flashback friday

Remember summer? . . .

. . . me neither!

multitude monday

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here.

"One Thousand Gifts":

1025. the beauty of falling snow
1026. my first shoveling stint of the winter {not-too-cold temps and light, fluffy powder}
1027. quick healing for my sister-in-laws broken ribs after a little {unplanned} tumble down the stairs
1028. coming upon scenes like this:1029. Christmas music {my current favorites are Emmanuel by Chris Tomlin and Winter Snow Song by Audrey Assad with Chris Tomlin -- gotta love Chris Tomlin and it goes without saying that I adore anything from Sara Groves' O Holy Night album}
1030. this face {couldn't you just eat her up?}::1031. a little Christmas crafting
1032. Sara finding her voice
1033. "snow" much winter fun {check out those snow banks}::


all that sledding will wear you out . . . good thing we're equipped with snow "beds"

1034. this silly girl::1035. her gangsta sister::1036. 2nd generation BFFs::1037. Joe's play that he performed for us {he's quite the ham, in case you weren't aware}::1038. a super-fun evening with some wonderful, wonderful life-long friends
1039. planning :: the anticipation is half the fun -- at least {our kids and the Newman's watching the Disney Vacation Planning video. They were completely engrossed and we weren't even really there. Can't wait!!!}::1040. 4 generations of my family lighting the advent {love} candle at church yesterday and that fact that all 4 generations of us worship there together each week
1041. children singing their hearts out for the Lord
1042. TONS of hand-addressed envelopes in my mailbox today
1043. online shopping {with free shipping -- and no crowds or malls!}
1044. my {can I still call it new?} camera

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

multitude monday

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here.

"One Thousand Gifts":

747. planning underway for next June's big family vacation
748. more than 24 consecutive hours spent with wonderful, wonderful friends
749. nice ER doctors {who remind the injured child of their favorite teacher} who staple your head closed again . . . and the dads who go along so the moms don't have to endure the emotional pain of watching staples go into skulls. YUCK!
750. tummy x-rays showing no more coins in Anna's tummy {we must have missed it on its exit during our week-long, thorough poop checks somehow . . . glad we went to much of that super fun work unnecessarily!}
751. surviving my nearly 9-hour long 8-kid day last week {9 kids if you're counting the one I'm carting around in front of me}
752. Schaeffer Christian Carlson
753. the hours at the front-end of the day, before I start waddling {by the end of the day, I can't do anything to stop the waddle . . . believe me, I've tried}
754. more than 32 weeks down, 8-ish left to go
755. life-long friends
756. sleepovers
757. birthday parties {happy 2nd birthday, sweet Ava!}
758. the anticipation of family camp
759. 3 days until the fair starts!
760. seeing the Elliott's {the circumstances under which we saw them boggle my mind quite a big, but we're thrilled to see them nonetheless!}
761. the laughter of kiddos
762. a trip to the zoo
763. a couple more things to check off on our summer list . . . and a few more extra fun ones to come in the week ahead
764. a safe 400K bike ride for my no-longer-in-his-30's {or even 40's or 50's} father . . . way to go, Dad. You're one of a kind!!
765. the little hint of fall in the air {but only for one day} we had last week
766. contentment
767. a big week for my brother's family::1 new baby, 30 years of life for Jenn, 6 years of marriage for Mr. & Mrs. Carlson {and before next week, 2 years of life for Haddon!}
768. the excitement of kids when given their very own cameras! {thanks, Elliotts!}
769. my grandma {it's her 84th birthday today!}

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

State Fair, take 2

We went to the fair for the 2nd {and last} time of the year on Sunday. We were excited. We got up and ready early and were off. We were in the fair grounds, ready to "do the fair" by 8:30. I was much less crabby this time and things were just generally looking better then they did for our first fair attempt of the year.

