Kinnick and his bright ideas....

The other day Ryan, Kinnick and I were sitting with a few other people discussing part-time jobs. I suggested donating plasma and out of the blue Kinnick pipes up, "Hey Mom, I have an idea. when you drop off all us kids you can go back home and have a part time job."
I said, "Oh yeah Kinnick what would that be?"
With the most serious face he says, "You can clean the house for your job Mom!"

I guess I now know what I need to improve on here at home. :)

Complete Craziness!!!

Last night the girls got to have a sleep over at their cousin Bree's house which left us with the two boys. Since I've had kids I have always been amazed at the energy, goofiness, and amount of flying limbs that go on with our boys. Last night was no different. They spent the first half of the night playing Toy Story 2 on the computer. This was a pretty calm activity until Buzz would do a new trick and the boys would erupt in yells of excitement followed by a brief tackle match between the two. After that we watched the new Phineas and Ferb (I love this show) which they actually sat very calmly through. Then the real fun started. They asked Daddy to get involved with a huge wrestling match. Feet, bodies and arms were flying everywhere!!! A few bodily noises escaped which immediately resulted in huge amounts of laughter and then they would be back at the wrestling. Although I did not get involved in the wrestling, I don't believe I was without a smile the whole time. They sure are crazy but they are definitely a happy crazy!!!

Oh and by the way when they awoke this morning they came down the stairs tackling one another again. :)

I love you Christian and Kinnick!!!

Never thought it would happen!!!

This little girl totally surprised me today. Normally she is my "yes mommy, whatever you say mommy" girl. Not today!!! First she blatantly ignored me when I called her name by pretending to duck under the water. Funny thing is, it was always after I yelled. Then she got mad at her towel because I refused to put it on her because she wouldn't do what I asked so I wasn't going to do what she asked. I know real mature. Then as we're walking to the car she called me a really mean name. I'm not sure who has come to live in Hayden's body but I am begging her to leave and bring back my princess!! Oh and I have officially banned the teenage years from our house. Who thinks that will work?? :)

I'm a big kid now!!!

Well we're starting to get into a schedule slowly but surely. Now that all the graduation parties are over our weekends have slowed down as well. Kinnick told me the other day, "Hey mom, beings I graduated this year from preschool will you have a party for me where people come eat?" It was so cute that I actually entertained the thought for a while. I never thought I would be sad to see my last kid get to kindergarten. Boy was I wrong!!! The thought of him lining up this fall really tugs at my heart strings! He, however, could not be more excited. He actually wants to skip Kindergarten and go to 1st grade so he can see Hayden. Little does he know that Hayden will no longer be in first, but will move to 2nd by the time he gets there. :)

Let it begin!!!

Well I'm back at the blog and summer break has officially begun. Yesterday we kicked it off with a picnic, time at a playground and then, of course, blizzards. I guess Ryan even got a little crazy after I left for worship team practice and got the play-dough out. I really despise that stuff!! Today our "plan" is to clean the house and hang out and play with each other. I'm sure none of it will happen but it is a nice plan. :)

Hello out there

Hey guys I think it's been a little over a year since I last posted anything but I'm going to get better at it starting tomorrow. I'll catch you up on all the happenings in our crazy life. :)

Easter

Easter was a pretty big day for us. Aunt Heather, Uncle Brian, Gabbie and Cassidy got to come to Indianola for the weekend so we got to spend a lot of time with them. It started out by seeing the new Hannah Montana movie. It was pretty cute and the girls really enjoyed it. After that we we had a grill out to celebrate Uncle Brians birthday at the Werling household.
The next day was Easter. This is my favorite holiday!! There are no big expectations that are attached to it and the meaning of Easter is absolutely amazing. Jesus carried our sins for us and beat death. Oh how much he must love us!!
We started off the morning by looking for the eggs that the Easter bunny hid around our house. After that we went to church to celebrate with our friends. When we got home Grandpa Werling, Aunt Heather and Uncle Brian had hid tons of eggs in our backyard for all of the cousins to find plus Michael and Sophie from my side of the family. It was a lot of fun but way to much candy!!! The worst part of the whole thing was that we didn't get any chocolate from the Easter Bunny. :( After our huge Easter egg hunt we went to Grandma and Grandpa Blue House's (Werling) house and ate chicken and broccolli fettucine alfredo. Not your typical Easter dinner but it was Aunt Heather's birthday celebration and that's what she likes. Overall it was a wonderful day with a lot of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!!

