A Day Out... And in some pain!

Started off my day by poaching eggs for the first time! Yippee.... Not! Turns out, I do not care for them! But, they were on my meal plan for the week and I felt I just had to attempt them once. And I will not be attempting that mistake again! I was not thrilled with the process or the outcome! Here are some of the photos from my breakfast today...

Poached eggs on Tomato, Avocado and Muenster:

Eggs poaching for my Mom!
She likes her yoke more runny than I do,
but I didn't get them cooked enough either... Oops!

My eggs waiting to be poached!
These are "farm fresh" or Spokane fresh at least! LOL

2 slices of tomato, 1/2 an avocado and 1 slice of muenster cheese!

Top with poached eggs, salt, pepper and Paprika and enjoy!

We had to go do our banking thing to do and at the same time my face was still hurting! I managed to keep myself "medicated" but that only helped so much! After the bank we were able to stop by Wal-Mart for cat food, we found they had none as we were getting ourselves ready to be out and about for the day and then I made a quick stop over at our favorite Fruit and Veggie stand! (The name escapes me at the moment but it is in the Wal-mart/Skippers parking lot) The guy there was great and had all my veggie shopping list filled within minutes! I had to modify my Cherry Tomato purchase slightly because he doesn't carry them, but I was able to pick up some Golden's that are super yummy! And I think I got way more of them for $5 than I do of the Cherry Tomatoes at the store! 

Happy as a clam, playing with cantaloupe container!

After the store stops we headed to a park to eat lunch and then the kiddos got to play. Me, I just wanted to sleep or cry... It was a toss up at times! The boys have the park routine down really good now! They help carry the cooler and whatever else we need to the decided eating spot, they sit down and eat all the food they are given and then they get to go play! The baby eats his baby food or nurses, depending on how long it has been since he got to nurse. 

After lunch and play time, none of them wanted to leave!
Thus the glares!

We ended up leaving before I had planned because I looked over to see my oh so sweet 4 year old pushing another child off a toy because he wanted to play on it! I was needless to say not happy about that. When they asked why we were leaving I told them what I saw and that I saw the 2 older boys just stand back and not do anything to stop their brother. They of course denied the entire thing. I guess because I am a Mom I am now suddenly blind! Ha ha... yeah, okay! Finally I got them to stop complaining and just get into the car. This is always the hardest part for them. They tend to throw fits and continue to complain until they think they will get their own way, which is never! 

When I am out with my kids I tend to go a little bit too picture crazy I think! But, Hey! Pictures are memories! And I want to make sure my kids have a lot of really good long lasting memories as kids! I fiddled with my "not-so-smart" phone the other day and created some neat photos with borders and text on them. I posted one of the baby on my last post that is actually the background on my phone right now. I had a photo of all 4 boys and myself, I think I looked HUGE! But that had to change when I found a better picture to put on there. LOL! Yesterday I put my phone into the camera mode and then I turned the Sepia effect on! I love this kind of photo. They always look really good in my opinion. Some of them are blurry because old age started to set in and my hand was starting to shake pretty bad. I took several of some of the same poses, but here are the ones I felt turned out the best out of all of the Sepia Photos I took..... One of each of my Handsome little boys of course.... 

My soon-to-be 8 year old!
Getting to be a pretty handsome little fella!

The 6 year old...
He looks a lot like his Daddy!
Oddly enough, somewhat like My Dad as well! LOL

The 4 year old,
I do not know how to get him to stop making that scared look.
He does it every time you go to take his picture.

8 months old!
I can not believe he is already 8 months old!
He is getting way too big, way too fast!
Love him! 

All of my kids teach me something new each day. How to love, care and just be grateful for everything I have in life. I may not have a large expensive home (a couple more bedrooms would be nice) or a lot of money, but I love my family and I would not trade any of them for all the money in the world! My kids, my Husband, my Mother, my Sister, my Brother-in-law and my new little nephew who will be here in a few short months... I love you all so much and I can not imagine a world without any of you!

As far as my low carb diet goes, I have put myself back on the 2 week induction but I think I will stick to the induction meal plans for a little longer. My mother and I are restarting the current week due to stopping on Thursday because I could not eat. I do all the cooking, so unless I cook the meal for my mom she ends up eating different and in the long run that isn't such a great idea for this diet. I lost around 6 lbs in the last 2 weeks and I would love to lose a whole lot more. In fact, I need to lose a whole lot more. So, I ordered some Zumba DVDs! Yippee! They should be here in the next few days (7-10 days for the payment program)!!! I paid $14.95 for 7 DVDs and a set of 1 lb weights. I get them for 30 days and then if I keep them I make 3 payments of roughly $25! Pretty nifty deal as long as they help me get to exercising and loosing even more weight! The weight I lost the last 2 weeks was with no actual exercise. Walking around a store for an hour is not real exercise in my opinion. LOL However, it is fun to do! I think with that added exercise and the good eating lifestyle I should start slimming down rather well! I know I need to get a full body photo up here, but... I hate my gut and I am not sure I want to show it to the world! LOL. I may be brave enough some day soon. Only time will tell. I think that before it cools off outside I will get a photo taken so that it can be a photo of me in my suit. Those are what you always see people in in the dieting ads isn't it? Oh well, I will think about it and everyone can be surprised or disgusted when I post it!

Chillin' in his stroller chewing on his strap!
As always when he can reach them!

~TTFN!

Preparing for the big baby shower!

With getting ready for my sister's baby shower on Saturday, I have been sort of scrambling around trying to get projects done so that she gets more than one gift from me (which is all I have 100% completed). I was finally able to finish one project the other day, which was a no sew project so it was finished rather quickly. I then started another that I have been working on and all that is left now is the sewing part. Yippee!!!

I wish I could share photos of the things I am working on, but how much fun would that be if my sister were to read this and see the photos... Not much! Not much fun at all. So... Until after Saturday, y'all gotta wait! Sorry! But I promise, I will share with every one what I made for my sister and her baby. My Mother is helping a lot with finishing touches on all these things too. There is one thing I am slightly panicked about, but I am sure that if I do not have it done for the shower, she will get it before the baby gets here.

