14 Fir Street

I am glad this boring week is over

2012-01-27T05:28:00.000-08:00

This week has been a bunch of nothing. Do you ever have those weeks? Where life just goes along pretty boringly.

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It would be nice if the weather was warm and we could lounge around outside but it has been a bit cold and rainy. A bit is an understatement. We got 2 inches of rain yesterday alone.

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Today it is still raining but it is FRIDAY!! And tomorrow is something we have been waiting for all year. Icefest. I love Icefest and their chili cook off competition. Yum! Usually it is so cold and snowing Icefest is a quick wonderful time. Last night the events were canceled because of the rain. Tonight is the grand ball, I hope to one day go to. I sure hope tomorrow the weather is better so we can enjoy a warm dry Icefest.

With the weekend on me now and a to do list 3 miles long I think I will change my boredom/ laziness into productivity.

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Or maybe I will put it off a little longer. Have a great weekend

it's not Christmas

2012-01-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

But Smiley thought it was. When he woke up and saw snow on the ground. He threw open the drapes and yelled "IT"S CHRISTMAS!!!!" Burr... It has been so cold here. Life is never fun when it is cold unless you are two. We got our first snow of the year. The first snow in winter. The first snow since Halloween. That was a freak snow. It snowed all night, the rained on top of it leaving a nice layer of ice. A nice layer of ice for a two year old and his trusty cat to go crunching around on.

Smiley would "stomp the snow going crunch crunch" and Wyatt would just follow him around. He thought it was great until he lost his glove.

And since Wyatt is a cat she did not go retrieve it, just inside along with him. The glove is still out there as none of the rest of us want to go out in the cold. The boys would rather...

go swimming.

Don't you just love it they are holding hands! :)

They are still swimming twice a week. You would think they would be pros by now after all they have been swimming since 2009. But lets just say I am glad they are in a good school.

They are doing good though. And I do not expect nor want them to be Olympic swimmers.

They are happily jumping into a cold pool when it is even colder outside. I don't want to do that. I am good taking them and watching there silly jumps and belly flop dives.

Me I am now 14 weeks pregnant. Slightly gaining weight, to cold to care. It still has not sank in yet except for I am always at the doctors. At lest I get a ton of ultrasounds. I have seen so much of this baby it has been a blessing. We still do not know if baby is a boy or girl. The kids guess what ever they want at the moment, Jay guess a boy, me a girl, but who knows. I am still planning on not finding out but with all these ultrasounds we will see. I have got pretty good at reading them. No name choices have been thrown around either. I have some I like but we will see. I have no strong pull right now to any of them. With some of the other a name was chose right away. With others like Gregory I was 8 or 9 months before we finally decided. For now here is a picture. A shameless self portrait in the bathroom mirror.

Sorry no skiing want to skate?

2012-01-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

Disappointment comes at any age. It frequently comes to us as adults but to children as well. My oldest son who has been pleading all winter with us to take him skiing came home from school to find me on the phone and just having scribbled down a date.

But it was more than just a date. It was a date for the upcoming Monday, a day he had no school, and scribbled on a ski magazine. He was over hearing me on the phone agreeing to the time and saying we will be there, it works well for us.

His little face lit up were going SKIING!!!! He was so happy I hated to break the truth to him. No we are not. It is for a doctors appointment that was the closest piece of paper I could find. What disappointment. I wish we could take him skiing. All of us want to go but we have had such a warm winter the ski resorts close by only have a few trails open. Everyone I know has been traveling to ski this year. We will have to plan a super ski trip where he wont be disappointed.

To recover the day we took the kids roller skating for the second time that weekend. They were luck and went Saturday with a bunch of friends and even luckier that they went Monday again with 2 more friends. Saturday I took all the kids, Monday dad and I took all the kids. He said he had not been roller skating since the 70's! Old man. None the less he still got up on the skates.

With all the kids.

Smiley did not skate. The people there were trying to talk me into it saying we have skates for him, he skates for free, he is not to young. But No. They would not be the one trying to keep a 2 year old in a cast calm for the next to months. Skating might be free but hospitals are not.

He found the arcade games, he played with his trains he brought and he enjoyed watching his brothers. He was fine and happy and not broken.

The boys have not had to much skating experience. This was Gregory's 3rd time and Evan's 2nd but they both think they are pros.

Gregory does not do to bad. He got the hang of it quickly. Before long he was flying around the track making faces all the while.

Evan never did really get it. But it was so funny.

However the kid tried backwards skating too. His poor little body was so banged up he said he could only eat soft food and needed to rest. Even with all the falling down they joined in the limbo competition.

Believe it or not Evan one! He was the last and lowest boy. Not sure how that happened. And his prize a free pass to come back again which he is more than ready to use.

As for me I did not skate. I took pictures. I laughed. I managed the two babies. It was such a nice day. We had a great time. Not quite skiing but we were warm. Hopefully we will be skiing sometime soon.

Oh Happy Day

2012-01-17T04:13:00.000-08:00

We had such a good time even the ice cream was smiling! Yes that is right. We all went out to lunch to our favorite Chinese restaurant the kids always eat well there so they can have ice cream at the end. Even Faith for the first time ate there, she gobbled up everything on her plate. When Evan went to open his coffee ice cream he started cracking up. The ice cream is smiling at me!

Sure enough it was. imprinted on the inside of the lid and on the ice cream itself was a smiley face. We checked over the packaging and there was no drawling on the outside. No imprinting by a pen or other device on the outside. We are not sure how it happened, a weird thing. But just as the ice cream it made us all smile and laugh.

He went on eating the ice cream opening up a few others too but we never found another smiley face. Then we got to the fortune cookie which explained it all. What a great future for my smiling, wonderful boy!

The Car

2012-01-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

Nothing makes you realize you need to clean your car more than picking up a friend who has legs that reach the floor. The other day I was driving home and I saw a friend walking down along the highway with a gas can in his hand. I pulled right over maybe 50 feet past him which gave me a second to through the items on my front seat into the back seat. I threw them onto a pile of car seats and a bunch of other kid junk that had accumulated on the floorboard of that there feet can not reach. Eyes opened and disgusted I looked to the floor bored of the passenger seat next. It was just as bad. It had my work books, purse, shopping bag, a plate, ect. More stuff! I was embarrassed but after all he does have 3 little kids of his own and HE was the one who ran out of gas, so my embarrassment subsided. To end this part of the story I had pulled over nearly directly across from his work truck on the opposite side of the road and he was walking back with the gas. So I was of no help but he also did not get in my messy car.

So back to what I started at the beginning of January the What I am going into 2012 with. Blessings. This is my car.

It is a 5 seater, paid for Ford 500, with now 70k miles. It does not fit my whole family but it is paid for. It does fit me and the kids. So I use it to run around in and transport them, only, and it is paid for. We do have a larger vehicle that fits the 6 of us, it is huge, has an even bigger engine V10, horrible on gas, and it too is paid for. We pretty much just use it to go to church, out to eat, to the park, on trips, in winter, it is also 4 wheel drive, anywhere we want to go as a family. And usually that is not to far, except trips. But since both vehicles are paid for we just made it work. Burt no with 5 kids coming my car will no longer work. I could run around in the bigger car but even that one is now to small as it just fits 6 adults.

The easy answer is buy a van. The harder reality is that is not in the budget. I have been looking at vans and they are not cheap. I have been looking at suv's and they too are not cheap. My kids and community suggest I by a school bus. haha.

I have 6 more months to figure it out. Till then I will clean my car and not make a car payment.

down sick

2012-01-10T14:42:00.000-08:00

I have been knocked out sick for more than a while now. The icky, yucky, I can't move kind of sick. The am I sick or am I dying kind of sick. It has sucked. I have not felt up to much lately not even something as non strenuous as blogging. Even reading blogs I found exhausting lately, I mean all computer stuff I still love all of your blogs and if I missed anything awesome fill me in. Laying around yes, living not really. The worst part I am not over it. It is better yes! And Thankfully but still here, with more to come. Is it baby sick? Um no not really but I am sure that is not helping. It is a virus, an infection and a kidney stone, and probably baby too. Blah...

This past January weekend we were blessed with the most beautiful warm 60's degree weather. It was amazing! Wish I could have enjoyed it. Last January my children never even made it to school a full week because of the snow. This year that is anything but true. Some people complain about global warming I love it! Let's hope for February in the 70's!

I have watched a lot of tv in my state of excruciating. Thanks to showtime on demand I was able to catch a movie I had always wanted to see from the comfort of my floor in the fetal position in front of the warm fireplace. (And remember I just said it was 60's outside, but I was freezing)

The movie was better than being sick but very disappointing. More to come about this later because I figured out something kinda interesting. Especially for all you twilight fans.

I also caught a long morning of bad renovation shows, travel shows to places I could never afford to go, and a stand by favorite of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies as well. These all from the comforts of my hospital bed. Which I enjoyed for the quite escape from home, the continuous morphine, and nurses catering to me, opposed to the cold floor of my living room where I only moved to serve the children.

Yes I was truly sick.

Not the kind of sick day I wanted. I hate being sick. I hate wasting sick days. If I have to take a sick day I want to enjoy it.

The kids

2012-01-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

As we are going in to 2012 I thought I would do a quick series of what I am going into it with. The kids ask me all the time about this or that or when and half the time if not more I can't remember. Pictures do help. I figured I would start with my little in age big in abundance blessings, the children. They have enriched my life so greatly and impacted me deeply. I would not every want to be without them. I hope they marry well, stay close by, and remain faithful in our religion. However that is a while off and in the meantime I hope they are happy, learning lots, can stay at their school, behaving well, stay out of trouble and be better than the best.

Gregory
He is my 8 year old wonder. He is amazing at so many things. He is a fantastic soccer player. Fearless and takes on other boys 5 grades ahead. His favorite position is goalie and he is good at it. He would also be good at more offense positions because he is so fast. Along with his speed come endurance which he showed us in May by running 5 miles in less than an hour.

He is also a homebody that loves to drawl stories, create video game ideas but mostly play them. He is a good game player. He is also a fan of many worthless tv shows but he like the ones that teach him science and have mysteries.

He loves school. He loves to see his friends and play with them. He enjoys studying so many different subjects but hates writing out spelling words. He get very excited about lessons that click with him like geography, math, rocks and loves to read Magic Tree House books. He has learned so many bible verse and done well in AWANAS. he puts god first and tells me he loves Him most and then Faith.

He is not a helper around the house. His selective listening comes in when I ask him to pick up. But he is a big helper with the babies. He gets along well with all his siblings and they all adore him. Evan and him are the closet. They are best friends for life. Smiley looks up to him and thinks he is the greatest. He is so sweet with his little brother. He tries to include him and make him happy. And he is just as enamored with his sister as she is with him. He loves Faith. He believes she is here and a girl because he prayed for her to come ever night. Every time he is gone it is always Faith he misses and Faith he runs too. He smothers her all the time with in your face tickles and kisses. When he found out our new baby was coming in July, his birthday month, he was excited and cheered yes finally. With a house full of March birthdays he wanted one to share July with.

Evan
Is my 6 year old that is the sweetest child. He is such a cuddler. He loves to give hugs and kisses. He loves to help at school. And so very much enjoys going out one on one with you if you need to run errands. He was even my black friday partner this year where he picked out some very nice and generous gifts for his brothers that fit them perfect. He get along well with his siblings. He prefers Gregory to all of them he loves to hang out with him and tries to give him kisses at school which Gregory then runs from and Evan's feeling are hurt. His feeling get hurt easily. When he and Gregory were separated for two nights this year he cried and moped around lost without his brother. He often whines and fights with Smiley. I am hoping that does change in the future.

He is doing great in school. He is trying so hard to lean to read and it is coming along. His teachers always rave about him and say how he is so well liked by everyone. His favorite part of school is his hamster. He loves small pets, cutie pie- hamster, Sammy- rabbit, and Wyatt- cat. He says his favorite part of the day is coming to school and going to say good morning to the headmaster every day. She greats him and the other children each with a smile a handshake or hug every morning as they walk in. He is still in therapy 5 times a week. I have seen much improvement and am so proud for as far as he has come. He is a good speller.

Evan has a heart for ministry. Prayer is his answer to most everything. If he doesn't understand he prays, if he is scared he prays, if he is happy he prays, if he knows others need help he prays. He often comes up with revelations that make adults stop and think. He wants to go out and tell others about Jesus. He feels Jesus is the answer to most problems.

He plays a lot of sports and has a strong body for his age. But sports are not his thing he just does not have the interest yet. He consumes him self with art and legos. He is always drawling something, making crafts and building projects. He likes to create. He makes such a big mess in which he too is not good at picking up. I have never seen a child clean up slower than he.

Brendan
He is still my Smiley. He puts the picture on cute. What he says and does it is a cuteness overload. Dark brown eyes, wispy blond hair and a smile that stretches ear to ear he is something else. But he is also 2 and in being 2 we do have the tantrums, the loud shouting, and trying to be 6 and 8 but your just 2. He is a big boy and thinks he can do what ever his brothers do so it is easy to forget he is just a baby still only 2, not even close to 3.

He is obsessed with trains, loves cars (the movies), and LOVES his baby friends. He lights up when you say what to see your baby friends? He cheers. He knows the directions of how to get to them and will tell you before we even get in the car. Today as he walked into Sunday school his baby friends even said as he came in "it;s Brendan!"

He loves his brothers. He watches them, copies them and repeats what they say. He calls Gregory YaYa which we all do now too. He so much wants to be included and be just like them. He has took to his sister in a way I did not expect. Not jealous there is another baby in the house but proud and loving of her and says all the time "my baby sister" He brings her things, feed her, plays with her, rolls on her, cuddles her, he loves her. He is happy to see her all the time they have grown so close and it is so cute. He makes her laugh and smile much bigger than the rest of us.

He loves balls and playing outside. Loves bike rides to the park. He loves his mamum. He cuddles up with me any chance he gets. If he is on the coach he says come sit with me. He gives kisses and wants to be held. He does happy dances when you pick him up from the nursery. We go in rounds of I love you exchanges everyday. He is awesome.

