Today

Today we went over to Saloma's house. Of course the kids had a blast. Woodstock says Flossy and ChooChoo are his best friends. I took a few pictures of the kids playing. The best part was helping Saloma start her new blog. I'm excited. She is really into reading blogs. I have been telling her that she needed to start blogging. Her and her husband were raised Amish. They left the Amish community about 8 years ago. They now have 3 adorable kids that she is homeschooling. Who wouldn't want to read about their life? I'm sure it's not as wild and crazy as ours but.....few can be.
Stinkerbell and Flossy coloring

BFF

Random Things

Did anyone watch 20/20 last night? Oh my goodness! It was the craziest stuff I've ever seen. It was called extreme parenthood. If you didn't see it then you need to look it up. I'm sure it's on the web somewhere. The first thing was about orgasms during childbirth. That's right people, I said orgasm. These women didn't have pain during their childbirth. It was one big orgasm. Anyone who has kids is probably in shock right now reading this. I sure was watching it. Then there are these babies called Reborn Babies. This woman makes them in Florida and they go for upward of a thousand dollars a piece. They are sooooo life like it's freaky. There are these people that are really into these dolls. They take them to stores and buy them clothes. When they are out everyone thinks they are real. This one lady even has birthday parties for her dolls and invites other kids. They have nurseries and wear diapers. Very odd. There was also a story about surrogates. This one woman has had 12 kids for other people in 13 years. Or maybe it was 11 kids in 12 years. I don't remember and my computer is slow. I don't feel like looking it up. Either way, you get the idea. The last story was about breastfeeding. Let my preface this with I know breastfeeding is a sensitive subject for moms. I'm sure I will offend people but oh well. I don't think there is some kind of magic age to stop nursing. However, I would personally stop breastfeeding a child who is old enough to ask in sentence form that they want to nurse. I do feel it is completely everyone's own choice and that's the way it should be. With all that being said. There were woman on last nights show who were nursing.......prepare yourself........here it comes.........nine year olds.
Last thought for the day. I just read that John Travolta's 16 year old son just died. That is very sad. They were in the Bahamas. Which is where Anna Nicole Smith was when her son died. I think that's where she died too. I don't think we will be vacationing in the Bahamas anytime soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My goal last year was to read the Bible through in a year. As I have mentioned before, I am a couple of months behind on this but I will be finishing. It might take 14 months rather than 12. I'm still proud of myself for doing it. Accomplishing a goal is always fun. There are a few goals that I have every year. That would be eat healthier and exercise. Once again those will make it on my goals for 2009. One day I'll accomplish it! Here's the 2009 list.

1. Eat healthier/exercise
2. Turn the t.v. off more
3. Pay off credit card debt
4. Be simple

My #4 goal has been something I started striving for a couple of months ago. It really should help in all areas. People say it all the time but we have soooo much stuff here in the great 'Ole USA. Even the poorest have a lot. That stuff just takes up money, space, and a lot of time. I've really embraced my new attitude and find it exciting. The hubby hasn't gotten on board completely. He said it sounds good to him....except for his stuff and the stuff he wants. Oh well. I do the vast majority of spending anyway. It's not just about buying less. It's about being happy with less....which is still alot.

