8 Days and 5 Fabulouses

For some reason I forgot about all of these pictures on my camera.... so I decided to make one big post out of them.... with my Fabulouses as well.

This is Noah covered in the powdered sugar from the leftover Muddy Buddies from the night before.... ya gotta love it when they find stuff you forgot to put away.



Thursday, Noah fell asleep on the way home from the school, look how cute his legs are all crossed :)

Friday night, Charity pulled her 8th tooth, all by herself! We thought it was cool taht she pulled her 8th tooth just before turning 8 :)...



On Sunday Kelly was feeling really chummy with Erika. It was cute. She took these pictures (and MANY more) while we were getting ready for church. She cried pretty hard when we told her that she couldn't keep Erika here with her while we went to Charity's "It's Great to be Eight" night.

This was just after church.... I couldn't help but take a picture of them all playing together and getting along. I've learned to resist this temptation since it usually ends shortly after I take the picture, but this time it lasted for a while.... I was happy :)

Buds

On Monday night my Dad bought some new couches. We got to keep the boxes :).... so we made really good use of them, sliding down the stairs first....

Then making a cool "clubhouse" out of them later :) SO fun. I don't think I've ever had such big boxes to play with.... they're still up and being played in quite a bit, we even read books in them the other night. Sure made our evening without Daddy a little more bearable :) Good investment dad! Thanks a bunch!

1. On Friday, my cute little Noah came over to me, out of nowhere, and said, "HUD!!" At first I didn't know what he was saying so I asked him what a few times. Then with his cute little arms outstretched he said again, "HUD!" And I realized he was offering me a HUG!!! SO cute! This was a first with the word, and so cute to have him think of it on his own and want to do that. Loved it!

2. Sunday evening was Charity's "It's Great to be Eight" program. What a neat experience this year will be for her! I totally forgot that she would start Activity Days and Faith in God when she turns 8. I had only been thinking about her baptism. Which, they got me really excited for that! They have a cute folder and a little picture frame with a neat picture of the Savior and the name of each baptismal candidate and then the date that they will be baptized. Then they had white towels with their names and baptism dates embroidered on them. They gave her the picture fram to keep to remind her of her baptism coming up, and she will get the rest of the things just before. It was a neat time to share with her.... thinking about and getting her ready for her baptism (as if she hasn't thought about it enough already :) she's very excited. I'm excited for her! Thanks to my mom for babysitting so that we could share that special time with her.

3. Monday, Nate and I were able to get a LOT of cleaning done together. It felt really good. Didn't last, but it felt good :)

4. Tuesday, we signed up Brad and Luke for Swimming lessons. I can't express how excited I am for this. I am ALWAYS wishing our kids were doing more things outside of home.... next we need to find a good dance class for Kelly, and Gymnastics for Charity....

5. This week we've had a lot of off and on with this cold.... I'm pretty sure it's on it's way out, but Noah and Erika have taken the brunt of it I think. They've both required a LOT of cuddling.... I've LOVED it! The house looks like a tornado hit it, but we're all good and cuddled :).... which, speaking of tornadoes, Luke and Brad have been obsessing over them since watching VeggieTales "The Wizard of Ha's".... everyday they have a new question about tornadoes.... seems like we go through this phase about once a year with Brad.

A Day in MY life

Meredith did this on her blog, and I thought it was interesting. Made me wonder what exactly my day would look like. Half the time I can't remember what I did all day.... very little to show for it.... but this was interesting for me.... So for the last week or so I've wanted to do this and kept putting it off because a day wasn't "typical" or something. Well, I thought today would be perfect and would well represent how it is, but I was wrong. Nothing real big, but with Noah and Erika not feeling very well, it made for a very uneventful, eventful day. But unfortunately that's probably more the norm than not. So anyway- here it is- my day.

1:00ish- woke up and fed Erika
1:20ish- went back to sleep
4:45- woke up, latched Erika on, and went back to sleep
6:30- woke up (kind of) kissed Nate goodbye
7:30- woke up in a panic because I thought it was later than it was.... dragged myself out of bed and came into the tv room to see this...

7:35 sat down with the kids to watch a little tv and talk about who woke up first and last and all that jazz. Kelly pointed out that she was the only one dressed (out of the school going ones).
7:40 start breakfast- muffins, since all the other dishes in the house were dirty
7:42 Kelly brought in Erika- she's awake! then bounced her a little while we talked about what she would be doing today.


7:50 put muffins in the oven- luckily no melted plastic in there this time.

7:53 fed Erika which means breaking up a bunch of fights about air heads from the night before... lovely. Charity found Kelly's missing ones under Bradley's bed......Kids start on their job charts.

8:00 Noah woke up and ignored me because he wasn't into the whole taking pictures thing.

