Trick or Treat Crazy Crew Style

Sooo...a full year has actually passed since we moved into our home in Louisville, KY. That is shocking to me in a few ways...my heart still aches for our friend-family in Virginia, as if we just left a month ago, but our house and neighborhood felt like home from day one, as if we'd been here for years! There are still many things to catch up on from the past year, but I'll save those posts for a year end wrap-up (or decade wrap up...my record shows it may take that long to update :). For now, we'll stick to some Crazy Crew Halloween news! 

We moved into our house one week before Halloween last year, so we didn't know anyone in our neighborhood (except, in true KY style, we did have about 5 neighbors stop by with baked goodies, "welcomes" to the 'hood, and even party invites). Of course, I did get to meet a few others as I roamed the community on Halloween afternoon searching for our dog...who had run out of the house after a deer racing down our driveway (1st & final time I've EVER seen a deer on our street)...and I was dressed as a clown, carrying our screaming 1 yr old dressed as a cat....while the other 3 kiddos stood in the driveway in their costumes crying that their dog was lost forever. The cursed dog was found and we headed off to our college buddy's house about 20 minutes away for an awesome party and trick or treating in their neighborhood.

While we didn't trick or treat here last year, it was VERY evident that our community LOVES Halloween and neighborhood camaraderie!! We chose to stick close to home this year and meet a few more folks in our area. All I can say is...WOW! As one neighbor stated, it is basically "Halloween on steroids"! The month kicks off with everyone starting to "Boo" each other (secretly leaving plastic pumpkins full of goodies on someone else's doorstep...you hang your pumpkin on your mailbox, and then leave a Boo treat & instructions for 2 other families to pass along the fun). Three doors down is a MAJOR Haunted driveway/garage attraction. They collect canned goods for a local food bank as admission and provide 3 options: kinda scary, 3-D very scary, and an all-out-get-trapped-in-a-coffin-while-others-watch-your-reaction-on-the-big-screen version. The attraction runs the 2 weekends before Halloween and the days leading up to the "big" night. We were out of town and had to miss TWO parties that we were invited to attend the last weekend in October. There are "pre-trick or treat" driveway parties after school, groups of 30+ kids traveling door-to-door together, and the yard decorations? Again, WOW! So we left our buckets of goodies for other kiddos on the porch with our pumpkins, took some pics, and headed out into the windy, freezing evening for our own loot. I have never seen so many running children, smiling & chatting neighbors, and CANDY!! The kids had a blast, and to say we had fun watching them would be a drastic understatement! Below are a few pics from the evening...not very many, because the lure of the waiting candy was waaay too promising :) Oh, and you'll notice that you never see Daddy in the Halloween pics. Yeah...he's the same "character" every year...a Daddy. Only this year, he informed the kids he was actually changing it up and going as "a cold Daddy."  

We got warmed up a couple weeks before Halloween with Trick or Treating at the Louisville Zoo.
 SUPER fun with all kinds of characters, and of course...candy!

Pumpkin, anyone?!?! NO! WE WANT CANDY!!!

RIGHT to LEFT: Mollie the Itsy Bitsy Spider who bit Spider Man Joey,
an all new superhero, Captain A (for Captain Anna), and her
superhero sidekick Dinosaur, Evie!

Quick on the snap & actually caught Mollie blue eyes in her festive seasonal attire :)

Baby Punkin #5!!! Momma was beyond exhausted by this time...up at 6 to prep the day and run 3 miles, Moms' Group meeting in the AM, help with Joey's school party, regular after school activity shuttle vanning, getting 4 pumped up kids ready for one of their fave nights of the year, and walking for 2 hrs around the 'hood having a blast!

2010 when I was 2 weeks away from having Miss Mollie...Hoops! There she is!!

