Happy Birthday Grampy!

Happy Birthday Grampy! We hope you have a great day! We look forward to celebrating with you this weekend.
Here are all of Dad's kiddos home for the weekend to celebrate his birthday! We Love You!

Raiding Mom's Camera Again

Last weekend we went home for Sarah's baby shower. I forgot to really take very many pictures so I raided Mom's camera again. HK stayed a few extra days with Mom and Dad. Nolan and I have had a quiet few days with lots of errand running and cleaning. We are going back to celebrate Dad's birthday tomorrow and bring HK back with us.

There is a princess collapsable castle at Mom and Dad's. Mom wanted HK to pose in her 3 princess dresses next to the princess on the castle. So here is Cinderella.

Snow White.. if you notice Snow White in the background....even getting some of the same hand gestures down.


Sleeping Beauty...notice Jack inside the castle...probably thinking...okay, enough of this nonsense...we get that she is a princess already...let's play.


Nolan sportn his new lion towel that Nana and Grampy bought for their house.

Of course, the cap...makes him look like such a little man! Such a serious face.

Nolan and Greatie snugglin' close at Sarah's baby shower. They match in their light blues!

Jack was told not to wake up HK who was upstairs asleep in her bed. So he got a pillow and his blanket and just waited at the bottom of the stairs for her to wake up. When she did, she gave her famous lines..."I waked up, I get up!" She yells that over and over until someone comes and gets her. She even does that at home in the mornings in her big girl bed...she hollers that until someone tells her she can get up.

For those of you that think all my daughter likes is princess stuff...guess again. I like to think she is well rounded...her favorite just happens to be princess. This is her newly acquired tool box. On Monday she and Jack fought over his Handy Manny hammer and pliers. Mom had to set the timer for 5 mintues and then they could trade, etc. So Mom took HK to the Dollar Store to look for some tools and they came home with this tool box. Grampy is showing her how to use the tools.

She dressed herself...yes, we are very in to dress-up clothes right now!

HK & Jack playing together with my Fisher Price house set from many years ago!

Princess Snow White and her horse. Jack decided he did not want to be the prince as Hallie Kate was suggesting. He was the horse...and so off they road. These two are a hoot when they are together.

Celebrating Cousin Harvey

H is for Harvey. Harvey Logan Clore is expected sometime in May...if Mommy has her way, the earlier the better. This past weekend we had a family shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Harvey. John and Sarah came up from Nashville before she was no longer allowed to travel. Saturday morning it snowed, but everyone still came on out for the celebration.

These are the cookies that everyone ate way too many of Saturday!

Mommy-to-be posing for the paparazzi by the spread of food.

Sarah and Harvey's Grandma (John's Mom)

We rolled HK's hair in sponge rollers the night before. It looked like mine use to. I liked it better once the curls started to loosen up a little later in the day. HK thought she was hot stuff with her fancy curls. She was quite the assistant at the shower. None of the other kids showed up for the shower...so I was left with a 2 yr old that wanted to be the center of attention. So to keep her from performing loudly and obnoxiously I recruited her as my assistant. She helped me pass things out and do other small jobs. Then she was the ultimate assistant during gift opening...or maybe Sarah was her assistant? Looking back I probably should have not allowed her to help quite so much. I was having trouble writing down the gifts and keeping her under control. I finally got Mom to come and write down gifts so I could get down in the floor and try to tame the wild gift opener. She even pointed out to everyone when there was a duplicate gift...thanks HK...we were trying to let that one slide.

All in all, it was a wonderful celebration of our soon-to-be Cousin Harvey. We hope all goes well until May and we can't wait to meet this little guy! Hopefully he and Nolan will have many chances to play together in the upcoming years, and I'm sure HK will find her rightful place as their boss and ring leader.

My Multitasker

HK always loves to run the vacuum with me. She runs and gets hers out to use alongside of me. This day was not much different except that she came out with her phone up to her ear and talking. That's my girl...already multitasking. Although we are going to need to have a talk...probably not the best two tasks to try and do together. The person on the other end of the line might not appreciate it...this day I believe it was Jack.

Mama Said...

As a kid I can remember my parents always listening to the oldies radio station. I recall a song playing that had these words in it..."Mama said, there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this my Mama said." Ring a bell to any of you music lovers? I can't tell you who sang it or even any more of the words, but those lines have been singing in my head over and over all week..."Mama said there'd be weeks like this, there'd be weeks like this my Mama said."

