The Redheaded Warriors

Kella's 8 months old!

2012-02-01T11:58:00.004-05:00

Kella was 8 months old on the 29th of January! What a big girl she is becoming! Here is a list of what's going on...

*she has 2 bottom teeth-with about 4 more that are so close

*she is eating 2 meals a day-lunch and dinner. sometimes we manage breakfast, too

*she loves her fruits and tries very hard to gag on her veggies

*sleep? overrated-she still is getting up several times a night-sometimes just to be tucked back in

*babbles-says "da-da-da"

*almost to crawling-can get on her hands and legs and then goes right back down, but that moves her forward-like a worm

*loves to see what is going on

*gets so excited when Andy or I come home from work

*loves when her brothers talk to her

*just starting to get into books and loves to be sung to

her biggest fan-Ewan!

she has always loved bath time

loves visiting with her Grammies

Jr. Husky Night

2012-02-01T11:58:00.002-05:00

The boys had their appreciation night at the high school last Friday. They were pretty excited to go. It was fun-they got to sit with their teammates, watch a basketball game, have a snack and walk out onto the court between games to get recognized for participating in the basketball program. It was a good basketball weekend-both Marcus and Cale's teams went on to win their games and the boys both played well, too.

Here's Cale's team-the Indiana Hoosiers (1st grade boys/girls)

part of Marcus's team-Wake Forest (3rd grade boys). They never turned around to face our side of the gym for a photo.

and, here's a picture of the players-it's a great program-well-run and organized-and the kids have a great time!

marbles

2012-01-26T15:45:00.002-05:00

The Tiger Cubs had grand plans last night to work on earning a badge for learning about and playing marbles. I had made the purchases and included enough so that Marcus and Ewan would each have their own set also. I got everyone loaded into the car in a somewhat timely manner and started out into the snow (that, per the Weather Channel, should have been rain). It took us a good 15 minutes to get from our town to the highway, and even there, cars were going 35 mph. I called the troop leader to see what lay ahead for driving and he said the roads were horrible and he was cancelling the meeting. No arguement from me. I made a turn on the next road I could and slowly made our way back home. Good thing the boys had all brought their own electronic entertainment, and Kella took a nap. The boys still wanted to play marbles, so after Liam went to bed, we taped out a space on the floor. They had fun, but sometimes got frustrated because they had not quite mastered how to shoot the marbles. They had practiced with their bakugan balls (remember those?). Ewan tired first and got frustrated that Marcus and Cale picked up the game faster than he did. No worries, we played for "friendlies" and not "keepsies" and everyone got their marbles back. Kella made and enthusiastic audience and appreciated all the movement from the boys.

not the regulation circle, but the square works for training purposes

must have been an exciting play for Kella to clap :-)

the joy of boys

2012-01-26T15:38:00.000-05:00

The latest happenings at our house involve Cale and a bakugan ball. For those who may not know, bakugan are plastic balls that pop open into different critters-kind of like transformers. The boys decided to bowl with these toys, trying to roll them between the other's legs. Marcus rolled one of the balls between Cale's legs and the next thing we hear is Cale crying. He accused Marcus of hitting him in the face with the bakugan. I'm pretty sure we (or I) said something like "Marcus, apoligize to your brother." and "Cale, when you play like this, sometimes accidents happen.". I looked over and Cale had his hand on his face. He took his hand off and there was blood running down from a cut next to his eye. Marcus, immeadiately started sobbing, "I'm so sorry." and Cale started crying from the sight of the blood. Andy got Cale cleaned up and we agreed that he would probably need stitched, so off to the ER they went. I stayed with the others and Marcus calmed down once I convinced him that Cale would be fine. (then he wanted to play the Wii-crisis over). Marcus made me smile with his use of words, "I'm so ashamed that I hurt Cale." I told him, "it's not ashamed, you feel guilt." "Oh, yeah, that's right." Turns out, Cale didn't need stitches after all-just some dermabond. He's got a smidge of bruising at the site, but that's it. Quite a nice ending to our Sunday.

While Andy and Cale were gone, I went upstairs to lower the blinds in the boys' room. Imagine my surprise to find the interior pane of this window broken. If you look hard in this picture, you might be able to see the outline of the breakage. Ewan said the window was broken when he raised the blinds. Andy theorizes that a toy was thrown at the window when the blinds were down. No one would have noticed that the glass was broken since we don't raise the blinds all the way very often. *sigh* Guess it's time to make friends with a glass repair-man. I'm sure this is the first of several broken windows we are sure to have with the boys.

snowy day

2012-01-21T14:30:00.000-05:00

we went to the Indiana State Museum

2012-01-20T16:16:00.000-05:00

On Monday, all the kids were out of school. For "fun" we decided to go to the Indiana State Musuem. It was free to get in with a can of food for MLK Jr. Day and even Andy and I had never been before. The boys were excited to be going somewhere, and we let them bring their DSs in the car. It was pretty busy-who wouldn't want free admission? I think the kids like it, though. They may have just liked getting out of the house. And, they got McDonalds for lunch-lucky kids!

The museum had a fair amount of stuff for kids to touch. This is a table of paw prints. You got to guess what animal made each one.

Inside a wigwam. Everyone thought that was pretty cool.

The pendulum clock.

In what we thought was a recreation of a 2 story brick school house was a community room set up with old-fashioned kid games. Marcus rocked out the top. Andy impressed everyone with his top skills, too. The volunteer kept telling kids to go ask Andy how to spin the top.

Liam did okay. He ended up in the stroller after a while because he would take off like a 2 year old does. He wasn't happy at first, but in this room, he would climb out of the stroller, get the toy, and climb back into his seat.

The boys. We got them all a snack before we left. The sugar kept them mostly content until we got home.

The girls. Kella loved the attention of people coming up to her and telling her how pretty she was, how pretty her hair was, etc. She would smile and clap and look all cute.

Trip accomplished. The boys were slightly worn out from the walking. And, it was nice to go somewhere all together. I think I would like to go back with more of a plan to see the exhibits. Maybe next year.

from the little camera

2012-01-19T16:46:00.001-05:00

The little camera we have is still hanging around. I let the boys take pictures with it, and I use it when I do not want to pull out the new, bigger camera. Both these pictures were on the little camera. I don't know who took the first one, but I love this picture of Marcus and Cale. I like to call them my "twins" because they are 16 months apart. I don't think Marcus has any memory of being an only child for a short time.

Then, there's Liam. Styling it in his new sunglasses and current favorite jams. You can also see he is sporting some wristbands. Very cool. I'm glad I caught this picture, because I did not get one the day he wore the sunglasses and superman cape to church. He made quite the impression on everyone.

basketball saturday

2012-01-16T09:43:00.001-05:00

We are in the middle of basketball season here in Indiana. Marcus and Cale are busy with practices and games. This week, everyone was able to see both the boys play. I brought my new camera in the hopes to get some awesome photos and figure out what all the buttons mean. I have been offered the advice of reading the instruction manual, but I prefer on-the-job training.

In game 1, the Indiana Hoosiers duked it out with Michagan State. Mich. St. is the probably the "best" team in the K-1 league. They have several kids that show some skill with shooting and ball handling. Cale is one of the better players on his team right now, so he plays much of the game and gets his hands on the ball more than most. I think in the game he scored at least 10 points (out of 25 pts total) and was at the line shooting free throws twice (of which I think 3 of the 4 went in)

Cale was tickled to be guarding one of his little best friends-Alex.

The cheering section was ready to go.

Cale and Ewan both asked for spiked hair this morning.

The Hoosiers pulled out a win: 25-24. Cale got the basket with about 1 minute left that put his team up for the win. There was plenty of cheering/yelling from the parents, especially at the end as the score closed up. I hope that I didn't shout too much. I usually try to cheer for any player that's doing well (it is K-1 ball, after all). Many times what I yell at Cale is "pass the ball!" since he likes to take the shot instead of share the ball. He is getting better at that, but still sometimes will wait for one of the "better" players to open up instead of passing to an open teammate. I did look over and see Cale's friend upset that his team lost. I felt bad for him, it is hard to lose. I think that was their first loss of the season. All the teams play each other twice, so a rematch is coming. It was an exciting game to watch and it's fun to see Cale's skills improve.

On to game #2: Wake Forest (gold) vs. Miami (orange). A few weeks ago, these teams met with a Wake win. Marcus played a good amount of the game. He does a good job on defense. He held onto the rebound he got and he tried to go for a shot once. Andy also pointed out that the person he guards does not get open to shoot, which is good from a defensive standpoint. This is the 3rd grade league and these boys play rougher, now that they are older. I think Marcus is a little intimidated by the roughness and I have to remember that he is sometimes a whole year younger than some of his teammates. Wake played a good game, but came up short 15-14. The important thing is that Marcus likes playing, which he said he did when I asked him later.

Tiger Cub outing

2012-01-12T15:45:00.001-05:00

the scouts and Ryan G.

..and then Liam and Ewan wanted in a photo

You may know that I am the den leader for the Tiger Cub group at our church. Part of their program to earn their tiger badge is going on little field trips. Last night, we went on a tour of a local radio station in Kokomo. It was a great experience, since I had never been to a radio station before. The evening on-air person gave us the tour and his was very patient with our group which consisted of 2 adults, 3 scouts and 3 extra children (Ewan, Liam and Kella). The boys all especially liked being able to talk like a chipmunk into one of the microphones and liked seeing all the lights and buttons in the studio. I was glad to give the kids the experience! (and glad when it was done and I could corral my kiddos back into the car)

January home improvement projects-done

2012-01-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

Every year, I like to make a "to-do" list for the house. Sometimes, we get to the projects, sometimes we don't. For January this year, I wanted Andy to insulate the garage door. This is something that we have talked about doing for 3 winters, now. Liam's room is above the garage, and we really felt that his room would be warmer if we did this project. Last spring, Andy put up insulation in the garage on the exterior walls, and we felt like that helped, too. The project took Andy hardly any time at all. Now, our garage door looks a little bit like a quilt. And, the garage is significantly warmer (good for the dog) and Liam's room is warmer, too (good for Liam).

Then, last week, Menards had an ad featuring a thermostat with a remote sensor. So, you could control the temperature of a certain room of the house is you wanted too. We thought this would be a great thing for us, because then we could more closely manage the temperature of the 2nd floor. Purchase made, and Andy installed that last night. We had some minor technical difficulties that resulted in it having to be taken off and reinstalled. And, then a furnace issue which, luckily, turned out to be a blown fuse on the furnace (a late night trip to Meijer fixed that). Everything is working, now, and we can say that we are done with projects for January. Time to rest up for next month.

sleeping arrangements

2012-01-06T21:55:00.000-05:00

The big news for Liam is that he has been sleeping in his "big boy" bed since last Friday. And, he loves it! He climbs into bed, we tuck him in, and he stays in his bed until we get him out-after naptimes and bedtimes. It's funny, because he hasn't realized he could get out of bed on his own and roam around his room when he's supposed to be asleep. Good for us, I guess! But, he's nice and cozy in his new bed. And, since Andy insulated the garage door, Liam's room is warmer, too. (his bedroom is above the garage). I went ahead and put Kella's pretty sheet on the crib and managed to attach the bumper-one of the breathable ones. She's not quite ready to sleep in the crib yet-she still wakes up a couple times a night and I don't know if she would wake up Liam. But, everything's ready when she is. Also, I will probably be painting the blue walls before she moves in to a green color-make it a little more of a neutral color for her. We'll still keep the hot air balloon decor.

Here she is! Looking big in her crib!

Here's Liam's new bed. You can tell that all his dogs moved over with him. It can get a little crowed over there, but he likes it.

