Deer Hunting

Apparently D has an allergy to deer hair...

One dose of Benedryl later, he was all better!

A little theology

We were talking about Jesus's death and resurrection today.

"We should have 3 lions to get rid of the bad guys who killed Jesus."

Lest I thought he was a brilliant theologian, later: "We should send superman to get rid of the 3 lions."

Score!

We went to the Y this morning to burn off some energy with Jena and her littles.

We were playing kick-ball (as much as you can with 6 kids 4 and under). Dominic scored after rounding the bases.

"Mom, I made an arrow."

"Good job. But it's called a point" :)

More anatomy

Jackson: What's this? (pointing to the inside of his arm)
Me: Your forearm
Jackson: And this is my two-arm! (pointing to the outside of his arm)

Overheard

Jackson: (waving to Jake and Jena out the front window) "Bye, bye, bye! Love you!"

Dominic: "They can't hear you. It's too dark out."

___________________________________________________________________________

Me to Dominic: "Give me a minute, I'm not feeling very well right now"

Dominic: "Hugs can help!"

Happy Day, One year old!

Sweet, sweet baby Leo! We love you so much! You are such a happy little boy. Since the day you were born, you've been laid back and lovey. You are crawling all over, getting into everything and following your brothers around the house. And you are such a Daddy's boy. As soon as daddy walks through the door, you bouce up and down and your little face lights up. But you do have quite an attachment to mom as well. Often, when I get a sitter for you, I'll have to leave you crying "Moooom!"

Every night there's wrestling with Daddy time and you never get tired of it. You can outlast all your older brothers crawling all over your dad and giggling while he tickles you! You can wave and say bye-bye, da da and ma ma and you will mimic all the silly sounds your brothers make.

You've recently become enamored by cell phones. What baby doesn't love cell phones? But we love watching you put the phone up to your ear and babble away. And you love cars. We find you pushing little objects around while buzzing your lips--remotes, small books, coasters and cars, of course! :)

We have so enjoyed watching you grow up this past year. We love you!

Baby laughing...enough said

Happy Halloween 2011

Well, Luke and I were left feeling like we just finished a marathon, but we trick-or-treated with all four littles tonight.

D was St. Wenceslaus, Jackson was St. George and Patrick was a dragon.

 Leo was a horse. And this kid looked seriously cute when he was crawling around and his little horsey tail was following him. He was SO excited all night--all smiles, bouncing up and down in the wagon as we went from house to house.

After the chaos of getting four little people fed and in costumes, we went around the block and hit about 10 houses. Jackson was a little confused, though, thinking that Halloween is just a parade where you wear costumes. He asked us when people were going to throw candy!

Patrick has been wearing this costume almost every day since I bought it about a month ago. He IS the dragon.



Dominic got to wear his costume to school this morning and went to a nursing home in town. We have candy to last us until the parade next summer...

And this is probably the last picture I got of the Knight Costume in its entirety--it was pretty much in pieces within a few blocks.



I tell ya, this Jackson is going to be a heart breaker...

Our last stop via foot was at our neighbors across the street. Jill is pretty much a live in nanny. The kids love her and she loves the kids. Makes running to the store for milk in the middle of the afternoon a feasible idea now! We love having her and her family as neighbors!

Mom and dad didn't wear costumes, although D thought Luke should be a shark...we thought that he could just put on his suit and tie and head to work... Get it?

Happy All Hallows Eve and a Happy All Saints Day!

Roca Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we went to Lincoln to visit our dear friends, the Guenthers. We had SUCH a fun time, we've decided to move in with them (is that OK, Katie?? :))

So...our big Saturday excursion was to the Roca Berry Farm Pumpkin Patch. Our two goals for the day were to have an awesome time and to get a good family picture because I am so cheap that I really don't want to pay someone to take one for us...and I want a good Christmas Card. Well, the kids did awesome and we DID have an awesome time. I'll let you be the judge on goal number two.

First stop, the corn bus.

This kid (Jack-attack) loves sandboxes and the corn box was equally awesome to him. And he just takes really adorable pictures, as you can see.

Next up, this crazy big bouncy thing. Jackson, Dominic and Grady loved the bounce thing and Katie and I had a pretty good time on it as well.

Patrick didn't love the bouncy thing, so he just sat by the fence and looked cute.

That was followed by a quick ride on the train.

And here's the first of my many attempts to get a good picture. As usual, Dominic is being a silly four year old...

 Another attempt.