Faith
She is 9 months old and our princess. Each and everyone of us is wrapped around her cute little fingers. She is beautiful. I dress her in pink and girly clothes everyday topped off with bows. She always looks like a girly girl but doesn't always act like it. She like to push around cars just like her brothers. She does the funniest growling noise. She sounds like a little gremlin. She is crawling and into everything. She can so quickly go from area to area pulling things down or out and banging them togeter or sticking them in her mouth. Everything goes in her mouth. She has 3 teeth now with one coming in and it is hard to keep things out of her mouth. She primarily takes bottles but seems to love any food you give her. She love to eat and eats all the time. She has many stomachs I guess.

She is so special to us our little girl. We have waited so long for her. She is often under foot wanting to be picked help. She wants to be WALKED around and held constantly. More than any of the boys ever did. She needs contact almost all the time. She sleeps with me every night. She will turn and toss in the night to find me and then settle back down. I will probably regret this soon but for now there is nothing better than being with my baby. I love to kiss her, rub noses, blow on her belly, make her laugh and be with her. She is the biggest blessing and the best baby.

She thinks the world of her brothers. She crawls on them and to them. They make her laugh. And she has the happiest baby laugh. She like music. She plays with her musical toys the most. But her favorite toy is still her family.

Baby number 5
Is due at the end of July. I am 10 weeks pregnant. We do not know whether this baby is a boy or girl and I am going to try to not find out till the end. With the other children we found out early but having both I think I would like to keep this one a surprise. I don't know if I will be able to. I have no name picked out either way. I have been a bit nauseas and very sore. But I am very excited even if it does not feel quite real yet.

Highlighting 2011

2011-12-31T08:08:00.000-08:00

What a big year for our family, but isn't every year. I started this morning but looking through old photos and wow have my kids grown, Wow has my family grown.

I looked at my old post for goals and resolutions for 2011 and well I did not achieve any of them. So why recap? In stead I will just review are year and some of the highlights.

January
There was a LOT of snow. Every picture I have there is snow outside. I don't consider that a highlight nor the single digit temperatures it brought. However with cold weather comes ice and every January comes the Icefest. That is defiantly a highlight. We look forward to this all the time. Ice sculptures, chili competitions, ice slides it is a nice time that we only manage to stay out for an hour or so at. remember it is just so darn COLD and we are wimps.

February
Basketball took over our weekends. It was the boys first years playing and the just loved it. good thing because they start again next weekend.

March
Evan turned 6. This was the highlight of the year too. The birth of our 1st baby girl!!!!

April
Shopping for an Easter dress. Finally after so long I was able to go out and buy beautiful, lacey, girly, dresses and bows. And have not stopped. Easter was wonderful and also my mom's birthday this year.

May
The weather warmed up and we were outside a bunch. Soccer was in full swing as well as baseball. Evan invited me to school for a mothers day tea and made me a vase.

June
School ended. Gregory sang like a superstar in his spring show. Evan graduated out of kindergarten. Smiley turned 2! Soccer ended and we left for vacation.

July
Gregory turned 8. 4th of July Jubilee was another fun time and this year we all wore matching tie die the kids and I made. Lots of picnics and parties. And a trip to a wild life park.

August
An east coast earthquake. School started back up. We spent some time down at my parents and went to Berkeley Springs.

September
We enjoyed the warm weekends watching soccer games, skateboard lessons and picnic afterwards. The boys got great at skateboarding and managed to go down ramps.

October
We got our first major snow storm of the year! We were blanketed with inches of snow. But it did not spoil our Halloween since in Pennsylvania they do it the Thursday before Halloween. The most fun was the fall fun going to the farms and to the Apple Harvest festival.

November
Thanksgiving time. And the announcement we are having another baby! We are all excited but it still does not seem quite real. We got our Christmas light up this year before it got cold, before Thanksgiving.

December
Hands down the best part no school no work just time with the kids!

It was a good year. Ups and downs of course but time will forget the worst and memories will treasure the best. So we leave this year healthy and happy and pray for the same for next. May it be an even better year full of babies and blessings, adventure and prosperity, more ups than downs.

Smiley's First Haircut

2011-12-30T11:46:00.000-08:00

I hate getting the kids hair cut. They have all had such beautiful baby hair and once it is cut it is never the same. However Smileys hair just really started to look very shabby, Although he loved to sake his head to have his hair spin around. With Christmas coming up it was time for a trim.We found a great place with really nice girls and one car ride later his hair is cut.

Sitting smiley the last of his long locks.

It looks like he was scared but he was laughing. I think it tickled.

All done and not to different looking. He is still my cute 2 and a half year old.

He even got a sheriffs badge.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

Usually the children are up so early on Christmas morning it is dark. Just like every other child in the world they are so excited they can not sleep. Not this time though. Me who went to be so very late, woke up exceptionally early, just a few short hours later, and could not fall back asleep. However that was fine because this Christmas morning was going to be a little different than others, this Christmas morning was going to be on a Sunday.

We had actually not planned on going to church that morning. Sunday school classes were all canceled and they were just have a few services in the auditorium. We both thought it would be to hard to pull the kids away from what they wanted to do, presents, for Christmas. And then the week before as we were talking to the a pastor he said they were having a terrible time finding anyone for the nursery Christmas day. My husband said "I can do it. I can stop by on my way home from work and watch the 8 Am service nursery. " Since no one would volunteer 2 of the pastors were going to do it. I believe for the other services too. But now he was going to join them for the 8 am one. He said if you want stay home with the kids and I will come by at 9:30. Any mom I bet you could imagine what was going through my head. Yeah right. Keep the kids away from the presents from what I thought would be an early rising to 9:30. That would be misearble and next to impossible. I deiced we would join him in the nursery and then the pastors would be free too.

It wasn't even hard to talk the kids into. A little complains right away but then I explained that God gave us Jesus for Christmas and our present to baby Jesus would be to watch the other babies first that morning and then come home to open our presents. They were okay with that and never complained again. And mind you they could not open anything before we left, not even there stockings.

So me up at 5 got the coffee ready and a shower. The children had got there showers the night before and set there clothes out. It was all rolling smooth except my early risers were sleeping! They did not wake up early so I started waking them up. They got dressed and then were allowed to go down stairs to see if Santa had come and YES he had been there! Now they were jumping around in excitement.

I let them see what he brought and and fumble a moment with the keyboard. They could not believe it. They thought wow so many presents. Evan said we must have been really good. But we still had our plans so we drank a cup of coffee and ate our breakfast. Just cereal and milk the normal routine. I forgot I had bought orange juice and cinnamon rolls as something special, something Evan requested, something still sitting in my fridge. We are stuck in our morning routine. But it worked we were dressed, feed, and ready to go all 5 of ahead of time, and still in a good mood.

Then we went outside and the truck was frozen. No snow, but sheets of ice everywhere. Nothing we can't handle. I just warmed up the truck and defrosted the windows and we were off. We got to the church and headed to the nursery. The children had a good time playing. We ended up watching only 4 kids that morning. Four of the most wonderful and beautiful children. Four children that were all mine! No other babies came. Most the families that were there kept the kids with them and many others stayed home. But it was fine the children played and we were able to watch the service on the tv. It worked out well. I was even able to sing loud to the many carols of that Sunday without embarrassing my family but having my oldest laugh along.

After the service you can believe the kids were now ready to get home and so we went. They dove into there presents.

They got most of what they wanted. They got really nice stuff.

They also each got a ton of books. Those my oldest who actually asked for more books than any other kid was getting disappointed at so many book and the fact that none of them were Magic Tree House. He said those were the only books he wanted not these things. He had to stop opening presents for a while with that remark until his attitude changed, which did not take to long.

I got many nice things my favorite being a kindle fire and a new camera!

Jay collected many super items and a few new shirts.

Evan got an art set he just loves. He takes it everywhere. He is happy with what he got and was so happy to give his brothers the fantastic presents he picked out for them on black Friday. Evan is a great gift giver but terrible secret keeper. However this year he did real good. Usually you just say Evan what did you get me and he spills the beans.

We opened presents for what felt like hours.

Faith got many things she liked. But needed help unwrapping.

And apparently she got things she did not want.

They played with there new treasures all after noon. So far all week.

It was a great Christmas. My favorite part was the meal. Yumm. No pictures of that we ate it too quick. It is so special spending Christmas with the children I hold them so dear in my heart. They have been establishing traditions making it more fun and actually easier. It is like a road map of thing we always do. And in that tradition and in winding down for the evening we snuggled on the couch and watched and evening of Christmas shows.

Twas the night before Christmas

2011-12-27T06:10:00.000-08:00

And all through the house, the children were crazy, they scared the mouse. They woke in the morning with excitement and cheer, knowing that Christmas would soon be here.
First on there list was to open a gift from there Grandma Ginny, each year with more kids she has to send so many. Smiley got a car Tow Mater, he drove it all day and later.

Gregory got a wii game so much fun, Monster Hunter he has them on the run.

Evan opened legos this one not from Grandma Ginny, hundreds of pieces I will be vacumeing up so many.

Now Princess Faith opened a singing panda bear, she was dancing to the music and brother wanted to share.

5 minutes later when the gift opening was done we headed to the kitchen for some more fun. It was time to bake, and then to the neighbors home the cookies we wold take.

Dozen upon dozen we made, working for hours in the kitchen never being paid.

We made chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip and best of all sugar cookies with lots of icing. We ate as we made them they were to enticing. For Santa and his reindeer there were so many, we hooked him up to erase the bad times because with 3 boys there can be plenty.

While we were cooking under the table hid an elf, red and cute it could be none else, than our sweetest girl so kissable and cute, but there for handouts for that delicious sugary food.

The baking was done, the cookies were made, as the day went on all the children played. The loved their new toys, and together they wondered about Santa and when would he come, would he come down the chimney? Or through the door? They though about the presents he would bring them because they wanted more.

But have the boys been good or were they bad? We were glued to the computer watching Santa on NORAD. He flew to Russia, he flew to Fiji, he flew over oceans, continents, islands and more. We watched and waited for soon he would be at our chimney or door.

Waiting the children never grew tired, we cuddled up and watched movies but nothing worked. The were as excited as ever and the hour was late, they needed to go to bed and it had been all momma could take. I sent them to bed but they did not stay. I told them you better go to sleep or Santa won't stop with his sleigh.

Finally asleep I begun my work wrapping presents should have been left to the elfs. Because I was up past 1 AM and tired myself. But eventually it got done and the stocking filled and hung.

It was a glorious night the room was glowing, and the was a sea of presents blessings overflowing.

So many packages! So many gracious family and friends. We are truly blessed and I was thankful the evening was at its end. For now I could go to sleep and rest my head I quickly fell asleep cuddling my princess in bed.

As we slept the boys swore they heard him he thumped on the roof and never was in sight but then flew off exclaiming "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"\

A cat came to us

2011-12-24T04:46:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago a little scraggly cat came around on a Sunday night. It stood across the street and meowed. It looked so hungry. We brought out a bowl of milk and the cat eventually came to us. We let it drink and it snared and ran away. Stupid cat. We did not see it again.

One week later the same day it came back. But this time I had picked up a small bag of cat food that day to leave out with the milk. My son was so excited and joyfully feed this cat. We let the food alone and went inside. The next day the food was gone.

Later that week when I was at work and my husband was on the computer the cat got in the house and surprised him by jumping on his lap. He pet the cold cat and then threw it back outside. From then on it has hung around the front sometimes still finding its way inside.

The boys have continued to feed it, pet it and sit at the door and talk to her through it. They wish we would let her be our inside cat but that is not in the cards. We sometimes have a dog and that cat would drive the dog nuts. Which would drive me nuts. Plus I have a large tropical fish tank that would look like a buffet. If that was knocked over it the weight would crush any of my kids underneath. plus at a doctors appointment yesterday they specially asked me if I had any contact with a cat and I told the story of our new outside cat they immediately sent in for blood work for toxoplamosis. It will remain an outside cat.

My Evan has named her Wyatt. There dad has said he will build Wyatt a little house outside so she wont freeze. They have really took to her. Big smiles across there faces. There dad says she is special because she chose us. I say ugh.... But I love my boys so now we have an out side cat.

Gregory's weekend away

2011-12-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

After November ended so warmly December cam in frigid. It was so cold. So why not send my son off camping? Gregory left by himself to his first ever sleep away camp. It was not long 3 days, 2 night but that was long enough for the rest of us. We all missed him so much! We are never apart. Evan his closest brother cried from the time we dropped him off till he went to bed that night. Evan was sad the following day but his younger brother moped around as well. We were all looking forward to picking him back.

While we were sad Greg was having a great time! He was staying in a warm cabin. When I dropped him off there I felt better about that. I had bought him a mummy sleeping bag on black Friday and sent him with warm pj's and blankets. He probably just need the pj's and blanket, I believe the cabin was warmer than our house. Comforting. Still it was hard to leave him. He was so excited even the counselors questioned if there was anything else I needed because I kept hanging around.

The days went quick for him. He was so busy. They had study times,

guest speakers that were famous balloon artist, games, songs, food. And my super picky eater who I packed a bag full of food with him because I was worried he would starve did not touch what I sent and ate every meal they gave him. At least some portion of it. What music to my ears he is warm AND not starving! But do you see him all bundled up in the picture? What is that all about? Well at lest he was not cold.

His favorite activities of the weekend were what they call the flying squirrel and go carts. The flying squirrel I don't fully understand but from the few pictures I have seen pared with his description it seems like you are harnessed up and he swing you around?

The best part of him being away was picking him up. He had hours worth of chatter box stories to tell us. We all listened and found his adventures so funny and exciting. Evan now can not wait to go also. I am amazed in his confidence and how grown up he is. We dropped him off and he knew no one who was going, but declared that's not a problem I will make some friends. He returned from his first experience away from his family even better than before. I love my little , I guess big, guy.

I am glad he had fun. I am glad he got to go. I am glad we celebrated his homecoming with cake. I am glad he is home.

