When in Minnesnowta...
This is how I feel about winter too, honey!
I seriously despise all the winter gear in the entryway. I'm trying to enforce the "hang it up when you come in" rule, but man, with 4 kids, it's not always perfect. This drives me crazy!
A typical scene in our home
I got brave and took all 4 kids to the movies to see the new Grinch movie. Our sweet neighbor friends joined us and helped with the little littles, but for the most part, I gave them some popcorn and water and candy, and it was a smashing success! However, I did end up with one kid hobbling in. See Cashel there in the red coat? Yeah, he "couldn't find" (i.e. didn't feel like looking for) his other boot, so instead of continuing to look for it, he went and sat in the van to wait for everyone else to come out to the van from the house...with one boot on.
This kid has the brightest smile when he laughs. I just adore it! His eyes just smile :)
Oh my goodness does this little lady ever make my heart sing! I love her expressions!
Seriously!
However, I cannot, for the life of me, get a picture of the two of us together with her actually smiling!
Real life right there!
I had a weekend with the middles, and told them they could pick whatever they wanted to have for supper that first night. This was what they chose haha Oddly enough, they ate all the blueberries and chips, but didn't eat more than a couple pieces of the candy.
We watched Home Alone 3, and they LOVED it!
Ryan got this turtle when we went to the Aquarium in Duluth on vacation in October, and he loves it.
I LOVE it when my babies get themselves a lovey. He has named it "turtle" and has to sleep with it every night.
After 9 years, I finally printed some pictures we took in Alaska and framed them. They turned out so great!!!
One of the only perks of living in Minnesota in the winter.
The kids have been pretty obsessed with taking pictures lately. Kendrick insisted on taking about 50 pictures of the TV while we were watching Elf the next day lol
It's hard to catch this one still enough to get a clear picture these days!
It's tough to get a good picture of Mark with the kids, because usually the kids have a longer attention span than he does, and when he happens to be looking, the kids aren't.
Ryan especially just ADORES his Daddy! One of the things that kinda "go" when you have FTD is your filter, and so Mark will fully admit that Ryan is his favorite kid too, so I NEVER ask him that question.
Kendrick DESPERATELY wanted to go sledding this particular day. On the way to find a hill, Ryan fell asleep, so it was just Kendrick and I while Mark and Ryan rested in the minivan. We went down all of once before Kendrick decided he didn't feel like sledding anymore, so that was that lol
Bouncetown was the consensus, and it turned out to not be too bad a plan: They have side-by-side massage chairs, so while the kids played, we got massages!
We finally tried Jake's Stadium Pizza. It was alright, and the atmosphere was really great, but I'll be honest when I say that I probably woudln't go there again. If I'm gonna splurge on pizza, I'm gonna make it something I LOVE, not something that's just okay.
Shopping with kids is always an adventure!
I have no idea where they get their sass from...
Decorating the gingerbread house this year was a little...weird. Cashel woke up early one morning and decided that he couldn't wait until after school to do it, so he did it at 5:30am. As the other kids gradually started waking, they joined in.
Kinsley was JUST entering the whole phase where this was her reaction if you told her "no". I said she couldn't eat all the candy, and then I couldn't stop laughing when she went into full on meltdown mode.
She finally realized that she could have some if she put it on the house.
Kendrick was the last one to the party, after he had showered and gotten dressed.
This picture may not seem like much, but it brings me to tears when I see it. See, while I was having the weekend with the middles, Cashel and Kinsley were in Worthington with Grandpa and Grandma. When I went to pick them up (the same night as the santa head pictures), Cashel just couldn't wait to give me my Christmas gift he had picked out for me. He insisted I open it right away, and when I did, the little red glass angel I'm holding above our heads was there in a little box. He went on to tell me that this angel holds magical powers, and that a kiss under the "mistletoe" (as he called the angel) had magical, healing powers, and that he couldn't wait for me to kiss Daddy under the "mistletoe" so that his brain could be healed. The faith of a child. Oh, if we could all just have that chlidlike faith.
