Happy Birthday Duncan!!!

My little boy is 6 today!

I can't believe how fast it has gone.....
Duncan is a boy full of life, and one who lives it to the fullest!

We had a family celebration this year, in which he had presents, cake, and the 'hidden birthday money'. He also got to pick the activity for the day, and we went to Splash Down!

This is the same cake as last year, an Army Tank. He enjoyed it so much, he requested it again!

Here's a trip down memory lane with Duncan.....

Age 1

Age 2

Age 3

Age 4

Age 5

My 6 year old boy

A bit about Duncan at 6...
He is in Kindergarten and LOVES it
I was told he was the smartest Kindergarten in the school...but not to brag about it :)
Duncan loves Dinosaurs, Star Wars, & building airplanes.
He has the best imagination!
He is SO wonderful with his little sisters!
Duncan loves to read and do math.
He cooks wonderfully...he loves to make his own 'special' fried egg by himself (it has garlic, cheese, turkey, onion powder & pepper in it-and it's GOOD)
Duncan learned to ride his bike this past year & also to swim-yay!
Duncan is a one of a kind who livens up our home!

We love you Duncan!
Happy Birthday!

Good night please....

It is noon, and I am counting down till bedtime already! I had a rough night last night (4 hours total sleep broken into 3 segments), and woke up with a massive headache today. And to top it off, it couldn't just be a quiet day either. The kids had another 2-hour delay for school today, which meant Hayden's bus came at 9:30am, and I would drop the other kids off at 10:40am.

But......

Ronan's braces bent, and were scratching his cheek, so I made an appt. for him at 10:30am. That meant I had to call the 2 neighbor family's that I drive to school, and let them know I can't take them today. I got everyone ready, then 5 min. after Hayden left on the bus he called on his cell phone....

"Is my math workbook on the kitchen table?"

"Yes, it is."

"Could you please bring it before 2nd period?"

"Sure."

I told the other kids to hurry up, we had to leave earlier than planned.

The front door opened.

In came a neighbor boy who rides Hayden's bus.

"Did I miss the bus?"

"Yep, you did. Get in the van and I'll drive you, I have to take Hayden's homework anyway."

Now we are REALLY hustling, because I don't want him to be late to his first class.

We make it to the middle school fine, drop of said boy, and homework, then off to the orthodontist.

My head is REALLY hurting now, and I've already taken medication for it. I remember someone telling me that caffeine helps with headaches, so I swing by and buy a soda on the way to the orthodontist. Didn't work on the headache by the way.

I'm totally embarrassed when we walk into the orthodontist and realize that I haven't done ANY of the girls hair! Oh well! They get Ronan fixed up, while I try and keep the other 4 kids entertained in the lobby-I LOVE my IPhone for this very reason alone (Disney movies on YouTube)! Then we are off to the elementary school. I'm fixing Morgan's hair in the front seat at red lights on the way! Ashlyn and Madelyn are little, so they can get away with messy hair for a bit longer.

I have to walk them all in, sign them in and then carry the container of cup cakes to Duncan's class for his Valentine party (with the snow storm we had last week, the parties were missed, and rescheduled for today). I double check that everyone has their Valentine cards before they head to their classes. Ashlyn is crying now because she wants to stay and eat a cup cake in Duncan's class (the party isn't until 2:00pm-right in the middle of nap time, or we would of joined them). I have to pick her up and carry her in one arm, and Madelyn in the other out of the class room. Did I mention that my head is POUNDING, and my patience very short? Before we leave the building Ashlyn sits down on the floor of the hallway 3 more times refusing to leave (oh, I love 2-year old games).

Once we finally make it to the van Ashlyn asks to go to Chick-fil-A to play......wonderful! I know I have no energy to make a nutritious lunch, or sadly enough, even to play with her right now, so Chick-fil-A seemed like a good option. Madelyn & I sat right by the play place, and watched Ashlyn run around with the other little girls that were there. She had fun, wore herself out and ate her food on the way home. I fed Madelyn, put her to bed when we got home, let Ashlyn watch 15 min. of Dora while I typed this, and now I will carry her up to the land of nod as well. I really hope I can sneak a nap in right now!

Good night!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentines Day to everyone! We've had a wonderful day thus far here. Last night Brian & I went out, and had a lovely time. He bought me flowers, which I love. We came home to sleeping children, which is always a welcome sight! I stayed up and cut out a TON of hearts to put in the kids rooms. I put most of them on their doors so that they would see them when they came out (I've done cute things in their rooms before, and they've walked out without noticing! So I figured the door was a safe place!).

This is the back of Ashlyn's door...

This is what Morgan saw when she woke up on the bottom bunk in her room.....

Ronan's room....

Since Hayden & Duncan share a room, I put their hearts on their beds and dressers, so they would know they were for them individually......

Morgan then followed suit and cut out hearts to put on peoples windows. This is in Ronan's room....

And in Hayden & Duncan's room.....

And in Brian & I's room.....

Duncan then found some heart shaped post-it notes that I had in a drawer somewhere, and put those EVERYWHERE! The beds, the hallways, everything is covered in love now! I LOVE the sweet gestures of the kids!

