CHOCOLATE or Vanilla?

Well today started off with us going to watch lil' man play a soccer game which was fun. He scored the first goal for their team and they won 7-1. Uncle Myke came and watched too which was so sweet of him and meant a lot to Chrish. We then headed home for a bit and then of coarse to our favourite breakfast place The Original Pancake House. (Yum yum!) After that my bro and I both needed to get our cars washed so we went and hung out at the carwash for a bit. Sweating in the supposed 'Autumn' weather.
Came home to a couple of cuddling sleepyheads on the couch (Lar and Emma) SO precious! We gained to more kids for the weekend which is fun for the kids. They so enjoy having friends over. First thing Chrish and Aaron did was make a .........you guessed it, ......sigh.....fort. Then it was outside for them building, playing baseball, football, breaking the masterbath window : ( skateboarding, and soccer. The girls have been playing "bratz" which they do for hours and hours. Sometimes they won't even come out to eat, but more recently I'm insisting on it. They play so well together. Emma has been going back and forth from group to group til' she gets kicked out and the older kids want their privacy. Caley, poor girl has been fighting a really bad cold. I gave her sleepy cold meds though and she slept the majority of the day. Since she woke up she's been remarkably better - Yay! I really get bummed when the kids get sick or hurt or troubled. Not depressed bummed, just heavy hearted.
I think I've loaded and unloaded the dishwasher 3 times so far today. Still have some pots and pans to do too. My hands are squeaky ' palmolive' clean! I also baked two cakes. Chocolate and vanilla. We took a vote and were split; meaning they wanted vanilla and mama wanted chocolate! Boy that chocolate one sure was delicious ;P I decided that this weekend I would indulge however much I want because come Monday it's time to shape up and get serious. I'm planning on getting back to the gym and starting to work out again. It's been several months since I last went. I do enjoy working out I just am not thrilled about the idea of going by myself to this HUGE gym. But I figure I'll get my ipod and rock out with fun people such as: the Goo Goo Dolls, U2, Coldplay, good ol' Lenny Kravitz (he's great for cardio and cleaning too!..... I find if I get into my routine and exercise regularily I have more motivation to eat healthier but still realisticly ( how I DO love my sweets) Now it's time though early, for me to wind down and conserve some energy for tomorrow.

Remote Control Anyone?

Don't you ever wish you could just 'pause' life sometimes? Certain moments in life that you could just savour a little longer and freeze. Or atleast have on 'slow-play' so you could live it but just a little bit slower. I'm so grateful to actually have more moments that I'd want to pause or slow-play than not.
I know sometimes there are definately moments I wish I could fast forward or rewind and re-do. It would be interesting to actually see yourself, live your life eh. Probably a bit weird, and even embarrassing at times but it would be a rather remarkable thing to be able to live outside ones self.
Right now I'm sitting on the couch with this odd non-noise. It's almost too quiet in here. It was bothering me so much I just had to turn on the tv in the back room. So then it wouldn't be right in front of me distracting me, but still giving me that soothing comfort of ' not being alone' I guess. The kids are actually due home from minimum day in about ten minutes now.
I've had a rather productive morning so that's a good feeling. Dishes done, laundry folded (put away? yeah right) counters washed, bathrooms cleaned, floors swept (not mopped cause on Wednesdays I get 7 kids running in/out of here for a bit in the afternoon......so it's pointless really) appliances wiped down of all the various sizes of fingerprints. I was telling a friend that it's almost pointless to clean BEFORE the kids get home because once their home from school all my morning work is 'undone' and I basically start over after homework time only don't get as far. I try to laugh about it and really do most days but some days it just gets to me. There are times I like to actually sit and enjoy the house being clean and today was one of those days. I'm planning on having to do it again after homework time and a dentist visit today while making dinner. The one good thing about being able to clean up the house so often is that I'm learning to do it pretty fast while thorough. Now here's to trying to 'teach' the kids to clean after themselves. They're getting a bit more trained than before so that's something. Well, I heard that car door slam........the kids are coming ; ) ..........Here we go!

Crooked Smile : {

The last couple of weeks we've been getting back into our 'school' routine as well as some other fun and not so fun things. On the not so fun part, quite sad really, my lil' Emmabear went to the dentist expecting to get some cavities filled. Well, she did get filled alright, with lots of numbing medicine. Poor thing had to get a root canal. Didn't know they even did those on kids so young. She was such a trooper and I honestly think it was harder on me than her. She was SO numbed up on the right side it lasted for several hours which started to worry me that maybe they shot her up with too much medicine. We kept checking on her saying "Emma, smile now" and this was the result: That was four or five hours after the dentist visit too. She now has her beautiful not crooked smile back.....Yay! and Whewww!
Okay so now for some of the fun things: Hhmmm well, let's start with the skate board ramp that was built by Christians uncle Chris. Quite the generous project he did I'd say. Just the thing lil' man needs though to keep him occupied and out of trouble. Any spare time he has he's on that ramp doing tricks that I can hardly bare to watch. He's quite incredible really, but his bravery that he has is a bit nerve wrecking.
On Friday Emma was invited to a 'Hannah Montanna' party. She's been counting down the days. We got her all dressed up as a 'rocker' and did her hair pretty stylin' and she got her hair all punked out with pink and purple spray, some make-up and nail polish to boot. The little diva came home all tuckered out having danced for an hour straight apparently.
Oh, and Christians back to playing soccer again with his dad as assistant coach. He's 7 playing with 9 year olds and his proud mama might add that he holds his own!

Back 2 School!

