Teacher Conferences

Last night Kain and Gage had their parent teacher conferences... as usual only one parent went, which was me. Last time all of us tried going but the little ones were a bit out of control so it was kind of like just one of us was there anyway.

Kain's was first. This is his first year with a new teacher since they keep the same teacher through two grades at their school. She is really nice and Kain seems to enjoy her. He said 3rd grade is his favorite grade so far. As all of his teachers have always done she had wonderful things to say about him and I left with that tightness that creeps in when extreme pride creeps in when someone compliments my children. She said he has done great with his reading and writing and they are going to start working more with doing research papers in the next few months and he does need to follow through with doing complete work. I guess he is great with his reading and writing but doesn't always take the time to finish his artwork to go with it. He does great in science and his math teacher had the same great things to say about him. They both said personally Kain is very considerate and respectful to others and follows directions well. He has wonderful ideas that he contributes to class and makes the most of his time that he has during class. She finished it up with saying she would love more in her class just like him!

Gage's was after Kain's. Gage has Kain's teacher from the last two years. He is in 1st grade which is such a big transition. He is learning to read and it is slow coming for him but he is making steady improvements. His math teacher said he is doing great in her class but sometimes struggles to focus which may contribute to his frustration doing his homework some nights. It was obvious to me from when he went through his work and told me about it that art continues to be his love. He struggled a little with reading his work back to me but anything that he drew he could go into great detail telling me about and his excitement showed through with it. His teacher said that Gage also listens well in class and is extremely well behaved. She also said that he shows signs of a typical second child (which came as no surprise to Dave and I) that he looks for a lot of approval and he will do anything that is asked of him but does not always take his own initiative doing it. She would love to see his confidence improve and see his express himself and his own ideas more.

So as any parent we love to hear the praise of our children from others. We have always known that Gage would be more right brained like his parents and that Kain is definitely left brained, that I suppose is a recessive gene because it doesn't come from Dave or I. But I suppose this is the beauty of having each part of you such an individual... they both have their strengths and weaknesses and that is what makes the world do interesting and our household as well!

The boys also just finished their exploratory this week. Twice a year they spend their afternoons for one week doing an extra activity of their choice. Kain did golf and Gage did roller skating (Golf was not available for his grade yet, he was a little bummed). Kain of course had a blast with golf. Gage seemed to really enjoy skating, although I think he always enjoyed ice skating more than Kain did and was more fearless with it. Now they will have to wait until March for their next exploratory.

I LOVE The Grinch!

That was our great ending to a rough few days! The Grinch and It's a Wonderful Life have to be my two all time favorite Christmas specials, I just love them so much! Well, tonight The Grinch was on so after David showered all of the kids (which was SO sweet of him) we got to sit down and watch it tonight before we put the kids down for bed.

Four clean kids, yay!!!

I swear the past two days Brody has been into even more than usual. Today I just couldn't seem to get a second away from him and Aubriel, which usually goes without saying but they usually play by themselves for at least a few minutes. After gymnastics today I made them both lunch and put Dora on for them to watch while I took my lunch up to the bath tub. I eat in the tub quite often in an attempt to "hide" from the children since for whatever reason your food ALWAYS taste better to them even if they have the exact same thing. David and I have tried eating at the same time as them or feeding them first and then trying to eat once we know they are "full." Well, we have just come to realize our children are never full and forever hungry but never want to eat.

So about two minutes after settling down into the tub with my tea and lunch Aubriel comes upstairs to tell me Brody pooped and took off his pants and diaper and he can't come upstairs because his pants are stuck around his legs. So I jumped up still half wet with just a towel wrapped around me in a house that is barely heated, in a town that has frozen over in the past few days to find out that she was exactly right. He had poop all over his hands and toy box with his pants around his ankles because his boots were still on. So after cleaning both him and the toys up I tried to finish my bath. Only to have the two of them come to find me and start playing around with anything they could find in the bathroom which finally resulted in my lunch getting knocked into my bath water which in turned ended my bath early.

You know it is cold in our house when this is the picture I woke up to yesterday morning! That is Kain and Gage snuggled in bed together!

Yesterday alone Brody discovered that he could move a kitchen chair over to the light switch and turn on the light in the garage AND open the door. I found him last night rooming around in the truck, luckily we had that garage closed or who knows where he would have ended up! I started the day yesterday, after he was only awake for 10 minutes, completely naked, standing on a chair, playing with the microwave.

My Grandma had a brother none of us ever met because he died at age 13 chasing a squirrel and fell off a wood pile. Apparently he was always doing crazy things and I fear this recessive gene may have resurfaced in Brody! I am sure from exceptional, past experience in this area that they intentionally wait until you are already pregnant with the next to take it to the next level just to make you question your sanity on a daily basis!

