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Love these kiddos!!

Do you have an ugly sweater?!?!?

We enjoyed going to a holiday ugly sweater party last weekend. Let me tell you there were some pretty ugly sweaters there. The party started at 6:00 on Saturday and around 3:00 saturday you could have found me over at Mindi's house adding a little bling to our sweaters that she picked up from Goodwill. Thanks to Mindi for helping me look so ugly that night!! However, I didn't top her kitty sweater and leather boots!! (ha! ha!) Oh, and I love Jenners santa outfit. It's only appropriate that the white part of the outfit are Hanes socks! Would you expect any less from her?!?!? (they have accepted a job at Hanes)

They had fun activities for the kids. Here is Ethan decorating his tree

Nice sweater John!! And would you call that a sweater friend?!

And here is cat woman with her husband....ummmm what is his name? Oh yeah, it's Bryan. Good thing his name is stenciled on the front of his very cool sweater!!

Thanksgiving

We had lots of fun going back and visiting friends in Michigan for Thanksgiving. In fact, we had so much fun I didn't take the time to get out my camera very often. We love our friends in Michigan and miss them a lot. Thanks to the "C"family for letting us hang out with them all weekend!!

Jane with her surrogate grandparents! They've been nothing but good to our family since the day we moved to Michigan 7 years ago!
And here's the kids with their other surrogate grandparents (our neighbors, Vern and Denise). We miss them!
Erin and Lucy enjoyed playing with the Easy Bake oven but don't be fooled.....Lisa ended up finishing the baking!! he! he!

Twilight

This little bottle of lotion was given to me yesterday from my friend Jennifer....a die hard twilight fan with a note attached reading "Just 3 more days" It made me laugh. Who knew there was twilight lotion!! We are all excited to go see new moon on Friday night. Not sure if I am more excited to see the movie or just get out of the house after a long week of case competition stuff!!!! Can't wait!

To nurse or not to nurse....

When it comes to nursing I've heard some crazy things. I have had someone go as far as telling me if you hold your head a certain way and give a few special shakes (and it was demonstrated to me) you can keep your milk and get more to come in. There is NEVER EVER reason enough to switch to formula. About a month ago I was going to switch Jane to formula because she was waking up every couple of hours to eat and I just didn't think she was eating enough. However, I was guilted into continuing to breast feed. "Certainly a child with those cheeks is getting plenty from you" I was told. However, last Tuesday I woke up after getting little sleep and declared Jane was done breastfeeding. Well, easier said than done. She was MAD at me. She wanted nothing to do with a bottle. I felt awful and maybe a tiny part of me wondered if I should do the special body shake to bring in more milk. But, it was a fleeting thought and Jane would take a bottle or starve. I mean she will take a bottle if she gets really hungry right? It was a long day but finally by 2:30 in the afternoon and 3 different brands of bottles she gave in and took a bottle. She wouldn't allow me to hold her for the first two days which made me feel bad but at least I knew she wasn't starving. And surprise surprise she has been sleeping through the night. I guess those cheeks were misleading after all!! I am a fan of nursing and part of me is sad to give it up but I am also a fan of bottles and have found many benefits already to switching over.

Love this kid

Good thing Lucas is so darn cute because lately he has been going through a whining stage....it better be a stage that is outgrown SOON!! Anyway, he really is a cute fun boy and when he isn't going through his "terrible two" stuff we have a lot of fun together.

I'd say right now his two favorite things to do are:
1) ride Lucy and Ethan's scooters (which are too big for him but he is getting pretty good at it)

2) andhe loves to help me cook. Whenever I am in the kitchen he wants to "help". He's my little side kick who sits on the counter and loves to pour things in the bowl, have total control of the beaters, crack eggs (leaving lots of shells for me to pull out) and of course is always willing to lick the beaters. Life is good when you are two!!

Can anyone else do this?

On Thursday we were at the Zoo and my friend Sara showed us one of her MANY hidden talents - keeping a sixlette candy suspended in mid-air. She claims it's easy and anyone can do it. For the record - I tried and I couldn't do it.

All Partied Out!

