Sunday, January 10, 2016

Kids Say The Darndest Things - 2014

Like I said in a previous post I thought it would be fun for me to go back and post about previous years that I've recorded the funny things the kids say or do. Here are the things I wrote down in 2014. 

February 2014

- I decided to introduce Zeke to the movie Cars. He was hooked! He kept pointing at the TV and saying, "Ca"! He will mimic me if I say, "McQueen", he'll say "Quee" and he'll also say, "Spee" to mimic me saying, "I am speed". Zeke wasn't even 2 years old at the time. 

- One night at dinner Zeke was being naughty by shaking his snack container over the side of his highchair getting crumbs all over the floor. Daddy took his container away and he started to cry. Daddy told him to stop. He held it together while in his highchair then when Daddy set him down he walked into the kitchen and promptly lost it and started crying his eyes out. 

March 2014

- One day after school Owen was playing his hunting game. Zeke walked up and stood next to him watching and then said, "Ah OH" when Owen "shot" an animal in the game. 

- One Saturday morning we were in the kitchen making breakfast when Zeke came in driving a car. He looked right at Daddy and said, "Mommy, Mommy...hahahaha!" 

- That same Saturday morning Ella was trying to organize the older boys to play with her. She was saying, "Ok guys!"....then Owen piped in and said, "We are not playing baby & mommy!" 

- I was planning Zeke's 2nd Birthday so I had images of Cars up on the computer. Zeke was standing on the chair in front of the computer saying, "Queen, Cars, Mayder!" Then he would clap his hands over his head. The best part was when he turned to me and said, "I wuv you!" 

- On the way home from MOPS Ella was having a meltdown about a conversation we were having about being a daughter. I was explaining how she is Ella, but she's also a daughter, a sister, a niece and a friend. Through tears she said, "I just want to be Ella!" 

August 2014

- Zeke grabbed the sass juice (white vinegar) bottle off the cabinet and said, "ju". I told him it was sass juice and I only used it when he talked sassy to me. I also told him it was yucky! He got louder and said, "JU!" So I squirted two sprays into his mouth and he said, "HEY!" 

September 2014

One day in the shower Zeke sneezed and said, "Bless a you me!" 

Zeke says some funny things. When he's thirsty he'll say, "water me" or when he wants you to pick him up he'll say, "I carry you!" 

October 2014

One day Zeke was driving his car and he noticed a picture of Daddy and me on our wedding day. He sounded all surprised and said, "That mommy....mommy girl!" 

Zeke started potty training on Thursday October 2nd.

December 2014

Zeke was taking a shower with me and I wrapped a wash cloth around his waist. He threw it off and said, "I not a princess!" 

One day Jack brought in the mail and a package for me. Later I asked Owen about it. I asked if they were out there when the mailman came. He said, "Yeah the mailman & the ups truck were both here!" 

I asked Zeke to go get his dinosaur jammies and he said, "No, I don't want my dinosaur chicken!" 

Ella had been given reindeer antlers that lite up. Jack wanted them really badly and Ella knew it. Jack was trying to be sneaky and take them when Ella say, "I've got my eyes on you!" 

Zeke was sitting on the counter watching me make Christmas goodies. I was telling him Jesus loved him and he said, "I want to hold him!" it's something he says to me all the time. He look right at me and smiled and said, "You..not God!" 

Just a few minutes later he's still watching me and I was opening up candles and he says, "I like those candies" and then he thinks and says, "I didn't eat my dinner!" 

On Christmas Eve we planned to have the kids open one present. Jackson was mentioning that to Ga-Ga and then he looked at me and points and says, "You better have a present for Ga-Ga or she's gonna spank your butt!" 

When Zeke gets shut out of a room he bangs on the door and says, "Open me door!" 

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Goals For 2016!


On New Years Eve Michael and I sat down and went over our goals for 2015 and then made new goals for 2016. I truly love doing this! It gives me a snapshot of what we hope to accomplish. Sometimes we accomplish more sometimes less, but at least we are working toward our goals and holding ourselves accountable. Without further ado....

