Soccer Mom

Noah started instructional league soccer this fall.  He really enjoyed it at first.  When they started scrimmaging though, we told him that he needed to go kick the ball.  He got frustrated because he thought he had to kick the ball all the time.  Once we cleared up that misunderstanding, things were good again.  He really enjoyed soccer and we all enjoyed watching him.  Ammon especially.  Ammon is a phenomenal soccer player and for him to see his son play was a very special time for him.  I'm excited to finally have the title of "Soccer Mom" and I know this won't be the last season of soccer for us.  : )  Here are some pictures I took on picture night.  There was no way I was paying a ridiculous amount of money on the team's pictures.  Noah loves the camera and we always have to take multiple shots so he can use all of his silly faces.  Love this guy...

Aren't those shirts the most obnoxious color?!

Date Night!

I'm not sure why I don't blog anymore.  I really don't.  I love writing down my thoughts and documenting our cute little life...  I'm going to be better.  Here goes...

A couple weeks ago, Ammon and I got to go out on a date!  Mount Airy was having their annual Autumn Leaves Festival so we decided to go check it out.  It was so nice to go without children.  We browsed all the vendor tents and just had fun walking hand in hand.  We saw SO many people we knew.  I love living in a small town... It's so fun running into friends whenever we go out.

Here we are before we started walking.  I love my husband so much.  He planned this night.  First, we went to the festival.  Then we went out to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner.  I had the loaded mashed potatoes (i lived on these for a couple weeks after i got my wisdom teeth extracted.  so yummy!) and a water.  Then he took me out to Scoops.  Scoops is an ice cream shop located in an old van.  Seriously.  It's a van pulled off the side of the road that sells ice cream.  I like it.  : )

While at the festival we enjoyed our usual.  A funnel cake and fresh squeezed lemonade to share.  Yes, I realize we ate like crap that night.  It was one night.  I'm ok with it.  Apparently I'm a messy funnel cake eater...

It was a wonderful evening.  Can't wait til our next date!

and I quote...

"Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other, may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life."

-Thomas S. Monson

It doesn't get much cooler than this...

Noah snapped this picture of Ammon and I (and Griffin) before we left to play giant dodge ball with the youth in our ward.  Ammon had matching soccer jerseys that said "twins" on the front.  We completed the look with soccer socks, matching tennis shoes, and headbands.  Yeah, we're hott!

By the way, giant dodge ball was a hit!  You just use those huge exercise balls to play the game.  It was a lot of fun!

Brain freeze!

poor buddy.

ps -- around here, no day is complete without some "pink chocolate milk" and unnecessary band aids.

5 reasons...

I know I say it a lot but, Ammon is a fantastic dad.  He really is.  He is so patient with these boys of ours and let me tell you, that can be hard thing to do sometimes.  Well, for me anyways.  I love this picture and here's a few reasons why.

#5 - Griffin is wearing cute clothes that his Aunt Michelle got him for his birthday.  He looks so handsome!

#4 - Griffin is wearing his fish backpack.  The kid is seriously obsessed with backpacks.  Or anything that can be turned into a backpack.  If he had his choice, he'd wear a backpack at all times.  Even when he's strapped into a carseat or going to bed.  (yes, we've had to deal with those specific situations)

#3 - Griffin is sitting on top of the car.  Ammon is always doing fun stuff with his boys.  He understands little boys and knows what they think is cool or awesome.  Me?  I try but, I don't think they'll ever think I'm as cool as Daddy.  And that's ok.  I think he's pretty cool too.  ; )

#2 - Tickling!  Tickling is huge in this house.  It's just so cute to see these boys laugh like that.  I'll never understand why they enjoy it so much.  I HATE being tickled.  It's true.  Just ask Ammon.

And the #1 reason I love this picture is... those adorable little wrinkles by Ammon's eye.  Can't you just see how happy he is?  I'm so grateful that our Heavenly Father blessed us with a family.  And blessed us with Noah and Griffin specifically.  We talk all the time about how lucky we are to have them.  They are so important to us and to know that I get to be their mom FOREVER is an exhausting but also glorious thought.

Trains, Trains and more TRAINS!

Back in June (the 12th) Gigi and Pap came with us to the NC Transportation Museum.  That place is LOADED with trains.  Noah and Griffin were super excited to see real trains everywhere.  It was another scorcher of a day but, that's alright.  We had fun anyway.  It was unseasonably hot.  Up near 100 degrees.  

I've been having some trouble with my DSLR in lots of sunlight so a lot of these pictures are over exposed.  I tried to bring it back down a bit when I was editing them.

Same train.  Different angle.  Gosh, I LOVE my little family of boys.

We were able to ride 2 trains that day.  Here are the boys in the passenger train.  They had us in a different car but, the ac went out.  And the windows wouldn't go down.  We were about to ask them to stop the train and let us off.  Yep, the 100 degree weather sounded so nice from the inside of that train. They saw that we were miserable and moved us to a different car.  One that had ac.  Thank goodness.  I can't think of another time I was THAT hot.  Whew!

This was the other train we were able to ride.  A caboose train!  We were in the front of the line so, we got to sit up top.  And the windows worked in this train.  : )

Piatt boys.  So handsome.

We also got to ride a rail car.

Gigi with the boys.  They love her SO much!

