Shocking sadness

For Red's first birthday GG and Monkey picked out a gold fish as their present to him. Red named him "fishy" what else would you expect from a one year old? Well today fishy breathed his last breath. 2 years and 2 months later he is no longer apart of our family. I didn't expect to be so sad at this fish being gone, but I am. It doesn't help that all the kids are really upset, especially Red as this was his pet that he would feed and watch. We haven't decided how we are going to handle the disposal of him yet but I'm really not looking forward to it. We've never had a fish last this long before.

Just a side note this just makes today so much worse then it all ready was. I took the kids grocery shopping again today. I only did this because if we didn't then we wouldn't be able to eat lunch. It was a catch 22. They did ok for the most part but there was some harsh words from me if they didn't act right, which quickly made them straighten up. I don't like being that mom, but I feel like it is a vicious cycle. They don't listen or behave unless I am mean mom. This new schedule is proving to be a harder one for me. I really need to get into my grove with it. J has been great and letting me get out at least once a week for some girl/adult time. It is the unpredictable-ness of kids that is the hardest. Like the other day when Red while sitting on the potty pooping decided that he was going to put both his hands in his butt. I knew he was pooping and told him to tell me when he was done. Yet when he tells me he is done I am greeted with poopy hands. Oh how I scrubbed and scrubbed those hands and I just couldn't get that smell off of them. I don't think he will do that again, at least I can hope he learned a valuable lesson there. Tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Water Fun

I'll never understand

Why it is that my kids get up at the butt crack of dawn on days we don't have to be anywhere at any time. BUT on the days we have some place to be they sleep in and I have to drag them out of bed and keep on them to keep moving. I will never understand this.

Also I have to stop using them as my alarm clock because like I said they sleep in when we need to be getting up early. Then we are all in a rush. Not good.

Weekend Wrap UP.

I mainly want to write about Monkey's new experience. On Friday we went to the night swim. Monkey had been talking about going off the diving board for about 2 weeks now. I have told him he needs to be a bit stronger of a swimmer and that we will keep practicing and when J and I think he is ready he can go. Well, Friday night at night swim he was doing great in the 5' water. He doesn't even hold his nose when he goes under water. J asked if he wanted to try the diving board and he said yes. J jumped first and stayed in the water for security for Monkey. He tried about 3 to 4 times on Friday night. He would walk to the end and then get scared and walk back off. He was so upset with himself because he really wanted to go off. We told him we would go swimming Saturday and he could try again.

Saturday morning a friend called and asked if we could watch their two girls. We took all 6 kids to the pool and they had a blast. The best part about the day was that Monkey went off the diving board. He can read J's perspective on him jumping off the board here. We swam for a little over 2 hours and then we took the girls home. A funny thing happened on our way out. I asked J if we had all 6 kids. These two ladies looked at each other and whispered, "She has 6 kids?" I just laughed inside and didn't say anything. Then yesterday at church the mom of the girls said that the youngest woke up that morning saying she missed me. I thought that was so sweet. We are actually headed to their house for a huge play date with the gals from church.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Today is my husband's 28th birthday and so I thought I would list 28 things I love about him! I stole this from another blog I read and I thought it was really cute. SO here goes...

1. He loves God.

2. He leads our family in a godly way.

3. He is a great provider.

4. He is not prefect, this is a good thing.

5. He knows I'm not prefect and doesn't hold it against me.

6. He loves me wholeheartedly.

7. He is helpful around the house. Usually don't even need to ask for it.

8. He allows me free time to do my hobbies.

9. He allows me girl time, too.

10. He knows the kids aren't prefect either.

11. He knows each of the kids strengths and weaknesses.

12. He is a great encourager of them and me.

13. He loves the kids unconditionally. 

14. He is a caring father.

15. He is so handsome. I wanted to use other words but I want to keep it PG ;)

16. He is a hard worker, at his job and at home.

17. His laugh, love it.

18. His sense of humor.

19. His ability to make me laugh ALL THE TIME! I can thank him for my laugh lines, well the 

kids too!

