Guess How much... Edited....

Okay, so we all went out to eat tonight. Guess how much we spent at a sit down resturaunt, (not including tip)?????? Anyone, but Amy can guess! I already told her. And no, my kids did not have the normal hot dog meal that's free. They each had real kid's meals.

Okay, come one Betsy...$5..... that would be totally insane! But we did only spend $10.67...for all SIX (seven if you count little Makenna ust sitting in her seat) of us to eat last night!!! I love Toot's. Kids always get a free hot dog every night, but on Tuesdays they get real kids' meals. So we had 2 shrimp baskets, chicken fingers baskets, and a hamburger. Then Eric and I had a BOGO free coupon (Buy One Get One). Love Toot's!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gladiators and a cup of Joe

So when I was a kid, I loved watching American Gladiators. I thought it was such a fun show to watch them fight and compete on TV. Well, in case you didn't know, they brought it back, and while I definitely don't like it as much as I did as a kid....(I think the scantily dressed people didn't bother me as a child.), it is fun to watch. My favorite competition is still the Assault. Last night Kaleb and I watched the entire thing together. The other boys had deserted us to play Halo with their daddy.
Kaleb is a Momma's boy, so he stayed with me. He loved watching it too. He called all the men on the show monsters because well, frankly, they do have some scarylooking guys on there. While we were sitting there, I decided to make some coffee, and of course...I had to make a little cup for you know who. He loves coffee. It's very doctored up..creamer, sugar, and even some chocolate syrup last night; but he loves it. He was so proud that he didn't have to share when his brothers came up last after playing Halo.
Blake was pretty bummed to have missed the AG show. He was cheering on Jessica last during the Eliminator round. You should have seen him, cheering, "Go, Jessica! Come on, Jessica! Go!" (Imagine that, Blake Alma, cheering for a girl. His excuse for cheering for her was that she had the blue uniform on, so it made it okay.)

been Scrapbooking

I was feeling overwhelmed with how far behind I was with scrapbooking. (I know, I know...some people are much further behind than I am..) So I've decided to scrap my current photos....and then work backwards. I'm using some PINK now. Yay! I'll be thankful for my blog when I get to my older pictures, so I can remember what exactly went along with the pictures. Blogging is great for scrapbooking. While scrapbooking, I've been watching Gilmore Girls Season 1 because I can't scrapbook in silence. I love that show. I'm still sad that it's not on anymore. It's so witty and relaxing to watch. There's nothing quite as funny on TV.

7 months

So,she's getting bigger and cuter. She sits up, rolls over, and gets around a little. She's not loving food too much yet, and is learning to like the bottle well. She also has four teeth. Yay!! Pretty sure I already posted all of this stuff, but well, it's easy reading, right?




(Check out all the past months: June, July,and August, September, October, November,and December, .)

Makenna's 6 month pictures

went to Sears today and spent way too much money, but got some really cute pictures though. All the boys had a tub picture done at 6 months, so one of these days.....I'm gonna get around to posting all of them and having people figure out who's who..Here's my favorite though....

Expressions from Kaleb

Kaleb's got quite a little personality, and is trying to claim his place in this family. He makes me laugh everyday with his expressions.
"Leave me alone!" - learned from his brothers
"I don't like you anymore!" - learned from....probably his brothers
I love you.......a lot" - learned from mommy
"I love you.... a little" - learened also from Mommy
"told you so!" - learned from himself

pajama day

Is is bad to have pajama days more than once a week??? If it wasn't for the boys' basketball practice, we would definitely more than that. Gotta love them....especially because well...I don't have to do laundry as much. Check out some pics from our fun day.

Look who's ROLLING....

...all over the place!

A smalll miracle ...

occurred today.....Eric changed Makenna's diaper! Shocker of all shocks!!!!
edited....Eric has changed Makenna's diapers before, but I could seriously count the times probably on one hand...he says it just freaks him out....)

Santa pics...

a tad bit late. I took these today. I've taken Santa hat pictures of all the kids their first year. However, I was a little bummed because I couldn't find the fuzzy Santa hat. It's so much more fun. And, yes, I realize I'm late, but not as late as I was with Kaleb. He was born in November, and then I took his pictures the next summer, kinda like a Christmas in July thing.

Here's a few of Makenna and one pic of Kaleb from back then. Can you tell who's who????

Happy and Sad.....

...all at the same time. It's time for Makenna to start on the bottle...She's getting teeth, and well....I think you get my drift. Anyway, I gave her a bottle today. At first she enjoyed chewing it and holding it HERSELF. Then after about 5 minutes....this is all that was left! What in the world? She was supposed to fight it a lot more than this. It was supposed to be a struggle for her to take the bottle. But on the other hand, at least I don't have to deal with the struggle of her not wanting the bottle. Hopefully, it'll be smooth sailing.

Teeth

As previously stated, our little girl is getting some teeth. She actually has four coming in, but the bottoms are actually showing best.

Basketball Season

Games have started. Blake hates B-ball still, but Luke is LOVING it.

Sitting up

Look at that girl sitting up so nice and straight. She does quite well with sitting up. And she's rolling over too. Pretty soon, she'll be crawling all over the place.

Jakeb's words

Earlier this week, Jakeb had an earache and a buttache...yes, I said buttache. He told me his butt hurt.....Well, I gave him Motrin for his ear/butt problem. Less than an hour later, he felt much better. The next morning I asked him how he felt, and he told me that now his leg hurt. He then proceeded to tell me, " I think Jesus put me together the wrong way."