We participated in a lot of Halloween activities this year. Seemed the kids were in their costume everyday over a 4 day span. Candy is spilling out of our house and I'm worried I will be the one to eat it all! Yikes! We've partied hard and I think I've had my fill of Halloween this year. The kids had Halloween parties at school on Wednesday. Given there was no school on Thursday and Friday, a BIG group of us took our kids to Indy to the Zoo where they went in costume and trick-or-treated there. We then put on cosutmes again on Friday night for a church party and again on Saturday for a Halloween BBQ at our house (thanks to the party planner - Mindi) and then off the kids went for some trick-or-treating with the dads while the moms handed out candy at the end of our driveway.


I guess the festivities really started at the beginning of the week when we carved pumpkins as a family. The girls carved a pumpkin with heart eyes(designed by Lucy) and the boys carved a pumpkin with 4 eyes(hmmmm I wonder who designed that?!??!!Ethan!)Ethan didn't mind the middles so much this year. He was good at scooping out the pumpkin. Lucas on the otherhand just wanted to watch.
It was fun to be in the school for a little while and get in on a little bit of the fun. Here is Ethan with his Kindergarten teacher. She dressed up as her granny. It was really cute.
We had fun at the zoo. Here is Lucas sporting his costume there and Lucy and Libby in front of the penguins.

There just wasn't too much creativity in our costumes this year. Lucy chose to be the same thing she was last year....a good witch
Lucas was going to be a turtle up until the last minute and then he chose to wear this dog costume which is very cute but so small it pretty much came up to his knees.
Ethan was the incredible hulk. He thought he was really cool and strong!!
And here is cute Jane as a pumpkin just as I think all of our babies have been at this age!!

"Fast Eddy" cooking up hot dogs for everyone at our Halloween BBQ
All of the kids had fun trick-or-treating.

We pulled all of the pumpkins to the end of the driveway and a bunch of us girls sat and handed out candy together.
The kids had fun to counting and sorting their loot

Poop in my ear!

This kid cracks me up. He is so cute and says the funniest things. Today he seemed concerned as he asked in his oh so serious voice "Mommy, why do I have poop in my ear?"
What in the world....we've had a lot of crazy things happen involving kids and poop but never have I seen poop in their ears.
It took just a few moments to realize he thought the wax in his ear was poop. Made me laugh!!

Girls night out

These girls make the next two years manageable! We were all ready for a girls night out and a big splurge after all completing K-Lead. The long hours in front of the computer listening to the same thing over and over paid off Saturday night when we went to the Cheesecake Factory and ate great food, had good conversation, and didn't have kids pulling on us. Thanks ladies for a great night. I guess I can do K-lead again in the spring if I know this is what follows!

Sweet Jane

I am always amazed at how much a baby grows and changes in their first year of life. Jane is growing way too fast!! She is a sweetie and makes us all smile. Here are some pictures from the last couple of months.

Jane is really strong. If you look close you can see she is lifting her head up pretty far off the ground. It's kind of funny. It's like she doesn't want to lay but doesn't know how to sit up!

Here's Jane showing her support for her daddy!!

Lucy loves her little sister!

Happy Birthday Lucy!!

Lucy was really excited about her birthday this year. It was very cute! She'd keep saying things like "Ummm mom, are you remembering you usually hang balloons up the night before my birthday?"
"Yes Lucy, I do remember that"
Long pause.... "Do you think you'll remember this year?"
This was just one of the may times she reminded me. Glad to know she looks forward to some of the things I do.

I feel bad to be posting this almost a month after her birthday. Life has just been way too busy!! Lucy is such a sweetie and is such a good girl. We love you Lucy!

We took her out to McDonalds (her choice) and then headed to the mall where she got to go to Build a Bear which was really fun.



We didn't have a birthday party for Lucy this year. We decided we'd just do a family party. However, the day after her birthday her friends knocked on my door and asked if they could have a party for Lucy "since Lucy didn't get a party" (which suddenly made me feel like a bad mom!!ha! ha!) Anyway, cupcakes were made, signs were hung, and games were planned and before Jennifer (Eliza's mom) knew it, she had a party going on at her house!!! I popped in for the festivities. Unfortunately Libby and Jenna aren't in this picture but they were there too. Anyway, I thought it was so nice of all these girls to do this for Lucy. She definitely felt loved! Thanks everyone!

