Home Sweet Home...

a few days ago GlamorGirl was getting her clothes out of her dresser and the top drawer fell out. I didn't have time to investigate until I came home after dropping them off at school. The middle wood piece that holds the drawer on cracked and broke off. Now anytime she opens her top drawer she has to be super careful not to let it fall to the ground. It has fallen more times than I would like on the hardwood floor. We have set out to find a good quality yet affordable new dresser. I did a little research online and then today I stopped at a few stores I got as suggestions from friends. Let's just say...furniture isn't made very well nowadays. I did find one store that had quality dressers but they were a bit high in price. This evening we headed over to the mall for some Disney apparel, our junior highers are having a Disney night tomorrow. Since we were out we hopped on over to IKEA. Looked at the one dresser we liked online and the construction of it wasn't not very good. But since we were there and the kids were playing we walked around and ended up buying a new entertainment center. I am so excited to get rid of the table. We also got a pot for the plant in the living room. We are classing it up in here ;) I will put up some before and after pictures but the after isn't ready yet!

BEFORE!

AFTER!

Sleepover

The two oldest each had a friend spend the night on Friday night. I figured this would be the perfect weekend to do it since it was a 3 day weekend! The only thing I regret is not taking any pictures of the kids. Oh well. They all seemed to have a good time and the two little ones didn't feel completely excluded from the other ones. After school on Friday I took all 6 kids to the library and let them pick out some movies to watch. I thought they could watch a movie before they went to bed to help get them in the relaxed bedtime mood. I feel like it worked as they were all asleep by 11:30pm. The only downside is that the 3 boys all were up by 7am! Was NOT expecting that. I thought maybe Red and Peanut would wake up early since they went to bed about an hour and a half before the other kids. Not so. But I am very thankful that when Red got down off the top bunk in the girls room he didn't wake up Peanut. She actually slept until 8:20 this morning. The kids did a lot of running (I had to retype that word because I typed funning, haha) around and playing games and what not. I just think it is so funny my kids personalities. GG and her friend sat in the living room reading books for about an hour. Too funny. I can tell that I am worn out from the excitement too. Tonight GG and I got the movie Letters to Juliet and I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I am actually amazed that I am still awake. The movie was over about an hour ago. All in all I think we will let the kids have friends over again. Though not sure I want to do two at once?! Maybe one kid comes and one kid goes to some one else's house...

The Winner is...

Thanks everyone who entered!

How Exciting A Giveaway!

I've never done a giveaway on my blog before and I'm really excited about this opportunity to bless one of my readers! Before we left for vacation I received an email asking if I would do either a giveaway or review on my blog for TV Stands they are one of many online CSN Stores. As you can see I choose to do a giveaway :) The giveaway is for $35 good on any of CSN Stores websites, you don't have to use it exclusively for the TV Stands website. It is actually quite interesting that I got an email for this website because my husband and I have been looking at different entertainment centers for our tv for awhile now. Looking at the site this would be my first choice of tv stands...click here. CSN Stores have over 200 sites online! Some of the sites that I have looked at are this one, this one and this one! There are so many more too! Okay let's get down to the details of this giveaway...

You will have four different ways to enter this give away. Each of them is a separate entry. Please leave an email in your comments. This contest will run until Feburary 18th at 9pm central standard time. I will announce the winner on my blog Saturday morning. I will also notify the winner if the winner does not respond within 2 days I will pick a new winner. Also this giveaway is for US and Canadians only, I forgot to mention this earlier sorry. This is my first giveaway I'm learning ;)

1. Check out this site TV Stands (link at top) and leave a comment of what tv stand you like.

2. Leave a comment about an interesting fact about you! I'd love to learn a little more about my readers.

3. Become a follower of this blog and leave a comment, (I need to clarify) this means click the follow button on my side bar. If you already are a follower leave a comment letting me know that as well.

4. Blog about this giveaway on your blog linking to my blog and also putting a link to the TV Stands website. Then leave another comment letting me know!

I will pick a winner the old fashion way of putting your name in a hat and letting one of my kiddos pick it out. I might even video record the process and post it! Now let the fun begin :)
Please note that this post will be a sticky post until the giveaway is over :)

A Good Day

Day was an amazingly great day. I woke up with a good attitude and nothing that happened was going to change that. Trust me there were people who tried to gave me little jabs but guess what? It didn't work! I was happy and content yesterday too but only noticed it once it was the end of the day. I love Wednesdays. I go to a woman's Bible study at my friend Melissa's house. We are going through Daniel, such a great book. Then GlamorGirl had a friend over who came with us to church. This little girl is so sweet and the best part is I love the way GG is around her she brings out the good quality of my girl. Her mom is really sweet too. I hope to get to know them better. This morning I woke up and the forecast was 55, I just knew it was going to be a good day. I had more patience with the kids. We laughed more today. We played and enjoyed each other company more. It really is true when mama is happy/content so is the rest of the family. After writing my last post about food I feel such a huge burden was lifted off of me. Like God said, "Here my child let me take that from you." I have not been as tempted as a matter of fact it almost seems like it is easier for me to flee from those sugary treats yesterday and today. I think that also may have to do with my mood, I have been eating better! Let's just say that usually this time of the month I'm not so joyful. Tonight I took my oldest to see Gnomeo and Juliet. It was a really cute movie. She was hoping to see a girl from school there as this girl told her she was going to see it tonight. But instead a different little friend was there, gasp, a BOY. He is in Monkey's class and gets along with both GG and Monkey. His mom and I get along really well too! Well since this post really has no rhyme or reason I will end with this. The day I posted my food struggle I got an email with an award from I am a Woman of God. I feel so honored and not worthy of this award as I don't always talk about God though He is a HUGE part of my life. I am just humbled by this award. Thank you.

Food

Since we have moved into our new house and I had been feeling pretty good for awhile I started to get really lax on the food I bought and made. Well I think it has finally caught up with me because I haven't been feeling good the last few days and I haven't been eating good the last few days. Point in case, Sunday I went to a baby shower and ate bread made with yeast, drank pop, ate some gummy worms, a few brownie bites and had cake. I did try and get some healthy things in there like peppers, salad and a bottle of water but the bad out weighed the good. I also ate coffee cake at church before going. Then Monday I worked in the cafeteria. I had some salad at home waiting for me but things that were completely out of my control interfered with me getting home to eat that food and I ended up eating two pieces of pizza. Then the kids came home with tons of candy. I have lost all will power and ate way more than I should have, causing me not to feel good that night. I also bought Jeff and I each a candy bar of chocolate not smart. I didn't eat the whole thing and I'm going to throw the rest away. Today I determined to eat good. I started out great BUT I took the van to get an oil change and while I waited for my ride I got myself a cup of hot chocolate. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???? The thing that really is upsetting to me is that in my daily reading of the Bible I have been reading about food specially what sticks out in my head is the phrase "made without yeast". Make bread without yeast or eat nothing containing yeast. In the last week all the passages I have read have this concept. I know some people think that this is an old testament law that we don't have to follow but as many times as it is written in the Bible I have to stop and think that maybe there is something to this and I should look a little farther at this particular item, not sure you can really call it a food. So I googled yeast and made the connection that is classified in the FUNGI kingdom. It is in the same classification as mold. So God was telling us not to eat yeast/fungi/mold how ever you want to look at it. When I did a quick search of the phrase "without yeast" on Biblegateway it pulled up 26 verses. Yet people don't think that mold can cause harm to our bodies? I am living proof of the harm it can cause. I know other people who have been effected by it as well. God knew we should not eat it and told us several times to make bread without yeast. Of course, there is free will and so there is yeast to be used in making bread but we don't need it. I feel like such a stiff-necked person. Why do I know this stuff and still continue to struggle with it. I hate the way I feel after eating what I KNOW I shouldn't. I need strength in this battle for I am weak. Lord give me the strength to resist the things I should not partake in. I also want to say that I am not judging anyone for eating bread made with yeast this is something that God has revealed to me in my life and I feel I need to obey. This has been an ongoing battle between God and me for at least a week now as I have read His word.

