Catching up

Wow, I guess I took a bit of a blogging break. Really it's been a full computer bread. I've spent far less time on the computer than normal, and it feels GOOD! I think this may become the new norm.

There is no way I will be able to catch up on all of the past 2 weeks, but a brief overview will hopefully work.

Landon had his 6th grade choir concert. It was the first one, they did a great job and sounded very good! Note to self, get there earlier next time. Enough said.

We took the kids to see Santa. Elliot was geeked! He had a gigantic smile on his face the whole time, it was sooo sweet! And, it was no suprise when he told him that he wanted a drum set! Bailey's list was a little longer and a LOT more expensive, including things like laptop, ipod, dsi... you know, the little things that cost a LOT!

Christmas morning the kids found thier presents from Santa right by the fire place, Landon got a bb gun, Bailey got a keyboard and Elliot got a drum set! Oops, santa forgot about Lila! As usual I felt like we were celebrating, eating and opening presents for days with all of the parties we attended, it was crazy!


It has been good having the kids home for break, the first few days were rough, I won't deny it, but it's gotten better and now I'm used to it, it will be hard to have them return to school again.

Tomorow is the last day of 2009. What a year it's been. Lila is probably our biggest change for the year, the biggest impact, the biggest blessing, the biggest frustration and the biggest baby yet! (The "yet" there by no means implies that there will be another, not even possible, which is in fact another HUGE change for 2009, but I'll leave that one alone for now, some day you may just have to read more stories on that whole change).

We will be celebrating the new year with friends at ngiht and then Friday we will probably not do much of anything. We'll see what happens though! Wishing you all a wonderful new year, may 2010 be full of blessings!

There are plenty more pictures that were uploaded to facebook if your interested, it takes so long to upload them here!

Christmas Pictures Take 2 and Snow Day

It wasn't quite as ideal to photograph the older kids Christmas pictures, the light wasn't nearly as bright, but I like what we got. We may still try to do a retake though, next week (I'm sure they will LOVE me)









2 snow days last week. We needed to do something to keep busy, so on Wednesday we tried decorating a gingerbread house. DISASTER! The roof was cracked, multiple times, the gingerbread was cracked, it was awful. We tried fixing it, but thatw asa disaster too. So, the when I gave up and said "Whatever", the kids being the great kids that they are made lemonade out of the lemons and took the roof off and decorated anyway!
Our repair attempts...

Elliot and his gingerbread...
The not so finished, not so fixed gingerbread house...
How would you like to live in that house?
They took out the Halloween candy to decorate the roofless house more. (Did I just admit to still having Halloween candy sitting around?)

Isn't it beautiful?
They made cookies out of the roof... doesn't this one look just delicious?
A chocolaty one...
Watching the whole thing.


On Thursday we just hung out and cleaned and played games, and then on Friday, the kids got to go back to school, we were all a little happy about that, except Elliot. But only a little, I really do enjoy having them home! I'm considering it practice for Christmas break.

Saturday prior to these snow days, we also decorated our Christmas tree. It started off that I wanted a "pretty" tree, but the kids got so excited about the older ornaments that we had lying around that we went with a kid friendly tree. I don't mind the hodge podge of ornaments either, they are mostly ones from Matt and my childhood so it's kind of fun to rmeember as we decorate! And, I still think the tree is pretty!

Getting the ornaments out.

So excited to decorate.


Lovin' the lights!
The kids and the tree!
She loved the beads.



We had our first Christmas party yesterday followed by a concert at church. Tonight we get to go watch Landon's choir concert, busy week ahead and then more parties next weekend, and the kids are home again next week, for two weeks!

Appetizers

I'm an appetizer girl. I could be completely happy if I could only eat appetizers for the rest of my life (as long as chocolate was involved somewhere).

Some of my favorites are:
Buffalo Chicken Dip
1 block of cream cheese spread into bottom of 9x13 pan
Top with 1/2-3/4 cups ranch dressing and 3/4-1cup buffalo sauce
Top with 1 can of chopped up chicken pieces
Top this with shredded cheese
Bake at 350degrees for 30ish minutes

Sausage dip (originally shared with me by Sarah)
Brown one pound of sausage (I like hot, but italian or original are good too)
Mix with 1 block of cream cheese and 1 can of Ro-tel tomatoes
Serve with tortilla chips

I then use that to also make Jalapeno Poppers
Jalapeno peppers cut, and seeded (use gloves)
Fill with Sausage dip (See above)
Cover with shredded cheese
(Can also be wrapped in bacon, but this add's quite a bit of time and work so I normally skip it)
Bake at 350 degrees for a litle while (until hot)
ENJOY!

