Talk about lazy

My good friends Amie and Rachel came over on Monday afternoon so we could visit and the kids could play and we had snacks and drinks provided by Amie and Rachel, thanks guys. Anyway, during dinner tonight I looked at the floor and noticed crumbs from the snacks we had from Monday. You know what that means? It is Thursday today and the floor is now covered in crumbs from Mon, Tues, Wed and now Thurs. Which means that I haven't swept in four days. So guess what I did? Nope. I sat down at the 'ole computer to blog about it! LOL Am I thinking about sweeping tonight? Nope. LOL Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow, tonight I'm lazy! Which really isn't too different from any other night. I keep trying to convince the hubs to let me get a small dog to clean up my floors for me. I'm gonna blame this laziness on the wintry weather we're experiencing. I have no energy without the sun. Although, the sun did shine today so I opened the curtains and starting cleaning, not really, I actually sat back down. Tomorrow will be a better day and I will clean, maybe! Good thing my kids help out around the house. I did give all five kids a bath today and clipped all their nails and I made dinner so the whole day wasn't a waste.

Why?

Can anyone tell me why is it when you put a cute outfit on your kids it never fails that less then 30 minutes later something spills on, explodes over or stains that cute outfit? There is this cute outfit I keep trying to have Ben wear and every single time and I literally mean every single time I put it on him he ends up with an explosive diaper that requires a full body wash down and a new outfit. I guess I'll have to take his picture in it so I can remember how cute it is on him since he can't wear it all day without an explosion and since he is growing so fast these days he'll probably end up outgrowing it before I get it washed again.






This is not the outfit in question, however it is a cute one. I thought I would share this picture since it looks like he's thinking, "I'm making another poopy mommy and there's about to be an explosion in T-3,2,1...."

Is it homemade or made from scratch?

That is my question to all who read my blog.

I had been rather proud of myself lately for making more food at home, you know the meal that has three of your four burners going, because maybe you're following a recipe and not just throwing a store bought casserole in the oven. Anyway, I was spending alot of time in the kitchen trying to use all the ingredients I had on hand before going shopping again, so I was proud. That is until I heard how some women make everything from scratch. Notice the emphasis on the word everything. That got me thinking, what in the heck have I been doing and how on earth do they have the time to cook meals from scratch? I thought that was what I was doing and just considering it homemade, but still what is the difference really? See to me "homemade" is just that, it's home-made. So last time I made "homemade" lasagna I boiled the noodles which I bought at the store, cooked the meat, stirred in the sauce, again store bought, then layered with different cheeses and then baked. So if there is a difference between homemade and scratch and I like to call it homemade then made from scratch would mean you mix up some dough and roll it out in your handy dandy pasta cutter, let it dry, then proceed to make the rest of the meal from scratch, mash your own tomatoes for the sauce, you see where I am going. So tell me fellow bloggers, what exactly does "made from scratch" mean, and is that I have been doing this whole time and calling it homemade? Are they one in the same, because frankly I feel kinda overwhelmed thinking I should be grinding my own wheat to make bread.

Check out my Slide Show!

Just wanted to share...

Ben laughed! I just finished changing his diaper and I made a comment on how fast his nails grow, so I told him in a silly voice, "Mama needs to cut your nails." And he laughed! It was way too cute. I continued to make him laugh as I repeated the phrase. My face hurts from smiling so big for so long. I LOVE baby's firsts.

Mi Papa' es Macho

This cute shirt came from Grandpa C.

Daddy was proud! LOL

*gracias por la camiseta abuelo*

Love, Ben

First hair cut

I had to get rid of the mullet she was sporting. This way her hair will grown out even. I think she looks rather cute with her new hairdo. What do you think?

By the way...I did the cutting, so if it looks blunt or uneven, that would be the reason. I just don't see the point in spending money to cut her hair if I can do it myself. However, if I were to want a styled cut I would most definetly take her to a stylist. I'm no pro! LOL

2 month stats

Ben turned 2 months on Jan. 23rd and weighed in at 13 pounds 2 oz. He also had his first ear infection and second hair cut. He loves tummy time (for a few minutes anyway), and he holds his head up really well. Our little guy is growing quite fast. The doctor said his head size was on the small size compared to his body weight and length but he isn't too worried about it. His head is definetly smaller compared to his brothers at this age. We'll see how his head grows in the next few months here. If he is like the rest of them he will be top heavy in no time. LOL

Stuff

This is Adam's second tooth to loose, only he hasn't lost any on his own, instead he's had to have them pulled. For some reason his grown-up teeth are coming in behind the baby ones before they're even really loose. After they get pulled the new tooth quickly moves into place. I hope we don't have to do this with every tooth.
Not sure if you can tell or not but I can now put Grace's hair in braids :D Yay!

