The Past Few days...

It will take me a little bit on the birthday pictures...be patient...I want to make a cool movie and I am new at that...but, it will be cool. In the meantime...here is what's been going on around here the past few days. I am FINALLY over the stupid cold/sinus infection, whatever I had for 2 & 1/2 weeks! Yeah for me! Sam is done with his antibiotic and is back to his happy self...yeah for him and yeah for my ears! The kid has a set of lungs like you wouldn't believe!

Jakob and Rachel went to H2Oasis (an indoor water park) with Jacob and Isabelle for Jacob's birthday party on Saturday while the rest of us chilled out at home. I still felt horrible at that time and I didn't want Sam to go in the water since he still had the ear infection. When they returned Jakob left right away with my Dad to sit OUTSIDE at Walmart to sell popcorn for the Cub Scouts...Jakob still had WET hair & it was 25*! I have NO IDEA why Walmart does not let them sit inside like all the other locations they sell from!? Now that we FINALLY have a Target next to the Air Force Base I hope that next year his Pack sells from INSIDE that wonderful location!

Thank you Grandpa for sitting outside, in the freezing cold, for 2 hours with Jakob!!!! Grandpa has been wonderful at listening to Rachel do her nightly reading and then reads to her and Ben while I put Sam down, he has taken Jakob to hockey practice and Cub Scout meetings and Rachel to Ballet. The kids are enjoying showing off what they can do! And he has been able to have lots of quality time with little Samuel!

So here are a few of my favorite pics. from the past week...



Big Hug!

The munchkins with their friend Isabelle...

The munchkins with their friends Morgan and Hailey...

We love Build-A-Bear...
What are you looking at...

OK...so this is one of Sam's favorite toys right now...maybe he will be a doctor???

He will wear this for several hours...every time it falls off he works with it for a few minutes and manages to almost always get it back on by himself!

This is what happened when I tried to take it off so that I could feed him dinner...I'm not happy Mom!

On Monday while the 3 older ones were in school I took my Dad out for a short drive...Sam was not a willing participate so we had to cut it short. It was a bright, sunny day and the mountains were beautiful!

No more autumn leaves though...
The kids have been enjoying playing games with grandpa...

With Jakob... Chess is serious stuff...

With Ben...Chess is NOT so serious :-). He totally made up a game and was extremely animated about the whole thing...way too cute!!!


Enjoying story time...

Check out the rest of the pictures in the two added albums...

Double birthday party weekend!!!

We had a very busy, exciting weekend and I will post pictures about it when I am feeling a little better. Jakob started with a cold...still hanging onto a cough, then Rachel & Sam both had high fevers for 4 days...Sam then started with cold symptoms which of course turned into an ear infection...poor little guy! Ben, luckily has escaped having a fever...at least so far...and has only showed cold symptoms. And, I of course did not escape the kids germs...mainly now just head cold symptoms left...stuffy head...ugh! Hopefully we can all be well enough next week to be able to get our flu shots...I do not want to deal with 4 kids with the flu by myself!

Our weekend was crazy, busy, and fun! Call me nuts but, I wanted to get both parties out of the way all at once, so...

Rachel invited 7 girlfriends and one boy (besides Ben of course...Jakob had a sleep over at his friend, Jacob's house) ...sadly he was sick and he couldn't make it though. The rest all came over for pizza and cake. Then played puppies, house, and dress up for a bit. Next, they had popcorn while they watched a movie...Rachel asked everyone to bring their favorite stuffed puppy so they all held them while they watched Snow Buddies :-). After everyone got their jammies on and climbed into their sleeping bags I read a dog book that Rachel had checked out from the library that she wanted everyone to hear and then off to bed they went...all asleep by 11:00.

Then bananas and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, left over pizza for lunch and onto the next party! We celebrated Sam's Big #1! Because of the ear infection he really wasn't too happy for his birthday celebration though :-(. He ate a little cake but did not destroy it like I am sure he would have had he been feeling better...maybe we will try again in a few weeks.

So we all survived...I am exhausted still though!

We are all still enjoying the time with my Dad. Lots of quality time being had between him and his grand kids :-)!

I am very excited to share with you that the computer that my wonderful husband ordered me has arrived! Yeah!!!! Read about it here...http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2331286,00.asp

It has been very cold here so of course the computer arrived very cold so I am letting it thaw out and then will hook it up and get started on all my pictures. I can't wait to share the pics. from the double party as well as our busy, fun summer!

