Laiken

I have been trying to get some pictures trying out my camera on different settings. Here are a few of Laiken as she was the only one home and cooperating yesterday. I'm going to try to get the group one tonight for the cards and then the pressure is off a little to get individual ones as that is only for grandparents and us.

Just a side note: That outfit she is wearing was her big sister's first. Thought it would be cute to have pictures of both in it. Can't find one right now, but Morgan was 11 months old when she wore that outfit..... Laiken is `18 months old!!

Christmas pictures

Another thing to stress over, that is all I need now. I still haven't done my pictures for the Christmas cards. My mom's family has a party on the 15th so I kind of need to have them done by then. See, we hand deliver the cards there instead of mailing all 30 something of them. See... I don't even have my list done yet. Anyway, my mom is getting me this cool printer for Christmas that will print right from my camera card, but I'm out of ink for my current printer and hate to buy ink for it when I'll be getting a new one. Of course, if I have to print that many pictures it will probably use almost an entire cartridge. Hey! I just solved my problem while typing it out, (patting myself on the shoulder). I sent an e-mail to my husband venting yesterday about how I couldn't finish my Christmas shopping until after the 17th and between work and everything else, we would have to finish up on the 22nd and then how was I going to get everything wrapped and my baking done, etc. He sent me an e-mail back full of blah, blah, blah's. I sent him a blank e-mail back. Of course he e-mailed me asking about the blank and I told him that was me not speaking to him. Needless to say when he came home he was very attentive. Now he keeps asking me what he can do to help. I told him if he would have done that in the first place instead of being the a** he was, he would have scored extra points for doing the same thing he is doing now trying to dig himself out of the hole.

I told him a mom with four kids at Christmas is oh so much worse than any woman with PMS so he better buckle in for a long ride. The smiling faces Christmas morning are oh so worth it, mine is the biggest of all, but each year I realize just how strong women are since spousal abuse is higher on Super Bowl Sunday that Christmas Eve!!

Thanksgiving down Christmas to go

Well, the feast is over and now the hustle begins. Why does it seem like Thanksgiving is gone in the blink of an eye? Maybe because mere hours after you finish eating the Christmas hustle begins. For the past few years my SIL and two of my cousins have been hitting the Black Friday sales, sadly usually not even looking for anything. I guess we just enjoy punishing ourselves or maybe it is that the crowded malls and frigid temperatures are easier to handle than our crabby kids after a day without enough sleep! I'm guessing that is it since my two cousins, neither of which have kids, chickened out this year. My SIL and I still had a good time. We met up with one of her friends and shopped for a few hours. We got some good deals at Old Navy and Bath and Body Works. Penny's also had some great buys if you needed coats, which all four munchkins did, but my aunt grabbed those up for Christmas gifts. You know the saying the early bird gets the worm? Same is true for Christmas gifts. My list is seriously shrinking for the kids and I haven't gotten a thing yet. Everyone else is grabbing up things on my list. Guess I better start hitting the ads again. Course it doesn't help when the kids can't come up with even one thing they want!! Morgan asked me if Santa will still get her gifts if she can't think of anything she wants. I told her that I was sure she would get something and that she could just write him a letter telling him what types of things she likes to play with and he could handle the rest. She told me she felt much better now that she didn't have to worry about Christmas! Wonder if Santa will handle all my Christmas worries. The kids are planning Jesus' birthday party already too. Every Christmas Eve we have a party "in the living room" (that is the most important part) and that is Jesus' birthday. Then we go outside and sprinkle magic reindeer dust, head in to check the computer to track Santa's progress, surefire way to get them in bed early (hopefully the kids will stop believing in Santa before they realize Paris France is not next to Ohio!!). Then Mike and I settle in with a glass of wine until we are sure the kids are sleeping. Mike refuses to help arrange the gifts because he can't quite grasp my "method" or madness as he calls it. Anyway, I think I am more excited than the kids. I love seeing the excitement and joy this time of year brings and we remind our kids daily as we hustle getting everything ready what this whole season is about. Austin told me the other day in his four-year-old way that he knows Jesus is very important because he has a great big party but gives us the gifts. I love this time of year the most and not becuase of the gifts or parties, but because we spend so much time together as a family, as a couple, as an extended family. This is the busiest time of the year because of all this, but also the happiest. This coming year I hope to be as busy with family as I am at Christmas instead of putting these things off because we are too busy.