My oldest son is with my sister now and when I spoke to him on the phone the other day, he was super excited! He always gets his birthday gifts from his Aunt and Uncle early. He spends the time around the 4th of July with them every year (this could be his last year with them though) since they moved up to Washington(5ish years ago). Last year they gave him his own laptop computer (he has been on computers since he was about 4 months old!!!) and he has had a blast with it. One of his favorite things to do while at their house is to play World of Warcraft on their computers. Well, that is what they got him, on his computer, for his birthday this year! Apparently he had been spending all his time on his Aunts computer playing from there but now that they got it up and running on his computer, he is even happier! LOL His words to me were: "Mom! I am playing WOW on MY computer!!! It is sooo cool!" It was great to hear him so excited! Of course, I seem to remember that he had the same sort of response last year when he got the computer! Still, it is cute how excited he gets!

My 6 year old is working on his behavior while his brother is gone, and this is working out well too! My Mother and I discussed giving him 1 Quarter for each full hour he is good during the day. This means that he does everything he is told and does not back talk and is not rude and we do not have to remind him of his manners more than once, if that! He loved the idea! And as a bonus, for each 8 hours straight that he doesn't lose any Quarters, he gets one extra Quarter! The most he has made in one day I believe is 13 Quarters and this has only been going on for 3 days! LOL and we told him we would keep up this earning money thing for the entire time his older brother was out of town and that he is not allowed to spend any of his money until we go to Portland for the Baby Shower! The reason we went with 8 hours is because that was about how long he was away from home and working on his behavior while in school. From the time he left home, until he came back home each day. He has been doing great. Most of the time all we have to do is remind him that he will lose the Quarter if he acts up and that snaps him back into good behavior real fast. He wants to earn the money and he truly wants to be a good kiddo! He has had his moments, he lost 2 quarters ion a row tonight. So, see, no kid is perfect! Ha ha! He also did not enjoy his second week of camp as much as his first. He said his Dinosaur class was boring. And I would have to agree. The dinosaur teacher did not seem as enthused as the twisty tales teacher did. And this kiddo has decided that he wants to be a Paleontologist when he grows up and I think that is AWESOME!!! But oh well, win some and lose some! Not all teachers can be #1, that would defeat the purpose! LOL!

The 4 year old has been sort of being his normal crazy and wacky self! But that is him! He has decided that he does not like our bigger pool again this year and that he does not want to get into it. I wish I could get him to realize how much fun it is and keep him calm. I almost had him there the other day but he just kept yelling in my face to let him out of the pool, so I did. Other than the pool thing yesterday he has been good and taking all his medicines and he even stays on top of it! I guess the kid likes to feel well rather than sick all the time. Go figure! Since his most recent doctor visit, he has had less of an issue with his allergies. Of course, he has a mommy who gives him allergy medicines and his inhaler like they are his life support! Which is how it should be, because they are. And this kid is the easiest as far as taking his medicine. He sits there and breaths in on his puffer machine for his inhaler and then picks up the allergy medicine and takes it and then puts his head back and is ready for his eye drops, they go into his eyes and his blinks away the extra stuff and he is good to go!

The baby, he is still low on the growth charts, but someone has to be there! Last doctor appointment he had they said he was still below the 10th percentile for weight but he was shooting up there on his head and length! I know that my son is healthy and happy. He does not have to be a chunky baby... I know a fat baby is a happy baby, but this kid just does not put on the weight like other kids do! I do not know why, he just doesn't. A lot of people have been asking me in stores lately how old he is and when I say 7 months they say things like "There is no way!" or "Is he ill?".... No, he is not ill and Yes, he is 7 months old! Another lady asked his age and after her reaction of "no way!" I told her he was 9 pounds at birth and her reply was the best I have heard ever..... "What is he now, 10?!?!?!" LMBO!!!! Too funny! I seriously laughed out loud at her for saying that. He is creeping up on the 20 pound mark, but not too fast! He is just a happy little baby!

As far as the diet goes, I am stuck on my same weight for a while now. My Mother and I have discussed doing sit ups to lose more belly fat and I think that is a great idea! I also need to start getting up, eating breakfast and then going for a walk with the kiddos (at least the ones who want to join, depending on the day I may go before they get up or Daddy might be home to take care of those boys not wanting to go for a walk with Mama)! I also need to make sure I am tracking my food intake somehow and also need to ensure I am eating 3 full meals and at least 2 small snacks a day! Does any one have any ideas on how I could get going with this diet better? It is basically a low carbohydrate, Atkins-like diet.

Oh, I also found that I am super into the second book in my 2 book series for my BzzCampaign! Being a BzzAgent is Awesome! I just wish I could get on more campaigns! I am only on my second one! I will be posting a review here on both my Kindle Books, The Hangman's Daughter and The Dark Monk, A Hangman's Daughter Tale. I was not too into The Hangman's Daughter from page one. The Dark Monk is another story though, only a few pages into it, but I LOVE it! I am struggling with the fact that I still need to read my most recent Sookie Stackhouse Novel, But I will get to it after the Baby Shower and After my BzzCampaign!

So much for typing up a quick and short blog tonight LOL.... For now, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and families! I will try my hardest to post some of the pictures of gifts after the shower so that everyone can see my craftier side! He he he! But, like I said, for now... The suspense wont hurt you too bad! Or all least I hope it wont! Until another day....

Baby in his newest on sale Ross Dress for Less outfit!
$2.99 and it has a frog on his rear!
Plus came with the super cute hat!

~TTFN!

Summer Time in Central Oregon! Woo hoo!

All 4 boys Chillin' on the couch, watchin' TV!

Summer is here and my boys are finally out of the Brick and Mortar School system! They "retired"(as I like to call it) from school at the same time as my Oldest Son's Teacher! She was an awesome Teacher, She was My First and Second Grade Teacher and now she also taught my oldest child Second Grade! I was so Happy that he was going to have her as a Teacher this last year. She did a great job Teaching me and I knew that he would have just as much fun with her, and he did! That boy is so much like me when it comes to some schooling things it is actually funny! We can both do Math like it was a Sixth Sense. It is sad to see her go, but at least she taught my son before leaving. And I got to see her again. I was/am very close to my Elementary School Teachers. It was very Hard for me to call her by her first name. When she would call to discuss my Son and would say her First Name instead of Mrs. ....... I had to take a minute and go, "Oh, Yeah, You!" to myself! LOL. On the other hand, it was perfect timing for her to retire at the same time that I decided to take my kids out of the "traditional" school system. However, it had me wondering at the same time, How many Teachers can my oldest son get to retire?! LOL. Granted, as far as I know, His Kindergarten Teacher is still working. But, his First Grade Teacher AND Second Grade Teacher BOTH retired after Teaching him! What does that say about my child? LOL I say, it says he had "old" Teachers! He he. Either way, she was a great Teacher for well over 20 years and now she can enjoy her retirement!

