I haven't fallen off of the planet.....yet

Contrary to popular belief, we are alive! My life has been beyond crazy busy and blogging took the brunt of my slackerness. There is no way I can go back up and update since I lost blogged, so I will just give a quick summary. Mark made it home from Portugal and has started his job here. He really enjoys it and I love having a happy husband come home from work rather than the grumpy one who used to hate his job. It is fantastic! He officially graduated from Georgia Tech in December and now has his Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the 4th ranked Engineering school in the country! Not too shabby by my book (you can tell I am not proud of him at all!!!). We had a great Halloween and WAY too much candy as usual. We go to our trunk-or-treat as the bishop does need to be at the activities. Then we went through part of our neighborhood on Halloween just to be neighborly and meet new people, and then we also went to my in-laws and all the family around there. Like I said, too much junk!

Thanksgiving was a great holiday and always seems to be one of my favorites. Laura came down with her family from DC and we helped cook the feast we had at my in-laws house. We also went Black-Friday shopping at midnight at the outlets on Hilton Head. It was crazy, but fun for just the two of us to spend time together and get away from the kids for a bit.

My most amazing husband who detests chick-flicks, took me to see "New Moon" the night it opened. Friday, not the Thursday midnight junk--he does have his limits!!! Loved loved loved it so much more than "Twilight" and it followed the book so much more closely.

Christmas was fun and hectic and insanely busy! We had so much going on the months of November and December that there wasn't an open space on my calendar. Many nights we had 2-3 events going on at once. That got a bit tricky! We always have Mark's family over for our Christmas Eve dinner and it is so much fun. We ate on my China and had a big feast and sang Christmas Carols before everyone left. One of my most treasured Christmas traditions I think! The kids had a blast opening gifts Christmas morning and loved what santa brought them. It was a tough year for Santa, but the kids didn't seem to notice!

We also said goodbye to Zach as he headed to the MTC on December 30th. Not going too far though as he got called to the Provo, Utah Spanish Speaking Mission. So all you Utahns out there, keep an eye out for Elder Lowther and give him a big hug for me if you see him! We also got to watch Zach baptize his girlfriend Cassandra over Christmas break. It was a beautiful Baptism and the spirit was so strong! McKenna was brave enough to sing a duet with Zach and they did awesome! I was so proud of her for getting up in front of everyone. She is starting to come out of her shell a lot more!

We spent New Year's here at home with some friends of ours, Seth and Leigh Ann and their daughter Reilly. We put the kids to bed, except McKenna so she and Reilly could play, and we ate chocolate fondue with apples, bananas, oreos, pineapple, marshmallows and strawberries. We played Wii for a while and rung in the New Year then went to bed!

Everyone seems to be doing well around here. McKenna is really loving school this year so that is such a relief to me. Jacob loves Kindergarten and is flying right through the work they give him. He is not challenged at all, so I have been working on getting him up to 1st grade for part of the day. Kaitlyn couldn't be happier at Ms. Sheri's pre-school. Everytime I go to get her she says "ah mom, I don't want to go." Joseph stays home with me and is crazy as ever. He cracks me up and I love spending time with him. He is completely OBSESSED with Lightning McQueen. Obsessed I say! Janie and Harrison are getting so big. It's hard to believe they were these 4 pound little runts such a short time ago. They will be 10 months next week and are learning so much. They both army-crawl still and get up on all fours and just rock back and forth. They sit up now, but can't get into sitting position by themselves yet. Although, yesterday I found Harrison sitting in the middle of the floor and no one had put him there, so he has done it once! They obviously are still a bit behind in some things, but nothing to worry about as they were 2 months early. I haven't taken them for their 9 month doctor's appointment yet (I have been a month behind since Utah), but Harrison has to weigh a good 20 pounds, and Janie probably around 18. They're chunks!!!

I know that I have probably bored you, but I hope you enjoyed the pics!

Just pictures really......

