Halloween

Halloween is always such a fun day! It started off with a parade at the kids school. This is Mariah's last year to walk in the parade and that made me a little sad. Where do the years go? I was also able to peek in on all the kids Halloween parties in their classes. Wow, there was a lot of sugar consumed! I got to Mariah's class in time to watch them all have a donut eating race. Mariah actually won! It was really funny to watch the boys reaction to her winning. One girl said, "but you are so girlie, how can you eat that fast?" It was a proud moment to be her mother, I think? At least I was glad I was able to watch it.

Sweetest witch in the world!
Go Vikings! If I had to hear Mariah say one more time "I can't believe you used to fit this uniform" I was gonna give her away! I try to make myself feel better by thinking that it is because I am 7 months pregnant that she can't believe it--but whatever!
Joshua has wanted to be Robin since May. I am so glad we found him a costume that he had in mind, he is very particular. No matter how tough he thinks he is, I think he is ADORABLE!!!
Mariah and her prize winning donut eating!
I am sure anyone who knows Gabriella thinks that a devil costume would have been more fitting for her, but we are trying to bring out positive qualities in her. One lady suggested I just add a devil tail to her angel costume, that would have been funny--but I didn't so we will just pretend she is all angel!

Pumpkin Carving

Always a good time. Smelly pumpkin guts and messy kids, it doesn't get much better than that. Joshua has been counting down the days since last Halloween to carve pumpkins again. We weren't sure it was going to happen because he was having a rough week. He got his carving privilages taken away because he was struggling with his behavior. He would not listen to a word we said. It was like he wasn't even in the room as we gave him directions and tried to tell him things. It got really bad and so after a few days we had to start to take privilages away to try to get him to focus and listen to us.

To make a long story short it turned out the poor kids had 2 VERY bad ear infections and in reality could NOT hear us talk to him. I asked him if it sounded weird when we talked to him, like if he was under water or something. He said "No, it sounds like this" and then proceeded to move his mouth without making any sound come out at all. To say that we felt like the worst parents in the world is a huge understatement! Although I am sad that his ears were hurting, I am so glad that there was a fixable reason to his behavior. When I explained the whole situation to his teacher she nodded her head and said, "Oh, that explains a lot". Apparently we were not the only ones being ignored!

Too many leaves!

I know I post fall leaf pictures every year, but what can I say in Upstate NY we have a lot of snow and leaves so we have to work with what we have.



I am not going to mention any names, but someone is not pulling their weight around here. Well, ok so it is Kris:) He has been really busy with work and studying for a big test this weekend so he is forgiven. Anyway, the leaves needed to be moved off the grass and with him tied up that left me to do it. Gabriella insisted on being outside with me while I took care of the leaves and she also insisted I hold her while I blew the leaves. Maybe Kris could take some cues from me on how to multi task! I am kidding of course, but next year I want to see him do the leaves while holding a 2 1/2 year old AND be 30 weeks pregnant.

Actually not the last part, that would just be weird.

Just the Girls

I have so many pictures I want to post, but I just haven't found the time. Here are a few pictures of just the girls in our family.

Kris took the girls with him to "work" one Saturday when he was working as a physician at a bike race. Hopefully no one got hurt because from the look of the pictures they were no where near the bike racers. He keeps telling his job is really hard, but I had a few questions after this day. The girls had a great time with Daddy!

This silly face is Gabriella's newest trick so we get to see it a lot in pictures. I wonder who she learned it from...



Here I am at about 24 weeks working on another girl for our family. This pregnancy has gone so smoothly and quickly. I feel great and hope to continue to do so. We are all excited about her arrival. Joshua loves to have me lay down and feel the baby move around. The first time he felt her it really surprised him. Now he can't get enough. He says she is having a dance party in there by herself. Although he is sad he is not getting a brother , I know he already adores his new sister.

It is time to let her go...

