pictures

After the last soccer game (which they won, of course). Each of the kids got a medal and A was so excited!! The kids and I went out for ice cream afterwards (John was at work).

This is my lovely Abbi at her Kindergarten program (when her inner diva made her debut). And her cute hair for the occassion.

This is just a picture of my handsome baby!! He loves the bathtub!!

No pictures right now, but so many things have been going on....

We have moved!! All of our things made it successfully to our house in Topeka a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow, the kids and I will make it to our house in Topeka (successfully as well, I hope).

Which brings us to...TOMORROW. Tomorrow is the last day of Kindergarten for A. She is just so ecstatic to be a first grader. I am not as excited as she is. I am in shock, yeah, that's a good way to describe it. There is no way that my little baby girl is finished with Kindergarten!! I refuse to believe it.

That brings us to item three....loose teeth!! Abigail has been dying to have some loose teeth. All of her classmates and cousins and everyone she has ever known (okay that's the 5 year old talking) has lost teeth, why hasn't she? Well, I will tell you why...her permanent teeth have decided to grow in behind her baby ones. You can see a good portion of her two bottom front permanent teeth. And there are her adorable little baby teeth in front of them, happy as can be. The girl has claimed (amongst other things) for weeks that one of her top teeth was loose--wishful thinking. I am happy to report though that those adorable two bottom ones are wiggling and it won't be too long before my oldest loses her first tooth, or two. Even if she loses both of those baby teeth, I still don't think she'll have enough room for those permanent ones- they look huge. I also refuse to believe that her mouth is big enough or old enough for permanent teeth.

Lastly, my handsome little Jacob is also sporting the specks. It was decided to get the kid glasses so his eyesight wouldn't worsen, he wouldn't have to stand exactly two inches from anything he wants to see, and given that he is also color blind I thought we could just give the kid a break and help him at least SEE things, even if they aren't the right color. He is such a handsome boy and the glasses make him look older. He is excited about them and hasn't broken them yet...it's been a whole week. We'll see how long that lasts.

That's our life right now in a nutshell. I do have some pictures and video to post, but with all the moving and what not, I don't even have my camera with me now......soon.

As if

As if my life wasn't stressful enough. As if I didn't have enough to do. As if I didn't already wish there were more hours in a day. We go and do something like this....

Meet the newest member of our family--Zoey!!

Somehow I was talked into getting a dog. I swore up and down that I didn't want a dog (I still don't) in the house. I had no problem refusing my children when they have begged in the past. For some reason I had a much harder time last week when John kept bringing it up. He kept mentioning how nice it would be to get the kids a dog since we'll be in our own place. I am not exactly sure what happened really. One minute I am thinking, "Yeah, it will be really nice for everyone else to have this cuddly pet because Mommy (me) is going to be doing all the work to take care of it..." and the next minute we are at the shelter getting a dog. Of course John wanted the largest and loudest "puppy" in the joint. I did have my wits about me enough to put my foot down and say no to that one. I picked the smallest and quietest one they had. I do prefer big dogs, I just can't handle one right now. HA, that's implying I can handle the little puppy.

Anyway, Zoey is two months old and is 1/2 shihtzu, 1/4 corgi, and 1/4 Heeler. She is quiet, unless locked in the bathroom by herself at night, and she adores Abigail. I wish I had had my camera when Abbi first saw her and realized she was ours. We are working on the house trainings (any suggestions?) and she is a pretty good puppy. The kids LOVE her already and we are happy to have her.

Update

The, I mean MY, house is cleaned and painted.  We have moved some stuff up there already and I have even started to put things away. Our stuff moves in two days, the kids and I to follow in two weeks.

Oh, Abbi had a singing program the other day. All of the kindergarteners sang for the parents. Their little gym was packed. I decided to take the boys to the back row where I could stand behind them and record the program for John. I noticed part way through that she was frowning and not really singing. I asked her afterwards what was the matter and she informed me that she was upset that I had taken the camcorder off of her for a moment. I politely explained that I had to take care of Ethan, he had started to cry. She says to me, "I expected the boys to be perfectly good so that you could keep the camera on me every second while I was singing." Wow.  First, can you say DIVA? Second, yeah...that would be nice wouldn't it? I do have pictures and even video, but I am not going to post it right now.

Random things...

The other day the three older kids were playing with John. Abbi says, "Jake, we'll go biggest to smallest. Me, then you, then Ike." Jake replies, "No. Then it will be biggest, man-sized, then Ike." Man-sized?! I am not sure where he comes up with this stuff. He does have one "man" thing going on all the time though....he's got the plumber's crack down to a science. My poor son has no bum to keep his pants up. I think it's actually concave... a belt doesn't even help the situation.

