When it rains it pours...pictures.

Okay, so here's the deal. I have been too overwhelmed by all of this to really post about it, so I am doing a picture dump with maybe a line or two of description. This is for the grandparents/aunts and uncles who are going through withdrawals. Everyone else can skip the bazillion Terry kid photos.

A few weeks ago Boone and I realized we didn't know where any of the kids were (scary!) but a few minutes later Boone quietly led me down the hall to see this:


Don't ask me what Ry is wearing, but they were all 3 having a tea party together.


Cheers! (Note the pile of green feathers in the background -- Rylan tore these off a feather boa to be used in the construction of cat toys and they ended up all over the house for weeks).

And apparently they hired Branik to be the entertainment. The whole thing was ridiculously cute, soaked carpet and all.

The first part of October Boone's sister Cilka came out to introduce us to her new baby Payton and the kids were smitten! Rylan was loving being the little mommy and she did a great job taking care of her littlest cousin for a week.

Keaton calls Cilka "my Cilka" and has always really loved her. It appears the feeling is mutual.

Here are some little mommy moments -- this makes me want to have another baby! Oh wait, no it doesn't -- it makes me want to buy Rylan a doll. Yep. Option #2. Hands down.

See, I TOLD you she was excited. This is my new trick to get Rylan to look more normal in pictures (yes, that's more normal) -- if I just tell her to smile she has started doing this weird posed face (thanks Boone) and I am unable to get what she really looks like day to day. This is better.

Branik was a little bit jealous but warmed up to Payton when he thought nobody was looking...

We had a really great visit and are so glad Cilka made the cross-country trip to spend time with our family!

This concludes our "around the house" portion of the visit/post.

Moving on to gutters and rural Georgia (read: FUN)...

So the boys were outside playing during the visit and Keaton decided he wanted to ride Rylan's bike while she couldn't protest (she was at school). He rode over to the side of the road and ended up high centered over a puddle. What he discovered (to his EXTREME delight) was that when he pedaled, the back tire sprayed water all over his back. He started laughing his head off, so of course Branik ran over (pantless because he just sat in mud) to see what was so funny. Yeah, he thought it was as great as Keaton did.

So those are my ghetto boys -- one on a princess back flinging mud water all over himself, and the other pantless behind him, and eventually drinking the water "fountain" style. I'm such a great mom that I grabbed the camera instead of stopping them.

Here's a close up of how drenched Branik got -- he had dirt in his hair and ears when this episode was over.

Last stop, Hickville...err...Louisville, Georgia!

Rylan's Daisy troop had an event while Cilka was here so the whole family loaded up and headed to the corn maze for our semi-annual family fun fest! You remember how well our spring edition went, right?

It started raining just as we arrived and I was less than happy about that (it was an hourlong drive), but it quit after a few minutes. First crisis averted. Corn maze here we come!

(Yep, I had to have Rylan tell me a knock-knock joke to get her to make this "normal" face. I should post her new posed face so you can see what I am talking about.)

Keaton the GAP model -- no, I do not think I am biased.

Branik was ready to go, so Rylan grabbed her brothers and off they went!

Payton was slightly less sure about the rainy corn field, but she totally got into it after the first hour:) Let's just say the first phase took about 10 minutes and was easy to navigate, so we said, "Why not!" when Rylan asked if we could do Phase 2.

Bad, bad idea.

It was WAY more difficult than Phase 1 and took us over an hour to get through it. Payton got hungry and mad, Rylan was sure we were actually lost, Branik demanded to be held, and Keaton kept screaming "Um, excuse me! We see 3 buses!" to the dude perched on the lookout tower.

Anyway, we were all thrilled when we finally made it out and the kids loved getting to ring the bell as they exited the maze.

Our little adventure caused us to lose track of Rylan's troop, so we just did our own thing afterwards...


We (and by "we" I mean "the kids") jumped off of hay bales...

...rode the cow train...

...and bounced on this enormous inflatable pillow. It was truly gigantic -- Boone is estimating 20 by 40 feet. I thought it looked like a broken neck waiting to happen, but everyone seemed okay afterwards.

We had a pretty fun day, especially in retrospect when I can't remember all the little things that made me want to throw myself in front of the corn cob rocket.

Maybe waiting a while to post these things will help me be a little more "Yay!" on my blog. Or maybe I will still be cranky. Anybody want to guess?