It's a Great Year to Turn Eight!

Happy birthday to Brady Bear! Brady is our middle child. Somehow he is viewed by the rest of the kids as the "favorite." Not sure how or why. Brady is my most sensitive child. He is very empathetic and his feelings get hurt very easily. On the flip side of that he has a temper and boy, can he hold a grudge. There are no accidents in Brady's world. Everything is on purpose and with intent to hurt him. We are working on this. It causes conflicts daily with his siblings. Brady is also the one who best self-entertains. He doesn't mind engaging with others, but he is just as happy to play by himself. He is the bee's knees to his younger brother Max. Max will do any and everything Brady does to the point of annoyance for poor Brady. Max will also stick up for Brady right or wrong versus the other siblings. I feel like Brady is my most surprising child. Every time I feel like I have a handle on him or his personality, he surprises me. He is too cute though and it is too hard to stay mad at those blue eyes for too long. For his birthday he wanted a real inflatable wrestling ring. That was the #1 gift request. That was a no. No room, no way, not gonna happen. He wanted a WWE thing-a-ma-bob from Toys R Us, which he may get with a gift card. Lastly, he wanted a bucket of teriyaki wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. He finally got his wings last night with Dad and also got his cupcake from Barnes and Noble. They had some much needed one-on-one time. On his birthday he got some NBA wrist bands and headband, a WWE brawling buddy (don't ask), and last but not least, we got him a scooter. It was no life size inflatable wrestling ring, but hey, he loved it and has loved riding it since (when the rain has permitted). He had butterscotch cake for his cake (I am forever indebted to Wendy for that recipe, it is a big-time fave among all the family members). Overall, he had a good birthday! Can't believe he is 8!

Happy Birthday Maxwell! Happy First day of School 2014

As always, it has been eventful, yet not terribly exciting. Max turned 5 and had a fun day which also turned out to be his first day of Pre-K! We went to Target to let him spend a gift card to purchase his birthday present. He chose . . . . a baseball and a baseball bat! Awesome sauce! He had a wrestler in hand, but put him back to get his own ball and bat. He loves baseball. I was hoping to find some MLB gear for him, but apparently that is so last season. Max is a Twins fan, so I was hoping to find a hat. I think he is happier with his bat that has shark teeth on it and his "real" (not so much) baseball. Max, Declan and I have been practicing our skills outside ever since. We then trekked over to Barnes and Noble because he had a free cupcake coupon for his birthday. He got a chocolate cupcake and did his best to put a dent in it. He ended up giving it to Daddy and Declan to finish off. Next stop: Panda Express. Max and I have a pact. I will get him Orange chicken on his birthday and he will get me Orange chicken on my birthday. He got his Orange chicken and we took him home to eat it. I thought I would get his leftovers, but that stinker left me nothing but rice. He asked me later if he could have orange chicken every day before school, but I told him that this was a special occasion. On a side note, we went again as a family Saturday night and the rest of the brood tried Max's orange chicken and the are hooked! I am sure it is laced in fat and deep fried to death, but it is good stuff. Back to the birthday. It was hurry up and wait time to take Max to his first day of Pre-K. He goes 5 days a week in the afternoon. He was super excited and had a great first day! He wanted McDonalds for dinner, so he and his siblings ate picnic style in the front room for dinner and they conned us into a slumber party on a school night, you know, because it was Max's birthday. Guess where Max slept? On the floor next to me in our room. Earlier in the week the other three started school. Walker is in 5th grade. He loves school and was delighted to find out that he made the advanced math class. He had to sign a committment form to keep his grade up and turn in all homework or risk getting kicked out of the advanced class. The gauntlet has been set. He is ready and willing for the challenge. Lauren is in 4th grade and is loving her class and teacher. She also loves school, but more for the social aspect. My phone is lit up again with calls from her friends. Brady is in 2nd grade. It is sacrament year for him! He will have first Reconciliation and first Communion this year. He is doing really well with school and is liking his class and teacher. He is ready to rock 2nd grade and can't wait to celebrate his birthday on the 25th! That leaves my baby, Declan. I swear that kid is the cutest thing ever. He says "thank you" in his own little way. He folds his little chubby hands when we pray before dinner. He puckers his lips to give kisses or steal a sip of your drink. He loves to clean and vacuum with his little popper push toy. I have been showing him the signs for Please and Thank You forever and a day and he has refused to do them. All of a sudden this week, he signed please when he wanted something and thank-you when he got it! He can say Walker's name (he says Gawker, but we'll take it) and he can say Wo-Wo for Lo-Lo (aka Lauren). His siblings adore him and the feeling is pretty mutual. No one can have a bad day when he is around! Be back soon for Brady's birthday!

