What have the Baxleys been up to so far this year, well it’s been a busy time!
Calvin and Patrick had birthdays
We painted the dining and living rooms
We got a new van
Noah, Marie, and Calvin made it through their first year at Unity West with flying colors.
Andrew and Andrea came home from Antarctica
Noah, Calvin, and Marie did a skit at the talent show
Calvin lost his first tooth (2/28)
Patrick is walking (2/28)
Visited Ray and Besty
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Merry Christmas! As you can see, once again mom has taken the easy way out. Or I can disguise it as trying to be “green” and save a few trees by doing our Christmas cards electronically this year. Believe what you will.
So, our biggest news of 
the year…another baby! Patrick Benjamin was born March 29, 2010. He is a happy and healthy baby boy who loves keeping up with the family tradition of early mobility and is almost walking on his own now. Although he recently learned to sleep through the night, so we’re VERY happy with that accomplishment. The picture on the left is of Patrick and Great Grandma Appleby on her birthday. Note the birthday crown on Grandma’s head made by the older kids.
Molly, 4, began her first year of preschool this fall and she totally loves it. Love love loves it. We’ve never seen a little girl who is so strong she can beat up her 9 year old brother but so cute and little she melts your heart. She’s learning fast and enjoys playing outside in the dirt and inside with her dolls. We’re still not sure where she gets her energy but we sure wish we could bottle it! She still likes to dress up as a ballerina too. Not sure how she keeps so warm when our house is 65 degree and she’s running around in a leotard.
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At the left you can see our Dominic ready to bite into another apple (yes, he ate lots of apples off our tree.) Yes, he’s already 2 years old! It’s hard to believe our #5 is now in the *terrific* twos! He’s now talking up a storm and growing like a weed. One of his favorite things is John Deere. Every tractor is called a John Deere. Thomas trains come in a close second. He has a fondness for tractors, trains, and books. Needless to say he is the easiest kid to buy presents for.
Marie, 7, started 1st grade this year. She is doing great at school and loves every minute of it. She is still in the business of collecting hippos and is now trying to learn to sew like mom. She’s especially into American Girl dolls and reading. Honestly, I think she’s into just about anything and everything any 7 year old girl could be interested in at that age!
Calvin, 5, began kindergarten this year. He is doing so well with his work and loves every minute of school. He just started reading and is taking off and he’s so proud of himself (and we are too of course!) His current interests are Legos, Legos, and more Legos. Oh, and he likes anything to do with knights and castles too. Early this year we went down to Carbondale to a medieval play castle made just for kids. Calvin loved it. You can usually catch him dressed up in his knight costume running around the house looking for dragons or trying to get one of his sisters thrown into the dungeon.
Last but not least, Noah. He just turned 9 in October and continues to impress us with his eagerness to learn and how fun he can be. The school change was a challenge socially for him at first, but now he has settled in and gets along with all his classmates and is excelling in all his classes. He’s so good with the younger kids and always taking care of the babies and playing with them. Now that Noah and Calvin have their own room complete with a Lego extravaganza, we sometimes don’t see him for 2 or 3 hours because he is usually building some fun contraption that he invented. He is really enjoying 3rd grade and being the entertainer for his class.
Nate is still working at the College of Education at the Univ. of IL and liking it. He has a few side jobs he takes on for fun and recently turned out thelistmaker.com so we can keep up with the gift lists for our family across the globe. Sharon is at home with the brood keeping up with laundry, meals and potty training. We’re both loving having a large family and feel very blessed God entrusted us with 6 beautiful, healthy children.
We hope you have a happy, healthy 2011 and drop us a line or stop in to say hi!
Nate & Sharon
Noah, Marie, Calvin, Molly, Dominic & Patrick
50 degree nights, 80 degree days. PERFECT weather! The pool is drained, the corn and bean fields are disappearing, and the wagons are full full of apples fresh off the tree ready for applesauce crisps, pies, cider and whatever else apple we can thing to make of them!
