Shame on me...

I don't know how mommy bloggers do it. I can't keep up this blog for the life of me!
I love that I still have daily visits to this blog, even if I haven't updated in a few months. Shame shame on me!
To my dedicated visitors - thank you!

Now, moving on my from guilt trip and onto other things...

Soccer season and school has sucked the time right out of my days. Yeah, I do have time to check Facebook. Sorry. However, there is a difference between checking Facebook from my iPad, while lunch is cooking on the stove, while I keep one eye on the baby, one eye on the 4 yr old pestering the dog, and another eye on the screen. Wait... Anyway, my point is that Facebook updates do not take any certain level of skill or brain activity really. I can check Facebook in my sleep. Literally.  Blogging, however, takes a quiet house, kids all in bed, hubby too, and a spark of energy to ignite my brain waves again.

In other updates,
Boys' soccer season is over for now. yay.  Owen and Brayden had a good time and Alex enjoyed his first year of reffing games for money. (First job, yeah!) Its been a pretty good year, and I think public school is suiting them well. They are all excited to start their summer break!

Abby has started walking finally - my latest of the kids at 17 months. She still is often carried around and passed from brother to brother, however, so that may have something to do with it. She also finally started to say some words - mostly "eye", "hi" (they sound the same but the context is different, this is important), and "this", Everything else is "ooooh!" The world is fascinating to her right now. Every color, every sound, every object is super cool to her.

Now the school year is almost over and the boys are looking forward to summer. I have great things lined up for us this year. No laying around wasting the days away. We have trips planned to grandparents' and aunt's houses, zoos, amusement parks, scouting camps and hikes, free bowling (Sign up for Kids Bowl Free if you haven't already!) and summer reading contests. My goal is to keep them as busy as possible. This will hopefully lessen the odds of a cranky, stressed out mom. Bored kids find other ways to entertain themselves, which may or may not be a good thing.

My article this month in the Kid's Connect magazine is on creative toys kids can make. My boys LOVE to scrounge up random junk and tape them together to make something from their imagination. They don't get to do it often enough, however. I was inspired while watching the Youtube video on Caine's Arcade to get the boys' imagination churning this summer again. Here are the links to Caine's Arcade (make sure to watch part 2 as well!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U
Kids NEED to use their imagination more. Too much focus is spent on toys that do everything for you these days. How will our future generations ever learn to invent, create, and imagine if they are never given the chance?

Journaling Every Day Moments

Tonight I was at my book club (yes I have a social life too, surprisingly! It's a rare and elusive creature however) and I was talking about journaling. It struck me how every day little moments pass that I often wish I could capture forever. If I could find a way to print out and publish my facebook comments, then I'm sure I'd nearly capture them all!

When I became pregnant with my first child I kept a detailed journal of my pregnancy with him and most of his first year. I wanted to keep writing in it and give it to him when he turned 18. Then baby two came along, and I started a journal for him too and wrote in for a few months. When number three came a long I only found myself writing a few entries in it. By the time numbers 4 and 5 came along, I barely had time to write their birth story in it after they were born. Abby, number 6, doesn't even have a journal.

I still think that journaling the kids' childhood is a great thing. There are so many things they say and do that I wish I could treasure forever.

So instead of feeling guilty about not writing pages upon pages in each child's journal (that he, or she, may not even want to about all my ramblings some day), I love the idea of just writing little tidbits. One friend even suggested writing one sentence every day - just a sentence to sum up the day or whatever. I think that this is a nice, guilt free, and easy way to remember those special moments or funny stories.

Birthday season 2013 has commenced

 Abby kicked off birthday season with her birthday a couple weeks ago. Now we're on to our second birthday.

Gabe has turned 4!!

Gabe, my "baby" before Abby came is now four. I can hardly believe it.

Flashback photo:



Gabe now, 4 years old:



Today Gabe insisted he be called "Birthday Boy" all day. He also was one spoiled birthday boy. First he got to go pick out his own gifts the night before his birthday. He loved the shopping spree and was trying to grab random items to throw into the car the whole trip - from Angry Bird soap dispensers to various bags of candy. Finally we got him narrowed down to a pirate sword/shield set, a My Little Pony trading card pack and slap bracelet, a bag of his favorite chips, a box of juice boxes,  and a new bike!
Then Gabe got to bring cupcakes to his preschool class today. Next he had special treatment at lunch time including his juice box, a strawberry smoothie, and shells and cheese. He even got to open his pirate sword set early and played a bit of sword fighting with mom. Then his brothers got home from school and he shared his cupcakes and had more sword fights. For dinner he got to pick out his favorite food -which was PIZZA. (Uhh not on our new health eating plan though) We splurged and got him pepperoni pizza complete with cookie dough and cheesy bread. For dessert he got strawberry shortcake. YUMM  However what Gabe REALLY wanted was a Minecraft cake. So I've got a cake being made to be ready at a later date.

