Aunt Rebekah Visits!

Aunt Rebekah was born on November 17 (Yes, the same date as Ellie's birthday!).
Rebekah, aka "Bekah" to Colin, is 12 years old...
And yes, she is Andy's sister...the last of the adopted 3 Glynn children.

This fall, Andy's parents went on an anniversary/missionary trip to Indonesia...for almost 3 weeks and we GOT to have Rebekah stay with us! The excitement level was SO high, there were countdowns until she arrived, and worries that she was leaving too soon, and then on the last day, tears of sadness. We really enjoyed having Rebekah here!

Rebekah took over Colin's room...and Colin slept in the closet in our bedroom! I wish I had taken a picture of it--it was very cute, actually. His toddler bed mattress fit perfectly and he slept quite well--it was very quiet and dark in there!

The day Rebekah arrived, I asked Ava to go make her a door sign--all of the Glynn kids have their names on their bedroom doors. This is what Ava made for her--and she created it 100% by herself!

Our life took on a whole new spin with another family member...Ellie commented "Mom, this is where you try out having 5 kids!" Another friend asked us "What kind of relationship do you have with her--brother/sister or more like a father/daughter relationship since she's so young?"

I learned that 4 kids is plenty loud. ;)
And, each day she was here, it was like Christmas overload. TONS of silliness, tons of giggling...the girls really got into having her! But...she was tons of help too--my favorite was that she took it upon herself to keep the dishwasher empty/reloaded. I miss that!
This was typical breakfast--Rebekah loves being with family and even though she wasn't rushing off to her school, she always wanted to be with the kids as much as she could.

And, there was TONS of fun to be had too....
Rebekah got to meet our neighbor girl the same time we did and all the kids got along well.
Colin got the most time with Rebekah and he just adores her--below, he is wearing a huge "cheese sombrero" at the Cheese Store where Rebekah was buying some Wisconsin gifts. And the bottom 2 photos are from the mall--one day, we had to run an errand to the mall and both Colin and Rebekah took in the fun of sitting on the mall rides!

Rebekah is homeschooled and was very diligent about getting her work done...but she was also very conscious of doing it when Colin and I had to go to an appointment or when Colin was napping--she wanted to take in every opportunity to be with us that she could!

Below was the sight I saw one day as I was working on the girls' school's auction at my computer. I was madly typing in teacher wish list items and as I turned around, I was serenaded by the 2 guitars. As you can guess....Colin LOVED this.
One Saturday afternoon, Andy took all 5 kids to a local park. Rebekah happened to look down on the pavement and saw "Jim & Margie" (Andy and Rebekah's parents' names!) imprinted on a brick! How fitting... :)

Below, you get a glimpse of the bond that these 2 November girls share. They both are on a swim team and Rebekah even got to take in a few practices with Ellie. Here, Andy snapped a series of photos of them trying to "chest bump"....too bad Ellie is many inches shorter than Rebekah... ;)

Rebekah was game for ANYTHING...and I think she really enjoyed her time here; as much as we enjoyed her being here!

And while she visited, she taught us some things about being "older". We learned there are these cool round speakers you can hook your ipod or mp3 player into...and hear your music without headphones! Amazing....we had to order one! She and Jayna LOVED spending alone time together and sadly, I have no photo of it...just memories! Often, though, they'd be up in Rebekah's room listening to music. Again, special bonds being made!

All in all, the almost 3 weeks went very fast....we did some really fun things....and made lots of memories! This photo below was taken the last morning she was at our house...

We miss you, Rebekah!!!

Summer, Week 5

The word of the week for week 5 was SWIM!

On Saturday, Andy took the 3 girls to the Omro Aquatic Center and they had a blast, swimming for over 4 hours!

Sunday we left for Illinois and as soon as we arrived, the girls dove into their suits and were ready to jump in the water at Andy's parents' home! Colin eventually warmed up to the idea of swimming and by the 3rd day, it was hard to get him OUT of the water!