I know folks have all different views about Halloween...to each his own and what they choose to make of it. However, we absolutely LOVE the fall season and all the festivals and opportunities to teach our children to practice their own creativity, manners, and interaction with neighbors. I LOVE the community spirit, seeing the excitement & pride of my own children and neighborhood kids when adults compliment their costumes, and seeing the smiles on older neighbors' faces as they hand out candy and hear those sweet little voices say "trick or treat" and "thank you"! And now...the Crazy Crew has already begun planning their costumes for next year...thank goodness they usually don't mind wearing their big sibs' hand-me-downs...with a story theme, of course! (see the caption from the kids' group shot ;)

ABC's & 1 2 3's...where did SUMMER with my Crazies go?!?!?

Here we go again...another Fall season, the beginning of another school year, and another moment of realization that our little Crazies are getting bigger...WAY. TOO. FAST! (My friends with college kiddos or grandkids of their own are rolling their eyes right about now...I know we'll be there soon, no matter how strong my grip or how deep I dig in my heels trying to slow down time! :)

Because I do most things out of balance, out of order, and a little chaotic, I'll probably  back track and recount some of our summer adventures in another post. But for now, a peek into our new "norm" :).

Kiddos had an awesome time at the Back to School Bash!
Inflatables, games, treats, and who needs face painting when you can get your hair colored?!?! :)

Our super big boy ready for his 1st day of Kindergarten!

He was SO excited to have an "Army" back pack...had he grown up in KY, he would have called it "Cammo" or a "hunter's" back pack...but he's spent most of his years in military-country :).

Our silly 2nd-grader! Of course she thinks she's
the "big" kid now that little bro is at school, too!

Their "true colors" :).
And yes, Joey's wearing a different shirt than in the previous pics. Kids were encouraged to wear their Stopher shirts (different color for each grade) on the 1st day, but I needed some pics of him looking spiffy for the beginning of his school days...however, this does a WAAY better job of catching their real personalities!

We now have 6 whole school days under our belts, and everyone's doing pretty well :). We're continuing to adjust to the new routine. I miss our older two a LOT during the day, but love hearing their excitement when they share something or someone new they've discovered that day, and I have to admit...the house is a LOT quieter, and running errands with only 2 children seems like a vacation!! 

The differences between the girl and the boy at school are hilarious...Anna provides so many details that it's comforting, yet sometimes nauseating. Joey offers occasional random details and took at least 4 days to be able to tell us the name of a single kid in his class :). Joey's also working hard to control his sweet impulsive nature...3 days into his school career had already earned him a "color change," and a note and phone call from the teacher because he can't seem to stop talking (I can't imagine WHERE he gets that :). Thankfully, he's still excited about going back every day! Anna continues to amaze us with her love for learning and super behavior at school (NO hint of the shenanigans she shows at home); however, the challenge is in teaching her that gloating about her pristine behavioral history (as her little bro struggles a bit in this area) is not acceptable :). 

We are blessed and extremely thankful that God answered our prayers for our children to be able to attend a great school nearby (something that would seem to be a no-brainer, but in the JCPS system, it's a very complex, and often frustrating, process). I have also been able to meet a few more parents from the school, and even attended a Bible Study at one mom's home this summer. The night before school started, some of us gathered in the parking lot and prayed for the children and staff as they prepared to return and kick off a new school year the next day...it was so encouraging and inspiring to pray with these other Christian women who also feel God calling their families to shine His light in the Public School System...what a privilege! 

Friends and Family...Family and Friends...

Friends and family...family and friends. Have you ever been so blessed that the boundary lines between the two become fuzzy? It is often said that God chooses your family, and you choose your friends (making it much easier to break ties with friends, while you are "stuck" with family :). However, our Crazy Crew has been blessed beyond measure to experience the best of both worlds! And that is what made our recent move so bittersweet (I say recent...when it has actually been a blazing fast 9 months!). 


