Fun Times At Granny and Papa's House

The kids and I piled in the car and drove to Granny and Papa's for our reoccurring Sunday pizza night. So after lots of wildness, such as removing all the cushions from the couch and making a giant slide, Liza, Addison and Kellen told each other spooky stories in the living room with the lights off. Listening was hilarious. Kellen gasped at every other word. Eliza, "Then they went to San Fransisco!" Kellen gasps, "where is Sisco??" Eliza explains, "It's across the country." Kellen questions, "Where is it crunchy???" LOL. Tonight putting Kellen to bed he says, "Mom, once upon a time there was a Mommy Monster. She ate butts. One day she ate a bad butt. It was a troll butt and he ate her!!!" Too funny! I tried to tape Addison's stories and some others they told tonight, but the picture was dark so it's just voices. I'll still have to upload it at some point.

The kids are all asleep and I just wrote out tomorrow's to do list... it only has eighteen things on it. That will get finished no problem... ok ok probably not. Hopefully I get most of it done and still have time to work on Kellen's scarf, Hawk's quilt and scanning, editing and uploading pictures.

Quote of the night by Addison, "I didn't really eat a dingleberry, but I did eat a dog turd once when I was two." True story.

"Dad, all the girls want to marry you." -Addison
"Well Mommy did." - J
"No dad, with that haircut, all the girls want you." -A

"Liza, your having 3 babies. But, you only have 2 boobs, so I guess one baby will need a bottle, or you'll have to get another boob." -Addison

"what do you want to eat sir?" - Kellen
"I'm not a sir, I'm a ma'am!" - me
"Ok... what do you want to eat?" - Kellen
"ma'am..." - me
"we don't have ma'am to eat." - Kellen

Midnight Giggles

Last night Kellen was having a hard time falling asleep. He was just playing quietly in his room reading books. I crawled in to bed with him and we read a counting book he counted all the pictures, "1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13." I didn't correct him. We snuggled up together our faces about 3 inches apart and he says, "Mom, close your eyes." So I did. A few seconds later I open them to see him staring at me and we both smile, then he bursts into delighted laughed and says, "Mom, close your eyes." Rinse and repeat. It was one of those great moments that fill up your heart. I love that little monster to pieces.

Overtaken with toys...

Our toy room is horrendous. Why would 4 kids (I'm including Austyn in this mess) possibly need 5 overflowing toy boxes, a kitchen, and a bookshelf. Something needs to be done. It seems like every month I go through and take out a whole tote of toys. And every time dh goes to the store or someone has a birthday more toys come in. Yes, this is also somewhat my fault. How do you decide which toys go and which stay? Both the older kids already have toys in their rooms. Most of the toys downstairs just get thrown out of the toy box and left on the floor until the drill sargent (yeah me) knocks some heads together and threatens to throw them all away. One of my resolutions this year is to stop buying extras. The kids have too many toys and too many clothes, and we spend too much money buying more... I also resent that dh buys them things constantly and I don't get to buy anything because he is always buying. I am the parent who gets all the non-fun jobs =(

"REAL" Maple Syrup

I'm trying to post more so I don't forget funny things the kids say and little moments we have throughout the day. Well, a few days ago (a week? who can remember...) Addison opened up the refrigerator and exclaims "Mom, (pause to place hands on hips)why do we have this chemical filled fake maple syrup crap in here!?" Well after bursting out laughing I thought maybe I should censor myself sometimes... or not. This funny statement stems from my husband going to the grocery store to get the ingredients for pancakes. For him, this includes bisquick pancake mix $4.99 (hello!! we can make it from scratch for less than $1), and a bottle of Vermont Syrup with maple flavoring. Now I grew up eating the "real" maple syrup and it's delicious. Josh grew up with the fake shit. When he came home imagine my look of surprise to see a bottle of chemicals in the bag. From that point on whenever I made a meal that included syrup the children and I ate the real stuff and I would say, "and here are daddy's pancakes and chemicals." Apparently, someone else picked up on this! Regardless, the day she mentioned the fake syrup was the day Josh finished up the bottle. Now, we have ONLY the yummy real stuff it may cost more, but, it's chemical free!

-12

It's was, brace yourselves, -12 degrees last night. NEGATIVE TWELVE! And where was I? Oh just out to the grocery store with Trent. He was having a hard time with his teeth last night and there was no way I'd leave him with the man of little patience. He was fine as long as he was glued to mama; so we went to the store. It was fine, an adventure, if you will. We made it home in less than an hour, quite a bit poorer. I hate grocery shopping; money down the toilet, literally.

On a plus side I'm now down 5 pounds in the last two weeks. It's amazing to see how many calories I was eating before I started counting them!!

Stay warm!

Little Pest

Someone keeps trying to eat my phone...

Baby #3 and Weight loss...

