Christmas 2010 Post #2

Well Santa made it to our house and let me tell you.....he was very nice to our kids! They have been very good kids this year and I am super proud of them and apparenty so is Santa!!!!

I had to wake up everyone at 8:30....I know, seriously??? What kids not up at the crack of dawn, any other morning they would of had me up by at least 7:30! After presents and laying around for a while, Grammy made waffles (on her 2 new waffle irons, one makes circus animals) and breakfast pizza. Uncle Brandin, Aunt Natty, Haylie, Dylan and Xander came over for breakfast and a few more gifts.

So.........what did Santa bring????

Rylie got a nice karaoke machine, which will play an Ipod, plays CD's, has a video camera on it, and it's a radio. She also had a Taylor Swift karaoke machine in her stocking.

 She loves to sing and dance and role play so she should have a lot of fun with this.

Owen got a whole bunch of nerf things....a gun, a tactical vest, a target, bball hoop, a sword and lots of ammo!

Owen is a true rough and tumble little boy, he likes guns and swords so this will definitely keep him busy.

My crazy little Katelin wouldn't get out of bed so we let the big kids start without her, she eventually joined in and she had a cool new art desk filled with color wonder art supplies! Now all she really wanted from Santa was a baby and a bottle and a binky and some milk. Luckily Santa last minute decided he better have a baby for her even though she has about 20 already. So he got her a little baby with a binky and a bottle. Her first question was where is her milk....so I explained that we had to pretend with the milk!

After she opened several presents she just wanted to play, she was done opening gifts and refused to open anymore so she let Rylie open them for her, it was pretty funny!

And of course my sweet little Evan.....he got a fun toy cube and a sweet new puppy dog to cuddle with. Mommy and Daddy got him a new exersaucer which he Loves!

He has legs like tree trunks, he is such a chunk and already can get himself bouncing in this.

We, of course, cannot forget the biggest kid of all................

So as you can see we had a great Christmas.....the day was spent with singing, loud loud singing, nerf gun fights, remote control truck races, crying baby dolls and lots of playing and wearing new clothes. We went to my Grandmas in the afternoon, she got all of the kids a pillow pet.

Celebrating at Nanny's house........

Christmas 2010 post # 1

I have to say Christmas was very good this year.......it wasn't without stress, it wasn't without whining and it wasn't without a 2 year old tantrum but these things were all kept to a minimum! When you have 4 kids your just not going to avoid all of these, even over the holidays!

We don't often see Chet's family over the holidays but this year we did go over there on christmas eve, we had 6 of our 7 kids (Jakee had to work), 3 of his 4 brothers (Daniel was with his fiance and her family) & of course Chester and Doris! Hopefully we can do it again next year and have everybody there! We hada great time.

This was taken shorty before we left for Chet's parents house on xmas eve......after I had been a little upset with everyone because nobody was helping me clean up and get everything ready to go, so one of those moments with stress and whining but it was shortlived! Then my sweet little girl curled up with my sweet big girl.......one of those awwwww moments!

 Uncle Stephen and Owen had fighting matches throughout the night, Owen kept yelling "I'm tapping out", it was pretty funny!

 This is what you would call a forced smile.

 Brothers!

 I really wish Jakee could have been here with us but she works retail so this is a busy time of year for them. Here is all the other kids together.

 Katelin with her gifts from Grandma and Papa

 Owen playing with his new transformer.

 Rylie got makeup, nailpolish and a bath set.

 The older boys left before we took this but here's Grandma and Papa with the 4 kids.

We headed home around 9 and got home about 10pm.......it made bedtime a little rough. The kids were hyped up and we still had to set out milk and cookies, get jammies on, brush teeth and all that stuff so it was pretty late by the time they got to bed , luckily they were all sound asleep in time for Santa to get to our house.

Twas the night before christmas......

and all through the house
not a creature was stirring
well...maybe a mouse!

Kids were all nustled
snug in Grammy's bed
while visions of nerf guns, baby dolls and karaoke machines
danced in their heads.

Chet in his boxers and I in my sweats
had just settled down for
a not so long winter rest

When up on the rooftop
arose such a clatter
Chet grabbed his 9mm
as I screamed "whats the matter?"

When what to our wondering eyes should appear
A miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer

Merry Christmas to All and
To all a Good night!

We wish everyone a very merry and magical Christmas!!!!

HO HO OHHHHH Santa!!!

Let me tell you about our santa experiences this year........

First we went to the mall to see what the kids and I are pretty sure is the "real" santa! He is the exact same as he was when I took Rylie to see him 8 years ago and we've been going ever since. (It is pretty neat to look at all the pics and see the same santa in every one!)

To my surprise, Katelin refused to sit with or talk to him so I am in the pic and she is clinging to me, not so pretty!!! But the other kids did great and Rylie told him that she wants a karaoke machine and Owen told him that he wants a nerf gun. I'm pretty confident that Santa will oblige:)

So I being the way I am.......am always looking for cool things to do and I found something really cool! At the legends there was the Santa experience which included writing a letter with the elves, meeting santa, making a craft, decorating a cookie with Mrs. C and playing with what is like real snow but really isn't!

Well in reality.......it sucked! The picture turned out Ok but there were only 3 elves and they were weird and didn't really help with anything, Santa didn't know how to talk to kids, the craft was stupid and there was no Mrs. C and no cookies, instead there was reindeer food which was cereal and M&M's. The snow was kinda cool but not that cool! So we will not be making this a new tradition, we'll just stick with seeing the "real" santa at the mall!!!