THIS was a new one for me. I had never before been to a dermatologist, but I had a couple annoying spots on my arm that I wanted to for sure have checked out, and a couple blood blisters I was just beyond annoyed when I saw them, and so...my first full-body check. The good news: Zero concerning areas!
This handsome young man is MINE! Oh, how I love him so, so very much! He has had a ROUGH year, and yet he continues to get back up and be kind and generous and thoughtful. He had his first Christmas concert, and he did such a great job!
This kid inherited his Daddy's ability to make some KILLER spaghetti! I showed him the ingredients, and he literally made it ALL by himself!
This felt SO freeing! It was a lot of work, a lot of stress, and a lot of hard decisions, but we're officially prepared. It was especially hard setting it all up without Mark's true input, because this was the kind of stuff he was passionate about. It feels good knowing that our finances are secure, that our kids would be properly cared for should anything happen to me, and that they wouldn't be put through the hassle of courts and feuds and all that. It wasn't cheap, but knowing that our wills and health directives and POAs are done and that our assets are safe in a family trust...that's HUGE!
Kinsley wanted a baby, Ryan wanted a book, Kendrick wanted the Paw Patrol Lookout, and Cashel wanted a million dollars.
This girl! Gosh, she just looks so grown up! This is going by so slowly and so quickly at the same time :(
It's hard to catch this guy's genuine, un-forced smiles these days. If he knows you're taking a picture, he gets wiggly and goofy.
Hanging out in Mama's cubicle. This was the second year there was no Daddy's cubicle to visit. It felt harder this year than last, if I'm being honest. Everything seems so much more final :(
Kendrick is SUCH a hard worker. The elements don't bother him, and he would work himself to death if you let him. He has already all but taken over the snowblowing responsibilities from me (he throws a HUGE fit if I try to take control) at age 5, and will shovel us AND the neighbors out if he can. I can guarantee you won't find this guy sitting behind a desk down the road. He's going to change the world with his attitude.
This little lady brightens up ALL the faces at Mark's facility! She walks like she owns the place ;)
Gearing up with some Christmas goodies in the kitchen!
Homemade cheddar bay biscuits were a smashing success! They were so flaky and yummy! Unfortunately, that also meant that the kids carried them around the house for DAYS, and I gave up on trying to follow them with a broom and dustpan...
This little guy was super excited to see Grandpa at big brothers' Christmas program.
Kendrick did an awesome job at his part!
This guy did too...until he started trying to act cool. Then...totally embarassing :(
Love these guys!
Baby girl can't hang ;)
These guys were super excited to rip into presents!
I remember when we were considering buying this stroller, and it took me a LONG time to be on board with spending SO much money on it. Mark kept saying that we'd get a lot of good use out of it, and honestly: If we had only used it for the bigs, that would have been true. This thing is AWESOME! It has made single-parenting these 4 in public drastically easier with the littles being the ages they are. Give it 6 months, and I'll probably be singing a different tune, but for the time being, it has been SUCH a game-changer. Worth every penny.
"Momu [Mama], you are amazing. You do so much for me, so I want to give you a rainbow. I love you!
From: Cashel to Momu [Mama]" ♥
Loving my new mug this year ;)
I think it has been at least 5 years since the grove was there, and I still miss seeing the sunsets when it was there. It looks so barren now :(
Tuesday nights are Pizza and movie nights at our house! Godfather's is usually the favorite, but sometimes we go with Casey's.
Mark looks at our photo books a TON these days! This one, apparently, was so much that the pages started falling out! In the grand scheme of things, I'd say it's a minor sacrifice to know he's enjoying them so much! I did a whole post about them here
Our first time (mine too!) ever walking on a frozen lake in Minnesota!
The one who made me a Mama ;)
My favorite part of winter in Minnesota (the list is small, by the way) is when the trees get like this.
