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!!!!

A new member to the tribe!

As most of you know we will be adding a couple of new tribe members. One will be Claire (Ella's sister) and the other is my new granddaughter, Kendall. Claire started this week and so far so good. Kendall will start in January. Some more girls finally. It seems to go in streaks. All boys or all girls.

I have been requested to update my blog and post some Halloween pictures, so here goes Athena!!!

September Days

It has been a little while since I posted anything so I will try to catch up a few things.

We had a few birthdays in September, mine (thanks to all), Amanda's, Alex C. and Braedyn (who is no longer in daycare). Now we are joined by baby Claire. Danielle's was October.
I assume she will be joined by the newest baby grandchild.

Alex and Jack are becoming great friends and I am so excited they can grow up together and hopefully remain friends forever.

Keegan and Owen also are great friends and play well together. Ethan is off to school now as is Nick, Salena and Taylor.

The children have been enjoying our preschool program and even Ella T. was singing "It's Mother Goose Time" this morning. (That is the program we are using) As you can see in the pictures, Ella B. likes to join in also and Taylor is great at being an assistant. I think Amanda is having as much fun as they are.

Carnival

What a fun day we had at our backyard carnival! We had a bean bag toss, baseball throw, duck pond, and sucker tree. We also made visors and had tattoos put on. It was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed themselves a lot. Sam loved throwing the velcro baseballs at the target and fishing for the ducks. Of course, they loved the sucker tree (who wouldn't love being able to eat the prize). Nick said it was the best day ever and I think his last day was very enjoyable (but there may have been a couple of moments of sadness) Taylor was out of town that day so she had to miss the festivities but we saved her a bag of goodies and Salena was (of course) a big help. We followed the activities with a picnic lunch.

Playing in the Rain

Today the kids played in the rain and they were so excited. They loved running around without shirts and playing in the warm, summer rain. After the rain slowed down and they were looking for mud puddles to play in, they decided to walk down to the end of the street and play in a huge mud puddle where the construction was. They kept saying "This is the best day ever" "Can we do this again?". It is amazing what is so important to them. Even Sam loved playing in the rain and mud. Taylor was absolutely in heaven. If there is one thing for sure Taylor loves, it is dirt and water. Owen was a little hesitant but soon joined in the fun and Ella T was absolutely loving it.

The fun-filled morning must have tired them out because they all took very good naps and slept for a long time. However, I don't think Taylor quite had enough mud in the morning because when her mom picked her up she was a mess.

Oh, and some more exciting news for our family. Stacey and Jake got
engaged about a week ago. We are very happy about that and they
are tentatively planning a May wedding (probably in Vegas). Lots of planning to do.

Holly's Visit

It was so wonderful to see Holly again and to finally meet Ken. However, there is always so much going on that we just don't get enough time to visit. We had a good turnout although we did miss some. Pizza was a little well done but seemed to disappear quite quickly so it must not have been that bad. Ella was glued to Holly's lap for most of the time. The boys were glad to see her but then off to the next great adventure of racing motorcycles, riding in wagons and flirting with Kelsey (Taylor's sister). I was so involved in everything that I forgot to take pictures. Can you believe it? Me? Oh well, maybe next time. Holly says she will come back again and try to visit longer. She brought us a new musical CD put on by the kids at her new place so we will be listening to that next week. We miss her and hope to see her again soon!!!

Millenium Park Field Trip

We don't usually take field trips but this week we had a beautiful day to go to Millenium Park and enjoy the splash pad and the playgrounds. We had lunch there and ran them out of hot dogs. The kids (as well as the adults) enjoyed themselves.