kickin' it elmer style

Broken camera and a few random stories...

2012-01-26T13:16:00.000-05:00

I swear I have more camera problems than anyone I know. Once again our camera is being quirky but my hubby decided to spoil me rotten for my birthday and got me an iPAD!!! So these pictures are all courtsey of the iPad. A few weeks ago I was at a presidency meeting for primary and someone commented on my Ugg boots and I said "Oh, my dad got them for me. He's the only one who spoiles me." Now I guess I have to take it back because Casey has been totally pampering me. He also got me a new purse and lots of fun stuff to fill it, a new watch (this is a BIG DEAL), and he made me a cake (also a big deal because I've been dieting for like a month), he also had the kids make me coupons (Porter's was to clean the toy room every day for a week (WOW), Maya's was to "not touch my iPad without asking" and Bennett's was for "One really good snuggle"). I have to admit when I first learned about iPads I though they were a pretty silly invention but I'm totally hooked.

Typically when Miles wakes up in the morning he knocks on the door and calls for Daddy. This morning he was crying so I went in to check on him and he was in his bed with his head covered just crying. I walked over and pulled the cover down and when he saw me he pointed to a pair of pants on the floor and said "LOOK". I looked and said "What is it?". Then he said "It's a monkey!" I told him it wasn't a monkey it was pants then I asked him if he was scared and he said he was so I tuned on the light and showed him it was just a pair of pants. Then he wanted his curious George stuffed animal so Maya got it for him and he cuddled it for a minute then he asked for his George warmie and his George blanket. It was so funny because he was scared about a monkey but he wanted his Curious George stuff to comfort him, and he is usually not scared of anything. What a little goofball.

Maya is the roller skating lunatic. She has her roller skates on non stop. I think we need a basement with a concrete floor in our next house. She also a bit of a book worm. I love finding her curled up with a book just reading. I've even caught her reading when the TV is turned on which is saying something because Maya LOVES TV.

Porter is in Basketball right now and really seems to be loving it. His team has yet to win a game, but that doesn't dampen his spirits (one of his goals this year is to win a basketball game). Funny story about Porter...at the first basketball practice the coach had the boys practice lay-ups and Porter (having never done a lay-up) had in his mind that you should toss the ball into the air and then pump you knee into the air and with your knee bump the ball into the basket. I'm sure you can imagine what a hilarious sight it was to see him attempt this maneuver. He was a great sport about it. One of his teammates was just cracking up and Porter laughed right along with him, but after the practice he said "I didn't know basketball was so hard, I don't think I want to do the practices anymore". Luckily for us he kept at it and now loves going to the practices and games (even though he still feels confused some of the time).

Poor Ender has been sick for over two months now. He just keeps getting one ear infection after another. He was on 4 different antibiotics (and got a bad diaper rash with each) then the doctor said the only other thing they could do was to give him antibiotic injections every day for three days. So we went into the office every day and he got a shot in each of his little chubby baby legs three days in a row. He seemed to get better but she set up an appointment for him to see the ENT just in case and by the time we went in for that appointment his ears were infected again so he is scheduled to get ear tubes next week. I was really nervous about the ear tubes. I had a lot of bad information and was pretty adamant he would grow out of it, but after talking with other moms and the doctors I feel much more hopeful. I'm just tired of seeing the little guy so miserable. Lucky for me he is such a good baby, even when he's sick.

Bennett loves piles of laundry (clean or dirty). Anytime there is a pile of laundry on the floor he burrows in it like a little hamster. After we got back from Christmas we had a large pile of laundry on our bedroom floor and Bennett kept calling it his 'Island', and he was really upset when we got around to putting all the clothes away.

Christmas Time

2012-01-24T22:23:00.001-05:00

The Holidays always make it harder to get back into the swing of things. That is especially true with blogging and I always get frustrated because those are the times there are so many thing I want to document. By the time I get around to actually blogging about it I'm afraid I've forgotten a lot, but at least I have a few pictures to spark my memory.

Casey and I started dieting after Thanksgiving and had a goal to continue until Christmas, which took some of the fun out of cookie making, but the kids enjoyed it none the less.

As a bonus we were spared that question of "I wondered if anyone drooled in these cookies" since we did not eat any.

For Christmas we went to my parents house and had a great time seeing everyone. We have a tradition of visiting a local candy shop where they do demonstrations of candy making, but when we arrived on Christmas eve we were informed they no longer do demonstrations on Christmas eve. It was a little disappointing but Nana and Grampy bought each kid a candy and all our troubles were forgotten!

Bennett saw a box of Hello Kitty Jelly Beans when we first walked in and was super glad he got to take them home. Silly little guy.

Hanny and Ender...Look at those BEAUTIFUL smiles!

Sarah and I got together and decided to make the kids some Christmas jammies when we found flannel super cheep on Black Friday. I hurriedly volunteered to make the boys pants and she was stuck making the girls these impossibly adorable night gowns. They were super precious. I'm glad Sarah did it because I'm sure mine wouldn't have turned out near as nice. As it was 3 of the boys pants (that I know of) ripped out in the crotch. Following are a few of the group photos. None of them turned out well but of course I've included them for posterity sake. Bennett please notice your face in photo #1, Ella please notice that even with the bell we let you play with you were still a stinker, Ender see what a cheesy angry face you have? who could possibly take you seriously? Miles the only reason you were not caught on film being mischievous is because you were so so tired (too tired to act up, and that's saying something). Big kids see what great sports you were holding the little squirmys while your parents tortured you with photo after photo after photo...

Once the wee ones are all snug in their new jammies and tucked in their beds the real fun starts. Fancy dinner. LOVE IT! All the adults get to enjoy a delicious dinner and fabulous conversation in peace. The only change I would make would be to have it EVERY NIGHT! I was going to try to recap some of the memorable moments of fancy dinner but I thought Hanny wouldn't appreciate me discussing her little melt down, and talking about how amazing the salad was would only make me hungry, so I'll skit the recap.

Christmas morning, waiting to go down the stairs to see what Santa brought is torture. Somehow Ender found a candy cane to make his wait a little more bearable.

You can see Landon is positively bursting with excitement.

Hanny and Miles who look like they are equally eager to sprint down the stairs and slash open the packages...or catch a few more Z's.

Maya got a hat loom (which I think I enjoy more than her) and MAKE UP!!! She loves the make up and makes me think "This must have been what Lady GaGa was like as a child". Yikes! She also got roller skates (santa), an owl blankie, rice warmer, and the dreaded make up (nana and grampy), clothes (grammy and poppy), and a remote control little petshop car (siblings).

Miles got a night fury plushie that I lovingly stitched and have not taken the time to lovingly repair as it's legs dangle dangerously close to dismemberment. He also got Trio blocks (santa), clothes & books (grammy and poppy), a curious George blankie, rice warmer, and curious George stuffed animal (nana and grampy),

Porter was the lucky recipient of a buckeyes jersey (which he would wear every second if I'd let him), receiving gloves, roller skates (santa), a model airplane and paints (dad), an Ohio state blanket, warmie, and pillow pet (nana and grampy), an xbox (grammy and poppy got this for the whole family) and video games for the xbox (uncle will and aunt nicole).

Bennett got trio blocks (santa), church clothes(mom), wooden cars (will and nicole), books, straws and juice boxes(the kid loves to drink), and a robot blanket warmie and remote control robot (nana and grampy).

The roller skates were a huge success. We even went to goodwill and bought all the skates we could find so all the kids could roller skate at the church together. They had a great time! It's great to have cousins.

Some kids got a little worn out...

But they quickly pepped back up!

Christmas Makes You CRAZY!

2011-12-27T12:58:00.003-05:00

Pre-dawn jitters and uncontained excitement tend to cause jubilant and extreme euphoric conditions amongst a few of the children.

Whirlwind

2011-12-16T20:13:00.001-05:00

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas always seems like a whirlwind, but typically I feel like I'm just going going going non-stop, but this year I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. We have gotten a few things done. Such as...

Casey wanted a new TV for Christmas so we purchased and installed that (with a little help from Miles). Then we promptly felt guilty for spending so much money on a TV and returned it for a much less expensive model. It may not have all the bells and whistles but we enjoy it none the less. (in the above picture please note: the adorable wreath (my sister in law Jessica organized the wreath making craft at thanksgiving and I've loved having it), Our newest Christmas tradition "Wilson the Elf" who is resting in the wreath (my mother-in-law sent this little guy to us and it's been a blast having him even though Bennett insists "That guy's not magic"), my adorable advent calendar (Sarah organized the advent calendar craft at thanksgiving and it's been so fun, each day we do a different activity).)

We got a new (used) tree on Craigslist! It was super exciting. Casey picked it up after the kids had gone to bed and we got it all set up and the light put on while they were sleeping so when they woke up they were so excited. Then they helped us decorate it (one of our advent activities). (please don't note the cluttered room and shifty tree skirt in the above picture)

We also attended our ward Christmas party where our wonderful Relief Society president took it upon herself to take family Christmas pictures. I wish I would have realized what a special treat this was and coordinated outfits. Maybe next year...

Porter and Maya joined a choir group at school and they had their performances. The first performance was at the zoo and we froze our little toes off but they did a great job. As we walked in Maya got all huffy with Casey because he made her wear her coat and by the end of the evening she was crying because she was so cold. Daddy knows best.

As a special treat Porter and I got to go to a Hockey game last night. Casey got two tickets at work and Porter and I got to go to the game together. It was so fun and now Porter is totally in love with Hockey. He's really wanting Hockey gear for Christmas (unfortunately it's a bit late to be making requests). I hate that I forgot to take the camera to the game. Porter was so excited and cute!

I think Christmas time is always a little difficult to manage with all the planning, extra activities, buying of gifts, travel plans, and then there is still all the regular stuff. Every year I think "I really should have done this differently", but I'm learning and maybe by the time I grow up I'll be a pro.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-12T20:24:00.001-05:00

I can't say it emphatically enough... I LOVE HOLIDAYS! I absolutely love having Casey home and everyone relaxing together (if you can call frenzied rocket building relaxing). The Elmer's have a tradition of setting off rockets on Thanksgiving day and the Porters have happily adopted the same tradition. This year was fun because we finally had a few kids old enough to dabble in the art of Rocket Science!

While the men folk construct the rockets we women toil away in the kitchen and whip up some fine vittles. I think my mom caught Casey sneaking a pre dinner taste. Hanny looks like she probably told on him and Sarah and Jessica just though the whole situation was hilarious. (ok, not really this picture was staged).

The launch went well this year. The weather was great. Usually it seems like we are all sitting around freezing our buns off and counting down over and over and over, but this year the temperature was pleasant the repetitive counting down was just as annoying as ever:)

Such a good looking crew. Not only were the kids involved in the building of the rockets this year, but they also made themselves useful by chasing down the rockets. We make a game of trying to catch the rockets before the touch the ground. Typically Grampy is the only one who catches rockets but this year was a little different. Grampy was still hurting from too much turkey bowl so he failed to catch a single rocket. The closest was Landon who scooped his rocket off the ground just as it touched. Wow the kids are really growing up!

The ever competitive Sarah shoved Grant out of the way and snagged his rocket causing toddler tears and Landon and Addie to question their moms kindness.

Bennett had a great time playing with Unkey James who, despite being sick, got all kinds of smiles and giggles from Mr. Serious.

Casey built his rocket from scratch this year. You can see how excited he was. Unfortunately his rocket broke as soon as we got there so he quickly repaired it and let it dry until the last launch of the day. It didn't go well. It shot off at an odd angle and stuck in the ground nose first. The kids grabbed it before he got there and left the nose cone in the ground. We never did find it.

The day after Thanksgiving my parents rented out the local Rollerskating rink and we burned off out turkey 80's style. It was so fun for everyone to cruise around the rink. As soon as we got home Porter scarfed down several pickles in order to wash out the pickle jar as a "Rollerskating Fund".

Doesn't my dad look like he's having fun?

This picture of Casey is totally priceless.

I guess rollerskating is kind of like fireworks. You just can't help smiling. My friend from Philadelphia, Elaine and her family came also and it was so fun to see them again. She told me that when her mom was our age she tried out for a roller derby team. After a day of skating I think I might take up roller derby. It'd be a great way to exercise!

I love these pictures of James and Jessica helping the boys out. Miles actually really liked having his skates on but I think the action on the floor was a bit daunting for him. Bennett on the other hand preferred hitching rides on James.

Yes, I also rock at rollerskating, but I don't hold a candle to Mr. Joe Cool himself (Brad). And we wonder why rollerskating isn't cool anymore...

Oh, and I had to clean gum out of Bennett's hair. This picture looks pretty creepy but I swear I wasn't cutting him and he didn't bleed at all (but he did whine a lot).

One day when the kids were getting a little crazy my mom divided the kids up into teams and had them go on an Alphabet scavenger hunt around the yard. It was pretty fun and cute to see them all searching for different items. The big kids did a great job of helping the little guys with the letter sounds. My Aunt Rhonda and her husband Scott came with their girls Jenna and Carly. When I asked Carly if I could take their team picture she said "Ok, are you done now, cause I want to do the hunt".

2011-11-30T21:43:00.001-05:00

My sister Sarah and her family came to visit us a few weeks ago. It was such a great time having them here. We decided to make it a surprise and not tell the kids, but Casey kept telling our kids that there was going to be a surprise, so I finally told them that the surprise was going to be a meteor shower. Sarah had a tougher time keeping the secret seeing as her kids had to drive 4 hours and knew something was up, so she told them they were going to a museum and that they were going to stay at a rental house over night. These pictures are of the kids as we walked outside to see the meteor shower. Check out Porter and Maya's faces in this picture. They were so thrilled to see their cousins. Way better than a meteor shower.

As always we had so much fun together. I had gotten two free passes to COSI (the science center) so we exhausted ourselves spending the day there. There was a fun little play area when you first walked up so we spent a while running around and climbing on everything.

Check out Bennett and Grant fighting over the metal ant. Grants face is priceless!

Then we went inside and checked out all the great stuff there was to explore. Like making energy and astronaut toilets.

Next we all went outside to the pavilion area where we had lunch and played with all kinds of outside things. There was a pulley system set up that enabled you to lift a car, and a cool contraption that would suck balls out of your hands and shoot them into the air.

