Field Trip to the County Fair

Cooper's preschool class had a field trip to the DeKalb County Fairgrounds. They have been learning about farms and farm animals at school, so we went to the fair to see the real farm animals. Jaxton had his preschool class, and I found a friend to watch Kaylee, so it was just me and Cooper and so much fun! He loved all the animals. He found the chickens and turkeys to be his favorites. We saw horses, ponies, giant horses, pigs, turkeys, chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep, cows, and birds. Then we all gathered for a little class snack. It was definitely a fun time for both of us!

Three Angels

Here are my 3 angels. They are everything that I live for. They fill my days with excitement and joy. I could not imagine my life without them in it. It would be a dull, boring life. Jaxton is a little sponge these days, just soaking up anything he can to learn. Cooper is our little clown these days, just doing funny things to make everyone laugh, then shy as a kitten around people he doesn't know well. Reminds me of myself a little :-). Kaylee is just a literal angel. She is always content, happy, smiling, just happy to be alive. These kids are everything to me and Nate. They are our whole world. We love them so very very much!

Look at those bright blue eyes. She even has a protecter bodyguard, AKA big brother!

Half Marathon

Something I have always wanted to say I've done and to accomplish is to run a long race. Well, after Kaylee was born, a friend of mine, Summer, and I decided we would do one together. We signed up for the Fort 4 Fitness Half Marathon in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We began running individually twice a week and then running together on Saturday mornings. We were just about at the same level in our pace and distance abilities, so it worked out really well. 2 summers ago the two of us ran a 5K race which was soooo difficult for us. Somehow over the last 2 years, running further distances has become easier and easier till we were able to accomplish a 13.1 mile race!! Here are some photos of our finish!!

Cooper and Jaxton knew I was working on running a race. They would always ask me if I would win! I tried to explain to them that there were so many people running, and that I am not super fast. But I will be a winner if I finish the race and run to the end. It was kind of a hard concept for them to think that I wouldn't be THE winner, but it was exciting to have Cooper come to the race to see me finish. Nate has been very supportive of my goals to run and I probably would not have done the race without his encouragement!

We came in at 2 hours and 2 minutes, which is sooner than our goal. Our goal was to come in by 2 hours and 10 minutes, at a 10 minute mile pace. So we beat our goal!!! There were about 3,300 people running the half marathon and we finished around the 1,000 person mark. So we were faster than the average runner!! Something I experienced for the first time as I started to run long distances was the "runner's high." After about mile 3 or 4, your body experiences a "high" and you feel absolutely great as if you could run forever! When we trained for the 5K 2 years ago, it was sooo difficult to get through those 3 miles. I remember it being so hard and strenuous! And still the first 3 miles are always a struggle for me. But now I know that as long as I can get through those first 3 miles, then I will feel great and can run forever without stopping. Towards the end of the 13 miles, by mile 10 or so, my body turns into a robot. At that point my legs are just moving with momentum. It doesn't feel like I am exerting any energy at all, my body just keeps moving. Its definitely a strange feeling.

We each got a medal for finishing!! Now I can mark that event off my bucket list....or maybe the next step is a full marathon....? We'll just have to see....

We have grass?

So Springtime came and went and our busy lives didn't allow us to get grass in before the warm summer days to play outside. So we endured a full summer of dirt and mud. Here it is fall time and we are ready to get grass!!! Nate was able to make a "barter" with a sod farm in Indiana. He gave them a security alarm system for a truckload of sod! So that truckload came and Nate got to work laying it, piece by piece. It was a whole lot of work! But when Nate gets his mind on something, he doesn't stop until its finished. He worked all day, with just a little help. Then he worked all evening. It started to rain, and he still didn't stop. It got dark and continued to rain, and he still didn't stop until it was all laid!! What a trooper!! I love that quality about him. Here he is laying the first piece of grass!!

Partially done...

Final results: We have grass!!! Oh we've been looking forward to this day for 2 or three years to have our own yard of lush green grass in a private backyard! And here it is! Here are the kids enjoying their new grassy backyard!!

Kaylee has seen very little grass in her entire life. She may have seen it a little bit at a park here or there this past summer, but she was little. So this new green stuff she had to sit in was very intriguing to her. She kept touching it gently with her little fingertips, watching it around her feet and ankles, not sure if she should try to crawl through it, or just stay put...? Cute girl! It reminds me of Jaxton as a baby. When I put him down on grass, he would lift up one leg because he didn't like the feel of it on his bare skin. He would sit there with his hands in the air and one leg up in the air too. So funny!!

We are so grateful to have grass!! Thank you Daddy for all your hard work to get us grass!

First Day of Preschool

The first day of school. It looks like Cooper's excited, but Jaxton...I'm not so sure...

Wait, now Jaxton looks super excited to go to school, but Cooper has the biggest frown in the whole wide world!!

Ok, now it looks like both boys are excited to go to their first day of Preschool at Creative Playschool in Auburn, IN! Let's go!!

