january 2011

January 1- Christmas was taken down:(, took cailey for a date to the 'jumpy' at the mall and for a cfa milkshake for finishing her flashmaster paper, watched the kiddos play outside in the hot (63) temps, played tons of games with big kids, family game night, and was awake late rocking a sad baby.

January 2-enjoyed our last day of daddy home for two weeks, played games with the kiddos all day, had another family game night and (including a wii game), had some good talks with cailey...about boys???:((Lord help me!), and did some great devotions with the girls.

January 3- ephram is 19 months, had an AWESOME school day..best of the year so far and they finished early, ran 5 miles outside after two weeks of being sick and not running, played sequence with the kiddos, had SUPER sore legs for the evening and should have listened to brian about only running 3, did model magic with the kiddos while braden was at boy scouts with brian, got back on track, and planned a playdate for cailey.

January 4- did part of school, dropped cailey off at emilee's house for a playdate, ran 4 on super sore legs, read books, played games, chased a giggling 19 mo old, got cailey and finished school, spent one on one time with kinsey, witnessed stair races, listened to LOUD giggles, cut coupons with braden, caught up with friends, listened to cailey play wii with brian, and had a blast with kinsey and ephram doing nursery rhyme books (especially 'Little Miss Muffet') and counting airplanes mats.

January 5- school, super doubles at ht, school, games, hugs, kisses, lots of falls (off chairs) and boo boos for poor ephram, kisses, books, prayers, 3 mile run at the Y with beth, AWANA, shoulder rides from 'uncle esh', talks, kisses, and great talk time with adele.

January 6- super great short school day, super doubles, cleaned, read with kinsey girl, spent sweet time with cailey and braden...individually, had big helpers, realized (FINALLY) that when ephram's crying in his crib during his nap (which he's been doing lately) and I go comfort him and he says, "sleep" that it means he wants to sleep with me, made our fav shoyu chicken...YUM, traded kids with kelly and she took the big ones to the Y for a class while i had the little girls for a playdate, had the klicks over, watched daddies have a blast playing wii, chatted with kell, got lots of hugs, and listened to stair races:).

January 7- six mile run with the girls (super hard but did it!), planned to take the kiddos to monkey joe's with everyone but got SUPER bad stomach cramps on the way and spent the next four hours in bed, witnessed sweetness towards her siblings by cailey (and some not so sweet moments), had the biggies clean the downstairs (which was destroyed while i was in bed) after playing outside..and they did fabulous, had the eshleman's over for wii and chat time, and had a tea party with the girls and AG dolls.

january 8- at home saturday!! played, hugged, built, loved, read, listened, watched, sent b to super doubles and cvs, and had a great time as a family!

January 9- church, picked up a goofy smiling baby:), went to fat daddy's with the klick's, planned on a run but stomach disagreed, rested, watched cailey read all 6 AG Molly books while everyone else napped, choir, bible study, and caught up on blogging.

January 10- had a great 5 mile run in the 20's, did school, hugged cailey girl who didn't feel well all day, waited all.day.long. for the predicted 6 inches of snow...that never came, baked oatmeal cc cookies with kinsey girl, played games, played cars and animals and did letters with ephram, wrote and read with braden, cleaned dinner dishes with the girls, sent brian to super doubles again squeezed my babies extra tight.

January 11- woke up to an inch of ice covering everything, brian worked from home, loved on my kiddos, played games, did school, did laundry (with the kiddos AWESOME help:), witnessed pure kindness from cailey towards kinsey, read scriptures, listened to scriptures, chased an ever growing baby, and praised braden...100 fold because he's awesome!

January 12- third consecutive day of awesome school with kinsey...maybe a breakthrough?, ran outside in the cold:), big girl with a tummy ache, lots of free time, games, DSi for braden, cutting snowflakes with the middle two, giving cailey lots of love, watched the kiddos ice skate on the deck and in the yard...so FUN!, read e books, rocked e...LOTS, got SO many snuggles from my baby boy, kiddos had a long nap/free time, rocked and sang to e 35 minutes (LOVE these snuggles!) i had a stomach ache ALL afternoon and kept praying it would leave before awana...no such luck:(, sent daddy with the kiddos, and sent e to golden corral with daddy.

January 13- didn't feel better and realized i had a stomach virus, passed it to braden later in the day, did school, played blocks, got towers knocked down by e, didn't run, and surprised cailey with a late carolina game with brian, read with braden, and loved hearing updates of their date!

January 14- woke up to find hubby on the couch sick:(, canceled braden's surprise sleepover with reece (b/c of sickness), played games with the kiddos, watched MOLLY with cailey, had a jammie day, baked a cake with the girls, played trains with ephram, came back to find cailey setting up ephram's train tracks for him (SO sweet), played more games, and prayed the 7 mile run would go well tomorrow!

January 15- had a hard 7 mile run with kell and katherine, played with the kiddos, sent girls off to a birthday party, played blocks, cars, trains, etc. and read books with braden and ephram for hours, fed them cake:), listened to all the fun things the girls wanted to share, watched braden and brian build his awesome spider man lego set, sent braden off to a sleepover at the eshleman's, played lots of games with kinsey and entertained ephram, and let cailey sleep in ephram's room:).