David did lighten the mood a bit last night when he got playful with the kids chasing them around the house and wrestling with they. It gets them so hyper and fired up but they love it. I mean really is there anything better than wrestling with your Dad? They miss his so much when he is at work that anything he does with them makes their eyes light up!

250,000 Poinsettias

This is what the kids and I did yesterday morning. We started out by meeting my parents for breakfast and from there my mom and I took the kids to a local greenhouse for their annual poinsettia sale. They have a HUGE greenhouse and one day every year they have a sale for some of them before they ship them out to stores all over the country. You are allowed to walk through the greenhouse and take pictures of the ones before they send them out.I guess the sun was in their eyes.

You can't see them (my mom with all 4 kids) very well but it gives you an idea of just how many there are!


Okay I think I emailed this out to almost everyone but here it is again because I think it is so funny. I would just link it to play on my blog if I knew how!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9609668554

Family Man

David and watched that movie last night, well I watched it and Dave made it home in time to watch the end. Both of us had seen it before so it wasn't like he missed anything. I love the movie although it always makes me cry at the end, Dave enjoys it but the end also upsets him (not that he cries but it makes him angry more than anything).

If you haven't seen the movie it is very much a backwards It's a Wonderful Life (one of my favorite movies and no matter how hard Dave tries to watch it with me he just doesn't care for it). Family Man is the story of a man that lives a wealthy, single life working on Wall street and one Christmas Eve he is given a glimpse of what his life could have been. When he wakes up Christmas morning he is a tire salesman, living in Jersey, married to his college girlfriend with two small children. So he fights this life he does not know at first and by the end of the movie falls in love with what his life could have been only to wake up again to his old life. He then goes to find his old girlfriend and catches her right before she is ready to board her plane moving to France. He convinces her to at least stay the night with him and have a cup of coffee since he has realized he never stopped loving her and was able to have a look at what he gave up. So this is where the movie ends, them having coffee on Christmas Day.

Now Dave and I believe this movie to be sad at the end since although they are having a chance to possibly have a life together now, the life that should have been for them is still gone and will never be. This is what the "family man" in Dave hates about the movie and what makes me ball my eyes out. Although we have talked to some about this movie that believe that now they have taken corrective action to bring themselves back together they CAN have everything that was "lost." I find it an interesting thing to ponder none the less. How many possibilities are truly open to us at all times? I would have to say It's a Wonderful Life puts a more positive and grateful joy in your heart at the end of the movie than Family Man but does not make one ponder the day to day choices we make without a thought about the cause it may have.

I know for myself there has been things that has happened in my life that I wonder if it would have been quite as wonderful if it had happened at a different time. I suppose for Dave and I it is easy for us to believe in a divine timing, I know surprising thinking of Dave taking something so spiritual to heart but he truly does, since we have seen it happen in our lives so many times. We have witnessed blessings in our lives come out of what seemed to be despair at the time. We think often about the events that took place in my life right before I moved home from Las Vegas. That was probably one of the scariest points in my life, having my world turned upside down, being so far from family and being only 20 at the time but had that not happened I am not sure when and if I would have moved back home which would most likely have not resulted in me marrying David. And if he had moved to AZ the year before like he had thought about he certainly would not have been here for me when I returned. That is not just our lives that would have been effected by this but 5 others and who knows how many more. Some may feel it would have changed their lives for the better, what other families might Dave and I have right now? But whether it was "better" or "worse" which is subjective anyway, it would not be ours which will always be worse in our book.

Now sure one could argue that things could have turned out exactly the same but at a later time, maybe even one would think a better time but personally I am glad I do not know the answer to that. Perhaps believing in divine timing gives us an excuse to look at the positive to make ourselves feel better. That ignorance is truly bliss, maybe this is the case. I know that there is a reason things like this only happen in the movies, we will never know what all of our "could have beens" would have been but I choose to believe that I would not, for one minute, change any part of my life even if I did know!

44+ Givings of Thanks

Some of my friends and even other bloggers I know did 30 days of Thanksgiving and many would post on their blogs each day leading up to Thanksgiving one thing they are thankful for. I thought about joining in too and honestly I don't have a good reason why I didn't. I actually think it would be quite easy to think of 30 things to be grateful for and I think it is very therapeutic for one's soul as well. But really why stop at 30 things or even 30 days for that matter? Isn't it Oprah that turned people on to keeping a gratitude journal or something? Either way I think it is a wonderful practice to try to get into being grateful for even one thing a day and I have tried that now for a while. Some days it is more of struggle than others and actually yesterday morning was starting out as such.