My Birthday and Satan Medicine

Yesterday was my birthday. I am the big 27! I'm not sure why everyone always says "the big" in front of their age. I had the best birthday I've had in a while. I always love birthday's. But the older you get the less exciting they are. Last year everyone forgot my birthday. My hubby and my two older brother's were the only one's who remembered. I can't hold it against one person for not remembering because I'm bad at remembering people's birthdays. It's just sad when everyone forgets at one time. This year everyone remembered. I had a bunch of calls and messages. The best part was when I woke up. Woodstock and I had been talking about my birthday the day before. He was very excited and went to the store with the hubby to buy everything to make me a cake. Tuesday I woke up to Woodstock smiling and rubbing my cheek. I opened my eyes and he said, "happy birthday mommy! I love you soo much". It melted my heart. He knew it too because the next question was, could he have chocolate milk and M&M's for breakfast. And I let him too. It was my birthday, don't judge me. Normally being woke up like this would be sweet but it was extra sweet on this day. Woodstock has had one sickness after another for about a month. Which means pretty whiny. Plus it's winter and being couped up a lot doesn't help. However things had just been getting worse. Woodstock is not the best behaved child but he's pretty good. He is most definitely always super sweet. The main things he gets in trouble for is getting into/climbing things and being too anal. He gets really upset when his sister doesn't do things just the way he thinks they should be done or she messes his things up. For example he'll organize all the toys and she'll come in and heaven forbid get something to play with. Anyway, for like a week he went beyond whining to yelling at me when he wanted something and constantly crying or screaming about something. The hubby thought it was a phase. Which scared me! I had just told my mom a couple of days ago I was really beginning to question my parenting skills. He was that bad. Everything changed on my birthday. He woke up happy and sweet and was pretty much that way all day. I thought it was just a special birthday gift from God. Then last night I got a call from a friend of mine who has a child the same age. She said they just put her son on a steroid and told me the doctor warned her they might make her child a little evil. Woodstock had been on that same steroid for a week and ended it the day before my birthday. Who knew a medicine could bring out Satan in your child. This might be common knowledge to everyone else. But if you're like me and had no idea, just remember this when you give your child a steroid. Today he's still happy, sweet, and behaving. It must of been the medicine. Dear God I pray it was the medicine!

Christmas Pictures

A Few Hours Out

I have really needed a break. The older the kids get the less breaks I need. Today I had to have one. We have been couped up inside for too long. There's never much to do in the winter. The weather has been nasty and everyone is always sick. The kids are not sick now but Woodstock has been SUPER whiny. It's gotten so bad that Stinkerbell has been walking around saying, stop whining. I needed to buy some Christmas presents and thought today would be a good day to leave the hubby with the kids and go out for a while. You might be wondering why I'm buying Christmas presents after Christmas. That's when everything is on sale and we don't see our family until after Christmas. It works out well. I went to Lifeway and bought some presents then went to Old Navy and bought the hubby and I some pants and then went to Barnes and Noble. I had some reading I needed to catch up on and some presents to buy there. It was a win win. I'm reading the Bible through in a year. I don't think I'm going to make it. I did good until this past summer. All that to say I have three months to read in five days. But I read for a while and drank some great hot cocoa. I love hot cocoa. I realized that I am bad at relaxing. The whole time I was gone today I couldn't stop worrying. Not about the kids being o.k. I just kept thinking how I hoped they were behaving and not stressing my hubby out and how I hoped everything went well and everyone was happy when I got home. I don't leave them very much but there is nothing worse to me than coming home to whiny kids and stressed out hubby. It gets me stressed when he is. I guess it's a good thing I don't work while he stays at home with the kids. I'm much better when I'm the stressed one and he's the calm one. Plus it takes me more to get stressed. I'm rambling....I'm just in that kind of mood. The day out was nice but I wish I could relax more. After I left Barnes and Noble I had to go to Target to buy a few things. It had been raining and was really wet outside. I walked out and was holding for bags in one hand and a thing of paper towels in the other. I came to the end of the side walk where there were two minivans pointing right at me and they were both full. I know this because I made eye contact with everyone right before I busted my butt. Technically, it was my knees. I stepped of the curb and went straight forward. I dropped everything and skinned up my knees. A lady that was in one of the minivans opened her door to ask if I was o.k. I said yes but just embarrassed. I think falling is always funny and I was laughing at myself but it's always extra embarrassing when it's in front of a lot of other people and no one else is laughing. They were all just staring at me with that whole "blesss your heart" look. I got home, skinned knees and all, at about 5:00 p.m. The kids and the hubby were all happy and fed. After all of this excitement I started to take all of our Christmas stuff down. I get just as excited about taking Christmas stuff down as I do putting it up. I'm always ready for it to be gone. Woodstock started getting upset. He said it wasn't Christmas yet. I told him it was yesterday when we opened all the presents and everything. He started crying and said we hadn't gone up to heaven to sing happy birthday to Jesus yet. I thought it was cute a while ago when he said he wanted to go to heaven to sing happy birthday to Jesus. I just left it alone then and didn't think much about it. Now I realized I should of explained how we can't go up to heaven. There were a lot of tears and a lot of explaining. I finally got things o.k. by telling him Jesus is watching him and could hear him sing happy birthday to Him. It was pretty cute though. Even though it was sad. Through his tears he told me that Angels could fly and they could come get us. After everything got happy again he would go to the window to see if he could see Jesus looking at us. I'm going to have to have the preacher on speed dial with this child. He keeps us on our toes!

