The Big Harvest!

We sure have loved our garden this year! The weather is getting colder and the temperature was getting close to freezing at night, so we had our last big harvest.

The kids also loved picking pumpkins from the garden. They each picked there own. We ended up with about 15 pumpkins!

The Tooth fairy is SO fired......

We Welch's are speaking out against the Tooth fairy. We are tired of putting our teeth under our pillow night after night and having her forget not pay up! "It has been a busy summer....", we don't want to hear it! "It has been over a year since anyone here lost a tooth, I am out of the habit of coming"......, not a good excuse! "I was running late....", don't even try it! We have had enough and we think she better get her act together fast. Giving us a $5 bill to make up for missing two nights in a row won't work on us forever.

If any of the other worst moms in the world good moms out there are having issues, let me know.

We will be sending her a stern letter.....or making her some cookies, we are still deciding.

Rylee is 2!

My baby girl is 2! Rylee had her birthday today. She had a very fun day!

Rylee is such a sweetheart. I can't believe she is growing up so fast. She has really started talking a lot lately and with her older brother and sister around she thinks she is about 5! She wants to do whatever they are doing. She has just started saying, "I doed it". Which means I want to do it myself. We laughed because it seems like she woke up on her birthday with a two year old temper all of a sudden!

She was really excited about her new dress up stuff and her new back pack! She loved singing Happy Birthday and blowing out her candles.
Rylee has been my little buddy lately with Porter and Sidney starting school. It has been fun to spend time with just her. She is a little love with all her kisses and hugs. Happy Birthday, Rylee! We love you sweet baby girl!

Fie Bear

Two years old has always been the time to say goodbye to our good friend, the pacifier here at the Welch house. We decided to take Rylee to Build a Bear and let her make her own teddy bear and put her pacifier inside. I didn't know exactly how this would go.....She was very excited to pick out her bear. She didn't like the stuffing machine because it was pretty loud. Then we told her to say goodbye and put her pacifier inside. She went with the program and tucked it inside. Then she watched them sew him up and gave it an air bath. All in all it was a happy day.....until it was nap time and she wanted her pacifier and we handed her the teddy bear. We reminder her that her pacifier was inside. She just looked at us with her saddest face and kept saying, "open, open".

We have always called her pacifier just a pacifier, but she shortened that to "fie". So we named her bear "Fie Bear". She was really only sad that first nap time and then she caught on pretty quick that she could snuggle her new bear and her favorite blanket and be pretty happy. She really loves that Fie Bear!

First day of school

Well, we are off to school!

Porter and Sidney were very excited to start school, I am never very excited and would rather have them home with me forever! :) A Mom can hope.

Porter is starting 3rd grade and my little Sidney is a Kindergardner. I can't believe it.

Porter lining up for school.

Sidney lining up and excited to see her friend Lily.

One last hug. They had to pry her from my white knuckled fingers...., just kidding, but it felt like that. I always try to keep my anxiety quietly to myself and help them to be excited to go, they are growing up way too fast. Rylee and I try to keep busy but man do we miss those kids, and we really look forward to getting them back!

Back to School Dinner

The invitations were sent out.......

and everyone showed up dressed nicely with their hair combed and best manners in the kitchen at 6 pm for the Welch's back to school dinner!

Holy Pumpkins!

This is our garden 7 weeks after planting! Holy pumpkins, they are the ones growing completely out of the garden box. They are just as big and down the other side too. We have pumpkins, corn, green onions, lettuce, green beans, peas, strawberries, tomatoes, cilantro, and some experimental broccoli! We have already eaten some green onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and peas! We have really enjoyed taking care of our garden and watching it grow.

California Trip-Zoo

We have been looking forward to our trip to California since.....well since we said goodbye to these guys last summer!! We had a fabulous time visiting all of our cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in sunny California! This is Rylee with her good buddy and closest partner in crime (cousin) to her age! They had a great time together. We went to the Oakland Zoo for a fun day out.

Sidney and Luke.

It didn't take Rylee long to warm up to her Aunts! Aunt Keri and Rylee.

Luke was such a cute turtle!

Porter, Raegan, and Zac.

Cute girls! Sidney, Rylee, Raegan, and Aunt Shauna.

I love this picture of Allen! There was a little lily pad crossing that the KIDS could walk across. We are all watching the kids having a great time going back and forth across the little stream. Well, Allen notices that from the far left bank, where you are not supposed to be, there is a very long space to a lily pad. He couldn't help but sneak over to try it out! Luckily he made it and Shauna caught this great picture. I was so busy laughing that I didn't see that Sidney had slipped on one of the lily pads and fell part way into the water! We quickly snatched her up and continued on our way, paying no attention to the dirty looks the other mom's were giving us for our bad example!

California Trip-Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Rylee and Raegan hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Aunt Keri and Sidney having fun in the back yard.

Porter can always talk someone into a little football!

California Trip-Camping

We all got together and camped at the Lake in California. The kids had a blast. We missed you Sanchez family!


Sidney spent hours collecting these shells around the beach. She had an entire bucket full! She filled a water bottle full to bring home!

The kids playing on Grandpa's boat.

On the way back we stopped at Aunt Lauren's house to swim in their pool and have lunch. Allen got sick half way through camping and might not remember it as fondly as the rest of our family, but he was a trooper and kept on going.

Cub Scout Day Camp

Porter had his first cub scout day camp adventure!

He was very excited and is really loving cub scouts. I was able to go and help out, which really helped his over protective Mom get excited about this new adventure!

I think it is hilarious that their cub scout hats started out normal and soon after Porter found out you can turn it inside out and tuck in the back and sides to make a much cooler "baseball" style hat. What a cute boy!

They had relays, crafts, singing, games, exploring owl poop, science experiments, and the all favorite ARCHERY!