Want to brag on my kids...

The kids got their reports cards from school on Friday. They all did an excellent job! Monkey had straight As again, looks like he could have a straight A 3rd grade year! GG was right behind him with all As and one B+ so close! Red doesn't get letter grades he gets O for outstanding and S for satisfactory and N for needs improvement. He had all Os and S/S+s :) But we can't forget about little Peanut. She doesn't get a report card in preschool but today I sat down with her so she could write her name on her valentine's cards for school. Her fine motor skills are amazing! I should take a picture of her name and post it on here! It will have to wait until tomorrow because I'm upstairs and the camera and cards are downstairs, yea I'm being lazy. ***update*** so I don't think I will post her name on here! If you are friends with me on facebook you can see it there, sorry. We took the kids to Toys R Us and let them pick out some toys. The boys each got two G.I. Joe guys. GG walked around the store for about 20 minutes not really having anything catch her eye. Jeff and I talked and then asked her if she wanted to go on a date with either me or Jeff instead. She looked at me and said what will we do. I said we could go see Never Say Never. She gave me the most disguised look. I suggested Gnomeo and Juilet to which she agreed. She is so funny also while we were at the store Jeff came up to me and attacked me. It ended with a kiss between us. Completely disguised and embarrassed she said, "could you please never kiss in public again!" Nothing I could say would change her mind that it was inappropriate of us...haha. Sorry kiddo but if I feel like kissing her dad I will do it anywhere I want just get used to it!!! But now I know how to embarrass her if I really wanted too...

Want to scream but I know I shouldn't...

I pick the kids up from school today and GlamorGirl is bawling. I ask her what is wrong and she starts crying even harder and tells me she lost her necklace and watch she got for her birthday. UGH. Seriously! I go to grab my phone to call someone but I didn't bring it with me, go figure. She is upset the whole ride home. I'm not the happiest as she lost two of the presents from me and her dad. One being a really nice watch. You know the kind that you have to take into the store to get adjusted with the links. Well I am happy to report that as soon as I got home I called my mom-in-law and asked her what I should do. She suggests calling the school office. They were closed so I called the operator. She went into the office and FOUND both the necklace and watch!!! I have a little girl who went from being super sad to have lost the gifts from us to being the happiest girl that they were found. What a great life lesson that is how we are before we have a personal relationship with Christ. We are so lost and sad/miserable without the relationship with Christ. When we find that personal relationship with Christ it brings so much joy and happiness into our lives. I hope each and everyone who reads this has that relationship and if not I hope this spurs you on to looking deeper into what I'm talking about.

I did it!

I am so excited to say that I finally after years of wanting to go I registered myself for the Hearts at Home conference! I am so excited. I am going with a few girls from church and we are going to have a BLAST because these girls are FUN! I looked over the sessions for the conference and I am really happy with their selection and had a hard time just picking my top 10 :) You know it is a good conference when you want to do it ALL. This is what I am choosing to use my Christmas money on and I think it is a very well use of my money! I will have to let you know how it was once I get back...

Forgot to mention this...

but really thought this was a really funny memory from our trip. The day we were at the private island, owned by the cruise ship, the men walked around and collected seashells while us girls were reading. When we got back to the ship Jeff showed me all the shells he found. One of the shells had a hermit crab inside of it. Jeff thought it was dead but as I was sitting at the desk to get ready for dinner (it was formal night) the hermit crab start crawling across the desk. I freaked out! We both thought it was dead but it was so very ALIVE! Not sure what my hubby did with it after that. We both thought if we could get it home it would of been the coolest gift for the kids. Not too many people can say they have a hermit crab from a beach in the Bahamas!

We're BACK!

It was amazingly awesome! I loved it. Just for prosperity I want to blog our cruise trip to the Bahamas. The first day Jan 31st we got up super duper early (4am) and got ready for the airport. My dad and step mom came at 4:45am. Roberta stayed with the kids while my dad took us to the airport. We woke the kids up to tell them goodbye, they wanted us too, well except for Peanut we let her sleep. Before our plane took off we called the kids to tell them good morning. We got to the boat at about noon. Us on the bus to the boat!

We ate lunch at the buffet and then went to our rooms. We went with another couple from church who have been on many cruises so they were our guides. We explored the boat, except for Kristy she napped, I was too excited to sleep as I have never been on a boat before and I wanted to see it. We played shuffle board to kill time before dinner and it was actually really fun. Though I was always on the winning team :) The sunset was beautiful and we got a picture with it...

That night I did not feel the greatest. I think the food was not what my body was used to and I was tired from the long day of travel. BUT the food was so yummy. The second day we went to the cruise lines own private beach. It was super nice though the sun kept going behind the clouds and it would be a little cold for swimsuits. Jeff and I got a picture with our feet in the ocean.

Just me in the ocean

The view from our beach chairs
We also found some hammocks to sit in the shade!
Us kissing in the hammock :)
We ate lunch on the island and these were flying so close we could reach our hand up and touch one! Kristy kept screaming when they got too close. Then the guys started feeding them, that's when I exited. They started getting way too close for my comfort!

After we ate we walked around the shops for a little bit and then headed back to the boat for a nap. After the first night of not feeling great because I was tired I decided I should really take a nap. This is us on the tender to get back to our boat. It was so beautiful outside. ALL. THE. TIME.

The guys walked around the boat while the girls slept. That night we went to the show for the boat and it was a comedian who was actually pretty funny! A little crude but not too bad. This is the room where the main entertainment happened.

Then we went to the battle of the sexes in a different room on the boat and I hate to report that the men won. They had so many different activities to do at night that we had to pick and choose. We never did any of the dancing at nights, maybe next time?! The next day (Day 3) we stopped at Nassau, Bahamas and were docked all day long. Jeff and I went parasailing while we were there and it was really quite amazing. Us getting ready to go up...

