My little budding photographer (Haden) on a field trip @ the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens

Today Haden's class went on a field trip to an art studio and then to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden...their teacher told them all to bring digital cameras so they could take pictures while they were there...here are some of the pictures Haden took...

Haden even set this picture up himself....told Addie where to stand and to put her chips down!

With all the kids in the class having cameras they were all taking pictures of each other, of course! One of the girls in Haden's class put the camera in front of his face and said, "Haden, look inteligent." This was the result!

And speaking of photographers... 8-)

Jocelyn got a camera for christmas this past year...I recently looked at the pictures she had taken...here's what I found...(here is Jose Woce in a nutshell)... BTW...there are 687 more just like these...LITERALLY...and that doesn't include the 100 that we've already deleted! YOU GOTTA LOVE IT!!!!! Maybe instead of "FLASHBACK FRIDAY" I'll do "JOSE WOCE PICTURE DAY" so that we can share her love of goofiness with everyone!!!

Random Thoughts...

So have you ever wondered if there is something that could keep your kids busy for just a little while, while you get something done...we found one such thing yesterday...an empty box. Haden, Taylore, and Addison played with it inside FOREVER...then the girls took it outside to build a tent with it; Taylore even ASKED if she could do her homework in it...I don't think Taylore has ever asked to do her homework...EVER!

I seem to have these aha moments when I realize that my kids are growing up...and I'm just going to have to deal with that...well those of you that know me well know that I don't usually let my kids talk on the phone...well; I'm trying to let my kids grow up (a little bit); Breanna (my niece) called yesterday for Jocelyn...they had been on the phone for a little while and I went to see where she had wandered off to...when I put my head in Aaron's office and saw Jocelyn sitting on his desk chair talking on the phone it was one of those moments for me! My kids are growing up...and that's okay!

Scholastic Safari Book Fair

We went to the bookfair tonight at the kids school. Because it was the safari theme, they had a bunch of animals there. It was actually quite fun...until it was time to go...Addie can never get enough of animals! The pictures aren't the best quality; they were taken on my cell phone...but you'll get the idea~!

BYU Football in the "Man Room"

This was our 3rd BYU Football game watched in the "Man Room". I mentioned earlier that Aaron went to great extremes to have his "system" setup before the first BYU game. The first game was set to start @ 4:00 on Saturday, August 30th. The Geek Squad was at the house until sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 pm on Friday night setting up the surround sound; Direct TV was supposed to be here sometime Saturday morning by noon! Well...that didn't happen; Aaron was on edge ALL DAY!!!! I don't think they showed up until about 3:30 or 4:00; we found out that the guy that was supposed to be coming by noon ended up in jail...they called a guy that had already gone home to come install the system; he probably wished he hadn't come...there seemed to be problem after problem...one of which was him putting his foot through the ceiling! (Wish I'd thought to take a picture of that before it was repaired). When it all was said and done...Aaron was able to watch the end of the first quarter of that first game! Today I finally got pictures of the boys watching BYU in the "Man Room"!

(Below) Emily, Mat, Jason, Anthony, Papa (he came up from Houston to escape the path of Ike), and Aaron.

(Below) Addison took this picture!

(Below) Aaron's new favorite toy!

(Above & Below) Just in case you missed the score in the first shot...UCLA 0 - BYU 59! Go Cougars! (And a pretty sweet shot of Bronco if I do say so myself!)

Movie Night!

We've had "Movie Night" every Friday night since we've moved in! This pretty much consists of some people watching movies; the rest of the people (the kids) running around the house playing hide and go seek tag (in the house)! They LOVE to play that in the house...it's pretty funny to watch them run circles around the house chasing each other...there hasn't been too much physical or property damage so far; only a few bruises! I was able to catch a cute picture of Addison on Mat's shoulder's last night! Have I mentioned yet that we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having family nearby?!?!?!?

Long Lonely Days!

Addison looked so adorable walking out the door this morning with her school bag, napmat (yes, you read right; napmat, I'll get to that in a minute), and Jocelyn's little black sweater that she INSISTED on wearing; I had to take a picture!