For our Summer fun we have a lot of different things planned. For one, My Sister's Baby Shower is July 7th, we will be going to Vancouver to stay in the same Hotel as my Sister and her other Half so that he can watch the 2 middle boys in the Hotel while we go to our Cousins house for the Shower. At the end of the last week of June my oldest Son will be going to stay with my sister in Spokane until the Shower when he will come home with us. He gets to attend my sister's second gender scan for her baby. The one last week was inconclusive. They caught a quick look at what the tech thought to be "boy parts"! I feel bad for that. I know, a baby is a baby and we are all thrilled for my Sister and her other half because they have wanted a baby for awhile now. But this would be boy 5 for our side and boy2 for her other half's side. Either way, Their little bundle will some day be in the outfit you see on my little guy! It is, what we are calling, the Lumber Jack (or Jill) outfit! The "onsie" is a long sleeved button up plaid shirt, much like what you can find for grown men! The pants are corduroy, and a funky olive green, but cute! And it is a full out onsie style shirt, size 6 months! We figured, put some sort of flowery something or pink in "her" hair and it could look girly! This coming from the Mother of 4 boys who insisted on wearing over-all's for the longest time after about 2 years old! LOL. I think that if I had had any girls, they'd end up tom boys! LOL But, we shall never know now! Any who, back to the "Summer Fun"...

I took on the Pool Cleaning this year and so far, I kinda want to scream! We seriously need to get a cover over that thing so that we (the me part of that) don't have to keep on scooping bugs (gnats) out of the pool, 15 times a day! But, hopefully with using the pool vacuum and a few other added "cleaning tools" I can keep the pool clean and warm and comfy all Summer long! And the kiddos all love to swim, so that will help with some of their being "occupied" this Summer. A few other things "in the works" are, a driving trip to visit some of the "local" dams. Also, we intend to go to Lake Billy Chinook or more importantly, The Cove Palisades (for more info on The Cove, follow the link)!!! My Mom used to take my Sister and I there all the time when I was a baby! I have only been back there a handful of times since I "grew up". That trip will be one of those, get the kids to bed super duper early and then be ready to leave the house at 6 AM to get there around 7:30-8 in the morning and spend all day, packing Breakfast and Lunch as well as snacks and then coming home for Dinner that night! I am extra excited about that one, if you can't tell by the details! LOL Another option in to "travel" the Cascade Lakes Highway again, do some Hiking, picnic by the lake, swim. All that fun stuff! Some of the Lake trips I hope my Hubby will be able to attend. It sorta feels like he will be missing out this Summer as far as "Adventures" with our boys go. We also talked about going to Smith Rock Park, that is a steep climb if I remember correctly. My Mother said she did it with me strapped to her back, so I guess I will be able to do it too, if we go! That is one of my least favorite trip ideas, I never really had a ton of fun there as a kid. One of my favorite places to go hiking is Benham Falls (the link actually takes you to a site for the Falls themselves, but you get the jest. LOL, you can hike to the falls too from Lava Lands Visitors Center at the base of Lava Butte) I took my 2 oldest there with my Hubby and a Friend and we hiked for awhile! I was pregnant with #3 and the other 2 were 2 and 3.5(almost 4) and they had a blast! Of course, we were hot and had some water with us and ended up getting a few scraps and cuts from tumbling over roots and such, but it was a fun experience with my boys! But those are just a few of our "Nature Adventures" I think we can look forward to this Summer. Otherwise, we will be home by the pool(s) (The big 48" tall pool and the tiny waiting pool for the kiddos that we got last year).

The only thing I said was: 

"Let me get a Picture of you 3." 

And do you see the looks I got? LOL

My kiddos continue to keep "hamming it up" any time they are out and about and know that I am wanting to snap some cute photos. For the most part, except for a few days here and there, we picked up the 2 oldest boys from school for the last few weeks of their "stay". One of those days we walked up the hill from the dentist's office to the school with the baby and he was enjoying us being early! His cute little "Tot Goggles" are what I think makes this photo extra neat! He looks so laid back and relaxed in his stylish shades, but then he is sticking his tongue out which makes it look like "Hey, get that thing out my face Mom!" or... "Yum, Phone, eat!" LOL I swear, each time he sees my phone, the tongue comes out and the hands fly up! I partially blame this on the guy at the Doctor's office who was talking to the other woman at the counter while I made another appointment and he handed over his phone while saying, "It's ok, I have kids and Grandkids, He can't hurt it any more than they do!" OH MY GOODNESS!!! This was no cheap phone either! This guy willingly handed over his expensive smart phone and basically said "Go for it! Break it! I don't care!" to a 6 month old! YIKES! Mr. Not Very Bright Award has been taken for the year! LOL. In any case, since I had to literally RIP the phone out of his hands to get him to give it back to Mr. Not Very Bright so that I could help Mr. Gimpy out to the car (LOL this was when my oldest was on crutches, he had gone to my appointment with me too), the baby almost attacks phones now. It is almost frightening how fast he lunges for a cell phone!

