Woohoo!

My TWS is finished and sent in!  It's like the huge project that everyone has to do to graduate and it's done, done, done!  Can you tell I'm excited?  I wanted to work on it gradually and it totally didn't happen.  Funnily enough, I wanted to be able to give my kids the attention they needed.  I managed to do that today, even when it was crunch time and the only reason I could was because Scott was there to help with the kids and then my sisters came and got most of the kids, so Scott, Josh and I went out and took a break and then my parents fed us.  My family is GREAT!  My sister gave (Gave!  She's so awesome! And I'm so grateful!) us the money we need to pay bills and get gas (you know, the important things)!  So sweet!  It was such a relief for me that I just sobbed afterwards!  I had no idea how I was going to pay the bills!  I'm so ready to start applying for jobs, and can't, because I'm waiting on another reference letter.  I hope I get it soon, but I really don't want to bug anyone for a reference letter.  It might not turn out well!
On to my kiddos!  I'm pretty sure Josh is getting another tooth in, but he's doing well with it.  He's pulling himself up without a problem and starting to walk with a little help.  He cruises on the edges of things and can stand for a few seconds on his own.  It won't be long!  Although I'm desperately hoping I get to see it!  Cecilia is adorable with her curly-haired self.  She is getting awesome at talking and will talk in full sentences!  I'm excited, because the last couple of girls didn't talk well until much later!  Apparently Cecilia doesn't want Kira talking for her.  She's all about electronics and Elmo!  She will gladly tell us her happy thing every night and it's usually Elmo!
Leah is such a Daddy's Girl!  It's cute, but sometimes I feel bad for poor Scott!  She wants to snuggle with him, sleep with him, get piggyback rides from him...  She's such a snuggly little girl!  She's getting a lot more independent and I'm looking forward to when she can buckle her seatbelt by herself!  She's getting there!
Emma desperately wants to be noticed and is quite the artist.  She is all about quantity, and I have a TON of cute drawings from EMMA WESTHOFF to Mommy WESTHOFF.  She still writes in caps.  I'm working on it.
Kira is loving being nine!  She's getting awesome at doing her chore and getting her homework done, so she can watch something on netflix.  She also loves doing extra chores, so she can pick a prize from the box.  She and Emma both got miss Quiet time to spend time with a parent today.  So, they got watermelon and got to play outside!  Very happy campers!
Ben loves to read and especially loves Dino Squad!  He was thrilled when we found it on Netflix!  I'm not looking forward to the day that he runs out of episodes!  He is expensive to keep in books, but luckily he has rediscovered some books in our garage bookshelf and is a pretty happy camper!  Phew!
Pictures!

 After Emma threw two skeeballs into the other lane!

 Isn't she pretty?

 He just turns and cheeses, no problem!

We've been doing this for years.  It is one of our traditions!