Hmm I put Alli in the Snugli my wonderful friend has borrowed to me (this thing is great- WHY did I not have one with my three other kids?~) so I could get some stuff done, and now she is sleeping like a little angel but I cant figure out how to get her out without waking her up. Good time for a blog update :)
        The other night I took the kids to Fazolis for the Tuesday night kids night- we havent done that in forever. I sat at the table and watched as they went over and did their coloring projects, and gosh they all seemed so BIG suddenly. We used to do the kids night every week without fail when Eric was little. Back then it was just him and me, bombing around town in the little black s-10 truck, and now all of a sudden there are four of them and one of me....Well it seems to be working so far. I definitely got off track with keeping after them getting stuff done, with some issues of their behavior, etc, for the last month or two of being pregnant, and it's taking awhile to get everything in order again, but I think I'm getting there. The other day Holly and Jake were not listening about doing something and I said "watch it, I can move a lot faster now that I'm not pregnant" haha.
          It's been an interesting week:
          Jake apparently decided he did not want a mohawk anymore, so he tried to cut it off. Right down to the scalp, too. Adam buzzed off the rest of his hair and tried to make it look normal, but it's gonna be awhile before he doesn't have white spots in the front of his hair....Damn, it's amazing how
         a) no one can ever find a scissors (and we bought a TEN PACK 2 months ago and they're all MIA) but a kid who wants to cut their own hair always manages to scrape one up.  and
         b) you never notice your kid cut their hair until you find the hair, even though they did it like 8 hours ago. "Oh yeah he DOES have a bald spot"....
         For the record, I did cut brian's hair once when we were little. I was smart enough not to cut my own, and I was smart enough to make him lay on a little toy ironing board with a paper bag underneath while I sheared it off :)
         Ah yes and then last night Eric caught Jake peeing downstairs on a pile of clean clothes in his closet?! I was sooooo mad that tonight when they came in the house Jake had to "do" his own laundry.  He lost his good kid status for a few days!
        Holly has been sooooo out of sorts all week, if she was not only almost 7  I would swear she had PMS. I think it's just time for school to be done and summer to start, and I think she's kindof bummed cuz she knows she's not going to see any of her 5k friends in school next year, but holy man, what a little grouch. Two mornings Adam took the kids to school and he said she refused to get out of the truck. Thats really not like her, she usually loves school and they are doing lots of fun end of the year stuff so Im not sure what her problem is.
        I painted a wall in the living room. Yup, a whole wall. And I got it done before I gave up, I hung stuff on it, and it looks GOOD.  Adam came home and i was sitting with Alli in the chair admiring my one blue wall. Literally watching paint dry haha. Im not much of a decorator, and I HATE painting, but it was a tiny project and it ended good....until I picked up the drop cloth and paint had soaked through onto the carpet. Sigh. Shampooing carpets between "baby sleeps" at 10 pm.
       We switched Alli totally over to formula this week, which I was kindof dissapointed in myself for giving up the nursing thing, but it just doesn't work for me, I am on the go way too much. Kudos to all those moms who do it for months and months at a time, it's rewarding but a lot of work! We gave it a good try for 3 weeks, which was longer than I made it with any of the other kids. As much as I loved spending those entire afternoons sitting in the chair with her, (she was turning into a "snacker"  lol. 10 minutes, go to sleep, wake up for 10 more minutes, sleep some more haha. feeding her was taking me forever.) things get out of hand in the rest of the house when Im not there to lay the smack down on the other three, and also
I guess it would be different if I was a stay at home mom who actually stayed home most of the day. Good thing she is a good little traveler cuz she gets stuck running errands with me most afternoons while the kids are in school. The sucky part is that she kindof reverted to waking up more at night now, where before she was sleeping 4-5 hours at a time, now it's awake every 2 1/2 hours on the nose it seems like. Regarding buying formula: OMG expensive! Thank god for all the people who passed their freebie sample cans and formula coupons over this way!   
       Not sure about the plans for the big memorial wkend, we're supposed to go camping but it's looking like rain, and I promised the kids a trip to the zoo that was already delayed by bad weather once.  (Aww Mabels first trip to the zoo! Sunday we will be heading to B-town for a bridal shower, and the neighbors always have a big party on memorial monday. fun but busy.....

It's the End of the World as we know it.....