Yes, this has been one of those weeks where you are clinging tightly to your sanity! We had a wonderful weekend in Indy and a pretty good week prior to our trip...well, in comparison to the previous weeks. However, Sunday evening as we rolled the vehicle into its parking spot we regressed...majorly. If we could enter a contest for the biggest, loudest toddler fit thrower...well, let's just say we would be rich. And so the fits began again, full blast. Monday they were so bad that as we sat in Dr Blanke's parking lot talking to Nate on the phone I was literally crying. I'm not sure what to do anymore. In order to create some one on one time and positive atmosphere between HK and myself we had girls night out Tuesday evening. It went well until it was time to leave the play place in the mall. Then we walked all down the mall with HK throwing a doozy and actually dropping to the floor 3 times. I'm surprised the security guard did not stop us...you would've thought she was being abducted.

So now it's Wednesday morning...just starting hump day. I debated whether or not to go to library or just stay home and actually get some stuff done. I decided to go despite Nolan's poopy diaper blow out as we were getting ready to walk out the door. I bought a new package of white onesies 3-6 months...within 2 days he has literally created huge yellow stains from blow-outs on 3 of them. Only 2 more to go and he will have initiated the whole package. I get him changed and cleaned off and we are ready to go. HK is wearing her new dress she picked out at the mall last night. We are walking down our stairs to head out the door...Mommy with Nolan in front, HK right behind. She is carrying a sack with her library books. It's too heavy for her. So after setting Nolan's seat down at the bottom of the stairs I go and get the books from her as she continues to go downstairs. I get to the bottom and turn around just in time to see her going head first down the last 5 stairs. Her face smashed into the tiles at the bottom of the stairs and she started screaming. My heart started pounding as I reached to pick her up. When I did, my heart lept up into my throat pounding even harder. There was blood pouring out like I had never seen. Yes, I actually panicked. I'm standing at the bottom of the stairs to our apartment with the door open. Do I go back up? What do I do with Nolan? I can't carry them both. The blood is pouring everywhere. Stop the blood...stop the blood. Okay I'm starting to think. What do I stop it with??? I take off my pink Colombia fleece since it already has blood on it and hold it up to her nose. What do I do now??? I fumble for my phone...Nate doesn't answer. So I page him. Our code for Mommy in distress is that I leave 911 on his pager. I'm pretty sure her nose is broken and the blood won't stop. What do I do while I wait. Oh yeah...Nate's across the street at the hospital today...so we'll just drive over there...we are already outside. So how do I load Nolan in the car when she won't let go of me and is screaming. HK goes in first, then Nolan and I drive like a mad woman to the hospital. Nate calls and I tell him to meet us at the ER entrance. She's crying for her Daddy...yes, he is the one she wants when she is seriously hurt.

To wrap it all up, Nate came back home with us. We cleaned everyone up... my hands were covered in blood. We studied her nose forever trying to decide if it was crooked...it wasn't obvious if it was. It was puffy. We called Dr Blanke and he agreed with what Nate had told me. We gave her IB profen and she was okay. She has a crusty bloody nose that's oozing with her runny, snotty nose she already had, a puffy nose, and a puffy lip with a cut on the inside. She is now napping peacefully. Hopefully she won't have black eyes tomorrow, and hopefully as the swelling goes down her nose will look just fine.


Daddy checking out the inside of her mouth making sure her teeth were all accounted for and not loose. Thank the Lord no teeth loss, but just a cut.

The tips of her hair looked like they had been dipped in red coloring because of the blood. Amazingly enough the blood did come out of her dress, my shirt, and both of our coats. I was pretty sure I was going to have to toss mine, but it looks better than before!

Needless to say we didn't make it to library today. Hopefully now I can get the laundry done and this place cleaned up so it doesn't look like a tornado buzzed through!

Thank you Daddy for coming home and helping us survive this bloody mess!

"Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this my Mama said. Mama said, Mama said."

Valentine's in Indy

We spent Valentine's weekend in Indianapolis at mybrother's house.
We would've done nothing but sit at home on Saturday evening anyway...since we don't really have a babysitter here. So we all decided to head north.
Nana, Grampy, and Greatie also went. We had a fun weekend.

Nolan hangin' out with Greatie. This picture might possibly show some potential for the "oldham nostrils".

HK's Valentine gift from Nana and Grampy was a Snow White dress. She was obviously just a little excited. She immediately wanted to wear it and did so for a big part of the weekend.

She was walking around Uncle Kent's house looking for flowers...none to be found in that place. So Greatie made her a white rose with a kleenex. She then laid herself out on the couch so her prince could wake her with a kiss.