We knew this day would come, but we had hoped it would not come for a few more years. I guess the terrible winters and salty roads were just too much for her. When Kris took our 1989 Toyota Camry in to the mechanic to get inspected we were told there was just too much needed to be done to save her. So, it is with heavy hearts we put the old champ to rest. It was actually getting to have quite a few funny quirks about it. The a/c stopped working. The heater turns on, but never really warmed up the car until he got to work 20 minutes later. The interior light doesn't turn on for about 5 minutes after you switch it on. If a rock bounced up and hit the bottom of the car, it would hurt your foot. A year ago the passenger side front door stopped opening. So, if you wanted to give anyone a ride they had to sit in the back or climb in through the window. The kids thought it was great, but one of Kris attendings who attempted it did not find it so humorous. (He got a little high centered) Then about a month ago 3 of the 4 doors stopped opening too. Including the driver's door. Poor Kris had to climb in and out the window every time he got in the car. He was lucky it has not been too rainy here so he was able to leave the window down, otherwise he had to try to squeeze in the back and up to the front. It was usually not much more than a hassle, but some times was very embarrassing. Like the day he parked next to the guy with a Porsche. Of course the guy came to his car the same time as Kris. Kris tried to kill some time waiting to climb in the window until the guy was gone, but he was taking too long. When Kris stared climbing in the guy made some funny comments and said, "That is is cool, it is like Duke's of Hazard". Yeah, it was funny the first time someone said that comment not so funny after the 112th time.

We do need to give another huge THANK YOU to the Koch family for providing us with this car before they left for their residency. We do not know how we could have been able to afford to pay for a car all these years. It was a champ, hardly needing any work until recently--it was a huge blessing to our family. You guys are the best!

Kris and the Champ! Oh I also forgot to mention that the gas tank was impossible to open. In the 4 years we had the car I was never once able to open it to get gas for Kris. You had to pry it open with something. I tried but after chipping away lots of pieces of rusted car I usually gave up.

Kris was not always very graceful at climbing in the window. He had to go through some trial and error to figure out the best entry system.

Here he goes, he got very smooth at the whole process. One day he had to stop at the kids school to do something and when he got out of the car he noticed a teacher watching him and laughing. He joked with her and continued inside. When he came back out she had a few other teachers with her and she started laughing and told them all to watch him get in his car. There is nothing like 4 teachers pointing and laughing at you.


In he goes!

Watch out Bo and Luke Duke, here comes Dr. West!!!

There are certain things pregnant women should not have to do--ever!

These things include scrubbing bathtubs and carrying huge baskets of laundry down stairs, but the top of list happened yesterday. I not only had to let Joshua go to Kindergarten which is a very sad event in itself, I realized my first baby was starting her last year of Elementary school. I knew I was going to have a tough morning letting Joshua go, that was expected. I was just surprised at how emotional I was going to be over Mariah becoming a 5th grader. Where did the years go? I can't believe how each passing school year still gets to me. I would never want the responsibility of home schooling my children, but I do love having them all home. It is chaotic, noisy and messy to have them all home--but I love it! Time really is a tricky thing. I always pictured myself surrounded by little kids, I just never saw myself having a 10 year old or teenagers for that matter. I love that Kenny Chesney song "Don't Blink". I need to remind myself everyday to cherish the day to day moments because they go all too fast. I hope the kids have a great year and enjoy every moment. I also hope I can stop stressing about the piles of laundry, dirty dishes, and meals to prepare long enough to enjoy it with them!
Super Joshua off to tackle Kindergarten--hopefully not his teacher.
That is NOT my baby girl, heaven help me! I think I had that same bracelet in Jr. High--love that neons are back in style!
She is so sweet, I am jealous of the teacher that gets her in her class all day!
The faces only a mother could love:)

Where did all the kids go??? That is the question I have received from Gabriella about 29 times yesterday! She was so sad to have all the kids go to school. She even put on a back pack of her own as the kids were gathering up all their stuff. She wanted to go with them. When Josh ran into his classroom she started screaming "My bro-der!" (that's my brother for those that don't speak 2 year old) She screamed this all the way down the hall until Sam walked into her classroom and she yelled "my Dammie" until Mariah walked in to her classroom. She was very mad at this point and I had to get out of the school before she really lost it. She has been very lonely and jumps up from whatever she is doing if she thinks she hears the bus coming. I am glad she loves them so much!

It is official!

Summer is over. I am so sad. It was not long enough and not hot enough. I didn't get to do all the things with the kids I had wanted to do. The days went too quickly. We did squeeze every last drop out of it that we could and we have lots of great memories. I didn't take any pictures when we were in Utah, but we had a great time there and miss our family too much!

With the end of summer comes the New York state fair. This year Kris was just too busy to go so we went with Veronica and her kids and Darise and her kids. We were very out numbered, 11 kids in all! The kids had fun seeing the animals and watching a wild animal show. Joshua still talks about the snake that tried to get him. Samantha got sick so we left the rest of the group a little early, but not before consuming some greasy, sugary fair food on our way out!

It was a good way to end the summer. Although, I hate to let it end.

How many kids can milk one cow??? Well, at least 6...
This has to be the cleanest cow I have ever seen, the little girls did not want to stop touching it!