A Bushel and A Peck

Halloween

2011-11-27T21:37:00.000-05:00

Halloween was so much fun this year! Aaron didn't have to work so he was able to enjoy all the festivals.
Charles school, OCP had their festival on Saturday afternoon. So dressed the kids up and went out to check it out. My Mom and Dad came with us. It also happened to be my birthday, so we went out to eat afterwards. We went down to Joe's Crab Shak and McKenna loved being there. She danced all night long whether she was in her high chair or not!

This is Charles' best friend, Kade. I mean Batman's best friend Captain America.

The Angry Birds trunk was the best one there. The kids stood in line for a long time to take a try to get some pigs!

Dad, Mom and Tabitha went as Bucs fans and Charles is Batman, Isabella is a Doctor, and McKenna is Strawberry shortcake.

a whole hand!

2011-11-26T21:29:00.000-05:00

Charles turned 5 years old this year! I can' believe he is this old already!

He had a pretty good birthday. He FINALLY got the Batman cave he has been asking for all year. He was extremely excited about it.

His teacher, Mrs Holder, gave him a Batman cake at school. His sisters got to join him and his class for the party.

As always we get to share a birthday cake. We made it look like Two Face this year. Charles liked that a lot! It also aloud for us to use things we already had in the house.

Happy Birthday to Mommy and Charles!

Virus

2011-11-17T00:01:00.002-05:00

Today has been an interesting day. I woke up at 4am to feed Tabitha and checked my phone for a text message. My Grandma Wood was admitted to the hospital and has pneumonia. After waking at a more normal hour, 6am, I spoke to Aaron about when I should go see her in LKLD. We decided I would go Thursday after school. As I got the kids dressed for the day I noticed Tabitha seemed warm. She was still in her jammies and fussy so I changed her and waited for her to calm down to take her temp. Once I did (and I almost didn't take it) I immediately checked our pediatricians newborn sheet on whether I needed to call him or not. A temp of 101.7 was much higher than the allowed temp in an infant 8 weeks or younger. Tabitha just turned 8 weeks on Monday. I took Charles to school and headed over to the doctor right away.
After an exam and two negative tests in office he sent us to the hospital to do blood work. If it's viral we do nothing, if it's bacterial we can administer meds. I was to come back at 2pm for results.
We got back to the pediatricians and they bagged her for a urine and gave her another exam. Since 9am she had developed a rash on her torso (the doc in the ER called it her trunk). It was small red pin spots. That rash sent her straight to the ER. :-(
We arrived at the ER around 3:30pm. Aaron got there about an hour later. They did a urine, got an iv started, did chest x-rays and a spinal tap. With infants this young they have to rule out all possibilities, including meningitis. About 7:30pm we were admitted and sent to peds. The children's ER was nice but peds is so much nicer. We are much more comfortable than we were 2 years ago when Isabella was here.
It's midnight and Tabitha is resting comfortably, she's receiving antibiotics as a precaution. Aaron and my Mom are home with the other three kids. Oh yeah, those kids...Mary called and said McKenna was having interesting diaper blow outs. Since 2pm McKenna has had nothing but diarrhea. And since 8pm Isabella has had diarrhea. Sooooo, Dr. Lacy believes that girls all have the same stomach virus. GREAT! Stomach virus, we can handle!
As far as I'm concerned our prayers have been answered. Nothing more has been said about meningitis at the hospital. We are just waiting for all the official tests to be run and results to come back. In the mean time we are keeping her comfortable and trying to keep the fever down.
My Grandma remains in the hospital but is feeling better. I will not be going to LKLD to visit with her. We'll have to wait till all this has passed.

Numbers

2011-11-08T06:46:00.001-05:00

I wanted to make t-shirts for the kids to wear after Tabitha was born. I looked at a few ideas but came up with a simple number on the front. The number is their birth order. It was fun to get all the kids together for a little photo shoot. Although not everybody wanted to participate at the same time, such is life.

Isabella thought Tabitha needed a headband.

The best memory from that day is McKenna LOVED wearing her number. And she often looked down at it and touched. She is so proud to wear the number 3!

Pumpkin

2011-11-06T11:16:00.000-05:00

We took the kids to our favorite pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin to carve. It was so fun to have Daddy come along. He hasn’t done this with us in 4 years due to work responsibilities.

Our first family picture since the hospital. We look pretty good!

Once we got home, Aaron took the kids out back to play and carve the pumpkin. Tabitha and Mommy stayed inside to eat and clean up. Mama took a few pictures as Tabitha’s schedule allowed.

The kids chose to do a scary face! I asked them all to give me a scary face! Thanks for playing a long Daddy.

Checking out the pumpkin all lit up! McKenna loved that pumpkin she would touch it every time she passed it. It lasted about 5 days in the Florida heat.

18 Months - McKenna

2011-11-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

McKenna turned 1 1/2 years old October 16th. Her stats from the Doctor on 10/12 were 21 lbs and 32 5/8 inches. She’s still growing at her own pace and she is perfectly healthy. Although she did have an ear infection at the visit…

McKenna has proven to us that our kids get cuter and cuter the more we have! I mean we thought Charles was the cutest thing on Earth, then Isabella, but McKenna man she runs a faster race than the other two!

She really is a beautiful girl. She has so much energy. She is the sweetest girl and her smile lights up any room. Her eyes still speak volumes. You know what she is thinking just from the look on her face. Which is good because she doesn’t talk yet. She is the funniest thing and LOVES to aggravate her brother and sister. She loves to aggravate anyone really.

She loves her brother and all his toys, she plays with his toys better than he ever did! She loves Batman and will probably get Batman toys for Christmas.

Her and Isabella have bonded more since Charles has gone to school. They are so cute playing together. I love to hear them playing with their toys. McKenna loves to play with her babies and is a good Mama to them. She also enjoys cooking. She loves shoes. She wears one shoe at a time. And will usually chose Charles’ croc but lately has found Isabella’s more often.

McKenna LOVES her baby sister, Tabitha. She loves to pet her and poke her eyes. But when she’s not loving on her sister she will sit right next to her and look at her for as long as I let her. I tell McKenna she’s a special sister because she’s both a little and a big sister!

She is a hand full. More so than her brother and sister. She has gotten in more trouble than those two ever thought about doing. Aaron and I are having to discipline her for many things. She’s hard headed but we know this difficult time will bring great joy in our lives later. Her determination will only benefit her. (we keep telling ourselves that)

We love this little girl so much and can’t imagine our lives without her. This is my (Angela) favorite year and I love love love this time with her!

1-2-3-4 Weeks

2011-10-21T19:08:00.001-04:00

Tabitha had a great first week. She did well in the hospital and coming home. She lost the normal weight after birth and held it for a few days. That's pretty impressive. She is a great nurser and burper. I didn't have to teach her how to do either!

Her hair is so soft, her cheeks are like velvet, fingers and toes are long and skinny. Her hands and feet seem larger than they should be. She has beautiful skin and dark blue eyes. She loves to be cradled. She started wearing size 1 diapers at 6 days old.

Her chord fell off on the 27th or 28th (can't remember now) her first real bath was at home on Wednesday night (28th). Daddy gave it to her. She opened her eyes more this week but still was very sleepy. She seemed to get into a schedule and would sleep through the night waking only to eat.

Started making cooing noises while she sleeps (McKenna did this also, the others did not). Fell out of her sleep schedule and began staying awake at night and sleeping through the day. Started wearing size 1-2 diapers, mostly because we ran out of size 1 and already have 1-2 on hand. She started following us with her eyes and later in the week would move her head also. Her little personality began to emerge but we are far from seeing what Tabitha has for us. She's still velvety soft. Her hair is lightening a little and her eyes are a tad lighter also. Her hands and feet don't seem over sized anymore but her fingers and toes are still long a skinny.

She weighed 10 lbs on Wednesday October 12th. Wears 0-3 months clothes and pretty much fills out a 3m Carters footy sleeper.

She's holding her head up more and more and rolled over a few times tummy to back, but only with some help from the couch or being inclined slightly on one side. (Gotta be sure to have her laying flat)

Mommy finally figured out how to calm her down at night, hold her close and tight to my chest in the cradle position and bounce and walk. Once she's calmed down she might let me rock her while I bounce her, but rocking is not her favorite thing.

She's still cooing, still awake at night, sleeping through the day. BUT we are seeing improvement!!!

Visitors

2011-10-13T14:29:00.001-04:00

Aunt Mary

Gigi

Grammie

Mimi

DadDad

Isabella, Charles and McKenna

Papa

PopPop, Gaga, Pampa, Gigi, Gabe, and Gavin

Uncle Alex, Aunt Mandy (not pictured) Emma and Ethan

Aunt Gail, Uncle Ed, Katie and Mackenzie

Tabitha is loved!

Before

2011-10-12T07:14:00.002-04:00

We spent the weekend of Labor day in Lakeland and I asked my Mom to take some pictures of us before Tabitha came. They turned out really well.

Aaron and I always joke about Aaron keeping me barefoot and pregnant for the last 5 years. We had to document. This is at 38 weeks.

This is 39 weeks, the day before I had Tabitha.

Pregnancy has not been my favorite thing in this life, but the reward is worth it and more! I enjoyed having our children within me. I know I will miss this time in my life. But I look forward to our future as a family of 6. God has great things in store.

How Tabitha came into the world

2011-10-11T21:40:00.003-04:00

On Monday September 19th I had a schedule OB appointment. My blood pressure was pretty high and I hadn’t felt the baby move all morning. My doctor told me to go across the street for a stress test but most likely the doctor on call, Dr. Breit, would just let me stay and induce me. I was scheduled to be induced the following day. She was right and I got to stay and have Tabitha. I called Aaron at work to come to the hospital by way of our house. I hadn't packed and neither had he. My Mom was with the kids so that part was already taken care of.

A friend from church, Lori Fair, had her baby girl Eden on Saturday so she was at the hospital still. She came down to pray with me as she was discharged. Lori was due a week after me, but Eden was anxious to get here and came 3 weeks early. It was so neat to have Lori come and pray with me and Aaron as labor got started.

Mary came to witness this birth and she took some pictures for us.

I got hooked up and labor started around noon. My blood pressure was really high still so I went ahead and got my epidural as soon as things got too uncomfortable. The epidural made me relax and my blood pressure went way down and was nearly perfect. I rested for as long as I could. The nurse, Maggie, told me I'd have my baby within the hour and she was right I had her 45 minutes later! Tabitha came out in a just a few easy pushes. She had a head full of hair, chubby arms and huge hands and feet. Yes I had lots of heart burn.

Aaron is a proud Daddy. He could do this a million times!

Our first picture with our newest baby girl.

We are so blessed to have Tabitha in our lives. She has completed our family. Our hearts are full.

Tabitha Hope

2011-09-20T00:00:00.002-04:00

Birthday: 9-19-2011
5:44pm
8 lbs 8 ounces
20 1/2 inches
And she pooped at 11:40pm
Praise the Lord!

What’s Up?

2011-09-14T13:57:00.002-04:00

I haven’t updated each family member in a while so I thought I’d do a little update before things get crazy around here.

Tabitha – still in utero. On Monday at 38 weeks 1 day I was dilated 3cm so her birthday might be soon. If not she will be induced on Sept 20th.

McKenna – She is a delight. Still sweet as ever. All that sweetest comes mischief too. She can be a stinker. She is getting into everything. She climbs up on the table or anything that looks like something she can get on. She gets into the crayons and colors on anything she pleases. She throws things away, random things, like baby blankets, toys and sometimes trash. She enjoys playing on her own, but loves to play with her brother and sister too. She loves to read books on her own or have them read to her. She is learning to clean up her toys too. She can get in and out of her bed. She has learned the art of stalling at nap time. Loves animals and babies. Can say a few words, ya (yes), up, ba (baby), bird and Ma (Mama). She’s starting to communicate better with us, whether she’s using words, sign language or pointing and shaking her head. She pushes her plate away from her when she is done eating. And if she says yes to something she usually smiles, nods her head and will say ya. She loves to go outside and tries to escape any chance she gets.

