Count Your Blessings

2016 has been an amazing year. I am so very grateful for everything.

I'm going to sleep each night counting my blessings. 😀

Christmas Weekend!!

Oh my Goodness!!  It is Christmas weekend!!!

Yesterday, Phil and I received a gift from my brother and sister-in-law in Phoenix.  And today, the boys received Christmas cards from my sister and brother-in-law!

A "man crate" from my brother. Tons of candies
from "back-in-the-day". How awesome!!

I'm actually still debating sharing that with the boys. Those are candies from MY childhood that I miss!  :-)  lol... (Ok, maybe I'll share.)

Today, all five stepsons received a letter in the mail from my sister. Their gift?? A $5 gift card to McDonald's!!  They loved it!

Cody* said, "OMG! $85??"

lol... "No Cody. That's $5. The thing before the 5 is a DOLLAR SIGN."

Jake* said, "I'm getting a Big Mac!"

(He could probably eat two of them, honestly!)

How super nice and thoughtful of my brother and sister and their spouses.  😃💗 Thank you!!

*Names changed for blog

Work Compliment

Today at work, we had our Holiday Luncheon.


While I was sitting and eating with co-workers from different teams, one of them said to me, "Jennifer, my family and I were at the Peoria Rivermen hockey game the same night you and your husband took your five boys."


Oh boy... Where is this going??  lol...


She continues with, "Your boys were behaving so well, that I had to tell my two kids to sit down and behave like all five of those boys right there."


aww...


That made me smile!  I told her, "Thank you! I am so so very lucky that they are such great boys!"

Arabic

My oldest stepson is in World Languages class in 7th grade.

World Languages... I have no idea what this means...

But, right now, he seems to be learning ARABIC! Wow!

He made a point this evening to find me watching TV and tell me that he could write his name in Arabic. So... I made a point to go out to the kitchen (homework area) to watch him write it and even take a picture of it!  😁

Any guesses??

The First Thanksgiving!

... for THIS Horstmann family... 

 

I thought of this big huge plan... But then got busy with everything... So we just had a small Thanksgiving with Phil and the boys.  Sorry y'all... the thought was there.

 

The fine china came out...

INCLUDING fine cups. 😊

Instead of a huge turkey... I went to Hyvee and got turkey breasts.  I think the boys wanted an actually turkey, but... oh well.  😊  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and crescent rolls.

 

Quite a nice spread...

We asked the boys what they were Thankful for and this is what they said:

• A large family.
• Dad and Jennifer.
• Jake* was thankful for dad, Jennifer, Matt, Chris, and Logan...
• NOTE:  He was not thankful for Cody.
• Dad keeping his job at Caterpillar.
• A roof over their head.

 We all enjoyed our first Thanksgiving dinner together.

 

Our helpers after dinner...

We even had two "volunteers" help clean. Ok, maybe they didn't volunteer, it was actually their first time to do dishes and we were teaching them.  But, guess what? We got done so fast and the kitchen is now SPOTLESS!

 

TA-DA!!

Wonderful, first, Thanksgiving dinner.  💓💓💓

 

 

 

*All boys' names changed for story.

 

 

Twins' Basketball Practice

I don't know if the twins have ever played "organized" basketball before. I don't think they have. I'm sure they've played basketball in somebody's driveway. Or, maybe they've played basketball at school.  Anyway. We were watching them play basketball...

And they did really well... There was nothing wrong at all... 

They learned how to rebound, they learned how to dribble, they learned passing,... 

And then...

Wait... What...? 

Uh oh...

Where is she going??? 😂😂

Practice was over shortly after... Luckily the little girl with the shirt over her head didn't run into anybody.  😂😂

Housekeeping Items

Where do all of the clothes go?  They've got to come into the house. For 5 boys. Lots of clothes. So where does it all go?

Today, Phil and I cleaned out clothes for the boys. FIRST, we started with the middle brothers. What can we pass down to the twins?