We're off

We will be hitting the happy trail tomorrow afternoon. Why do I feel like saying "And they're off!!"? Probably because while the trips home are always enjoyable, relaxing they are not. First stop: Aunt Shelly's for dinner with her, Aunt Connie, Kyle and Kelly. Then on to my mom's house where we will spend Thanksgiving and will visit with the aunts, uncles and cousins Thursday evening. Hopefully my brother and his family will make an appearance. Friday bright and early as I said it before "the girls" head out shopping and for breakfast/lunch. Sometime Friday I am hoping to get to see my grandfather. Friday night we are going to meet up with Mike's cousin Brian and his family. They moved to South Carolina a little over a year ago and haven't gotten to see them. We used to hook up with them at least twice a year. Maybe Saturday we can relax a bit and then Sunday afternoon we head home to get everything ready for the happy hunters. Logan has scouts in the afternoon and then Tuesday it's back to school and work as usual.

I was a very busy girl today and got about half the Christmas decorations up. Now I should be working to get a head start on tomorrow so we can leave at out appointed time. So I will leave you with a wish for a very Happy Thanksgiving. If you are traveling, I pray you will be safe and enjoy seeing loved ones we unforutnately don't get to see as often as we would like. May God bless you and keep you safe.

Over the River and through the woods..

We'll be leaving Wednesday afternoon so the race begins: baking, packing, cleaning, working, shopping. First before I can bake I need to head to the store. Ideally I would like to get both in school first so I only have to take two with me, but seeing as how Morgan doens't go until the afternoon, I would really like to be baking by then. We shall see. I am doing laundry as we speak to get stuff packed, hopefully by Tuesday evening so Wednesday all I have to do is work, whip up my dip and straighten up the house. Logan has scouts tonight and they asked me to stay and help work on the float, not that I could get anything done in less than an hour, but still stressed me out! What are the Holidays without a little stress and a lot of wine, RIGHT?

Laiken had a dance-a-thon in the basement yesterday. She really gets into the dancing! She had her whole little body dancing. Next time I'll have to try and record it, especially the "after" hairdo! She looked like the cartoons after they stick their finger in an outlet. Come to think of it, that pretty much sums up her whole dance!

We rearranged the furniture today to start putting up the Christmas decorations. Not looking forward to that with Ms. Laiken though!!

Oh well... off to get ready for turkey day and shopping with my SIL and cousin. It has become a tradition that we try to shop every black Friday and then have breakfast/lunch out. Unfortunately, my cousin T can't make it this year as she has started a new job and we just couldn't convince her we were worth a sick day! So it looks like it is just Kel, Jen and I this year! So sorry T! Don't know if I'll get time to post again so if not Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Another weekend gone

The kids really enjoyed making their turkey recipe card holders at Lowes. Guess who will be bearing gifts this Thanksgiving... They gave them little safety goggles and Lowes aprons. These have come off rarely since then. Morgan has already decided she is taking her new treasures for Show n Tell on Friday. Kind of puts the pressure on this Christmas competing with Lowes.

Logan had his Cub Scout Pack meeting yesterday and they walked through town handing out bags for the food drive. They have to go back on Saturday and collect any donations. Morgan has a parade Friday night. We are really kind of excited about this because it is the first "Christmas" parade of the season. I think the girls are marching in three or four this year. Logan is in two, only one is the same as Morgan's.

