What a beautiful mess!

Cooper's first Jello.

More craftiness (Part 2)

I'm not sure how much frosting actually made it onto the cookies! The kids got to put their own frosting on, and then dip the cookies in sprinkles. This in my mind was a warm up for Christmas eve cookies!

More craftiness (part 1)

As if the foam "things" weren't enough, I decided it would be fun for the kids to make some Halloween cookies. Cooper, Grayson, and Wyatt will have to wait for next year to get their turns, but Courtney, Jilly and Blake had a blast! I mixed and rolled out the dough, and everybody got to cut out their own cookies. They listened very well, and looked great covered in flour. (Hopefully we cleaned up the kitchen well enough that Aunt Sara didn't notice!)

Finished products

The next morning, I took some glue strips and we got the things together. Unfortunately, they didn't stay that way for long. Apparently, when something calls for a hot glue gun...they mean it!

Meet Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop

Wyatt had to wait for 2 weeks before he got to meet M0m-Mom and Pop-Pop. After a long flight from Austria, they got to spend a week hanging out with us.

Too tired to move

I now have a picture of all 3 of the girls absolutley wiped out and asleep in their high chairs. It always breaks my heart to have to move a child that has fallen asleep, but I find it easier then having to deal with a grumpy child with a sore neck!

One smart cookie!

All the girls love to take turns feeding "baby brudder", burping him (I still have to get pics of that, but it is funny) or just snuggling him.

It always amazes me how fast Cooper picks things up. She decided that she needed Jilly to snuggle her, so she went and found the tin jack-in-the-box, used it as a step stool, and climbed into Jilly's lap (Jilly was waiting to feed Wyatt). Girl may only be 16 months old, but she is quick!

1st Skins game

Sept 27th, Wyatt's first "football day" as Jilly says. The Skins lost to the Lions, but the family loved getting all dolled up in the gear!

decisions, decisions

OK, in order to keep my sanity, I think I'm going to have to just put up pics from the last 2 months with very little story telling. This bums me out because I enjoy sharing the stories with everyone, but if I don't do it this way, i may never get caught up!


Love to all

Helpers

From the moment we got home, all Jilly wanted to do was to feed Wyatt. So we got her set up with the Boppy and let her go to town. She even tried burping him (until he spit up on her a few times!)


Even Courtney was excited to feed him. Some things never get old.

Entertainment

Leave it to Cooper to provide the entertainment for the picnic. When Jeff took her to wash her hands, Cooper decided that she wanted to freshen up...for close to a half an hour!! She was very mad when he finally pulled her out of the sink.

How many girls her age get the "looking in the mirror to brush your hair" concept?

Picnic dinner

Wyatt was born on Tuesday morning, and by Wednesday night I was missing the rest of my monkeys...so we had a picnic in the hospital. Jeff brought the girls and the Burger King and we all hung out for about 2 hours until it was time for the littler ones had to go home to go to bed.


We had a blanket on the floor, and they all ate better than I thought they would.

Jilly seems to be talking to the fairies...my little Spacey Tracey.

Cooper can make herself at home most anywhere! Believe it or not, the girl actually was eating while her feet were up on the tray!

More first visits

Aunt Sara visited in the hospital. Once we were home we went to her house for dinner while Aunt Dot was in town.

Wyatt's firts visits, Tomlins

I love the look on people's faces when they hold a brand new baby for the very first time.


Sunny is in heaven, nothing's better to hold a baby that goes home with someone else!

Wyatt's serrogate big brother...they are gonna have fun times together.

Lexi was upset at first, she thought she wasn't going to be able to hold Wyatt with her arm in the cast, but we go it done.

I've always said Mikey looks best when holding a baby...so relaxed and at peace.

Truth be told

It has been brought to my attention that most of you do not know why I call my kids my monkeys. Long story short, one of my favorite movies is the Wizard of Oz. As Courtney was growing up, we would watch it all the time (kids have it so much better then we ever did...I had to wait for it to come on TV once a year, Courtney had the DVD!). One day while using Jeff as a human jungle gym, she decided that she was my flying monkey (at 4 I don't think she got the fact that it made me the Wicked Witch) and she was on the attack!

When Jilly came into the picture, Courtney was happy to have another flying monkey in her army. It is so precious to see all the girls gang up on Jeff, and hear Courtney hum the Wicked Witch's theme. Now it is such a joke that anytime we see any kind of monkey it makes us all smile. So please don't take offense to the fact that I refer to the kids as my monkey's, it's not disparaging, it's endearing.