Prime Time!

Today I am 37 weeks.  Which means MAJOR project time right?  Oh is that not what it means to you? :P

yikes! I look weird!

Today also marks the end of an era.  Kiss these diamonds goodbye!

I know what you are all thinking..

HOW ONE EARTH DID YOU CONVINCE NATHAN TO PAINT OVER THOSE DIAMONDS?  

It was easy actually - I made Bridget do it! Hahaha.

It had a lot to do with her cute little face and those big brown eyes...you know the ones she inherited from ME! Haha. :) He said as long as I took pictures to document it he didn't have a problem. Does he forget who he is married to?  OF COURSE I am going to take pictures!!

We spent all morning priming the living room, the girls room, the interior hall and my ledges...

We have started re-painting the girls room already which will take a full week of hard work to get done.  Then I need to finish making the bedding and curtains and a few fancy touches.  I anticipate that it will all be done before I have the baby.  I have 3.5 weeks.  I am waiting for the bunk beds to arrive and the dresser.  Then I will show you the big reveal.

Why Valerie? Why did you wait so long?  Well I have a very opinionated daughter and she wanted just the right bedding for her and her 2 lil' sisters.  We came up with a perfect solution to appease 3 opinions at a later date when one doesn't like a certain color - no problem!

I am so excited to share with you all what we have been up to. EEEK! Until then, I would like to thank the weather gods for giving us 2 beautiful 60 degree January days where my kids could wear shorts and run through the neighborhood ---

I'll leave it at that. :)

He's Your Kid!

Best argument between my Witte's to date - 


N- L how many times am I going to have to tell you to stop?
L- I don't know, you haven't figured out that I'm not really listening to you yet.
N- Why aren't you listening to me?
L- Well when you say things over and over it just gets too boring for me.


Nathan claims he's mine but we all know the truth here! :)

Hellacious Day - grab a soda its a doosy.

I started the day with only getting 3 hours of sleep because I just couldn't get comfortable.  I watched a few shows and ate a Klondike Bar and then attempted to go back to bed...at 3am

Nathan had a weird feeling about going into work so he opted to work from home, just in case.  I had major contractions yesterday and today didn't seem to bad but I am not going to argue when the man offers to stay at home and work.

I hosted Tot School. the kids were great until the last 20 minutes where freeze dance wasn't enough so we went outside to play and they were all crazy.  No one wanted to leave when it was time and I felt bad for the moms.

Lisa offered to take Lucas with her and feed him lunch and take him to preschool which must have been inspired because what happened next you will not believe...

Keegan stayed home sick and Bridget really wanted to bring him his special treat and game that we played today. So I thought fine, it will be 5 minutes or less because they live like 3 minutes away. 

*Here is where it starts to get fun people*

There is a stop sign and a street light to get out of the neighborhood the back way.  I load the girls in the car and quickly run over to Keegan's.  I get to the stop sign and hear a huge pop inside of me and then the most excruciating pain comes over me.

I run the stop sign to pull over because I literally can't breathe.  Things seem to be better so I just drift back into the lane and proceed to the light.  I am less than 1 minute from my house.

As soon as I get to the light I suddenly can not function and need to get out of the car.  Well, sirens go off because I was just about to get a ticket from a cop who was behind me the entire time.

I pull over on the major cross street and jump out of my car totally hunched over.

The pain was agonizing.

He yells at me to get back in the car and I look at him and scream "I can't"

He freaks out and immediatley sees that I am pregnant and calls for an ambulance.

Tears are streaming down my face because I am in so much pain I can't feel my legs any more.

Cars and Pedestrians from the 2 schools on either side of the neighborhood are all staring at me in the middle of the intersection.

He asks for my license and guess what - Its at HOME!!!

I told him - My husband is home, he's home! Call him He's home! (imagine me thinking out loud and having a total ah ha moment)

He gives me his phone because guess what - Its at HOME!!!

I try and dial the house, no answer.

I then have another sharp shooting pain and can no longer dial...he (the cop) is in a total panic and asks me for the number - he will dial it.

I start feeling wet and am so lightheaded that I am panting.

The firetruck comes, and the police officer starts yelling at Nathan on the phone while looking at the Firemen "She's in labor, she's on the corner of...., she's in pain, get here!" the firemen look at the cop and say we are here, right in front of you! He is so panicked that he drops the phone and has no words for anyone.

