Happy Halloween!

Will was playing in the backyard and came in and said "here"... Oh, thank you son. It was a great Halloween surprise.

I know that Morgan and Miles are wearing the same costumes as last year. They didn't mind and I was excited to get another year out of them.
Notice how Morgan and Miles are holding Will down for the picture... He wanted to go get candy not sit for a picture.

Dinner and trick-or-treating with The Dukes. What a cute bunch of kids!

Will and Davis as superheroes.

More of the Duke gang.

My last belly shot before baby gets here... 38 weeks and only 7 days to go. I'm scheduled to be induced next Monday the 7th. YAY! I think I can make it one more week. On Thursday I had my last OB appointment. Double YAY! And the best part was I had one last ultrasound and they said it is still a girl in there. She was super cute and looks like she's a good size. Come on out baby girl and put me out of my misery.... PLEASE!

My Parents 50th Wedding Anniversary!

My parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. 50 YEARS! That is something to celebrate! We all got together and had dinner at The Timbermine Steakhouse. It was a great night! Here's the happy couple (they should be happy, they just got back from spending a couple weeks in Hawaii celebrating!)

The little kid table... It was nice to sit with the adults :)

All my siblings and their families were able to make it. That is really rare for our family of forty- something... Seriously forty something between just the 6 kids and their families. See what 50 years can grow into... Amazing.
Here is my parents with their 6 kids...

Now here are individual family pictures. This is my oldest brother Bobby and all his kids/grandkids. Between him and his second wife with all their kids, they make up almost half of our family.

Next is my sister Brenda and her husband Casey with their kids.

Then we have my Brother Mike with his two beautiful daughters!

Here's my sister Mindy with her 3 boys.

Us Dehners....

And the youngest in the family (I tease her because she's only 2 minutes younger than I am, but I still call her the youngest of the family.) Here's my twin sister Brooke and her family.

Besides chasing this little guy all over the restaurant, it was such a fun night. Can you tell Will liked the food. It was all over his face and clothes.

I'm looking forward to celebrating our 50th someday. We are only at 11, but 50 definitely will be in our future. I can't wait! (It's sad to see what you really look like when you're 9 months pregnant... Fat face and all. Oh well, only 2 weeks left!!!)

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad. We love you and we are so thankful for your example of unconditional love.

She'll be here before you know it!

This baby is getting closer and closer... I am so excited and nervous at the same time. I don't know what 4 under the age of 8 will be like, but I'm assuming crazy. Good thing I can handle some crazy.
I haven't needed much for this baby which has been really nice, but of course it's always fun to get a few new things... I was planning to use the same old gender neutral bedding that I've used for all 3 of the others because let's face it, except for the rip up the side, it's still perfectly fine. Just because it's not the cutest bedding ever, doesn't mean I need to run out and buy something pink... Unless you walk past the clearance stuff at T.J. Maxx and they have one crib set in the exact same colors as big sisters bed. And the bedding which is originally $150 is marked down to $39.99. Then you HAVE to buy it. Mike said it was just like a Christmas miracle (I think he was making fun of me, but I took it as a green light!) It even had the same flowers and butterflies as Morgan's bed. Now the girls match and their room (even though it's painted blue) looks girly!! And check out this cute little outfit Mike's cousins Brooke and Troy gave us. I can just see her wearing it in this bed already!

And I couldn't get all this new stuff for baby and not do something fun for Morgan... She has been asking for a canopy over her bed for at least a year now, and I finally caved and got her one. She loves it! Now if only we could keep the boys from ripping it out of the ceiling....

Here I am at 36 weeks. I get asked "are you smuggling a basketball under your shirt" more often than I get asked anything else. It's funny because whenever anyone says that they laugh like they are so clever and I haven't heard it a million times already.

I will be setting an induction date for this baby on Friday. I think it will be 3 weeks from yesterday. Not much time at all... And if this baby is like Miles, she'll be here in less than 2 weeks... The clothes are washed, now all I need to do is pack my hospital bag! Let's do this.

Miles Fall Soccer Highlights

Miles just finished his last soccer game for the fall season. He has turned into quite the little soccer player. It's so fun that he's getting old enough to understand how to play. I don't want to come off braggy, but I have to just a little bit. I am his mother after all. Miles played awesome! And on more than one occasion Mike and I looked at each other and chuckled about how fast he is. We've always known he can run fast, but running fast while controlling the ball is a skill he's starting to grasp. He played 7 games this year and he scored 8 goals!! Way to go buddy!

The team... They named themselves The Blue Light Sabers!

The boy in action...





He scores!

Here are some pictures after he scored.. Every time he would get the same smile on his face and act a little embarrassed. It was cute.

Another goal!

And another!

It was really fun to watch Miles bond with his team. They were great about cheering each other on and really understanding the concept of good sportsmanship. I just love this boy.

Some of his fans cheering him on!

I should get some kind of award

I'm thinking Mother of the Year Award sounds fitting.
Let me explain...
See how cute my boys are coloring. We are just killing time on a Friday morning waiting for afternoon kindergarten to start. Adorable right?

Now peek up at the clock on the wall - 11:45. At this moment in time I was thinking we still have an hour to kill until school starts. Well usually I'd be right, unless it's Friday. Friday is early out day so kindergarten starts early. You'd think I'd remember this because I have a school schedule printed out and hanging on that big cork board on the wall above them. And you'd think I'd remember since 2 weeks ago I took Miles to school an hour late because I forgot it was early day... What the heck is wrong with me.... Miles was once again an hour late for school and the faculty was laughing at me running in with him and my big belly while yelling "I did it again" on my way down the hall to his classroom. Pregnancy seriously makes me spacey.

Another reason I deserve this award is because while Miles was perfectly healthy and accidentally missing school, this little girl was sick last week and I (being mother of the year and all) made her go to school anyway (and dance and piano). I thought she just had a cold and was okay to go... After all, you can't stay home all fall/winter every time you get a cold. I was WRONG! On Saturday we took her in to be checked out and they informed us she had pneumonia. They were worried about her and immediately hooked her up to an oxygen tank. She spent a long time at urgent care while they watched her to see if she needed to be admitted to the hospital or not. Luckily, they decided to deliver oxygen to the house and hook her up at home.

Good thing it was conference weekend and we could just hunker down and rest all day. Between the shots they gave her, the oxygen, the antibiotics, and lots of rest, Morgan is doing much better today. She is off the oxygen and having another rest day. It broke my heart when she said, "Mom, I just wanted to sleep all week and you kept making me go places." Yup - definitely got this award in the bag!

I did learn a valuable lesson from this... I need to listen, REALLY LISTEN, to my children more, and not be so quick to say, "you're fine". Sometimes I go into survival mode and get done what needs to be done and I don't let anything get in the way... I want to cross off everything on our to do list so the day isn't a failure... Well, after stepping back I see that it's okay once in a while to not practice piano or get reading done, and it's definitely okay to miss school - ESP if you really are sick.
We are all exhausted around here and taking the next couple of days to just.....

Don't you just want to kiss those squishy lips right off his face....