"All I want for Christmas..."

Corbin lost his second front top tooth this week. He has really enjoyed singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!" And whilst Corbin has been losing his teeth, Levi has been growing his with a vengence. Unfortunately, I tried to take a picture of him smiling, and he decided to climb up on me and eat the camera instead. He definately has more teeth on top, trust me, I know. I've felt them bite me...hard. Our loving nursing time is going to be kaput real quick here. Good thing he turns 1 next month.

And I suppose that everyone else was feeling left out and so I had to take pictures of everyone else as well. Look at your own risk. I guess their personalities have really shone through this time.
Miles "The ladies' man" Finch

Ella-marie "Crazy woman" Finch

Hunter "You don't want to mess with me!" Finch

Levi "Cutest bug in the world" Finch

Happy back to School!

It's that time of year again! Miles and Corbin are officially

back in school and I only have three at home with me!

Perhaps I'm the only one with this problem, but I noticed on the first full day of school, Ella-marie and Hunter managed to fight and make as much noise as all of the children put together.

Isn't that a law of physics?

Perhaps, gases expanding to fill the void left when others leave the area? Doesn't that sound right? So then I ask you...how do two little (3 if you include the shrieking mimi Levi) manage to fight as much as everyone put together, and have the volume of everyone shrieking at the same time? It just doesn't seem possible. And yet, if you come visit my house, you will see (and hear) that it is, in fact, quite possible. On a happier note, here is Miles all ready and raring to go to

Mrs. Dowdell's Kindergarten class.

Corbin is super excited to be in Mrs. Simoson's 1st grade class.

(I think that Hunter wants to go to school too!)

Have you ever seen happier boys on the first day of school?

It's so hard to be famous!

Well, my sisters and Spencer and I and our youngest children are famous now. Michelle sent pictures to the Tough Traveler website and they posted the pictures from our camping trip. If you would like to see them, click the link below.
http://www.toughtraveler.com/photos.asp

or if that doesn't work, go to www.toughtraveler.com click on photo album, and we are first on the list.

Go Michelle!

We Finally Did It!

It's sad but true, Spencer finally talked me into cutting Levi's hair. This was a very traumatic experience for me. I don't know what it is about curly hair, but I just can't cut it off. For goodness sakes, I didn't even have Ella-marie's hair cut until she was 3 for fear of losing her curls. Maybe I have some sort of mental block because I always wanted curly hair and was never lucky enough to have it.

Here is Levi's before picture. It's hard to see, but he has curls around his ears. Levi really loved having the clipper touching his head. Even though it is hard to cut while he was turning his head to look at the clippers.

And the after picture. I guess he mostly looks the same in these pictures, but in real life he looks quite different. My baby doesn't look like a baby anymore! Apparently I still have some trauma and issues to work through. Levi is still just as happy as a clam and loves me anyway.

That's all the news for now.

Happy Birthday Miles!

Happy birthday Miles!

Miles turned 5 this week and had a fabulous birthday! If you can believe it, he picked pizza and spinach dip for his birthday dinner...hahaha. I guess that's why his nickname is "Popeye".

And for his birthday cake we collaborated and came up with a pretty snazzy cake. He wanted chocolate, I said how about white chocolate. He said blue, I said how about a blue cake and white whipped cream frosting. He said blueberries, I said okay. It was a lot of fun to make it with Miles helping me. He did all of the blueberries on top.

Look at this action shot!

Kudos to Spencer the photographer! For some reason, Miles looks like Uncle Ryan in this picture...

Did I mention that the inside was blue?

Miles recieved a Lightening McQueen beach towel. Watch out beach, here we come...

And he also recieved some fancy bubble wands and a huge blue jug of bubble solution.

Also exciting this week...Levi grew not one, but two teeth!! He's just been saving them so that they could come with a BANG! He sure had everyone fooled. Congratulations Levi, you're so smart!

And as a last note, I saw this on a bumper sticker this morning. Perhaps you will enjoy it as much as I did...

"Tennessee mothers understand why some animals eat their young!"

Thank you, thank you very much.

Tons of Fun!

Where to begin...we have just had a jam-packed fun-filled couple of weeks. Aunt Hannah came to play with us for two weeks. She really loves playing her guitar! The bigger the better! Aunt Hannah, Ella-marie and Levi having some bonding time.

At least a few of them are having a good time.

The spider ate Ella-marie!!! But luckily Miles is squishing it into submission.

Hunter, Grandpa, Ella-marie, Hannah, Levi, Grandma, Miles and Corbin.
Usually 50% smiling is pretty good, but not so much this day.

We went camping with the Hancocks and Hacketts to Giant City State Park in southern Illinois. FUN with a capital FUN! I'm suprised that we all survived in all actuality! Hunter had his 2nd birthday while we were there.

Levi, Miles, Spencer, Hunter (with two fingers), Ella-marie, Corbin, cousin Zach,

Aunt Michelle and Aunt Emily

Hunter opening some birthday presents.

Miles, Aunt Michelle, cousin Helen and Hunter playing with his birthday ball.

Hunter, cousin Zach, Ella-marie, Corbin and Aunt Emily with the birthday s'mores.

Ahhhh!! This is the best birthday ever!

All of the cousins (that can stand)

Corbin, Miles, Zach, Ella-marie, Quinn, Hunter, Helen

Chloe and Levi were nursing at this moment

For more pictures, visit Michelle and Ryan's blog at www.rhandmh.blogspot.com

Hopefully we will be able to recover soon from having so much fun.

Graduation!

Our amazing Miles graduated from Pre-K last week. I can't believe that the school year is already over! Where did the time go?? I think that Miles had the largest cheering section in attendance at the graduation party. I guess that's what happens when there are so many siblings to make this more exciting. He really is smiling in this picture, I just don't know why he has such a funny face on.

Also, Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and Aunt Hannah have been visiting us for a few weeks now and we have decided that they can never leave. Never ever. They will have to stay with us forever! Hannah will not be happy with that. I think that she doesn't appreciate being roommates with her close friends Corbin, Miles and Hunter...Something about Corbin snoring...

Levi loves having extra playmates!

I haven't downloaded the rest of the pictures, but I will soon. Oh, and Aunt Michelle...Aunt Hannah is in the running and trying to knock you out of the "Favorite Aunt" top spot. You'd better watch out!