Gingerbread houses

We have done a gingerbread house almost every year since we've been married. It's been a great lesson in constructing with people. The first year we did one with a helpful Andrew, Matt had his full engineer on. After about a half an hour or more of being frustrated, he with my impatience, me with my "disgust" of his perfectionism, I mentioned, "This is SUPPOSED to be fun!" After a chuckle, we got on with it.
This year Jared was able to be with us and we decorated three houses!!




What concentration!!



"What do you mean I can't eat all the candy??"


The finished project, up and away from prying (literally) hands!!

How wide is YOUR kitchen?

My kitchen is one Matt wide!!



One day I hope for a kitchen that's maybe 2 Matt's wide!!

Eye Blinks

A little Delaineyism: "Eye blinks"

Last week all four kids had pink eye, starting with Delainey. As one would imagine, the three times daily regimine of eye drops wasn't well received, particularly by Delainey. One method we used was to have her lay down and put the drops in the corners of her eyes near her nose. As she blinked the drops would go in her eyes (thanks to Janet Puzycki for that tip). She started to call the medicine "eye blinks." This morning I found her with some of the leftover medicine and one of her dolls-"Baby need eye blinks"!!

A tale of two frogs

A few of my children have been blanket babies. When Chase was born I found a cute little frog blanket (small square with a frog head). I thought, this will be great because it's small so he won't be able to drag it all over the place! Little did I know what I had started. Later, as we found he had a huge attachment we bought another frog. It got lost. Over the years "frog" has been very well loved, snipped, worn through-think velveteen rabbit. We have been unable to find a back up frog until a week or so ago. I was in Target and had to take Chase to the bathroom. Outside the bathroom door was a cart that had in it -you guessed it-a FROG!!!! Chase noticed it immediately. We went in to the bathroom and found a lady changing a little girl's diaper. I asked if she was the owner of said frog and proceeded to ask how to find one. We are now the proud owners of TWO backup frogs. A few days after the frogs arrived, we couldn't find frog (this is a rather frequent occurrance. I don't even want to think of the hours I have spent looking for frog). At the end of the day we still hadn't found him so I pulled out a new one. The look on the four year old's face was priceless. Grinned from ear to ear forever!! A few days later the orginal (and by far,favorite) frog was found, and young Chase dozed off to dreamland with two frogs in tow!!

Trick or Treat

For the first time ever, our whole family dressed a la theme. However, due to the rush of the day I failed to get a full family photo. It all started with Chase as a Knight, Delainey as a princess, and Braden as a dragon. Andrew added on as a serf, with Matt being a king, and me being a socerer (read Sorcerer's apprentice hat)! It was fun!


If you take a close look, you'll see that Delainey is actually "screaming" as Braden "attacks" her while Chase defends!!


Chase and Delainey went to trick or treat at Matt's office.

The "not so" new house

So, after a month with no internet, the business of unpacking, and not being able to log on to blogger I can now post some pictures of the new house!!

Here goes:

WE'RE BAAAAACCKKKK

Hail to Jared, the conquering hero!! He just dropped by for the evening and was able to get me back on the blog!!! Waahooo!! Now I'll be back to posting real soon!!

Ya'll come back now, ya hear??!!!

Chase's birthday

A few shots of the Birthday Celebration!!

Chase wanted a Spiderman cake, but we decided to have the party on
the fourth since Matt was home, so he went with the available Backyardigans cake!

Before the grand opening!

Chase opened presents faster than he could look at them!! He had a good birthday!
Thanks to all the grandmas and grandpas!!

Momma's takin' us to the Zoo

We had a beautiful day here in the mid 70's-too cold to swim-so we decided to check out the Philadelphia Zoo. It boasts being the country's first zoo. It's a really nice zoo-not too big to be exhausting, but with a good mix of all the best animals, even a king cobra!!


ABCD, and not in that order!! (Chase was sporting a very upset stomach-he threw up later at home)

The bookends!!

Delainey loved the giant otters! And they provided a lot of fun!!

Ode to Uncle Oliver-when he came to visit, he shared a new
sandwich combo-PBJ and cheetos!! Andrew's new favorite!

A-Tripping We Will Go, Part II: The Museums and Folklife Festival

The American History museum is closed so part of their collection is housed in the Air and Space museum. Chase was very excited to find R2D2! (And Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, but that picture didn't turn out so well!!)

In the Virginia exhibit Matt's Alma Mater made an authentic "burned out" canoe. The kids were able to take oyster shells to help scrape out the inside of the canoe.

Chase in the Discovery Center at the Museum of Natural History. We were able to also see "Rexy", but sadly enough our Museum of Natural History does not have an Atilla the Hun exhibit! (for anyone who is lost, go rent "Night at the Museum")

Getting a little sweltery at the Folklife Festival. In this photo are Shelly and her girls, sleeping Chase, Delainey, and Braden. We had a great time, but were glad to enjoy the air conditioning on the metro trip home!!

