Mornings

I might just start blogging quick little things every day or every few days.  My blog has taken a hit over the last year - I would like to start again. 

I wish I could wake up before my kids every morning.  Truth: I DO wake up before my kids every morning.  I just don't get out of bed before my kids.  If I got out of bed, took a shower, got ready, and read my scriptures all before my kids got up - it would change our lives.  But I can't.  I have tried and  tried for the last month - I have only done it once.  Right now I take Brock to school, come home - the younger three watch PBS while I do the above list.  It works fine, but once I come downstairs then I still have breakfast to clean up ( or sometimes, like today, feed the others breakfast then clean it up), get the other kids dressed and ready, clean up the rest of the house, usually do some sort of chore (dishwasher, laundry, etc) - By the time it is all done it is 10:00. A ridiculous time to finally be "done" and starting our day.  My kids want me earlier than that; I want them earlier than that.  But it has been our reality.  I really want to change it.

I try to get that list (post PBS kids list) done before Brock leaves for school.  But usually it turns into a fighting match where I am barking orders at everyone for not listening or doing what they are supposed to be doing.  Our mornings are hurried and stressful and that is NOT how I want to send Brock to school.  On mornings where I try to get it all done first we either don't have time for our family scriptures or rush through it.  The goal would be to get "my" stuff done before they are up - then I could get the "house" and "family" stuff done after we take Brock to school while PBS is on.  Then we could start the fun stuff at 9:00.  Much better in my opinion.

A Good Day

Kids slept in until 7:00.

Made pancakes

Went to our ward activity to deep clean our church and clean up grounds.  Jason vacuumed.  Megan, Brock, and I weeded.  Noah and Madison wondered around.

Went to Brock's soccer game.  After a few games of him not doing much (very unlike him), he played a great game.  And it was a beautiful day.

Went on a hour and a half bike ride with Brock while the girls napped, Jason washed the cars, and Noah had alone time.

Brock and I stopped at some garage sales and bought a few things we don't really need, but who can pass up things priced at 10 cents?

Sat outside on a blanket with Noah and talked in great detail about his PBS kids game he played on the computer and then read 3 chapters to him from our chapter book.

Played Ants in my Pants with Megan.  She won.  Really.

Made pizza while Jason mowed the lawn and the kids played in the backyard by themselves.

Read Madison's pile of books that she loves to her.  "Pumpkins, Ants, Apples, Hearts, Princess"

Played an evening game of baseball with all the neighbor kids.  Mostly I hit pop flies while they chased them.

***
Just one of those great days.  Got a bunch of stuff done, spent quality alone time with each kid, had great family time.

Random

Probably every month you are going to get a "random" post.  My kids have lately been insisting that I take a picture of them when they do something, and everytime I upload my photo's I find pictures Brock has taken.  Most of these are not even really picture or blog worthy as to the real meaning of the photo - but why I am including them is for a "snap shot" into my real daily life.  My posts and pictures that have purpose are usually planned.  Everyone is dressed, the girls' hair is done, the house is clean, etc.  But that is not usually real life - duh.  Take the below picture for example.  Boys are dressed, Megan in jammies - now that's real life.

 

So here is April's Randomness.

 

My kids build a tent with our train table daily.

Brock had to dress up like an old man for school.  I think he pulled it off well.

Tea party with friends - above.  And playing with our cousin, Millie, on our lawn below.  I am LOVING Megan having her own friends.  It reminds me of my childhood.  Millie and Megan were playing on the front lawn with blankets and dolls.  I remember doing this all the time with my friends and sisters.

 

Just hanging out in the front.

 Maddie loves to just smile for the camera and say "cheese".

 

Brock and Noah share a room but not a bed.  But they fall asleep in the same bed every night.  I hear Noah wake up and move into his own bed every night around 11:00.  I went in one night to put laundry away and found them sleeping identically. 

I turned the flash on to see them better.  They truly are each other's other half.

