Josiah helped Miley buckle up in the car today and she said to him," thanks 'siah!! You're my thooper hero!! " (super hero) then they held hands the rest of the car ride:) don't worry though, it was short lived. She was hollering at him and scowling at him this afternoon!

While getting herself dressed for church one Sunday, Miley looked at herself in the mirror and said, "wow!! I look fab-uh-lous!!"

We saw a huge group (flock??) of birds flying together one afternoon and Ella Kate said, "hey look! Those birds are having a get together!"

Josiah got a shirt from yaya for Christmas and he LOVES it! It is a Levi Strauss shirt and Jos calls it "my baby brother, Levi shirt!" :)

Yes... We are having another sweet baby boy, Levi Nicholas:) we are super dooper excited!!

(insert sad face here)

this, my friends, is a peek at our bedrooms after the thieves left yesterday. yes, our house gotten broken into.

but, yes, we were safe and the lord was gracious!

our neighbor was leaving his house from lunch when he saw our side door was opened. he walked over to shut it, thinking that we accidentally left it open, but he quickly realized that the door had been kicked in. so he called bill and then called the cops. bill calls me on his way to the house, and i run and pick up the big kids from preschool and head home, too. i remember my heart was racing the whole time i was driving, but at the same time, i was SO thankful that we weren't at home when it happened. and even more thankful that i wasn't the one to come home and find the house ransacked by myself with the kids! (there is silver lining on everything!! it could always be worse!) the kids could see me upset and heard me cry when bill told me what all had been stolen so far, so i decided that i should fill them in as best i could before we got home and they saw all of the cops and investigators.. so i told them that "a mean person came into our house uninvited and messed up some of our stuff and took a few of our things. but jesus kept us safe and the police men were there with daddy now and they were going to help us". of course they had a lot of questions. ella kate more than the others.. "momma, did they have a key? how did they get in?? did they take our dolls? am i gonna have to clean my room??" you know.. all of the important questions to a 5 year old:) miley cheered in the backseat when we pulled up the driveway, "yay!! our house isn't broken!! see, siah?? our house isn't broken!!" the kids played outside until aunt jenna came and took them to the park. we didn't want them to see everything and the investigator wanted to make sure he could fingerprint what he needed to, before they came in. i was saddened to see what they did and what all they took. so far, we have noticed that they took 3 of the kids' piggy banks, their nintendo ds and games, two mobigo's and games, dvds, wii, laptop (with all of my pics of all of my babies on the hard drive) camera bag and lenses, video camera (with adalyn's first 9 months of her life still on it with no extra copies!), some coins.... they broke some of our furniture (one being an armoire that was my nonny's that i can't replace!), our printer, our entertainment center, .... i can't even think. oh, and the most heart breaking thing to my girls was that they took their ariel pillow cases off of their beds to put some stuff in:( who does that?? it is one thing to violate me and bill, but they violated my babies' things! and this momma bear in me wants to hurt somebody!! i'm too hormonal for all of this:) i guess the part that hurts me the worst, is that i dont have any video footage of adalyn's life anymore!! nothing! not her first word, her first smile/laugh, her army crawl, her waving bye-bye.... and that makes me sick!! i also want to vomit at the thought of all of my pictures on the hard drive of my computer that i no longer have. it is a good thing that i have uploaded so many to facebook and to this blog... because that is all i have now:( but things could have been much worse, and i am trying my best to be thankful for god's provision and his timing in this! the kids have been keeping our focus where it needs to be, and they have kept us smiling! when ella kate saw her room for the first time, she gasped at the mess then looked at her dresser where 2 pennies and a quarter was laying and shouted, "YES!!! they didn't take all my monies!!!" :)

now if we could just get everything cleaned back up and put back in it's proper place, then i will feel much better! but if you think of it, please pray for us! pray for my anxious heart and fear, pray that i will be able to sleep soundly without freaking out about every noise i hear. pray that my kids will not be afraid and pray that we allow ourselves and this situation to be used for the glory of god! thank you jesus, for keeping us safe!

sweet jos..

