Stress and Sleepovers

The last few days have been wild around here! We have some friends that have a little boy with DS who is five months old. Bless his heart, he has had some medical issues lately that have landed him back in the hospital. So, his big siblings (ages 1 and 3) have been with us over the past couple of days and even had a sleepover last night!

Hope loves her little vanity set and it was certainly popular with all three little ones!

CHEESE!

During the day I had 2 one year olds, and a three year old. They are so well-adjusted and did not mind at all staying here.

Kyle and his friend Caleb really enjoyed hanging out with their littlest boy. Kyle was sooo sweet with him and he really seemed to like Kyle. It was one of the those times that my oldest stepped up big time and was the mature helper:)

Kyle and Caleb even worked on a big puzzle because the kids got out of school early due to.......

SNOW! Yesterday a big winter storm came faster and stronger than anyone expected and the kids got out of school early. The dismissal was stressful and scary for us all and I think my husband got a few extra grey hairs yeseterday. The storm was not expected to come until the afternoon and Mike called school to get out at 11 a.m. Unfortunately the snow came hard and fast starting at 10 a.m. which meant buses were carrying kids home on snow-covered roads. Not good for Mike's stress level. Finally around 3:00 all the kids were safely home and all was well. Poor sweet Mike-he is taking a beating for this one, but he can only make a call based on the weather forecast and yesterday the storm came a few hours earlier than anyone predicted.

So while the kiddos played, I obsessively checked the weather forecast, prayed, checked the weather cams and then prayed some more. Because of the weather, it was one of the longest days of my life.

Then when every bus had made it back safely and all the kiddos were accounted for, Mike came home to some homemade potato soup (I will post the recipe because it was awesome and so easy. If you can chop a potato then you can make this soup) and grilled cheese sandwiches. We fed all five children and then we started putting them to sleep. By 9:30 me and all the children were SOUND asleep!

Today the kiddos are off today for snow day #16 and our little visitors are gone. Please pray for their little baby in the hospital-his name is Benji. He is possibly having surgery over the next few days and their family really could use the prayers.

Tonight we have our Upwards banquet to celebrate the Upward basketball season!! We did meet some friends at McDonald's for lunch today. The kids ran out their energy and I got some adult conversation with some ladies!