We're Back From N.C.

I will say upfront that this will be a LONG post, we did soooo much in n.c. and i took soo many pictures (137 of them), so be prepared to read...lol. i hope you all enjoy it. i will go day by day starting with the day we left ~ last Wednesday, June 13th.

Wednesday, June 13th: we left our house at 3 am for our one hour drive to the airport. i know many say that you really do not need to arrive 2 hours early, but with 6 of us i just don't like to take chances. i had checked in online (first year we could since we held the girls last year), so when we arrived at the airport at 4am, we gave them our bags and went right through security. it took a total of about 30 min. from start to finish! we were very happy with that. the kids were all excited and behaved very well. our plane left on time since it was the first out that morning. i was sad to see the rain and wind as that meant the tv's were out the whole first leg of the trip. the twins slept about the whole way and never said a word, and the older two were on their best behavior as well. we had a 1 1/2 hour layover at JFK. i have to admit that i hated it. the airport was so nasty and dirty, and the people were sooo rude. they weren't rude to us, but the way they talked to each other astounded me. the tv's worked on the trip from JFK to N.C. so all 4 kids were once again super. we arrived at the airport at 10:30 am. my sister Sarah met us there along with two of the girls she nanny's for. just to clear things up, she has been nannying for them for almost 6 years, so they are actually more like family to us (including the parents). the kids all enjoy each other like cousins. anyway, we went back to Sarah's (my sister) house and the kids immediately went swimming in her pool. they stayed in till supper time when we made them get out. no one wanted to cook, so we went out to golden corral for supper (our favorite restaurant in n.c.). when we got back to the house, we ended up going swimming again. this set the course for the rest of the week!

Thursday, June 14th: today it only reached 70 degrees. it felt good to us, but not the usual weather we experience while there. we went to the Pikes (family my sister nanny's for) and then took the kids to the park. Toya and Jordan and the two younger pike girls went swimming at a neighbors after the park while i stayed at the Pikes house while the twins napped. we then went to sarah's and watched a movie. later Kelsey started complaining that her lower right side on her belly was hurting. she would cry and then stop and you could tell she was in alot of pain. each bout of crying would last about 5 min, and then she would go 2 hours before it hit again. we weren't sure what it was, so we just put her to bed thinking the fact that she was so tired was making things worse. i got a couple hours of sleep before she woke up again at 2 am. this time i woke up Sarah and told her i thought she needed to be checked out. i wasn't sure how our insurance would work, so i called her Dr.s office (they have an answering service). the nurse called back and took some info and said she should be seen within 4 hours because there was a chance it was her appendix. we then took the 20 min. drive to cape fear valley medical. we were happy to see that they had a separate emergency room for kids. i thought this was great so we didn't have to sit in the regular emergency room with all the "really" sick people. as soon as we entered the room to get weight and temperature, Kelsey let out a loud "toot". we had thought all along it was gas, but she couldn't pass it for some reason. anyway, the whole thing took about an hour and we were on our way. if nothing else, my sister got to see the hospital she will be delivering her baby at in a couple of months. after all of that, kelsey went to sleep and didn't wake up till 10:30 friday morning.

Friday, June 15th: this afternoon we drove about 2 1/2 hours to myrtle beach. sarah and john rented a 3 bedroom condo for all of us at the litchfield beach and golf resort. we went to cracker barrel for supper and then to broadway at the beach. sarah and john let the twins make their first build-a-bears (they actually made the dolls). they pay for everyone to make their first ones, so we paid for jordan and toya to make build a bears. they all had a blast. the girls got to pick out their dolls and kelsey chose one with pink hair and kaylee chose one with purple. this was funny to me as that is how we dress the girls, so it was funny that they picked their own colors. latoya and jordan both got dogs. toya dressed hers in a poodle skirt and jordan dressed his as a firefighter dog. kelsey's doll is "baby kelsey", kaylee's is "baby kaylee", jordan's is "dewey" (named after the dog on firehouse dog), and toya's is "princess". after build-a-bear, we went to a t-shirt shop where they could pick out ther own t-shirt designs and the color of their shirts and create their own t-shirts. they had fun, kaylee insisted on the fish and kelsey wasn't all that interested, so they got the same thing. jordan of course picked a train, and toya a pink shirt with a beagle on it. we didn't get back to the condo till midnight, but they were all very good!

with their t-shirts that they made on:

Saturday, June 16th: today we went to the ocean located at the condo. the kids had a blast.
kelsey loved the ocean, but kaylee wasn't too impressed. she was very content to play with the sand toys away from the water. toya and jordan loved jumping the waves. we went back to the condo for lunch and we all took a nap, except toya and jordan who sat up watching a movie without falling asleep. after our naps, we then went to the pool at the condo. it is an outside pool that has a kiddy play area with a lazy river that goes around it. the kids loved it! after the pool we had pizza delivered to the condo. i think we went to bed around 10:00 that night.

