Our Christmas

We had a great couple of days.. for Christmas Eve we went to my Mom's house (although we were very late due to sitting on the freeway over an hour..grr...). On Christmas day, my children's present to me was that they slept in until NINE! Weird, huh. I'm sure that will never happen again. We went over to my in-laws mid afternoon and opened presents and then had a great dinner. Very good times.

Of course there are many pictures so I figured the best way to go about this was to create a MONTAGE! Yay!! Sit back, relax and enjoy.

Don't forget to leave a comment (I switched it so anyone can..)!! :o)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(btw, Marci gets credit for the pictures at my in-laws.. I totally forgot my camera)

A year ago..

My baby's first birthday is in two days. TWO DAYS. My thoughts are all over the place so I thought I'd share.

This past year has gone by faster than ever. When I had Aubrey, it definitely took much longer. And I remember so much less! LOL But maybe that's just part of getting older (plus I'm TIRED).

A year ago I was 37 weeks pregnant and was on bedrest for PIH (pregnancy induce hypertension) and the onset of Pre-eclampsia. My thyroid was again over active (like it was with the boys) and I was seeing a Perinatologist and my OB on a regular basis. I was still taking Zofran religiously for my "all day sickness" (aka morning sickness). I hated Diet Coke and anything to do with chicken (I now love Diet Coke again and eat chicken on a regular basis). Can I just tell you how happy I am that I am done having children???? Never again! Baby factory is CLOSED!

This past year has been so hard for me. I have a lot of guilt that I didn't take my kids out to do more fun things (not that we could afford to with gas prices, haha). But even places like the park.. I just couldn't get a grasp on how you manage a child that takes off running in the opposite direction the second you take him out of the van all while managing a nursing baby.. plus the other two. Really, I feel so, so bad. It's not quite as hard now.. sometimes.. so I guess I'll just tell my kids I'm sorry and move on from here. What else can you do. It has to get easier. Right? RIGHT??? :-D

Now, the pictures.

Can you tell I was prego??

Carson didn't have much hair..

Hayden loved posing for the camera back then as much as he does now.

So cute! Still is.

And look at us now. *happy smile*

Seasoned mom's always tell me to treasure the baby times (which I do, ask Drew) but I don't think enough credit goes to the growing up times. I love the baby stages but it's so much fun watching my kids develop into little people. I've been excited as Kaitlyn has hit her milestones. I thought Carson was going to be our last (Kait was a BIG surprise) so I've already done most of the "mourning of each milestone because it's your last baby.." thing (of course I still do that a little bit). Even boxing up her clothes hasn't been too hard, surprisingly. Although maybe that's because she's been so small.. she has a pair of jeans that I put on her when she was a month old that were soo big on her (3-6 month size) but they were so cute.. and they still fit her now. (mental note- take a pic of her in them)

Right now my children are up in Kaitlyn's room playing nicely together. I don't even hear any yelling, roaring or grouchy Aaaarrrggghhhh my matey's. I'm so excited for this next year!! For Kaitlyn to start talking and being able to play with the other kids (and myself and Drew). My kids make me laugh so, so much. I love it! I'm so crazy about my kids.


Anyway, I still can't believe she's almost one... ONE!

Oh wait, I've mentioned that part.

Let it snow!

I finally took aprox. 5000 (give or take a few) pictures off of my camera tonight. I thought I would let you know because I'm quite certain there has been mass confusion on the lack of pictures from me.. but don't worry, I'll gladly post them all over the next couple of days. I'm such a giver!!

These pictures are from the first 'big' snow storm we've had this year. As I glanced out of the window that morning, I really enjoyed how magical everything looked all covered in the fluffy white stuff. My children totally agreed and they began to throw out pleas and dramatic begging to go outside. They even got ready while I was in the other room.. they all had short sleeve shirts, pants/shorts and their snow boots on. Um, not going to cut it. I sighed. Any of you with children understand. (you do, right??) I can't just open the door and push them out.. noooooo.. snow demands much planning and coordination.

I commanded they sit down (and not whine) as they watched the drill unfold. I walked to the closet and grabbed a coat hanger. I then began swinging and poking at the bag high up on the closet shelf which contained the winter gloves, mittens and hats. Oh, the joy, of being short.