Letting your friends babysit

2011-12-11T16:49:00.001-08:00

Today a brave friend, her husband, daughter, daughter's friend, volunteered to watch my 4 for the afternoon in her house full of all the above mentioned plus her 2 boys and a handful of their friends there too. Yes she had more than a hand full. But the first for were really the ones going to watch my babies and my two big ones ran off with the older boys.

After the afternoon of shopping I came back and collected all of mine to their disappointment. They wanted to stay and play. It was sad I had to bribe them to come home with the doughnuts in my trunk.

Once home I went to change the babies and....

She put the diaper on backwards! Bahaha. It has been a long time since her 3 were babies and I guess you can forget. You would think with all those helpers it would have been a different story but no. It made me laugh.

The baby in the picture is not mine I took that off the web. You would not have wanted to see a picture of my babies diaper before I changed it.

Caught in a hurricane

2011-12-10T19:38:00.001-08:00

Does your mall have one of these machines, a hurricane simulator. Well hurricane wind simulator? My boys had to try. I was a little apprehensive about putting my 2 year old in there but he was happy to do whatever his big brothers are doing. They all climbed in and the winds gusted up to near 100 miles per hour. They made it through with smiles and staying on there feet. It is days like this they are lucky they had their dad there, because I would have said no. But we are all glad he was there and that I didn't say no. It was to funny watching there smiles, hair flying and wild giggles.

Christmas Tree 2011

2011-12-10T05:46:00.001-08:00

Whew is it really now 14!!!! days left till Christmas. 14, Fourteen , 4 + 10, wow. Are you ready I am not. I am close but not quite ready. I hope that by the conclusion of this weekend I will be done with all the fluff stuff. As far as the family stuff well check we have been doing that everyday. So much so it keeps me a little to busy to blog right now. As I am writing this my son is standing next to me with a list of activities he wants to do this weekend. Saying "mom lets get to it!"

One of my favorite traditions that we do everyday, but Wednesday nights because of AWANAS, is winding down our day. The kids and I all cuddle together on the coach and watch what ever Christmas show is on that night. They never complain and never ask to change the channel. The other night the movies were from the 1970's and they watched the whole time. They can be rowdy and all I have to say is time to watch a Christmas show and they will switch it to it and settle down.

After the movie is over they do their chocolate advent calender. They love countdowns. So not only do we have 1 advent calender we 2. They have a Santa that we have been turning the blocks counting down since September. How exciting that it is getting so close. They do the Santa one every morning and the chocolate one at night. Next year I might have to get a more involved advent one. I have seen some great ideas of ones with activities not chocolate and I know my children would like those ones the best. However I do love my creative boys. The chocolate is in a different shape everyday. After they open it and break the chocolate in half sharing it between the 2 oldest, (their own idea not mine!) they make up a story about what the chocolate was. It is often influenced by what movie we just watched and it is darling. For instance they had a squirrel the other day and they were making up a story about the squirrel helping Santa. I give the wonderful credit to my kids school for this. What a great school and the thinking they encourage and nurture.

December has been cold. Like it should be if you regretfully live in Pennsylvania. It is in the upper 70's in the Florida Keys right now, just saying. I would be more than happy to trade in my evergreen for a palm tree. But before the weather turned, before it got cold, before no one would want to go, we went out a got our tree. We went out the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We went back to our favorite place to get Christmas trees. We got our tree there last year and had they best time. Despite the fact it was flurrying, dark and just so cold. But this year we went out in the morning on a warm day to the cheers of my children.

The farm is large we walked up and down the isle of trees. Everyone was picking out a different tree. Last year we got the all time best and most beautiful tree how could we top it. We did not need to. We just needed to find the best and most beautiful one for this year. We looked and poised next to so many. All different shapes and sizes.

We were looking for more of a small one this year. No more than 6 feet and not as wide. I did not care what they picked any would be fine.

We stopped and took a few pictures trying to get that one for a Christmas card. A few is an understatement, more like a hundred. Any of you with kids know how that went but we managed to get one...

One where no one is crying, picking there nose, looking anywhere else, hitting their brother, anything.

Eventually we found the tree. We tagged it and so the guy came. He chain sawed it down. Which scared poor baby Faith.

He threw it on the wagon and took it back to the barn. There they shook off the excess needles.

And wrapped it for us. Smiley thinks watching the whole process is just the greatest. He was so excited. Such a joy at Christmas or anytime.

They even through it in the truck for us.

I found our latest addition there for just $3! I love him such a cute snowman. And $3 all hand made you can't beat that. We were more than happy to take him home.

We quickly got it up and it looked great. And our new snowman is enjoying his new home.

I strung many many many light on it. We went colored this year. Then the boys covered it in so many balls you can no longer see the green tree but that is what they want.

Now it is up and we have our 2011 Christmas tree. They balls have begun to be pulled off the bottom. They are slowly making there way up top. We sorta new this would happen. After all we have had 3 babies at Christmas before her.

She gets into everything as she is fully crawling around causing chaos. She loved the lights too. We don't mind we just love her so much.

Now we have our 3/4 decorated tree of 2011! And another great memory of the Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-06T05:33:00.001-08:00

Are the holidays ever not busy? Is anyone's family ever exempt from sickness during them? Both are true with mine. Time is flying and the tissues are always empty. And each year it seems to get busier, however each year we have more kids. Maybe there is a connection. This year I wanted to do it up for the kids but this year now only has 19 days left till Christmas! I even started before Thanksgiving and am so far from done. I kinda have a mess and boxes everywhere.

As far as Thanksgiving goes it was nice. It was not what we had planned. My family is not much for (one of my all time favorite meals) the traditional thanksgiving dinner. So we decided to go to our favorite family dinning place and have a Chinese dinner for Thanksgiving. Chinese restaurants are ALWAYS open, so I though. On Thanksgiving day after we did not watch the parade, we loaded up in the truck and headed out for our lunch. We arrived at the Chinese restaurant and they were closed! I could not believe it. Chinise restaurants never close. I guess in small towns they do. We drove around two towns to ALL the other Chinise restaurants and yes they were all closed. We were sad. We drove to cracker barrel which was open but had a wait time of an hour and a half and with hungry screaming kids that was not an option. We drove buy all the big chain restaurants and they were all closed. UGH. I thought lets just stop at the grocery store and get something but no one wanted to do that either. Finally there was hope. Ruby Tuesdays had cars in the parking lot. We drove in and yes they were open. Hooray! We will have dinner there. We stayed and ate. We all had a seafood dinner which was not bad but was not great. I don't see us going back.

We headed home full. Dad spent time doing the traditional Thanksgiving activity, went to bed, and the kids and I went out into the warm weather for a soccer game.

As far as the traditional dinner maybe I will make it for Christmas. Maybe my husband will make it for me. Maybe we will have better luck with the restaurants then. Nothing has been decided yet. But I did get to go have thanksgiving with the boys at school.

They had a feast. A grand feast it was great. We the parents served the students, staff and teacher all the Thanksgiving trimmings. My boys even ate it! They enjoyed it, we all did.

Evan

Greg and friends

They were all to cute. The lower elementary kids dressed up like Indians and pilgrims. They each made there hat. Evan made a necklace too. The girls wore there bonnets I wish I had a picture of that.

Gregory

Evan

As I said he made the hat himself and glued the feather on how he wanted. Process art not product art. It was hard for me to look at and not want to fix but the feather in the face did not bother him at all.

I love going to there school and spending time with them. They may have perfectly dressed themselves as opposing pilgrims and Indians but they are still my two turkeys.

Front Page News !!?!!!!!

2011-11-30T18:26:00.001-08:00

The Day before Thanksgiving is one of the biggest days for papers. It is our little towns biggest paper of the year. Stuffed full of adds for black Friday and many extras. The paper was doing an insert for Thanksgiving about traditions. I had talked to them about our family and our thanksgiving tree and something special I was planning on doing with the tree for my family. They loved the story and said they would include it in there. I thought how cool and was waiting for Wednesday to get here so I could go buy it. I did not tell my kids they would be in the paper I wanted to surprise them.

I had to work that day and the paper comes out after I go to work so I could not pick it up. Before noon I was walking around town and purposely walked by street news stands and they were all sold out, everyone of them. I was dishearten. I thought I would not get a paper and be able to save it for my kids. The article was online but.. I wanted the newsprint.

After work I stopped by a gas station to get a drink and hopefully find a paper. How could a whole town be sold out. I walked in and went to the paper stand and my jaw dropped. I froze. It was like I was hit with a stick of disbelief. There it was the paper and there on the FRONT page was our article!

OMGoodness!! 2 of my handsome boys were on the cover of the biggest paper of the year. My shock turned into a smile. A big smile I could not wipe off my face.

And then there is the article. My secret. It was not only in the paper but on the cover. Needless to say my phone and facebook lit up. Take a moment read the article.

When does a normal mother having a baby make front page news? When you live in a small town and not much else is happening. And 5 babies out here is not news either. I live in Amish/ Mennonite/ Kate +8 country big families are the norm and mine is still not considered big with 5 little ones. Front page worthy or not it was so exciting to see the article there. 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 we are so happy to have another baby. And for my 2 big celebrity boys, yea they think they are all that now, super stars.

Cockroach

2011-11-29T18:54:00.001-08:00

My son is in to trying new foods and I couldn't be happier. Tonight I made spaghetti for the kids and I was going to eat pot roast. He told me he wanted to try my "cot roats". My son has a very difficult speech problem we have been working on it for years. And pot roast he just can't get out. Every time he kept talking about my "cot roats" It sounded like he was saying cockroach. Gross! Especially at dinner time.

Questions for other bloggers????

2011-11-27T19:07:00.001-08:00

This will be boring to the rest of the world but if you too blog and have a moment please read on. I have a few question about blogging I was wondering if I can get some help with.

1. Are any of you having trouble with photobucket? It is so sensitive for me drives me nuts drove me to picsa. And thankfully so. I do love picasa it is so easy.

2. Except, Are any of you having trouble with picasa? Where I used to be able to grab the links for photos is gone. It is now replaced by a mapping location I could care less about.

3. I used to be able to make colleges in both and no longer can in either on any of my computers. And I bought the premium subscription to picasa.

4. How do you get rid of blogs you no longer want to follow? I have stopped following them but they still show up in my feed.

5. What do you do to manage all the "coupon/saver/shopping" blogs? I belong to just a few but they post so frequently that they are often the ONLY ones I see in my feed. I miss the blogs I really want to read. I do like these sites as they have saved/cost me much money.

6. Is there a way to put them into a certain category? And the ones I like in another?

So if you have time and know an answer or two that would be great. I will thank you now because it is likely I will miss your next post :( but on the cup is half full side I probably just got someone something awesome at a great deal!

Anyways stay tuned once I get the picture stuff figured out because I got some great pictures and stories to share of our Thanksgiving break, and we still have 2 days left! Wahooo!!! Love the family time.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T04:23:00.000-08:00

May everyone have a wonderful and easy day.

Another one that made me chuckle especially because of my work.

still swinging

2011-11-21T18:42:00.000-08:00

Someday we have an Indian summer, even though it is November. If it is hot or cold we are still outside and these two still love swinging.

SMILEY!!!

The happiest Ma mum.

FAITH!!!!

Look at those two teeth.

Surprise Self Portraits

2011-11-20T11:13:00.001-08:00

Isn't it so much fun to find surprise shots in your camera? I find them quite often actually. And I just love them. This one was not to bad. He 8 year old got him, his sister and a brother all in the arms reach shot. I just love my little guy so much and love his surprises.

Childrens Identy Theft

2011-11-19T10:19:00.001-08:00

I never thought that was anything to worry about. As a matter of fact I never thought about it. I often see the commercials on TV about protecting your identity and the programs they have to help. Well those programs are just junk. They can not guarantee your identity will not be stolen they will do the paperwork and leg work for you once it is.

On many blogs, and other social media outlets many people use pet names for their family members to protect them. Some other have no pictures of there kids on facebook. People do all different types of things to hide and protect their families identity. I am not so private. I have tons of pictures of my kids on my blog and facebook. I give lots of information about them. I rejoice in them and can't keep it in. Maybe I should.

A few months ago one of my kids started receiving publishers clearing house stuff. He thought it was cool because his name was all over it. And month after month they kept coming. We laughed it off thinking haha what if he really one (does anyone ever really win those?) What if it was thousands of week for life and they just named a 6 year old there winner. He would be set. But other pieces of junk mail kept coming. Yesterday yet another pieces asking for money for a reputable charity.

I just threw it to the side thinking just another thing. But my husband chimed in and said I wonder if someone might have stole his identity. And then all the pieces started whirling through my mind. Why is this only happening to 1 of my kids? Why is a 6 year old receiving all these offers, continually. He is to young to and has never entered his name on any soliciting list. Any online game he plays is registered to me. How could I ignore months of this and think nothing of it but as awe look honey you got mail.

We quickly looked at the credit reporting sites. But found out you can not access a child's credit 13 and under online ever. You can get YOUR child's credit 14 and older. Now this does not mean you can not get your very minor child's credit. Especially if you think there is reason to believe of misdoing. You have to write to all three credit reporting agencies. Two of them have online forms you can fill out and 1 you can only send a letter by mail. They wont give you an answer at the site they email it to you or mail it to you. So it takes a little time.

I started filling out forms and writing letters. But my impatient self was still not at rest. And I wondered if there might have been other ways to find out. So I called our bank. My son has a savings account and a CD.there so they have all his information, they know I am his mother, and they can tell me if someone has been accessing his account, and maybe be able to get me the credit report faster.

Well they too could not access his credit. They had no reason to run his credit and identity theft does not permit the bank to access it. But they said there has been nothing done to his accounts and as soon as someone would try they would stop it because of his age. But they put a caution on it and said I am taking all the right steps.

Well the good news is I have heard back from 1 agency and they say there is nothing to alert them to theft. Some how it seems as his name got on a junk mail list, maybe through a magazine? He does get a LEGO one. However this whole ordeal is making me step back and think. Maybe I should not be so open. I would hate to think of someone ever ruining his dreams for him. You need good credit to get through life. For college, cars and a home, I can't imagine someone spoiling all of that for him. Something scary did not happen but reminds you it is all to real and could.