Us going up and up
Us way up in the sky!

Half way through the ride up there they bring you down and dip your feet in the ocean and then bring you back up high. It was so peaceful up there. This is us right after we came down. Look at our smiles :)

After parasailing we ate lunch just the two of us and then we did our shopping for souvenirs at that port. I also got to lay out at the pool and read my book some more, Kristy and I did this the day before at the beach. This night was my absolute favorite. After the main show, which was a juggler, they did the newlywed game which Jeff and I tried to get on it. And then another game called Quest. That was pretty interesting. We didn't play we just watched. We also did the rock wall before all of that started. No pictures of that though. Then the last day Thursday we cruised all day and night. Since we were on the boat the whole day we just took it easy. After breakfast Kristy and I laid by the pool and read. Then we took a dip in the pool and then read some more. The guys came and got us for lunch. After lunch Kristy took a nap and I went back up to the pool to get some more sun and read. The guys went to see the comedian again, they said he was way worse this time with his jokes. At 4pm we all met and did a flip video scavenger hunt. I am happy to report that we won that scavenger hunt and each got medals. It was actually really fun playing it and then watching it! Then it was the main show, dinner and a little gambling in the casino which I lost all the money I played with :( But it was fun nonetheless and I didn't play with very much money. Then we packed up our bags and went to bed. The next morning it was debarking the boat and heading home. We spent most of our day in the airport. I loved coming home to the kids excited to see us. It took Peanut about an hour after we got home, and the only one who asked, if we got her a present! They all loved the clothes we got them. Here they are all smiling with their new duds. This is also going to have to stand as the first picture of the 4 kids this month!
It was so nice to be away with my husband alone for these last 5 days. I really do enjoy his company. I am thinking we need to make a more conscientious effort to go away together. I highly recommend taking a cruise vacation. It is a great way to travel the world internationally!

Surprise

I just pulled off the biggest surprise of my life with tears streaming down my face. About 6 months ago or longer I started planning a cruise for my husband and I to take. There was a lot of mis-truths that were told to get the husband to take off of work. The biggest regret I have is that the kids thought they were going on a trip too. Basically it went down like this. Hey Jeff my dad wants to take us on a vacation to visit my Aunt in Texas. Can you take some time off? He got the time off and I booked the cruise. We got together with my dad a few times to talk about our trip. I felt like such a LIAR this whole time. Well Sunday night I pulled the two oldest kids aside one by one to tell them what was really going on. I wanted to be able to spend some time with them and not have them wake up the next morning with us gone. I told GG first. She was SAD and Upset about it. I thought oh great this is going to go down badly. A few hours later I told Monkey. He seemed to be fine with it and had a huge smile on his face as I was telling him then he got sad and mad. Great. So I called a family meeting and told everyone as I had tears rolling down my face. The kids were so sad and upset about not going on a trip. Jeff was utterly and completely confused as to what I was saying. He thought I was lying! Now that everyone knows what’s going on they are fine but I am freaking out. I am leaving my babies for 5 days for a vacation. I have never left them that long and we are leaving the country! I pray that this anxiety will leave me and that I will be able to enjoy myself on my very first cruise. I really am excited but also scared. I love those kids with all my being and I really want to see them grow up. Please Lord bring me home to them. And help my not feel anxious while I am away. I know they are in great hands with my mom-in-law and my sis-in-law. Thanks for helping make this work!

A Day off

The kids don't have school tomorrow and I am so excited. I was going to take them down town to a Museum but when I got thinking about it more it didn't make sense to get up early and drive an hour and then drive an hour home just to eat dinner and head back out that way. So we are going to go over to Chuck E Cheese with some friends from school. The best part of this outing is that I was organizing my drawer as it was getting very messy and I found a $20 gift card to there and a $10 visa gift card! Total score. I wasn't going to feed the kids there but since I have those cards I think I will get them a pizza and maybe get myself the salad bar!!! I am just so excited to have a long week :)

Crowd Pleaser

Tonight for dinner we had a breakfast dish. It is super easy to make the the whole fam LOVES it. I got the recipe from a friend and then I tweaked it to our family's dietary needs. I will type out the original and put what I used in parenthesis.

6 slices bread (sourdough without yeast)
1 lb sausage (turkey sausage)
6 eggs (organic ones ~ really not a difference but health wise there is!)
2 cups milk (rice milk)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese (whole food cheese with no hormones or antibiotics used)

Brown the sausage. Cut off the crusts of the bread and place in baking dish. Put cooked sausage over bread. Mix eggs, milk and salt. Pour mixture over bread and sausage. Top with cheese. Chill over night. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. It is really yummy. I made bacon to go with it and thinking next time I will have to make some sort of fruit salad as well.

Homemade Laundry detergent

Yesterday Peanut and I made 10 gallons of laundry soap. I am really excited to see how long this will last us as one gallon usually lasts a good 4 to 6 months! I used the recipe I found on the Duggar's website under their favorite recipes the 3rd one down. They have a liquid one and a dry one. I am curious to try them both but I typically like liquid better. And since we have a basement to store it I can go that route. I know I did this with the homemade dishwasher soap as my starting date. But then I didn't come back and update when I used up that first batch. Well if my memory serves me right I was done with it about Dec 20th, 2010. I just looked up when we made it and the post said Nov 18th. So it lasted a month. I wasn't all that impressed with it but I made it again. I find if you alternate between store bought and homemade it works better. But I am planning on looking for another recipe for that to try again. It is just WAY cheaper to make your own then to buy it at the store! For the laundry recipe I bought a bar of soap Zote which is about a $1, a box of borax not sure of the price and washing soda which was about $5. I used the whole bar of soap but only a cup of the washing soda and a 1/2 cup of the borax. You spend about 2 dollars making 10 gallons of laundry soap when you buy a gallon for about 8 dollars give or take at the store. My math isn't precise because I don't really care to calculate how much is in each box and then divide it by a cup or 1/2 a cup so it may be more or less to make. Either way it sounds to me like a great way to save some of my hubby's hard earned cash. I did two loads of laundry with it today and I seemed to work fine. I had taken GlamorGirl and a few friends to go painting on Friday night and wouldn't you know that my daughter got her WHITE shirt in the paint several times. She had the paint drip on her pants as well. BUT it all came out. In my book that would make this laundry detergent successful.

My snuggler

Last night right before I went to bed. Peanut woke and was crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said she was scared and wanted to come sleep with me. I let her and all night we snuggled. She is so sweet. She slept great and has been feeling great. I pumped her full of vitamins and natural immune boosters and she was fine by Tuesday. Praise the Lord for healthy kids.

