Holiday Events at School

Thanks for coming Grandma!!!

Busy Birthday Weekend

Fridays I usually get most of the cleaning out of the way, so that not too much has to be done over the weekend. This week was no exception, especially with Ashleigh's birthday party coming up. We had family over Saturday evening along with her cousin and a few friends spend the night. The kids seemed to have fun trying to find the candy canes I had hid in the green belt by our house. It was pretty dark out, and so I let them use flashlights to try and find them. They found about all but 10 or so that were still out there. So, this morning they went back out to try and find the remaining ones. I dropped Quinn off at a friend's house & then took Ashleigh and her friends to Laser Quest. It's a little bit of a hike from our house, and then made the rounds to take everyone home.

Mikaila got to have her cousin spend the night and do you think they really went to bed when I THOUGHT they would-how does 2:30 in the morning sound?! Of course the older girls were all still up downstairs, or at least most of them, I think. I was out like a light-this mamma was tired!

Joel is at the Cards game with my brother and their uncle who has season tickets, I'm sure they are having a great time right now!

A Nice Saturday

Saturday morning I knew I would have to get up early, and get the girls up too. We were going to drive to Grandma Donna's house and from there, the four of us would go to the Christmas tea @ Church. ALOT of work goes into all the beautiful tables that are put together, the food, the speakers and the singing! We sat with my mom, two of her friends, and my two sistahs. After we made our way back to "farm country", east L.A. or whatever you want to call where we live, we had about 45 minutes before we had to leave again. Joel's holiday work party was not very far from where we were just earlier that morning!

It was fun, and well planned to keep the kids occupied. I must say, I love my little gift that I came home with, and Joel got a nice fuzzy foot massager-not too shabby! The kids had fun with the Christmas tree pinata. An all around busy, but fun day!

This afternoon, after our poor Christmas tree had been bare this past week-we finally got the lights and ornaments on! Hooray! I think it's nice just having all the lights out and staring at the pretty christmas lights-very peaceful and brings back fond memories of doing that in our family room growing up as a kid. I'm sure I was a pain on "where we should put the tree in our living room or fam. room" back then or how the decorations should go-I haven't changed one bit since!

Even though I knew Santa didn't really come and I was too old, I still liked leaving a note and cookies out for him. Why not still play that game, I guess. It was fun.

Now, as the twins would say, "MerRy ChRiMaS!"

Pictures By The Kids' School

Traditions

Ok...I must say I am QUITE frustrated with my blogging layout! It won't let me drag pictures around, it takes forever for me to change any colors or font sizes, I wanted to just have the third you tube box appear, & maybe I just don't know how to get rid of the other ones. I don't like how EVERYTHING appears on the side-I thought I could drag and rearrange things. Do I not have the right template for that? Please help me, my fellow bloggers.
Alright, now that I got that out....We started reading A Christmas Carol to the kids last night. The words are definately written in that time period, so some of it is probably over their head. That's o.k. because fortunately, they have seen the movie and know whats going on. I do enjoy reading to the kids (Joel too) and hopefully they enjoy listening!

Our Holiday Week

It really was nice having all of us together last week, when Joel and the kids are off-it's fun! Last Wed. we went to the mall to go get some family pictures taken. We left our house at 2:45 to make pictures for 3:40 and traffic was CRAZY! We didn't even leave the mall till 7:00 p.m. and traffic was still bad. We came home, let the cool air come through the windows and put in a Christmas movie. Nice & cozy.
Thursday we spent our day with Joel's sister and her family in the afternoon and then visited my side of the family in the evening. Thank you both families for having us.
Friday, Mikaila got invited to a friend's house for a birthday sleepover (her old buddies from her school last year) I'm really glad she got to visit with them again. I dropped Quinn off at his friend's house and did a little bit of shopping. My wreath was plain and I wanted to "dress" it up a little bit.
Saturday, we picked up Mikaila & then headed to Joel's mom's house from there. We were dropping the little guys of with her, so that we could go to Glendale Glitters. We watched the dance routines on the main stage for about an hour, the kids went in the petting zoo area (the little pigs were 6wks old and sooo cute!), listened to some great music being played on the streets, and went into a few shops. The funny thing is, I bet you anything that the kids favorite parts of the evening were going on the big charter bus to get there and getting a simple stick of candy at one of the shops! Little things can become very fond memories!
Last night, our tree is up and now we need to decorate it!
I love the excitement from the twins this year, it just makes everything so great!!!

