First Week of Summer

June 2nd - Laundry. I decided that for the summer the kids could wash, dry and fold their own clothes. They all already knew how to load the washing machine so I taught them how to start it. Madison loaded her load - mind you she goes through more clothes than anyone else in the house - and started it up. I decided to flip-flop for her and when I opened the washing machine there were literally ten pieces of clothing in there. That apparently was all of her laundry from the previous week. Needless to say she ran out of clothes before the week ended.

I took all the kids to Sam's Club because we were out of food. I told them they had a thirty dollar budget to buy all the snack food they wanted for the next two weeks. They did a great job at picking out things that they wanted and staying within their budget. Once they'd picked it all out I told them that they had to make it last for two weeks and they just about died. Jordan is still wearing diapers. When I went to grab a pack of them I just couldn't do it. Forty bucks for diapers is just ridiculous. I decided it was time to potty train - and stick with it.

We had more shopping to do but since friends were calling to play we cut it short and let everyone go swimming in the pool.

Later that day we had four, yes four, ball games in one day. 5:00, 5:45, 6:00 and 6:30. Thankfully all but the 6:30 game were at the same complex! We only have two gloves, so Madison had to borrow a glove for her game. While I was coaching Alexis' game I kept getting texts from John. First he was frustrated that I brought a bunch of snacks and stuff without bringing something to carry them in. Then he wanted to know if I'd lost my mind when he saw that I took unpeeled carrots for them to snack on!

3rd - I hosted a maxi skirt party. This means that the entire upstairs had to be cleaned. John and I stayed up until midnight cleaning the night before and then I kept it going the next morning. The kids were such good helpers, especially when it came to the making of the cookies and the taste testing!
Jordan got a hold of a Frisbee and wanted to play. He stood on the porch and I stood on the grass, three feet away. Every time he'd throw the Frisbee down to me he'd snort like a pig and then start laughing at himself. It was the best game of Frisbee I think I've ever played.
All of the kids had earned a voucher to Golden Corral and they kept begging to go. We finally caved and took all the kids, Ashley and Aunt Janice out to eat. The kids loved every second of it. The chocolate fountain was their favorite. You could tell by the chocolate all over their faces and all over the floor in front of the chocolate fountain. Poor Ashley ate too much and ended up getting sick.

4th - Alexis and John had a Daddy Daughter Dinner Date for activity days. It was western themed. We have no western themed clothing. They were the only ones that looked like city slickers there. However, they were also the only ones that could lasso the horse! They had a good dinner, played some fun games and then learned some country dancing moves! They had a lot of fun together and smelled of campfire when they got back.
Madison had a game but we skipped it  because my allergies were out of control. She didn't mind since she was in the pool having a party.

5th - Alexis had a practice at 10 am. Since I'm the coach and I was the one that scheduled it I guess I can't complain. Drew got to go to the pool for the day with his friend Jaxon. When he got home he had a big red welt on his face. I had him rub sanitizer on it just in case it was a bug bite. Big mistake - for ten seconds. He started screaming that it was burning. I told him to put water on it but by the time he got to the water it quit stinging. It did disappear after that though. When Drew got home from the pool he had to hurry and get ready for his baseball practice. He slept really well after all his running. Alexis had a ball game as well. Alexis got onto base each time she was at bat! She might be a little ball player - if we can get her to watch what's going on when she's in the outfield.
Because I didn't ever do my WalMart shopping, I thought I'd sneak out and get it done. Sneaking out didn't really work - at all.  Jordan wanted to go and John told him if he peed on the toilet he'd let him go with me. So I had to take Jordan. Then Madison yelled that she wanted to go and so did her friend Zoie. Off they ran to go ask permission and get dressed since they were still in their bathing suits. Alexis and Jocelyn found out and they both decided a trip to WalMart sounded great. While we were waiting for Madison and Zoie, John and I started throwing a little football back and forth. Alexis thought it would be fun to try and catch it so it became a keep-away game. All the kids got into it. I thought I'd be clever and get into the bed of John's truck so there would be no way they could catch it! It worked until they all crawled in with me! The very last throw of the game Drew had grabbed the ball and was standing on the porch to throw it. He took and step and threw. And then he slid off the porch. He ended up doing the splits, one leg off one leg barely clinging on. He scratched up his ankle and the back side of his thigh. Thankfully it wasn't too bad, just a little concrete burn.

6th - Friday we had a houseful of children. We had nine different kids rotating through the house, on top of our five. The kids love summer and having as many friends as possible over. In the midst of all the kids swimming and playing and screaming and eating hotdogs and sandwiches, John came home and grabbed Drew so they could go camping with the scouts.
I volunteered to babysit my neighbors three boys so they could get out as adults and new baby for a couple of hours. What I forgot when I volunteered was that Madison had a ball game during that time. So I loaded all eight kids up, Ashley was with us too, and took them to the game. Thankfully there's a bunch of grass for running around on - and toilets. Jordan said he had to pee so I ran to the other end of the field to take him. And he went!!! We then had to take two more trips with more kids to the other end of the field to get to the bathrooms. No accidents though so it was fabulous!

7th - Jocelyn was playing on the tree swing singing 'Let it Go' from Frozen when she fell off! She got a nice big shiner. She thinks it looks pretty funny.
John and I ditched the kids with a babysitter and went for a run to Home Depot. Usually leaving the kids at home results in less money spent on things you weren't planning on buying. At Home Depot it is reversed. Because we had time to look around and we weren't screaming at children we bought more than we'd gone to get. We got the seed for the back part of the lawn that we're putting in! John is so excited - until he comes in and he realizes just how much mowing it is going to take! We'll all love it once it's done. We bought some tubing to make our own heater for the pool so that I can go swimming and not jump out after two minutes because I'm numb. The children apparently don't care if their lips are blue and they are literally shaking, they just keep going. 

