Short Snow Pants

We have had a plethora of "Short snow pants," kind of days.

You know the days when you accidentally put on your younger brothers snow pants and your ankles stick out the whole time you're playing outside. That seems to be how our house has been functioning the last month. The days have not been bad, the days still work (kind of like short snow pants) but they just haven't been as great as they could be. We have cold ankles here :)

With lots of sickness, a flood in our kitchen, hallway and basement, insurance people, service master people, and construction people in and out of our house, a sassy one year old, a stir crazy momma and a daddy that has been working like a mad man to get our main floor functioning again for us, we have had a less than normal month. My children, however, seem unfazed by the craziness and for that I am so thankful. They are pretty good at rolling with the punches and have thoroughly enjoyed picking up a hammer and helping their daddy out.

I think through all of it I'm reminded that I even after being a mom for almost six years, I STILL don't know what my baby needs all the time(if only he could tell me why he was crying), no matter how hard i try to keep everything in control, chaos happens and I can learn a lot in it, and sickness can be a good thing to slow me down and snuggle my kids for days, and days, and days (it takes a long time to make it through all the kids in our house, if only they could all get it the same day and be done), I still don't know what the heck I'm doing most days, and I DESPERATELY need the Lord to get me through each and every day. Good days, bad days, I need Him through it all.

That's not to say there there haven't been smiles and laughter and sweet moments this past month.

I mean look at this guy, he's just beyond precious. And those blue eyes get me every time, even when there are tears streaming from them.

I have been reminded this month what great friends we have. Many have spend countless hours ripping up carpet and flooring, and helping Dan till the wee hours of the morning and even coming over to work on our house when Dan is gone. WHAT?? Who does that? Oh yes, our friends!

In all the chaos my beautiful brown eyed first born lost his first tooth! Huge milestone! My dad sent me a picture of when his first two teeth came in.... This is little Quinton Daniel with his first two teeth.

He looks a lot like Jett with darker eyes.

Funny thing is that in all the excitement of showing daddy his first tooth we lost it (despite being in a plastic bag). It somehow flew out and is now rolled up in our old carpet in the dumpster in our driveway. Lucky for Quinn the tooth fairy came even without an actual tooth under his pillow. 

As I was snuggling my baby last night ringing in my birthday I was reminded of how last year I rang in my birthday with my same little man, he was just a lot smaller. Time flies.

Quinn wanted to play with Jett in the bath. They splashed like crazy men together. I love the looks on their faces.

In case you were wondering, I offered to help Quinn and Rex switch snow pants so that Quinn's ankles would be covered. He said he was fine. Much tougher than I am!

We are more ready than ever for some nice days! And despite our short snow pants days are beyond blessed!

Jett's ONE

My baby is ONE! 

 

Although I do miss the little snuggles and holding a tiny, bitty baby in my arms, I love the stage in life that Jett is at and that our family is in. I don't want to rewind time, I just wish that it would slow down.

It's funny thinking back to when Quinton turned one, I felt like he was so old and was doing so much and although I can't believe that Jett is actually one year old, he's the baby in this house! He's the one that all six of us drag out of the bathroom as he tries to pull down the whole toilet paper roll, he's the one that we have to pull markers out of his mouth as his whole face turns colored, he's the one that we all love feeding bites of our food, playing ball with, he's the one that all four of my big kids beg to go wake up from his nap because they just can't wait to jump in his crib and make him laugh. He's all six of our favorite baby in the world. Everyone wants to sit near Jett at meals, except for Myla, if she sits too close to Jett while eating he pulls her hair, everyone wants to "help" Jett walk around the room, everyone wants to splash with Jett in the bath, they love their littlest brother.

That's not to say that Jett still doesn't live up to his name, "Destructo Boy!" He is Destructo Boy in full force. He desperately wants to be involved in everything that the big kids are doing. He already knows how to play Ninja Turtles. It's funny to watch him grab a turtle and smash it against another. He totally belongs in our family! They often times have to set up their turtle battles out of Jett's reach, he loves to be near them. 

 

 

Jett excitedly took his first steps the other night. And how great that it was while surrounded by all six of his biggest fans sitting in a circle around him. He was quite the show off for all of us. I even captured it on video. First steps on video... I think up until Jett I was 0/4.

