The Battlefield.

One other thing that we did while Jer and Kim were in town was the visit to Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield. Willie and Jer were at the tournament so Kim and I decided to kind of take it easy and head to this historic place. While I took care of Henry Kim took the boys to see an old home along the battlefield.

Here are a few replica flags. The red one has blood stains, fake but meant to look real.
The day we went there was a small demonstration on the guns and equipment the soldiers used during the war.
I remember a guy telling me that they would use horse hair or pig hair for the bristles on a toothbrush. I am very grateful for my clean packaged toothbrush. Living conditions were terrible during the war and there are very few clothes from that time. The smell of the army was horrible and when the war was over they just burned all their clothes.

We walked down to an area where there is a Dead Angle. Basically it's where one set of troops (hidden in trees) would sit up on the hill and they could see the enemy's emerging from the trees down below.

Kim and the boys down by the dead angle. I love that they are all smiling.
A hollow tree. Reminds me of 'Enchanted' when Gisell says she could sleep in a hollow tree.

Fantastic. Henry wasn't throwing a fit to be hanging out without his mom. Kim has the right touch.

On our way out we saw a deer.

Here's a video that Parker did.

Pumpkin Patch

For a joy school outing we went to a pumpkin farm up North a ways. Not everyone was able to come, but we still tried to have loads of fun. I worked on getting Henry's fall photo. Our camera was on the fritz and wasn't doing too well with the lens. So here are the pictures that turned out well. The boys had fun in the hay. They loved throwing it in the air and letting it fall down on them. There was so much laughter. I like that on a rainy day you could go to this place and stay dry picking out your pumpkins but as for picture taking it made it a little more difficult.
I let the boys pick out one pumpkin each. They were all grateful to pick out their little pumpkin that they could play with one the way home.
Parker loves to climb on pumpkins. Last year we had a friend stacking pumpkins all over for the kids to climb on, I think Parker remembered the experience.
Parkers favorite part was finding the wagon. I really should look into getting him one one day. He kept asking if we were going to take it home with us. Here are the kiddos that went. (I've noticed more security on other blogs so perhaps I should do the same so I will use initials) TD, JD, AS, AS, and my boys.
We looked at all the pumpkins and then we decided to go on a little hay ride.
Me with the boys. It's fun to get in pictures with them. The day was really beautiful and not too hot or cold. We rode behind a blue tractor around a tree farm. At the lowest point of the farm they had a pond with catfish. This was Lincoln's favorite part of the day. He kept asking to go back and feed the fish.

After the hay ride we sat for lunch and a short story with Clifford and the pumpkin patch. It was really a nice day and very enjoyable.
Here's a picture of the pumpkin patch. Most of the pumpkins are under the pavillion. They also sold homemade jams and apple cider. I was tempted but withheld from buying the goodness.

Rainy Days.

During the fall we had a couple of rain storms. The boys really love when the rains come down. Boots are on, umbrellas out. Not all the time do they get their jackets on. We have a really nice puddle outside of our apartment and the mud. They always have fun in the rain.

Henry's 10 and 11 month

Well as August and September left so did our little boy growing up. He has learned to walk. He does so much. We are grateful for him. Henry is great at making us smile. Whenever we are out someone will look at Henry and he will smile and put his head on my shoulder but still watch the person. He is a happy kid. Henry loves to play with his brothers but not too much rough housing because then he will start to cry. He'll get it one day and he will love to really get in on the action. Here are Henry's 10 month pictures.

Henry a whole month later. I love his relationship with his bear (Hank) when I take his month pictures. He is so cute with him and he loves to play with him. He is all smiles when I take his pictures. There are very few of him ever crying or being grumpy. I really love this kid.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take Parker's four year old pictures in July. He sat for a few minutes, but mostly wanted to jump around. He's getting so big that I can't just use a normal blanket propped up against the couch. I had to be a little more creative with the solid color background but he's just getting so tall. Parker is growing every day. I ask him to stop and he says that he just gets too hungry and he has to eat. Some of the things we love about Parker; his high pitched scream, his drama, his love for trains, his physical growth (advancing well), his smile, his love for his family, his love for experiencing new things (takes him time to try it). Parker learned to go under water this year at the swimming pool. He really loves to go swimming.

