Easter 2010

We had a wonderful Easter again this year. I got my first Easter basket since being married. Gary made me a wonderful basket full of yum. The kids loved their goodies. Nate got a new pair of shoes (he needed some new ones), the girls got a fun egg shaped flower pot and seeds (they will take care of those since everyone knows I kill live plants!) not to mention fun hair bands, pencils, paper and socks. Collin and Danny got some green army men that were a HUGE hit! All of the kids and Gary got new shirts from Under Armor and the girls got new spring outfits.

I love the yearly tradition of getting the kids new Easter outfits and taking those Easter morning pictures. I always get pictures of them with their baskets, but the pictures of them all dressed up just touch my heart the most.

It just make me so sad that they look so old this year!

After a very nice church service full of beautiful music, we went to Grammy's house for a delicious lupper (lunch and supper) of turkey, ham and all the fixin's. Even Grandma and Pappy joined us this year. Of course, there was enough food for a small army. Oh my, were we all full!

Well, that's all for now. I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter!

After the Storms

We have had over 48 inches of snow in the last week. We live in a place that is used to maybe 4 or 5 inches at a time, so you can imagine that much snow has SHUT OUR WORLD DOWN! That means there has been no school for a week. Gary was off work for 4 1/2 days. We have had A LOT of in the house family time. All in all, it's been nice, but it was time for the kids go get out and play! Here are a few pictures of our snow covered world. Enjoy! (Please remember that Nathan is 5'9" and the snow drift is taller than he is!)

The Many Faces of Claire

I know that it's Christmas and I should be posting about that. I actually was going too and will in the next several days. First I wanted to share the surprise I found when I downloaded the pictures off my camera. Right in the middle of all of the pics I have taken, here are a few I had never seen before.

Let's just say that there is a never ending spectrum of emotion in one little body! Have you even seen such a range in less than 3 minutes? What a silly girl.

First Day of Vacation

We had the first day of Winter Break today. The kids played in the snow, I did laundry.

Playing in snow=Wet clothes that need washed.

Yippie for me! Anyway, the kids had fun.

Gary had off because the Federal Gov't in DC was closed. That doesn't happen very often, but it was a bonus day for him.

Fun in the Snow

The kids had a ton of fun playing in the snow today. I have to admit, I am not a fan of cold, wet snow. I am a fan of watching the kids have fun, so outside I went. They really enjoyed themselves.We don't have much of a hill, but we make the most of the little one in our front yard. It's Chip's first winter. Although he hates rain, we have found out that he loves the snow. Who knew? Nathan tried "snow boarding" with a sled. He did a pretty good job. As you can see, they had a really fun time. I was happy to get the pictures, but was equally happy to go in and make some hot chocolate!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

We are in the middle of a blizzard! The first huge snowfall since we moved to this house 2 years ago. We have had over a foot of snow in the last 22 hours, and it is beautiful! Poor Gary spent 3 hours with the snowblower this morning and then another hour this evening. The problem is that it keeps blowing back over what Gary shovels. It's too cold outside for the kids to go out to play. Maybe tomorrow the wind will stop blowing so much, and we will go out and have a ton of fun. For now, we are thankful to be safe and warm inside!

Papa's Legacy

When my grandfather passed away, he left us a wonderful gift of a trip to Walt Disney World. We are so excited as we never thought that Disney would be an option for our large family due to the expense. We have planned the trip for January-the week of Nathan's 13th, Claire's 8th and my 39th-for the first time, really!-birthday. It will be the trip of a lifetime! We are thrilled that Grammy and Grandpa Dud will be going with us. I think Grammy and I are having as much fun planning the trip as anyone could! It's so fun to dream about the kids' faces seeing WDW for the first time. So, thanks again, Papa. Thanks for your generosity, your love and your thoughtfulness. We miss you so much!

Thanksgiving

We are again at the Thanksgiving time of year. I am so thankful for happy, healthy, fun kids, a wonderful, supportive husband and a whole bunch of terrific friends. I couldn't be more blessed. I am also, as unusual as it might seem, thankful that my Papa is in heaven, not here on this Earth. He was hurting and unhappy for so long, it seems somehow good that he isn't enduring another Thanksgiving dinner. That being said, I will miss him at my table.

