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 :)

Christmas

I would blog more often, but...

My husband has been working from home for months now. He has an office. He just rarely goes in unless he has to do the books, write checks, etc. So, he is in his home office all the time which is where the computer is.

I have loved having him home, though. It is very helpful. He is in charge of baseball which means: he takes Lincoln to practice, the cages, hitting/pitching lessons. It saves me a lot of time. I love that he's available to help out! Usually, he will leave right when Lincoln gets home from school and take him out to the field to work out even before practice starts.

A while ago, Jim went down to the City offices and sat for hours trying to reserve baseball fields. This is very hard to do, and it costs money to reserve them. Most people just give up. But, Jim has fields for 4 hours almost every night, and a couple hours on Saturday. So, our team has a place to practice. Or, him and Lincoln can go out to a field and have lights on whenever they want. Spoiled. We are loving Lincoln's new team and Coach. He is Venom now. We have won 3 out of our last 4 tournaments. We even won a 10 year old bracket and we are 9.

Little Finners is doing great! She is the best baby. Probably the easiest baby we've ever had. She sleeps great, and never fusses. She is 7 weeks old now. We all adore her. Levi LOVES her. Sometimes, he just randomly walks by her and gives her a kiss. How sweet is that? So glad she is in our family.

Finley Grace Berkabile

Finley was born on October 22, 2011 at about 5:30am. She weighed in at 5lbs 11oz, and was 17 1/2 inches. It was the quickest, easiest delivery ever. I was at sitting at Lincoln's baseball game, having pretty regular contractions that night. Jim wasn't with us, he was at a Scout thing, so I took Lincoln home after the game and called Jim. I knew the contractions were regular enough for me to need to go to the hospital. So, we packed up and went. After I got there, they monitored me for a while, and since I had been 5cm dilated for the last month, and I was finally 37 weeks, Dr. Martin decided to keep me. After he got to the hospital, they gave me an epidural, broke my water, and I had the baby 20 minutes later. She was so small, that they told me not to push. They said to grunt or cough, and her head came out. It was so easy. She is healthy and strong, and the BEST baby. She may be our best baby yet.


My sister had her baby 5 days before I had Finley. She had a little boy, Emerson. These are a couple pictures of Finley & Emerson together.

18 days

That's how long I have been on bedrest. I'm not gonna lie. It's been rough...on everybody. 4 more days, and the Dr will let me stop my medication and go into labor.

So, here's the story...

Friday night, a couple of weeks ago, Jim and I were going to go on a date night for our 14th anniversary. Well, I had been having contractions all day, but that is so common for me, we decided to go ahead with our plans. But, we decided to hit a restaurant close to the hospital, just in case. So, we are sitting in the parking lot of the restaurant, debating if we should go in, and we decide we better just head up to the hospital. So, we grab a quick bite at Taco Bell (Happy Anniversary)and head to labor & delivery.

I am always reluctant to go to the hospital, because I can never tell when I'm really in labor. I have contractions all the time, and I hate spending a couple hours in the hospital and then have them send me home with a false alarm.

So, I get all settled on the monitors and the nurse checks me and I'm dilated to 4cm. An hour later, she checks me and I am at 5cm. I just get tears in my eyes and think, "Why?" I am only 32 weeks pregnant. I do not want to have a 32 week baby. They decide to admit me and put me on magnesium and steroid shots. That might have been the worst experience of my life. The magnesium makes you feel so crappy, and what's worse is you have to be on it for 48 hours. Ugh. Glad that's over.

I ended up spending 4 days in the hospital. I could not wait to get out of there. I was tired of the IV's and my belly itched so bad from the monitors, that I just wanted to be free. So, the morning I'm supposed to be released, the specialist comes in and tells me he wants me to stay in the hospital for the next 2 weeks. Um, no. I practically begged my doctor to let me come home and I told him I would be sooooo good, and hardly ever get out of bed. So, he let me come home, and for the last two weeks, I have hardly been out of bed. No matter how hard it is on EVERYONE, I know that this is the best thing. We want our baby sister to come home with us and not have to stay in the hospital.

