Hanging with the Family

I don't know if I mentioned that we are now at a beach house with all of Dan's family. This is the first time in 8 years that Dan's entire extended family (okay, minus one) has managed to all get together at the same time and place. It has gone better than I expected and the kids are having a marvelous time. I am not a fan of sand, and the stuff is EVERYWHERE! It doesn't bother the kids at all. And they have had so much fun at the beach. We were able to get everyone together for family pictures and a big group shot yesterday morning. It went surprisingly well.

So, we have played on the beach. We have played in the water. We have played in the house and it has been wonderful. In completely random order, I will now document the experience in pictures:

Rylee made it to the beach once. It was not fun. She did not want anything to do with the water and she only wanted to eat sand. Then she only wanted to be held.

This was last night when Dan took the kids for a "walk" down the beach. They were not suppose to get wet.

Right, just a walk down the beach; no going in the water!

Yesterday Delaney spent 90 minutes playing in the sand. She would not go near the water. Just as I was ready to start collecting the kids for the 50 yard walk back to the house, Delaney suddenly became brave.

And here is Callie, with her lovely attitude at Family Pictures. Such a grump! But oh how cute she is.

Yesterday morning at the beach. So much fun for Callie!

Silly shot after our family picture. Delaney was done and ran behind me, so she's not in this one. We are so funny.

Joshua had a great time in the little waves.

Delaney has had a great time with her cousins. She has 2 cousins the same age as her and she's having so much fun with them.

Callie cracks me up.

Sunday morning with my crew. One of the very few pictures with me in it.

I love this picture of Dan and his dad.

Disney World!

Oh yes, we had a great time! It was at record highs this week, or unseasonable warn or whatever. It was nasty hot though. I could wring out my underpants if I wanted. I was quite the sweaty girl. I would look at people around me and wonder how they could look so sweat-free while I was dripping buckets. I still do not know. I just know that I was hot and drenched. Still, it didn't matter. We were there to have fun and we did!

3 hot kids! Joshua was so cute in his sunglasses, and Marian wore her hat every day. Smart kids.

When Dan said he wanted to ride a ride with the 3 older kids, I said sure! I took Delaney and myself to find some ice cream. Then we sat in the quiet, slightly cooler Cretaceous Trail and I nursed Rylee.

We all rode this ride and the kids loved it. Dan hammed it up just for me!

The girls in the stroller fell asleep while I took this trail. The others were off riding a different ride. Since I was all by myself, I took a picture of me and what I saw.

Joshua isn't sure he wants a picture with his mom!

It was hot and Joshua had had enough fun yesterday. Epcot was our last stop and he said he was too hot to have any fun. He did enjoy himself, but look how pathetic he is here!

This kid just cracks me up! I wanted a picture of her in line, in front of something, and she wouldn't. This is what she gave me.

Epcot had this nifty Splash Pad and the kids loved it. Callie drenched herself. She sat on the center fountain and just got soaked.

I thought I was so cute, dressing my girls in matching shirts! Aren't they adorable?!

Out of the Office

Some of you may be missing me. Okay, Mom and Dad may be missing me. I wanted to post some of the super-fun pictures to show you what we are doing. We have had no internet until this evening, and I am borrowing my Brother in Laws laptop to do this. And that also leads to the problem of the pictures. It only lists them, no icons. So I have randomly selected a few for you to peruse. This is where we have been and what we have been doing....

.... We have been in Florida, playing at Walt Disney World, and having a blast!!!

Chaos abounds

This has been the most insane week. Yes, it has. We are getting ready for a 2 week vacation and there has been much to do. This week I made 7 frozen dinners, ran 17 loads of laundry, folded and put away nearly all of that laundry, stripped and made 9 beds (and we only have 7 people in the family!), packed 5 boxes, helped Joshua mow the lawn, packed 6 suitcases, vacuumed every room in the house, held a snotty baby, took the kids to the pool 3 times, went to Walmart, went to the commissary, put the cushions back on the couch 7 times, got puked on 3 times, scrubbed the bathroom, took Rylee (plus her 2 sisters) to the doctor, and hosted a 2 hour Activity Day. I am pooped!