I love being Jett's momma.

Can't believe my baby is one. Trying to soak up all the baby time I can with him.

Happy Birthday to the sweetest one year old around. Adored by all!
Jett Abell Rude we love you!

Arkansas

With insanely cold temperatures it seems only appropriate to post pictures from our fabulous Christmas week in Arkansas where the temperatures were mid 60s for several days, we were hot while going on a hike, and my kids wore tank tops and basketball shorts. That sounds just heavenly right now. 

Despite not growing up in Arkansas, walking into my parents house just feels like home, especially at Christmas. They have the most beautiful, HUGE Christmas tree, the people, the decorations, the food, just being together and talking for hours next to the Christmas tree make it one of my favorite places to be. We all love the people, the weather, the fun outdoor activities and all the extra attention.

We had everyone practicing basketball. Quinn starts his first ever basketball season this week so we brought along a ball and the hoop was to make it to the front door. There were some pretty intense basketball games that went on.

My sister Kelly's boyfriend Jeff is 6'5 so everyone wanted to be on Jeff's team. We all really enjoyed getting to know him and he was such a good sport and played hard every day with our kids. They can easily overwhelm someone new but he seemed unfazed by our chaos! Thanks Jeff!

We are hoping that Nana and Papa will be able to make it to a game or two of Quinn's this winter. It's a good thing they have such cute grandchildren or I'm pretty sure we would never see them the entire winter.

Nana getting into basketball.

 We enjoyed lunch outside one day and snacks many days. It was, "hot," according to my children.

I even managed to bask in the sun for a few brief minutes.

We took a hike to the dam at their lake and found shells and threw rocks. Titan and I brought up the rear of the group. He is one pokey walker, not much can make this boy move fast if he doesn't want to.

Rex still has his handful of shells hiding in his coat pocket.

The wind by the lake made it a little cooler.

Papa and Dan took the big kids fishing, although I'm pretty sure we should just call it casting, they rarely catch anything. We are starting to wonder if there are any fish in the lake at all! Good thing they are happy just being on the water.  We also enjoyed a perfect boat ride. The kids love to drive the boat with Papa.

Jett loved looking over the front of the boat.

Oh Rexy.

On one of our MANY walks/hikes.

We loved spending a week there. We are anxious for my sister Dana and brother in law Ryan to have their baby so that Nana and Papa are forced to come and visit us on their way North, maybe they will bring some warm weather with them!

Snow

If someone threw snow right at my face,

this would definitely not be my reaction...

neither would this...

Unless of course it was one of my sweet children or if it was when Dan and I were dating and I didn't want to come off as a crazy girl in front of him. But my natural reaction would probably be to tear up and go inside. My natural self has a very strong disliking of snow.

I have seen a faint, tiny, itty-bitty light this winter. The tiny glimmer of light in the long couple of months comes from a few things. First, Quinton can get 90% of the way ready to go play in the snow by himself, Rex and Myla can get about 75% of the way ready by themselves, and just to play fair, Titan tries very hard. Second, they play outside for hours! If I remember correctly, it used to take a half an hour to get them all ready and they played for ten minutes. This year they seem to just love to be outside, of course we choose the slightly warmer days to play but as long as its a decent winter day they are happy for a while. 

I'm so thankful for the fresh air, the change of environment, that they have each other. Sometimes Jett and I will just watch from the window and sometimes while Jett is napping I will help them build snow forts or throw snowballs and try and knock them down. The things that I do out of extreme love for my children! They make playing in the snow fun. Shhhh... don't tell anyone.

 

 Quinn and Myla have enjoyed shoveling off our driving and working hard.

Oh man, they are growing up.

Titan is hanging in there playing in the snow better than any of my older kids ever did at the age of two.

I love battling with these kids (I'm chasing Rexy with a snowball while trying to take his picture).

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to learn to smile and laugh when I get a snowball to the face. As these kids get bigger I have no doubt that the battles will get more intense, the snowballs will only get larger and I'm either going to need to get better at throwing or cry, "Uncle," as they shove snow down my back. This house is not for the weak and I love it!