Do you let your kid buy stuff from the ice cream man when he drives by with his tinkly noisy little annoying truck? (always right before dinner too, real nice.) because I don't. I do not care if my kids hate me for their entire lives. It gives me the creeps. Maybe I just watch too many cop shows but the ice cream man always ends up being a)the guy who is casing your house to rob it or b) the sex offender who snatches up the kid drives off and either one is never seen again. Nope. Sorry.  I'd rather run to Pick n Save and let them pick out whatever ice cream treat they want that way.
             It was a gorgeous day  today! We finally got our garden planted- now the tricky part is keeping our kids and the neighbor kids out of it. I cannot wait to make our own crunchy dill pickles again, and the kids LOVE eating peapods and green beans with ranch dip. We planted a lot more tomatoes this year, I really want to try making more of my own tomato sauce, salsa, etc. and we should have the first batch of rhubarb for making raspberry-rhubarb jam in the next few weeks. The kids have been waiting all week for it to get warm enough to plant, so they were excited to help. Holly planted sunflowers in her own pot. The boys helped dad with the vegetable seeds, and then Eric helped me plant some flowers and Alli's rosebush, so that kept us busy all afternoon, then we had a nice little brat cookout and a fire for awhile, relaxed a little in the back yard. (Well, it was relaxing until that ice cream man incident.grrr..) We put Alli in the stroller and parked her on the deck so she could get her nap in the fresh air, it was so cute I swear she was laying there listening to the birds chirping. It's like she has superhearing, she is so aware of everything. And when she wakes up she stretches her arms and legs out perfectly straight and makes little grunting noises. Oh yeah, and she has also decided her favorite "awake" time of the day...is at 4 AM!? Really. My wonderful baby who sleeps so great also loves to wake up at 4 am and lay on the bed and stare at me for 2 hours.
            Adam and I hit up some rummage sales while the kids were in school this afternoon, didn't find much but we found a few misc. things and a bunch of clothes for the kids. I am trying to plan ahead that I want get enough stuff to "clothe" all of them through next winter- yikes.  I cannot believe they only have about 2 weeks of school left. Think Eric and Holly are feeling kindof left out because all the kids in both of their classes are having visits to their "new" schools next year, and since they are not going to KASD schools next year, it doesn't really apply to them.  I know Holly will love going to school with all her cousins and Daisy friends, and Eric does know a lot of kids already here, but it's kind of sad to be saying goodbye to all their Kaukauna friends and teachers. Eric has been in kaukauna schools since he was in 4K. I have been making that "drive" back and forth across town one direction or another several times a day for 6 years. Next year they will only be about 1/2 a mile from their schools. Can't complain about that, but it'll be sad to park by that water tower for the last time!              
           I got my first Big Fat Check for shopping on Ebates yesterday. Whoo-hoo lol. It was 11.00.  oh well money is money! In case you don't know what ebates is, go to http://www.ebates.com/. You start at ebates and go shopping at other sites through there, and then they give you money back on your purchases. You get your money a few times a year in the form of a Big Fat Check (haha that's what they call it!) It's starting to be kindof a game with the kids - "oooo let's see what mom got free in the mail today". Yesterday we got a little cloth drawstring back for counting change from Coinstar. (those big green machines in walmart) oh yeah and some neato red rubber rainboots I ordered Jake for super cheap, and more free laundry soap samples... (those are awesome to save for when you oops run out of soap and dont wanna run to store 10 o clock at night to get some :) Haven't done much "deal-shopping" otherwise,  seems like all the grocery sales have been kind of "dudd-ish" for the last 2 weeks, and I just cannot make myself do a huge grocery shop when things are not on sale! Good thing tomorrow is saturday...taking 4 kids with me on double coupon day should just be loads of fun.
           Ah yes and tomorrow is the big day that's supposed to be the end of the world lol. Oh boy. well I'm sure we will all still be here in 48 hours so see you either on sunday morning or at the Pearly Gates :p

Just some thoughts...

