Say Cheese!

 Once again, Austin takes an awesome picture!  When he handed it to me he said, "You will probably want me to do retakes, I don't know why I was making this face!"

 Not quite sure why Layla is making this weird spaced out looking face either, but she is still cute.

And Ry's first school pics.  At least he did better than his brother did with his first school pic!

 This is Austin's Kindergarten picture.

 This is Austin's First grade picture. 

Pumpkin patch

Friday we went to the farm and picked pumpkins. It was tons of fun. The day was nice and warm and Grandma, Grandpa, Laura, and the boys joined us!
On the hay ride back with our pumpkins. The sun was shining a little too brightly!

Grandpa and Daddy in search of the perfect pumpkin.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin!

Austin and Layla on the hay ride!

Laura enjoying the trip.

Mom and Dad trying out the reverse picture feature on my new phone!

Jason and I playing with the new phone

Austin and Nick on the trains

We could not get the kids to look up at us to take a picture!

My little vegetable babies!

The Pinewood Derby

(this is the first, second, and third place winners)
Austin had his first pinewood derby contest this week. Jason helped him shape his car. I helped him sand it. Aunt Emmy and Uncle David helped him paint it. And it was awesome.
He was UNDEFEATED!!! His car never lost a race. Although after he accidentally pulled one of the wheels off it did slow down considerably. It was awesome.
Jason was at work, but was able to catch the final heat!

Austin showing off his winning car!

Jason explaining what he did to help Austin make the car so awesome!

First day of school

(Mike I posted this picture for you....classic Austin face!)

After postponing the first day of school twice, the kids finally went back to school on Wednesday, August 31. They were all really excited! We had some spare friends with us that morning as their mommy was in the hospital having their new little brother.

Layla, waiting for the bus and wearing one of the beautiful hair barrettes made by Aunt Laura

Austin's favorite part of the whole day was when another little boy asked him if he was new and he got to take his glasses off and say, "it's me, carson!" I think it was his superman moment!

Ry had gradual entry and I went with him to see his new class room. He was SO excited!

Austin

Austin is getting ready for school.

He has his new glasses!

And his new haircut.

(Refer to the picture below in the last post to see the drastic change in Austin's appearance!)

Jason's Graduation

Jason graduated from Harford Community College's Nursing School August 22, 2011. It was a nice ceremony and a relief to finally have it done!

Jason is one of the tall guys standing in the back row.

Can you see him walking on the far right side of the photo?

He is standing, waiting for them to call his name, on the left side of the picture.

Our family after his graduation. We are SO proud of him!!

My sudden trip to Colorado

Almost a month ago my niece Laila passed away very unexpectedly. After talking to my brothers and sister I bought a ticket and flew out to Colorado Springs to be with my brother and my sweet sister-in-law. It was a terrible visit, it was a wonderful visit. It was very trying and also very beautiful. I hope I never have to do anything like it again. I have been amazed by Mike and Adrianne and their strength. They are incredible.

As I was leaving, I ran around like a crazy person and took a picture with each of my family that was there. First is my nephew Noah!

Adrianne

Mom (terrible picture of both of us!!)

Nephew Isaac

Nephew Eli ( I think this is the happiest looking picture I have with him!!)

Nephew Nic

Dad

Nephew Will

Mike

Laura (married to Andy)

Mom and Mandy

newest nephew Nathan

Andy

Why my mom was making a weird face

Ryan has a speech impediment. You can't really notice it unless you look at his mouth while he is talking. He forms many of the sounds incorrectly. In this video I was trying to show that he makes a "Sh" sound with his mouth open. Make the sound, I bet your teeth are together...not Ryan's...
So when I was with my family last week I was trying to show them how he makes the sounds, they made fun of me because I was making crazy faces!

The Blue Mountains

We took a train about two hours from Sydney to the Blue Mountains. It was a cold (about 4 degrees Celsius) and foggy day, but we were all still excited to go on a hike through the famous Blue Mountains!

This is where we stopped to eat our lunch halfway through our hike. We had lemon chicken wraps. I was the first one to bite into my wrap (anyone surprised?) and was shocked and dismayed to find some strange things in my wrap....
The first thing I tasted was a potato....oh, and not just a regular potato...but there was potato salad in our wraps!
there was some grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes...
It was weird, but edible!

Most of their trees in Australia don't leave their leaves, they loose their bark!

One of four water falls that we saw on our hike.

The second waterfall.

The third waterfall.

The initial view we got of the blue mountains.