Tonight

our evening with Meg and Tony over at Mom and Dad's. GREAT to see them -

Happy Birthday Auntie Meg! We love you :)

Happy New Year all! Not sure we'll make it to watch the "ball drop." I'm old :)

Snots

You hear it. You see it. You feel it. You reach for it.

Molly is full of snot - you hear the sneeze, you see the danglers, you get some wiped on you and you grab the box of kleenex closest to the battlefield. Love is a snotfield...

Some Fav pix from Christmas :)

Christmas Eve

We wrapped
We cried (well, Molly did)

some video game

some painting

We spilled the sprinkles
We've chewed on Ernie

We've helped tag

We've played instruments

We've smiled
We've played cowboys in Momma's boots

We've licked utensils :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Delayed

Good morning all - it's Christmas Eve :) Poor Grampa (L) is headed to the ER. Please pray for him! He had surgery last week and now isn't feeling well at all. He had a rough night and now is headed to see his doc. Fortunately his doctor is doing surgery today, so they will hopefully see him or his "team." We'll do Christmas Eve with Granny and Grampa once Grampa is feeling better.

Eve Eve

Hey all! Can you believe it's Christmas Eve tomorrow? WOW - that's nuts... The boys have been counting down the days so we've known it was comin... :)

I grocery shopped today and survived alright. It wasn't actually as busy as I dreaded. The kids are at Nanny and Papa's, probably out on the ice now. Mikie couldn't wait to get out there. When we first got there, he went to the lake while I chased Chloe to the neighbors yard where she proceeded to "leave her mark" and run back home. Lil' turd!

Nothin like this "big turd" here named Bean though. Just once I'd love for her to carry the groceries in. I mean come on, she follows me back and forth to the truck, even knocks the bags over, can't she just pick one up? She's getting shaved tomorrow - so the festive holidays will be spent with "Bean head." :)

I hope you guys are all doing well - we'll show ya some pix soon! Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

Recent Pix

we did some goooooood sledding yesterday! the biggest sledding hill i've ever seen!

Jack and Mol helpin Daddy make some goodies...

i love her in this outfit :)

I'm in a Calgon take me away sort of few minutes, but hopefully the yelling and crying and whining will end once lunch is on the table! Jack is mad at Mikie. Molly is mad at Jack. Ohh, now Jack is telling me I put my boots in the wrong spot and they made Mike trip. CALGON!

Rarest

Jack workin' hard at his Kindergarten Christmas party last Wednesday :)
Mikie being, well, Mikie...

This is evidence that our dog is STRANGE. Amongst many other idiosyncrasies, she will not eat fruits or veggies. We ran out of dog food the other day and so I gave her some leftovers to tide her over. As you can see, she was selective in what she ate - even though she was starvin - she left the water chestnuts, cashews and veggies...


and here is Molly's solution to help the "dog food shortage" problem...

Sending Sideways Christmas Cheer :)

our tree + the boys singing

Perspective

I was wanting to write a blog post about how rare my dog is, but my mind has gone other places. I was just reading someone's blog that I've never met (she became a follower on our business blog so I was curious to learn about her) and was driven to tears. I tell ya what, reading about the loss of a child is like too much to bear. My heart goes out to these poor people - losing their precious baby boy at 15 months old. He choked in the church nursery. Ohh, my heart just broke for them. Sorry, I know that's really depressing, but ya know -what a reminder to how we take our kids for granted. I certainly do. This sad, sad story was good cause it gave me perspective. Lord Jesus, please keep watch over our kids...

Get Out

All 3 kids are in the tub right now - they are lovin' it - except for the occassional fight over placement in the tub. Jack claims to not have enough "warm water" where he is, Molly keeps dumping water on Mikie's head and Mikie keeps yelling to Jack to stop. Who will get out first? I've already made some threats :)

This is handy cause our bathroom is so small I wait in the hallway, but with my handy dandy laptop, I stand here watching them and saying hi to you!

Hunter will be here after lunch today to hang out with us - between now and then we'll do some artwork I think. That never seems to last more than 10 minutes tho :) Off we go - I think Mol is the first one out!

She has an opinion

Jingle Bells

We got to see Santa tonight! He came around my folks lake around 5:45p. As you can see, the kids each handled it different ways - Jack whispered to Santa and they had a nice little quiet conversation, Mikie walked right up to Santa and hugged him, and Mol pointed at me and said "that my mommy." Cute -

Was that the real Santa?