The boys are all excited to be on Summer Vacation now. I even have my ^ year old set up to do "Summer Camp" through his online school for next year. He was super excited when I told him he had the opportunity to do it. Starting Monday at 9 AM he will be on the computer, Monday through Friday, for 1 hour in his Summer Camp Class. He is starting with the Twisty Tales Camp! I think he will really enjoy it. The "camps" are split by grade level and allow the kids to sort of pick the "class" they want. He picked Twisty Tales, Dinosaurs and Science Explorers for his Summer Camp Classes! They are different each week and in the middle of it all he will be taking 2 weeks off from it, thankfully we have the baby shower in the middle of the 2 weeks off! LOL. The first Camp starts at 9 AM and another is at 10 AM, Depending on the Camp and the week, the time changes as well. My oldest has decided NOT to take part in the Summer Camp thing this year. Which is fine, he would have to skip one of the weeks anyways so that he could go to his Aunt's house and not have to worry too much about anything but helping out his Aunt and spending time with her and his Uncle for what may be the last time, for a while at least. I am not so sure she is going to want my rug-rats running around and having to take care of them as well as her own new little one. He may change his mind once his little brother does it a few times, we shall see. He has different camp choices and at different times for his grade though. He could do Water Safety, Dinosaurs or Boys Book Club. But he said he doesn't want to read this Summer, odd! He loves to read! Silly Kid! Only time will tell. He might see his brother having fun next week and decide that he too wants in on the experience. When they all start to get older I may look more into other actual Summer Camp options. But for now, online works awesome!

Showing off his top 2 teeth in a giggle!
(came in third and fourth)

Showing off his bottom 2 teeth!
(came in first and second)

If I haven't mentioned it before, the baby has been cutting teeth and drooling like a super leaky faucet! I do not remember my other boys "leaking" this much! His pillow he sleeps on his soaking by the time we get to his "middle of the night feeding" and during any day time naps. I almost feel like I need to wring the thing out! He is constantly drooling! It is insane! I am sure they did the drooling thing, maybe I just wasn't as observant! LOL. This IS the first time I have been home with my baby at this age and wasn't so tired from working that I just wanted to sleep. I have always had to go back to work and do the whole working full time thing to support my kiddos before now. Hubby has that end covered now. (The working thing)

At the park on 6/14/12

Maybe it is just me but I think he is growing up so fast! Granted, he is "small for his age" according to the doctor's office, but he is advancing and is always so alert, when awake of course. He has even started to sit up, instead of lean forward. See him showing off in the photo taken at the park? He was enjoying the grass. He soon after this decided he wanted to plunge forward and EAT the grass, which caused him to roll over to his belly. Either way, he was actually enjoying the grass, this was a first. He normally cringes away from the grass.

Now that I have basically filled your minds with my life and my boys' lives, I shall say Good Night! Or Good Morning, depending on when you are reading! I feel tomorrow will be another pool cleaning and outside day. After my 7 year old decided to vomit in the car today (thankfully most of it was caught by blankets and such on the floor of the back seat) I finally made it to the store to buy Sunscreen for the boys so that they will be able to play outside and not get sun burnt as the 7 year old did the other day when we played outside for the majority of the day so that Dad could sleep. Hopefully I can get more color on my legs! LOL We shall see! They may be underwater in the pool! I will update... Hopefully sooner, rather than later!

~TTFN!

Recent Funny Moments! (Long)

To start things off... We bought the baby a new (to us) high chair. I was browsing Craig's List and found this high chair for $10! Awesome deal! Specially since all we had for Little Man was a bouncy chair and a Bumbo. Now, the Bumbo works great and I love, love, love the tray with it. But you are only supposed to use it at ground level and on a flat surface. Well, that is a long way down to the floor to sit and feed a baby at! So, High Chair time it was! And I am super happy with it. However, the little booger does not like to sit in it for long enough to get to eat in it. He wont even sit in it for Dad and I to eat dinner! He is spoiled I think!

Beware of this post... I feel it is going to be "picture heavy" since my last one was "picture lacking"! LOL

So first off this week. I was driving into town and off the side of the road I noticed something rather crazy. I had to do a double take because this is something I have never seen in my entire life growing up in Central Oregon. I looked out the window to look at this thing that caught my eye and I was in shock! It was a Wild Turkey! Live, wild turkey. Just walking down the highway! It was the funniest thing I have seen, at random, on that highway in a long time! So, that was funny #1!

Tanner, just after getting his hair cut! Yippee!

Funny #2: I am sure that my 3rd son is going to be completely angry with me when he gets older for sharing this, but it is going to happen. I was sitting on my bed in the late hours of the night nursing the baby the other night when my 4 year old gets out of bed and asks to go potty. Of course, I say yes and he walks out of the bedroom. Well, he turned to the right (our bathroom is to the left of our room) and just as I was getting ready to say something, he comes walking back down the hall. So I kept my mouth shut! Bad move mama... Bad move! He stopped just before the bedroom door and started peeing on the wall! The sound of him peeing was met with me yelling at the top of my lungs "OH! NO NO NO! TANNER WHAT ARE YOU DOING???!!!" He pops his head around the corner and says "What?" So I repeated again... Calmer this time... "What are you doing? Go to the bathroom." His 4 year old fashioned come back... "I am!"... LMAO... The entire encounter had my Husband and Mother both in the hall trying to find out why I was yelling at the 4 year old when everyone else was trying to go to sleep. My Mother took Tanner to the bathroom to finish going potty while my Husband cleaned up the puddle that was forming in the hall and I calmed the baby back to sleep/nursing (I managed to startle him awake by yelling almost in his ear. Poor baby). My Mother brought Tanner back to bed and he was out within seconds of his head hitting the pillow again. That was, by far, one of the funniest moments I have had with any of  my kids! The next morning, he did not remember any of what had happened.

6 year old after his hair cut! (Little brother in the background)

On to my 6 year old...

He has been on a behavior card since February at school. He was acting out and the teacher was having a really hard time gaining control of him during the day. So, we agreed to do this card. It worked great for my oldest last year at school so I had high hopes it would do the same for the 6 year old. Well, he did good for awhile and then went back to a lot of the old "naughty" behavior. It is now getting closer to the end of the school year and field trips are starting up. He really wants to go! But, he had been bringing home some really bad reports with 3-4 negative marks per day! Terrible reports. So, I told him that I was not going to send him on any of the trips if he could not act correctly during the day before the trips. This coming Friday he gets to go to see baby chickens and all sorts of other things on a farm! And he is super excited for that because of his Aunts chickens. He is officially the chicken whiz due to his Aunt having 3 chickens. (I don't know where kids get some of this stuff sometimes) In any case, he has been informed that he has to act better at school in order to be allowed to go. He has had 3 days at school so far and.... drum roll please...... he has only brought home ONE negative mark for the entire 3 days and even that wasn't such a terrible thing! Monday and Tuesday he had terrific days! All "smiles" all day, both days! (the reports are designed so that he is either graded, per half hour, by a smiling, a straight mouthed or a frowning face, depending on his behavior) But today he brought home one single frown on his report. I was able to hear from his teacher that she had talked to him and that he says he is not going to let it happen again. So, as long as he brings home one more good report, he gets to go on Friday to the farm! And then at the beginning of June the class is going to the new swimming pool and they are walking there... Yuck! and Yikes! This is a Kindergarten class... walking over a mile, maybe 2, to a swimming pool and then back to school... not my boy! LOL. I spoke to his teacher about this as well and for every one's safety I am going to drive him to the pool and drop him off with his teacher. This way he also knows that I can come back and pick him up if he gets out of line as well. This may not be as easy as it sounds since I am dropping him off at the pool at 9 and then the baby has a doctor appointment at 9:50! But, his teacher has my phone number and she knows where I will be. All in all... He is turning things around for himself! I am so proud of him. Sadly, he will only be in that school for about 5 more weeks and then it wont really matter as much.

