Day 238

This is Marc flying the kids remote control jet thingy. Poor kids didn't get to fly it cause Marc flew it into a tree.

Day 237

I know it is Hannah's birthday, but today was a big day for Caleb. Why???? He was well behaved. Don't get me wrong, he is not bad, he can just be hard to handle and sometimes out of control. Many days I feel like all I do is tell him no, which ends up being me yelling at him. Yesterday, both of us had had it. We sat down and had a talk. I figured he is 5 and it won't do any good. Lo and behold...today.... I have made sure I have talked to him and given him attention. I have also made sure the older 2 didn't unfairly blame him for stuff....they tried. They just didn't realize he was sitting in the floor next to me playing when they said "Caleb did it." I did spend some time correcting Josh and Samantha today though. They tend to want to boss him around and that apparently is where a lot of the conflict comes from. Anyway, today EVERYONE was calmer and happier! I am praying for another day like this tomorrow. My little buddy even initiated the prayer at dinner. This hasn't happened in a LONG time. He also brought me some books to read to him and sat down for me to read all 3 of them. It was just so nice to have my little dude back for a while. Don't worry I will cover Hannah's bday in the other blog. Oh, this picture is from Hannah's little "party"

Day 236

Today I just had to go to the grocery store. The left overs were gone. I really dread going to the store with all 4 kids. It is not about Josh and Samantha, because they are fine, they just seem to get into everyones way. Caleb seems to act up more when they are around. I put Hannah in the basket as usual and she kept pointing and telling Caleb to sit. He didn't want to, so I didn't make him. Sometimes he does fine. He was not really bad, just kept wandering. During the week he is always close enough and not tons of people, but I was trying to keep him, Josh and Samantha in my eyesight and it was not working, so in the basket he went. He was not too happy about it either. Hannah was upset because her "baby" lost its seat. She found a new one for the baby...check out the picture.

Day 235

We are hooked! Just wish we could get the drums separately. We have the Wii, so you have to buy the whole thing.

And seriously...I sat here looking at this picture waiting for something else to load...doesn't she look like me at that age? Freaky....

Day 234

Sorry, I did not get a chance to update Hannah's blog today like I said I would. Just had too much to do today. I started out at Discount to get a tire fixed, it ended up needing to be replaced. Marc informed me that Discount charged my bank card 3 times...so back tomorrow. I also ended up taking Hannah to the dr. It is just a virus. Then I took Josh and Samantha to see a movie. We saw Bedtime Stories and loved it. Here they are at the theater. They are anxious for this movie to come out.

Day 233

I seriously don't know how to pick just one picture for today...heck, I don't know how to narrow it down to less than 10!!!! After agonizing over my decision....I picked one of Josh with the guitar Santa gave him. He has an electrical and has been trying out different ones. He wanted a classical, so that is what he got. Samantha go a new bigger bike. Caleb has been crazy over remote control cars. He has never had a "big" one, so Santa got him one this year. Even better is that he is the one who took this picture! I will have Hannah pictures and some pretty funny Hannah stories posted in her blog sometime tomorrow. Have I mentioned that she is a character??? Oh and I actually got my tree down!!! I love Christmas, but the tree had overstayed its welcome and had to go! LOL

Day 232

Today was Christmas part 2...I think part 1 is in Hannah's blog. Well, we started out the day decorating cookies. Caleb spent the whole time on one cookie. You will have to check it out, it is the first picture. Then to all of our surprise/horror, he ate it. You see, there was an inch worth of icing on it. After he took a bite, he put on more. Christmas Eve night the kids always open the gifts they got each other. It works for us! In the past when we didn't do it like this, their stuff gets lost in the chaos. For the last 4 years we have done it Christmas eve. It has been great! The kids are so excited about the gifts they have given and really look for the reaction they get. Everyone did GREAT! Lots of love going around. There is one of Hannah where she looks mad. She was sitting in my lap, so it was hard to get pictures. She is mad because the baby was stuck...you know how they bolt them to the boxes.... Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. I have also been adding pictures in Hannah's blog too. I think I have blogged there 4 days in a row.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Day 231

I have several pictures from today. Today we made cookies, we will be putting icing on them tomorrow. The kids love doing this. Hannah has not been feeling well so she slept through the whole thing...thank goodness. She woke up in time to make a flour angel on the table. The picture following that one is of her mad at me. She wanted to go outside and play with everyone else, but since she has had this yucky cough (it kept me and her up all night) I wouldn't let her go. She was NOT too happy about it.

