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. 

December pictures

A Christmas Tidbit from Ellery

Els is chatting with my mom on the phone today and mom was asking her about Christmas.  After answering some questions, she paused and said, "Nanna, how did you know it was Christmas here?"  Nana says, "it's Christmas, too. It's Christmas all over the world."  Another pause from E.  "It is" she says?  "I didn't know that."  Nana says, "Yes, everywhere. Call Goggy and ask him if he is having Christmas there, too."  Ellery says, "huh? It's Christmas in Anchorage too?"

Visit with Santa

Today is Christmas Eve and the busy neglectful mom that I've been lately has put off our annual Santa picture to the last minute...so...off to the mall we go.  On the way there we were prepping G that we were going to see Santa and that he was going to ask what the kids wanted for Christmas.  I was hoping that this would be the first year without a screaming kid (no such luck) and was trying to preemptively calm the fears of our 2 year old.  We get to the mall and the girls go right up to Santa, give him a hug and hop on his lap.  Hesitantly Grady looks over at him, checks him out, then runs up, gives him a quick hug, takes a few steps back and yells at him "Nanas" then runs away.  (Nanas = Thomas the Tank Engine).  Needless to say, the next few minutes were spent forcing G to sit on Santa's lap so we could snap a quick picture (which we did end up getting...its not good, but we have it!)

Oh, and...I overheard the girls telling Santa that they wanted magic wands.  Not sure where Santa is going to come up with those, but while he's making them, I'd like one too!

The Nutcracker Ballet

In keeping with the season and trying to be a good parent that exposed her children to culture (well, as much as I'm going to be able to in this small town) I thought I would take my girls to go see the Nutcracker. Not. My. Best. Idea. I think it would have been a little easier if I wasn't 7 1/2 months pregnant and of course the fact that its TWO AND A HALF HOURS long, so for a 4 and 6 year old that's like 3 weeks. Anyway....the house lights finally went down after 15 minutes of this conversation:

Child: "When is it going to start Mom? When?"

Me: "5 minutes, sweetpea."

Child: "That's what you said last time" (which actually happened to be 5 minutes earlier and and would have been correct if they had started on time.)

Me: "I know punkin, but that when it was supposed to start."

Don't these people know that there are antsy children (and a lot of them from what I saw) sitting in the audience???

Here is just a tiny snippet of the conversations that were interrupting everyone around us (poor, poor people who thought they were coming for a nice afternoon of cultural entertainment)

Act I: the party -- these are just a few of the questions I got

M: "is this supposed to be a party?"

M: "what are they doing?"

E: "Can I sit on your lap?" (mind you...belly out to here, no lap available anymore.)

M: "why isn't anyone talking?"

M: "is this all it is??? Just music??"

E: "I feel like I want to take my shoes off, can I?" (sure, why not, we're going to be here for awhile.)

M: "Can I sit on your lap?" (see above)

E: After Act I ends "it that all? Is it finally over? This is taking forever" (nope, just the first act....)

At Intermission: E: "Can we go home now???"

Note to self...wait until they are older...much, much older before trying this again.

Bribing Santa

I walk into the living room the other day to see this on the tree...

The note says, "To Santa, I love you, From Molly." Hey, its worth a try, right?

Thoughts from Ellery

Molly comes running into my office saying, "Mom, there's a problem. Mine and Ellery's toilet is plugged." Most likely someone used it and "forgot" to flush, but I went to investigate...just in case. Sure enough, no problem at all. Ellery helped me try to figure out the problem. She squatted down really low and looked under the toilet. "Mom," she says, "it doesn't looked like our toilet is unplugged."

Aahhh the mind of a 4 year old. You can plug and unplug a toiled just like a lamp!

We've pick out a name...

Another ultrasound confirms its a girl and i'm actually starting to believe it now...especially since G has said that all along. We have picked out a name. One in which my mom is not especially fond of, but we all love it. The girls are calling her by it. So are we. Every time I try to get G to say it, he shakes his head and says, "no, dede" (his rendition of baby.) I'll give you a hint....it starts with a B and ends with a Y....and no its not baby! :) Now to figure out a middle name...

The Cheerio Incident (and November pictures)

Another MOPS craft and a great teacher gift!

Personalized hand sanitizers. So easy and so cheap. I made a bunch for teachers and friends who are having babies soon to include with gifts. Here is where I found this one!

October pictures

M's first report card

Now that she's in first grade, I guess we get report cards sent home with them. (The school figures she's still too young to figure out the whole checking-the-mailbox-before-mom-and-dad-do thing.) Before I tell you about her grades, let me back up a month or two.

