My new BFF

The past 6 months life in our home has changed with Brigham being in school; it has left a lot of time for Brinley to hang out with mommy and daddy. This little lady has become my MOST favorite person to hang out with!! My other girls have been a little different when it comes to running errands especially.....they beg and beg to go and then 20 min into running around the spend the rest of the time asking when will be done and when we can go home. THIS little lady will literally follow me from store to store for hours and hours and every time we get back in the car ask "where we going next" I LOVE it!!! She is such a fun shopping companion and I have adored my one on one time I get to spend with her! I am going to be devastated when she goes to school next year....I keep telling her "Brinley, please don't go to school, who is going to hang out with me??" She just giggles and flashes her cute smile at me. It makes me sad at the same time, that I don't get to spend this much one on one time with each of my kids AND makes me understand better the special relationship my mom has with my baby sister Cassie. I don't want my baby girl to grow up, and she is doing it WAY too fast!

Happy Birthday Daddy

1st off I'm so tired of my camera on my phone....it takes GREAT pictures.....as long as everyone is standing completely still! grrrrr! Devin is kind of funny when it comes to celebrating his birthday; he really doesn't care if we do anything ever, doesn't really care if he gets gifts, he really just lets us put on the birthday celebration for the kids sake. They LOVE it! They love singing, they love wrapping gifts, they love baking a cake, its almost as much fun for them as their own birthdays! So, we had fun wrapping up daddies gifts (clothes...so practical I know) and helping bake him a cake. I think Brigham and Brinley sang happy birthday for weeks after. We love our daddy, and we appreciate everything he does for us. We actually love him being a full time college student, they get a little less time with mom because while daddy is studying mom is usually running errands or working sometimes, BUT I think all of us would agree that it is going to be really hard to have to go back to life with Dad at a full time job, not getting to see him every day!

He is such a good Dad, and we love him so much! Happy Birthday!!!!

Spring Break

This was a CRAZY break for me and the kiddos. My mission: get to the gym, get us ready for family pictures and play play play. The kids mission: if I had to guess would probably be sleep, play and NO chores LOL! I think they got plenty of play time, and by the looks of my house, not as much chores as mom would like...but oh well!
One of our fun outings was meeting up with my sister and her 3 girls for a movie date, checking out the puppies at the mall and even ice cream at McDonalds (by the way....who ever thought it would be a good idea to have a playplace at a fast food place that doesn't have a door that shuts?) The kids had a blast and for the most part were really good. I even played the "cool mom" card and allowed my older 3 boys and their friends to go see a different PG movie so they didn't have to sit through Tangled with all the little kids. I LOVE my kids and LOVE LOVE hanging out with my sister!!!!!

My baby boy turns 3

So this is another new first for me....I have a 3 year old and NO baby in my house. Different days I feel different about that subject...but that's for a whole other post. This post is about my baby Ryker turnimng 3....... gosh I love this little guy. There are days that he drives me BONKERS....like this morning when he threw a wooden spoon and it smacked Brinley in the face, then grabbed his bowl of cereal ate 2 bites and then tossed the whole bowl on the floor THEN lets the milk that was in his mouth slowly spill down his face and his shirt! REALLY? I don't even get this kid sometimes. BUT then there is the other Ryker....the super cute, super sweet, super cuddly Ry Ry. My favorite thing in the world is when he manages to be up late and climbs into bed with me and Devin and cuddles, or reads a book to US, or shows me all his belongings that he brought into bed with him. He has this whole family wrapped around his finger and he totally knows it too! Here are afew things Ryker is all about these days;

* LOVES books!

* loves his teddy bears, stuffed doggie, and Barbies (I know...hes so weird LOL)

* he LOVES shoes...probably because he spends a lot of nights cuddling with us and watches mommy surf shoe websites! He will say "ooooohhhhh, mommy....look at da shoooes! Pretty shoes!" He will find the girls shoes and come find me to show me his silver sparkly shoe on one foot and the black shiny one on the other!

* loves being outside with his brothers and sisters. He is pretty fast on the pink and purple tricycle pushing with his feet because he refuses to use the pedals. (really, should I be worried about this kiddo?)

* he gives TONS of kisses and every day Brigham leaves on the bus he will stand with me and blow kisses and wave "Bye Bigam"

* LOVES his family, but he really loves his big brother Austin. He will yell HI AUTIN every day when he comes home from school and especially if Austin is gone on a campout he will ask for him and is so excited when he gets home!

