Carving pumpkins

For some reason we never ended up buying pumpkins this year due to the fact that we no longer shop together as a family. Having five kids cuts down on the family shopping excursions. But Jerika did get a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch on her school field trip. She asked us to carve it last night. Jacqueline wished she had a pumpkin to carve so we decided to let everyone help in the carving of this mini pumpkin. We let our kids use knifes (the ones that come with a carving kit) Because we are Awesome parents. All five year old's should get to use knives.

They loved it so much. They were so good at it and amazed me. I think it must have been easy to carve due to its thin skin, but still they did so great. Jerika and Jacqueline did not want any help from their parents, I did help a bit, because... hey, I like to carve too.

After the pumpkin was carved we put a candle in it and turned out all the lights. It was so cool. The whole pumpkin glowed ( due to the thin skin) the kids danced around singing all the cute Halloween songs they have learned at school. It was a super fun night before Halloween.
We also let the girls have the pumpkin in their room as a night light as they went to sleep. (Are we the most unsafe parents in the world?) They loved it, and it really was pretty safe. I did take the lid off because the candle was cooking the lid because of the heat, it smelled like cooking pumpkin. The candle went out very soon too, way before we went to bed, because it was a small tea light candle, that liquefies the wax and is really very safe. Don't worry.
Playing with Fire and Knives....are we not the most Awesomest parents ever? Our kids sure think we are!!!!

A tremendous fall day

On our walk yesterday we ran into an apartment complex that had a billions of leaves. So we stopped and played. I started taking pictures with my cell phone and then realized how cute they were and needed to run home and get my real camera. The kids had so much fun making huge leaf piles and jumping in them.

Random news

The first news flash is Tyler has learned to roll over. He is not happy about it either. He works so hard to roll from his back to his stomach and then he is stuck. He screams his little lungs out until someone comes and puts him back on his stomach. Then he just tries to roll back onto his stomach again. Poor little guy, he is just as surprised as can be.







Next, Jerika lost her snaggle tooth.
She is no longer a hillbilly. She did not want it to come out and it was bleeding every time she ate. It was hanging by a string and looked like it would fall out for 2 days until today, it was bleeding so I took a wash cloth and held onto it, she pulled her head back and out it came. She is a cutie.




Finally, a funny story about my darling husband.
We had a couple floods in our bathroom whenever someone used it. It was annoying. We plunged it and it would work but then boom, clogged again. So I called Joe and asked him to bring home some liquid plumber. He did and used it, the said it was all fixed. The next day once again there was a flood. The bad thing is that when the upstairs bathroom floods it drips down to the basement and floods that as well. It is literally a poopy water shower down there. Well this happened again and I was downstairs putting towel's down and getting "rained on" So I called Joe and told him it was still clogged. He said he thought that one of the kids had flushed a toothbrush down the toilet and he would fix it when he got home. I told the girls about the toothbrush and they said that Dad had flushed Trenton's blue toothbrush down. I called him and teased him because when you have kids you can get away with anything. He said they had dropped it in there and he did not want to put his hand in to get it out so he just flushed it. He came home after buying an auger and worked to fix it. He would say it was fixed then someone would go when he was gone and boom, poop shower for me to clean up. I was frustrated to say the least. He came home the next night and I said it was still clogged so he went in with the Auger again. I stood there and he would say it was fixed and then I would make a huge wad of toilet paper and flush it and it would clog. So he then had to take the toilet off and take it outside. He ran a hose through it, but that darn toothbrush would not come out. Finally it came out when he held the toilet up side down and shook it. He then re installed the toilet and now we have a working toilet again. Hooray. He is a great husband and learned his lesson. While I was writing this blog he was giving his kids horse back rides, so I took some pics of that as well as them climbing all over him. He is a wonderful father.

Hillbilly

Jerika has lost her front tooth about a month ago. Her other front tooth has started to migrate over to the other side. On my mission we called this look a snaggle tooth. I tell her she looks like a cute little hillbilly it cracks me up every time I see it. It will be gone soon because it is so loose so I thought I better get a picture as remembrance before it is gone so I can keep up the laughing and remember when she used to be a Hillbilly. I told her I wanted to do a blog about her hillbilly look and she was thrilled to give me a photo shoot of her snaggle tooth.

