Halloween Eve

Put together Taco Night with pumpkin carving and scary movie watching, you have a Morrison Halloween Eve!! Very spooky, I know! With five little people, we have to take what we can get. There is no more going to big people Halloween parties, unless our single friends plan them a month in advance, which never happens. Matt and I will get a call an hour before the party asking if we can make it. We both just look at each other like, yeah right, be right over!! We prefer to be with the kiddos anyway. It is funny how things change. It is more fun for us to make sure our children are having a good time than it is for us to go out and have to pay $6 for a beer!! If we both have a drink, that is the same price as a pack of diapers! Besides, look how cute Addy is as little Jason! Pumpkin carving done, I call Addysen into the kitchen to see what I have made of her pumpkin. She opted to stay in our bedroom and not participate because she thought the pumpkin "goop" was slimy and disgusting! She enters the kitchen and immediately begins to cry! Addy is yelling at me for what I have done to her pumpkin. Then, she says she wanted to scoop the goop, and wants to know why I am so mean!! "I wanted a happy jack pumpkin, not what Mommy did!" she says in between sobs! I was feeling like I was such a nice Mom for helping her out, unbeknownst to me, I was just being a complete idiot! Pumpkin carved and already lit, not much I could un-do! So, I just left the kitchen. The other pumpkins look great, and the girls had a fun time. Now, Matt and I have the mind-numbing task of getting the five of them ready for trick-or-treating tomorrow! Last year did not go too well as far as the boys were concerned, so we are crossing our fingers for a different outcome this year!

Funny Stuff

I know that this is not a picture of any of our kiddos, but it is funny! Honestly, I don't have anything new taken of the family, so this is substituting! I was sitting with the boys this morning and we were watching Dora. They seemed really tuned in. Each time Dora would ask a question, they would answer her. Although, they always answer her with an emphatic, "NO!", it is an answer just the same. "C'mon, everyone, can you help Boots reach his hat??" asks Dora, and the boys reply, "NO!" Then, Dora, still being so polite, thanks them even though my children have done nothing to help! "No!", is their general reply to everything they hear on the t.v. Dora, Diego, Mickey Mouse, whomever it is, is going to be hard pressed to get my boys to clap when needed or to get them to jump up and down, or to even get them to shout in order to help out with the predicament. My guys don't just sit and watch an obscene amount of t.v., but they are allowed to watch some. I like the twenty minutes Max & Ruby gives me to clean up the kitchen, or fold some laundry. The last thing I want to do is spend all of their nap time cleaning! It took me a while to learn to not feel guilty for cleaning while they were awake. It used to make me feel as if I wasn't spending enough time with them. Now, I see it as a way for me to have a little more time to myself when they are sleeping if I already have the dishes done or the floors swept. Also, when Mom is not constantly hovering over them, they play rather nicely together. I can often times find them in their room playing and not even watching t.v. Today, that is where they were. I found them both hanging on either side of the outside of their crib, yelling "Boo!" to each other. Have I mentioned that they are a couple of monkeys??

Party Time

I am trying to teach my littlest people when party time actually is. Our boys feel that the entire day should be one continuous party! Nap time has become such a joke to our boys that it is now taking up to an hour for them to settle down and fall asleep. Garhett seems to be the butt of his Brothers' jokes unfortunately. B-man throws Garhetts blanket and his kitty out of the crib at least 40 times in an ten minute period. While Brenden is tormenting his Brother, poor Garhett is screaming, and I mean SCREAMING!!! I sometimes feel as if my throat is hurting just listening to the sound that little boy can make. I do feel for him, so I end up going in and out the room over and over and over.... After a while, I am so over Brenden and his cute smile! I am convinced by the way, that smile kids have is what has saved their butts many times from being in major trouble! They instinctively know when they hear a certain tone from their parents to start smiling and look as innocent as possible. My girls have done that to me many times, and now my little guys are doing it! So, when I go in their room to give Garhett his things back, Brenden seems to be pretending like he is sleeping. He will sometimes have his blanket pulled over his head, because obviously he thinks I have no brain and won't be able to find him. I pull the covers back and there he is looking at me with those bright blue eyes and a grin from ear to ear!! All I can do is say, "Please leave your Brother alone, sweetheart!" As soon as I shut the door, I am instantly mad at myself. Sweetheart?? He is being a turd, and that is all I can muster up? It is not easy to do what my brain knows it should when my heart is so in love with these little monsters!! I am working on that, and as long as my boys are not aware of the fact that they can take advantage of their Mother in this capacity, I might still have a fighting chance!

