Late Merry Christmas

Did you have a good Christmas? We did. It was so good that I decided to take the week off from blogging and just enjoy it. 

Do you remember last year when I talked about being a "Grinch"? Well this year was no exception, and it was awesome!! The kids knew the drill this year and what to expect Christmas morning. They each got some stocking stuffers and then they got to unwrap our destination for this year's trip. 

Most of the monkeys, minus the  baby.

Last year my husband and I made a huge clue hunt, so I wanted to do something different. I took the letters from the city we are going to and put them all on a piece of paper. I then cut up each paper and put them in their own bag. They had to build each puzzle and then unscramble the letters. 

It ended up being a lot harder than I expected and I had to help build each puzzle piece. They then had to unscramble the letters to guess the city; it was our seven year old who figured it out first this year. 

So where are we going? Drum roll please...we are headed to San Diego!! I had made a little paper of all the things we will get to do while we are there, like Sea World, going to the beach, and etc. 

What we also did different this year was after we opened our presents we went to a developmental center and got to give the residents Christmas presents and sing carols with them. It was an amazing experience, and one we will definitely be doing again. 

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!

Another Birthday Post

We had another birthday at our house today, actually we had two! My oldest son Ethan turned 12 today and yours truly turned 33. That's right, my boy is the best birthday present I ever had!

So here is a funny story. Growing up I have two sisters whose birthdays are right before mine. Everyone loved celebrating their two birthdays, but by the time mine rolled around everyone was all birthdayed out. I could actually tell you what all my presents were before I opened them, because I got whatever my sister got, just in a different color.

I got married and I thought finally I could have my own birthday! We were married about five months and I found out I was pregnant and that my due date was three days before my birthday. I laughed and said that I know he will come on my birthday just because I have been so weird about it; and he did.

The first few years it was fun to share our birthday. Then it slowly became his birthday. Luckily, I am FINALLY maturing (it took me long enough) and have relinquished my/our birthday to him.

We started his birthday with our tradition of the gigantic breakfast. He picked waffles, sausages, fried potatoes, eggs and orange juice. The sad thing was his belly wasn't used to some of those foods so he didn't feel too good after eating it. 

We then left to another son's football game, which they won, in our honor. :) Then I took a big nap because it was my birthday too. He then got to go out with dad tonight and he had a good time.

Ethan has always been incredibly unique. He teaches me more than I teach him. He sees the world in such a different way and I love it. He loves to read, which is an understatement; he LOVES LOVES LOVES to read. I challenged the kids to read at least 10 classic books this semester, so he read three in the first week; the kid is amazing. 

He has a kind heart and loves animals. He is a very patient oldest brother, which is hard when they are so many wild ones running around. 

I love you Ethan and I can't think of anyone better to share such a special day with, happy birthday!!

I'm the Worst!

I am seriously the worst blogger on this planet. It often ranks low on my priority list and therefore it doesn't get updated as often as I would like. Just so you don't think I'm just being lazy and so I can justify my awfulness, let me give you a rundown of my typical day.

5:45 Wake up and leave to workout

7:30ish Get home, wake up monkeys for scriptures, feed the little darlings and so happily remind them millions of times to get their stinking chores done

9:00 Start school

11:00 One of the big kids teaches the little kids a school lesson while I go and shower and get ready

12:00 Eat lunch, continue with school until about 2:00ish

2:00ish Check their math and help kids with any of the subjects they may be struggling with

3:30-6:00 Drive my children all over town to different activities they are in, hopefully run to the grocery store during some of their classes

6:00 Make, eat and clean up dinner

7:00 Drive more monkeys around

8:30 Put the little darlings to bed

8:45 Go to bed, read a book and pass out shortly thereafter

Sometimes I'll even be crazy and stay up until 9:30, but I'm pretty loopy by that time, and honestly nice mom clocks out by 9:00 so it is safest to just let me go to bed.

Just a side note, my husband helps a lot. He helps to drive the kids around, make dinner and will even help with the grocery shopping. He is the reason I am still sane.

Amongst all my craziness I am happy. I truly love what I do. We have already had such a great year. I am learning to relax and I have turned more of the teaching over to the older kids. They love teaching and coming up with activities for their lesson, and it's easier for me too.

