FLU!

After a solid week of gathering information on flu shots and debating whether the benefits outweigh the risks of getting the shots for the kids, it hit us...First it was Luke who got a fever, then Grace, with Anteneh following close behind. And do you think I could care for 3 fevered, coughing kids for a week without getting it? Oh, no...today it hit me, too...our house is like an infirmary...I have taken so many temperatures that I actually made a line graph to keep track of the temperature trends. I guess it's the engineer in me but it helps me visualize what is going on. Haha...

Poor Grace missed her field trip, Tuesday. She had been looking forward to it for weeks and was really upset! The rest of the second grade rode school buses downtown to meet the major and eat lunch at Lic's. My poor girl! And Daryn, Grace's soccer coach, is trying to convince me to let her play tonight. The team is undefeated and Grace is one of the best players on the team. But, really, honey? Haha...It's like 50 degrees outside and rainy and she has a fever.

The part that I'm gearing up for now is to be sick for a week with 3 kids HOME ALL DAY who are sick, too. I've been stuck in the house with them for 5 full days already, taking temperatures, dispensing medicine, waiting hand and foot on everyone. Oh, and did I mention trying to keep up with the classes I'm taking? And now I have it. Blah! 2 more days of taking care of everyone but now while I have the flu. Saturday and Sunday Daryn will be here to help, but then Monday the boys are home on fall break. I already feel like I'm losing my mind! Haha... And to top it off, they all three follow me around all day now saying they are bored. Oh, my! I sound like I'm complaining but I'm really laughing inside. No, I am complaining, too. I love my kids so I don't mind at all caring for them when they are sick. But it's time for this flu monster to get on out of here! Welcome to the kid world of being sick: boredom. Welcome to the mom world of being sick: doing everything you normally do, except with a fever!

Lots of Friends

We've been spending lots of time with great friends this fall! Grace and I cooking... Grace and her good friend, Cookie. They sleep together every evening until around 10pm when Cookie goes out for his night hunt. It's a great set up-after helping her get to sleep he kills moles in the yard for Daryn!

Anteneh lost his FIRST TOOTH tonight! Just in time for school pictures in the morning.

The kids eating chili tonight with their cousin, Jocelyn, and their friend, Taylor! (who is actually their second cousin)

Here they are with a Chick-fil-a cow and the Hellmer cousins at a magic show fundraiser for the new local Ronald McDonald house!

The boys doing their homework with their good friend, Nicodemus, the nephew of one of my friends from high school!

Grace with some of her friends the morning after her camp out party...we had 15 kids running around our backyard that night-it was CRAZY!!!! Lots of smores, giggly girls, and some earplugs for me!

Grace with some of her cousins and friends at her sleepover party. My mom, "Mimi," brought one of her horses and gave the girls pony rides. It was so fun!

Grace helping her cousin, Jocelyn, ride the horse.

It's been a GREAT fall so far!

First Days of School!!!

The kids started school last week. The anticipation was great...but Grace didn't have a very good day. It's been very hard on her to switch schools. Last year she went to Evansville Christian School but had to switch to Sharon Elementary (the public school at the edge of our neighborhood) this school year. It does help that she has one friend who switched with her. Grace is such a good student that we really think she will do fine. Every day is getting better and I think soon she will really love it-like the boys do. Here is Grace getting on the bus for the first time!!! It was a little scary for me-she didn't mind!

This is actually Grace's first day of school-the boys started the next day b/c they are in Kindergarten. But I still made them pose with their backpacks!
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The kids getting off the bus-this was the boys' first day to ride the bus. Notice the tags they stuck on their shirts so the teachers would know which bus to send them on. It made me feel a little less scared!
How sweet is this? Grace helped Anteneh with his homework as soon as the boys got home. Grace was a big help-showing him exactly how to make his letters. Luke kind of surprised me. He has forced me to bribe him into doing his homework. I honestly thought they'd BOTH love to do it...but the boys DO LOVE school!
They don't know it yet but we are going to surprise them Friday and take them to a movie as a reward for being so brave at school! Popcorn, candy, and Night at the Museum (still playing at the $3 theatre!) We always do family movie night on Fridays but we are going to surprise them and load them into the car and drive to the theatre. If you know my kids, this is the best surprise ever....they love it!

