Catch up time

My brother came to visit us for the first time.  He loves history so we took him to see some cool old history.  The Stumphouse tunnel was started before the Civil War and never finished afterwards. It was suppose to be a railroad tunnel.

The little guy has turned one. He loved his cake and his siblings loved his presents.

We spent some family time going fishing and visiting the fish hatchery. We would of had better luck at the fish hatchery. We didn't catch anything at the lake.

We have gone to this train festival every year we have lived here and loved it. The best part is the train ride, bounce houses, face painting, and balloon artist is all free. This year was threatening rain so got to ride the train three times. Yeah for no crowds! 

My birthday weekend we went exploring to an old stone bridge that was built back in 1820. Then onto the last covered bridge in SC. After that we went and played in one of our state parks in the waterfalls. 

With my mom now living in town I have been able to go on some field trips and help out a little bit at school. This was field day. It was fun to watch Jacob playing with his classmates and do the silly relay races.

Our Summer Overview

 I know, I have not written a blog post in, well, forever. So here's an overview. Some of you may know I drove my four kids and I out west for five weeks. I got to stop and see friends on the way. Liberty Jail happens to be on the way also.  Thanks Sheryl for letting us stay for a few days.

Now somehow I have two missionary companions that live in the little town of Rifle, CO and since I was driving right through there to get to Utah, I decided to stop. It was fun to get to see both of them even if it was only for a couple hours. Once in Utah, I attended my beautiful niece's wedding in the SLC Temple and got to see some of my family.

                                                 Then over the next three weeks I was in CO and Utah....

                        playing at splash pads, visiting family, and 

                                                                            friends.

My daughter was able to get baptized with several of her cousins, aunts and uncles and all her grandparents there. It was great to see her Daddy get to baptize her.

                                Then we all went to Ragged                                Mountain for a family reunion.

 Here's our bright and smiling faces.

 And stinky kid feet.

Unfortunately, during this time my grandma passed away and I did a mad dash to Texas for the funeral. 

                                                   7 out of my 9 siblings made it.

When back in Colorado, Joshua got his first long overdue hair cut. Here's the before and after.

 We went exploring with Grandpa and others.

                                     And then came home and picked blueberries. (Cause blueberries are happy food)  Oh and the little guy got his first teeth while on the trip.

 And went to the carnival this last weekend.

                                                                 Sam thought this ride was great!

Sorry for the randomness of this post but I just don't have time to give lots of details.

Picture overload

 Introducing our newest little guy, Joshua. 9lbs 9oz 20.5 inches long born Feb 2nd

 The next morning meeting his siblings.

 One week young.

 He was born with these nails.

 My sweet mom who helped me so much.  Unfortunately she had to leave this last week, but I was lucky enough to have her for 3 1/2 weeks.  Thanks for all your help.

 Asleep in my bed.  I think he sleeps there more then I do.

 Meeting Papa.

 Megan wanted to see if he would fit in her baby cradle. Barely

1 Month old.  I didn't realize I had him dressed in the same outfit.  

Hagood Mill

Not so far from us is a place called Hagood Mill.  We have never been there before and found out that they do some type of big thing every month.  This month was an Native American Festival.  The actual mill was pretty neat.  It ran commercially until 1966.  I think places like this are really interesting.  We are planning on going back sometime.

Halloween part 1

  Halloween started early in our house with multiple parties and fun.  Megan wanted to be a peacock and Sam is Buzz Lightyear.

 Jacob for this party decided to wear a rocket pack we made just for fun a couple days before.  It wasn't meant to be a costume but just a craft we made out of a cereal box one day.  Jacob also won the candy corn guessing contest and was super excited to get a prize.

We took the kids to the corn maze which also included a slide off the top of the hay bales.

 It was cold that night and only got colder as we wandered through the maze. 

 We made it to the bridge!

 Sam checked out the baby maze after we went on a hay ride.

 Down here in the south you can't carve your pumpkins more then just a couple days before.  We are risking major molding by carving 5 days early.  Hopefully they will last.

 This was the look I got after he stuck his hand in.  He wanted nothing to do with it after that.

 Megan and Jacob though went to town while Sam played with his toys.

 Here's the first ones.

 They decided they hadn't done enough so they carved the back sides too.

 Here's the back sides.  You can probably tell which sides I helped with.  The eyes came with a kit I got on clearance last year.  I thought they were fun.