visits by the grandparents

Kathryn has had lots of visitors which has been so much help to the family. The kids have had a lot of fun with the extra attention and helping hands. Cameron has twisted them around his tiny fingers with please of chocolate milk and books to be read.

welcome kathryn!

So on Charlie (and Sandy)'s birthday baby Kathryn was born. It took all day--longer than the others--but a very easy delivery (thanks to modern day epidurals!!) and we had our beautiful baby girl. Kathryn Caroline weighed in at 8 lbs 7 oz--the smallest of our 4--and came out crying which was such a blessing. Everything went so smoothly and after so much worry everything was fine! Grandma and Grandpa were there to welcome her at the hospital and Jeff's mom brought the kids up the next day to see Kathryn (they even got to miss school). Since she was born at 10:59 p.m. the kids went with grandma's and grandpa to chuck e cheese instead of coming to the hospital (i don't think they minded too much). Kelly came over the following day so Kathryn had a room full of family to start off her little life. She had a full head of hair and was a nice tan (jaundice) and sooo cute!! She got to come home Friday morning but spent several days on a bili-blanket trying to de-tan herself. Otherwise very healthy she was 8-10 at her two week check up. Everyone is so happy to have her home and the kids always want to hold her, attend to her when she cries, and laugh when she does funny baby things (like poop and gurgle!).

Charlie's birthday

Charlie got to celebrate 3 times (4?) for his birthday. The first week of march he had his best buddy in Blacksburg come over for a sleepover since he was going to be out of town for Charlie's party. We took the kids bowling and they had dinner, wii and a movie after. Charlie was very excited for his first "birthday" sleepover and it was a success. The weekend before his birthday he had a few friends over for a party, similar to heathers they did crafts, played a few games, and of course a football piniata was broken (before Heather got to hit it to her dismay). He chose a sports theme so a soccer ball cake and some football cupcakes topped off the snacks. My sister, Bryan and cute baby Adam came over to witness the chaos that was the "party" and celebrate the kids birthdays. We got to go out to BW3's for dinner (Charlie choice) and watch some NCAA tournament bkball (charlie's choice) to top off the night. Charlie then celebrated once more the day before his birthday, with his grandma hughes who shares his birthday, just in case baby Kathryn decided to be born on his birthday (which she did--next post!!). We went out to dinner, he opened presents, and blew out the candles on his birthday buckeyes--I was tired of cake and he likes buckeyes better anyway. Jeff's mom had angel food cake with strawberries. Charlie is happy to be 6--he can play football in the fall now and is a very smart, kind, and sensative 6 year old.

Heather's birthday

Heather and Charlie have been anticipating their birthdays so much that they really seem to have forgotten that we will have a baby soon as well! Cameron is so excited for their birthdays because his is "next" little doe he know that September, while "next" is still quite far away!! Heather had a weekend birthday celebration starting with her first soccer game of the season. She did great and had a good time but her attention turned quickly to her party. Finally her friends came over for a party at the house--undersea was the theme and the girls all wore ocean/beach attire. They had a great time doing the crafts, playing the games, and eating cake. The hi-light of course was the dolphin piniata that Jeff made (again!). The girls headed home and one friend stayed for a sleepover. Heather woke up on her birthday with a friend already at hand to play with, crepes for breakfast and the whole day to decide what to do. Jeff took the boys to the Va Tech NIT tournament game (they lost) while Heather chose to go to lunch at subway and head to the mall to do a "paint your own" project that she had been dying to do for her birthday. She chose steak for dinner, blew out candles on her # 8 cake and went to bed a pretty happy newly 8 year old. Hard to believe 8 years have gone by so fast!

