Carson

Carson is sick today-pooh!  Not the way we wanted to start our week, but is there ever a time you want to be sick?  I just hope....really hope...Henry doesn't get it.  He's been running a fever since late last night and just puny all day.  He's got some ibuprofen in him right now, so he's up for the first time all day and playing outside a bit with Daddy.  I've been basically just laying on the couch with him (his request) and taking care of his demands- "cover me up mom", "I want drink mom", "I want raisins" (I know-a weird request..the only thing he would eat today other than some cheese and an apple), and last but not least..."I want to watch fesh beats".  We have watched at least 10 Fresh Beat Band episodes today.  Emmy was crying for Dora or something, anything else.  :-)  Normally we play a lot outside and in and don't watch so much t.v.  A sick day means all bets are off though.  Henry's been great too, as ususal, so that's a help. 
I'm off to get a shower, figure out what's for supper......and possibly clean up the house.  :-) 
It didn't help that last night before I knew we were having a sick day, I emptied 7 large bags of clothes from Alyssa for Emilynn in the living room and sorted them by size.  I got 3 bags Saturday from Dad's and had 4 more in my storage shed.....I don't think we'll EVER have to buy Emmy many clothes again..which is a blessing.   Although I hope I can buy her a few cutesy dress type things....you know, stuff Alyssa would NEVER wear!  :-)  Haha!  It is quite a mess in the living room right now that I've looked at all day and could do nothing about.  Emilynn is in a Halloween costume today from one of the piles of stuff.  She wore a Christmas dress the other day-I have a pic of that I'll post soon.  So, we are celebrating all the holidays!  :-) 
All for now, more updates later. 

Dog......nope-CAT days of summer! :-)

First of all, I finally got the cable to connect my camera to the computer.  I was all in the mood to do it last night and well....the book says you need to have a fully charged camera battery.  Oops.  Mine had 11 mins. to go.  Bummer.  I am getting closer to loading more pics though!  Yay!  I also have taken a few with my "old" oh-so-annoying camera that takes forever to take a pic, now that I am used to my new one.  I keep it in the kitchen though to snap moments quickly and I have some of those to upload and share. 
My goal is to post every day in September.  Every....single...day!  I hope I can pull it off.  This is kind of a journal for the kids and I should do better keeping it up.  I have lots to share from what all we've been doing lately, we've packed a lot in the past few weeks of summer.  

I took Emilynn for ice cream the other day, Carson was gone with Papa and she was feeling left out.  I had to come up with something special fast, and ice cream fit the bill.  I made her stay on the porch with it, and I came out to check on her and found her sharing her ice cream with our cat. 

Our kitty, Sunshine was enjoying the ice cream right along with Emmy. 
A bite for Sunshine, then.....you guessed it-a bite for Emmy.  Eeeeek!!! 

It all let to this: 

One happy, ice-cream covered kitty!!! 
She is truly the BEST cat and puts up with so much from the kids, tail-pulling, trying to ride her, messing with her food....and she loves them despite it all.  She deserved cool ice cream on a hot summer day!!! 

A Pre-Schooler!

Cousin Hunter, my nephew, is officially a pre-schooler today.  I must say, it's very bittersweet.  He's excited, I know he'll do great.  But, he's growing up!!  My twins are growing up!  I was just thinking this weekend how they've gone from being very, very rambunctious and wild, and explorative....to being much better listeners and helpers.  Now, of course we still have moments, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We can visit people without breaking things (most of the time), without going into every room we aren't supposed to.  I can go to the store with the children and they help me and are good.  They never expect to get things, so we don't have that fight.  I've just never started it.  If they get stuff, it's very sporadic.  Anyway, they are at a great age! 
Back to Hunter- let's pray for my sister as she drops him off this morning.  I can't imagine how scary it is to entrust your child to others for the day.  Maybe I'm dramatic...but I think that's huge.  His teacher is awesome and I'm sure it will be just fine.  We should probably pray for Nanny, as she won't have him during the morning anymore.  :-(  She's sad but will have him some afternoons.  Carson must have known something was up, because he wanted to spend the night with Nanny last night.  He's never done that with anyone.  He actually let me hop in the car and head on out, he really wanted to stay (or so he thought). 
As for my sisters- Alyssa is now a 4th grader, Madison is a 9th grader, and Abbey is a senior!  OMG...I remember when they were all born.  How old I feel today!!!! 
I will miss summer- I love having the extra help from my mom and sisters with the kiddos. 

