Weekend with my "big kids'

day 1 at Silver Dollar City

bunch a silly kids

Julie, June, Susan and i hanging out while the kids played in the ball...and yes Julie shared!

one of my favorite places!!

we have such obedient children!

coming off the Wildfire ALL SMILES!

my mom got to ride in style due to the fact that she most likely now has a stress fracture after running her first half marathon.

another favorite ride

day two was SO much warmer!

just cause it was pretty!

Avery taking off on the Wildfire

Avery and her buddy Morgyn (friends of Susan's) that joined us for a day

some thought it was so nice they would try the water rides...crazy!

hugging cousins at the end of the day two, and we loaded up in the vans and headed home

This past weekend, my 3 sisters and my mom and i headed to Branson with all of the "older" cousins. Aka-ones that can ride most of the rides. We invaded a couple of condos and spent two fun filled days at Silver Dollar City. Friday was C.O.L.D., though we were prepared and stayed pretty warm. At the end of the day it took us all quite awhile to warm up. Saturday was 20 degrees warmer and the park was a whole lot busier, though the lines for the rides were still not bad AT ALL, which is what we were there for...ride after ride...i think i rode more rides in those two days put together than i have in years.

If you read my blog and saw our vacation posts from SDC this past summer you might remember that Avery was just barely too short to ride the Wildfire, making one extremely sad thrill seeking girl! Well after being measured twice she GOT TO RIDE THE WILDFIRE! She was pulled off and measured almost every time...that's how close it was, and no...mommy didn't put any bark in her shoes!

We headed back Saturday night and after getting lost thanks to our Gps being totally confused and telling us to turn left into trees, at the first chance...make a u-turn, about 50 times of recalculating, and lot's of laughs we finally got headed in the right direction towards home. It was a fun, fast (they always go to fast when your having fun) weekend!

Smile maker

This girl never ceases to make mommy smile. Except when i'm picking up her trail of clothes she leaves all over the house...or when she decides to change her attire right before we are ready to walk out the door...in those instances you might not catch me with a smile on my face...but when i'm looking back at the pictures...you might catch me smiling away!

Took little miss to the dr today because hse has been running a fever for a week. On top of the flu she managed to get a couple of nasty ears so with an antibiotic now, hopefully she will improve quickly!

Trey and Avery went back to school today. Avery missed almost a week and Trey was out since last Thursday. They are feeling good with only lingering coughs that i've been told linger around for awhile. Ethan is still well thanks to taking refuge at Grandma's for about 4 days during the worst of the sickness. Johnny had it over the weekend and is starting to feel better. As for me... i believe wholeheartedly in Airborne!

KC half-marathon

chilly race morning

coming in to the finish

we crossed the line holding hands

13.1 completed!

This past Saturday was marathon day. It was a rainy drive down to Crown Center but the rain moved off and ended up being a chilly perfect day for running! My mom had injured her leg in training but had an mri and had gotten her "go-ahead" from the dr. She had a lot of pain during the race but ran through it and finished in 3:03. Her goal prior to injury was 3 hrs so she did awesome! She was even joking around with the 3 hr pace group that passed us right at the end, something about that they better not pass us and that she might take them out if they did :)

I would have been just as proud had she done it without an injury but the fact that she completed it in so much pain...she was very determined! it was also Susan's first half too and she completed it without much training. You did great Susan!

It was a very fun run through lot's of cool places in KC and was so fun doing it with my sisters and my mom!

Party time

No, we are not partying right now...their are fevers and aches all around....but we were partying on Tuesday night before the brunt of the sickness rolled in

Ethan's party guestshe got a lightsaber and a clone trooper head...what more could a 4 yr old possibly ask for?

The one thing Ethan really wanted at his party was a pinata....so a pinata we had!

Ethan went to Grandma's house Wednesday night and so far has remained well, so i think he may have escaped the house and flu just in time!

Flu be gone

I was hoping we could avoid this flu bug, but since it is EVERYWHERE i guess that is hard to do. Avery got to feeling awful first....i took her into urgent care tonight and she is starting tamiflu in the morning...long story short- there is a city-wide shortage-insurance company was closed-it's a compound and needs insurance approval- i didn't want to pay $120 tonight! Hopefully she will get to feeling better quickly but in the meantime it is aggrivating her asthma but breathing treatments are helping! The only reason she was prescribed tamiflu was because of the asthma...

When i got home tonight i went to check on Trey and he was burning up so looks like i won't be taking any kids to school tomorrow. Trey was not prescribed the medicine because he has no underlying health condition.

