If you haven’t noticed, this blog has changed quite a bit over the last 6 months or so.  Or maybe over the last year.

Or maybe it’s just a constant morph and will never decide what it actually wants to be.

I started this blog as a business blog.  Cause one time I had an online business.  That didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.  Let’s just say that I was bad at running a business.

Really bad.
Awful.

And 3 years later I’m still paying off my Bank Of America business credit card to prove it.
Just a side note: if a bank promises that their platinum business credit card will help your sales be more profitable, your business to be more successful, and your hair to be more luxurious…
Turn and run away. Fast. It’s a trick.

So, no more business blog.

But I kept blogging.  And my new direction was a much more bold undertaking. I simply decided I knew everything and I was going to blog about it.  My ways were the right ways and I was going to teach the world how to be.

[Ahem]

I guess I had some pride issues.

And I have to admit that knowing everything was fun for a while.  But then one day I changed my mind about a few things I had been sure were exactly right and realized that maybe I was not as right as I thought I was.  I went back and read some old posts of mine and was thoroughly embarassed by the attitude that came across in my self righteous words.  An attitude I never realized I had until it started to melt away.

God is always working on me.

I still have a lot to say.  It’s in my personality to be opinionated and I have strong feelings about boys wearing silly bands.

But I’ve decided that I’m no longer going to blog to keep readers, or to validate my own beliefs, or to teach the world which way is up.  Now I’m blogging simply cause I want to.

So that my kids have a history to go back and read.

So that their spouses have many pictures and stories to pick on them about.

So that when I’ve had it UPTOHERE I can remind myself that that’ll make a good blog post and put life back into it’s regularly scheduled humorous perspective.

It was a wild morning – just over a week ago.  I told my 6 boys to find a place to sit down and be quiet.

And they obeyed.

I walked by and saw them all sitting in a row.  I remember thinking it curious how they all chose the same couch to sit on and without much thought snapped a picture of them really quick.

Today while I was finishing up the memory card cleanup project I spotted it, noted that it was not a very good picture, and immediately went to hit delete when I saw what looked to be a little girl.

…that sweet faced thing directly in the middle.  She’s wearing a dress.  She is not one of mine.  Though she’s irrationally cute and I’d claim her any day.

Maybe she squeezed in there after they were all sitting down. 
Maybe it was a complete accident. 
Or maybe, just maybe my boys are all just like their dad was at that young age.

If it’s that last one, I’m really sorry Rob!

Poor Kait is the last kid to be found in one of my pictures.  It’s because she’s usually the photographer.  Plus, she hides real good when I am pointing my phone at people.

But, I think it’s about time I do a post about her. With a picture.  One she took herself.

[big, big grin]

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Kait is a girl.  I stress this because she is the only girl I have.  And, in a house full of boys – 6 boys to be exact - that is saying a lot. And she’s the oldest.

Kait drives me crazy.  Seriously. 
I’m not sayin’. 
I’m just sayin’.
She is outspoken, witty, smart – as in she knows everything, and is an excellent prankster.  Plus, sometimes when I’m typing she walks up and bangs on my keyboard.  If you ever see misspellings or bad grammar on this blog you can bet it can be somehow linked back to that girl.

Kait, while driving me all kinds of crazy, is also what often feels like my only link to sanity. When my boys are running around battling each other or wrestling, each humming their own theme songs all at the same time, Kait softly hums Hymns.  Plays the piano. Bakes cookies.  And makes hot chocolate for the boys to drink. Outside.

She genuinly enjoys her 6 little brothers.  However, she longs for a little sister.  And a big sister.  And a big brother.  None of which are likely to happen.

She is what we call the baby whisperer.  Since she was 8 or 9 she has been able to lull each one of our new babies to sleep quickly in times when not even I can calm them.  She has this same soothing effect on animals.  In fact, just today as Kait sat outside watching her brothers play a cute little dog we’d never seen before ran straight to her lap and stayed happily in her arms until the owner came driving around frantically searching for the adorable pooch.
And I’m sure you remember the squirrel.