Isabella – She is also a delight! She is a funny girl. LOVES to talk, does not know how to be quiet some days. She loves to dance. Loves to imitate. Has a really great memory. Learning how to write letters and her name. Can memorize Bible verses easily. Has lots of great ideas. Can be very moody. Still loves princesses but has branched out to other interests now. Likes My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and Hello Kitty. She still talks about getting married almost everyday. And her groom of choice never changes, it’s always Josiah. ( friend from church) She loves to tease her friends and family. She is influenced easily but is also a loner, so she will play with her friends until she becomes uninterested and will move away from the group without any hesitation.

Charles – LOVES going to school. Has excelled in many things in the last 3 weeks of school. He likes his new friends and his teachers. He is slightly advanced but his teacher gives him challenging things to do when he is bored. He has decided to read books now. He knew all the skills to read just never would do it for us. With confidence from school he came home and wanted to read. Now he tries to read everything and asks us how to spell words. He’s learning how to write lower case letters and numbers. And this week learned about vowels and their sounds. He’s still very kind and sensitive. Has a tender heart. Loves to play with his Daddy. Loves to snuggle with his Mama. Loves to play with his sisters. And asks about his friends often. He’s a great helper, setting the table for dinner or helping to clean up toys or other things. He enjoys helping his Daddy fix things around the house (which we have had to do a lot of lately). He's a typical almost 5 year old boy. Loves to rough house, play with action figures and just be loud.

Aaron - started the fall outage today. Loves being a Daddy. Finding it hard to do everything in 24 hours that needs to get done. Helps me out a lot thus the reason why the days are not long enough.

Angela - waiting for Tabitha to come so she can have her body back. Looking forward to having all her children together. Enjoying these last few days of three kids. Grateful and undeserving of Aaron and all he does for me and our family.

Baby Tabitha

2011-08-31T10:04:00.001-04:00

Angela is getting close to full term and having our 4th baby and 3rd girl, Tabitha Hope. Due date is September 25th, but we kind of think we will have her sooner. No induction has been set yet. We do ask that you pray she arrives before Sept. 17th. That is the day Aaron’s work outage begins and we would love to have her here already so that Aaron can do his job, earn lots of money to provide for his family of 6 and so that Angela will have a few days with her husband before he isn’t around much. The Lord does answer prayers, maybe not how we want but we should still pray for the desires of our hearts!

I’ve done a horrible job this pregnancy keeping up with ultrasound pictures and pregnancy updates. After a while I don’t even realize I’m pregnant or need to update anyone. I don’t really even know what the heart rate has been for her all this time, or how I’m measuring etc. All I know is she is healthy, my measurements are on target (as the OB says), my weight is good. Although I am heavier than I’ve EVER been in my entire life!!! I THINK I’ve gained 20 pounds. Probably by the end 25. That’s not too bad!

Baby Tabitha has been wonderful to me, unlike her sister McKenna. Around 17 weeks I started to have hip issues, but they seem to have cleared up for the 3rd trimester. I still have an issue every now and then, but it’s not too bad. Think about an old woman trying to stand up and get her balance and then walk, that’s the issue I was having. Forget trying to hold a baby too.

The third trimester has probably been the best for me. Lots of energy, not a lot of pain, and she moves around a lot but not so much it hurts. Now the last few weeks I’ve had a lot of contractions, I’m tired and she is hurting me some when she moves. We’ve had Alien moments a few time this particular week (36 weeks). Over all though I would say this has been a great pregnancy.

Ultrasound pictures:

10 weeks – peanut

12 weeks 5 days - profile

12 weeks 5 days – think pink!

About 20 weeks – face and then it’s a girl.

She had a hard seeing that it was a girl. We never saw any boy parts and she finally got a shot of some girl. After seeing the 12 weeks ultrasound the sonographer was confident that it was a girl. Here’s hoping she is still a girl!!!!

As far as getting ready for our newest addition, I’ve cleaned and purged every room in the house over the last 9 months. All that is left is some dusting and cleaning in the girls room and in ours. We need to wash everything and get infant things down. Put up the pack n play and buy a swing or at least borrow one. We still need diapers and wipes and a few infant type things but we know all that can be bought after she arrives or close to her arrival date. Babies don’t need a lot those first few days. That much we know for sure!

So the count down begins. September 1st is tomorrow, that’s the birth month! My OB says I should go into labor on Labor Day. We’ll see if that actually happens, I think I may try to go into labor then. I’ll be 37 weeks and that is 10 days before the outage. That would be perfect timing!!!

The kids say the cutest things!

2011-08-24T07:07:00.002-04:00

On Charles' first day of school, August 22nd, McKenna said two words. Now imagine the movie Bambi and when he learns to say bird. That is how it sounded when McKenna said bird for the first time. There were some large birds with funny looking beaks eating worms in our yard. She just blurted out BIRD when she saw them. I was so excited because this would be her official first intentional word. YAY! She can talk. And when we got home the birds were still in the yard and she would not stop saying bird. She loved watching them and talking about them!
Later at dinner I was telling Aaron about it and she would say it for him. Then we wondered what else she could say and we got her to say ball. McKenna loves balls so we got her one and asked her to say ball. She said it! So the rest of the night she ran around with a ball in her hand saying ball and waiting for us to cheer. She loves getting attention like that!

On Charles' 2nd day of school Isabella says, "I will miss you, Charles. and he replies, "I will miss you too, but remember I will always be with you, Isabella."

Oh those two kids are so cute! They really are best friends. Isabella is taking it harder than Charles but it's because she misses her playmate at home. Her and McKenna should start playing more together now. That will be a good thing for them both. In the meantime I will get some one on one time with my oldest girl. McKenna still takes a morning nap.

Charles comes home tired but doesn't seem to be exhausted for bedtime and still stays up late and gets up early in the morning. Pretty sure he will crash today on the 3rd day. He loves school and wakes up excited about it and wanting to get dressed right away!

First Day of School!

2011-08-22T22:14:00.003-04:00

Aaron did a little photo shoot of Charles before heading out to his first day of Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK). Charles was so excited about going to school!

With our oldest child, such a big boy! (Mommy is 35 weeks pregnant and did not shed a tear)

Daddy didn't cry either.

With his teacher Ms Holder. He got shy and nervous once he entered the room.

Sat down to meet his other teacher (we can’t remember her name now) He wanted to sit with his friend Kade but that table was full already.

When I picked him up the teacher had us all come in the room and create a circle around the kids to pray for them. Ms Holder also spoke to us about herself and her assistant. She seems to be a very good teacher and we are so excited to have a godly woman teaching our son. We are looking forward to this year with her.

I got Wendy’s on the way home for lunch and asked Charles to tell me about his day. He was pretty tired in the car so I let him get some food in his tummy and cool off before asking the hard questions.

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Getting ready for VPK

2011-08-21T22:44:00.002-04:00

In 2006 we were anticipating our little baby boy Charles to enter the world. And now, 5 years later, we are anticipating his first day of Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK). Time certainly flies when you are having fun and lots of kids since then!
Charles is really excited about going to school. Although he is anxious about me leaving him and going home with the girls. He has rationalized it as he and Daddy will be off doing boy stuff while the girls get to do girl stuff.
Baby Tabitha will be here in 35 days or less. Isabella is looking forward to helping me with her. McKenna loves to blow raspberries on my tummy. She loves babies so I'm sure once the baby gets here she will give her kisses and try to help me too.
We pray our children have a wonderful school career and experience. However it ends up being in public, private or home schooling. We pray they will shine their lights in the school system and be a witness to everyone they meet.

Boca Grande it’s beauty and family pictures

2011-08-04T15:02:00.000-04:00

Boca is a beautiful, one of God’s handy work! We are so thankful and blessed to be able to enjoy this every year!

Turtle tracks.

Every year I like to get pictures of my family at least. Trina wanted pictures of everyone together in red white and blue. I don’t have pictures of Aimee and her boys (they are on someone else’s camera)

Trina made the girls dresses. I love them!

Alex, Mandy, Emma and Ethan

Gigi and PopPop’s grandkids.

McKenna, Emma, Charles, Isabella, Gavin, Gabriel, and Ethan

We all had so much fun with Gigi and PopPop this year. We didn’t see much of Grammie and Papa this week or Andy, Angel, Caleb, Cailey and Ellie. They all were sick at some point in the week or had to work. But we all had a good time together when we were together.

Cheers! for another fun week at Boca Grande!

Boca Grande on the Boat!

2011-08-03T08:47:00.000-04:00

Finally, Papa bought a boat! He has said it for many many years that he wants a boat and finally he got one! The kids enjoyed the boat a lot. The men tried to go fishing but never caught anything. As far as I know Papa still hasn’t caught anything on this boat yet!

The first day we got there we took the kids for a boat ride. I went on it but after a bumpy ride I decided that me and Baby Tabitha would go on it another year.

Uncle Andy, Ethan, Charles, Emma, Isabella, Me and Caleb. Mandy and Alex were on the boat too.

We had Charles’ hair in a mohawk and he had gel in it the day before. We didn’t give him a bath yet and once we got on the boat his hair spiked right up and stayed that way!

They could see shells on the bottom.

They each got a turn at the wheel!

Somebody had the idea for the kids to jump off the boat. Well that was the best idea ever. I heard lots of cool stories. (Mandy was there to capture some cool jumps)

Finally the day arrived for the kids to go tubing! I don’t think any of them knew what tubing was but they got to go in the boat and that was cool enough! Once they learned what tubing was they were all excited!

The story is Charles and Aaron had so much fun that Charles didn’t want to stop.

Charles thought it was neat that his life jacket kept him a float.

I know I am looking forward to going tubing next year. Maybe Isabella will be up for it then too.

Boca Grande around the house

2011-08-02T14:30:00.000-04:00

This year we had more rain than we usually do. So we played in the house a lot. We all brought toys, games, and crafts for the kids so we did a little of everything all week long.

We also kept busy by visiting with Cierra and Nate at their apartment. And we saw Cars 2 in the theatre. We took 5 kids and 3 of them fell asleep during it. Oh well. We did go at nap time!

McKenna was happy with a ball and the goggles.

Grammie had a big birthday this year so we had the kids decorate a box for her. We asked all the kids to write a special note to her. Mandy and Emma are working hard on Emma’s letter.

Charles writing his letter to Grammie.

Isabella drawing a picture for Grammie.

Each child made dots on the box and glued something on. We also had shells and a picture to put on the box.

Emma proudly displaying the box top.

They all gave it to her together. And she enjoyed reading their notes. The adults wrote a message on the bottom of the box. She got a good laugh out of it at least!

Trina with her boys. Although they aren’t boys anymore. They enjoyed cooking together.

The games were a lot of fun this year.

Craft time with Gigi.

Baking a cake with Gigi. This was fun fetti cake and Isabella would call it, Funny Cake. So all week long we had Funny Cake!

Sometimes a movie was in order! Ethan and Isabella loved sitting in the basket. I don’t know if any of the other kids got to sit in it.

McKenna and Gavin enjoyed being on the porch. McKenna loves being outside so she was so excited she could do this!

I brought some nail polish for the girls, but the boys were interested so Ethan and Charles got one blue super hero toe. The girls liked getting their nails done. We did pink and blue!

Boca Grande at the beach!

2011-08-01T07:14:00.000-04:00

My kids were a little unsure of the beach this time. Not a big surprise. It always takes them a little time to get used to it. We do live in the city so wide open spaces and water that doesn’t end might be a little intimidating! But after a few minutes of hesitation and only a day of not wanting to go in to swim they had a blast in the ocean and on the sand!

Isabella never really warmed up to the beach. She was much happier in her chair under the tent or at the pool. But she did get out there and enjoyed making castles for her princesses and swimming.

Not a lot to explain with these pictures so enjoy the view. Boca Grande is a beautiful beach!

