last new years eve..

All I can seem to think about today is what I was doing last year on this day.

Last year on this day I was in the hospital.

• I was waiting (impatiently) to have Jack.
• I was scared.
• I was nervous.
• I was happy.
• I was MISSING MY GIRLS sooo badly.
• I was hoping and praying for a high platelet count.
• I was hoping and praying for him to "catch up" quickly.
• I was hoping and praying that nothing was wrong with his belly.
• I was hoping and praying I'd get to see my LAST baby before anyone else in the family (no such luck).
• I was hoping I could handle 3 babies in less than 4 years.

I have no idea what 2010 is going to hold for our family, but I do know that we have been very blessed during 2009 and that's all we can really hope for.

everyone else is doing it

Since everyone else is doing it, I guess I'll do MY Christmas recap with a few of the million pics I took. :D

Well, we have definitely had a BUSY last 5 days. AWESOME, but busy.

Wednesday, we went to this free family event that was sponsored by the local churches, called "The Arctic Express". It was fun and the kids had a really good time.

Thursday we had some fun checking out the lights (see the video in my last post), after opening some new Christmas PJ's.

Christmas day was awesome, of course! We did just what we ALL wanted to do. We stayed home and enjoyed the day playing with toys, visiting with family and eating! The kids LOVED all their gifts. We had a yummy dinner, of which, there were NO leftovers! (I'm thinking about going and buying another ham so we can have some "leftovers" lol).

Saturday morning Josh's dad brought gifts over and we had a nice Christmas visit with them.

TANGENT:I think that my father in law is the best "receiver" of gifts that I know. No matter what it is, he is always so thankful and appreciative of it. I know that's a strange thing to say, but I always think of that because I hate when you think you got someone something they will like and they are just like "eh". He is never like that. He always recognizes the work that was put into something etc.

Also Saturday afternoon was my dad's family Christmas party which was lots of fun. There were quite a few people missing, but also some out of towners that got to be there, so that was really nice.

Sunday we went to my moms house for our Christmas visit. We got to see my Grandma (first time since June) so that was really good. And everyone got some really nice gifts and had some good food.

So the next couple days are going to be spent finding places for the new toys, getting rid of some old ones and catching up on the laundry (for me) and playing with new toys and watching new movies (for the kids). I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Some awesome Christmas Lights

This year, we spent our Christmas Eve checking out the Christmas lights around here (after putting on new Christmas Eve jammies :D). A couple of houses were AMAZING and I took a video of the one house. Enjoy!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Not wrong, just different

• Why do some people have the "my way or the highway" mentality? Just because something is different, doesn't make it wrong.
• Why do I HAVE to do things the way you did them?
• Why must everything I do be taken as a personal insult?
• When will it be OK for me to raise MY CHILDREN, MY WAY?
• Why would a 40-something woman liken herself to a 90-something great grandmother, just to prove a point?
• Why would a grandma THREATEN to move 12 hrs away from her grandchildren, or never get them Christmas gifts again just because she can't get her way?
• Why would someone accuse her own daughter of not loving her?
• Why would someone keep herself from seeing her own family on Christmas out of sheer stubbornness?
• Why would someone who supposedly "hates" the way her mother acts, act THE EXACT SAME WAY?
• Why, would you act like a petulant child because everything can't be the exact way you want it?
• Why wouldn't you just enjoy the second best option and make it as nice as possible?

These are the questions plaguing my brain for the last couple of days (among many others). I guess there are some people that I will never understand. People that need to control everything and everyone and have everything THEIR WAY, or just not at all. I feel like I can't make everyone happy, no matter what I do. So I've chosen my children, my husband and myself. I've chosen our happiness over hers. And I still feel like a failure. But I'm a failure either way, so...

