Recap

Since I'm still feeling like complete yuck, I'll just give some quick bits -

*Kaitlin had a great birthday - money, nintendo's, and shopping at the mall. What more could a 11 year old girl want? It'll be a busy week this week for her - she started her sewing class today. She loved it and envisions herself at Fashion Week in few years. Heck, if they can get her to put her clothes in the laundry, they have a believer. She's got a sleepover on Friday with a group of girls from her Scout troop and then a birthday party for a fellow cheerleader on Saturday night. It's a dance party at the VFW in Smithfield. I'm sure there will be boys there...and so it starts.

*Emma is fighting the cold that Fred and I have had for weeks. So she is, in general, a miserable pain in the butt. But you have to feel sorry for her..when she gets sick her eyes get this droopy hound dog look to them and you can't help but feel her misery. Until she starts the whining...then the sympathy runs out quickly. She did tell us a story about a bear the other day and I asked her if it was a big bear. Nope, you'll be happy to know it was a "size small" bear. What a goof!

*Owen is doing wonderfully at speech. So wonderfully in fact that his new favorite phrase is "I don't wanna insert particular thing he's been asked to do here". I've asked his speech therapist, Ms. Kate, to work on him saying "Yes, mother, I'd love to do what you've asked of me." I'm not holding my breath.

*Joey has come into his own this week as he is also fighting the before mentioned cold. He is a big ball of boogers. Lovely image, huh? And to match his sister's surly attitude, he has taken to picking fights with Owen. If you've ever seen the two of them go at it, you'd know that it's not a smart idea for Joey. He is exciting about seeing Mickey Mouse in two weeks..however, since Joey is not very fond of life-size characters I'm feeling this excitement will fade when he realizes that Mickey is not going to be on a nice tv screen. Stay tuned for what will be very interesting pictures I'm sure!

*Abby is growing up before my eyes. I don't know if it's because I'm aware that this is my last baby, but she seems to be growing so much faster than her siblings did. Every day she is doing something new and becoming more and more an infant instead of a baby. :( She's sitting up on the couch now with a little help and Fred said she rolled the other day on the bed..I don't know if I believe him because I've yet to have her duplicate this feat, but we'll chalk it up in the maybe column. She's laughing at things and follows me with her beautiful blue eyes whenever I'm in her sights. She LOVES the song "Wheels on the Bus"..but mainly the part where the "money goes clink,clink,clink." (We have another Emma with her love of money!) And today she really enjoyed the dog at Kaitlin's sewing class..he started barking and Abby cracked up with the giggles. So cute! Pretty soon she'll be crawling and my baby days will be done..tonight she'll get an extra little snuggle to make me feel better. :)

*I did a lot of things new and exciting this week..laundry, dishes..no wait, new and exciting....umm, I joined a Mother's Group. They had their monthly meeting tonight and I actually mingled. Me, mingling. Good times. :) It was fun and I won one of the raffle drawings! 10 free hours at Screamin' Mimi's..for anyone that has children, you understand why I felt like hugging the woman that handed it to me. 10 hours of someone else playing with my kids while I walk aimlessly around the mall, pretending I have money to spend on the clothes in the window. Or for Fred and I to fall asleep in a movie somewhere. Again, more good times! I also offered to host a Halloween Party and told Kaitlin to invite her friends..we're up to 16 kids with my 5. I'm actually excited up it though! And something else....I can't remember what it is right now, but it was big for me....

*Fred had to work an SRP this week..for you civilians (:) that means he did a bunch of paperwork for Soldiers getting ready to deploy. He's scheduled to do his for his deployment in December. Tommorrow he is going to a meeting with the Sgt. Major in Winston-Salem and they are all going to sit down and iron out the details for the deployment. Who will be doing what, when they are joining the unit, when they are leaving country...all those little details. Thursday he has his first visit with the physical therapist to straighten out his neck/spine and hopefully make his arm feel better. His knee is starting to feel a lot better and he was actually running on it last week!

We are busy planning for our trip to Florida. Judy and Alan are joining us and we can't wait to see them..although Owen still thinks Alan is bringing the Jonas Brothers with him. :) I found a great hotel with a full-size pirate ship in the pool...it'll be hard to drag the kids from that!

