brotherly love

The other day I took all the kids out to snap a few pictures at different locations. It was fun watching them pose, or not.

Always brotherly love between these three. Well, usually. Of course the older two look out for the younger one, but then there are the days when the younger one is tormenting the older ones and well...you get how that cycle works.
But these two get along like true brothers. Most days. Each one has their own interests and their own passions, yet some are completely in common. However, both boys are so different from each other.

One has a love for the outdoors and the other loves being inside. One loves puzzles and thinking games where the other one loves science. One can focus on getting things done, one struggles. But either way, both these boys, close together in age, are usually inseparable.

pecan pie

My very first homemade pecan pie! Other than having too much crust on the top, it was delicious!

I can see many more of these pies in my future over the years. Maybe even for my step-dad, who loves pecan pie. Although I'm not sure I want to compare it to Grandma Dorothy's because hers is the best!

more to come

Alright blog readers, there are more than 3 posts coming tomorrow throughout the day. They are scheduled to appear at random times. Enjoy! All include pictures...and maybe one will make you drool?

D.A.R.E

Shawndra speaking at her D.A.R.E. graduation. She won the essay contest between the two classes and got to read it at the graduation.

Holding up her certificate, showing she passed!

changes to blog

Thank you to those who voted and helped me decide which picture to use. I had originally liked the picture I put up, but wanted some other opinions. Knowing me, I'll be changing it again at some point.

I am a bit perplexed tonight after I have worked on the that blog photo for well over an hour. I ran into the same problem I've had in the past except this time I don't remember how I fixed it. My picture is bigger than the border around the actual photo. Since I couldn't get it fixed, I changed the border color to white so you don't see it. I don't think it looks as good, so when there is more time, I'll keep working on some changes.

The other thing I don't like is the blog title "Thielen Tidbits". Because the picture is so busy and colorful, I couldn't find a color that made the title look good. Unfortunately, I have never hired someone to make my blog look nice and don't plan to in the near future. Maybe if I was a big time blogger, then I might, but I'm not, so I digress. Maybe some day I can find a nice lady (or lad) who would change the appearance....but until then, this will do.

which one do you like?

I took the kids out to take pictures today just to see how Jayden did with posing for pictures since we are having professional pictures taken next month. Plus, I'm really tired of the picture that is at the top of my blog. With that being said, I would love for you to vote on the pictures below as to which one should go at the top of my blog. Then I will change it! The number of the picture goes with the picture below it.

1

2

3
4

5

Yes, Jayden screamed through most of the pictures.

6

This one cracks me up...at least he's in the picture, right?!!

7
8

9

I had fun experimenting with some different locations. It is a huge challenge to get all 6 kids to look at the camera and an even bigger challenge for Jayden who really wanted NO part in picture taking. I'm so nervous for the professional pictures. I really want him to be good and look at the camera. Make sure you tell me which picture would look best at the top of my blog. Thanks!!

location

The location to our pictures has been discovered and I'm so excited. The last time I had professional pictures was at least 13 years ago and it wasn't with the family I have now. This is long over do. Pictures will be the 2nd week in June, so that gives me time to get everyone's hair done and trimmed. So excited!

wordless wednesday

clothes for pictures

I managed to get clothes for all of us for pictures, except I'm not sure I like what I came up with. Finding matching outfits for 8 people stinks! The colors I went with are purple, lime green, orange and blue. They all go great together except the orange. I couldn't find orange that I liked that matched. Grrr. I might end up changing my mind before pictures.

Tonight marks the first night of three that I am a single mom to my kids. I'm very used to my husband being here with me and helping, so having him away is tough. However, I am looking forward to a bed all to myself, but don't tell him that! Oh wait, he reads this blog...Hi honey, miss you!

fashion help

Anyone have some great fashion tips on what to put my family of 8 in for pictures? I've been wanting to get pictures done for a long time, but I always have such a hard time finding clothes for so many people where the colors and patterns look good together. So I'm asking for help from the people who read this blog. What would you put 3 boys and 3 girls in and then mom and dad? Help! (Please and Thank You.)

he slept

He slept last night! And so did I! I'm sick with a cold and am very tired anyhow, so I'm glad he allowed me to sleep. Now I hope tonight is a repeat of last night!

