Melgar Family

THAT DARN DOG!!!!!

2010-07-27T22:44:00.003-05:00

In December we had puppies and when we couldn't get rid of the runt we decided to keep her, bad idea. She eats everything. She has a really long tongue (I swear it stretches) so even from her crate she can reach things she's not supposed to have. A week ago she managed to reach the cord to my computer, which was on the kitchen counter out of her reach, and she ate it. My first instinct was to kill the dog but there were too many kids watching me freak out and I didn't want to have to explain to other parent why there kids can't stop crying. My next thought was to just open the door and let her play in the front yard for a while and see if she was still there when Oscar got home. She doesn't go far without her mama. By the time he got home I had calmed down a little so she's safe for now. Now I have to share a computer with four kids which is very frustrating. The kids are hopeful she'll make to her first birthday but I doubt it.

Left Behind!

2010-07-27T21:25:00.002-05:00

After 12 years and 7 kids Kariann and I finally lost one. (Tanner did get lost in walmart once but Oscar was the one that lost him so that doesn't count) When the were little we would take them to the the mall, the park, the movies, walmart, everywhere. We even took like 12 kids to sixflags once and didn't loose a single child. I took my four to Chicago with two layovers and never lost any of them. Now that they are older we just tell them go get in the car and put on your seat belt and usually they do it. And if they don't one of the others always tattles and we thump them in the head and tell them to get in the car. For some reason today we made it all the way to the car, counted heads, told them to get in while we said our goodbyes and Kariann and I got in the car and drove off. Somewhere between counting heads and telling them to load up Zander wandered off. We got almost to the house before Hannah asked why there was an empty seat. Nobody tattled or complained. He announced he wasn't going with us and went back into the church and nobody said anything to the moms. Luckily Oscar was still there so he wasn't totally lost. I guess it was bound to happen to us eventually but we never thought when they were older and always said if I was gonna loose one it would probably be him. Oh, when we went to Chicago we took a teenager with us who did get lost and was taken into custody by security but that wasn't my fault either, at fifteen she was responsible for watching herself.

Kids Sleeping Here!!

2010-06-07T22:31:00.005-05:00

I have run out of creative punishments so lately when the kids get in trouble I have been having them copy scriptures. I choose the scripture that I want them to learn and count back 25, 50 or 100 versus depending on what they have done wrong.

Zander only ever gets 25 so he does his scriptures and then goes up to bed without being told. Tanner, after taking a two hour nap, got about 15 versus in and called me while I was out walking to tell me he was too tired to finish and he needed to go to bed and he would finish in the morning. I told him he would just have to sleep in the chair because he wasn't getting down from the table until he finished his 50 versus. I guess the big kids took me seriously for once because when I got home this is how I found them.

Do Not Disturb, Kids Working! I only disturbed a little to ask if they wanted to go to bed. They all said they were fine where they were so I left them there.

The Museum

2010-06-02T14:39:00.003-05:00

The White Settlement Museum is one of the kids favorite field trips. They always want to go when they are out of school. It recently had to be torn down because it was in a flood zone next to a creak that is going to be widened. Tanner, who begs to go there the most, is a little heartbroken but Mrs. Davis, the museum manager, insists that the new museum will be better than the old. Tanners not buying it. He liked the old museum that was originally an old house. There is an old sideways tree out in front of the museum that the kids like to climb while we wait for everyone to take a potty break and when we're loading the cars after our visit.

On our last trip to the museum Mrs. Davis was showing the kids how to use an old hand crank record player. After most of the boys had their turn cranking and playing music Gemma and I turned to ask the girls if they wanted to give it a try and we found them dancing to the music. It was very adorable.

2010-06-02T14:38:00.000-05:00

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

2010-06-01T14:49:00.003-05:00

We took the kids to see Diary of a wimpy kid. They had a lot of fun and some of the kids who don't like to read are now trying to read the books. I thought the opposite would happen, that they would quit trying because now they can just watch the movies but they want to know what happens next and they don't want to wait for the next movie.

2010-06-01T14:47:00.000-05:00

Tanners shelf

2010-06-01T13:56:00.003-05:00

Tanner had to build something out of wood for his scout project. He decided he wanted a shelf for his wall so that he would have a home for all his collectibles and scout models and awards. He drew out the design and then I had to figure out how to make it. After I made the first section he made all the rest. I even made him cut the wood even though he is afraid of the big power tools like the table saw and chop saw. He said he was totally freaked out but I made him do it anyway since it was his project and he has to learn to use tools sooner or later. I had to help with the screw in the top because it was too tall for him to reach with the drill. In the end it was a little warped and crooked but it turned out pretty good for his first real project.

The Circus

2010-04-02T08:29:00.014-05:00

If you ever go to the circus don't get ring side seats it really isn't worth it and you miss half the show. We missed most of the tigers because all the circus employees circled around the cage so that no one tried to get too close and we had to peak between people to see anything.We weren't able to get any pictures of the trapeze swingers either because there were too many lights on at the top of the tent and we were looking up into the lights.

The Fire Eater

The Toy Elephant

The Real Elephants

The Clowns

The Dog and Pony Show

The Acrobats

Brendan thought he was too old for the circus,

and an elephant pooed next to J.P. and Zander so they were a little less than thrilled to be ring side,

but Tanner and Sarah had a blast.

More Spring Break

2010-04-02T07:19:00.005-05:00

After the museum (to be blogged later) we took the Sings to see the castle and to play at the park.

Some of the kids were too tired to get out of the car at the castle but they seamed to have found a new burst of energy by the time we got to the park.

Spring Break

2010-04-02T06:35:00.004-05:00

Usually during spring break Oscar is here to take the kids to do fun things and I get to stay home with the extra kids, not this year though.

Our first fun trip was to putt putt. Gemma and Kariann and their kids joined us for our day of fun. We had unlimited golf and it was such a beautiful day so we stayed for about 5 hours playing golf and just letting the little kids run around outside.

This was all the pictures KK could take before the camera died.

Everything happens when your 12

2010-03-25T22:03:00.002-05:00

Tanner and I were talking today and he asked me a question and my answer was when your 12. He said "Ugh, I hate being nine, you have to wait like three years to do anything, everything happens when your twelve. You can have a pocket knife, you get to babysit, you get a cell phone, and you even get a little skillet and it comes with a small pot too". 8 used to be the birthday to look forward to in our house because even though after you get baptized you get more responsibility as a big kid you also get a little more freedom like riding your bike on the street or playing over at a friends who's not a member of the church or related to you, buying your own ice cream from the ice cream man and for the boys riding in the car without a carseat. Zander is gonna be very disappointed he turns 8 and he isn't big enough to do most of the 8 year old things. For Sarah and Zander 12 will be when they are finally big enough to ride without a carseat.

Lying

2010-03-15T20:26:00.003-05:00

My 12 yr old can't seem to stop lying to his mother lately. I don't know what's happened because he used to be the good one and all of the sudden he's lying about everything, even things he probably wouldn't get in trouble for. Since he's only aloud to watch TV and play video games on Saturday grounding him wasn't very helpful. Taking away the cell phone wasn't helpful either because I make him babysit and sometimes take his little brothers and sister to play at their friends when I can't and he needs his phone for that. He hasn't had an allowance and has been doing extra chores for so long that that isn't a punishment anymore either. I have been driving him to school because it is very embarrassing to be dropped off by your mom when your twelve and that has been a little helpful. I think today I may have found the solution. He wanted to go out and ride bikes with all the other neighborhood kids. Most of them were his age and they came over a few times to ask him to play. At first I said no because he was grounded but that didn't seem like it bothered him much so I decided he could go outside and ride his bike but he couldn't cross the street and every time they asked he had to tell them no because his mommy won't let him cross the street. (I sent Tanner as a spy make sure he told them) He stayed out for about ten minutes before the other kids decided the sidewalk was for babies and they were going off to do something else. I told him if he keeps it up I would be eating lunch with him as well. He swears he will never lye to me again. Lets hope he doesn't because I really don't like school food.

