Weekend Away

We spent the weekend in Nashville visiting the Morrison's. Just before we headed out on Friday to make the trek south, Daphne fell and split her chin open. Thankfully, she just needed a quick trip to our doctor for some dermabond and she was good to go.

The girls did great travelling on Friday - they read, watched movies, drew pictures, listened to music, etc, so I slept and Kevin drove. Daphne actually napped - probably as a result of a slightly traumatic morning.

Kevin and Ryan headed to a basketball game on Friday night so once the kids went to bed, Heather and I were able to spend time catching up (plus, she showed me some of her homemade Christmas presents - amazing!!).

On Saturday we went to the Nashville Zoo - it was a beautiful day! Daphne was exhausted because she didn't sleep very well - so she was slightly on the feisty side.

Sunday morning the kids played and played (and several cried from exhaustion - lol) and then we headed home. The ride home was not quite as relaxing since we had some sleepy kiddos but we made it in one piece!!

It was fun to hang out with Morrison's again and look forward to doing it again!

We had a great 4th with the Diehl family! The kids only play together a couple of times a year and they get along great and have a blast together!!

(left to right) Norah, Luke, Bennett, Lucy, Jack Henry, Daphne

Whew!

As mentioned in my previous post - we had a CRAZY - but fun - week last week. We had a play date everyday except Tuesday, swimming lessons Mon- Thurs, and doctor's appts. We were all relieved to have Saturday come and not have to go anywhere or do anything.

Of course, I didn't take my camera to any of our play dates. I seriously need to be better about that. Oh, I should add that it was about 100 degrees ALL week so it was hot! We played with the Diehl family one day - the girls were excited to see the boys!! Now that the kids are a little older and busier we really don't see them more than a handful of times a year. We met at a park, and while Nicole and I tried to stay cool, the kids ran and climbed and laughed - steering clear of the cicadas! They parked it under the playground equipment for some relief from the heat!! We had lunch and shortly after a school bus dropped off a huge group of kids we decided to head out!

We also played with the Good girls one day. The kids were all over - inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs - playing dress-up, hide and seek, legos, Barbies. Sarah and I enjoyed catching up - even though our conversation was constantly interrupted by any one of 6 little girls!

We went to my sister's one day to play with Ryan and Will. The kids played on the slip n slide most of the time. They started by sliding down by themselves. Then they were catching cicadas and sliding with them down the slip n slide. They ended by just throwing the cicadas down the slip n slide. We did have lunch, and Lucy, DJ and Will made pictures with stickers. It was a fun, active few hours together!!

We spent the evening on Friday at the Harper's - our good friends from church. This was a little good-bye play date because they leave for Singapore in a couple of days. They will be gone for 2-3 years. It is never easy to say good-bye to friends and saying good-bye to the Harper family was especially difficult. Karen and I met 5 years ago at our women's Bible study at church. We clicked instantly and the fact that we each had a new baby girl and a 2 year old girl was a huge bonus! Norah and Kate were also instant friends, and Lucy and Brooke became friends as they grew up together. Over the last 5 years we have had play dates, girl's nights out, and family dinners. The Harper's have been a HUGE blessing to our family and we will miss them dearly!! Thankfully, we had one more chance this morning at church to say good-bye and the girls had lots of hugs for each other (and I took my camera so we were able to get a few pics)!!

Lucy, Kate, Norah, Brooke and Daphne (I took her cup away from her so she is yelling, "Mommy, thirsty! I need dink!)

Kate and Norah

Let me just add this - I really hope no more of Norah's good friends move anytime soon. 2 in less than a year is more than enough for a 7 year old!!

The girls were exhausted by Saturday so we had a few meltdowns - by all!! They were able to catch up on sleep a little this weekend and we are gearing up for another BUSY week!!

Swimming lessons need a post of their own - so I will save that for after this week of lessons!!

I am thankful for. . .

my friend, Jenny. She offered to have Norah and Lucy come over today so I could get some things done this afternoon while Daphne napped. Jenny is an art teacher so while her little boy napped, she and the girls did a couple of art projects. They did some clay projects (she has a kiln so after she fires the stuff, the girls will go back and finish them) and made a picture with oil pastels, paint brushes and water. The girls had a blast and Jenny said they worked for almost 3 hours!! Nothing like a private art lesson by a really talented artist!! Look at this adorable cat that Jenny made and fired and then let the girls help decorate.

(sidenote: Jenny makes and sells all kinds of really cool animals. If you need a unique Christmas gift and want to get in touch with her, let me know!)

I really enjoyed having a couple of hours to get a few things done around here.

4th of July Fun

We had a great night with the Diehl family. I have more pics to come - just too tired to do it now. Had to post this picture, though. Love it!!