Getting In Shape

I have been wanting to get into shape this year and have actually gotten videos at the library and online to work out to. I have do some form of exercise for the last 2 weeks either ever day or every other depending on how sore I was from the day before. (Most of) my friends and family pretty much laugh at me when I tell them I am going to start working out. If you don't know me I am 5'4" and weigh about 105 to 110. The thing they don't realize is that I'm not doing it to loose weight. I'm doing it to tone my body. My husband has been in full support of me and has even told me to buy P90X which is $120 online! I'm not sure if I'm ready to make that big of a commitment yet. But I did go out and buy a yoga mat and 2lbs weights to use. I am thinking of using a bunch of different work out videos from the library until I decide what I really like or what works best for me. The thing that is the most discouraging to me is all the flab that hangs down when I am trying to do push ups, all you moms know what I'm talking about. I try to keep it flat like the videos say to do but being pregnant 4 times does NOT lend well to tight skin! My only saving grace is that this summer when I have the kids at the pool I won't be in a push up positing while in a swimming suit!!!

Sickness!

This is the first time in over a year I can say one of my kids is honestly sick. Peanut was up half the night coughing a very croupy cough. She has no other symptoms other than that nasty cough! The first time she started coughing we were still awake and Jeff went in to check on her. Then she woke coughing again about an hour and a half later. I went into her room and laid with her. I propped her head up with my arm and she was breathing really great. Once she was sound asleep and my arm was also. I headed back to my bed. A few hours later she was coughing again. I went in and laid with her again. This time I brought an extra pillow and put it under her head to see if that would help her and it did. I went back to my bed. An hour later she was up coughing and needing to use the bathroom. I had been giving her drinks when she had coughing fits. She went pee and I put her in our bed. It was about 4:50am. She coughed while in our bed and Jeff scooped her up and held her so she could breath without coughing. At some point he left and I didn't hear him! I always hear him in the morning. I tried to let her sleep as long as I could but as soon as the other kids get up she gets up. I have Red going to school all day today because we are having our small group over tonight and I figure it would be easier to keep the house clean if I only had one kid home! I hope to get her down for a nap earlier in hopes she will sleep longer. I have been pumping her full of natural immune boosters to help her. Well off to start cleaning :)

My oldest is 10 today!

I totally didn't expect to be so emotional today. I woke her up with a big ole Happy Birthday and a snap of the camera! This is how she woke up on her 10th birthday...

She got ready for school in her new birthday dress and birthday tiara!
Doesn't she look super cute?!

When she got to school one of the girls made a comment about why she was wearing the tiara. She got embarrassed and took it off.
Ugh! She was so excited to wear it to school she even asked me where it was this morning.
I didn't push it and let her put it in her locker.
At lunch I watched her come into the lunch room and sit down with her lunch.
She started to unpack it and realized I didn't give her anything to eat.
She comes up to me and asks where her food is!
I took her I ordered her a pizza.
The smile and excitement on her face made it all worth it.
After I finished helping with lunch I headed up stairs to decorate her class room.
At the end of the period the teacher had her to go the library.
I passed out noise makers to her classmates.
As she came up to class her teacher scolded her for being late, nice little added bonus!
Then we got her GOOD!
I didn't realize that there was another girl with her and since I was looking through the camera.
You can hear me mess up on the video, oops.

I didn't record us singing "Happy Birthday" as I was chocking up.
My baby girl is 10!
As soon as she stepped all the way in the room and we started singing, she spotted her daddy.
She ran over and gave him the biggest hug!
This was half of her ice cream sandwich I made her :)
Tonight we will be going out to eat at the restaurant of her choice.
Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter!
I love you so much.
Love, Mom

Busy Busy...

Today we are getting ready for the party tomorrow to celebrate GlamorGirl turning 10!!!! I still can't believe she is going to be this old. She has asked for homemade ice cream sandwiches to take to school so we are making them today. They are so yummy but very time consuming. First you make chocolate chip cookies and then you put ice cream in between two of them, smooth out the edges, wrap, and then freeze. I have 14 made so far. She has 18 kids in her class. Since Monkey has a summer birthday he said he wanted to have ice cream sandwiches for his half birthday. He and GG are 18 months apart which puts his half birthday a few days after her real birthday! I figured if I'm already making them for her class I will just do it for his class too. Yeah I'm crazy! The house is pretty much cleaned just have some laundry to put away, but no big deal. Then tomorrow I will make the food we are having baked pasta, salad, homemade apple sauce (because it is so much better then store bought!), french bread and cake! Right now Jeff and Red are at a birthday party for his friend from school. So glad he choose Jeff to go as I feel like I need to be doing stuff at home for tomorrow even though I am sitting at the computer updating my blog :) Tonight my dad and step mom are picking up the girl and taking her shopping for her birthday. Can't wait to see what she comes home with it is always interesting! Also tonight Jeff is taking the two boys to the motorcade which they have no idea about. They should have tons of fun. Which means it will just be me and Peanut at home tonight. Love it!

My kids...

So lately I have realized that I haven't been enjoying my kids as much as I should be. Once I realized this things have gotten a lot better. I have been able to really listen to the things they are saying and boy are they funny little people! Some funny things that have come out of Peanut's mouth lately are as she stepped on a scale to weigh herself she says, "I'm 3 dollars!" Or she looked at the clock and says, "mommy it's 8 o'clock." when it is nowhere near that time but it is always 8 o'clock in her world! The other thing she did that just made me giggle was when she was playing with a balloon and watching her jump to hit it. I never want to forget those moments. Red has always been one of my harder kids as he doesn't like to obey and therefore teaching his youngest sister the errors of his way. But with even that I am able to enjoy listening to him read his homework as we snuggle on the couch. I love listening to him talk about things he has done or things he is going to do...like going to a birthday party on Saturday. I really need to arrange a date with my oldest son sometime soon. I get to spend the least amount of time with him and his older sister with them at school all day. GlamorGirl and I went on a date last night. Her birthday is on Monday and we are having a party for her on Sunday. We went and got her a dress for said party. We went to the mall and tried on so many dresses at a ton of different stores. We also ended up finding Peanut an Easter dress for a really good price! My time with GG was just so pleasant. I loved how she choose her dress too. She had found 3 dresses that she liked two where 29.99 and the other was 23.99 I told her she could get any of them. She choose the cheaper because she said it was "a better way to spend money". She is growing up so fast before my eyes. She had me laughing so hard trying on some of those dresses. I just wish I would of brought my camera! Just want to add this is the first year EVER that I have gone out and bought her a nice fancy dress for her birthday. But she is turning 10 and I thought it would be a fun activity for her and I together. We stopped for a shake from Mikey D's on the way home because we were both thirsty. I was going to get a drink at the mall but they only took cash and well I never have cash. We decided instead of walking around the mall for somewhere else we would just find something on the way home. On the way home she told me how special she felt by getting to spend this time with me. Which is way I really need to take Monkey on a date soon! I have one on one time with the two little kids almost every day. Here is a picture of the dress she got and the same color :)
She looks so cute in it too! I will have to get a picture of her actually in it to post :)

Ahhh

Sleeping kids is the best feeling in the world! For some reason I feel really stressed out today. These days are going by so fast and I feel like I'm not getting done has much as I'd like and then I have a shorter temper with the kids. I hate it. I think I have too high of expectations for my kids. I expect them to think through what they are doing and know if it is a good idea or a bad idea. For example: I gave Red a stack of Peanut's school papers because I needed to go pick her up because she wasn't obeying me. We get in the van and he takes those papers and puts them on the floor and then processes to WALK on them with his WET shoes. Seriously! I know they are just papers but why would you do that?!? Is that asking to much out of my almost 6 year old to think papers shouldn't go on the floor? I told him if he didn't know what to do with them he should of asked me. Why is that so hard for my kids to ask those questions when they don't know what to do? Instead they just do whatever they want. I think I just need to remember that they aren't adults and are learning but it is so hard when I KNOW I have told them this stuff at least once before.

