Busy busy busy

We have been busy! We had 4 milestones in less than 24 hours. #1- I put Bella down for bed and she wouldn't have it, so.... she climbed out. Twice. Hasn't happened since then but now she knows she capable. Not a great milestone for us, but one none the less.

#2- Cooper had his first night in underwear and stayed dry. To top that off, it's been almost a week and he's done it every night. Yay!

#3- Caroline "graduated" from preschool. She was pretty excited and it was a fun few minutes to celebrate her accomplishment.

#4- Elizabeth had her 2nd piano recital, but first one playing a song with 2 hands, and not only with 2 hands, but both hands had a different note going and at times different tempos. I was AMAZED when she learned it. It wasn't easy learning it and in my opinion, extremely early to learn, but she did and plays it fabulously!(She was also embarrassed I made her take this picture.)

Other than that, we FINALLY got our house. We closed on Friday and Saturday morning we were at Home Depot just after 8:00 spending away our checking account. Well, not really, but I assume that will be our most shopped at store over the next few weeks.

I realize that after going through my pictures, I haven't taken a picture of the front of the house, so I'll post that later. It's an older home, built in 1968. There is a lot of work to be done. The house is in great condition, just not to our taste, so we could live in it just fine, but we won't. :)

So as I said, we woke up Saturday morning and made our first trip to HD. We didn't get too much, but amazing how this little bit could add up to $160. Mostly the paint I think. I know we'll be spending much much more. I'd rather a trip to Hawaii or something like that, but I guess a nice house will work too. :)

So here is the glorious kitchen. It's a great size, but we have major plans for it. And look, matching seat covers. :)

I had to run back to the house we're living in and grab a few things and when I got back, Brian said he electrocuted himself a few times while pulling the fridge out. Luckily he wasn't laying on the floor when I got back. Then, he had to disconnect the water from the fridge and ended up flooding underneath the sink. We'd only been there a few minutes and already one reason to NOT have carpet in the kitchen. And 2 to NOT leave Brian alone!

There were no other major problems. Brian got the most of the issues. He kneeled on the nail strip and sliced his knee up a little and ran into the chandelier in the kitchen a few times so by the time we left he had blown out 3 of the 5 bulbs.

So our near future check list:

Tear up carpet in kitchen/dinning room

Tear up carpet in hall/living room

Remove cabinet doors in kitchen

Remove hardware from cabinets

Paint counter tops

Put in garden

Paint Cabinets

Paint kitchen and living room

Redo floorboards

Install wood floor

And on and on it goes. That's just near future, but we're making progress and excited about seeing the transformation. I'll take more pictures and put them up as we go. My last picture is just 'cause I thought it was funny. Caroline and Elizabeth came upstairs and Liz had put these balls in their shirts. Oh the things they come up with!

  

2 in one day!

Yep, another post. I have a free second (a rare moment. ok, not that rare.) and I wanted to put these up of Caroline. I try to get a picture of them on their birthdays, a nice picture, but it didn't work out, so yesterday I grabbed a quick moment to snap a few.

Of course once I tried getting one of Caroline, Cooper jumped in so I had to snap a few to appease him.

I couldn't decide between the color and sepia on this one, but I'm thinking the color. The sepia makes her eyes stand out more though and I do love her eyes. I love how her hair just cascades over her shoulders too.

And of course we had to have a cross-eyed picture. She loves doing that one.

And I really liked this one but her eyes aren't "smiling". Oh well. Still a pretty girl.

Busted again! This time.... kids chocolate pudding bowls left on the table. Does she look guilty?!!!

I love this guy! Just thought I'd let you know. :)

Getting behind...

Oh I'm getting behind and I don't want to do that. April definately went out like a lion! We had all kids sick and fluids coming out of both ends! Yikes! Caroline only had one throwing up moment but Cooper's lasted about 3 days. It was horrible. He couldn't keep anything down. The first 2 days we were lucky to keep water down. We gave him a sip every 10 minutes and he was just sobbing for some water. Not even juice.... just water! He got up from sleeping and walked into the kitchen and looked in every cup left on the table or counter hoping to find water. It just killed us. He didn't eat for 3 days and I was starting to get really worried, but on that third day he perked up a little and ate some chocolate pudding. Of course, he threw it up a few hours later, but we did get past it eventually. It was Bella's first experience throwing up. She hasn't ever been that sick and she sure wasn't a fan of it. Needless to say, the carpet cleaner stayed plugged in for 2 days just waiting to be used!

Everyone was normal and great a few days later.

Every night we put the kids to bed, usually around 7:00, but Liz and Caroline sure can hold out on falling asleep. One night Cooper joined them and this is what I found. They said they were being Tarzan. Creative.

They've been pretty creative in their play. Here's some joy from duct tape and Cooper pulling off the risky business look. I just thought this was cute of Bella.

