Asher's Masterpiece

So we got a call this morning from Food Lion saying that Asher had won his age group's coloring contest and that we could come and pick up his prize! I was so excited for him as I remember thinking when Blake actually went to turn his picture in, "Why in the world are you turning it in with all the "stuff" he drew around the actual pumpkin!" Serves me right though... wouldn't you know! Asher was so proud and we were too! Watch out Monet!

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun and BUSY day today! This morning we headed over to our buddy Hudson's house for his birthday carnival (forgot my camera for this so hopefully I can steal some pictures off of my sweet friends' blogs :) The boys had a blast eating lots of carnival food... corndogs, chips and cheese dip, popcorn, apple slices with carmel, and of course cupcakes. We came home, got everyone minus Asher changed out of their costumes and down for naps, changed clothes ourselves to head to a wedding, and left with Asher to said wedding. We had a great time and made it home just in time to get everyone back in their costumes, loaded up, and on the way to the Fall Festival at church. We stopped at Target (still needed some candy for trick-or-treaters) and McDonalds for a quick and very not so nutritous dinner for the boys. I did have my camera with me, but didn't get any pictures taken as I didn't have enough hands. We decided to "divide and conquer" as we call it, so I took Nate and Judah and let Nate do all the little kid games (which he LOVED) and he loaded up on candy! He got the hang pretty quick of sticking out his little pumpkin bucket for that candy :) Judah did great hanging out in the stroller too so it was nice to avoid any breakdowns this year. Blake and the big boys played some games and had some turns going down the big inflatable slide. We got home around 6:30ish and Blake, Asher, and Caleb headed out to make the neighborhood rounds while Nate and Judah helped me hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. All in all, a very busy day for us, but we had a BLAST!

pretty good for all four :)
I think we have enough loot to last for a LONG while

Daddy's masterpiece

Loving Nate's face in this one.... I think Asher is trying to make the same face as the jack-o-lantern

Boys watching intently

Asher's First Field Trip

Asher's first field trip of the year was to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. I got to go with him and we had a great day.... exhausting, but great nontheless! The kids of course were full of energy, and keeping up with a group of four kindergarteners who all want to go in different directions is um... challenging! The kids rode the train, explored the museum, had a picnic lunch, went in the butterfly house and saw butterflies hatching from their cocoons, saw farm animals, and played with all sorts of fun outdoor things. it was fun to spend the day with him and his classmates and get to know some of the kids and other parents. Their next trip is to an English Tea Room as they will be studying about the country of England.... I think I might skip out on that one :)

Asher's class in front of the rocket
Asher and Nicholas on the train

Judah's Dedication

I know I am waaaay behind in my blogging, but wanted to get a couple pictures of Judah's dedication on here.... poor fourth child! I think I had probably about 50 pictures of Asher on his dedication day. This was the first time we had dedicated one of our boys when they were over the age of 6 months, so it was kind-of fun to not have a newborn up there. Judah did great.... sucked his thumb the whole time and took it all in. It was a speical time that never gets old to me!

Nick and Allison dedicated Emmaline too!
Sweet Little Bug

How Many?

So I found this scene in our cul-de-sac a couple of weeks ago, too ridiculous to pass up getting a picture of.... seriously, WHO needs THREE UPS trucks to deliver them something?! Definitely wasn't our house..... and actually no one on our cul-de-sac got anything delivered. As it turns out they were all meeting to swap some packages in and out of each other's trucks. All the drivers were laughing though when we stuck our heads out our front door to take a picture!

We Love You Papa!

Here are Papa and Asher (Christmas 2007). Please pray for my dad... he is having some health issues. I'll keep you posted.

Chick-Fil-A SEC Style

Yesterday was Chick-Fil-a's annual free food giveaway if you come in wearing any team apparell. We have started making this a tradition and of course it is always fun to get all decked out in our crimson! This year they were giving away chicken sandwiches! So we all enjoyed our sandwiches and two orders of fries for $3.00... can't beat that! And of course we love getting to go with all of our friends who like us pull for teams in the SEC Conference! I wish I would have gotten better pictures (um, even forgot to try to get a family pose!) I guess taking pictures isn't foremost in my mind when we are juggling four kiddos!

Who know's what they were doing?

Roark family (minus Emmaline who is hiding out behind Nick!)

Renstrom and McCutchen families
Lovely

The Bug is 9 months!

Judah Bug is 9 months old today! It is really hard to believe! Time is just flying by and all these baby milestones are just zooming on by too. Bug is crawling all over the place trying to keep up with his brothers. I plunk him down in the living room to play and before I know it I hear him coming down the hallway! His personality is so sweet and laid back and since he's the baby of four, I guess he has to be that way :) We love you sweet boy!

Happy 9 months sweet boy

Seems like this was just yesterday.....

More of Miss PINK

Asher was SO excited to come and meet a "girl baby"!

I guess the paparazzi has been too much for her lately!

Happy GIRL DAY!

