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!

Power point presentation has arrived!

And she did wonderful!  Savannah was hooked up to a mic and had to giver her power point presentation on the life of a peacock in front of 50 of her peers and parents!  She did wonderful and even fielded questions after it!  I would have been so nervous but, Savannah looked like she was a pro.

Being hooked up to the microphone....

Answering questions!!...Can you see Reese's profile in the front row?  She is not sure why I won't let her go to school yet (:

9 weeks and counting.....

Here we are at 31 weeks.  I am ready to explode and I still have lots of time to get lots bigger!  I am trying to stay positive and know that the end result will be another amazing little boy, and that maybe someday I will be glad I took these pictures!

And as soon as the camera comes out I got ambushed!  Man I love these guys!  The thought of adding another one makes me so happy and at the same time I think...what have I gotten myself into.  We decided for FHE that we would try 3 new things this week and see if it makes our days a little less chatic
#1-Do it now rule-  When you take your clothes off out them away right now instead of waiting till later...cuz we all know later never comes
#2-Good manners- Which include not running around the table....not teasing...using utensils and ..just eating and talking nicely!
#3- ONE hour dinner rule.....for some reason with kids running around playing dinner seems to last for 2 hours.
Silly rules but if anyone has good advice to help in these areas I would love to hear it!!! (:

Reese and Roxy

You can often find these two in deep conversation.  Reese loves her captive audience and Roxy is pretty tolerant to whatever anyone else wants to do (:

Almost Famous

Look who's cute little mug showed up in our newspaper the other day!

Bronson wore his Santa suit to visit Santa on Christmas Eve at our Children's  Museum.

If you are having a bad day today......

JUST take a look at our family pictures and that should but a smile on your face.  I just laugh every time we try to take a pictures.......chaos follows (:

Fat Kitty

 We went to FAT CATS on Monday with the family (Reese calls it fat kitties).  They love to play all the games and more importantly win tickets.  I think they won the MOST ever with around 600 tickets.  What lucky little kids they are and they came home with an arm full of junk toys!!  I didn't take many pictures since my flash is not very good so here are 2 that think of capture the night....

Kendall's expression 50% of the the time...its her famous sulk/pout.  I am not sure what she was even upset about....We were about to dive into her favorite....pepperoni pizza!

This is what the other pictures looked like.  Kids having too much fun to hold really still so that I can take their picture!  This is Bronson driving like a crazy man!

Fool me once....shame on you...

Fool me twice...........shame on me!  Well you would think I would know better by now but, I don't.

This has been a rough week for us.  We decided to take away Bronson's beloved binki on Saturday night.  So we have had one grumpy little guy for a few days.  Well on Monday....I finally heard silence during his nap and I was JUMPING for JOY think that my sweet little boy has got it down and was taking a good nap.  When I went in to give him a big hug I was greeted by a boy with a HUGE smile and then I saw a HUGE mess.  He decided to rip apart his mattress during nap time......awesome! 

 

 Its a good thing he is sooooooo stinkin cute.....or he would have been in alot of trouble (:

IT has finally happened....

I thought that it would not be until 4th grade.  But, Savannah has out smarted me in the 2nd grade ):

It started off with her spelling work that I had to google because I wasn't sure what it meant (melodious).  Then to top it off she is giving a power point presentation in class on an animal species that she chose.  I have never done power point before!!  YIKES...I need to go back to school!

My MAN

He is WiLd, CrAzY, always running (mostly away from me), climbing on tables, and Stubborn. But, he is MY wild and crazy little man and I wouldn't have him any other way! 

Besides, he is so cute and his smile melts my heart each and every day!!

Goals Overview!!

THIS was last years goals.............

::Do a mini triathlon relay::   CHECK.  And since no one else signed up we got FIRST place!

::Continue to offer new foods to my family.  CHECK- and I want to continue trying this because there are alot of NEW foods we love now..or at least I do (:

::Try to work-out in the morning- CHECK-This really helped be be able to work out more consistently and mornings are not as bad as I thought!

.

::Sign up and finish another 5K-FAILED!!  OK well I was not expecting to be pregnant so I was terribly sick and did not train for it and did not run it ):

::Get more creative with the kids.CHECK- We did more than normal but it is still not alot!  They still love it and I will try to remember to do more.

::De-junk garage-BIG FAT FAIL-  It is so overwhelming for me and I just cannot seem to do it myself.  HELP!  Maybe when my family comes up again I can have my dad help me build some shelves and get all the stuff off the floor.  We have sold ALOT of our crap but, still have alot more to go!

So why do I set goals if I don't always meet them???  Because at least it makes me work on them which brings me to.......................................

2011 GOALS

I am keeping it simple in 2011

 

::Have a baby.  I am getting so excited with less than 12 weeks to go.  I will try to keep myself healthy the last 12 weeks so I can prepare better for his birth and maybe even wait until my due date to have him.

::Sign up and FINISH another Triathlon relay!- Now this is a relay and my team is kind of flaking on me so I really hope they hold strong and are not too embarrassed to have me on their team.  So this also means I am going to have to get on a bike because it is in 4 weeks.

::Make my house a home- I want to create a calm environment so when I have 5 screaming kids and all their friends around I can feel at home (:  We have lived in this house for 5 years and still do not have curtain rods in our bedroom...No pictures on the walls....no decorating in MOST rooms.  So I will try and slowly work room my room and make our house a HOME!!

Dear World...

 You just welcomed in your newest Sunbeam!  And she had a blast.....

Snow....FINALLY!

We have waited patiently for snow the ENTIRE Christmas break.  We finally got a few inches that stayed the other day and took the opportunity to have some fun!!  It might take an hour and a half to get out the door but worth it all once we hit the hill!!

These are a few of my favorite things......

Bronson loved the remote more than opening any presents (:

 The girls loved giving their homemade gifts to each other

 Having a 3 year old on Christmas is priceless.  She was full of joy the entire day!!

 They got their Christmas wish and all got a music box!  Thank heavens for Grandparents!

 The rest of the day was FULL of NOTHING!!!  MY FAVORITE!!!  Toys EVERYWHERE......and no one telling you to clean them up (:

 Watching our favorite movie.......

and playing new games together!  I look forward to this every year!  This year we even missed breakfast because we were having so much fun playing and being lazy!  Definitely the BEST day EVER!