Where would I be without my friends? My dear friend Angie picked up my two bigs on a Friday night and took them to the movies! It was such a blessing to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed having a little extra time with just my littles. Thank you!!
I think I got out about 90% of the cards this year, which is saying something. I got about 10 of them back to re-address, as I must have had a few not updated on my master list. Trying to decide if it's worth it to still send the rest out that I missed or not. (I'm kinda thinking maybe not, considering I'm just finishing this in MARCH)
My kids are a little weird sometimes...
We were so glad to be able to celebrate Christmas with Daddy at his place :) A HUGE thanks to Uncle Roger and Aunt Cathy for coming along to help manage our chaos!
I wonder to myself often whether or not we'll ever get a really decent family picture together again...this is what we get most of the time haha
Mark and his Uncle Roger ;)
Mark just barely tolerated a picture with Santa this year.
This guy is SUCH a huge fan of his Daddy. It warms my heart :)
I don't know how on earth he managed to break this chair already, or how on earth he didn't think to mention to me that it was broken. Slumberland is working on getting a replacement assembly for the part underneath, but no word on it yet. It was well under a year old!
Seriously...
Mark's dear, sweet cousin Megan brought us pizza and smiles for lunch on Christmas Eve. She is such a blessing to me!
I only wish we had more time to just sit and chat over coffee. Love you, lady!
The reaction when they finally doze off for their nap...
Christmas with Mark's Mom at the house! The kids were getting SO EXCITED for Christmas morning to come, but I told them they couldn't have any Christmas cookies until after they took this picture with SMILES haha
"Santa" REALLY enjoyed "his" cookies this year!
Christmas Morning is SO fun with kiddos ;) Granted, THREE of them didn't even have their Christmas jammies on by morning, because of wet beds :( And oddly enough...it WASN'T the baby!
These kids :)
My 2007 self would have been APPALLED at how "busy" this room looks. I've really grown to love our "lived in" home. The clutter only bothers me for a few days a month (I'll let you guess which days those are lol)
My kids did so good this year ;) I had taken them on Christmas Eve to Enspired downtown, because they wanted SO BADLY to get me gifts. I brought all the kids, then checked with the owner, Hilary (who I happen to be friends with), to make sure it'd be okay if I send them in one at a time for her to help them shop. She was THRILLED to be able to help, and when I went in to pay, she said some of the other shoppers in the store were so touched by these kids wanting to get special gifts for their Mama in light of our circumstances that they all pooled together to get me some nicer gifts than the kids would have been able to afford. (I had given them each $15ish to spend) Our community is so, so, so sweet! I am so touched!
Kinsley's favorite gift was actually Ryan's lol And Ryan's favorite gift was actually Kinsley's cheap little dollar puzzle from my work's Christmas open house. So easily entertained!
Sometimes I see God working in BIG ways in our lives, and other times I see him working in very small ways. Every Christmas morning for a decade, I would make homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas Morning the week before Christmas.
This year, I just didn't have it in me, and I had decided we'd just go with a normal pancakes and sausages kind of breakfast. However, the Sunday before Christmas, a dear friend from our church, Sarah, brought me a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls. I cried many tears of joy and appreciation over these rolls. If the Lord leads you to do something for someone, I pray you do it. You have no idea what a blessing it is to that person. I really need to sit down an journal all these tiny little things, like this...like when I got an unexpected $400 bill followed the next day by an unexpected $400 check in the mail...these things happen all the time.
Miss Sassypants has hardly gotten to claim her beanbag reading chair for her own, as her big brothers steal it away to their rooms all the time lol
My ♥
The things I can get them to do with the promise of Mario...they usually aren't quite so compliant for a picture lol
My little people :) First Christmas morning without Daddy, though :( We sure missed him :(
Mark is certainly the most expensive guy in our household at this point! Between medical stuff and the need for replacement furniture, it's hard to keep up with him! He got this fancy new chair to replace the one that got busted earlier in the month for his Christmas gift this year!
