Christmas Morning

Look at these kiddos! They are wearing the same Christmas pjs as last year! I'm so glad we got to use them again.

This little monkey was with us for Christmas Eve. He loves being at our house with his cousins. (Shin's little boy for those of you who haven't seen him in a while...)

Nana found a pair of Christmas Jammies for Miss Priss as well--complete with the headband that we both "love." This one's for you, Nana.

And, guess who decided to perfect sitting up on Christmas Day?? What a great gift for mommy, Caroline. Thank you! :)

Some of my favorites...

I thought I'd post some of my favorite Christmas decorations. I don't really think any of you care, I'm really just posting them so I can look back and remember. You know, for posterity's sake (or whatever...)

I found the "red church" at a garage sale last spring for $3!! It is one of my favorite Dicken's Village pieces and I was so glad to get it at such a steal. I'm sure the person who put it at the MOPS garage sale had no idea what it was really worth. Bummer for them.

Mary was pregnant at our house until Christmas morning. :) Shout out to Oma for that idea...great visual lesson for G Money.

Speaking of Oma, these are the stockings she made for the kids last year. I love them. I also love our downstairs room this time of year. the lighted garland against that red wall is so festive. You'd think I planned that.

Just Catching up from the last 2 months...

He was in heaven--he loved the open space and the chance to run free and get dirty. He liked the ocean until he fell over in it. A little healthy fear is good for this one.

Speaking of healthy...did I tell you she hit 18 lbs. at 4 months? She has leveled off and is getting taller now. I love this swim suit on her. It shows off her dimples.

I just liked this one.

And this one...

I'm about to post a bunch of oldies that I never got around to...I think I slipped into some sort of time warp.

Baker Laker

We girls gotta stick together with all these boy cousins around. They loved the Bumbo seats...they had a great view of the madness.

Three of the five boys...not sure where JG is. And RED?? Probably eating...right, Danni??

Sister time. We spent some SERIOUS time in the kitchen. We cooked dinner each night for 17--is that right?? Someone out there help me...I lost count. Not sure where Shinny is. And Danni?? Probably feeding...

Here they are!!! This one's for you OMA!! Love the Santa hats. We seriously had to line up the high chairs and throw food at them. It was amazing how quickly they consumed it and how quickly we mastered feeding the masses. I guess the bottom three don't count, except in hours of nursing required. Someone else can tally that. It makes me tired thinking about it. :)

His first game!!

While we were home we took G Money to his very first Carolina game. HE LOVED IT. He lasted the entire game. It was priceless. Thank you Nana and Caudy for watching D-struction and Sweet C so I could go and take pictures and cry during 2001. (I'm SUCH a sap. I just get all choked up when I see that Carolina flag run around the field. I think it's worse now that I live far away.)

Anyway...it was such a fun game, and the Gamecocks beat MSU (we were still winning at that point in the season) and Uncle Thomas even came up to our seats to see us.

Even if G Money doesn't bank this in his long-term memory, I will. And, I know his Daddy and Papa will too.

Halloween and ???

YES. We let him Trick-or-Treat. (gasp.) They both loved it. :)
Anyone got a 1976 Winnebego I can borrow??

G Money is getting pretty good at writing. He is fascinated by letters and how they fit together to make words. The other day we were riding down the road and he said, "Look Mommy! There's G-O. That spells GO!!" I don't know where he learned that from. Really. He's just a little sponge.

Can I just say for the record, that G didn't want to put the Batman costume on until he knew that it would help him fly. Then he was all over it--and all over the place. He totally transformed into another little person inside that thing. Story goes his Daddy was Batman one year for Halloween and did the exact same thing---except I think he may have really jumped off the 2nd story landing--or did he just attempt it?

This one is such a ham. Not sure what this face means, but I liked it. He is FUN, FUN, FUN.

Life is Passin Me By...

Do you ever feel like you blink and you've lost about a month? Probably not...I'm just in the time warp of having three babies in my house. (G Money is really turning into quite a big boy, but he is still 3. I have to remind myself of that sometimes.)

So, the house is quiet, Hubby is out, and the computer is fixed, so I'm finally blogging. There is a pile of ironing that needs to be done, but I'm ignoring it. It's time for me to catch up and post some fun pictures. Enjoy!!



While we were in SC we were able to sneak away for two nights with our dear friends and Sweet C. We hung out at an old friend's mountain house and just enjoyed being together. We're hoping to make this a yearly (or so) event. We needed time with them!!

She is delicious. I love her.

