Great America!

I sit here after being at Great America for 10 hours. We had a good time with no incidents like last year. But we did have a puker, not cool. I was so proud of him for sticking it out and he ended up having a great time after his nap. Before I go to bed I wanted to share one of the funniest things that was said today, coming out of Red's mouth, of course, on the way home. J took his shoes off when we got in the van because he said they hurt. Then he says after smelling his feet. "My socks smell like cream cheese." Never a dull moment that's for sure :)

Family Reunion

Today was my dad's side big family reunion, you know the ones you go to and you don't know who most the people are because there are So. Many. People.They are second and third and so on cousins and in-laws and what not. It rained on us a bit and it was a little on the cooler side of things but fun was still had by all! I haven't been to one of the reunions for 4 years...the last year I went both my grandparents were alive and a few days later they were both gone. Anyways, before we ate lunch they take pictures. My grandpa had 7 siblings (but one passed at age 6) leaving 6 siblings in adulthood, so what they do is take a picture of the families by my grandpa and his siblings families. Are you following me? Each year it is a competition of the 7 families to see who has the most in attendance by the pictures. Most year's my grandpa's family wins because he and my grandma had 7 kids and they had over 25 grandkids who are now having kids and getting married. Not everyone comes but our family picture had at least 50 people (just counted 53!) and there were still 6 other extended families there! See tons of people :) After we ate they played softball and Monkey and GlamorGirl got in on the action. They did a great job and actually hit the ball several times! Here are some pictures from the day...

Monkey running home :)

GG batting with grandpa's help...

playing the outfield.

playing and eating cookies, so fun.

Peanut and Daddy playing

No pictures of me as I was the one taking the pictures!

Painting away boredom!

I had bought the kids bird houses for them to paint last summer but being lazy pregnant I just never got around to letting them paint. But after seeing how much fun they had and how easy it was letting them do it, meaning that they weren't that messy outside :) I have been looking for other things they can paint. Any ideas?

Look how fun!

The finished product...

Peanut playing with grass

Where's your nose?

I really don't love Peanut more then the other kids but she is just so photo genetic! And she's a baby :) I do have a lot more pictures of the other kids painting...but you get the idea.

This world...

it makes me so sad and so mad. We were in our living room with the front windows wide open playing our Wii. This mom was walking by with a child in a stroller and a little girl about a house behind her. The girl walks past our house and picks our flowers and then picks it apart after killing it then she proceeds to take my kids bug house that is in our yard. The kids play with this daily as they are so "into" bugs, example the inch worm. Here I am with the Wii controller around my wrist playing a game quickly pause the game and run outside with no shoes on and yell at the girl to bring our toy back. The mom turns around and just looks at me and says something to her daughter but I don't speak her language so I have no idea what she said. The girl walks to me and hands me the bug house. I was just so sad that this little girl doesn't know better. She was about 7 years old. And mad that my kids didn't pick up their toys like I asked them too. I should let their toys be taken next time, but this bug house was homemade and was a gift.

Michigan Trip...

I just wanted to document our trip to Michigan about two weeks ago. We went with J on his business trip and so it was me and the kids during the day and all of us at night. We had a great time. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip...but certainly not all of the pictures!

Peanut as Happy as can be :)

GG and Monkey swimming in the whirl pool.

Red giving me a big smile!

Daddy and all the kids...the start of a tradition with daddy.

Mommy and all the kids ~ a family tradition

Love this picture.

This one too! We were standing under the shower by the pool.

Look at those little fish.

Here I come...catch me daddy!

Surprise...I'm not sleeping :)

Water logged

Today was the first time that I daringly took the 4 kids to the pool by myself! Not only did I do it alone but we rode our bikes there, also. I laid some ground rules about what I expected from them and how I was going to need help from them when I needed to do things with the baby ie nurse her. We were there almost 3 hours. The first hour we were all in the pool and Peanut was in my new water sling. Then she was getting hungry and the three kids played by the slide while I nursed her. She ended up falling asleep and the kids played so well that she was able to sleep for about 30 minutes or so. When she woke up it was snack time. I treated the kids to a special treat of ice cream because they were being so good. Now Peanut and I had been out of water for about an hour at this point and we were getting dry. As I was standing in line Peanut started peeing and it went down my leg and on my feet. It was one the weirdest grossest feelings. Then we rode our bikes home and Red feel asleep, we skipped his normal nap time so we could swim. It worked out good because when J got home he wanted to take the kids to night swim. Where we swam for another 2 hours! I am completely water logged but love it :)

I also must mention that today was the first day I actually brought money with so that we could get something from the concessions, their special treat. But I also brought the normal snack and drinks with so I didn't have to spend a ton!

