Family portraits!

So you may have noticed from the new blog header, we had family portraits taken. It was a really great opportunity, he captured some amazing photos and just an example of a "well the worst they could say is 'no'."

I should interrupt myself here and mention that while I wanted professional family portraits for awhile, we are in the midst of moving, currently on vacation before that move and don't have the extra $200+. But we have a family friend who is a graphic designer and has started doing more photography. He does it commercially. Photo shoots of dance warm ups, coaches jackets, etc. Well I messaged him and asked if would be willing to take our photos while we were in town. I didn't care when or where, I didn't care if he used his Nikon and fancy lenses or my Canon Rebel and one of my two lenses. I just wanted one decent family photo. Oh, and I could only pay him in gratitude, compliments and food. He immediately messaged back and said sure. He'd never done family photography and would love to be able to experiment with us, see what to do and what not to do, etc.

So one Friday afternoon we met up, he let us do what we do (no posing or cheesiness) and captured some great shots of our family. He took all of the photos, processed and edited a few and left the editing up to me on the rest. (We were tight on time since we were leaving town; we're now into part/town 2 of our vacation). I love editing so it wasn't too hard for me to invest some time into our pictures. A couple I probably won't share as they will go on our Christmas cards but here are a few that I liked...

 

 

 

 

 And our outfits? Well not what I had envisioned but I had only packed the boys Converse All-Star shoes. I wasn't about to go buy three new pairs of shoes so instead I ran to Wal-Mart and found these thermals/t=shirts. I think it fits our family better than the Polos and long sleeve shirts/layers I had originally planned. I was pumped that Ron and I had packed clothes that coordinated, Miss Moo got her outfit for her birthday and it worked perfect. The boys' shirts were $5.50 each so it was win-win!

Tim if you're reading this, thanks bunches! We had a blast and love the photos!

Exhausted!

We've been on vacation for 11 days now and I already feel like I need a vacation when we get home. We've done birthday parties, family portraits, visited grandparents, gone to the park, eaten just about everywhere I think I might miss at some point in the next 3 years, had issues with the flippin' swaggerwagon that resulted in unplanned spending (both of time and money) and on top of that, apparently going from 80+ degree weather to Kansas' range of 52-80degrees means we are all, or have all been sick.

Whew.

Sorry if that was a huge run on sentence. In my mind, everything is running together.

Don't get me wrong, most of it has been a LOT of fun. But the kids' sleep habits? Not so much. We're split into 2 rooms here at my parents house. "My" room is for B and I with a pack n play for Sissy. The other bedroom has 2 beds, one for Bubba and Pooks and one for Peanut. It sounds ideal.

However, Peanut won't actually sleep in said bed. Every night one of the adults has had to rock him or snuggle with him until he falls asleep. Then once asleep, he usually wakes by 1:00am SCREAMING for B or I. Then he ends up one of two places: on the couch with B or in my bed with me. Where he ends up depends on if I'm already up with Sissy. Who is teething, going through a growth spurt and out of her element and is waking anywhere from once a night to NINE times. And she doesn't just wake up, no no....that would be too simple. She wakes wanting to nurse. Which I don't plan on stopping anytime soon, but man oh man is tiring.

Last night I was up with Sissy til one am, then up with Peanut trying to settle him with Sissy woke back up. I had her to my right, latched on and nursing with Peanut on my left, curled up against me while I combed my hands through his hair. I finally got them both to sleep, shut my eyes when Pooks came into the room and woke me up to tell me that there was a fly in his room and that he needed water. Got him settled down, laid back down and it was 3am. Finally fell asleep when next thing I know, Nanaw is waking me saying that Bubba is really coughing and needs cough medicine. So I handle that, then go back to bed. Up with Sissy at 5am who of course, wants to nurse again. She and Peanut wake up for good at 8am when I promptly hand them off to B (who was forced to sleep on the couch due to lack of bed space for him). I then slept til 9:30 when I got up for good.

Less than five hours of sleep and it wasn't even uninterrupted. Ugh.

I love my kids. I knew what I was getting into when we decided to have each of our little ones. I do not regret my decision. Most days, it's great. We have fun, they get along fairly well with each other most of the time and I am grateful. But that witching hour before bedtime hits with the tiredness and whining, then a rough night like the one last night and I'm beat. My back is sore, my sinuses are killing me and yet I can't take anything. I am constantly starving (due to the huge increase of sissy nursing) and because my older two no longer nap and my younger two are unpredictable in theirs, I am up all day.

I keep reminding myself that this too shall pass. That soon enough my kids will all be big and I'll be begging, pleading and yanking them out of bed. I know that one day I will look back and miss them being little.This I know for a fact.

Yes, I have a five year old, a four year old, a soon to be three year old and a 1 year old. And of course, I will have days (in this case, a week) where I am utterly exhausted. I expect that. Hell, in the last six years I've only spent 11 months of it {split into 5 months and then 5.5 months} NOT pregnant and NOT breastfeeding. The last six years of my life can be summed up by this:

July 2005-March 2006: Pregnant with Bubba
April 2006-Sept 2006: Breastfeeding and then, pregnant again.
Sept 2006-May 2007: Pregnant with Pooks
May 2007-Nov 2007: Breastfeeding
Dec 2007-Mid March 2008: FREEDOM!!
April 2008-Nov 2008: Pregnant with Peanut
Nov 2008-Aug 2009: Breastfeeding
Sept 2009-Jan 2010: FREEDOM!!
Feb 2010-Oct 2010: Pregnant with Sweetcheeks
Oct 2010-today....Still going strong breastfeeding

Yeah, the exhaustion should certainly be expected huh?

