Sad boy

 

Remember those cranky days I mentioned? Caleb can be such an easy baby but he can also be an extremely cranky baby. He is pretty high-maintenance!! :) He likes to be held A lOT! He hates to be left alone. He is getting to the stage where he recognizes that I'm gone and so he starts to cry the minute I take one step away from him. He's starting to get on his hands and knees so it won't be long before he will be following me everywhere. He will fit right in to the little line I already have. Matt always teases me about my "entourage" or little ducklings.
When Caleb does get cranky it can be really hard to calm him down so he's probably a little spoiled. Hopefully, he hasn't figured that out too much yet :)

Chores

 

It's never too early to have them help with dishes right?? Once the kiddos start sitting up really well - I start putting them in the sink when I am making dinner or doing dishes. The water keeps them very busy and I have a few minutes to get things done. Granted, I then have a wet baby to get dressed..... oh well. :) Caleb loves water. If he's having a cranky day then I can put him in the sink or the bath to give my arms a few minutes of rest. We haven't taken him swimming yet. I wonder how he will feel about a whole 'lotta water.

To wear or not to wear.......

 

...underwear. The on-going question has been WHEN WILL I GET MOTIVATED TO POTTY TRAIN HAILEY?? I think she has been ready for awhile but I keep putting it off. I don't really mind the potty training itself - it's the after. I hate, hate, hate having to find a bathroom with only a minutes notice. I especially don't like doing it in every store, rest stop or restaurant that we go to. Or have to return to after getting everyone buckled into the car only to have one say..... Mom, I need to go to the bathroom. NOW!! Ugh. I already do that with two, will 3 be so much worse!!?? Obviously I think so or I would have potty trained her already.
We have some underwear now..... that is at least one more step in the right direction. Although she calls them pull-ups and gets mad at them when they get wet. :)

Late start

 

When we get just a little snow - school is delayed two hours. That means school doesn't start until 10:50am!! The kids LOVE those two hours. They will go out and sled and play in the snow. I love that we have a little sledding hill in the backyard! I'm not sure I like it as much because it means taking Jackson in at 10:30, Maggie at 12:30 and picking up at 3:30!! We haven't had enough snow for a snowman yet. The kids have been a little disappointed. They couldn't even really make a tiny one because this snow doesn't pack very well.

We had an amazing sunrise one day. Jackson said it looked like Lava.

Church bags

 

The kids got their own copies of The New Testament at Church so I thought it was time for them to have their own Church bags...... I looked around online and found an easy way to make a simple bag. That was important since I haven't sewn anything for a LONG time. It was really easy, went quickly and turned out pretty cute. Those are the best kind of projects!!
If you didn't notice the mess in the background - check again. :) That is life as usual around here - especially when Caleb is getting teeth and wakes up every hour or two at night. My motivation level to clean is pretty much nil. Good thing I have an understanding husband.
Come on take of picture of your mess. You can do it :)
Oh - Hailey's mouth looks funny because she has purple vampire teeth in there.... which she later tried to put in Caleb's mouth..... no wonder they all get the same kind of sick..... UGH!!

Anniversary

 

Better late than never..... Matt and I had our 10 year anniversary on Dec. 30th!! Wow. I cannot believe that it has been 10 years already. Then I start counting kids..... oh yeah :) Such an excellent 10 years. I wouldn't have wanted to spend it with anyone else. Marriage isn't always easy but it's always worth it :)!! Matt kept saying he needed to go to the store that day. It didn't even occur to me that he wanted to get something for our anniversary. He came home with roses!! I think it's the second time since I've known him that he's gotten me roses. We almost ALWAYS forget it's our anniversary. It comes at such a busy time. I was proud of him for remembering AND planning.
This picture is of the rose petals...... I meant to take a picture of the roses but forgot until after I had already taken the petals off to put in this vase. Maggie was very excited that we were decorating for Valentine's Day!

Salsa

 

 

I may have talked about this before but..... Hailey absolutely loves fresh salsa. She will load up a chip with it and eat the whole thing. I love it too. I have cravings for fresh salsa. I guess if I'm going to crave something at least it's full of veggies!! Funny thing for a little one to love though!
She also loves salad and most fresh veggies. If we are having salad - she ignores everything else and eats that. She's done this since she started eating on her own. She absolutely loves iceburg lettuce! I do too :) Carrots, green peppers, red peppers, cabbage.... I wonder if she always will. I eat green peppers and onions now but definitely did not when I was younger.

