cleaning day ...

my kids are on a song time clock right now - Flo Rida, Club Can't Handle Me - it's clean up time! When the song is over: time's up! We've emptied out the BIG closet (which is going to be transformed into a play closet) and I've taken the crib down and out of the boys room ... that's right - Liam has done so awesome that he's done with the crib! What a big boy! One less crib in the house - now if we could just get it down to one kid in diapers!!!

There's an incentive, of course, income! They don't know yet how much they're going to get - but I did offer money for their labor. Here's the catch, if they don't get this "junk" all picked up by the end of the song - then no $$$! Now, before you go thinking I'm just a mean mom - dangling a reward and then taking it back - it had to go that way because we made a mess in the process of "cleaning up", and then they just wanted to sit and watch tv!

Uh oh ... they weren't quite finished by the end of the song ... now I have to stick to my word and now I do feel like a mean mom :c

Maybe I'll have to add something else in so they can get some sort of reward for all their effort? What do you think? Do you do allowance at your house? (we do and it hasn't been linked to work, yet - but we're about to implement a system where it sort of will) Do you pay your kids for chores or are they just expected to do them - to pitch in as part of the family? I'd love to hear everyone's fabulous ideas of getting the kids involved around the house!

party update:

pretty obvious that my plan didn't go over too well! So, I couldn't convince the big kids to be celebrities ... apparently that is just not cool! Daddy wasn't haven't his son be Justin Bieber either, so Liam was convinced into dressing up as Superman (from our dress up box). Jericho insisted on being Batman, but had to settle for his dress up cape - as I wouldn't budge on letting him wear his "real" costume; and Annicka went with Laura Ingalls from her dress up stash! I was "Sasha Job - world famous mom" ... ha ha ha, yah right! They all had a blast, even though we had to leave early to get the boys to bed! Thanks again, Michele, we had super fun!

p.s. how was the cake? we were sad to miss it - it looked awesome! Laura did an amazing job, as always!

ugh - the dentist ...

so, it's been a good fifteen years since I've had to have any "work" done on my teeth ... until today. I had a filling needing fixed and a new little cavity needed to be filled, I'll admit I was a little nervous as I sat in the dentist's chair! My nerves weren't eased too much with the disgusting taste of the assistant's gloves or the yucky mint taste of the gel to numb me for the two shots I then received! Then there were all sorts of contraptions to be put in my mouth, so not my cup of tea.

Both teeth were on my left side, one on top and one on the bottom. He started with the upper and it did not feel good - it felt like he was drilling a nerve or something (and I'm such a baby, I actually had two tears escape - one from each eye - and had to really give myself a mental pep talk so I wouldn't continue) ... all I could think was, next time I'll have to be put under - lol. The second tooth was fine, didn't feel a thing.

All in all it was pretty quick. Of course I can't eat now, though, and wanted to get a caramel frappaccino for lunch ... but the hubs called and told me I needed to get home asap so he could return to work. Bummer.

Anyways, I survived - despite my lack of enjoying people "working" in my mouth (it's almost a fear). I thought for sure I looked horrendous, for the way my face feels, but you really can't tell that my tongue feels gigantic and everything is all numb! Thank you dentist, for my "break" (yah, he was like "hey, you get a break from the kids" after asking if they were home with dad) and for taking my money, too!

an exploding tooth???

I have no idea what exactly just happened ...

I was sitting here when suddenly Jericho's tooth (which was sitting on the upper level of the computer desk) "flew" down (to the lower level) ... not only that - but in two pieces? As in, it's now broken in half? Totally bizarre!!! All I can think is, the dang tooth just exploded - lol!

party tonight ...

so, we're invited to a party tonight ... and, being the party girl I am, we won't miss it (even though it's a school night). I started thinking, though, do I really want the kids putting on their costumes and then eating in them? hmmmm. I can already see the food tumbling down the chin and falling onto the chest of batman, vampire girl will surely dip her elbow into something, and Buzz - well he'll be a mess from face to foot ... what to do? That's about the time I looked at Liam and said, "Liam, do you want to be Justin Bieber for the party tonight?". He looked at me and replied, "yes, I love Bieber" (that's cute - but he has no idea what he's saying - lol ... although he does like the song "Baby").

He then proceeded to - with some crazy toddler amount of insight or brilliance or something - run over and get our headphones ...








