These last few weeks of school were…long. I take the blame, we were playing a bit of catch up so we could actually have a decent summer break. One of the incentives I promised Charlotte for finishing was a sleepover. It’s always fun to work toward a goal, right? So here we go!

Netflix provided our entertainment for the evening. This movie…was awful. Not morally or anything. Just plot, characters, dialog, etc.

Just the two of us!

Next up we watched this T. Swift show that had three parts. We both love her music, so it was fun.

Will brought us some drinks! (Also an incentive for finishing school!)

And movie theater popcorn!

We had a tiny party crasher.

Luckily Charlie is completely in love with her and didn’t mind. Plus she just wanted to eat and then went right back down.

In case you were judging me for the popcorn (you were, weren’t you?). We barely ate the top of it. And then when I was moving it to make Charlotte’s bed I spilled it. Real life!

My sleeping beauty. I hope this turns into a tradition!

Off to bed…on the couch.
XOXO

But the baby is almost six months old, and I’m definitely not with child.

Everyday. Almost. At some point in the day. Usually between … oh, 5:00-7:00 PM I feel like my ears are bleeding. I cannot take anymore noise, especially whining and/or bickering and/or crying and/or asking me for stuff. Sometimes it’s like 10:00 AM.

I seriously would like to know the number of texts my husband has received in the last year that contain the phrase “ears are bleeding”. I would guess 30+.

I don’t remember feeling this way before last summer. Send help. Or earplugs.

And a million more.
XOXO

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For me, there are three kinds. Of mom sleep, that is. (Some kind of comment here about grammar and sentence structure and you don’t really care, am.I.right?)

1. The Laying Back/Down on the Couch/Bed With My Eyes Closed – This is the type of sleep I do when kids are up, running around, playing quietly, watching tv, you name it. I’m getting some rest, but I’m fully alert. Someone starts crying? Up and at ‘em. Fight breaks out? Handled. Twenty-three minutes of brain-rotting entertainment is over? Let’s do this thing.

I hate this type of sleep and usually only resort to it in utter exhaustion. I also feel that it’s dangerous, I could actually fall real asleep and leave my children unattended. No bueno.

2. The Night Sleep – Self-explanatory as to when it happens. In bed, lights out, all that jazz. This, to me, is the true motherhood sleep. I’m asleep, getting my cycles whatever, but the “mom” part of my brain is still on. I immediately hear feet hit the floor in any room, crying or calling out wakes me up from the first peep. Occasionally one of my children will talk in their sleep, in just a normal talking voice. I hear it. I hear the dog rustling/settling/talking in his sleep. I bed share with Haddie (Fancy way of saying she sleeps with me, which all my babies have. If that’s not your thing, cool. This isn’t the time/place for debates.) and if she so much as sighs loudly, I am aware. This is approximately 95% of my sleep, and part of the reason why motherhood is so very tiring.

I also credit this type of sleep for my decreased brain function and my completely ridiculous dreams that I have all the time.

3. The Deep Sleep – This sleep is glorious and beautiful and extravagant. This is the sleep I get when Will gets up early, takes the baby and the other children as they wake up downstairs and lets me sleep in alone. This is also the sleep when Will takes the baby for me to have a nap. It’s like my brain knows that it can be off, Will is awake and able to handle whatever happens. I do not have to hear anyone talk, or cry, or breathe.

What? You don’t listen to your kids breathe? It’s not weird.

*This post is basically the opposite of science.

Your turn! Tell me about your sleep, mom or not.

XOXO

So, the kids got up. Will had worked all night, but he wanted to see the kids get their baskets. I “made” everyone pile onto the couch so we could read the Easter story one more time before baskets.

I tried to do a mix of practical: sunscreen! beach towels! pacifiers! and fun stuff they will actual use: bubbles! balls! kites! chalk! I only did one small candy for each and a package of peeps to share.

Charlotte has thanked me at least five times for getting her sunscreen. No joke.

Libby’s in a pull up and a backwards tank top. Not what I put her to bed in, but real life. That’s pretty much how she comes out every morning. Sometimes she puts on a skirt. And Ben’s wearing Christmas pajamas. :)

Will stopped on the way home from work and got us doughnuts.

