Zeke Says

After supper, Zeke walked up to us, showed us his stomach and said, "My tummy is getting bigger and bigger.  I'm going to be a dad!"

Our Basement Sparkles!

Our basement sparkles!  And it's not because I spent last week cleaning.  Brittney's working on a project for her language class and she had a giant container of silver glitter.  As she was working in the dining room, Zeke and Anthony stole the container and went downstairs.  Then Zeke tripped and the rest is history.  They somehow managed to get silver glitter all down the basement stairs and all over the family room carpet.

Riley Says

I was totally out of coffee creamer this morning and was trying to get 6 kids ready for church by 9am while Steve was peacefully sleeping.  So I made my own concoction of coffee, milk, suger and a teaspoon of bakers coco.  Kind of like a poor-man's mocha.  Riley saw the coco container and yelled, "I love that stuff!"  I tried to explain to him that it was baker's chocolate, not the good chocolate, and it tasted very bitter. 
He immediately argued with me even though I continued to tell him that he wouldn't like it.  He finally finished with, "I don't care!"  So I gave him a half a spoonful.  He sputtered and spit in the sink for a good ten minutes before saying, "I thought I was gonna pass away."

Breakfast Conversation

Zeke:  "I want to go to see the grandpa who doesn't have a beard."

Taylor:  "Well, I want to go to Disney World!"

Anthony:  "And I want to climb the Great Wall of China!"

Riley:  "You can't climb the Great Wall of China.  It's too slippery."

The baby is sleeping, Steve is mowing at the church and the rest of the kids are outside doing some sort of gymnastics class with Brittney.  I have my coffe and my computer and we'll see how far I get to day.
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Taylor loves 2nd grade and has a great teacher.  School is fairly easy for her and she absolutely loves to socialize.  What better place to be than school?  It was Tay's turn to go school shopping with Grandma Connie this year and they came home with some adorable clothes.  Between that and the fact that she styles her own hair every morning, I think we've got a diva on our hands.
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Zeke thinks school is awesome!  I was a bit worried towards the end of last year because he would be transitioning from the K-1 special ed to the 2-3 special ed.  I am in awe of the special ed teacher that he's had since he started grade school because she's so good for Zeke.  She's totally loving but doesn't let him get away with anything, which is exactly what he needs.  The good news is that the person responsible for the 2-3 SE is her daughter and she is amazing too!  She was actually one of Brittney's gymnastics coaches a few years ago.  Zeke attends his regular class for basically everything except reading and math, plus he still has physical therapy, occupational  therapy and speech therapy.
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Off to work on more laundry!  More on the rest of the kids later : )

I sort of forgot to mention that Steve and I had our 13 year anniversary on August 16th.  It's the same day as Taylor's birthday and with all the kids school stuff going on, we really didn't do anything special.  Seem like that happens pretty much every year : )  I always tell him that after the kids are old enough, we'll go out for supper by ourselves again.  We were getting closer to that time until we took Sophia!
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Steve's been temporarily working 9am - 6pm at Daktronics because of some staff changes.  Usually it means he doesn't get home until between 7-8pm.  I ok'd the new time but it's been interesting trying to have all the kids taken care of so I can attend all the school orientation stuff this week.  I take the baby with me pretty much everywhere so I just shuffle around the rest of the kids for a couple of hours.  It would be a lot easier if I was rich and could just pay someone to watch them whenever I had to go to a meeting : )  But it's not like I didn't know what I was getting into!  Anyway, I've got 3 parent meetings done and just 2 more to go.
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Brittney loves 7th grade.  She got on the Red Team and I've known her homeroom teacher for years.  I actually had him as a teacher and he's a friend of Grandma Connies.  Brit also has the high school gymnastic coach as her science teacher, an aquaintance from church as her math teacher, and some more of Grandma's friends as language, reading and tech teachers.  Brit's still playing the flute in band and will be trying out for the high school gymnastics team in October.  So far, her homework has been totally manageable and she gets most of it done at school. 
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Riley's in 3rd grade and I was so excited that his teacher is the daughter of the 1st grade teacher that we loved.  Riley loves science and is really good at math.   He's developed a love of reading, especially about animals or science stuff.  His favorite part of school is being dropped off early in the morning so that he has lots of time to play with his friends.  He's a bit bummed because he just found out that we didn't get him signed up for football this fall.  I thought it was school-sponsored so I told him last year that he could play when he was in third grade.  Apparently, it's not a school activity until middle school.  Until then, you have to pay to play, just like baseball and soccer.  That wasn't in the budget for this fall so I'm hoping it'll work out next year, partly because football's my favorite sport too!
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Baby's awake so I'll try to get to the other kids updates a bit later.

