help!

natalie pulled a dress out of her drawer and put it on her head. thinking this is surely a sign that she wants to wear the dress, i put it on her. she pranced about, cute as can be. that's when i saw it.

a piece of the underskirt (?) had ripped apart from the dress and was dangling about. oh no! what shall i do?!

you think i should sew it? wellllll... ok! 


( i will put a photo of the finished product here)


i love that i can say that :)

16 months... the sweet and the stinky of it

it has been a monumental week so far.

on monday natalie told me "i love you" and gave me a hug--without prompting! awwww, how sweet is that?!

then on tuesday she walked up to me and said "stinky" indicating that SHE was stinky, not me. what a smart girl!

i am loving this stage. 16 months old and absorbing every single thing that goes on around her. sometimes she just sits and watches. other times she is up and exploring. she is always learning. it is fun to observe her take it all in, process new knowledge, and then do something with it.

i'm finding that i'm missing the baby stage less and less and enjoying the now more and more.

i love my sweet and sometimes stinky girl!

happy thursday everyone!!

happy birthday and dash of honesty

i re-started this blog one year ago today, which happens to be my dad's birthday, so happy re-birthday to my blog and happy birthday to my dad!

with birthday wishes out of the way, i'd like to get serious for a moment.

some of you readers have made comments about me being a super mom (or something like that), and while i thank you for the compliment and am happy to know i appear to have some parts of my life in order, i want you to know that it is sooooo not true!

the truth is, i'm figuring things out along the way, probably just like you are!

one thing i've learned from being a mom and teacher is that no two kids are exactly alike and kids behave differently at home than they do in public... sometimes drastically so, sometimes just slightly so. as a parent, i get to experience both extremes and something right about in the middle! most of the time i am happy my own kids keep me on my toes, because i feel it makes me a better teacher. other times i wish their own teachers would just take them home for the night so i could have some peace and quiet!



ever since going back to work after natalie was born i've been struggling with how to balance work and home. i find i spend waaay too much time on work stuff, but i can't seem to lessen the load. no matter how much i try to be organized and on top of things, there is just always a ton to do and if i'm not prepared, then i can't do my job and i let lots of people down. if i commit more time to planning and preparing my lessons, i spend 10 hours a day at school and my own family suffers.



i'm not complaining, just trying to explain that things are not always rosey around here. that my life is real life, no matter what it looks like on a blog.

and things are not more difficult just because natalie joined our family (currently, she's the easy one!)



i feel teaching has become more demanding over the past few years and my own kids are getting older and their needs are changing. i feel i've got the baby and toddler thing down, but pre-teen? not so much. and if you think i'm refering to taylor, he is only part of that picture. i think zach is going through a super-early, pre-teen, classic middle kid quandry. oh, the attitude! i know what you are thinking--not zachy bob?!? i know, right?!



so that may explain why i haven't been posting as much. i've just been trying to figure out where and what can be cut from my life to make things a bit easier on me. by no means do i want to cut the blog out completely... writing here makes me happy. it's an outlet. and a reminder of what we have done and how far we have come. i want to write more! and i will as soon as i can.

promise!



joe and i have been watching mad men on netflix. seeing what things were like 50 years ago... well, let's just say i am so thankful for a wonderful husband who willingly helps me out. and when neither of us know what to do, at the least we have each other to laugh with! (even though he looks super serious in this picture, he's a very funny guy!)

happy wednesday everyone!

baking bonanza 2011

i've had thanksgiving on the brain since friday, when i was finally allowed to think about something other than school.

i'm looking forward to so many things. here are a few...

-baking
-mashed potatoes
-chocolate pecan pie
-the start of the christmas season

it's such a fun and happy time of year. don't you agree?

today started with a trip to raley's. i hadn't been in raley's for a while. i was back and forth all over the store. again and again and again. bleh.

i had ben, zach, and nattie cakes with me. i told them i was going to starbucks after raley's and if they behaved i would get them something. that's a win-win situation. peppermint mocha frappuccino to celebrate a successful shopping trip or to cheer me up after an awful one!

when we got out of the car we gathered in a circle, put our hands together, and cheered "we will listen, we will help, we will be sweet!" have you seen anyone rally their team in the grocery store parking lot before? ha!

the trip was mostly successful (minus the zig-zagging). ben jumped the little checkered squares down each aisle, completely oblivious to all other shoppers. it's like a cruel joke from grocery store designers. "let's see how many moms we can drive insane with a checker floor pattern." muhahaha.

