Nice weather+lack of time/motivation=no time to blog :)

Well, I'll be honest. I had no idea it'd been a week since I blogged.  Time just seems to fly by at warp speed.  I think about typing every night, and quite honestly sleep and rest seem much more enticing.  Plus the fact that I have very little access to my photos makes blogging even less enticing.

But the good news is that...spring has sprung in Indiana.  Well, it HAD sprung before we got more snow today.  But, the warmer temps and glorious sun have been good for this mama's heart, mind and soul.  I know I've said it before, but winter (especially this winter) have made me S.A.D.!  I am grateful the dreariness is just about over.

Here's a wee bit of what's going on here...

1.  The park---hurray that weather is allowing us time there again!  We went with friends last Friday and enjoyed every second!  Logan was in ALL his walking glory!  I wish I could capture every second of the joy he finds in being "uprightly mobile".  It's the best and most fun thing for me to watch these days. And he was in heaven on Friday racing (and I do mean racing!) around the park. He is Mr. Speed Walker now.  He falls about every 10 steps, but it does not slow him down. He gets right back up.  He walks like he's been riding a horse for a few days and it's the cutest thing ever.  He just went nuts stumbling all around the park, going up and down ramps and stairs and up and down the slides.  He is by far my busiest toddler.  I love (and would love to bottle!) his energy!  Cutest thing ever!

2.  We survived a weekend with daddy working.  After the stress of last week of Hailey being sick and me not feeling well...I was dreading last weekend with Kev gone and all we had going on that I had to tackle by myself.  We somehow made it through and it felt monumental in some ways :)  I had some odd energy on Sunday and I even got us all to church at the normal hour even with the time change.  I was proud of myself :)  Funniest thing about church was how Logan just sauntered on into the baby nursery. It was like he owned the place.  He really is the funniest walker ever.

3.  Dylan finished up his Upwards basketball this weekend and had his big ceremony last night at church.  A great season for him. He really did awesome.  I know you are not supposed to keep track of who wins and loses and the points in Upwards, but D is my numbers man and he knew the score of every game and how many points he got.  His team won every game, but one...and tied that one.  We think (this was per Dylan's mental math).  This last game he got 10 of the 24 points.  I love his energy and his competitive nature; and watching him celebrate after each basket he's made has been priceless.  He jumps high in the air with the biggest grin in his face.  Now I think he is moving on to baseball.  We haven't fully decided...but he is pretty set on it.  Kev and I are not big baseball fans, but ya' can't deny that an outdoor energy release for a busy boy would be a good thing. I do dread trying to keep track of busy Logan at a ball field though!

4.  Spring Break is 3 days away for us!  Super yay!!!!  Best news of all.  We cannot wait to do a whole lot of nothing.  We may take Hailey on a surprise trip to a surprise city (which I actually told her about so it's not really a surprise), but other than a fun, short bday trip, we have nothing else planned.

5.  Speaking of the bday girl....in 5 days she'll be 14.  How can that be?  I will have a high schooler soon.  This is pure craziness.  I am not sure what we'll do on her bday since it always falls on spring break, but I think she hopes to sleep in (easy enough!) and I think she and I might go get a massage.  Neither of us have done this ever, but my sweet friend, Jill, gave me that as a bday gift and I can't wait to use it.  And I'm sure we'll go out to a yummy steak dinner. Hay's loves her steaks...like her daddy :)  I think she hopes to have a "green" St. Pat's party too with a few buds later this month.  We'll have to solidify those plans over the break.

6.  I became a scientist for the day yesterday and did a fun experiment for D's 2nd grade class.  I am soooo not a teacher and it was a very last minute thing (change in date due to change in weather)...but it went well.  I would recommend the mentos and soda experiment to anyone...very cool geysers!  Things blowing up like that is always fun for kids! We finished off the experiment making root beer floats.  I love that I can take part in my kids' classrooms.

7.  Happy Bday, Dr. Seuss.  D and A have had fun with all their Seuss activities this month. You should see Asher now.  She had Wacky Wednesday today and I think she wins the award for her crazy outfit and hair.  She's a corndog!  Dylan wins the award for craziest socks. He wore his sister's pink knee-highs. He has no problems wearing pink apparently :)

8.  Loving playing outside again.  Loving using the basketball hoop finally (after getting it last year and not using it yet!)....D is loving shooting hoops and Logan loves running around in the front and back yard.  Even Shelby is out there shooting hoops.  Ash is up and down the block on her princess scooter.  Logan is loving trying to join in all the big-kid fun. His giggles are infectious as he's realized how fun it is to be running all over.  He loves swinging too.  Nothing like watching a baby's smile and hearing those deep-voiced giggles :)  Love being outside again.  We are all sleeping better these days thanks to getting our energy out!  Though I have realized that with the nicer weather comes a new challenge:  Logan wants to be outside all the time with his sibs.  I can let the older ones play outside with the door open so I can hear them.  Well, that won't work for the wandering toddler.  I usually have to keep him inside with me as I'm doing homework with Shelby or making food.  He hates this. He stands at the gate to the door and throws everything over it to show his frustration.  Yesterday he not only threw stuff over the gate, but he got all the DVDs out and all the tupperware out and all the books.  He likes to make messes when he's mad. He does have a little toddler temper sometimes...but it's a quiet temper...a mess-making temper :)   The screaming temper might actually be better...and more cleanly!