* HOT or COLD...you don't get in between, he is either all hugs and kisses or he is chucking stuff across the room OR having a meltdown because the kids sang him Happy Birthday??

* His smile melts my heart and will save him from trouble every time!

* we are working on putting a stop to the climbing on the kitchen counters, and up the shelves in the hall closet

I really really love my baby boy, hes my buddy, hes my cuddle bug and I love when I get to spend one on one time with him. I couldn't imagine a day without him and I adore the love that this entire family has for this little man!

The WORST night!!

So its been 3 years since I have had a little baby, so I am used to getting my sleep at night. Well, last night I think my dog Maddy wanted to die! I don't know what her problem is...ok really I think I do; its called being extremely SPOILED!!!! She gave birth to 4 sweet puppies Saturday night and has been so great with us and the kids and things have been great....until last night! She is has gotten her energy and strength back and is torn between wanting to spend time with me and Devin and taking care of her babies. This is how my night went...

She almost always sleeps with us (remember I capitalized the word spoiled....ya theres a reason!!) and last night she REALLY wanted to be in bed with me and Devin while we were watching TV but every time one of the puppies would whimper she would jump off our bed to see if they were ok then 2 min later jump back up in bed with us.(and we have a REALLY tall bed that she has to jump up onto my cedar chest then onto the bed....you would think she would have gotten tired at some point!)  After about 10 min of that Devin said, I'll fix this....and he put the babies in bed with us and everyone was happy. When we were ready to go to sleep he put all the dogs in their bed (which is in our room) ALL night long Maddy would come to my side of the bed jump on, lay down for 5 min, hear her puppies, go to Devins side, jump off check on the babies, then back to my side to jump back onto the bed and lay down for 5 min. Literally ALL night!!! So finally at 4:00 I couldn't take it anymore so I went into the little kids room with a pillow and found a Little Mermaid sleeping bad to snuggle up with. I look up and see the TV mounted to the wall and think "Holy COW if that thing were to fall down it would probably kill me...we really gotta move the bed!" then I couldn't fall asleep bc I kept thinking about the TV falling on my head! 20 min later I hear the little "click, click, click" of Maddys feet on the wood floors coming to find me!! You have GOT to be kidding!!!! She does the same thing, lays with me for 5 min then off to find her babies. So 2 or 3 times of that I'm done and I pick up and head downstairs to lay on the couch...she HEARS me from the other room and chases me down the hall AHHHHHH!!! Here it is 4:30 in the morning and I'm in the hall hollering at my little dog to leave me alone and go away with a pillow and a freakin Little Mermaid sleeping bad...seriously I just want to sleep! I never get mad at this dog, she is always wonderful and I'm just about to loose it! No joke, 15 min later she comes down stairs and jumps on the couch; I hide under the sleeping bag and am yelling at her "Maddy seriously go away and leave me alone your not sleeping with me" She finally jumps off the couch and slowly marches up the stairs like I have just crushed her little heart! I'm so tired this morning BUT I can laugh about it bc it is just because she is so spoiled. She LOVES me and Devin and as I'm laying in bed with her going round and round between us and her babies the scene from Overboard flashes in my head where Goldie Hawn is laying on the couch on her yacht talking to her mom on the phone and her mom says "But if you HAVE a baby then you cant BE the baby" HAHAHA Maddy is still trying to hold on to being the baby and I love her for it.....I guess!

A MUST blog to follow

Devin and I took Love and Logic parenting classes years ago from the MOST amazing lady! She has a great blog and is having an incredible giveaway right now that you MUST check out! Love & Logice....and Keri Maughaun changed our lives with our kids!
http://www.kerimaughan.blogspot.com/

Yes Thanksgiving

Yes, I am this far behind that I am just now posting about Thanksgiving. It was SO great this year!! Cassie and Landon surprised us and came into town to spend Thanksgiving with us! They got to meet baby Elise for the first time, and Cass got to come shopping with us for Black Friday YIPEE!!!! I love my family and could not imagine spending holidays without my parents, brothers, sisters, husband and kids. I know it won't always be this way.....I know the day will come that all of us will have grown children that had children and we will want to have our own Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations with just them and us getting together as brothers and sisters wont always happen, but for now I cherish every single time we get together and hope it lasts as long as possible!!!

