Happy Fall everyone! Loving this time of year. Hope everyone is happy and healthy. I'll post later when I have more time...who knows when that'll be ;)

picture from the weekend

If you look really close you can see the washington monument in the background. It was a beautiful night to go for a boat ride. The food was ok but the company was EXCELLENT!

The Weekend

So, Michael and I went on our first weekend getaway with no kids. This is the first time we've been away by ourselves since our honey moon. YIKES! That was almost 8 years ago. I made all of the arrangements because Michael's birthday is on July 28Th. I'll be away at girls camp and I was feeling a little guilty about missing it. Friday night I took him on a dinner boat that cruises around different monuments in D.C. We had a good dinner and we danced a little. We laughed at this woman who had a little too much to drink. She was dancing non stop even when there was no music. Her poor husband was pretty embarrassed. The more we watched her, the more it looked like she was doing the pee-pee dance that our kids do when they've really got to go. From there we went back to our Hotel which was really nice. We slept in until 10 am! I can't even tell you the last time I did that. From there we went to six flags. I have to tell you I'm not a fan! GHETTO! We did meet some nice folks. They were few and far between though. Michael and I had the bright idea to ride the bat wing roller coaster. Again, not my finest moment. I'd say that was definitely poor judgement on my part. This thing lays you flat on your back and then flips you over like you're flying. ...Let's just say I could hardly hold my head up after that one. I was probably a shade of green and I went looking for the closest trash can. Michael didn't look so hot either though. We left sick...went back to the hotel tried to get in the jacuzzi but we were too sick to stay in, went to bed. At 1am I woke up when some drunk couple was trying to get into our room and then she started yelling "Help, I need help." I ran to the peep hole to look out and see what was going on and they were crazy drunk and were off by two doors...I heard them for an hour and a half. NOT HAPPY! Michael and I woke up Sunday still feeling a little queasy. Over all, it was a good weekend. It was nice not to have to yell over anyone, to actually get to sit next to my husband and to not have any children sleeping between us. We both missed them all so much we could hardly take it! We were calling the girls (since they're younger) every few hours. :) Oh the life of a mommy. When I'm with them I'm yelling and when I'm not I'm worried sick! I wouldn't trade my kiddies for anything...not even a quiet weekend :)

School's out! Should I be happy?

So, everyone who I talk to says " School's out, you must be so happy about that".......

Should I be happy about this? I am excited about the POSSIBILITY of getting to sleep past 7am. The likelihood of that actually happening is not great.

I have all 5 kiddos all day long. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids. BUT what about having all of them inside in the event of inclement weather...rain, thunderstorms, possible tornadoes or just to stinking hot to be outside... That's when it all goes to POOP! They get bored and pretty soon that leads to being destructive and that leads to mom screaming and punishment :), then the cycle starts again and it's repeated ALL DAY LONG!

On a more positive note, Isaac got his shots yesterday so I've got another one headed to school in 67 days. Who's counting.??? He did really well and I'm proud of him. A few hours after his shots he tried to stand up and started laughing and he said he had old man legs. Then he explained to me that means like POP who walks a little slower sometimes cause his legs are old...where does he get this stuff?

Stevi is excited that she might get to turn 3 this summer. (AUG. 24th) I told her she's not allowed to turn 3 unless she's in big girl undies...and not peeing in those big girl undies. She's happy that when school's back in, it'll just be her and Rylie at home with mom.

Rylie is walking everywhere. It's so cute to see her go from room to room babbling like I know what she's saying. She's super independent, just like big sisters. She's not so good at the talking thing which is OK since she's only 11 months. She just squeals at me, or as the Dr. pointed out...she SCREECHES at me when she needs me or wants something.

Charly is doing well, I can't believe how tall she is. Her foot is officially the same size as Aunt Becca's...sorry becca. I can't keep her in pants or really anything for that matter because in a month or two she's out of them. It seems like the never ending growth spurt that I keep waiting for to end but never does, or hasn't in Oh, 6 years. She's excited to move on to 4th grade. And as mommy I get to brag a little. She got a perfect 600 on her Science SOL, I had to ask if she cheated...she didn't. She also got a 538 on Social Studies which is advanced...mother to a genius...haha :)

Ian just finished up another t-ball season. He did really well. I think he'll go far playing baseball. He seems to really enjoy it and he seems be really good at it. He had a wonderful coach so that makes it more fun. He finished up kindergarten and is excited to move on to first grade. He lost his first tooth a few weeks ago and got his first dollar from the tooth fairy (who is officially broke).

I'll keep you posted on further summer developments as they become available...hehe, we've got lots of fun things planned and for me, lots of work. I'm working on too many projects as it is and working on getting my old job back at Prince William hospital. Only a few days a month, I interview next week. YAY me.

