Ike Wind

Pictures as promised form the kids playing in Hurrican Ike's wind before we realized how serious it was.

We're B A C K....

Didn't miss us huh?

A quick run down...

This past Sunday we had some leftover wind from Hurricane Ike stop in for a visit. YES, in Ohio we got a visit?? The news called it a Dry Category 1 Hurricane- too funny! Seriously a house at the end of our street lost about a 6 foot by 6 foot part of their roof...you could see right in the attic. Many lost shingles and some lost siding. We had no damage what so ever. Thank God! Well we did lose Tommy's little baby wading pool, the kids were devastated, you'd thought the cat flew away. We also lost a few beach balls. Hoping some other kid is having a ball with them :)

Seriously though, most of you know I'm from Florida...We never lost power so long that we lost food out of our fridge! Thankfully our friend's had room in their freezer for most of our frozen food. We lost power at approx. 2:20pm on Sunday, being naive and clueless we figured it be on shortly. Larry left at about 3pm (after losing power while trying to download IL info to his GPS)for his planned TDY to Scott AFB. The kids and I proceeded to have fun with no power. The fun started to die down after our neighbors (dirty dogs) got their power back in the wee hours Monday morning-- and after hearing the news updates from them that predicted the power outages could take 7-10 days to fix!

Tuesday morning I ran out to get a cell phone charger to use in my van...I grabbed a gallon of fresh milk....no ice could be found around our neighborhood, I would borrow from our dear friends/neighbors whom had power. Then it clicked, like alight bulb lit in my head. WHY IN GOD'S GREEN EARTH was I sitting in a dark very quiet home with 4 kids while my sweet husband was sleeping in a 2 bed hotel room with ELECTRICITY?!?!? Yep, I decided if I could fill up with gas near the house, I was out of here. After filling up I took a nice hot bath (thanks to our gas water heater) packed a few outfits for each of us and then ran to dinner at our neighbors house. We hit the road just before 7am Wednesday!

See all along I wanted to join Larry on this TDY....perfect opportunity to house-hunt or at least learn some of the area since Larry HAD to be there anyhow for work/school.

Well, got an amazing realtor house hunted for about 3 hours on each of the two days and yes, we just placed an offer on a perfect home. This is so far feeling WAY too easy...praying it'll stay easy and just all work out.

I have pictures of teh kids playing in the wind with a sheet...before the wind so strong. Look for them soon.

More Pictures...

Slave labor...actually he was one mad kid when I started it and really mowed! He didn't like Mom taking his toy away!




I promise we feed and water him....he sincerely has no need STEALING Teddy's water bottle!!!




Saying good morning to Teddy....Dad put him to bed, I thought after 4 kids he knew how to put jammies on? After snapping the picture I realized Tommy simply shoved his arm up his shirt and out the neck hole to create the new look he's sportin' here.



TOO GROWN UP! Thanks to my friend Wendy for donating a huge pile of clothes her boys have outgrown...Tommy looks entirely too grown up wearing this button up shirt!



Kaitlyn....must be a family tradition...I recall being told to get my tongue in as to reduce the risk of biting it...




A cool shot of Robby...now he's testing out English and realizing it is a bit harder than Kaitlyn makes it look!


Kaitlyn and her instructor's daughter driving Sweety around with homemade harness and buggy! I call that creative right there!

Kimberlyn's First Day of Kindergarten!

Today is the day....that I now have three kids in school and it stinks! She gets out at 10:20am...I can't even look at is as shopping time w/ only one kid???? Ah....

The pictures are of this morning. Waiting for the bus, a cool sunrise, showing off the girls' curly hair from their braids last night, getting dropped off at school and a perfect timing picture of Kimberlyn in class getting help to do something :) Best yet she didn't see me take the last picture. Parents were asked to arrive at 9:15....so I didn't want to be seen, BUT wanted to peek in! They do a staggered start, so she has just 8 or 9 students today (and the last few days) ...tomorrow is Day 1 for everyone, like 24 or 25 kids--YIKES!

PS...she can't be my kid....I cried like a baby for thwe first day for many years...I recall my bro tesing me for being teary eyed for 9th grade???? Not one tear this am...from either of us. I would have but I was too consumed with picture taking, videoing and grabbing Tommy out of bed to rush up and beat the bus at school (couldn't miss the shot of "Sassy Pants" getting off the bus, could I!!!!

Now that's an Elephant Ear!

August 9, 2008....Ohio State Fair, quite possibly the best state fair ever! We love this one!
I'd been craving an GOOD Ealephant Ear, I wasn't let down. Seems I'm not the only Elephant Ear crazed person in our family :)


Okay, so is the kid to the far right as excited about the ride as our kids, maybe he's trying to figure out why they are having so much fun?


Here is Kaitlyn whom insisted Tommy needed to have some fun and ride a ride...she even convinced Robby to join them. Yes, Tommy was quite more content to stay in his stroller!


Tommy's favorite pass time....anything animals! He loves petting zoos! Tommy 19 1/2 months old.

