Branson Triple Birthday Trip

The second weekend of October we went to Branson to celebrate Family Birthdays.  My Dad's is September 26th, Mike's is October 3rd and my brother Todd's is October 9th, so this year we decided to celebrate by the whole family going to Big Cedar Lodge for the Weekend and end it with a trip to Silver Dollar City (which has to be a separate blog because of so many pictures).  I had not gone to Big Cedar probably since I was around 9? (for those of you keeping up with my age that's 20 years ago) so I was looking forward to the trip. Mike and the boys had never gone, so of course they were looking forward to going somewhere new.  My parents went, along with my brother's family and us.  That's 6 adults and 5 kids :)  We got there early on a Friday afternoon.  We checked into an amazing house.  It was huge, definatley the nicest largest house I have ever been in.  We unloaded food for the weekend and checked out the house including 2 master suites, 2 kitchens, a pool table, poker table, 2 porches, 5 bedrooms, and a movie room.  Below are some pictures I took throughout the weekend.

 

 

Here  is us arriving.  You actually drive through the falls.  I was a little hesitant at first, but we made it.  It was a beautiful drive.

The first activity we did there was make smores.  The kids had a blast.

Max made a smore, but mainly just wanted to eat the chocolate.

We went swimming Friday night too.  Here is Grandpa, Laney, and Mary Frannie playing a game of checkers while waiting on our shuttle back to the house

Max and Mabry drinking their "hot" chocolate

They had a lot of logs in the main check in area that the kids loved playing with.

Alex loved swimming in his car

All of us in the pool.  It was a great pool, plenty warm, even had a slide.  My mom brought a lot of pool toys that the kids loved.

I love this picture of Laney eating a smore.

Alex and Grandpa were the first ones out of the pool

They had an outdoor hot tub.  I wasn't sure about this at first since it was about 35 degrees outside, but it felt great.  I went in it both nights.

Me and Mike took this picture one morning after breakfast on the balcony.  The house had beautiful views.

The house had a MOVIE room.  Isn't that neat?  It was perfect.  It had comfy chairs, blankets, recliners, pillows. surround sound, tables for snacks, an awesome touchscreen remote, and a huge pull down projector screen.  It was pretty neat to watch movies, tv, and especially the hog game in the movie room.  I think there was atleast one person at all times in the movie room during the trip :)

Max and Mabry being silly

We played some mini golf on Saturday.  It was sort of raining, and really cold...but we wanted to play because the kids really wanted to play and it was free, and we had planned on it so we are kind of stubburn....but it actually was a lot of fun.  It was Max's first time to play putt putt.  We definately didn't play by any rules, but enjoyed watching the kids play.

 

We celebrated Birthdays on Saturday night.  Mike turned 32.  Here is a picture of him opening up a gift from Todd, Jennie, and the girls.  They got him a Van Es & Stinnett visor and shirt.  Mike is excited about the new stuff and excited to help out with a little Marketing at the same time, haha.

When the 5 kids are around you always have plenty of help opening gifts.  Here is Grandpa attempting to open one of his gifts.

this is a cute picture of Alex eating his icecream inbetween his Daddy and his Uncle Todd on the couch.

Alex's favorite spot

 

Great picture of the Birthday guys

So Sunday morning they had a fishing derby at the Lodge.  They provided the poles and bait and everything.  Max had never been fishing before so Mike, Grandpa, and Todd took Max and Mary Frannie fishing.  Me, mom, and Jennie stayed to help pack up the cars(and because it was freezing outside!) Mabry and Laney stayed to help as well.  Here is a picture of Mary Frannie with her Trophy!!! She won her age division.  She was so proud of her trophy and we were all very proud of her.

pictures on the balcony before check out

Here are the boys leaving that Sunday morning.

and here are the boys a few minutes later....

 

and so we headed to Silver Dollar City.  It took us a little longer than expected with a few U turns (yes a few) but we made it there and of course, we all had a blast.  I'm so glad Todd and Jennie set it up for us to visit Big Cedar.  We were really impressed, and can't wait to go again.

Some Changes at The Lamb House!!

 It all started with my sister Kelley being off Friday :)  We decided to start on a few projects that we had been meaning to do for a while, that we finally got started on.  I still have a lot of stuff to do - but we got a great start.

