life this week

 Joe is out tonight on a man-date with Dave (I like to tease him..), so I thought I would take this opportunity to blog. I've already been interrupted about 4 times by kiddos that have already been tucked into bed and should be asleep, but for some reason since they know daddy is gone they think they "need" so many more things than normal...

Anyway, first up, Kylah has really been enjoying gymnastics. We switched her to a new gym a few weeks ago so she could join a class with a friend from church, and she is loving it!

 Little sister thinks she needs to do anything big sister is doing...

 This sweet girl asked Jesus into her heart tonight! We were so excited for her. Up until now she has always politely declined when we talked about asking Jesus into her heart. Tonight the subject came up, and she asked if she could do it after dinner with mommy holding one hand and Joey holding the other while daddy read Bible verses. It was a sweet time, and she has been ecstatic! We know the angels are rejoicing tonight!

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On Friday night we had date night. Joey and I went on a date by ourselves, and Joe took Kylah and Norah on a date.

Me and my handsome little man. He is getting so big!

The first thing Joey wanted to do on our date was go to Walmart and play the claw machine. You know, the one you put quarters in and try to get a stuffed animal but never do?! I don't normally let the kids play it when we are shopping, so Joey really wanted to on our date. 

11 quarters later...still no stuffed animal...

Joey was a good sport even though we didn't get a stuffed animal. We went and ate at Steak 'n Shake together, which is one of Joey's favorites. Then we went and played at ChuckECheese. It was fun to be alone with Joey and get to actually play some of the games with him! I love this quality time!

Kylah wanted her and Norah to dress up pretty for daddy so she picked out dresses for both of them. Don't they look pretty?!

 Joe took the girls to eat at ChikFilA and then they went and bought the new TinkerBell movie and watched it at home together. Kylah said they had a lot of fun! :)

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As always, Norah keeps us on our toes.

On Sunday morning we were all getting ready for church. Norah was dressed, and I had already done her hair in a cute braid. Apparently when Joey went and did his hair he left his gel a little too close to the edge of the counter. It's never good when Joe says, "Michelle, come look at your daughter..."

She was just trying to do her hair like Joey....

Of course this happened right before we needed to leave for church, so there was no time for a bath to wash the gel out. She was sporting quite the hairdo for church, and it was so crusty after it dried. I had to explain to her nursery teachers...  Oh, Norah.  :)

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This morning was in the 60's and beautiful. I knew it was going to rain later in the morning, but the girls and I got a nice walk in before the rain started. Of course, Kylah got tired on the way back to the car, so she hopped in the stroller with Norah.  So cute.  :)

sweet Norah

 This little one is in such a good stage right now. She is sweet, is happy most of the time, can communicate pretty well, sleeps like a champ, and is really funny. We are really enjoying her and are hoping this stage lasts for a long time! 

And she lets me do her hair! :)

Kylah is a really sweet big sister to Norah. Of course she has her moments when she yells when Norah's trying to take her toys or is pulling her hair, but for the most part she shares really well with Norah and is so kind to her. Kylah loves to help me put Norah down for her naps. She sits with Norah in the rocking chair and sings her a few songs. Norah usually just relaxes, leans her head on Kylah's shoulder and closes her eyes (when the camera is not on her!). It is precious, and I love to watch it.

Look! They found something all three of them could do together! :)

I had to throw this cute picture in here. Audrey brought some matching PJ's for her and Kylah the other night. They loved it! These two little girls are starting to be such good friends. I love it! 

We've had a quiet few weeks around the Manthe house, and we're kind of enjoying it!

jump jump

 Saturday we had a birthday party to go to at Jump Zone. My kids love Jump Zone, and Norah is getting better and better at jumping on all the fun things. By the end of our time there yesterday, Norah was going up and down this huge slide all by herself. Joey helped her at first, but then she figured out that she could climb up the ladder and then go down by herself.

 A smile of pure bliss!

It cracks me up because Joey was very tentative with things like this when he was little (he still is not a risk taker.) Norah, apparently, is a thrill-seeker. The higher and the faster the better! :) 

I love these three kiddos! 

(don't mind the blurry pictures; all I had was my phone...)