I'd say, overall, the birthday boy had a pretty good day! Now mom gets a breather before the Insane Birthday Week begins...one more month.

New Year's Resolution UPDATE

So. Its half-way through January. Amazingly we're still sticking with our New Year's Resolution. Rather then bog down the family blog with healthy eating updates, I updated my See Mommy Run blog (See tab at top of this blog). :) So go there for the skinny on getting skinny (okay, I admit that was cheesy).

I don't think I mentioned our other half of the New Year's Resolution, however. Billy came up with an idea to help our family also. While I'm working on the healthy side of things, he's working on the moral side of things.

Some of our boys have potty mouths. While our version of potty mouths range from "crap", "butt", or "stupid"...the extreme end of this range includes the Big Ones occasionally. You know, the ones they can't even air on TV or the radio. Oh boy.  So, dear husband has come up with a plan to Feed the Pig whenever an unacceptable word is said. While most of us don't have change on hand at all times, we keep a tally system. The boys are given an allowance and have to pay up their tally marks for bad words, as well as pay tithing (10%) before they get the remainder of their allowance. The first week our boys roughly got half of what they were supposed to get...
So said Pig is actually a pig of the ceramic variety. Decorated with festive "Vacation Fund" wording (see photo). Next year, when its family vacation time, we will break open the Pig and take a nice vacation with our potty mouth earnings. Further, if we cheat and go to take-out we have to put the same amount we spent into the Pig. Another stipulation was added as well that if we skip church for no good reason, each person has to put in a small amount in the Pig.

At the rate we're going, we'll be half-way to Hawaii in no time.

Everyone is slowly getting involved and in the game. I can't say "crap" now without little ears somewhere shouting at me "FEED THE PIG!" The boys get great joy from catching each other in the act.  The other day the TV was on, and the 3 yr old was even chastising actors on the TV show to "feed the pig" every few minutes.

Look forward to more updates from us soon, including some blog changes. I am thinking of switching the blog up a bit...any ideas?

First Birthday Photos...

Just a quick, shameless, photo post. I will have more to post later, but for now here are Abby's first birthday photos that I thought I should share!
The cake! An awesome princess cake, chocolate with raspberry filling, made by our cousin Heidi from Heidi's Treats. SO yummy!

Interestingly enough, the boys were jealous of all the pink and fuss over Abby. Maybe because they have birthdays so close together that its not often they get a whole party to themselves. I insisted to each one that they had a big 1st birthday party fuss as well!

Abby loved the paper, ribbons, and bags the most!

Big brother Brayden holding a smiley Abby.

Cake time...but she's just daintily picking pieces off like a true Princess. She just started picking the pink and purple fondant balls off to eat.

So big brother Alex got in there and showed her how to tear into the cake properly.

"Oh..there's chocolate in here you say?!"

Digging in...

CHOCOLATE!!!!

Finally getting the hang of this cake thing.

"Did I get it all?"

The aftermath...not too bad!

Haaaaaapy New Year! (And Happy Birthday)

 Wow what a year 2012 was...
First of all, biggest news, THE WORLD DIDN'T END! We get to see 2013 (bet the Mayans didn't see that one coming...)

2012 was a happy year for us. We added a new special little member to our family.
She almost came on New Years. We were sort of hoping for it. Rumor had it the first New Years baby got a prize. However, every other mom and baby must have had the same idea. The delivery rooms were full and so we had to wait another day. Oh boy was that tough.

January 2nd celebrates Abby's first birthday!!

Here's a quick look back, just a day old:



And now (well last month):



She's spoiled and loved by all. The boys still fight over who's turn it is to hold her. Now they like to sneak her treats behind mom's back also. She's going to get every little thing she asks for. Oh Boy.

Now...on BIG Family New Year's Resolution.