Andy's Dad worked so hard to get the pool ready for our visit--they've had a nightmare "open" of their pool this year! Seems everything that could go wrong did...and no one had even swam in it prior to our arrival on Sunday! It was wonderful and refreshing!

Above, you can see some diving board shots...
Can anyone even believe we forgot our camera? Thankfully we had my phone and we were able to snatch some of Andy's Mom's photos she snapped!
Anyway...the diving board--the upper right one is amazing, but dark. My phone has such a delay, it was quite the feat snapping Jayna in mid air, catching the "pancake" as Colin called it! And the lower left photo--not really a diving board photo, but Ellie and Jayna were jumping in together and I kept trying to snap their photo...and time after time, it didn't work--this one, though, is pretty good!

We also had fireworks...despite missing Ben and Jimmy from "the fireworks team". However, Uncle Scott stepped up, bought some fireworks as well and he and Andy did a great show! Turns out, this opportunity has hooked Scott on a new hobby. Looks like we'll have many more years of fireworks, even if the boys aren't around for the 4th!

Here are the 3 Glynn girls waiting for the show to start:
And this year, Andy taught Ellie how to light some of the fireworks. You can watch her HERE.

Here is a little snippet of Andy & Scott's show....our new camera would have taken beautiful fireworks video, but at least we have something!

We also stayed with tradition and went to the Winnebago, IL parade. It's a very nice parade.

As you can see below, we got a small collection of candy. I told the girls that I am set on Dum-Dum suckers for the next year...

And we did lots of eating....I think all food was enjoyed by all in attendance...

AND...
Ellie even got to swim with Aunt Rebekah with the Freeport Aquatic Swim Team! When she woke up at 6:30am for practice, she said "Mom, I'm glad I don't have to get up this early for swim team practice at home!" She had a blast though!

Finally, some random shots of the weekend...
Colin LOVED the sand,
Happy Birthday part 2 to Andy,
The 3 Musketeers, I mean the 3 "oldest" men of the weekend,
AND...story telling by Andy's Aunt...

While we're on that story telling photo, I have to expand....
Andy's Aunt notices detail in EVERYTHING. The girls were mesmerized by her stories and when we returned home, I suggested to the girls that we work more at telling stories like Aunt Faye...with much more detail, instead of the many words that we seem to be stuck on: "like....um...ugh...like...um...ugh..". After we talked about that, I realized how similar we sounded to Mr. Schmidt, encouraging the 4th graders to use more descriptive words in their writing!

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
The above photo collage is the short story: Christmas is about Jesus, not the presents under the tree....and we saw family--both at our house and far away! (Aren't those toothbrushes cute? The toothbrush holders suction onto a mirror--the 6 Glynns take up quite the amount of space when traveling....)

But if you're more of a "long story" type of person, keep reading, because here is our month of celebrating Christmas in pictures:

We had our 1st Christmas with Grammie and Grampy Gorden mid-December. We had a soup bar and opened gifts...we shared many laughs! Highlights included: Grampy getting a tid-bit book (Gorden family will chuckle at this!), the CAT mobile toy that was nearly chained into it's packaging and the grandparents not going overboard with gifts, yet hitting the nail on the head with what was chosen.

Fast forward then, to CHRISTMAS EVE.
This photo shows us finishing up our beloved Advent calendar, both girls playing piano prior to the Christmas Eve service at church, stocking opening, reactions to receiving mp3 players...and the only photo of our family dressed up for church. As usual, we didn't leave enough time to get ready/get to church and I threw in a curveball saying "It's SO important to me to get a family picture, and how about we use the stairs this year?!" Andy lovingly dragged in a ladder to use as a tripod and we tried numerous times...it wasn't meant to be...but at least we are documented.... :)

You'll also notice our feast of shrimp and steak--it was a hit, both items went 5/6 for likeability--it was a true feast! And for dinner, for those of you who follow our crazy Christmas Eve tradition, we did get to close down McDonald's this year!