Kella @ 7 months

2012-01-04T15:33:00.000-05:00

Kella turned 7 months old on the 29th of December. She is really changing and getting bigger. *sigh* As you can see, she's at that stage where most everything needs to go into her mouth. She's got her two bottom teeth in and with all the chewing, I'm sure that the top ones are not far behind. She loves activity and loves when her brothers talk to her. Her nap schedule is slowly becoming clear. She take a morning and afternoon nap with a quick catnap in the evening. Right before she's ready for a nap, she usually starts to "get lippy" and yells about everything. She's eating stage 2 foods and like all her fruits and hardly any of her veggies. She's so sweet and everyone is always telling us what a good baby she is! We love her!

took the kids to a birthday party at a cool indoor play area

2012-01-04T15:26:00.001-05:00

I took the boys to a birthday party yesterday for one of our neighbor friends. It was at a place called Recreation Unlimited. They are known for their playsets and other outdoor fun yard stuff for kids. They also let you have parties there and just come in to play on all the wooden playset they have built indoors (probably about 12 playsets, 4 trampolines and a small basketball court). I picked up Marcus and Cale a little early from school (and Cale got his wish to be a "car-rider" for once). I had to wake Liam up early from his nap, too, and that was a little rough, but we managed. The party was nice, and the boys ran around and did some hard playing. The trampolines were a big hit. In fact, Cale said that's what he wants for his next birthday. They were pretty cool. It was a fun time and something to remember as a place to play when it's too ick outside and we're feeling some cabin fever.

A couple of the trampolines had basketball nets with them.

Ewan had a blast climbing all over the playsets.

Man, if I had a million dollars, I know my yard would be sporting some of their products. :-)

New Year's Eve at a hockey game

2012-01-04T10:55:00.001-05:00

We were able to take everyone to an Indianapolis Ice hockey game this year thanks to Andy getting some free tickets. The boys were excited to go, but were extra happy when we said we would get them some popcorn at the game. That's all they want-the knowledge that they will get a snack. This was Kella's first hockey game and we took Grammy Linda and Grandpa Jerry along, too.

Even Liam did well, after Andy got the popcorn. Kella did fine, too. I think she liked all the action. The game ended at about 830, so we were home well before midnight. I think it was just Andy and I up when the clock struck 12, and that's just because we were watching a DVD (Sherlock-highly recommended). So, it was a nice way to spend the last day of 2011 and a nice last fun activity for the boys before going back to school on Monday.

Christmas again

2012-01-04T10:39:00.001-05:00

Grammy Linda and Grandpa Jerry came out to visit over New Years and brought more presents for the boys. Our children are definitely lucky to be spoiled by our families!

Ewan got a slingshot monkey that screams when you shoot it.

Cale with some books and games.

Marcus with a new Scrabble game.

Ewan practicing on one of the wooden flutes they got.

You think it's going to be aqua globes-turns out it was socks!-one of Andy's favorite things to get. (who doesn't like new socks?)

some Polish stoneware for me :-)

A toy for Kella that the brothers thought was cool, too. They had to show her how to work it.

And, a little trampoline! Needless to say, the boys were very excited to open this. Much time has been spent jumping since then.

the day it snowed

2012-01-03T14:32:00.002-05:00

It snowed just 1 day over Christmas break. The boys were so excited that they were out the door as soon as breakfast was over. They actually played outside twice, coming in for a warm-up. The snow didn't last, the next day it warmed to the 40's and the snow melted away.

Kella stayed in and looked pretty.

The boys started with some snowball throwing. The snow was perfect packing snow.

Ewan had his snack outside.

They worked on rolling some huge snowballs until the snowballs were too heavy to move.

Orange complained that he couldn't go out. But, once he had the chance, he realized it was too cold for his indoor cat blood.

Another big snowball. Those stuck around for a couple of days after all the other snow melted.

Liam wanted his snowpants and boots on, too. I thought he would go outside to play, turns out he just wanted to wear them. He wore this all morning and called himself "Mario" (like in nintendo :-) ).

the joy of Christmas Day

2011-12-25T23:47:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T23:42:00.002-05:00

Christmas Eve, Andy and I gave the boys a present-a new Wii game. This game comes with little people that you put on a "portal" and then they show up in the game. They were pretty happy and it gave me the chance to practice with our new camera.

Cale was so sweet. That night he told me that in his prayer he prayed that Santa would bring him more of the little people. How happy was he in the morning to find that Santa left each of them one under the little tree in their bedroom?

Even Ewan played a little bit.

Of course, I had to get a picture of Kella in her new jammies for Christmas.

Apparently, Andy was practicing with the camera, too. Carina enjoyed Christmas Eve by laying in her favorite chair.

the tree with all the presents. Some lucky kiddos woke up the next morning to open presents.

and then the Shaffers got together

2011-12-25T23:08:00.000-05:00

When we took our quick trip to Illinois, Chris and Kim were nice enough to let us crash at their house. We always look forward to getting to see them and the boys absolutely love getting to see their cousins. Friday morning, we exchanged our presents.

I think all the kids have DSs now, except for Liam and Kella.

The boys got new games :-)

Ewan got a huge hand. He wore it for part of the car ride home that day, too. He had fun running around pretending to be part robot.

had to get in a little bit of Just Dance. Cale loved having someone to "compete" against and Liam just liked dancing. Liam likes all the songs, but likes to start out with Tik Tok by Ke$ha.

I just like snapping photos like these :-)

the moms are always left out of pictures-we needed one of us!

It was great to see them, too. We could have easily stayed longer, but they were headed to Kim's family and we wanted to get back home that night. Wish we lived closer to them, too. The boys are already asking when we will see them again.

the Spielmans got together...

2011-12-25T22:57:00.001-05:00

On Thursday, we loaded up the car for an overnight trip to Illinois. We were able to get together at Jim and Courtney's house for dinner and to exchange gifts. It was awesome and crazy seeing everyone. The cousins enjoyed running around and being loud together. All the cousins got lots of new books to read. Grammy got a new photo of her with her grandkids. Mostly, it was just great being able to see everyone and spend time all together-as short as that time was.

Grammy with the grandkids (back row: Cale, Abbie, Jacob, Marcus and Kella,; front row: Maddie, Ewan, Liam and Xander)

a picture right before the presents were opened and the craziness started

Liam unwrapped his present to find a box. He was very excited and thought it was great to jump on. "I jump so high!", he kept saying. He never did open the box. Luckily, it had a shirt and gloves in there-nothing breakable.

Kella got held by lots of people...Aunt Courtney

...Aunt Bitsy...

...and Lanny...

...the men got together...(Andy, Eric and Jim)

...Ewan and Xander played together...Best conversation of their playtime was overheard by my sister. Ewan and Xander were sword fighting and Ewan looked at Xander and said "Do you speak spanish?". Xander said "Yeah!" (he does not) Then they both took off to fight in another room.

I love seeing my family and everytime we get together, I wish that we lived closer so we could see each other more often. But, it was a great Christmas gift to be able to see them again.

everyone's favorite chair!

2011-12-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

happy birthday to me!

2011-12-20T09:53:00.001-05:00

Me and the boys and dessert. Kella was sleeping. Liam is still holding on to his balloon from haircuts that morning.

Saturday was my birthday! What a great day to be born! I got to spend it with my favorite people-Andy and my kids. I got to spend a little time by myself that morning while Andy took the kids to gymnastics and haircuts. Did a little birthday shopping online and bought myself a nice, new camera (purple!). Took the kids to the grocery store (can't get out of doing some stuff, even on my bday). Went out to eat at the local, Mexican restaurant (I'm pretty sure we'll be welcomed back). Came home, had sopapillas for my bday dessert and watched a new movie for us-Kung Fu Panda 2. So nice. My 34th year was busy, stressful sometimes and fun. Curious to see what the next year holds!

Kella's 6 month photos

2011-12-17T15:48:00.002-05:00

http://www.myonlineportraits.com/ViewSharedAlbum.aspx?ShareID=5e0b2473-1d60-4feb-9daf-2074170cf110

Here is a link to Kella's 6 month photos. She was a great baby, but made the photographer work hard to get that first smile. Enjoy!

the final push towards Christmas break

2011-12-16T16:37:00.002-05:00

Today is the end of a busy week and a busy first part of December. I'm ready to be able to just sit around the house and not have to go to a sport practice, game, or boy scouts. Here's a run down on the first part of December....

*basketball-after Cale's practice tonight (the Friday to start break), we will be off until Jan. 3rd. They continue to improve and I'm pretty sure that Cale is carrying his team in scoring. I haven't been to one of his games yet due to work, but I will be able to make most of the rest. I see improvement with Marcus, too, from last year. Another parent even said they thought he was getting better-which is really funny to me, because I can't tell if any of the other kids have improved, although there is the general improvement that being another year older brings. Marcus had a double header last night. Two games in a row on a school night-nice. He was exhausted this morning, but managed to pull himself together for one more day of school.

*boy scouts-their Christmas party was on Wednesday. Calling it organized chaos is charitable, to say the least. This leader hung back and set up for one game. I only have 2 kids in my group, so I only claimed a very small portion of the chaos. They played a relay race game involving putting on oversized clothes (thank you to Andy for the loaners), they played some jumping game, did a craft and got awards. The kids had fun and I'm pretty sure they just had cupcakes for dinner that night.

*preschool-their program was on Thursday night. So, after watching Marcus's first BB game, I took Cale (along for the promise of dessert after the program), Ewan, Liam and Kella to church. Liam DID NOT want to go to class and threw a tantrum of epic proportions. I finally had to go get him to sit with me during the program. He calmed down in time to go up on stage to sing with his class, which is nice because singing time is his favorite time at preschool. There are a couple pictures of the kids on stage. My camera is not awesome in low light, so you kind of have to look hard for the kids.

There's Ewan in the green. He has on antlers, a red nose and a fluffy tail. The look on his face when he walked into the auditorium was like, "I am slightly embarrassed to be dressed like this."

Ewan, again

Liam is the second one over in this picture. It's hard to tell, but he did not want to wear his nice shirt, so he is sporting a blue tshirt with a yellow dragon on it that says "St. George Dragons". He is also wearing an elf hat. He did all the songs with the motions great.

Then, they got to meet Santa. Cale asked who it was, really. I said it was a Santa that reports back to the big guy. Cale wasn't sold on that answer, so I told him to ask Santa. He never did. Marcus is starting to ask some questions, too. But, so far, everyone is still a believer.

Liam had no problem climbing into Santa's lap

then Kella got a turn

and Cale

and here is Kella's new game-taking toys out of the bucket. She loves it and we love that she is entertained.

I just need to get our Christmas cards out and finish some baking. Then, Santa will be finishing up shopping for the little ones. Busy, but fun times!

think I found a Christmas photo

2011-12-09T08:50:00.001-05:00

It only took 6 shots, but I was able to get a photo of all five of the kids together for a Christmas card. I had big plans this year for a homemade card that involved thumbprints as Christmas lights, but I'm taking the easy way out and ordering photo cards again. These two photos are the best of the pictures, and I think I'm going with the top one. Cale was happy that he got to hold Kella and Ewan was satisfied that he also got a turn. Marcus was so sweet by getting Liam to sit in his lap. And, no one cried or complained while I kept taking pictures. The hardest part was to get everyone to look at the camara, and smile.

I think this is the one for the card

this one is cute, too. Cale said, "look, I'm holding Kella's hand."

