September 7, 2014

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Looking quite dapper!

• Graham was the first one up but I don't know if laying in your bed moaning and squealing counts as being the first one up.  Why in the world does he do that some mornings-waking everyone up in the entire house.  Makes me crazy! And a crazy momma is not the best way to start a Sunday morning.
• After Robby had his shower, he fed everyone and then it was time for clothes and lots of hair doing.  Just an aside-I am so thankful that I have some boys around here too.  I can not imagine doing hair for 6 girls.  Though I did have to comb Whitman's hair today-I have decided that I am going to let his beautiful blonde curls grow until someone mistakes him for a girl.  And then he will get his buzz cut.
• All my kiddos did great in church.  Around here things just work best if we have list and schedules for everything-permanent seating arrangement in the car, order for who picks the movies first on what days, a breakfast schedule, a shower schedule for who takes a shower in what shower and the order, a snack schedule, an order for who prays at meals on what days-and now, we have a permanent seating arrangement in big church.  That would be Campbell, me, Anderson, Graham, Robby and Reagan.  It works well so now it is the law!
• After church we ate out (yes, it is still no spend month but this was a mystery shop)  The kids again were really good and we received a very nice compliment-like hearing those.  My kids love Mexican food though and they all have, even as babies.  Whitman put away lots of beans and Keaton ate more beans and rice than all of the others combined.
• Once at home, there was all kinds of commotion during naptime-baby crying, people needing bathroom help, questions about snacks, fights, a dirty pull up-it was a wonder I got to sleep at all! And that was cut short because tonight was the first night of choir and my Campbell was so, so excited about getting to go to choir tonight.  
• She may have been excited about choir but she sure was not excited about me not letting her have the Lord's supper tonight in church.  Before the service when I was telling her about what was going to go down, she cried "but I can't wait til supper" and "you won't let me have supper" and "I am starving" but that didn't persuade me-only caused me to start laughing at her (which didn't help at all!)  Thankfully she made it through the service without snatching a shot glass of grape juice as it went by and all was well.
• On the way home, there was a wreck or fire on Lawson so we had to turn around and go a long, long ways out of the way to get home-all while staring at the gas tank wondering if we had enough gas then to get home and then to the gas station.  Oh, well that is why we are AAA members!-we need to make sure we get out money worth out of that!  
• At home, we had our ice cream and then it was bedtime for the crew.  

September 6, 2014

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Football Season has Begun!

