...it's about time.

Hello spring. I missed you. We have been playing outside and loving spring break!

Since my last update...

I have lost 20 lbs. and I'm still going. I had a couple of weeks where I didn't stay on track with my meal plans, but I'm back on track and my goal is still Annistyn's birthday.

Danny is still working on a lot of projects and working way too much. He gets home and either goes straight out to his shop or comes inside, takes a short nap, and then goes out to his shop. I would get a little bit more detailed, but I can't keep the years, makes, or models of his projects straight. I know that he has done a frame and a couple engines and some exhaust and fabricated a lot of things...

Kleyn took another STAR test and his reading level is now at a 3.2-4.2 range. He has lost another tooth and he is growing up so fast. In primary we are memorizing the Articles of Faith and Kleyn has memorized 12 of them. He will be the first boy in the senior primary to get them all passed off and the reward is a giant chocolate chip cookie. He's so excited.

Kaleb had a read-a-thon at school and he read 8 books in one hour. I didn't get to be there because Annistyn had a doctors appointment, but he had so much fun. He got to wear jammies to school so that he would be comfortable while reading. I love listening to him read. He always has so much energy and he loves running around. I am excited for the warm weather so I can send him outside to run. He is perfecting his sound effects every day and can't seem to do anything without some kind of accompanying sound effect. He has passed off the first four Articles of Faith in primary and he's working on the fifth. He gets so excited when it is his turn to take something for show and tell.

Dannika had her first real hair cut. It makes her look older and I'm not sure I like that. We cut four inches off so it curls right up to her shoulder blades and we can't tuck it in her pants any more. She is getting ready to be in preschool in the fall. We are really excited, but we need to decide what to do after that. She will miss the deadline for Kindergarten the next year so I can either put her in preschool for a second year or just work with her at home. She is my little performer. She is always ready to sing to people and show them what she is learning. She has memorized the first three Articles of Faith for primary and everyone loves to listen to her.

Annistyn is cruising! She is nine months now. She pulls herself up on anything that she can get a hold of. She follows everyone from room to room and enjoys being able to get to the toys she wants. She is generally a happy little thing and keeps herself entertained. I think she likes the quiet time to explore and play by herself when the brothers are at school and Dannika is taking a nap. The doctor says she is small, but it's normal for my family, so he's not worried. She will eat her baby food, but isn't super interested in it. She would much rather eat whatever is in front of me. She is having a hard time sleeping which is hard for me because the other kids have been good sleepers.

Now for lots of pictures! :)
Annistyn started army crawling to get to her toys.

Within a week she was up on her hands and knees.

Then she decided she didn't like the nails in the floor, so she didn't want to put her knees down.

Now she is pulling herself up on anything she can get a hold of.

 I helped with Kleyn's Valentines Day party at school. I did the craft. I really don't think I'm cut out for any kind of group teaching. What seemed like a really simple craft to me took more than ten minutes and I was stressed out the whole time. There was way too much going on and I was trying to keep track of my younger kids while trying to help 6 or 7 second graders follow directions.

I also found a valentines use for my baby food jars that have been collecting. :)

Sunday naps

Danny got his gun safe. When the guys came to drop it off Danny just wanted them to put it on the doorstep because he didn't want to have to pay the $125 delivery fee. He figured he had enough man power with his friends that they could get it in the house. I was babysitting that day, so I had four extra kids when they showed up. I gave them Danny's directions and they seemed really concerned that he didn't realize how heavy this safe was and how much work it would be to get it in the house. After they got it unloaded they said they were going to help me out a little bit and bring it in the house. They proceeded to cart it to the back of the house where we wanted to put it (for now). I offered to pay them the delivery fee, but I guess seeing a lady with eight kids under the age of eight made an impression because they said not to worry about it and to just come back and shop there again. Danny said they either thought I was cute or they felt really bad for me.

This is the frame Danny has been working on.

 Bath time!

