Happy Fall To you All!

And there is no better way to say it, than a picture of Fall flowers covered in Nebraska bugs....nice!

We had a great, fun, family outing to a local pumpkin patch last weekend. The kids got to go through their 1st couple of haunted houses. Of course they were scared out of their minds at first, but once we said after two hours of being there, that it was time to go, they stated that they wanted to go through them one more time. So of course we took them, and this time they had a great time. It seemed like they just didn't know what to expect, which made it scarey, but once they made it through and knew what it was like they wanted to go again and again and again. So Eric an I switched off taking the kids, minus Montey. (On a Side note: we tried to take him through one, so a note to everyone, haunted houses might not be good for 5month old babies?! Weird I know. They seem to just cry for some unknown reason!?!? =)

Yup, huanted houses = not for babies! That would mean for me too, I am such a baby when it comes to these things. I love them, but it makes me have too pee my pants at the same time. There is no better feeling than getting a nice, good, scare every once in awhile. Gosh I sure love this Fall Halloween Time! It's my favorite holiday of the year.

HAPPY HALLOWS EVE................

Our Real Live Baby Doll

Playing with Montey our baby Doll:
So I couldn't help but laugh and take pictures of the kids taking turns pushing Montey in Tamara's baby doll stroller...it was way too cute and funny. He just sat there enjoying the ride without a single complaint. He sure was a good sport about all this. He even lets the girls put things in his hair and on him when they play dressup. We will soon find out how long that will fly with Montey Boy, but so far they have a great Real Live Baby Doll to play with. =)

Montey Now:
Montey is a playing, rolling around kind of guy these days. If you are not watching him he will disappear from the place you left him on the floor, making you look really hard around the room becasue he will not only move across the whole floor but will somehow mange to get under things and inside things.....he sure is a good hid 'n' seek player. He has his two front bottom teeth in, they actually came in last month, and yet I am still nursing is that amazing or what for me??? He is really starting to want more than milk too, so we have started giving him oatmeal and carrots....even though he isn't too sure about soilds, he still opens his mouth for each bite. The big kids really enjoy taking turns with the feedings.

Indian Caves...bummer trip

Our 1st Camping Experience here in Nebraska:
Was at Indian Caves for Labor Day. We had planned for a 3 night, fun, family getaway together. Something we have not done since we have moved here over a year ago. And camping was one of our most favorite things to do together back in Oregon. So we decided to give Nebraska camping a try. And last year we noticed that you can pretty much only go camping in the Fall. It's too cold in the winter; spring is the Tornado season..best to stay near home, summer way too humid...and well that leaves, Fall being just right!

Cooking and Roasting:

Here was our fabulous cook, getting breakfast ready for us all. The children’s' favorite part of the whole camping experience was our evenings by the campfire roasting smores. They looked forward to it every day we were there.

Hiking and Biking:

We went on family hikes, brought our bikes and had family bike rides, at and around the campground. We also viewed a special firework display for Labor Day, put on by the campground, which was a huge hit for the kids, but they were super tired from the days activities that halfway through it they wanted to go back to our camp site and go to bed. And the terrible parents that we are made them stay up to watch it; (the whole thing was only 45mins long.)

Playing at the Missoura Riva:

From the distance it is a very pretty River, but up close it is a rather gross view, very mudding and kind of smelly. I was worried that one of the kids would fall in, so I told Eric if that happened he would be the one that would have to jump in, not me...yuck!

The Indian Caves:

We sadly discovered that it is not like the caves in the NW that you can actually walk through, but it is more like an over hang of a side of a small mountain, yet the biggest one you'll see in Nebraska.
Summing up:

So, pretty much it was kind-of fun, we had to leave a whole day and a half early do to unfun visitors that we were all exposed too....TICKS!! Yup, you know it, those terrible Nebraska buggies. I have grown up camping all my life on the West coast and never did I ever see or know about ticks, other than they were on dogs. It was just not a worry. I suppose you can call me the Queen of all tick knowledge now...I know just about everything and anything there is to know about them...so if you have a question about them feel free to ask me. We left with an average all together of about 200 ticks all over us. And they weren't the big ones that we have gotten here and there earlier when we first moved here, those are Wood Ticks. We got the incredibly small ticks that look like little brown freckles; those are the Deer Ticks that just so happen to carry Lime Disease. So I get to take all my kids in now to get check for Lime Disease...so much fun! Yippy, I can't wait. Some how the kids have forgotten all about these terrible buggies, as they watched the family video that I taped of them camping. Because they all said that they wanted to go back, and how much they miss that camp site. I guess what it all comes down too, is that I was the only one that was greatly disturbed by this "FUN" camping trip. Most likely we won't be going camping again here in Nebraska; we will probably have to save those kinds of things for the West Coast when we move back in less than 2 years.

