home again

We are back from DC. The case went really well. There was a crazy media frenzy and there were so many people there to hear the case that the line to get in the building went forever. For anyone who would like to read a copy of the transcript, you can go here.

This is the coverage from NBC Nightly News:

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CBS:

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Hopefully, I'll get my post up soon, but it promises to be exceedingly long, so it might take a while.

"Ra-Ra" BackPack

CK has always had a very healthy love for Dora The Explorer. She has started to pass this passion on to her little sister. KL now will ask for "RaRa" and loves all of CK's Dora toys. One of the coolest things that CK has is a little backpack for her dance clothes. KL loves it! I actually think the reason she loves it so much is because it is a backpack and all the other kids get to put one on and leave. So, I decided to take her out to get her own "RaRa" backpack this week. She was so excited! It is just the right size for her and she feels so big. I just have to watch her extra close now because she will put it on and then tell me "bye" and try and leave. While it is cute to watch her, I am trying to break her of this habbit.

Here she is with her new pride and joy:
(she gets especially excited when I put a lunch in it
and it gets to double as a lunchbox.
It just doesn't get much better than that.)

Busy, Fun Saturday

Today was a very busy day, but we had lots of fun. It started out with the boys football games. B's game was first, then D's. We had a one hour intermission. here are some pictures of B's game: (he is the 2nd from the right in the red and white jersey)

Here is some from D's game:

At one point during D's game, I looked back and saw B and cousin same like this:

We ended up being there for over 3 hours. Sweet little KL was so good. She stayed in her stroller the time! She only asked to get out once, but I was able to distract her. She is awfully cute because she will start cheering for her brother's and cousins. Here is a little clip of her:

After the game, we went home for what I am sure my children will tell you was a grueling afternoon of cleaning. Once it was done (or I was done fighting for it), we went to Grammy and Grandpa's house for an Easter Egg Hunt. I know that last week was Easter, but we just couldn't work it in last week.

Here is my Grandma June sitting by the front window so she could watch all the little kids.

KL was so excited about getting eggs again. After last week, she knew what was inside them.
I had hid some in the bushes off the walk way so her she is trying to get it. For some reason, she wouldn't climb down into the dirt to get it. She felt much better laying down on the sidewalk and reaching with all her might for it.

CK:

Just a cute little story about her to go with this cute picture. Last night she went to a birthday party for my niece. She was so excited about being able to go with the big girls and asked all afternoon when it was time to go. When I went to go and pick her up, I was carrying her out to the car and she laid her head on my shoulder and said, "Mommy, guess what." "What?" "I had a weally gweat time tonight."

Here is L after she found her eggs:

D... he didn't end up with all his eggs. We had the kids go out in shifts and since he was in the oldest group, there weren't many eggs left. He would find one, open it and decide he didn't want it and throw it back. Really, I can't blame him because I used all the candy that has been sitting around here all week, having all ready been rejected on Easter. Oh well. I guess my dad will get lots of fun treats over the next few weeks when ever he goes out to work on the yard.

This is B checking out what was in the egg before he decided if he was going to keep it. For the record, this one didn't make the cut.
After the Egg hunt, my dad made a fire for the kids to roast hot dogs then the boys went to go and play ball. I was watching them and just couldn't help but think how lucky the are and they have no idea. I can't tell you how jealous I always was of kids who had lots of cousins that lived close. And to have grandparents close by!?!?!? I would have given just about anything for that.My mom walked by when they were outside playing. Apparently, B had been walked and so he went to take his base, but the other boys were telling him they didn't play that way. He had to hit or he struck out--he couldn't walk. To which he replied, "But the vampire told me I could!" Huh? We realized he meant Umpire. I guess this Twilight stuff is really starting to rub off on the kids after all!

One last picture. My parents had this spontaneous sunflower pop up at their house. I couldn't believe how big it was. The stem was at least 1" in diameter. I told L and Anna to get close to it so I could take the picture and you could see just how big it was. Crazy!

