And the doctor says...

No more monkeys climbing in the tree! This is the result of a fun afternoon climbing in the tree. Meg ended up hitting her eye on a branch as she was getting out of the tree. The crazy thing is that she didn't really cry about it. I didn't know it happened until she finally came in from having fun. When I asked her what happened, she nonchalantly said, "Oh, I bonked it on the tree branch." Silly girl! She loves to climb the tree so much she didn't want to be told to stop. I am sure it won't be long before she is back climbing again - probably tomorrow.

3 Little Monkeys

Megan's favorite summer time activity was climbing the tree. She loved showing people how she could climb it and then hang from the branches and then jump out. She was always telling her good buddy Wesley Preator about climbing the tree, so one day she decided to teach him how to climb. They had a blast! Kenna wanted to learn too, but it took help from Mom for her to be able to climb. Surprisingly we haven't had any broken bones from climbing the tree. (Wesley and Megan are almost inseparable. They act like brother and sister together. They fight; they have fun; they are competive; they are creative together; they always want to be together even when we have to threaten to separate them cause they are arguing. They are only 10 days apart in age. I am so glad Meg has such a fun friend! And it is even better that Wesley's mom, Cammy, and I are great friends too!)

Monkey Wesley

Monkey Megan

Kenna, Wes, and Megan posing by the tree ~ Such cute kids!

Wesley and Megan ~ Best Buddies!

My little monkey princess!

9 Months Old

Ashlee turned 9 months old on Sept. 15! She weighed 17.1 lbs (25th percentile) and was 27 5/8 inches long (50th percentile). Dr. Jamieson said she is perfect! She is getting better about her screaming which is a nice change. She still does it occasionally but not constantly like before. Ashlee decided that being 9 months old gave her permission to start to walk. She wants so bad to keep up with her brothers and sisters. She is a very social little girl. She does not like to be left in a room by herself. She wants to be in the middle of the action! She loves to smile too! She already thinks she can do whatever the big kids are doing. She will get in the middle of sword and noodle fights, try and color and draw, and play kitchen or barbies or ponies. The one thing she doesn't like to do is go down the stairs. She is very fast going up, but she won't even attempt going down. We haven't needed a gate yet cause she will just sit at the top and holler at you until you come and get her. I have worked with her on going down but she just doesn't want to do it. So for now, we will just keep hauling her down and keep trying to teach her.

Ashlee's bright blue eyes always have a sparkle in them. She just made our family complete and has added so much joy and happiness to our home.

Megan adores her baby sister! All of the kids just love her and constantly want to hold her or carry her around, which she is not to tolerant of very often. She just wants to follow them around. For the most part they put up with her getting into their stuff, but of course not always.

Megan took this picture of Ashlee standing up to my legs. That is one thing she loves to do when I am cooking, doing dishes, or working in my craft room. I have to make sure my pants are tied tight cause they get tugged on frequently. I know one of these days I will miss that feeling, so I am treasuring it while it lasts. One thing I will not miss is her constant spitting up and throwing up. Dr. Jamieson has put her on Prevacid to see if it will help. She has a rash/burn from her drooling/spit up on her poor little chest. He believes it has to do with an acid problem in her tummy which is probably causing the food not staying down. Hopefully the medicine helps so we don't have to look for structural problems inside. We shall see in a few days.

Here is a clip of Ashlee starting to walk. Her favorite thing to do when Andy gets home from work is walk between us. She gets so excited and tries to run. She loves to lunge right at the end. I can't believe how much better she gets everyday. She is standing up in the middle of the room too. It will only be a few weeks before she is walking all the time.

Two Wheeler Time

Megan has been itching to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. I went out with her once but kept getting interrupted by the little girls. We borrowed the tag along for the back of my bike from my parents and she has been riding that. She says it helps her learn to balance. :) So yesterday Aidan suggested to Dad that he should teach Megan how to ride without her training wheels. Perfect idea, Aidan!! Off to the school parking lot across the street to learn. I was in the back yard pulling weeds. According to Andy, he held onto the back of her bike once and that was about it. She took off and never looked back! She was zipping around the parking lot when I came out to check on the progress. She was even starting all by herself. She is sure enjoying her freedom and loves being big with the boys.

Sporting the crooked helmet - Helmets can be such a pain when you have to have princess hair.

Starting out all by herself.

Look at me, Mom! I am doing it!

Zipping on by like an ol' pro!

She was even going over curbs. Thank goodness she was only going down curbs and that going up there was this flat place. The school parking lot is the perfect place to learn to ride a bike. There is usually only one car there when school is not in session. You only have to dodge a few big poles. We love living right across the street. There are a lot of advantages to it.

First Day of Preschool

Megan had her first day of preschool today. She has been so excited for the last few years just waiting for this day. She has just been chomping at the bit since the boys went to school a few weeks ago. She knew that after Labor Day the boys would go to school the next day and then the next day she would get to go to school. You would have thought she was waiting for Christmas. She was so excited for Labor Day. She was very worried last night that she didn't get to take a bath like we had planned. She really needed clean hair cause she got sand in it playing with her good buddy Wesley. She was worried about what hairdo we were going to do too. She had her clothes all hung up nicely on the knob of her closet. She woke up very excited and wanted straight in the bathtub. (Normally she won't even talk about getting ready until she has had breakfast.) She was so excited to wear her new school clothes. She was okay with not having forever to just relax in the bath. She knew that once the boys started leaving that it was time for her to be heading out the door. Kenna kept insisting she was going to preschool too, so I had called my mom to see if she would come pick Kenna up before I needed to take Megan. I really didn't want a meltdown from her on Meg's first day. So Kenna was excited to go to Grandma preschool this morning (her idea). She even packed her backpack with baby dolls. Once Kenna was gone, Meg, Ashlee and I took a few pictures and headed out.