Sunday, June 17th: Happy Father's Day! we started out father's day with another trip to the pool. checkout time was 11 am, but we could still use the facilities all day. we stayed at the pool for a couple of hours and then headed back to sarah's. later that night, the air conditioning quit working in their house. luckily it wasn't a very hot night, so we could just open the windows, but we knew that the next day was supposed to be 95. sarah called the technicians and they said they would come look at it in the morning. we all decided to go swimming. the twins found something new they liked to do.....jump in the pool. kelsey taked her floatie and jumps in, goes completely under, pops back up and swims to the ladder and does it again. this is all she does the whole time we swim from here on out. kaylee likes to jump in too, but would rather have someone catch her. i got a couple of videos of them jumping in:












Monday, June 18th: today, we went to the Pikes house and the kids got to play together most of the day. we took them roller skating, and they all did reletively well. some of them had sore butts, but they stayed the whole 2 hours it was open. then, i'm sure you can guess what we did when we went back to sarah's......yup, swimming!!! it reached 102 degrees today, way to hot for me, even too hot to swim (but they did)!!

Tuesday, June 19th: today we went to the Pikes house and then to a splash pad so the kids could play. we didn't end up staying very long, about an hour, as it was 100 degrees and just miserable out. doug, john, and all 6 kids headed back to the Pikes. they took all of the kids swimming at the neighbors pool. sarah and i went to get john a b-day cake as we were celebrating it that night (his b-day is the 22nd, but we left on the 20th). anyway, we came back and ate and then had cake and ice cream for john. jordan decided to go out with a bang! he decided to go down the slide with a metal pole that had a pointed edge (several of us had told him to put it away, but he didn't listen). anyway, we heard crying and when he came in, i casually said "oh, he's bleeding". then, he moved his hand and i saw a hand full of blood as well as a face full of blood. then i said a little more panicky "oh, he's REALLY bleeding!!!" thank God for Dr. Pike, he knew what he needed to do and told us it would not need stitches. he put a butterfly bandage on the gash (he's missing a chunk of skin) on his nose. had dr. pike not been there, we would have made another trip to the ER. we gave him motrin for pain, and he cried quit a bit, but fell asleep at about 7:20 and didn't wake up till arount 7:30 wed. morning. these are some pictures taken the next morning when he was feeling better:

at the splash pad:

Wednesday, June 20th: we left sarah's house at 8 am and went to pick up the 2 youngest pike girls. we then drove to the airport. once again, the whole check in process was quick and painless. we boarded our plane and the kids watched tv. we had a 2 1/2 hour layover in JFK, but it didn't seem so bad this time. it was still filthy, but atleast the kids behaved. we boarded our plane on time and actually arrived in Porltand, ME. about 20 min. early. the trip went smoothly. we got out of the airport at around 7:30 pm and went and got something to go for supper and ate on the way home. we were happy to be home! grammy, grampa, and auntie jess came over to see the kids for a little bit and then they were off to bed. picture of all 6 kids before we left and then pics of the girls watching tv with their headphones on the plane (i didn't get any of the older two as they were in front of me):

we want to say thank you to john and sarah for everything!!! they made out trip very enjoyable! here is a picture of them and some belly shots of sarah (i don't think she knows i got these, and she will probably hate me, but all of her family and all of his live in maine, so i thought they would like to see how the baby is growing!):

sarah said to tell everyone that this is 10 pm and that is why they look like this. personally i think it's a good picture:

i helped sarah create a blog the day before we left. i have added a link to my blogs i read. they haven't updated it yet, but john said he will do it, so hopefully we can keep track of the last 2 mo. of her pregnancy since we are so far away. here is the link: http://www.jsbernard.blogspot.com/
i hope many of you will check it out and leave comments for them when it is up and going.

ok, that completes my blog. it took me 3 hours to write and create the slideshows and add the pictures. i hope you all enjoy it!!!