Christmas at Bass Pro Shop

2011-11-18T12:50:00.001-08:00

How many days till Christmas?....36 Yes just 36 more days. I think when it gets down to thirty one we should all get new bags ;) I know it is not even Thanksgiving and it does feel like that is skipped over since it is less than a week away. I have done nothing for thanksgiving yet but our Thanksgiving tree. No plans, no idea, no grocery list, no time. We have not even watched it A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this year.

But I will make that happen real soon.

Everything is Christmas. In the stores, since August, it has been all Christmas. In our home everyone has been focused on Christmas. What they want, what they want to give. What they don't think a certain brother should get because he has been mean. (And that certain brother is not a particular one. It is who ever upsets them at the moment)

The other weekend they even went to see the man in red. HOHO as Smiley calls him.

Well the boys did at least. My parents swung by on there way to Bass Pro Shop. Up there not only did they get to see Santa but there cousins were there also.

I wish Faith had gone she has never meet my little nephew Jacob.

In fact I only have seen him once. When he was just 2 weeks old. But I do love him and I think he is a cutie. He and Faith are 1 month apart. Hopefully at Christmas we can get all 6 of them together.

Along with the kids i sent my camera. My parents got a few shots off for me. One of each of the kiddos riding the carousel.

My brother Randy and my nephew Jacob

My little Evan

Smiley I think this was his first carousel ride?

My favorite niece Danica

Gregory my wonderful son

Wow wish I could have been there. Even for a girl I like Bass Pro Shop. There is enough fun stuff to do. And there aquarium is awesome. But I am sure I will be up there soon enough. In the mean time, the quiet time Faith and I had at home. We curled up on the couch and watch Berlin City Ballet presentation of the Nutcracker. I love on demand and I love having a little girl to watch the Nutcracker with.

The Thanksgiving Tree

2011-11-17T14:16:00.001-08:00

I am thankful I get to have breakfast and dinner with my kids everyday. Not only is it a good time to be with them as they start their day and end it but throughout the whole month each night we write down on a leaf what we are thankful for. We add the leaves to our thankful tree.

They are thankful for so many varied things. Some are sweet, some are funny, a lot our their interests, and a few necessities. God, Faith, and family are very present. All wonderful thoughts.

Eggs

2011-11-13T11:56:00.001-08:00

This week Evan learned to make scrambled eggs. This week Faith ate her first scrambled eggs and loves them. He is just as happy to make them for her as she is to eat them. A perfect match up.

11-11-11

2011-11-11T13:06:00.001-08:00

What a day, we won't have another like it for 13 more months, 12-12-12. Honestly I am tired of hearing all the comments about it. No reason they should be getting to me but they are. I do believe that it is the perfect day to get married or birth a child, if you are like me and can never remember any dates. Nope not even the kids birthdays. They correct me all the time. But I do love lists and what a perfect day for a top 11 list! Here are my top 11 favorite things on 11-11-11.

1. Shades of Wyldemor I have been coming back to the site daily this week and just loving the dresses. I encourage you to check them out but don't buy any just in case I want to commit to that dress. (they are one of a kinds)

2. My computer it keeps me connected.

3. Taking pictures and editing them. But I would love it even more with a much needed new camera.

4. My kids school. It is just awesome. I love the school, I love the teachers, I love the philosophy, and I love how much they love it. It is the best place for them and they are thriving.

5. Drooling over thanksgiving menus. I have been flipping through magazines. Wasting time on food network. Looking over printables to go with the meals online. Yum I truly love the Thanksgiving menu and can't wait to eat.

6. Hair bows. I just think they are the greatest and love dressing up Faith in them.

7. Modern Family. That show makes me laugh. Not that I get a chance to watch it but enjoy it when I do.

8. My pellet stove. It keeps me warm and I love to sit on top of it (and yes I am amazingly able to withstand the heat and not get burned if wearing clothes) and read my magazines.

9. My job. I am learning so much, teaching so much and finding joy and accomplishment in my work. I truly feel loved and appreciated

Can you believe this they even make braille wine labels!

10. My church Five Forks Church it is simply the best we have ever been to. I love going there, all the activities it offers, all the friends I have made, the positives influences on my children, the childcare so I to can learn. It is there I have built my faith and my love for God and his church.

11. You knew this one was coming.... MY KIDS!!!! Love them everyday! SO much, they are such blessing. Just the best and I am so proud of them.

baby wants to play checkers

2011-11-06T04:08:00.000-08:00

The other day the big boys got a new checkers game. And even though she is only 7 months she wants to do everything they do. She wants to be with them all the time. She wants them tickling and cooing over her. She is just as excited about them as they are enamored with her. So of course she wants to play too.

She wanted to so badly she tried crawling out of her chair to get to them. She is determined.

But in the essence of keeping it real. A real life look in to my place on a Saturday afternoon with all the kids home. God love them mess and all.

The love notes begin

2011-11-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

My sweet Evan came home the other day with his first love letter. Big giddy smiles over here because it is just cute right now.

It is hard to understand as it was wrote by a 6 year old to my 6 year old. But I think it says:

I love Evan he's my best friend. And from there no one in our house can figure it out. But the picture of them holding hands with a heart above it pretty much gives it away.

So sweet.

But what am I going to do when its real?

At least I got time to think about it.

Guess who has been hanging out here?

2011-10-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

Yup the jolly red man Kris Kringle , St. Nick.. Santa Clause.

He has been having breakfast and dinner with us for some time now. I know how much people hate rushing the holidays and how much distaste there is for Christmas decorations at labor day, before Halloween even thanksgiving. But as soon as the countdown hit 99 days we got Santa from the shed and have enjoyed him everyday since.

The boys are getting excited. I am too. A lot of shopping is done. No other decorations are out. For the next month we will focus on Thanksgiving but then after black Friday it will be all Christmas around here. I am so excited, I am so hopeful, I know what I want for Christmas. ( A good camera, my family, wink wink)

But truly I am looking forward to reading Luke again this holiday season. What a way to prepare your heart, mind and home for the real reason for the season.

So it snowed

2011-10-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

A lot. In October. And some people like snow, but not me. I so want to move. But if it has to snow this was the way to do it. It snowed on Saturday, when there was not much going on. Nothing we could not get out of. I still can't believe it snowed. We have had Halloweens in shorts and bundled up so it really should not surprise me. I kept hearing the weather reports and assumed they were wrong. But not wrong enough to tarp up some of the big wheels in the back yard, pick up the toys, move all kinds of stuff and grills into the shed, and bring in 3 bags of pellets. I loaded up the car with extra clothes 2 pairs of gloves, shovel and brush. I called my parents who were vacationing in the Poconos and said I think you need to come home. The weather man is calling for a lot of snow, they have all ready called snow emergency in many of the boroughs, they canceled all school events in all the counties. You might get stuck if you can't get home. I felt bad saying end your vacation but they would FREAK out if I even walked in a storm like we got let alone traveled the east coast states in it so why should they drive in it. I would worry too. And they came back home. They left late in the evening and did not get home till midnight but they beat the storm that then we were thinking we might only get. And we got it, they 2 states away got it to. But we all got it safe in our homes.

It was a long day. However it was a nice day of cuddling up with the kids, nothing to do and nowhere to go, like I said at the beginning if it had to snow this day was great for it. It started coming down light, like a little dusting.

It covered my dead mum that I would not through away yet because I figured how perfect for Halloween. I draped it in skeletons and wha-la a spooky Halloween decoration, now covered in snow, the dusting. By the time it was done the mu was pushed down and the snow reached the black line on the big pot.

It covered non dead mums that were alive and vibrant in the yard.

Then picked up. It started sticking on the roads, on my uninteresting mailbox.

Sadly it took down our "family" tree, Evan named it. But I do like it, well like what a strong healthy one looks like anyways. It was never to big due to lack of pruning but no matter how big it was or should have been it got ruined now.

The heavy wet snow pulled it down to the ground, looks like a tree. I will try to save it.

On the flip side the rose of Sharon bushes that were just the other day taller than the fence, again due to lack of pruning, now too look like bushes. They are also broke but I believe can most likely come back.

The kids were begging to play outside. I was hesitant but I gave in.

Evan rolled large snowballs

Into a fort that Gregory was building and Smiley was kicking.

Catching snowflakes is so much fun.

They came back in quickly. Why I was hesitant. They were dripping wet. This snow was a HEAVY WET snow. They were soaked in minutes. Not like they walked in the rain like I pulled them out of the washing machine before the spin cycle, soaked.

I am glad they came in because it picked up. It kept coming down faster and harder. Wet and heavy. The snow was so thick.

It laid so quick and kept coming down. Soon our Halloween was a winter wonderland. It was beautiful.

The heavy snow caused so much damage. It snapped trees, broke power lines, a lot of havoc. We had power for the most part. It was flickering on an off all day. In the light of the day the kids made jokes about it as the day turned to night the were scared. Every time it went out they cried. But since it was Halloween we had all kinds of spooky candle lights around, perfect huh? We had glow stick that they wore around there neck. They were happier. My parents had no power for more than 14 hours, a street up no power for more than 10, I was SO fortunate for what we had. And as far as my parents are concerned they have a generator and it is more than sufficant. We would have headed down there if we could have traveled the roads.

But we stayed in and we were warm and well fed, I along with half of the east coast went shopping Friday. We watched in awe. It just kept coming deeper and deeper. I never took Faith out in it. I did not even let her touch it. I regret that but on the other hand it is so cold she would have very much not enjoyed it. She will have more chance this year. But she liked watching it.

I liked watching it too but I got worried about the weight.

That tree behind the swingset, that big tree. It kept getting lower and lower as the day went on. That was the story all around the area. Due to how early this storm came the trees have not dropped there leaves yet. It added to the weight. Trees could not bare it and breaking and breaking sheds, homes, blocking roadways. I watched this one out my kitchen window all day. As worried as I was it stood together.

We went out today, we headed down worry some roads to church. But they were fine, we were fine. By 3 pm today it was in the 40's and will be so tomorrow too. So it is all melting quick. We will move on to our normal tomorrow. A little different but a memorable Halloween weekend none the less.

Jack-or-Frosty

2011-10-30T04:32:00.000-07:00

October 29 we got hit with a major SNOW storm. My boys were so happy. However I am not so sure about Jack.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

Halloween has come and gone here in my part of Pennsylvania. And that is good because today I am buried under more than half a foot of snow and it is still falling. I have mentioned this every year but I will explain our Halloween again. The local boroughs celebrate Halloween always the Thursday before the 31st. It is our way to keep the kids and the drunks off the road at the same time

Thursday it rained. It rained soaking rains all day. As I was getting the children dressed for trick or treating it was still raining. I thought lets still go but this might be a short night. It was a cold night too. However as we walked to our friends to join the gang the rain let up and it never started again.

We have been trick or treating with the same group for years since we moved here. I love the yearly picture. It is fun to see how big everyone is getting. Now some people are not in the picture each time but to keep that many people still and together is impossible. For instance Smiley is not in here. He was so fast.

But I did capture a few of him. This year he was spongebob. He loves spongebob. Gregory was the red power ranger. And Evan was a pirate. We always try to have a theme and this year they just started picking out costumes but the theme kind of came together as tv characters. :( not cutesy anymore. Hopefully next year I can have an awesome family costume.

Sadly because of the rain and quickness needed to watch smiley I did not get Faith in any of those picture but she was there. Can you guess what she was? I bet you are thinking princess but no. She was a little pumpkin. All my kiddos start out as pumpkins.

And with my friends daughter who is also a Faith. Olivia Faith but that's okay.

They loved getting the candy. Smiley did not understand not eating it as soon as he got it but he like trick or treating and his brother tried to help.

Faith did not trick or treat she just enjoyed her binky and bundled up for the ride.

This year had a big first too. It was the first year the boys carved there own pumpkins. With NO help from mom. I was there I supervised but they did it all.

They piced out or created there own design. Scooped out all the guts.

And worked hard at carving them.

I think they did a good job.

Gregory

Evan

I did not let Smiley crave a pumpkin nor was his big enough to carve but under the guidance of his brothers he painted one.

I think they came out great.

Now on to the next holiday and off to shovel snow. Happy Halloween everyone!

To all who have NOT been drinking tonight

2011-10-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

But look at these and you may think otherwise. Just some pictures for fun.

Are the shapes spinning slowly?

How many legs does this elephant have?

Are you getting confused? DO your eyes just hurt?

Does it look like the pictures are moving?

Are you sure you haven't been drinking?

Have a goodnite!

You're a liar

2011-10-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

There is no way

It just can not be true

Really?

You are going to tell me she is 7 months old!?!

Sure time goes so quick but has it lapsed 7 months?

I don't believe it either.

But I can't deny it. You are 7 quick, fast AMAZING months old now.

And we are all still enamored with you.

Faith you are the light of my day. The cuddle bug in night. The best girly girl. Love in the form of a baby.

You are everything and more. I LOVE YOU!!!!!

We ALL do!

DiGiorno 200 calorie pizzas

2011-10-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

I tried DiGiorno's 200 calorie pizza and I was...not impressed. I bought it because I though the small sizes would be a quick snack and fairly healthy at 200 calories. Well snack for my boys lunch for me.

I had received a $1.00 off any two coupon in my Sunday adds. The normal price for it runs between $3.50 -$4.00. I love buying quick and easy snacks to heat up when we just have to go or have not made it to the grocery store type of days. I really was looking forward to this.

I rarely eat DiGiorno anyways so keep that in mind with this review. I have been trying them more lately with the new pizza and appetizer combos but have not loved those either. I just prefer delivery pizza. And I DO NOT think they taste like delivery.

I removed there "hot pockets" like packaging and placed it in the oven. I cooked it for under the allotted time and the thin crust slices came out brittle and dry. I was not impressed. My kids took a bit or two, I took a bite or two and all of us let it lay. It was dry and frozen tasting. Not good.

Any redeeming qualities? Yes. Inside the package I was disappointed to find out I did not win a spa trip. But I was happier when I saw another $1 off coupon.

