Fall is my favorite season. Even though we don't have pretty fall trees, I still love the smell outside when it starts to cool off in the desert.
Macey was a gumball machine
Gage was a fireman
and Porter was a terrifying werewolf!!!
with cooking outside, 
eating smores, kids playing in the tree house, walking down to the candy store, and cousins getting to play together for three full days!!!
We happened to be there during the "Taste of Chicago" which we thought was extremely overrated. It is where a lot of restaurants set up booths down by the lake and you can buy tickets and taste their menus to see if you like their food. We ended up spending 24 dollars and walked away from there hungry. 
Friday night our good friends Kenneth and Shelley Lawlor met us at our hotel. This was another BIG surprise for Tyson. They live in Missouri so we don't get to see them very often so I thought it would be so fun to spend a few days with them. They knocked on our hotel room door and I let them in, Kenneth walked in and said "hey dude, whats up?" and Tyson just stared at Kenneth, it just didn't register for such a long time what was going on.
visited the american girl store, ate chicago pizza, and Garretts Gourmet Popcorn (yum!), 
ate Ghiradelli hot fudge sundaes, visited the Science and Industry Museum, our room had a view of the Chicago River (so cool), rode the Elevated train, 
ate at Potbellies subs~ twice (this was my favorite thing we ate the whole time)!!! and visited Navy Pier.
We celebrated his morning with pancakes, strawberries and whip cream.
I took him and a friend to lunch at Pei Wei, where we met my sister Colette who shares the same birthday as he does. He is a wonderful kid, here are twelve fun things he did this year:
We spent the 4th of July in Greer with the Cook's. Greer is beautiful and so relaxing. 
We took a really long walk to the candy store and Gage and Ava just couldn't make it, they both fell asleep just before we got there. We drove into town for the parade, but had to drive home before the fireworks so we could be back for church in the morning.
I had to put this picture on because this is what Tyson and Lance talked about the whole time at dinner. Now, don't get me wrong its all good, it had been a long time since I had seen Marcee so it gave me a chance to catch up with her.
We attempted to try to potty train Gage, but so far it has been unsucessful. But he is so cute on the potty!
Macey Graduated from Preschool, thanks Miss Judy, we love you!
There is a street called the La Rambla which has street performers, outside cafes, and yummy gelato shops along it, it was so pretty. 
We also loved the Guell park, it was designed by a man named Gaudi, he was an architect in Spain that had a strong influence on the city. 
My other favorite building was the La Famaglia which is a church that Gaudi started back in the 1800's and is still not finished they are guessing that it will be finished around 2028~crazy! 
We took the 45min train ride to a city called Pompeii. Back in 79AD this city was covered in ash from the eruption of the volcano that they had built their city next too. In the 1700's archeologists found the city still covered in ash. They were able to uncover so many buildings, it was really cool.
This is Tyson and Lou reinacting the duels that would have been seen in the amphatheatre of Pompeii.
After Pompeii we got back on the train and went down to Sorrento, this was a charming Italian city, so quaint and fun. 
We had lunch here at a yummy pizza place. We then took a ferry boat ride to the island of Capri. We only had around a half an hour here but it was really fun. We found some really fun necklaces for the girls and I found the best gelato of the our whole trip~it was watermelon~yum! 
We then got back on the ferry and took it back to Napels where we got back on the cruise ship and were so tired from our fun day of sightseeing.
and Peter's Basillica. 
The Basillica was amazing, the architecture and the carvings were incredible. We then headed to the Vatican, it was not what I expected it was more of an art maze than a church to me. We walked through more halls than I can count, we saw amazing art, sculptures, tapestries, furniture and learned so more about Michaelangelo than I would have ever imagined. We finally wandered our way through the maze and made it to the Sistine Chapel, which was really cool. After the vatican we jumped on the subway and made our way to the Spanish steps, we walked through the streets and found the Trevi Fountain, jumped back on the subway and came out to the breathtaking Colessum. 
This by far was mine and Tyson favorite thing that we saw. It was enormously huge and just awesome (in the literall sense), it only took eight years to build, from 72-80AD. Which is really incredible because its enormous. Tyson listened to the walking tour that they offer and there were some interesting facts, there were more than 100,000 animals killed in the colessum in 5 years. They brought in a whale and filled the Colessum with water. From the colessum we could see the Forum which was amazing. We then got back on the subway and took it to the train station where we boarded a train and took our 1hr and 20min ride in the hot, stinky trains of Italy. (the best expression I heard was from Kristen Seare when she said, I will be glad when we won't be surrounded by the smell of smoke and B-O!)
We then went to the Duomo which is a famous church and it was huge and beautiful. After a VERY long lunch (2and1/2 hrs), we shopped for awhile then headed back to the train station, we stopped at Pissa on our way back to the cruise ship. Pissa was my second favorite city even though we only had 35min there. 