We get all her work sent home, so I see the grades she's getting on a daily basis. When I say all, her work, I mean ALL her work! They first month I saved it all...in a pile...in my office...at my husbands request. When I realized that this was only ONE months worth of work...I selectively edited what I'm keeping (sorry babe). These papers kept coming home, mostly with the grades of S+ with some number grades, but those were always 97-100%. I kept seeing S+ after S+ and being the overprotective mom that I am, I was started to get a tad bit defensive. I mean, whoa, she's only 6, how perfect do you expect her handwriting to be anyway? See, where I come from, the grades are E = Excellent, S = Satisfactory, then you get the S+ and S- if applicable, and there must have been something else (N = Needs Improvement) but being the stellar student I was, I never got one of those (right mom??? =)

Well, like I said, we received her report card in the mail and all I saw was S+ ALL THE WAY DOWN THE LIST!!! Hunh??? Not one single excellent? Seriously??? We must have a talk here! Then I happened to glance at the top to see that the S+'s that were everywhere...well...they were the highest grade she could get. Oops! :) Here in OK, they grade by S+, S, and S-. So...silly me. No need to approach the school and start arguing her case.

We congratulated her, loved on her, and took her out to dinner to celebrate. She got to choose the restaurant and dessert. I figure the best way to keep the good grades coming home...make sure she knows what a good job she is doing. Make her proud of herself, and let her know we are proud of her too!

Another MOPS craft - fall wreath

First off, let me say, I am not a florist, nor a wreath maker, and...keep in mind...I have to come up with these crafts for $2 or less per mom...50 moms each meeting! Mini wreath form + wire + floral stems cut apart + ribbon = fall wreath.

D-D-D-D-Gog

So I get the G-man up from his nap and we're hanging out in his room on the floor looking at a wooden puzzle, void of all pieces, and talking about what pictures are there. Its an alphabet puzzle, so we're going through it. We keep coming back to Choo-choo (train) and Gog (Dog). I say to him, "D-D-D-D-Dog," because I'm attempting to teach him the proper pronouncement of the word. This is what he says to me, "D-D-D-D-Gog." Ok, so close enough.

September pics

It's a GIRL...I think...

Luckily we already have a lot of pink around here, so this might just work out fine. Although I'm not so sure that I believe the U/S tech. I've felt all along that its a boy. We have a boy name. Grady's pregnancy and this one were identical. (The girl's were identical, too). We have the space in Grady's room (I'm NOT giving up my craft room!!!). So...if it really is a girl, I sure hope she likes navy blue and boats! I have more U/Ss at 28 and 32 weeks. I'm going to have them check again...just in case.

Redoing the guest room...

Starting this week, we will have company in town for the next 40 +/- days. Lately the guest room has become a dumping grounds for all my ebay, etsy, craigslist and sewing projects. Knowing that bed will be used soon, I've begun to clean it out. (Side note to my guests...please don't look through the closet, its a bit scary!!!) Anyway. I've never LOVED the curtains in there and let's not get started on the fact that we've been here for 2 years and there are STILL no pictures on the walls. Anyway...I'm trying to get the finishing touches on some rooms before baby #4 comes because after that...nothings getting done around here! :) So, I'm blog hopping one eve and I come across The Nester and immediately *heart* this site! After reading about window "mistreatments" I decide I HAVE to change one of my windows...and this was an easy one to do!

The iron hooks just happened to be on sale at Hobby Lobby last week, so of course I grabbed them! Can't beat $5 a piece!!! I already had the curtains, but had sewed a rod pocket into them to hang on the rod I had originally put up. Honestly, the hardest part of putting these all up...ripping out the seams! :) I already had the clippy-rings leftover from who knows what! (See honey...I really will use the things I keep!)

After I got everything up, the window still needed a little something. I was going to make a sign, but at my weekly trip to HL this week, wall decor was on sale (again) so I grabbed that cute sign and just put it up. (Babe...I'm hearing you when you say "stop making things and just buy them!"...but just this once!) I love how it all turned out...and I already have a place to reuse the curtain rod...which I'm sure I'll be posting as soon as its done!

Now I'm on to the girls valence to try another type of "mistreatment." Then I'll hit the master bath, then....oh never mind....you get it!

First MOPS craft - jute wrapped vase

Last year I planned on posting the MOPS crafts that I organized. I think I might have gotten one posted??? This year....I'm aiming for more! :) Keep in mind that I have a $2 budget per mom, so I'm creative and frugal! Here's the first one, a jute wrapped vase. You start with this...

How do you do this??? So easy! Choose the back side of the vase, add some glue, add the jute...wrap. Add some glue (in a line up the back side of the vase), wrap the jute, add glue, wrap...oh you get it, right??? Here's some options of what I ended up with...

Now add your candles or flowers or just display them as is! Now while that glue gun is still smokin' hot, grab that ugly lamp base you've been meaning to donate and wrap that, too!