Then... We moved on to the twins room...

Things got a little weird... :-) 

But, we made some good progress and got FOUR large bags of clothes out the door... 

And straight to Goodwill!

PHEW! Very productive day of housekeeping... We even picked up a few things from Goodwill for the boys! (Hey, why spend so much money when they are just going to grow out of them in less than a year anyway???)

How do we do it??

So I've been doing this whole thing now... You know... Five kids and all... for about 1.5 years.  :-)

The most asked question that I get is, "How do you and Phil do it?"

This morning, one of our swimming friends found out that we have five boys and the exclamation was, "Five boys?!? Oh my gosh! How do you do it??" 

And this message is from this evening...

Well... here is the magic secret...  the boys are 8, 8, 10, 12, and 13 (Oh, in January, I get to say "14, 12, 10, and the twins are 8 - all even numbers!")... 

Ok, back to the magic secret.... Honestly, we put them in front of food or the TV. We make them do homework. We make sure to get them outside in the fresh, beautiful, air (when it's nice out). They play with blocks or legos in the basement. Sometimes they play x-box. And honestly, when all else fails, we just make them clean the living room or their bedrooms. 

(the last one is my favorite)   :-)   

But, we're very lucky that they all get along really well and play together. They are such good boys!

Date Night!

Last week at work, I responded to an email asking if anybody wanted Rivermen tickets (which, I've done before and was able to get 7 tickets).  This week though, I was only given 2 tickets. AND, we had the boys this weekend.  What to do... What to do...

When I brought it up to Phil, he suggested that I take Jake*, and it would be our "date night."

Hmm... Well this is a first... a date night. With a stepson.

We told Jake on Friday evening that I would be taking him to the Rivermen hockey game on Saturday and he was so excited! "Really? Awesome! YAY!"

Then on Saturday morning, he was so cute... "I can't wait for our date tonight!"

Saturday afternoon, I asked him what he wanted to do for dinner and we talked about it. He decided on Burger Barge in Peoria (the new one).

We played tic-tac-toe and hangman while we waited for our food.

I will keep that napkin forever.  :-) 

Then we got our burgers... Jake got a bacon burger and onion rings. I got a chili and cheese burger (tried something new!) and cheese blobs.  

YUM!!

Then we went to the hockey game and had great seats! 

The Rivermen were losing 2-1 until the last 4-minutes of the game when they tied it up 2-2! It was awesome!  He wanted to stay and watch, so I agreed since it was our first date.  LUCKILY, the Rivermen scored within 3-minutes of overtime.  :-)  We didn't have to stay so late!

So, for my first stepmom-stepson date... It was a really fun evening!  :-) 

Normal Size Recipe

What to do when a friend sends you a recipe... But you want to make it for 7...

Just increase the portions!  :-) 

Boy Talk...

Last night on the car ride to the Peoria Rivermen hockey game, we heard a cry from the back of the minivan.

"Stop touching my nards..."

So I'm thinking, "What? What did he say?"

And we hear it again, "Stop it... don't touch my nards."

I had to have fun with this one... I said, "Stop touching your brothers balls!"

The whole minivan starting laughing, "hahaha.... she said balls..."

Boy talk... Is so much different... Than girl talk!

One Year Blogiversary!

YAY!! One year ago, I posted my first blog on Football and Farts. And guess what??  I have survived to tell more stories!!  :-) 

What a year it has been! You have read about me wiping poop and butts. You've read about me cleaning up both of the twins' throw up, same day, same time.  Our vacations - to the Dells and Myrtle Beach.  Long homework evenings.  Their always empty stomachs....  Their many football games, basketball games, baseball games, school plays/musicals, ... And I've just got to take a moment to say... 

Oh wait... That's not the image that I wanted!

This is the one I meant to really post.   :-) 

Love these five boys!

Big Dreamin'

On the way home this evening from my in-laws house, my oldest stepson told us about a dream he recently had.

