More pics from the last couple of days

Just trying to keep everyone updated with Byron's progress. He is doing very well and thriving.

Have a great day everyone!

Taking a nap.

It's rare to catch a gas smile on camera. I was so excited I'm sure I wiggled and thus the blurry pic.

Claire making funny faces at me.

Giving me a kiss.

Ms. Jenna looking at you.

SOCCER!!!!

Abigail & Jenna started soccer this past Wednesday and they had a BLAST!! They play on the Liberty United SC Red team. Their have their first game in a couple of weeks if anybody wants to come and cheer them on.

Abbi & Jenna gabbing with their teammate before practice.

Jenna practicing her dribbling. I was just pleased when she didn't pick up the ball.

Abbi sticking her tongue out. She's concentrating VERY hard.

Freeze tag while dribbling.

"Tick-tocks"

Their coach lined them all up to have a scrimmage, yellow vs. red. All the kids brought their own individual ball to practice. He made them all put their balls on the sideline for the scrimmage. Once he got them all ready to go and put the ball in between the two teams he told them, "Now your job is to get your ball into the goal at the other end of the field." He blew his whistle and all the kids turned took off to the sideline to get "their" balls. Not one of them touched the game ball. It was HILARIOUS!!

Post-practice picture in their jerseys with Claire bear.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Jamiee composed this post in October 2010 but never published it and I'm not sure why. So here it is!

We went to Carolyn's Pumpkin Patch in Liberty on Saturday and had a blast! They had so many things for the girls to do there. They played on swing sets, forts, had duck races, went through a corn maze or two, fed the animals and went on a hayride.


  

A few more of little Byron

You can come up with your own captions for these. Post them in the comments if you have something  funny/witty/creative to say.

More pics of Byron!

John Byron V

He made his entrance today at 12:45 p.m. CST here in Kansas City. Here are some of his first pictures.

First Bath

More to come later!

Kansas City update, finally!!

I know, I know...its been seriously FOREVER since we updated.  I have been meaning to but pictures take a very long time to upload on here and I only have small bits of time free to do anything on the computer. 

We moved in October and were here in KC for the holidays and I have to say we have been so blessed to be here and already have such great friends and also to live in such a kid-friendly area/neighborhood.  For Halloween we went to the trunk or treat at church and the girls had a ton of fun painting pumpkins, bobbing for doughnuts, and getting alot of candy.  On Halloween we went out in our neighborhood and met some new friends and got some more loot :)

Thanksgiving was a blast, we went to my sister Ashley's (3 hour drive) for the festivities and spent time with my niece and nephew as well as my aunt and uncle.  We ate so much I think I gained like 10 lbs just over that weekend alone.  While we were gone we received several calls from members of our ward offering to share their thanksgiving with us because we were new to the area and most of them did not know yet we had family close.  Such an awesome ward we have!  I can't tell you how many times I have been offered service since we have been here, awesome! After Thanksgiving Ashley and Bryan drove back to our place and stayed for Claire's birthday party which was toy story 3 themed and was a blast!  She got so many gifts and so many ppl showed up, our basement was filled with kids playing for a few hours. 

Side note: for those of you who do not know, my parents are going through a divorce so my mom moved here to Missouri to live closer to family, so she is alot closer now as well which is great for the grand kids.  She lives currently with my sister Ashley and her family. 

Before Christmas we all went on a road trip to Chicago to my older sister Tracy's house for 4 days.  We ate a lot and all the kids had a lot of fun playing together, its not too often that the cousins all get together and play.  It is only a 5 hour drive now to Chicago so it is not too bad at all.  We exchanged gifts from each other and all the kids from aunts/uncles/grandma.  Bella, Abbi, and Jenna were like peas in a pod and really got along great the whole time!  We got a babysitter for one night so the adults could go out and have some kid-free fun.  We went to a fantastic dinner at Webster grill and then cosmic bowling! My mom had not been bowling in such a long time so we all were glad to see her get out and have some fun. 

Once we got home from our Chicago trip Christmas was right around the corner and we stayed at home.  Christmas morning was so much fun for the girls, they all ripped open santa's gifts in what seemed like seconds.  Then the fighting began...they all wanted to play with each others gifts and that was a crazy mess but we made it through ;)  I made a ham for lunch/dinner.  John was fortunate enough to have the entire week off until after new years so we spent a lot of time together as a family relaxing and playing. 

New Years was very low key, we actually went to bed a bit before midnight.  We were pretty exhausted.

