The Christmas Box

I had decided that this year we would be skipping having the kids' Christmas pictures taken. With our move coming up, we really did not have the time to get into the photo studio in time to have the pictures back for putting in Christmas cards. Also, the cost always seems to be outrageous and we just can not afford it this year. But last night...I had a brainstorm!

The kids were playing in one of the empty moving boxes and it hit me! I would take a regular digital picture of them, in their Christmas clothes, and have 4x6's printed off from Walmart and THOSE would be our Christmas pictures. Plus it would double as a way to inform everyone of our change of address and save me postage having to send out another mailing! GENIUS!

So what follows is our picture taking adventures this morning:

Trying to get them to stop goofing off!

Trying to keep Hayden from touching Tara so she would stop getting majorly pissed off!

Stepford Children.

DISASTER!!! (Maybe this isn't worth the trouble??)

The FINAL product!! SO FLIPPIN' CUTE!!! (And only $7.19 for 45 prints! Cha-Ching!)

Blog Carnival For The Holidays!

You may have noticed the new button in my sidebar! Its for Tiff's Christmas Carnival! I am so excited for this. I had a blast with her Thanksgiving one! Everyone head on over and check it out!! Just click on the button in my sidebar!

I Wish My List Looked Like Theirs!

While working on a "To Do" list this weekend, my children wanted me to make each of them one as well. I did the writing, they did the listing of things they felt they needed to do. Here are all of our lists:

"Mommy's To Do List"
1. Clean living room
2. Clean kitchen
3. Clean downstairs bathroom
4. Fold & put away clothes
5. Pack hall closet
6. Pack Hayden's closet
7. Call HVAC contractor
8. Pack & clean back porch
9. Pack 1/2 of kids' toys
10. Put dinner in crockpot

"Hayden's To Do List"
1. Rest
2. Do some push-ups
3. Eat something healthy
4. Rest a little bit more
5. Talk to Daddy when he gets home
6. Go to sleep for a little bit
7. Sit around

"Tara's To Do List"
1. Twirl
2. Exercise
3. Take a nap
4. Drink juice
5. Have water
6. Play dollies
7. Hold Kayley
8. Play with Barbies

"Kayley's To Do List" (planned by Hayden & Tara)
1. Do baby exercises - Hayden
2. Stand up - Tara
3. Relax - Hayden
4. Fly a plane - Tara
5. Take a nap - Mommy!

42-7

It's A Big Day!

Let me start this post by sharing you a few words from the song that I woke up to singing in my head...

"We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan, the whole state of Michigan, the whole state of Michigan! We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan, we're from OHIO!"

Oh yes, today is THE day! It's Ohio State vs. Michigan day. The BIGGEST day of the year for every Buckeye fan!



In about 2 hours, it'll be time for us to put the "BEST DAMN BAND IN THE LAND" in our stereo for our own personal "skull session" and cheer as "Hang on Sloopy" fills every corner of this house! Oh it's a mighty big day indeed!!

At noon..it's KICK OFF, BABY!!!





GO BUCKS!!

Abracadabra..Make Mommy Disappear!

Questions I've Been Asked In The Past Three Hours (and my most sarcastic responses):

1. Can I have my cereal and juice..NOW?
(please for the love of God let me get my coffee first!)

2. Is there poop in my panties?
(I don't know, go look! ... NOT IN HERE, IN THE BATHROOM!)

3. When do we get to take a bath, we haven't had a bath in DAYS?
(You just had a bath yesterday, LET ME HAVE MY COFFEE FIRST!)

4. Can I have some crackers?
(Finish your cereal first!)

5. Why are there boxes all over the back porch?
(Because we're moving in a couple of weeks and Mommy has to work like a slave to get ready for it!)

6. Do we get to get our kitten the first day we move?
(No.)

7. Why not?
(Because we're getting our Christmas tree that first day, and I don't want the kitten climbing the tree and knocking it down and RUINING CHRISTMAS.)

