The day before G's bday, we asked him where he wanted to eat dinner. As he was thinking, D-struction piped up and said, "How about Chuck E Cheese?"
G-Money just beamed and said, "D, that is the best idea! You gave me the best idea! That's where I want to go eat!"

Now, unless you know the history behind our Chuck E Cheese experience, you really can't fully appreciate this story.
The first time we ever went was with Nana and Papa in SC. You can picture the mayhem that CEC is...well, all of a sudden, we hear a child SCREAMING at the top of his lungs. Guess who?
D was running across the restaurant at full speed, making a break for the exit, screaming
"I NO LIKE DAT MICKEY MOUSE!!"
This was when we discovered that he has a fear of people in costume.

We aren't quite sure why he suggested that we go again for G's birthday, but I think it has to do with the fact that he can drive a car while he's there. Apparently the morning of the birthday he started having second thoughts. He said, "Mommy, I don't think Chuck E Cheese is the BEST idea. Maybe we should just stay home." It was pretty cute.
Mercifully, Chuck E did not make an appearance that night.

Aunt Shinny and the cousins came to play!

The Flaming Finger ROCKS. I think if you hold your tongue a certain way it does work...;)

Birthday Boy

We really can't believe G-Money is 5!

Since he is all about trains, he picked a train birthday cake...complete with a BNSF engine and a stacked cargo car. The coal car wouldn't normally be with a stacked cargo car, but on this cake it is allowed. (Anyone seen Extreme Trains? It has changed his life. Oh my...)

After preschool we headed over to the local "train museum". It's really a street car museum at the old Rock Island Roundhouse, but they have some trains there AND they have a whole boxcar full of Rock Island stuff. This feeds another obsession--the Rock Island Line. That line used to run just down the street from our house and when you throw in a Johnny Cash song about the Rock Island Line, then the picture is complete. He loves it.
He also walks just like his daddy...that picture is killing me! I just noticed how they both walk and talk with their hands in their pockets. I love it!

And, we got to play on the train cars that were at the roundhouse. Pretty cool...

To the Train Station

Oma and Pops came last week and we had a great time with them. One afternoon we went down to see the trains and ate at the restaurant there. We all had a great time, but as you can tell from the pictures, one little boy was in HEAVEN. He is officially obsessed with trains "with no faces." Have you seen the History Channel's Extreme Trains? It's his new favorite show!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful, busy day yesterday at our house. We fell into bed last night and said to each other, "What a crazy way to celebrate the incarnation." Christmas is just so different with little people in the house! Nana and Papa were here and we had a blast with them. Here are a few shots from my NEW Christmas present!! :) Maybe now I'll be better about blogging...ha!

Thank you, Nana, for the cute Christmas pjs!!

Could be her new favorite...she spent quite a bit of time feeding her new baby yesterday!

These planes were quite the hit with all three of my boys. :)

Nutty Berry

This is our friend "Nutty Berry." G-Money named him last summer when he started coming around. I know it seems stupid to blog about this creature...I mean, REALLY. I shouldn't even give him the attention he so craves.

We came home from the store one day and found a little hole nibbled out of G's pumpkin. Well, we caught him. He is UNASHAMED. Needless to say, the pumpkin is completely gone now and we have one fat squirrel hanging out in our tree. He's begs and "talks" to me when I come outside. It's hard to ignore him, but I'm afraid he'll invite himself in if I give him too much attention.

Seriously, the squirrels out here are a different breed.

Out of the mouths...

G: "Mommy, do you know what a 'sophia' is?"
E: "Do you mean the girl's name, like mommy's jewelry?"
G: "No...a SPEARA."
E: "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are saying."
G: more emphatically: "A SPEARA"
E: completely confused: "No. I don't know what that is. What is a Speara?"
G: "A ball."
E: ?!? realization: "OH...a Sphere. Where did you learn about that?!"
G: "From school."

PreK isn't what it used to be, folks.

G: "Mommy, I think I'm going to pull for two teams. The Gamecocks AND Georgia."
E: "WHAT?! Why, sweetie?"
G: "Because I'm a George."