The Best Christmas Movies

I've been called a Christmas fanatic, a Christmas-aholic and a Christmas freak (upon many others, I'm sure lol). So I'd like to share some Christmas wisdom. And what do I know more about than Christmas?...MOVIES of course! So here are some that I watch at Christmastime (or all year long lol). They aren't in any particular order, just what I thought of when I started typing. If you feel that a grave miscarriage of justice has been done because I've left off one of your favorites, let me know, I may have just forgotten it because I've had a long couple of days. And also, if you haven't see ALL of these movies...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR...CHRISTMAS?! ;-)

Christmas with the Kranks

The Santa Clause

Elf

The Polar Express

Miracle on 34th St (the original, but preferably in color)

A Christmas Story

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

The Family Stone

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

A Christmas Carol

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

Home Alone (I will include 1 & 2, but NOT 3)

Frosty the Snowman

A Charlie Brown Christmas

It's a Wonderful Life

The Family Man

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Jingle All the Way

A Christmas Carol (the one with George C. Scott. all others suck)

Deck the Halls

Jack Frost

Scrooged

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

Comfort and Joy (this a made for TV one, but it's one of my faves)

Twas the Night Before Christmas (the animated one with the mice and the clock)

Annie*

While You Where Sleeping*

Serendipity*

The Holiday*

Last Holiday*

Love, Actually*

We also like to watch some religious ones at Easter and Christmas. Some of our favorites include...

The Greatest Story Ever told

The Passion of the Christ

The Ten Commandments

Merry Christmas!!

*These are not necessarily Christmas movies, they are just set at Christmastime and I always watch them at Christmastime.

"normal" is over-rated

I've never liked the word "normal" and I try desperately not to use it, ESPECIALLY when talking about my kids. My mom used to say "why can't you just be normal" to me all.the.time and it really hurt because I look at people and don't really think ANYONE is normal, right? I mean what is normal?

However, I am not ashamed to say that whatever normal is, my sweet, wonderful little Jackson, is not. He's got these little "quirks" (that's what we've decided to call them because it's less hurtful than "omg that kid is freaking weird" lol).

Example #1 hugging/petting/chasing the vacuum cleaner. Often, if I've misplaced him, I can go into my closet and there he is laying on the vacuum sucking his thumb. Then he'll sit up all excited, petting the vacuum, practically begging me to sweep the floors. And of course I give in (our floors have never been cleaner, btw).

And how about his...uh...foot fetish(?). Most babies have a "lovie" of some kind. A blanket or stuffed animal that catches their eye around 9 months of age. Jack...nah...none of those were good enough. For Jack, it's socks. yep, any old sock, will do (clean, of course). If he's crying, you hand that boy a sock and he'll immediately put his thumb and half of the sock in his mouth and he'll be asleep in no time.

This one is a two-fer because you can see the sock in his hand and he's also under the Christmas tree which is his new favorite place.

He thinks it's hilarious to growl at people (me mostly). He'll hide behind something and I'll hear him start "grrrrrr" and then he'll peak out from behind whatever it is and laugh his little head off.

And last, but not least, he sleeps like this....

It's total cuteness, but ohmehgah he's a cranky little guy when he wakes up after being in that position for an hour.

We've talked about it and decided that if he ends up like that kid from "the middle" we're going to love him just the same. ***the saaame*** (sorry, you'd have to have seen the show, to think that's funny but i couldn't resist).

The Nutcracker

One of those awesome traditions that comes with Christmas, is that my mom takes my sisters and I (and next year the girls!) to see the Nutcracker Ballet at the Palace Theater (which is soooo gorgeous and filled with awesome history BTW. if you ever get a chance to see anything there, do it!). It was awesome, as usual. However there was a slip-up that involved a male dancer, a female dancers head & a wall. yah. I would have LOVED to be backstage after that one....LOL.

I can't wait to take the girls next year. Sophia was DEFINITELY not ready for it this year and I didn't want to take Maria without her, so we just decided to take them both next year so they can really enjoy it. I don't want to be like the crazy people that bring babies to the ballet and then of course, they scream and are miserable the whole time. And it always amazes me how many people get there late. Ugh. It's so obnoxious. People pay good money to go there only to miss the whole first act because people are late and can't find their seats. Then their kids scream, talk, whine etc. through the whole thing because they aren't ready for it. blah :-P. I told my mom that when we are rich we'll by 3 rows of seats then we wont have to worry about the people around us LOL.