Before church started I asked Charlotte to sit with the baby while I took Ben and Libby to the restroom. She took that as license to take a bunch of pictures with my camera. It was kind of funny, but from some of pictures I can tell she was pretty far away from Haddie. Not cool. Not that she was going to get abducted or something, and she was sound asleep – but still, I obviously don’t leave my baby unattended.

Another (better) caption for this photo. We went to the Good Friday service and at the end we all (kids included) walked by and saw Jesus in the tomb. When we went in the sanctuary Sunday morning, I was sitting down and getting our stuff around, and Ben walked right up to this. He turned around, and in a really loud, excited voice he said, “He’s not here, Mom!” and was smiling and clapping his hands. Even though he had heard the story several times and we really emphasized it this week, it was so real to him. I hope that imagery will stay with him forever.

After church we had an egg hunt, and they ran out by ages. Libs was the only one who was 1-2. It was so cute watching her run out by herself!

I love her expression here!

Um…you’re walking on one!

Probably my favorite picture of the day.

We left the eggs at the church (thank goodness!).

They got so much candy, I was so glad I didn’t really buy them any!

No printable/frameable/ amazing pictures of my four for Easter.

These were the best of many. Their outfits were coordinating!

After church we went home and experienced the worst of what I was talking about in that first paragraph up there. Which culminated in everyone being sent to their rooms and finally in nap time. Ben, Libby, Haddie and I all took really long, much-needed naps. Charlie played quietly in her room. Will literally had to wake all of us up for us to get ready for our evening plans. I guess the bad attitudes probably had something to do with exhaustion. Hm.

We went over to Will’s parents for the evening and I didn’t take any pictures except this one as we were getting ready to leave. I think it’s kind of funny that the dog is looking at the camera, too. The kids were all really well-behaved for this part of the day. Yay!

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To summarize:

1. Lower expectations = good idea

2. More sleep for everyone = better idea

3. None of it matters, because Jesus is alive. He is risen!

Yeah. Didn’t really get many great ones. But I had fun looking through these!

Saturday morning we drove over to Fort Morgan to see some friends.

We got to dye eggs with them, it was the first time for all of them!

Then we had a picnic and went to the park.

From Fort Morgan we drove all the way to Fort Collins, to my parents’ house to dye more eggs! The kids didn’t mind a bit.

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My brother says my blog isn’t even a blog, it’s just a bunch of pictures.

To that I say: I know. And not even very good ones.

Goodnight, xoxo.

There was yelling, when really there shouldn’t have been.

There were tears all around and I so wanted everyone in bed so I could just be.

And eat. It’s awful.

I texted Will and he showed me grace, saying that it’s hard what I do. I don’t know. But it soothed my weary heart.

About forty or so minutes after they – the big three, Haddie sleeps with me – went to bed, Libby started calling out for me. She was just saying, “I need you to fix my covers! I need you to fix my covers!”. Not a big deal, but I could hear the stress in her voice. I rushed in there to arrange the blankets and was able to see her relieved smile and the sweet way she talks with her hands waving all around, her head shaking saying, “I don’t know. Them just keep being all around.” Ben lifted his head to groggily say, “Mom, you’re the best mom ever.” and Libby agrees, “You best mom.”

“You’re the best Ben ever, and you’re the best Libby ever,” I say, smiling with tears in my eyes. And we do another round of goodnights, I love yous, and see you tomorrows.

I guess I’m just so thankful that I’m able to be here, to be able to rush in and fix the covers. It would be wonderful if a bad evening could be put right again as easily as straightening the sheets and smoothing the comforter. Of course it can’t. I love them so much. I just hope that the magnitude of my love for them smoothes out some of the wrinkles.

Anyway, I wanted to do some catch up posts….so here’s a lot of pictures from their party last year.

*Disclaimer: I was about 6 weeks pregnant with Haddie for this party and a total space cadet. Way worse than usual. Also this was almost a year ago, so I remember nothing!

My mom finishing decorating the cake. She’s amazing.

