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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas 2008

Another Christmas gone by...



We survived Christmas and it was wonderful as always, my kids are so spoiled between us and our families they made out like bandits. Christmas Eve we went to my Grandma's house our usual tradition that I have been doing since I was 3. My kids look so forward to it which makes me feel so good having traditions for them. Another tradition that my Mom started years ago was me and my sisters and herself must all wear matching Christmas socks. Yes she is a dork but I still love her. This year she waited until the last minute to find socks and all she found were these light up knee high socks. Very uncomfortable but we still enjoyed them.. Christmas Eve is also my Moms birthday and I often feel like she gets ripped off because it is never a day all about her, but Steph made her an awesome birthday cake with her favorite thing (popcorn). All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. Now we have a new year to look forward too. We are having our usual get together for New Years. My kids look so forward to this night. It will be transformed to a game house, the guys are planning on hooking two Xbox's up so they can play on seperste TV's against each other, and we have the Wii so hopefully us ladies will get a chance to play that. Plenty of food and kids running around the house, catching up with all the ladies that I see but never get a chance to really talk too. Can't wait and I am praying that 2009 is a good year for everyone.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Cookies and Gingerbread




This weekend was perfect except of course for all the snow, the bad roads, our snow blower breaking down and Hailey running a fever. (ok maybe it was not so perfect) No really it was, I got all my presents wrapped, caught up on all my laundry, and baked a few cookies with the kids. I got to take my Sunday afternoon nap, life is good for the moment anyway. We baked some cookies with the kids Saturday night, that's always a treat with Hailey, the chick has zero patience and does not believe in waiting her turn to help at all, but she actually did good, I think we only had tears one time that night. I love doing things with the kids but I sometimes dread it only because of the hassle. I know that sounds bad but I like to have all my stuff in order and do it myself and with 3 extra sets of hands things can get complicated. I do it to myself every year I plan out everything in my head, we will make Christmas cookies listen to Christmas music and everything with go smoothly and perfect, then reality always hits me with disappointment, the kids fight, things never work out the way I imagine. Well over the years I have learned to just relax. I am trying to be more like John and be more go with the flow. I am happy to say for the first time I did just that. We all had so much fun, baking ,listening and singing to Christmas music, the night could not have gone any better. We even did the our gingerbread house with nothing uneventful happening. I can honestly say I loved every minute of it. We finished the night off watching Home Alone well the kids did anyway.(Mommy and Daddy fell asleep on the couch) I really watched John while we were making cookies, he is so patient. I have always known what a good Dad he is and how lucky the kids and I are to have him but sometimes I don't take the time to really appreciate him. He loves being a Dad, I love that about him, he has never looked at it like a job. I can honestly say that he has more of a hard time letting our kids grow up than I do at times. I will be the first to say that I love how much easier it is now that they are older. John does not want them to grow up and leave us ever. We can not even discuss what things will be like once they are out of the house. He honestly gets mad at me for even talking about it. All I kept thinking was how lucky my kids are to have him, how lucky I am to have him, he has taught me so much more about parenthood, love and life than I would ever admit to him. He makes me want to be a better Mom. He is constantly reminding me to stop and just enjoy the moment, he keeps me grounded when everything else in my life is crazy. He always reminds me that money is nothing we should lose sleep over. As long as we are all healthy and happy, those are his famous words that I so take for granted. Most women would appreciate their husbands reassuring them and I take it for granted because I hear it all the time. Anyway I hope all my friends can do the same, appreciate whats in front of them this Holiday season. Appreciate the life and the people that God has blessed you with... I know I am.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Great Wolf



This past weekend we took our once a year trip to Great Wolf Lodge and as always it was blast. None of us were ready to come home. This year was especially great, for the first time in a long time I was able to relax and just enjoy my kids. I promised John I would leave all my worries about money, family and my many other issues home and try to be a stress free as possible. Which I am proud to say I did. I savored every moment with them. Even when they were asleep, I found myself starring at each of them just being thankful for my blessings. It was so much easier in the water park now that the kids are older. Hailey was able to do everything. The video is from our dinner at Red Lobster it does seem that we make a scene every time we go out to eat, and that night was no exception. Hailey had burned her tongue on a cheese stick and let out a roar of a scream but still did not stop her from eating more, when hers were all gone she wanted Tylers, he said she could have it for her dollar, she agreed but once she got it she did not want to part with the dollar. John is fully annoyed because I find the whole thing somewhat amusing. Great fun, great laughs, I love my family!!!

Dinner

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

My Wednesday Bitch!

