Oh Boy!

Clark has sure become a little person.  He doesn't listen, he hits (play hitting), and bites (he thinks it's playing, but he bites hard :/).  Oh, goodness he's just getting into everything too - like the marker post.  Well, the other day I was wondering where Clark disappeared to and I heard Jeff say that Clark needs to go see Mommy.  He was in my room... or bathroom rather.  He found my lipstick.  I don't know how though because nothing else was messed with and I never wear it anymore.  

When he came out of the room it looked like a bloody head injury or maybe just good Halloween make up :).  

Oh, Boy!

Last night Clark was super tired at dinner.  I was feeding Lorna rice cereal when one of the kids (probably Mhari) said Clark is asleep.  Sure enough he was sound asleep.  He didn't get a good nap that day and it had taken it's toll on my poor 2 year old.  

Clark is such a fun boy!  He is growing up and learning tons of new things from his siblings.  He is also talking more, but you need a translator to know what he says.  He loves his baby sister, even if he's still learning how to be soft with her.  He is also strong willed and knows what he wants and when he's upset about something.  He's going to be all grown up before I know it!  

Little Mover!!

Our little Lorna just keeps growing and learning new things!  She is still a great baby, but trying to grow up way too fast!

The other week she saw her first Baby Enstien movie.  She really enjoyed watching it!  

She wore one of the girls hand me down dresses a couple of weeks ago.  She is just too cute!

Oh, and she's a little mover!  She started scooting and got really good at going backwards.  Here she is under a chair that she backed under.

So funny

Up on her hands and knees!  She wiggled, she scoots.  She can go forward!!

Loves being able to move!

She made it into the kitchen yesterday too!  She is officially mobile!

Oh and just today I saw her crawl, really crawl!  My word, stop trying to grow up cute baby girl!  We really love our little mover and she sure loves everyone too!  

A Decade already!

Talmage had his 10th birthday last week!  It was such a fun day.  He had been looking forward to it for a long time. It's cute to see the kids plan and get ready for birthdays.  He asked me to make him homemade lasagna (my favorite too) and a four layer pumpkin cake, yum!!  He had written down a long list of present ideas... that he lost a few weeks before his birthday so that was sad.  He did get lots of fun gifts though.  He did say that whatever people gave him would be fine since we know what he likes ;).  He really is a good kid!

Here he is waiting to open the presents.  

Grant wanted to get him a book in a series they like. Talmage was really excited about it!

Mhari got him a car... Clark was just as interested in it as Talmage was :)

We got him a pocket knife and soap so he can work on whittling.  Here is Jeff teaching him knife safety and how this knife closes etc.  

All the goodies 

Talmage also wanted to help light his own candles.  

Make a wish!

Now that Talmage is older we decided to let him invite two friends to celebrate with him.  He invited Nathaniel and Jency and they went bowling Saturday morning.  I'm sure this was a birthday he will remember for a long time!

We love you Talmage!

5 Months, already?

Our Little Lorna bug is just growing up too fast!  I can't believe she's already 5 months old!  According to my measurements she is 18 lbs and 25 inches!  Such a chunky little bug!  She loves baby food and eats two meals a day now.  She can get up on her hands and knees and rock.  She even gets onto her hands and feet like a little stink bug.  She is a great spitter :).  She also loves to laugh and be tickled!  We all really love her! I will be posting about her 6 month info in just a couple of weeks... this is going by so fast!

Here's some pictures of Lorna enjoying the new couch

Wiggling and smiling

So beautiful

Great faces

Laying down and being happy

She is happy here... looks like she's crying though.  She is so soft and rolly!  

I think what makes me the most sad is that she is really trying to be mobile!  She can scoot forward now too.  Man, she's going to be everywhere before I know it.  

Tough Mudders

Jeff heard about tough mudder from a coworker.  It's like an ultimate mud run.  It's 12 miles long with over 20 obstacles!  Seriously crazy stuff.  We have been wanting to have a reason to get our bodies in shape and stay active so we took the challenge and signed up for Austin 2012!  We got a team together too! - Go Team Cougar :).  