Dear Declan:

Today is your first birthday! There are a few things I thought I should put on the table for you in the spirit of full disclosure as you get older. Since you are getting older, I too will be getting older, ergo I may not remember to tell you all of these things as we go along, so here it is, all in one spot, for your eternal reference. As you know, you are child number five in our family. It is very likely that I will seldom address you by your legal, given name. Don’t get me wrong, I love your name (as it is I who named you). The problem is that with four other names floating around in my brain, getting your name out at the exact time I need to will be few and far in between. This may tempt you to ignore me or feign hearing loss to avoid whatever it is I am yelling at you, uh, I mean addressing you about. Not a good idea. Ask children one through four why this is not in your best interest. You are boy number four. Whatever clever idea you have that involves destruction or mayhem, not to stifle your creativity, is not unique. More than likely it has been attempted either successfully or unsuccessfully by one of your three brothers. I realize that this may not alone deter you, as you boys seem to need to learn by experiencing it yourself, but don’t expect me to be surprised or impressed. Speaking of brothers, here is some advice. Stick with your sister. It is the unwritten job of older brothers to torture their younger brother. Brothers one and two might be done with this by the time you are old enough to not be cute to them anymore, but brother three has taken it from both of his older brothers and he can’t wait to dole it out to you. You will be set-up, teased, tripped, and tackled, to name a few. You may think that you are a punching bag for them. Tell them someone is messing with you at school, and you will see how having three older brothers can sometimes come in handy. Otherwise, if they tell you to taste it, don’t. If they tell you to say it, especially to me or any other important adult, don’t. If they tell you it’s ok to do it, as long as I am not around, than it most definitely is not. Stand up for yourself. They will give you grief, but they will respect you for it. You are my baby. On your 5th birthday, you are my baby. On your 18th birthday, you are my baby. I will expect you to sit on my lap and cuddle until age 14 probably, but don’t worry, I won’t make you do it when your friends are around. I will call you my baby. I will tell the other kids not to mess with the baby, even at Thanksgiving with your wife and kids at my house. Being your mother, I have that right. When dealing with your father, here are a few tips: laugh at his jokes, no matter how corny (trust me, by age three you will find them corny but laugh anyway). If you want something, ask Dad. To ensure that he says yes, wait until he is on his phone or on the computer and ask him for the moon. He will probably say yes. Learn to like going up and down the stairs, as he will ask you to put his stuff away and get his stuff numerous times a day. Always wear your seatbelt when he is driving. Let him hug you and tickle you as long as possible. You will notice as you make friends that not many Dads take time to do that as often as your Dad does. If he says anything about me, defend me. Sons must always protect their mother’s honor. If I say anything about Dad, agree with me. It seems like a double standard, but it’s fair, trust me. As for dealing with me, that’s pretty easy. Laugh at my jokes (they are well thought- out and witty). I will make you a master at sarcasm. I will embarrass you at any and all events you are involved in, however not intentionally. No one will cheer for you louder or go for the jugular faster if anyone messes with you. Hopefully the other kids will have helped me tone that down a bit by the time it comes to you, but don’t hold your breath. What I am trying to get across to you is that you did not get lucky enough to be born into a perfect family, nor are you royalty by any stretch of the imagination. That doesn’t mean that you are not destined for greatness. The sky is the limit for you. You will see as you get older that I have a flaw or two. News flash: You have a few yourself. Thanks to genetics, we may share a few. Learn to take advice and feedback. You have a chance to be a better person. Do it, I know you can. As for me, that ship has sailed and my flaws are pretty cemented and can only be treated by professionals with lots of letters after their name. You, on the other hand, still have a chance. If you ever doubt it, know that you were not only wanted, but needed in our family. For the whole first year of your life, the world stopped revolving around the sun and revolved around you. Your Dad and I could not get enough of your smile, laugh, chubby cheeks, bald head and endless kisses and hugs. Your brothers and sister thought you were the cutest thing ever (they may deny this later, but again, trust me they did) and fought over holding you, making you laugh and smile, feeding you, kissing you and playing with you. We have all talked about how it seems you were meant to be with us and none of us can imagine life without you, even if it has only been a year. I am not psychic (nor am I psychotic even if your siblings try to tell you I am), but I think I know the kind of person you are just by being your mommy for the first year. You are easy going, you love to smile and laugh, you are affectionate and you are funny. You don’t like to be told what to do, like when to go to bed. You are a flirt (you have some 80-year-old girlfriends at church that fight over getting your attention). You are an entertainer. You are empathetic. You are perfect. People may challenge you on that, but tell them that your mom says you’re perfect. You may doubt yourself from time to time, but nothing is unforgivable so long as you take responsibility and show true remorse. We will always have one another to lean on and laugh with. Happy Birthday Declan! Love, Your crazy family that is crazy for you!

