Yes we are still here!!!

A lot has happened since my last post.

-School started
-Kinley turned 9
-Cord's birthday

-Apple orchard

-Pumpkin patch
-Halloween

-Thanksgiving
-We found out we were expecting #8
-We thought we were going to transfer to a different state
-Cord's Mother passed away after a long and courageous battle with MS
-Christmas
-We celebrated our 10 year anniversary
-Tate turned 8 and was baptized
-Ella turned 5
-Cole turned 3
-At 12 weeks pregnant we lost the baby
-We took the 5 girls to Disney World- the boys stayed home with a babysitter :-)
-Porter put Hollie's IPhone in the sink, destroying over 1000 pictures of the above mentioned list and all other activities.
-Hollie had a partial knee replacement surgery and a micro fracture to remove the damaged bone and was on crutches for 6 weeks
-After knee surgery Hollie had multiple pulmonary Emboli in both lungs (but is now doing fine)
-Lots and lots of Physical Therapy
-Easter
-End of the school year madness i.e. field trips , class parties, track and field day, etc.
-Last day of school
-SUMMER

-And all of the everyday crazy madness that occurred in the last 10 months.

Now that I have caught up I don't have any excuses for not blogging. So here's to being caught up and more blogs yet to come.

The jungle room

So a few months ago Tate informed me that she really doesn't like princesses and would like a snake/jungle room. Unfortunately, she shares a room with Kinley who likes all things pink, princess, and girlie. There was now way she wanted anything jungle let alone a snake in her palace. After trying to get them to reach some sort of compromise. A crazy thought came to my head about putting Ella the elephant lover and Tate the snake lover in the same room, and giving Kinley her own room. It was a great idea ,but it involved A LOT of talking about, and of course for my girls planning.

So once the first step of moving every one's stuff was complete, then came the decorating part. Kinley's room was easy, other than all of the sewing and searching craigslist for shelves and a desk. The challenge was an elephant and snake themed jungle room. I spent many hours at various fabric stores looking for any cute snake material, let me say it does not exist. In the end I had to settle for a cute jungle panel that had a snake in the top corner. After a few alterations we finally had a duvet cover.

Next came the task of searching the Internet for some cute Elephant decals(super easy to find) and friendly snake decals (impossible to find). After many unsuccessful searches on the later, and too expensive of finds on the first, I decided I needed a new plan. Then came the crazy idea of painting them on the walls. Let me remind you I have a hard time drawing a straight line so what possessed me to think about this brilliant plan was beyond me. So unbeknown to the kids or Cord one day while the boys were napping and the girls were watching a movie I went into the room and started with pencil drawing a snake and a few elephants on the wall. You can imagine the surprise on Cord's face when he walked in and I was painting a huge elephant on the wall, let alone the snake. Oh I forgot to mention this room is in the basement that we finished. So every coat of drywall, mud, primer, and paint was an event and here I was defiling it with blue elephants and a green snake. Luckily for me Cord is very easy going.

So here is the jungle room.


Tate's Duvet
Herman Tate's old halloween costume is now hanging above her on the canopy.

Dotty the snake.
Tate's side of the room (the chandelier is from the princess room it still needs to be moved).
Tate's bookshelf with Evil Eye coiled on top.
The snake lamp. The white snakes are actually glow in the dark so it is a cool little effect.
The jungle A.K.A. the closet doors.
Christie and Zuri. Ella's elaphants.
The mirror.
Monty the mounted elephant head.
Ella's side of the room. Note that half of her elephants are not pictured they are in a bucket under her bed.
Part of Ella's elephant collection.

A long spring/summers nap

So it appears that my blogging skills have been napping for the last oh I don't know 6 or so months. So over the next few weeks, I am going to try and catch up. So bear with me as we have some crazy and completely out of order blogs. I am hoping to be caught up in time for all of the fun fall festivities begin. So now to sum up a busy 6 months in a few weeks....

Best Friends

Reese and Riley are best friends. It has been fun to watch these two and the special bond that they share as identical twins. They will fight like cats and dog and even sometimes utter the phrase, "I wish I wasn't a twin." But in the end there is an amazing bond and love they share that is indescribable. This picture says it all.

The breakables

This had been the week for things to break at our house.

1. My camera was dropped, stopped working


2. Door lock on Suburban wouldn't go up and down


3. Baby monitor was fixed, but then stopped working


4. My wheat grinder died in the middle of grinding wheat for bread

Luckily, a few of the things were still under warranty. So for now it is store bought bread or white bread, while my wheat grinder is being fixed or replaced. No blogs with pictures until my new camera comes. Using my phones as a baby monitor. Fortunately, the Suburban already went to the dealership and was fixed, so I can lock my car again (more importantly use the remote start to warm up the car). Yeah!!! Luckily, the breaking at our house was just stuff and no bones (:

Guest Reader

In January Cord's brother Derek came to visit for a few days. While he was here they went and did Guest Reader at the school for the girls classes. Instead of just reading a book they decided to do it "Reader's Theatre" style. The teacher thought it was so funny he recorded it and put it on the school website. Keep in mind as you watch this that these are two highly educated men.

Cord/Derek from Doug Sayles on Vimeo.

DADDDDDDYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

February 1, 2010

This morning Cole was up when Daddy left for work. He was heart broken. He cried for nearly 10 minutes. This was at the very end. I was sitting in the office feeding Porter and I was trying to get Cole to come to me so I could snuggle him. Instead he shut the door on me and continued the drama. Luckily, the camera was on the table next to me.