Zanders Survival Pack

2010-02-21T22:59:00.004-06:00

For Christmas Oscar gave the kids pop-up emergency tents. They are about the size of a twin bed and they fold up into a flat little 12 x 12 pouch that soldiers can clip to their packs and carry with them. Today Zander took the pouch for his tent and packed it with his emergency supplies.

His survival kit consists of:

The repair kit for his tent
Two empty cookie tins (his survival food because he can't take food upstairs)
His favorite stuffed dog
Two reflector that he took off the trailer
A bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade
A lightsaber
A dinosaur
A whistle made out of drinking straws
A valentine from his best friend
A letter from his sister
The handle to the basting brush (he doesn't know what it's called but it's a weapon and he knows how to use it he said)
An M&M
A large cardboard tube (his rocket launcher)
A telescope
And two tubes of bubbles from yesterdays wedding

I'm not sure where he learned about rocket launchers and how to hold one but his cousin Jacob was here today and I think he spilled the beans about where their daddies are and what they're really doing there.

No Wonder

2010-02-14T09:39:00.003-06:00

Hannah lost her tooth at our house last night. We were watching tv and she said her tooth hurt so i told her to brush her teeth but her tooth was bleeding. and she kept trying to clean the blood off with a tisue and it fell out. When aunt KK picked her up this morning she said they don't have a tooth fairy at this house. No wonder Sarah still has all her baby teeth.

-Sarah

Snow!!

2010-02-14T09:23:00.002-06:00

When the weatherman said there was gonna be a lot of snow I didn't believe him. This is Texas after all and it doesn't really snow here, not real snow. Well it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. The kids had a blast and made a ton of snow men. They didn't actually know how to make real snow men so one of our neighbors had to show them. We didn't have a snow man kit (because this is Texas and it doesn't snow here) so we had to use our pumpkin kits for snowmen faces. We had the scariest snowmen on the block. I don't do cold and wet so all of the pictures I took were from the front porch and from the window upstairs.

2010-02-14T09:21:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T08:29:00.003-06:00

Moo goes the cow and the cow goes moo. Happy valentine's day!

Love,

The kids

(A note from the mom - I didn't feed all those treats to just my kids. We had four other kids to share with.)

Gone Crazy

2010-02-13T19:11:00.003-06:00

Zander has gone girl crazy. He's been picking fights with girl so that they will chase him and he let a girl kiss him on the arm(this is a big deal when your 7 because kissing on he cheek is just gross). I told him he better not be kissing girls anywhere, ever and the girls better not be kissing him either. Last week he came home from school and asked how old he has to be when he could go on a double date. I asked why he was asking and he said that this was very embarrassing to talk about it so could I just answer. I reminded him that the rule is 16. None of the other kids were ever girl or boy crazy so I called my older sister for help because my niece has been boy crazy since she was two. Her daughter is only eleven and it hasn't gotten any better so she had no advise. What ever happened to cooties? her answer was penicillin. Not helpful Jen. We recently had to have a family home evening on dating and girlfriends or boyfriends because Tanner likes a girl at his school. He said he doesn't want to date her, she's just cute that's all. Sarah thinks boys are gross or so she says and Brendan says there's no hope for him because all the girls are bigger than him so I don't have to worry. Zander on the other hand likes all 7 year old girls. I'm going to lock him in the closet.

Christmas Concerts

2010-02-03T08:52:00.008-06:00

Sarah had her first concert just before Christmas. She was so excited. She started band this year playing the french horn but it was too heavy for her to hold up. They decided to switch her to a clarinet because it's not as heavy but she is too small for the clarinet, her arms aren't long enough to reach all the levers, button and holes and she doesn't have enough lung power to play some of the notes. They suggested she switch to percussion. She decided band is too stressful and she would rather switch to art.

Brendan was a little less excited but he was exhausted. He had three concerts that week and another the next week. He played in the 5th and 6th grade beginner band concert, he was invited to play with the middle school band and was asked to play in a district wide concert, and then his school had a winter celebration that he had to perform at. He was so exhausted from all the extra practices and concerts that when he came home from school the day after the last concert he went straight to bed and slept until it was time to wake up the next day.

I think Brendan was the shortest kid at the district concert and they put him in the back so we couldn't see him.

Puppies!!

2010-02-03T08:01:00.004-06:00

This is how I get greeted every morning.

I try to keep the puppies in the bathtub so that I can wash the puppy mess down the drain every day but some of the little terds have figured out how to climb out. They weaned really fast so we were able to start giving them away at 6 weeks old instead of 8 but we still have five left. The kids may have suckered me into keeping one. I told them no but they are just to darn cute. Every time i fall in love with one i give it away so that I won't keep it. Nobody likes Leah, not even the kids so I just have to make sure that Leah is the last to go. I know that sounds terrible but she is very irritating and she wines all the time so we won't keep her.

Happy Birthday Sarah

2010-02-03T06:55:00.002-06:00

The only thing Sarah wanted this year for her birthday was a slumber party. After 28 girls showed up last year we told her we would never do that again. But she was very insistent and she swore that we it would be better this year. We waited until two days before the party to pass out invitations hoping that most kids would already have plans. It worked because only 10 girls showed up and half of them were cousins.

2010-02-03T06:50:00.001-06:00

Mud

2010-01-02T22:46:00.003-06:00

Today I was laying tile in the bathroom when Sarah came in to let me know that she thinks it's totally unfair that I get to use mud when I'm building but she doesn't get to use mud ever, not even when she's playing. I never said life was fair! I got my husband to agree to a total bathroom remodel. I was nice enough to ask him this time, one time he came home and the entire bathroom, with the exception of the tub, was on the front lawn. I went out and got a new vanity and mirror this morning. When I got home and ripped out the old vanity I found that the joint of the vent pipe for the downstairs bathroom is too big to fit inside the wall and it's right where the back foot of the new vanity should sit. Now I have to go back to home depot, ugh!!

Bathroom Remodel

2010-01-01T23:17:00.003-06:00

The house we live in has carpet in the bathrooms. I don't know who ever thought this was a good idea should shot. I've wanted to rip it out since we moved in but Oscar said no. Every time the kids flood the bathroom or one of the little ones pee on the floor I have to shampoo the carpet. Last night I decided that if I had to shampoo the carpet one more time I was ripping it out and putting tile. This morning the dog peed on the bathroom floor. Good Dog!!! While pulling up the linoleum by the toilet I noticed a little mold growing on the waterproof sub-floor so I pulled up the waterproof sub-floor and found even more mold between the plywood sub-floor and the waterproof sub-floor. We had a toilet leek but never noticed because the water was running under the linoleum and settling between the two sub-floors. Luckily there is no rot yet. If the dog hadn't peed on the floor I would have never noticed. Now I'm debating a whole bathroom remodel or just new flooring.

2010-01-01T23:16:00.001-06:00

Under Construction

2009-12-27T21:21:00.002-06:00

While we were having Hannah's party the sheetrock guy was hanging sheetrock. He spent three days at our house and when he was finished the work he did was better than the builder of our house. Sarah spent the weekend playing photographer, Zander spent the whole weekend watching the work, Tanner and Brendan spent the whole weekend hiding from clean up duties so I got to spend the whole weekend reading.