Jack-2 1/2, Lucy-4, Bennett-5, Norah-6, Luke-7, Daphne-17 mo.

We have been getting together on the 4th since before Luke (who is 7 1/2) was born. I think this is the first 4th in a LONG time that there isn't a brand new baby or one on the way.

4th of July Weekend, Part 2

Last night we went to Heritage and Freedom Fest with the Morrison's. They ran around and played in the Kids Area - all kinds of free activities put together by some of the local churches, then they rode a couple of carnival rides and then we had a little picnic.

Norah, Savannah, and Sawyer spinning on a teacup. Lucy is not a huge fan of rides so she opted out on this one.

Notice that Lucy is holding on for dear life! Plus, she wanted me holding on to her. Lucy rode the carousel twice because nothing else appealed to her.

Our little Statues of Liberty

Norah, Savannah, and Sawyer rode the Ferris Wheel with Ryan. Again, Lucy opted out.

Daphne's attempt at the hula-hoop.

Relay race with daddy

Face painting. Lucy opted out of this also. I think she was overwhelmed by all the people. . . and the heat.

Everyone had a great time and was ready to hit the sack as soon as they had their baths!!

June25

Picture #29

Lemonade Stand!

Norah, Lucy, Savannah, and Sawyer had a lemonade stand today!! They made about $12 total - honestly, not as much as I thought considering it was so warm. They were hilarious trying to sell lemonade. We were having a garage sale at the same time so as soon as someone new started walking up the driveway, the kids would yell, "Lemonade for sale! Lemonade for sale!" They would sometimes yell it until the person walked away. They also were a little skimpy on the amount of lemonade they gave people. We had to remind them to FILL the cups up. Cracked us up.

June 19

Picture #21

The girls are enjoying time with our friend, Macy! I think they were "on an airplane."

What a Week!

I have been a little out of touch over the last week because life has been crazy - some planned events and some unexpected activities! I think the best way to review the week is with bullet points.

• Monday - We hosted a Christmas cookies exchange with some mom's and their little girls (one little brother tagged along because his dad had to work late - he didn't seem to mind being the only boy). We ended up with about 8 different kinds of Christmas cookies - that is the way to make the perfect plate of Christmas cookies without having to bake them all!!
• Tuesday - We had a wonderful, lengthy playdate with a friend who is the sister of our babysitters. She is in 4th grade and the girls had a BLAST playing with her and I really enjoyed my visit with her mom who is a dear friend of mine. Tuesday night, Kevin had a client event so he had to work extremely late. The girls and I had an early dinner and the girls hit the sack by 7.
• Wednesday (here is where we took a detour in our plans) - We were going to have an easy day at home getting school work done and playing, but little Daphne Jane had other plans. She woke up with a fever. . . AGAIN. . . and I took her to the doctor just thinking her ears were not clearing up from the previous ear infection. By the time we got to the doctor, her fever was 103.3. The doctor checked her ears - while she thought they looked clear, she didn't seem totally confident. She kept saying, "I think they look okay." They did a flu culture, strep culture, and took a urine sample, but of which came back negative. The doctor asked another doctor to come in to look in Daphne's ears to confirm and that doctor also said, "the right one looks great and I think the left one is okay." They were concerned, though, that she had such a high fever when she was still on her antibiotic from the earlier ear infection. They sent us to the hospital to get some blood work done. About an hour later, the doctor's office called telling me to take Daphne to the hospital immediately - her white blood cell count was really high. I dropped the girls off at my friend, Cherie's house (thank you Cherie - you are a God-send!) and drove Daphne to the ER at Progress West. Kevin met me there (my sister came later to check in and then picked up the girls to take them home and put them in bed). After attempting 4 times to get her blood, the nurses finally got a sample to send away for a blood culture. They gave her a 24 hour antibiotic and sent us home about 6 hours later. She still had a high fever - 104.4, but the doctor thought we could manage the fever ourselves with motrin. No one slept much that night - Daphne was awake and crying about every hour and a half.
• Thursday - I already had plans to take Norah and Lucy to see the Nutcracker performed by the St. Louis Ballet. Kevin really thought we should go ahead and go and he would take Daphne back to the doctor (they wanted to see her first thing in the morning). The girls had a blast at the Nutcracker - although, Lucy started to get antsy after about an hour. It was an excellent production! Daphne ended up having another ear infection - not sure if it was missed but the 3 doctors the day before or if it just came on all of the sudden. She is now on a new antibiotic - hopefully this one works. My sister and I took my mom and grandma to see White Christmas at the Fox. We went to dinner first and then to the show - it was wonderful and we had a great time. We didn't get home until almost midnight and then Daphne was awake again. . .A LOT, so we didn't get much sleep that night either.
• Friday - We hung out with my grandma and mom in the morning. They headed out after lunch and we cleaned and cooked like crazy (well, I did. The girls just played and rested). We had our new pastor and his family over for dinner. We had a really great time. They have 3 girls, too, right around our girls' ages!
• Saturday - Kevin and Lucy did some Christmas shopping then Norah and I did some. I baked and wrapped presents then we headed out to another Christmas party with the Goods, the Bohlmanns, and the Biggers.
• Today - Church, of course. The girls' classes had birthday parties for Jesus - complete with cupcakes! We are headed to yet another Christmas party this evening.

