Holiday week is here!

We are so excited that our holiday week with the family is here! Right now we are at my parents' house, trying to figure out how to get cookies that I made for my extended family out of my freezer in Dayton while we are here in Indianapolis! Yeah... that is going to be interesting.

Last week was a week for accomplishments! Sydney FINALLY decided to make her "eggs" in the potty and not in her pants!! Wow! What a milestone for her! We were so excited!! And thankfully she has kept on it. She went into the bathroom all by herself and shut the door and did her business. she waited until we noticed that she was gone and Jerry went to check on her... needless to say we were so incredibly excited we made a big deal about it. Once the "fanfare" died down Jerry said, "Who knew she just needed privacy?!" She asked for her baby toys too (we had taken them away when she kept pooping in her pants) and that was so sweet. Her little shy voice came out and said, "Now I can have my baby toys?" She has been having fun playing mommy again with all her accessories!

Caleb discovered his tongue last week. That is pretty funny to see. He will be sitting there chilling out on your lap and looking around and the next thing you know, his little tongue is sticking out of his mouth and he's looking around wiggling his tongue as his head swivels. We joke that he is "tasting for danger"! He is such a funny baby! He loves any attention that you give him and just smiles most of the time. He also watches his feet when he is in sleepers with little doggies on his feet. He has two of them and it is pretty funny to watch him when he has them on. We also noticed that he is trying to roll over! He can roll from side to side and almost has back to belly. A little longer and he will have it. The child can lift his whole chest off the ground and pulls his knees up so his bum is way up in the air too... Once he gets them going together, we are going to be in trouble!! He will be EVERYWHERE all the time! ha!!

Jay got to spend the night with his Aunt Mary and Uncle Casey on Sunday night and that was a lot of fun for him! He really enjoyed his time alone with them. We picked him up on the way through to my parents' and he was happy to us but seemed to forget there for a bit just how he was supposed to interact with his siblings! It's tough being the oldest! On our way home we are going to drop Anna off to have her time with Aunt Mary and Uncle Casey. She is totatlly excited! She can't wait! She's counting the days!

I almost forgot our most funny story of last week!! Jerry and I bought a king size mattress for our Christmas. We had Jerry's dad pick it up in his trailer and bring it over for us, with the understanding that we would pay for his diesel that he used to get here and back. Well the man who sold us our set, was not the man that gave my FIL the set. So they (my in-laws) get all the way over to Dayton and shortly after, the mattress company calls.... the guy gave my FIL the wrong mattress! And of course it isn't a step UP, it is a step down! AND there is a customer waiting for it! After discussing it, Jerry and his dad decided to go back to Brownsburg that day and switch the mattresses out... It was 6:30 by the time they got back. I had taken down our bed (with a little help) and moved it to the guest bedroom and had all the parts open and ready for the guys when they got back. We thought it would be tough getting the mattress upstairs... well, tough wasn't the word for it! Our cieling was 4 inches too short... or rather the mattress was 4 inches too wide!! We pushed, and pulled, and heaved and hoed and all that for about a good hour before we got that sucker up the stairs. It was a chore! Our cieling has the little popcorn effect on it... and yeah, it doesn't have that so much anymore above our stairs now! It is all smooth now! We are going to watch the movers when they go to move it out of our house and see if they have as hard a time as we did!! It took Jerry, his dad, his sister, and me to get it up there! It was no small feat to say the least but VERY worth it! It sleeps so well! Our kids have to use our hope chest to climb up on our bed because it is so high! Our bed is very nice! I can't wait to go home and sleep in it again!!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas! I will have to put our kid's pictures on the bottom! I finally got an updated one of all of them on Sunday! They are pretty cute kids!

Gearing up for the Holidays!

Well we are almost done with our shopping! We only have our parents left and a nephew. That shouldn't be too hard, right?! Ha! Here's hoping!!

Jerry is recovering from his surgery still. He has moments in the day that his shoulder still aches and gives him a lot of pain. But the physical therapist says he is where he should be as far as recovery. So that is good news.

I took the kids with some neighbors to our children's musuem. THAT was interesting to say the least! I had Xavier who wanted to go everywhere all at once, by himself; Jay and Anna were very well-behaved and responsible, well, for the most part; Sydney wanted to go all over; and Caleb who was wide-awake the whole time! Thankfully he was in a good mood and I had neighbors to help! I think I could do that place by myself on their slow days, but would definitely have to have the baby in a sling or baby carrier so I could keep up with all of them! AND we would have to work on staying together too!!

