Selah's ready for her first Halloween!

We're getting a jump start on Halloween over here.

Miss Lisa, who works with my aunt, sent Selah this outfit. It's very cute!

I cannot believe she is making me do this!

Mmm. My feet look remarkably like cotton candy. Yum!

Okay, here's a nicer one. Mom said she was going to do this all day if I did not cooperate!
I keep smiling, but mom's not quick enough with the camera!


Everyone keeps asking what color my eyes are. The real picture is better- but they are blue.

Maybe you can tell more here.

And, no, I am not sucking my thumb. My mother would probably cut it off if I tried.

The Pumpkin King

That's the name of pattern Bryan used. I mean, Can you believe how artistic my husband is? (What a joke. Jonah said yesterday, "I wish my self portrait (for school) actually looked like me." Sorry kid, your dad and I got the short end of the stick on that one. You guys have no chance at drawing or singing or painting or dancing or...shall I go on?)

So they finally carved the supposedly 25# pumpkin (forgot to weigh it to see) on my freshly mopped floor. And since I only get to that about once a month, we shall be looking at orange pumpkin guts smeared across the floor until about thanksgiving.:) No one can say my house doesn't look lived in! Unless the mean it as how can you live here you can't even find a couch:) Talking too much again, I know.

Back to the pumpkin. Noah did not like how it felt, so he "supervised." You know, government like- in the other room playing with his fire truck!

Before the supervising got boring.

Hmm, yes I think that bowl would be a good choice for the seeds!

I guess maybe there was something on my left ear since Jonah and Noah seem distracted that way.

Don't forget Selah, she helped, too.
In her dreams anyway!


I think that the pumpkin was spiked, the fumes are starting to make me see stuff. Like hamburgers on the ceiling.

The finished Pumpkin King

I couldn't decide on the picture, so I took the easy way out and put them both up.

i think we have 3 "artificial" pumpkins, too. Those are nice because even though they are a pain to carve, you get to use them every year.

Only 2 more days- and then my kids will be on a perpetual sugar high until i hide the candy. Then Bryan and I will steal the best stuff and bribe the kids with the other stuff right up until Easter. (We don't do much candy here- can you tell?)

And the seeds were excellent. I'd take a picture, but they are gone already!

It's 34, "feels like" 26 and...

it snowed! A little bit. Of course I was feeding Selah so I told the boys they had to wait to go out in it. And now it is done and the sun is melting it all away. I don't see anymore on the radar, so they want to put their snowsuits on and go play with out the snow (sounds dirty and cold!). Come March we will be so sick of snow and cold, it's kind of funny! There was freezing rain last night, the boys thought that was pretty cool.

My feet are cold! We could go out barefoot year-round in GA!

(Pitch black at 6:30. Guess that means it will be pitch black at 5:30 next week. Eating dinner in the dark is so depressing!)

AHHH! It's going to get us Noah!

What? Where? I don't' see anything!

Snow on my neighbor's roof (I wasn't going outside in the cold to take a picture!)
There was more, but it was melting by the time I could take a picture.

Snow on the grill (and soccer goals- those should probably go in the garage.)

Snow on the table. I need to put the umbrella and ashtrays away- leftovers from the birthday party-4weeks ago!

They were really excited that it snowed on their chairs- I don't know why. Maybe so they could sit in it.

YAY!!!!

Some of Selah's umbilical cord fell off! I hope that the rest is soon to follow! You know how it is. I forgot to call Friday for a doctor's appt. Then when I called Saturday morning, they were triple booked (TRIPLE? No wonder they are rich and we wait forever to be seen for 30 seconds!) So they gave me an appt for Monday morning. And then, of course, the main chunk comes off Saturday night. And by Sunday night most of the inflamation is gone. So I called and cancelled her appt Monday, since she has a check up next week anyway. I can't wait to give the kid a bath!! And I am super glad that I did not buy her a bay bath tub, since she will be bigger than it by the time she can get in! (Have you seen the new jacuzi one? I wanted to get her that one, but it was 60 bucks. And I can put her in the big tub for free.)

