Visit w/ Cousins

We just had a lovely visit from Aunt Amanda and her boys. I'll post about that...and then work backwards to include things like Easter and Nehemiah's birthday. :)

I don't know how, but I don't have a picture of the tent that they slept in while here. We don't have a guest room and they wanted to have some privacy (PSH, as if a house with 6 kids can ever be overwhelming!) ;) so they tented. Home owner goals: guest house.

Matthew and Adaiah are 2 weeks apart so I always like to see them together. So similar and yet so different. Joshua and Keturah are 6 months apart. (K is older) They played SO well together. Anyway, the visit was fun and included trips to the park, ice cream place, and time playing games.

I hope they can squeeze one more visit in before school starts... But maybe sleep on the couch this time?

Christmas!`

I hope everyone reading this had a very merry Christmas!  We had a lovely day!  The kids barely slept.  Nehemiah maybe had a longer than normal blink and Hannah had a cat nap.  Joseph slept for a few short hours as did Adaiah.  Keturah and Zion slept just fine... until the older kids decided enough was enough and it was time to open presents! They were so gracious (eye roll) to wait until 4:55am. 

Christmas morning, 2016

 We open presents in reverse birth order (taking turns, each opening 1 gift)  so Zion was first to open something.  Bless her little sleepy heart, she struggled with the first few presents. She smiled behind her nunny though, so she was having fun... just tired fun! :)

Before too long she woke up... enough to open a few things.  She didn't last though.  While we were Skyping Grandma so the kids could open gifts from her, Zion fell asleep.  When she woke up from her nap she was READY to open what was left of her Christmas gifts. 

I always look back at Christmas pictures and wish I would remember to put the girls hair up in braids before they go to bed.  Rarely do I actually remember to do that.  

Keturah was really excited this year.  She was so funny because everything she opened she said "Oh! I always wanted that!"  She even said that followed by, "what is it?" :)

*I* was so excited for her to open this.  She wound up being more excited about the bag than what was INSIDE the bag...

It was a mermaid blanket!  She is ALL about mermaid things.  She loves mermaid Barbie's.  She pretends mermaid-y things... sigh... but apparently mermaid blankets were not on her radar.  Whatevs.  The older girls like it... and she's starting to like it.  Ya win some, ya lose some.

I hardly have any pictures of Adaiah! I feel like a terrible mother.  I don't know what happened, but if I have to venture to guess, it's because the girl TORE UP every gift that was handed to her.  By the time I grabbed the camera, she was already done!  Her face is so precious though.  She found so much joy in everything she received.  

Hannah's smile through me a few times.  She seemed to give a polite smile while not really enjoying the gift... but I misread her.  She has enjoyed everything she got... even the things that don't work like they are supposed to.  :)

When this one gift arrived in the mail I squealed with delight.  I just KNEW Nehemiah was going to love it.  It took all I had to not just give it to him then.  

It's a Yohsi Pillow Pet!  Nehemiah is a bit of a Yoshi addict.  If he ever gets a tattoo, I have no doubt that it would be a Yoshi.  No. Doubt.

If that tattoo could be a Yoshi playing Super Smash Bros?  Send the 18 year old Nehemiah a link to your fav tattoo parlor... or perhaps if you are computer savvy, print him a rub on tatt.  Thats prob more his style. :)

Joseph still gets REALLY excited about Christmas. I hope he never outgrows that.  He was so excited about everything he opened... and everything that everyone else opened.  He was just loving the whole day.

When he saw that this big present was for him I think he might have squealed.

He's currently making a longbow, so this target is going to be put to good use very soon.

Roger and I were only supposed to get stocking stuffers for each other... but I never was very good at following directions. :)

After Zions nap, Joseph helped her open some stuff.  He's so good with her. 

aaand this beast of a toy is why my Christmas tree came down earlier than I ever remember. But the girls love it! And its bright and colorful and fun to look at on cold winter days... so it's all good.  :)

We are so blessed. It is such a joy to watch our children squeal in delight over the things we picked out for them.  It was a wonderful Christmas.  God is good.  

We're gearing up for New Years Eve tomorrow.  We don't do much... but apparently we've made a tradition out of playing some minute-to-win-it type games... the favorite one is "eating a donut dangling from a string"  TONS of laughter.  Videos to share next week.  

Keturah's Birthday ~ Part 2

After all of the Burger King and Orange Leaf froyo, it only made sense to come home and whack open a pinata!  :)

Keturah had been asking for a pinata since her 3rd birthday.  We saw one at Hobby Lobby and she said that she wanted it for her 4th.  I thought she would forget about it... but no such luck.  We could be reading a book about snails and she'd randomly remind me "I'm getting a pinata for my birthday, right Mommy?!"  So, yeah.  We were at Hobby Lobby (again) one day and the very pinata that started it all was marked down on clearance. (Probably because it sat on the shelf for a year!) How could I say no?  

