"When Daddy is gone, I'm in charge"

That was a direct quote from Jake!





Jake takes his place in the family seriously, I guess! He decided that since daddy wasn't going to be home until real late, that the burden turned to him to be in charge of clearing off the deck!! (p.s. sorry the pics are in reverse order, blogger is weird lately!)

Helping Daddy snowblow for the first time this season!

Helping Daddy before the big storm came...and before mommy had to leave for work!

If you don't have one of these, you should get one!

Mike and I bought this when we were christmas shopping for the kids. This is the best thing ever made! The kids sit still and just watch in awe!

Playing dress-up!

We reorganized Anna's closet before we left on Thursday for dinner. Now she can find all of her dressup stuff! Like it? I think it looks a little "Punky Brewster" like!

Our Thanksgiving Blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving! Like the Don King hair style we have going for Luke????




We went to grandma and grandpa Rottier's house for Thanksgiving today. It was alot of fun! (and a lot of good food!)

Well, there's one way to lose your teeth!

It was a gymnastics night, it was the VERY END! She did a great stunt they say as they carry her screaming, crying and dripping blood everywhere!!! It ended with us driving to the dentist at 8pm for an emergent visit, to find out from Dr. Smiley: AnnaJoy you are going to lose those teeth really soon! Grrrreeeeaaaatttt!!


She's o.k. What happened you say? She (according to her and her coach) did a fantastic flip into the "pit" and landed her teeth smack dab into her knee! The knee is pretty banged up too! We are trying to keep her spirits high (as she really was brave!) However, even she is not very thrilled when she looks in the mirror. It probably doesn't help when your younger brother looks at you and says, "eeeewwww". (sigh, this too shall pass! Thank GOD it was not her permanent teeth!)

Snowmen and Snow angels...

When I got home from work at 8am there was no snow! When I woke up at noon to go pick up the kids I found 3 inches of snow! I didn't even know it was supposed to do this today! It was awesome packing snow and it wasn't too cold out. So, after our naps we went out to play for an hour. The kids were very fascinated with making snow angels, which was fun to watch. We also made snowmen. We were going to make 5 (for our family) but after mommy proved that she needs lessons in making a real snowman, the kids gave up on me! It was time to try to sled down our hill. (sorry no pics) That didn't go over so well, cuz I was tired by that point and Luke was very wet and whiney! The big kids went down a couple times then it was inside for the remainder of the night! I need to snow blow, but can't remember how to turn it on. When I called Mike he told me just to wait and he would do it around 9pm when he finally gets home! Happy winter (I guess)! P.S. anyone who didn't think Anna and Luke looked just alike, check out the second photo! They are twins!

A Blast from the Past...

I found these dresses of mine that I kept from when I was little. Well, Anna had a blast trying them all on. Now we just need Grandma G. to find photos of me in them for comparison! The first two I wore when I was 4 (obviously Anna is smaller than I was). The pink "princess" one is from when I was 8. Anna is still wearing that one, insisting that she looks "fabulous"! Wow! Look how short the first two are! No wonder my mom always put pants under them...although I was NEVER pleased with that!!

Will it ever end?