January 16- listened to braden's adventure after he came home, tried out a new church and saw adam and kendall there, kiddos loved it, went out to eat as a fam for the last time for 100 days!, played legos, saw LOTS and LOTS of throw up after braden ate way too much food, read books, relaxed, listened to the kiddos play outside, sent them off to choir and bible study, and got lots of snuggles.

January 17- ran 3, did school, did chalk and water with ephram and kinsey, organized, listened, prayed, started a 100 day challenge of no eating out with the fam, let cailey play in eva's house for the first time, played with braden and kinsey, ran errands with cailey and two youngest while brian took braden to scouts, LOVED hearing ephram sing, "rain, rain, go away" over and over...PRECIOUS!, and played games with cailey until past bedtime because she was so helpful and respectful...expecting nothing in return:).

January 18- didn't feel great and skipped my run, school, played, sang, danced, played trains, read books, talked, listened, and didn't feel great.

January 19- ran a very slow 5, did school, took e to rhyme time at the library, made a successful new dinner recipe with braden, started feeling icky again, was freezing at awana with many layers on, listened to braden say three chapters of genesis, felt worse, and found a worried cailey sleeping on my floor at bedtime, and fell asleep under many many covers while talking to cailey.

January 20- woke up very very sick (worst sickness yet), found out kinsey girl was sick, stayed in bed after attempting to do school, was a VERY proud and blessed mama because Cailey and Braden completely took care of Kinsey and Ephram, put on many movies, heard ephram say, "your welcome" clear as day after someone said, "thank you", went to urgent care for a script, hubby worked from home in the pm, had to cancel a playdate and dinner date with friends, was happy to see kinsey was well after her nap, and had at least 4 fevers break.

January 21- brian stayed home from work since i was so sick, kelly took two oldest to co op, wii night, too sick to remember anything else.

January 22- still sick, kiddos played outside and with brian all day.

January 23- hoped i would be better but still not so nonny came, fam went to church, fam cleaned, and brian started having the 'dry cough' at night.

January 24- sent brian to dr. for tamiflu for himself, so thankful for nonny who cleaned, fed, TAUGHT, cooked, and played with and loved on the kids. cailey woke with a fever that went on through the day but the flu shot has helped it not get worse (just like kinsey). ate a 'normal' meal, spent some time vertical but still sick. braden and kinsey LOVED helping nonny cook dinner.

January 25- still sick but cailey was better, listened to piano lessons...which didn't go great b/c practice hasn't been monitored in almost a week, did a bit of school but left the rest to nonny, helped with awana verses, brian was very sick, felt a little better in the afternoon/evening but think what's left after the severe flu is a sinus infection which is keeping me from sleeping, breathing, and giving me major headaches.

January 26- got a call from brian saying the tire was flat on his way to work, spent a lot of time up out of bed downstairs with mom, took turns doing school (with mom), finished two seasons of ruby, listened to laughter, paid a lot to have the fridge fixed (everything's breaking!) was a proud mama when cailey came home from awana after finishing her SECOND book of the year, was excited for kinsey who learned her verse (Matt 22:39) SO well, spent hours playing with ephram while the kiddos were at awana...he giggled the WHOLE time from reading, being chased, nursery rhymes, ring around the rosy, and games, and watched tv with mom.

January 27- said goodbye to mom:(, did school, crashed, still didn't feel great, cleaned, listened to playing, read the bible with cailey, got many snuggles from braden, and was thrilled to see brian come home with six new boxes of tissue...may last a couple days!

January 28- got dressed (and praises from cailey for doing so after being sick so long:), sent the girls to co op with kelly, listened to the boys play, listened to kinsey read sight words, played a couple games in bed with the kiddos, read to ephram, took a nap, celebrated as the kiddos got their pizza rewards for reading books, and missed mom.

January 29- played with the kiddos, ran errands w/ the fam (including everyone's highlight...the new walmart:), cheered braden on at his pinewood derby (where he won 2nd place for craftsmanship), watched the kiddos ride bikes outside in the sunshine, smelled shrimp and linguini cooking, watched little house with cailey, loved hearing ephram scream, "dada!...pumpin bread??" from the stairs, and got lots of snuggles.

January 30- sent the fam to church, listened to fun things they learned and did, sent them off to the park for a bike ride during naptime in the 60 degree weather (cailey rode 7 miles and braden rode 3!), listened to solo practice, sent the girls to choir, played with the boys, and felt a bit better.