Well I will try to be a woman of few words because I posted enough pictures to keep you occupied for a while. Everything has been going well for us this past month. My dad came into town to help me out while Mark is gone. We have had a blast having him here and he has been such a huge help! I will be so sad to see him go. This past week has been hectic because my three youngest have been sick and grumpy. Joseph, Janie and Harrison all have ear infections and Janie and Harrison have had some respiratory problems--maybe the beginnings of RSV. But I have seen a huge improvement these past couple of days so hopefully they are feeling better. We celebrated Jacob's 6th birthday on the 5th (with daddy joining us via google video chat). I love him so much--he is such a fantastic son and such a sweetie! I can not believe he is 6 already! I have also posted some pics of Kaitlyn's birthday from back in July while we were in Utah. I didn't want to leave her out. There are some pics of Jacob and McKenna playing soccer and also just some random ones of the past month. I will post again soon--too tired tonight to really form a coherent thought or type any more details. Hope I haven't bored you!

Just a few things.......

It's way too late tonight to try and sum up the happenings during my blogging hiatus, but here is a rundown of the last week or so. Mark made it home from Portugal for a 2 weeek visit. We sure were so happy to see him! He is finally done with his Master's degree and will officially graduate from Georgia Tech in December. Congrats babe--you're the best. I love you and am so proud of you!!! So the school work is done, and the 2 weeks he was home was vacation from his job, so we got to enjoy all that time with him, (minus the Bishop stuff he had to do). As a graduation gift from his parents, Mark was given his mom's piano! He absolutely loves to play and we have been piano-less ever since we left BYU. (That's a whole different story for a different day!) So needless to say, he is ecstatic to finally be able to have music in our home again. Thanks Mark and Susan for the fantastic, heart-felt gift!





But all good things must come to an end, and Portugal was calling. So Mark left yesterday for his final stint there and we sure were sad to see him go. But life is keeping us busy as always. We survived the first day of school today! 3 of my kids at school, 3 at home with me. I wasn't quite ready for summer vacation to come to such an abrupt end, but you just have to jump in head-first I guess. McKenna and Jacob will both be starting piano lessons next week, and soccer the week after that. I hope I can stay sane!



Joseph was thrilled today when I told him it was just going to be he and the babies at home. He yelled "yeah" at the top of his lungs! And we did have a lot of fun today! That sure does beat the few days before Mark got home when I spent the night in the hospital with him for dehydration.:(


(Joseph's eye was the first casualty of the piano bench)

And the babies have been getting HUGE! They have both tripled their birth weights and are doing great. At 5 months Janie weighed over 13 pounds and Harrison over 15. I can't remember the exact number at the moment, but one thing is for sure....you would never guess that they were preemies!



It's been a great few weeks and we have been so blessed as a family. Especially by those who have helped out while Mark is gone doing such simple things as mowing the grass and taking out the garbage, or just calling to check on us. Thanks!!!

Quick Trip To Madrid

I went to the Madrid Spain Temple last weekend and had a great time. My plane was two hours late but everything went well. I talked to some people in Spanish in the airport in Porto while we were waiting for the plane and they showed me how to get around the city and where to go. I ended up taking a taxi with them at 2:00-2:30 in the morning to a bus stop since the metro was not running when we got there to help save on costs. Then I waited on the bus for about 15-20 minutes and took it into the heart of the city. Then I walked two blocks until I found a hotel for the night. What was amazing was the number of people out at 3:30am. You could have told me it was 7:00-8:00 at night and I would have believed you. I should have taken a picture of it. Well, I finally got to bed at 4:30-5:00 am and slept until 11:00 that morning. Then I took a taxi to the temple and snapped some pictures on the way. Madrid has some awesome looking buildings and a lot of places I would like to go back and see. The temple was great and the Celestial Room was one of the most beautiful celestial rooms I have ever seen. I also talked to a few people inside the temple including the temple president and am looking forward to going back in a few months. Well, that's all for now. Mark