State of the Family #27

Oh dear.  This is bad.  3 weeks since my last post and so much has happened.  Hustle and bustle you know.  Now to just try and remember what all went on during those 3 weeks.  We'll start with Christmas and maybe I'll try another SOF to catch up on the New Year.

Christmas was good to all of us. It didn't feel like we had to be everywhere and do everything all at once this year.  Since my family did Christmas at Thanksgiving this year it eliminated one more celebration to attend.  We had Christmas with my mom's side on the 23rd and then spent the rest of Christmas weekend with Daddy's family.  Then the other extended family parties were the following weekend.

Miss Thumb Sucker was hard to buy for this year. Still too young to really be 'into' anything and already having all the 'necessary' girl toys from her big sister, her list was pretty short. She received many cute clothes, a Little People castle and a cute pink shopping cart that she loves to push around. Seriously, I can't even remember some of the other stuff she got.  Isn't that terrible?  She had a lot of fun opening presents. . . if they weren't hers.  She had a great time tearing into whatever she could find under the tree or the presents set in front of me or daddy, but give her one that she was actually supposed to open and she wanted nothing to do with it. 

Miss Firecracker received a playhouse (this was actually a combo gift for her and Miss Thumb Sucker, but don't tell Miss Firecracker that!). We will have to take it apart to take outside this spring, but it is probably a favorite so far. . . that and the box it came in! The box has been colored and played in more so far than the actual house.  But, I guess they will have time to play in the house once the box has been mutilated and thrown away.  Miss Firecracker's 2nd favorite gift was her new cowgirl boots. They are adorable! I am having a hard time keeping clothes clean that match them. . . or she will just wear her black and teal boots with a brown and red outfit with pride (for those of you that don't know me that well, this drives me bonkers - I am a 'matcher' to the T).  But you have to pick your battles, right?  Her hilarious moment on Christmas Eve had us all in stitches.  She was trying to see a new gift her new baby cousin had received and had to 'make her way' in a bit closer, thus stepping on a big gift box that was in between her and the baby.  Well, the box lasted about 1/2 a second before giving way and swallowing up her feet.  Thankfully, there was nothing breakable inside and tights-laden legs were well-protected from the paper and cardboard.   So, after she got over the initial shock of falling through, everyone had a great laugh.  Her other fun gifts included Polly Pockets (which she only gets to play with when Miss Thumb Sucker is asleep) her very own backpack and adorable clothes.

Noisy Man was also spoiled receiving a huge coloring set complete with markers, crayons, water colors and even oil pastels (which he has been instructed are only for use when he gets bigger). He also received an over 900 piece Lego castle set, which I am still trying to decide if this was for him or if it was really for daddy, and Mario Cart (a racing game for the Wii). Two other Lego sets were a big hit and a few clothes slightly impressed him.  His funny story comes from when he opened up his Mario Cart game and realized that the steering wheel for the game was not in the box.  Now, keep in mind that it was after 9 pm (which is over a 1/2 hour after bed time), had been a very long day of playing with his cousins and he is just a generally emotional child.  It was all we could do to keep him from breaking into tears.  We convinced him that we would go get him the steering wheel once the stores were open. . . Lo and behold what do you think was in his stocking on Christmas morning?  I have never seen him so excited!

Even mommy and daddy were spoiled.  Our big gift to the kids (or maybe more so to ourselves) was a dual screen DVD player for our van! Yeah for entertainment during long drives!

Daddy received a new impact drill thingy (that is the official, technical term for it), a range finder, and some other tool thing called a dremel or something like that and even some decoration stuff! Like I said, I think a lot of the Lego stuff was for him as well.  They spent 1 1/2 hous putting together our nephew's castle (and there were 3 of them working on it) the next day, and after we got home, Daddy and Noisy Man spent 2 hours putting his together.  Daddy always cracks me up after getting home from Christmas things.  He is just like a kid and has to get all of his new 'toys' out and test them out and check them over, but always finds a home for them right after the testing is finished.