Not starting out very good...

I was hoping to update more than I have been but things just get busy with 4 little munchkins running around! One thing I have realized is that unless they are sleeping their little mouths are talking. They are watching a movie right now and two of the three are talking while it is playing. OY. The kids and I made it through this weekend verily well, which gives me a little hope for the 9 days Jeff is planning on being gone to Canada with his dad this summer. I have already told Jeff I am taking them on some sort of trip. I need to keep them busy and entertained or it will not be good for any of us. I need to start planning the trip we are planning on taking with Jeff's side of the family. I think it would be great to have a half way meeting place with stuff for all the kids to do. We are planning on camping somewhere half way between his brother and us. I just don't want another summer that goes by that we didn't do some kind of vacation.

First post of the NEW YEAR!!!

I wanted to try doing a photo of my kids each month this year and was hoping to post on the first of each month but alas that didn't happen as it is already the 3rd and I didn't get a picture of the kids today. I will shoot for tomorrow and pretend it is the first :)

Just a recap of our break! Christmas with my dad and siblings on the 20th, water park for 3 days, Christmas Eve with Jeff's family, Christmas day spent most of the day at home except for when we took the kids sledding, day after Christmas with Jeff's extended side of the family. Then just chillin at home playing with all the new stuff. New Year's Eve party at our house with families from our Sunday School class. We rang in the New Year kid style at 8pm! New Year's Day was spent at our friends house with my in laws and a bunch of people from church. Then it was over was too fast!

I didn't make any new year's resolutions but I really do want to get into shape and tone the body God gave me. I'm sick of seeing flab! haha It isn't about weight loss as I don't think that would be healthy for me to do that, just want to tone up a bit!

Getting ready for school this morning wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it was still pretty rough! Tonight we went to our friend's for dinner so it was a verily late night for the kids and I hope it won't be bad tomorrow morning.

Check back to see a picture of the kids...

Ok so let's pretend that this is the first of the month picture. I actually took it on the 5th because on the 4th the batteries were dead and I had to charge them over night.

The kids eating breakfast!

Christmas Coma

That is what I call the last few days. We have stayed in our jammies for most of the day and have played games and did puzzles. We our hosting a New Year's Eve party for our Sunday School class on FRIDAY! I looked around today and wondered when the last time I vacuumed or anyone did for that matter :) I put the kids to work and they did a great job helping. I am happy to say that all their new stuff has a place to go for now. I totally want a organizer for the closet in the family room and then everything will have a permanent place! I am feeling better about having a party here that is for sure. We have really enjoyed the few gifts the kids got this Christmas. Lots of games and puzzles...PERFECT! I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

Christmas Letter 2010

I'm not sure when the last time I did one of these letters! I got some motivation today to write one so I'm going with it :)

Let's start with the youngest! Peanut just finished her first class of gymnastics and had so much fun. Bonus she just got some money for Christmas so that she can take another class! She is in preschool this year and is learning so many things. She is just so funny and when the teachers have stories to tell me I get a little nervous because that girl has an imagination! They had their Christmas program on Friday and she did so good singing her songs and it showed on Sunday when the toddler Sunday School class did their Christmas program in front of the church. She pretty much had a solo for Away in a Manger! She is not shy in the least and my parents tell me all the time she is much like me as a child. The funny part is that I can totally see me in her! She loves to help me clean when she is home from school and she does a really great job. She still takes naps and I want to hold on to them as long as I can...that girl has energy!

Red is in Kindergarten, which means I get to spend the afternoons with him alone every day and I really cherish that time we get together. He is able to get his homework done and have some down time before the other kids come home from school. I LOVE listening to him and see how his brain works. Just the other day we had a conversation about bed sizes at the water park. There was a king size in the one room and a queen in the other room. He asked what size his bed was and we told him a "twin". He gave us a funny look and said "What's a twin? Isn't it a prince?" He is so logical and I love that about him. He is very excited to grow another inch so that he can be 48 inches and can go on rides. He was very sad he wasn't able to go on a few rides at the water park. He is still a real snuggler which I hope lasts a long time.

Monkey he had a big year in the teeth department! He lost his first tooth, then a second one and has one loose. Those adult teeth make him look so much older. This year in school he is doing great. He had on his first report card straight A's. He loves to write poems and draw pictures both of which he is really good at. And that isn't just my opinion his teacher has told me this on numerous occasions. He got a set of drums for his birthday this year and really wants to take lessons I just need to get on that. He also had a first week at away camp over the summer. I missed him so much. But he was in good hands with his dad and other men from church being leaders at the camp. He still has a smile that melts my heart and has such a sensitive spirit. I love that boy!

My oldest GlamorGirl. Where to even begin with this girl. She wants to do everything and wants to be great at everything. She gets that drive from her daddy! She started playing violin at school October 16th. My birthday is the 31st of that month and she taught herself how to play Happy Birthday! She is certainly a natural on the violin. She had her first recital on Dec 15th only 2 months after starting lessons! I am so proud of her and her determination to learn to play the violin. This year she has her first male teacher and is loving school. She is also in the Junior Liberty Choir because she loves to sing. Her dream is for our family to start a band with her playing the violin and singing, Monkey on the drums, Jeff on guitar, Peanut on piano, Red on bass and me singing with her. She is so cute. I have made it a priority to spend every Thursday night with her after the other kids go to bed and I love hearing about what she does at school and her friends. She is going to be 10 in less than a month so this is the last year of single digits for her!

I am loving being mommy! It definitely has its rough times but the good times far outweigh the hard times. This school year I became a Junior High Ministry (JAM) leader on Wednesday nights during the kids Awana and then on Friday nights for the out reach night. I love getting to know the kids. But the high light is that this year we are doing the Bible Instruction Class (Wed) and I'm learning so much more about the Bible. I have joined a mom's Bible study at my friend Melissa's house and we just started Daniel and am really excited to get into that book. Jeff and I just celebrated 11 years of marriage on the 18th and I love him more today then I did 11 years ago. I also understand more what loving someone truly means.