8. Can we get it the next day?
(Absolutely not! We'll get it after Christmas is over.)

9. Can we name the kitten Rover?
(Seriously, get over the kitten thing, okay?)

10. Can I have crackers yet?
(No. And if you ask me again I'll throw all the crackers in the trash)

11. Why is Kayley biting that toy?
(Because she thinks she's a puppy dog.)

12. Can we get a puppy?
(Next spring.)

13. Is Daddy coming home yet?
(Not until this afternoon, you KNOW that!)

14. Why do you drink so much coffee and we only get one cup of juice?
(Because I'm the Mom.)

15. Can I have coffee, Daddy lets me.
(Your daddy is crazy.)

16. How does toast turn to toast?
(Because it just does when you put it in the toaster.)

17. Mom, can we eat in the "ricka room" (living room)?
(No way! Do you really think I want to clean up your messes all day like I'm some kind of maid?)

18. Can you make Kayley shut up?
(Shut up isn't a nice word.)

19. Can you make Kayley zip her lip?
(Sure let me wave my magic wand.)

20. Are you a princess, Mommy?
(I wish!)

And my day has only JUST begun..

I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE!!

I know we all would like to have perfect kids that played together, never fought, never refused to share, never punched each other...

But it's a pretty unrealistic dream, at least in my house it is.

Hayden and Tara spend the entire day together, a huge chunk of it they actually do get along and play nicely...but it doesn't take much to have them turn on one another. Hayden will punch Tara in the nose (he actually just did this about 2 minutes ago), or Tara will tell him he smells and all hell breaks lose.

Hayden: "I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE, TARA!"
Tara: *crying* "Mommy, Hayden says he don't love me no more!"
Me: *yelling from the kitchen* Hayden YOU DO TOO LOVE HER, knock it off!"
Hayden: "NO I DON'T!! I ONLY LOVE KAYLEY!!"
Tara: *crying hysterically* "Mommy HAYDEN SAYS..."
Me: "I HEARD WHAT HE SAID! Hayden I. SAID. KNOCK. IT. OFF."

(insert a few minutes of blissful silence)

Tara: MOMMY!!!!!! HAYDEN SAYS I'M A BABY!! I'M NOT A BABY!!"

...(silence)...

Tara: MOMMY!!! Mommy...??

(a few more minutes of confused silence)

(insert sounds of normal playing coming from their bedrooms)

Sometimes when the kids are acting in a heathen manner it's just easier to ignore them! Seriously. I always find myself pulled into their little "trap" and yelling and pleading, and begging them to get along... But it never fails that once I just ignore them, and keep a ear out for what's going on, they always seem to resolve their "issues" on their own.

Or maybe they are just plotting against me?

They both like to remind me multiple times a day that not only do they only love each other half of the time, they pretty much "don't love me anymore!" most of the time too.

Just part of the job description I suppose. They seem to come around and love me again once I remind them who is responsible for feeding them!

Wordless Wednesday

We Got The House!!

Thanks Tiff!

HOUSEHUNTING UPDATE: We have fallen in LOVE with a home! We put in an offer last night... Please, please, please send prayers, good thoughts, whatever, our way so they accept the offer! This is truly the PERFECT home for our family!

Okay..now..

Tiff at Three Peas in a Pod awarded me with the following award:



Tiff is the mother of 3 great kids! She is a very busy lady, but has always made time to be my (online) friend and I appreciate her so much!! You really need to check out her blog if you haven't already! She's always sharing great tips, crafts and giveaways!! Seriously GO VISIT HER NOW!!

There are rules and tagging involved with this award, but I don't wanna follow them! Because I think you all are nice mommas!


Okay so I'm going to tell you just a bit about the house we put an offer on last night. Yes, I know, ENOUGH already! But seriously...I have a feeling there will be plenty of house-hunting, moving, decorating posts to come! This house has 3 nice-sized bedrooms. A cute kitchen with lots of cabinet space. A huge living room with a gas fireplace and large picture window facing the quiet street. An even more HUGE family room with built in shelving/entertainment center on one wall with a large picture window looking out to the wooded back yard. A nice sized bathroom with a big vanity (just what I need!), a basement (with a half bath) that is ready to be finished. And a breezeway from the garage that is big enough to use as a covered patio. It's also in walking distance to a park!

So please, if you are a praying person...pray pray pray!! If you like to send positive thoughts out to the universe...DO THAT! Whatever you can do to support us so that the owners will accept our offer and we'll get the house, I will be forever grateful!!

Oh and one more thing..this house is empty. If they accept our offer...we'll be moving in the first week of December!!!! My head is spinning!!!