2009-12-27T21:18:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday Hannah

2009-12-26T21:51:00.005-06:00

Okay, so like a month ago we celebrated Hannah's 10th birthday but I'm a slacker and I'm just now getting around to blogging it. KK was in the middle of a move so we had her party at my house. The kids decided they didn't want to go home so it turned into a sleepover. It was a cousin only birthday so we only had 12 kids. I know what your thinking, HOLY COW 12 kids, but that's good for us and Sarah's sleepover last year had 28 girls and only 6 were cousins.

It was a twilight party and the kids all wanted to watch the movie. My kids and one of my nieces don't ever get to watch violent movies and the bedrooms scenes where a bit much for such a young group so I edited the movie and took out everything I didn't want them to see, which was almost half the movie, but none of the other kids complained so it worked out fine.

Puppies!!

2009-12-26T21:23:00.003-06:00

All of my blog posts are gonna be out of order for the next few days so just bear with me and be happy your not still looking at Halloween. On December 15th our dog had puppies. I myself have never delivered puppies that has always been Oscars job. I have to say it was the most disgusting thing ever. Just the smell of her water breaking made me vomit and she had 11 puppies so her water broke 11 times. After that I was done. I had to call my sister and her best friend for help. They didn't mind at all and thought it was funny that every time I tried to clean up the birthing mess I had to throw up again. I should have made KK clean up after the dog since she was the one who let the dog get out in the first place but she was busy delivering the puppies and I couldn't stand leaving the mess for later. It has been 11 days and i still think my house smell like puppy afterbirth. I finally caved and gave them a bath today which has improved the smell a little. I know it's a little early but lets face it there was no way I was gonna wait 4 weeks with dirty puppies in my house. KK and Sandra named them as they delivered them. They all had vampire names in the beginning but the kids have renamed some of them with werewolf names. There is one that Zander is particularly fond of and he renamed it Sharla hoping that I wouldn't give her away.

Sleepover Rules

2009-12-26T20:47:00.003-06:00

Every weekend we have cousin sleepovers at our house. This weekend Sarah decided she should go stay the night with one of her cousins instead of her cousins coming to her house. I don't usually let her have sleepovers on Saturday because we have church on Sunday but this time she had a plan. Before asking me she called my sister to make sure it was okay. Then she and Hannah called each other to discuss the details. After that she sat down and wrote a set of sleep over rules before coming down to ask permission. She came up with these all by herself so I hope this isn't the way she acts at other peoples house to make her think she needs rules for sleepover behavior.

be nice
be kind
don't say bad words
no junk food
no cartoon network
no nickalodien
watch my manners(something I tell her a lot lately)
no playing in the MUD(a standing rule for her no matter where she is or what she's doing)
no shoving
no biting
no punching
no smacking
no snacking
no chocking(choking)
no farting or burping in peoples faces(she has a cousin that does this)
no throwing your food across the room
eat all your food
go to bed at 8:00pm
don't stay up past 8:00pm
no midnight snacking
brush your teeth

She did get to go after explaining her plans and insisting that all the kids would fallow the rule so they wouldn't drive KK crazy.

Tanners artwork

2009-12-25T13:50:00.003-06:00

At the fine arts academy they have what they call the art wall and each week they choose one piece of artwork from each grade to hang on the art wall. Tanner has been chosen twice. Then two weeks ago an artist came in and judged the paintings for his school and one of his paintings was chosen to be displayed at the wsisd winter festival. He was quite thrilled.

Matt's Kids

2009-12-25T13:41:00.003-06:00

Almost every other weekend my Matt's kids come stay with us for his visitation weekend. The last time they were here Sierra asked if I could make a blog for her daddy with pictures of his kids like I do for my kids and their daddy.It was so pitiful and I didn't have the heart to tell her that her daddy doesn't have internet access on the base where he's at. Here's her slide show and I will be sending a dvd copy to him in a care package.

2009-12-25T13:40:00.001-06:00

Letters from Sarah

2009-12-25T11:34:00.003-06:00

Dear Moma,
Sarah and Zander & Tanner & Brendan are very, very, very, very sorry for our bad behaveyour and we are cleaning our rooms.

Now Sarah and Zander are done. We have to wait on Tanner.

Sarah and Zander are going to help Tanner clean his room now.

Brendan is done with his room now and he cleaned the downstairs bathroom. I am also done with my room and the hall bathroom. We only have a little left to put away now.

Now every one is done with their rooms and bathrooms
NOW ARE WE UNGROUNDED?
DO YOU EXCEPT OUR APPOLLOGY?

Love, Sarah, Zander, Tanner, Brendan

Happy Halloween

2009-11-03T18:27:00.003-06:00

This year Brendan and his friend James decided they were to old to go trick or treating so Brendan invited his friend to sleep over on Halloween night.

They played video games and passed out candy but I think they ate more than they gave away.

Zanders (Black Spiderman) friend Craig is James' little brother and Zander and Craig were upset because their brothers were having a sleepover without them so Craig's mother invited Zander for a sleep over and trick or treating. Zander didn't make it through the night though, he never does, but he tried.

Saturday afternoon Tanner's best friend Rylee called and invited Tanner (Grimm Reaper) to a Halloween party.

So that left Sarah(Alex Russo) with nothing to do and no friends to come over at the last minute.

But it turned out okay because we made it a girls night. We went shopping to by her a new outfit and went Trick or Treating, just the girls.

The Mitchells also stopped by after their night of mayhem.

Maddy(Supergirl) couldn't take anymore excitement and crashed.

Hannah (Batgirl) was her usual self with plenty of attitude.

Trey's costume fell apart so he pulled his pants down and turned his hat sideways and went as a skater.

This is Karian's best friends daughter Hayley (Thumbalina). She insists that she is a Mitchell and doesn't understand why she can't live at KK's house. Everywhere the Mitchels go she has to go to.

And of coarse Maddie's baby Annabelle. She treats her like a real baby and insists the everyone else in the family does the same.

Under Construction

2009-11-01T20:44:00.003-06:00

Having the house remodeled is very entertaining for Sarah and Zander. They try to fallow the boys around the entire time they are here asking questions and taking pictures. I'm sure it's annoying for the boys but they aren't annoying me so I'm not so concerned at this point. The slide show is our house under construction from Sarah's point of view.

2009-11-01T20:43:00.000-06:00

Not Sleeping

2009-11-01T17:39:00.003-06:00

I don't sleep a lot when Oscar isn't here so i sit in my big comfy chair reading until I fall asleep. I'm okay with not sleeping, I function better with less than 5 hours of sleep but I think my bad sleeping habits are rubbing off on the kids.

Zander's a daddies boy so when Oscar is gone Zander can't sleep. He gets up to wander the house at night and sneak a little TV and then everyday when I wake up I find him on the floor next to either mine or Bobos bed.

Sarah can't sleep without Zander so now when she wakes up in the middle of the night she goes to find Zander.

Sometimes I catch her looking for Zander and i send her back to bed. instead of going to her own bed she gets in Zanders and reads until she falls asleep. i have no idea how long she stays awake in there but at least she isn't sneaking TV.

I've also been finding Brendan still curled up on his closet floor reading when I go in to wake him up but he's still awake so i can't ever get a picture. He says he sleeps a little and then reads a little but I'm not sure he isn't staying up all night.

No More Dog :(

2009-11-01T17:05:00.005-06:00

Our bad word neighbor called the city to complain about the dogs so many time that the city deemed the dog a neighborhood nuisance so the dogs had to go. They gave me a ticket for $6000($2000 per dog) and told me to deal with the dogs because if he called again the would be back to give me another ticket. I did call the courthouse and explained the whole neighbor situation, they never came out to give me a warning, and that the dogs were no longer living at our house and got them to bring the ticket down to $265. It's very odd to not have them here so in December I'm gonna bring one of the dogs back and we'll just see what happens.

