Welcome to the World

Miss Maggie MAC is here! (This is the little one we were welcoming yesterday…well, not yesterday but last month)

Psst:  I made her hat!  My second attempt at crocheting!

Oh yeah, she’s beautiful!
Proud Mama, Tracy checking out my first attempt at crocheting…a baby blanket!  I have no idea what I was thinking starting with that.  Apparently, she didn’t know what to think either!
Yep, Aunt Abbie was super thrilled to hold this precious one.  Can’t get enough of these sweet newborns!
Ace enjoyed holding her too.
Liam thought it was pretty fun as well.
She was making a cute face and I couldn’t quite get it.  Oh well…here’s a better picture of her hat.
What can I say?!  Our family loves babies.  Welcome to the world sweet baby Maggie MAC!
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Time to Get Out!

I couldn’t stand it anymore.  Our streak of beautiful comfortable weather has just continued and continued.  So, one day last week, we escaped for lunch and a trip to the locks.  Where we live there is a man made canal.  There’s a beautiful area that is where the locks are and the gatehouse for the canal.  It really is truly beautiful. There’s a bike/walking trail that runs from the gatehouse to the end of the canal too. k We’ve never biked it all the way, but we have gone down some of it.  It’s truly gorgeous.  The kids enjoyed being able to breathe fresh air and play on the playground and I loved the scenery.

Just chillin’ in the swings.
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Overheard

Proud Mommy Moment:  The kids are outside playing while I get some things done in the kitchen (aka my office).  I have the window open should a need arise and I can hear them singing at the top of their lungs:

“The joy of the Lord, is my strength.  The joy of the Lord, is my strength.”

They make it through two verses and then pause and seem to have some kind of discussion.  During that pause my heart swelled.  I was so proud.  My children are remembering and singing the hymns we sing each night during worship.  Wow!  Look how “holy” they are!  I’m just the best mother in the…wait, what are they singing now…

They belt out with, “He tells me funny jokes and I laugh Ha Ha.  He tells me funny jokes and I laugh, ha ha.” 

Proud mommy moment deflated.

Now, this verse is not in our hymnal and, after sharing with Mark, learned it is a variation from a verse Mark taught them, “He fills my heart with laughter and I say haha.”  Yep, I’m proud again…

***
Josiah can be particular about certain things.  Shoes and socks are one of those things.    He’s been learning to put on his socks by himself and his shoes too.  However, it’s been quite distressing for him.  One day he came up to Mark looking all perplexed with his socks in his hands.

“Daddy, I don’t know which sock goes on which foot.”  He announced.  And he was serious.

We tried to tell him it didn’t matter, but to him it does.  So, now, when he asks us which sock goes on which foot, we examine the socks, and then declare which one goes on which foot.

And one day that backfired, because he forgot what I told him.  And then when I told him it was the opposite foot from my previous statement he got all confused.  So, then I had to go back and “reexamine” the socks and change my answer again.

***

Speaking of socks.  Mark was giving the announcement to get socks and shoes on to go to church one evening.  Josiah was running around searching and searching.  He finally came to Mark and announced, “Daddy, I don’t know where my socks are!”

Mark looked down and informed Josiah, “They’re on your feet dude.”

Josiah smiled, and said, “Oh!”  and then went and found his shoes.

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Skating and Tubing

I did get to venture out to do activities two days.  On Monday, I went snowboarding…okay, well, let’s just say I took a lesson.  The only way I could stop was to fall down so I stayed on the bunny slope and since I didn’t have any ski pants/or ski bib, my rear was numb for hours (I’m talking hours) afterwards.  Then Friday, the day before we left, I got to go skating and tubing.  That was fun!  I’d never skated outdoors. 

And several of our kids had never skated at all.

But that didn’t stop them from trying…

And falling…

And trying some more…

Ace got really good before we left.  I was proud of how hard he tried.  He fell pretty hard a few times too but he got right back up and tried again.  Josiah was more interested in building a snow castle for a long while.  I was so glad we didn’t have to pay for him to skate!

 Let me just say that snow tubing is a blast and is really physically demanding.  My arms were sore for three days after we went.  But it was so worth it!

 Yes, this is me.
 And this is Papa!
 Zoe…she flipped her tube once, laughed, got back up and went again.  She thought that was really cool.
Even Grandmere tried it out.
I missed posting pictures of J, O, and G going but they were with us and had a great time too.  We were able to race down some of the runs.
At the end of the day, it’s all about chillin’ and relaxin’ dude.  I took a breather for a few minutes and watched Zoe and my nieces and nephews go.   If only I had a video of me trying to get up out of that knee high snow drift.
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Back at the Ranch…

Well, with several little ones that couldn’t take being out in the cold and snow for long periods of time, I and the grandparents and Aunt B did a lot of indoor maintenance.  So, we got lots of fun pictures of the kids…Oh, before I start…want to know how much luggage and stuff one has to take to be snowed in in the mountains with our six kids???  No, well, tough, I’m going to show you.

Visiting cousins…
Bryant was about to launch an attack because K had his toy!

This is O with her little brother K and Ace holding Bryant.
Getting ready to just take our five out (Bryant never went out but once briefly for pictures), took a good 45 minutes.  No.  I do not want to live up north!
Zoe and I learned to crochet thanks to Grandmere!

With a winter storm looming and temps getting way low, we had a morning inside with everyone.  We split up into groups.  I grabbed some extra sugar and flour I had brought and mixed it with peanut butter to make playdough.  It was great fun, except that I forgot the twins were allergic to peanut butter and we were all stressing trying to make sure they didn’t grab any (Way to go Aunt Abbie)!

Another group played Monopoly with Papa!
Climbing on cousins is a treat!

