#6....coming soon

In case you didn't already know (you obviously haven't spoken to one of my children then), we are expecting our 6th baby in June! This was a bit of a surprise, but we are all so very excited about it! The kids have been broadcasting it at the top of their lungs to who ever will listen! I've never been one of those people who could wait to tell the kids until I was 3 months along, and obviously they aren't the kind that can keep it a secret either! I just went for my first appointment today and got a little photo of our small bean. We can't wait to welcome him/her to our home!!!

Ronan's 8!

Today is Ronan's 8th birthday! He has been SO excited for this day to come. He will get baptized this week, and get to join cub scouts with Hayden!
Ronan requested a cake with a green light saber on it this year, this is what I came up with:
He liked it, so all was good! This morning when I asked what he wanted for his 'Birthday breakfast' (thinking of pancakes, waffles, biscuits, eggs, etc.) he said "A bowl of Life cereal". "Are you sure you don't want me to cook something for you?" "Nope, Life cereal is what I want." So that was pretty easy. I have been trying to have a cooked breakfast for the kids every morning this school year, so I guess it make cereal look special now!
Then when I asked what he wanted for dinner-"Domino's Pizza!" Ok, I thought, I can do that! So, we ordered pizza and root beer and he was a happy camper. And not being in the kitchen all day, I was a happy camper too. I like those kind of requested meals! After dinner we played the 'money game'-where we hid 8 $1 bills around the house for him to find, opened presents, and ate cake and ice cream! Happy Birthday Ronan!

Ronan, there are so many things about you that make you special. I love that you have such a tender heart, and truly care for all creatures (even the ants I try to poison).

You love to be outside, it is your natural element, and find joy in every season.

You always say "I'm so excited for the fall and raking leaves! I LOVE the winter and building snowmen! Spring is my favorite with all the baby birds and flowers! I wish it was ALWAYS summer and we could swim everyday!"

You enjoy what ever it is you are doing at the time, and think it's the best ever!

You are a wonderful big brother, and Duncan wants to be just like you! You are so sweet and tender with Ashlyn telling me "Mom, I don't want her to grow! I want her to stay cute and little just like this forever!"

You are the smartest 8 year old I know! You love numbers, and have such a natural ability to compute them in your head!

You are a good reader, but also love to be read to. You love to have your dad lay in the hall at night and read to you all.

You have a wonderful testimony, and are touched by the spirit so often.

You love Dinosaurs, and have since you could walk!

You have the best imagination ever, and the drama to go with it! Oh the drama!!!

You are my cuddle buddy, and I love you dearly!

Happy Birthday Ronan!!!!

Catch up!

I am behind on my posts, and with Ronan's birthday, baptism, and Halloween this next week, I decided I'd better do a quick catch-up post. This is mainly because I cannot have my posts be out of chronological order-I know, I need therapy for that. So here goes!

This last week was my little sister Missy's 22nd birthday! Happy Birthday Missy!!!!!
I got to go out to the Cheesecake Factory with her for dinner, then we came back to my house to have cake and ice cream with the whole clan! Good times, good times.

On Friday night was our ward's Trunk-or-treat. This year it was a tri-ward event, and a dinner as well. I was a bit overwhelmed with the idea of being crammed into the cultural hall with so many people, and trying to get my kids to eat dinner while in their costumes, that we just showed up for the trunk-or-treat part. Party poopers maybe, but at least I know my limits!

Morgan was a cowgirl, Ronan-Harry Potter, Ashlyn-lion, Duncan-cowboy, & Hayden-Revolutionary War soldier.

There's a small story with how Ashlyn became a lion for Halloween. Originally Brian wanted her to be Pebbles, but I couldn't find a costume, and with my sewing machine not working making one wasn't an options. So, I then declared that everyone in the house would use a costume we ALREADY had! After 29 Halloweens (combing all the Halloweens the children have had together) we should surely be able to find a costume for everyone without having to make another purchase! Anyway, Ashlyn had several to choose from, Dorthy, a pumpkin, a dog, clown, lion, and princess Leia. Well, she SCREAMED with each costume we tried on, except the lion! So Lion it was! She did make a very cute lion!