We are so very thankful to have opportunities to see family more often. For 8 years, we were 10-12 hours away from our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  We loved seeing family, but dreaded the LOOONNNG drive home...and all the headaches that go along with young kids making multiple transitions to other people's homes while being completely out of routine for days on end...EXHAUSTING and stressful!!! The grandmas (my and Bobby's moms) usually made at least 2 visits a year to the DC area and stayed for a week at a time, and we made 2 visits home to KY each year and stayed for 1 to 2 weeks. These long visits made for amazing adventures and experiences between our kids and their grandmas, but we rarely got to spend quality time with extended family or Bobby's sister's family. While we no longer enjoy week-long stays with the grandmas (my mom is only 1 hour away, and Bobby's mom is only a 2 hour drive), we do get to see them more frequently, and they can come to special events on short notice. The added bonus has been the kids being able to have more gatherings in a few months with their cousins than they had enjoyed in their whole lives combined! Spring Break visits, birthday parties, sharing in cousins' special sports moments, more trips to Mammaw's farm and to Nanny's pool. I haven't done a great job of capturing many pictures, but you can get an idea of the joy on their faces :).

I could do 20 blog posts on the fun our crew has on Mammaw & Pappaw Danny's farm!

Mollie gets sweet kisses from cousin Izzy

7 cousins loaded onto the 4-wheeler at Uncle Richard's farm!

Who says a dune buggy has to actually work to have fun...it's Izzy & Evie's jungle gym!

AND...then there are those people for whom the word "friend" just doesn't seem an adequate label. I like to refer to them as my "friend-family." You can't develop these types of relationships just anywhere. It takes time...a mutual dependency...and a few acts of God :). For us, it took living 10+ hours away from all family, having 4 babies in 5.5 years, and a husband who worked extremely long and stressful hours away from home. It took the blessing of God placing us in an area with countless other folks living out similar circumstances...landing us in a church full of military and other transient families who were all desperately seeking God's provision and surrogate families for their children. I'm not sure we would have ever developed these relationships without our children...you can't exactly "fake" complete independence when much of your sanity relies on the health and well-being of several little ones. 


These amazing ladies pray for our family, they LOVE my children, they've brought meals when we had newborns and showered us with gifts with each child as if he/she were our first (even when I tried to convince them we didn't need it), they've cared for my kids on a moment's notice when there were emergencies, and they watched out for us and reminded me of our needs before I even realized them when my husband was overseas for 2 months and I was home with a 7 wk old, 1 yr old, 3 yr old, and 5 yr old. They and their children are the ones that my kids still miss and cry for. 


Coming from a community of friends like that makes the transition somewhere else very difficult. Your kids are the "newbies," and folks don't readily accept their quirks (or mine :).  It's easy to forget that those bonds developed over time...and with need. Many people have always lived close to family, so they've never considered living out a family-like relationship with friends. You can't meet someone and a week later have them feel like a part of your "friend-family"...and sometimes you don't want to let your guard down enough to allow them to be....that would make you feel like a traitor to those you've left behind. 


We are so thankful to watch our children experience more time with their extended family, to not have to miss out on family celebrations, and especially to enjoy a slower, more simple pace of life with our own immediate family. God creates all kinds of seasons in our lives, and always with a lasting purpose. My prayer is that I will always be watchful for those around me who need a family-type-friend to lean on...that I will be able to pay forward all the blessings my Virginia friend-family provided us. 


One scary part about leaving a "friend-family" is that you realize you may not see them very often...you "have" to travel home for Holidays when you live away from biological family, but lives are busy and race in different directions that often prevent visits with long-distance friends. Thank goodness for facebook, skype, email, free long-distance phone calls, etc. to help us keep in touch...but there's just nothing quite like a good ol' visit. So that's what the kids and I did earlier this summer...loaded up the van and drove 10 hours East back to Woodbridge to visit our friend-family. I wish I could have captured a video of the screams of pure joy when our kiddos reunited with their best buddies!!! We spent hours just hanging out, participated in our "old" church's VBS, and enjoyed feeling like we hadn't missed a beat in the months between our departure and return. My dearest friend, Christine & her husband, allowed our Crazy Crew to crash their home and disrupt their 3 kids' routines for 4 nights. I know these trips may not be frequent, so I cherished every moment, hug, and familiar smile. Watching my children's excitement made the solo drive over the mountains with 4 kids totally worth it :). Fortunately, my awesome friend, Mary, did use her new camera (since I never pulled mine out of the bag) to capture lots of great shots of the kiddos...I will treasure these always!!

