Thanksgiving 2016

I stood sobbing over two bowls of marshmallow salad. It started with just two tears streaming down my face but by the time I was folding whipped topping into the fluffy marshmallows and fruit I was sobbing. Making Thanksgiving dinner is a joy to me but the stress of October lingered and Thanksgiving was starting to feel like another thing I had to do. I just wanted a shower. The kids had been wild and restless for weeks. Madeline had also been a monkey for weeks. She's so wild!
Minutes before the tears fell I yelled at Ricky for basically nothing. He irritated me about something dumb and I got snappy. He told me he wasn't going to hang out in the kitchen with me if I was going to yell at him. So then I did yell at him, "I'm not yelling at you, THIS is yelling at you!" I was feeling tired (it was nearing midnight) and I was so grumpy. (Or at this point totally pissed off.) I continued on, "And don't be in the kitchen then! I don't care because "everything's" ruined now anyway."

Sigh. Stress. Sad face.

I had a hard week, and when I really think about it, this has also been a bit of a hard year for various reasons that I don't want to spell out.

Madeline has been so demanding this week and really this month. She is into everything. All day long we chase her around. She also chases me around wanting to be held. She is very needy but so very sweet. She's not a hard baby in actuality, but she keeps us very busy. This week she's been pulling cans out of the cupboard. She's wrapped the vacuum cord around her neck. She also just wants to tear massive amounts of stuff up. She's constantly wiggling from her high chair and then standing up in her high chair. When you get her down she just climbs up the kitchen chairs and the kitchen table. She falls off the chairs regularly and yesterday she fell off the table. She basically landed head first on the wood floor. I was running over to her when it happened. In almost slow motion, before I could reach her, there she toppled feet over her head just as she peeked over the edge of the table in a squat. Insane child! Most people, the kind without nine kids, probably would have rushed their child to the hospital. After only a few minutes of crying and nursing and then a half hour of playing I gave mine a car ride to make her fall asleep.I have no idea why she STILL climbs up chairs. She falls of them frequently. Kids are amazing and resilient. The human species in general is too. Also, genetics. Ricky's head and his children's heads are like bricks! I've never seen anything like it. One time Beatrice fell out of the van while we were loading it up. She was around two and I was right next to her. She talked in full paragraphs very young and insisted I did NOT have to help her up! She toppled out on her head. She still has an actual dent on her head from it. That actually scared me very badly. The sound of head hitting black top is horrid. She was totally fine. Her head dented though! Their skulls are all part metal or brick, I'm sure of it.

Picture from December 2016 (which hasn't even happened yet because this is a NOVEMBER 2016 post, remember. lol) See, told you. She's nuts. She tries to run down the slide.

You know when someone's kid gets hurt or dies from drowning, or an equally horrible thing, and everyone lashes out at the parents and calls them the worst ever? The holier than thou parents (and grandparents) come out in hoards on online comment sections preaching about how they never take their eyes off their kids ever, and this would never happen to them. Yeah whatever. Parenting is hard and kids do stuff. Not only do accidents happen, but sometimes you have these really freaking crazy kids (like Everett the bull riding fire fighter and adventurous Madeline especially) and nearly every time you turn around they are being totally insane.

So, Thanksgiving...
I sobbed while folding the marshmallows and fruit together. The small gluten free pizza I was baking for us as a late dinner was done. I cut it and solemnly brought Ricky half. He ate quietly in the dark bedroom while he finished watching TV. Afterwards he came in the kitchen and asked me if I wanted help. I had stopped crying but started again as I blurted out, "I'm so sorry I was mean to you." Tears. Lots of tears fell as big man arms wrapped all the way around my sobbing body. He's the best. This is marriage, the raw stuff. The I'd do anything for you no matter what stuff. The best stuff: like bringing your husband pizza because he needs to eat even if you are snappy and annoyed, or offering help and giving bear hugs to your wife even when she was being the mean one. No grudges or grievances to be had.

"For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish..."

Does anyone really think about what "for worse" means? I didn't really. I always just assumed it meant during hard times or illness --pretty similar to the 'poorer' and 'in sickness' thing actually. Turns out it probably means more like when your partner is suddenly a grouchy jerk to you and you show them grace and humility. When we show our worst sides we need to still work towards loving and cherishing each other. (Note: This should not extend itself into abuse.)

He forgave me. He apologized. (He didn't need to.) I cried. I felt better. Release.

We finished making marshmallow salad, jello, stuffing, and pumpkin pie together until our eyes were drooping closed. We had a nice Thanksgiving. I'm always thankful for him and for who we are together. We truly bring out the best in each other.

1 year ago~ Newborn Madeline

I was pretty busy, but I finally got my shower at 2pm Thanksgiving day after everything was almost ready. I told my family that no one eats until I shower!  Barely squeezed that in!

I was very pleased with my braided pie crusts! I LOVE making homemade pie.

 We played Pie Face (kids loved it!) and ate and ate and ate.

We all ate around the kitchen table. Big family life!

Reminds me of this gem of a movie, Cheaper By the Dozen

And that's a wrap! My calendar is cleared. I am looking forward to hibernation time. Usually in the winter we stay in a lot. We hunker down like bears. So very thankful for that.

