9 years!

Well.. today is our 9 year wedding anniversary! WoW! Honestly it has been a crazy nine years. We have been through 4 births, many, many jobs, 4 years of D in school and so much more.

LoVe YoU dArIn!

Colton's first Oreo

Okay.. so Colton has just started eating crackers and he does so well with them. Yesterday we went to wal-mart to pick up some much needed items and one of the necessities on Darin's list is the Oreo Fudge Rings. (Which by the way I TOTALLY can't eat!) I've been in such a good mood lately and he was doing really good with the crackers. I couldn't help myself... I needed something to blog about and so... we gave him half of an oreo fudge ring! The result?

And because you can't take pictures of the baby and not the other boys eating Oreo's, here's a couple more!

Mind you that the boys (including Darin) were in fact posing for these pictures.

On a completely different note! I have been working out for 3 weeks now but this week I started something a little different. I could tell by the end of last week that working out "whenever I could squeeze it in" after Darin got home and in between the boys activities was a whole lot of stress on my family. I had toyed with the idea of going to the gym at 5 in the morning but decided that was ridiculous. Well, after a rough weekend, I realized that the resentment I was facing was totally justified. I started thinking more and more about going to the gym in the morning and realized that, not only would it not take away from family time, but it would give Darin and Me some MUCH NEEDED alone time in the morning. I've never been one to get up and see my husband off to work but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how messed up that was. Seriously... If I had to get up every morning by six while my hubby slept in, I think I would be bugged. SO.... this week I decided to try the early morning thing. I LOVE IT!! My workouts feel so invigorating in the early a.m. I have a lot of energy to really push myself. I get home from the gym and think that being intimate with my hubby sounds like an AWESOME and NECESSARY idea. I make him breakfast and we have time to sit and talk and laugh together. I've even told him I will start making his lunch but, he is anorexic and prefers to not eat lunch at work. I find myself smiling in the middle of the day just thinking about him and... I JUST FEEL AWESOME! So here's to becoming a better person, and building relationships up in the process.

Anxiety... UGH!

Ever since Colton's "near death" experience in July I have had this fear that he was going to die. I've had the fear before, especially with the first where you wake up and check on them. I think the fear used to be more about, it's something new is it still going to be here in the morning and less about, PLEASE let him be breathing, PLEASE don't let him be hurting again.
We have decided it is time for him to sleep in his crib, in his own room. I actually wake up in a panic and run in to touch him and wait for him to move ALOT to prove to me that he is not dead. Sometimes I will poke him 10 times before I get an adequate amount of movement from him. I don't know how to let go of this anxiety. I cannot convince myself that he is fine. What if he's not? Losing him would be TRAGIC! This fear is only aimed at him. I totally feel like the other 3 boys will be fine. That no harm will come to them. Colton is different though. What to do with the pit in my stomach? How do I at least help the fear subside?

Raining...

Today is not a good day.. tomorrow doesn't look so good either.

Happy Birthday Whitney!

Yesterday was my niece Whitney's 10th birthday! I cannot believe it has been 10 years since she was born. She changed our entire family in so many wonderful ways and we are so proud of her now. She is beautiful, intelligent and very sweet! She is also not afraid to try new things.

HaPpY bIrThDaY wHiTnEy!!!!

We LoVe YoU!!

Wow!

So a few exciting things have happened lately. First of all, Dom is officially potty trained and now has learned how to use "accidents" to manipulate mom! It's fascinating and I'm not sure how to deal with it. Basically, if he says he has to go potty and I don't jump up and run to the potty he will just go into the bathroom and poop/pee his pants! UGH!! He has been super mom clingy lately and the potty has been the perfect opportunity to take every second of my time he can.

Jaydin started Level 4 in gymnastics yesterday and I am KICKING MYSELF for not bringing my camera. Seriously... he did a back hand spring all by himself yesterday. He also did EVERTHING that they asked him to without any help. The coach was ecstatic and talking about level 5. Apparently the boys in the class he is in are all competition boys. Competitions start in like a month and these boys have been working like crazy for 5 or 6 months to get ready. She actually said that if he wants to compete he can.... I'm not sure where to go with that. He does want to compete... it's just more money and honestly, it might not be fair to the other boys who have been working so hard for so long. We'll see.

Damon has been becoming a kinder, sweeter, more respectful kid. He LOVES scouts and TaeKwonDo and really wants to do gymnastics as well... it's so much for them. Another undecided moment.

Colton is finally feeling like he will get teeth soon. I am not super excited for this because I nurse him and I don't want to get bit. He also is starting to army crawl towards objects. I will record it when I get the opportunity.

Darin is working. I feel like he's kind of drifting and maybe depressed. Don't know what to do for that.

I joined a weight loss competition. I'm so excited to finally be working towards a goal and while most would assume that goal would be a certain amount of lbs or something my goal is to FINISH WHAT I START! It's a 6 month competition and win or lose, I am determined to stick to this for 6 months. I do have a blog for this journey (it's required by the competition) but remember, it's a weight loss blog. There are some horrible before pics and things of the such there so... please don't visit it unless you are REALLY interested in watching my progression. www.thinformyboys.blogspot.com .

Hope everyone is doing fantastic! :o) Kari

Life in general

So.. everything has been crazy but Christmas break was really not too bad. Damon and Jaydin were happy and for the most part kind to eachother. Dominic is pretty much officially potty trained although he did have an issue yesterday while playing in someone elses house. Hopefully we don't have any more of those.

Damon and Jaydin got snowboards for Christmas and we were able to go up to the elementary school and Darin showed them how to snowboard. We had a lot of fun playing in the snow with Justin and Jessica and their kids! Everyone LOVED tubing and sledding. I attempted to snowboard but lets just say it: I'M A CHICKEN! The worst part is that once I'm on my but I'm too fat to get up. Seriously I cannot physically stand while I'm strapped to the board so I sit on my butt flapping around like a beached whale or something! UGH!!!

Here are some pics from our snow fun!

We also had the opportunity to go to Colorado for New Years. We had a lot of fun relaxing with Darin's brother Les & Fam. Our kids had lots of fun playing with their kids and we spent a lot of time just relaxing, enjoying good company and great food! ;o) We went to Chuck-E-Cheese and a dairy farm while we were there but I never had my camera with me so... these pics are ones I got when we were just hanging around the house. It's obvious that my children and Les' children LOVE eachother!

I still need to post Christmas stuff but have felt like a slacker so I hope you will bare with me and my slacker ways! :o)