Sleeping Beauty or Sleeping Storie??

I am never surprised anymore at the places I find my 5th child sleeping. She has even fallen asleep on the top of my husbands head. Don't believe me? I have the video to prove it. Most small children traditionally take naps, not Storie, she has been too good for those silly little nap things since she was about 6 months old. Instead, she unwillingly falls asleep in the most uncomfortable places and positions possible.

I think this might be a blessing for her in the long run. I have to have perfect conditions to fall asleep, my bed, dark room, night time etc. I am always jealous of people who can sleep anywhere and anytime. I can't even sleep in the car, I am afraid I am going to miss something. 

Can you remember a crazy place your kids have fallen asleep or even you, when you were little? 

The best sleeping story I am going to post on my blog and send you a SURPRISE!

Swimsuit Giveaway! Need I say more??

My Friend Jana over at The Meanest Mom is having a swimsuit giveaway. Go over there and sign up! She is giving away a swimsuit from Modbe they have an entire line of wholesomly sexy swimwear. Wahooo who couldn't use a new swimsuit and one that is in style and actually fits you??!!

If you have time read her post on swimsuit shopping it is hilarious, I can think of about a bazillion things I would rather do than swimsuit shop, in fact I asked Avery (above child) what looking for a swimsuit for me a few weeks ago was like....

New Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

For the past few years I have just stuck with the same two recipes for chocolate chip cookies. Either the Nestle Toll House one on the bag, or the Neiman Marcus recipe if I have to make a LOT of cookies. I thought I would try something new yesterday, it seemed like a good baking day severe weather warnings and all. So I picked this one because I thought the combo of shortening and oil was a little different, since I only use real butter for cookies. They turned out really nice I think. They don't spread out, they stay chunky and have a shortbread consistency. The kids and Paul gave two thumbs up. The only problem now is that I ate so much cookie dough, I need someone to figure out how many WW points it was, and I have a feeling I am done eating for the next 8 days!

Does anyone have any favorite Chocolate Chip cookies recipes you can post to share that I can try???

Ingredients:

1 Cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup shortening

1 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 t. cream of tartar

2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used 1 cup Ghirardelli's + 2 cups semi-sweet chips and 1 cup chopped pecans)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I an a medium bowl , beat together white sugar, brown sugar, oil and shortening until smooth. Stir in eggs, and vanilla beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt, stir into sugar mixture. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by big spoonfuls onto cookies sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 min. cool on sheet and remove.

It's A Rush!

These might be a little graphic for some, but I had two different emails asking about Maureen's birth photography. She did a phenomenal job and they are so beautiful. The hours she put into it was unbelievable. So these are a few of the pictures of our little Rush's birth.

Sit still and smile.

The nice Scholastic lady called today and did the interview for my two sentences in the June magazine. Everything was going well until she asked for a photo of me and the kids...

So my good friend Maureen is a photographer and not just any one at that. She truly has a gift. I HATE to have my picture taken, in fact no one would ever know that I existed except for a few photos here and there that you might catch my arm in. I called Maureen in a panic and said TODAY I have to have it TODAY.  I yanked the girls out of school 20min early, saved Tucker from math class and we headed over to Maureen's. I am proud to say I still have 6 kids and didn't kill anyone, Avery however thought she was going to die after walking through a fire ant pile that I told her to stay away from. But back to Maureen, she is brilliant and so creative and captures the kids the way they really are and that is why I love her photos. Maureen also took photos of the birth of Rush last year that are priceless. Check her website out, she is amazing! 

Got S'mores?

