Kinda random lol

My view every morning...

Of course its my view every morning!  Because at least one of my kids has woken me BEFORE the sun comes up lol. But i think i've complained about that enough lately.  We all know im up earlier than i want to be! I just try to tell myself that someday when they are all older..i may in fact miss it.  Maybe....

My youngest, now 10 weeks old, is sleeping 8 hours a night!  Her night starts earlier than mine, so its not a full 8 hours for me, but still, i'll take it!  She is such a good baby and i couldnt say that enough, she really is!  Which i am sooooo grateful for!  Those that dont know, she was conceived with an IUD in place, so shes my little miracle baby :)  I did not want another one yet, or so close to my 19 month old.   I knew i did not want them that close because from experience of being a nanny and having their kids and mine all with 10-13 months from the next one.  4 kids under 4 ... CRAZY!!  So when i learned i was pregnant again so soon, it was hard to come to terms with it.  I also felt awful because here i was trying to PREVENT it, and i had 2 friends who were trying to get pregnant.  I went back and forth on when the right time was to tell them.  I wasnt sure how they would take it but when i did tell them, they seemed fine :)  My last 2 are close in age, but i think they will be best friends too!  All my girls are wonderful sisters.  They fight sometimes, but they genuinely care for each other.  Even Ella, my 19th month old, is a great big sister!  Always wants to give the baby a kiss and her face just lights up when we let her "hold" her little sister Aubrey.  Makes it all worth it! :)  Hey, how did i get so distracted on my kids again?? LOL 

Madisen, Aubrey and Ella

Madisen

Aubrey- 10 weeks old

Julia

 Still hoping to make it to the pumpkin patch this weekend.  We were supposed to go last thursday BUUUUUT the kids lost the chance to go that day because they continued to be naughty.  We did end up getting a few pumpkins from the store so i could decorate the front porch with them.  I still want to go to the pumpkin patch though for the experience.  Although there are very few patches here that still keep the pumpkins on the vines.  And those patches are further than i want to drive.  So we will be going to one that already has them picked from the field.  Oh well.  Another thing that kinda sucks about the pumpkin patches here, is that you have to pay to get in, then everything is included, except pumpkins.  With 4 kids all different aged, i dont want to pay for all the activities, i may not WANT to do all of them.  Let me pick which ones we want to pay for by how much time we have to do them.  So its like $8-10 a person!  Some have parents only paying $3, but then kids over 12 months pay.  Some have it $8 a person and 2 and under are free.  Either way..its going to cost us $32-36 for the pumpkin patch.  I miss being able to just go and wonder around and pick a few pumpkins, go on a hay ride, play on the hay stacks that are FREE, and go home.  Well, at least i know, no matter what, we wont have to bring our rain gear to go pick pumpkins! lol  It was actually pretty nice this morning when i went out back to take that picture of the sun coming up.  A coolness to the air instead of being punched in the face with heat no matter what time of night it was.  According to AccuWeather.com the nights are supposed to drop in the 50's and even 40's pretty soon.  So we may in fact need a little zip up jacket when walking Julia to school.  A nice change especially since by the afternoon it will be into the 80's :) 

A car, a car, a car!  I wish i had a car!! lol  I dont think my days would be so long if i could load the kids up and go somewhere in the car sometimes.  We try to make it to the park, that is easily with in walking distance, but sometimes with all that is going on here, we dont even end up doing that.  When Ella takes a nap today, i think we will go front and the big girls can draw with chalk, ride bikes or scooters and enjoy the weather.  WITH OUT me having to chase busy bee around.  We are going to have to get my husband some type of motorcycle or something to get him to work by next summer, probably by spring here.  There is NO way im walking Julia and Madie back and forth to school when it gets to be 120* outside.  And by that time, Madisen will be starting kindergarten, which i think is half day here.  So while the exercise of walking to and from the school multiple times a day would be nice..the weather will kill us.  Problem is, coming up with the $$ to get one.  Gonna have to find a way to budget that in, and save whatever bonus's he gets between then and now.  

Ok, well half my kids are dressed and its almost time to start making lunch.  It would be so nice to have someone deliver fresh made healthy food for me and the kids, but who also stuck around to do the dishes afterwards hahaha...

Thanks for stopping by....until next time... :)

In the past...

