Oh, my....

What was I saying in my last post? That I wanted to revel in the moment and enjoy each and very moment that comes my way, each day, no matter what. Seriously, what was I thinking! Kori and Kami have made a pact, if one is not crying the other will, and if that is not loud enough, they will cry in unison. Kade, being the active young boy that he is, has been making a few bad choices, like playing with the telephone, at least it wasn't an overseas call. Oh, and Kayla, she always has a bit of drama to throw into the mix, being a tween girl and all, need I say more.

I do know that these moments of chaos are hard to get through at the time, but these are the stories that we will be telling around the table at family dinners down the road and we will be able to laugh and smile as we reminisce about these crazy times.


Ok, I started this post a few hours ago, since then, Kade has thrown-up all over my white carpet and Kayla had a huge melt down over a book report....I am reveling, reveling, reveling!

It's all to Fast...

Kayla as a newborn

Kayla as a nine year old

When Kayla was a baby, all I could think about was when she would do this or when she would do that. I was excitedly anticipating of all of her milestones, first roll, first tooth, first step, first word, I could not wait for the next thing to happen. And they all did, Kayla was early for all of her milestones, early walker, early talker, I took much pride in her accomplishments, like any mother would. But, somewhere in all those firsts, she grew up. And I am left wondering when did this happened...where did my little girl go?

Now, I know we are not out of firsts yet, she has many more to come, but, oh, if I could just go back and slow things down and enjoy every last second of those first, firsts instead of eagerly looking forward to the next. Even now, I wish I could just slow time down and be able to take in my children how they are each day the good, the bad, and the comical, instead of just trying to survive each day. The years keep going by faster and faster and before long we will have an empty nest, I just hope that I can find the time each day to revel in the moment and not be left saying, "where did time go."

My Girls...

Why buy toys....

Why , as parents, do we invest so much money in the latest greatest toys? There are toys for fun, toys for learning, toys for physical development, we want the best for our kids. So, why in a room full of the latest, greatest toys, is the Sunday paper the most fun thing around?!?!?!?!

Can you say OUCH!

It was a beautiful sunny day here in Oregon, and those do not happen all that often, so I packed up the kids and off to the garden center we went. We were surrounded by every plant imaginable, flowers, green foliage, and yummy vegetable starts. The kids were being great, helping push carts, picking out veggies to plant, saying they would eat those vegetable, it was a mother's dream trip! And then we came home.

I excitedly unloaded the car, the kids were in good moods, they would eat the vegetables from our little garden (can you tell I am still on cloud nine over this) they were out front playing nicely, still a mother's dream. I took a hanging basket from the car and hung it on a post that I had put into the ground the night before. Well, the weight of the basket was pulling the post forward, so I grabbed a great big huge rock to place in front of the post to hold it up right. It was heavy, so I set it down and went to slide it into place, oh and how I slid it, right into the rock on the side of our house smashing my poor little thumb in between them! Ouch, yes, OUCH!

And that is where the dream ended, as soon as I yelled oh, ouch, oh the kids went to crank town and Kayla and Kade instantly started a fight over the scooter, Kami went to get buckets of water from the pond and pour them over the new veggies we just bought and Kori started to cry, I soon discovered that she had a very messy diaper. Now, I am barely able to speak, my thumb hurts so bad, it literally hurts to breath. Which makes no sense at all, but it's true. I some how managed to pull the whole chaos from outside to inside, sent the two oldest to their rooms and discovered that you need a fully functioning thumb to change a diaper.

Even when you are hurt, you never get a break from being a mom. There are fights to break up, messes to clean, lunches to be made, and even stinky diapers to change. But, no one said this was going to be easy!

A Tale of Two Feet.....

Little girls love to play with dolls, they play house, mommy, and big sister with them. Little girls love to play with dolls, it's natural, but what happens when you give a beautiful seven month-old girl a doll...does she love her, play house, mommy and big sister with her?

Oh no, that would be too normal, too ordinary, for this household! No, when our beautiful little Korinna was given a little doll to love, she proceeded to chomp down on that little dolls head with all her might. Becoming bored with the round head of that baby doll, she moved down to her feet and chomped away with delight. Why chew on your own toes when there are others around to munch on! So, now when little Kori becomes bored with her own two feet, you will find her rolling around the family room seeking out her dolly's toes to munch on.....I wonder how long it take for her to bite them off.

