Words on Wednesday: the things they say...

I usually put cute things my kids say as status updates.. but I had to mention a few on here.
Matthew (3), lately, has been all about being BIG, strong and brave... just. like. Daddy. :)
So in the last month here are some things he has said:
"band-aids make me brave.."
"Look I am SO strong!" (as he carries a bucket full of books)... "because I ate a broccoli yesterday. A big fat one!"
"Soon I'll be big like Daddy! I am growing up! Then I'll say (and he deepens his voice) CLEAN THE ROOM, KIDS! There will be no more Matthews...."

Today Elise (21m) is obsessed with saying, "underwear" LOL... Don't know where she got it and honestly I don't think she's trying to even say that word.. it's funny anyway.
She's speaking in little sentences now and loves to sing.  She sings Jesus Loves Me, Joy Joy Down in my Heart, Jingle Bells, ABC's, Happy Day... etc... Some little sentences I've caught her saying are, "I can't, I can't reach!" while trying to hang up her coat, lol.. She'll say, "I find it!!" and the "I love you..." just melts my heart!

Johanna's (7) funny phrase of the month.... she ran out of the bathroom excitedly... "MOMMY!! I have pitch green poop... I mean PITCH!" LOL... Apparently she had heard the expression 'pitch black' and figured it applied either way, haha!!!

Katie (12) doesn't surprise us with hilarious unexpected stuff as much anymore, but the other day, before the piano tuner got here, we were rushing around and cleaning.  As I pressured her to hurry up, there were dishes to be done afterall... she paused and looked at me and said, "why do we have to clean, he's blind, he can't see the mess anyway!" Haha! 

Alaina (5) has her funny moments too, but this just goes to show that i really need to blog this stuff more often, I forget so fast and so easily!  A couple things I can remember that were super cute... one time she said, "I know how to spell Taco John's... J-E-S-U-S!"
Then the other day she was super excited for the Davis' to come over and I asked her, "why are you so excited?" She thought about it a minute and said, "ummm... I get to go to evergreen valley, Heaven one day, and a new baby brother!!!" Haha! The answer I was looking for was evergreen valley, a place down the street they play at with a fort.  Alaina usually never gets to go, but on this particular day I was letting her.. :) The 'Heaven' and 'baby brother' part surprised me.

Then there's Steven... he's guilty of saying a funny thing or two... :) Tonight, after Matthew went to the bathroom I asked Steven if he'd wipe him... and then I hear.... "EW! Did you share a candy bar with your butt or sit on a hershey's kiss?!" LOL  Then Katie, who is trying to eat at the time, starts to gag, lol... Oh my family, haha.... On the plus side.. it made my fast of candy a little easier.....

Danielle is ALWAYS cracking us up.  Seriously, it's funny I can't remember anything recent from her.  When I do remember something I will add it for sure!
Never a dull moment...

Take on Tuesday: Poopy Valentine's Day

Yep... Elise pulled a Johanna and I hope it's not the start of something horrible!!!
This morning she was fussing in her crib, so I sent Danielle to go and get her.  Her diaper was half off and there was poop everywhere! She did not like it at all! Neither did I. 
It was so nasty and stunk so bad... ugh.... I went through this enough with Johanna when she was this age that I could go the rest of my life and never clean another poop mess and it would not bother me one bit! lol...
Life goes on though... she got cleaned up, the mess got cleaned up and all Katie could say is, "I am scared for her to share a room with us now!" lol...

Today is Valentine's Day.  We went to the church school to hand out our cards so that was fun for the kids.  I sent Alaina to school late so she could be a part of it, so she gets two parties today! That made her happy.  Our family is fasting candy (and fast food) for 3 wks so everyone is disappointed that they can't eat any of their candy.. haha... oh well, we'll all get over it! :)
That's about it.  That's my poopy Valentine's Day.  Some people get chocolates and roses and I get poop messes and laundry, haha! Totally not complaining... well maybe a little... but honestly once that mess was cleaned up, I really didn't mind.  I love my life just the way it is... poop and all!

Mundane Monday: friends

I am just thankful for friends.  I have been blessed with so many wonderful ones.  Some I've known forever and are more like sisters to me, some I only had in my life a short time but the impact was huge, many are miles and miles away, a few I've only known a couple short years but I know they will be in my life forever.
I am just thankful for all of them. The ones I see everyday and the ones I only see once a year or every couple years.  I hope our kids can find friendships like I have. :) Of course they have one another.. my sister is one of my very best friends.. and they are getting a better start than we did, but it's nice to know and trust and love.. just friends too!

Words on Wednesday: sleepy days

I've been trying to get on here and blog more often. Just to jot down the day to day stuff.  It's okay if they are short entries.. in fact I'll probably prefer that one day when i read over these again.
Today was a normal Wednesday except that I have been more tired today than usual.  Almost early pregnant tired-ish.  It's the first time this school year I woke up and didn't feel like teaching at the church school.  I really do love it.  It's my fault though, I stayed up too late last night watching T.V.
I did teach though and it went well... I just yawned every few seconds.  Then I went to Alicia's to pick up the 3 youngest kids... Alaina was being a stinker there again.  She's just whiny and doesn't want to listen.  I never know how to respond to that... but it's annoying and I KNOW it annoys Alicia... sigh... not that I really blame her.  That age group is hard for me too, with my kids anyway.  I enjoy babies, LOVE the 1yr-2yr range and then at about 3-4ish through about 7 it's just hard for me.  Of course it's different for every kid.  Johanna and Alaina just demand more, idk how to put it... patience? lol.
Either way.. today I was just tired... but I got them home and just dragged my butt all afternoon.  After picking up the kids from school I finally just gave in to the exhaustion and fell asleep on the couch.  The kids were all around me watching tv and playing with katie's new toys she got... hex bugs... lol... Then I made dinner and I am still just pooped.  Time to go to bed and turn the TV on and just zone out.  Maybe even fall asleep early tonight.
Good night!

