When Zoey was a baby right from birth, Daniel would always sing her the song Rocky Raccoon by the Beatles.  It’s a “so not appropriate kid song” to sing but she loved it.  And we didn’t care if it wasn’t age appropriate.  When it was time for bed, Zoey wold get her blanket, climbed up on her daddy’s lap and he would sing the song to her.  This was every night. I wasn’t aloud to sing it either.  It was a daddy song.

Not only did her daddy know this song but so did Gpa Hill.  Gpa Hill was the one that taught it to her daddy after all and that was super cool!!  When we would go to Howell to visit Gma and Gpa and the family,  Grandpa Hill would always bust out his guitar before we left  and sing this song.  Zoey love it!  I wish I had a video of her listening to Gpa Hill sing this song to her.

Here’s the song.   Enjoy!

FLASHBACK

My sister Stephanie does this thing on her blog called Flashback Fridays. It’s pretty awesome so I am going to steal the idea and do it on my blog.

It’s quite simple.  It’s a memory of something.

For instance this week Stephanie blogged about when she Steve and Madeline lived in Manhattan. Steve was getting his MBA at Columbia.  Madeline was just 1 years old and they lived in this teeny-tiny apt. and walked every where.  Steve used to tell Madeline stories about a little girl living in NYC and going to Central Park everyday.  Madeline loved these stories and love the time she had with her father.  It was neat to read what Stephanie blogged about.

I have many memories, and great stories about Daniel, me and kids before my blogging days.  I wasn’t the best at my journal entries back then either.  These days I use my blog as a journal but many years ago I didn’t have it.  So I am going to try this out.

Thanks for coming up with this great idea sis!  I am so happy that I can copy the idea off of you…

For Valentines Day this year, Daniel bought me two pairs of earrings.  I was so excited to get them. I desperately needed some new ear candy.   They are perfect and I can’t wait for him to take me out on the town so I can show of the beauts!

Now the questions is which ones will I wear first. The all gold hoops or the gold and silver hoops….

Thanks hon- you are the best!

I had to change Berkley’s diaper as soon as we got back from taking Nolan and Lucas to school this morning. She decided that she would poop in the diaper that I had changed just before we took them to school. I get the kids back into the house, turn on the TV in hopes it might catch Drew attention (no such luck). I tell him I am going to get the diapers and wipes to change Berkley. He nods and says something to me but who knows what it was he said.

I get back to the family room with “the stuff”, sit down and Drew decides to tell me something (again I have no idea what he said). He then makes a mad dash down the hallway.  While I am changing the nasty thing, I am hearing all sorts of crash, bang, boom sounds, not to mention Drew yelling things to me.

I get up to put Berkley safely in her swing, walk down the hallway with the camera because I knew it was going to be something big–

Is this kid for real?

I had only let him run loose for a max of 3 minutes! This kid managed to pull out the stool, climb up and get the toothpaste, he took the  Kleenex box threw it on the ground only after he pulled out 50 Kleenex. My brush, and a bottle of baby shampoo that was on the edge of tub also on the floor.

The little bear and comics he brought into the bathroom from Nolan and Lucas’s room. Apparently before entering the bathroom he took a pit stop in their room.

He also chucked the two smaller tubs of toothpaste that Nolan and Lucas got from the dentist of Monday onto the floor.  You can see them in the picture below. I guess he was going for the “big” tub of toothpaste and did not to bother with the smaller ones. If you look at the counter you can see he was able to smear some toothpaste around a bit.

We blessed Berkley on Sunday Feb 14th.   I thought it was pretty cool to be able to bless her on Valentines Day.  The day was good. Actually it was a great day!!

After the blessing, we had the family over for lunch.  We made it as simple as possible having sandwiches and items that they all volunteered to bring.  I sent them an email letting every one know I wanted to make it as simple as possible.  Having little to no sleep at night, I wasn’t going to try and have a fancy smancy luncheon.

When we all arrived at my house I let everyone know NOT to change from their Sunday clothes to street clothes until after taking a few photos.  I called our neighbor and asked if he could come down and take a few snapshots for us.  He came down pretty quickly, only to arrive in our house with craziness all around.   There were a grand total 24 people in our living room.  And of course ,they all had to be talking with the exception of Berkley.  It was loud, very loud.  I was trying to talk to him and tell him, who was with who, but I am not sure he could even hear me.  I am sure he thought” Holy Cow, this is a great form of birth control” .

