December pics

More Cookies

I'm handing out cookies to Joe and kids after lunch.  I give each of the kids one and Joe two.

Grady says, "Hey....why does daddy get two and we only get one?"

"He's a man and you are kids," I answer.

"Do you love him more," he asks?

(In context, this is something that we say to the kids when they are complaining about so-and-so gets more.  We answer that we love said child more.  All the time, to all the kids, so they totally know we are kidding!)

Whack-a-mole

We are sitting in a restaurant with the whole family the other night addressing each kids needs as they arise, which in public is every 2.7 seconds.  Molly, then Grady, then Briley, then Molly, then Briley, then Ellery, then Grady, then Molly, etc.

Joe turns to me and says "Whack-a-mole."

"Huh," I ask?

"Do you remember that arcade game whack-a-mole?  That's what we do.  Whack.  Whack.  Whack." He says doing the hand motion over each of the kids heads.

Then he says, "I'm the one in the middle that you get 100 points for and the kids are all around me worth 10 points.  That's what you're playing all the time!

YUP!  I'm an expert whack-a-moler!  I'll add that to my job title.

Ellery and her "jeans''

The other day, I had a conversation with Ellery which went a little something like this:

"Mom, I can't marry Grady, can I?"

"Um, well, no honey. He's your brother."

"That's what I thought. Because if we are married and both wear the same jeans, something will happen."

Hunh? (To myself.) "What do you mean sweet-pea?"

"Nanny told me that." (Thanks, mom.)

Molly pipes in, "yah, something bad will happen to your kids, like they won't listen or something."

OK...so where exactly did Joe and I go wrong?

Happy Halloween

Ellery the Cowgirl, Molly the Angel, Briley the Pumpkin and Grady the Conductor

Oct pics

Sept pics

Too many kids...

Joe and I were just finishing up dinner and chatting, while the kids had declared it "yucky" with one look and had mostly left the kitchen.  You see, we've been having a bit of an....uh....issue...lately with the "No's" and being ignored and such.  Well, I asked  G to pick up something he had just dropped and he said.....drum roll....No.  After Joe dealt with that I asked "what is with the disrespect going on in this house?  Where did we go wrong?"

Right then M walks into the room and says, "having to much kids."

Nuff.  Said.

August pics

What a wonderful day!

Today our first born went down in front of our church to publicly profess that she had accepted Jesus Christ, our Savior, into her heart!  We are so proud as parents and are looking forward to her Baptism next weekend.

A week full of milestones for miss B

This week she started to crawl AND also had her two bottom teeth break through.  (So...that's why she's been so cranky!!! :)

This baby...

I just love her! :0)  (Well, of course I do, right?)  No really.  She is the sweetest thing.  Always ready with a smile.  Very happy.  Good sleeper.  Cute as all get out.  (Yes, I know I'm a bit bias...)  Besides the newborn stage, this is one of my favorites.  The 6 month age.  You know.  Where they are up on their hands and knees rocking back and forth.  On the verge of crawling...but not quite mobile.  At this point all I have to worry about is a little spit-up on the carpet (well, in her case, a lot of it.)  But I do know what's coming...

Figuring out this computer

I will be posting pics as soon as I can figure out how to get them off of iPhoto and onto my blog....

Ever feel like you're losing your mind?

It's happening on a daily basis lately (no comment needed from the hubs here...).  I walk into a room and totally forget why I went in there.  Then I walk back to where I started....still no clue.  Oh well.  I'll figure it sometime today, I hope.  It can't have been too important, right?   Old age?  (30 something is old, right?  At least I thought so when I was 15! :)  Lack of sleep?  4 kids?  Too busy?  All of the above?  Yes, I'm a bit busier than most, but I can't think of something I'd cut out.  Except for cleaning the house.  And laundry (as I look at the 8 loads that have taken over my couch today.)  Oh, and the dishes and cooking.  And my weekly trip to Wal-Mart (not many choices here in this small town.)  Gosh, what's left? :)  Oh yes, the kids.  I'll keep them....most days anyway.

And while it's on my mind....at what point did my just-turned-3 year old learn how to use the DVD player and remote???  I'm just askin'.   I certainly didn't show him.  Hmmm, does he have 2 older sisters?  Who like Tinkerbell?  Cuz that's what he wanted to watch today while I sit here and fold 8 loads of laundry.  (Did I mention that already?)  I was trying to convince him that Chuggington (trains) or Thomas would be better, but no...Tinkerbell.  That's what he requested.  