Kid Snippets: 

November 10th
Bea (3) was looking closely at the bushes and flowers outside the library....
Bea: "Mom are these flowers all out of bees?"
Me: That's so cute Bea. You know so much stuff, like how flowers are supposed to have bees on them.
Bea: Yeah cause I know everything! Just like I know about doggies in the road and old leaves and bees in flowers! Cause I am sooo big and sooo smart, too.

And so cute too! She is great. (I have no idea what doggies in the road meant! I love it though!) Picture below is outside of the library next to the flowers. Bea decided to crawl through the bike racks, Penelope is following.

Always stop to smell the flowers...and crawl through make-shift tunnels

November 7
Bea (3) a few minutes ago at 4-freaking-am...
Bea: Mom, is it almost Christmas?
Me: No honey, not yet.
Bea: Mom is it almost Christmas?
Me: No, it's almost Thanksgiving.
Bea: Mom, is it almost Christmas?
Me: No!
Bea: Mom, is it almost Christmas?
Me: Bea, NO! You've asked me four times!! Stop asking!
Bea says nothing for 10 minutes, then she says, "Mom, I talk a lot when I talk."

(Oh goodness, I LOVE HER!)

November 3
“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.” –Plato

November 28 

Everett age (6) loves to try to cook things in front of the space heater in the kitchen. "I want perfect ham" he tells me quite seriously as he places lunch meat in front of the heater.  It actually cooked to my surprise! He was thrilled. He's been obsessed with freezing things for years. It's actually comical. If he has two cookies he'll freeze one. He freezes milk and all kinds of things. It drives me crazy but it is also super adorable and interesting how much he loves freezing things. Now he has taken a fancy with the space heater. 

Last summer he kept trying to freeze our blackberries from our bushes. We didn't have enough to freeze though! We wanted to eat them fresh. If I wanted frozen blackberries I would buy some from Costco. He would beat us to the bushes sometimes and we'd go crazy because he'd have the ripe ones frozen already without us knowing. It's pretty hilarious even though we were also not happy he was doing it. He LOVES freezing stuff to see how it changes.

You Have to Love Four Year Olds

Today we were unwrapping Hershey's Kisses to make peanut butter blossoms. As little four year old Everett helped he soon noticed there was a paper with writing attached to each one. He started asking us what his "fortune" said. It took me a minute to realize that he thinks they are similar to fortune cookies!

Ricky and I are just beaming with grins on our faces now and just laugh at the cuteness. The other kids thought it was so funny and cute too.  So I start the game... I read him some of the "fortunes" he handed me. I tell him different things like:
Your family is special
Siblings are friends
Soon you will bake cookies for holiday fun

Each one I "read" he smiles at and full of pleased excitement yells "yay!" at whatever I say. He is having a total blast.

He hands me yet another paper and this time I say: "Cookies bring sweetness to life"
Everett: Yay!!! WAIT. Wait. So my cookies will come ALIVE?
Ricky: No, cookies will bring SWEETNESS to our life.
Everett: Oh phew, I thought mom said they would come alive.

Then Everett gets in on the fun. He tells us he will read us some fortunes now. 
Everett made up the following great fortunes off the top of his head:
When someone wears a hat they are a dad.
When snowflakes fall Santa will come to your house.
When you wear a firefighter hat then you have to help the firefighter put out the fire. 

We had such a great laugh. He is so cute!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had quite the surprise today when Santa and his mother were across the street visiting loved ones at the cemetery! I went outside with Everett as they were leaving and Everett yelled, "Santa! Merry Christmas Santa!" then Santa came over! Santa got a teddy bear out of his car and gave it to Everett! Everett gave it a big ol' hug and was so, so happy! It was just great. Charlotte is the one who thought to run out with the camera! (Thanks Charlotte!) Everett didn't ask, but Santa told him he didn't have his Santa hat on because it falls off when he is driving. We know it was the real Santa because 1. He obviously loved children 2. He had toys with him 3. He had real beard and number 4 is the weirdest of all... Layla pointed out that the dogs did not bark at him! Our dogs bark like crazy at everyone. Merry Christmas to all! 

Everett clutching the teddy bear

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Everett, like most kids, likes to play with tape. He got a hold of some tape and taped his plate to the table and taped his banana back together. This pleased him so much I had to congratulate him on his ingenuity. I have never had a kid tape a banana back together before. 

4th of July and Family Freedom

As I rushed around baking pie and helping my kids get their supplies to make their cute desserts, as I asked everyone to wear red, white, and blue this year for our 4th annual 4th of July family photo, as I prepared appetizers, treats, dinner, desserts...

As placed band-aids on boo-boos, as I got dressed, as I nursed my baby, as we laughed and played, as we had a watermelon eating contest, and as I watched my husband make himself a cocktail with mint and lime....

As we dug through fireworks and put flag football belts on, as I watched the kids wrestle and play leap frog, as we took photos and shared family time...

As we did all of this I thought to myself how important today is to our family. I took many moments to reflect on what freedom means to to us as a family and how important freedom is.

Ways We Are Free

If we lived somewhere else we might not be able to have as many children as we do, by law. If we lived somewhere else I could even be forced (taken from my home and literally held down and forced) to have an abortion (even of a term baby). It happens in 2013.