He dreamed that he was a billionaire and had a huge mansion with a lot of land. (ok cool... off to a good start!)

But then each of us had our own room...

My parents had a winery room/house. Because my parents love wine.  :-)

Phil and I had a gym room. Because we're always working out.

Janette and Steve had the Flamingo room.  :-)  Well, because they love flamingos.

The twins lived in the living room. (They were pretty excited about that because it has the TV.)

Oh, Cody and Jake* lived in the bakery... You can imagine why.  :-)  lol...

COOKIES!!!

Pretty creative dream! I thought it was fun to talk/laugh about.

I imagine the mansion looks like this.  :-) 

*names changed for story

Spoon River Drive

This morning all of us woke up early to go to one of my stepsons football games in Table Grove Illinois. You can Google Map that because I just know it's southwest of Peoria somewhere...

The game happened to be on the same roads of Spoon River Drive... So we made a day of it. Here's a picture of the football field in the middle of nowhere.  :-)

Football field in the middle of beans and corn... 

On the way home, we went through Cuba, Canton, and Farmington. In Farmington, we let the boys buy one thing each.

What did they buy, you ask?

Oh well... Let me show you...

Guns made of piping that shoot small marshmallows. 

I might regret this in about... five minutes.  :-)

They are supposed to play with these OUTSIDE and I've already seen marshmallows throughout the house. ... One of these days... Maybe... I'll learn...???

Project Procrastination

Don't we all just know this so well...??? Love this!  :-)  lol... 

Lucktoberfest... With the boys?? ... Oh boy!

My parents are in town this weekend... So I got to introduce my five stepsons to my mom and dad. I know, I know... I'm sure they were pretty overwhelmed also.

So last night we all went to Phil's parents house in the Heights. Phil's parents were there, his brother met us there also, Phil's sister brought over her family, and then it was my parents and Phil/me. Phew! Full house!!

The meeting went well. The boys were all dressed up in their best attire (yet, casual) and really on their best behavior.  Though I really can't say that because they normally behave very well. I'm very lucky. 

After dinner and dessert (around 9pm), the bigs wanted to go for a walk around the neighborhood. Well, they (with Phil, Grandpa and my dad) ended up walking from the grandparents house, all the way to the Heights Tower! (that's quite a walk!)

What you probably don't know is Lucky's Modern Dive had shut down part of Prospect for bands to perform and people to drink and enjoy. It was a festival called Lucktoberfest. 

SO THEN, after the twins noticed the bigs were gone, they wanted to go for a walk also! So, grandma, my mom, and I took the twins up towards the tower to find the big brothers. 

We passed TNT's bar - they had an outdoor band as well.  After we walked by, one of the twins told me, "I don't ever want to go out with a girl that goes to a bar."   I don't know what he heard or what he saw... But, it must NOT have been a great representation of a GIRL in a BAR.  :-)  lol... 

"Where are the big brothers???"

We kept walking up towards Lucktoberfest and finally ran into the big brothers, Phil, Grandpa, and my dad as we got to the stage in the middle of Prospect. We stayed and listened to the band a little while. Grandpa saw some Peoria Heights people he knew... Then we made our way back to grandma and grandpa's house. 

It was an adventurous and fun night! A peak of what they get to look forward to when they hit 21.  (Which is 8-13 years away for these boys!) 

So Grateful

This morning, Phil and I went for a morning run around the neighborhood. We took the back roads that I had only been through once before, so I really didn't know where we were.

At the last minute, Phil asked, "Want to run by the house Janette grew up in?" (Janette is the boys' mom.)  I immediately said yes!

So we took a short detour, kept running, and talking.

Then finally he said, "that's their old house!"

Awesome!!

He went on and on about with stories about high school, the neighbors, etc... as we made our way back to our house.

Made me feel so grateful that we all get along. Phil, Janette, me, her boyfriend, her parents, our parents, .... Amazing.