We were first awoken, at I don't even know what time in the early hours, to Aubriel "trying" to quietly tell us that there was "snow ON the ground outside!" (the other day it snowed but she wanted it to stay on the ground). But her excitement kept her voice from staying very quite for long which resulted in Brody waking up at this very early hour. So being that it was a "day off" for both Dave and I we continued sleeping until we were next awoke by Gage and Aubriel screaming their whole way up the stairs to tell us that Brody dumped a whole box of cereal on the couch in the basement. This is when my first gratitude of the day came into play, when my husband got out of bed and went downstairs to clean it up! He quickly returned to bed to "try" to continue sleeping but not soon after laying back down Kain came in and said Brody had Dad's phone and he thinks he called someone! So Dave once again got out of bed to retrieve his phone and realized Brody most likely called my brother since that was the last person he had called and of course if you hit send enough times it will just redial. So Dave called my brother to confirm that Brody DID in fact call Brian, I suppose to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving or something. Luckily he called someone that also has 4 kids so I do not think it surprised them too much. I am sure if Brody would have called Dave's mom or something she would have been on the first flight here to make sure everything was okay. We were just happy it wasn't a call to the police or something.

So after now being awake David gave me a back rub in bed since it was my birthday and then we decided we should finally get up and get started on dinner. So before that we both got in the shower which may not have been the best idea with what Brody had been up to all morning. Half way through our shower one kid, I honestly don't even know which, popped their head in to inform us that Brody had pooped and removed his diaper. So we had them bring him to us and we just ended up throwing all 4 kids in the shower while David once again went to clean up any mess, this has got to be like the fourth time I expressed gratitude for the day for I would much rather shower kids than clean up poop.

So now that everyone was clean we started doing the same with the house. They actually weren't too bad with helping, the little ones seem to be more into it and not quite as helpful, go figure but I was grateful none the less times 4. Brody training to be a good husband, some day my daughter-in-law will love me!Aubriel pouting because it isn't her turn to vacuum yet, little does she know she will some day LOVE for a man to be doing this for her.

My parents showed up about noon and my mom and I ran out for last minute items for dinner (2 more things to add to the list). Jason and Jessica stopped by about 1 and visited for a while which is always so nice to have their company and catch up. Poor Jessica I don't think she gets a break from Aubriel the whole time she is here. We were so happy and grateful they could take time out of their busy day to visit with us (this must be about 11 things for those counting). David made a great snack spread for the afternoon while he smoked the turkey outside, so grateful for both of those.

My incredibly sweet children gave me an envelope for my birthday. They each took a turn drawing something on it... Kain wrote happy birthday with a football and goal posts on it, Gage drew a beautiful picture of our whole family (he loves to draw family pictures) and Aubriel made a moon and sun on it for me, they also included Brody's name on the envelope.

Inside was 3 dollar bills for my birthday. I thought I was going to cry, they are usually pretty good about saving any money they get and sharing it between them until they have saved up enough money to buy something so I knew this was a huge sacrifice on their part to give me any money at all. I think I am going to have to do a little math for this amount of gratitude, the beautiful picture times 3, the act of generosity times 3 and the incredible amount of love times 5! That easily brings me up to 22 but I am sure if I gave it any more thought I could add to the gratitude I have for each one of those little lives that touch mine each and every day!

My Mom then helped me get the rest of dinner ready. We ate around 5 and then spent the rest of the evening by the fire (I LOVE having fires) watching football. Dave's Dad called, we called my brother and his family (you could even multiply this one times 6 even though all of us didn't talk to everyone, it is still 6 times the love, right?), my Dad called Grandma and after the phone calls were all done catching up on every ones Thanksgiving plans we had dessert. They had a candle for me in a banana cream pie which I think Brody was more excited about than anyone and crawled across the table to help me blow it out. It was actually quite cute as every time he went to blow he would blow straight up and only his hair would move. The kids sang to me which was beautiful to hear all the little screaming excited voices again you have to multiply this one by 4. So what does that make it, 37 I think? So then Dave and I settled down to bed completely beat and last night of all nights the baby decided to make them self known and make some more room in my belly (I guess this one is gratitude at an in opportune time maybe?).

Brody did not seem to like the turkey and kept spitting it out on the floor.

So last night I thought about getting up before the rooster crows to head out for some deals but I opted to sleep instead which was SO much nicer. And after I got up I noticed many places still had awesome deals online that I was able to take advantage of. That is 2 more things right there! Then my sister-in-law Jen sent me a link with another great deal, that is another 1. When I woke up this morning though I vaguely remember the alarm going off very early since Dave of course had to go work the Black Friday craziness but I didn't remember anything after that until I woke up cold at 6:30 and realized he must have just left for work. That right there made me grateful for all the other mornings I wake up warm in bed next to my loving husband (I suppose I can just count that as one). But then at the exact same time there I laid cuddled up next to a little him anyway as I snuggled with Brody in bed. Which I suppose gives us hope and reason for all the bad stuff we have to deal with on a daily basis, because sometimes that bad stuff just makes the good stuff, even the simplest, seem that much sweeter. I think that brings me to a grand total of 44 if I count the fact that I am now in the next chapter of my life being 30!

The Day in Between...

