Trying to catch up...

Wow....so I realize that I have been really bad about posting...sigh...and the thing that is so frustrating is that I want to do so much more!!  I've been looking back at my blog, specifically the year 2010, and saw that I posted a lot!...like almost every day!  By the way, that year is probably the most fun to read...well, for me anyway...the year that we moved across the country and lived in our camper.  The reason that I've been reading 2010 is because that's the year I'm on with making my books.  Yeah...kinda behind...  Each year (or it was each year and now it's whenever I can) I put my blog into a digital scrapbook of sorts so I have it in a hard copy.  It's an awesome treasure to us and the kids LOVE looking back at the pictures.  I use mixbook.com and love them.  Super simple, very customizable, just easy to use....which I need.  I don't have time to figure stuff out! :)

So anyway...What's been going on here?  Well, besides realizing that I've become horrible at taking pictures (I always forget), we've mostly been just hanging out, figuring out how to make life work without trying to kill each other.  Really.  It's not that having 7 people living in a hotel room is not enough space (I'm kinda be sarcastic) but night time is a night mare.  Even if we had just one room, closet, whatever, that we could put the kids in, shut the lights off and close the door, it would be so much better.  For all the kids to settle down, quit touching/jumping on/kicking/tickling/rolling on each other and relax long enough for them to fall asleep, is pretty near impossible.  And Nathan and I have pretty much kissed our evenings goodbye since we have to have all the lights off in order for the kids to fall asleep....by the time they do, we've been lying in the dark with the hum of the fan for quite awhile and most times will fall asleep ourselves.  Many nights we seperate the kids with one on the couch, one in the corner laying on the couch cushions, and then one on the floor on each side of our bed.  This way they can't easily see eachother OR touch each other.  But we have realized that if we just let the kids stay up (quietly if at all possible) then it is much easier to get them to fall asleep.  For some strange reason, we just HAPPENED to be blessed (ahem) with NO children that require a lot of sleep! :P

On to the next topic....  :)  Which is another reason why it's hard to blog this far apart....I can't remember what I've blogged about!  So, sorry if you've heard any of this before...I just never learn...

Legos, legos. legos.... Since legos are pretty much the only toy we let the kids bring here, we have legos everywhere in this room.  I have tried with all my might to keep them seperated in their own box since they are 'sets', but they end up taking their sets apart and mixing them all up.  I spent three. whole. days. putting lego sets together so I could make sure each set has all the pieces.  Then I put them up high and each kids could play with only one set at a time.  That last until today when Tiernan took them all down....sigh...  But I think I salvaged them and most sets are together.  I know I need to learn to just chill but seriously that's enough to drive me batty.

Wouldn't this be enough to drive you batty?!

I was going to talk about how we've been trying to decide if this is what we should be doing right now and how we long to be done with all this craziness and settle down, but it's bed time and since the whole room is pitch black except the computer screen, my eyes are starting to not want to focus.  I also have to post about our second trip back home!  I really do plan on coming back to blog land soon...for now I'll leave you with a few more pics!

 See that tiny spec of a thing that Caedmon is holding (love his face in this pic!)...that is the crayon that he was using..and continued to use until it was just a small spec.  He is our artist!

All lined up for church!  This is what they do every time it's time to go, squeeze in the door frame.

Beautiful, beautiful blanket of clouds over Des Plaines during a storm that was just to our north.

The kids' pics they drew for Eric..the man at the front desk. He gave the kids a couple goodie bags so the kids drew him a thank you picture. Brayan drew pirates, Tiernan drew a pic of Eric (although Eric in real life is not blue...he's more of a Mexican brown :), Caedmon drew superheros (Hulk, Iron man, and 'the thing') and not pictured was Ariella's drawing--well, mom's drawing of 3 stick princesses, of which she colored their dresses pink and their crowns purple. They really love Eric and can't wait to say Hi (or Hola) to him when we go to and from our van. He's been speaking to the kids in Spanish, which they love and it's actually expanded their Spanish vocab pretty significantly! I didn't even plan on doing a foriegn language this year but it's turns out that we have!

You have to be resoureful when drying clothes in a hotel room....yes, little people can be very good weights for little undies so they don't blow off the heater :)

I happened to find a bunch of toys in a misc box at a garage sale that the lady gave to me for $2. Pretty much kept the kids busy all day...and then some.

 Caedmon and Ariella walking around the path at the park.  They actually walked like this for quite awhile.  So I know deep down they really do love eachother :)