20. His kind heart. Willing to help people anytime.

21. His smile.

22. How he loves to play the guitar I bought him a few years ago.

23. How he uses the guitar to honor God by playing at church for different things.

24. His singing voice. I think he is a great singer.

25. He grills to give me a break from cooking.

26. He is so strong.

27. He is my support.

28. He is a great man of God.


In the middle of typing out this list of things, J caught me on the computer and I tried to quickly shut it off and I did but since he knows more about computer then I he looked at something and saw that I was writing on my blog with the title of Happy Birthday Honey! Then he was joking with me that I was writing his birth story. His mom always says that he cried for the first 9 months of his life, end of story! I love you Jeff. I have been blessed to know you for these last 12 years and be married to you for the last 8 1/2 years. 

Late Night Girls Night.

Last night I got to together with 6 other girls from church. We went to a sushi steak house. I've never tried sushi and I actually didn't even know what it looked like. Needless to say I'm not a big fan of sushi, I did try it but didn't love it. The atmosphere at the restaurant was so cool. The cook put on a show and was very entertaining. The first thing out of his mouth after looking at all of us was, "It's my lucky night!" Dinner was very fun. Afterwards we went back to Justy's place and watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I loved that movie the first time I watched and it was just as good this time. I left my house at 6:30pm and I got home at 11:45pm. When I walked in the house Peanut was screaming. I asked how long she was upset and he told me since 11pm. I asked why he didn't call I was only 5 minutes from home and I could of come sooner. Well I guess me being gone totally threw her off because I couldn't get her to sleep until after 2am. She stopped crying as soon as I picked her up but all she wanted to do was play with me. It was so sweet that she missed me and wanted to play with me but I was so tired.

Then this morning J gets up for work (7am) and I hear Red with him. So I go back to sleep. J left the house and seriously 5 minutes later Red was in my room asking for fruit snacks. I was less than happy with him for waking not only me up but his baby sister who had only been sleeping for only a few hours. I was grumpy because those 5 hours were not straight hours of sleep. I nursed the baby at least once if not twice. I really can't remember I am tired, but it felt like I nursed her a hundred times last night. Moving along, I got up to get him quite and something to eat to find he had spilled GRAPE JUICE on our little brown carpet. He got in trouble just yesterday for drinking in the living room and spilling it and it was WATER. So instead of quickly taking care of him and going back to sleep I had to try and clean the carpet. I didn't do very well as there is now a lite purple stain instead of the dark purple stain. So I want to throw it out there since you were all so helpful in helping me get the pink nail polish out of the carpet. How do you get grape juice out? Please help I really don't want to replace it nor do we have the money to do that. We are also looking to try and sell within a few years and trying to maintain a nice house while living here is rough. After spending an eternity scrubbing at it and the rag not having any more purple on it I call it quits and go back to my bed with the baby and try to get a morning nap. I gave strict orders not to come into my room. They were watching cartoons and the two older ones know how to get themselves breakfast. It took me a good 45 minutes (8:50am) to get her to settle down and fall asleep and as soon as that happened. My OLDEST comes into the room with my cell phone saying the battery is low and it's beeping. Sure enough she woke Peanut up. Nice little 5 minute nap she got. I just don't understand why after I told her I was trying to sleep she would bring me the phone if it was beeping. Does she like to sleep while things beep every 5 minutes. Frustration. I then went and tried to make my self a little more clear to the kids to under no circumstances are they to go in my room, unless someone was bleeding that is. By this time it is about 9am, it's still morning and I could still get some sleep, right? Once again I get her settled down and to sleep. This time it only took about 20 minutes for to be in sleepy land! And I fell asleep too. Only to be woke up by a blood crudding scream from the living room I look at the clock and it is 10:30am. I got at least another hour. I was happy for that hour but not for the way we got woke up. Since I have been awake I have gotten the kids and my self breakfast. Apparently the cartoons being on made them not want to eat. Oh yeah and I typed this post, I'm productive!

People Pleaser.