If we lived somewhere else we might not be able to homeschool our children. Our children could be taken away from us even if we were giving them a good education, even if we tried to comply with laws (which are often inconsistent even when homeschooling is allowed) and even if we attempted to move somewhere where else it was legal. It happens. Parents lose their kids and/or are forced to put them in government schools, it happens in 2013.

If we lived somewhere else we might not be allowed to be any religion we wanted and able to raise our children that way if we want. It still happens in 2013. 

If we lived somewhere else we might not have as much health care freedom, although ours is slipping away and parental rights have been grossly challenged in the past two decades, we still have freedom. And we still live in a country that has vaccine exemptions for school attendance because no one should ever be forced to consume anything against ones own will whatever their medical, religious or personal reasons/convictions may be. Forced vaccination/ medication happens in 2013.

If we lived somewhere else we might not be allowed to stay home and give birth the way we chose to unassisted. (Or we'd have to lie about it.) Midwife assisted homebirth however is legal in many but not all states.

I'm thankful for these freedoms, and many more. Not everyone needs or wants the same freedoms, and that's why being free is so, so darn important.

Busy months, ready for holidays, homeschool/toddler burn out, saving money, Charlotte's 16 now...

Just a long busy week, actually long busy September AND October....
Lots of responsibilities and trying to get back into a routine this week, and mostly not having much fun. (but I'm not feeling fun anyway :)

