Happy Birthday Tarin

One year ago today, Mr. Tarin Edward was born. I love my little nephew to pieces and have enjoyed watching him grow up this year. So, happy 1st birthday Tarin! We're proud of you and love having you be part of our family! (And, he does know me as his favorite auntie!)










Huh? Its my birthday????

Aunt Shauna has to take pictures all the time!

Go Hawks!

This weather we're having is oh so enjoyable! I could move to a place where its like this year round! Its been doing a number on the boys' allergies, however, so I'm not sure I'd want that for them. And speaking of health, I think we are for-going the flu shot this year. Yes-sir-ee. . . . I'm not going to chance getting sick. I think I'm around it enough as it is and every year now, I've gotten the shot and the boys and I have all gotten sick!!!! And, on top of being fearful of the drastic, but rare side effects of the shot, Shawn and I've decided to opt-out this year, even amongst the worries of the swine flu.

Here are a few pictures from this past weekend. Logan was shorter than the fire hydrant. I just thought that was a bit comical.

Here are the boys with me in our KU gear for the day. We've gotten tired of cheering for our local KSU team and they keep losing, so I dressed the boys this day and guess what, something must have worked for KSU to have a blowout of a game, and KU did win as well, so its all good!

Getting ready/waiting for the parade to start:

Piotique

If you know how to pronounce Piotique (Pie-O-Teek) without reading the pronunciation, you must be from around this area! :) We enjoyed the weather this weekend and celebrated the annual tradition of Piotique in my hometown. The parade was fun for the boys to watch:

That car was a bit loud for Logan:

as was this tractor:

Last Pics from Western KS

Here are a few of the pictures from western KS, the last blog post I'll have of them for awhile since I have pictures from this weekend to share now. We had Piotique in Clay Center yesterday, so went up to watch the parade and enjoy some time in my hometown. Afterwards, we headed up to my parents to pick some tomatoes, again. . . . to make more pizza sauce! Ah. .. . I can almost smell it now. We had my nephew, Tarin's birthday party last night. He's almost 1 year old already!!!! :)

Here is Zach with Shawn playing a domino game. Shawn was concentrating very hard!

Logan got lifted up onto this tree stump. Then he got a bit freaked out that we weren't going to help him down!

Logan with one of the little boys Malachi's age.

Malachi- Are you excited???? (He loves making this face!)

Playing football in the middle of the street. (that's how you know you're in a small town)



Today, I was busy cooking lunch and Logan came in the kitchen and said (in a very exasperated tone), "Mommy, would you PLEASE listen to me!!!! I promise- I'm NOT speaking Spanish!" Hmmmm . . . I'd wondered! :)

Rainy Day

WOW! Fall is officially here and go figure- the 1st home football game of the season and its already too cold to drag the boys out to it, not to mention RAINY!!!! Kids are dropping like flies at school- high fever, coughing, just plain icky feeling. My daycare provider's children were all sick today so I'm guessing its just a matter of time before it hits us! So far, so good! This weekend, we have busy plans for the Piotique (Clay Center celebration) and Tarin's (my nephew) birthday party.

The cousins played Operation out at western KS.

Logan with Uncle Kelly:

My brother arranged these flowers for us to give to Grandma:




Logan and his 3 year old (see how much bigger he is) cousin played in the soot at grandmas house. Do you know how hard that is to get out of clothes??? Neither did I!

Malachi LOVED (that's a bit of an understatement) this 4-wheeler. He was pretty obsessed.

Tired:

Excited:

Shawn gave Malachi a grasshopper with the legs plucked off. It was Malachi's friend for about an hour until he finally let it go to a resting/dying place.



Hope you had a WONDERFUL Friday! Ours has been full of . . . . temper tantrums. . . . laundry. . . .cleaning. . . . and reading night (since we'll be skipping the football game).

Big Wheels on a Big Hill

One of the fun things to do in western KS at Grandma's is to ride on the Big Wheels. With all the little boys this time, it was a popular game, so much so that we had a few scuffles over taking turns, but it is quite a thrill to roll fastly down the hill until you collide into the shed or the brush pile.


Here is Logan getting ready to race down the hill:

Zach is not wanting to take turns, I'm guessing, but here you can see the large hill:



Malachi wanted to try his hand at the wheel:

Here go all the boys:



We had dr appointments tonight and I struggled a little to remember how to be Christian as I walked past our old peds office. I wish so much that things hadn't happened there that did. I wish so much that that dr would apologize for his wrongdoings and I wish my children would have never had to suffer like they did because of his lack of judgement. I just have to trust with my heart that someday he'll also meet his creator and face judgement for the wrongdoings he did. Its hard not to harbor hatred for him, and such a little thing as having an appt in the same building triggers such an emotion. Anyway, our appts went great. Zach had his ENT appt across town at the same time and it went well. Thank the Lord!

Church Night

Zach and Logan start Awanas tonight. They've really wanted to participate in Awanas, but we've never really had one locally that I know of. Zach brought home a flyer from school and really wants to go with his friends, so I figured it couldn't hurt. I let them choose last year about doing Sunday School and they decided to work on it with me at home rather than rush to church on Sunday mornings (which sometimes it was canceled without us knowing anyway), so decided that following a certain devotional time at home was more meaningful. Either way, I am just plain excited that my children are curious and excited to spend time at church, learning more about God.

Here are some more pictures from this past weekend:

These are the 6 grandkids on Shawn's side (only among him and his brothers, not including cousin's kids):




And, here were a few attempts at a family picture:




On the way home, we stopped at Hays to play in the park and to meet up with a friend, Becky and her girls, which we haven't seen for years since we went to Manhattan Presbyterian with her (see, I'm staying along with our church story!).




The boys ran some built up energy off and had WONDERFUL naps on the rest of the way home.

Here are a few of the kiddos. Logan was the SAME size as the twin girls. They also have been through some of the same stuff Logan has, so it was kinda nice for them to play with another 4 year old that is almost their same size.

He banged his lip up pretty nicely, and it bled for awhile, making me wonder if he just might have needed stitches, but he ended up being alright. Had he been our first-born. . . . well. . . .we're well versed in boyhood ouchies and all the wonderful bumps and bruises of raising boys!