Bring on the Tapping

Today was Livie's first day of dance class this year. She was very excited, because she gets to take tap! She's been wanting to take tap since she began 2 yrs ago. :-) You'll notice the footwear. She found those in IN this past weekend. They are her Yeti shoes. They are actually slippers, but she insists on wearing them everywhere. Who am I to argue? Here's to a great year at dance!!

Picture Day

Today is Picture Day for the kiddos. I am usually OCD enough that I plan a full week in advance what they will wear. I was so behind the ball that I put something together last night for Madie and Noah and something this morning for Livie.




I think it turned out ok. :-) They look super-cute and ready to have big smiles for their pictures. Madie hated her hair in last year's picture, because it was too poofy. So, this year she wanted it straight. Think she made a good choice. It turned out nicely.

After taking that picture, Livie said to me, "If the teacher lets me, I'm going to look like THIS in my picture" and she proceeded to make a monster face. She told me last night when I was getting outfits together that she wanted to dress up like a Yeti. Guess she figured since she wasn't allowed to dress up like one, then she could make a face like one. :-)

Not Simply a Gingerbread Man

When emptying the kids' folders after school yesterday, I came across this very mad gingerbread man that Livie made. When I asked her why this gingerbread man was so mad, she said, "Because it's a vampire. Oh, and a ninja too. It's a vampire-ninja." You see my daughter, with her long ringlets hanging down her back. She wears lip gloss and little dresses and she draws blood-sucking, black-wearing, Chinese star-carrying gingerbread men. Nice.

Down to the Trolingers

After we saw Ted, Suzy, and the kids, we headed up to see Nana and Papa T. We got there around suppertime and managed to have some daylight to play outside.



We made lots of chalk drawings!

Noah's really into hurricanes right now, so he drew Tropical Storm Lee and it stretched all the way to Nana's front door!

While we were outside making the chalk drawings, Uncle Andy and his family showed up. Allyssa got to play with that now infamous flubber until bedtime. They came at just the right time too, because it got really yucky outside, with lots of thunderstorms and rain.

When we got back from my parents on Sunday, Aunt Jill and her family were there waiting for us. Once again, out came the flubber! Do you see a pattern this weekend?? ;-) Allyssa was there too and she played with it again, as did Trevor, Ty, and our kids.

I thankfully went to "Once Upon a Child" with Em on Sunday and bought the kids some warmer clothes, because the forecast was calling for it to be in the 60s. Heck! It was in the low 50s! Glad I got them when I did! Pete or Adam or someone lower the basketball hoop, so we played out there with that for a while before heading to over to walk the Greenway. Madie kept shooting the basketball backwards and made quiet a few shots like that!

Like I said, I'm glad we went shopping on Sunday, because we got Noah this jacket and hat and Livie her pullover. They were getting ready to pump up another basketball, so they all could play.

After a few rounds of basketball, we headed over to the Greenway. We always like to walk on this, because it's really close to their house.

But, as you can see from the picture, it was really cool and windy. I wasn't complaining though! It's my kind of weather!!! :-) Let's hope fall is right around the corner!

The kids always look for something special while we're there. This time is was wooley worms.

We found these two right at the onset. They found a couple more at the end of our walk too. I've never seen a blonde one like that before. The black and brown one was black on both ends and brown in the middle. That should mean that we have a bad winter at the beginning and the end, but a mild middle. We'll see!

Daddy was trying to make Livie warm by the lake!

Once everyone else got to the house, the boys stayed outside and played basketball. I think they lowered the hoop for themselves, so they could dunk it and not really to help the kids. ;-) Pete and Adam played a couple rounds that afternoon.

And, gee, what could that be AGAIN?! Yep. Flubber. I think my list of flubber-wants is up to 10. :-)

With all the grandkids there (with the exception of the little boy still in Francy's tummy!), we had to take a picture with Nana. Getting 6 kids to look at you and smile is a feat in and of itself, but I think we managed to sneak out a couple good ones. :-) it was a really great weekend and we loved seeing everyone!

A Little Time with the Folks

On Sunday we headed up to my parents' house. We hadn't been to their church in a couple years, so we got up early and headed up there. It was nice to see everyone again. Dad brought mom home from the nursing home right after service, so once sunday school was out, a few of the people came over to say hi and give her a hug. Thought that was nice. :-)



Jeff and Dad set about getting some burgers grilled up for us. They were super-yummy!

