Whewww!! It's been a while!

Sorry I've taken such a long break from my blog, but I feel like I've been running a marathon. I have so much to catch everyone up on. Here goes...

You've all likely read about some of this in Erica's blog, but I'm going to add my 2 cents as well. (And my pictures) We had a great family party at my house on Saturday, Dec. 22. My whole family was there, cousins, aunts, nieces and nephews (23 people, to be exact). We had a great time catching up, eating, and watching some old home videos I recently found of all of us from Christmas 1988 and the holidays thru Christmas 1989. Yes, that's almost 20 years ago! I was fun to see how everyone has changed (and aged!). The picture is of the "kids table". It was really surreal watching myself at age 13 and 14 and then looking over at my kids sitting there watching too. How can I be old enough to be their mother? Weird. At the very beginning of the party I had an accident with the huge crock pot of queso and wound up spilling it all over my freshly mopped kitchen floor. We cleaned it up- mostly with towels and everything went on from there without a hitch. (more on that later)

Sunday evening we went to Taylor to see the lights there in the square by the courthouse. They are great and there's hardly a soul around. The kids had fun even though it was really cold again this year. (I know, not the best picture-you try posing 4 kids at once! Also, Erica already used the 1 cute pic I got that night!)

Sunday morning I got up and went in the laundry room to find a horrible smell from the cheese on the towels, so I decided to do a load and as long as I was washing that nasty stuff I may as well throw in some poopy panties, right? I added a little bleach for good measure. Well, when I went back in later to change it around, it was still full of water- dirty water- and it wouldn't do a thing. I tried over and over, every setting and the thing would not work!! So I called my Dad to see what I should do. The wonderful soul that he is came up the next day to look at it for me. (Keep in mind that we just had to replace our fridge about 3 months ago after having spent $400 in January to have it fixed!) So we took it all apart and determined that it was a goner (it was about 12 years old). This was Christmas eve, so the next day we were going to Houston which meant that I needed to wash clothes for the trip and that it would be several days before I could shop for a new washer! Aaarghhh! Luckily my lovely sister, Erica, let me come over and do a couple of loads of laundry to get me thru the hump.

On Christmas Eve we went to the 4:30 service at church and then spent like half an hour trying to find a place to eat dinner (yes, I'm an idiot that didn't realize everything closes at 6pm on Christmas eve) and finally found a Chinese restaurant open. We got home, gave the kids a quick bath, sprinkled Reindeer food out on the lawn and set out cookies for Santa. I read the Night before Christmas to the kids and finally they were asleep! We did all the Christmas present stuff and tried to pack for the trip the next day, but didn't quite get everything done before we decided to call it a night. Then we woke up on Christmas morning (I should say, we woke the kids up, if you can believe that) and opened our presents quickly to get ready to go to Houston. Stu's family gets together on Christmas day every year and they eat at about 1 pm, so we had to hustle to get there in time to drop off Frank (our lovely basset hound) at his mom's house before we went to his grandparents. Oh, I almost forgot, Logan got a fever overnight! Merry Christmas to us! Needless to say, that was an exhausting day. But it was nice to see everyone. The kids had already opened presents at my family's party, then again on Christmas morning, then at Stu's family's party, then at his Mom's house and yet again at his Dad's the next day. It's hard not to feel like you're kids are a bit spoiled when this is what they've come to expect from Christmas every year! We spent Tue, Wed., and Thurs., nights in Houston and came back Friday afternoon. Thank goodness Logan's illness only lasted about 2 days and we didn't have to make a trip to a doctor while in Houston! On the way back we stopped at Southside Market bar-be-que in Elgin. It was pretty good and the kids loved the animals all over the dining room.

After we got home I kept smelling something awful- It was the nasty water left in the washer that we couldn't get out. Lovely. So I poured in some bleach and went shopping for a new one right then. I went to Conns, Lowes, Best Buy, Home Depot and finally Sears. I already knew I wanted a Whirlpool or Kenmore (made by Whirlpool) because my Dad's friend had recently bought a washer and had done lots of research about which brands were better. Amazingly this whole process- going to all the stores and actually purchasing one- only took about 1 1/2 hours! This is what I got. It's a Kenmore HE 2t or something like that. I think I was more excited about getting this washer than my kids were about Christmas (maybe that's exaggerating a bit). They delivered it on Sunday and Saturday night I was giddy! I couldn't wait to try it out! And, it is awesome.

