We're out of water!!

We've been out of water since yesterday at 9 a.m.! That means no showers, no toilets, no drinking water... nothing. Our well has had problems producing enough water and we were running out if we used too much, so we thought it may need to have the minerals flushed off of the pump to get in more water. Lockport Well and Pump has been here yesterday and most of today (although they seem to take their time getting here) trying to flush out our well to produce more water. Here's the bad news: It is now 3:30 and what they are doing is not working and they're going to have to drill to find good water. The really bad news is: It is too late to start today, so we have the option of having them come back out tomorrow or after the weekend. But you see, Paul and the boys are supposed to be leaving tomorrow for the weekend on a Father/Son camping retreat. Thankfully, my dad has been here both days so Paul doesn't have to be here, because I have no idea what they're doing out there besides making alot of noise...

We filled some 5 gallon buckets of water at my parent's last night to be able to flush the toilets, but I have no desire to do that all weekend. I also don't want to stay anywhere else because I had big house/toy cleaning plans while the guys were gone... Ugh!

At the beginning of September, it was our fridge that went bad and forced us to live out of coolers for a week. Now, we're without water... Maybe God's trying to prepare us to be Amish???

Paul's work's annual Open House

Grrrrrrrrrr!!


Every year Paul's work has an open house for all of it's employees. They put alot of effort into it, and the kids have a great time. "Skiddles" the clown does (awesome) face painting and balloon animals. She painted Noah's "tiger" face, and princess decorations on Ellie's face. Paul even dressed up this year in his cowboy boots and hat. I...well, I took a raincheck...

Soccer season is over

Coach Paul and the "Purple Lazers"

Paul and his two favorite soccer players.

Seth really enjoyed soccer. He's a natural for it. He has a high endurance level that's needed for all the running and has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. I believe he scored at least one goal in each game. (It helps to have an incentive- like getting to go out for ice cream if one of our boys score a goal) Noah, well, he really likes the treats that they get at the end of each game.

Full House

I used to watch a program when I was younger called "Full House". It was a cute program that had 3 little girls and 3 guys all living under one roof. Well, after the last 2 weeks, I can tell you that the creators of that show had NO IDEA what a "full house" really looked like. We've had our friends, Steve and Ema Anderson, from Colorado staying with us. They have 4 kids ages 7, 5, 3, and 1. Ema also brought along her 2 Romanian sisters who are in their 20's. That makes 10 kids ages 9 and under, and 6 adults. I think that qualifies for it's own reality TV show!

The picture below is what it looked like throughout most of the house on any given day...

(And, NO, my house does not normally look like this)

All of the kids actually got along with eachother really well. The 3 older boys (Caleb, Seth, and Brennen) kept busy playing legos (yeah, the really tiny ones that we'll be stepping on and vacuuming up for the next week or so) or soccer or whatever else they could find. The two middle boys (Noah and Evan) picked right up where they left off last year with Thomas the Tank Engine and playing in the sandbox. Ellie, Kaylee, and Grace played dollies (it's so nice (and quiet) to have girls). That left the one-year-old Ella to wander around the house and Nathan to be held (so he didn't get trampled or have his eyes poked out).

If a movie was playing, the most of the kids could be found sitting on the couch watching, and the others were usually playing on the floor while watching.

The Anderson family left this morning with a mini-van that seats 7, packed (I mean PACKED) full of stuff and 8 people to head to Kentucky to drop off Ema's 2 sisters before heading back to Colorado... And we have our house back!!

Nathan is 1 month old!

Nathan and mommy

I love these precious feet shots.

Nathan at 1 month

It has been quite a month. Unlike Grace and Ellie (who both intentionally smiled before they were two weeks old), I have yet to see Nathan smile. He LOVES to be held- as does any newborn- but he only lets me have free hands for 15 to 30 minutes before he starts crying to be held again. He LOVES to eat and is always hungry. Nathan holds his head up very well for a 1 month old and is very alert. It is truely a joy to have a newborn to hold again.

10-17-08 UPDATE- The day after I wrote this, I finally saw Nathan smile for the first time :)

Pumpkin Carving Night!!

