Kentucky

On October 1st, or thereabouts, we packed up our Florida home and headed north to Lexington, Kentucky.  We all miss "Florida" a lot ("Florida" is code for YOU, Ladle family... sniff, sniff), but we really are enjoying Lexington.  How can we not enjoy it here?  Look:

This lake is just down the street.  We like taking walks and ending up here.  Very pretty.

Lots of cool old buildings/houses in town.  I'd live in any of them.  I call these two the "His and Hers houses".
Ha ha.  Ben laughs so hard when I make observations like that.

This is a French restaurant where Ben took me for our 10 year anniversary.  10 YEARS.  TEN.

Halloween costumes this year consisted of: 2 ninjas, 1 cowboy, and Marie Antoinette.

Actually, Ben and I weren't home for the real Halloween night.  We were off on a Mexican vacation- I have exactly zero pictures to show for it, though, because I forgot my camera and my phone at home.  I'm an idiot, I know, but remember how a minute ago you thought I was awesome-sauce because I've been married to Ben for TEN YEARS?!?  Just keep thinking about that.

My parents at the airport with my kids and my niece Abby whom my parents brought with them from Oregon.  
She is Maggie's best friend and the closest thing she has to a sister.  Major, MAJOR tears were shed when Abby left.

Thanks again, mom and dad, for coming out and watching our kidlets!

Lexington is known as the "Horse Capital of the World", so as soon as we could we were off to the races!  My boys loved watching the horses.  Maggie loved eating her bag of popcorn.

Cash was surprisingly accurate at picking a winner each race.  In fact, of the 7 races we watched, he picked the winning/2nd place horse EVERY TIME.  The 2 ladies sitting next to us got wise real quick and started placing bets according to Cash's predictions.  I should've started charging them for his expertise.

Our family on a hike at Natural Bridge State Park.

My minivan's odometer hit a real special number.  MY BIRTHDAY... 5/25/79.  It's the small things.

Here's a fun little Henry picture to end with.  My little teeny tiny boy.  He is sitting on my lap as I type this.  And he's wearing the same stripey pj's just like the picture.  Crazy.  (Except not really because he only wears, like, 3 different outfits).

Okie dokie.  Why is it so hard for me to end blog posts?  Am I that socially awkward that I can't even type good-bye?  Good grief.

Beach Babies

Guys, I'm tired.  I'm tired and I'm starting to get that end-of-pregnancy waddle.  Quack.  And yet... and yet I still have 7 weeks to go.  This belly is going to be growing a LOT more.  Also, baby boy is BREECH and so when he flips (you will flip, baby, right???) and he is head down, I suppose my waddle will become pretty hilarious to behold.  Self-prescribed bed rest might be in order.

The other day, though, I braved the beach on my own with the kids.  It was great.  Me on the sand beached-whale style while the kids played in the waves and looked for seashells on the shore.  Oscar preferred to be my little blanket buddy and snack on Oreos.  The sun was shining, the water was warm, and cookies were plentiful.  I might have to do another beach day soon.  Anyone care to join me?  I'll pack an extra bag of cookies...

I have to hurry and give this a title because Ben and the kids want to go swimming...

I think I'm suffering from instagram-itis. It's where I have absolutely no inclination to blog because I can just post these little "mini posts" on instagram. Snap a pic, add a cutesy caption and Bam! Done! I'm trying to get over my disease. Promise. Here's what's been happening in the Sunshine State (also, incidentally, known as the Winter Salad Bowl State... thank you Trivial Pursuit for that random little gem of knowledge).

Well, we found out what we are having... it's a...



HUMAN BABY! Are you all surprised? It's also a boy. Sometimes when Maggie is fed up with her little brothers' shenanigans she laments that fact that yet another pesky brother is about to join our family. Then she goes on and on that since she's daddy's only girl she should get whatever she wants (whenever she wants it). She's going to milk this. Dry.

On to other Maggie news, she finally lost her first tooth! We were all thrilled because for months now one of Maggie's favorite things to whine about was how she was NEVER going to lose a tooth. Every one else in her class had lost at least three! It's just wasn't fair! A great injustice was made right the day she yanked that tooth from her gums. The tooth fairy left her a whole dollar- major bragging rights in Maggie's opinion.





What else, what else. Oscar is officially out of diapers. Even at night. I think I'm more thrilled about it than he is!



Here's a picture of me at 21 or 22 weeks.



I'm around 25 weeks now, so I'm even bigger than I am in this picture. Baby boy moves around a lot which is a very good thing because I have been so nervous this time around. Every time I have a doctor's appointment I have these mini panic attacks until I hear that little heartbeat and am reassured that everything is okay. I'm trying really hard to not be paranoid during this pregnancy, and usually I'm fine. I know that the chances of losing another baby in utero are slim to none, but there are a lot of deep seated fears that come to the surface every now and again. I even have dreams where people tell me that my baby's not safe inside me and we need to get him out now. Crazy. But things are good- he's healthy and growing right on schedule. (this whole last paragraph seems really... "heavy" for my blog).

We are loving living here in Florida. It's beautiful here. Visit us. Soon.



p.s. I didn't mention Cash at all in this post. Don't worry- we still love Cash.