(See?  I am losing my mind.  This post probably doesn't make any sense to anyone but me.  But thank for reading it anyway.)  

First day of school....first day of school....first day of school!

Finding Nemo anyone?  (Could not get that out of my head today! :)  Well...the time has come to send #2 off to Kindergarten.  I am split on this one.  She'd be the easy one to home school.  She's a mama's girl.  Always with me, by choice.  She's a homebody.  Which is why I was so surprised that she didn't want me to walk her in (I still did) and when I went to kiss her goodbye at her new desk, I got the mom-you-are-embarrassing-me-please-leave-now look.  I sooo expected that from #1 (who was clingy and wanted me to home school her for the first 6 weeks of school) but not from E.

After we dropped her off, G, B and I stayed rather busy.  It really felt like a preschool day, but I know that next week when she's gone everyday, instead of only 2, it'll really hit me that she's a "big girl."  Check back next week to see if I'm in tears...

Edited: she LOVED school.  But then 30 mns after she was home she said, "Mom, I think I want to try home schooling tomorrow."  (Love her!)

Edited again:  Day #3.  Mom's thoughts, can she please just stay there all day?  She came home quite the pill and immediately got sent to her room.  A few minutes later it was silent.  I went to check.  Out like a light! :0)  A bit tired are we???

Edited yet again: After Day #4, she decides every night that she wants me to home school her tomorrow.  Every morning she forget though and is excited to go to school.

Last edit, I promise:  She cried today at rest time.  Cried for mama.  Breaks my heart. I miss her too.  Luckily I have 2 more at home that distract me from missing E.  But what a mess I'll be when they all go off.  Whatever will I do with all my free time?  I have 5 more years to worry about that though.  Maybe we'll just keep having babies so I can stay busy?  (Kidding mom!!!  We're still done.)

My new friend

This is what happened when I left for a quick errand.  I came back and this had been ordered.  Mind you, my old computer was 10 years old.  That is ancient for computers.  I'm sure my DH was really sick of hearing me constantly complaining about how slow it was, so...he bought me this.  He customized it and everything.  I'm sure I have no idea of the power this baby has and it'll take me weeks to transfer all my data over. Heck, it took me all morning to just get my calendar and address book transferred!  (Probably due to the fact that I'm refusing to spend more money and get an iPhone right now only because I don't want to pay the monthly charge for the data plan.  That's the frugal side of me.  Which tends to take over most of the time.  But I digress...)

Anyway....its kinda fun.  Looking forward to getting to know each other better.

I'm still here....

Hi there.  Yes, I'm still here and attempting to blog.  We've had quite a busy summer.  I'll briefly recap:

-4 kids home between the ages of 0-7
-A month long trip to Seattle and Anchorage
-Started a new business with a friend
-Husband traveling with work
-MOPs coordinator
-Did I mention 4 kids home all summer?

Looking over that list, it doesn't sound like a lot, but I feel like I was a lot busier!  Anyway, M and E go back to school tomorrow (E's first day of Kindergarten...sniff, sniff...not sure how I feel about that) then G starts preschool (another milestone in our fam) next week.  I'm assuming I'm going to have a lot more free time with 1/2 the crew gone during the day.  So, I intend on posting a lot more....but first I'll have to get caught up on everything that I let go this summer...

More to come...

July pics

Jun pics

A perfect match

Vinyl, meet my Silhouette. Silhouette, meet vinyl. Then Silhouette and vinyl meet my crazy organization obsession. There. I'm sure you will all play together nicely.

I've had a Silhouette machine since I'm moved to a city without a scrap booking store. It was my gift to myself 3 years ago when we moved out of Washington to uh...a less populated area. I was feeling sad and knew I would go through withdrawals of not being able to die cut at my leisure, so I bought it with grand intentions. Don't get me wrong, its been used, but three years and two more kids later, it hasn't been used as much as I anticipated. But that has all changed. Between this and my usually strong obsession towards organization, my house will be going through a transformation over the next few months

My first try at this. Labeling our playroom bins. Only one of my four kiddos can read, but this will help out in many ways. Babysitters. Weekly playgroup clean up. Me. (OK, so its mostly for me.) Our playroom can get quite messy at times. Its the price I pay to have an hour to get things done. Sometimes I'm amazed at what they can do in such a short time....and then how agonizingly long it takes them to clean it up. (Another project this summer....edit playroom toys...but that's another post.) Anyhoo...I bought these wooden plaque-type things at Hobby Lobby awhile ago with the intentions of labels the big wicker baskets in our playroom. But then I got home, looked at my vinyl, looked at my Silhouette, got scared and hid the supplies. Repeat for 4 months. Finally last month I decided to face my fears. After it was over I was rather pleased with myself, mostly for being able to check something off my ever growing list, but also because I knew I had opened up a whole new obsession!

