Vacation!!!!!

I have been a bad bad blogger....although I've been a good wife, mommy & house keeper.  I guess that's just where my priorities are these days.  Not that it's a bad thing, I just wish I had one more hour during the day to blog!  Someday I will be as organized with my time as I am with my closets!  Haha!

So vacation.  This will be one of those posts that will have lots of pictures and maybe more details than you care to know about our vacation, but I don't want to forget!!

Our 1st day in Los Angeles we spent quite a few hours visiting Beverly Hills, Hollywood and seeing the sights.  This day wasn't terribly exciting for the kids, but they did great anyways!

It was fun to see the Hollywood sign in person.  More memorable would be the journey to get to the sign!  David had put it into his gps and the directions were going to bring us straight to the sign, rather than to one of the sight seeing spots.  It was kind of hilarious looking at the route on the map because we literally were driving up the side of the mountain.  It was crazy, all curvy, winding roads.  It was a fun adventure.  And once we got close we had an amazing view!  Check out the house in the side of the mountain!!!  I can't even imagine waking up to that view every morning!!!

 Another thing we really wanted to do was get cupcakes from Sprinkles!  We love watching one of the shows on the Food Network with the founder of Sprinkles, so trying her cupcakes was a must!  They were spendy, but wow, the best cupcake we've ever had!!!!  (and they were huge!)

 We drove down Rodeo Drive.  We didn't bother getting out and walking down Rodeo Drive simply because none of us have the kind of money we'd need to buy anything in those shops, but it was still fun to be in the area and see the sights!

 I MISS PALM TREES!!!!!!!!!!

 After we got settled into our hotel and grabbed some dinner we headed to Venice Beach.  BEAUTIFUL!!!!  The pictures from this night are some of my favorite for the whole trip!  I definitely will be getting one of these beach pics blown up & framed!!!

 Erika had been to the ocean when she was 14 months old, but this was the first time when she could appreciate it and remember it!  She loved it!!!

 Jenna was not too fond of the ocean at all.  As you can see by her face.  We've discovered that outside of the bath tub, she's not fond of water at all.

 These were the houses behind us while we were at the beach!!!  Except for the amazing view, I really don't think I'd want to live in one of these houses, but they were still pretty nice!

That pretty much sums up day 1!!  I think I'll split up my posts about vacation, otherwise they'll just be too long!  Stay tuned for more!!!

Our Incredible Vacation

Here's a highlight of each day of our trip!  I'll post more next week with more pics!  For now though I have a MOUNTAIN of laundry a couple more bags to unpack!

Jenna's 1st Easter

This post will be picture heavy!!

We stopped at the cemetery after church for a picture with all of my babies!!  Because of the cross we have hope that we WILL see Dylan again!!

When we were just about to leave Caleb said "I think it would be a good idea if we prayed before we left"  Proud parent moment!!!

We colored eggs the night before!

And here are the Easter baskets!  We cut way back this year, which I was really happy about!  Not much for candy and their gift was a Bible!!

Accountable Kids!

A couple months ago I went on a search for a good chore chart of some sort!!  I really couldn't find something that I loved that didn't require me to keep printing stuff out all the time, so I posted on Facebook asking for suggestions.  A friend of mine suggested Accountable Kids!  She uses their system and I had remembered her talking about it before, but wasn't looking for something at the time so I just forgot about it.
After talking everything over with my hubby, we decided to go for it!  And boy am I glad we did!
This program has made it easy to get my kids motivated to get their chores done!  My kids get up excited to get their chores done.  It's amazing, really!
It has really taught them about accountability & responsibility!  They have their chore cards for each time of the day and once they complete the chore they flip it over.  Once they are done with their morning chores (as well as afternoon, evening & weekend) they get a privilege pass.  If they earn their pass they are allowed to watch cartoons or play on the computer.  If they do not finish their morning chores then they do not earn that privilege.  The first few days there were many tears, but they quickly caught on and now it's nearly a non issue!  There is also opportunity to earn money, which we will soon be introducing to them.  Here's how we have personalized ours:

  
Probably the one thing I love the most is the flexibility with this system.  We are not really a "clean the bathroom every single day" kind of family.  Once a week is good for us.  So I was able to adjust how we use the cards in order to accommodate our weekend chores vs. weekday chores.  I love it.

The only thing that we don't use are the cards to earn stars for a special date.  We personally believe that special mommy & daddy dates are earned simply by being our child.  They should not have to do anything in order to earn special one on one time with us.  We are already in the habit of taking our kids on "mommy dates" and "daddy dates" so now to say they would have to earn those dates would be absolutely confusing for them.  We may end up using that card to earn something else, but we haven't decided yet, so for now we just don't use it.

