New Tradition

I think we have started a new tradition in our family for Christmas day. A teacher at my kids school organizes a day for some recruits from a near by military base. His son was a solider and was killed in Afghanistan about 3 years ago, leaving behind a wife and daughter. Last year was the first year he had the event. We didn't know about it until afterward. This year we decided that we would spend our Christmas there serving them. It was the BEST thing our family could ever have done. It was an amazing day. We got there early and started working in the kitchen making the food. Then when we got word they were almost here we all lined the halls of the school to welcome them. There was a ton of people there, my guess is about 300, could of been more?! As they walked down the hall people clapped and told them Merry Christmas! Several of them were so moved they were crying. They had some food and then were able to talk on the phone or skype with their families. People let them use their cell phones...Jeff came home with several different locations called from his phone! There was also an arcade area for them to relax and play. It was so neat to see my kids serving along side of us. And they really did work. On our way home we heard, "That was so fun!" "Can we do that again?" Here is the best part, in my opinion. When we got up this morning we only opened our stockings. All the presents stayed under the tree until we got home AFTER serving. It was a very great Christmas.    

For my own record...

Sweetest Conversation with Peanut to date...
We were driving in the car just her and I a couple of Saturdays ago. She told me, "In Bible class my teacher, Mrs. D. told me that in Papua New Guinea the people celebrate Christmas without having a Christmas tree. Did you know you could celebrate Christmas without a tree?" Me, "Yes, did you know that you can still celebrate Christmas without a tree and presents?" She thinks for a second and says, "Yes". Then I asked her, "How are some ways we can celebrate Christmas if we don't have a tree or presents?" She thought for a moment and said excitedly, "We could sing praise songs to Jesus!" Me, "Yup that would be a great way to celebrate Christmas. Can you think of any other way we could celebrate?" Peanut, "Um we could read the Bible." Me, "Yes, what story in the Bible could we read?" She says, "Adam and Eve!" I told her, "We could read that but can you think of another story we could read to help us celebrate Christmas?" She got really excited and said, "We could read about Jesus' birth!" I told her, "That is right. That would be the perfect story. Can you think of any other way to celebrate?" She thought for a few minutes and finally said, "Yeah we could tell God all the things we are thankful for!" Then she started listing them. I told her she was right and asked her again if she could think of any other way to celebrate. When she couldn't think of anything else I told her that the three she had thought of were great ways to celebrate Christmas. I just love that at the age of 6 years old she can understand why we celebrate Christmas, that it isn't about the tree or presents. I love this girl with all my heart and I love her heart too!

Awana

Another year of Awana has come to an end. By this point in the year it is nice to have a break from the weekly Awana clubs. However this year is a BIG year for us. Our oldest is officially done with the program and moving on to our churches Jr. High Youth group...which Jeff and I help out with. I am super excited to have her there but also sad she is old enough to be done with Awana. It is a catch 22 to for me. BUT I will say that she made me SO proud at the Awana Award Ceremony because she was one of 2 girls who finished her 4th book and got the Timothy Award, the hardest one to receive. It was a proud mama moment for me. Monkey also got an award for finishing his 3rd book which he was only one of 5 boys to finish he is nervous about next year because he barely completed the 3rd book in time! Red graduated from Sparks to Boys T & T (Truth and Training) he finished his 3rd book of sparks and got a ribbon but they also gave him props for not only finishing his book once but reviewing it all! Then the part that was the most difficult for me was that my baby graduated from Cubbie and is now a Spark! Oy she is growing too fast. She finished her book too! So proud of all my kids and wanted to document their wonderful accomplishments of memorizing so many Bible verses. I am so impressed because memorizing is not one of my strengthens.