Uncle Pete and Kendalyn had a nice little bonding moment. Kendalyn and the kids ended up having a ball together. They chased each other through the house and Kendalyn would just laugh and laugh. It was hysterical to watch. So, so cute! This was the first time Pete got to meet Avery. I held her as soon as we got to church and decided to only hold her for a couple minutes, so Pete could hold her - fully expecting to get her right back. Yeah. Pete wouldn't give her back. Held her nearly all of service!! When he finally did give her back to me, she managed to poop on me. He timed that JUST right, didn't he? ;-)

It was fun having everyone together for lunch. You'll see mom has a new pad on her chair, which goes up to the back of her head. Kind of a nice little added support for her. You'll also notice Jeff is holding a cake. That's because it was his birthday!

We didn't have any candles, but he mimed it for us. :-) He just turned 26. Ugh. Could I feel any older?!!

Madie is turning into quite the little babysitter. She really enjoyed holding Avery. Noah likes her too, but much prefers when they are able to run around with him like Kendalyn. That'll happen in no time, I'm sure.

Dad took mom back to the nursing home after a few hours, then headed out with Pete and Jeff to go golfing. He needs that time away to relax and unwind. Apparently they all sucked, but at least the weather was beautiful and they got to go out, right? I mean, look at those happy faces! I took this picture of them out the van window as me and Em headed out with all 5 of the kids to go shopping. We had just as eager smiles on our faces too. :-)

Before we left, I took a quick picture of Papa with some of the kids. They love their Papa!! We also took the kids to the nursing home, after we finished shopping. I had talked to the kids privately when Mom got to the house. She wasn't really responding to me and seemed much more disconnected than she was when I saw her last month. I tried to prepare the kids for the changes. It makes them sad, but they still said hi to her and gave her hugs and mom's face lit up when they did. I think it's easier for her mind to stay at rest, so she often seems down and vacant, but when the kids come around, she seems to really be filled with happiness, even if it's short-lived. When we went to visit her, I once again prepared the kids for what they might see or smell at the nursing home, but we all were surprised to see what a great facility it is and that it didn't smell or anything at all. It's been redone since mom worked there 12 yrs ago and looks really pretty inside. Her room (and I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures there!) is really cute. Em and Aunt Phyl decorated it and it looks really pretty. She had so many people send her cards, that they couldn't fit them all on her wall! She's definitely not happy about being there and, with what little communicating skills she has still, she still asks about being home all the time. I tried to explain to her that this is what we feel is best for her with her care, but she just turns away and shuts down. I pray that she will find a measure of acceptance and understand that dad isn't to blame for this change and that it's for her best interests and care that she is there. We'll see if that happens. I pray it does. Even with those difficult moments, it was still a lot of fun to get back and see them all. I know it's hard for my kids to see their grandma that way. They've only ever known her since her stroke, but this decline in her health in recent years has been hard for them. Hard for everyone, really. Just glad they can look past her health and see love there.

Indy Trip

Three years ago, we headed down to Indy to meet up with Pete's college roommates and our ever-growing families. We all met at our friends Ted and Suzy's house. When we got together, we had all of our 3, Corey had a little baby girl, just a few weeks old. Chris came with his little one who was not quite 1, I believe. And, Ted and Suzy just found out they were pregnant with quadruplets!! Corey has since had a son, Chris and Liz are expecting their third, and Ted and Suzy have 4 2yr olds running around now! We weren't all able to get together like we did 3 yrs ago, but we did finally get to meet those quads!



They are the cutest things too. They have 2 boys and 2 girls and they are precious beyond words. And, so quiet too! How my three manage to be several decibles louder than these four is beyond me, but trust me (and my sister can attest to this), they are.

Pete was taking pictures and managed to get all 7 of our kids in one shot! Thought that was pretty impressive!

Here is Pete and his roommate Ted. Ted was in the room right next to Pete during his first two years at the dorm. Ted, Chris, Corey, and Pete all had an apartment together Pete's senior year.

The kids all played bubbles for a while. Unfortunately, I think Noah taught many of them to eat the bubbles and get on the ground and eat them off the ground. Should be fun for Suzy to break them of THAT habit now. ;-)

I brought some flubber for the kids and, though I messed up the recipe, they loved it! It wasn't very stretchable. I'm going to make them a better batch. But, they seemed to like it regardless. In fact, flubber was the theme of this weekend. We took it to the Trolingers too and my nephews and niece couldn't get enough of it! I'm going to be making a lot of flubber this week!

Dahlia played with the girls a lot. She wasn't shy at all with us and was very, very sweet. Lucy was shy at first, but warmed up very quickly and flashed us those dimpled smiles on several occasions.

Isaac and Livie chased each other around this bus and Isaac was just laughing and laughing. It was so cute!!

So, here we are and we had a great time together! Especially when we found out it was Suzy's 35th birthday! I felt a little old, but once I celebrated my bro-in-law Jeff's bday on Sunday and celebrated his 26th birthday, I didn't seem to mind Suzy's 35th one quite as much. ;-)