I thought you had him!

The Mark house has been a revolving door lately.  Emilie's birthday party was on a Saturday, then Halloween on Thursday, but wait, the city canceled it because of rain and wind, so Friday, we had Amanda and Nick's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and then we had to split to transform in to princesses and puppy dogs and get our trick-or-treating on.  

Here we are on the REAL Halloween night, all dressed up, nowhere to go.

Earlier that week we carved our pumpkin.  We were blessed to have Granny and Gaga come to town for Emilie's birthday so they stayed to hang out all week and witness the chaos first hand.

On Monday, I took Emilie and Kyle to the doctor for their ears and I left Aubrie at home with Granny and Gaga.  Granny and Aubrie spent the day playing games and visiting.  Aubrie soaked up all the attention she got from Granny.  I'm thankful for the time they get to spend with our kids and I love all the little games and songs that Granny teaches them.  Then, on Wednesday, while Aubrie was at school, Emilie got to have some alone time with Granny and Kyle got to play with Gaga.

Goofing off with Gaga

Granny had the girls cut out pictures of toys from a flyer

Playing with Granny

Belmont had their Meet The Bruins Night while they were in town and so we took Granny and Gaga to the gym to watch the teams scrimmage.  It was their first time back since Adam has played, so I took them down by the locker rooms so they could see Adam's pictures on the walls.  I remember Adam taking the girls back there and they looked at him and said "Daddy?  YOU played basketball????"  So now that they've gotten close to Uncle Steve, they did the same thing when they saw his picture on the wall.  Aubrie said, "Wait.  Uncle Steve played basketball, too???!!!"  I think it is funny how shocked kids are when they find out their mom or dad do something else other than being a mom or dad.  

When Granny and Gaga stay with us, they stay in our room and we sleep upstairs in Aubrie's room and use the kids' bathroom.  The girls were upstairs and they were supposed to be brushing their teeth and combing their hair.  But instead, they found my razor and were running it all over their faces, trying to be like daddy.  Aubrie ended up shaving off half her eyebrow and Emilie scratched her forehead.  

Not only did they do this just in time to be in Tia's wedding, but picture day was the next day at school.  Sigh.  The good news is that I thought it was hilarious.  Those kids...

So after Amanda's rehearsal dinner, which was delicious, we took off for Aunt Shel's house for some trick-or-treating.  Our friends, Mike and Marcie (kids: Teague, Trace, and Lily) were over there and we met up with them for some fun.  Aunt Shel is actually their aunt.  Marcie has an identical twin, Michelle, who just had a baby boy!  A lot happening in that family's life!

What a group!

My puppy.  I forgot to mention in the last post, but Marcie took those pictures of Emilie's birthday AND she took these pictures of the kids.  Quick confession:  Michelle and I were the last ones to walk out the door, as the others have already taken off trick or treating.  When we walked past the stairs, I heard a kid fuss.  So I stopped and looked back at Michelle's newborn but it wasn't him, so I kept walking towards the door but then I heard it again.  I realized it was Kyle, but where was it coming from???  Turns out he had climbed up the stairs when nobody was looking and was standing at the top and couldn't get down.  Third child syndrome...did anybody get Kyle?  Where's Kyle?  I thought you had him!

Belle

Cinderella

And now, finally, we are at Tia's wedding!  Tia and Nick had a beautiful wedding.  She was a stunning bride in a beautiful lace dress and I was fortunate to be her matron of honor.  Lana made the girls' dresses and Kyle's bow tie and suspenders.  Lana and Granny both made Amanda's veil which was very long (I talked her into it and it was perfect!)

Waiting for the show to start

Kyle, with dad and grandma, snacking to keep occupied before walking down the aisle.  The kids actually did really good.  They all walked nicely down the aisle and when Kyle got to the front, he turned around to head back up the isle so I had to catch him and hand him off.

Emilie moved to the top of the altar with me and stayed for a while, waved at her dad, and then casually made her way back to the pew to color.

Tia's colors were purple and orange and green.  We wore purple dresses and orange shoes.  Heather, fellow bridesmaid, said "Amanda, we love you so much that we are willing to wear orange shoes with a purple dress!"  We all gave her a hard time, but it all looked beautiful.

Emilie dancing with mom.

Sweet Aubrie

Adam's parents dancing

Adam took all these pictures on his phone, that is why the quality isn't the best.  We all had a good time and we are so happy to have Nick join the family!

So now I feel like we are all caught up.  And Adam and I feel like we've slowed down that revolving door and are enjoying time as a "peaceful" family of five.  Kyle is really walking fast now and he is into EVERYTHING.  He jerked a measuring cup of milk of the island and earned himself a morning bath a couple of weekends ago.  Last weekend he got his dad's cool cup of coffee off the counter and was splashing in it.  You can also catch him putting Petey's food into the water bowl and watching it float or if you leave the door open to the bathroom, he'll go splash around in toilet water.  That drives me bananas.

Emilie has learned about driving laws.  Or at least she thinks.  She likes to boss me while I drive.  If I pull out in front of another car, she'll scold me, "Don't cut in line, mom.  It's not nice!"  In the mornings, I can't help it.  Our neighborhood is off a busy street with morning commuters and so I've learned that if I ask her to pray first, she's distracted and won't scold my driving.  (We pray every morning when we are on our way to school)

Aubrie was in speech for the past couple of months.  She seemed to pick up some bad habits and had a lateral lisp from having constant congestion problems as a baby, before we had her adenoids taken out.  She LOVED going to speech because it was with a dear friend, one of my former volleyball girls' mom, Tracie Shelby.  She was awesome.  She had Aubrie fixed up in no time and there is a big difference in her speech.  This past Monday, she graduated from speech and we are so proud of her.  She would work so hard on her homework and she made a conscious effort to fix sounds all on her own.  She's one smart cookie.  

And that's it!  I still cook, yes it is true.  Hopefully I can share some more recipes soon.  Adam's working hard.  This is his busy season.  I hope you all are doing well.  Thank you to all who have given me kind words and have missed reading my blogs.  I know you don't read it for the recipes, or pictures, but more to make yourself feel better that your life isn't as crazy as ours.  Haha!  Just kidding.

Love to all! Pin It Now!