It was bound to happen...

...forgetting my child somewhere that is. Luckily for them (and me) it was at home and for a VERY short amount of time. I remember I use to tease a friend of mine about the time his mom (of 3) left him at a park. Mostly I did it because one could tell years later he was still emotionally scarred by it and how else are our friends to know we really love them but to continue to remind them of childhood traumas. But truthfully I'm not that cruel and neither was his mother whom made a very honest mistake much like I recently did.

As a rule we trust the eldest to watch the younger children now, except for the baby that always comes with me unless my mother is over with the kids. The second eldest is allowed to watch himself or the younger ones for extremely short periods of time. This morning particular my mom had come to watch the kids since we had Dave's Aunt's funeral this morning which had left my mind even more scattered than usual. At a very young age she lost her battle with cancer so it was more heartbreaking than the average funeral.

Once returning home hubby left for work and my mom and I hung out with the kids for a while. She offered to go pick up Kain for me which would give me enough time to get Aubriel ready before I had to run out with her. My mom was expected back before I had to leave so I thought nothing of it when I told Gage he could ride along with her... however that somehow in less than 20 minutes slipped my mind as I grabbed the girls and snuck out of the house while Brode and Ozzye were distracted in the basement (me assuming Gage was distracted with them). I knew my mom would be along shortly (as she usually runs late) and Gage was perfectly capable of handling things for another 10 minutes... or he would've been, had he been there. I waved to my mom just as she entered our subdivision and our vehicles passed one another still not noticing until I was miles down the road that I also waved to the child I thought was home babysitting. Then the horror set in. Luckily by this point I of course knew they were well cared for but it still didn't rid me of that over whelming "bad mom" feeling. I called immediately so that my mom would not think I was nearly as negligent as I made myself out to be but then again I DID leave my 3 and 6 y/o home by themselves even if it did only end up being for 5 minutes.

At least I know that there are others out there with good, but scatter-brained mothers that still end up raising perfectly healthy, safe children, without too much emotional trauma... or at least that could be the case if their friends can keep from tormenting them with it.

One Month!

A whole month without a single post... and shamefully my last was about buying jeans (which I may still update with a picture). I have thought about writing several times... I had big plans as usual. I was going to write about our adventures with the chicken pox in July, my amazing new friend that is single handedly keeping my business afloat (bless her heart!), my seemingly odd (only those who know me may get why it's odd) position organizing home school activities through a new local rec center... not even close to my kind of thing (but I do say often I *want* to grow... I think), even all the little things that I have seen six times over that still make my heart skip a beat like a new tooth popping through or sitting for a few seconds on her own... my sweet 5 month old that is. Even now I should be catching up on my 21 day cleaning challenge I agreed to do with my friends. I got through my junk drawer, never did get any farther than the before picture of my desk and I do not see making it even that far with my Tupperware cupboard today. So yeah, my days have been crazy, my nights have been exhausting and despite the fact that I complain about driving my kids all over the place I love it. I honestly and truly love it!

Aubriel had a busy summer at the gym learning new skills. I'm not sure which one of us is more jazzed about these upcoming fall meets. Gage didn't get out golfing as much as I would've liked for him but Kain and him got out quite a bit together and I hope it was time together they will cherish. Kain started football two weeks ago, first year not being in pop-warner. And he started his first day back to school today. New school. 7th grade. He seemed fine this morning... me not so much. I mean I'm "fine" I'm just not fine. I know he is going to do great. He's like his mom, social and has to be on the move.... usually. Which is probably why I'm not really all that fine. Last year was suppose to be THE year. It was our year to travel a lot, for me to spend lots of time with the kids (which I did do) but I had visions of it being out and about and on the go constantly. And I think we sat at home more last year than ever before. Between being pregnant and our excessively long winter and the lack of schedules meshing it just didn't happen the way I wanted it to. It is certainly no wonder he wanted to go back to school. And now of course I can already see things changing for us. We joined the new Kroc Center that just went up here in town and the classes they are or will be offering seem endless. Poor Kain, after the Y just didn't have much for us last year we now seem almost over whelmed with all the extras we want to add to our already busy schedule.