Abbi, Jenna, and Claire are very happy and enjoying it here in KC.  They both have made a lot of friends here.  Jenna and Claire have been having weekly play dates with the little girl that lives next door, Mackenzie as well as church playgroup which is also weekly.  Jenna is so shy but is starting to get out of her shell a bit.  I am currently looking into Pre-K's in the area for her to begin in August of this year.  She needs to be exposed to children her age and have some more structure.  Claire is is just like Abbi, never met a stranger and very social.  Abbi is doing great in school and loves her class and teacher.  I am so impressed in how much she has learned since we moved here.  She is learning how to read words and sound them out now which is amazing to me. 

Baby boy Shores is doing great.  He is getting bigger (so is mommy) and is going to be induced on March 24th.  Doc predicts an 8 pounder! We will see, most of my babies were pushing 8 lbs or bigger (Jen was 9 pounds).  We are anxious for him to get here, the girls are also anxious.  They love babies and will be a great help I am sure.

I cannot upload any pictures right now but will post some soon. 

Goodbye Georgia!

John has officially accepted a job with Cook Composite and Polymers in Kansas City, Mo. We are moving in 3 weeks! We are SUPER excited. Definitely stressed because moving is a pain, but we are very happy. Most of John's family lives here so we will miss everyone alot here in Ga, but we are ready for a new adventure in our lives outside of Ga. Most of my side of the family (everyone besides my older sister Tracy and my mom and dad) live in St. Louis area. We will be about 3 hours away from all of them. I think it will be great for me to have an opportunity to get to know them better. I grew up living far away from them for most of my life.

Update

So now that I am out of my first trimester officially, I have been thinking a lot about this baby and the dynamic he/she will bring to our family. I am honestly scared to death thinking about another mouth to feed, clothes, diapers, formula (hopefully I can nurse successfully), etc. And we thought we had a a lot of kids now...lol. I am also in school and thinking about that and a baby I also wonder how that would work. I would be going full time to school once the baby is born and honestly who wants to be gone 8-9 hours a day from a newborn? I am thinking I may take a year off, I think I kinda need it. I am utterly exhausted at this point I can only imagine having no sleep for months and trying to study and have other children and be a wife...good grief I think I would go insane. On another note we are going to be team green this time around, we have always found out what we were having and this time I want a surprise. John and I are planning on this being our last child so I guess we want to experience the best of both worlds so to speak. It will probably be a girl anyway ;-) Stay tuned for March 30th.

Abbi has started school and LOVES it. She comes home so happy and energized. She has made some friends and is learning so much. I also volunteered to be room mom (man as if I did not have enough on my plate, ha) and I am in charge of "top chef" a part of the math portion of the kid's day. It is every other Friday and I am also on PTA so that is beginning this next week as well. I am so excited to have an opportunity to be involved in Abbi's schooling. That is one awesome thing (among others) about being a SAHM.

Jenna and Claire are doing great, they are becoming closer now that Abbi is gone during the day and they have time to bond. They are starting to play together, Claire is beginning to communicate a bit better so it makes it easier for them to play dolls together. Jenna cut her hair last month while she was in time out..I knew something was up when it was silent for 5 minutes and I went to check on her and she had wondered into John and my bathroom and gotten a hold of the scissors. At least she just cut herself a side bang... I am grateful that it was not a whole chunk out of the back of her head or something, lol.

John is still tirelessly looking for another job. I guess we never realized how hard, even with an MBA it would be to find another job in HR paying decent. So, please keep us in your prayers, because I really don't know how we are going to make John having 2 jobs work but it is going to have to come to that soon if he can't find another main job.

Lately...

We've been busy.

We moved into a new house so we could be closer to Jamiee's school and my work. Shortly after doing so, Abbi turned the big 5 and she (and her sisters) got a swing set for her (their) birthday.

They love it. Thanks! Aunt Tracy, Gramma & Papa, and Grandma and Gampaw!

We've enjoyed a lot of grilled food. Thanks to Grandmaw and Grandpaw for the new grill! :)

The girls got new bathing suits. They love each other.

We discovered we have lots and lots of little tree frogs in our new yard.

The girls love playing in the sprinkler,
And the slip n' slide.

We love our slip n' slide!

Jamiee got a new dog. Daisy. We love her too.

We celebrated Jamiee's Birthday with Mexican food and I got the wait staff to put this sombrero on her and sing to her. I was not quick enough with my phone to get a picture of her with it on but Abbi & Jenna loved wearing it.

The girls helped me shop for mine and Jamiee's 7th anniversary dinner - fondue!
Claire is learning to brush her teeth.


Before we knew it summer was over and my baby girl was starting Kindergarten. *sniff*














Oh yeah, and we're expecting #4. ;)