Lost Generation

My brother in law sent this to me and I just loved it. I thought it was so poetic with such a powerful message and I just wanted to share it!

Am I Famous Now?

Click here. It's my 15 minutes of fame! She even emailed me. Wow. I feel cool.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, Everyone!

We hope you are all having a beautiful Easter Sunday. We just got home from church and I am hoping that the kids were able to get a little bit of the message that was given. It was a beautiful meeting on a beautiful day.

Here are all the kids just before church. (Notice how wonderfully L was posing for the pic. She obviously feels like the her right side is her best. She sat down and everyone had to congregate around her. We really do love all her strength of personality!)

I just had to take this one of KL because she was having so much fun jumping up and down.

Dave grew up with a very special family tradition that has also become a big deal in our house and the kids love it. It is called an Egg Fight. It isn't really what it sounds like. There is no throwing or pelting of eggs. What happens is that everyone picks out their special egg and then you take turns hitting everyone else's egg with your and try to see which egg is the strongest and doesn't crack. Here we are last night (we did it last night so we could eat our eggs for dinner) with everyone showing off their eggs (except KL who was to preoccupied with the balloon).

Here she is... she has been having so much fun with the balloon that I had to throw this one back in.

The first match up was D and B. The both got cracked.

Here is me and L. I firmly still believe I would have lasted longer but L hit mine like she was driving a nail with a hammer. She almost took the shell clean off of mine!

Dave only agreed to fight CK and then he said he would challenge the winner. I told him this was a little like cheating because you can't just jump in on the finals. Also, as you see, he covers all most all of his egg so you can barely even find a place to try and hit it. I also found out that he moves his egg just as you are getting ready to hit. I took KL over with her egg to try and get him but he moves it just enough so that all the challenge is able to do is touch it, but there is no way to inflict damage. He swears that this isn't cheating... just gamesmanship. I'm not buying it.

Dave did win the egg fight, and given his tactics, why wouldn't he? After he had proclaimed himself victorious, I let the kids all go at his egg and found that it really was the hardest. It took out all the remaining eggs while we tried to crack it. B, however, was successful in attacking it it. When he got done with it, there was barely anything left inside...let alone of the shell.

One last picture from last night I had to throw in because I thought it was cute!

Hope you were able to enjoy your weekend!

BFF's No More?

Yesterday afternoon, CK asked if her best friend could come over to play. Shortly after her buddy got here, they began to fight. Now, it wasn't like they were making each other cry, it was more like they were just getting on eachother's nerves and just didn't really feel like playing together. At one point, I got them to sit together on the couch and play a little game on the couch. When they were both sitting there, I said, "You guys used to be best friends. What happened?" They looked at me, both with a look of apathetic boredom. Then, CK shrugged her shoulders and said, "Bwoke up."

(This is the 2 of them seconds after the announcment of the break up. By the way, friend's immediate was response was, "CK! That's for boyfriends and girlsfriends!)

Project Book Babe

So, some of you may have heard of this, but basically, it was a breast cancer fund raiser. 11 authors and 2 bands all got together and had a great event!

This is me and my friend Michelle. We are showing off our arm art. We only had highlighters, but they are suppose to look like apple/hearts. We thought we were funny. Anyway, this is us waiting in line before we got to go in.

Here we are inside. And yes... I do have braces now. I was just going for a younger look. I'm thinking of adding pony tails to my hair just to really complete the look (Dave just walked by and laughed and said I look like I'm 16. Hey! Better than looking 61, right? I mean, isn't that every woman's dream? To look younger than she is?).

The 2 music acts went first. I was pretty impressed I have to say! 1 was a local kid; Adam Kump. Actually, as soon as I said I was going, my little sister said that her friend from her choir class was going to be there. Sure enough... same guy. Now, I'm not only going to put my little plug in for him because he is from around here, but because he is really good! If anyone you would like to hear more from him, his website is here. (You can also enjoy this little clip of him)

Next up was The Adam Watts Band. Again, they were great! They were there because Adam Watts' mom is a breast cancer survivor and so, obviously, he is all for helping the cause. You can check out their website here.

