Where have I been???

I've been wondering that myself. It seems like I just finished making Halloween costumes and then all the sudden I am puting away my Christmas decorations! There was so much in between, I've hardly been able to catch up from it to move on to the next event!  Around here, we are just barely functioning with our daily routine and adding anything puts us more behind and in the end, we have to give in to the eventual chaos. For us, "caught up" means we got the kitchen cleaned up at night and the toys pushed into a safe zone for a fire exit. You know, safety first :-).

Thankfully we have escaped most random germs, minus of course the quick stomach flu 4 out of 6 of us got before Christmas. I'm telling you, in 7 days I did about 25 loads of laundry and sanitized the house 3 different times, no joke. Plus of course we had to send it home with Grandpa.  It happens when you are lovin' on the kid that's not sick - then by evenings end - IS sick. The stomach flu is like that. Spares no victims. 'Cept Agent P and I (and yes, Gramma). Some how we were spared. I'm betting it was all the praying and begging I did. I sure did a lot of that. And, God is Good!

But I want you to know, we survived Christmas. Not only did we just survive, we really enjoyed it. I absolutely love the holidays when we have family get togethers. It just warms my heart (and often tests my patience with my kiddlets).

We had several Christmas celebrations, cuz we are just partiers like that.  We enjoy food we didn't cook, and eating at places we don't have to clean. We are gracious and grateful!  I'm pretty sure we left a wake of mess behind us, but so far no one has uninvited us for next year!

My kids of course made out! They got to see their cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and all sorts of other people who spoil them multiple times. They got sweet presents and even presents that require several adults to figure out (they should not even be allowed to SELL Transformers).

A-Dog's big gift was a Wii. I'd like to say it was for him, but really I wanted Wii Fit. SO, in return he got a game for the Wii. It all works out, and now so can I. Have you ever thought of the logistics of attempting a workout with a 4.5 yr old who has decided that he no longer "needs" naps and a set of 2 year old twins who believe their purpose in life is to see how crazy they can make me :- )?  Anyway, we now own a Wii.  A-Dog also got clothes and stuff - and other odds and ends.

Agent P got some hunting clothes, a new lunch box for school, games - and sadly, 5 Transformers that I cannot for the life of me get back into the original shape.

Mini P and Monkey got new chairs. Mini P got coloring books and some Dora things. Monkey got trucks. He got other stuff, but his main focus is still on the trucks.

All in all, it was a success and now I'm trying to clear out toys they've out grown and find homes for all their goodies!

I will get pictures up soon, but here's a few to tide you over...

LOVED watching the train!

You decide - Nice or Naughty?

A typical family photo (yes, it was December and 2 of my kids are in shorts.)

We've being doing

a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house - there were about 40 people I think...we actually ate in our garage due to the gale force wind we endured that day!

Agent P Started Preschool

(2 days a week and loves it!)

We put up a Christmas Tree

Took a great Christmas picture in non-matching outfits and can never be recreated and there was no 2nd shot. They all smiled. They all looked at me. Then they all got up and started messing with the tree, screaming, and whatever else they were doing...but for one moment, look how sweet they are!

We frosted cookies (or ate frosting)

Plus, 4 out of 6 of us had the stomach flu. Yay. I did not photograph that for the weak of stomach (I'm one of them). Agent P and I so far have NOT been sick and we are hoping to keep it that way.

But that is some of what we have been doing over the last few weeks that I have been a blog-slacker.  There is more, but don't you think you've seen enough photos of us? :- )

Cheers!

Things I have heard myself say out loud...

and wish I didn't have to...



Please get your head out of the Christmas tree!

Stop licking the ornaments.

NO!!! Don't pee in the parking lot (Agent P)

Do NOT elbow your brother on the head!

Stop belly flopping in the bath tub.

Let's use the potty Mini P, not the kitchen floor (as she got caught, pants down peeing on the floor)

Agent P, I don't know why you are such an amazing super hero, you just are.

No, you can't ride the dog like a horse. Why? Because he really doesn't want you to.

I suppose you can dip your quesadilla in honey...or yes, mustard too...(blech)

No, Target doesn't sell big sisters. No I'm not sure who does (Agent P)

Why did you close your sister in the closet? Does she know she is playing Hide-n-go-seek???




Oh the list can go on and on an on...

2 Years Ago.

2 years ago I laid in a hospital bed, sans pain killers for 17 hours post surgery thinking I had made a HUGE mistake allowing a c-section to be performed on my body to remove twins (like I had any choice). Thinking the nurses must be joking (or insane) when they argued with me to "get out of bed and walk" (again, sans pain killers). And then grateful when my painkillers were finally released to me (note to self, being allergic to codeine is NOT handy).