I will miss those adorable baby teeth.

Getting them to smile

We Went and got our Christmas card picture taken today. It was crazy. The little ones really had a hard time. Jennedy kept sticking out her tongue or twisting it. Trenton was scared of the lights and the photographer, when she came close to him he would scream. Tyler was fine but did not find the photographer funny at all, so he had a "whats up with her" look in all the pictures. When I got home I tried to get a few more pics as we did not buy many, and I had the same luck. At least I can get my kids to smile some of the time and Trenton is not scared of me. Still Jennedy was just as silly and kept making funny faces and sticking her tongue out. Here is a taste of the Lowe Photo Shoot.

That One would have been so great, if only Jennedy would get her tongue in her mouth.
the next one the girls are looking at her because I keep telling her to stop and they wondered what she could be doing to get mom so aggitated.

He started

Trenton is starting to walk

OK, it is more of a wobble but it is so cute.
And I need him to walk
It is a challenge to carry two babies around everywhere
You should see me bringing them in from the car
One in each arm,
then unlocking the door
Holding both squirmy boys in one arm
It is a sight to behold
So I have been waiting for Trenton to get into walking

Joe and I have been trying this technique
we used with the other kids
where we have him try to walk back and forth between us
But He hates it and will crawl rather than walk
Screaming if we try to make him walk
After many days and lots of attempts
We finally got him taking 2 steps before he bent over to crawl

So yesterday I saw him let go of his high chair.
He was using to stand up within the kitchen
and proceed to walk (aka Wobble) to me in the living room

Each step looked like Frankenstein and I was sure it was his last
but he kept on going, triumph in his eyes
I think he took almost 20 steps
that is pretty impressive since he had not stepped
more than 2 or 3 steps before.

I was cheering and clapping for him
The girls joined in

What a happy moment for me and my boy.

Here is a video I took tonight when Joe got home of Trenton's Frankenstein Walk

Gum Anyone

Today I walked upstairs after spending hours with the kids downstairs and found that Jennedy had not been on her best behavior when she followed her sisters upstairs and did not come down for a while.

To start the story...I bought 2 packages of that new Extra gum that is flavored like fruits. Each package contains four small packs with each of those containing 5 pieces of gum.

Well, Jenndey had opened both packages and opened all but one of the packs. And there were only 8 laying on the floor and counter. All the rest were gone.

So how many did she eat? Come on math people tell me if you know. All I know is my kid should have had a huge wad of gum in her mouth. When I called her to discuss the situation, Her mouth was empty.

I think I know what your thinking, there is going to be chewed up gum all over something. Nope, she said she ate them. Silly kid, I am sure it tasted just like candy and if you didnt know better. Who would think to mindlessly chew the "candy" with out swallowing. (I mean who is crazy enough to do that?)

So there you have it, my 2 year old ate ______ sticks of Gum.

Is it a myth that gum stays in your stomach for seven years? I sure hope so!!!

Italian

So my garden gave rich rewards of Tomatoes
I started looking at all that have been harvested as fruit flies started appearing
To my amazement Tomatoes do not last forever
What to do with a ton of fresh tomatoes
Make Pasta Sauce

I boiled them
Then blended them
I did not have a cool smasher thing
the one that takes out the seeds and skins by pressing them through small holes
So I thought, Hey more fiber
But then who wants to chew on Seeds and skins while eating pasta

So my super cool blender got put to the test
After much blending, there was not sign of a seed or skin anywhere
Hooray.
Now onto the taste

Sauted the Onions and Garlic
Blended those too
Want it to smooth
Then with the fresh basil and Oregano from the garden too

Simmered all day long
Poured over spaghetti with lots of cheese added
(everything is better with lots of cheese)
What a delicious dinner

There was plenty left over to use another day, or five.