So, here are some of the pics I got. We always take a pic of us girls and this was the first time I took any during the performance because I was never sure how they would come out without the flash. But I have to say, they are pretty good and next year I'll probably try to take some of the parts I missed this year. Some of them are kind of blurry because they were moving so fast, but otherwise good. A bunch of the costumes were new and a few things had been changed up, so that was nice. Also, this year we were in the balcony, which we actually liked better than the floor seats we usually get. I got another ornament...and yes I forgot to take a pic of it, sorry. All around it was a really great day with the girls.

I can hear the music in my head when I look at this pic.

Everyones favorite "the big dress lady".

All of the "toys".

These two were definitely the best we've ever seen

This was all the leads getting flowers at the end.

Mid-preschool crisis

So, I'm pretty sure that Maria is having a midlife crisis...or mid-preschool crisis as it were. It seems like the last couple weeks, whenever we talk to her about something exciting that's going to happen, she's running down all the possible ways it could go wrong. This morning I said "why are you so worried all the time. just enjoy life, like the rest of us. you're going to give yourself an ulcer" To which she began asking "what's an ulcer? why i gonna have one? I don't want to have an ulcer..." (good one, Renee!)

Example A:
Me: If we get enough snow, we can go out and sled down the hill! :D
Sophia: YAAAAHHH!!!!
Maria: But Mommy, we don't have enough "slides". And there's not enough snow. I don't want to fall out of the slide. It's too cold so my hands will get cold. I can't find my gloves or my hood. Where you put my snow pants?

Example B:
Me: Do you guys want to go see Santa!?! :D
Sophia: YAAAAHHH! I wanna see santa and his beard! (said more like bird) lol
Maria: OK. But how we gonna get there? He can't talk because his beard is on his face. You tell him he have to wear pants* and his hat...and his coat. But he can't have a beard because then he can't talk.

Where, oh where, did my innocent child go. Over night, she's turned into a 45 yr old man who needs Cymbalta.**



*This is because my little prude did not take too kindly to the Rockets, during the Thanksgiving day parade, only wearing "santa's shirt, but not his pants and I don't want to see their knees". yah...I suppose that one could have been Example C.

**Don't worry, I would never put my child on drugs. :D

Best Christmas Tree EVER

Ok, IDK if that's actually true, but it's what my mom says EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR. so I feel a need to keep the tradition alive.

As I was thinking about what to share with you all today, I remembered that I hadn't shared the pics of our tree with my blogger friends who are not also my facebook friends.

We went to a different place this year to get our tree, and I think it was a winner. It might be our new "place". However, the girls did not feel that the woods surrounding this particular tree farm were adequate for their urination needs and they refused to go, even though they swore they could do it, pulled down their pants and squatted....for a full 2 minutes...in the cold....true story. Aaaanywho, needless to say, they each put about eleventy billion ornaments on the same branch which brought the bottom half of the tree to the ground, so momma had to help them out a little bit with their dispersment lol. And then Josh came lifted them up so they could put some on the very top, which they just loved. They did the same thing last year, so we were not all that surprised. And when they do it next year (plus 1), we wont be surprised then either. One of those memories, I just love about the holidays. However, teaching Jackson that crawling all the way under the tree and subsequently sit up and/or grabbing anything he can find, is not a good idea....not one of my favorite memories from this year. Though, when he's 15 and wont let me kiss him in public, I'll probably cherish it. Until then we have a tree that is strangely bare on all of the very bottom branches. Well, enough of all that. here ya go...

Josh and I joked that the light in this pic was God saying He approved of our choice. lol

They've been sitting there or in the chair beside the tree or in the loveseat beside my Christmas village, just watching. I love it. Simple pleasures, I guess.

And the finished product....basically. It's one of MY Christmas traditions to rearrange the ornaments all season long (It must be genetic because my mom does it too).

Oh and for those of you worrying (I know it was keeping you up at night) over the family pic in the last post...we "sort of" solved the problem. You'll see if you give me your address so I can send you one. :D

christmas pics, NOT for the scrapbook

I'm not ashamed to say, I'm having a shitty day. Ohmegah...now, I'm rhyming.

