Summer's

So each summer I have grand plans and then I only follow through on half of them. I did the same this summer but now I have changed what I am thinking. I have recently read a book about doing more with less. I think I am trying to do to much. Summer is almost over. Can you believe Ryan is going to Middle School. Kate has been at grandma's all summer. The little boys are learning to do tricks on their bicycles. Kirsten finally got potty trained. I know we have done a lot. I just feel like we should do more. Next project is to organize the toy room.

Halloween

So for Halloween we had a HALO Spartan, a Pirate, a Lady Vampire, Ninja/Spiderman, and a Horse/Scooby Doo. We didn't go tricker-treating as it was Sunday but the kids did hand out candy to everyone else. On Friday was our big celebration. We went the to kids carnival at school and then to the ward party at church. Ryan won a goldfish. So that makes 4 goldfish that have been won by my kids this season. Aunt Paula is fish sitting 3 of them, cause "fish don't fly". All in all we had a very busy season and I am happy to report we are all finally over the stomach flu. Which of course hit our house 3 days before all the festivities.

Kirsten Like Sushi

The other day Ryan's Fish died. He left it on the counter. Kirsten found the fish, she decided it looked yummy. Kirsten ate Ryans fish. Of course I had to clean out her mouth. Yuck. Turns out Betta fish is the same color as Salmon. ugh.

As I read other blogs I realize I am a Slacker...

SO to catch up.... We are moving in case you haven't been notified. Packing up this house is a pain. We are looking forward to moving to Colorado.
Right now Katie is playing soccer, her team is having a hard time this year. The little boys are playing T-Ball. They are so cute. Mike is working insane hours, but some day we hope to see him again. Ryan is enjoying what he thinks is his last year of elementary. We are hoping to find a school that includes 6th grade.

Weekend is over

So Ryan's team lost their game. They came in #2. Not bad for his first season ever of football. We had a great day. We went to the Danish bazaar. And heard the Danish ambassador speak. Way cool. I got all the stuff I was looking for, for Christmas. The kids had face painting, and colored ginger bread men, and made horn baskets, and got balloon. Kirsten went nuts over the balloon. She wanted to play with one, and was the only kid that didn't get one. So everyone else got to share with her. Now I am working on a holiday party. We finally have all this free time again.

So I just found out all my siblings had blogs. So I checked them out. Now I feel like a slacker. So here is the run down of our crazy lives again. Ryan is at his last football practice, they have the championship game tomorrow. Hopefully he will win. Kathryn is still miss popularity. Lots of friends to hang out with all the time. Jonathan is really learning a lot these days he loves school. Brayden is enjoying playing with his friends and going to preschool. Kirsten has finally learned to walk. I of course, am working on the house. I just finished the toe kicks in the kitchen. I am currently working on reorganizing the house. Just the same ole stuff. Mike of course is still working so hard he doesn't know wether he is coming or going. Some day I will post pictures. We of course had Halloween. Ryan was Harry Potter, Kathryn was Bat Girl, Jonathan was Optimus Prime, Brayden was Spiderman, Kirsten was a lovely little Lion. We are now gearing up for Thanksgiving. I am still looking for people to come over and make our house crazy. I love having a big Thanksgiving.

Well, the school year is here.

So the kids headed off for their 1st day of school. Brayden even started preschool this year. I loved it. Kirsten and I headed off for some much needed grocery shopping. Now that every one is in school we are still working on the kitchen and moving rooms around. Basically we are fall cleaning and making the house a little more livable. Football is taking a bit of time out of our family life but it seems to be doing wonders for Ryan. Some day I will post pictures I just don't know when that someday will be. We are really enjoying life and waiting for things to settle down and the dust to clear.

So I forget everything sometimes.

Wow, are we crazy or what!