Puzzles

2009-11-01T16:40:00.004-06:00

Our new Saturday activity when we don't have babies and there isn't construction going on is to hang out in our pj's all day and do puzzles.

Tanners pieces that almost fit together perfectly and the pictures line up exactly, but they don't actually go together.

Brendan doesn't really like to do puzzles so he takes pictures and makes lunch while the rest of us work.

Tashas Shower

2009-11-01T16:10:00.005-06:00

I was supposed to host the shower for Tasha but Oscar called Thursday just before midnight to tell me he was flying out Monday and he wanted me to fly to Mississippi in the morning to spend the weekend with him so I did. I made the cake, threw all the food together and stuffed it the freezer, put out all the decorations and party supplies, and called my sisters and told them they were on their own for the weekend. I flew to Mississippi leaving them to fend for themselves. I only felt a little guilty for missing the shower that i was hosting and dumping everything including my ids and mom on KK but they took pictures and Sarah and Hannah had plenty of stories to tell when I got home.

It all comes out in the wash

2009-09-09T21:24:00.003-05:00

Well, sometimes it doesn't but he just has to keep scrubbing until it does.

I always complain about the laundry, the 3 loads a day, the stains, the clean clothes that I am rewashing, the markers Sarah leaves in her pockets, etc. but I'm so glad that my husband is now doing his own laundry. His uniforms are so dirty at the end of the week that I would just throw them out and send him to buy new ones. He doesn't though, he washes and scrubs until they look like this -

Trees

2009-09-06T21:52:00.005-05:00

After the hurricanes Katrina and Ike a lot of the trees that were still standing along the coastline were either damaged or dead. The is an artist that is going around the coast of Mississippi carving the trees into sculptures. I wish I could have brought one home because they are amazing.

The big owl in this picture was about the length of my van.

Some of the trees had roots that were so strong they couldn't be ripped from the ground. They were strong enough to withstand the winds but didn't stand unchanged from them. The swirling winds from the hurricanes twisted the trunks of these massive trees.They will forever be a reminder of what happened there.

Project of the day

2009-09-04T11:48:00.004-05:00

My kitchen table is a hand-me-down from my great grandmother. The table is in great condition but the chairs are falling apart. Actually the chairs were also in good condition until they came to live at my house. When we got down to two chairs I figured it was time to do something about it. I started hunting for replacement chairs that would look good with my table but the only ones I could find were almost $80 each and I would have to assemble and stain them myself so that was out. I don't have enough confidence in myself to try building chairs from scratch and the pieces to build a chair would cost about $75 so I decided a bench would do fine.

Now I just have to stain it to match the table but I think I'm gonna save that for next week.

Yesterdays Project

2009-09-03T12:32:00.003-05:00

Last week I was driving through my mother in laws neighborhood and found three little student desks. The cheap metal and particle board kind you find in elementary school classrooms. For several months now I have been trying to find a classroom supply store that will not ship them to me but not charge me almost as much for shipping as the price of the desk. It turns out these desks are only cheap if you order enough to fill a classroom. But then I found three of them in the trash.

They were very dirty and a little rusty. They also needed new desk tops. I gave them a good scrub, repainted the metal, and replaced the tops. I only spent $15 for plywood, $3 for spray paint, and $3 for new screws for a total $21 for 3 desks which is still less than the price of one new desk without shipping.

I decided to leave the chrome legs off until I can find chairs for them to sit on. For now they are the perfect height for the boys if they are sitting on the floor.

My Mothers Incident

2009-09-02T20:53:00.005-05:00

So, my mother is going to kill me for posting this picture but Sarah thought this was a good idea so we're blaming this on her. Tuesday my mother was having a great day. She watched the kids for me while I ran errands, helped me clean the house, ate lunch with the babies, and helped me put kids to bed, she was perfectly fine. She said she was a little tired so she went to her room to lay down. About 45 minutes later I found her not breathing with no pulse. I was able to resuscitate her and the paramedics came and took her to the hospital. In the hospital before she was fully aware of what was going on she kept taking off her oxygen mask because it was bugging her. I called home to check on the children and as I was finishing my call I looked over and found her like this. They never could determine what exactly caused it. They aren't sure why she was fine one minute and not the next but she seems to be okay now except she will have to sleep with a machine that forces her to breathe and she will have to use oxygen from now on. They are keeping her in the hospital for a few more days due to unrelated insulin issues she has been having but she should be home this weekend. I've tried twice to have the playroom turned into a bedroom for her but both times the people who were supposed to build it have flaked out (one after being paid) but I've decided not to do it after all because if there had been a door there I would have never noticed she wasn't breathing. Oh and we refer to it as her incident now because that's what they kept calling it at the hospital.

The first day of school

2009-09-02T15:41:00.003-05:00

On the first day of school I decided I wasn't keeping any extra kids so I wouldn't have to rush home and meet parents. I didn't have to get up at 5am and for the first time in a long time I got to sleep in and actually stayed asleep. I slept so hard I slept through the alarm. We rushed around and got every one ready and made it to school just before the tardy bell. When we got to the school the big kids decided to take themselves to class and Zander wanted to do the same but he couldn't carry his own bag. He said it was embarrassing for his mother to walk him to class but his bag weighed as much as he did. When we got into the class it was a different story. He clung to my leg and wouldn't let go. I pealed him off, wished his teacher luck and left him there and for the first time ever he didn't cry and freak out. On his first day of pre-k he didn't speak to me until after dinner and only talked to me because he had to tell me that one of the other kids bit him. On his first day of kindergarten daddy had to take him to school because he was already freaking out. On the first day of first grade he was crying so hard he made other kids in his class cry. It took about 45 minute to get him to calm down enough for me to leave. But this year he didn't even cry and by day two it was embarrassing for him to be dropped of at school by his mother.

Confession - this isn't actually the first day of school picture because I forgot to charge the batteries to the camera, it isn't the second day either because Tuesday was when my mother had her incident, and it isn't the third day because I was still at the hospital with my mother when my kids left for school. This picture was taken on the fourth day of school before I sent my children to bed because it was a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad week.

The birds

2009-09-02T14:29:00.004-05:00

Okay today while washing the dishes and talking on the phone I looked out the kitchen window and saw a ton of birds in the empty lot next to my house but when I went out to take a picture they all flew away. When I turned around there were more just hanging out on the roof of my house.

We had some leftover bird seeds from a scout project of Tanners last month so I threw it out in the grass so the birds can have a little snack.

Happy Birthday Dad & Brendan

2009-09-01T07:57:00.004-05:00

Our first day in Mississippi we went out to dinner to celebrated Oscars and Brendan's birthdays. When my brother suggested we go to a place called Shady's for dinner I was a little apprehensive but he assured me it was a family friendly restaurant. It was a little weird though because when we got there we were told they couldn't accommodate parties larger than 6 guests and they had a policy against putting tables together. I wish they had mentioned this when my brother called. It was a little awkward having to sit at different tables and try to talk back and forth between the tables. We made it work though because after 11 hours on the road we were all to tired and hungry to try to find another place to eat.

Your not my husband

2009-08-24T22:29:00.002-05:00

It has been two and a half weeks since I last talked to Oscar and it is driving me crazy. I have now started answering the phone with "your not my husband" when people call in the evening. Even though I have a ton of stuff going on this week like packing and prepping for the upstairs remodel not to mention that it's the first week of school but I'm going to start a new project tomorrow to keep me from going crazy before we leave for Mississippi Friday. I am not a patient person so it seems like Friday is taking for ever to get here.