I just took some Sudafed so I can breath and go to bed. To be cont. with picture update!

Video from Paul doing Night Fire Training

Here is a video Paul sent to us today. It is way cool how much you can see with the night vision goggles! Enjoy!

Our first on the ground snowfall and Grandpa Litton has arrived!

On Sunday we went to the airport to pick up Grandpa Litton and drove home in this snow. Back in July I predicted snow on the ground to be 7 October. I had many who doubted me so I changed the date to be 12October. I was closer on my first guess!

Can you believe this craziness! I remember our first winter in Delta Junction we had snow on the ground 13 September! If Rachel and Sam were not sick I would have let them go out and run around in it but I am a big mean mommy! I thought I was being brave enough when I let Rachel and Ben with that wet hair outside to touch the snow on Daddy's truck!

The 34* weather was quite a bit different than the 70* temp.s that Grandpa left behind in Tennessee!

Then while I was changing Sam's diaper upstairs

I hear the kids scream, "Someone's at the door." It was too late for visitors. So, I knew it could only be one thing...we had been Boo'd by a fellow Mom from my wonderful Moms Club. Whoever she was was pretty sneaky and brought some WONDERFUL treats for all of us! I love this Halloween tradition. Our club spends the month Booing each other. You take the flyer and a poem make two copies & make two goodie bags full of fun Halloween stuff and go "Boo" two fellow moms who then in turn do the same until all members of the club have been Boo'd. This is a blast! Only thing is...The next day I got boo'd again while I went out to make copies of the flyer you are to put in your window saying you have already been Boo'd so that you don't get boo'd twice! So now I will pass along that gift as well as the two that I have to do to go share in the booing experience.













We are so happy to have my Dad here!
Grandpa reading to the kids...the first of manymore nights like this!

Not much happen on Monday snow-wise. However, this morning this is what happened...

But, by this evening it had all but melted away. We had a few visitors after dinner though.

Notice how tall they are when you compare them to the mailboxes?! I am 5'1'' and the mailboxes are a little taller than me!

As always, I suggest you click on the pictures to enlarge them to get a better view...esp. the moose pictures ;-).

We miss You Daddy!

Here are a few of the many things my cute little monkey Sam can do. And then a little message from all four of our beautiful children missing their Daddy.

What happened this week...

The week started off with Jakob under the weather and missing school on Monday. Then I started this morning... I ache all over! Late this afternoon Rachel spiked a fever and said she hurts all over. I just gave Sam some medicine because he is coughing and has a runny nose...who knows if he aches all over...I am sure he does...poor little guy. I hope we are all better by the time my Dad arrives on Sunday!

So Jakob missed his Cub Scout meeting on Monday and he did not have Hebrew on Wednesday because it is the High Holidays. This week for Rachel was exciting though. Her first Brownie meeting of this school year was on Tuesday and I made brownies to share since it was her birthday today. Then on Thursday she started back to her ballet class. We took the summer off since the 3 were playing soccer 4 nights a week. And then last but not least today I took in treats for her to share with her class for her birthday. Since I was not feeling well at all this morning I did not want to risk getting anyone sick by making anything homemade so the class got pre-made rice crispy treats. And you know what...they enjoyed them just as much as if I had made them...kids really don't care! So, this summer was very cold and rainy which made for a beautiful showing of fall leave which I will blog about later with the new computer...so many pictures to share. But, now the leaves are falling quickly and the snow is coming done the mountains all around us. It even was sleeting today! When I took Ben to the doctor today to get out his stitches he said, "Mommy, it is snowing in the van!" There were little snow like pellets in his car seat!!! Grandpa Litton, are you ready to see snow!?

Well, I better go take some medicine and then get to bed!