Long Weekends

First I would like to thank my husband for holding down the fort while I was out of commission over the weekend. I actually was not even home during most of our daughters' Halloween party! Matt and my sister were able to pull off the party without a hitch! I know that there were a few details we didn't get to, but none of the girls noticed. There were plenty of other things going on to distract them. While I was "hanging" out with my parents, I did get a couple of phone calls regarding how to put curlers in and how to do make-up! I also received calls with food and game questions. I was impressed with how calm and reassuring he was. I had expected more of a panicked tone, especially with having ten girls arriving any moment! Apryl and Lexy's friends always seem to really like their Father. They think he is funny and weird, that is what I was told by one of the girls. When I did finally get to come home, there was only about an hour left for the party, and I was pretty tired. It was nice to see everything that I had envisioned was there. My sister made the "bloody popcorn" and Mattie played the body parts game, which surprised me how much the kids loved it! I kept hearing them say how gross everything felt or how disgusting it smelled, and yes, Spam does smell awful!! In the end, they were laughing and screaming at the same time. Everything seemed to go well, I am thinking that I may leave during the next party also just for the hell of it! Then we have Sunday! If you are also a Bronco fan, you know exactly what I mean!! WTF! There really aren't any words that can accurately describe the disappointment that comes with a loss the the RAIDERS, then to have them shove our faces in a loss like yesterday's makes one want to cry! :( Broncos fans, we can all sit and say what we think should have been done, or what we feel should be done in future games, but when my Grandmother could go out on the field and provide better pass protection, you know we are in some serious trouble!! I won't even bring up our running game, which my Grandfather couldn't do any worse holding onto a ball...(cough) Maroney.

Time Well Spent

Today, after school, I took the kiddos over to Grandma's house. The kids always like going over because it is a change of scenery and my oldest two get out of doing their chores! It is also a bit of a break for me. My Mom made pizzas from scratch for everyone! She says to me, "do you guys wanna stay for dinner?" I said, "if I don't have to cook, then YES!!" I don't know a mother of five who would turn down a night to have someone else do the cooking! That would be like asking me if it is alright for someone to clean my toilets! Well....Duh! Grandma's house also comes with toys included. Brenden and Garhett like to dump the toys out and sit in the buckets. They both played an interesting version of catch with Grandpa. They basically throw whatever it is they might be holding to Grandpa whether or not he is paying attention. Grandpa caught on quickly. He made sure to always have an eye on at least one boy. We usually have to really watch Brenden since he could quite possibly take some one's head off with that arm of his! They are both very fast, and they reload quickly. When the "catcher" is looking for the object they have failed to catch, the boys already have something else in hand to launch! Boy, I swear I have seen my life flash before my eyes a few times while trying to play catch with them! It is also beneficial to me to visit, because I get some much needed adult inter-action. I was talking so much, that I was excited when my Grandparents showed up so that I could retell my stories. I think it could be a good idea to have a 1-800 line for Mother's who need people to chat with throughout the day when no one else is available. I can only bug Matt at work so many times!!

Share and Share Alike!

Nothing in our home is sacred any longer. If there happens to be something that someone really likes or an object that is valuable in any way, then it needs to be put WAY out of reach. Sometimes certain things have to be hidden, because if the little guys catch a glimpse of that shiny item, they will do whatever it takes to grab it! When Apryl sat down with that caramel apple in hand I wondered what she was thinking. She had to know that the radar little people are born with was going crazy in their little heads, trying to figure out where the food was. I can just imagine what the boys were thinking when the wind picked up that applelicious scent and wafted it past their noses! The hairs on the back of their necks must have stood up, "food!!!" Well, that is how I imagine it anyway, since they didn't leave her side until we had to drag them both away. Then comes the taking turns thing...and poor Apryl wondering if she will ever have another bite. While she did manage to take another bite or two, it was Garhett who had the caramel apple in hand when I looked in the back of the car!

100 Miles a Minute

Like usual, not the best picture of everyone together, but they are kinda hard to coordinate. We are making memories, and that is the most important part of all the things we set out to do together. It feels like life sometimes becomes what is in control of everyone, instead of us being in control of our lives. Our family calendar is jammed packed with things to do. It becomes overwhelming! I am so glad that Apryl is done with softball, I know that may not sound like a Mommy sort of thing to say, but it's the truth. She played well, and I cheered like any Mom does, it was just too much trying to juggle fall softball with school activities and family things. Her very first game she missed part of Addy's birthday along with the parade. I don't want to be responsible for taking my kiddos away from the things that make them my kiddos. There will always be another game to go to, there won't always be another birthday! Last week took a toll on all of us. We were running from here to there most of the week. We had parent/teacher conferences, which by the way went really well. Nothing better than listening to other people rave about your children! Everyone knows how good I am at raving about them! Then, Lexy had two sleep-overs, Apryl's softball games, and grocery store runs, normal stuff! I know that everyone who has kids does these things, my point is that saying no once in a while is probably an okay idea. That is a concept I am choosing to use more liberally as my kids get older. There is nothing wrong with admitting that their Dad and I just simply can't get everything done that they would like. It becomes exhausting to try and juggle five little schedules along with the things that need to be done on an every day basis. I know other Mother's know that feeling. It is that time when everything is a bother and you get frustrated and want to cry. Then, later we get to feel guilty for not doing enough, or for saying something we didn't mean. By the time I talk to my older two, and let them know I am sorry or that I am just tired, they have already forgotten what it is I am talking about! Our family is very big on "family time", I just want to make sure it is spent together because we want to, not because we are stuck in the car together!