Oldest son after his hair cut!

My oldest, he finally let me cut his hair! (gasp!) He kept telling me that he wanted to grow his hair out so that he could put it into a ponytail like the guy on his video game does. So, I let him since it was cooler weather anyways so it didn't much matter to me. Weather warmed up though and we used our normal "ploy" to get him to cut his hair, "If you don't let Mom do it, Aunt Marcy will shave you bald when you see her next!" And he is in the hair cutting chair and ready for a cut! LOL I even told him he would feel much better having shorter hair since the sun was coming out more. He now tells me I was correct. (Gee, ya think?)  It was rather interesting to cut all 3 of the older boys' hair and my Husbands (no picture of his hair cut since he hates pictures of him... but scroll down and see the one I was able to sneak in... he he he...) all of their hair has a slightly different coloring to it. There is a dirty dishwater blonde, a light pale brown and a light brown for the kids and Hubby has about the shade of hair that would be the two brownish colors mixed together. (The baby has mama's dark brown hair, for now) We did the hair cuts outside and left the hair for the birds and they have so far made off with most of it!

We skipped our day trip, Nature Adventure, this last weekend because Daddy was home and off work. So, I opted for the kids to spend some time with their Dad. That seems to have helped them since they have all been missing him. This coming weekend/Monday (Holiday, no school) my Mother and I are planning on taking the kids out and about for the day. It should be fun... although, I do not have anything specific planned yet. I will have to update on that at another time.

I got my BzzKit on Monday and wore my Dr. Scholl's For Her High Heels Insoles for the first time ever on Tuesday! They KILLED the balls of my feet, but the arch support was great! I have a bunch of coupons if anyone is interested. I may try them again in the future but right now they are not for me. I think once I lose more weight it will be easier to get around in heels but for now... ouch! I also feel that if you are going to wear them you should have smaller feet than I do! I am a size 10 and the insoles hit my feet funny so that I was constantly walking on the part where insert meets shoe and it it was I think made my feet hurt more. It could have been the heels I picked to wear as well, but either way, not a comfy foot day for me. I may have a better review for them in the future, but as of right now, 3-4 stars out of 5!

I picked up the photos of the baby last week as well and I am hoping to be able to put together a few different things with the disk pictures for a few different family members. However, I have to finish all my Baby Shower gifts for my sister before that happens and I really did not help myself by finding a new site online that had a bunch of "fast to create" patterns on it. Now I have about 15 more things I really want to make for my sister and her baby. It is now to the point that I need to decide what to finish now and what to wait to finish to give to her after her shower and when the little one is born and there is also Christmas and other "events" after the baby is here where a gift from Auntie would be great!

In my hunt for free and/or cheap cloth diapers I found The Honest Company. They have a "Free Trial" on their diapers for $4.95 (the cost of shipping). Below you can see photos of what I got in my package. They allow you to choose boy, girl or mixed prints when selecting your package (I chose boy, duh) and then you could also choose to get the "essentials" package as well. This included Hand soap, body wash & shampoo and some other "soap like" products 5 in all. Although I have no issues with Jessica Alba, I feel she doesn't have the best product as far as "bang for the buck" goes. I will be posting pictures of the baby in these diapers this summer since I got them the size above what he is in now and the fact that they are printed makes me want to have them on him in "diaper only" weather!

For all who may be interested, The Mom, The Wife, The Low-Carber and The Learning Coach now has a Facebook page as well! Check it out and tap the "LIKE" button if you feel up to it, here! I set up the Facebook page in hopes of getting more people interested in my blog here. I like to see people caring about what I have to say. Plus, when 500 people have hit that like button I can get myself entered to win some really nice and some really useful cloth diapers! I really think I could do the cloth diaper thing for my last baby. We need to save money and what better way to do that than to not have to buy diapers? The contest I was going to enter before seeing the "500 likes minimum" would have given me a variety of 30 cloth diapers, cloth wipes, a wet bag and a few other things that would be great when cloth diapering! Sadly, no likes, no Facebook page, it kind of put a damper on things! Now, Facebook page and 5 likes, as of today at least! LOL.

The picture of Hubby I mentioned above!
Little Man was craving Daddy time and was not
into anyone else trying to get in on it! See the look?

Now I need to get off my computer and head on to crocheting some more so that I can maybe have one more thing for my sister completed in time! Knitting and sewing are also still on my To Do List as well. But they will have to wait for a time I feel more awake! The thing I am crocheting at the moment, I could do in my sleep! Not that I will try that. I also have a few other things I would like to type out on here but I am starting to feel my eyes slam shut and my fingers slow down! As always, Thank you for reading and taking the time out of your life to read about mine!


~TTFN

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mamas out there

So, it is Mother's Day and I got woken up by my 4 year old, 6 year old and 5 month old (the 7 year old was still in bed). My 6 year old gave me my gift in bed. He made me a hand-made card and a bookmark with his school picture on it as the head and then a paper cut out body with magnets to hold the bookmark to the pages of the book. It is awesome! I received a bracelet (hand-made) from my 7 year old once he woke up. My Mother gave me a bath set that is Margarita scented and made by SkinnyGirl. And My husband gave me the newest Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris titled Deadlocked. I am only a page into it due to feeling exhausted! But I absolutely LOVE her books! I own all 12 books, including Deadlocked, and the last 4 of them are in hard back.

