Our First Broken Bone

Almost 3 weeks ago now, we had our first case of a broken bone. Was it an arm? Maybe a Leg? Nope I answer. A finger. Yes a finger.

It was a rainy day, and so thankfully Joel was home for the day shortly after lunch. I was in a baking mood so I had made a nice meal for supper, and had 2 deserts prepared for supper with another that was to be finished up after supper.

Super was a great meal where we all got to sit down together, and enjoy the food instead of someone missing. With harvest having started the week prior, it was getting rare to see Joel at the dinner table. After supper we told the kids to go get their pajamas on and brush their teeth. Something that is done on a nightly basis while I clean up the table and start the dishwasher.

After getting the table cleaned up, Joel and I started working on the last desert, peanut butter cup cookies. I'd been craving them for a week or more, and so it was time they got made. We made a pretty good team. I was scooping and rolling balls, he was rolling them in sugar and putting them in the mini muffin pans.

Before we both have any idea what is going on, there comes screaming from upstairs. That blood curdling scream that you just KNOW something is wrong. Just as quick as it started you hear even more screaming coming from Dahrran. He comes down holding a screaming Kaitlynn who is holding her hand.

Instantly I KNEW something wasn't right as it was black and purple instantly. There wasn't much blood, but something in my gut told me we needed to take her in. Within 5 minutes we were in the car and headed to the ER. It wasn't until the drive in that I got the full story of what happened.

Apparently Dahrran was trying to use the restroom when the girls kept opening the door. He had asked nicely and finally just slammed the door when he had had enough. Kaitlynn's hand just happened to be in the way when he slammed it.

The pictures don't even really do it justice. It doesn't look nearly as yucky as it really was. She was lucky enough that there was enough skin in the middle that it didn't require stitches. The doctor made us promise to keep it covered in Neosporin to help with healing. She also decided to do an X-Ray just to be sure.

She was such a good patient and did end up with a break. So it's been finger casts and band-aids for the last 3 weeks. Hopefully we will find out good news this afternoon and we can kick the finger cast to the curb!!

Laundry

You know how they say you don't know what you have till it's gone? Yeah that's kind of how I feel now about my laundry. Except that I don't know how I did it before with my crappy washer!!! It felt soooo good today to get my laundry room all back in order. It's been a crazy few days not doing any laundry.

I was telling Joel tonight (after putting the 4th load of laundry in for the day!!) that I didn't realize just how bad our laundry situation SUCKED until we got the "new" ones in place. Before I would spend all day doing laundry sometimes only getting 1 load done. If I was lucky I could get 3 loads done a day. Those loads also were about half the size of a "normal" load because our washer would not drain if it was any bigger!! When you're a family of 6 this just doesn't cut it.

What type of person are you when it comes to cleaning for company to come over?

I'm the type that cleans the areas no one see's ..... because I know they will STAY clean. I always feel like cleaning our main living areas days/weeks before company comes is pointless. But when I clean closets and basements, (and laundry rooms) I feel like my house is really clean even though you can't see my living room floor!

So this being said, I had to show you some pictures of my clean laundry room. It's the only room in our basement (besides the dinky storage room) that is unfinished. I wish there was a way to finish it, but for now we'll love it the way it is.

Of course in the middle of me taking a few pictures MacKenzie decided she needed to hop up on the dryer. Silly Girl!

Kaitlynn got to celebrate  her birthday today at school and she looked so cute! It also happened to be picture day so she got the royal treatment before we walked out the door. I was even nice enough to take her to school. On the ride in she asked me if I could take her every day!

While the big kids were in school Addysen and I met my sister in Seward to pick up Kailtynn's birthday present and get some lunch. When we got lunch Addysen was sleeping so peacefully. I love how she has found her fingers and will suck on the two of them to help soothe her.

Life as we know it

What a week it's been at our house, crazy as it sounds I thought this week wasn't going to be that bad!