On a more selfish note I have gotten incredibly spoiled now that he is of babysitting age. Although it might be good for Brode who has become a bit too much of a home body. I love having my children home with me, I love the bonds that they create with one another because of it but this is his choice and I honor that. I honestly believe each one is so different they need to be raised in their own way, which for Kain is going to school. I'm excited for him. I hope he has a wonderful year. He is already thrilled to be back into the sports he loves so much. We have a scrimmage tonight we will be going to watch! And the rest of the kids are finding their way through life and schooling, taking it one year at a time. We are kicking off our "school" year with a not back to school swimming party with our home school group. The kids can hardly wait and have been in half a dozen times in the last 15 minutes asking when we will go. So this post is short. I can't promise anymore anytime soon, although I know I have some new pics I should be posting, but I promise to try... just like I will try to clean my desk and Tupperware cupboard.

New Jeans!

I know I probably shouldn't be as excited as I am over jeans but it is kind of a big deal for me. Not that it has always been but since I decided a few years ago to splurge (within reason) it has become one. I will drop $100 on the kids like it's nothing but agonize over a $10 purchase for myself... but not over my jeans any more! They are a staple in my wardrobe like they are for most people and while I am thrilled to have a relatively small waist I have been cursed with hips the same size. I use to make do with old navy jeans for $30 where I constantly had to pull them up because I lacked the hips and/or the right cut to keep them put. I even said on many occasions that I would gladly give up my waist size as long as my hips were wider than it simply so I could buy girly, curvy jeans that perhaps would stay up.

And then my friend with a similar "boy-built" body took me shopping at Express. Certainly the store was not new to me but spending $80 for 1 pair of jeans certainly was so I had never tried on a pair. I did have one coveted pair of clearance dress pants I snagged for $30 which I LOVE but I was never lucky enough to find jeans for quite the same deal. And even after shopping with her and watching her try on jeans I myself didn't. I get that $80-$100+ for jeans may not be a big deal to most people... but I am not most people. I have too many kids to spend that kind of money and due to the fact I have so many kids who am I really trying to impress anyway. And then a few years ago after getting burned one too many times by countless jeans that didn't make the grade and still were not "cheap" in my book I walked into express and tried some on. I tried them ALL on and fell in love with my butt again! NOW I see why they are $80+! Anything that can make my butt look like it is 15 years younger than me should cost a lot of money. And they were still on sale for "only" $60. So I bought them because I figured 1 pair for $60 that I will wear is better than two pairs for $30 each that will sit in my drawer and make me cry every time I put them on.

And as much husband likes to point out to me, this maybe wasn't the best time to be spending on frivolities, the sales said otherwise and this is the ONE thing I will buy myself and NOT feel guilty about it. It has been over 2 years since my last jeans purchase and the fact it was buy one get one 50% AND I had a $40 off coupon there was no convincing me otherwise. So I went and tried them all on again... in numerous sizes... and was completely torn if I buy the same size as my other pair or "up-grade" to the next size due to the added baby fat (which I'm of course going to lose anyway by fall right?). The kids that came with were completely bored and it was a new challenge trying on jeans with a baby strapped to my front in her carrier but OH how I loved the feel of great fitting jeans around my none pregnant bum... I walked out with a pair of Stellas and Evas both in a "barely boot" cut for $84.00! I am now ready for fall... and a more regular workout...

More Busy Weeks...

Which means I am behind once again on a birthday post. Our first little girl is now 8 years old as of last month! Aubriel is such a little "mama" and not just to the babies in the family. She offers all of her siblings an extra tender love that only a sister can give. She strives to keep up with her older brothers, nurtures her little brothers and dotes on her new baby sister.

She more often than not brings a softer side to our mix of masculinity but many times has no problem jumping in to give the boys a run for their money (which due to her gymnastic's background she can!). She's strong, lean and impossible to buy clothes for. Luckily she is usually in the gym anyway spending most of her time doing what she has come to love and live for. She continues to amaze us with her talent and I feel so blessed to be able to give her the opportunity due to her awesome coaches.

Aubriel and her new partner in crime... her cousin Tag.