Note worthy

Friday night was the winter sports banquet at school. Monkey's basketball team had their award ceremony where the coach talks about each kid on the team. It is always a great night. We went to the banquet not expecting anything. There are four trophies that get awarded for each team and there are 7 boys on the jv basketball team. We sit down to start the ceremony and next thing I know me, my friend and a dad get called up infront of everyone. Yipes. My friend and I were the team moms and the dad helped with a lot if not all the practices. They gave us each a card with a gift card inside. Then the boys gave us moms roses! I was so NOT expecting that. It was super sweet and totally a surprise.  Then started the good stuff. The time came when they announced Monkey name and had him stand up infront of everyone so they could talk about him. THEN they gave him the team captain trophy....AND the Charger Award. Jeff said that the Charger Award is the most highly wanted award. The plaque says, "presented to the athlete who most exemplifies the Charger spirit in Leadership, in Ability, in Teamwork." He was so shocked to have gotten any but to receive TWO, so proud of him. It was such an amazing night and all his hard work paid off. I must say that watching him throughout his basketball season you can tell that he got much better as time went on.

Then today was the Awana Games! It was GG last year doing this and she is super sad but SO excited that her last year ended in the team getting 1st place. She told me that she is the most proud of the award she got today for winning 1st place in the Awana Games. Both the boys competed in the boys TNT because they didn't have enough third and fourth graders they pulled 3 second graders to play and Red was one of them. I was really impressed with how well he did...in one of the events (something with a balloon being hit to your color) he almost got knocked down by one of the older kids but he held his own. Then in my least favorite event the bean bag grab he got 2 bags! It is my least favorite because they have 6 kids from each team and they call a number 1-6 and that number has to run to the middle and grab as many of the 4 bean bags as they can. Nerve racking! In the end the boys got 2nd place...not too bad. After the boys and girls TNT was over Red competed in Sparks. They ended up coming in last but they certainly had fun doing it. We only have one more kid to go through the Sparks games. Well that is our highlights!

Calm before the storm...

The funny part of that title is we are actually suppose to be getting a snow storm. Though the last one they predicted didn't actually happen! Not holding my breath not that I want the snow. I want spring and SUMMER! But that just means this part of the year is our calm before the flurry of activities that our 4 blessings are signed up to participate in...however #4 isn't sign up for anything currently. Though she does want to do gymnastics. Have to see if the spring session is in our budget. But the boys are both doing baseball and our old is doing soccer. SO FUN!
I am trying to figure out how to scrap money together to do Peanut's 6 birthday party in Sept. Each of our kids have done a Chuck E Cheese party when they turned 6. This last weekend we went to two birthday parties and they were pretty cool. When did the norm become spending a ton of money on a 5 yr or 8 yr olds birthday? The one party was at an indoor place called party fantasy or something like that. It has a climbing wall, go carts, and inflatable bounce houses. Then we went to Ginos East for dinner. The second party was at Build a Bear, which I have to say was probably the coolest party I've ever witnessed. The birthday parents did pretty much nothing but pay the bill. They had those kids entertained...impressive. Then we went to Sabaros for pizza. Both of those parties had to be at least $300 because there was 11 kids at the 1st one and 14 kids at the second. So yeah, I don't want my kids to think I'm lame and only throw them a house party...enough though it is WAY more affordable for us, so I start saving now. Sad I know but such is life. Ok this blog post brought to you by totally and completely random thoughts.
Oh yeah I am keeping myself busy but organizing a 5k and taking over the gift card program at school both are fundraisers for said school. Over and out!

Another one bites the dust...

We were doing so well this year staying healthy. No one had gotten sick until now. Ugh and it is me who is sick. Come on don't you know moms aren't suppose to get sick but I tend to be the one who gets sick if someone in our house is going to get sick. It is so frustrating. I spent all of last night running to the bathroom to throw up. I HATE throwing up. I got zero amount of sleep because my stomach hurt so bad. I thought it was maybe something I ate for dinner that did me in. This has happened before. I was finally able to fall asleep at 7am and slept til 11am. I thought I was doing better so I decided to get something to eat. I was feeling hunger pains. I ate an apple and 30 minutes later I feel like I need to puke again. My stomach is cramping, it just hurts. I just want to curl up in a ball and cry. I was suppose to sub today at school but I had to call in sick to subbing...lame. I have to go get the kids from school in about an hour and I am a little nervous about leaving the house. Last thing I want is to throw up in the van or on the side of the road. I really hope no one else gets this. GG is leaving on Friday for a winter retreat and I want to make sure she is healthy and can enjoy her time there. I need something to keep my mind off of the tummy pains. Ok I am done whining.

