Flashbacks....

I was out at my mom's trying to kill some time while Steve and my Dad were trying to get the new surround sound hooked up and my mom was gone. I started looking threw some pictures on my mom's computer and came across these ones. Can you guess who????

This is such a hideous picture of me and I can't believe I'm putting it on here but this is how I want to remember this stage of my life I'm in right now. Having a baby on my lap, trying to comfort another one, me in my pyjamas, dirty high chair tray. This is my life. And I love it. Even though it's crazy and chaotic most days, I know I'll miss it one day.

And here's the last one. I love this picture because this is Briggs' on his 3rd b-day getting this dirtbike, and he was just as excited to get the exact same dirtbike for Christmas this year. Every birthday and Christmas it seems he gets one of these bikes cause by then his is broken. I remember when he was little and he would pack these bikes around with him everywhere. Bike was actually his very first word. He's a little obsessed.

Late night snacks.....

My poor neglected blog... After the Christmas craziness is over I plan to get better. I know my last post was about Summer but since there is always something to write about with her, here goes another one.

So after having four kids I pretty much thought I had things all figured out, thought I was a pretty good mom and had pretty good kids. Number five has definitely been....um interesting. Love her to death but she has definitely thrown me off a bit.

So Summer always wants breakfast. She will eat it and then an hour later want more. And then for lunch want more. And then for a snack..breakfast. This isn't as bad as it sounds cause it's not like she wants frootloops or frosted flakes non stop, it's usually mush so it's at least healthy. And I don't always give in. But on to the real problem... she has been waking up at 3:00 am almost every night lately insisting on breakfast. So what would you do is my question.

Do you make it a quick, painless thing and get up, get her breakfast and tell her when she's done to go to bed. Yes it's probably not the best thing cause I'm giving into her and letting her have her way which is something we're trying not to do, it's probably not a great habit to get her into either, but in total is about a 5 minute process.

Or do you not give in, and tell her to go back to bed. This option involves about a 20 minute fight to get her to go back to bed, only to have her in your bedroom about 10 minutes later to do it all over again. Oh and if you lock the door on her it is even worse cause she will cry and scream until you open the door. It's really quite pleasant. It usually is at least and hour or two before anyone gets any sleep.

One of us is determined not to give into her and one of us just doesn't care cause they value their sleep more than anything. Anyone that knows us well can figure out who is who.

So what would you do??

And I'll end this post with a quote from Sarra about Summer. "She is so small, but so powerful". I love it cause it describes Summer exactly.

Conversations....

Summer: Mom can I have another doughnut?

Me: I already said no Summer.

Summer: Please??? I want another doughnut.

Me: No.

Summer: I want another doughnut. (yelling in her mad voice)

Me: No.

Summer: Mom you should go to bed. Just go to bed mom. You're tired. (in her nice voice as she is on a stool staring at the doughnuts)

Summer: Mom go to bed.

Summer: Mom just go to bed. Your tired. (very mad voice)

I love that she is so smart and tried to trick me into going to bed just so she could sneak a doughnut. I was trying so hard not to burst out laughing the whole time. And I hate to admit it but, I gave her the doughnut. Persistent little girl.

Halloween....

We had a great time for Halloween. Our goal was to get over the sickness that was taking over our house by Halloween and we did it. Everyone was well enough to go. Here's some pictures from the night.

These two loved getting dressed up like princesses. About an hour before we left for trick or treating Skylie announced that she hated her witch costume and we couldn't get her to wear it. We went downtown and found this princess dress and she was much happier. They both thought they were the prettiest girls in the world. And anyone that knows Skylie, knows she was all over all the makeup she got to wear.

My Little Artist....

All Skylie does these days is draw and color. And I'm obsessed with her pictures. I love them. I love how when all my kids have started drawing pictures with people, they all look the same as this. The long bodies, the big eyes.

The other day Sklie drew a ton of pictures and hung them all over my bedroom and down the hallway. My favorite is this one she hung over my bed. I love the rainbow dress.

Happy B-day...

This last week Summer had her 3rd birthday. I'm glad that she was young enough to not realize that is was kind of a lame b-day. I was really sick and so were a few others in the family, so I really didn't have the energy to do anything fun. But she didn't care. All she wanted was a pink birthday cake and she was fine.

