The many faces of Z

Getting pictures of my kids without them making a ridiculous face is always a challenge. You would think it would be easier for me to get a normal, non silly picture of my oldest son Z. He is after all about to be a teenager. Well that's probably why he doesn't cooperate much with me and my camera these days. I thought I'd show a bit of what I have to go through and put up with before I can actually get a good picture.

The boy can't seem to be bothered to look up from the laptop long enough to smile into the camera.

Then when I finally get him to look up and smile. He does this right at the last second and this is what I get.

Of course by this time, he thinks it's all fun and games and waits until I've focused and then this...

Finally, he takes pity on his mom and picks me up from the ground where I am sobbing and crying in the fetal position and says he will do it right this time. He promises! Do I believe him...well of course not, but I'm his mom and I want a picture of him and so sucker that I am I try again.

And I get this...

Oh how sweet success is. Well at least until Z. looks at me and says "There are you done yet?? I'm ready to get back to my web surfing of important things...like Fred!"
This time when I fall to the floor in a heap and start sobbing uncontrollably he just steps over me and says thanks mom.

Start of soccer season

We finally agreed to let A. play a little soccer this season. We had been holding out just for our own sake of not having to commit to another team. But she's been begging and she finally got her chance.



She loved it and if I'm being honest she did pretty good out there most the time. She can really handle the ball better than the other kids when they first started and she has a really strong kick. And at her age, it's all about fun and you can just sit back and enjoy the kids having fun.

Normally it would be me and the the three youngest since Hubs and Z. always were at baseball. So naturally a lot of time was spent at the park area as well. This provided lots of opportunity to get pictures of my monkeys hanging out.

My silly girl hanging upside down.

She's showing off her missing front tooth to me.

My big boy just perched up high where he can see everything going on.

Flu and thank you's

My son came into my room yesterday about 5am. He said he didn't feel well at all. Poor guy was burning up so we got him some medicine and put him back to bed. Once I got the other kids off to school I was able to get him into the doctors office where we got a positive test for the flu. So I stopped off at the store to stock up on Gatorade, fever medicine and Tamiflu. Then we headed back home to rest and be sick. Not a fun day for my little guy.

Finally, later that evening he felt well enough to draw. So he went to his room and came out with a card for me. On it, he wrote "Thank you for taking care of me when I was sick. I love you!"



I'm telling you now, that sweet boy put a lump in my throat with that card. He's always been my gentle, sensitive one. But as he has gotten older, he doesn't show it as much as he used to. But he still is that same sweet soul he's always been. It's just currently hiding under a rough and tough little boy exterior that he only shows to mom when he isn't feeling well.

But I love that sweet nature of my son. The one that stops to thank you for taking care of him when he is sick. Now we just have to get him healthy again because as much as I love seeing this glimpse into his sweet soul. I would much rather have a little boy in constant perpetual motion to try and keep up with.

Somethings missing from this smile

It has finally happened. After what has seemed like forever to her, my K. has finally lost her first tooth. I'm not surprised it took her 6 1/2 years to lose this tooth she didn't get it when she was a baby until she was almost a year old. But after promising her that if she ate the apple her tooth would come out, she tried it. And it did. At school of course because that's where you get the cool little tooth treasure boxes to keep it in for the tooth fairy. So now we just have to wait for that other bottom tooth to fall out and then she will have a nice big "picture window" on her bottom row of teeth

Another year blows by

Time is moving to fast. I blink my eyes and it seems like months have passed by in a blur. So I am going to try and catch my breath a bit and recollect a bit of what has been going on.

We celebrated my baby turning 4. Hard to believe it but she is. Unfortunately her birthday also happens to fall in April which is smack dab in the middle of baseball season and soccer season. Makes for planning a birthday party for her a little difficult. We celebrated with a small family birthday dinner like we always do. I mentioned it in a previous post. Finally, a month later we finally found a free time where we could have her "friend" party.

She picked none other than Chuck E. Cheese. It's not my favorite place but she really loved it and having her friends there to play with. She met Chuckie himself and seemed a bit impressed.

Then she went into the ticket wind tunnel with Zach to help her. She liked that, but she loves anything that her big brother Zach does with her. It was a fun time for her and her friends and that's what really matters.