Even though I did not care for it if I can find it on sale and use my coupon I will try again. Like I said it is nice to have quick snacks that you can jump to in a hurry. I just wish it tasted better.

International Day

2011-10-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

This week was international day at the childrens school. They had been working so hard for it. The got to pick out a country, study it, painted a flag of it and had mom make a dish from it for the international lunch they were having. They prepared for weeks learning songs and skits to also present at a festival preceded by a parade of nations. Since it was weeks of building up they were super excited. I was sad because I was not going to be able to make. But life took a turn and God gave me an unexpected gift. My scheduled cleared littlerly 1 hour before the festivities started. I got to go!

The event started with the dove of peace opening the parade.

I think the best part were the little kids that followed I wish I had a picture. Adorable can't describe them. Little babies from the toddler house dressed like cowboys and girls representing America. The childrens houses were fully dressed up so darling from 4 other countries.

My boys did not dress up from the country the represented they walked with their flag.

Gregory had Argentina. Perfect match for him he loves soccer. He even saw a flag online that had a soccer ball instead of the sun he wanted to make that one instead. I know his school would not go for that.

Evan had Kuwait.

Gregory was disappointed when he found out the parade was inside around the school. He was set to march down main street.

Could you imagine. It would have been great and with a gust of wind our dove of peace probably would have took off.

They all sat to watch the other classes sing, say poems, and preform skits.

Evans class went up.

They each said a line of a poem. And then sung a song.

Gregory's class took the stage next.

They too sung.

They afterwards got to enjoy a different lunch. Then there favorite part was the games. They played games from other countries. How fun.

It was so good to see them. I am so thankful I got to go!

Just freaking gross

2011-10-17T18:44:00.000-07:00

I was making spaghetti for the kids tonight and asked them if they wanted special spaghetti. Of course they cheered and jumped at the chance to pick the color of their spaghetti. YUCK!!

I added some food coloring while it was cooking and presto we now have gross green spaghetti. The only thing that made it worse was when I added the sauce.

From October 17, 2011

Oh my!! I often eat after my kids. A nibble hear and there but NO WAY! I can barley stand to look at the pictures. However, they ate it, and loved it. Only boys.

Scarecrows

2011-10-16T04:10:00.000-07:00

What a guy he made us all smile as he kept dancing. He even took a bow. I wish he could live with me.

Brown Bagging It

2011-10-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

This is when I go from coolest mom to the mean mom, the embarrassing mom, the I will teach you a lesson my son mom. How many times has my son forgot his lunch box? This year it has been at least once a month. He forgets it on the van, he leaves the empty one at school. He has nothing else to carry BUT his lunch box and sometimes I guess that is to much to remember.

He forgot to bring home his 2nd lunch box of the year. The first got destroyed after only one months use due to a lunch box fight with his brother. Ahh boys. I would not buy him a new one, again mean mom made him use last years. So when he forgot his lunch box at school I did not pack him the next days lunch in one of the many extras we have sitting on our shelf (remember family of 6 we have TONS of lunch boxes) instead I made him brown paper bag it. Heck if he can't remember to bring home 1 lunch box; I am really betting against the odds he could remember to bring home 2.

And this was no ordinary brown paper bag lunch sack it was the I hope this helps you to remember STOP leaving your lunch box at school brown paper bag.

I drew hearts, I underlined his name in pink, I wrote I love you on the out side, and one of his brothers stuffed the inside with hearted I love you notes.

"Oh no you did't!!"

Oh yes I did. He laughed. He was embarrassed to take it in. But he did. And through the new lunch in the forgotten lunch box as soon as he got to school so no friends would see his brown paper bag, only to be followed by hiding the evidence.

Maybe this will teach you not to forget your lunch box any more.

We have been busy

2011-10-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

A few days, a week, a month they slide by so quick. It is now the middle of OCTOBER and I still have sitting in my folders pictures to edit stories to tell from the SUMMER! I don't always "catch up" but whether I am writing them for my blog editing them to print or post there is a lot that needs to be done. And I am having a hard time finding the time. And when I do well...I am worn out. So you will often find me asleep on that ugly couch I take to many pictures on.

Since school started it has been a constant go-go-go, and we scaled down activities this year. We are only doing AWANAS and soccer. We omitted swimming. But do hope to add it again soon. However for the time being I am thankful for the rest.. In addition still take the Evan to therapy 2 times a week and he still attends more at school 2 times a week. Their dad and I play tag team parenting. Someone is working, someone is sleeping, someone is watching the kids, and I am running them everywhere and in between.

I know we all as moms come across this in our lives. We have to juggle, we have to clean, and we have to figure out a system. Happy to say I see the light I think I figured it out, sad to say it took 6 weeks! But it is also fall in the Northeast. And that means every spare minute and more is spent doing something. Something that was not getting my life in order but building our family bond. Even more important. I will handle a little more chaos f0or a great family day.

The kids are doing great, the house is a mess, the fridge is empty, do I really even want to tell you about Mt. Laundry? But my memory card is beyond full, 1 project is done and I am looking forward to the holidays.

So between all the practices, lessons, festivals and games what did I do?

I built a small patio in the front of our house.

I started in August. I wanted a place mostly for the kids to sit and wait for the van. (their bus) I had found a great deal on a bench at target on an end of summer clearance. The spot I was working was an ugly half dead flower half grass problem/ eye sore in front of our house. It was a perfect spot for them to have this "bus stop". It was away from the road close to the door but out of the house. Plus other times it would be a nice place for me and dad to hide wait I mean sit.

So I started digging it all up. That was tough. We have potato rock soil. Plus on top of that I have 4 littles to contend with. However I dug it down. I sloped it for drainage. I compacted the soil I thought it looked better than the before. I went to LOWES and bought sand and let my oldest pick out the pavers. I was set and then Jay reared his head in and said you need paver base blah blah blah. So my project got held up. And then it rained, and then school started, and we got busy, and through it all it continued to rain. On any day I had a chance to work on it something came up. But eventually it gone done. And eventually he helped me a little. Like adding the last piece of a puzzle little. But I am thankful. And it is done. Which lead to the most recent picture of my 4 little lovelies. They are the best.

Whew, one thing done and more to come... stay tuned.

I need to stop taking pictures on the couch

2011-10-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

Here are few more shots of us on the couch. This has made me realize I really need a new couch. I really need to take these shots outside. I could use some help decorating. I first have to find time to decorate. These couch shots are always of us at the end of the day tired and no longer in our best. I really love cuddling up with my kids. I really LOVE my kids. There for there will probably, most likely, almost certainly be more shots of us on the couch. Just hopefully a new one.

And because I love to edit photos.

A good check up and a good day

2011-10-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

Friday was another one of our Hershey days. Smiley had another check up.

Can I tell you again how much I love this hospital? They are always the best. Anything above what you can imagine they have in the waiting room to put the kids at ease. Tricycles, tree houses, doll houses, xbox, air hockey they have it all! And when you get to the room they are just as awesome. Decked out fully in themes it is neat to explore all the stuff they have for you in each of them. Today my son was in a cowboy room that was so cool. But it still was not cool enough that he did not run once the doctor came in poor baby. However Smiley's doctor is fantastic. I love her and she just sits back and watches are family in all the craziness and kids that are there or aren't there on any given day and still says, what a great family you have.

But he has been doing well and the check up went well and all is good!! Yeah!!!

Since it went so good, and since we were next to Hershey park well we decided to stop by.

We actually had this appointment scheduled for earlier this month but due to extreme flooding in our area we could not make it. If you feel like the recap you can always find it amazingly here.

Wow take a look at that link and see the flooding of the park! Well just as water come up water recedes. It has almost been two weeks and the water is almost all gone.

Here are the gates today....

Compared to a couple of weeks ago...

Wow!

As we started walking in the park we saw these little blue signs.

So it is not completely cleaned up yet but they are working on it.

So sigh, again wow. But it did not stop us from doing what we could.

It was just me and the babies that day. And I love being with them and they love chocolate world! It is amazing how happy it makes them. I take them on the ride to see the cows

And they light up. No matter if they were throwing a tantrum before. Or if someone just had a bad visit at the Hospital, or they are hungry, whatever, if they see those happy cows they are excited.

We rode that ride over and over and over and yet still over again.

Okay so she does not look that thrilled but trust me these cows are better than Nanny Jo and they give you chocolate at the end.

We had a great time. We played, we shopped, we brought home fudge. And we had to get going.

But thank God for a great check up, safe travels and a nice day. Hopefully next time everyone can come and we can enjoy the rides once they are open again.

my little kisses

2011-10-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

I spent time this week at the sweetest place on earth with the sweetest babies on earth. I love my little kisses!

Arms around each other

2011-09-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. ~Barbara Bush

The happiest sex offender

2011-09-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

When you think of sex offenders you tend to think of? The dirtiest of sum in nasty dark places where society has left them and rightly so. People you don't like, don't want to be around, and probably judge pretty heavily. When you think of sex offenders do you think of someone like him?

No, I don't either. A well groomed, good looking very happy man. This was the front page of our local newspaper. This is what you saw in all the newspaper dispensers all over the area. This is misleading. I was so taken back by the happiest sex offender I opened it up wondering what?

I opened it up to find...

Our superior local paper lives up to it well deserved reputation. Dumb Asses.

Ugh sometimes I HATE living in such small towns.

This is an article about this pictured police officer checking up on sex offenders and making sure they are doing what they should be. He is not the sex offender. But you would never know if you looked at the folded front page. Can you imagine his mothers shook as she walked by a newsstand?! Can you imagine the razzing he got from his fellow officers. Can you believe the editor who did not look this layout over. Wow.

Faith's eating me

2011-09-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

That is what Smiley calls it when his sister gives him kisses. If you click the picture it will play you a few second video.

Gregory's first game

2011-09-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

Last week was Gregory's first soccer game of the season. It was much anticipated and we all went out to watch.

He is a good soccer player and it does not hurt he is fast. This year he moved up teams. He is still playing for his school but on the 2-3 team. This means it is beginning to look like real soccer. There are more players on the field and they have a goalie.

And he got to be the goalie.

He really enjoyed. Gregory even stopped the ball a few times. He did great kicking it but some pratice is still needed.

Faith and Dad watched questionably.

My Brother run and grab it! Only you can use your hands.

Oh well he will learn and he is still my awesome brother. I am so proud of him.

I wish I could have been on the other side for this photo. To see his face. To see; maybe hear what he was thinking when the little girl was coming at him like that.

I love watching there soccer. Kids soccer games are the best. But the best part is he had fun.

How did skating lessons go?

2011-09-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

Good. They really are not that bad. And the teacher he was really helpful. Lots of advice, pointers and safety bits.

This little guy my sweet Evan really shined.

Generally he is the shy one but he was all to happy to get up and try a ramp or two.

I was so proud of him. He was all to willing.

He went down multiple runs. I don't think he fell but he did trip off the board a few times. But it did not stop him. He would get back up top and go down again.

Awesome job Evan!

Gregory, who I thought would just stand out well...was just to busy.

Too busy yapping. He was talking the teachers head off about anything and everything. But he did get on his board.

He did try one ramp and fell off on another. But different than usual and different than his brother he was not to thrilled about getting back up on it. He still did good. They both did. They both had a good time. My little skaters.

Fire Island Ziti

2011-09-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe online so you might have seen something close to it before up since we like things spicy I kicked it up a bit. It came out perfect, not to hot but a slight kick, we really enjoyed it.

Gather up all your ingredients.

2 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
3 tablespoons extra virgin Olive Oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced or more, to your taste
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces ziti or small tube pasta
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1 pound Italian sausage links, cut into 1/2-inch slices
8 oz. diced ham
healthy sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/3 cup grated Romano cheese

Go out to the garden and gather up the tomatoes.

Let your 8 year old wash and dice them.

Because you know that as you are trying to do this your 5 month old will inevitably...

need something.

Toss the tomatoes with 2 tablespoons oil, garlic and salt. Once coated in the mixture place all on a baking sheet at 450 for 20 minutes.

This ruined my baking pan while cooking. The watery oily parts bubbled back on the pan and the high temps seared it to the cookie sheet. But it was such a nice flavor to the ziti I would not cut it out.

Cook ziti according to package directions, adding broccoli during the last 4 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, cook ham and sausage in remaining oil until no longer pink. Add pepper flakes and cayenne, cook 1 minute longer.

Combine all and mix well. Heat through till you reach a nice warm eating temperature.

Sprinkle with cheese a little or a lot and enjoy!

And you might want to make more because leftover are great. If they last in your house.

Sitting together

2011-09-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

These two have such a close bond. He only shows his jealousy when someone else is holding his baby. And he reminds them "I want that!"

Am I the coolest mom or what?

2011-09-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Not according to my kids! They look at me as a mom, there mom and only that. They don't see me as the young, hip, still in her mid 20's ( and for at least the next 10 years this 30 something mom still will be) mom. But I try and I do play with them.

We went out to our local park lately because they have a few paved off the road paths that the boys can play on with out the fear of cars. To our great surprise the borough had but a few skate board stuff at the park now to. TOTALLY AWESOME!! (No my boys do not actually say that it is me channeling Bart Simpson)

What is ironic is, and LOVE my children's Montessori thinking, Gregory had watched a PBS show Fetch and after being inspired by it (it too was a skateboarding one) he wanted to build a skate park here. So he started thinking up a design and how to raise funds for the land and the cost.

And then we go to the park and there are jumps, rails, and ramps. My kids were SO VERY happy!

You might say jumping for joy.

Gregory my main skater thought this was cool.

He was so anxious to try the ramp. He tried it over and over. He ventured it with his brother's scooter too.

But he always reverted to the board.

Smiley thought it would be great to pull his red wagon over.

Determination set in.

Then he lined it up.

He ran to the ramp.

Went for the gold....

But realized a wagon does not quite do the same as a skateboard.

He so much wants to be like his big brothers.

Faith she was content just being cute.

Evan well he tried it on his scooter and could care less.

He is happy just riding his scooter around. And happy on the monkey bars.

