20090331

Come on!

Okay. I knew I'd get here eventually--my first post from my iPod. It's gonna be really special, right?

I was in the bathroom today doing what people do in bathrooms. In walks some, I have to say it, IDIOT with his phone up to his ear. He pulls up to a urinal and, in addition to the expected transaction, leaves a detailed message about his day thus far on his girlfriend's voicemail.

First of all, who doesn't know that you don't talk on the phone in a restroom?

Second, how could anyone just casually talk on the phone in front of his coworkers who are *going to the bathroom?*

And lastly, what kind of man leaves a message for his girlfriend with "potty" sounds in the background?

Thanks, buddy, for making my day.

20090328

Picnic at Dean Park

We finally had some nice weather! Saturday was a beautiful day and we couldn't resist leaving our chores and projects and taking the afternoon to play. We packed up a picnic and went to Dean Park in Shrewsbury.

The kids had a blast playing in the wagon, walking on the trail around the pond, watching the turtles sun bathing on the rocks, skipping rocks, and playing at the playground. The afternoon went by way to quickly and we had a great day!


The trees are still bare and ugly but we finally saw signs of winter being over!



The kids were so happy to be free!






Amazingly enough Trevor did not end up in the water!


Abigail loves going outside with her hat and glasses


Trevor loved finding rocks to climb on


Can you tell that Abigail loves getting her picture taken? She is always climbing in pictures!

It was so exciting to see the turtles and each of the kids got to take turns using the binoculars to take a closer look at the turtles.


Even Abigail begged for a turn although she had no idea how to make them work. It made for a cute picture with her daddy.


After our adventures around the pond we headed over to the playground. The four older kids didn't keep in one place long enough for pictures but Abigail and Emersynne had a great time on the swings. This was Emersynne first time swinging. From all the smiles she gave us I would say that she liked it!





Saturday crafts

We didn't have very good weather while my Mom was here and that pretty much kept us at home on the weekend. Thank goodness for the dollar store crafts that the kids had fun doing. Unfortunately the craft time only lasted about 10 minutes. Oh well. The kids had fun!






Pictures

Just some more pictures from my Mom's visit. It's kind of hard to tell but the pictures of me with my Mom were before I got my hair done and the picture of me and Jeremiah were after I got hair done. Nice to have a fresh look. It's amazing how much better it feels after getting it trimmed up again!





Abigail's new bed

A few weeks ago we made the switch and got Emersynne out of the porta-crib and into the crib. This meant getting a new bed for Abigail. After doing lots of online research I found the bed I wanted and ordered it. Before the bed actually arrived Abigail had been moved out of the crib and was sleeping on a mattress on the floor. She was very excited with her new bed when it was only the mattress so you can imagine her excitement when her real bed was put together.

We put it together late one night, (I can say we because I screwed in one screw) carried it up to the girls room, and lifted the sleeping Abigail mattress and all into the new bed. We woke up the next morning to excited chatter as Abigail told the girls about her new bed.

Abigail has done very well with the transition and I am very happy with our new toddler bed. It is the first time we have bought a toddler bed. We moved our other kids from the crib to a twin bed but didn't have that option with Abigail because of our limited space in the girls room. The bed looks really cute and even matches the crib!

Swimming lessons

So Trevor finished up his gymnastics class and has started swimming lessons. He has gone three times now and loves it. He looks forward to Monday mornings when he can go swim. This past week his teacher brought out the slide the last few minutes of class and Trevor was ready for action!







New Toys!

Emersynne has some new toys thanks to our friends who are letting us borrow them. She is really enjoying sitting up more and getting a different perspective on things.




Sunday

I had wanted to get pictures of the kids before Church on Sunday and thought that I would be able to do it while my Mom was here. Jeremiah is not home Sunday mornings because of early morning church meetings so Sunday mornings are rather crazy. I managed to get a picture of Trevor before church and Natalie after church. Abigail saw me taking photos and wanted to get her picture taken too. When you scroll down to look at the photos you will understand why it is so important to take Abigail's picture before church instead of after church!



Doesn't he look handsome?!


Natalie was excited to go to church and show off her new haircut!


And here is little Abigail with her impossible hair. I did cut it off before my mom went home and it does look much better. Not quite as stringy but still pretty impossible.



20090327

Pajama Party

The kids were all showered, in pajamas, and ready for bed. What a good time to take pictures with Grandma!