So we became the proud owners of a very faded, very large, cupcake pinata.  Keturah was thrilled! :)

She then reminded me EVERY DAY that we needed to buy candy to fill it up.  

A few Halloween candy sales later and 10lbs of candy filled the giant cupcake.  

Well, ok, it didn't fill it.  It didn't even begin to fill it.  But the tag said that it had a 10lb limit. :) 

 If Keturah had her way it would have been stuffed to the top and we could have just pushed it off the roof to break it open.  

Don't share that idea with Joseph.

With all of the prep going into the pinata, I thought maybe Keturah would be sad to break it open.  I was SO wrong.  She could not wait to beat on it!

 Keturah had the first shot at it.  Then the cousins and the rest of my kids had a turn.

Joseph struck the winning blow.  But we were able to let Keturah hit it to release some more candy.  

And what is the best way to top off 10lbs of candy, Froyo, and BK?  Cake!

 I don't know who had my camera for the singing and cutting of the cake.  Not I.  :(  This is the best of the bunch.

Keturah sadly didn't like her cake.  It was a Pumpkin Spice cake.  She said it was too spicy.  ?!  I promised I wouldn't make it for her birthday next year.  Somehow I don't think it was really that big of a deal. Her day was pretty great for a 4 year old.  :)  And honestly she didn't complain about not liking the cake.  She just didn't eat it.  No biggie.  2 days later Zion had a birthday and she had more cake.

After a day of sugar OVERLOAD we said goodbye to our visiting family.  I can only hope that my nephews crashed from all of that sugar and weren't too much of a handful for the RV trip back home.  :)

Keturah's Birthday Part 1

 Keturah is 4!  She has been planning for this day since she turned 3.  She was SO EXCITED!  As a special birthday bonus, we just so happened to have Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amanda, and 2 cousins here for her special day.

Keturah woke up bright and early.  I hadn't slept well so we got ready and went out for some birthday donuts.  I'm hoping the kids quit requesting donuts for their birthday breakfast.  We don't have good donuts here.  They seem to think if they put more icing on them or slap some gummy worms on em, then people will like them.  Not a fan.  Anyway....  we went out and got some donuts.  Keturah sang a made up song about being 4.  She was a happy girl.

We had some donuts (she ate the chocolate icing off of hers and left the rest) and she was ready to move on to the presents.  :)  I made the pictures into a collage.  None of them turned out well.  I had messed with the settings on my camera and I needed more time than she would have wanted to wait to get it right again.  Whatever.  She is still so adorable.  Through the blur you can tell how big her smile is and how excited she was to be celebrating her birthday.  :)

She was funny while opening presents.  She didn't squeal like the older 2 girls did.  She smiled a lot but as soon as something was opened she put it to the side and was like "next".  It didn't come across in an ungrateful way, just an excited little girl way.  :)  Once everything was open she went back and started to play with everything.  She got so many things that she LOVES I don't think she even has a favorite something.

For those of you that know Keturah, you know that she has a bizarre love for Burger King.  I don't know what the deal is.  Chick Fil A?  Doesn't get her excited.  Burger King?  Squeals of delight.  So it was no surprise that she wanted to go to Burger King on her birthday.
We were going to have ice cream and cake at home... but that plan changed too.  A week(ish) before her birthday we drove past Orange Leaf.  (A frozen yogurt place)  All of a sudden that was on her birthday to-do list as well.

She had fun.  Not only did she get to go to these places on her birthday... but she got to go there in Grandma and Grandpa's RV!  It's like a 4 year old's limo.  Coolest ride ever.  :)

The next set of birthday girls - Photo Shoot

Keturah and Zion don't technically share a birthday like Hannah and Adaiah do, but they come pretty close.  Keturah turns 4 on the 9th and Zion turns one on the 11th.  So close to being birthday buddies.

I dreamed up a fun photo shoot to do with the girls.  In my dream I didn't have to yell at anyone to stop sticking their hiney in the air.  Or beg and plead for a little someone to please turn around so I can get a good picture of their birthday shirt.

Reality is a little bit different. :)

I think I got some pretty cute pictures though.  SO cute in fact that I couldn't wait until their birthday to share them with you.

I have no idea what I am doing in the photo editing process.  I just play around with different things when I resize my pictures for the blog.  ::shrug::  I'm happy with how they turned out.


And yes, there are more pictures of Zion than Keturah.  Keturah wasn't interested.  I don't know that Zion was either... but she didn't have a choice.  :)

One more picture.