The morning of her b-day she found these strings I have for scrapbooking and I gave them to her for a present. She was so excited and had fun laying them all out all over the floor. At that age it doesn't take much to make them happy.

Steve showed up at home with some balloons for her which also made her day. I think they were played with almost every minute of that whole day. Luckily he got two of them so Skylie could play with one too.

Trudy made Summer the cake since I wasn't feeling up to making one and my Mom brought by the dairy queen cake. It was so good.

Here's a few facts about Summer:

1. She is obsessed with my mom. She always wants to go to Grandma's house and will not give up easily. My mom will sometimes not come by just to avoid the tears that are always shed when she has to leave.

2. She does everything that Skylie does. They are always playing together and she is always repeating everything she says.

3. Loves playing ponies and barbies.

4. She wakes up almost every night. Not sure why. Lots of times just to get her to leave me alone I push the couches together and let her sleep there.

5. She is the last to go to bed at night and always the first one up, bright and early at 7:00 usually.

6. When she gets up she demands breakfast and will not stop bugging until I get it for her. If you ignore her and try to go back to sleep she will yell at me and tell me to talk to her.

7. She has the prettiest hair.

8. She could eat breakfast for every meal. Especially likes oatmeal.

9. She always wants to have a friend over. Usually it's Marlie. Too bad she lives 4 hours away.

10. Very strong willed.

11. She asks me about 5 times a day to make brownies for her.

12. She loves going to Sarra's house to play with Jacob.

13. Loves having books read to her.

14. When she is happy she is really happy, when she's mad she's really mad. Not very often in the middle.

15. She was a little disappointed to find out she couldn't start going to school once she turned 3.

16. She doesn't like being left behind. If I'm driving the kids to school she wants to come, if I'm going to the store she wants to come. And to avoid the tantrums, I usually just let her come.

17. Loves helping me make stuff in the kitchen. Stirring things, dumping in ingredients, whatever.

18. Loves riding her bike.

We sure love this little girl. Happy 3rd B-day!!!!

Quick Roadtrip....

So a couple of weeks ago we decided to make a quick, spur of the moment trip to Utah. Our cousins their decided to throw Leslie a baby shower and my Mom, Brette and I decided we just couldn't miss out on the fun. So we went. And Leslie had no idea we were coming, which made it even funner.(is funner a word??) Haylie and Micah really wanted to come and so after a few little lectures about how they weren't aloud to talk, be annoying, climb on people, and had to sit in the very back, I decided to let them come. So Friday morning we all piled into the burb and were off!

Well here we are at the airport. Leslie and Mike are living in Laramie right now while Mike is going to school so Leslie flew to Utah for the weekend. She was expecting Melissa to pick her up and you can tell from the pictures she was a little surprised to see us!!

Speechless!

Here's some random pics at the airport while we were killing time waiting.

This is a picture of us lost at the airport. Well actually in the parking lot of the airport. We were parked in the furthest parking lot from the airport. It was quite a long walk. So after we picked up Leslie and started our journey back to the car, we saw a sign that was for a shuttle bus taking us to the parking lot we were parked in. We gladly jumped on and were so excited about not having to walk back. That is until we got off at the wrong place. Anyways we eventually made it back to the car, we just waited at this sign and eventually got picked up again by the shuttle bus.

Saturday we crammed it all in. We managed to get ready, get a tire change on the suburban, do a little shopping, made it to the shower just in time, do some more shopping, have fun with the cousins, and of course eat. And Haylie and Micah had the time of their lives because Emilys girls happened to be going to Lagoon for the day so they got to go with them. They had a blast!!

Here are all the cousins at the baby shower. It was so fun getting together for the day.

Here's the cute pregnant girl!! (les don't kill me for putting this picture on) We love the heart on your stomach pose. haha.

Emily is such an awesome hostess, she had the shower at her place and let us all crash their for the weekend. It was fun getting to spend some time with her.

And here is just a few little fun things that we learned on our trip...

