Mom of 4 Building Like Crazy!!!!: April 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Ashleigh's music and gym day

Here's Ash scootin' along

the jump rope queen

check out the girl on the balance beam

I think she may have a future in hula hooping!

here she is in music playing sound effects with the story her teacher read

the teacher had them do creative movements with music

here she is galloping along

Ash and her friend Elyse getting ready to catch the spider ball in the web

they had to throw a beanbag up and catch it in a milk jug

For kindergarten they don't do a program they just have a day where parents can come and observe music and gym class.

he has been for a while but he is just now starting to walk more than crawl and getting into everything. Some how he can open every cupboard and drawer and the toilet. I guess I'm thankful that he hasn't figured out how to turn the door handles!! He is becoming very verbal too and is letting his big brother and sisters know how he feels. I can't believe my baby is growing up so quickly.

My boys

The boys playing outside

Caleb is such a good big brother...I'm very thankful that my sons each have a brother and my girls each have a sister!!!

It took him almost a whole year but Jake finally has enough hair to have a "bad hair day"

Caleb did a bird pageant at school and they had to make a hat to go with their bird. His was a kingfisher and his buddy Dylan's was a roadrunner.

Welcome home Great GMA and GPA K

Great GMA and GPA are back from Texas so we went to welcome them home. We took GPA cookies and GMA flowers...of course! The kids have already checked out the tomato plants and are eagerly awaiting the first crop.

Ashleigh's fish project

These were real baby shrimp that she picked up and fed to the fish

Caleb is very jealous since he is "dying" to have a snake

This is Ash with a preserved porcupine fish

Ash using the microscope to look at a star fish

This was our instructor he is telling about the porcupine fish

For school Ashleigh had to do a fish report. She picked the Porcupine Fish. After she completed her report they got to go to the Marine Biology department at Central Campus. She had a great time and got to feed a real porcupine fish as well as some other weird stuff. There was a fish that eats fruits like apples and grapes and we saw a real baby shark that had just hatched from its egg. It was really pretty cool. Mommy of course just observed!

DAM to DAM

This year I'm going to run DAM to DAM it's a 20k (12.4 miles) and it is 32 days away. So far I'm up to 10 miles...hopefully I live through it. Then it's on to Marathon training!

My new Gazebo

This is our new swing set we got last year that no one hardly played with, at least this year the neighbor kids are at least starting to.

Every time I go anywhere there are always these great CLEARANCE sales that I can't pass up!!! Andy is so tired of hearing it was on sale! Well last year at the end of the season I called from Sam's Club and said they have this tent thing and it's the LAST ONE and it is soooo cheap should I get it? Well he went through his little spiel of "just because it's on sale doesn't mean we need it and you want to put it where? But I of course knew he would love it so I bought it and we put it up last week. Now he's so glad I did because he loves it!! It's great to hear that I was right!!!!! Love you Andy!

Cinderella

The High School put on the play of Cinderella. So the girls and I had a girls night and Andy and the boys went to baseball practice. (The guy who took our picture lacked in photography skills and Jocee wanted to know why a stranger was touching OUR camera and taking OUR picture.) The girls loved it and Jocee didn't want to leave, big surprise! She is so curious about everything, she wanted to see Cinderella's bedroom and now she wants to go back to Cinderella's house.

Julie is robbing the cradle

On Sunday night the whole team went to dinner after we won our tournament. It was super crowded and the server was retarded! Anyway, I was sitting at one table with GMA Lori, the girls and Jake, and she took our order and then asked if I had any other kids to put on my tab. I told her yes one at the "boys" table where the team was sitting. Then she took Andy's order and put it with mine and then she turned to me and asked if I had a husband in the group that needed to be added to my order. I said "Yeah" and pointed to Andy. "Oh I thought he was just a teenager he just looks so much younger!" Then she made some comment about me looking like his mom. SWEET!!!! I guess I'm adding face lift to my list of plastic surgery procedures! Don't mind that I'm the younger one in the first place!

It's BASEBALL Season....

Caleb getting the latest trophy

The team

I think Caleb has more trophies at 9 then I have earned in 25 years!

So pretty much we will never be home over the next 3 months. At least so far we are winning which keeps everyone happy. It's much more fun to go and see them win and go home with big trophies! So far we won first place in the Cedar Rapids tournament (Thanks Uncle Dave and Aunt Jill for letting us stay with you!!!) as well as the Indianola Tournament this last weekend. We just recently put a shelf in Caleb's room for his trophies so the little kids couldn't get them, but at this rate we are going to have to get a new shelf. GO HURD!!!!

My two chefs

The other day the kids didn't have school and we had played outside all day long. So by dinnertime Jocee was STARVING and pretty sure she wasn't going to live if she didn't eat RIGHT NOW! And Jake woke up from his nap crabby (which is never a good thing) So I told her she could be my helper...it's much easier to wait for dinner if you are helping to make it. Jake like helping and munching too! We had hamburgers, fresh green beans, and strawberries. Mmmm, I love summertime meals!

Caleb in charge

Hey MOM!

Look Jake can clap

MMMMM these are good!

The other day I needed to take a quick shower so I asked Caleb if he could watch Jake for a few minutes. Well when I came back downstairs this is what I saw. The best part is Caleb was laying on the couch with Jake looking in his direction...watching TV of course. Jocee later informed me that "I was coming to tell on Jake, but then I forgot." NICE!!! The power of TV...I'm ready to throw it away!

Easter Bunny

The bunny is to the right of the first spindle after the grill
On Easter morning I came downstairs early to make coffee cake to take to church and realized I had eggs, but they where all hard boiled and dyed. Another genius moment. So as I was getting ready to head to Hy-Vee I looked out the back window and saw a bunny just sitting there. When the kids got up I told them I saw the Easter bunny and took his picture. Ash informed me that it couldn't have been him because the real Easter bunny is bigger and white...DUH Mom!!!!

My crazy plant

Just disregard the dirty window in the background

I got this plant over two years ago right after we remodeled our kitchen. I went to Target and I had Lilly (who was a tiny baby) and Jocee (who was not quite 1) and we went to get new plants...Well as usual I found lots of "deals" and I ended up with a cart full of babies and plants! It was pretty comical. Anyway it is a miracle that any of the plants are even alive to this day (GMA Joanne can attest to that...and actually take credit since she is the one who waters them when she comes over!!! Thanks MOM!!!) But this crazy plant started growing and has now sprouted flowers. I don't even know what it is called but it looks cool. I think it is some African plant but I threw that little card away...you know the one that comes with the plant to tell you how to take care of it...Yeah I'm a genius!!! I used the kids camera and somehow I'm still in 2006...Oh well maybe sometime I'll figure these things out.

Baking Cookies

Jocee showing how yummy the cookies are

Jocee being silly

Jake loves cookies!

Jocee is always wanting to make "something"...of course when she says "something" she really means dessert! On this day we made Fiber One cookies and also a banana chocolate chip cookie. Both turned out really good and I like to think they're healthy....bananas and Fiber One are good for you...Right?

Easter

Caleb Jocee and Ash getting ready for the hunt

part of the crew

Ash Ethan and Jocee dyeing Easter eggs

The neighborhood kids...maybe next year we won't have them looking at the sun!!! At least it was nice out!

We do the egg hunt every year with the neighborhood kids...every year for the most part we have lucked out and had decent weather. This year was no exception...it was almost hot out.