Not so much for me.  It takes me forever to get things put away and readjusted. . . perfect example are my shelves still sitting full of pretty decor I received, but still haven't figured out where to place it yet, so they are all crammed together where you can't see any of it.  On top of all my great decor items I received my own pair of cowgirl boots!  They are awesome as well and I am totally excited about them.  I also got a complete set of Fiestaware!  Five in chocolate and five in ivory (I really wanted the awesome green color, but couldn't convince Daddy that this was a good idea).  I am super thrilled to get them all out and put away my cracked and chipped blue swirl plates we bought with our wedding money.  I was disappointed in how long those lasted (or didn't last) but it is fun to get new ones!  So, once I get them all out I'll have to throw a few dinner parties!!  And I always love a reason to have people over! And of course my fantabulous treadmill was my early Christmas present from Daddy.

Best of all this Christmas we were able to attend our church's Christmas Eve service and everyone came.  At first I thought it would just be our family while the rest of them stayed at my in-laws, but Daddy and I are set on having church be a huge part of our Christmas.  Since this hasn't been the tradition (not that it is wrong in any way, just different) in his family before, I was overjoyed when the entire family accompanied us to the service and it was a great one!  

The following week after Christmas consisted of reorganizing, trying to keep our composure while getting toys out of boxes and cutting all those darn zip ties and twist ties, a trip to the Children's Museum, the kids asking every day if daycare kids were coming (I had the whole week off!), Noisy Man asking when preschool started again, learning how to crochet again, some great movie nights for Mommy and Daddy, a very fun girl's night for Mommy with some friends, and an enjoyable, but laid back, New Year's Eve with some great Mexican food (compliments of my dad - if you have ever had his Mexican you know how great it was) and we were in bed by 10:30.  I heard a quote about New Year's this year that I loved "Optimists wait up til midnight to make sure the New Year gets off to a good start.  Pessimists wait up til midnight to make sure the old year leaves.  And realists just go to bed on time and know that it is going to happen no matter what you do."  Ha!  I love it!

Is it Over Already?

Things have been busy around here, thus the lack of posting.  Lots to update on, but I figured I would split it into two posts because a) you would get totally bored, I'm sure, reading a post as long as it would be if I didn't and b) it will probably take me a few days to write it all so it will be easier if I split it up.

Christmas with this family was fantastic!  We didn't have to run all over kingdom come and really got to enjoy our time.  The thing that made my heart smile the most was that by the time we got to Christmas my kids would remind me to do our ABC Advent story every night and they are still asking to do more even now.  It makes me so happy that we are able to really fill our kids' hearts with the true story of Christmas and that my 2 1/2-yr-old Miss Firecracker can tell you close to the whole story of how Baby Jesus came to earth and she ends her story with "and He died on the cross for us when He got big." It makes my heart so prou

d!

My other great Christmas story to tell is a proud moment from Noisy Man.  We were given some money for Christmas.  Money that didn't really need to be given to us but is every year.  We usually just turn around and spend it on the people who gave it to us since they should have kept it in the first place.  This year, after being given the money, we clipped it up on the refrigerator while we were trying to decide what to give them.  We came up with a few things but still needed more.  Then, at lunch after church, Noisy Man saw the money on the fridge and asked what it was from.  We told him it was some Christmas money.  He instantly said, "Is it to buy Christmas presents for kids who don't have enough money to get Christmas presents?"  Both daddy and I instantly said that was the perfect idea!  So, we called our church who in turn told us to call our local community food bank.  They were delighted we called and gave us a family of 4 kids to buy for.  Man, it is really hard to buy gifts for kids older than yours that you know nothing about.  But we did find gifts for all of them and dropped them off the next day.  I really hope they enjoyed them.  Sadly, when Daddy dropped them off, the coordinator told him we were the only people who donated in that way this year.  So proud of my little boy and his giving heart.

I'll post all the exciting Christmas gatherings and happenings in a SOF post!  I know you're anxiously awaiting!  Sorry I am a bit slow.  I started this post last Tuesday and am finally finishing it (with the exception of pictures which I'll try to add later today).  Hopefully, I'll get the SOF post done before the end of the week!

State of the Family #26

OK, so this post was started on Tuesday morning, added a little more Tuesday afternoon and am just getting it finished up on Thursday. . .

