Wild Lights

I've been trying to capture the perfect Christmas card photo...this is not it. Although Scott thinks it should be because it best represents our kids....Cate kicking Carter for being too close to her, Brady giving Ben bunny ears, Ben throwing an elbow at Brady. Good times.

Tonight, we took the kids to the zoo for Wild Lights. Perfect night for it. Very crowded, but the kids enjoyed walking through the zoo at night and the lights were pretty cool. We also stopped by Ted Drewes for some ice cream and fresh wreaths.

Thankful

Today, and everyday, we are thankful for these wild children, our wonderful family, and great friends. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Bennett, Annie, Brady, Carter, Cate & Jon

Mail Call

Today, I received two letters from our school district. One addressed To The Parents of Carter....and the other To The Parents of Bennett. Kind of a "do you want the good news or the bad news first" situation. I decided to start with Carter. And, yep, bad news. Low notice for Science. Great. And Bennett's letter? Notice that he's been recommended for the "gifted education instructional program". Could these two be any more different??!!!

And to be fair to Carter, when I contacted his teacher, she said that he's already brought his grade back up to a 91%. He was grounded and ungrounded before he ever got home from school :)

As for Bennett...does this mean I have to sit through "Nerd Bowls" when he's in highschool?!

Holiday Kick-Off

On Saturday, we attended the annual Christmas parade. What a great way to kick off the holiday season! The boys were told they had to stay on the curb until the parade started...
Of course, Cate has to join in on whatever the boys are doing

Almost....

Ta Da!! So proud of herself

Everyone was feeling festive :)

Digging in the bag of goodies

Hunter ran out and had Fredbird sign a stuffed animal!

Waving to Santa and Mrs. Claus

Carter chose to hang out with his friend Maxx this weekend. They spent the entire weekend playing outside. Maxx lives on a few acres of land in B'ville and they rode 4-wheelers, golf carts, and circled the pond in a paddle boat. He hasn't stopped talking about it!

Good Eats!

How much does Cate love corn?

This much!!!!!

Painting...BLAH

I hate to paint. However, the walls of our home need it. I am so tired of looking at finger prints and shoe marks...and Brady's mural that he one day (three years ago) painted for us....from his bedroom, through the hallway, and all over the dining room. It's time. For the last three months (no kidding) I have been searching magazines and blogs for color inspiration. I have bought no less than eight sample size paint cans and have painted swatches on every wall in our house. I finally decided I want all of the painting finished by Thanksgiving..which is six days away. I bought the paint on Thursday, hated it, had it tweaked and started on the hallway today. The color is one shade lighter than what is currently on my walls..no shit. A zillion paint samples and I end up with almost the same color. Guess I really like it :) So, I started in the hallway. It was very tricky to paint with three kids home and no Scott...however, I prevailed and my hallway/five doors/trim are all perfectly painted and CLEAN. Only one mishap...Cate threw up curdled milk all over one freshly painted wall and I had to re-do it. Not a dull moment in this house! Here's my final farewell to Brady's "artwork"....this picture was taken after I primed the markings...three times.

I think this is the reason Cate threw up all over....she snacked on some pretzels and cream cheese...eating half the tub and only one pretzel!

The Hunt Is On....

For the perfect Christmas card.....

Last Years Card....

Walking In Memphis

What a weekend! Our soccer trip was a great success. It was surprisingly a very relaxed weekend considering we had three soccer games, six people in one room (one of which was puking sour milk Friday night), four soccer teams staying in the hotel (which equals approx. 52 boys running around), and 10 total hours of Barney watching in the car. Our hotel was awesome AND attached to a shopping center that reminded me of the plaza in Kansas City...very cool. We ate crepes and Neely's BBQ, shopped, swam, and watched some great soccer. Fun!

Carter's team won two games and tied one...and he scored during the final game!!

Eating a "breakfast" crepe. Nutella, strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream

Cate was still suffering from her ear infection, but she was such a trooper. Scott took her on a long walk during the afternoon game on Saturday.

