snot, snot, and more snot

I'm sorry I haven't written, but I have been dealing with a nasty cold that my 2yr old has. One that the nose constantly runs yet stays so stuffed up that she cannot breathe. This moved to her chest where she would cough and gag while all that mucus mess rose up and choked her. Nasty mess. This is the kind of cold I HATE. She sleeps with us and its terrible to hear her struggle to breathe at night. It makes me want to cry to hear her. Then the coughing and gagging and gasping. I had her propped up on so many pillows to try to keep her upright. Of course she was not happy unless she was laying on my arm which helped to keep her in place even if I could not feel my arm in the middle of the night. It is worth it since it comforts her and she seems to be able to breathe better propped up. I would do anything to take away this nasty mess of a cold. I ended up taking her to the doctor which was a 2 1/2hr wait in the little exam room with 3 kids. FUN. We played fairytale charades, I Spy, rock paper scissors, read books, washed hands, sang songs, you name it. When I was at my wits end on how to entertain her and my 8yr old son exclaimed, "Can't we just leave now?" The doctor finally came in. I went through all the struggle to be told that he would not give her anything for the congestion or cough as her lungs sounded good, but that she looked like her ear was getting infected. So I went to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription. This place was a parents worst nightmare! Overpriced toys everywhere including a 5 ft tall stuffed giraffe which had a sign on it that read "Don't try to ride me or your mommy will have to buy me." It was $100.00! I had to set my 2yr old down for a minute to get out her ins. card and she proceeded to look at the helium balloons on a spinner fixture right by me. She went to go behind it and it started to fall. I quickly grabbed the fixture only to knock every flipping package of balloons down. She thought this was great. I then proceeded to hold her while I picked up the packages and put them in piles so I could hang them back on the fixture. All this happened right by the register. Finally a nice clerk came around and helped me. Fun night. So here we sit with the same symptoms waiting for the cold to run its course. Sleep is not for happening right now and today my other children had Saturday school until noon to make up for the snow day they had on Monday. They were so excited to get up at 6:20am this morning! I was too. Off I go to wipe my baby's nose.

This is my son't face when he found out he had school today (Saturday). He actually makes this face when he does not want to do his homework also. :)

My little snuffleoppogus. I hope you feel better soon sweet baby!

camel anyone?

Conversation between my five year old and myself.

5yr old: "Mom, can I have my camel now?"

me: "Huh?"

5yr old: "My CAMEL MOM!" said with much exclamation.

me: "What are you talking about? What camel?"

5yr old: "THAT CAMEL!" said while vigorously pointing at the cantelope sitting on the counter.



That being said we all enjoyed our "camel". :)

Weekend Warriors

We spent the weekend trying to get out and enjoy the weather. I took some photo's of our outing at the playground. It was suppose to be in the 50's but the wind made it feel chillier. The kids had fun and I kept warm by running around snapping photo's and assisting my 2yr old when needed. As you can see the valentines bears went with us. Sunday it was snowing and since church was cancelled we spent the day doing crafts and playing games. Needless to say when school was cancelled today we were crafted out and I ended up breaking out the colorful rice and letting them go at it. It is messy play but worth all the smiles and exclamations that it produces. My 2yr old decided that it was fun to sit in the tote of rice and pretended to take a bath in it. She finally had to be removed out of the tote so others could enjoy it. She wasn't happy with that but finally got in the swing of things and enjoyed playing with her Sib's. I am sure I will be sweeping up rice for months to come. :)

"Hello, is there anybody there?"

"Are you talking to me sissy?"

This is how my son spent the time. Racing around the playground on his skateboard.

She struck this pose in the bubble and I had to snap her picture. Does she look relaxed or what.

Valentines Bears

My sister's MIL sent some valentines bears to the kids. They came all the way from Oregon. They were a HIT! Needless to say the bears went everywhere with us the day they came. They love them. "They are so SOFT and CUTE!" The two little one's had matching bears which they loved. So THANK YOU Delma for your thoughful gifts!

(Don't pay attention to the date on the picture as someone has messed up the date on my camera and I have not fixed it yet.)

my girls

Big sister - 13yrs

Middle sister - 5yrs

Little sister - 2yrs

My little stars!

BIRTHDAY PIE

My 8yr old son decided that he wanted to make something special for my upcoming birthday. Pie was decided on. Apple Pie. He peeled all the apples himself, mixed up all the ingredients and only got big sister to help him when the pie crust was being stubborn. Yes, he made homemade pie crust. He is such a sweetie! He is always thinking of others. Thank you son! You warm my heart. And thank you big sissy for helping with the hard part. You guys are the best!

