My oh my 6 YEARS OLD

This time 6 years ago Jake was calling all parents and friends (those coming to the hospital for the birth of Laci) to HURRY to the hospital, she was on her way out. My doctor even barely made it! It was the beginning of such a wonderful life ahead for Jake and I. As any first time parents, we had no idea what were doing (and still don't)!

Laci has had a very big year. She has gone from living in Huntsville, to Louisiana (with grandparents and all the fun that comes with that), to landing in Greenville.

Besides moving, the biggest part of her life this year has been kindergarten. She LOVES all of it (except computer lab). In fact, there are some days I really wonder if I ever need to send Luke to school. She comes home and "teaches" him everything she is learning. Really, he could just skip kindergarten. Her teacher, who is GREAT, uses big words around the kids to increase their vocabulary. To hear some of these words used at home, just cracks me up. Here are the 2 latest:

#1: Laci got a doll house last Christmas and we have been furnishing it this Christmas/birthday (due to destruction of previous furniture: refer to any blog about Aubs or Luke). It's got really tiny pieces (which we also discovered do in fact digest-gross) and it takes her some time to set the rooms up to play with. She tries so hard not to get frustrated with L and A when they frequently create earthquakes in the house. One day, while Laci was at school, such an earthquake occurred from little brother. I wanted to get it set all back up before she got home from school so she wouldn't be upset. But, I reasoned I had no time to clean her house and mine. So...she came home, saw it, and said, "who did this to my house? It doesn't matter. I'm not mad at whoever I did it, I'm just ASTONISHED." What kindergartener says "astonished"? When I told Jake he responded with, "I don't think I've even used that word in 10 years."

#2: Just last week when all the cousins were eating lunch, she comes out with this piece of information (in case we were wondering): "There are some kids in my class at school who have been URINATING on the floor in the bathroom." Of course, the response from the table, "what's urinating mean?" Sorry Jill and Chris :)

Laci is such a joy to have in our lives. When we told her we were moving and that God had called us to a new place, we were very careful with her emotions thinking she would be very sad to leave her friends (which she was), but she was SO excited about the next adventure. This is very much her personality. If you tell her about something that we are going to do or somewhere we are going to go, she is the kid who will help get the whole family excited about it, countdown the days, and is ready to always go.

She is a great help around the house. She even likes trying to get Aubrey to go potty in the big potty. Maybe I should excuse her from school for a week or so to potty train her sister. It would be worth it. She likes to help me cook when she can. And when she can't help cook, she is sitting at the counter doing her art.

With each passing year, her daddy is shining his shot gun more and more and doing more and more research on convents! He is getting nervous. We could barely watch Father of Bride recently. And, she is only 6--can't imagine what he'll be like as she gets older!

Everyone told me, it goes by so fast and it does. We love her to pieces and can't wait to see what this little 6 year old will have for us this year.

Happy 6 years old!

Thanksgiving with just us

This was the first Thanksgiving where we stayed home and had dinner with just the 5 of us (we've done it in the past, but only eaten turkey sandwiches). I decided to brave the dinner and make it for the 5 of us. I thought if it ended up in the trash (which it didn't) no big deal. I injected our turkey with my Uncle's recipe for frying a turkey. We didn't fry it, just baked it, but it was still yummy.
We had such a nice relaxing family day and I would do it all over again.

Crushing up cornflakes (perfect job for Luke--making a mess)

Snapping green beans (perfect job for Laci--getting everything neat)

eating the cornflakes (perfect job for Aubrey--staying out of the way)

Our table. Laci and Luke helped set it last night and created the centerpiece (fall leaves and acorns). Those are not Aubrey's teeth, just pecans and Luke is not praying, but pouting because I asked him to smile. Yes, I did pull out my crystal. The kids loved it. Surprisingly, Laci broke hers while drinking her milk. Oh well! At least my crystal got used.

I was trying to capture a cute/posed kid picture.

Best buddies! It's been nice having Laci out of school this week. Luke misses having her around.

Trying to get a Christmas card picture. We'll try again.

A little post-dinner football. It didn't last long before we all had our post-dinner rest. Which is also when we discovered that our 4 year old, I mean 2 year old, climbs out of her bed. Yikes! That will be another post.

All in all it has been a great, quiet family day. I'm already eating leftovers--yum! I may even attempt some black Friday shopping. Jake doesn't think I'm serious. We'll see!

A 4 year old in a 2 year old body!

Happy Birthday to our spunky little girl. She definitely keeps things hopping around here (not just Luke)! In this last year her little, or rather, very large personality has blossomed. If she wants it, you know it. If she doesn't want it, you know it even more. Don't even try to feed this child something new or different--her mouth will stay tight-lipped and her head will turn followed by a loud whine.

She talks and acts just like her brother and sister. The other day we had a new babysitter and as she walked into our house, Aubrey was the first one to say something to her, "I Aubrey. Right here." She mimics anything and everything.

She did not and will not have a birthday party or cake because she doesn't even eat cake or icecream--and she's a 3rd kid. So, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast (more for the other kids and the parents) and had brownies for dessert after dinner (again, more for the other kids and parents).

Happy 2nd Birthay, Squeaks!

At breakfast!

The ones who really enjoyed the birthday breakfast

Luke's pj's that she refused to take off and refused to nap this day. Very stubborn!

An important picture for 2 reasons: this is where you can always find Aubrey--in front of the pantry wanting goldfish, crackers, or candy. Secondly, this was a dress that I wore when I was a little girl (made by my Aunt Margaret)

She loves sitting on the counter and she loves her daddy. And my best guess is that she is eating goldfish.