Today was science day, and we are studying about chemistry so we learned about acids and bases. What better way to understand this concept then to have them blindfolded and taste test different drinks to see if they were acids or bases? 

I actually remembered to film it, which was pure genius because we were laughing so hard. Bella started to dry heave just from the smell of the vinegar, funny stuff. Yes my poor baby is in a diaper AGAIN! Seriously, when he isn't in the mood to get clothes on it usually isn't worth the tackle session to try to make him. And yes, I will always refer to him as my baby, even when he is an old man.

Enjoy my craziness!

Happy 7th Birthday!!

My husband and I didn't plan very well when it came to our kids' birthdays. We have them grouped together twice a year. We have three kids at the beginning of the year whose birthdays are within a few weeks of each other. Then we have our next batch of birthdays this time of year, so be prepared for way too many birthday posts. 

Today was this handsome kid's birthday.

Joshua turned seven today and has had his birthday planned out for way too long. He requested very simple presents: Froot Loops, Dino Chicken and real milk.

Weirdest birthday presents ever! At least I didn't have to break to get him everything on his list.

Joshy is a funny kid. He is beyond the grumpiest kid I have ever met. I wake up everyone in the morning for scriptures except this guy, because he is so grumpy if he doesn't get his beauty rest. Unless the house is on fire, you have been warned to not wake him up.

Joshy is incredibly bright and has been reading well for several years. I wish I could take some credit for that, but he wouldn't let me teach him to read. Did I also mention he might be a tad stubborn?

Some fun things about him are, he loves his to play with his sisters.

He loves to read and play typing games. He loves to play sports, especially because he always has 1-2 cousins on his team at a time.

I am a horrible mom because I can't any picture from his flag football games or his baseball games from the summer. So this is a picture of him with his cousins before they rode the sheep at the rodeo.

He loves to help me cook. 

He isn't actually grumpy in this picture, he is just posing. And if you can find 5 or more unsafe things about this picture you win a prize :).

Joshua is a great kid. He reminds me so much of my husband, the way he looks and especially how bright he is, that definitely didn't come from me. I love this guy to pieces and am beyond happy that I get to be his mom!! 

Happy birthday Joshy!!

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season! Not the Christmas season, no it's canning season! I took a hiatus from canning the last couple of years because of a new baby and then moving. This is my first year back in business, and lucky me because look at what great helpers I have!

Luckily these helpers tire quickly and run off to play, then I can enlist some real help.

I seriously love child labor. :) 

The best part about this canning season was that I got gobs of applesauce, peaches, tomato sauce and peach jam all canned for FREE! That was my husband's favorite part too! 

It has taken me years to collect all my jars and canning gizmos, but I finally have all the supplies I need. And thanks to my own peach trees, my sister having a new baby so she didn't want to pick her tomatoes and an old apple orchard that nobody really uses I was able to gather all of my fruit free too!

Too bad my monkeys have eaten most of what we canned already...

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Girl!!

Happy birthday to my sweet Bella. Bella was quite the surprise, we were quite shocked when we found out we were expecting her. When she was born her older brothers were only two and 16 months; it was an exciting/hard couple of years with so many little kids. 

She was born completely bald but when her hair came in it was worth the wait; it came in blonde and full of curls.

Seriously, have you ever seen a cuter baby? 

She has always walked to the beat of her own drum and is so fun. I love her creative spirit. She used to always wear the craziest outfits, and she would be so proud of herself for throwing it together.

One Sunday afternoon I told her to go put on something pretty so I could take her picture, and this is what the lovely lady came out in.

Thankfully, I get a big kick out of weird kids. 

My little girl is growing up too fast, but I feel so lucky that I get to be there for the adventure. I love her spirit and I consider her not only my daughter but my friend. I love you sweet girl, happy birthday!!

Blogger Spotlight

This is long overdue, but I wanted to give a very BIG shout out to my very talented friend Bryndee Slade for all the amazing labels she made for The Hippie Mama Baby Basket!

She is super talented and specializes in design and print products; she is also a fabulous photographer. She took all the product photos for my Baby Basket and she also has taken my families photos for the last couple of years.

She took these cute pictures a little over a year ago, I love how they turned out! 

Who knew this sweet face would become so destructive??

The whole clan.

The ladies of the house.

If you are looking for design, print products or for a great photographer you can contact her at bryndees@gmail.com. 