Day 230

Josh has been complaining lately about headaches and blurry vision. I think he just really wants to see farther than he can. I took him to the eye dr today. Here is Josh in his cool shades. The first words out of Caleb's mouth when Josh put these on was, "Josh, you are a dude!" Gotta love the little guy. He made me laugh after being couped up in a little room with him (and everyone) for what seemed like an eternity. Cause we know after that I really needed a laugh!!!!

Day 229

Today we had Christmas at my dad's house. I have some good pictures, then my battery died. I bought more a few days ago, but didn't put them in my back. I will say there was one highlight that really stuck out. It had nothing to do with gifts either. I am hoping this picture is clickable so you can zoom in. Caleb has had a loose tooth for about a week now. It was pretty loose, but could have hung on another week. The one next to it was a tiny bit wiggly also. Well, the boys were being boys (my two, plus Craig, Kyle, and Trevor) and rough housing. Caleb comes in the house crying about his teeth. Really I think it was probably the blood that freaked him out. In case you don't know he is terrified of blood. He came in with a tooth. I took him to get cleaned up and realized he was missing TWO teeth! He got his two front (bottom) teeth knocked out...poor baby. He was so excited about losing his first tooth. Needless to say, the other tooth is somewhere in Grandpa and Mimi's backyard. He looks cute though. He has been having fun sticking his tounge through the whole. When he realized the tooth fairy was going to give him money he tried telling me he lost 3 and 4 teeth and they were in the backyard somewhere too. LOL

Day 228

**added a video

Tonight we went up to the church for the Shane and Shane concert. It was awesome. Here is a picture. I will upload a video after it uploads. My memory card ran out so the very end of the song got cut off, but it was awesome!!

Day 227

Today I did it! I took Caleb to get his haircut. I made his appt and we got there, then Miss Samantha starts throwing a hissy about how she needs her haircut. It is true, she did, but gosh...the drama. Of course you know this close to Christmas you can't just walk in and get a haircut. I kept checking, no bugging the lady at the desk and finally they had someone cancel, so she got her haircut. She was upset that it was not with her normal girl, but I told her she was just going to have to deal with it. Aside from some bitter woman calling Caleb annoying the kids look good. Let me tell you, I know Caleb can be annoying....he is 5! The deal was he had to go to the bathroom, so I took him over there and he checked the knob, it was locked. No biggie....well I don't know what that woman was doing, but me and 4 kids could have peed and been done before she was. Caleb was being a typical 5 year old who has to pee. He was jumping around near and in front of the door...not messing with the knob. This lady starts yelling from behind the door at him. He of course didn't hear and was still just jumping around. Still not bumping into the door or turning the knob. I heard her again, so I called Caleb over to me (I had Hannah in the stroller and couldn't really move without blocking a walkway) and I picked him up. She FINALLY comes out of the bathroom and goes on and on about how annoying that all was. Seriously!!!! I looked up at her and just said, "he is 5 and about to pee his pants, of course he is going to jump around" and I walked to the bathroom. Boy, did every fiber in me have to restrain myself from what I really wanted to say!!! My only consolation is that about 30 minutes earlier I put a yuck Hannah diaper in the trash...when I say yuck, that is an understatement! Maybe she is still smelling it in her nose for the year she was in the bathroom! LOL Anyway, I did have an after pic of Samantha, but something messed up on the memory card. I have a back and front of Caleb before. The back picture doesn't really do justice to how long his hair was. When wet it was longer than Hannah's. Then we have the after picture. Not sure why my camera made one of the before's sepia either. It has been doing funny things lately.

Day 226

SCORE!!!!! That is what I did today. I had to go to Market Street today, so I stopped into Gap to check out their clearance prices. Check out what I got! This is a black velvet dress I have wanted for Hannah. It is regularly $30, I paid $10.49. I bought it bigger so she can wear in next year.

