For unto us.....

It doesn't look at all like Christmas:(

As many of you know, I am a Christmas fanatic!! Although this year has been a bit low on Christmas spirit. I have deceided that the weather has alot to do with that. It hardly feels like 10 days until Christmas, more like 10 days until Easter. But, anyway, I am praying for snow next week, lots of it!!!! And in order to boost the Christmas Spirit ( and because I watched Letterman last night) I will now list my top 10 Christmas movies.

11. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles ( I know it is a Thanksgiving movie, that is why it is no.11 in my top 10 list. Great movie though!!)
10. Its a wonderful life (ok ending, but a bit depressing)
9. White Christmas
8. The Santa Clause 2
7. The Family Man
6. The best Christmas pagent ever
5. Miracle on 34th Street
4. The Santa Clause 1
3. It Came upon a midnight clear ( a very 80's Mickey Rooney movie)
2.5 A Christmas Story ( I can't believe I forgot that one!!!)
2. Elf
1. Christmas Vacation
Leave me any comments on this or any suggestions of other movies. I am on a Christmas movie marathon this week and I welcome all ideas.

Check this out
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This game will keep you busy until I get a chance to post again!!

UGGHHHH!!!

I am baking cookies with a 3 year old boy. Enough said!!

Downtown adventures

On Saturday we went downtown to see the lights. After a very exciting train ride ( what isn't exciting with 5 boys), we arrived in the city to some beautiful weather. Although it didn't seem very christmasy, it was much more pleasant than 20 degrees and windy!! My parents came with us and we met my cousin Lori and her husband Rich and 2 of their kids down there.

Here is Tyler and Rich and Lori's daughter Kayla. Being the only girl on this excursion, she was much loved!!

The boys and Kayla

All 7 children waiting to eat some delicious pizza at Giordano's

We had such a blast and definately plan to make this a yearly event!!

Giving Thanks and Tree Picking

It has been a busy and fun filled extended weekend. Here is part one of our adventures. On Thanksgiving we went to my mom's for some yummy food and family time.We have so much to be thankful for and family is a big one!! Here is my cousin and sister-in-law with Tyler.

Here is my brother and Samuel looking at some pictures.

On Friday, we went out to Kingma's tree farm in Demotte In to choose our tree. I highly recommend the place. We took a hay ride out to the trees, cut our own tree down, and then took the hay ride back. They come around with a truck and pick up your tree, bring it to you, shake it, wrap it up, and tie it to your car. We had a great time.

Does anyone really know me???

I saw this quiz on Jen's blog and deceided to try it. Lets see how well you know me.

http://www.testriffic.com/friendtest/625570

Acquiring some fire

We had a great time last weekend at Acquire the Fire. Exhausting but fabulous!! Here are some pictures of the greatest bunch of High School and Junior High students ever.
Jason M. is definitely having a blast dancing to Grits.

The Thugs!!

Apparently hotel scrambled eggs are about as good as they look!!

We miss you Linz!!!!!!!

This isn't even all of the pizza!!!! Man we can eat some Papa John's!!

Halloween Part 2

Brandon couldn't figure out how to open the candy bar so he just stuck the whole thing in his mouth!!

I love those cheeks!!

For anyone who recalls my post about the kids in school, here is a picture of Sam and Joey. The only Joey in the class!!

Halloween Part one

We had a great time this year for halloween. After rushing around to attend all of the kids parties, watching the school parade, and getting them in and out of costume countless times, the time came to get the goods. We only go to a few houses around our house, but end up with buckets of candy anyway. The kids love it and since we are really the only kids on our block, the neighbors love it too! Here are some shots of the kids.

Super Jacob

Bat Sam

Spider Mark

Ty Wonder

5 little monsters sitting on the couch

A busy, busy weekend

We had a very busy weekend this week. Apparently I am not so good at organizing my pictures so I will be working backwards. On Saturday my cousin Janis was married to a great guy named Mark. These are pictures of my family from the reception. First up is the grown ups.
This is my brother Brad and his beautiful wife Amanda. Clearly I got the looks in the family:)

Here is my Uncle Dean. He was in the grown up's picture but I think he was out of place there!!

Here are all of the cousins and their spouses. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On Thursday Sam and I took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. What a cold and rainy day!! But all in all Sam and I had a blast just being together.
Here is a picture of Daddy and all of the boys with our freshly carved pumpkin!
Jacob is goofy and apparently for sale!!

Here are all of my little monsters at the pumpkin patch!!
All of those pictures are out of order but I have no clue how to reorganize them!
On Friday night Jay and I had a great date night at the Chris Tomlin concert, thanks to my parents. They gave us the tickets for my birthday and babysat for us!! It was AWESOME!!! Well that is all for now. Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into the last 4 days of life here.

The Dancing queen and randomness

I must begin with a picture of the "Dancing Queen" And I am not talking about Mallory, no it is Mark doing "the dinosaur"

Here are just some random pictures of life here at our house.

My kids love money!!