I played the song he loves ("Baby") and started clicking away! Cute pics right? It got me thinking - I should have the kids all be celebrities.* I normally wouldn't dress up, but since I'll likely have my camera anyway, so I figure I can be the paparazzi ... yah, I get the crappy costume, but someone's gotta do it to make it realistic, right?!

Now I just have two problems: figuring out what celebrity Zoey can be (I'd really like to take her, but haven't made a final decision on that yet) and convincing the big kids that this is all a good idea! I wonder who they'll choose to be? I wonder if I can convince Jericho to be Robert Pattinson? I wonder if everyone will just think I'm the laziest mom ever and declare that I've robbed my children of the joy of dressing up (and tell me I "cheated")? I guess it doesn't matter so much, as long as their costumes are new and clean for sunday night!

Oh - and yes ... we are trick-or-treating this year ... can you believe it? I don't feel led to go into some long dissertation about why my convictions have changed, but (clearly) they have. I'm disappointed that the chapel was unable to put on their festival this year (yes, I'm sure I could find something at another church - but it's a school night and I'd prefer to just stay on base) ... but given that, I'm extra glad I told the kids they could trick-or-treat. They're really excited too and I'm sure there will be some fun to it!




*mommy translation: my kids should all be something that requires them to wear regular
everyday clothes

fall field trip ...

yesterday was another first: I finally got to go on a field trip with one of my kids! Sad, right - Annicka is in fourth grade, but I've never been able to go with her (not that there's been tons, but still).

We went to an apple orchard, that just happens to grow some pumpkins too! It was really fun! It was Jericho's first time on a school bus - he was seated with a classmate and when he saw me walking toward him he was all smiles ... how sad his little face was as I sat in a seat, his smile totally dropped - then his head dropped and he looked like he was going to cry. I asked the teacher if he could sit with me and it was all better - I guess I was happy to know that he wanted to sit with me! It was a fun ride - being high enough to see all sorts of things you can't see from a "normal" vehicle!

Once we arrived we had a little lesson on how to pick apples and then they let us loose! I had Jericho and one other little boy, so it was definitely not overwhelming ... just lots of adventure and fun. Jericho was so proud of his first pick - I had to share the pic (which meant my odd form of blurring out a face - sorry).

When our apple bags were full it was time to go over to our assigned pumpkin patch and pick a little pumpkin. Jericho chose several before settling on the perfect pumpkin. He'd pick one up and either declare it too heavy or say it was good, carry it around for a few minutes, then set it down and continue his search!

We put the apples in backpacks and put the pumpkins in a big bucket to go to school (they're decorating them tomorrow). Had some play time on the hay bales (a good photo op - but too many faces to blur) and then it was back on the bus we went. We weren't able to do the second part of the field trip, which was going to a park and eating lunch - several of the kids were bummed, including Jericho, but we didn't have time (the bus had been quite late, as apparently they forgot - good one).

Back at school there was one last treat (which was meant for the park as well) ... one of the little boys had cupcakes for everyone, as it was his birthday! Annicka even got to have one - lucky girl!

... and that was our wednesday adventure. I'm so glad I finally got to go on a field trip, it was a special time for me and my little guy: sitting on the bus together, picking apples, taking photos, all the memories to share at home - good times!

could it be possible?

could I actually get addicted to going to the gym? I gotta say, yesterday I really hated missing it - and not just "I feel guilty" missed it, but truly missed it. It felt awesome to be back today ... and I discovered something: a little distraction makes it easier to walk longer! Ok, no one can laugh: today I walked for a little over 48 minutes and did 2.12 miles (I told you I was slow) and I'm really happy with that! Before I would start the "cool down" after 30 minutes, but today I took something to read and decided I needed to walk 45 minutes before cooling down ... I set a goal and I achieved it! The best part was - it was easy! I got lots of reading done (I'm getting close to pg 200 Traci) and didn't get all tired from boredom! Ahhh, feels great!

that smarts!!!

WARNING: if you're too sensitive about blood (like my daughter is) you might want to not look at the pics, but it's just a drop (in fact, you might not even notice)!

or should I say: that was smart (sarcastically). I guess I'm kinda proud of myself for not swearing ... but I did sort of try to blame Annicka. The truth is, I had noticed that she didn't actually put the coffee carafe IN the coffee maker (which is on top of the frigerator) ... I guess I didn't realize it was THAT close to the edge though. So, when I opened the freezer to put some groceries away guess what came crashing down - and landed on my foot? yep.

