Happy 15th Birthday, Connor!

Even though I know today wasn't the best day for you, I hope the year brings you many wonderful things.  I'm so proud of everything you have accomplished and what a fine young man you have grown into.  Luv you!

Bad Mommy Award

I totally forgot to wish Connor Happy Birthday before he left for school this morning.  How could a loving, caring mom do that to her just turned 15 year old boy??  I had thought about it early in the morning but by the time the boys got up, it had totally slipped my mind.  By the time it registered in my brain again he was already in school and I couldn't call him.  But to make matters worse, I talked to him twice after school and still forgot!  That's it...I should be replaced!  When I hung up the second time, it dawned on me what I hadn't done again so I called him back.  I started singing Happy Birthday when he answered but he was so not impressed.  I think I need to crawl back into my hole now.

Tomorrow will be a better day, right?

The first one

The first birthday of the year belongs to Kenzie. With it brings us another teenager...the third one in our house. Yikes! I think she had a pretty good day although her main birthday gift, a horseback riding trip, had to be deferred until her knee is feeling better. Happy Birthday, sweetie...hope the year brings you many wonderful things.

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Today is Adam's 2nd birthday although we won't get to celebrate it since Keari is in the hospital but wanted to be sure to wish him a happy birthday anyway. :)

9 Yrs Ago

Hard to believe that 9 years ago, I walked into the hospital as a mom of 3 and within the span of 7 minutes later that afternoon I became a mom of 5. We like to tease Tyler that he kicked his brother out so that the could have all the room for himself...he turned breach and didn't want to come out once his brother was delivered, hence the reason for the 7 minute delay. He really hates that story!

They started out like this...


And are now this...


Happy 9th Birthday Taylor & Tyler!

Birthday Gifts

I received a number of my b'day gifts early this. Since everyone was together for Adam's baptism, my parents and my in laws gave me my gifts then along with a small cake. I had to wait to get my gift from my family until my actual b'day, though...they weren't into the early gift giving. ;-) Besides money from my in laws and a pretty silver chain from my family, I also received these gifts...

Happy Birthday to me! =)

Kenzie and Bekah made this picture for me and taped it to my bedroom door.

Happy Birthday, Keari!

Today is Keari's 2nd birthday. What a big girl she is. Well, actually she's a little girl...a petite little girl which I never realized until my dad said something about how little she was last weekend. When I added her height to our growth chart today I realized she's a good 1 1/2 inches shorter than all her other siblings at this same age. My nephew had his 1 yr checkup today and he is the exact same height as Keari except he's a year ypunger. They are both 31 1/2inches.


Here's picture of her with her birthday cake. I think she's pretty excited about it.

Happy Birthday, Bekah!

Today is Bekah's 4th birthday. We started out with cake and presents at home in the morning. Then we set out to go to my sister's house for my nephew's birthday party. We didn't make it very far before discovering that there was an accident on the other side of the bridge that had traffic on our side virtually at a standstill. So back home we went go to wait it out. After waiting 1 1/2hrs, we set out again with better results and we are able to make it to my sister's albiet a little late. It was a beautiful day for an outside party. There's was tons of food of which I ate way to much of.



A cute pooh bear cake for Josh...here's a pic of him enjoying his cake.






My sister made sure that Bekah wouldn't be left out on her big day by getting her a little cake all for herself. She was thrilled. Here's a picture of her enjoying her cake.






And a pic of her sporting her brand new b'day outfit that her aunt and uncle gave her...she loves it!

Afterwards, we ran by Andy's parents for a bit...did presents for Bekah and Keari (Keari's b'day is Friday) and then headed home. All in all, it was a good day.

Happy Birthday

Happy 1st birthday to my nephew, Joshua. He's come a long way from the babe that started out in the NICU. Hope you enjoyed your big day, sweetie. Here's a picture of him enjoying his birthday cake. We'll be heading to my sisters on Sunday for his birthday party...which just happens to be Bekah's birthday. October is a busy month in this family with 6 birthdays starting with Josh's, then Bekah, my neice Lauren, Keari, my sister and last but not least mine! Whew, that's a lot of birthday cake. =)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I'm posting a belated happy birthday to my mom since I was busy with other things to post one on her actual birthday...namely bringing this little munchkin into the world. Doesn't he just look like the picture of contentment? LOL I think he was a little upset that we forced him out into this great big world. I think my mom was happy with her birthday present. ;)

Happy 12th Birthday!

Today is Connor's 12th birthday. It's amazing how much he has grown during those years. His abilities continually astound me. To think he's gone from someone who could barely get through playing one piano song at his first piano recital to someone who actually competes in piano competitions. I'm very proud of all the accomplishments you've made so far and I know there are many more to come in the future. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Happy Birthday, Alex!

My oldest turns 15 today. Where has the time gone? He's a year away from driving now. Ack! And only a few years left before he leaves home to go off to college. How sad that will be...I don't want my babies flying the coop. But I guess we can't keep them young forever. Have a wonderful day, sweetie, and don't grow up too fast.