As the bag finally fell down, it poured out over my head in pinata fashion. My children joyfully yelled, ran over to my feet and proceeded to scramble about for items that could possibly fit them. Carson had a purple mitten from when Aubrey was his age (I later convinced him to go with a more manly orange). Hayden had a much to big black hat with skulls on it (which came from the bag of winter items that that my mother gave me from long ago.. I believe it was my brother's.. I think she actually gave it to me because skulls aren't very flattering on her). Aubrey was quick enough to reel in her beloved scarf from the prior year.

After ordering the crazy kids back to their spots on the couch, I then produced three snow suits. They protested. I protested back.. if they had any idea how whiny they would sound upon returning to the house, because they were cold, they wouldn't have even attempted. I won.

I assisted the kiddo's with gloves and the zipping of coats and they trampled their way to the door. Ha, I had locked it. I'm surprised they had forgotten that pictures were a requirement before leaving the house.. how do you forget that?? They gladly posed. They love tricks, especially Aubrey.

I love how asking for silly faces = a good time for my children.

I was satisfied and then wished my children well as they went out in the cold.

Kaitlyn and I sat on the couch in our warm pajamas and watched from the front window.

They had so much fun as Drew ran the snow blower and the snow pelted them.. and even knocked Carson over. I giggled as he was stuck a la Christmas Story and couldn't get up.

They really enjoyed playing in the street where the snow mounds were more impressive than the yard.



Even though not a single car drove by (our street isn't busy) I finally decided that a Mother of the Year would stop taking endless pictures of her cute puffy kids and tell them to get out of the road.

Thank goodness the sidewalk, next to the road, was just as fun.

Yay for snow!

Monster 1200

This is totally random but so is almost everything I blog about. Just warning you it's one of those blogs.

The other night I had stayed up later thant I intended to and was exhausted. As I usually do, I checked on the kids and before entering my room, I lightly pranced across the floor (can't think of a better word than prance). Surly you other moms have done this too.. there's about three small spots in the hall that creak (please tell me this is normal for a 12 year old house). Creaking wakes up Kaitlyn. So I avoid those spots like the plague. It's actually kind of funny.. I can't point them out to you but I do automatically avoid them when she's sleeping (even in the middle of the night when I'm blind as a bat). Ok, enough of the prancing.

I then headed into my bathroom and closet and took my jewelry off and brushed out my hair. I removed my make up off and applied the so-called magical creams to under my eyes to help out with the dark circles (although really I'm thinking that Kaitlyn sleeping through the night would be better) and on my eyelids to prevent something and another potion to that pesky wrinkle/crease on my forehead (grrrr).

I climbed into bed and as i turned towards Drew, I realized I was still able to still see. I had forgotten to remove my contacts. I sighed and started to depart my warm blissful bed only to have the TV catch my eye.

An infomercial. Crud. See, I'm pretty sure some where along my genetic pool is a special one for Infomercials. I happen to know that my sister is just as fascinated by them. My mom doesn't enjoy television so I'm going to go ahead and blame my dad on this one.

My eyes widened as I soaked in this new product that I knew nothing about.. the Monster 1200: "the world's first deep cleaner AND sanitizer". Our demonstrator was a tan man in khaki pants and a very tight black shirt (with large muscles) and slicked hair. In the back of my mind I questionsed the Mafia's involvment with the Monster 1200. He made promises of a "Clean and Sanitized home". I nodded my head in agreement until my heart was shattered just a tiny bit when I realized it meant I would still need to pick up my children's toys. Darn. And then I decided I was slightly offended at the implication that my house was not sanitary.. hello, I should own stock in Clorox/Lysol wipes!

Yet, I kept watching. The killer of 99.99% of germs and bacteria ALSO easliy removed mold and mildew (ew- don't have any). With just the wipe of a rag, their bathtub became pristine. I wondered how it would handle the greasy dark mechanic handprints that were in my shower.

The spark returned in my eye as I watched with how easy and mess-free it would be to use it around the toilet area.. it was definitley promising. Little boys can be so gross and I have TWO of them!

I watched as it deoderized pet areas. From the looks on people's faces, they must sure have some smelly animals. I was confused as to why they would then keep their smelly dog's bed next to their own. Aha, and then I understood.. With just a few seconds of steaming the animal bed and then their own bed, it instantly perked up their senses! Amazing! It might even be better than my Scentsy warmer!!