The Adair's came to hang out last night. At one point before dinner, Meredith and I were in the kitchen and all of a sudden realized that we had not heard anything from the older kids in quite a while. We both went hunting for them, sure that they were all getting into trouble of some kind. We walked into the master bathroom and found them all sitting in a circle playing kindly with each other. So sweet! :)

Norah found a cute dress in the costume bin. Adorable. And she wore it all night.

Two cute girls in footie jammies.

Matty always cracks me up with the faces he makes for pictures. I think he's going to be one funny guy! (And Norah calls him Mahhue (Matthew) now). Adorable.

After putting the kids to bed, Mere and I beat the guys in a game of Spades. Yeah, we still got it! :)

A fun family Saturday

 Before I tell about our fun family day, I have to show this cute picture. The Matchell kiddos spent the night with us this past Thursday night (after Joey had spent the night at their house the night before!) They had so much fun together and played so nicely together. 

This picture is everyone bundled up on our way out to Jump Zone. I didn't take any pictures at Jump Zone since I had my hands full not losing any children...  :) What fun friends!

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Saturday we had a fun family day. Well, first we cleaned the house, and then we had a fun family day. We sent Joey and Kylah to clean their room and at one point Joey came out and said, "Mommy I'm not really in the mood to clean my room right now." And of course I said, "ok, you're right, that's no fun. Here, have a cup of milk and relax on the couch." Yeah, right! :) He went back to cleaning his room... 

But, after the house was clean and after Norah had a little nap, we took the kiddos to do something that I've been wanting to do as a family for a while.

(Side note...if you start to feel bad that Norah has a bruise on her cheek, don't. It's purple marker that she colored her face with.) 

Our town has a splash park in the middle of the town in the summer and in the winter they turn it into an ice skating rink. So fun! The kids have been wanting to go ice skating for a while, and so have I, so this day was a good day to do it.

Joey spent most of his time by the wall, holding on, but he definitely got better throughout our time out there.

Kylah started by holding onto the wall or our hands, but once she figured out that it was ok to fall, then she was a little more adventurous.  So far we don't have any figure skating in our future, though. :)

It wasn't too cold that afternoon, so it was perfect ice skating weather.

They didn't make ice skates in Norah's size, but she did join us out on the ice for a while with her boots on. She's got good balance! Most of her time she spent walking around the bench area and trying to stay out of trouble. For some reason she just looks adorable to me all dressed up in her snow gear.

Precious.

We'll definitely have to try this one again! Although Joey did say his feet were pretty sore when we were done. :)

Happy New Year!

 We had a fun get together with other JBU couples on Sunday night (New Year's Eve Eve). Jackson and Krista were in town and staying with Dave and Mere, so we thought it was a great excuse for us all to get together!

 I love these friends, and it is so fun that 5/6 of us live in NWA. We had a great night eating a ton of yummy food and talking.

The guys had fun together too. At one point we had no clue where they went, and then we found them in Dave and Mere's room watching an SNL skit on the computer. :)

Oh, right. There were also 16 kids there. 

It is so great that Dave and Mere have a mostly-empty basement so the kids can eat down there, and play to their hearts content. You really would not have know there were 16 kids in the house that night.

The girls (minus Mikaiah and Norah) ate their dinner together at this table.

The boys (and Norah and Mikaiah) ate at the other table.

The girls had fun dressing up and played so well together. I love that all of our good JBU friends have kiddos the same age as ours, and that they all get along so well!

The older boys took a break later to watch some football with their daddies.

It was such a fun night!

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The next night was New Year's Eve, and since Jackson and Krista were still in town, we headed over to the Adair house again to hang out with them. That night it was just us three couples with only 9 kids. :)

If this picture doesn't scream New Year's Eve party, I'm not sure what does!

 

 This was the first year that we let our older two stay up until midnight with us. I think we've ruined it forever, and they will forever want to stay up until midnight now on New Year's Eve. Oh well, it was pretty fun to watch how excited they were.

Kylah made it until almost 11:00, and then she was out. She slept for about 15 minutes on me, and then when we tried to lay her down in a bed, she woke up and cried because she still wanted to stay up with everyone. Her cat nap refreshed her and she was up for midnight!

(this is when she was sleeping...)

This picture cracks me up, because these kids were trying so hard to watch a movie and stay awake until midnight. They did it!

I think 2013 is going to be a great year!