It's been a long time!

It's been forever since I last wrote anything about the kids. We've been pretty busy with school and everything so I'm going to try to catch everybody up in the next few days. I think the first thing that happened was Hayden losing her first tooth.

The crazy thing was that Christian lost his second tooth on the same day.
I think it's so funny that they are both so excited when they find out their tooth is out but once they see the blood they both start screaming bloody murder but kind of laughing while doing it. It's pretty comical!

After the teeth fell out Ryan decided that he really wanted to get some camouflaged pants. I'm not sure why he all of a sudden became passionate about this but he did so we got some. After that I told him that the boys both had the same pants as their daddy. Well a picture just had to be taken then!














The last thing I'll talk about is our very ambitious endeavor with the parks in Indianola. During spring break we had beautiful weather for most of the week. Because of this weather we decided one day that each kid would get to pick a park that they wanted to play at. We played 20 minutes at each park, had a picnic at one of them and overall had a pretty successful day.











Grandma, Sophia and Michael (cousins) were brave enough to go on most of this adventure with us. It turned out to be a really good day!! Be expecting to hear a lot more real soon!

Real quick

Lately we have been trying to stress how important it is that the kids only date boys or girls that have Jesus in their heart and are very nice to them. I know this is very early but we figured the earlier we start the more engraved it will be in their brain! :) I had asked Joey, Kinnick and Christian what the people they date should have in their heart and they all answered correctly although all of them stated how they really didn't ever want to date anybody ever. :) Now as Hayden came to me and I asked, "What should every boy that you ever date have?", while pointing at my chest. Hayden looked at me for a while and with a smile on her face she looked up at me and said, "A Hawkeye t-shirt". When telling Ryan this I have never seen a more proud father! Hayden is definately a keeper!!!

We are still alive (barely)

Well it has been quite the new year!!! We started off with our traditional eggnog toast followed by what was the best thing about the previous year was. The kids all picked going to Disney World and if truth be told Daddy probably would have picked that one too. He loves that place!!!

After that Ryan took off to the bowl game. I asked him if it was a bummer to spend all of that money for a blow out. He said as long as it was the Hawkeyes doing the blowing out that he was just fine with spending that money.
The next week Ryan and I went back to Florida. He ran the Disney marathon and I ran the Circle of Life 5K. It was a lot of fun to spend the time together and to accomplish the goals we had set for ourselves. Let me tell you that it is a lot easier to spot your runner in Florida than it is in Chicago.

Can you pick us out? Where are the Werlings?


While we were in Florida Kinnick started the next marathon for our familythat we are yet to complete. We have decided to name this marathon the Indianola sickie bug marathon. I intentionally left the word "annual" out in hopes that this never happens again! Kinnick spent the entire weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Blue house throwing up everything that touched his tummy. He also claimed that Grandma and Grandpa didn't feed him anything, or nuffin as he would say it, all weekend long. Can you imagine Grandma Jan not feeding a child or anybody of any age for that matter. :) After that I got strep throat followed by Hayden and then Christian getting it as well. Christian had the priviledge of throwing up that entire day as well. Let me tell you that was a great Inaguration day!!! Definitely memorable that's for sure!!! Next came the "Ballerina" or diarhea bug that went through Joey then Kinnick then Christian followed up by Hayden. This brings us to this week which is a nasty virus that involves a very sore throat and owie tummy. Christian had the priviledge of starting this one off followed by Hayden who is lying in our bed watching the "Tinkerbell" movie as I type. You wouldn't believe how many times I've been told to find a good doctor.:) The thing is that Ryan has always been right and they have all been virus' that have gone away on their own even though it has taken longer than I would have liked.
The one day in between all of the sickie bugs the kids, I mean Ryan, went outside and made an alligator that was actually supposed to be a whale but ended up as an alligator for some reason.

Well enough complaining! Although it has been a rough month we are very grateful that all of our children have never been seriously ill and that they've all been minor illnesses. We're hoping this isn't a clue as to what this year will be like!
Oh and I forgot that in the middle of all of this I've been trying to potty train a new puppy named Bolt. Don't ask Daddy about it however because he still isn't claiming him as a part of the family. :) He is probably only the size of something that our previous dog Frank would have pooped but we love him anyway!


We hope that all of you are having a better start to the year and are all in good health. If you're not, I do know a good doc!:)