BFFs together again!!!! (Crazy Hat day at VBS)

The 3 muskateers...or the love triangle...LOL!

Yes...a few squabbles among the 1st borns...just shows true family-like love! :)

Spidey buds!

Ridiculous how much these 2 have grown in the last months!

ALWAYS full of fun and giggles!

SPLASH!

The Anastacio, Miarer, and Wells crews the week before we moved to KY in Oct 2011

REUNITED in June 2012!!!

Birthdays Part II (umm...yeah, that's why this is 2 months late...to go along with the Part II theme...)

Just about 2 months since my last Crazy Crew post...not bad, right? Ugghh...I definitely meant to update the blog more often than 6 times a year, and I do draft entries constantly (unfortunately, it's usually in my mind while running, cleaning, or driving...and the words almost never make it from brain to keyboard :). 

Just as I'm sure they have for you, the last 7 months since we moved to Louisville, KY have sped by and are quickly becoming a blur in the rearview mirror. Bobby & I have enjoyed a lot of "routine" adventures with our Crazy Crew, and I am becoming increasingly sentimental about our "littles" becoming "bigs" far too fast! (Seriously...Mollie is 18 months old now! Her siblings were all between 11 and 14 months old when the next bun was already toasting in the oven!) After spending most of 7 years either pregnant or having an infant (birthing 4 babies in 5 1/2 years), I barely know how to envision a future where that phase of life is complete! (Sniff, sniff!) But do I EVER realize our blessings!! I don't take one silly second for granted (I won't lie and say I wouldn't trade any of those seconds...because I would trade the fits...both mine and theirs :).

Hopefully I will eventually type out all the insights, stories, and deep thoughts (HA!) that have crossed my mind in would-be blog posts, but for now....some special pics of the Craziest little Crew in KY. I thought it may be nice to finally highlight the other March birthdays (so that Anna & Joey can't complain about Evie getting special attention; however, she is the 3rd child and deserves to occasionally get something of her own...so that's why she got an individual blog entry celebration! :)

Just a small sample of what our counters look like during the month of March!

All the kids LOVE picking their own "theme" and helping make & decorate
their own cakes! Joey chose Cars 2 this year.

Momma of the Year lost his #5 candle...oops!
He's dreaming of licking those cars clean anyway :)

Oh, yeah...my birthday is on Joey's bday, too! I HIGHLY recommend having a child on your bday...who cares how old you are when you get to celebrate through a child's eyes every year! Of course, once he's 40, I may feel differently...

Anna chose to have a "Birthday Playdate" with some of her sweet new friends from school the day before her birthday. Her chosen theme? DINOSAURS!!! I LOVED IT! They're holding up the cupcakes they made...complete with dino toppers. We also played some other Dinosaur games that Anna helped plan...

Who needs to hunt Easter eggs when you can hunt...Dinosaur eggs!!!

Dino Dig!!! Everyone got a turn being a blindfolded Paleontologist

(including the hat) as they dug for Dinosaurs, but may have ended up with other treats and surprises. And I ended up with a HUGE mess! In this pic, the turns are over and it's just a big ol' free-for-all! FUN!!

And this is how I kept lil bro occupied when the girls went up to Anna's room to dress up, sing, & dance...I distracted him with BOTH cupcake batter mixers!! :)

Anna had a performance at church on her birthday with the "Every Voice" choir...PERFECT for our little stage diva! Mamaw, Papaw Danny, & Nanny all joined us for the performance and stayed for

ICE CREAM CAKE afterward to celebrate the BIG #7!!

  

MARCH MADNESS...Crazy Crew Style!

If you've ever spent much time around our family, you know that "madness" is the norm...but you also know that we crank it up a notch to a whole new level in the month of March! Exhibit A: my facebook status update from 03-01-2012:

And NOW...let the Wild Wells March Madness begin!!! 4 family birthdays, 3 races for this momma, & NCAA Basketball Tourney...if I make it to April, it'll be a miracle...and if I don't, it will have been a blast on the way out!!! :)

There's really enough activity and craziness to blog all day long, but seeing as it's been over 2 months since my last update, perhaps I should try to knock it out one little post at a time! First up: our favorite 3 year old!!!