The Stats

Henry had his 6 month check-up today.  Madison rode with me to take him and stayed in the car with the twins.  We had a nice lunch at Cracker Barrel while we waited for a prescription for Henry's rash that is on his chest/neck.  I had to run her to the school for a volleyball game, then go get our milk.  It was a busy day, and I'm glad to be home tomorrow and hopefully Thursday too!  Here's how Henry "weighed in": 

Height- 27 inches long
Weight-17 lb. 8 oz.

He is in the 50th percentile for everything-his is perfectly normal! 

We weighed the twins on Sunday.  Emilynn weighs in at 42 pounds!  She is so tall and so solid.  There's really not fat on her.  She does not look that heavy, then you lift her and think there's a brick in her belly.  I don't know what to make of it!  :-) 

Carson is 33 pounds.  He is so skinny!  I keep saying he'll be 5 and I'll still hold him on my hip!  He's hte oldest and I bet in a couple of years he'll be the smallest of the 3 and look like the youngest.  Henry and Emilynn will probably look like twins because they are both blondies....but we'll see!

All for now- I am exhausted from all the running around from the past 2 days!  Dustin took the kids tonight for 2 hours so I could take a nap-I kept falling asleep on the couch. 

Road Trip!

Whew, today was a long day!  We went on a road trip and I forgot how tiring it is to travel with little ones.  My mom (Boo Boo), grandma (Nanny), the twins, and I went to a drive-thru zoo.  It was so much fun, despite the long drive and long day.  Henry stayed with Meme-her idea and I'm so thankful!  I had to drop him off first, pick up the grandmas, then back track through our town and on our way....so I did some extra driving too.  In total I drove 260 miles today and I'm spent.  I just wanted to give a quick update-I will post more details and pictures soon.  I finally ordered and received the cable for my camera to put pics on the computer.  Yay!  Now if I just learn to use it! 
I took 155 pics today at the zoo-the kids loved it.  They will talk about it for weeks I'm sure. 

We also rode the local bus last week, hit up the ice cream truck, I had my special shopping day, and lots more to share....more real soon! 

Right now-I'm off to rest.  There's no rest for the weary though- Henry has his 6 month check up tomorrow.  Can you believe that little blessing is now 1/2 way to his first b-day?  I can't!  He is 6 months tomorrow though.  I'll post his stats later and we also weighed the twins yesterday.  You won't belive THEIR stats!  I'll keep you guessing for now......

Frugal Summer Fun

I've been trying to keep the kids busy this summer-taking advantage of my mom being off for the summer and able to help me do some fun stuff.  Also, my sisters being off from school helps me tremendously.  I think sometimes I get wrapped up into wanting to do things with the kids that cost money.  Maybe not a lot of money, but a little here and there can really add up quickly.  I have found the best things to do with them cost nearly nothing.

