Autum is here, wish you were beautiful...

It is Fall in the Ozarks and the trees are beautiful! The weather could be warmer, but I can't complain about the sunshine we are getting. I love getting to wear warm clothes again, but I hate wearing shoes! I wish I could wear my sandles all year! I guess it would look too tacky if I just wore socks with them, huh?
We have a digital clock that changes to daylight savings on it's own, which it did, A WEEK EARLY. SO, yesterday, Russ got up to get ready to for work not realizing he was an hour behind. All the kids were still asleep (even Weston!) and I turned on the TV to watch the morning news. I couldn't understand why my dad left for work so early and why the CBS Early show was on so early. Then I looked at the analog clock on the wall and the satellite clock and realized that our digital clock was wrong! It was actually 7:50, not 6:50. I usually leave the house at 8:10 to get the kids to school, and they were still in bed. So, we shuffled and hurried and ran out the door with a granola bar and everyone made it to where they needed to be on time. The kids had to eat hot lunch at school and I didnt get a shower, but we survived! Moral of this story, be careful of what you put your faith in, especially electronics! It seems as if I was an hour off all day.
The kids are looking forward to Halloween on Friday and going to Spooktacular at the zoo tomorrow. Luckily, it is supposed to warm up for us. I will post some photos of the event later :-)

Too much to write about

It seems I have been slacking in my blogging. But at least I have been doing lots of other stuff, so now I have something to write about. Back in August, we celebrated Britni and Spencer going back to school. We also celebrated Weston's 3rd birthday. He loves Thomas the Train, so of course, that was our theme. My friend Caris made his cake and he LOVED it. I can't believe that little guy is 3! We have so much fun with Weston. He makes all of us laugh. Britni has commented that as long as Weston is around, you can always count on him to do something silly. She is right! He is very active and we have to keep an eye on him constantly. Like just now, he just squirted a Go-Gurt all over Papa's leather recliner! He started pre-school this year and is loving it, as am I. He goes 3 days a week and gets mad on the other 2 days when doesnt get to go.

That was one huge cake! It took 2 cake mixes. It was strawberry flavored!

Weston's first day of school at DLC.

Britni is now is the 3rd grade, and this is her 4th year at The Summit Prep. She is so smart and is doing great. She has an awesome teacher this year. She has started participating in choir at school and her choir teacher says she has a very strong voice and great pitch. I believe him because she is the only one I could hear during our recent CSMP! Britni has also started her 3rd year of piano. What a cutie!

Spencer is a Kindergartener at The Summit. He turned 6 in June, but we wanted him to have a second year with a more advanced kindergarten. He's not happy about it, but one of his good friends from last year at DLC is in his class. Spencer started school already knowing how to read and is now one of the biggest kids in the class and is the oldest in the class. So, he feels like a big fish instead of a little one. Spencer still loves Star Wars, but most of all he loves to follow his daddy around. Spencer loves playing video games, whether they are on Webkinz, XBox, Wii or his dinky little Gameboy. He is always up for a challenge, especially if it's something his sister can't/won't do. Oh, and have you seen this kid rock climb?

Next on my list is our trip to Augusta and Disney World. We were priveleged to have been able to attend Russ' Warrant Officer Basic Training Graduation. To his surprise, he made it as one of the top 20% of the class. This made him an honor graduate. 2 of the other 3 honor grads were Russell's best buds at school, one of which is also a member of the church. He made some good friends there even though he had to be away from me! I'm glad he didn't suffer too bad :-) Actually, I accuse him of being on a mini-vacation. His room was like a motel room that a maid came and cleaned every day. He ate every meal at the dfac, and only had to worry about his laundry. He got to relax every evening and only used maybe 1 tank of gas the whole time he was there! Russ made some other friends there, but I don't have any pics of them!

I will put up some pics of our Disney World trip in another post.

A Happy Family

We made it home from Georgia, Florida and Disney with our daddy! The kids were so excited to see Russ and I think he was just as excited to see them. Spencer would not leave his side! We stayed a few days in Augusta and got to see Russ graduate as an HONOR graduate (top 20%) from Warrant Officer Basic. He is now officially a WO1. No, he doesn't get a raise, probably just a free trip to the Middle East in the future. We are hoping that doesn't happen though. After graduation, we drove to Orlando to stay a week in a villa that we rented with Chris and Holly. We bought tickets to Disney and spent 2 days at Epcot, 2 days at Magic Kingdom, 1 day at Animal Kingdom and 1 day at Hollywood Studios. We had a great time, but boy it was hot! Spencer rode every roller coaster he could find, just to show Britni he wasn't afraid. And Weston loved seeing all the characters. I really thought he would be terrified of them, since he wouldn't go near the Easter bunny or the dressed up panda guy at the Atlanta zoo back in April. But, he showed no fear and was so cute calling for "Minnie" every time he saw her. Britni had a great time pushing the stroller around. She has already had a trip to Disney with Uncle Chris and Aunt Holly back when she turned 6, so she wasn't as enamored with the atmosphere. But she still had a great time. We all were exhausted at the end of each day and looked forward to going back to our villa to relax and take advantage of the swimming pool. I have tons of pictures to put on here, but hopefully will get to that later! Everyone was back in school today, and Russ went back to work. Now, maybe we can shop for a house to fit our growing family into! Welcome home Russ!