So after celebrating Anna's birthday a month late, it literally was a blink of an eye until we celebrated my big boy turning 12. I can't believe I have a 12 year old. Seems like yesterday he was still a small baby. He also had a small family party and got his desired and highly coveted PS3. Instead of our normal chocolate cake, he made his own dessert. He spent the day at Grandmama's and Pappy's house and decided that he wanted Peanut Butter Rice Crispy treats. So not only did he turn 12 on me, he made his own "cake" so to speak. See what I mean by growing up so fast. And they were good too. I think I'll let him keep on making those. But I was keeping with the lack of birthday planning and forgot to take my camera out. So I didn't get my picture of my birthday boy on his actual birthday.

Two weeks later we celebrated Kate turning 6 years old. She turned 6 the day before we headed out to Omaha for the College World Series tournament Zach's team was playing in. So naturally we had another small family birthday dinner to celebrate.


And yes, the chocolate cake was there. Although Kate had been at grandmama's house and helped to frost it. I've never seen such a brightly colored cake before. She went to town with it. She enjoyed her pink DS she got and got to use it plenty over the summer. But in keeping with this awful habit I started with Anna this year, her friend party was about 5 weeks late.

She decided she wanted her first ever slumber party. So she picked a few friends from her summer camp and invited them over. It was a small group to begin with but it ended up being just three girls at the party. All the other kids were sleeping over at friends houses or grandmama's. So we went to the movies Friday night and swimming Sat. morning before all the fun finally ended. She loved it and wants to have another slumber party soon. Anna is begging to be included in the next one though. And again, I never took out my camera. Truly, I'm lacking in my pictures here aren't I?

So there we have another year flying past in a blink of an eye. For the time being, I am allowed to say I have a 12 year old, 7 year old, 6 year old and a 4 year old. It will change in a month's time when Michael finally turns 8 but until then I'm allowed. Hopefully his party won't be so late in arriving as the girls.

Penny for your thoughts

I often wonder what my kids are thinking at random moments when I stop to watch what they are doing. Are they happy, sad or just content to be where they are and with what they are doing. In the photo below, she was sitting there in the goal, surrounded by soccer balls and she was happily picking flowers.


I love this one of my girls. I don't know what they were looking at but whatever it is, it's got both their attentions. Since they were so far away I couldn't ask them what they were looking at. So now I'm left to just wonder.

Soccer Saturday Happenings

It's soccer season right now. And I realized that I do not have any pictures of Michael playing soccer. I pulled out the telephoto zoom lens and went to the game. Now can I just say that my mom went with me and that it was beyond windy. I love my mom but I hate the wind. There now you know how I really feel. Anyways, I got some great pictures of Michael looking like he knows what he's doing.


He played extra hard on Saturday and did a really good job. And when I told him so he commented to me "Yeah, I wanted you to get some really good pictures of me so I tried really hard." Have to love that and yes I did get some really great pictures also.

Now Dad and Z. were off at a baseball tournament on a different windy hill so it was just me, mom and the girls watching the game. Well okay, the girls didn't watch a bit of it. Instead they played with their friends and found some interesting ways to keep themselves entertained.

And once they got tired of passing the ball between the tunnel of legs well they moved on but I'm not sure exactly what it was they were doing.

Change of Plans

It is bitterly cold here in Tx. today along with the rest of the country. But for me, I haven't been this cold since I lived in Finland. I'm thinking of breaking out the wool hose I still have just to stay warm.

I was woken up very early from my warm bed by the phone ringing. It was the school letting us know that it was closed due to icy conditions. Our district always closes before most others. The school buses just can't navigate some of those back country roads. So my three big kids would be home with me today. My youngest A. was having a sleepover at Grandmama's house so she was not going to be here. Originally I had planned on going out and doing some shopping that is done much easier without children in tow.

So now I have a change of plans. Instead of it just being me while I go out shopping it will be me and the kids home from school together one more time. And I have to admit that I'm not upset by it one bit. I can be annoyed by their loudness one more day, I can step over their messes another day. As I type, Hoss and K. are spinning in circles around the den trying to see how long they can go before they fall. I get dizzy just watching them. It's fun and annoying all at the same time. And it's something only my kids can do to me on a regular basis. So I will try and focus on the laughter of today. Knowing that tommorow it's back to school and that I won't be able to enjoy the spontaniety of their actions as often as I have been able to.

Is it to early for military school?

