The Fence is DONE!!!

October 18, 2009

Can you hear the Hallelujah Chorus in the background? No? Maybe I'm just hearing things! : )

Our fence is finally finished. I can't even express how good it feels to be DONE with the darn thing! A project that we began in May, finished in October.

The kicker is that we did probably 3/4 of it in 2 weeks. Once the weather cooled off and our schedules freed up a bit, it was fence building time. We sloshed through mud and endured misty rain, but we were on a mission.

Our kids were FANTASTIC helpers! Seriously, we'd still be working if they hadn't helped. They each earned $1 for every fence section they helped with. They thought that was awesome, and so did we. You can't imagine what a help it is to have someone just passing you screws and pickets!

Really, you can't hear that Hallelujah Chorus? Well, imagine it with me then . . .

Here are the final pics:

Life When You Have Cats . . .

October 2009

Or maybe I should, more accurately, say "Life when you have Kelsey."

Ever since we moved into our new house, the mini blinds in Megan and Julie's room have had "problems." We have repaired and replaced them a few times. I thought that Megan and Julie were playing with them, and breaking them. I even spanked them for it once.

Well, I was oh so very wrong in my assumptions.

It was Kelsey. She likes to sit in that front window, and when she would weasel her way behind the blinds, they would bend, and eventually break. I guess that's what happens when you buy $5 mini blinds from Wal-Mart. I should also mention that the view of the front of our house was rather trashy. It was a pet-peeve of mine.


Isn't that lovely?

(The bottom hole is from her climbing on to the window sill, the top one is from her climbing on the top of the bottom window, if that makes any sense.)

We finally went to Lowe's and bought some faux wood blinds. That way the little rugrat can climb behind them all she wants and they won't bend.



Ahhh . . . much better!

Ears Pierced!

Okay . . . It's about time to do some serious blogging. Actually, it's about time to write my annual Christmas letter, and as I'm thinking over our year, I've realized that I needed to organize some pictures, etc . . .

So, let's catch up on these past few months!

September 22, 2009

Well, Megan finally decided that she wanted to get her ears pierced. Our policy with ear piercings is that I'll take them whenever they decide that they want to do it, as long as they understand one thing: It will hurt like a shot!

Well, that one piece of information has had Megan insisting that she would never get her ears pierced . . . EVER!

Of course, she has 2 older sisters who were very eager for her to do it, and she finally changed her mind. I'm sure that the incentive of "Aunt Brooke will buy you tons of earrings for Christmas" had something to do with it. : )


Here's the "before" - sucker in hand.


Here's the "during." Her response to the entire ordeal was "Ouch." Pretty uneventful.

Of course, I would be the slacker who didn't take an "after" picture.

Then we move on to Julie. She had no qualms about piercings hurting like a shot, and has been asking to get her ears pierced since she could say the word "earrings." (And for those of you who have conversed with this little one, you understand how long ago that must have been!)

I decided to go ahead and make this a sister event. She was very excited!

Here's the "before" picture (the dot on her ear is marker).


And the "during." We didn't get a peep out of her!

And, once again . . . no "after" shots. I'm sure I'll get them on here eventually!

What a monkey!

Okay . . . so she's actually a chimp, but you get the idea!

We went out to the feed store that my sister works at so that we could meet Mikayla. She's 15 mos old and very funny. My sister knows the lady who owns her and they were having an event at the store. This lady runs an animal rescue that is quite fascinating. Check out her website here.


As if isn't hard enough to get 4 kids to look at the same time! Add a chimp and I would call it impossible!


Austin and Kevin were there too . . . so we tried to get a picture for Grandma!


This pic is very similar . . . I just loved the look on Mikayla's face!


And finally . . . a close up!

We will be seeing her again this weekend at Kevin's birthday party. Should be fun!

Soccer!

This past Saturday started our soccer games for the year.

Megan is playing on a K-1 girls team, and is loving it. She and her friend Anna are July birthdays, and are therefore the very youngest on the team. That was very obvious this week, as they spent much time in la-la land while they were on the field, but they all had a fun time. Unfortunately, they only have 9 girls on their team, so that makes for very little rest time during games, but I think it's good for them : )

Here's Meg resting before her game. Isn't she cute?



Anna, Caroline and Lucy



Some of my fellow soccer moms. (And Julie who would just like to think she's a mom!)

Julie enjoying her chair!

Here's one of the few action shots that I have of Meg. She's #6.

Graci and Lucy go for it!

In the end, the K-1 girls tied 0-0.

Because of the way their birthdays fall, Ali & Emma both play on the 3rd grade girls' team. Aaron is one of the assistant coaches for their team. That means that if their team plays at the same time as Meg's team, I don't get to see the game. That was the case this week, but thankfully Jodi stepped up to the plate for me with her camera and was willing to share her pictures!

Here they are getting ready for their game . . .

I love this action shot of Karis (left) and Emma (#15). Emma loved playing, and (so I am told) was really into the game.

. . . Ali on the other hand . . . : ) This was her first soccer game ever. She spent quite a bit of time in outer space, but she's still learning. I loved this shot of Ali with the ball! She looks so focused.

