So little time, So much to blog about!

I can't believe its been so long since I last blogged. So much has been happening.

Nolan is now walking and is so cute.  I will play peek aboo with both the boys and Nolan will cover his face with his hand and say Ba! It is fun to see his personality come alive.

In early November we took Nolan to the Pediatrician and he verified what we had been thinking. The cyst on his eyebrow did look like it was growing. So he referred us to a pediatric surgeon in the area.  We went and saw her and she said that he needed to have it removed in the next year since as he grew it could etch into the bone. Meaning the bone would form around it. To my thinking that would be a bad thing since the bone would be thinner right there.  Anyway, the pediatric surgeon isn't covered by our insurance, but since they are the only one in our area, we could get them covered 20/80 by insurance.  They are with a hospital that isn't covered, so we would have to deal with that also. but we were going ahead with it. Until I called our insurance to make sure we could be covered and they happened to mention that we could go to Primary Childrens's hospital in Salt Lake and be covered 90/10 since they had a special contract with our insurance.  We decided to look into this a bit since we have family down there and the weather was still great. 

It must have been meant to be.  We called and they had a doctor who had a clinic Monday and surgeries on Tuesday.  The appointment they had was the Monday after we had to be in Twin Falls for a baby blessing/baptism.  So we went to the baby blessing and then sent most of our kids home with Grandma and Grandpa.  Milton's mom was kind enough to stay with them at our house.  In the meantime we just drove straight down to Salt lake.  My brother was kind enough to put us up for a few nights and we came back on Tuesday right after the surgery.

During all of this we really saw Nolan blossom.  It was crazy. You see, Quinten is that Squeeky wheel that is always squeaking.  Nolan is a quiet little boy.  But while we had all this going on, Nolan was getting more attention.  He loved it.  He started talking more and in Salt Lake he took his first 3 steps.   He is such a sweet little boy. Really a talker. He loves to growl and make all sorts of noise. But no screaming. YAY!

When we met with the surgeon on Monday we were really impressed.  The guy was nice and seemed very competent.  We felt confident in him. We came in early on Tuesday morning since they like to operate on the youngest children first since they can't have anything but clear liquids and apple juice.  Nolan chugged an apple juice before we got in the car and seemed quite happy. 

Primary children's is very efficient. You go in one room and sign in on a computer and get one of those flashy things like you get at Olive Garden.  When it lights up you check in with a person who checks your data and makes sure your insurance and every thing is up to date as well as getting a payment of some sort from you.

Then you go back and wait for the thing to start making noise.  This time we got to go back to a room where the nurse took Nolan's vitals and we changed him into some very worn looking pants, socks, and a hospital gown top. 

From there we went into another waiting room where there were some toys.  Lucky for us they had a corral type area where there were toys and a movie playing. Both of the boys were content to play in there and at one point I had a push toy out for Nolan and he was walking/pushing it around all of the chairs in the waiting area.

We met with our surgeon , who gave us a rundown on time and what to expect. Then we met with our anesthesiologist.  He seemed very nice. He listened to Nolans lungs since he had just gotten over a slight cold.  scared the socks off of us with all that could go wrong and then took us down the hall way where he took Nolan and sent us to the waiting room. Nolan was fine. I was a little sad because I didn't really get to hug him goodbye.  That was probably a good thing since he didn't really know anything was going on.  And Nolan was so easy going he just accepted what was happening. No crying or anything.

We got sent to the waiting room where there were all sorts of snacks and some water and an area to sit with about 50-75 other anxious parents.  Quinten just toddled around and ate the cookies we gave him.

After about 30 minutes our surgeon came into the room and found us. He told us Nolan did great and that we should be called back to sit with him soon.

They called me back shortly after that.  Just one parent since he was still in recovery?  I went back and he was crying and being held by a nurse.  They kindly brought me a rocking chair and I held Nolan and he was happy to see me.  They brought him 4 oz of apple juice in a bottle (? he never drank from one before) which he promptly chugged down.  They refilled it and he kept drinking.

They brought us to another room where they then called Milton back.  Quinten was sleeping in Milton's arms (thank goodness) and we just held and cuddled Nolan.  The nurse kindly brought a fleece BYU blanket for Nolan to keep and a pillow for him to lay on while he was in my arms (for the arm of the chair, Nolan is getting long!).  Since Nolan had drunk so much apple juice and hadn't been sick, he was able to be discharged very quickly (after watching his vitals for a little while longer)    

The nurses, doctors, receptionists, everyone at Primary Childrens were so kind and caring.  I would highly recommend them.  They move you around so much that it would be easy to think you were just a number. But with all of the kind attention, you don't.  You feel cared for. 

The trip home from Salt lake was great. Nolan slept most of the time. Both he and Quinten did great. 

We got home and stayed overnight and then Milton and I took off without the kids to a 2 night vacation in the mountains about an hour from our house.  Again, Grandma was nice enough to stay with the kids.

It was so nice.  We actually had conversations about life and challenges and all sorts of stuff.  After this year it was much needed.

We came home and Milton drove Grandma home.  He said that she was tired and almost fell asleep on the drive.  We are so grateful she was willing to do this for us.

Milton's migraines have not returned which is great. He had been working out and watching what he eats.  Trying to avoid msg and processed foods. Not much eating out, more veggies and fruit, etc. He has lost nearly 50 lbs in the past 3 months.  He is feeling great.  He gets to see his doc next week. They will try weaning him off the medication and we hope that his migraines won't come back.. If they do, he will go back on the meds.  They will try weaning him every 3 months until a year. If they can't wean him at a year, he is on the meds for life.  We are all praying that with all of the life changes he's made that the weaning will be easy and there won't be any problems.

Cecilee has got the most wonderful teacher for 5th grade. She is really blossoming and he really challenges her.  It helps that she is in a fairly calm class since there are 34 kids in it.  I talked to her teacher last night at a school activity and it sounds like he is really enjoying the whole class dynamic.  Said that they were a great class and that Cecilee is really working hard.  He said to keep challenging her because she was really bright.

Mia is doing better and better.  She still has a tendency to always take the easiest route, but you can see she is a sweet girl who loves her little brothers.  She wants to be like Cecilee.  She is trying to find her way.  She is very talented on the piano and loves to go to Grandma's for lessons.  Grandma has been changing up the rewards a little this year and really motivating her.

She is still struggling with school since she loves the social more than the work, but we are working on this.  She really loves to read.

Ned is really a 2 year old these days.  He gets into everything.  He recently ate a roof and about 1 1/2 walls of the 2 gingerbread houses I made for decorating.  The same night he got at the Christmas tree and smashed all of the bulbs that he could reach.  He stayed in the time out a lot that day.  Luckily I regained my good humor after decorating the gingerbread house with the family.  Ned couldn't participate as his punishment. But he loved watching.

The boys are fun.  they are both walking. Quinten is running.  He is fast! He is still a yeller and a crier.  He is happiest when he is in Mom's arms.   He has a sweet smile and a LOT of energy.  If I'm not giving him enough attention he is sure to let me know.  And no.  Dad is not quite as good as mom.  I wish he were. There are many times that I walk around the house with him following and crying behind me.  I call him my entourage. 

Nolan is a sweetheart. A shy smile and a quiet demeanor.  He loves to growl and talk.  I think he may be an early talker.  He walks around and is getting better and better.  He loves his brother Ned (whose favorite new trick is to push his brothers over) and has been carrying a stuffed cat around.