Today is the only day of the year my brother can argue he married someone older than his wife. My sister-in-law is not only the same age as me but just two days older, which I suppose is my brother's "defence." Dave use to always say he couldn't be married to someone as young as his baby sister because it would just seem weird. So he loved to tease Brian for it which of course doesn't seem matter quite as much the older he gets and comments on how cute girls MUCH younger than his sister is!

It is funny how much changes the older we get and I suppose just in general with our circumstances. For a while now most of the people Dave has worked with have been younger than him not as much with this job as his last when he was a manager. I remember soon after we had Aubriel he was talking about one of his teenage employees and I said to him "do you even remember being 17 (or whatever the kid happened to be at the time)?" to which he replied "no, but when my daughter is 17 I sure will."

Of course I am probably the one that is 17 in this picture. We were friends for a few years after we met before we started dating. This was Christmas at my Grandma's, I am going to guess in 1993, although maybe it is 1994.

Of course we all know he remembers being 17, what surprises most people is he had met his wife only 1 year BEFORE that. This year was a big birthday according to him because he said after this last one he has now known me as long as he didn't. I of course being younger than him have known him longer than I haven't for a while. Our favorite thing to tell people is we would have been high school sweethearts if I had gone to high school. Of course because I was home schooled through high school which is probably a good thing for me since I think David blocked out most of high school and he probably wouldn't have even noticed me.

So yesterday Jen turned 30 and I hope it was wonderful for her! Tomorrow I will be 30 as well. I must say I have not been looking forward to it and even more so since tomorrow is Thanksgiving but my mom always said she loved her 30s and since they are upon me I guess I should just embrace them and look ahead. Up until now I have had a beautiful life... I have an amazing husband that I am so in love with (some days more than others) but am much more in aw of how very much he loves me. I feel so truly blessed to have found him and grateful every day for having him in my life. I have a career I love, whenever I have time for it or at the very least I know I will be able to get back to some day when my true calling of being a mom isn't so demanding. I have 4 1/3 wonderful children, which has been a lot to accomplish before age 30 but I love that I will be young yet when hopefully they start families of their own. I have dreamt of being a mom and having a big family my whole life so it is an empowering feeling to watch your dreams become a reality.

Tonight Dave and I are going out to dinner for my birthday with friends we don't see too often so we are looking forward to that. Yeah, I know I already celebrated my birthday but since I don't get my "birthday dinner of choice" tomorrow night I get to go out again. Besides that is just how much Dave loves me! Tomorrow I am going to have a low key day spent with friend's and family. Well, really just family I guess. Our dear friends, Jason and Jessica are stopping by tomorrow and aside from people in my family Jason is probably the only person I have known longer than David or my friend Andrea. He was friends with my brother and I probably met him when I was 7. He has always been like a brother to me and his wife has become just as dear to us. Then of course my parents are coming to spend the day with us.

I have heard from someone in the house something about gifts that were made by children for my birthday which should have tipped me off that I should not be doing any Christmas shopping with Aubriel. But I did anyway only to have Gage come up to me yesterday and say "Aubriel said you got me a sweater or something" Yeah, maybe age four is too old to be tagging along shopping for gifts that are suppose to be a surprise. Luckily I can still use the "no she was just confused excuse." At least I am almost done so I shouldn't have much more to get either with or without her!

Speaking of our little miss, here are some pictures of her at gymnastics today. The boys weren't too happy about having to go with since they were off of school today! Sorry most of them are blurry, I was chasing Brody most of the time.I actually wish I would have got the shot in between these two, she actually stopped her flip and while bent over the bar adjusted her undies and then finished.

Dave and I haven't laughed this hard...

...in quite a while. It actually is quite funny. We have been following this story of my friend, Nikki, for a while now as she emails me often with updates.

Now a year ago I would have put "I use the term loosely" after I said she is my friend. But no longer. Yes, I met her online and have not actually "met" her in person. A group of 4 of us have developed out of a home birth board. Myself of course being in WI, Nikki in TX, Jen in AL, and Thea in NC. It use to be that we would keep up with one another often on the board but then we started emailing one another more and more often and this last summer while on vacation we actually went to meet and stay with Thea in NC. I think that was what did it for both of us... Thea had admitted this was not "normal" for her either. I think at one point her husband even asked her how she didn't know we were ax murders or something and she replied "yes, ax murders often travel with their 4 small children." But something drew us together and it was after our meeting that I realized you can actually make friends on the Internet. You can find real, normal, wonderful people that long to connect with others with similar interests that may be harder to find close to home. Now the four of us email one another at least once a week and talk about our large families and the on going events in our lives. And at least for me these women have become such a huge part of my life, even though two I have never met in person. Thea helped me so much through my PPD with Brody and all of them continue to be there to offer love and support to me and my family. I honestly never in a million years thought I would be here and then I find more and more about how the Internet really does connect many people. Just the other day I discovered my friend met her husband online, something I NEVER thought I would hear from the wife of a youth minister and mother of two. So I suppose it is cases like hers that makes me feel less strange about finding friends online, which I have found I desperately needed to make me feel less strange for having such a large family! We hope to some day soon plan a trip to all meet so we can say we are friends for "real" although I don't think any of us need that to consider the other a true friend.