•  They have had a lot of fun with some spray bottles of water outside-squirting each other and anyone else who dares to get in their path.  Dustin had a friend stop by after work one day, he actually got here before Dustin, so the kids were spraying him.  He sprayed them back and they thought it was great fun! 
• I made bubble solution-I'll have to post the recipe sometime.  It worked well and I made a whole gallon for about $1.  Bubbles are a huge hit here!  They provide hours of entertainment. 
• I has some paintbrushes the kids found and they wanted to paint, so I gave them each a cup of water and they went to town painting with water. 
• The library had a little kids' day on Saturday and we met Amanda, Mom, and Hunter there.  They loved it!  It was ocean-themed and they made little jars with sand and shells, made ocean monsters out of paper bags and other items, and also got free books...plus some other stuff I'm forgetting!  It was fun and free.  Oh, they got sand buckets too. 
• We rode with my grandma to the store today and had lunch out, then played at a playground one town over.  The kids had a ball playing-today was cool enough that the equipment wasn't hot at all.  Trust me- I may or may not have gone down the twisty slide, even though 10 was the age limit.  It just looked too fun and my kids thought that was the grandest thing for me to go down. 
• Our library has a regular weekly story time, and the library one town over has a story/craft time weekly.  I think this fall we'll join one of those. 
• We had an ice cream party with Hunter last night.  It was yummy!  
• A trip through Walmart is always something my children like.  Or any store.  We went to Walmart Monday and were in there over 1 hour, just to get juice.  I started out with the twins out of the cart.  It got a little chaotic in the bicycle section, so I bribed Emmy to get back in the cart.  She is the flight risk, Carson stayed very close.  We looked at all the toys, including the hot wheels John Deere Gator Carson is hoping Santa Claus brings to our house.  We looked at every bicycle in there.  I had no idea the kids were so interested in bikes.  Emmy and I decided she needs the princess one with the seat in front for her dollbaby-Chuckie Sue.  Yep, that's her name.  It's from Sesame Street.  In case you were wondering.  :-)   Carson also makes us look at the tire section as well.  He loves tires, trucks, tractors, dirt, bugs, etc.  He is a true boy.  He tried to get me to put two bugs in his pocket today.  I'm wondering if he's going to bring a frog in the house one day.  He also found a baby dinosaur (lizard) again-he has no fear of them.  His book from the library that he chose was all about lizards.  Go figure.
• We have regular playdates with my cousin Kristen's children.  The twins really look forward to this and ask for Morgan ALL the time.  We alternate houses, it is our turn to host next, once Morgan's off vacation.  Every time I tell the kids she's on vacation, they say, "I want to go on cation Momma".  It cracks me up!  They can't seem to remember Dylan's name yet, hopefully soon!  He's my little sweetheart-he loves me!  Ha!  I eat that up!
• This will sound strange-but I bought a $5 guitar at a yard sale.  It's a real guitar and it has provided the most entertainment for our entire family!  The kids love to play it, and Dustin makes up the most hilarious songs on it too!  Don't tell him I told you.  I laugh till my side hurts at his songs.  He's so shy but he really missed his calling as a comedian!    

As far as things that cost money, we are going to the zoo Monday.  A special zoo in fact.  I will have more on that later.  It will be a fun day with Nanny and Boo Boo.  It was their idea and I was so excited!  It won't be too expensive-just gas and one meal out, plus admission.  We are taking a picnic lunch with us as well. 
I also hope to take the kids to the Children's Museum, now that there's a location closer to us.  We will also try to hit up the bouncy place again-that was SO much fun last year and was very cheap!!!! 
We haven't done our bus ride yet-I was hoping to do it tomorrow but my grandma is going to a concert and wants to get ready for that.....yes-my grandma!  Haha!  I have cool grandparents all around!! 
Saturday I am going out for a day of relaxation myself-well......actually I am going to do a little yard saling, a little shopping, go to a museum, probably eat out.  Just do some fun things with my cousin.  We always grocery shop and have to rush, rush, rush, so we are taking a day to go to the stores and places we never have time to go to.  It should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.  Dustin is so great to always spoil me with fun days for myself.  I always feel renewed and refreshed after that. 

Projects, Canning, Etc.