I LOVE her outfit.  I got her onesie off of Etsy.  Isn't it adorable?!  In case you can't read it, it says "Best Year Ever"

Zion ~ 10 and 11 months

Ok, so I have some catching up to do.  What else is new?!  I just finally downloaded Zion's 10 month pictures.  So let's get caught up, shall we?

 The girl loves ice cream.  I can't say if I ever allowed my other babies to have ice cream at this age.  Probably not?  I don't know.  Maybe.  My other girls were for the most part not that interested in food.  Zion however loves to eat. (Just like her brothers.)

 At 10 months Zion was walking around, holding onto just one hand for support.  She had 2 adorable little teeth.  She can scoot her way around and get into anything and everything.  I have to look up her height/weight but I want to say she was around 16lbs and 25 or 26 inches.

11 months

At 11 months she is still walking around holding on to one hand for support.  She has taken a few steps walking from Roger to me... but we have to make a huge game of it.  She is not a fan.  I think she'll be walking by her first birthday... but we'll just have to wait and see.

She likes to play with anything that she thinks she shouldn't be playing with.  :)  When you call her name she starts waving her arm frantically so that you have to WORK to get whatever she has away from her.
She loves Joseph to pieces.  She also loves her Daddy a lot.  Her face lights up when he comes home from work.  She can say "Dada/Daddy, Mama, That, This," and "Yes". She has 6 teeth now and I think 2 more are coming in.

I can't believe we are so close to her 1st birthday already.  This year has gone by so quickly.

Birthday Girls!

This year was a big year!  Hannah turned 10!  Double digits!!  She was so excited she couldn't sleep.  She slept better on Christmas Eve than she did on the eve of her birthday!

The girls had helped make some decorations.  And we went out and bought a few as well.  I decorated after they went to bed so that it would be a surprise when they woke up.  They loved it!  So did Zion.  :)  Joseph saw that Zion was awake so he got her out of bed (my bed.  I was pretending I didn't hear her chatting away... I like sleep.  Joseph is an early bird.) and walked her around to see all of the decorations.  She oohed and ahhed at them.  She's going to love her birthday! :)

The birthday girls were hoping to go to a park to open presents but there was a heavy dew so that just wasn't the best idea.  We went out and bought some donuts (which are gross compared to Shady Maple donuts.  Indiana really needs to up their donut game.) and came home for a donut breakfast and presents.  

Hannah doesn't like sweets for breakfast.  It upsets her belly. (She gets that from me... only I eat it anyway.) So she chose a muffin.  Problem... she chose a red velvet muffin with chocolate something or other on top.  She ate maybe 2 bites.  I just tried some of it a few minutes ago.  It's not a muffin.  It's a cupcake without iciing.  Blech.  She was too excited to eat anyway.  She had her eye on presents!

 We got her a Wilton Course Book to practice cake decorating.  :)  She loves cake decorating as much as I do.

 We got Adaiah a bead set.  Cause the 32,000 two-bead necklaces we have lying around the house are not enough.

I LOVE this picture.  Hannah asked for... some under things. :)  Roger and I talked about when to give it to her and decided that it isn't a big deal to gift it in front of the boys.  It's just an article of clothing.  The boys help with laundry... it all gets seen anyway.  Her face was just too cute.  And can we just pause for a minute that my little girl is old enough to wear such things.

Oh... and a put a heart sticker over Nehemiah's mouth in editing because the boy was chewing with his mouth open.  No one wants to see that.  Your welcome.

 A bouncy ball thing? You sit on it and it has a handle?  I don't know what it is called but Adaiah wanted one.  She's pretty happy about it. :)

 More cake practice stuff.  Jo-Ann Fabric was texting me 60% off coupons like crazy.  So I shopped.

Fancy beads and glasses.  Adaiah was a little bummed that her eyes are good.  She was hoping she needed glasses too.  Silly girl.  I found a pair of glasses at Claire's.  They are pink and sparkly and everything she ever wanted in a pair of fake glasses.

 After opening presents we headed out to Indy for lunch.  The girls wanted to go to Red Robin.  So we did.  We also hit up the mall.  When faced with how to spend their birthday money from the Grandparents they couldn't quite decide what to buy.  Funny, because when it is my money they can find something in every store we walk past.  Their money?  Nothing looks quite good enough.

We came back home and they had a scavenger hunt for a final gift each.  Grandma got them each a large something from Our Generation. (Like American Girl... but Target.) (LOVE Our Generation stuff by the way)  No pictures of that because I was on the phone with Grandma.  Their were some major squeals of delight when they saw their gifts though.

The girls requested birthday Whoopie Pies instead of cake.  So I made that and we finished off the night with some Whoopie Pies and relaxing in front of the tv while the girls played with their various new things.

They had a great day.  Adaiah woke up today and said she looks a little different... a little more...7.

Ah, sweet girl.  Yes you do.  Slow down.