Our Thanksgiving......

So for Thanksgiving we were planning on going into Ohio to Joe's family. His brother Matt was coming in and we haven't seen him for awhile so we were all excited about the visit. We got ready that morning and I noticed Josie felt a little warm. We have been having a time with Josie and constantly getting strep throat. She has had it nearly 6 times since April...she is typically asymptomatic other than some bumps on her cheecks and she acts REALLY bad. Occassionally she'll run a low grade temp but that has only been once. As soon as she starts acting worse than her usual and those bumps on her cheeks pop up I know it's strep....and it always is. Anyhow, she was not feeling well I could tell but we figured we'd see how she did and gave her some meds to take down the fever. In the back of my "mommy mind" I thougth we maybe should stay home and not drag her on a 3 hour trip feeling crummy....but knew we wouldn't get a chance to seee Matt for quite awhile so off we headed. Well, 20 minutes or so into our trip Josie got worse....she was visiably not feeling well at all and moving her mouth funny, which to me meant she was goign to puke. I kept asking her and she just cried and cried, her fever was not going down either. I knew we should head back but about 20 minutes later the choice was made for us....Joe went into a gas station to get the kids a drink and I saw it coming...jumped out of the car in the rain and Josie puked all over me. We headed back and I took her into the doctor just sure it was strep again. Well, of course with all the symptoms this time it wasn't! Just a virus. So we spent Thanksgiving at home....I went to the store and got a turkey, and made all the fixings to go with it. The kids made decorations for our table.....name place turkeys...they were very cute. ;)

So it wasn't exactly the Thanksgiving day we had planned...I had alot more work....but it was a wonderful day with just the 6 of us being Thankful for all we have and each other!

5 months old!

Emmie Jayne is 5 months old today!! She is so close to sitting up by herself. I don't think it will be much more than a week or two before she has it down. She continues to be such a good natured baby. She has no teeth yet, and no signs of any so far. She loves to watch her sisters and brother play. Owen can have her cracking up so easily.

And yes, she still has her blue eyes!

Chunky Monkey

Emmie Jayne is growing by leaps and bounds! She will be 5 months next week.


Here she is showing off all her baby rolls!





























Girl loves her milk as you can tell! I am pretty sure she's my biggest baby yet. I haven't gone back and checked my baby books but she is the only one who is not totally "true to size" as far as clothes go. My others were always right on with clothing....as soon as they hit 6 months they went to 6-9 and so forth. Emmie Jayne is already into 6-9/6-12 though!





























I snuck this picture of Maggie and Josie the other night after they had gotten ready for bed. They asked if they could watch a show before going to bed and I told them yes. I thought they meant in the front room but found them on my bed laying side by side.

soccer and parties...

This was Maggie's last year to play indoor soccer at the church, so she and Owen played on the same team and Joe coached them. She has played since she was 3 here and she was sad that she can't play next year. I didn't get any pictures of them games but this was the end of season banquet. The kids were getting their trophies.





















Their team this year was all their friends: Maggie, Owen, Isaac, Zoe and Noah, and one other little girl as well. Joe and Jeff coached the team together since both of them work long hours and travel some. Joe did a great job working out his work and didn't miss a game though. He does a great job juggling work, and the kids schedules. He does travel quite a bit but does his very best to be there for all their activities and games and has always coached their teams, which is great for me so that I don't have to go sit through all the practices!




Owen had his Thanksgiving program at school last week and he was so cute. He was so excited about it and all the songs they were singing, he wouldn't sing any for us and told us he wanted it to be a surprise. Here are a few of them performing.




I had told him I wanted him to do a great job of standing still and paying attention during his program (he isn't the most attentive) and in the middle of the show, after a song, he looks out at me and says, "Am i doing a great job??" And yes, he was!














After the program they had cookies and snacks. Owen loved his turkey cookie!

The little girls

With school in and Maggie gone all day and Owen gone in the mornings everyday I have alot of time to spend with the little girls. I often use this time to get things done around the house that are a little more difficult to get done once Owen gets home and becomes my constant sidekick. (I tell him that song "stuck like glue" was written about he and I) :) I try to play one on one with Josie while Emmie is napping or let her join in to help me out around the house, which she loves at this age. I miss so much Maggie and Owen being home all day and know see how fast that time goes by so I don't want to let it be spent cleaning and doing laundry every day.
Emmie is getting so big and is as cute as can be. She is getting around the room by rolling everywhere and LOVES her toes.




















































Here is how I found Josie the other day after coming down from putting Emmie down for a nap. She looks quite comfy in Owen's chair huh. And you can bet she is watching a barbie/princess movie. :)

Livingroom campout

Joe built the kids a tent this afternoon and they played in it all evening. So when bedtime came along they decided they wanted to sleep in it. I agreed, although i was not so sure how it would work out. Here they are all tucked in and ready for bed.....












As I had expected, Josie didn't make it too far into the night. She couldn't seem to stay put and lay down. Owen and Maggie did great though and slept all night. They were so cute listening to them talk as they fell asleep.

Trick or Treat!

We got a bit of a late start on pumpkins this year....as in they still weren't carved on the morning of trick or treat. I have learned that life with 4 little ones isn't as organized and easy to stay ahead of the game as it once was. But I wasn't about to let trick or treat come and go without carving pumpkins! So that morning we brought all the pumpkins in the house and the carving began. The kids were all quite excited, Josie had no idea what "carving a pumpkin" meant..but she was excited to get started.




























Everyone took their makers and begin drawing what they wanted their pumpkins to look like.






































