Midweek confessions

I've been slack with my confessions lately but here ya go!

1. I definitely did not chase down a hay ride for Eli's field trip (you can read about that in my previous post)

2. I held our chicken brooder light (I replaced the red warming bulb with a flood light) for Josh as he plastered our pool at 9:30 at night.

3. Fed the kids left over frozen spaghetti and myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich last night because I didn't feel like cooking. I have no clue what Josh ate.

4.  Told Josh that I didn't wash Olivia's hands as she was eating...just for fun- she had been playing in the dog and chicken water outside.. he about freeeeeaked out! So mean ;)

5. Put Olivia in the car without clothes on (just a diapie) to run and pick up Isaac from football practice.

6. Sent a facebook message to the mom of the girl Isaac likes! Shhh.. he doesn't know.

7. I'm on a no buying miscellaneous expenditures budget.... but broke down and ordered Olivia these darling cowboy boots online!

Well that's about all I can think of right now. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Fall, football, and orchards

I love fall!! Have I already said that? It's definitely my favorite season!

Here's my Fall to do list: I know it's pretty shallow.. don't judge :)

I marked off the ones I've completed

1. Partake in pumpkin spiced lattes

2. Visit a pumpkin patch

3. Go to a corn maze- Elida Home has a great one and proceeds go to the children's home

4. Plant mums and decorate for fall

5. Visit the Mountain State fair

6. Take a few hikes

7. Bake some pumpkin goodies

8. Carve a pumpkin

9. Have fall pictures made of the kids

10. Go camping

Today we kicked off Fall in full flavor with a pre-school field trip to Stepp's Orchard. I was super thankful to have Josh go with me because the road up there is so curvy and my driving skills are below par.

We had a load of gravel coming this morning at 7:30 (for our pool construction project) so we could leave at 8 and be at the orchard at 9. Well of course things don't go as planned and the gravel didn't show up on time. In the meantime, I take Isaac to school, throw my hair in a pony tail, put on a dab on makeup, find my jeans from yesterday and frantically dress and wake the kiddos (Olivia was awake from 4:45-6:00 am this morning which never happens). I make some delicious frozen Eggos for them to eat in the car on the way up the road.

When we finally arrive at the orchard, we are more than 30 minutes late and the hay ride had already taken the kids into the orchard to pick apples. Thankfully, the lovely worker at the orchard put us in her truck and drove us through the orchard to meet the hay ride. The tractor evidently didn't see us so she starts beeping the horn while EVERYONE stares back. Talk about an entrance. We grabbed our apples and hopped on the hay ride! A bit embarrassing but hey... we made it!

Eli had a great time and Livi did too. We got to pick pumpkins, go through a corn field and a soy bean maze, drink fresh apple cider, and try apples. Josh and I took the kids to PF Changs for lunch and we headed home.

To complete our fall fun day.. Isaac had his first home football game. The air was a bit chilly and it was perfect weather for football. I'm not a fan of him playing football but I acquiesce since he really enjoys it. His team won so he was of course happy about that.. and he didn't get hurt so that made me happy. 

Isaac's football game.. he's number 76. This was the rival game of our two Jr. High schools, East and West.

Nana and Eli

Daddy and Olivia in the soy bean maze

Olivia looking at the beans

Livi the pumpkin

Eli the pumpkin

Mommy and Livi

Nana and Eli

Olivia's NEW Language scores

Ms. Hannah, Olivia's Auditory Verbal Therapist/SLP came out last week to do a home visit and her bi-yearly testing.. and guess what... SHE ROCKED IT! I knew she was going to score high during the testing but I had no idea how high. For my non-SLP friends, this is a standardized test that is normed for children age birth through 7 that do NOT have hearing impairment. So the fact that she did Ahhhmazing is especially cool.  For my SLP friends.. I threw in her chart with scores :) Also this was based on her chronological age (16 months) not her hearing age which is (13 months). Hannah wants us to decrease our sessions from weekly to every other week because Olivia is doing so well. 

	Standard Score*	Percentile Rank	Severity Rating
Auditory Comprehension	128	97	Above Average
Expression Communication	129	97	Above Average
Total Language Score	130	98	Above Average

We will continue wearing our awesome pink hearing aids and inputting language because it's working and Livi is thriving. A year ago I was worried because I didn't know what to expect and today I'm so thankful for our blessings! Click here to see how I was feeling a year ago when Olivia first got her hearing aids.

Olivia Jane

Fall is in the air!!

One of my favorite fall activities is the Mountain State Fair! It is held in Asheville and we always have fun. Josh and I like to go just to get the Maple Syrup Cotton Candy. We took 5 kiddos this year.. our three and our two nephews, Bryce and Braedon.

Last year Olivia was a wee papoose and Eli wouldn't ride anything. However this year, Eli was all about the rides. Olivia rode in her stroller and watched the scenery and got a few bites of my funnel cake! She liked it just as much as her mom (Daddy doesn't like doughnuts!). She loved seeing the animals and made animal noises right along with them. Isaac and his cousins rode the big rides and had a caramel apple. I got my carmel apple, funnel cake and cotton candy so I was good to go! Click here to see our fair adventure from last year. 

Eli and Braedon in the NC Forest Service Helicopter

Isaac

Eli on the mini roller coaster

Of course he wanted his picture with the big John Deere

Boys and tractors

This baby llama was a fair baby. We love all the "Llama Llama books"

Bryce, Isaac and Braedon

Eli and the train

Yumm.. Me and my funnel cake

Olivia watching the boys ride

The big guys riding

Eli would have done this the entire night if we would have let him. He did make two passes. 

