a house full of insanity: Let the celebration begin

{we made Gigi use the birthday bib on her birthday!}

It was a birthday celebration all weekend in the Schulte household. It started Friday and the girl was spoiled up into today. Tomorrow will be such a let down. :-( We are currently feasting on leftover birthday cake to fill up on this FAT TUESDAY. This mommy has been on a diet for a while so I am really trying not to indulge on this day. Feeding Lil Miss leftover cake and taking a nibble here and there is ok for me. I know Lent is about giving up and "sacrificing" something that is really important during this time. A small price to pay when Jesus gave his life for us, so I have given up soda for Lent. (my best friend Mountain Dew will be so lonely) I feel it is really more about "doing" things instead of "giving" up. That is why besides giving up soda for the next 40 days, I am also "doing" more to change my life. For the past 2 1/2 months I have been running in the morning training for the Cap City 1/2 marathon. I know, you can't seriously see this girl running 13.1 miles. Well, it's not pretty and not fast but this past weekend I ran 5 miles!!!! My longest yet, and that combined with the walking I did I totalled 7.36 miles on Sunday! I am very proud of myself. So Lent I will continue to improve my running and NOT give up. I also started over the weekend doing more reading in the bible. 3 weeks ago we started learning bible verses as a family. Over a weeks time we talk about the bible verse, read the story in the bible in coordinates with, and then memorize the verse. This has motivated me to really strengthen my relationship with the Lord and spend the time every night reading a little in the bible. Over the weekend I picked up a devotional journal too and have started to reflect on MY life. I spend so much time analysing each child and trying to solve their problems... that I forget that I need to work on my attitude and reaction to situations as well. Trying to regulate myself over this Lenten season is a goal AND if I am working on my relationship with God and my relationship with myself, I might as well throw in my relationship with Nate as well. I started The Love Dare on Friday with Nate. If you aren't familiar it is was made hugely popular by the movie "Fireproof." I spent a little time on Friday afternoon at the book store and came across the Love Dare once again on the bookshelf right in front of me. I came straight home, found the copy I had bought a long time ago after just finishing the movie (I think I made it to day 2 last time) and started it right away. I am on Day 4 of the Love Dare and up until now I don't know if Nate even noticed I was doing anything different. He will now after reading this -- if he reads the blog? So more than just giving up soda -- I am trying to work on myself and my attitude. Those of you who know me closely know that the past month or so I have hit some lows. I would say I have definately walked a fine line on being depressed. I can't blame it on winter weather because the weather has been more like spring. In my world it just seems that everything came falling in at one time. So now I am digging myself out of my funk and coming back to the real world showing the people around me that I am not the person I was the last couple of months. Instead of sitting in front of the computer at night searching pinterest, looking at facebook, or reading inspirational mommy blogs who I admire.... I am finding "me" time to reflect. This may sound like such an easy task, but I have struggled to put all the tasks that need to be done out of my head and just sit in bed and read or pray. Harder than it looks...

{daddy's chocolate chip pancakes} What makes like a little better is a yummy start to the day! On Sunday daddy made his wildly popular pancakes with a Gigi twist of chocolate chips. We enjoyed every bite!!

{someone loves pancakes}

{opening gifts}

Uncle Neil made Gigi wait all day to open her gift until he could "watch" her open it via skype. Even though the package came in the afternoon she waited only asking us 6-7 times if she could open it. As soon as she heard the skype signal coming through the computer she was excited!! She thought the box held clothes.... but to her astonishment it was an American Girl Doll. She is in heaven!!!

{So excited for her birthday gift -- an american girl doll from Uncle Neil}
Addy is now a part of the family. The doll goes everywhere with us.

{Skyping with Uncle Neil -- Lil Miss is a big fan of skype}

{there was some cuddle time this weekend -- this is my favorite!!}

For a treat we went to Monkey Joe's (a inside bounce house) on Sunday Afternoon to play. The little girls and I had been there before but the big kids had not. I told Daddy to bring his computer to do some work because there was a parent's lounge with comfortable chairs and couches and a big screen tv. I did not disappoint. I think I made all the kids happy -- even the biggest one, daddy!!

{monkey joe -- yes he is a purple monkey!}

The toddler area was perfect for Lil Miss. She couldn't be pulled away from the mini slide in the play area. Up and down, Up and Down, she went. It made this mommy tired.

{birthday girl -- all smiles!!!!}

{I can't believe this cake is all for me!}

When we got home from bouncing us silly we ate a dinner of turkey tenderloin and macaroni and cheese (guess who picked that?). The icing on the cake was birthday cake. The birthday girl picked Ice Cream Cake. Yummy!!!

{our boy hustling on the court}
Saturday we all made it to bubba's second to last basketball game. He does exceptionally well but needs to work on team work. Nate was constantly telling him to pass the ball but he said he was open and kept taking the shot. How can you argue? He also is watching to much OSU basketball that he is trying to use skills above his level. This week he tried dribbling under his legs once again, which he is pretty good at. BUT the funny one was when he tried to pass behind his back to another player. It went the wrong way. I think he still needs a little practice before the NBA. When you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he will automatically say a basketball player but then adds that he also wants to do engineering. The first time he said this at the dinner table I may have made a comment such as "basketball playing engineers are pretty rare". I was rolling on the ground laughing.... Nate did not think this was funny. :-)

{Big girl staying busy during her brothers game}

{day off school scavenger hunt}

On monday the kids didn't have school because of President's Day so mommy had to be creative how to pass the time. Most of the day was unexciting. We ate breakfast, kids played DS and wii, a couple UNO games were battled out, and we watched High School Musical 3. The only creative activity we did was a scavenger hunt. The kids hunted high and low for 10 items put on a list. With Rosie being the leader reading off the list they knocked off the scavenger hunt items one by one. It was the 25 minutes needed to put supper on the stove.