A House Full of Sickies.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but we are all ill again. Seems like we just got over this. Our symptoms are fever, sore throat, a nasty cough, and body aches. The kids have been super crabby and I am praying this will end soon.

Brooke and Gaby are back to taking 2 naps but Ryan refuses to. Though he acts like he needs it the most. Maybe all boys are just whiny.

Nothing much else to report. I'll try to be more interesting later.

Flower Power and More Crazy Cousins.

When we bought our farm it was the dead of winter and we really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. We had no idea what was underneath all that snow. Well we were very fortunate to find that there are an abundance of perennial flowers planted throughout the yard.

This makes me very happy because I do not have a green thumb at all. If there was a such thing as a black or brown thumb, that is what I would be classified under. Give me a plant and I will surely kill it.

My mom once gave me a Peace Lily for nurses week and said that it was a very hearty plant and very hard to kill. I should be able to manage it. I tried, I really did but I guess I can accomplish the nearly impossible. I just never know if I should water it or if it's getting too much, whether it should have sun or shade? Plants just don't talk to me like they do some people.

Lance has grown us a garden for the past 2 years. For me it's just to sad when I put all the effort into it and get nothing in return. But I do love flowers and so do the kids. Here are a few photos of our lovely landscape.

Dark pink peonies. I have always loved peonies and said that whenever we found a place that we were actually going to stay, I was going to plant some. Well we have a ton here.Light pink peonies.Yellow roses. We have a baby gate around them to keep the kids from falling into it and getting stuck by the thorns. It didn't stop Gaby from picking one though. She kept crying but kept trying to pick it until she was successful. Now that's what I call determination.Yellow Irises which are starting to fade. We also had 2 colors of tulips in this same spot.There is also this great thing called a snowball tree. If you've ever seen one you'll know what I'm talking about. I took a picture but the blossoms are all turning brown and falling off so it doesn't look so great right now. They have big bunches of white flowers that look like big round snow balls. The kids loved them. They would grab handfuls of blossoms and pile them up.

We also had purple lilacs right off of our deck. I loved sitting out with a cup of coffee and smelling the scent of lilac. Then there is at least one apple tree and maybe a plum tree.

Here are a couple of photos of the kids enjoying the peonies.

AshlynBrooke GabyShe has 2 photos cause she was loving it and it was so cute.Yes, Ryan wanted one too. Though he doesn't look happy about it. Then, just to prove a point he tore his up and was busy sweeping the petals off the deck.
The little ones waiting for Daddy.
Last night we had Lance's family over for fresh fish that he and his brother and sister-in-law caught yesterday. Here are the youngest of the cousins. We had 8 kids age 4 and under. Talk about stress. We were so busy making sure no one trailed off or got run over. At one point someone was leaving and we all were counting and making sure they were all there. My mother-in-law said "where's Ryan?" We all started frantically searching and there he was sitting on her lap. It was a long day. Just look at little Jack and you can tell.

I'll also include the recipe for the fish that we love. Lance usually catches Walleye and once in a while Northern (which isn't as good). I wanted to find a way to bake it because I hate the mess of frying it and it stinks up the whole house. Not to mention that it isn't as healthy.

I just take the fillets and dip them in egg and bread them with our favorite breading (which is actually a hodge podge of different things). Then I put them on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Drizzle melted butter over top of each piece and sprinkle with paprika. Then bake in the oven at 500 degrees for 12 minutes. Flip and bake another 5 minutes. They taste so good, we eat this at least once a week when Lance has the time to fish.

Can't I just have it all?

Can't I have an immaculately clean house, happy, obedient kids, be able to prepare healthy meals from scratch, and have time to blog?

Can't I have perfect flawless skin, hair that doesn't look like a rats nest, curves to die for and a flat, pencil thin midriff? I guess some brains and a personality would be good too.

Can't I have a husband who works hard, helps out with the kids, does housework, and is incredibly handsome? Wait I already have that. Thank God!!

Happy Belated Father's Day, Lance!! I'd have done this post sooner but I'm working on all of the above.

Roasting Weenies and Horsen Around.

I was going to tell you how depressed I am that it's been raining......and then..... raining some more. We got a little flooded yesterday and it's supposed to continue off and on for the next couple of days. More about that next time.

