Happy Halloween!

The day has finally come, Halloween. It's a really weird Halloween this year, we didn't even carve pumpkins! But, our kids are still dressed up as are we. We had really fun plans for Halloween we even had a theme picked out for our entire family. It was really corny, we were going to be the Once Upon a Time characters. Jason and I had planned on being Emma Swan and Captain Hook, but due to time and a sudden injury we had to nix that idea and I went with Batman and he is Catwoman, yup you read that right. I had a Batman costume from high school that still fits me and he jokingly said "What so I have to be Catwoman?!" and I loved the idea! Our kids were pretty pumped about our plans failing because that allowed them to pick almost anything, Zayden really wanted to be Rumpelstilskin but that didn't seem to exist. It was really fun seeing their faces picking out their costumes and hearing them try to convince their siblings into group costumes. It seemed to work for the boys, Zayden had chosen to be Hans Solo and Tyson instantly knew he wanted to be Kylo Ren, which worried me a little, but whatever. Hunter was set on being Darth Vader(again!) so they seem to make a very cute little group of Star Wars characters! The girls however were not feeling any kind of "group" activity and wanted to be their own things. Which was fine, until Estella said she wanted to be Mulan and Savannah piped up that she was also being a princess! It worked out though, because Estella went as the army version of Mulan.(Thank God because it was going to be World War III if they matched at all!). All in all the costume selections went over very well and everyone is extremely happy and very excited to be going to a birthday party/Halloween party tonight. I hope everyone has a very safe and Happy Halloween! Enjoy!

Adopting a family

If you are our friends on Facebook or follow us on Instagram you know we have a friend who is going through a tough time right now. With the holidays coming up Jason and I both finds ourselves thinking about him a lot. Every time I go to the store to pick up something for our kids I end up picking up something for his son to and at this point we decided we're just adopting their family. This is something I've never really done before, I've never bought stuff for people that really honestly have nothing. It's kind of odd, you go into a store and realize they literally need every single thing in that store. Where do you start? What is the most important thing to buy? It's so hard, especially when his five year old little boy asked me for raviolis for Christmas. I just honestly want to buy everything for this family, but I know that's not possible. I am just hoping that we make this holiday season amazing for them because honestly I know it's not about presents on Christmas, but I also know the excitement I get as a mom seeing my kids open gifts. The smiles on their faces always makes me so happy and I want him to have that moment too. With that being said, if anyone has any super hero stuff, small boys' clothes, small mens' clothes, or really anything you think a five year old and his dad would like we will happily pass them onto their family!

Do we push gender roles?!

No matter what you do as a parent someone is always judging you, even if it's what truly works best for your family. A big thing our family seems to get heat for is teaching gender roles. It's something I honestly don't think we do, but other people seem to believe that by allowing our children to express themselves we are pushing gender roles on them. I highly disagree. You see, by allowing our children to like whatever they want, as long as it's not hurting them or anyone else, we are showing them gender doesn't matter for these things. People seem to have issues with it when you allow your little girl, who is highly princess obsessed, to have all the princess toys she wants. I don't understand why it's an issue, but it seems to be. When we address something as "the girls" it's not because our boys can't play with it, it's because it was gifted to one of the girls. Our kids are seriously allowed free range of playing with their toys. I am not going to buy our boys dolls just to prove a point, they prefer guns and cars(Monster Trucks to be specific) and I'm not going to buy our girls things they don't want. Honestly this whole "gender specific" stuff is killing me, you can't have everyone be equal if it's a crime for girls to like girl things. I seriously pray for the day that this conversation no longer has to happen and we can just all live our lives happily and not worry so much about how other people raise their kids. I am beyond happy to say our kids are happy with their lives and how we are raising them and in the end that's really all I want.

Family comes first

This month has been extremely emotional for all of our family members, we have had some pretty bad news regarding my youngest niece. She had been in and out of the hospital for the passed few months, literally since birth, and had to travel to three different hospitals to get an answer. The diagnosis she received has shaken our family pretty badly and has been a reminder that life is way too short. With that being said, if I seem like I am distracted, I probably am. Anytime that someone in the family is sick it's not just about the one person, it effects everyone who knows them. That's one thing people seem to not realize in a family as close as ours, every single person has been effected by this news. We are going to continue to make memories with not just our kids, but our nieces and nephews as well. This blog was started to keep our family and friends updated on our family and I still intend on doing that. However, our family being close has to come first. Please keep my niece in your prayers. Thank you.