Breaking all child labor laws and figuring we had our own private work force, we decided to take the kids to Arkansas for Spring Break. While their friends were off to Mexico to sit on a beach or in Colorado skiing, we chose the more economical route with 6 children and took them camping. Who knew our little neighboring state has the World's 8th largest Diamond Mine?? And I have to tell you-we were pleasantly surprised at how pretty Western Arkansas was! I apologize to you little pretty state with all the green rolling hills and beautiful chicken farms. This is what it looks like when you go camping with this many people in one SUV, in case you ever thought it might be a good idea. You might want to read my earlier post about traveling with children...
I have nothing to say about this, but I laughed for almost the first half of the trip every time I thought about it. The kids car seats might not be buckled in this well, but darn it, Paul's Coke was going to make it unscratched. Can you see where he even duct taped it closed? Seriously??
Let me tell you what this is a picture of since you will never guess. This is us doing 78mph down the highway. Can you see the problem with that? Maybe that the speedometer says we are doing all of ZERO. That will make the trip exciting. "Actually officer, I was hoping you could tell ME how fast I was going?" I had the truck inspected the day before and nothing was wrong with it. As soon as we got on the highway it quit working. But hey, if you need, I can email you on how to figure out how fast you are going by timing yourself in-between the mile markers along the side of the road. Who says nothing educational came out of this trip?!

While stopping for lunch (which takes about 90 minutes) the kids were having a great time entertaining themselves. In between the fence, down the sidewalk, trading sodas back and forth.. of course as we were leaving I noticed the sign.
This isn't going to be the first time on this trip we paid absolutely no attention to posted signs!
Our good, brave friends came with us camping. They have 3 little kiddos. This is our Storie on the right and their little Emma on the left. They are the cutest two kids ever. They pose together every time I pull the camera out!
And here are the big boys. Don't you remember what it was like trying to be cool while hanging out with your family? These guys pulled it off real well even while chasing the baby around and making cute noises at him!
I DON'T LIKE TO BE COLD. Everyone within earshot knew it. The only thing I ever dread about camping are the long cold nights. Every Mom who has ever camped with small children, especially ones still nursing or taking a bottle you know how it goes:

You get them all new clean warm clothes and thick socks, you put them all in sleeping bags with their blankies. Then you spend the rest of the night shoving them back in their sleeping bags because they wiggle out as they sleep and lay moaning next to you because it is 35 degrees out. Then the baby wakes up (because that is what they do), you try to either nurse them back to sleep, freezing to death as you do it or you try and give them a cold bottle, (that you tried to keep warm by putting it in the sleeping bag with you) they are accustomed to it being the perfect temperature, thanks to the microwave that you forgot to bring and somehow wire to work in a tent. Once the baby is back to sleep and you try to warm up your sleeping bag again, another child has to go to the bathroom... Unfortunately, all my kids are just as afraid of the dark and the scary woods as I am, so we run together to the bathroom and back again to the tent. Now repeat this a few times and that is how each night goes.

There is a picture of me further down after a few of these nights. WaaaaHooooo, now to the fun part! Each child was in charge of finding me a 1/2 carat diamond, or, if they worked together they could find a 1 carat diamond. I think I deserve it-it's only a 1/2 carat for each child. That's not asking too much? So this is the diamond field at Crater of the Diamonds State Park. But don't let the name fool you-we dug and dug and dug and dug but alas, we found NOTHING! I was starting to consider buying a field in the middle of nowhere and telling people there were diamonds on it, charging them to get in and dig it all up. Then planting potatoes. There were 11 diamonds found the day we were there. NONE by us. For crying out loud, we had 9 children who dig up my front yard any chance they get and we couldn't even find one! Maybe what they needed were my nice dinner spoons-those seem to work for digging up everything else.
This is that picture of me after a few long nights. I dare someone to COMPLAIN! The best part about camping in Arkansas?? We let the kids bring their AirSoft guns! We figured no one would mind! The boys quickly made friends with some other kids from Dallas a few campsites away and hooked them up with a few of the extra guns we had brought. Then we sent them off through the campground to the amplitheatre to wage war. They rotated Emma and Owen in when someone got out. I would have liked to know what the other campers thought of our army of pellet pumping midgets.
So, we switched from diamonds to quartz crystals. Funny how we didn't have a problem finding any of these. Dig Rush, dig!!! Or no warm bottle for you!
Ummm had to throw this one in. This is the view we had of Storie all day. Who are her parents and why do they dress her in too big pants??
Second sign of the trip that we failed to see until too late. This is us.... washing all our crystals in the sluice trough. The last day we drove into Hot Springs and toured the town. It was really pretty, we had planned on taking the kids to some Hot Springs, after all wouldn't you think there would be some?? But no, Hot Springs is named that after the hot springs that you can't go in. There are only old time bath houses for adults. Go figure, if anyone need a bath in this group it was the kids not adults. The kids were a bit freaked out when we toured an old bath house at the idea of a stranger giving them a bath. I have to disagree, at this point in the trip it sounded like a good idea to me.
But the best part of Hot Springs was the forced march we drug the kids on to the top of a mountain with the promise of a lookout tower. Only to get to the top and find out it was $7 a person to go up in the tower and more insulting they (the little hobbit of a person behind the counter pushing the $7 trip to the top like a drug) was the promise of a beautiful view of Bill Clintons boyhood home. Really? $91 to see Clinton's boyhood home. How about we don't. But all in all, the view that we did have was beautiful and the kids had a blast, it was a great time and only 5 kids had ticks. Which couldn't have been that bad because they started a "I Had a Tick" club complete with secret handshake!