OK, so these are just a few of my staple list, and they are all EASY and seem to be well enjoyed when I make them. But I'm in need of a few more... share with me your best appetizer recipes either in the comments section or email me at lynettebell(at)chartermi(dot)net!

Look-alikes

Who is this do you think? Landon? Bailey? Elliot? (Probably not Lila, for obvious reasons)

Can I be completely honest?

Seriously, life is not all rainbows and sunshine. You have to have rain to have a rainbow. I'm living in the rain right now. Life has been in a bit of a slump.

Lila is difficult. She is still up at LEAST 3 times at night. That's minimum. I am up with her every time, b/c if I ask Matt to do it it just makes the situation worse. Not that he's not willing, he's just not able.

I am a girl that likes my sleep. A LOT. I'm not a morning person (I REALLY like to stay in my bed as long as possible) and I'm not a night person either (I go to bed around 9 or 10), I like to sleep, that's what kind of person I am. So, since I haven't slept a full night in over 7 months (not to mention pregnancy when I didn't sleep either) I'm a little worn down. OK, a lot worn down.

I thought I was dealing with the whole thing quite well, but I just hit a wall. I want to cry, scream and stomp my feet more often than I want to smile and laugh. I don't always do it, but sometimes I do. I want to take naps, but Lila doesn't. Or she will when the older two get home, which means I can't.

When she is awake, she just want's me to either be RIGHT BY HER or holding her. Doesn't leave me much time to do important things, like shower, clean, wash dishes, laundry, cook dinner, you know, the things that get us by and make us presentable. I'm at a point where I probably just need to let her scream it out, but that just seems cruel.
To all of us.
I guess leaving her out front with a for sale sign would be cruel to though. Somedays I feel like it. Don't worry though, I wouldn't do it.
She might get cold.

OK, enough venting. Funny thing is, I have these posts quite often, but rarely do I hit "Publish Post". Today though, I'm going to, I can't be the only one in the blogiverse feeling this way. We all have our days. Right?

(I get to go watch an Arthur movie that I've watched a million and one times right now. Aren't I lucky? Yup, I am lucky, b/c I get to watch it with my favorite 3 year old and my favorite Lila, who are both healthy, happy children, who both have beds to sleep in and food to eat, I AM lucky)

Part of the Christmas Pictures

While the older kids were away at school we had a little fun with the little ones! Fun for me anyway.
They were actually quite willing, Elliot was especially willing once I promised him he could put on basketball pants after we were done! Whatever works!
I was quite happy with the results, now I have to get the older ones seperately and then all four of them together (they are SOOO looking forward to that)!

Wow...

(This first paragraph is completely copy and pasted from my photography blog)
Do you ever have one of those "Oh my goodness, I..." moments. Relatively ordinary moments that make you go "WOW!". I just had one, your going to laugh too... "Oh my goodness, I have a baby". Yup, she's 7 months old. No, this isn't the first time I've had this moment with her, in fact I have these quite often. "Holy cow, I have 4 kids". Or, even stranger is this one, "Oh my, I'm a grown up". Does anyone else have a hard time wrapping thier brain around that one? I know my age, but I don't feel it (although I don't know how I'm supposed to feel). Anyway, just had to share that random thought for the day!

Have a super Thanksgiving!

Be Thankful (Author Unknown)
Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.



Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1


Thankful for Each Other
Dear Lord,
As we gather together around this table
laden with your plentiful gifts to us,
we thank You for always providing
what we really need
and for sometimes granting wishes
for things we don’t really need.
Today, let us be especially thankful
for each other--for family and friends
who enrich our lives in wonderful ways,
even when they present us with challenges.
Let us join together now
in peaceful, loving fellowship
to celebrate Your love for us
and our love for each other. Amen.
By Joanna Fuchs


For All that You Give Us Dear Lord,
On this Thanksgiving Day,
we are thankful
for all that You give us,
for all that You do for us,
for all that You teach us.
Thank You for guiding us
to live our lives
in Your will,
in Your purpose,
in Your plan for us.
Thank You for Your protection
from worldly influence and danger.
Thank You for bringing us gently
to a deeper knowledge of You
and what You want from us,
with Your love, mercy,
compassion and grace.
And thank you, Lord,
for the blessings
we are experiencing right now
at this very moment--
the food,
and the precious people
who are with us
to enjoy this meal
and this day.
Thank You, Lord. Amen.
By Joanna Fuchs

The Answer

Well, BOTH blog readers have guessed, Tonya you were the closest (b/c Sarah, that's just rediculous, he DOES NOT need a haircut... ever again... ok, maybe, someday, but not now) ;). He was sucking on a "Shockers" candy, which happened to be quite sour. I have a whole series of this face, quite funny! Sorry, no prizes this time though, not in the blog budget!

Any guesses?

Can you guess why E is making this face or what it could possibly mean?

Sale Alert

Are you a fan of Peek-A-Boutiqe on facebook? If not you should be... SALE tomorow if you are! Go check it out!
http://www.facebook.com/lynette.bell?v=feed&story_fbid=210619969055#/pages/Holland-MI/Peek-a-Boutique/242340520111?ref=nf

More Pictures

Our life in pictures from the last week:

She loves her basketball, but would never admit it!You can't really see it, but they wrote BELL and each sat on thier respective letters!

We did "Lila" too...
Deep in thought, must be a smart group of kids.
A good looking group of kids, I'm not biased at all!
Me and my baby (yup, the mirror needs to be cleaned)
Bath times just got a bit more fun with two!
Nap time on a beautiful sunny day!

Need/Want/Wear/Read

Just read this post here from this blog and I think we will try it this year for the kids, I too am overwhelmed by CLUTTER. There are SO many toys around my house that need to be either pitched or donated, either b/c they are no longer played with or they are broken or missing pieces that make them unusable. I'm SICK of it! This is another post on the same blog that I found very useful. I've always felt this way. If I'm only going to have 3 shirts that I can wear, I want them to be good quality shirts. Better to have stuff that is going to last through lots and lots of wears than an abundance of stuff that is going to fall apart in a month.

Check out Remodeling This Life for more interesting reads!

It could have been worse...

It's been a bad week. If you follow me on facebook you already know that my purse was stolen out of my Jeep (which was in the garage) on Monday night/Tuesday morning. That was just wonderful, but I'll admit it could have been MUCH worse. I NEVER carry cash. Really. Except of course for the time my purse is stolen. There was almost $50 in there. Gone. But, I still have all my credit/debit cards (still cancelled, just to be safe, but one was immediately replaced), I have my gift cards, I had a receipt for a jacket that i just purchased that went on sale after I bought it so I was able to get a price adjustment, the thief didn't get into the house... really we were lucky. God was definately looking out for us.

Today was another one. Another bad day. Got up this morning got ready for work, gave the kids baths, laid Lila down for her nap, life was good. Babysitter comes at 9, but shortly after realizes that she doesn't feel good (totally not her fault, I fully understand), but that meant I had to figure something out for the kids. Thankfully Mary was able to take them. But that also meant that I had to HURRY! Get the kids loaded in the car, packed a diaper bag and I was off with not one minute to spare. Ha! Joke was on me as I was speeding down the road. Sure enough, I got pulled over. I was technically going 16 over, which could have been a very hefty fine and I think 3 or 4 points on my license. But being the "nice guy" that he was he only gave me 5 over. ("only" $90 and 2 points) he claims that's the LEAST he could do, but I know full well that with my clean license and a little sympathy he COULD have let me go with a warning. Good grief. But again, it could have been much much worse.

So, that's $140 gone in 2 days with NOTHING to show for it, plus I'm sure my insurance will go up now. Wonder what tomorow will bring? Maybe I should just stay in bed!

Picture heavy

I still need to upload the halloween pictures, but you get these in the meantime!

My 6 month old beauty!

My chunky beauty!



Raking leaves!
Taking big baths now, w/o the baby tub! What a big girl she is getting to be!
Playing outside Saturday! She loved it (despite her look here)
Starting the tradition of sitting on daddy's lap and eating toast. You should see her when it's gone... she get's MAD!!!
SUP-er MAN!!!