Megan was so excited to get to her classroom. I got her to stand still long enough for one picture before going in. She knew right where to hang up her backpack and coat and was off to find her friends. I didn't even get a picture of her with her teacher cause she was too busy finding her friends to socialize with.



She was just as excited when she came out of preschool. She couldn't wait to tell us about what snack she had, the fun things she played with, and what she needed for her next school day. She was already figuring out that tomorrow the boys go to school, then they all go to school, then we get to be home for a couple days, and then she goes back to school. It is so fun to see her so excited to learn!

Labor Day Weekend (or Play Day Weekend for us)

We were supposed to go to the cabin for Labor Day, but due to so many having colds, with Ashlee being the one we worried about the most, we chose to stay home (much to the kids' dismay) and just play around here. It was nice to sleep in our own beds and not have to pack up a ton of things. We promised the kids that we would just play with them this weekend. No projects for Mom and Dad just lots of fun family time. Yes, my house is paying for it, but it was so worth it. I did get most of the laundry done which was kind of a necessity. We were able to sleep in each day and then go have some fun. On Saturday we enjoyed a nice trip to Walmart - unrushed, no one getting too upset while just kind of browsing and getting a few random things. We then had lunch at Grandma and Grandpa Jacobsen's house and got ready to go fishing at the pond. Our original plan was to go canoeing but someone else had already requested the canoes for the weekend. No biggie! The kids had tons of fun fishing. A few fish were caught (thank goodness none were kept). The weather was almost perfect (a little windy). And we had 5 happy kids! We were able to go pick some sweet corn from the farm! YUMMY!!! We also enjoyed a little BYU vs. Oklahoma football before heading home (we did see the end of the game later that night). Fresh corn was enjoyed for dinner and then a nice relaxing night just hanging out together.

Fishergirl Kenna

Kenna hooked a big sucker!! (just kidding Aidan)

Ashlee enjoyed playing in the back of the Excursion. It made the perfect "play pen" for her. She could see us bug wasn't down on the ground eating dirt.

Megan helping Grandpa reel in a big one!

Love this picture of Andy and his dad fishing side by side.

Aaron and Aidan having fun out in the paddle boat.

Today, Labor Day, we slept in again and then got ready to go to Red Lodge, MT. The kids wanted to go back to the "fun" park and then to the Nature Center (zoo to them). So we packed a picnic lunch and headed out. It was very busy in Red Lodge, and I noticed a lot of people wearing jackets or long sleeves. I thought, "Sheesh! They must be crazy!" Of course I didn't check the temperature in the car. When we stepped out I discovered why they had on jackets. It was a bit chilly. The wind was blowing and I was wishing we had our coats. Every other outing we make I seem to over pack - always having jackets, jeans, tennis shoes, sun screen, hats for the girls, and the kitchen sink sometimes too (just kidding). But this time I decided to just go with the flow and of course we needed all that. Thank goodness we had a blanket for Ashlee and her stroller with a shade. After a while we all adjusted and it really wasn't too bad out. In fact, it was probably more enjoyable than if it had been very sunny. We had fun at the park and eating our picnic lunch.

Chow Time!

Ashlee having fun in the shade of the stroller.

It was then off to the Nature Center. The kids have each been a few times, but Andy and I had never been. The kids were excited to see all the animals again. They each have names, and they remembered several of them.

Andy tried to scare the kids while I was taking their picture by growling like a bear while they had their pictures taken. Kenna just looked at him like, "Whatever, Dad. Nice try." (Kenna is the queen of facial expressions. Wish I would have caught it on camera.)

Speedy the kid friendly buffalo (at least that is what the kids told us - that he was kid friendly)

Kenna loves horses (and all animals - She has no fear.)

Silly kids posing before we left.

My sweet kids! I am so glad they love each other. Sweet Ashlee was all tuckered out.

Me and my sweetheart!! I love when he has a day off and we get to be together all day!

In my opinion we should always have three or four day weekends! It is so much fun to just play together as a family. The kids are growing so fast, and I want to enjoy seeing the world through their eyes for as long as I can. I am so grateful to have been given a second chance to continue to be their mom!

The "Scursion"

Well, my brother really really wanted some pics of our new vehicle, and I thought it would be nice to have for journalling purposes too. So here they are. It is a 2004 Ford Excursion XLT. We absolutely love it (except the wonderful gas mileage, but what can you expect with a family of 7). It has plenty of room, a DVD player, heated leather seats, and tons of storage (lots of nooks and crannies). It has extra features we don't know if we will ever use like air bags on the back tires (for pulling heavy things), but hey, they might come in handy some day. We plan on having it for a long time. I am starting to get use to driving such a large vehicle. Some parking situations still make me nervous, but I don't mind walking a bit to have plenty of space to park. Getting the kids in and out is actually not a big deal like I thought it might be. It is nice that they can all get their own seatbelts on except Ashlee. I never thought I would have this big of a family and need this big of a vehicle, but I am very grateful for both!