1. Sometimes you don't even need to hear the sound to enjoy a movie.
2. There is NOT a temple in Butte.
3. Cheese actually tastes good in a can.
4. The odometer on the gps is more accurate than the one in the burb.
5. That an airport is almost just as fun as Lagoon. And a lot cheaper.
6. You can never eat at Wingers too many times.
7. That Margaret isn't always right, and can be a little annoying at times.
8. That it is worth the drive to Utah, even if your only there for one day.
9. You should never pull the rope on a shuttle bus that alarms the driver to stop, especially if it's not your stop.

Our trial run with the trailer....

So I've been meaning to write about our first camping trip with our new trailer for a while but haven't. So like I always say, better late than never. We didn't go far at all. Only about 5 minutes away to the campground here in town. It was so much fun. The kids had a few friends come and we also had Tim and Sarra and their family come hang out and have tin foil dinners with us. Thank goodness Sarra did come cause I forgot plates and utensils for some reason. Luckily for some weird reason she had a stash of spoons in her glove box.

The kids had free reign of practically the whole campground and they took advantage of that. They ran around all night playing and having fun. Anyways here's some pictures from the weekend.

Love this picture!!

I'm pretty sure these two will get married.

Kash thought he was really cool sitting in these little chairs.

Then he tried standing and it backfired on him.

The boys taking a break from wrestling.

It was a fun time. We found out that you don't have to go far to have fun. The trailer worked great and the kids had fun sleeping in it.

A glimpse of my life today....

Today I folded a huge mound of laundry. And even put a lot of it away.

Today I had to hide from a crying two-year old.

Today I was reminded about 50 times by Summer that I was the Grandma in the game.

Today I did not clean up the lipstick that ended up all over the bathroom mirror and counter top. I didn't even know I owned any lipstick.

Today Skylie sure thought she looked pretty when she put lipstick all over her face and put my eyeshadow on.

Today I had to teach my kids about why we shouldn't be jealous and about overcoming the natural man. They ended up laughing at me. And Briggs had to point out that he was a man.

Today Kash shocked himself while pulling out the vacuum plug.

Today I got a little upset when I found out the new DVD I just bought is lost already. I once again said I refuse to buy any more movies.

Today two little girls sprayed about half a bottle of hairspray all over my bathroom and in each others hair. I made a mental note never to buy the aerosol again. Too easy for little girls to spray.

Today I was really stiff from my aerobics class yesterday.

Today I dropped a huge, full jar of pickles and it splattered everywhere, including Summer's eye. While I went to grab a towel Kash slipped in it and covered his clothes and hair in stinky pickle juice.

Today I tried to take a nap. Unfortunatly it didn't work.

Today we ate Thanksgiving leftovers for supper.

Today Summer was spraying Kash with leather protector. Luckily I caught her before too much damage was done.

Today I was sad I couldn't watch my kids play champs. I didn't have the energy to pack all my kids there.

Today I was happy to hear Steve say he was really proud of Briggs and Haylie for how well they did at champs.

Today my kids smashed soda crackers all over the kitchen floor.

Today I slept in.

Today I was excited to go play basketball.

Today I was a little overwhelmed.

Today Skylie dumped a whole bottle of water on the carpet.

Today I almost reached my breaking point when I found diaper rash cream all over the little kids bedroom.

Today I was thankful for Micah who volunteered to put Summer in bed, read her a story, said prayers with her, and gave her some of her stuffed animals to sleep with.

One year older....

Last week we got to celebrate Briggs's 7th B-day. Here's a few highlights from the day.

Before school opening presents from the family. This was a present that Micah made for him. I know that this post is about Briggs but I have to say that Micah is such a thoughtful girl, she was so worried about what to get for Briggs. Then she went down to her room for a while and came back with this little guy made out of pom-poms. You can always count on her to make something for everyone. She is so creative. She also made him a tiger out of a toilet paper roll.

After school we had a party for him with his friends. He invited 7 friends but one of them got the flu that day so couldn't come. Birthday parties are something that I honestly dread doing. I don't like doing the invitations, especially delivering them, thinking of what to do, cleaning the house. In the end it is worth it I guess. Briggs had a blast. And with boy parties it's not as bad. If you run out of things to do there's always wrestling (which they did and only two boys got hurt..) and jumping on the trampoline.