On the top level there was a really awesome kids area. They had water tables and even had little infant chairs so Ender got to splash around to his hearts content.

There was also an area dedicated to gadgets. There was all kinds of building materials and the older kids had a great time putting together little creations.

The last area we visited was a section where you went through different time periods. The kids loved this area! There were lots of interactive ways to expierence each time period.

On our way out we snapped a few "group" pictures. Everyone wasn't in the picture, but it still turned out cute for those of us who were patient enough to let me take their picture.

We did some wrestling lessons. The kids had a great time throwing each other around.

Events that were not pictured:

Sarah fixed the sewing machine my mom let me borrow!!!
Sarah helped me get all my crayon bags sewn for primary! I am so so so happy to have this done.
The kids played outside a bit (thank heavens for nice weather)
We went to Jeni's Ice Cream and paid $20 for 2 pints of ice cream! It was so expensive but so so so delicious. I was happy to see that the ice cream we've made from her cookbook are just as good. I think I'll save myself the money and make it myself (so I can eat more of it!).
The kids made some melty bead projects
The adults played the bean game
Landon and Porter played football quite a bit and even convinced the dads to join them a few times.

It was such a great visit and I can't wait to do it again!

A day at the zoo

2011-11-10T20:34:00.001-05:00

Who knew that flamingos enjoyed the cool autumn air? While Grammy was here visiting we decided to make the most of our zoo pass and visit the Columbus Ohio Zoo (Casey had been giving me a hard time for paying the extra $30.00 to get guests in). It was pretty fun even though a lot of the animals were in their indoor habitats.

Bennett was his typical cautious (scardy) self. It was all we could do to get him to sit on this shark long enough to snap a picture. He wouldn't take his eyes off the teeth for fear it would attack. He pretty much maintained a wary facial expression the entire time.

Maya's favorite animal was the Komodo Dragon. She wouldn't tell anyone what her favorite was but later that night she whispered it to me and told me not to tell anyone. It was funny because they had this board that you could push a button and smell what a Komodo Dragons breath smelled like. You would think if they were specifically allowing you to smell it it would smell good, but I was informed it smelled like B.O. I did not smell it.

Miles was so cute in the reptile house. He kept calling every lizard like creature an "Iguana". It was adorable mostly because I didn't even know he knew the word iguana.

Porter's favorite animal at the zoo was the gorillas (in the above picture he is modeling his agitated stance and Maya is modeling the stick eating pose). They were probably my favorite also. There was a momma with her baby and it just melted my heart. They have such human characteristics I think each of my children would have fit in quite nicely in the gorilla enclosure.

2011-11-08T16:59:00.000-05:00

The Cake-Grammy brought this really cute idea of making a haunted house out of rice crispy treats with the kids, so we decided that went well with the spooky theme so it became Bennett's birthday cake. Awesome! Check out that detail work. The windows were rolled out of colored tootsie rolls and individually cut, the gravestones were painstakingly scavenged from the kids trick or treat bags or formed from tootsie rolls, the skulls were from a pack of gummy treats, the trees were shaped from a piece of black licorice, the bones/skeletons/and bat were made from white chocolate and the jack-o-lantern is a reeses pumpkin. The project turned out to be a bit much for the little ones to handle. They did the whole roof and then Grammy and I took over and enjoyed pretending we were on Ultimate Cake Challenge as we worked together to form what we thought to be an amazing cake!

Ender made good use of his time unattended and found a licorice to annihilate! He is such a sweetie. He now has three teeth with another sure to pop through any second. He is a great crawler and is now pulling himself up on all kinds of things. I think he is going to catch up to the other boys in no time!

The day of the Party-We loved doing a spooky theme for Bennett because we got Halloween decorations 75% off and it's totally fun. Peggy had a cute idea to make these little goodie bags for the kids out of Halloween paper. They can bee seen on the left hand side of this picture. Also she decorated sugar cookies with the kids and we displayed those next to the cake also.

Maya led the kids in a spider making craft (which Bennett decided to read his spooky story book instead).

This ghoul cheese ball was another great Grammy idea. Isn't he adorable?

Porter was going to teach the kids how to make ghosts out of suckers and tissue paper, but we ran out of time... maybe next year.

Casey played "Don't Eat Pete" with the kids. In case you haven't played don't eat Pete I'm going to include the rules. Its so fun. You put a candy on each square and on person closes their eyes while everyone picks one candy to be Pete. The person who closed their eyes then begins eating the candy's one by one and when they reach for Pete everyone yells "DON'T EAT PETE". It's a great game!

The blowing out of the candles (I think it took him 4 blows, one for each candle). Doesn't the house look spooky?

And lastly he was showered with gifts. He has become inseparable from several of his gifts. What an adorable little 4 year old!

The last gift was a "surprise ball" Grammy made him. She rolled up a bunch of streamers into a ball and dispersed throughout the ball were tiny little gifts. Such a fun idea. Her mom use to do this for her. Maybe a new tradition!

Lots going on...

2011-11-07T08:46:00.000-05:00

There has been lots going on around here! We've celebrated Halloween, Bennett's 4th birthday, and a wonderful visit from Grammy. Detailed posts to follow. For now we'll sign off by saying "Beam me up Scotty".

Halloween (2011)

2011-11-03T14:55:00.003-04:00

"It's that time of year again, when ghosts and goblins come..." I love Halloween. Even now that my kids are beginning to have opinions about their costumes it's still fun. Although I think it would be slightly more fun if they would go along with my costume ideas. I totally wanted Porter to be a Nerd this year. He had these great glasses Grammy got him and it would have been perfect, but alas he stuck with the football player.

I was a huge fan of Maya's costume. She was a 50's girl in a cute little pink poodle skirt (Peggy made the skirt WITHOUT a sewing machine!). I loved it. Grammy got her the styling frames and she wore them Saturday for the trunk or treat, Sunday to church, and Monday for school and trick or treat. They are quirky and positively adorable just like she is.

Bennett was Tron (Casey's creation) and really had a great time trick or treating this year. He caught up to our little neighbor girl Bella (who he's kind of in LOVE with) and his night couldn't have been better. It's funny, I was just looking at this picture of Casey and thinking how handsome he is when I noticed his eyes looked a little blurry. I was thinking "darn that picture is blurry" then I scrolled down and realized it was fingerprints on my computer screen. Oops

We recycled Bennett's lobster costume for Miles this year and he was adorable! He probably got the most comments on his costume. It's a very cute lobster with little pinchers and everything. He loved trick or treating and was usually much more interested in the peoples decorations than the candy (and that's saying something. Miles loves candy!).

Here we are at the trunk or treat. I'm not sure if you can tell but Maya is holding a little test tube that the achievement day girls made for each of the kids. They were so cute. Each tube was filled with a certian color of skittles and they had tied these adorable little lables on that said things like "Pumpkin Poop" (orange) and "Bat Droppings" (purple) I can't remember what the other ones said but I'm totally going to try to find the site they used and pin it for next year.

Overall a great Halloween. I'm a little embarrassed to say we ended up with much MUCH more candy than we passed out (we passed out 4 bags at the trunk or treat and bought 2 to pass our for Halloween but only got through part of it)! I think I'll let each of the kids have a few more pieces then I'm going to throw the rest in the freezer in the garage so I'll leave it alone!

Time Out For Women (Cincinnati)

2011-10-28T15:20:00.001-04:00

One of my all time favorite events is Time Out For Women. It's not even that the event is so great, but my mom started the tradition of taking me and my sister and it's always such a great time spent together. Casey has a short work day on Fridays so I got to leave early and Ender and I made the trip to Cincinnati and met Mom, Sarah, Joy, and Miranda at the Gap Outlet. OH MY GOODNESS! My new favorite place. I still can't fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans so I've been living in yoga pants, but not any more. The outlet had jeans for 9.99! I was thrilled that not only were they cheep but I found three pairs I loved and since I got new jeans I also figured I needed new shirts, so I got two shirts also. AND...I got a pair of tennis shoes for Porter for 9.99. JACKPOT!!! After the Gap Outlet we went to Ikea and spent the rest of the day browsing and buying all kinds of fun and exciting stuff. Then we headed back to the hotel and as we were trying to find our room we passed a guy walking around with a beer bottle in his hand. He took one look at me carrying my laundry basket full of clothing (I should have packed a suitcase but oh well), and said in a real loud voice "LAUNDRY, WHO COMES TO A HOTEL TO DO LAUNDRY?" We all giggled about that until Miranda said "Who comes to a hotel to get drunk?" Then a few minutes later we stepped off the elevator only to come face to face with the same guy who yelled "LAUNDRY!". Funny stuff. As if that wasn't funny enough when we got to our room my mom unlocked the door, walked in and came face to face with a large mirror. She saw herself, and thinking it was someone else, started screaming. We all about died laughing. We spent the rest of the evening playing Skip-Bo, eating Danato's pizza, and chatting. A wonderful evening!

The next morning we got up early and headed over to the conference center. The speakers were awesome and we all left feeling like they were speaking about the individual challenges we were facing. My mom always gets us a book as a little souvenir and this year I got

I've really enjoyed it so far. Lots to think about.

Sadly all good things must come to an end. I wish we could do it more often, but I guess that's what makes it so special. We're already discussing plans for a Girls Craft weekend! Isn't Ender hilarious in this picture (I had to take all my pictures from my mom and Sarah's blogs I left my camera in the van the whole weekend)? Such a funny guy.

Pumpkin Decorating

2011-10-19T15:39:00.001-04:00

We got our inspiration for this years pumpkins from Pinterest. Yes I actually created something I found on Pinterest! I've got to give all the credit to Casey for these cute little buggers, I only did the small green pig with a bow and the green pig with a mustache.

The kids painted the pumpkins a solid color then that evening Casey and I stayed up till 1:30 (YIKES) painting the faces. The red one is my favorite! I asked the kids which one they liked best and they started telling me all the powers each bird has and basing their preference on which bird is most powerful. Silly me judging on looks.

I don't know what we thought that little piece of cardboard in the middle of the table was protecting, because it did not keep the table from getting painted on. Also we have totally done enough painting projects to know painting with shirts on is NOT A GOOD IDEA, yet we always let them try. Oh well...

Overall a fun project and we were all happy with the results! I should add that the pumpkins do not look near this good now. After Miles decided to play pumpkin bowling quite a bit of the paint chipped off, but they are still recognizeable so we'll consider that a victory!

Lynd's Farm

2011-10-17T22:38:00.000-04:00

I've had the itch to go apple picking and a few weeks ago we finally did it. We decided to try a local orchard that was recommended to us by some of Casey's co-workers, so we loaded up the hooligans and headed to Lynd's Farms. It was supposed to be about a 30 minute drive but we didn't realize the weekend we chose was PUMPKIN-PALOOZA! The little country road was backed up and it took us quite a bit longer to get there, but once we got out of the van and started picking we were in heaven. Although it was really crowded we didn't feel smothered as we did our apple picking. The kids kept picking the hugest apples they could find even though we kept begging them to please find reasonable apples. We picked a bushel of apples in no time flat (silly me, I was thinking this would be an all day activity), so we headed over to the pumpkin field where we found three lovely plumply pumpkins. Then we paid. I think it was around $36 for 1 bushel of apples (about 40 lbs) and 3 large pumpkins. Not too bad. Before heading home we stopped at the little market they have and bought a bunch of little pumpkins, gourds, apple cider, and a half bushel of apple 2nds for making apple sauce.

You may be wondering what we did with all (60 lbs) of our apples...We invited 2 families over for caramel apple making (during which Maya got scalding hot caramel dripped on her fingers and is now sporting 3 blistered digits), we made 3 quarts of applesauce, at least one apple pie, and the kids have had apples every day in their lunches. Porter told me that all the kids in his class said "Did you see how big his apple is? AND HE ATE THE WHOLE THING!". I guess 3rd graders get a kick out of freakishly big apples. We still have quite a few apples left so I've got applesauce making on my list for this week (or maybe I'll just make more pies).

The pumpkin patch was also fun. I should have asked someone to get a picture of us so Ender and I could have been in this picture. I love pumpkin patch pictures.

Maya and Porter each picked out their own pumpkin. It was fun to see what they picked. Porters was big and round with deep grooves and had a long handle-like stem. Maya's was smaller (although you'd never guess from her picture) and more rounded on one side than the other so it kind of looked like a hunched back pumpkin. Casey picked the last one and it was an awesome tall thin fellow with deep grooves and tons of character (the only flaw was it's stem was too short for my liking).

Maya

2011-10-16T18:02:00.001-04:00

To Maya,

You will probably never realize how special you really are, you may have some inkling that you are wonderful, but then again, when you are as sweet and tender as you are, often times you don't even realize how lovely you are. No one in our family loves the little ones quite like you do. No one in our family worries over our individual happiness quite like you do. No other sister has been a better example of the Savior's love and compassion quite like you have been. As a father I am truly blessed to learn so much from your countless lessons in love, patience, kindness and friendship, and I thank my Heavenly Father daily that he has sent you to our home and that no matter how much you grow up, you will always be my little girl.

Love, Dad

Confrence Sunday

2011-10-11T13:06:00.003-04:00

We spent a portion of one session opening (and eating) caramels for our caramel apples. The kids got a kick out of using the sticky caramel cubes as building blocks.

We decided to try to prepare some activities in advance that would keep the kids hands busy so maybe they'd listen a little better. It seemed to work pretty well. We set a folding table up in our bedroom and we made perler bead dinosaurs, and put a puzzle together. Probably the biggest contributor to the quiet was Casey giving Miles his iPod. Miles loves it and there are a few games on there he plays really well.