I've had a few people ask me about this, and yes, I definitely recommend the Accountable Kids system if you need a little order to the chaos on your house!!!  Five stars!

Day 7 of 30!

Day 7 - You favorite movies

Gosh, I have SO many favorites!

Growing up my favorites were Prancer, Curly Sue and my ultimate favorite was Annie.

My favorites now are Just Like Heaven, Sweet Home Alabama, any of the Santa Clause movies, any Christmas movie.  All the Disney teen movies!  Most chick flicks....LOVE them all!

I just saw Water for Elephants and my goodness, it was good!  I read the book a week ago and I was thinking the movie would disappoint, but it definitely did not.

Day 6 of 30!

Day 6 - A picture of something that makes you happy!

This has taken me forever.  There are so many things that make me happy.  But here are two.

You are probably thinking "really, that ugly room makes you happy? what's wrong with you?"

Here's why it makes me happy.  The thought of what's to come is what makes me happy!  That ugly room that I cleaned up is becoming MY CRAFT ROOM!  Something I have always wanted!!!!  And THAT makes me happy!  I've been taking pictures every step of the way, so you can rest assured that you will get to see it all.  Including the finished product!

52 new recipes in 1 year!

Back on January 1st I blogged my goals for the year.  One of my goals is to try 52 new recipes.  I'm quite behind!  However I'm still going to accomplish this!  I might be trying 20 new recipes come December but I WILL do it!

Here's what I have tried so far!

1.  homemade sausage from ground pork!  I can't find the link for the recipe that I used, but I definitely would recommend trying to make your own sausage if you never have.  I will cut down the salt drastically next time, but other than that, it was DELICIOUS!!!!  I see ground pork on sale all the time, but I don't typically buy it, I will be now!

2.  Chicken pot pie.  I've made chicken pot pie before, but this was a new recipe.  It was pretty good, not a typical chicken pot pie taste, but still good!

3.  Twice baked potatoes  These were phenomenal!!!!  Seriously!  Restaurant quality!  I definitely impressed my hubby with these!

4. Sour cream noodle bake  Delicious!!  Anytime I have made hamburger helper my kids devour it.  I mean seriously.  I have to stop them from licking their plates clean.  I'm not kidding.  In an effort to reduce to amount of packaged foods I use I went looking for a recipe that would please their hamburger helper desires.  This did it!  And it tasted great too!  They have all asked when we can have this one again!!!

5. Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies  Okay so I will admit...these weren't my favorite.  They were good, they were huge, but I don't know.  I guess for my liking the 2 shouldn't be mixed.  Of course everyone else loved them.  They were a lot of work for cookies.

6. Grilled chicken and roasted red pepper panini  These are for lunch today!  I have the chicken marinating and the sauce all made.  It all smells delicious!!!  Can't wait to get it all assembled!
(I have to edit to add....these were amazing!!!  My hubby has declared that The Pioneer Woman is making me a rockstar!  He said these were Panera good!!!!  YAY!  We'll be making these again!)

This is what I have so far!  Still a ways to go...but hey only 46 more recipes to try!  I still have plenty of time to get that done this year!

Jenna's Cardiologist Appointment

I know I've tweeted & put this on Facebook, but in case there is someone who reads my blog but not the other two, I decided I should probably update about Jenna's appointment with the cardiologist!

The whole time they don't give you any indication of what is happening.  She had an echocardiogram done, then was weighed & measured.  The cardiologist came in and asked a ton of questions, asked if she had an EKG done.  She hadn't, so she had the nurse bring the machine in and hook her up.  She did pretty good till the very end and kept ripping all the leads off!!  Then the doctor said the words that we so desperately wanted to hear:

HER HEART IS PERFECT!!!!!  She has no missing pathways, no extra pathways, each chamber is functioning just like it should.  We both breathed a sigh of relief.  And I was immediately hungry.  My stomach was in knots the entire morning and I had eaten maybe 2 bites of food and it was nearly 2:00 at this point.  Her heart rate is still high, but not high enough for the cardiologist to be concerned since her heart is functioning just like it should!  For whatever reason she just beats at the very high end, even a bit over, the "normal" range.

Thank you all for your prayers, we truly appreciate them!

Day 5 of 30!

Day 5 - Your Siblings!

I have lots of them!!!  A brother and a sister on my mom's side.  A brother and a sister on my dad's side.  Plus 2 step brothers and a step sister.  Plus all the sibling-in-laws!

I'm going to focus on my 2 brothers and 2 sisters in this post!!

Growing up I lived with my mom & my brother, Josh.  Here he is with his wife & 2 girls.  (Super dad!!)

