Happy Birthday, Ethan!!

4 years old today!!!!!!!!!! How exciting for Ethan :) However, Mom doesn't like that her little boy is 4, four. That is so old. He was so funny this morning...he came running in my room and said, "Look how big I am. I'm 4 now!" He thought he grew last night while sleeping. It was very cute. He's been showing everyone how big he is and how high he can jump...because he's 4!! He's a sweet, funny, cute, (yes, bad!), cuddly little guy. He told me he would still sit in my lap because 4 is still little, too :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ETHAN JUDSON!!

(Yucky) First Snow

Yes, another collage. I think I have 2 more to put on here, then I'll go back to normal :) Sarah, Rachel, and Ethan ran outside during the first snow yesterday. They were so excited and wild (here is where mom says, "Yippee. It's snowing. I'm so excited. Now sit down and be quiet. It snowed last year and it'll snow next year. In fact, it'll snow more this year. Big deal. It's cold, it's wet. Shut the door when you come in.") Actually, I pretended to be a good mom and let them go outside for a bit and postpone their jobs and nap :)

Ethan in the tree

I'm kinda liking these collages--faster way to post pictures. I promise I won't do this always, though. In fact, some of these pictures are too cute to only put in a collage. I'll separate them and post them later.

Ethan was climbing the tree yesterday and I snapped these.

Princess Pumpkin Party

Thanks to Brittany Mills, the girls were able to attend a Princess Pumpkin Party last Saturday! The girls thought it was the best, the boys thought it was funny (of course!). The girls got all dressed up and painted their fingernails and had the best time. I was so thankful to get their dresses done in time...down to the wire on those :) They loved the party!! Here is a collage of the pictures. If you click on it, it will get bigger. I'll probably post some of them individually later, but I wanted to put this collage on today!

End of the soccer season

So, after 8 weeks, the soccer season is finished! I'm very happy to have my Saturday mornings back, but it was a lot of fun to watch the kids. We had fairly nice weather, although it was freezing a couple of times. We had no rain, no thunder, no lightning--it was predicted a few times, but the Lord prevented it :) It's nice not to have to reschedule games. All of the kids ended up doing really well--they all won more than they lost. They all improved their skills, too. It was a lot of fun watching Rachel, Sarah, Andrew, and Peter improve with each game. (Nathan and Daniel improved, too, but not as noticeably. Their group wasn't as competitive as they had hoped, but they enjoyed it.) Here are some pictures from the last Saturday (freezing cold!).

This is the girls' team after the game...Sarah

is on the far right looking at the camera

and Rachel is behind the coach (can't see her)

You can see Rachel's legs--white socks with blue hearts right by the coach.

They played soooo well for this last game. They lost, but it was a great game (and I'm

not just saying that because I'm a mom!)

Rachel and Sarah at the end of the line

Sarah getting her team shirt from the coach...

he was a super wonderful coach :)

Rachel with her team shirt

Nathan getting a drink during the game

All 6 after the last game--freezing cold and two of them

are barefoot :)

Haven 'watching' a game

Ethan and Matthew playing during a game--they had so

much fun together this season :)

Peter Muzzi!!

We're done with October!! That was quick. I'm still waiting to get the September pictures off my old computer. Soon, soon.

Poor little sick Ethan :(

So, almost 3 weeks ago now, Ethan started complaining of a stiff neck. We let it go for awhile, but then we noticed a bite mark (like a spider, not a sibling!) and that his neck was getting swollen. He was also very sleepy. We finally decided to take him to the doctor to see what was happening. That started a whole battery of examinations, medications, and complications!! I won't bore you with all the details because most of you have already heard this. He had a blood test, a chest x-ray, 3 different antibiotics, and a trip to the hospital for an ultrasound of his lump. The blood test showed extremely high white blood cell count, the x-ray showed cloudy lungs (think pneumonia...but no symptoms whatsoever), and the medicines ended up causing head to toe hives for about 5 days. I've never seen hives like that before. He looked like he should've been in a freak show in a circus. He didn't look like Ethan. They were from the top of his head to the top of his feet--poor guy. We changed medicine--no flavoring, no coloring, lots of fussing--and that seemed to help. He is now off all antibiotics, the hives are gone, the swelling is gone, and he is back to his normal, loud, bossy, talky, sweet, funny, cute, cuddly self :) We are so thankful that the Lord chose to heal him and we are thankful for the trial. We had just learned about 'perfect peace' from our family Bible time. The timing was perfect and we all learned from this situation. It was still terrifying, but 'peaceful.' Thanks to all of you who prayed.

Here are some pictures from those 2 weeks. It was hard to get too many--he didn't cooperate and the camera wasn't the first thing on my mind!!

This is a picture of his neck--his right side--and his

new fire truck from Grandpa and Grandma Koski!!

The beginning of the hives--notice his eyes

One of them on his foot :(

Day 2 or 3--his face was really getting affected

Just a cute picture of Ethan--the shadows must have masked the hives :)

Again--his face. It was hard to get a really good picture of the hives.

The ones on his belly and back didn't show up very well for the camera.

He's happy here because he's getting an oatmeal bath and he gets to play in the tub!!

Hive practically gone, mischief back!! I turned my back for 30 seconds and found this :)

One more batch of soccer pictures and I'm done with October, I think :) Aren't you proud of me for getting 3 posts in 3 days?!?!?!

October pictures of the kids

We had a nice break in the weather that lasted for almost 2 weeks. The temps were in the mid-to upper 70s. It was sooo nice. On the last day of this niceness, I took the kids to a nearby park and tried to take pictures of them. I say 'tried' because with 8 of them, there is usually at least 1 who doesn't want to cooperate. We had one who was fine with the pictures until he found out he had to wear church pants!! Then, there were 2 others who thought it would be funny to make faces at the camera (I didn't realize this was happening until I got home and looked at them.) You should be able to tell who the 'funny face' kids were--one boy, one girl. Here are a couple of the pictures...

**First, the pictures of the boys...

You may not be able to see, but Nathan is teasing Daniel.

I think he put a leaf down his back :)

**Now, the girl pictures...

One while we were trying get Haven ready

I know Sarah's not looking, but this a very natural pose for her!

I like this picture :)

**Ok, the pictures you've all been waiting for...all 8 kids together :)

They all ran out on the dock and I snapped this one!

Find the funny faces??!!

Funny faces and snarly face

Decent--I'm trying to figure out a photoshop type of program to fix this one!

Another decent one

Different location, different pose--in order of age

**Random pictures of some of the kids...

Haven by the lake

Ethan

Daniel and Haven

Nathan and Haven

This is a joke, but it turned out to be a good picture of Nathan!

We just had Morris Gleiser at church and he told a story about a man who had been blind for a long time. He was able to have surgery to restore his eyesight. On the way home, he saw a trash can with a swing-top thingee and thought it was so neat. He had his wife take his picture next to the trash can. This one doesn't have the cool top, but Nathan mentioned the story as he walked by it and I took his picture!

This is the park...Notice the name of the lake :)

**Some pretty pictures of the park...

**Next up?? Pictures of Ethan while he was sick :(