One of those days

Today was one of those days, it had been a long weekend with lots of fun. Now we had to get back to business, things like weekly chores and school needed to be done. After breakfast we started on school. The boys ended up in trouble, for I forget what at this point, but were in time out. Kaleb decided time out was not acceptable today, so he screamed and screamed and screamed. I was working with Hannah on math, Evie was demanding my attention (read screaming for it), Damen was climbing over me and Kaleb was screaming (still). Well, we made it through school, lunch and Hannah did her weekly chores, so I figured the best thing at that point was a two hour outside break. We then came back in, the girls cleaned their room and Evie did her weekly chores. I then started making chicken alfredo for dinner, which I completely messed up by putting the flour in before I cooked the chicken and didn't have any milk, but ended up using evaporated milk, it actually turned out surprisingly good considering how much I messed it up. I made cookies after dinner and the power went out. Fortunately, only for a minute. I looked back on the day and wondered if I had done anything besides correct the boys....I worked with them on scissor use, did some coloring, read them books, worked on letter sounds and did some gross motor skills with the tricycle. I guess I did do stuff with them :-) Well all the kids are in bed now. I made it through another day...on to the rest of the day.

Stepping Stones and the Park

I mentioned last week that we went to Stepping Stone museum, but spent about as much time at the park outside the museum as at the museum. Well, here are some pictures of the crazy kids having fun at the park.

 Have I mentioned my kids LOVE to play together? All four of them. I love to watch them play, the girls are so good with the boys and the boys love the girls so much. It's great :-) 

Evie, being a monkey across the monkey bars

Kaleb picking a dandelion to blow. Hannah taught the boys how to "puff" the dandelions as she calls it. 

Here's Damen blowing one. 

Hannah and Damen enjoying a ride

Train down the slide, I love Kaleb's face on this one!

They loved the roller slide and did all kinds of crazy things on it

Here's Hannah "surfing" down it. 

Evie has to try that one too.

This is Kaleb going "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" while bumping down the slide

I just sat at the bottom laughing and taking pictures. They were having so much fun!

 Evie and Kaleb enjoying a double see-saw type thing

And Hannah and Damen on the other side.

And all four on the tire swing.

This is Kaleb "cutting down a tree" 

I thought I was going to get Kaleb cutting down a tree, but this on ended up being Damen, so when I ask "what do you have" if you listen carefully you can hear Damen answer in the background "a chain saw" EVERYTHING is a chain saw ever since Daddy and Granddad cut down a bunch of trees.

reading on the deck

The weather has been amazing the past few days and one of Hannah's favorite thing to do on warm sunny days is to read on the deck. Well, the other day she was out on the deck reading and her siblings decided to join her! The boys went downstairs and grabbed some books, then went to the deck to read with her.

Here they are reading, Kaleb has a cookie monster book, while Damen has Goodnight Moon, which has been repaired with Mario duct tape (thank you Debbie).

double failure

Yesterday was a long day, it might have had something to do with the fact that I didn't get to bed until 1 am and the boys were up at 6:15 am, we spent all day out of the house (that's a post for a later time), but not really. The real longness came when I got home and my fridge wasn't working. That happened a weekish ago to me as well. The freezer was up to 26, not so good for a freezer. Fortunately Nathan was home right after me, so I didn't have to deal with it on my own. Which was nice, but failure number to came into play before we even started dealing with the fridge. In the middle of making dinner the door switch on the oven went. It was stuck in the I think the door is closed position. Not bad, the oven still works that way....until brilliant me was making cookies and decided to see if I cold get the switch unstuck in the middle of baking my cookies when I put a sheet in the oven......yeah....then it got stuck in the door is open position...sort of at least, it turned off the oven and I couldn't get it to turn it back on for anything. Not cool.....oh wait, it was cool....so it took my cookies forever to cook and they didn't turn out so nice...but they still taste good :-) The good news is my fridge is nice and clean, which I stayed up way too late doing because we cleared all the food out of it after the kids were all in bed. Hopefully it will be fixed today, we have an appliance repair guy who goes to our church, so he came over and took a look at it and will hopefully be able to fix the circuit board which is acting funny. As for the oven, it depends if has the part in stock or not. 

The Beach!

It hit 80 degrees today and it was definitely time to got o the beach. The warm weather, plus the fact that the girls had been asking to go forever, I figured why not. So the girls finished their school work before we had to leave for therapy with time to spare, we went to therapy, went grocery shopping, came home, changed into swim suits and were off. When we got their Hannah's first comment upon feeling the water with her feet was "It's cold!" my response? "Did I not tell you it was going to be cold? What did you expect? Did this really surprise you?" but, even with the slight chill in the water both girls got completely wet and Hannah even practiced her swimming (crazy girl!).

 I think this is my favorite picture of the day. Hannah, dumping a bucket of water on herself. I missed all the amazing smiles she had, I was so bumped. Hannah LOVES the beach and you get smiles out of her there like no where else. 

Running......

And splashing into the water!

Sometimes with a jump :-) 

Here's Damen jumping!

Smiley Evie

The boys enjoying the water. 

Hannah swimming

And Evie swimming!

a new hat?

