HOW MANY kids do you have???

I get this question a lot.  We've got 4, about to be 5 in about 2-3 weeks.  And our house is the same one we bought 9 years ago when I was pregnant with my oldest, Chloe.  It's a 2 bedroom bungalow, not exactly the sprawling home you'd expect when you think about someone with so many kids.  But we like it, and we've made do.  Kevin's job is still in the "building a portfolio/client base" stage, so we really don't feel like we're in a position to buy.  BUT... we need somewhere to put all of these kids!!

A couple years ago (nearly 3 years actually) Kevin and his dad started building a bedroom in the basement wtih the idea that Chloe would move down there.  Well, fast forward to this summer, and here I am pregnant with our 5th child and she's still sharing a bedroom with 2 brothers and Isaac is still sleeping in our room.  Definitely not a great setup. 

So we made a deal, the bedroom had to be done by the time school started this fall.  The spring started out on a positive note, a couple of weekends with forward movement, but then softball season started.  That pretty much meant that NOTHING happened on the house for 2 whole months.  As July came to a close, I was starting to stress.

So I called Kevin at work one afternoon and asked what project could I do in the 2 hours Isaac was sleeping right then.  He told me and I got to work painting Chloe's closet.  I think the fact that I was asking for a job to do during naptime got him to realize this seriously needed to get done.  The next day I called and asked how to set the computer up in another room so we could have a place for the crib in ours.  After my midweek nesting craze, Kevin got the hint and started getting serious with Chloe's room.  He spent 4-5 days a week for the next few weeks working all evening after work. 

It's amazing how long it can take to get from "almost done" to "actually done"  but we finally got there!!  Chloe now has her very own room and she loves it!! 

After sharing with her brothers for the last 7, almost 8, years, she was definitely ready for some girlie space. 

Triumph!

Jody called about a month ago.  She had a table in her school room that was too big for the room and wanted to know if we would like to trade for the dining table we were using.  Our table comfortable seats 4, a little tricky with our growing family of 6!  Unfortunately, there was a catch.  Her table had a bad finish, as well as some traces of paper permanently afixed to the sticky finish.  But, ever the adventurer that I am, I thought "How hard could it be to refinish a table?" So we made the trade.

Well, the job turned out to be a little trickier than I had first imagined.  Stripping was easy, and kinda fun.  As was staining.  I didn't love sanding the whole surface, but it wasn't too bad.  The problem came when I tried to put the 2nd coat of polyurethane on.  Remember high school chemistry (maybe it was even grade school) when you learned that oil and water don't mix?  I kinda forgot that part.  Or at least forgot to apply it to my table.  Oops!  After attempting to wash my brush with water, I reapplied my varnish.  It did NOT like the water in the brush! So after my lovely table had been stained to look like this

It ended up with a huge white streak across one side.  Needless to say, I was less than pleased.  So after debating for most of the weekend whether or not to leave it, I finally decided to bite the bullet and strip and stain it again.  In the end, the extra work was worth doing.  And today, we finally got to eat at our new table!  We all fit, and the food fits too.  We even have extra leaves for when we have guests.  I can't wait!

Where I've been

I've had no internet access for an entire week. It's been very difficult to handle. Fortunately, I've had plenty of other things to keep me busy. Namely cleaning up this mess.

Our basement flooded a couple of weeks ago after 6 or so inches of rain which translated into 16 inches of water in the house. So here is our basement spread out all over the yard. My favorite is the Christmas tree standing in the middle of the backyard. Can we say redneck?Thankfully, most of our things were saved. And despite replacing the motor on the dryer, all the appliances survived. There was some damage to the drywall and the doors in the new bedroom, but hopefully not too much.

I truly appreciated the clothesline and 80 degree weather while we waited for the dryer to be repaired.

The funny thing is, after all the cleanup I did, I managed to have a lot of the basement, at least my part, much more organized than before. And that feels great. Sometimes you just need a little push to get something done.

Playtime with the Rodies

Due to a ridiculous amount of snow followed by mud (repeat cycle many times) this has become the favorite pastime of my children.

Sad, but true.
Meanwhile, Grandma Ellen and Papa Joe are making great progress in the basement. I wish I had the knowledge, or child-free moments, to help. But just look how marvelous these people are.

What a blessing family is.

Look at this!

Thanksgiving, a birthday and Black Friday

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. I know I did. It was a little weird because the kids and I were gone while Kevin stayed home. He and his Dad are attempting to build a bedroom for Chloe in our basement and I didn't really want to be home for that. Unfortunately, they met a few challenges along the way and not a whole lot of progress was made as far as the actual building process. But the kids and I certainly had a good time with my parents.


Thanksgiving itself was pretty low key: just me and the kids with my parents. My brother joined us on Friday night. And on Saturday, the kids and I drove to my grandparents' house which is midway between Mom and Dad's and our house. (Midway being nearly 3 hours to either one) We had Thanksgiving Dinner their with my Mom's extended family before heading home for Kevin's 30th birthday. Yes, you heard that right, Kevin turned 30 yesterday. I think he's handling it pretty well. He played around 18 hours of Xbox with his brothers that day, so I suppose he's trying to hold onto his youth or something.


For the past several years, my Dad and I have gone shopping on Black Friday. Previously, we've gone into the city, about an hour, but this year we decided to stay a little closer. The town they live in is less than 4000 people but still has a SuperWalMart, so we thought we'd check that out first thing. We got there at 5am and had to park on the grass, but the store was really not too bad. Everyone seemed to be pretty patient with each other and we were back home by 5:30. We didn't even wait in line to check out.

After a quick trip home for breakfast and to get Jadon, we headed into a slightly larger town nearby to do some more shopping. JJ lasted a couple of hours until we stood in line at the cutting table at JoAnn Fabrics forever. After the first half hour, my Dad decided to hold my place while I took Jadon home to Grandma for a nap. He was waiting in line to check out when I got back a half hour later. We hit several more stores and then made it home for lunch. Wanna see all my loot?




You didn't really think I'd show you all my Christmas presents did you? Not only did I get most of my shopping done(only a neice and a couple things for Micah left), I even got it all wrapped! Sorry for showing off, but I'm so excited to have that done so early this year. Hopefully I can get the rest finished next weekend so I can spend the rest of the time baking yummy goodies. That's one of my favorite things about this time of year. Oh yeah, my parents brought home a cat for my Dad's mother to visit (she just went into the nursing home near them) so this is the introduction she got to her new home. (sorry for the blurry photo, but I could not get this kid to be still!)