 Ricky's work computer crashed last night for the THIRD time this year. The first time they fixed it, the second time they replaced the hard drive, now I don't know what they will do. Poor thing, he's so behind because of various projects and working so hard. I'd be a lot more stressed out than he seems! We are still on the 'leaves every day at 5:30am and gets home at 7 or 8pm schedule'. I'm so tired of getting the kids dinner and ready for bed alone. It's not really that bad, but it's sure not fun! This type of work load seems to happen for several months out of the year, I'll just hope it gets better by the holidays! He has a smile on his face when he gets home though. We still find time to love each other, spend time with each other, have coffee, talk, hold hands. This makes my life 100% perfect and able to deal with anything that comes our way. I don't take it for granted, not even for a day. He is amazing.
~~~
The little girls each had their first Girl Scout meetings this week, they had fun. I'm an actual co-leader in Penelope's troop now.

Right now I am focused on school work and routine with the kids, and just added yard work to our to-do list. Outside is badly neglected and needing some attention before it gets too cold to do anything. So the kids have been working hard too. I've felt really high strung and irritable lately, like everything the little kids do annoys me. I can't wait for that to pass. I realized recently that I was totally burnt out. Burnt out by the kids, homeschool, toddlers, responsibility, serving dinner to whining, complaining preschoolers, Layla's mood swings...TODDLERS!
Everett is a typical two year old. A good portion of the day he is in tears and a good portion he is running around like a crazy person. He dumps out toy boxes. He mimics every single thing -bad or good- that the other kids do. He is sweet, but he is a pain. He nurses when he's bored. I'm so tired of that. (again typical)

Pretty much the only way I get through burn-out stages is to *know* it's going to get better and work really hard at pushing through one hour or one day at a time, and taking a nap if possible in-between long days. As much as I want to throw my hands up in the air and give up I know it will only make things worse, so I work hard at not getting behind. And I work hard at not throwing the broom....
I hit the broom on the floor six times really, really hard the other day and yelled, "I'm SO FREAKING TIRED OF THIS CRAP." LOL. :) I totally felt better afterwards. I needed a time-out. I need a soft bat to hit things with. I need to be grounded.

This too shall pass.

Penelope just showed me that she drew 'ice cream cone monsters' on a piece of paper. It's really cute. Almost everyday I take the little kids across the street to the old quiet, grassy cemetery to sit in the grass, play ball, read and do an activity. This gives the older kids some quiet work time too. We made a leaf bar graph yesterday. (counting fall leaf colors).

My oven works again. It broke last month and we just did not have time to care. (Well we cared, but we couldn't do much about it.) Ricky finally had a chance to fix it and it only cost $27.00, yay! We have a few other repairs that are piling up and we keep ignoring them...for now. I hope to make pie and cookies today and tomorrow. I just now thought it was Thursday, but it is actually Wednesday. So I have an extra day. Humm, not sure if that is bad or good.

So the oven...I was happy we could make cornbread to go with chili last night. It's baking season. Soon Christmas cookies will fill the air. I love pecan snowballs. I am working on a blog post about Christmas. We are not buying a bunch of toys this year, but instead only giving the kids a filled stocking with a toy from Santa. We are really focused on saving money right now. We have cut out so many things because we just have too many expenses and debt. We also dream about buying some acreage so we can raise chickens and geese for meat (for us and to sell). Maybe goats too. We definitely want a milk goat. Oh and there are these small breed milk cows I dream about having! So we are going to try and save up just in case some good property becomes available. We adore our home though, but if it were just on more acreage darn it! I've actually found some neat property, but we need to get on track and spend way less to make that possible. We decided we should never go into Target ever again, stop buying little things here and there, almost only shop second hand and I'm stocking up less at home in the way of food. We are trying weekly shopping for a while. We usually go on a couple HUGE shopping trips a month, but I find it's too hard to regulate spending/eating this way.

So this Christmas we are focusing on creating an old time family style Christmas. Cutting our own tree down, making decorations, stringing popcorn and cranberries, Christmas caroling, having a hot cocoa party, and making a homemade Christmas village that we will start next month and work on for all of December too. I started a Pinterest board for Christmas ideas too. The idea is to fill our December with even more family time, crafts and meaningfulness than usual, instead of spending money on more 'stuff.' We clearly do not need more toys. I am starting a list of what activities we are doing and how much they will cost. Supplies can really add up, but the idea is simple, cost effective, meaningful. I'm still looking for a perfect Christmas Day activity. I wish I could count on sledding and tubing, but we may not have snow.

I can not wait to make these! I hope we are awesome at it.

Well there is my run-on update. Oh and Charlotte is awesome.  (Sage and Ethan too!!) They sense my recent irritability and they know the little kids have been a total handful, so they have really been trying to help me out and are being compassionate to my cranky overwhelming-ness. 

Our oldest, Charlotte turned 16 last month. We had an elaborate Alice in Wonderland Party for her 16th birthday. This is the link to the party Blog, all nice and updated with pictures The party was fantastic. I was so busy planning her delightful party that I hardly noticed or cried about my baby girl turning SIXTEEN!

Photo area I made for Charlotte's party

Since I decided to blog this morning I will pay dearly...Everett got into the cornbread and crumbled it all over the kitchen.  There is also play dough everywhere!

Summer Heat, Childhood Memories, Pet Raccoons, and No Fireworks ... but super fun games planned!!!!

This year we had a record breaking mild winter and when everyone feared the summer was 'going to be a hot one' I balked at the thought. It was wishful thinking! Now that we're having the biggest drought I can remember and record high temps for June, I've settled in on the fact that this summer is indeed a scorcher. Since I grew up in the desert the hot heat doesn't bother me as much as some people, it just makes me drink a ton of water and miss my family in Las Vegas! I think it's funny that our weekly forecast weather picture online has a blazing orange-red sun and Vegas has a happy yellow regular sun. This 108 degree craziness makes me nostalgic for swimming as a young child, the smell of chlorine and sun tan lotion on my skin, and the ice cream truck. (All things my husband just said make me a former city girl) 


The dry heat reminds me of swimming and Las Vegas, and swimming reminds me of my Great Grandma Nana. When my sister Christy and I would go swimming at her and Grandma Smith's house Grandma Nana would make us the best grilled cheese sandwiches. I remember every detail of that house and backyard. Those are awesome magical childhood memories right there. They had horses and pet raccoons, too! We don't have coons in Las Vegas, but these ones were brought in from another state where we had been visiting on a road trip. Their mother had been killed by a nearby farmer and my Grandma Smith and family took them in and bottle fed them kitten milk. There had been three babies but one didn't survive. Rakell and Ricardo survived though, and they lived out long lives in a ginormous enclosure over a huge pine tree in Las Veagas that happened to be right next to the swimming pool.  We fed them oatmeal cookies for treats.