Food I Won't Eat

2009-08-21T20:24:00.002-05:00

We try to eat a very balanced diet around here and our rule is you have to at least half of everything on your plate even if you don't like it. The rule applies to the grown ups also. I even make foods that they like that I find disgusting and I eat them. Recently someone has told Sarah that she has a choice in the foods she eat. I am pretty sure it was a Mitchell because when they are here they refuse to eat their food. Actually it may have started when Emily and Sarah where having lunch and Sarah announced that she doesn't like cheese but I make her eat it. Emily leaned over and told Sarah next time she shouldn't say anything and just quietly take it off. She tried that once and then realized I was still going to make her eat it and it has less of a taste when it's in a sandwich. She is pretty much refusing to eat anything I put in front of her these days and it is driving me crazy. Three days ago she put a notice on the fridge for me to read over when I start to prepare a meal. It is titled "Foods I don't like" and it is a running list of things that she refuses to eat. Everyday she adds more foods to the list. Here is her list so far.

Macaroni, Spaghetti with carrots, any kind of beans, black eye peas, penut buter and honey sandwitches, veggi - cream cheese, macaroni salad, cheese, frosting, penut - butter, spinage, pasta, apple sauce, cherries, wheat bread (i don't get this one because we very often catch her walking around the house with a loaf of bread eating it straight out of the bag), toast, peaches, plumbs, bananas, ham and cheese sandwitches, apples, oat meal, my schools pizza, nuts, fish sticks, the plus dinners (her way of saying any dinner plus vegetables) hamburgers (not sure if she mean soy or beef but beef makes her puke her gut up so will go with that one), pretzals, unsalted nuts, cereal, pancakes and I am sure there will be more tomorrow.
(her spelling)

I don't negotiate so she's probably going to starve.

Naptime

2009-08-20T21:35:00.003-05:00

To get the kids to stop taking naps I tried to bribe them with video games. They only get to play video games on Saturday so I thought it would work. Unfortunately they were too grouchy to play nicely so yesterday I decided TV time would be better. They only get 1 hour of TV a day and they're only aloud to watch like 5 channels so I thought that 3 hours of TV time would be exciting enough to keep them from fighting. It turned out to be too much time. Yesterday when I called the kids down for after nap snack only two came down. I called a few more times and then sent Sarah up to get the boys. Zander and Brendan had fallen asleep. Today when it was time for snack four sleepy eyed kids came down and Brendan grouchily said "What do you want mom your interrupting our nap." I guess we're not actually giving up nap time around here.

2009-08-19T15:04:00.002-05:00

My mother has lost 8 ponds since she moved in with me. I am a little jealous because we are eating the exact same foods at exactly the same time and she is loosing weight and I am gaining but that's okay because I am very proud of her. For those of you that don't already know she was diagnosed with end stage Gastro Paresis. When it comes to gastro paresis(sp?) there seems to be to diet plans that are the most popular and easiest to fallow. First is the half diet where you serve up your food as you normally would and then put it half of it away for later which I didn't think would work because she would still be eating all the same junk that got her to this point. The second is you just eat anything you want as long as you eat the recommended portion size on the package, which wouldn't work because seriously who is going to eat only 1/3 of a chicken breast or all 4 cups of salad in one meal or 1/4 of a cup of macaroni. The doctors say she has to eat every two hours during they day and once during the night and she has to eat a little from all the food groups so I took all the diets and advise and combined them into one diet for her. Every two hours I feed her what ever she wants (we don't usually keep junk food in the house so there isn't a lot to choose from) and make sure she has something from all four food groups. I make the food and measure out one serving of everything and then divide it in half. She eats one half and I eat the other. She is choosing better foods more now that she has seen the size difference in a serving of healthy food versus a serving of junk food. She has also noticed a big change in her health if she doesn't fallow the plan. She got off on her eating while she was at my grandparents house yesterday and came home very sick last night. She told me this morning we really have to stay on the diet. I am glad she has finally agreed to come stay with me so I can take care of her and help her get her life back.

The past few weeks

2009-08-19T13:17:00.004-05:00

My mother has come to stay with me for a while and having her here has been an amazing help. She's usually to sick to really help out around the house but she is a very big help with the kids. She's always willing to babysit during nap time so I can run errands and when ever the kids are bugging me while I'm busy I tell them to go find Bobo and they do. They are very excited to go hang out with her and go draw pictures for her.

We have started remodeling the kitchen. So far the food storage pantry has been started and within a few weeks I am going to put in some new cabinets where the bakers racks are to keep me from going crazy when the kids go to school.

The chickens have left us :( They have found a new home on a chicken farm. We were all sad to see them go and Zander was completely devastated until we explained that they were going to a place where people don't eat the chickens and they could run around all day and didn't have to be locked up when the neighbor was home.

I dropped some kids and now I'm averaging like 6-9 kids a day so I have started letting my kids take turns making lunch. They have been asking if they could make their own lunches for a while but I never would let them because if one kid makes their own lunch then all fifteen will want to make their own lunch and that's just too much chaos for me. When we got down to 9 or less kids a day I decided each day they could take turns making lunch for all the kids. I told them if they make a huge mess I would freak out and they wouldn't be able to make lunch again so when the are done with their lunch all the kids clean the kitchen and wipe down the table and chairs so when I come in to do the dishes the kitchen is already clean for me. Now I am wondering why I didn't start this sooner.

When I go more than a few days without talking to my husband I go a little nuts. To keep me from going totally insane this past week I decided to build a book shelf for the living room. It went faster than I expected so I was a little disappointed. I still have to put in the last shelf and finish unpacking so I can find the rest of my books but other than that the darn thing is finished.

Next week school starts and then the first weekend of school we are going on a road trip to Mississippi to see Oscar so I've stop letting Zander and Tanner take naps. I am tired of our schedule revolving around naps and I figure at 7 & 9 they are old enough to give them up. They have both been real grouchy lately and finely on Sunday Zander came home from church and went to sleep and didn't wake up until about 9:30 Monday morning. He just couldn't take it anymore, he had to catch up on his sleep. If Tanner doesn't get a nap he can't go to sleep at night. Some nights he is up until midnight or later because he says he is so tired he can't go to sleep. Finally one day when they were both being little crabs I told them they were gonna have to take a nap and Tanner started freaking out. He said that if his friends ever found out that he still takes naps they would make fun of him and everyone would tease him. He is determined to get through this. I guess there will be no more after school naps in our house this year - Yeah!!

Someone has started egging our house. In the past month we have been hit 4 times. At first I thought it was the kids that hang out at the school at night but now I don't think so because my house is the only house in the neighborhood getting hit. Last night I came home and there was fresh egg running down the garage door. I must have just missed the punks by a few minutes which I guess is a good thing because I probably would have rum them over If I had caught them in the act. The first time they got the driveway and the back of the van, then they egged the porch, then the front door, and last night the garage door.

I wasn't taking pictures at first, just cleaning it up but then this morning when I was cleaning up I decided if their gonna keep doing this then I'm gonna file a police report and I'll probably need pictures so I stopped cleaning and took a few pictures real quick.

My internet is back Yeah!!! It has only been working in little ten minute spurts randomly throughout the day. It was very frustrating because as soon as we would get singed in and get to website we wanted to be on it would cut off. We finally figured out our wireless internet was getting too much interference from the new wireless system that was installed in the school behind us so we had to get a stronger router and modem and now we have internet again. It's nice to be connected to the outside world again.