I enjoyed the ocean the most. It felt so good to be the water.

Uncle Alex told all the kids what to do with the sparklers. They all obeyed him! This was 4th of July and Aaron and I stayed in the house with McKenna that evening.

Once it was time for the fireworks we let the kids watch them through the windows. The mosquitos were really bad this year so we didn’t want to deal with that or keep the kids out that late.

On the last day the waves were really choppy. So instead of staying inside we let the kids go down to the beach to play. It was really windy and overcast, but they had a great time.

McKenna roamed all over, Isabella played in a ditch some boys dug, and Charles LOVED jumping the waves with PopPop, Gabe, and Daddy.

Lots of fun was had on the beach!

Boca Grande at the Pool

2011-07-31T13:54:00.001-04:00

Our beach vacation was the first week in July this year. We have a good routine when we go to Boca. Breakfast, Beach, Pool, Lunch, Nap, Beach, Pool, Dinner, Bed. It didn’t always go as planned but you get the idea of our days at the beach.

I didn’t participate a lot this year. The week we were there my hip and back hurt a lot. Stairs, different bed, and walking in the sand didn’t help either. I’m thankful for our family because they took our kids right along with them and didn’t seem to mind. The kids never complained they loved spending time with their cousins and family.

My sister n law Mandy took a lot of pictures through out the week. I’m glad she shared them with us!

These girls are just the cutest. Ellie is 6 months younger than Isabella. On this day they matched, same suit and same swimmies. They are good friends.

These three played together a lot. Especially the boys. Charles really enjoyed Ethan.

McKenna in the pool for the first time (at Boca). She loved it! If we had more time she might have learned to swim on this trip. She took to it so well.

Charles loved jumping in the pool.

All the kids loved getting tossed. I love this picture of Ethan about to be tossed.

My crew in the pool. So thankful Aaron likes the water. He loves to swim with the kids.

McKenna loved swimming with her Daddy.

By the end of the week McKenna wanted to jump in the pool like the big kids. She would sit on the side and fall in. She thought she was big stuff!

Isabella getting ready to jump!

all the kids enjoyed being tossed on the board.

The pool was the kids favorite. Isabella opted to go to the pool most days. The only thing about the pool were the mosquitos. They were really bad this year. But we still found ways to have lots of fun!

McKenna is 15 months!

2011-07-25T15:38:00.002-04:00

Our baby is 15 months now. (July 16th)

She and Isabella went to the doctor at the same time for their well check ups. I had Charles weighed also to see about a new car seat for him. Here are the stats:

McKenna: 19 lbs. 4oz, 30 5/8 inches long

Isabella: 28 lbs. and 35 3/4 inches tall

Charles: 36 lbs. and 41 inches tall

McKenna preformed everything for her Doctor. She was sick with a fever so she didn’t get her shots, but they were boosters so it’s not too hard to catch up on those.

He asked about her talking and she isn’t saying anything except Dadda. And some baby talk in there too. He was concerned about her hearing but as Aaron and I confirmed numerous times she can hear JUST fine!

She loves to play with her siblings and just thinks its so much fun to be included. They play all sorts of things together. Batman, picnics, house, babies, super heroes, dress up, etc. She loves to run around the house with her arms in the air being a super hero. And she really thinks she’s something when she gets to wear a princess dress.

She loves it when Daddy comes home, she demands time with him. They usually go into the bedroom and she gets doon dooned and plays with some stuffed animal sharks (her favorite). She also loves to dance and pretty much dances to any tune she can. She’s starting to add some new moves into her dancing and it’s quite hilarious.

She loves to give hugs and kisses and now high fives. She’s still just as sweet as can be. And even strangers call her precious. Those eyes still captivate me and many others.

Oh and she wants to do all things big girl style. She likes to go to the bathroom when Isabella does and sit on the froggy potty seat. She picks out Isabella’s panties or pull-ups and has to look at each character and point and oooh and ahh over them. She loves to crawl into the van by herself (that is becoming very helpful!) She tried to stab her food with a fork and she will place food on a spoon to eat it. She loves to comb her hair, put clothes and shoes on. The girls just wants to be big and tries so hard. Sometimes she is successful and sometimes she’s not. But she knows when it works and is so proud of herself.

She’ll be a 1 1/2 after baby Tabitha is born, I can’t even imagine how she will be then. But I know she will be a great big sister, because she loves babies.

30 Weeks

2011-07-24T07:23:00.000-04:00

Baby Tabitha is 30 weeks 3 days. (July 20th)

I’m suffering from some hip and lower back pain and I’m awfully tired now. But so thankful for Aaron and all that he does for me and for the kids.

Her arrival will be in September and before that Charles starts school. I don’t know how I’ll make it those last weeks of pregnancy with a new schedule but somehow it will all work out.

Meeting Friends for the first time

2011-07-23T07:13:00.000-04:00

It’s strange to say that we met our Utah friends for the first time at a Disney Resort. Because of the internet we became friends long before we spoke face to face.

Isabella was born in June and Bridgette was born in July the same year. Both girls have HD. Bridgette’s Mom did what I did and began to research and join HD support groups. Through the groups and Facebook, Kelly and I became friends.

We both have blogs and from time to time we would allow our girls to look at pictures of each other and they soon started recognizing each other’s faces.

I know for me it was so cool to see Isabella light up when she saw a video or a picture of her friend Bridgette.

In July of 2009 our girls were in the hospital at the same time having the same surgery done. Colostomy (Ileostomy for Bridgette) removal! Kelly and I Facebook chatted most evenings to see how we were doing and how the girls were doing. It was so comforting to know that someone else was going through the same thing I was at the same time! The Lord is good.

This past May, Kelly’s family came to Disney for vacation and we met up with them at one of our favorite restaurants, Boma. The girls met each other and seemed to hit it off right away. Charles liked Bridgette too.

Kelly and I hit it off right away also! We just picked up like we’d seen each other just the other day. We had, sort of, on-line.

The girls sat next to each other and had so much fun together. We talked about HD but mostly we just enjoyed each other and filled in blanks that the internet leaves out.

I thought Kelly would be taller. And Bridgette is even more beautiful in person.

Jeff, Kelly’s husband, didn’t make the trip this time but I know Aaron would have enjoyed seeing him and talking. They seem to have a lot in common. Charles wore his sister shirt just for Jeff.

We had such a great time with Kelly, Bridgette and their family. I hope that we can go out their way soon and visit on their turf.

Potty Training Isabella: the epic tale

2011-07-22T10:23:00.000-04:00

As most of you know Isabella has Hirschsprungs Disease. If you didn’t know that then click the words for the definition. Aaron and I had no clue how to prepare ourselves or her for this. We aren’t saying this is the right way, but it has seemed to work for her and for us.

Disclaimer – she’s had a bad day today and is in a pull up. Also, if you don’t want to read about poop and consistency and any other things about poop then just look at the pictures and watch the video, don’t bother reading this. And lastly, we do not plan to take this approach with our other children.

Isabella started becoming interested in the potty sometime in the fall of 2010. Because of her ability to pee on the potty and keep her diaper dry we put her in pull-ups. Poop was a whole other story. We weren’t sure what her abilities were with pooping so we didn’t focus on that at all. Her poop was still very soft. After a while we did start to focus on the poop. I know Aaron was tired of her pooping in the tub at bath time so we started making her sit on the potty before bath and get some poop out. That worked and still does.

At some point we both knew she was capable of feeling the poop in her pull-up and even when she was going. She gave us a stance that she’s always done when she poops so it was obvious. Whenever we saw her doing that we would make her sit on the potty.

We tried various rewards for her acts of potty training. She didn’t like M&M’s so we did smarties candy. We tried doing a chart and that didn’t work nor was she consistent enough to keep a chart going for any length of time. We told her and printed out pictures of various things we were buy her when she got to a certain point but nothing seemed to motivate her to use the potty. We even allowed her to wear panties to see if that would help her feel the gross poop. (we got tired of washing out panties)

We finally realized she didn’t really want to do this, so we backed off a little, but still made her go pee pee in the potty and sit on the toilet before bath.

Sometime in April 2011 she started to get serious about it. Started talking about it more, telling us she needed to go and saying she was a big girl. She also decided she wanted ear rings for her birthday. We were more than happy to get earrings for her and we always said we would do that when she wanted them. But then something happened. She totally back tracked and started peeing and pooping in her pull-up, to the point where she would sometimes get her clothes wet. She would hold it as long as possible and then explode. She just didn’t care. (And I couldn’t smell it either) (I know, that’s a whole other story, but be assured I can smell just fine now!)

We had to start disciplining her more for her potty mishaps. We spanked her and took a toy away. Whatever toy she was playing with that day or if we were really mad her favorite toy. At one point we had more toys in our room than she had in her own room. (it’s a good thing McKenna doesn’t care what toys she plays with) After she realized her toys were gone and the spankings were not fun she shaped up. We also had to make the decision that she could not get earrings for her birthday. We did get her other gifts for her birthday, heck we celebrated her birthday like 4 different times! We didn’t feel bad about that decision at all.

She was devastated, she really wanted her earrings. So we told her she could have them when she earned her toys back. To earn a toy back she had to 1.) tell us she needed to go potty. 2.) be clean and dry (with the exception of a small skid mark, caused from passing gas) and 3.) go pee and poop on the potty. She also got Smarties when she peed and a lollipop when she pooped. She had a lot of candy, but it was working. She was earning her toys back.

She still lost toys in this process, some days were better than others and at one point she earned all her toys back, but because it was too late in the day we told her she had to stay dry until bed time (a few hours away) and we would go tomorrow to get her ears pierced. Within 30 minutes of us telling her that, she pooped in her pants twice. She never told us, we could smell it. She hadn’t learned anything. So we started over.

She lost a lot of toys over a period of time, because she was not willing to tell us she had poop. I could smell her at this point so I knew when she went, and I would give her the chance to tell me and she wouldn’t. She would lie to me.

Her birthday seemed to be the turning point, she turned 3 years old. She decided for herself to potty train.

By June 27th she had earned all her toys back, and was asking for panties. We took her that day to get her earrings because she earned her toys back in the morning and stayed dry all day until it was time to leave. We were so proud of her. She was proud of herself!

Now she is in panties almost all the time (about 4 weeks after the ear rings). Nap time and bed time she wears a pull up. With her panties I have her wear a panty liner. The reason I do this is she will pass gas and poop comes out. It’s not something she can control right now, but she is doing MUCH better about trying to prevent this from happening. We have levels of acceptance of what we call a skid mark and she pretty much knows if she’s allowed too much poop to come out before going to the potty.

Now that we are in panties there are still rewards but not nearly as much. We praise her a lot and she gets excited when she does something right. She earns a lollipop if she is clean and dry and poops or pees on the potty. She can’t just sit on the potty whenever and be clean and dry to get candy, she has to do something. We are really proud of her.

Here are some pictures of her getting her ears pierced.

The before:

The after:

Getting ice cream afterwards.

Here is the video of her. I asked her while on the potty what was going to happen. She was so excited! (She’s also playing the mobigo) Once we got there she picked out her ear rings and was ready. She was nervous because she knew it would hurt (talked about it the entire way to the shop) But the crying ended moments after the video ends. And as you can see from the pictures above the tears went away quickly.

Like I said earlier, we don’t plan to do this again. We hope and pray our next girl does not have HD but if she does we will love her just the same. I pray McKenna does well with potty training because I am really over it now. But we have at least another year before that happens (I hope).

The June wrap up

2011-07-21T06:44:00.000-04:00

We still had cake left over from her party so we all enjoyed it after dinner. They had to wear party hats and sing Happy Birthday (again).

McKenna loved the cake this time around, she ate out of both hands! And she just loved getting to wear a party hat!

We found a shirt that was perfect for Charles a few months ago and I finally found a shirt for Isabella to wear. They speak for themselves.

One of our favorite things to do is read a story (or two) from the kids Bible. They usually pick the story out on their own.