i made spaghetti for supper tonight and when josiah took a bite of his, he said, "hmm.. not half bad!" i mean... i know i'm far from a great cook, but seriously?? do i need to be critiqued by a 4 year old?? :) now granted we DID have cereal for supper the night before... but come on, man! i have had a lot on my plate this weekend! cut me some slack :)

he woke up this morning and said, "good morning, momma! is it fursdsay? (thursday)" i said, "hey, buddy. no, it's just monday. sorry." he got a nintendo ds for christmas and is in LOVE with that thing! he has the potential to be one of those kids who (if we let him) would sit in front of a game system, tv, hand held electronic thingy, etc. ALL. DAY. LONG!!! so we have put some restrictions on it and he can only play for a couple of minutes on tuesdays, thursdays and saturdays. (i know, i know... we are such mean parents!!) he made me laugh when he woke up from his nap a few hours earlier and ran to me in the kitchen and asked, "hey, momma!! is it still not fursday??" see what i mean?? the kid needs restrictions:) but he sure is a cutie!

daddy's girls:)

miley was talking about kissing boys at "school". bill told her immediately, "miley, you are not allowed to kiss boys! ever! ok?" she had a sad face and replied, "but dad.... i really want to!" oh dear.. the child is only 3! what are we doing to do when she is a teenager??

adalyn has been sick so we have pulled out all of our humidifiers. bill was assembling them in all of the kids' rooms when he came back to ella kate and miley's room and saw that the humidifier had been knocked over. "hey! who did this?" he asked. "i told y'all that you guys weren't allowed to touch these!" ella kate was dancing when she said, "oh.. maybe i did. maybe i kicked it with one of my dance moves! can you just put a sign on it so we can remember not to touch it?" bill was not amused and said, "no, i can't put a sign on it. how about you settle your dance moves down a bit and just remember what daddy has told you!?" :) ha! she can't even read and yet she thinks a sign would help her!

adalyn gets VERY excited when bill comes home from work. she crawls and follows him around until he picks her up and kisses her:) i love watching it!! he is such a great daddy! she will just stare at him and touch his face in awe! melts my heart!

toots and a talking hiney!

miley was a little gassy tonight and when bill asked the kids what all of those noises were, miley responded, "that was just my hiney talkin'. it likes to toot to you!" oh my! she is too much like her daddy:)

game night and other funnies!

at mother's day out last week, there was a little boy who was turned around in his chair staring at miley. the teacher asked him to turn around but he didn't listen. so miley said, "it's ok! him's just staring at me cause i'm so pretty!" bill was getting ready for church one sunday and put on a suit. miley looked at him and gasped saying, "daddy!! you look so handsome.. you look like a prince!!" i smiled and told her that he was a prince, he was my prince!! to which she quickly responded, "no! him's not a prince! him's just a daddy!"

josiah asked me the other day, "momma, when our baby is born, can i be his daddy??"bill and the kids have turned into some board game junkies! i have the lucky responsibility to keep adalyn out of the way:) here they are playing chutes and ladders..and operation.. (which was too noisy and too stressful for our kids!)

they also love jenga, candyland and hungry, hungry hippos, (which jos calls "the very hungry hippo game". i think he gets confused with the very hungry caterpillar book!) i think we have played games almost every night for the past week or so after supper! i took this pic saturday morning. i am sure that we are going to miss these lazy, snuggly saturdays! we bought 3 cans of fake snow for the kids, in hopes of them making mini snowmen:) however, ella kate was the first one to get to play in it, and after a few minutes she started saying that her hands and arms were itching. the snow also had a strong, funky smell so we ended up throwing it all way:( while we were busy taking turns cozying up to a fire, adalyn was busy getting into squinkies and shoving them all in her mouth... ((sigh))

adalyn is 9 months old!!

this sweet thing is 9 (and a half) months old!! she weighed in last week at 21lbs 11oz and 28in long!! chunky girl:)

she wears 9-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

she is crawling everywhere now and has started drinking from a sippy cup! adalyn also has the tip of her first tooth poking through!!

adalyn is a momma's girl through and through and screams whenever i leave her! she does love her daddy and will usually be just fine with him:) she still only says ma-ma, da-da and ba-ba. she has started doing 'how big is adalyn??' and raises her hands to the sky with a big smile:)we moved her to a new car seat this month b/c she was getting too big for her baby carrier. she is still rear facing so nothing really is different. she is a great car rider and LOVES watching and laughing at her wild and crazy siblings in the back seat with her! i love it whenever bill gets home for work and she breaks her neck and is so persistent to make him acknowledge her and give her some lovin'. adalyn does this new thing where she cocks her head all of the way to the side (almost sideways) in order to see something/someone!! she also LOVES to play with the cute baby in the mirror and just giggles and cackles whenever she sees her! she still is crazy about her big sisters and brother, too and lights up whenever she sees them:)

we are so so so thankful for you, sweet girl!

hello kitty!