I have one more wave of pain and vomit all over the place.

Nathan pulls up, runs to my rescue the ambulance finally comes and takes me to North Suburban.

I vomit again in the ambulance. I tell Nathan "Lucas is going to be so mad he missed this" (imagine me saying this in hysterics because I am in fact crying like a toddler.

We get to North Suburban.

Bridget is ecstatic that I am on a stretcher, she almost asks the paramedics for an autograph.

I had an IV and they have confirmed that I am having something other than contractions.

I get wheeled into L&D where Dr. Long basically gets the ultrasound machine and gets to work.

1- Not in labor

2- Didn't break water

3- Low iron

4- Stay for the next 4 hours for monitoring because....

She flipped.  That's right.  My baby flipped. They also spotted severe bruising on the interior wall of my left abdomen and believe that is what was going on in my insides.

Bad news...I am at a 3 and have a breech baby.  I am on bed rest  till the 1st where they will determine if I will have a CSection or continue the bed rest until the 18th.

SUUUUUCCCCCKKKK! 

So much for all of that painful hard work of "flipping the kid"

We got home, ran a few errands including going to Keegan's :)

Went out to dinner because I am not doing dishes tonight.

I am grateful Nathan was home. I am grateful Lisa took Lucas, I am grateful that I didn't get a ticket.

I am grateful that I have a good OB.

Its not time yet

I had contractions all night and all morning. But I am not ready to have this baby yet.  So not ready I haven't even thought about packing a bag because it's not February yet, and she HAS to be born in Feb.  A lot like Scarlett who was ready to come out in February but I kept her in until March and she was born the day I wanted.

This baby will hopefully listen.

I don't feel like she should be born before my 6th anniversary either, so she will have to wait until after the 5th! We have big plans for this anniversary!

I do feel like I am more tired, and have more going on - but - I am not stressed yet.

I need to complete 3 projects before the arrival, Nathan started school yesterday and is pleased with the classes I selected for him.  He is nuts and taking 18 credit hours but is sure he can do it. Silly Man.

My kids have been terrific in the behavior department and Tot School has been awesome this week too, I haven't had a turn since before Christmas so I was ready to pounce on those little brains. :)

I even managed to make 4 freezer meals for March.  I want to have 9 in total before she comes too.

Most importantly my kids (Lucas mainly) realized that Grandma and Grandpa Horn will be coming to see him in a few weeks and that has put him in a great mood all day.

Dinner Tonight: Upside Down Pizza, Almond Mandarin Salad

Moments like this...

Do you ever have those moments where you tell your kids something and they totally believe it literally?

I told Bridget today to go get her baby because she was crying. (we were playing)  She didn't believe me and I covered my ears and said "Bridget, go get your baby she is screaming her head off!"

Bridget stopped looked at me and just busted out laughing to the point where tears were coming out of her eyes.

It was at that moment I realized she took me literally.  

These are the moments that make me love being a mom.

***

Here is another moment.

I think Scarlett is advanced.  She was talking early, she can count to 15 without help, she has many opinions and can express them with out crying.  She has been in a toddler bed since she was 14 months, she adapts well to anything. She has been trying to potty train herself since November but I am waiting till the new baby is born because I want to make sure she is 100% ready before I do it.  Another thing is that I don't let my kids roam around naked, I think its gross (but this is a whole other topic for another post).

On Sunday in Nursery she told her teacher she needed to go potty and she went in there took off her diaper and went.  They didn't notice or didn't tell me because when I picked her up she told me she was in panties.

Having not put her in panties I look under her dress and what do you know? She was in her diaper cover sans diaper.  She was so proud of herself.

I am still holding off though a few more weeks. :)

The other day when Nathan took the kids to the library Scarlett sat down and took the puzzles to her table.  She then proceeded to tell Nathan EVERY SHAPE, EVERY COLOR and assemble the puzzle all by herself without prompts or anything.

Its moments like these that I am glad that I have my kids close in age.  I know that even if I don't teach her something, she is picking it up from someone else in this house.

***

Last moment, I promise.

Today I hosted Tot School.  I had 8 kids here (3 were mine) and we did 5 activities.

