I Just Love This One

This is my favorite picture of my four, and I thought it deserved its own post. I love how they are all lined up in order of age and height. I most especially love that all the big kids are looking at the camera and smiling. They are all so precious (if I do say so myself :)

Pumpkin Carving

Yesterday the kids and I finally got around to carving our pumpkins. Just a tip, make sure your pumpkins are room temperature before you carve them. Scooping freezing cold seeds and pulp from a frozen pumpkin is hard work and just about impossible for cold little hands.

She was the all-star of pumpkin carving. She cleaned out her pumpkin, Lila's and Griffin's, and then Jax begged her to do his because his hands were too cold! You can always count on Sunny Mae to get the job done!

Love Jax's smile. We get so few pictures with his real smile in them.

Lila wasn't too sure about all this at first, but by the end she didn't want to stop.

Mr. Grouch with his baby pumpkin.

These are out of order, but this is the kids before their school Halloween parade today. Snake Eyes/Ninja, and Sharpay.

Doesn't he look thrilled?

The finished product. This was the "crazy" picture. Sunny always insists we have one.

My sweet 4! Enjoying sitting on the kitchen table.

Lila hard at work. Hers turned out really cute and we found lots of fun stuff inside. While we weren't watching she shoved all the seeds and stuff back inside, along with some color crayons.

The Dora Phase Has Begun

It is official. Lila loves Dora the Explorer!

Her first look at the Dora knows your name doll.

Holding her Dora doll and watching a Dora DVD.

This is a huge event in our house. You see, Lila doesn't like T.V. Not at all, not even one little bit. She never would watch a Baby Einstein video, no Barney, no Teletubbies. Nothing! That was sorta fine b/c I'm not a huge fan of T.V. for the kids anyway, but sometimes it does come in handy. You know, sometimes you need a shower or to make lunch and it would be nice for Lila to be occupied with something.

Last week Sunny put in a Dora DVD and Lila was hooked. This week I remembered that Mok had given Sunny a Dora knows your name doll when she was 1 1/2 or 2. I knew I had saved it, but where? Well, I found the doll easily. Lila was thrilled. It was programmed to say Sunny and all the things Sunny likes. The problem was that the doll came with a special USB cord and a CD to program it with, and of course we used it once and stuck it somewhere back when we lived with my parents. I was on a mission to find it and luckily the CD and cord were in the same box together in the basement and I found them easily (it pays to be semi-organized :).

So, we programmed Dora and now she knows Lila's name and all of her favorite things and Lila is in Heaven!

At first she carried around Dora and her other favorite doll of the moment, Mariah (also from Mok to Sunny years ago). Pretty soon Mariah was put in the toy box and Dora is ruling the roost!

Family Pictures

We did family pics while B.J. was here. Jess's friend Sarah took them and she was awesome. I wish I could post more, but I'm afraid my Internet will go out while I try to upload them, so here is a sample of the pictures.

Love this one. It really captures all of their personalities. In 99% of the group pictures I have Lila is running away. This one is no different :)

We took pictures with Ryan's family last week, so those will be coming soon.

Random Pics and a Family Update

This is how Griff takes a nap in his swing. He loves to have his face covered by blankets. The more the better.

Lila was getting ready to go to bed and she was so smiley I had to grab a picture.

With her Daddy. She is definitely a daddy's girl.

Sunny and her baby boy. She had him all fixed up in the bouncy seat and was playing with him. I guess she didn't realize he was right in the window and the sun was so bright he couldn't open his eyes.

Griffin was screaming at me and I had Jax hold him while I made a bottle. As soon as I gave him to Jax he stopped crying and started smiling and talking to Jax. Sweet, but what am I, chopped liver?

Lila has been getting more and more involved with Griffin. She is so helpful to me while the other kids are at school. I can't believe all the things she can do with him and she is only 19 months old. I think the big kids have set a really good example for her as to how she should treat her baby brother.

She love to hold him for as long as I will let her.

Playing on the floor.

Proof that he actually does smile and play. Especially with Sunny.

And....his normal grouchy face. LOL!

We have had a busy few weeks, lots of sickness (Griffin is still sick and I'm debating taking him to the doctor), school, and playing with friends. Jackson and Sunny are both really enjoying school and doing very well. Jackson's got an award from the Principal for following directions. It was called the Principals top 200 club. Which is pretty good since there are 1100 kids at the school. His favorite subject is quickly changing from math to spelling. He has an excellent memory and we are finding we don't even have to practice his words with him because he is able to learn them all by himself. His reading has also taken off and he is enjoying lots of different books. He loves to stay up late at night (late around here is 7:30 hahaha) and read in bed.

Sunny thinks kindergarten is awesome. She loves most of the kids in her class. There is one boy that is horribly behaved and she loves to come home and tell about his exploits. This week he yelled at the teacher that he hated her, crawled around the floor under the tables, attacked another boy, and screamed and wouldn't come in from recess. WOW! She has a special "attachment" to a little boy named Connor who is so cute. Well, I think it is him attached to her, he follows her out to the car and doesn't want to stop talking to her. 5 year olds are so funny. She is just learning to read and is doing great, but she gets frustrated b/c she can't do it as good as Jackson.

Lila is just cute, sweet, and funny. Really funny. That is all about her for now.

Griffin is getting less grouchy, but I wouldn't call him a happy baby by any means. He does spend a lot of time smiling and cooing at us, so that has been fun. He is a great eater and sleeper, so even though he is grouchy he is still a pretty easy baby. He has definitely been an easy adjustment for our family. Number 3 about killed me, but 4 actually seems like he's always been around.

Ryan is still loving his job, we all are still loving our new house and neighborhood. Things are great!

Way Behind

Sorry I haven't blogged in forever. There are a few reasons for this. One is that our Internet connection is horrible and I have a really hard time uploading pics and keeping a connection long enough to make a post. The second is, I've finally given in and gotten facebook, and I am spending way too much time playing around and finding old friends. So, hopefully I can get some pictures posted today. After that I think I'm going to try and post a weekly update of all the things we are doing. We'll see!

Just A Suggestion...

If you or your kids are sick...


STAY HOME!!!!!!!!


I don't care if it is a cough, runny nose (aka -- you think it's allergies), fever, whatever...


STAY HOME!!!!!!!


Every year I post some long thing about kids and sickness and how much I hate it, blah, blah, blah. The problem is that like 90% of the people who it pertains to don't read my blog, so it doesn't do any good.

I'd also venture that the majority of Mom's sending their sick kids to school and church don't care that my 2 1/2 month old is on his 3rd cold, and has been sick practically his whole life, or that I've spent a fortune trying to get Jackson over his cough that has been hanging around for 3 1/2 weeks, or that my kids have to miss church because a: they have an old cough that they can't get rid of, or b: they are finally healthy but I don't dare send them because I know they'll get sick again.

So, while all you sick people are out and about, I'll keep Mr. Lysol and Mr. Clorox in business and I'll probably stay home. Can you tell I hate germs?

p.s. You are not a sinner, and I promise you won't go to Hell if you stay home from church because you or someone in your home is sick.

p.p.s. STAY HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!