The end of the sickness???

Could it be, could we really be well again? WE ARE!!!! Well, I guess that's no entirely true. Poor Miss Lauryn has gotten her very first ear infection...woohoo ammoxicillan (seriously, how do you spell that?) At least we got her to take it. After 2 and a half years on antibiotics it's a struggle to get her to take anything. Tylenol for a fever...only in the last 6 months. Fluoride...easily for some odd reason. And heaven forbid the medicine is a different color than the last one that we gave her :-) Good thing that I love this little girl.

Last night I decided that the house had gotten out of control while we were all feeling yucky and it had to be cleaned before the flood of kids returned this morning. So, the whole gang (yes, the WHOLE gang) helped out and the house was returned to normal which meant that I got to spend the morning catching up on my Beth Moore study,baking scones, mixing up granola, and prepping chicken tortilla soup to throw into the crock pot. I love those kinds of mornings. Now, if I could just find the time in there to finish the skirt that I've started for my niece and spend a little more time checking out a pattern for this super cute bag that I want to try. I'm too lazy to find the link right now...and Lauryn's crying in bed. I guess I should go and check on her and then put myself to bed so we can start another day that goes as smoothly as today. That's kind of a joke but we can always hope can't we.

Fun times and then...not so much

I had such a blast scrapbooking with the girls on Saturday. I was once again reminded much good it does for me to get away and recharge for the day. We ate too much junk (but it tasted so good) and laughed about the silliest things that no one else would find amusing. But we don't care. :-) I am loving playing with that Cricut and I'm sure if K gets things going I will be putting it on my Christmas list!

It's funny how even after a day away you can get THROWN back into real life. Like walking in the door and hearing Collin crying softly in his bed, trying to sleep but not being able to stay that way. I got myself ready for bed and he quieted down so I thought "Hey, I might get some sleep!" That was dumb, I know that now. 20 minutes later Brian and I wake up to the sound of Collin throwing up in his crib. Poor little man, he was pretty miserable. Church in the morning was now a no go. We changed jammies and snuggled him up with us. He slept off and on for a few hours until Brian put him back to bed. Lucky for us he fell right to sleep and didn't get up until almost 9. He ate breakfast and then proceded to throw it all up...in the kitchen sink. He must have realized something was coming up because he walked over to me and wanted me to pick him up. Good thing I was standing right by the sink because it came up fast.

Needless to say, we spent most of the day resting and Collin was actually feeling a lot better this evening. Hopefully after one more recovery day tomorrow we'll be back in the swing of things.

Bread is so yummy

Today I only had my own kiddos, so I felt motivated to do some baking. 2 large loaves, 4 mini loaves, and a little more than a dozen cinnamon rolls later my house smells like fall. And, since Denaye mentioned super cheap pumpkins (and once again, only my own kids) I loaded them up and hit the store because I've always wanted to bake a pumpkin but never knew what to actually do with it :-) I've got extra kiddos tomorrow...and a broken blender...whoops, forgot about that. K, can I borrow your mom's? Maybe I'll be baking my pumpkins on Friday.

It's been a bit of a week at our place. Not really the whole week, just yesterday. I had 6 kids all day and then had to get them all off to their houses in time to haul Lauryn and Taylor to dance class in Cashmere. We got there with about 2 seconds to spare! It was watch week so I actually got to see what they are doing in class instead of just hearing it through the walls. I was so proud of the way that Lauryn was listening to her teacher even while the other girls were sliding around on the floor and watching their parents watch them through the window. She's getting better and better at the ballet steps and her tap moves. If you ever need some entertainment I would suggest watching a 3 year old's dance class.

Dad's here...time to go for a brisk walk in the cold!

Lauryn and Lali

Lauryn had a great time yesterday spending the day (and night) with Lali and Papa. They had a little Larry's chicken for lunch and then went to do some work at Lali's school. Lauryn said that she was doing some cutting and cut her finger but "just a little bit, not really." As best as I can tell, I think that she got a paper cut :-) Then they topped off their day of fun with a little Monster's, Inc. with Papa. Collin was so happy to see his sister after church this morning...she was already in her classroom when we took him in. And, by the way, Collin has stayed in the church nursery 3 weeks in a row!!!!!!!!!!!! We may have finally turned the corner. We're told that he actually played today! It's pretty nice to be able to sit in church and not see our number pop up on the board for once :-)

One Lauryn story that must be told..aside from the one about her telling Papa what part of her body she would be feeding her babies with.