Oh the things she loves...

The things Rylie loves the most...ice cream cones, giving big slobbery kisses, laughing, pulling hair, feeling textures of different things, especially grass, rocking on the front porch, blowing spit bubbles...and saying Dada...but we all know she's really trying to say "Mommy I love you." That's what I keep telling myself anyway!She loves her brothers and sisters and lights up whenever any one of them come into the room. We are really enjoying this stage of our lives, watching our kids grow and learn and seeing the relationships they are able to develop with each other. It's fun to see how similar they are but how very unique they are. I can't say enough about my kiddies. :)

cabin fever

Yesterday it snowed, really snowed here and it was beautiful. We all had such a good time outside sledding down the driveway. We shoveled out our neighbor Max and had lots of hot chocolate. Michael had to clear our driveway to go to work last night...no more sledding for us. :(

The wind is really cold too so our day was spent inside. The kids decided to get dressed up and put on a photo shoot. They had music on and showered and brushed their hair and everything. It was fun. Here is our pics.

snow days

Costco

I have made a world record! I was able to get in and out of walmart and Costco in 1(one) hour. That is incredible. Did I mention I had three of the kids with me. The 3 youngest kids. What a stud I am...he he. So while on my little shopping adventure in Costco, I loaded all three of the kiddies into the cart and said
" Mommy is in a really big hurry so we're going to go super fast so sit down and behave..." Something along those lines anyway. While I was shopping and going way too fast down the isles at Costco, a older woman stopped right in front of our cart and was chatting with someone. Isaac yells " Out of the way, GRANDMA!" I could've died! Where does he get this stuff? So the lady turns around not too happy at all. What could I do? I just apologized and then I had a brilliant thought and that was to blame it all on the husband. So I said " you know, he gets this from his dad, I'm really sorry." Then she cracked a smile and things were good. I had a good laugh later, but Good GRIEF!

My son, the thief!

Do I even need to mention names??? There we were in Home Depot, me ,Michael, James (a friend from CHURCH), Isaac, Stevi and Rylie. We were standing in line waiting to check out and Stevi and Isaac starting eyeing the candy that is so conveniently placed right at their eye level. Michael and I said no, they had not even eaten lunch at this point. I didn't really even think anymore about it. We were just about ready to walk out and Michael said " check his pockets and make sure there is no candy. " I checked his little pockets and didn't find a thing. I definitely wasn't thinking I needed to perform a shake down on my four year old! Michael goes over and starts patting him down, asks him to lift his arms and sure enough, a king size candy bar drops to the floor. What in the world! He had hidden it between his jacket and his shirt, in his arm pit. For those of you who know Isaac, we're just lucky he didn't decide to hide it in his crack. Then we would've had to buy the dumb thing.

Rylie on a new adventure...oatmeal and apples.

Rylie getting into the Christmas spirit------Definitely Michael's daughter(michael sings Christmas songs in June and wants to put the tree up in September).

Isaac being his cute self.

Ian with his new toy.

Charly being goofy.

Stevi with new dolly.

Nan and Pop and the gang.

Matt had too much sparkling apple juice this year.

Christmas

Merry Christmas (kinda late, but if you know me---right on time, baby!)

Christmas this year was great. I'm glad it's over though. We enjoyed a few visits from Santa. The kids were completely shocked to get a visit from him at our house for the 2nd year. Santa was pretty slick. We caught him on our back deck leaving a lot of unexpected goodies. Ian ran to the front door(which surprised me, since Santa was out back) to see if he could find where Santa parked his sleigh. I had to run interference and go look for him. He would've found Santa's ride and that was a Chevy. Much to Ian's disappointment I returned home with not even a glimpse of the reindeer.

Michael and I have enjoyed long conversations with the kids about Jesus Christ and his birth and a little about why we are celebrating with gifts this month. They are always so excited to learn and they soak it all up and then at the first sign of a gift, it's all out the window. We're trying though.

We were at Mom and Dad Strickland for the first part of Christmas day, and at Mom and Dad Ford's for the rest of the day. We enjoyed spending time with all of our family and missed the ones we didn't see. I'm always amazed at others thoughtfulness and generosity toward Michael and I and our kids. We opened up some really great gifts but the best part for me is seeing everyone else open the gift we worked on for them. That part never gets old.

We spent New years eve at our place this year. Mom and Dads were down along with Matt and Allena and Zip. We ate good food and enjoyed each others company. Almost all of us were up to watch the ball drop and to bed shorty thereafter. I'm getting old--it was difficult to stay up late.

Hope everyone is well!