Goodbye Summer!

Welp, summer is getting shorter these days and we are back to school. The kids are back into the swing of school, as you can see from the pictures. I always feel like we have just gotten into a good pattern when school creeps up around the corner. So instead of fighting at lunch and staying up too late, we are fighting at breakfast and staying up too late. I wish we had established a much better sleep routine earlier in the development of this family. Before marriage and children, I swore up and down that I would never let kids sleep in my bed and I would be firm on bedtimes. Enter Walker. Walker was a very light sleeper as a baby. As a toddler, I would have to lay with him until he fell asleep and then try to sneak away (he ALWAYS caught me, clearly being a klutz was NOT an advantage here). He then had a stage of night terrors. I am convinced the "terror" refers to the parent, because he never remembered these incidents, while Doug and I clearly remember being terrorized by his screaming and yelling. He has had a few other phases since then, but now he is pretty ok as long as someone is sleeping in close proximity to him. Since he is our oldest, how we handled each of his phases set a precedent for the other kids. Since he wandered in our room nightly for a long while, it became the norm for the others to try it. Now I have to eat my young and naive words as I admit there has been a child in my bed for the better part of 10 years. There may have been nights where the whole fam could be found somewhere in our room, via the floor, our bed, or wherever they could squeeze in. Then we gave into the constant pressure they put on us to have nightly "slumber" parties, which is sleeping in the living room. We have worked hard to reign that in and are on our way to a more typical bedtime routine. Typical, but not perfect by a long shot. My reason for this tangent is that I have a strong suspicion that perhaps they would get along better and have higher patience thresh-holds for each other if they had enough SLEEP!!! Oh, wait, maybe I would get along better and have a higher patience thresh-hold if I had enough SLEEP! Speaking of sleep, the picture of Max and Declan napping is one of my all time faves! Thank God for naps! My hopes for this school year is for all to have a year of growth, enthusiasm for learning and reading,and

good and consistent sleep. Meanwhile, throw in some bike-riding which Lauren LOVES to do and Brady is starting to master two-wheeling, and pizza nights and we may just have the best year ever! Speaking of pizza nights, we have had quite a few of those as we celebrated having a 4 year-old (Max) and a 7 year-old (Brady) this month! It's been fun, but I think I need a nap!

Summer Fun!

So, summer is in full swing, ready or not! It is the end of July, and my four older children have just started sleeping in to 7:30! That is quite the accomplishment as they are early risers! Declan, aka, Hubba Bubba, sleeps until about 6, so I'll take it and run! You know, this Halloween, I will mark my 10th anniversary as a mother (Walker will be 10) and I have to say, most days, I don't feel like I know any more about parenting or am any more confident as a mother than I was on 10-31-03. So either I am an EXTREMELY slow learner, or I have to resign myself to the fact that there just is no figuring this out completely. Same as having five kids. You would think I would carry some innate insight from having had four previous infants, but you would be wrong! I google or bing constantly about stuff I don't know about Declan's stages. And gosh darnit, I think that it is ok. Sometimes I think it is good for the kids to see me handle these challenges and problem solve on a case by case basis. It shows I am human and hopefully role models problem solving. Sometimes I think that my chosen methods of problem solving may just be what gives therapists in our area job security for the next few decades! I feel like I am on a roller coaster, but I also feel like I am just now learning to enjoy the ride! Pictures are of Declan at the pool in his stroller; Mr. Maxwell flaunting his cornhusker hat at the splash park at the pedestrian bridge; The yummiest four Flavor-Ice you ever did see at the Field Club Fourth of July Parade, courtesy of Aunt Denise, and lastly a smile from Declan!

Good Luck, Lauren . . .