"Parents Shouldn't Get Sick"

Over the weekend the lovely stomach bug hit our house...Quinn had a touch of it last week, but we all were fine. Saturday came, & I thought oh, I'm prob. just kind of crampy with well....you know. Anyways, it didn't take long for me to realize that I was sick, then Ashleigh, then after Casey got up from his nap, there was evidence that he was sick too! Good grief, we were all just fine 24hrs ago! I honestly couldn't even get up off the couch, and Ashleigh would call from her cell phone to the house phone to tell us that she threw up-just what you wanted to know, I'm sure.
Fortunately, yesterday I was at least able to get up and do a few things. Yes, it's time to praise my husband and thank him for ALL the things he did on Sat. even though he didn't feel that great himself. I guess, it just boils down to who's the sickest! Poor Quinn started crying because he felt bad that everyone was sick and thought it was because of him. Mikaila told me last light that parents shouldn't get sick. I said why? and she said, "Because we have to eat frozen dinners, and you won't be able to come to my Thanksgiving day feast at school and I forget what the other thing was that she said. She's absolutely right. I hate feeling like I can't take care of what needs to be taken care of.
Well, on to funner topics....I DID feel up to going to the kid's school today. I helped in Mikaila's classroom for a little while and enjoyed seeing what takes place at school during the day. I stopped by the cafeteria to say hi to Quinn, then waited till Ashleigh's lunch time to pay her a visit. Of all days, she said she had to run over two miles in PE, just as she's barely feeling better!
The twins were a big hit at school, especially with Jr. High girls. "Oooh there so cute!' "Are those your brothers Ashleigh?"
They were the little/BIG men on campus today!

Our New Dentist

Yesterday, I took the girls to our new dentist's office since our move. I have never seen a more kid friendly dentist office, than this one! They have absolutely thought of everything...It's a Disney theme office done in a jungle atmosphere. So the kids can sit on little stumps and watch the movie while they are waiting to be called back. There was a mini arcade, which the twins wanted me to play with them, & since they wern't quite tall enough to reach the controllers, they stood on the little stumps-too cute!

Once they are called back, they of course sit in the chair and there are hanging clouds with a tv screen attatched to it. They have their choice between two movies to watch while they are being worked on. Not too shabby of a set up, just for going to the dentist! Then of course, there is the treasure chest and the balloon they take home & they also get a t-shirt and if they wear it when they come back for their next visit-they'll get two prizes. When Mikaila was telling Quinn all about her trip there, I have never seen him so anxious to go the dentist in my life!

Mission accomplished!

Update

For those of you wondering if Ashleigh made the team or not, the answer is no. She came SO CLOSE, it could have been those shots that just didn't fall when the coach was looking, who knows! A little disappointing, but everything happens for a reason. The sport she prob. prefers most is softball. So come spring, hopefully her confidence will still be there and she will give that a try.

Yesterday, I was downstairs vacuuming and I couldn't really hear over the noise, and then all of a sudden I DID hear something. Camden was crying very hard and I knew immediately that something was wrong! I looked down at his arm & leg and the skin had been worn off-we were trying to figure out what had happend and Mikaila had found the treadmill going full blast. He must have been on it, turned it on, and then fell and couldn't get up right away. Stupid me for leaving the key in the treadmill-that's the whole point of taking it out, to keep others from getting hurt! Anyways, he's very sore but he's being a trooper. I'm just thankful it wasn't any worse.

Anxious To Hear

Wednesday Ashleigh had the second cuts for trying out for the girls basketball team & so I thought I would know if she mad it or not yesterday......Now there's going to be a third cut! Joel said, " What is this the NBA or something?!" I guess there was just SO MANY girls (over 100) that tried out, that the coaches are doing their best to get the final 15 that will make the team. So, that meant being as organized as we pos. could be last night & getting all the kids up early this morning and being at the the gym by 7AM!

Yesterday I spent some time trying to get the boys to go potty on the "big boy" potty. I'm not sure they are quite interested yet, but we'll keep trying-I anxiously look forward to the day that we will not have two in diapers.
Have a great Friday!

