Grandpa and Grandma

Chloe, Taffy, Teagan and Piper with the cake.

Teagan trying to hit the ball...

Piper trying to hit the ball...

Chloe trying to hit the ball...(she's a little more successful)

Grandpa and Aftyn swinging...

Grandpa Leroy and Grandma Linda stopped by today while they were in town for State Baseball.  They brought over a new toy.  It's a water baseball batting thing.  It sprays water and the ball is suppose to stay in the fountain of water (when it isn't windy) and then you can bat at it.  It was a big hit with our girls and with the neighborhood girls as well.  Per Chloe's request, I made a baseball cake for Lance and Luke but since they had to get back to Fort Dodge for another game and didn't have time to stop, we ate it.  Sorry guys but it was Yummy!!  Grandma took pictures though so you can see what you missed out on.  (Nothing fancy)  Enough for now, have a good night...-AS

Backyard Adventures

Piper and Taffy

Teagan...

Piper, Cael and Teagan

Taffy...

We spent some time at Backyard Adventures this week to get out of the house and out of the rain!!  The kids had a blast, of course!!  It's just like a park but indoors-which was nice for me because I didn't have to chase them.  It has 5 or 6 playsets (for sale) to play on.  Taffy thinks she's 4-she climbed up the rock wall! (with help, of course) She also climbed the tallest slides and all the ladders.  Those two things were her favorites.  Teagan and Piper and Chloe and Cael just ran wild.  They chased each other and played hide and seek and there are also basketball courts to play on.  Chloe wants to have her birthday party there.  I think it would be a good place for Teagan and Aftyn to have parties there since their birthdays are in the dead of winter... Enough for now...-AS

PS. Congrats to my friend Heidi from work.  She had a baby girl yesterday, Rowan Colleen.  She wanted a baby girl so bad!  Everyone needs a little DRAMA in their life!!  : )

Baby Drue

Aftyn looking at the baby...

Teagan...

Piper...

Taffy, Chloe, Teagan, Seth around Baby Drue...Piper wouldn't get in the picture-she struck a mood about then.

Mommy, Piper and Teagan (No, I don't know what's with the face...And that's a bottle of ROOT beer!!)

Today we went to a park in Ames to meet Angie and Seth and Baby Drue.  She is sooooo CUTE with dark hair.  Taffy LOVED her.  She kept lifting up the blanket to see her and petting her head and poking at her face(she was covered to keep the bugs away.)  I think Taff needs a baby sister.  Hhmmm, not sure how I'm gonna do that though.  The other girls liked her too but not as much as Taff.  The playground was awesome too and the girls had a blast.  After we met Angie and the kids, we went to Hickory Park.  Sorry bootcamp staff but I only get to that place once every couple of years so I only ate HALF of my Saucy Southerner and ALL of my HALF order of Hot Apple Crunch.  MMmmm- YUM!!  It was delicious!  However, my days of taking Aftyn out to eat by myself are numbered.  She likes to run wild and climb all over the table and NOT sit still in her highchair and do you know how hard it is to eat a saucy southerner with 1 hand??--HARD!!  Atleast if Shane goes, we can eat in shifts...Enough for now, I'm gonna get Wild Child outside!!  -AS

P.S.  Quote of the day:  On the way to the car from Hickory Park, Chloe asked, "Mom, were you pregnant when you got married?"  WHAT???  "No."  For the record, I was not and she was born a week before our 3rd anniversary.

Having fun at the Mall...

Taffy rearranging the kids chairs...

Piper...QUEEN of the TRAIN

Taffy-- She is so stinkin' CUTE!!

Piper and Teagan-so are they!!

Chloe's hiding from Teagan-she's pretty cute too, huh??(maybe not as much in this picture)

Today we skipped the movie, "Stuart Little" in favor of the play area and lunch at the food court.  We own the movie so the girls didn't mind and  I thought that it would be cheaper--HA!!  That's funny!  With the four kids, I ordered from 3 different places and I just had grapes that I brought from home (Not much from the food court is on the bootcamp diet : ( .     Aftyn ate whatever everyone else ordered.  She's getting to the age to need her own food though.  Aftyn didn't eat much as she was too busy rearranging the chairs a million times.  Oh well, it kept her close and busy.  No wonder she's a pip-squeak!  She doesn't eat!  At home, she likes to share with Willie, the dog.  I think he's going deaf though so I usually have to go get him to clean up her mess.  He can't hear it falling to the floor anymore.  Poor little buddy.  Going to the mall was a pretty nice change.  We haven't been there in a few weeks and a little more relaxing then a movie (for me atleast-I'm not out at the concession stand or hallway chasing Aftyn).  This way, Taffy can run off some steam and it's ok for her to be loud and WILD.  