 Spaghetti! Why not? Janae would be cringing right about now.

 Dannika's crazy long hair. I don't know why, but when little girls get hair cuts they look so much older to me.

 My little reader. I am so impressed with him.

The kids got to celebrate their Aunt and Uncle's birthdays. We love birthdays!

We went target shooting,

The kids got their Easter baskets,

We dyed eggs,

And the girls got to try on their new dresses.

Sometimes I can't believe that we have four kids. They are pretty cute, though.

Cookin up a storm

After everything that happened last week/last month, my mom decided to come help me for a little while on Wednesday. She was going to get up and leave for work the next day when they called her and told he she didn't need to come in, so we spent the whole day cleaning and cooking. We baked mint cookies for Danny, banana bread because my bananas were going bad, homemade chicken noodle soup, and then I made balsamic-glazed pork cutlets for dinner.

We also got the carpet pulled out of the basement. I tried to get some of the snow/ice/water out of the walkways and away from windows, but when those are the low points on the property it doesn't take long for them to fill back up. I'm just hoping we can get through the rest of the winter with no more water in the basement and then we'll get some preventative work done this summer.

Danny has been working non-stop this week. He gets up and goes to work a couple hours early, works all day, comes home, eats dinner, and goes out to his shop for at least 5 more hours to work some more. He has been so tired this week and I just wish there were more I could do for him. I have been making sure he has dinner ready when he gets home, so that's a little bit of a help.

Some of the new recipes I tried last month are:

Farmhouse Chicken Chowder

 Creamy Pasta with Lemon-Pepper Chicken

 

Sweet Potato Soup with Bacon and Chives

 

Two-Bean Chili

 

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Cutlets

 

and Cheddar-Crusted Chicken with Garlicky Spinach

 

I have been counting calories again (I know "they" say not to lose weight while you're nursing, but I found a calculator specifically for nursing mothers and I figured losing while I'm nursing is a whole lot better than gaining 13 more lbs.) I have lost 8 lbs. so far and it's going really well. I have my information all set up on a spreadsheet this time instead of in my notebook, so it's a lot easier to be flexible, but stay within my calories for the day. I make up a weekly meal plan and then try to stick to it as much as possible. I feel like a total nerd sometimes, but it works for me. I should be at my goal weight by Annistyn's birthday.

Kleyn took three tests with his reading this week. He is doing great and I think he's getting a little bit faster. He just doesn't like to do it. His big tooth is coming in and he's convinced that it's causing his other one to be loose. I can't really tell, but I know it'll happen sooner than later. His new nick-name for Annistyn is Sunny D.

Kaleb loves to make Annistyn laugh. He's always doing something that makes her giggle and he's the only sibling that can get a really big laugh out of her. Kleyn and Dannika make her smile and give little laughs, but she is so entertained with Kaleb.

Dannika is getting to the point where she wants me to cut her hair, but Danny still says no. I think I'll just get it trimmed so it will be more even. If I were better at doing her hair every morning and getting it out of her face I don't think she would mind it as much. I'm terrible at doing her hair. I'm not that creative.

Annistyn likes to growl a lot. It's usually when she can't get something that she wants to when she's trying to get down from a sitting position. She really wants to crawl, but she has figured out how to angle her rolling so that she can get to where she wants. When she's sitting on the floor and wants to be picked up, she opens and closes her hands and then nods her head.

We are doing a lot better this week and we are looking forward to this month. I totally dropped the ball on a Super Bowl party. I forgot that it was this Sunday and I made dinner plans with some friends and told another friend that I would watch her kids for the weekend. I hope "the guys" will forgive me.