We love all of these kids so much!

I have been trying to keep up.  Still in primary. In fact this is my month for Sharing time and I'm trying to put a live nativity together for next week.  I've been trying to keep the house clean and laundry caught up and do some redecorating in our front room.  Its a lot, but I'm doing well.  Some days better than others (terrible 2's, ugh)  The boys are all sleeping through the night for the most part, but lately one will wake up around 11 - midnight and cry at the top of their lungs which always wakes up someone else and can turn into an hour delay for sleep (like last night, I went to bed at 1am because Ned woke up and wailed).  Oh well. Most nights I get to sleep and that is wonderful.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Walking?!?

So Quinten has decided that it is time for him to walk.  He has started standing up at every opportunity and even taking the occasional step on his own.  He is already showing us that he is a go getter.  Holy moly.

Nolan is quite happy to continue crawling for a while.

Ned is showing the boys all about getting in trouble.  When the twins nap, he and I go for a walk to the mailbox or swing on the swings before he goes down for his nap.  Today I had a quiet house for a whole hour. Maybe an hour and a half.  It was wonderful. 

Oh yeah, we gave up on home schooling this year.  We just couldn't get organized enough to make the situation work.  There wasn't enough of me to go around.  I realized that I can't be a mom to 5 kids, wife, cook and clean, and have time for myself, and be sane, all at the same time.  It was to much.  So I gave up and put the girls back in school yesterday.

They loved it.  I didn't realize how much they missed their friends and teachers and school in general. And hot lunch. I'm not sure why, but they love hot lunch.  I guess hot leftovers, or hot mac n cheese just wasn't the same :)

So, we've given up for now.  I may revisit next year, or a few years from now.  In the meantime, I am continuing to keep my options open.  We still have 3 charter schools within a mile of our house that we can't seem to get into.  Maybe one of these days we will win the lottery. But it hasn't happened in the past 5 years, so....

Being at home with 3 under 3 is strangely quiet.  Its boring after the crazy schedule we've been running with the past month or so.  The thing I miss is how stimulating teaching the kids was.  I enjoyed it quite a bit. Especially teaching math.  I enjoyed the challenge and exploring together with my kids.

One thing I've come away with from this experience is to be more involved with the projects and subjects that my kid are learning.  For instance Cecilee is dissecting owl pellets at school this week.  It is exciting and fun to hear about and learn about.  Homeschooling has really awakened an interest in me about what the kids are learning about. Its not just the basics anymore. 

I've also learned about the resources available to everyone. Online and elsewhere. 

So lots of good things have come from this experience.  Also, if we decide to do this in the future I'll be a lot more prepared and ready for the challenge.

For all of you homeschoolers out there.  I have so much respect for all you do.  It is not an easy thing to do.  It can be fun, but its challenging and takes a LOT of your time.  You are amazing.

and so it goes

So the day that I posted last, the twins birthday, Milton had a migraine as he was leaving work. Sounds like nothing huh?  Well imagine your husband calling you from his car and saying that another migraine had hit.  He couldn't feel his hand. He couldn't feel his leg at one point. At one point in our conversation he was slurring his words.  Yeah. That's fun.  And he forgot his meds at his desk.

Luckily he had a coworker who he could text who was able to bring his meds and his water to him.  Meds got in him, eventually the numbness wore off and he just wanted to drive home. I let him go with a promise that if anything felt off he would pull over.

He got home eventually and laid down.  The headache was bad again, but I think we got the meds in him soon enough that he was able to catch the migraine before it got awful.

The twins birthday was weird since we had to tiptoe around and pry Milton out of bed while the migraine was still painful.  The nice thing was that eventually he started feeling a little better and the boys did get some cake and we took pictures.  But it wasn't all that fun.

Fast forward to last Friday.  We decided that since we were homeschooling this year we were going to take advantage of it and go to the beach in September.  The weather was beautiful, less crowded (although the beach we go to is fairly quiet anyway), and we paid much less because we were getting the winter rate.

Milton woke up with a migraine.  So I got him his meds, loaded everyone in the car (luckily we had packed the car Thursday night) and after remembering about 20 more things and almost forgetting my toothbrush, we left.  About LaGrand Milton was feeling better and was at the tail end of the migraine.  He started to push to drive and I said lets wait until Baker city to just make sure he was truly ready.

He drove and got us all there in one piece.  We had a glorious week at the beach and loved every minute.  We drove back yesterday and stopped at Fubon market in Portland. Lots of cool Asian ingredients (a whole cooked duck with its head on still. Ewwww) and an interesting vibe.  We also stopped in Baker City for yummy Piazanos pizza. We discovered this joint the last time we went to the coast when we stopped there for dinner and were tired of fast food.

Anyway, real life is crashing into me right now and I have to much to do and don't want to do it.  My house is a wreck (post vacation laundry) and Milton is gone for the next few hours at soccer games with the girls.  I'm not ready to face real life again yet.

Oh, there is good news with Milton though.  The last migraine he had was the day we left.  He is about 1 week without a migraine.  I'm hopeful but who knows.  He sees the neurologist on Tuesday.  It does look like the migraine cycle is over and we can move on to the next step. Whatever that is.

Holy Cow what a month.

So the twins are one year old today.  I don't have a present for them, I don't really have the desire to do much more than give them a kiss on the cheek and wish them a happy birthday.

There are no people coming over so I could get away with that if I really wanted to.  But I won't. We will have cake and presents and fun.

This past week and a half has been enough to turn my entire head of hair white. It isn't, yet.  But I'm just waiting for it.

Milton has been in the ER 3 times this past week and a half  and got to stay overnight once. I won't go into all of the tests he's been given, but lets just say I don't want to think about the bills that are coming our way.

The final diagnosis is complex migraines.  Migraines that start with numbness in your foot and end with not being able to speak, lump in the throat, wanting to puke because of that lump and many many more symptoms.

He has had so many medicines prescribed that I had to take a sharpy at one point and write what each one was for so that I wouldn't give him the wrong one if I was in a hurry.

I hope that we are now at the tail end of this. Its hard to say where we are for sure since I can't see into the future. But we are 4 days with no migraines so yay!

Occasionally he has had numbness in his foot which used to signal the beginning of a migraine, but so far has just been that. numbness in his foot that goes away and no pain afterwards.  Its weird, but I'm hoping it doesn't mean anything other than the meds are doing their work.


He gets to see his neurologist again in 2 weeks.  I have many more questions for him now that life seems to have returned to normal.

The boys are cute, crawling everywhere, charming everyone.  Ned is potty training and his biggest obstacle is us.  And poop. But he would be more successful if we paid more attention to it. But he along with many other things have been suffering be cause of all the medical issues Daddy has been having.

The girls are enjoying homeschooling. I am trying to figure out how to get them more independent.  I've been spending a lot of time with them everyday as their teacher. I know there are ways to get them to be more independent, but I haven't had time to get organized enough for that. 

Working on it.  But at least their math isn't suffering.  That is the one class we've had everyday of the first week of school.  Just another thing suffering due to Daddy being sick. But we'll get there.  Daddy is feeling better and I am getting into the swing of things.  Funny thing was learning about prime factorization trees this morning with Cecilee and trying to remember how to multiply big numbers like 27 x 49 without a calculator. I know how to do it, but hadn't practiced for a while.  So I had to review to make sure I was teaching her correctly.  I hope to have time this week to prepare more for our lessons beforehand.  I am a bad home school teacher. but I'll get there.

