Update

Even better than a dime....a Norwegian ore, which is like the Norwegian penny. It looks like a dime but smaller. I guess A's piggy bank may need to be supplemented with some coins of value when she realizes the only thing an ore is good for is not choking her sister to death. A parental bail out plan is on the table.

The Coin passed yesterday at 9am without incident.
Child and Coin are doing well.

Bad Mom Moment

Little B has been our most mischievous child so far. If someone is not watching her...she WILL be getting into something. She has been the one who eats the toothpaste-luckily I found out it's not as poisonous as I thought! She likes to either drink her bath water or dump her bath water out all over the floor. The toilet has been one of her favorite play areas...her dolls like to go swimming in it, she likes to unroll the whole roll of tp and drag it around the house, but her favorite pastime is going in the cupboard and taking out the fresh rolls of tp and finding out how many she can shove into the toilet.

Other antics include using markers to decorate her whole body right before church, supplementing her room decorations with her own crayon-drawn murals, and if she gets the chance she likes to scribble on photographs and/or library books with pen. More dangerous favorites include playing with matches (and lit candles when available), sticking keys in electrical outlets, running with scissors-you name it, she's done it.

Being home with her all day, one may wonder where I am when she is doing all this?? Well, I have to admit sometimes I am blabbering on the phone, but often I'm being a good little homemaker and putting laundry away, cooking dinner, helping someone with their homework...and various other noble-housewife-pursuits. Or maybe I am just looking away for ONE SECOND!

Well, her latest incident came yesterday and unfortunately it was one of those times when I was blabbering on the phone and not pursuing a "noble-housewife-task". She was upstairs and decided to 'count' Allison's money, which consists of all coins. I heard her making a strange coughing/screaming noise and she was saying something was stuck in her throat. I ran upstairs as she was saying "now it's in my tummy!!" (with a little smile on her face). I asked her which coin and she pointed to a silver one. Now, we wait....

I'm saying two prayers: THANK YOU GOD FOR NOT LETTING HER CHOKE, and PLEASE LET IT BE THE DIME!

Giant Pumpkin Head Cake

Last weekend, we had occasion to bake a Giant Pumpkin Head Cake. If you love cake, I'd recommend this one. It serves more people than there are who actually want some. What you do is make 2 dense pumpkin bundt cakes, stick them together, and slather the whole thing with the brightest orange frosting you can make...then add a face. Oh, and don't forget the stem...an ice cream cone slathered with more green frosting! It weighs about 200lbs and really sticks to the ribs! Great way to fill up hungry little bellies for days and maybe even weeks. I'm definitely keeping this one in my recipe box.

Meet 'Midnight'

When I was little I always wanted a rabbit. More than anything. My parents knew this would be a terrible pet for us and never gave in. I'm sure they also took into consideration the fact that I was DEATHLY afraid of our cat to the point that I would not walk past the cat. If the cat was waiting in front of the door when I got home from school, I would call my mom from the porch so she could shoo him away so I could walk past. Oh, and this happened pretty much every day. Unfortunately, I was also terrifed of every other cat...and this lasted my whole life until now.

Our 9yo, H, has been wanting a guinea pig. I was actually considering this, knowing they don't bite or scratch like cats, but RH wasn't thrilled with housing a rodent. Plus, the ones at the pet store sort of gave me the willies. The pet store girl didn't really help, either. She said guinea pigs didn't smell at all, but she then qualified that statement by adding that she, herself, LIKED the 'barnyard' smell. So that was sort of a red flag.

But I wanted a pet for the kids...we both grew up with pets (ok, none of those pets ever really worked out-but at least our parents tried!). Plus, I love my house-full of kids....but our mini van is feeling really crowded as it is so I don't see us adopting those twins I always wanted.

All of the sudden, my neighbor K tells me she has this wonderful stray cat hanging at her house and she really wants it but her husband says no and the pound will have to kill it. We go see him and he's The Best Cat! He does not bite, scratch, chase, meow, attack shoe laces, and he's beautiful! And I am a self-proclaimed Cat Hater! Yes, the thought has occurred to me that he is terminally ill or extremely old..but he looks neither. I would name him Mellow Yellow but he's black so the kids named him 'Midnight' (RH wanted Jet...but he'd be more like Barge).

We brought him home the very next day and last night he was purring away with 4 kids doting on him constantly. Little B says, "Mom, I like buying cats!" Then A tells a story of her friend who has a dog who "Just laid 2 puppies!"

'Baby' Turns 3

Well, the baby of the family is now three! B had a fun party with friends and cupcakes in the backyard. When you ask her how old she is now, she promptly replies: "fifteen"...not sure why she keeps doing this...

The very next day after B's birthday, we found out that we have a new little cousin, "E"! From all accounts, he is very adorable...though we won't get to meet him in person for a while since he is on the other coast. Keep those photos coming!
R is happy because, well, the family needs more boys! E will need to be good with a bat & ball to fit in with all his cousins...and since his parents are such baseball fans, I'm thinking this won't be a problem.

