The latest

I haven't updated the blog in Oh Forever since it takes so long to load pictures. But here is a recap. Griffin won an accelerated reader award for kindergarten. He was #8 out of 102 kids so that was pretty cool.

Ashby is by far the DIRTIEST child we have in our house. She loves to be outside and lives in the dirt and water. Here is our little princess at one of Griffin's Tball games. It was only about 100 degrees outside. Let us not forget the back side...

Today was Griffin's last day of kindergarten. He was very sad that one of his best buddies, Jude, was moving to Florida.

Griffin with Jude. They must have hugged and cried about 100 times.

Lastly Ashby loves to wear any kind of shoes. Here she is in her "doots" as she calls them. Such a sweet little girl.

Sunday

On Sunday I took the kids to see an Aladdin musical with a bunch of friends. WE had a group of 21 people, and it was really fun. Here are the kids before the show.

And a few shots of the boys in their madras plaid pants.

The Mischievous One

So Ashby is turning into a little girl with a lot of personality. Definitely moving from being a laid-back girl to one who knows her mind. She loves to take everything out of every drawer in the house and scatter it all over the floor. She loves to carry shoes everywhere and no shoe ever has a mate anymore. She loves above all to be messy. Here is a picture of her eating chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Hey, she was a happy girl:) Climbing up the stairs after I told her "no" a dozen times.

And lastly playing the backyard. She insists on going up and down the incline in the back yard. She fell down, slid through the mulch, and loved every minute of it. I may have to rethink her wardrobe in the future.

Sweet Elvis

This week we had to put our dog, Elvis, to sleep. It was sad for us, but I definitely think it was the right decision. When we traveled over Christmas, he started to have trouble walking. We took him to the vet in Indy who said it was probably some sort of spinal lesion. We tried prednisone which seemed to really help. Over the past few weeks the prednisone has worked less and less. By Monday he couldn't even stand up to eat his food. It was sad to see him that way.

The kids are still feeling a little sad. On Tuesday afternoon we released some balloons to go to heaven to be with Elvis. That helped give them a bit of closure. We also got a book called, Dog Heaven, which the boys really love.

Here are a few pictures of the kids with Elvis from the past few weeks...

We will miss him. When we first rescued him, he was a nervous mess who wouldn't even take a dog treat out of our hands. In the end we had a loving (although still nervous) pet who was sweet with our kids and wanted to be in the mix of our family. What a sweet little guy.

Nanny McPhee No More

This week Griffin finally lost his other front tooth. It was so loose and crooked that I started calling him Nanny McPhee. Anyway here is how he looks now. There was no way to get a normal picture of him. So here is crazy instead:)

Griffin

Here is the latest with Griffin. He started Upwards basketball a few weekends ago at our church. Brent is the coach, and Steve is the assistant coach. I only got a few pictures of them. Griffin is #3 and Kaleigh is #14.

Last week he lost one of his top front teeth. Here is what he looked like.

Tonight he lost another top tooth so he is especially snaggle toothed at the moment.

Burgerham

Cute story. Gray often comments on what color a person likes based on their favorite sports team. So for example, it is assumed that Uncle Adam's favorite color is red because he likes Alabama. He is constantly talking about what color Uncle Adam likes whenever we play a board game. So today he said Uncle Adam would pick red because of Alabama. Then he asked, "why him live in Burgerham?". That is supposed to be Birmingham.

Funny story

Last week the kids got out of school on Thursday because of the snow. I remember telling Griffin that I wondered if school was going to be cancelled for Friday too. He said, "Well, it is all up to Mrs Cribbs". I asked him, "why does Mrs Cribbs get to decide if you have school?". Griffin replied, "Well, she is the school canceller". Yes, Mrs Cribbs is the school guidance counselour. Thought that was a cute comment.

Santa Brunch

On Saturday we took the kids to have a brunch with Santa at the botanical gardens. It is one of our favorite holiday things to do with the kids. Santa comes around to each table to talk with each kid. Then you can also go up and sit on his lap and read your Christmas list. Here are the 3 kids before the brunch started. Griffin was starving!

Santa dropped by the table for a visit with the boys.

Little Ashby has been sprung from her high chair.

She was very curious about Santa.

No crying this year!

Griffin read his list to Santa.

Gray was super excited to sit on his lap.

All 3 kids on Santa's lap.

Little bit of snow

On Monday we got a little bit of snow. Maybe 2 inches- enough to play in but not enough to keep Griffin home from school. So Gray and I went outside to play a bit. We built a little snowman to surprise Griffin when he got home.

Tomorrow school is already cancelled in anticipation of the snow we may get so hopefully we will have even more time in the snow. Should be fun:)

Yellow Belt

Today Brent took Griffin to taek wondo to test for his yellow belt. He got it and was so excited! Here is a picture of Griffin with instructor Kelly. He even broke a board with his hands- he really loved this part!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we are staying put for Thanksgiving. While we miss our families, it is kind of nice to be able to have Brent home and just relax a bit. We have most of our leaves down now so the kids have been playing in them a lot. The boys set the table this year.

I can't believe we got a shot of all 5 of us smiling:)

Three crazy kiddos! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Fall weekend

The leaves here have been so pretty and it finally feels like Fall. Here is a pic of our Japanese Maple by the pond. It has been beautiful. Even though it isn't that cold, Griffin sometimes insists on wearing an unusual combination of scarves and hats. He even dresses up his stuffed animals.

Brent and I on date night while my mom was in town.

This past weekend Brent raked up some leaves for the kids to jump in. They had a lot of fun.

The boys have started to like playing football with Brent. Gray even wanted to know why Brent couldn't come home from work one afternoon and play football with him.

Little Linda?

So lately we have been thinking that Ashby looks a lot like her Grandma Linda. Thoughts on this one? She really does look a lot like Brent (who in turn looks like Linda) and she does have the curls:) Here is a recent picture of her. Don't let this sweet little smile fool you. She is starting to show that she has quite the little temper. Her favorite word is "No!" and she says it with a lot of passion. She definitely has a "cheese" face for the camera now. It is hard to get a normal picture of her sometimes.

She is starting to show a preference for some of her more girly toys. She loves her little Vera Bradley purse that my friend bought her. She carries it around on her arm almost all the time.

She even carries it up the stairs!

Halloween parade

At Griffin's school on Friday, he had a kindergarten Halloween parade. It was really cute. The kindergarteners walk all around the school and the big kids give them all high fives and cheer them on. Here are some pics. Leo, Rynn, Maya, Matthew, and Griffin.

Griffin with his teacher, Ms Fisher.

Here he comes!

Griffin as a "ninja"

Attempting to get a group shot of his class!