All's well in Alma World

Everything is great here in Alma Land. Just a little behind in blogging. Be prepared for the longest blog ever. I was gonna do lots of different post but then decided to do one monster one! We had a wonderful Christmas here in Ohio, and a great Christmas in Michigan with Eric's family. Believe it or nodt, I didn't take a lot of pictures. Seriously, I might have 20 from the whole Christmas time. Oh wait, I did take some pictures of all the cousins together, but that is about it.
On the Saturday before Christmas, the kids opened presents from our friends, Kent and Richi. Blake and Luke spent hours that day looking in the backyard for money with their new metal detector. And Jakeb spent all day playing with his Power Ranger Transformer. What's really funny...is that days later....he still kept coming back to it and playing with it.

We opened Niki's presents on Christmas Eve. I GOT A VERA BRADLEY bag!!!!!! I LOVE IT! They had three gifts each from her which seems like a lot and it is, but Amazon.com was having a huge sale and she got the stuff for like 50% to 75% off. It was totally AWESOME! The kids thought that was Christmas all in itself. I videoed the whole thing, but it's too long to post. Later on Christmas Eve night we read the Christmas story and opened one more present. I surprised Eric with a watch that he wanted. You should have seen his face! He was so not expecting it.

Christmas morning the kids woke up at about 7:00-7:30....seriously not early enough......and we opened lots and lots of presents. I have before and after pictures. Eric took the boys shopping one day for me, and I finally got to open their presents. They did such a great job picking stuff out for me. Blake got me plates because "he kept breaking the other ones." Luke got me some sticker for scrapbooking. Fun..fun.. Jakeb bought me a coffee mug; and Kaleb bought me a bag.....(that's what he told me a couple days before Christmas) ....a bag of COFFEE!!! Yum!!!! I think the boys all loved their presents too. They pretty much got what they wanted. Did I tell everyone that I decided to play a mean trick on them??? I kept telling them that I was going to buy them one girl present each. And I did.....However, I bought Makenna some boys presents, so obviously....Santa just got a little confused. Poor Blake was so upset at first that he was about to stomp on the My little ponies!!! (I know...I'm so mean!) Besides the girl toys, they loved all of their toys, but too bad they only had a day to enjoy presents before we left for Michigan. Oh yeah, it was so funny. Eric had opened all of his presents. He received an xbox bag to put his xbox stuff in. Poor guy didn't realize that inside the bag was a GAME that he had been wanting. I got a great deal on it..(thanks again, amazon.com). Anyways, you have to realize that he opened it in the morning. Later he was telling me how this guy he knew was playing Call of Duty 4 online. (Did I mention that he was sorta expecting the gift...so that when he didn't get it....well....there was slight disappointment.) I asked him throughout the day if he wanted to check out his stuff, but he still didn't catch on. That evening as I was cleaning up. I asked him one more time........if he wanted to take his stuff downstairs or look at it all again. He responded..."Should I check it out again?" I simply smiled. But seriously, you should have seen the guy jump out of his seat when he realized that there MUST be something else in his bag! He was like a kid opening his most beloved gift! Okay, he was actually completely dazed at first because he couldn't believe I had tricked him. I just figured if he didn't find it today, he would have found it eventually, right???

On Wednesday, we had a great trip to Michigan, and arrived about 7:00 that evening. The kids were thrilled to see their Grandma Alma and T-Rex and vice versa. Thursday morning, we had another Christmas and the boys got spoiled again. (as did Eric and I....he got an office chair...I got all the seasons on I Love Lucy on DVD....seriously, a dream come true) The boys spend the next couple of days playing with their toys and their Aunt Jen's Gameboys. Eric's parents had their 39th wedding anniversary while we were there, so we took them out to Applebee's. And on Saturday, we had Christmas again with Eric's grandparents. By the time we got home we were Christmased out! Actually, we were just gifted out. I don't think you could ever be to Christmased out. We arrived home late on Saturday night, and made it to church bright and early the next morning. George came over and surprised the kids with gift card to Walmart. They were so excited about those. We had a special service on Sunday night for the New Year's which was very enjoyable! And...I found out that another one of my friends is pregnant. Congrats, Jenny! Yay!
New Year's Eve......Some friends and I went to Toot's and then to lunch and then off to Walmart to spend the gift cards. Blake and Jakeb went in together and got some Star Wars guys. Luke got some more animals for his Imaginext jungle collections, and Kaleb got a new train for the Geotrax. Makenna decided that she wanted to buy a new diaper bag (with a little coaxing from Mommy). It's pretty cute, huh? I also got her a new car seat too. I think Eric put his new office chair together....it was sooo desperately needed. Look at his old chair..... and then his new one!!! Seriously, it's been broken for years. I'm so NOT kidding. It's just been getting worse and worse. It's been like this for about 6 months. And yet, he still sat in it playing his beloved X-box!
That night Eric had to break out a stash of fireworks which only 2 of the 5 kids saw because the others were tuckered out! Midnight is pretty late for little guys! His show was a hit. It made me slightly excited for the 4th of July again...(shhh...don't tell him I said that!) And New Years Day??? Well, we just lounged around the house. Okay, not the whole day because we did take down the Christmas tree so that Eric could put the train together with all the extra pieces. Even he was overwhelmed by the quantity that he bought for Christmas. I swear that he likes the train more than the boys do.!) And that catches everyone up to the Alma life. Nothing too exciting. The boys started school today, and I'm catching up on laundry! Fun, Fun!

Happy New Year everyone!