Sappy Anniversary Post

You have been forewarned, this will be a sappy anniversary post.

13 years ago today, I made the best decision of my life and married my best friend. To put it lightly, we had a rough start with marriage. I came into this marriage with some baggage and living with a boy came as quite a shock to me. The first time my husband left the toilet seat up I literally broke down in tears. That first year was rough.

We had only been married five months when we found out we were expecting our first of many babies. Once we started having babies, apparently we didn't know how to stop; we had our first three kids in under three years. That was a wild and crazy adventure in itself.

We have been through so much together in our short 13 years. We have had sickness and health, financial successes and losses, lots of sleepless nights with babies, college and many late nights working; we've shared laughter and tears, heartbreaks and joys; and I can think of no one better to share it with than my sweet husband.

He is my favorite person to be with and he wants nothing more than to just make me happy. He inspires me in so many ways to be a better person and I am still completely head over heels for this guy. He still makes me laugh and I still get excited to just be with him.

Now, before you think I am trying to say we are perfect I am going to stop you. We are anything but perfect, we don't fight (anymore), but we each still have our short comings. It's about focusing on the good stuff and not worrying about the annoying stuff. 

Because of my parents' divorce I didn't have the best example of what a good or happy marriage should look like. Because of that I have had to study a lot of it out on my own. When we had been married for about five years someone suggested this book, The 5 Love Languages. It started a change within us for the better. I highly recommend it.

Then several years later someone suggested another book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands. Whether or not you like Dr. Laura this is an EXCELLENT book. It completely changed everything for us, for the better. 




So, to end my sappiness I want to include my top ten tips on having a happy marriage.

1. Don't be selfish- Put the other person's needs in front of your own. Take a leap of faith that by doing so your needs will be met too.

2. Date your spouse- Do the fun or cute things you used to do when you were dating. 

3. Take care of yourself- I'm not saying you have to attempt to be a super model, but try to eat good and exercise, put on a little make-up (or at least deodorant), and get ready for your spouse.

4. Leave notes for each other- This one is beyond easy and makes such a big difference. You can text, instant message, email, Facebook, or even go old school and write an actual note letting your spouse know you love them, you're grateful for them, or just to let them know you still think they are sexy.

5. Support your spouse's hobbies and interests- Pretty self-explanatory, but when your spouse has a hobby, support them in it. Every Saturday morning for about 8-9 years I went running, and my husband was always happy to support me in doing it. Not only that but a lot of times I would come home to a big breakfast waiting for me. And because he is so great to do that I am more than happy to support him if he wants to go hiking or whatever he would like to do. 

6. Be available, if you know what I mean...- My mom uses about 5 weird slang terms for sex that I think are funny. But whatever you want to call it, make time for some "Vote Vote Vodedote"; intimacy is important and awesome.

7. Learn your spouses Love Language- That was the first book I mentioned, it made a HUGE difference for us. I am a touch love language and my husband is a words of affirmation type. We weren't speaking the same language in the beginning and we would end up frustrated or even hurt. Learn their language, and then "speak" it.

8. Respect your spouse- If your spouse is uncomfortable with something or asks for something, respect them and listen. For example, if your spouse is really uncomfortable with calling each other pet names in front of other people, DON'T do it and DON'T force them to do it either! Easy as that.

9. Talk positively about your spouse to others- Remember in Bambi this simple tip, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all".

10. Relax and have fun- Quit worrying about the small stuff; if it won't matter in a week or two, it doesn't matter. Just relax and enjoy just being with each other.

So to my sweet Johnny, I love you and am very grateful you picked me to be yours. Happy anniversary!!

Not Your Typical Father's Day Post

If I have to see one more happy picture of someone and their dad I think I am going to have to scream. I am happy for you that you got a great dad, but I am also a bit jealous. OK, a lot jealous. 

My parents divorced when I was young and we were raised by our mom. I keep hearing about people fighting over the kids in a divorce, that wasn't the case in my story. My mom would have fought to keep us all, but there was no one to fight with. He was just gone. Father's Day used to be the worst day of the year; I used to cry every single Father's Day and thought the whole day was a joke. 

It was interesting to me that today, of all days, I happened to talk to someone about something they were struggling with. After she told me her trial she told me how she was struggling with the, "Why me?" question. Why was she asked to bear this burden, it is so unfair that nobody else has this problem. 