8:01 laid Erika down and got the muffins out of the oven

8:04 breakfast- listened to the kids complain about whose name was on what muffins. listened to some laughing too :) love that sound

8:05 I played with Erika for a few minutes because I could and she was being smiley

8:07 went in and had a few muffins myself, and filled the pan with some more batter for later

8:13 changed and dressed Erika (in the cutest outfit in the world!! got a great deal at Smith's Marketplace last night, couldn't wait to put it on her! pictures of it later) Kelly informed me of what airhead she was going to eat and when and who she was going to share them with at school

8:17 nag the kids to keep getting ready and stop playing around. Clean up a little along the way (as if it helps)

8:20 change and dress Noah

8:24 brush out Charity's hair (yesterday's hairdo was still decent) and talk about why I was taking pictures of everything

8:25 Kelly's turn, same thing

8:27 noticed that Luke still wasn't dressed and nagged him some more. Got his clothes out, started the hunt for his shoes

8:32 give up looking for Lukey's shoes and give into the request to wear sandals (but at least he put them on himself)

8:33 put Erika in her carseat, got my coat and shoes on and made sure everyone else was ready to go.

8:37 got everyone in the car, buckled in thanks to Charity

8:38 and we were off to school!

(I just thought the sunrise looked pretty, can't tell so much in this pic though) we talked about windshield wipers and how they work on our way.

8:42 pulled up to the school drive thru
8:44 Charity and Kelly hopped out of the car- not late for school!

8:50 got home and unloaded the boys and Erika and discussed what jobs Bradley didn't want to do and which ones he had to do whether he wanted to or not. Argued with Luke about why I couldn't give him a piggyback ride up to the door while carrying Noah and Erika.

8:52 took off my shoes, set down the sleeping Erika in her carseat and started cleaning up breakfast- this was funny, someone was eating the tops off of the muffins.... reminded me of Seinfeld. Put the rest of the muffins in the oven.

8:55 gathered garbage from all garbage cans, tied it up and sent it out with Bradley and his bulging muscles

8:58 Emptied dryer, put away the clothes from last night to clear a place for the towels

9:01 Got muffins out, cleaned up the kitchen a little more

9:03 texted my sweetie

9:05 Started on the dishes

9:08 picked up the whiny Noah and felt his warm forehead.... gave him some medicine

9:10 got back to doing the dishes and talking to Noah while he sat next to me

9:27 Erika woke up, I got her out of her seat, fed her while Brad folded towels and Luke played a game.... watching Handy Manny of course.

9:37 Erika was done eating, Noah needed cuddling, so I rocked him

9:50 Erika got fussy so Brad held her for me

9:51 took the sleeping Noah to my bed for a nap

9:52 took another picture of him because he looked so cute :)

9:54 Steve came down so I chatted "phone" with him while I fed Erika

10:00 Erika was done so I played with her while obsessing over her cute outfit that I got SUCH a good deal on :)

10:11 looked through my new cell phone manual to figure out what an icon meant, played with my phone some more

10:35 Erika was asleep, laid her down, took a load of laundry up, clearing the baskets that had been in my hallway for the last three days, tried to clean up the tv room and kitchen a little bit more
11:01 went back to the dishes, still not done

11:04 caught Luke playing the computer again when he was supposed to be cleaning up his room, tickled him a little, and then went back to the dishes

11:06 heard Erika crying again.

11:08 got Erika,tried to feed her again, she wasn't hungry.

11:15 put away some clothes, cleaned up a little, while holding the grumpy little girl

11:19 Noah woke up, didn't want me taking his picture apparently

11:20 laid Erika down, folded some more clothes, cleaned up some more, sorted a few baskets of dirty laundry, got a lecture from Steve about how it's not called "stoned" anymore....I'm "so old fashioned" apparently

11:30 Erika fussing again

11:33 Changed Erika's bumb bumb, and her underneath onesie and shirt.... diaper blow out on the cute outfit! Luckily it was just the shirt, not the pants and the cute hoodie vest... new onesie, good as new

11:37 Steve held Erika for me while I took another load up to the washer, listened to Steve make fun of me for taking pictures of everything, then

11:40 sat down to do some facebook and check my email

11:43 back to the kitchen to do the dishes again, put the ones that were done away

11:59 started the pot of water for Mac and Cheese

12:01 put away some more clothes

12:08 threw in the Mac noodles

12:09 fed Erika while I texted and played with the new music on my phone and talked to the boys about not frowning

12:14 drained the noodles (yes I was still feeding Erika) put butter in microwave

12:20 laied Erika down and finished the mac and cheese

12:24 Noah set the table (SO CUTE!! he does this all on his own, no prompting... kinda makes me laugh)

12:25 time to eat! Luke and Noah had a contest who could eat the biggest bite, Bradley hurried to be the first one done. I ended up with a kid bowl for some reason.