Oh baby girl we are so in love with you and all that you bring to our family!

This picture cracks me up between Ozzye's face and the fact it looks like my grandma is choking Brody to keep him from running off.

Our new four generation pic with baby sugar...

I simply LOVE the generation pictures! Every year we take another one it reminds me how very blessed both David and I as well as our children are to have this moment!!!

I still need to finish up our vacation pictures... maybe I will have them up on my blog by the time we are ready to take our next vacation. ;-)

Little Ozzman turns 3!

Well I'm actually a little sad and embarrassed by just how long it too me to post about Ozzye's birthday. It was back in May. We even celebrated a few days early since we left for vacation on his birthday. Of course since returning I have been uploading pictures of vacation (which I'm STILL in the process of, wish blogger could make that a bit easier) and I was planning on starting with his birthday and continuing the post into vacation. However I figure since we are less than a week away from another birthday already I better at least get Ozzye's posted and just wait and see when I get around to finishing up vacation 2011.

I use to make all of the kid's cakes. I loved doing it. Mostly because we have all these great childhood pictures of these cool cakes my mom made for my brother but rarely seemed as though there was any for me. Ironically enough my mom is the very reason I stopped making cakes for my kids. I'm not when it happened or why even but she has taken over the birthday cakes. I think it probably came about that I would end up asking her for help since she IS so good at it and she would get frustrated with it (probably because I didn't do it right... first borns!) or I would try to make them too healthy and she wouldn't like the taste or be challenging to decorate or I don't even know why...

And so the new tradition has become rather boring. The kids pick out their cake. Grandma buys it and they find their favorite little toy or convince Grandma she needs to pick up a new one for them to put on top of their cake. In any case while it doesn't give me the "mommy of the year award" feeling it does seem to make them happy and when we have a birthday almost every month for half of the year it certainly makes my prep for their birthdays less stressful.

So our little Ozzye is 3 now and he is still the size of most 2 year olds. He is also just as trying as most two year olds. While on vacation I kept having flash backs which I can only assume is similar to what amnesia patients must experience. You see our little Brody in the last two years has become so laid back and charming we had completely forgotten how frustrating he was when he was Ozzye's age. Yet while on vacaction I kept having this deja vu feeling when Ozzye would push us to our limits like I had already experienced it before but knew it couldn't have been him. And then it would sink in that it was something our sweet little angel of a boy Brody had done. Which gives us hope!

Since Ozzye is darling and oh so hysterical so often throughout the day. Today looking inside from the backyard through the screen door he said "me out here mama. Let me out." I am quiet certain it was no accident that he made us fall so deeply in love with him. It's a survival tactic. And it has served him well. Even, Dave, the man that would have been more than happy to stop after two children, has expressed on more than one occasion that he could quite possibly be his favorite child. He has also expressed how very much of a huge frustration he is to him as well. He definitively pushes us far more than the first four have. But he more than makes up for it with his sweetness.

I love how excited he gets to get his birthday cards. He hugged most of them after he "read" them.

It is amazing how quickly each babe weaves themselves into your family.

Happy Birthday Beautiful "baby" boy!

Vacation 2011

Ah at long last I am FINALLY getting around to posting pictures from our vacation back in May! Like many of our vacation it was thrown together last minute but this one seemed to be extra short notice. We first made plans about four weeks before we were set to leave to take the kids to see Mount Rushmore. During this planning we brain stormed other things to do while we were there and I some how managed to talk my husband into packing ALL of our bikes which would include, 3 adult bikes, 1 tag-a-long and 2 bike trailers. We had visions of biking through the black hills and bad lands and as the time drew closer we got more and more excited... however the weather also remained unseasonably cold.

So just two weeks before we were due to leave we started looking for a new destination that hopefully came with more promising weather. We targeted MO and read that Lake of the Ozarks had lots of biking. We got a screaming deal on a condo on the lake for 4 nights so we packed up all the bikes and kids and headed to MO.

We left the night of Ozzye's birthday and drove through most of the night arriving about 3 hours outside of our destination somewhere around 2am. We had booked a double bed room for the night. However the hotel was completely booked and since I am quiet certain we were some of the last people to check in the only room they had left was a single queen bed room with a window seat. It may not have been as bad if the room wasn't the size of a closet. And of course since most of the kids slept on the way there, mainly Ozzye, HE was wide awake when we arrived.

