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.