Also, our tenant moved out!! Yay! I have my house back, even if it was left in a mess. I walked in last Saturday and my excitement was battling with my disappointment with the state of the place. I am super psyched we get to keep the deposit though. We took a whole day just to clean the place. My brother in law and his son, another brother in law, a sister in law, John and myself spent the day cleaning up after this guy. My other wonderful sister in law watched all the kids for us. Thanks everyone!! I have spent two more days up there painting. We have our new frontloader washer and dryer hooked up, the kitchen and bathrooms are spotless and the place is coming together. We move our stuff on the 15th and John will be there after that, Abbi's last day is the 27th and then we will all be together again!! And finally, in our own place-- I am so excited. I miss my husband.

On Sunday (clean up day--I know, I know, not a very reverent activity for the Sabbath) evening we had gotten everyone dinner and we ate at Jennifer's house. John was helping get all the kids their food and Isaac kept asking for things. He would say, "On," and then ask for something. "On, On". John could not figure out what that meant so, of course, he asked me. I got it immediately and I couldn't help but laugh. Isaac calls his Dad "John". He is serious. If you play the little game "Where's Mommy" and he points, "where's Abbi" and he points, and so on. When you get to Daddy, he looks at me and is not sure what I am asking. If you ask "where's John" he points to his dad. It's hilarious. It's wrong and a little sad, but so funny!!

Last weekend started off to be terrible. I took the kids to the Tulip Festival in Wamego. Super fun!! Well, it would have been had my eldest child not brought her bad attitude. Abigail has the attitude of a 16 year old latlely but it wasn't even that really, it was the screaming stomping tantrums, you know--like a two year old. Like she can't decide if she wants to be a toddler or a teenager. I won't go into details but I was completely embarassed!! Here I am at a crowded festival by myself with four kids, three little boys happy and excited as can be, and one five year old screaming and yelling and crying and stomping here feet...on more than one occassion. I should have just left at the first melt down but I had promised the boys things if they could behave and they were...oh well, at least it was an outdoor festival.

The tantrums were new and bad for Abbi but I have witnessed much much worse from other children. I did still have a great time with the kids and so did the boys. Upon talking to John when I got home, he informed me that he had booked a hotel room for the night up in Topeka. A mini vaca...for me mostly. I spend too much time at home with the kids by myself. The kids loved swimming in the pool and going to dinner. The nexty day John had to go to work for a couple hours and I took the kids swimming again and when Daddy was back we went to breakfast and to see How To Train Your Dragon. All the kids had a blast and loved the movie. And the icing on the cake was the BBQ we had with their cousins in the evening. It was a great weekend!!

My Girl

Abigail is loving soccer. The games got cancelled last week so she was dying to "win again". She scored like four goals or something like that. She is pretty aggressive out there and persistant. I want my children to be involved in sports or other team activities to teach them valuable lessons...you need to do your best, it's ok to lose, be respectful if you win or lose, if you fall down get back up, the game doesn't wait for you, and have fun. Abbi is off to a great start and I am so glad she is enjoying it. She's also pretty psyched about getting a trophy, although I am not entirely sure they get one.

I do have one wonderful Princess. Abigail is amazing. Abbi's lists of attributes and favorite things is an interesting one. Abbi was walking at eight months and talking in sentences by the time she was one. She has always wanted to be up and running and doing things herself.  I forget she is only 5 sometimes. Abigail is very independent and wants to try everything. She is also very bossy. She knows the rules and she feels it is her responsibility to make sure all around her follow those rules, especially if she feels it's unfair or she benefits in some way. Abigail is on the Accelerated Reading program at school and she is writing well too. She has always loved reading. I have read to her almost every day since she was born. My dad was reading Tales of Depereaux once when we lived with them and Abbi wanted him to read to her, so, of course, he did. She sat and listened for an hour. Abigail also loves to 'discuss' things. She genuinely wants to know how everything works and why it works that way, and you better tell her the truth because she will remember how you answered her questions and she will ask me or Grandpa if it's true. She would ask her father, but she knows Daddy is more interested in making her laugh...she needs facts.

Abigail loves to play outside. She would spend all of her days completely outdoors if I let her. She asks me all year when the annual camping trip to Lake Powell is coming. She is a fearless warrior. There aren't many things that scare her, really scare her. She petted and held a six foot albino python when she was four, she likes tubing (snow and water), she went to her baby cousins viewing before the casket was closed, also at the age of four. She was sad her cousin's spirit was gone but re-informed us that Shelby was with her Father in Heaven. Abigail likes to rough-house and play karate and superheroes with her brother. She also loves Barbies and princess movies. She likes to have many pairs of shoes, and too many dresses. She also likes to have her hair and nails done. Abbi also loves to sing. She makes up songs about everything and I mean everything from dinosaurs to barbies, to what she likes to do, to her brothers and everything else. She has done dance since she was three and she loves it. Her newfound love-soccer. I think these two sports of choice fit her well. Two contrasting sides of one astounding whole.

I have one amazing daughter. If I am destined to have just one, that's OK. I am incredibly blessed to be the mother of one smart, independent, brave, kind, well-rounded, beautiful little girl.