Playing On The Deck

 I love playing on the deck after school with the kids!  They love it too!  Asher is big into playing catch right now.  We use a little kick ball thingie but, he plays with a football at school and says he likes it!  Maybe I will have someone into sports after all, lol?  Not that I care what they are into....I want them to do things they love and find interesting. 

 These two LOVE Eden's new Neat n' Tidy Cottage! lol!  They play in it all the time now!  It does have a doorbell that came with it too but we had to call the company and get a new one because ours didn't work.  We tried two brand new sets of batteries in it and got nothing! ugh.  So for now there is a hole in the front.

Tristan's First Day of 7th Grade

 Tristan is going to school at the Nauvoo Jr. High.  He stays at my mom's house a few nights a week and we get him and bring him home as often as we can.  We are shooting for at least two nights a week and weekends too for him to be home.  I don't like this arrangement at all.  But, at the same time I do not want him to hate school.  I had my mom get some first day of school pics....she took them on her cell phone.  He started the same day as the the other three boys that are in school here in Carthage.  Doesn't he look thrilled!?!?

 I think she went a little overboard following him to his locker! HAHA!  Poor kid!  He says that he loves school though.  And he likes the block system of having A days and B days with only four classes a day.  I would be bored stiff and sleep through most of it!  lol!  I was bored because I already knew it all.  For reals.  Bored as heck.

I think at this point he was like "Grandma, put the dang camera away!"  haha!  I love this kids and want him to be happy.  I don't want him to get picked on.  He is a good kid.  Look how handsome he is!  And super duper smart! (Like his dad and mom! lol!)  I wish there was some other options for school around here.  Living in the middle of nowhere sure has it's disadvantages. *sigh*

Asher Smartiepants

Asher is LOVING school!  I am so happy!  He comes home every night and reads to me from his reading journal.  HE CAN READ!!  It blows my mind!  Every time another one of my kids learns how to read it blows my mind.  It never gets old.  Reading is and always has been a BIG deal to me.  I have always read stories to the kids at bedtime and whenever else they ask.  I give them books as babies to chew on and look through just to instill the desire and love of reading.  Anyway, one good thing I have done as a parent....that I can think about on those days where I feel like a failure! lol!  Anyway, one of Asher's fave things to do right now, is to take bags of M&M's and sort them.  He gets a lot of enjoyment out of it.  It's educational.  And it keeps him quiet and occupied.  I'm going to get all manner of stuff for him to sort.....and Cullen too.  Yep.  Good kids!

An Old Crock of A Doctor

 We took Tristan to the pediatric neurologist on Tuesday in Peoria.  It was a day trip.  We didn't much care for the doctor at all.  He was old and rude. I may see if we can see someone different if we have to go back.  But, we are now trying to determine whether Tristan is having tension headaches (he's very uptight) or if he is having migraines.  We are treating the tension headaches now.  He may have to go do some bio-feedback or something similar with the prefix "bio" in Peoria.  I love how everyone has an opinion by the way about what we need to do with Tristan.  (note the sarcasm in voice...er, typing, lol!)  Next person on the doctor list is Asher.  We have to get him in the end of September with Dr. Smith.  Who is neither rude nor old, lol!  

That morning as I was trying to get the other three kids ready for school (I had them dress up for school pictures that weren't until the next day, SMH) and get the these three ready to go to Peoria I made a big fat mess.  I turn on my tea pot every morning to drink my detox tea.  Well, for some reason I turned on the wrong burner....that had my crock pot sitting on it.  I know, I know, it shouldn't have been sitting there.  But, it was.  I had the burner turned up as high as it would go...ya know, so my water would heat up quickly.  And next thing I know, there is a horrendous smell and Jeremy is yelling at me from the kitchen.  I walk in there and the darn thing is on fire on the bottom. Part of it melted to the top of my stove, don't think it will come off either.  My crock pot was ruined.  Which sucks because I have been using the heck out of it recently.  Agh.  Dumb.  Dumb, dumb thing to do.  Anyway, I had to have a new one since I use it so much so we stopped on our way home and actually found the size I had been wanting originally!  woot! 