Sleep update from Miss Thumb Sucker. . . not as good as last time, but I'll still take it.  I'll attribute this to her double ear infection she is still trying to kick.  She will be on her last day of antibiotics tomorrow.  I was hoping it might be a little better by now, but I guess it will take some retraining once again.  It never ends does it?  You finally get them sleeping great and then they get sick, or you travel somewhere or something else interrupts the wonderfulness of sleep.  She is also starting to try and talk a little bit more.  Most things are still a form of the "da", "ba" or "puh" sounds with a thrown in "ma" and "na" every once in a while, but some form of these she says ball, book, baby, bottle, puppy, papa, dada, mama and nana (for no no).  She also says hi and uh-oh clear as day just throw in some talent.  Her other latest deal is trying to keep up with brother and sister by attempting to run and to wrestle with daddy.  I really need to get some video of it, it just cracks me up.

I am coming up blank for Miss Firecracker. . . that must be a good thing.  She has been pretty calm lately except at bed time.  She is having trouble staying in her bed.  Always getting up for something, we have to remind her after she is tucked in and kissed and prayers said that we don't get out of bed.  "What happens if we get out of bed?" we ask her.  "I get a spankin." she replies.  However, she has figured out that we don't give spankings if she has to go to the bathroom (how do you tell them they can't get out of bed if they need to go potty?).  So, she sneaks to the bathroom and somehow manages to go, even though she just went 5 minutes before.  The other (actually kind of funny, but still in an ornery Miss Firecracker way) thing she likes to do at bedtime is try and talk to her brother.  He knows this is not allowed and since he is the compliant one he tries to tell her to be quiet, mostly to no avail.  The funniest part is, since he doesn't take naps anymore he is usually exhausted come bedtime and falls asleep within minutes, so we can hear Miss Firecracker attempting to tell him a story but gets no response.  So, after a few minutes you hear her start going, "Noisy Man? Noisy Man?!  NOISY MAN!" at which point we have to intervene and remind her of the 'no talking at bedtime' rule as well. 

Noisy Man has been going through a mean phase lately.  He seems to be picking on his sisters constantly and doesn't really show much remorse if he hurts them or makes them cry.  He'll say the required sorry, but that is about as far as it goes.  This just puzzles me as he is usually my tender-hearted little guy that wouldn't really want to hurt a fly (although he is really into the hunting stuff). So, we are having him work on memorizing 2 Timothy 2:24 The Lord's servant does not argue (it really says is not quarrelsome, but that is a bit tough for age 4) but is kind to everyone.  Hopefully, this will sink in or I will be searching for another kindness verse for him!  He is also totally in to all of the Christmas stuff!  We are doing an ABC Advent 'calendar'.  I say 'calendar' because we aren't really using a calendar, just doing a letter each night with a corresponding Christmas word.  A is for Angel, B is for Baby, etc.  They are really having fun with it and so am I.  We watched an awesome Veggie Tales movie on Santa the other night that did a great job explaining where he really came from and even had a very strong message tying him to Jesus.  I think it will be a yearly watched movie for us!  Just for reference it was Veggie Tales: St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving. We watched it on a Netflix instant play.

Daddy has sadly been using the treadmill more than mommy the last 3 weeks. He has been doing a pretty good job at getting on it about 3 times a week.  He is majorly busy at work lately too, with lots of meetings and such.  Gotta wrap things up for the calendar year and their fiscal year starts in October, so they have lots of new stuff coming in that way too.  He has also been battling a cold for the last 2 weeks as well.  Just kind of off and on sore throat and such but the last 2 days it seems to have gotten a little worse.

Mommy is still recovering from the musical.  It took me a good 2 weeks to really get my voice back and now I am getting all congested.  I was so tired all week, but was having fun watching movies and staying up late with daddy do I didn't really get any extra rest.  I am finally starting to feel like myself again, thus the main reason daddy has been using the treadmill more than I.  I got on it for the 1st time in 3 weeks 2 days ago.  I have been busy baking and making.  Along with all the stuff we did on family day Sunday, I have made monster cookies, homemade hot cocoa mix and peppermint, chocolate, marshmallow sticks for stirring.  These are my (I think) adorable gifts for Noisy Man's teachers, bus driver and other such gifts this year.  (must give credit to moneysavingmom.com for the ideas).  I think after today I might be done creating and being in the kitchen for a while, excluding necessary meals I guess.  I also finally got our Christmas card done.  My sis-in-law came down to snap the picture for us last night, I stayed up late putting it all together, then sent it to her to have her send it to the printers.  Hysterically, she sent me a copy of her Christmas letter and we had done the exact same thing centering around numbers!  Oh well, too late to change anything now.  Hopefully, I'll get them back in time to get them sent out by Monday.

