Let it begin!!!

Well I'm back at the blog and summer break has officially begun. Yesterday we kicked it off with a picnic, time at a playground and then, of course, blizzards. I guess Ryan even got a little crazy after I left for worship team practice and got the play-dough out. I really despise that stuff!! Today our "plan" is to clean the house and hang out and play with each other. I'm sure none of it will happen but it is a nice plan. :)

Hello out there

Hey guys I think it's been a little over a year since I last posted anything but I'm going to get better at it starting tomorrow. I'll catch you up on all the happenings in our crazy life. :)

Easter

Easter was a pretty big day for us. Aunt Heather, Uncle Brian, Gabbie and Cassidy got to come to Indianola for the weekend so we got to spend a lot of time with them. It started out by seeing the new Hannah Montana movie. It was pretty cute and the girls really enjoyed it. After that we we had a grill out to celebrate Uncle Brians birthday at the Werling household.
The next day was Easter. This is my favorite holiday!! There are no big expectations that are attached to it and the meaning of Easter is absolutely amazing. Jesus carried our sins for us and beat death. Oh how much he must love us!!
We started off the morning by looking for the eggs that the Easter bunny hid around our house. After that we went to church to celebrate with our friends. When we got home Grandpa Werling, Aunt Heather and Uncle Brian had hid tons of eggs in our backyard for all of the cousins to find plus Michael and Sophie from my side of the family. It was a lot of fun but way to much candy!!! The worst part of the whole thing was that we didn't get any chocolate from the Easter Bunny. :( After our huge Easter egg hunt we went to Grandma and Grandpa Blue House's (Werling) house and ate chicken and broccolli fettucine alfredo. Not your typical Easter dinner but it was Aunt Heather's birthday celebration and that's what she likes. Overall it was a wonderful day with a lot of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!!

It's been a long time!

It's been forever since I last wrote anything about the kids. We've been pretty busy with school and everything so I'm going to try to catch everybody up in the next few days. I think the first thing that happened was Hayden losing her first tooth.

The crazy thing was that Christian lost his second tooth on the same day.
I think it's so funny that they are both so excited when they find out their tooth is out but once they see the blood they both start screaming bloody murder but kind of laughing while doing it. It's pretty comical!

After the teeth fell out Ryan decided that he really wanted to get some camouflaged pants. I'm not sure why he all of a sudden became passionate about this but he did so we got some. After that I told him that the boys both had the same pants as their daddy. Well a picture just had to be taken then!














The last thing I'll talk about is our very ambitious endeavor with the parks in Indianola. During spring break we had beautiful weather for most of the week. Because of this weather we decided one day that each kid would get to pick a park that they wanted to play at. We played 20 minutes at each park, had a picnic at one of them and overall had a pretty successful day.











Grandma, Sophia and Michael (cousins) were brave enough to go on most of this adventure with us. It turned out to be a really good day!! Be expecting to hear a lot more real soon!

Real quick

Lately we have been trying to stress how important it is that the kids only date boys or girls that have Jesus in their heart and are very nice to them. I know this is very early but we figured the earlier we start the more engraved it will be in their brain! :) I had asked Joey, Kinnick and Christian what the people they date should have in their heart and they all answered correctly although all of them stated how they really didn't ever want to date anybody ever. :) Now as Hayden came to me and I asked, "What should every boy that you ever date have?", while pointing at my chest. Hayden looked at me for a while and with a smile on her face she looked up at me and said, "A Hawkeye t-shirt". When telling Ryan this I have never seen a more proud father! Hayden is definately a keeper!!!

We are still alive (barely)

Well it has been quite the new year!!! We started off with our traditional eggnog toast followed by what was the best thing about the previous year was. The kids all picked going to Disney World and if truth be told Daddy probably would have picked that one too. He loves that place!!!

After that Ryan took off to the bowl game. I asked him if it was a bummer to spend all of that money for a blow out. He said as long as it was the Hawkeyes doing the blowing out that he was just fine with spending that money.
The next week Ryan and I went back to Florida. He ran the Disney marathon and I ran the Circle of Life 5K. It was a lot of fun to spend the time together and to accomplish the goals we had set for ourselves. Let me tell you that it is a lot easier to spot your runner in Florida than it is in Chicago.

Can you pick us out? Where are the Werlings?


While we were in Florida Kinnick started the next marathon for our familythat we are yet to complete. We have decided to name this marathon the Indianola sickie bug marathon. I intentionally left the word "annual" out in hopes that this never happens again! Kinnick spent the entire weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Blue house throwing up everything that touched his tummy. He also claimed that Grandma and Grandpa didn't feed him anything, or nuffin as he would say it, all weekend long. Can you imagine Grandma Jan not feeding a child or anybody of any age for that matter. :) After that I got strep throat followed by Hayden and then Christian getting it as well. Christian had the priviledge of throwing up that entire day as well. Let me tell you that was a great Inaguration day!!! Definitely memorable that's for sure!!! Next came the "Ballerina" or diarhea bug that went through Joey then Kinnick then Christian followed up by Hayden. This brings us to this week which is a nasty virus that involves a very sore throat and owie tummy. Christian had the priviledge of starting this one off followed by Hayden who is lying in our bed watching the "Tinkerbell" movie as I type. You wouldn't believe how many times I've been told to find a good doctor.:) The thing is that Ryan has always been right and they have all been virus' that have gone away on their own even though it has taken longer than I would have liked.
The one day in between all of the sickie bugs the kids, I mean Ryan, went outside and made an alligator that was actually supposed to be a whale but ended up as an alligator for some reason.