Over the last few months I feel like God is revealing to me an area of my life I need to hand over to him. That area is people pleasing. J has told me several times that I am a chump, meaning that I can't say no when someone asks me for help or to do something. It's true. I completely dislike confrontation and I used to avoid it at all costs but that isn't healthy. I think I have gotten better in that area and sticking up for what I know is right.

Moving along, yesterday I got a phone call from my mom asking me for help with her kids. My first thought was sure I'll come and watch them for a week. But I didn't say that because I wasn't in front of my calendar and I needed to talk to J and make sure that I was available for the week. All day long I was thinking about taking the 4 kids to my mom's to watch her 8 and 10 year old. Different things jumped out at me as being obstacles and struggles if I chose to babysit for her. I was thinking of different ways I could make it work for all of us and me not being a basket case by the end of the week, because I wanted to please her with a yes answer. After talking to a few people and praying about it I decided that I was not going to be able to do it. Here is my problem. I don't want to upset my mom by telling her no so I didn't want to call her and was waiting for her to call me. After talking to J more about it and praying more I decided that I needed to call her right away and tell her my answer, that way she could try and get someone else, as they are planning on leaving this weekend, me being the first person they asked. I feel like that was a huge step for me because everything in me just didn't want to talk to her for fear I would disappoint her. Even after getting off the phone I felt like I let her down. Then I was reminded that it isn't my responsibility to make her happy or take care of her kids on short notice. I love my mom to death and I want her to be happy but I just really can't watch 6 kids ages 10 yrs to 10 months for a whole week by myself. I'm really not super women.

Wordless Wednesday

Her shirt says, Does this diaper make my butt look big?

Monkey's Birth Story!

Monkey's birth story really kind of started on July 20th, let me explain. On the night of the 20th I walked around the college campus which is about 4 miles. When I got home, to our apartment, around 8pm Jeff and GG were in a big mess of water. Our a/c had a leak and it was flooding our living room floor. I wouldn't of been a huge deal except for the fact that his parents and sister were coming to visit the next day. We (yes at 36 1/2 week pregnant I helped) pulled the carpet up off the ground and mopped the floor of excess water. Then we draped the carpet on the furniture and had tons of fan going to dry it out. At some point Jeff went to get a carpet cleaner. By the time we got to bed it was almost midnight. The next day July 21st we got up and went out for a huge brunch with his parents and then walked around the town. I remember them wanting to look at the Amish store for furniture. We then went to the video store and rented John Q. I noticed that I was having contractions about half way through the movie. I started to time them myself and they were 5 minutes apart for an hour. After the movie was over I pulled Jeff into the other room and told him the situation. We both thought prefect, his parents are here to watch GG. We called the OB and were told to go to the hospital. We were unable to get a hold of the midwife at this point. They checked me and then observed me for little over an hour, at which point they checked me again and told me nothing had changed so I could either stay or go home. We went home. I wasn't due until August 7th. We didn't want to keep his parents from driving the 4 hours home either. We got home and said goodbye to his family. Then I grabbed something to eat and we went to take the carpet cleaner back and to get somethings from Wal-mart. As we were ready to leave Wal-mart my contractions had gotten really strong and I had to stop walking during them but they weren't too bad. As soon as we got home we called the OB again and this time we got a hold of the midwife at 10:35pm. She told us to get to the hospital as quick as possible. We dropped GG at a friends house and Jeff quickly switched the car seat from our car to hers. I just sat there trying to deal with the very strong and very hard contractions I was having, it was 10:45pm once we got to the hospital. I remember trying to sign the sheets they kept shoving at me and my signature looking like chicken scratch. Once we got in the room there was a bit of debate of when my due date was, I guess my chart said August 14th. Just to be safe they quickly got my on antibiotics, they could of done whatever they wanted to me and I wouldn't have had a clue. I remember having them put an oxygen mask on my face to help his oxygen level. I remember hearing the midwife tell the nurse to make sure the OB didn't leave the hospital. I remember yelling at her to stop putting the internal monitor in and then yelling at her to get it out of me. About 5 minutes before I pushed she had me on all fours, I'm not really sure why but I think it was to help dilate a certain area. I know that I only pushed 3 times before he came out and that from start to finish of my labor was an hour and a half. He was born at 12:05am on July 22nd. After he was born I found out that his heart rate went from 140 to 40 with every contraction I had. He came out with the cord wrapped around his neck and arm. He was a whole pound smaller than his sister and wow did a pound make a difference. I knew the moment he came out I loved him so much. He was so beautiful.

