Hi, everybody! Raccoon here! I turned six in September! I’m having a great school year, ahead in my subjects, and starting to read a lot better, which is making things easier for Mom when it comes to school and reading my own directions for assignments. And right now Mom is happy for a little relief, as she is expecting #8 in early May!  We are so excited (and most of us are hoping for a girl)!

We last left off with Jan. 2017 birthdays, if I remember correctly, and it’s March of 2018… so… ahem! We are overdo on this update. A lot has happened, of course, since the last update. One of the hardest things is that Mommy’s Mom, Grandma M., died in September. We all miss her terribly, and things have been hard without her. Mom took her to San Diego (and Tijuana) for cancer treatment last May (photos of that below). Unfortunately, her nausea had already begun and only got worse, likely due to tumors forming near her stomach, so she was unable to swallow the necessary pills to help heal her cancer naturally. Despite everything, she had a very holy death, and for that we are grateful. Mom says to tell you all (everyone who knew and was praying) thank you for all the prayers, and for those who had Masses said for Grandma M. or contributed in other ways – THANK YOU!!!

Last Summer we got to go to Omaha twice to visit the Zoo and the Children’s Museum. Those are always a blast. Also, we had the first full family reunion (on Mom’s side) in about 15 years. Obviously most of the 38 grandchildren on that side have been born in those 15 years, so the final headcount was right at 50 with all the aunts, uncles, Grandma and Grandpa M. and Great-Grandpa M. We got some good pictures, so we will show off some those below. We will also throw in some Summer fun photos, birthday photos and a few random things, as well as a video or two. Enjoy the ride!

 

One of the things we got to do was go to Legoland, at Crown Center. It was so much fun! But we had a really good deal (a misprint on a coupon allowed ALL of us kids to get in free with 2 paying adults!). There were 3 rides, an indoor playland, lots of free-play legos, a laser maze, a karaoke machine and a lot more. We really had a blast. It was a mini vacation for us. And just for fun, here’s a picture of the “twins.” We all think it’s neat to dress alike.

Here’s Easter 2017 (so I hope the next post will be out soon with Easter 2018 upon us… probably not long after baby #8 is born).

 

Here’s Monkey with Dad and with Mom. He’s such a fun-loving guy. And just this month he potty-trained. He’s doing pretty well, very few accidents, though the first few days were rough!

Here’s Badger! He’s 3, going on 18 (always talking about what he wants to do when he grows up). We have all decided that he is possibly the most photogenic one in the family. We have several photos of him that just turned out amazing, even without trying to “frame” them or edit.

The next couple photos are also Badger – first with Grandpa C trying to make him look like a deer, and then a very patriotic one… I have to admit, Dad did set this one up and, not surprisingly, it was a success!

 

 

He sure loves American flags!

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s Rooster! He got to sit in the driver’s seat of the fire truck. The second photo is from the Omaha Zoo in the rainforest. He liked that parrot in the background. Rooster turned 5 in Jan.

 

You’ve already seen a few photos of me, so we will skip forward to Mouse, or Squeaker, as some of you may remember her. She smiles sweetly with Grandma C, and then smiles ABOUT a sweet that she got for her feast day. She has a great smile! She is just about to turn 8. Wow!

 

Bumblebee, AKA Turtlebee, proudly shows off some turnips we grew last summer (I guess we should have picked them a little sooner – oops!). The second shot is at the Omaha Zoo with a little tiny frog in the background. I can’t remember what he was called, but Turtlebee thought he was cute. She turned 9 not long ago, and can’t wait to be 10.

 

Dolphin, formerly known as Jr, took his turn being a deer. Then at the Omaha Zoo he tried to blend in with the tigers, stripes and all. He is 10, and starting to babysit one or two younger ones for very short periods every now and then. He’s really growing up fast.

Here are a few photos of Grandma M and family from last Summer, the first few taken at our house, the last few are from Mom and Grandma M’s trip to San Diego and Tijuana. As of this posting she’s been gone for almost 7 months. Hard to believe. We miss her so much!

Grandma and Grandpa M and every one of their progeny. Great Grandpa M, who just died in December at the age of 99, was also able to come, and is seated in front. He suffered severe trauma after falling and hitting his head on the concrete driveway. He died several days later. 

In the first San Diego photo we were visiting the original Mission San Diego. Dad’s brother, who lives in San Diego and played chauffeur and part-time host to us while we were there, photo-bombed Mom and Grandma, and it turned out to be quite funny. The second photo is from the coast, an area called La Jolla. Mom says the fresh air coming in from the sea was so nice. The last photo was taken on Point Loma, and what you can’t see behind Mom and Grandma very well is Tijuana and a section of coast called Silver Strand. That carrier in the background is the USS Teddy Roosevelt, heading out to sea.

Next we will display a bunch of Summer Fun photos, some from the Omaha Zoo, some from the KC Zoo, a few from the Children’s Museum in Omaha, and some from our own backyard or local park. We are posting a couple that are actually from 2016 — we just like them so much we couldn’t resist (the one of all of us on the firetruck, the one with the big, black train, and the two following that).

 

Weren’t those fun!? And now for a photo with one of our new, favorite people! Miss P. She has been so good to us, helping with some school and watching us kiddos while Mom runs errands sometimes. We can’t imagine life without her now that she’s a big part of it.

Here’s one from Christmas, followed by a few of Monkey, who has an affinity for wearing Dad’s hearing-protection. He’s so funny!

Here are a few from the Johnson County Museum’s children’s area. It’s like a mini town – so much fun to go and play pretend. Turtlebee got to deliver mail, the little boys went fishing, and I was hauling produce from garden to Farmer’s Market. Mouse enjoyed playing maternity nurse at the hospital, Monkey was the dishwasher at the restaurant, and Rooster was a fireman!

     

 

And now for a couple videos…

Turtlebee built a tower at the JoCo Museum and Heritage Center and Monkey knocked it down.

Badger recites his letters at under 3 years of age (Summer of 2017).

I hope you enjoyed this lengthy blog post. We are going to try to send another out very soon with photos from our trip to Science City at Union Station and Easter photos.  Then in another month or so we can send out photos of baby #8. Yay!

God bless and thanks for stopping by!