• Today was a tooth losing, sunburn getting, finger spraining, asthma breather kind of day...that all amounts to a good day in Dennie land!  We were up before the kids and Robby even had to wake them up with his call of "are you ready to play some football?"
• That didn't take too long for everyone to stir and come down stairs to put on their uniforms.  The kids kept asking if they could get Whitman up (they usually can wake him anytime as long as I already have had my shower and brushed my teeth).  They knew I was ready and asked to wake him but we said no.  They ate breakfast and asked to wake him but we said no.  They put on their shoes and asked to wake him but we said no.  We wanted that baby to sleep as long as he could since today was going to be super long for him.
• I did pull Whitman out of bed just as we backed out of the driveway and threw him in the car.  We left a few minutes early so I ran quickly in to drop of my grandmother's laundry and then hurried back out.  And we still made it in plenty of time to set our chairs up on field 1 to watch Reagan and Campbell cheer.
• My Campbell was the first child out of the tunnel and when she came bursting out she had her pom poms waving and was grinning from ear to ear.  Then Reagan came-she wasn't as peppy-I think she concentrates really hard on not falling down in front of everyone.  
• The girls cheered their hearts out-one Dennie cheered more than the other.  Oh, and they weren't on field 1 so we had to move our set upped chairs and wagon full of supplies to last 8 people the entire day on the football field (imagine taking a family of 4 camping for a weekend-that is all of the stuff we had the games today).  
• Anderson along with Grannymom and Grandpa arrived in time to watch the girls some.  Anderson was happy to tell us that the tooth fairy brought him $1.25 last night.  Seriously?  I do think the tooth fairy in Grannymom's neighborhood outdid herself.  That would around 150 bucks the Lawson tooth fairy would have to spend on these children's teeth!  Tonight, the tooth fairy will be reverting back to 1980s prices-10 cents!  Yes, top tooth number 2 of Anderson's came out this afternoon.  Not only does the child look funny but I think that he now has a bit of a lisp!
• Back to the games, Graham's game was next and his team did really well.  Graham caught a pass and ran with it for about 10-20 yards before his flag was pulled.  His team won and even more important, Graham had a really good time.  Robby coached that team and was pleased with how everything went.
• After Graham's game, we had a choice-sit out in the hot sun for an hour and a half or go find some food to eat.  This is "no spend month" so we didn't really want to eat out un-necessarily.  (No spend month is just for fun to see how much we could really save if we worked hard at it)  But we decided that lunch at McDonalds was well worth it to cool off for a bit before Anderson's game. 
• Grannymom volunteered to take Whitman and Keaton with her so we certainly let her.  They rested a bit and cooled off at her house while Jason and the rest of us went to McDonalds.  We all ate and then the kids migrated outside to play on the play area.  Surprisingly it wasn't too hot outside there so they had a fun time and it really did make the day for faster-certainly worth the 12 bucks we spent on lunch,
• Back to Raymar to watch Anderson's team. He had to be there 30 minutes early so they could practice-yep, that is how seriously they take it.  (During their extra practice, Graham jammed/sprained his finger pretty good when playing catch with Robby)  And I guess that extra practice time did pay off because they pretty much stomped the other team-I guess, I really didn't keep up with the score.  I just know they won.  My Anderson received 2 hand offs and ran both time 10-20 yards each time.  We were tickled with that and so pleased with the entire football/cheerleading morning.  
• By the time we had gotten home, I could see everyone turning different shades of red-Robby is the most glowing (no sunscreen), followed by me (tiny bit of sunscreen) and surprisingly enough my fair skinned, blonde headed Whitman is the one who doesn't look sunburned at all!
• At home, the awake people had showers and the asleep people took a nap (Keaton and Whitman).  Everyone rested for a bit until it was time for the girls and me to load up for the birthday party of one of Keaton's friends.  
• My Keaton was so excited about her first friend party-she held the present, she told her friend happy birthday, she was a perfect angel.  Of course Reagan made sure that Campbell and Keaton were doing the right thing but even my Campbell helped Keaton.  One mom was pulling her kids around in the wagon so Campbell took Keaton's hand and they stood there in line waiting on their turn.  I tried to grab my camera and get a picture of them waiting holding hands but I missed that kodak moment!  
• We had hot dogs and cake.  Campbell was ready to go pretty early (she was tired from the day) so when we decided to leave, Keaton said "what about the craft?" that she had overheard the mom talking about.  So we ran to the backyard to pull out the craft for the girls to do quickly before we headed home.  
• On the way home, my girls divvied up their goodie bag and ate jelly beans.  They had all had a great time.  Meanwhile, the boys at home at eaten supper and even watched the last half of the hogs football game.  Anderson was so excited to watch the game and when it was over, they even watched some of wipe out.  Now, when just boys are at home, they also were able to play a bit of catch in the house.  
• When my crew finally arrived back home, we quickly put everyone to bed.  My Anderson was doing a bit of coughing so I made sure he had a few puffs of his breather before going to sleep.  It was a long day but a pretty great day!  

September 5, 2014

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So maybe he got a little too into the pig races??

