Conversations....

Skylie and Summer are always into mischief. The other night they were supposed to be going to sleep and of course weren't. I didn't care too much cause at least they were staying in their bedroom and not bugging me while I was reading my book. Anyways they did eventually fall asleep. After doing this......

It really bugged me cause one of my worse jobs is painting dressers. And I've already had to paint this one once. Anyways when I found it I called for them to come up and they knew I was mad.

Me: " Why did you guys color all over your dresser?? Who did it?"

Summer: "Don't be mad mommy. You need to tell us it looks pretty. Don't be mad."

(I guess they did do a good job of outlining every drawer)

Me: "You guys are only aloud to color on paper and coloring books."

Summer: "But mom we were just trying to make it look pretty like Christmas. Don't be mad."

Pretty like Christmas??? Haha. After that I was over it.

Growing up......

Haylie has been bugging me forever to get her ears pierced. It's always the same response from me. "Not till your 12." And of course Haylie doesn't like that answer, doesn't understand why, and all her friends have theirs pierced. So about a month ago she came home from school sad cause one of her last friends that didn't have them pierced was going to and it just wasn't fair. Anyways during this same time I was having a problem with Haylie with her eyes. She has one lazy eye that she can't see out of that great. Because of this she is supposed to wear an eye patch over her good eye to strengthen her bad one. Trying to get her to wear this eye patch is not easy. It's obviously annoying to wear, embarrassing, and she can't see good when she wears it so it is a constant battle. So I decided to do a little bribing. I told her if she wears the patch everyday for at least 3 hours, for a month she could get her ears pierced. Worked like a charm. So this last Saturday we went down town and got them pierced. It was a little sad for me cause it made me realize that she is growing up and not a little girl anymore. But I fought back my tears and we got it done. I've never seen her more excited.

Here she is before.....

After...

Nurse Skylie.....

We seriously can not keep enough band-aids on hand with Skylie around....

Your probably wondering what in the world happened to her poor leg that she needs 50 band aids on it. Looks like maybe she got a hold of my razor or had a bad accident on her bike. Nope. Someone probably bumped into her or she fell. Any excuse to put on a band aid. Especially the big expensive ones. She usually always has a band aid some where and will keep it on forever. And no I don't give her permission to do this, she just knows right where they are and helps herself any time she gets "hurt". She even likes to put them on innocent bystanders......

The other day I was popping a zit, gross I know (why at my age am I getting zits anyways????) and I started bleeding a little. Skylie had a horrified look on her face when she saw it and said, "Mom it would be a lot safer it we put a band aid on that." Then she jumped up and got me a band aid and on it went.

Christmas and New Years

So is it too late to post about Christmas?? Hope not. It's been so long that I'm not really sure what to write. So I'll just sum it all up by saying we ate way too much, laughed a lot, played a lot of T.T.R. and Blokus, played with cousins, made a lot of trips back and forth between mine and Steve's parents, played with new toys, had a b-day party, and did I mention ate a lot??

Here's our standard Christmas Sunday family picture. Well without me and Steve. I was still in my pyjamas.

And here's my very, very worst tradition that the kids love. Gingerbread houses. I think next year I'll try individual ones. Maybe then I won't have one child pouting cause she didn't get her way.

Christmas Eve was at the Hollands. The kids loved all the new coloring stuff Grandma gave them.

Our awesome nativity!!

Christmas morning. My mom always makes all the cousins matching p.j.'s. Turned out so cute.

Here's some pictures from New Years Eve. I have to say it was a really fun night. We normally always hang out with friends and get a babysitter for the kids but this year we did a family thing and the kids loved it. We set the clock ahead a few hours so they really thought they stayed up till midnight. We had some great entertainment. A puppet show from Haylie, Micah, and Kadie...

Here is Briggs and Chases's standard entertainment, a sword fight. The more we ooh and aww, the more intense the fight becomes. It is really funny. Not sure who is winning here...

Everyone ready for the countdown with our awesome hats on.

And of course more food, any excuse to eat!!

Haylie's b-day is on the 30th so we had a little party for her with some friends that were around and then we went swimming at the Ramada with the Hollands. Lots of fun!!

Out at my mom's the kids did a lot of sledding, tubing, and playing outside. Matt and Mike built a really cool snow fort that I should of taken a picture of but didn't. The kids had fun playing in that too.

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.