There is a funny story behind how I first started reading The Sookie Stackhouse novels and how I  managed to start reading them in order! I ran across a book that had just the lips of a vampire on the front, and being fascinated with vampires, I decided to buy it and read it. This was Dead Until Dark. It was a pretty good book. With the exception of the fact that she killed off most of the characters in the book. (I wont say who just in case you haven't read the books yet. Or watched the television series, True Blood on HBO) Once I finished the book there was a little bit of the next book, Living Dead In Dallas, in the back of it. So, of course, I just had to have that book too. And that is what kept me reading the series of books. I had recently lost my job at that point and reading was relaxing. I ended up reading each of the following 6 books, in order, over the next week. Yes, that's correct. In just one week I purchased and completely read all of Books 3 through 8. Then it was time to wait for book 9, Dead and Gone.This was in May of 2009. I purchased that book, read it and then had another year to wait for Dead In The Family and another year to wait for Dead Reckoning. Now, here I sit with Deadlocked and I am almost sad to read it. Specially since it very well could be coming to a close. I read on Charlaine Harris' website that she is only contracted to do 13 books on Sookie. This does not include any extra stories such as the ones in Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories A Touch Of Dead. In any case, the stories are about a telepathic girl who dates vampires, werewolves, shape shifters and is, only slightly, a fairy! All those "creatures" mixed together, with the occasional appearance of a troll or elf, make for a great read! I applaud Charlaine for all her hard work on these books.

Picture A

The reason it has taken so long for me to get back on here and type up a post is because we had a rather busy week. I ended up going to town every day last week, Monday through Friday and Saturday too. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all due to helping out my mother and making sure she could get to her job. Then Thursday it was to help my Mother to get home from her job and we ended up picking up the materials for my Husband to build us a free standing deck. Well, we purchased the materials for him to build it. Friday morning the lumber was delivered to our house around 11am. Home Depot officially has my vote for best customer care award! My 4 year old was there with us when we were purchasing the lumber and the woman who helped us was wonderful. (See Picture A) She ended up giving him a Home Depot apron, a hat, a small tape measure, a Home Depot pencil, an LED flashlight AND let him pick any kind of candy he wanted off the candy rack (he picked out not only the biggest thing, but the most expensive), he chose a bag of Flipz pretzels (Yum! Too bad I can't eat those too LOL) He left being a very happy boy! She also taught him to say "Never Go To Lowe's!" and told him to kick and scream if we ever took him there. So now, whenever we ask him, "What do you not do?" he says, "Never go to Lowe's". It is sort of cute, however we had spent most of our time that day pricing lumber at Home Depot and at Lowe's, so he had been to both. Also, every day during the week (except Friday) I picked my boys up from school to avoid my 6 year old getting int too much trouble on the bus. Well, one of those days it was very very hot outside and I was trying to keep myself, the 4 year old and the baby all cooled off. We did this by letting the baby experience grass for the first time! He was slightly amused... until he fell over, then, not so much! See Picture B below.

Picture B

Thursday night we measured and marked off the area we wanted the deck built on. (The baby got sat down on the grass and did not like it one bit, at least not that time. See Picture C) Friday, I met my Mother and Husband with the 4 year old and 5 month old in tow at Fred Meyer where we bought 4 sling chairs, a glass topped table and a Chat Set (2 swivel sling chairs and a small side table). Later Friday afternoon/evening we all spent our time "relocating" our lawn. My Husband had dug out the area where the deck was going and had all of our grass to the point where we could move it to another spot. (By hand that was not an easy thing to do) We completed that and on Saturday, My Mother and I took all 4 boys on another "Nature Adventure". This time they got to feed Peacocks! Awesome birds. I really wished one would have fluffed up its feathers for the boys to see, But they did not, sadly. Only one had really pretty feathers anyhow. We found those lovely birds at Petersen's Rock Garden and Museum. (If you click here you can get a little bit more information from roadside america's website on Petersen's Rock Garden) I hope my pictures I took there turn out. However, I notice from looking online... People tend to take the exact same photos I took. And at the same angles too! (See Picture D to see the house that has had a lot of pictures of it taken over the years that thee is now a picture of My boys standing in front of! LOL) While there I was able to get more "into" the picture taking since my Mother held the baby. (Picture E and F) Well, she offered to put on the "baby backpack" as we call it, and tote him round. That meant Mommy got to chase kiddos down and that was just fine! We all had a blast!

Picture C

After the stop at Petersen's Rock Garden we went over to Tumalo State Park and had our picnic lunch and the boys enjoyed feed some of their crackers to a very demanding goose! My Mother threw 1 single tiny cracker at the goose and it was over from there. This thing would not stop coming back. I finally got my boys to understand that they could not feed the bird anymore or it would just keep returning. By this point it was hissing at them any time they would even move so it was a good thing they stopped. The boys then ran around and played a game with each other. You know, shooting, chasing, typical boy stuff! (Picture G is the boys playing at this park) I nursed the baby and then I needed to find a restroom. So to the car we went and off to the grocery store we went. (We needed to pick up some food before heading home too) Because my boys were so good all day, my Mother and I bought them each a donut. You would have thought they were in heaven. The 2 oldest, no dummies here, ate their donuts really fast. The 4 year old however... He took the chocolate icing off with his finger, then licked the donut clean and then ate the "bread" part last. He also fell asleep about half way through his donut and was out like a light until we stopped to pick up the mail on our way home. Poor little guy was all tuckered out!

Picture D

Picture E

Picture F

Picture G

Once home we got the groceries put away and then the kids were all off in different directions. The 4 year old was playing outside while watching Daddy put together the tables and chairs and the 6 year old earned himself some computer time and the 7 year old was also on his computer while the baby and I set off to the bedroom to nap and eat! And that pretty much brings us to today!

Picture H

I enjoyed myself this last week, regardless of how tired I was and still am. I also got my first shipment of many still to arrive! I had ordered more Whey Protein Powder from About Time since we use it in almost all of our baking. (Picture H) They had a trial offer of smaller packets of different flavors and I ordered the Birthday Cake and Cinnamon Swirl flavors in that and then I ordered one of the bigger jars of vanilla flavored powder. I also ordered my 2 older boys' school "Spring" photos. They just now came home with their class photos, I am sure it will be a bit before we get the Spring Photos back. I was supposed to pick up the recently taken photos of the baby yesterday. However, with being so busy I forgot! I will be picking those up tomorrow for sure!

