Happy Valentine's Day from the Quints!

Poor Seth, caught drawing his lower lip over his lower teeth. I don't know WHY the photographer didn't do an immediate retake! (Alas, the opportunity for retakes expired before we saw the photos.) 

Some photos from the past month and some funny quint quotes

I'm sure some of the quotes at the end of this post are ones I've shared before, but they still make me chuckle, plus we've had some new funny quotes the past couple of days.

Now for the month's photos, some from Texas and some from California:

Poor Daddy got sick with our N.C. cold! My sister and I tried to hug him all better!

Mom and me

Matching cousin PJ's! Only Gracie and David went on to CA with Gavin, so Marcie wasn't in this photo although she has the matching pair of soft footed pajamas.

In front of the CA family cabin's fireplace on New Year's Day

David learning archery!

In front of the family cabin - great memories here!

Taken while visiting with friends from Gavin's LeTourneau days

With our LeTourneau friends, trying to recreate the photo below. The kids have grown a little!

Will is our unintentionally funniest child, so the majority of these quotes are by him. He's just a quirky kid!:

Back in June, I asked Will to hold a box of cereal for me to help us carry everything through the terminal. His response: “No! I don’t want to hold it because then it will make me want to eat it and I don’t like it.”

In August, while traveling and staying at cousin Julie's house: “Mommy, are the pretend monsters that aren’t real not going to come into this room tonight?”

"No, buddy, the pretend monsters that aren’t real are not going to come into this room tonight" - trying not to laugh

“What about the other kind of monsters? Are they going to come into this room tonight?”

"No, no monsters are going to come into this room tonight."

Then . . . 

“What about all the other rooms?”

In November, regarding his toddler cousin who is small for her age but extremely verbal: "Hey, she can speak like a real human!"

Seth's quote from yesterday: 

“Mommy, were there any kind dinosaurs?”

“Well, yes, in the garden of Eden they were all kind.”

“But what about in the real world, not Eden? Was Argentinosaurus kind?”

“Yes, I think they probably were kind because I think they ate plants.”

“Maybe they were kind, but maybe sometimes they stepped on a paleontologist on accident and squished him because they didn’t see the paleontologist."

And David's from last night while getting ready for bed:

“Mom, none of these days are the best day of my life!” 

“Well buddy, it’s okay that not every day is the best one of your life.”

“But these days are all the worst days of my life!”

“Why are they the worst days? You’ve gotten to do lots of fun things today - children’s church [which they love], watching God stories on TV, playing at community group, and eating pizza! Lots of kids would be happy to do even one of those fun things!”

“It’s you and Daddy who make these the worst days of my life! You keep doing things that make me cry!”

“Like what, buddy?”

“Like telling me to give Marcie's snow tiger back to her!"

(WORST. PARENTS. EVER. I hope his future therapist laughs him out of her office . . . ) ;)

Keeping Up With The Joneses - December 2018

Blue Ridge Mountains with Marmi and Papa

This is from a few weeks ago when Marmi and Papa came to visit, hooray!

Marmi and Isaac

Marmi supervising the girls' fun climbing up a rock slab.

Marmi and Papa

David, Seth, Will and Grace

Marcie tends to do her own thing while the others cluster together.

King and Queen of the Mountain, Seth and Gracie

Seth and Will, and yes, they are far away from the edge! It looks closer than it is.
(I get emails from concerned individuals when I post photos like this!)

Sweet baby Gracie

This photo of Seth's face looks like when he was a baby. I love it.

Gracie

Daddy and David

Papa and Gracie and Will

I thought Gracie's eyes were from being a preemie,
but they're from my Great Aunt  Alice (right)

Thanksgiving in Tennessee

Poor Seth wasn't feeling well the whole time (he had that unknown tummy pain), so he's not in ANY photos except this one with my dad holding him! It was a COLD day, so we were glad to shelter for a while in the snack bar of the Falls Creek State Park. My sister's darling kids Foster and Eloise sitting with them too.

Gracie loved to help Eloise get around. Elo loved it too!

Foster and our boys really enjoy playing together!

Stretching a buck (and lessening the sugar/dye intake) :) 

Making a leaf pile with Eloise, Foster, Will, Gracie and David

Aunt Courtney joins the fun with her little girl (front center). We have such fun siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins!

There were lots of cool rock areas for David to play in

I LOVE THIS PHOTO OF GRACIE! She loves to listen to "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" as she is missing both of hers. It's so cute and gives her the most darling speech impediment. :)

We hiked to visit a couple of waterfalls - this is Falls Creek Falls

Gracie "helping" Eloise and Foster again

David and Dad in front of the water hole and Ozone Fall

Marcie keeping warm

The kids made good use of my brother in the swimming pool at their motel. :) He's a champ!

Reading the children's Bible to Eloise. These moments are never enough to satiate, but I'm awfully grateful for each one!

There also  isn't enough time on furlough to enjoy all the coffee I'd like to with my mom/best friend!

Seth is great now! Plus some fun run photos

Thanks for praying! He didn't end up having the scan, which was a blessing monetarily as he's stopped having symptoms and apparently doesn't need one! I guess it was just some type of infection with a strange lack of symptoms (other than pain) that raised his white cell count (to 16,000!) and took a long time to clear up fully. Thank God no one else got it! I'm so grateful for all the prayers and wish I'd asked earlier. The power of prayer always awes me! God is so good and gracious - even when His answer is no. I'm glad it was a yes this time. MUCH better sleep makes for a much happier Mommy and Daddy and kids!

Here are some photos from the kids' Fun Run fundraiser* at school the week of Thanksgiving:

Just after this photo Seth stopped running and said his tummy was hurting. This was the beginning of the drama and ended with a trip to Urgent Care Tuesday night. :(

At this point the "fun run" had become a walk in which they wanted Mom to join. But they still loved it!

Gail Boemker took this photo. She spend the first Christmas the quints were home (minus Seth) with us, helping out BIG TIME. She held Marcie all Christmas dinner, if I recall correctly. She was getting teary-eyed watching these miracle babies run their Fun Run laps! 

*Sponsored by Miss Anita and Mr. Jon, Aunt Lynnette, and Aunt Fay and Uncle Jim! THANKS!!