It's what's for dinner...

...or I should say, what my kids think is for dinner.

A little faux grilled cheese...

It's actually pound cake with orange frosting in the middle.  I got the idea here.  Don't they have some awesome ideas??  Love it.

I'll share their reaction to my little April Fool's joke later. ;)

My sidekick

This is a typical view of mine when it's just Kelan and I hanging out during the day while the other kids are napping/having quiet time.

 

He thinks he is entirely too big, pulling himself up to the couch. 
...and my kid is seriously bald in this picture.  It's almost amplified in this wide angle shot.  

 

Love that you can see his barely there peach fuzz in this picture.  Just the proof that there is a little something there... not much, but something!

 

His sleeping pattern is driving me crazy right now (seriously I've told Steve on a number of occasions just this past week that I'd like to quit my day job :/), but I can't get enough of his cuteness when he is awake and decides to be happy!  I just have to tell myself that this is a phase and maybe, just maybe, I'll be surprised with some little teeth poking up here soon.  Then I'll have something to blame this all on.  ;)

Date Nights

... with the kids. :)

Steve and I had a discussion not long ago about wanting to make sure that our kids got one on one time with Mom and Dad regularly. Since adding the 4th little bundle of joy, it's often hard to get quality time with the older ones because the younger ones are so needy.

So, we came up with Date Night. Every Tuesday evening, one kid gets to go on a date with either Mom or Dad. So far the kids LOVE it and won't let us forget either. ;) They are always figuring out how many more days until Tuesday.

Last week it was Scarlett and I's turn. We let the kids choose what they want to do. So we went to dinner at Noodles & Co. and then went and got pedicures. Scarlett's first official pedicure...
(photo courtesy of the iPhone)

Pretty sure she'll be requesting more of these because she loved it! Then she and I did some shopping. I came home and Steve asked me how it was and I said that she was a great time! She just chats away and loves to shop and do the things that I like to do, so I had a blast! ;)

It was Kanyon and I's turn last night and he chose Megamind in 3D that happened to be a the dollar movie theater. It was great! He just sits there and is happy as can be watching the show with his drink and candy. He even snuggled up to me and held my hand... what a great date. :) I love that he's not too old for that anymore.

Cohen even got his one on one time running errands with just me last week. He was so well behaved and happy the whole time. I forget that because he is the hardest one to take in addition to all the other kids, that often times he is the first one I'm wanting to leave home when I have things to do. Really though, I think a lot of his misbehaving is boredom/attention seeking. I'm trying very hard to remember that in our regular day to day activities. So, I'm even making an effort to have that quality time with him too even though he's so young.

Steve and I both want to have a really close relationship with all of our kids individually and we're hoping that this one on one time is a step in the right direction to be able to have that. So far, it's going great and I highly recommend it. Plus the kids just get excited even for the simplest things.

2011

Maybe I don't want a Happy New Year, he said. Maybe I want an intense New Year with a lot of growth experiences

& I had to admit I'd never thought of that
-StoryPeople

Phew... Happy New Year! So nice to have a house put back together and not have stuff everywhere! As much as I love Christmas and I love to get out the decorations, there is something so fresh and new about your home again once it's all back in storage. :)

It's not perfect... lego T-Rex on the table, pull-ups from a recent Costco run, baby paraphernalia all around... but clean and de-cluttered as much as is possible with little ones in the house.

I've not totally come up with "resolutions" yet... I don't normally make any official ones but I want to have a couple of main goals for the year and I'm still thinking on them. For now though, I'll leave you with one thing that I know I'm going to try and master this year.

The Playroom. Ugh.
This was it's state this afternoon:

Can you believe I'm actually revealing it? Say I'm not the only one that has a room in their house like this one.
Even Cohen is appalled.

No matter how many times I try and "organize" and come up with some kind of system for storing toys, etc... it always ends up looking like this.




I'm not sure that I'm going to just throw my hands up and say it's the age of my kids just yet... although I would love to. My biggest issue is that this room is lacking a closet of some sort... a place to store sets of things and little items that just get tossed about the room by Cohen. ;) I'm not sure how to remedy that, but I'm going to try and figure something out. Any and all suggestions are welcome!

In the meantime... at least I know the kids are enjoying themselves and they are getting use out of the playroom! And thank goodness I have it. Could you imagine all these toys tossed about my house?? That would be a much bigger problem. ;)

For now I will just be grateful that I have to physically walk up a flight of stairs to see the mess.

2011. I hope it treats everyone well... and I hope that I don't have too many growth experiences this year (like the story mentions above). I figure I'm due for a year off after adding Kelan to our family in 2010. Those first and last few months of pregnancy were tough as well as the first couple months of the adjustment to 4 little ones in the house. It was a changing year for us, and although a bit tough at times... I'm excited for the future and where we are in life right now.

