Does anyone even check this anymore??

I'm such a terrible blogger! I love going to my friends blogs to see what's going on in their lives, but when it comes to posting on my own, I can never seem to find the time! Here's a short run down of my life since my last post.

January: Pretty boring, a birthday party for my nieces, a couple of days of vacation.

February: Non-Stop craziness!! Andrew was suspended from school, was in a partial program at Immanual Hospital until today, which was a total waste of time and I think he picked up some more bad habits there. Trying to get him settled so he can return to school next week. Had my birthday out at Jack's Place, lots of good friends and drinking a large amount of alcohol in order to mask the stress I was feeling about Andrew. Another rough week goes by. Ethan and Alex had their birthday party Saturday. 17 Kids, bowling, pizza, cake, ice cream!! Insane, I know!! Sunday we went shopping so the boys could spend their birthday money, 3 hours later we come home with a whole mess of new toys. While I'm trying to relax from that fun trip, I listen to my voicemail, where I received a message from my friend Amanda telling me she is having surgery today to remove a large brain tumor. I just talked to her mom a little while ago and she is still in surgery, but it is going well. Please pray for her and her family. That pretty much brings us up to today! Where we have another therapy session with Andrew tonight, plus, all the other things! I promise I will post pictures from the birthday party soon!

My Insane Holiday Season!!!

I know that I haven't posted in awhile, but I have had zero time! :) Our holiday season began the weeked after my last post. It all started on the 19th of December with my wonderful husband's 37th birthday! We went out for a while and then came home and hung out in the quiet house (the kids were at Nana's house). We then got up the next day and drove to Elm Creek for Christmas with Dave's family. We had a good time there hanging out with Dave's parents and his brother's family. The kids all had a great time opening gifts and playing with the cousins. Here is picture 1 of all the grandkids on Dave's side (my 4 kids and our twin nieces). It just kills me to see Laura, Abby and Taryn together. They are all the same age but Laura and Abby just tower over her! Also here are some shots of Taryn in her very first ballet outfit, and Andrew in the elf hat.

Next, it was onto home to prepare for our own Christmas. We went to Lincoln on Christmas eve to my Grandparent's house, but of course I don't have any pictures since I forgot the camera. We made it to Lincoln and met my Grandparent's at Church with no time to spare! We then ate and made the drive back to Omaha. Dave and I of course got the kids all settled, and we had to get all the kids' gifts wrapped and under the tree, this of course took until after 1 am and the kids were up at about 6 am! Taryn was most excited about her Sleeping Beauty doll that sings and they boys got skateboards (I'm not sure if that was a great parenting move on my part).

We then left our house and headed over to my mom's where we spent the day. We opened up lots of gifts and ate and watched movies. The boys all got Talking Star Wars clone helmets but the best picture I have is of Taryn and Abbi wearing them!

Then after all of this craziness, we moved onto the WEDDING! My older sister Rachael got married on New Year's Eve in Grand Island. It went off beautifully, but by the time it was all said and done I need about a two week vacation! Here are some pictures of the wedding: Taryn was the ring bearer and looked so cute! Plus, my sister really made a beautiful bride. The last picture is of course the reception where the people at the VFW don't really know what they are doing, since my sister married MICK not MIKE (take a look at the VFW sign and you'll see what I am talking about). Also Taryn, all tired out and my oldest son dancing the Macarena. On of the other highlights of New Years is that I got to spend time with two of my best friends Laura and Rachael (plus Rachael's husband Andy) from the Fab Five who I don't get to see often enough! It was a joyous, crazy, insane holiday but it sure was fun!

Ugly Holiday Sweaters.....

We had an ugly holiday sweater contest at work last Friday. This picture above is of me and my friend Ingrid sporting our beautiful sweaters! My sweater came from my Mom's closet. My mom does a pretty good job of keeping up with some trends in fashion, she really doesn't know when it's time to not wear a holiday sweater, yes that's right, she still wears this particular sweater. She told me it looked cute with jeans......really......I don't think so. As ugly as my sweater was I did not win the contest, as you see in this picture below the winner was Joe (on the right) in a beautiful sweater vest decorated with santas and garland. Also in the picture is Brian who was very creative with a can of spray paint, and Mandi whose shirt is actually a large felt gift bag. It was a lot of fun and there were lots of laughing at people for most of the day!