Gone Camping

Dear Readers,

I've decided that dragging my children to go coupon shopping wasn't nearly enough fun for them-I am now dragging them to Arkansas to mine for diamonds. 

We will return Sunday!

What is a Compound Word?

As I am typing, the kids are supposed to be cleaning the playroom. This is all I hear:

Emma: "No it's NOT!"

Paige: "Yes it IS!"

Avery: "Uh huh!"

I stormed in. "Why aren't you picking up your toys!?" Emma answered, "Mom! Paige said that 'clean up' is a compound word!" To which Paige argued, "It is! It is!"

So there you have it-my kids are so smart they argue about what is compound and what is not... while cleaning their playroom.

I Love Kroger...

In the middle of trying to pack for our camping trip I realized I had almost forgot it was MEGA DEAL WEEK at Kroger! What was I thinking??? The SALE ends Tuesday at midnight and it was Monday evening, I must drag evenyone to the store and NOW!
So the deal is when you buy 10 select items you get $5 back, you can do this three times in a transaction for a total of 30 items, each time through the checkout... (are you still following me??) I had so many coupons that matched up with the sale that I had (OK I didn't have to, but to get the deal I had to) to go through 3 times = 90 items. ...Can someone put this into an equation for me??
Now imagine doing this with 5 kids, one who was flailing violently in the little magic car grocery cart due to being woken up from two naps earlier that day. Since Rush is only 14mo. I cut him some slack and opened every box I had in the cart of snacks he MIGHT like. Tucker was lucky enough to be at a friends house so he missed the fiasco.

Once through the checkout the first time I had to put everything in the car and go do this fun little outing two more times.

GRAND TOTAL: I spent $56.89 and SAVED $173.25.

My kids might hate me-but it is my little sick satisfaction of having legally robbing Kroger.

This picture is of Storie, who wanted to be included in the first two pictures but wasn't. Heart breaking, isn't it!

And The WINNER Is....

The Winner's of the 20th blog giveaway are:

Amy S.

Janet and Maya

Congratulations to both of you, I will email you shortly! Thank you so much for all the nice comments and for taking the time to enter! 

O.K. Here it is...

I know I promised photos of my dog after his haircut. I just have not been able to do it. It is too humiliating... He looks like an idiot. And I know he looks stupid because everyone who sees him says the same thing, kind like when you get a bad haircut, "well, at least he won't be hot in the heat this summer." Or " It'll grow." My poor proud dog reduced to looking like a poodle. Now the best part is the groomer telling us to not laugh at him and to tell him how beautiful he looks. 

So imagine using the high pitched voice you use to talk to babies and cute dogs, "Oh Miller, you are sooo ugly little Miller dog, you look like a dumb poodle Miller dog." 

What does Miller hear... "Oh Miller, ajfoehn sjdofoe fkh, hdcu ewien Miller cjsdi  didjg i isdgouw Miller sfgm." 