It has been a bit crazy in our house lately. The kids are running free and doing pretty much what they want. And because of that the behaviour of my kids has gotten pretty rotten. It's to the point that I wonder how soon I could ship them off to military school. At the very least I am anxious for school to start so that the routine will start back up. And I will be honest, I'm ready for them to be in school when they are running around the way they have been today. Structure does wonders for them and I've been sorely lacking in that department. My own fault I know. I have to own up to my part in their bad behaviour. But in the meantime, I have been given the suggestion by Hubs to make my own military school.

Yes, that's right I can be my own drill sargent. I can make these kids get up early, make their beds, do their chores and send them off to run sprints. All before 8 AM. Then I need to take my children out in public and hope they misbehave so I can fix the problem immediately and make an example.

Have to love my Hubs sense of humor. I was all over everything he said, right until he mentioned the part about being up before 8 in the summer. Once he said that, I just checked out and started checking the prices at New Mexico Military Institute. It's really not so bad, I could sell everything we own and then we'd be set.

Dawg Days

We have been busy this week. Z. was competing in the Little League World Series tournament this week. Seven games in six days in hot Tx. weather makes for a long week. But it was fun and our boys ended up in third place for thier division. So we are proud of the effort.

Just to finish the day off, we went to the water park for a few hours this evening. And it was fun. It's the first time in years where I haven't been afraid the entire time that one of my children was on the verge of drowning at a moments notice. The boys are old enough and swim well enough that I didn't see to much of them. They took off and enjoyed the park and periodically came back to spray water on me. The girls and I hung out in the shallow play area and the lazy river. It was fun. Fun to know that we are finally getting to the point with our kids that we can do things like this and not have to worry about every little thing. They are getting bigger and older and are easier (at times).

So while I realize that time is fleeting and they are growing way to fast. It's fun to be able to do some of the "big kid" stuff with all the kids.

It's Spring Break

We are on spring break this week. I have high hopes for everyone getting and staying healthy this week. So far it looks like it may actually happen. Z. is fine and at baseball camp this week every morning. Hoss and K. and A. are all better and for the most part seem to be better as well. So that leaves me to plan a few things to do this week. I'm planning but it's a bit hard to do the long all day activities when I have Z. at camp until noon. After being physical and on the go all morning he does get a bit tired. But I'm sure I can get him to go on an extra long all day outing if it were worth his while.

So that leaves me with a lot of free mornings to fill this week. And what seems to be filling it? One of my all time favorite TV shows as a child. My son Hoss has discovered Little House on the Prarie. He likes it because of the horses. I just like it. I can honestly say I've seen every episode ever made. And I can name and place every episode within 60 seconds of sitting down to watch it. I was a bit obsessed as child I think. But I can't deny that I still love this show. Who knows, if I'm lucky I'll get to watch it more than once this week on spring break. It is my kids putting it on to watch, not me. And I will indulge them on this one.

Sick and Tired of Being Sick

I have to say it has been a hard winter for us. For the last two months straight, we have had one person after another in our family getting sick. And it continues to rage on. We have never had it this bad before and I hope to never see a winter like this again. It all started at the end of January when Hubs came home sick from a business trip. Hoss then caught it and developed pneumonia. Then K., A. and I decided to get the flu and spread the love to my parents who were visiting. We finally get through that then Z. comes home with strep throat. Now we are battling the dreaded stomach virus for a second time this winter. Both K and Hoss are fighting this one right now. It's just not seeming to end.

I must say, that I am so tired of being sick and caring for sick children. They've been great but it's just been really hard. I'm hoping that the kids will soon recover and get over all these viruses soon. That should leave us healthy to deal with all the allergies that are about to hit and the asthma problems that go with it. I am hoping that we can spend spring break next week home and healthy. So now you know why I've been gone so much lately.

Another way in which girls are different than boys

Having girls is different from boys. In so many ways. But I recently realized a new way they are different. Birthday parties. In particular, girls only parties. Now my poor girls will never have a girl only birthday party simply because of the fact that they have two brothers who will always be at their parties. So that along with the fact that my girls like to do a lot of what the boys do means that we very seldom have true girlie time.

But one recent Saturday K, my oldest girl was invited to a girlie party. So dad packed up the boys and took them off to basketball games while I packed up the girls and took them to parties. The girls were then treated to an experience they won't soon forget. We got to the party where they were whisked off to put on princess gowns. Then they were put into big director chairs and had their hair put up in pretty buns complete with glitter hairspray. After that they were rushed off to get their nails and makeup done. Once all the girls were finished, it was time. Time for the big presentation. One by one all the girls made there way onto a runway through a curtain of golden beads. There they walked the catwalk showing off the new princess look they had. They were then presented with a crown and a certificate.