2016 Goals

Home Goals: 

Replace deck surface and stain
Touch up paint throughout the inside of the house
Fix master bathroom ceiling
Put Moss Out on the roof
Jack up the front awning
Replace kitchen lights


Yard Goals: 

Buy and plant more bulbs
Edge playarea and buy pea gravel
Get giant tree rounds removed


Money Goals: 

Save at least 1/4 of the money we will need to go on our trip to Hawaii in 2019
Save at least 1/3 of the money needed to replace our driveway
Boost up appliance savings account


Purchase Goals: 

Gun / Permit / Classes / Safe / Ammo
Refrigerator
PC or a Laptop
Rafts 
Snow Gear for the family


Family Adventures:

Ape Caves
Sledding or Tubing
Tag Zone or Lazor Tag
Rattlesnake Ridge
Camping
Family Fun Center
Water park in Ritzville
Take Ella out for tea


Personal Goals:

Lyndsay - Run a 5K or longer and build a farm table and benches 

Michael - Get his CDL and don't gain a notch on his belt! :) 


If you've read our goals for past years you'll notice that we added a few more areas. The main one I wanted to add was the Family Adventures. We are constantly throughout the year saying things like...."It's be fun to do this with the kids and go there and etc!" but since we do live without credit cards that can make doing those things hard unless we plan ahead. So we are doing just that! Heaven knows it's expensive do things with just 2 kids let alone 4! We really want to make sure we are having fun with our kids and making memories. 

Here's to a prosperous and happy new year! 

Friday, January 8, 2016

Accomplishments 2015!

Every year we like to sit down and go over the goals we made for that year and see how we did. This is more for my records than anything. 

Goals for 2015

Home & Yard Goals: 

Get estimate for driveway 
We did and ouch it's going to cost almost 10K to get that done, but it is something that desperately needs to be done...thanks tree roots! We do not want to have a claim on our homeowners insurance because someone breaks their leg and it would be nice for our kids to eventually be able to play basketball in their own driveway!
Have consultation about kitchen remodel
We did not do this because we found out how expensive the driveway was going to be and so this project won't be getting done for a few more years. I did sit down and seriously draw up some plans and my thinking on the design has changed. The best part is the company that we bought our cabinets from still sells them so it won't be nearly as expensive. We only need 4 new cabinets...which is still going to cost us around 3K or so! 

Fix broken front window
Yay we did get the window fixed....not as quickly as we had hoped since I flew to Wyoming for my Grandma's funeral, but it was totally worth the wait. Since we didn't fix it in the winter we figured why rush. We saved for other things first and then the window and finally got it fixed in September before the weather turned cold! 

Purchase weed eater - DONE!
Build Kids Clubhouse - DONE!
We completed these goals prior to me getting around to posting about our 2015 goals! 

Replace wood and restain deck
We did not do anything with the deck last year since we felt that the yard needed new bark if we were going to try to get the weeds under control. The deck isn't in horrible shape it's just something that we do need to do and that's why it's on our goal list for 2016. 

Figure out backyard landscape
This is still something we are struggling with. We know that we want to enlarge the pea gravel area around the play structure, but other than that we are stuck. I would like Michael to build me some more raised garden beds down on the hillside, but we also need to figure out the awkward stair area that leads to our easement. 

A couple goals we added to our list later in the year were...

Clean out under our deck
We did this and it made a huge difference. We took tons of stuff to the dump and now it's a great covered area for the kids to play in the backyard. 

Organize our basement
It was such a mess and now it's so nice and organized. It was not something Michael wanted to do, but he worked on that while I worked on clearing out under the deck and it was very fulfilling to finish! 


Financial Goals: 

Pay back 3-6 months savings - DONE!
Finished before I posted about goals. 

Save for window replacement
Check! 

Save for appliances
We did set up an actual appliance savings account and it has come in handy since our garbage disposal broke and the pump to my washing machine just went out. 

Start saving for trip to Hawaii for our 20th Anniversary in 2019
We did not do that, but this is something we are starting in 2016

Start saving for a car
We did add this to our budget....we need to up the amount, but all things in good time! 


Personal Goals - Michael: 

Learn more about the Backhoe
Michael did get more opportunities at work to further his knowledge about the Backhoe. He still would really like to get his CDL, but that's all up to Boss Man so we'll see! 


Personal Goals - Lyndsay: 

Get more toned
In February...I think...I started working out with my neighbor Rachael. We meet once a week at her house. It's been slow since it's only once a week, but I have noticed a major change in my body. I no longer have to go to the chiropractor nearly as often. PTL!

Finish reading through the Bible
A couple years ago I started reading the Bible Chronologically with my church. I made it until August and then things just fell by the wayside. My plan was to pick up and finish, but that didn't happen. Instead I joined BSF in September...another thing I've been wanting to do for years. We are studying Revelations and I'm loving every minute of it. To me anytime spent in the Word of God is a win! 

Be more intentional with teaching Ella
I tried people....I really did! That girl and I just do not work well together. I decided for the health of our relationship that I just needed to pull back. Ella is doing so much better in school. We meet with the rest of her IEP team in January so I'll have an update then. 


Couple Goals: 

Go on more dates
Michael and I definitely did go on more dates...still not enough if you ask me, but we are going to work on that more this year as well! 

