A good reason to hand water!

There probably isn't a REALLY good reason to hand water...  I mean if you don't have a sprinkler system, then of course you would HAVE to hand water.  We have a sprinkler system, it is just missing an important part, and Josh has had a hard time finding the part we need.  But we have an HOA in this house that requires us having green grass.  So Josh must hand water until we find the part we need...

Tonight when I got home with the kids, Josh was watering.  I sent the kids in to brush their teeth, and then went over to talk to Josh.  The kids all brushed their teeth (except maybe Catalina, she can be tricky), and then came back out to talk to Josh.  I'm not sure what started it, but Josh started to spray the kids some with the hose.  It quickly became a game of "Catch Me If You Can".  It was so funny to watch the kids try and dodge the water and "hide" behind things so that they wouldn't get wet.  Josh and I had a great laugh!  And so did most of the kids ;)

Swimming

I have started swimming laps in hope to gain back my pre-kids body :)  I suck!!!  A couple laps and my heart is racing, and I am short on air.  Of course it would probably help if I took more breaths while I swam :)  I swam laps for about a half an hour today.  Now before you get too excited thinking that I did a lot, most of those laps were with a kick board using mostly my legs...  But not all of them.  In fact I raced my little sister today, and she usually beats me.  But not today.  Well OK she won the first race, but I beat her on the second race and I didn't even cheat.  Unless you add in the fact that she got back from England LATE last night, and was going on a little sleep.  But that's not really cheating, right?  I raced Josh Jr. last week, and beat him too!  I think he was a little disappointed that I beat him.  He didn't talk to me for a little while after the race.  Then he asked for a rematch... And I beat him again!  Of course it helps that I can swim the whole width of the pool in one breath.

Are you mad at me?

Tonight after I laid Myra down for the night I ended up downstairs taking care of a problem with the other kids.  I ended up down stairs longer than I had hoped to be, and when I came up stairs I discovered that Myra hadn't gone to sleep.  In fact she was very angry!  I tried to give her a bottle in her bed to get her to calm back down and go to sleep.  It didn't work.  She drank her bottle and then started to fuss again.  I went in and picked her up.  I ended up cuddling with her for a little while for her to go to sleep (so nice!  I miss the cuddles!).  But when I first started to cuddle with Myra she kept sticking her elbow up at me, like she was trying to block me.  I would put it down, and then she would pop it back up!  It made me think that she was a little mad that I had left her in her bed for so long...

Barbie and the Fee Mucketeers

Grandma Julie baby sat my kids this evening (Thanks!).  The girls were watching Barbie and the Three Musketeers when we got there.  Grandma Julie let them bring them home the movie to finish, and so they did.  They quickly put it on when we got home.  All the kids came up when it was finished for prayers.  Catalina was very excited by the movie.  She went around dubbing everyone "Mucketeers"!  Myra was even a baby "Mucketeer".  And as she ran off to brush her teeth she informed me that she was going to be a "Mucketeer Maowmay"! With a kid :)

Pet Peeve

I have many I'm sure, and I usually try not to share them...  But I really hate when I load the dishwasher, and set the delay start...  Only to find out (much) later that someone opened the dishwasher, and so it didn't run.   GRRRR!  It is even worse when I do it to my self :)

Budding Photographer???

My young children LOVE to take pictures! I guess the new age digital camera makes it much easier... I would probably hide my cameras if it was still a 35mm one that you had to get developed. But with digital pictures you can take 100 and delete half of them. Catalina (and Savannah, but mostly Catalina) LOVES the camera. She often "sneaks" it and fills it up with pictures (unless she is caught). I have posted some of her pictures before, but it's been awhile. I thought I would post some new fun ones today. Enjoy :)

Kids!

I think I have mentioned before that I have a few kids :)  6 to be exact.  This evening I am watching 3 kids for my friend, and my oldest has a friend over...  That makes a total of 10 kids at my house right now.  Some would think I am crazy (they are probably right).  But I have found that more often than not the extra kids don't make things harder...  They actually make things easier.  My kids (almost) all have someone to play with, and they leave me a lone.  Except for a couple of fights (over dress up clothes) and the neighbors behind us throwing water balloons at the boys, it has been a very quiet night. 

