Back to the Grind...and Opening Day - woo hoo!

or I should say, Wahoo!The Indians had opening day in Cleveland. Great game and Casey Blake was the man - we beat the Chi White Sox 10-8 (but I have to admit it was great to see Thome - even if he did get a home run - man I miss him!). Silly, but it makes me giddy that it's baseball season again! It's my version of reality TV.

Speaking of baseball, we are going on a family trip to see the Indians vs. Yankees in May - at YANKEE stadium! This is the last year at the stadium and Justin really wants the kids to experience it - as he remembers doing as a kid growing up in NY. So we'll be packing up the minivan and heading to the Bronx for a 5-day trip. I really wish Joe Torre was still coaching for the last year there...it would have been cool to have him finish out the stadium.
Today was also back to school, work, sitter, etc. It was nice to get back into the groove of things but I really could have taken another week of just doing whatever. Though it was nice to have Si taking a nap again. He's a bear to get down for a nap at home. Last Tuesday or so, we told him

"nap time, Si"
"no nap" he says
"when will you be ready for a nap?" - dumb parent asks.
"when I go to Kelly's" he replies.

We batted around a .500 for naptime - great if we were still talking baseball - but not so great for nap stats!

Mason has to take some baby pics into school tomorrow for one of his classes. Here are a few we dug up:

This one looks SO much like Silas

A fall Upstate NY trip
Love the dimple :)
Many of you will remember BATMAN!
First Day of Preschool
By the way, Mason DID get a haircut tonight - still longer than his norm but looks MUCH better!

Odds & Ends and Stomach bugs...

What a bummer...I spent Spring Break Friday in bed all day with a stomach virus. It hit me about 4 a.m. and I'm just now starting to feel somewhat better - better enough to move to the couch. It's a rare day that I get to hang in my PJs all day long and nap, etc. but this isn't how I like to do it! I was supposed to go to a jewelry party tonight but can't manage to be more than a few feet from a bathroom...

We had a good week - though didn't get to do as much fun stuff as I'd have liked. It was nice out a few days so we got to get out and play, go to the library, the Y to work out and swim and just hung out a lot at home. Si lounged in bed and read his new Ducky book
I overheard Ella telling Zoe - "I'm sorry but you can't have babies...you got fixed" - I vaguely remember having a conversation with Ella about a year ago about how Zoe won't be able to have puppies.

Silas has been chasing Zoe around and hand feeding her - then laughs hysterically when she eats out of his hand
Silas also has an odd fascination/fetish with belly buttons - he's always asking "I touch belly button?" to pretty much anyone. He also spends a lot of time looking at his "fuzzy toes" - that is looking for fuzz between his toes...he's more than a little obsessive about it.



Also, prayers to the B-Team - Doug's latest scans show that the cancer has spread, though the size of the 2 original tumors have shrunk. He is going to be getting into some clinical trials so we pray for the docs to find some good ones!
And our friend Alison had surgery this week - prayers that she is feeling better soon!

Easter Day and Spring Break begins!!

What a fun Easter weekend we had! We colored eggs on Saturday afternoon:And of course the Easter Bunny came and brought the kids books, movies, puzzles and a bit of CANDY - Si as SO excited when he learned that there was "junk" in the plastic eggs!

And oh, what a yummy Easter dinner we had! There was food galore!! Because our family is so HUGE we have started going to the church for Easter Dinner. We have the entire place to ourselves including the Youth room which has pool tables, air hockey, foosball, and a space for basketball too. There is also a big toddler room with slides, kiddie cars, puzzles, a little house with kitchen - all the stuff that our kids need to wear them out!

Jaden, Ella, Silas, Hunter and Brayden

Jaden, Ella and Hunter playing air hockey

Brayden, Maya, Hunter and Ella

There was also plenty of space for an indoor Easter egg hunt - actually 3 hunts, one for the little ones (Si, Aliyah and Skyler)

Silas gives Aliyah an egg

one for the medium kids (Maya, Elijah, Jaden, Ella, Hunter and Brayden below)

and then one for the big kids (Mason, Tyler and Brooklyn). The big kids actually started off in the dark with flashlights.

And this is just a movie of the kids running around in the gym playing basketball and being goofy



Afterwards, we came home stuffed to the gills, got the kids to bed and crashed pretty early. The kids are on break this week so I didn't schedule ANY clients at all - just doing my computer stuff and it's great! We plan to clean out closets, sort through clothes, go swimming at the Y, go to the downtown library and hopefully catch a movie too.

Birthday party pictures and Congrats!

Here is the link to the party pictures that Melissa took (right click to open in new window):

Ella Birthday party

Justin had Good Friday off from work and started the spring cleaning. The kids are on spring break this coming week - hopefully we'll have some decent weather so that we can get outside some. We all have Spring Fever - I'm ready for cookouts and porch sitting!!