Got my mother's day card from Jake a few days late since it was left in his backpack. I love love love those "fill in the blank" cards.  It read something like this: My mom likes to eat candy and sierra mist. My mom's eyes are blue (haha they're brown) My mom's favorite show is Cast Out (I think he meant Castle lol.) My Mom likes to cook french toast. (I don't think I have ever made french toast) My mom is 14 years old. Really?!
         It was a busy week trying to get into the swing of some kind of "normal" again. Honestly the baby is not even the one who is all the work. (I swear easiest newborn baby EVER.) It is the other three. And what is with all the teachers, etc, trying to cram As Much As Possible into the last month of school?! We are overrun with school projects, after school activities, field trips and birthday snacks (since all three have summer birthdays- yup you guessed it, three half birthday snacks coming up. Well I will be cheating and buying something premade this year, sorry kids.)
       Today to top it all off, the bad thing Adam and I sortof guessed was coming happened. Bill the Bluegill finally kicked the bucket. Poor fish. He hadn't been looking too good lately. He was five years old, pretty good for a fish that came home all the way from Winneconne in a plastic sand pail. (I don't know how he ever made it. I thought for sure that day by the time I got home he would have hopped out and been laying in the trunk baking in the sun.) He was about 3 inches long the day we brought him home and today when Adam took him out of the tank to "preserve" him (we're going to hang him on the wall) he's got to be pretty darn close to 10 inches? Eric was hysterically upset, but he might have been overdoing it a little just so he could go to grammas house....then again, he pretty much reacted the same way when the guinea pig died. Sucks, but its a part of life I guess.
         Alli has been all over with us this week, seriously it's almost too easy. I hope she doesn't make it up to us by putting us through hell when she is teething. As long as she eats before we start our running around, she is happy being hauled around for a  good couple hours. She only cries when she is hungry or when you change her clothes, or maybe when she needs a little snuggly time, and then she will lay down on your chest and sleep forever- what a sweetie. I already want her to stay this little forever. One day this week I sat in the recliner with her on me all afternoon just because I could. The other kids were gone, no one there to bug us, no place to go. Figured I better enjoy the peace and quiet now, cuz the kids only have about 3 weeks of school left and then no more peace and quiet for 3 months. She is such a contrast to Holly- who was an extremely demanding baby. Holly needed to be held all the time, she was soooo fussy, even as a toddler she was demanding. Anyone in the family can tell you how she used to point when she wanted something and say "BUH!" I can remember the nurses bringing holly down from the nursery in the hospital and I could hear her from all the way down the hall. "Yep, that one is mine. The loud one"...
         Adam really wanted me to go see some band tonight with him but I am not ready to leave her yet. It might be because of the whole traumatic birth thing, but I have the slight overprotective thing going on in tandem with the "guilty mom" complex about how much the other kids have gotten shuffled around in the last couple weeks. I never like asking anyone to watch them more than once a week, and none of them have really ever had a babysitter out of the family. Yeah, it would be nice to have more help, it would be nice to get out more but they're MY kids. If I really wanted to spend every single weekend sitting in bars I prolly wouldnt have had them!
        This weekend is Kaukauna city-wide rummage sales, we will be hitting those bright and early, and sunday is holly's dance recital. We have a garden to plant and a lawn to mow (well that would be easier if we had a stinkin lawnmower) and three kids who need to clean their rooms. And really all I wanna do is leave it all and pile the kids in the 'Verban and drive away somewhere nice and sunshiney and next a lake. Whitefish Dunes, anyone? Cant wait for summer....

In Celebration of Mother's Day....

Things I love about my kids/being a mom:

the sense of accomplishment that comes from multi-tasking Yeah, you can really blog, and eat  your dinner and yell at your other kids and do it with a baby on your boob at the same time.

the awesomest things ever that come home made especially for me in their backpacks. My favorites so far: Erics fill in the blank book he made in 4K that says "If I had a million dollars, I would buy my mom a bigger house". (haha, that was when we lived in our first house and holly had to sleep in the converted laundry room) and Holly's painted sand dollar and all the christmas ornaments with their faces on them.

That saying you have four kids sounds really impressive. Haha, when I took Holly with me to the doctor's office for Alli yesterday, we stopped at a rummage sale on the way home. "Oh, you have 2 girls", the lady said, "how cute".  And I said "yes, we left the boys at home today". 4 kids, she was impressed  and I was kindof proud of myself lol. Yeah, I can say I gave birth to four kids and survived! (Just for the record,  I don't think 4 is even a huge number. And so far, the baby has been way less work that the other three.)

I love that they are 4 totally different combinations of the two of us. I can look at Eric and pick out Adams restlessness when he wants to wander around the neighborhood on his bike, and sometimes when you tell him to do something and he gets this bullheaded attitude, I can tell exactly how he's thinking, it's like being in my own 10 year old head all over again thinking "Well, I'm gonna find a way to do that anyway".... Oooo and he's picky lol, definitely gets that from Adam. "Mom, I aint eatin that". Well kid,  if that's whats for dinner and I say you're eating it, you're cleaning your plate :p
I can look at Holly and she is so smart, she has my love of reading, loves like crazy to color and draw, and she is always willing to try new stuff, even if she is scared to do it at first.
Jake,  he is like a mini Adam clone. He can hear a freigh train coming from 5 miles away. He's been waiting all winter to get that green hornet boat out and go fishing. 99 percent of the time he is super good-natured, but when he gets stubborn, boy he is like a brick wall.
Mabel, well I don't know about her yet she's only a week old but she makes a pretty big stinky for such a little thing (haha, that's what she gets from adam) and I noticed yesterday she's got this tiny mark on her ear, it's such a little thing you wouldn't even notice, but she gets that from me :)

