Time for some Catch Up

Okay, so saying it's been awhile since I updated would be an understatement. When it comes down to it I just can't take dial-up internet - so I went on strike. I was going weeks on end without even looking at my email, let alone logging on to the internet to do anything fun. Luckily my darling husband felt my pain and was keeping me informed AND he got me a new house which is in the lovely land of DSL wired bliss. So - we're back. I've realized already that I may have been using the dial-up as an excuse since I haven't updated and we've been in this house for over 3 weeks....

So today's job is to update the blog - while keeping an eye on 6 kids (Charity has 2 friends over) and cleaning up the messes they make by just being kids. (I love these ankle-biters like crazy!!!) I thought I would just start captioning our way through the fall and winter and get us caught up that way. We'll see how this goes.

OCTOBER 2009


This picture pretty much sums up our fall. Michael (#80) and Joseph each played football. This is Michael's favorite sport by far and it was Joseph's first attempt at playing. It went well and everyone had a great time. Michael's team went undefeated during the regular season but lost in the local championship game - 1 game short of the superbowl. He was devastated. Joseph's team was in a "rebuilding phase" and so victory was not something they tasted a whole lot of. He had to live vicariously through Michael's team. Charity played soccer again this fall and Eric helped coach her team. They lost only one game (not that anyone keeps score :) )and Charity scored several goals so it was a successful season for her as well.


Charity and Michael attended our church's 2nd & 3rd grade retreat (Joseph had a football game and had to miss out.) They headed down to a camp/retreat center about an hour south of here and had a great time learning about the "Unbelievable, Inconceivable Love of God". In this picture is the wonderful Ms. Lisa - our incredible 1st-4th grade pastor.


Here's the toothless wonder in all his glory. Jonathan has lost 6 teeth in the past year - only 2 of them have come back in. Stinkin' cute!


One of our favorite fall activities is making smores in the fire pit on the deck. Joseph is kind of a weirdo and prefers to eat vegetables instead of sweets, but even he will indulge in the delicious gooey fun of marshmallows, chocolate and grahams.


H1N1 hit our house this year. Charity was the one afflicted and luckily it didn't spread. Poor thing was quarantined to her room and any time she left we made her put on this mask. She hated it!! The one redeeming thing for her was that her sucker of a daddy picked her up a "Snuggie" when he was picking up her Tamiflu prescription. I guess it was all worth it.


These are 8 of my favorite kids on the planet!!! My cousin Heather's kids and my kids love spending time together. We don't get them all together often enough but when we do - watch out! They have such a great time together.


Charity is not a girly-girl but she absolutely HATED scooping the guts out of her pumpkin. We had 2 huge pumpkins and 2 smaller pumpkins and of course Charity had drawn one of the big ones - that meant lots of guts!!!


Pumpkins - (left to right) Jonathan, Charity, Joseph, and Michael. Michael's is especially appropriate - he has a sensitive gag reflex :)


They look so different at night! Not bad for a bunch of elementary students!! Okay - Eric did his fair share of work on them but I still think they look great.


The four bank robbers and their trusty steeds. Charity's was a unicorn. I'm not really sure where they came up with this but all four of them wanted to be old west bank robbers. It annoyed them to no end when people called them cowboys!

NOVEMBER 2009


Grandparent's day in 2nd grade. They had to split their time between the two classes but I think a good time was had by all.


Joseph looking very much like an American boy on his first Thanksgiving - last year Eric and I spent Thanksgiving at McDonald's in Sevastopal. This was way better!


My baby brother and my favorite (and only) niece. Kaelynn wasn't quite sure what to think of Uncle Brian. She'll figure out pretty soon - uncles are a lot of fun!!


Aunt Teri with Charity and Jonathan. Aunt Teri spoils my kids rotten - the best kind of spoiling - they are the center of her world when she is around. They LOVE it when she comes over.


I just love this picture of Michael. My father-in-law took it and I just think he looks like such a little man. He apparently didn't get the memo that my kids aren't allowed to grow up because he has been doing a lot of it lately!