Whew! I'm exhausted after reliving all of that! I should add - Daphne woke up from her nap on Friday a totally different baby. She was happy and playful and HUNGRY!!

Now we are prepping for another crazy week!

Are you ready for Christmas?

Mrs. America

Congrats to my friend, Andrea!! She was Mrs. Missouri and last night won the Mrs. America Pageant!!

A Quick Recap

I know I haven't posted for a little while, but we have had a MILLION things going on!! Here is a brief overview of all we have done.

I have coffee/dessert with some new friends who are also homeschooling. It was great to chat about our plans for the next year without being interupted by all the children. They have great ideas/suggestions that I plan to incorporate into our day.

Kevin and I went to Florida for a few days. Those of you who know me, know that I stress out about leaving my kiddos - especially when flying on an airplane. I don't usually sleep well the night before we leave and I have a nervous/anxious feeling in my gut from the time we leave our house until we land safely at our destination (it starts all over again when it is time to leave).

This time, however, I saw God working in my life when our good friends, the Norwines, showed up behind us at the security check. Even more ironic is that they were on our airplane. They were flying through Miami on their way to the Bahamas. They are incredibly busy with teenagers and we, of course, are busy with little ones, so we don't have a lot of time to hang out. We were so busy chatting/catching up that the time in the airport flew by - and I don't even remember feeling anxious or nervous. I LOVE recognizing the little ways God reveals himself to us.

We had a great time of relaxing and sleeping. We spent about 2 days on the beach (with LOTS of sunblock and a large umbrella - I have this new found fear of skin cancer and wrinkles) and we ate at some yummy restaurants. It was nice to get away for a few days while the girls played nonstop with my mom.

Sunday, my sister and I (and Nicole, although we didn't see each other) ran in the All-Star 5K. It was a beautiful day - not too hot with a slight breeze.

Sunday afternoon, my college roommate, Beth, came by while she was in town. It was great seeing her and catching up.

Yesterday we went to one of those bounce house places, similar to Bounce-U. The girls had a great time running around with some new friends (other homeschoolers).

Today, the girls hung out at Heather's while I ran some errands. We hadn't seen the Morrison's in a couple of weeks, so I know they enjoyed have some time with Savannah and Sawyer.

I am trying to get some planning done for our first 12 weeks of school. Besides homeschooling Norah this year for kindergarten, I am also going to do some preschool stuff with Lucy. I have decided to follow this plan with Norah and I am really excited about it.

Through all this craziness, I am also continuing to train for the triathlon. This week I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the exercising, but knowing I have a little over 5 weeks helps a little. The running is going fine and the swimming is fine. I have been biking 7-9 miles and have to get to 12 before the race, but adding the 3 together is the overwhelming part!!

4th of July

We had a great weekend! We relaxed, enjoyed time with friends, and worked on a few projects!!

Kevin had the day off on Friday - yea!! He went mountain biking with some guys from our small group then he and I worked on a few projects while the girls napped. Kevin took Norah and Lucy to the 4th of July festival that was going on in our community. The girls had a great time. They met up with Morrison's after awhile. They bounced in the bounce house, slid down the big slide, rode some rides and finished the evening off with a funnel cake!

Later in the evening I asked Lucy if she saw Sawyer. She replied, "Yeah, he's my buddy!" Cute!

Saturday was a dreary, rainy day! We spent the morning relaxing and playing with the girls. Kevin installed a new dishwasher!!!! Our old one had been broken for about 3 months!!

As fitting with tradition, we headed over to the Diehl's house after naps (everyone napped - so they were ready for a FUN evening). We had a DELICIOUS dinner! The kids played and played and played. The Diehl's had purchased a few small fireworks for the dads . . .er, kids to enjoy. The kids attempted this project, but ended up finger painting instead. I put Daphne to bed at their house and JH went to bed too. The dads took the 4 bigger kids to see fireworks. We had a GREAT time! It is always a blessing to hang out with the Diehl family. We were amused at one point in the evening when Luke said, "Norah and I just want to be alone." As the parents, we figured it is better to allow it now than when they are 15 and 16. Ha!