But, those fond memories doesn't mean I like it this hot, no way! People and animals get hurt in heat like this. To keep cool I highly recommend ice chips! Also make sure animals have cool water in the shade at all times. We've been checking on our chickens, guineas and geese 4-5 times a day. Our poor little chickens are panting like crazy. We get the ground wet at night and it helps the ground stay cooler during the day for them to lay on. During the day we check and make sure the chickens aren't staying boxed up in the hen house during the day (too hot). At night when they all go in we open their door and blow some night air in with a fan until the inside has cooled down. It helps cool things off and I'm sure helps them sleep easier. In the morning I let them out extra early so they can enjoy the hours before the burn.

The fan in the chicken house door

You know when weeds are dying that it is hot and dry. We got our water bill and it was over $100 just as I suspected it would be. (Boy I miss well water!  I'll try hard to never buy a house with city water again. We had well water when we moved in, but hooked onto city because of other homes in our area. They have failing septic tanks and it's a concern that the failing tanks contaminate area wells.) I've been watering the garden like crazy and keeping the animals cool. The goose pool takes extra water, but I bucket out the dirty water and water plants with it every other day. The kids also play in the water and I have little kids that totally waste bath water. I'm not going to cut down on garden watering, but we need to cut down on household usage big time! For one, I can't let the little kids fill their baths up without adult supervision anymore. Everyone needs to take shorter showers and the little kids tiny baths. I dream of gray water gardening someday!

Independence Day
With this dry heat comes extra responsibility for the the Fourth of July. Tons of firework shows have been cancelled. We are under extreme fire threat due to dry and dangerous conditions so we are not going to set off anything that goes into the air. This is also reminiscent of my childhood because we weren't allowed air born fireworks in Las Vegas. So we'll just have to wait on the bigger ones and set of the smaller ground ones on the concrete in the front yard (after watering the grass down well). Those fireworks are so much fun for kids anyway. They pick them out, line them up and like seeing them get lit close up. This year we are adding a twist to our festivities since the fireworks will be shortened and not leaving the ground. This year I am adding a bunch of games to our party. (To which my husband already said, "Outside??? Do you know how hot it is?" To which I said, "We have water games, too. Sheeesh." I'm am 100% an outdoors person. This is obvious.)

Fun Fourth of July Picnic Games

sack race

water gargling contest

watermelon eating contest

apple bobbing

cheerio-butter face contest (Put butter on face and using no hands try and rub your face on a table of cheerios, the person with the most wins.) 

whipped cream cheerio face (Put whipped cream on your partners face, then throw cheerios, the couple with the most that sticks wins.)

drip drip goose (Duck Duck Goose, but you get water dumped on you when the person says GOOSE)

egg roulette (8 hardboiled, 4 uncooked eggs go around in a circle and you see how lucky you are when you take turns smashing them on each others head)

Old fashioned water balloon toss -which almost always turns into water balloon fight!

                                                                 Last Years Picture 2011

Every year we have a big family celebration/tradition on the 4th. Just our big family of nine has a big celebration. We make loads of food, pie, homemade ice cream and drinks. We always have Bomb Pops during fireworks. Our Fourth of July party is one of my favorite traditions. Sitting on the porch with the whole family for our yearly family photo and fireworks is really fun. Seeing the kids all dig through the firework box that Uncle Jason gives to them each year builds lasting memories.

Pictures From Two Years Ago! Pregnant with Everett 2010

Ricky and Charlotte painted my belly

                              Be safe this year everyone. Playing with fire is dangerous!

Mother's Day

Amazing and Fun Mother's Day! 

The children clamoured around the kitchen at 7am. I heard pots and pans and chatter, a few disagreements and then I was brought a huge omelet with spinach, cheese and onions, toast with strawberry jelly drawn on with a heart, fruit salad with a heart shaped kiwi in the center, coffee, creamer and two frosted toaster pastries. I was touched and proud of their teamwork and generosity. 

Ricky gave me a super cute Mother's Day card from him and a swimsuit top I mentioned was cute at Target. He had never even seen it and I didn't even think he was listening when I told him I saw a cute top at Target. I described it to him though in a ramble, and he went and found it! I told him not to get me anything for Mother's Day since I had such a big birthday last month. He's so very thoughtful. I don't need to wonder how he became so thoughtful, I don't need to look any further than his mom and dad. They are super wonderful and thoughtful people. His dad sent me amazingly gorgeous flowers a couple days before Mother's Day with a sweet note attached thanking me for being a great mother for his grand kids. 

When I was just about done eating Sebastian and Penelope came to visit with me and I snuggled with them. I called Sage in to take a picture of us and just as he was taking a picture I told Sebastian to move positions and when I helped him his legs hit the platter of food - food and coffee dumped all over the bed!

So this is the picture we got instead 

Later on I saw the adorable sign Penelope and Layla made for me, and the kids gave me handmade cards (which are always soooo creative and awesome).  They also gifted me with some herb plants and a new grill spatula. I use grill spatulas in the kitchen. I hate small wussy spatulas I like big metal ones! Ours recently broke so I was really glad to have a new one!  

Then it was work day time! Every Mother's Day I take full advantage of my family helping do yard work, cleaning the chicken coop, getting the garden ready, Etc. I love it! The boys filled and hauled soil-compost from the chicken area for three new raised beds we put up. 

We took a couple hour break in the afternoon when suddenly Aunt Sharon showed up unexpectedly -from two hours away! She told me her and Grandma were here to share the "Mother's Day Surprise" with me. 

My Dad was in town!!! So just then my Dad and Grandma start walking up the driveway to surprise me. He flew in for just a day to surprise his mom. The kids were so happy to see Grandpa, even little Everett was happy. We had an awesome afternoon chatting and ate some fruit they brought over. They also brought some wine called Island Getaway... Ricky wears tropical shirts all the time in the summer so this was a fluke and not planned to go with the wine lol. We made him be in the picture just as Sage was taking it apparently, too funny.

They were off to dinner before my dad had to go to his hotel room near the airport order to catch his super early am flight back. I snuck out of the house and joined them for dinner. My family was super awesome and didn't think anything of me ditching them. I think they were grateful I wasn't home to come up with more yard work, LOL! Ricky was glad I could get some more visit time with my Dad and was happy to 

to stay home with all the kids.

We went to a Japanese grill and had loads of fun.

My family does two things VERY well: Eating and having fun