Our Homeschool Blog

<------------------- Link is under My Blog List, it's: mathisonfamilyfun.blogspot.com
See the fun things and exciting ways, we have been learning for the month of August.

'2008' Nebraska State Fair

The Petting Zoo:
Caleb finally got the nerve to pet the camel after Eric kept showing him that nothing bad would happen if he did. The girls loved holding the baby chicks. Caleb wanted to go last, probably just to make sure that it was really safe. (If you haven't noticed he is our extra cautious kid of the fam.) Usually, he will do things after one of his sisters goes first. But he is starting to do more daring things on his own, like for instance, going on a rollercoaster...look at the pictures below...

Riding the Rides:
Liahona and Tamara enjoying the merry-go-around. Ever since I had Tamara, I cannot go on any spinning rides anymore, even the simple merry-go-around, so Eric had to go with Tamara and help her. Caleb was brave and went on a rollercoaster all by himself. He is getting SO big, we were all so proud of him!!

The Pirate Diving Show:

This was quite the hit with our kids. It was pretty enjoyable for us adults as well. They put on a rather well done performance. The kids wanted to get their pitcure taken with the pirates after the show... or maybe it was me placing the idea in their heads..i don't know...anyhow the pirate standing behind Caleb in the picture was named "Oscar" who atcually is a professional stunt man. The kids really liked his high diving jumps into the 8feet deep pool.....crazy, but neat!

More of Montey

S.U.M.M.E.R

S= Sucking Thumbs
Montey has become quite the thumb sucker. We have never had a thumb sucker before and it is kind of cute. We are still pushing the binky on him though, hoping that by some chance we can break the thumb sucking habit. He had his 1st tooth already pop through, which is the earliest yet with all our kids. Feedings will soon be a pain I am sure, but hopefully he won't get anymore until later

U= Unusually Visitors
So we have been finding gardner snakes for the first time in our front yard this year. I am not a big fan of snakes yet the kids were more brave them me and actually were picking them up and playing with them. I wanted to just scream and run away, however I am trying not to push my fears on them so I just bit my tongue and let them have fun.

M= Montey 3 Months
This was our Home Photoshoot for Montey, even though he will be 4months at the end of this month. He was a pretty good sport. He is too cute...we sure love him.

M= Missing Teeth & Manicures

Liahona lost her 1st tooth. We were all so excited. She was even brave enough to pull it out all by herself too! So I went and had my first pedicure and manicure done this month and they turned out ok but I did not find it all that wonderful. I could have saved money and just did it all myself. I did a home manicure for my girls, Here is the manicure that I did for Liahona. Her's turned out better because she sat more still than Tamara.

E= Eel Lessons

I finally decided that it was time to put the kids in swim lessons, so both them and I could be more comfortable around water. Seeing that I am hydrophobic and all..... I wouldn't let Tamara take lessons yet. I told her that she has to wait until she is five before she can take any type of swim lessons. So she got to help me take care of Montey while we waited and watched Caleb and Liahona for 8 days, Monday through Thursday for 2 weeks swim away. She was a pretty good sport. They made an amazing transformation within these 8 days, starting at not even being able to put their faces into the water, too jumping into the water all by themselves and swimming back to the edge of the pool.....they blew me away!!!

R= Rolling and Reeling

There was free bowling for kids 5-12 at our local bowling alley throughout the summer. We went a couple of times. Caleb liked it more than Liahona, and Tamara was just bored because she didn't make the cut seeing that she is only 4 yrs old. But it was fun for us all to go out and do something different every once in awhile.We also went fishing at a local pond this summer. The kids were catching the fish so fast that we could hardly keep up with getting them soon enough. We had a good time fishing with some friends from Eric's school.