zones out occasionally, but a really great kid. Carter loves his teachers this year and has been very excited about school.

GOAL!!!!

Brady didn't have conferences, but his gym teacher stopped Scott the other day to tell him that when he sets up an obstacle course for Brady's class, he has to make a completely different one for Brady because he's so coordinated and athletic. Duh. With two big brothers treating him like he's their age, he doesn't have any choice but to keep up!

So, that's about it. Just a little braggin' for three boys who totally deserve it (this week!) Oh, and I'll leave you with a picture of Cate...I have a feeling her future parent/teacher conferences won't be nearly as easy :) (Notice her newest "ouchie" ..jumped off a couch and hit her head on a coffee table)

YEEEEHAAAAAA Part 2

Cate's extremely jealous and not-nearly-as-precious cousin, Annie, came by this afternoon to claim one more ride on the horse.

YEEEEHAAAAAA

This is Cate's (new)favorite thing in the whole world....

And we love my mom enough to rid her of it (no more standing in the basement for hours watching Cate play cowgirl). I believe this was my niece Annie's favorite toy some 18 years ago!

First Haircut and Halloween Fun

Cate had a hair-over-her-ears issue that I couldn't let go, so I took her to my hair lady for a very minor haircut. And when I say minor, I mean, like, 10 strands of hair around her ears. But it made a huge difference (ok, probably not huge) and I've quit obsessing about it. She looks so grown up! Reading my new phone manual...very advanced, I know.

Forcing Brady to listen to her "read"

Sunday night, we carved the first of our six pumpkins. I think it turned out pretty great!

Checking things out...

My charming twosome

Oooooh.....Ahhhhhh

Because Carter is way too cool to hang out with his family, I have few current pictures of him. So, I thought I'd throw this one in. His soccer team has added homework to his schedule...in addition to 2-3 practices/week and 2-3 games/week. Not unlike his school homework, he often has to "cram" the night before his soccer notebook is checked. I snapped this shot of him late last night.

On Monday, Brady had his school field trip to the pumpkin farm (that makes 3 trips for us so far). Scott and Cate joined us and we lucked out with beautiful..dry..weather!

Riding a tractor...I think this was his favorite part

Cate on the haystack slide

Brady and Blake

Cate snuggling with daddy on the hayride

A Fashion Diva....Or Not.

Two new issues with Miz Cate....dressing herself and the potty. Sigh.

We bought Cate her very own potty chair (something we never let the boys have). We showed her how to use it, when to use it, etc. However, Cate being Cate, has decided to play by her own rules and pees standing up. Yep, that's what I said...standing up. So, now, when she has to go to the bathroom, she walks to the big potty, lifts her shirt or dress, and pees. All over the floor. Not how I envisioned this. And if you're wondering....this is what she uses her new potty chair for....

Her babies.

And then there's the wardrobe malfunctions. What is up with her wanting to dress herself? I'm not sure I love this phase....

Well, sometimes she doesn't wear clothes at all :)

And sometimes she wears too many. She was going outside and wanted to wear this dress over her other dress rather than a coat.

Taking her shirt off..

Wearing it like a strapless dress....

And adding shoes as the finishing touch.

Using a shirt as a belt..very innovative

Tank top on backwards with jammy pants

Using Carter's shirt as an add-on

And some pj mishaps....

"But mom, this outfit is so normal"

Fun times ahead with Catie Bug...I can just feel it :)

HA!

Brady sat down to dinner tonight, flipped his middle finger up, and said "Hello everyone, I'm the f-word" Nice.

Wild Week!

How much fun can you pack into 8 days? Well, let me show you....

We had Brady's "family party" last Saturday. Definitely at maximum capacity for fire safety!

On Sunday, we attended cousin Reece's 4th birthday party

Cate wanted to play with all of the gifts

Monday night was the Homecoming parade

We got lots of candy!

Bennett and DJ waiting for the parade

Cousin Jon decorated for Homecoming

Annie played in the Powder Puff game and kicked a field goal! Notice the male cheerleaders...very entertaining

Carter had a soccer tournament this weekend and won the championship! GO SLSG-Green!!

We did laundry. How ya like that outfit? Cate's really into dressing herself lately. I'll blog all about that soon!

Annie before the Homecoming Dance. Doesn't she look fabulous?!

Bennett and Brady and their hero, J.D. (future Louisville Cardinal and/or MLB star!)

Ann and Jon before dance.

Today, we had a "kid" birthday party for Brady. His final birthday celebration of 2009! We invited 20 of our favorite people and had a blast in the YMCA gymnastics room.

Bennett diving into the foam pit