Last week we were looking for the remote control we bought to replace the other remote we lost and Casey got really determined to find it so he started searching in all the couches. We had looked under the couch cushions, but he decided to pull the bottom cover off the love seat and then he dug a whole bunch of stuff out of there (including 2 remotes, neither of which would work on the video player), then he moved over to the big couch which has a large section of the fabric under the cushions pulled back. We lose stuff in there a lot, but it's pretty easy to see and you can fish it out without much effort. Well we didn't see anything we wanted (lots of things we didn't want) but Casey decided to tip the couch so all the stuff on the other side would fall down to the open area and BINGO we found not only the replacement remote, but the original remote and our DS that has been missing since we lived in Philadelphia (I'll spare you the details of all the disgusting stuff we found). We now refer to that couch as the "TREASURE TROVE". Bennett had a little girl from church over to play last week and I heard him ask her "Do you want to see our treasure trove?" I hope she doesn't tell her parents:)

Bison Park

2011-10-02T18:43:00.002-04:00

Before my parents and Hanny left we decided to try to squeeze in a quick outing. We did a quick visit to a nearby Indian mound. We all ran to the top, and when I got up there Maya walked up to me carrying Cincy and said "Look who made it to the top. I had to carry her (pause then knowingly) Fraid of heights (pause) and too slow." Casey decided to pull an Obama during the family picture, and my camera battery was running low so I only snapped one. Sorry Hanny.

We also took them to visit a local park where they have Bison (we had tried to visit this park twice before and once we ran out of time and once we were rained out). Pretty exciting huh? (I won't embarrass the adults who whined about the "long" walk to the bison -Mom, Dad, Hanny) It was pretty cool and while we were there Nana entertained us with a buffalo joke. (Don't ask me where she got a buffalo joke) A man came upon a group of buffalo and looked at his friend and said "Those have to be the ugliest creatures God ever created. They have mangy hair, there is a big hump on their backs, and their heads are too big for their bodies. They are just down right ugly." As the man walked away the buffalo looked over to another buffalo and said "Now that's a discouraging word."

Guess who is crawling and has a tooth? Yep little baby Ender. He is getting all over the place and I just can't keep the floors clean enough. He finds every little crumb, lint, paper scrap, whatever. He's bound and determined to catch up to the big kids.

Miles decided to nap through the entire outing but we made sure to master our bison imitations before leaving so we could show him EXACTLY how they looked when we got home. These bison crack me up...

It's always so hard to say good bye. We love having family visiting. The only thing we'd change is we never want them to leave.

Parents and Projects

2011-09-26T20:38:00.004-04:00

My parents and my little sister came to visit this weekend, and we just had the best time EVER! It was way too short of a visit, but we got a lot accomplished. We knocked two projects off my to do list. The first is the bathroom cabinet that fell off the wall in our apartment in Boston and broke. It's been sitting around looking all sad and pathetic for over a year now, and finally I'd had enough. I took that busted up ol' cabinet and took the doors off cleaned it up and my Mom made a cute little curtain to cover the contents. Voila a super cute shabby chic bathroom cabinet! (Casey informed me people don't like to see a toilet seat up. Sorry)

And if that isn't cute enough I've saved the best for last. I forgot to take a before shot, but just imagine an old scruffy office chair with a small hole in the very unattractive blue canvas cover. With a little walmart fabric, a staple gun and the magic ingredient WONDER UNDER we were able to create this masterpiece. It's beautiful and makes my heart flutter whenever I see it. If only my desk were in a more public area (instead of hidden away in my bedroom)...

I'm so thankful for parents that are willing to pitch in and help me out with my projects, it sure has brightened my day!

Lets dig through the vault...

2011-09-23T13:49:00.003-04:00

and find all the silly, weird, or just random pictures of my kids I didn't post before due to oddness. Any one of these pictures would have been totally out of place in any other blog, but when you lump them together they make a rather attractive grouping (don't you agree?).

Note about Bennett- This kid has a fashion sense so unique he could put Punky Brewster to shame. Most days he can be found wearing a t-shirt (sometimes inside out as in the above picture), shorts, that brown adult sized fishing vest (also pictured above. From what I can gather he likes the freedom the pockets afford), and a pair of cowboy boots that are at least 2 sizes too big. He just clomps around like it's the most normal thing ever and acts totally surprised when strangers question his clothing. We get lots of stares clomping around Wal-Martt. He also has learned the trick to accessorizing. Some of his favorites are a Gilligan style fishing hat, a duck quacker necklace (from the Boston duck tour), a name tag holder necklace, his animal backpack, and of course goggles.
Another cute Bennett story- He loves folding up little pieces of paper and shoving them into his backpack, or vest pockets, or just carrying them around in a fat little stack. Any paper he finds becomes a little treasured note once he folds it up. He'll collect junk mail, receipts, discarded pictures, unattended bills, I even found a check he had pilfered from my check book. It's pretty cute, but I'm super nervous he'll get ahold of something real important and we wont find it!

This picture isn't funny, it's actually very sweet. Usually when the kids get home from school they do their homework and then have a little reading time. I LOVE reading time. Even the little boys grab a book and sit quietly and flip through the pages (I know, it's amazing). Miles is crazy about books. He really loves board books like Curious George and Baby Einstein (yeah, he's a baby duh. Why didn't I think of this sooner? He's my 4th).

Oh, and this last picture is a bonus creepy Halloween picture of me. Sometimes I look through the blog and fear if I died today my kids would be scouring the pages of cyberspace looking for pictures of me and there would be very few to be found, so I'm letting go of my pride and posting picture I've taken of myself in photo booth. Don't judge me.

A Late Glimpse At Our Labor Day

2011-09-18T16:18:00.009-04:00

Too much fun crammed into too few days. That's how I would describe our Labor day vacation. We started things off with a real bang when Casey and Steven were playing catch outside. Steven tossed the ball to Casey who thinking it prudent to stand in front of the cars missed the ball and the ball went right through our van window. Luckily it was our own car, and luckily Stevo is a nice guy and paid for half the repair. We did get to drive around for a few days with cardboard taped over the missing window (I wish I would have gotten a picture of that).

We all went over to the school and played one day. It was pretty fun because the guys played ball, the kids played crazy, and the women folk sat and chatted. We were pretty lucky to have nice weather the whole time. We got to swim one of the days, but then it cooled down and we were able to enjoy the great outdoors sans water. I tried to get a picture of each of the kids while we were at the park. Some of them turned out better than others, I think Hanny's and Addie's were best...

So I had this great idea for a picture of my parents and my sisters on the springy animals, but my mom wouldn't do it, so I had to have Miles fill in. Oh well, Hannah looks nice, and my Dad isn't fooling anyone (we all know he's not really sitting on that thing).

The weather cooled off enough to get some use out of the fire pit. It was so fun. Who doesn't love making s'mores and trying to avoiding the smoke. My good friend Elaine and her family recently moved to Louisville, so we got the special treat of having them come spend the day.

The kids always have such a great time at Nana and Grampy's house. Miles got to help Grampy and Casey fix the tree house (he thought that was pretty awesome). Casey took Ender in the pool for the first time. We made homemade ice cream (I can't get enough). Porter, Maya, and Bennett loved picking treats from Nana's store (a fun new tradition). Nana and Grampy took the kids to a movie which everyone loved (Cars 2).

The adults had a great time also. There was lots of throwing ball among the men in the family, an some corn hole. We all played a few rounds of Vampire (a big group game). The girls snuck away for a trip to the fabric store where we stocked up on fabric to make a few skirts (we ran out of time and didn't actually get the skirts made, but that'll just give us an excuse to get together again soon).

It's always so fun to get together, and it always seems like there isn't enough time, but this time seemed even more so. I kept wishing we could have stayed just a few more days!

Chief Leather Lips

2011-09-08T12:14:00.006-04:00

The other day we decided to do something fun as a family so we roamed around and finally decided to go to the zoo, but on the way to the zoo Casey spotted this really cool stone face statue, so we decided to investigate.

It turned out to be this really fun park area. There was a little creek and a play structure. We had a great time playing. Porter wanted to throw the football non-stop, and Maya checked out all the cool natural play areas, and Bennett and Miles had a blast playing on the playground.

This is when Casey tried to make up to Miles after scaring him to death by pretending to dunk him into the creek. Look at his poor scared face.

This is Bennett's proud face. He loves that he can slide down the fireman pole. He thinks he's pretty awesome.

Casey caught the kids a frog. He was a really cool frog with super long legs.

Ender stood guard over Bennett's satchel.

Maya the baby Jaguar

And this is the cool statue of Chief Leather Lips. What a fun place to stumble upon.

Raingutter Rigatta

2011-08-31T07:16:00.003-04:00

Porter loves scouts so much. For their last activity they had the Raingutter Rigatta, and he had such a great time. His boat was LEGO themed and he painted it to look like little green, red, and blue LEGO blocks, and he put two LEGO men to man the sails. It was quite the masterpiece. We were a little rushed getting to the race, but we made it, although it was a bit of a rocky start because he had his mom (who thinks looks are everything and doesn't understand the importance of rutters) helping him. We got a bit of a late start on our boat, but he finished it and we got to the event on time, but when he put his boat in the water it tipped right over. He was embarrassed and cried a little, but Casey was there so he was able to run home and get the rutters and rework the boat in time for the actual races. Porters boat won the first two races and lost the third. He had a great time and told me "When Bennett and Miles do scouts make sure you put the rutters on their boats".

Trip to Lafayette (Landon's Birthday)

2011-08-28T19:35:00.002-04:00

We made an impromptu visit to Lafayette to visit Sarah and her family before school started. It was pretty exciting. The school year was quickly approaching and Landon was having his 7th birthday party, so we decided to throw caution into the wind and make the 4 hour trip down. It was really great because we decided not to tell the kids we were going until the day we left, so we kept it quiet until Casey got home from work, then I said "We should go do something fun with dad today". Porter said "Lets go play a family game of football", and Bennett said "Lets go to Landon and Addie's house", then I said "BENNETT, THAT WOULD BE SO FUN, LETS DO IT!". I could tell he was afraid to get too excited then he said in a serious voice "Ok, but no joking". It was pretty funny, but now he thinks he can come up with all kinds of wild adventures and we'll actually do it.

The kids were totally happy to be together. My parents ,my sister Hanny ,our friend Tim, and Cincy came in from Louisville and got a hotel room so we could all go swimming (always a hit with this group). Then the big kids got to spend the night in the hotel with Nana and Grampy. Pretty cool. I think Miles drove Miss Cincy crazy, but he sure loved holding that little dog. All the kids think she is just the best!

The birthday party was so so cute. I'm so glad my sister is so flexible. I called her about three days before the party and said "Umm, we're thinking about coming down would that totally stress you?" and she was so enthusiastic about having us come I didn't feel a bit guilty for adding 5 extra party goers. She did a really great job with the party. Landon wanted a super hero themed party so when each kid got there they had to think of a super hero name and they got a custom designed super hero cape . Porters super hero name was Payton Manning (weird), Maya was Golden Girl (also weird), Bennett was Spider man (typical), and Miles was Tank (appropriate). Here are a few of their super hero poses...

Modeling her cape...

Flying through the air...

Climbing tall buildings (and obviously super hearing)...

Super crouching...

and lastly super mask adjusting.

It was just so great being with everyone. It's great to be with family!

Cake and presents. Landon was in heaven with all his loot.

Miles loved Sarah's trampoline. I think we need to get us one, oh wait, a trampoline would take up our entire yard...

Sarah did a really fun variation on the trusty ol' pinata. She had two villains (Dad and Steven-and you can see Casey in the background felt totally left out) steal all the candy. The super hero's had to chase the villains and hit them with their weapons (mini wiffel balls) and anytime a villain was hit he'd toss a handful of candy into the air and run off. It was so great, the kids loved it and, although we didn't get to enjoy the funny moments associated with blindfolded kids and pinata sticks, we got some awesome pictures of my dad looking menacing.

These kids were just eager to get the bad guys, they didn't care about the candy at all (yeah right).

It's raining goodies.

Who says all toddlers aren't built alike?

Casey and Stev-o had a great time tossing the football (non-stop). Look at that stud!

Ok, Sarah is going to KILL me for putting this next picture in here but just ignore Sarah's funny smile and check out my Dad and Hanny who were busting a move in the house. We were playing dance party music for the kids and they were all rocking out on the lawn, but Dad and Hanny opted for the air conditioned comfort of the house.

After the party the kids had a great time just being together, and I think this was our first get together where someone didn't puke! That's a pretty big deal. I sure miss living near Sarah and her family. She always has tons of fun ideas and is totally the life of the party, and her kids are so cute and polite and wonderful. We are blessed to have such great influences in our lives.

We can't wait for the next get together!

First Day of School

2011-08-26T20:46:00.002-04:00

Porter and Maya were so excited to start their first day of school. We had to leave a little early so we could take daddy to work, and on our way home Porter asked "Mom, can you do what Nana did and follow the bus?" I said sure I could follow the bus then he said "and go in with us so we know where we are supposed to go?" Um...well unlike Nana I have three little spazoids I have to tote around so "no I don't think I can do that, but there will be people there to show you where to go. It'll be fine." Shortly after this conversation he told me "I miss my old school where Nana made us egg sandwiches for breakfast". I'm willing to admit my kids miss living at Nana's more than I do (and that's saying something).

We were able to go to the school the day before and meet Maya's teacher and we discovered there is a boy from church and a girl from the neighborhood in her class so she was pretty excited. Porter doesn't have his meet the teacher until next week (weird) so he was a bit more hesitant, but they both got off the bus happy and excited to go the next day (even though Porter told me he didn't talk to anyone all day).

Now that we have the first week under our belts they are still loving it and Porter and Maya are both talking (but not enough to get in trouble -yet). I am also loving it. I was really dreading them going back to school. I miss them too much and they are at such a fun helpful age, it seems a shame to send them away, but it's been so fun spending the day with the little boys. We usually go to the gym then run errands. After the errands we come home eat lunch together and put Miles down for his nap. It's fun to see what Miles and Bennett choose to play when the big kids are not here. Thomas the train seems to be the favorite for now. It's just great to see their little personalities and have the time to appreciate them.

I could just SCREAM...

2011-08-17T13:43:00.000-04:00

While the other boys make me want to scream for other reasons, this guy makes me want to scream "STOP BEING SO GOSH DARN CUTE!".

EFR {part 4} Loose ends

2011-08-13T16:12:00.002-04:00

So the last day together in Utah we went to a really great public park where we rode paddle boats, played at the splash pad, tossed the football, fed the ducks, sat in the shade of the trees, and just had a great time together. The little kids loved getting way too close to the pond.

Miles all patched up and ready for a tumble in the pond.

