All you can accomplish in a week

Brooklyn had quite the busy week last week. I guess you can really accomplish a lot when your only requirements are to eat and sleep. First when I set her down here in the family room, she ended up. . . . . . . .

Here in the kitchen. She has learned to crawl up the stairs. The only bad thing is I found her trying to crawl up the main stairs. I guess now I really need eyes in the back of my head.

She started eating real food. She didn't devour the avacado as I thought she would but she seems so anxious to eat so the love will come soon.

Finally she has learned to pull up to standing. She is changing quicker than I can keep track of. Look at that smile! We are enjoying watching her grow.

I am the queen of. . . .

....Making bad cakes. My poor kids! I am terrible at frosting and usually when I try to write their name on it I just make things worse. Ryan has decided that he could not handle it anymore and he usually takes over when it comes to the kids' birthday cakes. Well this year there is no Ryan, so I had just planned to make a normal cake with whipped cream nothing too special. Mason was helping me make Devon's cake and when we were done baking it he asked how we would decorate it. Oh, well I cannot decorate I told him and so we were just going to put toys on top. Then I decided to be brave and see if there was anything simple on the internet that I could recreate. My kids of course were drawn to these masterpieces, but we finally settled on this puppy. Now if you are creative or talented please do not judge. If you know anything about my creative side I think you may be mildly impressed. I hope you can tell what it is from the pics, I promise it did look like a dog in real life. The frosting job still lacked but overall not too bad.

Here is our little birthday boy. Wow he is really 3. I was pregnant with him when we moved here so some of our family has not even met him. He is the smiliest kid I have seen. People comment so often that he is always smiling. He loves cars, playing catch and being outside. He is very cute with Brooklyn. He likes to lay on the floor next to her and talk to her. The other day he called her a princess and said "you are my friend". It is so sweet. He also likes to steam-roll over her and pick her up both of which we are trying to convince him are dangerous.

Overall it was a great day. I love third birthdays. I think this is when kids really get that it is their special day. Devon walked around singing, "Happy Birthday to you, Devon" all day. He loved all of the special attention. We enjoyed a great day!

Brooklyn-7mos

Brooklyn was 7 months yesterday. I already know she is a defiant little one because I asked her to stay little for a few more months and she refused. She has changed so much the last few months and I am so grateful. She was a little demanding of my attention for a while. It has certainly helped that she is mobile. She loves to just be on the floor scooting around. She is a great sleeper. She has been rocking on her hands and knees for about 6 wks., but still not fully crawling. That is fine with me.

So I do not think we look as much a like as I did a few mos. ago. However, I still think she favors me over Ryan.

3 times in 3 weeks

So before I go into my post I must explain my little town that I grew up in.The population is 1500. It does not have a stop light and there is only one one-way street. It is about 15 mins. from a freeway entrance. I hardly remember ever parallel parking. Now forward to now. I live where people park on both sides of the road and I get nervous just trying to drive down the street. There are one-way streets everywhere and if you make a wrong turn it may take a while to correct your mistake. I cannot believe I have actually driven in NYC (yes if you know me you know I was bad at it). I have also had to parallel park in Philly and not only is that scary enough but it was on the left hand side, that is down-right confusing for this small town girl. OK now you have sone background as to why this is such a task for me.


So I have ventured in to Philly 3 times in the last 3 weeks. First we went to the zoo with our friends. Last fall I bought a zoo pass so I was trying to go one last time before it expired. It is a really great zoo. Did you know it was America's first zoo?

Since about July they have had a great lego display. This has been such a highlight for us. I was glad we were able to go back to see all the ones we missed the first time. The fliers said they used a gazillion legos. So now I guess I can kind of envision what a gazillion is. This polar bear was my favorite one.

A close second is this cool frog.

The next week just the kids and I went in to go to the Franklin Institute and the Natural History Museum. We loved the butterflies in the NHM. They even had a spot where they had cocoons hanging. We saw a butterfly that had just made its way out. Butterflies are so beautiful. I have to say I am very glad they were put on the Earth.

The FI was by far more impressive for me. They had a real huge train inside that the kids could go for a ride on. It moved very slowly, but my kids still thought is was so cool. We also had a chance to make recycled paper. There was so much more to see but I just ran out of time. I was sad.