Hopefully tommorrow we will all feel better because my list of errands is growing faster than I can keep up with it!

Hugs
Katie

Happy Birthday Kaitlin!

Today is Kaitlin's 11th Birthday - as she has reminded us for the 100th time! :) Everyday it seems like she gets a little wiser, a little more independent..sometimes too independent! But she is always my "little helper" - even when I don't ask. She is quick to help with her sisters and brothers - even if they are driving her crazy at the moment. We don't know what we would do without her!! We love you, doodlebug! Happy Birthday!

Love

Mom and Dad Jonas Brothers Concert with Uncle Alan
Kaitlin and Owen
One Year Ago - 10th BirthdayParty Sleepover
Horseback riding inTexas
Goofing around on the Farm
Kaitlin and Joey in Georgia

Kaitlin Pop Warner Cleveland Wildcats
Kaitlin and Joey Stegasaurus

Daddy's Girl
Big Sis, Little Sis
Oh, the talent!

Horse Rides and Baby Smiles

It's been a busy week so far - cheerleading, preschool,riding, speech, flute, piano, more cheerleading, girl scouts..and that's just the kids(with 2 more to go...poor Joey and Abby get dragged everywhere!)! Seems like every morning starts with a to do list much earlier than I would like..especially now that Owen has started to wake up around 5 and insist we "open da gate". Umm, no. So now we have to say "Good night moon" and "Good morning sun" and if the sun isn't awake, we stay in our rooms quietly...it worked this morning. I'm not holding my breath for tommorrow. :)

I've been busy working on the Family Day planning, downloading the rest of the pictures and organizing them so I can make albums and print them, and decluttering the house. We've also started making our "pre-deployment" to do list...don't even want to talk about that one! Fred has drill on Saturday and then it's Kaitlin's birthday on Sunday - can't believe I have an 11 year old. Wow, I'm old.... Busy planning our Disney trip and some other must do things before February, so the days never seem long enough. I'm sure everyone knows that feeling!

I managed to get some good shots of Emma with Lulu, "her" horse and some new pics of Abigail. She's turning into quite the camera hog. :) It's still hard to catch her funny faces and smiles, but I'm getting better at it!

Love

Katie

Abby at 3 months

Loving Lulu
Emma, age 4
Getting Ready to Ride
Emma's 2nd favorite thing - spraying the bug spray
Lulu, Cici, and Walker
Walker - Big sweet guy
Cici - Loves to pull tricks, has met his match with Emma

Another Monday

I've been slack on posting, but I have good reason..well, 5 good reasons actually! :) Busy,busy! We dropped off all our outgrown clothing at the consignment sale on Sunday - hopefully it will all sell for some spending money for Disney, but if not, we said to donate the remaining..that's one thing out of the house! Now to bring the pile of things to Goodwill that have been sitting in the dining room for a month....ah, the do list keeps growing!

In other news, Fred was confirmed today for deployment. They are scheduled to be leaving in February, BUT he won't have to do the train-up with the unit so no desert training in Cali or pre-mob stuff in Mississippi, so he should be home for Christmas and New Years(The brigade is doing training starting in December). We are making the above mentioned to do list so we are sure to get as much accomplished as possible before he leaves..seems like everytime I turn around there is something else to add to the list. Anyone know how to tile a shower? :)

Abby got the cutest hats made for her by a darling woman who has a shop on http://www.etsy.com/ She remade them to fit her tiny head, so I can't wait until the cold weather..of course, I had to snap some pictures of her in them. I'm picking them up at Target tomm. so I will add them to packages that I am sending out. (Eileen, Grandma, Mom, Judy..and anyone else I'm forgetting at the moment!) Kaitlin is gearing up with her cheer practices and competitions start Nov 2, so we should be super busy soon! Emma is still riding "her" horse and doing awesome! I'll try to put some pics of that on the next post..which I promise will be sooner! The boys are total boys - best friends one minute, mortal enemies the next..I'm assuming it will be like that for quite a while, but I love it when they are best buds. Hopefully Fred being gone won't throw them too much and we will all get through it! We have been trying to explain it to them, but given that they have ABSOLUTELY no concept of time or distance, it's been a hard thing to find the words for. Luckily, going with a huge brigade like the 30th, he'll have access to a lot of communication resources - computers, webcams, phones, etc. Much easier than some units have it, so I am so thankful for that!

