Scripture bags

My oldest daughters have been asking for a "church" bag that they can carry their books in so while I was at the dollar store I found some polka dot place mats and made them some scripture bags. They thought they were WONDERFUL. Indi said, "Momma you're the best sewer EVER!". I wish I were but she doesn't have to know I'm not.

























Here's a picture Zoey, just cuz she's so dang cute!

Christmas pictures

I have been so bad about blogging which means I'm very behind. Here's some pics from Christmas morning. Everyone had a great Christmas and enjoyed all their presents!


Zoey got some new sunglasses that she wore all morning:


















Jaed is checking out his toys from Santa:























Kaia didn't know which toy to look at first when she came down the stairs and saw her chair that Santa put her presents on:
























Zoey was sooooo excited to see her Dora Kitchen. She giggled and giggled while she touched it and played:
























Indi got several chapter books for Christmas. She has become quite the little reader and loves to read at night before bed:


















Josie is showing off another pair of warm pajamas she got from Mom and Dad:
























Here's the girls showing each other what they got:


















Zoey is determined to get more candy out of her stocking:


















Josie is showing off the clothes I made for her new doll:
























Here are the girls modeling the crowns and capes that I made each of them:



















My girls really wanted American Dolls but buying each a doll for $100 or more wasn't really an option for us so I found these dolls at Costco and the girls loved them. The girls call them their American Dolls and we don't correct them. Here's Josie holding her doll and while they are both listening to their new mp3 players (oh, and notice her make up job with her new make up):
























Here's Indi with her new doll:

Christmas Dresses

I have been so bad about posting and I'm hoping to be better! I wanted to post some pictures of the Christmas dresses my sister bought my girls. They are so beautiful and they are dresses they can wear throughout the year! She even bought them necklaces and helped me make bows for their hair to match.

I have no idea what's going on with Jaedons face. He looks so mad in all this pics. He really wasn't.....that I knew of. Oh well! I was so worried about making sure the dresses were straight and looking nice that I didn't even pay attention to what faces were being made. Lesson learned!!

Family Fun!

We went to visit Bass Pro Shop when my brother and his family were here for Thanksgiving. The kids loved it!! It had tons of real looking animals and a HUGE fish tank. It was a fun family outing!


Here's our family:



















Here are the kids with their cousins Marquis and Malia:



















The kids were able to sit on huge 4 wheelers to "test" them out:

(Jaed and Marquis)



















(Josie)
























(Indi)
























(Kaia)
























And just a cute picture of our baby Zoey:

Christmas Eve

Now that Christmas is over and things are settling down I have a little time to post some new pictures. We didn't do very many "traditions" this year and I'm not sure why. Maybe because Christmas came so fast and Thayne and I didn't seem to be full of Christmas spirit. We normally do Gingerbread houses close to Christmas, we do a lot of baking on Christmas eve, we usually have a special Christmas eve dinner, and much more but we did none of that. We actually had pizza for dinner Christmas eve. There was no complaining from the kids so I guess everything turned out ok. One tradition that I did do this year is new pajamas for Christmas eve.

I don't know why Josie and Indi have to be so dang goofy every time I want to take a picture. I'm always saying, "Could you please act normal!", but I obviously forgot to say that this time!

Zoey rocked herself to sleep

Gooey Eye Monster

The Gooey Eye Monster came to our house and infected our little Zoey. It's so sad!! Here eyes are so gooey and red. I took her to the Dr. this morning and even the Dr. said "WOW, that's horrible", when she saw Zoey. Unfortunately, Kaia's eyes are turning red too, so more gooey crap to come!

How do ya like that snot along with the gooey eyes?? This is her typical look for now!

Visit to Santa

They day after Thanksgiving we visited Santa at Bass Pro Shop. The kids loved exploring the store and especially liked their HUGE fish tank with very large fish in it. Everyone was excited about Santa but Zoey was scared to death when she saw him. The only way she would get close to him was if Thayne or I were holding her. Jaed was not going to sit on his lap no matter what and Josie had about 100 things she was ready to tell Santa she wanted.

My first born!

It's time to spotlight my kids. Today I'll spotlight Jaed:






















I don't think I could ask for a better 'first born' child. He would have never made it as a middle child and especially the youngest. He needed to be the first in our family. He protects his four little sisters when someone tries to hurt them but also tries to keep his sisters in line. He's very loving, empathetic, and funny! He and his Dad are the best of friends and Thayne is so excited to have a gamer for a son. They love to play games together, talk about different games, and learn new games. I think they are both in their own little heaven when games are involved.

Some facts about Jaed:

• Jaed is extremely smart and LOVES to read. He has quite a library in his room (thanks to Mom) and I catch him rereading books all the time.