She was talking about how she is going to have babies when she is a grown up and that God let her grow in mommy's tummy and Collin too. But she isn't going to let God do that, she's going to do it by herself. We're really not sure how she is picturing God getting those babies in there...maybe like a magician?

Open up the sky

Open up the sky was the name of one of the songs this morning at church. I'm not sure who wrote but it was new to me. It spoke of wanting not blessings, but God. Not being satisfied with the ordinary. http://www.timetotalkaboutit.com/?p=71 This is a link that I just found to the lyrics. Check them out. I know that I tend to get satisfied with the blessings that God so richly pours out. But that's not enough, that's really not what we should be wanting. We should be wanting God and nothing else will satisfy. The blessings along the way are just a bonus.

On a whole other note...I had such a blast scrapbooking and just relaxing with friends yesterday. Although by the end of the night with just Lynn, Karalee, and I left, we were getting goofy. We have decided that we may have been a little high on Pepsi and licorice :-) Who needs anything stronger? Not us apparently!

I'm back

I'm really going to try to start blogging more consistantly. I want to, really. I just can't seem to make the time to read the blogs that I like and then actually write anything on my own. My alone part of the morning just doesn't last that long.

The kids are getting so big and are just busy busy little ones. Lauryn has started dance classes on Tuesdays and Brian is a football referee this fall, so time is tight for extras like sitting down and writing more than 3 words at a time :-)

The newBeth Moore Bible Study is starting tonight and I am more than ready. It is really my favorite time of the week! Now I've got to go and do a few things so the family can have dinner tonight.

Long time no see, blog, whatever :-)

Here is my disclaimer. These pictures aren't supposed to be at the top and they should be in a different order. I'm not that talented. Someone tell me what I did wrong please!!!

So, I know, I'm a total slacker. But I have an excuse...will you accept it? The siding is done on the house. We're still waiting to do a little touch up when this stinking wind will die down. When will that be by the way? My allergies were just driving me nuts until my lavender came in. I tried some as soon as Denaye handed it over and within 10 minutes I was breathing through my nose!!!! I went for a walk with Laurie and the kids this morning and put some on my face before I left. No problems at all!! Yeah for the lavender, and yeah for me being able to breathe.

Do you want to see my "new" house?? Let's see if I can post pictures. Here goes nothing.

Once one of my dear friends helps me get the pics in the right order and in the right place I'll post some more.

The house looks great in my humble opinion and it really got done quickly with all the wonderful help that we had from family and friends. Thanks!

Tomorrow

OK, so I'm trying to lose weight and I've been really frustrated because it's just not happening. So, I decided that I'm going to go back to following the Slimfast plan that I was just starting on when I found out that I was pregnant with Collin. Tomorrow is the big day! I'm starting this and I've got a goal of a really cute dress for my cousin's wedding in CA the middle of June.

I'm really hoping that tomorrow when I wake up I won't see any snow!!! What's the deal with snow in March, practically April? Seriously :-) We need to get out of the house and be able to play somewhere. Everyone in the family was sick at some point this past week and hardly any of it overlapped, which in turn meant that we were all cooped up so we didn't give the rest of the world our germs. I think that everyone's over the worst of it with Collin bringing up the rear. Poor little guy still has a stuffy nose, but he seems to be feeling much better.

I reorganized the kitchen tonight with the help of my sweet husband, who only looked at me like I was nuts a few times. I'm sure that now I'm going to have a tough time remembering where I moved everything to and spend way too much time opening every cupboard. Oh well, I think that it will work out this way better. We'll see.

I'm off to bed so I won't be ridiculously tired when I get up early to do Pilates in the morning. Let's pray for a night of good sleep for all (and no screaming children at 2 am!)

I'm so proud...

of myself. I'm finally figuring out how to add things to my page. Don't make fun of me. I don't have the patience to sit here and try to figure things out very often. :-)

Days like this...

make me a little crazy. Does anyone else have them?? Of course you do, even if you don't admit it. Lauryn and I were just grating on each other's nerves all afternoon. I know that I should just take a deep breath and remember that she is 3 and I'm not, but sometimes I forget :-) Even though she only likes me to put her to bed, I asked Brian to do it tonight. I told Lauryn that it was because we had a rough day and I thought that we could maybe use a break from each other. She actually took that rather well, it is usually a fight if Brian wants to put her to bed and I'm at home. So, I got the sweet hug (and an extra kiss) and off she went. Sometimes that last 5 minutes of her deciding which bedtime songs she would like is 5 minutes too many. I love my sweet girl, but sometimes long for the days when I would give her a kiss, say goodnight, and close the door.

