siblings

 These two just crack me up. They got dressed for bed one night, and they both came out with the same clothes on. Then they wanted to pose for the camera.

 They are the best of friends (most of the time...), and I love it.

I know that Kylah will be well taken care of at Kindergarten next year knowing Joey is at the same school and after-school.

Silly gooses!

Remember the lemonade stand that Joey had at the garage sale a few weeks ago? He used the money that he made from that and the money he made from selling his old bike, and bought a new bike. He was getting way too big for his old bike, so we had to go up in size. 20 inch wheels!  :)

He looks much more comfortable riding this, and he can go much faster! Watch out!

1st annual Girls Weekend!

This past weekend was our first annual Girls Weekend. A group of of girls from college that all still keep in touch are (finally) all done having babies. So, we decided to celebrate by having a weekend away. There are 20 kiddos between the 7 of us, so we definitely needed some rest and relaxation!  We had so much fun that we decided it will become a yearly tradition! :)

We rented a house in Branson. This was close enough for most of us to drive to, and Krista could easily fly into. It was so nice to have our own house, with plenty of room. And we had our own private hot tub too!  We all got there by Thursday night. Friday was our first official day there. We all got up at different times and then leisurely enjoyed coffee and breakfast. By 1:30 pm we were all showered and ready to hit the outlet malls. How amazing to just be really starting our day at 1:30 pm when at home we would normally have been at work for a while or getting ready to pick up our kids from school. :)

 (Clockwise from left:  Krista, Christine, Alaina, Andrea, Amy, Me and Meredith)

We spent quite a few hours shopping on Friday and then went and had dinner at a yummy seafood restaurant. My camera got a little heavy while shopping, so I don't have any more pictures of that day... The day ended with some awesome time in the hot tub. We were enjoying the chilly night while staying warm in the hot tub!

Saturday morning was more of the same with even more sleeping in, coffee, leisurely breakfast and then getting ready. We decided to go shopping for a little bit again on Saturday but only go for a few hours this time so we wouldn't be quite as exhausted.

We had some fun with the camera timer before we left for shopping. 

When we got back after a few hours of shopping, we all hit the hot tub again.

We made fajitas at the house on Saturday night. It is so much more fun to cook when you don't have a two year old clinging to your leg, an almost-five year old whining in the living room, and an almost-seven year old bouncing toys off the walls for fun. :) 

We stayed up late just hanging out in the living room and chatting.

Sunday morning we had to get all packed up to leave.

Here's a picture of me and my roomy! We were reliving our college roommate days, since we don't often room together anymore!

We headed for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack before we all headed home.

Sunday happened to be my birthday as well, which was a fun end to Girls Weekend. The waiters at Joe's Crab Shack made me ride a fake horse around the room while everyone sang Happy Birthday to me. I was a good sport, thinking surely I would get a free dessert or something out the deal. Nothing. That's right. I made a fool of myself, and I didn't even get a birthday dessert!!

One last group picture before we all headed home.

What a fun and relaxing weekend. It couldn't have been more perfect!

--------------------------------

Joey was chomping at the bit for me to open my presents when I got home. Unfortunately for him, he had to wait for Kylah to get home as well. She had a fun few days with Nana and Grandpa in Hot Springs!

But finally the time came. I got some fun earrings from the girls, workout clothes from Joe...

...and sunglasses from Joey. :)

a run and a garage sale

 Somehow I totally forgot to blog about our race last weekend, so here goes! Val did a great recap of it, so you can also check out her blog!

A big group of us decided to run the Bentonville Run together. It was a half marathon or a 5K. Meredith and I decided to do the 5K (we weren't brave enough to train for a half marathon in just 8 weeks!) But we "trained" for our 5K by running together when we could find the time and when we didn't have kiddos with us. We tried to go once with the little babies in the stroller and Kylah riding her bike, but that ended up with Kylah whining about being tired after going 0.1 miles, so we had to come up with a different training plan. :)

Josh and Val decided to come down to Arkansas for the weekend to run with us. Josh signed up for his first half marathon. Val is an awesome runner, so we knew she would do great! Dave and Joe were brave and signed up for the half even though neither of them have ever run in a race longer than a 5K! They did awesome about being diligent to train and run together. Christine was a huge help to Joe by giving him a training schedule and nutrition advice. We called her Coach Christine! She also ran the half marathon with the brave ones!

