Cousin time

 Josh and Deacon and Caleb came to stay at our house last week and weekend. There was a lot of basketball watching and a lot of cousin time.

Norah and Caleb realized they like hanging out together. They watched Elmo together.

 They splashed in the bath together.

And cuddled up under the blankets together. They are so cute!!

Aunt Kris stopped by on her way from Kansas back home to Hot Springs one night. The kids were still awake and so excited to see her (even though it was 10 pm!) She read them a story, and she is a great story teller with voice changes and everything. The kids loved it!

On an unrelated note...Joey came out of his room dressed like an army guy the other day. He put this on all by himself, and I thought he did look a lot like an army guy. (yes, that is underwear on his head...)  :)

Norah is really into babydolls these days. Her favorite is baby Emma (which was Kylah's favorite when she was 2). She sleeps with baby Emma and rocks her and takes care of her. It is so cute to see. She will randomly go into her bedroom and rock Emma in the rocking chair. I love it!

NORAH SINGING TO BABY from Michelle Manthe on Vimeo.

Happy Green Day!

 Joey was really the only one really excited for St. Patrick's Day today, but he made sure we were all dressed in green today (there were a few pinches this morning when we were in our jammies...)  But by the time we were ready for church, we all had some sort of green on. :) (Norah is not sure how to smile for the timer...)

 She does smile well for daddy, though! :)

Norah's hair is getting long enough for a pony tail now! Joey says she looks like me when I put her hair in a pony tail. The rest of us just think she's super adorable. 

 Joey and Kylah had a birthday party to go to at a skate place today. It is the first time they had been skating, and they both really liked it.

Joey even did well at the limbo!

Kylah had the little strap on skates, which were perfect for her so she didn't fall. 

This is Kylah's sweet little friend, Leyton. He goes to preschool and church with her, and they are the best of buds. They are so cute together!

This past week was so nice outside! (Not so much today and this coming week...)

 We went to hang out with some friends who have recently moved to a house with quite a few acres. They have some fun toys, including this mini motorbike. It doesn't go very fast, so it's perfect for kids Joey's age. He loved it!

Norah loved sitting in the motorized Jeep. She didn't really understand how to drive it, but she was content to just sit in there with her little friend, Jewel.

The last few days have made me so excited for spring and summer. At this time last year Norah still couldn't walk, so we were quite limited on what we could do. This year is a whole different story, and I am loving it!

Brrrrrrrrr

 Joe has been training for a half marathon. (and I'm "training" for a 5K!)  :)  Joe had a 9 mile run this past Saturday, which is his longest run to date, so when he got home he iced just to be sure he didn't hurt anything. He iced both feet and one knee. I should have taken a picture of him...

Anyway, the kids were enthralled with his ice bucket, so Joe timed them to see if they could keep their feet in the bucket for a full minute.

Audrey was hanging out with us for the day and went first. She kept it in there for the full minute!

Kylah was super cute, but she toughed it out and kept her foot in the ice bath for a full minute!

In true Joey fashion, he wanted to see the girls do it first, but since they were able to do it, he toughed it out too...

The looks on their face are just priceless! :)

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The girls had fun painting while Joey was at school the other day. I forget how much they love to paint. I really should bring out the paint more often.

By the end Norah had painted pretty much all of her hands and the table (thankfully I had covered the table...)

snowstorm and stomach flu

 Whew! What a week! From a snowstorm to a funeral to fun family time to the Manthe stomach flu of 2013 to more snow to a women's conference...we've covered it all!

But first, before we left for Kansas last week, we had a quiet 2 days with just me, Joe and Norah (Joey and Kylah went up to Kansas a few days early with Nana.)

How precious was Norah all dressed up for church?! I love this dress on her, and I especially love it because it was one of the things that Grammy gave to Norah when we last saw her a few weeks ago.

We headed up to Kansas a day early to avoid the huge snowstorm that was supposed to start later Monday night. Norah was a little lonely in the backseat...

We encountered quite a bit of snow on our way to Kansas anyway. But, we were thankful we didn't encounter quite as much snow as Joe's brothers Jeff and James did! (They went into the ditch, had to call a tow truck, got stuck on the shoulder, and had a flat tire...not a fun trip for them!)

The kids had a blast playing in the snow the next day.

It's a good thing we've been in Kansas a few times for snow this year since we haven't gotten any snow in Arkansas this year!

Some of the adults joined the kids in the snow. I stayed in my sweatpants in the warm house. :)

Joey got buried by mounds of snow. So fun!

The visitation for Grammy was on Tuesday evening. We were so thankful that Katie arranged to have childcare for all of the kids. They get a little crazy! :) As I look back now, though, I'm thinking this was part of the start of the spread of the crazy stomach germs...

Joe and all 5 of his brothers sang at Grammy's funeral on Wednesday. It was precious to see them all singing together for her. However, it was a song they had never heard before, so they had to practice quite a bit the night before. Like Val said, it was a scene straight out of American Idol...you know, the group nighttime practices? It was quite humorous at times. :)

"Them guys." :)

 I always give Joe a hard time because that's how he refers to his brothers when he is talking about them (and they all do the same thing!)

Grammy's funeral was a sweet, sweet time of remembering what a great woman of faith she was. It was hard, but it was good. It was so nice to be surrounded by family all week.

Norah loves her Aunt Val (Aun Bol, as Norah says...)

She also spent quite a bit of time cuddling with her Uncle Josh. :)

Nana with her sweet 2 year old granddaughters.

The kids were quite spoiled all week by all the "devices" that were around (Ipads, Iphones, Kindles, etc.)

Even Norah got in on the fun!

And Kylah. :)

We did a lot of relaxing during the week. Of course, we had to because of the crazy stomach flu that was flying around the house. I think it hit someone new about every 12 hours. Of the 14 adults, 11 got sick. And of the 9 kids (aged 2 and above), 5 got sick. It was pretty pitiful. Oh, and that sweet lady that watched our kids for us during the visitation and funeral...yep, she and her son got sick too. Poor thing!

I was able to escape on Friday to head up to Nebraska City for a women's conference that was being put on by our old church in Nebraska. It was a very refreshing weekend, and I loved getting to spend time with Amy. Our friend Pam also stayed in our room. Besides all of the great speaking and discussion during the scheduled meetings, we had such a great time just relaxing and chatting together (and the hot tub didn't hurt either!)  :)