I love that even though it's crazy around here n rarely quiet, there is tons of comic relief moments every day
 Holly has been bringing home hilarious drawings for 5 months with a little bald baby named Alli colored on them, and I swear every day she would say "now there are going to be six people in our family".   Now she wants to go back and add brown hair to all her pics.

I love that Jake's teacher asked him if the new baby was here yet and he told her "Yes, her name is Mabel".  I don't think the teacher was very impressed at our name choice.

I love that Eric likes to borrow grandpa's cellphone when he goes over to their house, and he will call ten times from wherever he is, just to make calls. "Hey Mom, I'm riding my bike through the park. Do you want me to stop at the gas station and buy you a pack of gum for later?" because he talks like he's 45 years old.

That you can say "No" whenever you want to, even if it's just because you feel like it. HAHA, self-explanatory right? lol

I love it when you make something for dinner and they say "Mom, you're the best cook ever", whether it's lasagna or cheeseburger macaroni.

I love that they remember EVERYTHING. I am not kidding. My kids have the memory of elephants. Their favorite one by far "Hey Mom remember when the goat ate Jake's paper bag?"  I hope they remember it all when they are older.

I love that even when they "hate" you, they still love you :)  At least when they're little. In five years we are going to have one kid on the verge of driving, one girl on the verge of teenage pms years, one on the way to middle school, and one on the way to 4k. could get interesting around here....

Happy Mother's Day!

Mabel is here!

Well I didnt abandon my blog, but I've been a little busy.....
Monday night we had a baby girl named Allissa Rose. As she lays next to me here on the bed trying to eat her hands and watching me through her sleepy little eyes, I seriously do not know how she even fit in my belly, or how the heck i got her out.
  She's not little, that's for darn sure! 9 lbs 8 oz, 21 inches. 9 1/2 hours of labor which was really quite easy and tolerable until the end when she gave us what shall forever be known as The Most Frightening Ten Minutes of Our Lives.  Without going into graphic details, I will just say that I am so grateful that I had a doctor with a cool head and clear, quick, thinking. Alli and I both came out of it much, much better than we really should have. There is not much more scary than watching your new baby laying on the table not moving her arms. She had to have her shoulders x-rayed to check for a broken collar bone (negative-thank god~), and she had a lot of scratches and bruises, but even a couple days later she is doing much better and I am sllloooowly getting there. (so much for good hospital pictures though, sheesh I saw only a few I let adam take and I look like death.)  She is  a pretty good sleeper, sometimes 3-4 hours at a time, and nurses like a champ.
       The kids are having mixed reactions I think. Eric at the hospital he wasnt too interested, but tonight when he came in the house, he kindof touched her head and he said a couple times "She's cute, she's got a lot of hair". (I can see the wheels in his head turning, even though he doesn't say it. Call me a wimp,  but we never really had that "where do babies come from" conversation). Jake was pretty upset the first night he came up to the hospital, but I think it had more to do with seeing me in the hospital bed looking roughed up. Tonight he came into our room upstairs "where's Allissa?" and he stood next to her little bed watching her sleep for a long time. Holly of course, is ecstatic. She came into that hospital room with the biggest grin on her face you have ever seen. Right away today after school she asked to hold her and she said "Now I won't have to play with boys anymore". (Well it's gonna be awhile til Alli can play lol. And by that time Holly will prolly WANT to play with boys-yikes!)
       Adam did the superawesomest job ever this afternoon corralling the kids and cleaning up the house and making supper, getting them all ready for bed etc so I could rest.  He looked soooo tired by about 8:30, I bet he will be ready to go back to work in a week lol. (I'm pretty sure he realizes now how absolutely horribly I felt trying to do all that the last 2-3 weeks when I could hardly move.) I think in a week or two when we get some new routines down, we'll be fine. It was kindof a wierd feeling to have them all home. Like hello, we have FOUR kids?!  (And by the way, that'll do folks. Even dr agreed four is a good number and no more are recommended.) It's kindof a bittersweet feeling looking at her and knowing for sure this is the last time we will ever have these "new baby" moments,  I cant wait for all the firsts that the next few weeks will bring!.....