A post in pictures

GO BrrrrrALL STATE!

We woke up to a 45 degree day for BSU homecoming. We all got dressed and woke up our house guest (Chris' former college roommate, Scott) and headed out for the parade start at 8:30am!

Here we all are freezing watching the homecoming parade at Abby's house! (picture by Scott!)

We drove around a bit, stopped off for a doughnut at Concannon's and then headed on over to the game.

It was cold.
Emma & Charlie Cardinal!!
Morgan leading the family section in cheers!
Emma & Hayley...so cute!

Taken from my cell phone....my cute little cheerleader.

They actually posed this by saying "let's do a picture like real cheerleaders!"

It was cold (have I mentioned that?) and Carter was still recovering from sickness so he and I headed back to the van at the end of the 2nd quarter. Chris, Scott & the girls hung out until after halftime and then headed back to meet us. We came home, got warm, put Carter down for a nap and then had some delicious Carlos O'Kellys!

FUN FAMILY DAY!!

walking

walking in the memory walk...fun!

More random catching up

Still trying to get caught up....

Emma started swimming lessons at the high school on Sept 8. I'd say she loves it, but then I'd be lying. She tolerates it. I just want her to get more comfortable with the water and not be so petrified of it.
The lessons are done through Swim America which has specific guidelines to pass each of 10 levels. The first level (which Emma started in) requires you to bob up and down in the water 10 times while blowing bubbles. Emma was not having the bobbing.
They did let her pass by just sticking her face in and blowing bubbles 10 times. However, she really only put her mouth and a tiny part of her nose in each time. It is just young kids teaching her.

Last weekend, we also got to visit with Nana and Papa! We were excited to see them. We even lost our minds temporarily, and tried to get a picture of all 4 kids. I think this is the best one. One with eyes shut, one laying her head back.
This one was a close contender...isn't Morgan just precious?
The closest we got to all 4 kids by themselves.
*sigh*

Meeting Anabelle!

Every year, we travel somewhere for Edward Jones Regional Meetings. We usually go somewhere that is quite a ways away but this time it was only in Indianapolis. We weren't too excited about it, but it ended up being fun!

Of course, since we were going to Indianapolis, we had to go meet Miss Anabelle Elizabeth Mack who is now over a month old!!! I'm so ashamed we're just now getting to meet her! Since she's been born, we've had sickness, tonsillectomies, daily swimming lessons, work, etc. etc.

Morgan was clamoring to get her hands on Anabelle!!! I love how Anabelle is just staring at Morgan in this picture!
Chris even got a turn (after Molly was done, that is!)

Carter did not get a turn to hold baby Anabelle, but he was there....and he enjoyed touching her head while "talking" to her in a very high pitched voice!

Of course, Emma needed a turn but she's so tiny so it makes holding a baby who is almost as tall as she is a little difficult!!!
I forget so quickly how tiny new babies are!!!!!!!

After getting to see Miss Anabelle, we headed over to the Embassy Suites for the start of our meetings!

Slip N Slide N Steak N Shake

So as I mentioned in my last post, after we got home, we still had on our swimsuits (and by "we" and "our" I mean "they" and "theirs") so we broke out the slip and slide, hose, and sprinkler for some fun! It was Carter's first slip and slide/sprinkler experience. He seemed to LOVE it!

Have I mentioned before that he is ALL BOY???

Seriously.

ALL boy.

His sisters would have preferred to cut off a limb than play in the mud at that age.

Carter even got to have his first popsicle!! Part of the joy of being outside in the water in a swim suit...Mommy doesn't care so much about the sticky mess that will ensue. He actually did really well. He only got a tiny little bit of blue on his face and dripping down his tummy.

Emma has been asking to use some of her piggy bank money to buy sunglasses for several weeks now so today we remembered to take her money with us and she picked these out. They are (what else?) Disney Princess!

Enough of the break, back to the Slip 'n' Slide!

Today was supposed to have been Morgan's last day of school but they had 6 snow days and made up 2 of them on President's Day and Martin Luther King Day so they have 4 more which will be made up next week....so her last day is now next Friday. She doesn't know any different so she doesn't really care.

Carter really wanted to drink the water squirting out of the slip n slide!

Emma even got into the action today which is unusual....she doesn't ever get wet unless it is really hot out. She is a lot like her Grandma Swank in that regard. I always knew it was a super hot day when I was young if my mom got in the water at the lake on the weekends!

After Daddy got home, we went to Steak N Shake for dinner....when we got home we played outside for a while and Chris took Morgan's training wheels off of her bike. Her bike is way too small for her, but we told her we aren't buying her a new bike until she can ride without training wheels so that we can get her a better bike when we do buy one rather than paying for one with training wheels and then turning around and getting a different one after she can ride. (Can I get you a map to follow that last sentence?)

Anabelle Elizabeth is here!

Meet Anabelle!

May 18, 2009

11:23pm

9 pounds, 6 ounces

23 inches