Stu's Dad and his wife, Marilyn, got the kids Build-a-Bear gift certificates for Christmas. Logan has been wanting to go there forever, so on Thursday we took them there. It was a mad house. The traffic in Houston is horrendous and the mall was bad too. There was a lot of waiting in line there, but we got thru it. Here's what $107 buys you at Build-a-Bear. (If you can't tell, Logan's is a monkey and the extra outfit is a little fisherman suit with a fishing pole. Ellie's bunny has on a wedding dress with ruby slippers, a silver purse and hello kitty slippers.)

This morning I made waffles with my new waffle iron- courtesy of Stu's sister, Becky. After we ate, the water was shut off. No, I didn't forget to pay the bill, they were fixing something down the street so we couldn't get ready in time to go to Gattiland like we had planned. I decided to take the kids to a movie- by myself! (Stu had to shower since he had ridden the exercise bike this morning and since there was no water, he couldn't go. He didn't want to see Enchanted anyway.) I had 2 free tickets to see it and so I thought I'd take a chance and go. It turned out to be a great time. They both sat thru the entire movie without getting up once! That's a first for Ellie. It's a wonderful movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

And tonight we lit some sparklers on the back porch as our tribute to the end of 2007 and the beginning of a new year.

See what I mean. It's been nuts. I know this was huge, but I had a lot to catch you all up on and a lot of pics to share. ******************************************

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy days

Here's a quick summary of the past few days- Logan had a Christmas pageant at school this year. He had to dress up like an old man (he's kind of a dressed up old man- it was the best we could do without buying something). He was one of the kids who had a small speaking part. I was pretty proud of that considering that when he was 3 in his first pageant at preschool he turned around with his back to the audience during the entire performance. I'd call that progress. Ellie is wearing an early Christmas present (in the picture) that I gave her when I gave Logan his Santa suit. Isn't it adorable? People were stopping as they walked by her to say how pretty she looked! Of course she was sitting on my Dad's lap by Erica, so everyone thought she was Erica's kid and were directing the compliments to her. I don't think she minded though. Ellie also had a pageant at school and she didn't sing during it, but at least she faced forward!
My sister Susan "hired" me to bake her some Christmas cookies. They came out pretty well although the double recipe I made didn't seem to make as many as I would have liked. And I don't think I'll have much time to make more before Christmas! Sorry Sue!
Also, I wound up having to wrap some presents up and put them under the tree already! And I'm the one who chastised Lisa for doing the same. I just didn't have anywhere else to put them! It turns out that the kids haven't messed with them at all! Who knew? Especially since most of them are in gift bags which could be easily rifled through. It was a gamble, but it seems to have worked. I think I have all my shopping done. I'm sure there will be a few last minute things that come up, but right now I'm concentrating on cleaning up my house for my family Christmas party tomorrow! Keep in mind I still have kids coming over here this afternoon after school. That makes it much more difficult to clean up at all- and keeping it clean, that's a whole other story. Oh well, I'm pretty comfortable with not being perfect, so I guess I won't stress too much!
The last picture is of Ellie watching TV this morning (she looks like she's sleeping, but she just closed her eyes when I took the picture). I walked out and found her laying like that and thought it was cute- That is until I realized that she was laying like that because she had poop in her pants that I guess she didn't want to sit on!! (And you'll notice the potty is right behind her too!) Merry Christmas to me!

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth!