Today was nuts. 

Eden's Undies

Funny story......
The other evening after Eden's birthday party I got a little pack of girlie undies that Grandma Kelley got her out of the bag (ya know, cuz she likes to wear them as headgear!).  I said: "Look Eden, underwear just for you!"  She came over to me and said:"oooh, pretty, pretty."  Then she grabbed two pairs of them and starting washing the walls with them!?!?!?!  I was laughing so hard!!  I told her no, come put them on....and she looked at me like I was nuts!  lol!  Finally I had to walk over to where she was washing the walls and have her step into a pair.  She loved them and strutted around all night!  Funny girl! But, she still washed the walls with the other pairs!  What a nut!

Doctor Cat

Today is Eden's official birthday.  Then we have a month long break until we have another birthday....in our immediate family anyway.  Tomorrow we take Tristan to the pediatric neurologist in Peoria.  That should be fun.  We are trying to figure out why he has headaches all the time.  We got glasses for him but, it didn't fix the headaches. 

the neighbor took our cat, sookie, as his own.  We didn't know where she was forever.  One day Jeremy went through Hardee's drive thru and the neighbor boys' mom asked if it was our cat.  Yep, neighbor boy brought the cat home very sadly.  The cat is completely different cat now.  Doesn't spaz out and chase us nothing.  It hardly moves actually.  Weird.

It's a Sad Day Indeed

Tonight is the season finale of True Blood.  This is awful....I so look forward to hanging out with my hubby watching True Blood after we get the kids in bed.  I guess we will have to suffer through our Sunday nights until mid-October when the Walking Dead starts again. 

My Girlie Has A Birthday Party

Yesterday we had Eden McFroo's birthday party.  She turns two tomorrow.  It's crazy that she is two years old already.  Where have my babies gone!?!? 

We had a small gathering at the W.O.W. Park in Carthage.  The wind wouldn't quit so I couldn't decorate quite like I had wanted to.  Then some rain threatened us but never quite cut loose.  Either way it turned out nice.  I made everything very easy by just making my famous giant chocolate chip cookies (which Eden loves!) for the dessert instead of cake.  Ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped topping too.  I ordered a bunch of footlongs from  Subway.  So easy.  I bought chips.  That was easy.  I made some white queso dip.  Easy Peasy. 

I LOVE this picture!!  My goodness, Jeremy and I make some dang cute kids!!  She is beautiful!!  Love her so much!

Look at her cute little stuffed face!

Our ice cream turned to soup.  We put it in a cooler with ice.  

That didn't work.  lol!  We made due though!

Cullen wanted me to take his picture too.  He loves the camera!!  

Eden was very cute while she opened her presents.  She was careful with each thing and the boys wanted to help her with every single thing. 

She got a lot of cute girlie stuff, which is awesome!  She loves everything!!  After the party Jeremy's mom look four boys and mom mom took one, and we kept Eden to ourselves!  We had so much fun with just her at home. 

Asher and Owen made her this necklace that was the first thing she opened and immediately put on!  I thought it was cute of them to make her something! She loves it too!

When we got home from the park we took her around back and showed her our birthday present to her.  Needless to say she LOVED it!  And we had a heck of a time getting her to come back inside.  She pushed her new stroller in there with her babies and talked on the phone a lot.  She kept saying hello! 

We finally got her to come inside and we turned on Tangled for her to watch.   She was transfixed.  She put on her jewelry and held her babies.  And snuggled.  When she was done she played with her stroller some more and her babies.  She is so darn cute! 

I asked her where her nose was and she shoved her finger up it!!  BAhahaha! 

Watching Tangled.

Trying to get her to put her pajammies on.  

Wasn't working to well, she was a little distracted.

Finally she started passing out in the chair and asked to brush her teeth.  She loves brushing.  Then she said goodnight to both of us and off to bed she went.  She woke up in the middle of the night and played with her new toys some more.

This morning she wanted to wanted to watch Tangled some more.  And dress up!!  She has stayed in it all day long!  tonight she took a bath and played with her new bath time doll baby!  She had a ton of fun with that! 