Total Chaos!

I know I didn't blog much last week. I had the flu the beginning of the week and the end of the week was filled with house-hunting excitement! So far no luck, but it was wishful thinking that we'd find our perfect home right out of the gate. I'm sitting here now very impatiently waiting for our Realtor to call and let me know which of the 4 properties we're interested in we can view tonight. We looked at 3 over the weekend, all turned out to be NOT for us! Three of the 4 houses we want to see tonight we are both really excited about. I'll keep you posted!

It's amazing how stressful this actually is. I had NO idea!! There is the problem of picking out the diamonds from the duds. Then we have to worry about whether we'll get to view it before someone else does and puts an offer in. Then we have to worry about once we DO put an offer in if it'll be rejected. Then of course, what if we actually get the house and it turns out we hate it once we're in it!? I worry about everything non-stop, so this is obviously no different.

My husband and I are both irritable, grouchy, emotional and stressed out! It's going to be a long process, and by the time we do find something and I'm sure by then we'll both have aged about 5 years!

But on top of all the stress, there is a ton of excitement! So much so that I still am having trouble not jumping up and down at any given moment. The kids were not too pleased when we told them we'd be moving. But once we told them they would have bedrooms they could paint any color they wanted, they started to come around. Then of course (without consulting me) my husband told them they could get a puppy AND a kitten...they are now very excited and won't stop talking about our new animals.

Our house is in an uproar of chaos, stress and excitement. It's scary and wonderful at the same time! Now if we could only find a home! I can't wait to move in to our OWN home. Hopefully this will be our last move! I really really am dreaming of the house we will live in for the rest of our lives. The house our kids will grow up in and will bring THEIR kids back to. I sure hope I'm not getting my hopes up too high!

Sorta...

Yesterday was just "business as usual" around here. Tara took a black Sharpie to Hayden's bedside table and his box springs. (She's a very destructive girl, I tell ya!) I spent the day doing all of my usual "mom" duties. But then I got an unusual phone call. From my mom. She wanted to come speak with my husband and me. Hmm...were we in trouble?

Will and I spent the hour and a half before she finally showed up wondering what could be wrong. Was it something good? Was she coming to tell us she won the lottery? Did she just want to tell us that she preferred ham instead of turkey for Thanksgiving? Was she moving to Alaska so she could become a "hockey mom"? What the hell was going on? It was torture!

She FINALLY got here. She hemmed and hawed and finally said, "Now you can say no if you want to, but..."

"I want to buy you a house."

WHAT!? SHE WANTS TO WHAT?!? AM I DREAMING!?! WHAAAAT????

"Now, it has stipulations. I am already preapproved. You'll have to find a house within a certain price range. You can get whatever house you'd like, although I'd like to get to be a part of the house hunting since it's always so much fun. And I'd like you to buy the house from me in 3 years for the remaining amount of the loan. You'll be paying me the house payment (taxes, insurance) monthly until then. But it would be yours."

So WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE! Sorta.
My mom is BUYING US A HOUSE! Sorta.

I'm freaking excited..to the point that I was jumping up and down and doing a wild dance in the privacy of my bathroom last night!

I'm scared out of my freaking mind as well. What if we make the wrong choice? What if she changes her mind? What if our Realtor hates us and gets us a bad deal?

But with all of the emotions running through me right now..the one that is the most overwhelming is how much I love my mother!

Yesterday was the best day of my life! Sorta.

Wordless Wednesday

Another Mess Courtesy of Tara! (If you look closely at the wall at the top of the picture..you can see one of the blobs of nail polish from her last bout of "curiousity".

Can I Crawl Under A Rock?

I am on Day 3 of a major headache. This is not unusual for me. I get a headaches ALOT...very few last for 3 days. It's been a stressful week at our house so it's not a total surprise.

Kayley has learned to scream. About EVERYTHING. The temper tantrums she throws, makes up for all of the temper tantrums the other 2 never threw! Hayden is constantly mad at me about every decision I make. And Tara...well she is just always into everything, which in turns causes her and Hayden to fight because it's usually HIS stuff she's getting into.