Ok, enough talk - here's some pics!

Love,

Katie

Good Times at the Lewis House :)

Chillin' with her apple hat

I'm a Nut (well, an acorn really!)

Pumpkin Head

Countdown to "D" Day

Well, the word has finally come - not quite in the way we expected it, but it came. Fred got a call yesterday from his "boss" asking if he would be willing to deploy with the 30th Brigade. Of course, he said no..but the we started talking. Would it be better to say yes, and get it over with? Rather than wait for the next however long for the word to come down for his unit? To always have that over our heads when planning things? Not to mention, going as a Retention NCO is a tad bit safer than going as an MP. I know that's what he's trained for, I know he's good at it, but there comes a time when seeking the "safer" job isn't a bad, unethical thing to do...especially when that time includes a wife and 5 children at home. So, he's going...when we don't know exactly. The rumor is call-ups begin December 1...Ft. Bragg, Shelby or Stewart, some time in California before leaving for the year in the "box" as he calls it. Hopefully the time that he is gone will pass as quickly as we marvel the days are passing now..hopefully the kids will understand where he is and why he is there. I pray that he is safe and returns to us just as he leaves us..and I wish that everyone who reads this will do the same. So for now, we are focusing on making these next few months full of memories - trying to do all the things we've wanted to find the time for. I'll probably overdo it, but I don't want to look back at this time and think "we should have.."

We are off to Florida in October for his conference and a Family trip to WDW. I plan to pack it full of swimming, exploring and all the tourist stuff we can handle and afford. (I still plan on squeezing the trip to IKEA in! Hey, it's touristy if you don't have one where you live, right?) Hopefully in September we'll go apple picking and explore those museums we've had on our list. We'll try to spend more time together as a family and as a couple, enjoying the simple things in life - swinging on the playground, playing tag, seeing that movie at the theater instead of on DVD with the pause button readily available for more drinks of water, potty breaks, and monster checks. I encourage all of you to do the same. Enjoy the little moments, the silly moments..don't let your schedule or your fear at what others will think stop you from enjoying everything you can.

I have recently become a fan of another blog - it's on the right, titled 27 Hours - Matt, Liz, and Madeline - that has been an inspiration. Matt and Liz had a baby girl, Madeline after months of bedrest. Madeline was sent to the NICU and Liz to her room to rest. The next day, getting up to see her new, precious baby girl, Liz died - never holding her daughter, never kissing her sweet face. I cannot imagine as a mother what that would be like..to never know your daughter, for your daughter to never know you. The blog is about Matt's journey with his daughter as a single parent grieving the loss of his wife, his high school sweetheart, truely his soul mate. He is inspirational..and the biggest lesson I've learned? To be in the picture. It's not enough to be there on the sidelines in your children's life, you have to be in the picture. I have BOXES of photographs and Fred always says to me "How will they know you were there" because I hate to have my picture taken. I am striving to be "in the picture" from this moment on - we will have boxes of pictures from the next three months with all of us in them...all 7 of us, even if I have to rig the camera when there is no one else around to take it! :)

So, remember, enjoy the little things (the laundry can wait, the dishes will still be there), and be in the picture. For Madeline, for all the families that are seperated right now, for your own children...be in the picture.

"Superfast" -from Little Einstein's

"Think she'll notice if I steal her bread?"

Big Shoes to Fill - Daddy's Little Man

Love

Katie

Okay, this isn't my kids doing this..but I had to laugh when I saw it. This is SO something my kids would do to our poor cat...or each other depending on the day.

Abigail Grace Lewis

Things have been so hectic, we haven't really had a chance to send pictures or talk to everyone lately. It seems like when things finally slow down enough to breathe, it's 11 o'clock at night and we are exhausted...so for all those patiently waiting, here's some Abby pics (and some of the other kiddos, too) And Grandmom, if you are reading this, I'm having some pictures printed to send out to you for your photo wall.

Happy Birthday, Abigail Grace!

2 Days Old Already!

Stick'em Up! One Month Old

Emma - The Butterfly Whisperer

Owen on the swings at Pullen Park

Emma on the swings at Pullen Park

The Joe-Man enjoying the Butterfly House

Kaitlin at Pullen Park

Love,

Katie