Catching Up - September

Sweet girl always wants to be my helper. 

The three big kids have been in baseball this season. The boys love it (Pastor Brent is their coach), but Laina is not a fan. As witness:

Laina's coach Katie: Laina! Next week you have to come early because we're having pizza.
Laina: I can't come next week.
Coach Katie: Why not?
Laina: Because I don't like baseball.

Mason was in a silly mood one afternoon so I crossed my fingers, bribed with candy, and tried my best to get a picture with all four looking and smiling. I got pretty close. Mason's grin is adorable.

Our church turned five! So of course, we pet farm animals and rode ponies. The kids loved it.

Roasting hotdogs in the backyard. It was way too hot for it, but fun anyway.

At the park:

One Saturday, we did a family hike up Pine Mountain. It was fun--and it rained.

Cory has decided he wants to learn to play the cajon. Good thing his daddy is a drummer.

This was too cute to not post.

Laina as the shield maiden of Rohan.

And some funnies to remember:

I found the boys lying in the garage talking about who they'd want in their army: Robert E Lee, Henry Ford (to fix the cars), the Wright Brothers (for the Air Force), Andrew Jackson (because that one battle he fought when only eight people were wounded was SO GREAT.) 

And this is copied from Jeremy's facebook page...

The scene begins with my three-year-old daughter walking into my home office. She is wearing a tutu on her head like a bridal veil, and she wears a sad expression. Now my kids are always wearing weird things on their heads, but I had to ask…
Me: Laina, why the sad face?
Laina does not answer.
Me: Laina, are you sad? Why?
Laina: (forlorn) I want a men.
Me: (thoughts racing… did she really just say she wants a man?) Can you say that again?
Laina: I want a men.
Me: (good sense kicks in) Can you point to one?
Laina walks to where my boys are playing and points to their Lego minifigures. They offer her a "man" to play with. And I breathe a great sigh of relief!
Come see me again in eighteen years, Laina, and we'll revisit this subject. Until then, the Lego men are on me!