Valentine's Party

I know I have been a horrible blogger this month, but things have been crazy. There have been many times that I have wanted the world to slow down so I can catch my breath for a minute, or hour, or maybe a few days. 

So here is my attempt at catching you up on a few things. First of all Midge said she wanted to have a Valentine's party she said this 6 weeks before Valentine's Day. At least it wasn't the day before right. I told her that was fine is she didn't go overboard. She told me if I supplied the sugar cookies she would take care of the rest. 

And she was exactly right. She took care of the guest list (a kid for every one of our kids, invitations, decorations, and recreation for the party goers). It was a really fun party and we managed to squeeze it all in before one of Leo's basketball games. 

Here we are making sugar cookies. Did you know that baking is much more successful when you don't wear pants. Apparently Huck thinks so, actually he thinks a lot of things are more fun without clothing, and thank goodness he has figured out how to undress himself so we can experience this more frequently. 

 What is it about kids always putting the cookie cutters in the middle of the dough? No matter how many times you tell them to go for the edges they have to place that first one right in the middle. 

 Eating our treasures. I had to freeze the rest so they didn't wipe me out before the big day. 

 Midge had a whole skit she had prepared for the event. 

 The happy decorators. 

 The kids played around with drizzling the frosting and got these pretty amazing cookies. 

 Midge had the whole house decorated. She free handed the cupid in the background and 

colored in the entire thing with black markers. 

On the big day I made heart shaped cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The kids were thrilled. 

 I swear Midge was there, but she didn't make it into the pictures. Probably because it was early morning and she didn't want to be in the pictures. It was a school morning so taking pictures wasn't my priority. The cards on the table were all homemade by Midge. 

Yes that is my 1 year old on the table. You say you don't allow your 1 year on the dinner table. Well in our house our  1 year old regularly gets on the table and does a little dance. We figure he will stop before he hits adolescence. Otherwise his dad will be having a little talk with him. As for now I try not to stress about these little things. Frankly if I tried to catch him and pull him down none of these photographs would have been taken, those rolls wouldn't have been made, and my dear sweet kiddos and my number 1 sweetie wouldn't know how much I care about all of them. 

Chariots of Fire ?

Isn't this girl beautiful. She is amazing too. This girl and I have a very special relationship. We know one another's strengths so well. When one of us is down often the other is able to help out to lift the other. At the same time we know each other's weaknesses. It is almost how scary the two of us are alike. When I see her struggling with something I often can draw upon a similar situation in my life and know exactly what she is feeling. There is one area where we strongly differ and that is her athletic talent. 

Growing up I desperately wanted to be athletic. I would try so many different sports, but I was so uncoordinated. Whenever I tried to get the ball to go one way it would go directly the opposite. Did I ever tell you I was on my High School varsity volleyball team? 

Did I ever tell you there wasn't any other team?

Did I ever tell you one time the opposing team discovered that I am not able to hit anything that is directly served to me? Did I ever tell you that this same opposing team proceeded to serve 11 direct hits straight at me until my coach mercilessly took me out of the game. 

Yep athleticism is not something that is within me. Although apparently it is in my DNA. Or at least my DNA isn't strong enough to cancel out Ken's athletic genes. Although I prefer to think that somewhere buried deep inside I have some awesome athletic DNA. Something to make up for all the times when I work out and my face turns so red people think I am going to pass out. No really my face just naturally turns that color. I need to believe that I can be redeemed for the time I competed in the mile at our field day, and I was so far behind the field assistants thought I was in the next heat. 

There is something beautiful in seeing your child do something that you will never be able to achieve. I remember the time I ran against Midge. She was 6 and I was 31. We finished with her crossing the finish line first. She glanced over at me and said, "Mom you didn't have to let me win." In total honesty I replied, "I didn't let you win baby." She has a gift and maybe that is why Ken and I have been a little frustrated. She simply didn't want to train. We tried bribing her. We tried threatening her. Nothing was working. We know that she is fast, but we also knew that she could be even better if she trained. Then we stumbled upon the running club. 