Wordless Wednesday :)

For more Wordless Wednesday go here

Monkey's Graduation Pictures

The first picture is him walking to the stage. The second going to get his diploma which the camera didn't cooperate with getting one of him shaking hands and receiving it. And then my camera died before we got all the pictures we wanted, bummer. Then when I went to put them up here I realized that some of the good pictures has him holding his diploma with his full name on it so sorry you don't get to see those. But look at that face, and believe me they were CUTE. Now he can't say I love his sister more because we put her graduation pictures up. Do remember around the time he was graduating we were trying to win a Wii. We love you Monkey!

What better way to start the new week...

then getting a package in the mail! And in that package is our Wii. The kids cracked me up with all the excitement over the bubble wrap it came in. I'm not sure which they were more excited about :) We called daddy to tell him of our new arrival. The kids all yelled in the phone at the same time. WE GOT THE Wii! He told them he would come home during his lunch break to set it up. Right now they are happily popping the bubbles from the bubble wrap. I love it. It's like two for the price of one except they were both FREE. I will update with pictures hopefully as I never did put up Monkey's graduation pictures. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow, poor second kid, but he does get to play the Wii first.

Updated with Pictures!

Made it through!

That is the first full week of daddy being on the new schedule. There were moments when I wondered if this was going to work or kill me. I haven't felt well all week and finally after talking to my doctor's nurse I went in. Yeah you know why I'm not feeling good? It is ALL stress related pains. I have never had this before and it's so not cool. He told me I need to make sure I take care of myself first. Sure how do you tell a 9 month old that in the middle of the night after waking up for the 10th time to nurse that I need my sleep? I wear she better do something new and cool because the last three nights she has woken up between 10 and 15 times a night and every time all she wants is to nurse. I am SORE people. I can NOT nurse for 8 hours straight contrary to what Peanut thinks. This week as but great in the fact that I have been able to scrapbook some of our Disney trip from 2006. I have gotten 10 pages done that is huge for me. I love to scrapbook and most of the time it is a tension reliever but when I have a 7 year old and a 5 year old wanting to help it becomes pretty stressful. I finally told them today that I am going to do a few pages by myself and de-stress! When I get focused on something I go full force. J and I are going on a date tomorrow night no kids :) and tomorrow afternoon my step-mom and I are going to the spa! I believe that I might be getting a message tonight too from the hubs?! That one is still up for debate, ha.

On a side note I got to talk to Tracey on the phone and it was so great to get to talk to her! We are planning a play date for the kids US! I have been thinking about doing the gdiapers and she is experience in them so I picked her brain about them. I'm convinced, now just got to talk J into them being a great thing.

Doctor's

I took GG and Red into the doctor today. Red needed a physical for starting pre-school this fall and GG had been having bad headaches that cause her to throw up. I think my doctor my be bi-polar. She told me she couldn't do Red's physical until she had all his records. While I asked his former doctor's to send them to this doctor and they told me they did. While they were missing the vaccines from his record and she went on about how she could get sued if she signed off without knowing if he had all the shots. I told her he hasn't. He has had a few but not all the ones they recommend. Which is so funny to me. On the chart of vaccines it states doctor recommendations. Not mandatory. Well I called the school and they told me I didn't need to worry about it, he will get to attend. I'm not completely against vaccines but I'm not completely for them. Does that make sense? My kids are on a very delayed schedule! Which is funny to because once they hit 1 year some of the shots are null and void, meaning they won't give it to them after that point. Plus, my 3rd and 4th children are the healthiest. The other two got the shots on schedule for the first year. That is a whole other post, and thinking about what happened with my 2nd makes me so mad. Totally not the post I was planning on writing! The little ones are sleeping and the big ones are playing!

Oh yeah after the doctor visit we met my dad for lunch at our "normal" spot. There was about 7 police officers eating at a table not in uniforms but in polos and jeans. Red was so funny when he saw their guns he says, "Oh look mommy their guns are out! Are they going to shot us?" He isn't used to seeing police in "plain clothes" it was quiet funny. Of course, we then talked to one of the lady officers and she reassured him that she wasn't going to shot him!

