HAPPY BIRTHDAY SETH!!

He wore his hand-me down shirt and hat from Drew's first birthday that says "Fun to Be One" Loved the cake!

Ella loves to drive her brother's around!

yummy...more cake!

Wow!! I cannot believe it was already a year ago that I was huge and miserable and grouchy and sooo ready to find out what child #4 was going to be!! Seth was our surprise baby from the beginning. Drew was only 5 months old when I got pregnant with Seth! Surprise! We decided not to find out what we were having..on May 16th 2008 we got to say "it's a boy"! Surprise! And then the doctor said "he is a pretty good size baby", I thought he would be about 8 pounds (since the other were all in the upper 7 pounds).. nope he was 9 pounds 8 ounces!! Surprise!! Big Surprise!! But it did give a good perspectives as to why my back hurt, my hips hurt, I could hardly walk and I thought I was having some sort of breathing problem...

Our little Surprise! celebrated his first birthday yesterday. We had a family dinner at my parents and he ate his entire cake by himself (just a little help from his brother)....the kids had lots of fun and they were dead tired by the time we drove home..good fun and good memories!

I"ve been bad!

I don't know how? But grandpa always seems to fall asleep holding the kids!
Grandma and Seth!

Wresting with grandpa in the floor. Someone usually ends coming away crying!

Ella got her picture taken so Drew had to also.

This is his mug shot!

Ella is modeling the jacket that she and grandma made together (it even has a pocket)!!

Oh man have I been a bad blogger! Life has been in full throttle lately. So what has been happening with us?

Real estate is great right now! But of course in sales it seem to always be feast and famine, after 5 years of it you would think it would get easier when it's the famine part. Ella got to spend the week with her grandparents in Illinois and had a blast. She got to go to an antique mall, bible study, have a tea party and she and grandma made a jacket for her! We picked her up and spent Easter weekend there.

Here's a good one- Easter evening Jeremy and I went to get gas, he reached into the van to pop the gas tank and the wind blew the door shut on his head and busted is eye open. Couple hours later after the massive bleeding stopped we left the ER with 9 stiches! A week later I got to play nurse and take out the stitches. I must say he held up better than I thought he was, he didn't wine at all.

Here's another good one-This week we were in the garage getting ready for our huge yard sale this next weekend. I just stepped inside to wash my hands and Jermey was sweeping the garage when I heard Seth screaming. I opened the door there was blood everywhere and poor little Seth was screaming like I've never heard him before. Drew had gotten a pair of utility scissors off the dryer and tried to cut Seth's big toe off. He actually cut a giant chunk out of the padding of his big toe. It was gushing blood and I had to calll the doctor and ER. They said if it didn't stop bleeding to bring him in and they would stitch it up. I had to explain there was nothing to stitch up!! He had cut a chunk out and it was gone. It was bad, we finally got ourselves pulled together enough to compress it long enough that bleeding came to a minimum then get it gauzed up and taped up. 3 days later it is just healing up great, no big deal at all. Isn't great out God made kids heal so fast!! He knew they would have a big brother like Drew that liked to cut things. And little Drew he had no idea what was going on, he was just standing there looking around like, ''what's the big deal?"

I guess that is a good note to end on. I'll try to post more often!!

Oh, I just forgot really cool news, our good friends Chantelle and Eric are going to get their baby girl from Ethiopia next Saturday!! I just can't wait to meet her, please pray for safe travel and a good bonding experience with her when they get to the orphanage..Welcome home Solie!

26 months and they are off!!

Riley had a big day yesterday! After 26 months of wearing braces, THEY ARE OFF!!! Her teeth look so pretty (and big)!!

She just couldn't stop smiling. Her nickname as a kid was always 'smiley Riley'. And now she has taken that name on again.

We are giving a big shout out to Dr Spence and his staff!! Thanks for the great pearly whites!!

whats happening with us?

We have a had our 'typical' busy life the last few weeks. Real estate has picked up for me, which is WONDERFUL!! Jermey has also been very busy, but is the best at helping me around the house and freeing me up for my crazy work schedule.
It feels like we just got done with cheerleading and now here we go again....Riley is trying out for high school cheerleading this week. Although it is very time consuming and stressful on our family she is wonderful at it and absolutely loves it. So we put on our happy faces and just grin and bear it!
Ella is going to stay with Grandma Missy and Papa Charlie next week, and she is very excited to sing and cook and beat grandpa at UNO.. She told me "I am going to meet some new kids in the neighborhood and make friends". Our little social butterfly.. Drew is great, just being Drew..he is a mini Jermey. Just goes with the flow, laid back.
Seth is currently cutting 4 top teeth at the same time and trying to walk. He is now 10 months old and is getting really brave and taking steps on his own.

The other big news is we are going to Africa in July!!! We have been thinking and praying about if for several months and we finally took the leap and booked the trip. We will be going to Swaziland Africa and working at an orphange for 11 days. I will post more on this soon!!

Waiting for Grandma

Two days a week my mom comes to babysit the kids. Every time I will open the door so the kids can watch for grandma. As soon as Drew hears the door open, he starts saying "papa, papa". I"m pretty sure he is meaning to say granmda, it just comes out as papa??

Yesterday they pulled up their bean bags and a couple Dora books to pass the time. Look how cute just sitting their anxiously waiting for grandma to pull up. As soon as they see her car they usually run to hide from her. And then Ella will yell "come find me"... so cute!!

Thanks grandma for babysitting the kiddos!!

Slim pickin'

I have been super busy with real estate the last week (PTL) and the weather is just gorgeous outside. As you can tell the blogging is getting slimmed down. I haven't had as much time lately to play around on the computer and blog.

Our family is a outside family. We have the best neighborhood in the world. Lot's of kids and our great friends, so we don't see the indoors other to use the bathroom, shower and sleep!!

I will be posting soon with lots of pictures and new's about our upcoming summer trip!!!

Big Weekend

We celebrated Drew's 2nd birthday with a 'Cars' themed birthday. He got lots of fun boy toys. Slowly but surely we are filling up our house with more cars and trucks. Soon he won't have to play with dresses and Barbies anymore...lol
I think Drew looks just like his daddy in this picture.

The other big deal this weekend is Seth took his first steps!! He can balance really good on his own, then on Saturday he took about 4 steps all by himself.

It's pretty funny if he thinks he is going to fall he will close his eyes. But then he gets really excited when he figures out we are going to catch him!

Sweet little happy boy!