Our Week In Review

Well, last week Quinn was home from school just one day-his stubborn cough seems to creep up, oh too often! It was nice just to read to him and eat lunch together over a bowl of chicken soup.

That was the same day that Ashleigh decided to try out for the girls basketball team at school. The day before Joel took her down to our neighborhood court and practiced a few things with her. I was so anxious to hear how she did the next day, but I didn't want her to feel pressured-
she made the first cuts!!!! So now, she has one more day this coming week to hopefully make the final cuts. I'm just really proud that she tried out at all, she said there was between 40-50 girls that tried out!
Sat. Joel's cousin Kat came over, and the two of us decided to go to one of my favorite stores in downtown Glendale. Oh yeah, Ashleigh came too and loaded up on the holiday refreshments that The Apple Tree was serving-you would think the girl hadn't eaten in 10 years! Things are definately overpriced there, but I didn't want to walk out totally empty handed, so I just bought a Christmas dish towl. Real exciting , I know... Oh well, the main thing was we had a fun day together and Quinn had fun having Kaleb spend the night.
Today we took the kids to the late service at church, went for lunch, and tried to find the twins some tennies. I'm so picky, so even after three stores, they still didn't have any new shoes-how sad is that!
Back to school tomorrow, and then the kids will be off Tuesday. Hoping to make some little gingerbread men, because I would like to make a cute Christmas garland. Notice I said "hoping" to make, life is busy at our house with 5 kids, but I have holiday stuff I really would love to get rolling on! You can check back later in the week to see if I was able to work on things.
Have a great Monday!

Our Boo Night!!!

This past week we were trying to get outfits together for all the kids, so they could go have fun and trick or treat! Ashleigh was Miss Teen USA, Mikaila was in a Midevil princess outfit, Quinn was Indiana Jones, Cam was Captain America and Case was Spidey. The little guys were pretty hesitant to get the costumes on, and we told them if they did get them on, we would go get some candy. ENOUGH SAID!!!
Off we went, with Joel's cousin's little boy Kaleb and her Dad, who was dressed up as Darth Vader. We had brought our wagon along in the car in case we would need it for the boys, but I must say, they did awesome and walked the whole way!
(It was prob. about an hour, to an hour and a half of walking).
Being that we didn't have dinner ahead of time, we decided to go through the drive thru @ Wendy's and didn't get home till close to 10:00pm. There's not too many nights we would allow eating "dinner" that late and eating candy, but hey, it was Halloween and I guess anything goes!
Fun night!

Life Around Our House This Past Week

About every 4-6 weeks my side of the fam. gets together. So, last Saturday we all went to the park and had lunch and a game of kickball. Man! If I had known we were going to be playing that, I definately would not have worn my flip flops-we played with a soccer ball & it was pretty hard! I must say, the boys are quite the little cheaters! Telling us no bunting and well guess what they did-that's ok, I don't recall the scores, but I'm sure we won both games!!!

Anyways, I'm glad we set aside the time to get together, because time just seems to fly by.

Saturday night, Mikaila had her cousin spent the night and Ashleigh went to an activity with her two cousins and ended up spending the night over there.

Sunday we tried to find some costumes for the kids.

I'll just skip a few days and get to this morning.....At 6:50 this morning I hear the doorbell ring, I just assume that it's Ashleigh's friend across the street wanting to borrow something or return something. Door bell rings again, then knocking-nobody there!! Hmmm....Too early for a sales person so I came to the conclusion that some kids were door bell ditchers!! Normally Ashleigh goes a little bit later to school and carpools with the neighbor, but she decided to go with me and her sister and brothers today. I drop Q & M off a little before 8:00 A.M. so, we hung out at the park for a while until she needed to be at school. It was fun!



Oh, by the way, GO SUNS!!!!!!!!!!

Our Little Carpet Picnic

Tonight, Mikaila wanted to make egg salad sandwiches (herself) and whenever we have that, we have the beans, chips, & fruit to go with it. We always have our little carpet picnic with this menu-it started at our old house, just to mix things up a little bit.
Now it's become our tradition I guess.

Our kitchen area is kind of big, so that often times becomes our indoor soccer area or basketball game time after dinner. It's actually fun, and you can burn a few calories at the same time!!
Casey is a little more of our "jock" and loves to join in on the action.

Tomorrow is Team Day (Field Day) at the kids school and they will be playing games all day long. How fun is that?!! Joel is off tomorrow, so hopefully we can surprise them and show up and join them.