Jack wasn't really wanting to be apart of his own family picture, but he saw us getting ours taken, he climbed right up!!

After putting the girls to bed around 10:30, we slept in on Sunday morning. Well, Kevin, Norah, and Lucy slept in. Daphne was awake and ready to eat by 7:30. We worked on a few more projects and then went to our community center to swim in the afternoon. The adult lap swim was open from 3-4 and the kids pool was open until 4. I swam some laps while Kevin and the girls played in the pool. I joined them after about 20 minutes of swimming and we had a great time!! We have lived here for almost 4 1/2 years and this is the first time we have taken the kids to the indoor pool (it was cold and rainy here yesterday). It is so nice!! There is a lazy river and a little playground/slide in the water.

I'm a little sad to see the weekend end because we had a great time!!

Surprise - Happy Early Father's Day

I'm not great at surprises - in fact, I pretty much NEVER plan them because I usually spill the beans or mess something up. This year Heather and I decided to plan a surprise camping trip for our husbands. Kevin and Ryan had been talking about going this summer and the kids were asking too. I knew if we could pull it off, Kevin would be really surprised, because I don't camp often.

Heather and I decided on a weekend and a park. Norah and Savannah made books about camping for their dads. The last page said, "Surprise! We are going camping tomorrow!" Heather scanned in Savannah's book and posted it here . We had dinner on Wednesday night and the girls gave Kevin and Ryan their books.

The kids really did great! They were awake later than anticipated on Saturday night (that would be thanks to Lucy who was WIRED), but all in all they slept great. Daphne had a hard time falling asleep at night and didn't nap as much as she would have at home, but once she fell asleep at night - she slept all night! Because of the lack of naps, Daphne cried more than normal. Kevin actually thought she did fine.

We really didn't do a lot while we were camping. No hikes this year - I forgot the Baby Bjorn. The kids went swimming in a little water hole - totally grossed me out, but Kevin thought it was fine (I did make them take showers immediately following and again at bedtime! Ha!). The kids rode scooters around and basically just played together the whole weekend. There was a nice playground right in the middle of the campsites - perfect for us. The kids got along great - it amazes me that they pretty much never have any squabbles.The weather was INCREDIBLE and the park was very nice. We had great food and fun with the Morrisons!

The only issue we had (well, besides Lucy keeping her sisters awake on Saturday evening) was Norah waking up wheezing and coughing in the middle of the night on Saturday. Totally freaked us out. She hasn't needed any breathing treatments in almost a year, so totally forgot to even take the nebulizer. The more she coughed, the more she cried and the more she cried, the more she coughed. Nice. We were able to get her calmed down and got her to drink some water and she finally went back to sleep. Kevin and I didn't sleep very well because we kept checking on Norah. We decided we needed to head out as soon as we could pack up so she could get home and start her breathing treatments.

We were home by lunchtime and the girls rested in the afternoon. I think by now they have completely recovered from a lack of sleep and Norah is talking about the next camping trip (which Daphne and I may skip out on).

So Busy!!

Why is it that EVERY weekend flies by?  

Although the weather was supposed to be rainy - it ended up being beautiful!!  We had dinner Friday night with our friends, the Harper's.  They are friends of ours from church.  Their girls are the exact same ages as Norah and Lucy.  We have all been so busy that we haven't seen each other much outside of church.  

Norah had soccer on Saturday morning and Sunday evening.  She is doing a great job!  She really seems to enjoy it.  At first I wasn't convinced that she would make it through the season.  She likes practice and now seems to enjoy the games as well.  At first, she backed away from the ball and could care less about actually touching the ball with her foot.  Now, she runs right into a group of girls and tries to kick the ball away.  She is great at dribbling and doesn't hesitate as much when someone comes at her.  

We had dinner at a park with the Greene's and Diehl's on Saturday evening.   We had great weather and a great time catching up on each other's lives!!  Pictures to come!

Sunday after soccer, the Morrison's came over for dinner!  We haven't seen them in about 3 weeks - crazy since they live so close!  Again, we had great weather, so we ate outside!!  Heather brought a yummy salad - spinach, red onion, strawberries and a poppy seed dressing (Heather, can I get that recipe?)  It was delicious!  

The girls were at MDO today while Daphne and I walked with a friend and her new baby.  It was strange walking with just one child!  

Tonight our small group Bible study is coming over for dinner and Bible study!  Whew!  I think we have 2 calm days the next couple of days!  Thanks goodness!

Tea Party

Norah had her birthday tea party on Thursday.  We kept things small this year - so she invited 3 of her friends.  The girls seemed to have a great time dressing up, playing Pretty, Pretty Princess and drinking "tea."