Thursday 13 ~ Thankful

Ti's the season for giving thanks, so I thought I would list just 13 of the things I am most thankful for. My blessings are really too numerous to count.

1. God. I am so thankful to have a loving God that forgives me for all my imperfections.  A God who has blessed me over and over.  A God who sought me out.  A God who is just.  A God who becomes more awesome the more I learn.  

2. Max.  He is the most steady, reliable, and loving man.  I think he loves me more today than he did the day he married me.  The highlight of my day is when the garage goes up and he comes home.  If there ever was a soul mate or destiny, he encompasses it.

3. Hailey.  She is such a beautiful child inside out.  She is caring and grounded.  She makes parenting a joy and lets you think for just a minute maybe you are doing it right.

4. Karlie.  She is the life of the party and the leader of the pack.  The world better watch out for this one!  She is full of life and joy and brings out the fun side of me.

5. Kaitlin.  My delicate flower who has the biggest heart.  She is so nurturing and loves to help in every way.  I can't help but hug her all the time.

6. Hank. Little boys are just different.  I am so thankful that I get to experience raising both sexes.  It is really fun to watch a little boy grow.  I am totally smitten with my little man.  He delights and scares me daily.

7.  Health.  Thankful that today when were at the Children's Hospital getting Hank's lip sewn back together that I was not the mommy of the child next to us that had been flight for lifed in.  I am thankful that we have just minor bumps in our lives and not life long illnesses.

8.  I am thankful God knew to give me three girls and one boy.  After the stitches and my first injury related ER experience, I see I am not boy mom material.  When Hank split his lip I started crying because it was so deep and I hurt for him.  Hailey later asked me if I was ok because "I've never seen you cry before."  Leave it to the boy to break his mommy.

9. The Resort.  Not only because it is a house beyond my wildest dreams but because of the very basic things such a shelter, heat, plumbing, and comfort.  So often I take these blessings for granted.  In parts of Africa women spend 8 hours a day collecting and purifying water while I leave the water running to do dishes or brush my teeth.

10. Our neighborhood.  I have never lived in one of those neighborhoods where everyone knows each other and are friends.  The kind where the neighbors bring you pies and cakes to welcome you.  The kind where all the kids play with each other and neighbors do nice things like put your trash cans away, edge your yard, or help you shovel the snow.  The kind that evokes the "like a good neighbor" feeling.

11.  Colorado.  Very few places can rival this as a place to call home.  The climate is great.  If it snows two feet by the end of the week it is usually melted and sunny.  My drive to the kids' school is a gorgeous mountain range.  It is a beautiful place to live.

12.  America.  Sure she has her problems (Nancy Pelosi to name one) but I feel blessed to be born in the greatest country in the world and to have all the freedoms and opportunities that she affords to her citizens.  While our health care system is not perfect and I paid $200 with insurance to have Hank's lip fixed, it is far superior to any other system currently available in the world.  If you have an emergency you will be treated regardless of ability to pay.  Not so in much of the world.

13. Family.  Family is everything to me.  I have a very loving, happy, funny, and supportive family.  Everything I am is because of them.  My mom and sisters are my best friends and I am privileged to have Snork for a dad.  I am lucky that I have loving and caring in-laws that I consider my second family.  I usually have more fun hanging out with family rather it be nuclear or extended.  Friends come and go but family is forever.

The Minnies Strike Back

Hank is a wrecking ball concealed in an adorable little boy that lights up the room with his smile and charm.  All that goodness aside, he is a wrecker.  Nearly every activity he engages in encompasses a certain level of wrecking.  Rather it be wrecking a clean room, wrecking his sister's homework or artwork, wrecking a fine piece of furniture by banging a toy on it, nicking the wall by tipping over the chair, wrecking the DVD player by yanking on it, or finding pens and coloring on the wall.  A wrecker is he.

He likes to climb up the office chair and bang as hard as he can on the laptop.  This is the same laptop that survived the coffee incident.  Yesterday I instructed Kaitlin to watch him while I ran upstairs to help Karlie find her shoes before school.  Kaitlin watched him climb up the chair and giddily bag away.  When I came back downstairs Kaitlin reported that Hank was on the computer.  I ran to the office to find my screen glowing as though it were a negative of a photo or like a black light effect.  No time to investigate because we were late for school as it was.  Once I got home and got the wrecker to bed I was able to try and find out if he had permanently wrecked it as Max had feared or if he managed to turn on some new age setting.  After two hours of searching I found the Black on White or White on Black options in the settings.  The little wrecker had managed to hit some strange shortcut key to induce this odd setting.  I was so happy when it returned to normal.

After Hank putting numerous dents in the desk, destroying the drawers over and over and this near second death of my beloved computer, we decided we needed to put a kid lock on the doors.  This morning Max installed this little lock and we had a morning free of Hank wrecking in the office.  Ah, but the Minnies are not so easily dealt with.

