Sleepy Peeps....

Thought I would just do a quick update here ( I know I just did yesterday ) but I couldn't resist snapping some "half asleep" pics of my kids this morning. It was a quiet, peaceful morning..... That is a rarity around here! So it MUST be documented! :)

Em just lounging, watching none other than.... "Curious George" (We love that monkey).... although I think we should start banning the show, It may be rubbing off on Missa just a bit too much. She seems to think she can do all the things George does... including swinging from the highest places possible. Oh B! 

Mr. McMuggins (yes that IS Really his nick name) ;) or we call him "McMuggins, Muggins, Mugs" whatever comes out. Of course he is always accompanied by his little furry (kinda mangy) friends. could be any given furry friend, at any given time. He has a few... but Mungo the monkey is Always close by.

This one of course is always wide eyes and bushy tailed! Roaring to go!!! Looks like she was taking in all George had to share this morning, as she sat with her baby and her milk. Trust me.... she did not sit there for long!

Miss I was actually still sleeping when I snuck up on these ones with the camera. She is always the best sleeper.... and if it stayed quiet, she would sleep a lot longer I'm sure.

The quiet doesn't last long around here... and they all soon came to life, danced around, kicked each other, jumped off couches . Some sit and drink their coffee listening to the birds and watching the sun come up. I sip mine as it gets cold, and listen to "MOOOMMMMMMM, AHHHHHHHHH, HE/SHE'S HITTING ME" and more....... there are many high pitched squeals in there too, a bit ear piercing at times.
Well... they needed breakfast of course, so they then went on to consume the entire box of Kellogg's mini muffin tops.......

And with that running start that started off quiet and peaceful this morning.... We Are Off!!!!!!!!! 

Honey, are you Home yet??

About two weeks ago some people got a little confused. I was getting private messages in my facebook account, telling me how happy everyone was that we were all back together. Had to clear that one up fast... because however awesome that would have been, it wasn't so. He is back in the states which is great, it is also a great tease! SO close, yet SO far. I am grateful for the relief that this is coming to a close and we are that much closer though.
Slowly his trunks have arrived on my doorstep which makes us feel giddy about this all being over with.

It has been absolutely crazy around here lately. We have all had about enough and are SO ready to just get back to life the way it should be. It just feels like one thing after another the past few days.
It is not just the kids, it is everything.... but it does end up coming down to the kids going to bed not a minute too late. Sometimes I just want to let them stay up and run.... other days (like the past week or so) I NEED that bed time, and it can not come soon enough. It is the time when I get to re-locate my sanity and gather my thoughts back up without blowing steam out of my head.

I had a "bucket list" for this deployment, and honestly I have checked off most of what I wanted to get done. I seem to have come to a giant boulder in the road though. Seeing the t.v. stand I bought for the nice new flat screen I bought him for his birthday (Yes he reads this, and yes he knows)... is cracked. I opened the box to put it together so I could finally get the new t.v. all set up, only to find that one of the main pieces is cracked right in half. SO, now it is all back in the box and the box is duct taped, and it sits in my bedroom. It is no easy task these days to accomplish anything I tell you! This box is HEAVY... too heavy for even two men to carry. So now I wait.... again.
My father in-law is going to try to get a dolly from work to get it back out to the car. Hopefully he will be able to soon, it will be nice to get this silly thing exchanged and finally get it all set up.

I'm not going to bore you with a list of things driving me crazy... or should I say, driving us crazy. Somethings are just not to be shared with the world. There are plenty of positives too..... like that picture I posted above... those trunks! A step in the right direction.

The hershey kisses are dwindling. HA another little story.... the hershey kisses are no longer in a pretty glass jar showing us just how much progress we have made. Nope, little Missa decided one day that daddy had been gone long enough. She was going to take care of this problem (there being too many kisses left.....) SO she pushed that big glass jar down off the table it was on and.... SMASH.  No more jar. :(  Thankfully she didn't move and walk on any of it! No babies or kisses were harmed in this little act of rage. The kisses now sit in a large ziplock bag up high out of Missa's reach! I did go over on my kiss count too. One never knows how long a deployment will actually last, so I went with the Max number of days on the active duty orders. We might have to pick up the pace and eat 2 kisses a day.. which wouldn't be a bad thing no matter how you look at it! :)

hot, Hot, HOT!

It's pretty warm out there. I am thankful for A/C that is for sure. Those of you who know me well, know I prefer the fall and winter season over this hot sticky mess. Although I do like a nice summer day and a good warm vacation... so I make the best of it. We do enjoy swimming though as you have seen in past posts.