I've got a nice little slice on my big toe and I had to thoroughly sweep the kitchen (which I swept earlier). Other than that, though, all is well. I have to admit, when I saw the blood "bubble" up I couldn't help but think of that scene from twilight ... good thing there were no vampires around - ha ha ha!

oh ... what a night!!!

my somewhat crazy day seemed to run over into my night - wow.

so, I went to bed at 9pm ... not to go to sleep, but to relax and watch some tv (I was asleep by 9:15pm). I must not have been sleeping very good, because just two hours later I woke up when my hubby came to bed - which I never do (I'm a VERY heavy sleeper). The worst part about it was that then I couldn't fall back asleep!

I was finally drifting back off into dreamland around 12:30am when a certain little someone decided she should have a midnight snack - which is completely not a normal occurrence ... but given that she doesn't take in much baby food, still, we're willing to give in on the occasional late night nibble. She drank about half of her bottle and drifted back to sleep - aahhh, thank goodness.

Again, I began to fall back to sleep ... and she woke up again. About an hour had elapsed, the bottle was still good - she finished it. I put her back in her bed at this point and she did indeed go back to sleep (and so did I, again).

About an hour later, she was awake AGAIN. It was about 3am now and I was a bit irritated as I knew I only had a little more time to get some sleep before needing to wake up and hit the gym. It was also at this time that my hubby said "maybe the gym isn't going to work out this morning" - but I wasn't hearing it. I brought her back to bed with me, figuring even if it's not as good of sleep (because I don't sleep as well with her in bed with me) at least maybe she'll be soothed and I can snooze! She wriggled around for a bit and I fell back to sleep and so did she.

My alarm starting to sing at 4:30am ... I used up all the snoozes and decided that maybe hubby was right - I felt pretty tired - I fell right back asleep. Zoey stirred again around 5:30am, at which point I texted my gym buddy to let her know I wasn't gonna make it (dang it - I'm still a little miffed at myself for not just sucking it up and going ... but I sort of think my hubby's thoughts were expressed because he knew if I left he'd have to deal with the baby - lol). Again we fell back to sleep.

Zoey was awake again by 6:30am at which point the hubs took over (thank God) and I got a little more sleep ... sleeping later than I really should on a school day, but I felt like I needed it!

At 7am I was greeted by my two eldest children, they were wondering where their dollars were (oops) and I told them the tooth fairy visited me and told me their behavior was a little on the poor side and she wouldn't leave their money until it improved! Do you think that worked?

Of course, Annicka knows all the secrets ... I have never let her believe that any of those fun characters are real. I teach all my kids that it's just a fun thing to pretend, but really it's mommy and daddy ... Jericho doesn't believe me, stubborn boy. Anyhow, at that point the morning routine was in full force - can you believe we got out the door a bit early and there was no yelling - what an unexpected surprise!

Liam and I sprung for some McMuffins (clearly I'm not doing good on changing my diet, yet) for breakfast and I'm thinking of trying one of my five hour energy drinks as I have several things I should do today!

I guess I should be glad that I went to bed early, or I would have got even less broken up sleep! Through it all, though, I remind myself to be joyful and praise the Lord that I have a sweet little baby to wake me up when all I want to do is sleep. You're a beautiful blessing, Zoey, even at 3am!





p.s. Liam slept in his big boy bed for the night! What a big step! The boys went to bed around 8pm and when I peeked in on them on the way to bed they were both sound asleep! Dare I say my little Liam is fairly mature - he really should probably be potty training - ugh!

two teeth in one day!

wow - it's a busy day around here! Annicka came home toting a molar in a tissue (there's a whole story behind that one too) and then Jericho came in from the dining room exclaiming "guess what just happened in my apple?"! I knew right away that one of his two loose bottom teeth had likely come out, and indeed I was right - he was thrilled, it's his first tooth to lose! You can't tell in the pic that either of them lost a tooth today - but I snapped it anyhow (complete with Jericho's poor rash ... he's had that since August, it varies and changes spots - but doesn't go away. The doc said it's from sucking his thumb?).