Lazy Crazy Summer

It's been so long since my last post and so much has happened. First, we bought our beach house. It's a fixer-upper with an awesome view of the exhilarating Pacific Ocean. Yes, it needs a lot of work...but it's an investment. It came with a dog house in the front yard, which the kids like to sit on. More on that whole thing later.

The day of the closing I took the kids out to the east coast to visit all of our family out there for a month. It's not easy flying across the country with 4 kids in tow...but it seems to get easier every year-and, more expensive! We had a wonderful vacation spending time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. RWH joined us for a bit and we went with my parents to Cape May, NJ, for a week. We all had so much fun. It was hard when it was time to leave but we got a nice long visit with everyone.

We also have Uncle J. with us again! Uncle J. is RWH's brother who has stayed with us in the past and worked for us on several projects around the house during his summer breaks from college (yes, he is 13yrs younger). So he came out to live with us again this summer and ended up spending most of his time working on the beach house, luckily for us since it needs so much work and we're getting old and lazy.

Now that we're home from our trip 'back' east and adjusting to summer and Uncle J. being here, the kids and I are spending a lot of time playing, relaxing, swimming, reading, running, biking, eating, taking long walks and watching lots of movies. Sprinkle in some rip-roaring sibling fights, a few bee stings, lots of skinned knees and more than our share of potty accidents, and it's a typical, crazy, frustrating yet wonderful summer with the kids!

Ignorance is Bliss

We are getting ready for our summer vacation 'back' east. Our oldest daughter, H., was thinking of the airplane trip and remembering the last one she took with RW a few months ago. She said he had bought her a bottle of 7-up just before they had to go through security. She had only taken one sip when the security workers took the bottle and threw it in the trash. Then they asked her if she had any other bottles.

She asked, "Why do they have to do that, Mom? I mean, why can't they just make sure the caps are screwed on really, really tight?"

Moving to Sesame Street

Ok, today A. had the chance to become a star and probably won't because of me. Let me explain. The teacher at A.'s preschool has a reality show about her family on cable. The camera crew practically lives at her house and films the day-to-day life she leads with her husband and 4 kids on their farm. We don't have cable, so that's about all I know about it, but she's fairly well-known as the show has been on for about 4 years now.

So last week, she gave all of the parents a waiver to sign about having our child on t.v., since the camera crew wanted to film her at her day job as a preschool teacher. I signed the waiver, excited that A. might be on t.v.(!) yet also unaffected since I knew we would probably never see her since we don't have cable.

The day of the filming came (today), and I called a friend who is in the morning class to tell me what happened, since we are in the afternoon class. She said that they were not going to be filming during preschool after all because all the waivers weren't signed, but that they would film on the end-of-year party at the teacher's house.

Frankly, I was relieved because A. always gets herself dressed, combs her own hair, and keeps her face clean. And she does it HER way.
You can imagine that what this results in: a 5yo girl who rarely (if ever??) matches, has wild hair (to her defense, it's so thick that it's wild even when it is combed), and usually has some sort of remnants of the latest meal or snack on her face and/or shirt. And I'm the kind of mom who picks my battles and as long the kids have bathed relatively recently and don't have a wad of gum stuck in their hair, I'm feeling pretty good. I guess that's what having 4 kids can do to you.

OK, so when I found out they weren't filming, I was happy to check out A.'s outfit but not have to go there. Not really matching, but not totally clashing. Only a few remnants of lunch on her shirt...face clean. No gum in the hair. Good to go!

Yes, you know where I'm going with this. We arrive at preschool to CAMERAS, CAMERA MEN, and children dressed to the nines. Fancy dresses, fancy shoes, fancy hairdos (even the boys), and along comes A. (didn't you know we were filming today??) Luckily I seemed to care way more than A.-she didn't even realize the situation and I wasn't going to tell her. I was too consumed with trying to remember the last time I saw a kid on Sesame Street with Cheetos stains on her shirt. Oh yeah....never.

Don't worry A., you just wait til the end-of-year party. We will make it on that show...in fact, you will steal the show with your perfect hair, beautifully coordinated outfit, and clean cheeks. And then you will be discovered. You still have a chance of fulfilling my childhood dream of being on Romper Room.....

Spring in name only

Yes, it is spring here, but it still feels like winter. Last night we were at RT's ball game, and a lot of us moms were wearing winter jackets and mittens...and we were still cold. Luckily, our kids must have that Wisconsin blood from RW and don't seem to get cold, even though they have very little body fat to warm them (except B, who still has the 'toddler belly').

Nothing much new but here are a few randoms:

B is almost all potty trained and loves 'flushing'. Yesterday, A was at preschool and B was flushing the toilet when she pointed in the potty and said, (with 2yo enunciation skills) "A is in there" I said, "In the potty?? A is in the potty?" She looked at me very seriously and said, matter-of-factly, "Yes. I flushed her down. I flushed A down." Then she just walked out...

A has been asking a lot of questions lately. Some of her favorites, she asks over and over, since the answers are never satisfying enough. Such as, Is God a person? What color hair does Jesus have? How can God be up in Heaven if he's down here with us? And a book of questions about angels...