Russell's Weekend

Well, lets see...Friday night after I had the twins tucked in, or so I thought-I decided to go check on them. Apparently they had a different agenda in mind because they wern't in their beds at all and they certainly wern't sleeping! I decided to bring the camera in there and turn the flash on, so you could see what they were up to. Quite the little leprocauns they are!
(March 17th b-day).

After school Quinn stayed the night at his friend's house, and when I called him on Saturday to see what time we should pick him up, he asked if he could spend the night again! I wasn't planning on him staying another night, and I told him I would just call him later and let him know what time we would get him. I had had a change of heart though, because I knew how much fun he was having and so I told him he could stay again-what a nice mom I am!!!

Anyhow, Joel and I decided to go to a late movie that night, after the little guys were tucked in. So Ashleigh, her friend, and Mikaila were somehow muddling through without us! They decided to pop some popcorn and melt chocolate on top of it and also put strawberry syrup on it-SO GROSS!!! They apparently liked it. Who knows what else went on while we were gone, but everybody was safe and sound when we got back.

Today we picked up Quinn and headed to a really nice park in Verrado. I'm really glad the little guys especially got to go, because I find myself making excuses during the week when they ask to go play at the playground. I don't know, I like just getting home after I drop the kids off and getting my cleaning done and whatever phone calls I need to take care of. But today was their lucky day, and I'm glad they had so much fun and the other kids too (that includes Joel!).
Sorry, this was kind of long-hopefully you didn't fall asleep!

Our Little Santas

Only 73 more days till Christmas, and the Santas at our house are already getting busy! I think I must be a little more into the holiday than the average person...Come November I have no problem listening to Christmas music, even though the kids are like "C'mon mom, it's not even Thanksgiving yet!" Being in our new home this year, I'm even more excited about the decorating part-so cozy!! No fireplace to hang our stockings on this year, I may just use my peg rack-I'm sure it will still look cute! Maybe it was all the cooler weather over the weekend that's making me start planning already!

Our Sweet Boy, Quinn

Thanks Quinn for letting Mom take some pictures of you. You are growing up so fast. I love your sweet spirit. You are smart, handsome, kind to others and a son that we are very proud of!

We love you very much!

Big Weekend for Ashleigh!!!

Well what can I say, except Ashleigh had a very memorable Saturday, & I'm sure she will not forget it any time soon!
Her good friend Sam, who she met in third grade, was turning 13 over the weekend and her parents went all out for her!!!! It started by the black Excursion LIMO picking them up at Sam's and then picking up 7 of the other friends and taking them to a RESORT to spend the night! Of course it was adult supervised. They went golfing there (which Ashleigh had to fetch a couple of her friends' balls, since they flew into the pool and she still had her suit on!), they went down the lazy river, pool, ordered pizza, made mini scapbooks, made ice-cream sundays and the list went on! Whew! This sets the bar kind of high for the rest of those friends that will be having a b-day over the next few months. C'mon she's only 13! I'm thinkin ice-sakting or something like that for Ashleigh. She had a very fun time. Obviously!!!

Muffin Marathon!!

Saturday, I decided to make some different muffins and keep a nice supply in the freezer so the kids could just pull them out in the mornings for something quick to eat. I had a box that had been in the pantry for a while and so I decided to make that (apple cinnamon) and then I looked in my lovely new cookbook (thanks mom) and decided to make oatmeal muffins and added mushed bananas to them. After they came out of the oven I melted butter, dipped the tops in it and then dipped it in sugar-the kids liked them. I ended up making two batches of the oatmeal banana. Then I decided to make conrbread muffins to be able to heat up with dinner sometime. THEN, Ashleigh wanted to make brownies, so we also put those in the muffin tins-oh my goodness-sooo yummy, no really! I don't know how many of you ever watch the food network, ( I just started to) but oh boy, do I love watching Paula Dean!!! Good 'ol southern gal who will make you feel all warm and fuzzy and wish you could just go to her house for dinner, or any other time for that matter. I think I need to buy her book!

That night we went to church and then Mikaila spent the night at the neighbor's house across from us. In Ashleigh's youth group at church they are having a contest of who can put together the best movie, so she brought her friend with us that night and they were all pumped about making this movie! I only have about a 30 second debut in it-I guess they don't appreciate my acting skills! I'm sure they'll have fun with it.
Sunday Joel, Quinn and the Hansen men & John went to the last D-Backs game of the season. (Male bonding time). I'm glad they got to do that.