Overall I feel really good about what we accomplished in 2015. One thing that is crazy for me to think about is that 5 years ago Michael was still unemployed, we had 3 small children, I started watching Logan to help money wise and we still had no clue what God had in store. Fast forward 5 short years and Michael has had numerous raises so much so I don't have to watch anyone else's child and this year alone we were able to...

build the kids an indoor clubhouse
I was able to attend my grandma's funeral
get bark for our whole yard
go on vacation  to Wyoming
get our window replaced
go on vacation to Seabrook
have our front tree cut down
give our kids a great Christmas 

All of that without ONE credit card! Dave Ramsey would be proud! :)  

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The Force Awakens!

We LOVE movies! 

In 2015 we introduced the kids to lots of different movies....all 3 Back to the Future movies, all 4 Jurassic Park movies, the 3 Hobbit movies, the 3 Lord Of The Rings movies and lots and lots of Marvel movies. We are definitely movie lovers in this house. The best part is my kids really enjoy them and they don't get scared! There are scary parts and we are mindful of that...especially in Lord of the Rings so we tell the kids to close their eyes or we just skip to the next chapter and explain what happened. 

We have always been very honest with them about the fact that this is something that someone imagined in their head and made it into a movie. We talk about how make up artist and computers can make normal people look really creepy or different. IMDB is something we go to a lot so we can show the kids what the actors really look like. They also love knowing what the person looks like that is voicing a cartoon characters. Jack has even started recognizing voices from characters in shows he's seen before. For example when we watched Lord of the Rings he recognized that Lord Saurman voice was the same as Count Dooku's even though the actor portraying both of those characters looked very different.   

Before we went to Disneyland in September 2014 we made sure to let the kids know that the characters were really people in a costume. I'm really leery of people in costumes and meeting the characters is actually my least favorite part of Disneyland! I was definitely going to take them to meet characters if they wanted to, but none of them were very interested at all. They just want to go on rides! 

The kids have seen all 6 of the Star Wars movies as well...not in 2015....we introduced those to the kids a while ago....the 3rd episode was the one we waited the longest to let the kids watch since that's when Anikin goes to The Dark Side and it's a bit scary. So when Star Wars came out Michael and I went and saw it for our date day on December 21st to make sure it was okay for the kids to see first. Then on New Years Day we took the kids to see it. It was fun being in the theater watching it with my kids since it's the first new Star Wars to come out since any of them have been born. 

We got to the movie theater early since we wanted to get good seats. I took Ella and Zeke into the theater while Michael and the bigger boys got popcorn and soda. We got the seats that are right in front when you walk in. We had to wait a good 45 minutes before the movie started and then there were no joke 7 previews! These kids did great considering! 


I figured out my flash doesn't work when taking a picture while looking at my screen. 


Cute little Seahawks girl...she remembered it was Blue Friday all by herself! 



That flash is so bright!  See the guys sitting on the right of Jack. He was an older gentleman and I wasn't sure how he felt about a bunch of kids sitting next to him. He didn't say anything, but I could almost read his face and it was saying, "Oh great noisy kids are going to ruin the movie for me!". Him and his wife didn't move and as far as I'm concerned the kids did great. Zeke moved around a lot going back and forth from Michael and I, but nothing crazy. 


Owen and that hood....he will wear a hood all day everyday if we let him! The movie was AWESOME and the kids loved it. Jack got scared with of the characters dies...not gonna say the name since some people might not have seen it yet. We were at the theater a total of 3.5 hours and it only took 2 bags of popcorn, 3 sodas and 3 bathroom breaks to make it through...not bad really! The best part...no meltdowns! 

Monday, January 4, 2016

Christmas Day!

After having our Christmas Morning we headed down to Ga-Ga & Pa's and got there around noon. 


The kids were all ready for round two! 



Uncle Ry and Aunt Stephie actually beat us down there so they were all ready for presents as well. 



We passed out presents to everyone. 



Sure the one picture I take of Michael and I and his eyes are closed...typical! 




We decided to go youngest to oldest, but instead of one present at a time we let each child open all their presents at once and then moved onto the next kiddo. 


From Uncle Ry and Aunt Stephie...Zeke got a Duplo Castle set and...


Thomas the Train Making Tracks game! 



From Ga-Ga & Pa...Zeke got a Paw Patrol Game....



Seahawks sweatshirt, Paw Patrol sweatsuit....



A huge Duplo Train Set...Zeke already has some Duplo train tracks, but this is going to make him be able to have so many more options for set ups. 



He also got a giant Marshall from Paw Patrol! 



From Ga-Ga & Pa Ella got a Barbie Pop-up Camper (She was sure that she could get the best of this box, but it actually got her and gave her a nasty cut on her hand...she was a trooper though!)...



