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?!?!?