Candi

I have to admit I love when I walk upstairs to make sure everyone is sleeping and I find one of the kids still up reading. It reminds me of the days when I used to sneak a flashlight in my bed and hide under the covers so I could read just one more chapter of a book. I got caught a few times but it never stopped me from trying again another night. Chase is reading the books in the series Origami Yoda Series for AR for school. Who hates AR- Accelerated Reader at their school? Three out of my four kids like to read, so it was only a struggle with Blake, but its still a pain in the rear. The worst part is going to the library with Karli and having to look up every single book that she looks at to see if it’s in her reading level.

After I took off my makeup and walked back to check on Chase…I found this sweet sight.

Nevermind that Blake was half hanging off the bed because Shaggy sleeps with him every night. Usually his legs are on the other side of Shaggy, but for some reason they weren’t this night.

When I checked on Karli she was snuggling with her unicorn. She calls it her horsey or pony instead of a unicorn.

Andrew’s nose is always in his iPhone or iPad with his TV on as well. I used to have to shut him down about 11:30 but here lately he has been going to sleep himself. Winter weather does that to ya I guess.

How is the routine at your house? I don’t miss the years where it took an hour or more to get the kids to go to bed and stay in bed. Ken and I would be trying to watch a program on television and every 5 minutes we would be yelling for someone to get back upstairs or to get back in their bed. It would be a dilemma what DVD they were going to watch or what book they wanted to read. Now it’s pretty easy, the most I have to do some nights is turn off their TV’s by 10pm. Yep, we let them have TV’s in their rooms. The horror!

Daily Nuggets

–> Snow day today, which means everyone is bored. It’s it funny how they all wish for a snow day and then complain they have nothing to do?

–> If you didn’t watch my last video– which why haven’t you? That’s just rude! – you missed the exciting news that we just bought a home gym- and Inspire FT1. I am so excited to starting some strength training. I really think it’s going to make a difference in how I feel everyday. Andrew will get a lot of use out of it as well because he doesn’t have to go to physical therapy anymore but he has to keep up on strengthening his neck and back.

Have a super weekend everyone! Back on Monday where I will be sharing a video on a yummy dessert you just have to try.

{My monthly update on photos that I shared on Instagram and Facebook}

Our pup Daisy coming in from playing in the snow and getting dingleberries!!

Over Christmas break we took the kids to a Toledo Walleye hockey game

We also did our traditional bowling day. Karli once again bowled better than Blake and Chase.

The best gift I could have ever gotten Ken for Christmas. He is always making the kids eggs and fried bologna on the weekends so I thought he would get good use out of it. I use it quite a bit too.

Karli got some more Lego Friends for Christmas and she had them all put together within a week. It kept her busy over break at least.

Karli was not only eating her lunch but also getting in line at the cafeteria and buying bags of chips and other snacks, so I put a stop to that by not keeping money in her lunch account anymore. She was buying her friends stuff as well- the girl does not understand money whatsoever. I decided instead I was going to pack her more stuff for lunch and the majority of it would be healthy. Chase packs his lunch because he is the pickiest eater ever and hates cafeteria food. Andrew started packing his lunch as well because he said the school food is getting worse and worse, where as Blake buys every day – that kid will eat anything!

I allow them to have some not so healthy choices once in awhile as well – chips, 100 calorie snack bags, chex mix. They are the skinniest kids ever so it’s not going to hurt them.

Are you following me on Instagram and Facebook? You should be!!

Weekends always go by way too quickly. I sure would like to know the moron that created the 5 day workweek. Why not at least make it a little more even and make it 4 days of work and a 3 day weekend?

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time relaxing, but also managed to get some laundry done as well some pages done in the boys sports scrapbooks. Karli wasn’t feeling well so I found myself relaxing with her most of the time. I always get caught up in looking at old photos whenever I’m working on their books. It really got me thinking about how fast the years go by when kids are just FUN.

If I could go back to any time it would probably be when the kids were just toddlers. Running around with just a diaper on, eating Cherrioes, and throwing balls to the dogs. Not a care in the world. I wasn’t working and my days were so easy and fun. I feel like I didn’t enjoy them enough and those years went by way to fast. Now it’s all sports, and homework, and technology. Instead of them whining for their pacifier they are begging for gas money or their turn on the computer. Rather than debating over whether we are going to watch Finding Nemo or Toy Story for the 50th time we are debating who gets the Xbox360.

When women say they are for sure done having children and then many years later they yearn for just one more I used to think they were crazy. Why would they want to start over? The sleepless nights, the formula and baby food, all the stress that comes with a baby! After we had our daughter we did feel our family was complete without a doubt. 3 boys and a girl, what a nice even number. Even now with all of the kids activities I don’t know how we could manage one more.

It has happened to me though, and I have said it to Ken on more than one occasion. I would have another child if I could. Setting aside all the reasons on why this would and could never happen, I can really understand why women go through this. Even though I don’t think it is so much that I want another child, another human being to take care of – because God knows with the six of us (and 4 dogs) in this house we have more than enough to take care of. I think it’s more that I miss the days when our kids were little. I miss the moments when they needed me to hold them and feed them and rock them to sleep. When they cried because they needed our attention instead of crying that their brother pushed them down. Or how they got mad when I took their pacifier away instead of complaining that they just lost wireless connection.

I find myself already reflecting on those days and Karli is only 8 years old. I mean it doesn’t help that Andrew is 17 and a Junior in high school and could potentially be going away to college in a year and a half. I seriously don’t know how I am going to survive him leaving, let alone once they are all gone. Our kids have become our life and even though that’s exactly how we wanted it to be since the day we got married (Blake was born 9 months after we married- we didn’t waste a single day!) it’s still hard to accept. The years go by so quickly and no matter how many times people tell you to enjoy every moment because time flies, you don’t realize exactly how fast until it’s too late. It pulls at my heart to see the photos of them when they were so teeny tiny and they smiled at every little thing.

Daily Nuggets

–> Snow day today!! Guess it sort of will be a 4 day work week! lol (I’m posting this the day after I wrote it!)

–> Chase won first place at a wrestling tournament yesterday. So proud!