The story behind Annicka's molar:
It's really not that interesting, but I wanted to note this - ya never know how information can be helpful or just interesting later! This molar turned pink quite some time back ... it even cracked - I took her to the dentist absolutely paranoid that a piece of her tooth had chipped off (I thought for sure that was a bad thing). The dentist wasn't worried at all and had said the tooth was "dying", essentially, which is why it was turning pink and that it was about to come out ... that was back in June I think! Well, yesterday when she showed me the extreme looseness of the tooth I noticed that the new tooth was already under it and the "baby" tooth seemed more like a cap on the new tooth - it was so weird! Anyways, I'm just glad it's out now! yay!

big boy happenings ...

I really should have taken my camera upstairs when I went to wake Liam up! It had been nice and quiet, so I assumed he might be asleep - and I was right. What's the big deal? He was sleeping in his "big boy bed"!

In all actuality, it's a mattress on the floor. Jericho's bed is built in such a way that it can either be about a foot high with a "frame" around it OR you can flip it over and the "frame" is the base for a loft type bed (and it's not too high up, which I love). When in that position you also have the option of sliding a mattress into the bottom and it becomes a "bunk bed".

We tried yesterday, but Liam was out of his room by the time daddy got downstairs. We gave it another go, daddy told him he had to stay in his bed and not come out. About fifteen minutes later, guess who was coming down the stairs? So, back in the crib it was. Today wasn't much different, but he seemed to know he had to stay on that mattress - even while I was still up there he was asking me to hand him things, as though he couldn't just get them.

So, Liam has "officially" slept in a big boy bed now! We'll see how it goes over the next two weeks and if all goes well the crib and changing table will be going in my yard sale!

one of those mornings ...

so, I already posted once today ... and here I am, already posting again! I just had to jot down my morning - for the record:

I began great, got up 5am; ate & got ready; headed to the gym! Got a good workout on the treadmill, despite the fact that I feel so slow compared to everyone else - I just have to keep reminding myself that I have to go at my pace and work my way up!

Got home and blogged, then had to wake Annicka up! She told me last night she set her alarm, but she was still sound asleep! Got my shower (and Annicka got hers!). Got dressed, went downstairs and packed lunches (daddy got Zoey and Liam up, and gave Zoey her diaper change and set her up with her bottle). By now Annicka was out and Jericho was in the bath ... I went up to wash his hair. While I was shampooing I didn't pay attention to the spray of the shower "thingy" (it likes to dance around) ... it was spraying water all over the floor - how did I NOT notice this? Ran for towels, I literally had a floor full of water! Annicka yells from downstairs that Zoey is throwing up ... run down there to find she's done and she's a mess (as is her little chair bed)! Run back up and rinsed Jericho's hair. Back downstairs and had to give little miss a bath! Made Annicka help Jericho find some unders and a red shirt (it's red shirt day). Fewf - the kids had to fend for their own breakfast, as usual, which makes me feel so guilty ... it's mornings like this that I realize just how busy a mom can be!

but, I still had time to blog about it ; )

(and now it's time, in fact, we're late, to go to school!)

... oh yah, and I forgot about signing school papers, preparing field trip money, and "speed reading" Jericho's book to him! and let me just add, drop off was particularly insane today!

Nine month photos ...

finally! I took these yesterday, but I couldn't upload pics to the blog - it was weird - but it's working this morning, yay! Do not be fooled by the first pics - Zoey is no where near standing on her own ... in fact, she let go and plopped down - I lunged for her but not quick enough to stop the momentum! She plopped to a sit and continued to roll back and hit her head on the tv stand ... talk about feeling like a good mom (not to mention the whole comment on photos being "torture" - lol). She cried pretty hard, I know she would have cried either way - but the screaming from daddy probably didn't help (he got a bit angry at me, I think he thought I had sat her on top of the box or something?). The crying kinda reddened up her face - oh well, right!

Ahhh - memories.

Moving on ...
She also doesn't sit on her own yet. She can balance if you get her in just the right position, you'll note in one of the pics that she's definitely supporting herself (and others she's totally leaning on the pillow) ... but I did have a pillow behind her just to keep her from falling back too hard or anything!

