Jacob's first lost tooth

Jacob FINALLY lost his first tooth. He actually has 2 rows of bottom teeth. His adult teeth aren't pushing out out the baby teeth. But last night he asked his dad to pull out the loosest one. I guess that's one less for the dentist to extract next week! He was excited when the tooth fairy left him a $2 bill!

My girl wants to party all the time

The more children we have and the older they get the more we realize that our parenting tactics have to change with each individual child. Last night Kalista proved this yet again. When Miranda and Ari were little and we were struggling to get them in their clothes we would say, "Hurry and put you jammies on or Mom/Dad is going to put them on." The girls would run over and put them on lest mommy or daddy wear them. When it came to Jacob he would make it a competition of who could be the fastest. Then Sabrina came along. She would just look at us like, "Are you kidding me? I know that you'll eventually put them on me, so why play the games?"

Last night was a new one for us. Kali was down to her diaper and running from my attempts to put her into her pink pajamas. Out of desperation I put her pajama bottoms on my head and said, "Kali, look Mommy's wearing your jammies. You'd better come put them on!" Contrary to the responses of any of her siblings, Kali grinned at me and immediately grabbed Sabrina's discarded pink shirt and started pulling it on her head. Hey, it looked like so much fun she just wanted to join the party too!

Happy 36th Birthday, Rory!!!

March 29th Rory celebrated his 36th birthday. While this gives me an entire month and a half to tease him about being old, it also gives me the chance to share how much I love this Mann in my life.

Rory has been working so hard at work lately. He's doing incredible things with his team and recently wrote an Excel program that has been incorporated company wide! Wow! His brilliant mind never ceases to amaze me (how many people do you know that can solve the Rubix cube?). How fortunate I was to marry a walking calculator since I don't seem to be able to add higher than my fingers can count.

Rory is an amazing father. The kids feel that the world revolves around him, and rightly so. Tickle torture and Settlers of Cattan are some of their favorite things to do. He melts at the sight of his youngest running to him to welcome him home.

Rory has always loved anything sports. Ask him a sports stat and he could probably tell you from before he was born, the record of any team. He has recently found a love for golf. He loves to learn from the pros on TV and apply it on the golf course.

Some things you may not know about Rory are... He likes carmel (specifically in Cadbury eggs), making big breakfasts on Saturdays, riddles, Harry Potter, steak and grilled shrimp from Sizzler, and listening to talk radio. He doesn't like chunky pies, disorganization, slow drivers in the left lane, liberals, and his knees being touched.

Most of all, I found in Rory, the true meaning of unconditional love. How grateful I am that he loves me no matter what I do (or don't do), no matter my weight ;), and no matter my views on things. What a blessing he is to me and our family. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HONEY (I wrote that in caps so you wouldn't have to use your bifocals to read that line)!!!

Too Cute Not to Post

Not MORE Snow!

One day I came in the kitchen to find 3 of my girls lined up on chairs looking out the window. It was snowing on what should have been a beautiful spring day. I think we're all ready for spring to come. What a long winter it's been!

Easter

Easter weekend turned out to be one big sugar high. Between the treats left bythe Easter Bunny at our home, and a fun family party at Uncle Blaine's and Aunt Necha's we had a huge bucketful of candy. After the first day of the kids asking how much candy they could have every other minute, and finding candy wrappers all over the house, I made a deal with the kids that if they would turn in all their candy to me I would buy them each a stuffed animal. They agreed and our candy stash went to Rory's co-workers. What a fun weekend. Here are few of our pictures.

Eatin' Green

So, Rory pointed out once that all of our pictures are taken at the kitchen table. I hesitated to even post this, because he's right. There's not much difference between this photo and the one for the Chess, Valentines Day, Weekend with the cousins, etc., etc.,etc. But I finally decided that if this is our family journal and essentially our family history, then St. Patricks day needs to be included. And I hope as our children grow up and leave our home that some of their favorite memories will come from this very table. We've already outgrown it and someday we'll have to replace it. But the stories shared, laughter given, memories relived, and lessons learned will live on and continue to be a big part of our life. Wow! I must be waxing sentimental today!

Anyway, we had a fun St. Patricks dinner of grapes, pickles, green salad with green ranch dressing, lime jello jigglers, green punch, green pasta with green alfredo sauce on top, and green cake.

Princesses For The Day

Grandma Carol invited us to go to Princesses on Ice. What a delight it was! When we found out that the little girls dressed up for it, we knew that Sabrina would be thrilled. But I was so grateful that even my older two girls found the excitement of day and joined in. It's nice as they seem to be growing older faster than I can keep up with, that I can still have a glimpse of the little girls they used to be. I don't know which was more enjoyable, watching the show or watching the mesmerized looks on my daughters faces.