The emcees of the event were Shannon Hale and JS Lewis. They were both an absolute riot! It was worth it to go there just to listen to them! Here they are cracking us all up.
Of course, Shannon Hale was one of the reasons I wanted to go! She wrote one of my favorite books: Austenland. I decided to make a t-shirt to wear that had one of my favorite lines from the book.

Front: Back:

Anyway, I'm glad I did this because it led to this:

After it was over and people were flocking up to the stage to meet Stephenie Meyer, I decided to go up and see Shannon (who was in the process of telling all the SM fan's they couldn't be up there). I just told her how much I loved the book and how I will occasionally just call my sister and quote it and we just crack up. I showed her my shirt and she loved it! She immediately started asking for their photographer who was MIA. She finally just asked us to email a copy to her because no one ever makes shirts for her. (Just think... Shannon Hale is waiting for an email from ME!!!) Anyway, she was great and it was fun to meet such a funny, down to earth person. Too bad she doesn't live by me... we could really be friends I think! :-)

After the musical acts, they had the author's panel. Here they all are. It really was funny to listen to them all. There was a moderator, but he seemed to hinder their witty banter more than anything. I'm definitely going to be picking up some of these books just because they've got to be good if these people wrote them! (By the way, Stephenie Meyer is sitting next to Brandon Mull, author of the Fablehaven series. Haven't read those, but I was told that D would probably like them. I need to get some for him.)

Here is just a clip of the witty banter between them.

After the panel discussion, they did a raffle drawing. While I didn't win anything, Adam Kump started throwing shirts out and I did get this!

Yea me! I never catch anything! Of course, it is an XL... maybe I can just turn it into a dress. ;-) It was sad/funny because just before this one, his friend threw one out and it pelted a baby that a mom was holding. I was watching him throw it and then just fall back in mortification then about 2 seconds later you hear the screaming baby. I really think the baby was fine and the mom was laughing too.

After the raffle, there was an auction of some things that Stephenie had donated. It was crazy!!! She had 7 things she donated, and by my calculations, they brought in $33,000!!!!!! Where are these people getting their money!?!? At one point, JS Lewis (the auctioneer) said, "Don't you guys watch the news?" Stephenie's face showed nothing but shock as the auction was getting more and more out of control. It was seriously funny to watch as her head would snap in the direction of the people calling out the prices and then see her jaw drop. The biggest ticket item ended up being "Lunch with Stephenie." There were 2 ladies who just were not going to back down. They finally let them each have one and stopped the bidding. They both agreed to pay $6500!!!! Hard to imagine. At least it is for a good cause.

We ended up being one of the last people to leave because of our little chat with Ms. Hale, so as we were leaving, Faith walked in. Who is faith? She is the reason for the whole event. She is the Book Babe. She let us take a picture with her. She seemed like such a great person and I certainly wish her all the best.

Included in the price of our ticket, we were given 2 signed books. The way it worked was we would get 1 book from one of the 10 authors and then 1 from Stephenie Meyer. It was totally random and they just handed you a bag as we walked out. It was as I always tell my kids. "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit." There was no trading. But no problem! I didn't want to! I got a signed book from Shannon Hale. (When I got home, I was showing Dave this and telling him about my encounter with her and he said it was too bad that I didn't have my Austenland book so she could have signed it! The sad thing is that I DID have it! Michelle had it because she was reading it! So mad I didn't think to ask her to sign it! Oh well. Still happy with this.)

I also got a signed copy of Breaking Dawn! This was exactly what I was hoping for (but really not expecting). It was the only book of hers that I didn't have a signed copy of.
Now, I have a complete signed set! Yeah! What a great birthday present!

Of course, the very best part of all could have been this awesome tote bag they gave us with our books! Oh the memories... (actually, I may have been the only 5th/6th grade girl in my school who never read these books).

