Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Although it has definitely been a rough year for some, there is still much to be thankful for. I have 7 beautiful grandchildren with another on the way. My children are all healthy and most have jobs. My husband still has a job and I get to take care of wonderful children during the day. I have employees that make my job a little easier. I also have great friends that keep me sane after taking care of those wonderful children all day, ha ha! I have a lot to be thankful for! I hope 2009 brings nothing but good things for all of us! Take care and be safe!

Fall

I will post a few new pictures of Halloween and some really cute outdoor pictures as I am watching the CMA awards. It was great to see big and little Taylor on Halloween. Alexia was being a great sport and being our mummy.

We had the pleasure of attending Holly and Ken's wedding on Oct. 25 and it was a very good time and she looked beautiful. They went to St. Lucia for almost two weeks for their honeymoon. Ella was beautiful and did a great job!

Changes

Here we go again with some changes in our "family".

We have a new addition to our group and his name is Evan. He is one year old and after a couple of kind of rough days I think he may be coming around. He even smiled at me today!!

Some very sad news is that "baby" Taylor is leaving after next week. We will miss her and her parents a lot and hope to see them again someday. We love her and won't forget having her here with us for the first 10 months of her life. Good luck to all!!

Fall has arrived and the most hectic time of the year. Holidays are right around the corner and elections etc. Take time to enjoy the most important things in your lives, your family and friends!

Here is a cute picture of Alex and her new hat. I think she looks like something from Dr. Suess, say "someone from whoville" or "thing 3".

Claire is 1 year old now and Kendall will be in about a week. Wow! How they've grown!

It's a Boy!!

Stacey and Jake found out on Monday they are having a boy in December. Everything looked perfect and they are getting ready to move to a new house to prepare to expand their family. We are so excited!!!

Keeping Cool

At the library petting zoo. Taylor and Owen sitting on the donkey!

Playing with the train at the library

Millenium Park - keeping cool.

Three little peas in a pod, soaking up the shade in their cute little hats. They love being outside with everyone and Claire just about bounces that thing right out of the yard.

Jack is getting bigger also and such a little ham. Here we were camping at Jack's brothers house in Newaygo.

Busy Days of Summer

Well, here we are in a busy week of summer. Monday, Jack and I were married 35 years. Wow!! That is a long time.

Tuesday, Stacey and I took the grandkids (and Salena) to Binder Park Zoo. Today, we are planning to take all the kids (minus babies) to Millenium Park for a while and tomorrow we will be taking the grandkids (and Salena) to Michigan's Adventure. Sure does make the week go fast. It seems like every week in the summer is filled with things to do. That is probably why it seems to go so fast. Before we know it, it will be fall again. Lots of vacations and time off so things are sometimes kind of quiet.

Amanda is gone now and we were very sad to see her go. She was a good worker and we wish her and her family the best. I had another girl hired and set to start this week but she changed her mind at the last minute. (better job offer) So we will be on the lookout again (especially for fall)

The kids are doing great and growing up so fast. The bigger kids loved doing our library excursions. I have to admit I was pretty impressed myself.

Monday we were at Kelly's ball game and there were all these daycare kids there, Sam, Taylor, Ashley, Big Jordan, Hailey. It was fun to listen to them. Ashley asked Taylor "what is your name" and she said "Taylor". Ashley says "I thought so I remember you from daycare, do you remember me?" Taylor says "No". How funny!

Changes

Okay, so I read Athena's blog and I feel like okay if she can do it, I guess I should do something on mine. By the way, I read your friends blog and all about changing. Pretty interesting!

However, there are always good and bad changes. Obviously, in my line of work there are always a lot of changes. I have old families leave (boo-hoo) and new families come in. I have assistants that come and go. My family is expanding all the time and that is exciting and new. I think I am learning to deal with change sometimes. On the subject of changing yourself or your habits that you are not happy with, I think that it is possible but a very hard thing to do. Especially the older you get the harder it is. I also think that everyone has something about themselves that they would like to change. There are plenty for me that could use improvement. Okay, I think that is enough on that subject.

So, speaking of change, Christopher's last day was yesterday and although I am sure he is ready to move on to school and going with his sister, Grace, it is hard to say goodbye. I had a few teary moments yesterday thinking back on the last three years and how much I will miss the whole family. Athena, you would always brighten my day in the morning. Thanks!

Alex C. is gone for the summer and will be back in the fall. I am not sure what fall will bring with Ethan and Taylor going to school all day and the possibility of preschool for others.

Taylor D. has her first tooth and is rolling all over the place.

Claire is army-crawling and has two teeth. She gets wherever she wants to go and wherever we don't want her to go.

Kendall is crawling, standing (without holding on) and pulling herself up on everything (including Claire and Taylor)

We are doing a few field trips this summer to the library and that has been fun.

Ethan and Owen are leaving for Colorado for a week and they are very excited. Hailey is going to Robbin's a couple of days a week now because we just didn't have enough room with the school kids here.

The wedding/reception is over and we had a great time and a few problems with the room flooding from all the rain and having to move upstairs to Sluggo's. Interesting but fun! Now we are expecting another grandchild in December.

The kids are all loving summer and being outside (as are we). The babies are growing up fast and life is good at the moment.

Hurray for Spring

Obviously keeping up this blog is more work than I thought. Just not enough hours in the day. Okay, so here is the latest!

Finally, the weather is looking better and the kids have been able to go outside. It makes our days much easier and they go by so much faster. I would assume they all sleep better at night because they play pretty hard.

Things have been pretty busy around here with vacation, weddings, birthdays, etc. The wedding in Vegas was beautiful and Stacey was a beautiful bride. It was wonderful that our whole family and a few really good friends could be there to celebrate. The weather was wonderful and although busy there was a couple of days of relaxing by the pool! We are now planning the reception for back here and then we should be able to have a breather for a little while.

Here are a couple of pictures taken in Vegas!

I will try to scrapbook some and you can see more later. (Kristy, want to do a wedding album?

Ha Ha)

We purchased our new stroller this spring with our pizza fundraiser money (well it helped pay some of the cost) It really works well for taking all the kids for a walk and the babies love it.

Sam, Christopher and Keegan all had birthdays this month. They turned 2, 3 and 4.

Ella T., Maddy and Christopher all went to Disney World.

Holly (one of our previous helpers who moved to New York) came to visit us last week and it was great to see her. She is getting married in October and Ella T. is in the wedding so they went dress shopping on Saturday. I am sure that was a totally girly girl day!!!

That's it for this time!

Winter Blahs

I have been requested to update this blog. I guess October has been a while back but the time just seems to fly by so quickly.

Daycare has had it's ups and downs. The kids went through some illnesses and then I picked up something and actually had to close for 2 days. That is about the 4th time in 20 years so I guess that isn't too bad. Anyway, we are just waiting for spring and to be able to open the doors and windows and get outside and run (well not me) and enjoy the fresh air.

We are blessed (somedays, ha ha) with 4 children under 18 months right now. There is Alex who will be 1 in March, Claire 6 months in March, Kendall 4 months and Taylor 2 months. It definitely keeps us busy, but they are all adorable in their own way. As soon as we get past this fussy, colicy stage we will be all good!!

Jack turned 1 recently and we don't get to see him as much but he is growing up and doing well. He is off the bottle and baby food and moved to a bigger car seat. Wow! All those changes at 1.

Ella B just had tubes for the second time in her ears and hopefully they will work out this time.

Owen is getting tubes in his ears today and we also hope it goes well for him.

Christopher is starting to talk more and the other day he said he was going to marry me. How cute!!!!