Try to remember a time in September (or October)

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.

How I learned to love the cloud (at least for backups)

If you haven’t heard of “the cloud”, you probably haven’t been paying attention to all of the online services that are cropping up online.  If you’ve used Flickr, Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, or any of the thousands of online tools available today, you’ve used the cloud.  It’s a way of saying that the things you put on those sites are stored “somewhere”, but you don’t know, or need to care, where it’s stored.  It’s just in the clouds.  I’ve always been a little hesitant of putting things “in the cloud”.  Continue reading “How I learned to love the cloud (at least for backups)”

Letter to the Univerity of Illinois UC Senate

Dear Sir,
I am a proud alumnus of the University and a proud supporter since graduation. I am writing to you, the clerk of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Senate, to express my displeasure and distress at the wording of your recent resolution concerning the University’s mascot. While I completely support a search for a school mascot, I was alarmed to see this body dictating the bounds of the mascot discussion by excluding all Native American symbols. If this search is to be accepted by the students and the citizens of this state, both of which are funding the school, it should be conducted in a manner that is free of political maneuvering and allow the true feelings of the stakeholders to be expressed. I would ask that you pass my concerns on to the Senate members and encourage them to avoid unwelcome limitations on this process.

Respectfully,
Nathan Baxley
BUS ’97

I’m humbled by my wife

I have to say that after being home on paternity leave for two weeks, I’m once again humbled by the number of things that my wife does for our family. While I did manage to get the kids fed and off to school, and keep things somewhat clean, I failed at keeping things running as smoothly as she does time and time again. To top it all off, I found that even though I was doing a fraction of the work, I still felt totally exhausted at the end of the day. I’m going to say to all the dads with stay at home wives, take a week or two in her shoes.

Wow, Spring is FINALLY approaching! We had our first 50 degree day today. Being outside with light jackets was so great. The kids even played outside until it was time for supper. We were able to complete the pruning on all the fruit trees and grape vines too. All the kids, except Dominic of course, took all the branches to the burn pile and Noah even cleaned up the whole winter’s worth of dog doo in our yard. It was a very needed outdoor spring cleanup day.

Nate was also able to run more electrical for more outlets for the girls’ room. It is coming along slowly as he is only able to work on the room on weekends and that’s when our calendar has nothing on it. We’re fast approaching Patrick’s due date and we’re getting nervous he’ll come early and the room won’t be done. The girls have been great but quarters are tight and we’ll be glad to have them back in their own room and all their things back in order. They are very excited about having a girly pink and purple room! Plus we just can’t fit a lot of stuff in our room so most of their toys are in storage and they really do miss them. Although Marie’s stuffed hippo collection is still very prevalent and living at the base of our bed. I’ll have to post a before picture if I can find one of the lovely orange flowered peeling wallpaper and 1930’s green carpet in the girls’ room. It’s going to look like a different room just with some new paint and flooring. We’ve decided to do the boys’ room next, probably during May and Nate will take some vacation time so we can get it all done in one week while the kids are all in school. And by May I’ll be able to physically function again!

And it’s still cold!

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.

January 2010….it’s stinkin’ cold!

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.

Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas from the Baxleys! 

Hello All! Since we’re making a concerted effort to save some trees and time (not to mention money) we’ve decided to just do a “blog Christmas card” for our family this year. Sorry to those relatives and friends who aren’t on the electronic bandwagon but you know us, Nate is always on the cutting edge of technology 🙂

2009. Wow! Where do we begin?
Obviously with the kids, since we have a lot of ’em!

Dominic celebrated his 1st birthday back in September. He has grown so much! Walking, talking, and climbing like a pro, he continues to charm everyone and has a smile and cuddle for everyone. He is such a good sleeper, napper and eater too. We haven’t decided who he looks like yet but reviewing old pictures makes us think he most looks like Noah, especially with the blonde hair and same body build. But he’s developing his own personality and characteristics. This fall his favorite activity was just being outdoors exploring, he’s doing his best to keep up the exploring inside for the winter.

