The Huss Homestead

How we differ

2012-02-01T11:53:00.000-08:00

I simply adore my husband.
He is my sole mate and we have a great time together.
With that said we do differ in a few areas.
Maybe that is why we get along.
But there are certain areas in life that we have completely different...lets say views on.
Like for example.
Our bathroom scale was broken.
I told Jed he should order one on Amazon.
Now when I buy something it takes me about a quarter of the time and I usually just get something that is relatively inexpensive.
When Jed buys something he has to research it for hours/days and comes up with the best produce being it be the most expensive or not.
Now when I gave Jed this assignment of getting a new scale.
Here was my vision...

(and yes if you are wondering that is my real weight...when I was 12)

So with that in mind imagine my surprise when this thing arrives at my door.
Seriously?!
I freaking HATE these scales. They are the ones in the doctors office and up until Jed announced that they are the most accurate scales I always believed they were always about 5-10lbs off. Plus who wants to stand on the scale throw the little thing to 100 and inch your way over and watch hopefully waiting for the thing to balance only to be disappointed when it slams to the top. And don't even get me started on the irreversible emotional damage caused by having to move the little nob thing over 50 more pounds.
Jed purchased this scale when we were in our rental house that only had tile in the kitchen and he was determined to plop that thing right in the middle of the kitchen. Um, no thank you. It was moved to the garage and it is in our garage right now.
Any doctors out there looking for a brand new scale?

Now when Jed and I were first married and he would say he wanted to get a few fish my mind would go here...

But this is Jed's version of a few fish...

Well over the years people change and situations change and well now when Jed says he is getting a few fish this is where his mind goes...

And I know what you are thinking "Erin, stop exaggerating! Why are you showing me a fish store!?" to which I reply...you are looking at a picture of our garage.

As seen on TV

2012-01-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

I am an As Seen On TV junkie. I love all the commercials. Most of them make me laugh because they make simple things, like cooking pasta seem so barbaric. Don't even get me started on the black and white girl trying to shave her legs...hurts me every time. BUT I am the biggest sucker for these commercials I always feel like I NEED whatever they are selling. I don't often buy anything off the commercial but I do have to say I buy them once they hit the store.

I think the only thing I actually bought as soon as I saw the commercial was the Pedegg.
I was up with Noah just after he was born and seriously sleep deprived and I saw this commercial and apparently I ordered it. I say apparently because I woke up in the morning after dreaming about the Pedegg and I saw an email in my inbox thanking me for my order. But I am glad I got it I love it. Nothing is sexier to my hubby like me sitting in bed scraping my heals with this thing :)

I recently bought this...

I am so loving it! I put it in the kids bathroom and the toothpaste mess is no more. PLUS a tube of toothpaste last a whole heck of a lot longer. I bought it at RiteAid on their As seen on TV isle for 9.99.

I also bought this

Again I saw this commercial and I thought "I NEED this." (I have issues) but it did not disappoint. I love it, between this and the Pedegg my feet are smooth and clean.

Ambers Baby Shower

2012-01-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

I went down to our old stompin grounds to celebrate the pending arrival of baby Max.

Here is the guest of honor with Kate.
I loaded up on Airborne before I headed down since there is a nasty bug going around and it just so happened to land at our house the night before. Poor Noah.

I didn't get pictures once people actually arrived. But it was at Trena's cute house and we did a brunch and it was very fun. Here are the party favors little boxes with M's on them that were filled with See's mints and caramels.

I found this idea on Pinterest. It's a baby "shower" get it? It's basically tissue pom pom's with fishing line(or jewelry line) coming down with little rain drops. I thought they turned out cute.

The orange drink was AMAZING. Katie's husband David is a chef and the food was oh so yummy. This drink was a mixture of a whole bunch of juices and soda....not sure exactly what but it was yummy.

The spread.
It was a fun time visiting with friends and celebrating little baby Max who will be making his appearance this March making that 3 little Bruesekes.

Birthday Fun

2012-01-25T21:32:00.001-08:00

So I turned 29 last Wednesday.

I woke up and felt seriously horrible. Stuffed up, achy, feverish and just all around super duper blah!

The good thing is I could take something stronger than tylenol.

Jed and I had plans and a babysitter for that night.

I was determined to go out.

It was about 2:30 when I could barely breath that I realized that maybe I wasn't up for anything that night.

The kids were super sweet and kept drawing me pictures and were super excited it was my birthday.

Natalie even drew me a birthday cake and had me blow out the candles.

Jed wound up having a bunch of patients and had to work extra late and didn't even get home until 8:30pm. He did come home with a cake( it happened to be one of the assistances birthdays so he brought home half a cake) he stuck some candles in and everyone sang me happy birthday.

I heard the cake was wonderful, I wouldn't know. By the time my appetite came back it was dried out.

On good news I am officially at my goal weight. Yahoo.

Being sick can come in handy....now I just have to continue starving myself :)

What I was REALLY super excited about was going to see Wicked with my Momma.

My brother got us both tickets for Christmas so we could go for my birthday.

Seriously my little brother is so sweet.

I felt like CA-RAP but I knew I would go no matter what.

Jed got home extra early that day and took over the kids and my mom and I headed south.

We had a nice dinner and then headed to the theater.

My mom is so cute.

I was so crazy excited! I have wanted to see the play for years. I headed right for the souvenir booth and I didn't even care that everything was crazy overpriced I got myself a shirt and some cups and I was practically skipping though the lobby.

I had done all kinds of research on the actors prior to the show and was a little disappointed that the Elphaba was actually the standby but I got over it. We had really great seats and I wanted to take a picture of how close we were to the stage but there are about 1000 signs saying no pictures or videos allowed. But I thought if I didn't have the flash on and I just looked like I was texting I could snap a pic...well apparently my flash didn't go off and it was like a giant flash right in the middle of the theater so I dropped the phone really fast and got a great picture of my leg.

Luckily no one kicked me out.

My mom and I both loved it so much and we are already planning our next trip to see it again. This time we are going to sit even closer because we are both pretty much blind :)

Jed and I did finally go out last night to celebrate my birthday. We went to PF Changs and then we headed to mall. Jed said he would take me shopping for my birthday so I promptly walked right to Anthropology and found him a nice comfy chair. We had a wonderful time! More celebrations to come since I had to postpone everything last week. It's nice to make this birthday thing last:)

On a totally unrelated note have you ever tried abcmouse.com?

I am doing it with Noah since I can't find him a preschool that he doesn't think is "boring and filled with babies"

You win some you lose some.

2012-01-20T11:22:00.002-08:00

Natalie has been a busy little bee. Between school and her various social engagements that come with that she is also taking piano as well as a cooking class(through school). She has been asking to take dance for awhile now so when a Groupon came up for a brand new studio(warning if you click on the link to the studio the website has some crazy loud music) literally just a few miles away I knew her dancing dreams would soon come true. Noah was extremely upset because not only does Natalie get to go to school and do homework she gets to take cooking classes and take piano and now dance! It was just a bit too much for him.

The dance class is an hour long and it was just Natalie and one other girl. Since it just opened the owner said we could take as many classes as we would like for free for the next few weeks and then use our Groupon. She had me at free. I looked over the schedule and saw that there was a dance class right after Natalie's that was for 3-4 year olds and it was a hip-hop class for boys and girls. So we waited an hour for Natalie who LOVED every single second of the fully mirrored room. The girl loves to look at herself. I wish so badly I could have taken some pictures of her but I was too busy keeping the crew busy.
It is also an established music school so there was a tv with Disney on and a room full of all kinds of snacks(for free!) for the kids. After Natalie's class was all done I asked Noah if he would like to dance. He said he would only if there were other boys in the class. Well the class started and there were only two other little girls. Noah was NOT having it. But I made him go in anyways because it's free and it's something for him and we were there and the boy does love to dance. The instructor(who was seriously a legit hip-hop dancer) started and Noah just stood there with his legs crossed and picked his nose.

After warm-up the teacher turned off the lights and turned on the disco ball. The other two little girls were thrilled but Noah, well he ran to the door and pressed his face up against the window and made puppy dog eyes and even worked up some real tears all the while screaming "There is no boys in here! Help me Momma there are no boys!"

There are times as a parent you just make your kids do things that they don't like because they have to see it through or it's good for them. Well I saw no benefit of keeping him in the class especially since that nice clean window now has snot and hand prints all over it. So I grabbed him and we left. Noah told me once we got in the car "you said there would be boys!" and then he told the woman at the grocery store three days later his "Momma made me dance with girls." So apparently it was rather traumatic for him.

But I have to say the dance studio and teachers are great! I am very excited for Natalie and am determined to get video and pictures of her next week. And I promise to never make Noah take a dance class with girls again. You should have seen Jed's face when I started to tell him the story..."I decided to let Noah take a dance class with these two little girls..." you know he is totally the type to want his son in dance(insert eye rolls).
Someday Noah will forgive me.

10,585 days old

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

I'll save you the math I am 29 years old.

Posts from birthdays past...

I've been married 8 1/2 years.

I have 4 children.

I own a home.

You would think I would realize that I AM a grown up.

Yet when I look at 29 I think about how I am almost a grown up.

You know the big 30!

What did you do on your last birthday?

My last birthday I was 2 weeks post birth of the twins so I was slightly bulgy. It's hard to feel attractive when your body is recovering from birthing two babies. I spent the day at the pediatricians with the babies then had dinner with Jed and pedicures and yogurt with friends. I was so incredibly excited to be 28 because I knew it was the big transition year we had been working for.

What is your favorite memory of this last year?

Well, I have a few...

First, would be Jed's graduation party. His graduation was wonderful then afterward his family and some of mine met at his sisters house. We were floating on cloud nine and then Jed gets a call that day saying he got a job as an associate at one of the dental practices that he now owns. It was an overwhelming thrilling moment. About 10 minutes after Jed got that call I gave my boss my notice :)

Second would be our first night in our new home.

Third, this past summer and all the days spent by the pool with Amber and the kids and watching them learn to swim.

Fourth, the peace I felt after quitting my job and moving to our rental home. I made a few great friends and I have had a blast this last part of the year.

Fifth would be Natalie starting kindergarten. I just love that girl and her eagerness to learn.

I was going to say the birth of my babies but that was actually last year.

What is your not so favorite memory of this last year?

That would be my grandma being so sick. Her funeral was hard but beautiful. I miss her. But really the hardest thing was seeing her so very very sick those last weeks. The night I said good bye.

I would also say going through the health scare with Ryder. Honestly...and I am being honest...honestly I am..:) that was probably the worst part of the year for me. I am a mom, my kids are an extension of myself to even think about something being wrong with any of them is the biggest nightmare I think any parent can possible go through. I have never prayed so hard or cried so hard in my life. I don't know how parents with sick children do it. I hope I never find out. I just have so much respect for anyone who has a child with extra needs. I was so scared for my Ryder boy. Especially when my father-in-law who is a doctor told me that he thought there might be something wrong. But he has been to probably ever single doctor there is and he is perfectly fine. Just had to scare us a bit to make us realize what a big blessing it is to have a healthy family and that is truly all that does matter.

What was the biggest lesson you learned from this last year?

Well, gee there are a few. We had some family drama(and my mom might make me erase this) but for me it was hard. It was just after my grandma died. I think what I took away from it was this...If you want someone in your life, if you really really want them in your life then you need to accept them for who they are. I mean really accept them. You know their weaknesses and you know their strengths. So if you are going to accept them in your life then you need to accept that their weaknesses(even if their weakness truly affects you) will be part of your relationship with them. If you accept that then you can't spend all your time complaining about it. You need to accept it and move on. Now for me it took me awhile to come to this conclusion and I had to be at peace with the fact that some part of my family will not be in my life and that is just the way it is. I can't pretend, I just can't. I understand that in some situations that just the way it has to be. But in others...I just can't pretend. It's not being honest with myself or with those around me. I also learned that I need to take a "time out" before I react. I can be SO quick with my tongue....super quick. So I have been thinking a little more before I speak...just a little. I am working on it.

What are you hoping to accomplish by your next birthday?

~Join a gym and go to it at least twice a week

~Find a good preschool program that challenges Noah

~Start gardening

~Write. I enjoy writing and I want to get better at it.

~Find a charity that I can donate my time to.

~Eat healthier and feed my family even healthier.

~Clean my car out once a week.

~Clean out my inbox. I swear I am an email hoarder, I really need an intervention. I have like 17,000 unread emails...it's bad yes I know.

~Take piano lessons. We now have a piano and I can play the right hand for two hymns but I need a lot of help. Which will be a challenge for me since I have ZERO musical ability.

~Make a bigger effort to keep in touch with out of town friends

~Be better with birthdays. I seriously need to write them all down.

~Enjoy life!!

Goals from last year...

Get into a good routine with the kids and be able to tandem nurse.....check! I am so proud of myself for lasting a year.
Move into a house with a yard for the kids and more SPACE!....check!
Quit my job....BIG fat check!
Start up my cupcake project and apartment managers blog again.....fail! Yeah that 's just going to have to go by the wayside...wherever that is and whatever that means.
Shed these last 30 of the 70+ pounds I put on during this pregnancy....5lbs left!
Stay sane....check...I think!
Read the entire BOM...finished last night. Check!
Read more to my kids...check!
Eat more fish(not sure why, maybe it's all these cooking shows I watched on bed rest)...we ate a bunch for a few months after I wrote this then we got sick of it. So check! and I found out I am not really a fish fan.
Sign up for meals on EVERY list passed around church(I have a lot of making up to do)...check!
Take all four kids up to Santa Maria...check!
Throw a fun graduation/30th birthday party for Jed(he graduates the day before his 30th birthday)...check!
Exercise...check! sorta
Take the kids outside more...check!
ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!...check! check!

Just a few spots

2012-01-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

I have finally feel like our house is a home.

There are only about 9 boxes left and they just so happen to belong to Jed.

But I won't be to hard on him since he has been swamped at work lately.

I do have a few spots at our house that I just love.

First would be the kitchen....which I didn't take a picture of. But it's a good size kitchen. It's funny to think back 8 1/2 years ago to our itty bitty tiny tiny studio in Long Beach and our kitchen was about the size of a coat closet....as a matter of fact I think our new kitchen is about the size of that little apartment.

