Sidewalk Chalk and Hopscotch

We were at the mall Monday (Memorial Day). The kids somehow got us to take them inside of the toy store. I figured we needed some summer supplies, so I got a big tub of sidewalk chalk. Emily immediately asked if we could play hopscotch. The spoiled kids are also sugaring themselves up with popsicles.
Here is Julia meticulously crafting her hopscotch grid.
Benjamin was either trying to eat the chalk, coloring on himself, or breaking the chalk into pieces and throwing them into the bushes.
Daddy came home from work in the middle of our hopscotch extravaganza!

Growing and growing

Okay, first of all I must apologize for my pitiful scanning abilities. I haven't quite figured it all out yet. But look at how cute! #5 is getting bigger and bigger. Everything looks great and seems to be right on track.
I don't know if it's because I have four other kids and am just tired, or if I am in serious need of prozac, but I feel worried all the time that I won't be able to carry this one to term. It's really weird. I feel constantly worried that I'll lose this little baby. I love being a mom, I love my kids, I am excited and happy at the prospect of another child in our family. So rest assured of that. But all you moms know that despite how much you love and want all your children, sometimes it feels overwhelming and just plain hard. This pregnancy has been harder than any of my other ones. Every ill side effect I experienced with other pregnancies is intensified and earlier. My veins are out of control, longer, more swollen than ever. At times my legs just ache, my feet and my toes get numb. My capacity is greatly limited. I can only be on my feet for about half an hour before my legs and back just ache. I feel swollen all over. The saddest part for me is that I wake up in the morning feeling more swollen than the day before. Isn't rest supposed to ease the symptoms? Everyone of my docotor's have seemed unconcerned, which means that it probably isn't a very big deal. There only advice is to stay off of my feet, which once again all you moms out there know to be impossible when you have other children around.
Thanks for listening! I don't mean to complain, I am truly blessed. Sometimes, even though our trials shadow in comparison to what some people around us are experiencing, they still feel hard to bear. I'm a great big whimp and I know it. I think about things too much and my constant thinking worsens the symptoms I know. My fingers are starting to tingle, which means I need a break from typing.
Thanks for all your kind words and support! I love all ya'll!

Julia and Mrs. Webb

Here's Julia with her Kindergarten teacher. She absolutely adored Mrs. Webb. It was funny to me because Mrs. Webb is how I picture Julia as an adult. Outgoing, outspoken, knows what she wants, her way or the highway! If Julia turns out to be like Mrs. Webb she'll be doing GREAT! Mrs. Webb was the perfect teacher for Julia. Unfortunately for us, she's taking a sabaatical to have a baby. I was really hoping she'd be Emily's teacher too. Good luck to Mrs. Webb!

Julia's Kindergarten Program

Here's Julia marching onto the stage.
Here's Julia singing her heart out. They had a patriotic theme and she loved all the songs. In fact, she's teaching her daddy how to sing the 50 Nifty United States.
Here's Julia receiving her certificate from the principal.
Here's Julia with her best friend Amanda. It worked out very nicely--Amanda's mom and I became fast friends. She has a sister Emily's age and they love to play together, she also has a brother Benjamin's age and they love to play together! How much fun for us to all have friends in the same family! Poor Ryan, no one his age though!

Emily, Emily. . .

She put on these silly glasses and asked me to take a picture.
She picked up Cheer Bear and asked me to take a picture. I have a premonition that this one will be a cheerleader or on the drill team, she certainly loves the limelight and attention!

Baby Matthews #5

For those of you who don't know already, we are expecting baby #5 December 3. It's all very exciting of course, but I haven't been feeling that great. This past weekend I had a migraine start that just doesn't want to go away. I also think I'm allergic to being pregnant. My allergies are SO bad. I wake up everynight barely able to breath and with a sore throat from post-nasal drip. Pleasant, isn't it? I'm now at the blessed stage where I constantly wonder what on earth I have done and how I was so stupid to let it happen in the first place!
But there's our cute little peanut sized baby. It was a relief to have an early ultrasound done. See the baby, have them measure the heartbeat (which was beating perfectly). I also love the doctor my friend here recommended and his staff, all of them are outstanding. So, we'll definately keep you updated, and hopefully it won't take me so long to post again!

