BS-Ben and Shauna

Can I just say that I love that our initials are BS?  It makes me laugh.  When I label our movies or other belongings we don't want to get lost I write out B.S. Taylor.  So fun. 

OK, here's what Ben and I have been doing over the last 18 months.  

1. We've been running. For Christmas Ben got an apple watch on the condition that he actually use it for running.  So we planned to run a half marathon on our anniversary.  It was fun that we did it, awful while we did it and something we are planning to do again (although I will pick the route this time...Ben's route was all uphill!)

2. Finally spending time away with just us. I know that everyone else has already been doing that but this is new for Ben and I.  We were always poor college students that never took trips; then we were poor graduate students with kids; for a while we were poor doctorate grads with even more kids.  Now we are maxed out on kids but making actually money that we can stat budgeting a little bit here and there for us to do things together.  Ben has a continuing education in Forest Grove that we go to each year.  The gas/car/hotel/some food is all covered so we are still being as cheap as possible.  This year we took an extra day to go hiking in Portland at Multnomah Falls.  Turns out we enjoy hiking together.  

The squeaked in some time between his classes to watch Wonder Woman (awesome) and then we continued our trip to Astoria.  This was our big splurge.  We actually paid for this hotel night ourselves.  :)

While in Astoria we also stopped by the school from Kindergarten Cop and saw the Goonie house from a distance.  

And finally, 3) We have been following Dave Ramsey.  We actually started this in 2015 but it has pretty much consumed and changed our lives from that point on.  It has been a great journey of learning and understanding money better.  We discovered that even though we've never missed a payment and didn't believe in "debt" we had slipped into a lot of bad situations thinking we were making smart decisions.  We have spent many nights working on budgets together, calculating student loan repayments, creating a time frame for savings and retirement.  Along with that we've made many sacrifices.  I now teach the kids piano, we've gone without heat in the winter to cashflow our HVAC, Ben sold his truck that the whole family loved, Ben either rides his bike to work or I drive him since we have one car, the kids have cut back on sports, and those crooked teeth have to stay crooked until we save up the money for braces.  It has been almost three years now of the Dave Ramsey lifestyle and it's been a huge blessing for us.  In those three years we have gotten our debt down to just the house and student loans.  We've also cash flowed some pretty major home repairs (windows, exterior paint, plumbing, HVAC, gas lines).  I keep asking Heavenly Father if we can just have 18 months off from home repairs.  Replacing every system in the house in the last 18 months has been a lot of work.  If we could just get a reprieve for a while it would be much appreciated.  I'm proud of us for paying cash for all the repairs and having the patience to wait.  It's not something we ever would have done before if we hadn't learned about Dave Ramsey and how to better handle our money.  We would have charged every house repair we had it would have cost us thousands more!  Ben is a trooper about it.  And he cheers me on for doing it.  It's been a huge building block in our marriage.  I feel like we a strainer now than we ever were before.  Our goals are united. We work towards them as a team.  The kids have also adopted Dave Ramsey.  If we can get them on better financial footing than we were then we will have succeeded.  

Heidi Bears Poopy Smears

Save the best for last...?  I don't know anymore guys.  Heidi is officially a teenager.  Yes, there has been shift.  I wouldn't say a complete change but definitely a shift.  First off, look how tall she is!  

Turns out I don't have many flattering pictures of Heidi on my phone.  This was all I could find for the year of 2017.  Apparently Heidi likes to eat cake. 

So here's what I mean about the shift.  Heidi has always been my go-to girl.  If I need help with house work, the kids, moving furniture, etc. She is there.  But lately she has changed from being totally cool with doing it to being like "but I don't want to."  Gag.  I hate when she says that.  But there it is!  She's a teenager and she is actually acting like one!  She will still do the work I ask of her but it's not the same.  Kaylee has taken heidi's old spot as my eager to help girl.  The problem is that I still need Heidi.  She is SO helpful (when she wants to be).  I can trust her with the kids, she puts the most effort into her Saturday chores, she is responsible for all her school work-I never have to worry if she is getting it done, and she is pleasant to be around at night after the other kids have gone to bed.  I miss her 'OK, Mom!' attitude but I also enjoy this maturing young woman as well.  She is a great first child.  We are so lucky to have her set the example for the rest of the kids.  

After girls camp she and I snuggled on the couch.  She told me how much she loved it.  She then went upstairs and journaled about it like a good girl would.  Her YW leader told me that she saw a whole different Heidi up at camp.  She was vibrant, laughing, engaged.  Heidi is so quiet that people never know if she is happy or not.  She is.  She just doesn't show it.  Except at camp.  

