I love tournament time:)

So I am a big fan of NCAA tournament time. I am also a huge Duke fan. So of course I have Duke winning it all. I know that with this year's team it is unlikely but still...one can hope! I can sure hope at least since my bracket will be destroyed if Duke doesn't get past Belmont in the first round. Right now they are tied with 10 minutes left, which is quite frankly ridiculous that the score is even remotely that close.

Poor little Ellie is now sick. I feel so badly for her. She is absolutely pitiful when she is sick. Whimpering a little but mostly just laying around, quiet as a mouse. She actually let me hold her a LOT today which is really unusual. Even though she was sick and I felt badly for her, it was really nice to hold her a lot. She is just so darn cute. If she is still not feeling well tomorrow I may try to get her in just because both Ainsley and Mackenzie have had strep recently and my mother-in-law is coming into town next week. We don't want her to have to wear a mask all the time she's here!

Ainsley bought herself a new umbrella with her own money. I bought all the girls sunglasses for spring/summer/beach. I took a few pics of Ainsley today with her new sunglasses and umbrella and they came out really cute. I will post some soon. We shall see if their sunglasses last long enough to take them to the beach! I am taking bets on how long they last so let me know what you think:) They were on sale, hence the reason I bought them now, and the girls like wearing sunglasses. But the rule in the house is...I will buy one pair/year and it is usually in the spring. If they break them and want more...they had better save their money. Hopefully their is no early demise for any of their sunglasses but they are 7,4 and 3 so I don't hold out much hope. However I do get the occasional surprise from the girls. Like tonight for instance. Jeff and I were watching basketball tonight and we let Mackenzie and Ainsley stay up till 8:45. We asked both of the girls to go upstairs and get into their pajamas and Ainsley proceeds to get up from the floor and go upstairs and get her pajamas. She then brings them back down to the basement and puts them on. All of this happened without any complaints, fussing or fits. I looked at Jeff and said..."Did you just see that?!" It was a truly thankful moment.

Enjoy Tourney Time!

Will the fun never end?

I am all about having fun. We just did personality and spiritual gifting tests during some of our partnership classes at our church. Though I love having fun and spending time with friends, I also gain energy from time alone. It allows me to recoup and refresh myself. I am low on compassion and empathy though those that know me well would know that...so why is it that my kids don't want to leave my side and we just can't seem to shake being sick? Maybe God knows I need to grow in both those areas? I just don't know...Mackenzie and I had to miss her field trip to see Max and Ruby at the Taft theatre in Cincy because she woke up with a fever and headache. Actually she didn't feel top notch yesterday either. I took her to the doctor and she too has strep. That shouldn't be shocking since Ainsley had it a few weeks ago but I sure do hope it stops with her. And if Grammie I is reading this...don't rebook your tickets!!!! We will hopefully be better soon:)

We survived...

So for the past few days we have been watching our friend's kids for them. Or should I say we have been watching 3 of the 4. The 4th one, being an older boy, was not here because how much fun would that be?? Not much:) The two youngest were dropped off thurs morning and then Madeline, the 1st grader, came after school. Madeline and Mackenzie are the same age and Ashley and Ainsley are the same age...and wow this is the first time that I have noticed that both girls start with the same first letters! Wow...it's the little things in life:) There youngest, being 16ish months old, didn't really match up with Ellie but that's ok because he seemed to have a great time too as did Ellie, who I had to discourage from beating him up! The kids did fantastic!! Other than a few minor spats of estrogen here and there, I have no complaints and would do it again...just give me a little time to recover. 6 kids...I don't know how some people do it! But truly my girls had a fantastic time and were a little sad to see their friends go. I told them not to worry it would happen again when we get away for our anniversary!:)

So the rest of the weekend will be spent resting and relaxing. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

The sun is shining...

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day...alright I won't sing to you but it is positively amazing how quickly 15 inches of snow can melt! Sunday we had 15 inches and now we have some snowbanks left with almost nothing on the lawn itself and it is only Wed. Wow! The weather has been really nice the last two days and I think we are expecting it to reach the 60's by Friday.
Ainsley was up in the night vomiting but woke up this morning just fine. I kept her home from preschool just in case but she could have gone because she's been fine. No one else sick..yet! And hopefully it will stay that way. We are watching 3 of our friends' children Thursday through Saturday so they can celebrate their anniversary in Boston. How cool is that? It should be fun as the two girls are Mackenzie's and Ainsley's age. Jonah, the baby, is well obviously a baby but I am sure he and Ellie will have fun together too:)

I just wanted to celebrate the beautiful sunshiny day!

