Where I've been...

Easter Sunday
On the Train

Stacey, Rebeccah, Micah, Eliahna, Hannah, Sarah

Havin' fun in the sun

Vroom Vroom

Well, I'm finally crawling back out of my hole after several MONTHS of my kids being too sick or too ornery to be able to take the time to blog. In the last couple months, Hannah's asthma has worsened to the point of her having to be taken to the hospital, the kids all had colds, then stomach bugs, then colds again, and Caleb cut 4 new molars... ok 3, but the fourth one is almost there, so the end is in sight. I've had a tough run as a Mommy, constantly juggling puke buckets, tossing tissues to runny nosed sickies, rotating doctor appointments, and following little ones around with hand sanitizer and a bleach bucket. But like I said, the end is in sight, and I'm finally getting to sleep most nights for more than 5 hours, and I don't have to sleep in the hall just so I can get to either kids' rooms quickly in the event of "waaaaah!" or "Mommy, I think I'm gonna throw up! Oops, I already did."

On the upside,

School is winding down for the year, so that I'm only doing it when we have a free day, i.e. the weather isn't sunny, warm, and we don't have other plans. It's been such a lovely year and I've LOVED teaching the kids. They've now learned all their letters, upper and lowercase, and alot of their corresponding sounds, all their numerals from 1-20, and can do simple addition problems (with help). That may not sound that great, but hey, I can look back at the beginning of the year and say, "wow, I did that! I taught my girls those things!" Neat.

We also recently had a lovely visit with Ryan's family, including getting to visit with Stacey & Daniel, and their lovely family of 4 (and 1/2, Stacey's 35 weeks pregnant with #5) kids. I wish we could see them more often, but we relish every visit. We went with Barry and Dianne (Ryan's parents), all the brothers and sisters, in-laws, and their 11 (and 1/2) kids- all under 6 years old- to the Strasburg Railroad in Lancaster County, PA, and had a fun train ride and visit to the train museum one day. It was just a fabulous time for all. The visit was so much the better, too, since we invested in DVD players for the car, thus silencing at least 2 of the 3 whines in the car on the 5 hour drive to Jersey and back. Paradise was, however, quickly lost after returning home and the next morning having Hannah puke all over the kitchen floor and Caleb come down with his cousin's cold. Oh well, it was totally worth it.

sorta.

So now we're starting to settle into "normal" life again, and preparing for the girls' fourth birthday in about a week. Sorry for the lack of updates, to the 2 or 3 people who read this regularly... hopefully you'll see this more often- assuming noone gets sick again and I get some stinkin' sleep. :)