Then when I was 12 and Josh was 15, Melissa came along.  She pretty much grew up as an only child.  She has grown up to be an amazing girl.  I'm really proud of her!  She moved out a couple months ago, she's a manager at McDonalds and she's in the National Guard.  Oh yeah...and she's still in High School!!  We have become really good friends and my kids love her dearly!

When I was 12, I met my dad.  Along with meeting him, I met my brother Nolan and my sister Randee.
I recently uploaded all the pics on my camera and came across this one of my sister Randee and my stepbrother Kevin.  Little did she know it would end up on my blog!!!!

I can't find any pictures of my brother Nolan, so he gets a free pass this time around!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Day 4 of 30!

Day 4 - Your parents!

My dad & step-mom (this was from Christmas)

My mom & Matt (this picture is really old....but it's the only one I could find!)

Here is a picture of my in-laws!  Can't hardly see my father in-law!

The only ones I don't have a picture of would be my "other" parents, Kris & Sally.  They were the pastors of the church I grew up at and I became very close to them, really I feel like part of their family.  They were definitely instrumental in shaping who I am today!

We love all our parents!!!!  We are blessed to have them all in our lives!

Day 3 of 30!

Day 3 - Your first love!

That would definitely be David.  Of course I had the normal teen years of "loving" every boy I had a crush on.  But back then I didn't truly know what love was.  I didn't have a ton of boyfriends in high school or after, which always bugged me then.  Now I am thankful for that.  I met David a few days before my 19th birthday and we started "officially" dating about 8 months after that.  Ever since then David has loved me for me.  I am so thankful that God has blessed me with him.

Day 2 of 30!

Day 2!  Meaning behind your blog name.

Well it really isn't all that creative.  Just our name.  The Ruch Family.

Considering this is mostly a mommy blog about my family, it is appropriately named!!

I was going to post a recent picture of our family, but the most recent ones I have are from Jenna's dedication which I already posted!  We'll get some new pictures on Easter, I am sure!

A mama and her girls

I don't think I have shared this picture before. I just love it. This is a month or 2 ago. I was feeding Jenna right before bed and my other baby wanted to be snuggled too. David came in and saw us and went straight for the camera! I'm glad he did! Precious memories!!!

Day 1 of 30

I have decided to do a 30 day blogging adventure with outlined topics for each day!  Not sure if I will actually complete it in 30 days or not, but I will complete it!!!


Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts


My name is Sarah!  Which you likely know unless this is your first time reading my blog!


Here is a recent picture of me and Jenna!  Hanging out in the garage!  

Now to think of 15 interesting facts.  Not sure they are all interesting, but here are 15 facts!


1. David and I have been married for almost 9 years!
2. In 20 days we will be in California!!!!
3. I LOVE me some teeny bopper Disney movies.
4. Other than our 10 months in Texas I have always lived in MN and have mostly been in a 10 mile radius from where I grew up!
5. I love country music.
6. I have a major sweet tooth.
7. I worked at Target for 4 years.
8. I worked at a law firm in Accounting for almost 6 years.
9. I ran an in home daycare for almost 2 years.
10. I LOVE being home with my kids.
11. I wouldn't mind going back to school once Jenna is in Kindergarten
12. All my babies were born via c-section
13. I need to loose 100 lbs.
14. I love the number 7.
15. When I grow up I want to be a nurse.

It's the small things

Last week I was really wanting to get a rake so we could start working on our yard.  Our pitiful yard that has not been taken care of for the past couple of years.  Hoping that we can turn it around this year.
Anyways....I stopped at Walmart to buy a rake.  The store we happened to be by is under construction.  Which meant they pretty much had no lawn & garden department this year.  That was the section of the store that they are adding on to.  So no rake.  I was tempted to drive to another store, but we had been out for a couple hours and Jenna was nearing the end of tolerating her carseat so we headed home.
The next day David was outside with the older 2.  I looked out the kitchen window and saw David RAKING!  What in the world?  We don't own a rake!  So I asked where he got it.  "Oh I found it in the playhouse in the backyard!"  WOW!!!
I love how God cares even about the small things.  It's not a large amount of money we would've spent on a rake, but still.  God knew that there was one in our back yard!

Erika's ENT update

Yesterday was Erika's appointment with the ENT.  He told us exactly what we were expecting to hear: her tonsils & adenoids need to come out!  Along with that she has a lot of fluid build up in her ears and due to all that fluid she has 30% hearing loss in both her ears.  THANKFULLY she can hear without that fluid!!! (the audiologist did a test to find out for sure)  

We are going to get Caleb in to have his ears tested before we schedule Erika's surgery.  If he ends up needing tubes we will just have a big ol party at the hospital and get them both taken care of in one day!!!

Thank you all for your prayers for our family, we really appreciate it!  

Dr. Appts, Health Issues & Bears, oh my!

