Firsts and Lasts 2011-2012

Because sometimes it's fun to see how much they have changed (or didnt change) 

Sept 2011 on left, June 2012 on right 

I also like to giggle about how cute and matched their clothes are on the left and how un-coordinated they are on the right

Hello!

I am a horrible blogger!
I think its because I don't have a baby anymore. Babies do new and fun things everyday. 4,7,9, and 10 year olds? Well they are lucky to see new days. HAHAHAHAH just kidding! (kind of)

Quick run down.

Tyler turned four! YAY for four!
Pictures are here
He is still bored at home with me all day. Since I have started reading a bunch lately, we make lots of trips to the library. Our library sells donut holes for $1.25 for 15. Tyler has been eating lots of donut holes. He is spoiled. SPOILED! Since I discovered that Im madly in love with the guy Im married (Im sure I knew before, but I remembered in October) We have been going on dates for lunch during the week since its a lot cheaper than trying to go on dates at night. Tyler comes with us. Dude has eaten more fast food in his life than my other kids combined. Tyler likes to slyly tell us the car needs gas when I drive daddy to work because Daddy is a sucker and buys him donuts at the gas station. (and its called the donut store now, not the gas station) Before you get alarmed, Tyler eats very healthy snacks and meals at home, he doesn't just eat donuts and fast food. He just gets more than any of my other kids ever got.  In fact he gained ZERO lbs between his 3 year well child check and his 4 year well child check (he is still 98%) Ty is officially signed up for preschool for the '12-'13 school year. He will be going the same place Kate and Drew went. We also discovered that Tyler is very afraid of black lights and fake fog (We went bowling and he was having  grand old time, then all of a sudden not so much fun. Poor kid sat under the table begging to leave as soon as they turned the cosmic bowling stuff on)

Dylan turned 7! SEVEN! thats only a year away from 8!
Pictures are here
Dylan had a party last year, so no friends party this year.  We did however go to Papas pizza and he got an awesome Master Chief Cake. Dylan got to go to some taekwondo classes at school this winter. He LOVED them. He go his own Gi and he got to break a board. I don't know what else to say about him that is new. He still loves soldiers, Halo, legos, pushing peoples buttons, speaking with a very LOUD talking voice, and saying "oh man!" when anything hard is asked of him, and charming all the ladies. He is also still devilishly handsome. However he STILL hasn't lost any baby teeth.





Katie turned 9! (yeah, Ive missed some birthdays)
Pictures are here

Kate got to have a dance dance birthday party this year. Because of mom and dad being out of town and then easter and other things we didn't get to party until April 14th. OOPS! We did celebrate on her birthday with a family party though. so she got two cakes! Nothing much new here either. Basketball finished, She had an entry in this years science fair, and is still doing piano.



Andrew did not have a birthday. He is still ten! YAY
like with the other kids, not much is new. He is still in scouts, basketball finished, and he has dropped from the 80% for weight last year to the 30% of weight this year. He has started walking home everyday from school with his friends. Its a pack of 4 boys. Im not sure how I feel about it. The walking itself doesn't bother me, but the friends are....... well...... ten year old boys (ifyouknowwhatImean).





I think our biggest news comes from Kyle. Its really exciting... Its been a long time coming...It should make him feel much more loved........ drumroll please********
 After six years as a Sr. Production artist, he is now a technology manager in the tech initiatives group!!!! With that comes some new responsibility and a nice little pay raise. Mostly he is doing the same thing he has been doing for the last two years, he just now has a job title that actually matches what he does.

My parents earned their sainthood the last weekend of March and watched my kids for two nights so Kyle and I could have a little weekend in Seattle. We went to a movie, went to Emerald City ComiCon, and just spent some time sans kids. (it was very nice!)

News in my extended family
My sister Lori is pregnant and will have baby 3 sometime around halloween. YAY FOR BABIES!!!

My mom got a new knee last week. The old one went kaput, so now she is bionic grandma. She is slowly but surly recovering, but she won't be going back to work this school year.

My dad RETIRED!!! I can't believe he is so grown up! One minute my dad had brown hair and was driving a bus, and next thing I know his hair is white and he is retired. My brother made a cute video to celebrate his 22 years of driving buses for TriMet.


Great Grandma and Grandpa Green made a little stop here in town and stayed with us for the night. I think it was the first time they had met Tyler. Im glad my kids got to see them since we don't seem to manage to make it down to St George where they live.

So much for this being short. But hey, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit right?  ;)

Happy Valentines Day!

Basketball

We finally were "good parents" this year and signed the bigger kids up for basketball (we usually forget until after sign ups are done because we are cool like that)
Both of them are SO, SO, SO excited. They both got a pair of basketball shoes and water bottles for Christmas, and they both have their own ball now.
We are done with the second week and I do have to say that trying to figure out how to get kids to basketball twice a week (not always on the same nights, never at the same time, and sometimes not at the same school) and getting Kyle to scouts in there and me on the "no drive" list for part of a week has been..... fun. lol
The first game for the both of them is next week. We are excited that they get to have this experience and we hope that we can be on the ball enough to make sign ups next year too. ;)

Pictures

Pictures are up through the new year!  HERE

Family Pictures

For those who missed it on Facebook, my amazing sister Lori at Elby Photography took some amazing Family pictures for us over thanksgiving. I am ever so very happy about how they turned out.
These are a few of my favorites.
The rest of them are   >>>HERE<<<

For family members who are interested in having specific ones, you can order them straight from that site for a reasonable price.

