Happy 1st Birthday Finley!

Our baby is 1!!!! This has been such a great year with our Finley addition! She is such a sweet, funny, and loving girl. There is so much love for this sweet angel! She brightens my day with her cute smile! She loves balloons, balls, dogs, cats, and dancing. Her favorite words are all done, watermelon (ma mel), Mama, Dada, Per (Harper - she hasn't figured out the girls names yet), Pa (Grandpa), Ma (Grandma), Ma-Ma (more) - that is all I can think of right now. She has perfected the pterodactyl scream as well (this rather annoys me). We love our funny Fifi! Her brother and sisters smother her with love. I put her to bed at 7:30 and the girls go in the room around 8 after their story and I love going in there to tuck her in because she will stand up in her bed and just start giving kisses. All you see is this big brown fuzz rise up from the bed and smack her lips - super cute. She doesn't walk and probably won't for a while! She'll move and walk holding onto stuff, but won't free stand. The girls woke up this morning and said, "Finley is 1 now - can she walk?!" They have been wanting to go to the beach and I told them we didn't want to go until she could walk - we may have to break this and just take them! Here are some pictures from her little birthday party. We didn't feel like doing too much this year, because everyone was busy getting back into the swing of things with school and stuff, so it was a low key one at home (which was quite nice not having to pack party items and lug them around)!

Finley absolutely loved her balloons! She wouldn't let go of them! I had to pry them away and of course she let me know that she didn't like it!
All my sweet babies

The little ladies - I love girls in pink!

Present time is quite fun with 4 little kids! Everyone wanted to help teach Fifi how to open her presents.

Finley had her own special cake and I made her party hat to match.

She did not like her hat!! But she hates anyone messing with her hair so the hat stayed on just for this picture!

She didn't even have a chance at the candle because of all the "help" she received! We sang Happy Birthday and the candle was out in a split second.

She barely touched her cake, but then again I didn't give her too much time to dig in. She took a couple bites and then I just fed it to her - I hate messes!

And don't forget all the help she always gets!! Here are all 3 of the big kids feeding her! Doesn't she look thrilled!

Ok - the cake! So Matt got several treats/cakes for his birthday. One of which was an entire sheet cake from his work that no one touched. We had so much other stuff to eat that I stuck it in the deep freezer. Well, I decided to get this cake out of the freezer by giving to the party guests!!! He he!! Hey, it was both sets of grandparents and my sister there, so I didn't think they would care one bit. So I made out on the cake thing!! I wish I could have made a cake, but waste not, want not!!! I scraped off Matt's name and attempted to write Finley's. It worked! And here is the birthday girl today - her real birthday! We love you Finley Claire!

Funny

Sometimes our conversations are just so funny around here. It is hard for me to document all the funny things they say, but today was funny. Here goes:

Carly: I see a plane! It is big because it is low.
Matt: Where do you think it is going?
Harper: To Heaven!!!

First Day of Mommy School

Yesterday, August 16th, was the official first day of Mommy School! Carly and Chloe were so excited! I had to dress them up and take lots of pictures, hey I'm missing out on all the school stuff, so I have to make things special for them and myself! The best room Dad ever helped me get the house in tip top shape the night before so we could get going and start our day off right. We got alot done and they had lots of fun. I even got 3 loads of laundry washed, dried, and folded. All in all, the day was great and we are excited about our upcoming year.

They sported their backpacks around so it felt like a real first day of school.

The excitement was just bubbling up inside!

Yes, I made them go outside, walk down the driveway and turn around and come back. They had to do it 2 times - once for me to video and once for me to take pictures. They thought it was funny.

These are their Schultuetes. I remember my Mom telling me about these from when she was little in Germany. She got one in preschool. They are cones filled with treats and school supplies (theirs were filled with cookies and pencils) that are given to kids at the start of the school year. I told them how to say it and they sound so cute saying it - and correctly! These were a big hit with them. They talked about them all day. That night we took them to the pool to burn off some energy because they were pumped all day. I let them choose treats from them to take with them. Very exciting! I told them that it was going to be gym class - Harper asked if I was Jim?

Here is Harper working on his colors while the girls were doing some work. He liked doing school too. He kept very busy!

And here are the scholars hard at work. They love their school room and quite frankly I love teaching them. I loved helping Chloe write her numbers and in the middle of them, she just gave me a kiss and told me she loves me. Now, I'm sorry, I wouldn't want to have missed that for the world!