Of course, Ewan needed a photo of just him and his bestie :-)

Raingutter Regatta

2011-12-07T15:34:00.001-05:00

The Boyscout activity this weekend was something call the Raingutter Regatta. The boys each got a sailboat kit and had to build and decorate the boat to sail in a, you guessed it, rain gutter, propelled by their breaths. So, we've been busy, and waited until the night before to make the boats. The boys did a little bit of painting and then decorating with some decals. The racing was not as easy as the building. The boats are propelled by blowing into the sail at just the right point. My boys, however, had a hard time mastering it. But, they got tons of turns to try, since it seemed as if each boy raced every single other boy there-and those were just the prelims. The top 2 from each den made it to the finals. Cale made it since there were only 2 Tiger Cubs there. Thank goodness he did, because he was having some serious non-sportsman-like conduct issues. Neither he nor Marcus won any of their races, but Cale, as always, took it harder than Marcus (or at least externallized his emotions more). Overall, I think they had fun and enjoyed being around their friends. In the spring, we get another chance to race-with cars.

basketball season begins

2011-12-07T15:23:00.001-05:00

Marcus and Cale's basketball season began last Thursday night. Marcus's team, Wake Forest, was victorious over the other team, also named after an ACC team. The score was pretty low-I think both teams had less than 20 points each, and there was a lot of kind of just tossing the ball toward the basket to see if it went in. I'm so glad they have a running clock. And, there was some rough fouling going on-not because the kids were mean, but because they were just running into, and over each other. Marcus actually dribbled and shot the ball more this time. His last coach played him as more of a post player and this coach didn't. I'm not actually sure if the coach is playing any player as a certain position this year, it was hard to tell.

Cale played on Saturday at 8am. I did not go to that game, but slept in since I had to work that night and knew that I wouldn't get a nap that afternoon. Cale tried to shoot the ball a lot, and I think scored half of the teams total points. They lost the game, though. I guess the Indiana Hoosiers (Cale's team) just couldn't pull out a win against whatever the name of the other team was (another Big Ten team). We have a few more games in December and then, games every week in January and February-busy times!

(Hope you enjoyed the video of Marcus in action. For some reason, I can shoot a video with my phone and the lighting is fine, but if I try to take a picture, I can not get it bright enough, even with flash, go figure.)

Happy December 1st!

2011-12-01T14:57:00.001-05:00

Kella's 6 months old!

2011-12-01T14:39:00.001-05:00

Kella turned 6 months old on Tuesday, November 29th. She's getting so big! Enjoy these photos!

Her new stats are: weight-18 pounds 1.5 ounces and height-27 1/4 inches. She's in the 90th percentile for girls her age and hovers near to where her brothers were at about the same age. As you can see, her new talent is sitting up! She's pretty good at it and can last a while before rolling onto her side. She's also working on transferring toys from hand to hand and "retrieving" toys that she's dropped-both good things accoring to our favorite doctor. She's sleeps pretty well at night-most of the time. And her nap schedule is becoming clearer every day. In fact, the last two days, she has taken awesome naps! That makes for a happier baby and momma! She's also pretty into her environment. The doctor was impressed with how she paid attention and said that was probably due to the fact that she has 4 brothers to watch at home. She loves to be talked to! You can make her smile by having a conversation with her. She loves to tool around in her walker and play with toys. Lots of the toys try to make their way to her mouth. No teeth yet, but the way she chews sometimes, it should be soon.

I had been putting it off, but last Saturday, we finally fed Kella some rice cereal. Of course, she took it great. Probably because she was almost 6 mos old. I mixed the cereal and Andy got to feed her. She ate almost all of it. Poor, starving girlie!

Of course, her "bestie", Ewan, had to have a turn feeding her, too. He was pretty proud that he got to do it.

I know that Andy was thinking it was silly to take these pictures. Too bad for him.

In honor of her 6 month birthday, Mother Nature gave us our first measurable snowfall for the season. It had snowed once before this, but that was just a dusting. This was a heavy, goopy, snowy mess. We probably got a couple inches that afternoon and evening. It all melted away the next day. I tried to get a shot of some of it. Maybe you can see it in the bottom left of the photo. Otherwise, enjoy the view of some of our Christmas lights. :-) It should be a fun Christmas for Kella. She's old enough to have some fun with opening presents and playing with wrapping paper. Can't wait!

having some more thanksgiving

2011-11-28T16:29:00.001-05:00

Last Friday, Grammy Pammy came to visit. We had another Thanksgiving dinner for her and invited some friends over, too. (We needed the extra help eating the turkey) The menu was varied a little bit: mashed sweet potatoes and green bean casserole for our sides at this meal. No pictures of this meal-I didn't want to creap out the friends. Grammy also brought us all cool presents from her recent trip to Ireland. The boys all got sweatbands of a local soccer (football) team from Kilkenny.

Kella got a little wool sheep. I got and awesome wool sweater. But, Andy got the best present: all the shampoos, teas and coffees from the hotels Mom stayed at. What a gift!

Of course, we had to torture Grammy by having her play a board game with the boys. I'm sure she's having flashbacks to how "fun" it was to play with me and my sibs when we were little. :-)

The kids loved getting the chance to see their Grammy Pammy, too, this weekend. I did too!

with Kella

having some Thanskgiving

2011-11-28T15:47:00.001-05:00

My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the chance to plan a big meal. I don't like turkey, or ham or pumpkin pie. I pretty much gorge myself on sides. This year we had 2 meals. The first meal was on Thanksgiving. Grammy Linda, Grandpa Jerry, Chris, Kim and the girls all came over. What can I say? We are a cool family to visit. Andy deep fried the turkey, Linda brought some noodles (and the turkey), Kim brought the pies and we had mashed potatoes, stuffing, glazed carrots, broccoli, rolls, a spinach cranberry salad and a cranberry jello dessert. There was plenty of food and plenty of leftovers to make another meal. But the best part was that we all got to visit and the cousins got to play together. It stunk that I had to leave the fun for work that evening, but everyone hung around until Friday so I got to see them then, too.

the cousins' table-our picnic table from outside

the grown-up table-I busted out our nice china and some of our crystal for the meal

turkey induced sleepy

Grammy and Kella

It's getting harder to fit the cousins on the couch. The girls all wanted to hold Kella.

with Aunt Kim

I love to get photos of the "C" cousins-Cassie and Cale-together. They are only 6 months apart.

Liam has a new fun game-blast off!. This chair is a rocket ship into space.

It was crazy and loud, but so much fun! I'm thankful that we were able to get together.

Happy Birthday #7 Cale!

2011-11-22T22:40:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday to our sweet Cale! I can't believe he is turning seven years old today. He has grown into a wonderful little boy. He is smart-one of the smartest in his class. He is kind to his little-est siblings. He does butt heads with Ewan, but they can play so great together. I love how he starts almost every sentence in a convesation with the words, "guess what". He is very outgoing and likes to be in charge, be a leader. He is doing great with karate and gymnastics. He is an agressive little basketball player-competitive-likes to win. Some of his favorite things right now: cartoons, pokemon, building with dominos, reading chapter books, playing board games-especially monopoly, candy, shrimp.

This morning, you would have thought it was Christmas at our house. The boys were up way too early to go downstairs to see Cale's presents. He had wanted a DS like Marcus got for his birthday, so they were downstairs analyzing the size of the wrapped presents. The lucky boy got exactly what he wanted: a DS and a game. He was a good sport about having to wait to play until after school. Cale even got to go to the doctor today for his yearly checkup: 48 inches, 59 pounds=75th/80th percentile. After dinner, we had cake, opened birthday cards, did some measuring on the door and took some pictures. He had a great day. We even overheard him singing "happy birthday" to himself in the shower-so sweet!

celebrating Cale!

2011-11-22T22:29:00.001-05:00

From 2005

From 2006

From Cale prechool fall 2007

From OctNov2008

From Nov2009

Excuse me while I get on my soapbox....

2011-11-16T09:16:00.001-05:00

The boys brought home another fundraiser for their school the other day. I'm pretty sure that makes the 4th fundraiser for school year and we are only in November! This time, the PTO wants them to try to sell coupon books. I know the money raised goes to support school activites that maybe aren't budgeted for, but really, how many times can you make the kids and their parents peddle these wares before the families and community members are tired of purchasing items? My day was Monday. I told the boys that we are not selling anything else for the school and I would rather take them to see a movie or some other treat than to have to try to sell these books. Cale was more disappointed than Marcus. Cale likes to be a part of everything and I don't think he liked the thought of not being included in the cheap little prizes the PTO is giving away as incentives. I do feel a little bad for that. But, it makes me angry, too. These fundraisers "reward" participation with cheap trinkets and a little party at the end of the campaign. What if your family and friends can't afford to support the fundraiser? Children get excluded based on their friends and family's financial needs. Ridiculous! That makes me even more angry! I hate the thought of kids getting excluded from something fun because they can't afford it. So, I did what any fed up parent would do... I gave myself a day to calm down, and then I sent an email to the PTO person in charge of this campaign. I tried to not sound angry through the email. I just said that I was disappointed that there was another fundraiser and we cannot keep supporting these activities. I also questioned the exclusionary reward system they use and the money spent on the rewards. I got a civil reply back, inviting my to the PTO meetings (which I have a feeling they don't expect me to attend) along with information saying that for this fundraiser, the company is supplying the rewards. Which to me, does not make sense anyway. That's just extra money that the fundraiser will take off the top to pay for the rewards before the school sees anything. But, whatever, maybe I will go to a PTO meeting to see what goes on. We'll see.

I'm stepping down off my soapbox now.

because I can't help but post a few photos...

2011-11-08T15:28:00.000-05:00

Here's little sister stylin' in the first pair of jeans I've put on her..

...and here she is in her new high chair.

Thanks for the high chair seat Grammy Pammy! Now we just need to buy some baby food....

singing sensations

2011-11-08T15:24:00.000-05:00

Liam loves to sing. He's got a fantastic memory for words and evens remembers songs from the radio-including call letters-he loves his alphabet! Just wanted to share his sweet voice. I'm glad I have the chance to capture it for everyone.

Can't be outdone by little brother. Ewan is serenading you with an excerpt from Black Eyed Peas. Enjoy.

5 month old Kella

2011-11-02T16:02:00.001-04:00

Kella was 5 months old last Saturday (10/29). Just wanted to share a picture of her. She's chewing on her hands a fair amount, as well as some of her toys. I like to give her this one little stuffed unicorn because it fits nicely into her hand and mouth. She is transitioning into 6-9 month clothes and I have so much fun dressing her and looking for clothes for her (after 4 boys, are you surprised?). And, for her 5 month day, she celebrated by rolling over from back to tummy. We have also moved her from her little crib to the pack and play. She's still sleeping in our closet (don't worry, it's a big closet) and will for a while still. Eventually, the plan is to move her into the room Liam is in right now. I haven't started any cereal yet. Honestly, it's because I haven't had time and I still need to go out and buy some rice cereal. A regular sleep pattern is slowly emerging. She can sleep for 12 hours a night, waking once to eat. Most of the time, she does this the nights I'm at work. So, Andy gets a pretty good night's sleep. She's not an awesome napper yet, but we keep trying because I know one day she will figure out that it's okay to sleep a couple hours during the day in her bed. She likes to be up in her walker and it's cute to watch Ewan wheel Kella around in it and then place her in front of him so she can "watch" him play. Such a good baby and a healthy one at that! We are blessed!

pumpkins and halloween

2011-11-01T09:50:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween to everyone! We don't do a whole lot for Halloween here. We decorated with a couple things that I had, made some paper bats and ghosts for decorations and carved some pumpkins. In photos...

the before photo of the pumpkins. you can see Ewan's first attempt at a pumpkin face on the front pumpkin

this year, everyone helped scoop the pulp out of the pumpkins. no one freaked out at the goopy-ness. Liam even helped by putting the pulp back into the pumpkin

the next show was watching Daddy carve the pumpkins with a jigsaw

here's everyones' costumes. I call this year's theme "the year I didn't try". We tried to have everyone think of costumes using some of the thins from home. We did okay with this. We still ended up buying shirts for Marcus and Cale, pants for Cale and Ewan and weapons. Maybe it would have been cheaper just to buy costumes, but at least this way, they can wear the clothes again. If you're not sure, let me help you with the costumes: Kella was clearly a pumpkin (thanks to the outfit Aunt Bitsy gave us). Liam was a masked soccer player (in a desparate attempt to get him to wear something, I grabbed a bunch of old sports jersies, and he liked the mask). Ewan was some kind of ninja, the only accessories he needed were some swords and gloves (in his mind, he had a great costume-Ewan has a great imagination). Cale was a black ninja and Marcus was a white one (he had weapons too, but about 1 minute before we were going to walk out the door, he said he didn't want to trick or treat and took off the swords. I thought he was going to cry about not wanting to go, but I kind of ignored it, and he ended up having fun.).

our little pumpkin

a close-up of some of the brothers

We went to a trunk or treat at the church at the front of our subdivision. The elk farm brought an elk. I'm not too sure why, but I thought that was neat. The boys kept calling it a moose. Clearly we are "townies".

