April's Antics

April was full of fun activities...

{...YE OLDE RENAISSANCE...}

Lex being in sixth grade meant he had to participate in their Renaissance Faire. Thankfully this kid went with a simple 'project' and took drinks. However, his costume cost some money. He wanted to be a knight, so because I wasn't in the mood to be creative and we found a costume for a good price, he became a costumed knight. He made it look good.

{...CARTOONS OF THE 90'S, REBORN...}

There was a cartoon I knew about when I was a teenager, but I never watched it. However, there was enough advertising about it that an image stuck in my mind. And image that Lex inadvertently created one day during Spring Break...

{...CUTIES...}

{...NON-HIRED HELP...}

While cleaning the bathroom one day, Jace said, "I wanna help." So I gave him his own gloves and let him help me. How can you say no to that cute little face.

{...JUST BECAUSE...}

One day this appeared on the porch. It was delicious and so needed. Just wish I knew WHO it came from.

What Happens Next...

January's Junk

And the rest of January looked like this...

{...SO SMART...}

For awhile, Eric had been toying around with the idea of getting a smart watch. He looked around and just never really found anything he loved. Then one day he discovered a type of watch that would talk to his phone and he liked everything else about it, so he went and got one.

When he got home that day, I decided I wanted one as well. I had decided I was going to get a Fitbit after baby was born, but this smartwatch was capable of most everything a Fitbit would do. Plus, the watch came in white and I can change the watch face as often as desire strikes. There's also a watch face that uses pictures from my phone! I was pretty much sold. I also like the fact that I can check the time again without pulling out my phone.

{...LIKE THE BIG KIDS...}

As long as we've had our 'new' car, we've had headphones for the kids to watch movies without us needing to listen. Jace was always a little too small to use them. But we recently discovered that's not the case anymore and he gets the idea now.

{...IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC...}

Nate got headphones and an mp3 player for Christmas and was over the moon about it. He would listen to music daily. One day, he was so tired that he fell asleep while listening to his tunes. It was quite a sight to see knowing that he was out cold.

{...WHO NEEDS A CHAIR?...}

Tanis really is a great big brother and super patient with most of his siblings. Especially when they do things like this:

{...THEY LIKE EACH OTHER...SOMETIMES...}

Another Sunday night at Grandma's and when I went to check in on the kids, this is what I found.

I can't imagine Lex's back is very comfortable, but to each his own...

{...A CLOSE SHAVE...}

There are certain dogs that need to be groomed regularly. Flower isn't one of those breeds. Domino is. But because we weren't used to doing it with Flower, we haven't been as on top of getting Domino taken care of either...and he was getting really past due. He looked like a stray dog and he had hair growing in front of his eye and we wondered how he could even see. His hair was so matted he wasn't even fun to pet. We decided enough was enough and took him in.

When I went back to get him, they brought Domino out I wondered if they brought me the right dog! He was so much smaller without all that fur and he just looked completely different. Sure enough though, it was Domino and he was a much cuter dog afterwards.

What Happens Next...

December's Delights

Here's a looky see at the random things that occurred in December...

{...SLEEPING BEAUTIES...}

We spend a lot of time at Eric's mom's, but she lives an hour away so we spend a lot of time in the car traversing back and forth. One night on the way home, I looked back and saw this...

Being 7 months prego, I had a lot of days where I didn't feel great. Jace and I spent a lot of time relaxing in bed...He took a lot of naps next to me.

Finally, Lex received a video game from my parents for Christmas. He was so excited about it he didn't let go of it all night. In fact, because we stayed at my parents so late, he fell asleep with the game in hand.

{...I GOTTA WASH MY HAIR...}

So I don't know if Shaylyn was just too lazy to take a shower and wash her hair or if she just felt like washing her hair, but somehow she convinced Lex to actually wash her hair for her. I still wonder what she bribed him with.

{...A BOX TROLL NAMED SHOPPING CART...}

Finally, we had a vist from a Box Troll whose name was Shopping Cart. (You gotta love kids imaginations) Nate had the idea and Shaylyn helped his dream become a reality. It kept the kid happy for most of the day.

What Happens Next...

Elementary Christmas Sing-In

So I totally don't get the title of Sing-In, but that's what our school calls it. They have each grade come and sing a song they've worked on and invite all the parents.

I'd normally have to be there for 3 kids, but Ailey ended up getting sick and getting pink eye the whole week before, so she wasn't able to go to school that day. Thankfully, she was on the tail end of it and had she not just started the eye drops for pink eye the day before - she could've gone. I was just happy to know she wouldn't miss her Christmas party.

Because I couldn't take Ailey out in public, I needed a babysitter and since pink eye is so contagious, I knew I couldn't ask a neighbor, so Shaylyn got a day off of school to watch Jace and Ailey while I went to the program.

My friend took me and I helped her out with her 2 year old while she tended to her newborn. Then we waited to see our kids. It was kind of fun and I'm glad that our school has one grade come in at a time and then leave.

So here's a look at the songs Lex and Nate sang. Nate was super excited about his song and it's pretty much all he talked about the whole of December.

What Happens Next...

