Too Much Bumbo......

only #4.........i was helping ty with homework.....




ahh! she looks SO grown up- 4 months today.
so sad for me.




then there's shaeya... learning (finally- her legs get tired) how to ride a 2 wheeler,
and thinking a BOY at school is just so cool.
seriously- this starts in kindergarten???
dave about choked on his lunch the other day when she asked, "dad, do you wish you looked like blake? he has really cool hair!"


and dave had his first night alone with all 4 kids while i went to the hospital to visit bethany and her new baby santana.
when i went to change the baby the next morning this is what i found...







i'm sure there are lots of people (i mean dads) who would duct tape a ripped daiper tab.

Missing Glasses

my house is a wreck. i really sould be cleaning instead of blogging......but let's not dwell on that.

i'm highly frustrated because my glasses are missing. they are always right here by the computer. of course just about everyother time i put them on they are a whole new kind of mangled/twisted/bent.
i absolutely know who's doing it, but i have yet to catch her in the act.
but now they are gone.
so the first thing i did (learning from past experience- more on that later) was just ask koa if she knew where they were.

"oh......they're upstairs in the drawer."

well they're not. and i've been following her for days hoping she'll lead me to them, but no luck so far.
i just know they are at the bottom of a bin of toys or in a little purse somewhere.

but, it's all reminding me of the time my keys were missing.
funny story (now, anyway).

we had just bought the "short van" and had only one set of keys.
and one morning as i'm racing out the door with 4 yr old tyden and 2 yr old shaeya, i realize they are gone.
so my day came to a halt, and i started my search for the keys.

by the end of the day i called the car dealership, and they said the only thing we could do is have the van towed to them, and then they could make another set. for around $150- $200.

i told them i would just keep looking. i knew they were in my house somewhere.

3 days later i was about to lose my mind.
the kids just kept following me around, begging me to play with them or to go somewhere.
and i kept telling them i couldn't do either cause i was looking for the keys.
we said lots of prayers together for help finding those missing keys, and for mommy not to take her frustration out on the children.

finally my mom offered to come over and help me look for them- maybe a fresh perspective would help. so she came with a friend and started in.
we looked in every imagineable spot- which had all already been looked in by me the 3 days prior.

then my mom peeked her head out of shaeya's room and asked if i had ever asked shaeya where the keys were.
i said, "well....no, but she sure knows that i'm looking for them."
and my mom said, "well, i just asked her and she said that they're in the stroller."

"what stroller?? all the strollers are in the garage!" and they were, except for one umbrella stroller that had been sitting in the entryway all folded up for a few days.
but i had already looked all around it, and had even lifted it up and checked underneath it- a few different times.

my mom walked over to it, lifted it up, popped it open, and sure enough- there they were sitting right in the seat of the stroller.

I COULD NOT BELIEVE that girl had let me LOOK FOR DAYS!!!!! and that she KNEW THE ENTIRE TIME RIGHT WHERE THEY WERE!!!!!
what could possibly have been going through her little mind??

and that brings us back to today and the missing glasses. i'm pretty sure that tekoa knows right where they are, it's just trying to get it out of her that is frustrating. highly frustrating.

in the meantime i'll just keep squinting my way through life, and trying to remember that someday it'll just be another funny story.






in case you can't tell- that's shaeya at 2 yrs old....looking way too cute and innocent :)

Control??

someone asked me yesterday if i had everything under control.
i laughed.
i have nothing under control- i'm just along for the ride.

we went to a picnic for the kids' school last night. and we had a great time.

and i don't think anyone even noticed that my dessert was a plate of pepperidge farm cookies
(the pie i had planned on bringing would've had to have been eaten with straws)
or that i attended the picnic with only my 2 big toes painted dark purple.

well, i really hope no one noticed these things.
i mean if i didn't notice my toes, than surely no one else would've.

don't worry yourselves over that pie, though. i fished baking it last night after we got home, and it made for a delicious breakfast this morning.

but yea, about that control thing.....
i'm just happy if i can be where i'm supposed to be when i'm supposed to be there. and have nothing too startling going on with my appearance........which brings to mind the time i recently mistook my mascara for lip gloss-
hey, those tubes are about the same size.

and this week is the beginning of our wednesday night TEAMKID program at our church.
this year i asked if they could at least find one more person to help with music so i wouldn't have to be there every wednesday.
i want to do it, but at this point- with school and music for school and a baby (and a crazy 2 yr old who is actually much more of a problem than the baby)- every week is just too much commitment.
so i think it's every other wednesday night for me.
we'll see how it all goes......and if i can keep it all together.