Lucas really wanted to help me "teach" so he sat with the kids and read books to the kids.  Each kid he read to sat there and he was so patient with them even when they were not listening or sitting still.

When they left he told me he was ready to be a father.

Shocked - I said well you have to go to college and get married before you can be a father.

His answer - Well I have to do those things to provide for my family, but I know I will be able to love 31 kids.

31 kids?

Yes, that is how many I shall have.  I know it must be hard since no one ever listens or sits still when you want them to mom.

Yes, sometimes it can be hard.

Well, with as many kids as are in this house all of the time I am getting lots of training.

Even if I have 31 girls, I will be able to control them.

Even my wife.

Your wife?!?!

Yes, her too.  I can't have kids without a wife mom.

We have already gone over this.

Don't worry mom.  Just don't worry I will just watch what Daddy does and give her lots of kisses and my life will be okay.  That is daddy's secret.

Its moments like this that I am glad I married someone who is a good example and who gave me a mini version of himself.  Minus asking me for 31 kids. :)

***

Thanks for reading, I just needed to get this on here because I want to remember these kids as they are right now.

Dinner Tonight: Artichoke Chicken

Undies and Shoes

Today was Stock Show/Farmer Day at the Preschool.

Lucas was wearing hand-me-downs from Ethan (LOVE THEM) 

He borrowed a hat from Carter  (in the ward)

He borrowed a vest from Robert (in the ward)

And as he was walking out of the building he said to me "Mom, the only thing I am wearing that is mine is my Undies and Shoes" To which I replied "What about your socks?"  He informed me at that time he was in fact wearing Bridget's.  Silly Man.

***

What is even funnier is that his show and tell item was Scarlett's  "See And Say Farm Animal" toy and if you know Lucas this will make you laugh his description to the class was as follows:

(Mrs. MacDonald wrote it ALL out for me so I felt it was blog worthy)

"The show and tell item I have today makes many animal sounds. In fact it has 20 sounds.  I did not bring farm animals to school because there is no possible way my mother could have fit them all into the van and drive me to school safely.  What I have is a toy that has a mechanism inside that has recorded animal sounds on it.  Can anyone guess what it is?"

Mrs. MacDonald - "Is it a book?" 

Lucas - "No that would have been to easy to guess.  It is red and an unusual shape.  This shape does not occur in nature."

Class - "I give up"

Lucas - "You should never give up, you are too young in life to give up."

Mrs. MacDonald - "I think you should show the class now"

Lucas - "Fine I will it is a See And Say Farm Animal Quizzer with 2 songs and 20 sounds."

Class - Blank Faced.

Me when the teacher told me this story this afternoon - "Sigh, he is his father."

***

His object...you know the unusual one whose shape does not occur in nature?

Yea that one  - won 1st prize for loudest animals.

Lucas told me it wasn't worth a smile because it was just a silly toy.

***

Oh Lucas-you truly are something to be loved just as you are. :P 

Dinner Tonight : Kandi's Taco Salad

Doh!

I sent out all 35 emails to those who requested them...anyone else want copies let me know! :)

We had a lovely morning. Lucas went to the Vejnar's, Bridget went to Tot School and for my 1.5 hours with just Scarlett we hit King Soopers where I shopped for the next week, hit Sunflower Market for Produce, and Kohl's to exchange and get the girls the leggings they so love.  I was a shopping machine and only spent $104, $12 and $4.

We quickly came home to eat lunch, dropped Lucas off at PreSchool and then my house went dark.  Like the sun disappeared.  I open the garage with the kids in tow to pick up Lucas and it is litterally snowing sideways!

We hit up the Library then came home to read and then watch Arthur. It was still wildly snowing and so we lounged around and ate a few apples - I was putting away laundry when I noticed my weirdos eating their apples...look at them. CRAZY.

Well Nathan decided to leave work early. He left the office at 4:15 and didn't get home until 6:30.  I need to mention that it is usually a 17 minute drive...THAT is HOW BAD it WAS outside!

Well since I had to postpone cooking dinner we turned on some fun music and played around.  I see my kids don't need fancy things to have a good time.

They played Bus Driver-

They played Mommy -

See one of my cute new pairs of shoes!

Then Lucas decided to play battle the ships -

Let's take a closer look---

Yeah that's right the BOATS are my lovely size THIRTEENS! Another new pair from Nathan! :) I asked Lucas what he was doing and he said "these are great for boats because they are like the biggest shoes I have ever seen!"    Uh, Thanks?