And finally the week we all have been waiting for. VBS for the two oldest kids! One week of pure fun for them. They loved it! And learned so much. McKenna and I got to come home after I helped with registration and relax, go shopping, whatever we wanted without the other two take my attention. McKenna’s wasn’t too sure about it the first day, but she got used to our time. I really enjoyed hanging out with her so much. She’s a cutie pie!

Isabella’s Strawberry Shortcake Party

2011-07-20T10:46:00.000-04:00

Isabella’s big birthday party was with her friends from church. We invited 4 of her girl friends (and their siblings) over for lunch and cake. The girls got started by dressing up in princess dresses. They played until everyone arrived. then we painted nails. Boy was that a lot of fun. All the girls chose a color. Then we decorated party hats with stickers. After that we ate lunch and cake.

Ava

Isabella, Ava and Caitlin

Mikenna (and Mia sitting next to her)

The beloved cake!

Charles came out to eat cake.

We had a lot of fun with her friends. And the Mama’s had fun visiting for a while. Isabella still talks about her friends coming over and playing. And her Strawberry Shortcake cake!

24 weeks, 3 days (June 8, 2011)

2011-07-19T10:43:00.003-04:00

I'm a little behind on the blog updates. In this picture taken on June 8th, I am 24 weeks and 3 days along.
I still have yet to take a 30 week picture, which is how far a long I am now. :-) Such is life.

Everything is going well, looking forward to meeting face to face with our little Tabitha Hope!

More Birthday for Isabella!

2011-06-30T06:28:00.000-04:00

Isabella was lucky this year she got to celebrate her birthday a lot. And when it was all said and done she was a little DIVA. it took me weeks to get her back in shape. But I do believe we are experiencing some good old fashion three year old behavior now. On her actual birthday we let her open the gifts from us and from Charles and McKenna.

Charles and McKenna got her a Rapunzel doll and a princess flash light.

We gave her a fun play dough set.

McKenna was exceptionally cute that morning. And she LOVES the Rapunzel doll! (we have two now)

We got everyone dressed for church and had to take a picture. I love these cherry dresses and the girls usually get compliments on them.

Our big Three year old! I can hardly believe she is 3!

I was the only one that didn’t match. The boys had matching shirts on. Aren’t they so handsome!

Isabella’s doctor’s appointment is not for another few weeks. I made it so I could get two kids done at one time. I do know she weighs 28 pounds.

Memorial Weekend

2011-06-28T15:24:00.001-04:00

Most families I know have birthday’s that fall on a holiday or around one. In our family (both sides) it seems like we celebrate a birthday at EVERY holiday and then in between them too. Thus making birthday parties hard to attend (all the traveling back and forth to LKLD). Knowing that, I asked Aaron’s family to come over the weekend of Memorial Day to celebrate.

Isabella’s birthday is one week later so I asked everyone to bring her gift and I got her some patriotic cupcakes to have for the kids.

Gigi and PopPop got there first and she opened her present up right away. She loved everything she got.

You can kind of see her smile in there, she loved the shoes and the outfit! She had to put it on right away!

McKenna had a fever for a few days and no other symptoms. I took her to the doctor on Friday to be sure she wasn’t contagious. Turns out it was those darn teeth. She finally broke a few more after this weekend. But her fever was so high, I was a little worried. She wasn’t up for a party so she found a good place to sleep.

Everyone brought food with them and we fixed ribs. We’ve never done it before on our own so we had our timing off. We waited around for a while for those things, but it was worth the wait. Aaron made us a good rack of ribs!

Dessert was cupcakes, brownies and ice cream. I think everyone was happy with that choice!

Isabella opened up her gift from her cousins Emma and Ethan. She loved their gifts and had fun making the crafts and coloring.

The next day we had my parents over for lunch. We made pulled pork and ate the left overs from the party the day before. We planned to make our own food but we had so much left over we just finished that off.

Mimi made Isabella a dress and she loved it! She keeps asking when Mimi will make her another dress.

They also got her a Cozy Coupe! She loves playing in her car. She and Charles play with them for hours outside.

She was so excited that is was pink! (We have a blue police car that she played in before)

McKenna wanted to get in it, but after he did she wanted out.

Oh and you see that dress Isabella is wearing? Her Aunt Mary bought that for her at Disney. I’ll have to post about that later.

McKenna’s Birthday Party!

2011-06-14T08:56:00.000-04:00

McKenna’s birthday fell on a Saturday so we had her first birthday on her BIG day! She wore her special ‘one’ onsie I made her and her bunny ears and bunny tutu. She was so cute and she knew it too!

I prepared ham and turkey and we made our own sandwiches. A fruit tray and chips were eaten too.

I stole this idea from another blogger, but could not resist using this for McKenna’s birthday! I made Cheetos carrots. I used a Wilton cake icing bag and got green tissue paper and ribbon. It was so easy!

Because this was a bunny themed party I had Publix make a carrot cake. Oh my word it was so yummy! I think all the adults enjoyed it. It was definitely not your typically birthday cake.

Of course had Publix make cupcakes for the kids!

And last but not least McKenna’s smash cake! Another idea taken from a local friend. I struggled as what to make for her cake and they said do a carrot! DUH! So that was really easy to do. Much easier than a bunny!

The yummy dessert table with all the cakes and candy too!

After we ate lunch, I had McKenna open her gifts.

All her family was there except her uncle and his family. We had a wonderful time together. The weather was perfect under the shade. And the kids played when they got bored with watching her open gifts.

She loved all her gifts! Thank you so much family!!!

A family picture.

Taking her first taste of cake. She was a lot harder to keep cake from her first year. I’m pretty sure she had cake and other sweets but I didn’t give it to her. Most likely it was her Aunt Mary or PopPop that snuck sweets before her first b-day! HA!

She didn’t do too bad.

We had the grand parents get a picture with her too.

The kids enjoyed their cupcakes, as usual.

The end result of her smash cake! She was really thirsty after all that!

After cake time I asked Aunt Mary to do a craft with the kids. And then it was time to hunt some eggs.

The party was a HUGE success.

I also had little Chinese take out boxes full of goodies for all the kids to take home. I did a lot of Target one spot shopping weeks in advance to cover that! Making it an Easter theme was easy in that department!

Thanks to everyone who came over to celebrate our little girl! We had so much fun and made so many wonderful memories for McKenna!

Easter was in April, right?

2011-06-13T20:33:00.001-04:00

We had a busy Easter season. It started with McKenna’s birthday (have I blogged about McKenna’s birthday?) Her birthday fell on Palm Sunday. That is my favorite day of the year, so I was so excited to go to church and celebrate.

Later that week our church had a little preschool Easter egg hunt and activities. The kids hunted and decorated eggs, made a craft or two, played games, had story time and ate lunch. It was a fun morning for all of us.

My kids waiting for story time to begin.

We decided it would be easier to spend Easter in Lakeland this year. Aaron’s Mom, Gigi, always does a Gigi camp just before Easter and she did it this year on Easter weekend. The kids always have a good time with this. Gigi and PopPop had lots of fun activities for the kids to do. And this year they got a bigger surprise for the kids!

Dying eggs was a hoot to watch. Gavin, our youngest nephew, would dip the egg in with his hand and pull it out with his hand, having very little patience to let his dye a darker color. The older boys, Charles, Gabe and Ethan would put an egg in and go play out in the yard for a bit, then come back to take the egg out. The two girls, Isabella and Emma, stayed by their eggs till they were done. All of them had their own way which was fabulous!

McKenna enjoyed being held while the egg dying commenced.

Time to hunt eggs!

This was McKenna’s first Easter, kind of weird because she was born after Easter last year and her 1st birthday was before Easter this year. She loved playing with the eggs!

The big surprise this year was the blow up water slide. The kids were so excited to play on this. I think the adults would have gone on it, but no one would really give in. Aaron and Aimee went for the kids sake.

Some kids had a hard time getting up the ladder.

Aaron took his girls down the slide. McKenna was not a fan. Isabella loved it though!

We spent the night with Gigi and PopPop and the Easter bunny came to see them there. He brought small baskets this year, that just so happened to be the same baskets Gigi gave all the kids at Gigi Camp!

Our family of 5 Easter morning. Gigi and Mimi made the girls dresses and they were so cute!

We went to Scott Lake Baptist church Easter morning. The kids know the nursery pretty well and the next day my Dad was to have open heart surgery so we wanted to spend a lot of time with them.

After lunch the kids hunted Easter eggs. Before this though, Daddad had to spray them down with the water hose.

Isabella only wanted to find the pretty eggs.

The next day my Dad under went open heart surgery at the local hospital. He had a triple by-pass. He did very well and was home on Thursday. I’m writing about this in June and he is already back to work, and getting better and stronger each day. Praise the Lord for finding this problem early on and having him come out of it healthy and doing better.

24 weeks 3 days, 109 days to go!

2011-06-08T22:41:00.002-04:00

Baby Tabitha is growing strong and becoming more and more in charge of her Mama's body. Those two little kids next to her call her Tabifa. And Isabella thinks she has a baby in her tummy too. She said today that she will squeeze the poop and her baby out into the toilet!

Somebunny turned One! -McKenna

2011-06-07T16:44:00.001-04:00

McKenna turned one on April 16th. Her birthday party was on her birthday, so she had quite a fun day celebrating.

We can’t believe McKenna is one. It doesn’t seem like a year has gone by since we held her in the hospital for the first time. She’s been a joy in our life and we aren’t complete with out her. She is so precious and sweet and complete strangers say those exact words about her when they see her. It’s amazing how babies can’t hind their personalities like adults do.

McKenna is a Mama’s girl. She loves her Daddy and siblings but when push comes to shove she wants her Mama. When Daddy gets home from work she follows him back to his room and demands some attention from him, but after that she is right back to Mama. Now that isn’t to say she and I are joint at the hip. But McKenna just wants me when she is hungry, tired, upset, and when she wants to snuggle.

She plays really well on her own. We often have to go look for her. She doesn’t always come when we call her. She loves to play with her brother and sister and their toys. She and Charles have a special bond. However, she and Isabella have become closer and like to do girly things together. McKenna loves anything with a princess on it or pink. She often likes to have a purse around her neck (so she can crawl with it) and a head band on her head. She likes to try and get dressed and put shoes on too. She gets really excited over finding pretty toys. But the girl still loves to play with a ball. She will throw the ball and go after it for hours.

She isn’t really walking much yet. She is really fast at crawling. She will cruise along furniture but that’s about it. (I’m writing this late, she is walking now. Started taking really good steps at 13 months. Walking all the time now at close to 14 months)

She doesn’t talk much but says ooohh! She’ll say Dada, and sometimes Mama. But almost everything is Dada and ooohhhh!

She really is the sweetest baby. And a wonderful addition to our family. McKenna Faith Hanke we love you!

Day 3: Cabbage Patch BabyLand General Hospital

2011-06-03T08:53:00.000-04:00

Get ready for pictures! I have to say this was my favorite day. This is Angela speaking. Aaron’s wallet got a lot lighter the last day of vacation! We drove up to the Cabbage Patch BabyLand Hospital and then drove over to the North Georgia outlet mall. That mall has a Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware outlet, HELLO LOVE! So this was most defiantly MY day!

I dressed the girls a like in new dresses and my shirt ended up matching too. That was not planned but was fun!

Once we got there they had already started a birth. So we hurried in to see it. Since they do them randomly throughout the day we wanted to be sure we saw one. Isabella was taken right away. McKenna LOVED all the babies too!

Charles was not so interested, having driven an hour or so to get to a house full of dolls! We warned him it would be like this.

After the birth of a little girl named Krystal, we walked around to see what was in the Hospital. The kids enjoyed seeing all the babies and kids. Charles finally started having fun with us.

Isabella was on cloud nine, so was I!

McKenna wanted every baby she saw. Aaron had a hard time holding on to her. We let her crawl around and see them all, but we finally had to buy her something she could drool on! We searched and searched a baby that I liked.