One funny thing this week... our sweet Sydney has a very unique way of saying Caleb's name. She calls him "Baby Waleb"! It is so cute when she says it too! She will say, "Oh momma! Baby Waleb is cwying!" They all love their little brother, which is fun to see. I pray they will continue to when he gets in to all their things!

Other than that, not much else is going on. Kids are doing well with their school and growing like always! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday atmosphere.

New week... new fun!

So I got the kids piano books last week and I have it all mapped out in their schedule! (That is what I did while Jerry was in surgery.) I am pretty excited that they will start learning to play the piano. I think they will enjoy it and if they choose to try something else then they can. But at least they will be able to read notes and music... well, that is my hope anyway!

Sydney continues to make "eggs" in her pants. That is SO frustrating!! I am not sure how to get it across to her that she needs to do this in the potty...

Anna is quite a little needleworker. She loves to "needle" with gma when she comes over. I am going to see about getting her some crochet hooks for Christmas to start teaching her next semester. She has been dying for me to teach her, so I suppose that I will.

Xavier is loving life and drawing on his magna doodle. I bought him one for Christmas and when it got here... I was amazed at how big it was. He is going to LOVE it! Now I am going to have to look for one for Sydney or there will be massive fights!

Jay likes playing games on his game boy. We are thinking about getting him a DS, but not quite sure. He loves legos and anything to do with Star Wars. His reading has improved too which makes me happy!

Caleb is a sweet baby that just smells sweet all the time! He is so happy and babbles to everyone that gives him eye contact! I can't wait for my gpa's wedding so that the extended family can meet him!! That and so that I can see them too!

Jerry and I got our Christmas pretty much taken care of. I think I am going to go out and get one surprise for him. I don't know what yet, but it will be good. I hope! Last time I tried to surprise him, he guessed what it was... stinkin' man!

I am getting excited about the holiday!! It is so much fun! We did a Christmas Craft Day with our Coop on Friday and it was a lot of fun! The kids made their crafts and we all had lunch and gma was there to help us... I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't been there! I would have been crazy I think!

Jerry and I have to start working on our Christmas letter. We are going to email our letter this year and mail it to those who do not have email. I will post it on here as well in case I don't have someone's email address!

Happy Holidays!!

Great Holiday Season begins!

Our Thanksgiving Day was a fantastic one! We enjoyed the company of Jerry's side of the family along with my brother, Michael. The food was excellent and the conversation and visiting was so relaxing, I don't think we could have asked for a better day.

On Friday, Jerry came back with the four older kids and gma and gpa (his parents). They left me behind to go to lunch and a movie!! It was FANTABULOUS! Caleb didn't get into the movie so much, but he enjoyed lunch. Then Friday night I spent the evening with my brother and we watched Fred Claus. It has the BEST Silent Night that I had ever heard. I am talking moves you emotionally to hear it! I looked it up online to see who sang it and was shocked to see that Sinead O'Connor sang it.

I drove home on Saturday with the baby and it was a lonely ride. It took me longer to get home than normal so that kind of stunk but was all right. While I was gone the guys went fishing and gma stayed home with the kiddos. All was well when I got home. The guys had caught their limit but lost 2 fish before they left... SO they only ended up with 6 instead of 8. But they were still pleased, and that is what counts.

Gma stayed with us while gpa had to go home. She stayed with the kids on Wednesday while Jerry had his surgery done on his shoulder. Everything went well. It was just a LONG day at the hospital. I took Caleb with me and he was very well-behaved. He flirted with a young female airman while I ate. That was really funny! He would be gabbing at her and she would look away and he would squeal at her. I told him he was too young to be flirting with the ladies already!

Jerry is recovering now by resting. He is home until next Wednesday. That will be an interesting dynamic change to the house! I finally got the kids (Jay and Anna) piano lesson books. So we are going to start that next week. Tomorrow Jay and Anna have their Christmas Craft Day at our Coop. Gma is going to go with us so they will have supervision while I man a craft table! Xavier is still a wonder. Sydney still makes "eggs" in her pants.... aarrgghh... And Caleb is growing like a WEED, but still a good baby.

We ended up buying a King bed in Brownsburg this past weekend!!! We probably won't be bringing it home until after Christmas or so... I am hoping for before, but not holding my breath. We were going to wait to get it, but we got such a great deal (the bed and frame- headboard/footboard for the price of the bed on sale!!) that we couldn't pass it up! Now we just have to haul it home ourselves. Which we will with gpa's help!!

Christmas is coming up fast. We are almost done buying for Christmas!! I can't wait to see family and hang out and have holiday food and holiday fun!!