Back to the Grind

After having 16 days of getting to sleep in (most mornings 9am) today wasn't as bad as it could of been. Though I will say that I got a text from another mom asking about basketball at 6:30am, 20 minutes before my alarm was to go off and then when I didn't answer her text she called me right before my alarm went off. Now if you know me at all you would know I like my sleep. Even down to the last minute. The only reason why this was frustrating was the fact that the boys have been on the basketball team since the beginning of November. The practices have been the same days and the games are posted online. She asked if they had practice and a game today. Ugh.

Anyways, not why I got on here. This last two weeks have confirmed to me I can not homeschool my children. I would not get up out of bed at a reasonable time to teach them! Ha, just kidding not why I got on here either. It is amazing how relaxing those two weeks were. But starting back to the daily grind made me feel alive again. There was something comforting to getting back to the routine.

I have some goals for this year that I'm a little nervous to post about because I'm really not sure I want accountability on them. Ha. But I think I will post it anyway and just know that this is a goal and I will probably mess up. I want to be better with managing our family's money. We put A LOT on our credit card. Now I'm not saying that I am not going to use the card anymore but I am going to make sure that I'm not just buying stuff that we don't need, I sometimes do this. My biggest weakness is going out to eat. I love eating out. It's just so fast and easy but so unhealthy. So ultimately it means meal planning again. In tightening up on spending I hope to be able to use that extra money to pay down one of our loans. There is no possible way to get it paid off this year but I could do some shrinkage of it. Ok now that it is out there...yipes.  

Lazy Days of Christmas Break

We have had a handful of days this Christmas break that we have just lounged around the house in our jammies All. Day. Long. I absolutely love those days. We have played so many board games and watched many hours of television it isn't normal but it is so relaxing and fun. I talked about taking the kids different places for fun but all of them cost money...roller skating, bowling etc. I have to say that this break since we haven't gotten together with friends or done much out side of the house except for go to some family gatherings the kids have gotten along REALLY well. I can't think of one time I had to listen to a fight or break up a fight. Pure bliss. It has been super peaceful. LOVE it. Today was one of our lazy days. I hope I can remember that the key to family bonding isn't spending a ton of money to do something fun it is just being together doing the free stuff!

Happy New Year!!!

It is the fresh start to a new year! I came on here to write but have eased several sentences that I have written. Not sure if I should just give up and come back later. Nah I won't come back. My first thoughts were to write about my goals for this new year but was having a hard time articulating them.

I have to say that I love the show Prison Break. Jeff and I started watching it on netflix at the beginning of this break. We have watched a minimum of 2 episodes a night and a max of 4. I love it. If I could I would do a marathon until I watched all episodes, I totally would. The funny part is I watch some of it behind my hands. There are some really gory parts like one of the guys got his hand chopped off by an ax. I sit there super tense while I watch it. I want to see how it ends but I don't want it to end.   

Good Bye 2012

Well another year bites the dust. It should does seem like the years are starting to literally FLY by us now. I'm going to go through each kid and give highlights of their year...I'll start with the youngest!

Peanut and I enjoyed the first part of this year just hanging out together while the older three kids were in school. This summer she was tall enough to go on the Demon at Great America. That is the roller coaster that goes upside down. She loved it! She must get that from her father ;) She also learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. That has been nice for our park and library bike trips! She also got really good at swimming under water but not quite ready to make the jump off the diving board. In September she turned 5, a whole hand, and started school 5 half days a week. She has started to read and do simple math problems. Helping out in her class with their Christmas party I was able to see her personality. She is quite the little leader. She was organizing the kids and giving them intructions. It was really funny to watch. I have a feeling she might end up teaching. She has a lot of friends at school and church, too. She is currently doing her last year of Awana Cubbies. She just finished gymnastics and ballet but we are going to be taking a break at the beginning of this new year. She is such a lovely little girl and always good for a chuckle!