however, i was happy to see only friendly faces in raley's today. lots of smiles and patient shoppers. unlike the rude shoppers i encountered in target yesterday, but i won't go there. oops, too late!

so after our starbucks treats, we headed home where i baked all day afternoon long.

i wanted to get an earlier start, but i tend to procrastinate. even though i was looking forward to baking, it can be a challenge to work around rowdy boys and a sleepy girl's nap schedule. but i finally got the ball rolling around 12:30 and i just pulled the final pie out of the oven. my favorite--chocolate pecan. it tastes like sticky sweet chocolatey candy bar goodness. oh my!

my chocolate pecan pie never looks pretty. in fact, it always bubbles over or the crust cracks... somehow the sticky goodness always gets under the crust, so cutting into it and serving pretty slices is impossible. but whatever, because it tastes amazing!

right now the boys are playing outside. in the dark. i remember how much fun that was when i was growing up. they are having the best time and i am enjoying having the windows open and listening to their laughter and smelling the pie aroma in my warm house. nattie is cruising around, alternating between throwing toys around and watching the wiggles. oh yeah, we have another wiggle fan in the house! i broke out a video the other day and the girl is mesmerized when i put them on.

i am so thankful for this break and time with my kids. they were driving me a little bonkers about two hours ago, but now they are asking if they can have a camp-out together. love that. and them! maybe sometimes all you need is some pie to sweeten your perspective?


apple pie with crumb topping. found the recipe on allrecipes.com. it had 4.5 stars and a lot of reviews. i doubled the crumb topping. wouldn't you?


libby's famous pumpkin pie. recipe is on the back of libby's canned pumpkin. i had to drive to my mom's and get a can of evaporated milk from her neighbor and our friend lynn. when i opened my can of evaporated milk, it was orange! gross.


my fave--chocolate pecan. zachary asked if there were beans on the top. then he asked if they were bugs. ha!!

i have one more pie to bake tomorrow and then baking bonanza 2011 will be over. phew!

so much...

has changed with natalie the past few months and since blogging has taken a bit of a backseat, i have lots to share. this photo post is dedicated to all of the things i've wanted to blog about, but didn't.

enjoy!

nat had her first big girl bath! that's right, i finally grouted and caulked the hallway bathroom tile and tub!


she was so sad when she had to get out.


nattie got a new hat in the mail... so cute!


she had a terrible habbit of going "boneless" when you tried to help her walk.




but pushing her stroller around was lot of fun!



and now this girl is a walking machine! she walks all over the house. she still falls a lot, which is so scary. but it's amazing how much better she's gotten in just a few weeks.

my baby is now a toddler! WOW!

lookie, lookie

a new header! it's going to be out of season soon, but that's okay.

have you used the program picnik to edit your photos? i love it. i use the free features and am wondering if it's worth the $ for the premium membership. do you know? definitely a want vs. need. the only thing i feel like i am missing is more collage options. making collages is fun. and for me it's easier than scrapbooking.

*************************************************

today taylor had a doctor's appointment. that kid cracks me up. i was talking to the doctor for a few minutes while taylor was out in the hall. when we opened the door he was sprawled out all over the floor, making himself quite comfortable. ha!

we went to target after the appointment and it was so nice to hang out with just him. he was obsessed with using the price scanners and wanted only to look at harry potter books, but it was still fun. there were no tantrums or threats or shrill noises or trips to the bathroom... it was really, really nice! i should have taken a picture. instead i'll have to post a picture of something random.


taylor as captain underpants, halloween 2007


riding the buffalo in old sac

hope you had a happy monday! 4 more days until fall break... woo!

halloween

i know this is a bit late for a halloween post. i just took down halloween decorations today, too. i guess it's just been like that around here lately. remember that cold/flu i mentioned last week? i kindly passed it along to everyone in my family. with six people under one roof, you know that takes a while to run its course. joe and nat are at the peak of stuffiness right now. 

 **************************************************************
so halloween... it started off with a call from preschool saying ben wasn't quite himself--he was asking to lay down during play time.
uh oh.

i went over to him as soon as i could, which was about 20-30 minutes later. he had just thrown up.
boo.

i called joe to come and get him, since i didn't want to expose nana or natalie to those yucky germs.

joe stayed with ben all day at our house while nana took care of natalie, taylor, and zachary at her house. (it also happened to be parent-teacher conference week, so we had a minimum day.)

after my conferences were over i picked up a pizza and headed home. i dropped the pizza off for joe to put in the oven and went and picked up the big boys and natalie at my mom's house.

we ate pizza and right around this time, ben started to perk up. halloween excitement was definitely in the air.
hooray!



