We now have a monster living in our house.

For some reason Simeon decided yesterday that he likes to growl. He likes to growl all the time. It's pretty cute. Much cuter than screaming! The kids like to pretend he's a monster now since he growls a lot while he's crawling around. I'm not sure how well you can hear it on the video, so listen close!

Wearing Lizzie's sunglasses

The big boys taking a nap

Well. Caroline Ruth Lowell is here. She is 7 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long. She was born at about 11:30am, 27 August 2009.

Sariah's five!

Yikes, how did she get to be five? I had fun making her cake, but Jacob says that I need to start making them the night before. He's right. I should have taken a picture of the kitchen after it was all over. It was spotless before we started, but when we were done with dinner and the cake every counter in there was piled with stuff. I made three different frostings for the cake. A friend told me about marshmallow fondant, so I had to try that, and I needed water for the cake, so I learned how to make the gel frosting and of course I had to have normal frosting for the bottom and the grass! Ahhhh!!! Sometimes I'm just crazy. The kids loved it. It was so hot in the kitchen though that the icing started to melt and the lake became a waterfall on one side. I couldn't find a swan for the lake on short notice, so I found some alligators at the dollar tree and we had an Alabama Barbie party! I forgot to buy Sariah her birthday outfit, and when Rebekah noticed that she didn't get one she gave Sariah her birthday outfit to wear for the day. How sweet is that? It made Sariah feel pretty special. Sisters are great! Joseph wants either a train or dinosaur for his birhtday cake. I found some really good ideas on this cake website. I will definately be making his the night before.

Pictures, finally

Hey family!
Summer is winding to a close here pretty quickly. The nights are pretty near freezing, and the garden is ready to be harvested. The other day we went fishing (caught nothing) at a near by lake. We were told it had just been filled w/fish, but we didn't catch any. But we had fun enjoying the view and the boys had fun playing and getting dirty.

This was just at home. They all had underwear on, we couldn't help taking pictures!

At the lake, Trayton & Tustin found a huge rock to sit on while eating their raisins.

Do you guys think the picutre quality is poor in these pictures? I think I'm not satisfied w/this camera! A lot of my pictures come out blurry. So frustrating.

Our pet spider

Isn't he just so cute.
He's not the spider though!

We have a pet spider here at our house. It is called a banana spider. They are really interesting looking. I read up on them to make sure they aren't poisonous. They are the second largest spider in North America. Only the tarantula gets bigger. Isn't that fun? This gal hangs outside our dining room window. She started about the size of a dime and is now bigger than the palm of my hand. If you click on the picture you can see a small brown spider above her. That is the male bananna spider (or golden orb weaver). He's tiny and dark brown, and doesn't get any bigger. They get the name from the yellow banana shape of their bodies, and the real name of golden orb weaver comes from their web. It is a faint gold color, and it is in an orb shape rather than flat across. They are known to make webs more than 30 feet across! How would you like to walk into that? Or next door neighbor has one for a pet too and it's bigger than ours. Their silk is stronger then steel that is the same thickness. All in all a pretty cool little (big) spider. All in our own backyard!

First Day of School

We have a new 3rd, 2nd and 1st grader at our house. Here they are in their new school clothes on the first day of school. (These were are first successful curls we have ever done on Emma)

Our vacation to my sisters'

We went on vacation to my sisters houses. We went to Heather's house first and had a birthday party for Krystal (her daughter) while we were there. The next day we went to Nancy's and spent a few days there. It was a lot of fun. I managed to drive the 6 1/2 hours to Heather's plus 2 to Nancy's without any problems. The kids were really good and all that driving wasn't too hard to do by myself. I was really surprised. I took tons of pictures, so I'll post some more later. Love you guys! Oh, and Jacob comes home tomorrow! Yeah!

We had a picnic by the river in Cherokee near Nancy's house, and the kids all got to go wading.

I caught Simeon licking a plate after lunch one day. He thought it was so much fun.

