Sweet pics of kiddos

I just wanted to post some pics of the kids. They seem to be growing so fast!

Nia had her first gymnastics meet this weekend :)

Kye being sweet and crossing his arms for us.

The kids playing a wild game of Bed Bugs.  Even Kye got in on the action! Leyton is very intense!

Okay, I am a bad blogger!  I am now the new owner of a awesome iPhone 4s with the icloud capabilities and I am going to try to be a better at blogger.  Supposedly I can upload pictures directly from my phone, which I am now using as my camera since it has more megapixels than my old camera. SO we will see if I can do better. 

I do have one picture to upload today.  This is our family christmas card picture.

The Great American Vacation...kindof :)

It is hard to believe that we have been home for two weeks already!  I was wanting to post this sooner, but you all know how busy life can get with 3 kiddos, a job and a house to take care of. 
We took a 9 day road trip to Madison, OH to visit our friends Lisa, Dave, Mattie and Molly :)

We started out on Saturday, June 18th at about noon and headed to St. Louis. We rented a super cool minivan for the trip with a built in DVD player so the kids were in seventh heaven watching movies most of the way there.  Monte is considered a kid since he climbed in the back and watched, too :)  We made really good time and got to our hotel at about 6:00pm.  We checked in and then decided to get something to eat.  After dinner the kids swam in the pool til after dark while Monte and I just lounged and enjoyed our evening without the 1 year old :)  (Kye stayed with my mom for the week)


Sunday we went to meet my brother for lunch and then onto the Budweiser Brewery Tour.  We really enjoyed getting to see him and the kids enjoyed the Clydesdale's.  Of course, I forgot my camera! So no pics :(

Monday we went to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (the arch in St. Louis)  We enjoyed the Louis and Clark Movie. 

In my old age I am getting very interested in history... Did you know that the Indian guide that Lewis and Clark used for the second half of their journey to the Pacific had a newborn with her?  I was flabbergasted that she could take a newborn through mountainous terrain during the winter.  I didn't even leave the house for a month after Nia was born!!

Then we went up the tram to the top of the Arch

And took pics from the top



The Air Force was there that day and Monte and Leyton got to go through this helicopter :)

Tuesday we headed to Indianapolis.  The GPS only messed up once and tried to drive straight through the Allison Transmissions warehouse :o  The boys went to Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Nia and I got our nails done.  I am kicking myself for not taking pics!!

Wednesday we went to Dayton, OH to the Air Force Museum.  I wrote down the wrong address and we ended up at the Air Force National Cemetery and it was in a very scary part of town, oops!  Thank God for Monte having his blackberry so we could get the correct address and finally arrive at the museum. 

Monte could have spent two whole day there but the kids and I were done after about 2 hours :)



Leyton found some flying games in the learning center.


We then headed for final destination Madison, OH.  We got to spend some relaxing time talking with our old friends Lisa and Dave.  It had been almost 2 years since we had seen them!

Thursday was onto Sandusky, OH to Cedar Point Amusement Park.  It rained on us almost the whole way there, but once we got there it cleared up and we were able to ride roller coasters!  Leyton was 1 inch short of being able to ride most of the rides so he and I kinda hung out on the smaller rides. (Thank God, my tummy does not like roller coasters!)  Here are some pics.

Friday was Niagara Falls, NY.  Again, it rained on the way there, but once we arrived it cleared up!  I am so glad we made the trip.  It is amazing what God has made there! 

This was a really cool tree that the kids thought they had to climb.

Funny face pic :)

This is Dave and Lisa with Leyton on the trails at Niagra


Saturday, our last full day was spent going to wineries.  I was just in awe of the vineyards.  They are soooo beautiful!  Of course, I forgot my camera that day!!!  There were grape fields everywhere you looked, almost as many wheat fields as Kansas has!

Sunday was a Mattie's 12th birthday party.  We waited to leave until after the party because Mattie and Molly were riding back with us to spend some time with there Dad who lives in Kansas.  We left at 3:30pm.  It took us 15 1/2 hours to get home.  We only made 1 wrong turn and we only stopped twice!!  The kids slept most of the way, thank GOD!!!

My mom met us at our house with Kye, I missed him SOOOOOO much!!!!

I really enjoyed our vacation, but there is no place like home!!  Right Dorothy :)

New Pics

These two won't even touch and they fell asleep together!

 My sweet little monster :)

 Nia was having fun with my camera, I am sure she will love me for posting these!



Last day of School

Well last Wednesday was the last day of Kindergarten for Leyton and 3rd grade for Nia.  They both had a great year and learned so much. 

This is before they left that morning.

Nia has become an amazing reader.  She read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Secret Garden just to name a couple.  This was also the first year for state assessment testing and she did awesome.  She received some of the highest scores in her class.  In math she was #3!!  We are so proud of her academic accomplishments!  She works really hard on everything she sets her mind to :)

She loved her teacher this year!  This is a pic of her and Mrs. Lowden. 

