Babysitting in the Milano House

I HATE to use the tv as a babysitter, but sometimes, especially with finals approaching and being home with all 5 kids by myself and needing to get studying done, it's the only way. Thank goodness for a 2 hour Incredibles movie!!!!

Lego Boys

My boys LOVE legos. Seth is constantly asking for more sets and will spend hours building and creating amazingly odd contraptions and space vehicles. Micah got his first set for his birthday and now Jacob is into them. The other night I came upstairs and found Seth and Jacob building...TOGETHER! (odd occurance in my house for these two to do much together since there is such an age difference).

Bathtime Fun

Tonight, while getting his bath, Jacob found David's play shaving stuff in the bathtub. He was so excited to try it so I got some of my shaving cream and let him play with it, to see what he would do. It was so cute! Needless to say, bathtime turned into some fun photos.






Next Came a Long Conversation with Rex (or as Jacob calls him "Rexie".)



Next he pretended to Swim. Love the smiles!



Lastly, "Mr Independent" brushed his teeth for bed...and don't forget the tongue!

The kids have started school....

...and I really need to keep up on this blog better now! We had a rough summer. The middle of July, our nanny, who's been with us for 2 years, just up and left us. We still don't know the entire truth behind why she left, but she told us she she had a job offer (which was a lie, but whatever) and that she needed to make her own way. She showed up at the house, with MY garbage bags and 7 of her friends, and moved out. It threw Tim and I into a whirlwind of emotions, planning, trying to figure out what to do next. We had just finished our first week of our quarter and so really were at a loss. It's not easy to find childcare for 5 kids, let alone so quickly. Fortunately, family was a big help. Tim and I left Monday night and drove to Lexington, KY were we met my dad and my brother-in-law who took the kids the rest of the way to Michigan. While in Michigan they alternated between my parents, my sister and Tim's parents, spending the weekend with my family and the middle of the week with Tim's family. While they were there, Tim and I raced to come up with a plan. We started looking for a house closer to the school and moved. The kids came back to Georgia the weekend before starting in their new schools, which by the way are AWESOME schools. They are some of the top schools in the state and have so many programs for the kids. Seth auditioned for the band and had high rankings in every single instrument. They told us that he has a natural ability for music and that just about every instrument he picked up, he was able to play, and many sounded like he'd been playing for years. A lot of kids couldn't get sound out of some of the instruments but he got not only sound but actual notes and tone out of every one. He excelled at the bassoon and percussion though and we were told he had an innate rhythm. He picked percussion as his first choice, bassoon as his 2nd and alto sax as his third, and came HIGHLY recommended on percussion and bassoon. He was chosen to play percussion and is currently working on the bells and will be learning drums soon.
Mikayla was asked early in the 2nd week to try out for the Aristocats musical they are putting on. She has auditions this next week so I'll keep everyone posted on the results. Her teacher had heard that she has competed in Odessey of the Mind the last two years and likes that she has experience with drama.
Katelyn and Micah both are doing well with the adjustments and making great strides. Micah is learning to write his letters and Katelyn is mostly in review right now but doing excellent with it.
Mikayla has already had her first field trip. It was with her accelerated class and was to the water treatment plant. They are learning about how water is used and the importance of it and in the next couple of weeks they will doing a project called Water Kids where they will be testing and monitoring (monthly) the pond in our subdivision. It's a great program (and sure beats the "Cowboy theme" her last school had. It's a great experience for her and a great program.

Anyways, that about sums up the first couple weeks of school. I will do better with updating this. It seems that almost daily there is something now to write about so it should be much more active. :)


Mikayla (3rd grade), Katelyn (2nd grade) & Micah (Kindergarten)


Seth...the big middle schooler


Micah outside his Kindergarten room


Micah at his desk

Micah's Birthday

It's been a while since I've posted to this blog, but now that the kids are in school, it seems there is a ton that can be written about, pretty much daily. I'll start out by writing about Micah's birthday. It's always different being down here with no family around to celebrate with us. Our school had free tickets to the Atlanta Braves game for that same day so the boys all spent the day at Turner Field, cheering the Braves to a win over the Florida Marlins! He had so much fun at his first baseball game!

This year we had Jamie & David living with us though so we had a nice little party for him. We also had some friends of Jamie's over too so it was a good little group of people. Micah had wanted a dirt cake, so it can't get much easier than that when it comes to baking!! Grandma & Papa had bought him his present (Better Batter Baseball) when Granmda was here in June. We bought him his first lego set, a big dinosaur floor puzzle, a really cool lazer gun thing (which I actually bought 2 of so we could avoid fighting!!), some transformers and a nap mat for school. He also got his first baseball glove, a digital camera, Spiderman coloring books and a few little things.

Happy Birthday to my 5 year old!!!


Seats right on the 1st base line.


A dad and his boys!


Seth & Micah


Birthday Boy!


Micah and his baseball glove