New Poll

September 23rd is when we get to go find out what the baby is. I have set up a poll to the right for you to cast your vote. You can vote multiple times for each member of your family but don't just put 5 votes for girl for just yourself. I am anxious to see what everyone thinks this baby is. I am 90% sure of what I think it is. So I will have to vote later on so no one sees my vote!! Happy voting!

Camping in PA

We left our cozy NC home on August 6th with extreme heats outside and a comfy temperature of 74 degrees inside and headed up to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for a family reunion and camping adventure. We got there around 4:30 pm and had ample time to unpack and get situated. The reunion consisted of 2 out of 6 branches of the All family. Represented from our side was my Mom and Dad, Kris and family, and us. Then the entire Persutte clan (minus Dorthea) was there. It was fun to see everyone. We spent every evening eating and sitting around the campfire. Saturday they had ponies from the Land of Little Horses at the campground and the kids all got to go on a horsey ride. We also went to the pool in the afternoon and Sunday we took a walk in downtown Gettysburg (which we found out later that day that there was a whole lot more than what we saw - bummer). Matt went on tour of Gettysburg with my parents and Liz. He really enjoyed some history. The weather was spectacular!! It was in the 80s during the day and at night it was quite comfortable. The first night we were actually COLD! So I had to get an extra blanket for the next night. The kids absolutely loved sleeping in the tent. Me, not so much. I am usually a great sleeper, but the air mattress wasn't the greatest and our site was right on Highway 15!! So the sound of tractor trailers roaring down the road wasn't the funnest to go to sleep to. Combine that with staying up late and being pregnant. Let's just say I was a complete zombie on Monday when we traveled home. But despite me not sleeping it was very relaxing and the kids absolutely loved being outside 24/7. They are true little campers. I love how our picture taking goes. Some trips (like Disney) we take a million pictures - too many in my opinion and others, we don't even take our camera out! This trip, the camera never came out. So our pictures are limited, but Gina was taking on a great role of photographer, so I will add more when I get those. Here are some highlights of the trip:

Harper relaxing by the fishing pond in the morning. He looked so peaceful.

Chloe caught a fish! Her bait - hot dogs! Don helped them out and they were so excited to get a fish!

Carly caught one too (these were both from Saturday morning). She also caught 2 more on Sunday with the help of Uncle Kris. They made a pretty good team! Chloe was a little down that she didn't catch any more, so Mom overheard Carly telling her that her next fish she caught she would let Chloe and Harper reel them in. She never caught another one, but it was still a sweet thought!

The kiddos getting ready to ride horsies! They were so excited and for $4 they each got to do one little lap around this small field! Oh well, they enjoyed it!

Chloe

Carly

Harper - I felt like paparazzi standing in the middle of the field trying to take pictures and video of all 3 kids riding. I think we need to just start hiring someone to come with us everywhere so I don't have to take pics anymore!

Sunday morning Connor came to fish too.

And these cousins sure do love each other!

Chloe getting some love!

Group shot of the kiddos

Mom made Carly, Chloe, and Kaitlyn all some super cute skirts. They liked wearing the same thing together.

Finley! Whew! This girl! Here she is dining on the picnic table. She was not the best camper. mainly because she wanted to get down, but she can only crawl - not happening. Staying up late she wasn't too fond of. But when she was happy, she was happy. She took her naps and slept great in the tent at night - and that is the most important thing to me! Her next camping trip will be when she can walk! That way she won't have to be held the entire time.

This statue of Abraham Lincoln was on our little walk of downtown Gettysburg.

We were going to go to Hershey, PA on the way back home and get a hotel room half way through. Kris reported that Hershey wasn't the greatest for the money you had to shell out and then we couldn't find a hotel and suite in an adequate location. So we made the decision to nix the whole Hershey idea and just drive straight home. I guess my pure exhaustion played a big role, but oh well, I am not too heartbroken. But the kids were that close to their first piece of candy. They didn't know that Hershey was even an option, so they don't know they missed out! So that pretty much sums up our Pennsylvania vacation!

School Time!