Tommy at his first petting zoo ever. Just after moving to Ohio at 7 1/2 months old, JUST moved out of sz 1 diapers the week prior!
Aug 12, 2007, you guessed, the Ohio State Fair!


Robby and Kaitlyn gone wild....oh, my crazy kids!


Kaitlyn being a doll taking Kimberlyn down the slide...they did this a few more time as she liked it so much!


Dad and the older kids~ testing out fate on a crazy, not safe looking roller coaster!


Tomorrow is Kimberlyn's first day of school...YIKES, how can this be?!?!?!? Picture to follow shortly!

Baby Genius...

I guessed right in the below post...

So Tommy was playing in his cup drawer in the kitchen this afternoon, it started as the bottle drawer and now holds his straw cups. He ALWAYS is taking items out and what not. Today he took a few things out and THEN climbed in....this is gettin' good I thought and grabbed the camera...notice the white measuring cup in his hand and the thinking looks he has. See I started putting miscellaneous items in the drawer since our kitchen lacks in storage space. He also watched me put stuff away during meals where I feed him in between doing my kitchen chores. He also likes to play in our silverware drawer which is in perfect position to him when he's in his highchair- it's an over sized drawer and ALSO houses some measuring cups like the one he found. After I did the pictures I realize he was holding this cup the entire time he was climbing out of the drawer. I put the camera up before realizing he was headed over to the silverware drawer. he just banged on the drawer and grunted for me to open it, I did and he threw the cup in the drawer and slammed it closed....what a boy?!?!? Goodness, I can't even explain how proud and shocked I was at this.

P.S. Yes markers are a part of his art time. He has "art" about 10 times a day! Notice his leg, our floors, our walls and his face in future pics ;)

First Day of School, August 26

Robby and Kaitlyn out in the chilly, fresh morning air at 7am waiting for the bus this past Tuesday!

They have their same bus driver, Mr. Bill from last year and are excited.

They both have great teachers. Robby's teacher is younger, hopefully she still thinks kids in elementary school should have neat handwriting! Seems both of Kaitlyn and Robby's teachers in the past don't seem to be bothered with chicken scratch and it's driving me nuts!

I was touched today when Kaitlyn's teacher pulled me aside while I was up visiting for lunch. She said she almost cried reading the letter we wrote. I must clarify, Larry wrote it and signed both of our names. She had requested a note to her about our child to help her get to know the children. I'd probably written "She's a great help when she wants to be, she can be the sassiest girl God made at times. She will kiss up to any teacher, so you are fine." Instead Larry wrote the most sweet, sincere thing ever. I teared up reading it myself! I made a copy of it for her babybook. He just saw past her sassy pants and wrote about her. he mentioned her being a young Christian and her love of singing church songs....that she was taking piano lessons but her true passion is riding horses and how she just recently had her first show. Her teacher was touched to know she was a Christian as she is one too. God is good and with so many speaking of how God is being kicked out of school, I'm glad to know that at least one of our kids has a Christian role model in the classroom.

Kimberlyn had her kindergarten testing today. Her teacher was thrilled at how well she did. She actually talked too! She is one shy girl... There was a part during the testing that most are having troubles with and Kimberlyn did it well. She knows all but a few letters when having to recognize them in upper case and lower case. She starts school on Thursday! And will join the other two on the bus! YIKES...not sure I'm ready for this!

While she's at school I'll try to get going on back tracking...have a handful of cool pictures and things we've done....oh, wait I'll barely have time to shower after she catches the bus. Silly me I forgot...she's in school less than 3 hours, less tha she was in Pre-K....AM Kindergarten is 7:45am to 10:20am ---

Oh, oh....boy, oh boy...I'm behind. Last thing before I try to catch a nap. Tommy is definitely a handful. I love every second- but on teh kids' first day of school he explained (through actions) that we MUST use baby gates in our home. I'll leave it at that. My fingers would be too sore from typing if I typed out every thing Trouble T (known better lately as Bruiser) gets into!

BUT....you may be interested in his Speech Evaluation...it was on Wednesday and he did great. First thing the lady asked me was what was my main concern? Um, if you know me, you won't be shocked at this...I told her honestly I shouldn't say this, BUT I HAVE NO CONCERN AT ALL! She is the first person in the medical so to speak community to not look at me like I had two heads when I explained WHY I have no concerns.

They scored him in like 5 or 6 categories and the last category being actual language. All but the last he scored at his adgusted age to a two year old level. What a baby genius we have! For language he scored at below a one year old level...didn't you all know every one year old should be speaking?!?!?! RIGHT!

The end result is yes, he needs therapy. She told me sometimes they just know the child will catch up in a few months w/o therapy, or they know the child needs therapy. For Tommy she said she wasn't sure and we'll never know if the therapy is what helped. BUT she did agree with our pediatrician's recommendation based on him being so at risk for speech delays from being a 28-weeker AND having ear infection/tube issues. It can't hurt and costs us nothing but time. We can handle it. He's on the waiting list and I'm waiting to hear WHEN they think he'll be starting therapy. The list is long and is based on the need of each child. We're blessed he's not needing it so badly that he's bumped to the top of the list!