A Trip, St. Patrick's Day and Anna's B-day Dinner

Mark had to go out of town to work for the past few weeks. I didn't want to advertise that he was gone so I've waited until now to update. He was only supposed to be gone for one week, then two weeks. When his work asked him to stay for a third week, I decided to take the kids up there for a few days. Good thing he had a big hotel room with a kitchen! Also in the town he was working lives a good friend that I met online. I've known Paige for 5 years, but of course had never met her. Mark watched the kids on Saturday night so that Paige and I could go out to eat. We had the best time and talked for over four hours. It was nice to have a girls' night. I can't even remember the last time I had one!

The Moms out on the town.

Sunday night, Mark and I took the kids to that best loved restaurant and game place, Chucky Cheese. I braced myself for the worst, but we actually had a good time. It might have to do with the fact we were the only ones there. That's what happens when you go someplace at 9:00 on a school night. Not a problem for us homeschoolers though!

Monday afternoon, the kids and I followed Paige out to her house to meet her clan. My kids had a great time playing with her kids. There ended up being 14 people at her house for spaghetti. Not all of the kids belonged to me and Paige. Some were friends that stopped by the house. She was also nice enough to bring one of her horses down from the barn for my kids to meet. They are still talking about him!

The kids and I stayed with Mark until Wednesday when we made the trek home. Since it happened to be St. Patrick's Day, I went and bought all of us a celebratory t-shirt. Now that I know some of my ancestors actually came from Ireland, I don't feel like an impostor. We stopped by my father-in-law's house on the way home. The kids had a great time running around. It made the rest of the trip a little easier.


When Sunday rolled around, we had Anna's birthday dinner and cake. At first she didn't want to wear her crown, but once she was distracted, she didn't even notice it anymore. She really does look so pretty in pink! I can't believe how fast she is growing up. I think she liked the chocolate cake I made for her. The decorations on the cake didn't turn out as well as others I have made, but she didn't seem to mind. Happy birthday, baby girl!

Happy First Birthday, Anna Jaye!

Anna came into this world at 1:55 AM on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. Click here to read her birth story. She has changed so much in this short, very first, year. I thought I should take this opportunity to post pics from the past year. We'll be having her family celebration sometime over the weekend and I'll do a new post with the birthday girl. Until then, enjoy these:

Only hours after birth.

8 days old.

First Easter, a little over a month old.

Almost 3 months old.

6 months old and my favorite pic!

7 months old.

10 months old at Emily's b-day.

11 months and counting.....this is her serious face.

And this is her happy face. Don't you love the crazy hair? I think she looks a little like me here.

Our First Snow of the Winter 2-12-10

For months it seemed like everyone got snow except us. At least 3 storms came through and completely missed us. Don't get me wrong, I am not very fond of cold weather, but I did want the kids to have at least one snow. Finally on 2-12-10, I got my wish.

Here is the view from our front porch at 4:43 in the afternoon:

Still going strong at 8:07 in the evening. I think we got a total of 2 inches. I was really looking forward to taking the kids out to play in the snow.

But I thought I waited too long. This is all that we had left out front by noon the next day:
So I decided to take Emily and Garrett outside on a "Snow Hunt". Anna was asleep and Austin didn't want to put on clothes. LOL Mark stayed indoors while the two oldest and I set out for our adventure. At first I thought our mission would not be fruitful, but never fear, we found a large patch of snow in the shade of the house.
There wasn't much, but there was enough to play with buckets and shovels.

And enough to have a snowball fight!

Emily's 9th Birthday, January 22, 2010

Happy Birthday, Emily! Our sweet baby girl amazing young lady is growing up on us. All she wanted for her birthday was the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. How on earth are you supposed to plan a family dinner around that? By turning the dinning room into an Italian restaurant, of course! To start we had bread sticks and salad, then we had lasagna to eat and sparkling grape juice to drink. Then we had a spaghetti cake!

Isn't she beautiful! I think she is growing up way too fast though. It seems like only yesterday she was the size of that little one in the background.
I wonder what she is wishing for? FYI, she announced after she blew out all her candles that she wanted a horse. Not just a pony, but a horse. I told her maybe when she was 16. Do you think that will deter her from wanting a car? *fingers crossed*

Another couple of shots of the cake:



Directions on making the cake from a blog I visit.

Taking a break from "The Story of Emily" to catch up!

I started writing "The Story of Emily" in January in anticipation of Emily's 9th birthday. I planned have it completed in just a few days time. I had wanted to coincide the last chapter (her 9th year) with her birthday. However, writing her story has turned out to be more involved than I originally thought. For one, it became more detailed as I wanted to convey not only what happened externally, but what we felt and thought as well. For another, I realized people other than my friends and family were reading the blog. If Emily's story can help just one person, in any capacity, I want to take my time to get it right. As of now, the story is 31 pages long (16,365 words) and she is only 1 month old where I have paused.

I need to take a short break from telling her story in order to catch up other events that have happened in the past 3 months. I have neglected to blog about my other 3 kids and I think you all would like to see some pics and video of them. I hope to get the blog up to date by this time next week. Then I will resume with the story until Austin's birthday in April. I hope to have "The Story of Emily" completed by June. There is still so much to tell, including her final diagnosis, the school years and homeschooling. I am also going to ask some good friends to read it and edit it for me. I would love some feedback on "The Story of Emily", especially if more information is needed or if parts are awkward.

First on the "Catching Up" agenda is Christmas!

Anna's first Christmas. As expected, she loved the wrapping paper more than the toys. Look at the chubby thigh! After having three skinny babies, it is a new experience to have a "Buddha Baby". Shhh! Don't tell her we called her that!

Austin did not want to get up on Christmas morning. In fact, he spent much of it crying. He seems to be happy enough here though!

Garrett was too intrigued by his presents to look up long enough for a pic of his face.

Emily opening a gift from Aunt Jess, Uncle Jeremy and Morgan.

We had a nice quiet Christmas here at home. We had wanted to drive 3 hours North the next day to see my in-laws, but it was snowing quite hard. The same thing had happened the week before. This has been a crazy winter for everyone but us! We did finally get some snow, but those pics will come in a couple of days. Next up is Emily's birthday.