Maya the duck whisper feeding the ducks goldfish. My sister in law Brisa is so funny, while Maya was feeding the ducks Brisa said "I think they think she's their momma, they are like 'we love that big feather-less duck with the yellow bill'." I was cracking up.

EFR {part 3} Stitches and Trilobite Treasures

2011-08-12T20:35:00.006-04:00

Of course it was Miles who got his head busted open and was the first of our children to get stitches. Here's how it happened. Miles turned two while we were at reunion and the day after reunion we took all the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's for an afternoon of fun. We were all having a great time and Miles was all over the place. He loved all the rides, and games. There were even rumors that he was walking up to strange children and snagging coins from their Chuck E. Cheese cups. After about an hour I went into the bathroom to change Ender and Brisa was in there changing Liv. She told me that Maya had had an accident. I peeked under the stall to see Maya's flip flops standing in a rather large puddle. I told her I'd go get her a change of clothing (luckily all our suitcases were in the back of the van) so I left the bathroom and looked across the restaurant to see Casey holding Miles who was covered in blood. I quickly walked over to see what had happened and noticed a very deep gash in his forehead. He was crying and Jeff was sleeping (sleeping at Chuck E. Cheese's? Only Jeff) so I ran over and woke him up, and while he checked Miles out I fished clothing out of the suitcase for Maya. I got Maya all cleaned up and notified the employee at the counter of the bathroom situation, then we took Miles to the hotel where Dr. Jeff sorted through his medical bag for stuff to stitch Miles up. He wasn't real happy with the equipment he had, but after calling around to find smaller thread we ended up having to make due. I held Miles' head and Casey held his feet while Jeff numbed him up and put three stitches in. Miles hated being held down, but after the stitches were in place he took a nap with Poppy and the other kids got to go swimming. It was chaotic but we got the stitches removed yesterday and he looks great (we got him camouflage band aids that make him look like baby Rambo - super cute). The lady who took them out said they looked great and that his head had healed very well.

We're not ones to let a little head injury stand in the way of a fun time. The next day we all went to hunt for Trilobites at Thanksgiving Point. It was pretty cool when to see everyone hammering away and we left with several specimens. Robby and Peggy tied for finding the biggest Trilobites.

Porter and Casey were in heaven digging through the rubble and searching for tiny fossils. Maya was a pretty good sport also but eventually she decided it'd be more fun playing in the little kiddie cow ride they had stored under the staircase. Miles just roamed around with one glove on, and Bennett (using his imagination) found a T-Rex tooth and a dinosaur leg. Ender chilled in the shade with me.

We tried to get some pictures of the kiddo's together (Impossible)-

These are their Dinosaur faces (what is Porter? a dino rabbit)

EFR {part 2} Babies and Fairwells

2011-08-07T18:25:00.009-04:00

Brisa had the great idea of getting a picture of all the newest grand babies together (unfortunately this idea came after Dan and Angela left, so we didn't get baby Cal in the pictures). Of course your always going to have one baby trying to get away (Liv) one baby crying (Oliver) one baby staring blankly into the camera (Ender) and one baby showing them how it's done (Ruby - the youngest of them all).

Look at all those fluffy heads and chubby cheeks. This is just way too much cuteness for one family.

These next pictures were taken during the 5K run/walk Dan and Angela organized. It was so fun to stay at the finish line and watch the triumph on the faces as each runner burst through the toilet paper finish line. They even had awards for all the competitors. Porter ran the whole thing, Maya dawdled along with Aunt Angie and Nellie, and Miles rode in the stroller with Liv and pestered her until they both conked out and Rob and Brisa could finish the walk in peace.

The lodge had lots of fun stuff to do like fishing, biking, a climbing wall, a swimming pool, a basketball court, canoeing, a fish pond where you could feed the fish (Miles and I spent a lot of time feeding the fish), BB guns, and inside there was an activity room with ping pong, air hockey, and that game with lots of handles you twist to make your men kick the ball into the goal (I can't remember the name of it). Needless to say there was always fun to be had, and I'm sure there are pictures of my kids doing some of those things, and maybe someone will e-mail those pictures to me (hint hint), but for now, this is what I got.

Some of the other highlight of the reunion were -organized games for the kids, bocce ball and kubb tournaments (Casey introduced 'corn hole' this year and it was a hit- Casey gets a big kick out of being the one to get people hooked on a new game), a quilting service project, a family choir, a mini Time Our For Women (this was a great addition to the reunion, I hope it becomes a tradition), and during the TOFW the men took all the kids for some fun time at the activity center. These last pictures were taken as everyone was preparing to leave the lodge. There was so much going on we were sad to leave.

Uncle Robby let Bennett drive the car and he was totally loving it!

Bryce Malerie and Baby Ruby

Porter, Corbin, and Maya. These three were so cute together, they really had a great time playing together and became fast friends. Check out Corbins outfit, the John Elmer's did a lip sync to the song that says "You and me baby we're stuck like glue" and everyone had the same costume (The shirt says Elmer's Glue Crew). Too cute.

Several times Miles was found inside peoples cars pillaging their stashes of candy. Keeping track of Miles was so difficult at this location. There were tons of doors leading outside and they were always opened. There was a swift rushing stream beside the lodge so that was always a big concern, and once Miles was found laying on the dock sticking his hands in the water of the fish pond (he figured out that he could just keep shaking the gate back and forth until it eventually popped opened). Thankfully everyone helped keep an eye on him especially Bryce who was a total life saver. Someone joked that we should have tied Nelly's leash to Miles so we could follow Nelly's barking to find him. If he doesn't improve by next reunion I'm really going to do it.

We were happy to get a few pictures with Grammy before we left. She is such an amazing woman and we are all glad to have her in our lives. She has a gift with children and makes each of the kids feel so loved and special, even though they don't see her often they become best buds so quickly when they do.
*I think I have just one more EFR post (the post reunion post) and that's where the stitches come into play...

Elmer Family Reunion {part 1} Family Pictures and Money Dig

2011-08-07T15:25:00.008-04:00

We've just returned from a week in Utah spending time with the wonderful Elmer family in this beautiful lodge. Everyone had a great time and as I uploaded pictures I just kept wishing I would have taken more. We got to Utah Saturday and stayed the night near Thanksgiving Point, and on Sunday we went to church and then started the trip to the lodge. I think it took about three hours to get there. That night Malerie and Bryce blessed baby Ruby and it was great to be there for that (uggh, why didn't I get a pic of that?). Each day we started with a devotional (I missed most of them due to unruly children), and each day ended with a group activity of some sort (Story time with the Uncles, Family skits/songs, Family Home Evening, Minute to win it game, etc.). We got a big group picture in our reunion shirts that Peggy made (super cute) and this is where I pulled out my camera for the first time...
Maya, Bennett, and Benji. These three had a blast running around exploring nature. They tried and tried to catch a lizard, and even though I don't think they did, they just had a great time together. So much fun in fact, that they couldn't be bothered with looking at the camera for even one second.

The shirts were super cute. Each family had a different color shirt and on the backs they said "Team Jim", "Team John", "Team Jerry", "Team Jeff", or "Team Joe". They were very similar to the last reunion shirts except last time they were all the same color and had the the number on the back that represented the number you were in the family.

The money dig is always a huge hit, and this year was no exception. There was a sand volleyball court at the lodge and millions of coins were dispersed through an area of sand, then the kids were turned loose with Ziploc bags to collect their loot. I'm sure you can guess which of our kids liked this the best. Porter was in absolute heaven and was one of the last children to call it quits, Maya had a moderate amount of coins in her bag when she decided she'd had enough and walked away to find something more Maya-like to do, Bennett was swimming and decided the money dig wasn't worth leaving the pool for, and Miles was napping.

Stay tune for the next exciting installment...(hint - someone ends up with stitches, any guesses who?)

Date Night with Bennett

2011-08-02T11:44:00.003-04:00

The last 3 Saturday nights each kid has had a date night with dad, but last night it was moms turn with Bennett and they went to the dollar store to get some activities for the trip today and Bennett in true Bennett-style wanted to wear his Lobster halloween costume on their date so he was fashionably dressed while they shopped, but at one point he took notice that everyone was looking at him and he leaned real close to Amanda and whispered, "They all know i'm a lobster" as if he were trying to fool everyone into thinking he was a normal kid in normal kid clothing and it just wasn't working.

Little Cubs

2011-08-01T08:30:00.001-04:00

This week Porter had cub scout day camp and despite the heatwave, he loved it. Every morning we would have to wake up earlier than normal so that we could go pick up his friend Noah and get them to the leaders house who would drive them to camp. They'd bring him home around 4 or 5 and he'd recount the days exciting activities of woodshop where he made a bird house and a bird feeder, swimming in the pool, archery, BB shooting, and "Creeking" which apparently is a scout activity involving wading through the creek looking for crawdads, frogs, and other creepy-crawlies. Friday was family day and so at lunch we went out to meet Porter and do some of the activities that he had been doing all week. Maya and Bennett were so excited because Porter couldn't stop talking about it all week. They swam, did a big slip n' slide, and even had a turn on the shooting range where Bennett hit his soda can 3 times and Maya hit her paper plate target 4 times! It was pretty warm and the activities wore them out so on the way home, all the kids fell asleep and it was quiet for 30 minutes until we got home and they all woke up and were starving.

Netflix and the 80's

2011-07-31T08:30:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Netflix, I have been hearing things coming from my children that I haven't heard in over 25 years. Sayings like, "I have the POWER!" and "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, GADGET!" have been generously bandied about in our home causing me to reminisce and remember when saturday mornings where the greatest time of the week and the ultimate exercise in bladder control. Thank you Netflix

GUMMED!

2011-07-30T07:53:00.003-04:00

Two nights ago, one of the kids, Bennett I think, had a big wad of gum he was chewing on before bed. Remembering from my childhood when I was about his age and fell asleep with gum in my hair and having my mom rub generous amounts of peanut butter in my hair to get it out, I made him spit it out. He was throwing a fit about it so I told him he could continue chewing on it tomorrow if he went to bed without any further complaints, which he did. I set the gum on the desk by my bed and went to sleep.

In the dark hours of the morning, I awoke feeling my arm hairs pulled out of my skin as I shifted in bed. Half dead, I felt around trying to figure who or what was sticking me to the sheets and all up and down my arm were little strings of gum wrapped like a web to my skin and the bed. Laying next to me was Miles our soon to be 2 yr. old. who was pulling the wad of gum out of his mouth and dropping strings of masticated Juicy Fruit all over the bed. I had to reach into his mouth and pull out the gum and then begin rolling all the gum strings back into their mother gumball. As I showered for the day, I kept finding little rogue gumlettes all over my body. At breakfast we had a stern lecture on the new "No Gum...Ever" policy ratified into law earlier that morning by the parental majority, but what sealed the deal was Amanda brushing her hair out and finding the offending wad snuggly nestled in her locks. Pressed for time trying to get Dad to work and Porter to Scout Camp, she took one for the team and forwent the more laborious peanut-butter method for the quick and effective, cut-your-hair-out-method and got us all to work on time. Rigorous screening procedures have been put into effect to apprehend any and all children with said contraband to ensure that no more hair is lost.

It's Friday I'm In LOVE...

2011-07-29T23:13:00.001-04:00

AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com
Casey and I spent way too long looking through the photos on this sight and laughing till we cried. Oh. My. Gosh. Way too funny. The best parts are the captions. People are so funny.

I love funny moments like last saturday when Casey and Porter went to Walmart for their 'daddy son date' and while shopping made friends with a Peruvian couple who invited us to their grandsons birthday the following day. Ok, let me go into a little more detail. Porter wore a Peruvian soccer jersey that Jeff and Peggy had gotten him from their mission and as they were walking the toy aisle this man started talking to them and told them he was from Peru. His wife came up and they had a long conversation during which time the grandson and Porter played together. As the conversation was wrapping up Casey said "We'll have to have you guys over for a cookout sometime" and they said "Oh, we're having a cookout tomorrow for our grandsons birthday. You guys should come." Casey did give them fair warning that there are 7 of us, but the insisted we should all come, so we did. Weird! We showed up and there was a ton of their family there and us (the token gringo strangers). Everyone was like "This is the guy uncle tio met at the Wal-Mart". It was so strange but they were super friendly and nice and the kids had a great time playing together. Oh, and we ate cow heart and fish cooked by lemon juice (NO FIRE involved).

As if that Walmart trip wasn't eventful enough as Porter and Casey were leaving Casey walked up to the van and opened the trunk to find a stroller he didn't recognize. He was a little confused until he looked up front and saw a lady in a burkah sitting in the passenger seat. He suddenly realized he was in the wrong car. He said "I'm so sorry, this is the wrong car." and walked away. As they walked away Porter said "Dad that was so embarrassing!"

Wha'd you say?

2011-07-25T23:30:00.000-04:00

I was trying to explain to Bennett why we shouldn't kiss people outside of our family and I said "It's ok to kiss mommy and daddy but kissing other girls is YUCK." He raised his eyebrows and with a puzzled expression said "I DON'T THINK SO."

Ender cried out in his sleep and Bennett said "Mom, Ender had a dream, a scary dream that somebody was eating him.

Bennett: Is spiderman real?
Me: No he's imaginary.
B: Why is he imaginary? I wanted Jesus to send him here. Why did Jesus send him to comics and not here?

The missionaries were telling the kids that they shouldn't start fires without adult supervision. Maya got a shocked look on her face and accusingly said "YOU MEAN YOU GUYS CAN LOOK THOUGH WALLS?".

As we left the gym it was super sunny outside and Bennett instinctivly squinted one eye closed, then he said ""Hey, I should be a pirate because I my eye can't see."

Casey-"Those bathroom books are not nearly long enough".

Me "Bennett did you have fun playing with Bella?"
Bennett "Yeah"
Maya "Bennett got a little kiss from Bella."
Me "Bennett, did Bella give you a little kiss?"
Bennett "Yeah, and I even closed my eyes."
Me "Why did you close your eyes?"
Bennett "Because she told me to!"

Maya-"Everybody I know has a sister or a dog forcept me."

As Casey was laying in bed trying to get a little extra sleep Bennett came in the room and crept up along side the bed. There was a pillow by the bed and right as he stepped on the pillow Casey tooted and Bennett said "hey Dad, this pillow sounds like a duck!"

