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!



"The Gift": And Thats a Wrap!

Its over.  I am torn with how I feel about that as it is always a relief to be done, but sadness of not getting to hang out with my friends who I perform with.  I am glad to have the time back, especially after last week. . . 7 out of the last 8 nights were spent at church, rehearsing and performing.  It will be great to be able to spend more evenings with my kids and mostly my husband.  However, it is usually not until practices start again next year that I get to spend that much time with the friends I have in the musicals.  I made some great new friends this year as well, deepened some relationships and really got to know some people better than I had before.  It is a lot of work, but it is so worth it.  The message of the show is strong, but God doesn't just reach our audience with the message of the show, he reaches us through the time we spend with each other and the work that we do.  It is so worth it.

We had a great turn out at 3 out of the 4 shows, with a small audience on Saturday for obvious Nebraska reasons. . . frankly they would have had a better time at our show over watching the Huskers get beat! :) Many people commented that they laughed and cried throughout the entire show and most of all, the message of Christ and what He means to life was unmistakable.  People could not walk out the doors without knowing the true message of Christmas, delivered in a much different way than your ordinary nativity Christmas plays.  Our Creative Arts Minister at our church and his wife co-write the play and the music, from scratch!  God has really given them an amazing gift!  It is going to be hard to top this one Tami and Kevin!  It was amazing!



The entire cast



The girls!  So much fun will be missed!



I am SO ready for next year!

State of the Family #25

 I always start off typing, not really knowing what I have to write about when I start these SOFs.  Then, by the time I am done, I felt like I have rambled on forever.  Yet, it seems you keep on reading. . . for this I thank you.  It makes me feel like my mundane life and very entertaining kids have a little to offer.  Or maybe you're just bored. . . . either way, I'm good with it!



Checking out my sister's new DVD



Miss Thumb Sucker has been a wet-chested running monster around our house the last week.  Her next few teeth are working their way in (FINALLY!) and she is drooling like crazy.  I usually have to change her shirt at least once, if not twice a day.  Then, while at my dad's this weekend, he put a bib on her. . .now why didn't I think of that.  I know that I should do that, my aunt even made her these adorable little crocheted soaker bibs when she was smaller and went through a drooling stage.  I totally forgot about them and just kept changing her clothes.  Duh!  Anyway, drooling away, she had a blast at my families "ThanksChristmas".  My family combined Thanksgiving and Christmas this year since my niece was here from Texas for 4 days.  Miss Thumb Sucker was not much into unwrapping things or even playing with the paper, but wanted to check out what everyone had and liked the tags.  She was scared to death of an over-sized stuffed puppy that she got, but loved her singing, bouncing, ride-on turtle once we got it opened and home. 

Miss Firecracker had a bout of pink-eye but was a trooper with taking the drops.  She then passed the pink-eye on to her brother and that story will go in his section.  She is growing up way too fast for my liking and remembers everything.  Many of her "ThanksChristmas" gifts revealed just how much older she is getting.  We are now in to the Barbie stage (which I love, because I still LOVE to play Barbies) and she also got many things 'just like her big brother', which shows she is growing up as well.  She motors around on her pink scooter like a pro and has mastered her new Leapster2 with such ease it is almost frightening.  It will be a great educational thing for her though as she bores quickly with coloring and matching and tracing, but the active screen and changing games hold her attention really well.  And with just a little bit of help she is already starting to recognize a lot of her letters.  I am really having a good time with her new toys as well!  Her new favorite phrase is "remember last year?" in which "last year" is her code for an hour ago, yesterday or last week.  But remember she does.  She knows exactly what we did, ate, and who it was with.  Cracks me up!

Noisy Man, like I said, also had a run in with pink eye.  The day it was discovered, he was quite tired and at the word 'drops', he freaked.  He ran to his room closed the door and hid under his covers.  Surprisingly (lol), daddy and I were able to find him and tried to administer the drops.  He was kicking, flailing and screaming like we were going to cut off his arm.  We should have just waited until he calmed down to give them to him, but at that point all rational thinking had gone out the window and we were just determined to get the job done.  So, daddy picked him up and put him on the floor and pinned down his arms.  I sat over his legs and held his head with one hand while putting the drops in his squeezed-shut eyes.  Then, pried them open one at a time to let the drops run in.  After this whole process it took him almost half an hour to calm down.  This will surly be a story we laugh at later.  He also raked it in at "ThanksChristmas" with a hunting set complete with a camo rigged pick-up, tent, hunter, and deer, a new Leapster2 (since his old one quit working), a fun box/playmat for his legos and some clothes.  His favorite thing at the moment however, plastic army men! An inexpensive stocking stuffer from Aunt S and Uncle M have created hours upon hours of entertainment for this boy.  It is adorable!  Thank you Aunt S and Uncle M!