Sunday we didn't do a whole lot except can tomatoes and green beans from our garden. I'm so thankful for our garden and even more thankful when in the winter months I can enjoy the harvest still. Believe it or not, Joel does most of the canning. I don't mind doing small batches of jelly but when it comes down to doing the rest, it honestly bores me. We make a pretty good team though when it comes down to it!

Monday was spent trying to get caught up on laundry. Our washing machine has been on the fritz for a couple months now and I had finally had enough. Thankfully my dad was nice enough to let us do some laundry at his house and I was able to get about 4 loads done. Unfortunately there were at least 8-10 loads left. Our washer would go all wonky and not spin out the water if you put too much in it....and it's idea of too much was 1/2 of the capacity. Leaving me 16-20 loads of laundry and if I was lucky it would all spin out. I'd had enough. Joel called his mom and dad because they had gotten a new set for the dairy, and asked if we could buy the old set. Thankfully it worked out and we were able to!!

That evening Dahrran asked us if he could play football. It came as a complete and udder shock to both Joel and myself. We had gotten a call from the coach about a month ago wondering if Dahrran would be interested. After much talking it over he had decided that he didn't want to play. This would've been his first year and honestly I think he was just nervous about trying a contact sport. 

Tuesday brought me scrambling to try and find Dahrran some football cleats at the last moment and thankfully we were able to get a pair from a family in the school district who's son decided not to play. Practice was thankfully uneventful and he said he loved every minute of it!! Guess we'll see. :) 

While Dahrran was at practice we headed down to Joel's parents to get the washer and dryer. While grandma was spending some time with Addysen she started screaming bloody murder as if she was being hurt. This is the second time in a week when she has done this cry while I'm not around. Of course the minute that Joel's mom came outside with her she stopped crying. I hate to admit it but I think we have a bit of separation anxiety coming on. 

Wednesday morning Kaitlynn and I decided to run to town to get the few things we needed to go about putting the "new" washer and dryer in place. We have quite a long dryer vent and had replaced a piece of it a year ago, but the rest was 7+ years old and so I decided the night before that we would just buy all new dryer vent tubing. Turns out it was a good idea, the old tubing didn't have much of a space in the middle and was all clogged up with dryer lint. It's amazing we hadn't had a dryer fire yet.

Joel and I worked to get the old set out of the basement. It became more of a challenge than I remember it being before. Time crept up on us and I needed to get to Joel's brothers house to babysit his niece and nephew for a bit. While I was gone Joel got the help of my step brother, and together they got the dryer out and the new set in only to come up with more problems. The new drain hose was too short and wouldn't reach our drain pipe. Another trip to town and we now have a washer. It was all we got put together last night because Joel wanted to get a few other things for the dryer while we were in town. 

I have a house to clean and here I sit blogging. Kaitlynn's birthday is this weekend, and we have our families coming over. Better get to it!!

First Day of School 2012

It's that time of year again where I send my babies off to school. This year Dahrran will be a 4th grader....someone PLEASE tell me where the time has went! He hit a growth spurt shortly before school started, and is now wearing size 14 pants, 10/12 shirts, and a 7 (yes I said 7) shoe!! In a few short months I fear we will be able to wear the same shoes.

MacKenzie is going to be a 2nd grader this year and couldn't be more excited. Sadly she is still able to wear most of her clothes from last year, and her sister will pass her up in no time. Poor girl will be short like her mama!

Kaitlynn started the 4 year old preschool class this year. This means that she is home in the mornings, and goes in the afternoons. It was a bit of an adjustment for her to not have to get on the bus with the big kids this morning. When it came time to go to school she informed me we NEEDED to go about 20 minutes before it was time. We also "probably missed my bus already!"

Sweet Addysen doesn't quite know what to do with all the quiet time. She has been talking lots, and getting an interrupted nap!!

Welcome!

If you're here you've made the switch with us! It's been so long since I blogged that I just decided it was time to start fresh with the correct blog link. Hopefully someday we'll buy our own website, but until then here we are!!