Also as promised a few posts ago, Evan went to the doctor today and I have his stats. Since I know everyone has been waiting in anticipation for them:
He weighs in at 17lbs 9oz (90-95%), 26" in length (90%), and  a 17" head (75%).
I also get to start him on rice cereal which I did tonight and he actually took it pretty well for his first feeding.
So he is doing great and growing great and I just love him to pieces!!!! And of course I need to share a picture of him so here you go.....

And I have a new obsession and it is a program I was able to download to edit my pictures and man am I having fun with it.....so I added this pic as the header on my blog but if you receive this in your email you won't see it so I will share it with you and expect to see more edited pics because it's a lot of fun and there is so much cool stuff I can do with it!

Polar Express Night

We had our annual polar express night on Saturday! What is that? Well let me tell you......

Brandin, Natalie, Haylie, Dylan and Xander all come over and this year I made my yummy beef stew for dinner and then the kids get to open up a present from Grammy and every year this present contains the same couple of items:

Christmas jammies (at this point, Katelin refused to put hers on)

Finally she put them on (i'm sure a bribe must have been used)

They also got their yearly X-mas ornaments

And this year they had one extra gift.....

personalized mugs for well......

hot chocolate, of course.....to drink while we watch polar express!

Can you guess what we did after presents?!?

Good Guess.....we did, of course, watch polar express just not quite yet because we had to make our gingerbread houses!!!!

I won't mention any names (the one with a spoon in her mouth) but a certain someone ate her decor faster than she could build it!!!

We did finally watch polar express which Katelin and Dylan slept through.......but the kids at a great night so as our tradition goes we will do it all again next year!!!!

Evan Wade 4 months

I know, I know.......I don't believe it either, my baby boy is already 4 months old! It just doesn't seem possible.   I won't have his growth stats until Monday after his appointment.  But let me tell you, I have one amazing little baby......he always has a smile for everyone, he is cooing and starting to make little baby talk. He is just such a sweet happy little boy! He can rollover and has been able to for some time, he just prefers not to. He's also in a drooling phase and is still spitting up a lot.

Maybe it's because my life is a little less stressful (or i'm just handling the stress better) but i'm just enjoying his babyhood sooo much. Not that I didn't enjoy it with all my kids but life seems a little more relaxed this time around. Evan will take a bottle when needed which makes my life a lot easier, and I just moved him out of the bassinet and am working on getting him sleeping all night in his crib. And while I know it's fine, i'm struggling with not having him right there in my room with me.

Since he's been born I have probably given him a trillion kisses, it's one of my favorite things to do. There are just no words for how much I love him and how greatful I am that we had him
(of course this goes for all my babies), he was absolutely meant to be here with us!!! 

We of course took our pictures with the bear today so I will show you that and his 3 month one:


3 months



4 months



I finally got his jungle decals on his wall, I think it looks like a pretty nice area for a sweet little boy, I just have to add his name on the wall and it will be complete.

What would you do if.....

a cute little blond says "I want you to nuggle me!"

what else could a Daddy do?!?

What do you do if Baby Jesus, His mom and a couple barn animals need to get somewhere?

If your Owen and Katelin....you load them up in the back of a pick-up and give them a ride!!!

What do you do if you have the cutest and sweetest baby Evan ever????

 Well....you post cute little pictures of him so you can show him off and put a smile on everyones face!

And do you know who else always has a smile for Evan???

Yeap...that would be his proud big brother, it's amazing to watch Owen with his Evan, you just see how much he loves him! I'm proud of him, he is an amazing big brother, I see a special bond between these two boys of mine in their future!

I don't mean to leave out Rylie but between school and going to Abby's sometimes she's just not here a lot especially when I have the camera out but not to worry, polar express night was last night and I have lots of pics to post real soon.

Good Morning!

I snapped a picture of each of my kids this morning and luckily they all had a smile on their face but let me tell you.....it's not always a fun road in the morning!!!

My day usually starts to me waking up shortly before the alarm goes off and then I get to see the face of my sweet smiling baby boy...

How could this not put a smile on your face in the morning!

He usually sits in his bouncy chair cooing and happy while I go wake up the bear.....

See that pretty face, it's not quite that pretty when I am trying to wake her up! She is a grouch in the morning and I dread waking her but I HAVE to. I usually hear "i'm tired", "i'm cold" and " I don't want to go to school". Then she wants me to pick out her clothes but often doesn't like what I pick out.....sometimes I just can't win with this one but I sure do love her and when she is happy and sweet it mostly makes up for her grouchiness.

Then I move into Owens room and he used to be my little happy kid in the morning, wakes up easily and happily but here lately he's been kind of whiny in the morning! I'm starting to think they teach kids in school how to become morning grumps for their parents.

Usually once he gets going he's okay, kind of a 50/50 deal here lately. He no longer lets his sister walk him to class, he walks there by himself.

Sometime during the morning hussle and bustle this cute little blond makes her appearance....

and yes she is usually in just a diaper. I really do put jammies on her but she takes them off and remember, I have to pick my battles and that's just not one worth fighting! I can say she is usually pretty happy in the morning, she will often snuggle with Rylie for a bit and as soon as the big kids leave she asks to watch Mickey Mouse of course!

And I can't forget.....my big growly bear in the morning.....

Actually he's been waking up in a pretty good mood lately and I can't complain because it's winter so he's home a lot more and he takes the kids to school so I don't have to get the little ones out. And if he does have a job he tries to schedule it so he can drop the kids off on his way to our lot, just another one of the gazillion reasons why I love him so much!

Well there is not a picture of me as you can see but let me assure you...in the mornings before all this begins I get dressed in a cute flattering outfit ( one that takes about 20lbs off), I do my hair, you should see it, it looks so cute and of course I have all my makeup on. Like I said there isn't a pic so you'll just have to take my word for it.