Excitement at Home

Life has been exciting for us this month, but some of the best bits and pieces are just things that happen during a normal day.

For example, we learned this month that the game, Twister, was not so much designed for parents. Gavin got Twister for his birthday and we have played it several times and Josh and I have found that we are neither flexible nor well balanced (in more ways than one). We fight over who gets to spin the dial and who has to actually get up and play. Sweet guy that he is, Josh usually lets me spin (that and I play the "I am a little dizzy because I am so tired from feeding the baby all night long" card). Twister...not for the full grown!!!

Also, we have found that having a new baby has made it a bit harder to stay on top of the other kids the way that we like to. For example, Logan (who is two...enough said) has found that when Mom is feeding the baby, she is not as likely to be able to get up and get him out of things or chase him down when he has something he shouldn't. He flaunts that with his gigantic "Ha ha, you can't get me" smile (Oh, he will learn).

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Along the same lines, I have become a little less vigilant at bath time and that has gotten exciting a couple of times. Josh is a FREAK about getting water on the floor in the bathroom. NOTHING bothers him more than an excessively splashy bath time and the wet repercussions. And so, he has not exactly been thrilled lately when he comes home to a sopping wet bathroom rug hanging up in the shower to dry. Wonder how that happened? It was funny to me.

And the new baby, with five other little monsters!! They sure keep us on our toes...but they are sooo worth it!!

In the Red

Today there is a Murray high school sophomore/freshman girls soccer game, but Josh will not be attending. That is unusual as he is the coach of that team. However, he is not allowed to be at the game. Why, you may ask, and the answer is simple. Because my normally level headed and very even tempered husband, the same man who softly scolds me for my extremes in emotion and for sometimes letting those emotions get the best of me, managed to get a red card at the last soccer game. (For you non-soccer types, a red card is given to players or coaches for extremely inappropriate behavior...yellow cards are given for less severe but still inappropriate behaviors and fouls are given for the stuff that just happens in a game that isn't nice).

Josh's team was playing a team for the second time this season. The last time they played this team Murray won, but the other team beat them up pretty good and muttered threats under their breath and even took a some illegal shots at Josh's girls when the officials weren't looking. Josh was concerned for his girl's safety before the game and even asked the refs to keep an eye out because of the previous problem.

There are two refs at a soccer game, one on each side of the field and the one on Josh's team's side seemed to know very little about the game and let almost everything go. A couple of times these girls shoved his girls to the ground (no kidding, I watched) and when Josh would say "Aren't you going to call that," the ref would respond "Let it go, coach." That happened a lot during the game and near the end, when there were about two minutes left in the game, one of the girls from the other team took a swing at one of Josh's girls because she had stolen the ball (legally) from her. The ref saw it, Josh asked if he was going to call that finally, the ref said "The game is almost over, just let it go." Josh lost it and yelled, "Try that again #7 and we will have an issue!" across the field. Well, obviously, the other ref (who didn't see anything) was appalled that Josh kind of threatened one of the players and appropriately gave him a red card which precludes him from being at the game today.

When Josh got home that night the first thing he said was, "You don't need to chew me out, I already feel really badly." I'm not sure I have ever seen him so meek. He really regretted handling things that way, especially in front of his girls. However, I cannot tell you how many parents came to thank him for being willing to stand up for the girls on his team and do what he could to protect them. Josh apologized profusely to his girls and tried to help them understand what he should have done instead. The girls, of course, think it is the coolest thing in the world that their coach got a red card, especially because they know he almost never loses his cool. Josh has decided to chalk it up to a learning experience and handle things differently next time.

Mostly, I just think it is funny (it wouldn't be if this was his normal behavior, but it isn't) and am having fun teasing him about it. Josh is embarrassed, but taking it like a man...even though his girls have told all their friends so there are lots of students that have asked him all about it. Such is the life of a soccer coach.