So I had plateaued at 176 for a few weeks. The day I delivered I weighed 213 this morning I weighed 173. Goal is 135 - 145. I have started counting calories and working out when I can with really does mean dancing to 3 songs, running in place for 10 minutes, etc. Nothing that will make me jacked but hey at least it's burning calories. I won't be able to seriously workout until Trent sleeps a little longer (his naps are hit or miss sometimes 2 hours sometimes 20 minutes). But hey I've lost 3 pounds in the last 2 weeks =) Slowly but surely haha. It's so hard to find time to sit and eat a meal so I find myself snacking all day which adds up quite a bit faster than I realized! Wish me luck on my weight loss journey, I'm hoping to be at 150 by Kellen's birthday (April 28).

Vacation Ideas

So I've been thinking about this for a while. I think for our 10th anniversary (2013) we should take a vacation. So I'm making a list of ideas. I also, at some point, want to take the kids to Disney, maybe that same year. I'd prefer going someplace where English is spoken. I don't want it to be super expensive but all the places I can think off seem like the would be =( Here is the list in no particular order:

1. Disney
2. Yosemite National Park
3. New York City
4. San Fransisco
5. Hawaii
6. Scotland
7. Fiji
8. Australia
9. Appalachian Trail
10. Scotland
11. Ireland


Josh has never been to any of these places; whereas I've been to Scotland, NYC, and Disney. Where would you go?

Booklist 2012

This year I wont be trying to read a ton of books. I have so many other projects going on and I don't want to feel like I have to hurry up and read(quilting, scanning my old photos and the family's old photos, cooking, photography, organizing the house, huge garage sale, etc. etc.). I end up getting burnt out in the fall anyway. I read at least 19 books every month until August (welcome Trenty!), then it pretty much fell apart and I ended up with 200 instead of 225. This year is all about exploring new books (I'm trying to keep repeats to a minimum). Happy reading everyone!

1. AWOL On the Appalachian Trail (David Miller)
2. The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)
3. Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography (Rob Lowe)
5. The Help (Kathryn Stockett)(re-read)
6. A Memory of Wind (Rachel Swirsky)
7. The Lion's Lady (Julie Garwood)(re-read)
8. The Viper (Monica McCarty)(re-read)
9. That Perfect Someone (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
10. Prince Charming (Julie Garwood)(re-read)
11. Until Forever (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
12. The Magic Of You (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
13. The Present (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
14. Say You Love Me (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
15. Tender Rebel (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
16. Gentle Rouge (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
17. Heart of a Warrior (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
18. Love Only Once (Johanna Lindsey)(re-read)
19. Magic Hour (Kristin Hannah)
20. The Iron King (Julie Kagawa)
21. The Chief (Monica McCarty)
22. The Iron Daughter (Julie Kagawa)
23. The Iron Queen (Julie Kagawa)
24. The Iron Knight (Julie Kagawa)
25. Fifty Shades of Grey (E.L. James)
26. Fifty Shades Darker(E.L. James)
27. Fifty Shades Freed (E.L. James)
28. Twenties Girl (Sohpie Kinsella)
29. The Ideal Man (Julie Garwood)
30. Witness (Nora Roberts)
31. Dead Until Dark (Charlaine Harris)
32. Living Dead in Dallas (Charlaine Harris)
33. Club Dead (Charlaine Harris)
34. Dead to the World (Charlaine Harris)
35. Dead as a Doornail (Charlaine Harris)
36. Definitely Dead (Charlaine Harris)
37. All Together Dead (Charlaine Harris)
38. From Dead To Worse (Charlaine Harris)
39. Dead and Gone (Charlaine Harris)
40. Dead in the Family (Charlaine Harris)
41. Dead Reckoning (Charlaine Harris)
42. Eternal Rider (Larissa Ione)
43. Immortal Rider (Larissa Ione)
44. Lethal Rider (Larissa Ione)
45. The Wind and the Sea (Marsha Canham)(re-read)
46. Into the Dreaming (Karen Marie Moning)
47. The Marquis at Midnight (Kate Harper) - HORRIBLE - couldn't finish last 50 pages
48. A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One (George Martin)
49. Master of Desire (Kinley MacGregor)(re-read)
50. Born in Sin (Kinley MacGregor)(re-read)
51. Claiming the Highlander (Kinley MacGregor)(re-read)
52. Taming the Scotsman (Kinley MacGregor)(re-read)
53. A Dark Champion (Kinley MacGregor)(re-read)
54. Return of the Warrior (Kinley MacGregor) (re-read)
55. The Warrior (Kinley MacGregor) (re-read)
56. Winter Sea (Suzanna Kearsley)
57. Into the Dreaming (Karen Marie Moning)(re-read)
58. Highland Warrior (Monica Mccarty)(re-read)
59. Highland Ooutlaw (Monica Mccarty)(re-read)
60. Highland Scoundrel (Monica Mccarty)(re-read)
61. Hidden Away (Maya Banks)(re-read)
62. Whispers in the Dark (Maya Banks
63. Echoes at Dawn (Maya Banks)