Keeping Busy

First I just want to thank all of you who wrote such sweet comments. I am doing better today but I try to keep myself as busy as possible. Yesterday GG and I did a few scrapbook pages from our Disney trip, but my mind wandered to that family. Giving my kids hugs and kisses at night makes me think about his little girl and wife. It's hard. I will never understand why he was taken so young. But I believe that God knows why and that it fits His good and prefect plan. I trust in God and I have peace in that, I am sad still believe me but I know that he is up in Heaven, singing and dancing and just having a ball.

Sadness

I sit here completely heart broken and sad and every other emotion possible. Today started like every other day I check my email. I got an email from church, this is not uncommon as they give us updated prayer request. I was working in the nursery Sunday morning so I didn't hear that one of our missionaries was in the hospital with pneumonia. When I checked my email I got the details that I missed Sunday morning. This missionary and his wife are my age with a little girl a little younger than Red. They got married in our church and his wife was in our Sunday School class. The two older kids know who they are and remember them before they went out into the mission field a few years ago. All morning long I have been praying for this man and his family. My mom-in-law called a little while ago, it has taken me some time to process this all, saying that he is gone. That was really hard to type. HE. IS. GONE? He isn't even 30 years old. He was doing the work of God. Needless to say I am really struggling right now to understand all of this. I know that God is in control and that nothing happens that He isn't aware of but I just don't understand the WHY of it. This young wife and mother is going to need lots of pray in the days, weeks, months and years ahead. Please keep them in your prayers.

Seriously...

Peanut loves paper. It was actually her first "food". If there is paper anywhere near she finds it and tries to eat it. I have pulled so many pieces of paper out of her mouth. Well today she got a hold of Monkey's Crayola color explosion paper and this was the result of only a few seconds in her mouth!

We tried to get a picture of the inside of her mouth as her tongue was the same color as her lips! I gave her a bath to get it off her hands, arms, and legs. But the tongue that is hard to get off. I nursed her for 20 minutes and it is still there and now she is sleeping. Also here is a picture of me using my new water sling. The tag is sticking out because Peanut was playing with it :)

Family Getaway...

I love spending time with my family and when you go away together and stay in a hotel there really isn't much escaping each other! Here are some of my highlights from our trip.

GlamorGirlisms...
We were walking through Shopko looking at the sale racks. On one of the racks was a bright yellow shirt that said Nike. GlamorGirl says, "We should buy this shirt and give it to someone named Mike!" She thought that is what was written on the shirt. In her defense it was in cursive. But I still got a chuckle out of it.

Because we were away from home we ended up eating out more then normal, we bought lunch food for the hotel but we ate out dinner. After dinner Thursday night she says, "I have a stomach crash." I look at her with a funny face, thinking what is she talking about. She looks at me and says, "Isn't that what you call it when your tummy hurts?" Too funny that one!

Now if you were to ever meet GG she is a tell all. She would tell you her life story if you gave her a second. We were out eating and she tells our waitress, "We live in ---- but we are here because my daddy needs training." You could tell she didn't know what to say to that one! A little more information when we sat down and she was taking our drink orders she was cooeing over Peanut and she says to J, "I'm sorry. I'm totally not paying attention to your order because your daughter is cuter then you."


Here are some Redisms...
On the drive we passed some farms and on farms are cows and horses. Well he says about the horses, "Are those real? Yes look they are real their tails are swinging!" He is at the age where he asks a question and then he answers it himself. Then we come to the comes and he says, "I smell something. What is that smell?" We explain that it is cow poop which he thought was totally gross!

Monkeyisms...
We stopped on the way home for some ice cream. "I love you mommy, you are the best mommy ever!" Said while giving a hug. He is such a sweet kid. At one of the stops we made he says, "Can I go run around and give my legs some stretching?"

Peanut learned how to sit herself up yesterday at the hotel. I went to get my swim suit on and when I came back out she was sitting. I asked the kids if they put her up and they didn't. Then later in the day I got to see her sit up on her own. She is growing too fast. She is 9 months old today.

Oh yeah the kids DID sleep in...they actually had to be woke up 15 minutes before breakfast stopped being served both days!

Riding in the van...

Why is it that simply sitting in a vehicle for more then an hour makes you extremely tired? I wasn't even driving. Yet, here I sit exhausted, though come to think of it my hubby did wake me up around 3am because he was not feeling well. He looked bad too, sorry honey, you were pale. Then he had left his phone at work and the lady called to let us know it was there so we didn't get worried looking for it, which was nice, but at 6:40am we are all sleeping! She said, "I figured you would be awake by now with all the kids." I groggily said, "They're all still asleep." And we did just get out of the pool after swimming for a little over an hour, we needed to do something because we had been sitting ALL. DAY. LONG. I'm hoping we all sleep good tonight and that they sleep in...here's to hoping!