Its Beginning to Taste a lot Like Christmas

 Today was the BEST!  While we have really been trying hard to stress the real meaning of Christmas to our little babies with reading Christ centered books at bed time, doing all sorts of activities and Bible verses centering around Baby Jesus and an ABC Advent Story every night as well, there are many other things about Christmas that are great too.  Today was one of those.  After church (where I rocked my sweater dress, leggings and tall, black shiny boots I was a little nervous to wear, but managed to get a few compliments), we spent the whole day at home.  We baked sugar cookies, decorated them and ate them.  We made chocolate covered pretzels and Oreo truffles and ate plenty of those too!  We also attempted some chocolate and mint bark, but I bought the wrong kind of mint so we gave up on that one.  Then, once the mess was somewhat cleaned up we sat down to a supper of popcorn on the couch and watched a Christmas Veggie Tales movie, followed by some hide-and-seek in the dark!  I had the best hiding spot of the whole game and was amazed that I was able to "hold it" with all of my repressed laughter!  Then, we finished off the night with 'L' for Lord of Lords and Laying in a manger with a few beautiful renditions of "Away in a Manger" accompanied by non other than the angel on top of our Little People Nativity Set!  Definitely one of the best days EVER!!



Miss Thumb Sucker helped by eating a cookie! Seriously, this was the best 'help for her, out of the way of the messy frosting!



State of the Family #21

Oh dear. . . almost 2 weeks again and there has been a lot going on around here. God is good and God gets us through that is for sure!!

Miss Thumb Sucker of course had her little mishap with brother, that ended with her arm in a splint. But she had some other fun stuff going on as well. She got to go on her 1st adventure to the pumpkin patch and was quite the trooper. She was along for the ride and hardly ever made a fuss. Which is amazing considering she did not take a nap until almost 3 o'clock that day! She is transferring to the sippy cup pretty well these last few days and only nurses at night and in the morning now. Still an almost walker, but not quite all the way there yet. She will take 6 to 7 steps as long as the destination in mind is relatively close, and of course exciting to get to. She didn't like the 2 days she couldn't crawl at all after she hurt her arm and before she got the splint on. She would be stuck in one spot unsure of how to move and just get MAD. It was kind of cute actually, but pathetic at the same time. She also started saying "puh puh" for puppy and "ba" for ball too. She has 2 more teeth on the top poking through as well, which is what I am hoping the early mornings have been coming from.

Miss Firecracker absolutely LOVED the pumpkin patch and everything it entailed. She was AMAZINGLY well behaved. Probably the best one out of the whole clan of 5 kids! I don't remember a single whine or fit from her at all. She was ready to go and even stopped to take pictures like a pro. She has also been talking non-stop lately. Don't get me wrong, she has always been quite the chatterbox, but the last week seems to be continuous. So far, it hasn't driven me nuts, but I can see if she keeps it up it just might. Right now it is just darn adorable all the things she comes up with. Today it was quite revealing all that she thinks she knows about Heaven and Jesus. . . she isn't naughty there, Jesus lives there, and she is going to go there all by herself like a big girl. There was much more to this little conversation that didn't make sense at all to me or her (when I would try to answer some of her questions to the best of my ability) but heck, Heaven is a hard concept for most seasoned Christians, let alone a 2-yr-old. I need to keep a record of all the crazy things that turn in her little mind!

Noisy Man hasn't had a nap in over 2 weeks. . . I think that covers it for him. OK, maybe not quite. He dropped his sister and cried harder than she did when he realized that she was really hurt. He was truly just trying to be helpful and keep his sister away from the toys he knows can hurt her. Thankfully, both have seemed to recover pretty quickly. He was all over the place at the pumpkin patch and not quite so well-behaved as his sisters. Mostly before lunch though. Pictures were cramping his fun-to-be-had style and he must have been hungry, cuz the rest of the day he was really quite agreeable. It is fun to take him to the same pumpkin patch for the 5th year in a row and see all the new things he can try every year. The first year we took him I think the only thing we did was take pictures of him! He also got to have his cousins come spend the night with him the night before we went and he thought that was great! I am getting anxious for our parent/teacher conference with his teachers this Friday! I hate not being able to know exactly what he is doing every day, and he isn't exactly a wealth of information when asked about his day at preschool. It usually goes a little like this; me: How was your day? NM: good. me: What did you do? NM: Played. . . . and so on and so forth. I think he learned this from my father. One word answers. Drives me bonkers!!