On a completely different note, I'm getting really excited to get the new siding on the house!!! Only one more month of UGLY dark brown paint and rotting siding. :-) Now I'm off to curl up with a book that is purely for fun and maybe a little bedtime snack!

Tomorrow is a new day and Brian's off work...so I get to go and get a pedicure just in time for Easter Sunday and my cute new sandals :-)

I'm not behind!

Thanks to Denaye, I'm not behind on my Bible study this week!!!! Right now I should really be making up my shopping lists for the week but I'm enjoying a little quiet while Collin is still sleeping and Lauryn is outside with Brian.
We had a fun morning at the library with friends. This is the first time that we've made it to story time in quite awhile. I was really hoping to take the kids out on a walk this afternoon, but the wind has kicked up so much that I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe tomorrow after naptime.
I've decided that right now I really need to get back to following Flylady more regularly. Starting in 2 weeks I'll have 2 more munchkins around the house one day a week and it will be on Tuesday (when I usually get most of my big cleaning done) I've been trying to get up early and work out but that really hasn't happened much lately since I haven't been sleeping well. Last night was one of the few nights in the past 2 weeks that I've slept all night. Maybe this is the beginning of sleeping better??? That would be awesome!

Menu Plan Monday

I am attempting to participate in Menu Plan Monday over at orgjunkie.com. I haven't ever tried to do this linking before though :-)

Monday: spaghetti
Tuesday: chicken and citrus rice
Wednesday: pulled pork sandwiches
Thursday: Chicken pot pie
Friday: homemade pizza
Saturday: homemade soup and bread (I haven't decided on the kind of soup yet)
Sunday: Easter dinner with family

I've been planning menus for awhile, but slacking about actually following them well. Maybe participating will give me a little more incentive?

Friends

I had so much fun tonight just spending time with friends that I haven't gotten to see much of lately. Never mind that we had 6 kinds under 5 running around the entire time-we're so used to that I hardly even noticed. Although I did take notice that there was very little fighting among them!!! Except at the end of the evening when Collin tried to convince Makaila that her sippy cup was really his. That led to 2 little ones screaming and pulling at that poor orange cup until their little faces were red :-) Pretty amusing if you ask me.

This afternoon while Collin was pretending to nap I got time to catch up on my Bible study. Seriously, someone e-mail me on Fridays and tell me to do day one. I'm always behind and I know it's horrible that I can't get organized enough to spend quality time working at it. I am making progress and I'm loving this study (Jesus, the One and Only by Beth Moore, in case you're wondering) It's one of those that I feel like I need to spend an hour on each day to really get all that I can out of it. Now, if I could only find an hour...I do have one from 4-5 am, but unfortunately, I don't think I'm quite coherent enough during that time of day (night?)

Tomorrow I'll hopefully teach myself how to post pictures so I can write about my little baby's big boy haircut and show a few before and afters.

I have plants!!!...and if I'm lucky they won't die

So, my grandma had a bunch of plants that she was willing to part with from her amazing garden. Therefore I have plants in my yard now. My mom also has some things for me. I got 2 burning bush offshoots that, as long as they survived the hacking out of the ground, will look awesome this summer! I'm still planning on getting some lavendar and a few spring blooming plants that I'll have to cough up some money for (unless anyone has anything else to transplant), but I got a gift card for Christmas for some of that. If only I can get these lovely green things to stay green with a 100 lb dog and 2 little kiddos running around the yard. Emmitt has already tried to sleep in the nice, freshly turned dirt next to, but not on my new daisies. Brian thatched the lawn with Barry's help on Saturday and Lauryn has has a great time playing in the "hay" that we had in piles on the lawn. Now we have slightly less than a million black garbage bags full of lawn stuff that I'm not sure what to do with...D, do you want this to compost? Do I? Let me know :-)
My grandparents are cleaning out their house and thinking about building themselves a new and smaller place. I am now the proud owner of a bunch more canning jars!!!!! Yeah for me, since my darling son will eat a can of pears for dinner with no help from the rest of us. I've got big canning plans this summer. And since my sweetie built me some shelves out in the shed, I've got room in the house to store plenty of canned goods where my Christmas decor used to rest.