We rushed to the leaning tower of Pissa and took lots of pictures and marveled at the structure, then met up with the rest of our group who had gotten lost and had taken the scenic route to the tower and then we ran back to the train. We had a lot of tender mercies that took place that helped us make our train, such as the train was late and so forth (a good but long story, so maybe another time). But, we all safely made it back to the train and continued our journey back to the cruise ship. 
For the last few years Tyson has earned a trip with the company that he works for, we usually spend it as our time to get away alone but this year we decided it would be fun to bring the older kids. So in April we headed to Florida with Grandpa and Grandma Cook. 
We had such a wonderful time. We took a red eye flight to Miami and the kids did GREAT! They all slept except for Porter and Tyson. When we arrived at our hotel we were blown away with how nice it was. We lucked out and our awesome travel agent pulled some strings and got us a one bedroom two bath suite with a beautiful view.
So the kids were able to sleep in the large living room area and we slept in the bedroom. I actually got SLEEP! 
As soon as we got there we headed out to the beach. I am a beach bum! There are few places I love more than the beach, I can lay in a chair and watch my kids play in the water all day and never get bored BUT, my husband is not that patient. So, we stayed out at the beach about an hour or so and then headed back to the pool area where there was a fun slide. Tyson went down the slide and hit his elbow so hard it cracked it open and I sware I could see bone. It was disgusting, he was a stinker and would not go to the hospital to get it stitched up so we went to Walgreens and bought some first aide stuff and glued it shut. (I don't recommend this to anyone, its been two months now and it is still bugging him, silly boy!)
ate lots of food,
had yummy ice cream, and hung out together.
One night Metlife hired Chicago to come and sing for us! 
It was AWESOME!!! 
we had such a great time, they were probably my favorite group growing up so that was really fun, we took the kids and made them dance, they had a good time.
One afternoon we took the older three on a catamaran and they got to go snorkeling. 
Our captian was awesome he let each of our older three kids drive the boat on the way back.
Macey went with Grandma and Grandpa Cook on a duck bus ride, then at the end went in the ocean. Macey had a good time, Grandma and Grandpa said it wasn't the most fun they have had. 
The last day we were there we went on an air boat ride and saw alligators. This was my favorite thing we did.
After the airboat ride they had an alligator show and the guy let Tyson come in with the alligators and he got to sit on its back. 
It was really fun! We were really excited to come home and see our little Gage, he had a great time with all the family and friends that helped watch him while we were gone. Thank you to all of you.
Well I did it again, it has been another 3 months since I have blogged. Sigh! It happens when life is busy and your house is full of busy kids. Here is a catch up AGAIN!
We called it space day, I took the kids and Hailey and Tyson Moore, Bridon and Danner Bowen, to the space museum in Phoenix. It wasn't as exciting as I anticipated but thanks to our tour guide who gave us a lesson on electricity and magnets it turned out to be worth the hour drive. 
We then came home and made space ships out of big boxes in the back yard and they got to watch a movie outside while they ate their "rockets in a blanket". It turned out to be a pretty fun day!
Macey shares her birthday with her Grandpa Freestone which makes her pretty special! 
We celebrated their birthdays together in Grandpa's backyard in the nice cool breeze that we have in April! Macey turned a whole handful, she is 5!
Gage was thrilled with all the candy filled eggs that he found, he was less than thrilled that a strange little baby girl kept walking by and taking his eggs. He would just stare at her, he never said anything to her, but later he told me "baby take my easter bunny eggs, I share" then he heaved a big sigh. 
Easter morning was less pleasant, there was lots of crabby words shared, time outs given, doors slammed, feet stomping up the stairs and double duties dished out. Had all of this happened before the kids found their Easter baskets, I know for a fact the Easter Bunny would have made a special trip back to pick up all the baskets and take them to some other happy children, I have learned first hand it's not a bright idea to give children sugar that early in the morning. (check out Connor's face!)
They are in a three year progam called Let's Play Music, which I love. At the end of three years they are able to write their own performance peice. 
Porter did a great job, this was his year for writing his own song and it was great.
Over Valentines weekend we were invited up to the Breinholt's cabin up in Show Low to play in the snow. 
We had the best time, I went snow skiing for the very first time EVER!!!! I was awesome I never fell once I totally picked it right up and was so good. UMMM, ya right. The first 100 yds off the ski lift I ran into what looked like an out house, I rolled in complete summer saults down a hill, I ran into to Tyson a few times, but it was really fun. 
Tyson and the Breinholt's were VERY patient especially when it took me about 30 min to get down a green hill. It was alot of fun! 
The next day the Bowens joined us and we went snow mobiling, this was tons of fun!!!!
I didn't feel quite so out of control as I did on skis! Thanks Breinholts for such a wonderful weekend away! 