After several weeks of pulling out school materials and tearing this house apart, we have finally gotten our school room ready for action! The girls have been so excited to see all the stuff and they continue to ask me when Mommy school will start. I am thinking about Monday getting going, since it is way too hot to even go to the pool now. I even got to go to my friend Lauren's Kindergarten classroom last week and get some great stuff from her files. Lauren went to UNCC with me. So here is to our first year homeschooling - wish me luck!

I got this dry erase board from the neighbors. They had it in the pile for the Kidney Foundation, so I made the kids run across the street and snag it. I bought some black paint and it is like new! And in the other corner is their classroom library. They are all from my classroom when I taught so they are organized and easy for them to get to.
Here is their table and chairs. They have little drawers to house their pencils/crayons/markers/glue sticks, etc. Then they have 2 boxes each - 1 for books they can read alone and one for a notebook and folder and to put their papers in. We turned the play kitchen into a little nook in the classroom since we have no more rooms to put it. Harper likes going in the little spot to cook, so it will be good for him to keep busy in. I got these chairs from IKEA for $15 and then I bought some fabric for $2 and covered the seat bottom. So they look so cute now and it was only a little fabric that did the trick.

Here is our calendar stuff. It works out perfectly on the back of the play kitchen. I also got this filing cabinet off of Craig's List for $40. Pretty good deal when the cheapest 2 drawer one I found was $60! I just need to purchase a cabinet thing to house some bigger stuff, but for the most part, we are ready for action.

Pretty girl

Here is Finley all dressed up for church. We gave them baths in the morning, so I made Matt hold her down while I blew dried her hair nicely. She looked absolutely cute in her dress (that Grandma made her last year for a wedding and it fits her so good now)! Just wanted to post a pic of our sweet girl.

Sleepy Kids

Our absolute favorite thing to do each night before we go to bed is to kiss our kids goodnight and make sure they are all tucked in. Here are some recent pics that made us laugh.

Harper has to put any lingering toys that are in his room in the hallway before going to bed. Well, this night he had put his hat in the hallway, but he came out at some point and put it back on and then slept with it on. Our little Thomas!
Poor Fifi!! We were out late one night (came remember what we were doing), but I gave her a bath and put her to bed. I went in there maybe 10 minutes later and this girl was sprawled out! She was beat. I love how one hand and one foot are hanging out!

Movie Night

Last Tuesday, the 27th of July, we had our first ever family movie night. The kids have never seen a full length movie before! I am not a big TV fan, therefore, the kids watch slim to none. So we decided to have a movie night. I rented the movie Earth. It is basically a documentary of animals. It was actually a perfect movie for them. Kind of boring, but the excitement was staying up late and eating in the living room, so we enjoyed our boring movie of a polar bear, whale, elephant, and other animals. We had the kids get ready for bed in our room while we set up the movie room. We put their little table in there to hold their drinks and popcorn. Lit some candles, turned all the lights off, slid the ottoman close to the couch so we could all be comfy and then they were allowed in. They were so excited. As you can see from the first pic, that eating in the living room was something they really weren't prepared for. They all ended up getting a chair and eating at the table despite us telling them that it was ok for their special night. Hey, I am not complaining - there weren't any spills!! They also wanted Oreos and ice cream. They were spoiled on movie night and they can't wait for the next one. Now I just have to find another full length movie I approve of! Preferably a cartoon - Chloe said she wanted the polar bears to sing and dance on the movie - sorry girl!!

All of us snuggled up on the couch! The flash was so bright, that is why we look blind! Oh, and Finley did not participate in the festivities - way past her bed time! And they do have their popcorn on the couch, but they were almost done and they ended giving them all to us. But they were proud that they ventured away from the little table!

The Proof

Here is our little nugget! He/she is due March 3rd. I went to have the ultrasound and I told Matt to meet me at the Dr.'s. I just wanted him to sit in the car with the kids while I ran into the office. Dragging 4 kids to the Dr. is not my idea of any fun! Once we got to the hospital, I was getting out of the car and the girls about broke down into tears because they wanted to go see the baby! This of course broke my heart and I couldn't let them down, so we unloaded as Daddy was getting there. So the girls and I went into the Dr.'s with Matt and the little 2 and when they called my name Matt took the little 2 for a walk. So Carly and Chloe were the first to see this bundle little bundle of joy (and yes, it is only 1 bundle of joy)! It was neat to hear the heart beating so fast! This little blob is beating already - CRAZY! Just wanted to update the status of the baby! Here is to the next 30 weeks and 2 days!