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!!

Summer Ball Fun

It's no secret, when summer hits here, that we can be found at the ball park 4 nights a week for the months of May and June. Joel and I coach the boys 9 and under baseball team and MacKenzie is a part of the girls 10 and under softball team.

This year was a great year for MacKenzie's team. They only had one loss and were League and Tournament champions! Such a great group of girls, and an awesome coach as well.

 

 Dahrran's team on the other hand had another rough year. But they are all still young and learning! They did win one game this year and it was the best game ever!!

We love spending our time at the ball field and helping our children grow and learn how to play together as a team! It's such a joy to watch them grow as the year goes on.

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!

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!

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!!

Spring Programs

Dahrran and MacKenzie had their spring programs on the same night this year and it was so nice to be able to head in for one night! For MacKenzie’s part of the program they just sang a few songs, sadly I didn’t get any video of her program! Dahrran’s program was called The Bear Went Over the Mountain.

Dahrran had the part of a fox! His friend Dawson was a raccoon!  Dahrran’s awesome teacher Mrs. Fowler!

MacKenzie with her great teacher Mrs. Wiemer!

There is at least one of them in any given picture that is upset over something!

And just a little video for you of Dahrran’s speaking parts!

A little bike riding

Dahrran has been one child who could care less if he had a bike to ride or not. He was almost 4 before he even learned to pedal the thing! He learned just last year how to ride without training wheels, even though the whole summer before one was broken and he was getting by with just one. It was something about the security of having them on that made him feel safe.

MacKenzie on the other hand is a little dare devil. She would ride super fast with her training wheels on and stand up. Dahrran was starting to get to big for his bike and so we decided yesterday to pick him up a new one. MacKenzie declared this afternoon that she was going to try riding Dahrran’s bike today, even though yesterday we offered to take her training wheels off. I knew she’d be a natural at it, and after only holding on to her for about 5 feet she was on her way. (Dahrran would FREAK if we even said we were going to let go!)

Here’s a little video I got of her second time riding without training wheels! :) She now has graduated to Dahrran’s old bike and has passed hers on to Kaitlynn! It was a win win, because Kaitlynn was going to need a new bike this summer too! Now if I could only break down and buy myself a bike!!!

Happy Birthday Dahrran

I’m a little behind on the blogging bandwagon, but that seems to always be the case around these parts! In an effort to be a better blogger,  I’m going to sit down a few nights a week and just blog.

We celebrated Dahrran’s birthday by having  a sleep over again this year. They seem to have a little more fun when they’re in their own surroundings. We did take them out to the farm again like last year, thankfully this year we didn’t come home covered in Mud like last year!

These boys will be friends for life! Dahrran had three of the four over last year, and has since added the fourth. They’re all great friends. Dahrran has had sleepovers with two of the boys as well. I love that he has a great group of friends already!

The kids have been asking for Nintendo DS’s for about a year now. They really started asking for them around Christmas. At the time we decided it was best if we didn’t have to buy 3 of them at one time. We decided birthdays would be best since they’re all spaced out. Poor Kaitlynn though will not get her’s until August!

And just a little walk down memory lane if you want! Birthday’s past.

First day of School

Last year at Kindergarten round up the teacher did a neat thing where they planted a sunflower with the kids. They then told them that when the sunflower was taller than they were, and had bloomed it was time for school to start. They also got to bring home extra seeds “just in case” and we decided to plant them all. We ended up with 3 sunflowers out of 4, which I didn’t feel was too bad.

They got HUGE. Taller than our garage. The one that is all drooped over was the one they planted at school. The one she is standing next to has bloomed and it’s flower is stuck under the edge of the garage.

I’m not exactly sure everyone was awake for this picture!

Then there are the traditional close up/full body shots!

My big 2nd grader

My sweet Kindergartener

And my adorable preschooler

 

And of course one more group shot for good measure!

Headed to the bus.

I love these shots. They all did so good!

Bus driver is great. “Turn and Look at mom.” And of course them all waving. THIS is the moment I broke down crying. I was fine before they got on the bus. When it drove away I bawled!