Sometimes brothers are just way too comfy.

It’s easier to play a game if you stick your tongue out.
Quick Daddy has the camera…make a silly face.
Tic Tac Toe with Grandmere.
Best Cousin buds!

Just a few shots of the getting ready chaos.  There was always someone missing a glove, hat or boot at some point during this time.

Another day, we had the little ones inside and to keep them busy, I filled up a sink full of bubbles and they wen to town.  They did really good keeping it in the sink too!

Papa was watching the kids while we were getting supper ready!

“What is that thing in your mouth, dear cousin???”
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The Great Outdoors

Since the biggest part of our trip was the snow.  I’ll post those first…

Another bunch of Characters!
Skiing…
 Grandmere and Zoe getting ready.

 G & H ready to learn from Uncle B.

 Liam enjoyed going fast.
 O did an amazing job and enjoyed the beginner slope.

 It’s cold!!!

 This is how you stop.

All ready to go!
Sorry that I don’t have more pics of Zoe.  I was able to go out and watch her briefly one time, but didn’t get a lot of pictures.  Not sure why they didn’t make it here…there’s a lot of pictures though!
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Happy Birthday Liam!

Okay, I’m still sifting through the three hundred plus pictures from our ski trip…they should be up next week.

So, to keep from getting even farther behind…here’s Liam’s birthday.

I got in on one of the Daily Deal websites and was able to get a party package for six to the bowling alley for half price.  We got two because with our family, well, you just need two to accommodate us and our friends!

This was the first time bowling for all of our kids (unless you count Wii practice before we went).

Pre birthday celebration at Ge & Granddaddy’s!

 Trios make Liam happy!
 So do Transformers!
 Celebrating on birthday day with Papa and Grandmere!

 And on to bowling…

 Getting help!
 If you hold your tongue just right, you’ll get a strike.
Super Wy!

 Humor me…it’s supposed to be a bowling ball out of chocolate sprinkles.  At least it tasted good.
 Posing for the camera.
Present time!
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Winterfest with a Bunch of Characters

We’ve been out all last week (hence the sporadic posting).  Well, we haven’t just been out.  We’ve been in the mountains.  Covered in snow.

We were able to take a family trip with Papa, Grandmere, Uncle B and Aunt B and their seven children.  Yep, our motto of “Go, go, go” may have hit it’s all time high.

We traveled to Beech Mountain, NC.  From all respects, we had perfect “skiing” weather.  It was clear the day we came up, snowed the next day, clear the next, snowed a lot the next day, and then clear and cold after that.  By the time we had to leave, the roads were all clear.  We praised God throughout the week for the weather He sent.  We fully expected to just see snow on the slopes and at the ski resort, however, we had it everywhere.

So, while we continue to unpack, and recover from a stomach bug (we traveled didn’t we???), I’ll share a few things I need to remember:

***
Liam got a kick out of telling his aunt and uncle jokes.  They encouraged it too.  At one point, Liam announced, “It’s flowing out of my brain and down to my tummy.”

***
Our nephew H (once described as Liam on speed but has since slightly, ever so slightly toned down to “just like Liam”), has now been renamed as “Me too.”  Everytime we (especially Mark or I) would announce we were going to do something, he would pipe up, “Me too, Me too.”

***
H is also quite the daredevil/stunt artist.  Mark was able to observe him on skis as he went down the learners’ slope and straight into the mesh gate.  He and Uncle B were exclaiming, “H stop, H stop!”  And as he quickly neared the gate, “H fall!  H FALL!”  They continued to watch as he ran into the gate, bounced off, laughed, and turned and skied off.

I got to observe this daredevil spirit when we went ice skating.  He got tired of waiting on his mom to take him around the rink so he just took off without anyone.  Skated two steps, fell hard, laughed, and got back up and did it again….wash, rinse, repeat.

***
Mark and I both got a kick out of the sweetness of the cousins.  They all played together so well (which was a blessing in place crammed with nineteen people).  We got to watch Josiah cuddling with a cousin to look at a book.

Mark told me about Zoe and Cousin O on the slopes.  They would  race Mark to the lift, get in on a lift in front of him and he would watch them giggle and talk and play the whole way up.  It really warmed our hearts!

***
We learned that all ski personnel are dudes.  When we referred to any of them we would say, “There was this dude.”  As we discussed this, I remarked my snowboard instructor (yes, I said snowboard…yes, I tried snowboarding), was old.

Aunt B replied, “He’s an old dude.”

By the end of the week, we even had Papa calling them dudes.

Is that all the funnies???

I think that’s enough.  Stay tuned for pictures, between the three families, we have about four hundred of them…don’t worry, I won’t totally bore you with unbelievably cute pictures of my kids, nieces, nephews, and family…or maybe I will (insert evil laugh here).

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Overheard in our Home

After watching The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Ace commented, “During the scary parts,  I burped.  It was a nervous burp.  No one could hear it.”

I think he was describing the “knot in your stomach” feeling.

***

While discussing various Christmas traditions, we started discussing how Martin Luther may have contributed to some.  To which Ace replied, “Martin Luther?  Is he the guy that signed the 900 species.”

***
At our non-denominational church, during Awana, Liam’s cubbie class was discussing the verse from Matthew, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”  His teacher asked the class how they could prepare the way of the Lord.  His hand shot up and he said, “Become Baptists!”  I believe he meant become baptized.  Although that’s not the most exact answer either.  We’re so proud!

 ***
While playing MarioKart on the Wii at Ge and Granddaddy’s, Liam started yelling, “I’m invincible!  I’m invincible!  I’m invincible! I’m…not invincible!”  which means he just crashed off of something.

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