"The Bear Snores On"

Bella's Christmas Program

Bella knew most of the words to most of the songs.
She seemed to enjoy singing the Christmas carols.


However, when she didn't know the words, she crossed her eyes and made a goofy face until they came to the part where she knew the words again and she jumped right back in. Grandpa Ken and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.


Bella with one of her teachers. Santa was also there and Bella got to sit on his lap, get a present and tell him what she wants for Christmas!

Grandma's Laury's Christmas Party

Sitting on Santa's Lap

Hickey Christmas Party

Jackson and Aunt Jen


Santa stops by...


The cousins...


Tired from too much partying

Oh, so you heard that one too?

I can start to blog again. I was having this trouble. It went something like this:

Kat: "Hey- I have to tell you the funniest thing that happened the other day. (insert funny story here)"

Other person: "Oh, yea! I read about that on the blog. That was really funny!"

Kat: "Oh. Right. Well, yesterday... (insert other funny story here)"

Other person: "I know! I was just telling this girl at work about that. We were looking at the blog together."

Kat: "Oh. Wow. That's really cool."

So, here's the problem. I'm high drama. I like to tell the story. I LOVE that people enjoy the blog. But I like to tell the story! I like to choose where I pause in the story and the way I change my voice to imitate each kid. I enjoy the delivery. I love that people read the blog, but I got sick of all my material being used up. So, since we were going in for Thanksgiving, I wanted to keep some of my good stuff to tell in town. Now we're back and I can post again. As you were.

Twenty Weeks Old

Go Balls Deep!

So, we're waiting in the urologists' office. John's pretty ready to get the whole thing over with... or bail out, whichever. A woman was waiting with her baby, a month or so younger than Jackson and a 3 year old daughter. She eludes to the fact that her husband is getting a vasectomy as we speak.

John's appointment was for 1:40. Just after 2, the woman's husband comes out to the waiting room. She's asking him how he is and it's all very strange. He's acting kinda angry and not-quite-right. After a bit of drama, he announces he's going to the bathroom and walks out into the hallway. His wife follows quickly behind him. A few moments later, she returns to the desk. "He's laying on the floor in the hallway. He says he feels really light-headed. Is that normal?" The nurse says that he got up too quickly and he was supposed to lay down for a little bit, but he insisted on getting up. The wife insists, "can someone come out and see if he's okay?"

So, the nurse and the office administrator go out into the hallway with the wife. As soon as they leave the waiting room, I begin laughing out loud. I'm sorry, but it was like a scene from a movie. That never happens in real life. A few moments pass. I continue giggling to myself. John begins gnawing on his fingers. The nurse and office girl return, mumbling to themselves about the previous patient. John jokingly asks, "I'm not having what he's having, am I?" The nurse stops walking, turns around and pointedly replies, "Vasectomy?" John says, "yeah..." She looks at him and says, "yep!" and walks back into the office.

Needless to say, I thought that was pretty funny. No. I thought it was REALLY funny and I don't know how to express in words how great it was to see John nervous for the first time in a long time!

What happens when you send them to Grandma's...

In Native American cultures, the grandparents are entrusted with the responsibility of passing the tribe's values down to the next generation. We are so fortunate to have some really honorable and loving people as our children's grandparents. With that said, it is often easy to tell when the children have been with one of their grandparents. They do or say things they might not normally say...

Background: Carseats are Isabella's bane. They cause nothing but anger and resentment in her life. She didn't like the convertible carseat because it's 'for babies.' And once a child is 4 years and 40 pounds, she is supposed to move up to the booster car seat. This is even more of a challenge, though, because that means she has to reach the regular seat belt and buckle it herself. This has led to many times of me yelling at her to stop (insert stalling activity here: playing with her little plastic animals, taking off her shoes, putting on her shoes, putting on someone else's shoes, making goofy faces at Jackson, fighting with Liam, conjugating Spanish verbs...) and put on her buckle.

Today, she was actually sitting down and focusing on putting her seat belt on, but she was having a hard time.

Isabella: "Mmmmmmm! This is so frus-ter-a-ting!"

Kat: "Is it?"

Isabella: (ignoring me) "I know! I have to stop. breathe. and think. That's what I'm going to do." Silence. "Okay. That's better."

Um. Holy well-adjusted four year old, Batman.

The Ghost of Hickey Babies Past

I'll have to post some new pictures of Jackson. I was trying to find a few pics of the other kids that looked a bit like Jackson. Anyone know who is who?

The End of an Age

We've made many transitions in our lives together, John and I. From friends and costars to "a couple", from a couple to parents, from parents of one to parents of two, to newlyweds, to the parents of three and then four, from Barberton, to Norton, to the Hoosier State. Some of these transitions were intentional, calculated and carefully planned. Others were a little more... shall we say, spontaneous?

This transition feels strange to me partly because the beginning of our childbearing years was a surprise. It was such an unexpected blessing in our lives. What a gift we have been given in this lifetime: effortless conceptions, healthy pregnancies, empowering births and amazing gurus for children. I love the path we have been taken down. I’m so glad it just happened, because I could never have imagined it would be like this. I would not have chosen this life without the universe’s intervention and I could have missed my calling.

