Will and the big fish

From our trip last weekend to the country. Here is the picture of the prize fish Will caught with his Great-Uncle John. Will reeled it in all by himself!! It's a prety good size large mouth bass and quite a load to reel in :)

Leaf Rakin' Good Time

It only took about 2 minutes for the boys to run and dive into the huge amount of leaves surrounding my grandparents old farmhouse in West TN this weekend. We went down there with the intentions of enjoying the beautiful weather, relaxing a little and, of course, raking up all those leaves! Will was so excited because his Papa told him, "You should just see all the leaves at Poppy's house. You can't even see any grass!" That's all it took for Will. He was ready to go!! When we got there, the boys were NOT disappointed! They stomped around and crunched the leaves, then ran as fast as they could and jumped!

They were so excited!! Leaves flew everywhere! Our nephew Landon came with us so we had a 5 year old, 3 year old and 2 year old that were in leaf flyin heaven! :)

They continued to play and run around for quite a while.

Wyatt really enjoyed running really fast and saying "watch dis" right before he jumped!

The boys were having such a great time, until.....

....they realized we were raking up the leaves to burn them. It was so pitiful the looks on their faces! We explained that there were plenty of leaves to play in still and we would save a huge pile just for them as well!

3 solemn boys watching their fun burn away!

They were sad for a little bit but once they realized there were still plenty to play in, they were happy again! Over the next couple of days, they helped us raking and dragging the leaves to the ditch as well as messing up plenty of pre-raked piles :)

They were so exhausted by bedtime but, of course, getting 3 boys to sleep all in the same bed, was quite tricky! We opened a sofa sleeper and piled the sleeping bags on top. They thought it was so cool!

See, even the next morning, plenty of leaves to stomp around in!

Wyatt (and the 2 other boys too) got to do their favorite thing, ride the 4-wheeler and the tractor! In fact, each time Wyatt saw the 4-wheeler, he would run and jump up on it. One time, he actually started it by himself!! He was in the barn while my Dad and Uncle and others were right outside the barn raking the leaves. They heard something start and Uncle John ran in to see Wyatt scrambling down off the 4-wheeler as fast as he could. John said Wyatt was so scared that it actually started, he was leaving the "crime scene" as fast as possible :)

Each time we would go down to the pond to fish, the boys were more interested in riding than fishing! Riding around in the woods was prime fun!

Will and Landon between rides. They are watching Trent fish and waiting to help him reel in the big one! I didn't get a picture of it, but Will helped John reel in the biggest bass ever caught out of this pond. When we held it up, it went from Will's head to about his knees! It was huge!! Of course I didn't have my camera that time :)

Trent loves to fish and could stay all day long and do nothing but that. However, with 3 little ones around, it's not quite as peaceful!

Landon was more interested in fishing than the other 2 and actually stood there and fished all by himself!! What a big boy!!

As Mom, Dad, Jane and I took the boys for a "hike" in the woods, Trent finally catches one! I don't know...is he proud?

On our hike, we found lots of cool stuff to explore. There were VERY big leaves, little varmint holes, giant trees and fun creeks to walk across. They found this log laying across a creek and had to see if they could get across!

Will made it back and forth several times by himself. The other 2 walked it several times but had a little help!

We have so much fun when we go to the "country". Lots of woods to explore and fun things to do. We get to stay in the house where my grandfather grew up and listen to stories about how life was then. I have so many memories of fun times there growing up and I look forward to making many more with the boys!

First baby picture :)

Today Trent and I went for the 2nd doctor's appointment. I am 12 weeks and 1 day and we were excited to get to hear the heartbeat (hence the reason Trent took off work to come with me to the appt!) We saw Dr Bennett and he is full of sarcasm and dr humor which works well for us! He was making us laugh and generally cutting up when he told me to hop on the table to listen for the heartbeat. As he is looking, he's telling us some story about I don't know what and I noticed he was having trouble finding the heartbeat. We've had a little practice at this before, so we knew what to listen for. All I was hearing was the slower beat of my own heart and nothing for the baby. He continued to talk while he was trying different areas of my tummy, pushing down REALLY hard and still having no luck. He finally said, sometimes the mom's veins get in the way and we have a little trouble hearing the baby. He continued to listen around (even picking up a radio station, which was kinda weird to hear coming out of my belly!) when he said, "well, I can't find it and you're starting to panic so I'm getting the machine". I'm thinking, "I'm not panicking yet, but definitely on the verge!". He comes in with the ultra sound machine and finds the baby immediately with the little heart beating away at 150 beats per minute. It was so neat to see the little baby fully formed just tiny. He said everything was fine and there was nothing to worry about. It was a little scary at first, but I am so glad Trent was able to come and we were able to actually see the baby instead of just hear it!!

As Dr. Bennett took the picture, he said, "well, here's your little smudge!" I said "well, that's better than a peanut." He said, "yes, you have progressed from a peanut to a smudge!" oh, so funny :)

Fall Artwork

This week the weather has been absolutely beautiful and the boys and I have taken full advantage of the 70 degree days of sunshine! They have played in leaf piles, drawn pretty pictures in the road, run MANY laps around the backyard and have fought many "bad guys" with their "swords" (toy golf club and toy garden hoe)! Yesterday, the "bad guys" were the cedar tree limbs! It was hilarious to watch them whacking the tree limbs with all their might. They went fully around each tree before moving on to the next one! Must be thorough!
All this creativity inspired us to do a little artwork as well! We met the playgroup on Tuesday for some "Halloween candy art" and Wyatt loved it so much we decided to do more art at home. Will even got into it, which lately it has been a struggle to get him to sit down for arts and crafts so I was excited!
Here are the pretty masterpieces they have done so far!



This one is called the Fall Monster. We went on a scavenger hunt in the backyard to find materials to make a monster face. We collected leaves, dried berries, pebbles, rocks and mulch. We even found a spider ring in the house to add!

Will REALLY enjoyed this one. He loved picking out his materials and deciding what to do with each piece!

Wyatt had so much fun doing the "candy art". We squirted a bunch of glue on the paper and he placed the candy anywhere he wanted! Will was in school so he didn't get to do this, but he wants to, so it looks like we might have a project for this afternoon! It's a great way to use all that candy with out eating it!!!

Since Will wasn't there, I made one for him. A pretty flower :)

Of course, if you are doing fall artwork, there must be a "hand turkey" in there somewhere!!

Will was so proud of this one, he put it on the fridge immediately so he could "show daddy when he gets home"!

I need to look up some new ideas to keep this art stuff going. It's really fun and great for the boys as well! If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!!