So that brings us to today. We carved pumpkins tonight. Each of the kids had their own, and did a great job gutting the pumpkins.

Yes, that is Ashlyn right next to the knife while Brian is carving. Funny I didn't even notice that until I was posting! Safety is number one in this house!

Rona is so proud of his pumpkin!
Duncan and his pumpkin. This is a little trick Ashlyn kept doing the whole night. Put the lid on the pumpkin, then lift it up and say 'Ta da!!!" She loved it!

The kids and their glowing pumpkins (Duncan & Ashlyn were busy getting seeds together)

Our little patch of pumpkin kids on the porch.

Long weekend.....Long post

Last weekend we all drove up to Vermont for a quick fall trip. Vermont is our last New England state that we hadn't been to, and we wanted to see Joseph Smith's birthplace, and Ft. Ticonderoga. Since fall is my absolute most favorite season of all, I decided that we should make this trip during the height of the fall foliage! It turned out to be perfect timing!
The kids had Friday off from school, so the plan was to take them out a little early on Thursday, drive half way, sleep, and then get up there by noon on Friday, stay through Sunday afternoon, then do the same thing on the way back, and get home Monday afternoon. A few plans changed, but all went smoothly.
First off though, I found this in my basement 1 hour before we were supposed to leave!
He was just hanging out on one of my laundry baskets. I am NOT a fan of snakes in any shape or size, so I did what any reasonable woman would do. I called Brian and told him to come home NOW to take care of the snake ( I mean, he was going to leave in 30 minutes anyway, so what's the big deal, right?)! He told me to take a picture in case it moved. MOVED! How would I sleep knowing there was a snake in my house, but not knowing where it was?! So, Duncan and I took a picture, and went to the computer to look up the what kind it was, while periodically going back to check and make sure it hadn't moved. Luckily it never did, and Brian arrived to remove it from the house. It was a juvenile rat snake by the way.
When Brian saw how 'small' it was, he was teasing me, saying that the way I was talking on the phone made him think it was HUGE. I said " A snake is a snake, no matter how small." (Visions of Dr. Seuss in my head). So, he properly disposed of the snake (let it go in the woods), and then we were off on our merry way to Vermont!

Thursday night was a bit of a blurr. The kids did really well in the car (thanks to electronic fun), and we made it to the middle of Connecticut. We stopped around 10:00pm, and Ashlyn had been asleep for the past 2 1/2 hours, so she was in no way ready to go to bed once in the hotel room. Luckily Brian had found us a sweet 2 room suite. So we put the four kids in one room, Ashlyn cried herself to sleep (hope we had no next door neighbors) in the other bedroom, and Brian & I sat in the living room watching T.V. until she was asleep, which took until 12:00am (I didn't let her cry the whole time, but the last 20 minutes was good solid screaming).
So, Friday by lunch we were almost near Sharon, VT (J.S. birthplace). We stopped at a small rest stop, and enjoyed the brilliantly colored trees!

There was a small bake sale stand from a local school, where we bought some apples-one of our favorite fall snacks! Ashlyn was very happy to be out of the car and running around.

This was the first trip that I took my camera off 'auto', and shot completely in manual mode. It was a lot of fun, but I still have so much to learn, so some pictures are better exposed than others, oh well! And of course for the most part the photos don't even begin to to relay the beautiful colors we saw while there!

Hayden nicely complying with his mother's request to stand in front of a tree for a photo.

My cute Ronan. These poor kids wanted to run and play, not stand for a photo!

One of the few photos of myself on vacation. Not too happy with the whole '10 hours in a car with 5 kids' look I've got going on!

Brian is happy to comply with my request to stand next to the tree.