Anyway my friend, Nikki, mother of 7 just got herself a big yellow school bus with enough room to transport her ever growing family. I joked with Dave this morning that, that will be the next step for us. He of course replied as his usual sarcastic self saying "but I want a short red bus." I told him to be careful he might get that for Christmas.

Too Early to Think About Christmas?

Not for our family! Christmas is by far David's favorite time of year, he looks forward to it every year, he goes out of his way to decorate and always try to take extra time off of work to just soak it all in and this year it will be extra special for all of us! We just found out tonight my brother and his family will be coming home for the first time in... well it has been so long I guess I am not sure how long but that right there tells you it has been FOREVER. His job has always kept him away but this year he was able to swing it. On top of that my cousin that lives in GA is able to come back with her family for the first time in I think 6 years or something. And the icing on the cake is the festivities will be held at our house this year instead of up in Michigan. So for the first time since my Grandpa's death at Christmas in 2001 all of my mom's family and their families will be together again celebrating the holidays at our house for the first time.

David longs to spend any amount of time with my brother that he can since he is his best friend... although I think he is really more than that to him. I never hear him refer to him as his brother-in-law or his wife's brother when he talks to people he is always just his brother. I am not even sure he does that with his step-brother, although he has a close relationship with him as well. Honestly Dave is closer to my brother than I am... well for that matter I think Dave is closer to my brother than anyone else in my family including my parents! But that is just how they have always been.

Kind of like my best friend too. Maybe that is how you know who your best friend really is? Maybe it is the one you can go forever not talking to but can always pick up right where you left off like you spoke yesterday, the person you can call anytime day or night and not have them think twice about it, the person that you know no matter what is always going to be your best friend, whether you grow apart or together, your bond never changes.

David's friendship is not the only one we will see this Christmas though. I can not wait to tell my children that they will be seeing their cousins for Christmas. Kain and Quillon are probably the closest since they are only 7 months apart in age and are exactly as their fathers but the others are close as well, even little D'Artagnan and Aubriel love to play together and Gage and Griffon are only about 1 year apart. Bayne their oldest seems to get along well with everyone. For a while I think Jen and I took turns having a kid every year, so we had pretty much all of them close in age! It was always fun sharing tabs on each other throughout our pregnancies. They completed their family about 5 years ago with the birth of Tag but I kind of miss not having my pregnancy buddy with these last few.

My mom is of course over the moon. She is even planning big family pictures at her work (she works for a photography studio) and we are going shopping on Tuesday for clothes for everyone. This is sure to be our best Christmas yet and the only thing that could make it any better is if we already had our newest family addition here to share it with us!

So to put me in the holiday spirit I thought I would post some pictures from last Christmas!Yes, I made my kids shovel the driveway

This is them before we went to visit Santa

Aubriel and her fairy Godmother, Jessica!

My Grandma Leona (Dad's Mom) with my kids and my cousins, my Aunt had kids at the same time as my brother and I, she is young enough to be my sister!

Aubriel when we had to leave their house.

My kids with my mom and Grandma.

Dave just being funny, it amused me so I put it in.

Last year for an extra special treat we got to go to Dave's Aunt's house and see his Grandparents we rarely get to see. That was their first time meeting Brody!

3 Months down... 6 to go!

I am 14 weeks through my pregnancy today which means I am out of my first trimester which also brings much relief! I got through the first 3 months pretty easy. I was lucky to not really have any morning sickness this time around which was much how Brody's pregnancy was. Gage was by far my worst pregnancy for morning sickness which seems to be common for second babies for some reason but I also switched to whole food vitamins with Aubriel's so maybe that is why. I have read a vitamin deficiency can cause bad morning sickness and can take its toll on you when your kids are close together as Kain and Gage were.

I have gained 1# since two weeks ago but am still down 4.5# from the two weeks before that but I am not complaining since I wasn't quite where I wanted to be when I got pregnant anyway. My blood pressure remains low as usual which is only bad the few times I get light headed and dizzy. My Dr. actually use to joke that she could tell when I stressed when I had "normal" blood pressure. My belly is measuring large at about 18 cm which doesn't mean much this early in my pregnancy yet and especially since this is my fifth baby. I feel huge but people usually tell me I hardly have a belly... maybe they are just being nice. Here is a picture of it anyway....

Sorry for the messy bathroom!

