SNOW!!!!!

Today was supposed to be a super busy day.  To begin with Justin and I were going to run a 5K for Feed the Need (connecticut food bank), then after cleaning the house Joseph's friends were going to come over to finish making a paper mache bugs bunny head for the scarecrow they are making for school.  Then the boys were supposed to have a soccer game at 4:00 and then the trunk or treat at the church at 6:00. 

Well, we made it to the 5k, and it was FREEZING!!!  But, we ran hard and had a nice time.  We got t shirts and free bread. yum!  Then when we got back we cleaned a little and the boys came over to finish the bugs bunny head.  It turned out awesome and then it started snowing, not just a little, it was really downpouring.  The kids of course had to run out and go sledding.  It was amazing that in just an hour there was enough snow to go sledding.  The kids had a great time, but that's when the whole day started to change.  Because of the snow the soccer game was cancelled and sadly so was the trunk or treat.  The roads were pretty slick and power outtages were forcast, so it turned into a nice slow afternoon.  We ate the chili and cornbread I was bringing to the chili cookoff and opened a bag of candy and watched a nice family flick.  I was able to finish a halloween table runner that I didn't think I would get done before Halloween (YAY!)  The kids were sad to miss the trunk or treat, but at least they get to go trick or treating this year!  Plus, I'm super excited I got my Halloween table runner done.  I've been feeling crafty as of late, and it's nice that I was actually able to finish a few things. 

So October is also big item pick up day which has been really profitable for me.  It's been exciting becasue we were able to get a beautiful oak entertainment center for the basement, a desk for Samantha's room, and several old windows that I'm going to make into wall hangings for our house.  I'm super excited for that project.  I'm almost done painting Sam's desk so we can put it in her room.  We finally moved all of the toys to the basement and her room is kind of looking a little more grown up.  I love it and can't wait to get the desk in.  I'm also refinishing one of the windows and putting cork in one of the sides to make it ino bulletin board for her.  I'm so excited. 

Summer's greatest hits

So today as I was helping Samantha take out the garbage it actually started snowing!!  SNOWING!!!  I just barely convinced the kids that they can't go to school in shorts any more.  Winter is sneaking up on me way too fast.  Anyway, I figured it was time to finally post the last of our summer pictures.

This first series is a group of pictures that the kids took one day when they were bored.  They were pretending to be super heroes and took pictures showing their super powers. 

 Michelle is super strong.  See how her fist of fury knocks Joseph right out!

 Samantha is water woman.  She controls water. 

 Joseph can fly!

The kids played A LOT on the trampoline this summer.  Unfortunately, it ripped just recently and we had to take it down until we can get it fixed.  Bummer!  But it's allowed the kids to remember that they like to do other outside activities like ride bikes and scooters too.  Also, since it's been down, I haven't had to referee all the neighbor kids (and my kids) who like to play rough games on the tramp. 

A big highlight of the summer was the marriage of Justin's youngest sister Kristy to James Wilcox.  It was a fast and furious weekend drive to DC to the wedding and back, but a lot of fun.  We left Nathan, Michelle and John at Aunt Maia's house in New Jersey and headed over to DC with Samantha, Joseph, and Kate.  It was nice to have such a small group of kids.  The wedding was beautiful and even though it rained for pictures, we all had a nice time.  We didn't meet James until the actual wedding and really haven't had a chance to really get to know anything about him.  However, they seem to be doing well.

 Kristy and James and all of the kids who were there. 

 Kristy and her bridesmaids.  So cute!!!!!!

Another summer event: riding a ripstick downhill = 8 hours in the ER, 6 stictches, 4 large scrapes, and a huge bruise on the hip.  All this happened on my Birthday.  At least Justin was able to get home from work to take him to the ER. 

 Joey's chin (stitches

 Bruise on the hip.  This is what took the longest time.  They were worried that he might have some trauma in his innards because Xrays showed that he had fluid in his body cavity.  Luckily it was nothing, but they had to wait for the trauma team to come to verify that everything was OK.