We got bit by reading bugs!

Not having internet or cable has made us pretty boring people. So boring that when people ask what we do for fun, most of us respond with "read". Yea, it's kind of funny though, our kids fight over books and are always excited when I get home from the library with a huge bag of books. I'm seriously loving their new found love for reading and I love how into it some of them get. For instance, Zayden takes his books to a whole new level. He will create Lego versions of his stories and act them out, he writes book reports about the books, and normally wants to learn more about whatever subject he just read about. His current book series is the Magic Treehouse and every single time he has to get books about the time period they traveled to. It's amazing! Their loves for reading have grown so much that Jason and I are trying to make a "reading nook" in their playroom, something we would have never thought of. I'm hoping this reading thing keeps up because I'm loving the moments of them all reading in the morning while I get ready and I love when they come running asking for help reading a word or with a book in their hand asking me to read to them. These are truly the best moments to be a mother and I'm loving every single second of it.

So. Much. Unpacking.

Working full time, having kids, and being injured makes unpacking super difficult. I think the fact none of the stuff was put in the correct rooms kind of helps with the fact we're still unpacking, regardless we're trying our hardest! We, being Jason and I, decided that we should aim to unpack for 15-20 minutes a day and so far that has made a huge difference. It's not nearly as stressful as looking at all the boxes and crying about it. So far we've unpacked most of Ryker and Skyler's things and are now working on the older kids things, which is super hard because they have a lot of things! We have most of their toys put away in the playroom, but their clothes are still sitting in boxes and bags. I'm sticking to my statement I made in an earlier blog post, next time we move I'm getting rid of everything and just starting over, at least then I can find the things I need and not have to pack or unpack. So much easier! At the rate we're going for unpacking I think we may possibly be fully moved in by New Year. The goal was to be done before Halloween, but I've come to terms with the fact that is not happening unless the fairies come and unpack for me. So, I'll settle for New Year and pretend that I'm perfectly fine with it. If you have any advice on how to unpack faster, I would greatly appreciate any and all advice.

We share too much

Having a large family during flu season is probably one of the worst things in the world. The moment one of them gets sick the whole house gets sick, it's been a few weeks now and we have just been passing the same cold around the house numerous times! It's getting a little exhausting having to buy cold medicine in bulk, but this is our life. Yesterday was probably the worst, no one wanted to wake up and do anything it was just a bunch of sleeping kids who only woke up to either throw up or tell me their noses were clogged up again. Today however, we have somewhat healthy kids with just a few coughs and sneezes every here and there. I am really hoping that this means we've reached the end of this, it seems like we've been doing this forever! Our recycling bin is filled with empty cold medicine bottles and I'm hoping no one looks in it thinking my kids are like addicted to cold medicine or that I'm like drugging them to get them to sleep or anything. This month can seriously end anytime now, I won't even be mad! I am so over kids being sick, me being sick, and just our family being no fun! Oh and on top of that we still aren't unpacked, but does that really surprise anyone?! It's going to be a long month.

Where do they all sleep?!

If you have followed our blog for any amount of time, you know we recently moved in to a four bedroom house. I know it seems super small when you have nine kids, but for us it is working perfectly fine. I do however get asked a lot of times where they all sleep because with my mom living with us there's only three rooms to split between all of them. Right now, because were still unpacking, the older kids sleep in one room on bunk beds and the youngest two sleep in another room-which will be the boys room when were done-on a toddler bed/in a pack and play. Shockingly, our kids are perfectly fine with sleeping all together it's like a big slumber party every single day. We do however plan on switching the sleeping arrangements around pretty soon, but in our opinion if the kids are okay with it's fine with us. They are still super little and none of them like sleeping alone so it's fine with us. Luckily we were gifted a twin over full bunk bed by my aunt and the top bunk can hold over 200 pounds, so my kids are perfectly safe sleeping up there. Not that I allow all nine to sleep on the top bunk, that would end super badly, but we do allow them to have two or three up there since none of them seem to toss and turn too much. I am really glad we got blessed with kids who kind of just put up with us doing things like this because if they didn't this moved would have been a lot more complicated.

No Trick or Treating?!