It has been a month now since we broke the news to everyone about yet another baby and it is interesting, more than anything to hear people responses. We of course get the, no harm meant comments such as "wow you guys are busy" or "holy cow, another one" or "I am not sure how you guys do it, I have a hard time keeping up with my 2/3" which is kind of what we got with Brody. But what really amazes us is the people that are just down right rude or mean about it. For some reason in our society it is perfectly okay to have 2, many times even 3 children, without a word of criticism or "concern" being mentioned but suddenly once you break that 3 children thresh hold manners seem to not apply any longer. Suddenly it is okay to voice to people your opinion of their large family. I truly do not understand this mentality, especially after this beautiful little life has been created. What exactly do people expect you to do with this unsolicited advice? Are we suppose to say "oh my gosh you are right, we just never thought of that before, let's give this one away" or do they delight or feel justified somehow in making you feel that this baby is any less special, beautiful or perfect that your first three.

My sister-in-law Jen I think summed it up best with their four boys... most of the people that meet them think they are crazy for having four children in the first place but will then still ask if they are "going to try for that girl" and when she says no will ask why not. But of course these same people would probably think they were crazy for having more if she said yes! It is like she just can't win in their eyes but in reality it just shouldn't and truly doesn't matter how many children one has or doesn't have that is their family, ALL of them and it is perfect exactly the way it is!

My father in law is baby #5 in his family. He did not grow up "wealthy" but nothing he has ever said or even implied makes think he felt he had a "poor" life. And I am sure he has never once regretted being born or even that his parents regretted having him! I know I am grateful he was born, because of his life, I have my husband and ALL of my children that I can not imagine life without. My parents also come from large families, although both of them being the oldest rather than the youngest I am sure they don't care quite as much who came after them, they were already "safe" (I say this tongue and cheek of course). Although I am sure neither one of them or their parents could imagine life without their baby sisters and I am sure their sisters are glad their parents had just ONE more. Even when my father's sister was born to his 40+ year old mother and he himself was 18 it was very clear my whole life that Aunt Shelly was NOT a mistake. As Dave loves to say "there are no mistakes, just happy accidents."

The responses to baby #5 have not all been like this though. I have actually been touched very deeply by the ones that have extended nothing but shear joy and happiness to our blessing and in such a loving way as well. All of David's father's family when they saw us last month at the wedding were thrilled for us and gave us warm congratulations. I have received emails from friends and family members on both mine and Dave's sides of the family expressing their congratulations. The ones that really made me tear up were the ones like Dave's cousin that took the time to hand write us with words of love and send it in the mail. And Kain's best friend at school told his mother and she sent me a card in the mail right away. And of course my dear friends that call and email me often asking for pictures and updates (you know who you are!). As well as the many phone conversations with my cousin before anyone else knew!

It is such an incredible journey to experience creating life, giving birth and becoming a mother and it is so nice when that process is acknowledged each and every time it happens to you. Because although the dynamics of it changes each time the end result is exactly the same each time... it a new life that is being welcomed into the world and everyone should start that surrounded by love!

Thank you to those that choose to support us with your love during this time in our lives!

More Birthdays!

Today is my mother's birthday! The little ones and I went and had lunch with her today at work. It was nothing fancy but loved spending time with her. I use to pray when I was a teenager that I would not have children as awful as me... now that I am older I hope to have children that love me and love spending time with as much as I do with my mom. She is my best friend and couldn't imagine not sharing every part of my life with her.

As I looked through my baby book I noticed the same thing I do with pictures of my kids... there is very few of them with their mothers. I wonder why that is? Anyway this was the only picture I found of my mom and I together from my baby book. I think it said 1979 on the back which would make me about Brody's age.

This is a picture of us that Kain took this summer. I don't have any more recent ones than that.

I remember when I moved away to go to school I loved every part about it but being away from my mom. I always knew when I had a family of my own I would want to be near her while they were little. More so for the advice on raising them but Dave and I have found my mother's support and help with them is immeasurable. She always goes out of her way to babysit if she can, she has rearranged her schedule numerous times and has even left work to help us when we needed her. She spends her one day off a week visiting us and the kids, which the kids have come to expect at this point but it never goes unnoticed by Dave and I. I know she wishes she could have that time with all of her Grandchildren as her and my father both have come to love all of them much more than they ever loved Brian and I.

Mom and Dad with all the Grand kids!Mom with Brian and Jen.
She is absolutely amazing. I have always admired how she could support my brother and I in what we truly wanted for our lives even if it was not the choice she would have made or even the times when it has been painful to be apart from us. She never once thought selfishly, simply always thought of what our path in life would be and backed us up 100%. I know this to be true even more after she stayed with our children over night for my birthday.

All of these are from last summer but I love them!