The Crew

Here is a pic I took yesterday after church of my five adorable kids. (If I do say so myself)

Turning Five

Jacqueline turned five years old this weekend. Yeah, she has been so excited to be Jerika's age again. It has been five months since they were the same age and Jacqueline does not like her sister being a bigger number than her. So the big day came and we partied like we were five. We had an fiesta on Saturday which her birth mother organized. It was enjoyable, then on Sunday we had family over, Jacqueline got to invite one friend and she invited Cole (She just loves her friend Cole). We had a super great time. I made a Barbie Cake and had an interesting time decorating it as I have never been trained in the art of Cake decor.

Jacqueline was so sweet opening her presents. She was quiet and cleanly, she kept putting the wrapping paper in the garbage after each present. She would also go to the person who gave her each present and give them a hug then say "thank you" almost in a whisper, all shy and cute. She is rarely like that (She is a loud talkative little thing normally) so it was so very cute her being so coy.

Baby Dolls and Love

Jennedy is such a good mommy to her baby dolls. She always makes sure that they are wrapped up tight in a blanket and spends hours holding and feeding them. She doesn't care that they are covered in marker and naked most of the time. She loves them. I watch as she kisses them on the head and cuddles them. She is a great mom to them.

Jennedy is very protective of her babies. If her sisters even try to take them she lets out a blood curdling scream and fights for her beloved babies. No baby will be kidnapped from this mom, and if she cant get her babies back from those "guys", she goes straight to the authorities(me) and does not let me rest until her babies are back in her possession.

Jennedy knows how to be a good mom and only on rare occasions drops or abandons her babies for other toys or games. I was in a meeting yesterday at my house and Jennedy came up to me to wrap her baby in the blanket. I did and sent her off, moments later she was crying and came back to me without the baby. She said something that I could not interpret and was pointing to the baby. I think it was about the baby falling down.

Me: Go pick her up,
Jenn: "baby whying"
Well go get her and I will see what is wrong
No baby whying
is she cold
no
why is she crying
te feaw
She fell down
ess
Is she hurt
ess
Bring her to me and I will give her kisses
Me do it
OK
And off she ran to kiss her baby

I am sure the lady I was meeting with was entertained, but this is Jennedy, she just loves her babies and was upset that she dropped her.


This morning, I was playing babies with Jennedy and was cracking up because she was so serious about what her baby needed. She needed me to do something with the baby blanket and I could not figure it out, she was frustrated and not super happy that I was laughing at her plight. Eventually I did something right with the blanket and she was happy.

Then we decided to dress the babies and were picking out clothes. Jennedy never likes the outfit that actually fits each baby, she wants ones that are super big and dare I say funny looking. I guess it does not matter as she rarely keeps the clothes on for very long. Maybe that is why she always keeps her babies in blankets, so they wont be cold.

Jennedy is a great Mommy!

Quirks

My cousin, Michelle tagged me with the "List Your Quirks" tag. The ever-knowledgeable and always accurate Internet, claims that a quirk is "a peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy; oddity" So here goes.

1. During the summer when it is hot or even warm, I like to have a fan blow on me when I sleep, that may be normal but now here is the quirky part, I also like to have a nice big blanket on me while the fan is blowing on me. Everyone is boiling hot and there I am with a huge blanket on and the fan still on. I can't have one without the other.

2. I like to eat something right after I brush my teeth because I don't like the taste of toothpaste in my mouth. So that whole "you should brush your teeth after you eat" thing does not really work for me, but I do brush my teeth before I eat. Proper dental hygiene is a must.

3. I don't like to hear people chew, it really grates on my nerves.

4. I read really fast, I can read over 100 pages an hour, and I love to read, anything and everything. I can tune out the whole world when I read, which drives my husband crazy. I become entirely engrossed and often stay up most of a night reading as I don't like to leave a book unfinished.

5. I constantly spill on myself, I usually ruin a shirt a day. I buy a ton of stain remover but sometimes all stains just wont come out. Joe wants me to throw away stained shirts but sometimes it is a brand new shirt and that would be wasteful. Still he says if I don't wear it why should I keep it. Well, I do wear them on days when I don't go out and stay at home. Days when I don't see anyone but my kids. They don't mind a few stains on mama's shirt.