As far as me, cool , mom. Well I took Gregory's board and tried it too. I wanted to show him some tricks. Whatever. I showed him (now you) how I can make a foo of myself.

I could do nothing. I am not a skateboarder. Nor do I have good insurance. So I have got a surprise. A treat for my little BIG boys. Since you like skateboarding, and we have ramps a stone throw from the house, and I apparently can't teach you...I have got you lessons. Yes!!!

The big boys are starting skateboarding lessons this Sunday. To learn safety and basic techniques. I have not told them and I can't wait! They are going to love it. And I will stick to what I do best taking pictures of it.

Beer Bread made by my BIG Boys

2011-09-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

For Christmas we bought my husband a supper sized bottle... of mixture for beer bread. Well it sat around, for longer than I want to admit. Obviously this gift was not a hit.

Evan had been asking for a while to make it all summer long. All HOT summer long where I turned on the oven as little as possible. But the other day was cool. So when Daddy went to bed each boy decided to make a meal for him. Evan wanted to make the bread, Gregory wanted to help. Here is our traumatic cooking experience...

(Remember they are only 6 & 8 though)

Absolutely and joyfully Evan gathered the ingredients to make beer bread.

Wait didn't I say BEER Bread? Well we are not beer drinkers. We do not have any beer in the house nor do we ever. I am not opposed to buying it, but I buy it a can at a time for what ever recipe needs it. However this was on Sunday and I don't even know if you can buy beer here on Sunday plus I had all 4 kids and I hate leaving them in the car while I go to the bar. JUST KIDDING!! no need to call me in. :)

But in small print on the back it said for a lighter flavor you can substitute beer for gingerale and we do have that.

The big fake beer bottle came with a bottle opener that has since been lost so I grabbed the can opener. It had a hook on it that look like it was to open bottle caps. The boys were so excited. They wanted to open the bottle. Why not? I did not even guess what was coming ahead.

Evan what is that puzzled look on your face for? You look worried? Why?

Oh I see!! You two are 6 & 8 and have NO idea how to open a beer bottle let alone with a can opener. I would have been worried too.

Acually it was the funniest thing. I never even imagined this would happen. But as Gregory popped the top it blew up and beer bread powder batter went every where. A cloud of flour covered the boys and the kitchen.

They were covered.

They could not have laughed more.

But we recouped and got back to cooking.

Evan poured what was left of the mix into a bowl.

Gregory poured in 12 oz. of gingerale opposed to 12 oz. of beer.

It bubbled up. It looked more like a science experiment that something I want to eat.

The directions said clearly DO NOT over mix. Mix until just moisten and then pour into a greased pan. Well I really never do a greased pan when it comes to baking. I always line it with brown sugar. I don't know why, but it make it better. I don't know who thought me that but that you.

I poured the barely mixed just moistened batter into the pan. I did spread it out and it looked... Lumpy.

I sure hope this taste better than it looks.

pop it in the oven at 450 for 20 minutes or until done.

And at the end you know it was not bad with a touch of melted butter and help of the best big boys!

Back out boarding

2011-09-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

After a week of what seemed to be endless rain we are thankful the sun is shining and the boys can get back out to skateboarding.

The rains came down and the floods came up

2011-09-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

To say we have got a little rain the past week is an understatement. We are flooded. We are stuck inside. I have been stuck in side with little kids all day, all night for over a week. Schools and business in the area have been closing. Everyday the emergency broadcast goes across PBS. And on the other channels the ticker is always giving us some sort of natural disaster watch. Our phones and computer are going off constantly with the same forecast more rain and flooding. I went to the grocery store today and waited through water in my flip flops and capris, I knew what I was in for, to get inside. But the time I did get inside I was soaked and I did not park to far out. The sky is a constant gray full of storm clouds. We have had enough. I want the sun back. The kids have still been going out in there slickers and wellies, they do just fine. They come back in dirty and wet ready for a bath and bed.

Harrisburg our capital has undergone some serious flooding. Today I had to call and cancel my sons doctors appointment because you can't get there. The hospital is of course open by for me to take one child in there the whole family might end up in there. The roads are flooded. The bridges are washed out.

Now if you are from here you will know this is not actually Harrisburg but close by and looks just as the roads do there. It is Wilkes-Bare.

But I did not have to go to Harrisburg I had to go to Hershey. Yes chocolate capital. Home of the Hershey kisses. Home of a devastating reality. We go to Hershey all the time, monthly. My kids are always being seen up there. Smiley has regular appointments. We have been going for years since there just 4 of us.

And still when we have four kids.

It usally is a nice experience. And after our apointment we visit Hershey park and choclate world. But Hershey park has hit some really hard time because of the flooding.

The rides are closed.

You can not even enter without a canoe. Here is the entrence now.

Here is it before.

Everything at the park is under water.

It rose so fast the animals were not all able to be saved.

Two buffalo at Zoo America had to be euthanized when the flash flooding came. The official statement from ZooAmerica said "while we were able to ensure the safety of the vast majority of the animals in the Zoo, flood waters rose too quickly in the area occupied by two of the Zoo's bison and we were not able to rescue them."

We love going there. Here we are standing by the shops. I rescheduled for the end of the month. Lets hope the rain stops by then.

Disclaimer: No I am not pregnant AGAIN. It is an old photo. All of the photos on this post that do not have my family in them are not mine but from Hershey's facebook and the local news reports.

This rain has gone on for so long. It starts, it stops, it pours. It luckily has not affected our house. A few years back in another time of flooding our basement suffered 3 feet of water. it was scary. You just don't know what a helpless feeling it is to watch water rise around you and you can't do anything.

Our fire department came then and pumped us out. And we do not live in a flood zone.

This is our Statue of Liberty.

She sets high in the Susquehanna River. You always see her as you drive into Harrisburg. She is still standing but I think we need to get her a bathing suit!

It is supposed to stop. We need it to stop.

Until then we will keep on paddling.

The red wagon

2011-09-04T04:39:00.000-07:00

I love my little boy and his red wagon.

Soul Surfer

2011-09-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

What a great movie! We all liked it. We sat glued hearing the inspirational story. It was very family friendly and nothing inappropriate. All the kids cuddled on the couch with me to watch it. It effected my oldest son the most. Ever since we came back from Massanutten in June Gregory has loved surfing. He wants to try out for Americas Got Talent under surfing. He really connected to this movie.

I have nothing bad to say about Soul Surfer. It was refreshing to watch a good movies and one that is set in Hawaii even better.

the grill is fixed

2011-09-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

When our grill broke I started grill dreaming. Yes of a new one...

From September 2, 2011

Beautiful, stainless, clean, meets most our needs, why not?

And if I had such a nice grill why not an outdoor kitchen? We cook outside year round. Under feet of snow in the 100 degree weather, rain storms, when you want great food there is no stopping you.

From September 2, 2011

But in my dream reality reared its head again. I CAN'T AFFORD ANY OF THAT. I sometimes hate reality.

Jay looked at buying a replace part. And that was more in our budget. But feeling a little crushed, disappointed and broke, he said he would build me a custom grill. And custom it was!

From September 2, 2011

He read many forums about this grill and it seem our problem was not that uncommon. Most people did just buy the replacement part but he found one site that said how to make a replacement out of real estate signs. And guess what? I have them, in my basement. I used to be a Realtor, before the market crashed.

So he grapped one a started making me a custom grill. He took the sign off and traced it to the old rusted broken piece.

From September 2, 2011

While he was looking for the snips Smiley thought it would be fun to drive over.

From September 2, 2011

Faith look I will take the big red car and get in the way just watch me.

From September 2, 2011

You did it AGAIN big brother. I bet they are impressed.

From September 2, 2011

Now that he found them he cut the sign to size.

Let's just slide it into place....

From September 2, 2011

Vola!! A one of a kind.

From September 2, 2011

Almost perfect but what about a grease trap?

Don't worry dear I got that too. What was it you ate for lunch? Let me get the garbage. ????

Really?

Huh, now there is a grease trap and a working grill.

I am happy and the babies... well they got moved. And despite there enthusiastic looks are happy too.

September 2, 2011

sweet friendship

2011-08-31T03:47:00.000-07:00

I hope they understand how blessed they are.

Taken

2011-08-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

Yes another movie review. Yes another Liam Neeson movie. This one was better. It is an older movie from 2008 but it was new to us. It is an action packed testosterone fast paced movie. Basically it is about a divorced dad who was once a CIA agent now retired and not really doing to much. But he has a teenage daughter who he reluctantly let go to Paris to follow U2 on a concert tour. {SPOILER} Once she arrives there she is taken and thrown into the sex slave world. But she calls him as this is happening and he goes after the kidnappers with a vengeance until he retrieves her, basically unharmed.

As I said in my last Liam Neeson review he is just old. In this movies he takes on tons of in shape younger body guards. Some scenes 7 at a time. So it is very unbelievable you can't even pretend. My husband was calling him kick ass grandpa, which pretty much sums it up. He did successfully always win against however many.

However my husband who is also OLD said if it were Faith he would come after them whoever and where ever too. So chasing after your daughter to protect her has no age restraint. Awe thanks honey, but remember I am younger and faster I will get to her to just a bit quicker. But l pray nothing like that will ever happen. No one is getting my daughter she sleeps with me every night.

Again it is the same movie you have seen before but apparently most movies are. It was okay though. I like it better than Unknown and I stayed awake. I guess worth the watch but never with children or teens.

Another Monday

2011-08-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

Thankfully an uneventful weekend. We got some rain from Irene but that was it. A nice soaking rain that watered the plants and grass. And afterwards we were left with a beautifully cool day and nice breeze. Let hurricanes like that come through more often.

Today is the big kids second week of school. Things are getting back to normal. We are getting used to our school year routine sorta many things have not started back up yet. So really it is a nice transition.

With the big boys gone the house is substantially quieter. I still don't have a lot of time to get things done with the babies being at home. Someone is always wanting to be held, feed or in need of a change.

It is impossible to hold them all the time. Things still need taken care of and no one but other moms realize how much that is. Faith, princess Faith, of course is still completely dependent on us for everything and loves/needs to be held all the time. But sometimes I have to put her down. I bring her with me in the kitchen and place her tiny self in the high chair.

At first she is okay with it. If you coo at her and give her toys or food.

Then when she quickly has had enough of toys her frustration sets in. I want to be held! Pick me up!

And with a little fussing I cave in.

I miss her brothers being home they would help. Although they are to young to hold her and pick her up they would come by and tickle her or anything to make her laugh. It was nice.

I am not the only one who misses the big boys.

He waits for them and is so happy when they get back home. Oh does he love them and so much want to be just like them. Sweet smiley in one of each of there shoes. You are so much like them.

A little nap

2011-08-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Getting a little rest. She sleeps with me at night then take a nap with Daddy during the day. I think it is funny how she seems to always mimic what he is doing while both are sound asleep.

Red Beans and Rice

2011-08-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

Easy ingredients I bet you have all of them all ready.

3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

12 oz. sausage, I used hot Italian

1 onion chopped

4 celery stalks, you can use less but I love celery

1 bay leaf, but I used 3 small broken ones same difference

1 tsp. dried thyme

? cayenne, to your taste

salt and pepper

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

2 can kidney beans, rinsed

4 jalapenos

1 cup chicken stock

2 cups rice cooked

Cook the bacon set aside and drain. After cooled dice. Let rest.

In a dutch oven, heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage, onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme and cayenne; season with the salt and pepper. Add the chopped and seeded jalapenos that you are growing in your own garden.

Cook string occasionally, until the onion is golden brown, 12 minutes.

Stir in garlic and bacon and cook for another minute.

Drain and rinse the 2 can of kidney beans.

Using a fork, mash a quarter of the beans.

Add the beans and stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, stiring occasionally, until thickened about 20 minutes. Then dicard the bay leaf.

While simmiring cook the rice.

Yumm once it is all done. Place the rice in a bowl and top with the red beans and sausage mix.

Top with any topping you like I used green onions and a bit of hot sauce. Delicious.

First Day of School 2011

2011-08-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

Today wraps up our first week of school and it was only there second day back. I don't really understand starting on a Thursday but they were so excited what ever day it started couldn't come early enough.

They returned back to Montessori school this year and hopefully every year after. Montessori does the grades differently and this year both of them are in lower elementary. It is Gregory's 2nd year in it and Evan's first. Lower elementary consist of grades 1-3. All grades are in the same class which is limited to less than 10 kids per teacher and each class has 2 teacher. Luckily there school has 2 lower elementary classes so they do NOT have to be in the same class. That would have been a challenge for the teachers, distracting to everyone and to competitive for them. When they are older they will be together but now they need separation.

They were waiting for the van from 7am. Not to mention it was thundering, pouring rain or the fact the van does not come till a quarter after 8.

But it did come and the house was quiter. They were gone a lot through the summer but somehow this is different. It is not gone for a week it is gone for another school year. We all missed them and they missed there....sister.

I thought I would get so much done but no. I paced around for a while, pushed the kids on the swing set and eventually made red beans and rice.

And before you knew it they were back home. Yea!!! They had a great time and were so happy to see there teachers and friends. Evan joyfully today upon coming home told me his favorite thing today was he made a lot of friends. What great words to hear especially since they stay in the same class with the same teachers for 3 years.

So here is to another school year and my two studious boys. Let it be great!

laying together in love

2011-08-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes they scream, fight and throw things at each other but sometimes, most times they lay, laugh, and love each other. I am so blessed to have 4 wonderful babies.

Unknown

2011-08-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ready for another movie review? Well anyways here it is. Yes I know we have been watching A LOT of movies lately and that really is not us but with school starting this week we have been spending more time at home winding down and relaxing and trying not to go, go ,go. Movies at night are a perfect way to do that.

This time we watched Unknown. Well this movie was unknown to me I had never heard of it Jay saw it on the ipad of someone sitting next to him on a plane. So he got to watch it silently and was interested enough to get it for us. If he wanted to watch it that much I would be happy to check it out.

It was a fast action secret agent movie. It stared Liam Neeson, who is best know around our house for his appearance on Sesame Street.