Like I mentioned, Kait is way into photography.  Sometimes people actually pay her to take their picture.   Her skill and practice in this area is why I sometimes actually post a decent picture on this blog. 

And she has instincts.  Kait caught the bouquet at the wedding we attended the other week.  She said she was just going to stand there to bravely show her friends up, but when the flowers came tumbling through the air at the small crowd of single gals her instinctual vollyball reactions took over.  She almost tackled the other girls to grab hold of it.

She’s an outdoorsy type of gal.  The girl dreams of growing fields of veggies, milking cows, and mucking out stables on a daily basis.  With kids – a few girls and a few boys with names like Sterling and Gwenevere.
This is the future she wants.

And she’s a serious romantic. About everything.  She is unhappy with our street name because it isn’t romantic enough. It does have the name of a fowl in it.  I kid with her that she’ll end up marrying a guy with absolutely no romantic sense. 

Who’s as white collar as they come.

And she’ll end up having a gaggle of boys. 
Or even worse, all girls.
Who are all allergic to horses and dogs and country.  And whose names are normal like John and Jennifer.

And she’s surprisingly okay with that idea of a life if it’s what God has planned for her.

It’s funny how God takes us on twists and turns and gives us a completely different perfect life than the perfect one we had planned. 
Kait is not what I expected when I thought of children a decade and a half ago.  But it turns out that she’s a perfect fit here in my life.

My world would be considerably different without her.  My life less interesting.  My ideas less stretched.
And my sanity…

Well, let’s just say there’d be a lot less of that too.

Most of the pictures I take tell the tale of how I am completely incapable of taking a good picture.  But if you look closely you might just see the story behind my obvious lack of photographic talent.

These are some pictures I snapped with my way awesome phone.  Yes, I’m still working on deleting some random photos.  Hence the recent picture loaded posts.

This is Ben on Christmas day. He was crying because he couldn’t jump on the neighbor’s trampoline. I asked him if he could possibly look any more pathetic for the camera. He said no. I thought the dirt on his nose was a nice touch.

Jesse brought me a Lego masterpiece for the first time last week. 
Mommy… Can I show you my (insert unintelligible word here)?
It only took a few minutes to figure out it was a jet or a helicopter or a boat or a plane.  Or a hybrid mix of all those.

At our friend’s wedding two weeks ago… 
Jesse in picture number one: I thought we were going to have cake.
Sam in picture number two: Just wake me up when we get to the cake part.
Jesse in picture number three: Is this all the cake we get?

Jesse really likes cake.

Christmas has shown us a new side of sweet, innocent, young Jesse.  We have discovered that this little guy is incredibly sneaky, and much smarter than we had assumed.  Stealing the Little Debbie snacks the kids found in their stockings and huddling in a corner of Kait’s room to eat them…

Not something any of my other kids were doing at 23 months old.

Oh yes, we’ve had our share of candy thieves. But none so stealthy as to realize that hiding to eat their stolen booty would be the more satisfactory route.

He’s also taken to blaming Ben for everything he gets busted for.  Mom, Ben broke all the crayons.

Ryan commented last night, after another sly Jesse incident, that we’re going to have to watch this one a little closer than the others.

He’s definitely the devious one.

Both of Sam’s Christmas gifts this year were a big hit.  He guessed the first present was chocolate cake. Close, but no.  It was a set of 3 Nerf guns which became very popular very quickly.  I’ve learned that, for boys, Nerf guns never. get. old.  We have at least a dozen of the foam bullet weapons and it never ceases to please my boys to acquire another one.
And everybody was wondering what the biggest gift under the tree could be, which was labeled For: Sam.  Never mind that the 3 year old happily guessed the package harbored a giant pair of shoes.