Dropping all the other kids off at school and then to Sioux Falls to get the baby's helmet.  Sorry for the lack of posting but I've been cleaning like crazy since the kids went back to school and every spare minute is spent playing with and feeding the baby.

Quick Sophia Update

At the last hearing, Court was continued until Sept 1, so we will have Sophia at least until then.

Quick Sunday Update

Sandy and I froze green beens on Thursday, corn on Friday. Then Saturday she went home and Steve worked at the Swiftel Center for Wing Fest.  I don't mind single parenting but wouldn't want to do it all the time.  All the kids are in bed now except for Brittney and Sophia, and Steve is taking Sophia with him to the store to get formula and baby food.  I get to relax for a few minutes and watch the Vikings game!
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Today my oldest turned 12! 

Happy Birthday Brittney!!!

Iowa - Part 2

Riley

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Anthony, Zeke, Riley

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Riley

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Zeke's loved running and jumping into the pool.

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Zeke

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Partial view of the waterpark

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The Tornado.  That's Riley in there!  I kept calling it the giant toilet.

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Riley with the "Tornado" in the background.

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Boys playing basketball

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The resort also had an indoor waterpark.

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Boys with their Grandma Lori

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Boys with their Aunt Liz

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Zeke snuggling with Aunt Liz

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Riley and Uncle Nate

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Iowa - Saturday morning & afternoon

Another view from our hotel rooms. 

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Riley & Grandpa Mike playing backyard games.

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Awesome breakfast at the Francis house.

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Riley & I had to get in a little boxing on the Wii.

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Riley pretending he's bored because we're not going fast enough!

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Zeke chillaxing with Grandpa Mike.

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Aunt Liz and Riley

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Brittney thought she needed to tan.

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Uncle Nate tubing with Zeke

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Brittney hanging on for dear life while Riley shows off.

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The boys' Aunt Liz before Grandpa Mike dumped her off the tube.

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Three boys hero-worshipping their wakeboarding Uncle Nate.

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Zeke loved the sunglasses Uncle Nate gave him.

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Every kid got a turn driving the boat.  This was Anthony's turn and he took it very seriously.

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Riley & Steve

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Zeke, Anthony & Grandma Glenda

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Zeke snuggling with Aunt Liz after boating.

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Iowa - Friday Evening

Brittney had to check out the beach right away.

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Uncle Nate's wakeboards were a hit with the boys.

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Riley wrestling with Uncle Nate.

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T-34 hours and counting..............till all my kids are in school : )

Awesome pictures from this weekend will be coming when I have a few minutes to post them, hopefully Wednesday.  Until then, here's a picture from the balcony of our hotel rooms.

Do not ask the LORD to guide your footsteps

if you are not willing to move your feet.

Zeke Says

We've been talking to Zeke about all his different grandparents.  He wasn't so sure he liked that idea until I told him it meant he got lots more christmas gifts.  Ever since, he's loved the idea.  A few weeks ago, I told him that I don't have any grandparents anymore.  He thought about it for a minute and then said, "I'll share with you."
All I could say was, "Thanks, Zeke."
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Obviously, having lots of grandparents doesn't even phase Zeke anymore.  Today he knew we were going for a boat ride and was asking his uncle Nate if he would let let him drive the boat.  Since the boat belongs to Grandpa Mike, Nate told Zeke that he couldn't let him drive but Grandpa would.  Zeke immediate question was, "Who's Grandpa Wood?"

St Paul - Day 2

Started the morning with breakfast at the hotel.

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Then our trek to Mall of America.

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Britttney had seen this on TV and needed a picture.

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Rainforest cafe.  We didn't eat there but had fun looking at all the animals.

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Zeke was so happy to see Blue.

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No visit to MOA is complete without stopping at Lego Land.

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Look at all the Legos!

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The Disney Store

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He's never seen cookies so big!

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Brittney stood in line with Zeke for 25 minutes to see Dora & Diego.

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Dora made it a point to hug Brittney too even though Brit was practically running away.

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Zeke's proudest moment

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After the mall, we headed back to the Children's Hospital.  They took lots of X-rays of his legs, feet, ankles, hips and spine and then we met with the orthopedic surgeon.  Zeke's entertaining himself while we wait.

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I'm always impressed with Gillette Children's Hospital.  They are so accommodating to families and kids.  When we take Zeke's X-rays, I'm allowed to be right next to him.  This bathroom has the usual amenities and infant changing areas but also has two table for changing larger children.

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Once we left the hospital, we drove down to Iowa. 

There were tornados and thunderstorms just to the east of us but we missed them all by 20 miles or so. 

The kids slept while I blasted my music and sang along all by myself :)