But I prefer those questions to the ones where she's scrutinizing my person. For example, the other day I was saying something as I was raising my eyebrows..and she looked at me and said, "Mom, why do you have a rainbow on your face?" I asked her what she was talking about. She replied, "On your forehead...a rainbow!" I looked in the mirror (we were in the car), thinking I had some beautiful reflection of a rainbow on my face, when I realized she meant A RAINBOW OF WRINKLES.
Then I asked her to raise HER eyebrows, and, sure enough....no rainbow.

OKAY ALREADY!!

Ok,
It's been brought to my attention that my ENTIRE blog ends in exclamation points! Thank you, Sister C!!! Seriously...I'm trying to get my blog going with some enthusiasm here...ok??!! The exclamation points are just a way to say, without using additional words, that MY LIFE IS EXTREMELY EXCITING!!!!!!!!!



...now please excuse me while I transfer the wet clothes From the washer To the dryer....BE BACK SOON!!!!

Spring in the PNW

It's been a while since I've posted but we've been very busy. A jaunt to the beach, A started tball, which she LOVES! RT is into another baseball season, H is finished with swimming and basketball commitments and has some time to play more (and do more homework!) and little B got potty trained!

I was expecting another long, drawn out affair of pull-ups, thick training pants, accidents, being housebound, etc. etc., but no. The first day we put underwear on her, she had accidents ALL day long, but after that she just got the hang of it right away! I guess it helps having 3 older siblings....
So now she truly is not a BABY anymore! But of course she will always be OUR baby!

We are also planning out our month long vacation to the east coast to visit grandma & grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins...lots of cousins! Just before we leave, RW's brother, Uncle J, is coming to live with us as he did last summer, to work on projects around the house...new windows, new fences, landscaping....to name a few. He is in college and a lot of fun to have around.....MOST of the time! Not sure why he wants to come back after last summer....kids hanging on him and big brother bossing him....but anyway, I got a new kitchen out of it so if he wants to come back that's fine with me!

And a sad note, RW's aunt passed away last month after a short bout with cancer. She was a very kind and funny person and she will be dearly missed by everyone who had the pleasure to know her. She was definitely a 'glass is half-full' type of person, even after her diagnosis. We will never forget her.

Happy Easter!

Well, we had our 7th (?) annual Easter Brunch on this early Easter (March 23rd this year!).
Two families join us every year, the V's and the H's, and this year we had a new family, the G's. We had 12 kids! We have a big egg hunt in the backyard for the kids (the V's always bring almost 200 filled eggs) and this year we were able to add a new tradition-basketball! The weather turned out to be perfect and people stuck around into the early evening.
It was so fun to watch them all scurry around trying to find as many candy-filled eggs as possible, but we had to keep an eye on BBH, who was eating the chocolate eggs with the wrappers ON. Earlier that morning, the Easter Bunny had left a trail of candy from their bedrooms all the way down to the Easter baskets in the kitchen. When BBH woke up, she immediately started stuffing each and every candy she found into her mouth. When her mouth filled up, she stored the rest in her hands. We were already downstairs when she rounded the corner into the kitchen, mouth FULL of candies, both hands struggling to hold on to the wads of candy in them. The other kids were not much different...they just try to hide it a little better.

Bike Rides and Basketball

This past week was a milestone for us. After adding cement to our driveway to widen it, RWH finally installed the sports-court sized basketball hoop out front! It's awesome. It has a crank to adjust the height, and a large, plexiglass backboard. Believe it or not, this is something RWH has been dreaming about since we moved into the house 10 years ago! Our front yard was already the neighborhood hangout....kids playing 'wall ball' against our garage doors for hours since our garage doors are the only ones on the block that are beat up enough to where one can't make them any worse with wall ball. Also, we have the only boy on the block (RTH) who is willing and able to play wall ball for, oh, 8 hours at a time without tiring. So now the kids have switched to something better...and we may even paint our garage doors!

Another exciting happening is that our 4yo (almost 5!), ANH, learned how to ride a two-wheeler! The first several attempts were painful....her screaming, me (or RWH) asking her to take a little break, her pushing on! She is a persistant little bugger. She kept wanting to practice day and night until she mastered it...which didn't take that long! So now she tools around like a circus monkey....at least she keeps her helmet on!

First New Year's Resolution

My first resolution for the New Year 2008 is to create a family blog! This blog will be a diary for our family, the H family, on what we're doing, where we're going, and all the various things that go on in a family of 6.

I will start with Christmas and the New Year. Christmas wasn't as great as usual. For starters, our grandparents were unable to join us as they usually do due to a last minute illness. But that actually turned out well, because from about Dec. 20th til the 27th, one or more of us was suffering from the stomach flu! The kids still were able to participate in the pageant at church, which was nice. Some of us were able to attend the nextdoor neighbor's party, which was really fun! But the rest of the holiday was pretty uneventful, except for a trip to the ice rink-fun!

We celebrated the New Year at a great party some friends had. They even invited kids (with babysitters to help). Even little BBH, age 2, danced the night away and blew horns with everyone at midnight! It was a great way to start 2008!