Family Pictures

Once a year, we go into Sears Portrait Studio and have new family pictures taken. I get a pretty big discount there, and they have been taking our pictures for the last 6 years or so. Last year, was my year for deciding on clothing so I made everyone dress up, meaning Dave had to wear a tie, and for those of you who know Dave, it was not a pleasant experience for him. Last year we also have the drama fest of a 3 year old trying to take a picture. We managed to get some good ones but not until she had cried, thrown a temper tantrum, and ran away from the camera room. We were kinda of dreading this year, and were anxious to see how Taryn would act.

Surprisingly, pictures went very well! Taryn and the boys were quite the hams in front of the camera and we managed to be in and out in just over an hour! That is quite a feat for a family of 6! Below are some of my favorites from the session, when the one of Taryn by herself was taken, I started to tear up, my last little baby is getting so big!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I know I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, so here is the lowdown:

Dave and I made it through finals! I ended up with a B in all 3 of my classes, so I was pretty excited. I ended writing an extended play review for my final in Theatre. It was a good excuse to bring out the old videos of the musicals from my high school days and take a little trip down memory lane as I reviewed them. (we did an exceptional job)

I am currently back working at Sears portrait Studio over the Christmas Holidays. This is my 3rd year back and I really enjoy it. It's nice to have a job where I basically have no responsibilites. Plus the extra Christmas cash and the picture discount (75% off) is nice too!

We are excited for this weekend, because on Saturday Dave is going to go pick up our new 50" TV (it was our Christmas gift for each other) and our friends Doug and Jen and their 4 kids are coming over to our house (Doug is helping Dave carry the big TV) .

Andrew is slowly getting better. He is working on finding his calm place (don't we all need a calm place?) and is doing better with following the rules at home. He had a big breakthrough last night when he told the truth the FIRST time he was asked about stealing some cookies out of the cupboard. Its the little things that add up with him. So our focus was on how proud we were of him for telling the truth, and not about the bad behavior.

Taryn apparently skipped the terrible twos, because we are having the toughest time with her. She screams, slams doors, throws things and it outright definant with us. Trying to stay calm with her has been a challenge. But lately we have discovered if we tell her that we are not talking to her until she can be nice, she stops. Hopefully this phase will pass by quickly.

Ethan and Alex are getting ready for their 3rd grade music concert, where they are doing some music from Africa and then performing songs from Suessical the Musical. It should be interesting to say the least. They will tell you that they have stage fright, which just kills me because they won't try out for any special parts or choirs and they both have such great singing voices (a trait they get from their dad). Regardless it is always fun to watch a bunch of 3rd graders try and sing and dance!

That's it for me! If I don't get a chance to post next week, which is entirely possible with 2 jobs and 4 kids, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I have a lot to be thankful for this year!

It's that Time Again...

Ok, here I am in the midst of final exams and final projects. The class that I thought would struggle with the most (Macroeconomic) has actually been a breeze for me. But, my other classes are killing me! I just finished my speakers notes, Power Point Presentation, and paper for my Info 1001 class! It took me forever! I am still dreading the Intro to Theatre final project of a 5-10 page play with a 3 page Character Analysis. I have so much time for this crap....Wish me Luck!

Trick-or-Treat!!!!

Well, another Halloween has come and gone, and we of course have 800 pieces of candy to show for it! We went out a little later this time (mostly due to the fact that Dave was still working and that left me do handle all the make-up, costumes, etc..) They had the best time! Taryn was done a little bit sooner than the boys(I think they could have gone another 5 or 6 blocks) But, once we told them they could go home and eat candy they were all about it! It's the one day of the year where we don't say anything about the amount of junk that they are eating, we just let eat candy for about 30 minutes and then we tell them they can pick 4 more pieces and we put the rest up. Here are some pictures to summarize our evening...

Ready to go out!


Our scary "twin" vampires!


Taryn riding a unicorn!


Trick or Treat!!!

Air Force Andrew (he is wearing my dad's actual air force uniform)

Princess Taryn

Our Candy Haul!

The aftermath....