Baby Cooper Has Arrived

I had the privilege of watching my newest nephew arrive into the world ... Cooper Warren Greer at 4:06 this afternoon. He was 8 pounds, 21 1/4 inches and is a super cutie!!!! My sister, Melinda, did a fabulous job ... this is her 3rd baby. See has Charlotte (3 1/2), Emma Kate (18 months) and Cooper (8 hours). I will be staying with her until Monday ... I am going to help with the girls, do some cooking and just enjoy being with my sisters and mom. There is nothing better than holding a brand new baby .....

Off to Indiana ....

Will and I are off to Indiana in the morning to see my newest nephew, Baby Cooper Warren make his first appearance. Melinda asked me to be in the delivery room so I am totally excited to finally watch a baby be born!! Meredith is going to keep all the little ones (Charlotte, Emma Kate, John and Will) ... she is the best!!! The weather will be frightful I am sure ... Will is going to be a cold boy. We will post pictures on our blog tomorrow night of the newest member of the family. Happy New Year to all our friends and family ... may 2009 be peaceful and full of health, happiness and love!!

Christmas ... Kane Style

The kids once again were lavished in gifts from Santa, Oma and Pawpy, Grandma Wilkie and all their aunts and uncles. We started taking turns, youngest to oldest, but Will stopped after gift #2 and began to sit in his wagon, and Matthew had no self control so he ripped through his boxes ... thought I would give each child their own collage to highlight their Christmas morning ... I think we made it through without throwing away one piece of a toy!!!

It has been a bit of a bother to me the number of gifts the kids get ... part of a big family that happens. I really want to scale down this year, and I was feeling very anxious the days leading up to Christmas Eve. God whispered in my ear through Julia Christmas Eve .... As I was reading the Nativity story from the Gospel of Luke, Julia got so excited and exclaimed ..."Momma, I know this one. Gabriel talked to Mary and told her she was havin Jesus and Mary was scared. The angel told Mary do not be afraid because she was having God's baby. That is why we are celebrating ... because of God's baby!!" My heart melted, my anxiety went away and tears came to my eyes ... and if you know me well, tears don't come often. At that moment, it didn't matter the number of gifts under the tree ... Merry Christmas to all and I hope that God touched you this Christmas as He did me ...

Gifts from Daddy

We have started a tradition where Sean gives each of the kids a present on Christmas Eve and then the kids exchange with each other ... with 4 brothers and sisters, that is a lot of gifts before the Santa extravaganza. For some reason, we didn't get a picture of Kate with her gift ... too many kids to capture on film ... Sean showered them with these gifts:

Andrew - Electric Guitar for Dummies and a Starbucks gift card (yes he is a frappacino man!)

Katie - Brand new, awesome composite softball bat just on the market

Matthew - Brand new, awesome composite baseball bat just on the market

Jules - Panda bear puppet and cabbage patch baby

William - T-ball set and basketball

Katie and Matthew shopped for everyone at their school store, William depended on Mommy to do his shopping, Andrew panicked at the last minute and did a Target run (typical male!) and Julia drew pictures for everyone and picked up some little things (the UM hats for the boys!!)

Christmas Eve 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas came so quickly this year ... I swear when I was getting the kids ready, it was like the year flew by and I could remember last year so clearly. We had a lazy day of cooking and playing and then began getting ready for 5:00 Mass. The kids looked really nice and everyone had their own opinion of what they were wearing ... Matthew switched from his sweatvest look to a tie, William refused to put on his sweater (granted it was 80 degrees), Andrew alreay grew out of his pants we bought him so we had to go to plan b .... We were able to sneak a few family pictures in before we went to church.

We got a picture of all of us ... that is always a feat. Katie and Andrew served Mass and it was a really nice service. It was the children's mass for Father Gregory gives the homily to the kids ... he does a great job and we are so lucky to have his leading our church. On the church note .... they have begun construction of our new church. We are slated to be in for Christmas 2009 ... we can't wait to have our church built!!

