Hello - ello -ello

Is anybody out there?  It's been not one, but two years since I posted.  Pathetic?  Impressive?  Whatever.  I sit here surrounded by dirty dishes, toys and crumbs on the floor, piles of laundry to be washed, and to be folded, contemplating the futility of keeping a clean home inhabited by 6 children under age 12, and I think THERE HAS TO BE MORE.  Surely there is something that can distract me for the 30 minutes until I have to pick kids up from school.

Hey, how about that blog?

I note that many of my friends and family aren't faithful bloggers anymore.  I guess we have texting, facebook, instagram, pinterest, twitter, etc.  Maybe I should give blogging a try again.  Expressing myself in complete sentences-how novel?  It might also be nice to have some sort of record of family life.

Okay, I'm gonna give it a go.  Any bets on when my next post will be?  Friday?  Next month?  Next year?  Never?  Hmmm, only time will tell....

Family Pictures and Concerts

It always seems like less of a hassle, and less expensive, to do our own pictures to send out with a Christmas card.  But, seriously, it's practically impossible to get all five kids looking in the same direction and smiling.  Maybe some day I'll learn my lesson...

Aidan was a stinker...no smile, or totally goofy.

 Notice Ellie's newest trick...cross eyed, she was doing it in at least a quarter of the pictures.

 Maybe if we swap the little brother for the dog?

 We could always get Liam back from the upset crying by singing Pat-a-Cake...so he's clapping in most pictures.

 Enough is enough.  We took at least 100 pictures, and none of them were very great.  Ho-hum.

 Ellie's Christmas Concert was cute, as you might imagine a Preschool Christmas concert would be.

 At the end of the program she noticed how soft her friend's dress was, and wouldn't keep her hands off.

Colin's winter concert

 Aidan's, too.                                                

Liam's 1st Birthday

Liam turned 1 on Dec 11th.  The year has FLOWN by!!!!  We had a fun family party, and even Oma was there to celebrate with us.  Please excuse Liam's sore, red runny nose...he's almost always suffering from a cold this winter.  Poor little guy.

Ellie and I call Liam "Chunky Monkey", so I thought this cake was be perfect.  It didn't turn out as cute as I had hoped.  Oh well.  It was fun to make a big and a small one.  

More pics

Liam went through a stage when he put everything on his head.  Kinda cute.

I can't keep my kitchen clean....

Ellie and Colin thought Liam was onto a great idea.

Family Movie Night welcomes Liam