Ebeth's 4 and no more

Mr. I am now 12 and refuse to "play" with my family kicked in this year. Yep, plan A and B didn't work out so we ended up at Zachary's park for plan C. We ate, splashed in the water, played follow the leader through the water, and experimented with a bouncy ball and the water spouts. It was a super fun day of just being together. Big man was mad at me for not allowing him to be home at the time of his birth (1:21), nor sit in the car stating it was the closest thing to home. I love the way his mind thinks even if I do not understand it all the time. Beyond that he managed to be blessed by family and friends giving him enough money to buy a Kindle Fire. PLUS an awesome friend got him the wall track he wanted, then a surprise gift by a friend of G left him with a Wii game too. He is pretty thrilled with all that. Timing being everything another present came in the mail. He doesn't yet get the complexity of this gift but I sure do. It happens to be inserts special...

Today is a Father's day to remember. This morning #2 carrying #4 arrive in my room bright and early at 6am. Apparently littlest who had spent the night for the 5th day in a row in her brother's room fell out of his bed. The sweet big sis she is came to rescue her from big brother who try as he might is less than nurturing. She deposited her to my car with as few words as possible then promptly headed back to her room to sleep.  Good for her bad for me. Being a day for dad's I took one for the team and headed to shower with my sidekick. Once everyone was up we made "rollups" (cinnamon rolls), bacon and coffee. We even saved one of each for G next door, delivering it not so smoothly before church. After church were to head for a cozy brunch at Brother and SIL house. But instead of a pleasant uneventful ride hubby informed me we had to detour to pick up other Brother, SIL and nephew who had hit a deer. There is one thing that is for sure with the Colbert clan, and t...

My silly girls were stunting after the water play If only every Saturday were as simple as today! My oldest slept the latest he ever has till 9:40 am. This is the child who gets up at 6 or 6:30 MAYBE 7 on a really exceptional day. I was beginning to wonder if I should check on him. Then at 10am we began the necessary function of chores, followed by random lunch choices and more vegetable like behavior. I love his faces!  Post nap we took the fun up a notch by playing in the sprinkler, riding our bikes, watching the last 25 min of Titanic (narrated by our household expert). Even better is the notion that the kids were relating to the emotions of the individuals in the movie, questioning validity and more throughout. I adore them all for thinking like this. It is my prayer that they will be aware that media is more than just entertainment, instead it effects you as a person too. Next was reading devotions, praying and practicing cheering. Ooh don't let me forget that mea...

These kids, they crack me up...drive me crazy and melt my heart. Every....Single.....Day! Parenting is like nonstop thrill rides I tell ya. Today my youngest son now 7 decided that hunting down his missing shoe was not worth the effort. The shoe that was actually lost while sitting on the rack as it is supposed to be but nevertheless the story continues. So instead he chose a too small croc shoe. Yep singular was correct, shoe. To top that off he even had to work to get it on and when I questioned he said, "Ooooh, comfy!" But as if that was not enough he also chose to wear a new found shirt in his closet that has a digger on it with his most favorite camo fleece. In my opinion I am not sure he could have mismatched any more than today. In all that though I loved his confidence and complete innocence. Can I bottle that up to give him a dose in a couple more years please? #1 was blatanly ignoring directions this afternoon and therefore got grounded from electronics fo...

Tonight as my crew of 6 sat down to eat a dinner together it was everything typical. Typical being a relative term really as nothing is ho hum with 4 kids! Chinese was the venue of choice as tomorrow is hubby's bday. There really isn't any family member who is unhappy about this choice and it has been several months since it worked out. Anyways.... while there my husband didn't have to start the chanagans it was my oldest daughter who did. Well maybe they both get credit as it was hubby who stuck the chopsticks in daughter's ice cream, but daughter who returned such action with pulling them out and calling them chocolate spears. She then proceeded to swipe one down his entire arm smearing the somewhat liquefied products even. I couldn't contain my laughter which made the waitress come over and retrieve our plates and politely shush us, LOL! Then my oldest son dropped the bombshell of the night. Munching quietly hubby sat across the table from me. "How old wil...

