A Year In Review

January

Not too much going on in January, it must have been so cold that we just holed up for the month!  We did get out one afternoon for some sled riding (as Jon calls it).  The entire event lasted about twenty minutes.

 

 

February

The thought of having THREE children scared us and we were just sure we would never be able to leave the house again so when we got our tax return we decided to take a last minute trip down to Florida.  Taking a two year old on a plane was...challenging but watching his amazement at places like Sea World, priceless.

 

 

March

Raven had her babies on March 6th and it took four people, delivering them in shifts as it was a work day that Jon could not miss and I wouldn't even attempt!  I showed up during my lunch hour to witness one birth and when she immediately ate up the afterbirth, I bolted.

 

 

April

In April the snow was finally melted so we had to do some "spring cleaning" in the backyard...don't think this was a non-paying job for David!  April is also birthday month in our house, Ryan on the 5th and David on the 15th.

 

 

May

In May we had to really start preparing for the new baby; we got a new swing set for the backyard to entertain the kids for the summer and we finished off some landscaping that was long overdue. We also moved Ryan to a toddler bed, thinking that it might take him quite some time to get adjusted...the first night he slept in the bed and has never gotten out of it!

 

 

June

Steph and I both went off work to start playing the waiting game...

July

Our busiest month filled with a plethora of emotions including anticipation, excitement, pain, joy, sadness and mourning...Layne was born on the 9th, Haylee was born on the 13th and Grandpa died on the 20th.

 

  

August

Our family vacation to the Double J Ranch - the van broke down on the way, the cell phones didn't work, the lights were out in our section of cabins and it was freezing cold...but we still had a good time!

 

September

Travis and Katie finally tied the knot.  We had a great time at their reception dancing the night away even though we were sober!

October

I absolutely loved Halloween this year, we got a chance to Trick-or-Treat at Grandma's house before heading to Brian and Heather's for Trick-or-Treating at night.  Everyone was dressed up at the party and we just had a really good time. I'm hoping to dress up every year, It will be a good memory for the kids to have. 

 

November

One of my favorite days of the year...Thanksgiving!  This year we made some hand turkeys, laughed at our annual "burned to a crisp" dish to pass (thanks mom), ate too much and then put up the Christmas tree, it was an awesome day.

 

 

December

In December we tried to make some new traditions with the kids; we made cut out cookies and frosted them, we put lights on the outside of the house, we went to see Santa Clause, drove around to see all the holiday lights and then of course attended lots of parties!

 

 

2009 was a good year for us; of course there were ups and downs and as always we are looking forward to the great things that the new year will bring!

That's Mr. Kink-ket to You

To Ryan this piece of fabric holds special powers...we started with two and it's frightening to know that we are now down to one.  If we happened to lose the remaining one, he would be devastated and that is no exaggeration.

I don't know how he learned this, but for every hurt he yells for the "nice kink-ket" which translates to small blanket, to heal his pain.  If he falls down and scrapes his hand - kink-ket.  If he bites his tongue during dinner - kinket. If I mention that his butt has a rash, he will (in the form of a question) say to me "nice kink-ket?"

This 18" by 18" piece of fleece and silk has been used around his belly as a belt, around his neck as a scarf, around his shoulders to run around the house as superman.  He put this blanket on my belly when I came home from the hospital and told him I hurt, he has given it to his crying sister, he has put it on the dog's back to keep them warm while they were sleeping.

He knows that he lost the first one at Meijer, or so we think so every time we go to a store he will say "My nice kink-ket stays!" and he will throw it onto the seat and we will NOT take it out of the car.  He knows that he can't lose this, or else...

 

For the longest time, this lucky charm was called his "nice kiki" but it has just recently transformed into the kink-ket.  It will be a sad day for me when it's simply called... a blanket.

Love Child(ren)

Last March Raven had six little babies and the experience (for me) was exhausting! Granted I was chasing after a toddler and was six-eight months pregnant at the time and probably a little bit on the bitchy side.

Roo-dee and Raven are both pure bred Miniature Schnauzers so their puppies should be worth between $600.00-$1,000.00 depending on the gender and coloring.  It was the first time we bred them so we were stupid and waited until after the babies were born to advertise, duh!  We ended up just giving them away for pennies to get them out of the house.

Recently Jon received three phone calls from those who purchased one of the babies last March and they all three are begging for a sibling and initially I was thinking NO WAY - I'm not going to go through six-eight weeks of that again.  But...Raven went into heat last week and money has been tight lately so, what do we do?