The protesters were even there. :-)

Kella did okay. She fell asleep as we got back to our house

We did about an hour of trick or treating as we worked our way back to our house. Once we got there, I put Marcus in charge of handing out candy. We gave it all away.

And, here are the finished pumpkins. I think Marcus's is on the left, then Cale's, Ewan's and Liam's.

Butler Homecoming 2011

2011-10-29T21:18:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday was our annual trip to Butler for their homecoming game. We've been going since Cale was not quite a year old. I look forward to taking the kids because Butler is a relaxed place to go for a college football game. And, homecoming has some family-friendly things, too. We never make it in time for the pre-game fun things (one year we will), but the boys just like the chance to roam around part of Butler's campus. The difference this year was that Andy had the chance to be the atheletic trainer for the game that day. How cool is that? He got to go back and be the trainer for the school he graduated from for the team he played for! I figured I could handle the kids by myself. I was probably a little delierious from working the night before and not having any sleep. It sounded like a good idea to me. First things first, that Saturday, the 3 older kids had gymnastics-wear them out early. We came back home after that and I packed some stuff, including lunches, to take to the game. I had a few moments when I almost backed out of going to the game, but I knew that Marcus and Cale were looking forward to this. So, into the car went the kids and me and away we went.

First thing on our list was to see the Butler Bulldog. The boys look forward to this and started looking for the bulldog as soon as we entered the stadium. Cale needed his picture taken

Liam was in a pleasant enough mood to say "hi".

Then it was Ewan's turn.

Our first seats were on the "hill". I thought this would be nice because the kids could move around. And, the view was pretty good.

Hmm, I don't think they were watching a lot of the game.

I made the executive decision to move to some bleacher seats in an empty area of the stadium. We went inside to get a drink (Strawberry Crush) and watched the band and dance squad perform (they did a routine to the song Moves Like Jagger-one of the kids' favorites)

Our new view of the field also offered a view of the trainer-hello Andy! We stayed for the entire game. The boys were able to move around and play on the bleachers. They did pretty well. It was harder to contain everyone without Andy there to help. 5 against 1 aren't great numbers. Liam was the hardest to control. He's just a determined 2 year old who has a plan and doesn't want mom to interfere. His new tactic is just to sit down and not move so you either have to carry him or try to get him to stand up by pulling on his arm-always fun to do in a crowd of people.

Oh Kella! Why do you look sad? Are you hungry, cold or upset that Butler got trounced by a school I've never heard of? Poor baby was ready to go home.

After the game, we went into Hinkle Fieldhouse for a snack. We also had to get our pictures taken with another bulldog.

Kella wasn't sad for long! A happy baby glad to be home!

starting off fall break

2011-10-28T16:54:00.000-04:00

Fall break for us was last Friday and this past Monday. We did not have any big plans since Andy had to work Friday night and I was working Friday night and Sunday night. But, we managed to do a couple fun things. On Friday morning, after the kids had spent too much time playing together, we made the snap decision to take them to Bounce Planet-a place with a bunch of bounce houses. For some reason, several of them were tearful as we left the house. But, they calmed down and got excited to be going somewhere new and fun.

Liam was not into bouncy right away.

No worries, the rest of the boys ran right in. This was a huge inflatable slide.

Then, Liam figured out that it was a bunch of fun so he joined in.

"Don't worry Daddy, I've got you!"

This place had 10 different bounce things set up. They had slides, obstacle courses and different enclosed inflatables. They boys ran themselves tired. It was so nice. (For them and us :-) )

Kella got carried around and got to see all the action. She was tired, too, by the time we put her back in her carseat. She fell right to sleep.

A good start to fall break!

fall school photos

2011-10-25T08:50:00.003-04:00

Here are Marcus and Cale's school photos. Thought I would share them with you while I had the chance. I made them actually bring a nicer looking shirt to wear just for the photo. They didn't quite understand why they had to do it and probably just chalked it up to "something that mom wants and isn't going to budge on so I might as well do it". They're getting so big! Here's a link to last year's photos to see how they've changed. This week, they've got basketball player evals, karate, and boy scouts. Sounds like we should be busy!

yellow belts!

2011-10-20T16:28:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday, Marcus, Cale and Ewan all tested for their yellow belts in karate. They were pretty excited and for the past week, even Ewan practiced his kata that he would be tested on. They all got it! Time to put away the white belts. Now, Ewan got a yellow striped belt because of his age and Marcus and Cale got a regular yellow belt. Andy got to see the boys test also, which was nice.

Here is Ewan. His teacher was very impressed with how hard he tried and was patient with him while testing.

Marcus did great! Mr. Phifer said that he did one of the best jobs testing for a yellow belt that he had seen.

Cale also did well. He also liked seeing the students testing for the blue belt get tested for sparing skills. He is dying to get sparing gear, which we promised him after he got past being a white belt. I guess it's time to pay up. (my camera *sigh* cannot handle dim lighting in any setting. I should have taken all my pictures with my cell phone-like these next three)

Here are the new yellow belts putting on their belts and hiding their old belts in their gi tops.

newly promoted

the newly promoted with Mr. Phifer and Mr. Fulk-two of their teachers

I hope that this is something the boys will keep up with. I read a statistic that 1 in 500 students that start karate will achieve black belt status. I don't know how far the boys will get, but it would definitely be cool if they kept up their classes for a while. They have really enjoyed their classes and I know they are proud of getting their yellow belts!

Tiger Cub field trip

2011-10-19T15:26:00.003-04:00

My little Tiger Cub troup had their first field trip last Wednesday. We are supposed to be learning about community helpers and I decided to take them to get a tour of the police department. I have been on several tours of the fire department, so I needed a change. The tour went pretty well. The boys behaved great, including Ewan, Liam and Kella. They got to see the interrogation rooms(they swore they could all see through the glass window to the other side), the police cars(and climb around inside one), some (unloaded) guns and the taser (the officer showed them the electrical current-cool!), among other things. The officer sometimes talked over the kids heads, but that was okay, because the adults enjoyed learning stuff as well. I call this trip a success! And, thank you to the Kokomo Police Department for a great experience! Now, to plan for more of these outings...

final pictures from Grammy Pammy's visit

2011-10-19T15:19:00.002-04:00

Here is what happens when you ask boys to decorate with gourds. The "fun" part is that I don't actually know how many gourds we got, or everywhere the boys put them. I found a couple in our bedroom, the piano and now most of the others are downstairs-I think.

Had to get a picture of Grammy and Kella

someone else wanted a bow in their hair, too....he is partial to the yellow bow-maybe because it matches his favorite shirt

one with all the grandkids-so hard to get them to look at me-I think they do this on purpose

apples, apples, apples!

Some of the bounty from the apple orchard.

Marcus's turn for a field trip

2011-10-19T09:51:00.003-04:00

Marcus's class went to Conner Prairie last Friday. Connor Prairie is a living history museum with several different time periods in Indiana's past. Andy, our official field trip chaperone, got to go and be a leader to a small group of kids. They saw a Civil War exhibit which they thought was cool. (I guess there was something about a cannon.) Marcus sent a telegram to our email account (interesting meshing of old and new technologies) We haven't taken the boys there yet, so it was Marcus's first time to go. I'm sure we will go back and invade with the entire family.

Cub Scout campout

2011-10-19T09:42:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, Andy was able to take Marcus and Cale to a Boy Scout campout for their pack. Since I had to work that night, they were not able to stay the night, but they did get to do all the activities. It was a whole bunch of guy stuff-geochaching, bb guns, archery, hayride. Apparently it was at Andy's "dream house"-acreage, woods, isolated from society...They definitely had fun and were totally worn out, and that, in itself, made the day worthwhile. And the having fun part was nice, too.

I told Andy that he was a brave person to stand in front of the boys with the guns. He said he felt pretty safe there. Apparently, there were no marksmen-in-training at this camp.

Saturday at the apple orchard

2011-10-13T16:07:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday, Grammy Pammy and I took the kids to an apple orchard. We went last year, and had fun, so we wanted to do it again. Such a difference a year makes! Last year was cooler and rainy and the orchard was not very busy. This year the orchard was crowded and the trees fairly well picked over. Never the less, we manage to fill a huge bag full of apples. Grammy made a pie that evening, I've made baked apples and have taken some as snacks for after karate and we still have probably 10 waiting to be eaten. Next up, an apple cobbler. Yum! The boys did well. Marcus complained that he was tired, but he managed to walk around and climb some of the apple trees. I sent Cale off down the rows to find trees with apples on them. That was a great way to run off some energy. The car ride back was interesting-tired, hungry boys do not make the best car riders. But, I know they had fun and enjoyed being outside. Something they'll remember.

my little industrious boys

Kella slept for part of the time. The bumpy paths did wake her up.

Liam, so happy with his apple, which he ate as we walked.

Grammy, on the phone with Uncle Joe.

She woke up!

gingerbread men-Grammy Pammy has a good memory!

2011-10-11T15:28:00.002-04:00

Last time Grammy Pammy came to visit, she and Ewan read the Gingerbread Man story. Ewan asked Grammy to make him some and she said she would next time she came. Well, this last weekend Grammy came to visit equipped with already cut-out gingerbread men, ready to decorate and bake. Once, I was able to corral the boys and bring them in (no small feat in itself), they had fun decorating and eating the cookies. (And, I'm pretty sure the cookies were all gone by the end of the weekend)

sweet baby feet!

2011-10-11T15:19:00.004-04:00

Kella's found some new toys! They're move around a lot and are hard to get a hold of sometimes. But, her random grabbing is rewarded with something new to hold onto! I love looking at her little, fat, cute feet!

Ewan, photograhper

2011-10-11T15:16:00.001-04:00

Ewan likes to get a hold of the camera to take pictures. Here are some of his current photos. I'm not sure if there's a future photographer here, but he has fun with it.

a picture of Cyberchase-a show he likes

His favorite subject-Kella

A super close-up. I think the flash was on-poor baby

an indoor-outdoor shot-what an innovator!

Add caption

my little scouts

2011-10-11T15:11:00.002-04:00

Here's a picture of Marcus and Cale in their Cub Scout glory-styling it with their gym shorts :-). In an interesting turn of events, it was Marcus who was eager to have his picture taken. It's still fun, with 2 meetings under our belt. The Tiger Cub den (run by moi), has their first field trip on Wednesday. We are going to the police department for a tour. After years of preschool visits to the firestation, I was ready for a change. I'm hoping for a strong turnout of 3 Tiger Cubs-Cale plus 2 others. Of course, Kella, Liam and Ewan will be there as well. Ewan should be made an honorary scout-I have to include him in the den activities to up our numbers during games. He'll have it down pat when it's his turn to join.

preschool field trip, another one

2011-10-06T13:40:00.002-04:00

Ewan and Liam had a preschool field trip on Wednesday to a place called Guffey Acres. Technically, it was Liam's first preschool field trip, although he has been on several as an unofficial member. Andy took the boys, and was nice enough to take some pictures-probably because he knows that I think it's important and will likely be unkind if I don't get to see any. It sounds like the boys had a hayride, saw some animals and got talked to about bees and corn. There is also a corn maze there that they were not allowed in. I guess you don't want to risk losing any preschoolers in a field of corn. I think they had fun-they were definitely tired by the time they came home and Ewan even slept in this morning!

Liam, wearing his very favorite shirt-again. Good thing we have 3 of them, but I'm pretty sure he pulled this one out of the hamper.

Ewan told me that pumpkins were all different shapes. Was he including this one?