Saturday night, the entire team ate dinner at Neely's BBQ. It was really good! But, we had 43 people in our party and they refused to separate the bill....not easy to split a $750 tab!!

As soon as we sat down, Cate ripped her dress off and found this shirt in her diaper bag..which she insisted on wearing backwards. (Sigh)

Enjoying great company and great food. There was a lot of text messaging and talking about girls this weekend!

12 hours sleep Saturday night =

A happy Cate on Sunday!

I love this picture. She is his biggest fan

And We're Off....

We're packed and ready for Memphis. 2.5 hours til we stop in Sikeston for some delish Lambert's and then another 2.5 hours til we reach our destination. Weather is supposed to be in the 70's (35 degrees warmer than last year) and we're eating dinner at Neely's BBQ tomorrow nght! Lots of pictures will be taken..I hope I packed my camera. I'll leave you with this picture of the kids on our way to Kansas City this spring.....WISH ME LUCK :)

Lovin' This Weather!

We have been blessed with amazing weather this past week. Mother Nature totally redeemed herself after last months rain. On Saturday, we played outside from sun up til sun down...literally. We are off to Memphis on Friday for soccer and I'm hoping the weather continues to cooperate.

Cate loves being chauffeured around in Brady's tractor

Not your typical hockey goalie attire...soccer cleats and baseball catchers equipment. NOTICE OUR SUPER CLEAN GARAGE! Yay-a successful weekend project! You could eat off the floor- it's so clean :) And, one vehicle fits in there. Not too bad considering we have six bikes, one jogging stroller, a wagon, 4-wheeler, pitching machine...you get the picture. 4 kids=lots of stuff.

Brady loves to talk. So much that when he has nothing left to say, he has started counting out loud to 100. He often reaches 500+ a night. To channel this energy elsewhere, we've encouraged him to work on his letters, reading, and writing. Now, he's rarely without a notebook and pen...always making notes and copying words he sees then reading them off to everyone. He's so ready for kindergarten :)

He carries this framed poster around everywhere...writing and re-writing the alphabet a zillion times a day

This weekend also brought Cate's first ear infection of the season. Poor baby curled up to her daddy on the couch :( I took her to Express Care last night to confirm my suspicions and get her started on antibiotics. Brady went along with me and learned to tie his shoes while we were waiting...how's that for a multi-tasking mom?!

The Most Ill-Behaved Animal at the St. Louis Zoo

Cate Smallie

This Sunday, we woke up to sunshine. Shocking, considering it rained the entire month of October. Barney, the purple dinosaur, was singing about the zoo, and it inspired Scott to declare it a "zoo-day"..so, off we went. We traded Carter for Hunter and the boys were very excited to be taking a friend. Cate, however, was in rare form. She didn't want to walk, or be held, or ride in the stroller. Pushed her way to the front of every exhibit, mowing down the young, old, and handicap..whatever was in her way. She screeched, screamed, yelled...pounded on every glass display case, tried to grab a penguin when it splashed her, and I still cringe when I think about her "gently petting" the guinea pigs in the Children's Zoo. I think it was in front of the sea lion pool when Scott stopped dead in his tracks and declared he was finished with her. His exact words were, "that's it, I'm done. I will raise the three boys, you can have Cate. I'm way out of my league with her". I guess everyone has a breaking point!!This is when she stopped in the middle of the bridge and refused to move until she finished an entire bottle of water....therefore, not having to share with her brothers

Stubborn? Um, yes.

Throw it back, sister. Of course, she finished the entire bottle.

Even with Cate acting like a possessed child, the boys still had a great time!

This is one of the fish she assaulted through the glass...

Looks pretty sweet, eh?...it's all an act

Brady was amazed with the size of this leaf!

Kissing a frog

Pretending to sleep so she didn't have to leave the Children's Zoo

Terrible two's....here we come