This is the 3rd pregnancy in a row that I have had to be on bedrest. I guess I was hoping that it would be different this time, but it was actually worse than all the rest of the pregnancies. I think this is the last time I can do this.

Jim and the kids have been amazing!They have really stepped up and taken care of things. They have all pitched in and kept up on the house and the laundry. My mom and Jim's mom have been over here trying to keep up on the laundry, too. We have a lot of laundry. I have the best friends, too. They have brough meals and helped with the kids. We feel really loved and blessed to have so many people who want to help us. Thank you to everyone!

Saturday, I will be 36 weeks and I will stop my medication and resume normal activity. I am counting down the hours. I never had a chance to "nest", and I need to get a few things done. I don't know how long I will last after Saturday. I am going to have to watch my contractions very closely, and head to the hospital at the first sign of labor since I'm already at 5cm. Because I've had so many kids, it doesn't take much to push me all the way to 10cm. Also, I will be VBAC-ing. Which means that I have previously had a C-section (Stinkin' Lincoln). I don't plan on having a c-section ever again, so my doctor legally has to hang out with me for my whole labor, in case of complications. I hope everyone is lucky enough to have such a great doctor. He has VBAC-ed me my last 3 babies. I love my doctor.

I know this is a long post, but I just wanted to give a little recap of what's happening at our house, since Mom's been down.

Jim gets 5 of the kids up at 6:30am and sends them off to school by 7:25. Gets a little bit of work done before Levi wakes up. He feeds Levi,puts in a couple loads of laundry (while texting and answering his phone for work stuff). Then Dylan gets home from Kindergarten and he feeds me and the kids lunch, more laundry, runs to the store (sometimes more than once a day). There is no shortage of fruit loops and cheese balls at my house. Makes sure Lincoln's uniform is washed for baseball. Kids get home, Jim gets Lincoln going on his homework before baseball (which he has almost everyday). The girls do their homework without being told. He chases Levi around pretty much all day long cleaning up his messes which include: throwing things in the toilet...every toilet, dumping the garbage can out, unscrewing spray bottles full of water, helping himself to hot cheetos and dumping them out everywhere, putting legos in his mouth, throwing all 100 of Lincoln's trophies onto the floor from his dresser, etc. You get the picture. On top of that, the girls have activity days, young womens, piano lessons, student council meetings, Jr. honor society meetings, volleyball, and the list goes on. So, basically it has been a struggle for Jim to actually get any work done the past couple weeks. Usually, there are two of us to split up the running around. But, Jim is doing it all on his own. I try to text friends, and arrange rides for the girls when I can, but Jim has been running ragged. I love him so much. He is really making me look bad with how well he is keeping up with things :)

Yesterday, Levi went to spend a few days with my sister-in-law. Usually, he is not that big of a pest. He and I hang out and spend a lot of time together during the day. He is not used to me being down, and I think he has just been bored to death. He is having fun with his cousins across town, but the kids miss him like crazy.

My mom has been a huge help. She washed my huge bin full of baby girl clothes and organized it for me, and then picked up a few things I needed which wasn't much at all. Turns out, we have a lot of girls stuff. Preemie stuff, too, since Brooklyn and Dylan were both under 6lbs when they were born. So, we are in good shape.

I am still in denial that I am having another baby. Even after all that we have been through. I don't think it has really hit me that we will be carrying around a car seat, diaper bag, bottles, formula, and a newborn. I don't know if it will really sink in until she gets here. We will love her, though. We still haven't decided on a name...the end.