The highlight of Austin's week is the trip to the library. I can only imagine next year when he is becoming involved in things! I really don't want to think about it yet. I may be hiring an assistant! We have cut his "homeschooling" down to three days a week because he is really breezing right through the stuff and I don't want him to be too advanced when he starts kindergarten next year. He is already doing some 1st grade stuff.

Laiken has turned into a little girl overnight. She is just a little chatterbox. A lot of it we can't understand, but she sure does carry on the conversations. She had her first tea party last night and I sat there and bawled like a baby. They had real snacks, but pretend drinks. Well at first Morgan didn't give her a plate for her snack, so she just took Austin's. She sat there like a little girl and ate her snack and "drank" her drink, asking for more and then she took her turn serving the tea and poured tea for the other ones sound effects and all. Morgan was playing babies last night and Laiken got a baby too. Morgan would put her baby to bed and so would Laiken. Morgan was getting a little ticked and put her baby in the stroller. well, Laiken was not about to be outdone. She put her baby in the stroller. Then they. had. their. first. fight. Morgan yelled at Laiken who then threw her hands in the air, started to walk away and turned around and gave Morgan an earful! This time the tears were from laughter. But perhaps her greatest feat of the weekend was tackling the sit n spin. Of course she found out as fast as the other kids it is much more fun to put small objects on it and give it a good spin and see how far they will fly! I wonder if this is a natural instinct or if someone has been coaching her!! She still loves her a good snuggle and I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. I know those days just don't last long enough.

We did it!!

Well the local elections are finally over and I am happy to say we did very well. We elected the mayor we wanted, the trustee we wanted and the fiscal officer we wanted. We won all around. The "losers" are already causing trouble, but all they can do now is run their mouthes for the next 2 and 4 years and if they try again, we'll be ready!! People don't understand what this means and think we are making a big deal out of things, but this could have meant big trouble for the village as a whole, actually causing people to move and also could have had major impact on our fire department, and those of you who know us, know our entire family is deeply involved in the fire department. We are thrilled that people listened to us and continued on the path we have been working for so long to pave. Enough said.

Logan is finished up with his dental work now. Who knew acid reflux could have such an impact on his teeth seven years later. The other two go for their check up on Tuesday and hopefully she won't find the same thing happening with them. Morgan didn't have reflux and Austin's wasn't near as bad as Logan's so they really should be fine. Logan's just happened so fast, I'm hoping this pediatric dentist will know more what to look for with the others and if they do have a problem, it won't get out of hand like Logan's did.

I have been getting hit really hard at work and with Christmas coming trying to get as much done as I can. Mike has been super busy lately between wrapping things up for the election, fire department meetings, township meetings, overtime at work, inventory at work. So between me working extra, him working extra and his meetings and the kids functions, I feel like I haven't seen him in forever. Well, last weekend he was around more, but with his parents here it wasn't the same. He won't get home until after 8:00 tonight so I'm hoping to have all the kids in bed so while he eats and relaxes we can have some time just to ourselves because this weekend is going to be hectic again. Although he will get to spend some time with the three older kids. He is taking them to one of those workshop things at Lowe's. Lakien and I will do what we do best, shop, while they are doing that. I had plans of having lunch out somewhere afterwards, but might not now because Logan has a "hot date" with his friend in the afternoon. Sunday we have a scouting function and something else I can't think of right now. Have to find time somewhere to get things ready for Thanksgiving and dare I say it... Christmas. I need an extra month this year, sorry, just gotta put everything on hold.

Here we go again

Once again sickness is the topic of discussion in this house. I have been fighting a stomach bug for two days now. Thankfully my in-laws left before I got sick, but hopefully I didn't pass it on to them before they left. Both girls have colds and coughs again, but neither of the boys or Mike is sick. They never get sick, which is a good thing because they are total babies.

We had a nice visit with the in-laws, well actually my MIL. My FIL was fishing just about the entire time. Never could figure out how someone could stand in the water ALL. DAY. LONG. He would get up and leave by 6:00 AM and not come back until after dark.