John and I had always talked about having four children - more as a joke than an actual goal! After Isabella, we both thought maybe we could be done, but I had this nagging feeling that there was one more. When Isabella was just about a year old, I would hear a baby crying at night when all three children were sound asleep. Sometimes I would get everyone packed up in the car to go somewhere and feel like I was still missing someone. I would ask people how they "knew" they were done having babies. I wondered if having one more would satisfy that need for another baby - if that desire could ever be quenched. I desperately wanted this one last chance at mothering a baby, at giving birth one final time.

Selfishly, I wanted to have the "perfect" birth. Maddie's had been perfect. Isabella's was more difficult - more painful than Maddie's. Instead of getting my perfect birth with Jackson, I got a birth so difficult that it took me to the brink of impossibility. I had to surrender everything and call on a higher power for help. I was humbled. Apparently, it was just what I needed. I didn't need perfection, I needed to give in.

And now, the end of our childbearing years is so deliberate. I encouraged John to have the vasectomy. It's important to do it soon, too, while I still have a baby in my arms and no second thoughts. I know I don't want more than four children. There are already compromises I have to make. Our attention is divided between the four kids and any more would be too many for us. And I am ready to move forward in my life. Ready to use my talents to improve the world we've brought these children into. Ready to have time with just John - to put our relationship on the front burner and finally get that newlywed time we never got!

So, if you can, send some healing energy (and frozen peas, if you have any) to my husband this afternoon as we close this chapter of our lives and look forward to the wide world of possibility that opens up to us!

VIP Day

Every year, the kids have a VIP day at school. They can bring a grandparent, parent, or friend to school. This year, Grandma Dot came up for the day. She was Maddie's VIP, John was Liam's VIP and Jackson and I came along for fun.


Someone at school asked if I dressed my boys alike on purpose. They really look so much alike. Their mannerisms, their intensity. Especially, their cuteness!


The kids and their VIPs made a special piece of artwork. It was fun to watch everyone work together on a project.


It was really fun seeing the kids in their school environment. They are so comfortable there and they were so in their glory. They are really doing well at school and they love showing off their stuff.

Nineteen Weeks Old

The dude can sit up! He's mostly at a 45 degree angle, but it is good. He loves the fact that he can see the whole world from sitting. The only problem is that he's so excitable that if someone comes by and talks to him he gets really excited and spazzes out. Then, he falls over sideways or backwards.


Okay, so this is gratuitous cuteness. Love the hooded towel.


The baby loves this little dog. However, when he was done with it, it was so wet it felt like it came straight out of the washer. 

Quote of the Day

Maddie: "Mom! Why can't I get my ears pierced? WHY? Why can't I get my ears pierced like you... and Daddy?" (click here to see what she means...)

If you're thinking, "Hey, Lady, enough with the quotes - I'm just here to see pictures of that baby!" Click here to see the latest baby entry.

Eighteen Weeks Old

The little man is in denial that he's a baby. Sitting in the seat? No way. I'm on the move. I've got to go.


It is pretty cute how proud of himself he is, though!


He loves hanging out on his stomach. If I lay him down on his back, he immediately rolls over to his stomach! That's unusual for our babies. They usually prefer to lay on their backs. 

Ghoulish updates...

I have put in a few posts, including the Halloween photos. To follow the Halloween shots in order, scroll down to the "Halloween Morning" post and read up from there.

It has been brought to my attention that a few people have not been able to make comments. If you are having trouble getting Blogger to accept your comments, please let me know. Comments are very appreciated, otherwise Blogging can feel like talking to yourself... :)

The morning after...

My poor Isabella has a trick-or-treat hangover. I was opening the mail after we got home from picking her up from school. After about 20 minutes, I noticed that she was completely silent. That is usually not a good sign. She can be rather destructive when she is quiet. I looked up in her room and then up in Liam's room and did not find her. As I came back down the stairs, I saw her lying on the floor, asleep. If you click on the picture and look carefully, you'll notice that she fell asleep while eating a cracker - mid chew! Oh, and yes. She did dress herself today.

Booty...Loot... Treats!

Liam carefully sorts, counts and catalogs his loot. He has a real thing for the candy sticks with superhero images on the box. When he discovered that John and I like KitKats, he tried to offer them to us over and over...


Maddie also organizes her booty carefully. She set aside bags of candy for each of her teachers and one for the guys at John's work. Maddie is always generous in her abundance.


And then there's Isabella. She cares not about sorting or counting. She's trying to figure out how to get the absolute most candy possible into her mouth.


"Whoa! Now WHAT is THIS?"

Trick or Treat!

Just so you know, they are (from left to right) Jackson as Jack-Jack (from The Incredibles), Liam as Dash (from The Incredibles), Maddie as Violet (from The Incredibles) and Isabella as a black cat.

We gave our kids the award for "Most Polite Beggars" in the neighborhood. They said "Trick or Treat!" at each door. Maddie thanked each person sincerely, without any reminding or prodding from John or I. Liam ended each beggar encounter with "Have a Happy Halloween!" Isabella didn't say thank you, walked all over everyone's yards instead of the sidewalk or driveway, and kept whining that her legs were tired. Oh well. Two out of three ain't bad.


Jackson did not particularly care for trick-or-treating. It was cold. He kept eating his mask and when the wind blew directly in his face, he sucked in his breath like a dog with its head out the window. He didn't cry or fuss at all, though. He just gave up and went to sleep until we got back home.


Jackson: "Fine. If you guys are going to take thousands of pictures of me and not give me any of that candy, I'm eating Bella."