Presenting…

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Abbie

Let me just say there is no way to not post all of these adorable pictures, so bear with me.

Less talk…more pictures!

First up, the traditional first Halloween…let’s give it up for The Cat in the Hat!

The Littlest Prince

The Next to Littlest Prince

Not looking so princely here.

Our Not So Much Little Prince

I just have to say he’s pretty handsome.

And our fair maiden of the land…

All together (this was the best we could do)

Our little stairsteps!

Now for some words! Big huge gigantic thank you goes out to Grandmere who sewed her fingers to the bone helping make these costumes. Equal props go to Papa for entertaining everyone while we worked on said costumes. Grandmere did almost all of Zoe’s dress. I only hemmed and sewed sleeves in and the trim. I did all the boys’ shirts and then went to Goodwill and found black pants (you can’t tell but Ace and Josiah are wearing tuxedo pants!). And Ceili Rain’s costume, of course, was Josiah‘s two years ago.

And Zoe’s hairdo was inspired by Girly Do’s by Jenn.

Happy Birthday Fire Station!

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Abbie

Let me just say now that this new blogger post thing rocks!

Anyway, before everyone decided to get extremely sick, we were able to venture out last Saturday to celebrate our Fire Department’s 50th Anniversary. They had a big birthday party complete with hot dogs, chips, and cake. They also had a ton of fun and educational things to do.

This is Pluggie. It’s an RC fire hydrant. It squirts water and is supposed to “talk” via the operator…but the talking part wasn’t working. However, the water worked and the kids enjoyed getting hit!

They also enjoyed running from Pluggie. I think the fireman who was operating it had more fun than the kids. He kept hiding from them.

Zoe enjoyed this, but I think the boys enjoyed it more. They got to squirt a real fire hose and knock over a cone and tennis ball. The fireman didn’t turn it on full power (obviously) but the kids only cared about holding a fire hose and using it. We allowed them to do it, the first time, in age order, so Liam being third, grabbed the hose and turned it on before the fireman knew what was happening. It was really funny!

We really appreciate our fire department and all the hard work they do. We truly look up to and respect them as they sacrifice their time and lives to protect and serve us in our community!

It Just Keeps Getting Interesting

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Abbie

Tuesday, I took Ceili Rain in for an ear re-check and to basically have the doctor tell us she had an ear infection.

Yesterday: We picked Josiah up from Sunday school only to realize about all the way through worship that he was running a fever. Let it be known that a family of seven can not leave a service without leaving with flair! Although no children caused a scene imagine seven people getting up (well six, since Ceili Rain can’t walk) and trying to sneak out right before the pastor’s invitation.

Anyway, after some discussion with Mark, we decided I would take him to the after hours clinic. Two hours later, I left with what I needed since he had an ear infection in his right ear and came home to eat lunch, er, I mean, supper, um, a very late snack. Oh, and nurse Ceili Rain (who is feeling much better).

Next, Zoe’s been complaining about her stomach the past two days. Typical for her to complain one day, especially if she is not eating her fruits and veggies like she should. Anyway, two days in a row is odd. Usually, she can go to the bathroom and be fine. So, while I sat in the living room trying to eat quickly and trying to figure out if Zoe can go to Awana, she turned her head on the loveseat and threw up…then looked at it and started to run…then threw up…then stopped and threw up…then ran to the bathroom after we started trying to tell her to go in there and threw up on the toilet seat. All the while, between “episodes,” exclaiming, “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry.” To which we had to explain it wasn’t a problem…not to worry…and that she was definitely not going to Awana. She said her tummy didn’t hurt when she “released” her stomach contents, but I’m just hoping that was the reasoning behind the stomach pain. We shall see.

Three down…two to go…NEXT!

A Full Foliage of Fall Festivalllnnneesss

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Abbie

Trying to figure out if that title makes sense…hmmm.

Anyway, our church hosted a fall festival this past weekend and we ~~survived~~ delighted taking all of our children to it.

First, we caged them.

Then, we spun them around until they got sick (not really…no one got sick that we know of…our kids have excellent inner ear abilities, including that you can spin Zoe around a ton and she comes off walking straight as an arrow…probably because I spun her one too many times in the office chair when she was a toddler).

Thirdly, we stuffed them full of cotton candy…

…as big as their heads.

Josiah decided to save some for later! And this picture and the videos below made it all worth it.

Look at the Lights! from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.Next up, more spinning!

Attacking siblings from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.And then set them to attack each other.
After that, they crashed, hard, in their beds dreaming of all the candy they had in their sacks!

Pumpkin Patch

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Abbie

For your viewing pleasure…our field trip to the Pumpkin Patch…in pictures (with a little narration from moi).

This was pretty much his demeanor the whole trip. Lovely huh?! The boys’ behind us were part of a group who’s moms pretty much let us parent them. One little boy tried to throw a very large rock at some of the children before I told him (several times) to put it down.

Craft time! Lots of glue and small wiggly eyes. The kids enjoyed it and I had plenty of “glue skin” to play with the rest of the trip.

See? Happy Josiah.

Hay ride time!

Almost a smile!

This sweet little one has two older siblings who were with us. She thought the straw was awesome! Later she somehow managed a Cheese Nip down her onesie (saving it for later).

Most of the gang. Notice Josiah is absent.

He finally perked up when he found a granddaddy long legs (spider).
He is our boys’ boy.

And now we have our pumpkins that were not really picked from a patch…more like they bought pumpkins and threw them in this little area…the children, none the wiser and still enjoyed picking out a pumpkin.