Instead I'll tell you about a little party we went to tonight at Uncle Howard and Aunt Jean's. We roasted weenies. This is Ryan with Daddy, enjoying the fire.Then we visited the horses. Ashlyn was so excited to ride the horse. She of course didn't go anywhere and Daddy was right there holding her.This is Lance's brother, Paul with his son Riley. Riley has a twin sister, Amanda, but for some reason I didn't get a photo of her tonight. Ashlyn plays with her cousins often so we'll get one next time.
The kids are all checking out the horses. They weren't really scared at all.Ashlyn's cousin Jack feeding the horse. We had to really watch that the horses didn't eat more than just the grass that was offered.This is my sister-in-law Donna with little Alex, Gaby, Brooke, and Daddy holding Ryan.The kids fought over the car on the deck. Each one waited very impatiently for their turn.Ashlyn and cousin Riley pretending to drive the 4 wheeler.Brooke playing on the deck and stopping to say hi.This is Jack again. He is Lance's brother Kelly's youngest. They are visiting from England. Jack is just 3 months older than our 3.Here he is sporting a nice red bump on his forehead after throwing a tantrum and ramming his head on the deck a few times. Gotta love them boys. They are tough. Good thing he is pretty.Here is Jack's older brother Keeran. He is one year older than Ashlyn and they have been playing together all day today. There were even tears a few times when they had to separate. We expect to see a lot of them while they are here.

A day at the zoo.

Last week we went to the zoo. We kind of went in fast forward because we thought it was going to rain. It didn't, but how much time can a person spend at the zoo anyway? Especially when your daily life is a zoo.

This is how we roll......2 double strollers. We let Ashlyn jump out whenever she wanted a closer look. The babies really seemed to like the zoo. These little guys were my favorite. Baby goats. The kids got to feed them from their hands. Ryan got freaked out when I pushed his stroller up to them. He gets freaked out pretty easily. He likes things at a distance but when they come near him he goes nuts.Here are some random shots of Ashlyn posing behind the billboard animals. I tried to get Ryan to pose with her because he was my other passenger (Lance was off with the other 2, teasing the monkeys) but he was not cooperative.

I really wish we would have taken the time to get a photo of each of the kids in front of the bird wings. It would be fun to go back and take one each year to see how much they have grown. In fact, I think I have one of Ashlyn from last year. I'll have to look. Lance was in too big of a hurry to take each baby out and do the photos. When I showed him this photo of Ashlyn he agreed we should have done it. Oh well, we'll start next year.
This was the kids favorite part of the zoo. The carousel. There were only 3 seats so the kids took turns standing. No one seemed to mind.After this we went through the drive through at McDonalds (or Old McDonalds, as Ashlyn says) and had chicken nuggets, fries, and apple slices on the way to Walmart. I used to say I would never feed my kids in the car because they always make such a mess. I rarely ever gave Ashlyn food in the car when she was a baby. It's a whole different story when you have 3 more little ones. We didn't want to haul them all out, and then put them all back in, just to haul them all out again. So while Lance drove, I lobbed chicken nuggets at my kids. See how I can compare my life to a zoo? At least I didn't feed them dried corn from the duck exhibit.

Is anyone else exhausted? Man I feel like I could sleep a week straight. Summer is kicking my butt.

Spongebob Squarepants and other noise.

Our Dr. says that TV will make my kids stupid. I agree to some extent. Lately, Ashlyn will say that Spongebob is her favorite cartoon. In fact, this morning she said "Spongebob is a really good guy. I love him!" I'm glad he is only a character cause I'd hate to have him for a son-in-law. I usually don't even let her watch him because he annoys me. Cartoons like that could definitely make her stupid.

This morning, to get a moment's peace while the babies were napping, I let her watch her beloved just because it was so cute what she said. I thought how bad could it be to watch it for a little while? She had been parked on my lap talking a mile a minute and asking a million questions while I was trying to check my email. Question, could listening to toddler babble and nonsense for 24 hours a day make me stupid? I guess I should take an aptitude test and see if it's done any permanent damage.

So I turned on the TV for her and went back to what I was doing. Most days the TV doesn't even get turned on until Lance gets home and checks the news and weather. I have been lax on this issue in the past, when the babies were smaller it was so much easier to let her sit and stare at Dora and Sprout TV than to let her "help" me with the babies. Now that they are bigger and could actually be playmates for her (if she lets them) I try and keep TV to a minimum. They all love Baby Einstein though and I will pop that in now and then if I really need a distraction.

Anyway, I started feeling guilty because I could almost feel Ashlyn's brain being sucked out of her skull watching the "big yellow sponge" dancing around, acting like his usual annoying self. Plus I also realize that the reason she sits on my lap and chatters on endlessly is because she misses me and wants my attention. That and the fact that she has the Schwenn gene, or should I say curse, that causes her to blabber on without thought or purpose. I myself have that if you haven't noticed.

So I came up with an idea to make homemade finger paint. I found a site that had some simple directions. You can find it here if interested. I like that it's made out of soap so that I can use it to scrub my table at the same time. It says its easy to wash out and I hope that's true because she is creating an ocean on the table, and her shirt, behind me right now.

I'm not neglecting her, if your wondering. I am turning around and commenting on her artwork every couple of seconds. She is being very quiet verbally so she must be deep in concentration. OK, the ocean is spreading so I think we better rap this up.