They did bring us a pull out bed which Aubriel is currently laying on in this picture. Gage and Brody took the floor, Kain took the window seat, Dave tried starting out in bed with the baby and I but soon left for the pull out which he described as sleeping on a giant crib mattress. Aubriel came to bed with me which she soon switched with Kain. Ozzye played musical beds until he passed out in bed with Kain, Eila and I. At least we got a free breakfast in the morning and we were off to our condo!

The first day we arrived it rained on and off which was unfortunate. We went to see a dam but they didn't offer the best scenic over looks to actually see it but the area was very pretty and the kids got to run around a bit.

Kain being silly...

Ozzye having breakfast and watching the ducks from our balcony.

After our first day of rain we had clear skies for the rest of the week so we set out to explore some caves. Which turns out were set to open the next week so we kind of missed the boat on that one and why we have no pictures of that incredible waste of time. So we drove around to the other side of the HUGE state park in hopes of finding some biking trails... which we did not but we found a park...

Which we played at for a while simply because after driving that far just to get to MO the little kids have a complete melt down when we ask them to get back in the truck even for short little trips.

And we found a lake which is usually a vacation all it's own in the boys minds...

Ozzye not wanting anything to do with getting his picture taken...

Soon after that he attempted to walk to my parents house back in WI... he didn't make it.

From there we managed to find one dirt trail which we thought looked promising but not even a 1/4 of a mile down it realized it was far more of a mountain biking trail than one should probably take 4 small children under the age of 8 on. So we left to bike the paved one we saw in town earlier.

Hanging out while Dad sets up the bikes...

The rest played at the park...

This is what Ozzye did when I told him to stick his head in the hole like Kain so I could take a picture...

While the paved trail offered a better surface to bike on it was VERY steep which was fun pulling trailers with kids in them and it ran right along the road which wasn't too fun. But the sun was shinning and we were out as a family so I guess it was a good day!

The view across the lake from our balcony...

The next day we woke ready to head a little bit south to Ha Ha Tonka state park. It was several acres with a castle built on it in the early 1900s. Unfortunately the owner died before it was finished and for a while was a B&B before it burned down. Now it is a park with ruins, trails, parks, caves (of course all were closed the day we were there) and lots of wildlife.

Ozzye continued to be his charming self for pictures...

The over look where hawks flew under us...

Me with "my kids"...

Dave with "his"...

Natural rock bridge...

Completely freaked me out walking under it so maybe it was a good thing all the caves were closed.

I think I might be nursing while hiking here...

This was actually a VERY long hike but since Dave had the camera we have very few pictures to show for it.

Picnic at the park for lunch...

Off to do more hiking. This was kind of a fun little island we hiked around with rather dangerous terrain. I think at one point Dave even pointed out we might be considered "irresponsible" if people saw the conditions we were hiking with our small children, two of them being 3 and 2 months. Luckily Dave and I were each wearing them!

Taken from the top of the island...

Until another wanted to ride and the one that had been riding had WAY too much energy! By this point we were off the island and on more stable ground...

...for the most part.

The ruins we were at earlier...

The next day... our last day, we took the kids to play mini golf before we left town early to hit a bike trail in Jefferson City on our way to WI Dells.

Hangin out while the rest of us pack up...

We biked a really nice paved trail in Jefferson City that actually runs the with of the state. We of course only biked about 6 miles of it. And took some pictures at a cute little rest stop we stopped at half way.

Right after this picture was taken Eila pooped all over Dave...

So we decided to head back to the truck...

The most adorable piece of property nestled in between a couple of huge rolling hills along the trail... I want to some EXACTLY like this!

The older two waiting for us to catch up...

This kids playing while we pack the bikes back up...

We made it to the Dells at about 2am. Stayed at the Chula Vista waterpark for a few days before making our way home.

She looks thrilled to be swimming for the first time...

You wouldn't know it by this picture but she loved the lazy river...

Baby's first bath!