We celebrated Caroline's 5th bday on May 4th, well, that and the rest of the week! She had school that day and I dropped off a treat to her preschool class and then later that night the girls both had soccer games. After that we came home and did the presents and cake and ice cream. Pretty busy day but she seemed to enjoy it. I let the kids request what they want for their birthday cake. Luckily for me all she wanted was a pink cake with pink sparkles. Easy enough, but even that gave me issues. I made it from scratch 'cause I didn't have a mix and the middle sunk in. OH well. When she saw it she said, " that's exactly what I always wanted." Mission accomplished!

After she opened her presents she said, " Mom and Dad, thank you so much for the Princess and the Frog." It was pretty sweet. Guess that was her favorite present.

She's growing up so fast. It's hard to believe she's five. She still seems so little to me. Love this girl!

We've only got 2 more soccer game days, and I'm thinking tomorrow is going to be another horrible one with this crazy weather. It's hard to believe we are still as cold as we are. I mean, I know we get snow at least once in May, but like 75% of May so far?!!! Seriously! I'm going crazy! More than half of our soccer games have been freezing... example here.

This just kills me. Spring trying so hard and winter sticking around dumping it's junk on us!

It's crazy how one half of the sky can be clear and blue and the other half snowing. And of course we get the snowing side! At least it makes the kids happy I guess.

Caroline had a friend party on Saturday. It was her first one and she was pretty excited. All week was her birthday because we had until Saturday for her party. Brian cleaned the house and ran an errand. I baked the cupcakes and got most the stuff ready. The kids were quiet and playing upstairs, so I hurried to go get ready. I heard a noise like a wet patting noise and I knew exactly what it was. Bella had snuck downstairs, climbed on the counter and gotten into the cupcake batter AND took a grab out of all the cooked cupcakes. Luckily I had enough batter to make a few more cupcakes. This is how I found Bella.

I didn't laugh, but I did run grab the camera. Now I laugh. Oh the joys!

The girls had been sleeping in the closet for a few nights. We finally had to put them back in their bed because here they are, 3 hours later, when we're trying to go to bed, and this is how we found them. I don't really mind though, unless they're grumpy the next day! I love the friendship they're building and the memories they're making.

Mother's Day was great. Brian made some fabulous french toast and they brought it to me in bed. I don't necessarily care about the in bed part, but I was going over my Sunday lesson, so it worked. Plus it was a little calmer. The girls gave me their home made cards and sweet gifts they picked out at the store. Liz gave me a heart locket with Mom on it and Caroline gave me some snazzy earrings. Brian tried to talk them out of it but he was unsuccessful. Elizabeth said, " Mom's going to love it because it's from me." True. I never pictured myself with a Mom locket, but now I am the proud owner of one. I was also given some great lotion and beautiful roses.

I wanted a picture with my 4 sweet blessings that allow me the title of Mom. We sure have crazy and rough times, but I love each one of them and am so grateful the Lord has blessed my life with them!

The rest of the day was great. After church Brian made his perfect grilled cheese sandwhiches, gave me a foot rub and then for dinner he made paella and tortilla de patata. I'm sure I'm spelling them wrong, but they were good. I was grateful for him choosing something and making it. It was really good. It was a good day!

Well, that's pretty much where we are for now. We've been going crazy with financing for our hopefully soon to be home, but hopefully this week we'll be done with that. All's well.

Why do I even try?!!!

I finally got all the kids in their Easter clothes that I made for them. I though it would be a great chance to get a picture of the 4 of them together. I don't really have any great ones and I'd love just one to hang on my wall. I've decided that taking a group picture of my kids is one thing I absolutely HATE! It never works out and then I turn into Momzilla. When I take pictures of other people's kids, I just think in my head, "yelling at them isn't going to make them smile" when they start getting all upset at their kids and what do I do? The EXACT SAME THING!!! So after a few really bad shots like this:

and this (although not too bad):

and this (but I love Cooper's face):

the best we get is this:

I think I'd rather hire someone and pay them to try than be having one of the worst experience and scarring my children for life! I decided that I'd just had to take individual pictures. Only Liz and Cooper really cooperated for those though.

Maybe we'll get a group one in five years!

A little catch up

In no particular order, here are a few things I haven't posted yet....

Will's Birthday Party

The last weekend in March, the cuz Will had a bday party and we went to the fire station for it. The kids had a lot of fun. It was a nice day so we walked over there, well, some of us walked.

Cooper was really into the fire fighters and wanted to help them put their clothes on. It was cute.

These two have so much fun together. It's so fun to watch them play.

 

And here's Papa John with the boys. Good times.

 

More Bell fun

While the Bells were here we dyed eggs one day. Caroline and Cooper loved being around Daniel.

Then on Bri's day off we went to the Fun Center and did a round of bowling, a few arcade games and rollerskating. Our kids gave up on the skating pretty quick and headed over to the jungle gym. I got pretty worn out after about 30 min and took the kids home while the others stayed to play a game of laser tag. We had good times together.

