Thursday, December 17, 2009

NOT Our Meal Ticket

So, Gavin was performing last night for Jed and the girls. Much to Jed's disappointment he realized that Gavin becoming a huge singing sensation and being our meal ticket IS NOT going to happen! (Sorry for the sideways viewing - Jed is still learning about this camera, you can't turn it when videotaping). :-)









Wedding Dress for Lacy

Okay, so I do not normally do a "toilet paper" search on Google but I was looking for some fun clip art for Carley's Potty Chart (we are trying this potty training once again)! So, I ran across these pictures in my search and I thought, "hmmm, I don't think Lacy bought her dress yet." So, Lacy, here you go, the most perfect wedding dresses....made of TP. You do have to give the ladies credit, these dresses have more detail than most real dresses anymore.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Santa

Every year my Mom's work has a morning of juice, donouts, santa and a movie for the kids to attend. This year I got to tag along and we even were brave enough to take Reagan. All 4 kids did great through the whole movie. Santa did not go as well. They were all completely fine as we waiting in line for 15 minutes but as soon as we started walking towards him Kyra put on her breaks and started crying and screaming - yes she had the attention of everyone in the theater. So, thinking there must be something wrong if her sister acts like that, Carley joined in. So, Grandma and Mom got to be a part of the picture as they held the girls down. Gavin and Reagan didn't know what the big deal was!


Saturday, December 12, 2009

Blizzard

Gavin had his first now day on Wednesday when we had a blizzard - 14 inches of snow, 40-50 mile an hour winds. Fun! Luckily the kids and I got to stay in the house all day. Jed make it to work but went in late and came home early so he could make the trip in the daylight. Our house is about 30 feet from the road but it was still hard to see cars traveling down the road - this might have been 1 of 2 cars down our road the whole day.

Poor swingset and picnic table.


Ruby had the right idea!


It did pretty things to my wreath though!

Jed shoveling his way out of the driveway. The wind was so cold it actaully took your breath away.
Somewhere in that picture is our mailbox - again only about 30 feet away.

And our breezeway - the door/windows didn't keep all of the snow out and the van in the garage had snow on it too - I think we might have some leaks?!

Christmas Concert

Gavin had his first concert last week. Was fun to see all of the kids dressed up and singing. And it seemed to kick off the holiday season! Gavin is in the seconf row in the middle with the cream sweather.

Christmas Decorating

We decorated the Christmas tree last week and the kids loved looking in their ornament boxes to see which ones were theirs. Kyra hanging one of her ornaments.
Carley utilizing the stairs behind the tree to get hers on the top.

Kyra again!

Gavin hanging the first ornament of the season!

Looking in their ornament boxes.

Reagan - 6 Months Old

I am not sure how this happened, but Reagan is 6 months old already! Still such an easy baby and slept through the night two nights this week - the first time she has ever done that!

Miscellaneous

Random pictures from the last 6 weeks. The girl loves to dress up.
Jed thought this was a hair band with a piece of toilet paper sticking out the back - I am pretty sure he is never going to understand his girls! :-)

Gavin is still adjusting to life without naps and by Friday night he is wiped out.
So peaceful - for 8 hours a day.

Reagan continues to get stronger and better at sitting up without too much help!

Enjoying her Johnny Jumper - she doesn't really jump she just swings and hangs out in it - and sometimes has some help going in fast circles!

The kids playing outside after our big snowfall. It was 10 degrees and windy - they were out about 30 seconds before they came in asking for the full face masks - Jed thought the looked like some type of gang!
Carley - we think?! :-)

Enjoying some fresh air!

Reagan went to sleep with her hands folded.

Jed, Kyra and Reagan reading stories (by the fireplace - Dad was cold).

One afternoon Carley was supposed to be sleeping but instead was smearing hand lotion all over the bedroom window. I was so upset with her when I caught her doing it I just made her go back to bed and worried about cleaning the window later. Well, later it had frozen to the window (it was the day of the blizzard) so not only did I have to get lotion off of the window, it was frozen lotion. Not the easiest task ever.

Carley and all her cuteness!

Thanksgiving

We went to Jed's sister's house in SD for Thanksgiving. Enjoyed a nice long holiday weekend with everyone. The kids loved spending time with the cousins and they were tired for a week after we returned home!
Little diva!
Gavin showing Jacson his homework from school.

They could almost be twins - 6 weeks seperates them. Carley is older but she is not longer the tallest one.

We got to watch Morgen wrestle for the first time.

Papa with Jacson and Reagan.

Nana with Reagan and Kyra.

Cousins hanging out - Brittin, Gavin, Jacson, Keetyn, Kyra.

Morgen and Carley snuggling.

Since space is limited in our vans with 4 and 5 kids we decided to exchange gifts with the Valentine's at Thanksgiving so that we weren't all so tight on room at Christmas time when we head to ND. Of course the kids didn't have any trouble opening gifts early!

Reagan "hanging" out, watching all the action with Papa.

Laurel trying to not let the box and all of the packaging that comes with toys get the best of her! She won in the end.

Pretty smile from Hayden.

Kyra kind of liked Hayden.

Okay, Kyra really liked Hayden.
Brittin, Kyra and Hayden - clean, quiet and not moving - this is the only time the whole weekend that this happened.

The girls had a slumber party every night - this night Aunt Laurel did finger nails and toes for the 3 older girls. It was a hit!

Jacson, the constant performer, gave us a glimpse of his musical production in the kitchen.

We think Brittin liked his gift since he insisted he sleep with the HARD plastic plane. :-)

Papa, Reagan, Nana and Hayden.
Papa and Hayden - they start wrestling young at the Valentine house - even for the girls - she is laying in top of her baby.

Nana and Papa bought all of the kids new sweaters/shirts. So, a group picture was in order. I think we had 2-3 cameras going. I didn't even look at the kids, I just kept pushing the shutter button. I got two good pictures - everyone looking, no goofy faces. Then I had about 40 "other" pictures. You try to get a good picture of 9 kids - 6 of them being 4 years old and under!

Not too bad!
And the rest of them kind of looked like this.

Jacson hanging out with Reagan - he told me a couple of times that weekend that he liked her!

The kids always need a visit to the wrestling room at the school to run/werstle/scream off some energy. Gavin is trying out the rope - he doesn't really climb it, just hangs on for dear life.
Carley and her pig tails bouncing on the ball.
for some reason all of the kids felt the need to be partially naked while playing.

Three little monkeys.

Papa and Carley having some quality coloring time.