Josh and I were picking at each other this morning. Then we try for the SECOND day in a row to get a family pic in front of the tree, and for the SECOND day in a row, Sophia absolutely refuses to smile, which, of course, lead to tears, tears and more tears. Ugh. TURD! It's not exactly something that happens in the blink of an eye, ya know (getting all 5 of us bathed, dressed in dress clothes, hair done, makeup done, posed, tripod up, etc., etc....). So, doing it two days in a row is a HUUUUGE PITA. So Whatthehellevah! I give up for the day. I totally understand that it's not even 5:00p, but, I'm throwing in the towel of this day. Josh just said "well, we can try again tomorrow". I really admire his sticktoitiveness. He really is the yin to my yang. lol

So this is what we ended up with...

I'm actually thinking of just sending this one out since the rest of us look good.

music to my ears

So, I'm pretty sure that my parenting skills are mildly successful. The older they get (obviously) the more things that come up. HOWEVER if you start things when they are young (like respect for everyone and everything, manners, sharing etc) they will carry over to when they are older. I know I was not the best kid when I was growing up, but I would never have spoken to my mother the way I've heard some children speak to theirs. It made me so proud to see that Maria got the highest score on "respect for others" and "respect for property" on her evaluation at school every month so far.

So, back to the point of all of this. We have been working on "taking turns" because as every toddlers knows...everything is MINE! lol. So I've sort of just eliminated the issue. If they start fighting over something, I take it. And I tell them that when they learn to take turns they can have it back. And ohmyword, I think it's actually working. It's been about two weeks (of being CONSISTENT) and this morning when I was barely opening my eyes I heard this beautiful exchange between my girls....

Maria: Today is you're turn to get the pop-tarts, Pia.
Sophia: Thanks Mia.
Maria: Yesterday was my turn, so today is your turn.
Sophia: Today is your turn to have the princess cup.
Maria: YAH! Thanks Pia!! You have the princess cup tomorrow.
Sopha: OK Mia.

It's like music to a mothers ears :D

baby bunching

I love reading blogs that are informative and helpful. This is definitely one of those blogs.

http://www.babybunching.com/

When you are blessed with three children in less than 4 years, like we have been, you are in a totally different subset of parenthood called "baby bunchers". There are things that you have to be equipped to handle that someone who has three children in 6 or 7 years, would never think of having to deal with. You don't have an older child to hold the hand of one of the younger ones. You don't even have one child that is old enough not to hold your hand in public. And yet, amidst all your blessings, you were not blessed with that third arm everyones always talking about.

You can't just go out to the mall, on a boring day, with that cute little bundle tucked in the stroller, like you could when you had one (or even two). Actually, the phrase "boring day" hasn't even entered your mind in the last 4 years except to be on your Christmas wish list.

Even being at home and doing everyday activities (like eating dinner) can be extremely...well...eventful. Getting a break is rare (unless you have awesome parents, like mine, who are happy to spend some time with their Grandkids). Because finding someone capable of replacing you, is...well, not an easy task. Not everyone, can handle the crying, fighting, whining and all-around neediness that are included in the job of taking care of 3 children under the age of 5.

Having an "outside job" would be laughable. So you have to cut corners and make sacrifices where you can, and accept that things aren't going to be like they were when you were dating. And why would you want them to be? Even through all of that craziness and stress we wouldn't change our lives "back the way they were" for anything in this world. Because that would mean cutting out the best part.

Would things be easier if we had 3 or 4 years between our children? Of course. But there isn't anything in this world that is worth having, that is easy to get. (Didn't a great man say something like that once?). We didn't decide to have our kids less than 2 years apart (with about every pregnancy complication known to man, and a total of 4 months in the NICU) because we thought it would be a piece of cake. (Obviously) We did it because we knew it would be difficult, but we also knew we could make it through together and we'd be an even stronger couple (family) for it. And we knew it would be SOOO worth it to have these wonderful children in our lives forever.

Baby bunching, is not for the weak. It is not for the selfish or the impatient. It's not for everyone, but if it is for you, it's incredibly rewarding. And if you are blessed to be a baby buncher (by choice...or not), I highly recommend http://www.babybunching.com/ to help you out through the journey.