*speaking of the crazy 2 yr old- she just came up to me with a mouth full of candy and drool all down her shirt and said, "hey mom, can i have some of these candy??"

And She's Down

i seriously don't even know where to start. it's been one of those weeks.
with sickness and sleep deprivation- falling and finger slamming- an off and on, half-hearted attempt at organizing 3 girls worth of clothes and fitting them all in one closet- crying and coughing and complaining (from the sick girls, not me)- and trying to remember and stick to our new schedule that includes me helping at school 2 days a week (bringing wren and koa with me) and one of those days being music class led by this sleep deprived, half put together mom.

and that was just monday through thursday.

then i got sick. very annoyingly sick. fever of 103, sick to my stomach, and light-headed.
very light-headed. so light-headed in fact that at one point i got up out of my cocoon of blankets and shivered my way into the kitchen to get myself some ibuprofin, and woke up on the floor in a puddle of the water i had been holding. with tekoa standing over me yelling, "i got your medicine mom, i found it for ya!" her little fingers holding my 2 pills which must have went rolling when i lost consciousness. i was really glad she didn't decide to eat them.

so that was my weekend and so far this week we're all doing much better. it's a lot less hectic around here. and my house no longer looks like there was an explosion in the girls' room. and i had a 3 hour and 15 minute stretch of sleep last night- which is the longest i've had for weeks.
so i'm feeling pretty good.

and i'm looking forward to music tomorrow because it really was a lot of fun last week, AND the children gave me some rave reviews.
one mom asked for my autograph because i'm now famous in her house.
i'm so glad they liked it. and so relieved- i was feeling very underqualified and inadequate, but if the kids are having fun then that's all i need.

Weekend At Norris Lake

here are our pictures from the weekend. we had a great time hanging out with our families.
we did alot of relaxing, played games, sat around the fire, fished, swam, and laughed at all the funny things the kids did and said.






i kept telling myself that probably no one had cleaned any fish in this sink....



the cousins on my side of the family minus the 2 babies
(and there are 2 more on the way)











can you find the big kid in this picture?



i think i figured out who wren looks like.....



the cousins on daves side- again minus 2 babies
this is tekoa, mateo, josiah- born in march, april, and may






tyden had a great birthday- he was just sad to see it end
"so that's it 'til next year then, huh?"




and 2 videos




tyden and shaeya on the waterslide



dave's backflip on the rope swing.....i'm only a little jealous that he can do this and i can't......YET

Lions

well things are finally settling down around here.

we are getting used to the school routine.....i definitely miss the simplicity of summer, but the kids are loving school.
it's a GREAT school. we are so very blessed that our kids can go to school and learn about Jesus.
i'm slightly intimidated by all that is required of me, but it's such a good thing for us to be involved and to help where we can.
dave is now the new "maitenence coordinator"
and i am the new......music teacher.....
like i said- intimidating.
they say it's not a problem for me to just bring koa and the baby with me, but they don't know tekoa yet.

i was at the school the other night for a volunteer coordination meeting, and i talked to shaeya's teacher for awhile. she said she's having a lot of fun with shaeya, and that she says really funny things. i asked her if she's said anything about lions....

-she had her pre-school teacher last year so convinced that we had pet lions that she actually had to pull me aside and ask me if we did.
"you guys don't.........you don't have.....lions, do you?"
"uh, no.....why?"
"huh- that's so funny......i didn't think you could but shaeya is REALLY convincing.
she said you kept them in cages.....i even tried to trip her up some days, but she keeps her facts so straight....she really sticks with the story...."

her teacher this year said no lion stories, but one day she did say that she had to go home cause she was baking brownies and they were burning ....(???????)


as for everything else- no more strange men coming to my door or calls to the police,
i think this morning was my last morning at the denitist (i'm pretty sure we got the problem fixed- being able to chew is something i'll never take for granted again),
and wren is fully recovered. her fever left her with her days and nights mixed up......wanting to nurse all night and not at all during the day, but we're working it out.

speaking of wren.....she is still growing SO FAST.
it is SO HARD to put away the newborn clothes- for good. :(

these are from this morning-















i know, i know- they all look the same but i just couldn't cut any of them.

we are looking forward to a long weekend at the lake, ending with a birthday party for tyden on labor day-
can't believe he'll be 8!
no more booster seats!!!!