Pictures Off Cami's Camera...

Here are the pictures off of Cami's camera that
I took at the food bank and the train display. Enjoy!

Cami helps unload and hand off food at the food bank.

Jakob takes a box over to the volunteers.

Alec helps carry a box that weighed three times his own weight. What a helper!

The kiddos pose for a picture at the food bank. We are so proud of them. This was a great lesson for my kiddos in giving, a lesson we try to teach year round but especially this time of year. Thank you Owen, Julia, and family for your help in making this food drive a great success! We can't wait to do it again next year!

Some train display pictures...these do it NO justice,
it really is quite a site. One of the engineers said they start
in Sept. putting it all up. WOW!!!

Look at the detail....amazing!

Hope you have all had a very happy holiday
and are prepping for the welcoming of a great new year!

Promised Pictures...

Here are the photos of the train display. I took more with Cami's camera but forgot the download those...oops....you can't really see any of the trains here, sorry!

Cami and Alec both enjoyed the view while in line
from atop the shoulders of the guys!
Thanks Daddy and Grandpa!

Alec had many things he wanted to do on his birthday.
One was to travel to the zoo for the Festival of Lights.
It was FREEZING!!!
But we had a good time and Alec's favorite part was
the train ride....surprise, surprise!

Cami's picture of Grandpa and Grandma
that she took with our camera!

AHHHHHHH, don't eat me!!!! LOL!

My birthday boy....he's such a doll!

The birthday boy and his Daddy, love this picture!

Alec surprised us when he wanted a store bought cake instead of homemade. Even more surprising was he picked this one, with flowers and what not over the one with balloons!

My latest addition to the walls of our home. The saying "forever, for always and no matter what is a favorite in our house. It was totally appropriate for the wall just under the kids pictures.

Our annual gingerbread house building. This time Grandpa and Grandma got to join us! Grandpa said he'd never done this before so we were even more glad he was here to enjoy it with us. I don't have a picture of the finished product, I will have to take one and post it later!

Hope you enjoyed the photos. It's been a busy week and it's going to get busier with all the guests we have coming but we are SOOOO excited to have a house full for the holidays. The only thing missing....more kiddos for our family!

BTW, I heard from Floyd today, Jayden should be coming to Ohio in the next few weeks. We are so glad that he will finally be where he belongs. Only time will tell what the future holds for this sweet boy!

Holiday Hustle and Bustle....

It's been a busy week and weekend. I will try to recap as quickly as possible!

Monday I was without my other kiddos most of the day due to illness and so I ran about while my kiddos were at school and got my youngest sons teacher gifts taken care of. What a relief! The afternoon flew by as kiddos were in and out. I can't recall what happened Monday night but it was a crazy night and we didn't get a chance to get to FHE that night, it got delayed.

Tuesday Elliot was still not well and had me worried. I called his mom at work and then she became worried as well. Later that day while I was going to an appt. I forgot about with Elliot with me it began to snow and Cathy decided with the help of the nurse at the pediatric office that Elliot needed to be seen. I handed Elliot off to Cathy on the way to my appt. Later I found out that Elliot was okay just really sick with a cold, thankfully not pneumonia. I returned home from my appt. much later than I had hoped because of the weather and immediately started prepping for our dinner and the pick up of food for our neighborhood food drive. Last week the kids helped us distribute 100 fliers in our neighborhood offering people the chance to donate to an area food pantry. We headed out around 5:00 pm to collect. It was freezing but we had a total blast. Alec and Cami sorted the food into boxes while Jakob and I ran to the doors to grab boxes and bags, Rob was our chauffeur. We played Christmas music and had a really great time. We collected about 5 large boxes of food. Not as much as we had hoped for but still a nice donation.

Wednesday we had Julia and Elliot home with Alec and also two of our dear friends kids. Micheal was going in for a procedure and Jennifer needed to be with him (and of course wanted to be). So we were lucky enough to have the privilege of taking care of them for the day. Samantha and Spencer were great. We played and had a really great time. We made graham cracker houses (like gingerbread ones but with graham crackers) and did all kinds of imaginative play. I am told I make a really great monster! That night we were off to a Scout Pack Mtg. and then home for further preparations for Grandma and Grandpa's arrival the next day. Let's just say once we got home not much was done but hey, we're on vacation, right? (yeah right, a mother on vacation, that never happens! ha ha ha!)

Thursday the older kids had their parties at school and Rob and I played with the kiddos and here and there got small tasks done. It was a nice relaxing day despite the stress I felt building (not sure why). Later that night the boys and I went to the airport to pick up my folks while Rob took Camille to see the Nutcracker Ballet. What a great dad he is! Camille loved it!!! She did comment on the fact that the Nutcracker was wearing some awfully TIGHT tights though, LOL!!!!