We ended our night with a big batch of chili with the fixings, a family gift exchange (boy I was surprised to receive a MacBook from William!!). Pawpy read the kids Twas the Night before Christmas, Mommy read the Nativity story out of Luke, we put out cookies for Santa and the kiddos were off to bed ... with visions of Wii games and Cds dancing through their heads!!

Like brother, like sister

Andrew has been an altar server for over two years and now Katie has joined in serving the Mass.  We are so very proud of both of them ... Katie still gets nervous, but she is really catching on.  They served Christmas Eve Mass and it was so wonderful to watch them participating in the Mass (and together!).  

Santa Time

This holiday season was so rushed, but I really wanted to see Santa with the kids ... unfortunately, only Julia and Will wanted to go .... they were very cute and both nervous.  Will kept looking up at him and wondering who he was.  Julia didn't make a peep  ... but talked about him all the way home.  We have a great Santa setup in Celebration ... they turn one of the small pavilions downtown into Santa's house and you go right in and see the big guy!! 

Overdrive Christmas Party

We had a nice time at Katie's travel softball Christmas party ... Andrew was at a dance at school and the rest of us got dressed up and went to the party. Katie looked very pretty and it was fun to see all her teammates dressed up!!! Much different than batting helmets, jerseys and softball pants!!

Right after the party, we went to the Stellwags for the annual cookie exchange. Deb snapped a picture of us right before we left ... check out the sweaty head of Matthew!! He was playing hard at the video games upstairs!! Deb also let William do the crafts .. he got more glitter on his face than on his ornament.

Kid's Cooking Party

Julia was invited to a birthday party at a Kid's Cooking Center last weekend. The party was tons of fun ... each child got to sit up a big table, make their own pizza, work with dough, learn a little about cooking, and then get to eat their pizza (and cupcakes too!). Julia was incredibly shy when we got there and didn't say a peep the whole party. She did have fun, though, and once again jabbered about it all the way home!! It is funny to have a Kane kid that is so quiet and shy ... we haven't experienced that one before.

WPS Christmas Parties

Last Friday was the kids' last day of school (a 1/2 day!). Both Matthew and Katie had parties and watched movies. Andrew did a cookie exchange in the middle school ... we didn't get to that! Jules, Will and I had fun hanging out with Kate and Moo, and just goofing around!! We took the green fluff as our dish to pass ... everyone loved it!!!

Laker Challenge

Andrew did great the last week in the Laker Challenge ... he made it through the first two rounds and then got some tough questions and was eliminated in round 4. We were do proud of him ... he was the 2nd youngest of the 12 and did a great job!!!

Christmas Story with Daddy

Caught this sweet picture the other night of Sean reading a Christmas story to Julia .... both of us have found that with the addition of a 5th child, that it is hard to find those sweet, bonding moments with each of your children each day. It warmed my heart to see them snuggling on the couch, reading together. Too cute!

This is What I Do

Poor William ... ride in the car all day long .... back and forth to the store, to school, to the fields, so on and so on ... he is a champ!! Our new SUV has a bigger TV in the back, but Will still does not pay attention to the TV. He is looking out the window for birds most of the time he is in the car ....

Women For Families

I am so thankful for my Monday morning Bible Study Group ... Women for Families. We have been meeting for about 4 1/2 years and it is amazing to be surrounded by such faithful and dedicated women. We are currently studying Beth Moore's Breaking Free and it has been an enlightening study ... looking at your past, breaking free from what keeps you from getting closer to Christ, creating a new path for your faith walk. It is very, very interesting and of course deeply based in Scripture. Our group has grown by almost 10 girls this year ... and the discussion is great and very thought provoking. It is such a comfort in these uncertain times to have a group of women to lean on!!

The Little Kids Do Exist

So after looking at all my posts about Andrew and Kate, I don't want anyone to think the little ones are deprived and neglected .... it has just been one activity after another for the big guys. Matthew starts basketball after the Christmas Holiday, Julia still goes to gymanstics (last week is her last class for a while), Will continues to empty every drawer and cabinet each day (while adding a new word daily ... this morning it was "Sweet!" when given a glass of juice!!) .... I will make an effort to capture these guys over the next week ... I hope everyone's Season is fun and full of laughter and the hustle and bustle slows down as we approach the amazing birth of our Savior!!

