Catching up

We were able to go out of town last weekend to visit my brother Dave, sister Rachel, and cousin Maria and it was great! I miss those three a lot. I plan to do a post all about that but I am still behind in a few of my other post so I need to catch up. I kinda feel like that has been how my whole week has felt, just a few steps behind. Honestly I think I feel like that most of the time. I think it might have something to do with having 3 children 4 and under, I don't know... just a guess :)
Our kids are doing great. The girls and I got a cold /cough thing that has been hanging on and hopefully is clearing up.
William and mom are trying to make headway in preschool. When I focus on it he does really well. Their little minds are sponges and that is good and bad! Allie will randomly yell DANG IT or say that's stupid! I usually try to hide my laughter and inform her we don't talk that way. She is a little chatter bug and tells us about everything. Over the last month she hit another level of communication where she doesn't just tell you something but completely converses with you. For instance I asked her to get Nick up the other day and she said "Ok mom I get daddy you stay here" she wanted it to be very clear I wasn't suppose to help get daddy up. She makes me laugh. It hard to explain communication because she has been talking in sentences clearly for a long time but it keeps developing and changing. She is also super busy all the time. She continually gets into trouble for making messes and when I am cleaning one up she is making another. She also doesn't like when things don't go her way. She will throw down what she is holding and pout. She doesn't like to be told No but than again who does. I have been thinking about James 4:1 lately that talks about why we fight. It is definitely a principle I need to work through all the time. My momma tells me "I know you don't want to hear it but she is just like you when you were little"  Being a parent is a lot of work! God is faithfully showing me my sin and weakness right along while I try to deal with my kids. It's overwhelming! than I remember He is faithful! I don't have to try to raise my kids in my own strength. Isn't that reassuring! That was kind of a rant but has been on my heart lately so there you go.
So here are the pictures...

here are some pictures from soccer picture day and also from our first game at the parade.

Wills team

 Kate

 our first game

the parent tunnel. The kids LOVE these tunnels

Wills getting his pictures taken

seriously when you ask this kid to smile for the camera this is what you get?!?

there is the cute little boy I know

the end :)

Soccer parade

Auburn Soccer league does a parade of all the teams through down town Auburn. I guess one of the benefits to being a young momma is I totally remember doing this when I played in this league. Kinda fun... So it was cold busy day for us because we had the parade and than we had a little soccer game and we also had a Thornton family reunion. The wed before the parade it had been like 105 degrees and than this day was 70 and lightly raining. It was beautiful! I think it crazy how drastically the weather can change though.

Here are the pictures from our parade

the kids banner

Kate and Wills

Number 10 and number 2

The team name is Rock Stars ( this wasn't our choice but majority of some sort ruled on this one) so the kids brought guitars and drum sticks whatever was rock starish.

watching the craziness

Becca and Karissa who actually have blue Jerseys now.

Charity sporting her "captains" coat

The girls parade "float" their team name is World cup girls. On the top of the truck you can see a stereo hooked up and everything. Their coach goes ALLLL out, seriously!

my brother Dan is their assistant coach so he road in the back

Tom chucked a bunch of candy in their trailer and they went crazy!

I wish i had taken a picture of Dan's soccer sandals because they are still cracking me up! They straps were soccer ball print and the base was "turf" so funny.

Gav and Nate's team

bounce U

we went to bounce U with my Aunt Lisa who was able to visit from Hawaii and some of our local cousins. Here are a few pictures. Allie needed a lot of mom's attention so I wasn't able to spend that much time with the ladies or taking pictures or holding my baby... Thankfully she was getting lot's of love from the other ladies. busy busy...

silly Allie! picking her nose

this is Matthew he is super sweet. He is 9 months old now and has down syndrome and is such a blessing to our family!

little Autumn

Risa

Kate

Lisa holding EmmaJane and Matthew

Harper came with us since his momma had just had little brother Becket

you had to climb up this to be able to go down this big slide. Wills needed help and gave up and than tried again and we were half way up the first time when he started crying and got upset and scared... we came down and than tried again and even though we had a few meltdowns we did manage to get up. It was pretty hard for him the first time. i think it would have gotten easier but he was out of time. Harper zipped right up the thing. It was impressive climbing.

Melissa, Lisa's daughter

it was tiring and fun. we got lunch together after and my kids were beat.

our baby's 3 months

ok so i have now posted like 5 or so in one day but What's a girl to do. I am kinda on a roll and I want to get these up before I get the ones of the camera I need to post... so

these are of our baby girl who is getting big so quickly. She is such a good baby. I am truly thankful. She sleeps great at night she is happy during the day and we all love her so much! I can't believe how fast time is going by. She is getting so big so fast! I am really enjoying having a baby again.

She is able to do all kinds of stuff but I am not sure if I have mentioned it or not. She has been smiling since she was about 4 weeks. And she rolled over two weeks ago but she is just starting to get really good at it. And in the last three or so weeks she started grabbing her toys. She loves her toys. She trys to put them all in her mouth. She is also a thumb sucker. She found has been trying to put it in her mouth for a long time but she officially can get just the thumb in not her whole hand. Well I am sure there is more I should say but she is hungry...

fell asleep holding the toy

so sweet!

I had put her sitting up and than she fell over and went to sleep. Kinda scared me but she was fun and it was pretty cute.

we went and visited Colleen Winans and her new little guy Becket doesn't Keira look big!

one week old Becket

at home

here are just a few pics from us hanging out on a Sunday afternoon

the boys catching a nap. these moments are getting rarer but still as cute!

baby playing

and than this girl getting into my chapstick... silly girl