The kids were complete hellions. With all of our family living out of state, we rarely get visitors for any length of time and they just don't know what to do with themselves. The fact that I'm usually stressed out the whole time doesn't help matters. Up until the last few years I didn't have a very good relationship with my MIL and my husband really still isn't as close with his parents as I think he should be. So with that in mind I feel she is constantly judging me, so I'm afraid to be too hard on the kids when she is here, but at the same time afraid she is going to run back home and tell everyone how horrible the kids are or how mean I am or how messy my house is or, well the list could just go on and on. I know I shouldn't let that bother me, but if you had a MIL like that, you would know how I feel. But anyway we survived. She called when they got home to tell me they might be back out in two weeks. This is my major cleaning time. I like to get everything all done by Thanksgiving so that I can put up the Christmas stuff. I have so much to do and I hate to do anything like that when anyone is here. I'm talking taking everything off the walls and wiping everything down, cleaning out all clostes, cupboards etc. It gets rather messy. Oh well, I guess that is a good excuse to stop right?

I need to go to bed. I'm feeling rather lousy, but first I have about six hours or work to do. Don't think that will be happening. Off to get the kiddos in bed and then probably myself.

I'll have pictures of the weekend tomorrow, I think.

Is it 3:30 already??

Boy did I not want to get up this morning. It was very late by the time I got to bed last night and the amount of work I have to do today was enough in itself to make me pull the covers right back over my head. The fact that Mike was threatening to bite my toes was finally enough to get me up and the fear of being so tired I'd sleep right through the alarm to get the kids up has kept me up. I so do not want: a) to have to run them to school today, or b) even worse have them home all day! It is going to be hard enough trying to get them out of the house today with my in-laws here.

Speaking of not going to school.... Logan comes home on Wednesday saying the neighbor girl wasn't in school and there was a note asking Logan to bring her work home to her. I told Logan they weren't home, I just saw them leave while I was out getting the mail. So when it starts getting later he said he would just run down the road and put her work on the porch. Okay, no text books, just papers in a folder, no problem. Whoa nellie! Her school picture packet was also in there. Not a chance. I told him I didn't feel comfortable putting that huge packet of pictures on her porch (they have been known to stay at Grandma's all night if dad is working away). So Logan, "and the winner for most dramatic actor is...." declares he will lose his recess if he didn't give it to her, yada yada yada and is near hysterics by this point. So I simply tell him I'll write his teacher a note explaining to her that I wasn't comfortable leaving the stuff on her porch and that I also left a message on Chloe's machine asking them to call when they got in, but didn't get a call. Well, its a good thing I didn't leave the folder on her porch because they still haven't come home. So when Logan gets home from school yesterday this conversation took place:
Mom: Did you give your teacher the note?
Logan: yeah.
Mom: Well, did you lose recess, did she hang you from the ceiling, did she put you in the corner with a dunce hat?
Logan: Funny mom. She said she didn't ask me to take her work home.
Mom: Huh?!? Who else would put the official pink slip on your desk asking you to bring the work home?!? Who else would put it neatly in a little brown folder complete with instructions for completion?!?
Logan: I dunno.
Mom: I'll have that drink now.

Here is another conversation from last night:

Austin: Wow! Look how many birds are flying out there, it must be millions!
Morgan: They are hibernating to Mexico, we learned that in kindergarten today.
Logan: No they aren't those birds are nocturnal.
Morgan: No they are hibernating.
Logan: They are nocturnal!!
After about 6 more times I very calmly say: I THINK YOU BOTH MEAN MIGRATING!!
Logan and Morgan: NO!
Mom exiting: Where is that drink!?!
Lesson learned: Don't argue with your kids, they think they know more than you and can "prove it", afterall they go to school every day, you on the other hand sit at home and pick your toes and drool.