Don’t be jealous.

We just harvested our garden today and I had to share the abundance of produce we picked.

Here they are! Our 2 dying finger carrots. Aren’t they pretty? I’m really proud of these 2 carrots. We started out with a bunch of baby carrots and tomatoes but they kept dying off one by lonely little one until all we had left was one broken tomato plant and 2 carrots. The tomatoes are still plugging along but will probably freeze before we ever get a ripe one. By golly we have 2 carrots and we did grow something. I grow kids much better than gardens ;).

Speaking of that here’s a shot for the Grandma’s. The traditional first day of school picture, an after school shot. Mary got a new haircut and it was crooked so I had to take her to the salon after she got out while the others were still in school. The morning pictures I took really bug me. I want to cock my head to the side just to look at Mary’s. They always look so cute the first day though.

They loved their first day!

I loved sending them to their first day :).

Extra fireworks will be fired

Today was the big day, I had my 20 week ultrasound this morning! I’ve been so worried that something was going to be wrong. Not that I have a big reason to feel that way but I’ve been so blessed to have 5 healthy kids I was nervous that something could come up this time. I feel that way every single time though. Everything looks great, so that’s a big relief. Baby is growing as it should and is just the cutest little 11 ounce thing.

We were lucky enough to get 2 short little digital clips along with the pictures so it was fun to bring the disk home and let the kids watch their new sibling kick around and wave at them. I was going to add a picture of my pregnant self today but nah… don’t feel like it. How about I tell the gender instead?

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I’m nice like that. I figure it’s the least I can do. Isn’t finding out you’re pregnant and then waiting to see what it will look like surprise enough?

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I say so! No one will convince me other wise. Ever. I give better gifts to people who tell. Not really but I should start doing that ;).

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So, it’s a….

Mustache Onesie!!!! Yep, Jeremy’s pleading has been heard and he will get the brother we keep forgetting to order for him. I don’t want to jinx myself and say it too many times or bits might just fall off in the next 20 weeks.

Now to scrounge up baby boy ideas. I typed that so it doesn’t count towards the jinxing. I feel in the mood to light blue fire works now.

Have a happy and safe 4th weekend!

Laundry (in)sanity

Ah laundry. The bane of my existence. I get so jealous when I run across a blog post where someone says “We came home from our trip and I had an entire load to wash”. HA! Yes, I ha’d you 1 load people. I’m not bragging or trying to play the martyr here but with 7 1/2 people and a smelly dog in our family I have at least 12 loads a week of just clothes and towels. Add sheets and blankets and dog stuff and our house is basically a 24 hour laundromat.

Since I’m elbow deep in clothes all the time I thought I’d give my $.02 on laundry and how I make it a little more bearable.

I can almost hear the gasps coming- I only buy white towels, kitchen and bath. I know you probably think I’m crazy but I swear by it. My kids are hard on towels and don’t always get them into the laundry when they should so they end up smelling gross or stained. I used to have dark green towels and I would have to wash them several times to get them to smell okay and sometimes they would still have a stain or two on them that no amount of stain treating or soaking would get out.

Not with white towels. I throw my towels in the wash with bleach and let it soak for a while. Being able to bleach them is key. My towels are several years old and look great. It works for restaurants, hospitals, and hotels and by golly it works for big families to. I do buy colored beach towels just so the kids know which towels they can take to the pool or outside. No white towels leave the house.

Here’s my other dirty (clean?) secret. I don’t fold or match socks. We have a sock basket and everyone is on their own for finding socks. As I’m folding I put all the socks I find in the load in a separate pile and if there happens to be a match screaming at me I’ll fold it, the rest go in the basket. Moral of this story, make sure both your socks are together in the dirty laundry or you get to play find and seek. This isn’t so much for convenience as it is that I just hate socks.

Each child over 6 also folds his/her own laundry. I’ll happily wash and throw their clothes in their baskets but it’s their responsibility to see that they get folded. Let me tell you, it sure cuts down on the amount of clean clothes they “accidently” put in the dirty clothes bins because eventually they do have to fold them again.

Long post but it’s been on my mind, and covering my coffee table at the moment. Any tips that save your laundry day?

Nice Try.

Reason #1298 why children are worth keeping around.

Alrighty, let’s see what’s so urgent.

