So very very much going on!!

This last week has been spring break, all the kids are home and the weather has been CRAP!! ITs been cold, rainy and snowy. Not much fun for spring break!!! But we've gotten house work done, we've gone a few places playing and we've made it through!!!


There's lots of progress happening on the house end of things! Its so exciting to see! SO exciting. I'll post pictures soon!!!


OH! And I got my computer back! Its so much faster, and SO wonderful to have back!!! After we move I should be back to my usual posting self!!!


Can't wait! Hope all is well with everyone

What a WEEKEND!!!!

I woke up today feeling like I needed a weekend from my weekend!! It was busy from the start to finish!!!


Thursday was Gabe's eye appointment. He DOES have to be patched, but he's got a patch that just goes on his glasses lense and makes things look blurry so that the brain reverses the lazy eye thing. We'll see how it goes. He's one to just peek over the top if he can't see very well. We may have to patch him just like Dallas. We'll see. Then Thursday night was the boy's plays at school. They were really cute and they did a great job! I have pictures of that, but I'll save those for another day!!!

Friday night we had a small party for the guy who's helping us fix our house. It was over at the new house, so my Friday afternoon was spent picking up nails, and construction debris. The party went well, and it was nice to be able to have ROOM!!! While I was there I took pictures of the shower surround they got done last week. I think it looks really nice!! We bought the full shower surround, but we'll be using the back part of it down the boy's shower in the basement. This still needs to be grouted, but you get the idea of what it looks like.
Saturday we had a family get together for my moms side down at Todd's work. Todd skipped out on the party because he was over at the house tiling behind the tub (the same as the small tiles above). It was a really fun day but by the time it was done MAN WAS I TIRED! I had to haul things down there, cook, etc. My mom and sister in law Kelly were HUGE help though! They were both there early to help with all that. And my dad and brother Curt were a huge help watching the kids while we were busy!!!

Then Sunday morning we got up and were getting ready for Church (the kids and I) and Dallas told me his throat hurt really bad. Sure enough, looked like his typical case of strep. Off we headed to the target minute clinic to get him tested, and Gabe. Turns out Dallas DID have strep, and Gabe had a sinus infection. I was happy for him to get meds too though because the nurse thought it was only a matter of time before his turned into strep.

After that we were supposed to have 2 birthday parties. One we couldn't go to because there was going to be brand new babies there and we didn't want to expose them to the strep. The other was for my brother Curt. And my mom and dad, Curt and Kelly had already been exposed, so they still wanted us to come out for the party. It was fun to hang out and have a good time. And the best part was that my husband was actually able to come with!! That's been so RARE in the last 7 months!! It was nice to be together as a family as a whole!!!

I got a few pictures of the kiddos! Its been a while since I've put up new ones!!!!

Here's Dallas my thinker. He's so smart and funny!!
(and funny as it may be he LOVES this shirt. . .it says "enough with the learning already!)

Here's Gabe showing me one of the yoga poses they're learning in school!
He's a little spit fire!!! He's got trouble on the mind!!! Maybe yoga will be wonderful for him!

Here's Kaleb, my little ham! He's so full of life, and laughter! He keeps me on my toes
and always laughing!!! His new phrase is "mommy I want you" Because
he wants to snuggle! He's such a sweetie!

Here's my princess Kendyl! She's so mature, and so helpful! She blows me away.
I only have to ask for her help ONCE and she's right there willing and ready to
help mommy with whatever task needs doing!!
She's amazing!

Here's Kendyl again giving her stuffed animals a ride at the new
house while mommy cleans up!

Kaleb and his totaly "3 year old cheese" picture! He's really into giving mommy a
cheesed out smile!!!

Dallas, not wanting to be left out of the yoga pictures!! They both seem to really
enjoy the yoga they're learning in school!
VERY different from the gym stuff we learned though!!!

This is truly a RARE picture! Gabe with his eyes OPEN!!!
He usually cloese them with the flash! I think it was light enough in there it didn't bother him!!

Sorry I've been so MIA lately. There's a lot going on, and I hope to be back full force in the near future!!!!!

A quick picture update!

And then I'm off and running again. Its been really busy here, but there has been PROGRESS happening! And to see that is just AWESOME!!!!

First of all, the kids. They're doing good. Though I fully believe that spring break should be more closely associated with day light savings time. My poor kids this morning had a really hard time getting moving. Its the equivelent of getting up at 6:10, and being to school by 6:45 for them until their bodies adjust. If we'd have had this week off we could have had time for them to adjust before having to head back to school. I know they'll adjust. I also know the next few days will be hard for them.