The kids on some tractors. They must have each sat on at least a couple dozen tractors over the course of the day!
A typical Joe moment. He just sat down and decided he wasn't going to go anymore. Thankfully, it wasn't as crowded as when he laid in the middle of the sidewalk when we were at the fair the first time . . . on the ever-popular Thrifty Thursday . . . in the middle of the afternoon . . . right by the food building. You can't get much busier than that at the fair. The funny not-so-funny thing is that we'd only been there, maybe 23 minutes or so at this point! Maybe it will be another long day after all! Thankfully, he did get over it relatively fast and we were back on track.
Poor buddy. It must be tough, huh?
Rebekah enjoying a ride on the swings. She said she could see most of the fairgrounds from up there.
The kids with Fairchild, the state fair mascot . . . or is it Fairborne? I'm not sure. They just look so much alike! In any case:
Strapped to my back. This was Anna's vantage point for most of the day. I think she was just gearing up at this point to eat her first ever state fair cheese curds {we didn't think they were developmentally appropriate last year . . . you know, since she was only 5 months and had only ever had breastmilk. Cheese curds are not our pediatricians recommended food for beginning solids!} But this year was a different story. She tried them, and she LOVED them!!! Her legs would kick like mad and I could tell without even being able to see her how super excited she was about them.

Little piggies:
{looks like they all "stayed home", and I'm quite sure none of them "ate roast beef"}

My "baby" and my best friend:

Yup, Al, Justin and the kids joined us at the fair a little before 11. It was so fun to be there with them! It's an annual tradition that we try hard to keep each year!

The boys on the giant slide:

Rebekah:

Best friends . . . with shirts to prove it:

An extra-cute mother-daughter pair
You gotta love those pigtails:

The fair at night:

We stayed from about 8:30 in the morning until about 6 in the evening. Thankfully, though, my mom was there with a friend in the morning and left about 2:30 and willingly took away the 2 crabs {who will remain nameless} while the rest of us stayed and enjoyed a few more hours of fair fun! They had fun with Ama and we had fun without them! Kirb had to work at the Northwestern College booth in the Education Building from 5-9. Well, I supposed "had to" isn't quite accurate. He volunteered. What a guy! So the remaining 3 kids and I took off about 6ish and Kirb biked home about 10:30 after enjoying the fair night-life a little following his shift! A great day was had by all and much unhealthy food was enjoyed by everyone: Sweet Martha's, cheese curds, Hawaiian Shaved Ice, french fries, cotton candy {2 visits to the cotton candy booth, if you must know}, big pickles on a stick, deep fried pickles, mini donuts . . . I'll have to make a few extra trips to the Y in September to recover! But it was all worth it!

We drove by the fair today and it's just so sad to know it's all over for another year. Oh well, the years go by so fast these days, it'll be fair time again before we know it!

Twins, takes 3, 4 & 5

All our kiddos stayed overnight with my friend, Allison, and her family a couple weeks back. Here are some more twin pictures of our little BFF's:

same outfit, but in different colors:

Weekend in review:

Friay::

Friday was the long-awaited, month late celebration of Lydia's birthday. She decided instead of having a few friends over for a birthday party, she would pick one friend and go to the Mall of America for a few rides, time at the American Girl store and a treat {DQ}. Without any hesitation she picked her best bud, Frances {just like last year}. Fran, Lydia and I headed to MOA after lunch on Friday and spent the afternoon having a great time. As we approached the mall, the girls were really excited and Fran said, "Look I see the beautiful star with the red and blue ribbons coming out of it." Can you tell neither of them spend a whole lot of time at the Mall of America? They were so excited. Who would have ever thought the symbol of for MOA {a star with red, white & blue ribbony things coming out of both sides} would be called beautiful? Only by a pair of 7-year-old girls, probably!

While we were at MOA, Jacob and Rebekah {and Joe, a little bit} had a lemonade stand on the corner again like they did last Friday. They brought in just under $20 this week and were disappointed, since last week they brought in over $35. I told them I thought $20 was still pretty good and they got over their sorrow pretty quick.