Sitting at the table tonight, out of the blue, Jayden says, "hola!". It was so cute. Mike and I just looked at each other, like did he really just say that?

Tomorrow is a long day at work. I suppose I better prepare for that. Good night!

what's with him

4 nights in a row now, Mike and I have had very interrupted sleep. Jayden has been up for 2-3 hours every night, screaming, crying, grunting and whining. I'm wore out and run down. Last night I was so desperate, I pulled out a pacifier thinking maybe he would take it and go to sleep. He wanted nothing to do with it. I guess that's a good thing, too, but it didn't help us last night.

We go into his room and try to comfort him, he returns by trying to kick us and grunt at as and scream a high pitched shrill scream...over...and...over. I go in there, Mike goes in there. It doesn't matter. We change his diaper, tuck him in, hold him, carry him and finally let him cry. He's worse than a newborn with colic!

There's nothing worse than being so tired and wanting to sleep yourself and then dealing with him. And he's loud. He wakes up everyone in the house. There is nothing we can do to make him stop. I've even had him to the doctor numerous times for this. The doctor suggested Benadryl for at least 10 nights in a row thinking maybe his sleep is screwed up. It did no good.

I've thought maybe it's night terrors since Shaylee had those when she was little. Jayden's tantrums are different. He's aware we are there and he reacts to the things we try to do with him when typically a child who has night terrors won't show any reaction.

To top it off, he wakes up in the best of moods! Like nothings happened. Well, I'm so run down now that I've got a cold and a pounding headache. I go to bed every night praying he will sleep. But it doesn't work.

finally...the boys' room

Here are pictures, finally, of the boys' room all completed! Do you remember what things looked like in the beginning, like the very ugly baby blue paint that I hated from day one, to the water in the basement, to all the progress we made on their room? Here it is, finally done.

They ended up with all new trim, new walls, new paint, new everything basically. We were able to salvage the carpet, so that was good.
We took the closet doors off early when we bought the house because they were always taking them off the hinges and playing with them, plus it really opened up the room by leaving the doors open. I eventually want to get shelves or cubbies inside their closet for toys.
For now, I'm just happy the room is done and they are back in there so we could have our living room back.

Don't mind the icky flash on the wall. The lower bunk has blue bedding, so the lower half of the room is blue with an orange stripe. The upper bunk is grey bedding with orange in it, so the upper half of the room is grey with the orange stripe. It looks really neat!

Let me tell from personal experience. Painting a stripe is NO fun. It caused stress like I've never had. Granted it looks awesome now that it's done, but it was such a process getting to the finale. Several time when we took the painters tape off, it tore off 2 layers of paint, 2 layers of primer, and the sheet rock paper. That left Mike in the position of filling in the hole and then priming and painting over it again. This happened more than once and was beyond frustrating.

The boys were super happy to get new bedding. Dalton's glows in the dark and has the planets and rockets on it. Joseph's has skateboards and bike's on it.

flute solo and trio

Last weekend Shaylee had a contest including a flute solo and trio. There were lots of other children there practicing in the gym. She's so beautiful. Here she is practicing before hand.

These three girls practiced and then when it was their turn they played for the judge. It went really well.
Grandma Rhonda thought she recognized the song title so she was following along with Shaylee while she practiced. Grandma loves the sound of Shaylee playing her flute.

After the solo and trio, we waited around for the results. It took awhile, but when they were finally posted, she earned a I- in her solo, which would be like an A-. Her trio earned a I (1). They did a great job. Her music teacher thinks she could have scored higher in the solo, except the judge didn't know it was Shaylee's first year playing. She was likely judged by them thinking she should have been playing a harder piece. Either way, she did great!

some motivation

In regards to my post last night, about having no motivation. I would like to say that I actually took the dog out for a long walk tonight. In fact, he was walking beside me with his tongue hanging out by the time we got home, so he was pooped too!