Barbie Mega Bloks Camper...



a jewelry box with a dancing ballerina! She loves her jewelry box and she listens to it every night before bed. 



She also got an Inside Out Nightgown. Ella's 6th birthday is going to be an Inside Out Theme...her favorite is Joy & Disgust!  



From Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie she got a Dazzling Princess game and...



Elsa's LEGO Ice Palace! This palace is so cute....LEGO Olaf is adorable!



Jackson was sitting on the other side of the tree so it was a bit difficult for me to get pictures...plus he is speedy when it comes to opening his gifts...one right after the other! From Ga-Ga & Pa he got a Seahawks sweatshirt. 


He also got 2 LEGO Pirates sets and...



a LEGO Star Wars set that comes with Commander Cody that he's wanted for a really long time! 



From Uncle Ry and Aunt Stephie he got another LEGO Star Wars set...it's a Snowspeeder and...



he got a bucket of animals. Aunt Stephie was worried it would be too babyish, but he asked for it. Jackson loves that kind of stuff though. He takes the animals outside and digs in the dirt to make homes for them and acts out all these scenarios. 



From Ga-Ga & Pa...Owen got the LEGO Demolition Site...he's wanted this for a long time. He just had to have that wrecking ball! 



To go along with the Demo Site he also got the Excavator and the Dump Truck set...



and of course he got a Seahawks sweater shirt as well! 



From Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie....he got an Army Survival kit....it has the actual guide, canteen, matches and a bunch of other cool stuff! 



We did confiscate the matches, but Daddy and Owen will take advantage of those this summer I'm sure! 




He also got a LEGO Snowplow! 

After the kids presents were open we set up a few things for them so the adults could open our presents in peace. Of course there weren't nearly the same amount of presents for us! :) 



Ga-Ga & Pa really threw me for a loop when I opened up a present that had a tiny stocking in it filled with 5 Benjamin's! I was just totally shocked. They also got me my Seahawk earrings I'd been wanting. Ryan and Steph got Michael and I gift card to the movies. We love to go on dates so this was perfect. We are actually using it this weekend to go see the last installment of The Hunger Games. As for what I'm going to do with $500....I did order a few things online already...I got a book about miracles and a new mixer blade. The blade ended up not working on my machine though so I'm going to have to ship it back. I also ordered a Seahawks phone case, but it hasn't come yet. I didn't notice I was ordering it from Israel! It should be here by the end of the month. As for the rest of the money my Dad and I are going to work on a project so stay tuned! 



Michael got a really nice wrench that he'd been wanting.



He also got a tiny stocking with 5 Benjamin's as well! He's spent some of his already on computer games. Not sure what he's going to do with the rest though. 



Ryan got an Amazon gift card from us. He also got a movie from Ga-Ga & Pa and a tiny stocking with 5 Benjamin's as well! 



He also got a funny gift from me. It's a gift I had been holding on to for a year. I got it as a white elephant gift last year after Christmas and I knew I had to save it for this year. Ryan loves The Christmas Story so I knew he would get a kick out of it! 



It's the leg lamp! It was so much fun! 




For Steph I made her a casserole carrier in her favorite color...pink. It also had matching pot holders. We also gave her a gift card to Red Robin and I made another cute little thing for her...it's a fabric first aid kit for her purse. I made it in the same fabric as her casserole carrier. 



Every year I make calendars for everyone with cute pictures of the kids from the previous year. Steph always looks forward to getting hers...she always has so many things she needs to write on it! 



Ga-Ga & Pa got Steph a new curling iron that automatically shuts off so she doesn't have to worry if she forgets to unplug it. She also got a tiny stocking with 5 Benjamin's in it! Boy us kids were sure spoiled!!! 



I got Ga-Ga a new gold sparkly Starbucks cup and a starbucks gift card. Her and Pa also got a gift card to the movies from Ryan and Steph.  

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Pa....his present was only an envelope though! Ga-Ga had already opened the gift card to the movies so he just had our gift to open. I gave him a Christmas card with a piece of paper in it that said...Reader's Digest! Pa loves Reader's Digest and he hasn't had a subscription in a while so I bought him a 2 year subscription. He loved it! 


Of course the kids had tons of fun playing with all sorts of presents. 



Zeke's volcano Hot Wheels set was pretty awesome. He just had to bring that from home since we were spending the night. In fact all the kids brought a couple presents from home to play with. Michael and I also spend the next day and a half put together lots of LEGO sets! 



Ryan and Steph went home on Christmas night, but not until after we had a lovely dinner and watched some Christmas movies. It was a great time spent with family and thankfully I didn't get sick until Christmas night when I got a sore throat! 

Merry Christmas!