Lots of random picture taking by my kids.  I have millions of extreme close up body shots.  Mainly eyes, lips and fingers. 

It all ends with the climax of the first day of school.  Here's all the kids outside ready to go to school!!  Goodbye summer!

Stoker Family Reunion

 In August we had our Stoker family reunion.  We went to the Yale Outdoor Education Center for this reunion.  We rented one cabin that my parents and Maia and Kendall shared and then Matt and Colleen and my family both brought tents.  It's a really beautiful facility with a lake and kayaks and rowboats that you can use.  We took a few day trips to the Groton submarine, Gillette castle, and Newport RI to see the cliff walk.    We even stopped in Mystic for a picnic lunch and watched some ships pass through a draw bridge.  When we weren't sightseeing we were watching the kids swim in the lake and play at the beach.  They also loved kayaking and were able to kayak across the lake to where a bunch of wild blueberries were growing and picked a few.  It's always great to get the family together and this was one of those great times

 Here is Brigham by the slide.  He was in love with a certain john deere tractor/4 wheeler that he loved to find and climb into.  Poor Maia had to work to keep him out of it.  He was a pretty busy guy and loved playing in the water.  

 Michelle, Maia, Kendall, and Brigham at the submarine museum.

 Samantha and Nathan pretending to use a big gun at the Groton museum.

 Michelle, Samantha, Nathan, and Joseph in front of the Submarine.

 Ranger Rick, the racoon that kept getting into our garbage.  I think the others had different nicknames for him.

One of the goats by our cabin.  The kids had a lot of fun feeding him.  For some reason I neglected to take any more pictures, so this is what you get.  Unfortunately, Justin had to work so he missed out on most of the day trips and we only saw him in the wee hours of the morning and night.  But we had fun with him on Saturday and Sunday.  I was so grateful that he came out each evening to be with us.  As for me and my family, we were set up pretty nicely in our tent.  Justin and I have a big blow up mattress and it was so comfortable.  The weather at night was perfect, not too hot or too cold in the tent.  It was a great week.

Michelle My Belle

 We love our Michelle.  I've been meaning to write a post about her here for a while.  For the past year she has been a cat.  As you can tell, the cat costume (that is a 2T) is getting a little small.  She actually had two that were the same size.  She loves that costume and has worn it all over, to preschool, to the grocery store, to the library.  However, it's time to say goodbye.  I actually tried to make a pillow pet out of one of the costumes for her birthday ( I wanted to save the other one for Kate) but maybe it's just time to get rid of them both. 

 Fierce Michelle the king of the cats. 

 Michelle also loves to wear all sorts of non traditional outfits.  Here she is on the first day of preschool sporting pink cowboy boots and shorts.  She called herself "pink cowboy/black shorts cat".  Her other favorite was a pair of rainbow striped pants.  Mistakely last week I decided to take her shopping to find some new clothes that both of us could agree on that 1. matched and 2. looked nice.  We came back with a pink zebra shirt and black and white zebra pants, and a cheetah shirt with black pants.  Wow, that was kind of a backfire, at least the 2nd outfit matches.  Those outfits were a compromise, For some reason she is really drawn to bright colors, rainbows, and animal prints.  And of course, never a dress.

Despite her crazy dress choices, we sure love Michelle.  She's a lot of fun and has lots of good friends.

Michelle with her best friend Anna on the tractor ride at Norton Farms. 

Happy Birthday Michelle and Kate!

Ok, I know what you're thinking, "Aren't their birthdays in like July or something?"  yes they are.  However, that doesn't stop me from posting about it now.  We had a fantastic time at cosey beach in East Haven with lots of cupcakes and friends and balloons.  I love the beach.  It's probably my #1 favorite place to take kids during the summer, so when Michelle said she wanted her party at the beach it was a no brainer.  No cleaning the house, no having to plan a million silly games that no one wants to play, No worrying about if there will be too many kids to fit in the house.  I now want to have all of our birthday parties there.  It truly was a fabulous day!   