Friday was the kicker! We got the older kids off to school, finished getting Alec ready and then took him to school. We waited around for the kids to all arrive and then Alec presented the class with his class gift. Being that his BD is so close to Christmas and they were going to be having treats anyhow with his party, we decided to not bring cupcakes or whatever for the class but to instead give the class a gift for their classroom to celebrate Alec's BD. Alec picked out a bunch of books and some trucks and we wrapped them up to give to the class. Each child got to unwrap a gift. It was adorable. Afterwards we headed home for a bit before returning for his party that afternoon. With the teachers gifts, camera, kiddos, etc. we loaded the van to head out. Just as we were getting ready to pull out of the garage my mom said that maybe they would drop us off at the school and then head over to run an errand and then come back and pick us up. I then suggested that they just take Rob's car instead and then they could be more leisurely on their errand. Little did I know at the time that this was in fact a prompting. While we were traveling to Alec's school for the party (Rob, Julia, Elliot, and me) we pulled up to the stoplight just at the corner near his school and when Rob stepped on the accelerator to go the engine just revved. WHAT??? Our transmission had gone out, or something of that nature. We were dead in the water so to speak. It had poured cats and dogs earlier so the embankment to the school was mud but our only option for getting to the school. Julia and I climbed with the teacher gifts and other needed items while Rob got Elliot and climbed the hill behind us. I called my folks who came in the other car. Rob called a tow truck while I went to the party with the kiddos. We just had the transmission replaced in this van less than 4 months ago. To make a long story short....my mom came with the car and picked up me and the kiddos, we went home where my mom then left to go to the dealership to meet Rob and my dad and bring them home. We all ended up at home in time to get kids off buses and to begin trying to figure out how we were going to survive the week with one car that seats 5... tightly. A rental car was booked and we began the wait for the verdict with our van (which won't come till sometime Monday). We did our little Christmas gifts with my other kiddos and of course Cathy did much more than she should have (she's an extremely generous person). The kids had a great time playing and I said goodbye to them. They are home with mom for 2 weeks on vacation so I won't get to see them as much! (This is where I wear a sad face).

Saturday we got the rental car, dropped off the food at the food bank, went to a really cool holiday train display and then went to see the movie The Tale of Desperaux. We got home, had dinner, made candy and treats, and played a fun new game we got from Cathy, Craig and the kids called "Pictureka". What a whirlwind week!

Thankfully today we just had church, made more candy and treats, and built our annual gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa. I will post pictures tomorrow, I am exhausted and it's late! Check back for pictures of our week!

Merry Christmas to all!

Cookies and A Birthday Party....

One of our many Christmas season traditions is to make cookies and decorate them. We all had a good time (except for the occasional tussle between kiddos as they vied for space around the dough) and the creations turned out DELICIOUSLY!!!


Alec has the fortunate (or unfortunate depending who you ask) pleasure of having a December birthday. His actually BD is closer to Christmas than his party with his friends was scheduled for. To avoid everyone being gone near his birthday on vacations....we had the party early. Boy did we have fun! I have a whole new appreciation for mothers of octuplets. Having 8 kiddos here that were all 4 or barely 5 was quite an adventure. In addition to that we had our two oldest and our friends little almost 17 month old. It was SOOOO much fun but pure noise and chaos at times. Isn't that what a party is supposed to be??? You bet!

Somehow got the pictures loaded backwards and the system doesn't want to work with me at reversing them....so in backwards order here they are!

Cake candles blown out in a single breath!

I love the look on his face!
The party hats were at his request....strange I thought
for a 4 year old to request party hats, luckily I had some
in a box in the basement b/c his request came very close
the party's beginning.

Alec breaks the truck and candy goes flyin'!

This balloon game was hilarious. The kids started
at the same time (2 at a time) trying to bat the small round
balloon into the goal (the box) with their balloon bats.
It was harder than you think! Fun to do and hilarious to watch!

Grandpa and Grandma arrive next week to spend the holidays with us, we can't wait. It is all coming too fast for me. I am done shopping but I don't want the feeling of the holidays to end too soon! I wish people were so giving year round!

Happy holidays to all and to my little almost 5 year old, baby I love you and I will try to not cry on your BD. If I do it is b/c my baby is 5, I can't believe it!

Thanksgiving 10K Pictures!

They are finally available! Here is proof that we did it!
The pictures of me are pretty hokey, but what do you expect
when it is cold and you're doing a 10k, it's not a fashion show!

Enjoy!

Rob jumps to touch the finish line sign!
Looks a little "Rocky" like doesn't it???
Ha ha ha!