Happy Halloween!

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!

Sick Day

One of these days I'll learn not to drive into work when I wait up feeling off because it makes for an extremely long drive home. I decided after being at work for 2 hrs that I really needed to go home cause I wasn't feeling well. Found out after getting home that Bekah had also been sick that morning so it looks like there is some bug going through the house. Let's hope it doesn't get everybody.

Homecoming Dance

Alex's school had their homecoming dance tonight...and he took a date, Sarah. Gosh, he doesn't seem old enough to be doing that yet. The evening started off with a prehomecoming party at one of his classmates house. Parents were invited to stay for the party, I believe, so they could be used as sources of transporation from the party to the dance. ;-) Andy then took Alex and Sarah to the school where the dance was being held where he was able to meet Sarah's mom since she had forgotten to bring her dance ticket with her. At the end of the dance I went down to pick them up and to take Sarah home. They seemed to have a great time as Alex said they danced the entire 3 hrs.

Surgery

Andy had gallbladder surgery done this morning. He ended up getting the first surgery of the day which meant that we needed to be there at the crack of dawn. It's bad enough I have to get up early to go to work but it's even worse when you have to get up early to head to the hospital. Surgery ended up taking about 1 1/2hrs...then took another hour to get him into an observation room. From there things went downhill as trying to get anything out of the nurses was like pulling teeth. Started with him being given the wrong control to use for the nurses call button...good thing nothing serious happened cause we sure wouldn't have gotten any nurses with the control he had...and ended with it taking almost two hours to get discharged because of lack of communication on the different nurses part. Good thing is that the surgery went smoothly and dr indicated that it was good that the gallbladder had been removed as it was inflamed. Andy came home with 4 bandaids on his belly...pretty amazing when you think he had an organ removed through one of those tiny cuts. He has some good pain meds so so far he's doing okay. I'll be off for the next two days...took vacation for today and tomorrow...and will work from home on Friday assuming Andy is up to handling the kids some.

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.

Time to go Home

Josh has finally been released from the hospital. Yay! Although I'm a little sad that I won't get to see him as much now. He was in a hospital right down road from where I work so I've been able spend some time with him every couple of days. But I'm glad he's finally home and is doing well.

Happy Birthday, Bekah!

We now have a big 3 year old in the house and she's very proud of herself for accomplishing that feat. LOL She's such a person and has no qualms about expressing her opinions...and she loves bossing her brothers around.

A New Baby

and for once it's not mine. LOL My sister had her baby today...Joshua Logan, 8:41 am, 7 lbs 3 oz...born a month early...he wasn't due til Halloween...guess he was anxious to get here. She ended up having a c-section due to placenta previa and then had some trouble with bleeding afterwards but they were able to get that under control. He's having some issues with breathing and is in NICU but doing well. Congratulations Von and Richard!! You guys did good!

18

That's how long Andy and I have been married. Hard to believe we started as a family of 2 and are now a family of 9. Since getting married we've moved 5 times (not counting the 2 times we moved before that), bought 3 houses...one of which we had built. I still work for the same company that I did when we get married...makes it easy to remember how many years I've been working there as I started there the year we got married.

Andy has some before and after pics if you'd like to check them out. You can see them here.

We went out to dinner tonight to celebrate at a place right in our own neighborhood...we were a little worried because the last two years the places we have picked have been terrible. Tonight, though, was a totally different story. The food was great! And the service was quick. We both had crab brisque to start...then Andy got NY strip w/garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus while I got a crab cake sandwich & fries. For dessert, we had chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake. Yummy!

The only problem was that they were too quick...we were back home again an hour later...not nearly long enough away. LOL

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!

Reunited

After a week apart, the entire family is finally all back together. The 3 older kids had a great time at the beach with their aunt and uncle. They all seemed to have grown some in the time they were gone and all have gotten nice suntans. Kenzie was so overcome with emotions that she burst into tears upon seeing me. I guess she missed me. ;) Connor, on the other hand, burst into tears because he wanted to go to vacation. LOL

While they were gone, the twins participated in a VBS where they got to play games...Ty picked basketball and Tay picked soccer and they both loved their individual sports. With them at school, that left Andy with just Bekah and Keari so it was a relaxing time for him. And the first 3 days of the week I was gone to Cape May with my mom. That was nice relaxing time. Mom's already planning on when to go next year.

A Tooth

Keari has her first tooth...bottom right one. Yay! Of course, she decided to get it while I was away but I'll just pretend that it broke through on that day I got back. ; ) She hasn't figured out yet that she can chomp with it so lets hope that takes her a while to figure that out. LOL

Vacation Time

Whew, it's about time. I was more than ready to get away for a few days...just my mom and I...no kiddies to worry about. Although that's going to be weird because I'm definitely not used to being away from them for any length of time.

It was a foggy morning to take a trip on the ferry but we were able to see a few dolphins playing around in the water. Wasn't about to get any pics of then because of the fog, though, but I did get a foggy pic of the water. Kind of eerie looking.

Before heading to the bed & breakfast, we took a detour to see a lighthouse and a bunker, walked around on the sand a little and looked at their exploration center.