(Even though Heidi is becoming a teenager and changing a bit she is still awesome enough that she let me write Heidi bears poopy smears as the title)

Krazy Kakes

Guys, Kaylee rocked it this year.

She was in the 5the grade at her school which means she was the big man on campus.  She did awesome!  She has come into her own.  During the last school year she ran and won the student council positions; petitioned to continue and had the lead role in the Shakespeare play even though they were going to forgo it this year; had phase I braces which have made her teeth look great; played O Holy Night during sacrament meeting; submitted a Taco Soup recipe for the future chef competition and won 3rd place; and gave a speech at her 5th grade advancement.  I'm telling you, this was her year!  She even became nice!  She has become my right-hand man since Heidi is a "teenager" now.  She helps around the house, takes care of Reddick, babysits on occasion, and has almost learned the secret to staying up late (to be so quiet we don't care if you are down stairs...she gets it about 60% of the time)

When Heidi did the future chef we didn't know what to expect.  We were very ill prepared.  Thanks to Heidi's experience we made sure Kaylee was well prepared this time.  She made her soup multiple times before the competition.  She knew how to garnish it.  And she came out a winner!!  Yay!  (I do feel so bad for the kids that don't win though.  Breaks my heart.)

A favorite Kaylee moment of mine was helping her write her speech.  She wrote it out, had my look it over, we reorganized it a bit and she was adamant that I not use ANY words that sounded like adult words.  She had a specific way she wanted it written and that's what we did.  It was also fun looking for her dress together.  Once again, she had a ver specific idea in mind and was determined to find the right dress.  We went everywhere.  Finally, on a whim, I suggested Kid 2 Kid.  She did not want to go there but we were running out of stores.  Luckily she found just what she was looking for!  Then we had to go in search of a cute cardigan to go over it which we found two days before at Target.  Phew! She did a great job though.  I was a pretty proud mom.  And how cute that Heidi helped her do her hair?  

Kaylee is something else.  She is spunky, mouthy, easily annoyed, bossy, picky about food/clothes/her hair/cleanliness, too loud 80% of the time, very sympathetic to every one but Daisy, and very particular about following the rules.  Sometimes I have a bright hope for her and sometimes I don't know what to do with her.  even help us as she goes through middle school. 

Daisy

Isn't this a cute picture?  She looks so old.  She wanted to help make her cake this year.  She picked the chocolate mouse cake with chocolate chips and Mini M&Ms on top.  Not a bad choice.

Daisy is nine now.  She has officially aged out of my difficult child phase (5-8).  I am happy to report that she is finally transitioning into the responsible girl I like to have around.  Daisy is my most social kid.  She talks, and talks, and talks.  She is sometimes so distracted with wanting to talk and tell you everything little detail that she ends up not getting her work done.  At least, that was 8 year old Daisy.  Now she talks, I remind her to do her chore, she does it, and then comes back for more chatting.  It has been so nice having her mature a little.

Daisy spends most of her day and night reading.  We still put our kids to bed pretty early.  Even though she wants to stay up long er with the older girls Daisy goes to bed at sits there reading all night long until the older girls make it to bed.  She has also started walking with my friend and I in the mornings.  She doesn't talk much then but I think it is because she likes listening to our conversation.  

(4th of July)

The best part about Daisy is that she has taken the lead over the younger kids.  Heidi and Kaylee have sort of grown up and don't care much for the same activities the little kids like but Daisy still does.  She helps the boys, plays with the boys, shows them how to do things, and relates to them as their older sister who still likes to play with them.  I love it.  Its fun to see her as the "older" sister when it's just the four younger kids.  She loves to be helpful with them.  I'm excited to see how she grows over the next year.  She is coming into her stride.  

Blaker Butts

Blake is now seven years old.  He finished first grade and will begin second this fall.  He loves school.  He excels in math, loves coloring or making comic books to sell, prefers to wear pajamas all day and wants to be in the army when he grows up.  I'm pretty sure he had a crush on his teacher, who was dating an army guy, and that's the basis of his career choice.

Blake is all boy.  He likes to have holes in his socks, he wants to build a tree house, he found the right wrench for Ben's bathroom project this weekend when we couldn't find one that would fit, he has started riding his bike all over the school grounds determined to always win, and unfortunately, he also likes Pokeman.

Blake is a good big brother.  He loves helping Reddick with things.  Reddick calls him Bake.  Blake has also entered the obnoxious kid stage.  Almost every family picture I try to take has him making silly faces.  I'm about to ban him from any future family poses until he can get his act together.  