Our chef made us try and catch shrimp in our mouths while he flung it in our faces!

We are trying to figure out what this critter is! 

Mother's Day roses from the restaurant

Then we sat around and talked for an hour outside (and let the drinks get out of our system before driving). It was a fantastic day and night!

Overnight Trips Away ~~ PACKING



Why do these people have so much stuff and only 1 kid, does this make any sense?

My friend told me I should be helping her big family of six kids pack for a weekend away because I should be good at it by now, as we go away on 2-3 night visits more often than she does. Here's what I told her to do :) (Number 7 cracks me up! It's so true!)

1. Wash all clothes, or at least enough to pack. Make sure 1 load is drying right before you leave and stand around waiting for it.


2. Line up kids clothes on the couch in sets with socks and underwear. Older kids bring their own to you and you tell them which ones you approve of and then explain for the 1000th time what play clothes vs nice clothes are.

3. Use 3 laundry baskets instead of suitcases and start packing kids clothes in them. Don't forget extra blankets if needed and a sling (usually only need this for babies), bring a zip lock baggy of  Motrin and other care items for kids. ~~If you have a baby or two pack up the cloth diapers! (Or wuss out and decide to buy throw away diapers on the way there which I have done lol!)

4. Start packing the grown up clothing stuff in one of the baskets, top it off with personal care items: make up bag, toiletry bag, hair dryer, curlers or whatever.

5. Intend on having this all loaded up and ready to go the night before you leave but fail at that thought, I always do. LOL!

6. Get that last load of laundry out of the dryer but forget what you really need out of it because the baskets are already packed. So just pack a couple more clothes just for good measure.

7. Forget to pack your own pajamas.

8. Leave 4 hours later than you thought you would and now every kid is starving to death. At least one kid can't find their shoes. But more likely it's two kids.

9. Have fun :D

I love the fall ~ and early winter fun...

 Fall is the perfect backdrop for cute photos. This is such a great time of year to snuggle up with loved ones and enjoy the holidays. We were just talking about how we are ready for the season of coziness, delicious treats, seasonal foods and coffee creamers! We love warm sweaters, hot cocoa, pumpkin pie, rosette iron cookies. I love decorating early for both Halloween and Christmas to enjoy it for a while. We didn't build and decorate gingerbread houses last year, we will for sure make them this year (save uneaten Halloween candy for them)! Halloween is almost at a close and then two more months of fun before hibernating for the rest of the winter. We are like bears. This winters plans include learning piano and some Spanish, doing lots of crafts, crocheting and sewing. 

Mother's Day

The baby was fussy all weekend but it didn't keep us from having a wonderful time. Since pictures are worth a thousand words I took tons. Click photo to go to album.

A new WHAT?

It's JANUARY? January!? Serious? I haven't posted since last year. Shameful.

Can I gush about HIM then? Everett turned 3 months old recently. Oh I love him more than the moon. More than the nights glorious starry sky. I love him like a Mama bear loves her cub. He is sunshine on a rainy day. He is SO.MUCH.FUN.

Below is a recent picture of our next three youngest, Penelope 4, Layla 6 and Sebastian 2

I've tried to blog. I think I even have a draft saved from December. I need to write. I need to make time.

So Christmas was divine family time. I am one of those people that throws on a big Christmas production. Gifts, gifts and more gifts. I look at it this way: Some people go on vacations, I throw big Christmases for the kids. But we've had lots of fun games and toys to play. We are having the MOST fun with Sum Swamp, Zingo, and Pandabo ( I found it for cheap -but I've seen it everywhere for 24.99. Don't pay that much!! Amazon has it for $39.99 definitely don't pay that much!)

These have been some of the funnest (educational! unschooling!) games we've bought ---and we have millions of games in this house.

I've got a million projects going. It's so crazy. My goal in the new year is to finish them. Every time I get one done (or partially done) I start 3 more. Then while starting those three I find 4 more I want to start. And this continues an endless pattern.

The word for this year...I hadn't thought of one until this very moment... it is:

completion

So tomorrow our homechool activity will be for every one to find a special word and we will print it up or write it and the kids can decorate it, write companion words or goals to go with it or draw pictures around it and make it *theirs* then we can talk about how we can each make our word come to life!

Happy 4th of July

My husband and 13 year old, Charlotte, painted my 29 week belly for the 4th. Charlotte is going to paint other belly murals on me over the few weeks. Pictures will be posted!


Our big family...

Me and my sweetie in-between lighting fireworks for the kids

Layla having fun -she will be 6yrs old in a month


Summer is here and this is how I know: it's hot, the 4th has passed, the water and power bill are sky-high and it now takes me an hour and 40 min to water everything I've planted. Why oh why do I plant so much stuff every year!? My husband doesn't understand how I can be so happy and so stressed with my garden and landscaping at the same time. lol.

Life is good ... BUT we don't think about the fact that we had $2200 worth of unexpected bills come up this month! ugh. But we have our health, we have each other, we have another baby on the way and so we keep on moving through time happily because this too shall pass.

And July takes off in full force...with chicken pox

We got the chicken pox at our house. The older 4 kids already had them all at once years ago, so only Penelope and Sebastian need take a turn this time. Penelope had a easy time of it. She calls them 'bug bites.' She didn't even get a pox on her face! And only 1 that I could find on her head. She mostly got them on her backside. Sebastian is still in the throws of a high fever and hasn't broken out yet. Poor little guy. He's resting in the crook of my arm right now dazing in and out of reality. I do give fever reducers, just not continuously. I usually give it only if they can't get comfortable. It's also amazing how much you can reduce a fever by cool rags and a light fan in the room.

The older kids recently finished a 3 part art class at the library. Over the past week Ricky had a birthday, cousin Echo came to town, we lit fireworks, we went to six flags, we watched some family themed movies, we had a nice cool rain storm and unseasonably cool days, and we also ate lots of ice cream and homemade apple pie. Ricky took a few days off work so he actually was home 5 days in a row. Now that it's Monday it sure is hard to get back into the swing of things. Oh wait... was I ever in the swing...?

The older kids are at their theatre camp this week (with their cousin). Luckily I have wonderful family taking them to and from the majority of the camp so I don't have to go out with sick kids. Sebastian seems miserable. It's going to be a long day. A long week. I have a mountain of things to tend to. Really.

I can't wait for Charlotte to call and tell me how camp was today. I told her, "I want the full, full, full report."

much needed update -click to enlarge picrures

I'm not happy when I spend time online when I have so many other things to do. BUT, I'm not happy when I don't spend time on my blog or website because not only do I enjoy it, it also stores bits of my life here and there that will one day only be a glimpse of me and these days past. I want my kids to be able to read my blogs (which I print up and store in notebooks) and see what mine and their lives were like.
~~~