Maya woke up and told us she had had a dream that she was the host of Americas Funniest Home Videos, and she introduced the clips by saying "In races...Mom's always win".

A few weeks ago the kids had wear read day, and pay a dollar to wear a hat day. As I was giving the kids their bath tonight Maya said "Wear red and pay a dollar to wear a hat day was fun. Guess what, Maddie wore a CHEESE hat. It looked like a piece of cheese, and I pretended to be a mouse."

Porter and Miles were playing together when Miles suddenly tried to bite Porters toe. Porter said "Ooww, I hope you don't do that on your mission".

Bennett had a piece of gum in his mouth and he broke it in half and gave half of it to Miles. I said Bennett that was so nice that you shared with Miles, and he said "Yeah, it's spicey and minty".

The Harwards were visiting, and as we were sitting in church Bennett was hovering around baby Ella. She started waking up, and he looked up at Sarah and said "She just loves me so much. I know, maybe I should feed here with these" (while lifting up his shirt and pointing to his little nipples).

As Hannah was saying family prayer, we were all listening quietly when Bennett, who had wanted to say the prayer, suddenly blurted out "Hanny, you're a doof." (Don't feel too sorry for Hanny, she's the one who taught Benny the word 'doof').

The Primary did a special party for the kids that are turning eight this year, so we stayed after church and learned about baptism and scouting. The scout leader told the boys they would be in the wolf den. After the program Maya said "I wish I could be in the wolf den". Casey told her it was not a REAL wolf den, and she said "Oh, I thought there would be baby wolves." Casey and I started laughing and she said "What? I love baby wolves."

Casey walked past Bennett and tousled his hair. When he touched his head he shocked him and I said "Bennett did he zap you?" Bennett said "No, I zapped him with my super hair."

We were getting ready for church, and Bennett and I were talking about how he was going to get to go to primary. He said "uuuggg, it's the boringest thing I ever saw".

In church Bennett's primary teacher asked the kids what their favorite songs were and Bennett said "I just like Holy Diver".

When we put Bennett to bed he's been coming upstairs and saying "I forgot how to sleep!"

Bennett threw a piece of a brick at Porter and Porter said "Hey, why'd you throw a brick at me?" and Bennett replied "It's not a brick, it's a rock".

It's Friday I'm In LOVE...

2011-07-22T23:41:00.004-04:00

with this baby. He's is rolling over! I just can't believe it. He seems way too little to be acting so big. Porter was the first one to see him roll and I didn't believe it at first, but then I saw it myself. I guess I should be a little more trusting:)

We've been loving the music of Josh Ritter. Some of my favorites are 'Girl In The War' 'Folk Bloodbath' and 'Lillian Egypt'. I'm a sucker for folksy songs that tell a story. If you're interested you can download them on Legal Sounds for 10 cents a piece. Well worth it!

I love date night, even when the evening is so chaotic I want to call it off at the last minute. We had the missionaries over for dinner and quickly rushed them out the door and welcomed our babysitter in. Then we couldn't find the remote to the TV (we had rented the movie Rango for the kids to watch with the babysitter), so they had to watch the movie in our room (which was so dirty I had to swear the babysitter to secrecy). We had the bishops daughter watch the kids and she was amazing. I'm just sad she's leaving for school next week (hopefully her younger sister will be up to the challenge). Date night was fun. We watched Harry Potter in 3-D (I'm sure we'll have fun 3-D glasses pictures to follow). I still haven't seen the first part of the movie, but the second part was great. A good ending (if endings can be good).

I love our new traditions of counting the UPS trucks on the way to the gym. The kids love it and it makes the trip much more fun. The gym is only about 2 miles away but we pass the UPS dispatch place on the way so we see TONS! Our record so far is 68 one way (yeah, that's a lot).

I {heart} a clean van!

2011-07-18T12:27:00.003-04:00

Last summer when I went to my grandma's funeral I was riding though the cemetery looking at the gravestone when my brother James said "I know what your headstone is going to say" I was excited to hear what he would say, I've always though James kind of liked me and I thought it was going to be something like "Here lies Amanda the best sister of all time" which would have been pretty cool since Sarah was in the car too. But instead he said "Here lies Amanda, owner of the worlds dirtiest van". Yeah, that was a slap in the face, but it's all too true. I've always admired those people who can keep their cars looking clean and new, but when you pack 5 munchkins around it's hard to build up the courage look in the back seat better yet to actually clean it! This weekend Casey and the kids braved the heat and filth, and cleaned out the van. I puttered around the house and made them "nada pina coladas" for their efforts, and I'm proud to say the van is still as clean today (Monday) as it was when they finished (Saturday). (hopefully I'll still be able to say that next week)

It's Friday I'm In LOVE...

2011-07-15T07:00:00.002-04:00

I'm in love with Jeni's "Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry Ice cream". I broke down and bought the book (Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home) after trying the "Salty Carmel" at a friends house, then I scoured Craigslist until I found, and purchased a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker (with two freezer bowls - this could be dangerous!). Then we had a blast spending the fourth of July cooking up several different flavors. It was love at first bite when I tried the "Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry"! I can't get enough.

Through our health insurance we get free membership to certain area gyms, so we joined last week and I've started going to zumba again. They even have child care! I'm not sure I like it as much as I liked my old zumba instructor in Spokane, but it's fun, and hopefully I'll get better (and burn off some of that ice cream).

I already commented on this earlier, but I am absolutely loving my old pictures. This is a picture of Maya as a baby (she looks like Ender). I hate that I can't remember this at all. It just makes me want to scream! How could I forget? Anyway I'm grateful for the pictures since my brain is obviously unreliable.

Family of Pipers

2011-07-13T21:39:00.002-04:00

Who says we're not talented. Thanks to Amanda for the impromptu Elmer video.

The Scioto Mile

2011-07-10T19:19:00.006-04:00

Caseys company has been working on a project to revamp the columbus river front. There was a big grand opening this week, so we loaded up the hooligans and headed down town (even though Casey wasn't actually involved in the project). It was pretty fun (after all the long speeches and "thank you's") they cut the ribbon on the splash pad and the kids had a blast playing in the water. We had such a good time we decided to go back two days later and enjoy it again. These pictures are from our second trip (I forgot the camera our first time, along with changes of clothing).

Miles was mostly afraid of the water and spent his time wandering up to strangers and trying to hug them. Ender spent his time chilling in the stroller, it was a bit warm but every now and then the wind would shift and he'd get a nice misting from the fountain.

Porter and Maya each got hurt. Porter skinned his knee and Maya was spinning around a pole and smacked right into another pole head first. She's got quite the bruise on her forehead now.

Check this picture out. Every single person is totally cheesing it up. Love it!

Some random pictures and a few funny stories...

2011-06-26T22:11:00.008-04:00

Is this guy not the cutest little fellow EVER? I can't get over what a wonderful little personality he has. I'm crazy about this kid. Casey gave me some of the best news I've had in a long time the other day. A few years ago our external hard drive fried and we lost all our pictures from when Porter and Maya were babies and I was totally crushed, but last week Casey came strutting downstairs and announced that he had discovered all the pictures. He had burned them to CD and forgotten all about it. Lucky for us he decided to go through all our miscellaneous CD's before throwing them out and hit the jack pot. I may resort to posting really old pictures just because I love them so much and as I look through them I feel so happy I think my heart might burst and I think you all might want a taste of that too.

Friday has become our night to have the missionaries from church over and we've enjoyed having their company (it gives us an excuse to practice manners on them). This week we somehow got onto the subject of fires and one of the missionaries said he use to pour hand sanitizer onto plates and set them on fire. As soon as the last word left his lips he looked at the kids and then at me and said "I probably shouldn't have said that. Sorry." Then the other missionary said "You should never start a fire without adult supervision." Maya quickly looked at us and said "You mean you guys can look through walls?"

Last night as I got Miles dressed for bed and put him in a little pair of solid blue spider man pants and a solid red t shirt. As soon as Porter saw him he busted up laughing and said "Miles looks so cute. He looks just like a Lego guy!". I never would have noticed on my own, but once Porter pointed it out I realized it was totally true and it cracked me up. I'm getting all kinds of ideas for next Halloween now.

Tonight Casey made Bennett a pretend cell phone out of clay. It was basically a long thin rectangle of clay folded in half with numbers scratched into it. Bennett liked it because it flipped open like Casey's phone. I don't know where he got the google eyes, but somehow he found a bunch and pressed them into the phone. I came in the room and he said "Momma, you like my I (eye) phone?" I giggled then he said "Do you want to see it? (then he shoved it into my face with all the little google eyes bobbing around, and said) It sees you!" Oh my goodness that kid is a-larious!

I'm sure no one cares about this but me but after about two years of longing for benches for my kitchen table the dream is finally a reality! I'll have to take a picture, but for now you'll just have to trust me when I say they look great. Casey got two better homes and garden farm benches (from walmart) and I absolutely love them. The table area seems much less cluttered and we can cram a bunch more kids on those suckers!

Columbus Zoo

2011-06-23T09:31:00.006-04:00

We're not quite out of boxes yet, but we got our zoo pass and we're exploring our new home town. The zoo was great although it was a super hot day and even Casey and I were contemplating sneaking into the water park next door. The kids were amazing, of course they asked for all the stuff that isn't included in your membership (face painting, pony rides, giant sodas), but after being told "That cost extra" they were super understanding and didn't whine or ask again. I loved it and rewarded them with frostys on the way home. It was a great day to be a member of the Elmer family!

The Polar Bears were my favorite. They have an underwater viewing area (where it is much cooler than it is outside) and it was so fun to sit and watch them chase fish and swim around. I could have stayed there all day.

The zoo is divided up by regions and we only got through one region, so we're looking forward to our next trip (our pass includes two guest, any takers?).

Ender's Birth Announcement

2011-06-13T17:20:00.003-04:00

I made this card exclusively for my Grammie after Ender was born, but thought I should share it with the rest of you now. ce

Maya's 7th Birthday

2011-05-31T17:34:00.004-04:00

A little less than a month ago we celebrated our favorite little girls 7th birthday. Maya who's favorite word is BUTTERCREAM had a Cake Boss birthday. We spent the day swimming in Nana and Grampy's pool, and she even got to invite her friend Abby over. We played and had dinner then I pretended to be a Cake Boss client and ordered an owl cake. The above cupcake creation is what the little chefs came up with. Then they each made their own owls nest piled so high with candy I wondered weather they'd ever calm down. It was a great day for a great little girl. I'm so happy to have Maya in our family. She is truly unique and I'm grateful every day to know her.

Enders Baby Blessing

2011-05-29T22:23:00.003-04:00

On Sunday the 22nd we blessed baby Ender in church. Casey blessed him and Grampy, Tim, Brad, and Steven stood in the circle. Casey gave him a beautiful blessing in which Ender was told he had chosen to come to our family and he would be a missionary to his friends even before being called as a missionary. I wish I could remember more of his blessing but his siblings were being distracting (whats new). Even at that just know you are loved a bunch Ender! My sister in law Jessica was brave enough to attempt to photograph our family and given the conditions the pic turned out really well.

Easter

2011-05-09T08:43:00.007-04:00

We had a fun and exciting Easter. Not...I slept in and by the time I woke up the kids had already found their baskets and were all sugared up. Casey and the kids decorated eggs and we headed off to church.

I must say the boys were stinkin' adorable in the suits Grammy and Poppy sent them from Peru. I can't get enough of Miles in his suit. I just think it's the cutest little thing ever!

Summertime Haircuts

2011-04-29T15:07:00.005-04:00

Look what Casey did to my babies!

Who wants to hold the baby???

2011-04-25T13:00:00.004-04:00

Smitten

2011-04-20T16:49:00.001-04:00

How can someone so small become such a huge part of your life so quickly? I absolutely can not get enough of Baby Ender. He is so precious! I'm amazed at what a wonderful baby he is. So far he doesn't seem to be a spitter (which is a big thing for us). He also has a great temperament. He only cries if he needs his diaper changed or wants to eat, and he mostly sleeps the rest of the time. I've always thought I wasn't much of a baby person, but I'm head over heals in love with Ender. Casey says Ender is trying to be extra good to make up for all the difficulties with his pregnancy and delivery. It's funny that you can have four babies and then the fifth comes and does EVERYTHING completely differently. Some of the differences I noticed with this pregnancy were Gestational Diabetes, Horribly itchy skin, Inability to stand on one leg (this happened with the last two also, but it seemed to start earlier with Ender), and he kept flipping into a breach position. He was breach at one check up and the doctor started talking about doing a C-Section so we all started praying he'd flip, and at the next appointment he had. Then at the next appointment he was breach again and the doctor said we could possissibley try flipping him and scheduled an induction date. I really wanted to have his birthday be April 2 (because Bennett and Miles both have birthdays on the 2nd), but the doctor didn't want to come in on a Saturday so she scheduled me for the 1st (April fools day, I wasn't too happy about that). We were really hopeful that she'd be able to flip him, but later that day she called and said she had talked with a fetal medicine specialist and he said due to my past history (gestational diabetes, history of recurrent pregnancy loss, and another blood test that came back a little off) he didn't recommend trying to manually flip him, so my only hope for a normal delivery was for Ender to flip on his own. My dad and Casey gave me a blessing and we all began praying for Ender again. The next day we went into the hospital around 10:00 and our C-section was scheduled for 12:00. The nurses brought in a ultrasound machine and checked, but he was still breach, so they started prepping me for surgery, then my ob came in and checked once more with the ultrasound machine and amazingly enough he had flipped. We were so happy and felt like our prayers had been answered. I was then taken to a labor room and we started on pitocin and the doctor broke my water. I had pretty regular contractions and finally got my epidural, but I still had pockets where I could feel the contractions. I felt like Enders head was pressing into my hip bone, and when the doctor came in to check me again she said his head was tilted so he was trying to come out face first. I hadn't progressed past a three and it was about 5:30 at this time so she said we were going to have to go ahead with the C-section. I started crying (I know it's lame, I blame it on lack of food, sleep, and an inability to cope with too much change). In a way I was excited to do the C-section. I had heard that they are easy, it's just the recovery that is difficult, but my experience was completely different. I was already hooked up with the epidural, so they used the same tube to dose me with medication, and the doc said that a lot of people throw up during the surgery I guess I was feeling arrogant because I quickly said "I won't throw up". Then they moved me into the surgery room and had me try to move to the operating table where I promptly threw up and continued to throw up through the entire thing (serves me right huh?). I don't think I do well with medication, and even with my epidurals I've had varying degrees of success, and I don't think my c-section med's worked that well, because I thought it was the most painful thing I've EVER done! It was miserable and I was seriously afraid I'd be resentful. Once he was out I told my mom "GO get pictures" so she was able to go over to the table where they were cleaning him up and she got some great pictures. Casey stayed with me while I kept saying things like "This kills, it's awful". Once they got Ender all cleaned up Casey brought him over and tried to show me, but I just started puking again (I know, I'm a good mom). After they got me all stitched up they unstrapped my arms and my nurse (who was so great) started pushing on my stomach and I smacked her arm away. I felt horrible and did apologize later (after two or three doses of morphine). They took me to a little recovery area and pumped me full of more pain killers and then I was feeling really good. Casey and my mom came back and I finally got to hold Ender for the first time. I was instantly in love. I was really sleepy and my arms were jittery (probably due to the meds) but I was so happy to have this new little guy in our family. The recovery was nothing compared to the actual surgery and now I'm getting around pretty well and feel more like myself. Before we left the hospital we had to meet with a heart specialist because Ender's blood pressure was high, but we've met with him every week since and he seems to think he'll be ok. His blood pressures are still high, but the doctor doesn't seem too concerned. We're all completely smitten with Ender and are enjoying every minute of this new little family member!