So since I last posted, the normal stuff has gone on and then the not so normal. So Sundays from now on will be tricky as I now lead the music in church, which means that my dear husband will be with all 5 kids alone. Should be interesting for me. We are also ripping apart our kitchen as I type. I just finished packing up all the lower cupboards so they can be ripped out. Then new floor, new counter, new cabinets. I am so excited, but I am thinking I should paint while I have a blank canvas. We have also had a few birthdays. Ryan is now 10 we celebrated his birthday in Arizona. Mommy is now 31. Need I say more. However my friends rock as they came and wished me Happy Birthday. As for the kidlets, hmmm, lets see..... Ryan is ready for school to end, he is enjoying swimming, and Tae kwando. We are also looking forward to football this summer, and scout camp. Kathryn is enjoying playing with all of her friends and the house is beginning to look like a revolving door of little girls. But we like it, now if her brothers would just leave them alone. Jonathan just graduated from speech as he can officially talk. So now he is looking forward to school being over. Brayden is still being a very good big brother and taking care of Kirsten. He is also being daddies helper and ripping off flooring with the best of them. Kirsten has learned to crawl and has taken on the official title of Mini- hoover as she believe she should eat anything that is one the ground, which now includes the entire contents of my kitchen. So as you can see the title of this post is perfect as we are running like crazies at our house.

Sickness

So we have had our bout of illness for the last 2 weeks. All the kids got sick with fevers and runny noses. They each took a turn and were better in 2 days. Then Mom caught it and was sick for 8 days and counting. Luckily I'm finally starting to get better. And then poor little Kirsten caught it. and she is so sad and pathetic. So we took her to the Doc's office. Turns out she has the flu which she caught from mom. So for the last 8 days mom has had the flu. No wonder I wanted someone to shoot me. But we are all on the mend now. So no need to worry, just lots of rest.

So much happening so little time.

So since it's been a while since I posted, here's the low down. Kirsten is scooting backwards she gets about 3 feet from her toys and then through an awful fit to be put back next to them. Brayden is completely potty trained. He is very proud of himself, now we are working on keeping clothes on. He also started Tae Kwando and is loving every minute of it. He wants to go punch and kick every day. Jonathan has hit some kinda slump. He doesn't want to do anything but watch TV or play the WII. Kathryn is still being miss social. She really wants to take violin or piano lessons as well as art classes. She is enjoying Activity Days and wishes it was every week. I like to keep her home with me cause she is so much fun. Ryan is reading "7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens". He likes what the book has to say. He is still working on Tae Kwando also. Mike is trying to decide which job he wants and if he wants to move or stay here. Chelle is treading water and wishing there was a magical house work fairy to come clean it all. We are currently working on puttin up a play ground in the back yard. Hopefully that will be an incentive for the kids to go play outside. SO there you have it. THe last month or so in a nut shell.

Brotherly Love
All About Smiles
Oh What's That
I thought I would put up some cute pictures we have collected.

Christmas

So we had Christmas. The kids all got Gameboys, and we haven't seen their faces yet. It has been very interesting. We had to have christmas dinner a couple days latter, cause Daddy fell asleep and forgot to wake up for a long time. So he had mac and cheese instead, and had Christmas dinner for Sunday dinner. We are still trying to get Christmas cards out, I figure those will go out some time in the new year. We did finally get a family picture taken. The kids are really enjoying thier winter vacation. Now they like it even more with so much electronic stimulation. Wishing you and yours Merry Christmas.

Brayden being cute.

Recap

So I kept waiting hoping to get photos to go with my posts but it will never happen so words will have to do. In the last month things have really started popping at our house. For Halloween we painted pumpkins. Then went trick or treating. The kids loved both. For Thanks Giving we had 21 people at our house. 8 Adults and 13 children. It was great. Lots of food and fun. Now we are winding down for Christmas. I really look forward to this time of year. We are looking for a service project to do as a family this year. As for the kids they are learning and growing quickly. Ryan is enjoying being the older brother, he is learning he wants his room to himself and to be left alone. Kathryn is still the social person and wants to be with everyone. Jonathan is happy to be in the middle, he loves taking care of his new sister. Brayden is going through the terrible 2/3's he seems to want to beat the snosterblah out of everyone, except Kirsten who he believes is his personal plaything.
We hope all our family and friends are well and happy this holiday season.

Wow time does fly.