So lots has happened. Pretty fall days and Thanksgiving came and left.

I perfected my homemade organic pizza and learned how to make good home made tortillas finally (Which my kids dubbed better than the ones they had in Mexico --very flattering lol! Not sure they are that good, but okay!)

I also made and perfected homemade apple turnovers.

We switched all our flour and cheese to organic! yay! (buy through a co op)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas came and left without a trace ... well there are toys and lots of new bills too pay..sigh...

We had a beautiful time with Ricky home for lots of days in a row. And I'm wishing for a replay of all the wonderful family fun time.

Pictured here is our X mas breakfast -all 8 of us are in there. Sebastian was nursing, so you can only see his super white bald-ish head in front of me. Look at us...Mom and dad are having having mimosas :)

~~~~~~~~~

Sebastian is a happy joy of a baby still. BUT teething has struck our household early. He is fussy this month. He is pushing on 5 months old (not until the 23rd) and he is unhappy about the havoc being caused by teeth buds. :( It's making this mama tired and the house fall apart a little bit too.

Oh well such is life. Poor little guy. We use hylands teething tablets, Boiron teething drops, homeopathic Belladonna, and Motrin.

~~~~~~~~~

I am proud to say my husband passed the Series 7 exam! for work. Which is a big deal. (We read online only 30% of people pass it the first time --so it could have gone either way)

He spent a lot of time preparing for it. Actually, he was only home about half the month of December. It sucked. And his studying obviously paid off.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Enough is enough