We have had a very busy week, full of lots of hard work.  I must say, at the end of the day, I've been tired!  I will also say, having been a night owl my entire life, I might...just might be becoming more of a morning person.  Yikes, did I really admit that?  Well, the issue is, the kids like to get up early.  Well, by early I mean around 8 am.  Sometimes if I'm lucky they sleep till 9....if they are extremely tired, 10.  And if I don't want to be a tired Mommy all day, I need at least 8-9 hours of sleep.  Soooooo....I've been in bed by midnight at the VERY latest, however, some nights it's been 9:30!  That has NEVER happened before.  I must say, I feel so much better during the day when I'm not tired.  I could not tell you a time when I didn't feel tired during the day until now.  That's kind of sad, isn't it?  I don't drink coffee, so that doesn't help me get going. 
Anyway, I've made a few changes that seem to be really helping me a lot.  For one thing, since I have more patience and energy during the day, I can get more done during the day with the kids.  Cleaning and things that I was having to wait till they went to bed to do.  I think they are getting more mature and not into everything either, so that helps.  They actually help a lot by doing a few little "age appropriate" chores and such.  I am not staying up to do household stuff, if it's not done by 11 or so, it has to wait.  If I'm real tired, I just go to bed at 9 or 9:30 once the kids are asleep and figure the house stuff will be there in the morning.  I'm not reading as much either.  I know reading is a good thing, but I tend to take it to the extreme.  I cannot stop when I'm reading a good book.   All these things seem to be helping me a lot.  Oh, and I'm not on the computer much either-as you may have noticed!  Sorry about that.  I will try to post more often without getting online to "surf the internet".  I tend to get distracted reading blogs and such. 
As far as the house goes, Dustin and I painted our bathroom on Monday.  We took the kids to Madison to babysit, and spent the day doing home improvements.  Our bathroom had a mold problem, and believe it or not, nicotine from the previous owners kept seeping through the paint we had used when we moved in almost 3 years ago.  I researched online what to do, and so I bleached the walls really well and then we primed and painted it again.  We also patched some holes in the twins' room and painted over some stuff on their walls.  I put up their monkey decals and I must say, it was cute.  I took pics of course which I'll load as soon as I get a chance.  They love their monkey room!  There is one behind the door and they think that's neat.  They keep saying "there's a monkey behind the door!" every morning, like I forgot overnight-hehe.  I need to get them some comforters and sheets, but we just do stuff as we can.  I had comforters and sheets but they were toddler bed sized....the new beds are twin sized. 
I have also been canning and freezing stuff like crazy.  This week has been all about tomatoes!  I've done two batches of salsa and two batches of tomato soup.  I've also made up a bunch of breakfast burritos for the freezer for Dustin's breakfasts.  I also made popsicles for the kids-these are so easy!  I just put fruit in the blender, add juice if needed, and add yogurt.  The kids love them and they are really good. 
In other family news- our ban on eating out as a family appears to be lifted for the time being.  Keep your fingers crossed it stays that way!  Last week for our anniversary, Dustin, the kids, and I went out to eat Mexican for our anniversary.  It was really nice.  We sat on the opposite side of the restaurant from everyone else, and we were the only ones!  It was so nice, like we were at a private restaurant and it was great.  The kids did great and it was a wonderful way to spend our anniversary.  Dustin cleaned my car out for me and so he doesn't want any eating in the car.  So, that means we had to eat IN if we were eating out.  I know everyone has bad days, but hopefully the kids will continue to do well. 
Henry is officially in his room now.  I switched him Sunday night.  He's doing good with it.  I must admit-our room feels so empty now!   I can't say it enough-he is THE happiest baby EVER!  My twins were great, but he is just over the top happy.  Everyone comments on it. 
I've been hooked on the Olympics.  The kids are enjoying it too.  Carson got upset today because he wanted to watch "the pool" and they had switched to something else.  Emilynn says she wants to do "nastics".    Dustin's not into watching them, just me and the twins.  I love watching all sports, and I think the kids are going to take after me.  They bring me their kiddie bag chairs and tell me they want to go to the ballgame. 
We had a playdate with cousins Morgan & Dylan at their house this week.  It was a lot of fun as usual.  They love Morgan and talk about her all the time.  We are going to see her today for a little while at Nanny's.  Hunter will be there, so all of Nanny's great-grandkids will be there.  Dylan is my buddy-he's a sweetheart and a teddy bear!
We went and swam with Hunter last week a couple of times-the twins love his cool pool slide.  It does look like a lot of fun...but I haven't tried yet. 
Well, I am off to start our day.  I have a few weekend projects to do-I still have some tomatoes on my counter, still have some bathroom stuff to put back in the master bath, and Carson got a new dresser from Nicole's yard sale...so I need to get his clothes switched over.  There's always lots of projects going on around here.  I am never bored, that's for sure!