And of course, if I was lucky enough to be one of the first *four hundred* callers, they would alter the payment from THREE easy payments of $33.33, to TWO! Lucky for me!

After this point, I made a mental note that I should write to them and offer my suggestion for their next model.. a solution for cheapness. And maybe something about the fact that I HATE to pay for shipping ($15). And to that, I retreated to the bathroom to remove my contacts.

Why do I try??

Kaitlyn is almost one. Her birthday is on the 30th. Would you like to know the number of amazing pictures I have of my four crazy children? Oh I'm sorry, that's right, there isn't one. I have ZERO! Nada! Zilch!

For some reason, I felt today would be a good time to remedy that. I dressed them in their matching outfits (of course they were matching) all while talking to them in an excited manner so they would be just so thrilled to pose together... but apparently I spoke in Charlie Brown Adult fashion and they heard nothing. And further more, it is now official that my children are immune to my silly noises and "look at me" and the endless bribes as I plead for them to sweetly look at me while I capture that moment in time.

Did you need some examples?

Well at least Hayden listened to the excited part..

Then Kaitlyn started crying and apparently threw her head back..

Causing Aubrey to cry.. all while Hade is crossing his eyes..

But go figure, they listened to me once I told them they could be silly.

However will I choose which one to proudly display????

At this point I decided that maybe it would help if we went outside.. you know, take them out of their element and wish for magic... Yeah... didn't work. Kaitlyn was having NONE OF IT!

This one makes me laugh and laugh..

What finally DID make Kaitlyn feel better was for me to hold her (of course). So as I held her, I leaned as far back as I could and clicked away.. resulting in off balanced headshots with zero cropping space. Lovely. Oh, and a graham cracker crumb apparently made it off of my shirt (you know there's always something on my clothes) and onto her face.

Hayden surprised me and actually gave me some great smiles where he didn't pull silly faces.

And just before I took my final picture I asked him to give me the biggest smile he possibly could so I knew how happy he was.. and this is what I got.

I told him he's supposed to smile and he grumbled, "I AM!". Too funny.

All while the above went on, Carson was having the time of his life being outside in the snow. I was a little worried about herding him to the fence and blocking him in.. I was expecting him to run away every two second. Needless to say, I was THRILLED I was when I had him stand by the fence that he STAYED THERE!

Is he cute or what!

Aubrey, my assistant, was the last one up. I was actually surprised how stiff she was.. I should have had her jump around and sing a Hannah Montana song or something. At that point I was tired of holding Kaitlyn and oh well.. still cute. :o)




And to be totally self centered for one moment.. this is actually my favorite picture from today. Miss Aubrey took it herself.. poor girl, I told here where to stand, how to position her body so it would be the right level.. but I just adore these shots!! Yay to me to finally have one!

Now here's a little secret.. I am actually withholding a select few. I *might* be giving some family members that read my blog a few of these pictures for Christmas. Shhhh... don't tell them. Oh wait. They can read. Hm... let's just hope they were busy and only scrolled through the pictures today. Maybe??

I can definitley say that next time I think I need to attempt this whole "group picture" thing, I will just make a better effort to hire my friend Janae (like I should have in the first place). Perheaps her silly noises, pleas and bribes will result in a much better, but still crazy, picture.

Kohls.

Yesterday morning was so much fun. It was Early day (kids out at 1:05) so after I dropped Hayden off at preschool I headed over to Kohls. I had some Kohl's Cash that was about to expire and thought it would be the perfect time with only two kids.

Good thing I really nailed it on the head.. we had a great time. I think the highlight was when Carson decided to play Houdini. Have you ever played that game in a department store? It's brilliant.. the child climbs out of the stroller (even though he was stapped in) and runs off while you are turned away for literally a few seconds. Then, as the responsible adult, you run around all crazy like while holding a baby on your hip and pushing an (empty) stroller with the other hand and hollering your child's name out the side of your mouth. You have to do it that way or the other adults might give you looks. Not that I've ever tried.