I ran in the office to check the email and shut the door hoping Hank wouldn't notice I was in the office and accompany me so he could do some wrecking.  Karlie didn't want Hank or Kaitlin to bother me so she slipped the tie into the lock.  What a thoughtful girl.  After finishing the email, I went to the door to find I was locked in the office and the three Minnies were on the outside!  I banged on the door and tried to explain to Karlie how to unlock it but her hands were not strong enough. Err, kid proof.  Heck, I can barely mange the two push and one pull system.  After some coaching I got Kaitlin to push one button and Karlie to squeeze the other and pull out the tie.  I was beginning to get very nervous about how I was going to get out.  Plus, I could only imagine what the wrecker was up to for those 5 unsupervised minutes!  Lesson learned.  Don't mess with the Minnies, they fight fire with fire! :0)

Date Night!

Friday night was the first time in 2 and half years that I spent the night away from all of the kids.  Max had a function for work downtown and we convinced my mom to stay the night with the kids.  Our argument that was that it would be much better to just fall asleep at our house instead of having to get up at midnight and drive home in the cold. Although we didn't mention that Hank routinely wakes up at 5. :)  Luckily my mom is the best grandma in the world and took it all with a smile.  The kids had so much fun with their grammy sleepover at our house!

We had such a nice time playing grown-ups.  We wore fancy clothes and I only had one Hank food smear on my sleeve (a parting gift).  We chatted with other grown-ups.  We didn't discuss poopy diapers, or site words, or iCarley, or anything about kids.  We drank wine and ate fancy appetizers.  We stayed up past 8:30 and we slept in until 7:45a.m.!  In the morning I was able to take a shower without someone needing to be wiped or coming in to ask where their favorite toy was or watching in horror as Hank single handedly destroyed my bathroom.  We had a breakfast without shoveling our food in as fast as we could and leaving behind a trail of mashed in food and crumbs.  We even were able to have a conversation without being interrupted.  I forgot what it feels like to be all grown-up.  I can't wait to play grown-up again.  Hopefully it won't be another 2 and half years! :)

Halloween Party 2009

It was fun this year to have our annual Halloween party on Halloween. We had chili over baked potatoes to warm everyone up.  The games we played were bobbing for apples, pumpkin golf, and gross-out where we had a bucket of "body parts" that the kids had to feel.  There were eyeballs (grapes in water), finger nails (pistachio nut shells), brains (spaghetti), guts (cherry pie filling), and tongues (dried apricots).  I don't know if the adults or kids had more fun with this one!  After eating and playing games the kids got to go trick-or-treating as one giant mob and you could hear the classic, "Trick-or-Treat" resound at each door. Hank was really cute trying to keep up with the big kids.  Our family went as Star Wars characters this year with Hank being an Ewok,

Hailey as Princess Leia,
Kaitlin was a Jedi Girl,
I was Padme,
Max was Anakin,
and Karlie was Queen Amidala.
It was nice that we got to reuse the Queen Amidala and Ewok costume from 3 years ago and could borrow the full Jedi costume from Chrysti.  I made Max and my costumes, so the only one we bought was Hailey's!  It was really fun and I am already thinking up ideas for next year!

Thursday 13~ Things I Love About a Snow Day!

After nearly two feet of snow dumping on us over the last two days, they canceled school today!  We found out the good news last night before bed and we filled our day with fun.

1.  Sleeping in!  Hank didn't wake up until 6:15 and Karlie slept until 7:30!

2.  Eating a big breakfast of eggs and toast at 9am instead of shoveling cold cereal in at 6 am.

3.  Playing games with the girls.  Twister, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, and Jenga were the picks today.

4. Watching the kids have a total blast in the snow.

5. Making snow horses.  No snowmen in this house. :)
6. Lots of hot coco and marshmallows.

7. Tea and cookies.
8. Hot soup.
9. Staying in our PJs until 1pm!
10.  Daddy coming home a little early to help shovel.  We have a four car garage and after attempting to shovel it all by hand, my arms are screaming snow blower!

11.  Watching Hank experience snow on his own.  He took a face plant shortly after this picture and was none to happy.  But the city snow plow came by to do the streets and he was happy as could be and started clapping as he plowed near our house.
12.  Karlie creating a new extreme sport : Ice scootering!  She is insane!  Each time she crashed she let out the biggest belly laugh.
13. My mud/wash room.

Sir Hankselot Turns 18 months

Hank loves his rocking horse and on this rainy day decided to be a knight with lance.As I was getting ready for Hank's 18 month check-up, I started to think about the questions our pediatrician usually asks to track development. At 15 months we were a little concerned with his speech since he only had a handful of words and with Kaitlin's history I think we were more alert. I decided to start writing down words as he said them so I could tell her how many words he had. I was feeling like a bad mom as I recorded his words throughout the day:

No

Fruit Loops

More

Excuse you

Poop

Costco

snack

1,2,3

Press Play

Then I started to feel a little better with:

Momma

Dadda

Bye-Bye

Ball

puppy

Hawee (Hailey)

KTs (Katilin)

Dar-Dar (Karlie)

shoes

Daisy

Drink

Cheese

Table

Then I felt better when at dinner he said, "Amen." At least I got one good one on the list.