Ah, another crazy morning.  This time Ella thinks its ok to wake up at 5:30 in the morning.  Really??  Her room is dark, black out curtains and all, plus the sun isnt even up!  What possesses her to wake up that early?  She didnt even fall asleep until almost 8 last night.  Im still holding out hope that is because of the move, her room, and/or the new baby as to why she gets up so early.  Right before we moved she was sleeping in until 7, sometimes 7:30.  Ugh, here's hoping for a later morning tomorrow...

Sunday's are Mondays in this house.  My husband leaves for work at 5:15am and takes the only car we have.  When we lived in Oregon, i got to keep the car because he could take public transit to work.  He also didnt leave until almost 7.  But he started later and in turn, got off later.  The kids didnt see their dad 4 days a week.  He left before they got up and he got home after they were in bed.  It was worse when i worked as a nanny and lived an hour from my job.  Plus he worked nights.  I'll never forget those years.  We struggled financially, still do, and we struggled in our marriage.  I woke the kids up, had to get them fed and dressed and out the door by 7 for our hour drive to work.  Hoping and praying there was no accident on the freeway i took.  My bosses were both doctors, and i prided myself in always being there as on time as i could and not calling in sick.  Which i guess is how i've always been.  Had perfect attendance in school until freshman year.  Never even called in sick when i worked for Kindercare for over 3 years.  I like to be reliable :).   ANYWAYS...woke, fed and drove the kids an hour to work, where i added 2 kids to my then 2 kids.  Worked 10 hours, took my 2 kids and drove the hour home.  My husband would say hi and bye, leaving 10 min. after we got home around 7p.   Then dinner, bath and bed, to start again the next day.  This was our routine for almost 4 years.   Now that i think about it, he was still home while i was at work and should have totally had dinner ready for me and the kids when i got home!  hahahaha yeah right! As much work as it was, it was well worth it though.  I got to bring my kids to work with me, so in a way, i was a stay at home mom, i just didnt stay home.  I also went crazy lol  But i also fell in love with the kids i nannied and they will be a part of my family always.  Before becoming their nanny, i was nanny for 3 girls, who were 1, 6 and 8 when i started and i was there for over 3 years.  Even though they are now 11, 17 and 19, i still keep in touch and still love them very much! They even became the only babysitters we used, which was rare, but still! :)

Well, already vacuumed the house, swept the kitchen, put laundry in and skyped with my sister.  Not to mention feeding the kids breakfast and snack.  With as much as im on my feet..i should be skinny!  The baby is finally taking a nap and to get a min. to write this, i put Dora on for Ella.  I rarely turn the tv on during the day but sometimes i just need a minute in my own head for a second with my own thoughts :) 

On a completely different note, im wondering if i should let Julia wear her Halloween costume to school, if they let them.  I spent a lot of time and effort on it and dont want it ruined before she can even trick or treat in it.  But then again, i did spend so much time on it, i'd hate for her to wear it once for only a couple hours.  She has a halloween shirt she can wear if they arent allowing costumes or i decide to not let her wear hers.  Hmmm, any suggestions??

Have a great SUNDAY~

Always Awake

AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!  Ok...all better now.  My monkey a.k.a my 19 month old woke up again at 6 am.  Ugh i dont get it!  I guess it could be worse but when the baby doesnt sleep very well and i've been up for a few hours in the middle of the night, it really sucks when the "alarm" goes off so early.  But all my girls do wake up happy, and going in her room to get her in the am to such a beautiful happy smiling face, can make it a little better. :)  Until you hear the bedroom doors of the older two and know that the whole house is awake and its not even 7 am.  A few minutes later the demands of food are being said over and over and over.  "Mommy, im hungry" is something that echo's off these walls far to often for my liking :) . I joke with them that they are going hungry for today lol.