And so it goes

So Nolan had a reaction to the amoxicillin.  Poor kid was covered in spots literally from head to toe. 
The doctor insisted on seeing him and said that most likely he was allergic. However, because of his age it wasn't for sure yet, so if we wanted we could do allergy testing when he was older.  Also, there was a very small chance that the rash was from a virus (ear infection?).  After about 3 days the spots finally disappeared.  Thanks goodness the doc mentioned that the spots would most likely get worse in the 24 hours following their appearance or I would most likely have been making a panicked phone call.  Poor kid.

This cold just keeps on giving.

 Anyway, this past week has been full of adventure that's for sure. 

We've also been working on potty training Ned. I started on Thursday, because we needed to get started. Well, it has been less than successful. But we keep plugging along. 

Anyway, Ned just managed to wake up the babies (after waking me up at 4:30. Couldn't get back to sleep).  So I better get going.

So tired of the sick posts!

I'm so sick of all of the sick posts! Lets talk about something more exciting.  Trouble is what?

Lets see.... Nolan is feeling a whole lot better and I love getting all of his shy smiles.  Milton had him giggling like crazy yesterday.  He is a sweet boy, but very quiet and almost solemn. so to hear him giggling like that was a treat! 

Quinton is our Mr. Personality. He is always smiling and whine/crying for something.  he is the first up in the morning, and the one who doesn't want to go to bed at night.  He likes to explore and follow you around. 

Edison is starting to interact with these 2 more and more.  He will stand at a toy and play with the boys until they get in his way and he will try and knock them out of the way. But he is quick to say sorry and has started to kiss everyone and anyone.  Its sweet.


Cecilee is a good big sister who will do anything that you ask her to do. She and Mia love to play board games and love the ipad and the kindle.  We have to limit their time and also make them earn any time on it. They love technology like most kids. It was kind of funny around Christmas when all of the toy catalogs came in the paper. they kept pointing out the phones and saying, Mom if I save my money can I buy that phone? Then I would have to explain that even if they paid for the phone, they wouldn't be able to call anyone unless they paid a monthy fee.  I feel bad telling them that, but they need to understand that the toys their friends have cost a lot of money.

Mia has decided that she wants to be a woodcarver after seeing her cousin learning how a few weeks ago. It has been fun to teach her how to carve soap. she doesn't quite understand why or what she is making, but she has turned out some cute soap fish! they are currently residing in all of the soap trays in the house. We don't have room for any more so I told her I'd find her a piece of wood to hack away at this week.

follow up

So we have 2 ear infections, an inclusion (either an ear infection coming or one healing), Milton and I are on meds for what we have going on. Not strep or Mono (that was an interesting test to wait for results on.  I think it was a sinus infection starting or going.

Anyway, Milton and I have noticed that out pain is decreasing (yay!) and so we didn't just have a cold, but a secondary infection, most likely sinus complicated by ear. (since the meds only treat bacterial infections and there is nothing to treat the common cold)

the boys seem happy, and seem to be feeling better. So that makes me happy!

to the doctor...

To the doctor , to the doctor, cuz we can't shake this cold.
To the doctor cuz we're miserable, to the doctor who might make us feel better!

Yes, that is sung to the tune Oh my Darlin' Clementine. Its my original composition. :) And yes, I know that the last line doesn't work well.

So we can't seem to shake this cold. Everytime I think I am getting over it I have nights like last night. I had been feeling fine except for a sore throat when drinking water.  Like it was raw in parts and when I drank a whole lot of water at a time all the raw parts would rub on each other and get sore.
Anyway, every single one of us has a doctors appointment this today. I don't know if they can help us, but maybe they can answer some questions.

Quinten is being very cute these days with a little waving and becoming very independent. But he is also biting me hard everytime he nurses. And he also bites everytime his mouth gets close to anything. your skin, your clothes, everything. We've tried to flick him everytime, but he just doesnt seem to get it. Also it happens so often I feel like I'm abusing him with all the flicking. So I'm going to stop.  I'm just going to deal with it (saying No! which makes him cry anyway) and just try to focus on the fact that weaning starts in about 6 weeks!

Nolan has been very sick with a cold in both eyes and a bad cough and just looking miserable. Day before yesterday he started smiling again and yesterday the smiles started getting bigger.  If only the snotty noses would stop.

Ned is very cute these days also with all of the kissing. He will kiss everyone.  And does.  He is having trouble expressing his wishes and that is frustrating to him. But we are all working together on that. 

Well, got to go. Cranky baby alert.

Another cold

Well, we were cold free for a couple of weeks. It was wonderful.
Then we had our family reunion. I enjoyed every moment, except the times I heard coughing coming from a particular family.  I saw the cold coming from a mile off and braced for it.
We love seeing everyone, just wish we didn't always seem to get sick from large family gatherings.  Oh we'll. probably something to get used to with so many young kids in our family.

I'm up  with poor Quinten who has been sick with a cough, sore throat, and tonight fever.  Milton and I have very sore throats and tonsils. So bad that any swallowing is awful. I meant he most painful I can remember. Ever. Everyone else is still healthy for now.

We're pulling the trigger on homeschooling. Should be interesting. Going with Idaho IDEA charter school for now.

More another time. Quinten is asleep again and the meds are kicking in.

I need a break

I've had the most incredibly stressful day. And its only noon or so.  And been neglecting my kids.

I need a break.  Heading to the garden now.

The Facebook Fast

So yesterday I decided that I was spending way to much time on Facebook and that we needed some time apart.

I would check it several times a day. Typically when I would sit down to nurse I would check it on the IPAD. I decided it was to much.

I started my fast yesterday morning.  It was funny how many times I went to type in the website and had to stop myself.

today I've had some other projects to distract me so it hasn't been as noticeable. 

How long will this fast last? I don't know. But fast and last rhyme and now I'm a poet. 

Yeah. I don't know. I'm going to try for a few more days. Maybe a week?

Still hanging on

So here we are in the middle of June, still fighting the cold.  I've named this one George so as to differentiate it from the other colds we've been dealing with.

Quinten and Nolan are being as cute as ever.  Quinten is crawling everywhere and exploring.  He loves the freedom.  He has recently found that he can stand by the open dishwasher door.  
Nolan is a good 2 lbs heavier than his twin and has a bigger frame.  He also gets around, but its more of a push with his legs and dig in with his elbows at the same time.  It sort of looks like he is doing a swimming stroke.

They are both babbling a lot more than before.  They both are growing lots of hair, but no haircuts yet. Just a small trim at the ears to keep them looking like boys.

They are both sleeping through the night like champs.

Ned, on the other hand - isn't.  He sleeps through the night most nights, but about 1 out of 3 nights I find him in our room wailing. A wail isn't a normal cry. Its a mouth wide open yell with tears.  At least that is the only way I can think to describe it.   We've always kept a blanket near my side of the bed since kids aren't allowed in our bed. But beside it every now and again is ok.  He's slept their 2x in the last week.

Last night I had a bad dream around 4am and woke up to get a drink of water and go to the bathroom to reset. I heard Ned giving his wail and went to his room to comfort him. I found him at another part of the room. He had picked up a few pieces of laundry and was bringing them to the side of his bed. I don't know what he was doing, but tucked him in and patted his back. He was asleep within a minute.  I'm starting to wonder if it could be sleepwalking?  Of course this possibility could have popped into my head because I had heard my sister talk about her kids and their sleepwalking earlier in the evening. He is sleeping in the same room as his brothers... but could he be scared?