My oldest son is complicated and wonderful all wrapped up in one. This is not the first time I type that he doesn't fit between the lines and causes me to scratch my head in dealing with him. I am sorry to admit I too often have been harsh or jumped the gun in disciplining but this is the sad story for the oldest. Firstborn kids pave the way for the rest. Here in the picture he can be seem seeking a specific egg, he was dilligent and determined to not only get candy but more. I love his drive when it matters to him. If only I can put my finger on the magic to get him to do this for everything else that isn't easy or fun. #1 informed me tonight of the revised cost to recieve his master black belt status in Tae Kwon Do. Originally he believed it would be in 2014, but deeper investigation proved that was a bit off. I figured as much really. Needless he has been pretty caught up with cost. There are several levels before master that are a large amount to a child or parent. Yet d...

This Easter was a culmination of family, kids and church but not quite in that order. You see I was in charge of the egg hunt itself at two churches. The first one involved moving 92 4-Kindergarten age kids, and 50 2 and 3 year old children from their rooms outside and back in. There was moments of rocky seas but overall we made it through. 250 elementary age kids joined in the ultimate fun and I came home, brushed teeth and climbed into my bed with my 2 girls on each side. I can't recall the last time I did that and wasn't sick!  Here you can see just the beginning of the 20,000 eggs that got stuffed (2500 by me/us). My poor kids worked hard helping with all that I was required to do. Ya know I gotta say when you simply attend church you think you have an idea of what all goes one, but NOPE you really don't have a clue! I am so proud of their nearly constant positive attitudes too.  Here we kicked off the Palm Sunday/ Easter week with Aunt Net and my side of the ...

Us non upside down roller coaster peeps In a rare moment (or hour really) I ended up finalizing the Easter shopping with my oldest son. Well, Easter dinner shopping is more like what we were doing but you get the point. While walking to get some toiletries I ran into another mom I know. We chatted and when the conversation no longer included said son he asked if he could fetch the item (hairspray). I didn't put much stock in his ability since it was several aisles away but simply directed him with it being in a black can. A moment or two later he arrives with the wrong item but amazingly similar. Giving him the brand name this time, he headed off again only to return with all three types of the correct item. Nearly speechless the other mom said, "He does better than my husband." We giggled and ended our chat. #1 continued acting so mature like in his conversation and interest in shopping I turned and said, "Can I share a secret?" He said the natural answ...

Somehow those two titles for today (April Fools day and Palm Sunday) do not make much sense. April fool's normally means nothing to me especially since it is the first name written on my birth certificate. Yep, Elizabeth is my chosen name (given as it is my middle name) but April is what the initial A is all about. I hated it for unknown reasons at this point. Though I recall a specific moment when my 1st grade teacher refused to call me Elizabeth. She informed me that unless I went to a judge and changed my name she would not call me anything but April. It could then be said that such a statement to this strong willed child was like I double dog dare you to make it happen another way. So, here I am with a social security card and driver's license that says A. Elizabeth. EVERYTHING I own has that name on it too. Take that Ms. First grade teacher! Now moving on I am grateful my oldest daughter had a better experience with her first cheerleading coach. Take in to accoun...

This is the question I answer most of the day. When you are the mom of 4 kids, the youngest being 3 this is expected. Then when you teach 1st graders, 2nd and Kindergarten um yeah more why's. But it has become an increasing observation of mine that we adults ask why a lot too. Why do I let me kids this? Why do other parents who are not even present to defend themselves do such and such? Why do we need, take or have to be here or there? So many questions so little time. I am guilty of this line of thinking, I suppose to be empathetic one must put themselves in the frame of mind of others but there is a fine line. Either way the best question happened this evening, while at dance, when I was asked, "Do I like to run?". Hmm, I took a literal step back and paused. Well, "Yes, part of the time." It was at that point that our conversation was interrupted and I headed out before my allotted time before class was over ended. Being the first time I ran from this locat...

