October 19, 2008

Happy Birthday's to

Robynn and Isaac!

I was not kidding about all the birthdays. We finally just left the Happy Birthday sign up on the wall. The kids asked if we were going to leave it up for Andrew in November...I think we will, but that lead into the conversation that we should just leave it up for Jesus's birthday on Christmas day. Then 6 weeks later for Michael's...I am beginning to think we should switch to a special plate or something. Or maybe, this is my dream come true, my life is just one big party. Although it was much more fun when I was younger and did not have to figure out how to finance all these parties. I have made a very important discovery. It is much cheaper to buy cupcakes for $4 then a quarter sheet cake for $13. Another bonus it I don't have to make them. Cake decorating is up there with scrubbing toilets on my list of thing I enjoy! Another plus is that you don't have leftovers for weeks to come, just happen to leave them open on the counter after the party and they magically disappear.

Speaking of magic..Grandma Baker worked hers and found Robynn a new hat. Robynn loves her hats!

Because I blog in order of events...Isaac's birthday is further down the event page.

So Michael kept busy on his forced, unforeseen vacation (aka being unexpectedly terminated) (aka what idiot would fire my husband) (aka I am still not over this..but on a brighter note he is gainfully employed by a great new firm, SO much better then the OLD firm.) ...........
Oh back to topic, ongoing joke around here is that every time Michael has some time off that he does not have a list of things he wants to do the chain saw comes out. It is his favorite toy. This time the tree in my parents front was the victim. Michael spent the better part of a day slowly taking down the tree. (Note-He is in the tree, without a job, and avoiding my badgering questions from the ground on weather he still has health care!)


One of the fun thing Michael did do while he was off was make arrangements for the boys to do the horsemanship merit badge. The girls got to go too. Robynn also worked on a horse love badge for Girl Scouts. The kids had a great time doing it.


Here is a cute story about Isaac. He is not walking yet, but he is pulling himself up on everything. He loves for the kids to put him on this little ATV that we got Joshua last Christmas. We put him on it and drive him around on it all the time. It is electric. The other night I was on the computer and heard it running, I did not think anything about it until I saw Isaac on it parked against a wall. So I yelled to the other kids. WHO LEFT ISAAC ON THE ATV? No one would admit to it. So we took him off and watched him. Sure enough he climbed back on it with some effort, pushed the button(which he was not able to do the day before) and off he went. Of course all of his greatest fans went wild cheering him on!
Now to the birthday! Isaac is now officially 1! We slipped a short party in between all of our busy schedules. I can tell you he is the sixth child. I did not have a chance to get him all dresses up for his first birthday. An old stained onsie fit the build for the day. He was only going to smoother chocolate all over it anyways! We opened presents and then set him up at the high chair to have at his 1st birthday cupcake (see notes above;-) He knew exactly what to do. I think it is from all of the practice he has had lately. Another sign of a sixth child is that the grownup sat around the table chatting and let Taylor loose with the camera to capture the memories. Not much oohing and awhing from the grownups. But his brothers and sisters loved every minute of it!


This last one is just a cute picture. Joshua was up late one night. He wanted some applesauce. I got out the jar and he just took off with it. The rest of the story is the funniest. So he ate what was in the jar and asked for more. I opened another jar to get him some more. Set the bowl on the table for him to eat, went back to what I was doing, he pick up the jar and headed back to his movie. He was not going to eat it out of a bowl. I am sure from experience it just tastes better out of the jar. So now for the part that I don't have pictures for. I had to go back to work in the construction business this month. I thought my construction days were behind me until I met...the carpenter ant! Did not know what one was, but I sure do now. My mom had found little piles of sawdust around her window. We thought maybe it was termites so I went outside and took the trim boards off the window. It was ants...They had eaten the ENTIRE header board. So that moved me inside the house where it was my privilege to remove all the sheet rock and insulation from the wall, only to find not one but two nests and a trail to another room. So thanks to the Internet, they are eating the best ant bait money can buy! We are hoping that they are taking it back to all of their little ant friends. Our gift to them, for all the joy they have brought me. Saturday I spent all day replacing studs and putting back in the window. Now we are just waiting for them to fill up on poison and then I will re insulate, sheet rock, texture and paint. Things I was really hoping I would never have to do again!

I did do something great and amazing this week...but of course I can not tell you will out leading up to it. Taylor has one more merit badge to do for his Eagle, it is the beloved Personal fitness. So we took it on as a school subject this semester. The kids have really enjoyed it. We have played basketball, jumped rope, done sit-ups and push-up and ran. The kids like the running the most. So we split up in teams. There is a loop we can do in the neighborhood that is almost a mile. So Taylor runs one directions with Robynn on her bike and Andrew and I run the other direction. Taylor and I can not run together because he has long legs and runs really fast, so he will run ahead of me and then walk the rest of the way(cheater!) Well this week I ran the whole mile. Not just once but on THREE different days. The first time I thought I was going to die, but I didn't! I learned on my third run that I can not run after dinner, not because I just ate, but because it kept me up most of the night. I am pleasantly surprised that I am not terribly sore. I have found that I actually am enjoying it. I love doing it with the kids. Andrew loves to tease me that I run at turtle pace. Aimee can outrun me on the whole mile, but I don't care...I am just excited that I can do it!
So that is what keeps us going these days. Michael does have a new job in Chico if you have not already heard. He loves it. His boss is great. I love it. He takes Taylor to early morning seminary for me then heads to the office. They have been keeping him busy, and are very happy to have someone with his knowledge of taxes in the office. I am just happy that he is happy.

A couple of housekeeping notes. 1) I wrote this blog really late at night(need I say more) and 2) I try to write my blog like I would tell you in person. I am not looking to win a literally award for punctuation, context or any of the boring stuff I have to teach my children...It is only here to entertain you. So please enjoy it for what it is....But buy all mean enjoy it for all the things is in not also!

Love Ya All
Shirley