6. When I eat candy bars, I dissect them and eat them by parts, first just the chocolate exterior, next the filling, next the cookie, or nougat. I rarely just take a bite out of a candy bar. Because of this It takes me a while to eat one candy bar, I guess it could be seen as diet tool. I also think that I truly get to enjoy the full spectrum of the candy bar by tasting each separate ingredient individually.

So there you have it a few of my silly quirks.

Where are all my scissors?

I must have 10 to 15 pairs of scissors but I can never find one when I need one. I have set places for my scissors and one place is in my kitchen, in a big plant pot I painted and made into a pencil holder. There must be 50 or 60 pencils and pens in there. I always keep my scissors there too. I also have a pair in my sewing kit, in the wrapping paper caddy and kitchen shears in the knife drawer. I have 20 of those scrap booking scissors that make different borders that I used to use before I got into doing it all digitally.

My kids love to cut as I am sure all kids do, so as I don't want all my scissors to go missing I buy them many pairs of kids scissors and they are all over the house, in the craft drawers and my kitchen pencil holder. There are normally scissors everywhere and easy to find in my house.

Then suddenly they are all gone. What happened? I have no idea. I know that both of my kitchen Shears have made there way to the garage and are now apparently tools of Josephs. All my other scissors are missing. My kids have been on a major craft kick, they are making the cutest things, so inventive and layered. They also love glue. I love the crafts they are coming up with now, they blow me away. They have depth and creativity. Super cool stuff. Still, I want my scissors. When I ask my girls where they are they have no idea. Seriously, there are really times when I need scissors.

So guess what I did today. I went to the dollar store and bought six pairs of scissors. 3 regular, and 3 kitchen shears. Sure they may not be the best quality but they will eventually be lost anyways and now I have scissors again. I put all six in my kitchen pot and guess what, I am thrilled. I had scissors when I needed them today, hooray. I am not sure how long they will last there but if they disappear again... there is always a dollar store nearby.

Bounteous Summer Garden

We planted a great garden this year and have has some wonderfully fresh veggies to eat. My mom and dad were here when Tyler was born during the summer and my dad was instrumental in getting our garden in the ground. We had been growing our plants from seed in the green house and dad kept telling me we needed to get them in the ground since it was the end of May. So one day he and I worked on getting up all the weeds and getting the plants in . We had fifteen tomato plants, holy cow. They have been giving us wonderful tomatoes since the end of the summer. We also planted zucchini and yellow crooked neck squash, which have been so yummy and gave in abundance. We have frozen many bags of cut up zucchini and squash.

This year I planted a whole packet of Basil and have been thrilled by the success. I have made so much pesto that I put in ice cube trays and freeze. We will have pesto for the entire year to eat on pasta, meat and anything else we can think of. It is fantastic and super yummy. I also gave some to friends. It has been an abundant harvest. This year I decided to plant an eggplant as Joseph's favorite dish is egg plant parmigiana. We got too great eggplants off of that, I still have not made his favorite dish but will do so very soon.

All my kids love tomatoes and we eat them constantly, Jennedy is so funny, anytime we are outside she is over in the tomato patch eating cherry tomatoes off the vine. She eats them like they are grapes and eats a ton of them.

We also have a black berry patch in our back yard and we had a ton of black berries this year. We froze a bag of those even, it was hard getting them in a bag as they were so yummy that all we wanted to do was eat them. When the kids were in the back yard during the summer and I was not out there they would gorge themselves in blackberries. They would come in covered in blackberry juice. They would stay stained for quite a while too. The worst part is that many a shirt and pant got stained. I have been through a lot of stain remover this year due to that black berry patch. Oh well, they are good for them right. I do love having a garden. I don't think that we will have so many tomato plants next year and hopefully we will get the garden in earlier next year, hopefully my dad will be in town again and will help me.

Thelin Family Reunion 2008

A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day.