Good thing we went on Saturday and had pictures done, because Sunday morning Logan lost his other front tooth. I just checked and he lost the other one on 9-29 and still no sign of the adult tooth that needs to grow in. The one he lost yesterday already has the new tooth showing? Weird. The tooth fairy had to give him $5 last night since she didn't have anything smaller. Just a note, when you have a kid that's going to lose a tooth soon, keep cash on hand in the correct denominations.
I went Christmas shopping this morning for the kids since today's my last full kid free day. Wednesday is Ellie's pageant at noon and Stu's mom will be here, so I don't know how much I'm going to be able to get done then. It's fun to get to buy them stuff you know they'll like without too much guilt. After all, it is Christmas, and they do need presents, right? I was able to find a Santa suit for Logan. I know this might sound strange, but Logan loves to dress up and Santa suits for kids his age are hard to come by. I ordered one off the Internet last year, or the year before and it was kind of weird. It came from China and the pants had a split crotch. It looked like they were supposed to be that way. Also, it was sized really small and never really fit him right. This one is cool and will look awesome!

I also included a picture of the kids roasting marshmallows in the fireplace last night. They love that!

I still have tons to do today, so I'll post again soon! Have a great day!

Christmas Portraits that didn't kill me!

We went and had portraits taken today. It was awesome. We got there at 8:45 (they didn't open until 9- even though I called yesterday and they told me 8 am). It was perfect. They opened the door and we went straight in, had our pictures taken, and ordered the prints. We were done by 9:30! The kids were awesome! It was the best picture taking session ever!!! We got a lot of great pictures. Judge for yourself!

Racing for the finish line

I swear for some reason I am just now feeling the holiday crunch. Up until today it didn't seem like I had that much to do. Now, I'm wondering how I'm going to get it all done. I just hadn't realized (or maybe I hadn't allowed myself to realize) how much I still have to do. I did manage to get a lot done today though and that feels pretty good. Hopefully after the weekend is over I won't feel quite so overwhelmed. I finished my aprons today. Erica had the great idea to give them as teacher gifts. Since I hadn't thought up anything else, this sounded like a good idea to me. So I managed to finish them today and I made one for Ellie too. I've just started on one for Logan-yes I'm making my son one too. I know him and if Ellie and Grace get one, he'll want one too. So I decided to make his using camo fabric and have it be more like a tool belt with pockets and stuff. I also have all the gifts for Ellie's class wrapped up and ready to go. And I have the book for her gift exchange and the teacher gifts wrapped. There's still lots to do though. My sister, Susan, has asked me to bake dozens (basically as many as I can) of cookies for her to give away to people. The caveat is that she lives in Fort Worth and I'll have to ship them. I've never done that before- but there's a first time for everything, right? I won't bore you with the details of all the other stuff I have left to do. Tomorrow we're taking the kids to Kiddie Kandids at Highland Mall to get their Christmas pictures made. I know, we should have done it by now, but it just didn't happen. The good news is that they open at 8am since it's the holidays. We went last year really early and were able to just walk right in and have ours taken- it was great! For the past 2 years we've had family portraits done at the same time. The first time it turned out great, last year- not so great. I don't think we're even going to try this year. It's just too much stress. Especially since we have to leave so early. I don't even know what I would wear anyway. I think I'm just going to make someone take our picture at one of our family Christmas functions. Maybe we'll get a good one that way. Oh well, guess I have to go now. I'm going to work on some more projects and see if I can't check off a few more "to do's" off my list!

I just had to add this picture. I just finished Logan's
"workbelt" (we won't call it an apron), and I think it turned out sooo cute! I even put a little "L" on it! I'm going to use velcro on the belt instead of having it tie in a bow. (less girly)

Pictures of the kids

I just wanted to share some recent pictures of the kids that I'm very proud of. The picture of Ellie is from her preschool and I think turened out really cute. Last year in both of her school pictures she wouldn't smile at all, so to me this is a great improvement. No judgements about the outfit. It's a compromise.The next is Logan's karate picture (0f course). I think he looks like a very serious martial artist, don't you? That's all for now. Just wanted to share those.
Have a great day!