Looks like the hayride.

Ah, the pygmy goats.

This looks like the Pre-K class. Ewan is in the front, to the right.

Looks like lunch was a big hit. Liam was very happy to have a Capri Sun in his lunchbox. He was also happy to see leftover ones in the fridge. Not too sure how many 2 year olds have "capri sun" in their vocabulary.

I think the preschool is done with field trips for a while. Time to get to learning all those preschool things :-).

Grammy Linda came to visit

2011-10-05T15:36:00.001-04:00

Grammy Linda came for a visit last weekend. The boys were excited to see her. I don't think they knew she was coming-I like to surprised them. She brought some birthday presents for Ewan. He seems to be enjoying them.

Some mean games of parchesi were played. Cale says it's his favorite game. (Really, Cale likes any game that he can win. He's a little competitive)

Winner!

Grammy got to hold Kella lots! She also got to see the boys in their gymnastic class and just give them lots of attention. They loved it!

Grammy and the grandkids. Liam was cruising in the baby walker and did not want to be scooted back to have his picture taken with the group. Well, we tried.

Ewan's 5 year photos

2011-10-05T15:26:00.000-04:00

http://www.myonlineportraits.com/ViewSharedAlbum.aspx?ShareID=44fb5a9d-176f-49aa-a983-b663efc38e6b

Here's a link to Ewan's 5 year old photos we got taken a few weeks ago. He has such a sweet smile and it looks like he had fun-Andy took him to get the pictures taken. Enjoy!

a little four month sweetness

2011-09-30T18:02:00.003-04:00

Here is sweet Kella! She was four months old on the 29th. I can't believe 1.how fast time has gone and 2.how big she's getting. We took her to see our favorite doctor today, and she weighs 15 pounds 11 oz and is 26 inches long. That puts her in the 90th percentile for weight and 97th for height. Her head circumference came in at 25th percentile-just like her brothers-big bodies, little heads. But, as our "dainty" girl, she actually is a smidgen shorter and weighs less than any of the brothers did at this age. The boys had at least a quarter inch and almost a whole pound on Kella at four months. Guess she is our "little" girl!

I tried taking her picture while Glee was on. She was very taken by Kurt's singing. She loves to be sung to!

Kella is still pretty easy-going. She does not like to be cold or to be tired. She hasn't figured out that if she would go to sleep, she could fix the being tired thing. She chews on her hands and Andy's fingers. She likes to sit up straight and likes being in the walker. Not a lover of tummy time, mostly because she grabs the blanket underneath her and it gets all scrunched up in her face. Our doctor was testing her strength and Kella can kind of be propped up in a tripod sitting position. Very exciting-I guess that's a 6 month old skill. She sleeps through the night-but, she doesn't fall asleep for the night until 11pm. A couple times she's slept a good 12 hours and I bet she would do that more if we didn't have places to go almost every day. It's tough being the 5th. Her hair is calming down into a comb-over 'do that's got some body to it. Kind of like she's got a bump-it in underneath that hair. She loves, LOVES to be talked to and there is usually at least on brother willing to entertain her. In fact, pretty much anywhere we go, people like to talk to her. Favorite song: any, favorite toy: soft ones she can grab. Favorite color: mommy does dress her in a ton of pink still. Favorite food: not yet. So sweet!

let the scouting begin!

2011-09-29T09:13:00.002-04:00

We started a new adventure on Wednesday-Marcus and Cale joined Cub Scouts! We've been thinking about doing this for a while and signed them up for the pack that meets at our church. It's not the closest group to our house, but it's the one that works best with our schedule since we already have Wednesday nights blocked for church. When we first told the boys we had signed them up for Scouts, Cale was excited. He likes to be part of a group and to get to wear a uniform to make him look special was an extra bonus. Marcus, on the other hand, promptly told us that he hated Scouts and did not want to do it. He hated everything about it and it was the "worst day of his life" (exact quote). We kind of ignored this outburst (okay, we just ignored it) and didn't bring up the subject again for a couple days. I guess that didn't matter, because the next time we mentioned it, again, major drama. In fact, I was a little worried about how Wednesday night would go until I saw Marcus and Cale comparing their handbooks yesterday morning. No tears, no drama. That afternoon, he willingly put on his scout shirt. In fact, he was happy to go and had a blast at the meeting (probably because they practiced bike safety in the pouring rain and then got to ride the bikes in the gym). You know, that is just Marcus's personality. He has to be given plenly of warning before a new activity starts. Now, he will probably have lots of fun and really enjoy himself.

And, Cale? Well, I think Cale had some fun too. Turns out, I got slightly guilted into being the den leader for his group-the Tiger Cubs. I agreed to do it because they had no one signed up to do it and I was told it was a lot of delegation of activities to the parent helpers. (I do like to delegate). We didn't do as cool as an activity as bike riding, though. Our topic was family and we worked on starting a scrapbook :-). Last night, I had three Tiger Cubs in my group, plus Ewan, Liam and Kella (my honorary scouts). The meeting went okay and after some remedial scout counseling by one of the pack leaders, I am starting to have a clearer picture of what I should be doing. And, Andy is helping as he can-which I am thankful for.

This should be a fun year!

preschool work

2011-09-28T08:03:00.001-04:00

Here is some of the first work that Ewan and Liam have brought home from preschool. The first 2 pieces are Ewan's homework. Every week, he gets a folder to bring home with 2 things to do. This week (and the for first semester) one of the things will be working on writing his first name. The other paper focuses on a skill, like tracing. It was a little rough to get him to do his work. Ewan did not want to sit down and do it at all! But, as you can see, he did well for a homework "first-timer".

Here is work that Liam did in class. Looks like they are working on learning about farm animals and colors. Today was the color red. I think he did okay coloring in the lines. Pretty good for a 2 year old.

*editor's note

2011-09-24T21:26:00.002-04:00

Oops! The day after posting that Cale lost his first tooth, he corrected my by saying that he had lost another tooth before. Now I remember that Cale lost a bottom tooth last school year. Actually, Andy pulled the tooth because the permanent tooth was growing in behind it. That tooth was loose, but need a little coaxing to come out. It all makes sense now because I would have thought that Cale would have lost at least one tooth in kindergarten. So, I guess this is his second tooth. The second of many :-).

first lost tooth!

2011-09-23T15:17:00.001-04:00

Cale lost his first tooth yesterday! I think it was a combination effort between Cale and the school nurse-a lot of wiggling and a little pulling. He brought it home in a little, plastic, blue treasure box and was excited to leave it for the tooth fairy. The tooth fairy was very generous-Cale got a dollar and a note. Cale has at least 2 more teeth that could come out soon. He'll be making some $$ in the near future!

new things for Kella

2011-09-21T23:04:00.000-04:00

Baby Kella is doing some new things! After weeks of effort, she had finally managed to get her fingers/hand into her mouth. She's not a pacifyer girl-maybe she's moving in the thumb sucker direction. She fell asleep a happy baby.

Then, today, I was inspired to get out the walker to see if she would fit in it. Kella likes sitting upright and looking around. She's got pretty good head control, too. Guess what-she loved it! I know she likes being tall and seeing things from a new vantage point.

The boys thought it was neat, too. Cale sat there for about 10 minutes just spinning the toy on the corner of her tray.

Wait a minute-jealous much? Liam was very happy to see a new toy to play with!

Let's see what Liam says about the walker...

Well, I guess that says it all!

another apple orchard field trip :-)

2011-09-21T22:43:00.001-04:00

Ewan's preschool class took their annual trip to Farlow's Apple Orchard. We were counting up the number of times we've been on this trip and came up with 6. This time was no different. The kids got to see a model of a beehive, see where they sort the apples, get a ride in a wagon and get to pick an apple. Exciting for a preschooler. Andy went with Ewan (I guess every kid had a parent with them-great adult to kid ratio)-I think Andy's been on this trip 5 of the 6 times. I think he goes for the cider :-). Ewan had fun. He's proud to share with his brothers that he got to do something special.

Which should he eat first? I think the red one is Andy's-Ewan said that he (Ewan) ate a yellow apple.

last week in pictures

2011-09-19T15:51:00.001-04:00

Nothing too exciting happened last week, but I thought I'd share some of the photos that I took. First up, Kella's crazy hair. This is an all-natural "up do".

Then, poor Marcus was sick all last week with some kind of stomach bug. He felt miserable the first 3 days and then was just really tired. The nurse in me thought he need an IV and some fluid for his mild dehydration, but the doctor convinced Marcus to drink lots of fluids. He was finally getting back to his old self on Sunday and went to school today. Can't wait to see how much make-up work he has to do. We did have him read while he was home and he finished 2 Magic Tree House books-his favorite books right now. So far, no one else has gotten sick (fingers crossed).

Liam, doing some of his favorite things-singing and dancing. He was twirling around on the patio singing "God is so good", wearing his very favorite VBS tshirt and a lanyard with ducks on it that he hijacked from Cale.

Ewan, with 2 of his best little friends. They play together as much as they can. I think this picture is from Friday night-they played outside until it was dark. It stinks to think that outdoor playtime is winding down with the start of earlier nighttimes and cooler weather.

After 4 years, we have finally started to hang pictures on our wall in the family room area. Here's the first one-a replica of a bicycling poster, clearly from 1947. It takes so long for me to decide what I like-hence 4 years of naked walls. The upside is that when we repainted, we didn't have to take any pictures down or cover any nail holes :-).

Ewan had his 5 year check-up this week. He's lookin good and the doctor was excited to see him. Ewan even showed her a cartwheel. I'm sure she was impressed. His growth is in the 75-80th percentiles for height and weight-44 inches and 45 pounds. He's holding pace with hie brothers who were 45 in/50 lbs (Cale) and 48 in/63 lbs (Marcus) at this age.

We did other stuff too-karate, gymnastics, library, playing, preschool-normal weekly things for our family.

That's it. Just a normal week for us.

Karate demo

2011-09-10T23:37:00.000-04:00

Today Marcus, Cale and Ewan were involved in a karate demo at an event called the Tipton Pork Festival. Their dojo but on a demo and talked about different skills and their bullying program they will be doing (how to stand up to bullies, not to bully). The boys were so cute up on stage and serious. They did their kata with the whole group, got to kick (and break) and very thin piece of wood-like plank and participate in sparing (Ewan and Marcus) and hold escaping (Cale). Kella enjoyed being held by Andy and Liam was grumpy and whined almost the entire show. The kids were disappointed we did not stay to enjoy more of the pork festival, but I didn't feel like trying to feed them there (fair type food-overpriced). I did make the mistake of mentioning possibly getting Subway for lunch, but then recinded the offer after some melt-downs in the car-big mistake. But, they all recovered and manage to enjoy the rest of their day.

Marcus and Cale are up front in blue-getting ready for a kata demo

Cale, front and center

Marcus kicking

end of kata

Ewan, getting ready for sparring-no contact, very cute

Marcus getting ready to spar

Cale, in a self-defense demo, escaping

start of preschool

2011-09-10T23:19:00.000-04:00

Preschool started this week. Our school year schedule is finally coming into focus. Here are some pictures and comments on Ewan and Liam's first day.

Liam before his Bumblebee class. He was excited to go, but reluctant to leave the church nursery, where he had been playing. He liked his shirt. He wasn't too excited to go into the classroom. But, with encouragement, he went right in to work on some puzzles. His class is full, with 7 students.

Ewan before his Pre-K class. The class is also called the "Pickles" class. He wasn't too excited for me to be taking his picture-too bad. He was excited to go to class and see some of his classmates from last year. There are 14 kids in his class. I have to laugh everytime I see the class lined up to do something. Bathroom break time has got to take, like, 20 minutes easy.