This morning, I was NOT ready to get out of bed at 6:30 when they all woke up. I sent Hayden down to turn on the weather, and decided I'd lay in bed an extra 10 minutes or so hoping that my headache would ease enough to be bearable. (I haven't mentioned that along with working 10 hours M-F...my husband usually works until noon on Sat. & Sun. so I usually have to face the mornings alone with these monsters!)

I fell back to sleep. For like 20 minutes. I woke up to Hayden screaming "Tara has that finger painting stuff ALL OVER MY ROOM!" He was right. Tara had escaped from her room when she heard him turn on the TV, took the cherry red nail polish, I had used the night before on my own nails and forgot to put away, and painted on his walls, sheets & night stand. Then when she heard him yell for me she shoved it under his bed where it pooled into a giant puddle.

After starting to calm down I walked into the living room to find that she had gotten it all over an area of carpet, smeared it all over my husband's leather footstool and put three large blobs of it on our big screen TV.

I got it out of the living room carpet. I will have to take a stain remover to it later, but soap and water got the majority of it our because it was only on the surface.

I can't get it out of Hayden's carpet, off the walls, sheets or footstool. Any suggestions? (Besides buying a cage to keep my daughter in?)

Hallelujah! It's the weekend! NOT!!

2010

Some days I just can't get over how quickly my children are growing up. Hayden, who will be 5 this winter, gets up every morning and before turning on his cartoons, will watch the weather first to see what kind of day it's going to be.



Tara is 3 and is now sleeping without her beloved binkie, and informed my mom the other day that she is "too big to sleep in that stupid crib anymore". Tara has been in a twin-size bed at home for almost a year now, but at my mom's house she'll still sleep in the crib because my mom is worried about her waking up at night and roaming around. I guess now she'll be sleeping on the futon that my mom has set up in her "grandbaby room".



Kayley turned 1 this fall, this girl is as smart as a whip. If we say it's time for dinner, she'll crawl into the kitchen before anyone else. If we say it's time to brush our teeth, into the bathroom she goes. It's amazing how much she understands.




I just have such a hard time accepting that my babies are really not so much babies anymore. It's sad, it depresses me. But at the same time it thrills me to think of all that we have ahead of us! I have my 10 year high school reunion coming up in 2010, I was thinking just yesterday how old my children will be when it comes around. How will I talk about my life. I realized that when people ask me if I have kids and how old they are I'll will have a 6 y/o, 5 y/o and 3 y/o! It was shocking to me! NO BABIES! AAHH!! But with any luck, I won't have any diapers to change, no bottles to wash, no crib sheets to fight with, no strollers to break my back loading into my vehicle. Everyone will be walking and talking and my heart will be breaking thinking about what my life will be like in another 2 years. It's a vicious cycle, but I wouldn't change it for the world!

INFO

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Okay..I think that's it! Now READ TODAY'S POST BELOW!! :)

Since I Depressed You Yesterday...

...I'll try to make you make you smile today!

Here is the list of things I've done this past week that have either not cost any money, or if they did cost some money, the emotion reward was MUCH greater!

1. On Saturday I threw a surprise party for my husband's 38th birthday. It was HIS FAMILY ONLY! Something that we NEVER do! I made pizza's and hid them in the freezer in the basement the day before. I bought beer and liquor and also hid them in the basement so he didn't get suspicious. I bought presents, wrapped them in the Speed Racer wrapping paper that Hayden picked out and again, hid them in the basement. Oh and I made a cake that morning...and you guessed it! HID IT IN THE BASEMENT! He spent the whole afternoon, once he got off work, washing our cars and working on the brakes in our van. Around 4, our son(who knew of the surprise) started yelling "SOMEONE'S HERE!" As we walked around to the front of the house he saw his sister and her family getting out of their car. As his sister handed him her present. I said "Surprise, this is your birthday party!" About 15 minutes later the rest of the family showed up. He was so happy and truly surprised. I had pulled off his first surprise party of his life! I am still smiling about that!

2. Sunday morning we woke up and our 4 and 3 year old crawled into bed with us to watch their cartoons. We never do this. It was so warm and snuggly! What a great way to start out a day!

3. I taught my 4 year old son how to spell and write "Halloween". That was cool! (In the picture his writing is the bottom one.)



4. We took all 3 of our children to vote with us. Even gave the older 2 our "I Voted" stickers. They knew how important it was, and were so quiet and well-behaved! I couldn't have been more PROUD to be American!