This is me and my boy the day we left the hospital!

He was so tiny...

Monkey it has been so fun to watch you grow over these 6 years. You have learned so many things like reading, writing, tying your shoes, riding your bike and many, many more and you continue to learn everyday. Your sweet smile melts my heart everyday. You are such an easy going person and have a lot of your daddy's personality. You have blessed my life and you are such a wonderful part of our family. I thank God for giving you to us to care for and love. I look forward to watching you grow the next 6 years and beyond.

I also love your silly side too!

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE MAN!

Blessed.

I feel overwhelmingly blessed. Yesterday we went to church and then went to my in-laws house for the afternoon. I just love being with them and having the kids get to know them. Then we went to night church were I was in a skit. I was so nervous but I guess it went ok. Only one more week of these skits. After church we got invited to a friends house. It ended up being everyone except two people from our small group, plus our kids. We had a blast and the kids loved hanging out with the church kids some more. While we were at their house we got a phone call saying that my sis-in-law was at the hospital. She is on a youth trip this week in Kentucky, I believe. As soon as I got off the phone and relayed the message to everyone there we prayed for her. About 20 minutes later got another call saying she was being sent home from the hospital. They needed to watch her to make sure she doesn't have a concussion.

Another happening: While we were at our friends house a little girl pinned Monkey down and kissed him on the lips. This little girl was at the party on Friday and was taking to playing with Monkey over the other little girls there. Also Friday night she was at our house while her parents were on a date and she wouldn't play with GG at all, she was glued to Monkey. This little girl is only 6 months younger than Monkey so they are closer in age but the last two times she was at our house before this she only played with GG. What can I say he is a handsome little boy :) Not to mention very fun to play with!

Yay! We're DONE.

Can you tell, at all, that I am excited that the garage sale is over??? We did quite well in my humble opinion. Yes, I just typed that out instead of using the abbreviation. Now we just have to figure out what to do with ALL the stuff we have left. There is still a ton in our garage.

GG and Red went to a beach birthday party today and it was really fun. It rained this morning and was looking like it wasn't going to be a good day but by the time the party started it was so nice out. The kids had a great time playing with their friends and I, of course, had fun socializing! I love being the mom :) I feel so blessed to be surrounded by great friends and family. And I just talked to my sis-in-law and they are planning on moving here way sooner than we thought and I am super excited about it. A cousin for the kids to actually have around. Well I need to go practice my part for the skit tomorrow night at church. I feel like there was something else I wanted to get down on the good ole blog but I can't think what it was at this moment! I need me some sleep.

Peanut's Check up and Garage Sale

First, I took Peanut to the doctor yesterday evening and my chunky baby weighed in at 19lbs 6 oz that is the same size GG was at 12 months :) She was 30 inches tall which is taller than her sister too. Also she is getting her first tooth. I can feel it better then I can see it. The tooth is coming in but it hadn't broken the skin yet. She pulled herself up to standing last week. I was going to blog it but totally forgot. It was cool because both J and I were there to see her do it for the first time by herself!!! She is also getting on her knees and rocking but when she wants to get places she still army crawls. She's definitely got her own style.

As for the garage sale. The only reason we have all this stuff is because last year our church had a garage sale and all the money went to a missions trip to Honduras. So thinking they would do it again we started saving the stuff to donate and then were told they would not be having another sale. We decided that all the money we make we are just going to donate to missions as that was the plan all along. Another lady from church dropped off a bunch of stuff, she had been saving it for the church sale too. And the kids are having a lemonade stand which teaches them about money. We have talked to them about what they are going to do with their money and GG said she wants to give it to missions at church. The boys haven't really said but I have a feeling they will follow suit. Here is a picture of the kids at their stand.