Saying the pledge.
Sharing her Birthday brownies

Jakob's art project. As you can see...he loves to read. I lost track years ago on how many 100's of books he has read! He has read the complete Harry Potter series in order at least 6 or 7 times and then many, many more times he has randomly grabbed book 1 or book 4, etc. He read the complete Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings books...I am sorry but I never read books that big when I was his age...heck you all know me...I STILL haven't read books like that! And of course when he was younger he read all the Magic Tree House, Judy Bloom, Series Of Unfortunate Events, Ready Freddy, etc, etc. The lists are countless. Give him any book and he is happy! He has his own personal library as he likes to call it. He has been inviting Rachel in there lately so she can read all the books he read when he was in first grade. She loves his old Junie B. Jones, Nate the Great, and Magic Tree House series of books. I also found a new one Katie Kazoo Switcheroo...really cute series. Since it is not a school night they are staying up late...not watching a movie...they have both been reading the past 2 hours! Rachel begs to stay up late every night to read but I can't let her or she would be late for school everyday! So, I try to start the bedtime routine pretty early so she still gets about an hour in. I love that they both really do LOVE to read! Since Paul is gone some nights it gets chaotic...no really...trying to get them all to bed at the same time by myself. So, Rachel and Jakob take turns reading stories to Ben while I put Sam down for bed. Then I come in and finish off. They are such big helpers!!
Rachel's first day back to ballet.
Like her 5 missing teeth!?

Here comes the snow! Our driveway is the one with Paul's red Tacoma.
This is the mountain in our back yard. I love how you have the Autumn trees with the fresh new snow! I thought this was a cool shot with this very low lying cloud...I felt like I could grab it!


The kids do not care that it is 40* out! Jakob's first indoor practice is Sunday morning at 7! Ugh! Paul did all the early practices last season! Too early for my blood. I guess I better get used to it though!

Sam enjoying Rachel's school party.
A picture with Ben smiling...this is hard...not that he doesn't smile...he does...all the time & he has a wonderful, contagious smile. However, when I get out the camera he hams it up like the crazy little monkey that he...like this one...
Or this one when I said, "I want to get a picture of your head before they take out the stitches." And then he looked up at his head :-)!

Rachel and Ben handing out the treats.

Have a good weekend everyone. We head off to the airport to pick up my Dad on Sunday and we are all very excited to have him here and to take him to all the kid's activities!
See the rest of the pictures in the Sept. 29 album.

Shana Tova, Happy New Year!!!

This is the High Holiday Season for us. So Happy New Year! I hope that the year 5769 is a wonderful year to you all! Here is a beautiful song for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liEx3Ex120I


For the uninformed and curious:

1. Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, the symbolic anniversary of the creation of the world. The words Rosh Hashanah literally mean "Head of the Year." In addition to being the anniversary of the past creation of the world, Jewish tradition sees everyone as being created anew at this time every year. Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of the Hebrew month of Tishrei (which usually falls sometime in September or October).
2. Day of JudgmentRosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgment. On Rosh Hashanah, God opens the Books of Life and Death. Jews ask to be forgiven for their sins in the hope that God will give them a good signing in the Book of Life for the coming year.
3. Pre-Rosh Hashanah: Slichot and Hatarat NedarimIn order to enter the new year with a clean slate, Jews ask for forgiveness and annul all vows before Rosh Hashanah. Slichot, which means forgiveness, is a series of prayers recited daily in preparation for the "Days of Awe", Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Hatarat Nedarim, absolution of vows, is practiced by more observant Jews.
4. Rosh Hashanah Prayers: God is KingOn Rosh Hashanah, most of the day is spent praying in synagogue. There are many unique prayers on Rosh Hashanah, so a special prayer book called a machzor is used. The main theme of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy is that God is King, and He rewards good.
5. Mitzvah of the ShofarThe essential mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah is to hear the sounding of the shofar. The shofar is a ram's horn which is blown like a trumpet. When Rosh Hashanah falls on the Sabbath, the shofar is not blown
6. Meaning of the Shofar The blasts of the shofar are reminiscent of:1) The sound of a King's coronation2) The wailing of a Jewish heart3) A spiritual wake-up call for Jews to repent4) Abraham's great faith in God. (Abraham bound his on Isaac, but was allowed at the last minute to sacrifice a ram in Isaac's stead.)
7. Festive MealA festive meal is central to the Rosh Hashanah holiday. A round challah, which symbolizes completion, is used. The challah, as well as apple, is dipped into honey to symbolize hope for a sweet new year. Other foods have also become Rosh Hashanah traditions, as they symbolize hopes for the coming year.
8. "Shana Tova"There are two traditional Rosh Hashanah greetings. "Shana Tova" means Good Year. "Chatima Tova" means Good Signing in the Book of Life.
9. TashlichOn Rosh Hashanah, observant Jews may follow a custom called tashlich (casting off) in which they walk to flowing water, say a prayer, and symbolically throw their sins into the water. Tashlich is done on the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah. If Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, then tashlich is done on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. If tashlich was not done on Rosh Hashanah, it may be said anytime during the Ten Days of Repentance. The practice of tashlich is not discussed in the Bible, but it is a long-standing custom.
10. Ten Days of RepentanceOn Rosh Hashanah, God signs one in the Book of Life, but only on Yom Kippur does he "seal" one in the book. Therefore, during the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur one's verdict is not certain. This period is referred to as the "Ten Days of Repentance," and it is a time in which Jews engage in intense introspection

Sam turned one and Rachel will be 7 on Friday...