Cecilee and Mia had a birthday party on Saturday.  We had 16 girls come.  They had invited about 24 so I was happy that everyone had not come.  We rented a blow up water slide and obstacle course.  The girls loved it.  They played and played and popped up every now and again to eat chips and hot dogs, get a drink of water, paint nails, make lip gloss and even play with the squirt bottles we had out.  It was a lot of fun.

However, it was weird to hear all of the birthday wishes. See, the girls birthdays are in the fall, but I got this great idea to give them a summer party. I told some of the parents, and offered it if it came up, but I still felt like I was trying to deceive everyone. Especially weird as we were saying goodbye and a couple of girls wished them happy birthday on the way out.  Oh well.  It was probably just me making it a big deal in my mind.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and seemed like a success. We are still cleaning up today.

 One interesting thing was that only a couple of the girls were from school.  Most were from their soccer teams and church.  So any worries I have about the kids being non social if I were to choose homeschooling are not bugging me much.  They meet a lot of kids at church and at soccer.  Right now they are in softball and are meeting even more kids.  The nice thing about all of these sports is that you see a lot of familiar faces along the way. you have parents who have their kids in soccer and softball and basket ball (like us sometimes) and you have those who choose 1 of the sports and you see those kids once a year for 6 or so weeks.  So you find old friends again and also have familiar faces.  I think the kids have many social opportunities.

The kids are starting softball and this week is the 2nd week of games.  They seem to be enjoying it. The whole family is going today and we'll see how that goes.  I'm sure the twins will behave. Its Ned I'm worried about.  A few weeks ago he tripped on the pavement and scraped his nose and lip.  It is healed despite his constant picking at it.

We've been working in the garden and remodeling it a bit this year.  Working on drip lines and not watering the weeds.  We are battling weeds since we kind of let the garden go last year because of me being so pregnant.

I don't know that we will have much fruit to deal with this year. We lost an apple tree to a bore last year and had to replace it this year. So no apples.  We had a weird series of late frosts so the apricots and peaches and nectarines are probably not going to do well. Also, we ripped out our pie cherry bushes and replaced them with a cherry tree. So we don't have any cherries on the other tree because they didn't get pollinated.  But, the golden raspberries look good. :)  And the boys are eating up all of the peach and nectarine and apricot puree from last year. So yay for that.

Summer is upon us

So we have another cold.  This time it is one that is fleghmy and sticks in the back of your throat. Sore throat, irritated cough. Its a good one.  Here is hoping that this endless cold ends soon. We're tired of it.

Summer is here.  We have so many things we want to do and so little time it seems. 

Still looking at homeschooling options. We are now looking at http://www.idahoidea.org/Main/Default.aspx Which seems to fit a lot of our criteria, if only I could really take the time to sit down and look through everything.  Hopefully this weekend.

I made mozzarella cheese yesterday that was a total failure.  It never stretched and just became crumbly.  Hmm.

The girls have given me a list of things they want to learn to cook this summer as well as other things they want to have classes in. 

So far we have worked on Waffles and pizza.  My miserable mozzarella was used on the pizza. The girls were successful with the pizza. I ruined it. but it was edible. So I guess you take what you can get.  I've enjoyed these classes so far and wonder if they will enjoy the next lesson, which is how when you cook, you also get to wash the dishes.  

Another thing the girls want to do this summer is make quilts. Thanks to Aunt Alyson who gave us bags and bags of extra fabric this is possible.  However, I'm not sure when we can find the time. Perhaps in July?

Ned is finally saying Yes and Yeah.  After months using No for and answer for both, this is a breakthrough.

This summer feels packed.  We went to a birthday party last year where they had a blow up water slide and it was a lot of fun and seemed easy. So this year we rented one and both the girls will be having a birthday party despite the fact that their birthdays are in the fall.  We printed up 25 invitations and they invited at least that many friends and a few more who had siblings.  I just hope that only about half of them show up. We will also be making lip gloss and painting nails, along with snacks and birthday cake, I hope everyone has a good time.

Then about 2 weeks later we have a family reunion.  I have sooo much to do for the reunion.  Its hard to not feel crazy.  but I'm just trying to get organized and its gotten better since I asked one of my sisters to work with me on my family reunion assignment.

After that our summer is free. I'm thinking of signing the girls up for swimming lessons for 2 weeks.

Why is summer so busy?  I thought it was a break, but I've found myself more busy now that when school was in.  Weird.

Hmmm

So the last time I posted I was cranky and tired of sick kids and being sick.

the kids are still sick, but my attitude is better. 

Quinten is back to sleeping through the night. So is the rest of the crew with an exception every now and again.  My biggest challenge is getting me to bed before 11:30.  the boys like to get up at 6am, so its really important for me to go to sleep at a reasonable hour.

Cecilee is working on a report about Amelia Earhart.  Its been fun to see her work so hard on it. She also has been getting a costume together for it so that has been fun also.

More later.  Time to get ready for a trip to the store!

Lol

Was just reading back on the blog and realized that my posts are seriously being affected by my lack of sleep. And I thought I was doing so well! 

First off, the boys are only 8 months old. so a few months ago when I posted their weights and said it was the 9 month check up? Well that was the 6 month check up.

I've also posted several stories and never posted about what happened.  I don't know that I ever will.  If you have a story or situation where you wondered what ever happened? Just let me know in the comments. I'll update you. 

Also, Linda who posted a comment on my last post. I don't know who you are, but I'd sure like to hear more about your thoughts on homeschooling. I'm sorry if we've already had this conversation, or if you are my Aunt Linda.  My memory and skills of deduction aren't what they used to be :) .

A whole glorious week

(now edited. I now know I shouldn't post at 4am :) )

That's about how long Quinten slept through the night.  Then we took everyone to church last Sunday after missing a couple of weeks because our kids had colds and we didn't want to share.

By Monday afternoon Ned was running a high fever, and then it was Quinten's turn. After a day or so of that we got the cough.  Ned does the open mouth cough that must involve an irresistible tickle because he doesn't seem to cough anything up. But he sneezes lots of green phlegm.

The coughing began waking up our newly sleep trained Quinten who refused ( crying for so so long) to go back to sleep.  So yesterday I gave in and after trying several approaches and ended up nursing him back to sleep.  And then it happened again today. So sleep training.  Yeah that was for nothing.

Why am I surprised?  And who in my ward o needs to be educated as to when not to bring your kid to nursery? I would like to find them and tell them what I think of that.

We have been fighting colds since the first week in April.  With Ned coughing, he has pretty much ensured the rest of us have the cold too.  There have been days this past week I have felt so sprayed with saliva all I want is a shower.  How do you teach a toddler how to cough in his elbow?

Wow I'm tired and cranky.

In other news these boys are the most mobile babies at the earliest age we've ever had.  Quinten has basically taught himself the crawling position and gets into it and rocks and is so cute. It's only a matter of time before he is off and crawling.  Nolan rolls everywhere he wants to go.  They are both motivated by toys, Ned, and love it when all the family is home to watch.

Ned has discovered a pair of shoes he can put on himself and loves to go outside.  He is all boy and loves balls and cars.  And water.  He an his sisters have a water obsession.  Sprinklers and hoses are the fave right now.  Thank goodness the ditch doesn't seem to fascinate them.