Good game!

The 3rd grade girls lost 0-2, but the coaches were overall very impressed with how well they played!

This coming

Saturday, Ali & Emma's team has a double header (which is nice because I'll actually be able to see one of their games.) Meg will have game #2. Hoping for a win!!

Apple Time!

It's that time of year again! Yeah!!

Fall is my all-time favorite picture season. Between apple picking, and the pumpkin patch I literally take hundreds of pictures. It's a bit insane but I love it. I am exercising self-control and only posting 8! : )

Apple picking is a Patton-Alligood family tradition. I think the first time we went together, Emma was 2 and Karis was 18 mos. We have traditional shots that we take every year. One of all the children (that shot had grown over the years!), and then the pairs of kids. See below.


Here's the whole crew! What a bunch of monkeys!



Our family is completely retarded when it comes to having family pictures taken. Inevitably, someone isn't looking, has their eyes closed, or is cropped out of the picture (I guess I can blame my photographer for that one! : ) ) This was the best we could do. Really it isn't so bad.

Daddy manned the pole picker while Aubrey and Meg chowed down on apples!

Our Jonah and Ali Shot. Jonah wanted to have Ali on his back. He doesn't realize that (at this point) she weighs a lot more than he does! What a pair!

Then there's Emma and Karis. These two are quite a photogenic pair. I could take 100 pics of them together and 95 of them would be perfect! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but you get the point.

For the Littles, we have a trio rather than a pair. This series of pictures cracks me up! They are a riot.

After apple picking we enjoyed lunch together at Steak n Shake . . . what a treat! Once lunch was over, the Pattons and Alligoods parted ways to go home . . . and we enjoyed a few detours. We did some thrift shopping (I found the PERFECT pair of jeans for $3.00! Does it get any better than that?) We also stopped at the Lewis and Clark Center for a brief look around. Definitely a place we will revisit when it's time for Missouri history.

All in all it was a great day . . . now it won't be long and it will be time for the pumpkin patch!

Mammoth Spring

And last but not least . . .

Our second excursion was to Mammoth Spring. It's a spring about 45 minutes northwest of Powhatan, about 2 miles from the Missouri border. We really enjoyed our time there, even though it was brief.


Here are the girls standing in front of the falls. Approximately 9,000,000 gallons of water pour over these falls every hour!


Here is the spring where the water is actually coming up from the ground. We're looking at it from an overlook. It was breathtaking.


Another beautiful view . . . the water making its way to the falls.

The beginnings of the Spring River.

Being a fresh spring, the water maintains a "refreshing" temperature of about 58 degrees farenheit. That's not an experience they'll soon forget! : ) Brrr . . .

Looking back on the falls.

Historic Powhatan

We enjoyed two different excursions during our weekend away. The first was to Historic Powhatan, which was an old steamboat town on the Black River. We really enjoy historical sights, so this was a treat!

They still have 5 different historic buildings on site, and we took a tour of them all. Our tour guide was excellent, particularly with the kids. He was very open to their questions, etc . . . He was very knowledgeable, and we learned lots of interesting new stuff.


The first of our buildings was this old commercial building. It has served several different purposes, including a telephone station (we saw an old switchboard there) an apothecary, a wagon shop, a post office . . . just to name a few.


Next was the Ficklin-Imboden House. The oldest buildings on the site. Once a residence with an attached cook house (and possibly slave quarters). It was furnished with period furniture that was cool to see.


Enjoying all of the furs that were typically trapped at the time.


The fireplace

The loft was used as sleeping quarters.

Inside the cookhouse.

Next was the Powhatan Male and Female Academy.

The girls really loved this one! They have an entire classroom set up with books and slates and everything. Each girl got their own slate and slate pencil (btw, we learned that slate pencils are actually made of slate also. I was always imagining something more chalk like. The squeaking sound that those pencils make is outrageous! I felt very sympathetic for those old country school ma'ams!)

Each girl drew a picture. I just thought Meg's was really cute! (Notice the 2+4 that she added!)

Next was the the old jail.

Hopefully this is this only time I'll ever see any of them behind bars! : )

Lastly was the old courthouse.

Inside the courthouse. We also learned that the railing that divides the public area from the front of the court room is called "the bar." Hence the term "Bar exam" etc . . . Just one of those interesting pieces of information . . . hope to use that one at a trivia night some time : )

Another interesting piece of information . . . Back in the day in Powhatan they only held criminal court every 6 months! Yep, if you were a suspected criminal, you got to wait, in jail for up to 6 months before you were even tried! Gotta love it!

Overall I loved the historic buildings, but I think I was most impressed with Ali and Emma! They were sincerely interested in everything they saw. The tour lasted 2 hours, and they were still fascinated, and asked several really good questions. Ali was funny. They showed us 2 old vault doors that they recently recovered. They been painted over with black paint, and one of them has had the paint removed and has been restored. Our tour guide showed us the restored door, and mentioned that they will be removing that paint on the other one here soon. Ali asked if we could come back next year so we could see the door once it's been cleaned up. I couldn't help but to laugh. Of all the things that a 9 year old would want to revisit . . . an old vault door!