9. Quirreling kids--we have a few of them lately and it's wearing the mom and the dad of the house down. I am thinking of calling a meeting over spring break so we can find some solutions for peace.  We've had way too much whining, standing in the corner and sibling "spats".  It's exhausting.  I've starting the "jar system" where I give them a quarter for everything nice they do (and take one away for each unkind thing they do). So far no one has any money in their jars (and one has "I owe mom money"...and it's been a week.  Hmmm.

10.  Ballet:  Hailey's going to see Alvin Ailey perform tonight at the IU Auditorium.  So exciting. Wish I could go but tickets weren't cheap and she'll probably prefer going with her ballet teacher and all the ballerinas anyway.  I'm sure she'll have a blast!

11.  I am proud (and relieved) to say that our Logan is an AWESOME eater...with NO texture issues! I wasn't confident of this a couple months ago as he ate some textured baby food and then threw it up....but since then he has become our best toddler eater.  He truly eats anything we give him.  He is so easy and I am so thankful for this.  His FAV thing is cheese.  Leave it up to my child to LOVE cheese :)  The kid eats about 6 string cheeses a day.  He can't get enough.  And I am loving these Gerber squeezable foods.  Great invention, especially for busy mamas on the go.  So thankful for a good-eating boy.   He can even eat 3rd foods with chunks in them.  I am so not used to a boy that does this but it's much nice than gaggy, puking boys.  On a cute/fun note, Logan's new fav thing to do at night is sit with his mama in bed and share ice cream. It's very cute how excited he gets and he comes running when he sees my bowl of yummy dessert :) 

12.  Plugging away on the basement.  It's a long process and when I'm done I'll post pics of what it looked like before and after. I am appalled we've let it get so bad.  Way too much clutter/toys/clothes down there.  I think the cats have gotten confused about their litter box too. It's a sad state of affairs. But I have lots of bags to give to Goodwill and more of garbage.  And Nina's bed is visible again!  Here's to hoping we can tackle this more over spring break!

13.  Helmet:  Hard to believe it's been on 1 month tomorrow.  I really have to say that I can't wait til it's off this summer.  We are used to it for the most part, but I find that it's sooooo hard to cuddle my boy with it on. And he just LOVES to cuddle up next to me....he's a mama's boy. It's just so hard to snuggle a big hard plastic head.  It's just not the same lovin' :(  I hate this...but I will take head-butt-cuddles over no cuddles :)  I miss his soft head of hair.  I can't help but sometimes just take off that helmet and rub his little head.  I miss it.  He looks so different to me already when I see his long hair.  He's got a mullet going on in the back and I can almost put a pony tail in it :)  He just looks so grown up to me now.  I don't like that the helmet pushes on his eyes too. It's like he has to lift his whole head to see what's above him.  He also just scratches at the stupid thing when he's tired.  It's like he's frantic to get it off.  Kev thinks it's just that he likes to touch his hair when he's tired.  Whatever it is I just miss his head full of hair and helmet-less head.  Praying there has been some change in head shape at our appt next Tues.  Not confident there is.  On a funny note, it  interesting what you'll let a kid in a helmet do.  I don't really fear him getting hurt much and it might be a good thing he has it while he's learning to walk/run.  He falls all the time and hits his head and not a tear falls from his eyes :)  Though last night he had it off and fell badly and bruised his head and cut his ear.  Go figure :(  On a nice note, people have been very sweet about the helmet.  Most say he's adorable as ever and a few people even have chased us down to say they have grandkids with a helmet and want to know he's doing with his.  It's been an ok transition.

14.  I have been staying off the computer...very little email, no facebooking and obviously no blogging.  This has actually been lovely and once you get used to it it's actually hard going back. The one thing I don't like   about this is talking to my mama :)  I miss her!   I also missed knowing that our friends had a baby.  I do think Kev was sorta proud he found out this info before me though :)  Congrats, Chad and Cor...on your handsome little man, Joshua...and welcome to family of five-dom :)  So happy for them and so thankful Joshua is out of special care nursery and cuddling with his family!

15.  Mr. Chatty.  Love the babbling of toddlers.  Logan is the king of babblers.  He can say (and prefers) anything that starts with B...especially blocks, books and (his FAV!) BALLS!  He is also saying funny things like "do dah, do dah, do dah" and "shhhhh".  He's seriously so funny.  He cracks himself up too and he has this funny deep-voiced boy giggle.  He loves to point and wave and even dance :)  He's a hoot!  And I must say...as much as I used to melt when he'd crawl over to me and snuggle...there is nothing like him walking/running over to me and melting in my arms. Love, love, love this!

And there is much more going on.  Stuff I don't really want to put on the blog...our struggles and our exhaustion.  I am trying not to make the blog an outlet for my worn-down-ness :)  I have really had a heck-of-a-time the last couple weeks.  I think just not feeling well and not sleeping have been major contributors. And as much as I LOVE having a busy toddler around the house and love my busy kids...it all just means I am extra exhausted at night.  I am really praying for peace to find me...not only in our active lifestyle but in my heart.  I need to find more moments of "be still" time.  It is going to be really hard to say "no" to things. Even now people are asking "let's get together over spring break"...and all I really want/need to do is "be still" and not go anywhere for 7 days.  Just pray that I can work on this.  It's so hard for me to say "no" to fun activities and friends.

Hope everyone is having a lovely March!  And here's to us getting our photo program in order over spring break next week...I am much more motivated to blog when I can post pics and not words :)