What happened to Autumn?

I was going to do a nice post about Autumn this morning. You know, how nice it is to have the changing leaves, cooler temperatures and the abundance of produce to freeze, can or make jams out of? However, when I took Bella out this morning at 5:40, (yes, AM) it was SNOWING! It wasn't sticking to the ground, but none the less, it was cold and white! So, there went my nice post about fall. It's still freezing and raining out! We are all wearing pants, long sleeves and jackets or coats. If I had a picture to post with this, it would be of me with a horribly grumpy face, so just picture that!

Have you ever seen this?

Apparently on the first day of fall, you can make an egg stand up. Yesterday afternoon, Lindsay and her friend, Avery, did just that. It was pretty cool, they used salt to help. I have heard this before but had never seen it. It has something to do with the atmospheric equalibrium or something. We left the egg up and sure enough, it had fallen down when we got up this morning. It is supposed to only work that one day of the year! So next year, give it a try :

Bella

Last Monday while we were enjoying the petting zoo at the fair, we also enjoyed holding a couple of the puppies that McKee's had for sale. This little girl curled right into me, looked up at me and licked my chin. I knew at that point she had to come home with us. It took a lot of work convincing Chris of that situation but with the help of all the kids, especially Emily who cried when she thought we weren't going to get her, she did find a new home with us. Back in March, my hair lady's dog had puppies and she had named one of them Bella. Baylie and I loved it and we said that if we ever did get a puppy, we would name her Bella. Our Bella is a miniature schnauzer. She weighs about 4 pounds and should be about 10-12 full grown.

This is Jace and Bella on the way home from the fair. She curled right up in his car seat and fell asleep. She has been a great puppy! She loves attention from all of us, especially the kids and seems to be very mild natured. I do feel like a mother of a newborn, having to get up a couple of times in the night to let her out!

A 'FAIR'ly great birthday!

This past labor day, Sept. 7th, Chris turned the BIG 4-0! I was previously told that if I made a big deal of this birthday, I would be killed! (so, I didn't) Since it was labor day and the kids were out of school, we decided to head down to the fair. We did a lot of eating.... Lindsay and Makenna showing their excitement for the pronto pups! And come on, who doesn't LOVE a good corn dog?

Jace stuffing his face with cotton candy! I think this was all he ate the entire time at the fair, the "real" foods didn't appeal to him. He was a sticky mess when he was done!

We looked at all the animals! I swear Jace had to pet every horses rear at the fair! Emily showing her "oh come on" look!

We rode the little "train" near the petting zoo.

We enjoyed the petting zoo. Kenna, Ali and Jace with a goat.

We also enjoyed just sitting around watching the people on the mechanical bull. (this was our pit stop for my scone nuggets, which are always a must at the fair) Can you tell that Jace is a total "daddy's boy?" We all had a great time spending time together at the fair and celebrating Chris's BIG birthday. Chris got tickets for him and Jace to go to the motocross at the fair which was last night. They both had a blast and Jace is still talking about the motorcycles! (They forgot to take the camera : (

Pre-school, Finally!

The big day has finally arrived! Ever since her big sisters have started school, I hear everyday, "when do I go to pre-school?" from Baylie. Today was the big day and since she was in an afternoon pre-school class, she slept in as usual. I was really hoping to get into a morning class but it was full when I called. This little angel is my sleeper, and has been known to sleep until lunch time if I let her, so it would be good to have something for her to get up for : ) She will be going to school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays! She was ready to go by noon and kept asking if we could just go, she was very anxious! Her pre-school is only like 2 minutes away so I had to keep telling her, "not yet!"

Once we got there, Mrs. Grover was waiting for the class outside and was so good to remember all the kids' names from registration day! And, good news for me! She informed me that one of her morning kids dropped out so as of tomorrow, we go in the morning : ) This was a high point in my day! I was going to have to pick her up every Wednesday 15 minutes early so that I could get to work on time! What a nice surprise for us both!

Here she is sitting on the steps waiting patiently to go in and get started! This is her afternoon class, to bad she won't remember any of them since she is switching to morning! Baylie is such a sweet little lady and I do have to admit I was a little sad dropping her off today. Usually I'm excited for things like this but it has been a joy having her around with me all day, and for the few hours she's away, I will miss her!