A Little Overwhelmed.....

Friday morning for me was quite busy, it all started with Joel unfortunately not being able to find any keys at 4:30 in the morning! I groggily go downstairs, and just take the set off of mine and give it to him-who knows where the other set is at this point. I crawl back in bed and about an hour later I hear Casey up, it's only 5:45 am. I try to pretend I don't hear him but know I might as well get up soon and go to the grocery store, before they go to school. We certainly don't want any child to go without eating cereal for a morning.

Being that Mikaila was going to be receiving a student of the month award at school at 9:15, I already had planned on them going to school late. As I'm in tow with the twins in their cafeteria, I quickly realize I don't see Camden!! At first I thought Quinn was with him sitting down with his class-nope! I'm beginning to get a little panicky and start looking for him and telling Mikaila's teacher that I don't see him!! She actually was the one to find him-thank God! I now have both of them with me sitting on the cafeteria floor, until Camden decides to get up and walk out of the caf. doors-ok. that means I have to leave Casey and run after Camden! Then I want to get a picture of Mikaila and her award-that means leaving them for 30 seconds again. Are you beginning to catch on, it's kind of difficult w/ 2 two year olds against 1 mom! We get home, I put them down for their nap, thinking they got up early and should sleep a long time-hmmm.. I'm outside and I see the door open with Camden handing the phone to me saying"here Mommy" Why was he already up?-An hour nap!!!! When Mamma's not happy, nobody's happy!

Soooooo,

We had to have a little family meeting that night to discuss DAILY chores, not just sometimes. Thank you for everyone pitching in, it really does make a huge difference. Ok...I'm done.

The Birthday Gals

We did some celebrating over the weekend for our niece Courtney, and for this Mamma. We are verrry close in age-she just turned 16 and I just turned.....
Anyways, Friday morning there was some beautiful roses and cards waiting for me. It really was sweet, the card with 5 mice on it from the kids was very appropriate and cute! The card from Joel was great too-one of the pics. on the card was of a couple shopping together (life's moments). Yes believe it or not, we do enjoy going grocery shopping together every sat. morn. By ourselves, I might add-imagine that!

Joel also wrote me an acrostic spelling out "Mary and Joel Forever"- 11 years ago yesterday, we had our first date. Very thoughtful.

Also on Friday, Jen came by for a visit, and course we always love seeing Aunt Jeni!
Saturday, Joel and I dropped the kids off at Donna's, so Mommy could do some clothes shopping. Thank you!!!!
Sunday, we celebrated Court's sweet 16. Our little guys, you will notice, always had a lollipop in their mouth-mmmmm.... then some cookies and ice-cream.
Yep, that was a great party for them-thanks for throwing it!

Yeah, Fall Is Almost Here!

I have been enjoying the cooler mornings lately-it tells me that fall is around the corner & that means cooler weather for quite a while!!!! As much as I dread the summers here, I really don't love snow unless it's just for the day up north!
It really is beautiful, but this desert native is a WIMP and lows in the 40's and 50's is cool enough for me! Anyways, I enjoyed being able to have some windows open in the morning, and taking the boys to the park after I drop Quinn & Mikaila off. My sister in law said that she is looking forward to getting her Starbucks pumpkin spice, that does sound very festive & yummy, I'll have to try that next month.

Our Sweetheart, Mikaila

I enjoyed capturing some cute moments with Mikaila today. I tried to say funny things to get her laughing-it was fun! She truly is our little ray of sunshine.

P.O.M. (Parents of Multiples)

Tonight was the first night we were able to make it to a function with a group for parents with multiples. Each month they get together to have a speaker, or family night, or Christmas parties, or huge garage sales, ect.. I had been wanting to get together with other moms since our guys were very little, but it just didn't happen. Anyways, I knew from their newsletter that they would be having thier family picnic at the same park we took the kids to a couple of weeks ago -where they had a blast getting wet. So, even though we didn't know a soul there, I knew that at the very least everyone would have fun getting wet and playing.
It really was great to meet others with twins. There's a little over 20 familes in this club. Alot of them, or at least the ones that made it tonight had pretty little ones (6-8 weeks old). I look back, and even though it hasn't been that long ago, it really is such a blur! It's just like that, when you have to have a routine and get everything done as best as you can & caring for two! I met a mom whos husband is a pilot and is gone 21 DAYS out of the month! Doesn't that make you grateful for your husband, it does for me!
Even though it's not always easy going somewhere where you don't know anybody, this certainly was a great ice breaker and I'm sure we will be doing many more things in the future with them!