joe took all three boys trick or treating. yep, even sick ben got to visit a few houses. then he came home and helped me and nat answer the door and hand out treats. he made it very clear that nothing was scary to him. my big brave ben.



when the big boys came back, they had lots of fun stories to share. so did ben and i. halloween was a lot of fun. somehow, even with a sick kid, it was the most stress-free halloween we've had yet.

here are some pictures of our tricksters.

































zach was dash from the incredibles, not to be confused with mr. incredible.
many people thought taylor was tron, but he is a non-scary-light-up-guy. (he wanted to be a pistol that shoots tic tacs.)
ben was going to be black spider man (not venom), but on halloween night he decided to be a cowboy.
our tiniest trickster was a flower. as you can see, getting a photo of her was not an easy task!


happy halloween... two weeks late!
 

this weekend

• we all woke up bright and early saturday morning to ben singing shouting GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING TO YOOOU!
• joe took ben and zach to a free ice hockey clinic at the local ice rink.
• zach signed up for a 4 week introductory class--his first class was today!
• i had not one, but TWO peppermint mocha frappuccinos and i would have had another if starbucks delivered.
• went shopping for our operation christmas child boxes.
• listened to christmas music while out and about today, because joe wasn't in the car to turn it off.
•  swept the floor two, three, four, five, six times! that has gotta be a record--sweeping and mopping is not a preferred activity.
• started to take down halloween decorations, but lost momentum due to a horrible head cold/headache.
• wishing i could go to bed, but dreading the night-time stuffy head snifflefest i will experience once i do.

i will try to post some pictures of our weekend tomorrow. and some of halloween, too.

just. too. tired.
to do it right now.

where have i been?

for the past few weeks i have been spending all of my extra time on a new project.

it all started when the principal of our school said there was going to be a little contest. apparently my competitive side isn't limited to mario kart.

for three weeks i poured my all into this project and i guarantee i wouldn't have done it if a contest hadn't been hanging over my head. it was hard.

i'm estimating i spent at least 65 hours on it. joe would probably estimate even more.

but it turned out great and... i won! so are you anxious to see what all this fuss is about? check it out here.

blogging is so much easier. i am happy to be back!

from the vlog archives

in july of 2008 joe took me on a surprise birthday trip. i had no idea where we were going or what we would be doing. he planned every little detail AND managed to keep it a secret! i don't think i could have done that.

when i was searching for a video of zachary to put on his belated birthday post i came across some vlogs (video logs) of our trip. i spent about 45 minutes watching them again and again. at one point i was laughing so hard joe came into our room from the living room and told me to quiet down--warning me that i was going to wake the kids up. ha!

pretty soon he was by my side laughing with me. and in case you are wondering, neither one of us woke the kids up.

i'm not sure you will enjoy these the same way we do, but i'm confident they are good for at least a little laugh.

joe's favorite:


my favorite:


bonus video:


so let's take a little vote. did i make it or not?

september 30th

on september 30, 2004 my sweet zachy bob was born at 2:23 pm, just 14 hours after my water started leaking and exactly one week before his official due date. i think anyone who has been nine months pregnant at the end of summer would agree--even after not sleeping all night this is like christmas!



we didn't know if zachary was going to be a boy or a girl. we thought it would be fun to be surprised. 



and it was!

zachary was a sweetheart right from the start. newborn taylor cried all the time, so this was another pleasant surprise. zachary was such a model baby that my post partum nurse asked if she could borrow him as she trained a new nurse on some new baby procedures. i took laps around the nurses station, watching... listening... waiting for a peep from my newest son. but he was nothing short of cooperative and well mannered.



zachary grew to be a pretty easy going (although active!) toddler, as well. he had a love for all things wiggles, which lasted through kindergarten and part of the first grade. i guarantee that everyone who knew zachary during this phase of his life can picture him with his shirt tucked into his pants and talking about the "widdles!"



that should have been a video of zachy singing a wiggle song, but who can resist a magit pid?





seven year old zachary is not a die-hard wiggle fan anymore, but he's not quite ready to part with his wiggle treasures yet. he likes mario, pokemon, and anything taylor is interested in. he still sings and dances, but it's to the tune of katy perry or the black eyed peas.

and zachary is still sweet. he loves hugs and kisses and snuggles more than any of the other kids. he loves helping out with natalie, cooking, and helping in his teacher's classroom after school. he is also silly, athletic, sensitive, and can be short tempered (especially with brothers).



we love you, sweet zatary parter. we hope seven brings you more happiness than that tomato you thought was an apple!!