That sounded a bit like a toast... Where's my Martinelli's? ;)
Cheers!

7 weeks

I can't believe how quickly the time has passed... Kelan is now 7 weeks old and seems to be growing bigger every second. He's getting more head control and, although we are still waiting for a true smile, he seems to be showing a little more personality now.

I feel like I'm getting the hang of things better now, too. It doesn't help that the college girl we had used as our sitter for the last year plus quit on us last week, but we've decided that it was a good thing after all and we're in the process of finding someone else that will fit our needs better than she did. I've even made dinner 3 out of 4 days this week so far... Pretty amazing and not something that has happened much since I found out I was pregnant with Kelan. ;) I see a light at the end of the tunnel now and although I know it'll still be tough, I am a lot more capable than I thought I was. I just have to be *really* organized to get what I need done in a day.

Here's Cohen showing Kelan some love while he was laying on the ottoman. This is how he does it... just lays his head near him. It's how he gives hugs... a kiss is generally more of a head-butt than anything else, but on occasion he'll give you a good open mouthed one. ;)

Cohen really loves his "baby".

I adore how sweet Cohen can be and I love that he still lets me rock him and sing to him before he goes to bed at night. He wants to be big like his brother and sister so badly and I have feared that he would give up things like that faster. Thank goodness he hasn't and I hope he doesn't for a very long time!

Busy body

Cohen and I have a love/kind of love relationship. ;) Just kidding, but boy does he test my patience.

He is as sweet as can be at times though and it's a good thing, because sometimes I'm tempted to send him back. Can you do that?

The phrase that constantly runs through my mind all day...
"This too shall pass... This too shall pass..."

Thank goodness he's as cute as he is! I need to blame his craziness on the molar he just cut and the one that is coming soon. I'm sure it hasn't helped. ;)

Officially 17 months now... another month down. :)

My Laundry Fairy

I've always wished there was such a thing as a "laundry fairy"...
You know, someone to magically take care of that mountain of laundry as you sleep?
It has yet to happen.
But, I do have a sweet little 3 year old that LOVES to fold clothes. Seriously. And she's pretty darn good. So, I let her do what she loves...


because I'm a really nice mom like that. ;)

New little toes

In all the chaos that I have experienced since Kelan was born... I have really loved my quiet moments that I have with just him. It reminds me for just a moment what it was like when I just had Kanyon. All the quiet time throughout the day that Kanyon and I used to hang out together at home... taking naps on the couch together. It seems like it was a lifetime ago already, but when I do have a minute with just Kelan it doesn't feel like it was so long ago.

Here he is at 3 weeks old... can't believe he's coming up on a month soon. It goes so quickly.


I need to break out my camera more with Kelan because they change so fast in the first couple of months and you lose that newborn look so quickly. I want to remember every minute.

"Train Wreck" kind of moments

I've joked with my sister about my new life and how it will be... I think I've used the words "train wreck" on occasion to describe what I anticipated that it would be like with 4 kids with the oldest being barely 5.

I was pretty spot on with my description. Today, I had a "train wreck" moment for sure.

First of all, it's Tuesday. Tuesday is going to be the hard day for us this fall. I know this because we don't have preschool or gymnastics or anything else scheduled on this day. Anyone with any number of kids knows that a day without much planned generally results in bored children... bored children fight, whine, and tend to be mischievous.

Hmmm... maybe I ought to just make this a weekly blog post called "Train Wreck Tuesdays".

On top of it being a Tuesday, we have painters redoing our back patio doors in our walkout basement as well as our mantle and rock fireplace down there today... they are also staining the front door again. They arrived bright and early this morning (unbeknownst to me) and are currently still here at 5pm. There is sanding and vacuuming and a whole lot of banging going on down there. Our front door has no hardware, therefore my 16 month old is taking every opportunity to escape since it is really easy to do so right now.

It was all fairly uneventful until 1pm (the hardware didn't come off the front door until this afternoon) and I felt like I had a handle on the day. Kanyon was to be going down for a nap... Cohen was sleeping already, Kelan was asleep but stirring and overdue for a feeding, and Scarlett had been to a friend's house for the last 2 hours and was due home at any moment. Suddenly, Cohen wakes up screaming bloody murder after sleeping only 30 minutes (bad, bad news)... so I gave him milk, rocked him, sang to him, and gave him some motrin because we're pretty certain that he's teething again. Nothing worked. He was still screaming bloody murder. I left him to scream because Kelan started crying too. Kanyon refused to go down to his room to nap until Scarlett arrived home... and all this with the loudest sanding tools going to town in my house.