cameronisms

Cameron is at a particularly funny stage right now and continually cracks all of us up. He can lighten any mood by being himself. One of our favorite things that he says is in response to being told he's funny, "not me funny. you funny. me just cameron." Heather and I like to suggest to him that he's awesome, our favorite, or the best (which he repeats back to us--you awesome, etc.) He is also into kisses--sometimes shaking them off when we give them, then other times saying, "me keeping it" and not shaking it off. Now he's into "rubbing it in"--to his own face or to our face when he gives the kisses. He loves to try to keep up with his brother and sister and certainly would not believe that he is only 2 if it were suggested otherwise. He loves to go to the ultrasound appointments with me and can identify the heartbeat and the "baby on the TV". Today he told me that he loves the baby which was particularly sweet.

another month goes by

January and half of February have passed without any blogging along the way. A lot has happened during these months so I'll try to recap "for the record". Early January I took a quick trip to Texas to see my grandma and my parents who were also visiting. I had a nice time, got a few walks on the beach, and got to visit with my uncles and aunts who I hadn't seen in quite a while. I got to go on this trip solo and managed to finish 3 books along the way. While I was gone Jeff and the kids had a few snow days and made a trip to Ohio to see the kids cousins. As usual the report was that they had a great time together--it's so nice that they have cousins similar in age to play with. When I got back Jeff started his semester and the kids started a few more activities. As of today they finished swimming lessons and the kids made a lot of great progress with their strokes, unfortunately they aren't wanting to take any more lessons so we're done for now. Heather also started scrabble club with her teacher and Charlie continues 4-H. Cameron has started to enjoy going to the "gym" with dad and seems to be doing just fine with the ladies that work there. The kids got their second report cards and of course they were "perfect" in everything. We wonder how they can be soooo great at school but guess it's because they can let loose and be themselves at home. We've attended some winter sporting events including both mens (me and charlie) and women's basketball games against Longwood where uncle bryan works. We wore longwood attire under our Va Tech shirts to be semi supportive of both teams. Charlie, Cameron and Jeff are wrestling match buddies and it gained Charlie a new bike (which is Heather's size) which he won in a free raffle. The kids have enjoyed snow days, early release, and playing with friends and our neighbor. We enjoyed a laid back Valentine's day together with the usual homemade cards, flowers and some chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries as a special treat. We look forward to birthdays, visitors, and a new baby in the next few months.

christmas, new years, catching up

Whew--I've been really terrible at blogging of late but to catch up as we've been having a LOT of fun! Kelly and Bryan brought Adam over the weekend before Christmas for a few projects and to hang out for a day. The kids of course love their baby cousin and we had fun handprinting sweatshirts for Grandma and Grandpa Mick despite Adam trying to eat some of the paint (it was only a touch to the mouth but it was so fast it surprised us all!). He seems fine and is not turning blue at this point. Some friends from SC came to visit for a couple days which was a nice distraction for the kids from the holiday excitement. It was great to visit with them and reminded us how much we miss our longtime friends but how quickly things kind of fall back into place. Jeff's mom came down two days before Christmas and then the elf himself managed to find our house. Heather wrote a sweet note, Charlie managed a thank you for the gifts comment along with his wish list, and Cameron just kept saying that santa was coming to his house. Of course Christmas morning was great and we actually had no storming out of the room this year-probably b/c the kids got WAAAAY too much stuff which they loved! Christmas night it was off to have dinner with Kip, his fiancee, and his parents which was a nice way to spend some of the evening.

Battling the snow we headed to Athens for a Mickelson Christmas. The kids again enjoyed opening presents and visiting with baby Adam, Kelly, Bryan and tackling Christopher while getting spoiled by Grandma and giving Grandpa lots of hugs. The kids always love being around family for any occasion and it's especially nice when everyone can be together for holidays or other occasions. Despite having only a bit of snow the kids had a good time sledding down the hill that my siblings and I sled down as kids. We headed on to Cincy for new years with some MS friends at CoCo Keys "resort". The waterpark was a great size for the kids and safe enough that the kids could kind of roam a bit on their own. The kids loved seeing their friends and were best of buddies almost all the time we were together. New Year's Eve the kids played at the waterpark and stayed up until 11:45 (cameron) and post midnight for the other two. We traded kids so they could have "sleepovers" in the hotel room and they even slept in a bit in the morning!!