Happy Wednesday! I am so grateful to be back blogging and hope you take the time to read my blogs. Life with 6 kids keeps me busy and I always try to find time blogging, but you know...life happens and I forget. 

But, I've received so many questions the past few days about how I meal plan and prep food for my large family. I've also received a few request to film a day in the life video...which may happen soon. But, for now I figured I can return to the blog world with a post about my recent Costco grocery haul. I should preface this with saying...I am not an expert on meal planning or meal prepping. Martin and I budget for groceries and I plan a week ahead of what I want to cook for breakfast, pack in the kids school lunch boxes and then plan dinner for five nights a week. We do tend to eat out on either Friday nights or Saturday nights and I always try to cook a meal on Sundays. It's just something about a good home cooked Sunday dinner, that makes me reminisce about my childhood. My mother and grandmother would make delicious pot roast or fried chicken with all the savory sides and we would sit around the table chatting about church and making memories. 

I love grocery shopping at Costco and aim to visit there once a week. For a large family, buying in bulk really allows us to get more food for a cheaper price. We always buy toilet paper, milk, eggs and fresh fruit each week from Costco. Yes, we do buy toilet paper that often and no we do not hoard it. However with five bathrooms in this house, toilet paper is always needed.  

Anyway, I had to take Jude to speech therapy the other day and since his therapist office is around the corner from Costco, I decided to pop in and get my weekly groceries. I do not use the Instacart delivery service for Costco, for numerous reasons. But,  primarily it's because the unit price of each item is too costly. 

Jude is enjoying a cake pop, while riding around in the cart. He's such a big boy who loves to help.

My list for this week included snacks for the kids lunches, breakfast items, chips for the upcoming Super Bowl game and the staples. All my kids love going to Costco because they always end up with a few items that were not on my list. Isabella recently saw on an IG influencer page these delicious Bacon wrapped jalapeno appetizers, so she asked me to pick up some for her to try.

I also picked up Organic Chocolate Milk for the kids, since four out of six love chocolate milk and I don't buy it often, I figured this would be a nice treat for them. Also, I bought these new breakfast sandwiches! I love the bacon and egg/gouda sandwiches from Starbucks, so I had to try them and knew they would be perfect for our breakfast before school/work or as a yummy after school snack.

I did buy healthy items during my grocery excursion. I just forgot to take pictures of those. But, I did get vegetables such as organic broccoli, green beans, carrots, cucumbers and salad mix. We love the rotisserie chicken at Costco but my kids are starting to get gauged out on that. However, I did buy these yummy chicken drumsticks to throw into the airfryer for dinner. I'll pair this with a salad, vegetable and sweet potatoes. Yummy!

It took me about an hour to grab all the items off my list, and Jude and I were hungry. A Costco trip isn't complete unless Jude stops at the food court. We shared a slice of cheese pizza and then it was off to home to unload the items before heading to get the elementary kids from school.

When we arrived home, Isabella was already home from school and was able to unload most of the grocery items for us. But I did remember, halfway through unloading ,to snap a picture of some of the items we purchased. 

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and can't wait to show you my Trader Joe's haul next week!

All about Jacob and Jude

Happy Tuesday! I'm so glad it's a short week for us, the kids have off of school at the end of the week for Parent teacher conferences. The girls are ecstatic and counting the days down until they enjoy a nice long weekend.

I was recently thinking that the girls always get a blog post about their activities, concerts, parties they attend and etc. But I rarely post about my boys! They are definitely two peas in a pod and are the best boys ever. They are sweet, compassionate, funny and wild! I think I play some type of superhero adventure with them everyday...but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love being a boy mom and I'm so grateful to God for blessing us with Jacob and Jude.

Jacob, Jude and Milo Christmas 2019

Jacob is 4 years old and loves Spider-man, chicken nuggets, and loves to run. He has tons of friends at school and is truly a happy child. The teachers always mention to me that he is happy and never really grumpy. Jacob is tall for his age and would go to school everyday if he could. He is in the 3s preschool class and goes to school a few days a week and then does a soccer/sports academy class once a week. He has so much energy, I feel like this winter weather needs to leave ASAP, so he can go outside and burn some of this energy off. ha!

Jude is 2 years old and loves to hang out with Jacob. Whatever Jacob does, Jude wants to do. Jude is very polite, very smart and loves the Toy Story movies, superheros and loves Karen Katz books. Jacob loves to read as well, but Jude could sit for a solid hour and read a book and be so content.
Jude does not go to school yet, but I am looking at putting him in a class this fall at our local park district.  Just like Jacob, Jude has so much energy and love to run, climb and jump. So spring can't come faster for us!

When Isabella was 3 years old I decided to leave my full time job, stay at home with her and work from home. So I have always had little girls home with me throughout the years and LOVED it! My girls and I were inseparable and we would run errands, do mommy and me classes, have park playdates and more! But when, Anastasia went to kindergarten in August, I wasn't sure how I would handle two active boys. Most of my friends didn't have any young boys at home, and the ones I knew who had boys close in age to Jacob and Jude, worked full time and so their boys were in daycare.