The girls are in soccer now and doing great.  They are both feeling successful at it.  Cecilee wants to try out for select, which is a more elite group. But for over $ 400 for a season, I don't see that happening. We are debating if we should let her try out for the experience though.

Our elementary school is being closed this year due to budget shortfalls.  The school has been around for decades and its hard to watch it being closed due to majorly mismanaged money.  We're talking many millions of dollars.  And they announced another 1.2 million gone last week.  Not cool.

We attempted for the 5th year to get into the 2, now 3 charter schools within 1 mile of our home.  Another year of not getting in.  I'm not sure I understand the whole charter thing. I have to help fund them, but can't get in. Hmmmm.

So I'm considering all of my options.  Go to the elementary school we're being sent to, online charter school, Homeschool.  Yes I'm considering homeschool.

Homeschool is a lot different animal than it once was.  More online resources, etc.  anyway, the decision is a hard one.  I'll discuss more another time.  For now, Quinten is finally asleep again.  Goodnight.

We are in the TRENCHES people!

That thought crossed my mind today as I finished up a visit with the home teachers this afternoon.

It hadn't been a bad visit. Just busy with little bodies rolling this way and that. A 2 year old moving every which way who did NOT want to sit still.  An 8 year old who did gymnastics all over the floor and a 10 year old who finally (finally!) was sitting still. 

It was just chaotic.  A good busy chaotic.  Not one of those Mom is about to go cray cray! Chaotic. (this mom has realized that I can't control everything, much less 5 busy little people, and not at the same time).

I just wondered what other people thought of our chaos.  to us its normal. While perhaps others may think "Man i hate going to that house and teaching a lesson. No one sits and listens!" 

And others who read this blog (who may not have kids) may think "Wow she is such a whiner" and " what was she thinking?" and, I can't believe she did that, and then wrote on the internet about it! and other things.

And those who see my 8 and 10 year olds at church or school on a day that was hectic and I didn't MAKE them brush their hair (they always do it, but brushing doesn't always happen). And then check it afterwards.  If they can sneak out the door without mom inspecting what they chose to wear and ask them when that item was last worn/washed, they will. 

I hope they think "Gee that family is busy" and not "Their mother is such a slob" 

:)

All I can say is we are in the trenches baby!

(*just wanted to say that as far as I know our home teachers are very tolerant.  It was more of a moment of looking at the visit as an outsider.)

In other news Edison has a sentence. Its a favorite with a few different versions.  It usually goes like this -
I want water too!
and
I want water too Mom!

And today he changed it to

I want too!
when he wanted a treat the rest of us were having.

Nolan is rolling around like a pro and is often entertained by a simple toy.

We've got the garden started now and are doing a small remodel of some of the boxes. 


So far this year we have started lettuce and tomatoes and a bunch of other plants in the greenhouse.  We've planted peas and carrots and onions and bok choy and have volunteer spinach in the garden.

I may skip the bountiful basket for a few weeks. It just feels like we don't use the variety they have been sending.... I don't know. We'll see.

I wish my to do list would shrink

Life is good right now.  We've been battling the cold of the century (still!) and perhaps since this is round two of snot noses , gave it to ourselves again.  Who knows.  I just know the boys all have an awful cough still and the girls are using cough drops here and there.  The adults are over it and the young ones are all still suffering. 

But we are doing well!  Everyone is happy including Mom.  I'm stressed and busy, but its more of a I've got to clean this house! and Wow I need to get that project done! kind of stress as opposed to a crazy busy that is just to much to deal with. I don't know. Maybe its that to do list I started. i need to prioritize it instead of just having that part in my head.

There are lots of exciting things happening right now for us.  The twins are rolling.  Nolan is sleeping through the night.  Quinten has his good nights and his bad nights. He's still not sleeping through the night. But I'm hopeful it will happen soon.  He took a 5 hour nap yesterday and I think he might be having a growth spurt.  After that if he doesn't start sleeping through the night we may have to have a cry it out session. 

I've been having some fun with crafts lately.  We caught a fox.  the plants in the greenhouse are ready for transplant.  I'm trying to grow blueberries again! I'm taking a cheese class.

Ok, so maybe I'll expound on each of those topics!  I was recently given some silk cocoons. I've always wanted to try silk but had never been able to afford/talk myself into spending the money for the stuff sold online.  so I degummed them and stretched them and then dyed them and now I've been playing with them. i broke out the hand carders and blended them with some wool But that made my hands so tired I broke out the drum carder.  And then found out that silk is to delicate for my drum carder.  In my opinion.  I've still got some that I'm going to try knitting with without spinning it into yarn.  Family reunion project anyone?  :)

So we caught a fox. The one that has been raiding our henhouse.  We borrowed a trap from a friend and after setting it for about 2 weeks I was surprised that we had a fox in there one morning.  Of course I couldn't kill it myself. so I called a neighbor (we live in the county) and he came over within 20 min and took care of it. then when hubby came home he put it in the garbage..... where it was noticed by the ladies who came over for a primary presidency members. It was so funny because they were all interested in looking at it.  It smelled like a skunk and its eyes were open.  I still feel sad that it had to die. but it was either that darn fox or more of my chickens. 

We still have to lock the chickens up at night due to a racoon.  But we haven't lost any more chickens for a while now. yay!

The plants in the greenhouse are ready for a transplant but its still cold outside. So i'll probably just move them to larger pots.  I bought blueberries (again!) and at this point I've failed so much at blueberries, I'm determined to win.  But I told hubby this time that if I lose, I'll give up. 

I put them in pots this time and plan on growing them in containers instead of in the yard.  We'll see if i'm able to keep the soil correct with this change.

I'm taking a cheese making class. Its something i've been wanting to do for a few years now. I've been making cheese for the past few months and hope this class will help me learn how to make cheddar and perfect my other techniques.  I've failed at mozzerella (wierd, and then to hard) but then succeeded at parmesan. At least I think I did. I won't really know for a year. LOL.  It has to age for 9-12 months.  Its a fun hobby so far.

Anyway, got to go.  Kids need me.

Bath time

Wanna know how I bathe 3 boys by myself?  Well I think I'm so clever I'm going to tell you anyway!  :)

First you decide if you have the energy and if the boys need a bath.  Check.
Next you grab 3 towels and 3 diapers.
Set up a diaper station in the family room. Basically an area to dry and diaper babies and toddlers.
Put towels in the bathroom
Grab a boy, remove clothes, toss them in laundry.  Remove diaper and toss in the garbage. Put baby or toddler in empty tub.
Repeat, until all boys are in the tub.
Fill the tub with water, keeping little bodies out of the cold water that is not yet warm as best you can.     Once it is warm, fill the tub.
Refill the tub at least once when boys decide to go potty in the water.
Wash a baby, rotate bodies.  Wash a baby, rotate. Wash a baby.
Drain the tub.
Grab a towel, grab a baby.
Dry and diaper at the diaper station.
Repeat.
Repeat until all babies are diapered.
We have been having trouble with dry skin so the next step is to lather all little bodies with Cetaphil cream.  This is a fun step because Ned likes to " help" :). It actually is kind of fun. He likes to be silly and get huge scoops of cream and put it on the boys.
This is followed by a break.
A little while later get clothes out for everyone and dress them.

Ok it's really not this complicated.  At least when you are doing it, it doesn't seem like it.  It's also very worth it when everyone smells like baby shampoo at the end!