 The race started at 7 am, so we had to wake up all the kiddos super early so we could all get downtown. We put all the kids in camping chairs, gave them cereal and told them to stay put (we did have a few teenage girls stay with them while we ran, don't worry...) :)

Oh, and we can't forget about the four little kids that were strapped into the double strollers!

Mere and I rocked our 5K! :)

Since Mere and I only ran 3.2 miles (and the brave ones were running 13.1 miles...) after we finished our race we rounded up most of the kids to cheer on the others at mile 8. I think it gave them a good pick-me-up (well, maybe not Val because even though she was like 2 feet away from us while running by, she didn't see us!!)

Everyone did great! I was especially proud of Joe, who got an awesome time of 1:45 in his first half marathon! It was so fun to cheer him on and watch him finish. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This whole week has been busy for us as we've been getting ready to have a garage sale this weekend (I guess that's why I haven't had any time to blog about last weekend!!) 

Meredith and I have spent quite a few nights going through clothes and baby items and household stuff, folding, pricing, sorting and hanging. I haven't been quite that exhausted in a long time. But, we had a great garage sale and sold a lot of things, so all the exhaustion was worth it!

Joey has been so excited to have a lemonade stand since we first started talking about having a garage sale. He has been planning and organizing everything in his mind for weeks (yes, he's our little Type-A personality...)  He sat out with us most of the day today and sold a lot of lemonade. We also made muffins for Kylah to sell. How could you resist those cute kids?!  My favorite customer of their's was a 60-something sweet lady who bought a cup of lemonade and carried it around with her while shopping at the garage sale. When she came to us to check out she whispered, "I have diabetes, so I can't even drink this, but those kids were just too cute." What a sweet, sweet lady!

We filled many of these sheets with stickers and numbers. Our friend Andrea did the garage sale with us (but I totally forgot to get a picture before she left!!)  We did have a lot of fun together doing this (but I think we both said we don't want to do another one for another 10 years!!)   :)

Manthe Easter

 Whew!! It took me about an hour to just get the pictures on here! So, settle in for a long blog post! :)

We have been planning to spend Easter with Joe's family ever since we knew Josh and Val would be in the States this year. They spent Christmas with Val's family, so we made Easter our big Manthe holiday for everyone to get together. It was a full house! :)

We were so excited that the weather was gorgeous all weekend long. A few weeks before when we were gathered for Grammy's funeral, it was cold and snowy and everyone was sick, so we were all couped up inside the house. This weekend the kids played outside almost all day long, and we had the windows and doors open!

On Friday, Joe and some of his brothers (and the wives with no kids) went to shoot some guns. Katie and Val and I took the kids to a park to play. They loved it, and we loved watching them! I just love park pictures...

Kylah and Bella had it figured out to have Mackenzie push them on the swing. :)

 Don't you love watching these "twin cousins" grow up together?!

 Kylah took a picture of Val and Katie and me (this was the second one...the first one almost had our heads cut off...)

 So cute.

 When the guys were done shooting, they met up with us at the park and we headed to have lunch. First, we all piled in the back of Josh's truck to drive get in the other cars (don't worry...it was just on the other side of the parking lot.)  The kids were quite excited when I told them to hop in the back of the truck.

 Josh made the trip pretty fun for the kids (and I got carsick...)

 We headed back to the house for naps while Joe and a few of his brothers went to play golf.

I put Norah in her Kansas outfit when she woke up (which was a good thing because this turned out to be the last game for Kansas in the NCAA tournament...)

 When the boys were done golfing, the sister-in-laws headed out for some much needed shopping (without kids...well except sweet baby Leah...)  And by "much needed" I mean browsing through Forever 21 and Charming Charlie's for good deals. :)

Meanwhile back at the house, the guys took on the task of helping the kids dye Easter eggs. I had to sort through about 100 pictures on my camera because I told them to make sure to take some pictures. Was that you taking all the pictures, Jake? :)

On Saturday morning we all got ready and headed to get family portraits taken. Since this was a rare time that we were all together, we did this as Jennifer's early Mother's Day gift. Below you will see Joe's parents, 6 sons, 6 daughter-in-laws, and 11 grandkids. And we were all cramped in a small, hot room, running late, with lots of hungry kids (and adults). But, we survived, and we actually got some really good pictures.

Our family picture turned out really good!