We returned home to a very tired Grandma. She said the first night went good but by the second she was exhausted and wondered how I do it every day. Honestly as I was driving to pick up the boys from school today with the two little ones in their car seats with no coats on, one barefoot and the other in socks with the heat cranked, running 5 minutes late, I was thinking it is because I don't do quite the same as what most mothers of two kids do. I remember when I had the first two, they never had a dirty face, theirs clothes always matched (well unless their Dad dressed them) and they were completely put together everywhere we went. Now I am lucky if all the kids get their hair and teeth brushed before we are out the door somewhere. I even thought about going somewhere after picking up the boys until I realized Aubriel did not have shoes on. But my mother never says anything negative about us adding another one, she may wonder about our sanity level but I think everyone does that, she expresses nothing but happiness for us as she knows it is what we truly want for our life and she loves adding them as much as we do.

Aubriel, me and my mom with our moms

She must be an excellent mother as Dave enjoys her almost as much as I do and I think there is even times when she loves him more than me. She loves that I have him in my life, it must be because every mother wants the best for their children and she knew I found it in him even before I did. I can certainly sum that up with the old adage "Mother knows best" although I have not always given her the benefit of the doubt. But I guess that is just what moms do, they love you anyway!

I have no pictures of Dave with my mom but if you scroll back up you will see him in the background of the pic with all the grandkids... this is so indicative of their fun loving relationship too.

I don't think I could have hand picked a more wonderful mother, although some cultures believe we do pick our mothers so maybe it comes as no surprise to me how I ended up as blessed as this when I did pick her to be my mom!

Birthday Wishes...

Came early for me this year! My actual birthday is not for another 14 days, yes, which happens to fall RIGHT on Thanksgiving and being that I turn the big 3 0 this year I have not been looking forward to it. Well, my wonderful and amazing husband must be a mind reader because after a very stressful week last week between Aubriel losing her tooth and numerous other things David surprised with a pre-birthday get away this week!

So Tuesday afternoon after yoga with my mom we went out for tea as we do every week but half way through out tea and chat she said well we better get you home, your husband has a surprise for you. I was very surprised at that point but not as much as I was about to be. My mom followed me home and when I walked in the door I read a note from Dave saying "go upstairs and pack an over night bag and change into something comfortable." So I ran upstairs to find him running around making kid's beds saying hurry up to me every time I tried to get an answer out of him. So after giving my mom a quick run down of things for the kids we hit the road!

Once in the car David gave me the sweetest birthday card with cash for shopping at our destination (which actually didn't take me too long by the direction we were headed in to figure out it was the Mall of America in Minneapolis, MN we were going to!). Now Dave has always picked out the sweetest cards that are always the most perfect for every event. It wouldn't seem to be that hard but it still just blows me away how he finds just the right one to make my heart melt and I must say I am not usually that touched by cards in general but the ones he finds always brings tears to my eyes. It read...

"Of all the things that ever happened to me in my life... ...you're the best"

So after a beautiful 4 hour drive just being able to visit in the quite we decided to check into our hotel and then get a bit to eat at the mall. We shared a huge platter of different styles of shrimp and then started our shopping. We left the mall around 9:30 and went back to the hotel to get in the hot tub. Well, Dave got in and I put my feet in which still felt amazing after all the walking we did and even better when Dave rubbed them for me! Then we decided to go get another bit to eat at IHOP around 10 since we had an early dinner/late lunch of sorts when we got into town.

The next morning we checked out and decided to go to IKEA before going back to the mall. We had so much fun at IKEA and laughed so much as for some reason they must have stuff we found to be funny. I brought the camera but never took a picture with it. In fact we only ever took one picture at IKEA with Dave's phone that we have no idea how to get it off of now, but it was of this fox that we almost got for my mom and it was totally hilarious!

After checking out there with WAY more than we expected to get we went to the mall. We did a little more shopping and while we were shopping Dave brings me into this salon, which I thought was strange and then said we were there for my massage appointment. I couldn't believe he surprised me yet again with a massage. It was wonderful and I loved it and love David even more for it. After that we met up again and had lunch and then finished up getting things at the places we wanted to get back to before we left around 5.

We got a ton more Christmas shopping done and I actually shopped for myself which was very hard and strange for me since I usually only ever shop for my kids. Then on our way home we stopped about half way to visit friends of ours we don't get to see as much and then headed home to bed. My mom had all the kids in bed but Brody woke up right after we got home but his crying quickly turned to a big grin when he saw his Dad! I think Dave and I probably could have used 1 more day away (although I am not sure my mom would have survived) but it is always so nice to get back to your kids after some time away, we always miss them so much. So as I laid there in bed with our baby snuggled in between Dave and I and my sweet husband rubbing my ever growing belly, after a wonderful massage and shopping trip I felt nothing but pure bliss as I drifted off to sleep. I am SO very blessed!

The Pain of the next day...

That would be mine not Aubriel's. She is doing awesome! By last night she was as if nothing ever happened. Today we did have some "every day" tears such as her brother pulling her hair, putting the chair on her toes and pinching her but she did not say one thing about any mouth pain. She does like to put her tongue through her hole and say "that is weird" but other than that you would never know she was hurt. I on the other hand have realized today I did not walk away so untouched. I think after having it set in I am actually doing worse today than yesterday.