Winter Band Concert

It has been a jammed packed couple of weeks with Andrew at school ... last night was his Winter Band Concert. He is in the Wind Ensemble and they really did a great job last night ... he still plays the french horn and continues to improve (they have band every day!). They played 3 pieces and he had several solos ... good job!!

Laker Legends

12 students were honored at an assembly on Monday for Middle School at WPS as the Laker Legends. All the middle school students took a test a couple of weeks back testing general knowledge (spelling, geography, chess, problem solving). Then the teachers met to review the results and choose the Laker Legends ... they base their decision on the test results, GPA, conduct and overall knowledge. There are 6 finalists that comprise our academic team that travels to Boston to compete against all the other Meritas Schools. Andrew was chosen as a runner up and I was able to get to the assembly to see the results announced. All 12 advance to the final "Laker Challenge" on Tuesday to choose the Laker Challenge Champion. We are very proud of all Andrew's accomplishments and are in awe of his ability to balance all of his activites ... he is turning out to be a very well rounded young man!!

Katie's Choir Concert

Katie had her first chorale concert last night at school. They were really good and did four really neat songs ... Katie really likes choir and her director. She even had a "trio" with two other girls in the final song ... "Go Tell It On the Mountain" ... it was a jazzy, hip version of the traditional hymm ... She amazes us with her confidence!! She just marched right up there and sang in front of all those people!!

Cheering on WPS

Katie got to go to the opening ceremonies of the Meritas Games and cheer at the ball game on campus on Friday. She is really having fun doing this middle school cheerleading/pep club ... enjoying her friends, getting into all the school sports, etc. We like that she is cheering on the athletes but are ready for her to be one of the athletes ... the next sports facility being built at our school is a SOFTBALL FIELD!!! Yeah, next year she will be able to play ball at school ... then the cheerleading can cheer on her!!

Just Because

Wanted to post these pictures just because I loved them ... it is amazing how much Andrew has grown this past year ... watching him pitch this past week really hit me hard .. he is a big boy. Only 18 months away from entering high school ... but he is still such a sweet one to me!!

Meritas Games

So Andrew participated in the coolest event at school last week!! Our school is owned by Meritas Family of Schools (the have 10 schools worldwide). Our school hosted the first annual Meritas Games ... athletes from all the other schools traveled to Orlando, stayed on Disney property and competed in a bunch of events (baseball, swimming, tennis, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and track and field). Wednesday night they had the opening ceremonies at the baseball field at Wide World of Sports with a parade of teams, music, school spirit, fireworks and an appearance from Mickey himself.

Andrew participated in baseball and basketball. Being a new school with infant sports programs ... we did not expect to win any of the events or games. But our baseball team came from a 1 to 9 deficit in the final inning of our 1st game and we won 10 to 9. We won an additional game and played in the semifinals. Andrew pitched a 10 - 0 shutout, no hitter ... it was very exciting. He also played on the basketball team ... we lost all of our games and were about 14 - 18 inches shorter than the rest of the teams. The games were for 6, 7 and 8th graders ... but for some reason, no 8th graders from our school signed up. We definitely needed them in the height category.

Sean and I spent all day Thursday at the Wide World of Sports (the venue for the first day ... Andrew actually got to pitch for the first time on the "big field" at CrackerJack stadium where the Atlanta Braves play their preseason games!) and then all day Friday on campus. It truly was an amazing two days full of beautiful weather, tons of sports, team spirit and another confirmation to us that the kids are in the right place for their education.

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a lot of fun at Oma and Pawpy's house this Thanksgiving. We were very relaxed ... played outside, ate tons of Oma's yummy cooking, watched football, the kids went to see Bolt, Mom and Oma did some shopping, Sean took the boys to a high school football game on Friday night, Oma chased William all over her house trying to keep him safe and then we spent Saturday at the beach. We really need some relaxation and it was wonderful.