Tomorrow, we are hoping to go see Baby Drue and Angie so I better get to bed.  I have to skip bootcamp because Shane has to leave very early.  Hopefully, I'll get a run in though.  Enough for now... Good night...-AS

Open Grill at the Shepherds

Avery, Aftyn, Piper, Teagan and Abby

Chloe, Abby, Teagan, Delaney and Avery

Saturday night, we went down to the Shepherds for open grill night.  Basically bring your own meat and sides and beer and kids and eat and enjoy the evening with your neighbors.  It's always a good time with good neighbors and good conversation.  Of course, no night is complete without someone asking for a sleepover so the Shepherd girls (Abby and Avery) stayed at our house.

In the morning, we tried to go feed the ducks.  Shane and I loaded up the 2 vans with 6 girls, some bread, and the camera and headed out to the Farm Bureau pond.  We were prepared as much as we could be but only found 3 ducks.  So those 3 Lucky ducks ate like it was Thanksgiving.  I don't know where the other ducks were.  There is usually 50 of them - not today.  Teagan has been wanting to go feed the ducks for weeks.  Kind of a disappointment although she didn't complain.

Another busy week with bootcamp, gymnastics, the girls last night of soccer, and we hopefully will get to go see Angie and her new baby-YEAH!! and I have to work a day this week-boo...enough for now...4:30 comes early...-AS

WHAT A WEEK!!!

Hello, Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately.  I have been up to my ears in clothes.  My friend, Nicki, and I are doing a garage sale this weekend--Ugh!  I'm getting rid of ALL my baby clothes : (  No more babies for us.  Kind of makes me sad :.(

Chloe had volleyball camp on Monday through Wednesday.  I wish she'd find something that fits her.  I asked her if she had fun and got a big shoulder shrug.  Past experience tells me that it wasn't her favorite and she won't be begging to be signed up again.  BUMMER!  She has a couple of weeks off until she starts basketball camp.  We'll see how that goes ; >

Piper has her last blastball practice tomorrow, which I'll have to miss due to the garage sale.  She'll miss it, however, tomorrow she'll be a bear since it's 10:00 and they (Shane, Chloe, Teagan and Piper) aren't home.  They went to the Iowa Cubs game and it was delayed due to rain so I'm not sure what time they'll get home.  Hopefully, Shane will have enough smarts to get them home sooner then later.  We'll see how that goes!??

Nothing to exciting has happened lately.  Bootcamp is going well.  My legs don't hurt nearly as much as they did.  : )  We did our stretches today and then we did a body squat marathon (do 'em til you can't do 'em anymore)  I did 300 but I could have done more.  I stopped so at the end of bootcamp I only have to do that many plus a few more to "show improvement".  Then we had relay races, which was a nice change of pace.  We were in teams and we had to sprint down about 25 yards, do 10 jumping jacks (or pushups or whatever) and sprint back.  We did about 10 different sets of that.  The losing teams had to do pushups.  I had to do them only once.  It was pretty fun and much better then running around a track, that's for sure.  Anyway, enough for now...I'll try to come up with something a little more exciting...-AS

Bootcamp ; )

OK, I lied.  I said I could walk today.  It's proving to be difficult today also.  And sitting--OUCH!!  Who's idea was this anyway???  Oh well...-AS

Bootcamp ; )

OK so I started bootcamp on Monday at the Y.  All I can say is OUCH!!  It's a group of 20 or so ladies and 1 man.  So far this week (it's only Wednesday), I have run 10 miles.  Seriously, 10 miles!!  (not everyone runs) Today was just our endurance run.  Run for 20 minutes, turn around and run back to where we started.  I was number 2 in the crowd--DUMB!!  You run out the farthest, you must run back--HHEELLLOOO--what was I thinking???  And then Yoga for cool down--not my favorite.  My attention span is not that long.  I really think I have adult ADD.  We only did it for 15 minutes--too long for me!  Monday, we did cardio and upper body (tomorrow too).  Tuesday's and Friday's are cardio and lower body.  TOday, I can atleast walk--yesterday I could walk, the stairs and bending my legs to go to the bathroom or to get down to Taffy's level-that was a problem!  It hurt. : (

And then we have to keep a food journal.  Yea, so I totally CHEATED on the 2nd day and had McDonalds for lunch yesterday.  But I didn't eat ALL the fries, only a couple and I threw the rest away (don't tell Shane).  We had to turn that in today and Matt was writing comments--I haven't even checked mine-too scared!!  I only signed up for the 4 week program but I may extend it to the 8 week.  Believe it or not, I kinda like it.  By the end of summer, I'll be a lean, mean Alli-machine.  (oh yeah, I'm already "kinda mean" according to Teagee.)  Enough for now, I need a shower...-AS

So Precious...