So what does that mean........well, maybe I'm getting the beginning of some motivation. Finally!

Only in South Dakota...

would we turn around on a gravel road, get out of our car, all so our kids could take a picture with

ROAD KILL.

darn motivation

Every night I can envision tomorrow as a new day, one that means I will get up and get on the treadmill and walk. I picture myself losing weight and eventually becoming happy with myself again. However when the morning rolls around, I start eating bad, then I don't get on the treadmill.

I even told myself once I got a dog that I would be the one walking him. Nope, my kids do that usually. It's so frustrating. I hate being fat and I want so badly to lose weight, but I can't get the darn motivation to DO IT!

Anybody else have visions of themselves doing something great with their life and not actually following through with it? Because I swear (except I try not to), I'm going to do this one of these days....

Monday again

Considering it was a Monday, it wasn't so bad...and for that I am thankful. My little man had the biggest conversation on the way to daycare, except I couldn't understand a word he said. It was still really cute.

I had to shampoo the boys' room tonight...yes, the room that we just remodeled because the dog pooped and peed while we were gone. The dog generally stays in the kennel when no one is home, but today I thought I would try letting him stay out. Bad mistake. I guess the dog has to be kenneled.

We tried a new recipe tonight. It was ok, but probably nothing we'll try again anytime soon.

Tomorrow is Tuesday and will present a much longer day. I plan to take some pictures of the boys' room on Wednesday to share. I think we're finally done in there. Yay!

Why am I posting such a boring post? Well because I realized I haven't posted much of anything lately, kinda slacking off, ya know? So I thought a rambling jargon update is better than nothing?

case of the crabbies

I sit here with a case of the crabbies. Everyone in my house has a case of the crabbies. The kids' mom even had a case of the crabbies, or maybe it was lack of parenting experience. Either way, she brought them home early because she was sick of them not listening. Isn't that where parenting comes into play? I wish I could just "take my kids back" when they don't listen too. It would put a whole new twist on parenting, huh. But I guess we're not Wal-Mart, and you can't just return things when you don't want them anymore, especially your children.

But really, I have a case of the crabbies. I think partially it's because my schedule got thrown for a loop today. We had planned to go to Sioux Falls and do a few things before we picked up the the kids, but with the sudden change of plans, it meant no trip to Sioux Falls. I don't deal well with spontaneity and I really don't do well with change of plans on short notice. I'm very much by the book and like to know exactly what's going on, when, and for how long.

I could also be crabby because I'm tired of spending my weekends working on the house. This weekend I tackled the entire downstairs carpets. I shampooed them twice and three times in several spots. Our carpet downstairs is old and I would love to replace it, but that of course costs money, and also our children are tough on the carpet. After this weekend, the carpets are clean, or at least cleaner than they were.

I played a little joke on my husband with water. Apparently he didn't find it funny, but I did. So now I'm feeding off of his case of the crabbies. Hopefully this case doesn't stick around long.

many updates

1. At 9pm last night, we finally got the bunk beds put back together and the boys finally spent the night in their room after many, many weeks of construction to fix the water problem. We still have to put trim on the window and closet and hang the closet rod and shelves back up, then that room is done. It looks cool and I promise, pictures to come.
2. We ripped the lattice off the deck this weekend and started putting breathable landscape plastic down, so we can put the rock down.
3. I earned several blisters on my hands from the hard work of cleaning the enormous pile of landscape rock in the driveway. I swear if I ever pick up a steel rake and a hose it will be too soon. My hands literally are slow moving today from all the raking, scooping, and shoveling I did trying to get the dirt and pine needles out of them.
4. Shawndra stepped on a nail that went through her shoe and into her foot. Thank goodness she had a tetanus shot in 2004. It's still painful for her.
5. My 3 year old son is finally pacifier free. Yes, he's had a pacifier at night time since he was a wee babe. It was so easy to break him of the habit too! We didn't really intend to do it that night, but when bedtime came and we couldn't find one, what more we're we to do? I told him he was a big boy now and didn't need a paci. Of course his bottom lip came out and he was very sad, but he was sleeping within 45 minutes. That was on Friday and we haven't looked back since!!
6. I learned how good a bed feels after working so hard physically with no time for rest. It really does give a new meaning and love for our bed.
7. Mike's truck quit running yesterday and he had to call a co-worker for a ride today. But he's since got it running today. I'm glad that didn't take long to fix!
8. I figured out how much summer rec activities would cost for our kids and holy smokes, I think we need to sell a kidney to pay for it!!!
9. Shawndra, Joseph, and Dalton have their Spring Concert on Thursday. At least I got "days" notice on this one, instead of Shaylee's where she let me know 2 HOURS before it started.