And then we let Isabella pick out a baby. And she was perfect! Isabella was so excited to find a baby all her own!

She got to brush her hair

Change her diaper

And name her. The baby’s name is Bonnie Belle

Isabella is a good Mama.

My babies in the cabbage. I love them so much!

BabyLand General Hospital

The evening was perfect for shopping at the outlets. We shopped until we dropped. Once we got back into our town, we ate at a Thai restaurant Aaron found. The food was really good. And considering the kids were exhausted from the day, they did very well in the quiet small restaurant.

The next day we packed up and left the hotel ahead of schedule. A miracle! We headed south. Our vacation was perfect! We all had a lot of fun and made lots of memories together.

Day 2 Part 2 - Zoo Atlanta

2011-06-02T20:13:00.000-04:00

We headed over to the zoo after the museum in hopes for some lunch and some animal viewing. Once you’ve been to a zoo you’ve been to them all. But some zoos have animals others don’t, like the Giant Panda! I took the camera out when we got to this exhibit because it was our first time seeing a live Panda.

This is the Papa Bear.

This is the Big Brother Bear.

This is the Mama Bear.

And Baby Bear.

The Mama Bear puts the baby bear in this hammock so she can do other things. The baby can’t climb out of it yet so it acts as a crib or play pin. Pretty neat how even animals know that sometimes you can’t hold a baby all day long. Mama Bear needs a break!

We couldn't see the baby very well, so the TV was the best view of him.

And my children thought it was cool, not enough to smile for a picture. But Charles might fit in with the monkeys.

Isabella got sick after this, so I had to take her. Aaron took the other kids to see a few more animals. Like the Red Panda. Our plan was to go to the petting zoo and do the kiddie stuff but Isabella needed to go home. So we cut the day short.

the Red Panda at Zoo Atlanta

We got back to the hotel and rested. Isabella felt better once we were out of the heat.

Fernbank Museum

2011-05-19T23:19:00.001-04:00

After the day at the aquarium and Coca-Cola we headed to a nearby museum, Fernbank. The kids were excited too see the dinosaur and well… so was Daddy.

Out front were some impressive bronze statues and it took some convincing to get the kids to go inside. It was worth it though.

That’s a fully articulated Argentinasaurus, all one hundred plus feet of it. They had to curl it around the atrium to make it fit. There were more than dinosaurs though, on the upper deck they had a lot of displays of native Georgia wildlife. One was a hawk in midflight. When we told Isabella what it was she immediately exclaimed, “A hawk?! Oh no! Tinkerbell!”

We headed downstairs and Angela made us get some group pictures before Charles and I got completely lost in the dinosaurs.

Behind us is a giganotosaurs, cousin of the allosaurus. A big nasty predator and contemporary of the argentinasaurus.

The girls even found their favorite dinosaur.

We didn’t go just for the dinosaurs, or at least that’s what I told Angela. We also explored an exhibit on the natural history of Georgia, and IMAX movie about baby animals, and had a look at an exhibit about mythical animals and their origins. During that we ran into a unicorn which thanks to the lighting looked pink.

“Daddy I want a pink unicorn for my birthday!”

We finished up our visit by letting the kids run wild in their playground. We even turned McKenna loose. She quickly figured out that if she crawled back into the clubhouse we couldn’t get her and she could just ignore us. While we set outside asking her to come in she just sat well back in there grinning at us.

Little stinker.

-Aaron

McKenna Walks

2011-05-13T19:36:00.002-04:00

McKenna turned 1 year old April 16th. I have yet to post pictures of her party or talk about what she has done the past year or even made her special one year video. But tonight, McKenna walked across the room a few times and we are so proud. She's been working on it for a while. Like her brother she had to perfect it before doing it. Enjoy!

Georgia Aquarium video

2011-05-05T14:05:00.002-04:00

I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up, but for now I finally got around to putting together a video of the aquarium. It's really just for us, but some of you might enjoy it too.

The video

This sums up the first day of vacation. I think we went to Publix for dinner and ate at the hotel. We played board games with the kids at night, every night.

Georgia Aquarium Day 1 - Part 2

2011-04-20T23:07:00.003-04:00

One of the first stops in our trip to Atlanta was the Georgia Aquarium. Obviously this was Daddy’s idea. Actually this was the entire impetus of the trip but I digress. For those of you who don’t know the Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the world… which really leaves us no where to go to top this for future trips.

The entrance set things up nicely with a hallway lined with by two tanks full of jacks. Charles and McKenna were jazzed, Bella was unimpressed.

One of the things we’d used to get the kids interested in the aquarium was telling them that the Georgia Aquarium had four whale sharks in their main tank. Once the kids latched onto whale sharks they couldn’t stop talking about them. When the sharks made an appearance they didn’t disappoint.

The kids loved them. Isabella and Charles would call out and get excited when ever the sharks came in view. “Daddy, Daddy, WHALE SHARK!”

After a LONG time we pulled ourselves away to take a look around at the other exhibits and there were a lot of them. Some truly ridiculously sized crabs.

Penguins, with a cool tunnel to let you get right up next to them.

A massive tropical fish tank.

And even some river biotropes with more of the tunnels to let you get in there with all the fish and for once Mommy got in the picture.

We spent a long time in the Aquarium and I think everyone had a great time. The kids did wonderfully and until it got real late and everyone real tired they were champs. The whale sharks were awesome and the kids enjoyed seeing them too. It was a great afternoon.

-Aaron

And he almost forgot. When you ask Isabella about a whale shark she will tell you. "They have stripes and polka dots!

Day 1 - part 1 World of Coca Cola

2011-04-12T10:12:00.001-04:00

We set out to drive to Atlanta on Thursday morning. Aaron and I were amazed that we got up and out the door, in the van and on the road by the time we planned to. We hit some pretty bad weather on the turn pike but it all cleared up once we got into north Florida. We kept checking FB for updates in Orlando but nothing, so we felt like our house was safe from the bad storms.

We got to our hotel in Stone Mountain late afternoon and unpacked and decided on dinner. After dinner we played games and spent some quality time as a family. We all got a good nights rest.

We woke up at the usual time 7am! Headed downstairs for free breakfast and got ready to go to The World of Coca Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. We bought a City Pass so we were all ready to get our booklet and go site seeing!

Our first stop was Coke, there was a bunch of kids there on a field trip so the experience was not as enjoyable as it could have been. We still had fun being there.

We walked around for a bit and decided to go taste some coke.

Charles

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Charles caught on real fast and hit the cokes hard. At first we helped him get what he wanted and then he figured out how to do it all by himself.

Isabella

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Isabella found one she liked and stuck with it. She didn’t want to try anymore after she found Sparberry from South Africa. we tried to get her to taste more but nope she sat down and sipped on her coke. With all the elementary kids running around I didn’t mind her staying still for a while.

McKenna didn’t get any but she had fun watching us.

We all tried the REAL Coke and got our glass bottles of coke and headed to the gift shop. We all got a little something. Isabella went right for the lip gloss and got her some flavored lip smackers! Charles got a hat and Aaron and I chose something each too.

The Georgia Aquarium is right next door so we headed over there to eat lunch and see some fish!

A briefing on our vacation

2011-04-05T08:42:00.002-04:00

We took a long weekend vacation to Atlanta and we had the best time! Aaron and I are still beaming from the fun we had. The kids also loved being on vacation and going and doing something new everyday.
We drove up the first day and got our hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn - Stone Mountain. I would recommend this hotel to anyone. They have regular rooms and suites. We got a suite and it was perfect! Very clean and updated. There was a free hot breakfast everyday and it was really good. The drive into the city was easy and about 20 mins.
The next three days was full of adventures, we went to World of Coca Cola, Georgia Aquarium, Fernbank Museum, and Atlanta Zoo. We bought the City Pass and that saved us a lot of money. We had no interest in touring CNN so we didn't use that ticket even though it was included in the pass.
The third day we drove up to Cleveland to visit The Cabbage Patch Land Hospital and then down to Dawsonville to shop at the outlets. We drove home Monday morning and got back in town around dinner time.
We could have stayed longer, we were having so much fun together. But I feel like day four would have been pushing our luck with the kids and day 5 would have been that day of vacation you think, ugh let's just go home. So our little three day (5 days including driving) was the perfect length for our young family.
Today we are home, watching cartoons and playing with their toys. I'm working on laundry and groceries. Aaron went to work. We feel refreshed and renewed by our vacation and I think that has been the best part of this trip.
I'll go through pictures and videos this week and I promise to post everything and write in detail about our trip. (I'm holding myself to this because I want to document this trip here and in a scrapbook)

10 and 11 months

2011-03-22T14:28:00.004-04:00

I got really behind on blogging. But here are McKenna's 10 and 11 months pictures.

McKenna gets sweeter and sweeter the older she gets. We just can't get enough of her!

Here she is 11 months old. We can't believe it's almost been a year!
She loves us all, especially Charles and Daddy. Although she is a Mama's girl. She is standing up and keeping her balance for seconds at a time, she hasn't tried to take a step without holding on to something. She's not really lazy about things but she'll let anyone help her get what she wants. Typical youngest child...

She's had a couple of ear aches and virus' these past few months. I hope she gets healthy soon. Although she isn't miserable or at least she doesn't act miserable. I know she would be much happier if she felt well.

We look forward to her 1st birthday! We are pretty sure she won't have any trouble digging into her cake. (our other two had no clue what to do) Her birthday falls on Palm Sunday weekend so we are doing a bunny/Easter theme party with family. It will so much fun! I can't wait!

12 weeks

2011-03-19T12:08:00.004-04:00

Our newest addition is about 12 weeks along, almost 13 weeks!
We had an ultrasound and got a really great shot of (her). The sonographer was really excited she posed so well for us.

We asked her to get a picture of the baby so we could figure out the gender. We never really got a good one to measure, but we did get this (with a few prods and pokes). In her expert opinion she thinks it's a girl. But she wants us to wait till the 20 weeks ultrasound to buy anything pink! She also wants us to tell her if she was right!

Some pictures.

2011-03-10T12:10:00.002-05:00

A few pictures taken with my phone. I'm blogging from my phone and I don't know why the pictures look like this.
McKenna loves to play in the bathroom. I don't think my other two did this, like she does.
Isabella fell while playing in her room. She hit the bed rail. The doctor glued her boo boo, so no stitches. But we can't get it wet for 5 days. So no showers or hair washing.
Charles got a new pirate gun at Disney village. He loves playing pirates! He stopped me and said "Hey lady, are you waiting fro someone?" I said no. He then said, "I'm going to shoot you!" Bam! The kid has no mercy.

What is this? A blog post!!!

2011-03-07T08:51:00.002-05:00

Hello, if anyone is reading this anymore (Mom) I thought I'd try and catch up a little. I can't promise pictures today but I'll at least attempt to write about each family member in detail.