The kids are liking their new school. Noah was having a tougher time adjusting to a different school and new friends but his schoolwork is going great and he’s so fortunate to have his cousin in his class to get to know other kids. Marie loves being with her friends from preschool and is quite the social butterfly enjoying being in the same class as her cousins and preschool friends. Even Calvin is turning out to be quite the little scholar. He had a little trouble with adjusting to the classroom situation (aka no running, hands to yourself, etc) the first 2 weeks but since then he’s doing great and his school work is superb. Molly started preschool two days a week and loves loves loves it! She is the little artist constantly drawing and practicing her letters here at home. Dominic is talking like crazy and so stinkin’ cute. He looks just like his daddy. Patrick is mobile now and loves to eat. He is 6 months old and crawling around like a madman and can even pull up on things now, usually hitting his head on something as he is still unsteady while pulling up. He usually has a smile for anyone he sees. The past few days he has become quite vocal which made for an interesting mass yesterday morning. It is hard to tell a 6 month old to whisper!
What’s has mom been up to? Since Dominic was born two years ago, I’ve been making an effort to make things simple around the house, spend more time at home, and slow down. I got a clue that I was away with too many activities when one evening Marie asked me who was going to be home for bedtime (otherwise meaning if me or Nate was going to be home and which of us was going out to a meeting, etc.) The kids are growing up so fast and I don’t want to miss a thing! And with 6 kids, Nate and I barely get any time alone as it is! We decided to make Sundays family days and with only church and family activities. What a blessing this has been! With all the hectic goings-on of the week, Sundays are our day to slow down and enjoy the kids and spend some time as a family hanging out. Sometimes the boys spend the afternoon playing Legos with Nate and I cook with the girls in the kitchen..or we may go on an outing somewhere together. We end the day with an easy crock-pot supper, rosary and bible story time and early bedtime for the kids so Nate and I can get a breather and enjoy some football together. I’ve really started looking forward to Sundays now!
I’ve been streamlining the way things work around the house. Laundry, food, cleaning…you name it, I’ve been trying to get it all made easier. Figured out that homemade cleaners and laundry soap are awesome too. I’m trying to make a lot more of our snacks and meals from scratch too. Some weeks are easier than others, depends on the flow of things around here!
Our current house project just got finished (isn’t there always one of those going on around here) and we divided the current large toy room into two smaller rooms. One is Noah and Calvin’s room and the other side is still a toy room. The boys love their new room and us parents LOVE not having toy and Legos in their room. Now on to the other projects that need to be finished…. We’ll probably be redoing the younger boys’ room soon. When we moved the older boys out we realized how bad the wallpaper and paint was in that room. Maybe in the spring…we’ll add it to the list.
That’s about it from our house.
More snow, more wind, more ice…yep, it’s still really cold. The kids are really enjoying being outside in the snow and have built several snow forts and tunnels around the yard. We had our first snow where Nate had to dig the entire driveway out by hand. Needless to say we’re seriously looking at snow blowers now!
We (meaning mostly Nate) started working on redoing the girls’ bedroom. They are now sleeping on the floor in our room. We ripped out the carpet off beautiful hardwood floors and peeled several layers of wallpaper off the plaster walls. The walls are in really good shape for their age so we’re going to paint the plaster. Nate also tore out their current closet, which was in a horrible spot and was too large for the room, and built a new one in another corner. He also is putting in a central light and more electrical outlets. Hopefully the room will be done by the time the baby arrives and the girls can settle back into their own pink and purple girly room.
So I’ve always said I want to move to Canada. No one hates Canadians, right? Plus their cool, dry summers sound like a good deal weatherwise. But now I’m thinking maybe we should just buy a home in Canada for our summers and also a house in Florida for the winters. I don’t’ care if I was born and raised in the fields of IL, I’m certainly not attached to the weather around here. Trying to get chores done outside when the wind is blowing and the thermometer says 4 degrees is not my idea of a good time! Sure wish the cold air would have stayed further north the past couple of weeks. The furnace is working overtime and we’re hearing a lot of Nate mumbling to himself about how cold the house is. I think he’s glad to be back at work where it’s warm.