The commute to the city for Ricky to work is just enough now. He says he'll do it longer, I say hell no. The money we are spending on rooms overnight, gas, Etc. adds up. I'd rather spend that on a mortgage.

~~~~~~~~~~

Well, we finally found the perfect house for us. We made an offer and it's been accepted. Now we deal with costly home inspections, the process of getting our pre approved loan actually approved, and blah blah blah.

The home is lovely. The best we could do given what we want (better would be more land, but this is okay!)

We would be on 1 acre, have a old historic style house that sits right across from a old peaceful cemetery dating back to the 1800's. It has a 20x40 ft in-ground swimming pool surrounded by a fence of grapevines! It also has a small pool storage house, 2 detached garages, good trees ... one old tree particularity worth mentioning as it is huge and perfect for climbing and/or for a tree house.

The home is 4bed 2bath +2 extra small rooms, full basement (unfinished but in good shape to finish), sun room off kitchen, oh and tons of lush creeping ivy outside. I love it. We love it. It looks like home. Let's hope all goes well. Our closing date is actually set for Jan 31. Talk about getting stuff done.

...we will see...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Penelope is crying at me and this is exactly why I don't blog any more...too much to do, too many kids to sit still ;)

Absolutely the biggest surprise ever

Sat Oct 25 was our big Halloween party here. For those that don't know a small portion of my family runs a riverfront camp/cabin/floating resort. Every year we invite our favorite/best customers, have a DJ, costume contest, and dance all night (we love throwing a party). We know everyone we invite but I always do the stranger danger talk to my kids before a party (except in reverse; these people know us --but we don't know some of them very well, Etc.)

The rest of our family; my dad, mom, siblings, Etc. live in Las Vegas. We miss them an awful lot.

So the party starts at 7:30 and we are hanging out and eating. People in costumes are trickling in, there is a REALLY creepy costume that was familiar and super creepy to me but I couldn't place it. I asked Ricky where I knew that creepy thing from. He said that it is "Jigsaw" from the horror movie Saw. I have Penelope on my hip at the time and I notice after a few minutes the Saw guy is waving at Penelope from afar and she is memorized. As he turns away she waves back.


At about 8:30pm Sage is talking to my aunt in the kitchen and he looks upset. I ask him what is wrong and he won't really tell us. I did hear him say something about creepy and he looked like he might cry. Mother's intuition said, "Is it the creepy costume guy?" I just knew it was Saw guy, and I was right. So my aunt gets Sage settled in watching a movie with Layla and Penelope. The kids have a closed off room from the party + the office that is locked and they can play, sleep, or whatever if they don't feel like being at the party.


Apparently when my Aunt got Sage settled in with the girls he yold her this Saw guy was following him and the kids around, so she starts watching this guy --I had no idea she didn't tell me.


At around 9pm Obama and McCain costumes walk in. Funny as heck costumes, this couple pulls it off so well. They can barely make it to the dance hall and I snag the couple and get a picture with them. Ricky and I are going back and forth checking on kids and mingling with people. I suddenly get roped into helping to judge the costume contest. So I'm standing next to the DJ with the other judges and we are trying to make our selections and I say, "Well the Saw guy scared the crap out of Sage so he gets scariest costume as far as I'm concerned." It was agreed. Just as the DJ is getting ready to make the announcements I change spots and suddenly find myself next to Saw guy. I turn to him and say, "I just have to tell you, your costume scared the crap out of my son tonight." The person pulls the mask up very slowly; imagine my utter surprise when it was my dad inside!!!! I did a trple take and screamed so loud I can't believe no one heard me over the DJ's announcements. Then the clown standing next to me lifted up her big glasses and said hi. It was my mom!!! I looked around and finding that no one heard me freak out  I calmed down and started grabbing family members in to watch. Knowing my dad was going to get the award for scariest I was trying to get as many people as I could in my family so they could see him be awarded. I told them, "Come here, stand right here and just wait!!!" Ricky was at the private door the kids were behind keeping an eye on them and I had to practically run crowds of people over trying to get to him.


Scariest costume is announced and my dad goes to the center of the room and unveils himself; to whom the family freaks out and my aunt Sharon cries in shock. (my mom stayed hiding a while longer from everyone!)


As my dad was winning his costume award I notice I'm standing behind Obama and McCain. Something clicked in my head and as I starred at the back of McCain my eyes scanned the back of his head/hairline. I lifted up a small flap in the back of the mask gently. This was my little brother. I just knew it. I grabbed him and turned him around to me and said OMG you're my brother!! He shook his head no and I jumped up pointed and said yes! (Could you imagine how funny it would have been if I was wrong!!) Obama looked at me and I knew that had to be his wife. I don't think I've ever been so shocked in my life than this night!


I let the other family members figure it out on their own and in their own ways so they could have as much fun as I had just had. They waited a while to show others!

We took my dad back to see the kids and Sage was SO CUTE. He said, "I'm so glad that was you Grandpa." :)


So things are really kicking now. We are dancing and having fun. The kids (all of them expect Sebastian -I nursed him and he went back to sleep) are having fun at the party with us. The kids even find some friends to dance and run around with too. Suddenly I notice my aunt looking at a costumed person. I go up to her and she says, "Is it, is it him!?" I go closer to this Joker costume and look... then I say a bad word and jump up in down and hug him. It was my other little brother. The guy sitting next to him in a old man mask gets up and reveals himself too, it's my brothers friend and a very, very good friend of the family who we haven't seen in years.


Best surprise ever. Words can't even express the brilliance or surprise they had just pulled off. This will be a tough one to top. We had NO CLUE, none at all.


My dad said it was indescribable seeing us all like that, you know, without us knowing we were being watched. He said, "I feel like I saw a small window to your world. Like if I wasn't here this is what you'd be doing"


In the picture I took with Obama/McCain my parents are in the background. Awesome since I had no clue and there I was posing with my family.

July wrapping up (and unwrapping birthday's for everyone!)

We have had a busy last several weeks. The kids had a lot of fun at drama camp despite that I had to make some complaints about inappropriate content in some songs little kids were being taught to sing and dance to. (totally teenage themed for the WRONG 6-11 age group) It was resolved graciously by the theatre however and there was no lasting damage done :)
At the end of the drama program the kids put on a performance which was just great. They worked so hard. I was just ecstatic to see them all on stage. I love theatre and always wanted to make it part of my children's lives, as it had been a important apart of mine long ago ...before babies, birth, and natural family living became my passion. The kids were supposed to go to the June camp but we waited for July because then our friends could do it with them. Next year I am strongly considering letting the kids do both camps! They had that much fun.





Penelope below is helping me make pizza dough. She's such a mess in the kitchen. She wants to constantly help to the point where I now sneak around to cook!


My parents came to town for a special event: A birthday party held for ALL of us. This was the first year of a tradition they would like to start where each summer they visit and throw our family one big birthday party. Gifts, cake, decorations, the whole thing. This way they don't have to mail packages out 8 times a year and they get to see all of us open the gifts. So without the kids knowing they decorated our home, brought in cake, and wrapped gifts and had a surprise party. We knew, kids didn't though! It was a blast!

Above is the tropical themed party with my parents and all of us.
Below is the cake, which had a "93" candle the total combined age of 7 of our birthday's, also read: 'Happy Birthday Ricky, Shauna, Sage, Ethan, Layla, Penelope.'
The unborn baby got gifts too, but "he" doesn't have a "birthday" yet :)



August should slow down a little bit. July was all about sleepovers, library events, drama camp, cousin Echo being in town, growing caterpillars and releasing them as butterflies, Etc.. Layla's birthday is coming up (party on July 31, actual birthday on Aug 1) In August we have a couple busy weekends, some playgroups, and then a new baby being born. I suspect we'll be home most of August and September. Oh I have 2 kids that need to go the dentist for small fillings in Aug, and Charlotte will be getting braces. Yikes I better get those appointments scheduled (I want those done before baby comes)!!

The excitement and anticipation of a newborn is really building around here.

Homeschool: What we do when we aren't doing anything elseWe have a new program we are trying for Sage at http://www.readingupgrade.com/ And he finally likes a reading program. (FINALLY)

And http://www.spellingtime.com/ had some great sign up package deals I'm not sure I wrote about. Charlotte is signed up now for 1 year at the rate of $59.99 She can do spelling, states, vocab and math. They are broken up into quick daily lessons and it's good quality. We are loving it. I'm thinking about getting Ethan signed up as he needs to hit the spelling lessons.

The spelling and states is great. Charlotte really likes the vocab too. The spelling is so cool because they give the kids the words, they get activities, practice, quizzes, then at the end of the week a test. The results are emailed to the parents. So it's super easy to keep up with how the child is doing with minimal effort!

My favorite Layla Question this week:
"Where do the movies go when you turn off the TV?"