Hunting season (ducks that is) has begun and daddy is in 7th heaven! They have a new spot thanks to some friends of ours from church and they have had a great season so far. He actually shot his limit of birds by 10 am last Sunday. I think this is the first day he has bagged a limit in over 4 years. He has "burn" days left at work and is planning to burn them in his duck blind! He is also continuing to enjoy the treadmill almost as much as me and is getting his endurance up quite well. Maybe by next spring I'll convince him to run the Lincoln 1/2 with me!! Yeah right! He was a trooper as the only "dad" at the pumpkin patch as his sister's hubby had to sit out for harvest and his dad was still laid up by ACL surgery. Secretly, I think he really likes going anyway.

Me, I am still here. Praying through it all. I just don't see how mothers of young children make it in this world without God to lean on! I forgot to add into both the girls' spots that they had croup as well this week. So we have been hacking away around here. I had to say good-bye to one of my best friends after a depressing NE football game on Saturday. I ran a 15K in the Governor's Cup last Sunday and did great until mile 7 where my body decided it had had enough. My legs started cramping (I haven't had a cramp in my legs since High School) my lungs were burning and I felt like the little water I had during the race was going to come right back up. The last 2 miles were not pretty, and the rest of the evening was even worse. I'm not sure how I drove home without having to stop and I spent the rest of the night on the couch. Even got a slight fever. The next morning had a RAGING headache and was very, very thankful for an awesome hubby who took a couple hours off of work to let me sleep in. Then I got to spend the next 2 1/2 hours at the Dr.'s office diagnosing croup and getting Xrays! Not to mention all this time I should have been enjoying myself at MOPS! OK, now I am just complaining. God is good, isn't He! I am thankful I was able to enjoy a full day with my family at the pumpkin patch, able to even survive through 9.3 miles and still be able to walk at the end even though I felt a little worse for the wear. Thankful that my son cares enough about his baby sister to want to keep her safe, and that it is just a splint. Thankful that I have 3 amazing children I get to stay at home with and most of all thankful that they make me want to pull my hair out some days because that means they are healthy, normal kids! God is definitely good!

State of the Family #18

Hmmm. . . I am coming up a little blank for the next update. I can't really think of what we have been doing. I know we have been busy, but we just haven't been doing anything that exciting.

Miss Thumb Sucker continues to scoot about. She is walking around all of the furniture and zooming along on all fours. She can get anywhere she wants, much to her brother and sister's dismay. She likes to find out what is inside doors and drawers and is adorable to watch when she tries to look under something. At the moment she is having a ball chasing her sister and one of the day care girls all over as they keep running away from her because she'll get their stuff. It is pretty funny. She has also started saying 'uh-oh' which she uses all the time for any situation. Even more in the communication realm, she has started using a few signs. . . all done is one she is great at and we are still working on more, thank you and please. She is growing up way too fast that is for sure. One thing she isn't too excited about growing out of is nursing. I was hoping to move her straight to a sippy cup of milk instead of having to do the bottle then sippy, but she doesn't like that idea. Thankfully she will take the bottle just fine and even does it herself, but it will just be another transition we will have to make. She likes to play with the sippy cups, but most of what she tries to drink out of them just comes pouring back out.

Miss Firecracker has thankfully continued to do well. She loved the day we spent out at the lake and going tubing with daddy. She wasn't quite sure about the whole lake thing at first since her brother informed her she would be swimming with the fish. But she had a blast on the tube! Pictures below. She loves wearing her Husker cheerleader outfit on game days, so much so that she didn't want to take it off to go swimming in the kiddie pool at the family get together at the lake, She jumped in fully dressed in her cheerleader outfit. She is also been on a singing kick lately, with her favorite tune being Jesus Loves Me. She belts it out whenever her little heart desires. It makes a mamma's heart proud!

Noisy Man had a blast at the lake as well, but was not so keen on the tubing stuff. They started off a little fast for his timid little self. He was crying by the time we had made it about 20 ft. We couldn't convince him to go again either, even if we would go slower. Oh well, he had fun riding on the boat. He was majorly bummed about not getting to go with daddy on the weekend long fishing trip (more on that in the daddy section) and almost cried every night when we called him or when I tucked him in bed. It was so sweet. It will be great when he is old enough go along! He is all over this apple stuff. . . we went out and picked 4 more bags worth last week! He just loves being able to grab one out and eat it up, knowing that I won't stop him.