On a side note: J ordered me a water sling. Just a little background on this. When GG was almost 2yrs old she took swimming lessons and Monkey was just a baby. There was a mom at the pool with a water sling and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. At that time we were dirt poor, being a stay at home mom straight out of college (2 kids 18 months apart) with a hubby still in college doesn't leave much for spending money let alone groceries! I had won a free sling from the local LLL and was so grateful for it. Needless to say, I have wanted one ever since and every time I had mentioned it to J he always said something to the effect "why do you need one" so I just dropped it. When he ordered me it I was bouncing off the walls happy. It came so I was able to use it tonight in the pool love, love, love it!

Book Meme

I was tagged by Not Just Any Jen for this. I've never done this kind of meme before so here are the rules! I know everything has rules :)

the rules....there must always be rules for this sort of thing. I wonder who sits around thinking up these rules?
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

The nearest book to me is The Power of a Positive Mom, by Karol Ladd. The three sentences are:
Were they starving for lack of provisions? No. The Bible even says that the shoes on their feet did not wear out during their journey in the wilderness!

Here are the 5 people I am tagging:
1. Sarah
2. Kari
3. Kathryn
4. Queen of the Mayhem
5. Life is short. Partake in happy hour

Wordless Wednesday - Sand not for eating!

For more Wordless Wednesday go to 5 Minutes for Mom!

The celebration continues...

Yesterday upon Monkey's request we went out to eat to celebrate. We called my dad as he had a ton to do with us getting votes. I, of course, took pictures! It all still seems so surreal, first that our picture was even chosen and then that it got the most votes.

Me and Monkey

At Dinner

more eating...

The dynamic trio: I entered, Monkey took the pictures and my dad get us votes!

Grandma and Peanut too cute not to post!

I will not write anymore about this until after the Wii arrives and then I might take some pictures of the kids playing it. I am regretting the fact we didn't get our goofing on the kids on video.

The winner of the Wii is...

we sat the kids down after we saw the results of the contest. As straight of a face as I could make and I think I did pretty good. We told the kids that our picture was disqualified because Monkey took the picture. I know that was mean but you should of heard the cheers and screaming that occurred when we told them we won. I seriously think it took us 10 minutes to calm them down and explain we had to wait for it in the mail, plus the baby was napping at the time. We are all so excited.

I want to take a minute to Thank all my blogging friends (IRL and ones I've never met but hope to soon!) who helped us get votes! You guys are AWESOME. My sweet church family, you guys are the best. Also my dad who did everything he could to help us get vote to walking around his neighborhood asking the neighbors to vote for us and calling me every few hours to see what the votes were at. Now that is a supportive parent! I love you Dad. Can't wait to have you over to play.

I'm a finalist...

***I'm leaving this post as a sticky post until June 9th!***
Welcome to my blog new comers if you could take the time and vote for me that would completely ROCK! Thanks for helping this MaMa out.

I'm still in shock...my hands are shacking as I type this from excitement! Ok so if you could please, please go vote for A Day in the Life of a MaMa. It is a picture of me on a swing taken by my 5 year old son. Also make sure you scroll down past all the pictures to vote check the one that says A Day in the Life of a MaMa and then hit the vote button. Now go HERE! Please to vote :) My kids and I greatly appreciate it! The prize is a Nintedo Wii :) Thank you so much I will let you know if I win! The voting ends June 9th :)

This is the picture we entered! Please vote for A Day in the Life of a MaMa. And if you are so kind, please ask your friends to vote for me too! Thank you :)

In the Spirit of the Kid in Me...