My life on hold

Last week was a rough week. I felt like I had to put my life on hold while Logan was sick at home with me. I had all these things I wanted to get done and none of them happened. As you saw I didn't have time to blog or anything else for that matter. This is a particularly bad time of year to not be able to do things too. I was just able to take a picture of the kids for the Christmas card last night. Luckily I think they turned out really nice. I ordered the cards last night and should have them in a week, so don't worry if you haven't gotten a card from me yet- they're coming. Logan missed 4 days last week, which I absolutely hate! But, he was much better on Saturday and we were able to go to the Parade in P'ville so that was nice.
The weather was perfect. I didn't even wear a jacket. It seemed strange to see people at the Christmas parade in shorts though. We were smart this year and brought chairs to sit in. There's a lot of waiting at a parade. Luckily the kids were great!

Even the Grinch was there! The kids loved that.

We also had a chance to make our Gingerbread house and that was fun for them (a little stressful for me). Ellie just wanted to eat all the candy though. But making that has become one of our traditions. Stu's mom also came up on Saturday to look at some houses around Pflugerville and in Taylor. Right now she lives in Houston, but may be moving here in May! We're all very excited that this may happen. We love her and would love to have her closer by. (I'm not just saying this in case she reads my blog either- She's the best Mother-in-law in the world!)

Now, I'm home and both kids are at school. I feel like running around the house naked and yelling woo-hoo! (Actually, I just did that a minute ago- except I wasn't naked- it's cold!) My Kid-free time is so precious, I always feel guilty if I don't maximize this time. I really wanted to put something up on my blog though, but now I have a bunch of other stuff to do. Bye!

Things, Life, whatnot...

I know, Life is not whatnot... Yeah, that's actually a quote from a movie (Sixteen Candles, if I recall). But I thought it an appropriate title for this blog. I know I haven't blogged in a while. I guess I've been kind of lazy. Plus I have to share my computer with Stu and he's on it a lot. I just wanted to share a little about my day today- well, it actually started last night in the wee hours. Logan came into our room at 3 am. This is a little unusual for him so as I was taking him back to bed I thought maybe I should take his temp. I was already suspicious from when we put him to bed. I thought he felt warm then, but he didn't register a temp. I felt him when he laid back down in his bed and he was warm, so I took his temp and it was 101.4. He was upset and asked what it was, I told him and he asked if he had to stay home from school. I said yes, and I thought he was going to cry. I felt so sorry for him. I told him he could come sleep in our bed. So basically that meant that I was awake for the next hour feeling him fidget and making sure he was OK. Then at 4 am, I heard Ellie crying. A few expletives later, I was in her room and she was crying, saying that she didn't get any dessert after lunch. (She mixes up lunch and dinner sometimes) I reminded her that she had some M&M's which she calls M,M,M's (cute, huh?). Anyway, at that point she was awake not easily going back to sleep like usual. I on the other hand was exhausted. I was just trying to figure out the easiest way to get to go back to sleep, so after a few minutes of trying to leave her room- to no avail- I laid down in her bed with her. She wasn't happy with this since I had made the critical error of telling her Logan was in our bed. Of course, she wanted to go there too. There was no way that was happening, but she said she didn't want to be in her room. So I had the bright idea of taking her into the guest/computer room and laying in the queen size bed in there with her. To sum it up I had to shut down the computer which was running some sort of virus scan and a very annoying noise, then the clock on the wall was ticking really loudly (I had to get my earplug) and basically we laid there until 6am when I finally broke down sobbing in tears realizing that she wasn't going back to sleep and therefore I wasn't going back to sleep. I already knew Stu had to be at work at 8, so there was no help there, and I knew what my day of sleep deprived Mom vs. sleep deprived 3 yr old and sick 6 yr old had in store for me. I was so upset. Luckily Stu said he could come home at lunch time and stay home to help me. The day actually turned out much better than I anticipated (Thank you, God). Stu came home and I took a 2 hour nap before I had to get the after school kids. So all in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day considering how it could have been. Ellie wasn't nearly as bad as I thought she'd be. Turns out someone up there must be watching out for me! Hopefully tonight will go a little better.

I decided to include a few pics from the past few days.

This one is of Logan and Ellie's little tree in the playroom. I set it up for them before I left for the shower on Sunday and they decorated it all by themselves. I think it turned out pretty good!