Geography Fair

Kayla and Kade's school had their geography fair this week. Kayla's class studied South America and her country was Ecuador and Kade's class (being preschoolers) studied our home town.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures....

Could someone please tell me why sweet potatoes look the same going in as they do coming out?
Our little mom of the house.
Kayla in her first skating competition
Kade, having fun smackin' spiderman.

Korinna's Dedication

On Mother's Day I awoke early to the eager faces of my two oldest daughters. Kayla excitedly handed me a gift bag with a beautiful jewelry box made out of Popsicle sticks creatively colored with markers. Kamryn, who was with her, gave me a quick kiss and hug, I am guessing every day is mama's day to her. Kade, who kindly slept in, gave me a wonderful hand-made card but the best gift was the look on his face when he gave it to me, he was absolutely beaming with love and pride. Oh, I will cherish the little face forever!

Not only was Sunday Mother's Day, but it was also Korinna's dedication at church, sooooo wanting her to be a happy little camper at the dedication, I fed her a few times before we left the house. Now, that may have been one to many. Once I got her out of her overstuffed car seat (poofy dresses and infant car seats are NOT a good match) she proceeded to spit-up and spit-up some more. I started to have horrible images of projectile vomit flying from her and hitting the poor people in the front row! Or worse, the pastor! I frantically started the back pat and the knee bounce in hopes of getting everything out before worship ended. Thankfully, we avoided any flying puke during the dedication, yeah! Kori added a few ah, oh, b-b-b, and blew a few raspberries and desperately tried to eat a page from the Bible, but other than that, it went off with out a hitch!

Not my princess....

On the radio this morning, the DJ said that moms, if they were paid, would earn over eight hundred thousand dollars. WOW! He continued to go over all of our "Mom jobs", I laughed over some and thought of a few missed ones, poop cleaner upper, snotty nose wiper, just to name a few....

Aw, but what a great moment it was, not the news of what I was worth, but the fact that I was in my car, it was quiet and I was listening to the radio, not Dora the Explorer! Oh, it was wonderful, magnificent, a dream come true......well almost. When you factor in that it was 6:00 am and I was running to the store in my PJ's to get fresh flowers for Kayla's teacher (it's teacher appreciation week at school) and pastries for my Bible Study because I ran out of time and energy to make anything the night before, so we will leave it as wonderful.

Now fast forward a few hours to 9:00 am and I am packing up to head out to Bible Study, I get out my favorite Sage Green Longerberger Tray for my fresh (store bought) pastries to go on and my little two year old princess, Kami, comes to help. Scratch that, my little menace, come to help by pulling my favorite Sage Green Longerberger Tray on to the floor and giggled as it shattered into many, many pieces. I should post that I gave her a pat on the head and said "accidents happen dear, run along while I clean up." Oh, but that is not what happened at all! I let out a big "KAMRYN MARY LEE WEEKS!" followed by "what did you do?", like, I need to ask. Since I raised my voice, the tears were flying, her cries were matching my yells, so I finished with a big, "go to your room".

I proceeded to sweep-up my favorite Sage Green Longerberger Tray, and throw all the little pieces away. A tear trickled down my cheek and I developed a lump in my throat and a pit in my stomach. No, not for the beloved tray, but for my daughter, in her eyes that tray was more important to me than her. So, I scooped my little Kami into my arms and apologized for yelling, a kiss and a hug and she was back to her happy little self. But it was a reminder to me, trays can be replaced, a child's spirit can not.

It's about time....

Well, I have had this blog for, um, about 6 months and have not posted a thing, so I thought I would give it a try. To bad I didn't have anything exciting to post.

Today we all overslept, still trying to catch up from lost sleep from Kayla's sleepover. Took the kids to school, went to my Mom's Group at Church and took the kid's to get passport photo for our big trip to Canada.

I am going to cut this short, Kori is crying and Kade is arguing with his little friend he has over, I am sure, since Kami is quiet, she is into something she sound not be, yes chaos, normal, but still chaos.