Yesterday was the both kids first day of summer vacation! We started it off with getting the 4 kids pictures taken at JC Penneys. I will update with those when I get them in my hand in about 2 weeks. Moving along...after lunch we went to play outside and the wind was really, really windy. I didn't want to baby outside because sticks were falling out of trees. So I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the library and get some books and movies. The answer was a loud, YES! Our library is only a few blocks away so we rode our bikes there, the baby was protected in the wagon thingy attached to my bike. We had success finding movies and tons of books. I actually had to cut them off on their books. The basket was getting too heavy! J and I talked about mornings and how we didn't want to three older kids sitting in front of the tv while we slept. They get up so much earlier then my body is wanting too. ha! The idea is when they wake up at the booty crack of dawn they will be able to read books in bed. I will say this morning it worked GREAT. So happy...I'm dancing. After we got back from the library we made homemade pizza (yummy) and popcorn and watched a movie while we ate, dinner and a movie kid style! Around 7:30pm we got out the sleeping bags and pillows and made a huge bed on the living room floor for a sleepover. They talked and giggled while I got Peanut to sleep and then I joined them. We each told stories. The kids wanted to hear my stories because I decided it would be a great time to tell them about my childhood as this was something I used to do as a kid. They loved hearing about my childhood and it was really fun to relive some of those memories in story and in action.
Don't forget that 5 Minutes for Mom is hosting the Kid in You photo contest and the picture that Monkey (5 years old) took made it to the finalists, it is me swinging. So please go vote for us A Day in the Life of a MaMa. Please make sure you are voting for the right one as I have been told there is some confusion.

Graduation Day

Today Monkey graduated from Kindergarten making him a 1st grader! GG still has one more day of school being a 1st grader. So for one day only I have two 1st grader students and this will never occur again as next year they will get out of school on the same day moving them up at the same time. I know I am goofy but I think it is kind of cool. I have some pictures of today but my camera died right after I took the last picture of Monkey with Peanut, I was so mad at myself. If you haven't vote yet please do! Go HERE and vote for A Day in the Life of a MaMa. We would love to win that Wii...Thanks!

our happenings...

amongst all the excitement of trying to win a Wii, which we are in 5th place currently. Please vote for us if you are so inclined :) Anyways, I got on here to say that Peanut has been having trouble sleeping at night. I believe I mentioned it about how J slept with her in the recliner. Well she had a few more restless nights and then last night she slept like an angel. Guess what?! No she still doesn't have any teeth. She started to army crawl TODAY! It was really cool to watch her scoot across the floor towards her target object. It explains her change in sleep pattern.

In Red news, we were at church on Saturday night getting ready. Our Sunday School class is taking over 3 kids classes ranging in ages 4 through 6th grade. Anyway, we were eating and Red comes in the room and says in his cute little voice, "I can't sit down Portor's mommy is in my seat." The kids were in the next room watching a movie. Then fast forward to tonight we were in the living room and he says, "I have to go pee." I tell him to go. He has been potty trained for almost a year, why he is announcing it is beyond me. Well he comes out and tells me, "I peed on the floor and rug. It's my fault." Got that right buddy it's not my fault you missed the toilet! I'm glad he told me though.

In Monkey news, he is graduating Kindergarten tomorrow. My boy is going to be going to full days of school next year, so sad. He is going to be 6 years old next month. I just can't believe how fast these kids are growing right in front of me. I am so blessed I am able to be home with them to watch all of it. It really makes me consider homeschooling.

In GG news, she is really sad the school year is over even though she keeps asking me to homeschool her because she misses me. I don't understand that girl sometimes! She has a full day tomorrow and then a half day on Thursday.

I'm already thinking of boredom busters for this summer. I think I will have to look up last years list and see if there is anything we didn't get to do. Oh here is a funny for ya, you know how this winter I have been very sickly? J and I got life insurance (finally) we want to make sure the kids are somewhat taken care of if something happens to us. Well we had to have blood drawn and give a urine sample and answer a bunch of questions about medical stuff. Well there are three categories of insurance: regular (most people) preferred (J got) and super preferred (only 4% of people get) The called the other day and said I got the super preferred and I had to laugh because when they took my blood and urine I had the flu! But it is good because I get that rate for 20 years it is the cheapest because I am so healthy HA!

Don't forget about voting for A Day in the Life of a MaMa @ 5 Minutes for Mom

The buzz in our house...

The kids have been cracking me up! GG got out a piece of paper and started writing down all the teachers at her school to ask to vote for our picture! She was just going to ask them to vote without telling them where or how :) I have had to tell them several times that there are 19 other people trying to win the Wii just like us. We are a small fish in the big blogosphere, meaning we don't get a lot of traffic like some bloggers do. Now Monkey is the one who took the picture for the contest so he has been saying, "If we win do I get to play it first? I took the picture." I told him, "Yes, it would only be fair since you are the one who took the picture!" Then I hear GG say, "We will win if God wants us to have the Wii." What do you say to that comment?