8 is great

Brooklyn had a birthday and was baptized. It was such a great day. She looked beautiful and so happy. I love when there's an excuse to spoil and celebrate one of the kids individually. They are all such great kids. They never complain about mine and Jim's attention being spread so thin, but it is fun when they each get their day to shine and get cheered on and supported by everyone in the family. This was Brookie's day. She had the most stunning dress, and the whole family, I mean WHOLE family (about 30 of us) went to BJ's for dinner after the baptism. That was Brooklyn's choice, and it ended up being really fun, and we all had our own pizookies for dessert!

Goodbye computer

Hello iPad. The kids have singlehandedly documented our everyday life on my iPad, so blogging from here seems like the best idea.


Lincoln's team won the tournament last weekend. They are the official 9U state champs. Levi Is obsessed with the championship ring. Maybe one day he will have his own. He loves baseball. He watches Lincoln's game highlights everyday and carries around a ball and glove. It is inevitable that he will be a baseball player. Our batting cages are under construction right now, and I assume he will spend most of his childhood there.


I am in bed again today. This is my view. It's getting old. Not the cute baby on the floor, just the laying around :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This is a test

I hardly ever get on the computer anymore. I decided to get this app for my iPad, in the hopes of keeping up on the blog. My iPad is full of pics and videos from the kiddos. Here are a few for you viewing pleasure...and one that I found of my sister :)


















So, on Monday, I took the kids to school in the morning and came home to find my two littlest babies still asleep. I thought I would sneak in a run on the treadmill, since it had been months since I had exercised. There just hasn't been time, even though I wish there was. I had resolved to lose these last five nagging pounds once and for all. The plan was to try to run Monday, wednesday, and Friday this week.
So, I ran on Monday and went on with my day. My back felt sore. I am weak from being on bed rest. I think I lost a lot of muscle from laying in bed. I am not as strong as I used to be. Anyway, as I was loading the dishwasher that afternoon, I pulled something in my upper back. Annoying. I tried to ignore it and was helping Jim fix our washer upstairs that has been struggling for about a month. One load a day is not cutting it.

After we had pulled 3 unrecognizeable socks from the drainage hose, we were putting things back together, and I pulled something in my lower back. This time, the pain was horrible and I started seeing spots and thought I might pass out. So, I have spent the whole stupid week in bed. It's giving me horrible flashbacks from when I was on bed rest.
I was able to walk a little yesterday, then I hurt my back again tying up the overflowing garbage downstairs.

So, I am back in bed again. I am bugged. My family is so sweet and have been taking care of things which makes me feel extremely guilty. I like doing things for them, not the other way around. I know they love to help, though. So, we are doing fine. It's just dumb that this happened.

I am so looking forward to this weekend! Mother's Day is my favorite day of the year. It's my day off!!! Hope everyone enjoys their day, too :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lots to catch up on

Here are some random pics of our recent trip to AZ. Of course, we were traveling for a tournament. We hardly ever travel for any other reason. We decided to make a nice vacation for the kids out of this one, so we stayed at an awesome resort with a pool and waterslide. We had stayed there before, so we knew it was going to be fun, and the whole team was also staying there.

The girls have lots of friends to play with when we travel, because of all of the siblings that tag along. We sported our Venom gear all weekend long.

Highlights of the trip include: tying one of the top teams in the country, So Cal Outlaws Black, the midnight showing of The Hunger Games with mom's and daughters from the team, hanging with Andre Agassi and Stephanie Graff by the pool. OK, we didn't really HANG with them, but they were there and Lincoln was playing in the pool with their son who is on the 10u Venom.

The girls get unlimited snack bar when they come to Lincoln's tournaments, and they take FULL advantage of it. During a tournament, we are at the field all.day.long. The boys will usually have 2 games, but they always want to sticke around and watch more games and check out the competition. The girls are really good sports as long as they get anything and everything they want at the snack bar! They will usually come equipped with a scooter, iPod, Kindle, etc. They know the drill.

In other news: Levi turned 2, and he is the cutest 2 year old I know. He is:

starting to talk a lot more, obsessed with the iPad/iPod, otterpops, Despicable Me, loves to dance, laughs out loud a lot, because he thinks he is the funniest kid ever, plays with cars, balls, and transformers, will sit and watch a Barbie movie with Dylan to Jim's dismay, gives kisses constantly, and LOVES his mama!

For his birthday, we made these:

Finley is 5 months old. She is such a good baby. She is rolling all over the place, and is so happy all the time. We can't get enough of her.

Taylor and Brooklyn are doing really well at piano. They both got Superior with Honors ratings at their Junior Festival a few weeks ago. They will be having a recital soon, and I will post the video.

Blake has been busy with Student Council which she loves and she made it into NJHS for next year. She is doing really well in school, and has a lot of friends. She wants to get started in golf, so we will probably be doing that sometime soon.

Dylan is loving Kindergarten, is starting to read really well, and colors and plays with puzzles all day long. She is, seriously, the easiest child.