Halloween and dressing up

It doesn't take Halloween to dress up in our house, but it does make dressing up more fun if you get candy for it. I love holidays when the kids get candy b/c I get to eat all of their peanut-filled candy. But, L and L have outsmarted me. They knew they would get more candy they could eat if they told people, "no peanut kind." There went my Halloween treats. Oh well--probably better in the end :) We didn't always stay dressed up as the same character...

Jake took L and L to Boo at the Zoo!

A little Halloween festival at a local gym. Aubrey LOVES dressing up (specifically as Belle--even though she has no idea who that is)!

While waiting for Fancy Nancy and Fancy Nancy 2 to finish getting ready, Spiderman crawled in a box and went to sleep. He was not real thrilled when we woke him to go trick or treating.

My little artist

Laci LOVES doing art, which is great since we live in a city that is very art focused! She comes home from school and goes straight to counter in the kitchen and starts coloring and drawing (and reading and writing since it is so new and fun for her)! If she is not outside, she is in the kitchen with me drawing and coloring. I love it.

Not too much crazy lately...

But, there is always a tad bit of crazy. And really I should write some of those down, but it's hard to top my last post. We've stayed clear of all firefighters, 911 calls, and SMALL spaces.
Aubrey is showing signs of great blogposts to come.

We have enjoyed lots of fun things over the last month. We FINALLY gave Luke a birthday party, which he loved (I was motivated with Aubrey's birthday coming). We had a few Huntsville visitors all in one weekend, which was sweet and fun. I was able to get away for 24 hours with some girls from DPC, which I loved. During Laci's fall break, we headed up to the mountains (only 45 minutes away--YAY) to an apple orchard. They had the BEST apple donuts ever. We also went to Fall for Greenville. During this festival, Main Street is shut down for the weekend and food vendors, stages, and rides are set up for enjoyment. It was packed with people and good food and LOTS of walking. Our kids were motivated by rides and food.
Here are the pictures to prove the fun!!!

Laci and especially Luke LOVED watching Looney Tunes. Luke gets so tickled and it makes me laugh. So he LOVED seeing these 2 characters.

This one has nothing to do with any activity. Just one I saw and liked!

Installation, Roadtrip, and 911

Pictures posted at the bottom if you want to skip this part (some pics taken by my father-in-law. I never take pictures when he is around b/c his are so much better!!!)

INSTALLATION:
Jake was installed a couple of weeks ago. It was such an amazing and sweet time. We had several family members come in town for the service, a friend from Huntsville came, one of his mentors from his high school days preached the service, and one of our great friends from seminary who is in the same presbytery gave such a sweet prayer of thanksgiving. The whole service was encouraging and full of emotion. We had already felt SO loved from DPC before the service, but after the night was over, we were definitely overwhelmed with the love of DPC! We are definitely feeling at home and just love our new church. Please come visit us sometime.

The Commission

Luke after the service

Mark and Tara with Jennifer




ROADTRIP:
Sadly, we had to say another goodbye in the family. We drove to Indiana this past weekend for Jake's grandmother's funeral. It was a sweet time with family. Jake's father grew up on a farm and I think it is very beautiful. The kids loved it up there. They enjoyed running around, picking corn, and just enjoyed loving on his family. And, we got to see Hays, our newest nephew, which was fun. I'm so thankful our kids (at least Laci and Luke) will have memories of their great-grandparents and remember going to the farm.
On a sidenote: the trip up there was absolutely gorgeous. We drove through Asheville, Knoxville, Lexington and loved it.



911:
If you are friends with me on facebook, you somewhat saw this story, but here is the more "lengthy" version. I ran to the grocery store before picking Laci up from school. Aubrey fell asleep in the car (I'm still trying to figure out this whole nap thing with Laci's pick up time--killer). So, in an attempt to keep her asleep in the car for the least amount of time so she would transfer into her bed, I went ahead and got in the car pick up line a little early. Of course there was already a line of cars and I knew it wouldn't be moving for another 20 minutes. So, I told Luke he could unbuckle and "roam about the cabin." The next thing I know he is on his belly, with his head under the very back seat of our van screaming that he is stuck. Now, understand that drama runs high in our family so I wasn't too concerned yet. So, I got out of my car a little frustrated and tried to talk him into scooting backwards; he cried more. I opened the very back of the van to see if he could scoot forward; more screaming. A couple of moms started to get out of their cars seeing that I may need help. I began hearing cars turn their engines on which meant the pick up was starting and cars were moving. I panicked big time. One of the moms finally said, "you need to call 911." I panicked even more. I've never called 911. Isn't this for emergencies only? At this point, I started shaking and nervously dialed 911. They sent in the firetrucks/first responders. At this point, the car pick up line was NOT moving and everyone was now late picking up their kids because of the huge FIRETRUCK in the way. A lot of the school administrators made their way out there with the AED--talk about make a mom nervous. He wasn't unconscious or not breathing, just stuck. Once the first responders got there, they were able to get Luke out pretty quickly. As soon as Luke was freed, Jake arrived on the scene (how he got through all the cars, I had no idea). I calmed down and jokingly told the teachers, "he's in kindergarten next year."
I was slightly unglued to say the least. But, when all was said and done, I was very thankful for those who helped and told similiar stories of their boys and most thankful that Luke was really fine.
I'm considering taking Jake's car from here on out to pick up Laci so no one recognizes the blue Honda Odyssey!
And, once more, my blog lives up to its name!!!

Luke in pick up line when he is not trying to crawl into trunk...


Random pics lately. They speak for themselves.

The best one I could get of all of us!