I burst into tears and called Steve. Scarlett arrives home at the same time. She's bawling because she doesn't know who the people are working in the basement (where her bedroom is) and it's really loud. I manage to get her and Kanyon in their rooms for naps and I'm just praying that they somehow are able to sleep. Kelan has worked up to a scream by this time and Cohen is still screaming. I go in one last time to try and get Cohen to lay down (to no avail) before I sit down to feed Kelan.

Someone must have said a prayer for me because about 5 minutes later, Cohen is quiet... I can't see the monitor to know if he's sleeping or just quiet (but I didn't really care in that moment) and the sanding/banging etc. stopped. They must have decided to help this frazzled lady out or get some lunch. Whatever the reasons, I had about 30 minutes of peace... enough time to feed Kelan and pull out some Ben and Jerry's from the freezer while I watched a little Bachelor Pad off my DVR.

I needed that selfish moment because it was over far too quickly. Kanyon came upstairs... pretty sure he never fell asleep and after being insanely loud in the bathroom in my hallway (thanks, bud) - Cohen was up too. I had a paint fume induced headache and Kelan wasn't happy unless he was being held.

Back to the grind.

You wonder how I managed to type this? Well, it's taken a while (read: a couple hours) coming back to it between other things, but currently Kanyon and Scarlett are cleaning their playroom after a threat to take their favorite toys and put it in the DI bin (kind of like the salvation army), Kelan is strapped to me in the sling, and Cohen is watching Elmo. Bless you, Elmo.

Steve... where are you?? Thank goodness he's bringing dinner home.

Letting go of the control

My kids have been dressing themselves for the last week.
I think Kanyon covered just about every sport right here...

Scarlett's hair hasn't been combed in a week either. Good thing she is still cute.

Cohen is just along for the ride.
I'm getting more and more nervous for Steve to leave me and go back to work. Good thing my mother-in-law is coming in town and helping for a week when he does.
After she leaves though, everyone say a little prayer for me because I think I'll really need it.

Silly Bands and my little mommy

We have heard about these new "silly bands" from friends in the midwest/east coast areas... but it hasn't really reached us out here in Utah.

Until now anyway! Thanks to our friends Jill and Keagan in North Carolina we are now part of the cool kids that have silly bands. :) Kanyon got glow in the dark galaxy ones that he loves and Scarlett got some tropical sparkly ones. Perfect for them both. What's funny is their cousins that live in the Chicago area had these at the family reunion 2 weeks ago and they actually got to see them first hand so they knew what they were missing! Now they want to wear them all the time and even take them to bed... Thanks Jill and Keag! I'm sure it won't be too long before we see them out here now!

****************************

Cohen lately has really been into Elmo's World. He gets so excited when he hears the music for it. I'll have to get it on video because it's the cutest thing. The other morning he was being a little needy, so I tried to turn Elmo on for him to hopefully distract him just long enough for me to get a few things done. It didn't really work because he wanted to sit on my lap while watching it. However, Scarlett offered to take my place... and it actually worked! Here she is with him in the photos below... She was so sweet to do that and I think she enjoyed every second of it too. She's kind of a little mommy to him these days. I have some hope now that Scarlett will be my 'go-to' helper with this next baby. I know I'll definitely need it!

Finally a name at 34 weeks

Sometimes mac photobooth is just the easiest way... but not the best photo. Convenience wins today. ;)
Here is the belly, with just 6 short weeks left, holding our wiggly baby boy...
...whom we are naming Kelan Dean Sonnenberg.

Mother's Day

I'm so lucky to be a mom. I look at my family and can't believe how blessed we are. I owe a lot to my own mom for setting such a good example raising us and teaching us what a mother should do and be for her children.

Steve snapped this photo real quick before church on Sunday. Cohen was still sleeping so he missed out, but my two other cuties are there. I guess I could say "three cuties", but the belly isn't looking so cute at 25 weeks. I need to give Steve a lesson on flattering angles. haha! ;)
Each one of my kids gave me a single pink rose that morning when I woke up. How sweet, right? Steve even let me sleep in... I don't remember the last time I walked out of my bedroom at 8:30am. :)
Steve spoiled me with a gorgeous new watch, too. Thanks babe, I love you.

It's going around...

... or so I hear, and we got it. The dreaded stomach flu took over our lives this last week as well as croup.

The Lord must have been preparing me for what lie ahead because on Monday I got every piece of laundry done in my house along with meals planned for the entire week (something I had not even thought about doing since Christmas). The playroom was cleaned that day and the house looked good. I had even been feeling a bit better and had lowered my dose of nausea medication down to half a pill each day for the last week.