On to our little Molly Kay who turned 3 in October. She’s quite the little gal who loves to play “ballerini” (aka being a ballerina) and is quite active these days. Even though she is petite and tiny, she can sure hold her own against her brothers and boss her big sister around too. She recently had her tonsils/adenoids removed in order to improve her (and her parent’s) sleep habits. It has made a world of difference for her sleeping. She took pretty much a week to recover from the surgery and now she is a back to her old self except that she sleeps though the night and doesn’t fall asleep in odd places/positions during the day. She has a multitude of interests and her favorite thing to do currently is snuggle with mom and dad whenever she can get us one-on-one.


Calvin entered his second year of preschool and is loving every minute of it. He turned 4 back in March. He spends most of his days either at preschool or playing with his little brother and sister. We think he can make a car out of anything as he is really good at role-playing. Right now he can quote almost every line from the movie “Up” after seeing it movie twice and loves Star Wars even though he’s never seen the movies. He constantly goes around breathing and talking like Darth Vader. He’s such a riot (Calvin, not Darth Vader!)

Our princess Marie celebrated her 6th birthday in October with a very girly tea party complete with all her friends and favorite stuffed animals. As most of you know, Marie’s favorite animal is a hippo. For her birthday she received a very large stuffed hippo from mom and dad and now her bed is overflowing with a family of stuffed hippos keeping her company at night. Marie started Kindergarten this year and is doing extremely well in school and loves everything about it. Often she wishes she had more homework like her big brother but we get the feeling she won’t be wishing for that later on 🙂


The hardest thing of all is believing our “baby” Noah is 8 years old and in 2nd grade this year! Wow, how times flies. Noah has turned in to such a great boy and a lot of fun to hang out with. He has a great sense of humor and is a hard worker in school. He is also doing wonderful in school and continues to impress us with his knowledge and eagerness to learn new things. Just lately he has made dad’s day asking to learn how to play Axis and Allies. Nate may just turn Noah into a WW II buff yet 🙂

 

Our summer went pretty well. One of the major projects was a huge playset for the kids. Here it is from start to (almost) finish. We still have to add the sandbox and a couple of odds and ends next summer but it’s usable now:

 


Nate and his dad designed and built the whole thing by themselves. The kids are thrilled and so are we now that they have something to climb and swing on. It’s big enough for at least 6 kids and should last for a long time! A huge thanks to Nate’s dad for all his carpentry expertise and help this past summer.

We were able to get away for a little while up to the dunes and Chicago this summer and the kids had a blast. The 3 oldest played baseball in the summer and that made for a really busy month back in June. Nate is still at the UI and really enjoying it. He’s glad to have some extra time in the evenings to work on fun programming and side projects now. Sharon is busy keeping up with the kids and school. She is due with baby #6 in March 2010 so we’re preparing for 6 kids, mentally and physically, trying to figure out where this little guy (we plan to name him Patrick) is going to sleep once he moves out of mom and dad’s room! A house addition is definitely in the plans in the next couple of years! We celebrated our our 12th wedding anniversary on Nov. 22 by going to the German restaurant in Gibson city. We both dream of traveling but reality could only send us to Gibson City so we’ll have to settle for that 🙂 God has certainly blessed us in the past 12 years with beautiful children and a great place to raise them.

We hope this note finds you doing well and looking forward to Christ’s birthday. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010! We’ll be sure to let you know when our baby Patrick arrives in March!

Nate & Sharon
Noah, Marie, Calvin, Molly, and Dominic

Answers to 10 Common Questions when you tell people you’re having your 6th child

1) Yes, we know what causes this and we quite enjoy it. 😉
2) The first three are the hardest, after that, it just gets louder.
3) No, we don’t own a bus, but we’re thinking about it.
4) Nope, no twins!
5) Were still looking for a ninth man for our baseball team if you’re interested.
6) Girls are definitely harder.
7) Bunk beds!
8) Who can really say when a job is done.
9) Why yes, we are Catholic
10) No, I’m not joking! 🙂

cool summer days

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!