Back to school

Dylan was so excited to go to Kindergarten. I had to kiss her goodbye and send her in, because we weren't allowed inside the gates. Lame. When the day actually came, she was really nervous. She came home the first day and said,"School was good, but I didn't learn how to read." I guess she had big expectations for the first day :) Brooklyn walks her to class now in the mornings, and she goes in like a pro. She is still so small. Can't believe she is old enough to be in Kindergarten.

Lincoln is in 4th grade now. He is really liking school, but not the new schedule. School is an hour earlier this year. He is not a morning person. He wakes up at about 6:45am. Gets to school by 7:50. Right after school, he has about 4 hours of baseball. Homework. Shower. Bed. Repeat the next day. He is working so hard lately, and feels horribly guilty that he doesn't have time to play with his friends. We are not forcing this on him, though. He would rather be playing baseball. He is doing what he wants to do. But, he sacrifices a lot for it.

He is not on the Stealth anymore. Most of his team moved over to the Venom, and he has a former MLB player as his new coach. This guy played for the Mets (Lincoln's favorite team). But, this coach wants to practice all the time. This team is basically his job, so Lincoln gets a lot of practice. He is getting sooooo good, too. I have seen a difference in just a short time. We are excited for the change.

Brooklyn is in 2nd grade. She has lots of friends in her class at school, so she loves it. We also love her teacher. Blake and Lincoln both had this teacher, and she is great. Brooklyn is excited to go to school everyday. She keeps begging me to sign her up for cheerleading. Ugh. I keep avoiding it. Honestly, I would rather her do ANYTHING, but cheer. She is the child that worries me the most. She is already into hair, and clothes, and boys. I'm scared for when she is a teen-ager.
Ah. Middle School. Taylor is in 7th and Blake is in 6th. Both are doing great in all their accelerated classes. Blake has been really on top of her assignments and homework, and is really interested in getting involved in Student Council during the next few years. Taylor is in National Junior Honor Society, and is interested in stacking her resume so she can get into BYU Provo. I am so proud of these girls. They are so amazing! Sometimes I'm shocked that I borned them :) They have somehow avoided all the Middle School drama, too. Hopefully, they will lay low and glide right into High School without too much drama.

AS for me and Levi. He is barely waking up by the time Dylan gets home from school. She gets out at 10:30. Levi is a sleeper. He loves his bed. So, mornings are a nice quiet time for me. At least for now. Next month we will have a new baby...

Happenings

I have no pictures for ya. Sorry. I don't have the patience to sit and upload and edit at the computer. Besides, my feet will start to swell up and then Taylor will make fun of me and say, "OH! My feet feel like bricks!" Apparently, I say that a lot.

I am almost 32 weeks pregnant. Baby girl looks great. She is a little over 3 lbs right now. So, we are happy. I am still in denial, and am nowhere close to nesting. I have a lot of little baby girls clothes that need to be washed and organized. But, that means organzing a couple of closets...and I'm not in the mood. We can't decide on a name.

I have been very tired this time around. I think it has something to do with having 6 kids. I was telling Jim that my "energy spurt" only lasted about 3 weeks this time. I keep apologizing to my family for being a lazy pregnant lady, but really, they don't seem to mind. They have been super helpful and everybody pitches in and helps out. I think my own guilt gets to me. Not being able to do what I normally do. But, seriously, I don't think my sweet little family even cares if I just lay around all the time. They are great :)

I am moving pretty slow. Levi even peed on the carpet upstairs today because I wasn't fast enough getting his diaper. It was actually kind of funny. I think he was as surprised as I was.

The kids are loving school. We are back in our routine. They all love their teachers and classes. The best thing about this year is that Lincoln has a weekly homework packet instead of daily homework. It works out so nice with baseball. On the nights he doesn't have baseball he can just bust it and get his whole packet done. Such a stress off of him.

I have some amazing friends that are helping bring Dylan home everyday from Kindergarten. I am so thankful to have them.

Here is a picture of my cute sister and her hubby. They are having a baby boy in less than 4 weeks. I couldn't be more excited for them!