Like I said, daddy went on his annual fishing trip this last weekend. They were gone from early Friday morning til past midnight on Sunday. If the fishing would have been better, they would have stayed through Monday, but they weren't having much luck so they decided to call it quits a bit early. I always feel so bad for him. They haven't had a great fishing trip in years. He finally gets to go out and get in some good fishing time, and they just sit on the water all day. I guess what they say is true though, "A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work."

I have still been up to my elbows in apples, since we went and picked some more. I have peeled, cored and sliced about all I can take, but I still have 2 whole bags left to do. I will be thankful for all of it in 3-4 months when I can grab things out of the freezer and they are all ready to go. The kids are loving the applesauce though and I am still having a hard time keeping up with my dehydrating. I am also trying to start training for a 15K in October. . . yep a tad late to just be starting, but hopefully I will get there. I have been so terrible about keeping up with my runs I needed something for motivation. We'll see how it goes. The last new thing with me is play practice. Every year our church does a huge Christmas musical and after having to sit last year's out due to a newborn, I am very excited to get back into it! It means 2 practices per week most weeks but it is so much fun and totally worth it. I just love it!

State of the Family #12

A little behind. . . things have really not been that busy I have just been productive and other things and just haven't sat down to type! Now to try and remember 2 weeks worth of stuff, that could prove challenging!
Miss Thumb Sucker has been on a upward slide the last couple weeks which is fabulous for all involved. I decided to start letting her 'cry it out' at night and see how miserable it would be. To my surprise it was not bad at all. The first night she woke at 1230 and I let her cry. She didn't even really cry! It was more of an intermittent cry/whine type of thing. After 12 minutes she was back asleep. When she woke back up at 330 I decided not to push my luck and fed her. Then she slept for another 3 1/2 hours til 7 am! I gave her a week of not feeding her before 3 am then pushed it again and now I won't feed her until 5 am. The first night or two she would wake up 2 times before 5, but the last few nights she has only woken up once and both times she 'cried' for less than a minute! Hear the Hallelujah chorus in the background! Why didn't I do this sooner? She has also started this cheesy smile thing that cracks me up. She tips her head back, scrunches her nose and eyes and cheeses it up. I will have to try and get a picture of it, it is adorable! Her first 4th of July also surprised me. She wasn't phased at all by the noise and rather enjoyed watching all the lights.
Miss Firecracker got to experience her namesake for this 4th of July! She really enjoyed all of the fireworks and doing sparklers and all the sort. She claims she didn't like the noise, but for the most part it didn't seem to bother her much. She is proving to be quite the girly-girl/tomboy mix though. As she loves to keep up with her brother and is not afraid of getting the least bit dirty and playing with the boys, but she LOVED her festive pony tail holder I got for her for the 4th and wanted to wear it all weekend. She also insisted on having her toes painted after she realized her last 'pedi' job was wearing off. On a more concerning note, she has been to the dr. 2 times in the last 4 weeks for her ears, both to turn up with another ear infection. I pray we are not on the route back to another set of tubes. I am just hoping we can hold out long enough for her to outgrow it now that she is almost 2 1/2.
Noisy Man is a pyro at heart just like his father. He was all over the fireworks and firecrackers and would have totally been out there with a punk had we let him. He is going to be one of those boys that is going to have to be held with tight reigns over fireworks seasons in years to come or he will end up in the ER due to some experimental thing he tried with the explosive contraptions! I fear for my child, I tell you! Also to my sleep deprived amazement, after the late nights required by summer's hours, darkness and fireworks, my normally up by 645 am little boy has slept until almost 8 am (2 times even after 8) every day this week! (Again, insert Hallelujah chorus here). I just about don't know what to do with myself with all this sleep! Our garden has now started producing 'pickable' produce and Noisy Man is out there daily scoping out the hopefuls. He is not-so-patiently awaiting the 'reddening' of the tomatoes however, which I am afraid he might have another week or so to wait. He is loving the zucchini, squash and cucumbers. Get this! We went to a friend's birthday party the other night and the boy turned down ice cream cake to finish off the sauteed veggies we had brought from our garden! He is a gem I tell you!
Like I said, Noisy Man gets his pyro tendencies from his father. Daddy was like a 12-yr-old boy with the fireworks we had. Which really wasn't that many, but he was having a blast nonetheless. I was pretty much playing parent by myself while there were fireworks going on. Which is fine by me since fireworks really aren't my thing. Daddy has also been enjoying an evening out with friends every week for a while now to go shoot skeet at the gun club. Last week he didn't get home until after 11 pm (btw, if I had been out this late, I would have been in trouble!), but this week he was home by 915! I asked him if all the other guys got in trouble for the lateness of the week before and his reply was, "No, they forgot their beer this week, so they all went home." Too funny. No beer and guys won't stick around to chat and 'shoot' the breeze (sorry couldn't resist that one!). Thankfully, my man is not one for the stuff and would chat with you whenever! I am a lucky woman I tell you!
Like I said before. I don't know what to do with myself with all this sleep going on! I have only had to take a nap once this week. It is amazing how much you can get done during nap time when you don't have to sleep yourself to keep your sanity! I have steam cleaned my floors, caught up on laundry (yes, once again insert Hallelujah chorus), and kept the sink in my kitchen pretty much dish free all week! No small task for the mother of 3 small children and 2 other daycare kids 3 days a week! I have however caught myself up in a book and wasted a couple hours stuck in that. . . It is why I try not to pick them up in the first place. I am terrible at being able to put them down once I get into them. I LOVE to read and really miss the time to do it, but motherly duties call and I don't have enough self discipline to pick washing dishes and folding laundry over reading a great book. I also have that problem with my computer, but that is a subject for a therapy session I haven't been brave enough to schedule yet! ;) My other accomplishment this last week was the 5K I ran in West Point with a friend up there. I ran it in 27 minutes and 26 seconds!! That is just over a 9 minute mile if you didn't stop to do the math! I was thrilled! And that was in the rain to boot!
Here's to hoping next time I don't have to make up for 2 weeks and make this so long that no one has the time to read it!!