2 Years ago I missed my favorite holiday with my family and I spent it eating hospital turkey food (a word I use lightly). But thankful for a fabulous cousin who came and stayed the night with me and the twins - brought REAL food! To this day, I'm pretty sure she is STILL looking for a way to buy one of those amazingly comfortable chair/bed/torture contraptions! 

But 2 years ago  - we were blessed with THIS:

Born at 36 weeks 2 days - (left) Mini P was 5lbs 2oz and about 18 inches long (right) Monkey was 5lbs 15oz and about 18 inches long.  Their birth was the most amazing experience and unless you have carried twins (or more) or battled pre-term labor you cannot fathom the relief we felt when they were both born healthy. Never once did they enter the NICU. Never.

1 year and a lot of craziness later:

Mini P

Monkey

The first year was filled with a lot of hazy days, unanswered emails, diapers, spit up and LOTS of LOVE! 

And here we are, 2 years later. We now answer most emails, have fewer diapers and our days are far more clear than they were and still filled with LOTS of LOVE! We look back and think - do we really remember how we got here? :- )

Mini P

Monkey (photo kept uploading sideways...ergh)

My sweet little baldies now have hair :- )! Monkey has even had his cut several times!

At 2 years old Mini P is nearly potty trained. She still wears a diaper at night and nap because she is a solid sleeper and logs about 11 hours of sleep a night. She is such a chatter box and at least now we can understand what she is trying to say and it no longer comes out as gibberish! We hear her say stuff like "where's bubba? OH, there he is!" She absolutely adores all of her brothers and hugs on all of them. She is the princess, but isn't girly. At all. For her birthday I tried to get her some "my little ponies" (ok folks, I don't know what I'm supposed to get a girl...) and she calls them horses and doesn't actually do anything with them.  The girl does love books and LOVES Dora and loves to play outside. She has been known to scream and throw her body in all directions when she is brought inside (brought because she refused to go on her own free will).  She is sweet as pie and hands out hugs and kisses all the time! Mini P knows all her upper case letters by sight and many of her numbers 1 to 9. We don't know why, but she just does :- ).

Monkey is such a sweet boy with not much to say. He can string 2 words together but it usually things like "daddy work", "bubba bus". He will answer your question with a "yup" or "no", but doesn't typically expand on that as his sister does.  He has always been and continues to be a Daddy's boy. I satisfy him to a point, but really, it's all Daddy!  Monkey is very much into transportation. Trucks, airplanes, trains, tractors, trailers, cars...you name it he loves it. He will lay on the floor for long periods of time just moving them back and forth...lining them up, moving them forward and backward. He still has to sleep with his arsenal of transportation items. Usually no fewer than 10 items, plus blankets, his baby, and a couple other random things. Surprisingly, he still fits in his bed!  Last week Agent P and I cleaned under Monkey's crib  (we store bean bags under the crib) and we found 25 - yes you read right 25 cars, trucks, trailers etc behind and under the bed. Apparently I should clean that more frequently. Monkey has the most infectous laugh. It is a belly laugh that just pulls you and makes you laugh with him. It is so easy to get him to laugh, which makes it all the more beautiful!!!

We absolutely LOVE having twins and wouldn't trade one moment of it for anything at all.  They complete our family perfectly and give us the perfect balance. So many people (seriously, SOOOO MANY) say, "you have your hands full". Since I refuse to carry them all - really, I have my HEART full and that's what I tell them. You don't know what you are missing unless you have total and complete chaos at least ONCE a day. Usually around here it's more than that!!!

It all started with a faucet.

My kids/husband are perfectly aware of my slight addiction to home improvement shows.  Saturdays are not for cartoons, but for HGTV and DIY. Trust me when I say, my kitchen is outdated, my cupboards are close to antique, my flooring is shameful, the paint needs "replacement" and really, the whole house needs to just be totally renovated. Don't even get me started on the backyard or the front yard for that matter. Trust me, I'm near "expert". They (kids/husband) are also very aware that I am one step away from putting my house on the market and having HGTV join me in "House Hunters International" somewhere in the Caribbean - if it were not for the ridiculous shape my home is in ;- )! I am a firm believer in having my kids raised on the beach and home schooled during bad weather!

But the reality is that I will live in this house probably until it becomes the latest home deemed Historic and will never be demolished due to some county ordinance. Then people will tour my home to see how homes were built "back then".