Field Trip to the Fire Station

We took our pre-school group to the fire station. Lucas LOVED it....after we were gone. He was so nervous while we were actually there and to top it all off the fireman put on all of his gear which really scared Lucas. He wanted nothing to do with the man and certainly didn't want to climb in the fire truck. At least the other kids seemed to enjoy the time we spent there. I think the highlight was watching the fireman slide down the poll.
(Lucas really didn't want to be in the picture next to the scary man!!)
After pre school at Mindi's house, Lucas wore his fire hat everywhere and when I asked him what he learnd he'd say "Stop, drop, roll" and throw himself on the floor. Too funny!

K-Lead is OVER!!!

To anyone who knows what K-lead is (Camie, Jenner, Mindi, Jennifer, Sara) you will understand when I say I am happy to have my life back again. I took on a very temporary but time consuming job grading undergrads work. It only lasted 3 weeks but I have been doing it whenever the kids are napping or sleeping. I am happy to say I finished this weekend and I can now get my house back in order and catch up on a lot of things that have been pushed a side temporarily (blogging being one of them!) Good bye K-Lead....until the spring!!

Apple Picking

We had a fun time picking apples. It was kind of funny because it was a planned activity with the Kelly Kids group. We drove nearly an hour to get there passing another apple orchard on the way. "These better be some real good apples," I told Andy. ( I have never had to drive more than about 10 minutes to pick apples)
Anyway, they were indeed good apples and we had fun spending time ALL together which doesn't happen very often anymore.

Lucy on Andy's shoulders trying to reach the last of the honey crisp apples

Harrison and Lucas

Ethan

Jenna, Libby, Lucy, and Lucas

I hope he turns out OK!!

Yesterday during lunch Andy asked Lucy, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Her reply was "I want to be a teacher and a mom"

Ethan piped in right away, "I want to be Darth Vader"

Should we be worried?!??!?! ha! ha! ha!

We arrived!!

We have had a very busy several weeks!!! School has started and we've had tons of different events to go to. Here are some pictures from one of the events. WE got to tour the football facilities and the kids loved running out on the football field. (We then went to dinner where I won a pair of running shoes in a raffle - that was pretty exciting!!)
We were sad to leave MI but feel so happy here. We are surrounded by so many wonderful people. The kids are in a great school and Andy is enjoying all the stuff he has been doing at the University.
We are grateful for all who helped us move and all who have welcomed us on this end!!

Rocks for sale!!

These pictures crack me up. The kids know we have NO money to spend on anything. It became a reality to our neighbor when he woke up one Saturday and wanted to go buy something. His mom told him he couldn't. So the kids came up with the idea of selling stuff to make money. I didn't even know they were doing it. Ethan came running in the house "Nobody is buying anything from us. Can you?" Not knowing what they were up to I grabbed a handful of random change. This is what I found. The girls were holding up signs and jumping up and down to the random runners who passed by a good distance away. The boys were selling their stuff and the girls had their own table. They were selling rocks from our neighbors yard.
"How much are you wanting for them?" I asked
"Oh, just like $5" said Brad
Just then Sam ran over to the table with a small box of random toys he had gathered from his house to contribute to the sale.
The girls were price much more reasonably......10 rocks for 25 cents. I bought from them first!! ha! ha! And then bargained the boys down.
The whole thing was darling to me. They are now planning to sell lemonade. Too cute!

My baby is growing during all the craziness!!

And what has Jane been doing in all of this chaos?!?!?!? Just growing. I'm afraid by the time I feel I can slow down a bit my baby will be far too big!! She is a cutie though and has been so good to just hang out and go with the flow!!! I love this girl!!

First day of school

We arrived on a Friday night and school started for Andy on Monday and on Wednesday for the kids. Andy officially started school today but has had classes and orientation for the last 3 weeks! Here is everyone on their first day!!
We are so lucky to be surrounded by lots of friends. Eliza and Libby are also here with their dads who are starting MBA school with Andy. As it turns out we all live in the same neighborhood and these girls are in the same 1st grade class.

I made andy pause for a picture. It is bad lighting and was a rushed picture but I had to post andy's first day too!!