So, here they are - the "official" nine month pics:

patting myself on the back

I don't wanna get TOO excited ... after all, my track record seems to be to "do good" for a while and then taper off and become totally lazy again! ... but, today - for the first time in my entire life - I went to the gym. Can you believe it? It did entail waking up at 5am, forcing myself to eat (I usually don't eat right when I wake up), and overcoming a very strong "fear". I've been so intimidated - forever - that I could never even picture myself stepping foot into a gym. I'll admit, it was a bit overwhelming to take those steps through the doors ... and there were plenty of fit and sculpted people in there - which is what intimidates me the most; but I did it. I survived. Once I was in there, and especially because a super sweet friend was there to help me out (thank you miss Suzie), I was fine. My goal was to walk a mile on the treadmill - I did 1.25 miles before doing the cool down, totaling 1.31 miles! I'm very happy with myself and I hope I'll find the self discipline to continue - it really did feel great!

last week's hair cuts ...

these aren't necessarily the best pics, but they're the ones I took when we got home from getting haircuts last friday! Liam's is pretty weird, it's supposed to be a "california cut" ... but either his hair doesn't work for that, or she did it too short, or something? Jericho's is great, not too short (he told me all the way there that he didn't want it to be too short because then it looks "weirn"). Annicka's is super cute, if you ask me ... if you ask her, she'll say it looks stupid! She really prefers long hair, but she (still) doesn't like to take care of long hair! So, it was a forced hair cut for "learning purposes" due to the lack of taking care of her hair and especially for a visual/reminder to try harder in school! Parent/teacher conferences were last week ... I was pretty shocked when the teacher's first words were: "so, Annicka (sigh) ... well, I don't know if you know this - but your daughter does NOT follow directions"! I've never been told this by anyone in authority over Annicka, she always gets super remarks from others ... but it wasn't behavior the teacher was speaking of, it was school work ... so we're really having to buckle down on her! Jericho got a good report ... not a "perfect" student, but like the teacher said "who is ... and that's boring anyway"! He follows directions for the most part and his behavior is good and he's enthusiastic about his work, but especially about art! Good job kids ... now if mommy could get her act together we'll all be doing great!

yard sale joy ...

on a quick side note, I've decided that I should blog more often ... really! I feel like I'm mostly wasting my time posting to facebook, because a lot of people are like me and don't have the time to keep up with everyone! BUT, if I blog all the silly little thoughts and things I want to share - then they'll still post to facebook AND I'll have a "record" of it, which is fun to me! So, here's to blogging more (even if it's short stuff with no photos!).

So, today was another day that I woke up not caring much about going out yard sale-ing ... but my kids and hubby are so accustomed to it now that the kids beg and my hubby strongly encourages me to go out (he stays home with the babies, and the big kids usually come with). Today was a good day, it did not disappoint! We spent a total of $36.70 (I say we, because the kids used their allowance for their stuff) and here's what we got:

*a zhu zhu pet play thing WITH six pets (Annicka)
*small batman figure (Jericho ... then Liam)
*large batman figure (Jericho - once we found the big one, Jericho decided he'd give the small one to Liam)
*converse shoes for Jericho/Liam
*three t-shirts for Annicka
*pants for Zoey
*two small Bibles for Jericho (now he'll have one to take to AWANA)
*an Xbox (it turns on, but doesn't work - but hubby might be able to fix it - it was $1)
*11 playstation 2 games
*an old gameboy color in a case (it does work)
*an atari game - the kind you plug directly into the tv
*tetris game - again, the kind you plug into tv
*a wicker type hamper/basket
*a little stand for a frame
*a snow globe (Annicka's)
*skates (this required an advance on allowance, she simply HAD to have them)
*two lemonades
*two cinnamon rolls (they were absolutely delicious)
*5 books (Annicka)
*a little halloween tree decoration that sings (Annicka)
*a jack-o-lantern decoration (Annicka)

I'd say we did pretty darn good ... I wasn't keeping track of how much we'd spent, but when I came home and figured it out I was surprised - quite well indeed!

sand dunes

ok, so I realized I never blogged this. and it was back in October. and it's January now. but guess what? I recently discovered a little trick. you can type in any date you want for a post. so, let's see if this one goes back where it should have been in the first place? (and that way, when it's printed - it will be right)

this was when my friend and some of her children visited. they were camping "down the road" and Annicka got to spend an afternoon with them, playing in the sand dunes. then bub and I went and had dinner with them and went to play again. let's just say: they had a blast!