Moooooo!

I felt like a real slacker this year. We only went to ONE meal at Chick-fil-A on Friday (Cow Appreciation Day). Last year we did all 3 - and had a ball! But since we had company, I felt like it would be rude to make them indulge my fanaticism with free meals...so we just did dinner. We had a great time making our costumes, and just like last year, the boys were SO excited about it. Callie really got into it too - she was all about her costume and mooing right along with the big boys! :) I refused to tape "udders" to my belly though - it's hitting entirely too close to home with my due date just a few weeks away...but we did see another lady at CFA that had them!!

Here's our costume-creating mess!!

All our little cows...

The Jansen Family cows

The Schrodt family cows

Two of my little cows "eating grass" in front of CFA

The herd comes in...

I'm telling you - my boys take this VERY seriously!!!

Visitors!

We were able to welcome our first "non-family" visitors to our home on Thursday night. Mandy drove down with her kids, Jake and Sadie, on Thursday night and they stayed until Saturday morning when they had to head up to Raleigh for a family reunion.

Jake and Josiah's birthdays are a week apart and have always been in Sunday School together. This past year they were in the same kindergarten class at Shores and had a great year together. Sadie is a little more than a year older than Callie, so Callie LOVES to follow her around. Sadie has blessed us with her hand-me-downs for the last few years and we have been VERY thankful!! I loved getting to spend some time with Mandy as well - I miss seeing her at biblestudy and in the carpool line already!! :)

We loved having them here - You're welcome to come back anytime! :)

We found Sadie and Callie in the living room/sitting room/piano room (not sure yet what I'm going to call it) reading some of David's counseling books...

Playing Hungry Hippos together

The boys were VERY busy working on some art projects this weekend - coloring some pictures and then cutting them out to make puppets out of them.

Callie and Sadie with their babies in strollers...

The boys finally finished their creations and put on a puppet show for me :)

Here's everyone! L-R Sadie, Callie, Jacob, Jake, and Josiah

The big 1st graders now!

Our little blondies (notice Callie is wearing someone ELSE's flip flops....a very common occurrence)

Mandy and I (don't we look so nice and color-coordinated?)

COW Appreciation Day

Remember last year? It's Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A which means....dress like a cow, and you'll get a free combo meal at Chick-fil-A. We're being slackers this year and only going for dinner (last year we went for all 3 meals!!) Pictures to come later!

Back to normal...and it's QUIET!!

Sort of eerily quiet actually. We had so much fun having all my family here for the long weekend. Yes, it was crazy. Yes, it was loud. Yes, it was alot of people (16!!) in my house. But I'm so thankful to be the middle man here - and so thankful for a house that gives us a little more space to actually make it enjoyable! We didn't really feel like we were on top of each other at all - except when I was cooking the meals. Speaking of cooking the meals, I had so much fun doing that. You may enjoy hearing a bit of the grocery list of what we went through in 5 days:

8 gallons of milk
6 dozen eggs
4 loaves of bread
3 lbs of lunchmeat
10 lbs of ground beef
25 lbs of chicken breasts

And that's just the beginning!!! So my refrigerators look empty now. The house is quiet. The 4 loads of sheets and towels are done and the rest of the laundry finished and put away. We are back to normal, but are MISSING everyone! Callie continues to ask "where Matthew? Where baby joe?" (To which she answers her own question - "he went on airplane. Back to florida." We LOVED having everyone here and are ready for the next vacation...but maybe not when I'm QUITE so pregnant!!! I was relieved that at my OB appointment this week, the doctor didn't do an internal exam. I was sort of worried he'd say "you're 4 cm already - what have you been doing this weekend!" :)

A Transforming Date Night

We had a great morning of worship at church on Sunday morning. David had put together a mini-musical of patriotic stuff for the 4th of July, and he even had Mom accompany the choir in the first service (she of course was GREAT!) Kim and her kids, as well as Kristen and Chris joined us for the second service. It was great having them there and have them see David in his role. Kristen and Chris had to leave straight from church to head back to FL - we were SO glad they came up for the weekend. It would not have been the same without them!!!