2009-08-06T06:53:00.002-05:00

The kids and I have decided we like the skies in West Point way better than White Settlement. We can see the clouds better and the rainbows are prettier. I swear the skies are bluer here too. My husband says it's because West Point is higher than White Settlement. There is a lot more wind here but I'm okay with that. Oh and there are no mosquito's here. In the whole seven months we have lived here we have only seen two mosquito's. In White Settlement Tanner would be living on tons of allergy medicine because he is very allergic to bugs and bug bites. White Settlement has mean mosquito's that will bite through your clothes and you can't get away from them either. If you open the door or a window a whole swarm is just waiting to get in.
Yesterday when we came home from church there was a perfect rainbow over our house.

I tried to get the whole rainbow in the picture but I couldn't.

It's about freakin' time!

2009-08-03T22:58:00.007-05:00

I have been trying for four years to get Zander to swim but he just wouldn't do it. All of the our kids started swimming when they were three, by four they could swim, and by five they were diving and swimming in the deep end with the big kids. All of our kids except Zander, he refused to swim. But not anymore :) As of today he is now a swimmer. Not only is he swimming he is jumping from the diving board and swimming in the deep end. He can't dive yet but that will come soon.

Learning to swim

Diving Board

Trying to dive

Putt Putt

2009-07-21T06:22:00.005-05:00

Every six weeks Tanner gets a Putt Putt coupon in his report card so by the end of the year we have enough coupons to take the kids to Putt Putt for free. This year we also took Kortni (Sarah's new BFF) and Jacob since we had two extra coupons.

And the best part of the whole day - Ice Cream!!

2009-07-21T06:19:00.001-05:00

Tanner

2009-07-18T08:20:00.004-05:00

It turns out that Tanner has a secret tallent for playing the piano. While we were at the museum yesterday he would stop at every piano we passed and start playing little songs. A couple of times the museum guide would stop and comment on how well he could play but I was too busy chasing after the other five kids to realize what she was saying but when we got to the last room and everyone stopped to look at the really old MRE's and Tanner went off to play on the big piano I realized she was talking about my child. After a few minutes of playing around he had figured out twinkle twinkle little star and a few theme songs from some of his favorite movies.

FIeld Trips

2009-07-17T23:04:00.008-05:00

Since I only had two kids today I decided would be a good day to take a field trip. And since the weather was so nice (95 instead of 111) we decided to take three field trips instead of one and they were all free.

First we went to the water park. It went a lot better this week than last. I tolerate 95 much better than 109 deg.

Next we went to the museum. I forgot my camera but did snap a few pictures with my phone.

We learned about the old way of cooking. And then about old toys.

And how old things worked. We were told about old farm equipment and the kids got to play around with some of it.

Then we learned how to get water without plumbing. They decided they prefer the well to the pump because it looked creepier inside the well.

Next was the potty. They didn't know what to think of a toilet that sat more than one person and they were not impressed when we explained that outhouses don't flush.

Next they got to go in the only surviving log cabin of the white settlement and see how people actually lived back then. They couldn't believe that an entire family lived in a one room cabin that isn't much larger than our master bathroom.

After the cabin they learned how a log cabin was built without power tools. They had a blast and asked if we could go back next week and every week after. This isn't their first time to visit the museum but this seems to be the most memorable for them.

Oh, and they decided today that the museum has the best climbing trees in the world.

Our third field trip was to the movie in the park. Every Friday night in June and July White Settlement has a free movie in the baseball field behind the concession stand. This week was angels in the outfield which my children have seen several times but to them it was way better to watch it on the ball field. We didn't get any pictures because it was too dark.

Cursed!

2009-07-17T17:45:00.002-05:00

When it comes to appliances I am cursed. They don't last long in my house but i use them a lot so they wear out fast. Yesterday I bragged about being caught up on the dishes. I even blogged about it but not anymore. The dishwasher refuses to start. It has power and water and it will turn on but it refuses to start the wash cycle. I think this is the fastest I have worn out a dishwasher.

A sight not seen very often in our house

2009-07-16T18:44:00.002-05:00

Look it's the bottom of the sink!

Today when I found out that I wasn't going to be able to keep the chickens I was a little upset. The man that I was talking to from the city was very frustrating and not very understanding and didn't seem to care that the neighbor had been harassing me since we moved in. I was so frustrated that I had to call a friend for help. Her husband was was gone in the car so she called around and found someone to come watch the kids for me. Donelle came over to watch the kids for me so I could get out of the house for a little bit. I was so frustrated I would have gone over and had words with the neighbor if she hadn't come to rescue me. And then I would probably have gone to jail so we are all grateful for Donell and Maria today. Anyway while I was gone she washed my dishes and folded my clothes for me. I hardly ever get all the dishes done. I run my dishwasher like three times a day and four on Mondays but I am never caught up on dishes. I was so great to come home to an empty sink. For me it's better than a birthday present because I hate doing dishes. Thanks guys for helping.

The chickens are going :(

2009-07-16T13:39:00.005-05:00

After all the fighting and arguing with the city and all the crap from the neighbor we lost our battle and the chickens have to go. I don't know what the neighbors problem is but for some reason whenever my husband leaves town the neighbor feels the need to harass me. The city has changed the wording on the ordinance and I can no longer keep my chickens. I have 28 days to get rid of all the chickens. I was going to go talk to the neighbor but the police said it would be in my best interest if I didn't approach him. I have no idea what I am going to do with them since we now know that we can't cull the chickens in the city limits. I know that the neighbor isn't going to give up and I am tired of fighting so the chickens are going so if anyone wants a few chickens just let me know.

Maddy's Party

2009-07-14T14:13:00.003-05:00

We celebrated Madison's party at Raymond Park in White Settlement. It is a cute little park with a lot of fun things to do including water activities. The kids were having a blast but the mommies and Hannah were melting so we brought the cake and presents back to our house to finish the party.

2009-07-14T14:12:00.001-05:00

Playin in the Park

2009-07-14T12:29:00.003-05:00

I've been going a little crazy lately with so few kids around. I usually keep at least ten or eleven kids plus my own four but just recently one of the moms has decided two of her kids are old enough to stay home alone which was a little hard for me because I have watched them most of their lives. I have also recently made the decision to stop watching two kids, not because of the kids but because of the parents. When I went from fifteen or more kids to about eleven kids it was very strange around here. I couldn't adjust to the quiet in my house. It seamed like all of the kids just got quieter all of the sudden. And my house was staying cleaner as well because for some reason the kids were all playing outside instead of inside all of a sudden. So last Thursday I was going absolutely crazy with nothing to do and no new books to read and only thirteen kids I decided to take the kids to the park. They wanted to feed the ducks but when when that many kids came running towards them they took off so we fed the turtles and tadpoles instead. We had a lot of fun so I think we'll start going to the park at least once a week now.

2009-07-14T12:28:00.001-05:00

Fishing under the Fireworks

2009-07-09T08:16:00.004-05:00

We decided to go fishing Saturday night which happened to be the 4th. We started on the jetties but people were shooting fireworks over our heads and into the water. The shrapnel from the fireworks was landing in the water and scaring away the fish so we had to o to the pier. We didn't have much luck at the pier either. The pesky kids kept throwing firecrackers off the pier into the water. I was tempted to throw them off the pier a few times. I think of everywhere we've been on the fourth Gulfport has been the best place to watch the fireworks. For as you can see up and down the coast people are setting off fireworks. And not the little things you buy on the side of the road that only give up a little sparkle but full displays. The hotels and casinos were launching them from their roofs, people were launching them off the back of their boats, and even the Coast Guard was launching them off their pier. I think next year Kari and I are going to take all the kids to Mississippi for the the 4th of July.

(The pictures of fireworks didn't turn out that great but it's a little hard to take pictures and fish at the same time.)