This has to be the best baby seat I've ever seen. That's what we'll be getting next time we have a baby!

Nathan and Sariah got along extremely well. Aunt Nancy wanted Sariah to stay since Nathan plays so quietly with her.

Had to put this one in. All my sisters thought it was the funniest thing that Lizzie is so chubby and her thighs are so chunky. They laughed about it all day long!

RE: Trayton's funny story

We can't comment on the story bar, so I figured I'd do it here. That story about Trayton is so funny Nettie! That's awesome that he's starting to come up with things like that on his own.

Ezra faces

I know I've been posting a lot lately, but hey I've been taking lots of pictures. Sariah can never keep a straight face for a picture, and when she does smile it's with a silly smile. She reminded me so much of Ezra today when we were taking pictures. Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures. We love you Ezra!

Sewing like crazy

I have been sewing like crazy lately. My neighbor showed me a neat way to make headbands, and the girls are loving them. They take about two minutes to make. The neatest part is that she came up with a way to have interchangeable ribbons or flowers on top. The girls are loving them, and I'm loving making them! I also made Joseph some new sheets this morning. I ran out of fabric for the pillow case, but had enough matching fabric that I could fudge it and make it work. He loves them. Can you tell? Fun stuff!

It's so hot!

So, what do you do when it's unbearably hot and the splash park cost's too much money, you don't want to go anyway without a husband to help chase the kids, and you can't take the kids being inside anymore?

Simple, you go redneck (according to my neighbor's husband) and make you own FREE splash park that is in your own backyard!. There was a huge mud pit underneath the play structure by the time we were done, but it was well worth it! I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon. In fact my neighbor left all the hoses connected just in case!

Sarah Ruth Tracy and Nettie Mae Casteel

When your mother and I were at My Mom's last Independence Day, I took these shots of two photos my Mom had. I thought you might like to have copies. The top one is Nettie Mae Casteel (My mom's mom's Mom) and the lower one is of My Mom's Mom (Sarah Ruth Tracy, the oldest one) and her brother and sisters.

I thought we were done with this!

So, for those of you that don't know, Rebekah use to be a major sleep walker. She had night terrors for a few years, which are different from nightmares (so much worse!), but that all stopped about the time we moved back to California from Texas in February of 2008. I'd forgotten how freaky it can get when she has the night terrors. Once instead of screaming and yelling she started laughing hysterically. At first it was really funny, but when it went on for ten minutes and I couldn't get her to wake up to stop, and she was laughing so hard she was crying it started to get creepy. (Hey, I was all alone while Jacob was having night flights!) So, back to the story...Last night she was sleep walking again! Ahhhh!!! I thought it was over! She went to the bathroom (which she does asleep) and then turned to me ( I was across the hall in the office). That's when I realized she was asleep. She has this weird look in her eyes when she's asleep. Anyway, she wanders to the living room and starts walking in circles. I couldn't get her to wake up and go back to her room. She finally ends up laying down on the couch and curls up. I picked her up off the couch to carry her to her bed and she starts laughing hysterically! Once again, I couldn't get her to wake up to get her to stop. I finally went and got the camera, but by the time I got back she had pretty much wound down. I showed her the video today and told her what she did yesterday in her sleep, and she thought it was the funniest thing. She never remembers what she does when she sleep walks, and I don't think she knew before today what that really meant. Anyway we had fun watching this and talking about all the funny things she has done while sleepwalking. Sorry you can't really see the video very well, but I didn't want to wake everyone else up by turning on the light. She was almost to the point of crying in the video while laughing. I wish I had thought to get the camera a few minutes earlier when she was laughing uncontrollably. See what fabulous things Jacob misses when he is gone at night!

Yeah, I just went into Rebekah's room because she was crying. By the time I got there she was up in bed and sleep walking! Do any of you guys have kids that sleep walk, or is it just Rebekah? So far none of the other kids are doing it. (Thankfully!) I'm really hoping the night terrors don't start up again!