Texas!

My sister Jen needed me to come watch her kids so she could go on a retreat for her work with her husband (because every couple needs some alone time)  She offered to fly out Tyler and I in exchange of keeping her kids and dogs alive four four days. As seems to be my current trend, I didn't take enough pictures, but we had a good time. Tyler was a super star on the plane. I didn't get as much napping as I wanted, but he didn't bug anyone else on the plane so we call it a win.
Mostly we just hung out and I play lots and lots of skyrim after the kids went down for the night. I got to see Daniels christmas presentation for preschool, we had pizza night with my brother and his family, then the bouncy house one night, and back to the Ball's house for lunch after church with my other brother Chris and his family (so Kevin's family and Chris' family. It was a mini reunion) I had a great time, it was a nice little mini vacation for me. I really enjoyed seeing my siblings who I don't get to see very often.

Houston LDS Temple

You can really see the similarities in their faces in this one. Little twiner cousins. 

November

Whew! What a month that was. I tried in the beginning to keep life normal, but eventually life overwhelmed me. Hence the ending of my every day posts. I didn't stop being thankful, because I think I had more to be thankful for this year than most others, but I just couldn't keep any more balls juggling in the air. This post may be a little more information than you wanted, but it has been my life and noteworthy. 
*Consider yourself warned*
We were/are DONE having kids. We have ended the "new baby" chapter of the Bake book and have gotten rid of all our baby stuff. We are enjoying that we fit perfectly at our table, in our car, and in our house and we know that we're the family we were meant to be. In addition to the fact that we're very happy with our family size, my own personal struggles with Rheumatoid Arthritis pretty much sealed the deal that more kids would not be in my family's future. Because of my Rheumatoid Arthritis, I take a medicine called methotrexate. If you are not familiar with the medicine, it is VERY non compatible with pregnancy (in that it usually ends them). Because of all of those things, I have been using an IUD since May. There have been some issues with the IUD, but I was assured that it was doing its job just fine. Come to the last week of October and the day after my big super saturday at church I found out I was pregnant. (this is where the sound of my jaw hitting the floor echoed throughout the North American Continent.) 
During the course of November I was told...

• My IUD had completely disappeared (they still have no idea where it is) but that the pregnancy was looking normal.
• I had an ectopic pregnancy and we would have to cause a miscarriage (ironically with the same methotrexate that I take for my RA)
• They were kidding, it wasn't ectopic and that it was probably ok, but the US just looked "funny"
• I was normal pregnant and things were just developing a little slower
• It was a molar pregnancy
• It was just a Blighted Ovum but that I possibly had gotten pregnant again.

To add to the fun I also had

• 7 blood draws
• 4 Ultra Sounds
• 2 sets of doctors
• I was just getting off of being in charge of super saturday (huge craft day at church)
• Halloween with 4 kids
• I assisted in a book drive and book referb for the local children's bank
• I got volunteered to be in charge of a booth at the kids Harvest carnival at school (which ended up with 7 hours at the school since they needed more help)
• I was in charge of all of the kid games at our church's harvest carnival
• I was in charge of a semi formal christmas dinner to feed almost 100 ladies at church
• Family pictures to find outfits for and everything else that goes with making a family of 6 presentable

At first, I was really thrown off guard that I could have possibly gotten pregnant. I was NOT ready for a #5. But within a week, when it set in that I indeed was pregnant, I couldnt help but fall in love with #5. The following month of "yes you are, no you aren't" was really very difficult to wrap my head around. It was really hard to keep hopes up against all odds. Emotionally draining does not even begin to describe what those 5 weeks were like. When I actually miscarried during the week of Thanksgiving I was almost thankful because it finally meant a concrete answer after a five week roller coaster of emotions. So by the time the pregnancy ended I had mourned the loss of the baby twice by then and was emotionally empty- so mostly I only had the physical aspect of it to deal with at the time. (which Im trying to think of as a blessing. Silver linings right?) 


So there we go. Im trying to take a deep breath and get prepared for the crazy that is the Christmas season. Thankfully I have nothing big on my plate for the next month (other than buying presents since I haven't gotten a single one yet)

I want to give a massively huge THANK YOU to everyone that dealt with my crazy, gave me a shoulder to vent/cry on, brought dinners, watched my kids, and in general gave me support. I also want to apologize to anyone who felt left out for not knowing. I never had a solid answer to give people so we didn't really share, and once we had a solid answer I just want to wash my hair of it and put it behind me. 




So we don't end on a totally depressing note
Here is a random picture from November- Kate Marching in the Macy' Thanksgiving Day parade in Downtown Portland with the local high school's Color Guard. 

Thankful Day 13

I am thankful for my church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)  I can't imagine my life without it. The guidance I have received, the friends and relationships I have built, and my own personal relationship with God is all hugely based on what I have learned at church or through other church members.

photo credits to http://ivonyoung.blogspot.com

Thankful Day 12

I know I should have done it yesterday, but I had gaming on the brain.
I am hugely thankful for my country's Armed Forces. Those who have fought and died to keep us free and to aid others. Their sacrifice is huge almost beyond measure. I really truly appreciate those women and men with my whole heart.