Once the babies "wake up" we put them into a plastic pool with newspaper and they pee and poop all over (and then walk and lay in it), they smell like a dumpster, they chew threw all of the barriers we put up around the pool, they escape during the day and pee on the carpet...why would we even consider it?

Now we have three kids who needs baths every night, and we would have to find "bath time" for six dogs too?  Uuugghhhh, I think we have enough nightly stress already but...could we get through it for a short time with the ultimate goal of paying off some bills and maybe taking our family somewhere nice this summer?

Raven is beautiful and she is a really good dog...

 

Roo-dee, albeit neurotic is also very beautiful (if you can say that about boys) and he has an extremely soft coat of hair, which is why he is so appealing.  Schnauzers are hypo-allergenic because they have hair, not fur for those of you who didn't know.

  

Side Note: Schnauzers are extremely compatible with cats (mom) and St. Bernard's (Amavive)!

P.S.  Roo-dee and Raven had "union" yesterday, so there may be no holding back now.  If it works out right, round two will be in March again.

Shake What Your Mama Gave Ya...

So there were balloons at Kennedi's birthday party...and what else would two boys think to do with balloons that are just the right size to fit into a size 2T shirt?  Notice boy #2 in the background.

Mommy Time

This pie chart represents the five categories representative of a mother's life.  This week the "work" piece of my pie is small because of the holiday...but what that really translates to is a heaping pile on my desk when I leave and a mailbox equally as full when I return.

I know some of you may have comments about the "cooking" piece as it fits into my life but I will have you know that tonight I whipped up some darn good panini sandwiches with the new grill I got for Christmas...goodbye Panera Bread, I won't be needing your nine dollar sandwich anymore!

Cleaning...I'm usually not to bad, I try to keep the house picked up but rarely do I get past surface cleaning.  Those of you who know me understand that I'm not afraid to tell it how it is.  I don't put on a facade and pretend like I have perfect children, Prince Charming for a husband or a home that would pass the white glove test; I DO NOT.

Since Christmas it looks as if a tornado has blown through here and I'm a little overwhelmed by it so instead of trying to scratch the surface, I'm spending my last few minutes tonight on the computer.  This is what the basement looks like five minutes after picking up.

Our "family time" piece of the pie was spent tonight with Prince Charming reassuring our toddler that burps are worthy of high fives.  He is raising Ryan to beleive that burps, farts, poop or anything that just plain stinks should be shared.  Check out the YouTube video:

Raising the Boy Right!

Well I guess we are to the last piece of the pie...Mommy Time.  A bigger piece is just not going to be in the cards for me right now. I enjoy my 8:30 p.m. - 2:00 a.m. (quiet time) very much but I would not trade it for all the weird, disgusting, and usually politically incorrect memories we make in this household every day .

Christmas...Day Three

We had a great time at Grandma's Christmas yesterday and one of us in particular can't stop talking about how he was king of the tunk-a-thon...doesn't he know that taking money from the struggling young and newly married people isn't Christmaslike?

I had to wonder what was going through Ryan's head as we were getting ready for Day Three of Christmas, this child received so many gifts and he has to be questioning what this fun fest has been all about.  He was going to wear his new rock n' roll t-shirt to the party so we decided to spike his hair to finish off his rock star look.

With four new babies over the past two years, the house parties are getting cramped, the gifts alone took up half of the living room!  We are very fortunate to have so many people in our lives that love our kids and want to see smiles on their faces.  I joked that we were going to start having our parties at the township hall but...if the babies keep coming we may have no choice!

Uncle Warren has been a fan favorite at the past few parties; he's like a human trampoline, punching bag, racetrack, scary monster and teddy bear.  The kids want to know where he is at all times, they want to eat what he's eating, they want him to help with their toys and sometimes Kennedi just wants to say hi. Wait until next year Warren when there are four little crumb snatchers on your heels.  Four little curtain climbers being loud, crying and making your holidays just a little less relaxing.

Even though I always try to have good things to say about my family, there are times when you just can't hold back.  My mother sometimes goes absolutely hillbilly, I will never forget the time when Steph and I had our boyfriends over for a Christmas dinner which was served on nice dishes right next to a tub of Spartan brand butter. This year we received gifts in no other than....TRASH BAGS. I guess you could say that the cinch tie served as her bow?

P.S.  Mom, there seems to be a problem with my new socks...

We had a great day, the kids got lots of nice gifts and so did we...Ryan and Kennedi play good so going to a party where they are together is almost like going to a party without them...almost.

 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas - I know we did!