We all gathered around the love seat and he started snapping photos.  There was a total of 3 camera and we wanted him to take 3 pictures from each camera.  He started snapping like crazy and bailed, going back to his nice quiet house.  I am sure he told his wife Karen about what he had just witness.  To be a fly on their wall when he told her what he just had been a part of, would’ve been priceless.

berkley blessing day

berkley blessing silly's all around

After Dan left, we took a few family photos.  And then headed to the kitchen to finish up making and setting out lunch and digging in to the food. We then made our way into the family room where we talked and eventually turned on the Olympics and watch that while the children ran around the house like chickens with their heads cut off!  It was loud,  but any event with my family is usually loud. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even through all the craziness, it was nice to have the family over for the afternoon and photos of Berkley’s on her very special day.

Yesterday I took Berkley and Drew to the doctor for appointments. Drew had his 15 month check-up and Berkley had her 2 month check-up. The older 4 were all off school so I had Zoey babysit. I have to admit I wished that Jack were old enough and responsible enough to watch Nolan and Lucas so I could have Zoey come along and help me out. I knew both were going to get shots and holding them was going to be hard. She stayed home of course and I braved the cold weather with two babies. As you can see I survived.

BUT I need to get this blog entry typed ASAP because Berkley is screaming at me.

Berkley

9 lbs. 4oz.
22 3/4″
? head circum.
I thought it was going to be written down on the stuff they gave me but it wasn’t.

She is drinking 3-4oz. every 2 hours all day all night. She does not sleep through the night yet and I am having a hard time with that. All my boys were sleeping 7-8 hours by 6 weeks. She sleeps all of her long stretches during the daytime hours. If she’s cranky at all, it’s between 10pm-6am. It sucks, it sucks bad. When I go to bed I do not want to be awaken for any reason. I need 8-9 hours to function like a normal human being. Daniel is really good about getting up in the night with her. Other than not agreeing on her sleeping habits and when she wants to be moody, B is a great baby. She has started to smile at us. It takes a lot of us working at it but she does. She is still sleeping in our room at the foot of the bed in the pack n play. We are just not ready to have her get up in the night and wake Drew up. He’s a super light sleeper. It hard enough having her up in the middle of the night, if I had two babies I just might want to shoot myself or go completely insane!!!

Drew

22 lbs
31 ”
? head
Again I didn’t write it down nor did I hear what they said because Berkley was crying.

I figured if they thought it was abnormally large or small they would let me know.

Drew says mama, dada, whispers tata (I don’t know why he whispers it), Lisa, Zoey, baba, which means multiple things. He yells Jack from the top of the basement stairs. I guess I yell for Jack a lot at the top of the stairs so he thinks that’s how you say Jack.  Just today he said Jacob when he saw his cousin Jacob.  He nods his head meaning yes. He talks all the time. I have no idea what he says but I do talk back to him.  He loves to brush his teeth.  He loves his baby sister.  He’s a great sleeper, sleeping from 7pm-7am.  In the day time he naps from 12:-1pm— 3′ish everyday.  When Daniel leaves for work, he and I go to the front window and he says “Bye Bye” while waving. When Zoey walks in from school, he’s very excited to see her.  He wants to play and she does, even if she has a ton of homework.  He loves, loves, loves his blanket. He can’t says blanket but he can say “kiki” meaning blanket.

Drew is such a fun kid.  I love it that he talks to me and I know that he loves it that I talk back.  This might be my favorite age of a child.  I love how he is so fun. Don’t get me wrong, he is definitely very tiring and every day I am beat by 8pm, but it fun.

Drew’s quite the active child.  At the end of the day, I am exhausted from him.  I count down till his nap time because I know that’s a break for me. I actually get to sit and love on Miss Berkley.  When he’s awake I pretty follow him.  He’s not quite yet into playing with his toys only dumping and moving onto the next thing to dump out.  He doesn’t watch TV.  I do put on Elmo every morning and sometimes he’ll glance at the screen. I don’t seem to get anything done these day but clean up messes from him. I wouldn’t change him for a single moment.  He keeps me on my toes and I love it!

My days are long but my kids are growing up faster than I would like. Some days I wish I could freeze time and have them be their ages forever.  Just freeze the clock, make the world go away and just be the 8 of us.

That’s not to much to ask, is it?

Tamara and Berkley.

We were at one of Zoey’s basketball games a few weeks ago and Tamara was helping me out with the kids.  She spent a good part of her time chasing Drew around a very crowded over-flow. She was finally able to get her hands on Berkley, sit and take a rest.  Thanks Tamara.  You are a great aunt to my kids, sister, and of course a great chocolate covered peanut!!