Princess Snow White


We had the grand idea to go to Chuck E Cheese since everyone would be going out to eat at nicer restaurants for Valentine's Day. Wrong! The place was packed. We couldn't find a table. I had to talk to the manager. He said we could sit at a "reserved" table. HK had fun, but the place was so crowded and hot...we didn't stay long. We went back to Uncle Kent's to watch Madagascar 2 and have popcorn.

Nolan's new cap! What a little man! He is definitely my little sweetheart! As I told my father-in-law...hats are just a boys version of hairbows!

Mommy & Nolan waiting for the pizza at Chuck E Cheese.


Grampy trying to get HK to wear her apron to help UK fix lunch.

There we go...now that's much better!


Every once in awhile HK will have a baby moment where she wants you to hold her like a baby. This would be one of those times! ....And of course she wanted UK to hold her like a baby. The joy of being at UK's house....HK wants him to do everything for her...bath, potty...you name it. It's a nice break for Mom and Dad!!! It was nice to share the weekend with family, but we missed you Ang! Happy Valentine's Day!

First Playdate

Brooke, MeLeah, and I had our first official playdate. We each have two children. The oldest three are all within 6 months of one another...Hallie Kate-June, Kellen-August, Madison-November. Then we all 3 have baby boys...McKenzie-July, Nolan-December, Keagan-January. So we all have crazy two year olds adjusting to new brothers! What a fun mix that is! We decided to go to Brooke's this time since Keagan is the newest of the group. What a crazy morning, but it was worth it. We had potty accidents, falling out of chairs, sharing issues, crying, laughing, screaming, diaper blow-outs, yummy icing...you name it and it was probably a part of our morning. The older kids made Valentine boxes and exchanged cards, iced sugar cookies, and got the opportunity to share/take turns playing with toys! The younger boys just tried to stay safe from the older ones and catch a few zzzzs. At one point HK had McKenzie on the floor trying to put the glasses from Mr Potatoe Head on him and also had the tweezers & scissors from the doctor kit trying them out on him as well. As we were cleaning up to head home, I think we may have even had all 6 kids crying at once. Yet I would do it all again in a heartbeat because it was overall good for everyone...although it may not have appeared that way to an outsider looking in.
HK & Madison both riding Winston the horse while Kellen is trying to put his tractor on it. Yes, it seemed we all wanted the same toy at the exact same time!

For example, the purple ball was a hot commodity. So MeLeah gave a lesson in Sharing 101. We can all play with it together.

We decorated sugar cookies....or should I say ate M&Ms and sprinkles!

They actually did a pretty good job on their Valentine boxes...paid more attention to them than I had anticipated.

Hallie Kate's box
Kellen's box
Madison's box

As crazy as it was, I think we're all up for it again! However we forgot to plan our next one before we left for the day.

As we got into the car I left with 2 screaming children...1 because she didn't want to leave and 1 because he was tired. I just rolled down the window and let the lovely warm air rush into the car. Halfway home I realized I forgot my purse as I was doing my mental checklist...put it all in the bag, but forgot the bag. Oh well...everyone had good naps today...including Mommy!!

Wild Weekend

Nana & Grampy saved me last Friday when they came over to keep HK while I went to the doctor for Nolan and myself. She ended up going home with them so she could go to Ryan's birthday party. His party was a roller skating party. This is another first for HK. I wish I could've been there to see it. Dad kept sending me videos on my phone. It was great. There was a little kiddie area where she started. You can see her below as she started out in that area.

HK: "Woooowwww Grampy. Don't let go. How do I make this work?"

HK: "Alright...steady...I think I've got it. Let me go Grampy. I can do this."HK: "Don't even think about getting close to me. I don't need your help. I can do this myself."

HK: "Grampy let's go out on the big floor. Please give me your hand. I need you."
HK: "This is easy. Hi Ryan, I can do whatever you do! I may be younger and I may be a girl, but it doesn't matter. Let's go!"

Post party shopping...this is what happens when you miss your nap and go rollerskating. You fall asleep in the shopping cart at Wal-mart.

Later that night Hallie Kate let Mom put sponge rollers in her hair. She even slept in them all night without pulling them out.
Cheese!
Beautiful curls on the princess.

Nolan: "Don't even think about sneaking up beside me you crazy girl. Just stay back! I'm chillin' with Greatie and you're not going to interrupt!"

Four Generations

I downloaded the pictures from Nana's camera this weekend. I found a few that I liked and wanted to share.
Four Generations...Greatie, Nana, Mommy, & Nolan

Dad even got in on a little snow action with HK.
I love his little bear suit...it's almost too little. I love the sweet smile even more!
Big Sister & Little Brother pose for Nana.
Dad & HK grabbin a power nap on his lunch hour.
I love this snowman outfit!

Thanks Nana for sharing your pictures!