Last year we had a party for Blake's birthday during spring break.  No one showed up except the neighbor so we did another party this year.  Our invites were a better quality (my sister told me that was the first step to a good party), we invited more kids and we were more social this year with having friends over so it was comfortable for them to send their kids over to our house.  Blake also made a best friend at school.  His name is Logan.  I often found school papers where Blake had written, "my best day ever was when I got to sit by Logan" and other such adorable sentiments.  For Blake's birthday he wanted a Mario party.  We had mario snacks, mario games and a mario world level, complete with Bowser at the end.  It was fun.  The kids had a blast helping with it and we had just the right amount of kids show up.  

Dodge

If I had to pick one kid to give away whose absence would make my life easier it would be Dodge.  He is, hands down, the most active kid I've had yet.  If I had to pick a kid to keep because they are funny, entertaining and cute it would also be Dodge.  He does crazy stuff all the time that simultaneously makes me laugh and lose my marbles at the same time.  If I go crazy it will be his fault.  If I get turned into CPS (again), it will be his fault.  If I have to one day bail a kid out of jail it will be his fault. Maybe I will be bailing myself out of jail.  If so, it will still have been his fault.

Look at him!  Isn't he cute?  He is cute.  He's adorable.  Every morning he is the first kid awake and he comes upstairs to see if I'm still in bed.  If I am then he crawls right in and starts to play with my hair while I sleep.  He loves to play with my hair.  One reason I keep my hair long is just for him.  If I'm already out of bed then he waits for me to get home from my run and then asks, "Did you run, Mom?"  It's endearing. He loves to cook with me, always picks purple popsicles because purple is my favorite color (he says), has me read him Little Critter books because I like them, and will randomly sing Gethsemane or Total Eclipse of the Heart.  He is so cute.  

He is also a pain in the butt.  He is the mastermind behind any bad behavior at the house.  He's also amazing at lying.  He will 'confess' to what he did in such a nonchalant, off the wall story that has just enough truth to make me wonder if it is real or not.  But of course it can't be the real truth because it makes no sense.  One day I dropped Ben off at work and came home to Dodge telling me that Blake had peed on the floor.  After denials, bribes by Blake and false confessions I finally said, "I just want to know who peed on the carpet!"  At that point Dodge adamantly denied ever peeing on the carpet, he just peed on the floor.  Blake peed on the carpet.  Finally the truth came out because I had said carpet instead of floor.  

The very next day I had the kids weeding in the garden while Dodge and Reddick were in the house.  After the kids had gone into the house I finished up and walked into the storage room to find a huge puddle of water.  All the kids denied it.  Except Dodge.  He said that he was washing his boots with a shovel and the water was coming down from the ceiling and he used his 'tiny shovel' to put the water in the sink.  What??  Turns out he was lying (shocking).  He had gone into the storage room to get a popsicle, didn't find any, so started playing with the sink out there and squirted water all over the ceiling until he got his rain boots on and washed them.  He's killing me.  I don't think I will ever win with this kid.  But he is so cute that I can't help but laugh at him and let the mischief continue.  

Reddick

 To catch up on our life I'm going to highlight each of my kids. Reddick was our sixth baby.  After we had him I found out that five should have been my peak but it was too late at that point!  I love Reddick and love having him.  However all my standards as a parent have gone out the window.  Remember when i made Kaylee sit at the table until she ate her dinner??  Those days are long gone.  I pretty much let Roddick decide what he would like to eat, when he wants to eat and where he wants to eat.  Turns out he has a very sensitive palette.  He is like the food critic on Ratatouille-If he doesn't love it he doesn't swallow.  He really will spit it out, wipe his tongue off with his hand and refuse to eat.  I went over my pictures of him eating in 2017 and this is what I found.

I would say his diet is 50% popcorn, 25% fruits and then 25% straight up junk and candy.  Like I said, no standards anymore.  He is so fun though.  He loves the Moana soundtrack.  When Moana first came out Ben would come home from work, take Roddick upstairs with him so I could get dinner going, and together they would listen to "You're Welcome", which Roddick called Tank you. This became a tradition that Roddick insisted on each day.  He would run to the stairs and then yell at Ben until he followed him upstairs.  He does the same thing in the car.  He begs for Moana.  His favorite song is 'We Know the Way" yet he dances best to track 9.  He thinks Hai Hai is hilarious.  He has recently figured out all the names of the Cars movie (love that), he goes to nursery without crying now, he loves to be outside, likes to wear his shoes at all times, and is adored by his brothers and sisters.  He turns two in September.  How did that happen so quickly?