This is Joe's area as I just like to take the pictures and not get into all the carving and goo. Owen and Josie are like me and not so much into the gooey stuff. Maggie on the other hand is right in there with Joe getting all the yucky stuff out and loving it!


























































Josie began on her little pumpkin and then leans over to Joe, says, "I wanna tell you a seeecet (secret) and whispers in his ear that she wants a princess pumpkin. How cute she is!


























This years pumpkins were quite "original" since the kids did all the drawing and Joe just did the cutting.



























Emmie Jayne joined in the pumpkin carving.....but it must have been more excitment than she could handle. We looked over and here she was totally asleep.





























The pumpkin carving took up the morning and than the kids played, Josie napped, until trick or treat time. We always let the kids go around our neighborhood before heading over to have a trunk at trunk or treat at our church. The kids were so excited and Owen and Joe came up with an Indiana Jones outfit for Owen, since that is what he really wanted to be anyhow. I had gotten him the hat and whip on ebay for 5 bucks so a brown shirt, jeans, and Joe's belt tied around him and woolaaa....Indiana Jones!

























Here are 3 of the 4 of them out front before going around to the houses.























As I was standing here taking this picuture a cop car comes racing up the street. I was thinking, "man he is driving too fast!" when he puts on his lights and stops right in front of our house. There was a young hispanic kid walking rather quickly down the sidewalk, but I hadn't paid much attention to him. He was no more than 12. The cop jumps out of the car and tells the kid to put his hands on the car and begins to read him his rights and throws him in the car!! Me and the kids were standing there with our mouths hanging open I am sure. Joe comes out a minute later and we fill him in on what happened, although I have no clue what the kid did. Turnsn out he and some other kids had broken into a house down the street and stole some stuff. I couldnt believe it...he was seriously not even a teenager!!

My 3 little ladybugs.....





























We went through the neighborhood pretty quickly, Maggie and Owen were way ahead of us this year and Josie only hit about every 3rd house since she was more interested in eating the candy from each house as she walked. We than went over to the church and set up our trunk. Maggie wanted to go around right away so I let her, since I could see her from where i sat, and Owen and Josie went with Joe to get a hot dog before getting more candy. I handed out candy until Maggie came back and than she wanted to take over.



























After Owen and Josie went around and got their candy, Joe took the 3 older ones on the hay ride.































After a long funfilled night of lots of candy we headed home to sort through everything and for the candy trading to begin.

4 months old!

How fast the past 4 months have flown by....Emmie Jayne is 4 months old!!! I cannot believe how quickly my littlest baby has grown. And "little" doesn't really describe Emmie Jayne so much anymore....she is 26 inches long (95th %) and weighs 14 lbs. 15oz. (75th %). Yes, she is 1 oz away from being 15 pounds. And as someone recently asked me, "Is that all on your milk?".....Yes. It is. :) It is agreeing with her body quite well as you can see. She is the most delightful baby and smiles all the time. She is very contetnt just hanging out watching her brother and sisters play.

She is rolling like crazy both ways and holds her head up very well. She has found her feet and things they are a pretty great toy.


As you can see, she still has her blue eyes.....


























We all just love her to pieces. I am thinking she is going to be an early crawler, talker, mover.....she already has beaten her siblings at pretty much every milestone. I am hoping she slows down a bit though.....I am in no rush to get her out of the baby stage.

Happy 7th birthday Maggie!!

Maggie celebrated her 7th birthday this past week! She had 2 different parties, Thursday night after her soccer game we had some friends over as well as MiMi and JaJa to have cake, ice cream, and presents on her real birthday! She wanted a pink cake with yellow polka dots and a 7 on it, so that is what she got.























Here she is getting sung to and blowing out her candles.



































After cake and ice cream we moved along to presents.






























She got lots of littlest pet shops, ponys and a pillow pet, which she was thrilled about.





















The party was a short one since it was late already and the kids all had school the next morning. But she was glad to get to celebrate with everyone.


The next day was more birthday celebrating as she had a sleepover with some friends from school. This was what she wanted to do for her birthday and after much thinking I agreed. We invited all 5 little girls in her class , but only 3 were able to come. They got there that evening, Mom and Aunt Amanda were there to help things along through the night. The girls all played and then it was time for cupcakes and ice cream....after a dinner of macoroni and cheese and applesause (and chicken nuggets for Mag's friends)......Maggie is a vegetarian....which she loves to tell people. :)


























We sang happy birthday once again and had cupcakes this time.











































Maggie opened more gifts





























and we moved on to decorating pillow cases which the girls all thought was fun.

























We also made bead necklaces, which we waited to do until after Josie had gone to bed.


I told the girls they could stay up until 11, one of the girls was fast asleep by 8:30 but the others were running circles until lights out. They finally fell asleep by midnight and I settled down with Emmie Jayne in hopes of getting some sleep. Well, so much for that....around 1 am, the one girl who had gone to bed at 8 comes in and stands beside my bed saying nothing.....I wake up to find her staring at me and ask her what was wrong...she says she can't sleep. I get her situated back in her sleeping back and get back in bed. This continues on every hour until 6 am when I finally tell her she must lay down until 7....through the night she proceeds to tell me she needs to check her email, play a game on the computer, etc. Wow....so it was a long long night needless to say. The other little girls woke up around 7 and they all played until their moms came to pick them up at 10.

Maggie had a blast and loved her sleepover so it was well worth the sleepless night. But I am thinking next year we are going back to a regular birthday party!





Here are my 2 little sisters that are BFF's, posing for pictures. They love each other so much....