Not quite all of us but close!

Brock was napping but aren't we so cozy!

Fun day today!

My yummy candy and cozy socks, thanks Angie!

The kids and I got together with a friend of mine from college today. We haven't seen each other for almost 15 years. I can't say that we knew each other real well during college so I was a little nervous to get together. It was totally unnecessary to say the least. We had a great time kind of getting to know each other, chatting about what we've been doing over the past several years along with what our lives look like now. I wish we had known each other better then I think we would have had a blast if today was any indication! She was so sweet, I've been complaining about having cold feet lately and she brought me two pair of Smartwool socks, I came right home and put them on and ahh, warm, cute feet. Oh and she went to Bruce's Candy Shop in Cannon Beach where we went to college together and got me this huge sucker, I almost don't want to eat it, brings back such amazing memories for sure. Thanks Ang we had a great time and my kids can't wait to see you again if you're up for it!

Post for Morgan

Morgan came to me yesterday with a request for a blog posting. She built this rather large lincoln log building that I had to photograph all four sides and then wanted a picture of herself. Hopefully her Uncle Jason and Aunt Tisha will read this as it's basically to show them how much better she is at building than she was when they were here at Christmas. There Morgan are you happy? Geez! =) Love ya!

Had to throw one in there of Morgan, Harrison and Khobi playing ring around the rosie!


I couldn't think of a title as usual so I'm leaving it blank today. I caught Ty and Hayden on the couch today going through our alphabet flash card telling each other the letters and what they say. Later I caught them reading a book together, helping with the words that were more difficult. I can't believe just a few months ago Ty was learning what his letters were and now he's reading and helping others, it's happening way too fast!

Cuddling with Daddy!

Brock has been quite a turd lately, I think it's the two year old in him, I've not gone through the terrible twos with the other three so this is a whole new experience for me, thankfully he wasn't our first though! Anyhow, Saturday he was so crabby and tired that Don laid down on the couch with him and he was out within five minutes. I love catching this little moments, they won't last forever.

Turkey

Yes Mom I dug through all that to get the meat off, gross but so worth it!

Well in order to keep our food budget low I cooked another one of our turkeys, now I only have two in the freezer, bummer but it was nice to have "Thanksgiving dinner" at the end of January. I was reading on a few other blogs about making your own stock so I read up and decided to make turkey broth. I hate carving the turkey and picking all the meat off the bone but in order to make our $4.50 turkey go further and be frugal I bucked up and picked as much off the bones as I could. Then I put the bones on two large pots, covered them with water and let them simmer for 24 hours. This morning I strained the stock and ended up with seven gallon sized bags of turkey broth and another bag of turkey meat that I can use in soups, etc. It makes me feel good to see all that came out of it, and know there are lots of ingredients calling for some yummy recipes waiting in the freezer, plus the benefit of the house smelling like turkey for an additional 24 hours, mmmm. I took some pictures to show my mom how domestic I was, she can appreciate how much I dislike dealing with carcasses. Enjoy Mom!

Lincoln Log Fun

Brock got a huge amount of Lincoln Logs for Christmas and I finally decided I was ready for them to be played with again, those things hurt when you step on them in your bare feet. I got a few shots of the kids building and playing. Last night Don recruited Morgan to help him with dinner, it was yummy, chicken yakisoba with stir fry veggies. And I didn't have to cook!

When did they grow up?

We went for walks yesterday and today in the cold but oh so beautiful sunshine. I couldn't believe as I was watching the kids run down the sidewalk how grown up they're all getting.

Here it is

Look at that dirty cute little face.


Obviously a before picture.

I have been horrible about blogging lately and taking pictures, sorry. I'm not sure if anyone is even reading my blog anymore so I'm not sure if this post is just for me, some comments would be nice just so I know someone is out there reading this. Okay I'm done griping!

We finally broke down and got the boys hair cut yesterday, they have been wanting to grow their hair out a bit but we had no idea how to cut the back and sides to make it look nice so off to the barber we went. Cale and Ty's turned out really cute but Brock threw a major fit in the chair so we brought him home and cut it ourselves, we didn't want to but he was really starting to look like a girl, oh well they all look cute. I cut my hair last week myself, about two inches off the back, I'm sure it's uneven but I feel better for sure. I'm just trying to talk Morgan into letting me cut hers so her bangs will be the same length as the rest but haven't been able to convince her to do it yet

I got a funny picture of Brock and Ben, the kids all got balloons at the barber and the two of them were playing with the balloon, needless to say Ben bit it and it popped, you can see in the top of the picture the other half of the balloon flying and Brock still had a smile on his face. I must say Ben got quite the talking to by Brock after that, he was not happy =)

Update's coming!

I just wanted to let anyone who still reads my blog that I am going to do some updates tomorrow, my daycare kids cancelled so I will have some spare time. Sorry my posts have been sparse lately just been busy.

Quiet fun

Look what words Ty read, he's learning so fast!

We've been playing a lot of games, and of course getting back into the swing of things with school. I love to be in the kitchen baking, planning, cleaning, etc and look up and see the kids sitting at the table quietly and intently doing their schoolwork, makes me proud, and thankful! Daycare is back in full swing. I think I'm ending up with only one day off during the week this month which is a little unusual but I'm thankful for the work when I can get it. We are keeping up on our monthly menu, I'm getting a little tired of it so I think I need to head to the library and check out a few recipe books, that always gets me in the mood to try new things. Sounds awfully boring to me, we aren't terribly exciting but hey it's an update!

Interesting punishment

We've been having some issues over the past few days of our boys being quite unkind to each other physically and Don came up with quite an interesting punishment based off of a friend of mine, Sharon Olson, she mentioned one time her boys weren't getting along so they made them hold hands in public for quite a while and it made us laugh. Yesterday Don decided to try his own version he made the boys stand for about five minutes hugging each other. It was so cute and amazing how well it worked, they haven't had one "discussion" in a couple days!

Potato Head Fun

Brock got a Mr. Potato head from Uncle Doug, Aunt Mona, and Jennifer, we have never had one at our house and found it to be a huge hit. We found someone on craigslist that had a bunch for $7 so we went and picked them up Saturday. The kids found some interesting ways of using them and I loved the chance to take more pictures of my little spuds!

Guitar Hero Gullett style

Dig those flame pants?

Don's brother Doug and his family bought our kids Guitar Hero for Christmas, we just got it yesterday and have been having a great time with it. Don and I weren't so sure we'd enjoy it but it's turned out to be a lot of fun. It's a little hard for the kids but they love pretending to be rock stars.

Just goofing around

Cale's Christmas project

Cale got a wood truck for Christmas and he and Don put it together the other day and painted it. It was Cale's first time using a drill so that was a lot of fun for him. It turned out so cute.