The project

The short version....I spray painted the wooden plaques.  I painted both sides so that when the kids grow and their toy stash changes, I can use the other side.  After the paint dried, I used my handy dandy crop-o-dile to punch holes in the wood.  (Yep...it goes through that too!)  I then took a brown antiquing stamp pad to the edges.  Choosing the font was tricky, because the had to be bi g enough to read, but narrow enough to fit the longest word in between the holes.  (Yes, in hind sight, I should have used a font a little less similar to my own handwriting.)  Put the vinyl in the machine, had it cut the letters, removed the part around the words,  then applied the transfer tape.  Cut out each word then applied it to the wood.  Removed the transfer tape and voila!  I used jute to attach them to the baskets. 

We have 6 wicker baskets and they are are done. Now I need to tackle the red plastic bins on the upper shelves.   Will post a completely picture when the room is done.

***Please disregard the toys that have been cleaned up shoved under the shelves by my children.  For some reason they don't think that I can see them.

May pics

Potty Training: 3 down, 1 to go

Yup.  I did it.  I took on the challenge of potty training the boy.  I bought all the supplies, scheduled it on the calendar, and hunkered down, mentally preparing for a long battle.  4 hours.  That's is.  That's all it really took.  One morning.  Really?  Why in the world have I put this off for so long???  Granted, he's only 2 1/2, so it wasn't put off THAT long, but still.  I could have had changed 1 diaper less?  What was I waiting for?  Maybe, the birth of #4 and the fear that he would revert?  Or my sleep deprived nights to end so that I had enough energy to take on the potty beast?  Anyway, didn't matter.  He did it.  Much easier and quicker than my others.  AND we are completely out of diapers.  No diapers during the day.  No diapers at nap.  No diapers at night.  My disposable spending just increased by about $50 a month.  Yippee!!

April Pics

March Pictures

Thoughts from E

She was rubbing her eye and then accidentally pulled out an eyelash.  She looks at me and says, "I'm ok.  There's no need for a doctor or the emergency room."

S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g

My dear son is over the moon about trains.  At Christmas, we watched "Polar Express" every day.  I mean every.  Single.  Day.  You know the part where the 2 kids are on the back on the train singing a little song about Christmas?  Well, the G-man has been humming that since mid-December.  All day.  Every day.  It was adorable....at first....but now is getting a little old. 

We're sitting at the dinner table this evening and he started humming it.  I look over at Joe and say, "I'm just about S-I-C-K of that song," with a smile (kind of).  Molly turns to us and says, "he sure does L-O-V-E that song!"

Yots and yots

I've decorated G's room in a sailboat theme.  On the walls, I have a couple of phrases written.  "Come sail away with me," and "row, row, row your boat."  Every time we change him (and that's a lot) we talk about the letters, the color of the room, the boats and lighthouses.  He's a talker.  Big time.  I'm changing him today and he says, "O.  O, mama, O."  I say, "that's right bub!  What other letters do you see?"  He says, "yots, mama.  yots and yots of them."  (For those of you that might not be up to date on your toddler speak, yots = lots!)

B's Birthday

Gallagher's new addition...

Briley Gallagher
Time: 7:40 a.m.
Weight: 7 lbs 7 oz
Length: 20 inches

Dressing up

My 4 year old (girl) is helping my 2 year old (boy) dress up in her dress up clothes.  I think its hilarious since it was the little boy's idea.  (My hubby doesn't think its as funny.)  Seeing him walking around in a tutu cracks me up.  Boy do I wish I wasn't so lazy and would go get my had my camera with me!

Picture blocks

I love it when I find a great blog that I can use ideas from for our MOPS crafts. My goal as Creative Activities Coordinator is to expose the moms to an assortment of crafts that are easy to do and something that I would want to take home myself. This is definitely one of those!

Super easy....that is everything except finding pine 4x4 posts!!!  I opted to modge podge paper to the top of mine because I'm too impatient to wait for baby #4's picture.  I did, however, spend many hours spray and hand painting these blocks (60 of them) in the middle of winter during a cold snap.  I'm just now posting these because I gave some as Christmas gifts to family members who read this blog...and didn't want to spoil the surprise.