The first stop on Friday was to Joseph Smith's birthplace. Which was marked by this granite obelisk. It was a very picturesque place. Poor Ashlyn was leaning down to smell some beautiful flowers they had lining the pathway, when she fell face first right into them. Unfortunately that bunch of flowers doesn't look as pretty as the rest now.
We went on a walk the woods leading to the foundations of the home sites, which was a beautiful place. SO many trees & large rocks though, I kept thinking "These were farmers here! No wonder they moved to NY.", it looked like hard farming land! Not that NY didn't have any trees to clear, but a bit flatter and less boulders I think.
My happy baby on her silly daddy's back running towards me!
Brian & Morgan are standing in the road leading out of the J.S. property.

We found some neat covered bridges up there. The kids wanted to throw rocks in the water of course, but the banks were all too steep!

Just a quick drive by shot of a small church in a small town we drove through

Friday night we stayed in our hotel in Rutland, VT, which was a very cute town. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Best Western we had reserved was actually a small condo. With this crew we rarely, actually never stay in a regular one room hotel! They even had a free cooked breakfast for us in the morning! I do have to say that I underestimated how chilly it would be up there. I had checked the weather before we left, & it said mid-50's. Well, mid-50's in Maryland we've been wearing hoodies or light jackets, so that's what I brought. Well, I didn't factor in the wind, and it ended up not actually reaching the mid-50's. So, Friday night I ran to the store to buy everyone knit gloves, and get some onesies for Ashlyn to wear under her shirts. On Sat. I just put everyone in two shirts, their hoodies and gloves, and we did fine. We headed off to Ft. Ticonderoga in NY.
Brian had mentioned to me that we would need to cross Lake Champlain via ferry to get over there. OK, I thought, we've been on a ferry before, I can do that. Well, this was a tiny thing, that fit maybe 4 cars length wise on it! In case you are unaware, I have a DEATHLY fear of being over water with my children, especially in a vehicle! It is mainly because I worry "How will I get everyone unbuckled and out of the car before we drowned if we should end up in the water?!". Normally this fear is when on bridges ( I HATE driving over them)! Well, as you can see from the photo below, that we were the first car on, and therefore the water was RIGHT there!
I was SO nervous the whole crossing, and had the children unbuckle their seat belts (so we could make a quick exit if needed) while on the water. Brian is very understanding of this fear of mine, although I know he thinks I over-worry. Needless to say, we drove back to VT the long way, around the lake!

Once in off the ferry in NY, the fort was right there, and it was in the most beautiful setting. Rolling hills draped in fall colors, and right on the lake, very pretty.
This fort was in several major wars before America was it's own country, but played a big role in the Revolutionary War. This is Hayden's most recent passion, and he was SO excited to come here. The entrance to the fort had a sign stating all the famous people who have walked through that gate of which was George Washington, Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, & Guy Knox to name a few. Hayden LOVED it! And everyone had fun 'playing war' with the canons and such around.

Morgan, Duncan, & Ronan at Ft. Ticonderoga
Duncan lifting a 'small' canon.

On our way back to VT (the long way), we passed through Whitehall, NY which apparently was the birthplace of the Navy. Brian's little brother is in the Navy, so he was excited to go through this town. This is the 'birthplace' because the first battle in the revolutionary war fought on ships was on Lake Champlain.

We saw this billboard, and it was the first LDS billboard either of us have seen. I don't know if they are more abundant in the West, but we have never seen one out here....just thought it was neat.

This is just a few shots of the countryside we saw while driving around.

I just LOVED all the colors! This was the perfect time for this trip, and I was in heaven-it was great!

We changed our plans slightly, and when everyone was up, dressed and fed by 8:00am Sunday morning, we decided to try and make it home that day instead of breaking it up and getting home Monday. So, off we went!

