It's nice...

...to get dressed up every once in a while and remember I'm actually an adult! :)

Friday night was the annual Charity Challenge Auction Dinner. Thanks to our good friend Dave (who does the website for the event), we all get to enjoy a fun evening of fancy clothes, yummy food, a silent auction, and great friends. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, Joe has been out of town. He travels one weekend a year for work, and it has landed on this weekend for the second year. But, I still went. It is a group of our best friends, so I don't mind being the 3rd wheel...or the 7th wheel. :)

Meredith and me. (We did not realize how alike we looked until we got out of our cars at the dinner!)

Me and my non-existent date. :)

All of the girls, except for Melissa, who left a little earlier.

THE picture Mere and I always have to take of ourselves. Turned out pretty good this time!

I am almost through my single-parent weekend. Have I mentioned that I'm so glad Joe doesn't have to travel very often?! :)

sitting...and falling

We've had a nice, quiet weekend here at home. We've really done nothing, which has been a nice change of pace. Joe's brother, Jeff, was here this weekend for a wedding, but he ended up getting sick, so he just hung out here at the house with us. And, I didn't get a picture of him with the kids because he was sick! I think he was feeling a little better today, so hopefully he's on the mend.

Here's what Norah did all weekend. She's never at a loss for entertainment with her big brother and big sister around!

It was rainy and chilly all weekend, so these two had to come up with some fun indoor games. I think they are pretending that Kylah has babies in her tummy here.

And here they are "going to the hospital so Kylah can poop the babies out." (according to Joey) Oh, my! Sometimes I wonder... :)

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All dressed up for church this morning. Notice the matching hair bows the girls have on. Kylah and I went to Mere's house last night for a girls' night while all the boys were watching the Razorback game. Mere and I made some fun bows for our girls.

This little one is now sitting up on her own. I do still put the boppy around her most of the time because she inevitably loses her balance and falls. It's fun for her to be able to play with her toys this way!

She is intently watching her brother and sister in the bath tub. Like I said, she is never lacking for entertainment!

A fun video of Norah sitting by herself (and the inevitable topple at the end!) :)

some sweet pictures

She is just the sweetest little thing! This was one of Kylah's old outfits, one of my favorites, and I love to see it on Norah too!

Such a sweet picture.

Warning: I'm going to brag on my son for a minute.
That little guy has made us pretty proud lately. He has been doing a great job at school of being a leader and obeying even when others aren't. And then, there were two different times today at church that a different parent made a comment to us that they want their son to be in Joey's room at church and to hang out with Joey because he is such a good example to them. Makes these parents proud!!

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Joe's parents and Grammy stopped by earlier this week on their way home from Hot Springs. Norah had some good bonding time with Grammy.

This is one of my favorite things that Norah does. It's like she is studying your face and reaches out to touch it. I love it!

Cool Norah is ready for bed. (Joey and Kylah thought this was hilarious!)

On Friday night Joey wanted to try to start learning how to ride his bike without training wheels. He got a little nervous and frustrated, but it was a good start. (I think he'll still be using those training wheels for a while.)

Kylah was there riding her bike and cheering Joey on.

I caught the moment (just a second) of Joey riding all by himself. He likes to see this picture to know that he really was doing it by himself for a second.

Look-a-likes

I showed these pictures to Joey and Kylah and asked them who it was, and they both said, "Norah!"

It does look a lot like Norah, but it's actually her big sister Kylah. I found these pictures today and thought they looked just like Norah.

Even the shape of the head and the way the hair sticks up on the top of the head is the same. I guess we know who Norah resembles now. :)

Nebraska friends!

We had a great time this weekend with Amy and her kids. They made the trek down here (made even longer by the detours from the Missouri River flooding...) to spend the Labor Day weekend with us. Joe was away on his golf weekend, and her husband Greg had quite a bit of work to do, so we thought this was a good time for some girl/kid time.

The kids were all enjoying a cookie and a movie (even Norah...well, not the cookie for her...)

The weather was hot on Saturday, so the kids had fun with the hose on the deck in the morning.

And then it was time for the pool! Yep, we fit all 5 kiddos and us in the same car. You can even see Norah's reflection in her mirror.

We all had a really fun time at the pool. Logan was tall enough to go down the fun slides, but Joey and Olivia had to pass a swim test to do it because they were too short. They both passed it! We were excited that they all could enjoy the slide. I was seriously so proud of Joey; he has come such a long way in his swimming this summer. Kylah was pretty bummed that she couldn't go on the slide too. I told her that she could when she was four. "But Joey's not FOUR!", she said/whined/cried. Good point...

Joey even braved the diving board!

After the pool, we all headed home for showers and baths. Then Amy and I got to go out to dinner. Alone. Without kids. Without being interrupted. A gazillion times. It was great! :)

We got all the kids up and dressed for church and had time for a picture! This was one of the best. You should see the one Amy has. It is a true portrayal of Kylah who was very mad that I wasn't letting her hold her dog up in front of her face. At least she looks pleasant in this one!

Sunday afternoon was a nice and lazy afternoon. Kylah and Norah (and me!) napped, while the others watched a movie. Unfortunately, sometime during the afternoon Logan started to feel sick. He got quite the flu bug and was down for the count. He tried to make it bowling with the rest of us, but after just a few minutes in the car on the way, he lost it. Literally lost it. Good thing Amy had thought ahead and brought a bucket with us!
So we took him and Amy and Norah back home, and then I took the other three kiddos bowling. They had a great time, and they actually could all bowl by themselves, so I got to just sit back and cheer them on.