Here are some pictures of some of the wonderful artwork from last week!
Rachel knows how much I love the fall leaves and could not wait to show me her own fall leaves! She ran into the house and pulled this out of her backpack so excitedly! Click to enlarge so you can see her pretty leaves!
Rachel told me a story for about fifteen minutes about this picture of her compass. There are fish, the water, a box that a bird is trapped in...

red & blue make purple...I love it!

This is a story about ice cream Jakob had to write. As you can see Jakob has only been to Cold Stone Creamery. I think they should pay us for free advertising :-)!

OK, so I have to brag how incredibly sweet my kids are! All the time they are doing the sweetest, kindest things for each other that make me so proud! For example, anytime they have money they will tell me they want to buy...fill in the blank...for...fill in name of sibling. I NEVER did that as a child! They take their own quarters and buy each other candy from the little machines. They will take their own allowance and buy the other certain things they know the other wants! If I would have had allowance I would not have done that! And then when they are playing fantasy world and talk about what they would do if they had a million dollars they always say that they would give Mom and Dad x amount of money and they name each sibling and give them money too! And I am not talking small percentages of the million...they are very generous! They are so NOT selfish! Paul and I must be do something right? Yeah for us!

So, a few MONTHS ago our neighbors were having a yard sale. Jakob comes running inside. Runs up the stairs. Comes down the stairs with his wallet. I of course am very curious, "What are you doing?" He replies, "Mom, there is a stuffed puppy I want to get Rachel for her birthday and a bag of homemade cookies for Ben and me." (Rachel was at a friend's house or I am sure he would have shared the cookies and he knows how much Rachel LOVES puppies and could never have enough of them). I was kinda worried though what shape a stuffed animal would be in from a yard sale. I have been to yard sales and usually the stuffed animals are pretty gross! However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a brand new, extremely soft puppy...the girl is a teenager and obviously never touched it :-). I just hugged Jakob so tightly and told him how proud I was of him to use HIS allowance on his sister's birthday present! He did this last year as well! I will share pics at another time. So, he promptly hid the puppy in a nice spot under Ben's bed, way in the back behind storage containers. I don't know how Jakob crawled under there! He has been anxiously awaiting her birthday to arrive these past few months holding onto the secret has been driving him crazy! Last week when Rachel went to a friend's house he says, "Mom, now would be a good time to wrap her present." So, I gave him a bag and tissue paper. He wrapped it up. Added in a dollar!!! And wrote the sweetest note!!! ALL of this HIS idea!!! You know just because he doesn't say the words to Rachel, "I love you." He said it in the way he gave this present! I am so proud! He could not stand it any longer and wanted to give it to her early...her birthday is this Friday, 3 October.

Look at Jakob's face...he is so happy for Rachel to open her present.

"To Rachel From Jakob To The Best Little Sister A Boy Could Have!"

How sweet is that!?!

A big thank you hug!

A big hug for "Cuddles"

Look, money!!!

Then Sam and Rachel got birthday cards in the mail from Daddy... "Thank you Daddy!"

Sam's birthday was Saturday...yes, Ben had to get stitches on Sam's birthday! We are going to celebrate while my Dad is here so he can see Sam make a mess with the cake! But, we did let him go ahead and open his present from Grandma and Grandpa Darling.

Everyone helping Sam. "What could be in there?"
"Yeah, look at these cute clothes, Mom."

Rachel is doing a slumber party next week. But she wanted to go ahead and open her present from Grandma and Grandpa Darling as well.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the cute clothes and beautiful doll.

I can not believe that Samuel is now one! I will do something special with pictures after I get the new computer. And, Rachel will be 7 on Friday...my how time flies!!!! She is no longer my "little girl!"

See all the pictures in the 25 Sept. album. http://picasaweb.google.com/momtomyfour

Video from Paul...

Paul sent this video today. Warning...blood involved. the guys are training to put in IV's. Let's all pray they will NOT have to do this in Afghanistan!

Warning...this post for strong stomaches only...