So he thinks he is beautiful and that is all that matters.

Well that answers that.

My washing machine is probably in the top 2 most important appliances in my house. The refrigerator being #1. I can do without the stove (we get to go out to eat!) the microwave, vacuum, TV's, etc. But could you imagine hauling 8 peoples laundry to a laundry mat?? I don't think so. A few summers ago my washer died, while waiting for our new one I had to do just that. Mind you we "only" had 5 kids at the time but it still took me 5 hours and about $35 to get it done. Anyway, lately mine has been flashing a SUD and F 02 every time I do a load. I have to wait about an hour restart the machine and it will finish. Soooo, I did what any frugal Mom would do, I looked it up on the internet. Google came through again! We just had to remove the front panel and clean out a  filter. Funny none of this was in the manual. But one of the most important questions in the universe was answered... The washing machine eats the socks not the dryer! 

Disclaimer... The following picture is really gross, it is not a reflection of how tidy I keep my house, just what the filter of a washing machine that does 15 loads of laundry in a week looks like. There were 4 socks, money, hair clips and bows, jewelry, rocks, candy wrappers, buttons, hair (ewww!!) and other unidentifiable items.

What a Sweet Dad

This is one of those "I've been meaning to" blogs that I haven't blogged yet. I love family traditions and think they're important to have, and my husband started one for our family that I think it very unique (and precious). A few years ago for Valentines day we stayed home instead of going out (funny how that happens when you have six kids). So Paul got creative, gave me the night off and made a beautiful candle lit gourmet dinner for the entire family. The kids LOVED it! The next year he was planning on getting a sitter and taking me out until the kids started talking excitedly about "Are we going to do that again, Dad!?" And that's how the tradition started.
This year was beautiful, the girls (and Rush) all went to Mardi Gras in the morning while Tucker was at practice, and then we all came home for dinner (My sister and her husband opted for dinner with us-apparently waiting 3 hours for any restaurant was not going to settle with Jeff). Paul made an amazing romantic meal, with name plates, rose petals, and candles everywhere. The kids all got a giant Hershey Kiss (Storie freaked out when she figured out it was entirely chocolate) and we got them Madagascar2 to watch together as soon as dinner was done. This year all the kids each told Dad and I something they loved about us as well! And they didn't just say, "Because you gave us giant Hershey Kisses!"
So dinner was beautiful, and this is one of the favorite holidays for our kids because of how special Dad makes it! Do you have any ideas for unique family traditions?

20th Post Give Away!

Everyone likes to get free stuff. Especially me-I am always legally robbing CVS and the grocery store and getting lots of nifty free things. So today I thought I would do a give away in honor of my 20th posting. We all know how it goes! Leave me a comment, maybe even suggest something to blog about, and you'll be entered. Don't forget contact information. One entry per person, but since today is Monday you can DOUBLE your entry by re-posting on your blog (don't forget to let me know!) that I'm doing a give away.

So what is the prize? A super cute silver necklace! You can go to my little jewelry >site< and pick out one the looks like the one above! Of course, it won't have "Sarah" on it-it will have YOUR name.

The DEADLINE is next Monday for entry (the 16th) and the winner will be chosen by one of my children randomly selecting a name. I will randomly select the child. Winner will be announced on Tuesday!

Softball Girl

Saturday was opening day for both Little League and for Softball. Paul and I spent the day running from one side of the park to the other catching both Tuckers mini tournament games, Emma's game and team pictures. 8:15am to 2:45pm we drug little kids all over filling them with healthy foods like chicken on a stick, cupcakes and $5 a bag kettle-corn. At one point Paige handed someone her cupcake said, "I can't finish it, it's too much sugar!" But the highlight of the day was Emma getting her batting helmet spray painted! The boys are jealous because it is against rules in LL to have anything on your helmet.
The man who did the decorating was quite the character! He was a lot of fun. He did whisper that he prefers decorating motorcycles to little girls softball helmets-but I don't believe him. I think he prefers the purple unicorns...