5 of 52

My sister and I
I think I'm cheating a bit--not using my kids or husband for all of these, but hey, I'm doing better than I thought I would!

She was the first....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEANNE!!
We'll always be there for you!



This is going to be a wonderful year--LPN grad--New baby!! So much to look forward to! HUGS!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Jessi!!

I was wishing I had a picture to post for today, & what do you know, This just got posted!
Lots of love, from Grammie, Papa & all of us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!
(click here)

Something I missed.....

on my list of 25 things about me I posted on facebook.
Goodness, my life is just so exciting, here I am with a new post every day!! LOL!!
Three, going on four!!!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

This is the first time in 4 years that she's been home to "celebrate" her birthday. We girls took her out to lunch, and had a great time! Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you have a great year!

4 of 52-For our Anniversary

We enjoyed a special evening out at Red lobster with our dear friends. Ryan took the kids all to his place for the evening, so we didn't have to feed them before we left either!
I'm not a sea food fan, so I had the maple glazed chicken--It was awesome!
(Also thought you might get a chuckle out of this:)






Since you all know that I'm not a fan of pictures of myself, it's a challenge of it's own to post them. It's even more of a challenge for me to look into the camera screen, trying to do a decent "self picture"! (which is what I did with this first one I posted)
We did enjoy our day, however after enjoying lunch out, I slipped off the curb while getting back into our van, and twisted my ankle. It was so horrible painful I thought I was going to lose my lunch. After I determined that it wasn't broken or sprained, I hobbled thru Walmart to find buttons & elastic to finish up the outfit that I was making for Jessi for her birthday, planning to get it into the mail so she'd have it in time for her party this weekend.
No such luck. The ankle slowed me down enough that I was too late to get it in the mail in time.
Like the 2 yr. old will care...But I did!
Anyway I did manage to get it finished & boxed up, so today off to the p.o. it goes.
Thankfully after several hot soaks, & some good therapy muscle massage stuff, plus being off of it all night, other than a little stiff, it's feeling much better today.
Today...? Another birthday :) My mom's. We girls are off to take her to lunch later. You'd think this was just one big party around here.....

What do you do all day?

I don't very often write down what I've done during the day.
I have to say that generally I feel like I didn't get as much done as I had either
1. thought I would,
2. Wished I could,
3. Knew I should or
4. Knew I could have if I wouldn't have done "other" things.

Most of our married life I've been a SAHM. Before we had kids (which was only a year after we were married) I babysat. During alot of years I babysat/did daycare. I also had a machine quilting business for quite a few years.
We homeschooled our kids for 14 years.
for 1 1/2 yr I also owned/worked at a tea room, and then worked for 8 years with my sister at our scrapbook store.
I garden. I preserve food. I bake. I cook 2 meals a day. I chauffeur kids home from school a couple days a week. I keep house. I do laundry. I do all the things that go along with having a husband, 6 kids at home, & Sunday a.m. gathering here in our home.
What do I do for "fun"?
Occasionally I get to scrapbook. I take long bubble baths nearly every night. (It's my sanity break, my relaxation.)I read some--not as much as I used to when I was sitting nursing babies.
I'm trying to get into sewing again--which I should be doing instead of this. OH YES, and I blog!
I'm also involved in one organization (Nebraska Friends of Midwives) that I do some volunteer work occasionally (like yesterday and today making 28 doz cookies.)

Yes, when you read all that it may sound like alot. But, I don't do ALL that EVERY day!
My house is not spotless, My laundry is not always done. But considering the fact that my kids are gone for 8 hrs. during the day, What SHOULD I be doing?
Here's what I did yesterday:

• I made 16 doz cookies
• Did several loads of laundry
• washed dishes
• picked up kids from school
• talked to my mom on the phone
• talked to my sister 2x on the phone
• Visited with my mom at her house
• washed my hair
• watched the inauguration
  

Today I

• Baked 6 loaves of bread
• Washed dishes
• Did several loads of laundry
• Picked up kids from school
• talked to my sister on the phone
• Did some sewing
• Blogged
• Made 12 doz more cookies
• Talked to 3 of my daughters on the phone
• Talked to a survey taker --invited her in while I was frantically baking cookies)
• supervised kids homework
• supervised Meshayla making supper
• went to Bible study

I have no idea why I'm telling you this! Maybe I'm defending myself? From what/who? people who think SAHM's with kids in school don't have anything to do, or I really don't do very much?
Hmmmm.........I don't know, except when I had more kids at home, & home all day, I did a whole lot more. Just different.
What do you do all day?