Picture I

Picture J

Tonight, We ate dinner on our new deck while sitting at our new table! And those are the chairs too! Ha ha... (Picture I and J) As far as eating outside goes, it is something my entire family enjoys around this time of year. The weather is warming up, we are having highs in the 70's and 80's during the day which means that around dinner time it is still decently warm out. The main reason for buying this furniture was so that we can get our entire family up to the table at the same time and eat outside rather than inside where it can typically be stuffy and uncomfortable for any or all of us. I think that the set is pretty as well and couldn't be happier! The framework in the background of Picture I is the frame (or legs) of the gazebo that we purchased last year to have out in our yard to have a shady place to sit in the summer. Once the deck is stained and all set up the way we would like for it to be we will move the gazebo up onto the deck, attach it and the furniture will go under it! The deck is pretty, the chairs and table are pretty... I am happy with it! And my Mother seems to be as well. And that is what counts! Now, I am so very tired. I feel it is time to lay down and put on a sappy movie... The Vow is on my "To Watch" list. Maybe that is the way to go! Happy Mother's Day to all the Mama's! I hope you enjoyed yours as much as I did mine! And a super special Happy Mother's Day to my sister and my mother... Sister: Next year your little one will be here and you will know the joys of being a Mother as I have found them and as our Mom has. I love you and I am so incredibly happy for you! Just over a month and a half away from the baby shower... yikes! I may need to step away from my book and go into super knit and super crochet mode! Mother: Thank you for all you do! I truly hope you had a great day relaxing as much as possible in a house full of boys! LOL! I love you more than anything! I will be back to update everyone on everything again! Thank you for reading and taking the time out of your life... To read about mine!

~TTFN!

Sunday/Monday were busy... And other fun info!

Picture A

On Sunday, my Mother and I took my 4 boy on a "Nature Adventure"! At first, they did not like the idea of not being able to take ANY electronics in the car with them. My kids are way too high tech! LOL. Once we got on the road they found that things can be more interesting if you actually take in your environment instead of letting it fly by you while you have your nose in a game. We got up that morning, ate breakfast and had showers and got on our way. My husband had worked the night shift the previous night so getting the kids out of the house was a bonus for him. He got to sleep in a silent house! Lucky him. After the kiddos got passed the fact that they could not have any electronics we found our way to Sheep Bridge. Not as impressive as it was when I was last there and could remember it. We ended up only stopping to use a campground potty and to let the boys run off some steam there. They ran back and forth between the "road" and a picnic table. They had a blast with that. Back in the car we got and drove a few miles down the road to South Twin Lake. Once there, we did not park or exit the vehicle. We found there that they are now charging for day use. This is new to our family. If it is a yearly payment, we may consider giving them our business. If it is a daily due, they may have lost us. We usually go to the lakes a lot during the summer, that one in particular, and if they are going to charge us then we simply can not afford it. After that disappointment we drove up to North Twin Lake to see if the "parking fee" was required there as well and... We were in luck! No fee required at that lake. Not for day use at least. Since we were there, we got out and let the boys explore for a bit. (Picture A) The boys did great here until they started throwing someone else's firewood into the lake. That is when this mom decided to say we were don there and start walking to the car. This got their attention and made them realize that Mama was not fooling around with the misbehaving stuff!

Picture B

After getting back into the car and getting the boys to calm down we drove a little ways down the road to Fall River Campground. (see Picture B) There we walked down to a bridge where the boys got to look down at the water and see that people often toss coins into the river and use it as a wishing well. They found that to be very interesting and spent a bit of time looking into the water and finding different types of coin on the bottom of the river. They also found a larger chunk of "Witch Hair" and decided to toss that into the water to watch float down stream. (Picture C) All in all, we had a pretty good day. After the river and lunch at a picnic table we loaded back into the van and drove down to The Fish Hatchery. While there the boys spent $1.50 on fish food and fed all the different sizes of fish. from the tiny sardine sized fish to the ones that are almost as big as the baby! This was the stop that the 4 year old requested at the beginning of the day. He just had to go to the fish place. I remember also going there as a child. We even bought some of the food there and after feeding the fish at the hatchery would bring leftovers to my guppies who loved that stuff.

Picture C

Once the Fish Hatchery trip was over, my Mother and I decided we were getting tired and that it may be time to head home for the day. We left the house at 9:30 A.M. and at that time it was 1:30 P.M. We used the restroom at the hatchery and loaded up once more. The boys had began to act as though we could do these kinds of trips once a week (and that is the plan now) so we felt a treat was in order. Instead of turning to go home, we drove down to Thousand Trails and took the boys the the little grocery store there and let them pick out an ice cream each. Logan, my oldest, picked out Vanilla DIBS. Riley, the 6 year old, chose an ice cream SNICKERS bar and Tanner, the 4 year old, decided to follow in his mothers footsteps as a child and got the classic, ice cream sandwich! Yum! It was a great day all together. The boys had ice cream in their bellies and they were all happy little campers. We came home, Dad was still sleep and slept like a log while we were away, and Logan returned to his computer while Riley watched him play games and Tanner went to the bedroom for a nap. (He did this without too must of a fight)  This left me with some time to catch up on "games" and getting all of my pictures from the day onto my computer so that I could share them here! I have found that since I started my blog I tend to have my memory card inserted into my computer more than it is in my phone. I have it in my phone while out and about and then when we get home I usually will turn the phone off, remove the card, place it in the computer and off I go with getting all my photos onto the computer. I feel a blog without pictures can become boring after awhile. Speaking of pictures from the other day, my mother got some great shots of all 4 boys by themselves while we were at the river eating lunch. After she sends them my way I will share them here. Her phone was almost out of battery yesterday from taking so many photos that she wanted to wait until we got back home. Soon enough she will send them. She is a woman of her word! (And I love her for it!)

In other news...

