One night

A few nights back, I had the grand idea that I would go to bed early. I got all the kids bathed and in bed by 8:30. I made the morning coffee, tidied up the downstairs, set my alarm for 5:30am, and brushed my teeth. In bed, ready to sleep by 9:15.

9:30-Mason wants water
10:25-Charlotte gets up to go to the bathroom (in my room)
11:15-baby wakes up screaming. I start to walk to his room, killing about 12 army guys with my bare feet.
12 midnight--I stumble back to my own bed, taking out the remainder of the maimed army platoon, again with my bare feet.
1:30-I wake to the smell of coffee. Apparently I hit the wrong button on the coffee machine, causing it to make coffee in the middle of the night instead of 5am. I go downstairs and remake the coffee.
2:50-Mason says he had a bad dream, can he sleep with me.
2:55, 3:00, 3:02, 3:05, 3:08, 3:11--I get kicked in the back, head, and stomach multiple times by a sound asleep 6 year old in my bed.
3:15- I tell Mason he has to sleep in his own bed. He begs me to walk with him because it is dark. I remember the hallway full of army guys, and put my slippers on. Slippers are full of Lincoln Logs. I swear out loud, waking up the Levi.
3:16-Get Mason in bed only to have to lay down with Levi in a toddler bed.
3:45-Think Levi is asleep and start to head back to my room. Levi screams and wants me to refill his humidifier. I walk back to the bathroom, refill tank, get it situated, and crawl into bed.
4:00- Brandon's alarm goes off. He hits snooze.
4:09, 4:18, 4:27-Brandon hits snooze.
4:36-Alarm goes off again, I kick Brandon in the back and tell him he better get up before I kill him.
5:30-my alarm goes off, I can't reach the snooze button, so I reluctantly get up and start the shower.
5:45-I go downstairs, pour a cup of coffee and realize I forgot to add new grounds when I remade the pot last night, so I pretty much have a cup of dirty water.
6:00 I sit down at computer, exhausted, hoping to steal a minute to check my email. Mason comes downstairs, carrying Garrett, saying he was up and crying. I get everyone ready for the day, continually telling myself I will miss this when I am older.

January

If I'm gonna stick to blogging 2x a month, I better get cracking. So much has been happening here I feel like I hardly have a chance to breathe, let alone hang out at the computer. For the time being the kids are occupied with Thomas trains scattered all over the living room, so I will take this small reprieve and catch up on our life!

We had a great Christmas and loved the opportunity to see everyone. Oh, "Great" is a loose term, only being able to be applied after the trauma has passed. Christmas Eve we spent with my dad's extended family. Luckily for us, this year it was at my parents house, which is next door. It snowed like no other that morning, so I was very glad to not have to travel with all my monkeys. We had a nice time that evening, even though we didn't make it home until after midnight. Then we had to wait while the kids went to sleep in order for Santa to come. By 2 am, we were finally ready for bed. At about 2:15, Mason woke up puking everywhere. Several hours of dealing with him throwing up, then the other kids were ready to open presents. Gramma, Papa, Uncle Matt and Aunt Heather all came over for presents, and more puking from now the other kids. This included Charlotte exploding all over Gramma's lap. FANTASTIC.

After presents, we got the kids to rest for awhile before having to load up and go to Brandon's mom's. This year, Gramma Dorothy was not feeling well enough to leave the nursing home, so Christmas was shortened as all the adults left to go see Gramma. I didn't think it wise to bring four tired, crabby (and puking!) kids to the nursing home, so we went home. The kids were fast asleep by 8 pm, but took several days to fully recover from the Christmas excitement.

New Year's Eve was a blast. We had my cousin, her husband, and their kids spend the night. The kids played nonstop til way past midnight and it was great to hang out and have adult conversation for awhile! I still don't think I have made up for the sleep I lost that night, but it was worth it!

On January 5th I started Daycare again. It actually has been a blessing in many ways. It keeps our days on track, gives the kids a great distraction, and has relieved some of our growing financial pressures. I am not a fan of having to get up so early in the morning, but there are worse things in life!

I have some cute stories to share, which hopefully Thomas the Tank will allow me to post today. Some of our schools are closed, so I have extra kids today, but Mason had to go to school. He was none too pleased! The added kids will either prevent any and all writing, or add to the distractions and keep the littler kids busy!