We had Bruschetta Minute Steaks for dinner which I included in my 9 meals for under $10 handouts last night!  I think we will make it a Hot Chocolate and Netflix Night! :)  Happy Snowy Snuggle Night - So glad I don't have to go to Mutual! :)

Spice Up Your Menus

I coached swimming from 3-5 then headed to the church.

I had enrichment tonight.

I was a little nervous about it since I was on my own. (I miss Angie who is the Bishop's wife in the new ward)

We had Hyun Ju teach a Korean cooking class.

I taught how to better menu plan and effectively list and plan for the week.

We had a smaller turn out than I would have liked - 31 in all.

BUT - EVERYONE had a good time. The food was delicious and everyone liked my menu sheet and organizational tips on how to list things for the grocery store.

It was nice to explain how things work for me and how I can spend less than $125 a week for a family of 6 and left overs!

I think it also helped that I gave them 9 ideas for dinner that cost $10 or less!

I got a lot of good feedback and felt like people who needed to hear it heard it, and those who didn't need it --- had fun catching up and getting to know everyone!

 We had the whole thing set up like TV - everyone could see what was happening.

 Some of the samplings...

 Everyone had thirds! :)

Thanks to Hyun-Ju"LIA CHILD" and her husband Jamie for taking on such a huge project.

It was awesome and I learned a lot! :)

One thing I learned is that I am not the only person who variety plans. I thought most people were bargain shoppers.  I just can't go off of what someone tells me to buy or make. It is all in what I feel like eating or making.  I know there are websites out there that do it all for you (meal plan, grocery list it out for you) but I like to try new things, I like to cook, I love figuring out how to get variety in our meals. 

Honestly I get such a good feeling when Nathan tells me he loves that we don't have a taco night or a spaghetti night because I feel like it is my responsibility as a mother and wife to provide healthy meals that are new and exciting and worth a try.

My kids are so used to trying new things that they never fight me at restaurants or at people's houses. Trying new things is part of dinner.  

What I have been working on (as one of my goals for the year) is making a master "cookbook" of what we eat. So that when I menu plan I can flip through what I have made, what I want to try and what I tweaked.

Each page has a picture and rough cost attached to it including what I served with it.

My goal is to get the top 100 things we eat all in one place...add or subtract as the years go on so when my kids move away they can take a little piece of Mommy with them.

If you want a copy of anything from tonight or the template to my book I am making let me know. 

Play for the ENTIRE DAY?

Mmm Hmm yea, that's right.

No School because of the holiday how about a day where we just play? When I say we I mean Me and you guys.

"Wow Mom, what are we going to do first?"

Let's go to Noah, Elijah, and Sydney's

"I love my cousins, lets do it!"

 Bridget is soooooo ready for her sister to come. She wanted to take care of Sydney the whole time.

 Scarlett could care less about the baby she was too busy investigating what was in the house.

 The boys on the other hand were all about playing. It was awesome.

We brought a fun snack which I will blog about on the Toddler Blog tomorrow.

It was great for me to "play" with Veronica by chatting and having the cousins all together and enjoying each others company.

For the records -

Noah 5 (05), Lucas 4 (06), Bridget 3 (07), Elijah 2 (08), Scarlett 1 (09), and Sydney 4 months (10) plus one almost done baking! :)

I love having family near by.  We drove home where everyone passed out in the car so I carried all 3 by myself up 3 flights of stairs (3 weeks till delivery) and then took a mini nap myself.

After nap we packed some cheese sticks and headed to the park because it was 58 today! Wahoo.

I love to watch my kids be free - Scarlett especially loved running around and being wild.

 I am pretty sure that I have the happiest and cutest 21 month old.

 So much fun

 It is also funny how empty the park was the entire 2 hours we were there.

 

We came home and had Ham and Cheese Stromboli
Nathan made brownies...dark chocolate ones for dessert/FHE and then we hung out in our jammies watching Juniors Giants I and II.
I wish I could ignore the dishes in the sink for one more day or the dirty messy bathrooms but I can't.
Monday = Funday at least for today!

Here, there, EVERYWHERE!