This picture of Ellie is from the other day when she banged her lip and decided to put a band-aid on it. I forgot about it and we walked all the way up to Logan's school with her in the stroller like this. People probably thought we were nuts!

This is a little girl I watch after school. I just thought it was funny how much static there is on the trampoline sometimes!

What's in a Name?

OK, I'm dork. I'm pretty sure I've told you all that before, so you shouldn't be surprised by anything you read on this blog. Anyway, I love it each year when Ellie's preschool puts out its annual classroom directory. I love going through it and looking at all the kid's names. It's my little window on the world of names out there. I know it's not a huge sampling, but it gives you an idea of what's popular- around here anyway. I just got the one for this year. I went through it and wrote down some interesting names and some names that are in there a lot. First of all there are 206 kids in the school- yes I counted. Told you I was a dork. There are 2 Ellie's (including mine) and 2 Ella's. 2 Logan's too. There are several Madison's, Maddie's, and Madeline's (of different spellings). 1 Grace, 1 Carter, 1 Jacob, 2 Ethan's, no Tye, no Austin, no Charlize, and no Adam. I just wanted to get those out of the way cause I know you were all wondering, as I always am. The other popular names (at least 2 of each) included Reese, Nathan, Mason, Dakota, Sydney, Olivia, Rachel, Alex, Abby, Dylan, Zach and Zachary, Tyler, Jackson, Lauren and Nicholas. I also noticed several "different" names I wanted to mention- Riddick, Hadley, Miller, Kinley, Keegan, Coen, Hudson, Kiley, Deegan, Dakin, Piper, Caysen, Kierani, Gahyeon, and Meade. And a couple "old fashioned" names too- Penny, Helen, and Gretchen. And this one poor kid- Ryan Loser. I would have to change my name if my kid was going to go thru life dealing with that. I just find all of this really fun and interesting. Hope you do too!

Have a Great Day!!

Complaint Free? Probably not. Grateful? Definitely.

I don't know if you all have heard of this concept of a complaint free world. There is a guy named Will Bowen, who was a pastor at a church in Kansas City and came up with this idea that we all complain too much and he wanted to see how his life would change if he stopped complaining entirely, for 21 days straight. It took him like 3-4 months to do it. He challenged the members of his church to do it too and it caught on. They now sell these bracelets that you use to help you remember when you are complaining. You switch it from one wrist to another every time you complain. Here's a link to the website if you're interested. (In case you're wondering I'm not planning on getting a bracelet. I'm going for a more moderate approach)http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org/ I heard about it a while back but was just thinking about it today when I read Erica's blog and also Lisa's blog the other day about taking the time to appreciate all we have. I was thinking that maybe not complaining at all would be a little hard to do, but maybe we could try and think of something we appreciate every time we complain. It really does make a lot of what we complain about seem like nonsense when you put it in perspective. Like, for example, I know most of us would like to be able to keep our houses neater or at least more organized. But maybe instead of looking around at the mess and feeling like failures we should look at the beautiful houses we live in and be grateful. And realize that all that stuff that's making the mess are things that most people in the world only wish they could posses. And when we complain about our husbands not understanding or helping enough sometimes, we should think to ourselves that at least we live in a country where women have any rights at all and are respected as equals unlike most of the women around the world.

I know it won't make everything better, but it's really easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day hodge-podge of crap that we deal with. Sometimes taking a step back and looking at things for what they truly are can help. So I think we should all try it. Tomorrow if you find yourself complaining about something, just sit and think of something your thankful for and see if it makes you feel better. At least a little better anyway.

Example: Don't look at the mess of disorganized toys (which is actually pretty neat considering how messy this room can get). Instead, think how lucky my kids are to have so many nice things to play with. (Let me know if that helps you, cause it's not working for me just yet) Just remember, these things take time.