Ethan started kindergarten

A few random pictures

Since I am catching up on my blog I had to put these in somewhere! They are all a bit random but I wanted to post them!!!
ONe day when I was very busy packing I came out to check on the kids and they were all sitting so cute together just chatting about who knows what.


We will miss our wonderful beach in Michigan. We were so spoiled to live by such a wonderful place!!


Love this picture becaus Lucas is always trying to keep up with his big brother and sister!
I can't tell you how many hours I have spent in this museum with my kids. We would go weekly during the long cold winters. I have great memories when I look at this picture!!


We spent tons of time with the Lisa's family our last week in MI. Here are the kids at the air museum.

I think this is so cute. This is Ethan's best friend Emma.

We were spoiled with the best neighbors ever. The only thing I regret about this picture is the fact that Vern is not in it. Our kids LOVE Vern and Denise and spent plenty of time chatting with them on their porch, gardening with Denise or laying in the hammock with her. Vern and Denise were so good to our kids. We will miss them so much.

visitors!

The day we arrived to Indiana we got a call from Patty. Her girls were visiting their grandma close by and wanted to come see us and help us unpack. It was a HUGE blessing and boy did we work them!! Emma and Caroline were so good to help entertain the kids and poor Melanie worked by my side for hours helping me take stuff out of boxes!!
And, I can't say enough thank yous to Andy's mom who came and worked non-stop for a week. This picture is the only one I took while she was here and this was a rare moment for her. She hardly got a chance to ever hold Jane because she was so busy either cooking or unpacking boxes. I am really not sure how we would have done it without her!!! Thank you!!!

Although it was only for a day we enjoyed a visit from Matt and camie.

Jane and Wyatt

Did you notice they were holding hands?!!??!

Welcome!!

By the time we made it to Indiana I had said way too many goodbyes. I was so sad to leave Michigan. So, it made me feel so happy to pull up to our new place and find this sign (thanks Jenner!!).

The move!!

Well, we did it! We sold our house and made our trek (thank goodness it was not too long of a trek) to Indiana. In looking back I realize I didn't get very good pictures. I suppose it's because I was so busy. I had no clue how much work it was going to be to move our family!! Last time we moved it was with a tiny truck and no kids. Here we are 7 years later with 4 kids and way too much stuff!! It has been an exhausting month and we would have never survived without all our friends who helped us out!! I hope we NEVER have to move ourselves again!!

We had TONS of help the day we moved. There is no way we could ever express the gratitude we feel for everyone who helped. Some were cleaning, packing, moving boxes, loading the truck and watching kids. We were grateful for ALL who contributed!!
Carma cracked me up. She is a little worker bee and if you assign her a task she will get it done and do a fabulous job!! The morning we drove out she showed up bright and early because she wanted to re-arrange a few things in Andy's car which she had packed the day before.

Audrey and Daniel were lifesavers. They were so good to play with the kids so I could pack. I don't even remember how many days they helped me out and of course if you knew this family you would not be surprised one bit to hear they wouldn't accept any money for all the babysitting they did!! They were a huge blessing to me!! Thanks girls!!
Well, this was a very busy summer for our family!! We had a baby sold our house and moved!! I am glad to have it all behind me!!
Ben and Stephanie showed up very early the morning we drove out with a hot breakfast ready for us to eat. They didn't forget anything. They even brought along a pop up table with seating included!! They are so cute.

A must read if you are a mom with a newborn!!

Life is SUPER CRAZY right now. I probably don't have time to blog this but I am so amazed by it so I have to post this really fast. Jane is a GREAT baby. However, we do have a few issues at night when it comes to putting her to bed initially. Once she falls asleep she is great to eat and go right back down (for the most part) but she generally will go down and cry for a couple of hours (off and on but it's not just little whimpers here and there. She is mad) Anyway, thanks to my friend Abbey we no longer have problems. She gave me this blanket called the "miracle blanket" You can order them online. Anyway, it is basically a blanket for swaddling but has different pieces of fabric to keep her arms close to her side. Anyway, ever since we started using this blanket Jane cries for no longer than 15 minutes but generally within 2-5 minutes she is sound asleep. It's amazing!! I know why they call it the miracle blanket!! Some may say I should have just been swaddling her in the first place. I was but she was so mad she always worked her way out so it was pointless. I decided she must not like the swaddling but apparently I was wrong. It is the BEST invention ever. If you have a fussy baby this is a MUST HAVE baby item. Why didn't I know about this 7 years ago?!?!?