Leyton also had a great year!  He has come so far from the kid who when I would try and get him to color after scribbling a couple lines he would say "Mom, I am done can you finish this for me?"  He brings home his letter pages colored with such detail and precision (for a 5 yr old :)  His report card was awesome.  Of all the testing, he only missed 4 sight words!  He is definitely ready for 1st grade!

This a pic of him and Mrs. Ackerman :)

I always do a pic of this kids on the first and last day of school on the bench in front of the school.  Nia was not very excited about it this year, as you can tell.  Is was kinda cold and windy :)

They are both such good kids.  I can not believe how God has blessed us with such wonderful children.  I can't imagine a life without them :)

Breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa

A couple weeks ago, my mom and dad came up to eat breakfast with us and go garage saleing.  We really had a great time!  I really love that my mom and dad spend so much time with our kids.  They are truly heaven sent.  I don't think I would be a very good parent without them. It is so calming to know that if Monte and I need a break all we have to do is call and they will be here to babysit even for just an evening so we can go to the movies.

Here are some pics of breakfast. 

Wordless Thursday :)

State Gymnastics

Saturday April 30th was Nia's state gymnastics meet.  Monte took the boys to the farm on Friday evening to stay with my Dad (my Mom was out of town)  We got up about 7:00 Saturday morning and were on our way to the meet (2 1/2 hours away) at 7:30.  We stopped on the way for a good breakfast since the meet was from 11:00 - 1:00.  So Nia wouldn't get too hungry and everything was great.  One of Nia's teammates was competing at 8:00 am that morning and we got a call that she had got 1st on one of her events and 3rd overall, which was a personal best for her and we were really excited for her.

We got to the meet and Nia started warming up and then it started.  Her first event was vault and on her 1st vault she didn't even do her handstand before she kind of wobbled and had to start over.  So that was one chance out the window.  She did well on her second vault 9.6, which is a pretty good score for her.  Then she was onto bars where her practices went really well, then on her dismount her hand slipped off the bar and she landed and put her hands down so she didn't fall, which is a .5 deduction. 8.9.  So I was thinking, okay, this in not going so well, but she has her best two events coming up and she can bring her score up with those.  On beam she did a flawless routine (in my eyes anyway) and she scored a 9.55. What???  She has never scored lower than a 9.7 on the beam since her first meet back in December.  I was getting mad, but decided to just simmer down and she would pull it out on floor.  She was the very last person to compete on floor, which is always the last event so there were people getting up and talking and leaving to get a seat in the auditorium for the awards ceremony.  I was about to scream at them all for being so loud and distracting, but I thought that would probably been even more distracting so I controlled myself. (It wasn't easy)  She started her floor routine and I looked away for one second and thought I had missed her little back bend she does in the first part, but the rest was awesome.  Then her score came up..... 9.1.  What??? I was so confused, again the lowest score she had ever received.  What is going on.  Then she comes over and says "I forgot my back bend"  Oh, I thought I had just missed it.  That counts for a missed skill and they can take up to 1 point  deduction.  So we went to the awards ceremony pretty numb.

Following are the pics.  She got 2nd on beam, 5th on floor, 7th on bars, 5th on vault and 7th overall.

I can't figure out how to rotate them so I guess you will have to tilt your head today :)

Nia was pretty disappointed with her outcomes, but I tried to tell her that it just wasn't her day and there will be more meets next season, and no matter what we will always be proud of her!  She got over it pretty fast. She was a gymnastics on Monday and now they are working on skills for Level 4 and she is pretty excited about getting to skip level 3.  

It's been a great couple weeks.

We have been really busy the last couple weeks.  We started by working in the garden last weekend and then worked all day this Friday and Saturday painting the kid's rooms and rearranging furniture so that Leyton now has the bunk bed in his room and Nia got her new loft bed that Monte built.  Then we went to see Monte's family for Easter Sunday and went to church with them and ate way too much.

Here are some pics of Kye "helping" Daddy in the garden :)

I had to throw this pic in because it shows how big Kye is getting! 

He was eating his breakfast on a stool at the counter with the "big" kids :)

Where have I been? 2011

January 2011 - Nia has her second gymnastics meet and wins 1st All-Around. I am so proud of her!!

A little fuzzy, but you can tell she is on top of the podium :)

February 2011 - Leyton turns 6 with a Star Wars party at the bowling alley. He enjoys basketball so much. He spends almost every nice day in the driveway shooting baskets. Maybe he has found his "thing"??

March 2011 - Nia has another meet and wins 1st All-Around again! Wow, this is so much fun. I am officially a "Gymnastics Mom" :) I spend the entire meet tracking scores and feeling like I am about to vomit because I am so nervous. Nia is calm and collected. (She gets that from her Daddy) :)

Nia has her 9th birthday party at a local jewelry/bead store making necklaces and bracelets.

April 2011 - Go to see my brother to celebrate his 30th birthday. We find out he and his wife are moving to the west coast this summer. It makes me sad that they will be so far away, but I know it is the right thing for his family.