I'm thinking to myself, what could possibly top this for these girls. Then it was cake time. They had the most beautiful cake from my favorite bakery Candy Haven. So naturally I had a piece. And then we opened presents. Lots of fun. Just when the girls thought it was over they put on their regular street clothes and jackets and went outside. There they were greeted by a very big and long pink limousine in which they all piled into and went for a ride. They loved it. And I was once again left to wonder at how different things with girls can be. Now while my girls loved it, I know I will never spend the money on that kind of party for my girls. I just can't imagine doing it. I know that from now on though that anytime either of my girls gets an invite to a party like this again that my boys will be begging to go. They are pretty mad that both of their little sisters have already ridden in a limo and they haven't. They assure me they will suffer through the whole party if they can go in the car afterward.

Yes, boys and girls are as different as princesses and hot rods.

No No and in case you didn't hear it...NO

Can you guess what has been said in the Juice Box household at least a million time in the last 24 hours. That would be the answer...NO! What surprises me is that it is not my youngest three who are asking the question (well at least not yet) but my oldest Z. He in turn is spurring the others to ask over and over in turn getting the same NO response.

What could possibly cause me to have to say No so much. It's not really what you think, it's not about Christmas presents at all. NO it's much worse than that. They want me to give in and allow them to get another PUPPY!

NO NO NO NO...no no no no!!! I do not want another puppy. We already have one overgrown dog who thinks she's a puppy, that I have to have underfoot. But a friend has just gotten a sweet new baby puppy Chihuahua and so the begging has commenced. No matter how much I let him go over and visit this still unnamed puppy, I will not cave on this issue.

I already have a husband, two boys, two girls and an overgrown Boxer. I certainly don't need to add to my nest with a partridge in a pear tree. So the answer is most definetely NO. But secretly I will admit to enjoying holding the puppy myself, especially since I don't have to deal with any of the rest of the work that goes with her.

Not ready

Holy Cow, it's the week before Thanksgiving and I'm not ready for the busyness that seems to come along with the holidays.

I've not got a shopping list ready for either the Thanksgiving dinner (which I'm not really responsible for this year) or for Christmas presents. I'm not ready to get out and go to all the different classroom parties and celebrations. I'm not ready to get out the decorations yet. I'm not ready to fuss for my youngest to leave the tree alone. I'm not ready to do any of the serious heavy baking the kids have come to love having. I'm not ready to deal with all the extra people in the stores (including the grocery store). I'm not ready to deal with all the extra excitement and energy the holidays bring out in the kids.

I'm just not ready. Does that make me a scrooge? I am ready for my kids to be home on breaks from school though. Even if there is more fighting, I miss having them around. But I'm just not ready for the rest of it yet.

Time has caught up with me

It hit me this morning, Halloween is tommorow. I knew it was coming and have somewhat prepared for it. I have no less than a million bags of candy. So much in fact that I could probably feed a third world nation for a month if it actually had any nutrional value to it. The kids all have their costumes and only one has decided to change her mind. But since she already has a princess costume in her closet it isn't that big a deal.

So how did time catch up to me? I just realized that I don't have a pumpkin for the kids to carve. I really am tired of the whole pumpkin carving thing. It's very overrated...and more importantly Messy. And it never fails that I or Hubs end up doing all the work since it's so gross. The kids love the end effect of a Jack O Lantern but don't like the work involved. So I guess tonight we will be making a Jack O Lantern. After all, I'm a sucker for getting my kids something as easy as that to make them happy. But I can honestly say that I'm really not all that excited about it. Except for the pumpkin seeds, I love roasted pumpkin seeds. But can't I just go buy a bag of those at the store and save myself all the work?

The Mother of All Days

Wow today was hard. Hubs had to be on a plane to Finland for a business trip by noon. Hoss had his last football game in one town at 11:45 where the girls would be with me. And Z. had a baseball tournament in a town about 45 minutes away that started at 11 and didn't end until 8:30. I was lucky enough that one of his team mates was able to get him to that tournament so that I only missed 1 and 1/2 of his 3 games he played.