Yesterday was too hot to even do anything, we went to swimming lessons in the late morning and after that we came home and hid out in the air conditioned house. A good friend of mine asked me watch her two little ones for a few hours, so the six kids and myself "chilled" in the house ;)

The kids enjoyed frozen blue ocean smoothies for lunch. Later at snack time they had fun eating their mini oceans in a cup (aka... blue raspberry jello w/fishies) they thought that was "SO COOL"
Of course there were also fudge pops and watermelon to be consumed.

Smoothies and ocean treats

Little Missa and her buddy 

(This is when they were actually eating the pops... later they went on to paint those clean white chairs they are sitting on. All in good fun of course)

Another HOT one today. swimming lessons before lunch and then who knows.... probably "chillin" again. Stay cool! 

I lied....

A few posts back I had said that "No super hero's live here". 

Well....... I LIED!

Today I felt like a super hero as I spent hours putting together my little boys new "big boy bed".

Prior to the assembly of this bed I put together a section of my new desk.

I was on a roll today, although it may mean that I will be rolling out of bed in the morning... 

"Oh my aching back"

hahaha

Yes I had asked for help with this bed project, and yes I had people who said they could help me. 

After having the kids slam my car doors into the metal pieces of this bed time and time again as it sat in my garage for almost a month. I gave up on waiting for the "right time" for the help to come.

Not to mention the kids bikes could barley fit in between everything in the garage and I could not open the doors to my husbands car.

I say all this in the nicest way, I know people can not just jump up and come build things. 

They are busy, then I am busy and not at home when they are ready and yada yada yada .....

Yes I'm sure there are plenty of other people who would say "you could have asked me..." but really it would have ment more waiting, because again... I don't expect them to just come right over and do it.

Pretty much it came down to, I couldn't stand it collecting dust and being in the way any longer. 

The fact that my little boy kept asking "when will my big bed be ready?" was another factor. 

I started with simply bringing... ok well seeing if I could even lift all the pieces to bring them in. So one by one I moved them to the front porch and cleaned them. That was a chore in itself, seeing I was interrupted at least 100 times & half those times were Missa pushing open the front door and bolting down the walk way.

Some were heavier than others, but i got them all out of the garage & cleaned. Then the next test.... will I get them up the stairs?

YES!

I got them up the stairs. Slowly but surely! 

Did I mention I thought Missawas going to end up with a broken foot? On the opposite foot from the prior broken toe! Good grief I tell you! I left one section down stairs and she managed to climb her way through, around, over... who knows..... but she did it, and it fell on her foot.

It's all good, just a bruise.

SO, now all these sections are all over the bedroom. Do I leave them here on the chance that help can come by tomorrow night? After some thinking.... No, because that won't be until around bedtime. See here is that example of "the perfect timing", because bedtime = SO not the perfect time.

So I start piecing it together. Not too difficult, but a bit interesting trying to lift one piece and place another one in the right spot.... while making sure B stays out of the way.

Well, a couple hours and a few swear words later.... 

Mission Accomplished! 

Don't let this come across the wrong way, because people do help me. It's just that sometimes it takes longer than others and you get sick of waiting. It's then you decide.. if you want it done now, do it your darn self! 

I had one very happy, excited little man after it was all said and done!

He is now sound asleep in that fun new bed. (which was a hand-me-down, Thank you Auntie L, Uncle E and especially cousin E for passing it along!)

And people.... I'm not going to hide it.... after all that today I enjoy this.....

Yup.... sometimes I AM a super-hero!

fish or kids?

The kids are all becoming quite the little fish this summer. The 2 big girls have been taking swimming lessons, and using what they learned in their own swim time. The 1st swim session has come to an end, we are debating the 2nd sessions, depends on the schedule. Either way, I want to keep them swimming as much as possible.

It has been pretty warm here lately so staying in the water has been easy. Lucky for us my parents have a pool, and we have plenty of lake options. They do a lot of pretending... I have over heard them a few times "OK now class, everybody blow bubbles in the water.... now monkey crawl" I love it.

Last night was family swim for the last swim lesson of this session, the girls were jumping in all by themselves, no one catching them, and then swimming. No swimmies! They were SOOO proud of themselves. K man was a little cold, he didn't venture in too far. (It was a little chilly) of course it has been so warm, and then on family swim night its sprinkling and cooler. I had no choice though, I had to get in, B would not have it if we stood and watched... she loves the water! She is a daredevil too... creeping in further and further, she just doesn't care.

At the lake the other day she was dipping her face in and "swimming" like the big kids. So cute!

Here's a few pictures from our lake day, we went with friends. They are all so cute together......

"Missa" & her buddy

"Muggins & Missa" building castles

3 little girlfriends headed in

What a crew!