Catch Up

I know, I know, I'm behind a few days. But I have some really good excuses: the dog ate my blog. Just kidding. I've been sick (yuck). That part has been no fun. But the part that has been VERY FUN is having our awesomely cool, wonderfully great friends, the Turner's, back in Germany!! Yea!! Woot Woot!! On Friday I went up to the airport (don't worry, I didn't get lost, I followed their sponsor) to help pick them up. With four kids, luggage, and a 95lb dog, I thought the extra cargo space of a minivan might come in handy. I loaded a cooler with diet cokes, juice boxes, candy and snacks and off we went! It was so great to see them again. The family-oriented Army insisted that Dennis ride to the base to check in by way of a special bus that would slow down his travel time significantly and allow him to get the full experience of his jet lag before returning him to his family that I took straight away to their apartment. We settled them in, let Christy unpack, and I took a few of the kids to BK for some food. Jaxon had been in charge of watching my brood while I went to the airport and picked them up. It took a while to get there and come home, and by the time I returned, I was warmly greeted by Mason with an extremely saggy diaper and a whine of "I'm hungry!"
"Did Jaxon feed you? Have you eaten anything?"
"No..."
"JAXON!!!!"
"I asked if they were hungry and they said no."
"But after 6 hours, didn't you think they needed something to eat? ARRGGHH!!"
Anyways, we went to BK and Mason ate his whole hamburger. Even before his french fries. He kept saying, "This is yummy!"
"Yeah, because you're STARVING! Poor kid!"

Here's Mason with the whole hamburger in his mouth.

It took Ella .2 seconds to warm up to the Turner kids. She wasn't even 2 years old the last time she saw them, so we won't fault her for not remembering all their names. She and Aidan quickly became friends.

Colton and Cameron are similar size, similar age, and have similar interests, namely Legos and weapons, so they hit it off quite well, too.

So, Jaxon's babysitting license has been suspended. Danielle Turner, who just arrived on Friday, is our new babysitter. The kids got to hang out with her on Saturday and Sunday and LOVE her. Ella was so excited for Danielle to braid her hair, and Mason had her on the floor on all fours as his own personal horsie.

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures yet of Christy, or Christy and Dennis, or Christy and me. My camera has been weird lately and I've just been busy enjoying their company, and have forgotten to snap some photos. So, next time I see them, I will get some good pictures of our happiness at being together again after 3 1/2 years.
Here is a great picture of my alarm clock early Saturday morning. He crawled into bed with me at 5:30. I laid there, hoping my quiet vibes would rub off on him and he'd fall back asleep. No such falling happened. After a good hour of his tossing and turning, I gave in and we went for blankie and juicy. Look how cute he is at an early morning hour:

So, this morning we have been busy cleaning up. It's kinda crazy, but 8 kids in one house can leave a slight, just an itsy bitsy teeny tiny wee bit of a mess. So, Colton was right on it and offered to vacuum. I didn't even have to bribe him to enlist his help. He just offered. What a great kid. He did some vacumming, washed some windows, and squished some flies in our wintergarten. They LOVE hanging out in there and its starting to gross us out. Then he went outside to play with some friends, Mason and Ella went into her room to play Polly Polly Pockets, and I did some thoroughly exciting floor washing and laundry. We took a 'beauty break' for 5 minutes so we could reinact our own version of "Pretty In Pink". Here it is:

At 10pm last night I decided to paint my nails, knowing full well that I'd have another two sets of nails in the morning to paint, once they saw mine. So, I was able to get them to clean their rooms before I painted their toes. Aren't we cute?

And this last picture is for Sean. I haven't been baking bread since he left because we never are able to eat both loaves without his help. But yesterday I made some for dinner with the Turner's, so we had leftover bread this morning. So Sean, what do you think Mason had for breakfast? Yup, french toast with the homemade bread. We thought of you while he ate it.