I found this peddle-less bike for Sam at Walmart.  It is supposed to teach balance very quickly and help children as young as two learn to ride two wheeler bicycles in no time.  Sam is 3 and has taken to this tiny bike like a champ. I give him a month of regular play on it before he’s balancing well enough and is ready to try pedals.  Being the weather is colder right now it might be more like Spring though.

However, what’s really neat about it is that he can ride it in the house.  The bike is so small and there is plenty of room.

Then there is Jesse, who’s finally discovered the joy of ripping into a gift and finding a new treasure under the paper. As soon as he got the wrapping paper off of his little ride-on toy his face lit up.  We probably would have seen the same reaction had Jesse found a couple of dirty bricks inside the gift wrap though.  For this almost 2 year old Christmas is all about ripping stuff. 

He played on his new wheely toy for a few hours, then decided that Sam’s bike was way cooler and has been after it since. The arguing between the two has been fairly intense and more than a little humorous.  Especially since Jesse only knows a handful of good argument worthy words.  His two favorites being no! and ahhhhh!

There is nothing like a set of shiny new wheels to put animosity between two close aged brothers.

I hear the sound of falling water.  I smell the fresh scent of a Spring rain.  We have the front door wide open because it’s a bit warm in the house.

It’s raining.  It’s 60 degrees.  It smells so clean.
Tomorrow It’ll cool off quite a bit for a few days.  Tomorrow I’m going to feel colder.

But tonight…

Tonight feels like a gift.

I like to be silly sometimes.  I wasn’t always this way but I’m married to Mr. anti-serious.  It took a while but the last couple of years have really loosened up this tightly wound girl.

Kait knows this about me.  She also knows that I have a found quite a delight in sock monkeys.  So what better way to combine my goofiness with my sock monkey passion than to get me a sock monkey winter hat.

The girl knows what I like.

Sam cuddled with me as Ryan snapped a picture with my phone.  His face shows him looking more than a little devious. What a goof.

I’d really love to wear my new hat somewhere.  It’s almost 70 degrees outside though, and that just won’t do.  So, I’m wearing it around the house. 

Let me make it clear that I’m not complaining about it being 70 degrees.  Not. At. All.  I’m just saying that I’m not going to wear a winter hat out in warm weather.  That’s all.

Actually, I asked Santa for an 80 degree Christmas day.  I didn’t get it.  I’m starting to think he’s not real.

That would explain a lot.

When I was little I had a huge Cathy doll that was something like 6 feet tall. 

I’m not kidding. Really.

Okay, maybe I should be more realistic and say she probably wasn’t 6′ tall.  But, to a 4 year old a 3′ doll is giant.  And I remember Cathy being 6′ tall. 

I don’t know if she was a famous Chatty Cathy, I don’t remember her talking.  Maybe my mom will read this and answer that question for me.

Mom? Are you there?

Anyway, so I had this not-so-giant, giant doll.  I remember cherishing her greatly but it was not because of her giant doll-like status.  I remember loving her because when I turned her upside down and pushed her by her feet she became a fabulous vacuum cleaner. 

Her poor shiny golden locks didn’t stay beautiful for very long.

Today is Christmas.  Ben received this 30″ tall Batman that he’s wanted willy badly for 2 years now.  We found one in close to perfect condition at the thrift store and snatched it up for him.

He was quite pleased.

But guess what he did with it almost right away.

He did not make Batman noises with it or use it as a superhero or anything expected of a 5 year old with a giant Batman figure.  And, no, he did not pretend it was a vacuum cleaner.  That would be too girly for him. 
Instead of that predictable nonsense Ben turned Batman onto his head and started steering him with his legs saying that he was a tractor.

I guess this form of giant doll figure mis-usage is genetic.

Heaven forbid I call Batman a doll…

Merry Christmas!

I’m gonna go wrap my husband’s presents while he’s gone.  He ran out to buy me one last thing.

I love that man.  Yes. I. Do.