everybody just keeps getting older

So we had a couple birthdays this past weekend and it just sort of shocks me how we all just keep getting older.  It seems like time is going by so slow, but then another year is past and before you know it, your in your 30's and wondering how that happened. 

My family's (immediate family including my siblings and nieces and nephews and parents) birthdays start in August and end February.  Then from March through July nothing.  So our string of birthdays is fixing to come to and end.

In 2013 Jack turned 2 in August. Abigail turned 8 in September, and Austin turned 6 in October. 

 I myself turned  30!

We are like legit grown-ups now!

This this past weekend my husband joined the 30 club.  I'm super excited about being in my 30's.  I just have this feeling it's going to be some of my best years.  Not that my 20's were bad, but it did consist of a lot of  pregnancy, newborns, lack of sleep, too much weight gain, job stress, financial stress, and most of that has passed now. 

My sweet little niece Audrie just turned two this weekend as well.  

We got her those little rubber boots she's wearing.  They light up and everything!

Love her!

Two of my handsome guys at the party.  The other was off playing!

As much as I enjoy celebrating birthdays, I'm sort of glad to have a break from them for a while.  

Chore Charts and a trip to the Circus!!!!

Way back in May I bought these PDF chore charts from this Etsy store.

The plan had been to start during the summer, but then we had the whole move out of our house and into my parents house and then move into our new house thing, so it got slightly postponed.  

We are just starting this week. 

please ignore the nasty dirty smudge on our fridge, trying to keep it real here on my blog

Every time they complete a chore they put a sticker next to it for that day.  At the end of the week they will get ten cents for every sticker.  

I know that doesn't sound like much, but we ain't made of money!! 

We went to the Circus on Sunday.  All three of the kids loved it and had a great time and were so well behaved.  I think this will definitely become a yearly thing. 

Luckily our neighbors gave us two free adult tickets, which saved us 30 bucks, and the kids get in free.  Otherwise we would have had to take out a small loan for food and extra fun stuff.  

The big kids got a snack right when we got there.

Abigail: snow cone $4.00

Austin: Popcorn $3.00

All of us to share: Two bottles of water $2.00

Jackson shared with them.

During intermission they each got another snack and Abigail got her face painted.

Abigail: Pickle $2.00

Austin: Nachos $5.00

Abigail: face paint $5.00

The grand total being: $21.00!  

I guess that's not too bad, considering there were 5 of us total.  

Lessons learned for next year...

1.  Check the tickets and make sure you are going to the right place.  Yep, we just assumed it was at a certain place and it wasn't.

2.  Sneak in some snacks and drinks.  We will probably still let them get one circus snack, but not two.

3. During Intermission get down and get in line quickly for elephant/pony rides, face painting, or balloons because the lines were crazy long.

4. Nobody is getting a snow cone.  Abigail dropped her spoon like 15 times.  They are just too hard to eat!

5.  Bring Nana and Papa and maybe they will pay for some, LOL just kidding!! 

The motorcycles at the end were the best part, but Jackson didn't like them very much.  I think they were too loud and intense for him.  He hid his face almost he whole time!

I'm so glad we decided to go.  I'm ready to start doing more fun stuff like this as our kids are getting older and can handle it!!

  Can't wait until next year!!

a table without chairs

Back in July I picked out our new dining room table.  We didn't even know what house we were buying, but I knew I wanted this table.  The only problem is that we haven't picked out any chairs yet.  

Brent had a ton of help putting the table together.

Abigail has already learned to let the men take care of putting things together, while the ladies sit by and watch. 

The final project!

I love it!!

Now we just need to get some chairs.

she's 8 going on 18

We had Abigail's 8th birthday party at Chucky Cheese.  It was so nice not to have to prepare anything or clean up anything.  

Austin ate pizza for the FIRST TIME EVER!

It was a great birthday!!

sick boy and paper airplanes

I had a very sick boy all last week.  Austin ran fever and suffered from bad diarrhea for 5 long days.  He was miserable, which made me miserable because I couldn't really help him.  I was mentally exhausted and stressed by the end of the week, but by Saturday morning he finally stopped running fever and started perking up.

I'm so extremely relieved and happy to have my happy healthy boy back.  Now I'm just crossing my fingers that Abigail and Jack don't catch this nasty bug going around.

Sunday afternoon Austin asked me to make him a paper airplane.  So I made him the easy traditional paper plane, but he wasn't very impressed.  So I hit YouTube and made this fancy paper airplane.

I was very proud of myself.  

Before long the entire family was involved in paper airplane races.

 Jack's paper plane was pretty mangled!

Trying to get planes to stick in the flowers became the new game.

It was a fun afternoon of family fun.  

I highly encourage any families out there who are sitting around the house bored, to get some paper and make some planes. 

 I promise everyone will have an awesome time.