More Disney and Florida

Here, finally, are the rest of the pictures from our Florida trip! I love this picture of my grandpa showing the kids some little pods that drop off the big tree in their yard. I love that the kids are peering through the hole in the pool screen. It's been like that since the big hurricane that ruined New Orleans...my grandparents are 84 years old-grandpa doesn't always get around to fixing stuff like that anymore.
I absolutely LOVE this shot. When I took the lens cap off my camera, the lens steamed up but it made such a cool effect! This was taken at Sannibel Island in southwest Florida.

Favorite shot of my husband...does he look like he has Popeye arms, or what? He's so cute.

Second favorite shot of him...snoozing at my grandparent's house...haha...he's only a man, what can I expect?

Luke searching for change in the pool...my grandpa scootin around...

Luke scaring his great-grandma with a fake poisonous frog! haha

My gorgeous Anteneh...on the beach.

Anteneh sliding down the giant film slide at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Daryn and Anteneh at the O'Hana buffet at the Polynesian in Disney World...they LOVED this buffet...it had tons of meat.

We had a GREAT trip! And when we drove home, the kids rode for 17 hours in the van...same seats and only 4 stops without complaining...it was truly a summer miracle!

Disney and Sannibel Island

We took our first REAL family vacation in July that didn't involve extended family-it was just our little family of five! It was so fun...we started at Disney World...I made Daryn wear his "Happy Anniversary" button they gave us upon arrival (we had just celebrated our 9year anniversary!) and they brought this fun dessert out to us our first night there. Grace took this picture of us at Boma, the African buffet, at Animal Kingdom Lodge

Luke driving the flying dinosaur
The boys completely exhausted from a long day at Magic Kingdom...on the bus on the way to dinner...
The kids meeting Pluto at Chef Micky's fun buffet!
This was right after Goofy tried to eat Anteneh's dinner and Donald took a sip of Luke's water...haha...gotta run...more pics to come soon....

The Boys' First Race!

Saturday the boys ran in their first race! It was a fundraiser for our Evansville Children's Museum. They had a lot of fun...even though it was at 9am and already 90 degrees! I couldn't get any good pictures of the starting line or of them running. Kind of a bummer...but they were so cute-they ran 100 yards (1/4 of the track). Anteneh finished about a third of the way back out of 15 kids and Luke was toward the back. But we were so excited that he finished-Luke has a tendancy to want to quit things when he gets hot or tired. During soccer season he literally sat on his Grandma Darlene's lap the whole season and refused to play. During Tae Kwon Do he didn't want to participate half of the time. And he's not as fast as Anteneh. So, we really gave both the boys a pep talk about not quiting things and making it to the finish line. And we high fived eachother when he came across that finish line-NOT LAST! There was one kid behind him and that made him feel great. It was good for his confidence. Yeah for both my boys! They are so proud of their medals...

Camping again

What do we love so much about camping? Is it the time with a good book under a huge tree? The goofing off in the tent with mommy?

Crawling in the pet den with Shadow? (Shadow has his own sleeping bag!)

Or taking him exploring around the camp?

Maybe it's the father-daughter bonding while putting up the tent....

Hanging out with your siblings...

Discovering new camping tools...("you mean this is a spoon, fork, AND a knife?!!!!")

being in nature?

Or making new friends and having them over to your tent for a snack?

We love to camp! Some of our best times together as a family are camping...even when it thunderstorms and the tent leaks, even when the van breaks down on the way back, even when there is a fugitive on the loose and the police come to your tent to look for him, even when starving dogs and homeless people stop in for a snack (Yes, this has all happened to us)...camping is the BEST!!!!