Where has all our time gone. Kirsten is now 3 weeks old. She is getting a huge personality. SHe likes to smile and be held and talked too. She seems to love the craziness that is afternoons. Brayden is adjusting to being a big brother. Yesterday he tried to ride Kirsten like a pony. We had to talk about being soft again. Jonathan is still our quiet one he will talk to Kirsten if now one else is bugging him or her. He and Brayden are also best of enemies. They can't live without each other and they can't be in the same room. Kathryn is currently trying to flex her wings. Unfortunately we had to cut them. She tried to flex them tooo far, and got in alot of trouble. Ryan is working on being Mr. Responsible. He wants to help take care of everyone else. Mike is working crazy hours we miss seeing him. Supposedly he is supposed to come home and play with the kids tonight. And myself (mom) I am just learning how to keep up with all these people, places and things. So far since grandma has left I have managed to keep up with laundry and dishes. That is my goal. I am really excited that it is fall. It is my favorite time of year. I am watching what everyone else is doing with all thier kids and I am just amazed. So day I would like the sanity and cooperation to go out to DC and other places and not feel like I am gonna lose a kid somewhere. Hope ya'll are well and healthy. We are just the same ole', same ole'.

Baby number 5

Kirsten has joined the ranks of the living. She was born this morning at 11:50 a.m. in Manassas, VA. She is a 9lb 1oz 21" beauty. Brown hair mattes her head and she was ticked off for the first hour because they vacuumed her stomach. Both Chelle and the Baby are doing well. Chelle just asked me to get her a steak.

So we got to the hospital at about 7:30 and found out that Chelle was already starting labor on her own. Dr. Dehall hooked up the Pitocin at about 8:15 anyway to 'speed things along'. After about 2 hours Chelle decided to opt in for the drugs. Chelle was at a 6 when the doctor checked prior to the friendly neighborhood drug doctor showing up to load her up.

When he arrived Dr. Dehall took off to prep for a C-Section (another patient). Unfortunately after 20 or so minutes post epidural there were no good effects. Someone finally checked her and found out than in the last 20 minutes Chelle had gone from a 6 to done! Everyone scrambled trying to get in touch with Dr. Dehall. When she finally came rushing in, she pretty much just played catch. So much for two more hours eh?

When Kirsten was born she had to be suctioned for 10 minutes to get all of the crud she had swallowed out of her lungs and throat. This of course made her angry, and boy can she hold a grudge. She is now over the grudge and sleeping soundly, unlike all of her siblings who sounded like they learned to breath at a chain saw convention.

Well Drum roll.

We are on official count down people. Baby being kicked out in T-whatever. Or in other words I am being induced tomarrow at 7am. AHHHHH. But then maybe I can see my feet again. We have all the kids farmed out for the day. I must say I have some great friends around here. Not sure what I would do without them. The kids don't get it. They just understand that they will be with baby sitters from 6:45 in the morning until later. So Now ya'll just have to wait for the exciting news of how big and when.

Our crazy week

Well our week is finally comming to an end. I am sooooooo glad. I think having 2-3 apt. everyday really can wear a person out. Back to school night is done, Dr. apts are done. EEG is done, School apts. done, Now I can stress about this baby. AHHHHHHHH. Yesterday was truely awful. While at the doc's office they thought something was wrong and sent us for an Emergancy ultrasound. Then back to the doc's office. And informed me that if they were right I would be having the baby today by C-Section. Luckily everything is good. No problems so I am still Prego. Mike got to skip work all day to stay by me side, what a good guy. The kids are all good, they are working hard in school and learning to be helpful at home. Ryan really wanted me to go to his back to school night so that he could get the free home work pass. Funny Boy. Katie is still really into playing, with friends and would be gone all the time if I let her. Jonathan is still having a great time at school. But he scared the sitter yesterday, got off on the wrong bus stop, came home instead of her house. Brady is loving being home by himself everyday. He is soooooooo easy when no one else is bugging him. We were supposed to go camping tonight, but with all the yucky weather, the canceled it and moved it to a dinner instead. which is okay with me.

Our Days

I still haven't figured out where the day goes. It feels like I just get up and get the kids out the door when they are getting home. We still have lots to do to get ready for this baby. I just hope we can get it all done. Luckily we have friends that are willing to help us. You know closer this baby gets to arriving the more I feel like I need to get done. And the less I accomplish. I am happy to report that I have finally gotten somewhat of a schedule. That makes my mornings easier. Now if I could just figure out the rest of the day.