Boo boos!

Catalina was getting changed after swimming this morning when she had to go to the bathroom.  I went in her room a few minutes latter to see what was taking her so long...  She was still completely dressed in her swim suit.  As she started to change she was telling me why it was taking her so long.  She had redressed to go to the bathroom, and then redressed to come back to her room, because "you have to keep the boo boos covered!"  I asked her "Boo boos?"  She then said "Yeah, boo boos.  You have to keep them covered so no one will see them."  So I asked her "what boo boos?  Where are your boo boos?"  Her reply "You know, these boo boos", pointing to her chest :)

Pool Days!

It's summer time!  What can I say, we are a pool family!  We live at the pool some days.  Today would be one of those days...  We were at the pool by 8:45 this morning for swim lessons.  The kids were there until Noon (I left for an hour and a hlaf for a doctors appointment).  We then headed back at 5:30 for dinner at the pool, and then a swim of course :)  We didn't leave until after 9pm.  I think that totals about 7 hours we were there today.  Needless to say my kids are getting quiet the tan going (Actually several of them got burned today).  I even got in and swam some tonight.  It was great!  Here are some fun pictures from the pool (not tonight, but still this month).

Questions!

I know that kids ask questions.  It's their nature.  But lately it seems like my kids are asking a LOT of questions!  And even more annoying, is that they are asking questions about my answers.  Can I have a cookie?  No!  Why not?  Because it is almost dinner.  But why can't I have a cookie, I will eat my dinner? And so on.  Josh is always telling the kids "don't ask the question if you wont like the answer."  Lately none of the kids like my answers.  But they still ask the question...  Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over.......

DIzzy Lizzy

This afternoon Brooklyn was emptying the dishwasher (her chore).  She didn't know where something went, and so she asked "Does this go in the Dizzy Lizzy?"  Lol!  She meant the Lazy Susan!  I think I like the new name :)

Happy Father's Day!!!

I have been blessed to be married to such a wonderful man now for over 13 years.  12 years ago we were expecting our first baby, and 11 years ago Josh had his first Father's day.  Josh is a fantastic father and husband.  I love to watch Josh playing with the kids.  I have 6 wrestlers, who LOVE to wrestle daddy.  They love to joke, and quote movies with him.  He is a big help aound the house and with the kids.  I thank my lucky stars every day that Josh married me.  I am so lucky to have him in my life.

Has it really been a year???

Tonight we had a birthday party for Myra!!!  A year!  Myra is a year old!!!  Where has the last year gone???  It went way to fast.  We had a big party tonight for Myra.  The aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all came to help celebrate (OK not all, Aunt Jodie is in Europe, and Rick was on his way home from Atlanta).  Myra wasn't sure what to do with opening her presents.  But she sure loves all of them!  After presents we had cake.  Myra went to town on her cake.  She LOVED it.  We finished the evening with a bath, Myra's favorite.  After her nice warm bath, Myra spent the rest of the evening playing with all her cuddly new toys!

Here are the new happenings for the last month...

Myra has pretty much given crawling.  She is quite the walker now.  She evens stands up all on her own.

Myra loves to eat!  She will eat just about everything.  And she gets mad if you don't share.  We have an awesome video that Josh took of the kids sharing popsicle with her.  I just need to figure out how to get it onto the computer :)

Myra has entered the world of teeth!  Her first tooth broke through last week on the bottom.  It was followed by one on the top this week.  And I suspect that she will have a couple more before she is a month older.

Josh weighed Myra  at his Mom's house a while back, and she was 17 1/2 pounds...  But I'm not sure how much she weighs now.

Myra's hair is still red, and still slow in growing...  But it looks like it might have a touch of curl to it too.

Myra's still has blue eyes.  Fingers crossed that they stay that way.