Zoe’s BFF, Laura, came along even though her little brother was sick…they piggy backed in my van…cuz’ it’s a cool ride.

Ace’s BFF, Jack, who is Laura’s brother. He had a good time!

Liam enjoyed picking up the pumpkins, getting me to take a picture and the subsequently throwing them down.

Finally! A smile! Josiah was smiling because he was picking up the pumpkins and throwing them down (wonder where he saw that??).

Ta Da! Josiah loves getting pictures taken. We survived and had a great time! Thanks Kristina for letting me borrow your two!

Aha!

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Abbie

This week, I’ve been busy, as I said before, implementing ChorePacks. I really want to write more about those and how it’s worked (let’s just say lifesaver!) but have to find the time (maybe this weekend) to do so…But, I wanted to share an idea I came up with and implemented as well. Ace is a typical boy/kindergartner and therefore, has trouble focusing on what he is doing. And Zoe, well, Zoe’s a smarty and when I’m working with Ace or a little with Liam, Miss Firstborn just has to chime in with the answer. So, I grabbed these “tri-fold display boards” when I ran to the craft store last weekend and made this:There are five pockets on the boards that hold each days work. That way, if they want to work ahead, they can. The pockets are made of 12X12 scrapbook paper that was folded then taped onto the board. Although Ace’s is having a hard time staying on so we may have glue them on. On Zoe’s, I also laminated paper that I taped to the front of each pocket. That gives my firstborn (overachiever) her “to do” list for each day including her reading lessons.

This has been awesome to say the least. Ace really has benefited from it. Although he can still be distracted, it doesn’t happen quite as much. Now, I need to call these things something…right now, I just say, “Grab your divider, thingy, pocket, holder…” Any suggestions?

Not a bad deal for $4 each!!

Sew Lovely (or how we like to torture our kids)

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Abbie

My friend and I, on our excursion without kids and Mark’s lovely introduction to what it would be like with nine children six and under, found this adorable fabric and grabbed it up to be cheesy and make A-line dresses (not paid to link to them or give free stuff…just a disclaimer) for our girls who are roughly four months (the older ones) and four days apart (the younger ones). The babies were thrilled with this idea and chose to let us know by their cries of sheer ~~anger~~ happiness.

Okay, so they weren’t completely angry with us!

Yep, their best friends!

I used the different animals on the pattern in the girls’ shirts, cut them out, stuck some double sided fusible webbing on them and slapped them on some $3 long sleeve shirts for the boys! They turned out might cute and took about 2 minutes (but if anyone asks, it took forever and I gladly labored over it).
This here is James…he’s into a little bit of everything and is equally adorable…especially since what hair he has sticks straight up on his adorably drooly head.

And what photo shoot is not complete without Ceili Rain and Megan…

Screaming! In case you are wondering, I made Ceili Rain’s shoes too…they look a little better than last time…at least they keep her feet warm!

Bamapalooza Wrap Up

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Abbie

And now we’re ending our Gatlinburg vacation with group pictures (wipe those tears away, I’ve got some cute pictures of the kids coming up).

Yep, this is par for a family picture. Someone making silly faces. Check. Ceili Rain screaming because she’s hungry and tired. Check. Josiah with his finger up his nose. Check.

This is all but one of the kids. Zoe is holding A and Ace gets the screaming Ceili Rain…although she kind of looks like she’s smiling. One of the kids, R, decided he didn’t want to get a group picture. It didn’t help that we were all getting ready to leave the kids with the BDs as well. Here, we also have Josiah finishing off what was in his nose in his mouth (ewww, gross).
When we all went out to eat, we attacked found an older couple sitting at the gazebo to get our picture. I must say, if you are ever in Pigeon Forge you must eat at The Pottery House at Old Mill Square. Wonderfully beautiful atmosphere! The food was excellent. My only qualms was that it was raining and we couldn’t eat outside by all the pretty waterfalls!
Group picture! Ten couples and nine children six and under!! What a good time!

A Bushel not a Peck

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Abbie

To top off our week, we went to the Apple Barn. It had been raining and we didn’t really want ot push it by trying to go some where outdoorsy only to have to turn around and come back…so we went here instead. It’s an apple orchard/apple cider/yummy apple pies place…with a little bit of a general store thrown in. To top it off, I bought our annual bushel of apples while there. Fresh off the trees and a little cheaper than getting them at the chain stores. While the fried pies and apple cider were awesome…there was not much to do but it was relaxing as is.
What a sweet picture of one of our BDs with Josiah. I wish we could’ve gotten all of Josiah in but you take what you get.

Another BD givin’ some love to the fake birds.

She’s so smart, she can figure out them hard thinkin’ puzzles…I do declare.

See, Cindy, we did have some school!! I actually, I think we bored her to tears with all this shopping.

They had this plastic painted Santa so all the kids just had to sit on him. We humored them, since they’ve never had their picture taken with Santa (gasp all you want to…not a big deal to us, nor them).

In a freaky sort of way, he looks real!

At the Cabin

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Abbie

Funny, how they kind of have the same look in their eyes. This is Uncle S with Ceili Rain. He was pretty much a baby whisperer and loved getting another baby in the cabin asleep! Practice for later.
Last minute, I told Mark we needed to take some toys, so we loaded up the box of trains. What a hit! Josiah loved sharing them with R and J who are both close to his age.

We forced the BDs to play Horton Hears a Who. Not sure if they enjoyed it but we enjoyed making them act silly!

My kids enjoyed acting silly too.

Our BDs were delighted that the pool table was right outside their door. They played quite a bit and got pretty good at it. Here is the final tournament as Zoe looked on in suspense.