2009-07-09T08:15:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Maddy Phatty Anny Panny

2009-07-09T06:45:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was Madison's Birthday so we surprised her with trip to McDonald's. All the kids had a blast except for Brendan who thinks he's to old for McDonald's.

Case's Chicken

2009-07-09T06:32:00.003-05:00

Case and Sarah were outside swing when George, Sarah's runt chicken, Snuck up behind her and flew up and perched on her shoulder. The bully chicken was jealous because the runt was higher than it so it flew up and perched on Case's shoulder. Now the bully won't leave Case alone. It thinks Case is the perfect perch and it's higher than all the other chickens which is a big deal for chickens.

Fishing

2009-07-08T09:25:00.004-05:00

While in Gulfport we tried to fish which wasn't such a good idea on a holiday weekend. There were too many people. People were crowding the pears and there were to many boats in the water around the jetties and docks so there were only little fish to catch. One guy did catch a flounder early Saturday morning but the people started crowding the pier to watch the sunrise I guess and all the fish left. We did catch a few fish but they were very little.

Sarah's Chickie

2009-07-07T05:44:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we decided that we were going to start letting the chickens out for a few hours everyday. It isn't right for them to be locked up all the time just because they freak the neighbor out. Yesterday one of the chickens kept fallowing Sarah around the yard. When she would sit at the table it would perch on the edge of the table. When she tried to swing it would get in front of her and she couldn't swing. Finally she sat on the ground to show the chickie the food and water and it jumped up into her lap. She tried to push it off but it perched on her arm and would not let go.

She tried shaking it off, lowering it to the ground and pushing it off, she even tried turning it upside down. He wouldn't let go.

I finally had to peel it's little claws off and put it out in the yard. It sat just outside the door waiting for her to come out.

She has named him George. He is the runt chickie so we think he feels safe with her and she doesn't peck him so he thinks she's his friend.

Cousin's Sleep Over

2009-07-06T15:03:00.001-05:00

Last weekend we had my brother's and sister's kids sleep over. The cousins hardly ever get to see each other anymore so KK and I thought it would be a good idea to cram them all in the house and feed them junk food and then try to send them to bed. We did give them a quiet activity before we went to bed which did help them calm down. The kids had TV dinners for dinner and Sarah kept asking why it would ever be called a TV dinner if kids aren't allowed to eat in front of the TV. The kids had to explain to her that other parents let their kids watch TV while eating them. They had a blast and hopefully we'll be able to do it again.

2009-07-06T15:02:00.001-05:00

A day at the beach

2009-07-06T09:52:00.004-05:00

We played games in the sand,

Made a drip sand castles,

Collected shells for Sarah,

and walked out as far as we could before freaking out because of sharks. Sharks sometimes come in closer to the shore when it rains. We walked halfway out to the boat channel before seeing something very big and not a dolphin in the water. Even that far out there the water was only knee deep unless you stood on the sand bars then it was only ankle deep.

We were laying in the sand playing with crabs when the tide came in. We decided just to stay there and see how far the tide came in when I got hit by a wave. It took for every to get the taste of salt water out of my mouth.

We also played in the rain. We've decided that rainy days are the best days to go to the beach. There isn't anyone else there. You get the whole beach to yourself.

Oscar discovered that rain coming in from the ocean is just as salty as the ocean.

Date Night

2009-07-06T07:20:00.004-05:00

It's hard to cram a years worth of dates into one night and since it was a Saturday night there wasn't a whole lot of G rated things to do that didn't involve a lot of tween-age kids but we tried. My mother came to watch the kids and stayed the knight so I could go to the airport with Oscar the next morning. Thanks Mom.

We started with dinner at red lobster. The food was good but a little expensive.

Then we tried our hand at bingo. Kariann kept telling us it's a lot of fun and we should go play. We gave it a try. It turns out that the only people who win are those who rent the electronic game boards that keep up with all the balls that have been played and because bingo is now digital it marks their boards before the numbers are even announced. Also people seamed to be more into the gambling part of bingo not the actual game. If your not there to gamble it isn't worth going. Oh, the guy calling the numbers spent more time peddling lottery tickets and auctioning off collectibles than calling out bingo numbers. We left before we finished all of our game cards. The bingo dobbers did make a great addition to the craft cabinet this summer.

After Bingo we went to Applebee's for desert. We order three desert shots. It had been almost a year since we last ate at Applebee's and the desert shots used to be like three bites of desert in a little shot glass. When we get them we always order three and share. This time they came out not in 2oz shot glasses but in 5oz bar glasses. It turns out if you go to Applebee's when it's nearly midnight they serve you much larger portions and and a lot of the snacks and drinks are half price.

We probably should have brought one or two home for the kids and my mom but we didn't. We ate them all.

Dinner

2009-07-06T06:21:00.002-05:00

The kids have bugged us for a while to take the to Joe's Crab Shack. I always tell them no but then Oscar decided we should go. It was a little too crowded and the food wasn't that great but the kids had fun and Oscar and I got to relax while the kids Played. Brendan Has decided he is too old to play on playgrounds so he took pictures. It was basically an over priced McDonald's.

2009-07-06T06:20:00.000-05:00

Fishing with Daddy

2009-07-05T23:35:00.000-05:00

Swimming

2009-07-05T23:07:00.003-05:00

Oscar had to go to the dentist so I decided to take the kids swimming while we waited. After he finished his dental appointment he came to swim with (entertain) the kids so I could read a book. We love the base pool because there is hardly ever anybody there and the kids are really entertained by the water slide.

2009-07-05T23:06:00.001-05:00

A night at the movies

2009-07-05T22:17:00.004-05:00

We took the kids to see Knight at the Museum. Since you can't really take pictures of the movies we past the camera around and took pictures of ourselves while we waited for the movie to start.

Sarah's new haircut

2009-07-01T15:48:00.002-05:00

Sarah thought it would be a good idea to give herself bangs. She has been asking for a haircut and bangs for a while now but I kept putting it off. I guess she decicede she couldn't wait anymore and did the job herself. I was very good and didn't freek out but I did finish cutting the rest of her hair for her instead of letting her go to the salon.

S'mores & Cookies

2009-06-26T20:36:00.002-05:00

Last night cub scouts had a campfire pack meeting with s'mores for the treat. The kids had a blast! They were shocked that the parent actually let them eat sweets after bedtime (the pack meeting didn't start until after 8pm).

Today we combined snacks and crafts. We painted cookies. We used to paint them with food color but now there are companies that make markers and paint brushes that are filled with food color. These things work great and they're a lot less mess. When we were finished they got to clean up in the sprinkler.

2009-06-26T20:34:00.000-05:00

2009-06-25T15:07:00.002-05:00

Water Bombs

2009-06-25T10:09:00.006-05:00

For our Tuesday craft we made water bombs for our Wednesday water activity. They prefered the homemade water bombs over the store bought ones we already had. The kids said they were much better I guess because they made them themselves. We cut a ton og sponges into little strips, stacked 12-15 strips into a cube and put a zip tie around the middle. They had a lot of fun making them and even more fun playing with them.

Procrastination

2009-06-21T19:45:00.003-05:00

Saturday afternoon Oscar was supposed to go get a haircut but decided to take a nap instead. By the time he woke up every barber shop and hair salon from here to Hulen had closed. We did find a cool cuts and after explaining what happened they agreed to cut his hair.

We tried to get him to sit on the fire truck or taxi cab but he wouldn't. It was a very cute place with movies and games and lots of fun things for kids to do while they get their haircut.

And of course they offer a wide variety of toys that parents can buy to bribe their kids to get them to leave they store because it's so much fun.

The Tiny Egg

2009-06-18T21:56:00.003-05:00

Sharla brought her tiny egg over to share with our family. We have had giant eggs before and double yolkers but never tiny eggs so we were all very curious to see what was inside.