The boys before going in for the first day of preschool. Ewan is sporting his new backpack and Liam has a backpack that has made it through 3 years of nursing school, several years of preschool and Cale's kindergarten year. They each had to bring a stuffed animal-I guess as a comfort object in case they had some seperation issues. Liam brought his blankie (of course) and Ewan brought his husky dog Webkinz. They each had a great first day and were tired by the time they got home. Ewan will go 3 days a week (M/W/F) and Liam will go on M/W.

blankie went AWOL

2011-09-10T22:55:00.002-04:00

We had some tense moments here Tuesday with the disapperance of Liam's beloved blankie. Andy had taken Ewan, Liam and Kella to Walmart that morning and thought he remembered seeing blankie in the car on the way home. When it came time for naptime-no blankie. We looked all over the house and car and could not find it. Andy laid Liam down for his nap with no blankie. Liam was very upset, crying and crying. We got him out of bed and I let him stay up while I looked again every place I could think blankie might be-hamper-no, under bed sheets-no. I called Walmart and it was not in the lost and found. At this point, I tried to lay Liam and Kella both down for naps so I could get one too (I had worked the night before). After 40 minutes of a fussy Kella, a sobbing Liam and a no-napping momma, I made the executive decision to load the kids in the car and head to Walmart to search for blankie-clearly it was no where to be found at home. We got to the store and cruised the parking lot-no luck. I called Andy to find out exactly where they had gone in Walmart so we could retrace their steps. We entered through the garden center-no blankie with the plants. We walked past the clearance rows-BLANKIE! There it was, laying in the aisle! An answer to prayers put up by at least this momma and Grammy Pammy. We left the store with a very happy, content little boy. One day, blankie won't play such a big roll as Liam's comfort object. Thankfully, it did not have to be that day.

A little more of Ewan's birthday

2011-09-07T16:09:00.001-04:00

Ewan was a hard little boy to plan a birthday for. Every time I asked what he wanted for his birthday, his answer would revolve around what he had just seen on tv-same for the birthday theme. I finally took him to the store and had him pick out toys that he liked and I took his picture with them so I would have a shopping list. That worked pretty well and he was excited and happy with what he got. One of the things he liked was this "ninja castle". Honestly, I think it's pretty cool too.

Ewan is a sweet little boy who loves to play and has an incredible imagination. His uncle has said that he would like to see a tv show about what goes on in Ewan's head. Ewan is so gentle and loving with Kella, it is sweet to see him talk to her. He wants to be included with his older brothers-it's hard to be the middle kid sometimes. He loves time with his Daddy and really enjoys the fact that Andy is home in the mornings to hang out with. He is in gymnastic and karate, and is getting better at both. I think the classes help Ewan to learn to pay attention and focus. I would say his best friend right now is our next door neighbor's girl-Delany. They play together as much as they can. So sweet and kind! We love our Ewan James!

A picture from Ewan's birthday get-together. I had Ewan's friends over that live on our street. We played a couple quick games, had some cake and ice cream and then the kids played for a bit before going home (it was a school night, after all). It was crazy and fun!

Ewan is 5!

2011-09-06T15:26:00.000-04:00

Ewan James.......then.....

From 2006

........and now! Happy 5th birthday!

Kella 3 month photo slideshow

2011-09-01T09:08:00.001-04:00

Kella 3 months - free slideshow

We got Kella's 3 month photos taken yesterday. We took her to a Portrait Innovations studio. I think the photos turned out great and we got the photo CD along with a ton of pictures. I'm just saying, having a little girl to do "costume changes" with is so fun! Andy was very nice about not teasing me about it. Enjoy the slideshow. I didn't put all the pictures on it-just tried to get a nice assortment. It was surprisingly easy for a not-tech-savvy person, like me, to do. :-)

Kella at 3 months

2011-09-01T08:41:00.000-04:00

Kella was 3 months old on Monday! She is a very sweet, easy-going baby most of the time. She loves to be talked to and will coo back and tell you all about her day. We can get her to laugh occasionally, but she really likes to just watch and take everything in. Her brothers are very interesting to her. She loves to be held and likes to sit straight up in our laps. She even doesn't mind to be passed around to her brothers-Ewan especially loves to hold her. Naptime isn't too bad. I'm starting to see a pattern emerge. And, she is sleeping for 6-7 hours in a row at night. Fantastic! People love how her hair looks and are surprised to find out that it is all natural (the sticking-up). I keep saying it, but she is just such a good baby! We are so lucky to have her!

Liam's interpretive dance

2011-08-29T10:50:00.003-04:00

Liam's very favorite movie is Despicable Me. I think he likes the minions and how they talk. But, recently, he has also been mastering Gru's dance in the final scene of the movie. He does it without thinking, almost as if he is being controlled by the music. My favorite part? When Liam attempts the splits just like Gru.

back to work

2011-08-26T21:21:00.002-04:00

Well, last night was my first night back to work in the PICU. I had a wonderful summer off and I loved being home. Kella has gotten so big! I hate how fast she changes. It was hard to leave the kids, but I knew they were in good hands with the sitter and Andy was going to be home early. Kella did great while I was gone-took her bottles fine and slept well. I had a decent night at work. I got floated to the general peds floor to take a pt assignment. Easy peasy-after my little baby pt finally calmed down, I replaced a feeding tube in another and my older pt went to sleep. All in a night's work. I got to sleep this morning on and off, too, so I'm not as tired as if I had to stay up all day. So, not too bad overall. I guess I could do this again. :-) I am still waiting to hear about a job that I interviewed for at another hospital. Should hear maybe on Monday if I got the job or not. We'll see!

first day of school

2011-08-22T08:36:00.003-04:00

The boys' first day of school is today! Instead of driving them to school, I told them they could ride the bus the first day if they wanted to-of course they did! They almost missed the bus because the driver made it sound like she would be pick the kids up a little later than the time we were used to. Nope. At 810, the bus was coming down our street. We just had time for 2 pictures: 1 of me (in my jams) and the boys and the other of the kids right before getting on the bus. There are 6 kids on our street this year going to the elementary and primary buildings. The boys were excited to go! Can't wait to see how their day went!

the last road trip of the summer

2011-08-21T11:34:00.006-04:00

I must be crazy. I decided to go back to Illinois for a quick overnight trip so the boys could go to their cousin's birthday party. We would also get to see my brother Joe, visiting from Texas. The best part-I would be taking all 5 kids back by myself.

Before we got on the road, we went to the open houses at Marcus and Cale's schools. This year, Marcus will be at the elementary school and Cale at the primary school (3rd and 1st grades, respectively). It's the chance to meet the teachers and bring their school supplies in early. Marcus has Mrs. Catlin for his teacher. There will be 26 kids in his class. She seemed nice and after seeing our entourage, said that she also has 5 children-4 boys and 1 girl. In all my anxiousness to leave at an early a time as possible, I totally forgot to take Marcus's picture next to his desk-oops. He didn't seem to care.:-)

Next, we went to Cale's room in the next building. He has Ms. Warning, who had moved to 1st from kindergarten. There will be 17 kids in his class, and Cale is excited that there are 4 other kids from his kindergarten class in his first grade class, including his little buddy Alex. I did remember to get his picture :-).

Then we swung by McDs to get some take-out and started our trip. We had to stop 3 times. The first time: to clean up Liam who got sick in the car. I blame the heat and possible too many french fries after eating apple slices and chicken nuggets. Thankfully, I had the forsight to pack and extra outfit for him. Liam was fine after that. The second stop: time for Kella to eat and to take a bathroom break. The third stop: time to get gas and Kella wanted to eat again. What Kella really wanted to get out of her car seat. She was very unhappy when I put her back in the seat and let us all know about it for the rest of the car ride, about 1 hour.

But, we made it to Decatur! We spend the night with Andy's parents and in the morning, Grandma Jean, Uncle Chris, Aunt Kim and the cousins came over to see us. It was nice to have them all playing together again.

Chris did an impromtu preformance of Bible school songs with Liam. Liam knew all the movements. :-)

After Decatur, the kids and I drove to Grammy Pammy's to meet there before Xander's birthday party. Uncle Joe was there along with Aunt Bitsy, Uncle Eric, Maddie, Abbie and Jacob. Grammy thought it would be fun to go out to eat for lunch. 5 adults and 8 kids-thank goodness it was a buffet. And, they sat us in a room all by ourselves.

Car seats are so handy! Jacob sat in his and Kella slept the entire meal away in hers.

Back at Grammy's, some of the cousins entertained themselves with the leapster/gameboys/ds.

A new picture of the baby cousins-Kella and Jacob

Kella met Uncle Joe for the first time...

...and Uncle Eric, too.

Then, it was time for the party. I missed Andy the most at this time. None of my kids had taken a nap (except Kella). Liam was borderline exhausted at the start. The bowling was fun, but loud. And, I felt like it took forever. I convinced Liam to put on some bowling shoes. He wanted to carry his own ball-8 pounds!

Marcus watching his ball. He warmed up that morning playing Wii bowling.

Ewan choosing a ball.

Cale had a crazy spin on his ball.

Ewan's technique was to go up to the lane and toss/drop the ball.

Pic of the Uncles-Eric, Joe and Jim

Aunt Eileen got to hold Kella a lot, since by this time I was dealing with a totally exhausted Liam. He had at least a 40 minute meltdown and just wanted me to hold him. He eventually fell asleep.

One of me and Joe and sleeping Liam.

Kella also got to meet Gram Cece for the first time too!

We finally left around 530, after cake. I was dreading the, at least, 4 hour drive back home. I broke the trip up in my head into segments: Springfield, Decatur, Champaign (stop to eat/feed Kella), state line, Crawfordsville, Lebanon, Westfield and finally home. Kella fussed for the first hour and a half and then, after our dinner break, she slept the rest of the way. We went through 2 and a half movies (thank goodness for the DVD player-we watched Despicable Me both there and back-Liam's favorite movie) and everyone did pretty well. Ewan and Liam finally fell asleep. Marcus and Cale both got to pee in a cup so we wouldn't have to stop (the joys of having boys). It was 11pm Indiana time when we pulled into the driveway. Everyone was tired. I was glad to be home. I was also happy that we had made the trip. I'll probably do the same thing next year.

Kella's best friend

2011-08-19T12:08:00.002-04:00

Here is a picture of Kella with her "best friend". Ewan loves, LOVES Kella! He asks to hold her several times every day. He is always giving her hugs. He loves to pet her hair and get right in her face. I find myself saying things like "back away from the baby" and "don't touch her while she's sleeping" often. Ewan's not detered. He keeps coming back to give her more love. And, you know what? I think Kella likes some (not all) of the attention. She smiles at Ewan and will watch him when he's talking to her. I hope this affection for each other lasts as they both get older!

going to the state fair

2011-08-17T22:27:00.007-04:00

We took the kids to the state fair on Tuesday. It was a good day to go-nice weather, not too crowded (a lot of schools have gone back already, but not us) and $2.00 admission, midway rides and assorted foods! It was a rough start-Marcus DID NOT want to go! He complaned and whined and actually cried about having to go to the fair. Too bad, we're all in this together and he had to go. Guess what? He had fun-they all had a good time. I took a ton of pictures and probably posted most of them. Here we go...

We walked through the cow barn and the chicken/geese/rabbit barn. Our kids are "townies" and don't get to see farm animals up close too often. We had to get pictures taken in the second barn-first Cale and Ewan (look up) and then Ewan and Liam (look down).

$2 midway rides was a big plus. We bought tickets and let the boys each pick two rides. Marcus, Ewan and Liam (with Andy) went through this climbing house.

Wait, is this boy smiling? Oh, he's must be glad he came to the fair!

Here come Andy and Liam down the climbing house slide!

Cale and Ewan (and Andy) rode this ride next. They had a blast! Liam was very upset that he could not go on this ride with them.

If you look really close, you can see the guys-they are the only ones on the ride.

Liam got to ride this ride next. It was went in a circle and the bees went up and down. Liam was very happy :-).

The last ride was the kiddie coaster. The three big boys rode it. We kind of had to convince Cale to ride, but I think he was glad he did. They all rode with big smiles on their faces and even rode with their hands up in the air for most of it. Liam was unahppy, again, being too small to ride this ride.