What's this thing called?  A switchboard?

love.

Learning the science behind train tracks and wheels.

Thanks for a wonderful day, Gigi and Pap.  We really enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed spending time with you. Our children are extremely spoiled.  They love trains and have been able to ride 4 of them!  Not many 1 and 3 year olds get that opportunity.  Love you!

Zoo Keepers

We decided to brave the crowd and head to the NC Zoo on Memorial Day.  Whew!  It was crowded!  And hot!  Before we got there, Noah said he wanted to see a polar bear and a parrot.  That's it.  Thank goodness we were able to oblige.  Gigi, Pap, and Ammon's sister Joni (and fam) were able to come too.  We bought a year membership which gets us into other zoos and aquariums for free!  When we were in Myrtle Beach we hit up the aquarium.  The boys loved it!  Here are some pictures of our day.

Here's Griffin, Kiera and Lathen watching the seals.

And again.

 Noah climbed this huge rock and was so proud of himself!  He doesn't know that he got a little help from dear old dad.  : )

Watching the alligators.  Or crocodiles.  I'm not sure which.

There was this really neat water fountain exhibit.  The water would stay low for awhile and then shoot up like a rocket.  Pretty cool.

This was Noah's reaction when he saw it.

The boys were able to ride the carousel.  Noah HAD to be on the eagle (in the background) and Griffin picked the zebra.  I thought Noah might freak out once it started moving but he did great.  Loved every second.  And of course Griffin loved it.  That kid loves everything and has absolutely no fear.

As the day wore on, the clouds got thicker.  It down-poured for quite awhile.  We tried to stay dry but after about 15 minutes, Noah and Lathen started running around and splashing in the puddles.  For some reason, Noah held his shorts up the whole time.  I guess he didn't want them to get wet?

We had a great time but the rain was getting to be a little much for the kids.  Griffin was exhausted and falling asleep in the stroller while getting pounded by rain.  And Noah could not get warm.  We headed back to the car for some dry clothes and lunch.  Before we even got onto the main road, Griffin looked like this.  Noah toughed it out a few minutes longer but soon looked like this:

We're excited to go back!!  Once it cools down a little.

*sigh*

This is what I want to do all week.  I'm so tired.  We've made 4 big trips this month.  One to Virginia.  One to Myrtle Beach.  One to the Smokey Mountains Railroad and one to Georgia.  Plus a few day trips.  Like today.  Today, Ammon and I were able to go to Raleigh.  It would have been nice to sleep in but we weren't going to give up the opportunity to visit the temple.  Gigi kept the kids and now we're all up here on the farm together.  We'll spend the night here and head off to church in the morning.  After church though, it's nap time. For everyone.  We've been running so hard.  So fast.  I feel like I could stay home all week and not get stir crazy.  We don't have much planned this month so I'm welcoming August with open arms.  What about you?

Sister Week

We're in GA for the week!  It just kind of worked out for all of the Hebdon sisters to get together.  : )  We're missing Steph, Drew's wife, but really enjoying our time together.  The boys are having a blast and are getting along really well.  From left to right we have Griffin, Noah, Tate, and Toby.  

What's gonna work?

Teamwork!!

We don't have cable.  Or satellite.  Or whatever you need to get more channels.  Specifically Nick Jr.  But, my boys watch some shows on the computer.  They love Wonder Pets and Griffin busted out part of the theme song a couple weeks ago.  We were finally able to catch it on video on Sunday.

Home too soon...

Our vacation was not long enough!!

Little Miss Sadie

Ammon and I were yard sale-ing a couple Saturdays ago.  We stopped at this crappy yard sale.  All they  had was boxes of junk.  As we turned around to leave, I saw this puppy on the porch.  She wanted to come down the steps but was timid about it because she was so small.  I made a comment about how cute the puppy was and the lady in charge of the yard sale told me that I could take her for free.  When I heard that, I went over and picked up this fuzzy, white, floppy eared puppy.  It was love.  Mutual love.  I fell in love with her right there on the spot and she did the same.  She was obsessed with me.  I asked Ammon if we could keep her and it was obvious that he felt like I put him on the spot.  The lady wrote down the name and phone number of her friend.  (her friend was the one trying to get rid of the puppy)  I told her that we would discuss it and I'd call her later.  I said goodbye to the puppy and got in the car.  We drove 30 yards to the stop sign and I couldn't go any farther.  Ammon agreed that we could take her and I made him turn the car around.  I stepped out of the car and the woman laughed that I was back so soon.  She said, "I had a feeling you'd be back."  : )  She emptied a small box and I loaded up the puppy and off we went.  We were told that she didn't have any of her shots, and that she was a pomeranian, chihuahua mix.

Introducing...  Sadie!!

She is a sweetheart and really LOVES us.  She wants lots of love and attention which is a good thing because she has two little boys chasing her around every chance they get.  We're still in the middle of housebreaking her which, I'm not gonna lie, sucks.  I get frustrated in the mornings when I have to clean her cage and the linens in the cage.  She's 9 weeks old, maybe 10 weeks now.  Her appearance has changed a lot since we got her.  She used to have adorable floppy ears and now they stick straight up.  I wasn't a fan at first but now, it's growing on me.  Life with a puppy is stressful but, seeing the way my boys love her makes up for all that.