We have a winner

JACKIE!

A little treasure coming your way!

It was Florida and I gave the little mouse a big hug from you!

A little hint...

This was my best friend all week.

The first few days I thought all 99 percent of the people in the park were crazy for spending

SEVENTEEN dollars

on this thing. By day 3 I broke down and bought one.

I am 7 months pregnant here folks.

And I have to say it was

THE BEST SEVENTEEN DOLLARS I HAVE EVER EVER SPENT!

It was hot. That is all I have to say about that.

Lot's more to catch up on...

Uncle Randy Comes to Visit
Andy's mom's brother and his wife came for a little visit. It was so much fun. We had dinner and then played with the kids and sat around and talked. There was never a dull moment and there never is when we are together with the Kimball's. It was so fun. The kids loved him. He is famous for his Donald Duck impersonations and it was sure a hit with my kids. We had a really good time and wish we lived closer to all the family so we could have more get together's like this!

Bennett and Baseball

This summer Bennett played baseball. He really liked it although I think he thought he would be a pro right from the start. He had a fun season. His team were pretty much all Rookies so it was good for them to all be at the very early learning stage. It was sure a fin activity for the summer.
Parks

We are so lucky to have some amazing parks here in O town. Maybe that is why we pay literally a fortune in property taxes, but that is neither here nor there, back to the point, and we get great use out of these parks. The kids just love going and have such a fun time. Maddox thinks he is a big boy trying to do everything the others do and they all have no fear other than the swings. For some reason they are all a little scared of the swings and we are working on that.

The Zoo

We have one of the best Zoo's in America. No really, we do and it is FREE which makes it all the better. Having Fridays off which is still such a phenomenon to me, has been fun this summer because we have been able to do a lot of fun things with the kiddos. We went to the children's petting zoo and even rode the train which was a BIG hit with the kids.

My Mom's Birthday

In may was my mom's birthday. We went to their house for the celebration. A little BBQ and cake. My kids are really into the Happy Birthday song right now and they really enjoyed singing it and blowing out the candles even if they weren't theirs to blow out! The also especially loved the cake and cupcakes with ice cream!

Guesses and Prizes

So we are here! We are SO enjoying our vacation. Any guesses to where we are? If you leave a comment with a guess you could win a lovely souvenir from this lovely place. And if you already know where we are leave a comment, but you are not allowed to guess:)! Can't wait to share pictures!

PS If you are thinking about coming to our house knowing we are not there, don't bother, we have a house sitter.

PPS I finally got my pictures downloaded, but blogger uploads them sideways...any ideas?

Let's play catch up...

***These first few posts were written a while ago and I was waiting to figure out how to get my pictures to not be sideways, but I cannot so here's to looking at them sideways!

You can tell by the title that my wonderful perfect hubby got my pictures to download! Hip Hip!!! So now I get to play the catch up game.

Our pool...

The neighborhood actually has a pool. Well actually it is being finished right now, but for the time being we are enjoying our little pool. The kids love it. Well actually Bennett feels he is the owner, Cortland loves to figure out how it works, Jadeyn is a wild hyenia, and Maddox he would perfer to enjoy it from afar and when he is splashed he yells, OUCHIE! Very cute! VERY CUTE. They have loved it and it is so fun to let them play and splash in the water, a true wonderful investment.
After the summer fun both twinners wanted to be laying on me, I am sure the baby in tow, was not a big fan, but they would not settle for anything less. We also made little individual pizzas that were a huge HUGE hit! All the swimming can make you hungary!

Getting Ready...

Bennett just came to me and said, "I am ready to go mom, I am all packed!" I told him I have already packed for him and he can chose a few little things to put into his little back pack to take along. He was a little sad, he said, "BUT MOM I LOVE TO PACK!" Oops! He then followed along by saying,"Sometime I just want to go somewhere so I can pack." Funny kid. I am sure was just like that too. I have had the game plan of packing the car down for a few weeks. I have each days of clothes for the kids in separate baggies in the suitcase to make things easier. I have the meal plan all set, and the car configuration for packing all ready. This could possibly be considered a disease? None-the-less we are ready!

I am a little sad because I have-
*A trip to the Zoo
*My moms birthday
*Mothers Day
*A day at the park
*Bennett's baseball game
and a few random picture I need to post and am hoping to do before we leave so I am all up to date. Somehow I hope that I can get my computer figured out before Thursday night!

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day to all you Father's out there. What a great day that we have to remind the ones we love and call dad.

I am so grateful for the dad I have. He is and has always been my number one fan. I love that he loves what I have chosen as a "profession". He loved it when I played French Horn for 17 years, he loved my love for singing and was quite proud, he loved my ability to have the best batting average on the team almost every season, he loved the athlete in me. Although at times I think he thought I would aspire to do any of these professionally, he loves my children so much and knows this is what I was prepared and made for. I am grateful for that most. Thanks dad.

As for my husband, my children's father, I honestly don't think I could have created a person better to accompany me on this ride called life. How grateful I am for him. He is the best husband in the world I think and he loves his kids so much and is so great with them. I love him so much and am so lucky to have him by my side to raise our children together. He is a great asset to this E cooperation.