Here are Fran and Lydia ready for the roller coaster:

Best Buds!

Waiting for their 2nd trip on the log chute
{Fran didn't get very wet the first time, so they had to go again and switch seats}:

They are in the right two seats. See 'em?:

Friday evening::

This is what happens when the bathroom door gets left open:

Superman rides again:

Joe's slightly dirty feet after a fun afternoon outside:

Saturday::

Rebekah in her 1st race of the day (200M Medley relay).
I know it looks like she's smiling at the camera, but really she's racing, Kirb just happened to capture the picture right as she came up to breathe and it looks as if she's looking and smiling. I don't even think she knew he was right there or that he was taking a picture. Funny!

After one event, with her supportive, mohawked big brother:

{If you didn't see the video of her in the 25M Freestyle, click here or scroll down a little to the next post}

Sunday::

On Sunday we went to Ava's baptism and subsequent party. It was a great day . . . would have been absoluetly perfect if we weren't all missing Ava's grandma so much. She would have loved to be there.

She was pretty cooperative, I'd say:

With the pastor, her parents and godparents {Russ & Michelle and David & Melissa} after the service:

We were super, super busy but had a great time over the weekend. Hopefully we'll have a teeny bit of down-time this week to help with the recovery!

Twins, take 2

Anna & Ava meet again {and match . . . again}

Twins, take 1

Al called on Saturday night to see what fun, matching outift we were going to put the girls in on Sunday, since their family was coming over for LJ's party. It was the girls first time being all matchy! How fun! {Too bad we couldn't get them to sit next to each other while remaining still and looking at the camera all at the same time . . . oh well! At least you can see that they match, thanks to Al's shopping skills a few months ago which resulted in these cute matching shirts.}

with their loving mommas:
best friends all around!:

Together at last, together forever . . .

Together at last. Together forever.
We're tied in a knot, they never can sever.
I don't need sunshine now to turn my skies to blue.
I don't need anything but you.

. . . I'm a big Annie fan, so I couldn't resist. Finally having Ava here made me think of this song. The best friends are finally in the same general part of the world and they couldn't be happier . . . ok, so really Anna & Ava don't care that much {maybe at all}, but we're milkin' this whole "best friends" thing for all we're worth. They have tons of matching clothes and, like it or not, better darn well love each other like crazy for the rest of their lives or they're in for some trouble!

Ava ridin' around our house on momma's back:

Anna's all ready to go:

Al & Ava: visiting "Grandma Marcia" at work:

Anna, me & Ava:

2 pairs of best friends:
Shana & Al, Anna & Ava

Anna & Ava had their first playdate together today. Ava & her momma came over this morning and we spent a good chunk of the day together. It was the best! We hung out, visited my mom at work {she was still in Connecticut when Ava came home on Monday, so she hadn't had the chance to meet her yet!}, drove through McDonalds {she's in America now, so we figured the girl needed a little cheeseburger and fries}, took some pictures and then hung out a little more before they headed back westward to get Ava home for a nap.

Ava is the happiest, sweetest, most beautiful little thing . . . as long as her momma is holding her, that is {well, she's sweet & beautiful regardless, but the happiness quotient goes down noticably when she's not in momma's arms . . . or on her back . . . or on her front}. Miraculously, though, she did stop crying while I was holding her {while Al made a little pit stop in the bathroom} . . . however, the minute momma was back in her sights she started crying again and clapping. The clapping thing is SO cute, it's almost like begging. She claps whenever she wants Al to pick her up: buckle her in the carseat, she cries and claps; set her down, she cries and claps; if someone else tries to hold her, same thing. She cries and claps. I love it! Her own little sign language for "PICK ME UP, MOM!" What a smart girl!

Maybe we'll do it all over again next week! I'm game!

Welcome home sweet girl!

waiting . . .

Here they come:

sweet Ava:

mother & daughter:

all smiles:

Best friends, eh?
Neither one was too impressed upon first meeting.
C'mon girls, get with the program!

We love you!