There is no reason to fight, it would only put the five boys in a bad place.

Thank you for all getting along... for everybody's sake involved.  :-)

Want to See The Twins?

Not what you were expecting?? ... Well, this is how I see the twins every weekend also... So this is what you get... 

:-)  lol

Twins Birthday!!!

These two itsy bitsy boys right here. Can you tell which is which??  Don't worry... I couldn't either!

Turned 8-years old today! This is now their 2nd birthday that I have been a part of. Watching them grow up - learn how to swim this summer, listen to them read this year, and watching them complete their first triathlon - has been so much fun!

Twin Brother Love

I can't wait to see what else they do! 

(hopefully without all the poopy pants, throwing up, and butt wiping, etc...)

Benadryl Backfire

Last night was a normal night in the house with the boys. Dinner, homework, bedtime.

Well, kind of... I decided to send the three youngest outside to play since it was such a nice evening. (And they are distracting the big brothers from their homework.)

They came back in and the youngest was complaining about mosquito bites all over. And when he gets mosquito bites, they blow up. One small little mosquito bite turns into a size of a quarter!

Of course, I do not have any After Bite anti-itch cream. So Phil and I thought, "hey, how about some Benadryl?"  Why not kill two birds with one stone?  He'll stop itching AND it will knock him out!  :-)  Sweet!

Everybody went to bed at 8pm and I passed out at 9pm.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning, went to the restroom, and found throw up all over the toilet seat. Oh, and the floor... and the wall... (what?)... and the bathroom rugs... You get the idea. 

So, since I've already met my quota for cleaning throw up for the year, I let Phil take this one.  :-)

Talk about your all time backfire!

But First - Run

I went to work this morning at 6am. That means I was able to leave work early today.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled into the driveway and the boys were all at the kitchen table doing their homework.

Well, the twins were pretending to do homework with a couple of the big brothers books. (I know they can't read that level yet!)   :-)

As I said before... I got home early...  So I wrote down 10 math problems each for the twins (long addition), told them I'd be back in an hour, and I left the house!

Yep. Homework was the baby-sitter and I went for a run!

#stepmomfail

On a side note... I did check the math homework when I got home... That counts a little bit, right?

Stepson's Father

I use this blog to tell funny stories or funny comments from the boys. Rarely do I write about their dad! So I'm going to tell a story about him... After all, he is the reason these boys are in my life!

Phil grew up as an athlete, but more specifically, he grew up a swimmer. He participated on the swim team through high school and could have competed through college, but focused on his degree.

So when Phil told me he wanted to do Big Shoulders 5K and knowing what a great swimmer he is, I had no doubt that he could do it!

What is Big Shoulders?  Big Shoulders is a Masters Swimming event in Chicago, Illinois, in which swimmers are challenged to swim 2.5K or 5K in open water. The conditions for this event usually are not favorable - cold, wind, rainy, wavy water, but lightning cancels the swim. The biggest challenge is that swimmers are not allowed to wear wetsuits if they want a finishers award in their age group!  (Sure, all swimmers finish get a medal, but if you want to place in your age group, no wetsuit allowed!)

Panoramic view of the swim start area. 

I've heard stories of Big Shoulders before. The water is so cold the athletes get hypothermia. The water could be rough, making a difficult swim. They swim regardless the weather, unless there is lightning.  (Ok, horror stories)   :-)  lol... 

So when we showed up yesterday to a smooth lake, no rain just overcast, the Race Director apologized for having such a great day!  "Sorry to have smooth water today, I promise it won't always be like this."  :-)  lol... 

I tried to read all of the race director emails that Phil forwarded to me prior to this weekend. I was nervous but I was ready to take care of him no matter the conditions. 

Honestly, because of all of the race director emails and directions, we were really over prepared. It made for a really great day! 