Well, I can't think of any more updates at the moment. I'm anxious to share pictures of the boys room and the struggles that went with it because we certainly ran into more problems.

a night with the king

Shaylee is at "A Night With The King" tonight at our church. I'm anxious to hear how it went. There was a big surprise in store for her tonight. Here are some pictures of her getting primped and ready! Starting with her hair.

Now she's being silly because I was taking lots of pictures!
She's so fun. And the lady doing her hair couldn't believe how much hair she had!
Hair is done. Next up...make-up!

Donna was so nice and helped her with her make-up. I'm not a girly girl, so doing the whole make-up thing is a bit beyond me. But Donna and other ladies were there helping out.

Shaylee did some herself. She's growing up so fast.

Getting her nails done. It's fun to be a girl on days like today!

Checking herself out in the mirror. I love this picture.

And again, except this time, I focused on her reflection in the mirror.

Finally, all primped and ready for a fun night.

And since beginning this post, I just had a chance to talk to her and find out how her night was. She had so much fun. The big surprise was her dad showing up and spending the evening with her. They even taught him and the other dad's how to dance, so they could lead during the dance. Shaylee told me her dad gave her a ring. Right now it fits on her pinky finger, but she wants to get it resized to wear it on her ring finger. I'm anxious to see it!!

This night was all about her, and being pretty, and feeling pretty, and being loved, and spending a night with the king.

updated: guess

Ok, well a few of you emailed me with your guess and a few commented. They were good guesses, but no one got it right!

They were trying to pull the tree down using the bike. Ok, kidding. They weren't doing that either.

But....

what they were doing was trying to straighten the forks on the bike. Joseph apparently hit something really hard last summer, although he claims not to remember (maybe that's good for us). Anyhow, the forks on his bike were literally bent and almost touching the frame. In fact, his front tire reminded me of a unicycle, considering how straight it was under his bike. We thought he would need a new bike this year, but thanks to Grandpa Craig and Mike, they used a chain, a tree, a pipe, and a lot of strength to pull it back. And now it looks like it was never bent. Yay!

guess

Can you guess what they are doing?

making progress

Tuesday is a good day. Today means we made progress on the house. We're getting closer to getting things completed and hopefully we'll have no more water problems! The pink wall is a before shot. Nice wall, huh?

No wall anymore! Now Devin has a closet. A walk-thru closet if you will.
Here's looking through the closet into Devin's room from the hallway. Essentially, she has 2 doors to get into her room, except, this door will not be open space for much longer. There will be shelves and storage cubbies, and a place to hang her clothes! So exciting. She's been sharing a closet with the boys' since we bought the house 2 years ago!

And the boys' room is coming along nicely. George came in today and got the final piece of sheet rock hung and taped everything off. Looks like we still have some sanding to do, put the trim on, paint, put the carpet down, and finally....put the boys' room together!

I'm hoping by the end of this weekend it will be done. We'll see.

Tuesday is the day

Tuesday afternoon is the day where my house will begin to come together. George's crew will be here tomorrow to finish the boys room and to cut a closet into Devin's room. After that, I can paint and the boys can finally go back into their room. I can't imagine how nice it will feel for our entire family to have them out of the living room and for things to return somewhat normal.

So, Tuesday is the day!