He fit in this movie and did a good job but it seems like a Matt Damon movie. And he would have been more fun to watch. Maybe I would not have fell asleep then. Yes I did, it could not keep me awake. It just is the same secret agent got involved in something he shouldn't and now they are out to eliminate him before he tells. And surprise yes he never dies. He escapes with a beautiful young woman and now they/she will have a good life.

There were lots of explosions, car chases, bad guys with guns, planes and of course set internationally in the middle of a big city. There were a few surprises and twists.

Overall I would not watch it again. It was fine for the first time, okay but not great.

Let's go noodling

2011-08-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

Do you know what noodling is? It has become a common word around our house. But until 3 weeks ago I had no idea what it was either.

So what is it?

Noodling is the dumbest way to fish I have ever seen. You stick your arm it to a muddy water hole where you can't see what you are doing and hope a large catfish bites it. You pull it out presumably with a catfish on it.

Not my photo I got it off bing images. I am not dumb enough to do this.

So why has it become a common word around our home? Well Animal Planet has a new show called Hillbilly Handfishing and it is just about noodling. I watched it one night with my boys and was amazed. It was about a family in the south that runs a noodling adventure company for tourist. They take mostly city slickers who would never be exposed to this weirdness and take them for a week of noodling. For as dumb as I think the Southerners are for doing this to begin with ironically it is mostly New Yorkers and other big city residents that are they ones on these adventures. The southerners seem to be the smart ones in this case not doing it and a few even smarter ones making a good deal of money letting the city slickers do it.

I started teasing my scared children with the threat of noodling.

me: "look if you don't stop this I will take you noodling!!!!"

boy: "nooooo, no, no: (In a scared voice quivering because they have the fear I might)

But gotta love on demand it is on there and my kids started watching it over and over. And they lost there fear. (plus realizing noodling is completely mine. There is NO WAY, NOPE, NEVER you would get me noodling) So now my empty threats go a bit differently.

me: "Am I gonna have to take you noodling?!"

boy: "bring it on mom"

The Source Code

2011-08-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

The other night we curled up on the couch to watch the source code. It was new, sounded exciting, action, and got good reviews. We continually heard the commercials for it so thought it was worth a try and... it was.

It was about a good looking guy who has to save the world. And he keeps reliving the same event until he gets it right. Much like groundhog day but with a modern matrix addition except Jake Gyllenhaal is by far hotter than Bill Murry. He falls for a victim in the circumstance that he is trying to save the world from. And his controller (the matrix part) falls for him.

It was not too bad for children, two of mine watched it with us. My little boy who was 2 watched because he would not go to bed. The whole movie took place on a train and that kept his attention. Of course he can't understand the movie he just like seeing the train and watching it blow up over, and over, and over (like I said Groundhog Day). My 6 year old came into it sleepy and was barley awake so really neither saw or understood anything. But it is not a movie containing and sex a kiss or two, bad language was to a minimum, I don't really remember any, but there sorta was a lot of violence the train blew up over and over killing everyone but you did not see dead people just the explosion. There were also a few fights and a few gun shot victims. But it is not meant for kids I would not recommend it for them but I also would not shew them out of he room immediately.

Overall it was okay. It was not that great but it was not bad. The main character was cute his love was very pretty and had awesome hair I wish fell naturally upon my head. It was such a copy of Groundhog Day that was disappointing, but it was modern and if you have never seen either I would recommend it.

the grill broke

2011-08-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

While you were gone:

The grill broke.

The bottom just fell off!

You can see right through to the bottom.

This can't be safe?

It is probably because no one ever cleaned it.

Nope I don't think even once.

Left out in the elements it rusted right through. We live in rough weather.

And no one mowed the lawn! It is close to a foot. If you look here we lost a soccer ball to the yard.

If you look at the first picture we are about to loose the grill to it too.

A picture from the past but shouldn't be

2011-08-18T08:06:00.001-07:00

Wow nothing can get you motivated to lose some weight and change your looks like seeing an old photo. Jay is now back from Washington and he brought with him a few old photos he found around his dads house. Old photos from when we still lived in Washington old photos that are 10 years old. Before babies, before 4 babies, and a decade of real life.

I look at them and remember the times. I remember how crazy googliey eyed we were for each other. I remembered how hot we were.

We both were a couple of sizes smaller and our best accessories was the smile on our faces. We were so in love. The world was carefree. We were kidless running around focusing on us.

However, fast forward 10 years. We don't quite look like that anymore. Both of us have put on weight. Both of us are really good cooks though and enjoyed those meals. My weight has gone from around 100 pounds in those photos to almost 200 pounds just before I delivered. We look a little more worn. Years of stress, bills, extended family worries, our family, children have added a wrinkle or two. Nothing Photoshop can't fix :) But those pictures are not our life anymore. I miss that life.

But now life is

Me takeing care of kids, a house, and a husband. My days are pushing kids on the swings in our toy filled back yard.

No longer in designer clothes but STILL!!!! maternity pants and just a t shirt and it most likely will have spit up on it. Hair pulled up so baby wont get it. Not wearing jewelry because realistically what I touch throughout the days is gross. I don't want it to get ruined or fall out of its post. And like I said weighing close to 40 pounds more.

Being a mom has changed me. And I love it. I love these kids. But I do believe there needs to be a bit more balance.

Tyson's Grilled Chicken Strips

2011-08-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago in my oddly obsive coupon collecting and clipping I cut out one for Tyson's grilled and ready chicken breast strips. Stuff like this I normally don't buy. It is usually expensive. I buy chicken breast in bulk all the time so it is no harder to grill it when I need it and it is cheaper. But I cut it because you never know. Sure enough I went to the grocery store to get the makings for a ceaser salad and there in the bagged salad section were these chicken strips. They weren't frozen, like I thought they would be. They were on sale too, buy one get one free. They are normally just under $5 a bag!!!! But with the coupon and the bogo sale it made each bad I got around $1.50. Which is still a lot for how little it is. These bags contain 8 ounces of chicken. At worst I never pay $5 for half a pound of chicken breast. Usually on sale I get chicken breast around $2 a pound.

I took it home opened the package to make into a chicken ceasar salad. Upon opening it I was disappointed and confused. The chicken breast was a little slimey and seasoned. Not spoiled slimy just preservatives, I hope. And the seasoning was not much but it was not the flavor I wanted and it did not say this on the package. However I still put it on my salad. The chicken wasn't great but it wasn't bad. Not right for a ceasar salad. I still have another bag I through in the freezer I think I will try it with quesadillas.

But for my overall on this product... thumbs down. It is expensive, small, and has a slight different flavor. But easy yes.

Packing Children

2011-08-15T05:33:00.000-07:00

oh my oh my what a crazy month, and it is not over. Ever since we got the news of Jays father passing it has been hard on all of us. It has caused many different problems to everyone in all different ways. Obviously Jay the deepest.

After a few days of staying in bed/working/bed/working he decided he did want to go out to Washington. I went out to the shed to get him some suitcases. Not an easy feat. I need to add cleaning that to my to do list. (wait it HAS been on there for months now) Whew you would think getting a suitcase would be easy but this month nothing has been easy. However I did get it down, crashingly.

I brought the suitcase inside a it sat by his desk for a few days. Everyday I reminded him you need to pack you are leaving soon. But he never did.

He was leaving the next day and the suitcase was still sitting there unpacked and my sweet kids decided they would pack it with what they thought Daddy should bring.

She is crying because there is NO way she wants to leave her mama. We don't even entertain that idea. We will deal with those issues sometime but for now she is my beautiful arm jewelry.

Then Smiley started packing his most prize possessions.

If his guitar is going then he has to as well.

Of course Gregory does not want to be left out. But he just wants to fly on a plane. In my life I have had many plane rides and they are rarely comfortable. I couldn't even imagine the discomfort of luggage travel.

Their dad has been gone over a week and we miss him. It is really not that long but when things aren't right it feels like forever. We have filled the time with fun and family but there have been many meltdowns. It won't be long now till we can unpack the suitcase and all be together again. (no the kids did not stay packed)

Swinging with a sister

2011-08-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

What is one of the best things about childhood? Swinging. Oh the joy, the movement, the air.

Smiley could swing for hours. He pulls my finger to come outside and push him everyday. But as good as it is to swing he has found a new swinging partner that make it even better.

She might look a little frightened in the photos but she does love. If it is slow and steady.

It can quite her down when she is upset. She love to be included. I am amazed at 4 months she all ready wants to be like her big brothers.

And why not? I am quite fond of them too.

kiss for my son

2011-08-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

I just love Gregory he is the greatest. What a cool dude to hang out with. I am GLAD he is my son.

It is 2 am why are you calling?

2011-08-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

When you get a phone call at 2 in the morning you don't know what to expect. You look around and all your family is here safe sleeping, thank God. You look at the caller id and see it is from across the country so maybe 2 am is not such a big deal it is only 11 there time. Late but possible they forgot the time difference. You joyfully answer because the number belongs to your brother but then he says it is the 2 am phone call you did not want to get.

It is my husbands brother calling. Calling about their dad. He said Dad was in the hospital again another possible stroke. He will let us know more. They are running tests. Test because no one knew what happened. He is an older man who lived alone, isolated with none of his 7 grown children near by. He was found unconscious on the floor by a worried friend and sheriff to let him in. Although unconscious he was alive and rushed to the hospital. By household signs, phone calls and pet excrement it was determined he had been there 3 days.

Three days two worlds apart is how our story plays out. Living on two separate coasts Jay and his father had little contact. We had not seen him in over 10 years. He has never meet any of the grandkids. He had back problems which made it so he could not fly. We have a family of 6 which makes it unaffordable to fly. Jay called him ever so often. We would receive 1 card a year at Christmas. There was no bad blood just distance. Being so far from the grandkids and never having meet them there was a disconnect.

That is why on Friday we were shocked when a little white package came in the mail from him. He had not mentioned sending anything, although I can't remember the last time Jay talked to him. And we certainly were not expecting anything.

I handed it over to Jay having no idea what it was or why it was sent until he opened it. Inside were placed two things... A bunny for Faith and a note. It was a present for her. I don't believe he sent any of the boys something, maybe a card with the oldest but 8 years ago is foggy. He sent something for our joy. He was happy for us sharing in our overwhelming love. He sent her a little bunny.

There was also a note in the box. A note I did not even know about till today. Jay saw it and read it but left it in there.

The not read "Here is a cutie for your new cutie. Tell her it is from her old Grandpa in Washington. Dad"

The box laid on the floor for days. No one picked it up no one moved it. It laid where we left it until today. Everyday I saw it, everyday I though about picking it up but everyday I let it lay.

After receiving the gift we tried to call his dad to say thank you. But there was no answer there usually is not. We tried for a few more days. The ironic thing was just as the box laid there on the floor of our house 3000 miles away the sender laid there on the floor of his.

After a pretty sleepless night I woke up early with the kids. The place was a mess as Jay went to bed around 4. The phone rang and I could not find it in the mess. The answering machine picked up and I could hear the caller it again was his brother. As the message started I listened and frantically looked. I screamed at the kids to move and help me find it as the message continued and tears were forming in my eyes. He hung up and I still did not find the phone. Soon after I found it and I called his brother right back but no answer. I could not reach him which meant he could not tell his brother the message I had to. I had to tell my husband that his father who he has not seen in years nor could we get to in anything less than a full day and a miracle had only hours left to live.

I broke down. I did not want to tell him this. No one should have to tell some one this. How would he handle it? What do I do? How do I help him? I left the message on the phone. The same and only message still sits there hours later.

It has been a hard day. I have cried and Jay has been texting his family. Sadness holds overhead like a fog that just won't lift. Jay says he just feels numb.

I believe that laying here, wollowing here waiting on the news of the death is harder than it would have been to get the conformation call in the first place. Knowing your father is dying slowly but in the same time quickness of a few hours is excruciating. 12 hours now is our few hours. We are still waiting for the impending news.

All thing are possible with God and if you are thinking that may be the case here it is not. His dad suffered another stroke and is paralyzed in all but his left arm. He can no longer speak, or see but hear. However his ability to recognize the voice is questionable. He has not had oxygen to most of his brain in over 72 hours.

In our sorrow Jay picked up the box. The date on it was sent let us know that this was probably the last thing he did. He was thinking about us, thinking about our princess. Our gift out of nowhere was sent before he could do no more. Jay believes he knew and did this because. Maybe. Why out of the blue did he send us a package? A baby gift for our 4 month old. Well she loves the little bunny. Even if you never heard us tell you in person, even though we never will be able to , Thank You.

I take pictures tons of pictures. But I only knew of one I have of him. I scoured the house trying to find it looking where it should be. It wasn't there. I kept looking and I did find it. Besides our bed. Under the bibles.

There again on the floor laid my picture book containing the one photo I have of Jay and his dad.

This reminds me and sticks to my heart 1 Thessalonians 5:18
"give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

I am not thankful he is gone. I am not thankful we never got to see him after we drove away. I am not thankful that he will never meet the children nor they to meet him. I am not thankful my husband no longer has a father on earth. But I am thankful it is not one of my children laying there.

His father had a long life. His dad was brought joy everyday by his dogs. He finally built his dream home and got to spend a few years there.

The life that is being took is a seasoned life. The life's left are those of babies with the future in front of them. I have seen so many sick kids near death I am so very thankful for the health of mine. May they continue to grow and live strong happy lives as there grandpa in Washington would have wanted. And my he pass peaceful to a better place where the is no longer pain and suffering.

Sleeping Beauty

2011-07-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

So sweet, she is. As dear as it gets, so I thought. Until on day when she fell asleep with her blanket, bunny, and binki. I love babies, I love my princess.

Faith is 4 months old

2011-07-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

Last Friday our princess turned 4 months old. Our beautiful, wonderful, priceless GIRL, that we all love more than anything. She is the best.

She coos, she wiggles, she makes funny faces, she bats at toys, she rolls over. She loves to be held, she is a cuddle bug.

Faith we ALL LOVE you!

putting her in sunglasses again

2011-07-25T13:51:00.002-07:00

Because his younger brother tries everyday to teach her to play basket ball.

And everyday she is still more interested in eating it then playing with it.