The girls’ gift from us was a homemade sandbox! You can’t really read it (I’m a horrible photographer) but Will wrote “Happy Birthday Girls” in the sand.

Rainbow jello! Really easy, but took forever. And so yummy!

The food! We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and had chips, fruit, and veggies. I don’t know if you can tell (and I didn’t take a picture) but the fruit was a rainbow: strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, honeydew, blue-dyed pineapple, and grapes!

Turned 2!

Rainbow balloon banner! Seriously so quick and easy, I was shocked.

Hubby grilling.

The sandbox was a huge hit, and the kids played in it almost the entire time.

My parents. They were (and are always) such a huge help. Love them.

More sandboxing! And a rainbow umbrella :)

The desserts! We had rainbow twizzlers, rainbow popcorn, cake balls, cake, and rice krispie treat “paintbrushes”. (Sorry there aren’t any better pictures!)

Cake balls!

Since it was an art party too, we had two crafts. First: soap bubble painting! It got a little out of control, the bubbles are just supposed to come to the top of the cup and then you pop them on the paper.

Helping Libs.

Then we made handprint canvases (they were kind of lame, but we had such a wide age range of kids it was hard to decide what to do). I love Ben’s face here.

Time to wash hands!

Birthday girl!

The cake!

Birthday girl again.

Anthony & Haley

Benner

Grandma and Grandpa

Will and the birthday girls

So fun.

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Not pictured: so many things. Ha! I had a sign out front that I forgot to take a picture of…and we took 544 pictures, so by narrowing it down to 24 pictures for this post I left out some. A lot of the pictures are of the same things, too. And we had almost everyone take their picture in the frame. And holy poor paragraph and sentence structure, Batman.

I also had many more ideas, that just didn’t happen. If you want to check out my Pinterest board for the party, you will be ridiculously inspired.

Wide eyes.

Knitting while Will drives.

Sunday:

Just enjoy this series of pictures. Benjamin is hilarious, by the end poor Haddie is crying, and Charlotte outgrew those shoes (and every other pair she has) almost overnight. So we’ve been working on that.

Monday:

Right before cleaning the mirror. I just cannot comprehend how it gets so dirty.

Has March been our snowiest month?

Trying to sleep. Trying to suck on my yarn. Evs.

Tuesday:

Bed head!

I knitted these little shoes for Libby before she was born. Obviously, they were way too small. Happily they fit Julie, Charlotte’s American Girl doll.

I thought she might stay asleep if I put her in here while I folded some laundry. Nope.

Wednesday:

He’s been so into these Army men lately. Love it.

Milk coma!

Thursday:

Building with Lincoln Logs. (Libby did not wear that, and it has pants and a shirt that go under it when she does. In case you were worried.)

Part of not living where you can see the mountains is the absolute breathtaking beauty you get to experience every.single.time you drive west. Except on this day, when I was basically blind the entire drive.

I know it seems like all I do is hold a sleeping baby and take pictures of her…

I promise I do other things…sometimes.

Friday:

One of my new faves.

Ben’s breakfast of choice lately: apples and peanut butter.

Charlotte’s a really enthusiastic grader. :)

Just hanging out, being cute. N.B.D.

My mom had the big kids Friday night and I tried really hard to get a cute picture of the two of us. And was not successful.

I know it’s the same picture, different days, over and over. I love them.

Another new favorite.

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I wasn’t as behind on these as I thought, yay.

Will has been sick for almost a week now. It’s strange, because he’s been really sick and no one else here has gotten it. He worked all night last night, so he’ll sleep today…then he has to go in for a meeting this afternoon…then he’s off tomorrow…then back to work Wednesday night. So that pretty much sucks.

I have a lot I want to get accomplished this week – school and cleaning and working out and blogging some stuff I’ve had in my drafts folder forever and I think I’m going to do a spending freeze and not spend any money this week. I want to try to use up all (or most) the food in our fridge, freezer, and cupboards. Anyone want to join my freeze?

I kind of want to move just so I can purge my house of all the junk we own. I could do that without moving, but lack the motivation.

That was all over the place.

XOXO