When the train was brought to the museum it was painted purple. They should have left it like that. It would have really been a sight. They told us that they only paid $1 when they bought it. So now my kids are quite confused about what $1 can really get you in this world. Forget that cheap dollar store toy they think they should be able to get a car.

The last trip we went down by the historical sights. They have 13 booths set up and you can listen to a story at each one. You get a sticker for each story and when your flag is full you can go the the park and get a free carousel ride and ice-cream cone. Each story is less than 5 mins. and situated next to all of the main sights. It is a bit of a walk to get to all 13, but completely worth it because you can see most everything you want to see along the way.

I think this could have been Spencer and Devons first carousel ride. They had such trendy park equipment as well. My kids were unsure how to even play on it. I am not sure how practical it was but it sure looked cool.

So I think I am officially done with Philly. Unless those legos pull me back one more time. I will leave you with this cute picture of the two little ones.

Man Food??

Living away from my family in my small apartment has been interesting to say the least. I currently have a microwave for cooking and mini fridge for storing, so meals can be interesting at times. As scary as it sounds, I've noticed that my present eating habits are much closer to my Dads than my single college days. If you desire any of these recipes, feel free to call and I can divulge the ingredients of these culinary creations.

Bake Beans with tuna and crackers. Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it.

You know how some generic items taste better than the name brand? Well this generic SPAM probably isn't one of those times.

Now tell me a good reason why you wouldn't want to put vienna sausages in pasta roni?

Do you mean a different Mason?

I finally got the kids in for the last session of swim lessons this summer. McKena is the only one that had lessons in the past, so I was really anxious to get the boys in. McKena has always enjoyed the pool and just swims around like a little fish. She did well with lessons and even began to learn diving techniques. I love her confidence in the pool she is just comfortable in water.

Mason on the other hand has always been quite aprehensive. He would scream whenever Ryan tried to take him out in the water and swim around with him. He just liked to stay on the steps and play there. This year I noticed him getting a little braver in the pool so I decided that it was time to try him in lessons. When I asked him if he wanted me to sign him up he said no, and after the first day I asked if he was still mad and he said yes. However as the lessons went on he really blossomed and did quite well. His teacher called him a little fish. What?? Are talking about my son Mason? I was so excited that he enjoyed himself.

Here is the big slide. McKena's class got to go down at the end of each lesson. The first time McKena I loved listening to her squealing on the way down. Mason's class was able to go down at the end of the last class. It was so much fun for them.

Spencer opened up as well. I think he just needed something to give him a bit of confidence in the water. He was very obedient to his teacher and did a good job. Now he does not freak out when I hold him in the water and it is more fun for both of us.

I am glad we were able to get our lessons in now I just wonder how often will be visiting the pool. Last night Ryan said he saw a house with smoke coming from their chimney. WHAT!! a fire in August. Can I handle the Coos Bay cold?? Anyway here is a cute pic of Brooklyn to end my thoughts.

Let's build something together

On Saturday I had to run to Lowes so I decided to get there in time for the building project that they have for kids every other Saturday. I was completely impressed. I left wondering why I had not taken advantage of this program all summer. It could be because I knew Brooklyn would more than most likely cry while I was in the middle of hammering and I would get stares because I did not pick her up, (which is exactly what happened).

So here is the final project, a bug box. I was expecting some lock together pieces and glue. However there were actual nails, hammers and directions. We did fail to pay attention to the directions and therefore, had to take out nails and hammer them in again. We still walked away happy and satisfied with our building experience. The best part of all was some very nice lady said to me "Since your kids probably won't tell you I think you are awesome for bringing them all here to do this." I felt so appreciated. It was also so much nicer than the "you sure do have your hands full" comment that I normally get.

The kids also all got aprons and they had a patch that you could put onto your apron that had a pic. of the project. I saw one little family with all of their patches sewn onto the aprons and I got jealous about the missed projects and then I realized I probably would have lost our patches before sewing them on anyway. Sure enough I was right because we may have already lost all of the patches.

On a side note, Brooklyn is 6 months tomorrow. She is improving so much now that she can roll around on the floor. I think that she just likes to moves. She is not one for sitting and so the swing is out which makes me super sad because I have a great swing. She sleeps well on the days we are actually home for her to have a nap. She like her pacifier which makes me VERY happy. She already rocks on her hands and knees. I do not remember my other babies doing so at this age. I am not ready for her to be mobile yet so hopefully she will not figure it out for awhile. We all are enjoying her so much.