ELLIE:
Dress up ware designed for 10 yr olds, a snuggie and a curling iron of her own...she's loving her gifts!

JAYNA:
Again, dress up clothes that actually fit an 8 yr old and a stack of American Girl fill in the blank notebooks. Add to that meaningful ornaments and the mp3 player stocked with music and she's been in heaven.

AVA:
Sleeping Beauty winter cloak, pillow pet and ballerina garb coming out of her ears.

COLIN:
Let me just say that eBay has been my best friend this year. Almost everything Colin received was Wiggle-related and not made anymore. He is loving life, with "talking" Wiggles dolls, a new guitar, Captain's feather sword etc. He loved the gifts this year and had to be watched like a hawk as he did not love the rotation with his sisters in opening gifts.

CHRISTMAS DAY!
We hit the road for Grandma and Grandpa Glynn's house...and enjoyed seeing Great Grandma and the Knoechel's for the day. We sang Happy Birthday Jesus, had a feast, washed dishes by hand (Broken dishwasher! Ack! But great conversation!) and exchanged gifts. Best gifts per the girls: homemade pj's by Grandma! Colin was a hoot, as usual, entertaining all who watched him as he turned EVERYTHING into a guitar and played peek-a-boo/hide behind people's backs.

SLEDDING:
We took all the winter gear for all 6 of us so we could go sledding. Let's just say that the big girls LOVED this, they were out 3 different times. The little 2....well, they enjoyed eating the "big sticks" from Grandma's house and they enjoyed their 1st run down the sledding hill. After that, they were D.O.N.E....as in "Do not even try to get us out there again!"! As you can see, Ellie appears to be a natural at snowboarding....we are trying to accept this newfound love...while we are rejoicing that little Jayna was the queen of the hill this year. She tumbled, she flew down on the saucers, she ran up the hill--she didn't tire a bit and the whole time, had joy emitting from her face!

The girls also had tons of Rebekah time....which was just as pleasing for Rebekah as it was for the girls. Which...makes saying "good bye" all the more harder! And, as the bottom right photo in this collage indicates, Andy spent most of his time taking pictures. He was in picture heaven. He also had time to hit the hill himself--good ole fun!

Still the day after Christmas, we got away for a lunch date and a trip to Menards to pick out paint colors to paint Colin's room. The trip to Menards didn't end fruitful though--we couldn't pick a color and when it was all said and done, we decided to paint a different room...and now? We can't decide on a color and we can't decide on a room....so we're not painting this week! :) That is a project for another snowy day...

While we were gone though, Grandma and Grandpa did a pretzel dipping project with the kids. Yummy yummy and creative cute are what describe these snowmen! The kids had a lot of fun.

Finally, like father, like son...Andy and his Dad moving all the furniture and vacuuming under it before we departed for Wisconsin. No further comments needed....it was a cute moment! :)

Next up: wading through the hundreds of photos from Christmas programs. This, family and friends, is the drawback of the new camera...but stay tuned, it will get done soon!

Happy 4th of July!

We love the 4th of July! I wish I had all of my old (really old!) photos on hand to scan in a photo of my siblings and I all dressed in flag attire. Quite cheesy to think about NOW, but I think we looked cool, back in the 80's! :)

Anyway...this past weekend found us back on the road again, back to IL for the annual 4th of July gathering. It's total tradition: Andy goes nuts blowing his birthday money on fireworks in WI and then we "sneak" them into IL where he and his brothers put on a show for all of us. It just started happening when we had kiddies that went to bed WAY before fireworks shows, yet we didn't want to miss the fun.
It's so great--private show and no traffic to battle once the show is over!

We also take in a parade about 20 minutes from Andy's parents' home. It is VERY fun and FULL of candy. All the kiddos that collected candy filled a gallon ziplock bag. Even Ellie, only putting in "safe" candy in her bag, nearly filled it full.