And then you get to the middle part of the game where you hear him laughing. That means he can see you.. but you can't see him. So then you have to put the baby in the stroller and she screaches like a banshee until you take her back out. You then decide the ground is a much better place for her to sit (I'm sure it's sanitary). Now here's my most FAVORITE part of the game.. you get down on all fours. But it's a little tricky.. as you are doing this, you must look around for people sneaking a peek at you.. becuase I can promise you, they'll try. Once it's clear, you put your head down by the floor and look for your child's shoes (thank goodness you were smart and purchased the kind that light up when he walks).

Bingo! It worked! You must now pick yourself back up, grab the baby and pull the stroller backwards while you are quick like Pocahontas as you approach the child. Now, you must use your cat-like reflexes to capture him. Presuming you followed all of the instructions, Houdini is now in your arms and the game is over.

I didn't even get frustrated or hiss threats out of the side of my mouth or almost cry or anything. It was awesome.

As we headed for the front of the store, my child was now pouting. Turns out he was a bit of a sore loser because I won the game. What can I say.. I rock at games. He got over it quickly though as he perked back up (as two year olds are mysteriously able to do) and pointed and loudly yelled, "It's mom, it's MOM!". I turned to look for myself and saw one of those tall, way too thin manaquins that was wearing a very fashionable outfit (seriously, she didn't even have spitup or runny nose covering the top portions of her shirt!). I smiled, gave him a big fat kiss on his forehead and told him how smart he was because he was correct.. that WAS mommy.

And to think, I almost left him with another lady so she could have a turn.. but then I noticed she was busy playing the game herself.

It's mine, it's MINE!

I'd like to go ahead and announce that I have finally won the Mother of the Year award. The rest of you can stop trying.. sorry to break it to you like this. But YAY for me!

Ok, if you want to get technical, the powers that be haven't actually GIVEN me the award.. but really, there's no doubt in my mind... it should be showing up at my door any day.

Allow me to present my evidence. Feel free to click on them to view them in a larger fashion.

Exhibit A:

A fantastically adorable reindeer. I assisted Hayden in the cutting and stapling of antlers (his adorable handprints). I have to admit that I totally giggle when I see the eyes.. they, ahem, look a lot like targets to me. Not exactly the look most deer are shooting for *snicker* *giggle* *hahahaha*



Cute, right? If you were wondering, this is actually Santa's reindeer (not sure which one yet). Can you guess what that means we added on???

First, please tell me you're sitting down. It's that awesome. I cut and taped and hot glued it.. but it was all Hayden's ideas. As you scroll down, I'm quite certain that you'll understand my confidence in my soon to be award.

Exhibit B:

ARE YOU SEEING THIS????

The reindeer has a BODY, WITH LEGS.. and is pulling SANTA'S SLEIGH!!!

Here's another view (the coloring on the back of the paper plate is the skull, if you wondered).

*toot, toot*
That's me tooting my own horn (and my son's).

See??? And aren't you so glad I made sure you were sitting first? :-D

My son was so thrilled with our creation that he even VOLUNTEERED to be in a picture with me, while he was SMILING!

And because I can't resist cuteness, here is one of Kaitlyn (she's 11 months old, btw) and Carson.


Now I just need to set up camp on the front porch while I wait for my award. Hopefully Pluffy will keep me warm. If not, at least I have that blanket...

Pluffy.

Wow, third post in one night!! And yikes it's getting late.. better hurry up.

So... as I've mentioned before, there are a few stray cats in my neighborhood. Four to be exact.. a mom and three kittens.. only they aren't so little anymore. However, at the time, their cuteness and smallness melted my heart and we took pitty and decided to feed them. Hopefully they will become a little bit more friendly and then we can see about catching them to get them fixed.

Anyway.. the Mommy cat had another batch of kittens right around Halloween. I don't know where she lives and in all of my snooping, I haven't been able to find them. So we had no idea if her babies made it or not.. especially being so late in the year and it being cold at night.

Well this afternoon I was downstairs and I hear meowing.. little baby kitty meowing. I ran upstairs and looked around outside and discovered the most adorable little bundle of white fluffiness. In our window well. I had to leave it in there because it was time to pick up Hayden from school.

As we quickly walked back to the window well, we were just in time to see it crawl under the metal part.. and back behind it! As in under the dirt! Darn cats and their curiosity....

