A girl and her daddy.

It's been fun to see each of our kiddos grow up. They each have their favorite parent, and for the most part Dahrran and Kaitlynn have mommy as a favorite. MacKenzie and Addysen by far have Daddy wrapped around their fingers.

When the big kids were growing up Joel worked a factory job where his day started sometimes as early as 4am. We didn't see him until after nap time in the afternoons. Morning routine was left up to me, and we managed. When Joel took his new job last October our routine changed. For the better.

His hours are now anywhere from 7:30/8:00am-7:30/8:00pm. It's so nice for him to be able to be here with us in the mornings. We all wake up as a family, and get to spend a little time together. His job is also only 4 miles away from home! Which is great because it means that he doesn't have a long commute.

With the big kids now in school full time, it now means they usually leave with daddy who takes them to the bus stop and waits while the bus comes. For Addysen this is probably the hardest part of her day. She loves all the big kids, and loves her daddy so much more. Almost every morning there are snuggles that commence.

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!!

What a year it's been.

Sometimes time just flies, and you don't really realize it. Other times it seems to stand still. Sadly our poor little blog has been one of those things that has stood still. Life has moved on, and so many things have changed over the last year.

Home. Running. Raising Children. Cleaning up Messes. Running children to activities.

That's the short list.

The long list? Well, life was busy and I just didn't feel like I could keep up one more thing anymore. The silliest thing though, the transition from 3 kids to 4 kids has been by far the easiest I've ever had. I think it's been more of a, well I'm so busy running, and caring for 4 kids that sometimes I forget. Then it turned into Joel switching jobs and becoming a farmers wife.

When I last blogged, Addysen was shy of 6 months. She is now 18months, and is quite the little charmer. It's been such an amazing blessing to see her grow up into this little person. Dahrran is now 10 and has grown into quite the man already. He does so many little things on a daily basis that remind me of his father!! MacKenzie is growing up too quickly it seems. There is talk of boyfriends and best friends, and all things girls love. Kaitlynn is now 6 and a kindergartener. She is blossoming more each day with all her new friends and going to school daily.

We also have some fun and exciting things coming in the next 3 weeks. Baby number 5 will be joining our family SOON! Real soon. We are on the final stretch and the count down is on. Come Thanksgiving we will be a family of 7!! Baby 5 was a total shock and is already such a blessing.

Joel has become a hired farm hand, which means long days and nights sometimes where I feel like a single parent. Though we totally love it because he is just minutes from home at any given time, and can usually come if I need something desperately. I am now a full time stay at home mom. I'm not carrying any part time jobs except a little sewing I do on the side to help keep my sanity, and keep my interests still intact.

There are so many reasons to start this little blog back up, and I can't wait to get back in the rhythm of blogging again and sharing our lives with you. I hope you enjoy your time here. Watch for changes to come in the next few weeks!!! :) For now, <3 Me!
 

Wordless Wednesday - Pictures from our week!

*still trying to get in to some sort of routine now that school has started!!

Snippets of our vacation

Here I go again getting back into the schedule of life without blogging again.

Dahrran is playing football this fall ad lots of softball games for our niece and I am blindsided by life. So, I'll post a few snippets of vacation and blog more later on the trip!

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!!