A-Tripping We Will Go, Part II: The Metro

The DC trip:TNA (the next adventure) On day two of the DC trip we rode the metro in to the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Folklife Festival. The kids loved the train!!Now, in spite of the exhausted looks on Nicole and Delainey's faces, this is the BEGINNING of the trip!!

I've always said that Chase looks like Uncle Kurt-here's proof!!

A-Tripping We Will Go, Part II: The Nature Center

With Matt in China, we headed down to D.C. for a couple of days. First stop, Uncle Kurt & Aunt Linda's. Shelly and the girls were in town (Jeff is on High Adventure) and Janene is home for the summer. First stop, the nature center.

Chase making animal tracks in the sand.

Andrew showing off his PowerAde tongue

Braden expressing his ever-present joie de vie

A tripping we will go

Just a few days after the kids and I arrived in PA Matt had a scheduled trip to China for two weeks (and we thought he was getting out of those with a new job-HA!). I decided two weeks in the apartment didn't sound like too much fun so we scheduled our own trips!!

Trip one:Boston to see more cousins!!! It took six and a half hours, which actually went really quickly and the fun began!! It was great to see Jared, Mary, Grace, and Caleb, and a joy to meet little baby Gosh. The first night we were treated to a fabulous dinner and a trip to Kimball Farms for a "little" ice cream. Day two brought some drama as we went to one of the local "sprinkler" parks. All six of the mobile kids thoroughly enjoyed the water, the bigger boys the creek, and the park. On the way home Braden had a bit of an accident. He went down a hill on a scooter (no shoes-his mother didn't know) and crashed. After we got home and assessed the damage we determined that he had to have broken his left big toe.

In the morning I purchased an orthopedic shoe and he could walk a bit better so we attempted a trip to the Children's museum. He made it about 100 feet from Jared and Mary's front door before he couldn't go any farther. So we opted for another afernoon at the park. We all went to Texas Road House for dinner and polished off some shopping.

Saturday was an interesting day. Delainey decided to get up before 6:00 AM. We all went to Grace's soccer game and with some MAD parking skills I scraped the front right tire of my car on the curb which proceeded to flatten the tire. You know, the whole movie thing where you get out and hear the air seeping out of the tire....Anyway, Jared changed the tire and after the game Mary and I ran to Costco for a new tire. Fun day!!

Sadly we had to go home so we left a little before 3:00. It was a LLOOOOOOONNNNGGGGG ride home with little Miss Mess. Delainey was a disaster!!!!! She has this foot thing where she's afraid of "something gonna get me" and she just screams and screams. Someone has to hold her feet or prop a leg under her for her to put her feet on. Let's just say it wasn't fun. We made it home though a little after 9:00.

We had a great time in Boston and hope we can make it back up again in a few weeks when Sara and family are there. Thanks to our fabulous hosts-we had a great time and the weather couldn't have been better!! Photos aren't loading so I will try to post some later!

The Great Storyteller

That would be Chase!! I have got to get a tape recorder to tie around his neck when we are on car rides, the boy can tell a story. Last night we were on a family Wal mart run when he was composing his latest. It was about Spiderman and the Sand Man and how they were taking all the food from the Rescue Hero's refrigerator and putting the food in their room for tomorrow. In all this, Spiderman said something "softly" and Sand Man said somethiing "loudly" and they "slammed the door-KKAAAABBLLLOOOOOM". It truly sounded like you were reading a book.
Oh, and when we were at Longwood Gardens, the conservatory was his "office" and he toured me around saying things like "this is a remarkable plant" and "these are the plants that eat bugs" (that was when we passed them a second time). It was pretty funny!

We've moved-sort of

We're now in Pennsylvania!! The process has been long and there's still a long way to go, but we are here nontheless. During the last week in Mich I could really see it taking a toll on the little ones for sure. Now Chase has missed a few things and today he cried to go back to Michigan. Moving is tough.

Now for our house to sell and to find one that's not too much of a fixer upper here...

We're in a nice three bedroom apartment that is built from Rice Paper. We've already had one round of complaints from the downstairs neighbors. So, we're learning to be quieter! We've visited Longwood Gardens and plan on visiting the Zoo tomorrow evening. And most anticipated by the boys-a visit from Oliver, Kristin, and Clara-bring on the bunnies!!!

More later

I tried to post four pictures and some commentary on our house hunting trip and it didn't work!! It's late so we'll have to do it later.....

Happy Hunting

This house is, ironically, on Manorwood Drive....

Happy Easter!!!

It's a cold Easter in Michigan this year!! (although I do believe it's cold almost every year!!) We had to actually cancel our annual Easter Egg Hunt with friends since it was somewhere around 25 degrees BEFORE wind chill!! (and it was a gusty, windy day) We had a great time lounging around at home though and had our egg hunt inside. Here's some pictures that show our day and new Easter duds!! That and notice that Delainey eats her chocolate bunnies ears first!! (Sally Forth would approve!)

