My crazy life

I've never set out to portray a perfect little life here on this blog.  I think I've been pretty open and honest about our struggles, or at least the ones I want to share with the world.  I've seen a lot of articles pop up lately about how life appears perfect on facebook and instagram and pinterest, but we are only seeing the pretty versions of what real life looks life.  That full time working, homeschooling, housekeeping, laundry doing mom on facebook/instagram/pinterest isn't showing you the parts of her life that are falling apart.  Living in this time of social media loving and sharing is tough.  It can quickly make us feel terrible about ourselves or our family or our job... it goes on forever.  I promise, as often as I post, I will not try to sugar coat things.  I will try to be honest.  I will try to be real.  I will do my best to let you see my real life, not just the one I want you to see.  I may not post much, but when I do it will be honest.

OK, that's not why I'm here today.  Not sure where that rant came from.  I have a lot more other things I would love to rant about right now, but I think I'll wait for another day.  For now, I want to show you a picture of the kids from Easter.

Apparently Landon has had enough years of dressing up in a sweater and tie for Easter and decided that a sweatshirt was dressy enough this year.  At least he dressed the sweatshirt up with a pair of jeans.  :-)

Aren't they a cute bunch?  I'm so lucky I have the perfect family.  ;-)  Ha.  Just kidding.  Far from perfect over here!

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

Socrates

An adventure in paint!

Today something happened, to my head I think. I decided it would be fun to let the kids paint. The kids in this situation are shown below. One is naked except for the diaper, the other is naked except for shorts that are to small! I'm not sure why I thought this would be fun or why I thought Lila would have fun doing it, like I said, something happened to my head! (Maybe it was to much coffee, or maybe it was not enough coffee) Apparently she thought the best idea would be to EAT it. She didn't like it, but that didn't stop her from doing it... again and again and again. She was covered in blue paint!
And green paint (see it in her hair and on her neck)
I think she picked the blue for the lips b/c it looked so good with her eyes! Don't you agree?
She wasn't the only thing covered in blue paint... this is why I love the laminate floor!
And then it was bathtime, which she loved as usual!
And, just b/c he is so darn cute I had to add a picture of E!

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!

Girls & Boys

My girls
and my boys!
These make my heart happy! Seriously.

And, a recipe.

Last week one night we had nothing for dinner, so I made something up. And it was GOOD! and Easy!

I had 6 chicken breast, pounded flat and thin
then I mixed up some cream cheese (8oz package) and some (no measurements) chives (although I will be trying this again with some dill, and I'm sure there are other things you could use, or use just the plain cream cheese)
Spread the cream cheese on one side of the chicken breast and then roll the breasts up securing with a toothpick. If your feeling adventurous you can wrap them with bacon (again securing with toothpick), but I didn't think it needed the bacon (imagine that, me turning down bacon). Pour a can of cream of chicken soup over the breasts in a baking dish and bake at 350(ish) for one hour(ish). Serve! Oh yeah, I sprinkled a few bread crumbs on top before baking, but it's probably not necessary!

YUM!

I have another recipe to share also, but that will come another day! It's a good one. Stay tuned.

More pictures

Thursday we had a campfire and we had Denver overnight! Friday I took a few pictures of my darlings!



Friday night we also had a baseball game to go to. Landon's team won, but from what I hear, there is absolutely no reason they shouldn't have won.

Saturday we had more baseball games to go to. We were lucky to have our first game at noon unlike some teams that started at 8am (in Byron Center). They lost thier first game, but I have to say they had a great rally in the 4th inning. starting the inning it was 9-1 (we were down), they came back to tie the game. Because of a time limit this should have been the last inning, but b/c of a tie they had to play another. Unfortunately thier streak didn't continue and they lost. They lost the next game too, which sent us on our way home!

This picture melts my heart, probably b/c I was there. Big brother after a good hit or play or something asking little brother for a bump! So sweet!

So yeah, the only time I don't bring a second outfit along with us is the one time we would need it. She had a bad diaper and spent the second game naked. Oh well, she didn't seem to mind.
Today is Bailey's 8th birthday!!!! Love this girl! She is such a blessing to us daily! She is quite a character with quite a sense of style! Seriously you should see some of the outfits she picks out!

She got to pick the day's events, we had bagels for breakfast, then her and I went shopping to Target (where we worked together to pick out a new outfit and accessories)! Then it was off to Craigs Cruisers for some video games and go carts!






Then it was home to give her her present... a new bike. One that is just a bit big for her, but so much better than the one that is way to small for her!
Soon we will be eating hamburgers per her request and banana splits instead of cake. We will have a party with family later this week!

Looking at my calendar for this week is enough to stress me out, but I know that in the midst of it all it won't be that bad, it just looks like a lot! Bring it on!