• He's not a guy that has lots of different friends. He has a few very good friends and is extremely loyal to them.

• Jaed loves Legos and Star Wars. When the two things are together he's beside himself.

• Jaed enjoys bike riding, taking things apart and rebuilding them, and teasing his sisters!

I don't think I tell Jaed that I love him enough. Even though there are times I wonder if he'll make it in this world, I know that he will be a strong man with great success. He came into my life when I thought for sure that I wasn't going to have any kids. He truly was a blessing from God!!!

Beer breath!

My baby (ok, she's not a baby but she's my baby!) is a Wino!! My friend's son was having a Birthday party at the bowling alley and invited our whole family, so we went. Well, if you've been to a local Bowling Alley you know that they usually sell beer and you're not allowed to drink it in the bowling area, SOOO the drunkards leave their beer on the tables above the bowling area without even realizing that the area is FULL of kids. Can you guess where I'm going with this??? Well, I turned my head to watch Indi bowl and when I looked back to check on Zoey she had her back to me, and was tipping a cup up and drinking something. I was not too worried cuz I just assumed it was someone's root beer from the party but...nope! When she turned around she had a cup of beer in her hands and was smackin' her lips! I was so shocked that I just yelled her name. Well she spilled some of the beer on her clothes and the owner of the beer cup turned around to see her holding it. Thank goodness I got to her before he did and I grabbed the beer, handed it to him and grabbed Zoey. He mumbled something about his cup being full at one time and now it was only 3/4 th of the way full. I just gave him a dirty look and walked away. I wasn't sure how much she drank but when she breathed on me I about passed out. She certainly had enough to cause wino breathe and her clothes smelled like beer as well.

My first thought was, WHAT HAVE I DONE!! Now my child can't say that she is alcohol free...EVER! But then my friend told me that if she really got a good swig of beer she'll sleep well tonight and I was calm again!!

This isn't her at the birthday party, but it is a frequent thing she does!

























Here's some more cute pics of Zoey:

Parent Teacher thingy`

Last night was parent teacher conferences and I was a little nervous about going in. I think I was basing my kids level of academic skills on how well I homeschooled them.

Jaed's teacher said that he was doing great and had no concerns academically or socially. What??? I know.....it's great!! We know he is super smart but we also were ready to hear about any problems socially he might be having, but we didn't hear any such thing. YIPPPEEE!! His teacher is also going to recommend him for the gifted and talented program as well. WAY TO GO JAED!!

Josie's teacher is very nice young girl (yes, I said she was a girl. She can't be older than 25!). She said that Josie is starting to raise her hand and answer questions and seems to be making friends in class. Academically, she has concerns. We're not surprised because we have concerns as well. She is struggling with retaining things and reading. She does seem to pick up on the math quite quickly, so we're very happy about that. We discussed things we can do to get her the help she needs and I do feel confident that Josie will get the help she needs because I won't accept anything less than that. Thayne and I are determined to make sure she succeeds and is not left behind!

Indiya's teacher couldn't say enough about Indi. She called Indi a "true delight", a "great worker", a "very kind child" and ended it by saying "I love having her in my class!". That is exactly what every parent wants to hear. She also went on to say that Indi is in the top of her class and she will be submitting Indi's name for the Gifted and Talented class. She said that she is more on a second grade level than a first grade level. WOW!! We weren't expecting that but we're happy for her!

Halloween

Since Halloween is on a Sunday this year our church has organized a Trunk or Treat the day before and my friend Tammy's congregation was doing the same but theirs was the weekend before so the kids get to go to hers and then ours. I think that will be plenty of candy for them.

Jaed wanted to go as an army guy so here he is! I found the girls's costumes at different thrift stores so we didn't pay to much for them but they look great! You would think that since I love to sew so much that I'd make their costumes but for some reason making their costumes intimidates me. Maybe I'll tackle it next year!

(Zoey is the little witch, Kaia is the yellow fairy, Indi is the angel, and Josie is the big witch!)

Face Painting

We went to a church function the first weekend we were here and their was a professional face painter there. The kids stood in the long line to get their face painted. Josie ended up waiting the longest (over an hour) but I think hers turned out the best. Thayne and I were so impressed that she was patient long enough to wait for the face painting. Usually she gets bored with waiting and decides it isn't worth it and moves on to something else.


Doesn't Josie looked great?!?!

























Indi started scratching her face soon after the painting was done so it started to come off.
























Kaia just got a rainbow on her face because she couldn't sit still long enough to do the more professional job.



















Jaed had a cool batman face but he started playing basketball right after and sweated all over it!