Kella slept. She pretty much slept the entire time except when I woke her up to nurse her (yea! for the breastfeeding stations). There was a scale where I fed her. I weighed her-14 pounds.

After eating state fair corn dogs, we went to the FFA building. The boys got suckers=dessert, played in a play area and fed some animals.

Our last stop was to the DNR building for some target practice and climbing on a snow mobile and 4 wheeler. Even Liam got to sit behind a gun. I'm not sure if he actually fired a shot, but he got to be one of the big kids=happy.

playtime with Kella

2011-08-12T10:32:00.001-04:00

Playtime can just wear Kella out sometimes....

best used toys ever!

2011-08-12T10:30:00.000-04:00

I'm giving props today to Rescue Heros. They are actions figures that were made by Fisher Price, oh, I don't know, at least 10 years ago. I knew about them when they were sold in stores, but we didn't buy them until they were being sold in kids consignment stores. We have quite the collection-a small army of figure, a plane, tower and command center. We also frequently check the Rescue Hero movie out of the library. Yesterday, the whole crew made their way downstairs to have a live reinactment of the movie the boys had just watched. This kept them entertained for a while and all the boys played nicely with each other-so great! So thank you Fisher Price! I only wish they were still produced, they are still popular-even used!

it's starting to look like school might be starting soon

2011-08-12T10:24:00.000-04:00

During the last school year, I think Marcus went through 3 or 4 backpacks. It's not that he was extra rough with them, I was just buying cheap backpacks. For this next school year, we decided to go with a little more $ backpacks that have some kind of replacement policy. We ordered backpacks for the 3 older boys from LandsEnd.com. I wasn't planning on getting one for Ewan, but he really wanted to be included, too. We even got their initials on the backpacks and Ewan also got a pirate on his-very cool. They were excited when the backpacks came and everyone, even Marcus, let me take their pictures.

Oh yes, everyone picked a different backpack. And, Marcus picked a different font for his initials. Cale and Ewan thought the diamond type was very cool and I think Marcus liked that his font was the "atheletic" font.

What about Liam? Well, he does go to preschool this year and will inherit this green backpack. For some reason, this backpack has survived 3 years of nursing school and at least 4 years of preschool for Cale and Ewan. Liam was way happy to have a backpack, too. He took a nap with it yesterday and it also had to come to karate with us!

I did it!

2011-08-11T11:10:00.002-04:00

Well, I finally did it! After many times of pondering, I finally filled out a job application with another hospital. I'm not unhappy where I'm at. I love the people I work with and I like my job. And, I don't like change very much (at all). But, this position I applyed for is a little closer to home, has hours that work better for me and involves working with new moms and babies! So I just submitted the app and I'm so thankful for my work friends that were willing to be my references. I'm also thankful that I have a job to return to anyway. I know there's supposed to be a nursing shortage, but I also know there are nurses who have had a hard time finding jobs. It seems like no one wants new nurse, they just want one with experience. I'm hoping my critcal care experience will make me marketable.

Here's to hoping! We'll see what happens!

Liam just wants to be like the other kids...

2011-08-07T22:36:00.002-04:00

Liam wanted a belt like his brothers had on with their karate outfits so I found one of Andy's and put it around his waist. He was so excited. He wore this belt the rest of the evening to karate and then playing outside. The shirt he has on was the shirt that was the fundraising tshirt for VBS tshirts. Liam didn't want to take off his other VBS tshirt until I pulled this one out for him to wear. It hangs down to his knees so I got a rubberband and tied up the bottom into a tail.

Liam also likes to be like his sister. He likes to have his blanket laid out like Kella's. And, if I'm changing Kella's diaper, he will want his diaper changed too. Can we guess there's a little jealousy going on? :-)

we survived VBS!

2011-08-04T10:53:00.002-04:00

The first thing that August brought us was 4 days of vacation bible school. We started on Sunday night and ended on Wednesday evening. I think the kids all had fun, including baby Kella, who got held by many willing ladies. Our theme was "God makes me incredible" and the skits everynight starred some well-known cartoon movie stars. From a Bible story standpoint, we learned about Saul's transformation to Paul and how incredible God made him. For the 4th year, I taught (?)/babysat (?) the 2 and 3 year old class. I always hope they can remember something about the Bible story, but really, they are 2 and 3 years old. My standards are pretty low. My class had anywhere from 6-10 kids that were pretty well-behaved for 2 & 3's. This year, Liam was in my class, too. He did okay-he's a very young 2 who is also very familiar with the church building. He liked to try to wander off and do his own thing. Luckily, everyone knew who he belonged to and he always made his way back.
It was a lot of work getting everyone to church early to eat dinner and do what prep needed done. I was definitely tired when I got home each evening. It's worth it, though when I see how excited they get to go (except for Marcus the last night when he had to go up on stage, but he survived, and really, he was smiling with his classmates before they went up there, so I guess he wasn't too "scared").

Here's Liam, post Wednesday night performance. The younger kids all got capes. They were all excited and Liam wore his the rest of the night. He also was way excited about his "incredibles" shirt. He didn't want to take it off, so he wore it to bed.

I bet you can barely see this, but it is thedoor to my classroom. Every year, several teachers take great pride in decorating their doors. Every year, I stress over what to do with mine. This year, my door was an island volcano. I contracted the work to 2 high school kids. They did a great job!

My boys-post Wed night. We made it through late bedtimes and daily drives to church. Our schedules got a little altered, but we had fun. Check another thing off our to-do list for the summer.

2 month old Kella

2011-07-30T23:44:00.002-04:00

Kella turned 2 months old yesterday (Friday)! She is so sweet! She just loves to bhee held and she's really starting to pay attention to her brothers. She's smiling now and I can see a dimple on her left cheek. Her hair is what everyone notices-probably because it's red-mostly because it sticks up in an awesome mohawk. I like to say her hair is "exciting". She gives us a good stretch of sleep at night usually after mindnight to around 5 am. I find that I am watching a lot of reruns of a show called "Numbers" while I'm feeding her in the middle of the night. Recently, she's been trying hard to keep herself awake, in the evening, getting overtired and fighting sleep. Sleep wins in the end, but she puts up a good fight. Another thing, when Kella wakes up to eat at night, she goes right back to sleep-so nice! She eats whenever she wants which accounts for her stats: 13 pounds 4.5 ounces and 23 inches long. I hate to compare my "dainty" girl to her brothers, but I pulled out their baby books and discovered that she's right in the mix for 2 month Shaffer baby size. The amazing thing (at least to me) is that she has gained 2 pounds since July 6th. Our favorite pediatrician thinks she looks terrific and is very strong with great head control (all the tummy time Daddy gives her is paying off :-) ). What a blessing she is to our family and we are so thankful for her!

with Daddy

and with Mommy

a close-up of sweet Kella

a rare eyes-open photo. Don't you love her hair?

Happy 2 months old!

camping boys

2011-07-30T23:13:00.003-04:00

One of the things Andy's been wanting to do with the boys is to take them camping. Last year, they "camped" in the backyard. This year, they went a step further and went to a nearby state park. Originally, they were going to camp in loaner tents, but a friend from church lent Andy his pop-up, air-conditioned camper. Nice. They boys were super-excited. They were so excited that they actually played a board game together in the camper without arguing. It was an overnight trip-Thursday to Friday. Thursday night they had their campfire and played at the campground park. Then it was back to the campsite to have s'mores. Cale and Marcus didn't have any because their stomachs were a little upset from having too much fun on the tire swing. From what I understand, everyone was in bed by 830. The camper opened up to have a bed on either end and 2 beds in the middle. (Sorry Mom, no pictures) Grandpa Jerry went with them. I stayed home with Liam and Kella.

Everything tastes better cooked over a campfire. They had hotdogs and some type of pie-sandwich made with bread and pie filling.

In the morning, the went hiking on the trails. Mounds State Park is called that because of Indian mounds in the park. I asked if they saw any and I think the answer was that they may have seen one. They got to go swimming after that and then packed up to come home. You could tell they were worn out. But, they had fun. I think, when asked, all the boys liked the camping food the best-and the swimming pool and playground. I don't think any of them thought the hiking was the best part, but, Ewan liked looking for the number 4-keeping them on the 4 trail.

I think this will become an annual tradition!

I forgot to include this story in our Chicago trip

2011-07-28T23:33:00.004-04:00

(I forgot to include this story when I was posted the blog about going to Lincoln Park Zoo.)

We stayed in Schaumberg overnight after the cousins' reunion. I missed the window to low-ball an offer for hotel rooms on Priceline, so I looked on hotels.com and found pretty good prices for 2 rooms. Turns out, the hotel was right across the street from IKEA and the mall. We did not get to go to either place. Bummer.
We split the fam into 2 teams. Team 1 was Andy, Marcus, Cale and Ewan. They took the room on the 5th floor. (I didn't even think to call the hotel and request adjoining rooms.) Team 2 was Liam, Kella and me in the 4th floor room. After the reunion, we came back to team 2's room, had a snack, managed to warm some milk for Ewan and Liam (giving the cups a hot water bath) and watch part of Despicable Me. After that, Andy took the bigger boys upstairs and Liam watched some more of the movie. When the battery ran out (it was our portable DVD player), I put Liam in the pack-n-play. He did great! He settled in with his blankie and pillow pet and went to sleep happily. I nursed Kella and she eventually fell asleep.
The rooms aren't soundproof, and I could here what sounded like kids playing in the next room and people running down the hallway. So, I kind of wasn't surprised when, around 1 am, the fire alarm went off. I wasn't too sure what to think, but I was a little skeptical. I had just finished feeding Kella, so I put her in her carseat and strapped her in case we needed to get out. I got my sandals on and made sure my purse and diaper bag where ready to go. I decided to let Liam sleep until I knew for sure what was going on. I looked in the hallway and didn't smell smoke and no one was running or yelling fire. Andy came down to my room with the boys. I said that I wasn't going anywhere unless it's neccessary. Andy decided to go downstairs to see what was going on and took Marcus and Cale with him. I'm sure they thought that this was a fun adventure. Ewan came into my room and fell asleep in one of the beds.
While Andy was gone, the alarms in our area shut off but I could still here them coming from another part of the hotel. I called the front desk (maybe I should have done that sooner) to ask what was going on. They said that their techinicians had isolated the problem and there was no fire. Andy came back up and collected Ewan and everyone went back to bed. Liam slept through all the noise. Maybe that's why he woke up at 530am the next morning ready to go. I can't remember why the fire alarms went off: it was either that someone broke a sprinkler head in their room or a flat iron somehow set it off.

And that is that :-)
Goodnight!

tummy times

2011-07-26T22:43:00.004-04:00

Kella isn't the only one doing tummy time here. Liam, who is having a bit of jelousy, likes to do some tummy time, too. Ewan, who likes to hang all over his little sister, likes to just be right next to her. Good times. At least she's entertained.

Just sporting personalized pants :-)

Andy did the RAIN ride again!

2011-07-26T22:28:00.002-04:00

Another year, another RAIN ride completed by Andy. It's a one day bike ride from Terre Haute to Richmond, Indiana-160 miles in all. That's a long ride anyway and then you have to remember that it is the middle of July. Oh, and the last half of the ride has some brutal hills to bike up, and there was a wind this year that the riders were biking into. Andy, Kella and I went down the night before (Grammy Pammy and Aunt Eileen came to watch the boys) so we could drop Andy off at the start at 7am. Here is the beginning (or "before") picture...

Here is sidekick Kella. She did great! She slept when I drove from stop to stop and then woke up to eat and look around. Unfortunately, she decided to be wide awake the entire ride back home from Richmond-about 2 hours. She was unhappy and I was unhappy and tired. Not a fun ride back.

There's Andy crossing the finish line!