Here they are rolling out the dough. Doesn't he look excited!





















Here is the finished product. Way to go guys! I can't wait to eat it! I love you all very much! Thank you for my pie made with so much love!

No School Again

Today school was closed. The kids were ecstatic until I told them that this would mean they would have to go on Saturday. UGH! was the response. They spent the first part of the morning trying to decide what to do. My children are usually very imaginative and creative when it comes to play, but one of the things I noticed is that during the school year their senses are dulled and their creativity screeches to a halt. I am not sure what causes this. Maybe the sitting for hours during the day in a classroom with just facts and figures coming at them has something to do with it. During the summer they can let their imaginations soar and they come up with such elaborate games and ideas! I enjoy this very much. But now it seems like they cannot come up with anything and need to be told what to play. I don't know, maybe it is just the winter doldrums setting in. Although they do still play outside a good bit. I just love watching their metamorphosis come summer.

One important lesson I learned today involved finger paint. I found a new recipe for finger paint which involves flour, salt, oil, and kool-aid. You mix it all with boiling water. What appears is a glob of goo that is pretty and smells nice, but does NOT resemble finger paint. I kept adding water but it still did not have the true consistency of finger paint. But, the kids were excited so I placed them at the table with paper and set them loose. Wrong thing to do. The 5yr old did fine with it, but the 2yr old loved the texture so much that it ended up all over the table, chairs, floor, walls, and her. This happened because once she was done with her "painting" she shook her hands and rubbed them on anything in sight to get the gunk off. I could not catch her and clean her fast enough. Needless to say I came up with the idea of putting them in the bathtub to finish painting and them they filled the tub with water and grabbed some sponges and cleaned it all up. They loved that and so did I! Next time I will start them off in the tub. :)



















Catbird after her bath.




















Sissy's enjoying snuggle time.























Brother enjoying one of his favorite past times.

Hair Tips from a 2yr old

Earlier today I gave my 2yr old some yogurt when the phone rang. I answered it to find it was my hubby wanting me to look up the weather in CA where he was going due to a road being closed. I ran in the living room and hooked up to the Internet and proceeded to give him the info. he was looking for. I noticed it was quiet in the kitchen but I assumed it was due to her eating her yogurt. What was I thinking? Everyone knows what a 2yr old left alone with a container of yogurt would do. Like DUH. So of course I ran and got my camera so I could capture the moment. When I first saw her she looked up at me right in the middle of her intense scalp rubbing and sheepishly said, "sowwy" then laughed. She really loved the yogurt texture squishing between her fingers and oozing down her forehead.

















She seemed rather proud of her latest hair fashion. I laughed with her and picked her up and kissed her. She was so cute. I had to hurry up and give her a quick bath as it was time to go pick up the others from school. I snapped another picture tonight of her since she is sitting right next to me as I type this. She is singing and holding her favorite book, The Poky Little Puppy. She is saying "read my puppy mama, MY PUPPY". So I am off to read her puppy book.




















BTW: I read a great article over on Suburban Turmoil last night. It was regarding what SAHM's do all day. It was excellent. I can so relate to the response the woman (aptly named Carolyn) gave. It you have time you should check it out. I know that when I used to work full-time I had all these dreams of what I would do it I was a SAHM. Needless to say I had no idea what it really entailed. Now I know! But I would not trade it for anything in the world. This time is so precious to me.

Valentines Weekend

Well I can honestly say the weekend ended on a much brighter note than it started. We celebrated Valentines day with punch, dinner, and movies from the library. The movies consisted of Dr. Seuss from about 15yrs ago, a Dinosaur movie from the 70's that was a non-fiction about the dinosaurs, and we ended it all with Creepy Creatures which is a movie from National Geographic in which a black cat narrates about all the creepy creatures such as the rattlesnake, black widow, vampire bats, Komodo dragons, and lots of other creepy things. These were very appropriate for Valentines day wouldn't you say? We also flew kites, went for a walk, and read lots of books. The kite flying was the highlight. TJ has now made 3 kites and is still experimenting. He wants to make kites and sell them now that he realizes how much fun they are. He is such the entrepreneur. On a funny note. When we went to go for our walk we met up with our neighbors children. There are 3 of them ages 5, 8, and 10. They were in their yard playing and asked if they could go along. Before I could respond they ran in and came back out and joined us. I looked at Kristina and said that I feel like we were in a parade. It was me and 7 children all walking along the road. The funny part was that we got half way down the road and their dad pulls up besides us. His kids yell, "Hey dad! Is it alright if we go for a walk with them?" He responds with, "Oh now you ask me." I told him it was Ok with me and that I would have them home soon. I apologized and said that I was told they had asked to come. I don't really think he thought I was crazy enough to kidnap 3 more children to go along with the 4 I already have. At least I hope he didn't.


