But I have LOVED having two boys at home. They truly keep me active.. we like to go to the library for storytime, go to indoor play areas and go to the park. They keep me on my toes and they love to cuddle! I get so much love and kisses from my boys, it makes my heart so happy. I can't wait to see how their personalities change and grow when they get older. I'm praying that they always stay sweet, kind and momma's boys.

                                                               That's all for today! xoxo
                                                                            Joy

Valentine's Day 2020

Hi friends, I hope everyone had a great Valentine's weekend and was able to celebrate with those you love. I truthfully love this holiday and have always claimed it as my second favorite holiday. I know.. its probably hard to imagine that someone loves Valentine's day more than Thanksgiving or Easter. But yep, that's me, I guess I'm a true romantic at heart. I love the color red, love what Valentine's day is all about, and love showing others how much I love them. I also love that my husband has always made this day special for me and now we both make it special for the kids.

Each Valentine's day, Martin buys the kids red heart balloons and I buy them a few presents. The kids open their presents before going to school and look forward to this tradition. 

Usually the presents are books, crafts, toys and candy. Thank goodness for Amazon prime, I was able to buy a few things for each child on there. I bought this book for Jacob and with some fun stickers and candy, and Jude loves Karen Katz flip books so he received that, as well as some candy and stickers. The girls also received fun gifts from us such as an iphone case, a bracelet, press on nails and avocado iphone case. The girls love Fannie May chocolate, but I wasn't able to make it to our neighboorhood store to get some chocolates for them, so I added heart shaped chocolates to my Walmart grocery list and gave that to them instead. I thought this would be a good alternative, but the girls didn't think so, and were disgusted by the bland taste of the chocolate. #momfail

After opening their presents, they get dressed and then I make them heart shaped waffles or pancakes or eggs. This year it was waffles with bacon and they all devoured it. 

I love that Martin and I take a yearly Valentine's Day picture. I love this man so much and am so grateful for him. 

It was a snowy and cold (high of 10 degrees)Valentine's day, so the girls headed to school ready for the day in red or Valentine's day apparel and in snow boots. Gotta love Midwestern winters. 

Since Valentine's day fell on a Friday and we wanted to take the kid out to pizza dinner to celebrate. But, Bella had a dance competition 40 minutes away that weekend,(I'll be blogging about that this week) so we decided to order pizza in, make cookies and watch Disney channel Zombies 2 movie. It was a perfect evening on a cold night and I was so happy that we were able to celebrate it as a family. 

Daddy daughter dance 2020

This past weekend, the girls had a blast at their schools annual Daddy Daughter Dance. Unfortunately, it was Giselle's last daddy daughter dance. She's in 5th grade and has been attending this yearly dance since kindergarten! So this last dance was definitely bittersweet for her, while she loves this dance she's also excited to start going to middle school dances next year...without a parent.

Yet, no tears were shed on last Friday night, because it was Anastasia's first ever daddy daughter dance because she's now in kindergarten! She's been looking forward to going to the dance for years! She cried so hard last year and threw a tantrum because she truly thought she should go because she turned five years old last February...the same month as the dance.

But Ana was ready to go this year! Look how beautiful my girls look! And my handsome husband always has my heart skipping beats. 

The girl picked up their friend Isabella and arrived early at the dance and started partying and dancing to music right away!

Look at how happy my sweet Ana looks! She is truly a daddy's girl.

Dinner at the dance included pizza, a charcuterie board, candy bar and cookies. The girls enjoyed the all you can eat food. 

After dinner, the girls continued partying and closed the dance down! I am so blessed to have a husband who truly loves his daughters and enjoys taking them to these special moments. And because Martin knows my obsession with taking pictures to make memories, he took these photos for me! #hessoweettome 

While the girls were partying hard, I stayed at home with these cute fellas and played superhero dress up most of the night. Bella was at dance team practice so she wasn't able to get in on any of the fun of superhero night.

Hope you guys have a great day!

xo

Anastasia is 6 years old!

February started with a celebration in our house! Anastasia turned 6 years old last week! She had been super excited about her birthday coming up, because we promised her a big celebration this year. She has tons of class mate friends and neighborhood friends now, so she was anticipating that this big birthday celebration would be all about her and her pals.

She woke up bright and early on her birthday and was ready to open her presents. Thanks to my wonderful husband who spent an hour putting together this Vampirina doll house. Anastasia had been eyeing this house for some time now and requested it for one of her presents. But, Martin knew she would be happiest if he put it together for her instead of giving it to her in a box. #lovethathubbyofmine

Since Anastasia's birthday fell on a school day, she wasn't able to play a very long time with her presents, but I made her cinnamon french toast sticks and we sang happy birthday to her and she blew out her candle, before getting ready for school.  Look at Jude in the background.. he was so excited for his sisters birthday. Love this sweet boy of mine.