Today was our Ward Pancake Breakfast.  It was to integrate the new people in to the existing ward.  We had an awesome turn out from both sides and everyone seemed to really try and get to know each other. It was impressive to see such a welcoming attitude on everyone's part.

Bridget ate 10 pancakes all on her own.  She also met up with her friend Chaira and was happy to hang out with all of the older kids from church. Scarlett ate 8 pancakes and loves the YW in the ward...ALL of them.

When is this girl not posing?

Then we came helped clean the church, came home picked up a bit and put everyone down for nap.

I had 5 errands that HAD to be run before 3 pm so I went and did everything while Nathan stayed with the sleeping kids.

We then as a family cleaned out the van and talked about how it is important to keep not only the house clean but the van too!  They totally got the message because when we hopped out of the car they checked their car seats to make sure they were clean! Hehehe.

Scarlett got a hair cut!

Goodbye curly hair! :(

Hello cute flip outtie bob!

She looks like a totally different kid and I love it!

2 inches all gone.

It was time and I am glad that we did it.

Then - 

I picked up the babysitters for Tara and Greg and Nathan and I  

- Reina and Kira are sisters 

and my kids looooooove Kira so we kept her for ourselves while Reina went to Tara and Greg's.

Then we headed out to Chili's for Greg's SURPRISE 30th birthday.

Nathan and Chrystal lighting the cake...

He was surprised!

I am so glad that we went and that they moved into our ward.

I love having so many friends and fun things to do with them.

It was also nice to enjoy grown ups. :)

It was a crazy day and a fun night and I would never want to trade our lives with anyone.

Dinner tonight : Chili's!!!

We have been good only spending $100-$120 a week for ALL groceries B, L and D for the past 3 weeks for a family of 5.5 plus leftovers!

It is really going to help with my RS Activity I am teaching on Tuesday!

More on that later this week.

Half

I always hear people who complain that their birthday's are in December or their kids birthday's are in December and how it is so terrible and unfair.  What about the people who's birthday's are in the summer?  I think its worse because they always get jumbled the last week of school.  May one day, June one day, July one day, August one day.

I didn't think it was fair that if your birthday lands in the summer you should have to share a song, treat and specialness with a bunch of other kids when everyone else's birthday during the year got celebrated individually.

So I took a stand and told Lucas's teacher that this year instead of having a July day we were going to celebrate his half birthday. She was excited and thought it was a great day since there are no birthdays in January....it worked out so well.

So I went overboard as usual. Haha. No I did a pretty good job at staying in control of what we were going to do. For some reason in Lucas's class when its your birthday you bring a little goodie bag for everyone in the class.  I thought since he was having a different kind of birthday he should have a different kind of goodie bag. So here it goes -

 I bought the Chinese Boxes in Blue, the Notes were Red and the inside stuffing was yellow.  I found the 1/2 notepads at target in the dollar section 6 for a dollar and the 1/2 pens too.  I printed Lucas's picture and Header on a mailing label and put it on top of the batman notepads. :)

Luckily I only had to make 12 plus 1 for Mrs. MacDonald. 

 We were packed and ready to go and Bridget tripped Lucas and he hit his head on the leather ottoman, you know the one we bought so no one would get hurt?

 It was so ugly and terrible looking you could even see the stitches from the leather on his head. He was upset about it so we covered it with a band aid.

 Each package had a little note that read:

Another Birthday is drawing near,

I’m half way through another year.

The problem is school ends in May,

And I can’t wait another day.

So Milk and Donuts for all,

I’ll start to explain for y’all…

What’s in the buckets and why-

I decided not to wait until July!

½ sized Fruit Roll Up Stickers – my new favorite snack

½ Notepad with ½ Pen – to write awesome stories

½ sized Army Men – they are AWESOME

½ dipped chocolate cookies – something fun to eat

4  Life Savers – that is how old I am today!

4 Stickers – stickers are neat

I hope you enjoyed the snack and special gift

Hope everyone catches my drift

When I say how lonely a July birthday can be

When none of you can celebrate with me!

Love, Lucas Witte

(It took me 2 tries but I think the poem came out cute. :)

Here he is after school with his special 1/2 day hat and bursting at the seams to tell us all about his day!

Everyone loved his donuts and milk snack instead of the traditional cupcake and juice! SCORE!