Myra is still the most loved on baby every!  And we are so glad that she is in our family!!!

Warning - Kids at Play!

*Please Note that the following is my kids playing, not anything serious!*

Josh Jr. had his friend spend the night again.  We went swimming this morning, and left the pool quickly due to rain (we were going home anyways, but it just made it faster)!  After a healthy lunch (pizza :) they decided to play their game of Doctor again.  I had then set up their "office" in the basement this time, so Myra would sleep (4 hours is not too bad).  And play they have.  They are playing down stairs quietly, with only an occasional problem.  Every once in a while I hear their conversation.  The one that got my attention was from Catalina.  She yelled out...  "Savannah!  You got Cancer!"  Not too sure what to think about that :)

Cub Scout Day Camp take 2

I went to Cub Scout Day camp again today.  The weather said it was going to be in the mid 90's today!  YUCK!!!  But I prepared for it,  I brought three water spraying fans and I froze water in my water bottle...  It did get hot today (ice was melted long before lunch), but not as hot as they said it would.  Which was good since I took the car with out air conditioning.  The boys got to start their day with shooting!  They were very excited for it.  Ben's aim was a little off, but he was a good sport about it.  But then we discovered that the top to his Gatorade was not on quite tight enough, and it had leaked out while they were shooting.  But after we talked and I told him he could have another one later he cheered up.  They boys also got to make "covered wagons".  It was a pine wood derby car that they topped with a "cover".  And then they got to race them!  This helped Ben to be happy...  His won First almost every time! I am bummed that I forgot my camera.

The rest of the day went by non-eventfully until the end.  The wind started to pick up in the afternoon (breaking my sun glasses) and the clouds started to roll in.  For a while it even looked like it might rain.  Then the end of the day came.  The boys were done were their last station.  All we had left was flag ceremony.  That's when the windy went CRAZY!!!  We were kind of in a valley, and it made a great tunnel for the wind to go speeding through.  And the ground was very dry so the wind picked up a lot of dirt!!!  And we soon found our selves in the middle of a massive dirt storm!!!

We quickly found shelter (some what) behind the black smith's shop.  But we were still a ways off from the cars.  The boys were a little scared (maybe more than a little).  We had an extra boy in our group that was not going home with us.  And we needed to find his Aunt.  I left my keys with one of the other leaders, and took of with Allen to find his ride.  He was not so happy about this.  He was scared and just wanted to go home.  We walked quickly to the other shelter (a tall fence) were there seemed to be a lot of people waiting.  Allen was crying by this point.  Unfortunately his Aunt was not to be found there either.  At this point I was not sure what to do.  I did not think it would be a good idea to try to go back into the grounds area.  The wind was blowing so hard you could barely see across the field.  I decide to go back to the black smith's shop and see if his Aunt had turned up.

By the time I got back there, one of the head BSA leaders was trying to figure out who was where and who could leave.  All of our boys were piled into one of the leaders cars (she had ran and gotten it).  And the other leader was waiting for me with all of our stuff (chairs, and a cooler, etc.)  I explained to the BSA leader that I could not find Allen's Aunt and where I had looked.  She said to leave Allen with her and she would find her.  We then told her that the rest of our pack was leaving.  The other leader and I then took all of our stuff as fast as we could to our cars, where we met the boys (who were still stuffed in one car) and then headed home.  I felt a little bad leaving Allen because he was so scared.  I hope that they were able to find his Aunt quickly for him.

The drive home was calm.  And the car was even not too bad (for having no AC).  I did have to make a pit stop though for the boys to use a bathroom.  They had drank so much water at their last station.  The mean lady running that station made them drink A LOT, so much in fact that Ben's stomach started to hurt some...  And the lady kept telling them to drink more.  Ben looked at me and told me he didn't think he could, that's when I told him to just pretend to drink :)

How can you not be tired?