Cooper is in the 3 year old class called The Bambi Class. He got lucky because his teacher is Mrs. Jensen who is in our ward at church. Her teenage sons babysit our boy's often and he was very excited to learn that their mom was going to be his teacher at school! Lucky boy! There are 12 other kids in his class. In the mornings when I drop him off, he gets to count a certain number of items and put them in the number jar. Then he gets to find his name and put it "at school" so Mrs. Jensen will know that he is at school that day. On Wednesdays he gets to have Show and Tell, and every month he gets to bring the snack! His class gets to have music time, Spanish time, and Library time. They even get to check out a book to bring home from the library. His class has 3 field trips during the school year too. What fun! This preschool is all learning based through playing, which Cooper is really good at doing! So far he loves going to preschool and he can't wait till its his day to bring snack for his friends!!

Jaxton is also very excited for school to start. He is in the Pre-Kindergarten Curious George class where they get to learn through being "curious" like George. His teacher is Mrs. Kruse and she is wonderful! When he arrives, Mrs. Kruse has a class question and each child marks his answer on a graph so they can see the class answers and results later. They learn through play also, but since it is a Pre-K class, each week they focus on a letter of the alphabet and a number. They get to work on writing that letter and learning about things that begin with that letter all week. His class also has music time, Spanish time, and Library. They will have 3 field trips too throughout the school year. Jaxton is in the same class as his friend Gabe from church. He also talks a lot about the little girls in his class, Fionna and Carlie especially. He loves the social part of school just as much! Jaxton has been learning to read at home with a book based on the DISTAR reading methods and he is really grasping the concepts and soaking it all in. He loves learning to read and he amazes me with his ability to understand. Needless to say, he loves preschool and everything that goes along with it!!

Mommy's 28th Birthday!!!

I can hardly believe I am turning 28!! It just sounds so old and I still feel young sometimes. Time just doesn't stop I guess. I had a wonderful birthday. I had a date with Nate. We went to a real Amish restaurant that was located in an actual Amish home. They transformed half of their home into a restaurant with a buffet style dinner cuisine. It was real Amish style, with super friendly service, and delicious home grown food! It was the best real Amish dinner experience I think we've ever had. Very fun! On Sunday we had a family dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Routsong's house in Kendallville. Nate has an elderly Simplx customer that is a retired professional cake maker and decorator. So he asked her to make me a birthday cake. Her elderly fashions paid off well as she decorated the cake with flowers and ribbons of frosting, very feminine :-).

Since I am getting ready to run my half marathon race in just a couple of weeks, he asked her to make it a "running theme." So being a cute elderly little lady, she picked out a couple of running cartoons, colored them in herself with colored pencils, and asked Nate which one he preferred. He chose "figure B." And she stuck figure B on a stick at the corner of the cake so that it could have a "running theme" to blend with her floral technique! I found it quite cute and humorous and I loved it! It was a beautiful and delicious cake!!

Here is Kaylee and Grandma at our family birthday party. Kaylee is definitely warming up to people better these days. For a short while she was having some stranger anxiety, but lately, she seems happy with whomever!!

Here is an excited boy!

And 2 excited girls!

And 3 of us making a wish and trying hard not to get spit on the cake!!

Mom & Me

Me and my little Angel, look at those bright blue eyes!! She is just the sweetest little bundle of joy that there ever was! She is so easy going, happyall the time, just excited for life. She adores her brothers and loves to "chase" them around the house (with a little help from mom). Now that the boys are in preschool I have 2 mornings a week just with me and Kaylee. I often plan things to do during those mornings like grocery shop or clean the house or get some office work done, but sometimes I find that all I want to do is hang out with my girl! We play on the floor together, read stories (or eat books), share snacks, and I get to rock her to sleep for her nap, which I don't often get to do! What precious moments those are for me when I am normally so busy with those busy boys! I love to spend time with my baby girl. She just makes me smile every time I seethose beautiful blue eyes and long eyelashes looking at me. It is an honor to be a mother, to be needed and loved and wanted by such wonderful children. It just makes life worth living more than anything ever before. The boys are so busy, but they are wonderful, and Kaylee is just a sweet joy every waking minute. I feel so blessed to be able to share my life and my love with these three beautiful children of God.

Lego Creations

Jaxton loves to create things. He always has! Today he made a few different things with his tiny legos that he loves to build with. Because he knows they often get bumped or fall or get broken, he wanted to make sure these creations got caught on camera so they would "never be lost." So here they are, Jaxton's greatest creations of the day.

First he made a spaceship. He is very symmetrical when it comes to building things, as you can tell by his creation. He is symmetrical with the shape and size of lego, as well as the color!! He is very, very particular when it comes to building things. I just love his imagination!

Next he built a tractor, similar to the one in CARS the movie, with giant back wheels and small front wheels. It was complete with a seat and a steering wheel. He was very proud of both his creations :-)

McDonald's

Our cousin Katie was in town visiting Grandma & Grandpa Routsong. So they stopped by to visit us in Fort Wayne and we went to Burger King for lunch. It was a very fun afternoon. The boys love the tunnels and playlands at fast food joints. For some reason, those tunnels always bring out the best in them two. They just become best buddies inside those tunnels, and it was no different today. What cuties!! It was a lot of fun to see Katie and to hang out with her for the afternoon. The boys loved her company hiding around inside the tunnels with her, and Kaylee felt just as comfortable on her lap as she does on mine!