Project 1:  Move Max and Alex into the same room!!!  They are room buddies now :)  They are doing so great.  I am so proud of them. This is a change we have been talking about for a while.  Once Alex started sleeping better we knew it woudl be a good time to combine their rooms.  Yes, I took pictures of them sleeping together for the first time.

 

Since we combined their rooms we can now make an office!!!!  that isn't in our bedroom!!! haha
We are still hooking stuff up, putting up pictures, etc.  One day we want to paint it a light brown, hopefully that will be in the next month or so.

The other side of Max's old room is now the play area.  I want to make some red or black curtains with these.  Maybe this week or the next.

Now we have our spacious entryway back - no more random table in the entryway!

Project 2: Clean the entryway table - done
Such an improvement

Project 3:  Update the boy's bathroom sink.  I love it. Mike installed it. He's getting to be a great handyman these days.

Also - organize their below the sink...I'm not enough going to show a before picture - boy did it look cluttered!

Project 4: Now that the computer desk is out of the Master bedroom - redecorate and organize the master bedroom

It's so much more spacious now and feels like a Master Bedroom - not Mike's office.  I love it.

Many more projects to come!  I don't know if it's fall cleaning, or just some spare time on my hands - or attempting to make more changes to hopefully sell the house - but whatever the case, I am sure enjoying updating and organizing our house.  Next up - Master Closets!!

Ready for fall

Today the weather was very fall like. It got me so excited for fall.  Doesn't it "officially" start September 22nd?  Well I decided we were going to start today.  I bought one of the biggest pumpkins they had at Sam's and put out the fall flag.  The Lambs are ready for fall!!!  Now to look on pinterest to see what I can do to spice up our pumpkin......

Live with John L Smith

 Me and Mike had a fun night out at the Catfish hole with my dad, his dad, my brother, and Jennifer and Matt Fox.  We went last year and had fun, so we were looking forward to going again this year.  You get an all you can eat buffet....yum.  You get to listen to the HOG radio show being taped, live.  You get to meet John L Smith and 2 football players, hear what they have to say about the Razorbacks and even ask them questions, and of course.....call those hogs...WOOOOPIGSOOOOIE!!!

We had lots of fun as always.  It was great to get away and have a date night and hear some inside updates on the hogs.  I loved the meal, as always.  The highlight of the night was when Todd AND David (Mike's dad) both got handed the microphone to ask a question to John L Smith.  A big Thank you to MiMi who babysat the boys so me and Mike could get away for a little while.

Here are some pictures from the night.

Max's 1st Day of School

Max is going to Mother's Day out again this fall.  He goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-2. My mom takes care of Alex during this time too.  So, Max gets to go to school and play with other kids, do fun crafts, sing songs, and learn new things, Grandma gets alone time with Alex, and I get to get things done around the house, etc!! Win Win Win situation!! 

Haha - the below I found on facebook - made me laugh.  Did I feel like this on the first day of school?  Maybe :)

Alex's 1st Trip to the Dentist

For those of you who don't know, Max waited until his 3rd Birthday to go to the dentist.  We always thought he was too young to go.  No one ever told us - hey - get your kid into the dentist as soon as they have their first tooth.  Well we took Max into the dentist, and he had to have some extensive work done on his mouth, so we decided we would start early with Alex.

 

Alex had 7 teeth by his first birthday. We called the dentist and they were happy to see him.  His first visit was all about getting Alex into the computers, his medical background, introducing him to everyone, and getting him used to the dentist office.  He did great.  We go to PDA off Joyce Blvd in Fayetteville and love it.  Alex met with the hygenist.  She looked at his teeth and did a flouride treatment, good for kids who don't know how to spit yet.  Alex got to watch a movie while we talked about his brushing habbits.  They talked with me as a parent on what I could do like floss and brush his teeth twice a day, never let him go to bed with Milk on his gums or teeth, etc.  The dentist met with us and looked at his teeth, etc.  After we were done he even got a bag full of goodies for his first visit.  It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we did it.

 

I can not stress enough - If your kid has a tooth - call your dentist to schedule their first check up - they are never too young.  You will not be sorry.  After all, if your child who is learning to walk runs into the coffee table and bumps their tooth out, or their tooth starts bleeding, would you know what to do? or where to go?  or what signs to look for? Do you know how much juice your kid should be having? Do you know when a kid should start xrays?  Do you know how many teeth your child should have and when?  ALL things you would know after your first visit to the dentist :)

 

Enjoy the pictures!!