With Halloween approaching everyone keeps asking our kids the same question "Are you excited to Trick or Treat?!" and it kills me each time my kids look at me confused, because they have no clue what that is! See, when Jason and I began talking-just as friends at the time with no intentions on being more-we discussed everything under the sun including this very subject. We were both in agreement then that Trick or Treating was amazing and our kids needed to experience it. What changed our minds? It wasn't just a little thing, it was when we attempted to take tiny kids on this big long walk for candy and realized they were done after the first house. After that we rediscussed the subject and decided it's not for us. For starters, I am huge on controlling the amount of candy my kids get and I do a really good job at making sure there is almost none in the house. This isn't because I'm an anti sugar mom, it's because I have one child with Aspergers and another with Diabetes, neither of which needed added sugar in their diets. Don't get me wrong, we have some sugar products in our house-Oreos being our favorites! However, we decided candy just isn't a big deal to us, if our kids want candy we have no issue going to the store and buying them a bag of their favorites, since they all want Dum Dums it works out well. We keep our kids extremely busy during the Halloween season so they aren't missing out on anything major. They still dress up, we have a Halloween party with our Co-op group, Brooke's best friend's birthday is Halloween and she invited all the kids to her party, we still carve pumpkins, and do everything else that is done on Halloween-minus the Trick or Treating part. I am sure in the future I will hear arguments from my kids about why they want to go out, but for now this seems to be working for us. To everyone going out this year, stay safe and have fun! Happy Halloween!

Dealing with miscarriage

With it being pregnancy and infant loss month I find myself thinking about Nolan a lot. Everything lately seems to be reminding me of him, even though I never really knew him in the way I know my other kids I feel like I did. Our fertility doctor always warns us about getting attached, but honestly it's next to impossible not to get attached to a baby that you're carrying. Despite the warnings and him reminding us that the chance of Jason and I conceiving naturally I still got attached to the little guy, picked out his name what his nursery would like like. Everything. Everything was completely planned when we found out he was gone it killed us. There is honestly no way to describe the pain we felt, yet people seem to think because he wasn't physically here with us that it's less pain that it's easier to move on. That my friends, isn't true in the slightest a child is a child no matter how small(thanks Dr. Seuss). To anyone who has ever dealt with the loss of a child, my heart is with you. Somehow, we will all make it through this.

Eight down, one to go

This passed week and a half have been dragging on and on for what seems like an eternity. We moved, we've had numerous doctors appointments, it's officially meet season, and on top of that Skyler got potty trained. It was honestly out of the blue and not something we had even discussed so I was extremely unprepared for it. The first day of potty training boot camp went too well in my opinion, I seriously didn't think she'd stick with it so I kept her in diapers just incase she decided this wasn't for her. But no, my baby decided she's a "bid kid"(big kid) and has been doing great with almost no prompting from anyone and no major rewards aside from stickers and her siblings singing "Skyler went potty" every time. She truly is the potty MVP here! I am however shocked, we have eight potty trained and only one left in diapers who still has no interest in anything related to the potty. It's honestly bitter sweet, we're truly entering a new phase of life and I can't wait. Our trips to the store will be so much easier, no more pesky diaper bags weighing us down! Now I just have to survive this last one and we'll be good to go! That is, until Jason convinces me to have another baby. For now, I will enjoy my last two babies for as long as they let me call them babies, because this was just a reminder that they grow up way too fast.

Childhood Unplugged

As I mentioned in our last post our family is without internet and cable, something that I feared and my kids dreaded. The first day of this whole experience was a scary one, we didn't know what we were doing. We literally didn't know what to do without internet, that's how pathetic our lives have become. I informed my kids they had to learn to live "unplugged" and they seem to be doing okay now, almost a week later. They have realized that they don't need all these technology things to survive, though somethings make life a lot easier they aren't necessary. I decided to limit their screen time to one hour a day, or a movie because I'm not mean enough to make them turn a movie off in the middle of it. Since pulling the plug the fighting has diminished and our kids seem genuinely happier, I'm not saying there's a connection but it's odd that it worked that way. Mornings have also been easier, instead of seeing who can get to the iPad first and call claims on it for the day and watch things on it all day while ignoring me when I tell them to get stuff done. They are now in a routine I enjoy much more, getting up, brushing their teeth and hair, eating breakfast, and getting started on school work. It's so refreshing to not need to fight them for every little thing. I have had some people ask me how they stay busy during the day and honestly that hasn't been a problem for us, I mean we have nine kids. They all have a buddy to play with at all times and they have more than enough toys to keep them busy, their current favorites our kitchen(Skyler's), princess(Savannah), Legos(All of them!), and Barbies(The big girls'). Keeping them busy isn't the hard thing, keeping them from craving the internet is the hard thing. They have asked for Netflix multiple times and it's kind of funny, but extremely sad all at the same time. I will say though, for Christmas they're getting a video game(Disney Infinity 3.0-don't tell them) and the first few days after getting it may consist of them playing it nonstop! But, that is what Christmas is about right?! Hopefully my kids can stay alive without their Netflix until then. Now, back to having no internet! See you in a few days guys!