Oh No I'm Trapped!!

Cousin Katie with Kaylee

Cutie Cooper doing some acrobatics

What a happy boy! Jaxton Boy!

Cooper with Cousin Katie

Katie with Jaxton, Cooper & Kaylee and the fish!

Grandma Routsong with Queen Kaylee

Labor Day Camping Trip

We went camping for Labor Day Weekend at Chain of Lakes State Park, about 1 hour away. We stayed Friday night and had a blast! Unfortunately we chose the 2 hottest days of the whole summer to go. It was between 95 and 98 degrees all weekend! It was sooo hot and humid and sticky that we ended up just staying 1 night instead of 2. Regardless, we had a blast. Upon arriving, we set up our tent and were soo hot we decided to check out the beach before settling down. The beach closed at sunset, so we only had a few minutes to swim on Friday night, but we had a blast!!

Beautiful sunset & Beautiful girl!

Jaxton getting ready to swim

Nate & Cooper

We went camping with several families from our ward. Here is Jaxton with one of his good friends, Gavin.

The Newhard family also came camping with us. Joey is Cooper's age and Jasline is 1 month younger than Kaylee. They are great friends.

We didn't make the boys get in their seatbelts to drive from the beach back to our campsite, just a 3 minute drive around the camp. They thought that was soo cool! They were so excited to NOT have to wear seatbelts for once!

You can't go camping without smores! Here is Cooper roasting marshmellows. He had been asking and asking and asking when it would be time to make marshmellows and chocolate. He is definitely our sugar man!

Look at him enjoy that smore!! These are unique smores because we used the Keebler cookies that have chocolate on one side and cookie on the other. So we put our roasted marshmellow between the chocolate side of 2 cookies and squished it together. It was a little less messy than traditional smores and the kids loved them! And so did I! Yum!

Jaxton, eating his smore!

Here we are in the tent, getting ready to settle down for the night. It was still like 80 or 90 degrees when we were ready for bed, so just a little bit miserable. I assumed it would get cold at night so all I packed were warm footsie jammies for wintertime. Needless to say we couldn't dress them in those. So they slept in an extra pair of clothes. The boys had a very hard time relaxing and falling asleep. They were just wired with excitement to be sleeping in a tent, after just eating several sugar filled smores!! So bedtime was tricky. But after we all got cozy together watching the movie Incredibles, we all fell asleep about 12:30 in the morning!

Cooper climbed into bed with Nate in the middle of the night and got cozy with us. He is one boy that loves to cuddle. Jaxton woke up super early, as soon as it was beginning to get light out. He was up and ready to go out and play! I have no idea what time it was, but he definitely got very little sleep! Ohhh the excitement of camping!!

Kaylee Girl had a great time! Of course I had no idea how she would do being out of her element, but nothing seemed to phase her at all. She slept in her t-shirt and diaper since it was scorching hot, and I tried getting her to sleep by rocking her, nursing her in the dark outside. But she just squirrmed and squirrmed. At home I just lay her down, so thats what I tried next. And believe it or not, she put herself to sleep. She somehow felt right at home. She woke up one time (just like she does at home) and slept in till probably 8:00am! I was amazed! She got pretty sweaty, but she never complained. She is such a happy go-lucky girl and just goes with the flow! What an angel!

The families we went camping with were the Newhards, the Alberts, the Maguires, the Daytons, and the Grahams. Here are some of the kids eating a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast together: Jaxton, Gavin, Haley, and Cooper.

After breakfast we brushed teeth outside and tried to clean up a bit. The boys thought that was pretty funny to brush teeth outside. They couldn't believe that I told them it was ok to spit in the grass! Usually spitting is a no-no! They loved that!

After breakfast we decided to take a venture on a boat. Since I couldn't help to row with holding Kaylee too, we got a boat that Nate could row by himself. The boys had been asking and asking when we could ride on a boat, so this was pretty exciting! Below, the boys are waiting for Dad to pay for the boat rental. Jaxton had found a pokey ball in the dirt that reminded him of the Dr. Suess movie, Horton Hears a Who. The elephant had one of those things in the movie. So he saved it and brought it home with him!

The boat ride was so much fun! It was about 80 degrees by 9:00 in the morning as we set sail and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful clear day on a picture perfect lake setting.

Mr. Muscle Man

After our boat ride, we went back to the beach to swim again. This time Kaylee got to swim too and experience the sand, which she loved!

It was a great camping trip. Now we are more stocked up with supplies for future camping trips and hopefully we can go more often. The more we go camping the better our nights will be I'm sure. It was great family time, just being together. Cooper told me that one of his most favorite parts of camping was the flashlights. He loved carrying around his own flashlight in the dark and running around with his friends shining his flashlight all around! It will be a fun memory for the kiddos!