So instead of focusing on the, "Why me?", today I choose to focus on what I do have. I have an amazing husband, he is absolutely wonderful. He is happy, kind, brilliant and super good looking. He has given me six wild monkeys and I love them all. He inspires me to be a better person and is always there for me and our kids. 

I also have a wonderful father-in-law, brothers-in-law and a brother who are great examples of what a father should be. I have been blessed with so many wonderful men in my life that there isn't much room left for the heartache. As sad as I used to be is as happy as I am now.

So to my husband, I love you, happy Father's Day!!

Viva La Mexico!!

Have you missed me?? Have you cried yourself to sleep waiting for another witty post from me? Well the wait is over, I'm back! We had an amazing week in Mexico, so sit back relax and enjoy some pictures of my crazy family. 

We left last Saturday and made it half way and stayed in the lovely city of Primm, Nevada. It was my kids' first time to a casino, which is always fun. Then we finished the drive on Sunday. It was a long drive, but we had a good time.

This is what was waiting for us when we finally got to Mexico.

 We had dinner that night at Poco Cielo and we were sung to as we ate. The food was so good.

My handsome hubby and me.

We then checked into our condo, we weren't disappointed.

The next day we ran to a super authentic Mexican store, you may have heard of it.

Then we spent the rest of the day at the beach.

The next morning my husband had to do some work so the kids and I went exploring, we found this lovely sight.

When he finished working we headed down to Ensenada to go see La Bufadora. 

They had shops all around La Bufadora, we got to drink out of pineapples, eat out of clams, it was a good time.

I don't know what my face is doing in this picture, so for that I apologize.

We found a zebra on the way home. It turned out to be a donkey painted, which was equally as exciting as finding an actual zebra.

We went out to dinner that night at La Fonda, it was a very charming restaurant.

The next day we went back down to Ensenada to go whale watching!! It was truly an amazing experience. We had dolphins jumping along the side of the boat, we saw some gray whales and a bunch of seals.

Here's a picture of the sexy beast.

The tour was over 4 hours and three of my kids and myself ended up falling asleep towards the end.

The next day we went to Rosarito. We found some fun/creepy shops, they were down these dark alleys, but they were still pretty fun.

All the boys ended up getting ponchos.

We went to an Italian place for dinner, because my oldest son had had enough of Mexican food. It was yummy, I have no idea what the name of it was.

Here's my daughter being extra beautiful.

Then Friday morning we had to pack up and leave, it was a sad day. Mexico was so sad that it ended up raining the whole way home. If we had brought the baby with us I don't think you could have got me to come home. 

All the kids said they loved the trip way better than getting Christmas presents!

Resolutions

It's that time of year again, to make goals you're super excited about and then completely forget about them 1-3 months later. And make sure they're very unrealistic like you want look like a super model, or to win the lottery.

Seriously though, I like to set goals at the beginning of the year. Last year I even completed some of them :) I went over this last year but I find it helpful, so I'm going to do it again. I like to divide my goals into five areas: spiritual, physical, emotional, mental and financial. I then like to set "how" I'm actually going to obtain my goal not just set the goal.

For example, if your goal is to get out of debt this year, don't just leave it at that, add the steps of how you want to do it. Are you going to win the lottery? Make more money? We used steps that we learned from here to get out of debt. My husband also helps people with their money (shameless plug for him here). My goals in this area are usually about making sure I stay within my budget and make sure I'm tracking my spending.

Another one people always set is to lose weight. That's great, but is it about losing weight or actually changing your lifestyle to keep the weight off? Anyone can drop 10 lbs, but do you want to keep it off? It isn't realistic to stay on a 1200 calorie diet for the rest of your life, and it isn't good for you either. I found it better for me to set fitness goals of a new race time, a heavier dead lift instead of a number on the scale, etc. And once again, add the how you want to accomplish the goal.

For mental, I like to put how many books I'll read for the year, if there are any classes I want to take, a hobby I want to develop and things of that nature. I also include stuff I want to be better at with home schooling.

I feel like my emotional and spiritual goals are too personal to share, but I do have them, you're just going to have to trust me :).

The reason I like to set goals in these five areas is because if one of them is out of whack, they all suffer. If you know someone who is out of control with their eating, they are probably out of control with their spending too; on the flip side, when is someone is in control of their eating they are most likely in control with their spending as well, and so on.