Weekend to Remember

On a request from Denaye...what I loved about Weekend to Remember (other than the whole no kids all weekend thing) It was great! Brian and I learned so much more about each other's communication styles (or lack thereof) and how we can better relate to one another. The speakers were wonderful, it's so nice to just hear that other people go through the same things and come out alive and really better for it. I think that we both renewed our commitment to put God at the center of our marriage and our family. It's always good to get the reminder that my husband is to be a priority over the kids. Easier said than done when I spend all day with my kiddos, but something to work on. There was a resource at the conference called Celebrate Home that is written for stay-at-home moms and I'm going to order it from Amazon soon. I've got other books on request from the library and after I read them I'll let you know how they are.

On date night Saturday we went to see Vantage Point...that is a pretty intense movie. A little more violence than I would have liked but it's definitely a good one. It keeps your brain working the whole time. Not especially relaxing but I really liked it. And it was especially good since we used our free movie tickets from the Safeway promo. Speaking of which, does anyone know if there is a limit on those (one per card or anything?)

I think everyone should try to get to a Weekend to Remember. I would love to have received it as a wedding or even engagement gift :-) It was definitely worth the sacrifice to get there.

I have no idea what I did...

but now you can comment! Yeah for me :-)

I'm getting so frustrated that I can't get the comment thing working!!!!!

No time??

Somehow, I seem to be much more of a slacker about blogging than my friends. How is it that they can find the time during the day and I can't? Maybe I just don't think about what I'm going to write ahead of time. I only think about it when I sit down to write. If you're lucky I'll work on that.

Denaye and the girls came over and played today. The sun came out and it was warm enough to play outside. After a little while at the park, with Lauryn and Melia running around like wild children Lauryn decided that it was time to swing...so back across the street we went; to the backyard.

Lauryn has a power wheels Mustang that she loves to drive around the yard. It runs so much better when there are 2 kids who are relatively the same size. It doesn't get stuck nearly as often as when L drives with Collin.

Lauryn taught Melia how to drive and I will have to tell the whole story later, my hubby is home and I've got other things to get done :-)

Let sleeping children lie

I think both of my kids are asleep...Collin was wiping out so I put him down and Lauryn wanted to go to bed, too. A sure sign that she is still not feeling well. I haven't heard a peep from either one in 5 minutes. It's freakishly quiet here!

I got a few batches of bread made yesterday, one cinnamon and one honey wheat. Brian really likes the wheat so I've got to remember to get more wheat flour when I'm shopping next.

One thing that I know that I need to work on is asking Brian what he would like me to get done each day. Crystal (at Biblical Womanhood) asks her hubby in the mornings...that wouldn't work since Brian's up and gone before anyone's awake. So I need to do it at night before we go to bed. I know that during the winter there isn't as much, but in the spring time he's working longer hours and would appreciate the time I take to get some of the outside things done. I'm hoping that this year it will be a bit easier since Collin can actually play outside with Lauryn instead of just hanging out in the swing needing to be pushed all the time.

Just one more thing for me to remember to do to be a better helpmeet for him.

Turkey? Mice? Polar Bears?

This was the question that Lauryn posed to Brian and I while we were watching something about lab testing on white rabbits. She was pretty tired and they had just had some white turkeys on. It just cracked me up. They were white and she wasn't really paying attention so maybe they could have been turkeys or mice or even polar bears :-)

I feel like I haven't gotten anything done in the past week with the kids being sick. I'm feeling like a bit of a slacker. Dinner has been leftovers or cereal almost every night. Granted, we cleaned out stuff from Dad's fridge as they are gone from 10 days and things needed to be eaten. I've got big plans to finally make the chili that I have been wanting for a week and maybe put together a chicken pot pie for tomorrow. It all depends on how the kiddos are doing today. I really thought that Friday they were getting better, but this cough has just been hanging on. Lauryn's been taking a nap every day which is still just so weird for her.

Well, I think that my time here is up because I've got to get a few more things taken care of before the kids get up.

Cash only please

In an effort to tighten things up even more...I know it can be done, I'm just having trouble getting there, I am switching to cash. I was reading Crystal's budget update (at Money Saving Mom) and we have been needing to cut down even more than we have previously so I'm really getting serious now. Somehow I have the feeling that this first month that I do it ( the rest of this month because I've done a little shopping already) I'm going to wind up on the short end. Not that I'm anticipating my own failure, but because I don't think that I'll have gotten it down completely. February will be my practice for March when I WILL DO IT! And do it well, I might add.