Here are some photos from the fun:
1) Jayna, Rebekah, Ellie. 2) Abby and Ava. 3) Jimmy, Andy, Ben & Colin.

1) Ellie & Colin (with a bow for the photo!). 2) Bed and Colin "two". 3) Ben wearing Wesley's bib....Ben was pretending he was born in the USA! :)

1) Jayna & Colin waiting for the parade. 2) Colin then moved to Uncle Jimmy--still waiting for the parade. 3) Colin and tall Uncle Ben....STILL waiting for the parade!

1) Colin eating. Yum! 2) Colin showing off his shovel. 3) Colin LOVING the sandbox!

We also celebrated Andy's birthday with is family--his mom had found cool sparkler candles...but by the time we celebrated, could only find the 3! The candle was VERY cool.

Upper left photo: the fireworks "team": Andy, Ben, Jimmy, Jimmy's girlfriend Brett. They did an amazing job....very neat, very loud, very colorful!

And not photographed this year: fun with far away friends on the 4th at Andy's parents'; the annual 4th of July BBQ Rib Feast, swimming as much as the little munchkins can handle, and a little reading about the first flag ever sewn and the reason behind it! It was a fast trip, but a fun and "full" trip! Happy Independence, America!!

SURPRISE!

How's that for a family picture? (Actually, it was an impromptu picture taken yesterday afternoon--when we were all dressed up, none of us remembered that it was important to document the rarity of everyone being in 1 place!)

This weekend, we were in IL for Andy's Dad's Surprise 60th Birthday Party. EVERYONE was there....that would be 2 parents, 6 children, 3 "in-law" children and 9 grandchildren!

It was a fun, quick trip. Andy's Dad, Jim, was surprised....and one of the best parts (for me!) was the surprise of 1) Ben walking out of the church kitchen to Andy's Dad and 2) The Whipple family then walking out of the church kitchen to Andy's Dad...they came all the way from Colorado! We didn't capture all the photos WE wanted, but here are a few fun ones:

1) Sam and Ellie--the oldest cousins. 2) Ava and Abby--the youngest girls. 3) Molly's 3 boys--we rarely get to see them; it is fun for the girls to get to know them better!1) Scott (Rachel's husband), Ben and Andy. 2) Jimmy and girlfriend Brett. 3) Jayna and Ben "hogging" Colin.



1) Jayna trying to trap Colin--he loved running on the stage! 2) Andy's words on aging... 3) Aunt Faye sharing her wisdom about Andy's Dad.1) Long time family friend Ray speaking about Jim. 2) YUMMY edible fruit bouquet and Jim. 3) Colin....still playing on the stage at the church!


The next day (Sunday), we were so sad to wake up to black skies and pouring rain. The children accepted the fact that there would be NO swimming at Grandma's house. Bummer. However, the weather totally cleared up....and as you can see, there was much swimming.

Andy's Mom ended up getting a little baby pool for Colin--he had been struggling with a little tummy bug and we were very concerned that putting him in the "big" pool might be a bad idea diaper-wise. He loved playing in the "little" pool....as did many of the big kids, as you can see below!

As mentioned, Colin was not feeling 100% great and I was not prepared...not only did we go through all the diapers in 4 hours that I had brought for 2 days, but we had ruined most of Colin's clothes too....and I had to go shopping for some necessities. Hmmmm.....when you are from WI and visiting IL, you just HAVE to get some Chicago Cubs attire! Colin thought it was pretty cool that Andy had a matching design on his shirt....
Above: The Cubs Fans (no, Andy did not spill on his shirt--he had just helped remove the pool cover outside!) and then the "little" children who were not allowed out by the pool until it was ready!


Those of you who know Uncle Ben know that he is nuts about kids. He was on cloud nine when Colin happily took to him and didn't require his usual warming up time. As you can see, Uncle Ben is also very strong...and loved by everyone! We miss Ben!