Given all of that pertinent information, I'm a huge fan of renovations (side note - have you ever watched "Renovation Realities"??? Oh friend if you have not, you do NOT know what you are missing. This is true, unabridged entertainment). I'm also the mom of 4 kids that enjoy my attention, thus keeping me (really my sweet husband) from doing as much as my renovation wild hair permits.

I decided not long ago that we needed to redo the kids' bathroom. Well, let me back up. I decided we needed a new faucet. HOWEVER, if I was going to buy a new faucet, I wanted one in a new finish. I really like brushed nickel - and the antique brass (see, again with antique) had to GO.

The need for a new faucet stems from the need for a 4 year old to be able to turn the water on and off himself. Currently we have the "pull the knob really, really hard - straight up - and don't turn it to the left or you'll burn yourself knob". I want one with 2 handles so the kids can turn on the cold water and wash. Simple enough right?

So, to change the faucet we also needed to remove the mirror that was glued permanently to the wall, remove glue, fix wall, remove old towel racks, patch wall holes, remove old light fixture, fix wall, paint, buy new shower curtain, towel bars, mirror, light fixture and of course the faucet.

Here's how it went:

Bathroom BEFORE (notice - white walls - GASP!)

Bathroom BEFORE

Before (see, sports themed? That's going...)

Mirror GONE

Wall fixed and painted.

Now for the AFTER pictures:

Now Agent P can reach his own towel!

New shower curtain picked out by A-Dog (with my guidance)

New mirror! New lights (hard photograph) and paint - well it's light grey, also hard to see!

Do you see something that might be missing?? Like the FAUCET??? :- )

I try to be..

Calm, Cool and Collected.

I try to be that mom people look at and say "man she makes that look easy". Cuz really, I have a 2.5 year gap between Agent P and the twins and upon first glance it does appear somewhat chaotic. I like to think that it is organized chaos that I have completely under control.  Or to at least appear that way so that people don't offer up their typical comments that I endure on a regular basis. 

Today I wondered if I was taking that a little too far. I was at the grocery store (a necessary evil) with the 3 younger ones, when out of one ear I heard a small *coughing on my cracker* cough. I was about 3 feet from the cart (looking at juice or planning my escape you decide) and I didn't even flinch or look. Seriously not even a twitch. Then I hear a lady say "oh my goodness are you OK???" Very worried and very concerned. Then I looked (hoping some passerby wasn't going to have to Heimlich one of my kids). But by then, I figured out she was talking to her daughter who was carrying a baggy of crackers and looked to be at least 6. She then continued with her daughter "I thought you were choking it was such a horrible cough!".  There was more but you get the distinctly opposite response to the situation.

Now honestly, I really didn't think the cough was that bad. Certainly to get my attention there would need to be more than one hack at the cracker imbedded in their throat and to really get me moving some gagging sounds or noises.

But for a fleeting moment, I thought to myself how sad that was. One of my chicklets could have actually been choking and here I was just trying to find the juice that the coupon pictured. The juice was for them if that gives me any consolation points...

Perhaps in my attempt to allow chaos to rise to a level 4 or so before reacting, I've permitted myself to tune out the other sounds that may come from the chicklets before the ear piercing screams, hitting, yelling, grabbing, pushing or throwing begins.

And if I allowed this, I do I figure out how to decipher out the emergent sounds and the annoying fighting sounds?

I'm not sure I can.

So, while I may try to be Calm, Cool and Collected...I probably come off more as the mom that onlookers laugh, roll their eyes, gasp, *ahem* real loud in hopes that I might notice that one of my chicklets needs to be handled. And I ignore those sounds too :- )

12 Years Ago Today

My world got rocked by A-Dog. LOL!

The picture quality is awful because 12 years ago there were no easily acquired digital cameras, and if you did have one (Dad) it was ridiculous. Remember having to wait 3-5 minutes seconds for the picture to snap? Ya, that was fun. Good times. Back then you could have your *film* camera put onto a floppy. Not even a CD yet, just a floppy. I nearly had to borrow a floppy drive to convert them a few months ago. Luckily, my computer is composed of random components and it actually had one. Pure luck I tell ya!

But there he is. All *pixeled* up and everything :- ) He was about 1 month old here.

To me, most babies look the same anyway, so what are a few pixels off anyway???

Here he is today. Never mind. I just looked on the camera and those were blurry too. Geez, maybe its user error!  Ok, here he is recently...

OOPS! Did I accidentally insert their silly picture? Oh, my bad!!!  Here we go...

Ok. There. That's better!

Our A-Dog is honestly such a true blessing to us. I can tell you with all certainty that he is the easiest child to discipline in this house. I'm not saying he's perfect - but as a young child he did not like loud noises. Raising my voice 1 slight octave was enough to stop him in his tracks. Obviously by me saying this, the other 3 are NOT like that :- ). Obviously. 