The last couple of days have been nice and warm so we've been able to get out. I was trying to get a picture of Cooper and Caroline and this is what I got.

We've had several episodes of Cooper dropping his pants down outside to go potty. I mostly laugh. I mean how can you get mad at this face?

 

And just a few random ones...I love seeing the girls use their imagination. I'm not exactly sure what was going on here, but they were having fun, so it works for me!

The other day the girls went to bed without coming upstairs and I thought I better check on them to make sure they weren't dead 'cause they've been getting out of bed just about every night. Well, this is what I came upon. Can you believe they can sleep like this?! I had to make sure Caroline was still breathing. Makes me laugh!

The other day we woke up with the deer on our yard. I thought this was a cute picture seeing them look out the window at them. 

1st week of Soccer

We decided to sign both the girls up for soccer this year. It's been 2 years since Elizabeth played, so Caroline is starting at the age she did. All during the day we were having bad weather so I was nervous they  weren't going to get to play, but it cleared up by game time, so all was well.

Or so we thought. We grabbed some pizza on the way over. The bad thing about the set up here is they have the girls playing at totally different places, about 20 minutes apart, so half their games we have to split up. Made me so irritated. I wouldn't mind as much if they had to play at the same time if it were at least at the same place because then I could catch both, but there's no way with how they've set it up here. Stupid! 

The games started out fairly nice. About 15 minutes into Elizabeth's I had to take Caroline to hers and then the weather got bad. Before we even started Caroline's game I thought soccer was the dumbest sport ever. I don't like it to begin with. I mean, any game you have to sit through a couple of hours (well, not at kid level) and only see someone score maybe once or twice is too boring for me. Plus, any sport you have to sit through rain, hail and snow (we got all 3) in is dumb too. With the exception of football of course. :) Anyway, it was a horrible start! All the kids were crying and freezing. We didn't dress the kids properly for the crappy weather so I was ready to quit the season.

But the next day Elizabeth had a game and it was perfect weather and actually quite enjoyable, so I think we'll stick it out at least another week. Elizabeth is doing great. I'm so impressed with how much she's already learned. I didn't realize they had positions in soccer, aside from goalie. That's how much I know! I was so proud of her after this game. She was in the whole time and running around like crazy. It'll be fun to watch. Caroline is in the let's run around and try and kick the ball stage, but it's still fun to watch her get in there too.

AWHC and Porter Egg Hunt

Last weekend we went to the Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Ceneter. It wasn't supposed to be too nice of weather but it turned out not too bad. We started out by getting a tractor ride over to the admissions area, then after we were in the fun began. They had a candy cannon that they shot off and then all the kids ran around picking up the candy as fast as they could. It was funny.

We of course stopped by to see all the baby animals. There were quite a few.

To me, the best part was the muttin' bustin'. The kids wanted to ride the horses, but we thought they were an extra cost, however, the muttin' bustin' wasn't, so I said, "we can't do the horses, but we'll let you ride a sheep." Caroline and Cooper bought it, but Elizabeth didn't. Our kids were a few down the list, so after watching the first few I turned to Brian and said, " I don't think this is a good idea. They are going to cry and hate us." So I went over to them and explained what was really going to happen and how they were going to fall off and they were still all for it.

The nice thing was that for Cooper, since he's only 3, they run with them and pull them off so they don't fall. They did that for a 4 year old girl so we were like, "oh good. They'll do that for Caroline too. But they didn't. They let go and hers made a circle and headed right for the fence. That's where she fell off and the thing stepped on her, but she didn't cry, which really surprised us. They actually enjoyed it but Caroline said she wouldn't do it again. At the end of this post is Caroline's video, unfortunately it's sideways. Now I know. Oops.

Afterwards we found out the pony ride was included, so they all got a turn. Bella absolutely loved it and threw a little fit when Bri took her off.

From there we headed down to Sandy and had the Porter egg hunt. It was fun to watch them running around. Bella got more into this one.

We had some good times that weekend with our traditional penny walk and then we went to a park, had dinner and the adult egg hunt. It was so funny! I don't have any pics, but really video would have been funnier. Mom and Dad, and the kids, hid the eggs and then the rule was married couples had to hold hands and couldn't let go and Caroline got a head start. Well, Mel and Greg cheated and I about died laughing so hard as Brian dragged me all over the place. One time we were going up a slight hill and started  going for different eggs. I about wet my pants I was laughing so hard. I fully expected to be sore the next day because I haven't done that much moving for a while. It was funny.

I feel like I don't get much face time on the blog, which is fine, but I know I like to see the mama's and daddy's on others too, so the other day I took a few pics of myself... I know.... again. I'm not stuck on myself, but I think it'd be nice to see a few pictures of myself when I get older. JK. So here are 2 from the other day. Phew! That was a long post!