Aren't they cute? Would you buy from them?

Here is Peanut helping them attract people!

I am taking Monkey and Peanut to a friends for lunch and a play date. Tonight we are watching two girls from church while their parents go on a date.

Here is Monkey going on the water slide at our friends house.

Garage Sale and random things...

After 2 months of trying to get this garage sale organized by my hubby we finally are having it today. I don't know what I was thinking letting him talk me into doing this with 4 kids and the kids running a lemonade stand on top of it. Let's just say, I am counting totals, taking money and dealing with the kids fight over who gets to take the money and who gets to pour. Thankfully J came home at 12pm for the day. He started his work day at 4am. Then everything went crazy. I went into the house to put Peanut down for a nap and get lunch for myself and the kids. While I was inside. Monkey comes in asking for J's keys. This is the part that I know that garage sales aren't for me. This mom and son came to the sale and the boy wanted a book priced for $3 in new condition, originally a $15 book. He wanted to pay 1.50 that is insulting in my opinion. J gave it to him for $2, he calls his mom (who went to the car) on his cell phone and asked if that was an okay price. Now you have to remember J is only having this garage sale for selfish reasons. He wants it out of HIS garage. After the boy buys the book they can't get their car started. So they ask J to jump it. I am in the house with the baby trying to get her to sleep. We have people in our garage looking at stuff. THEY HAD A CELL PHONE! Seriously, I was mad. Why was it our responsibility or our problem to jump their car? They couldn't call someone? Yeah I know, J was being nice and helping them out but man bad timing people. So I go outside with Peanut and take care of the sale while he is "being nice". I was hot and cranky. I got to go in and get her to sleep and make lunch. Then went out to get the older two to eat only to come into the house hearing Red screaming on the other side of the door. Come inside to see him standing there with no pants on and poop all down both of his legs. I clean him up and find out what happened. He said that he had to go pee and was standing up and while he peed poop came out and so he walked to the front door. Sure enough I look and there is a trail of poop drops going to the bathroom. Man could this day get any better? Hear the sarcasm. I have been able to be in the house and away from the haggling for about an hour so I am not as mad or flustered. Two more days of this sale....OY. I think I am going to need a big bottle of tylenol. At least J is off the rest of today and he took tomorrow off. I think I did pretty well with the 4 for the two hours I was by myself ;)

Oh yeah someone wanted to buy the baby! I really think he was serious because he kept asking. He made offers and asked if I took credit cards. And we just had a guy drive by looking for golf clubs, laptop or tv for sale. I got a good chuckle from that one!

Wordless Wednesday - Best Buds

Red (3) and our neighbor Jack (78) are best of friends!

Look how happy he is!

Got a chuckle...

I sat down at the computer with a t-shirt on slightly hunched over so that the front on my shirt was flat. Red comes over to me with a very concerned look on his face. He looks up at me and says, "Mommy where are your nurse?" He looks at my shirt trying to figure out where they went. I jokingly told him, "They are gone because Peanut is done using them." He said, "Oh" and off he went to play. About 30 minutes later I was standing in the kitchen and the nurses were showing and Red comes up to me and taps both of them. Just to make sure that they didn't fall off. What a goof.

By the way, Peanut is still nursing she is only 10 months old!

Home Bound!

I stole that title from my friend, I know she won't mind! Moving along, after Friday's events J and I were talking about last week and this summer. He said to me, "I don't ever remember a summer as active as you are with the kids. Riding your bikes to the library, to the parks, going swimming having play dates at the Arboretum. You have been busy." I think I just ran myself rugged and my body was mad and reacted in that way so it could get some rest plus, I know I didn't drink enough fluid on Friday either. Just a quick run down of things we did last week; Monday-Chuck E Cheese, Tuesday-playgroup (morning) pool playdate (afternoon) Wednesday-Arboretum (all day) Thursday-dinner and late night with my dad, Friday-pool. It was jammed packed so I am making an effort to be more inactive but still let the kids have fun. This morning we played outside while it wasn't super hot and we had tons of shade. Then J came home for lunch, which the kids absolutely loved. Right now the little ones are sleeping and the older two are playing legos together, first they helped with dishes and laundry. Even being home bound can make for a busy and fun day!