Well, the kids just finished their first full week at school. They started on the 4th and I think that we're all adjusting to our new schedule. No more sleeping in or staying up late, but I have to say I think routine is a good thing for all involved. On the first day it is our tradition to walk to school as a family and walk the kids to where they need to be. Caley and Emma accompanied us even though they both had different start times and Caley an all together different school. I have to say I did pretty good about not crying. Especially after the "you'd better not cry and embarrass me mom!" from Caley for a week before school even started. As we were walking seeing the kids who obviously sprouted up quite a bit over the summer, carrying their backpacks and with their new 'back to school' outfit and cute hairdos.....it choked me up and I had to G-U-L-P down my emotions and take a deep breath. How fast my babes do grow : (
Emma is absolutely LOVING kindergarten! When I picked her up the first day I was so excited to hear how she did so I said "how was it Emma?" she shouted with a HUGE smile on her face " Mama, I got an A+!" and she still talks about that and how she's planning on getting more. Christian, now in the second grade is enjoying school. I think it's more that he gets to see his buddies. He's off to a good start though and even has gotten a few "star acheivement" awards already! That's my boy! Hannah is making the most of her last year at this school. Her fifth grade class is right next to Emmas kindergarten class so they can say hi to each other sometimes. She's not too happy about homework especially since she got some even on the first day but is good about coming home and getting it done. Caley, my Jr. Higher....is really enjoying school and a little overwhelmed with the boat load of 6 classes of homework. She's holding her own though and getting used to this new amount of pressure.
I've just started volunteering in the three younger kids classes which is the first time I've been able to help out, being that I've always had a kiddo at home to tend to. So, it's something new and so far fun. Surprisingly tiring, but a nice chance to see the kids in their element.

More Pics OF Our Trip......

Vacation 2007

Okay so that was fun! We just got back last night from our 9 day get away to Las Vegas. Las Vegas in August? Well, we stayed at our friends house. Our friends weren't there so we had the whole place to ourselves. We had more space then we knew what to do with. There was a pool too so we got TONS of swimming in!!!
I never realized what little fishies my kids were til' this trip. We swam for hours and hours every day, and I don't think the water temperature could've been any more perfect. It was so nice to be able to watch them and yet at the same time relax on my inflatable lounge chair while getting a nice tan too. I also really enjoyed playing various games like "Marco Polo" and lap races, or who could stand on their hands the longest, who could do the most somersaults.....It really made me feel like I was a young kid again. Plus, not to mention watching the kids have SO much fun while having fun with them is to me a piece of heaven on earth. I LOVE watching people have a great time and smile and laugh uninhibited!
Maybe I should've started with this first but......We left for our trip on a Friday night (to avoid traffic-yuck!) and also (the hubby had a poker game and what's more is we had a better chance of NOT hearing "are we there yet?" for 3 hours the later we left) so we left around 3am (hubby's a nightowl what can I say?) and I couldn't sleep at all on the way there 'cause I felt a duty to make sure he didn't fall asleep (it was more me, than him) So by the time we got there the sun was just coming up and the kids started to awake one by one. Then we got to the house, and by this time Larry and I are exhausted and the kids are becoming more increasingly excited! We tell them to stay put in the livingroom if they were'nt going to bed, and we tried to get some sleep. Well, he got some and I got 15minutes. I got woke up with a "MOM! There's a loud beep going on and it won't stop!" So I rushed downstairs with my eyes somewhat cracked open, and managed to find that horribly loud screeching alarm! With the push of a button it had stopped. I guess they unlocked a door they weren't suppose to. So, I then went to the couch and couldn't keep my eyes open and was constantly awoke by "Can we go swimming?" and "Mom I'm hungry!".......so I finally gave up on trying to get sleep. I don't know about you but whenever I try to nap or sleep and am being interupted it only makes me more cranky, so I just don't until the time is more suitable.
I did get my second wind and we enjoyed our first day as well as all the rest with swimming,swimming,swimming and more swimming! As well as eating yummy vacation foods such as donuts, ice cream, cookies, chips and dip.........mixed in with some healthy food too of coarse, but hey we were on vacation or atleast that's what I kept telling myself. Seriously though I don't think my kids have eaten so much fruit in one week. I kept a pretty consistent bowl of cut up fruit that kept emptying before I could even finish cutting up the day lot.
There was one day that hubby took us to Circus Circus. They still were saying thank you just yesterday and that was a few days ago! We got there, ate at a really expensive, crappy restaurant where my youngest wouldn't even eat a quesadilla. Now how can you go wrong with that? SO, okay moving onto the attractions. We got our tickets (luckily the gal at the counter was gracious enough to point out where to get some coupons, otherwise a family of 6 for a daypass would be like a million dollars....instead it was half price, thank you nice lady!) Then we spent the day riding on rollercoasters, a huge watercoaster, bumper cars of coarse (they rock), bungee jumping, some 3D shows. Emma did NOT enjoy the SpongeBoB motion ride (thank God it was only 4-5 minutes! There were also some carnival games and a trashbag full of stuffed animals were won (cause we needed more stuffed animals) Oh another one Emma did NOT like was the little bumpy train coaster! There was actually a video camera in front of every car and so we got to see her expression the whole time......it was kind of funny but we didnt' want to buy it for fear of embarrassing her down the road at how scared she was :( Sounds mean but you had to be there. We ended our time there with allowing the kids to get a "build-a-fake-bear" which they've been cuddling with since.
Our time in Vegas was very bonding. Lots of cuddling, watching movies, colouring, poker (well, hubby did),fooseball, reading books, painting nails, and of coarse yes even on vacation the kids just had to make a fort changing it every five minutes making it bigger and better. I have to admit the time went surprisingly fast, but not too fast like it sometimes does. We couldn't remember the last time we took a vacation and did, well in some peoples books, nothing. No tours, no meeting up with people, no be here at this time and take this map and find huh? We came back refreshed and relaxed and very thankful for our trip!