SOOO excited to start "Evie Day"!!

Our super sweet & sassy Miss Evelyn Grace Wells turned 3 on March 3rd! I just can't believe that our big (10 lb 3 oz. at birth), calm, laid back baby has transformed into this firey, HILARIOUS, smart, creative, keep-us-on-our-toes three year old! I really feel like her last 16 months have been a blur (the amount of time that her baby sis has been with us). She loves to parrot her big bro and sis, yet she also marches to the beat of her own drum. She loves to remind everyone else that Jesus says we are supposed to "Love one another," yet she'll also be the first to make you pay if you deny her request or refuse to let her control the situation. There really is something special and scary about #3...they seem to grow up so fast (maybe from following 2 older siblings?), and their actions remind you constantly that there is no law saying they must settle into any mold or comfort zone that you have established with the first two children!

We didn't have a big birthday blowout for Evie, but we did have a lot of small activities that sure made her feel like the birthday Princess...you've never seen a kid get so excited over such simple experiences...shouldn't we all have that perspective?  Some more pics of her special weekend:

Some YUMMY Pie Kitchen cookies for a "pre-bday" celebration with the grandmas 

How special is this? Both gmas, and it only took 1 hr for my mom & 2 hrs for Bobby's mom
to join us (instead of the 10 or 12 hr drive that it's taken our kids' entire lives!!:)

Classic Evie face...priceless :)

Surprise pre-bday trip to Build A Bear!

Making a wish on her Princess bday cake...that she and her siblings made/decorated themselves:)

Love this Crazy Crew!!!:)

SNOW?!?!? IN MARCH?!?!?
Our very first decently measureable snow of the season happened to be...on March 4th/5th! (Which is FINE by me...can't stand shoveling the white stuff...or dealing with the mess it leaves behind...or having to run on the treadmill because sidewalks are an icey mess!) Of course, Evie thought it was absolutely FABULOUS that she "got snow for her birthday"! Me: "Isn't it COOL that you got to play in the snow on your birthday?" Evie: "It's the BESTEST present EVER!!" It was definitely very pretty; however, we know it sure didn't make clean up easy for all the people in KY/IN who had just been hit with the devestating tornadoes on March 2nd. Yes, this snow came just two days after 70+ degree temps!

70+ degrees & tornadoes March 2, 3-5 inches of snow March 4th/5th,
and almost 90 degrees by March 20th!

Anna didn't even have a delay for school, so she had to wait and play in the evening.
Mollie had been sick, so she stood at the door crying the WHOLE time they were outside!

 

A lot of the snow had melted by the time Anna made it home,
but there was still enough for them to make "Little Snowy Bob."

Of course, this is all that was left of "Little Snowy Bob" by the next morning. Evie just told me today (2 weeks later) as she gazed out the window, "I wish Little Snowy Bob was here...but he's all dead and melted now..."  Kid. Cracks. Me. Up.

"I'm so happy I got snow for my birthday!!!"

Coming soon(ish)...the other 3 March birthday updates...

Holiday Happenings Part II: A Very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

(Building on my previous post: here's the "rest of the story"...some additional Wells Holiday Season tidbits):

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Beyond blessed. That would honestly be a sufficient description, but because word limitation has never been my strength, I will elaborate. For the last 8 years, we have spent the 10 days around Christmas on the road trying to squeeze in visits with everyone we know and love in Kentucky. Visits were way too short, the drive was way too long...nearly 30 hours on the road, TONS of packing, and never getting to see everyone. 

This year, we began the season of celebration by HOSTING a family gathering a week before the big day at our own house.  We slept in our own beds Christmas Eve, and for the first time EVER, our children woke up to Santa's gifts Christmas morning in their OWN living room (Santa had always visited our house a few days early and then brought stockings to whichever grandma's house we were staying Christmas morning...a great tradition if you HAVE to travel!)

