This and that

Lately I have been feeling like this! I always said I would never become a "frumpy" mom. But I have! I love hanging out in Paul's basketball shorts and a t-shirt, it's the most comfortable combination of clothing. If I don't have to go anywhere I will lounge in them all day. I will even pick up my kids from school in them, as long as I don't have to get out of the car. I am trying to wear my regular clothes more, but I honestly feel like they get stained up from cleaning and doing things with the kids. Paul is always asking me how my clothes get ruined so quickly. My response is usually the same - I have 4 kids!

Okay so remember the little man that broke into our house in February? Well he was sentenced to 5 years on prison and he has to pay us back for the damage he caused. I am not holding my breath on that one though. The interesting is, the month he broke into our house he also burglarized 3 other homes! And he owes all of us upwards of $20,000. He wrote a letter to the judge hoping for leniency and how badly his life has been etc., but never once mentioned any regret over what he had done. The sad thing is he was only 19 years old when all these burglaries occurred. Hopefully 5 years in jail will make him think about changing the direction in his life.

They are 6

It was 6 years ago today that I walked into Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska and told the nurse I was not feeling well and wanted to be checked by a doctor. She looked at me skeptically because I didn't appear to be in any pain and led me to an exam room where a doctor checked me out and found I was dilated to a 7 and Lacey's head was about ready to pop out.
It was a whirlwind from there trying to get me all prepped for a c-section. About an hour later two beautiful little girls were born. The first year was very challenging, but we certainly wouldn't have traded it for anything.

Happy Birthday Lacey & Jessica

(You'll have to excuse the odd way the pictures look - I
haven't really nailed down how to use our scanner the right way yet.)

Lacey and Jess during their first week home
My mom insisted I snap a picture of them next
to some object, so when they got older we could remember just
how they small they really were. Hence the reason they are next to a box
of baby wipes.

Once upon a time Jessica used to be mellow and Lacey
used to be loud - that has since changed.

Growing up and looking cute - if I say so myself...ha.ha..

Life is tough

Can any of you relate to this?

To funny not to post

I love taking pictures of things that happen when my kids are very tired.

I dropped Jarom off at scouts tonight and left the other kids home with Paul. When I got back I saw a little "photo op" waiting for me.
This would be the result of playing hard all day and not having a nap - and it was only 6:45 pm! Gotta love kids!

Fun with Joel

Lacey, Jarom, Jessica & Joel on the first day of school

School started on Monday! Need I say more....it's just me and Joel at home and we are having a very agreeable time together. But I must admit he stills walks around the house asking for Jarom several times a day. He definitely loves his big brother.

We keep busy going to the gym and running errands and surprisingly, he doesn't complain at all, unlike his older (and should be better behaved about running around with mom) siblings. He is continuing in speech therapy every week and is doing great! We have seen rapid progress so we are very happy.

He is also, much to my surprise, being very self motivated about using the potty! He whips his diaper off several times a day and announces, "I go potty." Today I put him in underwear and he peed on the floor and then while I was cleaning the bathroom he ran in to tell me he had pooped - on the floor. Yeah! Love the potty training. And then as I was putting away the dinner dishes tonight he plopped on the potty seat and peed only to whip out the cup part that holds the urine and presses it to his lips in an attempt to drink it! I literally dropped what I was holding and yelled NO! as I ran over to grab it from him. Never a dull moment around here.

Since my older kids are required to read every day for a certain period of time I have been loading up on library books for them. Monday I took Joel to the library and got a stack of books, however when it was time to go he didn't want to leave. So I broke the cardinal rule of libraries and essentially threw him over my shoulder and let him scream all the way out the door. I tried to shush him, but it's not like I could cover up his mouth because my other arm was full of books.

All in all, I enjoy putting him down for a nap and having some quiet time during the day. Granted I start back to school on the 24th and I will have to use nap time as study time. Oh well - at least he still takes a nap.