Marbleworks from Discovery Toys

I got them this marbleworks set from Discovery Toys for Easter! They absolutely loved it! I thought we may have arguments because it was everyone's toy. They didn't really know how to deal with that. They spent the first week fighting and not being able to share, I finally got sick of it and took it away. When I finally gave it back they did a lot better sharing and playing together.
Emily and Benjamin play with the tower I constructed.
Here they are posing for the camera. Emily thought it would make the picture better to hold up a marble for display. You can't even see it, but boy do they love those marbles. For awhile Julia was pretending that they were her students! She would haul them around the house setting up classrooms for them.

Wrestling with Daddy!

Here's the Matthew's kid train. Poor Daddy!
It soon turned into to dogpile on Daddy. Ben got hurt in the tussle and came my way.
Everybody wanted to take a ride on Daddy the horsey!

Tired Benjamin

What do you get when your tired asthmatic two-year old refuses to take a nap? A baby asleep on the couch at 4 pm. He didn't wake up until 6pm, and I have no idea when he went to bed because Scott and I were at the Josh Groban concert. My heart goes out to our babysitter--poor lad!

Emmy's new game

Emily has started playing tea party with her Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses Dolls. It's really the cutest thing ever. She is the best hostess, she doesn't even have a plate or a cup for herself. She just takes good care of all her guests and makes sure they're happy. She even makes sure to seat couples together. Genevieve and Prince Derek always sit together, as well as Annika and Prince Aidan (Barbie in the Magic of Pegusus)!

Happy 4th Birthday Emily!

She really had a shmorgasbord party. We mom's always want a clear theme and matching decorations, invitations and cake. Emily opted for a Strawberry Shortcake cake, a Disney Princesses tablecloth, and Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses invitations. Oh, well, nothing matched, but she was happy!
We invited eight kids, plus my three who were home. We had a royal tea party and cupcakes. By the time 11:30 rolled around I was very ready for parents to come and get their kids. I guess I'm losing my patience.

Sleepy-head Ryan!

This was Ryan the Thursday morning before Spring Break. He knew that Spring Break was coming, his teacher had told him, and he had a hard time pulling himself out of bed to go to the last two days of school before his week of freedom.
It's funny to me--he was the one most excited for Spring Break, and he was the one who spent almost the entire time bored out of his mind! He kept teasing and pushing and messing with his siblings because he was so BORED!

Josh Groban Awake Tour

Last night Scott and I went to the Josh Groban concert at the American Airlines Center in Dallas! My honey wasn't feeling very well, but he came with me anyway, what a sweetie!
I think he's even better live than on his CD's and I didn't think that was possible. He has the voice of an angel.
I learned a lot of other things about him as well. For all his fame and all the money he's making he seems to have stayed very level headed. His first love is musical theater and he still wants to pursue that at a future point in his life. He took a trip to South Africa to perform, and has since become very involved in helping the African countries to improve the quality of life.
He plays the piano very well, and the surprise of the evening is that he also plays the drums very well. He came back out to do an "encore" (I think it was a planned part of the show made to look like an encore so that fans felt satisfied) and rocked out on a trap set! It was cool!
Even though we were as high up as you could be in the AAC, it was well worth it! I would highly recommend you see this concert if you have the opportunity!

Precious!

Okay, okay, I know I said I would stop with the whole Emily thing, but then I found this picture. Doesn't she look just like an angel in her beautiful blessing dress. She was named after her Great Grandma Kohler, Aleen "Sally" Braithwaite Kohler. Her name is Emily Aleen. Her proud Great Grandma sent me extra money because she wanted her namesake to have a beautiful blessing dress!

