New Year's Resolution...about a month late.

Now that I finally feel like we somewhat have things under control on a day to day basis, I guess it's finally time to tackle the next problem--me.  Spending most of 2011 pregnant was wonderful in a number of ways, not the least of which was that I didn't worry much about what I was eating.  I've needed to lose weight for several years now, but being pregnant gave me a reprieve for a while, at least in my own way of rationalizing it.  Well, I didn't gain too much weight while I was pregnant, but that's not saying much, because I started off too fat to begin with!  Now that Ruby's been here for 4 months, I have no excuse.  Well, technically I can come up with any number of excuses, but that's beside the point.  So here we are.  I've now worked out for two consecutive days for the first time in over a year.  Very impressive, I know.  I'm not ready to commit to Weight Watchers, though I know it works.  I just don't have the energy to obsessively count points right now, and I know that that's what it takes for me to commit to doing it.  So instead, I'm trying a new, hopefully less obsessive, approach.  My first goal is to get 45 minutes worth of some kind of physical activity every day.  That's it.  Baby steps, right?

Pla Shee's best day

We've had LOTS of rain in the past 48 hours.  So much rain, in fact, that Pla Shee's school was canceled due to flooding.  He was literally beside himself with excitement when I told him he could come to work with me.  He spent the day in my office finishing up his model of the Alamo and accompanying essay, listening to music, and watching a movie on my computer.  When it was time to leave for the day, he said it was the best day ever.  Who knew?

Cousins!

We finally got together with the other Mitschke's and met halfway--at Kinkaid's in Fort Worth, a great classic burger place that's been around since the 40's.  The kiddos had a great time goofing around, and we realized it had been WAY too long since we had hung out last.  Madison and Pla Shee are both 11, and Morgan, who is five, absolutely adores Kai.  And everyone loves a baby, so Ruby's got it made in the shade.

In honor of her four month birthday, Ruby tried her first taste of rice cereal today.  She was not a fan.

She's much cuter without rice cereal smeared all over her face:

Cloth Diapering

We used cloth diapers with Kai until he turned one and began preschool and they told us they wouldn't allow cloth diapers at school.  So we switched to disposables and have been using them ever since.  When Ruby was born, we stuck with disposables initially, figuring we didn't have the time or energy to deal with cloth.  It was a good decision for us for the first couple of months, because it meant one less thing to have to worry about.  Honestly, we were in a bit of a tailspin for much of the fall semester.  I finally figured out why every thing seemed so much more difficult this time around.  We adopted Kai when he was 2.5 months old.  He was already smiling and cooing and just being downright adorable.  No one told us that those first 2.5 months were so...ummm...hellish?  Good Lord!  I think we spent two months just trying to get Ruby to go back to sleep, because it seemed like every time her eyes were open she was screaming her head off.  Not that we didn't love her and think that she was adorable, but she was equally a...challenge.  Combine a colicky infant with a headstrong two year old and a 10 year old who needs hands-on assistance with about two hours worth of homework every night, and you have one crazy household.

We're good now, though, thank god.  We've finally found our rhythm (most days), the house isn't as much of a disaster (most days), and Ruby is A LOT easier to deal with (most days).   So we've switched Ruby to cloth diapers, and I love them.  I also love the money we're saving by not having to buy disposables.  This is especially important since we're spending all of our money on formula now as a result of my utter failure at breastfeeding (I lasted all of 2.5 months before I threw in the towel).  Anyway, we made the switch about a month ago, and then this past weekend I tried my hand at actually making my own.  I have a love/hate relationship with my sewing machine, which only cooperates with me about half the time.  The other half it jumbles up all of the thread and jams every five seconds until I finally give up in frustration and put it back in the closet until the next time I feel the urge to get crafty.  This time it only took one frustrated phone call to my aunt (thanks, Aunt Sara!) who suggested I change the needle in case it was bent.  It fixed the problem and I made my first cloth diaper.  It turned out super cute--it helps that I had an adorable model!

Country Life

Sometimes living in the country sucks.  Like when you have to rely on a well for your water, and said water must be filtered and then softened so as to not rust every appliance, bath tub, sink, and toilet in your home.  Two weeks ago we had to replace our 5 year old $1000 he washing machine because the iron particles clogged the motor and broke it.  Needless to say we purchased the cheapest replacement we could find.  It is an "Ingles" brand and cost $309.

Unfortunately our water woes were not over.  On Thursday night the water stopped working altogether.  We had to have a well repair guy come out to check it out and turns out the pump broke.  A cool $3000 later and we're back to having water.  I have no words.  Kai was quite entertained, however, as you can see in the pics.

How time flies!

We came to the realization over the holidays that we have added a child for each of the past three Christmases.  No wonder things seem kind of crazy around here!  Our New Year's Resolution is to remain the same size family in 2012...we'll see what happens!

We spent a few days in Giddings at the end of the holiday and I convinced the boys to pose for a few pictures so I could compare them with last year.  It is so amazing to me how quickly they change.  But they're still my sweet little boys!

Happy New Year

We've started 2012 with an ugly round of sickness, and Ruby's gotten the worst of it.  This time the culprit was Kai, who brought the bug home from school and decided to be sick for Christmas.  He shared it with all of us, and the lingering effects are still around, even after 10 days.  Yuck.  Poor Ruby got an ear infection on top of it, so I've spent this week at home with the two little ones.  I just thought I was going back to work this week. So much for that plan!

Here's little Roo feeling crummy but still being a good sport donning her cute new headband and house slippers.

On a happier note, the holidays were a lot of fun, though they really flew by.  Pla Shee couldn't believe it when I told him he had to go to school on Tuesday.  He's already counting down the days until Spring Break.

We spent Christmas here, then I took Kai and Ruby down to Houston to visit my family for a few days.  Aaron and Pla Shee met us in Giddings later in the week and we all accompanied Aaron's mom down to Rockport (near Corpus Christi) for the weekend. It was really foggy and too cold to swim, but we had fun anyway looking at condos and houses (Aaron's mom is looking to buy a place down there).  A few pics from our trip:

We celebrated our 11th anniversary and the new year in our Best Western hotel room with sparkling cider for the boys and party hats.  We also took them to see the Chipmunks movie.  It was terrible, though exactly what I expected.

Here are the kiddos during our 8 pm "party."  Kai is saying "owwie" because of the strap on his chin if you were wondering.

And here's Ruby, who decided to join the party at about 2:00 am.