Tuesday morning is when it all started and we didn't have a puke-free day until today. *crossing my fingers that doesn't change!* Scarlett led the way and then Cohen (out of the blue) woke up Tuesday evening at about 11:30pm and was really struggling to breath. Same sort of episodes that Kanyon goes through when he gets croup. After doing all we knew how to do at home to help him, I ended up in the ER that night until 2:30am with him getting the steriods he needed. That was the beginning of his miserable week of a terrible cough and fever that is still lingering today.

Here's Scarlett sleeping on her sick bed in the living room on Wednesday. She didn't leave this bed once until Friday evening, poor thing.

I kept Kanyon clear of the other two as much as I could and he was fine until Thursday. He got the stomach flu then too. It was a little tricky at night trying to balance 3 sick kids all at once and Steve and I often felt short-handed for the first time since having three. It was tough to do it when they all really needed you. We are just grateful that so far neither Steve or I have anything more than a little cold.

Here is Kanyon this morning in the shower. This has been his favorite thing to do - laying on the tile with the hot water falling on him. Along with his sippy cup of gatorade by his side. You can see he's feeling a little better today because he turned on the smile for my camera when I was just trying to sneak a shot of him.

I am hoping for a normal week and one that I can actually leave my house! I'm just so tired of being cooped up inside. I haven't stepped foot outside since Tuesday's trip to the ER, so it feels like forever.

Here is Scarlett looking happier this morning too.
She was doing my hair again in the bathroom this morning while we waiting for Kanyon in the shower.

On a happier note...

-Cohen said his first word this week. "Ball!" He loves balls and especially loves to throw them. He's got a pretty good arm too. Can't believe he said that before mama or dada though! Don't mind his crusty booger face below...

You can see my pile of freshly washed bedding in the background. I'm finally caught back up again.

The happier note continued...

-Cohen will officially be 11 mos tomorrow.

-I have my big 20 week ultrasound on Tuesday, so be expecting a post on that soon. I'm hoping baby is cooperative and we can find out if it's pink or blue this time around!

-The Chicago pictures are still coming. I planned on getting lots done last week, that included, but it didn't happen. Hopefully before this week is up.

Looking forward to Easter next week and my sister's arrival in less than 2 weeks!! :)

A little training...

Sorry folks, the photo mojo is missing at the moment and apparently took the blogging mojo with it!

Anyway, it seems that potty training Scarlett has been the focus of my life this week. She's done well with only a minor accident here and there. The biggest problem is that she thinks she can just go and take care of business with no help from me... uh, yeah, I don't think so. We have successfully been to gymnastics, jumpin jacks, and out to dinner with the family in big girl underwear. I'm hoping the ease of this continues!!

She's as proud as can be with her newest skills.

I hope the mojo comes back completely with some major R&R coming up. My stocking on Christmas day contained a flight itinerary for Maui with a plan for the kids to be well cared for all worked out. How lucky am I?

I'll catch y'all later after I've soaked up some vitamin D with the hubs.

Busy

I've been so busy lately. I thought things would slow down into a more normal routine... you know an almost boring routine like in years past. But no... it's been crazy around here. I joke that I'm not blogging much because I don't want to be stuck making such a huge blurb book next year. ;) Which, by the way, has shipped and I'm sure I'll be sharing it soon. Yay!

Really though, it's this:
Can you really be bothered to sit at the computer and blog when this is what's tugging on your leg? :) Kind of reminds me of this. Some of my favorite photos... a snapshot of my real life.

He just turned 7 months old on Sunday and yes, he's standing in that photo. He's so high maintenance now. I think this guy bonked his head about 100 times just over Thanksgiving weekend. (My sister can vouch for that.) He pulls up to everything, but just forgets what he's doing and lets go only to go crashing down. I have to follow him around and cushion his fall every 2 minutes. Not kidding.

Guess what he tried to do yesterday?
Climb the stairs.
Please, please stop growing so fast. I can't take it.

Half-Birthday

Can you believe my little bug is 6 months old today??
Me either.

It's bitter sweet really. I'm in that awesome stage where he never has to be rocked to sleep anymore, but I can still rock him if I want to. He can hold his own bottle now but will still allow me to hold it if I feel the urge. He loves to have me there every second, but he's happy to just explore on his own too.

He loves rice cereal and mom's homemade squash. Next on our list is to try out the sweet potatoes I made too that are just waiting in the freezer. He's still a little guy and I'm not sure on his weight yet because I have to get him in for his well check with the doc still. Regardless of that, he's the happiest little healthy babe around.
I know all of these things won't last long and before I know it he'll be too big to let me do half the things I wish I could do for him. But for now, I'm just really enjoying him.

Check out Cohen's latest.
Yep... just 2 days shy of 6 months here and he's about to take off.
He's as pleased as punch about it too.
I took this video of him yesterday with the kids... they're pretty excited for his progress too.

I can see I'm entering a whole other phase of babyhood again.
Happy 6 months, my little man.