Jack P Hill

I signed Jack up for baseball today.  It’s was $100,  talk about some serious cash!!  I signed up Nolan and Lucas a few weeks ago and it was only $40 so I thought it was going to be about the same price.  Well I was WRONG!!  What was I going to do, tell Jack that Nolan and Lucas could play but he could not.  It has been him begging me for the past 2 years to have me sign him up and we haven’t.  There was no way I was going to do that to my child.

Sometimes I feel like he’s my one child that gets lost in the crowd. Sometime he and I don’t see eye to eye things and I can get frustrated with him easier than the others. He also gets frustrated with me,I don’t know why though    I think it has a lot to do with our personalities being so different.

The other day he woke up for school and said he had a big headache so I sent him back to bed.  He wander upstairs around 10am feeling better. I asked him if he wanted me to take him to school and he just looked at me. I think he was afraid to say NO because he thought I would get angry with him.  For those few seconds, we just looked at each other.  I had a strong feeling to let him stay home and spend time with me so I look at him and I told him he didn’t have too.

I called my mother, who was going to pick up Brooklyn from school, and asked her if she wanted to meet me at McDonald’s.  Jack was so excited to go for lunch.  After McDonald’s, he got the book “Percy Jackson’s and the Olympians, book #1 Lightening Thief”.  He has been dying to read this book for a long time.  He already has book #2 from Aunt Tamara and we bought him book #3.  He couldn’t read the other 2 books until he read the first.  Long story short, he was super excited to get #1 and started reading it on the way home.  I think he’s already halfway through it.  The movie comes out in a few weeks and Aunt Tamara promised that she would take him to the movie (along with the other cousins) if they finished the book.  He was getting nervous that the movie day would come before he even read the book.

I don’t regret keeping him home for the day even if that meant I didn’t get anything done, my house was trashed, and I spent a few dollars on lunch.  It was worth every penny being able to spend time with my oldest son who seems to get lost in the crowd. Jack’s a great kid and I love him for everything he is and will be, even if he pushes my buttons from time to time.  He keeps me from having low blood pressure and that’s a good thing. No wait, that’s a great thing!

I love you , Jack!

Nolan

I captured a few snapshots of Nolan doing  his homework. I love it that he loves to do his homework now.  Last year when he was learning how to read and struggling.  He hated to do any homework but Math.  It was hard for me to keep him focused because  he didn’t want to do it.  He told me how he didn’t like school and that he knew he wasn’t as good at reading as the other kids in his class were. I told him it didn’t matter,  but it broke my heart to see his confidence level go down throughout first grade.  I didn’t know what to do.  We had him tested and he did not have ADD or ADHD. The tests came back negative.

In the end, I came to the conclusion that he’s just different than my older two children. The funny thing about Nolan is he is actually extremely intelligent. He like to see how things work and will spend hours and hours building his time machine and playing in make believe land. In the dead winter he wants to invite his friends over to play outside so they can build things in the backyard.

He has an amazing imagination.  I love it. I love that he loves it.  I want him to be like this forever, I know that one day some child will tell him he “silly” for thinking that way and he will be peer-pressured into going with what the other kids say is the normal.  I actually have prayed and told Heavenly Father that I hope that day never comes for my little Nolan. He is kind, caring, and loves his family. He truly cares for others. He has a huge heart and an amazing memory.

It’s been years since we went camping with my sister Stephanie’s family and he still talks about the “Lightening McQueen” club he made with Aubrey and Nathan.  He tells me all the time “Mom, when they come camping next time, we are going to do such and such different..”  The kid has a memory like nobody else. (thank goodness he doesn’t take after me, )

I have told Daniel many times before, I hope one thing I can teach my children is the ability to care for others. I think this is extremely important! People need to listen to others, care for their feelings.   I am so grateful that my parents taught me how important it is to care about others and to be kind to others.  I think it was more by example than actually teaching that.  When you grow up and that’s what you know then it’s much easier to be that way in your adult life.

I hope that when my children have grown up and are out on their own, they are able to care for others, be a listening ear to those in need, and serve when are where they are needed without ever saying  “what’s in it for me? or “what am I going to get out of it?”

Nolan is an amazing little boy and I know without a shadow of doubt he will grow up to be an amazing man. Dream big little boy, dream big…

I love you Nolan!!

Nolan doing his homework and explaining it to Lucas