My children became very distraught about the idea of their missing kitty and so I became part of the Wonder Pet team (in the episode where they save the baby kitten). I stayed out there an HOUR trying to get it out. It didn't work. I tried twice more.. and finally around 8 (yes, over 4 hours later) I was able to get it out a little so I could grab it and pull it out. Yes, a Hero to all.

Aubrey really liked the name fluffy.

Hade really liked the name puffy.

Meet Pluffy

SO ADORABLE!

It's so cute you probably didn't even notice the hideous blanket it's laying on. It's a baby comforter someone gave me forever ago.. you'll never believe this, but it wasn't quite my taste so i never used it. Yes, I'm just now getting it into the donation pile.

And good news, Pluffy has at least one sibling. I saw it tonight on the side of the house.

Tomorrow I'll be able to investigate further.. hopefully I can determine if it's 'everyone' so I can (sniff, sniff) have them all taken away for adoption. Heaven forbid I become the neighborhood's crazy cat lady.... :-D

Snowmen

I've been following a blog where there is a super star mom who does a craft project with her toddler pretty much EVERY DAY. :-O And they use paint.. glitter.. and all the fantastic things I've thrown out over the years because of the mess (I know, mom of the year...). I ooh and awww over her blog.. and think about doing it.. and that's about as far as it goes.

But then she created a glorious snowman where the glitter was contained! I KNOW! So I went to walmart the other night to purchase contact paper only to find none. Boo, hiss. So instead, I purchased glitter glue.

Allow me to show you how we created them.

Take a paper plate (ours were Dora) and turn it over.. we like colorful snowmen (just no yellow.. get it.. yellow snow.. hahaha) so I had each kiddo choose a color, the boys took their shirts off, and they started painting. Oh, and I used our craft tablecloth.. then they can get paint on it or wipe their fingers on it, etc. and there are no worries!

Then, we squirted the glitter glue all over the painted area and spread it around with their brush (there was Red, Gold and Silver).

Next, I poured each child a little bit of sparkle things (I bought a bag of it at Walmart.. has sequence and other shiny things). Here's my tip.. pour it in a coffee filter so it's contained. Back when I worked we used to put snacks in those all the time since they are so cheap.. we do that too. Love it. Anyway, the glitter glue worked out well because the sparkles stuck right to it.

Aubrey and Hade were particular about their designs.
(love Kait blowing raspberries)

Carson was of course very random.
This is what I get when I had them say Cheese.

At this point we cut out hats, twig arms and carrot noses from construction paper. We also cut out circles for the head and decorated the faces (for Carson I put glue dots on the face and he put everything on himself) and then stapled them onto the body.

Then, the children dug through my lovely ribbon and chose their scarf.

Drumroll please.... ta-da!


(did you notice Hade's haircut?? Drew did it!)
Love the rosey cheeks!
Are those cute or what!

I'm definitley going to start doing more of her projects.. the kids loved it!

Credite Due: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/11/let-it-snow.html

Gobble, Gobble

I took an astounding amount of pictures over the Thanksgiving time period. What do you expect after going to three different locations???

Ok, actually, I took Three. THREE. Yeah.

I guess I get distracted when there is pumpkin pie involved. lol But really, can you blame me?

These were taken at my brother Dan's house.. My mom, Quinn and John were there as was Amy and her crew. Eleven kids total. Brandy's turkey and other food was awesome.. Quinn's food was good and Amy's pie and rolls rocked (the Cherry pie was fresh from a local farm). Of course my jello, apple pie and sweet potatoes were good. Especially the sweet potatoes, by default because they took so much effort. I had to go to several stores to find them as well as the marshmallows (seriously, walmart was out.. I went at midnight when they were stocking and some lady got there before me and bought the TWO CASES that they had!! and they only had colored marshmallows in the shapes of trees and stars).

ANYWAY, the pictures.

Here is Kaitlyn and John.. they were so cute together. (and wow does she look like Hade!)

Aubrey playing with her cousins under the stairs.

And one of Hade. He was SO thrilled to have his picture taken that I didn't even have to beg. Just hammed it on up. No holding back.

Or not. hehehe

We also went over to my In-Laws for pie that evening and to Dan's side of the family up in park city on Friday (so fun to see so much family!).

Hope you had a good Turkey Day! Gobble, Gobble