It reads (as written): CONTRACT. I here by make it offical That my son JeremyA.Baxter is allowed to play the Wii six hours a day on any game he wants. If this contract is harmed in any way the legal laws of the house clearly state that this contract is permanet . An further more this legal paper was actually currently signed by Brigdet K.Baxter.

I must have a huge case of pregnancy brain because I don’t remember this contract and I’m positive that as dumb as I look right now I still remember how to spell my own name. I think.

In our house you have to earn video game time. For every chapter you read in an actual book (no comic books) you get 10 minutes of Wii time. He hasn’t touched a book in over a month. Nice try buddy. I love kids!

An Ashy sort of post

My kids are getting huge. They’re getting older which reminds me that so am I. This week it was Ashlyn’s turn to make her mother feel ancient. I love her so much I want to make a commune for all my kids to stay with me forever. Think their wife and husbands will go for that?

All of my kids have completely different personalities and here are a few that make Ashy Ashy-

1. She’s a people pleaser in a good way. She stays out of trouble 99% of the time. I’m counting on her to stay that way until she’s 60. If I ask her to do something it gets done, eventually.

2. She wants to be a dancer and a teacher when she grows up.

3. She loves Italian food. Lasagna is her favorite.

4. She’s a girly girl but not girly, makes sense huh. She loves jewelry, paper dolls, flowers and butterflies, and the color pink but she never plays with them or wears them. She always asks for that kind of stuff but she just wants to have it, not use it.

5. She agrees with her dad about everything. Traitor.

6. She’s my name sake sort of. One of her many middle names is my middle name to. She’s the only child we have with 2 middle names, and the last if I have any say ;).

7. She can’t sleep in the car. When I’m driving home from a trip late at night and I think all the kids are asleep I’ll sing my heart out and hear her giggling in the back. She stays perfectly quiet for hours in the dark until I sing making me think she’s out. She never sings with me either. I have a great voice by the way, giggle worthy.

8. She’s completely timid and a little shy as pictured below.

I have no idea where this came from but I can bet Cody had something to do with it. There’s about 3 more like it so your guess is as good as mine. She’d be so embarrassed if she knew it was on here. Good thing she doesn’t read my blog… he he.

I’ll be taking real pictures of her and her dress today or tomorrow if this stinking weather will cooperate. I can’t have a scrapbook filled with that up there. Yikes.

And by the way, my mom’s Olde English Bulldogge Sandy (renamed Bella now that she doesn’t live with the breeders anymore) had puppies and that’s where we got our little guy. His name is Perry and I love him. LOVE him. I’m not a dog person at all but he’s snatched my heart in the “I finally found a dog I can stand and really actually like” kind of way. I’m a little sad I bonded with the male and not the female and I’m going to have to make manly stuff now, but he’s a dog so I can make him sleep on floral if I want to. She still has one left so if you live near Boise ID and are interested drop me an email. I would have snatched them both up if I didn’t already feel like I have 6 puppies at home ;).

Have a fantastic Thursday!

Birthday girl and chair couch pillows

My Kaci Weeds turned 4 yesterday. My 4th little one is 4! I love this little girl so much. I really can’t believe she went from that tiny little thing to such a big girl. She loved her “birsday” and even though we’ve been sick all weekend she had a great time. She’s princess all the way and had a mini pink cake with a princess on the top. I wish I could share pictures of her special day but we all looked like death (especially me), not that she cares but I do ;).

After I blow my nose for the 1,000th time and come out of my head cold coma I’m going to try to muster up the strength to finish my couch pillows. I hate being sick but I’m not one of those wussies that can’t craft during an illness. Bring on the thread! Okay, so that’s not totally true. I’ve been complaining and coughing and sleeping all weekend and now I’m on the downhill side of this bug so I think I can pull it off today.

I’m making chair pillows for my couch and a couch bolster pillow for my chair. I’m so clever, I think, unless they look like crud when I’m done. We’ll see after nap time.

Thanks for the well wishes with baby #6! I’m doing fantastic, other than this nasty cold. I don’t get sick when I’m pregnant usually (not fair I know) but I have been more nauseous this time. If I have one complaint it’s that my hormones have taken over and I’m completely insane. I cry at the drop of a hat and I’m pretty dang moody, but I don’t notice it until after the storm. It’s like an out of body experience where the sane me is looking down at the bawling mess of myself and going “what the heck?”. It’s hard to describe but I apologize in advance if I cry or make you cry. I’ll realize it later and feel really badly, unless you have it coming ;). I hope this isn’t an indication of what I have in store with this little one later!