So this week is proving to be vey stressful. Bad things usually happen to us on weekends, or Mondays , well now they are hitting us on Tuesday's and Wednesdays. Yesterday I go to plug in my straightner and it is completley dead. Now I have one of those fancy straightners that you order off TV not the $40 ones you can buy at Meijers. It was very expensive, I purchased it back in August and told John it would be my birthday and anniversary gift. I had to have it. It has not even been 6 months yet and it is already broke. Luckily I bought the protection plan. It's fully covered but it is going to take forever to get back because I have to send the broken one in and they can try to repair it or send me a new one. This could take weeks people... So I finally get over my selfish moment and see that it's not the end of the world, its only hair. It just burns me that when you spend more money on something it should last you a bit longer than the cheap ones. So I am over that and I get the kids off the bus and Hailey casually informs me that she pooped her pants at school, I'm looking at her she is in the same pants I sent her in. I bend down to make sure I heard her correctly and then I could smell it. Are you kidding me??? So I take her in my bathroom, throw her underwear away, and start asking her ???. She then tells me that she pooped when they were painting. She said she went in the bathroom but a boy in her class kept turning the light off while she was in there, so she got scared and came out. Unable to hold it any longer she pooped her pants. So this poor girl sat with a huge terd in her underwear for god only knows how long and rode home on the bus like this. Never once telling anyone. If that would have been Ty or Kenzie they would have been crying and thinking the world was coming to an end. I started putting the puzzle together, poor Hailey has been having issues about school for about a week now. She never wants to go and each day her fits get worse. I asked her more ??? She told me that this boy picks on her constantly along with another girl. First off I can't believe that Hailey actually puts up with this. She is the kind of chick that usually takes nothing from no one. I guess thats what being in a different environment will do to you. So I called her teacher and left a message and still have not heard anything back. I will give her until this afternoon then I will call again I guess. I had to drag her in the bus kicking and screaming once again this morning. It's the most awful feeling making your kid get on the bus when you know that they don't want to go. One more thing to add to my list's of bitches today, our furnance once again is not working, we woke up to a freezing house. Are you kidding me? Has it even been a month? The repair man is coming this afternoon, so thats when I will find out how much it is going to cost this time... So now I am taking a deep breath, thanking God for all my blessing, these problems are just minor I must tell myself that even when I'm frustrated I must remember it could be MUCH worse. I am going to try to stay positive and make the best of my freezing house because at least I have one...

Sunday, December 7, 2008

New church members and a bit of bragging about my son.


It's official, we meaning John and I along with the Palmers and my Mom are now members of our church. To think we have not even been attending there a year yet. It was such a busy day at church, I was sucked into doing the Advent reading and candle lighting with my Mom, my Mom did the lighting and I did the reading. Which I must confess I was a bit nervous about. I also had to go back up and read the scripture later in the service. I did not really give it much thought earlier in the week but last night I started feeling a bit anxious over getting up in front of everyone. All morning long all I did was practice to John and Tyler, (sorry guys, I am sure I drove you both nuts). I was so thankful when it was over with, John just could not understand why ME of all people would feel nervous about reading in front of everyone after all I talk everyones head off. I explained that the older I get the more I really hate the thought of everyone starring at me and I was certain I would mess up in some way, but thankfully it all went well and in all honesty it was not really all that bad. Pastor even asked me afterward if I would be willing to do it more. I'm a bit bummed I have to miss Tom and Lea having a turn next week. Good luck guys!!! Something else I wanted to share was about Tyler. He receieved two academic awards the day before Thanksgiving. I am so proud of that boy. We had gone to conferences a few weeks ago and he was struggling in two subjects all because of a one test in each subject. He was given the chance to retake each test and passed them both with A's. Which brought all his grades up to A's and B's. He amazes me each day, he actually loves to learn. He is full of questions and although sometimes I am annoyed with all his asking I am so very proud of him for wanting to know and fully understand everything. I Thank God for blessing me with him for a son!!!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Catching Up!




So our Thanksgiving went great, this was the first year in a long time that I can remember not cooking. John usually insists on me cooking so he can stay home and watch football and we are guaranteed left overs. This year on account of my Gradma being alone I thought it might be a good idea for her to have all of us over her house and she could do the cooking since it is something she really enjoys. Plus the Lions are really sucking this year so John did not really care where he watched them. I must say I still feel strange walking into my Grandma's house knowing that I am never going to see my Grandpa sitting in his chair again. I just does not feel right. In fact Thanksgiving was the first time that I have been able to sit in his favorite chair, some how it brought comfort to me rocking Emma in it. For that feeling I am so Thankful.. Before heading over there we took our Christmas picture for our Christmas card, what a joy that always is. Hailey has had this dry bloody nose for about a week now and it looks like there is a sore in it, well I had cleaned it out before the picture and made it bleed alittle. (Stupid on my part.) I really did not think you could see the red when we were taking the pictures but then when I loaded them into my computer I wanted to cry every picture you could see her red nostril. By this time it is the next day and I was in no mood for any more pictures, so luckily John found a program to take it out. So hopefully you won't be able to tell on our Christmas cards. Thanksgiving night we headed to Johns Mom, after a few hours of the kids visiting with everyone I had to bring them to my Moms for the night, because John and I were staying the night at his Moms in order to get up early shopping. We did not go to bed until after midnight and got up around 3am. Not enough sleep for me but i was excited to get to the stores so at that time it was not bothering me. We headed to the Walmart in Fremont, my mother in law had said that she had gone there last year and it was not really that busy. So we get there after 3:30 am and the parking lot does not look to bad, but buy 4:30 it had turned crazy. Luckily John had come alone because I needed him to stand in a line for me. I left him in the toys secton along with my sister in law, their mission was to get a certain toy for my nephew and High school musical 3 dolls. My poor sister in law probably took the most abuse getting the dolls, she said people were acting so crazy. I went for the PJ's for $4. I thought no one should be to crazy in that area. Boy was I ever wrong, I encountered some of the most craziest women in that isle. In the end I got everything I wanted but it was an experience. After that we hit all the other stores in Muskegon. I was so tired by noon, but it was so worth it because of all the money I saved, I will be doing it again next year thats for sure. We had a few good laughs along the way too and memories like that are priceless. By the time I got home my Mom was more than ready to send the kids home she had all five kids over night, taken them to Chens for lunch and to Pamida (CRAZY LADY). So she dropped them off and I felt so bad I went to bed I could not stay awake, John had fallen asleep on the couch so our kids were basically taking care of each other for a few hours. It took me until Saturday to feel normal again. I don't do well on little sleep. So I am almost done with my shopping I have never been done this early it almost does not feel right.