We are cancelling our cable at the end of this month (or whenever it is that we're paid through) and tightening the grocery budget a little bit more. I'm needing to find myself a car (minivan) that will hold more car seats in order to keep my friend's 2 girls this coming school year and still be able to get out of the house if I need to. So, in addition to praying that one comes along (and you all can be praying about it for me too if you would be so kind) we are trying to see how much cash we can scrape together. Hoping that we will be able to find something reliable that we can pay cash for.

Poor sick baby boy

Collin spent all yesterday afternoon throwing up. Which means I spent all yesterday afternoon cuddling a sick baby, washing pukey laundry, keep Lauryn occupied, and attempting to get dinner on the table. That last one didn't happen. Brian was kind enough to throw a frozen pizza in the oven, which is his version of making dinner. Then we took turns eating and holding Collin. We seem to be over this little bug already though. He made it the whole night and this morning with no more puking!!!! He's finally starting to be hungry-oatmeal and homemade bread are the only things he's tried to eat though. And water: he pounded a sippy cup of water at midnight and another at 3 am.

On a much more fun note, Lauryn and I made 2 loaves of bread and a batch of homemade sausage pizza pockets for the freezer. I've been wanting to start making our own bread for awhile and K and Alicia and I made a loaf in K's bread machine on Sunday so it finally got me going. I may be in the market for one myself, or I might just steal my stepmom's for awhile to see if I like it.

I was such a slacker and didn't take any pictures while we were making bread! I would have had a few great ones of Lauryn up to her elbows in flour just waiting until it was her turn to knead the dough. Oh well, next time I guess.

Larry's Chicken is open

Wow, we got a whole night without our kids!!! Brian and I were headed to a birthday party and Lauryn had been wanting to spend the night at her grandpa's forever. So she went with him and Collin went to Lali and Papa's. It was a much needed break for me.

We had only been gone for an hour when Lauryn called the cell phone and wanted to talk to me. I thought to myself..."One hour, that's all she can go" until I got on the phone. As soon as I said hello I hear this little voice yelling, "Mommy, Larry's Chicken is open and I'm eating RIGHT NOW!" The little turkey called to gloat that she got to have Larry's Chicken before I did :-)

Since we hadn't had dinner yet, we had to head back over to Larry's Chicken before the birthday party. I so miss that place when they are closed.

Life with Lauryn: the musical

Sometimes I think that I should change the title of this blog to reflect the title of this particular post. Lauryn sings everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I drives me crazy and cracks me up all at the same time. Yesterday she really wanted to share my tea. On a random side note, what 2 year old likes tea but won't touch juice? So she decided that maybe mommy would be more likely to share the tea if it was in song. "I want tea today, today, today...today. I would like to drink some tea TODAY!!!!" It was great. Then, of course, she forgot all about wanting the tea when she found something else to do. So I actually got to drink all of my tea with sharing. Woohoo for me :-)

Birthday time

So yesterday was my birthday and hy hubby took the day off to just hang out with us. We had a nice, lazy day at home. Then the plan was (I thought) a quiet dinner out just the 2 of us. Dinner was great...it's so nice to sit through a meal without having to share with anyone or listen to a one-sided conversation in song delivered by an almost 3-year-old :-)
When we got home, we walked in the door and I was greated my most of my family and friends! I can't believe that Brian got this all organized without giving anything away. We had a wonderful time and it was a great end of a very lovely birthday.

Now that my birthday is done, I guess that it's really time for me to get to planning Lauryn's party...it's coming up quickly.

Quiet

Sometimes I wonder if it will ever be quiet in my house again. I like it quiet, but my children have different ideas about what quiet really is. To Lauryn quiet is running around singing at the top of her lungs. I have no idea why she thinks that is quiet. Collin thinks quiet is when he bangs toys together. I, on the other hand, think that quiet is when I can hear myself think. If I want some quiet time to study or read or exercise without my kids climbing on me am I going to have to start getting up with my husband at 4:30???? Because I'm really not a morning person and I've found that I need more sleep than he does. Granted I still get up once in the middle of the night with the baby (when will he sleep through the night consistantly?) Do I stay up later than everyone else when it's cold and dark in my house? I don't know what to do. I just need some peace and quiet.

Here I am

OK people, as a response to friends and family wanting me to get this blog going...here I am. It may take me awhile to make mine as cool as some other people I know, but I'll get there. Collin's napping right now and Lauryn is wandering the house talking on Brian's old cell phone to who knows who. The girl never stops talking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It may be the death of me, but I love her.