Here's my awesome smartie cake. This is the first year that he hasn't had a cool cake like dirt biking or monster truck and so I was hoping that he wouldn't notice, and luckily he didn't say anything.

So my mom saw this fun idea at a reunion this summer. You make marsh mellow guns out of pvc pipe. Then you stick a marsh mellow in the top, blow and out it comes. So I had Steve cut everything the right size and we put together these guns and decorated them for the party. It was a little chaotic since I was by myself but it was alright. They loved decorating them and spent more time doing that then I thought they would which I was glad for. And you need to notice the bags that they all have. My amazing Mom whipped those up for me on a minutes notice and had them delivered within a few hours. They were perfect for the boys to keep their ammo in and the boys loved them. Here they all are ready for the war!!

I made a few targets out of milk jugs and made a bulls eye target for them to practice on. But before long a full on marsh mellow war erupted.

And by the end it looked like I had a hailstorm in my back yard.

They went threw about 3 bags of marsh mellows. I really didn't care as long as they were entertained. The guns were a huge hit but there was one major downfall. A couple of the boys must of been really slobbery when they were shooting and their marsh mellow would get soggy and clogged up and guess who had to disassemble their guns and pull out the soggy marsh mellows. Ya that was me.

So this is a little out of order but Briggs got these swords from me and it was cute watching the kids fight with them. It's funny how Kash is only one but because he is a boy he knew that these were cool and loved trying to fight with them.

That is until ninga Steve came after him. He was very concerned.

I will take seven loud, hyper, slobbery marsh mellow blowing seven year olds any day over these two......

At least the kids kept the guns outside like they were supposed to. They actually know how to shoot the guns properly and it really hurt. Especially when you get hit in the face. And I am speaking from experience. You know the saying "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye"? Well just ask Briggs about that one. He was the poor victim that almost lost an eye. And just have to add that Kash was in marsh mellow heaven. He was more than happy to eat all the marsh mellows that they were shooting all over my living room.

Since I can't do a birthday post without telling a few things about Briggs here we go....

1. Anyone that knows Briggs knows he is OBSESSED with dirtbikes. He is constantly asking Steve to take him dirtbiking. I'm not a fan of the hobby at all but Steve reassures me that it's ok. (coming from someone that shattered all the bones in his face a few years ago)

2. He also loves riding his pedal bike (which I prefer). He is always finding little jumps everywhere, whether it's the curbs, mounds in the ground, sticks, whatever, he is always doing little jumps. We have a jump that Steve made that stays in our driveway that him and his friends love.

3. He reminds me so much of Weston. He's constantly poking, bugging, wiggling, smothering, maybe a little pesty, loud, and did I mention poking. Maybe this is just a boy thing to do but since I only have Weston to compare him to, I do.

4. Briggs worries about things. The other day at champs him and some friends were playing in the hall and I went out and told them the janitor was going to come and get mad (cause he always does). Right away Briggs wanted to go in. He kept telling his friends to come in, and let's just go play on the stage. He was worried about getting in trouble. Or maybe he's just really obedient....

5. Loves playing on the play station.

6. Gets along really good with his sisters and will play all their girly games with them cause he has no choice.

7. Is almost always the last one left at the dinner table.

8. In grade one and has picked up on reading really good. Loves me reading stories to him at bedtime.

9. I hardly ever get mad at Briggs. For the most part he is such a good kid.

10. Loves riding his skateboard. He would go to the skatepark everyday if I let him. Every time we drive by he says, "mom there's no big kids at the skate park, we should go".

11. Loves to play with friends and always wants to have one over.

12. I honestly couldn't tell you his favorite food. He's kind of picky (reason he's always last at the table). I'll have to ask him. I do know that he really likes cheese pizza. And hot dogs.

13. Has a tender heart. If he does something wrong or you have to get after him he always feels so bad.

14. Can do a back flip on the trampoline.

15. The first thing he asks when he gets home from school is "can I have something sugary? I really feel like something sugary."

16. Loves playing basketball, baseball and golfing.

We all love Briggs so much. He is such a fun boy to have around. Can't believe that he is 7!!