Party Time

We had a birthday party today with family to celebrate both Alex's and Kenzie's birthday. It's really tough nowadays to find a day and time that is good for everyone to get together...especially with our crazy schedule. We had to fit the party in between Kenzie's softball practice, Connor's indoor soccer game and youth group. All in all, it was a nice day...kids got some nice gifts, Alex got a speaker for his ipod, a book, Hyperdash, some playstation games and a really nice sweat jacket (he better keep an eye on this one cause I really like it. LOL) Kenzie got a playstation game, a dance game, pj's, Eye Clops (which she really, really wanted), a watch and some hair stuff.

The party did mess up Alex's skating plans for the day, though. We didn't realize when he made them that Sunday skate hours were during the afternoon, not the evening, so he would have been skating at the time of the party. He had to tell poor Sara that he couldn't make it today but they did make plans to go either next Friday or Sunday...let's hope things work out better next weekend for them.

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday!!

Tay & Ty turn 8 today and they are totally excited about it. Because of schedule changes I actually get to be home today which is unusual. That means I got to see my birthday boys first thing in the morning instead of late in the evening which is how it normally works. One of the perks of being the birthday child is you get to choose that nights dinner...and even those these guys are twins, they have different tastes...so we ended up with macaroni & cheese that Ty chose and beefaroni that Tay chose. Hmm, maybe they aren't so very different in tastes. LOL It ended up being night...dinner, then birthday celebration of cake...no ice cream, we forgot to get any. Oops! Presents that consisted of a rip stick...must be nuts on that one...a mini skateboard and lots of books. They seemed to really like their gifts. Then Andy and I had to leave to go to bible study. When we got back, Keari was totally zonked on the sofa. That's always a bad sign because it was only 8:15 and when she takes a nap that late, she never sleeps through the night. I figured I'd give it a shot, though, and picked her up and put her to bed. Much to our surprise she actually slept the entire night.

In addition to b'day stuff, Bekah had a hearing test today. This was to rule out any fluid in the ear problems that could be attributing to her speech issues...she tends to drop the ending sounds of words during normal talk. Turns out, her hearing is completely normal, in fact she has has pretty sensitive hearing so her speech issue are just development delays which will get worked on during her speech classes. Didn't hurt to rule out any other possible problems.

Cake or Football Anyone?

We had my family over to celebrate all the October & November birthdays. This was supposed to be our free weekend but the rain the previous weekend pushed everything back to this weekend. Kenzie is upset because it meant that she had miss seeing her new cousin because she had to be in Virginia for her softball tournament. I told her I'd take her over to see another weekend but she wasn't thrilled about it. So while Andy, Kenzie and Connor headed to Virginia, I tried to get the house in some semblance of order to have people over. When everyone arrived, we had to celebrate quickly as Tyler had a football game to go to.

Here's a picture of our combined cake and one of Keari trying out her own special cake. She wasn't too thrilled with getting all messy but she did get into at the end.


Then I had to leave everyone to get Tyler to his football game on time. He is really enjoying playing flag football this year. And what a lovely day to be outside for a while. Not nearly as cold as it was yesterday.

Another Year Older

Yup, today is my b'day. Hasn't been a bad day so far. Got a beautiful homemade cake from one of my coworkers. It was almost too pretty to eat...almost. LOL

I also had a cake waiting for me when I got home that Andy and the kiddos made me. Haven't had time to celebrate yet as Kenzie has a soccer game tonight and then Andy and I have a bible study class. We'll celebrate when we get home from that. And for once, Alex doesn't have a ton of homework so he'll be able to keep and eye on the kiddos while we're gone without losing time that should be spent studying.

Okay, now back from bible study and have done cake and ice cream and got this lovely bracelet for a present. I love it!

Keari's 1st Birthday

Hard to believe it's been a year ago that I brought home a new little baby. How things have changed during that year. She's gone from being a helpless newborn to an independant toddler. There's is no keeping her still...she's constantly on the move which I'm sure is one of the reasons that she is so small. She burns everything off. She also has a bit of a temper. Hmm, wonder where she gets that from...can't be from me. LOL She loves her brothers and sister...and they simply adore her. She's sprouted 3 teeth in the last month so needless to say she's been a bit cranky but now that they are through she's doing much better. And she loves real food...will eat just about anything you put in front of her.

Happy Birthday

Today is Alex's birthday. It's hard to believe that 14 years have gone by already. It seems like just yesterday I was holding him in the rocking chair in his room looking out the window of our West Virginia home at a snow covered mountain. Now he's goes off and does his own thing. It's been so amazing to watch him grow into a young man. He's been such a blessing in our lives and he is such a big help with his siblings...the little ones love him to death. Happy Birthday sweetie!! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday

Today is McKenzie's 9th birthday and she was quite excited about it. She even called me at work this afternoon to find out exactly what time she was born so she knew when she was officially 9. LOL I think she had a nice birthday although since it's Tuesday it was super hectic at home today between running to Secret Garden, Alex and Connor starting their composition class at the college, piano practice this afternoon. Made me glad that I was at work. ;) Kenzie seemed quite happy with her pink softball helmet, pink bat and bright yellow softballs. Combine these with her pink glove that she got at Christmas and I think she's all set for baseball. =)

And now I'm off to bed as I'm super exhausted. Work has just been crazy and that combined with Kearsyn being grumpy in the evenings hasn't left much time for blogging. Hopefully I'll be back to a normal update schedule here soon.