It Keeps On Pouring

Saturday when the kids were playing, they dropped a toy down the stairs and then came back up to tell me that there was water on the floor. Because of the warm temperatures and all of the snow melting, our basement flooded again. The guys were all here, so they helped Danny take care of everything.
Monday we had a snow day and the boys were so excited to stay home. It turned out to be a really nice day and the boys got to play out in the snow for a couple of hours. They came back in and had a late lunch, but shortly before dinner time Kaleb was complaining about a headache and then he started throwing up. We're trying to figure out what's going on with him because this has happened three times in the last month. We're thinking it might be some kind of allergy so I need to keep a close eye on him and everything he eats.
Today the boys and Danny were getting ready and the shower wouldn't drain at all. Then Danny went down to get something from the freezer for lunch and found that it had quit working. I called around to borrow some coolers so that I could get all of the food from the freezer out into the snow without the cats getting to it.
We got a new freezer delivered and they took away the old one for us. Danny came home for lunch and brought some stuff to clean out the drain. Kaleb is doing just fine today and doesn't seem to have anything wrong, so I'm fairly sure it's not a flu bug or something. I need to get everything cleared out of the basement bedroom so that we can tear out the carpet and then get the snow blower out so that I can clear some more of the snow around the house.
It's been a crazy stressful month and I'm ready for it to be over.

Baird Carnage

Danny got in a wreck last Friday. A semi with two trailers rolled through a stop sign and pulled out right in front of him on our nice slippery road. He thought he might be able to miss it and was only doing 20 when he saw the second trailer and knew he wasn't going to be able to stop with the ice. He wasn't hurt, but he was so upset about his truck. He has a '77 GMC truck that was in perfect condition. When he got the truck there was no damage to it, no work had been done on it, there was no rust, the interior was in great condition, it ran perfectly, and it only had 17,000 original miles on it. When he came home and told me about it he was only concerned about his truck. It made me laugh a little bit because just a few minutes after he left with the suburban and the trailer to pick up his truck, I got three calls from three different ladies who had seen him and wanted to know if he was alright. I heard nothing but relief in their voices when I told them he was alright and not much concern at all when the truck was mentioned. It just shows how different men and women are. We are all glad that he was driving his truck and not his mustang. He would have been under the tires if he had been driving his car. We're still waiting to hear back from their insurance company, but if I haven't heard back this week I'll call them again. For now he's going to drive the Tahoe, so we're glad we didn't get it sold.

 Kleyn pulled his tooth out on Sunday. We had been trying to get it out for a few days, but I could never get a good grip on it and he wasn't very patient with us. He was playing with it while we were sitting in church, so I told him to twist it a little bit. I didn't think he would do it, but he twisted it for a couple of minutes and the next thing I know there's this little man in a suit with a bloody mouth and a big grin.

When we got home he had me make a tooth pillow for him so the tooth fairy would have somewhere to put his money. He loved it. There are a few things I would do different and I forgot to hem the pocket, but for a quick little project it turned out pretty cute. He said that now he would be like everyone else in his class because they were all missing teeth.

Dannika's finger has gotten so much better in just a couple weeks. It looked a lot better after the first week. There's still a little scab on her nail bed and there's still a stitch that's not wanting to dissolve, but other than that it's doing great. After that first week she wouldn't keep a band-aid on it. Here's what it looked like the first time I had to change the bandage 

and here's what it looks like now.

With all the blood and trauma going on around here, Kaleb felt a little bit left out, so when they went sledding with Josh, he felt the need to put his face in the middle of the inner-tube and get run over. He wanted me to make sure and take a picture of his scratched up eye. :)

 

Annie is 7 months now, sitting up on her own, and eating baby food like a champ. She was 14 lbs. 9 oz. at her 6 month appointment. The doctors are disappointed because she dropped down a little bit on her curve, but I think she's doing just great. She is up to eating fruits and veggies twice a day. We're trying to get her on a good nighttime schedule, but it's hard to do when she's sick and can't breathe. She wakes up because her nose is all stuffed up and then she wants to eat because she's awake. Giving her baths is a lot easier because she can sit up now. Isn't she just a cute little bananie? I can't seem to get a cute picture of her with her mouth closed.