Hello, welcome to my life. I'm the head crazy here- well, I guess there are two head crazies, but I'm the one that's writing the blog so I get to be the top crazy of the moment.

That's me.. Okay, that's what I aspire to be when I grow up... I mean really, too be confidant enough to make that sort of a fashion statement?

Okay, here we are for real. Minus the smallest member of our tribe. Well, she's there- she'd just 15 weeks gestation so you can't see her yet.

So my life. Well, there it is. Steve is my partner in crime (poor guy) and together we're trying to raise four girls to be competent adults. It's no easy task. I attempt to feed and clothe our kids on a regular basis, Steve goes to work to make money so I can do that. Then he comes home and tries to keep me from going insane...

Ashley is six and will be going to first grade in a month (yay!!) She knows pretty much everything (just ask her) and usually is extremely helpful. She's also the town crier- if someone is doing something she's yelling from across the house informing me of their every move. Sometimes it's helpful, sometimes it's not, usually always it's annoying. She's in her third week of swimming lessons this summer. I'm amazed at how much she's progressed in such a short time. At the beginning of the summer she didn't want to swim without floaties- on Friday she was diving off a diving board, swimming across the pool and was tossing things in and diving to the bottom to get them! She was also doing summersaults and handstands under the water. YAY!

Megan is completely Megan... and if you've met her you know what that means. She'll be three Sept 5 (wow!) and is a very indepentant, freethinking kid. Most everything she wants to do herself ("I do it!") and can usually figure out a way to accomplish whatever it is that she wants. Of course, the one exception seems to be potty training, I've decided just to wait until she decides that she wants to do it because quite frankly- you can lead a kid to the potty but you can't make them pee. Megan is fun though- even if she is getting in to trouble the majority of the day.

Annika is Megan's partner in crime- or her punching bag- depending on the moment. I don't think anyone has informed Annika that she's younger then Megan and that she can't do everything that Megan does, cause she tries. Annika is 21 months, she'll be two in December. She is a smart, smart kid. She astounds me daily with the things that she comprehends and does. She's at an age where she spouts of a handful of new words every day.

Corinne is the baby. Here's a picture:

She's pretty cute. She looks nothing like my other girls as babies. She acts nothing like them either. They were all mellow, easy going kids, she's pretty much the opposite of mellow and easy going... She is pretty onery most of the time and is rarely content. The pediatrician suggested eliminating dairy and chocolate from my diet to see if that helps her- fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) it seems to be working. The last week that I've been dairy free she's had fewer 'freak out' sessions and they've been shorter. She's also sleeping longer (YAY!!) It's a lot easier to enjoy her when she's not screaming at me. Funny how that works huh?

I'm the mom/wife. Recently when filling out forms asking for my occupation I put 'domestic goddess'. I know it's not a new thing, but I figure if I can keep four kids alive, my house clean enough for people to come see it (did I mention we're trying to sell our house?) and still do other random things then I'm doing pretty good. (Not to brag or anything). I enjoy the internet and have several different discussion boards that I frequent. I find it's a good outlet to 'talk' to other adults about common interests and just life throughout the day. It's really quite addicting and I've even done the unthinkable and have met many of them 'IRL' (in real life). Steve thinks I'm weird, but he's finally met a couple of them and has decided that they're normal people. I enjoy reading most anything I can get my hands on, I like cake decorating and am doing my brother's wedding cake in September (YAY!) and I'm a member of Weight Watchers. I lost 40lbs between my pregnancies with Megan and Annika. Now I'm back on the wagon working on getting rid of pregnancy weight from Corinne. Maybe when I'm braver I'll post pictures 'on the way down'.

Steve is the Dad/husband. He's a hard working man. He works as an accountant for a construction company here in town during the day and then has a 'side' business doing taxes and other accounting things that he does other random times. He also takes care of our girls and is a 'hands on' dad. The girls like him better then me most days.

So now you know more about us. Don't you feel lucky? My goal is to keep track of daily things and journal our lives better. I think I'll do a better job of that if I think I'm writing for someone to read now rather then for some future person to pick up and read after I'm dead. So yay!

-Amber-