I took Taffy up to bed tonight and I was rocking her but she was jackin' around so I just put her in her crib and said, "nigh-night" like I do every night and left.  A few minutes later, I can hear her crying so I waited a few more minutes and she's still crying so I go back up to her (my) room.  I walk in and she's sitting in her crib.  I say, "what's the matter, baby?"  She looks at me with her ruffled brow and points her finger and says, " oo do-do dah!" (or however you spell that??)  I guess that means, "I wasn't done rocking so don't leave the room until you have permission" but I could be wrong.  I'm not sure.  So we rocked a little while longer and we went over different body parts like eyes, hair, arm, hand, finger a couple of times and then I asked if she was tired and she shook her head "yes" so I put her back in bed and said, "nigh-night" and she waved like she always does and fast asleep she went.  (well, I gave her a chewy toy and left and haven't heard from her again so far tonight.)  They are so precious when they're asleep, aren't they??  Goodnight...-AS

Quotes of the Day...

I took the girls to the movie again today and on the way home, I told the girls that we were going to stop by McDonalds really quick because we didn't have time to go home and have lunch before Chloe had to be at the High School for Volleyball Camp.  Teagan said, "Yeah!!  Mommy you're the best Mommy.  Well, kind of the best but a little mean too. "  Thanks, Teagan.  

The other day we were waiting for Teagan and Piper at soccer and Chloe said, "Mom, do you have any balls..."  Then she started laughing because she was going to ask if I had any balls in the van for her and Taffy to play with.  She's more in tune to stuff like that now days and I'm not sure I'm ready for that...enough for now...-AS

PS.   Yesterday worked out fine and Henry saved the day by coming over during nap time so I didn't have to drag Aftyn out of bed and the other girls to the High School to pick up Chloe.  Thanks Henry!!

Summer Break??

Summer break??...Not hardly!!!

I was sooo looking forward to summer break before summer break got here.  Now I'm ready for things to return to normal and kids to be in school.  It's not even the fact that the girls are fighting constantly (which is only partially true). It's the fact that we can't catch a break.  I was looking forward to NO schedule!!  To do what we wanted when we wanted and to sleep in!  Monday's are the worst: I start BOOTCAMP  tomorrow morning at 5 am,  Chloe has tutoring with her teacher mid-morning (I'm sending her despite she and Max telling me that she's the second smartest in her class), Teagan and Piper have gymnastics, Chloe then has volleyball camp and then in the evening, Teagan and Piper have soccer again.  Plus Chloe wants to go to the library for the afternoon learning thing.  Tomorrow is about butterflies, which starts right when she's getting out of volleyball camp (which is also naptime).  UUgghh...It probably won't be bad tomorrow since Chloe may be able to ride her bike to tutoring and maybe even camp but Chloe has to be at camp the same time Piper and Teagan need to be picked up from gymnastics which is the same time we need to be eating lunch.  Who would ever schedule a camp (or anything else for that matter) to start at 12 noon???  That's not a great idea, if you ask me (no one did).  Keeps us out of trouble, I guess.  Enough about that...it'll be fine, I'm sure.  I just have to stress about it the night before.  ; )

A BIG CONGRATS  to my best friend from High School, Angie.  She and her husband Tim had a baby girl last night at 7:17pm.  Drue LeeAnn Moore was born on 6/14/08 and weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and is 19 1/2 inches long.  Drue also has a big brother Seth who wanted to name the baby Allison--they should have listened to him--he's a smart kid!!  Anyway, Yeah!!  I can't wait to see her!! 

Have a good night...-AS

Blastball Day 2

Today, Piper had day 2 of blastball.  She really does well grounding balls and hitting.  Catching while standing up is another story but she'll get it.  Shane got to come today but she wouldn't let him help her.  He needs to figure out that she's only 4--MORE PRAISE, less critique.  He came out to help her step and throw and she wouldn't do it for him because she didn't want him to help so he reluctantly waited behind the fence the whole time.  I felt bad for him and I was planning on him helping instead of me.  Aftyn screamed the whole time because she wanted me and I tried to use that excuse to trade him places and Piper didn't care.  It wasn't her problem so she wasn't about to let me trade spots.  Maybe next week-the last week.  She'll be sad.  She really likes going.  Enough for now...-AS

Havin' Fun in the Sun!!