I have tamiflu prescriptions for Ethan and Raegan because of their age so that we can start them on it if they start showing symptoms.

I am supposed to be running a half-marathon this Saturday so i am going to go overdose on Airborne!!

Bowling fun

i gave up and settled for the group picture with Avery looking backwards

Trey, Trevin, Micah, and Evan

Micah celebrated his birthday while we were down in Hutchinson for a roofing project, so June and i took all the cousins that were down minus the youngest three to the bowling alley for his party. Thank goodness for bumpers! We got to see how competitive some of the kids were when June bowled for one of the kids and got 2 or 3 strikes in a row. Suddenly everyone was wanting her to take their turn...so we had to nix the adult participation before we had meltdowns...preteen style!

The kids had fun. We barely fit two games into our two hours.

Happy 4th Birthday Ethan!

1 month

1 year

1 and half years

2 years old

2 and half years old

3 years old

today- 4 years old!

Our little guy is 4 years old! A few factos...we had been trying for several years to get pregnant and had lost several pregnancies when i got pregnant with Ethan. I got pregnant under some circumstances the dr didn't think i would get pregnant under. I had my appendix out when i was 33 weeks pregnant with him and he was almost delivered prematurely. I had to be induced at my due date with him. He was 8 lb. 12 oz born with a head of hair like our first two but it was blonde. He had to be hospitalized for a couple of days at Childrens Mercy because he was very jaundiced. He will always be our little "miracle", at least that is how we look at him.

Ethan, we love you so much and are so thankful God put you in our family. You were a true answer to many prayers and i think God has a special plan for your life!

Happy Birthday Ethan! We love you!

Why i do this

I got out of the shower Sat. and heard the kids talking and giggling. When i came out this is what they were doing. Scrolling down page after page and talking about each post and the pictures. It made me happy, gave me a good feeling. Since i am now 6 years behind on scrapbooking, i have decided that i will more than likely never get back to it. Instead, i PLAN to have my blog made into books since they have handy places that do that for you...and tada! Scrapbooks they will have!

Don't look at my messy workspace...it is in desperate need of an organizational makeover that i haven't come up with yet! I see you looking!

Fall festival

the furthest Raegan would go onto any of the inflatables...she wanted nothing to do with them

my cowboy riding a pony

Trey and his buddy Braden

Avery taking her turn on the pony rides

waiting for the pony ride

Yesterday was Elm Grove's annual fall festival. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Besides tears because another girl was "being mean" and a couple of melt downs from a cowboy in the pony line, and some fresh holes in socks, it was a fun-filled afternoon.

Have you ever?

Have you ever had days or weeks that you felt like you were in the movie groundhog day?

Have you ever felt like all you do is referee your kids squawbles?

Have you ever stared at your kids" sleeping beautiful faces?

Have you ever threatened to throw something out the car window that the kids are fussing over?

Have you ever dreamed of what you would do and where you would go if you suddenly became very wealthy?

Have you ever wanted to take every thing out of you house and start over with organizing from scratch?

Have you ever sat outside and night and looked at the stars and talked to God and felt extremely close to Him?

Have you ever needed to wash your kids sheets but decided another week won't kill them?

Have you ever wondered how you would have done had you taken that sports scholarship?

Have you ever fallen asleep at your computer?

Have you ever had to make hard decisions that you knew would hurt someone you love?

Have you ever blown right through a stop sign while putting Arby's sauce on your sandwich?

Have you ever had to convince your kids that the car behind you is not an unmarked police car that is after you for running that stop sign?

Have you ever bawled your eyes out over the loss of a pet because you know how much your kids loved her?

Have you ever swung high on the swings with your kids and felt like a kids again?

Have you ever eaten 3 mini candybars and gone back for a 4th?

Have you ever blared a family favorite song in the car and sang at the top of your lungs with the kids?

Have you ever wished you didn't let the little things get to you?

Have you ever thought that your laundry basket is a bottomless pit?

Have you ever read sad stories of sick kids and been so extremely grateful that your children are healthy?

Have you ever wished your kids would stop growing up so fast?

Have you ever felt extremely blessed and thankful?

....Have i ever!

Hey Grandma

I'm having a conversation with you whether you know it or not Grandma, talking in my new fast paced jibberish (and in fairness, she didn't specify which Grandma she was talking to :))
i have worn this shirt everyday since my cousin "bwookyn" gave it to me. my mommy seems to think i put it on wrong EVERY time but i know better. she leaves me alone now and let's me wear it like i want to.
let's just see how many of these i can lose out of this brand new package before mommy has a chance to get them put away....aww, she caught me....maybe next time.