Check out her get-up below.  She did this all herself.  She even has a little purse on her arm too.  And I love her choice of footwear! lol! 

Happy 2nd birthday to my favorite little girl!  We are so blessed to have her in our lives!!

Cloud Dough

 Last week I decided that the two little ones at home needed to do something.  I had read about cloud Dough on Pinterest.  The recipe seemed easy enough.....

• 8 cups flour 
• 1 cup baby oil

I doubled the recipe and decided the fill the play table with it.  

 It was pretty awesome.  It was really cool to feel and run through your fingers....like sand only you can mold it too.... like it's wet but, it's not.  Really cool stuff. Also really messy.  I gave them some measuring cups and spoons to play with.  Eden thought she need to transport it all over the porch and feed the flowers.

 Asher came home after school and played in it for awhile too.  It is still in the play box, what is left of it.  Probably getting rained on today, now that I think about it.  That should be a nice pasty mess to clean up.  Oy.

Moral of the story is, they liked it and had fun for more than one day with it, so it's worth doing again. 

First Day of School 2012

 Jeremy and I woke up early the first day of school to make sure all the kids had all their stuff and were ready to go.  When I walked downstairs, this is how I found Liam!  All ready for school, hair wet and combed just right (he loves to style his hair!), shoes, backpack...all of it!!  So cute!  I think he may have been a little bit excited.  Just a little.  Cedric was pretty much ready to go too.  He was nervous about starting middle school.  We had a little talk the night before at bedtime and said our prayers.  All was good.  Asher on the other had was hiding under his covers and DID NOT want to go to school.  I was worried about this.  We got him fed, dressed, and out the door though.  All day I was nervous about how his day was going.  So how over the moon do you think I was when he burst though the door after school and said "Mom, guess what?  First grade is GREAT!"?  I was so happy and my mind was a put at ease.  The other boys both had great days as well and were eager to tell me all about their days!  So happy!

Triple Birthday Party

  We drove home from Osage on Sunday.  We unloaded the car in Carthage, got cleaned up, and went to Nauvoo to have a little family birthday party for Tristan, Asher, and Jeremy.  Before we left for the weekend I went shopping with all six kids at Wal-mart for party supplies.  (and a few other things.)  It was nerve wracking and I felt like a spectacle but, we made it through. I didn't quiet end up with everything I wanted but, hey, whatever.  We had to have balloons because according to Asher it is NOT a party without balloons.  There is some kind of helium shortage going on right now (for real, it has been in the news click here).  I had been looking everywhere for a few weeks and finally found one tank at Walmart that day with the kids.  I snatched it up quick!  I bought some big bakery pizzas and some chips.  I wanted a very easy meal for when we got back after a long weekend.  And Ice Cream and Rootbeer for rootbeer floats.  Also.........

 Eden and Chase loved the balloons.  All the kids did really.

 This is the cake I ended up with when shopping with 6 kids.  I didn't even bother with having the bakery lady personalize it with their names.  I just wanted out at that point.
Trisha gave me crap for it, lol!  It is rather feminine for three guys!!   LOL! Oh well.

 We had pizza, nacho pie, cheese dip, and chips.  Not the healthiest meal ever, lol!  It was good though and we had yummy desserts too!

 We sang to Jeremy.

 We sang to Tristan.

 Asher hid behind me while we were signing happy birthday to him and wouldn't come out to blow the candles out! haha!  He's a silly guy sometimes and gets embarrassed easily.  So we helped him blow them out. 

 Cullen played and played with the dump trucks in the rocks and dirt.  The whole time.  He pretty much ruined his new shoes I got him last week.  Boys are insanely hard on their clothes.  Especially shoes.  But he was so happy playing in it.  He was a MESS though!  Covered head to toe in all kinds of dirt and muck!  Such a boy!

 Gifts, gifts, gifts!

 Tristan got a new e-reader and Asher got a new bike and helmet.  Each of them were both pretty thrilled!  Each one is another year older, it is really crazy.  Tristan turned twelve and Asher turned six.  *sigh*