Lincoln joined in Parker's four year old pictures. He is great fun to have around. He is always laughing. He is such a peacemaker. Lincoln is really good at observing the situation and trying to make it better. Lincoln loves his family. He gets shy when new people are around or when there are too many people. Once you get to know him he can be a wild man. Lincoln loves to eat pretzels. For awhile his favorite dinner was meatballs. Lincoln has fun in life and we love him for making us so happy.

Messes.

While we had our visitors Henry decided to start up a little bit of a bad habit. He started off by spilling the oil. He likes to get into our closet that holds a lot of our food storage. I keep the oil on the ground because of the mess it makes when it drips down the side after using it. Henry went into the closet while I was working on the computer. He came in and his hands were very oily. My heart dropped as I realized what had happened. I ran into the kitchen to find a whole lot of oil on the ground. I didn't think to take a picture of this mess. Next it was the sugar. I found him snooping in the closet again when I had a friend over and I noticed his little mess. Thanks Emily for helping me see the lighter side of this one. Here is the little dude as he continues to make a mess of the sugar.

Henry decided to explore other areas of the kitchen. Under the sink seems to be a fun place too. Which I don't like so I try to put a string around the cupboard handles so that he can't open them. Unfortunately he found the dish soap one afternoon. Willie was around to help me see the lighter side and he also helped to "clean" up the slippery little boy. I don't know that he really needed a bath after this incident. Henry has been the most mischievous boy so far.

Lincoln followed suit about a month later. It was my fault in all actuality. The pink ink wasn't too great to get into. Parker has been doing sportots and at the end he gets to have a stamp on his hands. He loves it. I thought it would be great to play with some stamps that I had. I pulled them out and the boys loved it and were enjoying stamping the paper. I left to go check on a few things. When I returned Lincoln had stamped his whole arm. It was getting on the picnic table too. I sent him to go wash his hands. I have never doubted Lincoln's ability to wash his hands. I knew that he would play in the water as well. I was not in store for what he had pulled out this time though.

Lincoln decided to put toilet paper in the sink. He had fun splashing around in the full sink, there isn't a safety feature on this sink, it just fills up. Parker came running into me a little while later and said, 'mom, Lincoln made a mess.' I thought well of course he always gets wet when he washes his hands. WELL. I walked into the bathroom to find the entire floor in about 1/4" of water. The rug was soaking wet. The drawers and cupboards had water in them.

This wasn't all. The pink ink that doesn't come out of anything was all over the walls and fixtures in the bathroom. I hurriedly cleaned all the pink that I could before it stained everything. I had to put Lincoln in the tub before he touched too many things. He kind of forgot to wash the ink off his arms as he played in the water.

Linc was a little disappointed but he knew that he was in trouble. I gave him a bath and cleaned it all up.

All in all I have been staying on my toes with the fun things these boys do. I am grateful for my boys, they are so sweet and I love them.

Another Walker.

Henry started walking at the end of ten months. He was cute because he would get so excited that he would fall down. He would stand up put his arms in and smile and laugh and then he would sit back down or fall forward. When he took his first step he leaned forward and fell into my arms. It took him awhile to realize that he could walk and he didn't have to fall into us. Once he had it under control he would walk with his hands tucked in close to his body. I'm posting a few videos to show his progression from crawling to walking. I hope you enjoy.

This is how Henry will crawl on hard surfaces. He usually is on hands and knees with the carpet but once he hits the hard wood floor he's up on all fours.

Here's another new walker in the family. :)

Where did September go?

I realized that September came and went. We worked on our goal of visiting the temple twice in the month. We were blessed to do exchanges with other families that live nearby. I love going to the temple. I hope that our kids will learn to love the temple as I have. I remember when I was in college I would go to the Logan Temple and take pictures or just enjoy being on the temple grounds. Once I knew about the temple and the blessings we received from going to the temple I always had it in my mind that I would go there one day. I am grateful that Willie and I were sealed in the temple nearly seven years ago. At the end of the month I attended the Relief Society Broadcast. Our stake did a Women at the Well production before hand. It was very inspiring and welcomed the Spirit into the meeting to follow. I am grateful for President Uchtdorfs talk from conference. I learned a lot about myself and how to prioritize my time. I loved the end of his talk when President Uchtdorf spoke to me about how much I am loved by my Heavenly Father. I am grateful for my testimony of my Heavenly Father. I know He is always there for me and he lets me struggle at times but I know that it is to help me to become better. I would not be where I am today without the love of my Heavenly Father.

Henry started walking in September as well. We went to our last Braves game. We went to the PGA Tour Championship. We stayed busy and we tried to enjoy life.