If you're new here, Welcome!! Thanks for stopping by, we're anxious to get started blogging again as well as documenting our lives! Here's a little bit about us!

Joel & Amanda: We began dating the last day of Joel's senior year in High School .  Joel had been asking me out for years and I'd always said no. Finally I emailed him and asked him to go out with me. Later that summer, we found out I was pregnant and expecting a boy! Things could've gone so many ways, but I'm thankful for everything we had that summer. Joel went off to college, and I completed my senior year in High School (pregnant and all!). After graduating High School, we moved in together while Joel completed his degree. 

I've been a SAHM for the last 9 years and have loved almost every minute of it! We got married in 2004, bought a house in 2005 and added to our family since! Sure the last 10 years of togetherness have had their ups and downs, but we've persevered through and work on our marriage daily.

Dahrran: An average 9 year old boy who has started to eat us out of house and home. He loves legos, tractors, and anything farm related. One of his biggest loves is John Deere and even got his wish to have his room painted yellow and green this last year!


MacKenzie: 7 going on 17, and always a joy to be around. She can be such a lover and at the same time such a drama queen. She is for sure our strong willed child. She loves all things purple, has a large heart for Horses, and is an avid reader.


Kaitlynn: Such a tall girl for her age. She is almost 5 but just about as tall as her older sister. She loves all things Hello Kitty, loves her baby sister, and all babies in general. She is such a sweetheart and loves to cuddle and give kisses.


Addysen: Our newest addition. Having a baby in the house again is such a refreshing joy. Born the smallest of all our kids, and with the most hair, she is such a pleasure to enjoy. She doesn't mind trying out all the different types of cloth diapers her mom puts on her!


Our family also includes 3 pets! Jackson our 8 year old chocolate lab, Izzy our 3 year old Schnauzer, and Telly our 6 year old "fat" cat!


Thanks for coming along our ride as we try to get through the every day life as a family of 6!

Scrumptious Pull Apart Bread

This week the kids have been attending a Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our local Lutheran church. This is the second year they’ve attended. Last year they did a BBQ afterwards and this year they had a breakfast before!

I’m really not that great at making breakfast foods. It’s just not my cup of tea. I actually quit making cinnamon rolls from scratch because they always tasted like rocks! Joel’s mom makes AMAZING to die for rolls and mine just can’t stand up. So I really was in a situation on what to make for this breakfast.

I hopped on face book and asked my friends what to do. One of them suggested I make this Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread.

*Photo courtesy of : Joy the Baker*

It looked so yummy and so simple. And it was just that. I decided I was going to use my bread maker to make up the dough which worked out perfectly once I realized my machine had a delay function! I threw the ingredients in the machine and set it for 7:30 am. When I got up the dough was ready, and it didn’t take long to get it thrown together in the oven!

Since I didn’t have the pan size called for I improvised and just put it into two loaf pans. Not thinking of blogging about it, this is the only picture I got of the process! I did end up making up a quick cream cheese frosting to drizzle on the top, which really just brought it all together! It tasted so yummy, and was half gone! I’d call it a total success. Not to mention the fact that I’ve been craving it since Sunday!

Ever have a moment?

When you wish there was someone in the room just taking pictures? Or to even be a “fly on the wall?”

I had one of those moments on Saturday. We’d just gotten home from a long day at softball tournaments (well Joel and the kids were at them, I was at work until the last game!) and everyone was cranky. Joel and I laid down on the bed with our legs dangling over the sides. In came the girls, soon MacKenzie had made her way on top of me to cuddle. For no reason whatsoever Kaitlynn started to cry, and all she would say was “mooom-mieeee.” Eventually I got her to crawl up on to our bed and climb on top of me (after some persuasion to MacKenzie to move.)

It was one of those moments when I KNEW everyone was going to crash within moments. I summoned Dahrran into our room and told him to lay down. Within 5 minutes everyone was asleep except myself. Even Joel was snoring. I laid there and thought to myself, it would be so awesome to have this moment on film. To just have us all as a family, and laying here.

