You poor, little blog

Having another child added to our family has thrown me a bit off my A game you might say. I constantly find myself realizing that it's five o'clock and I am not quite sure how time got away from me. There are lots of lessons (soccer twice a week), violin (once a week with the "real" teacher and every other day with the mean, mom teacher), reading lessons for Owen (he's almost done with the book and then we get to Par-tay!) and food to prepare and nursing and lots of laundry and occasional cleaning.We are still alive and kicking and trying to make this new four children thing work and I can't really be very creative, so I'm going to share some highlights of our last...month?...yes, I have neglected my little blog friend for more than a month. Ugh! Here goes:

Thanks to Michael's dollar bins and my mom--the kids had a night of fun with glow sticks. I wish that I had some really awesome pics to show you, but I don't have the camera or the know how to do it. Let me tell you though--usually I'm one to "save" things for some special, non-existent upcoming event. Not anymore (okay, so maybe still, but not always I'm vowing!). I gave each child his own can and let them go crazy and they did and they loved every second.

This is my latest obsession--trying to get this handsome man to smile at me. He's up to 12 pounds--two months and five pounds of weight gain almost--not bad, not bad.

This is super-duper yummy and fills everyone's hearts with happiness. It's known as "I don't care if I lose the baby weight if I can have as many of these as I want." Really though, the recipe is from The Picky Palate Website. It's really called Double White Chocolate

and Pretzel Peanut Butter Cookies with Sea Salt. This woman knows how to

make a delicious treat. Her latest one for the day looks AMAZING.

While the cookies bake, you fight with swords. Or you just fight with swords all the time at our house. It's what we do (when we're not eating cookies).

Finished product. Mmm-mmm!

Whenever Eli holds Caleb, he wants me to take their picture. However, I can never run to get my camera quick enough that Caleb isn't screaming about the situation. This is a rare moment of calm before the storm. Not a great shot, but it's what we've got. Look at that double chin--I told you almost 12 pounds.

My favorite holiday to do projects for. Christmas is so stressful for me, but Halloween, I just adore. I love the meaning behind Christmas and the feelings, but Halloween is just pure fun. Maybe it's the candy association? I think it's the cooler temperatures. I let each kid pick their own toppings for a gourmet caramel apple. You have M&Ms, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Reese's Pieces. Mine was Heath bar in case you were interested.

This is my daughter, my friend Koby and my kitchen looking like a wreck. There is a good reason. We got together on Wednesday and did freezer meals! Yay for us. Koby did these gourmet recipes (Our Best Bites Taquitos and some Macaroni Grill copy) and I did a simple Cheddar and Cracker Chicken and some breakfast burritos. I was proud of us though because we whipped out 65 burritos, 3 lasagnas, 3 full chicken dinners and I don't know how many taquitos--lots!!

This is my beautiful new apron per my Aunt. I don't have the link for you to go perusing, but isn't it adorable? I look really weird in this shot, but the apron is super cute. It's ice cream cones all over it. See all those lasagna noodles?

Last night I took Ryanna and Owen on a date night with me. We went and saw these phenomenal acrobats from the People's Republic of China. I mean--really, I was completely blown away by what they were doing. Let's just say that I saw 13 people on one bike at a time--riding in circles on a stage, I saw two women balancing head on head--ouch!, I can't tell you how many contortions of bodies I saw. Juggling that was so fast that the balls were just blurs. Four people standing on top of each other's shoulders. A guy flipping from the floor through a hoop that was 10 feet 6 inches off the ground--the height of an NBA hoop! And more and more and more. Owen's face describes how I felt for the whole show.

What? Don't you fill your bath with every shoe in your closet from time to time? No really, there's a good reason. See this?

Now it looks like this! Yay for new carpet!!!! The kids and I are in heaven. It's so thick and nice the kids were doing carpet angels. Now, for the blinds and the lights and the blah, blah, blah! For a better view of it, we the picture at the top.