Me and my mohawk man, a snow fort, plus me and all five

Everyone at church thought we cut Ben's hair to look like a mohawk, but we didn't. We shaved his head on Christmas Eve not even one month ago and his hair is growing back fast, only it's growing back as a mohawk. LOL The strip of hair down the middle of his head is growing faster then the rest. I'm not sure if you can tell that well in this picture, but here's my little mohawk man!

Dan and his brother helped Sarah and Adam build this cool snow fort today while Jack, Grace, Ben and I stayed inside by the fire. :D Jack and Grace later joined Sarah and Adam outside to play when the building was complete. Ben and I stayed inside by the fire again, but I briefly went out to take this picture. It's much nicer by the fire. LOL

Well, atleast the rest of us are smiling. :D

My attempts...

At capturing a smile

We'll try again later...LOL

Happy Birthday!

Our little "Gawk" (Jack) man, as pronounced by his older siblings when he was born, turned 5 today! I can't believe he's already five. It seems like yesterday I was posting about his 4th birthday and now here we are 1 year later. Happy Birthday Dude!

My Boys

My Girls

Best Buddies!

This is Ben and his buddy, Coby. Ben was born weighing 9 lbs 9 oz and Coby was born exactly two weeks later weighing 6 lbs 6 oz. As you can see Ben is HUGE next to Coby! LOL

Christmas PJ's

I had to put these pictures of Ben in just to show you that he actually does look cute, even without all that hair. LOL

The New Ben

BEFORE



AFTER


That's what happens when all the men in the house want the same hair style. I can't exactly say Ben wanted it, but I know his dad sure did!

Payback

Last night while Sarah was wrapping the gift for her class gift exchange for school the next day, I told her about the time I was in 3rd grade and had a gift exchange too. I told her and Dan how in my class we could either choose an unwrapped gift or choose a gift that someone already opened. Meaning we could just take a gift away from someone. I know it sounds mean. So anyway, this one girl in my class opened a package of different colored mechanical pencils, which was something I had been wanting, so....instead of taking a new gift I took hers away from her. I felt terrible, but I did it anyway. Later that night I felt so bad about doing that and I think I even cried about it, so my mom and dad bought some new mechanical pencils and I gave them to her the next day. Both Dan and Sarah told me how mean that was of me and so unlike my character to do that, but that it was nice of me to buy her some new pencils. Anyway, when Sarah got home from school today she told me how her gift exchange went and can you guess what happened by my post title? So she tells how she opened a gift of....that's right...colored mechanical pencils, and a girl (this girl actually brought the pencils in) took them from her. Right out of her hands. Sarah wasn't bothered by it because the girl offered her a trade. She took what that girl had, which was little toy puppies (similar to littlest petshop) and a bracelet. So how's that for payback? What would make this story even more bizarre would be if this little girl was the daughter of the girl I took the pencils from way back when, and it actually was a payback.

Brag Post

This just came in the mail:

To the Parents of Miss Sarah C...

Announcement of Sarah's nomination:

Dear Parent:

Your daughter, Sarah, has been nominated to attend the National Young Scholars Program (NYSP) ... Sarah was personally nominated by her teacher from among all other students.

Sarah's teacher recognized her as a student with the scholastic merit and leadership potential to attend this unique program for the nation's most exceptional 2nd and 3rd graders. Sarah will join other high-achieving students at this very special program......

I have enclosed a press release that you may distribute to your local media in order to share with your community the exciting announcement of Sarah's plans to attend the Program.

We expect to enroll an outstanding group of young high-achievers with a wide variety of backgrounds from all across the country. Sarah will benefit beyond measure from being recognized among this magnificent group of our nation's future leaders.

This comes from the National Center for Early Academic Excellence. We are very proud of Sarah. She had no idea about this nomination. I don't know how many other students from her class or school have been nominated, but she is flattered none the less. It is being held in DeKalb, IL in the summer time and they are inviting her to stay in the University dorms for the week during the program. The only downside to this is the expense, $1,870! Yep, that's right, almost two grand for this trip. The expense does not cover travel or anything extra she may need while there. It's just for the room, food and the 24-hour supervision as parents are not allowed to accompany their children. So I think she will not be attending. She is fine with that and totally understands. This is a great achievement for her and we are keeping the nomination papers in the hope chest so she can look back on this later in life, plus we are going to brag her up to the grandparents and of course on my blog! LOL Proud doesn't even begin to describe how we feel about her. WAY TO GO SARAH!

Merry Christmas

These were the best 3 pictures out of all 26 I took trying to get them all looking forward and smiling. I am grateful to have a digital camera, otherwise I would have wasted a whole roll of film. LOL