But I made it through and so did the kids. Hoss kept his football record as a perfect score of 0 wins but had fun anyways. K. had one scrapped knee to show for this game and was quite upset about it. A. survived football okay.

Now for baseball, well that's another story. At some point before I got there Z. lost a tooth of his while he was at bat. And he was pretty upset that it never was found. He was so upset he hit a heck of a triple and brought in quite a few runs. By the time we got there to watch him he was on a roll. He had some great hits, some amazing slides where he was safe (and a scraped up arm also). But he was definitely on fire when he was the last pitcher of the game. He finished out the inning getting us 3 quick outs with his speed that they just couldn't hit. He plays on a 10U select team and they have been playing all fall in a league against 12U boys. They've lost a bunch but won a few here and there. But it was obvious today when they were playing against kids their own age that they have improved a lot.

So K, Hoss and A. got completely filthy at the baseball fields playing in the woods, dirt and with all those nasty horse apple thingies. (I wish I knew what they were really called) And Z. left alot of sweat, blood and body parts (teeth) on the field for all eternity. But he still made out pretty good. His coach gave him 3 bucks for his tooth which is more than the tooth fairy ever left him before. And on top of that they came in 1st place in their first ever tournament.

Now I am exhausted and ready to go to bed. And tomorrow for the first time in weeks we don't have a game on a Sunday afternoon. Can I tell you how excited I am for that?

Is there anything worse?

Than running up the stairs only to find your oldest hanging his head over the top bunk of his bed and just throwing up continously? I think there is. It's discovery that while you weren't home for dinner your children obviously had ravioli. And now that big red mess is all over your carpet.

Can I just say that whoever invented the carpet cleaner and whatever that purple stuff my Hubs uses in the garage to clean anything and everything is my hero. I was sure I would have a big red stain to match my purple stain in my carpet. But I don't. And that's a good thing. Now if I can only get my oldest to feeling better.

Significance

Why is it that my dear sweet Hubs doesn't understand the significance of our very busy two year old when she is utterly quiet.

Shall I just say that now he does understand the significance of her quietness. It usually means that she is up to something. Something like pulling the sink stopper up and turning on the water in the boys bathroom and then leaving it on. It usually means that when mom gets back from her walk he is frantically trying to clean up the floor with towels before the water pools anymore and starts to leak through the ceiling.

Meanwhile mom is just glad it wasn't her this happened to.

The Routine Begins

It is the official first day of school today. Which means that our routine begins again. It's been chaotic here the last week to say the least so I'm very ready for some routine. Hoss started kindergarten this morning and Z. started fifth grade. Both boys were very excited although Hoss was obviously nervous about his first day. But I'm sure all will be fine.

Our morning started with me actually getting up and dressed before the sun actually came up. Something I haven't done in a LONG time and in case your wondering, yes it still stinks. Now Z. had discovered that they were serving one of his favorite breakfasts at school (I don't think they actually serve something he doesn't like) and was begging for me to let him eat breakfast pizza at school. Now normally I'm fine with this and send him on his way to school a bit early so he can eat. But since Hoss was starting his first day I needed (well okay wanted) to walk him to his class. But I couldn't take him that early to his class. So good mom that I am, I decide to feed Hoss at home and just drop Z off in carpool early enough to eat at school. Then I went off in search of the most coveted thing on earth on the first day of school, a parking space actually in the parking lot. But since I was only a half hour early for school there wasn't any to be found. So I had to park on the street.

So we park and are walking inside the school. And since I'm such a nurturing mom, I wave at Z. eating his cafeteria made breakfast and get Hoss to his class. Once we get Hoss settled I do go in search of Z. But he had already scarfed his food down and was long gone to his class where his friends were waiting.

So I decided to stop in at the Yahoo BooHoo breakfast being offered for kindergarten moms. (I'm definitely a yahoo mom) It's at this time we can write our kids a short note and eat some of the snacks they have. So we write our note for Hoss and my two girls consume no less than twenty donut holes between the two of them. Like I said I'm a first class mom who cares about the nutrition needs of all my children. And since up to this point I hadn't realized that I'd forgotten to feed my girls, there was no way I could have kept them away from the food.

All I can say is that tomorrow will be better. I will remember to feed all my children breakfast (and at this point I count the cafeteria ladies meals as my own) and I will drink my coffee before it gets cold. We will eventually get back into a routine.