Does their mother ever put shoes on them???

Daddy and Tyler playing football

Isn't he just the cutest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Ladies Man

Having my children in school has been very interesting so far. I am learning so much about them. I have learned that Jacob is very studious, loves learning, and thinks girls are gross. Samuel actually can play well with others and thinks everyone in his class is named Joey (I don't know why). Marcus loves to please his teacher, often going out of his way to get her attention, and barely even knows the other kids exist. Tyler has definitely been the most interesting of all. He is quite the little kindergarten Casanova! He often tells me that he tries to play Star Wars at recess with his friends but it is hard due to the angry mob of girls that chase him (his words). He has been given a myriad of gifts from his adoring gal club. We have received money, fruit snacks or candy of some sort, various pieces of artwork ( one little girl often draws herself with anatomy) and even been kissed by a girl on the cheek (which had Tyler very upset because now he thinks he has to marry her). Today came home the most interesting so far. A girl named Maddy gave Tyler a blank check from her mom's check book. He came home so proud of his check. I, as any mom would, called her mom right away to see if she was aware. She had no clue that this had happened and was rightfully upset with her child. Apparently Maddy wanted to give Tyler her phone number and saw it already written on a piece of paper in her mommy's purse. How convenient!! He is already getting digits and he is only five. We are definitely going back to home schooling in the not to distant future!!!!!

An awesome dad, a clean house, and LET IT SNOW!!

I am going to take this opportunity to proclaim publicly how awesome my parents are! Every once in a while, my dad comes over and cleans my house. I am not talking about just a little picking up, I am talking about serious cleaning!! Yesterday my dad arrived at 7:30am to begin cleaning. He cleaned the kitchen first. After cleaning the floor once, he moved the fridge and cleaned behind it, removing all of the junk that had fallen behind it and vacuuming the coils. This amazed me, as I have never done that!! He then proceeded to clean the floor again, cleaned my stove, did all of my dishes ( I have no dishwasher, which should be illegal in a house with 7 people!!), cleaned my counters. He then moved into the front room, where he vacuumed my carpet, scrubbed my hard wood floors. He even cleaned up the foyer, which is generally littered with shoes and coats! He vacuumed the downstairs family room, switched out a light switch that wasn't working, and vacuumed the stairs. He didn't leave until 4:00pm. He returned today to clean my kids bedrooms. My house looks amazing!!! During all of this cleaning yesterday, my amazing mom, took my Samuel shopping with her. He tends to follow right behind you when you clean and make a new mess. I am so blessed to have my parents!! Here are some pictures of my clean house:

The man of the year!!!

Notice no shoes or coats!

My how that floor shines when you can see it!!

On another note, IT MIGHT SNOW TONIGHT!!!! I love snow! Many of you may not like to see fall go so quickly, but never fear it will return. This early threat of flurries is God's gift to those of us who love it!! So I will spend the day tomorrow in my clean house playing Christmas music and baking pumpkin pie. I will also go to the store today to pick up egg nog to go with my fresh hot pumpkin pie!!! I will wear slippers all day and burn lots of candles. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it!!!!

A beautiful day

In order to enjoy the beautiful weekend, we took our crew hiking and to the park. This is always a challenge with so many, but it turned out to be a fun day. We hiked through the woods, played at the park, and ate pudding. I believe the pudding was the highlight. These are some random shots from our day. It is always more fun to have daddy around, especially for mommy!!

HELP ME!!!

Alright I need some help. I have an almost 3 and 1/2 year old who refuses to use the toilet. He will use a diaper, his expensive super hero underwear, the bathtub, the backyard, anything but the toilet! Now I have been around this block twice before, you would think I had a grip on this potty training thing. Think again!! Just when you think you've figured it out, God sends you a 3rd born. I can't figure this boy out for the life of me. I've tried m & m's, shooting the cereal target in the bowl, bribery, begging, threatening, begging some more. We have read books, been to the store to buy "big boy underwear," had the diaper fairy come pick up the diapers for the "babies." Still nothing!! Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Even if you've never done this before, clearly experience counts for nothing. I'M SICK OF DIAPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I figured since I didn't have any pictures up I would add some. These are kind of old. from early in the summer but who cares. First up is Tyler getting some sun. He doesn't like to swim very much, but he loves to lay out!! That explains the amazing tan!

Here is the baby Brandon eating his first piece of watermelon. Don't you want to just squeeze those cheeks!!
Here is Samuel, my little patience-builder!! This was his first day of preschool. He's so excited!!
Here is my little man, Jacob, on his first day of first grade!! I still can't believe my baby is in first grade already, I remember when he fit perfectly in the crook of my arm. AWE.... I'm ok now
And last but certainly not least, here is Marcus. His first ride on a 2-wheeler. We learn how in the backyard because grass is definately more forgiving than cement, and for that Marcus is thankful. Alot of falls preceeded this victorious picture.

So there are my boys. They make me laugh and cry, sometimes all at the same time, but I couldn't imagine life with out them.