The "after" picture. He doesn't look too tired! :-) We already have the date for next year's ride. I'm bringing all the kids. We're going to make posters and bring noisemakers like cowbells to ring at all the rest stops. It will be crazy great!

family pictures

2011-07-24T22:05:00.003-04:00

So, maybe you've seen the previous posts and figured out that we went to Decatur earlier this month. We did fun things like go to the childrens' museum, go to a zoo, had a baby shower for Kella-all things you can read about on this blog. What follows is some more pictures from our time in Decatur for your viewing pleasure :-)

the boys love the trampoline at Grammy Linda's

Andy's grandparents got to meet Kella, and Liam too!

more trampoline time

Andy's grandparents with the great-gran kiddos

time with Grammy Linda

It only took a week, but here are the cousins actually playing a board game together. Honestly, they made it through almost the entire game before someone thought an injustice was done. How cute are they all playing together!(it's Junior Clue)

Aunt Kim and Kella

and Kella with Mommy!

my favorite pose-the cousins on the couch!-Marcus, Savannah holding Liam, Cassie holding Kella, Ewan, Cale and Marie (holding down the dog-not in the picture)

one last photo op with Grammy Linda and then it was time to head back to Indiana.

a night of VBS

2011-07-24T22:00:00.004-04:00

The last night in Decatur, we took the boys to the first night of Sunnyside's VBS. It was an Australian theme and the boys got to keep their hats they are wearing in these photos. I think the boys had fun. I also think they just liked being with their cousins. I spent most of my time in the nursery with Kella and then with Liam who wasn't having any of that sitting for arts and crafts and singing!

Cale and Marcus

Ewan

Liam on a step ladder. He did not want to sit with everyone else.-typical

Liam and Ewan on stage participating the the skit of people being healed at the pool. Chris led the skit and I thought it was a bold move to pick Liam to participate. Liam didn't have a clue what was going on and just wanted to wander around on stage. He got up after this picture and took himself off, stage right.

Kella got a baby shower

2011-07-24T21:58:00.003-04:00

Again, while we were in Decatur, Grammy Linda and Aunt Kim hosted an open house/baby shower for Kella. Ladies from Sunnyside came to meet the newest Shaffer grandbaby. I made sure she was passed around. I love having people willing to hold the baby. Kella got a ton of clothes and diapers. She is one spoiled little girlie and she doesn't even know it! The cake was very goo and the little frosting baby on the cake was cute. No one wanted to eat the baby, though, that would have been wierd. Well, Kella's wardrobe is well stocked, that's for sure. It was fun getting to see the ladies and watching them love on Kella.

quick trip to Chicago

2011-07-24T21:40:00.007-04:00

We took a quick side trip up to Chicago while we were in Illinois. We went up for the annual cousins' reunion for my side of the family. We spent the night and on Sunday took the kids to Lincoln Park Zoo. It was hot and the boys complained until we got into the zoo and saw the tiger in its exhibit. Then, it was all good. Until they were hungry-then we had more drama. So we fed the crew and Liam had an apporx 45 min meltdown. I'm sure everyone else in the zoo cafe liked hearing it. We did sit back in a corner where no one else was sitting. After eating we walked through another animal house, rode the merry-go-round and called it a day. We were hot and sweaty and ready to go back to Decatur. In the end, the boys did like the museum. I know they liked the tiger, the monkeys and the seals they saw. I know we did not see everything, but the cool thing is that Lincoln Park Zoo is free-you just pay to park. With that in mind, I didn't feel bad about possibly not walking around the whole zoo. We got back to Decatur and the cousins were all excited to see each other again even though we had only been gone a day and a half. It was very cute to see how excited they were to see each other.

These pictures are stacked kind of crazy. On the merry-go-round, Cale was super-excited to ride the black panther. Ewan rode with Andy on the bench animal and Marcus rode a tiger. Liam was sleeping in his stroller. I guess the lunch-time tantrum wore him out. Kella was sleeping, too.

The end result of the zoo: 3 tired, awake, hot boys; 2 sleeping children. Andy was able to put Liam into the car without him waking up. Of course, he woke up as soon as he heard his brothers voices-probably arguing about something. I call this trip a success! I'm glad we did it.

trip to the Children's Museum

2011-07-22T14:54:00.004-04:00

We went back to Illinois after the 4th of July. We got to spend Marcus's birthday there and just spend time hanging out with family. While we were there, we took the kids to the Children's Museum in Decatur. It is one of my favorite things to do and we like it better than the Indianapolis Children's Museum because 1)it is much more hands on-the kids can play with everything 2) you can stand in one spot on the first floor and see the entire area and 3) it is so much less expensive than the Indy museum-a family can actually afford to go here. It was Liam's first time going when he would actually get to play with things. Thanks to the coupons from Kim, we only had to pay for one person to get in.

Outside at the whipsering discs.

Liam's favorite thing on the first floor. I spend extra time with him there while everyone else went upstairs. The first floor is great because of all the hands-on features for the kids to explore.

Ewan worked on a car with Savannah and Uncle Chris.

Marcus and Marie worked on a news report on location-they appeared on a screen with a background behind them.

Cale and Marcus reporting other news. Cale is putting on a tie. The news area was really cool. Marcus, Cale, Marie and Cassie spent a good amount of time playing in there with the cameras, putting out "news reports".

While we were there, who walked in but Uncle Jim, Aunt Courtney and Xander. It was Xander's first time at the museum, too, and I think he really liked it. Plus, Jim got to meet Kella for the first time. Kella did fine at the museum. She slept and ate and fell back asleep. The kids got to play for a couple hours before they started falling apart. Then we went back to Chris and Kim's for lunch and naps/rest. One of my favorite things is how well all the cousins play together. I love seeing them get along. I hope they are always special to each other.

that joy in my heart

2011-07-22T14:48:00.003-04:00

Liam loves this song! We get a kick out of how he does the movements whenever anyone starts singing the lyrics. He gets super-excited about it, too!

more pics from Marcus's birthday (mostly of Kella being held...)

2011-07-20T10:05:00.004-04:00

lots of kids eating

Aunt Bitsy and Kella

the "2009-ers"-Liam and Abbie

Aunt Courtney and Kella

the baby cousins-Jacob and Kella

Lanny and Kella

a few photos of the young folk

2011-07-20T09:53:00.002-04:00

for your enjoyment, a couple recent photos of the younger people in our home...

Power Ranger Ewan and his sidekick Darth Optimus Prime

Ewan and Liam had a preschool fun day on Monday. Liam was very excited to go and bring his lunch in a lunchbox. I think he was excited to be included, too. Both boys had lots of fun and were very tired when they got home.

And, a cute picture of Kella, 6 weeks old, wrapped in her new favorite blanket

celebrating Marcus's birthday, belated post

2011-07-18T23:29:00.003-04:00

While we were in Decatur, Marcus had his 8th birthday! It was a perfect place to celebrate because both sides of the family could get together. Chris and Kim were gracious enough to let us party at their place and Kim even made Marcus's birthday cake for us.

We used all the non-girl color streamers that Kim had to decorate the dining room.

Cale posted a sign telling Marcus not to come in. In kid writing it reads, "danger Marcus stay out. Don't come in." Cale made another sign later that had Marcus unroll a streamer. I'm not too sure if that was supposed to be a surprise for Marcus or Cale just wanted to write another note. Very cute.

Here is Marcus with his cake. I thought he would like a volcano cake since he likes science experiements. I had some recipes for it, but Kim has made this cake a couple times and was willing to do it for me. Thank you! The smoke was made with dry ice. The kids thought it was very cool. I bet the adults thought it was cool, too. But, the candles were hard to light with all the smoke from the ice.

Opening presents. Marcus got a nintendo ds for his birthday. It was something that he wanted for a while. He was pretty excited and so were his brothers. They've all been playing on it.

Showing off his new Illinois shirt. "Train a child up in the way he should go...", you know.

Marcus's entrance into the dining room. He was pretty pumped to get to bust through some streamers. I don't know if you can see him warming up in this video. I think he had a great birthday!

celebrating Marcus Andrew, age 8!

2011-07-18T22:44:00.005-04:00

Here's an overdue post in honor of Marcus's birthday! He is such a good boy and a great helper. He likes to make us happy. He likes to do what is right. He is a great reader and great at math. He likes to ride his bike and scooter and play the Wii and his new DS. Where does the time go? It seems like not too long ago he was my first little baby and now he is this tall boy who will soon outgrow his grandmother. It is definitely bittersweet sometimes thinking about how much he has grown. But, it is fun and exciting to watch him grow too and learn how to do different things and become more independent. We love him so much! He is a sweet, smart, loving boy and we are blessed to have him as our son!

our "little" baby boy!

spoils of the 4th

2011-07-18T22:28:00.002-04:00

Way back during the 4th of July weekend, Andy took the older boys to Cicero's 4th of July celebration. They have vendors, a Civil War re-enactment camp, a pioneer village and a kids game/play area. Each of the boys got to get a trinket from a vendor. Here's what they chose...

Marcus picked out a metal pendant that has a design pounded into it. He looks exhuasted, doesn't he. He was coming off a couple days of having pretty late bedtimes.

Ewan picked out a wooden snake.

Cale picked out a spear. Yes, a spear, made out of a long stick with rabbit fur wrapped around the top to make it look more "real". Don't worry, it has a wooden tip.

They loved their new things. And, Andy took them back to the children's area in a separate trip. They bounced on a bunch of different bouncy things and saw some different animals. The best part is, that all this stuff is within walking distance of our house. Seriously, our subdivision was surrounded by events. I love the 4th in Cicero!

at the last doctor visit...

2011-07-12T21:17:00.002-04:00

Kella had a great check-up last week. She weighed in at 11 pounds 2.5 ounces. I know she's gotten longer, but our favorite doctor had let our favorite nurse go eat lunch and was doing everything herself and forgot to measure her length. Kella's looking good. The doctor says Kella is very strong and has good head control. She can also calm herself down pretty well. Then our doctor got some cuddle time with Kella which they both enjoyed. No shots at this visit, that will be next time. She's getting so big-growing out of some of her 0-3 month size clothes. She's starting to look more like a little baby than a newborn. *sigh*

the 4th fun continues after dark

2011-07-05T22:34:00.002-04:00

We kept the kids up to see the fireworks. Another perk about where we live is that you can see the fireworks from our front yard. It was the gathering place for several of our neighbors and their kids. One of the moms brought over some poppers, snake-things, sparklers and a couple bigger things that lit up for the kids. We put Andy in charge of the pyrotechnic display, probably because we had some matches. The kids liked it all. They created a small fire at the street corner and ran around with the sparklers. Ewan threw his back at Andy and then later apoligized for throwing "fire" at Andy.

Here are the kids, lined up, watching Andy light what we thought was a rocket, but turned out to be something that lit up and then made a bunch of noise. There were 3, and each was just as exciting as the first to the kids. The 4th of July is becoming one of my favorite holidays with moments like these!

4th of July parade

2011-07-05T22:13:00.003-04:00

We took the kids to the 4th of July parade. I love that it took less than 10 minutes to walk there. The boys loved that the parade participants threw a ton of candy their way. They even got dilly bars from the Dairy Queen people. The candy helped keep Liam in the wagon for most of the parade.

Here's Liam-tough decision-sucker or ice cream. He chose the sucker.

Nothing woke Kella up, not the marching band or the old tractors.

What you can't see is that all their pockets are bulging full of candy. (sidenote-Marcus and Cale purposely picked the same clothes to wear. They have a lot of the same tshirts and the past several days they have been coordinating their shirts. I call them the "twins".)

This was my favorite float. Santa Claus. He yelled, "Ho, ho, ho. I'm on vacation."

After the parade, Marcus, Cale, Kella and I took the long way back to the house. We stopped at a free face painting booth. Marcus wasn't feeling a face paint, but Cale was for it. He got this nice starburst with some sparkle. It actually stayed on until Andy took the Marcus, Cale and Ewan to the bounce house area that afternoon (they had a blast, by the way, and got lemon shake-ups afterwards).