That's it for December! You know...in March.
This is how I feel about winter too, honey!
I seriously despise all the winter gear in the entryway. I'm trying to enforce the "hang it up when you come in" rule, but man, with 4 kids, it's not always perfect. This drives me crazy!
A typical scene in our home
I got brave and took all 4 kids to the movies to see the new Grinch movie. Our sweet neighbor friends joined us and helped with the little littles, but for the most part, I gave them some popcorn and water and candy, and it was a smashing success! However, I did end up with one kid hobbling in. See Cashel there in the red coat? Yeah, he "couldn't find" (i.e. didn't feel like looking for) his other boot, so instead of continuing to look for it, he went and sat in the van to wait for everyone else to come out to the van from the house...with one boot on.
This kid has the brightest smile when he laughs. I just adore it! His eyes just smile :)
Oh my goodness does this little lady ever make my heart sing! I love her expressions!
Seriously!
However, I cannot, for the life of me, get a picture of the two of us together with her actually smiling!
Real life right there!
I had a weekend with the middles, and told them they could pick whatever they wanted to have for supper that first night. This was what they chose haha Oddly enough, they ate all the blueberries and chips, but didn't eat more than a couple pieces of the candy.
We watched Home Alone 3, and they LOVED it!
Ryan got this turtle when we went to the Aquarium in Duluth on vacation in October, and he loves it.
I LOVE it when my babies get themselves a lovey. He has named it "turtle" and has to sleep with it every night.
After 9 years, I finally printed some pictures we took in Alaska and framed them. They turned out so great!!!
One of the only perks of living in Minnesota in the winter.
The kids have been pretty obsessed with taking pictures lately. Kendrick insisted on taking about 50 pictures of the TV while we were watching Elf the next day lol
It's hard to catch this one still enough to get a clear picture these days!
It's tough to get a good picture of Mark with the kids, because usually the kids have a longer attention span than he does, and when he happens to be looking, the kids aren't.
Ryan especially just ADORES his Daddy! One of the things that kinda "go" when you have FTD is your filter, and so Mark will fully admit that Ryan is his favorite kid too, so I NEVER ask him that question.
Kendrick DESPERATELY wanted to go sledding this particular day. On the way to find a hill, Ryan fell asleep, so it was just Kendrick and I while Mark and Ryan rested in the minivan. We went down all of once before Kendrick decided he didn't feel like sledding anymore, so that was that lol
Bouncetown was the consensus, and it turned out to not be too bad a plan: They have side-by-side massage chairs, so while the kids played, we got massages!
We finally tried Jake's Stadium Pizza. It was alright, and the atmosphere was really great, but I'll be honest when I say that I probably woudln't go there again. If I'm gonna splurge on pizza, I'm gonna make it something I LOVE, not something that's just okay.
Shopping with kids is always an adventure!
I have no idea where they get their sass from...
Decorating the gingerbread house this year was a little...weird. Cashel woke up early one morning and decided that he couldn't wait until after school to do it, so he did it at 5:30am. As the other kids gradually started waking, they joined in.
Kinsley was JUST entering the whole phase where this was her reaction if you told her "no". I said she couldn't eat all the candy, and then I couldn't stop laughing when she went into full on meltdown mode.
She finally realized that she could have some if she put it on the house.
Kendrick was the last one to the party, after he had showered and gotten dressed.
This picture may not seem like much, but it brings me to tears when I see it. See, while I was having the weekend with the middles, Cashel and Kinsley were in Worthington with Grandpa and Grandma. When I went to pick them up (the same night as the santa head pictures), Cashel just couldn't wait to give me my Christmas gift he had picked out for me. He insisted I open it right away, and when I did, the little red glass angel I'm holding above our heads was there in a little box. He went on to tell me that this angel holds magical powers, and that a kiss under the "mistletoe" (as he called the angel) had magical, healing powers, and that he couldn't wait for me to kiss Daddy under the "mistletoe" so that his brain could be healed. The faith of a child. Oh, if we could all just have that chlidlike faith.