Anyway, it was an absolutely fun time. Thanks to Dave for letting me do this (it was my birthday present), and to Kimberly who took some of the kids (I was babysitting my sister's kids for the weekend. I felt bad leaving Dave with all of my kids, plus all of my sister's so Kimberly helped to lighten that load) and to Michelle for going with me! I loved it!!

Happy Birthday To Me!

I got to have a really fun week this week! I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday, but I got to celebrate all week long!

On Monday, my sweet friend Kimberly suggested that we go out to breakfast with some friends and neighbors. We went to Cracker's and Co. which is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE place to eat breakfast! It was delicious. I had the french toast and scrambled eggs. Yummy!!!

Then, on my actual big day, Kimberly and I took the youngin's to lunch at Jason's Deli. I took B with me too because he was getting ready to take a trip out to MD to visit his Grandpa Allan, so I wanted to have some time with him before he left. He got off well (and has had a great time... more on his trip later). I then got my sister's kids to spend the week with us. Now, most of you would say that doesn't really sound like a fun way to celebrate a birthday, but it has been so fun having them! They were all perfect and so sweet to me. It only enhanced my day!

I got a surprise in the afternoon. My midwestern-BFF's sent me this beautiful bouquet! The other flowers are from my neighbor's. He was out pruning and he let the girls get some. They are all beautiful and really brighten my kitchen table!

For dinner, Dave invited the family over for a picnic at the park. This is the only thing I have pictures of! It was lots of fun. Thanks, honey for putting all this together!

Mary, Elsie, Julia, Andria, Max, Me, Dave

Dave lighting my birthday candles

Blowing them out... what a pretty picture!

I had hoped to announce that I had a new nephew born on my day, but I guess he wanted the day for himself. I'm still counting him a late birthday present. Baby L was born to Jon and Katie on Friday. I can't wait to see him!

Today, for my big present, Dave let me get tickets to go to Project Book Babe. It was an event where 12 authors came to do a fundraiser for a friend of theirs who is battling breast cancer. 2 authors that I love were both there: Stephenie Meyer and Shannon Hale. I know everyone has heard of Stephenie Meyer, but maybe not Shannon Hale. She won a Newberry Prize for her book Princess Academy (which I actually haven't read). She mostly write young adult/children novels which I know L will really enjoy reading in the next few years. But she has also written 1 adult book which is called Austenland. That book was so great, it was almost autobiographical! For all you Jane Austen fans out there who really know deep in your heart of hearts that Collin Firth really is Mr. Darcy, this is the book for you! Anyway, I have tons of pictures of being there and I had planned to include it in this post, but I decided it really deserves a post all to itself, so I'll do that in a day or two. I just want say how fortunate I am! It was a great birthday spent with the people I love most in the world! It got to continue thanks to a loving husband who is willing to indulge my crazy obsesessivness (and 1 fabulous neighbor who was willing to watch some of the kids while I was out enjoying myself!). Thanks everyone!

Baby Owen

Last week, my new little nephew was born! His name is Owen Grant. He is such a sweet little tiny man. I was watching his big brother Brody at the time of his birth, so I had a good excuse to go straight to the hospital as soon as he was born.

Here is my darling sis-in-law Beth holding her little precious angel.

Jill with big brother, Brody and KL... she just loves him!

KL admiring her new little cousin again. She was just so excited to see him!
The other kids begged and begged to see him, so I took them all down there last night to meet their newest cousin. Here is D:

L:

CK:

B:

While we were playing with the baby, L snapped this pic and I just thought it was cute! Kyle, Brody, CK
We also got a kick out of this... She really looks like CK's sister from this pic! (Note the crack... you are hard pressed to CK in pants and not find a very prominent crack.)
We are so grateful to have Owen here safe and healthy. We now are waiting for cousin L to be born. We are just sad we won't be close enough to go and see him right away (He'll be living in Washington). Hopefully he will know we love him just as much!