I just had to add a picture of something I'm thankful for. I bought these flowers today at Hobby Lobby 90% off . I got 2 $16.99 bouquets for $1.69 each. I bought the pot at full price for $7.99 and the foam inside was $1.99. My grand total for this lovely arrangement, including tax, was $14.50! For that, I am thankful. And each time I look at the beautiful arrangement on my table, I'll feel a warm glow inside. Maybe I'll try looking at them every time Ellie poops her pants or Logan smacks Ellie! It's worth a shot, right?

My Least Favorite Things about Christmas

(That was us last year! Hopefully we can get a better picture this year.)

If you haven't read my blog from yesterday- scroll down and read that one first. It'll make more sense that way.

My Least Favorite Things about Christmas

1. Scratching the hell out of my arms putting the lights on the tree so I can watch them glow.

2. Shopping for, keeping hidden and wrapping all of the presents that make the kids eyes light up on Christmas morning.

3. Christmas carols starting to play in November 1st in stores.

4. Cleaning up the hellacious mess that making Christmas cookies with the kids makes.

5. Wishing the threat, "Don't be bad because Santa's watching you!" would work better.

6. Reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids- over and over and over...

7. Getting together with my whole family for a Christmas celebration.

8. Feeling rather irritated about the horribly crowded stores and parking lots that the Christmas season brings.

9. Having to spend so much "Quality Time" with my family over the Christmas vacation.

10. Taking the kids to get their pictures taken in their special holiday attire and needing a stiff drink afterward.

Merry Christmas!

My Favorite Things about Christmas

My Favorite Things about Christmas

1. Turning off all the lights except the tree and watching the beautiful glow.

2. Watching the kids eyes light up when they see the presents under the tree Christmas morning.

3. Christmas carols playing while we decorate the tree.

4. Making Christmas cookies with the kids.

5. Telling the kids all about Santa, his elves and the North Pole.

6. Reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids.

7. Getting together with my whole family for a Christmas celebration.

8. Feeling the spirit of joy and goodwill that the season brings to us.

9. Getting to spend lots of "Quality Time" with my family over the Christmas vacation.

10. Having cute pictures of the kids taken in their special Christmas attire.

My Thanksgiving "vacation"

Hello all! I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I was totally out of pocket this last week. Wednesday was a blur with my oldest sister, Susan, arriving and spending all afternoon cooking for Thurs. Erica, her rug rats and my Dad came by as well and we had pizza for dinner since no one felt like cooking anything else. Thursday was of course very busy. We didn't go to Erica's until around noon, but all morning was spent cooking and getting everyone ready as well. We had a great time with all of our family there. It included me, Stu, Logan, Ellie, my Mom, her husband Jerry, my Dad, Erica, Ray, Grace, Carter, Ray's Mom and her boyfriend, my sister Susan, my brothers Jeff and Chris (y'all don't know them-They are much older from my Dad's previous marriage) Chris's son, Collin, and Erica and Ray's good friend, "uncle" Dave. It was a pretty full house (18 if I counted correctly), but we had a great time. Nothing but smooth sailing. I thought the food was good too.







We gave the kids their owls. I think we liked them better than they did. In fact Grace threw hers to the end of the bed just after receiving it.

We played a game after dinner- Battle of the Sexes. I'm sorry to say that the Men won. It was fun anyway. We didn't get back until like 8 and put the kids to bed then we had to pack to leave for Houston by 9am!! We did it though. I was exhausted. I didn't really have access to a computer there because Garrick (Stu's 17 year old brother) is on the thing constantly. He plays some game where he wears a headset and talks to his friends who are also playing. Anyway, that's my excuse for not blogging more. But, I'm back now and will hopefully do better! Hope you all had a great holiday too.

The picture to the right was yesterday when Logan decided to give his 42 lb sister a piggy back ride! Keep in mind he only weighs 53 lbs!

As you can see, Ellie didn't want me to take this picture. This was Thanksgiving morning when it was really chilly and they wanted to go out and play. I made them totally bundle up!

I also wanted to include some pics of the "other" side of the fam. This is Stu's mom working on our 750 piece puzzle. (yes, we didn't get very far.) And Logan and Ellie with Grandpa Gary and his dogs Braxton and Chloe.