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!

10 years

 Yesterday was Joe and my 10 year anniversary. On one hand it seems like that was just yesterday that we were getting married, and on the other hand it seems like he has always been in my life. We feel like we have been very blessed to have a great marriage. Not always easy, but great. Joe is my best friend and the most selfless husband I know. 

As you may remember, we went on our "anniversary trip" to Florida in September, so yesterday was a pretty low key day. Joe took the day off from work to be with me (and the kids), so that was a fun surprise! Joe went and got me my favorite cinnamon scone from Starbucks and donuts for the kids, and then later that morning we took the kids bowling. I joked that our anniversary turned out to be a pretty fun day for our kids! :) It was a pretty fun day for us too.

 After the kids went to bed last night, Joe cooked us a fabulous dinner on the Green Egg: filet mignon, lobster tail with butter and garlic, baked potatoes, and steamed broccoli. So good!

We had a nice, quiet meal, which is always a plus! :) We had a fun time reminiscing about different years in our marriage and our actual wedding day (I took a cold shower on my own wedding day!!  Anyone remember that?...Mere, Christine?)  :)

Happy 10 years, babe! I'm looking forward to many more!

Christmas 2012

 We headed to Joe's parents' house in Kansas for Christmas. It snowed there the day before we got there, and the kids were so excited to see snow on the ground! You would have thought they had never seen snow before. I think they were a little snow-deprived because we didn't get any snow in NWA last year. Kylah actually said, "mommy, I've never played in snow before!" Poor thing... I had to remind her that she has, but she probably doesn't remember it because she would have only been two and a half.

Joey and Kylah bundled up Saturday morning and headed out to play in the snow.

(One thing I hate about getting ready to play in the snow is the amount of time it takes to get the kids all geared up. And then it seems like they only spend 10 minutes outside and are done. Thankfully, this day they played out there for at least an hour in the morning!)

 Joey found a little hill and Nana had two sleds, so they were good to go!

Joey was sweet and gave Kylah pushes to get her sled going.

Hot chocolate is always good to get warmed up after playing in the snow! (I love their rosy cheeks and sweaty heads!)

That afternoon my niece Hannah came over to play. They all wanted to go out and play again in the snow, so we got them all bundled up (again!) and they headed out. But again, they amazed us and played out their for about 2 hours!  Norah looks pretty cute, but after getting stuck in the snow in Nana's blueberry bush, she wanted to be back inside with us. :)

I love this little snowman that Joey built all by himself. 

Saturday was a nice quiet day with Joe's parents and us. Joe's brother Josh and his family were with Val's family in New Jersey, so it was very quiet. It was nice to have some time with Joe's parents, but we definitely missed Josh and Val (and Joey and Kylah were bummed not to play with their other cousins too!) 

Norah and Grandpa hung out at the pinball machine for a while.

Norah loves playing with all of Nana's snowmen and toys that play music. I'm hoping she didn't break any of them!

Joey got quite good at pinball while we were there.

Kylah always amazes me how she can play quietly by herself for so long (which is so unlike Joey...). She played with all of Nana's different nativities and loved it. 

**Oh, I forgot to mention that I forgot my camera this weekend, so all of these pictures were taken using Joey's new camera (the one he just got for Christmas from my parents.) It's not quite the same quality, but at least we had something!**

 We went to church with Joe's parents and got a family picture after. It's a bummer I didn't have my camera because it would have been a pretty cute picture...

Uncle James and Kylah (he calls her "Crackers", and she loves it!) :)

Great Grandma came over on Christmas Eve. We got her a cozy blanket that we hope she enjoys. Norah enjoyed helping her open it. :)

Aunt Kris is an amazing crocheter(???), and made the girls these awesome scarves and ear warmers. Aren't they adorable?!

We enjoyed seeing Grammy too!  Grammy picked out some fun gifts for our kids!

Cute little ones in their footy pajamas.

Christmas morning was so fun. I was impressed that Joey and Kylah didn't actually wake up until 7. Which means they didn't wake their aunts and uncles up until 7 either. Those poor aunts and uncles with no kids...but they sure were troopers and got up to watch the kids open their gifts. :)

The kids couldn't wait to open their stockings. I love these stockings that Joe's mom makes. She makes them all by hand. She had quite a few stockings to make this year with two weddings and multiple new grandbabies!

Uncle Jeff got some cuddle time with Joey and Kylah.

Joey and Kylah got Norah a big pillow pet to match her little purple pillow pet that she has. She has been quite attached to her little pillow pet, and now she loves the big one too!

One of Joey's favorites...a nerf rifle from Uncle Jake. We have collected quite a collection of Nerf guns over the past few years. Who knew that Nerf gun wars in our house could be so fun?! We have been enjoying those quite often lately!

Speaking of favorite gifts...here is a great video of the kids opening a gift from Joe's parents. I gave Joe's mom a hint that the kids might enjoy these little Dream Lights, since they had seen them in the store and were raving about them...

joey and kylah christmas 2012 from Michelle Manthe on Vimeo.

I found this picture on here when I was looking through the pictures. Joey must have taken it. It is Joey and his Aunt Brianna. I love it, because you can see by his eye that he is smiling. He still has a special spot in his heart for his Aunt Brianna! :)

I failed at getting a big family picture. That would have been fun...

I did manage to get a picture of Nana with a few of her grandkids...

 We made it home safe and sound on Christmas evening.

We had to take a picture of our kiddos and all their pillow pets (the Dream Lights are pillow pets with night lights that shine out the top...)

We had a great Christmas and fun with family.

We can't wait until Easter when Josh and Val will be home and we will have the entire Manthe family under one roof! :)