Converted

I'm sold!! On clips and shoes and new, smaller, less tread tires!! I was able to get outside for a ride on Monday evening. Bliss!! Now, you must understand a few variables before I truly brag on the situation. In this part of Michigan we have some pretty vicious winds coming off of the lake. AND, I promise you that you can go into what seems like a headwind, turn a different direction and find another headwind. Turn a third direction and you guessed it-headwind. It can really slow you down-and don't even THINK about pulling a trailer in that wind. So, Monday night I head south to a pretty decent cross wind. Turn east into what should be a tail wind, not too bad. Climbed one of the tougher hills in the area, turned north back into the cross wind. A few miles later, turned west towards the lake and whew!! one of the ugly Michigan head winds. I biked for a little less than an hour-result-15 miles!! Yeah for the bike upgrade!!

Spring is in the air

Bring on the baths!! Today's winner of THE dirtiest child in the house-you betcha-my dainty little daughter!! I washed her off periodically, but not so anyone would notice. She did manage to get through until 7:00 PM with the same outfit, but I don't know if there's enough Greased Lightnin' (Great stuff by the way) in the world to get it clean!! But we had a blast with our 70+ degree day. Even got in a 15 mile ride with new clip in pedals/shoes and slimmer, faster tires!! Gotta love Spring!! (at least the 5 or 6 days we will have before we sink back down to the 40's!)

Octopus twin fun

Today the dynamic duo decided to build a reading nest in the dining room! It is terribly cute if you overlook the fact that they took Braden's bedding apart to do it! (note the cord for the electric blanket trailing down the hall!!)

Delainey and the hangers

While I was ironing one night (and yes, you can all fall over dead since I was ironing) Delainey decided that the climbing wall needed a little decoration.

American Idol

When are they going to learn? Fatal Move number one in American Idol-sing a song by Whitney or Celine or Aretha (fill in favorite diva here)!! Three or four tonight, not one worth their salt. Don't sing one of those unless you have the pipes to back it up....Just a little rant.

Winter

Even though I don't live in New York I've just about had my fill of living in a snowglobe. I think we've had snow for at least 28 of the last 30 days. I've got some great calluses started from shoveling. However, we have had our fun. The little ones played outside twice this week while I shoveled and yesterday (snow day for the big boys) we went sledding!! It was a bit of a hike (especially while carrying Delainey), but the hill was a perfect fit for our kids. Big enough to be entertaining for the big guys while not being too scary for the little ones. The only downside was that Chase had a bit of a hard time getting back up the hill!! He loved it though and didn't want to leave!
The other fun about snow is driving. It's precarious and tricky, but a bit like a ride at Disney. You know, the way you go around a corner and the backside of your vehicle fishtails behind you a bit?! Lots of fun!

Delainy and her babies

So, up until about a month ago, Delainey had nothing to do with the "babies." Now she drives us crazy with them!! We have to carry them and her all around, plus her "blankies", which are also highly coveted items, plus any other "accessories" for the babies!! She also plays "little momma" around the house, ordering brothers around, bringing shoes, coats, and whatevers to whomever is around. I think I'm glad she wasn't first!!

Baptism Day!!!

Yeah for Baptism Day!! It took until the afternoon the day before to get everything all worked out. Part of the building was being recarpeted so we had plans to go to another ward 35 miles away, a hot tub baptism, and a bathtub baptism!! The weather was horrible (read white out conditions on the way over), but close to 50 people were there. Braden was a great shiny new 8 year old and it was a great day!!

Yeah for a basement

Another quick missive for today. Today we sent the grandparents off. There were many tears shed by Chase, especially when we passed Grandma and Grandpa on the highway (literally) and waved good-bye. (He hadn't seen Sally in the morning and only saw Dale for a few hours on Saturday) After guests leave there is always some clean up to do. The basement, while still without a ceiling, is done being re-done. I was able to send kids downstairs to play, which they did for over an hour and clean.

Ahh, bliss....clean house, happy children!!

Too pooped from too many parties

Pre Super Bowl Nap!

Last run to the airport "jet lag"!!

Little engineer

The engineer in the family may just be the last one!! Delainey had tons of fun with the power tools as we reconstructed the basement!

Let them eat snow

We've had a lot of snow lately!! Delainey took to eating the snow off of the floor that fell off of boots. As a somewhat conscientious mother, I tried to discourage this behavior by opening up the door and getting her a bowl full of snow for her to eat. The boys thought it was a great idea as well!!

Blogging

I love reading the familiy's blogs!! I just can't seem to get to doing much of one on my own!! As I type this one I have Chase on my lap and Delainey close by! I have to retype most letters of every word since Chase or Delainey are constanly pushing a button or wiggling or ....
So-hat's off to you regular bloggers and know that your work is greatly appreciated!!

Blogging

I love reading the familiy's blogs!! I just can't seem to get to doing much of one on my own!! As I type this one I have Chase on my lap and Delainey close by! I have to retype most letters of every word since Chase or Delainey are constanly pushing a button or wiggling or ....
So-hat's off to you regular bloggers and know that your work is greatly appreciated!!

Daddy's little monkey

Ever had a monkey on your back? This is Delainey's favorite place to be when Daddy comes home. And yes, he walks around the house like this without having to hold onto her!!