Because a few week ago his older brother put sunglasses on her he has to as well.

Man we have got a lot of sunglasses. My kids are great about not loseing them.

Because he loves her just as much as anyone else.

Tuckered out

2011-07-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

For two weeks now the children and I have been on go, go, go. For the last two weeks the boys have gone to camp all day 8:30 to 4 to come home for an early dinner only to be gone around 6 to Vacation Bible School. It is hardest on the boys as they play heavily at camp all day. And manage to have plenty of energy to jump dance and sing through VBS. This week I am leading the 6th graders again at VBS so I get to stay there jump, dance and sing also. My kids are amazing. They are a bit hard to wake in the morning but they have more energy than a red bull and monster combined. They make it home they managed to stay up til 11PM!!!! on Tuesday watching Americas got talent. Each night I make it to the couch.

Each night he is home Jay snaps a picture of me sleeping on it. He is also a trooper working a 15 hour shift last night, over night and just after finishing over a week with out a day off doing these overnight shifts. I could have took a picture of him falling asleep while climbing the stairs this morning but that would have just been mean. It was funny though.

Today it is hot heat index is 120. I was going to garden after I dropped my little angles off at 7:30 this morning thinking it would be cool then but it was all ready in the 90's. Whew! My oldest said to me "mom, people complain they want it hot when it is cold and when it is hot they say it is too hot. I don't get it?" Wisdom form my young son.

Only two more days and our busy, busy, busy two weeks will be done. Then for the first time this summer we have a break. We have little scheduled and lots of time to play.

The Huse Clifton Kids

2011-07-20T05:22:00.000-07:00

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my little ones. Even if it took hours and over 250 shots to get one where they all are looking. Not quite smiling but at least looking.

When I grow up

2011-07-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

I want to be just like this old lady!!!

Maybe I won't even wait that long.

I hope you have a great Saturday laugh.

Racing Around

2011-07-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

One week before we went Gregory started measuring. Checking everyday to see if he is tall enough hopeing he would grow. He badly wanted to be tall enough to drive the go-carts all by himself. He did not make the cut this year. His disapointment would have lasted longer if it wern't for the fact he got to be fastly chauffered around the track by his dad.

We zoomed around our whole goal was to beat each other. I won many times over.

We got aggressive running the carts into each other. Cutting each person off at the bends. Often makeing each other spin out and the race would have to stop. At point Evan said mom I don't want to ride with you any more. Baby if your not first your last.

Gregory has spent time since trying to grow. Plotting his driving stratiges. Coaxing his brother into ridding with him so they can beat their dad, uncle and try to beat me.

When we wern't causing each other and our children whiplash we took to some calmer activites.

Like golf.

Little ones on the links. Iwas surprissed the clubs did not turn to sworads at somepoint.

It wasn't a game of who would win because they all cheat.

I only got to hit one hole since Smiley stole my club as soon as I got it. It's okay I could not putt that day at all.

They were the only two who did not play. They stayed in the shade. It was a hot day but perfect for playing in the water.

We put on our suits and ran through sprinkler, splashed in the pool, and went down some pretty steep slides.

See the slide behind my brother that big red one. It was long, it was steep, it was fast. The funny part was it spit kids out at the end like little rock skipping across the water it was too funny.

It is a lot of fun to play with your kids. But did they wear us out. Within a half an hour into the trip home the 5 of us were sound asleep.

Pirates and Zombies

2011-07-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

Does that sound like the perfect combination to you? How about for an off off Broadway play? How about if you are 8, 6, and 2 and all boy. Ahh its starting to sound perfect now huh. Well so thought the people at a local playhouse near us. I knew the big boys would like it I thought the babies would be a handful. Who takes a three month old and a just turned 2 year old to live theater? Today I did and guess what they had a great time. And were good!

Yes that is right my Smiley sat through it laughing and clapping. All the kids made noise but the play was done at an early time inviting children so they did not have to be quite. The cheered, they said arugh. They were captivated. We all enjoyed it.

Since they sat so well I thought a nice treat would be to take them to a candy store called Mr. Ed's. It is a weird place. Elephant themed and quite small but has nice gardens. Elephant themed gardens.

Magic Forests

Which was a perfect place to relax this beautiful day.

Ahh I just love my sweet kiddos! Even more when they are good ;)

Hershey's Milk Chocolate

2011-07-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Where do you live? I live less than an hour form Hershey, PA. We are lucky. They have a top notch childrens hospital, with great doctors. Which was why we were there this day. Smiley had a check up that went very well. Since we were all ready up there we decided to stop by Choclateworld! You can't go to the home of chocolate and not go to Chocolateworld.

Yes I took all four to Hershey by myself with out a stroller. They are not permitted there. It was tough. Actually it is not the number of kids that is tough to manage it is one in particular, lets just say he is the one that fits the terrible two description. The one I could not leave with a sitter. So with that we move on and have a good time.

We rode the the ride watching chocolate get made they loved it. In fact Faith loved it too. She was crying and fussy and some points but stick her in front of those dancing cows and she was happy. But what made the other 3 the happiest was getting to be factory workers themselves and making some Hershey kisses.

They each got there box shaped like a kiss and took it to there station.

And pushed buttons to fill there box.

Evan made sure he filled it as full as you can get.

After you fill the boxes up you give them a big shake.

And a little dance.

And then you take the chocolate kisses away form the earlier said 2 year old (you can only imagine the throw down tantrum) so mom can over pay for chocolate times 3.

Baby looks like Bono

2011-07-06T05:08:00.000-07:00

I asked her biggest brother to watch her for one second...

looks like they had fun.

Fun and Games on the Fourth

2011-07-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. It is my 2nd favorite, Christmas is in the lead. Where as Christmas is the birth of our Savior the 4th is the birth my my son. My crazy kid!

It has always been a long and fun weekend full of celebration. Every year we go to the town jubilee. It is always a good time with my firecrackers.

Don't you love making family members stick there heads in these photo opps? Yay I have 4 now they fill up all the holes! I love how Faith grew a mustache and Gregory is a girl. I can tease him about that for weeks;)

It was Faith's first fourth, she is excited. Can't you tell?

It was so hot. And the humidity added to it. We played and had a great time even though.

Last year the boys very much wanted to climb the rock wall but in our opinion just were not ready yet. What a difference a year makes. They were ready. They were strong enough and they climbed away. What little spidermen we have. Honestly I am more happy because they like doing something I like to do too. I love that Gregory is so fast and loves to run and now they love to climb. I see us pursuing this.

Everyday I ask the children what is there favorite part of the day, I always love the answers. Sometimes they surprise me and most always they make me smile. From my birthday boy he said wearing the shirts we made as a family. Awww. I asked if he wanted to wear them aging and he said "yay next year but lets make new ones."

On his actual birthday Saturday, we made these shirts getting ready for the fourth. I think they turned out great. It was a little more stressful than fun but how happy they were to have made them and wear them made it all worth it. Even if four days later I still have blue fingers.

Happy Birthday, happy days!

Sometimes it is fun

2011-07-04T06:06:00.000-07:00

People who say fishing is relaxing, it easy to grab your gear and jet off to the lake, well have never fished with my clan. And the ones who have usually don't again. But despite all the many loads of gear, the frustration of watching 2 babies around water and hooks, and the loud boredom of the bigger boys, we go anyways.

We went for fathers day.

The boys had bought him some new gear for the occasion and as it was the first time we went out this season everyone was very excited.

We took the truck, we had to drive off road to our not so secret spot. We filled the bed with half our house. That the babies require that dad had to bring down.

So of the goodies were delicious food I made and he threw on the grill. We did not catch any fish but our belly's were full.

We fished on land.

We fished on the lake.

We fished all day, all fathers day. It was a nice one out with the family.

Red Neck Taxi

2011-06-29T06:16:00.000-07:00

This was just too funny, too redneck. We were up at the lake and heard a loud engine. Then up the street came a tractor pulling a flatbed caring on it 2 canoes, a cooler, 2 lawn chair just sitting on this flatbed with 2 (I'm guessing) intoxicated rednecks in them. The biggest smile of disbelief and laughter came across Jay and my face.

They pulled right in front of us. The driver looking all the part of a goofy redneck frat boy in his sun hat. He got in position to parallel pack the "taxi".

And then he did. This can't be the first time they have done this.

But it might be the last.

lazy days of summer

2011-06-27T12:40:00.001-07:00

Who ever thought summer would be so busy? One month in we have yet to have a day that does not have some sort of scheduled event. I wanted a laid back, fun in the sun, time with the kids, summer. It has not been quite that.

We started off June with a vacation, a trip back down to Massanutten.

This was the slowest time of summer yet. We played at the park.

We saw deer everywhere. They were so hard not to hit with the car, truly over populated. Instead we shot them.

With the camera.

Took hot deep bubble baths.

Since we have no sand why not bury us in bubbles?

The boys built a fort.

And played in the creek.

Mema held Faith

Faith played with her octapuss.

We celebrated Smileys second birthday.

Gregory played on his gameboy even though I told him to stop and smile.

Ugh I wish I was back to relax.

The shell necklace

2011-06-23T12:56:00.001-07:00

During the first week of June I was the luck winner of a sorta shell necklace from Amy over at nine-ninety-onehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif she is a great blogger that keeps up almost daily (much better than me). I love to enter easy contest. If you are giving something away...give it away don't make me register at many different sites, add them to my facebook friends, or tweet about it, I don't enter those ones. Amy was offering this necklace set to her readers so I thought yay it is so pretty I will try and...I won!

Perfect for beach attire.

I wish I lived at the beach! Anyone giving away a beach house?

And good for all around.

Thank you Amy!!!! It was so nice of you. It made my day and is so perfectly fun for summer.

Project 365 week 23

2011-06-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

week 23 was luckily not very exciting. Sometimes we need the normal. But normal never means not overly busy.

June 12
This has to be my favorite picture of the week, month.

June 13
The big boys started day camp.

June 14
during our grocery store trip Smiley was ridding in the front of the car cart. At one point I noticed he had his shoes off, a bit later I pushed the cart over his socks and then put them back on him. However they came off again and by the time we were done at the car we were left with one sock. At least we still have two shoes.

June 15
Chopping wood for a summer fire.

June 16
They help me out a lot by holding her, feeding her and making her laugh. They make it easier unless they are hungry too.

June 17
A glass building from a walk around town.

June 18
The building reflected in my glasses and eyes.

June 19
Getting ready for an evening of fishing.

smushed in a chair

2011-06-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

My kids are always squeezing into the same seat or fighting over who sits where. So is it a picture of brotherly love or what there stupid arguments are about.

Memorial Day

2011-06-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

The unofficial start of summer for most people. I am ready for summer. It was not quite the start of summer for us as the boys had a few more days left of school but it was still a day for a parade, a picnic and playtime.

We started off the morning with the customary town parade. But we were in it again. Yay that makes parades so much more fun. The older boys and I were in a Thanksgiving parade a few years back for AWANAS and this time the boys were in the parade for baseball. It was the first time the babies were in the parade. The rode in the stroller, I pushed, the big boys walked and it was almost 100 at 9 in the morning. We were hot!

Enough heat we took off afterwards down to my parents to play and eat.

I sat up on the porch and watched as the boys played in the water and with sparklers. Even though it was still day light.

Pepa would light them and they boys would go wild.

As always they loved playing in the water. They loved playing in the woods.

Smiley he just loves. I love to play with him.

And I get to more when I have extra hands around. They love Faith, we all do, but they spoil her and hold her constantly.

I am so glad for there help and love. There is so much I could not do with out them.

The outfits Smiley and my mom are wearing she made. She made Smiley's for Gregory when he was one I held it back and his little brother who wants to be just like him and now he wears it. Faith's outfit is yes lined it blue. It was a gift for Smiley from a great friend but was the wrong size at the wrong time for him. So I held it back never believing I would have a girl. And well it was hot and this was cool so I put on her with a big blue bow and tada she wore here patriotic stars.

Water and sparklers are fun but ask the big kids what is the best thing about their grandparents house... well pepa lets them shoot real guns.

They are actually getting really good and my anxiety is going down. How far I have come from the original first few years of NO GUNS!!! Not even toy guns. I gave up boy will be boys lets teach them to use them right and safe.

It seems so long ago now but it was a nice day. Now we are very much looking forward to the next holiday and birthday the 4th of July!

Project 365 weeks 21 and 22

2011-06-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

The last 2 weeks have been full. Full of everything from a holiday, another birthday, a kindergarten graduation, a BIG picnic, a school show, vacation,end of school year, end of soccer, surfing, 100+ degree days, I will probably remember more as I try to catch up on my project 365 2 weeks worth.

May 28
Jay picked up some old newspapers at auction today.

May 29
He also picked up this clock which I don't like. But the funny things is I look at it and think I can hide the elf on there at Christmas.

May 30
Memorial Day. All the kids and I were in a parade this very hot morning. The boys walked in there baseball outfits, the babies rode in a stroller and you guessed it I pushed.

May 31
Local vegetables are in abundance.

June 1
No sleep for me this day I was busy getting ready for a picnic I was throwing for oh just the entire school including their families. Over 500 people.

June 2
So many events today but the one that I cry over is my baby, my kindergartener, he is now in lower elementary.

June 3
Last day of school and field day for the boys. They loved it. What a great year what a great school. I am proud of you both. This picture was took by another mother in Gregory's class.

June 4
Gregory scored back to back goals he was very happy.

June 5
Brothers, best friends and fight mates

June 6
Gregory rode the ride that scared him in November. No more fears.

June 7
Evan got to be in a magic show!! I can't tell you how much they LOVE magic shows. Why is it in night vision? Because he is sitting with me as I edit these pictures and this is exactly the way he wants it font, filter, everything.

June 8
I thought I would spend my entire time with this beauty but I actually spent it with my boys. It was wonderful and much needed. And for my princess she pretty much spent it in her Grandpa's arms.

June 9
Smiley turned 2!!

June 10
Even our princess took her first dip in the pool.

June 11
It is the last game of the soccer season a makeup game. Yay! Monetssori you boys did a great good and played your hearts out.