Myra fell a sleep on the way home from the pool tonight.  She slept for maybe 15 minutes before we got home.  I brought her in, and put her into bed.  And wouldn't you know it she woke up.  I tried giving her a bottle so she would go back to sleep, but that didn't work.  It's now 11pm and she is still going, going, going!  Wish a 15 minute nap would rejuvenate me like that :)

T-I-R-E-D!!!

I got the opportunity to go to Cub Scout Day Camp with Ben today!  And boy am I tired!  We spent the entire day out in the nice hot sun!  I am so grateful that one of the other leaders brought chairs for us to sit on.  I can't imagine how tired I would be if she hadn't brought them.  I think that the boys had fun...  But it was because the all got to be together and play in the dirt and pick up sticks :)  The foam craft that started off the day was quite lame, and didn't last.  But the boys did get to end (almost) the day doing archery.  And I think that was cool for them.  As a walk along leader there wasn't a WHOLE lot for us to do.  We helped the boys here and there, and tried to keep the boys in order, but for the most part we were observers.  Sitting it the HOT sun!  Sweating up a storm...  I am lucky too.  I get to go back on Thursday!  And I just looked at the weather, and it is suppose to reach 91' on Thursday!  About 10 degrees higher than today :{

Games with Grandma!

We had dinner last night at Josh's parents.  I love going to Sunday dinner there.  Josh's mom makes fantastic chicken, and there is always many delicious sides to go with it.  Plus my favorite...  I don't have to cook :) 

After dinner last night Catalina decided that she was going to play a game with Grandma Julie.  She would hum a song, and Grandma Julie would have to guess what the song was...  It was so funny to watch.  Catalina is hard to understand a lot of times when she is talking, so to add humming to the mix makes the game quite interesting.  It got even better when Catalina would hum made up songs...  Ones that she or her sisters made up, that Grandma Julie had NEVER heard before!  Poor Grandma Julie...  Good luck with that game :)

When I grow up!

I over heard Savannah and Catalina discusing what they wanted to be when they grow up this morning.  Catalina said she wanted to be a "Mam-may."  I thought to myself, "How sweet, she wants to be a mommy!"  Their conversation continued, and Catalina stated again that she wanted to be a "Mam-may," but this time she added that she wanted to be a "Mam-may with a kid."  I figured that would be a good thing, since you need a kid to be a Mommy.  But I also thought it would be fun to tease Catalina some, so I stated "You want to be a Mermaid???"  She answered...  "Yeah, with a kid!"  :)

Dance Party!

We had Mindy over tonight.  Ever so often the kids plan a "performance" for the adults.  Tonight was one of those nights.  Ashleigh, Missy, and Brooklyn had a whole routine figured out by the time they put on their show.  Savannah got to participate in the last song, but was mostly the lighting technician.  And poor Catalina, she didn't last for the show to start.  She was a sleep long before it started.  But she sure looked pretty in her dress for the show :)

Poor Ben

Josh Sr. took 6 11 year old boys camping tonight...  Not by himself, with the other 11 year old leader, but he is still gone camping...  And Josh Jr. would be one of those 6 11 year old boys that went camping with Josh (Sr.).  So that would leave Ben home alone with his 4 sisters and 1 mom...  To make things worse I had my friend Mindy over tonight.  Her husband is out of town on work, so he did not come...  But Mindy did bring her 3 kids...  2 of which are girls...  So poor Ben!  Not only was home with the 5 girls (I still count as a girl) in our family, but Mindy and her 2 girls (and 1 son) joined us as well...  That's a lot of girls in one house!!!

It must be important

Let me start off by saying that I have spent the last half an hour (at least) looking for these pictures!  I took the pictures a while back intending to post about them, but never got around to it.  I thought I would post about them tonight, and then I couldn't find the pictures.  Grrrr!  I even down loaded all the pictures off the camera in case they were still on the camera.  Nope!  But I finally found them.  In a folder that I looked in at least three times...  Grrr!

Anyways...  In our office we have a calender hanging by our computer.  I have stuck sticky notes to it for reminders for Doctors appointments and other things I didn't want to forget.  Apparently Catalina had some things she needed to remember too.  She posted some notes as well...