And the cold continues to share its joys

Hubby had a sinus headache yesterday, I seem to be getting one today.  Ned is coughing with one of those coughs that make you wince.  Boys still have very snotty noses and are still cranky.  Since they are a few days behind Ned it looks like we get to enjoy this for at least another week. Bring on another day of trying to hold 3 sick kids at one time.  I need earplugs.

 I'd like to find the person who so thoughtlessly shared this cold with us and slash their tires or some other drastic thing.  Or even better, lock them in the house for 8 hours with my sick kids.  That would make them think twice.

Next time if someone shows up at my house with a bad cold without warning ( to which I would tell them to stay home!!!) I will make them go home. Not allow them in.  No entry. Nada! Go away!

pallets

Just read on my sisters blog that you can make anything out of pallets. I wonder if I could make a chicken house out of pallets?  Hmmmm....

The fox

Things are always exciting around here.  Now we have a fox. He has so far feasted on 7 of our chicks, a rooster and at least 3 full grown hens. We have resorted to putting the remaining hens in one small coop.  I feel bad for them. But rather crowded than dead, right?  We are working on some modifications to another coop to make it safe.   The coop that had a cow walk through the run several times a few years ago however needs to many repairs.

I'm working on getting a new coop out there.  but its hard to make yourself feel ok about spending a grand on a building for chickens.  maybe we won't..

The boys are trying to kill me by getting up multiple times a night. Throw in Ned getting a cold and also getting up multiple times a night and voila! You have a recipe for zombie mom.  The new rule at my house is that if you are sick at least give me a warning.  For Ned's birthday someone brought us a lovely cold.  Stayed away from the babies but not Ned. "I wouldn't want to give the twins a cold!" they say as they hug and kiss Ned.  Yeah. Thanks for that.  We just love the cold you brought us.  sorry...I'm just tired.

The girls have started soccer again for the spring season.  Hubby is their coach. So for the next 6-7 weeks I'm a soccer widow. 4 hours of practice per week and another 2 hours or so on Saturday.  Its hard, but the girls deserve to have fun.  I just hope the boys sleep more the next few weeks.

I've had my first experience using silk fiber.  It was very fun. I already need more! I need more silk pods! I need enough so that I have a really really good reason to card wool. pulling out my drum carder is a lot of work anymore.  But oh! The possibilities.

I'm taking a cheese making class...eventually.  Its been fun to learn about cheese making.  I find that while you have young kids at home who are a lot of work its a good idea to have a hobby that you find interesting and that gives you a sense of accomplishment.  It helps me through all the endless diaper changes, loads of laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc that is like groundhog day. The same thing over and over every day!  I currently have a few weeks old parmesan in the cheese fridge waiting for some cheese wax!

Hubby is helping me out a lot these days.  His responsibility at night is Ned.  He has to work, so he takes Ned, who usually doesn't get up.  Well, Thursday night Ned was in the worst part of the cold.   He didn't feel well and was up on and off all night. Hubby had a half day Friday so took full responsibility.  He was up with Ned several times and ended up in the family room on a couch with him and the humidifier.  Turned out Ned did best sleeping at an angle with his head above his body on pillows. 

Anyway as I was in and out with twins all night (3 times with a brutal 12:30 wake up) he really saw what my nights are like.  Add to that the fact that he woke up a zombie because of Ned and he seems to really understand a lot more why I'm always tired.  He has been a lot more understanding and helpful.  He was a good help before, but now he seems to be even more so.

 

9 month check up

Quinten is 14 lbs 13 oz
Nolan is 16 lbs 1 oz.

Ned has his 2 year and is 26 lbs.

All are healthy and happy.  Even Quinten is getting thigh fat rolls!

The Goings On

So yes, Quinten has a tooth. and another one on the way out. The first one was no problem, that second one had him very cranky yesterday though.  Nolan has been a bit fussy as well and has me worried that he might be working on a few teeth of his own.  Edison has been growing his canine teeth for the past few months also.   The thing about Ned (Edison) is that he is tough. I think I've given him medicine for teething pain less than 10 times.  He just doesn't whine, or maybe has  a high pain tolerance.  Who knows.

Anyway, life keeps on rolling for the rest of us.  I'm going a bit crazy most of the time trying to keep up with Ned and the twins.  Luckily Ned is such an easy going kid.  He loves to hug and kiss and smack and play with the twins.  They love it.  I can easily see them all playing together in a few months when they are more mobile.  They already gaze at him with adoring eyes.  He will be the leader.  Hopefully he won't lead them into to many shenanigans.

This past week Mia showed Ned how to blow raspberries on the boys tummies.  He loved it.  Today he was blowing raspberries on their shirts after I blew one into Nolans neck crease.  Unfortunately they don't make a lot of noise when done on the shirt, but Ned didn't care.  I tickled Nolans neck while Ned blew so that Nolan would giggle for Ned.

In other news, I have been not getting enough sleep, but what's new.  Its come to the point that I can't come up with the right name quickly anymore.   I'll tell Ned something about a twin and call him the wrong name.  Pretty soon I'll be like my mother in law and call all the kids the dogs name.  I'm not looking forward to that. Especially since we don't have a dog. Ha ha.  We don't name the chickens, and we don't have names for the cows this time around (past names have included Hammy, T-bone, etc.  My suggestion for Lunch and Dinner keeps getting shot down).  We do have a cat named Whiskers and another cat named Midnight whom has defected and lives with the neighbors now.  Whiskers sneaks into the garage and eats the chicken food.  I don't think the girls have been feeding her every day.  I've got to make sure to bug them about that.

 Quick story.  A few weeks ago I took off on a road trip with my lovely sister. We went to my nephews wedding about 4-5 hours away.  the twins came with and we left Ned and the girls at home with Dad. My brave sister!  Anyway I got a text about 45 minutes out of town.  Our cows had escaped.  Lovely.  They had smashed down part of our fence, broke the electric, and exited at the open gate at the front of the property.  They hadn't escaped since the twins were 2 weeks old and the gate had been having problems since that deep freeze we had a few months ago.  We hadn't put a priority on fixing it.  Anyway, I guess we should have.

Over the process of our trip, hubby and our home teacher and his son tracked the cows.  Turned out they had escaped during the night and had been out quite a while before we noticed.  Hubby feeds them every day and when they didn't come to eat he discovered the fence.

Anyway, after a long day of searching they found them about 2 miles away.  the cows had been discovered by the Sheriff and a very kind farmer/rancher? had corralled the cows.  We were able to get them home the next day and the kind fellow helped hubby bring the 2 troublesome cows to the auction a few days later (where, since we were a month earlier than planned they sold for way to little, but better to break even than the cows out again, hit by a car or stolen and a total loss) 

We are now down to 2 fairly quiet cows again, and the gate is mostly working (needs some work though. I think we need to find a manual for it).

We've also got chicks in the greenhouse growing and we planted seeds for FHE last night followed by some fun Kinect sports.  I had to leave the room after a while.  I had stayed up until midnight the night before (stupid!) and was way to tired for all of the noise!  In my defense, the boys have been sleeping more and more and Nolan has been sleeping through the night here and there (2x last week!)  but still stupid of me!  With all of this teething I went from the occasional not bad night to 3x a night again.

Cecilee and Mia have been having a great time at school lately.  Mia's class went to Swan Lake last week and Cecilee's class went to NNU for something today.  They are both loving activity day girls and don't mind helping out with their brothers ("thank you" says my sanity!) 

