We are going on 8 months without regular cable TV and it has been wonderful.  The only show my kids watch are what they can find on Netflix and any movies we have or may rent.  Nicki is the only one really “stuck” to her computer watching old TV shows.  She just got done watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Back in January when Nicki got my dad’s old computer we ended up just leaving the other one in Lil Tony’s room.  For a while he had to watch a movie to go to bed.  Then a couple weeks ago we realized that was what was keeping him up until midnight or later.  With the start of school and such in the next week we decided we have to get him on a better schedule.  So he is in bed watching a movie by 9pm (we have to try real hard to get this done) and he can watch a movie until about 9:45 and then the movie/computer goes off.  With this change he is asleep by 10pm which is awesome.

The problem we seem to run in to sometimes with the computer is he thinks he knows how to work it and if it freezes or something he just starts unplugging things.  Last night for example.  I couldn’t get any sound, he had no internet connection and the keyboard wouldn’t work.  It took me a good amount of time to figure out what he unplugged and where to plug it in.  Then I had to reboot the computer because I still couldn’t get the keyboard to work.  I really worry with him pulling all the plugs out that he will break something.  We have already had to replace the vga cable once.  I would prefer not to have to spend more money on stuff like that.

We have talked about taking the computer out of his room, I just hate to do this because there have been plenty of times that he just hangs out in his room playing games and watching movies and it gives me a bit of a break.

I think we will just have to figure out how to “hide” or put up all the things he shouldn’t be playing with.  :-)

I really think we need to get a Wii for the kids this year.  And by kids I mean me and Tony too.  LOL!  When we took Nicki to her Ortho appt today, they have a Wii game there.  Lil Tony has a blast playing and I actually got to help him today and really enjoyed myself.  Nicki would really like one too.  I made it clear to her though that if we get one, she may only get a few more gifts after that.  The Wii would be a gift for all of us.  She is totally OK with that.

I can’t wait for Christmas!  LOL!

Today my lil man turns 3, Happy Birthday Lil Tony!  In addition, my Nicki bear is coming home.  She has been gone since the middle of June visiting family in Illinois.  She has had a great time and I think we all needed a break but I am so totally excited she is coming home and on what better day, Lil Tony’s birthday.

So I just wanted to make this quick post.  I am going to go outside and clean out the truck so we can rearrange the car seats.  Our Ford has 3 rows and so one of the lil ones has to have their car seat all the way in the back in order to get all the kids in.  LOL!

So our plan is to move in 2-3 years.  Go to school get an associates degree in accounting and move back to IL.  Our kids are getting older and outgrowing their current sleeping situation.  Well lil Tony is ok in his and Isabel could stay in hers but Max is sleeping in a play pen.  The same one Isabel slept in until she was 18 months or so.  I know he could handle sleeping in there longer but I am sure it is not the most comfortable.

I do worry that if she sleeps in a big girl bed that she will get up and wander around a lot.  I thought about getting lil Tony and new bed and give Isabel, lil Tony’s bed but I don’t know.  I mean we won’t get them log beds or anything, maybe just a toddler bed.  Whatever we decide I don’t want to spend too much or get anything too big.  Whatever we get we will probably get rid of when we move.  We only plan on taking couches and the table and boxes and clothes.  Most furniture will be given to Goodwill or thrown away.

I think we may wait a bit longer before making any changes.  I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.

I can’t believe Nicki has been gone for a couple weeks now.  She has been with her dad’s family for the last 2 weeks and tomorrow she spends the rest of the time in IL with my dad.  She will be coming home on the 27th of July which is Lil Tony’s birthday.  She seems excited she will be home to celebrate with us.

She will then have about 3 weeks home before school starts.  I just can’t believe she will be in 8th grade, only one more year and then she will be in high school.  Which means we are that much closer to being past adolescence and worrying about puberty.  Well she hasn’t gotten her monthly friend yet, but I was in high school before I got mine.  I know when that happened I started to get pretty bad acne.  Maybe I should start looking at the best acne treatments.  I know a year or so ago when she visited my family her grandma suggested and purchased her some face wash and she said it worked really good.  Her face usually doesn’t have a problem unless she puts her hands all over it a lot during the day while she is in school.  Her dirty hands.

Well only time will tell if she is going to have a problem with acne.

Tonight we went to Nicki’s award ceremony at school.  She won Honor Roll and one other award.  I was so proud of her.  She does really well in school.  She is part of the Builders Club.  It is a club where they do volunteer work for the community and their school.  Next year she will be the President of the club.

Here are a couple pictures from tonight:

I would just like to mention my 3 younger children were very bad. Well that is not totally fair, every one but me so far is sick with a cold and I think the kids were just cranky because they didn’t feel good. Tony had to go out of the auditorium twice with them.

Anyways, so proud of her and hope she keeps up the good grades through high school.

I posted the pic on Facebook of Isabel’s big poofy hair from the last post and my aunt commented that anyone can have straight hair but those with curly hair have the sense of humor and that is so true with Isabel. 

Tony and I pinpointed our children.  Lil Tony does stuff over and over again that he thinks is funny and 9 times out of 10 everyone else thinks it’s funny too.  Isabel does stuff with the hopes that everyone thinks is funny.  She tries to be funny.  At dinner our entertainment centers around her being goofy.  It is great family time.  Probably the only time of the day that we all sit down together and talk, laugh and eat great home cooked food. 

I really can’t wait until Lil Tony and Isabel (and of course Max) get a little older and can just sit still and eat at dinner.  Of course with the added wonderful conversation and laughter.  Now they just fuss and crank and barely eat.  I find myself shoveling the food in my mouth just to be able to get my food  down before the kids are just way too antsy. 

I never really appreciated family dinner time when I was growing up.  To me it just seemed like a requirement in the house to eat at a specific time as opposed to being wonderful family time, ya know what I mean.  Like in the army or something, everything is scheduled and done on time at a specific time.  I really want our kids to appreciate we eat dinner together because it is probably the one time a day (as each of their lives get a bit busier)that we can all “schedule ” to be together.