Not much on Mommy and Daddy this week.  We had fun at "ThanksChristmas" as well and received great gifts.  Daddy's favorite probably being his new Wii hunting game that proves to be pretty challenging and entertaining.  They hunted a Mountain Lion probably around 15-20 times before they were actually able to kill the thing before it killed them (see pic).  Mommy went Black Friday shopping (no, not at 3 am, but at 6 am) and still got some great deals!  The longest line I had to wait in was about 20 minutes and it was behind an old college friend I hadn't seen in years so it was the most pleasant line-wait ever.  I am also in crazy week for our church's musical with dress rehearsals S,M,T and productions Th,F, St, Sn!  Only night free is W.  Poor daddy!  My other dilemma. . . someone evidently forgot to tell my skin that I turned 30 last week and not 13!  I think if you are going to have the zits of a 13-year-old at least the wrinkles of a 30-year-old should go away.  It only sounds like a good trade to me.  What the heck is up with that?!?!  Anyone have any suggestions as to where they came from and how to get rid of them?  I do not like them Sam I am!! 

And with that, once again I have rambled on forever!  Good day!

Halleluiah!!!

She is sleeping!!  I almost hesitate to write this, but for the last week Miss Thumb Sucker has been sleeping great!  Since so many of my posts have been about her sleeping habits I figured I'd better put in an update.  So, in the last week she has been waking up around 7 am, then still takes a bottle in her bed and sleeps for another hour.  This morning she slept until 9:15 am!  I had to check on her about 12 times in those 2 hours just to make sure she was still breathing.  We have even been putting her to bed at 7:30 pm and she still sleeps this long.  I am starting to make a recovery on my sleep lost over the last year.  I feel like a brand new woman!  I think my worst sleeper is going to turn into my best sleeper.  She has even been taking 2 1/2 - 3 hour naps in the afternoon.  I can hear angels singing!  OK, maybe that is a stretch, but I feel a heck of a lot better, and when mommy feels better, everyone feels better!  Now, if only I could figure out how to solve all of my laundry dilemmas. . . . but I think that is a personal issue that I will always dread. :)

Handy Hubby!

Who else can say they have a hubby like this?!?! He decided while running on Thursday night that our 'tv stand' (aka 5 gal bucket) in our treadmill room was not sufficient. Since it was too low and off to the side we would have to turn a bit to be able to see it (challenging while running) and we would have to turn the volume up so high to be able to hear it, you could hear it upstairs. So, he just whipped this up for a whopping $12 in just an hour!! No plans, no searching for designs, not a thing! He just got out his saw and screw gun and tape measure and went to town. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this man!?!

I'm . . . 30!

My baby turns one and 2 weeks later I turn 30. So far so good. I think I can handle this 30 stuff. My hubby and kids got me flowers, a great friend and mentor got me The Pioneer Woman's cookbook, my secret sis from playgroup got me a cute little wooden plaque, another great friend made me brownies, my sweetie just brought home a very yummy looking chocolate cake, and I am relaxing on the couch while I should be folding laundry and cleaning up my kitchen. And I don't feeling guilty about it at all (well maybe just a tiny bit cuz I know I'll just have to do it later anyway) because it is my birthday. I am feeling quite spoiled. I think birthdays are great! We are going 'Rolling Pins" (bowling) tonight for some fun. It should be interesting. I am a terrible bowler, but we will have bumper pads, so that should help me out a smidge at least. I'll add some pictures of the awesome fun later!
My twenties were amazing! I finished college (had a blast during college btw too!), got married, moved too many times to count, owned 3 homes, had 3 kids and am still able to fit in my High School cheerleader uniform. I'd say my twenties were pretty good to me. Now, here's to hoping my thirties are even better!

Update: I totally rocked at bowling tonight - even beat my hubby who is a decent bowler(. . . I won't tell on myself that the bumpers were up - I really only hit them twice!!) hehehe! These are a few pics. There are some of all of us bowling, but with my husband in charge of the camera while I am bowling. . . lets just say those are not pictures that I will ever post or print! Ornery men!! (Can't say I didn't take some of him the same way though, but I will be nice and not post those either.)