Happy Anniversary!

Today is our anniversary, 11 years! Wow! We had Grandma Joddy and Grandpa Steve come over to babysit and went out to dinner. Wesley was wondering when the anniversary party was going to start. He is always looking for a reason to have a party. He also told me that I was not dressed for the occasion and should put on something "more fancy".

After the gang was settled with their happy meals, Jerry and I headed to Fratello's on the Fox River. We had gone to the Fratello's in Oshkosh when we went to the homeschool convention this spring and enjoyed it. It is pretty much set up the same here in Green Bay. I HIGHLY recommend their homemade root beer! It is so good! We sat out on the patio, enjoying the nice weather and the live music. It was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be (Jer and Roz tried to warn me) but we got there early enough it wasn't a problem.

Got home in time to put the boys to bed. No late nights for this ticking time bomb! After Wednesday's "scare" things have settled down some. I am still having occasional contractions but I the doctor said I'll just have to live with that for now. Tomorrow I will be 35 weeks! [I'm sure you noticed...I moved my little countdown ticker from the bottom of the blog page to the top so we can all see it better!] Everyday makes a difference! Continue to keep us in your prayers for a safe (& quick!) full term delivery.

Four Boys

My Great Uncle Bob was visiting my parents this past week. He is my dad's father's brother...got that?!? Uncle Bob was full of stories about his growing up years (1930's) in Sheboygan and I enjoyed listening to him during our short visit. This weekend, my dad's brothers (my uncles) came in to visit with Uncle Bob as well. In fact, my Uncle Jim flew in from Virginia and surprised everyone! Being the genealogy buff I am, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to see all four brothers together with Uncle Bob so Jerry drove all of us up to my parents for a quick visit. While we were there we took a picture that will go down in my personal photo Hall of Fame. My Grandma La (Dad's mom) had four boys and I have four boys (for now anyway!)...so we lined up both sets in order of birth and took a picture! My boys cooperated better than usual and although none of them were really smiling at least no one was covering their face with their hands or anything. The older four brothers behaved very nicely (and smiled too!) although many groans were heard as they tried to get off their knees and stand up!

Pictured above:
The McCormack Brothers: Jim, Jerry, Denny, and Tyler AND
The Shown Brothers: Wesley, Eli, Justus, and Hayden

Think Pink!!!

No...not what you're thinking...this has nothing to do with baby #6!!! This last weekend was the Pink Flamingo!! For those of you who don't know, it is a charity softball tournament turned city reunion at the park down the street from our house. We enjoy the parade each year as it comes right down our street! It is a great parade, short and sweet. Jerry loves it (he calls the Memorial Day parade the "never ending parade"). The parade consists of homemade team floats filled with a lot of people in pink.

You have two options for the parade you can chose to get a ton of candy or you can chose to have water fights with those on the floats. Our side of the street is a dry (candy) zone. My nephews Carter and John chose the wet zone across the street...and got SOAKED! We ended up with one and a half ice cream pails of candy! I took all the hard candies out for Jer to take to work and still had a whole gallon bucket! Of course, the boys had a blast. Eli was practically dancing in the street he was so excited. Grandma Molly and Pop Pop were able to join us for the festivities this year. Grandma Molly was lucky enough to get a bag of fried chicken from the Swan Club float! Never had that in years past! Thankfully, there were 5 or 6 pieces in there and she was willing to share! It was some tasty chicken too!




For the first time they had a 5K run right before the parade so we went out there a little early and cheered on the runners. Our house was the 3 mile mark so we hung a little sign on the tree that said: "3 Miles...Way to Go!!" along with a pink flamingo Wesley colored. We also hung some flamingos we colored on the front door. On Saturday night, we went down to the park to eat some Pink Flamingo food. Pop Pop and Grandma Molly came along and Abby, John, and family met us down there too! The boys enjoyed their hot dogs while Jerry and I munched on the walking tacos. We also just had to go and to see the helicopter (another new thing this year). A helicopter hovered over the park and dropped 4,000 pink ping pong balls with prizes and coupons on them! It was pretty fun to watch.

After the dust settled, Jerry ended up winning a free drink, a pound of Seroogy's coffee, and a cash prize of a whopping $1 !!! We all got so excited when he came back with a ball that had a dollar sign on it thinking he had won something BIG...oh well, it bought a hot dog! Carter ended up winning a pound of Seroogy's chocolate. We also got a ball that is good for a "prize" at the Toy Box but we didn't go see what it is yet. So mark your calendars for mid-July next year and come enjoy the FUN!

Roz Church Mission Trip

For those of you that don't know Roz went on a church mission trip to Lodge Grass, Montana the last week of June. They drove 2 days in a loaded 15 passenger van, stopping at Mt. Rushmore on the way (see picture). Once in Montana they did various service projects. Roz spent two days at a kids camp with the children on the Crow Indian Reservation and two days painting a house for a local resident. The youth also had rotating kitchen duty and had to make a few meals. They were able to get in a few fun activities like swimming and hiking as well. After another 2 day drive they arrived home safely! They had a great time and hopefully made a difference during their short stay. A special thanks to all of you who helped send Roz with your financial donations to her youth group fund!!

Bay Beach

We went to Bay Beach with Pop Pop and Grandma Molly today. The weather was nice but it was pretty crowded. The boys had a great time! Hayden even went on a ride for the first time. He tried the boats first. Then a little later the fire trucks. He was a rather crabby since he missed his nap but still seemed to enjoy the rides at least. We've been keeping busy while the grandparents are visiting. I'll post some more pictures in the next few days...

Thanks Piggly Wiggly!

This is actually from a few days ago, but I didn't have time to upload the pictures until now. We don't do our regular shopping at Piggly Wiggly but will go there on occasion if we just need something quick. The boys LOVE to go there. When you go through the checkout they give the kids a token that can then be used to get a choking hazard...oops, I mean toy...out of a little machine. We have gotten all sorts of treasures: bouncy balls, baby lizards, sticky eyeballs, rings, etc. The new thing they have stocked is a candy stamper. You lick it and you can then stamp things. When you've had your fun then you just eat the whole thing. Actually, it works out better than one of the little toys that I end up having to throw away on the sly. Here is what the boys looked like after their ride home from Piggly Wiggly with their candy stampers in hand. Oh boy, was that fun! Took a good bit of scrubbing to get those off. Justus, since he had purple, looked like he had bruises all over! Wesley was looking like he was having breathing problems since he was blue around the lips. Eli had red and looked like he was bleeding. "Daddy, when can we go back to Piggly Wiggly?!?"