Christmas Eve was my favorite day of 2011!! We made cookies for Santa, ate a relaxing dinner out (yes, even with 4 kids, that is possible...as long as your definition of "relaxing" is tweaked ;), attended a Christmas Eve worship service, and came home to read the Christmas story one last time and sing Christmas carols around our own fireplace...PERFECT! Christmas day was filled with laid back fun as we played with the kids' new toys and then made the short 1 hour drive to my mom's for dinner with extended family.The morning after Christmas, we drove into Owensboro for brunch and gifts with Bobby's mom's family, and then on to his grandad's for more visiting and presents with his dad's family. A few days after Christmas, I took the kids to Lexington for a gathering with my dad's side of the family. So in just 8 total hours of driving, we made 5 family celebrations. We had TOTALLY forgotten just how wonderful and relaxing the Christmas season really could be! As I said...beyond blessed!!!

And how do you send out a wild ride of a year and ring in the new? You gather college buddies, their significant others, and their children to cheer on a UK victory against U of L (an ENORMOUS basketball rivalry for those of you non-Kentuckians)...and did I mention the FOOD?!?!? WOW! The party started at noon with 18 of us (9 of those being children and 7 of them being under 4 years old)...and it carried on until 1 AM! We tipped off with chili, soup, and dip...moved on to Tom's smoked ribs, finished off with Kruger & Tiffany's beef tenderloin, king crab legs, & bacon wrapped scallops, and munched on Evie & Jason's and Kaz & Laura's yummies in between! I guess you could call it a New Year's Progressive Dinner Day...and I think it should be an annual tradition! :)

I've included a few Crazy Crew type pictures of the season...obviously I didn't do so hot at catching all the necessary shots, so I'll try better next year. I've also added a few humorous details:

The Gingerbread Man: a family member (Jana) made these adorable ornaments for each child out of dough (baked & painted), so we hung them on the kids' little tree. We came home one day to find dog puke with little flecks of gold in it. I searched all around for something PJ could have eaten...and then found Evie's "dis-membered" Ginger Bread Man still hanging from the tree. Hilarious.

The (fall of) The Gingerbread House: The kids had a BLAST decorating Gingerbread houses this year...but FYI: if you have multiple children working on the same house  (meaning little hands are constantly touching, moving, shaking the house) and you want to avoid a lot of extra work on your part, go to Costco and get the "pre-assembled" houses. All you have to do is spread the icing and decorate with the candy (or de-decorate, which happened a lot with our sweet-tooth little ones :). We were supposed to use the frosting as glue to hold up the pictured gingerbread house, and you see how successful this momma was in orchestrating that! Anna's take on our Gingerbread "neighborhood": Oh, sorry Gingerbread people, looks like you aren't getting new neighbors after all. These peoples' house collapsed on them and they died (and she proceeded to eat the "people" that go with the collapsed house). As I told the family member (Linda) who gave us this house...any time you combine messy with sugar, you've hit the jackpot...whether the house stands or not!

The face that can ALMOST make you forget the 20 minute
screaming fits...except when you are trying to marathon
Christmas shop with 4 kids in tow...





LOVE the Louisville Zoo & the mild
weather that has allowed
visits in Dec & Jan!

 

Run, Run fast as you can! Can't catch me
I'm the Gingerbread Man! (unless you're PJ)



SO happy to have the faces & love of 75+
Christmas cards surrounding us from friends
both far and near!




You can tell by every pic of child #3 that she
is both a huge source of joy...and that she
will completely be the death of me (of course,
I said the same of her awesome big sis when
she was this age, too)!

And the walls came a tumblin' down!



Kids #1 & #2: "Waitin' on our promised cookie!"
Kid #3: "Wonder what she'll do if I SQUEEEEZE her like this?!?!"



We hope your Christmas Season was blessed with love, laughter, joy, & peace...or at least some great Kodak-moment worthy memories :). May your New Year be filled with the renewal and fresh blessings that come from the HOPE of our Saviour!