Freaky Fridays!!!!

 Boy, is it a Friday or what! I hate, hate ,hate Fridays!!! They are worse than Mondays! Maybe its all in my head and I untentionally tell myself to have a bad day on Fridays..I don't know! I need to quit this bad attitude! Right....right.  Its not like anything THAT bad happened, its just all the little things that added up to a bad day. I should have just gotten up early and taken a shower and gotten ready for the day, but, no, I stayed in my pj's for way too long. I don't know about anyone else but that right there is one reason I have a hard time getting going in the morning. The boys begged to have pancakes this morning which I don't mind but then we get a late start to school because I have to clean all the stickyness off everything before I can put all the school books and things on the table. The kids kept fighting.Then Blake spilled a whole glass of koolaid on the table and floor after me repeating several time to "SIT DOWN NOW or you'll spill your juice"! Audrey wouldn't take a morning nap so school was further delayed. Just one thing after the next!
   I can't tell you how excited about getting away with my sisters and mom tomorrow for a fun weekend! Mom surprised us girls @ Christmas with a gift to go to a hotel and have a fun getaway for JUST US GIRLS!!!!! We are goin to have soooooo much fun! We always have such a good time together. Can't wait to sit in the hot tub, do our nails, order pizza and JUST RELAX!!!! I'm bringing Audrey with- she'll be the only baby with but I just can't do that to Ben! I'm sure he could handle it but they are planning on going to the Wild Game Feed at our church and didn't think he could do that with her along. Plus she's a girl and needs a break from all the "males" around here too!

P.S... just realized I've been spelling Challenge wrong- oops...

ALPHABET CHALLANGE F

Fridays : I have a love/hate relationship with fridays! I hate it because it is usually the longest day of the week- the kids are crabby, I'm crabby. I usually have a couple breakdowns every Friday because I just can't take anymore and desperatly need a Mommy break! Poor Ben usually has a pysco wife those days- calling him repeatedly and asking if he will just hurry up and get home NOW! He really can't hurry across Wisconsin fast enough for me! I love fridays because it means we have finished the week of school and can enjoy the weekend. I love it when Ben gets home on Friday nights, the kids LOVE it too! They get so excited when he comes home they usually attack him as soon as he walks in the door.

five: I can't believe I have 5 kids! I remember wanting to have at least 6 kids when we first got married! I DID NOT KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING!!! 5 is my perfect number! I love how each child is completely different from each other! You would think that with having five kids they would look alot alike but really they each look so defferent from eachother. Their personalities are so different too- life would be so boring if they weren't:)
Many times a day I feel overwhelemed with all these kids and then there will be a few times when I have to count to make sure they are all here because they a being so quiet and I think- hey I could handle a few more....but then it gets crazy again and I wake up from that little dream!

finger: the pinky finger to be exact! I think I may have broken or at least sprained my little finger. It has been over a week and it still is in alot of pain. It really hurts to grasp anything with my right hand. A little embarressing how it happened-( things like this usually are) I stupidly decided to jump onto Ben when he was laying on the couch. While I was flying through the air Ben moved quickly out of the way and my hand dove in between the couch and the cushions and my finger struck the wood beam that is under the cushions. OUCH! Yes, I can be very stupid at times and this was one of those!

Confessions From a Guilty Mama!

Can you believe it??? 2 posts in one day??
I really jsut need to confess something.....something that I normally wouldn't confess. Except now I'm trying to change this so I need to be kept accountable somehow. I allow my kids to watch TOO MUCH t.v. And some of you might be thinking that you do yourselves but probably not as much as mine do. I've realized that most of the day the television is on. They aren't even watching it most of the time (well, Clint maybe is- he's my t.v bug!!) . I don't know why I feel the need to add to the noise that is surround me at all times?? I'm not sure. I get so stressed sometime from their wildness and rough housing that I am telling them all the time to just go watch something.It doesn't help it just gets louder. Then to top it off Ben bought a XBOX 360 last weekend. I can hardly get the kids to do anything else. So this morning I decided to change all this. I made tickets that the kids will get in the morning for screen time. They get 3- 30 minute vouchers a day. (you all are probably thinking that this is WAY TOO much but beleive me this is way less than they usually use!) *really embarressed*  The kids thought this was really fun! Clint of course used his up right away. (they have to wait til after school to use them). Ethan and Blake each used 2. I'm hoping this helps.

Phew....glad I got that off my chest.....confessions is good for the soul. I'll have to this more often.

ALPHABET CHALLANGE E

O.k, O.k....I've been avoiding my blog for a couple weeks now- this alphabet thing is more challenging than I thought it would be! We had a wonderful Christmas! I was pretty stressed out the last week (even though i was trying NOT to be) I am always waiting until the last minute to anything- I am a procrastinator my nature- so of course I waited until the last 2 days before Christmas to start wrapping presents and making the boys their Vikings fleece tie blankets ( by the way- they LOVED them)

Ethan showing off his Vikings blanket

 Ben didn't get home until late evening Christmas Eve because of the weather but I was very happy that he MADE it home at all- The roads were horrible in Wisconsin on his way back to MN. We spent Christmas Day at my parents with the WHOLE huge family! I love it there! Its so much fun when we all get to be together. And you can count on it being very LOUD! It just wouldn't be the same without all that noise.

We went to Ben's parents the day after, and Wow, what a difference in noise level! There are even more people in his family and it was SOOO quiet! I still haven't figured out if my side is abnormally noisy or if his family is abnormally quiet. Either way- I love the noise :)

hanging with Melina and Zander

daddy with his babies

Yeah, you're probably noticing that my topics are NOT starting with "E's ". ( did you notice how I enlarged the words that do start with E??? Yes, I'm lazy...

Owen is going to be 2 in nine days! I really don't want that kid to grow up- he is such a funny, cuddley, sweet boy. I'm scared that when he turns 2 his personality will change into a strong-willed guy. I have been trying to decide if I will have a party for him or not- leaning towards the NOT! We usually just do a big party for the kids when they turn 1. I just get too stressed out to have both of our large families over to our very tiny house. I really wish all my kids would have been born in the summer- we would probably have more parties if that was the case. He is really starting to talk- FINALLY-. His favorite words are- meow, dad, mom,what,peas(please),Bake(Blake),hi,gus(guys),bus(boys) kiss,and his absolute favoite is "Ewwww". I really shouldn't write this but this morning while I was showering he somehow snuck in the bathroom and opened the shower curtin, looked and me and said....."EWWwwww" It was so funny- I just starting laughing which just made him say it more- thanks little man!

It was back to the diet yesterday- haven't stepped on the scale yet since I took a week and a half off. Kinda scared to- I'll probably wait til the end of the week and hopefull be where I was before I went on the break.
But before the break I had lost 17 lbs. doing pretty good so far :-)

Audrey's 1st Christmas

Clint got a Jared Allen picture!!

Audrey's 1st doll

Ethan and Carter

Clint eating Monkey break

(one of our traditions on Christmas mornings)

Blake

Audrey' fell asleep while we we having breakfast.

Opening presents can be alot of work :)

Clint and Daddy reading the Christmas Story

Grandma Kay and Mommy with Audrey

Uncle Isaac with Audrey ( he doesn't look too happy about this, does he??)