We all had breakfast together, I made heart shaped biscuits (but didn't take a picture), and had the kids open their Valentine cards from grandparents that came yesterday. It was a good breakfast.

My sister stopped by just before we took off for church, and snapped a few photos of us on this Valentines Day......

Brian and the 2 baby girls.....

The Mahaffey family......believe it or not, this was the best picture out of the 20 she took! What can you expect with such a lively bunch!

Me and my sweetie....

After church we made cupcakes with heart shaped sprinkles....sprinkles make everything fun!

Hope you all enjoyed the day celebrating all the love in our lives!
Happy Valentine's Day!!

I'm all done with the snow!!!

Ok, so it's been a fun week, lots of family memories, the kids have had a blast in the snow, but I'm ready for it to be ALL done! Tomorrow will be one week since this all began, and I have officially run out of all the fun things to do. No one wants to play games any more, paint, play with play dough, paint our toenails, or even bake! I've let the big boys stay at the neighbors house today for the past 5 hours, knowing full well that they are playing the Wii the whole time, and I really don't care! Ashlyn has watched 2 movies today (which would normally make me insane), and again, I don't care! I'm tired of cleaning the house, baking, and even reading! I just want to be out and about like normal!!!!

To top off this wonderful day (although, I do have to admit that the sun is shinning, and it is beautiful out), I just heard on the radio that we have a possibility of 4-8in. on Mon. night!!!! If that happens, then I can forget thinking that the kids will actually be in school on Tues.!!!

Please oh please just make the snow stop!

Sledding!!!!

Today we took the kids (and neighbor kids) sledding. The hill behind Hayden's middle school is PERFECT for such an event! I mostly video taped the kids, but here's few photos I did take!

Hayden jumped onto the back of the tube with 2 of his friends on it.

Hayden ended up falling off on the snow ramp, while the other two went flying!

Morgan was very cautious and just stuck to the hill, and not the ramp!

Duncan had NO fear, and would get a running start to go off the snow ramp! Crazy kid!

This is a neighbor.

Little Ashlyn only went down twice, and only half way down the hill. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that! I caught a neighbor trying to get her to go off the ramp with her just in time! She's such a little pixie, she'd go flying for sure!

Duncan going down again.

Hayden and his friend Brandon going together!

Hayden & Brandon going off the ramp!

Duncan going off the ramp!

Our neighbor girl, who almost flipped over backwards every time she'd go off!

This is me coming back up from the one and only time I went down. It was lots of fun, but I had more fun taping the kids!

This was such a fun day! More snow is expected tomorrow, so I think we'll get to do this again before we go back to school (which has been canceled for the whole week already)!

Snowed In

This past weekend we have had a colossal amount of snow! We measured 30 in. here at our house, and have been snowed in for 3 days now. It started snowing Friday (2/5) around noon. They let the kids out early at 12:30pm, and we came home and waited for it to accumulate.
We woke up Sat. morning to 2 feet of snow, and got another 6 in. by the afternoon!

Duncan's having a blast with the mound of snow in the front yard made from shoveling the walk and front porch. It made a great start to a sledding hill!

Morgan Ronan are out helping to shovel. Brian was smart and bought 4 new shovels the week before the storm so that EVERYONE could help with the shoveling! At this point the snow was still coming down, but it was such a wet and heavy snow, that we didn't want to wait until the end to begin shoveling all 30 heavy inches!

Here's Ashlyn on Sat. morning, it was so hard for her to walk in the snow. Brian ended up making paths for her!

Duncan made Ashlyn a little tunnel to play in!

Morgan & Ronan's snow caves.

Brian finally borrowed the neighbors snow blower to finish up the job-made it SO much easier!

We aren't quiet sure if the tramp will survive this storm or not-very heavy snow on it! We'll just have to wait and see!

The backyard looked so beautiful in the snow!

This is wear our front sidewalk SHOULD be!

Once the plow came down our road, it created a wall of snow at the end of the driveway. It was great for the kids sledding for a while (never worried about them ending up in the street-not that anyone was driving by anyway), but when it came time to remove the snow, we were VERY thankful for the neighbors snow blower!

Our back deck when we woke up Sat. morning.

This is the front yard the morning after the storm (Sunday morning). The sun was shining, and it looked so nice and peaceful.

I went on a walk with Morgan, Duncan, & Ashlyn Sunday night to check out what the neighborhood looked like. This is Morgan & Duncan walking down the middle of the road (the plows didn't make it to this road for 3 days).

Duncan in the front yard before our walk.

Ashlyn walking on the sidewalk in front of our house. The snow on either side is taller than she is!


The 2 little girls and I spent a lot of time looking out at the snow from the warm house. With Madelyn recovering from her Bronchitis I didn't want her out in this weather. So, we sat by this window a lot.

Ashlyn watching the birds in the snow.

Two sisters having fun together in the warm house!

My little baby girl.

Another one because I can't believe she's getting so big!

Snowed in!

We've had some fun times being snowed in together.
We baked bread and carrot cake.
Played games.
Watched movies.
Looked at family photo albums.
Made the kids pedigree charts.
Read stories.
Had a fun 'snowed in' party at the neighbors house.