Park full of kids

 
 
 
 

...and there all mine! When we leave the park it looks empty. The past 2 Wednesdays in a row we have went to play for an hour or two before church. I like the park for me and for them. They get to have fun and expend lots of energy making for good sleep later; and I get to sit down and relax watching them have fun. It is a win win situation. Last week they all managed to stay fairly clean. This week however was a different story. I took 6 dirty ragamuffins to church. We stayed LATE at church filling food pantry boxes, so by the time we got home they just had to go to bed dirty. I just could not justify waking 2 already sleeping boys and 4 dreary eyed others to bathe them at 10:30 at night. Oh well, boys are supposed to be dirty... right!?! As for Rachel... she didn't get as dirty as the boys anyway.

Zoo day with Friends

 
 
 
 

3 Adults 8 kids... not so bad at the zoo, right!?! It turned out to be a great day. I just love Melanie... she is my twin. We do so many things alike that it is scary. Now if she goes and somehow has 7 kids I don't know how we will go anywhere together.
On this day we spent several hours at the zoo. I think the kids had the most fun at the playground, except for watching the elephant eat oranges and onions... they thought that was pretty cool. Xander slugged a little boy in the face close-fisted at the playground because he was arguing with Ian. I of course had to get on to him and not let him see me laugh... but I thought it was funny that he felt the need to just step in and end the argument so abruptly and come to the defense of his older step-brother. They fight like brothers always do at home, but it is sweet/funny how they will defend one another to a stranger so quickly. Poor kids at the playground better watch out... they won't know what hit them when ALL the brothers and sisters come to the defense of one haha.

A day with their dad

 
 
 
 

Elijah, Ian, and Aiden get to see their dad frequently. He lives in the area but rents a room so they are not always able to spend the night with him. But he makes time for lots of day trips and activities. Recently he bought them a .22 rifle to share. The shooting range is a little pricey and also scary for Aiden, so I told Tom he could teach them to shoot in the back yard. They did great and listened well and the triplets sat nearby and watched. No one cried over the loud pops and everyone obeyed well about staying back. The boys enjoyed their time with their daddy... and I get another gun to add to the cabinet YAY!!! Tom was awful at being a husband for 10.5 years and wasn't even that great of a dad during that time... but he really makes an effort now to spend quality and quanity time with the boys. I am glad that my boys are blessed enough to now have a dad who is trying to be a dad and also a step-dad who loves them and cares for them as his own as well!

Late nights....

 
 

We intended to spend maybe an hour or so completing Naomi's Science Fair project.... Well, 3.5 hours later at 1:30 in the morning we were finally done. Just look at how exhausted she is. The next morning she didn't wake up until it was time to leave and had to rush to get ready. Poor Nay. I love this girl. She is so funny and random, and is growing up to be such a wonderful young lady.

Madysen is 5!!!

 
 
 
 

After the Airshow we were off the celebrate Madysen's 5th birthday at the Country Inn and Suites indoor pool. Jake and Xander both learned to swim all over the pool with arm floaties only. They were so proud! If Aiden hadn't kept me constantly running I could have enjoyed a relaxing time by the pool as the kids played LOL. We ate Pizza and played until we were all tuckered out.

THUNDERBIRDS

 
 
 
 

7 kids amongst thousands of people and a whole lot of noise... Turned out to be a great day. Elijah, Ian, and Aiden originally went to the Airshow with their dad, then met up with the rest of us there to drop them off. All of the stunts were amazing and daring... those pilots have to be INSANE! The most amazing to me was the helicopter of all things... It flew UPSIDE DOWN! I didn't know helicopters could do that!!! After the show was over we roamed around and made my already blistered feet worse looking for the van haha! I forgot where we parked and there were THOUSANDS of cars there. We had fun though, then we headed to Madysen's 5th Birthday party.

Men at Work...

 
 

It started out as a small porch going to be started and finished on the day of our one month anniversary... and it keeps getting bigger and bigger :) I am not complaining though, I love big porches. It is still a work in progress and I will post pictures of the finished work once it is done. Elijah got to help and it even counted toward his Wolf rank in Scouts because he helped build something useful. Don Wright from church has been by twice to lend a helping hand. Hopefully he and Amy will stay for dinner next time. While my little/big porch isn't quite finished, Les and I did take a few moments to dance on the semi-finished part under the security light/moonlight LOL. I love little moments like that. I can't believe I never knew there was life like this.

It is so wonderful to be.........

 
 
 

........ LOVED. The day it snowed 2/12/10 .... Les brought these beautiful tulips home to me. He never ceases to amaze me. Always thoughtful, always going the extra mile, and always seems so happy to do it all! I love this man. All these years I had came to the belief that Prince Charming was only a fairy tale. Well, I found him! He rode in on his white horse and swept me right off my feet. Everytime I think me feet are about to touch the ground again, he does something else to sweep them from under me again. I told him from the beginning that he was "Persistantly Charming" it is either his blessing or his curse. Either way the boys are picking up on it fast. Jake is the ultimate little charmer. Girls better watch out for him in a few years.

SNOW!!!!

 

 

 

 

Snow is a rare sight this far South! Although it only lasted a day, the kids had a BLAST. Elijah and Ian missed out on all of our fun, they were gone to North Alabama with their Dad. What a fun filled day of snow ball fights, grassy/muddy snow angels, and a dirty snowman :) Les pegged Xander right in the ear with a big snow ball, and poor Aiden took the brunt of many snow balls because everybody picks on the little guy. The beautiful white dusting 2 days before Valentine's day made the weekend seem all the more romantic; especially since Les brought home a beautiful bouquet of Tulips for me that day.

When you can't have the real thing...

 
 
 
 


Well, we do live in South/Central Alabama... so sometimes we just have to have some fake winter sports. Who says you can't have a snowball fight in the livingroom? Remember that messy painting a few days before? Well kids, now you get to rip down the painted paper from the walls, tear it into pieces, ball it up, and throw it at each other!!!! As you can see they thouroghly enjoyed the priviledge. They split into two teams of three and spend an hour throwing "snowballs" at each other. After they tired of that we sat a trash can in the center of the floor and and began tossing them in. Indoor winter games can be ALMOST as fun as the outdoor ones. The next week after these pics were taken it snowed for real... So my next blog will be the real thing.