Jim & I are getting ready to open Premier Baseball Academy which will be batting cages and professional baseball instruction. We have a huge space in the Southwest which we will start building out on next week. Most of Jim's business during the day has to do with baseball, so it is only natural for him to do this. It is something we are really excited about. No, we are not moving. He will make the commute every day :)

Lincoln will be starting homeschool next year. It was inevitable. He wants to spend every waking moment with his dad at the batting cages when they open, and his coach will be there giving lessons everyday. The cages won't open until the middle of the day, so he can get his work done in the morning. He can still do GATE at the school if he wants. There are a couple of kids on Lincoln's team who do homeschool, and it relieves a lot of stress on the busy baseball schedule.

So, that's what has been going on. I know, it's a lot. Lots of changes and doors opening for us. Hopefully, this will be something that strengthens us and brings us closer as a family. We are all really excited about it. Hopefully, I can post updates occassionally.

February

The YM & YW had a fundraiser last weekend, and they set up a "photo booth." My kids & their friends had a blast with it. I'm sure the photographer was tired of seeing them all after a while, but they were paying customers and it was for a good cause :)

Almost 4 months old. Cuteness! She is such a good girl, except, have you ever had a baby that throws up on herself all the time? Finley is that baby. I am constantly changing her clothes, because it can't possibly be comfortable to be soaked in puke all the time. I love her thought. Hope she grows out of it.

Love him! He is always playing with figurines. It doesn't matter what kind. From transformers to princesses. It keeps him occupied all day long.

So, that's our February so far. Life just doesn't seem to slow down at all around here. There is always something going on. I can't keep up on the house or laundry. My OCD has been forced to take a back seat, because there is just not enough time to keep everything perfect. Crazy as it sounds, it doesn't really bother me that much. There are more important things than keeping a perfect house and looking perfect all the time. This is real life.

I have been trying to get my workouts in everyday, to drop the rest of the baby weight. That is a priority for me, because I refuse to buy new clothes. If I want to wear my old ones, I need to lose the weight. I don't have that far to go anymore. Things are finally starting to fit. So, if you see me and I have no make up and my hair is gross, it is only temporary.

Big tournament this weekend. I will let you all know how the boys do.

World Series Time!

Lincoln's team has qualified for the World Series in Colorado this summer! We really want to go, but it is a very expensive trip for our team. My brilliant hubby has created a website that anyone can go to and make a donation via paypal or credit card. Any small amount will help. We need to raise a lot of money by July. The website is http://vegasvenom9u.com/

MLK Champs!!!

MLK Championship 9u from Vegas Venom Baseball on Vimeo.

One of the dads on the team tapes the games during the tournaments. He is in broadcasting and is really good at editing and makes the best videos. I am SO glad to have this video from last weekend. We were down by 2 the whole game. You have to watch and see what happens. Lincoln is #5!

PS We lost to this team last year in this same tournament 9-8. See here http://kirstenberkabile.blogspot.com/2011/01/robbedagain.html

Things I am loving right now

I can't bring myself to take down all these cute cards. It's my favorite part of Christmas. Levi likes to look at them too. In fact, he has torn off he bottom two rows to keep for himself.

We got a huge new couch for upstairs. We can all fit. Not loving the laundry that's piling up.

Lincoln got a new Wii game called Skylanders for Christmas. Whoever came up with this is a genius. You can buy different characters for the game. You can switch characters in the middle of the game just by taking one off of the base and putting a new one on. Each character has a special skill that you need. Seriously, genius. Lincoln has a bunch, but it has been really hard to find them. The manufacturer can't keep up with the demand. We call Toys R Us practically everyday to ask if they got any in. If you have a boy around Lincoln's age, I highly recommend this game.

This was my Christmas present. I used to think Uggs were the ugliest boots ever, but I have been wanting these for a while. My feet FREEZE at Lincoln's baseball games, and I have been needing something warm. I can't wait to try these out at the tournament this weekend.

Blessing

Finley was blessed yesterday by her dad. It was a beautiful blessing. She is the first baby of ours to have all 4 of the boys in Jim's family together in the blessing. It meant a lot, and it was a really good day. We had a fun lunch afterwards at our house, and I snapped a few pictures. Yes, you heard right. I took some pictures :) I think they turned out great, and totally capture her happy little personality.

PS. No offense to my other 4 daughters, but Finners had the cutest blessing dress! Thank you BabyGap for making this dress at the perfect time.

Braces

Blake got braces a couple months ago. Isn't she cute? That means I have my two oldest in braces and my two youngest in diapers. I have been buying diapers nonstop for 13 years.

We had a lovely Christmas. We baked lots of treats, made lots of hot chocolate, stayed up late, slept in, and played with lots of friends. I have zero pictures to show for it. It is a lot of working keeping up with 7 kids and a husband. The baby is an angel. She is so low maintenance. We love her so much. I am hoping things will slow down during the next couple of weeks, so I can take Levi and Finley out and get some pictures to post.

I do have a new goal to blog more about the day to day(same as last year), and take the pressure off myself to always have pictures to post. It's better to journal our lives, then not do it because I don't have any pictures that day. Right? Let's see if I can keep up :)