Just on a side note: We took the kids to a Veggie Tales thing on Saturday at our local Christian Bookstore and while we were there I found the coolest family devotional by Ruth Graham. We are going to be starting it tonight after dinner. The last few days GG has been very interested in reading her Bible when I read mine or having me read mine to her. I'm not sure if Friday has anything to do with it but before she went to bed she was crying and very scared that I wouldn't be alive the next morning. She was crying about how Red and Peanut wouldn't get to know me like she has. It was very sad. We prayed about it and talked about it and the next day I was alive! I remember having those fears when I was about her age and I remember being very frightened. We have talked to her and Monkey about if something happened to us who they would go live with but not recently.

Daddy/Daughter Date old school!

**this was started on Friday**
It was old school because MY dad came to the house to pick ME up and take ME on a date with HIM! I haven't been out on a daddy/daughter date with my dad since high school. He used to come pick me up at my mom's house and we'd go out to eat and then drive 2 hours back to his house.

Let me just say that last night was fun. I got to go out and have fun. We went to a really nice restaurant and both of us got steak and I ate the whole thing, plus the veggies and mashed potatoes that came with, I was stuffed. Then my dad wanted to go to the Mall. He asked me what I wanted to do and joking around said, "I need to dye my hair and get rid of all the grays I have." Then I showed him my head of hair and we were off to get my hair colored. When we got there my dad suggested going blond. I've never been blond and thought sure why not! So here are the pictures of my hair today after I washed and styled it my way. The lady last night had it so puffy and just so not me.









GG and J don't like the color but the boys really don't have an opinion and Peanut just loves me anyway I am because I'm her mom! Then after the hair adventure we looked at Game Stop at all the different Wii games. I really want to get Rock Band for the kids this Christmas. I think they will have a blast playing it but we'll see. Then we went to Land's End and I got a new swimming suit. I was so excited...I have been drooling over these suits for a long time and now I have one and I love the way it fits! I think I will trying and get another one next summer so that I have more suits to wear during the summer. We go swimming a lot and having different suits is fun for me :) Sorry no pictures of me in my new purchase. But it is pink like my toe nails and looks like an outfit. I love modest swim wear.

**The first reason this post was not posted on Friday was because I was meeting my friend Kristin at the pool and she reads my blog and I didn't want her to see my hair on here first! I know I'm a stinker. The second was while we were at the pool I got a really bad headache and started feeling sick to my stomach, not sure if I got dehydrated or what the deal was. It was just a big mess. We have 8 kids between the two of us and I couldn't drive myself home. I thank God for great neighbors who came and got me and the kids and then stayed with the kids until J got home. I went straight for the bed in pain. I couldn't even sleep because my head hurt so bad and my stomach felt like I was going to throw up which unfortunately I did about 4 times. This morning I woke up feeling a little sick to my stomach but as the day has gone on I am feeling better. We were suppose to go on the boat with my dad and step mom but I wasn't sure the boat rocking would feel that great. So we went bowling with them and then out to eat for lunch. I even got to take a nap, thanks to my wonderful hubby who ordered me to go lay down.**

Little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Last night before going to bed J bribed GG with a fudge pop if she would pull her tooth. It was pretty loose but it probably would of hung on for another week. Here she is with her first top front tooth missing. This morning I could see the new tooth so hopefully it will grow in pretty fast for her as she doesn't like the way she looks with teeth missing. As you can see the bottom two she lost have already come in. I'm just realizing that I didn't take the most flattering picture of her but you get the idea!

All the girls in the family painted our toes. Aren't they pretty pink?