Christmas 2010

Its time for some catching up!! We had an amazing Christmas this year.....Devin told the kids at the beginning of the month we wanted to focus more on Christ, so every night with scripture study we either read a story about Christ, or found a little video to watch. It was so wonderful, it really helped all of us focus on the true meaning of Christmas this year.
One of the FUNNEST parts of having a lot of kids, is even if they only get afew gifts each it looks like SO much stuff when it is all under the tree! It makes for a really FUN grand entrance! We have a couple of traditions on Christmas......Santa always leaves some sort of decoration, usually lights all the way up the stairs, its really fun for the kids to wake up and find the stairs lit up! Then they all get to come downstairs and see what was in their stockings, THEN the youngest gets to come in and see the gifts around the tree before everyone else. All the other kids squeal with excitement when they hear the ooohs, ahhhhs and squeals coming from the other room. It might be silly, but it is SUPER fun.....not sure what we are going to do when all our kids are grown and its not this fun anymore??
Merry Christmas my babies!

Valentines Day to me

I think Valentines Day will always be a little different for me since last year this is what I was doing!  Spending Valentines Day in the hospital with Devin after almost dying, king of gives you something to reflect on.....I guess adds to would be more correct. Adds to remembering what Love means to me. Last year was a tough year for this Tietjen family, Devins road to recovery was a long one. But here we are a year later, he is healthy and well with a few gnarly scars that remind us all the time just how scary this whole experience was. I adore my family, and even more, adore my role as a wife and a mother. On Valentines Day I love reflecting not on really the people in my life that love me, but how blessed I am to have so many people in my life that I love so much! I have an amazing little family (I do use the word little for humorous effects LOL) and especially on Sundays when they are all dressed perfect, with 8 cute heads of hair done and we LOOK like we are this perfect little family.....I look down the long row and think to myself "how did I get so lucky" I don't know if life will bring us any more kids, I don't know if I will ever get some fancy degree, or drive a fancy car....but I truly am the worlds luckiest gal and wouldn't change a thing. Every day I'm amazed at the gifts God has granted me; and this Valentines day, the 1 year anniversary of my hubby almost dying ;) makes me realize that even more.

My baby girl

I have a lot of emotions about my oldest daughter turning 8! I went through 3 boys and waited and waited to be blessed with a baby girl; and she was definitely worth the wait! I was ecstatic to have a little girl, and showed it by having a pretty bow on her head EVERY day of the 1st year of her life, precious bling earrings and adorable outfits...that I will admit I sometimes changed afew times a day, just for fun! She reminds me of me as an 8 year old....happy to pitch in and want to be involved with the little kids....I will find her changing a diaper and ask her "did Daddy ask you to do that?" "No, I just knew he needed to be changed" She loves to help in the kitchen, loves being a big sister, and is happy about life. I love her beautiful curls, pretty green eyes, and cute dimples when she smiles at me. For some reason I'm not super touchy feely with my older boys, the older they get....but I can't imagine never wanting to cuddle with my girls. Girls are drama that's for sure, but worth every bit of it!! This little girl changed not just me, but her Daddy as well; little girls have that effect on their daddies. They flash their cute smiles and get away with almost anything. I can't say I'm looking forward to Emberlyn growing up, I want to keep her a little innocent precious girl, but I can't. Shell be dating and driving and not want anything to do with me soon, BUT, I know that the relationship I am building with her today, will mean that someday, when she gets over thinking I am embarrassing or mean, she will be an adult, have a family of her own and she will cherish the relationship we have built, just like my relationship with my mother. I will teach her how to sew, cook and be a good mommy and someday she will do the same with her own daughters. For now, I just try to soak up every minute of her little girlyness and try to be a good role model for her. I LOVE my beautiful Emberlyn and feel so blessed that she was sent to our family!

(left to right)

Grandpa & Grandma Mosley, Aunt Tiffany, Uncle Lester, Aunt Cindy, Aunt Amanda, Austin, Ryker, Dad, Mason, Hunter, Aunt Tiffany, Uncle Mike, Talia, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Jeremiah, Mom, Grandma Cronin, Great Grandma Adams, Brigham, Korryn, Emmy, Brinley, MaKenna, Liberty, Piper and Noelle

Mom, Dad and Em

Emmy and Korryn 

 Big broher Mason

 Austin and Emmy

 Liberty and Emmy

 Emmy and Kenna

 Emmy and Mom

Grandma Cronin and Emmy

 Great Grandma Adams and Emmy

Em and Brinley

 Emmy and her Daddy 

Hunter and Emmy

Piper and Ems