Jeff is still doing the school police officer which has blessed our family so much. I love the schedule this position gives him. He is so involved with the two older kids homework which frees me to make dinner. He is leading in the Junior High (JAM) for the second year now. He leads worship for JAM and also has a worship team he leads once a month on Sunday night. I love hearing him sing to God in front of the church. He really has a heart for God. We have just recently bought our second home and it has kept us busy with updating it room by room. He loves getting the kids involved in helping in the destruction phase of the different projects we have completed. You can see some of the pictures on his blog! We are so blessed to have him as the head of our household.

As for trips we just took the one and only family trip this year to the water park for the kids Christmas present! We had a lot of fun but are so glad to be back home. Other than that I took a trip to California for the first time in January with Peanut and it was so beautiful there. Hopefully in the year to come we will take more family vacations...here's looking forward to a wonderful 2011 :)

Cookies and Junior High Girls

That is a very fun combination! Today I invited all the girl JAM students and leaders. I think we had a perfect turn out. Not too many people but not a super low number either. We had 6 girls and 3 leaders (well 4 if you count Jeff but he's a guy and it was a girls only thing) and also my GlamorGirl helped. After we made, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal butterscotch cookies we played celebrity. The girls liked it so much they wanted to play it again! That game is always a crowd pleaser and is SO easy to play. Then we had a chat session about the ever so fun topic of BOYS. I thought it was extremely funny when my 4th grader says, "And why are we talking about this?!" She couldn't wrap her head around why they were so obsessed with this subject matter! I'm sure she will get like this at some point I just hope it isn't until she is much older and can really understand liking someone. I can hope right!

On a totally separate topic today was the toddler program at church today where the little kids get to go on stage and sing and say their lines. It helped that Peanut is in preschool and they just had their Christmas program on Friday singing the very same song they sang this morning. She was the loudest singer! I was so proud of her. I hope to come back and update this post with the video of her singing but the video is on the computer downstairs and I am all cozy warm in bed upstairs! Another funny thing that happened this morning is our friend Josh asked Peanut, "Who's the present?" Referring to her dress. She simply replied, "Me," as she pointed to herself. That girl cracks me up. She refused to take a nap today while the girls were here and on the way to church totally conked out complete with drool running down her coat, to that I say, stinker!

11 years ago today...

I married my best friend. I don't have the motivation to look at past anniversary posts but I do want to say that I fall in love with my husband more and more each day. He brought tears to my eyes this morning and melted my heart with how great of a heart he has. I hope he doesn't mind if I share this with you. This morning he did Shop with a Cop at Target. He has done this the last several years. Target donates a good amount of money on each gift card and several student gets picked. Most of the time they are students that could really benefit from this program. Each student gets a Cop to shop with hence the name of it. When Jeff came home from his time he was telling me about the little boy he shopped with. I don't want to get into too many details. Jeff said in years past all of the kids he has shopped with spend the most money on themselves. This little boy used the last dollar he had left to buy himself a pack of gum after buying for the rest of his family, FIRST. Jeff asked him what he would want if he could have anything. The boy answered him. While the boy was checking out Jeff went and got that toy, bought it, gave it to his mother and told her to give it to him for Christmas from THEM, not HIM. It brought tears to my eyes because this is my husband's heart. He is such a great man and generous with his time and money. I really do love him. I am so grateful for a godly man who demonstrates the love of Christ in the most simple of ways to others and mostly to his family. The last 11 years though they haven't always been easy or fun I have been blessed by God through them.

Today we took the kids to go bowling which was Peanut's first time and I didn't bring my camera. UGH. But we had a great time and really do love spending time with them. Though I am really looking forward to tonight when Jeff and I get to go out ALONE! :) We don't even know what we are going to do yet...

Almost done!

We went out last weekend to get end tables and lamps for our living room. Which was somewhat fun and some what frustrating. We had picked out end tables online that we both liked but when we got to the store they were junky and not the right color. I say we are almost done because we would like to get art work or something for the walls and also crown molding for the ceiling. I really like the way molding looks and want it in that room. Here are a few pictures that my hubby took of the new tables. We even have some pictures out finally :)

The couple that we bought our house from had a package delivered to our house. We contacted them and they came and got it. I offered for them to come inside but they said another day. The lady looked into the living room real quick and said, "Oh you took down the book cases." I kind of felt bad, but not completely, it is our house now. Anyway, they brought us a gift for holding on to the package and getting it back to them. Totally unnecessary but just shows you how sweet they are!

My Oldest Boy

He is so creative and wrote the sweetest Christmas poem. I thought I would share with all of you!

Christmas

Christmas is a special day,
because Jesus was born on some hay.
He wasn't rich or ungrateful,
He never had to have a plateful.
Wise men and shepherds came to see him
while the sunlight was getting dim.
King Herod was really mad
but an angel told his dad.
Remember Christmas is a special day
and also remember that Jesus was born on some hay.

The End

Miracle on 34th Street

Last night we went to take the kids to see the play Miracle on 34th Street. My mom-in-law got free tickets and invited us to go with them. She got there super early and was the first person in line. When we got there we line jumped so we could sit with them. There is no assigned seating. Because we were the first in we got some really great seats. Though there wasn't really any bad seats in the place. Before the show started the kids were approached by the stage manager and asked if they wanted to be apart of the show. GG and Monkey were in the front row and they both said yes! Then he came back to the second row and asked Red who said yes but at the last second he got scared and opted out. It was really cool. They had Santa on the chair and a few kids in the play sat on his lap first and then it was Monkey's turn. Santa asked him his name. If he was in school. What his favorite subject was. If he had any brothers or sisters. If he helped out around the house. And finally what he wanted for Christmas. It was really cute and some of his answers were pretty funny and interesting. Like his favorite subject is Reading! I have struggled for so long to get that boy to read. It was funny the answer he gave for helping out around the house too. He does the dishes and the laundry...haha. He unloads the dishes with his sister and he puts his own clothes away after they have been washed and folded. Then it was GG's turn. Santa had a hard time with her name. One because it is unique and two because she talked SO quite. He had to repeat everything she said so that the audience could hear her answers! He asked her the same questions and the same two answers I thought were funny for her too! Her favorite subject she said was HISTORY! This was news to me. She has always LOVED reading and grammar. What she helps out with around the house was funny too. She takes out the garbage and rakes leaves!?! They did such a great job. People came up to me and them telling them how well they did. One lady even said that GG could be on the stage next year as one of the cast members! That made her night :) We had such a great time. The only thing I wish I would of done is gotten a cup of water for Peanut. About the last 30 minutes so was SOOOO thirsty. I was having a hard time keeping her quite. Other than that she did great and really enjoyed the signing parts of it but the acting parts didn't hold her interest that well. It was really a neat play and I'm so glad we went to see it. The guy who played Santa was amazing. My sister-in-law took some pictures afterward with the kids and Santa so I will try and get them from her to show you.

Finally feel a little more grown up!