Other than that today we played catch up with groceries, laundry and cleaning. It was good that this afternoon it rained otherwise we might have gone to the pool and not got anything done! I will say that going shopping with 4 kids is probably one of my least favorite things to do. I would rather have a dog bite my arm off. I heard so many comments today while shopping and they were such a wide range of comments too. The things people said that I remember but I know there were more:

1. You certainly have your hands full. (I hear this more than I care to hear EVER, why do people think that???)
2. Wow 4 kids grocery shopping you are a brave women.
3. It is so nice to see a big family shopping together.
4. A few older people were trying to help me with Red as he was getting a little disobedient towards the end. They said to him, "You better listen to your mommy". However he was too busy screaming being disobedient to hear them. He didn't want to hold Monkey's hand like I asked him to do while crossing the parking lot.
5. Them: All 4 of these kids yours? Me: yes Them: They are beautiful. Me: Thank you. Them: You have such a nice family. (That lady made my day!) She was talking to me as we were getting our deli and that is why her comments were longer.


I do think that I will do my shopping in the evening when J gets home and just take one or two of the kids or none at all!

The Bloggy Arboretum Meet Up!

Today the kids and I met Tracey and her kids at the Arboretum that was half way between her house and ours. Our kids hit it off right away, as did we! I really enjoyed talking to her and the time went by so fast. We had BEAUTIFUL weather and FANTASTIC company! Tracey is just as sweet and funny in person as she is on her blog. It was really fun to see her blog come to life today!

Red and Corinne playing by the water, aren't they sweet?

Us watching the kids and taking a break from talking to take a picture :)

We did have a little scare right at the beginning where we couldn't find Red for about 5 minutes then all was right with the world. Her kids all had yellow on and so did Red and then Monkey and GG wore blue. Next time we talked about calling each other first and having all the kids wear the same color! We decided that lunch time was the prefect time to get pictures of all of us because the kids were contained in one spot.

This is the whole group of us on our "field trip".

GG and Justin being goofy! They had a lot of fun with each other and were also joking with each other about not knowing the other ones name. They both kept forgetting :)

All the kids...

Our kids tended to gravitate towards anything and everything water. They were soaked. They also got in trouble for playing in the sprinkler apparently it was just to water the grass and plants not our children. I was happy that at lunch I took Red's underwear off and let them dry so that he could wear dry underwear on the way home.

The two littlest were in their strollers for this picture but Corinne was just as wet as the rest of them!

But I have to say that the two funniest pictures were after we left them. Red was so tired, at one point he even asked Tracey if he could go in her stroller that was empty at the time because he was "so tired." The kids didn't want to leave their new found friends and so I bribed them with a sucker in the van if they would cooperate with me and walk to the van. About five minutes in the our trip I turned and saw this....

He was still awake and sucking the sucker but he had his eyes closed while doing it. THEN about 5 minutes after that this is what I saw...
He was completely passed out! I took these while driving and I was so happy that I got good pictures because I wasn't looking at the camera when I snapped them...I was driving :)

Peanut plays the Harmonica :)

What a day, for lack of better words.

I mentioned yesterday that we were getting together with some friends from church. Well the plan was to go biking or swimming but the weather wasn't cooperating so we opted for Chuck E Cheese. That was fun but the food well lets just say it isn't the greatest. I'm such a sucker too. J wanted to play golf today and both people he was going to play with fell through do to different reasons and so I let him take GG on a date to golf. I really hope she is having fun! The rest of us just stayed home because the boys didn't want to go swimming. We played the Wii and now they are watching American Gladiator.

Other than that I feel like such a bad mother today with Peanut. She takes naps on our bed and she normally makes sounds when she wakes up and I go get her. Well today I heard a "Whaa" thud and screaming. As soon as I heard the whaa I was up and headed to the bedroom and when I heard the thud I was running. She seems to be okay but man did that really scare me. She had a red bump on her head. Then about 10 minutes ago I was nursing her while Red was brushing my hair and when he got done he threw it and hit her in the head while she was nursing. Good thing she has a hard head. Poor girl. It stinks to be the 4th. I think I am going to have to wear her more, oh wait she was in my arms the last time she got hurt.