Jeff, me, Kayla, Jordan, and Shelby.  We look so excited and happy about what we are about to do.  We should probably look more scared.  

Before the course we took some fun pictures :)

And as part of getting ready we got a bib with our number and had to draw our number on us in two locations.  They really do rub off during the race too!

Kayla and me

Showing off my number

Our start time was at 12:30 and it took us about 5 hours to complete the 12 miles!  I was not expecting it to take that long.  We started off jogging, but hadn't conditioned ourselves to run the whole thing.  By half-way I couldn't run anymore.  We had beautiful weather during the race, but there was a cold front that moved in at the end of the day.  We were all really tired by the end of it.  I have plenty of bruises and blisters as souvenirs   Oh, and for long term souvenirs  we also got these head bands and t-shirts.  

For the race I got new shoes.  Well, I didn't want to ruin my good shoes so I found some on clearance... for $2.44 (after we got them marked off even more).  The only problem with them is they were a size too small. My feet were not happy by the end, but that was the sacrifice I was willing to make for cheap shoes.  

Oh, and the after picture really shows how much abuse they took.  

Through all of the pain and suffering of doing and accomplishing the Tough Mudder we have already signed up to do it all again next April!  I guess it wasn't that horrible if we want to do it again :).  Our goals for the next race:  shortening our finish time and accomplishing more obstacles.  Jeff and I only skipped two obstacles, Everest, and the huge Berlin walls (12 feet high or so).  I'm happy to say that we are a family of Tough Mudders now ;).  
Hey if anyone wants to join our team just let us know!!  The more the merrier, plus there is a discount once we complete the course :)

You're the inspiration

Out with the old...

and in with the new :)

This is the furniture that inspired the remodeling of our living area :).  We are still doing the finishing touches on our living room, but we really enjoy our new furniture.  It sure took up all of that extra space we just made!

I love how comfy it all is.

The circle chair is huge and can fit two adults or lots of kids.  It also swivels so we can turn it toward the TV if we are watching something or towards the sectional to be more of a sitting area.  The kids really love the new furniture.  I just hope they don't love it too much and wear it out too fast!

Bye-Bye Fireplace

Over the last several years that our family has grown we have faced the dilemma to remodel where we live to make more room or move to a larger home.  Now we can still fit where we are, but it's tight.  We can see it only getting worse as the kids get bigger and bigger.  We went furniture shopping to see what could fit into our living room and after we found what we wanted we got home and measured.  It turned out the couch was just 4 inches or so too big for the room, running into the fireplace.  Let's just say that out of the 6 years we have lived in our house the amount that we use our fireplace very little.  It was time for it to go!  I guess we've made the decision to remodel and not move... yet :)

Here is what the room looked like before. 

The demo of the fireplace

Oh and while we were at it the built in bookshelf went into the trash heap too.  Time to open up the dining area.

With the bookshelf gone you can see right into the kitchen

Cutting out the fireplace.  Grant got to help :)

The last piece to go

Our empty hole

We found a local guy who does construction to come in and redrywall and texture!

 The little wall got repaired too.

Here is the corner all painted.  Just need some carpet and new baseboard and you would never know there used to be a fireplace there :).

It really opened up the room.  I'm so glad we finally took it out!

Fishing Time

Before school started up Jeff took the boys fishing.  They had really been wanting to go :).  It took a while to find a good fishing spot, since the first location was pretty dry.  Oh, and since Jeff needs to learn just as much as the boys they took Kayla along as their teacher :).  They had a fun time and can't wait to go again!

Jeff fishing

Grant, Talmage, and Jeff... after it started raining on them.

Helping Grant

The boys and their worms.  The worms tickled their hands :)

Talmage caught lots of minnows.  

With a minnow Grant caught a fish :).  It was a 9 inch long bass.

Looking like they know what they are doing.

Talmage

The master teacher at work.  

They really want to go again.  Looks like we will end up with little fishermen in the family :)