Have a fantastic Monday!

Secrets revealed

You guys are awesome, I loved reading your guesses on my secret project. I got a bunch of great ideas without even trying and I wish I was half as amazing as some of you think.

More than a few of you were spot on. Some of you were close. In the near future I am going to work on a new pattern, a bunch of skirts, a new dress or 5, a tutorial is in the works, pants… yep, a few quilts (maybe even one for me), and a ton of baby stuff for November.

Somewhere around November 19th give or take.

Baby #6 is on the way. I am so excited and can’t wait for this little one to join our family! Don’t ask me about it in person though, I’m a little touchy about the “Don’t you know what causes that?” and “Are they all yours?” and “You’re going to have your hands full!” comments so I might just take you down. We were completely expecting to be expecting so we are thrilled.

So on to secret #2. The prize. So what did you enter to win? This-

A little something I made to draw attention away from my root beer belly. I’m not sure that was such a good idea because I think it draws attention to my growing double chin so I’m passing it on. Who am I passing it on to?

Using my random comment generator, also know as my trusty rusty colander and Mary’s cute little hand, the winner is JWB! Congrats and I’ll send it over after I get it wrapped up and cutified.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Lovin’ Weeds

This is Weeds. I love this girl. She’s sassy, scrawny, super funny, and her own little person. For a 3 year old she’s pretty dang smart if I do say so myself.

I was flipping through all 6 channels on my t.v. last night and Cops must have been on because we came across a police officer arresting a woman. I flip channels pretty fast so I didn’t think anyone noticed. Kaci did.

Kaci- “Mom, is that lady going to jail?”

Me- “Yep”

Kaci- “She did a bad thing huh mom.”

Me- “Sometimes when grown ups do bad things they have to go to a big grown up time out for a while.”

Kaci- “Is she gonna get a trial?”

Seriously- she’s 3. Where do they get this stuff?

Happy Everything Trip

We had such a great time on our surprise trip, and I’m not just saying that. We had a blast. It was a happy belated 10th anniversary, happy first overnight stay without kids ever, and happy birthday trip all in one. I was just happy to get out of town without packing the portable crib and silly songs!

We listened to adult radio stations. We ate at restaurants that don’t have kids menus. We stopped at an antique mall on the way, something mothers with 5 children never do unless you want to buy lots of broken glass cats and owl lamps.

We drove through this pass without needing to stop for a throw up bucket and dramamine, so nice. You can bet your sweet bippies I was heavily applying my fake brake the entire time though. We swapped cars with Cody’s parents and left them with our bus and I was really disappointed it didn’t have crap handles. Our bus has several on the passenger side. I really missed them and hope they don’t mind the claw marks I left on the door.

With my superior passenger seat driving skills we made it. Seattle!! I had never been before so I just soaked everything in. This was the view from our room.

Have I ever mentioned that I have the most amazing husband ever? He booked us a room in the shopping district. I love him. We were right in the middle of everything. We didn’t have to drive the entire weekend (other than to get there and back home). Want to go shopping, lets walk a block or two. Want to watch a movie, 3 blocks. Want to eat at the Space Needle, 2 blocks to the monorail. Want to see Pike’s Market, 5 blocks.

The market was Cody’s favorite stop. It was a ton of fun and even has a quilt shop in it. I was truly surprised at how big it is, 3 stories. We even got to see a few salmon chucked back and forth. Here are my favorites from Pike’s-

I really want this piggy bank! Of course I would need the coins already inside as well. Just to get me started ;).

The infamous gum wall. I would say that’s it is the single most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen but we went to “Bodies” while we were there so I’m not complaining.

Whoever “ANNA” is is a lucky woman. Her name stretched in yellow gum, how romantic. Now that’s love. I wasn’t about to touch it and I was really afraid to get my hair stuck in there. The wind was blowing something fierce and Cody wouldn’t let me leave until he got a picture. I just knew I was going to get stuck and have to have a bowl cut to get it all out. And yes, Cody did touch it…

We didn’t have a plan the entire time, we just followed random groups of people into random buildings. That was the most fun ever. Not knowing what we were going to do or where we were going made the trip. We saw it all, and I mean all, and had more fun because of it.

Seattle I love you. See you next year (hint hint Cody).