THIS was a new one for me. I had never before been to a dermatologist, but I had a couple annoying spots on my arm that I wanted to for sure have checked out, and a couple blood blisters I was just beyond annoyed when I saw them, and so...my first full-body check. The good news: Zero concerning areas!
This handsome young man is MINE! Oh, how I love him so, so very much! He has had a ROUGH year, and yet he continues to get back up and be kind and generous and thoughtful. He had his first Christmas concert, and he did such a great job!
This kid inherited his Daddy's ability to make some KILLER spaghetti! I showed him the ingredients, and he literally made it ALL by himself!
This felt SO freeing! It was a lot of work, a lot of stress, and a lot of hard decisions, but we're officially prepared. It was especially hard setting it all up without Mark's true input, because this was the kind of stuff he was passionate about. It feels good knowing that our finances are secure, that our kids would be properly cared for should anything happen to me, and that they wouldn't be put through the hassle of courts and feuds and all that. It wasn't cheap, but knowing that our wills and health directives and POAs are done and that our assets are safe in a family trust...that's HUGE!
Kinsley wanted a baby, Ryan wanted a book, Kendrick wanted the Paw Patrol Lookout, and Cashel wanted a million dollars.
This girl! Gosh, she just looks so grown up! This is going by so slowly and so quickly at the same time :(
It's hard to catch this guy's genuine, un-forced smiles these days. If he knows you're taking a picture, he gets wiggly and goofy.
Hanging out in Mama's cubicle. This was the second year there was no Daddy's cubicle to visit. It felt harder this year than last, if I'm being honest. Everything seems so much more final :(
Kendrick is SUCH a hard worker. The elements don't bother him, and he would work himself to death if you let him. He has already all but taken over the snowblowing responsibilities from me (he throws a HUGE fit if I try to take control) at age 5, and will shovel us AND the neighbors out if he can. I can guarantee you won't find this guy sitting behind a desk down the road. He's going to change the world with his attitude.
This little lady brightens up ALL the faces at Mark's facility! She walks like she owns the place ;)
Gearing up with some Christmas goodies in the kitchen!
Homemade cheddar bay biscuits were a smashing success! They were so flaky and yummy! Unfortunately, that also meant that the kids carried them around the house for DAYS, and I gave up on trying to follow them with a broom and dustpan...
This little guy was super excited to see Grandpa at big brothers' Christmas program.
Kendrick did an awesome job at his part!
This guy did too...until he started trying to act cool. Then...totally embarassing :(
Love these guys!
Baby girl can't hang ;)
These guys were super excited to rip into presents!
I remember when we were considering buying this stroller, and it took me a LONG time to be on board with spending SO much money on it. Mark kept saying that we'd get a lot of good use out of it, and honestly: If we had only used it for the bigs, that would have been true. This thing is AWESOME! It has made single-parenting these 4 in public drastically easier with the littles being the ages they are. Give it 6 months, and I'll probably be singing a different tune, but for the time being, it has been SUCH a game-changer. Worth every penny.
"Momu [Mama], you are amazing. You do so much for me, so I want to give you a rainbow. I love you!
From: Cashel to Momu [Mama]" ♥
Loving my new mug this year ;)
I think it has been at least 5 years since the grove was there, and I still miss seeing the sunsets when it was there. It looks so barren now :(
Tuesday nights are Pizza and movie nights at our house! Godfather's is usually the favorite, but sometimes we go with Casey's.
Mark looks at our photo books a TON these days! This one, apparently, was so much that the pages started falling out! In the grand scheme of things, I'd say it's a minor sacrifice to know he's enjoying them so much! I did a whole post about them here
Our first time (mine too!) ever walking on a frozen lake in Minnesota!
The one who made me a Mama ;)
My favorite part of winter in Minnesota (the list is small, by the way) is when the trees get like this.