When summer is almost here I always look forward to it (in ways), but at the same time, I know the craziness that we are about to embark on; this summer has exceptionally craziness! We loved it; we had a great time; but it was crazy! Well when it comes time to send the kids back to school I am very torn on the way I feel; I think that it will be great to have the whole day to get things done without having the kids yelling and fighting and having to nag them to pick up their messes, ect...I always seem to be sorely mistaken...I NEVER EVER enjoy the first few weeks of school; I miss my kids terribly...I find that I really LOVE the yelling and fighting and having to nag! This year was a little bit different because I had Aaron around...he is now working from home; I never thought that we could live through that...literally...but the idea grew on me and I actually rather like it. Well he had his first out of town trip this week! Jocelyn, Haden, and Taylore are naturally in school all day; you wouldn't think my four year old would be in school all day...well you've heard that everything is bigger in Texas...that includes a preschoolers school day! She is at pre-school from 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. (which is the reason for the napmat; they are required to give the kids one hour of "rest time"; now I know in a few weeks I will be jumping for joy that I have all day to fit everything in on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays...but for now I am sulking and feeling lonely! I really do miss having a noisy house; I grew up in a noisy house, I am now raising a noisy house, what am I going to do when the kids all move out; I guess I'll have to live nearby and make sure that I have noisy grandchildren around!

We really are loving being here! It has been so much fun being so close to Mat, Emily, Jason & Kyle! Monday night we were on our way to pick up Kyle to take the kids to the library and Jocelyn said, "Mom, isn't this so cool; we are going to pick up Kyle Moody to go to the library". It is still a little bit unreal that we have family that we love so dearly 3.7 miles down the road! I don't know if we've gone even one day without seeing at least one of them...they even guessed that I'd been lonely last night with Aaron gone and came by to visit! The kids put on a LOT of pantemime's for us...it was rather entertaining. I'll have to record them all playing one of these days!

To sum it up...I love the fact that I have crazy, wild, loud, bursting at the seams with personality kids and I miss them terribly when I am sitting in my empty house!

Silly Addison...And her first day of Pre-K

When it was time for Becky and Dennis to pack up and leave (they were afraid that the hurricane was headed their direction; when they saw that it wasn't going to hit them; they headed home a little bit earlier than expected). Well Becky asked Aaron to carry a bag out for him, he noticed the bag was extra heavy and wiggly! Addison really wanted to go home with them! It was lots of fun having them here with us for a few days!

Today was Addison's first day of school! She didn't want to go when she got up; but once she got there and heard that she was going to get to play with play dough; she had no problem staying! (It was very sad taking her to preschool all alone without Lizzie and Truman!)

Our Texas Star AND First Sunday Night Dinner @ 610!

When Aaron and I were looking at homes online from Virginia we noticed that lots of homes had These HUGE Texas stars in their yards or hanging in or on their homes. Well our realtor gave us a custom made Texas Star as a gift...Mat and Aaron were really excited to hang the Texas Star...I think it is a bit of a symbol for us that we ARE actually here; this whole thing has been so unreal; it's still hard to believe we're actually here. We had our first official "Sunday Night Dinner @ 610! We were lucky to have Becky and Dennis and their kids there with us as well as Mat, Emily, and Kyle (Jason had to work)! We had a great weekend with everyone! We spent lots of time together...First BYU game...(getting everything setup in the Man Room for that is a post in itself...I'll post that later); Sunday Night dinner; then a Labor Day celebration at Mat & Emily's; It was a great weekend; I wish I'd gotten more pictures. It was so much fun to spend time with everybody! We envisioned what it would be like living close to family for holidays and things; it was everything we'd dreamed of and more! It is so nice to be here and around family! Becky, you'll have to e-mail me pictures; I can't believe I didn't take more!

Finally Moved in...(continuation)!

As I mentioned earlier...we finally moved into the house; we're still not entirely done unpacking; in fact; only 3 rooms are done being unpacked...here are some pictures of the house! (before we moved in and after!) I'll have to add more pictures later...this is all I've got on the camera right now...I don't even have ANY of "The Man Room"!

Front Room Before....

Front Room after...

Kitchen Before...

Kitchen After...