The difference a year makes

October 16, 2010



October 22, 2011



It's amazing to me that we moved 750 miles away but the kids got to go to our hometown Pumpkin Patch. I just love that. More pics later (if I remember).

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Life is busy and hectic...

But so much fun and as overwhelming as it is (especially right now) I wouldn't change a thing!

A week ago we left the Lonestar State and headed "home" for Sissy's first bday party, to visit family, to attend a wedding and generally just relax before our move. I have a ton of pics but it's virtually impossible to upload them all via my iPad.
**more pictures added may 2012**

Sissy had an AMAZING 1st Birthday. Such a good turnout and she did great with all the family and friends. I was nervous since it had been almost 6 months since our last visit home but you would have never known.












We were also able to take a new family pic:


Right now we're at nanaw & papa's house, next weekend we'll be at the in laws and attending Ashly's wedding. We're making sure to eat at all of our favorite restaurants, see our old friends and coworkers, keeping up with the kids, spending time with the grandparents and I don't think I mentioned it on the ol' blog but we officially have a walker now:

So that keeps us on out toes too! Tomorrow we're planning on going to the pumpkin patch so we'll stay busy, busy, busy for awhile!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Easy Halloween Costumes

With all the hectic-ness that is my life right now, we're going for super easy Halloween costumes this year. And by super easy I mean "cheap/free and no hassle''. On October 31st, we'll actually be driving back from Kansas (only 5 more days left until we head home!) and the kids won't get to go trick or treating. Hence the main reason why I'm not shelling out the time and/or money for "real" costumes. Secondly, they have so many dress up toys at home, that this was too easy:

 

And Sissy's was just as simple...

Part of me feels really guilty because I usually go all out for Halloween. Themed costumes, hand-made, I mean something a bit more thoughtful than this but you know what? The older boys are ECSTATIC to be ''home depot'' guys and Peanut chose to be a Conductor all on his own when we found the overalls (in the garage, inside a tote...forgot I even had those!). Sissy will either be an OU cheerleader or a chicken, just depends on the weather. Her chicken costume is Bubba's old costume but pretty stinking adorable.

She may not agree though. Those pants were ticking her off pretty fierce.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY SISSY!

Today Sissy is a whole year old! It seems like just yesterday that I was wondering if these contractions were ''real''or not. I knew I would absolutely love her, but I couldn't have imagined just how much I would love simply having a daughter. It is so much more than just pink clothes and hair bows. She was definitely the missing puzzle piece to our family. Happy Birthday Sissy, We love you SO much!

Here is a look at how far you have come.

On this day last year, just a few hours old... {to bad I didn't take the bear to the hospital!}

  And then, monthly....

At 12 months old you...

   -are now walking! Well, toddling to be more precise. You take steps all on your own but so far the most is 10 with an average of about 5-6 steps before stopping and just crawling. Can't blame you, you are a super fast crawler! You can stop, bend over to pick up something, then go back to walking though!
   -are still in that size 4 diaper, and wearing size 6-12 shirts/dresses, 12 month pants and 18mos leggings. You must have big feet though, you need a size 4!
    -shake your head yes and no, correctly.
    -are finally growing some hair! You usually have a small ponytail on top your head, but you are better tolerating hai rbows...at least for short lengths of time.
    -are signing ''all done'', have made up your own sign for drink, and give kisses and hugs without prompting.
    -are a little copy cat. If your brothers yell, you yell. If I stick out my tongue, you stick out your tongue.
    -love to look at books. Upside down or backward, doesn't matter, you love flipping pages. You recognize your favorites (which at this time seems to be Elmo/Sesame St).
    -are becoming more picky about what you eat. You do try everything and eat a variety but you have preferences now. You LOVE tiny little champagne grapes (black corinth is the technical name), strawberries, mango (still!), bananas, corn, green beans and bread. Of course being the fourth kid you also love the little bites of ice cream, chips, and m&m's that we've sneaked you ;)

Today we took you out to dinner at Red Robin. You loved the clapping, singing and ice cream! Your big party with family and friends is in 11 days and I can't wait. I love you baby girl, Happy Birthday!

Kindergarten

Bubba has been in kindergarten for six weeks now, man does the time fly by. We're at the end of the first six weeks and that means Parent-Teacher conferences. I'll just go ahead and say that kindergarten sure as heck isn't the same as I remember. Gone are the days of 1/2 day kindergarten. There is no longer nap time, it's more like what first grade was to me. Each day bubba comes home excited to tell me what he did that day. Used scissors. Got to go to PE. Checked out his first book from the library. Had pizza for lunch! But never did he mention ''oh yeah, I learned how to read''. So imagine my surprise when 2 nights ago I'm reading some bedtime books (in this case the ''pigeon'' books) when Bubba says ''Hey, those are sparkle words....'to' 'do' 'the'...." and points out a bunch of words on the pages. I was kinda floored, up until this point he noticed words like his name, family members names, "Lightning McQueen", car...mainly words that interested him or words he saw frequently. I had no clue he was learning sight words.

Now that it's the end of the first six weeks, he will now come home each day with homework. Every Monday he's sent home with a homework folder and on Friday it's due back. Today's assignment was to write the words ''you'' and ''see'' ten times each, then find those words in books/magazines (in our case, the iPad) and use them in a sentence. ''Mom...you see me!!" I was SO proud of him as I watched him write the words over and over. He did so good too! Such concentration.

He really is just growing up! He even knew how to write the date without being prompted. At age 5!