I love our pantry. It's nice to be able to see all the food we have. I swore when we moved in that I would always keep it closed....um yeah it's always wide open.

I love this mirror. We bought it from the sellers and it's the first thing you see when you come up the entry stairs. We haven't had a full length mirror for a few years. I used to stand on the toilet to get a full body shot. My grandma always said that you have to keep a full length mirror in your house that you will pass by daily because it will keep you skinny. It does remind me to stand up straight every time I go by it :)
I found this idea on Pinterest. It's Where the Side Walk Ends poems. They turned out really cute and I want to frame some more for the kids rooms.

This is the view from the babies room. They certainly have the best view in the house. We really love our backyard a lot.

I love this! It's my grandmas China. She got it when she got married in 1946. It's really beautiful and we bought this hutch from the sellers just to showcase it.
I have a lot more favorite spots I'll have to share later.

But we are settling in and we just love our neighbor hood! There are a lot of kids and a few families we go to church with within walking distance. We love our new ward and it's of fun to know that we will be there for probably ever, if not ever then pretty close :)

He cracks me up...even when I shouldn't be laughing

2012-01-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

I swear this kid cracks me up.

He loves his family. He is very protective over his siblings and will do about anything for them.

The kid is sort of obsessed with food. He is always STARVING and he is also such a drama queen. We were at the store and he asked for a snack(he had a snack just about 20 minutes earlier) I told him when we were done he could have something to eat. He then asked if I had a snack in my purse. I said I did but he could have it when we were done. So he then grabs his stomach drops to the ground and starts screeching "so hungry! so hungry! sooooooooooo hunnnnnnngggggrrrrryyyyy!" Everyone was staring at him then at me probably wondering why I never feed my child. I did the worst possible thing ever and gave him a granola bar so he would get off the ground. Now he does this dramatic "I am so hungry" dance all the time.

We were at Target and I told him he could pick one thing out of the $1 section. He searched high and low, passed over the trucks and spiderman cups and went straight for this plastic fruit(he is obsessed with food after all). I was hesitant because I didn't think he would ever play with it. But he has brought his plastic food with him everywhere and it's his favorite thing to play with at the moment. Even sleeps with them.

Noah isn't a fan of playing with other kids and he likes to do what he likes to do...only. We go to the playground after we pick up Natalie almost every day now. Noah never goes with the other kids and gets really upset when a kid tries to play with him. Or heaven forbid they try talking to him. He freaks out. But he will go sit on the swing or go down the slide. If he feels like playing with someone he will find the oldest person on the playground and try to play with them.

We have two couches in the living room right now and then we have this little foot rest thing(it was left here). Noah will only sit on the foot rest and lays down and curls up then he will complain it's too small. I will then tell him to go sit on the couch instead and he always looks behind him at the couch and looks back at me like I am simply brilliant.

He had his first day in Primary as a Sunbeam this past Sunday. He is rather huge(wears 5t/6x) and acts rather old for his and has been ready for Primary since his 3rd birthday. When church was over we asked him what he learned today to which he replied "you can put peanut butter in between graham crackers." We then asked if he learned anything else and he says "I learned I like graham crackers a lot."

We were at the mall with our friends the Morgan and Luke. We got the kids this stroller thing and they boys were thrilled. We were trying on clothes and one of the sales woman asked Noah if he was a real fireman. He just looks at her like she is stupid and says "No we are just boys riding a fire truck stroller we are too young to be fireman" then takes a breath and rolls his eyes.

Waiting at Antropology
He has also been lying lately. It's a new territory for us because if I ever thought Natalie was lying I just had to look at her and she would start crying and saying how sorry she was. Not Noah.

He was in the bathtub in the middle of the day(he takes a lot of baths mid day because he never wipes and always has a sore bum) and I hear him drinking the water(gross) and I turn around and ask him if he just drank the water. He says "No I didn't. I promise. It was a man, he came in here and drank the water and then left."

Seriously!?

Now I must go feed Noah...again.

12 months

2012-01-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

ONE YEARS OLD!

Ryder

RyRy, Ry, Bubba

~Very much enjoys banging his head on the back of the highchair.

~Loves to repeat everything you do. If you look at him and stick out your tongue he does the same, if you shake your head or do something with your hands he does it as well. If you say a word he says "Da!" we think he speaks German.

~Is completely weaned and has been for about a month now. He loved his bottle but now takes a straw sippy cup.

~Takes two naps a day and goes down at 7pm and wakes up around 6:30am

~Has two teeth, thank goodness because he is a biter.

~Loves to take a bite out of Emma.

~Is standing without assistants took one step but not really any closer to walking.

~Had the stomach flu for the first time :(

~Makes an awesome fish face

~17lbs 9oz

Emma

Emmers, Emmy

~Is so dainty in everything she does(is she really my child?)

~LOVES to play with balls

~Is now weaned. It was pretty hard. Every other time I tried weaning with any of the other children(Ryder included) they just sort of lost interest and gradually moved to a bottle or sippy. But Emma would nurse all day if I let her. But it was time. So I tried every bottle there was and she would just flat out refuse to even try. She was crawling around the kitchen and saw a bottle on the ground and started screaming. I finally was able to get her to take a straw. She now loves her zippy.

~Four teeth

~Takes two naps a day and goes down around 7pm and up about 6:30. She is always the first to wake up and last to fall asleep.

~Squeals a lot.

~Hates bows or headbands :(

~17lbs 2oz

I finally let them have blankets in their cribs. Ryder enjoys having his blanket over him while Emma likes to lay on top. Between Christmas and their birthdays they are well equipped in the toy department. They love to play in their new room and it's really nice because they will just play in there while I do some stuff in the bedrooms. They play well together and crack each other up. Ryder bites Emma all the time and loves to hit her repeatedly on the head. I've noticed that they play with other babies as well. Normally at this age babies just play near each other not with each other. But when they are around other babies they try playing with them the other babies usually aren't that receptive to it. Their favorite game to play with each other is simply to hand each other toys and they laugh so hard every single time. They play with each others hands when we are driving. It's really cute it looks like they are holding hands. All you know what breaks lose if I pick one up and not the other. I am also really glad they are on the small side because I get to use my Snap n Go longer. Not to mention carrying them both up and down these stairs is pretty tiring :) They really are just adorable and I can't get enough of my twiners and I really CAN NOT BELIEVE that they are ONE YEARS OLD!?

The twins turn ONE with a Candy Land Party!

2012-01-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

In the midst of moving and all the chaos that comes with that my babies turned one years old.
I have been planning their first for awhile now. I know they will never remember it, but you know what we made it a full year with TWIN babies! I think that calls for a celebration of mass proportion.
So I high tailed it to get the house as ready as possible for the big day and I was sore but very excited :)

The invites...

(Designed by my new go-to invites gal Allyson Linscott)

I decided on Candy Land because I just wanted a fun theme with a lot of colors to choose from.
I raided the store and loaded up on all kinds of candy goodness.

The signs were very cute and this sign fit perfectly in the opening coming into the dinning room.

(signs by my go-to sign gal Ashley Larsen)

When you first walked up the entry stairs I had colored squares like the Candy Land board.

I also had a bunch of pictures from the year of the babies at the top of the entry stairs as well.

Ready for cupcakes.

(The kids cakes were from Von's but the adults cupcakes were from Missy's cupcakes.
I had bought a groupon a while back for them and I picked Lemon Crunch and a Chocolate and Oh My Yumminess! They were so good. She is now my go-to cupcake gal)

The counter set up for the food.

Loves

I was really perplexed as to what games/activities we should have at the party. Then Megan posted on my fb page that I should do a bounce house....duh! I have no idea why I didn't think of that before(probably because I am not used to having a yard). But the kids were in heaven and the bounce guys didn't pick up the bounce house until late Sunday so we had a weekend full of bounce fun.

REUNITED!
One of Kate looking at the camera

One of everyone else but Kate looking at the camera

The babies appetizer of choice :)

First taste of cupcakes

Emma ate the frosting and then was done with it.
Ryder ate the entire thing and wanted some more.

The Bruesekes came down on Friday and stayed the night. It was SO GREAT to have them here and seriously Amber helped a ton. Especially since Jed decided that morning to put up the mailbox and was all but consumed with that project all morning(on a sad side note someone ran over our mailbox the next day).

What can I say about "My Christin" but that CLU is a great collage...hint. hint.
Opening presents

The babies were very excited with all the bows and ribbon that they got...and they loved the toys too :)

Thank you! Thank you to everyone that came. Sorry I don't have pictures I only took pictures at the beginning because I was too busy socializing with all our wonderful friends that we have made here and the of course our wonderful friends who came up.
And you too mom :)

It's ours.

2011-12-30T08:20:00.000-08:00

Our house closed yesterday.

Now this was a short sale house and the sellers were really bitter about losing their house.

And I can understand that.

They had moved out a few weeks ago.

Turned everything off(electricity, water, etc) which they aren't supposed to do.

But whatever we just turned everything back on in our name.

Then apparently a week ago they decided to move back in without telling us and we were paying for all our utilities.

Nice.

So imagine my surprise(since Jed was at work) when our relator called us and explained that the sellers don't want to give us our keys and would like a few extra days.

There is more to that story but not worth typing.

Long story short we got the keys.

And they also broke every single outside light, ran over the mail box, fired the gardner(which we were paying for) and cranked up the heater(electric in our name) before they departed.

Nice.

So needless to say we were thrilled when it was officially ALL OVER!

And so was our Relator who was waiting with her camera to capture everything.

Here we are ready to go into OUR house.

Already getting to work. Carrying up the baby gates and dinner. This house is going to give me some good exercise.
The babies were not so happy about this entrapment. They wanted to explore and quickly mastered going up the stairs....coming down not so much.

Here we are infront of our very own home.

The kids were thrilled and we finalized room arrangements and ate dinner at our new table as a family for the first time.

We are simply thrilled and so excited to be done with this whole house buying nonsense and very excited to take up permanete residence in our new home.

It's time to get to work...probably wont be blogging for a little bit :)

It's about stinking time

2011-12-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

Release the doves!
Ode to joy!
Can I get an AMEN!

Hallelujah !!

We are finally done.

Seriously.

Took.

Forever.

We decided back in MAY that we wanted to buy a house. The interest rates were low, houses were great prices and we thought it would be a great time to buy. The house we loved was the 2nd house we looked at. It was a short sale(for your information short sales are called short sales not because they don't take as long. They are short sales because the bank is shorting the loan on the house. So the original seller has stopped making the home payments and the bank is selling the house for less then the sellers paid for it. Thus the bank is highly involved which means it takes forever)...so we put an offer in and still looked around. This house was the house we loved the most not to mention it was the biggest house at the cheapest price(thanks to the short sale) we found. So we decided to stick it out found a great month to month rental and waited.

Now everything that could go wrong did.

We were told that we would probably be closing in August.

Then the sellers applied for a program allowing them to extend their time in the house.

So in August they told us that we would be starting escrow Friday.

At least that is what we heard every single Monday.

We even had the initial papers ready.

Every Friday came...and went.

Until October 16th we finally started escrow!

The seller requested a 45 day escrow.

That put us closing the monday after Thanksgiving.

That Monday came and the bank acted as if we were crazy to think they could finish with a holiday so close.

So they extended.

We sent paperwork at least three or four times.

Were on the phone with them six or seven times a day.

Then they extended again.

For no real explainable reason.

Then the day we were supposed to be finished with our docs a government issued auditor "randomly" shows up and choses 7 files to audit and happens to pick ours.

Another extensions and a huge headache.

Then the "system was down" apparently

I took all the children and went down to Bank of America and sat there until I was given answers.

It was turning into a huge headache.

If we hadn't prayed and felt good about this decision to buy this house we would have taken it as a huge sign to RUN AWAY!

Then it comes down to the very last day possible to sign our loan docs because the house will soon be a REPO.

We were told at 12:30pm, that loans docs were coming out and we were arranging a time to meet the notary and get everything signed and done.

Basically we sat there and waited...and waited...and waited....

Emails were flying around and around and around from every party involved.

At about 7:00pm we were starting to panic.

We called around until we found someone who was actually working on the file.

She apparently had 4 people working on this file.

She said their system was down.

I beg, pleaded and begged some more and five minutes later escrow had papers.

After all was said and done we wound up having to meet the notary with our Loan Officer at a 24 hours Denny's in Goleta and finished signing our docs at 11:59pm...the very last possible time we could sign them.

Our Loan Officer quickly took this picture of us because he said even though it's been stressful and it's almost midnight and we are at a Denny's, we would want to remember this moment...

And this picture is a perfect depiction of the entire home buying process.

Our Loan Officer then took the files drove back to his office and scanned them and then drove down to Mission Viejo to personally hand them to escrow that night or should I say early morning.

We are told there are some people who will be losing their job after this whole fiasco.

I can't imagine how Bank of America can even stay in business.

But nevertheless the house is ours.

Just in time to party it up for the twins first birthday next weekend.

FINALLY DONE!

And so it begins

2011-12-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

Ryder just took his first step.

The babies are twenty minutes apart so we shall see if Emma takes a step in about 15 minutes :)

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T12:56:00.002-08:00

Christmas eve eve my mom and the whole Stotko clan came to spend the evening with us.

They brought presents and we had a yummy dinner and it was great seeing everyone.

Mitchell graduated from Marine boot camp and it was great to see him.

Mimi and two of her babies
Grandpa Mark, Meisha and Dahlia with Ryder

Emma girl
Christmas jammies. Kids were ready for bed by 3pm they were ready for Christmas day.

Better picture :)

They were crazy excited for Pop the Pig. They had been asking for it for months now and Santa didn't disappoint.

Natalies crazy bed hair concentrating with daddy on their new game.

Out of all the kids I swear Emma was the most excited. She got those two balls and couldn't stop laughing and screaming and banging them together. She wouldn't let those things go until nap time and then the second she woke up she went right for them and hasn't put them down since.
Using the udraw, maybe I had the most fun playing with it :)

Grandpa Hogan and Uncle Tyler came by and brought a whole new slew of presents and the kids were besides themselves.

The babies were a lot more into everything then I thought they would be. They were so cute. Especially when they saw the puffs in their stockings.

I have been listening to this thing go for about 6 hours straight.

Emma and her favorite toys!

Santa woke us up at 6:15 am and scared the CA-RAP of out of us. We got the kids so they could sneak a peek. Natalie was scared to look because she didn't want to scare Santa away before he could leave presents. Then the kids came out after Santa left and got a good look at their loot.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from our crazy house to yours!

Cards designed by the ever so talented Allyson Linscott

And yes Emma looks terrified but this was the best picture of everyone looking at the camera. So she took one for the team this year :)

iPhone pics

2011-12-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

The best quick meal ever. Taste like I have been cooking all day. I can't get over how tender and tasty this pot roast is and takes only 6 minutes.
I discovered The Oaks Mall. It was love at first sight. Such a nice mall. Noah and I go there often and we always get a pretzel. A few weeks ago when we were there eating our pretzel Natalie became best friends with the woman sitting next to us. They talked for like 15 minutes. Turns out this woman was the manager at Godiva chocolate and now every time we go we stop by to say hi and she loads us up with lots of samples.
Natalie at her soccer dinner. She had a great time playing and had a great team..not sure they ever actually won a game but they don't keep score at this level. But she had a great time and got pretty darn good we can't wait for next season.
Natalie with her old teacher(who I adored) Mrs. Lehman on her last day at her old school.
The kids made a gingerbread house with their favorite person in the whole world Luke who lives across the street.
I had made cranberry salsa for Thanksgiving and I accidentally stuck the wooden spoon too far down when making it and it cut up the spoon(we have a freakin powerful blender). I took this picture and sent it to my mom asking her if she thought the salsa would still be okay(even though I already knew the answer) and she informed me "NO!" so I had to drag everyone back out to the store Thanksgiving eve night. Fun times.
Natalie switched schools the Monday after Thanksgiving. She really loves her new school(I personally like the other one better) and she got an award her first day for doing well. She liked being the new kid in class.
We did the final walk through a few weeks ago before they did the work on the house and here is Noah loving the stairs.
The kids trying out the bathtub. Emma hates baths even when there is no water in them.
I had to take Ryder to get an ultrasound of his hip(turned out negative all is well) and it was just the two of us that morning. I don't usually have one on one time with the twins. He was NOT having that ultrasound. He screamed, thrashed around and peed on everyone. Finally I was up on the table nursing him while another assistant held his leg, the ultrasound tech using her machine with another tech pushing the buttons. It took about an hour and I was covered in ultrasound jelly. We came home and Ry took a three hour nap, poor guy.
We had the Christmas party for Jeds office. It was really fun they had a photo booth and raffles and yummy food. I was trying my best to act like the bosses wife but then Jed decided to stick the mustaches(from the photo booth) on his eyebrows and sported them for the rest of the night so I didn't feel any pressure to act mature :)
I finally finished my wreath and I think it turned out great.
This is seriously Ryders hair in the morning. It's untamable.
I had won the gift card mall prize from the Albertson's game. I had sent in the information and was just waiting for them to contact me. They finally contact me and I go in with all the kids totally tired(the day after the babies had the flu) and make-up less. I had no idea that the store director was waiting for me with a cake and camera. They made a little presentation and took my picture. Went in yesterday and my picture is blown up and right at the front entrance. Kinda glad we are moving now :)
The babies are sort of done doing shopping trips in the carseats. Which works out nice for me because I have more room for groceries. They love to sit and go for a ride. Although their new favorite thing to do is bite each other and gauge each others eye balls so sitting together like this gives them easy access.
We had not bought a tree yet because it was so up in the air as to when we were moving into our new house. I had mentioned this to my visiting teacher and later that day she showed up with this 7ft fake tree that she had found a few weeks ago. It fit perfectly in our family room and the kids were in love. So sweet!

Christmas Art

2011-12-13T16:09:00.000-08:00

Right now the kids are really into drawing Christmas trees and stockings.

Noah is only 3 so sometimes it's hard for him to put on paper what is in his head.

And he is also a guy so he gets a little lazy :)

So basically what he does is get a "nice clean piece of paper"

(that's how he asks for paper)

Then he walks up to me and asks me to draw him a tree(usually when I am feeding the babies, changing a diaper, cooking dinner etc)

Then he goes to Natalie and asks her to draw a socking

Then back to me to do a star

Then he adds the circles signs his name and takes credit for the whole thing

Oh and once he is done with it he does it again...and again...and again...and again.

Like 40 pictures a day.

Randoms

2011-12-12T15:52:00.000-08:00

Noah has seriously been on a roll these last two days with his random quotes.
While sitting on Jed's lap watching a football game Noah randomly blurts out "I love beautiful women."
Then about 20 minutes later he says "I looooove money!" and then sniffs a 5 dollar bill.
Last night Natalie got in trouble and was sent to bed early. It's not often Natalie gets in trouble like that. So as Natalie was saying good night and walking back to her bedroom sulking the whole way, Noah blurts out "I know everything about trouble!"
haha made us laugh.
Because yes my little 3 year old does know everything about trouble.
Speaking of little.
Noah just had yet another growth spirt! I swear he is almost as tall as Natalie.
I just bought him his "super fast" shoes and new church shoes.
Size 11.
He is now outgrown both. I can't believe it.
He is 3 1/2 and wearing a 5t and 12 shoe.

My mom wants me to chop off Ryders hair!
I know it's crazy and has a life of it's own but I can't bring myself to chop it off.

Ryder has been cracking us up as well.
He is so darn cute when he waves "hi" or bye"
But he just recently started handing you things.
But if you take what he is handing you he will have a serious melt down.
He offers but doesn't want you to accept :)
Emma doesn't care and if he hands her something and says "ha!" (almost sounds like he is saying here) she takes it.
Then he screams.
Then she goes crawling away as fast as she can.

So last night we were chatting online with my Momma when Emma barfed everywhere.
Now, I have to say(knock on wood) my kids aren't big barfers.
As a matter of fact Natalie has thrown up once before.
That's it.
So poor Emma proceeded to get sick all night long.
Ryder threw up once but went back to sleep(and slept until 9:45am)
I felt horrible for my little baby.
She was super fussy and couldn't get comfortable.
So I turned on Army Wives on Netflixs and we watched the entire first season together.
She never fell asleep just sat there and watched.
Then would throw-up and continue to watch.
I turned it off and she screamed.
Then I changed it to a cartoon and she screamed.
She is just an Army Wives fan.

How we do Christmas

2011-12-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

We have had possibly the loooooongest escrow known to man.
(our bank sucks balls)
We were supposed to move last weekend.
Then this weekend.
Now, dare I say next weekend.
Well since we are about to move and living amongst boxes we can't really do Christmas like we like to.
No decorations and no tree.
Ba-hum-bug
Not a day goes by that the kids don't ask me why we can't have a tree or lights on our house or Christmas decorations.
My stock answer is "when we move this weekend we will decorate and get a tree"
(except the weekend keeps getting pushed back)

So this is how we have been celebrating the season.

We have been enjoying lots of these
Some of this

poured on top of this

Throw in some of these

Made a few of these

So basically instead of decorating we are getting plump.

I did buy the kids little trees for them to decorate .
We have been doing Elf on a Shelf.
(today he landed in the curtains)

We saw Santa and after dancing around/singing/making weird noises the kids all looked at the camera.

Maybe if I actually finish this wreath I have been working on for three months then our house will actually close?

11 months

2011-12-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

Ryder
RyRy, Roo, Roodaber

~Loves to shake his head, headbutt, and fling himself backward. Basically he is really hard to hold on to these days.
~Still sucks his thumb but now when he is tired he sucks his thumb and holds on to his sleeve.
~His fingernail on his thumb(that he sucks) is falling off and I am not really sure what to do about that.
~Will feed himself then he gets a little lazy and sits there and waits for me to put the rest in his mouth, little stinker.
~Seriously has the best laugh
~So curious will bang his head against something and then do it one more time just to make sure it does actually hurt.
~Loves to empty the contents of my purse but if my purse is not available the trashcan will do
~So skinny but eats double what Emma does
~Loves his new sippy and takes it like a champ
~Waves bye bye and hello
~Don't even get me started on that hair it's out of control
~Says a whole bunch but non of it really makes any sense
~Loves to stick his finger in Emma's snot
~Favorite toy is a lid from a bottle of Ragu
~Not so into cuddling or nursing anymore he is just so curious about everything and turning into such a little boy!

Emma
Emmers, Emmy

~Has turned into a mellow little thing
~Still loves to nurse more than anything
~Loves the lid to the Ragu bottle
~Seems to have escaped the two hair calics curse that my other children have. So maybe she will be the one Huss child with tamable hair
~Whispers as if she is talking to herself
~Is much better with strangers than she used to be
~Rocks herself to sleep. She gets on all fours and literally rocks back and forth until she falls asleep
~Loves to play and be chased
~Is so dainty
~Waves and says "hi"
~Does the "demon baby" voice and it cracks us up
~Has started balancing
~Doesn't like socks on her feet or bows in her hair
~Is just so sweet and is just so mellow and loving and cuddly

All in All

Are my babies seriously turning a year next month?! Their little personalities are starting to really shine and so fun to watch. They are always together it's rare that one takes off on their own. They "talk" to each other a lot in their own little baby babble and it's rather endearing. They both have serious obsessions for lids and fight over them all the time. Walking is just around the corner they have started standing on their own just no steps yet. We have baby crawling races all the time and Ryder has pretty much dominated, but Emma has won twice now. I am just so much enjoying my babies and cherishing all the moments I get with them. Next month they turn one and even though they wont remember and they could care less we are having a big shindig:) Two birthday parties in ONE!

Every day is a bad hair day when your under 6 and your last name is Huss

2011-12-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

I really feel like my children can get loans/grants or various other options to help pay for collage.
So I think we should not be setting aside money for their education.
I DO however feel like we should be setting aside all the money we can to help with their future hair care.
I have no idea who it came from but it seems that every bad hair gene that Jed and I carry have been put to full force and ended up in our children.
Every.

Single.

One.

It's like they have horse hair. I mean it's super coarse and really kinky and has a life of it's own.

It never looks combed and it never looks soft and it has a mind of it's own.

And to add insult to injury they all(except Emma) have two calics just to give the already wild hair an extra little umph.

This is very very similar to what Natalie's hair looks like...

I have tried various expensive products on this girls hair. It helps somewhat but really she just can't wear it down without it looking something like this...

Ryder boy. This is the best hair picture I could get. I wet it and comb his hair at least three times a day and as soon as it dries we get this...
Emma's only has one calic so I have some hope for her but her hair is super coarse.

And Noah's hair is just crazy and sticks up everywhere and is so coarse it seriously feels like broom bristles.

My poor children.

Baby Love

2011-12-04T20:36:00.000-08:00

This time around I decided to make my own baby food.
It's stupidly easy and incredibly cheap. I am not sure why I didn't do it with the other two.
But I keep homemade baby food in the freezer or fridge so I always just brought jars to go with us.
And by out I mean church because that is pretty much the only time that we our out during mealtime.

At church ready for meal. Ryder pretty much hates bibs.

Off with that stupid thing...

Then I started buying these pouches.
SO.
STINKING.
AWESOME.
I just stick the spout in their mouth and give a squeeze.
These were not around with the other two.
And I am kinda bummed I just discovered them!
I always bought puffs for the other two.
But this time around I decided to just give only Cheerios a go.
First because a giant box of Cheerios is a heck of a lot cheaper and with twins you buy in bulk.
I did a test when I first started giving the babies finger foods.
I put a Cheerio in my mouth and then a puff.
There wasn't much of a difference.
Maybe the puffs were a little bit easier to dissolve.
But Cheerios has more ingredients that I could pronounce.
Plus I felt like they actually filled the babies up.
If I have another baby(please don't ask if I will because my new stock answer to that question is "yes I want at least 5 more") I am totally only doing Cheerios.

(downside is I seriously have Cheerios in every crevice of my house.)

So I have been changing diapers for 5 years and 8 months.
Crazy.
And I have decided that my absolute FAVORITE diapers are...

Now Luvs are the cheapest diapers. But when these Huggies are on sale I buy as many as they have. We go through a whole lot of diapers.

Now I don't penny pinch when it comes to wipes.
When you have a crappy wipe then you wind up using more and with a wiggly baby you really only get one maybe two good swipes.
So I go with...
Here are the babies racing. We have baby races all the time. Ryder has been the undefeated champion he is a fast little guy but this was Emmas first win! And please don't judge all the laundry in the background...I have no excuse except that I just don't want to do it :)

Story of my life...

2011-12-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

Randoms....

2011-11-28T10:18:00.000-08:00

I swear if you piss me off or hurt me in anyway I can get over it.

I can let it go.

BUT if you hurt someone I love, well then I can hold a grudge forever. I hate that about myself. I really need to just let it go. Someone did something to someone I am very close to(not worth airing it on my blog) and I am just truly pissed off and I need to really just let it go, move on and be done with it. I just need to keep my mouth shut and move on....but it's so so so so so hard.

~Found this on Pinterest and I swear I need to print this out and stick it in my bathroom. I am so completely all thumbs when it comes to painting my own nails.

~I found this on Pinterest. Such a stinkin good idea for an old crib mattress. Too bad I am still using all of mine. But when we are done I am so doing this for either our family room or entry way leading into the front living area....
Speaking of my home. We were supposed to close today! BUT and there seems to always be a BUT... because our sellers Realtor is another name for a BUTT . Thanksgiving moved things back a bit. You know because no one had any idea that Thanksgiving was only a few days before closing...because apparently no one realized that Thanksgiving always lands on the fourth Thursday or they don't own a calendar. Anyways, we hope to move in two weeks....we hope.

~I have never met this family and I am not really sure how I even found their blog but it's a mother blogging through her daughters illness. She was just diagnosed with leukemia and she is only 3 and so cute.

~Have you ever heard of 1Saleaday?

I swear I have gotten the best deals on this site and some great Christmas deals.

Love it.

~Pretty much obsessed with my new camera.

It takes the best pictures and video.'

And I get people asking me all the time what kind of camera I have so here you go.

~A few years ago I got this recipe for cranberry salsa and I decided that it was going to be my one thing. You know the one thing I contribute to Holiday gatherings. Like the one thing I do well.

1pkg cranberries

2lrg celery ribs

1 white onion

1 jalapeño seeded

1/4 cup cilatro

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

Juice from two limes

I just throw everything in a blender.

But you could do it in a food processer in or to make it a little more chunky and less liquidy.

It's rather yummy if I do say so myself.

~I have been wanting a good "I can't put it down or stop thinking about it" book for awhile now.

I read Matched and it was really good.

It took me about a few weeks to finish because I would pick it up here and there and then finally sat down and finished it.

BUT Crossed which is the second book was that "I can't put it down or stop thinking about" type of book. Which is actually the second book in the series(Matched being the first).

I finished it in three days(which is really fast at this time in my life).

Loved it and I am kind of mad I have to wait for the third book which probably wont come out for a year(my guess).

And dare I say I think I am going with Xander...which is not usually like me I usually root for the obvious.

~Natalie started her new school today. I just adore that girl. We arrived today at her new school and I walked her to the gate and she just took off. No hesitation she was just off and playing. I checked in on her from the parking lot before I left and she was jumping rope with a group of girls. She was so excited and I can't wait to pick her up and hear all abou it. Her new school does start a whole hour before her last school so it's going to take some adjustment but I guess it will just get us ready for gee I dont' know the next how many years of school we have ahead of us:)

Thankful

2011-11-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday!

Best Mimi ever

Big Charlie and little Charlie

I am thankful for "family and Frienbs"...d's and b's are so confusing

Don't worry it's just water

Took a lot of pictures of the jalapeno pepper jelly. It was a grandma signature and this was the last jar.

My new(to me) True Religion jeans. I scored some awesome hand me downs from my stylish cousin Michelle.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

May your attempts at Christmas Card pictures go better than ours...

All I want for Christmas is a brain

2011-11-16T13:55:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I got an email from the Gas Company saying it was time to make appointments to relight the pilot on the heater.

So I made an appointment.

But they were pretty booked out.

So basically we all froze our butts off for a couple of weeks.

I mean I had little heaters in the kids rooms and Jed and I had a few blankets on the bed and a fire always going.

We were cold.

So the day of our appointment finally came.

The Gas Man came in and looked at the thermostat turned it on and wouldn't you know it....

the heater came on.

He went and checked the heater and sure enough the pilot light was lit.

I felt sorta dumb.

Apparently you only need to relight the pilot light if you have turned it off.

I told him I had got the email about relighting it.

He said it was a mass email to everyone.

I is smart.

I had an appointment yesterday to get an ultrasound for my thyroid.

I decided to bring Noah and the twins.

My appointment was at 1 but when I got to the place the doors were closed.

I tried opening them a few times but the door was locked.

It was 12:45 so I figured they were still at lunch.

So we popped a squat and played eye spy while we waited for the door to open.

One o'clock came and the door was still closed.

So I called the office.

I explained I had a one o'clock appointment but that the door was locked.

She explained that you needed to push not pull.

So I push the door open to a waiting room filled with people.

Today I went to The Oaks Mall(I am in love)

I had a lot of coupons to use and there were some wonderful sales going on.

At Macy's if you opened a credit card you got 30% off your purchase and then you could just pay off your credit card right there plus I had a $10 coupon.

Seemed like a no brainer.

Well first off I was denied right off the bat.

Upon further examination we realized I put down Natalies birthday instead of my own.

Then my second go around I typed in that my annual income was 2 million dollars a year(wishful thinking) and the wrong social.

The lady was super patient but I am sure she thought I was an idiot.

Finally I put down all the right information got my card made my purchase then paid off my card.

Then I had to run out of there as fast as I could before I was tempted to put anything on that Macy's card!

Once done with my Macy's trip I bought some food which seemed to have helped. Because I went to a store that I had two coupons for it said one coupon per transaction.

I bought my item used the coupon and then went to purchase my second item with the coupon.

The guy said it was one coupon per transaction and ONE per costumer ONLY.

I am not sure how I missed that it was only in big fat bold print across the top.

I tried to sweet talk but the dude did not care.

So I gave Noah my coupon and some cash and had him purchase the item.

We had a little go around for a few minutes but at the end of the day Noah was a different costumer.

I was pretty proud of myself on the way out until I knocked over a display of Christmas ornaments.

I don't think I am allowed back there.

(and I can't say were I was because it will be a big giveaway as to whom I was buying for and what I got them)

I am on a roll.

Fast Shoes

2011-11-15T08:25:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of years Noah has only worn Crocs.

Simply because he could put them on himself and he has some crazy stinky feet so the Crocs provide some air flow.

But since we have moved here Noah has been spending a great deal of time climbing trees and running around outside and those Crocs not only have taken a beating but have very little traction and I was worried he would slip and fall and hurt himself.

So yesterday we went and bought him a new pair of shoes.

He did NOT want a new pair of shoes. He was screaming and crying and throwing a total tantrum which is just so unlike him(not!).

So I spotted a pair of blue shoes in his size(the boy wears and 11 and he is 3) and I gasped and told Noah these were super fast shoes.

He got a big grin and said "I think these are Batman shoes!"

Uh sure, why not.

He was so excited and we bought them.

After Natalie got home he decided he needed to give these super fast shoes a try.

So he went outside and started at our neighbors driveway and ran all the way to our driveway. He looked up at me and said "WOW! These are super fast shoes!"

It was really cute.

Then he made another pass from our driveway to the neighbors and as he was just about to cross over to their yard he trips and stumbles right into a rose bush.

I brought him inside and picked out all the stickers stuck all over him.

His shirt was torn in about three places.

His arm was dripping blood as well as three large gashes on his face.

So much for trying to keep him safe.

I guess the shoes were a little too fast.

(the day after)

For the record

2011-11-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

At 10 months

Ryder weighs 16lbs 12oz and 28 1/8 inches

Emma weighs 16lbs 1 oz and is 28 3/8 inces

Both in 10th percentile for weight and 30th for length

Sword

2011-11-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

We were getting ready for church when I hear Noah yelling something.

I go out to the family room and he is rolling around on the ground saying something.

It was obvious he was in pain.

I tried to hold him but he wouldn't let me.

I asked what was wrong what hurt and he just kept saying

"My sword! My Sword!"

He was grabbing his crotch so I put two and two together and realized Noah took his first hit to his man hood.

From what I get his "sword" was hit by a toy truck that he was trying to stuff in his pants because I said he couldn't bring it with him to church and he thought he could sneak it.

As if I wouldn't notice a giant truck sticking out of his pants.

He rolled around on the ground for a good 15 minutes and then relaxed on the couch still complaining about his "sword"

Jed said he was the only one in the house that could understand because apparently it's the worst pain in the whole world.

It's obvious he has never pushed a watermelon(or two) out of his wahoo.

But Noah seems to be on the mend.

And now I know he refers to his peepee as a sword.

Which now begs the question why he keeps asking for a big sword for Christmas??

Loves

2011-11-13T07:25:00.000-08:00

~Noah started peeing standing up. I am not particularly happy about this. If you saw my seat/floor you would understand why. He also doesn't really understand that if the toilet seat is higher than him that he can't just pee on it he needs to pee in it. And he also randomly pees around the yard as well....my boy is growing up.

(I promise I love all my children the hearts just appeared over Ryders head only)

~A few things I have successfully done on Pinterest

Worksheets

Did this but in a cirlce

We did this for FHE on Monday and kids loved it

Did this but it would have been a heck of easier if my hair wasn't so layered

Sported this the other day

~ I have been following this blog and was inspired to buy these and I bought this skirt in every color as well to go with my boots and also because the cut is flattering on my post twin body wreckage. I have been way on top of my bargain shopping and have been able to buy me all kinds of cute clothes.

~Natalie says the only thing she wants for Christmas is a deer.

~If your fingernails look like a 4 year old painted them then you should totally invest in these. I love them!

(This is a Turkey's nest incase you didn't already know)

~Go to the store purchase a Betty Crockers chocolate chip cookie pouch and a bag of Heath bits follow directions on back of pouch add the Heath bits and cook. You are welcome!

~Natalie is obsessed with parties. I swear she is going to be a party planner when she grows up. Every day it's a new party.

"We are having a turkey party"

"We are having a grape party"

"We are having a lemon party"

~I really really need to get some cute invitations for the babies birthday party coming up in January but I don't want to spend $50 on them. Any suggestions? Anyone out there good at making invites and don't charge an arm and leg?

(they love each other)

~Whenever Natalie makes a paper animal at school she brings it home and plays with it, sleeps with it and treats it like it's a real pet. She brought home a black cat the other day and played with it constantly for a solid week. By the end there were probably 10 staples on it's tail and the face was taped on. Natalie named it Thanksgiving and had a party for it every day.

~This time next month I will be sitting in my new house. I am crazy excited.

~I thought I would start drinking this twice a day to get my daily vitamins but it's hard to get down without gagging. Anyone know of something similar that doesn't taste like three day old pee?

~Jed is selling his Prius if you are in the mood to save the earth or take the carpool lane.

~I am seriously obsessed with Once Upon a Time it's my new favorite show. My other shows include Pan Am, Biggest Loser, The Office, Top Chef, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Modern Family and Grey's. Speaking of Grey's, please tell me it's coming back before Thanksgiving! Did you see Thursdays episode. I am ticked they killed Scott Foley I have had a crush on him since Felicity.

~I am not sure why it surprises me how good Noah is with babies. We were at the library on Tuesday and there was a little baby about 10 months crawling around. Noah got down on the ground and started talking to her and helping her get her toys. It was really sweet.

~As I type this the kids are having a Horse Party. Well Natalie, Emma and Noah little Ryder is still sleeping.

(kids horse party and yes big stuffed horse has returned)

Basically Pinterest makes me think I can do anything...

2011-11-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

I saw homemade fish crackers on Pinterst and I knew I had to make them.

My kids LOVE fish crackers.

I thought if I made homemade fish crackers with no preservatives that I would be an A+ mom.

Well basically they were nasty.

I mean really really nasty.

Fail.

So the kids were bored and I thought I would make them some homemade playdough. I got all the ingredients and we sat in the kitchen and got to work.

Well, after we were done I noticed it was a bit sticky so I stuck it in the fridge for awhile then let the kids play.

Well basically it was a sticky, nasty mess.

It took me about an hour to clean up all this mess.

FAIL

Bathing Woes

2011-11-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

I sorta hate bathing the babies.
I often will do a sort of half bath where I use a wet wash cloth and wipe down their heads and butts.
It's not because I don't love giving baths. I bathe my other two every day.
It's simply because the babies HATE taking a bath.
I have no idea why.
I usually bathe them(if I have to) after they eat dinner.
Sometimes I bathe them in the sink sometimes I pull out the bathtub that goes into the sink.
If the babies see me opening the cabinet above the sink where their soap is they start screaming.
Even if I am getting something else.
And forget about it if I take out their tub.
The thing is that I will grab one and as I am bathing that one the other will SCREAM as well.
Plus bathing them is like trying to give a bath to a cat.
They scream, they scratch and try desperately to get out.
Then when it is all said and done I dry them off and they are still screaming.
Then I give the second baby a bath and they to go nutty trying to get out all while the baby I just gave a bath to is still screaming.
After it's all said and done the babies are exhausted and so am I
Ryder is still recovering because he took his bath last.

But they LOVE watching the big kids.

I have not a clue why they hate taking baths so much.

I've tried doing it super quick, I have tried talking to them telling them it's okay, I have tried all different temps of water.

My other kids loved baths!

Anyone else ever have kids that hate being clean?

Last words...

2011-11-08T12:03:00.001-08:00

When it comes to my grandma I sometimes feel like people think "she was old, she had a long life, get over it" and to me I just know they think that because they didn't know her. If they knew her they would know that she was wonderful, they would know her life WAS cut short because of that stupid no good cancer.

It was a Saturday we had made a quick trip up because my mom had called that morning saying she wasn't sure grandma was going to last much longer. We were told a year...it had been only a few months.
We dropped everything and rushed up.
We met at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Lori's house and grandma was sitting on a chair and she looked so gray.
Whenever she would see me she would always give this excited "HEY!" and a big hug. Her head would land right at my armpit.

But she didn't get up this time.
She gave a little smile and gave the kids a hug from her chair.
She was able to meet the twins and I am so grateful that she was able to spend some time with them.
I have a voicemail on my phone saved from her it's in January and you could tell she just didn't feel good. She said "Erin it's grandma I am just sitting her thinking of you hoping that those babies come out soon. Hang in there sweetie. I love you and I am thinking about you. Call me."

Even when she was sick she still thought about everyone else.

I had been in contact with my mom every day getting the details of how grandma was doing.

Our conversations were cut short because she was so busy with my grandma making sure she had her meds, got to chemo....it was a lot of work. Her and two of my uncles took care of her every day for the last year of her life. I knew she wasn't doing well but to see it for myself was hard. I had not been able to spend much time with her that last year due to bedrest with the twins.

(she was so insistant that the babies be wrapped up in blankets. She loved holding them...poor thing just didn't feel well)

The next day we were all together again at my grandmas. She was sitting on the couch just observing everyone do their thing. I went over and rested my head on her shoulder and she held my hands in hers.

Those hands.

I loved those hands. Those hands had raised 5 children, loved on all her grandchildren and great grandchildren, thrown baseballs, done countless crossword puzzles, made jams and always were able to provide comfort. As we sat there I just stared at her hands thinking about how much I was going to miss her.

I said "I love you grandma."

She said "I love you too sweetie." then she looked over at Jed bouncing the twins and says "Are you going to have anymore children?"

"I don't know do you think I should?"

"No"

I laughed

Then she said "just take a break for awhile"

That was our last real moment spent together. Later that night she was in a lot of pain and my mom and uncle were tending to her while I read her the rosary(messing it up tremendously). But I remember just looking at her hands go around her beads reciting her prayers and at the moment I just prayed that it wouldn't be long. Those hands belonged to a woman who never sat still, who was always looking after someone, who would always listen without judgment and love you no matter what. Those hands deserved to be interlocked with my grandpas pain free in a better place. And as hard as it was to say good bye it was harder to see her in pain. I said good bye that night for the last time. I thought I would be in hysterics on my way back to my dads thinking that that was the last time I would ever see her, but I felt peace.

It was time.

She passed away shortly after that.

I went with my mom to get my grandma ready for her viewing. Her face was so pale, grey and showed no signs of life. I felt a little sick. Then I looked down at her hands that were so perfectly placed holding her rosary and I felt like I was home.

Those were her hands.

At the rosary and viewing that night one of my cousins said he couldn't go look.

He didn't want to see her looking dead.

I told him to just look at her hands....

10 months

2011-11-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hold up...how old are we??

Ooooh we are 10 months

Ryder

Ryry Roodaber, RooRoo

~Ryder boy has been a fussy little mussy this past week. Maybe he is growing maybe he is teething but he has not been particularly happy.

~Loves to dance especially head bang

~Isn't really into nursing as much anymore. I was nursing him the other day and trying to eat a sandwich and he wanted that sandwich so badly and wouldn't nurse. So I finally put the sandwich behind the chair and he just kept trying to look around the chair and so I stop nursing him and let him eat my sandwich.

~He started doing this little scream/shriek whenever he sees me eat/drink anything because he wants it.

~Even though he hasn't been super happy lately he is still the sweetest little thing.

~Get's pretty ticked when I leave the room

~Ryder and I started going to the chiropractor for weekly adjustments. It's working wonders on his tort.

~I don't know what to do with his hair(which is basically the same with all my children except Emma)

~Let't go and balances!

~Wearing 9-12 month clothing

~2 teeth

Emma

Emmers, EmmaBemma,Emmy

~Loves to play with Noah. He will go boo! to Emma and she starts snorting and laughing and crawls away but then turns around and Noah says boo! again...it's so stinking cute

~Has a serious obsession with socks she seems to always have someone's sock in her hand

~Loves to "talk"

~Is like a human vacuum! She just crawls around sticking everything she finds right into her mouth

~Has a new thing where she spins around on her butt

~Is a serious nurser she would nurse for hours but she has some sort of hole in her lip because when she is done I am soaked. It's like she spits it all out as she sucks

~LOVES grapes.

~Wears 9 month clothes

~Loves Noah's remote control cars

~No teeth

Our little photo session wasn't nearly as successful as sessions past...

We were happy with a leaf and the lens cover
Emma loves her tongue and they both have a serious thing for the butt cream

"Ooooh I want that butt cream"
"My precious"

All in All

What can I say if they weren't a handful before they certainly are now. They are taking toys from each other constantly and "talk" to each other and are incredibly entertaining to watch. They are mostly in the same area. Like if they are playing in the living room they are usually in the same area together doing their own thing. I swear I can not remember what it is like to just have one baby. I know I did it but I just can't remember. These babies poop like nobodies business like 4-5 times EACH a day. I take them in on the 10th for a check-up(yes we are a month behind but we switched insurances and moved, so there) and we shall see what they weigh. They are still pretty small but are starting to fill out. I think Ryder weighs more but every time I take them in they weigh exactly the same so we shall see. My favorite thing they do is put their foreheads together and laugh. They stop the second I get my camera out but I am determined to get a shot of it because it melts my heart. I just adore my babies!

Door Signs

2011-11-05T03:38:00.000-07:00

Natalie has about 10 signs all over her door prohibiting varies things from her room.

The other day she came in really upset because there was a spider in her room.

I walked into her room smashed it and threw it in the toilet(it was just a daddy long leg)

She was very upset and says "I don't know why it came into my room I have a sign that says NO SPIDERS!"
It made me laugh. I said that maybe the spider couldn't read.

SO she put up another sign with no words and just a big picture.

Made me laugh.

Vons...

2011-11-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

When I was on bed rest pregnant with the twins I would spend hours sitting there thinking about how I could manage to get out of the house with four small children. Well if you know me then you know that I haven't let the fact that I have so many small children stopped me from doing much of anything. I just bring them along.

So I completely understand my limits. Like for example if I am going to do a big shopping trip I can't bring the kids. I mean where do I put the food? So a few weeks ago I had a great Vons shopping trip planned but waited for Jed to get home. Now the really good Vons deals are only Fri-Sunday. So I go Friday evening along with every other person and their mother and sure enough all the really good sale items were cleared. Ugh. This was the second time this had happened to me. So I got my rainchecks.

So a few Fridays ago I decided to take along the kids and get to the store first thing in order to make sure I get there before those shelf clearers. I had never used the cart with the car before but I knew I could not only put Noah in but food items as well. Here is my little set up...

Emma and my coupon binder are on the top.

First off these car carts are like trying to push a flat tired stroller through tar.

At that early hour I was mostly shopping with the more mature retired crowd and they either loved me and wanted to see the kids are hated me...it seemed to be more the later.

It was probably because I driving that cart like I was drunk.

Seriously have you ever had to push one of these things?

And don't even get me started on the purell bath I had to give Noah when we were done.

I might have knocked over a few displays.

Maybe I was sweating just a bit.

I got me a whole lot of "are you crazy lady?" looks.

By the end there were so many groceries in the car with Noah that he we had to unload them all to even get him out.

And yes by the end Ryder was ~~screaming~~ done.

And yes we had to put all the bags in a separate cart for the bag boy to push out, not that I care that's his job, right.

But you know what? I took a $225.00 total down to $102.00 and my grocery list included a lot of meat, produce amongst other various items.

I mean this was a huge haul of groceries.

So when it was all said and done I was totally proud of myself!

And today I have another huge list ready to go and I proudly called a babysitter :)

I am ambitious but I ain't dumb.

Trick-or-Treat

2011-10-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

We had plans on many nights to carve pumpkins but it just didn't happen.

Since Jed was so insistent that we color eggs I figured he would be all butt hurt if we carved pumpkins without him. But as it turns out he said he didn't care one bit. I guess he is more of a bunny man.

So while Natalie was at school and babies were asleep Noah and I spent some time carving our pumpkins.
Please don't think I am a lazy mother he wore his shirt inside out and backwards because he doesn't like to display his labels to the public. We wouldn't want you to be influenced by our clothing preferences. ;p

So Noah gutted his pumpkin with this scrapper spoon I bought and we glued on some eyes and wrapped it in toilet paper and had a Mummy pumpkin(found the idea on pinterest)

When Natalie came home we got to work on her pumpkin. She drew her design on a paper and had my cut it out.
Here we have Natalie with her vampire pumpkin, my ghost pumpkin and Noah's mummy pumpkin.

We have no sidewalks or street lights so we didn't get much of anything as far as trick-or-treaters but we walked one street over to get our trick-or-treat on. The kids were ridiculously excited. I must admit I got a little teary eyed. It was our first time living in an area to go trick-or-treating and I was so happy for them. Noah looked so cute running from house to house with his cape flying behind him. I just adore these two and I love nothing more than to watch them have so much fun together!

Luke joined us for a trick-or-treating venture. Luke is our neighbor across the street and spends a good majority of the day at our house. Noah adores him and Natalie has a crush on him. She told Jed she wants to marry Luke when she gets older(a declaration Jed was not happy about). They will sit outside and just wait for him to get home. They have a great time together and we'll be sad to say good bye to him.

I could just sit here and cuddle on these babies all day. My flower and bee

Trunk or Treat

2011-10-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

We went to a fun trunk or treat on Saturday.

So I get trick or treat. It means give me a treat or I will trick you...right?

So with a trunk or treat is it give me a treat or I will take your trunk???

This is just how my mind works.

So we rushed to the trunk or treat just after Natalie's game. I had bought all the fixins to go as Flo but Natalie had a 4:30 game and then we had to be at the trunk or treat at 5:45 and I didn't feel like stressing it. So bum humbug me. BUT I think we totally had the best car decorations there....
Yep my bumblebee and flower. I just put up a black trash bag along the back and had strobe lights inside the car and the babies sitting there.

Looking very intense as they check out..
Their giant mess they made! Cheerios everywhere but who cares kept them entertained.

They helped pass out candy.

They shared Cherrios(this was before they dumped the bag)

My babies first Halloween.

Natalie and Noah had a blast trunk or treating and I hardly saw them the entire time. Before we left I wanted to get a good picture of all of them but you know how that goes...
I especially love Natalie's smile in this one :)

randoms

2011-10-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Some random iphone pics....

The babies have serious meltdowns when I am on the other side of this gate.
The babies love to feed themselves. They eat Cheerios, Bananas, beans, bread and their newest obsession is grapes.

Don't worry mom I sit right next to them and cut them up SUPER small for them.

Noah and I took up juicing. It's pretty yummy and the babies even get some juicy yumminess and go crazy over it. Every time I am drinking something Ryder starts screaming because he thinks it's juice and wants some.
Jed got this cool new blender thing that pretty much does everything. We just got it yesterday and have been making some fun recipes with it.

Emma found this piece of cardboard and was seriously ecstatic

Then Ryder wanted it and Emma was spinning on her butt trying to keep it away from him. It was pretty funny.

They are at that fun age when the trashcan is oh so much fun.

Check this out! I bought it at a garage sale for 15 bucks(bed included) I bought some chalkboard paint and am going to paint all the blue in it. It's going to be Noah's bed and he is so excited.

When we wait for Natty to get out of school Noah likes to take a straw and blow on the windows and make designs.

Natalie always looks homeless when she comes home.
Grandpa and Natty at her game.

Noah taking a picture of me and Emma
We were all at the my doctors appointment and the kids were taking pictures to kill time.

4 kids all waiting at the doctors...fun times. :)

Help with the big M

2011-10-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

WARNING-This post is all about my infected boob read at your own risk.

I am not sure if it is because I am nursing twins or if I don't drink enough water or it's the fresh air here...whatever it is I find myself with mastitis yet again. If you have never had mastitis ~~I hate you~~ it feels like there are little bugs with jack knifes inside your boob stabbing away. It's like boob labor contractions. Not to mention you feel like you have a horrible flu and when you do nurse it feels as if those jack knife equipped bugs are working overtime.

If you think I am being overly dramatic ~~I hate you~~ you obviously haven't had the pleasure of mastitis.

It all started when I missed a feeding.

I will never be able to wean.

Anyways.

As soon as I felt the pain come on I had Jed prescribe me some antibiotics.

Pharmacist probably wondering why my dentist is getting me meds for my boob...

So I start taking the meds.

Then I hear that cabbage leafs placed directly on the infected area will draw out the infection and give relief.

So I curled up on the couch in all my misery and took my antibiotic, drank lemon juice(another remedie I heard) with half a head of cabbage placed all around my boob(because if one leaf works then I am sure 15 leafs works better).

24 hours later still feel like CR-AAA-P.

UGH

So I drown myself by drinking a holly ton load of water.

Make both babies nurse on that same boob a TON.

Then I take a hot bath in epsom salt because I read that would help.

Then I read if you soak the infected boob in hot water with garlic that it helps.

SO I cut up an ENTIRE thing of garlic and soaked away.

Ugh...nope still there

So just to reiterate...

I am walking around with salty skin and smell like cabbage, garlic and spit-up.

Hot.

At this point I would run down the street naken playing "Old McDonald" on a kazoo if I knew it would make this pain go away.

So what are your remedies?

and if you say run around naken playing the kazoo ~~hate you~~ you are just so funny.

Noah does art in his undies...

2011-10-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

Noah has been letting his creative side come alive these past few weeks.

(I promise I dress this boy every morning)

Before he never showed any kind of interest in drawing, coloring or doing any kind of art project.

But once he discovered skeleton guy...
He was all about art. Basically skeleton guy is a big circle with two eyes and two mouths.

And those dots he is adding aren't freckles.

Nope.

They are fruits and nuts.

And he gets very upset when you confuse them for freckles.

He draws his skeleton guy(Noah gave him this name) with his fruit and nuts and then its on to the next page.

This is pretty much all he draws and he will draw him 100 times if I let him.

I am running out of paper.

The nice part about the office was I always had scrap paper on hand for the kids to draw on.

After Noah is done drawing all his skeleton guys with fruits and nuts he hands them all to me and tells me he made them for me.

He says skeleton guy will protect me.

SO stinking sweet.

It makes me a little less upset when skeleton guy with his fruit and nuts decided to appear on our wall and window.

Done with this page

Ooops
Dang it

Oh well just toss it on the ground and on to the next page.

To the rescue....

2011-10-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

Worth it

2011-10-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

I knew when I married Jed that we had a whole heck of a bunch of school ahead of us. People told us we were crazy or even criticized that Jed would do so much school with a family. Then I had a wife of a successful local dentist tell me "it will be really hard but trust me it will be so worth it."

We lived in the smallest apartment imaginable, we went through a stage were we ate mostly rice, I always had to work a lot, the stress! Oh the stress of tests, getting into school, taking care of kids, providing for the family. I am not going to lie. I would get frustrated/jealous when my friends would get to buy cute clothes or houses or even get to take their kids to the park in the middle of the day without having to worry about work. But I always had to remind myself that it was TEMPORARY for a greater good. I had a lot of moments where I wouldn't really think about our goal and just try to live in the moment and I had a lot of moments where I was counting down till graduation!

And it's STILL crazy to me that we did it. I know I said it before but spending 8 years of our life working towards this it's still so crazy to me that we are done. On Saturdays I still find myself not making plans because I am thinking Jed has to study. It feels like yesterday Jed was telling me to stop buying stuff....oh wait that was yesterday...anyways. I am just so incredibly grateful for the new stage in my life!

I love that I get to stay home and watch these two feed themselves and make a big fat mess!

I have even started doing some crafts...
The kids love to do crafts and we have the time/energy/space to do them

Speaking of stress Noah used to have night terrors at least 3-4 times a week. But since we moved here he has had NOT one.

Noah's stylish pumpkin

I adore my babies and I feel so incredibly blessed

And sometimes we just don't do bibs
Babies love beans!

I have been hearing so many sad stories lately that it really just makes me look at my life and say a prayer of thanks for everything that I have. It was a hard road getting to this point in our lives but it was SO WORTH IT! So to those friends who are going through the school thing I am here to tell ya IT WILL BE WORTH IT!

My "middle" child

2011-10-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

I am not going to lie when I first found out I was pregnant I was really worried about Noah being the middle child.
I knew that I always babied Noah.

But even though there is four siblings he still has a bit of a middle child position.

Natty gets to do all the fun older kid stuff and the babies get a lot of attention.

But I do have to say that Noah has handled this "middle" child like a champ!

I am so proud of my little man and the way he has become such a good big and little brother.

As a matter of fact Noah is the sibling protector.

If anyone is mean to Natty he gets very upset. A few weeks ago a few of the older boys(they are 8) on the block were here in the backyard playing with the kids. Noah came running in and said that the boys were in the big tree and would only let them come up unless they said the password and the password was apparently "I don't like Natalie" this really made Noah mad. He told me to go out there and tell them because Noah wanted to go up the big tree and he didn't want to say that. I went out there and spoke with the boys(who denied that was the password) but Noah told them that they needed to go home. Which is sort of a big deal because when these boys come over to play Noah gets so crazy excited that he can barely talk straight.
He ADORES the babies. I really didn't expect Noah to be so excited and happy and involved. He always asks me to put the babies on the ground so he can play with them. He makes sure that they have their toys and when friends come over he makes sure they know which toys are the babies and not to touch them.

He is super athletic and has a serious no fear attitude that takes a few years off my life every day. His newest obsession is doing flips. He also loves to dance, pretend he is Spiderman, watch Max and Ruby, walk like a T-Rex, do his "homework", draw Monsters and look for spiders. He loves "Peanut butter and jam but no butter" sandwiches but HATES raisins.

The real twins are these two!

We have to remind ourselves daily that Noah is only three because he acts so much older. He knows all his colors, shapes, days of the week, letters etc....and I can't take credit for any of it. Just one of the perks of having an older sibling.

He watches over everyone's things. If someone comes over he instantly goes over all the house rules and makes sure no one touches any of Natalie things(if she isn't here). He will also be the one to give a complete detailed report of any incidents that happen and for added measure he will act them out. Between Natalie's need to give details and Noah's need to act everything out it's very entertaining when they get mad at each other and both come to tattle.

He loves to cuddle with his Momma and tells me daily that he wants to take care of me. Melts my heart.

Emma, Ryder and Natalie sure are lucky to have such a fun, loving, very protective and happy brother.

My fathers daughter

2011-10-11T18:54:00.001-07:00

My dad has this growl that he does.

My brother and I know it well.

Whenever he is straight up TICKED the growl comes out.

It is literally a growl.

Once my dad got cutoff by a cop car that didn't have it's lights on and my dad growled and chased the cop down and pulled him over. I seriously thought my dad was going to get arrested but as it turns out the cop apologized.

Anyways....where was I...my dad.

So growing up if my brother or I would hurt ourself on something my dad would literally just throw it away.

Bumped our head on the coffee table...gone

Trip on an area rug...good bye

Thats just my dad.

But I have never thought myself to be much of anything like my dad.

Actually when my dad would get into my car start it up and not only would the radio and A/C be blasting and the oil light and gas light be on he would always say "you are so your mothers daughter."

I am SO much like my mother.

We just accepted that Ty is like my dad and I am like my mom

But sometimes the Hogan comes out....

Today I was feeding the babies. They were in their highchairs and I have to say I HATE their highchairs. I have one Eddie Bauer chair that is brand new and one I bought on craigslist. I bought these chairs because Ryder's PT said they were the best for him. My problem is the straps...they suck. They only go over the legs and not over the shoulders AND the tray doesn't go in very far. Now the new one has been modified a little bit because it's not as bad but the older one(it's 2 years old) is horrible.

So I have Ryder in the horrible one because Ryder doesn't move around too much when eating where Emma tries to do summersaults. I have Ryder strapped in AND I have one of Natalie's belts tied around his chest. I bend down to pick up some of the fallen Cheerios when something hits me on the head...it's Ryder. I scooped him up and he is crying but because he got scared not because he was hurt. Poor guy. I comfort him then I look at that stupid highchair growl put Ryder down grab that chair walk right to the curb turn it upside down and toss it right in....

It made for a good show for my neighbors as I stormed out of my house with that highchair.

Mr Kinder

2011-10-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

Some years back when Natalie was in preschool she brought home the class giant stuffed monkey.
My feelings on said monkey can be found here.
So apparently bringing home a contaminated stuffed animal is sort of like a normal preschool/kindergarden thing.

On back to school night I was informed that each child would bring home Mr. Kinder the class stuffed lion for a weekend. Of course I was not thrilled with the idea but I am trying to be more

positive these day so I...

didn't think about how much I hate stuffed animals

didn't think about how much snot, spit, sweat, germs...or dare I say it...lice(shutter).... could possible be on this thing

So on Friday Natalie came walking out of class with a little extra pep in her step carrying a big bag. When I took a peek inside the big bag I saw dear old Mr. Kinder.

See the saying is that when a child first starts Kindergarden they get all kinds of sick.

Natalie(knock on wood) has a pretty strong immune system as well as Noah and the babies.

Me on the other hand.

Well I feel like I catch all the goodness Natty brings home.

Maybe it's because I need more sleep, maybe it's because I am nursing maybe it's because I seem to always get mastitis and antibiotics seem to kill all my antibodies.

Whatever it is I could feel my throat starting to scratch the second Mr. Kinder entered our car.

Now Mr. Kinder is no giant stuffed Monkey.

No ser ree.

Mr. Kinder is a high class Lion equipped with skates, helmet, two sets of day clothes, shoes, brush and two feeding bowls.

He is a bit of a Pre-Modonna if you ask me.

Natty was thrilled and got up early to brush Mr. Kinder and get him dressed.

She wanted him to sleep with her but we made a bed on the floor.

(you know I did a pre inspection for lice on Mr. Kinder)

Mr Kinder came with us everywhere as we have to write a little report on Mr. Kinders stay with us so I thought it wasn't too fitting that he live in the garage.

Although I did wake up this morning with some sort of weird throat thing going on.

Thank you Mr. Kinder.

Flower Princess Runners

2011-10-08T16:06:00.001-07:00

I played soccer for years and loved it and I have been so excited for Natalie to get old enough to play. So this year was the year. She is #3 on the Flower Princess Runners, the girls thought of the name if you didn't already guess. I wasn't really sure how she would like soccer or if she would really get it but as it turns out she is pretty darn good!
The babies LOVE soccer games
And Natalie LOVES her team

Go Princess Flower Runners!

We pretty much got crushed. They don't keep score at this level but if you count the goal we made for the other team it was 7 to 1.

Noah has a very very VERY hard time at Natty's games and practices. He really wants to play but just ins't old enough. Not old enough to go to Kindergarden not old enough to play soccer....he has been having a hard time lately. Poor guy.

We are going backwards here....

Going through the tunnel

Treat!

Natalie would play a lot better if we could get some cloudy weather. I have never seen someone so distracted by their own shadow!

Natalie was chosen to bring home Mr. Kinder this weekend. Mr. Kinder is the class stuffed animal. More on that later.

Half time oranges

"Natalie you need to stop looking at your shadow"

Pep talk from Darth Sidious

My girl.

Grocery store

2011-10-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

People always say "I don't know how you do it" or "I could never do it" when referring to the mass amount of small children in which I have acquired over the years. But the truth is I deserve no special credit or praise for anything because the truth is if you had to do it you would. We just do it. Whatever it is that we are given we just do. I guess it depends on your attitude or current prescription if you do it well or you enjoy it but that an entirely different post.

I often go to the grocery store with all four kids or at least three of them and that is when people often stop saying "I don't know how you do it" but something more along the lines of "you are crazy." But the truth is I would rather go to the store when it's dead then at night when Jed is home and can watch the kids but everyone and their second cousin is at the store. Plus I like to leave the evenings to do things I enjoy doing.

It's a personal preference.

Or maybe I have lost my mind.

Either way.

This is how I do the grocery store with all my children...

If I have all four kids I will put the twins in the Snap N Go(best invention!)and hand Natalie and Noah a hand cart. Then I will put the handle bar up on one of the twins carseat and put a hand cart that will rest on top of the handle bar and the cup holders. Fits perfect. While we are in the store the kids will often do what kids do but the trick is to just not let it stress me out. If I feel myself getting a little twitchy then I just take a breath and carry on. I take my time and get my items and we usually get some sort of fun treat at the end(usually it is a free sample)

If I have three of the kids it's a little bit trickier because Natalie really is like a second little Momma. But I will either...

(Emma loves to sit up straight and Ryder loves to relax back. But I don't do this that often)

I'll usually do something like this...

Groceries go in the bottom and around the babies and Noah gets to carry a hand cart or push around one of those kid carts which isn't my favorite because I almost always take a hit right to the back of the leg.

And because it's a little tricky to keep track of my coupons with all the kids I usually take a clip and use the strap from the carseat to keep track of my coupons.

And that there is how I do it.

9 months old

2011-10-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

Ryder
RyRy, Roo

This kid is just so stinking happy! He woke up I picked him up and dropped him on the grass and started snapping away and he just smiled and laughed the whole time.

He thought he was 10 months

Love

It was a bit chilly and every time the wind would gust he would make this face.

At 9 months...

~Is getting so big! He has had some major growth spurts this past month and is now in 6-9 month clothes.

~Still long and skinny

~Hates wearing a bib and is sort of a spastic eater and will start screaming if I walk to the kitchen to get more food.

~Crawls normal now, no more army crawl

~Loves to pull himself up on furniture

~Is letting go and trying to balance

~LOVES to eat he would eat all day long if he could and he loves to feed himself.

~Has two teeth

~His left eye has been turning in a bit :(

~Loves dancing

~Loves to sit with his thumb in his mouth and rock

~He also loves to slap things with his hand

~"talks" a lot he is always "saying" something

~Loves to get into the downward dog position.

Emma

Emmers, Em's

Its hard to get a picture of her she is always on the move.

Can we talk about those eyes?! They are so light and bright and I can't get enough.

at 9 months....

~Has a new found obsession with blowing raspberries. When she cries she blows them it's hilarious.

~Is VERY curious and loves to explore and put every single thing she finds right in her mouth

~Is finally starting to sleep better!

~Has the cutest laugh she practically has her eyes closed and sticks out her tongue and lets out a squeal.

~No teeth yet

~Is a sock thief! She loves socks as soon as she finds one she grabs it and crawls away. I can't put socks on her because she won't keep them on. Ryder loves to wear socks and Emma spends a lot of time chasing him around to grab them off his feet

~I sweep her mouth at least 20 times a day

~Gets shy when strangers go up to her she will dig her head into my chest...or scream

~Changing her is like trying to put clothes on Jello. It takes my feet on her arms and then it's slightly more manageable.

All in all...

Getting a good picture of the two of them proves to be a bit challenging especially when all Emma wants to do is take Ryders sticker.
This is the best I could get

At 9 months...

The developmental gap that we saw early has closed and they seem to be right on the same page. They are getting more attached to each other if one is without the other they start looking around and get super excited when they see each other again. They go on little "quests" and Emma usually leads the way and the quest are usually to the highchair area to look for fallen Cheerios. They aren't really into sitting in the carseat or stroller and watching anymore which keeps us busy. Church is tricky.....very tricky. They still get a lot of attention when we go out. I still get the "you have your hands full"..."are they identical"..."are those twins?"...."boy and girl? Perfect now you are done!"...the only one that drives me a little crazy is the last one. They are so fun to watch as they go all around the living room and "talk" to each other and play. On the mornings when they actually wake up at the same time(usually Emma wakes up a few hours earlier than Ryder) they will be standing up and "talking" to each other across the room. Ryder still sleeps way more than Emma and he also eats way more as well. Emma will eat about 6-8 ounces of baby food but Ryder will eat around 12-14 ounces and then try and take some of Emma's Cheerios and yet he is still a little bean pole. They are starting to "fight" over toys and there are a few screams, tears and cries but they always seem to just work it out. They both HATE and I mean HATE the bath. It reminds me of a cat because the second you put them in they are trying to jump out with their hands stretched out. Every single time. They just hate it. But really they are just happy and wonderful babies and I feel so blessed every day that we have them in our family.

Hanging out in our yard

2011-10-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

I really love our new camera. It's a something...can't remember but it's awesome.
And I realized our backyard has a lot of perfect photo spots.

I took about 200 pictures of the babies for their 9 month pictures it's hard to get pictures of the big kids because they just have way too much to do these days :)

Like riding their scooters.
I love that face!

I was trying to get a pic of all the kids but Emma wanted nothing of it. Ryder really wanted nothing of it either but the kids were comforting him.

Aren't these beautiful?

I really want to plant some in our new house but I am not sure I can keep them alive.
Our yard has a TON of good climbing trees.

Jump!

Have I mentioned we have a TON of avocados and it's really hard to get rid of them when every other person around here has an avocado tree. So we have been having a lot of guacamole!

wish I would have removed the picker thing from this picture.

These two are best friends

N&N put to work

2011-10-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

We had a pile of cardboard boxes on the patio because...
1) we don't want to throw away boxes because we are still planning on moving sometime this century when our house closes
2)I am to lazy to walk to the shed
3)Jed just signed up for Amazon Prime account and can't stop buying stuff online

So the other day the big kids were running around the house(have I mentioned our home is raised so when someone walks through it you can hear E..VER...Y...THING) so I told them to go outside and move all the boxes from the patio to the shed.

No big deal, right?

Noah was super excited but Natalie is getting old enough to realize that this was not meant to be a fun activity but more like work.

So they began by dragging the boxes to the stairs.

Then I peek out a few minutes later and Natalie is starting to throw the boxes down the stairs and Noah is karate chopping the boxes.

Then I peek out a few minutes later and Noah is not out there and Natalie is down by the shed opening the door.

After a few more minutes I peek out and Noah is now riding his scooter(sans pants) not sure where they went but he had shoes on.

Then I hear Natalie yelling at Noah "You are not helping! You start helping me now or I am going to take away all your monies!"

At this point no boxes have made their way to the shed and it's been a good 20 minutes since I had sent them out there.

I then hear Natalie give her "I am so frustrated" grunt and come stomp into the house.

She then says "I am trying to put the boxes into the shed but Noah wont stop riding his scooter and then he keeps hitting the boxes and taking off his clothes and he keeps saying he is going to go peepee on me! Can you please put him in time out."

And then she walks away and says something under her breath that I will always always remember

"ugh men"

and I have not a clue where she heard such a thing

Way hot

2011-09-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

I saw this on FB today and it's just so fitting for me

I explain...

The other day I had "had it!" the kids, the husband...everything was driving me CA-RAZY. So I decide to go out grocery shopping by myself(oooh the excitement!). I put together something that I thought was pretty cute. Some black pants, white shirt, blue cardigan and a scarf. You know when you think you look good you have a little extra pep in your step? Well that pep doesn't happen very often around here these days. You would understand if you saw my deflated stomach. Anyways, so I decide to stop by Ross to pick up a shirt or two. I do my little pep step right in and pick a few shirts and go straight to the dressing room. As I walk into my little smelly stall I happen to turn around and notice that I have a mad amount of spit-up down the back of my cardigan all the way down to the back of my leg. Oh and my shirt was inside out.
Way hot.

The other morning I was going to a playgroup so I decided to put some extra effort into my appearance like some mascara. I pulled out an outfit that was somewhat new and put myself together for the day. Natalie comes out of her room and her face gets SO excited when she sees me. She runs up and wraps her arms around me. Then she pulls back and pats my stomach and says "Oh momma you have another baby in there! Thank you Momma I am so happy!"

I had just purchased some black floral tights. You know the lacy looking ones that are decorative. No? Go here(except my legs are fatter and my tights were 10 bucks from Target). So naturally I didn't shave since I was wearing tights. As we were sitting there at church Noah decided to put his foot on my leg and the buckle on his shoe made a big fat rip in my tights. FABULOUS. The babies were fussy I so I just grab them and head out to the hall. I figure my rip is somewhat noticeable since it's on the back side of my leg but not too bad. Then Emma who is crawling around me tries to crawl up my leg making the rip even bigger. So now what was somewhat noticeable is painfully noticeable. So I am left with the choice. Walk around with a big rip and when someone inevitable points it out act shocked. Or take them off and walk around with my white legs and black hair stubs making everyone other woman there feel about 50% better about them self. Decisions. Decisions. Ultimately I decided to go home and take a nap. But I was still pissed about the wasted $10.

See how I have grown

2011-09-30T15:19:00.001-07:00

OOOOOOH MY GOOOOSSSHHH!!!!! Ugh Ugh Ugh

2011-09-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

I have been a mother now for 5 1/2 years.

I have four small children.

I feel like I am generally unfazed by the daily doings of children.

That is until today.

(shutter...ugh)

Are you eating lunch?

If you are I suggest you wait to read this.

Today I was feeding the babies.

They like to feed themselves so they had an array of cheerios and whole grain pastas and fruits to choose from.

There was quiet the mess underneath their highchairs once they were done.

(this is when a dog would come in so handy)

So I grab each baby and put them on the ground as I prepare to clean up the mess.

I grab both trays and walk to the sink(which is literally 2 feet from where the babies were.

I rinse them off and look over at the babies and they are both intensely hovered around something.

I figured it was a stray cheerio....oh how wrong I was.

I notice it's BROWN.

I look and I gasp!

It couldn't be!

Then I grab Ryders little bum and his diaper has fallen down into his pants.

I resort to my go-to curse word...

"Holy Crap!"

Literally.

My babies were eating crap.

I grab them both by the back of their shirts like little cats because it's the fastest way to get them and run to the sink.

I start with Emma because it's Ryder's crap so I figured that it would do the most harm to her.

I start swiping my finger through her mouth getting chunks of poo all the while chanting

"find a happy place...find a happy place...find a happy place"

So I wouldn't start gagging.

I get all the poo out of her mouth wash her hands and then grab Ryder.

What I failed to forget was that Ryder now has teeth so I was swiping his mouth and scrapping poo off of his teeth.

I was still chanting loudly to myself in order to stop from gagging when Noah comes running in stepping into the poo mess and smashing it into the carpet.

I let out another loud "Ahhhhhhh..." and continue cleaning up Ryder.

I put another **diaper on Ryder cage the twins in the family room and run back to the dinning room to clean up the poo mess.

I then get right on my computer and start Googleing

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BABIES EAT POOP?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BABIE EATS SOMEONE ELSES POOP?

CAN POOP HURT BABIES?

All these said that your babies can get EColi from eating poop and I started freaking out.

I tried to remind myself that they probably didn't ingest any of the actual poop that they were just chewing on it.....(blaaaah!)

I call my mom

I call Jed

Then I call the pediatrician.

Everyone's reaction seemed to be "why did you let them eat poop?"

Gee I don't know I thought it would be a fun social experiment?

Come on now.

This is a serious matter.

I have been told that if they start vomiting then I should take them into the hospital but that they are fine.

(except by Jed who said that they will turn brown)

Right now they are both "talking" to each other and playing with the piano so I am assuming that they are okay.

But Ugh.

Blah

Belch

and everything in-between.

**I swear Ryder's diaper just had some fresh poo in it and I must have not strapped one side tight enough. I promise he didn't have an overflowing diaper.

All About My Noah

2011-09-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

My poor Noah has been having a bit of a rough time lately. Natty has been so excited about school and talks about it every day AND she gets to play soccer. Noah has felt a bit left out(we are waiting to put him in preschool once we get moved).

So here are some pictures of my Noah.

Here he is enjoying Natty's soccer game from a distance.
He loves taking lots and lots of pictures of himself and then loves to look at each one.

He cracks us up! He will make sure he has a jacket on if he is going outside but often forgets the rest of the outfit.

Noah goes to the bathroom by himself and almost always puts his underwear on backwards. I used to fix it but now...not so much.
Second to taking picture of himself is taking pictures of me. He always says "okay Mommy say cheese. Oh that looks good"

When Natty is at school Noah has no desire to do anything but watch TV or eat. Great combination. I try to play with him but he doesn't want to. I took him to the library to go to reading time and he sat in my lap and kept looking up at me and asking if it was time to go home yet. Then we did the craft and he just sat there and looked at me like "if I color this thing can we leave?" The kid just needs to go to school!

Very soon my boy!

I had to take a video of this. Noah's favorite movie right now is the Three Mousekeeters and he has the beginning part totally memorized. When he runs from side to side he is a galloping horse and then he uses his fingers as the swords. He wouldn't do the end because he knew I was recording him but he usually puts his hands up slowly at the end and it's so stinking cute.

New Camera

2011-09-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

I decided to try out our new camera while Jed was working late last night. We had a lot of fun during our little "photo shoot"

My Mr. Noah. I just love this kid he keeps us on our toes.

We all love to lay on the ground while the babies crawl all over us.

This is Natalie's go to silly face.

Chair spinning!

Hello Love!

Sisters! Natty is such a super big sister. I swear I don't know what I would do without that girl. She just loves on those babies(almost too much) all day long.

Emma spotted the door stop( a favorite baby toy in this house) but was quickly distracted by the big kids chair spinning.

Brotherly Love

These two are such a pair. They spend all their time together and it's been hard for Noah to have Natty gone while she is at school. Whenever we pick her up it's like a celebration!

Natty was being silly and it was cracking Noah up.

Emma walking along the couch.

I wanted a cute picture of all four kids but they kept giving me these wierd smiles.

So instead of saying "Cheese" I said "poop"

And they gave the best smiles.

It's possibly their favorite word.

Obsessed

My happy little boy. So in love with my little guy

Little Emmers and her Cheerio. She is very serious about her Cheerio consumption.

I just die over those baby blues

Have you been introduces to Pascal? It's our family chameleon he came to be a weekend I was out of town and Jed was home with the kids. He has grown on me.

My sweet girl. She is my little Bff

Ryders new trick

2011-09-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today I came in to check on the twins and Ryder was standing up in his crib!

He has been trying so hard to pull himself up now since Emma started.

He thinks it's hilarious and can't stop smiling and laughing.

My babes are getting way to big :(

Conflict Resolution

2011-09-09T20:08:00.001-07:00

Ryder finds toy.

Emma spots Ryders toy and crawls on top of him and takes toy.

Ryder cries then sticks his thumb in his mouth and is fine.

Natty plays with toy.

Noah takes toy.

Natty says "that's my toy!" and takes it back.

Noah lets out ear piercing scream.

Natty gives toy back folds her arms and walks away.

Erin buys toy

Jed sees toy and says "we can't afford it"

(because those were possibly his first words)

Jed says don't buy anymore toys.

Erin acts upset walks away and then buys toys and hides them in her car.

8 months old

2011-09-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Just for fun here is Noah's 8 month post
(I didn't have a blog when Natty turned 8 months)

Ryder
RyRy

~Ryder does the same exact crazy crawl Noah did. It looks like he is swimming on the carpet. I think it's so funny that both my boys did the crazy crawl.

~Still sleeps like a champ from 9pm until I have to wake him up to take Natty to school.

~Loves his Momma, his thumb, Noah and the remote...in that order.

~Says Momma, Dadda and sush, not sure what sush means but he says it a lot. He is constantly talking.

~Likes to spit

~Likes to feed himself now

~Likes to follow Emma around he can't keep up just yet but he is getting there.

~Loves the little baby rings, the baby piano and balls

~Loves his bottle and gets super excited whenever he sees it

~Still nurses a couple times a day.

~The only thing I have found that he doesn't like too much is avocado.

~Really wishes he could pull himself up on furniture like Emma but just hasn't figured it out yet.

~Is still skinny and long.

~Gives kisses. I just pucker up and he plants one full open mouth right on me.

~Gets into the downward dog position a lot.

~Still super cuddly especially in the morning and we really do have such a special bond.

Emma

Emmers
This one is a firecracker!

~Pulls herself up on everything but hasn't totally mastered walking along the side but is certainly testing her abilities.

~I am pretty certain Emma is going to be an early walker.

~Puts absolutely everything in her mouth. Natty was the same way! We can't leave a piece of fuzz on the floor because she puts it right in there.

~Is a fast little crawler and likes to go everywhere and gets really upset when she runs into a baby gate.

~Squeels.

~Nocturnal

~She takes the shortest naps and wakes up super early and screams through the night.

~Loves the little piano and plays it constantly

~Loves to crawl over Ryder and take all his toys. She loves to use his head as something to help her stand up.

~Loves to feed herself and she is very dainty about it.

~Doesn't seem to care for anything green but will eat it if I dip in something sweeter first. Like green beans dipped in peaches.

~Her favorite toy is shoes, she beelines for anyones shoes and can't wait to put them in her mouth.

~Wont take a bottle still.

~Hates strangers. People will always come up to her and say "oh look at the cute baby" and then Emma starts screaming. Even if they don't say anything just look at her she will scream.

~Would sleep all night if I let her sleep with us.

All in All

They are getting way more tricky! They are everywhere and into everything!! They are now actually playing with each other which is cute. Emma is still the boss and sort of takes whatever Ryder is playing with and he never seems to mind. Sometimes I think God thought that he better send Ryder down with Emma to keep her out of trouble. People often look at Emma and say something like "look at those beautiful eyes"and then instantly turn to me and look at my eyes and say "did she get them from her dad?" It's kind of funny. Everyone says that they are looking more alike. Nights are rough. Neither have any teeth and are showing no signs of any coming any time soon. The babies both love to go to the park and crawl around on the grass and watch the kids play.

We have met a lot of new people here and I seem to be mostly known as the girl with the twins. "Yeah you know Erin the girl with the twins"

I can think of a lot of worse things to be known for :)

My guess is they weigh around 15 pounds they are in 3-6 or 6 month clothing.

I love my little babies!

Let's feed ourselves

2011-09-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

The babies have entered the stage where they can feed themselves some Cheerios or pieces of bread and it's fabulous! I can cook dinner and just keep replenishing their supply and everyone is happy.

Ms. Emma has mastered getting those little suckers right in her mouth.

"Don't take my picture I am busy here"
"You can take my picture!"

Happy little guy. He does better with pieces of bread although he is happy as can be with his Cheerios as well. Although he does have a lot stuck to his head, face or neck when he is done.

Usually the dark wood chair is Ryders but for some reason they were switched this time.

Back to school dinner

2011-09-01T19:20:00.001-07:00

I knew I wanted to start some sort of back to school dinner tradition.

I took some different ideas from different people and then threw in a few of my own(I think).

Anyways I give you The Huss Family First Annual Back to School Extravaganza

I made crowns for the kids with their name on it. All my craft supplies were packed up and it was tempting to un pack them but we are moving again soon so I resisted.

I could have really used my cricut this night.

The kids were excited, but mostly they were trying to rush because all the kids were outside playing and they wanted to go back and join them sooooo badly.

I didn't go overboard in my decoration but I did hit up the 99 cent store to decorate our table.

My center piece consisted of a vase with school supplies in it.

I know my creativity is amazing.

Feel free to Pinterest this amazing design

Natalie was like "why did you put all my school stuff in that glass cup?"

Natty had soccer practice so we made a quick and easy family favorite Traders orange chicken with brown rice and a salad with our home grown avocados.

(I am not sure we have enough soy sauce)

Tried again to get good pics of the kids...

We then had chocolate covered strawberries(thank you Mimi) and talked about our theme for the school year(I bet you can't guess where I got that one from)

Be Kind. We have a 5 and 3 year old we got to keep it simple.

All in all I was pretty pleased with our FirstAannual Huss Family back to school exstravaganza.

dis is how we roll

2011-09-01T14:07:00.001-07:00

Underwear and pants both on backwards while eating lunch.

Natty-Lu goes to school

2011-08-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

My sweet girl entered the public school system today(tear)

She was crazy excited about starting Kindergarden.

She had picked out this pink outfit with horses all over it for her first day.

She woke up at 6:14 am and was ready to get dressed.

I am thinking this waking up early excited to go to school thing might not last forever :)

We got ready and left the house at 7:45am to walk there with plenty of time to spare.

We first had a little photo shoot infront of the door.

My big girl.
out of order this is her infront of her school.

back infront of the door. Noah must have asked me a million times between yesterday and today if he could go to kindergarden as well. He hurried and got ready, scarfed down breakfast and even though I told him he was not going to stay at kindergarden he had his mind set that he was going as well.

Someday this whole crew will be in school together.

Why we love little brothers

Infront of her door.
Her teacher is a doll and I already love her. Natty was so excited to meet her. She went right up to her and gave her a hug. The only disappointment was that we found out that Natty does not need a backpack which Natty was a little bummed about. But I told her I would bring it back so she can put her folder in it and wear it home.

She went right in and we found her seat. She colored a birthday candle with her birthday on it and then found a spot on the rug. I gave her a kiss and we said good bye and that was that. She was excited her new friend from church was in her class and sat right next to her.

The only tears shed were by this guy...

He still thought he was staying at Kindergarden.

After we attended a parent meeting we walked home. Noah was starting to feel a little better about not being able to stay. We then headed to the 99 store to pick up some decorations for our 1st annual Back to School Extravaganza tonight and he got these dinosaurs and we stopped and each got a donut.

So we are pretty happy now. Even though he has only asked me a few hundred times if we can go pick up Natty now:)

On our way back from the store I drove by the school and Natty was having snack time. I spotted her right away talking and laughing with friends.

So proud of my little girl.

Park Day

2011-08-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

I used to always read about "park days" on friends blogs and be so sad that I couldn't do that for my kids.
First off I worked from home.
Second off the park that was close enough to walk to was not ideal. Unless you were looking for a great place to meet your dealer or you don't mind the smell of raw sewage or being checked out by homeless guys or contracting some sort of disease....ugh I have to bath in Purell just thinking about it.

So when I discovered that we had a park within walking distance I just knew I had to soak it up before we moved again.

Today was our last day of summer because this little girl starts school tomorrow(tear).

We packed a lunch and decided to spend as much time as the babies could stand at the park. There are always people there! Mostly girls. It seams everyone in Camarillo has girls. Noah is seriously outnumbered. But today there were three girls and two boys who even brought Nerf swords and binoculars. They had a blast!

I just hung out with the babies on my blanket and relaxed and watched the kids play.

I realize I have WAY more pictures of the babies these days. But the truth is I try to take pictures of these two but they end up something like this...

They have too much going on these days to stay put for a picture.

These two were cracking me up!

Normally Ryder finds toy

Ryder plays with toy

Emma sees Ryder playing with toy

Emma takes toy away

Ryder finds new toy

But today Ryder was playing with my water bottle and Emma spots him enjoying it so much she decided to come and take it away. Ryder who normally let's go hung on to that bottle like his life depended on it. I have only ever seen him have such determination for a an object before(the remote) and it was so funny watching these two fight over it.

This went on for a good 20 minutes until Emma figured out she could eat grass and spent the rest of the time grabbing handfuls of grass and me taking it out of her hand right before it reached her mouth.

We also do some good physical therapy at the park. Lots of stretching and distractions so Ry can keep his tot collar on.

My Ry is so stinking lovable...oh I could just eat him up!

We spent most of the day hanging out and it was fabulous. It still makes me sad to think about leaving this place. I realize we can't stay here forever, the owners are only gone for two years. But I was secretly hoping something would happen to stall the whole house buying thing.

Oh well!

Hey, there are A LOT worse problems to have !

So until then we plan on playing at our park every day.

The night

2011-08-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

Ryder goes down at 8:30pm and sleeps until around 9:30/10:00am.

Noah and Natty go down at 7:30pm.

I recently started letting them listen to The Family Hour Stories.

This way they don't talk/fight with each other and actually fall asleep so much faster.

They wake up around 7:30 and come into bed with us and fight over who gets what spot until I finally give up and go get them breakfast.

Emma goes down at 8:30pm.

She screams for a few minutes.

Then wakes up around 1:00am and screams until around 2:30am.

Then wakes up again around 3:00am and screams until 5:00am

Then is up for the day around 7:30am.

Last night Emma was screaming so I go in and rub her back and let her know Momma is there and to please go back to sleep.

Ryder wakes up and pops his little head up and just looks at us.

Then he just rolls back over sticks his thumb in his mouth and falls back asleep.

How he sleeps through Emma's screaming is beyond me.

I let her scream it out, I rub her back and let her know Momma is there...I have tried all the different methods and she still screams!

Suggestions

Your only 7 months!

2011-08-27T17:56:00.001-07:00

Today I was on the couch nursing Ryder.

Emma was crawling all over the place.

Then she crawls up to the couch.

She puts her hands up and pulls her self up!

Then she walks along the side.

The girl is only 7months(will be 8 on the 6th)

I don't remember when my other kids started cruising.

But I just know I am not ready for girlfriend to start walking.

Adore

2011-08-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

All photos taken with my MacBook...so they are backwards and not good quality. Jed sold our camera(story of my life) and has yet to replace it.

Anyways.

I know you are supposed to live in the moment but sometimes I think about moving from our rental house and I get so sad.

Yes the house we are buying is bigger.

Yes it's newer

Yes it will be ours...but I simply adore it here.

The backyard is amazing. See that shed back there? It's a super nice shed it's like a little house and the kids pretend it's theirs.

We eat on the patio every night. The other house has a great patio and I plan on eating every meal out side as well..unless it's raining.

One of the cute little details of the backyard the kids "tunnel"

Ummmm, okay I will not miss the carpets in the bathroom. The toilet overflowed the other day...blah.

The kids bathroom....more carpet

I love the kitchen. The space. I know I keep saying this but when you are cramped for so long it feels so nice to be able to move. Cooking in this kitchen is awesome and it's the only place in the whole house that doesn't have carpet. :)

Hi my name is Emma

2011-08-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

My hair is not red even though Photo Booth made it look that way.

I am 7 1/2 months old which means I no longer need sleep.

I can function on one 2 hour nap in the morning and then go strong until 9:30 pm when I have a complete and total melt down.

Even though Mommy puts me down with my brother I will stay awake and play for awhile, scream for awhile and then eventually I will either wake up Ryder or Mommy will come get me.

I have no idea why Ryder likes to take three naps a day AND sleep through the night.

No fun.

I on the other hand like to wake up at least twice a night screaming bloody murder so I can wake everyone up to come and play.
But for some reason no one wants to play with me at 2am.

I have also mastered the crawl and I love to get into everything I can possibly get my little hands on.

I especially love the wipes.

You pull out one and there is another.

It's amazing.

I do this until there is non left.

It's fun.

Momma says no.

She's just not any fun.

Ryder likes to play.

Whenever he is playing with a toy he allows me to crawl onto of him and take it.

Although he does cry when I play with his hair or grab his eyes.

Basically I love my family but they are just not as much fun as me!

1,000 pounds!

2011-08-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

I had no idea how stressed out I was.

When I drove away last Saturday on our way to our new home I could physically feel the weight lifted from my shoulders.

No more spending my days "shushing" the kids because I needed to answer the phone.

No more staying inside all day.

No more listening to complaints aaaalllll daaaaay loooong.

I thought I had a complete handle on it all.

I think I was wrong.

Just since my retirement last Saturday I physically feel lighter.

I am less tired.

I am WAY more patient.

I just feel happier.

It's true what they say if momma ain't happy no one is happy.

I can tell my whole family is happier.

I can't even begin to talk about how much we are enjoying our new place!

The space.

Oh my goodness the space!

I could go on forever.

Our neighborhood.

Who doesn't love living on a cul de sac?

Get this.

Tonight(around 7ish)I heard some noise out front.

There were two kids riding those little miniature motorcycles down the street.

My kids thought it was awesome.

I didn't even care.

But then I see my neighbor across the street come out and tell the kids that her new neighbor across the street(me) has two babies and they need to not be riding down the street.

I was floored.

We also have a park just a few minutes away.

It's wonderful!

Riding our scooters to the park

The babies love the BOB
The park is SO CLEAN and every time we go there are always other kids playing and we have met some new friends. I just can't get over how nice everyone is here!

I think Noah looks so stinking cute in his helmet. He is getting pretty good at his scooter.

I just feel like I can breath again and I am just loving it!

Stories from the Huss Homestead

2011-08-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

~Natalie is obsessed with death. It's sort of freaking me out. She pretends to die, or has her animals die, or whatever she is playing with eventually dies. She was playing with one of her friends the other day and I over hear her saying "I am a beautiful horse..."then she falls to ground and makes a choking sounds..."I am dead". It's totally disturbing. Then after she or whoever she is playing at the time dies they go see Jesus. She has had a few deaths this past year....but if she doesn't stop soon I am about ready to seek some professional help.

~We bought the Living Scriptures for the kids. The first Cd to come was the story of the birth of Jesus. The kids LOVE it and watch it constantly. Now Natalie loves to be Mary and give birth to Jesus. My favorite is when I saw her and her friend Kate out on the grass and Kate is in birthing position(legs up and everything) and Natalie is pretending to pull a baby out. It should be noted that the movie does not show the actual birth. But Natalie loves to play Mary make Noah Joseph and Ryder or Emma is Jesus.

~We were at the Costco in Westlake Village(which is super nice) and there was a homeless man with a sign that said Homeless need money for food. I had an Organic Bar in my car that was actually rather gross but super healthy. So I told Jed to give the guy the bar. So Jed rolls down the window and tries to get the guys attention. The light turns green. Jed still has his hand out the window holding the bar. Cars start to go. So Jed THROWS the bar at the guy and drives off. Yes throws it. It landed on the divider but I was mortified. What the people behind us must have thought. That homeless man was probably more upset about the throwing of the bar when he took a bite.

~Natalie said the other day "I like pooping it's so relaxing"

~Noah to Natalie "You can come watch me poop I think it's a really big one!"

~Whenever something happens to Noah or someone else in Noah's presence he feels the need to run to the nearest adult and give a full account of what happened. The funny part is that he has to act it out. He will say "Natalie did this (hits himself in the head) then I did this(hits his face with this hand) then Natalie did this(pretends to cry) so I did this(runs in circles) and she said she didn't want to be my friend anymore can you tell Natalie"

~"He/She took my spot" is the most used phrase in this house. A child will pee their pants before moving from "their spot" in order to prevent the other child from taking it.

~Natalie and her friend Kate like to pretend to marry Noah. They often fight over who is going to be the one to marry him. Then whoever is the one to marry him holds his hand and walks around. So the other day I was watching Kate and she "married" him, then Natalie did, then it was Kate's turn. After awhile Noah comes up to me and says "Momma can I please not get married anymore."

The move

2011-08-15T22:46:00.001-07:00

Moving time crept up on me.

For the last 8 years Jed and I had talked about moving up to Thousand Oaks once we were done with dental school but it always seemed so far away.

Time passes so quickly.

Yes, I know a profound statement right.

Anyways.

We moved.

Incase you had not heard.

On Friday I planned on doing all the last minute packing up and I was just about ready to get into the throws of it when Amber called to make sure I was going to playgroup.

I explained I was not and she explained it was a going away gathering for me and there would be food.

So I went.

I am going to miss my friends I have made over the last 8 years.

Really really going to miss them all!!

(pictured: some of the friends made in the last 8 years not all the friends made in the last year, just incase you were wondering)

On to move day.

All I have to say is that next time I move I am hiring a moving company FO-SHO!

A lot of people were out of town or working or at youth conference(very convenient)

BUT I was told we would have about 8 guys showing up.

So I bought three dozen Crispy Cremes because I like to feed the help well.

Well three showed up.

PLUS the amazing Amber who helped with the kids the entire time.

The move took forever.

What we thought would take about an hour took four.

Fun times.

We only had one mishap that involved a 3 year olds toe and a Cozy Coupe...

(Nurse Amber to the rescue. Later that day Noah hurt is toe again and he was asking for Amber to fix it)

After everything was loaded in the U-Haul(ps we have a lot of crap)

We were ready to head to our new home.

We said good bye to the Bruesekes(tear)

Gave them about 20 donuts and 15 tacos to take home.

Then we said good bye to Apartment one.

I got a little choked up.

Just a little.

There is a lot of happy memories in that little apartment.

But Janean(My mil) is going to be taking over my job so I will be able to visit good old Orange Grove again.

First off I have to say the BIGGEST thank you to Skip Andersen. Seriously!

Saved.

The.

Day.

I am 99.99% positive he doesn't read this blog but Katie thank you for lending us your husband for the day!

We knew we would have my brother in law, two nephews and my dad and brother here to help unload so we didn't bother recruiting more help.

Well as it turned out something came up and my brother in law and nephews couldn't make it.

Then my dad threw his back out.

Then my brother had to hurry and leave because we took a lot longer than we thought and he had some really important plans(or at least they better have been)

So basically Jed and Skip unloaded the entire truck.

Now as you might remember we are renting a home until we can move into our house.

When we found this rental we didn't really care too much what it looked like because she was willing to do a month to month and it was three bedrooms and 1700 soft(a mansion compared to our apartment!)

When we came through to look at it before the only thing I could really remember was it had a great backyard and carpet in the bathrooms.

I was sort of stuck on the floral carpet int he bathrooms.

Talk about a negative nelly!

So when we got here Saturday I was almost floored.

The house was perfect!

It felt HUGE

It was super clean

And yes there is floral carpet in the bathrooms but who cares!

The kids were getting lost(the house sort of has a circle layout and my kids had no idea houses came with more than two bedrooms)

It is seriously wonderful!

I can't say it enough.

Hello space!

I haven't really taken any pics of the inside but here is our backyard...

pic from the patio

Plus we are swimming in avocados.

The neighbors are super nice.

The street is very quiet.

Parks are within walking distance.

Hello washer and dryer where have you been all my life!

The kitchen is SO spacious.

And our master bedroom(no joke) is bigger than our first apartment.

Seriously no joke.

I feel like I could live here a long time!

(even though we aren't)

LOVE IT!

Today I woke up and took my sweet time getting ready! I feel like a thousand pounds have been lifted off my shoulders. No more working! No more having to shush the kids when the phone rang, no more being stuck inside all day...seriously it's amazing.

Good Bye Doc Band

2011-08-15T21:23:00.001-07:00

Mr Ryder boy graduated from his Doc Band on Thursday!

I was so excited that he doesn't have to wear it anymore I could hardly wait for his appointment.

He was in it for a total of 7 weeks. Not too bad at all.

We had a great experience with everyone at the Doc Band facility. Seriously wonderful staff!

Now we are just concentrating on getting his head straight.

He is getting a collar next Friday(he was supposed to get it this Friday but the PT didn't have the right tools)

Poor kid will have a lot of apparatuses in his baby years.

Good thing he is so stinking cute!

Before pics on the left and after pics on the right.

You can see his ears are aligned now!

They gave him a diploma and they also gave me a molding of his head on a stick. Not really sure what to do with that....anyhow he was super excited to have that thing off his head!

Good bye helmet!