5. My husband and I cheered when Obama was declared to have taken Ohio. Our home state! What a PROUD day to be an Ohioan!

6. I took the kids to their Tuesday morning class, "Jump & Shout"...on the way we drove past my husband's work where he was outside for his morning break. We all got to tell him "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" since Tuesday was his official birthday. It was wonderful to make him smile.

So...what things have YOU done this week that have made you happy. What things have you done that have made others happy? I'd love to hear about it all!

Don't Let Me Depress You

It's pretty obvious from some of my posts over the last week that I do not have to tell you that I am very pleased with the political headlines this morning! But...I AM, I AM, I AM!!! :) On that note, this is the extent of my political blogging. Back to the regularly scheduled mommy-blogging for me!

Now that Halloween and the Election are officially over, it's time to start thinking about the Holiday Season. This really has my head spinning. I am NOT ready for any of that. It could be that it's been over 70 degrees here for the last couple of weeks, but it could also be the fact that money is TIGHT and I get bad anxiety in normal circumstances...add in trying to buy all the fixin's for a Thanksgiving feast, Christmas presents for all 3 of my children, my 3 stepchildren and my 1 step-grandson, not counting all the extended family we buy for, plus things for myself and my husband! It makes my head spin!

I have been trying to put money back for all of this...but it never fails, something else always pops up. You know, things like rent and groceries!! Thank goodness gas prices are now cut in half! Right there is a major relief!

Wow, I'm even depressing myself with this post. I can't help it. It's stressful times in this country, I think everyone feels it. I just certainly hope our new President really will bring CHANGE! And maybe by the time the holidays roll around next year, things will be better. One can only hope!

He's Voted...Have You?

Go Obama!!!!

All I have to say today....

HELP!!

A few questions...

1. How in the world do I learn to work "Twitter".
2. How do I put "Twitter" on my blog.
3. Do you like the new look now that the sidebar is complete?
4. What is an easy way to set up a blogroll that I dont have to manually add people to?
5. How in the world could I only have been gone from blogging for a year and so much has changed??
6. Could you leave the links to some of your favorite blogs so I can check them out?

Thank you for all of your help! Now don't answer these in your head...go comment the answers to me!

:)

Halloween Recap

So Halloween has come and gone. Thank goodness! I was tired of listening to "When do we get to go get candy!" Now its a fight over when they are allowed to eat the candy. They've been begging since 7:30am today. I'm ready to throw it all away already!



While we were out it was pretty uneventful. It was the typical, "Trick-or-Treat", "Thank You!" You know the drill! But we made it to one house in particular and their grass was very high. For the most part everyone's lawns around here are very meticulous looking because we've had frost so everyone has done their final mowing and there has been little growth. Well Hayden and Tara walked up through the yard to get the candy and then came running back through the yard to Will and me waiting on the sidewalk.

Hayden took that opportunity to YELL "Why is their grass so HIGH!? Don't they know they should MOW IT!"

We just smiled and grabbed their little hands and headed on to the next house as fast as we could trying not to crack up laughing.

Yeah, not very exciting, but it was funny and I thought it was worth sharing! If you live in the neighborhood we trick-or-treat in...one word for you! MOW!


And on another note..if you live in the United States of America...I have just one word for you as well! VOTE!!

Don't forget, if you haven't taken advantage of the early voting, tomorrow is ELECTION DAY! Let your voice be heard!!!

Random, I Don't Feel Like Blogging Post

So I'm not really in the mood to blog today. I have to finish getting things around for the surprise party that I'm throwing for my husband tonight, that I'm pretty sure he knows is coming.

I'll have something fun to say on Monday I am sure. Actually you'll probably just be getting some trick-or-treat pictures and the story of how my son managed to embarrass us on our little journey. It'll have to do! :)

Tuesday...I'll remind you to vote.

Wednesday...I promise I'll figure out something thrilling to post....or maybe I'll do a "Wordless Wednesday".

I don't know! You'll just have to keep coming back to see what going to happen! You just never know!

And MAYBE someday soon I'll get all of your links back up on my sidebar! If you're good and leave me comments!!!

Have a great Nov. 1st! Only 55 days til Christmas (say it ISN'T so!!!)....