I then decided I wasn’t going to let this moment go. I slowly worked my way out of the pile and took a picture. I was laying there underneath Kaitlynn. Such a precious moment!

Happy Birthday MacKenzie!

Since I’m all sorts of behind on blogging I figured why not catch up in order! When Dahrran got into school we decided we weren't going to do big parties for EVERY birthday they had while in school. We set the rule at one big party in Kindergarten, and we would go from there on the rest of the years. Thankfully Dahrran hasn’t asked for anything but sleepovers since!

MacKenzie wanted to take everyone to Chucky Cheese for her birthday, which would’ve been an okay thing except the closest Chucky Cheese is an hour away. Which still isn’t bad except the fact that there are 7 girls in her class and my car only holds 6 passengers (besides myself). So we settled on bowling instead!

She wasn’t quite sure at first how to get started, but with a little help from daddy she was well on her way to being a great bowler!

This is a super blurry picture but it captures most of the moments when each of the girls would get it all the way down the lane!

   

Since the bowling alley we went to only had one set of bumpers there was a lot of laying around during turns!

I got the idea for MacKenzie’s cake from Family Fun Magazine! We improvised some and I’m glad I did! I’m not sure the kids would’ve eaten the coconut on the cupcakes!

  

I love that these girls are already friends. There are a total of 24 kids in MacKenzie’s grade, and only 7 girls! (one was sick unfortunately the day of the party) Hopefully they’ll grow even closer as the years go on!

Even Kaitlynn got to come to her “sisters party” and she loved every minute of it!

Wordless Wednesday!

Aunt Bridget came and help the kids dye eggs this Easter. She loves coming to help them dye eggs but it’s been a while! (go ahead check out that blog post, I’ll wait! You’ll want to see how cute the kids were!) While she came up to dye eggs, she also got the chance to take them to the Easter Egg Hunt. Last year we were so proud of MacKenzie. She wasn’t afraid of the bunny, but this year was another story! Completely afraid. :(

 

We did lunch at our house again this year, (seems to be my holiday to host!) For Easter my dad got the kids Alpha & Omega, so we all sat around and watched movies and napped afterwards. Such a peaceful day!

Spring Game Fun

We’ve taken the kids to other spring football games in the past, and kind of decided the last couple of years to not go. This year we’d thought about it, but just decided to not go again. That was until a lady Joel works with offered him 5 tickets. We really didn’t have anything planned that day except hanging out at home so we thought why not!

MacKenzie wasn’t really excited at first to go to a football game for her birthday (oh forgot to mention it was scheduled for her birthday!) but when we told her we had decided to go out for supper she was all about it.

The week leading up to the game was cold, rainy and even threatened snow in April!!! But thankfully come game day it wasn’t too bad. By the time the game started we were sitting on our coats! I’d made these super cute dresses for the game, and they did get to sport them for a while! (even though I don’t really have decent pictures of them, hopefully it’s a post for another day!)

 

We also decided to just get a motel in Lincoln with a pool for MacKenzie’s Birthday…….but of course by the time we got to the motel BOTH my camera’s were dead! :(

Happy Birthday miss MacKenzie!!

Hanging out in the sun!

posted from Bloggeroid

Kaitlynn’s Spring Program

Kaitlynn’s program was held on a different night than the big kids programs. They did cookies and a gathering afterwards and it was kind of nice! We LOVE LOVE LOVE Mrs. Rockenbach. She’s so sweet, and she’s amazing as the kids teacher. We even got to meet her before school started last fall when she came to the house for her “home visit.” I love that they did that, Kaitlynn wasn’t quite as shy to go into her classroom on the first day of school.

And of course I couldn’t leave you without a video. I love videos these days. They let you in on a little bit of our life. There is a part where we all bust out laughing, you can hear MacKenzie, as well as the camera shakes some! Enjoy!