Scoot

So I have a bunch of pictures to upload onto my computer from the past month's activities, but my computer is stuffed full- can't take one more little photo byte. So I have to cull and clean out the photo cache, and then download pictures onto an external hard drive and then download the new pics into iPhoto... needless to say all this takes time, and what with Maggie starting school, and the boys starting other extracurricular activities and me being just plain lazy, it hasn't happened yet. But here is an old video clip of Cash riding his scooter to appease y'all. He's about a month shy of being 3 here, and he rides his scooter like a little stud-muffin. (My favorite part of the video though? Maggie's nearly lost temper in the last 3 seconds...).

Without further ado:

Have a Fabulous Weekend!

Here are my little lovelies holding an alligator. If I remember correctly this here 'gator is about 3 years old. I think Oscar didn't believe he was real because he kept poking his finger in the poor lil' gator's eyeball! These were taken on our vacation to Florida 2 months ago.

My Boys

This is pretty much a good representation of what my boys do on a daily basis. They are constant. ♥

3rd Generation

My dad raised all five of his children to be Macheads. And we each in turn have converted our spouses (except maybe for Erin- because she's weak-minded {Erin- these aren't the droids you are looking for... move along, move along.}). Ahem, where was I? Oh yeah, so now all my dad's grandkids are being raised on Apple technology. Dad, this photo is for you. Happy Father's Day!

p.s. I just thought maybe I should add that all of my kids are playing educational games on all these Apple products. I promise. (Want to know what apps/internet site they are using? Go here or search "starfall education" at the App Store.)

Picture This

A week ago today I was driving home from a little vacation to Florida with my mom and these three muffin-heads. I've got some pictures from the trip and I'm planning on posting them here as soon as I download them from my phone/camera... but today I'm taking said muffin-heads to the Children's museum. Their favorite exhibit there? The one where you crawl through a model of the digestive tract starting by going through a mouth and ending down a slide into a toilet- sound effects included... no joke. We love science! (And all things bathroom related!)

Let It Be Known

Kathryn's Womb Service is officially up and running once again. Let's be honest- Ben can't get enough when it comes to... newborns. And so here we are, having number 4. Yay!

Ben and baby Oscar, just a few hours after he was born

Me and Maggie, a few days before Cash arrived!

Here I am documenting my pregnancy with Oscar... I'll look like this again soon!

On this very day

last year, I was sending Maggie off to her pre-school with a bag full of home made little Valentine's. They weren't too fancy, but she helped make them and she loved handing them out to all her little friends. This year all of us are home sick. Cash is missing his Valentine's party today (we dropped off some store bought Valentine's at his school- no home made cut out hearts this year, no siree. Thank you Hello Kitty and Spider-Man for saving the day). We'll see if Maggie is feeling better by Monday when she has her class party. This cold of mine has almost lasted me a full week. Blech. My poor kids have been neglected for most of that time (Ben stayed home on Tuesday so he, I mean, I could sleep all day, so they got real food and diaper changes on Tuesday.) Maggie has been my little helper, bringing me glasses of water and brushing my hair. Right now she's "reading" a dinosaur book to her little brothers (who are supposed to be napping). I just heard her say, "With their big huge teeth, bigger than sharks, moving side by side, and their well-made eyes like bees nests, these dinosaurs are bigger than this house and very scary and meaner than volcanoes and probably were waiting for humans to pet them (they didn't know humans weren't alive yet) so they could bite them."

At least while I'm sitting here in my misery, my kids are getting a quality education.

Maggie's Valentine's: 2010

p.s. I just realized that most people have colds and can still function, but I'm telling you people, this has been the head cold from HELL. I am reminiscent of the swine flu of 2009, that's how crappy this cold has been. So before you get all on my case saying things like, "c'mon Kat, it's a COLD for crying out loud, what is up with that? You are seriously the biggest boob EVER", just know that this is no ordinary cold. It's a cold on steroids. Okay, now you can judge.

2 E'en's after Hallowe'en

Ben's oldest brother Jason is an artist. He's really good. I think he sucked all the visual artistic talent genes out of his mother's womb forcing his younger brothers to be forever content with rough stick figure drawings and toddler-esque doodles. His talents serve to aid his children, too. They always win every Halloween costume contest hands down. And we all know how that can put a child on the path to life long success and happiness. Right? At the very least they get to scare the living heckfire out of my brood. Take a looksee at their Halloween costumes this year:






Apparently Maggie was inspired this year and found some willing people-canvasses to practice on for next Halloween- watch out Jason, it looks like we may have managed to squeeze out a little artistic progeny of our own...






p.s. our "real" costumes were 2 cowboys and a princess, but as my camera is still out-of-order I have no photos (boo).

scenic drive

thismorning i threw the kiddos in the car & headed up the canyon for a drive... very impromptu, but fun (well, until maggie got a little bored in the backseat & decided to make her own scenery by drawing on the headrest in front of her with a pen... sigh). but let's let bygones be bygones, right? back to our drive:

one thing is for sure... if ben & i ever do leave utah (not that we're planning on it!) i will very much miss these mountains...

visual aids

Time: 1700 hours
Location: Riverwoods, Provo, Utah
Date: May 23rd
Event: a walk, indicating that the weather was warm as was the general mood
Warning: lots of pictures to follow... {click on any of the following photos to enlarge- might i suggest you click on the kissing pic? Oooo-la-la}