While I recuperate, here are some pictures of Rylee from Saturday when we went to the pool!

Its so fun to be a Mom!

Rylee has been sick. She is not any fun when she is sick. Everyone else in the family is actually easier to have around when they are sick. But not Rylee. She is whiny, fussy and miserable. She refuses to be content unless I an holding her. And not just holding her. I must be standing up and swaying. Yet even that is not always enough to help her feel better. She will only fall asleep like this as well. And she will cough and wake herself up, or she'll cough and choke on her phlegm and puke. Its not much fun to be her right now. It's not a lot of fun for me either, I have to admit.

This is the sad, sad snot factory. She is oozing from her nose and eyes, and she's so gross.

Isn't she icky?! Poor kid. I did take her to the doctor today and she has conjunctivitis and a viral cold. We now have eye drops to torture her with. Isn't she pathetic?

Even though Rylee is not having a good time right now, it doesn't mean the rest of us can't enjoy life! So this week I went out and got a pool pass to the base pool. We have been twice this week and I hope to go again this weekend. I want the kids all prepped for our Florida vacation!

Here's Callie, getting all ready. She was so excited to try out her fins. She mainly used them as feet-extenders to get her head up higher.

Joshua had a marvelous time. I let him bring his friend, you can see him there, and Marian too.

I love a happy Marian!

The pool had these very cold showers and the kids loved them. Delaney was such a hoot!

She just cracked me up as she jumped up and down in this freezing spray of water, giggling like a loon!

And the kids are so fun sometimes. Today I was herding them out to the car and Marian shouted, "I'm coming!" and I saw this:
Yep, she had hopped on Delaney's trike and was pedaling as fast as she could down the drive, around the van and then she tipped over in the grass. and hopped in the car.

She let me snap another picture of her in the car. Such a funny girl!

I got this lovely pink flower for the purpose of making it into a hair accessory, but the girls have been having waaaay too much fun "swabbing" each other with it. Swabbing seems to mean tickling gently an then not-so gently. Delaney was having a lot grand time with it here.

And before I end, I must show Delaney's cute hair today. The doctor even commented on it. Yeah, I look like a great mom today!

Messing with Rylee

I got fruity Cheerios for Rylee and Delaney spilled them on the floor. I asked the kids to help clean them up and this is what I got:

After Marian stuck the cereal on her, Joshua taped a sign to her bottom. Poor kid. She's got a tough road, being the youngest in this crew!

Rylee is thinking she may start to walk soon. She just learned how to push this around.

And I finally learned how to convert the video on my camera into something I can actually download and use. So I really hope this works. This is my trial video with this camera. Dan wanted to video Rylee doing her walking thing. So, Mom and Dad, this one is for you!

A Gaggle of Girls!

Life is never dull with the girls in this house! See how fun they are, just from today......

This one is so funny. She is learning and trying new things every day. And she does it with such delight, such relish, such joy, I love it!

Look at that happy face. I hope she keeps this joyous spirit as she grows.

This one has kept her silly spirit. Look at that face. She is wearing her biggest sister's swimsuit, and is having a wonderful time!

This girl is trying out new faces for the camera. It is slightly better than her "no-expression" face, and this one in particular was much better!

There was a period this afternoon, when my 3 older girls were happily playing outside in the pool. It was so wonderful to see. By the time I finished what I was doing and grabbed the camera though, they were mostly done.

This one was in the house in her Scooby Doo towel. Isn't she adorable?!

Since they were dirty from the grass and dirt, the girls wanted a bath. Rylee desperately wanted to join them and they really wanted her to come in. After Rylee saturated herself while outside the tub, there didn't seem to be a good reason for her not to be in the tub.

This picture cracks me up! These girls are such a hoot!

Somebody drank out of the cup and thought she was pretty darn clever!

And I must say, that with this gaggle of girls, I am so glad I have my BOY! He is such a great brother. And except for Rylee, all the kids cooperated with this picture. That's impressive.

I thought this was so sweet. I asked Joshua if I could take a picture for the blog and he said yes. Delaney rushed to stand right next to him, and she was looking up to see what he was doing. So cute. She really does worship her big brother. And he is a fantastic big brother!