 

A Brock picture of dinner.   He had to go to the bathroom and surprised us by taking a picture. (I wish he would have lifted it over the railing -  I guess I should teach him about photography)

 

Oh these girls, these girls.  One day I will have to do a whole post about them - but I am afraid it might just come off as negative. :)  Yes Megan still has a binkey - but ONLY for sleeping  - well same with Madison, well SUPPOSED to anyways.  Madison has learned to open her door.  So she goes into her room and gets her "bink and blank" and Megan's "bink and blank" and runs and gives it to Megan.  Then they "set up" their beds on the couch or floor or whatever and just lounge.  Throughout my day I turn a corner and find them with "binks and blanks".  On one hand super annoying, but I find it super cute as well.  Now every morning I take their "bink and blanks" out of their beds and put them up high in their closets.  Now Madison will come find me asking me where they are.   

  

Two more photos of Brocks.  I didn't want to include them because I thought people might be jealous of how sexy I look.  But hey, truth is truth. :)

 Carrying Megan up for her nap.

  

Putting Maddie down for her nap.  Yep still in pj's and haven't showered at 1:00 in the afternoon.   

  

And last but not least must include the marshmallow train.

Welcome to the Herbert house... where the points don't matter

Ever seen "Who's Line is it Anyways" with Drew Cary?  They give points to the contestants... but the points don't matte or mean anything... and that is what Drew says at the beginning, "Welcome to Who's Line is it Anyways, where the points don't matter."

So it is with our house.  I am not sure how it started.. but somewhere along the line I started assigning points to kids for doing certain things.  "Good job Brock, 10 points", "Way to go Noah 50 points".  The 50 point thing was not necessarily better than the 10 point thing; it was just something I said.  After the while the kids grabbed a hold of it and now they REALLY care about these obscure points I give out. 

"How many points do I get for that, Mom?"  "How many points did Noah get for that?"  I always answer them with some random number.  It totally cracks me up.  The points mean NOTHING.  There is no reward at the end of the day.  Nothing is tallied or kept track of.  But the care so much about these points.  Funny thing is they don't care that they don't mean anything.  They are not waiting for some award, in fact sometimes they get in fights about it (because I accidently gave Noah more points than Brock) and I tell them the points don't mean anything it is just something I say.  And they still have very strong feelings that I TELL them how many points they have.

So funny.  Everytime I say in my head, "welcome to the Herbert house.. where the points don't matter."

Easter Sunday

Jason spoke in church on Sunday so his parents came to our church and then stayed for dinner.  Jason did a great job, he obviously spoke about the atonement and resurrection - he also teaches gospel essentials every week and he also taught his class - so it was a busy day for him - but he is good at stuff like that, so I wasn't too worried. 

 

I tried to get a good picture of the kids in their Easter clothes.  Not that they are really "Easter Clothes" - I have never bought my children new outfits... ever.  But just spring colored clothing that I took out of a box.  None the less they were cute - but unwilling to take pictures.

I Love Maddie in pigtails.  You would think there are so many of her because she is the baby - in truth she is the only one that likes having pictures taken of her right now - she will stand there and say "cheese" and then "see it" after every picture.

Megan is up for only 2 pictures - but they are usually super awkward.

However she DID want pictures of her in the "tree house" - I'll take what I can get.

The girls REFUSED to take pictures together - I snapped a quick on AFTER church while they were playing in the sand box.

The boys didn't get any pictures - they didn't have "new" outfits anyways - they just wear what they always wear.  But we managed to get one semi-decent family photo.

Easter Saturday

We have decided (at least for now) that we are going to do all the Easter candy/egg stuff on Saturday morning.  We did it last year out of necessity and LOVED it - so we did it again this year and loved it as well.

 

So on Friday we dyed Easter eggs.  We dyed them the traditional way with everyone - I never took pictures - but then we put Mads to bed and let the others paint eggs with water color.  They loved it and was way more fun than just putting them in colored water - I thought that is what we would do every year.  But as it turns out - the paints does dry, but when you put it in the fridge and then take them out the paint gets wet and drippy again.  Who knew?

 

Anyways they were really into their egg painting. 

Brock

 

Noah

 

Megan

 

Our Easter Bunny left us some new and much needed sand toys...

 

And some candy eggs and baskets hidden around the house.

Madison never put a single candy in her cup - all went straight into her mouth.

Megan methodically tried to only go for the pink eggs, which was weird because she has never really cared about the pink thing before.

And Noah and Brock spent more time helping their sisters than finding their own.  We have good boys.

Then we went to my mom's for an Easter egg hunt with all the cousins.

We had a wonderful Easter Saturday.