There are only pictures of the older kids because the little ones were already in bed.

Fun with Grandma

Trevor, Abigail, and Emersynne got to spend lots of time with Grandma while the older kids were at school.



Trevor enjoyed reading books with Grandma.
I lost track of how many times they read "Fancy Nancy"


I managed to get this picture of the house Trevor made with Grandma
before Abigail destroyed it. She isn't as innocent as she looks!


Emersynne enjoyed having somebody else around to hold her.

The sixty-five dollar cake

I was going to title this post "The Forgotten Post" because I completely forgot to add this to the end of our dreaded week.

Along with Anthony's birthday, various doctors appointments, the Blue and Gold Banquet, and just life in general we also had the youth cake auction the first week in March. Although Michaela isn't officially a Young Women yet (six more months) she will be going to girls camp this summer and was invited to participate in the fund raiser. It was a Renaissance themed dinner/cake auction and each of the youth were supposed to make a cake to be auctioned. Michaela was coming up with some great ideas to make a castle cake but with all that we had going on that week I was able to talk her into something else. We decided on a chocolate cake made from scratch with chocolate frosting made from scratch. Michaela was really excited and made some white chocolate candy (shells) to go on the outside of the cake. It all smelled so good while we were making the cake and I knew what cake I wanted to bid on. Unfortunately for us the cake was out of our price range and sold for sixty-five dollars! I really wanted that cake but not that bad. As I am typing this my kitchen is filled with chocolate smells and the cake is almost ready to come out of the oven. Jeremiah requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for his birthday so it looks like I will get some cake after all!




Michaela and the $65 cake!




Yummy!

Recap

Yes we are all still alive here on the East Coast. Things have just been rather busy but busy in a good way. When things are crazy, busy, and stressful I make the time to post to keep my sanity. When things are busy but fun, I don't get to the computer to document our days. So now I will just have to back up and let you all know what we have been up to.

My mom was here for two weeks and we had a great time! Unfortunately for the kids they had extended school days the whole time she was here. That was the grand plan for making up our snow days. In addition to the seven days we get to make up at the end of the school year we have one more week of extended school days. Hopefully after that we won't need to take another snow day!

The kids were good sports and enjoyed having Grandma here to help with homework and of course I don't think any of the kids did their chores while Grandma was here either. I don't think I did any of my chores for that matter either. Somehow the chores magically got done but the magic only works when my mom is around.

We did lots of shopping and several of the kids are all set with summer clothes. I really enjoyed getting out of the house everyday. I don't often do that because it isn't worth it to drag the 3 little ones around especially when the weather is cold and yucky. I went out one morning to get my hair done and then took Michaela and Natalie another afternoon to get their hair cut. We are all very happy with our new hair!

We didn't do anything really exciting and mostly just tried to keep up with taking care of the family but it was so nice to have my Mom here to share all that with. We did lots of talking and planning for our summer trip to Utah and of course we took pictures. The pictures are now on the laptop so stay tuned for a look at our fun with Grandma.

20090304

The Dreaded week-Day 3

The Blue and Gold Banquet went really well last night but it was 10pm before we got the kids into bed. That made for a rough morning and we had to drag children out of bed at 7:15 to get them out the door on time. Everybody (mommy included) was moving in slow motion but the school kids all managed to get ready on time and ran out when the bus pulled up.

As soon as the school kids left I scrambled to finish getting myself and the little ones ready so we could take Jeremiah to work and go to our 9am appointment. Fortunately it was a quick appointment because Trevor and Abigail were both so tired (Emersynne slept the whole time in her car seat).

The rest of the day wasn't so bad and we were able to come home, have lunch, and take naps. Then the after school routine started up with homework, piano lessons, making dinner, and picking Jeremiah up from work. Then it was dinner, more homework, baths, and putting kids to bed.

My day is looking not bad at all tomorrow since I had to call and change Michaela's orthodontist appointment to another day. We found out today that tomorrow she is having state mandated testing and that's not such a good thing to miss! So no rushing out the door in the morning and only a meeting at 4pm for Michaela and myself to meet the Principal of Burncoat Middle School which is where she will be attending next year. Looks like I will be able to get caught up with the chores and maybe get some laundry out of the way! A little breather before the chaos that we have going on Friday and Saturday.

We didn't make it home in time for The Mentalist but it was a rerun so it all worked out!