We're cave people!

I never realized how dependent on technology our family is. We have decided not to get internet or cable until we get everything figured out and my kids are so bored without their Netflix! It honestly makes me sad, they have a playroom overflowing with toys and a new neighborhood filled with kids(and puppies) and there's just so much fun stuff they're missing out on when they let Netflix control their lives. After realizing how dependent they are on it I decided we're not getting internet for even long, it was originally only a month, to teach them how to be kids again. I will admit, my mom, Jason, and myself are all at fault here for letting technology run our lives as well, I actually made a comment the other night that I need Netflix to fall asleep! Our family as a whole needs to get back to what is important and trust me, the numbers of likes on my latest Facebook post aren't as important as seeing my daughter do gymnastics or seeing my son play football. We're going to be living unplugged for awhile(minus the blog-I need the blog or I'll go crazy!)It is however ironic, the unplugged activities I found we're all on Pinterest, but you know that's okay what's important is we're going to make tons of new memories together and my kids won't have to think I love my smart phone more than I love them. Here's to being a cave person!

We're finally moved in!!!

After a month of attempting to move, I am beyond happy to report we have all of our stuff moved over to our new house. I would lie to you and say we're all unpacked and ready to start living, but I don't like lying to you guys. The truth is, we have a lot of unpacking to do-duh. Most of our stuff was thrown into our house by our movers randomly and it was pretty difficult the first day to figure out where everything goes. Luckily after we moved Ryker's bed out of our room, moved the homeschool bookcase out of the girls' room, and the crockpot out of the nursery we were able to figure out our lives a little bit! We have most of our kitchen unpacked, because priorities-we gotta eat! Now we just have to discover the rest of the house, little by little it is starting to feel like a home. If you follow me on Instagram I am going to apologize now about all of the posts I am going to have showing off what I'm getting done with the house. Sorry guys! This is the first time I've lived in an actual house since I was 13 and back then all I cared about was if my Zac Efron posters covered every square inch of my wall-they did! But now I am enjoying picking out things to decorate with and dropping hints about my mixer, which currently wouldn't be able to fit in my kitchen because It's still super messy and my microwave is still chilling on the floor until someone strong can move it.(Cough cough JASON). The unpacking process seems to be going a lot smoother than the packing though and I am so grateful for that. Our current goal is to be unpacked by Halloween, but Jason's bet is Christmas. I hope I'm right and not him because I can't keep looking at these boxes! Please continue to be patient with our blog posts however, we don't have internet at the house yet and we're not sure when and if we will be getting it. I promise though, we will still be posting every other day!

New house. New baby?

Ever since Jason has started talking about having another baby I have always just said when we get a house. Well, we got a house. Yea, I didn't think we'd get an actual house this quickly so I wasn't expecting us to have another conversation about babies. But, alas here we are having the conversation about when to have a baby Butler. We have decided to wait, for now. For one as you read this we are literally in the process of moving into the new house. Another reason, Skyler decided to start using the potty. I know this sounds like a really lame reason, but when I was pregnant with Nolan I was super super sick and threw up more than a human should. Having gastroparesis and being pregnant isn't always a picnic and I'm well prepared for that, so I don't think using my energy on potty training while puking my guts up and working full time is going to mix so well. So it was a pretty easy decision to just wait a little bit, if I have my way we'll wait about six years and have kids who are able to be somewhat self sufficient instead of having two kids in diapers, a newborn, a kid who wants potty trained, and homeschooling. I'm just not emotionally or physically prepared for all that craziness. Right now I'm just going to focus on getting everyone settled into the new house, potty training Skyler, getting through the holidays, and not loosing my mind. There are so many amazing things that are going to be happening in our life these next few months so I'm hoping you guys bare with us and don't leave because of the lack of baby. We truly love you guys are so grateful for your support for the last nine-almost ten months! Let's see where this road takes us.