These are cargo pants for Josh. The poor child only has 2 pair of pants because his legs won't stop growing. Also means I am always doing laundry...then again I would do that anyway. They were marked down from $30 to $8.23!Samantha needs pj's. She has a few, but has pajama day at school tomorrow. They were told they can't wear the dress ones and all her pant pjs are too small. These pj's sale for $20 and I paid $6.74

Those are my pics for the day. :D

Day 225

Today was the Christmas party for the Gathering Singers. Let me just tell you, it was the most adult fun I have had in a LONG time! Marc had all 4 kids AND actually had to take them somewhere. This was a first for him. LOL Really, I am not joking!!! Hannah will be 2 in less than 2 weeks and this is the first time Marc has taken all 4 kids somewhere without me. Let's just say he is wiped out and all he did was go to Target! All you moms, time to crack up!

I had my dessert made, but gosh there was more dessert than 3x the amount of people could eat. I am bad and didn't eat lunch or dinner in preparataion...well I had a banana. I gave the cards the kids made (I mentioned a few days ago) to the person they were supposed to go to. It was great. After food and lots of fellowship we did an ornament exchange thing. I forgot about the ornament, so I grabbed one off the tree on the way out the door. Caleb is going to be mad later...oops. I took a nutcracker, but it is the one that looks like a pirate with a sword. He likes to sword fight with that one. My first pick, I got some bells, not loud bells. Sweet sounding bells in the shape of a star. I was happy, but it got stolen. Not in a bad way, it is the way the game was played. So, I went and stole the snow globe ornament.

Very cool, but it has to be higher up on the tree. LOL Sorry, no pics of me. A few might turn up on facebook later though....

Day 224

Today was grocery shopping day. It was for sure interesting. Caleb was in his pajamas because he had pajama day at school. Hannah had her lunch in front of her because she slept late. The two of them were actually getting along and cutting up, just not very quietly. As soon as I put Hannah in the cart she flipped the other seat down and said "Caleb sit" and patted the seat. (I of course can't begin to type out how she says it)I had a lady who we seemed to meet on every isle complement me on my two cute girls. Ok, I have heard that befor and can see how someone might think that, so I just smiled and kept going. Kids are still cutting up and still pretty loud. I am annoyed by it, but they are getting so many comments and cute looks, so I just kinda let it go. Really, they weren't crying or screaming, just having fun; although, I did get a few sourpuss looks, but it doesn't surprise me. So anyway, we are just shopping along and stopped at the bread and muffins samples and a man complemented me on my two boys. Yes, I said boys. LOL Now Hannah was not dressed all frilly. Her hair was pulled back, but napped on, but still....I don't see it. What about you?

Day 223

About a week and a half ago someone made an impression on Caleb. Sweet baby boy announces he was going to buy this person a Nintendo DS. Um...sorry, but no. Then he says ok he will just make a card with a heart and lots of letters. Ok, I can deal with that. LOL Well, if you know Caleb, you know sitting still long enough to do that is unlikely. Samantha also likes this person, so she asked for some cardstock to make a card. I gave her a few sheets. I should have know better. She loves to color, draw, paint, etc. Well, she used every sheet I gave her. Her card is a book. It is so cute though. Josh, my sensitive child can not have someone do something nice and not do something also, so he also made a card. It is not nearly as elaborate as Samantha's though. Finally today Caleb made his card. I seriously thought he forgot, but somehow remembered today while we were in the car. As soon as he came in the house he got out his card and some paints. He didn't want to use colors or pencils and he painted away. Hannah was not happy because she only got colors and markers, but cool mama really didn't feel like cleaning up that big of a mess today. Here is Caleb making his card. He never got around to letters, but we all knew Caleb wouldn't be able to handle sitting for that long. LOL

Oh, and I get to give all the cards to this person. Fun for me, hopefully he doesn't think my kids are weird stalkers because they really don't know him that well. Neither do I for that matter.

Day 222

Let's see...today we have Samantha's lame attempt at cleaning her room. You can see how much she got done! She lost the access card for her tv, so no more until it is clean! The other picture is of Josh watering his plants. We have so many tomatoes! We are just slicing them and eating them. LOL Oh and the shirt he is wearing is the one I mentioned yesterday. It is our GAP sale shirt.