Other than the extreme freeze we’re experiencing, 2010 has entered the household with a bang. Christmas break was pretty restful. Christmas Eve was spent at St. Mary’s (Nate’s home parish) and we enjoyed Fr. Luke as the celebrant. Christmas day the kids let us sleep in until 8:00 and we ripped through the presents and then headed down to my grandma’s for lunch and more presents. After surviving a lot of people in one small, unbaby-proofed house, we then headed home for some naps and then my Christmas supper and presents with my parents that evening. Needless to say, Christmas day is always exhausting but we survived until bedtime and then enjoyed the rest of the weekend enjoying each other and playing with our new things.
New Years Even was quite a blast. For the first time in I don’t know how many years Nate and I actually stayed up to bring in 2010 with his extended family at his parent’s house. It was great fun spending time with all the cousins playing card games, eating, and getting a conversation in without interruption from kids! Definetly something the family should do every year!
Nate’s brother and sister were able to make it back home for the holidays and it was so much fun for us and the kids spending time with them. Not sure when we’re going to see Andrew again but Erin will be back periodically during some of her school breaks. Everyone misses having them around for sure.
Nate’s mission the past few days has been to figure out how we can add on more space to our house for not much $. Our main man Luis the architect came over and told us what we can and can’t do with our current house. We’re mainly looking to expand the living area/dining room so we can seat more people comfortably and add another bedroom and couple of bathrooms to accommodate 2 kids in each room and maybe some type of game room/fun area over the garage. Not to mention that we need all new windows, insulation, siding, plumbing, septic system…all that cheap stuff 🙂 Right now the plan is to start on this addition in two years.
Summer greetings from the fam! Hard to believe summer is in full swing. The kids had their last day of school back on May 22nd. It’s hard to believe we now officially have a 2nd grader, a kindergartner, and a preschooler. We all celebrated that evening by going out for supper to Sonic and Jarlings!
Noah completed a week of basketball camp at the local high school and had a super time. Not sure if he’ll be a basketball star but he seemed to like it. Nate even got our $2 garage-sale basketball hoop mounted on the side of the barn so now we can go shoot hoops whenever we like. I have to admit, I just like to go out there and play myself! I’m really looking forward to the days that the kids will be able to play out there and have some fun with it. Noah is also playing coach-pitch baseball this year and it’s fun to watch the kids get excited about playing baseball! The games are so fun to watch. His team is doing well and all of the kids are quite young so they’ll have a couple more years of playing together to get better. Our nephew is also on the same team so it’s a fun time with all the family to watch the boys play ball. Marie and Calvin are also playing tee ball and Nate helps coach. Tee ball isn’t quite as fun to watch but Marie is really into it. Calvin, not so much; he’d rather be over on the playground!
Dominic is full-force mobile now and crawling around and pulling-up on things like crazy. He tools around the house exploring everything! Luckily our house is pretty babyproofed already so he’s free to roam safely as long as the older kids don’t unlock the cabinets or leave the stair gate open. Tonight was the first night we’ve put all 5 kids down for bed at the same time and it worked out great. Dominic moved into his crib in the boys room last month and took right to it. The boys really love having Dominic in there. Seems like we’re finally settling into a routine again and leaving the “newborn crazies” behind.
Nate is working like a madman again. He took on some extra jobs for PAQ and another side project so many of his evenings are spent on the laptop working away. I have to admit the extra $ is nice and much needed but I’m looking forward to at least one of the jobs ending so we’ll be able to do more stuff together in the evenings. I miss my Scrabble partner!
We spent today hanging outside and enjoying the nice weather. I set up the slip-n-slide and the kids played on that until they turned blue. After lunch we went down to the “neighbors” if you can call someone who lives 5 miles away a neighbor 🙂 and played at their house. The kids had a blast playing with her son and running around their farm. I was interested in seeing her older farmhouse and the painted paneling. Her paneling looked awesome and now I’m definetly motivated to do something with our living room and dining room and maybe even the kitchen. I can hear Nate groaning now because we don’t need another house project! Anyway, painting is something I can do myself pretty easily while the kids are in school this fall. So I think I’ll start looking for colors!