During the afternoon, I was able to bring Anastasia McDonalds lunch at school and eat with her in the lunchroom. Since the school has a no cell phone/picture policy I wasn't able to take any pictures with the birthday princess. Martin was able to get off work early and also spend some time with Anastasia at school. He was the mystery reader for her class and she was thrilled to see him. 

However, later that night she still wanted to celebrate her birthday (yep, we do big celebrations at this house) so Martin and Isabella and Ava took her out to Chik FilA for some playroom fun and dinner. I wasn't able to attend, since I had already committed to carpooling Giselle and friends to choir practice.

But wait, there's more birthday party fun coming right up for this little lady. ha! We had a fun Princess Jasmine birthday meet and greet party for Anastasia and friends. Ok, so my little three kiddos are obsessed with the movie Aladdin. They watch it everyday in the car or at home on Disney.  Anastasia really wanted to go to Disney World to meet princess Jasmine, but I told her we could look into hiring a princess to come to the house, play games, and have fun with her and some friends instead. Of course, this was a great idea and so we hired Princess Fairy Tale Parties & Event to come and help us celebrate Anastasia's birthday..Aladdin style.

Princess Jasmine was amazing with the kids. She danced with them, played games, took tons of pictures with the birthday girl and took individual photos with the kids.

The kid had a blast and I am so thrilled that Anastasia got the big birthday party she wanted. After the party, Anastasia was beaming from ear to ear and kept thanking us for the best party ever. (those were her exact words)

January 2020 recap

Is it still proper to say Happy New Year, on the second to last day of the month? If so, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope your 2020 has been a great start so far and I'm praying that nothing but Gods favor and grace surround you this year.

We started off the year kind of on a rough note, Martin broke his elbow, Ava fractured her foot and the kiddos and I were sick. But I am so grateful that God is in control and knows that these things were coming and they didn't take him by surprise.

Throughout this tough time, we did feel worry start to creep in, but Martin and I both prayed, fasted and decided that we will not let the devil steal our joy. Throughout many medical appointments and consultations for Martin and Ava our faith was not shaken, we knew that no matter what the outcome of a proposed surgery for them, Gods got this!

Well, we were right, God had them both in the palm of his hand and Ava's foot is completely healed..no surgery or boot needed for her. Martin's elbow is in the process of being healed, no surgery just a few weeks of  physical therapy and the cast is removed! God is so great and so good!

After the first two weeks, January has been shaping up better. Martin and I attended the 9th grade open house and orientation for Isabella. I must admit, I did tear up a little before we walked into the high school. It's hard to believe my first born will be graduating 8th grade this spring and going to high school in the fall. I seriously wish I could relive her baby moments and toddler days. But, we enjoyed learning about her new high school and know that she will do well this fall.

This month, we also registered Giselle for middle school. Sigh,, she's growing up too and already has said she can't wait to join the orchestra and start playing the viola this fall! #stringfamilyforlife #bellaplayscello #formerviolinplayer #martinplaystheguitar

Martin and I were able to squeeze in two date nights this month which was awesome! We went shopping on night and a week later was treated to a complimentary meal at a new restaurant in our town! I love our date night and love spending time with my man.

 The little three kiddos were able to do a date night with us as well and they choose Chik FilA! Of course they had a blast in the play area and worked up an appetite for kid meals. They really are the sweetest peas in the pod. 

I can't wrap up this blog post without mentioning that our fur baby turned 8 this month! He is the best dog and we love you Milo! Hope you enjoyed your dog treat and toy!

That's it for us for this month! Hope you enjoyed reading about our family!

Anastasia graduates from prek!

Well, the last of my baby girls graduated last week from pre-kindergarten. I have mixed emotions about this whole end of  pre-kindergarten process. I am so grateful she has had a wonderful year with new teachers and new friends. But I am sad to see Ana leaving her school. Just like her older siblings, she attended Knox for a few years and has grown so much and learned so much. All the teachers are caring, loving and it's been a great Christian atmosphere for my children. I know Ana is ready for kindergarten, but man it feels weird to say that my last daughter,, my fourth child, is going to kindergarten in the fall.

Anyway, last week was the pre-k graduation/spring sing performance and it was beautiful! Ana was of course her normal jovial, sweet, endearing self. She sang her heart out with her friends and did a few songs in sign language. Here are some picture highlights! 

This was one of the songs that the kids sang and used sign language for and it was such a sweet sentimental song. It made me tear up because it talked about following Christ everyday and having him transform us.  And the kids sang so beautifully and seeing my Ana on the school stage one last time, really got the tears flowing.

After the songs, the pre-k teachers gave each child a certificate and they walked across the stage. The reception afterward was nice and in between snacking on treats we were able to take some pictures with Ana. Uncle Mark came to support Ana and brought her a lovely rose bouqet that made her smile so big. She said she had never received flowers before and her older sisters always got them for their school activities or dance recitals. 

Congratulations Anastasia on graduating pre-kindergarten. We are all so proud of you and love you so much! 

Hope you guys have a fantastic Friday and a great weekend!