OH-IO (Columbus to be exact)

2011-04-17T12:42:00.000-04:00

No joke, it's the honest to goodness truth. After a very unique job search (including a Purdue career fair, a Harvard career fair, 28 portfolios, 10 sets of business cards/work samples, too much money in postage, two trips to Columbus, and countless prayers) Casey accepted a job with MSI in COLUMBUS OHIO (yes i'm screaming)!!! I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. 3 1/2 hours from my parents 4 hours from my sister, does it get any better than that (if only we could get some Elmers out this way)? Casey has maintained control, but I think he's pretty darn happy also. I'm so proud of Casey, it's been a pretty long journey and he has excelled every step of the way. I couldn't ask for a better husband and father and even though I'd love him to just stay home with us every second of every day I think he'll start the new job next week. So wish us luck...

For Unto Us

2011-04-03T09:33:00.010-04:00

On Friday, April 1st at 10am we arrived at the hospital for a planned C-section. The baby was not cooperating and had flipped to breech from his typical head down position of two weeks earlier. We prayed that he would flip so that Amanda could deliver him normally, but when the nurses ran the ultrasound, they found that he was laying sideways, so they began prepping Amanda for the surgery that was scheduled for 12pm. At 11:30, her doctor came in and double checked the baby's position and wouldn't you know it, he had flipped head down. So we cancelled the surgery and moved into a berthing room. We were pretty excited that our prayers had been answered and not at all surprised that he was playing his own little April Fools joke on us. They started Amanda on Pitocin and she was on her way. Around 5pm, the doctor checked her progress and found that the baby was trying to come out face first. Well from there, it was back to surgery for delivery and while we were waiting, someone else had an emergency C-section and so we waited for our turn. At 7:30, they wheeled her into the OR and Kathy and I donned white jumpsuits, hairnets, and facemasks and went in to help Amanda. She did beautifully and though it wasn't exactly as easy as she had hoped, baby Ender was born at 7:47 weighing 8.11 and 20 1/2 inches long. After they stapled her up (literally) they wheeled her into the postpartum rooms where she really got to see Ender for the first time. He is beautiful and has a full head of hair, the most of any of the other kids. Amanda has been recuperating well and has even played some Rummikub with me. Porter, Maya, Bennett and Miles, who are being watched by the ever patient Nana and Aunt Sarah and Uncle Steve, came over for lunch yesterday to see their new brother and Maya and Porter were thrilled to have a new baby brother and kept asking to have their picture taken with him. Bennett and Miles were more interested in the Happy Meals. A few more days of recovery and we'll be bringing both momma and baby home.

Arriving at the hospital ready to go.

Calm and confident looking forward to a typical delivery.

Change of plans and suiting up the cheerleaders.

Ender Lawrence Elmer comes kicking and screaming.

ID'ing the suspect.

Ender rests casually.

Dad gets to hold the slimy guy first.

Then momma gets her turn.

Two thrilled parents.

Maya begs for a picture of her holding her new brother. She has been incessantly bugging her parents for a puppy, hopefully this allays her cravings for something cuddly and un-housebroken.

Ender giving Maya the smolder which no woman can resist.

Porter (8) Ender (.0000000008)

Even Brad and Jessica were there to welcome Ender into the world and keep us all entertained with loads of interesting things that we'd rather have not known about, while we waited.

More hair than any other Elmer before him.

Spring Break

2011-03-28T20:27:00.007-04:00

We decided to be adventurous and head down to Lafayette for Spring break to spend a little QT with the cousins. Also Casey had to fly to Boston to attend the Harvard career fair, and then be back in Lafayette the next day for Purdue's career fair. The first day was beautiful and the kids had a blast playing together and riding bikes. Miles and Grant had a great time racing Toodle Bikes down the driveway.

But good times never last forever. The weather turned cold and gloomy, and the vomiting started. Porter and Grant woke up puking and things went down hill from there. It's must have been a super spreading virus because within three days all of us had a turn with the bug. No fun! Although as were were taking turns being sick those of us who were healthy took turns playing and cuddling. Porter and baby Ella sure were good friends.

Our last day there Casey took the kids to an art installment on Purdue campus where the artist had made a really cool playhouse out of willow branches. The kids got to run through the place and had a great time, and we actually remembered to bring the camera and document it.

Then we had to say good bye, but no tears were shed because the Harwards will be loading into their van in just a few days to be here on Friday when we welcome our new little one into the world. Yep, I'm being induced on April fools day. I know it's lame and believe me I fought it, but it seems like that's the day we're stuck with. I have gestational diabetes with this pregnancy, so they don't want to let me wait too long for fear I'll birth a toddler. Hopefully my next post will contain cute new baby pics (and dare we hope for a name?).

It's GREAT to be 8!

2011-03-03T15:52:00.006-05:00

We had a big event in our family. Not just a birthday, but an eighth birthday. Porter was baptized on February 25th (the same day Nana and Grampy were baptized long ago)! He was very excited, as was the entire family. It was a great chance to get together. I slacked a little on the pictures. I really wanted to get a group photo, but the evening was a little chaotic and the little kids were tired, but at least I managed to get pictures with the grandparents.

We were lucky to have a lot of family in attendance. Even though James missed his flight from Salt Lake and we had to stall for about an hour. We were just glad he made it. Lucklie we had prepared food (sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit salad, and a chocolate and vanilla layered cake with a picture of Porter on it) so we just served the food first while we waited for James to get there. Also in attendance was Grammy and Poppy, Nana Grampy and Hanny, Sarah, Steven, Landon, Addie, Grant, and baby Ella, Brad and Jessica, James and his friend Hannah and of course Me, Casey, Maya, Bennett, and Miles. Porters friend Thula from Philadelphia and her mom Elaine even came.

It was great to have everyone together, and even more fun because we all stayed with my parents so we got to extend the party. When we got home we let Porter open his presents and he was happy to get a new set of scriptures and a cap gun (Me and Casey), a beautiful quilt and a star-wars movie (Grammy and Poppy), a gift card, his scouting uniform and book (Nana and Grampy), a cute handmade scripture case (Sarah and family) an IU sweatshirt (James friend Hannah) and cash from (Thula and Elaine). Grammy was great to play games with. Here they are all playing Stone Age, which is quite the feat when you are playing with 4 kids under 8.

These little yahoos were cute all playing together. Everyone had a great time together and we were sad to see them leave.

Probably the most exciting thing for Porter was becoming a SCOUT. He was so excited for it, and he was quite the little stud muffin in his uniform.

Last Years Book List

2011-02-23T09:52:00.003-05:00

These are the books I read last year. The highlighted ones are books I would highly recommend, the others may have been good, but my memory is not that great. Let me know if you have any recommendations for this years reading list. I'm always looking for a good book to read.
Bamboo People
Burned
Three To Get Deadly
Two For The Dough
One For The Money
The Maze Runner
Sackett
Olive Kitteridge
Teaching Your Child About Sex
Mockingjay
Outliers
The Book Thief
The Help
The Devil in the White City
The Graveyard Book
Garden Spells
A Year Down Yonder
A Long Way From Chicago
These Is My Words
Catching Fire
Hunger Games

A Funny Story

2011-02-19T17:01:00.004-05:00

Today we were having a nice relaxing Saturday. Casey, Hanny, my mom, and I were just finishing up a rousing game of Rummikub and my Dad had opted out of the game in order to do some yard work. We had enjoyed watching him burn the tufts of elephant grass in order to prepare them for the new spring growth, when suddenly we noticed my Dad running to the garage, then away from the garage with a rake. He was running fast enough to alert us that something was going on, it wasn't a leisurely run. We all sprang from the table to see what was the matter and what to our wondering eyes should appear but a blaze of fire and to our neighbors wood pile it was drawing near. To be a little more accurate the wood pile was actually on fire, and on the opposite side of the yard one of the grass fires had spread and was leaving charred yard in it's wake. A few of us flew into action and manned the water hose in a way that would have impressed even the best fire departments, and my Mom grabbed a large metal shovel and began beating the tire out of the lawn fire. The situation was so funny we couldn't help laughing as we worked to subdue the flames, but as we finished my dad said "I guess you should never plant that stuff close to your house, I only used one match, just imagine if you had them close to the house one cigarette butt could burn down your whole house". On a brighter note, I know know what I'm doing for Dad for next years memory Christmas. I'm getting him a box of matches and labeling it "The Amazing All Inclusive Lawn Care Kit".

P.S. I've been getting a lot of slack about ignoring my blog, and I just wanted to submit photographic evidence (these are just the ones I could find easily) that I have not been sitting around eating bonbons and watching Soap Operas. I'm (actually everyone in this house) is frantically trying to keep up with this little scoundrel! Exhibit number one - he smeared butter all over the refrigerator, himself, the counter, and the floor (then he had the audacity to look at me as if he were totally innocent). Exhibit number two - he managed to trap himself inside the lamp shade (if we'd been smart we would have left him in there). Exhibit numbers three and four - you can just see the mischief in this little boy.

A wordie update

2011-02-01T08:55:00.000-05:00

It's been so fun being at my parents house I haven't found much time to blog, but I've gotten some heckling (mostly my dad and Grandpa) so I'm going to try to do better. We've been without a laundry machine for the past week, which really stinks. That is one thing I NEVER take for granted. Every day I feel grateful for a washing machine (I think it's because I've lived without one for so long), but Casey being the sweetheart that he is has been taking on the responsibility of taking the wash to the Laundromat.

In other news Miles is really starting to talk. Well, I guess I should clarify, he likes to repeats words, but there is a little list of words he'll say on his own. Some of his most frequently used words are "Juice", "Nana" (meaning banana, much to the dismay of Nana - my mom), "Hot", "Shoes", "Belly", "Shoot", "Ball", and "Bath". He's learned to climb out of his crib (grrr), I'm not sure why my boys insist on being so adventurous at such a young age, but I'm just telling myself it's only a phase. He'll also start Nursery this week which should make church much more enjoyable (YIPPIE).

Bennett is enjoying the peace and quiet of the days when the kids are at school. He's quite the square eyes and wants to watch TV every chance he gets. I think we got into quite a bad habit because for the past 3 weeks we've been passing sicknesses back and forth, and since we can't leave the house with sick kids we've been relying on the TV a bit too much. Bennett really wishes he could go to school like Porter and Maya, but I'm just not ready to give him up yet. He's still at that age where he really loves his Momma and I love that he will cuddle with me throughout the day.

Maya is loving school and although she seems to be a bit behind in math she does well with reading and spelling. She is such a pleasant kid and like Bennett would be happy to sit in front of the TV all day. I'm really grateful to have Maya in our family. She is so easy to get along with. She is still dying to get a pet, and sometimes we have to put up with tears because she doesn't have one. They had the 100th day of school on Friday and in her 100th day of school book she wrote "I wish I had 100 pets". I keep thinking I should just get her a hamster and be done with it, but I remember when we were kids my Grandpa got us two hamsters which turned into more hamsters! Then the mom hamster went crazy and ate the babies and starved the dad to death. It wasn't the cute little happy hamster family you imagine. I'm just not sure I'm willing to gamble on my ability to pick a non-pregnant hamster.

Porter is also loving school (he's been kicking butt on his spelling tests) although he almost always puts up a fight about waking up. Recently we've discovered he'll wake up pretty willingly for one of Nana's egg sandwiches. That boy loves his Nana. She took him to the church for the scout pinewood derby race the other night and he was absolutely in heaven. He's getting really excited for his eighth birthday. We've been talking about baptism in Family Home Evening and trying to prepare him for that, but I think after the Pinewood Derby he's more excited for Scouts. We are really excited that Casey's parents will be able to come out for the baptism! It'll be so fun to see Grammy and Poppy again. Porter and Maya were putting together a puzzle of the United States, and I was showing them all the places Casey has sent portfolio's to (Washington D.C., Mass., Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Utah, and Washington). I asked them which place they would like to live the most. Maya picked Utah "So we can see Benji" and Porter picked Indiana, Ohio, or Pennsylvania "Because Utah is too far from Nana".

Fancy Lunch

2011-01-28T15:01:00.005-05:00

The other day we were all sitting around when Grampy had the brilliant idea to take the kids to Cici's Pizza for a "Fancy Nancy Lunch". We donned our fancy apparel and headed out. Some of us were a bit more fancy than others, but we had a great time.

Maya felt a little shy once she realized no one else was fancy at the restaurant, but she got over it pretty quick. I personally think we could have been fairly inconspicuous had it not been for Grampy, who looked like the hillbilly version of Uncle Sam. Even though he took fancy to new extremes we were grateful for his fun idea.