We had bought furniture for our living room back in October during the huge sale for Columbus Day. Well the arrived today! I am so excited to have furniture in that room. I am hoping it will help with the sound not travel as much. We have no carpet in our house and so any noise is LOUD! We still need to get lamps and end tables. Otherwise the room is pretty much unusable after dark as there are no lights in there! But that will happen eventually...maybe I should ask for IKEA gift cards for Christmas. That is where we found the end tables we wanted. They have a really good selection of lamps too. Here are a few pictures of the new furniture.

There you go our new room!

Surprise!

Now I remember why I don't try and surprise people! I'm not good at it. GG's teacher's birthday today he is 60 so it is a pretty big one. She wanted to throw him a surprise party. Since I work in the cafeteria I was asked by his wife who is a 2nd grade teacher to help organize it. The organize part I can do. I sent to school a list of items needed for the party for the kids to sign up for. Then I sent out a letter to each student the week of the party of what they were bringing and where to take it. No problem I can totally handle that part of it. The tricky part was getting his students into his wife's class before him without him know why. The original plan was that his wife was going to call him to have him come open her window and then his class follow behind him. This made GG sad because her class wouldn't be there for the whole surprise part of the party. So on the fly I told his wife I was going to set up a meeting with him and the principle. I told the principle the real reason for the meeting...the surprise party! That way his class could get to her class and then she could call him to come to her class. This is the part where I freak out. What did I just get myself into. A meeting with my child's teacher and the principle. I am NUTS! All day long I was trying to think of something to talk to them about that would be worthy of having a meeting with both of them. Most of the stuff I could think of would only require me to talk to the teacher. Basically, in the meeting I wanted the principle to know how good of a job this particular teacher was doing. Most of the time principles only get parents in their office to complain about a teacher and I wanted to do the opposite. The teacher was shocked and didn't want me to stop talking :) It ended up being perfect because another teacher poked their head in needing the principle for an urgent student matter. As the meeting ended his wife called about the window. I got him to walk with me in the direction that would not allow him to stop by his empty classroom! I small talked him about my daughter. Then waited for him to go up stairs and followed him up. He was so SURPRISED! It made all my freaking out worth it.

**Update**
I just got back from a girls night with my two girls, their friends and my friends. We went out to eat and then went and saw Tangled. It was a really cute movie. Peanut got scared at some of the action scenes and would hold my arm tighter and tighter. It was really funny. Then she sat in my lap for a good portion of it. But ended the movie in her own seat. GG was laughing through the whole movie and she was laughing LOUD! I love hearing her laugh. The girls and I had a ton of fun and just reminds me yet again I need to spend more one on one time or in this case two on one time with the kids, we always have such a great time!

I want a new stomach

I haven't felt sick in over a year and it has been wonderful. The last few days my body is fighting something. I feel sick to my stomach but no other symptoms. It almost feels like I have morning sickness but I'm not pregnant. I would just like it to pass quickly. On the upside of it, it has been over a YEAR since I have felt like this in any way shape or form. Praise the Lord for restoring my health!!! I know my body is still healing from everything it went through but I feel so much better and if this was a year and a half ago I would be bed ridden for the duration of this illness.

I'm in love...

I just found this awesome giveaway @ 4 little men and girly twins that I really pray I win. I have read through the whole site Hazelaid and I am so excited about these products! Go check it out!

Decemeber 1st!

What a great way to start December this year with snow falling! I love watching snow. I think it is SO pretty. However, having said that I really don't want it to accumulate, it can fall and then melt away and that would be fine with me. It can accumulate around the 24th of this month :)

Take the Challenge

My husband and I are seriously thinking about doing this challenge with the kids, the site has links you can check out. But in a nut shell the challenge is a media fast for a month. It was really great for just that week we did it over Thanksgiving break so why not a month or two?! My husband has heard Dave Grossman speak a few times on this topic. He has actually read a few of his books. Let me know if you decide to take the challenge! And this post ends my challenge of one month posting!!!

Online Shopping

I have never really done the online shopping but for some reason today with the different cyber sales going on I just couldn't resist some of the sale prices with free shipping :) I am also hoping to land myself a new bathing suit for our water park trip in a few weeks. Actually I'm not sure if I wrote about this topic yet. If I have please forgive me for repeating myself. This year Jeff and I decided that we didn't want to spend a ton of money on gifts for the kids and each other. We wanted to use that money to take a family trip to create memories instead of just collecting more stuff. We choose a water park and priced them and found one that would accommodate our biggish family with a full kitchen so that we could bring our food with and not get sick on restaurant food. Anyways, everyone is really excited about this trip. I am most excited about the fact that we are paying for this trip with the cash rewards I have saved from our credit cards! Oh
yeah this is not what I sat down to write...I think I could get used to shopping online. I was able to buy gifts for my nephews and send them right to their house with free shipping. I couldn't have saved with going to the store picking stuff out and then shipping it myself. Totally off the subject but I only have one more day of the national blog posting month! I can't believe I actually did it and most of my posts had some substance to them...at least I think they did ;)

Break is over :(

Well I have to say that this week was probably one of the better weeks we have had together as a family in awhile. The no media helped a lot with the kids entertaining themselves and playing together. The kids spent many hours building different lego structures. Just as many hours constructing different designs of dominoes to knock over, they had some really cool designs! Some of them worked and others didn't but they had so much fun trying different objects to make stunts, like a book that rolled a car into the domino to start them off. We played so many card games and board games. Peanut was even getting in on the action. I hope to upload a really cute video of her and Jeff playing Jenga! She also learned how to play Uno though she still needs some help but refuses to take the advice while playing, can we say STUBBORN! I do have to admit that I did let the kids watch a few movies but we watched them all together snuggled on the couch. Before the first movie I told them that if they misbehaved after the movie was over they would not get to watch the second one. Jeff rewarded the kids great report cards with the movie rentals from an actual rental place, instead of the library, where we usually get our movies for free :) As Monday approaches I am sad and excited. Sad that I have to wake up early but excited to have some free time to myself again. I can get so much stuff done while they are not home!!!

Puzzle

I am very impressed with my kids ability to do such difficult puzzles! I bought a 750 piece this year as last year I ended up doing most of it by myself. This year I would say that their help was much more active in it. I took a picture after each day of working on it.

It only took us 6 days to finish it! I think next year will should get the 1000 piece as they did this faster than I thought and they will be a year older!

Some of the pictures I used a flash and some I didn't.
That is why they look different.

Tradition

Every year since I can remember we have put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. This year is no exception! I love having our tree up. The hardest decision this year was where do we put the tree?! In the living room so that people on the street can see it from the window or do we put it in the family room where we spend most of our time? Well I want to be able to enjoy it so we decided on the family room! Here are some pictures of our tree decorating...

First the kids help set the tree up!

Now starts the fun of decorating!

The finished product...