Now that raising my voice is used to simply be heard around here, so that doesn't work. BUT, I have other methods now. Can you say "yard work"? The boy HATES it. I don't know why, but daddy's other kids will spend all day outside with him. Not A-Dog, he would just  rather be outside throwing the ball - any ball - or swimming. ANYTHING other than doing yard work. So, it's an effective threat tool!

He has an obsession for sports, baseball in particular. He loves the game and loves to play it. He has made All-Stars 2 years in a row and is hoping for his 3rd next year. He is loved by all of his coaches because of his awesome attitude and willingness to learn and play.  He also hates criticism of any kind, even if it is simple. That is of course, because he already knows everything :- )

He is a fabulous brother and adores his brothers and sister. They think he is the brightest star in their day. Mini P likes to sit on his stomach (when he's lying on the floor at night) and brush her teeth with her feet in his face. She knows it bugs him, and it makes her (and him) laugh. Monkey likes to body slam him when he's in that same position. (Maybe he should sit up???). Agent P could play hide and seek all day long if A-Dog could tolerate it. There on only so many places you can hide before everyone knows all the spots!!!

We absolutely love spending time with A-Dog! He is so funny and witty - and well, frankly, he gets my humor. Our kids must get humor, sarcasm and understand they will be teased if they plan to survive in this house and with our family! Plus it builds character.  But really, he hasn't quite gotten to that hate my parents part of life yet, so we still enjoy each other!

A-Dog, if you are reading this, which I know you are - we love you. We love you no matter what. We are proud of what you have become and the pride you take in being that person. Always remember that.  Happy Birthday and enjoy the next 365 days until you are a teenager :- )

Pumpkins and such...

Here in the typically dry/hot desert, we rarely carve our pumpkins early for fear of them becoming soggy and droopy before Halloween. Often, it is carved the day of and we hope that it lasts until the next day for the sake of the kids. We don't have the "advantage" of living in a climate where October brings cold and dreary days. Of course except today. Just last week it was 95 (crazy above average temps). Today is only 55 (below average temps), yes, as the HIGH, and super windy so it seems colder.  I'm certain all of you Michigan/eastern people are laughing at my depiction of "cold and dreary". Let's face it, you think 80 is hot. :- ). And to us Natives, a dip below 70 brings out long sleeves and jeans! Ask around, you'll know I'm right!

Anyway, with the intrusion of a cold snap into my perfect Fall weather, we decided to carve our pumpkins last night. Plus, Halloween is on Saturday, so why not?

Let's back up just a bit and reminisce about the day we picked our pumpkins...a couple weeks ago:

Like when Agent P's hair almost turned into a helicopter propeller and lifted him off the ground.

Or when A-Dog tried to use his arm as a shield to the gale force wind that took the fine dirt from the ground and whirled it at us like we were metal in a sand blasting machine. And there's Mini P - running for her life so her brother could protect her. Or, maybe she was running because she is competitive and didn't want A-Dog to get a better pumpkin than her. That's hard to say...

There was no time for cute "sitting by the pumpkin" pictures of all the kids. Just these 2.

And certainly not toegether.

Pretty much the only 2 kids I could find (that were mine) and who appreciated a good picture with some really cool pumpkins. A-Dog felt too old to go and sit himself on a pumpkin and smile for his dear old mom. I don't blame him. But no one offered to take my picture with the pumpkins.....but my hair was a mess....

Honestly, I have no idea where my sweet husband and Monkey were. I just can't remember. Maybe taking all the pumpkins to the truck while we got ready to pick produce?

This is what we picked:

We saved a whopping $5 by picking it ourselves. Good thing too, I had to spend the extra cash on cleaning out my truck and the kids :- )

On to the carving.

I spent way too much time cleaning up the pumpkin seed and prepping pumpkins to be carved. Not enough photos. BUT, look how cool they turned out:

Such a busy time of year for us, tomorrow is A-Dog's birthday :- ). So many things to say about that boy!!! But you'll have to wait until tomorrow!!!

Life's a Beach -

And then you cry.

After 3 straight days at Disneyland - a morning at the beach is just what we needed!

Air temperature: 70 Degrees (perfect)

Water temperature: 68 Degrees (a bit chilly)

A day at the beach where 3 of the 4 kids don't care how cold the water is....priceless :- )

Monkey has a low tolerance for cold water. His comfortable zone begins at 86 degrees.  He did not enter the water, play in the water or appreciate the water like the other 3 did!