Life is Good

Life is good!  My life is also crazy, loud, busy, full of love, tickles, snuggles and exasperation. I never imagined myself as a mom of four, but now I can't imagine my life any other way. 

This weekend is the annual opening day of deer season, so I am a single mom. Now that Cooper is 6.5 years old he gets to go to deer camp with Jason. 

I hate having Jason gone, but I do sure love having a little time alone with my littles. I treat these weekends as "free weekends" and have as much fun with the kids as I can and let chores (and good nutrition) fall to the wayside. 

So far this weekend Henry has cooked dinner both nights. Friday was pizza bread.

Saturday was nachos. 

He loves to cook or really help in any way. 

We also had doughnuts today, went to Target and got stuff for Grace's birthday party next week, and then went bowling. 

Henry has been asking to go bowling all summer. He wanted to go "when it snows outside this summer" but since I didn't think that would happen we went today. Emma was volunteering for a back to school backpack event with the church so it was just Henry, Grace and I. We had a lot of fun and actually did pretty well.

Henry got 67, Grace got 90 and I got 132!

Being this kids' mom sure is a blessing to me. Hard to believe that next week Emma starts her 2nd year of High School and the week after that Grace starts 5th, Cooper starts 1st and Henry will be in Pre-K. 

Long weekends

Long weekends are a mixed blessing. This past weekend was Presidents Day so we got Monday off. It was a very productive weekend. Saturday we cleaned the family room from floor to ceiling including moving all of the furniture, shaking out the rug and mopping all of the wood floor. We also got Lucy groomed, went to ballet and sold almost 150 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies (well Gracie did). We even squeezed in a trip to Starbucks and the park!

Sunday was church, a trip to the nursery for potatoes, and about ten loads of laundry before heading to Grammie's and Grampa's for dinner.

Monday we woke up and weren't quite sure what to do. I washed all the sheets and the towels. Went to Walmart and Safeway.  Finished folding and putting away stragglers and watched Smash (my new favorite show!). Then I realized it was still only 3:00. I decided it was s perfect time to take the kids to the park. Emma want interested but the littles were game.

We had gone to Keiser park in Saturday so Monday they opted for "Connie's" park. It wasn't quite as much fun as our trip on Saturday since we didn't run into any friends to chat with. But it is always fun to send time playing with the kids.

By 6pm we were all beat. Three day weekends are nice for getting to spend time together and getting projects done. But by the end of the weekend we are all worn out and ready to get back to normal. I told Jason that next time we have a three day weekend we are getting pizza for dinner on the last night so that we can just relax.

Long, lean & smart!!!

I took Henry to his 18 month appointment last week. He was 23lb 12oz and 32.5" long. This is the 25th percent in weight and 50th percent in height. I didn't get the head circumference but it was in the 70th percentile. My conclusion was that he is long, lean and smart!

He is growing and changing so quickly! He eats more food than any of his siblings. He is stubborn and opinionated. He demands his own way and is a bit if a bully. Henry has the cutest curls and an adorable smile. He is a love and a cutie. He has recently been learning an explosion of words and there is nothing more adorable than hearing him say "peas" or "dank u".

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

I am so happy that I found my Christmas spirit this year! The last few years Christmas has felt like more of a chore than a choice and I grudgingly put up (some) decorations and tried to get into the spirit. Thankfully this year is different! I was ready for the tree Thanksgiving weekend! We put up lights on the outside of the house, decorated the inside of the house and we're even hosting our first Christmas party in years!


Before we headed out to the Silver Oak Christmas Party I snapped these pictures of the kids. They were going to be for our Christmas cards but I ended up choosing something else


I love this picture of Henry! Look at those curls! Can you believe that Jason wants to cut them off?


She is getting so grown up!

Last weekend we finally(!) got our tree.


I sure love this man. Especially how he puts up with all of my wild ideas.

Catch Up

I've fallen behind on the BlogWagon again. Last weekend (or was it the weekend before?), I took pictures of the kids dressed in their Holiday best as we got ready to head out to the Silver Oak Christmas party. The next day I downloaded the pictures to the computer. That was when I discovered that I still had pictures from carving pumpkins on the camera! I guess life as been a little crazy!


Always a ham
Look at those curls!
She did not want to touch the "guts"
But did want to pose for a picture
He did not want to be outdone
Daddy helped Henry

Sitting on the pumpkins from Grampa

In November Cooper sang at church with the preschool.


Thanksgiving at Grammie's
There were 18 of us this year!

Having fun at the park on a sunny day in the beginning of December.
It was a little chilly
He loves the swings
Always reading

End of Summer

It is getting colder and colder here and I think I have to admit that summer is over. In fact, I'm probably going to have to put my flip-flops away and find some real shoes. (Maybe it is a good excuse to buy the new boots I've been eyeing.)

Looking back through pictures, I discovered these that I never posted. As the summer was drawing to a close, we tried to get out into the fresh air in the evenings before the time change. We rediscovered the rope swing in the middle of our neighborhood.







Everyone enjoyed it and like so many other things, it made me wonder why don't we do this more often? Of course, now with the cold weather, coming rain, and time change we will need to wait until spring before we can visit it again...

A Knight, An Angel, a Masquerade Ball & a Monkey?

We had quite an assortment of Halloween costumes this year. Each child (except Henry) got to pick their own and we ended up with Sir Cooper the Noble Knight. He was wearing the Armour of God.

He picked it out himself months ago and has been talking about it ever since.

Miss Grace picked an Angel costume out of our dress-up clothes.

I made this for Emma when she was in 1st grade in the Christmas pageant.

Emma and her friends decided to be guests as a masquerade ball.

She borrowed the dress from Grammie and made her own mask.

Henry was adorable as a Monkey, complete with banana in his back pocket.

Jason did a great job picking this one out!

Thunder

I remembered to take the camera to Emma Jo's soccer game today! This is the first time this season!

While the team was warming up, Henry played with an extra ball.


Then the game started. We did great the first half! But the 2nd half was another story. Cloverdale is always a tough opponent and they ran away with the game the 2nd half.



Cooper made sure to put on plenty of sunscreen.