Sweet Emmaline

Our sweet friends, Nick and Allison Roark celebrated the birth of their third baby and FIRST little girl today! Emmaline Grace was born at 1:54 this afternoon weighing in at 7 pounds 14 ounces, after a quick labor. It was a blessing to be able to be up at the hospital when she was born and be downstairs to hear Daddy Nick's exciting announcement! (By the way.... he is a goner! Emmaline already has him wrapped around her fingers!) We are so excited for you guys!

AND.... keeping in line with girls. Our friends, Jon and Laura Humphreys also celebrated their third baby's birth today. Marianna Rose Humphreys was born right around the same time down in Savannah, Georgia weighing 6 pounds 2 ounces! Congratulations Jon, Laura, Lydia, and Joshua! We Love You!

First Day Pictures

at his table all ready!
Dad helping get settled

ready to go

picture with Mom of course :)

My pictures are kind of in backwards order.... Day two is underway!

Off to Kindergarten!

The First Day

I gave you a little wink and smile

As you entered my room today.

For I know how hard it is to leave

And know your child must stay.

You've been with him for five years now

And have been a loving guide

But now, alas the time has come

To leave him at my side.

Just know that as you bravely walk away

And tears down your cheek may flow

I'll love him as I would my own

And help learn and grow.

GRACE Christian School

August 17, 2007

Sorry for the lack of pictures of the first day.... Blogger was not cooperating with me tonight for some reason. (Of course when I actually do sit down to blog and catch up a bit and then it won't work.. figures!) Anyway, despite the sappy poem, Asher had a GREAT first day and I only teared up AFTER I picked him up while he was beaming and telling me all about how much he loved it and about everything that they did! Stay posted for some pics :)

TWO!

Look what a big boy we have! Happy Birthday Nate! We Love You..... party and pics after Thursday :)

Judah's First Portraits

My baby is almost 8 months old! I can't even believe it!

Sweet Z's

This picture pretty much says it all... and no we're not talking about Asher getting some z's! Nice pic with his eyes closed though! Z's was one of our many nicknames for our doggie. All of my pictures of our sweet Isaiah are before the days of digital cameras so this one is the best I could do. We had to say goodbye to our old, faithful friend today. He was such a good dog and we already miss him terribly!

Asher's Fifth Birthday!

Wow! I can hardly believe that my first little boy is FIVE! We had a great time celebrating his birthday this year. Of course we had our birthday donuts for breakfast, our traditional Red Robin trip for dinner (thanks Nana and Papa for watching the other three!), and a fun Batman party a couple days later with his buddies. Happy Birthday Sweet Boy! We Love You!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.


Thanks Allison for these pictures.
BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.

Am Squared

I am waaaay behind in my blogging seeing as how we have had Asher's 5th birthday, our 10th anniversary, and other stuff I'm sure, so I will hopefully be getting back on track with all of that soon. You know... got to keep everything in order. Thought I could get away with posting this a little out of order though. This past week one of my bestest friends and roomie from my Liberty days was in town visiting family with her husband and youngest son (she has three!) Her name is Amber too so we always had alot of fun in college. Especially when people would call us on the phone.... although our other roommate, Kerry didn't think it was so fun since she was always having to ask "which one" when someone would call for Amber! O I miss this girl SO much! She and her husband Jason live outside San Francisco (where she grew up) and besides both of us having all boys (hers range in age from 4 to just turned 1) and being stay at home moms, her hubby also works at a church doing all the tech stuff and keeping all that running. Parallel lives just thousands of miles apart! It was fun having her meet the boys, as the last time we saw each other Asher was 4 months old and younger than Judah is NOW! I loved getting to see her youngest, Ethan, and can't wait to someday meet her other two, Jacob and Owen. Asher was finally able to put a face with the name "other Amber" and for those of you that know Asher, this was important! Now he knows who mommy is talking to on the phone usually between the 4:00- 5:00 time slot in the afternoon when she is trying desperately to keep her sanity! Can't wait for another coffee/ ice cream date my friend!

Last Day of Preschool and Graduation

I seriously cannot believe that our year in preschool came and went so fast! Asher had a great year and loved every minute of "school"! Hopefully he will continue to.... Mrs. Darlene and Mrs. Joy were wonderful and Ash loved all his little friends in his class. He was definitely in good company with ten other boys in his class and only two girls. Although one of those girls did prove to be his "special" friend throughout the year! These pictures are of his last day and little graduation program. It was hard this year having another baby and having one in preschool. I didn't really feel like I was able to be as involved as I would have liked to be and am already getting excited for Caleb to have his preschool year.... although that's a year away! Now... onto kindergarten!!

Ash with Mrs. Darlene and Mrs. Joy

waving bye
proud as a peacock!

Emerald Isle

Okay, so I am like a few weeks behind in my blogging, but better late than never, right! We have been busy around here, and it's only going to get busier! A few weeks ago we spent a week at Emerald Isle with the boys and our sweet friends, the Roarks who also have two boys. We were definitely swimming in little boys! We had such a wonderful and relaxing time.... (at least as relaxing as can be with SIX kiddos!) It really was the perfect setup and the weather was awesome. We would play on the beach in the morning, come back for lunch and naps in the afternoon and then some of us would go back to the beach in the afternoon if not completely kidless, much less, and then just relax and have an easy dinner, get the boys in bed and hang out, talk, eat something sweet, etc. It was such a fun time! Can't wait to do it again next year!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

MIA

I know, we've been missing in action for awhile. I've got lots to blog about as we've been quite busy with Asher's last day of preschool/ graduation, a trip to the beach, and lots of other STUFF. I will get pictures up soon....