I'll start with the youngest:
Baby #4, This baby seems to be doing just fine. At 11 weeks I'm not really sick like I was with the others. I still need to eat often, but as long as I do things are fine. I'm grateful for this because keeping up with 3 kids is hard enough. I'm pretty tired all the time. Some days I have lots of energy but crash at 8:30pm. Others, I'm just tired all day and night.
We found out we were pregnant in January. We had a feeling we were pregnant due to some unfortunate birth control issues and started preparing ourselves. Once I tested positive we weren't surprised but kind of ok, so our feelings WERE right. I think if we would have been wrong we would have been disappointed because it was about 2 weeks of thinking we were prego just couldn't test yet.
We told the family that week and tried to hold off telling others until I went to the doctor. We thought about announcing on Valentine's Day but a few other Facebook friends announced their pregnancies that day too, so we held off a week. It also gave us time to make sure the due date was correct.
Our due date was 9-10-11, easy to remember, huh? But the ultrasound confirmed a date of 9-25-11. That unfortunate birth control issue seemed to throw my cycle off. :-) After 3 kids, all induced at 39 weeks (through my choice or the doctors) I'm pretty sure this baby will be born on 9-16-11 or sometime that week. Unless I come really early on my own.
Aaron has already talked with God, this one is a boy. We have a name for the boy, it's not a secret, Jackson Jones Hanke. If this baby is a girl, we are up a creek on a name. After naming two girls and having a three different names for the last one, we are at a loss to what to name her. Jackson's been on our list for a while, in fact if Isabella were a born her name would be Jackson. We didn't consider it for our 3rd due to it's popularity, but we don't care about that anymore we just like the name! Jones is Aaron's late great grandparents last name. He wants to remember them with this name. Plus Jackson Jones has a good feel to it.
We'll go ahead and get this out of the way... his nickname will NOT be JJ. So don't even try it!
I go back in a couple weeks for the 12 week ultrasound and testing, so I'll get to see the baby again! Gender ultrasound will be around 20 weeks.
I'm not the only one who is pregnant and due in September within my circle of friends. I think there are 4 of us all due in the month. And then there a few FB/twitter friends who are also due in Sept.
A wise woman told me she believes God is building an army. I honestly think she is right. With all that is going on right now, we are going to need our children to stand up for Christ and fight this war. This of course lays heavy on our hearts to raise our children differently that what the world says to and to rely heavily on the Word to help guide us.

McKenna:
She is almost 11 months, still crawling and cruising the furniture. Starting to walk with assistance and starting to stand after letting go for seconds at a time. She loves to point to things and grunt. Loves pictures, especially of herself and family. Loves fish, her favorite thing is to find shark and grunt at her. She finds the fish tanks anywhere we go. She is a snuggle bug and so happy. She is a breath of fresh air with those eyes and smile.

Isabella:
Potty training! She's doing really well. Considering we started full on potty training at the beginning of the year, she's doing very well. She seems to be gaining more and more control of her bowel movements. She almost never pee pees in her pull-up. When she does she has to have it changed right away. She wakes us up at night when she needs to go (Charles doesn't) so that is really nice. We've been working on a schedule with her and it is working. She's doing really well with that. Her favorite movie is Toy Story 3, she LOVES it. She can watch it all day long, if I let her. She has memorized a lot of the lines and quotes them throughout the day. She has a knack for voices and can be really funny. Her timing is really good. She is definitely our entertainer, class clown!

Charles:
He's 4 and he's a boy, need I say more! He loves his sisters and plays well with them. He and Isabella get along really well. They are best friends. McKenna LOVES Charles, she goes to him all the time. He really enjoys her too and is always kissing or loving on her. He tries to play with her but it's difficult because she's so young. He takes on responsibility now with his sisters. Tries to keep them out of trouble or out of his room. He enjoys helping. He likes to learn, and it comes easy to him. He wants to read everything but doesn't want to sit down and actually learn to read. He gets frustrated when it gets hard. No pushing it, he really enjoys learning so we'll wait until he wants to challenge himself. He is exciting about going to VPK this fall. And we are preparing for that life change too. We are also considering home school, but giving VPK a try to see what works best for our family. VPK is at a christian school.

Aaron:
(Aaron is younger than me) He is working the outage. He comes home later and works the weekends so life around here is a lot different. He loves his job so it's worth it and the overtime is nice too. In fact, his job is planning for the outage. He does a lot of other things too, but this is his baby twice a year and it's the most expensive thing he does for the company. Since his MBA is done he has a lot of time on his hands (well not right now with the outage). Kind of weird for him to be out of school again. He'll be in school again, in a few years or so. He of course wants a masters in engineering too. He believes that will be his biggest challenge yet. College was pretty easy, a few classes were hard for him. The MBA was REALLY easy, only one or two classes were a challenge and I think more or less it was the professor. The time factor was his biggest challenge. He expects and hopes a masters in engineering would challenge him intellectually.
Aaron loves to play with the kids. He is really good about spending time with them as soon as he gets home from work. They love it. And I like it too, gives me a short break. :-) He and Charles talk shop a lot. It's really cool to see that relationship grow. Charles looks up to his Daddy and wants to be just like him. McKenna demands his attention when he gets home. She loves her Daddy and enjoys how much fun he has with her. Isabella also loves playing with him and likes to have one on one time with him. She often likes for him to read her a story or play make-up.
All the kids like to play video games with him. (McKenna probably will too) Whether its the Wii or on the computer they usually ask to play with him.

Angela:
Pregnant and taking care of three toddlers. I'm busy with that. But I find time to keep the house (somewhat) clean. I do my best. I also still try and do a craft, whether it's sewing or paper. I enjoy creating, finding the time is the hardest part. I love my circle of friends (hi friends). I enjoy having someone to talk to about being a mom and a wife, especially since we are going through the same things. I wish I had a close friend who has already been through the toddler stage, the Lord will provide that friend in time, I'm sure.
These days I am focused on McKenna's first birthday and Easter. They are a week apart so I sort of have to plan them both now, so I'm prepared. Time FLIES fast, even if you aren't busy with appointments and such. Just day to day things can keep me from planning the future. I have to MAKE myself do it. That has been the biggest change in me after having kids. Being organized and prepared. I've mellowed out a lot and a lot of that is good. The OCD comes out from time to time, though, which I like.

Well I guess that's about all I can do right now. My kids have been really patient while I write this and they are ready for my attention now. Which means no time to edit and fix anything wrong with this. Sorry if I don't make sense. :-)

What?!?

2011-02-22T14:28:00.000-05:00

I'm still a (the) baby!

here it is!

2011-02-21T13:47:00.002-05:00

Finally an update!!!

Aaron - finished his MBA, currently working the spring outage, wants to go to the Georgia Aquarium.

Angela - busy keeping the house in order (or just livable), loves Monday nights, is glad Aaron has more time for her and the family.

Charles - playing with a big imagination these days, loves McKenna to pieces, likes to say funny phrases (whether they are appropriate or not)

Isabella - has an incredible memory, full of energy and spunk, enjoys making friends.

McKenna - loves to play with her brother's toys, has a funny crawl when she is wearing a dress, is going to be a BIG sister.

Baby #4 - currently 9 weeks along, giving Mommy some nausea, already making it's presence known on the outside!

Does this thing work?

2011-02-09T14:09:00.001-05:00

She likes to take a bath. We put her in the back of the tub and she crawls to the front to play. I am pretty sure this is her favorite time of day.

It's been a while

2011-02-05T15:10:00.002-05:00

I have not forgotten my blog, I promise. I frequent it to check on other blogs, but I have not had the time to post anything myself. I still have a Christmas post to do...
I haven't taken many pictures lately either.
We are all doing well. The kids are fantastic. Aaron finished his MBA!!!!! I promise to update on us all very soon (within the week I hope).

More Christmas

2011-01-24T12:17:00.003-05:00

Some pictures from the day after Christmas at my parent's house.
Obviously some of these are from Charles' camera. I saw Abbey, William, Isabella and Charles taking pictures.

Charles got caught playing on the couch. Something he knows not to do.

This is a trash bag they found. I found this same trash bag a month later in the toy box. I have no idea what they were doing with it.

Love McKenna's outfit!
There is a video of the family picture, but I still haven't gotten around to it yet.

Dinosaur World

2011-01-24T06:30:00.000-05:00

We bought Groupon tickets to Dinosaur World last year and finally got around to using them, before they expired. The weather ended up being perfect in the middle of January.
We got there before our friends did and we were so hungry for lunch that we went on in to eat. I had forgotten to pack McKenna's diaper bag with food and a bottle so once we got in and sat down to eat we didn't have her food. So Aaron had to go get some, we didn't have a spoon so we used a plastic fork from a birthday party inside the park. Then we realized she didn't have a bottle either so I had to go back out and get that too. With all the in and out, our friends showed up and finished eating so we could go see some dinosaurs.

Charles took a lot of pictures of dinosaurs. I haven't gone through his pictures yet, I'm sure there are a few...hundred!

We didn't know what to expect other than knowing it was statues of Dinosaurs scattered around like a zoo. The signs and statues on I4 don't do justice to what you see inside. Some of the dinosaurs are about the same as the ones on I4 and then others are done really well and quite accurate.
We did not expect so much carnage.

Isabella enjoyed being out and doing something new. Her friend Timothy was there and she liked that, but she was pretty indifferent about the dinosaurs. She'd look ask a few questions (pretend to be interested) and move on. I captured a pretty good face of hers that I think says, "Seriously, you brought me here?" Just so you know we left a fun birthday party at the park in LKLD and she didn't want to leave.

Brian held up the kids so they could touch the T-Rex. They all loved that!

The highlight of the day was the pond with fish. You could feed the fish and of course all the kids wanted to do that. This is all of us minus Angela (someone has to take the pictures). Left to right: Andrew, Wendy, Timothy, Isabella, Charles, Brian, Aaron and McKenna.

One of the dinosaurs he was hoping to see. He was so excited to see so many dinosaurs in one place! He thought, for a while, that they were real.

Aaron likes the Dilophosaurus.

Isabella wanted to see a stegosaurus. These are my favorite too.

Can't be a theme park without a T-Rex mouth to put your head (body) in.

There is a fun little play ground that the kids played on for a while before we left.

And before we left, we got some family shots.

Dinosaur World is a fun half day activity. There is no food, but you can bring your food in and they have a lot of picnic tables to eat at. The gift shop was pretty good too.
We had so much fun with our friends and I'm glad we went together.
I will say this, I don't know that I would pay full price, but the money we did spend on the trip was money well spent. So we'll see about another trip some time soon but maybe with the family members that really enjoy dinosaurs. :-)

She's been out as long as she was in

2011-01-20T18:29:00.001-05:00

McKenna is nine months old! Hard to believe she is so big.

She has really grown a lot this month. She got one tooth and started working on the 2nd. Both on the bottom. Her hair started growing (in some places). She started cruising along the furniture and attempting to stand on her own. She babbles all the time and yells at us. Her voice is lower than her brother and her sister. But she still has a loud punch to her yells! She can feed herself pretty well now. She loves table food, especially green peas and yogurt bites. She's still learning how to use a sippy cup, she understands the concept but getting her hands, arms, head and mouth to coordinate is a challenge. She dropped a bottle feed, so she is down to 3 bottles a day, about 14 oz total a day. But she eats a lot of baby food. She just doesn't eat enough to keep up with her weight percentile.

Her stats from the doctor are 17 lbs, 4 oz (25%), length is 28 1/8 in (70%), and head circumference is 17 3/8 in (50%). She dropped her weight percentage but she's still ok, so too active to eat, so she eats what she needs and moves on.

She loves to talk and play with her siblings. At the table they will say SOOOO BIG! and she smiles real big and stretches her arms up. She loves it when they talk to her. She follows them around the house, playing with whatever she can. I found her twice this week inside a toy bin, crying, because she got in it and got stuck. She just wants to do everything the big kids do. She loves watching tv now. She gets excited when certain shows come on and dances only like a baby can dance.
She still takes two naps and sleeps about 12 hours at night. Even with teething and an ear ache (found out at her appt. today) she is sleeping well.
People can't get over how much she looks like Charles. Charles was a lot bigger than her, but they are nearly twins. And she still is in love with Charles. And he just loves her so much, he can hardly stand it. He basically has to touch her somehow some way anytime she is around. McKenna really likes it when Isabella plays with her too. She likes the pretend make-up and jewelry. McKenna also loves her baby dolls and Little People toys.
Her birthday is just three months away, the weekend of Palm Sunday. Her party will be bunny themed, complete with an egg hunt. Should be a fun time!

While McKenna sleeps

2011-01-20T06:35:00.003-05:00

While McKenna takes her morning nap I try to do something with the older two, usually a craft of some sort. II almost always involves sitting around the table talking and learning.
I took some pictures of our play-doh time. I got a laminator for Christmas and I put it to good use on some play-doh mats. The kids enjoyed playing with these.