while driving down the road the other night, miley spotted her hero standing outside of denny's. we weren't really dressed at didn't have a camera but miley was begging to go and see "hella killy" and take her picture:) so being the sweet daddy that he is, bill went home, got the camera and drove us back to denny's so we could take a picture:) miley was all smiles until bill tried to set her down and walk away... she did NOT want him to leave her! then, of course, the other kids wanted to meet her too!

all the men..

miley LOVES saying the blessing at meal times. in fact, the big 3 all love to say it and fight over whose turn it is to say it next:) miley's favorite blessing is 'god our father' but she pronounces it "god our fodder!" i especially love how she ends all of her prayers/blessings singing "all the men!" (amen)

miley was looking out her window and up at the sky while we were driving home this afternoon. after turning down a few different roads, she asked me, "momma, why is the moon following us?" i told her i didn't know and she replied, "maybe him finks i'm cute! and maybe him wants to come to our house!" :)

happy birthday to ME!!

can i just be honest?? i hate my birthday.. really, i do! it is right smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, so while growing up, i grew to hate it. no one remembers it, they are all broke from christmas, and the majority of people are too busy to celebrate or they are out of town. i was always jealous of my sister erin's birthday in june. she grew up having these super fun pool parties with all of her friends. my other sister, lauren also has a december birthday, but hers' is early enough that she could still celebrate with friends or at least bring cupcakes to school. (you can tell i'm not the least bit bitter! ha!) my family has always made fun of me for making this such a big deal.. but unless you can relate, you really have no idea! you are probably thinking, 'poor poor pitiful kristen', but i think that birthdays are supposed to be special! you deserve to be pampered for one day:) but i have great news!! my birthday curse has been broken!!!i woke up early to billy d kissing me goodbye. he can usually never take off work on my birthday b/c it is the last week of the year to make sales, but he promised me that he would make my birthday special- and he stayed true to his word:) miley was the first one to wake up, so she climbed into my bed, snuggled up next to me and said, "happy bir-day, momma! i love you!" sweet thing:) josiah was the next one to wake up and as he climbed into my bed he wished me a happy birthday, as well. the three of us are all snuggled together when i hear the front door open. i look downstairs and see my sweet hubby bringing to me my favorite breakfast- a sausage biscuit and oj from mcdonalds:) how sweet is he!! he also brought the kids some powdered donuts so i wouldn't have to make them any breakfast! so thoughtful:) ella kate is awake now and comes to our room. they all kiss and hug bill goodbye as he leaves again for work and we all stay in bed and eat! adalyn wakes up a little later and we start our morning routines of getting dressed, starting some laundry and such.. jenna texts me and asks if she can take me and ALL the kids out to eat for my birthday. of course, we say YES and shortly after, we meet her at the mexican restaurant. yummy!! after i stuff my face with tacos, i drive through starbucks to get a drink with my gift card to enjoy during nap time:) we get home, i lay all 4 kids down for a nap/rest and i curl up back in bed with my frappuccino and a game of words with friends:) about 20 minutes later, bill surprises me by coming home early with a dozen red tulips (my fave!) and a chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cone (my other fave!). his sweet boss let him off work early for new years, so he is mine for the next 4 days!!! he tells me that we have dinner plans tonight and that he has arranged sitters for all of our kids. the big 3 are going to play at mrs. lori's and adalyn is going to yaya's. when the kids wake up from their nap, bill takes the big 3 to lori's and i stay home and get myself and adalyn ready for the night. bill returns and we load up and drop adalyn off with my sister. we swing by bed, bath and beyond to walk around and see if there is anything to buy with our gift card, and after settling on some new spatulas and some cans of fake snow, we are ready to eat:) he tells me we are going to eat at sconyers (the best bbq!). we get there, walk to our table and SURPRISE!!!! our families and closest friends are all there, too! my sweet hubby and best friends jenna and mandi planned a surprise party for me!! it was so great! i didn't have a clue:) the place was packed with people who love me.. and it was complete with a birthday cake and presents! ha:) it was the best birthday ever!! my heart was so happy!

since the big kids weren't at the party, they wanted to make me some brownies to celebrate:) bill sent me out shopping by myself and he and all 4 kids made me some of the yummiest brownies i have ever tasted!! he even took pics and documented the whole thing! i am a blessed girl!!

i have never felt more loved in my life!

on a side note: i asked the kids last week what they were getting me for my birthday, without skipping a beat, josiah says, "i fink i'mma get you more children, cause me and you WUV children!!"