Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Clogged

Now I get to grab the plunger and head upstairs to unclog the toilet that MOLLY just plugged up with Kleenex. How many times do I need to give the reminder to the boys to CLOSE the door to the bathroom? Apparently 73 more a day so that these types of things quit happening! Maybe I need to rig an alarm or something so the door will close automatically? She loves Kleenex and loves the toilet, a deadly combination. So I'd better go into the freakin basement, retrieve the nasty plunger and head on up the stairs. Hope you have a good one...

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A Few of Molly's Scrapbook Pages





Out of State

We ran some errands this morning which was good. I wasn't sure what we'd do today - one of those "nothing on the books" days which sometimes are wonderful, but today? I woke up with a smile (which I was thankful, doesn't happen every day but that's a GOOD start when we have nothing to do) and the day has only gotten better from there. I checked our "info" email box for our business and we were contacted by someone in Tennessee wanting a sample digital scrapbook page. I was so geeked! We are branching out BABY! We had an order from Georgia yesterday, so that really rocks! So the day of unknowns was started with a sample order and heading out the door to the post office to ship it, as well as running to Erk's work to drop off a disk. I need him to print all of the pages I have created for Molly's scrapbook cause it will be on display for over 100 women to look at in a week and a half! Sheesh, talk about pressure :) I have gotten some 90 pages completed in Molly's scrapbook (which I owe to the speediness of digital) and at a big event for our website, a scrapbook retreat the weekend of January 9, Shawna and I will be on our game, displaying how beautiful our printed pages turn out. I can't wait to see all of those pages in print!

I'm sure next week will be busy with getting things lined up for the retreat so that'll be fun too. Did I tell you Shawna and I were asked to make personalized notecards (sets of 5) for each of the ladies there. Who doesn't like things with their name on it? Let alone a cute color scheme of notecards you can write to people. Fun, eh? So that'll be something else we bundle up and make pretty with ribbon. Next week will be busy!

The boys came across "Hook" on tv on Disney channel so they are watching that for quiet time and Mol had now adjusted pretty darn well to just one nap a day. It really only started 2 days ago (dropping her morning nap) but something had to be done to curb her morning wake up time. She'd been getting up before 6 or a bit after and that's just TOO early! So like today, she slept til 7:30a, now that my friend is more LIKE it! She's so funny, I caught her eating chow mein noodles today - she's quick and into everything. Had them dumped all around her and sat there eating them like they were any other snack. What a nut!

Hope you are having a good day. Adios moochachos!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Today

Why, good day! I just now turned the light on to see my laptop screen better and my eyeballs are like “DUDE!” I shoulda turned this light on a while ago! I just went thru and caught up on everyone’s blogs – Kate – that picture of me is terrible from Thanksgiving! I look like a cow! Musta been bloated from PMS that day, I swear my gut isn’t that big! HA! Funny… And Mer! JB and Hannah are engaged!?!? That is SOOOOO EXCITING! Congrats to them – they are a wonderful couple :)

The kids and I went for a little car ride this morning before grocery shopping. Went to drive by a few houses for sale that we found online the past few days. Yep, we are in a swing again – a swing of wanting to move out. We’ll have to see, we are prayerfully considering listing with a realtor this time and just get ‘er done. We love this house, always have, but it’s got its quirks and its lack of closets is really getting hard to deal with. More kids, more STUFF, less places to put it! Not that we are having more kids :) But as Molly gets older and we accumulate more things, the boys beds just became bunk beds (ohh yeah, it looks so cool!) so I have one less bed to hide boxes of clothing, etc under. Plus with Christmas and all the new stuff we get? Where the beak do we put that? So… We’ll have to see what the Lord has in store. If we “list,” if we don’t… where we’ll go from here.

Speaking of the boys bunk beds, they had a hard time going to sleep the first night, although they anticipated it ALL day long. They are so funny, we thought Jack, being the oldest, would sleep up top, but so far both nights it has been Mikie up there! Jack claims to get a stomach ache conveniently every night when he climbs up there. Funny boys. Mikie said he kept waking up the first night, but slept better last night. They’ll get used to it – and even though we lost some extra storage space under that bed, having one of them on top of the other sure opens their room up wide!