Sleepy-head

We had a very busy day, and Julia was kind of still recovering from being a sicky. She was SO tired she fell asleep like this on the couch!

More Emily

I know this is kind of turning into an homage to Emily. So, one more and I'll quit. She hasn't been taking naps lately, but on the 4th she was so tired I didn't know what else to do with her. I had to go in and wake her up around 4 pm so that she would go to sleep at a reasonable time. She just looked so cute, and of course by the time I got the camera she knew what I was up to and I couldn't get a natural looking picture. But it's still cute.
Here she is finally ready to get up and have the rest of her day!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Tomorrow is Emily's fourth birthday! I don't know why, but the same thing happens each year on each of my kids' birthdays. How can she possibly be four already? The time just flies by so fast. I hesitated to post this picture, I do not look very good at all. But it helps me be patient as far as getting pregnant again is concerned. Look at how huge I am!
Here she is, the beautiful result of all that physical toil. A beautiful baby girl with naturally highlighted hair (lucky girl). She is so calm, so peaceful. She loves beautiful things, compliments and hugs from her daddy! She is definately a barbie girl. For christmas I went overboard and got her all 12 of the dolls from the Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses movie. I thought that she wouldn't play with some of them. But she loves and plays with every last Barbie. She conned her daddy into buying her wedding barbie, and she plays with and loves that one too! When they're tiny, it's hard to imagine what they will be when they get older, but looking back she has always been my precious little Emily! Mommy loves you with all of her heart! Happy Birthday my beautiful princess Emily!

Pretty Princesses

There is a lady at our church who does princess parties on the weekend to make a little extra money for her family. Emily got invited to one, and here is the picture. She had a lot of fun. It's all she talked about for the next week!

Happenings

I always think I need a picture to post on my blog. I haven't really taken any cute pictures lately. On Sunday for our family night we talked about personal responsibility and self-discipline. We created chore charts for everyone (myself and my husband included)! It has been a very good thing. Our kids now seem to sense (on a beginning level of course) that they are responsible for themselves and the things that happen in their lives. We are trying to help them understand that there are consequences for every action. It's hard, as a parent, to stand by and let them fail now, so that hopefully they won't fail later. I think it's one of my biggest weaknesses as a parent, I want them to succeed SO badly that I start micromanaging. The other day Ryan was really dragging in the morning. We were having a hard time getting him out the door and to school (which is only across the street). Scott finally pointed out that he was late for school and that it was his fault because he was ignoring our warnings and suggestions that he was going to be late. He was shocked! He kept saying, "My fault?"
I've also stepped back a litte bit during their piano practice. They do much better when they are "in charge" of practice time. It's funny to me because it seems opposite to logic. They do better when you set the expectation and then let them succeed or fail by their own merits? Weird! As you can tell, I'm still having a hard time digesting the whole thing and effectively making a change.
I also get so frustrated with myself. It's like I can't handle my own success. I was doing so well with the chore charts. We were getting more things done with less struggle, the kids were happier, the house was cleaner. Then Thursday came and I just felt tired and bound. I didn't want to be "tied down" to the dinky little chore chart. I felt tired of being on my kids all the time, tired of always doing something: preschool with Emmy, preschool with Ben, piano practice with Julia, dishes, laundry, etc. So, I sat around and did nothing. It makes me so mad at myself. So mad at myself I could puke! I guess life is about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and trying again. Buck up little camper and drive on!
Tonight was a really fun night. Scott and I went bowling with another couple from our church. We had a lot of fun. Even though I am a HORRIBLE bowler, I have always enjoyed it! A weekly date is a neccessity for every stay-at-home mom of small kids. I always feel so much better about my life when we go and take some time together. It doesn't really seem to matter what we do. It just matters that we're together, and that we aren't talking about the kids or the finances.
Well, I know you don't want to listen to me babble on forever. I just though I'd share some of my thoughts, and hopefully some of you struggle with the same things and feel better to know that you're not alone! I hope everyone has a great weekend!