Yesterday was bad. My kids are sick and clinging to me like I am the sun in their universe. I can have 3 whining kids on me at any given time and they hate to share me, what can I do though, leave one to cry. The fevers are no fun, and anytime they get awaken from a nap there is about an hour at least of holding them to get them to calm down and stop screaming. They get woken up by their other siblings who are crying due to being sick.

I was just plain tired and feeding Tyler, when suddenly I look at the clock and I have forgotten to pick up Jerika from the bus stop.


I quickly put down the baby who starts screaming and dash upstairs to try and catch the bus. In my wake is another screaming child who needs me. I dash outside as the phone starts to ring. I ignore it and run down the street. That's when the neighbor kids, who are playing outside, tell me I missed it and the bus is gone. I run back to my home which is full of crying kids, perhaps they thought I was abandoning them due to all the crazy crying and could not take it anymore. They were at the windows watching their mother run down the street, and crying.

I pick up the message from the call I missed and it is the bus depot. I call them back and they tell me that I will be written up for not being at the stop. What does that mean? I ask. Well apparently if I miss picking her up 3 times they will call child protective services, they tell me to pick her up at another school where the bus will drop her off.

I got off the phone and started crying. Am I a bad mother, I mean my life is crazy, I made a mistake, I was busy feeding my baby. Do I really need to get investigated by DHS, I mean seriously. I try hard and do really great most of the time. I rock as a mom, don't I. It felt terrible to be treated that way.

So, I get my other four kids in the van, I had to wake up Trenton one of my babies, who has not slept enough and wont stop screaming.

As I am getting my kids in the car, I notice that the glove box and all the other compartments in the van are open. I was thinking, I wonder what Joe was looking for, and why did he not close them. Suddenly it hits me that things are missing and someone has broken into our van and robbed us.

I guess they did not like our selection of CD's as most are kids and religious music. But they did steal some of them. But the worst part is they took our GPS, our Garmin Nuvi 650, gone!! The nerve. We have not even had if for a year and now some thief has it. I am angry and a bit sad. Now I am going to get lost all the time like I did before that wonderful piece of equipment came into our life.

Here is the really stupid part, It has a lock on it. The criminal who took it wont even be able to use it without the code. The only way to reset the code is to send it in to Garmin and have them reset it. We are going to send them the police report and if it is sent in they will seize it and we will hopefully get it back. I am not counting on it though. They will probably just ditch it as it wont be of any use to them. I think it was probably one of the teenagers that roam the streets at night and tried the door to our van, which was parked in our driveway and it was open. Joe thinks he forgot to lock it. So I don't think they will try to sell it and scam someone on E bay but maybe.

Anyway, I called Joe and told him about the Robbery then went to the school to pick up my kiddo. Jerika was very sad, she said that the bus driver drove up to our house and honked the horn then left. She said she started crying when he left and was very upset that I was not there, I told her I cried too and that I would really work on not forgetting her again. The school told me I needed ID and so they made me leave Jerika there crying at the desk while I went to get my ID. Oh well at least they were being safe.

When we got home I called the police to file a police report and was just finishing up with that when Jacqueline tells me that she is so sick and can she go to bed. Of course, one sick kid sleeping is always a good thing. I take the others downstairs and the babies are super clingy as they have not gotten enough sleep. Suddenly Jacqueline is screaming from upstairs. I run up to help her and she has thrown up all over her bed and floor and is still puking. She is crying and I am so tired and miserable. I get it all clean-up get some medicine in her and get the babies down for a nap, then it is time to cook dinner.

After dinner, I told Joe I need to leave and go shopping. He understood but I know how hard 5 little ones are to manage by yourself so I took the one who was not sick with me and went shopping, I bought some cute stuff and felt more relaxed and calm when I got home. I even bought a watch with an alarm so I could set it so I will never again miss Jerika's bus.

