Christmas!...almost

The weekend after Thanksgiving the town we live in had a little "Tree" lighting ceremony. Note the that tree is in quotes. This is because due to snow storm that we had in October, the tree that they were going to light up was destroyed. So instead they lit the bushes that surround the fountain my the borough offices. The kids were waiting in front of the fountain for them to light the bushes.We met up with some friends there and waited in line for Santa.It is always funny when we get together with these friends because you can see other people continuously counting all of the kids. We each have four kids. Only three of each of ours are pictures below though.As we waited in line, Santa rode in on the fire truck. A few of the kids were a bit confused by this. We finally got in to see Santa. Paisley walked right up to him and immediately and very excitedly told him that she wanted Strawberry Shortcake and Zoobies (aka Zoobles) for Christmas. When he didn't immediately hand them over she was NOT happy and wouldn't have anything to do with him. She was one ticked off little girl. I guess we forgot to mention to her that just because she was telling him what she wanted didn't mean he was going to immediately hand over the loot.

After seeing Santa the kids got to explore his ride.

Survival!

We are officially living in Pennsylvania and have survived the move. We are unpacked! We still have pictures to hang and some other random organization to be considered "done" but things are starting to relax or should I say I am.

We had the most amazing ward in Grand Rapids. We had so many people show up to help with the kids and loading the truck that there were actually too many people! I have never heard of having that problem before.
I am going to play the catch up game again just a bit and then we will be current. So check back soon!

Kalamazoo Air Zoo

For our little preschool playgroup recently, we went to the Air Zoo. The kids loved it.Benton has asked several times to go back. He keeps going back and forth about which plane was his favorite.

A Dinner In!

In February, we went to visit our rocking friends, the Guymons. I'm sure that you are all familiar with them by now. Sarah and I decided that since we were getting together we would put the kids down and make a super yummy dinner for just the adults. We did this about a year ago as well. It was good fun. Sarah and I enjoy hanging out in the kitchen together. Our husbands don't like this part of the meal so much.But they suffer through and enjoy the fruits of our labors.We had a super yummy carrot soup. I still need that recipe Sarah.And some marinated pork chops, that the men grilled up for us, as well as some orzo risotto and yummy bread.Also while we were there for the weekend, Sarah and skipped out to lunch with a bunch of the lady's from med school that live around Michigan.
And this picture is from outside of the restaurant. Sarah and I got soaked just for this silly picture. Yeah we are goons. All I can think when I look at this picture is that it is probably good that we didn't know each other when we were in high school and were more prone to doing stupid things.We also had a lot of fun playing with the kids. Here Keturah, Paisley, and Michael were lending their bellies to Jason drum playing skills. It was quite hilarious. I videoed it, but I'm not sure where that is at the moment. We had plans to include all of the kids in the band but the older ones were too chicken.
We are going to miss you guys terribly when we move. Seriously trying not to cry right now at the thought of it.

Christmas, at long last!

I should really check my blog more often. I wrote up this post and than never posted it. Opps. Sorry for the mega delay!

Christmas was a blast. It all started right after Thanksgiving as we went to pick out a Christmas tree. We went intending to cut down our own but even the puny ones were $50. No Thanks. We ended up buying a precut. Oh well. The ride was fun anyway.We decorated the tree.And because of this one, we redecorated the tree many many many times.We talked a lot about the real meaning of Christmas. Tab and Benton became obsessed with creating a "manger" out of one of my baskets and Benton pretended he was baby Jesus and Tab tended to him. And yes, Benton does have his entire body squished into that basket with the pillow. We had fun making a few different Christmas crafts. Tab made me these reindeer antlers and glued a bunch of glitter to them because everything is better with glitter, right? I opened them on Christmas morning and he insisted I wear them the rest of the day.Of course the kids saw Santa. Tab can never seem to remember what he wants when he gets to sit with Santa.Benton was sure to let him know that all he wanted was REX. We searched for months for this guy for a decent price and finally found him two days before Christmas. Phew...
Paisley even willingly sat on Santa. All she had to say was "ho ho ho" "ho ho ho" She knew just who he was.Tab again requested that we make Gingerbread houses. This time I didn't feel like spending as much time as last year making the Gingerbread and he wasn't pleased. It took some convincing to get him to believe you could still make a gingerbread house with graham crackers.Benny and Dad teamed up.Tab said his was an elves' workshop.Benny's was a barn for the reindeer.And of course, the best moments of all. Christmas morning.Trying to get them to look at the camera. All I could get was their faces, their eyes were glued on the good.I think this expression is "OH YEAH!"Here is Paisley opening up he doll's baby blanket I made that matches her baby blanket. She was thrilled.She had to put it to immediate use along with her new baby bottle.She was also a big fan of this fuzzy guy. She screams if anyone thinks of touching it.There was some baby love this Christmas, can you tell?Later in the day, she just couldn't bare to part with anything. She is laying on top of her baby blanket and then has her doll blanket on top of her baby.Tab was a big fan of his remote control car!Both of the boys got Nerf guns. Benton opened his first. His brother was SO jealous for about 15 minutes.To make an already great Christmas awesome we met up with our besties, the Guymons. And no Sarah, I don't think it is possible for us to get sick of spending time together. We went to JJ Ranch where they have an awesome indoor waterpark.Benton loved the tubes.
They had some awesome slides where they had a four person tube. We had 2 adults and 4 kids on it. It was awesome.
Paisley LOVED the little fountains.
Tab was a huge fan of the little kid area. Probably because he could drink the nasty water.
They had a sweet walkway thing.
The kids had a lot more fun than me walking across it. That thing hurt my feet.

Camping in Ludington

This past summer we spent a few days camping with our best friends, the Guymons. It pretty much rocked.

The boys immediately found some branches to use and guns/grenade launchers.Bekah and Keturah loaded Paisley up with some rocks to help her get dirty too.
After settling in, we noticed the wild life coming to greet us.Prepping for dinner.There was a lot of shuffling of babies while we enjoyed our tinfoil dinners.Poor Pais was still not walking and therefor spent the majority of her time in the highchair.We had fun introducing the kids to Jiffy Pop!
One of the best parts of the trip was the hike we took. Part way through the hike we realized that it might not have been the most brilliant with 7 kids under 6 years old. Alas it was fun none the less.

After a few minutes we ran into a dock. The kids thought we had reached our destination. Unfortunately for them we still had about 5 miles round trip left. Opps!This is where Paisley spent most of her time. Except for the time when I was carrying Benny in the carrier and Pais on my shoulders. Yeah that was awesome. I totally clothes lined Paisley with a branch. Thanks for catching Sarah. lol. (Don't worry Jason had his hands full with other kids as well).Pais was pretty happy in her seat.
Keturah was pretty happy with her ride too.After a while Tab became the water carrier.
Tab and Alex, although they whined their fair amount, had a great time making up stories and being all around silly.About 1/2 of our hike was on sandy ground or pure sand hills, etc. as we were headed to a lighthouse. It was kind of awful to be truthful. But Benton was a trooper.Lo and behold. We made it. Lucky we love lighthouses so much because that was quite the hike for us and the kids.I think that they liked it too.There was also a beach nearby where we were camping, so we headed over for some fun in the water and sand.The girls loved playing together in the sand.
Jason and Matt had fun throwing around the football.Sarah and I enjoyed hanging out. Don't mind the hair, it was windy ok.But that is not the worst that my hair was. Just think, my hair + camping (aka a few days without a shower + the beach= thisThanks Jason for asking me to smile for a picture not realizing I didn't have my hat on, that I wore pretty much the entire time. Sigh..