We are going to attempt to eat healthy, preservative-free, artificial sugar-free, and just as pure and healthy as possible. I think going too extreme our first attempt will burn us out quick. So this will be a learning process. I'm taking it one week at a time with  my meal planning.  We may be having to do this in baby steps. A great tool to start our journey out with is the 100 days of real food website. Recipes, meal plans, lots of tips. Great stuff. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
I will be updating our progress here on the blog. By the end of 2013 I hope to be writing a similar post to this telling you of all the great things we've seen by changing our diet. Yay!
I'm not a baker (nor for that matter a butcher nor a candlestick maker)...so I will be limited on what I can do. However it will be interested. I was pretty excited to see a Great Harvest Breads in Wenatchee. I guess I never paid attention before! I hope to buy our whole wheat bread there since I lack a wheat mill as well as the desire and talent to grind my own wheat and bake my own bread every week.
Check back weekly, or maybe monthly, to see how we're doing!

School starts back for me, like now, so I'm back to being a busy full time mom/full time college student again.

Hoping that 2013 will be a fantastic year for all!

Merry Christmas to all!

Well we have had a busy holiday season so far!

Holidays with a big family can be crazy. Organized chaos is the best we can hope for.
Sorry for the lack of witty commentary, but I'm battling a nasty cold that Santa left me. The best you are going to get is the highlight reel. Sorry.

BUT as a fun little shout-out: I wrote an article for a local super-cool magazine. SO check it out! Locals can find it in several businesses around town:
https://www.facebook.com/ncwkidconnect

If you are still here after that exciting intro...here are the highlights of Christmas season 2012!

Brayden was in a school musical. They did the 12 Days of Christmas, but a funkified version. It was very cute. He was one of the 10 lords-a-leaping. 

(Brayden and friend pictured)

Gabe also had a Christmas musical for his preschool class. They did a mix of Christmas songs including the ever-popular hits "Where is Santa", "Little Miss Muffet", and "Jack Be Nimble". 

(Not Christmas related, but Gabe decided to get into my make-up, as usual. I couldn't resist to snap a pic. He was so proud of himself)

Grandma came to visit after her successful surgery. Here she is just a few hours later, already bouncing grandkids on her knee (well maybe more balancing then bouncing going on).

Next we went to the day after the Christmas lighting in Leavenworth, WA. The day of was packed. 

First night of Christmas lighting: 

We went the next day...much better. Its like Santa's village. I love it there!

Next was the church Christmas party. Daddy had to work, so I did it solo. It worked okay with a buddy system, but soon I lost them all in the hallways playing tag. Oops. Thankfully it was soon time to go following the church hallway tag game.

Gabe and Santa!!

Abby, Billy Jr and Santa. Abby's first time with Santa. She didn't care at all. She was more concerned with posing for the camera, as usual.

Then later in December we got to visit Nana and Papa, as well as Auntie and lots of Uncles, also Great Grandpa was there too!  

(Brayden and new sweet baby cousin)

Gabe was in happyland with his Buzz Lightyear costume and My Little Pony.

Abby and Uncle Sam

Okay, now onto Christmas. For the first year we started a new tradition. Tired of the previous Christmas pasts with Christmas morning photos of half-naked kids or ratty pajamas, we decided to buy them all new pajamas to open Christmas Eve and wear Christmas morning. Yay! Each was hand selected, by me, for each child's personality. :)

(Waiting patiently for their gift. They didn't know it was CLOTHES yet)

Abby with her pajamas!

Boys opening their pajama gifts:

Gabe LOVED his "Wii Mario" pajamas and insisted on a picture in front of the tree. He calls all Mario things "Wii Mario" because he first learned about Mario from Wii Mario Kart.

The whole family, almost, in Christmas PJ's. It went over pretty well. A little fussing that it wasn't toys, but the boys loved their personally picked out pajamas. I wasn't wearing mine in this picture, however, because everyone decided to get dressed right there in the main room. I was busy helping the little boys and before I knew it, it was picture time. The boys don't have much patience for picture time.

Christmas morning I took video. So...no pictures. (Yeah after all that Christmas PJ talk!)

But here is some of the aftermath.

Brayden on his new pogo-stick...

Billy Jr with his "real tool" belt and set. He LOVED it.

And...because I can't resist it. A shameless Abby photo series...

Merry Christmas to all!! I hope your holidays were just as grand. Now I'm looking forward to a fun and exciting new year. Check back soon for our BIG family New Year's Resolution. Yikes!