You know what bugs me though. When I was walking out to the parking lot, I was frightened. My mind was playing tricks on me, I was thinking, what if someone grabs you, or hurts you and Jennedy? When I was buckling Jennedy I was thinking that someone could easily grab me from behind or jump in my unlocked car and hurt us. I am miffed. This person who broke into my car also has left me feeling scared and untrusting. Now I am a scardy cat normally but now that I feel violated by this thief, I am even more scared. I know fear is bad, its not from God, and I try to fight it but I am even more angry at the thief for taking my feeling of safety from me. Would he care if he knew how that small act of thievery affected me and my emotional state. Probably not, Stealing is wrong, so wrong and I am angry, I don't like to be angry or scared. Oh this is no fun at all. I hope my emotions get back to normal sooner than later.

Life will get better right, I was only up once with a sick baby last night so I think that is as good as it is going to get until all my babies are better.

My kids crack me up.

I think the best thing about being a parent is how much you get to Laugh. Kids are so funny. No that Jennedy is talking, she cracks me up on a daily basis. Trenton is just as funny. He loves to blow raspberries and cracks himself up. It is crazy how much fun we can have with a simple pair of sun glasses. Jerika is a total drama queen, my mom said I would have a child like me and she sure is. Still with the drama comes much entertainment. Did I mention that I am crazy about my kids. There is nothing better than laughing each and every day.

Bubble Bath Contemplations

Whenever I take a bubble bath, like just a minute ago, in our new jetted tub, I think.... My thoughts have been about my littlest sister Tammy who passed away 2 months ago. (She is at the far left in the Photo above, right next to me.) You wonder why I think about her, when I am relaxing in a great tub? Well that room has many memories of her.

She was the first guest to use it . We were even still in the process of working at getting it finished when she came for another week visit. She was so happy to have a bathroom downstairs by the guest room so she did not have to go upstairs in the middle of the night. One morning she came up and was brushing her long blond hair and was complaining about all the tangles. I started talking about good conditioners and she said her hair was just tied in knots because she had put her head under the water when the jets were on. I told her not to do that because there is a warning that her hair could get caught in the intake and drown her. She wished she knew that before but was happy she had made it out alive. We joked about it.

Also when I use the great bubble bath with Eucalyptus in it, I think of her because she gave it too us. She was going to come up another time for a week with her and Emma for spring break and our whole family got sick. We were bummed and she did not want to come and get Emma sick. So we were laying around and heard the door bell ring. It was Tammy and Emma, they had brought us a huge get well gift box full of stuff. She had tons of cold medicine in there for kids and adults, also Echinacea. She had heads of Garlic and Ginger which she chopped up and had us eat raw drinking it down with orange juice. There was also lots of different soups and this great bubble bath to use to help relieve congestion. There was also a kids movie the kids had wanted that she bought for us to watch. Plus tons of great magazines right off the supermarket shelf. Just to keep us all entertained during our illness. I love her. It was so kind of her to drive 3 hours to bring us this wonderful gift box. She did not stay, just told us she loved us and gave us the full box and then her and Emma drove 3 hours back home.

See that is the kind of person she was, she was generous and so great. So when I take my bubble baths and think about her I cry. She was such an important person in my life and I miss her tremendously. There is also a Wind chime in our back yard made from coconuts and bamboo, that she found at the store one day and thought it would be cool in our back yard. She even hung it up out there and then showed us. When I am working in the Garden and hear it ringing, I think of her talking to me saying "hi" in the wind.

Yesterday we were making frozen yogurt in a terrific ice cream maker that she gave us last Christmas. She spent Christmas eve with us and all the kids were in the nativity. When I mentioned that Tammy had given us the maker. My kids commented on how much they missed her, I told them I missed her too. Jerika responded that she wished she was dead so she could see Tammy. We said we would see her again and we would miss her too much if she was dead. It think she just wanted to empathize with her mommy's sadness and let her know that she missed her just as much as her mommy did. It was sweet.

I miss Tammy and want everyone to know that she was a tremendous person. She died a crazy, freak death and it was way to early. Still I am at peace as I know that it was just her time. Her life was full of generosity and love and she had a personality that pulled everyone in and made you feel great. She was vibrant and energetic and I miss her and love her dearly.