Andy I am truly grateful for you. I love you more than anything in this world and I am so happy you are my babies daddy! :)

Oh and if I could get my pictures to download I would insert a great picture of Andy with the kiddos...picture it.

It is a miracle...

well i guess it does not qualify as a miracle persay, but the concrete guys are here and the fence guys come tonight! I am happy they proved me wrong! BBQ's, splash pools and swingsets here we come!

a little frustrating...

so my concrete will not be poured again today! i am getting a little mad here. over a week ago they jackhammered up our back porch because it was poured poorly and we wanted a bigger pad anyway so it worked out for us in the end anyway. but now more than a week later...nothing! They were coming the next day and then monday then wednesday and now they claim they are coming tomorrow. i shouldn't hold my breath i suppose. and because we are waiting on the concrete guys the fence guys are waiting to finish after the concrete guys are done. i just want my fenced in back yard that we paid for almost 2 months ago, and concrete poured and hardened so i get get my kiddos out there and play in the sun! Ugh, and there is nothing i can do about it. so hopefully they WILL come tomorrow. and on top of it all i cannot get my photos to download to my new computer. i suppose if these are the most stressful things in my life, i should be grateful right? i will try to remind myself of this especially tomorrow when the concrete guys DO NOT show up!

Planning our little VACA

This past week I have been busy planning our little vacation for this summer. I mentioned before that we were going to New York, but plans have changed with that because our condo was already booked where we wanted to stay. Then our trip was moved to Hershey PA, which was booked as well, then it was Branson and we decided we didn't want to go there, then we thought about Tx to visit all of our amazing friends, then we thought about the Ozarks and now we aren't going to any of those places! Crazy, huh? None-the-less we are going somewhere and it is even better than all those places, we think. We totally scored on a amazing condo that comes along with a gas card! Now we will have to see if we can survive the drive. We are counting down the days!

A convesation with Bennett

Bennett: Hey mom.

Me: Yes Bennett.

Bennett: If I had a different mom and I knew you, I would tell my mom I wanted to go with you.

Me: Bennett if you had a different mom I would tell her I wanted you.

Bennett: Awe, that's nice.

Me: Bennett, I love you.


And Bennett I do. More than you could ever ever ever ever know!

a year ago today...

I can hardly believe it as I am typing it. Andy has been employed now for a whole full year! It seriously was a blink of an eye to me. I cannot believe he has been working for a year.



I remember about a month and a year ago when Andy graduated from Dental School not being even able to imagine what life would be like with a job. We had gone 8 years with basically no job at all. I could not even fathom the idea to tell you truth. I do have to say his graduation day was one of the best days of our lives. It was partly due to the fact of the being "jobless" era was over, but also it was just a perfect day. The weather was gorgeous both of our families were there, it was just a perfect wonderful day. It is still weird to think that Andy was the only one in his dental school class to have a family, much less four kiddos. I am really so proud of him and his accomplishments. He worked so hard and did so well. I cannot even imagine doing all that he did and come home to a family. I feel so blessed!



A funny story about a year ago today...

We left Chicago the day before on June 3rd. We were so sad to leave. We had a huge 26 foot truck full. Andy and Bennett drove that and Cherise the kids and I drove our mini van. It took a long time to make it back. When we finally arrived and got to our apartment, they were supposed to leave a key for us and they did not. So at one in the morning we were stranded. It was awful. We called the office knowing no one was there and hoped for a miracle. Finally I remember my high school days of never having a key for some reason and how acquainted I got with my id card. Yes I broke in to our brand new apartment. Awful, right? I still kind of feel bad about that.



We got in and put Bennett and our two 18 months olds and 1, 5 month old on the floor with blankets. Luckily they were brand new and the carpets were nice. We fell asleep on the floor quickly we were so tired.



Morning came and Andy got up for his first day of work he had so anxiously been awaiting for. He placed his clothes and shoes in the back of the truck so he could get to it. He headed off to work beaming from ear to ear so excited about practicing his love of dentistry.



I got a call from the office manager early in the morning. I was so embarrassed and felt so bad to tell her how we got in. It probably did not start us off well, but I think we made up for it. But, hey they were the ones that did not do their part, right? Ok, I am justifying a bit I know.

The funniest part was when Andy came home and he wasn't wearing any socks. I asked him if he was going all Don Johnson on us. He said that he had forgotten to put the socks with his clothes and he couldn't get to them so he went sock less! I would never been able to do that. He then said no one noticed. I knew that was not possible. How could you not notice the new dentist not wearing socks!

A few months later when the girls there got a little more comfortable with him they told him they noticed and just thought he didn't like to wear socks! Who doesn't like to were socks!?!

Anyway, he said today he was going to show up without any socks so I will have to see how that went.

So here's to the wonderful year we have had. It feels nice having a job for more than one reason. I feel grateful for the job we have and the husband I have. Congrats Andy to one successful year complete!

reality

You know how I know I am having my fifth child? I didn't even know how far along I was when someone asked today...that is weird. I actually had to come home and look it up! With my first three I feel like I was always reading up or always checking to see what was going on totally consumed by my pregnancy and now this go around I have to remind myself I am pregnant...it is kind of nice actually.