My feet hurt...

and it isn't from running through my husband's dreams! J got us some special tickets for the festival and we used them today. It was unlimited rides for 2 hours. It was great fun and my feet hurt now. We had a very busy weekend too. Last night we went to one of our regular sitters graduation party. The kids had a great time and didn't want to leave but I had to put a stop to the fun because we needed to get up early for church this morning. I am excited about the week ahead of us too. It is fulling up fast too! If you know me at all I'm not one to sit at home...we are pretty on the go type people. Tomorrow we are getting together with a couple from church with their two kids. I think the hubby are going golfing at night, not quiet sure of that yet. Then Tuesday is playgroup. Wednesday we are meeting one of my bloggy friends for the day, I am super excited about it. Must. Not. Forget. My. Camera. Thursday will probably consist of cleaning and shopping. I'm thinking Friday will be library in the morning and swimming in the afternoon?! But don't hold me to it *wink*

Sorry pretty boring post but I wanted to get it down. When you lose someone who is a peer it makes you realize that we really don't know how many days we have on this earth and I want my kids to be able to read these posts and know what our days were like. Even if they are boring!

Our 4th of July!

First I hope that everyone had a happy, safe and exciting 4th of July. I know ours was jammed packed with fun! The only down side was GG got another migraine and threw up. This is the 3rd time in 6 months and I am getting really concerned. I've already taken her to the doctor once for this and I am going to take her again, because she is too young for this. Anyone out there have kids with migraines? Back to our day...first I got everyone up and ready for the parade, the three older kids were in the parade. They rode in the cop truck with daddy and I got a couple pictures of them but I'm not posting them. But here is Peanut watching the parade :) She's sporting red, white and blue with stars.

Then we had to leave the parade early to meet my dad and step-mom for lunch. Then it was home for the two little ones to get a nap. As soon as they woke it was to the fest for some rides. The older kids each got two rides. They all went on the swings which was Red's first year going on them and he was so cute to watch. Then he went on the Dragon rollercoaster and the other two went on Tilt-a-whirl with me. I also took Peanut on the big slide, she loved it! By the time we got done with the rides J was done working. We ran home grabbed our swim suites and off to a party we all went! We ended up getting home last night at 11pm. This year has been such a blessing to have J be able to watch the fireworks with us on the 3rd and then have him home at night on the 4th :) Here is another picture of the 4 kids from the 4th.

All three of the kids had the same shirt on which is the veggie tales shirt. I wished we could of found a baby size in it too.

Baby Girl

Here is a video of Peanut riding her little bike in our living room. You can hear the Wii in the background along with her brother Red repeating her "dadadadada" She loves to clap and has started doing that in place of waving!

Tight places!

Apparently sharing a room is really hard to do and so you have to get creative to find your "own" space to play with toys. Just don't get yourself stuck there like this...

There was a bed mattress on top of his foot as he is under the bottom bunk. How he did this I will never know. But we just had to take a picture of it. He was too funny as we were trying to figure out how to get him loose. At one point J says, "If worse comes to worse I can just cut him out." Yeah that started the water works as Monkey thought he was going to cut his foot off! He calmed down once we told him we would cut the bed. Which we didn't have to do. He was in there pretty good though, it took us about 10 minutes to get him out...

See on the right side of him all his toys that he was playing with? This was the whole reason he was in this mess! We had to move the bed (J) and him (me) away from the wall and then we put oil on his foot and all at once J lifted the bed and I pushed his greasy foot through the whole.

There were no "Monkeys" hurt in the freeing of his foot. But I will say he probably won't be playing under his brother's bed anytime soon! Ah BOYS:)

Big Man in the House!

I'm not really sure how this happened but Monkey mowed the lawn for the first time! I looked up from whatever I was doing and ran to the house to get my camera. He looked so cute pushing the mower. Not quite tall enough to do it by himself but one day soon it will be his "job" in our family, that is until Red gets big enough to help ;)

Look at him smiling for the camera...what a little ham!

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