A small break from the photo session to go down the super awesome, huge slide. Every time Patrick went down (probably 5 or more time) Patrick yelled the whole time down so his voice would vibrate.

Ok...we're starting to get a little crabby here.

But would a little crabbiness interfere with my photo taking? I think not.

Then off to the hayrack ride. And....another great thing about the day is that we had a surprise visit from Uncle Jake and Gina at the pumpkin farm.

We stopped to pick out pumpkins in the middle of the ride.

Then off to the trike thingees. They were way to big for the littles, so Jake took them on rides. Again and again and again. He was feeling pretty tired after a bit.

At this point I was withholding lunch to get a good picture. The three older boys got the threat and took a pretty good one. Unfortunatly, Leo doesn't understand cause and effect yet.

At any rate, it was a super great day, although after this shot, I broke my camera, so my blogging days might be numbered until I can get a new one. Looks like i know what I'll be asking for for Christmas.

Thanks a bunch Katie, Paul, Grady and Brynlee. You guys rock.

Man, I love these kids

Things I love about this picture:

Two boys in super hero capes. Some nights, the boys sleep with them on. This is, in fact, one of those nights for Patrick.

Leo can stand with the older boys!

Patrick is holding his penguin, which he calls an "owl" that he got in the free box at the thrift store that afternoon.

They were content to just sit and look at the indoor pool for about 20 minutes while I did paperwork to get my Y membership.

These kids are just too awesome. Sometimes I can hardly handle it.

To my twinnies

Man, you kiddos have gotten to be so fun! Patrick, you are such a silly, silly boy. You really aren't too interested in what every one else is doing. You are perfectly happy to sit and play puzzle by yourself. And you are CRAZY good at puzzles....like, scary good. You will sit with your 25 piece puzzle for a few minutes and come to me with a finished product. It is really impressive for a 2 and a half year old. And you really enjoy books, too. I love finding you reading your color book to yourself. You are very obedient. Not that you never get in trouble, but when you do, you go straight to time-out as told. You love riding your trike and playing outside. Generally, you are just easy to be around and easy to love!

Jackson, you have quite the little personality. You like things your own way! You are so in love with your superman cape right now. We hardly leave the house without it! You are pretty good at hitting a ball already and surprised us with your self-taught somersault skills. You still love balls--just like you have for the last 2 years of your life. Dad and I think you might be our athlete. You clearly look up to big brother Dominic. Sometimes you are his little echo. And you love to make Leo laugh, too! We are so glad God gave you to us!

First Day of School for the Big D

A little photo session for the D man...

This kid pretty much has two moods right now: silly and very, very silly.

And don't mind the fact that the super great idea of a sign has the wrong date on it....

And, of course the little brothers wanted in on the action.

Both being in and taking pictures.

And here is Dominic's teacher, Ms. Barb. Dominic LOVES school. The first thing out of his mouth when I picked him up after his first day was "Mom, I had SO much fun!" He has new songs for me every single day. There are only 4 littles in his class--all boys and he is going to school three mornings a week. He's impressed his teachers with his ability to print his name all by himself. 

You are such a big kid now, D!

Doin' the Pool

Holdrege has a pretty nice little pool and we spent quite a bit of time there. It's fun to see how the kiddos grow from the beginning of the summer to the end!

All three older boys were pretty timid at the beginning of the summer, but they really started growing some fins by August. Dominic especially loved jumping in and going under. The other two were also jumping off the side. Actually, it was much easier when they were all scared of the water.

And Patrick cannot NOT dance! He just has to if he hears music. There was lots of music at the pool!

A wedding for a great couple :)

Sr. Mary Guadalupe professed her final vows recently. It was a beautiful Mass and gather afterwards. I was so honored to cantor at the Mass. Sr. and I entered the convent at the same time 9 years ago. It was fun to look back on our lives and see how God has shaped our stories. Our lives are very different now, but God had (has) amazing plans for both of us!

 Congrats, Sister!!

We're Goin' to the Zoo

It would have been pretty tough to fit in a real family vacay with all the house stuff going on this summer, so we did a mini trip to the Zoo in Omaha. Good stuff.

Leo was in his stroller the whole day, lovin' life and being awesome, as usual.

 Every single person in the Mach family was there. I don't even remember the last time we were all together. It was awesome!

Jack-attack with his Godfather.

I loved this picture!

The kids loved the mist-ers!

 Penguins were, of course, a favorite.

Well, almost everyone looking at the camera :)