Lynyrd Skynyrd!

So everyone who knows me well knows how much I love Skynyrd! Ive been to 7 of their shows. I was supposed to go to their concert w/ KidRock in Charlotte back in July, but that happened to be the week i was hospitalized with the blood clots :( Anyway, i was looking up their tour schedule the other day and it says theyre coming to Greenville, SC on Oct 24th! We've actually been to one of their concerts there before, a few years ago. Its a 2-hr drive, but worth it to me! Arnold said as long as we can find babysitters for all 3 kids we can go! He gets his bonus check this month at work so we'll have the extra money! I am sooo excited! I joke and say that they came back around the Carolinas just for me... since i didnt get to go see them back in July ;-) Also, they just came out with a new CD. It had been several years since theyd made a new one. I bought it Friday night at Best Buy. Its awesome! I loved all the tracks! One song was particularly awesome because it was talking about how Obama cae around and is trying to change things, but some things are for the worse... its called "That aint my America!" Most of you know im a die-hard Republican so i loved that song! :) Anyway, just wanted to share my good news. :)

Hildebran Redneck Festival

Saturday night there was a festival in Hildebran, right down the road from where we live. It was called the Redneck Hildebran BBQ Festival & Benefit or something like that. It was held in this huge field seperating two houses in Hildebran. The two families cooked up huge amounts of BBQ, slaw, baked beans, desserts and all that good stuff. Arnold's band played as the entertainment. They sold raffle tickets for about a month. The proceeds went to pay for the food, and the rest went to a local teenage girl who is having to have spinal surgery. She was at the festival and seemed like a real sweet girl. I didnt hear how much we raised in total, ill have to ask Arnold.. but i hope its enough to help her family out!


The whole thing was so much fun. We took lawn chairs out, and they also had tables set up. There was a crowd of about 200 people. My mom went and helped me w/ the kids. Arnold had a lot of his family come out, and some people from work. The kids loved seeing their daddy play on stage, that was their first time getting to see him play! The band did great... Arnold was nervous at first but so excited. The whole evening was just so laid back and fun! It started to get really chilly quick though. And the kids were getting sleepy, so unfortunately I had to leave early and take them home and put them to bed. The band played two sets, so i got to see half of the show. What i saw was really good. They had a tip jar set out and Arnold said they made like $110 in tips, so id say the people liked them!





Heres just a few shots I got from that night..

Waiting on the band to start playing

Brooke playing on the tire swing




Caleb in his ROCK & ROLL shirt :)

EKP

Shane on left, Hubby on right :)

*Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch*

This morning my mom and I took Brooke and Caleb to a Pumpkin Patch. It was Calebs first time going, so I was excited to take him :) The place was called Foothills Cornmaze... it was in Morganton. They had a HUGE cornmaze that you could go through, but we were afraid the kids would be scared, so we just stuck to the other activities. We first went on a hayride, and the kid really liked that. We were driving really close to come corn and the corn stalks kept slapping caleb in the head and he was going Ow! Ow! Ow! haha until we found out what was going on and moved him :-P We went out to a small pumpkin patch and the kids picked out the ones they wanted. Then we rode back up to the front of the farm. We took a few pictures. Then we had a picnic lunch that mom had brought along. All in all it was a pretty fun morning. I just wish i had worn short sleeves because I got HOT! I had thought it was going to be cooler today!



Here are some pics that I took this morning...

The kids on the Tractor made of Hay

Sammy The spider :)

The kids with their Pumpkins that they chose




The kids and I on the Hayride

Miss Cool :)

A Look Back at Summer '09

Since Fall is officially here, I decided to look back thru my pics from Summer '09 and post some of my favorites from the Summer. Enjoy :)

The day I went in to have Rachel! :)

Caught the kids in Rachels bouncy seat :)




Brookes shirt says FREE BIRD ;-)

Rachels 1st MNO w/ the HM group :)

Swinging at the Park

Brooke swimming w/ Grandpa Arnold on the 4th of July :)

Brooke and I on Mothers Day :)

Rachel celebrating Grandpa Sears' Bday :)

Caleb w/ daddy and Grandpa Arnold on his 2nd Bday :)

Brooke on her 3rd Bday! :)

Our family at Camryns Bday party :)

The kids at Addisons Bday Party ;)

Arnold and I being silly :)

Caleb in the sandbox.. so serious!

Brooke in the sandbox

The kids love playing in the sand!