 Kate with her 1st birthday cupcake.

 Michelle blowing out her candles.

 Michelle and Kate.  They are such sweet sisters.  Kate has a rocking doo.  Her hair is so funny.  I love it!

 Kate loves to eat sand.  I kept having to get it out of her mouth. 

The kids jumping the waves! 

Reunion pictures

So I finally got the pictures back from our reunion and just wanted to post a few. The new picture in our header is from that photo shoot as well. Like I said before, we just don't do serious very well.

older girl cousins

younger girl cousins

All the grandkids in birth order. The best is John right beside Sasha, there's just a little height difference!

The boy cousins flexing their muscles

The whole family

Rowberry Reunion

So the last week in June we were in charge of the Rowberry reunion. It was so fun to see everyone in Justin's family. Almost everyone made (except uncle John) who was missed by all. We camped out at camp cedar crest. It has cabins, but was still pretty rustic. I think the kids probably had the best time. It was so neat to see them getting so old! The older boys and girls were able to sleep in their own respective cabins and really have a great time bonding with each other. I should be getting some pictures soon, but didn't manage to actually take any on my camera (story of my life). Here are some of the things we did:

-hike to the castle on sleeping giant and did some geocaching
-went to Hammonassett beach and nature center
-had a 5k in the rain
-took family pictures
-had an adult night out at Coromandel
- had a talent show and testimony meeting
-watched an outdoor movie with glow sticks
-had a camp fire
-cut lots of vinyl signs on the cricket
- played games and talked

It was a lot of fun. Mostly I'm grateful for the good attitudes. The camp was a bit dirtier than I had remembered and the showers were really tempramental and didn't really work great, the nights were colder than anticipated and it rained two of the days, but despite all of these things everyone seemed to have a good time and just enjoyed being together. Thanks to everyone for coming!

Mother's day pictures

So on mother's day I used my rights as mom and forced all of my children to dress up and get pictures taken. Needless to say it's not their favorite activity, but I really like to take pictures of them. Here is our mother's day feast: A picnic of freezer burritos in our luscious back yard.

Michelle

Nathan, he was hilarious. I couldn't get him to give me a normal smile and he ran up and changed into play clothes while I wasn't looking.

gangsta Nate

Blue steele. His attempt at a model face.

Samantha on the tire swing.

Samantha.

Samantha

John

Joseph

All the kids plus a crying baby on the trampoline.

The boys minus Nathan.

The girls.

Kate

The girls taken by Joey.

NEW CAR!

So, at the beginning of the year I had a goal of posting new things here at least once a month. I did pretty well until May, and then it all went to pot. To begin with, some time around the last week in April our minivan died. I was driving all over the countryside trying to round up applications for cub scout day camp so that we could get the early bird discount when my car just died at a stop light in the middle of Ansonia. I got some strangers to help me pull off the road and waited for Justin to save me. That was about the 5th time that had happened this year and I was just done. So, we started car shopping. There really weren't a lot of options out there for large families. Having lived with a minivan for the last 5 years I was sure I was done with those, just not enough space. That only left 12 passenger vans and large SUV's. THough the SUV's were definately cooler, they still didn't allow us to haul any extra kids. So we bought a 2008 Ford E350.

We were loving the extra space, but kind of hating parking and driving next to semis . . . fast forward 2 weeks and the transmission started going out. What. . . WHAT!! I just paid tons of money for a new car so I wouldn't have to deal with these problems any more!! Luckily the car was under warranty, so we took it in. Ford of course had to fix everything before they finally were able to really pin point the problem. It took 6 WEEKS for us to get our car back. Luckily we got to drive a cute little chevy traverse during that time that the dealership paid for. It was annoying but in some ways it was kind of good to remember why exactly we had decided to go big. We've had our big van back for 2 weeks now and it's great to have the extra room. I was able to drive all the boys in our pack to cub scout day camp (and my extra kids). Also, we were able to take some friends with us to Rhode Island on Friday for a fun beach day. It was great! I think we made the right choice.