I just finished reading http://travisjenny.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-no-his-yes.html It made me reflect in just the opposite way. You see there have been SO MANY TIMES I was stubbornly set upon doing or having something beyond rationale or prayer. I set out to be married in 1998 so badly that hubby and I jumped into a boat neither of us were emotionally prepared for just yet. Then I was determined to move forward in the steps of future that we tried getting pregnant for 9 long months while I worked on finishing my Bachelors degree. God knew I needed to do one thing at a time but solely focused on achieving an end goal NOW I trucked on having no concern for his will for my life. Well, then there was the pregnancy fairly easy but ending in an early delivery, unwanted c-section and surprise unexplained imperfections (extra finger, dislocated hips). Still unshaken I moved on in a naive level of parenting certain of my future. It was this blindness that led me through 5 surgeries in his f...

Moments before our last baby was born Tonight I went to meet my cousin who is having a baby. Awhile back I offered to help her with the baby registry stuff because well it is hard the first time around. Companies have smart marketing campaigns that create things like a mattress cover for a baby mattress that oh is waterproof anyway! I remember vividly how daunting the task was and thought I could be helpful. Time treked forward as it always does and BAM she is 6 months pregnant. Whew that was like a blink for me, an hour's drive away that is. She called and wanted my help after her and fiance got frustrated. My sidekick and I The crew and our parade traditions Fast forward to tonight and it was tons of fun. I shared my opinion or suggestion of preference on some things that made no matter. In turn she said several times, "Just tell me which to pick." We sat in the registry chairs for a few minutes to chat and then each went our own ways. As I drove though...

I am a girl. Go figure right? Well, I mean being a girl means that I just cannot fully grasp the mind of a man/boy. While I love my boys in a very different way than my girls I have no idea what runs through their minds or really lack there of too. Hehe. As of late my oldest son rolls into a more mature considerate role and then BAM like a commercial break he loses it again and I remind myself the simple word eleven. Today however he immersed me in all the reasons I love him so. First, he checked out the Guinness book of world records. Man I loved that book as a kid and I was even then a girl too. Girls can totally enjoy stuff like that. Anyway, the entire family heard about all the weird things that exist such as the smallest and tallest people. Oh another he read to us then and continues this morning was a woman who had 15 sets of triplets. He was a bit confused when I said most of them probably didn't survive. It was during a time frame starting in 1835 after all. Gestation dis...

First let me preface by the fact that I previously was a stay at home mom for 5 years until this past fall. It would be safe to jump to the assumption that I SO remember what it is like to do the unpaid mom gig. EXCEPT in my selfish comparison I actually had multiple children at home, AND didn't have anyone to get our children ready for me before I head to work. BUT, since I recognize that God did not create men and woman equal, including my husband who has a role very different than me it is unfair to expect him to be me. I mean I didn't want a husband just like me. We WOULD kill each other I am sure! :) Anyway, let me now add an important fact that hubby is an AMAZING Dad! He can also cook a great meal, manage our 10 acres outdoors wise, among other very important things I do not do well myself. Now having mentioned all of that which didn't need to be said let me get to the main event. Today, the second official day hubby was home involved NO children until he pick...

By the 3rd day of Disney adventure I had relaxed and accepted that life involves imperfection. This was a Saturday as well so we were certain that we needed to arrive as early as possible to Epcot. Thursday and Friday were slow in Disney terms so the weekend simply had to be busier. We were correct, but this first 2 hours we AWESOME. Heck, the first hour felt like there was no one but us riding things. The first ride was called the Test Track which reminded me of G and #3. It was just like it sounds with test dummies and cars/tools all along the way. #4 was not tall enough again so we split up into groups. I did force under duress #1 to ride it who nervously made it one time. He would have been fine if they wouldn't have shown you that it gets up to 70 I think outside for just a short time. This picture was taken just outside the Mission Space ride. Again we went in two shifts which really meant that Daddy and I rotated. It was a pretty cool simulation ride and #1 LOVE...