Psych!

Josh and I started watching Psych last year.  But by the time we got finished with season 4, season 5 was to far in for us to catch up (you know, because we don't have Direct TV and a DVR anymore).  Josh and I have been waiting SO long for the 5th season to come to Netflix.  It finally came on the 31st of May.  And we were lucky to get the first disk last weekend.  Today we got disk two.  So excited!  Unfortunately I had a LONG pool board meeting this evening, or we probably would have been able to watch all the episodes so we could get the disk back in the mail tomorrow.  Which would allow us to get disk three on Saturday...  Awe who am I kidding, we will probably still watch them all.  After all, who needs sleep?

Summer is here to stay!

The kids are out of school...  The pool is opened...  The cold days of Spring are no longer around...  Freckles are everywhere...  Kids up late night after night...  Swim lessons day after day...  Popsicles and ice cream for snacks and fun...  Hot Dogs and Hamburgers for dinner...  Watermelon and Cantaloupe cold and refreshing...  Summer is here to stay!!!

Catalina Jacquelle Case

Just four short years ago Catalina joined our family.  And not a day goes by that she doesn't bring joy and laughter.  Since I didn't blog about her birth last year, I thought I would do it today...

My due date for Catalina was the 4th of June.  The whole pregnancy was rather easy.  Josh Jr was in 1st grade, and both Ben and Brooklyn were in preschool for three hours a day, four days a week.  The school was far enough away that we had to drive (which is funny, because it is the school right by our house now)!  Savannah was just over one when we found out that we were going to have our 5th little baby.  I would drop Ben and Brooklyn off at preschool and then go home.  Savannah would fall asleep on the way home (I would drive until she did).  And then she would sleep for the whole time the kids were in school.  And probably three out of those four days I would nap as well!  Oh those were the days :)

The end of the pregnancy brought some fun times.  Catalina decided to follow Savannah's example and flip around many times while in my belly.  Three weeks before my due date Catalina was sideways.  They estimated that her weight was around 6 and a half pounds already.  We went through the whole turning the baby thing with Savannah, and she was very hard to move (and she weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz.). I was worried if we waited to she if she would turn, that we would be out of luck.  So we had her turned.  And thank goodness she stayed. 

I don't remember why but the doctor's office offered to induce me... But they did, only it was for the 30th of May.  And I was hoping to have her in June.  So I said no, thinking that they would set it up for the next week.  But they didn't.  They thought they would wait until the 11th of June (a whole week after my due date)!  I had a doctor's appointment on the 5th of June.  The doctor walked in and asked if I was ready to have a baby the next day.  I told him I would love too, however I was not set up to be induced until the 11th.  My doctor was not to happy!  He didn't deliver Savannah because she came too fast (and he was in the hospital).  I think he was afraid I would go into labor and not make it to the hospital in time.

My doctor told us to come back the next morning.  He planned to find some reason for me needing to be induced.  Josh and I worked things out with the grandmas to keep the four kids that night, so we wouldn't need to worry about dropping them off early.  We dropped the kids off and went to dinner.  We came home to get a good nights sleep.

My sister-in-law was lonely because her husband was out of town, so she dropped by and spent the night.

Around 5:30 I woke in labor.  Not overly strong contraction, but there was still contractions...  I watched TV for a little while, and then woke Josh up so we could ready to go to the doctor appointment.  We had forgot to take something for the girls to my mom's house when we dropped them off, so we dropped it off on the way to the doctor.  I was still having steady contractions at this point.  We went to the doctors appointment, and my doctor agreed that I was already in labor, and sent us on to the hospital, saying he would be there at noon to break my water and start me pitotion.