I think she looks so much like I did as a baby. Especially in the above pic. Mom what do you think??

This is what is saving me!!

Update on us. As many of you know Ryan finished his residency in June. He accepted a job in Coos Bay OR and although it is not the ideal location for us we are excited to move back to the west. Job hunting was harder than we had anticipated and in the end we feel pleased with the opportunity that Ryan has at his new job. Coos Bay was the first practice to contact us and after lots of pleading for other opportunities it turned out to be Ryan's top choice. We are excited to see what is in store for our family there. We are so happy for all that Ryan does to support our family. Well enough about him afterall this is my blog hehe!

Last month Ryan moved to OR by himself while I have stayed behind with the kiddos to try and sell our house. As I have feared,is has turned out to be the hardest part of this life changing year (new baby, new job, cross-country move, selling a house). So how am I faring?? Not to bad actually. While it is not in the plan for us to have the blessing of selling our house right now, I must say that we are receiving so many other blessings We have been able to stay very busy this summer doing lots of fun things many of which are in our price range of Free! It has been nice and hot which I love and will miss when I move to the cool OR coast. We have so much support from friends and neighbors, and we are completely in our comfort zone.

However reality is I have 5 kids and the oldest is 8 so no built in babysitter just yet. So what is my secret. Well it is something my SIL taught my a few years back. It is these cute little beans. We only use beans in the summertime they are our reward system. This summer especially they are saving my life. All I have to say is "I will give a bean to whoever will____" Usually I have multiple kids begging me to do the chore. Also if they are looking forward to earning a special privilege they ask me "Mom what can I do to earn a bean" Yes that is right they ask to do a chore, and it cost me nothing. I LOVE IT!! Beans are also taken away for inappropriate behavior. Beans have helped Mason to read better, Spencer to get his pjs on quickly, and Brooklyn to be held more often. Unfortunately beans have no effect on Devon and so he still may be the cause of my unravelling, but for now I am happy, and doing just fine. Thanks Krystal for teaching me about beans.

So here are the little cuties!

OK that is a bit of a fib. Here are the little crazies. Which is a more accurate description most of the time. Gotta love them.

Finally

My house in finally on the market. Thanks to Bronwyn's talent and decor it looks beautiful. It has been up for almost three weeks and I am so happy to have it done. So I thought after I had it put up life would be great. Since we have put it up it seems like everyday something went wrong. First my kids spilled black paint on the carpet (thank goodness it was in the basement), one night a light bulb just shattered in the fixture, at 4:30 one morning we woke up to a loud crash and some plates on the wall had fallen off and shattered, my window boxes fall off every few days, Devon peed on the carpet (don't tell our future buyers), McKena melted at plastic bag on the stove. . . . the list could go on. Today nothing went wrong, but tomorrow is another day so I will not count my lucky stars yet.
Throughout this process I have received so much service. I could never thank everyone enough. Here is a shoutout to you all. Thanks you Mom, Bronwyn, Brenda, Amy, Angie, Lisa, LeeAnn, JoAnna, Drew, Larry, Pat and Gary, Eddie, and anyone else I am missing. (don't hate me if I forgot you)

Maybe I was wrong

Most of you know that we did not find out what we were having with this pegnancy. I guess we have decided it is fun to wait those nine long months for that surprise. The whole time as I was carrying this little baby inside of me I was torn when people would ask what I thought it was or what I wanted. I guess I wanted a girl for McKena, but I was really wanting another son. I just wanted to have 4 boys. Well I think I could have been wrong. The minute Ryan told me what we had I just knew that I wanted another little sweet girl in our family. I know you cannot choose what you get and healthy is the most important thing. I guess I just felt it stronger than with any of our other surprises. So here she is

BROOKLYN MICHELLE

She arrived on Feb 16 2010. She was a little less than one month early. She weighed 7 lbs. and was 19 in. long. She is our biggest baby this far. She has these adorable little dimples in her ears that make them look like they are pierced.

Here she is coming home. She is wearing the same outfit that McKena wore coming home. We are so happy to have her.