What one does on a sunday without church?

Here are some great pics of Ellie from the day...





Here are some fantastic pics of Jeff from the day...

We didn't have church today because of all the snow. Actually the two counties that we operate most in-Boone and Kenton counties had a level 3 snow emergency all day yesterday which meant that unless you were emergency personnel you couldn't be out on the roads. We also had a blizzard warning! We did get a lot of snow and it was blowing around a lot but blizzard warning...hmmm.
So today we had church at home with the girls and then spent some quality time as a family. What does this entail you ask? Well I thought I would include some great pictures to let you experience some of our quality time!

Pictures from today

More Snow!!

I know that for my friends and family in Maine this is nothing...however for NKY it is a pretty big storm! I don't have any idea so far how much snow we have but with the drifts it sure looks like a lot. I am going to try to take some pics after the snow has completely stopped since it is still snowing and it supposed to till the afternoon. It actually takes me back to making snow forts and having snowball fights, skiing, sledding, etc. Here in KY I don't really enjoy the snow, mostly because they don't handle it well here. Because we don't get nearly the snow in KY that Jeff and I got growing up in Maine, they don't have all the necessary implements to take care of it. Hence all the school closings, etc. We also don't have a mountain to ski down that doesn't cost an arm and a leg for us now. My skis are still back in Maine so I haven't gone since college. So snow here just seems to be a big inconvenience. Though there are the days when we go out and play in the snow with the kiddos and that's a LOT of fun:)
I thought I would post a few new pics of Ellie and then one of two of the girls taking a bath because it was so cute:) Enjoy!

Snow!!

So we are predicted to get a lot of snow.  Or at least a lot of snow for us here in NKY.  I don't think we have had a storm that dropped more than 3 inches of snow this winter and this storm is predicted to leave anywhere from 5-11 inches.  So I guess that must means March is in like a lion and out like a lamb..or hopefully out like a lamb!  All that to say that on the day we are predicted to get the biggest snowstorm of the season, they don't cancel school even though the storm was due to start at 8 am.  No, instead they decide that letting them out two hours early in the middle of a KY blizzard would be a much better option!  Is that insane or what?  I just can't seem to get into the minds of the administration of our school district.  Mackenzie has had I think 7-8 snow days.  Many of them for absolutely pointless reasons...such as a dusting of snow.  Only probably 2-4 of the days they missed were actually warranted.  But on a day that cancelling was probably in the best interest of all involved, nope.  So they actually had to call and let us know that indeed they made a insane decision and they are letting the kids are even earlier than what was previously announced.  Yes...as you all can tell I am absolutely flummoxed by their lack of insight.  Fortunately for them, winter will soon (hopefully) be disappearing and in its place will be some amazingly beautiful weather that warms my very chilled to the bone body.

On a happier note, Elliana is doing a fantastic job with the whole potty training bit.  No accidents in two days despite being out and about a lot.  And her speech therapist is quite happy with her progress.  She is really starting to say more words and trying to articulate them more clearly.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  All the girls took a bubble bath this morning and I got a cute picture to post once I download from my camera!

Saturday

While I was at a leadership meeting today, Jeff was manning the home front with one sick girl and one girl in the midst of potty training.  He of course handled it with ease and is a fantastic dad.  I dropped Mackenzie off at a Saturday program that she has been involved with called Explore More.  It is designed for gifted and talented kids who need a little extra to challenge them and Mackenzie has loved it.  She is in a literature class and has learned a lot and had a lot of fun.  I then drove on to a leadership meeting while Jeff took Ainsley to the doctor.  She started not feeling well yesterday and complained of her ears hurting so instead of Jeff going with me to the meeting, he was taking her to the doctor so I could go.  Poor little Ainsley apparently has strep throat.  I was thinking ear infection but alas...often kids think its their ears because their throat makes their ears hurt as well.  So she has had her first dose of antibiotic and hopefully will start to feel better soon.  Ellie is doing fairly well with the potty training and had no accidents while out with Jeff, of course.  I am not sure how he seems to get all the breaks!!  But she has been doing well with it so I can't really complain.  She had one accident yesterday with me at Wendy's but there are bound to be accidents. 

I am taking Mackenzie to see Robin Hood tonight at the Children's Theatre.  She is looking forward to it as am I.  Jeff took Mackenzie and Ainsley the last time and we do have a ticket for Ainsley but since she is sick, I have decided to just have some time with Mackenzie.  It should be fun.  Maybe out to a quick dinner afterwards...though she did go out with Jeff last night to Wendy's.  She's getting all the fun this weekend with us so I will have to do something special with Ainsley next weekend.