We met Mason for lunch at Chick-fil-A and everybody loves that they have an indoor play place.
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Family movie night.
I’m not sure if Ben was trying to kiss the baby or eat her, but he was still cute holding her.
A final picture for this particular photo series – the worst idea for a photo series ever. (Why did I think it was a good idea to pose a small child on a tall object?)
Indoor laser tag – am I cool Mom or what?
I learned something today and it answers some questions I have had for a long time. Teague evidently wears two socks on each foot. No idea why or how long he has done this. But this explains why there are so many socks in the laundry and why occasionally they are tangled together when they come out of the dryer.
I’m pretty sure both Kaitlyn and Madison were hiding from Pepper – in the kennel.
I got fed up with a baby that wouldn’t stay seated in his high chair. We are both happier with him eating on the floor.
Total marks the end of a 10 year run (or almost). Ben took his last bottle. These bottles have been around a long, long time. I bought them when we realized Alex was going to be a formula baby. Alex, Harper, Mackenzie, Kaitlyn, and Ben all used these bottles. They are done. Babies are done. We are on to sippy cups and whole milk. Next up it will time to say good-bye to the pacifier, but I’m not quite ready for that battle yet.
Controlled chaos. Project making in the back and dinner prep in the font.
Can you tell we might have had quite a wait for Ben’s one year check up today?
When Daddy reads a bedtime book, everybody comes to listen.
Ben’s into his favorite drawer looking for the shakers (any bottle with medicine).
Unfortunately the laundry from our trip didn’t disappear while I ignored it. In fact, the kids’ pile seems to continue to grow. Today, my plan is to make it all disappear.
Alex being Alex.
Multi-tasking, Burch-style.
(Teague is doing his reading and Wade is listening while repairing the valve in our toilet.)
And we now return to our afternoon quiet times – perfect!
Ben is still enjoying some of his new birthday toys.
I was sorting pictures from Thanksgiving and found this one. It’s a picture of Uncle Wade performing his famous “Burch Lock” on the kids.
He starts the kids off with a “Burch Lock 1” and then twists them into a crazy configuration that they can easily escape. They love it and continually ask for harder numbers. He happily plays along and several of the kids are up to Burch Lock 8s.
Waffle House – a definitely must on a road trip!
Waffle House – a definitely must on a road trip!
Waffle House – a definitely must on a road trip!
Dinner – a messy affair.
Just in case you were wondering – this is what the charging situation looks like for a family of 6 (with only 5 electronics users) when we stay in a hotel overnight.
We got a private room for our lunch stop today.
Today was all driving. We stopped for quick lunch and then a longer dinner. We tried for a quick first birthday song and candle at dinner, but Ben was tired and not happy that we wouldn’t let him hold the lit candle. This is now twice he has tried to grab the flame. He’s a determined little guy.
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Gram bought everyone matching Christmas pajamas!
(Ben is too small for the matching ones and was already in bed when the picture was taken.)
We are celebrating Ben’s birthday today because tomorrow is a travel day. What a lucky kid to celebrate his first birthday with family. I guess there are perks to having a birthday so close to a big family holiday. We had Chinese food for lunch and the kid who eats everything loved it all. Then we had cake and he ate that too. (He was my second child, after Teague, to dive for the flame of the candle instead of staying a healthy distance back.) I love this happy, constantly-on-the-go boy. He’s the best.
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Before the day was over we did a “cake smash” just so Mom could get a couple of fun pictures. (Thanks to Aunt Lissy for all the decorations and arranging the cake!)
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Then it was packing up and matching pajamas for the cousins.
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Somebody turns 1 tomorrow!!
(Of course we celebrated today with family.)
I always love the cousins piled together on Gram’s porch swing.
Turkey Day is here. The kids started watching the Macy’s Day Parade as soon as it started. Teague helped out in the kitchen quite a bit. Everyone ate. Everyone relaxed. We even managed a few group pictures of various configurations. It was a perfect family holiday.
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How many adults does it take to keep 6 kids in place and smiling for the camera?
(Actually, the kids were great and hopefully we got some awesome pictures.)
The goal today was to keep all the kids entertained. The big kids (and Ben) had slept at Gram’s house so we had bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast with Orange Julius (Alex’s second favorite breakfast at Gram’s house). Then we had cartoons and Legos (The Lego picture makes it obvious to me which sister is far superior at girl hairstyles). As soon as they opened we took the kids to Vertical Jump get the wiggles out. Kaitlyn spent most of her jump time napping in Aunt Lissy’s arms (Aunt Lissy hated it).
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Then we dressed everyone up and drove to Southern Illinois for family pictures. The kids were fabulous. We did pictures in all kinds of groupings. Then we went out for celebratory ice cream. What a day!
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When we travel to Kentucky, especially by car, we tend to stay more than a day or two. Today we enjoyed hanging out together with cousins and Hibachi for dinner! The kids were over joyed when we told them they could all spend the night together at Gram’s house. (Sleepovers are their favorites.)
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My sister and I are gifting my mom family pictures for Christmas. The pictures are tomorrow. We have learned (over many years) it is smart to do a trial run with the outfits to make sure really like how they look all together. Melissa and I have multiple options for every person in our family and have been shopping for the last month long distance to try to pull this together. What a lot of work!
The first morning we are in Paducah we always get donut holes from Red’s. It’s everyone’s favorite!
We spent today enjoying Paducah. We had our traditional first-moring-in-Paducah-breakfast of Red’s donuts. Gram takes my car and all the kids in their pajamas to get the donuts. (I get to stay home and wait for mine to be delivered.) We lazed the morning away and the kids enjoyed all of the toys at Gram’s house and maybe a few cartoons too. Then we ventured to Starn’s for BBQ sandwiches for lunch. The kids thought eating at the counter was great fun. Later that afternoon the boys got out Gram’s change bowl and sorted money. The deal used to be that if you could count it out then Gram would pay you in paper money what you counted. We did inform the boys they were a little too old and advanced for that. They still had fun playing in the money. Kaitlyn worked all the puzzles. Ben took a great nap and then made a mess with all the toys. We spent the evening with some good family friends. Teague was in heaven riding the 4-wheeler with Buddy. I think he would have ridden all night if he could have.
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We spent most of the day on the road but made it to Gram’s house in time for a late dinner. The kids were so excited to see Gram and their cousins. Wade and I were excited to be out of the car!
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Roadtrip – Day 2
Roadtrip – Day 2
Roadtrip – Day 2
Roadtrip – Day 2
We are spending Thanksgiving in Paducah. To make the trip worthwhile we are going for the entire week. To make the trip interesting, we decided to drive. We got everything packed up and headed out today for day one of the drive.
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Roadtrip to KY – Day 1.
First snow of winter!
We did get snow, but not enough to cancel school. The boys had been desperately hoping for no school for several reasons. They love to play in the snow and they knew that most likely meant we would leave for KY a day early. The snow was a wet snow – not great for playing. It was soggy and drippy, but the minute they were home from school they wanted to go outside. Normally I would race them out but I was packing for everyone and had no desire to go outside. Then I heard them laughing outside. I pretty quickly got Ben dressed and we went outside too.
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We are supposed to get our first snow tonight. They are checking for the first flakes before bed.
Oh look, Ben can reach even more items in my drawers now.
Alex was put in an awesome mood by the upcoming snow. He even offered to read Kaitlyn her bedtime books. She loved the extra attention.