January 31- had a VERY giggly baby, did school, did puzzles with e, read books, listened to lots of reading, baked chocolate chip brownies with the kiddos, played math games with kinsey, chased, loved, and had great talks.

random January pics

playing with Christmas gifts...very cool stuff!

cailey asked me to take a picture of her magnetic
hotel:)

ephram's been doing a lot of fun things too!
in this pic he's counting airplanes with kinsey

goofy! we discovered that ephram is allergic to clementine's (and other kinds of oranges) because he gets a HORRIBLE diaper rash after eating them. poor baby! we actually found something healthy that he'd eat but can't....on another note, we figured out if we slice apples super thin (not bite sized square pieces, but SKINNY slices) he'll eat those too.

i had to run down and get my camera while the kiddos were doing school because this is seriously ephram's FAVORITE thing to do. he always sneaks in behind whoever is sitting in this chair (he can climb through the back) and plays with their hair. braden is the best about it and acts like nothing is happening:)

kinsey girl doing math

one day ephram was EXTRA snuggly and rocked with me for almost an hour. i truly treasure times like this and know they are going to pass all too quickly. ephram is normally a snuggle boy but when he's tired or not feeling good i get to just rock and rock this baby:). cailey took some pics with her camera while we were rocking.

his favorite snack is still popcorn! oh...and bathtime in
mama's big tub!

coloring and doing more airplane counting

First Carolina Game!

Brian came home from work Thursday evening with a big surprise for Cailey. He was taking her to her first Carolina game! (Which was not starting until 9:00pm!) She's been wanting to go to one for a long time and she was beyond excited!

She doesn't have any Carolina clothes but we did our best to make her look like a fan. She picked out blue ribbon for me to put in her hair too. Cailey had SO MUCH fun at the game! I called halfway and she was still really excited. I was thinking she would be bored but boy was I wrong! Her comment was, "It's loud and the cheerleaders come out every four minutes for a mandatory time out". When I called they were losing so Brian wasn't happy but it all ended on a good note because in the end they won! YAY! Go Heels! I was sleeping when she came home but the next day she told me all about it and really focused on the fact that they have to do a lot of running back and forth. She was one thankful little girl and did AWESOME the next day considering she was going on very little sleep.

joy

baking cookies

watching movies

playing games....and breakfast

Braden finished his awana books up last fall but we still wanted him to be learning bible verses so we set out to find something that he could learn and be challenged. We decided on the first three chapters of Genesis and assumed it would take the rest of the year...until May. Since we're such great friends with Dave and Tricia (Dave is his leader) they decided to give him incentive and told him he could do something fun with them if he was able to learn it.

Braden started learning it in the beginning of November and on Christmas Day when they were here for dinner, Braden told us he finished learning the third Chapter. WHAT?? We were completely shocked! I knew that he had learned the first two chapters but had no clue about the third because there just wasn't enough time. We sat and listened and sure enough he had learned all three chapters of Genesis! We are SO proud of him! We never thought he'd be able to learn them so quickly because it.is.hard. I don't know any grown ups who can say they know three Chapters of Genesis.

As a reward the Eshleman's decided on a sleepover and Braden was BEYOND excited! He got to use his new sleeping bag and they all camped out in the living room watching movies (Ice Age and Dark Wing Duck), eating popcorn and cookies and drinking hot cocoa...which he was super excited about (all the food, of course!) They also played bananagrams which I heard went awesome and they said they felt like they were playing with an adult friend:).

They stayed up extra late and then woke up to mickey mouse and snowflake pancakes! He had SO much fun!

to say he was missed would be a gross understatement. ephram did fine in his crib because cailey slept in his room but as soon as braden walked in the door he was ATTACKED by ephram's hugs and screams of "Braden!"

Braden's moved onto Mark and has the goal of learning an entire book of the bible. While it would be easy (for him) to learn a short one we just don't feel he's ready for all the content at six years old. So everyday he moves on in Mark with one simple goal: hiding God's word in his heart. I pray that God will use this amazing little boy for HIS Glory!

Last week Braden shared the three chapters of Genesis in front of all the Sparks leaders and his peers. He did awesome!

daisy lu

The Eshleman's got a new super cute, super cuddly, will be a giant soon puppy! We didn't tell the kiddos about it because we wanted to see the looks on their faces when they were attacked with loving kisses:). Kinsey and Ephram stayed home with me while Brian brought Cailey and Braden over. True to puppy nature they were 'attacked' but soon she crashed in Cailey's lap:).

spiderman legos!

SO COOL!

Braden got an awesome Spiderman LEGO set from Nonny and Poppy for Christmas! He's been so excited about putting it together and got a chance with Brian a couple weeks ago. It ended up being even cooler than we knew and EVERYONE in the family is having a blast playing with it. There's a working trolley, cab, bridge, swinging spiderman, and of course the bad guys (who's names I can never remember). Ephram loved it as much as everyone else so we finally put it up high where it will be safe and Braden brings it down whenever he wants to play with it...which is often:).

This boy LOVES his LEGOS!

painting with water

since i introduced ephram to chalk and water he can be found at the easel. all day long. until he tries to paint water on my chair...then it gets put up:).

all my kiddos have always LOVED painting with water. it's so easy and they
literally sit there and go through an entire book in a day. even cailey and braden
still think it's fun and have been doing it a ton since I've gotten sick. it's easy and 'clean'
enough for them to get out themselves and they LOVE it!

ephram loves paint with water too! we hung his picture up on the window and he is just so excited whenever he sees his elephants!