Red finished 1st grade and turned 7. He played baseball for the first time this summer and was a total natural. He loves pitching. His coaches were amazing and we were so blessed to have them both as his coaches! He also made the all star team. He is my little athelet, probably because he has the two older ones to keep up with. He is now playing basketball for the first time and loving it. He is my super active child. Loves to be outside or doing something inside. He went to sleep away camp this summer for the first time and had a blast. He is loving 2nd grade and he has a real young and fun teacher. His grades continue to be As and Bs. He is in his last year of Sparks at church. He loves to tell jokes. He asked for more joke books for Christmas and he got them. He also like to make up jokes...there have been a few that were actually pretty funny. But not always! He has the most contagious laugh I have ever heard. He has lost 3 teeth this year and the only ones he has lost so far. He currently has the one front tooth smile...love it. He is going to catch up with his older brother height wise pretty soon if he keeps growing at the rate is he going.

The first part of this year for Monkey was pretty slow. He played baseball for the 2nd summer. He got a ton better from the year before and his confidence grew. He ended up making the all star team for the first time this year too! I was so happy that they both made the all stars. His baseball coach talked him into playing soccer this fall for the first time. Jeff and I were pretty excited that he wanted to try soccer. We both really love watching soccer! I think we found his sport. He loves it and he is really good at it too. He was so excited when he got his first goal! His coach was begging us to sign him up for soccer this spring instead of baseball. And by begging I mean every practice or game the coached asked if he was going to play in the spring and would say "I would really love to have him on my team." In November he tried out for basketball at school and made the team. I love seeing him improve his basketball skills as the season has gone on. He went from playing like 2 minutes or so the first few games to playing the entire game. He also is doing well in school and getting As and Bs too. He is also my one who will also come and snuggle with me on the couch when we watch our television show "Once Upon a Time".

Glamor Girl tried track and field at the beginning of the year. At first she didn't like it because there was a lot of conditioning. But she really liked the track meets. She is not very fast though. Have to admit that track meets were not my favorite sport to attend but I am a great fan of my daughter so I was there rain or shine. She also got the lead in the play at school while she was in 5th grade. She loves to act. This summer I took her away for a weekend just her, me and my mom we had a great time! This fall she played soccer as well. She liked this league much better than the one she played on a few years ago. The best part was that Monkey and her were on the same team. It was great for our family only one game and practice. She did really well and got her first two goals this season. She decided not to do cheerleading this year. She started her last year of elementary school...we are going to have a Jr. Higher next year. She continues to get all As on her report card. Her favorite activity of all time is reading. She reads 500 pages books in 2 days. She can't get new books fast enough

Weight...

I know, I know two posts in one week! Hopefully this will be a trend...
We finished our last Christmas celebration of this year, today!!!

Ok, so I think I'm just going to put this out there because for one it's my blog and for two it has been on my mind. I love the holidays getting together with the people you love the most and just spending time together. Love it. What I do not love is the consistent comments about my weight. Throughout the year people will make random comments about my weight but during the holidays it is full force. Though there are a few people, that say something every time I see them no matter what time of year, I expect it and move on. Yes I am thin. No, I am not under weight. I do have flab, trust me. Yes, I do eat. I actually eat often. I will admit I do forget to eat occasionally but that is when I am super busy but that is such a rare thing. I get hungry, I eat. It makes me very self conscience, like do I look sick? I'm only saying this so people are aware that thin people are insecure about their weight too. At least this thin girl is. It also makes me nervous if I do end up putting on extra weight what will people say then? 

Long Time

Well this year is coming to an end. We had our Christmas get together with my mom's side of the family last weekend and my sweet Aunt Lori reminded me of my blog that I have let go. So this post is for her and will hopefully be my motivation to post more! Hi Aunt Lori :) I really do miss posting but I have enjoyed my blogging break.