Vacation!

so, we will be leaving for n.c. at 3 am tomorrow morning!!! we are very excited, the girls say they don't want to go on a airplane, but i think in the end they will like it. plus, we are flying jetblue which has a built in tv for every seat and you get 36 channels of directv for free. i already checked the lineup and they will be happy to watch spongebob and dora! they would rather watch handy manny, and mickey mouse clubhouse but they do not get the disney channel. oh well! this is the first time flying with jetblue, but i have heard alot of great things about them. they also have satellite radio up there for free. they also have a ton of complimentary snacks and you can choose as many as you like! i definitely think this is a kid friendly airline, and parent friendly too. if the kids are happy and quiet it's sure to make the parents happy, right? here is a link to the info in the section they call "why you'll like us". you can get a tour of the planes, and click on the little tabs below and see all the things they have to offer. http://www.jetblue.com/about/whyyoulllike/index.html. i am already impressed, but i'll let you know about the service when we get back! the other cool thing about this year is that normally we have to fly out of manchester, n.h. which is about 2 1/2 hours away, but the tickets were cheap enough this year that we get to fly out of portland, me. which is only about 1 hour away! so, i may not be one for a while. i don't know if i will be able to post while i am gone or not. i may try to post, but not do the pictures till i get back, we'll see what happens. i hope everyone has a good week. i am off to finish cleaning my house so i can come home to a nice clean house next wednesday night!

i am going to end with some pictures that i took of latoya and jordan with a cat that adopted us for the day. a couple of days ago, the kids came in yelling the other day that there was a cat in the yard. i wasn't concerned, but went out to check it out and there was a pretty orange and white cat there. we have never seen this cat before, but it took to the kids, especially jordan as you will see from the pics. jordan thought it was his preschool teachers cat (she lives about 3 minutes from us), so he kept calling the cat "solomon". i called his teacher and she said no, her cat was home. we thought maybe it was hers since it really seemed to know and love jordan. now we think it is just a barn cat (there is a farm a couple of houses down from us). it stuck around the whole day and the kids asked to keep it. i told them no, but they could put some food and water outside for it. sadly, we haven't seen it since. anyway, here are some pictures:

Last day of school, First day of pre-school, and BABIES!

i don't know why, but i have been having a very hard time sitting down and writing these blogs. i love doing it, but the time literally just slips away! anyway, once again, alot has been going on. first off we had latoya last day of school which included a picnic and field day for them. i brought jordan and the twins along as well. here is a slideshow of the picnic as there are too many picstures to put on singly (i don't think that's a word ~ oh well) they chose teams and played games and had a barbecue! the kids really had a blast. you will also see some pictures from a park we took the kids to go play at:

next, since my last update, we have had 3 babies born to friends!!! many of you remember when i was talking about all the pregnant women, while, now they are all giving birth. i think this makes 7 down and 4 to go :). i also wanted to add a new truth to this, i was holding my brother in law's new baby, rilee (had nothing to do with the baby by the way), when i suddenly realized that i had no urge to have anymore. many will remember when i talked about all the women expecting that i made the comment that i regretted getting my tubes tied and i really thought i would want another one in the future. when my hubby and i left, i told him that all i could think of was poor alicia that she would have to get up every 3 hours or so to feed her and all the work that lay ahead for her. don't get me wrong, i enjoyed it when mine were little, but for once, i have no urge to do it again. it was very enlightning to me, i really thought i would always miss those days and always long for another one. the thought was very sudden and shocking to me. anyway, i thought i would share that! so, all that to say this, here are the new additions:

First was a baby boy to John and Lianne. J.T. was born on May 19th and weighed 6lbs. 12 oz. Isn't he a beautiful baby! here is his picture:

Next was a baby girl to Cindy and Joel (Cindy is my kids "adopted" grandmother's daughter) We have become friends through irene. Her name is Emelia Rose. She was born on May 26th. She weighed 8lbs. 11 oz. and was 21 in. long. Isn't she a doll!! here is her picture:

Last but not least is a baby boy to Dan and Beth. They are friends from church. Their "little" boy, Daniel Jr., was born via c-section. He was born on June 1st. He was 11 lbs. and 9 oz. I can't remember how long he was, but he looks like a 3 mo. old. I got to hold him at church tonight and kaylee came up and said "i put him in my backpack?" she wanted to take him home....lol. i also checked my girls baby books and they did not reach 11 pounds until they were 5 mo. old. anyway, he is very cute, here is his picture:


Finally, we had the girls first day of pre-school. they went on tuesday and loved it! they even brought home some papers. since jordan and the girls were in school, i took the opportunity to spend some one on one time with toya, so we dropped the other three off and went out for breakfast. it was nice and quiet :). the girls have already learned their teachers name by heart. here is the girls on their first day (didn't dress them up cause they are going to be doing alot of arts and craft type things), and a video as well. the video is a little dark, but you can hear the girls talk and say their teachers name (her name is mrs. kelley by the way), very cute! here they are:

Kelsey and Kaylee

Kaylee

Kelsey

Kaylee and Kelsey

here is the video: