Through the eyes of the littles...

So every thing settled back down again. :) I finally got my first full night of sleep and it was awesome. Of course the last few days I've had some awful insomnia, but I made it into a good thing by reading some great books. :) Now if I could just make these giant bags under my eyes into a good thing. ;)

We survived the awful sickness my girl and I, thankfully no one else got it!

A picture where I prove that yes indeed I do have giant bags under my eyes... ;)

So lately little munchkins have been getting their grubby little hands on my camera. They absolutely love taking pictures! I use to be really strict about them leaving my camera alone, but I let them go crazy with it the other day and it was actually sort of awesome. Seeing the world through their eyes. Of course I did have to delete a ton of pictures, close ups of carpet and such things. But well I'll let the others speak for themselves. :)

I think La took this one. :)

There we a ton like this, just stuff around the house, but something about the angle and what they focused on made it cute to me. :)

This must be a survival show, a new favorite around here. :)

Dinos on the march!

Rio at his finest, ha ha!

For some reason there were also lots of pictures of them eating and close ups of their food, not sure what means. 

This little dude is pretty good at self portraits. :)

This one made me laugh so hard!

So did this one. One of the best pictures, ever!

I like this one because Atty would hold that cat all day if he could. :)

This happens a lot, apparently Rio needs to be snuggled in when he takes a nap. :)

My little frogger. :)

 So there you have it. Through the eyes of my children, mostly just Spike and La. :) I'll have to hand the camera over to Bubu and Atty soon and see what they come up with.

On another note... La had her first sleep over! At her best friends house, which happens to be all of five minutes away. {Which made it easier on me!} I had a really hard time with it, but she was totally fine. It was her friends fourth birthday and all she wanted was a sleep over with La for her birthday. So how could I say no? Because I trust the mom {who is a friend of mine} I let my little girl go, and I'm glad I did because she was beaming when she got home. She was so proud of herself and really had a great girly time. :) You would think that after having four kids I'd be a bit more relaxed about this stuff, but I'm not. In fact I can count on one hand how many times my kiddos have gone on a sleep over. 

Doesn't she look so big! All ready for her sleep over. :)

And now so that no one in the family is left out, I'll end this post with a picture of the monster that use to be a cute little puppy. ;) Well lets face it he's still cute, just not little. His head reaches the table top now!

So regal. :)

This is the week that never ends... I think I've said that before. ;)

So this has been a long couple weeks... Don't even know were to start! First off the kid I nanny for got sick and it was a miserable week with a sad little guy. A struggle to keep homeschooling {and everything else that needs to be done} and balancing that with a sick one. It can be so emotionally taxing! Not to mention exhausting. Then that weekend my friend came over to spend the weekend at our house, she has been going through some major life changes {I've written about it before on here} and she's really come amazingly far in 6 short months, I'm so proud of her. But it's still rough, and can be emotionally overwhelming for me at times, trying to support her and be there for her, especially in the really needy times. Well this last weekend was one of those times because her dog, who she loves dearly, had cancer and she was having to come to terms with the fact that he needed to be put down. He was old and in pain and throwing up non-stop, among other gross and sad things. So right when she got to my door she was sobbing, who can blame her? She left an abusive husband of 14 years, started her whole life over again with her young daughter and her dog, her best friend through it all, is dying. It was harsh. It's one of those two steps forward, ten steps back moments. We talked about it that night and I could see the difference in her dog, and I had a feeling that she was right, it was time. Well that next morning I woke to puke all over my house, that poor dog vomited all night long! And there was blood in the vomit... I had a sobbing friend cleaning up dog puke on my floor, and it stunk so bad I wanted to puke and I hadn't even fully woke up yet. I was at a loss. We both decided it was time, she needed my help with that, a second opinion, because it was so hard for her to let go. We went that day and put her dog down and it was one of the hardest things I have done in a long time. I can't even fathom what it was like for her. We cried hard. I tried not to, because I could tell she needed me to be the strong one, but I just could stop some tears from sliding down. She whispered to him that her and her daughter were safe now, that it was okay and he could let go. That every thing was going to be okay, that he was the best friend she ever had. She thanked him, and comforted him and hugged him until he passed on, and then she sobbed right there on the floor holding her dead dog. The thing is this amazing almost 12 year old dog had hung in there for 7 years after being diagnosed with cancer... Seven years! Then right after she left her abusive husband he started going down hill, and when they finally got their own place last month it's like he just let go. He knew they were safe and he didn't need to guard her any more. It broke my heart seeing those two as she said goodbye to him. He was truly her best friend. Makes me tear up even now thinking about it. What a loyal and loving dog.  We barely made it out to the car before falling apart. I desperately pulled out every encouraging thing I could thing of to keep her centered. I was afraid she was going to have a panic attack again. But she made it through, crying off and on for the rest of the day. Then that night I was afraid again because she started to get really worked up once more, but I had her do a foot soak with super warm water, bath salts, and lavender, then made her some sleepy time tea, some chamomile and lavender tea, and gave her some naturally relaxing stuff like Magnesium and Motherwort tincture, and she got sleepy and went to bed. Emergency averted. :) Sometimes it pays to know that natural stuff. Anyways during all this my girl got sick with the same thing that the boy I nanny for had. It's some awful virus that comes with a off again on again fever, body aches, and sores on the inside of the mouth as well as a painful and red throat. Just ugly. And it lasts for like 10 days! She is still getting over it! Not sleeping worth a lick. So of course neither and I. Urrrrggggg! She crabby, irritable, and super sensitive about everything. She doesn't want to eat, she wants to be held all day long, I could go on and on. And the thing is I know she doesn't feel good and I am trying so hard to be sympathetic, but I'm exhausted at this point. I want to run away! Thankfully no one else got this nasty thing, so that's one good thing. Except my dog did randomly get sick during all this and was up all night as well with diarrhea and vomiting {he got into something, it's the lab in him that makes me eat all kinds of nasty}. That was awful, and just figures since I'm already not getting enough sleep. That night it alternated between cries from Lala, and desperate barking from the dog. At least he didn't go potty in his crate, that would have been a mess I don't ever want to have to clean up. So anyways last night I waited patiently {not really} for my husband to get home from work, and then I was off to visit the library. By myself. I dreamed about it all day long, the quiet, the excitement of new books, wandering around in the grown up section with out any grabby little hands. With out having to say shush over and over again. ;) Mostly just having a moment to myself. But when I got there the library was closed. I cried all the way home. Ugly cried. All. The. Way. Home. That's how you know you've had a long couple weeks. I couldn't hide the fact that I had been crying, so when I got home my husband looked at me all worried. I choked out that the library was closed, and he asked me if I had been crying, to which I responded by starting to cry all over again {I hate that}, then he asking if I was crying because the library was closed, to which I shook my head yes. Instead of making fun of me or belittling it, he took me in his arms and said he understood that I just wanted a moment to myself and I deserved one and he was sorry. That meant the world to me in that very moment and made every thing okay. Weird I know. I'm just so thankful for a wonderful man who knows me so well, and loves every little bit of me regardless of my many flaws, and my ridiculous emotional outbursts. :) Sigh. So even though my girl is still sick, I think she's headed in a good directions and I am hoping against hope that there will be a moment of reprieve this weekend.
This is the week that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends... I don't know why I still look forward to the weekends as if they were days off, I have four kids and a house to clean and food to cook... but dang it it's hard to let go of that thank God for Fridays feeling. :)

Meet the Burb...

See these 

 Happy

 Shining 

 Faces?

Can you guess why?

Yep... We finally found the one.

Our new Burbie, as the kids call it. :) Burb for short.

I love it! The dealership that we got it from is simply amazing, and they worked a Christmas miracle for us!  They are a family own business, and they have great customer service and admirable business practices. I was blow away! {Hinton Chevrolet in Lynden for anyone whole lives in the area.} In fact the very day we purchase the Burb we heard some sort of sound when we got close to home, so we called them. {I'll admit I was thinking, great here we go again, bought it from a dealership and it's going to be nothing but a head ache after all. Too good to be true and all that.} Long story short, even though we signed at least three paper stating that we did not have a warranty, they fixed what ended up being a very expensive problem... for free, with out any hassle, they were so sweet and caring about it! I've just never experienced anything like it. It was always nothing but hassle dealing with the Kia dealership when we had our car and then our van, and anytime I've ever stepped onto a car lot. So this has been very refreshing! The kids are happy, the grown ups are happy, and we are so glad to be able to roll again. :)

I'm still in denial about the cost in gas though. 

;)

I wish they made more environmentally friendly big family cars... that we could afford. At least we won't be driving it around all that much. My husband carpools for the most part, but I think as soon as we can we are going to need a small commuter car for the trips without kids. That will make me feel a little less guilty.

So anyway a month without a vehicle has come to an end! Yay!

Happy New Year!

Midnight kisses, looking forward to another year with my love. :)

So like usually we headed up to the mountains on new years day. It's quite a drive, but it's so worth it!
Lucky girl got pulled on the sled almost the whole entire time...

We had some fun sledding together, I loved hearing her shout "Woo-Hoo" as she flew down the hills.
That's her new thing to shout, usually followed by "Party!" Makes her daddy nervous for what the future might hold. ;)

It's the walk back up that tires you out. :)

Of course Spike wanted to go the highest and sled the farthest and be the fastest... and he was. 

Atty only sled for a little bit, then he wanted to hang out with his Neenee. :)  He climbed all the way up this steep slope to get to her.

Head first is the way to go...

Bubu was so excited to finally play in some snow! He told me it made him sad to leave...

They saw their favorite Auntie for a moment before we had to head home. 

It was a fun day spent in the snow, a great way to start out the new year. And to top it off our Suburban that we just got {I think I mentions that I totaled the van} was a dream to drive up in the mountains. We had it packed to overflowing with our family and two friends, and we still had room to ride comfortably. Love it!!! My husband was glad to report that the four wheel drive worked just fine. It's a used vehicle, so he was afraid we might be in for a nasty surprise... but so far ever thing has just been wonderful with it. Don't know how I ever survived without one. ;)