Wha'd you say?

2011-01-27T13:20:00.000-05:00

I was printing coloring pages off the internet and Bennett would run over to the printer and collect the pages, but he kept saying "You need to push paw". I think he was thinking about paw prints.

Bennett was feeding me popcorn and said "You have to nibble it, like a hedge hog".

Bennett had to go the the bathroom on a Walmart shopping trip, so I took him and when he finished I decided I'd better go also. Not wanting him to wander around the bathroom I made him stay in the stall with me. He kept trying to unlock the door and sit on the questionably wet floor. I finally grabed him by the arm and said "YOU CAN NOT SIT ON THE FLOOR. It's disgusting." He glared at me and said "Your bum is disgusting."

While drawing a picture of me Maya said "If anyone wants to know, this is NOT a Chinese boy."

After trying to play my old trumpet Maya shrugged her shoulders and said "I thought it would sound more jazzy."

As Casey read a Christmas story to the kids he read a part where Santa pulled a small bell from his bag and said "There was a soft tinkling sound", Porter quickly blurted out "And it was Santa peeing".

While looking back at older pictures of Miles with his long hair Maya said "I like it when Miles looked kinda like a girl. I didn't like it when he got his hair cut."

A slower Christmas song came on the raido and Bennett said "I don't like this song, I just like 'Holy Diver'!" I said "Holy Diver?" and he said "Yeah, Holy Diver's my favorite".

I asked Maya what she played at school with her friends and she said "We just played princes and dragons, but we cut the princess out". I should have know Maya's friends would prefer to be a dragon over a princess.

Bennett: "I'm sorry I spilled all the pictures Mom. Do you forpologise me?"
Me: "Yes Bennett I forgive you."

Maya was talking about a field trip her class was going to take where they were going to the public library and then a restaurant for pizza. I said "Yeah, you're going to a fancy restaurant" and she said "I'm going to use my best manners" to which Bennett replied "Hey, you don't got manners, I got manners."

After Thanksgiving dinner Maya found two turkey bones and glued them to her head band. She wore them for the next few days saying she was a reindeer.

When I brought home the thanksgiving turkey it was wrapped in green packaging. Bennett took one look and said "You got a big huge WATERMELON".

At bedtime Bennett came wandering into our room so I told him to go get back into his bed. He said "I'm not tired", so I said "You don't have to go to sleep, just go lay in your bed and listen to your music." He quickly said "I'm not song-y".

As I was reading my scriptures Bennett curled up next to me so I asked him if he wanted me to read out loud. He said yes, so I began reading out loud. He then told me "No, SCREAM louder!"

Porter saw something gross and said "Oh gross, I'm gonna gromit".

Porter while looking at a picture of Miles "I wish I had a phone, I'd put that picture on it."

While at the doctors office the doctor walked past Bennett, he quickly turned to me and said "Her dress is like stinky".

I was laying in bed the other day trying to sleep in and overheard Maya say to Porter "You even hit my nose, it's the hardiest part of my body".

Maya used the bathroom immediately after Porter and with a tone of disgust in her voice stormed up to him and said "Porter, you didn't wipe the seat off!" He tried to deny it and she snatched up a piece of toilet paper and said "ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS THIS" while demonstrating how to wipe off the seat.

Porter learned a new word after watching White Fang and decided to implement it when Bennett kept shutting the door on him. He yelled "Stop shutting the damn freaking door!" Then he glanced over at me, and realizing I heard him, said "Oh, I'm dead".

Some choice lines from Bennett age 2 "I serious do want some milk" and "My whole life is cereal mom"

After a long period of being downstairs Bennett came into my room. I asked him what he was doing and he said "Not eating cookies" (with crumbs all over his mouth). I said "Oh, you weren't eating a cookie? What were you doing?" He replied "I was eating a banana." (we don't even have any banana's)

Maya "Who wants to play Super Family?"
Casey "How do you play Super Family?"
Maya "You just be super heros and if anything drops from Bennett or Miles (car seats) we get it, and Dad you drive the supermobil and Mom you watch the super kids."
Me "Are Super Kids as annoying as regular kids?"
Maya "Yeah, their SUPER."
(side note-this was on our super long car trip. I don't typically infer that my children are annoying.)

Maya "Knock Knock"
Me "Whose there?"
Maya "Interrupting orange"
Me "Interrupting orange..."
Maya "SQUEEZE"

Bennett "But dad I like rolly coasters their my best friends".

We drove past a K-Mart and Porter said "Hey, Big K". I said "What do you know about Big K?" and he said "I see it on soda and on a store".

While driving in the car Maya asked me "Mom, WHEN can I get a dog?" I said I didn't know and Porter said "I really want a hamster, can I get a hamster mom?" I ignored him and Maya chimed in with "Yeah, a hamster would be good cause it wouldn't chase cats". (Yeah, THAT'S the reason we aren't getting a dog)

Maya - "Who wants to feel my kind of beard-ish chin?"

I threatened to spank Benny and he said "You a tough mommy."

While watching a movie Porter asked Maya "Do you know what Rodger means" Maya said "Yeah, it means Copy"

On our drive to Washington Bennett saw the mountains in the distance and kept saying "I see the Rolly Coaster (Roller coaster)"

Snow Day

2011-01-11T10:33:00.004-05:00

Casey and I were a little wishy washy as to what to do with the kids as far as schooling goes while we are staying with my parents. At first we thought we would homeschool again, but they loved their old school so much and we could end up being here a fair amount of time, so we enrolled them in school. I really love the school they are going to, and the both Porter and Maya seem to have gotten excellent teachers. There is a bit of an adjustment because this school starts an hour eariler than their last school so we're getting use to waking up at 6 am. I don't know who's taking it harder the parents or the kids (Miles, on the other hand, loves it and is pushing his luck by waking up at 5:45 (the little stinker).
We got an awful lot of snow here and the kids were blessed with not one, but two snow days. They were pretty excited, unfortunately the second day's snow was accompanied by bitter cold, so they only got to enjoy the snow on the first day. Fortunately we put forth the effort to bundle up and I dusted off the camera and got a few pictures of them enjoying the winter splendor.

Maya makes a stunningly beautiful eskimo.

Aunt Hannie taught the kids that if you wear your pajamas inside out and backwards the night before a predicted snow storm school will be canceled, I think they'll be testing this theory on a regular basis.

Post Note: Maya, missed her school fieldtrip on the second snow day and was super bummed, but hopefully they'll make it up to her. That girl loves school.

Happy New Years

2011-01-08T16:56:00.002-05:00

I've been MIA for a while, but as usual I have a good reason. We spent the early part of December preparing for Casey's finals and our big move. We boxed up all our earthly belongings and with the help of several (wonderful) ward members we packed everything into a storage unit in Boston. On the 18th we left Boston for the great state of Indiana. Porter and Maya were disappointed to leave their friends but they were so excited to be going to see their cousins. After a two day car trip (where I refused to drive for fear I would purposely drive head on into oncoming traffic just to put myself out of my misery) we arrived at my parents house. Casey spent the days before Christmas working like a mad man trying to get his portfolio ready (it's finally done and we're just waiting for it to come back from the printer). I on the other hand spent the time trying to find Christmas gifts that fit all our 'temporary living' requirements (not too big, not too junky, not too many).

We made it through Christmas without anyone getting sick, and everyone felt it was the best Christmas ever (I think we say that every year). Porter got some tech decks with little magnetic guys that ride them, a comic book making/drawing box, new church clothes, and best of all he got a pogo stick from Nana and Grampy, and a Leapster Explorer from Poppy and Grammy which he is still glued to. Maya was thrilled with her unicorn pillow pet, house shoes, mood ring, and stilts (again from Nana and Grampy - They must think my children have real potential as circus performers), she also received a Leapster from Grammy and Poppy. Bennett got some toy trucks, a Night Fury dragon toy, new shoes, and a bouncy ball from Nana and Grampy and a toy laptop from Grammy and Poppy. Miles got a toy cell phone with lots of buttons to push, another little button toy, a toy laptop from Nana and Grampy, and a mechanical guitar from Grammy and Poppy. Casey and I got spoiled also. Casey got new hiking boots, a bathroom book, and some marshmallow candies he loves. I got a new set of scriptures, ear rings, a new pot, Tupperware, and BIGGEST surprise of all UGG boots! All things I would never buy for myself but LOVE having.

After Christmas we all traveled to West Lafayette for baby Ella's baby blessing. It was so fun hanging out with the Harward's, and we even accomplished some great projects. We painted Sarah's front room and her downstairs bathroom for our New Years Eve Party. The kids had a great time playing together and got to go swimming a couple times at Nana and Grampy's hotel. They loved it. Bennett and Miles each got little colds and are still fighting off nasty coughs. The cold has been spreading though the whole family now, but lucky for us it's not too miserable.

After New Years we headed back to Louisville, and we've been enjoying our time here. Porter and Maya have started school here, and are really enjoying it, although they are still adjusting to waking up about an hour earlier than they did at their last school. Bennett and Miles and I enjoy our days at home with Nana, and Casey is busily job hunting. I slacked on the picture taking, but I have a goal to post some pictures within the next few days. I took a few today when Grampy spontaneously decided we should take the kids to Cici's pizza for 'Fancy Nancy' lunch. What fun...

A Shortie

2010-12-15T20:42:00.003-05:00

My sister, Hanny, has been giving me a hard time about not blogging frequently enough (as if I'm not busy with 4 children, 3 days of packing left before we move, 2 busy baby boys at home all day, 1 hubby who is married to Harvard Graduate School of Design, and 1/2 a busy baby boy in my tummy making everything more difficult - but whatever), anyway in an attempt to make Hanny happy I'm going to share a few funny story about Maya (quite possibly my weirdest child).
Story #1
The other day I was combing Maya's hair after her bath, and thinking what a BEAUTIFUL little girl she is. She's had a few times where she has mentioned that she wanted to play with certain girls at school, and they told her she couldn't play with them. She never seems bothered by these instances (she's a lot like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter), but as the mother I'm bothered. I was thinking to myself "Who wouldn't want to play with Maya? She's cute and nice and friendly and so many other wonderful attributes" when she suddenly looked into the mirror, flared her nostrils, and said "hey, doesn't this look like a pig nose". Oh, that's why, she's weird.
Story #2
Maya came home from school and told me that she had to bring a dollar to school tomorrow because she was buying a pony from Jocelyn. I wasn't too concerned because I thought she meant a toy pony, but as the conversation progressed I discovered that Jocelyn lives on a farm and Maya had some sort of bargain with her that she would sell Maya a "real, white, pony named Snowflake" for a dollar. I tried to explain to Maya that a pony cannot live in her bedroom, and I thought she understood until the next day she came home and told me that she had given Jocelyn a dollar for a puppy (since she could keep a puppy in her bedroom). Lucky for us Jocelyn has yet to smuggle a puppy into the school.
Story #3
I was watching a show where the family home-schooled their children and they were talking about how their children were less influenced by fads and trends (They were buying shoes at a thrift store). I was fondly reflecting on my home-school days and thinking, "Yeah, that's one of the nice things about homeschooling, the kids are much less judgmental towards each other, and feel free to express their individual styles. Anything goes fashion wise". Then it suddenly dawned on me that Maya has been wearing a big furry Santa hat to school everyday this week. She doesn't just wear it to and from school (in lieu of her stocking cap) but leaves it on all day long. I thought about interfering until she told me that her friend Kimberly loves her hat and is going to wear one just like it tomorrow (I guess if Kimberly says it's ok...)

I miss the Fall

2010-12-09T13:09:00.002-05:00

I think winter is starting to take it's toll on all of us. Bennett is resorting to creating his very own computer spaces and Miles is just running around all adorable like he doesn't even realize he's cooped up. Bennett is a total bath addict. He asks for a bath at least twice a day. It's sad when bath time is the highlight of your day. Miles has learned to jump. He jumps around like a cute little lunatic. We've started a reward system in which the kids can earn Service Stickers by doing services for one another. When they're Service Sticker chart is full they get a string of Christmas lights to hang in their bedroom. Pretty exciting, some of the services I've noticed are : trash being taken out (without asking), Porter shared his stocking treat with me and Miles, the other day he unloaded Maya's part of the dishwasher, Maya decided to play secret santa and leave fruit snacks in everyone's stockings. They seem to really like it, and I love the improved attitudes. Oh, the joys of bribery.

On another note, the storage space is reserved and Casey and Bennett took the first load over today. We're getting there. I'm thinking we will try to get everything loaded into the storage unit on the 18th, then we're out of here. Casey had his big presentation yesterday and I, for one, am glad it's over. He still has work to do, but we can breath a sigh of relief (hopefully no more absolutely absurd work schedules). I can't believe he's almost done. He's applied for a few Army Corp of Engineer jobs (I'm keeping my fingers crossed), and within the next few weeks we'll start job hunting in earnest. I'm praying the job will come quickly so the kids can get back into school, I can find a new OB, and we can start to settle ourselves into a new chapter of our lives. If it weren't for the uncertainty this would be totally exciting!

Stir Crazy

2010-12-02T08:39:00.003-05:00

We've been home bound for a few weeks now. With Casey working from 6am-12am every day we've been without a car. Porter and Maya spend the majority of the day at school (luckily we haven't missed the bus), and the babies and I putter around the house all day. Last night the kids were all jumping all over my bed (a huge pet peeve) and I turned around to yell at them and noticed they were all in their undies. They looked so cute I decided to allow the misbehavior and snap some pictures. Don't you love their "What Mom? We weren't doing anything wrong" Faces. Crazy little hooligans. Miles and Bennett both seem to be getting colds, but we were left with the car today so I could take the kids to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's and I'll be danged it a little snotty nose is going to keep us from all that fun.