Anyway, back to my original point. My camera was in the van while it was being fixed so I couldn't post any new pictures. For what ever reason I can't seem to make myself post anything without pictures so that's why I had such a long absence. Hopefully from now on I will be able to keep up my once a month posting schedule.

Spring Break!!

We just got back from spring break, and it was wonderful! We took a little trip up the coast to Newport, Plymouth and Boston. It was a lot of fun! I think everyone had a great time. The first day we explored some beaches in connecticut and Rhode Island and visited the Nautilus which is the first nuclear submarine. It has been turned into a museum and is free to the public in Groton, CT just outside the naval base there. It was really interesting. We didn't get any pictures the first day because we got a new camera and were waiting for the battery to charge. The beaches were really cold.We ended the night at a hotel in Newport. The kids were so excited to be in the hotel room. Michelle was especially mesmerized by the mini fridge.
The continental breakfast each morning was a favorite of the kids. You would of thought we were dining at a super fancy restaurant. They loved it.

Day 2: The Cliff walk and Breakers (the Vanderbilt mansion). I loved Newport. It was my favorite day. I think eveyone else really enjoyed it too. The next couple of pictures are views from the cliff walk. It is a 3-4 mile trail that has breathtaking cliffside views on one side and spectacular mansions on the other. It was truly remarkable. The only bad thing is that at one point there is a 2mile section where you can't exit the trail because you would be tresspassing on private property and they have fences etc. At that point Samantha had to go to the bathroom and so she and Justin hurried off to find a bathroom. Me and the other kids followed but at a much slower rate. There are a few spots where the trial gets a little treacherous and I probably would have turned back, but we wanted to catch up to Justin and Samantha. Thankfully Joey and John were really helpful with the little kids. John gave Michelle a piggy back ride and Joey walked right by Nathan and made sure he didn't slip on any rocks or stray off the path. Nathan was pretty obedient.

After the long but beautiful walk we made it to the breakers. It is the largest mansion in Newport and belonged to the Vanderbilt's. They had a great family tour. Each of us got our own headset and was able to go on the tour at our own speed. The kids did surprizingly well. I was nervous that we would have to leave and that the kids wouldn't behave, but they did great and seemed to really enjoy the tour.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but as you can see the building is very large and impressive.

Family picture on a tree outside the breakers. After our day in Newport we hopped in the car and drove to Plymout so that we could rest for the next days adventure. The hotel there had a pool, but the heater didn't work well. The older boys were the only ones brave enough to really swim. The other kids "swam" in the bathtub in the hotel room.

We ended the night with a disney channel movie "Lemonade mouth".

Day 3: The Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation. Plymouth plantation was really interesting. They have a whole village laid out just as it was in 1627 and right next to it there is an Indian village. The people in the village all adopted a character and would talk as if they were in 1627. It was great! The people were so amazing and it was fun to learn about history at that time.

The "moo-flower"

A Wampanaug Indian home. This is a winter home. It was pretty warm inside.

THis is one of their summer homes.

Inside the summer home.

THe English fort and main street into the village.

Houses in the English village.

The cannons in the fort.

The "little" kids with their happy meal hats on their heads.

Samantha and Michelle on the Mayflower.

Katie

Nathan's birthday dinner at IHOP

Birthday cupcakes (ding dongs) at the hotel.

Birthday spankings! Don't you wish you were in the room next to us?

John, Kate and Nate!

The hotel in Boston. It had a great pool. Justin took the kids swimming while I went to the temple, then I took them to the science museum while he went to the temple.

Family bike ride on the farmington canal on good Friday.

Brooksvale park. THe destination for our bike ride.

The peacocks at Brooksvale.
IT was a great spring break. Sad to see it over. Happy Easter to all!