Happy Birthday Anthony!

Before getting into bed last night Anthony said, "This was the best birthday ever!" So I guess it all was a success.

Anthony was so excited that the Blue and Gold Banquet was on his birthday and was excited with his special cake. We decided to go the easy route and ordered the cake at Sam's Club. It was really nice to have one less thing to worry about and Anthony was really happy with how the cake looked when we went to pick it up.








Of course, Anthony wanted the piece from the middle. He made a pretty good dent in that square of cake and then shared the rest with some friends.



Anthony is doing great in Cub Scouts and received 2 progress beads towards his Bear last night and 3 belt loops. Yesterday he made the comment that Cub Scouts was great and that he was so lucky because his dad was Cub Master. It was such a sweet thing to hear.

It's hard to believe that Anthony is already 9 years old. Where did the time go? He is such a sweet boy and I keep reminding myself that when he has his days where he goes out of his way to annoy his brother and sisters.

I love you Anthony! Keep up the good work!

20090303

The dreaded week--Day 2

After staying up way too late helping Jeremiah get the last things ready for the Blue and Gold Banquet, and getting up twice with Emersynne, I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through the day.

All the kids were up at crack of dawn (6am) excited that today is Anthony's birthday. Since tonight we will be up at the church for the banquet we decided to have a birthday breakfast and have Anthony open presents before school. We sat down to cinnamon rolls, sausage, scrambled eggs, and fruit cocktail. Delicious! Thank goodness for Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. On a day like today it was so nice to have something quick to throw in the oven. I put candles in the cinnamon rolls and we sang to Anthony.



Anthony was so excited to open presents he hardly ate breakfast. That is very unusual for Anthony who never seems to stop eating. He was excited about his Wall-e sheets (to match his comforter he got a few weeks ago), his cub scout hat and neckerchief, big bag of jelly bellies to go in his jelly belly machine, and the spider man accessories the kids gave him.


















Trevor was so excited for Anthony to open the present he gave him that he could hardly contain himself! It was cute to see him giggling on the couch with excitement!




After presents we quickly loaded everybody up in the car and dropped the kids off at school and Jeremiah off at work. We are home for a few hours and after lunch it is back to school to drop off cookies to Anthony's class and have a meeting with the school health teacher to go over the curriculum she will be teaching the 6th graders soon. Ah, the joys of learning about the reproductive system and puberty! Then it's home to hopefully get kids down for a late nap, wait for the school kids to get home so I can leave Michaela in charge while I run to Sam's Club to pick up the cake, ice cream, and veggie platter for tonight.

We will pick Jeremiah up from work at 5pm and go straight to the church to set up for the Blue and Gold Banquet which starts at 6:30and goes to 8pm. Then we clean up, come home, quickly get kids into bed because it will be way past bedtime, and hopefully be able to watch the Mentalist before I crash.

I just hope I have enough energy to last the day!

20090302

The dreaded week

A few weeks ago I pulled out the calender and realized that a yucky week was coming up. Busy days and something going on every day. Well, that week is finally here. It is only Monday and I am already exhausted and thinking about everything going on makes me even more exhausted!

I had planned on getting the house cleaned up and organized today to be ready for the upcoming chaos but last night we got a phone call from the school saying school for Monday was canceled due to a incoming storm that was predicted to drop 12-13 inches of snow. So now I have kids home all day and yes I did put them to work although it is hard to do the deep cleaning and organizing with twelve little feet running around.

As we got out of bed this morning and told the kids they would get to stay home I jokingly said to Jeremiah ,"wouldn't it be great if you had a snow day too and got to stay home with us?" That would be great but not very likely. After breakfast Jeremiah headed out the door for work and I was once again glad his commute is just down the street. It was snowing lots and he pulled into the parking lot of work to find that it was empty. The office had closed for the day so we got to all stay home together.

Jeremiah put the kids to work making posters and stars for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet and we enjoyed being in our nice warm home watching the snow fly around outside.

The kids kept begging to go outside and play but with the wind the feels like temperature was in the single digits. Burrrrrrr! After dinner we did bundle up and go outside for a few minutes giving the kids rides around the courtyard in the sleds. Then it was showers and bedtime and more work getting stuff ready for the Blue and Gold. Anthony was pretty excited to get into bed and go to sleep. I think he was hoping that by going to bed early it would make his birthday come quicker!