Divorce and Heart Attacks

2010-11-28T21:50:00.003-05:00

Well, tonight, I was laying in bed with Maya just talking and she asked why some daddys want to find new mommys, so of course we went into a lengthy discussion on why some people get divorced, and she was awful heartbroken at the concept. She started bawling about her Granny Helen who got divorced and how she didn't know her greatgrandfather and I had to explain to her that sometimes people don't want to get divorced, but the other person does and so it just happens. Trying to cheer her up, I told her about when I was about her age and had learned that one of my best friends parents had gotten divorced, I asked my mom if she and dad were ever going to get divorced and how she explained that they would always love each other and no matter what would stay together and how secure and happy that made me feel. I then went on to explain that my Grammy had gotten divorced when she was young and had 5 young boys to raise and how a great man named Golden Charles Elmer stepped into my father's life and became his dad and how much he loved him, and this seemed to cheer Maya up...until I mentioned that I did not really know him because he died when I was 3. Well of course she wanted to know why, and I explained that he died because he had a heart attack and of course she started balling again saying, "I don't want you to die" and "What's a heart attack" and eager to change the subject, I explained in the simplest terms I thought she would understand, that a heart attack is when you heart has to work too hard because you ate too much butter and salt, to which she bawled louder, "I don't want to have a heart attack!" What can I say, the girl likes salt and butter and I guess I should have picked my words a little more carefully, but I was able to eventually calm her down.

Actual Thanksgiving Pictures

2010-11-26T19:54:00.002-05:00

We may not have gotten any pictures of the real turkey, but we got some pictures of these two turkey (and I happen to enjoy looking at them more anyway).

Porter got his first shiner at a friends house. I guess they were playing and the friends little brother and Porter ran into each other. The brothers head hit Porter in the eye brow. At first it just looked a little swollen and red, then it turned into this. And here is Maya showing off her new antlers. What a weird-o.

Old Pictures/New News

2010-11-26T17:38:00.000-05:00

These pictures are from awhile back, I just never got around to loading them onto the blog, and as I sat here thinking "I really should post something about Thanksgiving" I decided to stick them in also. We had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner although we missed our families. This was our first year staying by oursleves. I was really dreading it and started panicking when I realized I'd have to touch the TURKEY (does it get any grosser than that?). I've decided that pilgrim housewives must have united and invented Thanksgiving for the soul purpose of only having to prepare a turkey ONCE a year (they just threw the thankful stuff in afterward to make it sound more legit). After about three phone calls to my mom I finally got the entire meal prepared and it was pretty much just like I remember it. Nothing turned out weird. Bennett helped me make the pumpkin pies and the sweet potatoes, and Maya helped prepare the green bean casserole, the rolls, and the mashed potatoes. We got to have Casey all to ourselves the entire day, and (although he's back at school today) it was wonderful. I'll be glad when school is over, and I know he will too.

Now we really have to get ourselves into Christmas mode. Porter told me today that he knew just the place for our Christmas tree, I reminded him that we were not going to put up a Christmas tree because we'd be packing all our stuff and going to Nana and Grampy's house. We'll just enjoy their tree. We may have to create some festive decorations so the kids don't feel too neglected. We have been blaring the Christmas tunes, so that helps with the spirit around here too.

In other news Casey has started submitting job applications (stressful yet exciting). I can't wait to find out what will happen to us. I am (not so) secretly hoping for a Army Corp of Engineer job, but I keep praying that we'll get whatever job will be best for our family. I know the Lord knows better than we do, but incase he want's to know my preference I'll be happy to oblige. Also we had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and found out we will be blessed with another little Elmer boy. Missy was a little sad. She loves her brothers, but was really hoping for a sister. She may have cried a bit when I told her it was another boy, but she got over it quickly and is now just enjoying looking at pictures of Baby Ella (her new cousin). Now for the naming of this little guy. I seriously have a fondness for the names Hank, and Ender. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to go with Ender for real, but I think Ender Elmer has a nice ring to it. Casey it leaning towards Harvey, and the kids keep suggesting totally normal names like Jack, Alex, basically all names of friends from their classes. We'll keep thinking I'm but the poor guy will probably still be nameless two days after he gets here.

The Goodies?

2010-11-22T17:17:00.006-05:00

Ok, so by no means are they GREAT, but they are good enough and at least I don't feel like my entire efforts were a waste. Some peoples pictures turned out better than others, but we could always try again...or not!

My only goal for today...

2010-11-20T18:22:00.005-05:00

I simply wanted a few pictures of the kids. One of each kid individually for our wall (judging from the pictures on our walls you'd think we only have two children), and one of them all together for my dads office desk. I think I just have the kind of kids that are darn cute in real life, but not so photogenic.

It wasn't from lack of preparation either. I put a lot of though and energy into picking their clothes out (and Maya never took her sweatshirt off), and fixing their hair (Maya's hair got snagged on every low hanging branch on the hike to the photo spot, and the boys rough housed their spikes into submission). I think next time we'll just cough up the $8.00 it cost to have their pictures done at WalMart. They may not look the best, but they'll sure be a heck of a lot less hassle.

I did get a few cute individual shots, but as for the group photo... sorry dad, I just don't think it's happening.

"Babies, you'd be better off rasin' tomatoes!"

2010-11-16T12:44:00.006-05:00

I was cleaning the kitchen last night and turned around to find Miles like this:

He thought he was pretty hot stuff, and as soon as Porter and Maya saw what he was doing, they both grabbed the nearest marker and dropped to their tummy's to follow suit.

Bennett Turns Three!

2010-11-11T19:52:00.007-05:00

Bennett had a great birthday, everything he could have wanted and more. He had a wonderful cake with all his favorite TV pals (Barny, Kipper, and the Backyardagains). He got to go to Ikea and got all kinds of fun and exciting presents. He got two Thomas trains (from Mom and Dad), Matchbox cars (From Porter and Maya), a tea set, a play rug that looks like a little town for his cars, a cool motorcycle toy (Porter is totally jealous of this present), and a monster truck (all from Grammy and Poppy). He is such an amazing little guy. I feel blessed to have him in our family.

For Bennetts birthday we also went on a Duck Tour of Boston. We all had a great time! Not a single kid is looking at the camera in this picture, what are the odds? The Duck Tour was a great way to take in the sights of the city with our actually traipsing all over town. The guide was great and the information was varied making in fun and informative. They even let the kids drive the boat once it was in the water (did I mention that the tour vessel goes from driving along the streets of Boston, to putting along the Charles River?).

Some of the things we loved about Bennett as a two year old are his amazing personality. He's the kid that will randomly walk over to me and look at me with his sweet brown eyes and say "Mom, you look wonderful". His vocabulary, it's constantly growing and he is constantly pushing the limits with it. The other day he dropped a thumb tack in the bed and I said "Are you setting a booby trap?". He gasped and asked "Did you say booby?" (Booby is a no no in our house). I told him I didn't say booby, I said booby trap and booby trap is OK. Later that night I heard him say Poop (another no no) and said "Bennett, we don't say poop". He quickly told me "I didn't say poop, I said poop trap". What can I say, the kid is hilarious. Bennett is a great kid to have around, he is usually so mellow and easy to get along with. As a two year old we finally broke him of his chocolate milk habit, but he still enjoys drinking more than eating. He loves milk, juice, and egg nog (which he calls egg milk). He also has quite the sweet tooth and I often catch him climbing onto the top of the refrigerator to scavenge for snacks. He is always so thoughtful and I'll usually catch Miles walking around with a sucker that Bennett has given him. He loves reading books, any books, and will want you to read the same book to him over and over again. He is obsessed with his cousin Addie. He is always wanting to go play with her (unfortunately they live so so so far away). Similarly he loves Sarah and will sometimes tell me "I'm Sarah's boy". I have to say "No you are MY boy" and he then tells me "You can share me". On a slightly negative note, Bennett is the WORST to share a bed with. Many a night he'll end up in our bed, and he flops around incessantly and drives me and Casey nuts, but we sure cherish the time we get to spend with this sweet little boy of ours (even if we do receive the occasional foot to the face). We are excited to see what life with this little three year old brings...

A few tid bits from Halloween

2010-11-09T15:03:00.004-05:00

Alright so my plans to redress the children in their Halloween costumes and get gorgeous pictures of them outside in the beautiful fall weather failed miserably due to the fact that its been raining here pretty much continually. Blagh! Anyway I scraped together these beauties for you...

We did some pumpkin carving and the kids taught me a new game called "DON'T EAT PETE". We had a great time playing that (minus the fact that Maya was terrified by the yelling). So the concept for "DON'T EAT PETE" is to make a grid ours was 3x5, then you put one candy in each square. One player closes their eyes and another player points to one of the candies, thus selecting it as Pete. The player who closed their eyes then comes back and begins eating the candies, slowly, one and at time. Once they go to take the candy that was designated as Pete the entire group yells "DON'T EAT PETE". It was pretty funny because when Bennett went he cleared the entire board without eating Pete until the very end. He's a genuine.

Grammy bought the kids a pack of Finger Fries. Disgusting. Not only did they look gross they tasted bad too. That's what Miles is sucking on, that kid has no taste buds.

As far as costumes go, this year Porter was a Boston Red Sox player (for the apartment complex party) and William Wallace (for the Ward Trunk or Treat, I'm not sure that's an appropriate costume for a Mormon Halloween party, but the missionaries all knew who he was:)), Maya was a Bumblebee, Bennett was a farmer (for the party) and a Lobster (for the Trunk or Treat, we found the costume at TJ Max for like $8, and it was perfect for him seeing as he's terrified of all things from the sea. He loved having those little pincers), and Miles was The Flash (Bennett's costume from last year). Our apartment complex hosted a Halloween Part with pizza and all kinds of treats and activities. Casey was working and I tried to take the kids myself (so that is why there is only one really crapy picture from that party). It was super crowded and Miles was all over the place so we only stayed for an hour. Poor Maya just couldn't understand why we had to leave. As for the ward party, we got out of the house a little late on the night of the Trunk or Treat and basically missed most of it, but they had a good time anyway. Then since Halloween was on a Sunday we stayed home and played games and let the kids pass out candy. We also made caramel apples, which Casey loves so so much. He cracks me up!

On Walden Pond

2010-11-04T16:52:00.007-04:00

While Grammy and Poppy were here we decided to take them on a hike around Walden Pond. We had tried to do this same hike about a year ago as a family, but it was raining so hard we turned around half way through and came home for hot cocoa. This happened to be a beautiful fall day and we all had a wonderful time. Our dad is so handsome...

We got a few shots here on this stone staircase and as per usual each of us looked better in a different picture than everyone else. We may photoshop them all together to create the perfect Christmas card photo. For now, this is a fairly happy medium.

The kids kept sitting on the edge of the pond and striking a "Thinker" pose. Porter was thinking about Tech Decks. It was especially funny when Maya decided that the thinker needed to eventually come up with an idea. She stuck her finger in the air like "I got it" then, making a circle with her two hands and putting them above her head made a speech bubble to signify her idea. Bennett's idea was "I know, we should get in the water". Not so bright.

We spent a little time on the rail road tracks and did a napkin check, because it seemed sutiable. When I was in Young Womens we had napkin checks at each meal at girls camp. We loved it. A napkin check is where everyone starts counting down from ten to one, and while they are counting you quickly grab a napkin and fold it into a fan and pinch it in the middle so it makes a bow/mustache/bowtie. Then everyone recites together "I can't pay the rent" (putting the napkin up to the side of their hair like a damsel in distress) "You must pay the rent" (putting it under their nose like the villans mustache) "I can't pay the rent" (hair again) "You must pay the rent" (mustache) "I can't pay the rent" (hair) "You must pay the rent" (mustache). Then everyone pounds on the table to signify the horse of the hero approaching and recites "I'll pay the rent" (In a heroes manly voice, while holding the napkin under their chin like a bow tie) "My hero" (hair) "Curses foiled again" (mustache). I'm glad I got that down for posterity! Try it at dinner tonight:) If it's not clear call me or Sarah or Mom and we'll demonstrate.

Maya was truly terrified. Like we'd let her get run over by a train, silly girl.

Sneak Peek

2010-10-31T23:18:00.002-04:00

Due to poor shooting and lighting conditions we will be staging Halloween pictures tomorrow night, but here's a little sample. Enjoy! (P.S. As soon as Maya saw Grammy in her costume she said "YOUR HANNAH MONTANA!" I laughed my butt off.)

Last trip to the Aquarium

2010-10-27T14:01:00.005-04:00

Shortly after returning to Boston I realized our Aquarium passes would be expiring shortly and we still had 4 IMax movie passes to use. Lucky for us the kids had an early release day and we loaded up the trusty mini van and headed out. We had a blast (even though we were only allowed in the aquarium for about 30 minutes, and during the entire time aquarium officials were herding us towards the door). We did make it to our movie on time and we all enjoyed learning about undersea creatures. I'm just glad we realized the passes were about to expire BEFORE they actually did expire. It doesn't always work out that way.

One of the big benefits to living in the big city is all the fun things to do and see. We love it.

Mormon Fire Drill!

2010-10-25T08:59:00.007-04:00

So we were running late for church yesterday, about 10-15 minutes late, and when we arrived, we all rushed into the hallway/waiting area because the chapel doors were closed as they were passing the sacrament. Well, we had just caught our breathes and were waiting for the bread to get to us, when a piercing loud screeching began wailing from the wall right behind where we were sitting. I turned around and saw a 2 year old hand quickly release the alarm lever and shoot to cover his ears as he began to bawl and realize that the screeching that was emiting from the pandora's box on the wall he had just opened because of him. Yes, once again, Bennett has pulled the fire alarm during church. This time however, he didn't just wait until all the meetings were over and everyone was already on their way out, no, this time, he waited for the quietest moment possible, and let everyone know that the Elmers were in the building. The entire church population began to spill out of the Stake Center, yes, two wards worth, and I ran to tell the bishop, (whom I've never met), that it was my son who pulled the alarm and that it was a false alarm. He smiled and said that the bishopric had just been talking about the ward's emergency evacuation plan and how his brother had pulled the alarm when they were kids. I felt bad when I saw the older members of the ward shuffling out of the chapel assisted by their walkers and the entire ward standing outside in the cold and slightly sprinkling weather, but, luckily as the bishopric pointed out, at least we gave them an opportunity to put their emergency plan into action. After the firemen cleared the building, the meeting resumed and wouldn't you know it, it was the day they had received our records in the ward and read our family's name and we weren't there to be recognized, but after the sacrament was over, the 2nd counselor stood up and re-announced our arrival and welcomed us. When we're late, we really like to make it known. Thanks Bennett.
PS. I just checked, this happened exactly a year ago, spooky right?