A Little Look At Camden

Here is little Camden enjoying the great outdoors! Sissy snook in a couple shots too!
I'd like to get individual shots posted of the kids each day! Enjoy!

Long Weekend!

Friday the kids were off from school and they were thrilled to get their list of chores, I'm sure! Hey, they're pretty much exempt all week since their at school. Extra help is always nice! That evening we had our munchies and watched Home Alone 2-my choice this time. I'm very aware that it isn't Christmastime, but hey, it cools you off watching Christmas movies!!

Saturday evening Ashleigh spent the night at the neighbor's house and Mikaila's friend spent the night at our house for the first time. Quinn's friend asked him to spend the night, but I figured since they just saw each other the weekend before, we would wait a little bit. What was I thinking, if I planned it right I prob. could have gotten rid of everybody on the same night-except for the twins!!!! From 5 to 2 isn't to shabby though. Just kidding! Actually, Quinn and I made a pizza that night (ok. the dough was already made) but we put pepperoni, cheese, bell peppers, onions, & mushrooms on it and it turned out quite tasty. Now, back in the day, you couldn't have paid me enough money to eat a supreme pizza-I guess taste buds change. Everybody ate it & Mikaila kind of scraped all that off and said it was good!!! Hmmm... wonder why?!
Then it was off to make tents/fort for the girls in the play room and one for Joel and Quinn in the Fam. Room. Very Cozy!
Sunday morning we had a pancake breakfast. I think Micky Mouse turned out looking more like a bear! The kids seemed to enjoy it anyways-which is the main thing.
Monday we went over to some friends' house and let the kids swim and we ate burgers and dogs.
I wasn't intending to go swimming, but somehow-don't ask me how, I tripped on something, camera in hand and fell in the pool!! Holding the camera up in the air the whole time, so it amazingly survived. Quite funny actually.
Yesterday Joel had taken the day off and so we went out for a little bit and then picked up the kids.
Today-Back in the swing of my normal everday routine, which is what I like. Yeah!

Quite Thoughtful......

Joel leaves very early in the morning, so I basically feel a kiss on the cheek and then I go back to sleep. Anyways, Tues. morning he decided to leave me a card on our bathroom sink, with some very nice words and an adorable picture of "us" on the front. The next morning he had done the same thing, except for the kids (or at least those that could read!)
He had definately put quite a lot of thought into each one of the kids cards, just confirming how special they were and loved and also looking forward to the future w/ them. Of course, it's always nice to hear the words- but somehow when you have it to keep and look at later on in life, it's pretty special!

Busy Day!

Today started out with making sure the kids looked half way decent for pictures at school today. Quinn's easy-"get some gel in your hair." Mikaila, took a little while to curl her hair, but we got it done and she quickly got her breakfast and we were out the door. Poor Ashleigh, they had there pics. last week and when she asked me if it was picture day, I said nah it's next Wed! Ooops! That's what I get for looking at the elementary paper instead of hers.

Tonight, we dropped Ashleigh off at a friend of Joels (who he works with and carpools with) they had invited her to their youth group and they wanted her to meet their daughter and hopefully connect. We had told the little guys that we would take them to the playground while sissy was at church, and as we dropped her off, they completely fell apart thinking there was no playground and here we are sitting in this parking lot!
We went to a community park in Goodyear and let the kids play and get wet. It was our first time at this park and was quite impressed with it and Q & M had such a fun time just waiting for the buckets to fill with water and dump on them!

A week prob. just like the rest of you!

