Happy Valentines Day

 

It's pretty low key at our house!  We had heart shaped pancakes with strawberries.   The kids all have little mail boxes that were filled with stickers, heart post-its, and some pink bubble bath!  

They are easy to please and enjoyed the rest of the nice warm day having class parties and playing outside (:

The award for first person to get stitches goes to.......................................

 BRONSON....Ok so you probably guessed right!  We thought that he would be in the ER before he was 2 but this was unexpected!  It wasn't from running like a mad man or jumping off a table or couch.  No knives were involved.....

  Bronson was playing with Reese and he fell back and a picture frame that was leaning up against the wall fell over on him.  I am still not sure how it happened but he seemed to block himself with his hand and it got sliced in between the glass and wood frame. 
  I was in the room so I swooped him up and wrapped his hand in a paper towel and held it for a minute.  Then I took a peek and instead of clotting his hand was still dripping blood.  So we went over to the sink and I rinsed it off.  Then I saw how bad of a cut it was and knew he needed stitches.  I wrangled him and Reese to the car (thank heavens the big girls were at a play date) and off to Now Care.  Alan meet us there and thankfully held him down for 6 stitches.  He is a tough boy and was back to his normal self that night!

Even something silly and small as stitches makes me realize how quickly life can change and how much we all  love our Bronson! 

The REALITY of 5 Pregnancies!!

The reality of being pregnant 5 times.....I don't know how the Duggers do it!

• I have to wear support socks everywhere.  In the picture I am wearing tube socks over my old lady socks to the gym.  Not a fashion statement here!  The old lady socks are compression socks for my legs.  I think I have broken every blood vessel in my calves so they look like lumpy waves all over and hurt like no other!! Yea Varicose Veins and spider veins ROCK.
• I sleep with 5-6 pillows.  And even with all the pillows I average 2-5 hours of sleep per night.
• With each pregnancy I manage to gain more weight with each and every kid.  I know its hard to do, but I have done it and done it well!
• This baby wants to be different than the rest and is STILL completely BREECH.
• I have no patience....wait....I lost that 3 kids ago!!
• I got rid of all my maternity clothes after Bronson.  And I refuse to buy any...I hate them anyways.  So I stuff myself into what ever I can get into....and when that doesn't work I just wear Alan's clothes (:
• Due to having 4 previous kids, most of my normal clothes are stretchy and have elastic waist bands.  So that means I can wear the same clothes if I am 8 months pregnant or not pregnant at all (:  I know...... not cool ):

BUT.................. even after all my complaining.  I am blessed 5 times over!  Its the end result that makes it all worth it!!

Dinner time update and other boring facts!

 Since we have tried our dinner goals for a week here is my update!  I am usually on my own with 4 kids for dinner, so for me, it is the most difficult part of the day for me.

::Getting dinner down in about an hour- YEA- we are for some reason doing lots better on this and we are usually done in 1 hour instead of 2.  Bronson is usually done in his usual 5 minutes and then proceeds to run around and touch every power cord or electrical circuit that he can reach.

::Using our manners-  OK so the girls can still be found running around occasionally and doing a cart wheel or two during dinner.  But, they are now asking to be excused after they are done eating and even clean up their plates and bowls (:

::Do it now rule- BIG FAT FAIL.  I am not sure how to enforce this one unless I am on them 24/7 to pick up everything they touch.  And due to fixing dinner with 4 crazies and feeding them.....its looking like this one is going to sit on the back burner till I get another brilliant idea.

ON OTHER NEWS::

I was just realizing the other day HOW MUCH KIDS EAT!  Seriously....

• If we have eggs in the morning we scramble 18 eggs
• French toast is at least an entire loaf of bread
• We got through a "bunch" of bananas EVERY SINGLE DAY.
• If we have oatmeal or cream of wheat I make 8 servings and usually either Alan or I do not get ANY!

I cannot imagine the boys eating this much and then the girls growing and eating even more....there is no end in sight.....I am saving my coupons!!

p.s.  That is a Pummelo in the pictures....They are a HUGE grapefruit that is not so tart and Kendall and Reese LOVE THEM!

What's a few more when you're havin' fun....right?

The girls asked to have a play date with some friends and since its getting close to Valentines day we decided to do a few extra fun things.   Well one thing lead to another and we ended up having 12 kids at our home 0:

 Reese and Austin coloring a Valentines Card

 Reese, Roxy, and their new BFF Hailey

 Most of the BIG girls at the table!  They were really great cookie decoraters for only being 7 and 8!

 Syd, Kendall, and Allie

 Kendall's masterpiece

 Megan, Savannah, and Alexus (Savannah's 2 BFF's)  I am so glad all their friends get along (:

 Savannah's triple decker cookie....man that makes me sick just lookin at it!

 This is what a 3 year olds cookie looks like.......

 We made gnome kisses.....almost too cute to EAT!

It ended up all working out and everyone had a blast!  The bonus was that Savannah and Kendall's friends have siblings who are 3 or 4 so we invited them too!  She is such a social butterfly and loved having her OWN friends over!  The kids got to take home bookmarks, gnomes, and lots and lots of cookies (:  All in All a GREAT time.

There ain't nothing better than....

Freshly bathed beauties.............especially with coconut milk shampoo.  They smell  DE-LISH-US!