So lets all get off your butts and make 2013 a fabulous year!

Where Are We Going?

I'm sure you have been sitting on pins and needles just wondering where we're going to go on our vacation. The truth is we filmed the whole thing, and I thought it would be super fun to edit it from 30 minutes to a cute 1min video of them figuring out where we're going. But alas, I have no idea how to do so. So you will just have to get told about the magical morning and hopefully I will do it justice.

This is the first Christmas the kids slept in, we finally woke them up around 8am. They got to open their stocking stuffers and were quite happy with them.  Because this was our first year doing this and we were a little nervous about the disappointment of not opening presents, we tried to make this as fun as possible.

My kids are really into the book, "The 39 Clues", so we decided to recreate a clue hunt just like the book. There was a large box that was marked for them. Inside the box they were told the instructions for the clue hunt and the first clue was hidden in the box. They had to gather 6 clues, they were all in riddles that they had to figure out. After they had all of the clues they were sent to a youtube video of my husband explaining the last part of the clue was to unscramble the first letter of every clue they already found.

These were their clues:
Eggs
eXpo markers-they had to use the second letter of this one
Cherokee-my husband's car
Iron
Machete-yes we have one of these, weird I know
Ontario-they were sent to a map we have

My eight year old was the first one to figure it out and starting jumping up and down yelling, "Mexico! Mexico! We're going to Mexico!" That was the part I wanted to show, she's adorable.

This was my favorite Christmas. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas too!

I'm A Grinch

Christmas and I are in a fight. Not really, but kind of. Last Christmas was crappy. Not because I didn't get what I wanted or the kids didn't get enough; it was crappy because I spent most of December secretly shopping at nights or staying up late wrapping gifts and then hiding the gifts.

I feel the need to argue my case against Christmas. First, for those who know me well know that I go to bed with the sun :). Seriously though, I am in bed by 9:00, I am not a night owl. Staying up late shopping and wrapping was exhausting. Second, all the time and thought I put into my kids' gifts were a waste; a bunch of the presents were broken within a few days. Also, I can't stand too much clutter so I ended up junking a bunch of the excess toys within 6 months of Christmas.  Finally, buying Christmas for six monkeys is getting super expensive.

The final straw that broke this camel's back was what my kids were asking for Christmas. My nine year old was asking for his own iPod or smart phone. My eight year old wanted her own motorized car. I didn't like what Christmas was turning into. So I came up with an idea and my sweet husband who indulges my craziness agreed to it.

We aren't doing Christmas presents!! Now before you think I am the meanest mom ever, hear me out. My kids will get presents from 3 different sets of grandparents, cousins, friends and we are going to do some small stocking stuffers.

Now for the exciting part, Christmas morning my kids will unwrap where our family vacation is going to be. We will leave a few weeks after Christmas and go on a week long trip. I am so excited!! I haven't had to spend countless hours scanning newspapers for the best deal for a particular toy, or staying up late, shopping and wrapping. I have been able to just relax and enjoy Christmas.

Another part of the trade off of no presents is that we are going to focus more on service then on presents. I had my kids write up lists of people we could help or something kind we could do. My one son thought it would be great to mow a widow's lawn in the middle of the night so she wouldn't know who did it. I thought it was sweet, but suggested maybe shoveling her walks instead of running a lawn mower at 2am.

The thing I am most excited about is the memories we will have as a family. A big toy is fun, for a while, but the memories we'll make on our trip will last a life time.

Halloween

I realize I am a little late posting about Halloween, but I still wanted to, so here it is.

We had a fun October. I had my kids make Halloween decorations that they hung up in our windows. They also strung spider webs all over the front of the house. One of them got creative and put it over the front door, it was great, every time you walked outside you had to duck down to get through the door. That always makes carrying in groceries and a baby exciting!

We carved pumpkins.

She decided to "draw" her pumpkins face instead of carving.

Isn't this guy just special???

He didn't get to carve, so he just hung on everyone.

Halloween day!

Now if you'll notice, a child is missing in this picture. It isn't because I don't love this child. He just happened to run some errands with dad and of course I forgot to take his picture later.

And you better believe I wasn't going to pass out candy to the kids. I ran to the dollar store and gave out toys and such instead of candy. So lame, I know.