That night, Mom and Mary were gracious enough to agree to watch the rest of the kids for us, so David and I were able to go on a double date with David and Kim! It was a great evening - a rare one when we get to talk uninterrupted without kids to distract us. We went out to dinner and then saw the new Transformer movie. It was a great night!

Here I am at 36.5 weeks!! :)

The happy couples! :)
David & Kim, and Katy & David

Happy 4th of July!

Kelli began our wave of departures on Saturday afternoon. After spending the morning at the pool and then coming home to delicious lunch and a relaxing afternoon, it was time to take her and Joseph back to the airport. Then the rest of us headed out to Lake Murray to watch the fireworks. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. We got there around 6:30 pm, and had an hour or so that the kids could play in the lake for a bit. Then we ate our fried chicken and biscuits that we brought, and settled in to watch the fireworks. It was such a relaxing evening - there's something about being at the water! It also helped me to feel like I was at home, since we've spent the last 7 or 8 July 4ths watching fireworks from the oceanfront.

Whose stunning silhouette is that in the water? Why, it's the 9 month pregnant woman!! :) How I ended being the only grown-up in the water with the kids is beyond me!

John, Jacob, Josiah, and Luke

See - there's Callie in Tutu's lap again! :)

David and Kim with Matthew (who was quite a trooper since it was already WAY past his bedtime of 6:30 pm!)

Silly Jacob

Everyone knows you have to bring a deck of cards to the beach!

Crazy Josiah

Aunt Kim brought tootsie pops for everyone while we watching and waiting for the fireworks to begin!

Are they holding hands???? I didn't notice that before!

Mary and Matthew

Here's our whole gang - we took up quite a spot at the beach!

Callie enjoyed climbing all over Matthew's stroller...

Jacob wore David's visor for a bit - he is SUCH a mini-me of his daddy!

Callie and Matthew decided to play in the sand for a bit....the last 10 minutes before the fireworks start are ALWAYS the longest!

David and Josiah

Jacob and Luke working on a road in the sand

Flag Shirts are Back!

Last year was so sad because for the first time in ages, Old Navy didn't sell their flag shirts for 4th of July. We've been buying them every year for the last 10 or 15 years (seriously) - and we are that goofy family that all shows up in matching shirts - I love it (the brother-in-laws don't love it so much!). You know how I am with traditions though, so I was happy that after all the complaints I KNOW they got last year, they brought them back. Mom bought the shirts for the WHOLE family and we proudly wore them all day!

David and David both had their quiet times outside on the deck in the mornings. It was the only quiet place in the house!
Some of the kids worked on a puzzle that Mom had brought them. Notice Jacob wrapped all up in his blanket - that's a sure sign that he is EXHAUSTED!!! It was QUITE the weekend!

Baby Joseph even had patriotic swim trunks for the holiday!

After spending the morning at the pool, we came home and grilled out a yummy all-American lunch: burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob (I bought 25 ears of corn!!), ranch potato salad, and watermelon (I think that's everything). Matthew was already asleep when we ate, but when he woke up, he came to the table and asked for some of Kim's corn. She gave him her cob, but she had already eaten all the corn. I gave him his own ear, and Kim said he had never had corn on the cob before. WHAT?!?!? He LOVED it of course!

Mom and Joseph - her youngest grandchild for a little while longer!

Oh that tired baby! We wore him out too!

Luke and John were trying so hard to get him to laugh. He smiled, but no laugh yet!

The four sisters!

Kim, Kelli, a very pregnant Katy, and Kristen

Here's all mom's grandkids!

L-R Jacob, Josiah, Callie, Luke, Matthew, John, Mary, and Joseph

(it's like reading through the bible, isn't it?)

Mary and Kim playing speed (I believe Mary won twice!)

Josiah working on a project - Matthew got a cool new drill set for his birthday that both of my boys absolutely loved!

Callie in Mom's lap (again) reading books. She would keep mom cornered all the time if she could!

These four boys were absolutely hilarious. They were absolutely inseparable, and most of the time in their own world playing/talking transformers or star wars or something. There was one morning I went to go tell Josiah that I was going to be making pancakes in a few minutes for breakfast, and he said "Mom, okay, but you don't have to watch us play!" They enjoyed having their "own" boy time!