We stayed at a place called the Linda Lee in Cape May, NJ. It was a lovely room which had a private balcony off the back. Bathroom was super tiny, though. And the parking was atrocious...definately can't park a decent size car in their lot.

We spent the days walking around Cape May and eating way too much. We did take one excursion to Atlantic City to go to the Tropicana to watch a magic show and play the slots a little.

All in all, it was a lovely trip and I'd love to be able to go again next year. Maybe my sister will be able to join us next year.

Carnival

Since it was such a gorgeous evening, we decided that we’d go to the carnival tonight. Alex was working at the fish bowl stand as part of his volunteer work for the firefighters so he didn’t get to go on any rides. Andy and I split up…Andy getting Connor, Kenzie, Ty and Keari and I got Tay and Bekah. It was such a fun time watching Bekah on the rides. She thoroughly enjoyed them this year which was evident by the fact that she rode every kiddie ride available and then started back through them all again. LOL Since Tay isn’t as adventurous as his brother, he made a good partner for Bekah…although she didn’t need one. She definitely had no fear about getting on any of the rides. In fact, when we wandered over to see what the older kids were up to, she was insistent on riding on the big kids swing…which is the one big kid ride that Tay will ride…and was very upset when I wouldn’t let her. Older kids had just as good a time…they love a ride that looks like a big roller…takes forever to load and unload that ride but they stood in the line to ride it twice.

And it wouldn’t be a carnival without a funnel cake and this years was delicious.

If you’d like to see a few pics, click here which will take you to my hubby’s blog where he posted the best of the pics I was able to get. Very hard to take pics of kids on moving rides. ;)

Last Baseball Party

Tonight was Alex’s baseball party down in Tower Gardens. Alex has been with this same coach for a number of years now and the party always begins with a parents vs kids baseball game. When we first started years ago, the parents had no trouble beating the kids…today is another story. It was a rousing game of baseball with family members pitching to each other. The game ended when the last parent batter ended up getting hit with the ball during the pitchers warm up throws. Oops! I think the parents just used that as an excuse to end the game since they were losing. LOL

Then the party progressed to the beach at the bay where a cookout, kayaking and tubing took place. There was a huge turnout this year and everyone seemed to have a great time. We noticed towards the end of the party that one of the kids was paddling a kayak along the shore up the bay and was quite a distance away from us. When Andy finally caught up with him in his own kayak and asked the kid where he was going, he was told that he was paddling to the bridge. Mind you, the bridge was probably 5 miles away from where we were and he just matter of factly stated that he was paddling to the bridge. Kids! What are you going to do with them?? LOL

On the way home, we dropped Alex and Connor off at their youth leaders house from movie night and a sleep over.

New Altar Server

Kenzie is sooo excited. Altar server training class was scheduled for tonight and she's been anxiously awaiting this day for months now. Needless to say, she came home from the class beaming. =)

Alex came home from youth group tonight talking about a white water rafting trip that is scheduled for the middle of next month. That got Connor thinking because his youth group is also able to go on the same trip so it looks like we will be losing both boys for a couple days next month. ;)

Car Woes

Cars are definitely more trouble than they are worth. I took my car in for it’s 120,000 service and $1,600 later, I get my car back. And this is on top of the $2,400 car repair bill I had last year. This time is was everything from needing rear brakes to transmission fluid to a thermostat. Oh and don’t forget that when the tech went to start my car, he stated that the key just spun in the ignition. Ugh! That’s the only part of the repair that I didn’t do as I’ve never had that problem happen to me and it would have cost an addition $500 and take 4 weeks to get the part. Hopefully this will tide me over for awhile but that's what I said last year too.

Party Weekend

Saturday we spent the day at my SIL’s house. It was a beautiful day to hang outside…kids swam (although their pool was freezing!!), played badmitton, had scavenger hunts. Everyone thought Keari was an angel child…boy did she ever have them fooled. LOL

Sunday we had a pool party for Connor’s baseball team. It was another fun day although the weather was a little warmer/muggier than it had been on Saturday. We supplied the pool while everyone else supplied the food and there was more than enough to feed everyone…even my hungry crew. LOL Kids had a great time playing volleyball in the pool and having races to see who could swim the length of the pool the fastest. The adults sat around and chatted the afternoon away. All in all, a good day. =)

High School Youth Group

Tonight was Alex's first night with the high schoolers for youth group...he's previously been going to the middle school group. I think he was a bit nervous because he wasn't as proactive with getting information about it as he normally is. During the summer months, the youth group is held at a house located on a point of land where every where you look, you see water. And the houses in this community are huge! Makes our 7 bedroom house seem puny...which it is compared to these houses. He seemed to have a good time if his smile when I picked him up was anything to go by. They started off by talking about a C S Lewis book, then did a cook out and played volleyball. I can't say enough about the youth groups that Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church hosts...they open it up to any kids of the appropriate age which is wonderful since we don't actually attend this church...the youth minister is awesome. He just has a knack for putting people at ease and relating to the kids.

9 Months

Wow how time flies. Hard to believe she's 9 months already. Here's a pic of her from today.


And here she is the other day on the move LOL What a big girl she is. =)