I keep looking at our calendar and asking myself where our weekends are going! This weekend includes 2 ballgames, yardwork and a family reunion. Our projects are getting put on the back burner until we get some free time! Right now we’re lucky to get the 3 hours it takes to get the mowing done! Fortunately Nate gets 2 weeks of vacation in July so we’re going to be *cool* and do a staycation (yeah, whatever) and get some of the projects done. We may go somewhere for a couple of days just to get mom out of the house 🙂
Ciao!
This past Sunday was Mother’s Day (in case you didn’t notice) and it was a wonderful calm day. We went to mass and the kids did very well. Nate purchased Krispy Kreme donuts and cooked breakfast for all of us. Then we were able to just have some fun outside and enjoy the day in the great weather we had. After the yard work was done we went out for Mexican food and then stopped over at Nate’s folks to give his mom a Mother’s Day greeting before going home and putting the kids to bed. We ended the day by watching “Juno” which seemed to be the perfect Mother’s Day Movie! I think it was the first Mother’s Day in my 7 yr. experience as a mother that I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire day. 🙂
We had a robin build a nest under our dinner bell by the back porch. She laid 3 eggs, all of which hatched and I’ve been watching the baby birds grow ever so fast these past 3 weeks. Each time I’m doing the dishes I can watch the birds right outside the window. I feel that if that mama robin could talk we could hold a conversation about how our kids never leave us alone, especially for food. Lately I’ve been a lot of time and money on our kitchen trying to make it more “mom” friendly. Of course, the carpet is still there which is NOT mom friendly but other than our astroturf carpet, things are taking shape nicely. Now if I could only get the kids to eat meals instead of asking for snacks every 15 min…
We’re finishing up the school year. Noah and Marie only have 1.5 weeks of school left. In a way I’ll be glad because that means I won’t have to get them ready for school in the morning and things will be more leisure-like. On the other hand I’m sad because this means I’ll have a 2nd grader and a Kindergartener. They’re growing up so fast.
This week is kind of crazy with school activities and ball games. Marie is playing tee ball and Noah is playing coach-pitch. Two separate teams mean two separate practices and games in different towns. I think they’re enjoying it. At least they haven’t asked to quit yet! We had our first evening of both kids having a practice/game at the same time in two separate towns so Nate and I had to split up. It was hectic but hopefully that won’t happen too often!
No garden yet this year. I did get my “topsy-turvy” tomatoes planted and hung so at least I know we’ll have tomatoes this year! It just keeps raining just enough every few days to keep me out of the garden. The grape vines are coming along nicely though. And I was very happy to see the asparagus patch survive and return for this year.
We had Calvin’s family birthday party today. He turns 4 on Wednesday! Seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital admiring his scrunched up little face just after he was born. The kids had a blast playing outside in the sun and warmer temps with the cousins and the adults had a good time visiting as lately we haven’t seen much of our families just because we’re all busy with different schedules.
Which brings me to some thoughts: I dislike being so busy on weekends that we can’t schedule activities that really matter to us. Nate and I have been talking lately and we are starting to decline some invitations and for the summer and making sure we’re home enough to enjoy this time with the kids and each other. Last year we kept telling they kids we’d have a camp-out in the backyard and we never did it because we were just too busy. It’s the little stuff like that that really bugs me and I don’t want the business to get in the way of the fun times in life. I’m way to guilty of doing this. So many times during the day I’ll be doing housework and the kids ask me to play or read a book with them and I’ll tell them to wait, I’m busy. Busy with what???? So busy that I can’t take 10 min. to read a book with my son or play Barbies with my daughters? So I think that next week I’ll try harder to be more flexible and take a dose of my own medicine!
Holy cow, where did the time go? I thought I would be able to post a blog weekly but now it’s looking like a monthly thing!
Dominic started rolling over last week. He’s very pleased with himself. We got out some old toys that the other 4 kids have used. Dominic is really enjoying the exersaucer and the doorway jumper. Some toys are just priceless. He was sleeping through the night for a while but that has ceased and he usually wakes up around 2 a.m. for a feeding but goes right back to sleep no problem. I’m thinking he may be ready for some solid food but I’m procrastinating that issue.
We went over to Nate’s folks for supper tonight which was nice. We try not to invade Grandpa & Grandma’s house too much so it was nice to get together to talk and the kids played in the basement. When we left at 7, it was snowing and sleeting outside. Now the wind is horrendous and it’s really cold outside. Winter is far away from being over!