And, of course, I love the kid picture. Norah's sweet smile just yells "stinker" to me. :)

After pictures, Joe's dad and all the brothers took the kids on the rides and games that were in the middle of the mall we were at. It kept them occupied and not thinking about their hungry tummies while Jennifer and the daughters-in-laws picked out the pictures.

Then we headed to Golden Corral. Golden Corral would not normally be on my choice of places to eat, but the free cotton candy and yummy salad bar lured me in. :)

After eating a late lunch, we rounded up the kids again and headed to Science City which is at Union Station in downtown Kansas City. We had been talking to the kids about doing something fun, so even though us adults all wanted to just go home and nap, we rallied (and drank some caffeine...) and headed to Science City. It ended up being really fun.

The kids all fell asleep on the 15 minute drive from the restaurant to the museum, so they were refreshed and ready to go. I love these cousins, and they love each other so much!

 While Josh and Jake were getting the tickets we let the kids run around the Union Station. They needed to burn off some of that cotton candy, and there was almost no one there.

 Cotton candy crash????

Inside Science City were a ton of fun and interactive activities.

 The older kids (and Josh and Val) enjoyed making water dams and rivers. Norah and Naomi just enjoyed splashing and playing in the water. :)

 There was a fun dinosaur dig and Kylah looked like a real (cute!) scientist.

 One of the favorites was the giant tug-of-war.

 The ropes were connected at different levels on each side making one side much more difficult, so the daddies actually had to work to beat the kids.

 This tunnel slide was simulating underground tunnels and was a windy slide that was pitch dark. Can you tell Norah wasn't a fan of not being able to see?!  (My flash caught her face as it was in the dark.)

We only had about an hour and a half at Science City before it closed, but that gave us just enough time to keep the kids moving fast through all the exhibits and keep all the adults awake. Joe and I were proud of ourselves that we didn't lose Norah.

Back at Grandpa and Nana's house we made some quick sandwiches for the kids before baths and bed. They were ready to relax.

 And apparently they had burned off all the cotton candy because they were hungry again. Don't they just look exhausted?!

After the kids went to bed, the girls all got busy stuffing eggs for the Easter egg hunt the next day. Jennifer outdid herself with all the candy and eggs and baskets. The kids are loved (and spoiled!) :)  Of course all of us girls may have snuck a few pieces of candy as well...

 The next morning we let the kids hunt for their Easter baskets (the egg hunt was to be later in the day.) Norah dug right in to her candy. And proceeded to want to eat candy all day long.

I just love sleepy eyed children eating candy. True Easter pictures!

 Joey is wearing a baseball jacket of Joe's from when Joe was about 9. Joey was pretty excited to wear something that was his daddy's as a child.

I love this picture of Caleb. I looked over at one point that morning and saw Caleb sitting in a corner all by himself with a few pieces of candy (unknown to his mother...) and smiling the biggest smile.

 We headed to church at Joe's parents' church. The kids went a little early with Joe's parents so we waited until after we got home from church to get an Easter picture. Between everyone being hungry, it being really sunny and the wind, this was the best picture we could get. :)

 Having Joe behind me helped the kids smile a little better for this one...

After nap time, Jake and Jason hid all the eggs, and the kids finally got to have their Easter egg hunt. There were plenty of eggs for everyone, so it was fun to see them all run around the yard like little crazies.

The older kids had strict instructions to leave all the yellow eggs for the little kids (so they could still get plenty of eggs.) Norah did just fine and got plenty of loot. She ate candy as she was hunting eggs...

 Kylah is a girl after my own heart and loves her candy! I think she had already eaten three eggs full before I could even take a picture of her!

The three little kids had fun playing with the empty eggs and the empty swimming pool. They kept transferring the eggs from the swimming pool to the bucket and back again. Seemed boring to us, but it kept them entertained for a long time!

 These three had a fun weekend together. They got to end Sunday night by playing in a bubble bath together while the older kids were with the daddies. Val and Katie and I were commenting on how quiet it was with just these little ones!

 We had such a fun weekend! It may be pure chaos when we are all together, but we wouldn't have it any other way!  We love being together!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, Kylah got her ears pierced yesterday!  This was one of the things that was promised to her a long time ago if she would poop in the potty, and the time had come to fulfill the promise. Joe took her after school yesterday, and she has been so excited. She has shown everyone, and keeps wanting me to put her hair in a pony tail so everyone can see her earrings. :)