Hi,
Well, we had a pretty typical week with school, work, daily chores, bedtime, & friends over. Actually, Quinn was being picked up by a new friend & his Dad from school on Saturday for a play date or whatever you want to call it! I asked the Dad about what time should we pick him up ( thinking 3-4pm), and he says about 6-7pm. Now, that could be a VERY long day for the Dad if for some reason they didn't get along or whatever. I think that's how Moms & Dads think differently....mom's would prob cut the day quite a bit shorter and see how things go, but Dads typically are fly by the seat of their pants kind and just go with whatever happens-which isn't always a bad thing. We get a phone call around 6 that eve. (thinking it's time to go get him) and the Dad asks if Quinn can stay till 8pm-good grief!!! They obviously had a fun time together-& didn't even get around to going swimming. We're glad he has found some new friends at school.

I'm sad to say, tha my camera "magically" is not working right now & yes, I have tried numerous sets of batteries. Which means, I'm obviously unable to post new pictures at the moment. It's a bummer-becasue isn't the real reason why we check out blogs is to see pictures!? In fact, I wish I could have taken a picture of Casey tonight at dinner eating his spaghetti-very....... well, I'll leave that up to you to imagine what his little face looked like!
Yes, it was cute!

My phrase for the week "Pay It Forward" It's a cool feeling when you do something nice for a complete stranger. It could be as simple as waving to them or letting them go ahead of you at the store.

Day In The Life Mom Of 5

6:11 a.m.-Our bedroom doors fly open and then shut ( I think it was one of the twins).
6:44 a.m.-Door opens again "Mom can I open the Capn' Crunch" ( Ashleigh).
6:50 a.m.-Walk downstairs (usually I'm up by 6:30) and see quite a lovely breakfast mess! Clean up mess.
7:10 a.m.-Change 2 diapers.
7:15 a.m.-Fix Mikaila's hair for school.
7:30 a.m.-Out the door to take the kids
8:00 a.m.-Just heard "Mommy" 25 times in the past half hour. No exageration here! I must acknowledge what they are saying to me, otherwise they will repeat themselves until I do!
8:10 a.m. -Turn the Noggin channel on for them (Pre-school shows) Such a great thing!!
8:15 a.m-Eat my bowl of cereal.
8:30 a.m.-Get as much done before the boys' naptime. Clean kitchen, take garbage, straighten living room ect...
9:15 a.m. -Hmmm.... Discover another mess-Lotion on the family room carpet! Clean mess.
9:30 a.m.- the boys bring bookd to me, so it must now be reading time. It's been 15 minutes and thy tel me "all done" and go on their slide in the playroom. "Bye, Bye"
10:00 a.m.-Put in Blues Clues & get my shower.
10:30 a.m.-Check my email.
10:45 a.m.- Get the boys their snack.
11:15 a.m.-I make a phone call that is about 8-9 minutes and come out and find the boys with a bag of chips on the stairway with a TRAIL on a few steps. Thank goodness for the dust buster.
11:30 a.m.-Change 2 diapers and tuck the boys in for their nap.
11:45 a.m.-Finish straightening the house.
12:30 p.m.-Eat lunch and relax.....
1:25 p.m.-I see that Camden is now up from his nap (a little early)
2:15 p.m.-Casey is now up also.
2:30 p.m.- We need to get out the door to get the older kids.
3:00 p.m.-Back Home.
3:30 p.m- Get a phonecall from both a friend of Mikaila's from sch. and Quinn's -wanting to get together-Coordinating that.
4:00 p.m.-Joel is back from picking up Ashleigh and her friend from sch.
5:00 p.m.-Need to take Ashleigh to the store for some school stuff.
6:00 p.m.- We're back, and get a bite to eat.
7:00 p.m.-Joel and I start getting the twins ready for bed-Jammies are on.
7:30 p.m.-Older kids have showered.
8:30 p.m.-Four kids are now tucked in!
9:00 p.m.- Ashleigh should be in bed any minute-we'll see.......
9:30 p.m.- A little bit of exercise. No treadmill tonight-Are you crazy!!!?
10:00 p.m-10:30p.m.- Good night! See everyone bright & early and we'll do this all again tomorrow!

Backyard Done!

Well, we have had a dirt backyard since we moved in and just this past week were able to have it landscaped. Yeah! Right now it's very patchy and alot of brown spots, but I'm hoping the sprinklers will green it up real soon! I'm anxious to put up our volleyball set, there's always a million things you want to do to your background and eventually little by little it will happen.

As I picked up the kids from school on Friday, Quinn's teacher walked over to our van and informed me that he was chosen to be student of the month already! It always makes you proud when you hear how well your kids are doing-it's not always the "good grades" that are important, but their character and how they treat others is equally important to us!