3 of 52 and .....

Bye Grammie & Papa.
I took the kids to meet Lynisha today after they've been at our house a week. We had a great time, and I took tons of pictures. Should make for some fun pages! But, this was today and I'm going to have to use another of me & the kids for my "52 weeks", so here ya go :)


Bye, Papa


Hi Mommy!! We met Lynisha in North Platte for lunch & shopping.

Bye, Grammie

As we were leaving to go home. They were amazing! this is the first time Trey stayed with us, I think it was the first time he's been away from home this long without his parents, and he never once cried or fussed or acted homesick for mommy & daddy! Come again soon!!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

http://theweedas.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-21st-birthday-ryan.html
I was going to do something different this year on my blog to recognize birthdays....but didn't get it figured out yet. So, here's a couple pictures. At least not the same ones as last year anyway.



These two pictures are Ryan personified. Getting into EVERYTHING and GO NON-STOP!
The cake--or what there is left of it here was his older sisters birthday cake after a small party we had. I'd put the cake up on the kitchen counter, & Ryan in the tub. I'd gotten him out, wrapped him in a towel, and went to grab his clothes, and within minutes he was up on a stool (minus towel, of course!) devouring what was left of the cake. What's a mom to do? Grab the camera of course. (then stick boy BACK in the tub!)

In this picture Ryan was almost 4, and he was always "going"! Usually full speed ahead too!
Happy 21st Birthday Ryan!!
This one was just taken this week. He promised me he'd get a hair-cut before special meeting, but the day before he still hadn't, so I gave him grief over it, & said I'd give him one. He really doesn't think that's necessary, so he just grabbed the clippers & gave himself one.

I was going to do something different this year on my blog to recognize birthdays....but didn't get it figured out yet. So, here's a couple pictures. At least not the same ones as last year anyway.

Final Holiday post-3 of 3

Just some misc pictures of our family, cousins & time. Sorry if I duplicated some.

G'ma had all the kids sing "jingle bells" before they started with gifts.

These were after supper, before gifts, & most of the kids went in the living room & played "concentration". Not easy to get them all lined up for a picture together, so this is the best I got.




Patrick with his two little grandkids-- "Cheers"!!

My cousin Karen's little girl. She just turned 2.



My niece Heidi & My cousin Lynsy. Heidi & Ryan. These two cousins are the same age--Just 3 weeks apart. Hard to believe they will be 21!!
Just some misc pictures of our family, cousins & time.
We really missed our family members who couldn't be with us!! Hope those of you who see this enjoyed seeing a glimpse of our evening, & enjoy the memories of other times. Make plans for next time!!

Holiday fun- post 2 of 3

I have very few relatives on my dad's side of the family. He was one of 5 boys, and he and 2 of his siblings are gone now. I have 7 first cousins, two of whom I haven't seen since they were babies (they are near my age) The other 5 are the ages of my kids, since my other two uncles got married around the time that I did. Our grandmother died quite a while ago also, so my extended family on that side is pretty small now. I love that my step mom puts forth such a effort to keep us connected!

My Aunt Linda, Cousin Karen, her little girlTaylor and my cousin Todd

Three yellow dump trucks waiting patiently... Gma Jane has 3 great grandsons!
Here we go, gift time!

Everyone waits (well, most everyone!) while Gma hands the gifts out, and Gpa Art watches the whole process with his gifts in hand.


Practical, & perfect! She knows it's something we'll use!

Now, everyone has to wait to open their gifts while Gma opens hers from us. Whew! what a trial of patience on those little kids!









I cannot even begin to express how totally organized & incredible Gma Jane is at this! Over the years there have been very few exchanges of sizes. How she keeps track of all of that, & the buying process she has is WAY BEYOND me!!

One more post to come.