Long time no blog

We've had a lot of changes in our lives -- mainly a new addition named Dane who's 4 months old now -- and I'll try to update soon.

Uh-oh, you caught me!

As you can see from these pictures, Anthony loves sweets and chocolate. He does come by it honestly. LOL For Mother's Day, I got a Boo-Boo Kit (Mother's Day basket for fixing boo-boos), my favorite ink pens (I'm picky) and a BIG bag full of candy. The bag had all my favorites and then some -- KitKats, M&Ms, Toblerone, 2 bags of Lindt Truffles (the best!), 4 different types of Reese's peanut butter candy, Creme Savers, Jolly Ranchers, Werther's Originals, peppermint and probably something else that I'm forgetting. Here's what it looks like.

Well, I had put the bag of candy on the kitchen counter so that Anthony couldn't get it. Or so I thought. I was getting ready a couple of mornings ago and Anthony was playing. I heard a "thump" but didn't think much of it since he drops toys. I came out to check on him and see where he was playing a couple of minutes later and here's what I found. Doesn't he look pleased with himself?

He doesn't know how to unwrap the candy, so he was biting the candy in the wrapper and then sucking the chocolate out.

He had chocolate all over his face and hands, the kitchen cabinets and my gift bag.

Storms

April showers bring May flowers, but what do May showers bring? Tornadoes! At least they did on Sunday. Adam was watching the weather xlosely (I was actually updating my blog) and I could hear the weather men talking about storms heading our way. We knew they were severe, so as they got close we headed to the basement. We had our radio on downstairs and they were announcing that there were 40-50 mph winds in our area. We couldn't see them yet, but it wasn't long until we could see it (we were watching out the door). Then the hail started. We were watching it bounce off the neighbor's driveway! We were only in the basement for about 15 minutes, but a whole lot of rain came down during that, along with a lot of quarter-size hail and quite a few tree limbs. We didn't have any trees down or damage on our street, but there was a confirmed tornado nearby and lots of trees down in the area.

We emptied the rain gauge right before the rain started and we got 1.75 inches of rain in 15 minutes!!

There was plenty of hail in the yard and it was quarter-size, as you can see. And yes, that's rain on my blinds. On the inside of our windows!

After the storms passed, we walked through the neighborhood to make sure everything was okay. This is our street and you can see how strong the water was as it washed down the street, it left a clear path of rocks and debris. It also became very foggy after the rain passed. Our neighborhood looked like a swamp!

We have so much going on!!

Surprising, huh?

It's springtime, so that means new life. And boy, do we have plenty of that!! Here are a few of the projects we're working on right now:

It all started with the caterpillars we ordered for the boys' butterfly treehouses. I ordered 3 sets but the company messed up and only sent one. So, we have one set right now. And boy, do they grow quickly!!! Here's a few pics of the progress they've made so far. The last one is from today and they're forming their chrysalids now. We should have butterflies in a couple of weeks!!

Then, last night, our kitty brought us a surprise -- a kitten!! And then three more! We didn't even know she was expecting, much less had delivered! We've only had her a short time and just thought she was fat and healthy. Little did we know! So, now we have 4 kittens who appear to be around 3 days old. There are 2 black kittens and 2 white kittens and they are so sweet! They're currently residing in Michael's closet, too. LOL They spent a short while in our closet (that's the pic on the purple lid) but that was too dangerous for them since two of them fell off the container mama kitty had put them on. By the way, we think we've decided on a name for her now -- Midnight Mama!! We were already thinking about Midnight because she is black but I just wasn't sure about it. Well, now she's a mama and it was almost the middle of the night when she brought us her kitties, so I think she'll be Midnight Mama from now on!

And, last but certainly not least, is the flowers we are growing. Anthony and I have been working in our flower bed getting it ready to plant. We don't have anything planted yet but I'm hoping to get our seeds out tomorrow. The boys also got Egg Plants from Gigi for Easter and we've finally cracked them open and watered them. We should have seedlings in about a week. We'll monitor their progress, too.

Look at that sweet, dirty face. He loves to dig and play in the dirt but discovered that it doesn't taste too good.

Anthony LOVES to be outside and last week, he played on the slip 'n slide with his brothers. We undressed him and let him run around naked afterward. What a sweet little naked boy! Don't you love his new excited face! It's so cute I had to share it at the beginning, too.

Here's our own little Vulcan!

Halloween

Yes, I know it's April and Halloween was 6 months ago, but I've promised updates so I'm giving them. Of course, this was Anthony's first Halloween. He actually wore two costumes. NaeNae found a really cute frog costume for him and it was really chilly on Halloween morning, when the boys had their fall festival at school. So, that warm, fuzzy frog costume that was a lot like a pair of pj's came in handy! And it was A LOT warmer than the red M&M Anthony had to wear out of tradition. Ninny and NaeNae made the M&M and Trent, John-William, Jackson and Michael all wore it for their 1st Halloween. The tradition had to continue!!!

Halloween was on a Friday, so of course Adam had a ball game to broadcast. Fortunately, it was a home game and he was able to take a quick break from the stadium to come home and go down our street for trick-or-treating with the boys.

I took photos of the big boys before school that morning, knowing that their costumes might not make it through the day. It's a good thing, too, since John-William got his dirty helping outside for the fall festival.

John-William was the late Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

Jackson had to be a football player, of course. I blacked out the name on the hat and on his costume. Don't want any of you crazy stalkers out there knowing where we live. LOL He couldn't put on his shoulder pads before getting in the car that morning, so he's just wearing his pants and shirt here. He added the shoulder pads, jersey and helmet when he got to school.

Michael was Spiderman.

And here's Anthony as the frog and red M&M.

All the boys together at Ninny's that night after trick-or-treating. We also went to the football game in costume, so that was fun and cute.

How can you not love this face????

Is this Adam, or what?

A small update

I haven't been around much lately with updates, so I thought I'd post a few pics to show that we are still alive. LOL I didn't call this a "quick" update because it's never quick when I'm choosing and uploading photos. It takes a while so that's why I don't get to it very often.


Three of the boys have had birthdays since my last "real" update. So, here's pics of their birthdays.


First, though, here's a photo of Jackson (he's #8) on the football sidelines. Isn't he cute?




John-William had his first sleepover for his birthday party. We had a few boys here that night! In this pic, they were all visiting our neighbors' goats who were, by the way, the only girls at the party. LOL Besides Ninny and me, of course.



The boys slept in the playroom that night. We had lots of boys, quilts, blankets, and electronic devices (PSPs, ipods, gameboys, etc.).





















Anthony's first birthday party was just a small family (and a couple of close friends) get-together. He loves balloons!!!






































Jackson also had a sleepover for his birthday party. I was a bad mommy, though, and forgot to take pictures of all the boys in the playrrom. I got some of his cake, though.


Isn't this a sweet birthday boy???