No photos this time (sorry!) This has been a crazy, emotional week for me, not so much the kids....although I think their high octane energy is helping send me over the edge! The long and short of it is, I have been in contact with my dr's office for 3 days and finally got a call back today for an appointment for Dec. 16th. I may need surgery and can't meet with the dr. until this day to decide! AUGH! The stressful part is that because I am weekend option now at work, I only get 9 days per calendar year off...this includes my sick time and vacation time. Now you see why I was stressed. Don't worry, I'm not going to die, just having some "issues". I also feel like the worst mom in the entire universe! Tonight was AWANA parents night...I knew this and kept it in the back of my mind. Due to MIke in wrestling season now, this was my only chance to go grab the few groceries we needed, well, the long and short of it is: between leaving the kids at church and getting the food, I completely forgot and ran the food home before picking them up...Anna was VERY bummed out that I wasn't there...to the point that I wanted to burst into tears! I feel like I can't keep up with everything. Jake and Luke were oblivious to the whole thing (phew!).
Mike got a deer this weekend (so did grandpa Rottier). So, they brought that last night, thank you!! BUT, I let the kids watch Bambi...cuz they wanted to. Since then? The boys have the fear of God in them about night time and deer coming and getting them! WHAT!? Over Bambi!? I don't get it, guess I am not meant to! Oh well again, right?
On a bright note: Today was Molly's "BIG" clinic day to have all her labs drawn again to decide which course of action to take. Today her leukemic cell count needed to be below 5%. It was 1% YES!!!! They will know more about what direction her treatment goes on Friday. Like I said before, if you want to check on her more frequently go to: www.carepages.com Then enter in: MollyKate as the care page you want to visit! Have a great night, I just heard my dryer so must go up and continue the laundry! No, it does not ever end.......

Jake's Pizza Making Adventures!!!

Jake's preschool class met at DJ's Pizza this morning to learn all about making pizza and how the pop is made. It was cute to watch all of their faces! He and another little guy from school each got to make a half pizza for themselves to eat...and they even got to watch it come out of the oven...very fascinating indeed!!

Trying a new method!

If you have ever met Luke, you know that he has CRAZY hair! It is impossible to deal with! His hairdresser and daddy both decided that perhaps if we grow it out, it will not stick straight up! I hope so! This morning after Anna left for school it was down to Heather's for our hair cuts. We really only did half hair cuts, as we left the top part of both boys as they were. BUT, this time, Heather "thinned" Luke's hair and used some "heavy duty" gel in his hair! (augh) It works though, what do you think? I keep thinking that this hair would be better suited to a little girl, but I guess God has other opinions than I do!

Playing in the Leaves!

Thanks to our friend Amber, we were able to do leaf photos today. I actually planned them for yesterday, but the boys had their "fight"!!! They turned out pretty good I think! The kids were wild and crazy and Luke wasn't as into being "in" the leaves as the older two!

The Action Never Ends!!!!

We had a pretty busy day, usual for a Thursday. Today was also a beautiful day outside, so, my plan was to bring the kids to a friends house to do some photos in their leaves....didn't so much happen! Around 3:40pm Jake slammed Luke's hand/arm (I didn't know what at the time) into the school desk we have! Quickly I noticed that he was refusing to move the arm at all and was really screaming hard! I called Mike to get home (he was already mostly here!) then called the Dr's office. They told us just to go to ER. Well, I am happy to report after 3 hours in ER, Luke has a severly bruised right thumb...phew! He is moving his arm now but is pretty guarded when it comes to using his fingers! Good grief! All in a days work!

Sleepy Luke!

I guess I am not very good company in the mornings that Jake and Anna are both at school!!!! He found his sleep stuff (binkie and blankie) and just decided to take a little nap!
***a quick update on Molly. She is at home doing fine, her next chemo. is Thursday. One of the side effects of the prednisone is painful joints, this being said, Molly is not walking well at all. The visiting nurse told Melissa this is a common thing, that young children usually quit walking and need a wheel chair for a temporary time. This is quite hard on Molly (and obviously her parents). Keep them in your thoughts and prayers! On a positive note, she had a blood count drawn Monday and there are 0 leukemic cells!!! Melissa said she is waiting to see what the bone marrow draw says on Thursday before she gets really excited! But what good news!! Molly does have a care page now. If you go to carepages.com, the name of the page is MollyKate.

We Got Promoted!

Today was the kids final swim lesson. Jake was promoted to level 2 and Anna was promoted to level 3! They were excited! We were also supposed to go to a birthday party for Alexa (in Ann Arbor) but most all of us are in various stages of illness that there was no traveling going on today! Hope you had a great pirate party Alexa!!!!