• My Reagan used to sleep late each and every morning.  As she was sleeping in, I would just imagine that I was the one sleeping upstairs.  Now we do believe that she is setting some type of alarm because she is one of the first ones awake every single morning.  It was 7:07 this morning when the upstairs bedroom cleared out and all 5 of those kids came into our bedroom and climbed into our bed-that is when I climbed out.
• Robby left for work while the rest of us had our breakfast. After breakfast, I herded the kids to the school room to work.  Graham was my distracted child today-at one point he told me that he couldn't work when Campbell and Keaton were home.  This was kind of odd because Campbell and Keaton spent most of the morning watching movies quietly in my bedroom (yes, this was a do whatever you want to do day for those girls-they both did work on an ABC book and Campbell did her phonics and reading book-but other than that, I just let them watch tv)
• It took almost to noon for everyone to finish and by the time we had things cleaned up, I ran upstairs to wake Whitman up.   I just put him down for an hour today instead of his normal 2 hour morning nap-working on weaning us off of those naps.  He has a really runny nose today and at times, this morning he was laying down in his pack n play while the rest of us were doing school.  Maybe he was laying down because he was bored-how could you be bored when you are watching our school shenanigans while playing with a bucket full of toys drinking milk and eating cheerios.
• After lunch, our afternoon just flew by.  Seriously, we all spent a few minutes picking up the house (the kids picked up the house while I cleaned up from lunch-kitchen clean up is never ending).  Then they played on their kindles while Whitman, Keaton and Campbell kept opening and closing the kitchen door so they could listen to the rain.  
• Then it was naptime for everyone followed by our science lesson for the day, a bit of reading and then a quick game of chess (using only the pieces that we know how to properly move).  By this time, they only had 40 minutes to watch a movie-not even long enough for a boy pick and a girl pick but they survived.  They also survived when I told them there would be no snack since we were about to leave.  
• We loaded up and picked up Grannymom and Grandpa-Anderson could not wait to get inside there to drop off his bag.  He is spending the night over there and the tooth fairy is coming there instead of here.  Anderson's top front tooth has been moving and dangling for what seems like forever and I pulled it today-even though pulling teeth is not something I like doing, for some sick reason I do kind of like it! 
• Robby met us there and we went to the Salt Bowl tailgate-yep, not the game, just the tail gate. Candy, hot dogs, tiny footballs, popsicles-what more could any child want.  This was probably more fun than trick or treating!    We walked up and down every row and the kids (especially Keaton) stuffed their bags full of stuff.  
• Once at home, we let the kids look at and eat their goodies just like Halloween.  Then they had plenty of time to play their kindles before bedtime.  Big day tomorrow-the first Upward Football and Cheerleading games of the season.

September 4, 2014

Go Upward!

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• School morning for Campbell and I had her dressed and ready before I realized that I needed to get Keaton up so she could go with Robby.  I hurried around to get her ready so she could grab her pop tart and hurry to the car with Robby.
• While they were gone, the schoolers and I started to work on school.  This morning it was so quiet in the school room as the children worked-for about 3 minutes. Seriously though it was nice for a bit-nice enough that I thought "this is what school should be like" but that wouldn't be any fun at all! 
• The kids really did fine this morning and were all finished by 11 when Robby, Keaton and Graham left to go and pick up Campbell.  While they were gone, Reagan and Anderson played Battleship. The game took a long while and they played until Campbell came home and kicked Anderson's game board over.
• That Campbell.  What was she thinking doing that?  I sent her to the kitchen and then Robby told her that she couldn't have kool aid with her lunch like everyone else.  That was the worst punishment ever.  She has a bit of a hard time coming home and readjusting to following our rules and routine.  All of this was to gain attention-silly thing.  
• We all had our lunch and then Robby sent the kids all upstairs (to either side) for them to play quietly for 30 minutes.  That just left Whitman down here with me-though he would sneak away and climb quickly up the stairs to find the others.  Of course, I don't mind him up there but I do mind him eating legos and the kids do not like him knocking down their tracks or towers or whatever else they have created.  
• After quiet-upstairs time (which worked surprisingly well) we watched a history film for school and then it was kindle time and nap time for little people.  Whitman had a wonderful morning nap but not so great of an afternoon nap-which made me very sad!  I guess I will have to start weaning myself off of his morning naps.  I sure do love those morning naps-just makes our school day go so much smoother!
• Soon though our afternoon was over and we were eating supper-home made chinese and it was a winner dinner.  Anderson, our vegetarian, asked for more meat so that says something about how people liked the meal.  
• Then it was time to run by Beebee's place to drop off her laundry.  I just ran in real quick while the kids and Robby waited in the car and then it was to cheer leading practice.  So now let's discuss Campbell-Robby told her to watch Reagan so she stood the opposite direction of her team watching her sister and not her coach.  I am surprised that she didn't run off chasing a butterfly during her practice.  We made her practice tonight when we made it home and have decided that she will get some ritalin on Saturday morning!
• We all went to practice and all the boys played catch, Whitman sat in the stroller and kept Jason company, I watched the girls and Keaton bounced between me and the boys playing ball.  When we came home, we gave everyone showers and then we had time for a cracker and our Bible story before bed.  