Anti pumpkin carvers

Thayne and I HATE carving pumpkins. It's disgusting, messy and so not fun (in our opinion!). So, instead of carving a pumpkin, we bought small pumpkins and let the kids draw and color them. They seemed to be thrilled with it and didn't mind that we weren't stabbing them with knives so all was good!

(Me and all the kids)


















(Thayne)
























(Josie and Jaed)
+






















(Indiya and Kaia)























(Zoey)

Early Trick or Treating

The MOMS Club that I joined scheduled a trick or treating activity at a local nursing home so Kai and Zoey got to go. Zoey was so mad that candy had to go in her bag. She threw lots of tantrums for the residents. Some of them laughed, some of them look disgusted, and others just looked away. I let her eat some candy in between trick or treating but that wasn't good enough for her. She wanted it ALL in her mouth. Kaia just ignored the scene Zoey was making at every stop. I think Kaia might have been acting like she wasn't related to us....cuz that's what I would have done!!

Runny nose

Indi had a horrible runny nose about a week before we left Washington and this is how I found her one morning:
























I have no idea why they were running around in swimming suits but I didn't really care. Indi is wearing Zoey's swimming suit.......seriously....it couldn't have been comfortable but she insisted that it was fine. I allowed it until they started asking to go outside to play. I do have my limits!

Moved in and adjusting

We made it to Denver 3 weeks ago and we're doing great! I put the kids back in public school and they were overjoyed! I had a hard time driving away from the school the first day, wondering if I was doing the right thing but I am just fine with it now. I LOVE having only two kids at home during the day!!! I joined a 24 hour Fitness gym and get to go whenever I want and the two youngest have a great time in the kids club area while I workout. I joined a MOMS Club, a card club and have enjoyed getting to know an old friend all over again. Tammy and I were nannies in New York together and we lost contact for a while but about a year or so ago, I found her on facebook and we reconnected. She lives about 15 minutes away from me and we have so much in common. It's nice to move to a new city and have an instant friend!!!

Thayne is enjoying his job. At first he made several comments about how slow things were (not fast paced like a law firm) but now he seems to like it just fine. I love that fact that I know he'll be home after 8 hours :). THANK YOU GOVERNMENT JOBS!!! No overtime allowed and the deadlines are far enough away that he can finish his work in the 40 hours a week schedule.

Jaed turned 9 a week after we got here so we had a big family party! He got lots of legos and a new bike. He had been riding a bike that Thayne's parents bought for Josie but it was too big for her. He never complained about riding a girl bike until some boys saw him and said, "Nice girl bike!". That was the end of that, so he now has a totally boy bike! We live in a cul de sac so the kids can go out and ride their bikes more often then they did in Ellensburg. They love it!

Josie was the most excited to go back to school, I think. I spoke with the principal and her teacher about my concerns about her learning disabilities and they want to meet with me every month to update me on her work. If there is still concerns then testing will start and they will get her the necessary help she needs to be successful. Josie can now ride a two wheeler all by herself. This was a HUGE accomplishment for her. Thayne has been trying to teach her how for about a year or more but was having no luck. Something just clicked a couple of weeks ago and she was off and riding like a pro.

Indi has made so many friends at school!! She is a real social butterfly. Her teacher is constantly sending home things that says how great she is. She comes right home from school, does her school work, does her chores and then asks for a snack. I never have to worry about her not doing what she is suppose to do. What a relief!!! She's not completely perfect, though. She is a participant in the many cat fights that occur in our house. Usually they are between her and Josie. She does try and mother Zoey too much which leads to Zoey screaming and swinging her hands at Indi, but most of the time Indi is a true darling!!

Kaia.....what a doll. She is still very mischievous but she I love to hang out with her during the day. We have great conversations and she tells me she loves me a lot. I joined a MOMS Club here in Denver so we get to go to lots of different activities during the week and she loves it. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.

Zoey.....wow....I don't even know where to start. STINKER is the word that comes to mind when I think of Zoey. She is completely independent and very opinionated, but has this look that melts you away. She is a bully to other kids, throws the best tantrums ever, can cry forever no matter how you try to pacify her, but she loves to cuddle next to you, hold your face in her hands and look at you, wrap her arms around your neck and squeeze and will plant a kiss right on your lips when she feels you deserve one. I have heard Thayne say many times, "I don't know what to do with that girl!". We are both terrified of how she will be as a teenager.......we're praying for her now!

We really like our new house. We're renting for right now but we rented our house site unseen (only pictures) so that is always a little scare but we lucked out. It's big and we love all the room we have. It's not a new house like I was hoping for but for right now it meets our needs! We're hoping to buy in a year or so.

First day of school!