Yesterday we ate so much that I am not hungry at all today. Just a recap on our food so that years down the road my kids can't say I starved them ;)

Breakfast: Homemade Pancakes, with fruit toppings and whip cream, sausage and turkey bacon.
Lunch: Cheese, summer sausage, crackers, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, hummus, and fruit salad.
Dinner: Turkey, mashed red potatoes, asparagus, stuffing, homemade applesauce (my kids favorite!). Dessert...pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and cheese cake.

Lastly I want to leave you with a link to my hubby's blog for some really cool lego recreations the kids and Jeff did today!

Thanksgiving

I think it is only fitting if I post about the many things I am thankful for!
I am thankful for...

a God who loves me
my husband
my children
our house
being able to stay home with my precious babies
my extended family in laws included!
my friends
our church family
our health
my children's willingness to help make our Thanksgiving meal (love it)
the fact that we have 2 vehicles
we have enough money to pay for our bills
Jeff support for the family
-spiritually
-emotionally
-financially
that our house got appraised for the amount we needed to refi
that we are going to be able to save that money
family time together
clean smelling kiddos
smiles and laughter
trials because they make us stronger in our faith
being able to help people out
-physically
-financially

all the food we have to eat
all the hands that prepared the food
for the love I feel from my family
2 blue eyed and 2 browned kids
toothless smiles

There is so much more I am thankful for this Thanksgiving but I had to end it somewhere!

Shopping

Remember how I said I only wanted to take the kids shopping once this week well this is one of the reasons why! Yesterday day before Peanut's gymnastics class I loaded the kids up and we went to Trader Joe's to get a few last minute items for the week. The kids were being really good and helpful while we were in the store. BUT about 20 minutes into our shopping trip Red decided to stand on the front of the cart in which Peanut was sitting in. In a matter of two seconds the whole cart went forward on top of Red with Peanut sitting in it. He didn't get hurt by a pure miracle but poor Peanut is bruised in a few places from the fall. It happened so fast and I was standing right next to the cart, helpless to stop it from going. Though the scene was pretty surreal with the food in the back flying through the air as the cart went down. I was thankful that the store was somewhat busy as several people rushed to help pull the cart off of Red and back up and asked if Peanut was alright. I tell you my kids and shopping carts don't mix well. When Red was about 19 to 20 months old we were at Lowes and he was sitting in the front. The two oldest for some reason decided to both step up on the side of the cart (the SAME side) and the cart went down sideways with Red in the front. I need to design a fall proof shopping cart. Though one of the ladies that witnessed the fall yesterday said that her kids have done the same thing on several occasions. That made me feel better, to some degree, but I think that I should really design a more stable cart! I just feel so bad for Peanut as she is the one who has the bruises that hurt to the touch. I picked her up that afternoon and she told me it hurt her just to be picked up :(

Enjoyment

I am rather enjoying this little blogging challenge. I really forgot how much I enjoy putting word to screen. I know that not all my posts are riveting but they are me and our life. I love being able to look back at some of my older posts, I have been blogging since Jan of 2003 almost 8 years. When I first started this blog I was just writing to chronicle our happenings. After all this time I have learned a lot about myself through this journal. I'm boring :) But you know what? I don't care that is who I am, I'm pretty proud (in a humble way) of my boring little life. I have always loved the simply things in life and usually simple is equated with boring, so be it.

This post has been sponsored by the world's most uninteresting person

Ah love school breaks!

Today was so nice not to have to wake up early. The kids and I are moving along on our puzzle and so far the no electronics is working fabulously. As long as I keep them busy helping or playing they don't get in trouble! We are going to make homemade laundry detergent together at some point this week. I am really excited to actually try it out. But we still have a little of the stuff I bought at the store and that is the bottle I am going to use for the homemade stuff so we wait. Speaking of homemade stuff. Red and Peanut helped me make some homemade dishwasher soap on Nov 18th and right after it was made I started a load of dishes. When they were done they sparkled so clean! I wanted to see how long this stuff will last so that is why I put the date of our first use. I don't always run the dishwasher everyday but this week I have a feeling we are going to be running it A LOT more than normal. Though I'm not sure how long the store bought stuff lasted, there is more in those boxes then what I made so we'll see.

Offline

On Friday I told the kids that over break we were not going to watch television, play computer games, play the wii or use their ds'. I even told the kids that while they were awake I would not go on the computer either. We are starting the no electronics rule Saturday evening as that afternoon they are having some friends over while the parents go out for lunch and I took them to the library Saturday morning (Jeff worked until 3:30am and it was easier to keep the noise down not to be here!) and let them get a movie to watch. I figure that way it will be easier on my sister as she watches them if they are docile while in front of the boob tube. She will have 6 kids ages are 11, almost 10 in Jan, almost 10 in Feb, 8 1/2, 5 and 3. I plan to have Peanut sleeping by the time she gets here so she will really only have 5 kidlets to keep an eye on :) Though I am really excited to bond as a family. Since we didn't take a vacation over this summer I feel as if the kids are just disconnected with each other and really mean to each other. I am going to do some family building type activities that they already know about. I think it will be fun!!! I guess I will let you know after the week is up if we survived. But like I said I will use the computer once they go to bed but I am going to only give myself an hour on it so that I can get enough sleep that I won't be cranky. Also this post was scheduled so that I did not break any of the no computer rules ;) YEAH for family bonding!

Babysitting was bad on Saturday and we are working at getting to the bottom of what really happened.

Thanksgiving Program

There are so many different directions this post could go. This was my 5th one and I will have 2 more to attend. The kids put a lot of work into this program and it is quite cute. I just wish the parents weren't so rude. If you want to stand and get a picture of your child go to the back don't stand up right in front of people who are sitting and pleasantly trying to watch the program. I had to kindly tell two different people to sit. Both of them left instead. Ok this is really not the direction I wanted this post to go so changing directions, it just really bugs me. I dropped off all the kids in the classes they needed to go. Peanut was having a Thanksgiving party in her class so she got to go to school, she doesn't normally go on Fridays. I think went to talk to the teachers of my older two kids. I wanted to know if they were planning on taking their classes to see the program or if I should come get Monkey and GG. Both teachers were taking the kids so I just needed to grab Peanut. As I was talking to Monkey's teacher she was telling me about how great of a kid he was. How he is very focused with his work, very smart and friendly to all the kids. I had no plans on talking to her about him but she brought it up. I was so proud of him. He really is a very sweet kid. The kids got their first quarter report cards the other day. Monkey had straight A's. GG had all A's and one B. She was pretty bummed about the B but they both made high honors! We don't talk about grades with all the kids we do it individually. However, they usually tell each other what they got. Monkey didn't rub it in GG's face that he did better than her which is a first for him one two levels. First getting better grades and two not teasing her with it. His grades this quarter were a great confidence boost for him but it didn't go to his head. I am so proud of both of my kids on their grades. Red got a report card too but they don't give our letters it is either O for outstanding S for satisfactory, or I for needs improvement. He had mostly O's and some S+ and a S- for his writing ability he writes really sloppy most of the time. But he is working on it and hopefully next quarter it will be an O :) Well that was all over the place!