Tag Archives: The Kids 2010

Meeting family

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Okay, so Tracy and Kevin are not blood family…but Tracy is as close to a little sister as I have. 

*She also has the cutest “giant” baby in the world (he just turned one and is way bigger than Ceili Rain)…hence the reason he’s called Super Wy!  You can see more of Super Wy at their blog, Life as a Carr.

And she adores my kids (and Kevin tolerates them).  So I have to share when she loves on my kids!  Especially the new ones.  This time, she did something even more amazing…but you have to wait tomorrow to see that!

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Party Time!

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Party Day arrived and after five days of telling Ace that he turned six on his birthday, he finally believed us (he thought he was going to be six at his party).
Lots of pictures less talk!


This year’s cake request: Blue dinosaur with red polka dot sprinkles (hey, it could’ve happened…have you ever seen a dinosaur with skin on???). Made by using a cake that fell apart and cream cheese icing smushed together and molded to look like a dino, covered in blue dyed buttercream icing…verdict: Adults thought it was yummy. Kids tolerated it and quickly took off to play the Wii.

Look what we installed in our house just for Ace’s party!!! Nah, we actually went off location (which is a big first time for us…didn’t think I could plan and get ready for a party at my house after just having a baby). This is our Family Y (YMCA). They just moved into a new facility without a big play gym and I was iffy as to whether it would go well. The kids loved it. As a friend said, “They make their own fun!” The above is actually the toddler nursery room.

Ace enjoyed climbing but he had fun on the Wii more!
And everyone on the Wii had an audience.

We did manage a game of “Pin the Skull on the Dinosaur” planned out by one of my best friends, Tracy.

And, yes, the pinata did get destroyed…

And there were a few tears shed…as is tradition for the pinata scramble!
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Getting Ready to Party!

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The morning before the party, I woke up and asked the kids if they wanted to make a pinata.  Why not?!?  It’s not like we had anything else to do.  Mark just laughed at me and so, the challenge was on to occupy their time and prepare for a party complete with a homemade pinata.

I’ve made one before with my mom, so Mark and I thought for sure the kids would enjoy it.  Zoe and Josiah did.  Ace and Liam weren’t thrilled about getting their hands dirty.  Mark and I had a blast.  This was his first pinata making experience.  It was ready to decorate the next day.  I decided that since Ace chose a dinosaur birthday cake, we’d make a volcano pinata.

Saturday morning…trying to get it decorated before the party that afternoon.

While I painted, Ace and Liam got the party favors ready.
Ta Da!!!  It turned out pretty good.  Although I did have to tell some people what it was supposed to be!  It really didn’t matter what it looked like…the kids just wanted to know what was inside and grab for it!
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Celebrating Ace-Man

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted a quick blurb that Ace actually had a birthday!  So, for the rest of this week, we’ll be celebrating his birthday in pictures (since I’m catching up and all).

He didn’t have his party until the Saturday after he turned six, but we did give him the choice of opening some of our presents at home or on the day of his party.  He decided birthday day would be just fine.

He has been playing backyard baseball (and yes, that can be played in our small backyard) for awhile.  Mark noted at how well he could hit a plastic ball and use a plastic bat.  So, we got him a wooden bat and some almost real balls.  They are a little softer and designed for t-ball so they’re bigger than regular baseballs…but we figured he could do the least amount of damage with these.  He could not wait for Mark to run outside and play with him. 

And, of course, I didn’t get any pictures of him actually using the equipment!  That would have been silly!!

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What to do…

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when guests arrive with small children!

We had some friends over for supper this past weekend.  I’m still not sure how the girls got in there and how Ginger got in.  The gate was locked on the Freedom Center.  Hmmm…

And no, Ceili Rain does not have sunburn.  She has mosquito bites all over her face.  It was like they saw all her sweet meat and launched in quickly!

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Bryant’s Two Weeks Old

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I know everyone is just aching to see how Bryant is growing. The posts last week were from waay back (that would be July) and they got swapped around so we could smather our blog with pictures of Bryant.

