Sorry it's been a while.  I do have a few GREAT excuses.  In fact have three years of excuses.  That's right, three years.  That is how long I have been living in a tornado.  But I must say that hard things make us stronger and my blessings certainly outweigh my trials. So......in the last three years I have had

2 twin pregnancies

4 kids

3 surgeries and

moved 3 times.

We have had our share of overnighters in the hospital, totaling in at 5 months for the family. YIKES!

We have SUPER great family and friends that have been and are helping us through our transitional life.  Hopefully, we will stay put for a while, and certainly, we will have no more blessings in the form of children joining us.  

Here are a few random pics from the last couple months.

We have been spending a lot of time at the park while living in a hotel

My older kids have been gems!  They help me out SO much.  Tay walked down the stairs carrying Rook and Tigue after bathing them.

We will miss our DEAR DEAR Florida friends!

 Tay and Bella worked SUPER hard to earn money for disabled children.  They had a bake and toy sale.  They earned over $100.  Way to go gals!  They got rained out on the second day of the sale.  We will miss those torrential Florida downpours.

Payte and Isaac

BFF's and crazy as ever!

A visit from our fav friend Emily

Sade the snake lover!

Reesers

The old balancing trick

Tagg and Aunt Mary

Dak and our new horse Miles

Reese and Grandma Bascombe

Grandma came to help us while I was recovering from surgery and getting ready to move.

Isn't she fun!  Again, missing those downpours.

Tigue loves to bathe the babies

 One thing we are excited about is living within driving distance of family!  The boys just spent a week with cousins and Reese took the girls and Martha to Temple Square.

Martha is our cleaning lady who moved with us.  She is only staying temporarily.  We love her and will certainly miss her when she goes.  She has been making sure I don't overdo it.  I'm still not supposed to lift things and that is a VERY hard order to follow when you have little ones and are moving.

Looks like he needs a new church shirt.

Another kids head ran into Dak's mouth. 

6 stitches!

Payte's Candy Wrapper Collection!

Payte has made a BIG decision.  She has decided to stop collecting candy wrappers.  This picture only shows a small portion of what she had collected.  Much to Martha's (our cleaning lady) dismay, she had drawers stuffed full of them. And NO, we don't go through this much candy.  She started this a little over a year ago.  She had friends and even teachers giving her their wrappers.  She and Isaac (her BFF) dug them out of garbage cans if they didn't think the surrounding garbage was too gross.  As we were going through this precious pile she picked out a few that reminded her of special things.  Reese and I were quite surprised how well she remembered where each one came from.  Silly girl!

I May be Married to This Guy But Sometimes......

at least for the last eight months, I feel like I'm married to my pump. Sad, but true.  It has been EVERYWHERE with me; in the parking lots of rest areas, restaurants, grocery stores, and doctor's offices, and churches.  It's been in the homes friends and family.  It spent a few nights with me in the back of the car in the parking garage of the hospital when there were no beds available.  I put it to use in the middle of the night to build up my milk supply before the babies came home.  I packed it with me for nights at the Ronald McDonald House.  It's been up and down the east coast, in the mountains, and near the beach.  It has served me well through six of my eight children and now it's time to say goodbye.  

 I pumped and bottle fed Rook and Tigue.  I thought it would be easier than nursing them both.  I didn't like it.  I was ALWAYS pumping and feeding and pumping some more. They went on formula when they hit two months.  With the second set of twins was bound and determined to actually breastfeed them, but it was not to be.  We didn't have enough time before they were released from the NICU to establish breastfeeding.  Reese (baby Reese) wanted nothing to do with it.  I think Sade would have eventually caught on had I been persistent enough.  But, I had to be realistic.  I brought them home to a house FULL of people (four of them in diapers).  We had three birthdays and the holidays coming up. We were on the brink of moving back to Florida.   I was basically drowning, still am.  I am actually pretty proud of myself for making it this long.  My goal was six months and I made it to eight.  Why don't I keep going?  Well.........we are moving again.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!  I can't believe it.  It is permanent this time.  We are heading out to Colorado as soon as we can buy a house.  There is a LOT more work involved with this move.  When we went to New York there was one house, one school, one branch (church), and we didn't have a house to sell.  I am soooooooooo busy during the day and sooooooooo tired at night and the last thing I want to do is hook myself up to the pump.  I just want to CRASH.  

I'm having a hard time with this though.  Seriously!   It's my last physical tie to pregnancy and infancy forever.  I LOVE having babies.  Love it!  It's hard for me to let go of this stage of my life.  Hard but necessary.  

Now back to this guy.  He surprised me with a weekend in Boca Grande!  I've been in dire need of a break from my everyday life.  I imagine my children could use a break from me too.  He's the best!  I married the BEST man in the world.  He knows what I like and what I need and works hard to make me happy.  