I’ve been spending some time on Facebook this evening and discovered my old camp has a site. It was nice to see all the famliar faces and names again, although even with my great memory, for the life of me I can’t remember a lot of the names of old camp friends. But is was fun to look and recall the fun times. I hope my kids can have the same camp experiences I had when I was young.
Heading to my favorite store this weekend–IKEA! I’m so excited I can hardly concentrate on anything else. Nate is being a good sport about it and he is keeping the 4 older kids at home. Dominic will be shopping with me.
Trying to stay warm…
Ahhh, so I’m a little behind on posting for this week. I think I vowed to post at least once a week or so? If only I had enough time in the day!
It’s freezin’ cold here! Today was a gorgeous sunny day though and it got up to 9 degrees this afternoon. After being at home for almost 2 weeks with a house full of germs, we ventured out to the indoor playground today. I’m becoming a real homebody but even I have to get out once in a while! Nate has been working from home this week but he finally went back into the office today just to let his boss see that he is still alive.
This week’s highlight included the stomach flu (which I haven’t caught yet–knocking on wood as I type this), super cold temps outside, and mouse hunting. I’m absolutely positive Nate thinks I’m the crazy lady who stays at home obsessing about mice and laundry. Our house isn’t overrun with mice but it’s close to it. No matter how much poison we put out, the mice eat it all and still make it indoors. The kids and I were in the living room and one large mouse came right out into the doorway and just looked at us. He ran back into the corner but he didn’t seem scared of us. So I went and set a trap and caught the little bugger 5 minutes later. Stupid mouse. Now I hear another one scurrying around in the ceiling. Argh!
Noah is enjoying his break from school but I think he’ll definetly be ready to return on Tuesday. Luckily the temps are supposed to rise to 30 degrees tomorrow so we’ll be booting the kids out into the snowdrifts. We only got around 4 inches of snow but it blew some nice drifts into the west yard and I’m sure the kids will love digging some snow tunnels and forts. Dominic has been turning into a little butterball and become so cuddly and cooey lately. Not to mention that my favorite part is that he has been sleeping 8-10 hours at night 🙂
Once of my big projects lately is cleaning, organization and money budgeting. Since we have 5 kids and 2 adults living in this house with few closets, I’m determined to make it work. We (ok, Nate and his dad) recently built on a utility room that holds our extra refrigerator, freezer, washer, dryer, and a utility sink. I have to say that Nate and his dad did an AWESOME job. The job took a lot longer than planned but it is so worth it to have that extra space. Nate even built laundry basket-sized shelves from floor to ceiliing so I dont’ have to have the baskets on the floor! One of the best things is that I now have the the diaper changing station set up in the new room so the cloth diaper duties can be done all in the same room! I’ve been sorting through stuff room by room and determining what we can keep, throw away, or sell. So far it has been very liberating and I have to admit that the house stays much cleaner without all the clutter. Even Nate, who is a super pack rat, is impressed.
As for the budgeting idea, my goal is to spend as little as possible this year on unecessary things. I’m so guilty of buying little things here and there and then they all add up in the end and we end up wondering where the money went. I’ve started creating a monthly menu and I plan out our meals one month in advance. I’m also limiting my trips to town to save on gas and Nate is learning to do some of the grocery shopping on his way home from work. If I go shopping, I don’t go without a list and coupons and I only take one kid with me for my sanity. (BTW, has anyone noticed that gas is starting to creep back up again? ) We switched to cloth diapers, purchased a side of beef from a local farmer, I cut the boys’ and Nate’s hair. I’m sure glad they aren’t picky about their hair 🙂 I can’t bring myself to cut the girls’ yet though. One of Nate’s recent proud accomplishments is that he replaced the brakes on the van himself. Ok, with the help of a friend who showed him what to do but I’m very proud of him for taking this on. Especially since it would have cost us over $600 at the mechanic but Nate did both the front and back brakes for just the cost of the parts! That’s my man!
I’ve stayed up way too late as usual. It’s hard to go to bed at night when I have peace and quiet and time to myself to do whatever I want.