To be honest it is hard to pick just one thing to write about...these kids are crazy up in here! But this story happened tonight and I just had to share. It was time for Peanut to go to bed. She has stopped taking naps and has made bedtime so much easier for everyone! However after tonight I think she isn't going to be so easy to put to bed, anymore. Jeff told me to tell her to get in bed when she came up stairs because he was going to hide under her bed to scare her. He has done this before and he usually scares her before she gets in bed so I was waiting for it but it didn't happen. I stood outside her door trying to figure out what he was doing. She says, "Mommy I feel something weird." I didn't respond just waited. It took about 5 minutes before he finally jumped out and scared her. She screamed so loud and started crying immediately. She normally just screams and then laughs. Apparently, Jeff was pushing up on her bed which is the something weird she was feeling. Then he said he was shaking her bed. Finally her little foot was hanging over the edge and he was touching it. All before he jumped out to scare her. She was so scared. Jeff said she did not move at all. I think she was paralyzed with fear. Poor girl. We asked her what she thought it was and she screamed "A MONSTER" She was really scared, I felt horrible. I held her for 5 minutes before she stopped crying. When she calmed down Jeff said should I do it to Red. She lit up and agreed that he should scare her brother! The worst part for me is I remember being her age laying in bed paralyzed with fear. She is so my daughter. This house is crazy!

Running...

The other day I thought I would start running. Yeah I know I'm SO not a runner. But after two days I think I could start to like it...maybe. I am a long way away from being any good at it. I did the run 60 seconds walk 90 seconds for 20 minutes. It is harder than it sounds especially if you are out of shape like I am!!! The funniest thing that happened on my first run was a nice little elderly lady asked if there was school today. I replied yep. Then started thinking about why she would ask me that. I think she thought I was in High School. Haha. I had on a t-shirt and sweat pants on because it was cool out. Well now that I posted this to the world I feel like I have to keep doing it...

Soccer

Since I am waiting up for my dear sweet hubby to get home so I can spend a little bit of time with him today I thought I would update the ole blog!

So my two oldest are playing soccer...yes I am officially a "soccer mom". I have to say I absolutely love fall soccer. GG did spring soccer two years ago. This is so much different. Anyway both kids are on the SAME team. Bonus! It has worked out great for us. The practices are super close to our house they could ride their bikes and they do when Jeff goes to the practices to help! As I mentioned GG has played once before but this is Monkey's first year playing. I have to say this boy has completely impressed me. The first game he played the WHOLE game. They didn't have subs and he never stopped running full speed. As the season goes on his skill with handling the ball has gotten way better too. He does great in defense though he really loves offense. The best position for him is midfield so he gets to play both! This last weekend they had their 5th or 6th game and Monkey got his first ever goal. It was such a cool thing to witness and he was SO happy. I watched him run with his arms in the air and then chest bump one of his teammates. I even shed a tear. I was so proud of him. Another cool part is hearing the parents talk about him most of them know this is his first year. But one dad had no idea I was his mom or that it was his first year and went up to the coach during a corner kick and said, "Have him kick the ball to number 2." Monkey is number 2!!!

As for GG, she played two years ago but that was pretty much a joke. They had practice once a week in a park and most of the time the practices got canceled. Not only did the practices get canceled but some of the games did too and were not rescheduled. I felt like we wasted our money. This league is so much better and is not the same as the one she did two years ago. She is playing really well too. Again she is best as a defender but likes offense. This last game they out her in the goal for the first half. She was absolutely adorable whenever the ball got close to her she would yell at her teammates to "get it out of here" totally something I would do. She had two stops which was good. I think she did good in goalie since the final score of that game was 2 - 0 with us winning! So as it's looking now Monkey will probably be playing soccer in the fall and GG will play in the spring at school. Though I am really enjoying having them on the same team next year GG is too old for the co-ed. It's interesting too how each team has 3 to 4 girls on it and in every game I've seen those girls are pretty good!!!

I'm still alive...

barely. The kids started school on Sept 6th and since then I feel like I am just trying to keep my head above water. All 4 kids come home with tons of homework each day. As they have gotten older the homework amount has increased and it has gotten harder. I just feel like we are drowning in it right now. We need to find our routine. I have half the day to myself and I feel totally and completely ADD in that time period. I am trying to get everything I need to get done in said time period before I pick Peanut up. I just need to realize that I have all school year to slowly get the "to do list" done. Typically I thrive on busy but this year for some odd reason I'm not. I need to get out of this funk. Or we are going to have a rough year.