Mundane Monday: little kicks

I am 17 1/2 weeks pregnant now... I've been feeling little kicks for about a week for sure... maybe even up to a week and a half.  A couple times I could even feel them from the outside!!! I seriously can't wait til they are stronger... one of my favorite things is to put my hand on my belly and feel the little 'pop, pop, pop'... sweet baby. :)
Steven and the kids can't wait to feel the baby either.. anxiously waiting for those moments.
Kicking is just one of the many joys of pregnancy.  One day I will really miss never feeling it again.

Simply Saturday: the bedroom situation

Still trying to figure out what we're going to do with the bedroom situation.  I am pretty sure I'll put the baby with Matthew almost right away.. if the baby keeps him up at night then he can always come and sleep in our room.  It's where to put them.  Right now Matthew is in the smallest room, with the biggest closet.  So, it would kinda make sense to put Katie and Danielle in there.. they have the most clothes but will take up the least amount of space in the actual bedroom since they'll still be in bunkbeds. 
I might put Johanna and Alaina in bunkbeds, but Johanna still sleepwalks at night so it'll have to be Alaina on the top... Johanna won't like that.... If they are not in bunkbeds, but separate twin beds, then they'll need more space as well as Matthew and the baby who obviously won't be in bunk beds.  The problem with this is the paint colors on the walls.... the smallest room with the biggest closet is painted in boyish colors... green and light brown.. ok for girls..  BUT the other two rooms are totally girl colors.  So if I put Matthew and the baby in one of them they are either going to have pink/green walls or purple/green/gray walls... sigh... I really really don't want to paint again.  Maybe that doesn't matter... I mean they don't care, right? 
Then there's Lisey.  I think at this point she will be with katie and Danielle... she could share a room with Johanna and Alaina but they go to bed the same time as she does and they talk awhile.  Katie and Danielle go to bed later so it'd give Elise a chance to fall asleep before they go in there.  But then that's putting three girls in the tiniest room...... but honestly it's that big walk in closet... they can keep the guinea pig in there for one... that means when he stinks we can close the closet door, haha! I know I could make them go through their clothes so they have less and then would be able to fit them in a small closet (we are going to do that either way), but it still just makes so much more sense for them to have the bigger closet.... sigh... we'll see......

Right now the 4 oldest girls are in the same room. It really is fine at this point and I could leave it this way.  The problem is all their clothes (except Katie) are in Matthew's closet (the great big one...) so his room is constantly a mess with THEIR stuff... and he literally has nowhere to put his clothes except for a dresser and once I move the baby stuff in there there will not be ANY room for the extra dressers that the girls are using.  So, what I'd have to do anyway if I wanted to keep the 4 oldest girls together is move Matthew and the baby in the bigger (purple/green/gray) room that Elise is in now and move Elise in Matthew's room WITH the big closet and then SHE can have a  perpetually messy room because of her sisters, lol... but then there's still the problem of having the boys in a purple room (3 walls are purple, of course).  See??? See my dilemma? 
The reason I am considering splitting up the 4 girls is not because they are not getting along, in fact it's been fine, but I am not seeing any benefit to it relationally.  They are not closer because of it... bonding does not happen between the oldest 2 and youngest 2 at bedtime, which was the primary reason I wanted to do this in the first place.  They all play together outside of their room and bedtime, but that would happen whether or not they shared a room.  So... I just really want their clothes in their own rooms... I just don't know.
The last option which is the LAST option, as I don't like it at all... is putting K and D in the basement.  I want them all close to us though and I do feel that is crossing a line with separating them.  That is giving them way too much privacy, too much entitlement and it takes away our playroom (which isn't necessary, but nice) and our guest room (which at times IS necessary).
So for now.. they'll all stay upstairs...... still confused though.

Friday's Facts: the piano tuner

Today we had a blind piano tuner come and look at our piano.  Wendy has had him tune hers for years and recommended him.  He was so nice! Unfortunately, the piano is not able to be tuned and it has some notes that are sticking which can be fixed, but it's entirely a different issue.  That would cost a couple hundred dollars... to tune it, we'd have to rebuild the piano and we're looking at a couple thousand.  Eek.  So, for a free piano it's done it's job.  We're going to start saving (and praying) for a new one.  This one we'll eventually stick in our basement for the beginner piano players to plunk around on... it at least serves that purpose.  He explained that as our children get better that they will train their ears to hear the notes wrong.  Right now our piano is playing a couple notes low. so, it can cause confusion and eventually mess with their ability to use their ears to learn music.

Other than that, the day was normal.  There seemed to be a little more bickering than usual today though.  The common denominator was Danielle.. and then Alaina.  Not Danielle AND Alaina together.. but those two seemed to be starting trouble the most in their own circles, lol. 

We've been using a sticker chart for the kids, to award them for little things.  If they listen cheerfully the first time, do a chore, put their shoes up against the wall and hang up their coat.. they get a sticker.  It's taken a couple weeks but we are almost to the end.  Then we'll have a little family party.  I'll make a cake and then we'll melt crayons together.. different colors... and make big colorful crayons.  Should be fun.  Well, I better get to Bible Study... so the kids can get to bed! :)