Rachel is 15 Weeks Old!

I just realized that Rachel is 15 weeks old today! Wow! I thought it would be fun to post pics of her throughout the weeks since she was born and see how much shes grown :)

1 Week Old

2 Weeks Old

3 Weeks Old

4 weeks old

6 Weeks Old

7 Weeks Old

8 Weeks Old

10 Weeks Old

11 Weeks Old

12 Weeks Old

And Now-- 15 weeks old! :)

October is here Already!

I cant believe today is the first day of October! It feels like just yesterday It was summer and I was pregnant and dying of heat! :-P I cant believe how quickly the cool weather came on, also-- like out of nowhere! The past 2 mornings ive woken up shivering in bed! The evenings have gotten pretty cool also, so I havent been taking the kids outside to play as much. I try to let them go play outside the other night for alittle while... and we broke out some of their new Fall clothes! Ive had all these new cute clothes hanging in their closets for weeks now, and now they get to wear them! :)

This month is jam packed for me! Of course I have weekly Monday night Girlscout meetings. And my SIL and I have a leader meeting to go to next week, and a Training Seminar to go to later in the month. We are planning that Zoo trip to the Columbia Zoo sometime towards the end of the month. Then theres all the Halloween stuff-- Hickory Moms is having a big Halloween party on the 24th.. we are actually having it at my church. The night before, Im planning on having my SIL and neice, and a few friends over for a little Halloween party for the kids, so that should be fun. My mom has started the tradition of having us over one night in OCT for a Halloween dinner. Last year she made "mummies" which were hotdogs wrapped in crescent rolls. They were so good, and the kids loved that :) My moms bday is the 18th, so we'll be celebrating that. On actual Halloween we'll probably go to Church for their "Trunk or Treat..." and then go show off the kids in their costumes to their grandparents and Aunt Nancy. Rachel also has a Dr appt mid month-- she'll be 4 months old! Ive said it many times, but, WHERE DID THE TIME GO???? :( Oh well. I look forward to what the month may bring!

For our first Fall/Oct activity, this Saturday Mom and I are taking Brooke and Caleb to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins. We'll go on a hayride, too. Then probably stop off somewhere and have lunch. We did this with Brooke last year and it was so much fun! We actually went closer to the MTNS last year, but this year we're staying close and going to a place in Morganton. Im sure the kids will love it-- this will be Calebs 1st time going, so im excited. (Rachel will be staying with my inlaws probably.) So anyway, cant wait for the weekend! :)

Overtime Sucks!!

Arnold works at a Fiber Optic company in Hickory.. and this past month theyve been slammed with orders and they have been having to work major overtime! Im not used to that.. Arnold has your typical 9-5 job and gets off the weekends, I love that! But lately hes been having to work some Saturdays, some evenings, and extra hours. On our last paycheck he had worked 13 hrs overtime! (thats nice for the money, though!) ;-) Anyway, a few of the employees drew straws the other day to see who would have to work a 10-7 shift Tues and Wed.. and guess who had to?? Yep, Arnold. LOL. Hes usually home by 5 and able to help me w/ the kids, getting them dinner, baths, ready for bed, etc. So i had to do all of that myself Tues night and boy was it tough! The kids were acting especially rowdy. I found Caleb in his room after his nap.. he had pooped in his diaper, had dug in their with his hands and smeared it allll over himself, his crib, the WALL. Oh i was so MAD! :-x And the room smelled so bad! Then i fed them dinner. Then they were so restless so i decided to take them out to play for a little while. And of course that was the first evening we had pretty cool weather and it was WINDY so we had to come back in after 20 minutes. I was SO happy when Arnold walked in that door! :-P

Last night I didnt want to deal with that all over again, so I took the easy way out, called my Mom and asked if i could bring the kids over there for dinner :-P So when the kids got up from their naps I loaded them up and we drove to Conover. Theyre doing work on the interstate so we went 70 the whole way, which took forever. But at least the kids were good-- they watched Veggie Tales video on the way there-- gotta love the DVD player in the van! :-P We hung out over there and then when Arnold got off work he met us over there and we all had dinner. Rachel spent some time cuddling with her Great Grandpa. She is soo sweet, she loves to be held and cuddled. :)

~Heres a few pics I took at Mom & Dads last night~

Rachel and Grandpa Sears (my dad)

Rachel and her Great-Grandpa :)