In other news we bought a new refrigerator!!! We finally sat down and talked about all the thing we want to do to this old house and prioritized in the order we wanted to do them. Then put a price to them. Number 1 has been checked off. Now we wait a good 18 months and we will have saved enough to do the next on the list...New doors. Exciting I know, right? ;)

The kids continue to crack me up and frustrate me all at the same time. I posted two of many funny conversations I have had with my kids on facebook.
Me: Get your stuff animals away from me
GG: This is totally why I'm not going to be able to sleep with my husband.
Me: Why because of all your stuffed animals?
GG: NO. no because I keep rolling over on top of you.


And the other...

Me: I can't believe you are going to be 5 yrs old. You make me feel old.
Peanut: I don't want to turn 5 years old.
Me: I don't want to turn 34...
Peanut with most surprised face: Oh that's old. Are you going to die? 

Oh and tonight at church Red lost his second tooth! That was pretty funny. He was screaming like he had blood squirting out of his mouth. I had him suck on an ice cube to help numb his mouth then took a look at it. I moved it forward and backward and then went to pull but it just fell out. I knew it was ready to come out because the big tooth was already coming in behind it. 

injuries and firsts

This summer has seemed to be filled with injuries. Red being on the receiving end of most of them. He had a summer of firsts. He lost his first tooth...FINALLY. He only turned 7 in May and
 lost the tooth July 24th. Though he doesn't have any more loose... Then he went to camp for the first time this year and while at camp he got his first black eye. Then last week he got his first broken bone. We went to Play it again sports to get the kids some cleats for soccer and he dropped a 25 pound weight on his finger. Ouch.

This old thing...

Man I feel like I never update this blog anymore. Probably because nothing real exciting has been going on in our house. Other than the fact that we joined the 21st century and got a texting plan for our phones. We still don't have internet on them but we took a step up in the world of electronics. AND we bought me a phone for the first time since owning a cell phone. We have always taken the penny phones but this time we spent money to buy one. That felt weird. The biggest topic lately has been whether or not our almost 12 yr old should get a phone. So far she hasn't needed one and she still doesn't really *need* one. If she wants to talk to friends she can use my phone at any time. I see the positives and negatives to both side of the debate. Today we had our families over to celebrate Monkey's birthday and they all had opinions about the phone subject which I found really funny because Jeff's parents agreed with him and mine agreed with me. And this was before we even told them what we thought! Now that I've started writing this post I looked at the title and just laughed. Back to the electronic topic Monkey got a kindle fire for his birthday and he is loving it. Surprisingly he has actually done quite a bit of reading on it, along with playing games. I love the fact that both kids kindles are synced and they can share books. I really want the ipad but I am also trying really hard to manage our money more wisely. We have several friends who are taking the Dave Ramsay class at church and we've had many decisions with them about the class. It has motivated me to be more diligent with our money. But I have never been a spender which is why I haven't gotten the ipad, yet, because we do have the money to buy one. I just know that eventually we are going to need to buy a new refrigerator (it's like 20+ yrs old), television (8 yrs old), computer or laptop (both 5 yrs old), and the list goes on. I want to be prepared. Not to mention all the kids sports and equipment that goes with it. So far this year the two oldest are playing soccer, Red is doing basketball, and Peanut is doing gymnastics and ballet/tap. She couldn't decide which one she liked better so my dad and step-mom gave her the gymnastic class for her birthday and Jeff and I gave her the ballet/tap class for her birthday. She was happy. Monkey is talking about trying out for the basketball team at school and GG is possibly doing cheerleading again or something else. Then both older kids want to do track but thinking Monkey isn't going to be able to do track and baseball so we'll see. Both boys are planning on doing baseball in the spring. So yeah that is a perpetual "money suck" right there, but a good one. I'm trying to find a part time (real part time like 10 hrs or less) job while Peanut is in school to help offset these activities because having Jeff in grad school come fall isn't going to leave much time for him to be working overtime. Plus, I don't like when he works A LOT of over time. We'll see. If you have read this whole post congrats! I feel like that was very ADD...     