And then.....after a long day (weekend!), when your mom MAKES you stop swimming....all you can do is cry cry cry and ask to watch the Wiggles. Uncle Jimmy happily stopped doing what he was doing and found the Wiggles on TV for Colin...and within minutes, this is what happened:

What a fun weekend with everyone!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!!

Last Friday was Andy's Mom's birthday!!!! We made a last minute decision to just 'show up' at her house, to surprise her for her birthday! So we packed, and packed and then drove 3 1/2 hours south and when we pulled into the driveway, Rebekah was outside. She took us in the front door and Andy's mom was coming up the basement steps when the girls said "Surprise! Happy Birthday!" What a fun surprise it was, for everyone!

The above picture was taken just prior to us leaving to go HOME to WI....(we didn't even think to take photos when we arrived!) The girls were all excited to have new headbands and we came home with a few handfuls of new bows for our collection!

For an unplanned trip, we had a good time! The girls did some jewelry beading with Andy's Mom, Ellie and Andy went to see Jimmy swim at the conference swim meet ("Mom...they were FAST swimmers!!!!") the girls learned how to play Skip-Bo, we discovered cool toys that Rebekah has.....and there was also some wii playing....

Above, Ava is playing boxing on the wii. As you can see, she gets very into it! :)

And Colin...he also discovered the Skip-Bo game....so THAT'S why it was suddenly so quiet....

Many of you know that Colin has never been a great traveler. He did not cry at all in the van this time (1st time we've trekked without crying EVER in 21 months!), but he still didn't sleep well. After the first night, we switched the room arrangement up a little--Andy had a "slumber party" with brother Jimmy and then Ava and I had a slumber party with Colin. At 4am, Colin's night was "done" when he lost his pacifier and we all cuddled in bed together. If you know our family, you know our kids don't ever sleep anywhere but their beds....so it was very fitting that I captured the above picture--this is what I woke up to--Ava and Colin snuggling!

This photo is of Sunday morning's breakfast--homemade donuts! YUM YUM. Ellie has never had a donut. I remember trying to make them from scratch a long time ago and they were nasty. She says she remembers something yukky from Wal Mart that was supposed to be a donut; it must have been so yukky that I've removed it from my brain! At any rate, we've never had success in finding something tasty that doesn't have milk in it. HOWEVER....Andy's Mom created safe donuts!!!! They were very tasty too! She found safe breadstick dough, made them into a circle, fried them a bit and then dipped them into cinnamon sugar. YUMMMMMMY. Ellie absolutely loved them!

And finally....we got home in time for Andy to un-pack, re-pack, and fly out of town....he's enjoying the 50 degree weather in South Carolina while we watch the non-stop snow fly in WI. And Colin? Well....his shirt says it all......Happy Valentine's Month, everyone!!!

MORE music...& Christmas #1...

Warning: This is a long post! It is 3 events into 1 post....enjoy!

Believe it or not, we have more "music" themed activities to report to you! We had Ellie's school program and then the church singing for Ava...and then last week, had Jayna and Ava's school programs. All the music events this year have been BEAUTIFUL. Great work girls!!!

The above picture is a collage of Jayna's program; it was the kindergarten and 1st grade classes. They sang many songs and many of the children had individual speaking roles. Jayna found it entertaining to memorize everyone's lines and speak them to us as fast as she could! Whoa!