Selah is 8 weeks old today. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???? It goes faster with each kid, I swear. She is super sweet and cute, loves to smile after she eats, Is holding on to stuff and batting at stuff, and does wonderful holding up her head. So well that I let her face forward in the front pack carrier yesterday and she did well. Loved it!

It is amazing how quickly they become a part of your life! It's great having a little girl and I don't know what I would do without her. (Have I mentioned that she sleeps a lot? Like twice what the boys did? Do you think that she is just sucking up for the nightmare of the teenage years?) But I did come to a conclusion as to why you can never remember what it was like without them, even when you just had them (babies, I mean). I think it is because your life changes slowly over the pregnancy, so that by the time you have the baby, they are already in your heart and a part of your family. It is just natural.

Bryan says I write too much, so I appologize. I think it is because he doesn't talk to me.... :)

SNOW?

NOPE. Just bitter cold and raining. It was 34 when we went to bed last night. Forgot to look this morning. They are calling for an inch tonight. Selah was ready yesterday. If you cannot read her outfit it says "Let it snow"

Dad. You are supposed to be playing with me, not napping.

I'm not that boring, am I? I think I am starting to get a complex.

Don't pretend now, Dad.

It's too late, Mom already caught you!

Noah has this thing. He redresses himself when he is supposed to be napping. Swim shirt, inside out and backwards. Pants backwards. Add smile... and outfit is complete!

Wearing my Ohio State clothes and watching the game with Dad. What a disappointment, though. And I stayed up late for this- I'm missing out on my beauty sleep!!

Big smiles for Daddy. This is my Cleveland Browns hat, you know.

An usher called me a boy today. And I was wearing this pink shirt! Like girls can't like football. Grrr. Gotta get my ears pierced!

A little better picture of me and Mom. Missed the smile this time though.

Content to relax on my dad. Just looking at all this mess I live in. When I get bigger, I am going to help my mom keep it neat and organized. (She said she was giving me back if I didn't. The boys don't help much!)

It seems like I am the only one..

But I do like Sarah Palin. Maybe because we have the same name. I don't know. Anyway, I still find the nonslanderous (is that a word?) jokes funny. And this website is supposed to change daily until Nov 4th. You have to click on things throughout the picture and they do things. Make sure that you click on the animals behind the door. Bryan had to explain most of it to me, as I do not watch any tv and I have only been on CNN.com twice since I had Selah. Sad, I know. But if it's really important someone is sure to call me- RIGHT?

Poor Selah

Sweet little Selah having a rough time lately. Her umbilical cord has still not come off- we are at 7 1/2 weeks now and 2 cauterizations with the Silver Nitrate. It now smells, and the area is looking red, so i am concerned that there may be an infection. I guess I will be calling the doctor's office AGAIN. They know me well now and have even figured out how to pronounce Selah's name. Sad.

In addition, I was hasty in saying that there were no signs of reflux with her. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut. It now appears that she does have reflux. Her that is inflamed and she has been having trouble eating. Not to mention the "spit up"- which is less than with Noah, so I just figured it was normal. Guess not. She was given a prescription, but I am having difficulty getting her to swallow it. So I haven't seen much improvement the last few days, but I am still hopeful. We have had some rough days and nights, and it breaks my heart because she just wakes up screaming like she is in pain. So say a little prayer that we will get this all figured out and she will be less miserable.

On a positive note, her jaundice is about gone. She is very fair skinned like her dad. She is smiling and cooing (when she isn't screaming) and it is so sweet. She is also batting at stuff, and it is hilarious since she has so little control. I don't know what I am going to do when there aren't any more babies in my house. Wait for the grandchildren, I guess.

Here's some random pics from recent weeks:

Noah, must have been sneaking the cooking sherry when I wasn't looking!
He is proudly displaying his new sweatshirt from GG. Didn't think it would be cold enough to wear it yet, but I was wrong.

I don't THINK that Noah was really going to hit her, but you never know. Sure looks incriminating. Selah was in the middle of her 12th clothing change of the day. I thought she would never get to wear all of the clothes, no worry, she can wear them all in one day.

Doing the "Friday dance."
Weekends rock when your actually get to spend them with your family.
Guess I really don't miss GA that much.