As i sit here writing this my head is full of what i should be doing instead.  Emptying the dishwasher, cleaning off the table of crumbs from the kids breakfast, mopping the floor (after monkey is down for a nap of course), etc.  And i will get to those things, eventually lol.  But when i finally have a min. between diaper changes and rocking the baby to sleep, i feel like sitting and relaxing.  But usually put laundry away or start laundry.  There is always laundry.  10 min. later, the baby wakes up.  Newborns are supposed to sleep longer than this!! haha

Last night there was another cricket just crawling across the floor.  I used to like crickets, i used to think they were cute and didnt mind hearing them outside.  Of course im referring to the time when i lived in Oregon, and called them grass hoppers :)  Here, in Arizona, i HATE crickets!  They take over and are surely climbing to be slightly below my hatred for spiders.  They have all sorts of speeds and pitches for their "lovely" chirping.  And a group of them decide to sit outside my bedroom window chirping at the speed of a freaking alarm like a bomb is about to go off!  Try falling asleep to that!!  It was worse though, when we first moved into this house there was a small hole in the corner of the bedroom that went straight outside and we woke up to a couple crickets roaming our bedroom each morning.  That must have been when my hatred for them started.  After setting up and filling the pool, they seemed to have moved on, mostly.  Not sure if its the body of water in our backyard that made them leave, or scorpions have finally come to do their job.  Either way...im not hanging out a night, so i dont care if the scorpions are having a feast in my backyard or not.  The chirping has pretty much stopped so that makes me happy :)

Is it wrong to get annoyed at the amount of cards and drawings my kids make me?  That was bad to even say, wasnt it? lol  I literally get at least 10 a day from each of my older 2.  I cant keep them all, and dont, but they really are such great artists that i have a hard time throwing them away.  Even when they are always the same thing, same drawing, same words, maybe different order.  My 4 year old, Madisen, is pretty much reading.  Her writing skills are through the roof and she can sound out most 3 letter words already.  Same goes for my oldest, Julia, who is also very ahead of the game when it came to reading and writing.   I recieved 4 pictures just this paragraph alone! lol  I can say though, that Julia is changing hers up a bit.  She drew a penguin, and then a cat chasing a mouse into a mouse hole.  Madie copied by drawing quite a good penguin herself too! 

Baby is awake, has been for the last 10 min. in the swing.  Doors are slamming, crayons getting into monkey's (Ella) hands and its time for snack.  So until next time....

New baby and a new city...

New baby and a new city

My newest little baby girl was born Aug.1st, 2012.  My other daughters are 6,4 and 19 months old now.  On July 31, we moved out of our place in Portland, Or and stayed at my grandparents house.  Aug.1st, 5 hours of labor, NOT including the dr. having to manually turn my breech baby to be head down.  OUCH!  Then proceeding to have her with no epi and a pinch sciatic nerve. WORST PAIN EVER! Ahhh, she arrives :)    Aug. 9 we picked up and drove our minivan, our 4 kids and dog to Arizona, to a house we had not seen in person.  12 days AFTER arriving in our new house, our things FINALLY arrived.  Let me tell you, sleeping on the floor in an empty house with 4 children, after just delivering one of them...is no party!!  Set up and filled an above ground pool a couple weeks postpartum, what was i thinking?? Boy did i pay for it later... Enrolled my oldest in 1st grade and girl scouts.  Signed my 4 year old up for ballet and tap class.  Made their Halloween costumes by hand ( leopard & turtle ) and taught my oldest to ride her bike with no training wheels. WHEW!  I think this fall break has been successful!  And you're all caught up to now :)

So, today started at the lovely time of 4 am.  Which normally would suck, but i was actually happy because my 2 month old had slept from 6:30 until 4 a!  She, like my other 3 daughters, is fighting a slight cold.  It started with my oldest who is 6 and because her and my 4 year old cant play with out being in each others face, she got the cold too.  Now, my 4 year old is the one obsessed with the baby and is always trying to be in her face as well....and that is how the cold has spread through our house.  I am lucky that is has been this mild though, but that might be partly due to my slight germ phobia.  More on that to come at some point though lol :)

My 19 month old who is a freaking monkey, can climb out of her crib already!  I did need it for the baby but not YET.  So now she is in a toddler bed.  Oh boy, is bedtime fun.  Dont get to comfortable in the evening because she will definitely push the limits of staying in bed.  Sometimes she in, sometimes shes out, and sometimes she will lay on the edge of her bed while the bottom half is hanging out of the bed, which technically makes her still IN bed...shes smart! lol  I really dont know how or why she doesnt sleep more though.  She is the last to sleep and the first to wake up, out of all of the kids.  Soooo frustrating!  Now she is whining and i know she doesnt feel good.  So off i go.....

the life of a mom. 

 Good night!