Thanksgiving

We made our way to North Carolina, again this year, for Thanksgiving.  

Despite still not feeling my best we had a great time! 

The campground we stayed at was covered in fallen leaves and large pine cones, quite the novelty for our floridian offspring.

My SIL put together an amazing Thanksgiving dinner!  She is quite possibly one of the worlds greatest gravy chefs which is important to me and my obsession with mashed potatoes. 

The kids had a great time playing together and especially enjoyed celebrating both Uncle Nate's and Blake's birthdays.  

Sadly my exhaustion and nausea kept me from getting out my camera much.  Thanksgiving was probably the worst and I didn't touch my camera once that day.  The following day I was feeling a bit better and was able to capture the fun we had at the Pik n' Pig, a North Carolina BBQ restaurant.

We sat outside which overlooked a driving range and a private airstrip!  

The boys were in heaven!

"Fore!" 

The Pig

Kane watching a plane land!

Best Buds!

Everyone shout "Pik n' Pig!"

Saturday morning we had Jess, Nate and the kids over to the campground for breakfast. 

Aunt Jessie helped the kids make their first ever leaf pile!

Jon is under there somewhere...

Not pleased to have to stop playing for a photo op!

14 Weeks

Tuesday was both the 14 week mark in my pregnancy and my first prenatal appointment. I had to take Kane and Ford with me to the appointment which isn't ideal but worked out fine.  Kane kept asking my midwife if she could take the baby out, now.  He's a little jazzed about having another baby in the house!  

Ford spent most of the appointment happily playing with toys on ground, that is until the doppler was turned on.  He did not like the weird noise it made and he was especially displeased to see me laying down with the wand on my belly!  He became very protective, having to sit next to me and watching closely every move the midwife made.  Ironically he was not nearly as concerned or vigilant during the blood draw, you know the part where I actually stabbed by a point metal object.  I guess he's one, I'll cut him some slack.  

 Over all it was a good appointment, (potential TMI here)  I have a tilted uterus which makes it difficult in the first few months to find the heartbeat.  We found it for a brief moment before the baby scooted off.  Although the midwife had a hard time hearing the heartbeat, she could hear plenty of movement.

Funny side note, right before I found out I was pregnant with Evan I had some "female issues" as my husband puts it and went to the gyno, which is when I was first informed that my uterus was tilted.  The doctor then told me that because of my condition I'd have an extremely hard time getting pregnant if I was able to get pregnant at all.  Bahahaha!  Oh silly silly doctor.

Anyway, I'm happy that the baby is healthy and happy in there!

I think I'm going to go take a nap!  

Weird

My husband is a twin.

One of Tracy's very good friends from high school, had twins.

One of Becky's closest childhood/high school friends had twins.

Jed's twin sister's best friend from high school just gave birth to twin boys yesterday!

(Katie I think you're next! :))

My neighbor's sister is pregnant with twins and due on the same day as me.  

Oh and my older brother and sister are twins.  

Ok so I just thought this was kind of crazy and had to share!  And although it would be kinda cool, but mostly just terrifying, I'm fairly sure I'm not having twins. :)

And Then There Were 5

In early September I found out I was pregnant.

With all the other pregnancies Jed had been with me when I got the news, this time he was at work.  I had only a few hours to come up with a fun way to tell him! 

Evan was at school so I loaded up the three boys and we headed to Michael's.


After we took this picture and I picked out my supplies, we headed to the check out.  While waiting in line Kane and Ford flirted with the group of women in front of us which lead to the usual conversation,

Stranger: "Are they all yours?"
Me: "They are."
Stranger: "Three boys?"
Me: "Yes."
Seth: "And we have a brother at school too! He's in first grade and his name is Evan and I'm in Kindergarten but I get out of school early." (Thanks, son.)
Stranger: "Oh my, how old are they all?"
Me: "Uh, 1, 2, 5 and  the oldest is 6."
Stanger: "Oh my you have your hands full!"
Me: "I do but I love it!"

Then we parted ways and went about our business.  I sighed as it hit me that I only had a few more months before I'd have to talk with random people about how I had four boys and was obviously pregnant.  Yay, for more awkward conversation fodder!

 

This is what I came up with.  I bought a little wooden box, a wooden 7, the "family" stamp and markers specifically for coloring wood.  The best part about it was that the markers ran out faster than I thought they would only allowing for a single coat so it appeared a small child had colored it.

 When I gave it to Jed he assumed it was made by one of the boys at school and had no idea what was coming!   

He was pleasantly surprised! Mission accomplished!

So come mid May this little guy is due to be a big brother!! 

Our Pumpkin Family

Each one of us got a pumpkin this year!  Jed picked out a scary face for his pumpkin and I picked out an owl.  We let the three big boys paint their own little pumpkins with glow in the dark paint. I did the two youngest's pumpkins for them.  

(I probably should have dusted this table before taking pictures on it but I haven't dusted much of anything in a few weeks. Oh well.)

I bought the little pumpkins a week before Halloween.


Kane thinks they're the cutest little pumpkins ever so of course he has been carrying them around and snuggle with them all week long.  My kids have never taken a liking to stuffed animals, apparently, mini pumpkins were what they were holding out for.  Who knew?  

Anyway, this weekend, once I was able to pry them from Kane's death grip of love, we painted them.  Evan was pretty intentional in not mixing his colors together as he painted (his is at the bottom of the second picture), his brothers weren't so careful though.  Black took over pretty much everything, oh well, its their masterpieces right?! 

Oh, and if you can count or do simple math you may have figured out the little announcement made in this post.  :)

Happy Halloween

Time to help daddy carve the pumpkins! 

 The big boys are old pros at digging out the seeds. 

 Plus there's the added incentive of the roasted seeds later! Yum!  

 It was however Ford's first go.  He wasn't easily convinced to participate. 

 "Fine I'll try it." 

 "Oh man...

 ... ugh I just cant bring myself to do it!!" 

 Finally, at least he didn't cry!

 No persuasion necessary for this kid! 

I stenciled on our designs for our big pumpkins then Jed carved them.  We gave each one of the boys a little pumpkin to paint.  I'll share those pictures later.
  

Halloween Day!  

Evan and Seth had a big party at school, they were asked to come dressed in some kind of sports gear.  It almost killed Jed to get them the Gators uniforms but its the price we pay for living in sunny Florida.  We found these locally, it was like 3 times as much to order Michigan uniforms online. 

 As you can see they were more than happy to be Gators, to them they're simply representing giant reptiles. 

Most years we've hung out at our house and trick or treated in our neighborhood but this year with life being so hectic (two boys in school with different schedules and Jed working crazy overtime) we just weren't in a very Halloweeny mood.  So we were thankful when friends invited us to their Halloween party in their big subdivision with houses that are very close together!  Thank you Mark and Adrienne!  

The boys had a blast!  We could barely keep up with them which is why I have zero pictures of them trick or treating. Oh well.


And here's the loot!