DAD! You can't be serious! I haven't even learned to roll over or sit up! Stop dreaming about coaching my soccer team!

Jonah proudly displaying his newly constructed Lego X-wing.

Watching the planes take off. Sure glad to have Daddy back again!

SNOW IN OCT?

Bryan just sent me an email. It said they are forcasting snow for Monday and Tuesday of next week. I looked it up on weather.com. They really are forcasting snow. IN OCTOBER! It's still swimming weather in GA! And Bryan wants to move to Montana. It is currently 34 degrees in Missoula. I'm thinking he should may rethink that. Of course we hated the south (TX, GA, CA and AZ) so I am not sure where that leaves us. Maybe back to Seattle?

Selah's Christening

So there were 12 babies being baptised. And Selah was number 10. She screamed until it was #9's turn, and then fell asleep. So needless to say the cold water did not please her when it was dumped on her head. I think that there was only one other baby who cried while being baptised. And Selah definitely cried the most overall. In fact, I think that she cried more than the rest of them put together. I doubt that I heard more than 10 words. And they were really kind, putting the end of the alphabet at the front of the church- since we are usually at the back. Gee, wish we'd been at the back so that I could have gotten up and walked around with her...

Oh, well. Father Todd said it was fine if the babies cried. I am not sure that he will say that next month...

The boys look pretty scared if you can see their faces.

Jonah is smiling now, but Noah is still not too sure of this.

He's better now, hanging out with Uncle Jonah.

This was by far the best picture of the five of us.

I believe that my husband thought he was posing for GQ.

Selah with her Godparents, Eric and Tammy.

Here's the crew minus the Godparents.

Back row is my brother Jonah, his girlfriend Allison, my Aunt Pat, Noah and Bryan, GG(my grandma), my sister Rachael, and her boyfriend Zack.

Front row is Jonah, Rachael's daughter Brianna, Selah and I, Rachael's son Jacoby.
This is by far the most family that has been in a picture together in...well, I've never seen a picture with this much of my family.

I have a feeling i may get phone calls from Jonah's teacher once he goes back to school. This is a common look on his face. Always gotta get a laugh.

Apparently Bryan should have bent down a bit. Or picked up Noah!

GG and I with 5 of the 6 great grandchildren.
Too bad Noah had to be the jokester this time!

The only close up of Selah in her gown. I am going to try to put it back on her this weekend and take a few more. She might like to see them some day!
Thanks to Brian and Cathy for the gown!
And thanks to all you who came to help us celebrate!

Jonah's 7th birthday party

So you know how it goes, kids everywhere, lost of yelling, surely you forget to look for the quiet ones...

By that I mean Noah. And by the time I remember to look for the quiet one, he's found ink and stamps! And when asked what happened, his reply was "I don't want to talk right now."

Smart kid.

Uhh, first there was this NOISE. Then there was this SMELL... HELP?

Jonah wanted a Stadium Cake for the Buckeyes. He had a football party. (Don't look too close Jaclyn, I did not have time to go back and fix their heads, it was already 2 am.)

DAAAD, You're scaring me!

I think that upright may catch fire...

I'm just snuggling on my neighbor Ms. Carol

WHAT? Haven't you ever seen Bobofet in a soccer uniform playing football?

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Noah.

NOAH? Back away, boy. Jonah's the birthday boy today!

Socks can be exciting if they are the right kind! (And apparently Hanes ankle socks in white are not the right kind. Silly me.)

Jonah's friend, Kyle, enjoying the wrapping paper.

Noah, can't be left out!

My boys had fun, and I think the others did, too. The adults passed Selah around- which she LOVED! She likes to be walked in circles and patted. Needless to say I don't always have time for that, I wonder why....

Jonah got lots of Legos, which are his obsession. He also got some OSU and Air Force things as well as a cool light up basketball and hoop. He then used his birthday money to buy... you guessed it, more Legos! And a pair of hockey skates. (Hockey costs a fortune, and the deal was if he wants to play he has to help. Not that the money for the skates put a dent in the bill, but we are TRYING to teach him some responsibility. If only he would clean the basement...)