The reason I have time to post this lovely long post is due to a primary presidency meeting this morning where the boys both took mini naps which I thought was horrid until I realized that they were going to take their long naps later.  I put them down at the same time as Ned and perhaps I'll have some time to myself! That never happens!!!

Breaking News

Baby Q has his first tooth!!!!

Its all about attitude people!

So last night was awful.  Baby Q was up abou 12:30. As any mom knows, the earlier they are up, the harder it is to get yourself up.  Boy was I groggy and out of it. And then after feeding, Baby Q didn't want to go back to bed. So I was up for a bit.  Then, Baby N was up about 4:30.  Not as bad, but still a little out of it. And I was trying to stay out of it. so instead of surfing the net on the ipad, I was sitting with my eyes closed, trying to stay sleepy so I could go back to sleep quickly.  When the alarm clock rang at 7:30, I was groggy, but doing ok.

The girls got themselves up and ready for the bus early. YAY.  I asked C to put a diaper on Toddler E since he waltzed out of his bedroom wearing only a smile - well that and his pajama top.   When C asked for a towel to lift Toddler E's wet shirt I wondered what was going on and looked closer.  Yes, he was soaked in urine.  from the top of the neck to the bottom of his shirt. The entire front was soaked.  Which means (and lets say it all together you moms out there) his entire bed was soaked in urine.

Yes that's right. I get to wash everything.  And Toddler E got a bath.

So I get some and put it in the washer.  It goes for a while. Until I hear a bit louder than normal 'click'.  And the washer is all of a sudden not going anymore.  I checked things out and it seemed like maybe the load was off balance.  I added some clothes to offset a pillow and started it again.  It kept going until - it got to the spin cycle.

Cue ominous music.

Then  I googled like crazy for a while as babies whined, Toddler E did his thing and I flooded my hubby with calls and e-mails at the office.  This is the first time our washer has broken in our 11 years of owning it.  so this was new.

anyway, after some searching and youtube watching and a little time over at searspartsdirect, we figured out it was the latch.  The little dohickey that tells the washer if the lid is open or not.

Hmmm, interesting.

By this time the babies were crying.  It was nap time.  I took a break and nursed them and put them down.  Of course toddler E had pooped his diaper and needed a change as well.

Anyway, during getting the babies ready for naps, I watched more youtube.  And after changing poopy pants and getting the twins in bed, I was able to jimmy-rig the washer to work with a hair elastic!  Yes, it doesn't stop spinning when the lid is open, but until we buy the parts to fix it correctly, we can still do laundry.

my point to this long drawn out story?  Yes, I could be stressed out and unhappy and tired and cranky.  I will admit to being tired, and my kitchen needs to be cleaned, but I decided that I wouldn't let it get to me today.

Yes, it might get to me later, but not right now!

so its all about attitude.  We make choices.  Are we going to be calm or are we going to be stressed out and worried and crying? Or are we going to be happy the twins are napping and Baby N is getting over his cold and Toddler E and baby Q don't have it, Happy that hubby vacuumed and straightened the family room yesterday.  Or unhappy that we are almost out of bread, I need a shower, or that the Ipad needs to be charged, and I still need to clean the kitchen, and I keep forgetting to buy a calendar.

Get my point? Dwell on the positives! 


Disclaimer - this is my attitude today (now) and it is working for me today. I will not guarantee that I will not get cranky later or that tomorrow I will not be stressed out.  I am just doing my best, and today that is a positive attitude. 

my day

Today the girls have a dentist appointment at 2:30.  Here is how the day went. (is going)

3:30am . boys wake up. feed, put down. desperately try to get back to sleep (been having problems with getting back to sleep)

7:53 yell at A to get out of bed.  Bus comes at 8:07 or so.  She is trying the ol' I am tired and don't want to get up so I'll try the stomachache routine. I tell her that if she stays home she'll have to miss the dentist, do chores all day, and deal with me being cranky.  She obliges and gets up and out the door.

While all this is happening the twins need to be fed. I sit down to nurse and remember that I still need to write a note for them.  I nurse and write a note. I'm so good at multi-tasking (please forgive the sloppy handwriting front office :) )


They make the bus, notes in hand.

I finish nursing and put the boys on a blanket on the floor and turn on PBS for toddler E.  I'm tired and in a daze since I didn't get into a good deep sleep after the 3am feed.  It was weird.

I finally get moving.  Three diapers changed check!  Outfits chosen for our outing later today? check!

The boys, toddler E, and I hang out until about 10 when its time to  nurse the boys for their nap. I round up the swaddles and wrap and nurse them.  Toddler E and I hang out until about 12:30.  Toddler E gets his lunch and I hop into the shower for the quickest shower ever. no hair washing.  Just a quick wash.

toddler E has managed to drain his water all over the table and himself as well as some of his lunch. 

I give him a towel and tell him to clean up. He does a little. He isn't 2 yet. I'm impressed.

1pm.  Babies get up and get nursed and changed into their outfits for our dentist trip.  Toddler E gets a clean diaper (poopy) and a clean outfit since his other one is now wet and dirty.


 1:46 pull out of the driveway.  The kids take forever to get to the front office.  I end up waiting outside with the kids who are still in the car. 

2:03  the decision has been made to go home for the toothbrushes and toothpaste that I left on the counter.  A quick stop and we are on our way again.

2:30 we are pulling into the dentist office. Impressive.  Except that we'll be late because we still have to get all of the kids out of the car.  But only by a few minutes!

Toddler E chases around the waiting room and childrens area. The twins stay in their carseats.  The girls are in and out and in while they brush teeth, go potty, get their teeth cleaned and then both in for a final check from the dentist.  No cavities!

A quick stop at McDonalds for an early dinner because A has a academic achievement award (ie give the kid a free cheap meal and make the family spend $ on food for the rest of the family. yuckiest chicken sandwich I've had in a while).

4:10 home again home again jiggety jig. now its time to nurse the babies again.

The girls and Toddler E are playing outside. About 30 minutes pass and they all come inside. Toddler E is screaming because he was playing in the slushy snow and his hands are really cold. A hot bath later and he is feeling much better. 

Hubby is home now and A and I go and feed the Chickens. Hubby goes to feed the cows.

The girls and I ate at McDonalds and hubby had a sandwich at work (this is really not normal for us. I make dinner, I do!) I heated up some red pepper potato soup from yesterday so that I could have some nutrition in my dinner.  The chicken sandwich I had at McDonalds was just not very good.  But it didn't have mayo on it, I didn't order pop, and only had a handful of Toddler E's fries.  So overall, it could have been much worse. the kids had chicken nuggets, chocolate milk, and apple slices. So yeah, not great, but not like we all had cheeseburgers, fries and pop. 

Anyway, enough of that :)

The boys had diaper changes in there somewhere. One of them had blown out.  

I just nursed the boys again and the girls have done their chores. They are now emptying the dishwasher.

We will most likely watch a show (The Biggest Loser?) together for the next hour.  I will work out at 8pm and then 8:30 is bedtime.  

Diapers will be changed!  Swaddles will be used!  Kids will be in Bed! And The House Will Be Quiet!

Just in time to start all over at 3am :)  Good thing we don't have any appointments tomorrow.  However I do need to go to Costco...Maybe tomorrow?  (probably not, but a girl can dream, right?)

Still..