See what I did with the title of this post, all you Disney Channel fans?? Get it? If not, that's ok too. So, one of the outcomes of having 5 kids is that everyone tries to guess our ratio of boys to girls. When I tell them we have 4 boys and 1 girl, they ALWAYS say: "Oh, poor thing!" I suppose there is some truth to the fact that it is a little sad that Lauren will never have the experience of having a sister among all these boys. She will also never have the experience of having a cat (I am not a cat person); she will miss out on dating until she is 25 because God gave her 4 brothers to see to that; she will never have the experience of riding a motorcycle while I am alive. In other words, there are many things that our family dynamic will preclude her from taking part in. The same goes for the boys. When people show such sympathy for my only daughter, I am quick to tell them not to worry about Lauren! She already tries to play the only girl thing for sympathy, but truth be told, she has plenty of advantages her 4 brothers do not! For instance, she has her own room (which she does not keep as clean as her mother would like!)whereas the boys all share a room (with the exception of Declan,for now). She has a bevy of girl cousins that give her hand-me-downs she does not have to share with anyone; There are many situations where being the only girl comes in handy for her. As for her parents, I believe God had very intentional reasons for giving us only one girl. She takes the cake when it comes to tantrums. I have her tantrum dance down and will present it at her wedding, along with the song she usually makes up to voice her discontent and clapping to add more noise to annoy all of us. As you can see from the pictures, most of which she took of herself WITHOUT permission, she has a profoundly silly side. But as with all aspects of her personality, she can go from girly to goofy instantly, happy to tantrum in no time, sick to playful in a wink, loving to obnoxious before you know what hit ya. I guess our lives would be uber boring without our super cra-cra Lauren (that's how the kids talk now-a-days! See, I'm down with what's in!) Luckily God sprinkled her with extra sweetness to balance out some of these other moods! She is a PROLIFIC note writer! Doug and I have stacks of notes she has left us everywhere you can imagine just telling us she loves us! That's something you don't get from 4 boys! If we all survive adolescence, she will be a great Mom and loving and fun wife! So, I guess instead of wishing her luck with 4 brothers, I should wish us luck with 1 Lauren!

Long time, no blog!

To say we have been busy, is an UNDERSTATEMENT! Since I last blogged, I made and brought into the world another human being! Welcome Declan Scott David Goebel! Stats: Born: 4-23-2013 (he shares John Cena's birthday, don't ask why I know that) Weight: 8 pounds 11 oz. (Boo-YA to the resident that said,"oh, there is no way there is 8 pounds in there", which I took as "Honey, you are fat!") Length: 21 inches (I think, I never remember that one!) To remind, Declan makes child #5, boy #4. His was an interesting pregnancy, having to do non-stress tests twice a week in the last four weeks, but a relatively smooth delivery. Needless to say, we are very grateful that God has entrusted us with him! We know we are very blessed to have the family we have. No matter how much I may complain on this blog or elsewhere, in my heart I know we are blessed to have conceived and delivered 5 healthy babies. There are so many that struggle and I try not to take for granted what we have been given. That being said, I am not perfect, and 5 is hard!!! To that end, I guess 4 was hard, and come to think of it 3 was hard, 2 was a difficult balance and 1 was an adjustment! It strikes me as I go through infancy again with Declan, that although I now have 5, I really don't feel any more enlightened than I did with number 1! That may be a testament of my intelligence. One would think that I should know exactly what I am doing by now, but that is not at all the case. To be truthful, Max (#4) was like a fantasy. For some reason, I feel like he was an easy baby all around and expected Declan to be the same. He is not difficult, but his feedings are not as smooth, he is a spitter, he seems to need more of me than I remember from Max. It may also be that soon after his arrival, summer break started and it has been me versus 5 ever since. With Max, soon after his August arrival, Walker went to school and Lauren and Brady entertained each other most of the day. Either way, I feel like I am as much fumbling my way through with Declan as with the others. When not breaking up wrestling matches and calming 8-year-old girl hormones (I cringe at that!) I am enjoying getting to know this little man! He is very serious and only gives smiles in his sleep or when he is fed and clean and mom is not yelling at someone, so he does not smile often, but when he does, it's heart-melting! It has also been an experience watching the older kids observe and act towards him. Walker is quick to hold him when he cries and is surprisingly very patient with Declan. Lauren is loving holding and nurturing him as well, but her attention span is a bit shorter with him. Brady appreciates the thought and sight of him, but leaves the nurturing to others. Max tries to be as affectionate as a 3-year-old can be which means that Declan's eyes get big and his lip quivers when Max is in his sights! Hopefully I will be better about posting now, but I can't guarantee anything!