Alright everyone, I am jumping back in here to start back up with the blog. I have tons of pictures to share in the next week after I get a new computer...this one is not working so well, so be patient with me. I want to share all about our wonderful & busy summer, Paul leaving for his deployment, and the kids starting school & all their activities. This will be a slow process at first until I get my new computer up & going.

We are doing ok, missing Daddy bunches & staying very busy!

So, Saturday we headed downtown to get Ben outfitted for Hockey. it took some time to find the right sizes b/c Ben is so small. Jakob helped out quit a bit, telling me what I needed to get Ben. And, Rachel helped entertain Sam. Ben is so ready & excited to play. Every time he tried on a piece of equipment he goes over and starts wailing on Jakob and says, "You want a piece of me?" ...poor Jakob, the human punching bag! Ben says repeatedly on the way home, "Are we going to my hockey game now? I want to play hockey like Jakob. Where's my stick?"



So here is my cute, tired little critter. He would not take off the practice jersey!

So we get home. Jakob runs into the house puts on his Cub Scout uniform so we can go over to Blockbuster for him to sell popcorn to the customers. Here is Ben using Jakob as a punching bag just before we leave the house.

So, with about 20 minutes left on our shift the other Mom says, "If you want to go get them something to eat you can & I will watch Jakob." I hesitated at first b/c we only had 20 minutes left. But, the kids had been asking for food for the past hour! It was now 6:40. So, I drive over to McDonald's. I start to go thur. the drive-thur but then I thought, "No, I should let Rachel & Ben play for about 15 minutes & we need to all go to the restroom anyway." Rachel & I head into the restroom. Ben heads toward the playground. I yell, "Ben, we have to go in here first. Come here please." As I hear that he is running I yell, "And don't run!" But, because when Ben runs he goes FULL SPEED AHEAD, it was already too late! I heard his SKULL hit the door jam so quickly & loudly (I can NOT get the sound & image out of my head!). I am not proud of this fact but, I threw Sam down...ok, ok...before you flip out on me...he was strapped into his car seat & remember I am 5'1'' so he fell, buckled in, about a foot...again, I am not proud, but, when you here that sound you just react so quickly!!! So, I threw Sam out of one hand, threw the diaper bag out of the other hand, and scooped up my poor little Ben & slammed my hand against his forehead to hold the bleeding & then proceeded to act like a COMPLETE CRAZY woman. "Help, Help! Help, Help!" I was crying & screaming, Rachel was crying & screaming. We both picked up the car seat...Sam just looking at us like,"what is going on!?" I yelled at myself to calm down. I did!! We filled up 4 stacks of napkins with blood before we could leave for the hospital! Rachel was such a big helper to me!!! She held the napkins on Ben's head the whole drive to the hospital. And then while at the hospital she entertained Sam. Jakob stayed with my friend to finish up with the popcorn. Ben, what can I say...I had stitches when I was 7, 8, and 22...I was no where near as brave as he was...and he is 4!!!! I mean really, he was such a champ! Me...well, I did alright...not without first hyper ventilating! I do NOT do blood! I do NOT deal well with the knowledge that someone is going to stick a needle in my munchkin's head! 6 broken arms I dealt with just fine...5 for Jakob, 1 for Rachel...I did not flip out at all with them. But, blood...ahhhhhhhhhh! But, I put on a brave front, held Ben's hands & talked to him in a nice calm voice bribbing him with the thoughts of chocolate and lollipops!

He is about to give me a heart attack though. Right after being stitched up, he & Rachel are running around the room almost running right into the edge of the sink. I look at the doctor & say, "I honestly don't know how he hasn't had stitches before now!" And then yesterday, he puts on a blanket to act like a ghost walks right into the corner of the desk! Then he runs across the playroom and dives right into the bookshelf. He starts screaming. I run over thinking he has just reopened his head! Thank goodness it was just his nose! Ugh. That crazy boy!

So here is my brave, CRAZY little monkey with his 4 stitches!
(if you feel brave you can click on the picture to enlarge it!)

At the hospital Rachel said a cute little phrase. We had not eaten since lunch & like I said we had gone to get dinner but for the obvious reason descibed above we did not pick up any food. So we are sitting there waiting to hear Ben's name called and she says, "Mom, my hunger meter is turned off now because we need to take care of Ben." So cute!! While we were at Blockbuster she was going to "starve to death". I'm glad to see she knows how to deal with an emergency and knows how to put others first!!!