 Do you play croquet?

 When I was little I wanted so badly to break my leg.  I REALLY wanted crutches.  I used to pretend croquet mallets were crutches.  I was short enough that they could have worked.

Spending lots of time doing nothing.  I LOVE that!  I'm not usually like this but I think it's all right for a day or two.  

Two Amazing Ladies!

My SUPER awesome Aunt Mary and WONDERFUL grandmother Kathleen (hey, she has my name) came to visit.  What a trip it was for them.  They drove from Wisconsin to Utah to see my sister.  Then from there to Denver to see my uncle's family.  Then from Denver to Florida to see us.  I still can't believe it! We love them soooooooo much.  We had a wonderful time playing cards, watching the kids swim, visiting, and of course, holding babies and changing diapers.  These are just a few of the pics from their trip.  I'm kinda into instagram.  I think the world of these two and consider myself lucky to have them my life.

Just What I Need..........

another child to tote around.  Okay, I'll not make this about myself.  After all, I am not the injured party here.  Rook fell off the ladder leading up to the treehouse.  He didn't cry as much as we would have expected.  Reese almost put him down so he could "shake it off" and run back to play.  But, when he pulled his pant legs up to take a look there was no doubt it was broken. 

 Rook has been doing GREAT.  Sure, he's had his moments, but all in all he's been quite the trooper.  Tigue seems to be having the harder time with all this.  She lost her little partner in crime and she has to put up with all the obnoxious Power Ranger episodes we've been allowing him to watch.  

Dinner and a Show!

We had a special treat Friday night; dinner and a show!  I must say it was honestly a surprise.  I had NO idea what was behind the sneaking and hiding and scuttling that took place all week.  I was banished to my room with Sade at 4:00.  The kids made an entire dinner (dessert included), and performed and adorable (at least in the eye of this beholder) version of "Little Red Riding Hood."  I must say I was impressed.  Everything was wonderful!  Thanks kids!

This was on a separate night.  That chocolate cake is 100% raw,  and............I'm in the picture!  Apparently someone couldn't wait to indulge until the candles had been blown out.  

I Think I'm Gonna Die!

Reese travels frequently for work. Three and a half weeks is the longest he's ever been gone at one time and that was a loooooooooong time ago. He's been gone for seven days now. I LOVE being a mom but I am soooooooooooo done doing it alone. Thanks Honey for being such an amazing dad and husband! I don't know what I'd do without you.

I'm actually not doing it alone. This is Marta, the lady we hired to clean the house. She's WoNdErFuL! She's a great sport and we are learning a little Spanish on the side. Along with Marta, we have many friends helping us. We really do feel like we have Angels watching over us and helping us get through this exhausting period of our lives.

We have M&M night when Reese is out of town. The title is deceiving. It stands for Mom and Movie night. Sorry, no m&m's kids. We set up blankets and watch movies until we fall asleep. Babies not invited.

Good times with pillows and cushions. I think there are a couple kids buried in there somewhere.

I get so frustrated with Tigue when she puts her food in her water. I found out this week that she is only trying to "give them a bath."

Easter Egg Hunt! One of many.

First Solids!

Lovin' it!

Almost Heaven, West Virginia

For Christmas 2010 we had a plan; a plan for a white Christmas. Reese searched to find a place within driving distance that was statistically likely to have snow on December 25th. He came up with the Canaan Valley Resort in West Virginia. Everything was squared away for the trip, including our non-refundable payment. Then........we decided to move to New York. The resort was understanding and allowed us one year to use the cabin. We thought, "Perfect, we'll go for Thanksgiving!" Then........I got pregnant and things didn't work out for that. Then.........we moved again. The resort was understanding.....again. They gave us until the end of March to use the cabin. We loaded up our fifteen passenger van with our eight kids and Martha (the lady we hired) and took off on our 20 hour trip.

Vacations for parents are not a vacation from stress and work. In fact, they add to it. Before we left I kept thinking to myself, "What are we doing? This is way too much right now!" But, it's a different and good kind of stress. We had a FAB time and made some great memories. We dragged our close friends, the Addison's along with us. Five adults supervising 11 kids is totally manageable. I'd do it all over again in a second. Ok, maybe give me a few months.

Almost Heaven

Dak and Tagg

Lots of baking by Bella and Tay

Tay and Bella doing baby lifts

Dakinator

A little wood chopping

LOTS of games and crafts

Cary, Rook and Tigue

A little rifling after hot tubbing

These two pics are of Tigue instructing the kids not to get too close to the water.

They obviously weren't listening to her.

Maren, our official diaper changer

Isaac and Payte

Reese and Sade

Tagg-man

grass whistiling

the spider