Weekly recap and a sore mama!

Olivia driving Cousin Carter's John Deere- in her smocked John Deere dress of course. 

Reading books. Her new favorite is Goodnight Moon... we've been targeting verbs lately too.

My sis and I had a business work day but all we really accomplished was taking a picture of Camden and Olivia in their matching Kelly's Kids outfits... and eating Holly's deli for lunch!

I used nap time to organize my pantry... love that label maker. Now if it will only stay nice and neat.

Josh and I shoved 3 tons of sand from this truck... that's 6000 lbs PEOPLE! My whole body is sore.

The littles LOVE for me to build them a fort with the couch cushions.  Cheap and endless entertainment.

Missing Edith

Poor Edith the chicken was killed tonight. We came home this evening and the chickens were out (we still aren't sure how the gate got unlocked.... Eli??). Our brown chicken, Edith was laying under the hen house and she was suffering from being mauled. Josh took care of her and then Isaac helped him bury her near our woods. We are 99.9% sure it was Sampson because he had ahold of Georgie (our black chicken) the other night and hurt her pretty bad. If anyone has any suggestions on keeping dogs from killing chickens let me know. Of course we aren't going to get rid of Sampson; but I don't want our other two chickens killed either.

Randomness

I bought these Stella and Dot earrings at my friend Kellie's party the other night. They came this week and I love them! The stones have so much variation and are beautiful.

I've read several articles on Teens and Technology lately so I thought I would share my two cents... especially since I have a THIRTEEN year old!  I love these two articles. This one is is written by a mom to teenage girls about her sons, Given Breath and the other one is from a blog Desperately Seeking Sanity.

We do pay attention to Isaac's technology usage and that's going to continue as he gets older. Thankfully he's not too interested in social media so it makes it easy. He has been begging for a smart phone but I'm pretty adamantly against it (at least at this point). Right now he has a cut to the basic type phone that he can call and text from when needed. It doesn't allow picture messages and he can't get on the internet. Basically he can text his friends and call me when it's time to pick him up from football practice. I honestly think that there is no reason he needs a smart phone and have access to picture messages (potential sexting) or other types of risky behavior such as the many videos of scantily clad girls on you tube or the internet. Not that I think he would do any of these behaviors but boys will be boys and it's my job to protect his innocence and help keep him pure at heart as much as I can. He also knows I have access to his phone at any time and can read messages randomly. 

We don't allow television or the computer in his room. This is a safeguard against watching inappropriate shows (we do have a passcode on anything other than PG 13) or surfing on inappropriate sites. Our TV's and Computers are in our living room or media room where they are monitored. 

Even though he's not into Facebook-  I still have his password and monitor to see what kids are posting. It is mind blowing some of the things these kids post. I mean really the 'rate me' scale is asking for trouble and so is the 'be honest' type post. Thankfully, Isaac doesn't do that.. he really is pretty mature for his age and sees the silliness of that type of behavior. 

Here is a snapshot from our week!

I told Eli I needed Daddy to unhitch the trailer. He then preceded to give me step by step instructions on how to do it. I guess he's paid attention... me not so much!

Eli said, "I need to get the sugar holes off my tongue too". Crazy kid!

The Princess reading books. I thought she looked adorbs in her pink chevron! That bow looks strange in that pic but it's just the way the picture was taken. I've recently bought bows from onestopbowshop.com and I love them!

Eli and Mawmaw (Josh's mom)

He loves these chickens. He carries them like they are puppies. Me.. not so much. I still won't touch them. 

Eli and the chickens. Our dog, Sampson, had Georgie by the neck and I thought she was dead. Thank goodness she seems to be okay! Ohh. I have 31 eggs in my refrigerator.. I need some pound cake or quiche recipes.

I said I would never....

Cloth diaper!

Well, Zulily was having a special a while back so I got 2 diaper covers and 8 liners  for 20 bucks. I wasn't sure about how to wash, store, etc but my friend Elizabeth, sweetly gave me pointers. I have to say that I still use disposables most of the time....but I have been using cloth when we are home. 

I also cheat by keeping Livi in her disposable diaper until she has her morning poop and then I break out the cloth ones. 

So never say never!!

'Helping' Mommy with the laundry

Little Miss is also loving her potty (the one I bought for Eli when he was 2 and he never used or sat on). She likes to go sit on it before her bath and says "pee pee". Then she says "water" because she wants me to turn the water on, and when she's done she gets up and says "all done". She has used her potty the last four nights before her bath. Now she may decide next week she's not interested and that's ok. Eli wanted to see if she had done any business in there and tried to pick her up off the potty to look. Olivia of course didn't care for that and protested. 

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School days

Eli started his Tuesday/Thursday pre-school again. He was set to go from 8-11:00 but I know how hard it is to get everyone going in the mornings and with a 15 minute drive, I decided to move him to the 11:30-2:30 class. It's actually working out because most days he doesn't even take a nap until 3:00 anyway. He had a great first day of school and was excited to be back with his teachers.

Isaac's 8th grade year is going great so far. He likes all his teachers and hasn't had much homework yet.  He is playing football so everyday after school he goes straight to practice until 6:00. It's a long day without my big boy. The first day he was at school, Olivia looked towards his room and yelled, "Isaac" all day.