The sun came out today--YEAH!!  There  have been few and far between days that we've seen sun lately so we ran outside as soon as we saw it for fear of not seeing it again for awhile.  With all the running we've done lately, we stayed home today---Aahhh....  How nice!!   

I don't normally let my children play in the street but Taffy just COULD NOT resist splashing in the puddles so I stood guard for any cars coming down the street so that she would be safe.  

We then headed down the block to see what Teagan and Piper were up to.  They were playing in the slip and slide at Abby and Avery's house with a pack of girls.  Then the boys showed up...they happened to find a big ol' frog in the window well and it took 5-10 minutes to figure out how the heck they were going to get it out of there.  Finally they got it out and let it go behind Doug's fence.  Chloe showed up (she's went to Vinton today to see Max off--he'll be gone until after the 4th of July) and jumped on the trampoline with Aftyn.  Aftyn just wants to do what the big kids do so we usually let her (within reason).  

After all the rain Iowa has had, we are hoping for some nice weather for the weekend!!  Enough for now...-AS

The Play Place

Yesterday, we decided to go to the 10 am movie and then to the play area at the mall with Melissa, Cael and Avery.  The movie started out good, but didn't end so well.  Out of the 6 kids that started in their seats at the beginning, only 3 remained at the end.  We'll have to come up with a new system by next week... 

After the movie, we headed off to the play area--which is ALWAYS a big hit!!  I just wish they'd put a stinkin' door on it so that Taffy doesn't go shopping by herself.  She thinks she's the mom and leaves whenever she's had enough.  (or whenever she wants too)  I should have brought my leash!!  I do encourage her to walk down the slide otherwise it's out the door she goes.  She's a quick little turkey too!  Notice Piper has a dress on again!  That's about all she'll wear.  Chloe was at the play area but I'm not sure where she was when I had the camera out.  I'll get her next time.  Anyway, enough for now...I gotta throw in a load of dresses before tomorrow...-AS

Soccer Practice

Teagan and Piper had their first soccer practice tonight.  They both had a blast!!  And Piper didn't want to go but I let her wear her "Gabriella" dress with shorts under it so it was all good.  It was pretty uneventful and I really think Piper might be our super star!!  With a little practice, of course.  The kids were kicking the ball into the net and when they did that, they were suppose to yell "GOAL".  The coach ACTUALLY told Teagan that she wasn't loud enough!!   WHAT??  Do you know this child??  She had one volume and it is LOUD!!  I will admit, she wasn't very loud, but what is up with that??  I'd like to bottle that up and open it at home!

During the practice, Aftyn found a mud hole to stomp in and she also went out onto the field to play with the kids.  She does think she's FOUR, you know??

Chloe found a GIANT mud hill to climb and then they all had to climb it after practice.  Needless to say, it was bath time when we got home--for the kids and their shoes!

Teagan and Piper said they'd go back next week so the night was a success!!  Enough for now...-AS

Blastball

Piper started blastball today.  Hopefully for Shane's sake, we get someone who likes sports.  She used to watch baseball on TV with him so maybe she'll be our sports star.  Luckily, I talked her out of wearing a dress to blastball practice.  That only took 10 minutes and some bribery.  As athletic as Teagan is, she didn't want to play this year for some reason.  I asked her today and she said it was because she wanted to play soccer because "I love it sooo much, Mom".  Ok??  Piper is playing both so I'm not sure why she can't.  Oh well.  Other then Shane getting called in to work and Chloe being ticked off because it's "sooo hot" and she had to keep an eye on Aftyn, it was pretty fun.  Piper needs to work on her catching skills but she can bat pretty good.  She had a couple of great hits off the tee.  She needs to work on her fielding skills too but what do you expect from a 4 year old with older sisters that aren't into sports??  She did a pretty good job, I'd say!!   We have soccer on Monday...Teagan and Piper.  I'll let you know how that goes if we don't get rained out...

This afternoon, Melissa decided she would fill up the pool for Cael.  That seemed like a good idea.  It was hot and somewhat sunny.  Piper and Cael had other ideas.  They decided to turn the sandbox into a beach--a WET one!!  At least half of the pools' water was in the sand box and Piper turned her flip flops into little boats.  Isn't that just creative?  They were a mess but having lots of fun!!  Enough for now...-AS