Still drowning in boxes. No we didn't unpack over the weekend. I just couldn't seem to get started.  In other news the laundry is caught up and the kitchen is clean!  Just a little more folding to get done.  I'm trying to focus on what has gotten done. If I start making a to do list I may drown.  :)

The boys are napping and toddler E is playing on the floor beside me.  We have been watching PBS.  The babies are back to only waking once a night again, but now seem to be waking at 3am instead of 6. So that is good because they go back to sleep again fairly easily.  they started waking up 2x a night last week and that turned me into a zombie very quickly. I was a mess on Sunday. I just couldn't think clearly.  Just ask the primary. I was conducting and among other things forgot about a birthday and turned the time over to the wrong person who then though I knew something they didn't know and went with it and then it threw everyone off for all of jr primary, and the nursery singing time was all messed up. Some days I don't know why they haven't fired me. I'm glad they haven't though. I really enjoy my calling.

Toddler E is very polite. he has learned that if he says pweesh? that he can get nearly everything his little heart desires. He also says thank you every now and then.  Add to that 'sorry' and he is the cutest thing ever.  He and I hang out while the twins sleep for a few hours every morning.  I am still trying to merge the nap times and now that they are in separate rooms it is getting easier. For the last 2 days I've had a whole hour to myself!!!!!!

moth·er /ˈməT͟Hər/

One who runs toward the screaming child when all they want to do is run the other way.

We've been busy here trying to get our flood cleaned up.  The carpeting finally got replaced yesterday and we are all moved back in.
Since we decided to move all the bedrooms around, we have to rearrange all the closets.
Then we have to unpack all of the boxes that we packed since we chose to have nearly the whole house recarpeted.  Then the great handyman from the restoration company has to come back and finish up a few things.  AND.THEN.WE.WILL.BE.DONE.

This has really dragged out. I can't lie.  Its been a pain.  I never want to do it again.

Maybe someday eventually we might be done.

Maybe.

:)

I'm tired.

Boys are sleeping from 9-6 regularly now. I just wish they would sleep all the way until 7 or 8.  Its hard to get them back to sleep, and I never have time to get more sleep myself. If only I would wise up and go to sleep at 9 also!

In other news, I'm working on a modification to my 2 needle sock pattern at the suggestion of a friend who is a more experienced knitter than I am.

Toddler E is getting into everything and back to climbing on the table at every opportunity. He has also discovered that he can reach up and grab things from on the cupboard. He also says "Ma! Ma! until I look at him and say What?" He learned that from his sisters. He will also say "Mon!" and wave his arm (beckoning) if he wants you to follow him and get him something. Typically its to get me to the pantry to get him a "Sna?"  He is a sweet kid who is into everything. It can be aggravating. It can  melt your heart.

C and A love their new room. Lets just hope they will take care of it.  Their old room is slated to be repainted and arranged for the twins.  In the meantime though, the twins are just going to have to endure the pink/purple walls.  :)

4 month check up

Everyone healthy and happy, just a little cranky from all those awful shots.

Baby N was 13 lbs 4 oz
Baby Q was 11 lbs 10 oz.

We have been blessed by cute little healthy boys!

My easy peasy 2 needle knit socks

So this post is dedicated to my easy peasy 2 needle knitted socks.  I came up with the pattern myself, having been long intimidated by sock patterns calling for, we'll, more than 2 needles.

I am an elementary knitter, but an avid crochet-er.  Frankly knitting intimidates me.  But I love the stretchiness of it and how it's less bulky than crochet. And I had a desire to learn to knit socks.

So I bought a lions brand learn to knit kit and one scarf later i knew a basic stitch and did a cable on it. Cool huh? Well I thought so anyway.  I still wanted to learn socks though and didn't want to use more than 2 needles.  So I bought a knitting machine off of Craigslist.  And then I learned how to make some socks on it in about an hour.  And then I had a toddler around and then twins and getting out the machine seemed like a lot of work.  So I've adapted my pattern for 2 needles.

I used size 3 needles and have size 10 feet.  So I'll try and give pointers on size as I go.

My 2 needle sock pattern
Cast on 30 stitches
Knit 1 pearl 1 and repeat for the whole row and the next 9 rows for a total of 10 rows.
(Knit the entire next row and pearl the entire row after that) 10 times.
Congratulations, you have just made 1/2 of the cuff of your sock.
Now for the heel. You are going to start skipping stitches.
--
Skip first stitch on each end of your row.  Knit a row and then pearl a row . ( a total of 28 stitches)
Skip the first and 2nd stitch on each end of your row. Knit a row and pearl a row ( a total of 26 stitches)
Skip the first, second, and third stitches on each end of your row . Knit a row and pearl a row (24
stitches)

Keep doing this process until you have skipped 7 stitches (16 stitches total knitted on this row) . Now reverse the process and add one stitch ( starting with the most recent skipped stitches) . Just like before, this time adding the stitches ( so add a stitch to each side, and then knit a row and pearl a row)
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Yay! You have a heel!

Now on to the foot

Knit one row and pearl a row.  Repeat until the sock is the correct length to fit from the heel to the base of the toe.

 Now I count the 2 rows (1 knit and 1 pearl) as one .

This is where you can tweak the size.  For my size 10 feet, I do 30 rows. For an adult size 6 I did 20 rows.  Just fit them to your feet.

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Now for the toe. It's kind of like the heel but quicker.
Skip the first stitch, knit the rest of the row except for the last stitch which you will skip. (28 stitches)
Skip the first and second stitch, pearl the rest of the row, except for the last 2 stitches which you will skip stitch.(26 stitches)
Skip the first 3 stitches, knit the rest of the row except for the last 3 stitches which you will also skip(24 stitches)
Skip the first 4 stitches, pearl the rest of the row except for the last 4 stitches which you will skip.(22 stitches)
Keep doing this until you have skipped a total of 7 stitches on both sides.
Now do the whole process in reverse, adding the most recent skipped stitches first.

Congrats! Now you have a toe!

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Ok, next you need to knit the top of your sock.  Knit 1 row and pearl one row just like before, the same number of times ( remember? For my size 10 feet it was 30 rows?)

Ok, now you need to (knit one row, pearl one row)10 times for the other half of the cuff of your sock.

Now you need to (knit 1 stitch pearl 1 stitch), repeat to the end of the row and for the next 9 rows .  

You will want to end with a stretchy bind off. I found one I liked on YouTube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGHItYwr1us

Now you just need to stitch the edges together and you have a pretty nifty sock!

I would like to do a youtube video of this eventually to make it easier to under stand. In the meantime, leave a comment with questions and I will try and answer.

Happy New year!

We were such wet blankets. We were in bed by 10:30 (the kids by 9:30).  For dinner the kids had a choice between mac n cheese and frozen pizza.  They chose mac n cheese.  We had sierra mist and sherbet in a float which we all agreed was very yummy. Then as a further treat shared some nutty buddies and swiss rolls. 

The boys have been sleeping really well last week. But the past 2 nights the one twin who never wakes me up at night has been waking me up at night! Around 2-3am.  Ouch. I was getting used to them  sleeping from 9-5. Maybe its a growth spurt? I don't know. I'll just have to feed them more.  But we were up around 2am and again a little before 6.  Luckily (for me) baby Q was crying quite a bit (don't know why, maybe I was positioning him wrong because I was half asleep?) and woke up daddy.  He came out and worked with baby N who didn't want to go back to sleep.  That allowed me to go back to bed. 

I don't know how we are going to get back on schedule.  after this vacation.  Hubby is back at work tomorrow and the kids are back at school Monday.  Its going to be a rough ride!