Well enough complaining! Although it has been a rough month we are very grateful that all of our children have never been seriously ill and that they've all been minor illnesses. We're hoping this isn't a clue as to what this year will be like!
Oh and I forgot that in the middle of all of this I've been trying to potty train a new puppy named Bolt. Don't ask Daddy about it however because he still isn't claiming him as a part of the family. :) He is probably only the size of something that our previous dog Frank would have pooped but we love him anyway!


We hope that all of you are having a better start to the year and are all in good health. If you're not, I do know a good doc!:)

We survived again

Well at the end of November we decided to journey to Disney World again. Ryan has decided that we should go as much as we can while the awe of the big beautiful huge castle is still there. This time we recruited help and had a wonderful time! Thanks so much for coming Amy you were a huge help!!!
Nothing absolutely amazing took place but we had a wonderful time being together as a family. The weather was kind of chilly that week but it was okay with us because it kept the lines small and the sunburns very minimal. The kids actually braved the weather one day and went swimming. None of the adults were brave enough. Here are a bunch of pictures in very random order because I still can't figure out how to upload them in a nice and neat order.

The picture on the right is Christian and Hayden's favorite roller coaster.Christian got to help a dolphin do some tricks. The other picture is right before Joey fell out onto her forhead. Joey got to dress up like Jo-Jo the circus clown and Jo- Jo took her all around the resturaunt pretending that she was the actual attraction to see at the resturaunt. The guy above put on shows at Hollywood Studios and was a riot! We thought having our picture taken with Goofy was pretty fitting. Amy and I got ate by Bruce.This is the Mickey that gave Amy a kiss. I think she fell in love! Pooh had better watch out!The kids got to dress up one day which helped with them always being cold. They were a big hit with the characters as well in their outfits.This was the best character we saw. He was a lot of fun!Talk about a huge chilli dog! This is where I got two huge beverages spilled down my back and in turn got two t-shirts and a bunch of espn pins for free. Kinnick was so proud to have his picture taken with Eyore. We had a lot of fun but were pretty worn out by the end of the trip as you can tell. Actually I think that this picture was taken before we even left for Florida but we were even more tired on the way back! We had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back again.

Last but NOT Least

Well we celebrated our last kid birthday of the year. I get so tired of streamers and balloons by December but the kids absolutely love having their special day decorated. Kinnick was a hoot on his birthday. Everything that he did was because he was the birthday boy. He even told me that he went pee because he was the birthday boy at one point during the day. He was definitely ready for his turn. Especially after watching his other siblings get present after present for three months and not being able to play with them because it was their birthday and not his. He definitely ate the no sharing rule for 2 days after your birthday up. He is very happy that he is four now and thinks he can now do anything. Here are some pictures of his big day.
Kinnick's Handy Manny tool box was definitely the biggest hit.He thought that he needed a snowman cake which was by far the easiest cake of all four of them!We were all very thankful that he no longer spits when he blows out his candles out.
Kinnick is getting to be such a big boy and we are enjoying every step of the way. Well except when he thinks he's the big cheese of the house.
We love you Kinnick!

God, thank you for magnets! Amen.

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to have my niece, Sophia, stay over night at my house. Her brother got very sick and ended up in the hospital. He's doing much better now but last night Sophie needed somewhere to sleep and I gladly volunteered. I had let Ryan put the kids to bed and was enjoying some time with my friend Amy when the kids started begging that I come up and say good night. After dragging myself upstairs unwillingly I was blessed in a major way. The girls all wanted to say prayers so I let them and Joey and Hayden's prayers were precious but really pretty repetitive of past prayers. Then Sophie started her prayer.

Sophia's prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for loving me God and for wrapping your heart around me. Thank you for my friends, for my bunk beds, for my family and for my grandma and my grandpa. Thank you for scissors and for paper to cut. And God do you know what? I think you're wonderful! Thank you for magnets.
Amen

This little girl just turned 4. I was so blessed by the simplicity of her prayer yet the depth at the same time. God has wrapped His heart completely around us in many different ways! He sent His only son to die a horrible death just for you and me. God loves us so much that He found a way that we can continue to sin, like He knew we would, but yet He can still see us as white as snow and love us as though we hadn't just torn His heart in two with the sins that we continually commit. She also just seemed to get what a prayer was at her young age; a conversation between her and her wonderful Heavenly Father! I am so lucky to have Sophia in my life! I love her dearly! Thank you for the humbling lesson in prayer last night sweetie!

Not perfect

If ever I thought that I was on the verge of being a perfect mother it was all shot down this week. Christian has been learning a new word every week at school. We get a list of these words and had I reviewed these words sooner I could have seen this coming. Christian jumped into the car after school and got all buckled in along with his sister and we were off. The kids were just chattering away when all of the sudden Christian piped up above them all.
Christian: "Mom?"
Mom: "Yes Chrsitian."
Christian: " I really wish our house was orderly."
Mom: "What!?"
Chrisitan: "I really wish our house was orderly because our house is always messy."
Mom: "Sorry buddy that's just the way it goes sometimes."

In the back of my mind all I could think of was, "Did he tell his teacher this?"
Oh well. Maybe in a few years our house can be orderly Christian. Especially if I have 4 little helpers instead of destroyers.! :)