The other day my boys stripped and were running around the house. Not a big surprise, this happens. It happened all the time with Evie :-) Anyway, Kaleb comes up and shows me his new hat. I thought you might like to see it too.

 It very much goes with these pictures from last year.

through the year

I thought since I haven't been able to post pictures of the boys for the past year plus that we've had them that I'd do a post of them through the past 15 months. So let's review, Little Boy Blue = Damen, Green Machine = Kaleb.
We met them in January of last year. Here's a picture of us from our first meeting. We were told we shouldn't take pictures...so this was all we have.

Nathan has Kaleb and I have Damen in this picture.

I also completely forgot to take a picture their first day at our house. But here are some pictures from Jan. 2013.

 Damen hanging out with his new big sister!

Kaleb says I have sisters?? Oh, is that why I'm dressed like this?

February:

Kaleb looks up, wondering if he'll ever be able to make it up all those stairs. Damen on the other hand says do I really have to wait for you Mom? 

Kaleb's enjoying sitting backwards on the chair. 

What's Hannah doing? Damen loved Hannah from day one!

My four sweet kids, Hannah, Evie, Damen and Kaleb.

The boys (Kaleb and then Damen in the stripes) and I hanging out while the girls bounce.

Pretending to enjoy the snow. Damen is standing, Kaleb is sitting.

Here's March:

This is Easter last year. 

This is Damen doing the sign for egg. Whenever he found an egg last year he did the sign and got very excited.

Helping Mommy vacuum. Kaleb has the pretend (red) vacuum, Damen has the real one, you can't really see it from this angle though. 

This is Kaleb, he is superman, with a green headband. Doesn't Superman always where a headband? 

And this is Damen.

April:

S'more time! Damen is closer, Kaleb is in the background.

The boys with their Daddy! Kaleb in the blue, Damen in the green. 

Did I mention bumper cribs? Damen is in the back, Kaleb in the front. Kaleb's crib started by the window at nap time.

May:

Kaleb enjoying the time at the park!

Ahhhh what's going on? That's Damen climbing in front there.

Kaleb enjoying strawberries and cream. Yum!

Damen was a little neater. 

June:

 Isn't he cute? Can you tell who it is yet? Kaleb. 

Cutie number two (Damen), enjoying a swing with Evie. 

 Did I mention climbing from crib to crib?

Nothing going on here Mom. 

Sister love. That's Kaleb with the girls. 

At the zoo, Evie, Kaleb, Hannah, Damen.

July:

 Bummer chairs

Kaleb and Damen enjoying the pool

Kaleb and Damen enjoying the glider

Playing at the park with Daddy and the girls

Sliding with Daddy, those are happy faces, really they are. That's Damen on the left and Kaleb on the right.

August:

Damen hanging out in a boat in VT.

Kaleb going for a boat ride. 

Kaleb enjoying the water table.

Damen says "what? I'm not supposed to swim in the water table?"

September:

Helping me cook

Playing in a box, Damen wants help and Kaleb doesn't think it's very fun....

Kaleb, Damen, Hannah and Evie at Evie's baptism.

Yes, of course Damen is a Bills fan. :-) 

Kaleb's choice of hats is slightly different. 

October:

Swinging. The boys love going high on the swings and getting underdogs. Damen is on the left, and Kaleb on the right.

Damen mowing the grass for me.

Kaleb helps out with the mowing as well.

Sometime the rock needs a mowing too.

Rides from Hannah. Kaleb is on top and Damen is in the car.

Helping me rake

Damen, Evie, Hannah and Kaleb on the glider

Halloween. Kaleb, Damen, Evie and Hannah.

November:

Look Mom, I have an antler (this is Kaleb)

So do I. These are pictures from the museum.

It's really much more comfty than it looks - Kaleb

See? Plenty of room. Damen and Kaleb both enjoy being shut in the play kitchen oven. 

Helping Granddad vacuum. 

Gramma Barb with her boys (she's their foster mom). Damen is on the left and Kaleb on the right.

December:

This would be Damen with the scrape he got at my parents house.

 Kaleb with Mommy.

Hannah reading to Kaleb, Evie and Damen.

I think that's Kaleb and then Damen on the right.

Damen is in the front and Kaleb in the back.

Silly kids on the floor, Damen, Kaleb, Hannah and Evie.

Damen opening Christmas presents

Kaleb opening an Christmas present. 

January:

Damen on the left and Kaleb on the right "driving" with funny faces.

Kaleb sitting down and taking a break from the fun on the ice. 

Damen helping make pretzels!

February:

Damen and Kaleb having fun in the bus at Stepping Stones.

That's Damen drinking out of the water there....

Kaleb and Hannah catching snow flakes!

March:

Damen and Kaleb enjoying their new car (or tractor as they call it) from Grandma!

Kaleb enjoying a "house" the girls made him. 

And here is Damen in his house. 

Kaleb, Hannah, Evie and Damen in cute clothes from Aunt Debbie!

Damen, Kaleb and Hannah hanging out, waiting to go outside. 

And that brings us pretty much currently, with the other posts I've done in April. I hope you enjoyed the review and there will be a quiz on who is who later on :-) I'm sure you can tell them apart by now after looking at all those pictures, right?