September 3, 2014

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All grins!

• Today was the first morning of Bible study and the clothes were laid out beside my bed for all of the kids and the bags were packed for the entire day waiting to be loaded into the car in the mudroom.  Here is a quick run down of what I can remember that we hauled around today-Bibles for me and the 3 big kids, Keaton and Whitman's bags, ice chest full of lunch, library books to be returned, Beebee's laundry to return to her and a bag of supplies to donate to Campbell's Sonshine kids class.  Wednesdays are the hardest day for us since they are definitely the longest and the fullest but they are some of the best-anytime the kids are hearing about Jesus all morning and all evening long is a good day.
• We arrived at Bible study 3 minutes til 9 and I had thought that we would just hang out in the car until 9 but the parking lot was full so I thought we better go on in.  It was a good thing that we did because every child had paper work for me to fill out.  One class insisted I do it right then but thankfully the others let me take it with me for me to do during my class.  
• Everyone seemed to enjoy their class-Campbell said that hers was "super fun," Keaton told us all about her class and happily said that she played with her friend "Roselilly" (Rosemary).  Graham seemed okay that he was in the same class this year with the same teachers.  Anderson and Reagan were pleased that they had finished their first day of Bible study with their class.
• After Bible study, we ate our lunch at Lilli's park.  Whitman's mother forgot to put on his shoes this morning so he had to play barefoot but that was fine since the ground is soft.  Well, it is softish-poor Reagan fell face first on the ground-scratching her cheek and bruising her nose.  Hopefully nothing is broken!  
• Whitman was crazy hungry at lunch-he walked across the grass barefoot to get to the ice chest.  He then climbed on to the table and opened the ice chest.  He must have been starving so we all stopped to eat with him.  
• Then we played for a few more minutes and then went to see Beebee.  She was eating but finally finished.  We visited with her in the lobby and after Beebee brushed Reagan's hair with her fingers, Reagan leaned into me and said "I forgot to put my hair up this week."  
• After the kids had eaten their fill of candy, we headed home for a bit of rest time.  Keaton and Whitman were sound asleep when we came home so they slept while the others watched movies.  I did some work and laid in the floor with Cambpell for about 5 minutes until we heard Keaton calling that she was ready to wake up.
• Before too long, I had supper ready and Robby was home with groceries.  I helped unload Robby's loot and then it was time for all of us to load back up for church tonight.  The kids love Wednesday nights at church.  And Keaton was pretty excited about seeing puppets tonight.  
• When we came home, everyone said they were hungry so Robby doled out ice cream.  Poor Campbell said she didn't like ice cream bars so she went to bed without a snack-oh, don't feel sorry for her.  Who doesn't like ice cream bars?  That is just plumb crazy!  If you were hungry, you would surely eat some ice cream.  

September 2, 2014

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An Afternoon at the Rink!