*Disclaimer- I do not bake*

Woodstock has been begging for weeks to make gingerbread men cookies. It is amazingly a lot harder than you would think to find a store that carries the stuff. I ended up getting it all at Michaels. Which is where I should of gone in the beginning but wasn't thinking. Woodstock ended up having fun but the cookie event was a disaster (picture). The first batch hubby dropped in the bottom of the oven because he burned his hand. The next and last batch caught on fire because apparently I didn't get all of the cookies out of the bottom of the oven. We just decorated the burned cookies. Here's a pic of one of the little guys. It did have gum drop eyes but Stinkerbell ate all the candy off of him. It's not beautiful but Jesus's birthday cake did turn out much better. Check out the little figures on the cake. Baby Jesus looks like he's two or so. I got them at a party supply store. I guess we're not the only ones who makes Jesus a birthday cake.

Frustrated Friday

It's kind of like Thankful Thursday but....not. Frustrated Friday. It's about things that frustrate me. Feel free to have a Frustrated Friday on your blog too!

1. Woodstock still has an ear infection because he's also got a stomach bug on top of that and can't keep his antibiotic down. Yesterday he had to get a shot....sad and frustrating. I pray we are all well for Christmas or at least Woodstock can keep something down.

2. Woodstock threw up curdled milk on our couch and I cannot get the smell out. Any ideas? Can you take couch cushions to the dry cleaners?

3. Money....lack there of.

The Sick Season

My mom told me once when you have small kids it's like living in a petri dish. She was right. We all had colds for a couple of weeks then everyone's went away except Woodstock's. His cough turned into bronchitis. He finally got over that then Stinkerbell got really nasty ear infections. She's on round two of antibiotics plus she got a shot. The good news is she's finally getting better. Then Sunday Woodstock started running a low grade fever and was tossing and turning all night saying his ears hurt. Now he's on an antibiotic because it's a nasty one too. Good news is today they both seem to be doing good. The bad news is that since they feel good Woodstock sees no need in the meds. It doesn't help that they don't taste good. We have 8 more days of the meds. and he threw up last night after he took it. 'Tis the season!

Then and Now

It may seem hypicritical of me to be against Santa but always do the Santa photo. I love to compare them every year. I have a lot of them from when I was little too. Too bad there's not a frosty the snow man or something for them to have their picture with. Maybe I can start getting my hubby to dress up as 'ol frosty for Christmas pics!
Last year

This year

Things to Remember

I just saw this post on Natalie's blog. I love the idea and I'm going to do it just like she did. I'm going to start this post now and just update it every now and then as the littles get bigger.

1. Stinkerbell says "jew" for juice. I rarely give them juice but whenever whe wants something to drink she always asks for it. Which means she is constantly running around yelling "jew" at me.

2. Woodstock calls french fries "hoop pies". He can't say the f sound in words but we have no idea where "hoop" came from.

3. In our house butt is called "boohiney"

4. The kids think everyday is Sunday. If the sun is out it's Sunday.

to be continued...