I guess that makes sense when you are four.

sharing

"I think I'd like a bite of that, G."

"He left me!"

She knows how to work them, doesn't she?!

G-Money is in School!!

Two posts in one week...i know you are impressed. :)

G-Money started PreK this fall. He was so excited to go and has grown up SO MUCH in the last few months. It's amazing, and I'm so proud of how well he is doing. Parent-teacher conferences are next week, so we'll see how things are really going, but so far, so good.

My Birthday!

We celebrated my birthday on Friday and it was such a FUN day! I really wanted to go see the aspens, so we drove to Mueller State Park and went for a short hike. The kids loved being outside (aside from the bees) and we loved watching them run. We then drove down to Cripple Creek to see the steam engine (a HUGE hit!) and then home to have dinner at Red Robin. It was a kids dream...and mommy was happy too. It's funny how your perspective changes when you are a mom. It's so fun watching your kids just enjoy life.

June

Happy Birthday C-Love!

We are so thankful for you, sweet girl!!!

May 31, 2008

More May...

A little baseball action...

the head cheerleader!

Cousin Mania

I'm feeling a bit shell-shocked here. I had no idea how much work this would be.
People said, "You are nuts." I said, "Oh, it'll be fun!!" (Perpetual optimist.)
It is fun!
I am nuts!!

Here is the run-down of the week so far:
4 sisters
8 kids under the age of 4
7 in diapers
2 nursing
5 highchairs in my eating area
2 baby pools in the back yard
1 home project in the works...we decided to tear apart my kitchen and paint the cabinets while the sistas are in town. Yeah. (I have to say that Evelyn is the QUEEN Project Manager for this. She has done this before and knows exactly how to tell us what to do. We need a good boss since the house is not quiet until after 9 pm and that is when we start painting. We are so bleary-eyed, I'm not sure how it is going to look, but I'll post some pictures later.)

We are having a great time being together. Next time we are planning a sister week without children. :)

Big Boy cousins...
These two are sweet friends. They are 2 weeks apart. We've caught them holding hands and snuggling together. I think Sweet C is so glad to have another girl in the house. :)
The Queen. Good-bye yucky brown cabinets!!

Bedtime. I think you can see 5 heads in this shot.

I'll get pics of #7 and #8 in the next post.

I feel pretty lame that I haven't blogged in so long. But...I'm moving on and I'm just going to do what I can these days. We've hit a new level with Baby C becoming mobile--she is crawling everywhere, climbing the stairs, and cruising. Gone are the days where she would sit contentedly and watch her brothers play! This girl's gotta move. She turned 1 on Saturday and I'm still in disbelief. Where did the year go?! We just had a small family party and ate pink cupcakes. Yum. :)

I'm trying to remember the last month...oh, yes.
Bryan went to the ER the end of March with a severe sore throat. (I know, it sounds lame, but the man couldn't swallow...it wasn't like our last ER visit the day G came home from the hospital. That's a whole different post.) While we were there, they ran several tests including a CT scan which revealed a large lump on his thyroid. Our family doc sent him on to a specialist who wanted to do a biopsy. We had the biopsy the end of April and the doctor called us THE NEXT DAY with the results. (Getting a call immediately after a biopsy is never a good sign...) SO. We went into the office and basically they couldn't tell from the biopsy if the tumor was cancer, so they wanted to take a closer look. (Open him up and get it out.) I called Tootie, the brilliant oncology nurse, who said, "Oh, Boone. If you're going to get cancer, thyroid cancer is the best kind to get!!" She almost sounded excited about it. :) ha!!! We really felt God's hand on us--both of us were really at peace. It was good.
Bryan had the surgery May 6 and they removed 1/2 of his thyroid. Tests came back: NO CANCER! Praise God. He is a little less lumpy these days. :)

Nana came to visit and help us during the week of the surgery. She was such a blessing!

I guess I've also been busy selling jewelry, and I've been recruited to teach G-Money's Sunday school class. BUT...I'm going to make this blog more of a priority this month.

Watch out--the sistas are coming. I'm going to have 6 kids (sometimes 8) under the age of 4 in this house. Hubby is leaving town--can you blame him?!

Pictures to come...