We matched animals with their letter and made the animal sounds, letter sounds, worked on colors and shaping the play-doh to fit the letters.

After the 'lesson' I let them have free play and Charles and Isabella made this together. Charles really likes nativities and it shows!

We also have painted, colored, done puzzles, played games, baked cupcakes or cookies, played with toys, and done a little pre-school activities. It's always a nice time to be with my older kids. When McKenna came along it became more difficult to have one on one time with everyone, so I have had to schedule that time. I enjoy it a lot and so do the kids.

Fruit loop necklaces, childhood just became a little more complete. The kids loved eating these! Making them, was difficult for them, in fact Isabella didn't even finish hers because she got so frustrated.

We can't wait for McKenna to join us, but for now we are having a lot of fun while she sleeps.

Catch up

2011-01-18T18:32:00.006-05:00

My youngest nephew, Gavin turned 2 this month. It seems like yesterday he was born. He's a cute one, watch out girls!

McKenna is another cute one. Her and Gavin really have shown up the older cousins with their cuteness. They will not be left behind!

She has seemed to get over her hatred to the camera and is hamming it up now.

She's starting to flirt with me here. She tilts her head to the side and smiles real cute.

I bought the girls matching sweater dresses at Target and I love them. I couldn't wait for them to wear them. Charles had to get in the picture too. He loves to wear his alligator shirt. But I'm afraid it's getting too small. One more time and that might be it!

Girls, are so sweet.

The age old battle of good vs. evil.
And they even take turns!

McKenna is in the midst of learning how to use a sippy cup. I don't give it to her very often, but when I do it's always fun to see her try and figure it out. She also thinks it serves as many other useful things.
Seriously, doesn't get cuter than this!

Ok, well maybe this one is just as cute.
Isabella finally wore her superwoman costume. It's a little big, but she was so cute and loved flying around the house.

Christmas Day 2010

2011-01-11T07:40:00.000-05:00

Christmas Day.
This is always a marathon day for us. We start the day out at home. We invited Aaron's parents and grand parents to watch the kids open gifts. They woke me up, calling to say they were at the door. I let them in, since it was cold out and then woke everyone else up.
The kids were tired so it took them a while to warm up to everyone and to opening presents. Isabella wasn't in the mood for pictures but she did show me the first thing she pulled out of her stocking.

McKenna got a baby doll. She loves it!

I had Aaron take a quick picture of everyone before it got too crazy! I enjoyed a cup of coffee while he corralled the kids.

Charles was really excited about his stocking! He got cash! (I wonder how long $4 will a lot of money to him?)

Isabella slowly got into the swing of things. I forget she is 2 1/2 and Christmas is still a relatively new concept for her.

McKenna and Pampa enjoyed each other while we made breakfast.

Even though Trina was losing her voice, she sang a few songs with Charles on our new Wii Sing It Disney. They had a great time together.

Everyone left after breakfast and we had the rest of the morning to relax and let the kids play. We ate a light lunch and put the kids down for a nap. Before we left for Lakeland I took another picture of the kids in their Christmas shirts. The kids picked out the picture for their shirt. I made McKenna's Christmasy, but the other two I did more generic because I wanted them to wear them a while, since I put so much time into them.

We headed to Lakeland to spend time with Aaron's family for dinner. This Christmas, the kids were old enough to eat at a real kids table, so all the adults could sit and talk and eat with some peace. It was a fun time eating and talking with everyone. The food was fabulous too.

We opened presents after dinner and cupcakes for Jesus.

Isabella got princess stuff. Oh how she loves princesses.

Charles got a star wars nerf gun and he loves it!

After Christmas with Aaron's family we headed over to my parents house. It was getting late and the kids were tired. I was tired. I wasn't sure we would make it. But we did!

Charles got a Mobigo and L-O-V-E-S it! I have to limit his play time because he will play it for hours.

Aaron got a Kindle and he L-O-V-E-S it! I have to limit his reading time because if I don't he would read it ALL the TIME.

He could not be happier. I think my grandma is wondering what he got.

Mary and I gave Mom and Dad a large collage of pictures we had done. She loved it. I can't wait to see where she put it up.

Isabella got a Doctor kit. She plays Doctor every day.

McKenna started checking out all the gifts.
We had a wIt was a wonderful Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve

2011-01-08T07:28:00.000-05:00

On Christmas Eve, Aaron had the day off so we enjoyed a day home as a family.
Our church does a service on Christmas Eve for the kids and we love to go to that service each year. (This year we missed it, because I got the times wrong. We came in as he was about to say the closing prayer)
We got all dressed up and I had to have some pictures. I love these pictures. They turned out so well!

I love my timer, this is only the 2nd picture we took! The little light gave the kids something to look at and we ended up getting everyone looking at the camera! Amazing. One of the best family pictures we have!

We may have missed the service but we didn't miss the birthday party for Jesus. They also had a live nativity, we left before the animals came out. They also had snow, that was fun!

After church on Christmas Eve we drive over to a house with TONS of lights. The kids have enjoyed it each year and Charles remembered it this time. It got cold when the sun went down, so we didn't stay out too long. We got there early enough to get a good parking place and left before it got crowded.

When we got back home we got ready for bed and for Santa to come. Charles (mostly) and Isabella drew a picture for Santa.

Aaron read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (we couldn't find out book so he read it on-line)

Santa came.

Jesus is born.

Merry Christmas Eve!

McKenna's First Christmas

2011-01-07T07:31:00.000-05:00

It's all about a baby

2011-01-06T07:43:00.001-05:00

On Christmas Eve, we took the gate down that surrounded the tree. I pulled out the manger. Charles saw that the manger was empty and said "Mama, I think it's missing something." So he went to work creating his very own nativity scene. He found stuffed animals for all the roles. He got three wise men, a camel, a shepherd, Joseph, Mary, Jesus and an Angel. He held the angel up real high, so it's like it was in the sky! He was so proud of himself. And we were proud of him too.

This was the baby he chose and the blanket. He gave baby Jesus his favorite blanket to sleep on.
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed. The little Lord Jesus no crying he made...

Christmas Jammies

2011-01-05T19:19:00.002-05:00

We bought the kids new pj's for the winter/holiday season. Usually we would wait and let them open them on Christmas Eve, but I decided they could wear them longer if we gave them to the kids earlier. Charles in his Batman and Robin pj's. This is too big for him, but they didn't have his size. I knew he would like these so I got them anyway and figure he can wear them for 2 years! He had to wear the shorts too because that's what super heroes do!

I found these pj's at Carters and had to have them. Never mind the tutu, the shirt says Snow Belle. They were meant for Isabella! She loves them and loves to wear the tutu all day.

McKenna didn't get new pj's, she wore hand me down Christmas pj's.

--------
So the other day, I found Charles like this:

Silly boy!
Just thought you might need a good laugh today.

A Decade

2010-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

2000-2010
Where were you when the clocks rolled over to midnight 2000?
I was with my husband (then boyfriend) around Lake Morton watching the fireworks over Lake Mirror. It was a magical moment for us. Being together for the new year and knowing we would be together for the new millennium was exciting. Aaron was always quick to tell me that it's impossible for Y2K to happen and actually the new millennium began on 2001. He's always been a smart one.
As I look back on the decade, I've been doing so for about 10 minutes now. I realize just how BIG this decade was for me and for Aaron.
2000- we dated while Aaron was in college in Orlando and I was in LKLD.
2001- we broke up for the summer, the movie Moulin Rouge helped me see how much I was missing him and wanted him back. Got back together Sept. 11, 2001. Hmmm, that's an important date.
2002- he proposed to me on the beach at sunset. Boca Grande, FL. On new years eve we decided to move our wedding date from March 2004 to August 2003. That was a BIG moment in our relationship. We made a list of pros and cons for moving the date up, I'm a big fan of pro's and cons lists. And I'm glad we moved the date, best decision we ever made.
2003-Married!!!!!
2004- Hurricane Charley came through Orlando on our anniversary weekend. We spent our first anniversary with no power for three days. My sister put us up in the Portofino Bay Hotel for the night. Best a/c and cold Coke we had all weekend.
2005- Happily married with two cats!
2006- We got pregnant and had our first baby, Charles! Bought our first house. Aaron graduated college! (that was a BIG year) Started this blog.
2007- I lost my job in the mortgage industry and I got pregnant with Isabella.
2008- Isabella was born! The words Hirschsprungs Disease were uttered for the first time.
2009- Aaron started his MBA. Got pregnant with McKenna.
2010- Sold our Camry that was under a major recall. Praise the Lord! Bought a mini van. McKenna was born! Aaron was promoted!

In 2009 we realized a lot of the goals we set when we got married were fulfilled and we had to make new ones. We've made a few but we are struggling to make FUN goals. You know trips we want to go on, stuff we want to buy, etc. We are so used to goals like, finish college, buy a house, have kids. Those are great goals to have but we are past that. Now we are on to our 10th anniversary celebration, where to go, what to do. Just gotta plan our fourth, and hopefully last baby, around that. :-)

Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!

To Infinity and Beyond

2010-12-30T10:41:00.007-05:00

The last couple of years (maybe 3?) we have gone to Aaron's grand parents house for a Christmas party. We always have a good time with them and all our family.

We were going to take a kid group picture, but McKenna didn't make it in there before the unwrapping started. Sorry Trina!

Charles was VERY excited about a Buzz costume.

The girls finally got to open their gifts. Hey look, there's McKenna!

All the boys got the Buzz Lightyear Wing Pack and a costume. Needless to say there were 4 EXTREMELY happy boys that evening.

While the girls opened their gifts, the men got the packs all ready.
Isabella got magnetic dolls. She loves them. Her sister likes them too, so she doesn't get to play with them as much as she would like. Just can't leave them lying around.

Grammie and Papa with all the Buzz Lightyears!

They flew around the yard.

The girls joined in.

Funny it says this on the back, but
They actually FLEW!
And here is a video:

Disney Again? Say What?

2010-12-29T22:20:00.003-05:00

Well, somehow we made it to Disney again this year. (It hardly feels like we DIDN'T have annual tickets) Actually, we scored some free tickets from a friend of ours and invited a few people with us.
We got to be apart of the audience for the Christmas parade, which actually we didn't see much of the parade but we did see one performance, Mariah Carey!
(these pictures loaded backwards, so lets tell the story backwards)

McKenna hated her hate at home, but once she got out in the cold she didn't mind it so much.

Aaron was nice and held both kids up to see Buzz, while waiting in the Buzz Lightyear ride line.

We found the guns and had a shoot out!

Mariah finally came out! She was great. Very prego too! (I'd forgotten she was expecting) It was pretty exciting. We only watched her perform once because we stood through 7 takes before that. The kids (and the husbands) were done.

Waiting for the REAL Mariah to come out!

Mariah better hurry up because I want to go. My handsome husband. :-)

We invited our Mom's to join us.

Isabella waiting eating some cereal.

McKenna all warm and snug, taking a really good nap.
A big thank you to my friend for giving us these tickets. It was fun seeing more friends at Disney through-out the day too.
A few things to remember about this day. Charles and Gabe were tall enough to ride the big roller coasters. They rode Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. Charles wanted to sit in the front and we both got soaked! I changed his pants, but needed to get something for me to wear that was dry. I found a top but really needed pants, it took a long time to dry (still wet when I got home). Worth it all to ride that with him, he LOVED it!
And Isabella was tall enough to ride the kid roller coaster and the race cars. I know she was so excited to be able to do those things. She had a lot of fun.
Gabe wanted me to ride with him on the race cars and Buzz Lightyear. What a sweetie!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2010-12-23T08:58:00.002-05:00

We had Thanksgiving with Aaron's family this year. Andy and Angel Bates host it and they had all of Angel's family over too. We had A LOT of people there.
Aaron tried to put McKenna down for a nap, but like always she put HIM down for a nap.

All the cousins played outside.

This is McKenna's First Thanksgiving.

The star of the Thanksgiving meal. (It's not the turkey when you are talking about Gammie's rolls)

A few people digging in.