I’ll see if I can get my hands on some more pictures to show ya. Hope you are having a good one?!
daddy trying to steal some of Mikie's Christmas morning breakfast
a family shot on Christmas at mom and dad's

putting 2 boys to work!

molly putting her MOM to work!



Saturday, December 27, 2008

The Afternoon on Christmas Day...






the 5 cousins...
Rach was cute wanting to hold Molly - Chloe was pretty interested too!


we picked numbers this year to figure out what order the kiddos got to open their gifts, good thinking Papa!





peek a boo!
what a purdy table my folks set, eh?

not sure if she ate any of her dinner, but she sure did WEAR it!


3 cuties in their jammies




Pictures from Christmas Eve

What? Huh? I'm not doing anything...

Ok, well maybe you caught me!

Check out this awesome cake Granny made!

It was SOOO COOL! The boys loved it (almost as much as I did :)














Mikie enjoyed the cake a bit TOO much :)






Granny and Miss Mol

ready to open some presents from Granny and Grampa!









one of the biggest hits was the new Dodge truck Mikie got - as you can see, Daddy enjoyed it just as much as the boys :)

Mikie was so excited, he kept jumping

the best pic off my camera of our fam :)

Friday, December 26, 2008

Nope

well no pictures tonight - Erk made the call today to go back to our normal cable provider but we ran into some hiccups with our router, so the pix will have to wait! I could do it thru my phone as I have been, but honestly I don't have the patience tonight to wait 10 minutes for 4 pictures! I hope you've had a good one - I'm gonna sit here and relax now! Nite!

Blessed Time

Hey everybody! I hope this finds you doing well and having had a great Christmas!! We sure did - truly enjoyed all of it... Christmas Eve was especially fun this year and Christmas was a hoot too. Granny and Grampa came over on Christmas Eve in the afternoon and we ate some tasty snacks (Mmmm, spinach dip) and then the boys and I headed to church. We didn't end up staying the whole service though cause it was pretty long and the boys were antsy. Jack kept whispering that he was bored and we sat in a back balcony which was really distracting for me! I was watching all the people down below, the kids all around us, every noise led to me turning my head, I wish I woulda focused more! I suppose that's why we sit in the front rows when we go to church, so we can focus! :) Anywho, the boys and I had fun sitting with Nanny and Papa, and since they needed to scoot early to get to Robby and Craig's for Christmas Eve dinner, we headed out too in anticipation of Erk's meal. We got home and shortly after ate a nice supper. Then we shared many laughs and the kids opened gifts. It was a truly blessed time together.

Yesterday we were up before 6a with the sounds of Miss Mol crying. She's been waking up TOO early lately! So we were all up and came downstairs to see what Santa brought by 6:30a or so. We had a great time with gifts and taking turns - seeing Mol get the hang of what it meant to tear wrapping paper as opposed to eating it, Bean wanted to be in the middle of it all as she usually is - the boys so excited about what was coming next. It was awesome...

After putting together Legos upon Legos for a while, we all got cleaned up and ate some lunch, then headed to Nanny and Papa's. First we stopped at Granny and Grampa's to drop off some of the dishes used the night before that Granny needed for their company. Uncle Tom and Aunt Cathy came up for the holiday and today - so we are headed their way soon actually, to enjoy some time with them.

We got to Nanny and Papa's in time for Molly's nap, me to decorate a pretty neato looking cake (it didn't turn out pretty out of the oven, amazing what frosting and broken pieces of candy cane can do!) and just enjoying some time together. Andy and Kristen got there a bit after 4p and we opened presents. It was chaos at times, but very fun for the kids and all. We then ate a great meal prepared by Nanny and Erk - he loves to help/cook, isn't he funny? We ate up some desserts and eventually the jammies came on and the overstimulated/tired/crazy kids were ready to head home and to bed. We called and got ahold of Auntie Meg finally on our way home so it was nice to plug in with her and wish her a Merry Christmas. She and Tony mailed some really cool gifts for the kids and actually, when we asked Jack his favorite gift of the day? The Speed Racer Legos from Auntie Meg! Cute...