We got to the hospital, it was Memorial North, and it had only been open for a little over a month.  It was exciting to be at the "New" hospital.  They checked us in and got me in a room.  They went a head and started giving me antibiotics, because I had Strep B.  And the labor continued....  And continued...  The nurse checked me around 9:50am and I was about a 5, but still having strong contractions.  Almost as soon as she left everything changed.  The whole feeling of the contractions changed, and I knew that Catalina was coming quickly now.  I waited a couple contractions, and then I had Josh call the nurse back in.  She thought we called because my water had broke (my water NEVER breaks).  I told the nurse it was time to call the doctor.  She didn't believe me.  She thought that maybe her checking me had caused a couple contraction to be harder, but that we should wait a little while and see, I mean after all I was only a 5.  I retold her to call the doctor, and then pointed out that the doctor had been down the hall with my last delivery and the nurse had paged him when I was a 7 and that he had NOT made it to my room in time to deliver my baby.  She finally gave in and called him.   The call went something like this... Nurse - "Dr. Bianco she said to call you because she thinks it is time, but I just checked her and she is only a 5."  Dr. B - "She said to call?  Tell her I am on my way!"

Thank goodness Dr. B remembered Savannah's delivery!  He got to the hospital fast, but as it was I still ended up waiting for several minutes.  He came in and broke my water (again my water NEVER breaks on its own), and Catalina was delivered on the next contraction.  The cord was wrapped around her neck, and they had to cut the cord off, but besides that all went well.  Catalina was born at 10:50am.  She was a healthy 6 lbs. 11 oz.  She was a beautiful little baby.  And now she is growing into a wonderful little girl.  She brings so much joy and laughter to our house.  I can't imagine our family with out her.   Happy Birthday Catalina Jacquelle Case!!!

Oh and I have to add.  Today I was the meanest mommy ever to her when I wouldn't let her have another fruit roll up, but her BFF "Best Girl Friend"  when I put on Curious George!  :)

Early Birthday Party

We had Catalina's birthday party this evening.  She was so excited for everyone to come over.  She asked about a dozen times today when people would be getting to our house.  She was excited to see her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  It was cute to see her so excited. 

Playing

Josh Jr. had a friend spend the night last night.  This morning when Josh Jr. was doing his chores, his friend played with Savannah and Catalina.  He was the Doctor, and the girls took turns making appointments to bring their baby dolls in for check ups.  It was so cute to watch.  Josh Jr. finished his chores, but Savannah and Catalina would not let his friend stop playing...  I think Josh Jr. was a little board and bothered that his friend would keep playing with his sisters...  But it was not to much longer before Josh Jr. was out there playing with them.  Before the end of the afternoon, Ben and Brooklyn had joined in on the fun too.  They had a whole doctor's office set up.  The girls had to make appointments for their babies, they even had a "intercom" system (the baby monitor).  I just wish I had taken pictures.

It's such a beauitful night

It is such a beautiful night out.  The weather is nice and cool.  There is a slight breeze out, making it beautiful...  Except for all the smoke!!!  The wind has brought the smoke from all the different fires to our beautiful city.  And now the windows will stay closed to keep out as much of the smoke as possible, in hopes that the allergies don't get to bad off...

Garage Sale!

Our HOA is having a garage sale tomorrow...  We were out of town last year when they did it...  I decided last weekend that I would do the garage sale, but I plan to also sell other things as well...  Like my hats, and Scentsy.  I am not planning to sell them at a sales price, but I figured I would try it and see how well it went.  If Friday is a bust, I just wont put things out on Saturday.  It's hard to know if it is worth it to do a garage sale.  I have had some that did fantastic (over $400) and I have had others that didn't even break $50.  I don't expect my "garage sale" stuff to make all that much...  I don't have any big items, mostly just clothes.  But hopefully some of my Scentsy and hats will sell.  We'll see.  If not I will be sleeping in on Saturday :)

It's offical

The pool may have opened on Saturday, and some of the kids might have gone swimming Monday  afternoon.  But this evening we had dinner at the pool and enjoyed family swim.  Six out of the eight Case's swam (I thought it was a little too cold for me and Myra).  The whole Lockard (besides Grandpa Don) was there to enjoy the evening.  It was a great start to what is going to be a fantastic summer!