I wanted to add some pics of the kids so daddy could see them. Here is my catbird after she saw her cupcakes for school.





















Here is TJ flying his kite.























No this is not a picture of my baby getting ready to be eaten by a vicious dog. It is her Scooby having a conversation. I think he is telling her what he would like her to sneak to him off her dinner plate. :) She does love to share with him.

Here is my little monkey. I caught her hanging around in the kitchen. :)




















Happy Valentines Day Honey!!























Here are the love bug cupcakes I made for Katie's class. They are kinda cute if you squint your eyes and hold your head just so...

Ranting

I am feeling FRUSTRATED. I am tired of having to pull teeth to get my son to do his homework. Having to sit with him while he does his math because he waited until forever to do it and cannot remember how to multiply and divide. This causes a fuss because he is stubborn and will not memorize his times tables so he has to resort to drawing bubbles with tick marks which takes FOREVER and he HATES, but he will not believe me when I tell him how much easier it would be if he would just memorize them! Then I had to fight with my kinder to finish her valentines and do her homework and then the bedtime struggle that is so common in families across the globe. All this is but the icing on the cake so to speak as my 13yr old has spent the evening reading and when I inquired about her homework she told me she did not have that much. When I asked for proof I discovered that the book report/project that was due TODAY, that I have been hounding her for weeks about is NOT DONE. She proceeds to lie to me about it until I find the instructions giving by the teacher and prove to her it is not done and her excuses make no sense. I extend her grounding and have the usual teen vs parent clash and I am struggling with my impulse to shake the stink out of her! She has appalling grades and everything we try is not working. It is not that she cannot do the work, it is just that she won't. UGH. I have grounded her for the rest of the school year as a result. She has no TV, no PlayStation, phone, friends outside of school, nothing. I told her until she starts focusing her attention on her schoolwork she will have nothing else. Until I see proof of her efforts in this I will not relent. Yes people, I am a MEANER and I do want to "rule her life." On a happier note. I spent the day making/decorating cupcakes for my kinder's classroom party tomorrow. Here is a picture of them. Nothing to write home about that is for sure. They are suppose to be love bugs. Maybe if you squint your eyes and hold your head just so.. I also made a cake for our own celebration. Since I could not give my hubby an actual valentines gift, here is a picture of the cake. We love you honey and miss you! He has been gone a week and it feels like 10. Especially today. (Pictures will not post so I will try again tomorrow. figures!

2009 Look out

Oh where to start. First of all my water did freeze. So I decided to visit my sister for the long weekend so I could have wash my clothes, bathe, and have some adult time. My hubby was still on the road and not due home until a week later. So we packed up and went. I ended up getting snowed in there (first because I could not make it back up to my house due to the snow where I live, secondly because they actual snow down where my sister lives which rarely happens) so my weekend turned into a week. We would have gone home mid-week but Abby and Catbird were struck with a severe stomach bug and we could not make the 3 hr trip home. It ended up working out though because my hubby came in down there and we were able to enjoy water YEAH! We finally made it back home to still no water and finally mid-week the water came back on. Until it came back on we had to take some old fashioned baths.

Here is a pic of Abby enjoying her bath. Or are we having Abby for dinner? I can't decide. She really enjoyed her bath actually. Catbird did too. They thought it great fun to take an "old fashioned" bath. We adults were much less enamored. We were ecstatic when the water came back on. I have really enjoyed having hubby home as he has been able to help with the homework each night, help keep the house up, entertain the children, and I have enjoyed his company:) The kids have enjoyed having daddy home too.

Abby especially since she gets to play with daddy during the day while her sibs are at school.

She has her daddy wrapped around her finger.

Above is daddy and Abby enjoying a mild winter day. She came in requesting hot cocoa and a cookie because her hands were fweezing. I personally love the cowgirl hat! Too bad she won't keep her mittens on.