So bedtime came and I was in bed by 9p! Erk sat up watching tv for a bit. Molly was up again by 6:20a this morning and here we are, in the midst of cutting off tags, breaking our fingers trying to pry the 3,289 metal twisty ties off the toys to get them outta the freaking packages. All fun though - fun stuff. Well, the constant nagging and wondering when "my stuff is gonna be opened" is getting a bit old, but it's all good. We hope you and yours enjoyed a wonderful few days with your family too! I hope some of these pictures come up so you can see what ours truly was :)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Happy Ho Ho Ho to You

This morning has already met with some pretty funny, and unexpected events. Molly started talking to herself at 5:54am. And we know that that means our day is about to begin. She won’t go back to sleep, if you go tell her she needs to, she’ll only cry really loud so she wakes up Jack and Mikie and then it’s family time at 6:02am. So Erk went ahead and got up for the day and I plopped Miss Molly on our bed with me and tried to lay back down. She thinks it’s fun to sit on my head, and although it can knock stars in front of my eyes, it’s cute. So there she is, sitting on me and in comes Jack. Then shortly thereafter, Mikie. I finally pry myself up from bed and see a dark spot in the hall. Assuming it was a toy, I went to pick it up and it was mushy. Lights on – dog puke! So I was cleaning that up, which turned into a full on upstairs vacuuming before 7am.

We sit down to eat breakfast while Erk is out snowblowing and the boys complain about what we have to eat and "can we have toast?" I tell them they have to wait til I'm done with my bowl of Honey Nuts (I don't like soggy cereal!) and then the boys are fighting about who knows what and “he said he was gonna whip me!” and one of the kids happens to hit the button on the Leap Frog alphabet thing on the fridge and it starts singing, "F, F, F says Fffff..." I chucked to myself.

After their toast is made and buttered and jelly applied, we sit down and somehow start singing Christmas carols (corny I know, but cute). Then came the nasty mess in Molly’s diaper that led to her being pantless cause her jeans had to go in the wash. I had given her a shoe to play with while changing her (if I don’t give her something to keep her hands occupied, you can imagine where she puts them) and Erk saw her with it a bit later and told her not to chew on it. That opened the tired floodgates. He hurt her feelings. So she’s crying and big ol’ tears are rolling down her cheeks and alls she wants is “Momma!” I then go up to lay her down for a much needed nap at 8am, and step on something wet in the hall. It’s a whiz filled piece from Jack’s “Goodnight” from last night. Beak! So I clean that up and head to hop in the shower when Erk beats me to the punch.

See, the other day when the kids and I were bored with tv and being cooped up, I had the boys help me clean the bathrooms. They loved having something to do and thought rolling up their pants and cleaning the showers was a blast! This morning I thought I’d hop in the no-more-clutter shower upstairs which we hardly use (it’s for baths mainly and so it’s always got a thin layer of army men, boats, and misc things we allow to get wet) but Erk beat me to it! I think I may hop in now that Mol is down for a nap and I’ve already picked up puke, pee, cleaned poop and sang Christmas carols! All by 8:14am!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve! Today around 3pm, Granny and Grampa are going to bless us with their presence for a nice dinner – to be prepared by none other than Chef Erk. The boys and I will head to church at 5pm while Molly stays home and plays with Granny and Grampa and Erk prepares the nice meal. Then we’ll be home, eat, open presents, make cookies, what a fun day ahead! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Monday, December 22, 2008

What Goes on Here on a Sunday Afternoon

we have the purse "rifler"
the techno kid

and good ol' fashioned manual labor boy, Mikie. He and Bean had fun dinking around outside yesterday in the BUTT cold!