Girls Week

The girls and I have been trying to have a great time with just us girlies at home. Friday night we went to dinner with my parents and then out to see Brave. I loved the mother/daughter aspect of the movie just not so much the magic. Saturday we went shopping and to a birthday party. Sunday we headed over to my parents house. We had lunch with them where Peanut got hit on the head with the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom. Poor girl had a little goose egg. The restaurant did a great job making it right. They gave her a balloon and an ice pack. Then they took 60% off our whole check AND they brought out the biggest piece of ice cream cake I have ever seen. After lunch we went back to their house and grandma watched the girls while my dad took me shopping. I didn't know where I wanted to go but a store called Hot Mama caught my eye and I think the name was funny and wanted to see what it was like. OH MY GOODNESS! They have the cutest clothes but they are pretty expensive. I tried on about 50 shirts...I don't need any pants! Then we went to Best Buy to get a screen protector for Monkey's kindle fire. Then we went out to eat with them for dinner plus 2 of my brothers came with so that was fun. We came home and get ready for bed and just hung out. Today starts VBS at their school so I dropped them off and went grocery shopping we had no milk, bread, butter or much of anything else. Now I am relaxing before I have to go pick them up. So thankful VBS was this week :) The plans for the rest of the week are to check out the library for some chick flicks, swimming, and mini golf. It is definitely easier just having the two girls but man I really do miss my boys...

It's Time

I'm getting really bad at the updating of my blog. Life is just so busy with 4 kids that I forget or am too exhausted from the day to think straight! This past week has totally thrown off my sleep schedule. Tuesday July 3rd the kids and I went out on my dad's boat to watch fireworks on the lake. It was really a cool experience to be on the water when it was so dark! Driving the boat was harder because you couldn't see and we almost hit to buoys...oops. But it was way better putting the boat cover back on because the sun wasn't beating down on us. We ended up getting home that night around 11ish. On the 4th the two boys were in the parade for baseball and then we went to the "Fest" for the rest of the night with Aunty Becky. That was a pretty memorable night...one I don't think my kids will ever forget or let me forget! Let's just say that one of the carnival workers made it his goal to hit on all the women in attendance with the pick up line of "call me maybe" with his number. It was a good laugh but made for an awkward rest of the Fest for that one ride. Thursday my dad picked up the two oldest and took them to Great America on Friday and Saturday. So I only had two kids while I was single parenting it...woot woot. I say single parenting it because Jeff's work schedule was INSANE! The 4th he worked from 8am to 11pm, 5th: 3:30pm to 12:30am, 6th: 3:30pm to 1:30am 7th: 9am to 4am (the longest day) 8th: 7am to 11pm. So yeah not much help from him. Thursday the two kids and I met some friends at the Fest. Friday we had a going away party and then my future sil came over to hang out...SO fun! Saturday we rocked the Fest from 3pm to midnight (close) then we did the same thing on Sunday but it closed at 10pm. It was many late nights and it has thrown me completely off. But this week the kids have VBS at 9am not good when we have been sleeping in until 10am. Here are some pictures from the first night of the FEST!!! 

We did it!!!

We actually bought a trampoline and it is up and operating!!! The kids are always wanting to go on it and I just LOVE that! We put it up after we went to Great America last Thursday and Friday morning the kids were up early and out on it jumping away. And every morning except for today they have gotten up, got dressed, ate breakfast and then outside to jump. Today they couldn't because we had church but as soon as we got home they were out there! I think it is the best purchase we have made for the kids to date. And I like that they are getting exercise and NOT sitting in front of the tv or playing video games.

So I said we put it up after our day at Great America. We had gotten home around 9:30pm and decided that we put it up. It was so funny because we had to set up a flood light so that we could see what we were doing. It took us a little longer than it would of it had been in the daylight because we had to almost take it all apart to fix a mistake that we had made because of the darkness. We had fun bonding while putting it up and we got to be the first to JUMP! At 11pm we were like two little kids jumping away on the trampoline. I was sitting and let Jeff jump and he bounced me so high that I ended up standing. Needless to say, if you are thinking of getting one totally do it! We struggled with size for a while and ended up getting the bigger one...15ft!