Here are the kid pictures. Not many of the boys, because they were at school when I took the others. But still a picture update of them! Kids



Then there's the house stuff! There's PROGRESS! There's paint on the walls in the bathroom,the tile pattern for around the shower and tub has been decided, the bathtub was hookedup and it WORKS!!, the hallway was painted though it still needs another coat, the windows were primed once and painted once, they too need another coat, and the kitchen was primed once. That will take ATLEAST another coat of primer. It was SO nasty! But it looks so much better already!! But that was all Friday and Saturday. I went over painting the bathroom on Friday, and then on Saturday my mom and dad came down to help paint. We got a lot done considering we had little kids following us around all day!!! And its looking AWESOME!!!! Here is the house picture update: HOUSE



YAY!! Just a few more weeks until we can actually start MOVING things! WOO HOO!! The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!!!!

Following the path of those before? Or venturing out on new territory?

We're struggling with Gabriel right now. As I sit here to type this I'm actually at a loss as to where to go from here or how to best handle the situation. I'm not sure if its just normal child stuff, if he's just going through a phase, or if he's following in Dallas's footsteps and possibly starting to show us signs of his having ADD, or something of the like. I just don't know. And the not knowing why, or how, or what to do is the hardest part about being a parent some times.

Gabriel has been acting up lately. Its common things like not listening to us, talking back, being mean to his siblings, lying, etc. All things that we've chalked up to a normal 6 1/2 year old boy. Its behaviors we've seen out of Dallas, and we've watched him grow through most of them. (really, what kid out grows the talking back!!!) But there's a difference with Gabriel. When Dallas would tease someone, or be mean, he would STOP the second he knew the other person was upset, or didn't like it. Dallas didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Gabriel on the other hand could care less. He'll keep going, and push it way too far. He just doesn't seem to care that the other person has had enough. He just thinks he's being funny.

They have a "light system" in his class. Its shaped like a stop light, and your goal is to stay on Green. If you hit red, you're off to stop and learn. (the in school detention I've talked about before) Gabe's been teetering on the edge all week. Some of the days it sounds like his teacher just has less patients than others, and in fact she's said as much to me. Some days she just doesn't have the patients for it. She has a class with SEVERAL high needs kids and it sounds like its getting to her a little. Either way, Gabe went to stop and learn today. I didn't get a call explaining why, actually I didn't know anything about it until Dallas blabbed. Gabe had taken the white slip out of his bag and shown Dallas. He didn't even tell me. Just came in the car like nothing was wrong. When he showed Dallas it sounded like he was bragging about something he'd made in school. So I didn't pay attention. Then Dallas blurted out what Gabe had done. ANd I was FURIOUS! To BRAG??? Grrr. Turns out he got it for talking in class, not following directions, making noises, and not getting ready when he was supposed to. All in all it was for just being disruptive to the class.

We had to go to Target after school, so I informed him that when the other kids got to pick out a treat he would not. He didn't seem to mind, until we got to the register and he realized the twins were picking out fruit snacks, and Dallas some chips. They NEVER get to do this so it REALLY sunk in how uncool what happened was. He realized that doing something naughty does NOT equal rewards. When we got home, he got to have a banana while the other kids ate their "treat". He was pretty unhappy. BUt you know, it sunk in. FINALLY!!!


I don't know where we're going to need to go from here with this. We have conferences in a couple weeks, so we'll get to sit face to face with the teacher and hear what's really been going on.


Its hard work to be a mom. A parent in general I guess.

I'll update as things go.

Falling behind a little on the blog. . ..

And right now I just don't have the time to catch up! Things have been busy here! The new house is slowly but surely creeping closer to being able to move in. I actually got to pick out PAINT colors for the bathroom if you can believe it!! The tile will be going down, my guess would be this weekend. Painting is happening, finishing work is happening! Its all so exciting!!!

The kitchen is still the room that lacks the most. IT needs a counter top, patch work on the cieling, sanding and mudding on the walls, primer, paint, and so much more. But that will all come together pretty quickly I think. And then we can start to think about carpeting, and getting things ready to MOVE IN!!!!


Its all exciting, and exhausting at the same time. So I haven't been around much! I'm sorry I've fallen behind on blog reading. I hope to catch up soon!!!!!