Survival

My computer was attacked by a virus Thursday afternoon (a first for me) so I had to send it to a friend to get rid of it. So thankful for wonderful friends who actually know all this computer stuff and will fix my computer over Easter weekend. Thus I had to survive for 48 hours without my computer. I did get small "fixes" at my in law's and my dad's to check for Miss Firecracker's 2 yr pictures (posted here )and some Pampered Chef business.
We also survived our first Easter Sunday all to ourselves! Don't get me wrong, we did my family's Easter Friday night and Saturday (it was great fun), and have the hubby's side next weekend (will be a blast as well), but on actual Easter Sunday we were at home all day (with exception of going to church of course) by ourselves! I made a great meal, we did Easter baskets and played with eggs, and we read the Easter story and tried to help our 2 and almost 4 yr old's understand to the best of their ability the meaning of the cross and resurrection. I love their innocent hearts and questions and truly enjoyed that they really understood that Easter isn't about eggs and bunnies and candy. It was a glorious day, I even snuck in a nap and a 6 mile run and my hubby put up our new storm door (have I mentioned how handy he is!?).
And today I survived my first "in-public-child-puking" incident. Sorry, it is another puking story, so skip if you are of the weak stomach type. Eating lunch at Wendy's after picking up my kid's from my friends (where they stayed while I had the rest of my "seriously displastic" mole removed, and survived my first non-child-birth-related stitches:), Miss Firecracker wasn't too thrilled about eating her burger. She wanted to go straight for the frosty. So, I had to do the typical "3 more bites and then you can have your frosty". She was less than thrilled, but peacefully complied. An older couple was just commenting on my kids and asking me their ages (and telling me I had my hands full) when Miss Firecracker's last required bite was swallowed then came right back up. The older lady was wonderful and offered help so I asked if she would ask the Wendy's people for a towel or something of the sort. The gal that took our order and carried our food to our table came over and actually cleaned the mess up for me and brought Noisy Man a new bag with his favorite I spy games on it. Long story now not so short, we survived and I highly recommend the Wendy's by the south Walmart, great employees!!
I also just survived typing this whole thing one-handed, as Miss Thumb Sucker is trying to survive her first ear infection and doesn't want to be put down. :)