And so, thus begins a week of new posts and more on the little BJ.
Of course, to most of you, he’s not little…but compared to his brothers and sisters he is!
He had his two week check up on Friday.
Stats include:
10 lbs 1 oz (90%)
22 1/4 inches long (97%)
So he’s growing and growing and eating and spitting up and…well, doing the other gross things babies do. His spit up doesn’t concern us although it is a lot, it’s the choking and gagging during and after feedings that’s a little troublesome. It’s not enough to really make us worry too much, and he seems to adjust himself fine after an “episode.” So, we’re just watching. If he has reflux, any medicine he’s on will not help with the spit up but will help with the pain and the acid…so, because he’s not fussy, arching his back or doing other things that go along with really yucky acid reflux, we’re just waiting.
I informed Mark that I just simply couldn’t have another kid if they were all as difficult as our Bryant…if you’ve met him, you know I’m completely joking. He is, by far, the most laid back baby we’ve had yet. He’s content to look around. He does get angry when he’s hungry, sometimes when he’s wet, and sometimes when he’s tired. But his tired and wet cries are quickly calmed by being changed or picked up. And of course, the hungry cries go away as soon as he gets what he needs.
I truly wasn’t expecting another “easy” baby and I know he’s still got a great chance to change and get really grumpy, but right now we’re enjoying our four hour sleep stretches and contented little man.

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Mud Puddle Surprise

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One of the library books Ace chose the last library trip included a book called The Three Nasty Gnarlies.  On the back, Ace found a recipe for a dessert.  He asked that we make it while our friends were here.  I obliged even though it looked completely gross.  It was in fact called Grubby’s Mud Puddle Surprise.  The kids loved it.  It’s chocolate, peanut butter and cookies.  What’s not to love!?!

Here it is almost completely eaten.
This is how Josiah felt it should be eaten.
He found the “surprise”…a gummy worm.
Gross huh?!  But oh, so fun!!!
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Cheesey

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While visiting with Kristina and family at the jumping place and while waiting on our pizza, we ordered nachos to appease all our kids large appetites.  After the nachos were gone the big kids left to play.  The two littlest ones climbed onto the table and shared the leftover cheese.

Megan taught Ceili Rain how to dip her fingers into the sauce.  She was very happy with the process.  The pictures just do not do the cheesiness of our little ones justice.  They were pretty covered.  Luckily, it was very close to their skin tone so it blended in well after it dried (please know that we did eventually bathe them before they left…and that doesn’t count our pool play).

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Surprise Visits

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While waiting on Bryant, my best friend planned to come visit.  We were thrilled and prayed and prayed Bryant would come while she was here.  Alas, God said no to those plans.  But, while they were here, we had a wonderful visit.  My kids didn’t know they were driving nine hours just to visit us.  So, it was exciting to see their reaction when they pulled up.  The kids were pretty pumped and even though they hadn’t physically been in contact with each other (only visually…through Skype) they all picked up right where they left off!  Running and screaming and singing, “There are no cats in America” only a few minutes in to the visit.

Our husbands both speak computer…and so…this is what we found the first night we were all visiting.  Mr. John came up a day ahead because he had to work at the local fort this week.

This is what you do with nine kids when it’s bedtime.  Actually this is only six of them.  The crib kids (or ones who need to be contained during the night…except one of them who was still awake), got to sleep in pack n’ plays and various ensembles throughout the visit.  Now, here’s the ages of our kids…7, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1.  Yep…just imagine the decibel levels which led to this the following day:

We loaded them up as soon as a jumping place opened and threw them in.

The one year olds were super tired and just wanted to go to sleep but we convinced them to drive for a little while.

  We’ve taught our seven year olds well, I think!  These girls will talk on the phone for over an hour…every day if we would let them.
Kristina tried to line up the kids who were only semi-tired to get a quick picture.  Jack, the six year old was right behind Ace…I promise he was there.
Believe it or not, the next day was even more busy.  Since I was a day past due, we decided to see if we could get Bryant here by tie dying nine shirts and then heading for the pool.  I did not get pictures because we were all pretty busy.  Guess what?!?  Bryant still didn’t come!!!
You can see most of the t-shirts here.  Eight out of nine kids looking close to the camera (even though the humidity wreaked havoc on my camera)…not too bad!
James’s favorite saying, “Bye bye, see you soon.”  He was waving bye to us as they were getting ready to hit the road.  I was so grateful for the distraction and busyness of having someone in the house while we waited on Bryant.  Plus, Kristina was a big help too.  I actually got to sleep in one day till 7 even with Ceili Rain in our room.  The noise level was amazing but so much fun to know they weren’t fighting but enjoying each other. 
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