Pumpkin carving night is tradition in our house! Every October 15th, we have fun carving pumpkins and remembering the night that Paul proposed to me. Now 11 years ago, it is still fresh in my mind... Paul and I were dating for just a month at the time, and we were headed to his house on Ivy St. near downtown Joliet (on October 15, 1997) to carve pumpkins. That same day, I was visiting my sister and I casually told my brother-in-law, "He's going to ask me to marry him." My brother-in-law, Mike, asked "when" and I said something like, "I don't know, but he's going to". I had absolutely no idea what was to come that night! So we went to his house and got everything ready to carve the pumpkins in the dining room, but before we did, he got down on one knee and sang part of a country song, "could ya, would ya, ain't ya gonna, if I asked you would you wanna be my baby tonight?" I replied with "WHAT??" So he repeated, and then followed it with "Will you marry me?" I thought he was going to ask me to marry him, but had NO idea it would be that soon! So, I just stared at him, dumbfounded. He reassured me that he had gotten permission from my dad. I figured that if my dad was crazy enough to say yes to a guy marrying his daughter after only a month, he must be OK :) So I said "yes" and I said, "I have to GO!" There were a ton of people that I HAD to tell and I needed to go to my sister's and show my brother-in-law the ring so that he would believe that Paul actually asked me to marry him the same day I commented about it!

Needless to say, we didn't get around to carving those pumpkins, so we've made it our tradition every October 15th since, to have a pumpkin carving night!

Introducing...Levi Paul Hays!!

We have a new nephew on Paul's side! Paul's sister, Jenny, and her husband, Dan, had a baby boy the day before his birthday! We were really wanting her to wait until his birthday (being that Nathan was born on Paul's brother, John's birthday), but she couldn't wait... She really couldn't wait... She had such a fast labor that she didn't even make it out of the driveway! She had the baby in their car parked in their garage with the help of Dan, some neighbors, and a patrolling police officer!

So... here's the two cousins born just 17 days apart. It'll be so much fun to watch them grow up together!

Paul's Birthday

This year, my wonderful husband's birthday was somewhat of a whirl-wind. We were having guests coming from out of town on the night of his birthday, so that day and the days before were spent getting the house ready. We were (and still are) hosting our friends, the Anderson's, for 2 weeks. That means we had to make room for their family of 6, plus their 2 twenty-something sisters. We've just doubled our household!! Yikes! More to come...

Nathan's 1st bath!!

Gotta love this picture!

This is actually a little embarassing to admit, but Nathan finally got his first bath just yesterday. We don't give him the "normal" scrub-down that babies normally receive in the hospital because of the good bacteria that they naturally get on their skin from the birth. I am convinced that the good bacteria is part of the reason our last 2 babies had their umbilical cords fall of within a week of their birth. Nathan's actually took 4 days (way less than any of our hospital babies).

Aside from that, we wouldn't normally wait this long to give them their first bath, but this has been a REALLY busy 2 weeks. Both Paul and I like to be there for the first bath to take pictures and video, but with all of the soccer and baseball and other stuff, we haven't had the time. And when we had an evening to spare, we were both too pooped to have it be the special occasion that it is. So, here we are, the night before Nathan's first doctor check-up, giving him a bath. It is so different from our first baby... We couldn't find the baby bathtub that we'd normally use, so we first tried the sink, but it wasn't quite big enough, so we settled on using the regular bathtub. We actually just use the baby bathtub for the "first bath pictures" because we've found that it's easier if we just "pass the baby" to the one who's taking a shower, wash him, and pass him back out.

As you can see, Nathan wasn't exactly fond of getting a wash-down, but he was very happy to be cuddled in a towel in daddy's arms... nice and warm.

Everythings OK in daddy's arms!

She's a cutie!

Gracie's at such a cute age right now. She's a little momma to Nathan and asks to hold him all the time. She likes to help me change his diaper and button up his sleepers. She's also become very independent within the last month. She insists on putting on her own clothes by herself, even though it takes her FOREVER. It's actually pretty funny to watch her try to put on her jacket. She'll get one arm in, and then walk around in circles chasing for the other arm that is just out of her reach... Gracie loves music and singing and pretending more than I can recall the other kids liking those things. She is constantly chattering about one thing or another... And she knows that she's still my "baby girl".

2 weeks old and mowing...

Nathan and momma took their first spin on Daddy's new-(to-us) lawn mower! Paul's dad, Les found a deal on a lawn mower that was just too good to pass up... Especially since we didn't have a working mower and had to borrow one just to get our grass below our ankles :) Paul and Les bought it late Saturday night, and Paul was out sharpening the blades and taking it for a test mow early Sunday morning. He was so excited about how smooth it ran and how sharp it turned, that I just HAD to take it out for a ride. Yep, it shore is nice, that thar grass cutter.

Thanks, Les!

Nathan and mom. Yeah, I know, I still look pregnant, but that's actually a baby in there!

BTW, it has now taken the prize position in the garage and Paul's car got the boot!