I am still awaiting my BzzKit for the Dr. Scholl's For Her High Heel insoles BzzCampaign. I am super excited to do this campaign. It is my first campaign and I have a thing for heels! I love to wear them but they hurt my feet! I have pretty high hopes for this product. I want to be able to show off my "killer legs" LOL. (I have no idea if they are that great, all I know is what I am told. Ha ha...) It has only been 4 days since I signed up for this campaign and i am impatient. I want this product really bad! But, they say to wait 14 days before "searching" for the shipment. We shall see how long it takes. In the meantime, I will sit back and wait to see if any more BzzCampaigns come my way. I hope so, because who doesn't love to try out new products and state their opinion? I know I love to! Keep looking forward to the Dr. Scholl's For Her post!

Picture D

I have to say, all my children have their own little "ticks" or things that make them unique. The Baby's latest thing is how obsessed he is with the strap to his changing table. If he is crying and I can't get him to stop, 9 times out of ten all I have to do is put him on his changing table and hand him the end of the strap to play with. (Picture D) It really is sort of cute. And since it calms him down almost instantly, it is a little relaxing as well! LOL He has also started to stick out his tongue while watching me eat my dinner. (Picture E) This is from a few nights ago when he decided he had to be held while I ate dinner. (This being held thing is not something I consider to be "cute" at all) However, the tongue was popping in and out of his mouth the entire meal. Sometimes he would just let it hang out. Which is how I got the picture. I think it may be, in part, due to teething. his top 2 teeth have been working on coming in for a couple weeks now. He has also managed to rub his bottom lip raw on the inside with his 2 bottom teeth because he sucks on his lip. All of his little baby habits really are cute. I am just thankful he has decided to start sleeping through "most" the night. Granted, he is a breastfed baby so I am sore by the time he decides to wake up between 4 and 5 am to eat! LOL.

Picture E

That brings us to today! Since the Husband had to be to work at the butt crack of dawn, I got to get up and take the kiddos to school. And that means up and ready to leave for everyone by no later than 7:45 A.M. but that wasn't such a big deal. My oldest even woke me up today. He came into my room shortly after the alarm went off and told me it was time to wake up his brother. Alright, the 7 year old's internal clock is set to school time. Just in time for the school year to almost be over with too! LOL He has always been pretty good at getting himself up and going. When he first started school, he was always in bed first and always awake first. Most of the time he was up and dressed before I was. But back to the day at hand. We got up and dressed and showered and fed. Finally followed with loaded into the car and on our way. The boys got to school with about 5 minutes to spare to get to class. Now it was time for my Mother, 4 year old, 5 month old and myself to head to town for a fairly busy morning. We went straight to the coffee shop (Starbucks, of course) and I ordered a Venti Sugar Free Mocha Breve Latte instead of my regular Carmel one and I was not impressed. Tomorrow is another day however and I shall order my normal drink and be happy with a caffeinated beverage to keep me going that also tastes super duper yummy! I went into my OB-GYN's office today for my 10 days off blood pressure medication blood pressure check and my BP was pretty great, for me, 118/80. I normally have a pretty high BP but when I had my youngest son I ended up having postpartum pre-eclampsia. Typically, women only get Pre-E during pregnancy and the best cure for it is to deliver the baby. Well, I had already done that part. This is what caused my entire family to panic. How could I have been saved if the "cure" was to deliver the baby that I already delivered? Lots of BP medications! I was on 4 different types while in the hospital and when they sent me home, they sent me with 2 of them. I took one once a day every day for 3 months and another twice a day for 4 months (roughly). Now the hope is that my BP can stay in check. How do I manage that without medicine? I breathe and attempt to ignore those things that bother me. I even have to ignore a lot of what other people are saying so that I don't snap at them. But, when I do this, it tends to start an argument. So, I will listen to everything... But I am going to stop responding. Hopefully this doesn't cause any sort of issue when it comes to the safety of anyone and everyone. I am to return to the office again in 1 month to see how my BP is then. If it is still in the pretty good range then, no more medicine! That would be nice! But if it is up the Doctor will decide how to adjust my medication levels to keep me on track. Hopefully, I will be able to stay well at the same time. I ended up having a pretty bad head cold and my Primary Care Doctor (a nurse practitioner) gave me a medicine that she did not check to see if it was compatible with my BP medication and caused me to have an extremely painful 3 day migraine! That sucked!

Tomorrow should be a rather "easy" day to done with. I will be taking the kiddos to school again and then taking my Mother to pick up her car at the hospital (where Hubby works) and then I get to entertain the 4 year old and the 5 month old until my appointment. (Therapy, oh joy) I was supposed to take the time to look into a couple websites and a conference call line for women with postpartum depression, I just didn't have the time. which I will let the therapist know and I am sure she will be alright with my slacking as long as I promise to look into them before our next, and last, visit. One of them I am not sure I will be doing however. It was nice of her to find the information for me on the websites and chat groups and all but one of the sites costs $45 just to be able to discuss how you feel. I can tell everyone here all that for free! Why waste money on a place to vent when I have a blog (and Facebook!) After my appointment I will meet back up with my Mother and leave her car for Hubs to have a way home. I believe we are going to be hitting a few stores tomorrow, but I could be wrong. Those may be waiting until Wednesday or later. My Mother has a dentist appointment tomorrow afternoon and I may take the 4 year old and 5 month old to check out the new church next to the dentist called "The Door". However, it will be close enough to time for the big boys to be getting out of school that I can zip over there (also next door to my Mothers dentist) and pick them up instead of letting them get into trouble on the bus... Again. If they had a pretty good day at school we will head over to the library (again, also next door, but technically across the street) so they can each pick out a movie or two and a book. My boys love the library and I think that is awesome and just how it should be. Then home for the family and Dinner time. Tonight was spicy cheese stuffed burgers on a bed of lettuce topped with ranch, mustard and "Chipotle Madness" BBQ sauce (YUM!)... This sort of feels like our fall back meal. When we don't know what to cook, we cook burgers and put them on top of lettuce and call it a meal. Not bad since it is quick and painless with the Foreman grill. Hmmmm..... What to eat, what to eat. I will have to update everyone when I know!

Sleeping Wyatt after our fun filled Sunday.
(He just so happens to also be asleep as I finish up this post)

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to read about my busy days! I do enjoy sharing with everyone. Even my readers in Germany and Russia! You guys are great! Thank you for returning to read the way you do. I think my boys have the right idea....

~TTFN