beautiful arkansas

chris was off on labor day so we explored mt. magazine, the tallest mountain in arkansas. it was gorgeous.

charlie's my sweet boy and always so lovey. 

"here mama, this flowers for you mama!"

look at that view!

daddy, always living on the edge

funny story.

when we came to the cliff, chris had the kids be as quiet as possible before launching a rock over the side. we waited a good 4 or 5 seconds before hearing the rock bounce off some of the cliffs. the kids thought that was so cool and of course had to try it themselves. well, somehow in the excitement, jack accidentally threw his pocket knife instead of a rock. he was pretty upset with himself. now we joke around about "that time when jack threw his pocket knife off a cliff..."

owen's smiles are the best!

there is a beautiful lodge at mt magazine state park that we stopped at to cool off and have lunch and enjoy more of the views.

september was spent getting into our school/sports routine. jack started football. as is the custom in the south, they take their football very seriously here. we have realized that jack is pretty behind since most of the kids have been playing tackle football since 1st grade, but he's working hard. his team, the steelers, is 3rd & 4th graders and he's definitely one of the smallest boys. he's the youngest running back on the team and has stayed up many nights studying the team's plays. the first few weeks was intense with 5 practices a week, but now with games on monday nights he has practice on T & TH, so its not quite so crazy. let's go steelers!

we spend a lot of time at the field, but the other kids don't seem to mind one bit.

we rehearsed some of our faces while waiting for monday night's game to start...

this is our "i can't believe the ref called that!" face

"how can a 9 year old play so dirty?!"

"RUN, JACK, RUN!"

"that's gunna leave a mark!"

"you shoulda caught that one jack, you shoulda caught that one..."

"... and that one..."

"....aaaaaand that one."

in other news

ellie has finally, FINALLY, started ballet!

she has asked for quite some time, so for her birthday back in february we said she could give ballet a try. it was a long wait until the fall semester started, but she's loving it. she really enjoys going on wednesdays and has a good time, but i think its a little slow for her. she's decided that once ballet is over, she wants to give volleyball a try. she has a hard time making decisions... can you tell???

and charlie is our soccer man again this fall. he loves it and i love that he loves it. i really enjoy soccer more than any of the other sports, as far as watching goes. i don't mind being your typical soccer mom hauling kids to practice in my mini van. can't wait for spring when jack will be playing again too.