April Funnies

In an attempt to get Drew to stop criticizing his sisters ALL THE TIME I asked him if he'd like it if all I did was tell him what he was doing wrong instead of telling him things he was doing good at. His response? D: "Yeah, because then I'd know what I was not doing right. Then I could fix it so I'd always be doing it the right way instead of being wrong all the time. It's annoying when people are doing things the wrong way."

Drew: Knock, knock
Madison: Who's there?
D: Damn
M: Damn who?
D: Damn you!
I turned around and explained to Drew that that was actually a bad word if you weren't using it in reference to a water dam. He was a little surprised it was a bad word and agreed he wouldn't say it again. About ten seconds later Jocelyn pipes up and says: "Damn!"

I told Jocelyn I would pay her fifty cents if she cleaned up the crayon mess. She turned and with a big smile said "for a kangaroo?"
Not quite little one.

April 26th - Today Jordan requested to sit on the toilet to pee - and he went! Hopefully by the end of summer we'll be done with diapers forever..  

2nd Week of Summer

I apparently had something going here but I don't remember what. Ha. But I'll post it so in a year when I remember I'll still have it.

8th - We enjoyed coming home from church and playing card games and watching the NBA finals!

9th - Mondays are apparently not great for us. We had three ball games! 5:00, 6:30 and 7:15. We also had Aunt Janice coming over for dinner - which we love! Aunt Janice was kind enough to go with John and the kids, minus Alexis, plus Zoie, to Madison's t-ball game. When Alexis and I arrived Jocelyn had Aunt Janice pinned to the ground. She would dig her fingers down into the grass and dirt and she would squeeze her knees around Aunt Janice so she couldn't pull her up. When Aunt Janice would give up Jocelyn would sit up and start jumping up and down on Aunt Janice's belly. Poor Aunt Janice, she really was a trooper.  We also had our neighbors father coming over to till up the back yard so we could seed it for grass, which John did that night. Needless to say it was a very busy afternoon! Once all was said and done, the kids had fun biking, jumping on the trampoline and swinging on the tree swing for the rest of the evening.

10th - Tuesdays mean that there is no ball game or practice! So we fill it up with swimming and playing with friends. Tonight Jocelyn said she wanted to dance. She pulled up her abcmouse.com account (don't forget to say the .com, Jocelyn will remind you until you do) and started some music so we could dance together while I was cooking. While it wasn't necessarily convenient to try watching two cooking pots while dancing with my Little Lady, it was a lot of fun. She started with Ten Little Monkeys in Bed and They All Roll Over. Each time it would say 'roll over' I would spin her in a circle. When it said one fell off I would dip her down, which she loved. She would giggle and giggle and then yell: "Again, again!" When Jocelyn took a break to go start a new song Alexis jumped in to have some dancing fun too.

11th - Alexis and I had softball practice. Alexis is a great hitter! She really enjoys playing - here's hoping it lasts for a few more years! Jordan and Jocelyn decided to be brave and go swimming in the pool. They both froze and didn't last long! Hopefully we can get it warm before too long. Madison had a t-ball game. She looks so cute out there hitting the ball!

Anniversary Gift

For our 10 year anniversary we didn't have time to do much. I found a cute framed saying that I thought would be fun to make. When Jeannie came over she asked if I'd seen the collages of pictures people were putting on their walls. So I found a big blank space on my wall and started brain storming. My plan was to have it done before John got home but that didn't work. I couldn't get the letters straight enough and to stick to the wall so he had to help.

The colored papers underneath it are supposed to have pictures of all of us - I just haven't gotten to it yet. Maybe for our 11th anniversary!

In ten years we've had 5 kids! Earned two bachelor degrees. Moved into 8 different houses/apartments. Had 7 different cars (apparently we like to change cars frequently). Paid more in Dr bills than we'd ever like to acknowledge. Most importantly though we've been together through it all and we love each other more now than we did when we got married!

Rip 60

The kids wanted to exercise with John so he turned on the Rip 60 video he has. They were such troopers, they made it through 15 minutes of yoga. Jordan however got exhausted and had to take a little break. John was put to the test with an extra thirty pounds on his back!

Easter 2014

 At the city Easter Egg Hunt Madison found the golden egg! She was so excited to win a prize. She got a chocolate bunny!
John and I had just finished talking about how we weren't going to mention the Easter egg hunt when Madison walked into our room and said: 'are we going to the Easter egg hunt today?' When we asked her how she knew about the Easter egg hunt she said Diego's and Zoie's Mom told me! Obviously we ended up going.

 This is what the Easter Bunny left for the kids this year.

They each got their very own!

Madison was in charge of taking pictures at the Easter dinner hosted by Anne and David. These are the only two pictures that weren't too blurry to post.

Drew and Daddy with a Little Mix of Fire

 John and Drew were out in the garden area sitting against the fence together. I had to get a picture. Drew certainly looks like his daddy!

We had a bunch of branches from pruning the trees and I couldn't wait to start a fire. John was doubtful that it would work because they were still green but I was determined to get one going. It ended up working nicely. I may or may not have turned a couple of my children into pyro's. Drew & Jordan LOVED the fire. They kept running to get dry grass clippings to throw on it. Thankfully Drew is a cautious child so I didn't have to worry too much about him getting too close. Jordan on the other hand kept trying to give him mother a heart attack. Drew now says that this is his favorite family memory!