Now We Have a Two Year Old

This week has been an exciting week for us. Josh had a very interesting soccer game last Thursday (did I mention he coaches girls soccer at the high school). It was his most eventful game yet (ask him about it sometime). The kids participated in a corn husking contest and Josh and I got to go to Greek Fest, our first date since Ellie's birth (although she came with us--all bundled and hidden from view and germy people-- so I'm not sure if that really counts as a date). The funnest part of the week was that Logan turned two on Saturday (someone forgot to tell him that you are supposed to wait until you are officially two before you become a holy terror at home) so now he can actually be labeled as "terrible two." If he weren't such a sweetheart sometimes, I don't know what we would do. He is the youngest boy, but he picks on his older siblings regularly. However, he is also the first to give a hug or bring someone his blanket if they are sad. One trait he gets from me, the other from his father. We'll leave it to you to guess which is which. He got a t-ball set for his birthday and played with it all day. In the video below you will notice that he has the baseball swagger down pretty well, but that he only taps the ball when he hits it. Funny, when he hits his siblings with things, he swings a lot harder than that.

Also, we couldn't call ourselves doting parents if we didn't post some pictures of our newest little angel. She really is an angel (but so was Logan when he was this age, so what does that foreshadow). She is sweet and content and absolutely adorable. We are sure grateful to have her in our family.

Eight is Enough (At Least for Us)

HOOOOORAY!!!! After an exciting pregnancy full of thrilling pains and mood swings, we were overjoyed this week to welcome our newest, and final, addition into the world.
Elinor Louise Melissa DeMoux (Ellie for short) entered the world this month at about 4:30 in the afternoon (our OBGYN, Dr. Roth, thanked us profusely for not messing up his dinner plans with his wife that evening). She (Ellie, not the wife) weighed 7 lbs 11 oz (our biggest baby ever) and had a nasty infant rash all over her body (see first picture) which went away after a couple of days
Honestly, this delivery was a piece of cake (I guess when you have done it five times already there should be some benefit) (p.s. I love you anesthesiologist!!!!). I called Josh about 11:30 in the morning to let him know I was in labor (I was also making lunch for the kids and sweeping the kitchen floor, I didn't want a mess for my mother in law when she came down to stay with the kids). Josh immediately started to panic, it was hilarious. I was so calm and easy going about it all (really, labor this time wasn't that bad) but Josh was freaking out. He was in the middle of teaching his class at Murray High School when I called on his cell phone. As soon as I said I was in labor, his voice jumped about three octaves and the kids in his class all started talking and getting excited. He rushed home (passing a parked highway patrolman on the way and thinking there was no way he would be believed when he explained he was hurrying because his wife was in labor...but no worries, he didn't get pulled over).
He entered the house in a whirl of concern and started herding the kids to the car. He had everyone loaded in record time (why can't that happen when we are trying to get to church on time) and then sat with all muscles tightened and eyes straight ahead focused on the road occasionally saying things like..."How far apart are they" and "Are you breathing?" I was really fine, I have never been so calm while in labor. Don't get me wrong, contractions aren't like party games or anything (well, I have played some rotten party games) but I could breathe through these without trouble. We dropped off the kids, got to the hospital, out popped the baby (yeah right, like that's how it goes) and now our family is complete.
Anyway, we are really excited to have the sweet little angel in our home. Eight people in our little house is definitely an adventure, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We have been so blessed. We have six amazing children who all like each other, Josh has an incredible job that he loves, I get to spend all day, every day with the people I love most in the world (although once in a while that doesn't seem like such a blessing), and above all I get to be with these people forever. We are so blessed, and so grateful.
Welcome to the world little princess, we couldn't be more glad to have you here.

Fair Warning

Josh and I have decided that because we are paranoid (ok, that is mostly me) in order to post the things that we want to share, we need to make our blog private so that strangers that are not part of our family and friends cannot invade our lives or whatever else. We are more than happy to let ANYONE we know view our blog, we just want to be sure no one with malicious intent gets to view our precious content. Post a comment or let us know if you want an invite to view our blog, just leave your email address and we'll be sure to include you.