Where would I be without my friends? My dear friend Angie picked up my two bigs on a Friday night and took them to the movies! It was such a blessing to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed having a little extra time with just my littles. Thank you!!
I think I got out about 90% of the cards this year, which is saying something. I got about 10 of them back to re-address, as I must have had a few not updated on my master list. Trying to decide if it's worth it to still send the rest out that I missed or not. (I'm kinda thinking maybe not, considering I'm just finishing this in MARCH)
My kids are a little weird sometimes...
We were so glad to be able to celebrate Christmas with Daddy at his place :) A HUGE thanks to Uncle Roger and Aunt Cathy for coming along to help manage our chaos!
I wonder to myself often whether or not we'll ever get a really decent family picture together again...this is what we get most of the time haha
Mark and his Uncle Roger ;)
Mark just barely tolerated a picture with Santa this year.
This guy is SUCH a huge fan of his Daddy. It warms my heart :)
I don't know how on earth he managed to break this chair already, or how on earth he didn't think to mention to me that it was broken. Slumberland is working on getting a replacement assembly for the part underneath, but no word on it yet. It was well under a year old!
Seriously...
Mark's dear, sweet cousin Megan brought us pizza and smiles for lunch on Christmas Eve. She is such a blessing to me!
I only wish we had more time to just sit and chat over coffee. Love you, lady!
The reaction when they finally doze off for their nap...
Christmas with Mark's Mom at the house! The kids were getting SO EXCITED for Christmas morning to come, but I told them they couldn't have any Christmas cookies until after they took this picture with SMILES haha
"Santa" REALLY enjoyed "his" cookies this year!
Christmas Morning is SO fun with kiddos ;) Granted, THREE of them didn't even have their Christmas jammies on by morning, because of wet beds :( And oddly enough...it WASN'T the baby!
These kids :)
My 2007 self would have been APPALLED at how "busy" this room looks. I've really grown to love our "lived in" home. The clutter only bothers me for a few days a month (I'll let you guess which days those are lol)
My kids did so good this year ;) I had taken them on Christmas Eve to Enspired downtown, because they wanted SO BADLY to get me gifts. I brought all the kids, then checked with the owner, Hilary (who I happen to be friends with), to make sure it'd be okay if I send them in one at a time for her to help them shop. She was THRILLED to be able to help, and when I went in to pay, she said some of the other shoppers in the store were so touched by these kids wanting to get special gifts for their Mama in light of our circumstances that they all pooled together to get me some nicer gifts than the kids would have been able to afford. (I had given them each $15ish to spend) Our community is so, so, so sweet! I am so touched!
Kinsley's favorite gift was actually Ryan's lol And Ryan's favorite gift was actually Kinsley's cheap little dollar puzzle from my work's Christmas open house. So easily entertained!
Sometimes I see God working in BIG ways in our lives, and other times I see him working in very small ways. Every Christmas morning for a decade, I would make homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas Morning the week before Christmas.
This year, I just didn't have it in me, and I had decided we'd just go with a normal pancakes and sausages kind of breakfast. However, the Sunday before Christmas, a dear friend from our church, Sarah, brought me a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls. I cried many tears of joy and appreciation over these rolls. If the Lord leads you to do something for someone, I pray you do it. You have no idea what a blessing it is to that person. I really need to sit down an journal all these tiny little things, like this...like when I got an unexpected $400 bill followed the next day by an unexpected $400 check in the mail...these things happen all the time.
Miss Sassypants has hardly gotten to claim her beanbag reading chair for her own, as her big brothers steal it away to their rooms all the time lol
My ♥
The things I can get them to do with the promise of Mario...they usually aren't quite so compliant for a picture lol
My little people :) First Christmas morning without Daddy, though :( We sure missed him :(
Mark is certainly the most expensive guy in our household at this point! Between medical stuff and the need for replacement furniture, it's hard to keep up with him! He got this fancy new chair to replace the one that got busted earlier in the month for his Christmas gift this year!