Ken's father had started a group for him when he was about the same age. Nothing special just a small group of kids who want to run. We needed kids who were fast enough to keep up with her, but also people she would feel comfortable with. We asked around and soon we came up with a small group of 5 kids who are all the same age. They meet twice a week and go for longer distance runs. Did I mention that the entire team are boys except for my baby girl? Hey whatever works right?

 This was the cheering squad. 

I am so proud of Ken for taking this on. He is an amazing coach. Very knowledgable, patient and great at knowing your strengths. If you ever get the chance to be trained by him it is definitely worth it. He makes everyone feel great about their work and will meet you at your level. The boys were shocked at how fast he was and love trying to beat him when they do sprints. Midge is really proud of her dad as well and I love the bonding that is taking place between the two of them through this. 

Love this little shadow of mine. 

Snow Day

We woke up to snow today. The only complaint from the kids is that there wasn't any school today because it was a holiday and otherwise they would have canceled or delayed school. It wasn't even a 1/2 inch of snow, but the kids loved it. 

The little ones got cold and came into warm up. 

They sat by the window and yelled out to the others outside. 

Basketball Star

Leo has started basketball. He plays on a YMCA team and is doing a great job. Leo is a great player he has got amazing instincts, dribbles really well and is usually one of the first players down the court. All of his athleticism fascinates me because I don't have an ounce of athletic ability, but I think this is proof that there is some recessed genes embedded within me. One of his team members is in a wheel chair and Leo has been really impressed with how well he plays despite the challenges that he faces. 

 Leo volunteered to read the introduction speech. It basically says that they are trying 

to play their best and they ask that all of the spectators respect the players, coaches, 

and refs. I was proud of him reading it in front of everyone.

 My beautiful girl. Huck wanted so badly to get out there with his brother. 

 My parents were able to come down and support him for his first game. They got to see his first 2 baskets scored in a game. 

The video has Leo reading the introduction speech and then shows Leo making the first basket of the game and his first basket in a game. 

Our Wild Child

Our youngest is a ball of energy. From the moment he wakes up (and lately that can be anywhere from 2 AM to 8:30 AM) he is in to everything. Half the time we are laughing hysterically at his humor and the other half of the time we are crying in disbelief at his antics. He has the ability to destroy a room within seconds. It is like having your home continually burglarized on a daily basis. There isn't a cupboard that he can't reach or a spot that he hasn't gotten into. He loves pulling books off shelves, dumping the contents of entire drawers on to the floor, and is thrilled when he gets into his sibling's things. He hates wearing clothes. We literally have to tackle him to get him to wear anything. He hasn't figured out how to take off shirts yet, but he knows how to take of pants and his diaper. He refuses to take a nap and doesn't really like to sleep in general. Even as a baby he hated to take naps. If you held him he would sleep for hours, but as soon as you put him down he was awake within 15 minutes. Ken and I have to be careful that we don't rush him growing up. This stage can be frustrating, but there is also a lot of humor. We also try to put into perspective that this time will go quickly. We learned that with our other 3. Within a few short years he will be in preschool and then kindergarten. But for now he is our goofy, destructive, lovable, wild child. 

 He has an absolute obsession with his googles and swim cap. He so desperately wants to be like his older siblings in every way. The weird thing is that he just loves to wear them around the house. When my parents were over he ran into the bathroom, put them on and then sat at the dinner table wearing them while we talked. 

 He loves to be naked and I snapped this picture during mid-undress. 

 The big news is that he is in a big boy bed. All 3 older kids had to be moved out of their cribs because another baby was coming. I was looking forward to keeping him in his crib until he was 3. Wouldn't you know he moved out when he was still 1. It simply was getting ridiculous with how he was jumping/vaulting out of his crib every night. My parents brought down a bunk bed that they had and weren't using. To say he loves it is an understatement. It is like he is one of the big kids now. 

Because he isn't taking naps we are trying to find something that will keep him occupied for a few minutes so we can get things done. He loves cars and trucks so we tried showing him Bob the Builder. He loves the music and loves to dance to it (Ken captured this video) but as soon as the theme songs ends he is done watching it and is back to destroying things.