Family Reunion

We had a WONDERFUL family reunion in Cascade Idaho. We stayed at a house right on the Lake. It had a private beach and dock and room for everyone to sleep. It was wonderful and relaxing. The only bad thing about it was the fact it added 6 hours onto our already long (24 hour!) trip going back home. However, it was worth it. We had tons of fun relaxing, swimming, exercising, boating and jet skiing. Not to mention, there was always plenty to eat!

Here is a picture of the entire family minus Katie and Megan. Katie stayed home because she was too close to her due date. (we missed you Katie)

I loved these table and chairs they had in the back yard. They were all over the patio and we ate at them every meal.

Lucy, Lydia, and Ethan
We were able to get Lucas out on the tube. He liked it but probably not as much as Ethan. For him the faster the better!
Lucas talked for weeks about going to grandma's to ride in a boat. It finally happened and he really enjoyed it.
Andy and Lucas
The kids loved the jet ski. Lucy was very cautious on it. Anything over 10 miles and hour was too fast! However Ethan couldn't seem to go fast enough. The scarier the better for him. It was so funny to watch him.
Here is Ethan taking andy for a ride!!

Lucas also loved the jet ski and liked going fast as long as he was pinned in the middle of two adults. It was cute.

Here is our cool joe boat driver - AKA Adam!
There is never lack of food at our reunions. Let's just say the 5 carts from Costco was more than enough food for 1 week!!! This picture doesn't do it justice. This is just one pantry of food and one of the refrigerators full of food. It wouldn't be a reunion without lots of treats. The kids (and adults) loved it!

To justify all the food we also had plenty of exercise going on. One morning a bunch of people tried alisa's yoga DVD and all the girls went power walking each morning.
Leave it to Uncle Travis - our newest (and only) dentist in the familyto bring tooth brushes, toothpaste and floss to take care of all the treats we were eating!! He just graduated from school and showered us with lots of dental prizes!! We're so proud of travis for what he has accomplished!

Seemed there were always people fishing off the dock. Ryan and Travis were the faithful fishermen though and even cooked up the fish on our last day there.

Here is Matt showing off his perfectly roasted marshmallow. I'll admit he definitely knows how to roast marshmallows!
This was a typical activity for me and camie. Seemed we are always nursing our babies!!

On our last morning everyone gathered for a family run. The kids started out by doing a 1/2 mile run. Then the adults did a 5K. It was lots of fun.
We especially liked Matt's oh so lovely running shorts not to mention his awesome white legs!!
Grandma was good to walk with a lot of the little kids and babies during the run.

Trip to Utah

We drove 24 hours to Utah! We were so surprised with our kids. They did a great job. The drive home was a bit long and we were all ready to be out of the car but the dreaded drive turned out to be a positive experience. We stopped at my parents house for a few days before heading to Idaho for our reunion.

Thank goodness for more help!!

It's been a while since I last posted. We've had a VERY VERY busy summer - starting with the birth of Jane, visits from 2 grandmas, a LONG road trip (yes, you read that right - a road trip!!) to Utah just 4 weeks after having a baby, not to mention selling a house and now trying to pack all of our junk from the past 9 years and moving it to our next destination - MBA school (yes, you read that right too - MBA school and yes we are aware we have 4 kids and are going back to school!!)
I was completely spoiled with 3 weeks of help from 2 different grandmas. After my mom left, Andy's mom came and stayed with us for a week. I am very lucky to have such a wonderful mother-in-law. She was a huge help and the kids kept her very busy!

One morning we all went downtown. Andy took the kids for a fun bike ride while my mother-in-law and I enjoyed a nice walk behind them with Jane.

Grandma treated us all to some fudge from Kilwins!!

Happy Father's Day!!

Things have been a little busy around our house lately so no fabulous father's day posts this year but here is a shout out to my wonderful husband who is a GREAT father! And, to my dad who was a wonderful dad to me. Happy Father's Day!!