• Robby woke up at 7:40 but didn't seem to worried about the time.  It didn't take long at all of Campbell to be walking out the door with her shoes on and toast and milk in her hands.  Robby was not too far behind her with his lunch in his hands.  Campbell still made it to school on time to join her class for singing the songs.  
• Back at home, we had our toast and yogurt and then started on school.  The kids had completed 4 of their today's boxes this weekend.  This helped Graham to finish around 10.  I did sneak 2 more things in Anderson and Reagan's boxes but they still finished before lunch.  Reagan actually finished in time to play playdoh with Keaton and Graham.  
• Keaton does so well during school-today she did get a bit tiffed at me because I didn't have her enough school work to do.  I did give her a huge ABC puzzle today and though she often needed help, she finally finished it.  But even though she was put out with her lack of school boxes, she still found plenty to occupy herself during school.  I was about to find a movie for her to watch but she pulled out the playdoh.
• We had our lunch-Whitman had a nice long nap this morning since I knew he would miss his afternoon nap-but he did wake up in time for lunch.  He just listens at lunch while I read but then when the kids start getting restless, the louder he gets.  I usually try to give him more food or drink to calm him down but usually when he is finished listening to Farmer Boy or whatever else we are reading, that is the end of reading time.
• The kids then had a few minutes on their kindles and then it was time to change for skating and read our little book about chess playing.  Keaton was so excited about getting to go to Grannymom's house-though she wanted to pack first.  
• We picked Campbell up from Grannymom's house and dropped off Keaton and Whitman.  All of our buddies were there too so that made it fun and probably encouraged my crew to try a bit harder.  The Dennies are not awesome skaters-you could probably not even call some of them skaters!  
• Campbell definitely needed the skating walker to get around and she was an accident waiting to happen even with that.  Graham started off pretty shaky (extremely) but he did improve but still needed the walker.  Anderson loved using the walker but probably became the best skater by the end of the day.  And Reagan was very cautious but also by the end she started moving away from the wall.  Since I can not skate at all, I was pretty proud of how well they had done.
• After we left, we ran by Grannymom's house and picked up Keaton and Whitman-Whitman was thrilled to see us and started waving bye and blowing kisses as soon as he saw our van and Keaton told me that she wasn't going home.  They both had a good time playing and fell sound asleep on the way home.
• We had pizza for supper and then showers for all.  The kids had a bit of down time and then watched an enormous amount of Ninja Warrior before bed-always good to watch a calming show before bed! 

September 1, 2014

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Last Day at the Pool :(

• Quick summary of the day-3 hair cuts, 5 loads of laundry, 3 hours swimming, 2 football practices, bottom floor of house vacuumed and swept-this holiday stuff is tough!  One of the boys were up first (isn't that horrible?  I don't even know if it was Anderson or Graham) and then Campbell was down shortly.  She did lay by me for a bit on the floor and for a while we just thought about laying in bed all day long-that would be how to properly celebrate a holiday.
• As Robby ran and as we were finished up breakfast, Nonna and Pops stopped by to tell everyone bye.  They were heading out on their trip.  After we waved bye to them, the kids started on their chores-brush their teeth, read for 20 minutes, do 2 school boxes and then one real chore (dishes, laundry, fold towels, or Dad's choice)  I often put "Dad's choice" or "Mom's choice" on someones chores when I can't think of anything better to write down.  
• Robby then cut the boys hair and I trimmed his before we had everyone get ready and load up for swimming.  Dana, Lilly, Cash, Grannymom and Grandpa were all at the pool.  Robby had hot dogs for everyone and Dana had chips and desserts.  The kids didn't really need any food at the pool-they just needed their cousins to play with.  
• And gracious me-my Anderson.  The pool has strong jets that Anderson and the boys used to create a water cannon with a pool noodle.  I wish that I would have gotten a picture of this-just imagine Cash and Graham holding the pool noodle to the jet with Anderson holding to other end of the noodle with water squirting out at least 10 feet-all the while he was screaming "water war." 
• We ran home for a bit-Whitman and Keaton napped and the others watched a movie.  Robby and I unloaded and reloaded ice chests, bags and the car.  All I wanted to do was to take a nap like the little people but alas I put on my big girl panties and swept as Robby vacuumed.
• Next up was football practice for Anderson's team-that is one serious team.  Those little second graders played about 5 daddies during their scrimmage.  After 2 practices, Anderson is probably now qualified to play for a college team.  It was a bit intense over there-and on the other side of the field, a team was playing "red light, green light."  
• Then we had Graham's practice.  By this time, Whitman was ready to go and wasn't satisfied.  We walked down to the pond and he just looked and looked at it.  Keaton and Campbell enjoyed that walk too especially since Jason was with us.  Reagan and Anderson were able to help Robby some with Graham's practice.  
• Keaton noticed that she wasn't getting to help so I told her that she could later.  So after practice, she went up to Robby and said that she wanted "to coach."  Robby and the kids played a little game of football since no one was at Raymar.  The kids enjoyed that but they were one tired crew when we finally had them home and showered!