Phil's main goal was to just finish the 5K swim. He thought it would take him around 1-hour and 30 to 40-minutes. He said that on the first stretch to the first buoy, he got beat up by a guy going all out. Don't we all have those during triathlons? You almost have to stop and let the guy go or move into your own open area. After that, he said it wasn't too bad. Phil also mentioned that the water was very clear (which I noticed also as I walked around the lake area.)

Overall, I think it was a really great day, great swim, for Phil. He finished at 1:35:something, which was within his timeframe! 

A huge smile at the finish line!

I'm so very proud of him! He had a great swim!

Congratulations Phil!!

What a great, fun, different event for us to experience. 

Shitty Story

No really, this story is about poop.  :-)

I'm seriously head down, focused at work, when I get this text from the boys' mom, Janette:

Hmm... Ok...  :-) 

Well... That's a new one for this step-mama!  As bad as I felt for him... I just started laughing. I couldn't help myself. 

We're talking about a boy that can eat and poop on command. Honestly, I'm jealous of him. 

I understand she waited for him to do his duty to make sure he wasn't sick... And then I got this text:

The "all clear" signal.  :-) 

Deja Vu

Less than a year ago, we had a boy that would tell us, "I don't have any homework." And then would go off to his room to his computer games.

Then we found out about bad grades, homework not finished, etc... So we tried really hard and worked with him in the evenings. It was a hard year, honestly.

This year, we're focused. Determined to get his homework done and keep the grades up ... In a way, being proactive.

But then, at the same time as we were focused on him, another boy started saying, "my homework is done. I don't have anything."

And what do you know? An email from his teacher about incomplete homework assignments.

*sigh*

Here we go again.

TIME TO NIP THIS IN THE BUD!

No football practice for him. No TV for the boys. No electronics for the boys. Homework. Reading. Studying. We have had enough!

Hopefully (since we're only, what? two or three weeks into the school year), we caught this just in time to not have to "deal" (for lack of better word) with it the rest of the year.

So Phil worked with him on his homework.

While I helped the other four. Here is 2nd grade reading:

So cute!!  :-) 

Kris Kross Action

Time to leave the lake... but first... let's put our pants on right...

Can you see it?

Let me zoom in...

Labor Day Weekend

What an awesome time at Oak Run lake with Phil's parents and brother! The boys got to hangout with their cousin.

There was a snake, some frogs, father-son bonding, riding the lawn mower, boating, and tubing... s'mores and beer (for the adults!).  :-)

I even got to run this morning before everybody woke up. VERY enjoyable weekend!  :-)

Memories from this weekend

Tonight's Homework

So tonight's homework was status quo... The oldest had homework in math, science, and social studies...

Everybody else had NO homework.

Oh wait. 

Then out of nowhere Matt* said, "I am supposed to practice counting down from 40 in my head though."

Yep, status quo... Nobody else has homework until "oh wait"... 

Hmm... Really... 2nd grade... count down from 40. I want to hear this.

So I said, "Come here, I want to hear."

We sat down and he started counting down, "40... 20... 16... 14... 10..."

WAIT WAIT WAIT. Stop. Stop. Stop.

I said, "Let's try it again. I'll help you. K? 40... 39... 38... 37... 36..."

And he said, "No no... We're supposed to do EVEN number countdown!"

WHAT?? Even number countdown???

"Ok, let's try it again... 40...38...36..34...33. no...32...30...28...27. no... 26... 24..."  this continued two times through...

Finally I lost the 2nd graders attention and he ran out to the TV room again.

Well, ok, that was good. Good job.

*sigh*  lol... 

Wildlife Prairie Park Pump Track

If you know me at all, you know I love to be outside playing, trail running, and mountain biking... So today was really fun for me when we took the boys to the Pump Track at Wildlife Prairie Park.

The bigs did really well.  In fact, Cody* did great. I want to take him mountain biking one day.

The twins had a hard time staying straight at first, but after lining them up before taking off, they did awesome!

Lined up straight before taking off.

The twins. They did it!!  :-) 

*name changed for story