Just wanted to update everyone on what is happening in our family and this seems to be the best way.  Please don't be offended if you are finding this stuff out through my blog and not a personal phone call.  I just don't have it in me to call 20 different people with an update.

I took Jenna in for her 6 month check up last week.  Instead of leaving with a clean bill of health I left with a referral to a pediatric cardiologist.  Her heart has been beating too fast.  It's not outrageously fast, but just above the normal range.  Next week she will have an echocardiogram done and then we'll meet with the cardiologist.  To say we are nervous is an understatement.  It's hard not to worry and let our minds go "there".

This afternoon we are taking Erika to an ENT to see if she will need to have her tonsils removed.  I don't know how long her tonsils have been big simply because I don't typically say "hey kid let me see your tonsils"  However about a month or so ago she was sick and asked if I could make her mouth stop hurting. My 1st thought was strep throat so I looked in her mouth and her tonsils were literally the size of ping pong balls!  HUGE!  I took her in and she indeed had strep.  Now that she is over the strep I've been checking on her throat and her tonsils have gone down, but they are still pretty big.  I asked my doctor if that was something I should bring in for.  She asked me a few questions (all to which I replied yes) and said she didn't even want to see her and referred us straight to the ENT.  Erika really has no idea that surgery could potentially be in her future.  All she knows is that a doctor is going to look at her tonsils today.

And then there's Caleb.  Not to be left in dust by his sisters, we have discovered that he has some color blindness so we need to  bring him to the eye doctor to find out just how bad it is.  We think it's just certain colors and shades that he has trouble seeing.  He has also been telling me that his ears are foggy.  Foggy?  Yes, foggy.  He came up with this description all on his own.  "Mom, you know when it's foggy outside and you can kind of see but you can't see everything?  That's how my ears are.  I can hear, but I can't hear everything.  It's like my ears are foggy"  Pretty impressive for a 7 1/2 year old if you ask me!!

Thankfully David and I are healthy right now and we are praying it stays that way!!!!

We would appreciate your prayers!!!  (and I will keep you all updated)

Jenna's Dedication!!

This morning we had Jenna dedicated at church by her Uncle Nate!

My poor girl has not slept the last two nights so I took her to urgent care this afternoon and my suspicions were correct....she has an ear infection.  She was fairly happy this morning and did good considering she was not feeling well at all!

(I'm trying to get a video uploaded from this morning but so far it's not working!)

Five Question Friday!!!!

It's Friday!!! Already??? Wowza! We have a busy weekend & week ahead of us, but it's a fun busy. My in-laws are coming into town! All of them! And I love them dearly so we are looking forward to it. Saturday is a 60th birthday party for my dad and an 8th birthday party for our nephew! It will be a busy, but good day! Sunday we are having Jenna dedicated at church and then having everyone over for lunch. Monday I bring Jenna in for her 6 month check up! We're a little late, but we needed her to be healthy before she could get the shots that she needs! The parent-in-laws are here till Tuesday (I think...) and then my sister-in-laws family is here through Friday (again, I think...) Erika is extremely excited because when Auntie Nana comes into town so does Megan....the only girl cousin she has on her Daddy's side of the family. She often feels left out with all the boy cousins around so this is a big deal for her to have Megan here! ANYWAYS....yeah, I'm rambling! Onto 5QF!!!




1. Have you ever had surgery?
Yes, four times. All c-sections. Well actually maybe 5. I know when I was little I had a chunk of metal in my eye and had to have it removed, but don't know if I actually had surgery or not. Why did I have a chunk of metal in my eye? You know those old metal trucks (like dump trucks, fire trucks, etc.) The bro & me were banging them together and a chunk flew off straight into my eye. Yikes. One of my eyes is worse than the other now, vision wise, but otherwise I've had no other effects from it.

2. Ever ride in an ambulance?
Not sure...Mom??? I never have in the years that I can remember. And probably not when I was little ever either. We lived 5 minutes from the hospital.

3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?
Calm on the outside, but panicked on the inside. Don't even ask me to talk though....I just might loose it. When we had to take Jenna to the hospital in February I tried so hard to be calm, and have it all together but when I had to check in at the ER I totally started crying. Obviously I wasn't the first parent to ever do that, the guy was really good and not all that shocked that I was crying. (David was parking the van otherwise he would have done all the talking!)

4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies?
Nope. Maybe someday! This year we do have a yard and I'm sure our landlords wouldn't mind if we planted stuff, but I don't know if I'm ready to try it yet. Maybe next year when Jenna isn't as needy and can run around & entertain herself, or help!

5. When did you move out of your parents house?
August 10, 1998. One month and three days after my 18th birthday. I didn't waste any time!!! The opportunity presented itself and I financially was able to do it, so I did!


Hope you have a great weekend!!!!