All About Chad

One of the 'joys' of 6th grade is that they get to do a country report. They can choose any country and do a report on it. My kid chose CHAD! Why in the world he would choose Chad is seriously way beyond me. Had he consulted me first I would've recommended Brazil or England (either place his grandpa's served a mission). Sure things have probably changed since then, but we'd have more of a clue about the place than choosing somewhere as random as Chad.

Thankfully it wasn't much of an issue for me as they did a lot of the work during school time. IMAGINE THAT! So Lex did a pretty good job of gathering information on his country and did his report on his own without help. The only thing he wanted help with was the poster and I don't think he really even wanted my help, but I get a little OCD when they have to have something to present. Although, I'll be honest - I really didn't put as much effort into it as I have in the past. I was just too tired to worry about it.

We got everything down and good to go and he was super excited to go to school the next day to present it all. Parents were also invited to come view the projects. The problem for me is that the end time was 20 minutes before Ailey gets out of Kindergarten. I really didn't want go to the school, go home for 5 minutes and head back to the school. So I decided I'd go just before the end time so that I wasn't waiting for too long for Ailey.

When I got into Lex's classroom his first words to me were, "Took you long enough." 

At least he says what he thinks. I explained to him why I came so late and he was understanding and it made sense to him why I was late. 

I didn't really view many other projects, cause quite honestly I don't care about it - but, I made sure to get pictures of my kid.

{...The flag is upside down on the presentation board? Ummm, yeah - that was my fault...}

We then left and went outside of the school to wait for Kindergarten to be over. Thankfully it was a pretty nice day for November and Jace had tons of fun running around and I had a front row seat to an interesting situation.

The cafeteria outside door faces the front of the school where I was sitting and out of the corner of the eye, I saw the janitor on a walkie and then glanced over and saw a little girl standing by the building. The janitor was talking to the secretary and was asked to find out the girls name. The girl actually responded and then took off running. Two seconds later, the secretary comes out the front doors after her. The little girl paused for a moment and looked at the secretary, but then proceeded to cross the street. Once across the street she stopped again and glanced at the secretary. When she realized the street wasn't going to stop the secretary she took off again, the secretary had to jay-run to catch up with the girl. She got the girl and got her to come back to the school. Or so we all thought. Once back on school grounds, she tried to make a break for it to the parking lot. The secretary caught her before she got there and then the girls teacher came out. They took the girl back to the office to call her mom.

It was a surprising sight for me to see as the girl was probably only in 4th grade, but she was determined to leave school. It was interesting to realize that the secretary's job involves so much more than answering phones and paper work.

What Happens Next...

August's Antics

It's time once again for a look at all the crazy things that happen on a day to day basis in this crazy world of mine.

{...I'M NOT TIRED!...}

I could tell from looking a Jace that he was starting to fall asleep and he was ready for his nap, but when I asked him if he was ready for his nap, he told me no. Two seconds later he was out like a light.

{...I LIKE TO SNUGGLE TOO...}

One night we were getting ready to go to bed and looked over to find Domino snuggled up to a stuffed toy. (It's kinda hard to see with all his fur) He wasn't attacking it, just snuggled up with it like a human would be.

{...BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING...}

Eric's mom helped with back to school shopping. We had discussed taking different groups of kids at different times, but in the end decided it was a better use of time to go all together. I don't know if it was a good choice or a bad choice, but we had a full day.

The kids had fun being with grandma and choosing their clothes and they even got lunch at Chick Fil A. While in Target we found the perfect spot for a photo.

{...GET TO KNOW YOU JENGA...}

I got called to Activity Days and was way beyond nervous to be in charge of my first activity. After thinking on it for awhile, I decided to go with a Get To Know You game as the girls had 2 new leaders and we didn't know much about any of the girls. I found the idea online and the look for the Jenga pieces online as well, I just tried to make it my own.

Thankfully the activity turned out pretty good and I think the girls had fun.

{...LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE...}

I went to swap laundry one night and found the following sight:

Apparently the soft plastic battery operated tea-lights can survive a washing. Who knew?

{...HE MAY BE PART HUMAN...}

Domino definitely likes the softer things in the world. One of the kids decided he needed to be tucked in just like a kid. He didn't seem to offer any complaint.

{...IT'S JUST A LITTLE POKE..}

I got a little lax with Ailey's immunizations we realized when we registered for Kindergarten and then I slacked off and didn't get her into the dr's office as soon as I wanted. When I did call, however, I had to wait a week. This meant she was getting her last shots the day before school started. She was nervous about them and didn't want to go, but she was brave and went anyway. They had to take blood from her finger, which I didn't know about - but she did awesome and then she was ready for her shots.

She didn't do quite as well for her shots and was a sad little girl. But she brushed it off pretty quickly and I took her to Arctic Circle for lunch and let her play on the playground and then she got some toys from the store and she was a happy camper.

{...JUST LIKE DADDY...}

Jace is a very observant kid and knows exactly what Daddy does when he's on the computer. One day he wasted no time in imitating his Daddy.

I cleaned the desk a day or two after this...

{...TWO HEADS IS BETTER THAN ONE...}

With four boys there is no shortage of things that resemble fighting and wrestling. Even the two year old gets involved.

What Happens Next...