As I kept writing words down we got to 30. His doctor said that was great, if not ahead. That is a change. I don't think any of the girls have ever been ahead in speech as toddlers.
He is almost 25 pounds (50%) and 33 inches (75%). Long and skinny like his daddy.

The pediatrician said it was the happiest 18 month check-up she can remember.  He was more than happy to give her five and had no complaints until the shots.  She said by this age they usually remember the shots and have stranger anxiety.  I guess he grew out out of his wild, hungry, teething, not breathing, tired genius stage.  His asthma is under better control and we are down to one nebulizer a day but might go back to two for the cold and flu season.  We are slowly figuring out how to feed this little guy and changing our menus so that they are Hank friendly.  Spaghetti use to be our cheap dinner, but not anymore with $4/pound of organic pasta.  I still find myself doing things without considering his allergies like ordering pizza when we are all out of food and not realizing until it arrives that I have nothing to feed Hank.  But we are slowly getting the hang of it.

He is a very loving little guy and melts my heart. He is also on a mission to kill himself before he sees his two year old birthday. I have never seen a child climb the way he does. Forgive me for saying it, but I am not sure he is the sharpest tool in the shed. He will climb up something and fall and hurt himself only to turn around and do it again. For example this weekend he was attempting to climb up on the table while my back was turned and fell and hit his lip. He actually bit through his lip. Blood was everywhere and I was a mess. After Max inspected it and we applied cool rags he started to calm down. As soon as I let him out of my arms he was starting to pull the chair out to climb up again. His forehead is riddled with bruises and bumps. Max and I were thinking Hockey will be an excellent sport for him.

We love the different dynamic a little dude brings to the house. If the girls are playing on the floor, he runs and tackles them. He is always wanting a kiss or to hold your hand and has yet to turn down open arms. This fella is a charmer or maybe just a Mommas boy. :)

Easy Peeps Halloween Cake

We have quite a few birthdays this time of year so I wanted to do a fun but easy cake in the middle of the week.  With a little help from my Peeps, I made this cute cake.  Kid taste approved and grown-up taste tolerated. :)

Spooktacular Seven Sleepover

Our close friends went to see the Broadway musical Wicked and stayed the night downtown.  They have three kids the same age as Hailey, Karlie, and Kaitlin.  We tried to convince them to go for round four but they were happy to not keep up with the Jones' on that one.   While they were at Wicked, we had a wicked fun time of our own with a Spooktacular Seven Sleepover!  I must admit seven kids under eight was a bit spooky.

The first thing we did was made Halloween necklaces with beads, witches, pumpkins, bats, and ghosts.
Kaitlin and Addison are twins separated at birth.  They are only three weeks apart and are the best buddies.  I have never seen them fight.  They just adore each other.
Then we played pumpkin bocce ball.
It was great fun until Jack decided to see if his pumpkin would bounce on the patio!  Boys.  Then it became a game of smash pumpkin.
We then headed up to the park.  I think this was Hank's favorite activity.  He loves the swing.  We got many funny looks as people tried to decide if all the kids were ours.  It was like three sets of twins and a singleton.  I don't know how Octo-mom does it.
For dinner we had pizza and broccoli.  It was pretty scary how much food those goblins consumed and I wouldn't want to frighten you with the mess that was left the next day.
Before bed we made Halloween magnets that they got to paint.  Right now target has plastic table cloths in the dollar bin.  Stock-up!  These are the best craft protecting item.  Just throw it down before they start and throw it all away.  It really makes crafting so much more fun when you don't have to worry about paint or glitter going everywhere.
We rounded the sleepover off with a trip to the pumpkin patch in the morning.  Unfortunately that freeze that flooded our basement also froze the pumpkins.  We felt so bad for the farmer who had lost a sizable portion of his crop.  We thought the basement repair was pricey, I can't imagine what it cost him.The kids were so bummed when they would find just the right one only to realize the underside was all mushy.  It was so ironic that all the pumpkins had froze when it was 82 degrees out on the day we went to the pumpkin patch.
Definitely the cutest pumpkins out there.

Hailey cried when we left empty handed and had to head to King Soopers to buy our pumpkins.
After our spooktacular seven sleepover, I am grateful I only have four ghouls to watch over.

Happy Birthday Kerrie!

Happy Birthday! I am enjoying raising kids together and love you so much.  I know this won't go down as the most memorable B-day, but I hope it was a special day.  See ya Saturday!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom.  I am so lucky to have a mom I call friend.  You are such an important part of our family and we love you very much.  I hope this is your best year yet!

Love MKHKKH