Day 221

My plan today was to try and finish up my Christmas shopping. Well, Josh and Samantha still need passport photos, so I had some tag-a-longs. It also meant I didn't get to finish. Our last stop of the day was at Market Street. I had to visit my new favorite store and my old favorite store. Then of course I had to check out the GAP clearance rack. I got Josh this awesome super nice button down shirt for $8! Here are Josh and Samantha in front of the tree at Market Street. Josh is upset because he broke something in one of the stores and was feeling bad. He did go back and apologize and explain what happened.

Day 220

The return of movie night...again. Tonight it was Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns.

Day 219

Two pictures today! The first is our view from the window of the dermatologists office. The ledge or windowsill is really wide, so the boys sat on it. Hannah was fine looking out the window from the chair. She wanted to be like the boys, so she got up there too. Then, she looked down. LOL She was TERRIFIED. I have never seen her move so fast.

The next picture is of Caleb. We were reading a book about the fruit of the Spirit. He was eating an apple and the girl in the picture was also eating an apple. He thought it was just awesome!

Day 218

Joshua and his Texas sized snowman! Plus some of a snowball(marble) fight.

More pics will be on facebook and Hannah's blog.

Day 217

I have 2 pictures today. I took a picture of the tree. I really hadn't gotten a good picture today, so why not? Look closely at the picture of the tree. What is wrong with it? LOL The other picture is of the girls brushing their teeth. Samantha leaned up against the wall and Hannah had to copy her.

***The tree no longer has any ornaments near the bottom of the tree. Hannah keeps yanking them off and running around the house with them. Now all the ornaments are just out of her reach. Of course we are still finding some scattered throughout the house.

Day 216

Josh on his way to guitar practice. He didn't use his guitar today though. He tried out a classical to see if he liked it and could play it. Apparently, he has the potential to be really good because his teacher was so excited. Shhh....don't tell, but it is going to be Josh's Christmas present...plus a case, stand, and foot stool. :)

Day 215

Here is a picture of Caleb sining in church. I will put up the video when it is finished uploading.

Here is the video

Day 214

You guys will not believe that this is the ONLY picture I had today. We were going into church for the BIG performance. I had put Hannah down about halfway up the walkway. She caught a glimpse of these animals and took off. Of course the animals were near the parking lot, so I am chasing her with full hands and a LONG shiney dress on. LOL I am sure it was a sight! The show was AWESOME! I hope those of you in the area came. I can't wait to get my DVD so I can see all I missed by being in the show. I was informed that I was on the big screen a lot. Not sure that I like that since my hair was in my mouth for the first 3 songs. We were told to keep our hands at our side no matter what. LOL I even tried to spit it out, shhh....don't tell the lady standing in front of me. LOL It was fun! I can't wait for next year! There will be 4 shows next year. There might be more pics that pop up on facebook, but I don't know. Anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Day 213

Tonight was dress rehearsal for the Christmas program. It went well. It also went on and on. Good thing I know my music! I can only hear the strong sopranos that surround me. The alto next to me usually sings the soprano part. Then again, if I was a little unsure I would probably be singing what I hear also. The kids were great! It was so hard to not look around at everything going on, but John would get mad if we weren't looking at him...probably because we kept missing our intros. It is going to be so awesome though! I can't wait! Stephen even told us we were going to get a DVD...which is great because I want to see everything. Anyway, the pics tonight are of the kids having a quick bite before going their own ways. Caleb and Hannah had a pj party for parents night out. Caleb didn't want to wear pj's though. Josh and Samantha spent most of their time with the kids choir. They are dressed in their scarves and sweaters. The other picture is of me. I swear I haven't had on so much make-up since I was 17 trying to look 21. ----Ok, those of you who didn't know me then, don't looke so surprised. Those of you who knew me back then....just hush!---- Apparently, I need to have a little more on tomorrow....those darn lights! Oh well, at least it has been fun seeing all the men (yes men) wearing make-up LOL

Day 212

Tonight was Josh's Christmas program at school. It was cute, but Hannah had to be cuter! Everyone around us was watching her. She was singing and dancing. She would even do all the hand motions the kids did.

Day 211

Tonight was one of our long nights at choir rehearsal. It is almost Saturday!!!! Here is a picture of Josh going up to the stage. The other picture is MY view of the kids choir from the choir loft. If you look you can see Josh near the back row. He is turned aroud looking at me.