I am making Thanksgiving dinner again this year. I love knowing that I can cook up a feast and there will be something there that everyone will love. This year I am making both turkey and ham...not sure why I want both as this is the smallest group we have had in years, but I want both! I'm cooking, so I get what I want! Gary's family will be joining us, but my mom and Dudley will go to my brother's house for the first time. I hope they have a super time, although I will miss them. Maybe they can come over for some dessert when they get home.

I hope everyone takes a moment to reflect on their past year. My wish for each and everyone of my friends and family is that they can find many things to be thankful for and that they take the time to thank God for all of their blessings. I know I will!

What's Up?

Well, since I've been away for a while, I thought I might try to fill in the cracks. As you can imagine, life doesn't stop just because I don't blog.

My wonderful Papa went to be with the Lord after several weeks of decline on October 23rd. While we will miss him, we are all aware that he is out of his pain and suffering. The children were all able to say good bye and tell him how much they loved him in the days before his passing. He lived a full and adventure filled life and we are all better for having had him in our lives. We had a lovely memorial service to celebrate his life and many kind friends came to support our family. Thank you for all of the kind

thoughts and prayers on our behalf.

Collin and Danny's soccer team, coached by Gary, went 8-3 this season. They were in 3rd place at the end of the season. They did GREAT! The improvement from beginning to end of the season was remarkable. Even a ref commented on it! We were so proud of our boys. Collin was in his boot (due to a bruised heel bone) and missed the last 4 weeks of the season. He was released to play the Wednesday before the playoffs. He was really missed while he was out, and played a big role in the tournament win. Danny, my trouper, had 102 fever Thursday before the tournament. That didn't slow him down though. He was feeling better enough to play in the two tournament games. He really pushed himself to get better in time so he didn't "let his team down". He made the winning goal in a shoot out of the first round win. They had a fun dinner at the local pizza place to get their trophies.

The team was really generous and gave Gary a gift certificate to Cheesecake Factory. We went yesterday while we were shopping for our new iMac and it was delicious.

Nathan's team is undefeated. They won the tournament this past Saturday and have one more game against the winners from across the county next Tuesday night. They will play under the lights at our local high school soccer field. The team is really looking forward to that! Nate is also playing basketball for the middle school. We have had a few conflicts with the practices, but Nate seems pleased to be on both teams. Thankfully both coaches have been understanding. He, as always, is having fun keeping busy.

Kaylyn, Claire and I are now considered professional cheerleaders! We feel like we have cheered from one game to the next, barely stopping to breathe. We love it. I will often give the girls a chance to stay at home with Grammy, but they are my shadows and don't want to be left behind. Sooooooo, off we go to cheer for our boys.

Report cards came out last week. We had conferences for all of the kids. I am so humbled by the blessing each child is. They are so smart, sweet and amazing. Each and every teacher took the time to tell me how great the kids are and how they are kind to other kids as well as their siblings. Kaylyn, of course, had straight A's. Nathan had just one B in high school Algebra, the rest A's. Claire had mostly 4's (the second grade equivalent of A's). Collin and Danny had only 2 B's, a C in Science (apparently there was a Science test that kicked BOTH of their butts!) and the rest A's. Not a dummy in the bunch! How special is that? We are so blessed!

Kaylyn is enjoying the flute. She is just amazed (well, really I am too!) that I can play her music after all of these years. We have had fun working together on leaning to play. She is a fast learner.

Collin and Danny were playing trombone, but that ended yesterday. Apparently Danny was having a hard time finding a note, and the teacher got on him about it. Danny was embarrassed and upset, so both he and Collin decided that they were returning their trombones never to play again. They came home and told me the story and had their minds made up. No matter how many times or ways I asked them to give it one more chance, they were DONE! There was no way Danny was giving the teacher the chance to embarrass him again, and Collin was being loyal (one of his BEST qualities) to his brother. When they left this morning, they both took the trombones with them. I can't wait to hear what the music teacher said. I am hoping that she can convince them to try again, but I don't hold out much hope. When they make up their minds together, there isn't much hope of changing it.

Well, I hope that fills in a little. I have missed being my blog the last month or so. If you stopped by, why don't you leave a little note to tell my you've been here. Thanks!

We have a new addition to the family! Our old (ok, it was about 5 years old...to me it's not THAT old!) computer gave up on us. We have been without for 2 weeks now. Today, Gary and I went to the Apple store and bought a new computer. We have gone MAC. I think I love it...but we will have to wait and see. I was sold when the guy showed us what the photo program could do. I was ready to sign on the dotted line then. I actually have been told that my old computer could've done that if I bought the software, but this seems so easy. It is really intuitive. Anyway, now that we are back online, maybe I'll get back to our blog. Check back tomorrow and see!