Brothers. I asked them to be serious, give me a smile. Thanks Alex, you follow directions.

McKenna got to eat rolls, first time! She loved them!

The girls, all of them are so pretty.

After lunch we went over to my parents house. The boys played Wii. Charles beat Aaron in bowling.

Mimi fed McKenna.

And then we went to see Tangled at the drive in.

After wen got back from the movie, we put the kids to bed (and Aaron) and my Mom, Mary and I went to Walmart. Mary bought a Cricut at midnight because they were pretty cheap. It was crazy but I got a $2 hand mixer (they were right next to the Cricut). My hand mixer died a long time ago and never replaced it.
The next morning we ate breakfast at Fred's and Aaron and I hit the road. We left the kids with my sister and folks. We headed to Tampa. I surprised Aaron with a trip to the Florida Aquarium and there was a ship behind it and we toured that too. We stayed at the Marriott Waterside and ate Thai and sushi for dinner. (Well Aaron did, I got sick and didn't feel like eating that) I wasn't supposed to get sick! We still had a great time. We felt like we were kids again, dating. It was absolutely the perfect weekend for us. We needed to get away from things, to recharge and that is exactly what we did. It also emptied out wallets, especially since the hotel thinks a breakfast buffet should cost $20 a plate! Worth it all to be with my groom!

We met my parents at Lakeside to pick up the kiddos and ate lunch and Mom wanted some pictures with the kids for their Christmas card. We went back to their house and took some more.

When we got home we got the tree decorated. Well the we in that is Aaron, Charles and Isabella. I might have hung one ornament. It's all good, because I will take it down. I LOVE to take the tree down.

It was one of our best Thanksgivings EVER!

Could they BE any sweeter?

2010-12-23T08:43:00.002-05:00

Isabella is doing so well with potty training. She wears pull-ups (princess). She doesn't whine about going to the potty as much as she used to. She almost always pee pees in the toilet. She is working on pooping. She has a hard time telling if it's gas or poop. (sorry for all the poop in this post, it is apart of life you know!) I've noticed that she gets embarrassed about us talking to her about it in front of other people. Which I am thankful for because she is modest and I didn't have to teach her that. (Charles is just know learning that) She was getting an M&M for #1 and 2 M&M's for #2. Now she gets smarties. She likes those better I guess. Right now that's the only incentive she gets. I wanted to see if she could be clean and dry for a month and give her Cinderella 2 but we are a long way from that. It's frustrating some days (especially last night) but things are better than diapers.
Isabella still remembers being dilated. It's been almost 6 months since she was dilated. We've been taking McKenna's temp a lot and if she's in there she says, "No Mommy, don't dilated McKenna!" And at the doctor office she asked the nurse, "Are you going to dilate her?" We pray for the day she forgets about this.

It's that time again!

2010-12-08T15:02:00.002-05:00

Time for me to give you a little update on us all.

Aaron-
Is currently taking his final course for his MBA!!! He'll be done Jan. 24th. (He gets a two week break for Christmas)
Is about to turn the BIG 3-0! (tomorrow)

Angela-
Made a lot of stuff for a craft show but did not sell much, so if you need a baby gift I'm your girl!
Is finding life with three children rewarding and trying at the same time. The awesome moments totally out way the tough ones.

Charles-
Is telling us he can do things because he is 4 years old. And the worse part about it is, he's right. Where did our little boy go?
Loves to play with his Daddy.

Isabella-
Potty training
Has grown into a little girl before my eyes.

McKenna-
Crawling, pulling up and babbling. She loves to talk to everyone at the dinner table!
Aaron lowered her crib. And we are closing doors behind us now, she likes to explore!

Look Alikes

2010-12-05T09:00:00.001-05:00

McKenna is wearing the same pj's as Charles Click here to see how much they look alike!
I tired to get her to hold her bottle for me too, but she wouldn't. I couldn't even get a smile out of her. She doesn't like to lay in the boppy anymore. :-( Time to store it now, along with a lot of other things! My baby is getting too big!

Around the house

2010-12-04T08:50:00.001-05:00

McKenna has learned how to crawl into the bathroom. She hears the kids having a good time during their bath and wants to join them.

She also lives her crib and humpty pillow. She snuggles down into her crib whenever we put her down for a nap. I often find her snuggling up to her humpty or chewing on the arms.

Isabella and Charles are having a tea party, but Charles is hiding from us.

I showed the kids how they could play grocery store and they loved it! Here they are playing by themselves. Isabella is the cashier and Charles is the customer.

I love playing with the kids during the day and I love finding them playing on their own too.

Williams Birthday!

2010-12-03T08:44:00.000-05:00

The first weekend in November we went to Lakeland for two birthday parties!
William is my cousin's son. He turned 5 years old.

He got a lot of cool toys this year!

Isabella helped him open his presents too.

Uncle Eddie loves to play with the kids!

William asked him Mommy to make a Mario cake. Laura did an excellent job. It tasted good too!

We also went to our nephew Ethan's birthday party that evening. But I didn't take any pictures of that. He turned 3 years old and we had fun hanging out in the back yard with the kids playing and the bonfire to keep us warm. Ethan had a Toy Story themed party.

The Costumes

2010-12-02T08:42:00.000-05:00

Cinderella

Wolverine

Tinkerbell

Isabella and Charles still talk about dressing up for Halloween. They LOVED getting to wear their costumes outside of the house.

Fall Festival!

2010-12-01T08:38:00.000-05:00

Halloween was a fun day for us all! I took the the kids to church and afterward we met Gigi and PopPop for lunch. Aaron was working until 3pm so he joined us at home just before we headed out to trick or treat and go to the fall festival.

The kids had fun, they loved getting candy from people just by knocking on their door. We only hit a few houses and only two actually were home. They got a lot of candy at the fall festival so they weren't lacking any candy due to our neighbors.

The kids had so much fun on the inflatables. Isabella struggled to do them on her own so someone had to help her.

(pictures are not in order, ugh!)
Super Grover was there! With all the super heroes I felt rather safe!

Tinker Bells flew over the crowd making sure we were all having fun!

Candy after every game! Yay for candy!

Gigi and PopPop had fun with us. We were very glad they came.

Charles plays better golf on the Wii.

The BIG slide! He went up in all by himself. Isabella tried but didn't make it up the ladder. She wanted to go so bad!

Isabella had fun on the other inflatables.
The fall festival was so much fun this year!

A halloween Party

2010-11-30T08:33:00.000-05:00

Our friends from church held a Halloween party for our Life Group class. I was unaware of the dress up part for the kids. (oops) But we all had fun anyway, Isabella just happened to be wearing her crown so she fit right in with the other princesses.
(these pictures are not in the right order)

Mary came with us and had fun holding McKenna while I ran around with the other two. Aaron was working.

Charles and Bells got their face painted.

Bells enjoyed playing with her friend Caitlin's toys. And most of all the dress-up shoes and jewelry.

There was craft time!

The difference between the girls and the boys? The boys were done in half the time the girls were.

The boys had fun doing this!

We had a great time with friends. Good memories were made.

Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll Winner

2010-11-29T10:31:00.001-05:00

Dena won the Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll Give Away!
Dena wrote:

I am most thankful for my God who saved me, healed me of a terminal illness and granted favor upon me by giving me my husband and my children, truly gifts from the LORD. I am also thankful to be able to stay home and raise my twins, something I wasn't able to do with my oldest daughter.

Dena Workman

Congrats! Dena MyBlogSpark will send the prize package soon!

Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls Giveaway

2010-11-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

Who doesn't like a good cinnamon roll? I happen to LOVE LOVE LOVE homemade cinnamon rolls, but who has the time for that in the morning???
I don't and when I want something sweet and a nice breakfast treat for my kids I always chose Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls. I would love to have orange rolls once and awhile but I know my husband is not a fan so I just keep cinnamon rolls on hand.
I love to have my kids int he kitchen with me, keeps them out of trouble. (Funny thing, the Duggars were talking about that recently too)

I don't read instructions well. The roll says to but them on a cookie sheet and few inches apart. I have ALWAYS put them in a cake pan, so I do that no matter what the packaging says. :-)
The kids helped me place them in the pan. And then had fun licking their fingers.

When they were done, I served them up and the kids LOVED them as did I. When Aaron got him he ate the left overs.
I under cooked these, it was an accident. But I will say they were still delicious!

Pillsbury provided me with the product, information, and prize packs through MyBlogSpark.

Would you like to win this package? Leave a comment on this blog and tell me what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving. I'll pick a winner on Monday, November 29th.
MyBlogSpark will send you the coupon for the rolls, scrapbook, glue and scissors.

All opinions are from me and do not reflect those of Pillsbury or MyBlogSpark

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T09:42:00.003-05:00

Have a yummy Thanksgiving!

(look for a give away tomorrow)

Birthdays!

2010-11-23T08:34:00.002-05:00

Charles and I get to celebrate our birthdays together. I always make a cake for us to share. We had some cake on Charles' birthday after dinner.
He got 4 candles and I got one.

I'm 31, he's 4. Happy Birthday!

Still in October!

2010-11-20T23:37:00.002-05:00

I was looking for the next thing to post on the this blog and I still have October things to post! Craziness has happen since the beginning of October and like everyone else it continues on through the holidays. Finally letting up middle of January. AHHHH! One day I will post about it all, but then I'll just be three or more weeks behind.
I'm gonna take it one post at a time.

Seven Months McKenna

2010-11-17T09:14:00.002-05:00

McKenna is seven months old. She has learned a lot of new things this month. She started getting up on her knees, using those knees and hands and whatever else she can to crawl! I call her an inch worm because that's what she looks like when she tries to crawl. But usually she does what ever she can to get where she wants to go. It doesn't always look pretty but she gets there.

When I took her pictures today she actually liked it. I didn't walk away frustrated and say it'll have to do. She's a cutie and loves to smile!

This is another thing she likes to do. Crazy girl.

She likes to babble, saying things that sound like Mama. She has to hear her voice, especially when the other kids are being loud too. I am still getting used to the noise in this house.

She had a sinus infection last week and is still on antibiotics for it. She weighed just about the same as the last time she was at the doctor. She got her flu shot and is feeling a lot better now. She was back to her bubbly self after just one dose of antibiotics.

The older kids love her to pieces, they often stop to talk to her or try and include her. McKenna loves to be apart of their things. She gets so excited when they include her. She doesn't like it much when they play in their rooms and she can't get back there to play too. She tries really hard though and it will only be a matter of time before she does.

Not so scary

2010-11-16T10:39:00.000-05:00

Disney has a Halloween party and Mary thought it would make a cool birthday gift for Charles. We have been just a couple of times this year. So of course I jumped on the invitation. We went on October 14th and it was a perfect evening for a Not so Scary Halloween Party!
Our favorite ride at Disney, the tram!

Watching the Villians castle show. The kids were a little scared but when they saw Captain Hook and a few other familiar villians they did better.

Mary was ready to capture the headless horseman. The parade is beginning
!

Mary and I really enjoyed the parade especially things like this. The kids enjoyed it too, but were a little scared of things like this.

But the kids enjoyed seeing this! And their favorite Disney characters dressed in Halloween costumes.

We took a break while we waited for face painting. Wolverine made a friend with Batman. They watched the fireworks together.

(the picture I wanted to post is not here, bummer) The kids enjoyed the fireworks, it was a lot of fun to watch their reactions. I hardly saw the fireworks because I was looking at them.

Wolverine and Buzz compared muscles. Charles still talks about this meet and greet.

McKenna stayed awake the entire night. Well all the times she wasn't in the sling at least. She did not want to be left out.

Charles was ready to go, it was after midnight and we were all high on sugar and low on energy.

Cinderella could have 'danced' all night, but she lost her slipper! Good thing she had a super hero, a fairy and a Fairy godmother and aunt to help her find it!

A wonderful birthday gift we all could enjoy together. We were sad that Aaron could not join us though.