In MD

Here we are in Annapolis visiting our dear friends. "Mr. Stuff" was ordained today and Bryan had a chance to preach. It was so special to be here for that service! The Prego Photographer is looking GREAT and ready to have baby AK now that the ordination is over. :) She's not letting that belly get in the way of her skills, though.
It's so good to be with sweet friends.Grace is still in love with G Money.

The ice cream truck showed up again this year. What a hit!!

Oh, we love this baby girl.

Don't worry, we didn't forget about D-struction. He's here with us, we just haven't gotten a shot of him yet. Stay tuned...

Caroline's Baptism

Our Baby Girl was baptized the Sunday we got back from vacation--Oct. 14. It was a very sweet time. "Pastor Duck", as the boys call him, baptized her. He is a great friend and co-worker to Bryan, so it was special for us to have him.

The dress she is wearing was made out of my mother's wedding dress! Mom cut it apart back in 1976 to make my christening gown, and now Caroline gets to wear it. Unfortunately, her head is already to big for the cute bonnet that goes with it. :)

I'm really trying to catch up here...maybe I'll get vacation pictures posted before we leave town tomorrow. ;) ha ha ha ha!!

We're home...but we're leaving again.

So, I've been wanting to post some pictures from vacation ever since we got home two weeks ago, but it hasn't happened. And then, I wanted to post pictures of Baby C's baptism, but that hasn't happened. And now I have some more pictures from our FIRST SNOW, but that hasn't happened either. Someone told me before I had #3 that I was just going to have to lower my expectations. You can lower your expectations for this silly blog, if you want. :) It just isn't happening like I want it to. But, I'm really ok with that. I'm not aspiring to be a "super woman blogger" like some of the blogs I read. (wink, wink. you know who I'm referring to, don't you?)

SO, here are the 17 of us at the BAKER LAKER. We had a blast--it was just good to be together.

And, here are the 14 of us at the beach with the Counts side. I had a great birthday --playing in the sand with my kids, eating at my favorite restaurant and opening presents from Talbots. FUN.

Hopefully I'll post more later. For now, we're back to the east coast to see this friend. :) CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

We're Here!

We arrived "home" yesterday afternoon. I put that in quotes, because it is really very complicated to explain that to G money. We kept telling him, "We're going home to South Carolina." and he would look at us strangely. The only home he knows is the Rocky Mtns.

The plane rides went very well, considering. We woke the kids up at 4:30 on Monday morning, so they were pretty wiped out. I'm so thankful for the dvd player a friend lent us (SHELIA--you rock.) The boys passed it back and forth during the first (and longest) flight. For those of you who were praying, D-Struction got a seat!!! We strapped him into his car seat and he sat beside his Daddy. He was really a pretty happy boy for the most part. Baby Girl got very fussy on our way from Atlanta to Gville, but she fell asleep on my lap after about 5 minutes of screaming. I haven't seen her that mad in a while.

I realized that I'm a new woman now that I am a mother of 3. I have skills I didn't know I possessed. I can somehow maneuver a 3 1/2 year old, 22 month old, 4 month old and 3 carry on bags onto the plane with very little trouble while the Hero Husband installs the monster car seat we own. I can also change two diapers in the time it took the woman beside me to put on her makeup in the Atlanta airport bathroom. I'll let you know what else I discover about myself on this trip. :)

It's so good to be here with family! They are spoiling us and its only been a day. Things have changed since we were here last. There are lots of new buildings, and the trees are bigger than they were even 18 months ago. Everything looks so green, even after a summer of "no rain." We went running this morning, and Bryan had fun remembering things about the neighborhood he grew up in. (Running in humidity is really no fun, though. I'm pretty spoiled at 6000 ft.)

I'm sure I'll have pictures soon. Right now every little person is asleep, so thought I'd catch a minute and update those of you in CO who read these silly ramblings of mine. :) (Or those of you in AL, MO, FL, Germany...wherever you are.)

Labor Day Balloon Festival

I love Pike's Peak at sunrise--especially with big inflatable bouncy toys at the foot. Lovely, huh? I should've cropped. Oh well. :)

We all got up at the crack of dawn on Labor Day to head to the balloon festival. It is one of my favorite things to do in Colorado Springs. You get to stand in Memorial Park with hundreds of other people and you are surrounded by the balloons as they inflate. It's amazing. The boys were in awe---totally worth the 5:30 am wake up.

6 AM Smiles

Everyone in the family was pretty happy at 6 am...it was so worth it to see the balloons!