Army pride...

While Ben was at training this
last time he picked up these
great shirts for the kids!

They love wearing his big
ones as p.j. shirts.

They were so excited when he gave them
the shirts and had to wear them to school.

It's super rare to get the all in the same thing
and I love it!!!

Great idea Honey. :)

1st day of school 2011

Well the day has finally gotten here...
We now have 3 kids heading out the
door in the morning for school.
Blake is now a 4th grader,
Brooklyn is now a 2nd grader
and
Bella is officially a kindergartener!

Camey came over in the morning to wish them a
great first day of school. They were so excited to see her!

We met over at Kacey's house for the traditional
walk to school with all these great kids.
(The crowd is getting older and older)

We always look like a parade, I love it.

Our little group shot!

Bella was so excited to have her bff in her class!

Bella with Ms. Jordan

Brooklyn with Mrs. Jennings

Blake with Ms. Ankley

The kids all got great teachers this year.
They always do!
(We love the kids school)
We're looking forward to a great
2011-2012 school year!

Our amazing American Soldier

On August 19th we found out that Ben will be leaving in
January 2012 to sever his country in Afghanistan.
Even though being away from our husband/daddy
for so long will be difficult, we are so proud of him
for being so brave and serve his country. We love
you so much Ben!

Grandma Jan's corn festival...

Brooklyn and Grandma Jan came up
a fun idea to harvest Grandma's corn.
They decided to have a corn festival and
serve all corn related food.

It started off with the kids picking all
the corn off of the corn stocks.

Grandma gave them each a basket to
put there corn in.

They loaded up their baskets!!!

Once all the corn stocks were bared it was

time to shuck the corn.

It was such a great time!
They didn't stop till every last piece was done.

Then for dinner we had corn dogs, chips with corn salsa,
corn on the cob and corn bread.

Then for dessert we had vanilla ice cream
with candy corn jelly bellys on top.

At the end of the night Ben and Joe had
a bobbing for apple race. It was a super close race
but Joe won. It was so funny watching them try to
figure out how to get the corn out of the bowls
and then chuck them on the ground.

Thank you Brooklyn and Jan for such a great family night!
What a great way to spend time together.

Bella has finally started soccer!

Bella is finally old enough to play
soccer and she is super excited!
Ben has taken on the roll of coach for her team.

There are 6 girls and 4 boys on the team...
The Avengers is the team name and so
far all of the kids are having a blast
being on the team.

They love to do their warm ups...

And have a blast learning how to play the game.
No surprise though cause Ben is an amazing soccer coach!
(I might be a little bias)

Here's to a great soccer season for Bella
and all of her soccer teammates.
Also to Blake and Brooklyn.
(Blake is in his 5th and Brooklyn is in 3rd season)

(This is Bella and her bff Olivia)

Happy birthday Grandma Jan...

Grandma Jan had a birthday on August 6th, and we all got
together to celebrate her. We started off the party with
a fun art project Aunt Kalynn brought over for the kids.

They had a lot of fun coloring together. They colored in little crabs
with their pictures in the middle. It was to go along with the crab feed
Grandpa Marc was making for dinner.

Then after we finished with our art project the kids
all got their swim suits on for some fun in the pool!

Daddy of course got in with them and they all
loved having a blast with him.

Kelsea and Bayleigh didn't last to long in the pool
so once they were done they decided it was time to chalk
on the sidewalk.

They worked hard on making rainbows!

(Just a really cute one of Blake)

It sure was fun hanging with the birthday
girl on her special day!

This is Jan's sister Nancy and
brother in-law David

Here is Ben with his
Mom and Dad

Joe and Kalynn got this
adorable cake for Jan.
Everyone had their own crab to eat
and the birthday girl got the biggest one with the
princess crown on it. It was a big hit
at the party...

Happy birthday Jan... Hope you have an amazing year!
Thanks for letting us all come and celebrate you.