I am very grateful that it was not her eye or certainly any more teeth or something even worse but there is something that makes a mother's skin crawl like nothing else on earth as seeing her child hurt in anyway. If I am watching someone else with a hurt child I can sympathize but it doesn't even come close to what we go through when it is our own we are looking upon. I think it is even worse when there is nothing that you can do. I remember this feeling when Gage had his skin allergy and we had no idea what it was. Kain did have staples in the back of his head when he was 2 and Gage had stitches by his eye when he was 3 and Kain even broke his arm earlier this year and although this same feeling came up every time it did not linger like this. I felt like after they were "fixed" it was going to be okay. When I look at Aubriel smile at me like this that is the feeling I get... Everything is going to be okay, she has fat lip that is going to heal and she will be good as new. But it is this picture that shakes me to my core....
I know this is a dramatic thought for I know she will be okay even with this, it was baby tooth that was lost and she will get a new one and she is still just as beautiful as ever and will continue to be BUT it is still the idea of my little girl being less than whole for the next few years even though it is just a very small part of her missing for a while. I know this feeling will pass as well, that it is still new and fresh and going to take a little time. I am hoping that I will come to find this part of her endearing, that it will help shape a part of her personality, like Kain's birthmark that was on his nose and Gage's scar by his eye and Brody's blisters on his tongue he was born with. This will just be a part of what makes her Aubriel.

I am happy to report she is doing better than okay! So on a lighter note here a is request of her God-father, Jason to make everyone laugh...

She was actually loving me taking pictures of her today, thus all the posing!

Halloween Highlights

I was hoping to be sitting down to post pictures of the kids Trick or Treating last night which I still will but that is not what is foremost on my mind right now. David and I have raised two boys to the ages of 8 and 6, they have played hockey, football, baseball, racquetball, and wrestled around enough to make any mother cringe and we have had stitches in Gage's head already once and a broken arm with Kain earlier this year but they have never had a tooth knocked out... that one gets to now go to their baby sister.

This afternoon, as I was cleaning and Dave came in from cleaning the garage to have lunch Aubriel was dancing around the living room as she so often does and while she was spinning she got dizzy and fell down catching her face on the chair before she hit the floor. She instantly started crying and I went over to help he up and when I turned her over and saw the blood I must have scared her because she immediately stopped crying and had fear in her eyes. So I calmly picked her up and walked into the kitchen where Dave was and it quite voice said "we have an emergency here, get a cold washcloth" He was able to do that right away but when we put it on and he saw her tooth just hanging there for the first time he looked like he was ready to pass out. I at this point got so nausea and had to sit down and Aubriel just held her washcloth on her face and didn't make a sound. She looked scared but was great through the whole thing. Finally after David collected himself he took her and sat with her so I could call the dentist.

Luckily they were able to get us in right away so we all left together since I couldn't drive because I was shaking so bad but couldn't not be there with her either. I called my mom on the way, since she works right down the road from the dentist and she met us there to watch Brody so we could both be with Aubriel. Dave stayed with her the whole time during her ex-rays... she was an awesome patient. They ended up numbing her up and removing the tooth that was just hanging by a thread anyway but not quite so much so that we could have just pulled it ourselves (not that Dave nor I would have had the stomach for that with our own child anyway).

We are home now and she is doing great, at least compared to Dave and I. When we tried to make her feel better and say the tooth fairy would be coming tonight she said "oh yeah, I'm big now so I can go to school" in her mind you are "big" like your brothers when your teeth come out and being big means you get to go to school too. This might be hard to explain that this isn't how most people lose their teeth. She has a split lip and swelling which will probably be a little worse tomorrow. Now I am mostly just dealing with the fact my little girl is going to be missing her front tooth for the few years... unfortunately they said when a baby tooth gets knocked out like this it actually takes longer for it to come in than it normally would. I certainly am not okay with any of my children losing their teeth before they are suppose to but there is something about it being my little girl... I think I would be more okay if it had been one of my boys. Boys are tough and you don't notice missing teeth or scars and stuff on them but little girls are sweet and beautiful (which of course she still is) and should always be that way. Even when I took this picture of her after we got home she was still trying to smile for the camera.

I know it was an accident but as parent that doesn't make you feel any better when you feel like this should have been something you could have prevented. The good news is she is fine, she will continue to be fine and in the big scheme of things this isn't as bad as it could have been. Now we just have to watch her to make sure she doesn't have any other injuries but I don't think she does.

Okay enough drama, on to trick or treating... the kids had a blast of course. The first few pics are of the kids waiting for their Dad to get home while they started handing out candy.

We ended up doing our street and that was enough for everyone, Brody walked most of the way and then sat in the stroller for the last little bit. We were gone for about an hour which got us home in time to hand out more candy, which the kids loved just as much as going out I think!