12:35 got boys situated for rest time

12:37 Nate called, so I sat down and had a little more lunch while we had a very interesting conversation with him

1:01 done talking, time for my shower, FINALLY

1:13 got out of my shower PREMATURELY because the cute little girly was crying.... tried the binky, she wasn't going for that, got dressed, did makeup

11:20 took another picture of my cute little girl :)

"is she taking pictures of me AGAIN?" went in to the tv room to watch Cinderella III with the boys (their choice I promise) and they skipped to all the places in the movie that they liked...
1:25 Changed Noah's poopy bumb... they're so cute together

1:29 got out the Candyland Game to play with Noah- Brad and Luke joined in and Noah actually played it the right way this time- kind of pleasant for once!

1:48 started Uno Attack... Noah threw a tantrum because I touched his cards....

2:00 finished Uno and talked Brad out of his tantrum

2:04 did the dishes some more (I swear these dishes were never ending today!! 3 days without doing them will do that to ya)

2:24 fed Erika again while checking my email and facebook and listening to Steve harrass me, worked on my blog, played with my phone, helped the boys play in their clubhouse....kind of got sick of keeping track of everything
3:11 started getting kids ready to go get the girls from school

3:18 In the car, buckled in thanks to Brad

3:20 at the school

Got out my book that I've been reading for the last year (just during picking up)

3:28 read something really cool....

3:31 I almost hit a kid and then Kelly hopped into the car, Charity ran up to the car with a big smile on her face asked if she could play with her friend, then grumpily got in the car
3:38 got home, unloaded everyone from the car, put Noah on the chair asleep

3:42 changed another poopy diaper by Erika

3:45 went upstairs to visit with my Dad and eat his fruit by the foots, talked about my lame post and listened to Steve laugh about me some more

3:51 dragged everyone downstairs to do their homework and have a snack courtesy of Luke while I fed Erika

3:53 made fun of steve a little, laughed, checked my email and facebook, helped with some more homework (something else that went undone all week)

4:05 Nate got home! YAY!!!

4:17 Changed Erika AGAIN

4:23 sat down on the bean bag with Erika to talk to Nate while he played games with the boys on the computer

4:30 fed Erika

4:52 Started getting the kids ready to go get Nate's Jazz tickets

4:58 In the car to go!!

5:20 Sat in the car while Nate went to get his tickets to Monday nights game! Merry Christmas to Nate (and me!!!!) wahoo! Then decided we should go to Discovery at the Gateway while we were out there, our membership is up on Monday!

5:35 unloaded everyone at the Discovery museum

5:40 found out that they close in 20 minutes, bummer, let the kids down easy.... headed on over to the food court for dinner (got lots of food, spilled some lemonade, waved at a lady that wouldn't quit staring at us, ate, cleaned up, played on teh quarter toys)

6:52 pulled up in the driveway, talked to Grandpa for a minute, sang a song with Steve, then

7:00 went downstairs to get kids ready for bed

7:15 camera battery died!

7:30 had prayers, tucked kids in bed and read a book to them

7:45 sat down in front of tv with Nate to chattychat and wind down! and feed Erika of course

8:00 changed Erika, jammies on (no more cute outfit)

8:30 started to upload pictures for this post while watching tv and holding Erika

9:00 hand Erika off to Nate, posting, posting, texting a little

10:00 feed Erika some more, change her again, finish this post!!

10:30.... as you can see I got kind of bored with this toward the end, once my camera died :).... but I must say, this was a good thing for me!

I totally didn't realize how little time it takes to do some of the things that I thought took a long time (sorry, that's why I was going minute by minute there in the beginning, for myself)... it's nice to know that if I want to hurry, but have a few minutes to spare, I will still have time to dress Noah, or change a diaper. Not to mention it was good for me to see how much I really did do, even though it's all undone again by now (I still haven't put all the dishes away and gotten that last load out of the dryer and the one from the washer in the dryer....) but anyway. It was also good to see how much time I really do spend just sitting around sometimes against my will but other times not.... so that's something I can work on. I can think of a million things that make this day different from most, but really, all of my days are so different, there's really not a "typical day" here. I've pretty much given up on having a schedule since it just stresses me out when I can't do it. I would rather just be okay with feeding Erika fifty million times a day and not have to worry about whether I was able to check something off my list or not. So anyway.... this will be interesting to look back on in ten years I think......But sorry if this was lame. Steve couldn't let me think it wasn't, but I still had to do it. Thanks for the idea Meredith.

*So it's now almost midnight and I am still sitting here with Erika. Nate's finally asleep. The poor guy is not feeling well either. I'm getting a sore throat too. Steve came down and read my blog post, apparently it's not as bad as he thought it would be :) he loved that I mentioned him so much. But anyway, my day is officially over in about a minute.