Hanging with friends from Nashville

So this past Friday there was a conference at our church called ReThink for youth ministers or really anyone in ministry. Blake of course was very involved in helping out with it which meant another LONG day for me at home alone with the boys and no help in sight..... So out of the blue Friday morning the phone rings and it is my sweet friend Julie asking if she could come over and hang out with me and the boys since she had just been up at the church helping out with registration for the conference and thought about me at home. Then she also said, "Why don't you go up to some of the conference if you want and I'll stay with the boys!" Are you kidding!!! I was SO excited and went about putting on clothes that I would actually wear out of the house and starting to blow dry my hair instead of leaving it up in my costumary clip that it stays in on most days till oh around 2:00 when I actually have ten minutes or so during naptime to dry it!
Julie and I actually schlepped all the boys up there to see daddy for a little while before lunch and then she helped me get them all home, lunched, and down for their naps and I went back for my friend Tina's seminar for the wives of the youth pastors. It was so nice to be able to be there and be refreshed for an hour or so. The funnest part was that one of Blake's buddies from our Liberty days was there with his wife so it was fun to see him again (Dwayne Blasdel for those of my LU friends) and meet his wife Tiana! The other great thing about getting to spend some time with them was that they are the parents of four GIRLS who are all about a year to year and a half apart too! Theirs range in age from seven to three while we are from five to five months. It was fun swapping stories and talking to someone who is just a little ahead of us for a preview of what's awaiting us.... ahem SCHOOL! It was funny to find out that our kiddos personalities are pretty much carbon copies of each others keeping consistent with their birth order. Who is easy going, difficult, etc.... Tiana and I decided that I might have to come to Nashville and spend some time with her and the girls and she can send Dwayne to our house so he can get his boy fix! We were also trying to figure out which of our kids we could go ahead and start planning arranged marriages for!
We had such a fun time hanging out and then meeting them for lunch today at Moe's before they headed off to the airport to catch their plane. I meant to get a picture of them and I even took my camera along, but alas... I forgot!

The Newest Fave

This is the boys latest craze... it's a new show on Playhouse Disney called Special Agent Oso. They LOVE it, Caleb especially.

Robbers....

These were quoted by Asher today on our way home from the doctor's office. (Blake and I were listening to his and Caleb's conversation in the back of the van)

"Caleb, did you know.... people who don't love Jesus are called robbers."

And then he went on from there to say matter of factly.... "And all robbers are sinners"

He's really into robbers lately...... hmmmmm

Boosters All Around!

Okay, before you go thinking my boys are weirdos because they looked positively thrilled to death to be sitting on a table in the pediatrician's office waiting to get shots, let me assure you, they were not. Well at least two of them looked thrilled, Caleb looks like he knows what is about to come.....
So last night we got a call from one of Asher's preschool teachers saying that one of the kids in Asher's class had full blown chicken pox and she was just calling everyone to let them know, especially us with our herd of children! Ha! This morning I called our pediatrician to talk to a nurse about the situation (whether or not the boys should be around other kids even though they've had the vaccine since Asher has been exposed, should I be worried about Judah since he's too young for the vaccine, etc.) Even though all the boys had all gotten the vaccine when they were one, they usually give another booster between 4 and 6. So I knew Asher would be up for his booster since all his shots were coming up with his five year old well check. Not only did the nurse tell me to bring Asher in today for his booster, but Caleb and Nate too. And to top it of she said, "And since you'll be here anyway, why don't we just go ahead and do all of Asher's five year old shots today so he doesn't think he has to get shots every time he comes to the doctor!" O glory..... so as soon as I hung up with her at 10:30, I called Blake at work and said "I need you, we have an appointment for shots at 11:15." I mean who is crazy enough to take four children, three of which need shots, to the doctor's office alone!? Definitely not this girl! Really everything couldn't have gone smoother. Our favorite nurse was there today and we were literally in the room at 11:15 and back out in the van by 11:35! The boys all came out smiling, dum dums and stickers in hand, and best of all there was no co-pay since it was only a nurse visit and we didn't have to see a doctor! And of course we HAD to stop by Chick-fil-a on our way home since it was after all lunch time! Now we just have to pray that we don't see any spots....

Notice Lamby and Baby Raccoon got to come along for moral support!

Hot Summer fun in.... April?

Thanks for the pictures Allison.... I've decided whenever we go anywhere and I have all four I don't even need to bring my camera because chances are I won't have a chance to take any pictures anyway!


BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

Easter pics.... one week after!

Since I didn't get any pictures on Easter Sunday of the boys in their church clothes I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous day this past Sunday. Spring has finally sprung. Hooray!

Nathaniel Jackson
Caleb Leslie

Asher Kirk

Best Buddies

I just need to keep this picture in my mind daily when I'm ready to strangle both of them!