We're Crazy

We were thrilled to have a weekend with no soccer games. It's Homecoming at the local high school, so they cancel most rec. activities. Nathan was supposed to have a game at the local private school, but it was cancelled due to the other team not having enough kids. Yay right? We don't have to rush to any games and no stress of making sure everyone is ready to play. Nahhhh, not in our house. We went to a friend's J.V. soccer game at the next county over last night and then got up and rushed to the game that the girl's team was playing! So much for our lazy Saturday morning! In my defense, Nathan's coach coaches both the girls and boys team in Nathan's age group. I watch the girls practice almost as much as I watch Nathan. I felt like we should support them! Soooooo, on our lazy, no soccer weekend, we attended other people's kids games. We are CRAZY!

Broken Water Main

Our elementary school has a broken water main for the second day in a row. Now, let me be clear, I love my kids and I love having my kids home with me. That being said, I had PLANS for the last 2 days. I was going to breakfast with Jenny yesterday and I was to meet with a nice lady from church about getting involved with the seniors ministry yesterday, then rescheduled to today. I remembered to reschedule yesterday, but guess who forgot today. Yep, poor lady was at the church waiting for me to show up (not quite as bad as it sounds since she works there) and I was a no show. GREAT impression! Oh well, thankfully she understood my crazy.

Where have we been?

Well, it's been a long time since I have consistently posted. Did anyone (other than Misty) notice? In addition to a triplet birthday, let me give you an idea of what has been going on around here:

Yep, soccer, soccer and more soccer. Not only do the three boys play, but Gary coaches (yet again) Collin and Danny's team and, when he can, he helps out with Nathan's team. Please, don't think I am complaining, because I'm really not, but we are BUSY! We have practice/games at least 4 nights a week and then usually 2 games on the weekend. Add to that, Nathan has just started ref-ing 7-8 year old games. He is really good with little kids, he knows HOW to play the game, and he earns a little bit of money. Not a bad deal! It's been interesting for him to be on the other side of soccer games.

Nathan is also trying out for the middle school basketball team. It's amazing that he has hardly touched a basketball since last season, but he told me he is in the top 4 or 5 kids trying out. He has been blessed with athletic genes! (Believe me I thank God that he didn't get my athleticism!) He will also play on a rec team, but I think it'll be fun to play for his school. All of this is a great reason to keep his grades up because he will be yanked off any sports team the minute his grades drop!

Collin and Danny have both decided to play the trombone for the school band. Kaylyn took up my old flute. Collin and Danny are borrowing their trombones from the school, but, of course, to get my old flute in shape to play, we had to pay $120 for Kaylyn. Oh well, I just hope she gets as much enjoyment out of it as I did.

Last, but surely not least, Collin has had heel pain on and off for the last several months...maybe even longer. Since he started to consistently limp, I took him to the orthopedist. He was sent for a MRI and it turns out he has a bruised heel bone. We were told if we didn't treat it, it would become a stress fracture. Soooooooo, now Collin has a lovely boot for his left foot for the next 4 weeks. He can't play soccer or participate in P.E. He will get it off just in time for soccer playoffs if it heals properly. I hope so!

Well, that about sums it up. Thanks for coming back to our little blog.

Happy Birthday!

Eleven years ago today my 3 miracle babies were born. We were told that I would NEVER have 3 healthy babies and we needed to do "selective reduction". That was never an option for us...NEVER! I would so love to take my 3 "unhealthy" babies back to that doctor! (I would except that time was a little bit of a blur-I was in shock you know!-and I don't remember which doctor said that to me!) We are so blessed! Happy birthday Kaylyn, Danny and Collin. You make each and every day a miracle to me!

Hello?

Since school started, I've been a little busy. I've neglected my blog. My life had been something like this:

Get everyone up and out the door.

Try to get the house clean and neat.

Throw away the TON of papers that come home with the kids each day.

Grocery shopping.

Make dinner while helping with homework.

Eat dinner as fast as possible so that we can...

Run to soccer practice.

REPEAT

That's it. Just trying to get into the crazy school-soccer routine. While I love the kids playing soccer, it takes up a ton of time at night. Of course, my kids and husband are ALWAYS the last to leave the field and only when it is too dark to shoot on goal anymore. Again, I don't mind, but it makes for a later bedtime than I would like. All in all it's really a great time of life-busy but great!