Congrats to Sean and Kim - they welcomed baby Michael into the world on March 18th - 5 lbs., 5 oz. - He's a doll:

I finally got a chair to match my desk - it's just like our kitchen chairs but wood. $20 at World Market!!

And El and Si (with a boo-boo on his chin)

My husband is a dork....but handy!

I got my hair cut today - a bit shorter than it has been in awhile. When I got home, Justin says "your hair looks nice" - good...I should have dropped it there. "Do you like it?" I asked. "eh, it's okay - but I like the color" - Great BUT I didn't have any coloring done!

But since he is handy, I forgive him. We had a toilet handle AND the sump pump break today and he got them both fixed today as well. Plus the dryer died on me again on Sunday (about the 9th time in 6 months) and he fixed that too...SO...

Here is a great picture that Melissa took of Ella at her party - she really wanted to bob for apples at her birthday party - and since it was a BLIZZARD out, we did what we could...just used a big pot and did it on the kitchen table. I will also post the link to the other b-day pictures later as well.

I love this picture of Ella too

Ella's 5 year check up stats:
37 pounds
41.5 inches tall

Link to Snowy Days pictures

Poor Si - you'll notice that once you get to kid #3 - you don't really bother to buy new or match much....he just gets all the hand-me-downs including pink hats and boots...
(click below to see photos...lots of playing in the snow pics)

Snow pictures

Hypnosis, Hug Therapy and the Amish

Sounds like a self-help book doesn't it?

I have to renew my counselor license by the end of March so I am in a mad rush to get my 30 hours of CEUs (that I've had 2 years to complete...) - so today I attended a workshop on hypnosis -
(you are getting very, very sleepy...)
It was actually very interesting and I bet you didn't know that the average person goes into a trance-like, hypnotic state about 4 times a day naturally. Ladies - that would be the time to whisper to the husbands "you will do the dishes and rub my feet..." - it'll work, really!

So, while I was gone today and Justin was out all day too - my parents (God love 'em) came over to watch the kids and of course, Ella and Mason fought like cats and dogs. So, when they get really, really bad, Justin makes them do Hug Therapy - we set the timer for 2- 10 minutes (depending on how bad they've been and our mood at the time) and this is what it looks like:

It's working - can't you tell - I can feel the love!

Oh, and in case you've ever wondered what Si would look like if we were Amish - here you go - wonder no more...

Ella Margaret Patricia Lynn

Miss Boo came down stairs this morning - "Now I am 5" were the first words out of her mouth.

Bear with me on this longish post - I get so sentimental on the kids' birthdays - I love to remember the pregnancy, labor, bringing them home. We always sit down and look at the pictures and video on their birthdays.

With Ella, we tried to get pregnant for 2 years and 2 months - it took tons of fertility meds, many, many doctors visits - 5 inseminations and finally in vitro (and well over 250 shots and blood draws) before we finally got the positive pregnancy test (as opposed to the boys, which took about 2 bottles of wine).

Here are a few pictures:

One of my last big belly shots with Ella

For those that doubted that Justin would eat a Wendy's burger in front of me while I was in labor...(I've been ticked about that for 5 years!)
Justin and Sarah playing kickball in my labor and delivery room (glad they were having a good time!)

No sound on these 2 very short video clips of Justin with Ella shortly after she arrived - so sweet

Mason meets his baby sister

Ella in her "coming home" outfit

And first birthday
2nd birthday

3rd birthday (covering her ears while we sang to her)

4th birthday

And 5th birthday!!

(thanks to Melissa for the 4 and 5 birthday shots!)

Blizzard and bowling pics

Courtesy of Jodi

Allysa, Ashlee, Ella and Mason

And a bowling picture from Beth

Mason, Allysa, Abs, Ashlee, Alison, Ella

Blizzardly Birthday Bash!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA!

Today we celebrated Ella's 5th birthday (though she is very technical and says she won't be 5 until Monday). We were lucky in that many of the invitees were neighborhood friends and we had a few brave souls that traveled in this horrible weather (sorry Kelly that it took awhile to figure out you were stuck!).

Here is the Happy Birthday singing - sorry it's fuzzy but I had to edit it

and here is a link to the Blizzard and Birthday pictures (click the picture below - right click to open in a new window)

3.8.2008 - Ella's party and Blizzard!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO COUSIN TRENT (ONE OF OUR az YOUNGERS :)

Will the real Hannah Montana....

please stand up??
Cast your Vote NOW!

The Blizzard of 2008 :)

It's all the news - really. They've had special coverage on TV ALL morning because we're under a Blizzard advisory and have gotten 11 or so inches so far.
Justin's been out shoveling because today is also Ella's birthday party...figures!

I'll post more party pictures this weekend :)