It had a very cute tiny little yolk.

Thanks Sharla for sharing :)

Playdate and Cake

2009-06-17T09:31:00.004-05:00

Yesterday while reading another blog I found a post about a candy barrel cake and deceided I needed to make one. I invited best friend chicas mamma (Cherilynns name for Sharla) and her kids over to enjoy some cake too (I as willing to eat it myself but figured I might oughta share).

It was a three layer chocolate cake with chocolate chips in the mix. Frosted with chocolate whip cream frosting. It had crushed butterfingers between the layers, wrapped in KitKats, and topped with M&M's

Some of the kids didn't stick around long enough for pictures.

Mhari doesn't eat chocolate so she entertained herself with the M&M's.

Zander didn't eat any cake but did have some candy. He was more interested in bugging the baby than eating.

I think Sandra got the bowl with the biggest piece and surprisingly ate most of it.

Grant couldn't quite finish his.

Sarah went around and ate every ones leftover candy.

Tanner was a little upset that he couldn't have seconds.

Talmage and Brendan didn't stick around for pictures.

And this was breakfast this morning.

Project of the day

2009-06-16T17:36:00.005-05:00

At the end of every school year my kids come home with a bunch of broken crayons in the bottom of their school supply boxes. Every year we try to find a use for them. I was stumped for ideas so this is all we did with them.

You just peel the paper off the crayons, sort the colors, and bake them at 350 for about 10 minutes in paper cups. If you want the to stay perfectly round you can use a muffin pan but a cookie sheet holds twice as many cups so I never do. You could also use candy molds in the microwave but they don't come out as nice.

The kids love watching them melt in the oven. When they come out of the oven the colors start swirling together and then separating again as they cool. It's sometimes very entertaining to mom too.

When they've cooled you have a bunch of crayons that look like rainbow peanut butter cups.

Big Bug

2009-06-15T10:10:00.002-05:00

From the giant plants in my garden comes giant bugs!

At it's shortest length it was three and a half inches long. When it stretched to crawl it was just under six inches long. It's about as fat as my thumb.

Brendan's Sleepover

2009-06-14T12:55:00.006-05:00

Ten reasons why boy sleepovers are way better than girl sleepovers.

First, no matter how many invitations you send out only a few boys show up (unlike girl sleepovers where you get more girls than invitations go out).

Second, this is all the food you have to make for a boy sleepover and there's leftovers for lunch the next day.

Third, you don't have to send the little kids away. They can just upstairs and entertain themselves.

Fourth, they entertain themselves. We didn't have to do crafts, have dance competitions, play group games, nothing. We put them in front of the TV and they entertained themselves with games and movies.

Fifth, Dad gets to stay up until 4am and sleep on the couch.

Sixth, they sleep in and if they wake up they go back to sleep instead of trying to wake everyone else up.

Seventh, this is breakfast and no one complains.

Eighth, you don't get a bunch of crap that your daughter can't wear or isn't allowed to use. Boys bring gift cards so parents can decide what the kids get for their birthday. His will be used to buy minutes for his new phone.

Ninth, boys request simpler cakes so I can make then a couple of hours before the party instead of starting three days ahead.

And the tenth reason boy sleepovers are better than girl sleepovers - you don't have to tell people to put their clothes back on, their jokes are funny not hateful, they don't act like snots, boys don't have clicks, and their dancing is funny and not totally inappropriate.

Where to sleep?

2009-06-11T14:44:00.003-05:00

A friend once asked me how it is that I find time in my day to get things done like blogging and sewing. My answer was that we have a mandatory 3 hour naptime (well actually it takes them like 30 - 45 minutes to fall asleep so they don't sleep for the full three hours but you get the point). Then she asked where in the world all those kids sleep. I actually have 13 beds and mats for kids to sleep on. I used to have more but we lost some in the move. I don't know how we managed this, our new house is only like a five minute drive from the old house and nothing was put into storage so my only thought is that when we loaded the trailer the night before the big move maybe someone took a few things off while we were sleeping. Today for the first time this summer we ran out of beds so Zander volunteered to give up his bed for an alternate nap spot.

He chose the freshly laundered pillows that he has been eyeballing all day for his clubhouse. Doesn't it look cozy? It's times like these that I wish I could take naps too.

Sarah's Purse

2009-06-09T12:10:00.005-05:00

My friend Sharla and I did a bag for bows exchange a few months ago. Sarah was a little upset because I got a cute new purse ans she didn't. She wanted a new purse too. I told her she had to do a service for Sister Williams to exchange for her bag and she choose jewelry. We made her a necklace, earrings, and a bracelet. Tanner was a little jealous of the mommy Sarah time we were having so he helped a little.

So this morning we were all supposed to be cleaning the backyard and pulling weeds so I can clean the barn later but when I looked up there was Sarah in new clean clothes walking through the yard with her new purse.

She decided she was done so she went inside and changed her clothes and got her new purse ready for the day. She is such a booger.

Isn't it cute! And it matches mine which is very exciting for Sarah. She can't wait for us to go shopping so we can show off our purses. Oh, and to a ten year old initials on your very own purse is absolutely amazing.

Look what was hiding under my plants

2009-06-07T16:00:00.003-05:00

My zucchini plant is so big that I can't seem to find all the zucchini. Oscar was out checking the plants for me today and found some giant zucchini and one giant squash hiding on the bottom of the plants. I don't know how I missed the squash because it's not that much bigger than it should be but the zucchini plant has leaves that are larger than my head and it is very full so its hard to really get in there and find food without damaging the plant. The biggest one is a little over twelve inches long. I guess we'll be making a lot of zucchini bread tomorrow.

New Paint

2009-06-06T20:18:00.004-05:00

I am pretty sure I have fever and I'm not very good at staying in bed with a fever. I can't just lay around feeling crummy, I have to get up and do something until my fever brakes and then I go to bed. My fever project for today was to start painting the house.

I use a ton of tape when I paint but I was a little shocked at the price of tape today so I decided to try something new. A friend told me of her success with a paint pad that's made for edging and suggested I try it. It didn't work very well around some of the trim and base boards but it worked great on the ceiling and the trim around the doors so it has now become my new favorite painting tool.

My fever project for later tonight is going to be copying all the old movies to DVDs. I priced out what it would cost to send them out to have it done and figured out it would be cheaper to do it myself so that's what I'm doing.

Zander's 7

2009-06-05T08:53:00.005-05:00

Of all the boys Zander has been the smallest at each age. He has also been the slowest to do things. He just started reading a few weeks ago. He didn't loose his first tooth until a month ago. He's still figuring out how to tie his shoes. He still needs help brushing his teeth and hair. He insist he can't make his bed or put his laundry away. He is our only child that can't swim. All the others were swimming by the age of three and were excellent swimmers by five. He refused to feed himself as a baby and refused to walk as well. The Dr. said he's not delayed in developing he just has so many people around he doesn't need to do things for himself. He's not a morning person and hates waking up for school. He thinks the last day of school being on his birthday is the best present ever. He's gonna be real happy next year when school will start at 8:40 instead of 7:30. Maybe he'll finally give up his nap. His favorite foods are broccoli and zucchini. He also loves strawberry soy milk. When he grows up he wants to be a garbage man. He loves to build things and loves to cook. His favorite sport is golf. He doesn't have a favorite sibling or a favorite parent. He's our little snuggle bug and we love him very much!

Sarah made a sign for the door so everyone would remember.

I don't think we have any baby pictures of Zander when he wasn't sleeping. He was a very good sleeper.

Here he is at 1

and two

Three

Four

Five

Six

and almost seven.