Crazy Night!

Last night's storm was a tad bit crazy, to say the least! It seamed like it started with some lighting, which seamed soooo close and then the next thing I knew wind was whipping up and rain coming down. The boys were in bed at 8:00, I had Mikaila tucked in and about to leave her room and THEN....lights go out, the twins start crying, I'm trying to feel my way to them, I thought I hear Joel yell "Fire!", Ashleigh's trying to make her way out of the bathroom, all the while getting tootpaste in her hair!! Very chaotic trying to get the kids downstairs to see what was going on-even though I couldn't see! Quinn was scared and started to tear up a little. Lucky for us we actually had one bright flashlight that worked, and we could at least round up a few candles to light the house a bit. I knew I loved candles for a reason! Anyways, now that everyone was downstairs in the family room, we were watching the storm and all the lighting and wind. The next thing I know, our trampoline in the backyard was LIFTED up and going up over our block wall into the neighbors yard!!!! It's a twista, it's a twista! Well, I guess that's one way to meet the new neighbors, Oh, hi nice to meet you and by the way, can we get our trampoline that flew into your backyard?! It's actually kind of funny, and one of those moments that I'm sure we won't soon forget.

Tonight's the first night of the Olympics-I've always loved watching them and love all the patriotism that goes along with it all! I love the gymnastics, I always wished I was petite like all those girls, it looks like so much fun. Swimming is prob. my next fav. sport to watch. Go U.S.A.!

First Day!!!!

Monday August 4th was the first day back to school. Going to a new school is never easy, but somehow I think it's a little bit easier for the younger ones, than Jr. High age. I was crossing my fingers, just hoping everyone would have a great day....especially Ashleigh! I really didn't want to hear how bad they wanted to go back to there old school, and why do we have to go here?! Fortunately, that wasn't the case at all, in fact, Ashleigh happened to meet up with a friend she new at her old school and was quickly introduced to other friends.
Mikaila made two new friends, including a friend named Quinn (a girl) now that gets confusing when she's talking about her and I think she's talking about her brother!
Quinn's made two new friends as well.
I asked Mikaila on a scale of 1-10 how much she liked her new school and she said a 9. I said why not a 10.... and she said they need some swings!
It is so awesome how everything seems to be falling into place including our new neighbor who we carpool with to school.
It's nice having a little extra time to myself to get the cleaning done and spend time with the twins. They love looking at books and going over letters and things. They are quite the characters!!!

Back To School

How embarrassing, I started setting up this blog at the beginning of the year and it's now the beginning of August! Alot has happened in over 6 months time; from having our house on the market forever without a bite, to finally selling it, moving in with Joel's mom and step-dad and breathing a huge sigh of relief that we actually moved in to our new house! We have already met several neighbors and the kids already have some friends and even done a sleepover! What a change from the old neighborhood where they really knew nobody and everybody kind of kept to themselves-I guess that's what happens when you are in a neighborhood where most people already lived there for 10 to 20 years. In a new neighborhood everybody is anxious to meet people!
I've done some decorating to our living room area and there's plenty of projects theat I'm sure we'll face in the future. It's nice knowing there's alot of potential and when we get to it, it will be rewarding!
We started a new church and have gone to both there Saturday eve. service and there Sunday morning one. They have two times where there is a Jr. High service, and so we try to go to it so Ashleigh can get connected. I don't think there's anyway that we will ever make it to the 8:30 AM service, that's pushing it a little for all of us to be out the door by 8:00!
Quinn and Mikaila seem to have a lot of fun there and Camden and Casey are sometimes alittle sad when we drop them off but then their fine.

The kids will be starting a new school in less than a week, I can hardly believe it! It's called Verrado Elem. and Verrado Middle Sch. We get to meet their teachers and get our little tour of the schools this Thursday and Friday. Starting somewhere new is never easy, but I honestly think they'll be just fine and make friends quickly.

I'm hoping to join a group for parents with multiples, and have meant to do so for quite some time. They meet once a month and have all sorts of activities and functions and get togethers. I think it will be neat connecting with other parents who really know what raising multiples is all about. As I'm writing this, I just was informed that my twin boys are putting little flashlights in the toilet!!! Life may be crazy, but we are blessed to have 5 kids who love us every bit as much as we love them!