Then as we were approaching New York City, Brian and I thought it would be great to take the kids to see the statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building (something they have always wanted to do). So, we first thought we'd get a hotel and stay the night in NYC, but then changed plans again. We drove down and saw the Empire State building, the Brooklyn Bridge, etc. on the way to Battery Park. We made it there just in time for the last ferry to the statue. Unfortunately they had already closed the inside of the statue, so we couldn't go up it, but oh well!

The ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty with NYC in the background.

By the time we got off the ferry, and started walking around the island the kids were complaining of hunger! They seem to do that a lot! Man, didn't we just feed these kids! Oops, I guess it had been like 5 hours! So, we thought, let's grab some food at the cafe on the island first, then go take pictures in front of the statue with happy, well-fed kids! We had an hour until the last ferry left to go back to NYC, so we thought it was no problem. Well.....the line to get the food was LONG, the children eating the food was LONG, and finally I was hurrying everyone to go get some photos in front of the statue. We still had 20 minutes left. Well, just as we were approaching the front of the statue, some state park workers were telling us to turn around and to back to the ferry. "Wait!" I said, "We still have until 5:00pm, can't I just take a photo of them really quick?" "NO", was the response. Apartently the island started closing sooner so that by 5:00 everyone was on the boat! AHHH I wish I knew that ahead of time! So, the photo below was all I got of the kids while on the island:

It was a hurried shot, with the park ranger telling me to move!

I guess the one of us on the ferry with have to do!

This is another shot I took while on the ferry back to NYC.

By the time we got off the ferry, and back to the car, and saw the traffic we would be in, I told Brian I was not up for driving back up to the Empire State Building and going through it. It had been a long weekend, lets just call it quites for now and come back another time. So, we just headed home. We got back around 11:00pm, put kids in bed, emptied the contents of the van into the garage for now (so I could take them to school in the morning), and collapsed into bed. A friend said she was shocked that I sent them to school the next day after such a trip. My response was, "Are you kidding? I NEEDED them to go to school so I could recover. They had all fallen asleep in the van at 8:00pm the night before, so they got a good night's rest! It was mommy's turn now!" Thank goodness for public schools! :) They actually were all up bright and early Monday morning ready to go armed with a print out of the photo of them on the ferry to the statue of Liberty. They couldn't wait to tell their friends of their adventures from the weekend (and of their new baby that is on the way)!

Philadelphia!

This past weekend my sister Missy and I went up to Philadelphia for a Time Out for Women conference. We have made a tradition of going to one every year for the past 4 or 5 years (although I missed last years in Utah, as Ashlyn was only 2 weeks old). The conference was on Saturday, so we drove up Thursday night so we would have Friday to sight see in the city.
This is me in front of City Hall. We had a great hotel, which was just a few feet from where I am standing, and a corner room with a magnificent view of City Hall. It was beautiful at night all lit up!
The is were the first Congress meetings were held.
The Liberty Bell.
This woman took a photo of Missy and I by the bell. Unfortunately she got a lot of everyone around us, and cut off the bell. This is after I cropped the sides of the picture already. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be picky when someone offers to take our photo!
The city of Brotherly Love.
Unfortunately by mid afternoon Missy wasn't feeling well, and we went back to the hotel to rest. She ended up getting some kind of flu-like thing, and didn't really feel well the rest of the trip. However, we did make it down to the hot tub that night to relax, watched a chick flick (which I think she might of slept through half of it), and ordered room service the rest of the time. It was a nice relaxing trip away for me, while Brian was at home with the 5 kids!
We made it to the conference on Saturday, which I totally loved! It was great, I was laughing, crying, and had a good time. The speakers were Douglas E. Brinley, Jane Clayson Johnson, Carolyn J. Rasmus, Chris Stewart, & Emily Watts (who has me in stitches every time I hear her speak), and Hilary Weeks performed. I'm really glad we went. And when I came home, not only were the children alive & fed, but the house was spotless! Brownie points for Brian!! I am so grateful that I have a husband that supports me in having 'girl time' away! I always come back so much better equipped for being a wife and mom! Thanks for the fun weekend Missy!