We went to Target to get a few get-well presents for Logan. They also got to pick out one toy each (from the dollar bin). Joey and Olivia both picked out a notebook. Joey has been writing in his nonstop. It's like his little diary. He even has it up on his bed tonight while he's sleeping so that he "can write some letters down in it in the middle of the night, because I won't have time to write in the morning." Sometimes it's just better not to ask...

Amy and the kids left this morning, and we had a pretty quiet day. We all took naps this afternoon (except Joey, who got to watch a movie...and write in his notebook...), and then we met up with Meredith and her kids for some bike riding in the park.

Here are my kids at the end of a fun weekend. I let Joey and Kylah eat their supper on the tray and watch Curious George. They loved it. And yes, they are both wearing bibs: Kylah because she is eating spagetti, and Joey because he thought he might make a mess too. I thought it was pretty cute anyway. And look who is starting to sit up better and better by herself (with the boppy)! Please don't pay too much attention to the messy floor. It was a busy weekend, and I was tired. :)

Thanks again for coming, Amy, we all had a great time!!

And now I am sitting up while Norah is trying to remember that she does NOT need to eat at 11:00 at night. After a week of having a cough, then our AC being out, and then sleeping in a pack 'n play in my bathroom, I think the little thing has forgotten that we don't need to wake up 4 times a night to eat. So I'm trying to remind her of that tonight...aka letting her cry it out a little bit. Let's hope she "remembers" soon. :)

Men in Pink

Well, Joe is on his golf weekend with his buddies. I received this picture text yesterday showing me their official golf shirts. There are 8 guys on the trip, so there are 4 teams of two. For some reason Dave and Joe decided they wanted to be pink. They also have names for most of the teams. Our men are Team Wie (as in Michelle Wie, this golfer...looks good but doesn't usually win). :) Other teams include Team Daly and Team Tiger.

We are having a great time here at home with Amy and all the kids. There'll be a fun post at the end of the weekend!

Big news!

First of all...how sweet is this picture of Norah and Matty?! These two just love each other so much. Every time Matty sees Norah he holds his hands out (says "ma") and has to hug and kiss Norah. Just precious!

We have had a busy, busy week. Some good, some not so good.
Let's start with some good!

On Saturday we got to go out to a nearby lake with some friends from church. Joey and Kylah haven't been out on a boat since last year, so they were so excited to go.
They were eagerly waiting and holding hands, which made this momma smile!

After riding around in the boat for a while, we stopped and hopped out to swim for a little bit. Once Joey was assured that any fish in the lake would not bite him, he was all for swimming around.

Then it was time for tubing! Joey watched his friend, JD tube, and then decided that if JD could do it, then he could too.
He looks so big out there all by himself.

Kylah watched and cheered on her brother...and thought...

Yep, she wanted to do it too! We, of course, went a little slower, but she loved it to. I really had no doubts about her doing it since she is our little dare-devil.

Norah relaxed in the boat while everyone was swimming.

It was a great afternoon. We'll definitely have to do that again!

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On Sunday afternoon, Joe went golfing with a few friends, including Christine's husband, Brian. So, Christine and I decided we should get together for the afternoon.
It was hot, so we brought out the pool and slip 'n slide.
The kids all had a blast playing together, and we relaxed and talked in the shade.

It's been fun to watch Mikaiah and Kylah become better friends. They are just 3 months apart in age, and they are getting better at playing together. I'm pretty sure they were playing Mommy and Kitty here. :)

Popsicle time! (Was this the first round of popsicles or the second?...)

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In the middle of the night on Sunday (while I was up feeding Norah) I realized our house was getting hotter and hotter. Sure enough, the next morning it was already about 82 degrees in our house. Bummer; the AC was broken.

We had quite the time with our landlord company trying to get someone out in a timely manner to fix it. We spent Monday night at the Adair's in order to get some sleep. The next day we hung out with Amy and her kids for a while in order to avoid the heat in our house. That night we decided to try to tough it out at home, thinking 'surely it will cool off over night.' No such luck. That was a long, hot night. It never got below a stuffy 85 in our house that night.
Luckily, they finally were able to come out on Wednesday afternoon and fixed it. It was finally cooled off in our house by about 5:00 am this morning (again, I was up with Norah so I checked the thermostat.) Between the heat and Norah having a little cold, she's getting up a little more often at night. Pretty sure next week we'll be letting her cry it out for a bit again. :(

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Now, as promised by the title of this post, and if you've actually managed to keep reading this very long blog post, I have some big news!

This little girl...

...has been wearing underwear since Sunday!!
I thought this day would never come. I'm still not sure why all of a sudden she has wanted to wear underwear. I've just been asking her every morning when we get dressed if she wanted to wear undies, and usually she would just say, 'No thank you.' Well, Sunday morning she wanted to. I jumped all over that! She's had just a few accidents, but has stayed dry every day at school so far this week.
AND...she went poopy in the toilet tonight!! Earlier in the week she had been waiting to poop until she got a pullup on at night or nap time. But tonight she went potty and came running out to tell us she went poopy. I never thought I could be this excited about poop in the potty.
I sure hope this continues!!

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Joe has his big golf weekend this weekend with his buddies, so it was going to be just me and the kids here. But now Amy and her two kids, Logan and Olivia, are driving down here all the way from Nebraska to spend the weekend with us. I'm so excited!!