While at my folks, we got to see Emily too - great to see you EM!

recent pix

Mol givin' Bean some lovin' the other morning - probably cause she knew Bean's birthday was today! She's 9 :)

Building "Tom" the snowman with Jack

Mol enjoys her mac n "tease"

Happy Birthday Nanny!

Ohh and I hope your surgery goes well today, Nanny Loo!

Used ta could

The things I used to love when it came to sledding...

the big hill and the thrill of riding down it, snow flying, smiling the whole way wondering where I'd end up. Especially behind Carrie's old house - we'd sled for HOURS on end.

Now?

My legs are tired. My butt is soaked and I have cold cheeks. The snow down the back of my neck isn't as fun as it once was and I'm terrified of where I'll end up!

Yep, we sledded this morning and as much as I try to make the best of it and TRULY do enjoy it with the boys, all of the above mentioned added to Molly crying when she went sledding, when we left her at the top of the hill and when someone looked at her!? Umm, it wasn't the most sledding fun I've ever had...

Super Bonkers

Whewee! I probably use that word too much but it's better than the alternative! :) Today was one of those days. The kids were driving me super bonkers:

I swear Molly had PMS going on - crying for nothing but for 10 minutes at a time.
I asked the boys to empty the upstairs trash (most of it is theirs) and Jack puked cause he was grossed out by the "old" diapers. He tossed his Cocoa Krispies, then 1/2 wiped it up so I had to have him re-clean it.
Molly stripped herself naked a few times.
I got some ornaments for the kids to paint and have fun with, but that was over by 8:29am.
Fights over what to have for lunch.
Hunter came over and Molly woke him up after 30 minutes of a perfectly nice nap.
Bickering amongst the boys with the normal result, Mikie crying cause "Jack really hurt him" and Jack folding his arms over his chest ticked that Mike told on him.
A huge blob of grape jelly being flung to the floor in the kitchen and Jack telling me "you really should get some OxyClean, it gets out the toughest stains!"
Molly emptying a box of uncooked spaghetti noodles between the family room, dining room and kitchen.
Bean constantly wanting attention so she'd put her toy in your lap every 3 seconds, not remembering how I just told her 3 seconds ago that I didn't want it.

(A huge fun thing was Mikie getting to go bowling and out to lunch special with Grampa! That was really nice and he had a great time!)

All of the above being said, after we ate supper, the kids and I went to Qdoba for a bite since Erk was gonna be late - the evening ended on a good note. As the kids tackled and smacked each other in front of the Christmas tree in the family room... giggles heard amongst the yells, the Lord answered my prayers. I found myself praying on and off today for the strength to get thru the day. "Lord, please give me the patience, I just wanna be left alone!"

At that moment - sitting on the couch watching the boys tackle - the Lord granted me a light in the craziness. A flashback to the times when all I longed for was to be a mom. When I wished and hoped and prayed for a baby. And here I have 3 precious kids climbing on me and each other. We truly are blessed. Thank you Lord for opening my eyes to the wonder that even in chaos, these 3 kids truly are a gift. :)

More Pix

we found our tree :)
the kids having fun at the Christmas tree farm

makin fudge

the boys ready to sled the other morning before 7:30a!

Hey guys - our internet has been rather shotty all weekend, but seems to be working better now? So let's see if I can post some pictures!

Jack trying to run from the camera!

Umm, you can say she like "bar cheese" :)

Did it work?

Nanny and Mol reading a magazine during the fudge makin' Mikie buttering the pans for the fudge...

I'm trying to upload some pictures from our very fun day, but can't seem to get my computer to wake up. Come on!? Hope to share some with ya - very cute pictures, we had fun getting our tree today - at the Santa parade in town - lunch out with dear friends - decorating the tree with the boys (Mol is still nappin'). More lata -

Traditions

Hey everybody! It's been a few days... and since last night we've been hit with like 7 inches of snow. The boys were out sledding by 7:29am! Sure it was still a tad dark, but they didn't mind. They are thrilled at the snow. Today they've been at Nanny and Papa's hanging out and I've been on this her laptop too much doing website stuff and all :)

I'm headed to my folks before long to help in the making of fudge, a wonderful tradition. Then tomorrow we are headed to get our Christmas tree. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures to share soon. Have a great evening - catch ya lata!

3 Men

Hey all! Just sitting here watching the news with Erk and wanted to say hi. Isn't this a great picture? So cute - thanks Phyllis for taking it and sending it :)