To catch a few snippets of the program, click on the following titles:
Come On Ring Those Bells
Bethelem Lullabye
Jayna's verse
Joyful, Joyful (and what joy the children sang with!)
Angles are Rejoicing (my favorite...and it remains the song that describes Jayna and her singing!)
My Heart, Your Home

2 days after Jayna's program, we attended the preschool Christmas program. It was darling, seeing these little children dressed up and singing to Jesus. In October, the class had "Bible Dress Up Day" and for Ava (being child #3 to attend NHP), I had decided she'd be what the other girls had been--a frog or butterfly. The day before the event, she came home saying "Mom, GUESS WHAT?! We get to dress up and *I* want to be an angel!" Oh dear....there just was not time to get an angel costume, it was 2 weeks before we moved--our house was in shambles, so creating one was not really an option. She settled on butterfly....and lamented over the desire to be an angel! SO.....when she found out that she got to be an ANGEL for the Christmas program, she was on the top of the world! You can see Little Ava Angel in the picture above and in a few songs that the preschoolers sang. To view them, click on the titles:
In A Little Stable
Oh What A Night
Rock The Baby
Above are the Glynn children after Ava's program. We've not had the best luck getting Colin to cooperate in a busy setting, so we didn't even try this time (picture on left). Wouldn't you know, he was chomping at the bit to be included...hence picture #2 (on right!).

The preschoolers had a gift exchange and Ava was delighted to receive a princess coloring tub toy. The top right picture is Ava with her friend Lily--they enjoy playing with each other everyday at school and come to find out, Lily is 1 of 4 children as well! The bottom right photo is Ava and Colin (trapped in his stroller!). Colin was holding his beloved bracelette and had crumbled a sugar cookie into his cup holder..... ;)

The next day, we traveled to Illinois where we celebrated our 1st Christmas of the year with Andy's family. We made it a (long) day trip...and got home just before midnight...with 4 children who were WIDE awake!!

ALL of Jim & Margie's children were there, the only missing person was son in law Matt who couldn't get away from work. It was so nice to see Molly and the kids, who we rarely see. Of course, it was a day full of photo opportunities, which did prove to be challenging at times....

The above pictures are the Glynn children and grandchildren photos we captured. There WAS 1 entire group photo captured just prior to us leaving for the night....but we didn't dare try that one with everyone's cameras. The picture above is full of happy, serious, and silly pictures. It was fun to be the photographer on most of these and hear Andy and his siblings create their crazy poses. I also had to play the role of "Fairy Godmother" with a sparkly wand chanting "Bibbity Bobbity Boo!" while waving it over Andy's head JUST to try to get all of the cousins to LOOK at Andy and perhaps SMILE together. What a memory.

We also got to enjoy Uncle Ben, home from college. As usual, he and Uncle Jimmy dueled for Colin time....

The children played the wii and we really got a kick out of Ellie's dramatic playing with the wii wheel and boxing with cousin Abby. To see the boxing, click HERE. We also had a creative "Happy Birthday Jesus Cake"--it was a layered meatloaf! All of the children (minuse Colin) had a turn blowing out the candle--to view this, click HERE. Again, not to be left out, Colin had some candle exposure himself. He got quite the kick out of blowing out the dining table's candle: to view this click HERE.

Baby Wesley was as precious as can be--and Colin really got agitated when I held Wesley right next to him. He was very perplexed and disturbed.

Colin LOVED the Whipple boys and it was cute to see him interact with them. He especially got into chasing Parker around and playing with Sammy and his Webkinz parrot.

And speaking of Colin....it will probably go down as the "Christmas of Colin and his beads". We did not take the girls' (Colin's?!) beads with us...but sure enough, he found some at Grandma's house! He took FOREVER to warm up to the relatives this time...but as you can see, in the lower right picture just above, Colin eventually did warm up and even shared a string of purple beads with Uncle Ben.

There were gifts, and for once, Andy did not get photos of each child opening everything! :) He did capture the cool tye dye swimming shirt Ellie received and the knitting machine that Jayna received. Stay tuned though....the absent photo here is of Ellie and Jayna getting guitars. Surely there will be documentation of this in the future! :)

Merry Christmas week! As we were getting ready to eat our feast, we all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and Andy's Mom commented that we would all be so sad if people forgot to celebrate OUR birthdays. Let us never forget the reason we are celebrating this week!