After washing, the blue did stain her hands a tiny bit but not bad (the photo above is from before we washed). I'll let you know what her shirt looks like after washing it.

Of course, while carrying the containers to the sink to clean up, one drip landed on the floor. Blue too, mind you. We have grayish carpet in our kitchen (not by choice, it was here when we moved in and why replace it until the kids are older?) and I used a washcloth and gave it a little scrub and it came right out.

So I think it's a hit. She had a blast. Bye Bye Spongebob.

TV can't be all bad though. Ashlyn has learned some of her cutest phrases from TV. Once after I finished wiping her butt on the toilet, she said "thank you Your Highness". I felt just like royalty.

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Edited to add: The shirt did not come out stain free. But of course I did not pretreat it nor did I wash it immediately. Luckily I used a shirt that she will keep using for art projects (recognize it Brian and Dolora? I hope you don't mind since you sold the company anyway. Ashlyn thought it was a big fly on her shirt). Also you can't tell from the photos but I have a clear plastic table cloth on my table so it won't get stained either. I think next time I'm just going to let her play with the paint in a cookie sheet or something. She didn't really draw much with it. Mostly she just liked to glop it on and make a mess. She played with it for a long time though so we'll do it again.

Happy Feet.

A Little Facelift and A Photoshoot.

In case your memory is as good as mine, I'll point out that I changed our look a little bit. I was on a mission to get some new group shots of the kids for Father's Day gifts. I had picked up these little shirts really cheap and don't the kids look cute? Since I normally never see them clean and dressed up, I thought I'd put them on my blog so I can see them every day.

I'll give you a little play-by-play of this photo shoot. First shot of the day and all smiles. If you recognise this chair from other photos, it's because it works really well for a group shot. It swivels, so I usually just pile them all in and spin it, then stop it and quick snap away.

It didn't hold its usual charm. Here they are all realizing that they are "touching each other" and they are starting to melt.Ryan is going to pretend like he never smiled while sitting stuffed into a chair with his 3 sisters.Then we tried this pose. It worked well until Ashlyn decided to try spinning them for me. Brooke was nearly knocked off.I took several in this great Radio Flyer wagon that I dragged unto the deck. We received 2 of these wagons from Lance's parents when the babies were born and we love them. I can even drag both wagons, holding 2 kids each, down the driveway to get the mail.

Anyway, this is the only shot where they are actually looking at me while in the wagon. Ryan was obsessed with the cat on the ground and the only reason the others are looking is because I was shaking a dripping wet branch over my head. The things a mother has to do to get her kids attention.Pose #4. For some reason the kids just sat there and didn't try to run away. I was pretty shocked. Obviously they were too. Gaby says "Why are you always pointing that thing at me? I hate that thing with the flash...its blinding. Maybe if I don't smile, she'll go away".
Ashlyn says "Wait, I have something in my eye". Ryan says "Hmm, what is that down there?"Ashlyn says "wait, I have something in my ear". Notice Gaby's feet? This the reason why I don't have 50 shots in this pose. I kept snapping as fast as I could but because she was tapping her feet, my camera wouldn't take the picture. Of course as soon as I said something, they all started tapping. I have some cute video of that but will post it another day. My Internet is on the fritz and I don't even want to attempt to upload it.Ashlyn says "who stinks?" Maybe that is why Gaby is finally smiling.I chose the one I thought best and put it on the sidebar of the blog. I'm sure you've figured out the headless wonders at the top are my sweet peas also. Lance thought it was so weird that I wanted to crop to just their feet. I love it though. What do you all think? I'd love to hear your comments.

Dear Diary,

I would like to mark this day in history as the day that I completed a self lobotemy (which means I removed part of my brain) and boxed up the remains. I then buried the offending piece of matter in the garden next to my husbands prize tomatoes. Why would I do such a thing? I'm hoping with less of a brain these children will irritate me less. I will be oblivious to the chaos that is around me.

What else can a mother do when her 3 almost 19 month olds are coming down with a second cold when they haven't even recovered from the first one? When they refuse to nap when they are exhausted. And prefer to follow you around and cry instead. Then get into every single thing they are not allowed to get into. Just to say, hey look at me. Well, I do what any other SAHM would do. I blog.

At least Lance is here to help me. Except he is "on vacation". Which means he is allowed to leave whenever he feels necessary. I asked him why I don't get a vacation? He said because I don't have a job.

Also next to my husbands dear, prized, tomatoes lies a slightly bigger pile of dirt. Can you guess what is burried there? It's about 5'10" and has an imprint of a frying pan on the back of his head.

Why I love summer.

Cool shades.Napping in the swing.Cuddle time.Digging in the sand.Unconventional baby bathing.My kids are going to grow up thinking everyone bathes on the deck.Some day they'll regret the butt shots being displayed on the internet. Just be glad that I didn't capture Ryan's boy parts flapping about. Or his excitement at watching his boy parts flapping about.