Happy Half Birthday Little Big Man!

Dinner Tonight:  Rachel's NY Chicken Panini's

One Sentence Wednesday

Some days everyone needs to come.

Dinner tonight : Cowboy Casserole

Whew!

Schedule thrown for a loop.

• Drop kids off at Chrystal's - Thanks!
• Chiro Appt #1 for baby turning (1 word OUCH!)
• RS Meeting to plan January 18th Activity and figure out Feb Activity b/c of the ward changes.
• Feed Kids Lunch - put down for nap
• 5 loads of laundry
• Library
• Pick Up Ali from Choir Practice
• Play with Ali
• 
• Start 1st Practice of Coaching Swimming
• Come home and eat leftovers  We had Sloppy Joes...made by the hubs
• Kiss kids good night
• Catch up on Netflix!
• Eat 2 bowls of ice cream (lets be real...2 huge bowls)
• Feel full but grab a handful of goldfish and then snuggle on the couch with my man.

So tired. So, So tired.

And full! :)

My Boy

Has been such a joy to be around lately. He is so thoughtful and kind and really a great brother.  

This morning before Tot School he told his dad it was time to shovel the driveway.

So without complaint Lucas shoveled the driveway, sidewalk and the neighbor's driveway.

He even told his dad to bring the shovel over to Keegan's house in case they needed to be shoveled out.

So we did and you know what?  They needed shoveling! So they took care of it.

Lucas and Nathan shoveled the the driveway of another friends house too.

Then we got home and he decided that before preschool he was going to write his teacher a story.  He wrote all of the words on a separate paper and then drew the picture. Then he decided that his words were ugly so asked me to write it on the paper.

It is about Fireman Lucas saving Mrs. MacDonald from rolling boulders in the forest  - so cute.

He gave it to his teacher and was so proud of it and then he realized he wrote the C wrong in his name and was so upset by it that he wanted it back to fix it. She kept it and teared a little and told him he did a great job and that she would love it forever.

He was extra helpful today at school and when a girl in his class fell down and lost her tooth Lucas calmed her down and got her a paper towel so she could save it for the tooth fairy.

After school he and his sisters played in the snow some more with Nathan and Lucas let the girls go first.

Then at Dinner time while we were eating Chicken Tostada Salad - Scarlett ate the tomatoes too fast and almost choked.  Lucas then explained to her why it is important to eat slowly and when I asked him where he heard that he said "Sometimes I am smart enough to know these things on my own."

What a sappy post, but I felt like I needed to share the awesomeness of Lucas because with all sisters he sometimes isn't spotlighted as much as he should be.  

In other news - my sister just found out she was having a BOY and instead of being upset or jealous Lucas was thrilled about having another boy in our family!  

I am so proud of him and excited for my sister too!

Boys are really something and I hope we get another one someday!

Lazy Day

Our ward had the "big" meeting about the boundary change and we were barely affected. We just lost a great group of people for a big group of unknowns. There was a new ward created and I am so excited for that awesome new ward. I have friends on both sides of 85 and know it will be an awesome ward. :)

It snowed like crazy today - so much in fact that Nathan stayed at home with the kids and I walked over to the Pabsts so I could hitch a ride with them.

But before I get to that I need to talk about the "emergency" that happened in our house yesterday:
Every toilet in my house broke all within 1 hour of each other...


Upstairs one busted the hose in the morning, Nathan went to Lowe's to repair, put it off till later and the downstairs 2 sprung a leak and he had to go back. As soon as he walked in he threw his keys on the counter and they hit the bowl on the 4th and cracked the toilet bowl, water was everywhere...What the heck? Guess we will busy fixing toilets. He stayed up till 11:30 fixing all of them so we would have a place to do the business in the middle of the night, and wouldn't you know...I didn't even need a toilet last night! Hahaha

 We let the kids stay in their jammies today and Bridget decided to be a boy today and go by Brad the Boy all day. She changed her jammies and her voice to play the part. It was interesting. The kids played Elefun and memory and chutes and ladders with the kids while I rested and sewed and chilled.  I loved only having an hour of church today!


I taught my kids how to make bread and we had a nice warm dinner.

Dinner Tonight: Banbridge Broccoli Cheese Soup, Wheat French Bread and Snowy Crinkle Cookies in honor of the snow! :)