Blackwater Falls

 

 

It was GREAT to have Matt off work over the Christmas break. We got so much done. He's a lot better and getting things organized and put away than I am. It might have something to do with 4 little ones attached to me at all times...... He can sneak out of the room, or work on a project and the kids leave him alone. They notice right away - two especially little ones in particular - if I even leave to go to the bathroom. The house is starting to come together a little more. That will make it easier to get to the projects we want to do to update and personalize the house. Anyway, to take a break from unpacking we went out to a waterfall one day. It was a fairly nice day when we set out but overcast and chilly when we got there so we didn't last long. It was a short walk down through the woods. We couldn't do down closer to the falls because the steps were covered in snow and slippery. Maggie wasn't feeling well - that's why she has such a sad face - but she was happy for most of the walk. It felt really good to be outside. I love waterfalls. I only like hiking if there is a waterfall at the end of it :) We will definitely be going back to this one when the snow melts. It was a beautiful area.

Santa

 

See, Santa is real! He even has to take baths like everyone else...... :)

Christmas II

 

This was our tree when we got back from our trip. We got back at 2 am so we had already warned the older kids that although the presents would be under the tree we would not be opening them until later that morning. They fussed a little but I was impressed with how well they handled it. Maybe because they were completely exhausted...... so everyone went to bed and then woke us up crazy excited around 7. We don't have a whole lot of pictures because Matt had the camera and he does an excellent job with video.... so we have lots of video. If I had the camera it would be lots of pictures and very little video..... Funny how we do things differently :) It was a lot of fun to watch the kids open their presents. They all helped sort them out into their piles. Hailey thought that was almost as much fun as opening the presents. Then they want to play with everything all at once!! CHAOS. I love it - it drives Matt a little nuts :) We had a fun quiet day at home just playing with presents.

Christmas in GA

 

We went to Atlanta, GA for Christmas this year. Matt's sister lives there with her family and his brother also came with his family. This meant that there were 9 kids 6 and under. There has definitely been a grandkid boom on Matt's side. It's fun to have so many cousins so close in age. The total right now is 3 six year olds, 1 four year old, 2 three year olds, 2 two year olds, 2 under ones, and one on the way. Crazy!! We had a lot of fun on the visit.
It was a supposed to be a 12 hour drive so we thought we would try to make it one day while staying very open to the possibility of an overnighter at a hotel. We made it the whole way through - it took 15 hours. I was pretty impressed that the kids did so well and that the total was only 15 hours. We managed to do the same thing on the way home! Which was nice because we were bringing our dog back with us.
To avoid taking all the presents there and back with us we told the kids that Santa would do their stockings in GA but their tree presents would be here at home when we got back. They were ok with that and even kind of excited about having two Christmases. On a sad note..... we told Jackson that there is not a real magical Santa Claus. I know - he's only 6 - I was sad for him to find out so early. Santa is such a fun and exciting idea as a kid. However, he has been asking a lot of questions about Santa and how he does things. And a girl at school told him that Santa isn't real, it's just your parents putting presents under the tree after you are asleep! So when he came home with that direct question I just couldn't lie to him. I was going to have to get really creative, really quick and I wasn't quite comfortable with it. So we told him that although a magical Santa isn't real the things that Santa represents - namely the spirit of Christmas - are very real and that's what we should focus on. We talked about pretending and mascots and why it's fun and okay. He was very sad for a little while but came out of it quickly when I let him be the Santa's helper and put out the presents before we left so they would under our tree when we came back. He now goes back and forth between comments about Santa bringing presents and us bringing presents. We told him it was perfectly fine to go along with the fun pretend of Santa and that it would help keep the secret for his siblings. He's done a really good job so far. We were a little worried he would announce it to all his cousins in GA because we only told him the day we left. In fact, after prepping him to not tell Maggie .... as soon as we got in the car he goes... "Maggie, Santa REALLY is real. He really is! When we get home our presents will be under the tree from Santa!!" (this was after he had just helped me put all the presents there). He was going a little over the top in trying to convince Maggie - who didn't need ANY convincing. She just said "I know Jax." Then a few minutes later he says "Maggie, when you are six you will get to know a big secret." Oh boy. It's so hard to disappoint your kids on purpose but I know that some of these lessons are so crucial for their development and independence. However, that doesn't mean I have to LIKE it!